It seemed the little Ryn was coming back to life after all!

"Hey, outta my way!" I exclaimed as, in response to the little one's apparent distress I bullied my way between Yaoksi and Kyan and rushed to the bacta tank. There I fumbled as fast as I could with the controls, and soon the steady and deep bass thrummm of pumps filled the little med-bay. It was only then, as the thick liquid was dissipating to release the Ryn from it's care that I stepped back and cast somewhat sheepish glances toward the two men.

"She's going to be all right, I think," I offered by way of apology. "At least physically; I'll get her freed from the bacta, and you guys can take over since she knows you better than me. A familiar face is probably going to do her more good than this tank, anyway."

The timing couldn't have been more perfect. No sooner had I finished my comment than a gentle chime announced the tank was cleared. I popped it open, and avoiding the Ryn's thrashings managed to remove the mask from her face.

"Hey, easy there, it's okay, you're going to be all right. You're safe, and there's a couple people here waiting to see you."

Either my words had the effect of calming her down, or this little Ryn was made of tougher stuff than I thought. For no sooner had the bacta tank opened than she brought herself to a standstill, and just remained therein as if waking up inside a medical tank, minus arm, face obscured, was the most natural thing in the universe.

--------------------

The loss of her arm hadn't hit her until that moment when she was completely helpless and couldn't even climb out of a small tank. She couldn't help but to curl up into a tight little ball on the bottom of the tank and start crying.

"Why is this happening?" Link demanded. "I never asked to be abandoned, a slave, a cripple, a Ryn."

Link looked up and through her blurry vision she saw Kyan standing there looking more Jedi then ever.

"Where is you all mighty Force now Jedi," Link screamed. "Where is you so called justice and fairness you fight for. Your a lie and so is your all powerful Force you believe in. If you Jedi did your job there would be no slavers, no evil, no one to hate me because I'm a worthless Ryn. And now you took my arm, I hate you Jedi."

Link's voice went horse from all her yelling and she could yell no more. She held her head in one hand and tried to push herself as far away from the others as the tank would allow. There she silently cursed the Jedi, the world, but mostly herself.

--------------------

But that same mother's instinct told me with assurety that those words had been born from fear and shock; shushing her, I swooped her into my arms and held her as best I could. It was a tight fit, for the tank was a miniature model designed for a smaller ship, but I managed to squeeze enough of me in to put my arms around her.

"Hey, hey," was all I could say at the moment. Actually, there wasn't too much more I really could say, for she didn't know me, I didn't know her, and I knew she really wasn't listening. At least not with her ears.

Not yet. But I knew that would come.

Holding her, I let her cry herself out until at length she came to a halt and drew in a shuddery, snuffly breath. We remained there a little longer, squashed together in the confines of the bacta tank, and then I slowly drew her out. Putting an arm around her to support her, I led her to a med-bed and helped her climb between the antiseptic sheets.

"You're going to be all right, trust me, I promise it. In fact, to prove it, there's someone you need to talk to..."

I gave her a little hug and a quick kiss on top of her furry head. Then I tucked her in and pulled a nearby cord from where it was attached to the bulkhead. It was a medical comm-link; I placed it into her one hand with a smile.

"Just you yell if you need anything; I'll be right back."

With that I turned to the two men and instructed them to remain nearby, in case she decided to do anything crazy. Then I headed forward, and who should I run into en route but the object of my search.

"Terrin!" I cried as I ran up to him and gave him a welcoming hug. I stepped back and looked up into his baby blues.

"I'm glad to see you're heading to med-bay, right?" I couldn't help but nudge, for knowing him he would carry his pain and injuries far too long before seeking help. Before he could reply I raised a hand and continued.

"There's a little visitor in there who's mad as hell, not to mention frightened to death and otherwise feeling mighty low and worthless. Perhaps you might want to show her that life, and most importantly self doesn't end with the mere loss of an easily replaceable limb."

Smiling gently, I reached out and took hold of his quite natural feeling prosthetic hand.

[ 05-23-2008 07:31 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

--------------------

Images which the little Ryn no doubt needed to have for herself, of those who cared about her, sticking by her, regardless of her lost limb.

Terrin smiled back to Galen in response, returning her hug before moving back slightly to look into her wonderful big brown eyes. "And more importantly, show her that the people who care about her are going to stick by regardless of the injury to her person. Something which can be done with far more than just words."

With that, Terrin allowed Galen to lead on as he limped slightly back to the small and cramped medbay. His mind spiraled back years as he entered and stepped up to the med-bed occupied by the Ryn. He knelt beside the bed then to be on eye level with her, favoring one leg obviously over the other but ignoring that fact once again feeling that something more important was at stake.

"We're all going to help you through this," he opened with kindly, looking her straight in the eye. "We care about you that much, Link, regardless of what injuries you have sustained. You've got got two of the best people you'll ever find in the galaxy in the department of sticking around right here," he then continued, motioning back to indicate Galen and Captain Joao. "I know this on personal experience."

He paused a moment then, letting his words sink in before saying anything else. "I'd like to show you something," he said then, rolling one sleeve up to expose what at least appeared to be a natural arm. Knowing just the spot only for the fact he'd been instructed on its use in case of a malfunction, Terrin tapped a spot on his anterior forearm. A small port popped open, revealing a control panel and more deeply running wires. He left it exposed for a few moments before closing the control panel and rolling his sleeve back down. His blue eyes fell back into those of he Ryn's.

"We're going to stick around, and get you whatever medical care you need to get you back up and going like usual," he again reassured. Terrin then reached out to gently lay a hand on the shoulder of Link's obviously misshapen side, taking a care to put only a reassuring amount of pressure there without causing unintentional pain. So vividly he recalled how very much the act of Galen laying a hand anywhere near his own injury had reinforced that, as she so delicately had said, the change in his appearance mattered not.

And in the end, with the wonders of technology, his appearance hadn't really changed at all. Removing his hand from her shoulder after a long moment, Terrin got to his feet with a slight wince and backed up, casting a side-long glance at Yaoksi as if to say "now would be a good time to step in..."

[ 05-23-2008 08:29 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Terrin Danner ]

--------------------

But damnitall, she could have died back there...

"Thank you," I said then, as Terrin backed away, and I meant it from the bottom of my heart. Nice of him to break the ice; something told me now that Link needed more. So I approached her bed and hunkered down on my heels beside her, reaching out to put a hand on her arm.

"Whatever you need, you're going to get, kiddo," I said, nodding my head sideways toward Danner. "He's got the bucks, and he owes me, after all."

Memories of our brief but horrific experience in the Darker Realms jumped into my head; with a slight shudder I pushed them back and went on.

"I hope you didn't mean those words you said, about the Jedi being worthless. They do what they can, and have done pretty damned well in the past. It's just that--"

I paused a moment to let the idea we had been tiptoeing around actually sink into my head, that being something about the Vong being en route to our galaxy again. Finding a planet with their living weaponry didn't do much toward debunking the apparent fact; memories even more vague crawled in on top of them, reminding me of how their first warriors had nearly decimated us, and that it took all the powers of the Jedi to stop them.

But now, with their own numbers being practically nil...

"It's just that the galaxy is so damned, big, and they can't be everywhere. So we've got to rely on each other, you see.

"I hope you know that you can rely on me. And you might have been a slave once, but you're not now. And you're far from being a cripple, kid; you only lost an arm, and we're gonna fix that."

I fumbled to an awkward halt, not knowing what else to say. I never thought of myself as being the eloquent type, after all.

[ 05-24-2008 12:38 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

--------------------

Link stared at Yaoksi with her eyes full of rage, then it hit her what she had just done. She was pushing away those who would try to help her, suddenly she grew ashamed at what she had done and couldn't face them. Rolling on her side she now stared at the far wall away from everyone else. She knew they didn't understand but she wanted them to. Still feeling Yaoksi's reassuring hand on her arm Link wrapped her tail around it holding it tight.

"I have pretty much reached the pinnacle of what a Ryn can amount to in life," Link started. "Have you ever seen how other Ryn live, they are fortune tellers, con artists, drifters, cheap bar entertainment. Living with all their stupid superstitions and rituals content to be ignored and despised as long as they can follow their ridiculous beliefs. The first time I enter a room I'm instantly compared to them, either ignored or chased out by torch wielding mobs. Imagine what its like to walk down the streets of even the core worlds and for mothers to pull their kids away from me because I might put a Ryn curse on them. Because of the way my people chose to live I have to lie about who I am to get jobs even as a slicer, do you know what its like to lie about what you are because your ashamed of it. A droid, a kriffing droid gets more respect then a Ryn."

"If I was born as a human, and even still abandoned on Correllia I still would have had more help then I did. Why do Ryns even exists, so everyone else can feel better about themselves and know they are something of worth? Because that is all we Ryn are good for, the jobs even droids won't take or to be hunted down and shot to make a nice rug on the wall if we are lucky. I sold to little girls as a pet, beaten for even speaking forced to eat food from a bowl on her floor and make a cute purring sound when she petted me with the grace of a hutt."

Link craned her head to look back at Yaoksi not sure if he understood what it was for her to be what she was, but sincerely hoping he did and have an answer.

"Do you know why things like me exist?" Link Pleaded. "How anything could be content to live like this?"

--------------------

"Just because your race is viewed like this doesn't make it right," I said, relishing the feel of her tail against my arm. I tightened my own touch upon hers.

"I say it's about time someone does something about this, too. You're good, Link, you have skills and a brain and lordy lordy I wish I could do half of what you're capable of doing. I think if anyone is going to affect a change about the Ryn, perhaps you're the one to do it."

I stopped again, as a great overwhelming HOW rushed up into my thoughts. Followed instantly by other, more ominous factors.

"Look, they say the Vong are coming. You've got a lot of skills which will come in mighty handy against them, even if they don't use technology. WE DO, and believe me we're gonna need what you know if push really does come to shove.

"You're with us, and we're not going to let you down, kiddo. I don't think you're 'just a Ryn,' but a useful member of our party, and-- and I really care for you, kid."

I fumbled a moment longer, before finishing up.

"No, you're not just with us... we're with you."

--------------------

"The Ryn will never change, they don't care." Link wept. "And I don't care anymore either I don't want to be a Ryn anymore, all they care about is their backwards system of rules. I want to be Link, the 'person' not the Ryn."

Throughout her life Link couldn't count all the times when she was completely helpless like she was now, it was a feeling she had grown to hate because of its frequency in her life and the worthlessness it left her with. Now it did not matter because Link found what she was longing for, it just took all that had transpired to her to break down all the defenses she had built all around herself.

--------------------

"Hey, hey, c'mon now, it's ok," I murmured. "Trust me, it will, I promise. But--"

I paused to loosen her grip upon me and to hold her away a little so I could stare her directly in the eye.

"There's one thing you have to do, kiddo," I said with mock sternness. "You are Ryn, no matter how much you rail and weep about it. That cannot change, at least not naturally. But what can change is how you view the universe. Be proud of yourself, of who you are.

"I am."

I hauled her furry body back to me to allow her the dignity of hiding her face from me, since I wasn't certain if those were the words she wanted to hear, or even believed to be coming from me.

"We're going to get you a new arm, better than ever. Then we're all going to get together and meet with people and decide just what in the known universe we're going to do about all that's supposed to be happening.

"And you better believe you're not going to get shoved aside in all this, kid."

--------------------

"You don't understand completely," Link replied. "But no one will ever will. You are trying and thats more then anyone else has ever done for me."

Link's began to loose her focus with all the hiking, running, and yelling she had done recently with little to no rest had finally caught up to her and her body demanded it now. Her grip on Yaoksi loosened as she started to drift off.

"Thank you," Link sighed. After that Link surrendered to her bodies needs and fell asleep in Yaoksi's arms.

--------------------

"Are you ok, do you need anything?" I asked in a low whisper so as not to awaken our furry little patient.

--------------------

"No, I'll be ok, I'm fine," I lied despite the fact that both of my hands were bulky with bandages and that myriad scratches and bruises were waging a small battle of their own upon my flesh.

"Don't worry about me, go make sure the Jedi is ok, and then you'd better check on Captain Danner. I think he had a time of it too, in that last bid for freedom we put out down there."

With that I scooched the stool closer to Link's beside so the first thing she'd see when she woke up would be my presence beside her. Then sinking against the bulkhead behind her bed, I immediately fell into a losing battle with slumber.

--------------------

"Ok," I whispered and backed quietly away to tend to Terrin's thankfully non-life-threatening injuries. After he had been poked and examined, prodded and wrapped, bacta'd and dosed with this antibiotic and that, I waved a hand toward the med-bay door.

"I can show you somewhere that you can rest if you want, Kyan," I whispered, indicating the door with a nod. "Or if you'd rather, we can go aft to the galley and rustle up some grub. There's things we no doubt need to be talking about, and it's probably best to do so while events are still fresh in your minds."

--------------------

"Some food would be most appreciated," whispered Kyan in reply. "One moment however."

Kyan reached into his Jedi robes and pulled out a small holodisc, pressing a button on its side a holo of his family materialized. His wife, daughter, brother, and himself all standing proud clad in Mandalorian Armor; except for his brother who wore Jedi robes instead. The holo was taken 26 years ago, one year before his brothers fall to the darkside. Amazed that even when he took the holo into battle it somehow managed to survive, it reminded him that in some way the force was still with him. Deactivating the holo he returned it to its place inside his jedi robes and returned his attention to Galen.

The modest credit sum surviving Kal Tane covered a meal and provisional real estate onboard a thrifty short-range Honoghr transport.

Loban of Tattooine…

I remember taking the Kenobi surname in tribute to war hero Obi-Wan Kenobi, rumored to be native to Tattooine. I’m too old for worship and superstition. How old? What’s happened, and why, and for how long?

I can sense the Force, but cannot wield it. My mother, I remember my mother. Shawn. My hand; I remember the irrational events that led to losing my hand. Are the rest of my memories lucid dreams? They lack cohesiveness. The fog persists; and my stomach has ached since that meal at the bar.

Loban sat in quiet contemplation as the spacecraft departed Wayland orbit. Attentive of further ominous circumstances, Loban’s instinct was brought to the foreground. Logic concluded elsewhere was preferred to that planet, or more directly, the people responsible for his resurrection.

[ 05-26-2008 03:43 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Loban ]

--------------------

I thought wrong.

"Umm... yeah," I blundered a little before composing myself. I jerked a thumb in the general direction of aft.

"If you go that-a-way, you'll find a small galley," I put forth. "Go on back and make yourself at home; I'm going to make certain Terrin is ok, then we'll join you. I'm a little gnarly myself."

With that I turned to Terrin, medical scanner in hand, and gave him a thorough once-over. Other than some lovely bruises and a sprain here or there, he was pronounced alive and otherwise well. I switched off the handheld device and went to get some salve with which to annoint some of his deeper scratches. Once he was well-greased I nodded in satisfaction, and we departed to the galley. There we found the stranger, sitting at a little table.

I indicated that Terrin join him, and moved to the sideboard to pour us some caf.

"Here's this for starters, unless you want something stronger," I said as I returned to the men and set the cups down in front of them. Then I returned to my chefly duties, and rustled up something fast and hot and good.

"So, Kyan," I said as I sat down and picked up my knife and fork. "You'll have to excuse my manners; I'm Galen Jhin'Dar Danner, and this is my husband Terrin. You're aboard our ship Eagle II, currently en route to--"

I paused a moment to shoot a glance Terrin's way, then clammed up. If anything other than our names were to be divulged to this man, let Terrin be the one to decide it. I went smoothly on.

"--somewhere away from this neck of the woods. Which brings the question to mind:

"How in Hell's Seven Circles did you manage to get way out here, and how did you happen to run into Captain Joao?"

I fell quiet with that, cuz my mouth was too busy chewing the hunk of nerf I had just cut off and placed into it.

[ 05-28-2008 02:32 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

--------------------

"Thanks for the food," Kyan commented in between bites. "I'm not entirely sure how I got there myself, I managed to arrange transport on a freelance cargo vessel heading towards the core. Show how we where pulled out of hyperspace and crashed on that planet, the rest of the crew died on impact. After the first day I found the other crashed ship, it had been their longer then mine and looked more functional so I set up camp there."

"I happened to be on one of my transportation runs, moving supplies from my crash site to the other. When I came back to my camp I found those two, they never even told me how they got there. In short the Force led me to that planet and led me to them."

Cutting off another piece of meat Kyan savored the flavor reminding himself how in the future to make sure to carry better tasting emergency rations. He watched the two while giving his story, he couldn't tell if they believed him.

"While on the planet Yaoksi told me that while I have been gone that the Jedi where attacked and wiped out, I have to know it it true do you know if anyone survived."

Kyan reached into his robe and removed his holopad again, activating it he scrolled through the images until he stopped on one of a younger version of himself and a blue female twi'lek both clad in Mandalorian armor and a jedi cloak. Turning the holopad around he handed it to Galen and Terrin.

Maybe it's Mandalorian, I thought as I scrutinized the image it was showing us. The face was pretty enough, its features serene and well-composed. I stared at it a moment or two, then handed it over to Terrin.

"I'm sorry, but I've not seen her," I said in apology. "And yes, I'm afraid what you heard is true. There's been some, ahhh.. activity of a most untoward nature in the Galaxy, one result of which being the complete annihilation of the old Jedi Praxeum. As far as I know most of the Jedi there, as well as the Senatorial Council on Coruscant, were either wiped out or scattered, and while hopefully the latter, logic leads me to deduce the more likely probablility of the former.

"At least I've not run into that many Jedi lately, and not nary a Senator."

I clammed up then, as visions of Sorben swam up from my memory to taunt me.

Oh Khaandon, Sorben, what have you gotten yourself into...

[ 05-28-2008 08:25 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

--------------------

The Praxeum had been destroyed some time ago...and this guy didn't seem to even know about it. And he said he'd only been on his mission...

...a week?

Terrin wondered if maybe he was just misunderstanding something. But, rather than being brutally honest about what appearesd to be a major discrepancy, Terrin decided upon a more delicate approach. He looked up from the device to Kyan.

"I'm sorry, I've never seen her either," he then said. "We do know a Jedi who might be able to be of more help to you, however."

Terrin paused, still having difficulty trying to decide how to address what didn't seem quite right. "You said you've been stranded for just a week, or did I misunderstand you?"

--------------------

"More like three or four days." Answered Kyan. "Although I didn't have a chrono so I can't give you and exact measurement, but it could have been a week depending on the rotation speed of the planet."

Kyan had failed to see the reasoning behind Terrin's question, but answered it anyway seeing no harm in it. Kyan put his hand on the holopad and was about to deactivate it when he stopped for a moment to bow his head.

...only he said he'd only been gone for 3 days to a week.

"Kyan, Actar had the Jedi and the Senators wiped out quite some time ago...

...well over a week."

He paused, hating to be the bearer of bad news, particularly considering he couldn't explain the apparent time mystery. "Maybe you've just been disconnected with the Jedi and didn't know about this? Sorry if this line of questioning seems a bit unusual...

...but we are no strangers to time anamolies."

--------------------

Kyan sighed this was going to take some explaining and he hoped his basic was up to the test.

Dammit, Flyboy, you don't have to go spilling everything to this guy. What do we know about him, anyway?

I didn't know if he caught the look or not, but he just better have. I mean, yeah, we might be all nonchalant and blase about time anomalies and portal hopping, and interdimensional traveling and all the other weirdness we'd undergone since we first got ourselves wrapped up in all things Sithly--

But the rest of the galaxy didn't have a clue.

As far as I knew, it would be best it remained oblivious, too. But here Terrin went, blatting on about how we're no strangers to time anomalies as if what everyone in the kriffing universe thought to be physically impossible wasn't.

I aimed a kick at him under the table, then planted my elbows on top of it, laced my fingers beneath my chin, and hunkered closer to Kyan. Hopefully what I was about to tell him would yank whatever attention he might have been giving Terrin away, and he'd put down Terrin's little comment as being said in all silliness, due to stress and injury and whatnot.

"I don't know if you're going to ever get back in touch with the Force," I said abruptly. "We've got a couple Jedi friends who managed to escape the annihilation, and they told us that the Force seems to have disappeared. At least they can't do diddly poo with it, and one of them is I believe a Master."

[ 05-29-2008 10:22 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Galen ]

--------------------

"Non of the Jedi can use the Force?" Question Kyan. "But how is that possible to strip someone of the Force is a very unknown ability I only know of 3 cases of its occurrence. The last time it happened was 25 years ago and I killed that dark Jedi."
It took me months to retrain myself not to rely on the Force, and I had the benefit of my experience before becoming a Jedi and not over relying on it when I could still use it. The rest of the Jedi would have an even tougher time then I did making an adjustment.

He was just so damned suspicious with Kynan's lack of knowledge of current goings-on that he wasn't quite thinking about what he was inadvertantly saying.

Kriffing hell.

Terrin took a few bites of the nerf that Galen had prepared and stayed quiet for a few minutes to hopefully draw enough attention away from him and what he had been saying. But when Kyan inquired as to the name of the Jedi they knew, he felt it was safe to rejoin the conversation.

"Our Jedi Master friend is named Shawn Petrolu," Terrin then replied, debating on just what to say regarding the time they hadn't been able to use the Force. "As to the length of time they have been unable to use the Force and how it is possible...

...I'm really not sure," he then said honestly. After all, when he'd been injured on Degobah and Galen took him back to Hornett, everyone could still use it. It was sometime between then and when everyone else got to the ship that they had all been seemingly... disconnected.

--------------------