Galaxy's Edge Space Bar

[Hunter]

Hunter had been staring at his drink, lost in thought over his last job. He was unaware of what had just happened in the bar, except for the nearly overwhelming scent of freshly spilled blood lingering in the air.

His rolled cigarette extinguished but still perched on the edge of the ash tray, Hunter picks it up and re lights it with a puff of smoke. The sweet smelling smoke trails up to the rafters,  while mostly covering up the smell of blood.

Hunter flicks some ash from his 'smoke' and finishes his drink in one gulp. Inhaling deeply on the rolled cigarette, he glances down the bar and he lays eyes on a couple of humans sitting at the bar around a small bowl with something moving around inside of it.

Facing the rear wall of the bar, he exhales towards the roof, blowing a series of smoke rings, gradually getting larger as they move towards the rafters and dissipate. His ears twitch a little as he listens in to their conversation.

[Myitt]

"I'm not going to hurt him," Myitt says defensively, her hands trembling, jarring the water.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin barely notices Dalik, looking around his sick-bay with moon eyes.  <This is the Apix Mirage, my yacht.  It's been over-hauled and personally modified, so I doubt you'd find much of use if you plan on hacking more Andalite ships.>

He monitors Joanne's blood-pressure reading as it begins to normalize with the infusion.  The carotid holds firm even at full pressure...likely stronger than it had been in the first place.  Ossanlin begins the procedure of bio-suturing and puttying the surrounding tissue and neck laceration.  With the neck closed and in good shape, he moves his attention to the shoulder.  A shallow cut, but it would need suturing as well.

[Shenmue654]

Joanne winces in pain as Ossanlin's procedure commences, trying her hardest to not pay attention to anything that is happening. To stay awake. To focus. That was what was important, and nothing more. The handsome man was a comfort--- Although she couldn't decide whether he was a stranger or Keshin. No, Keshin left when... he can't be here. That's Dalik, isn't it? The hot guy with the strange Yeerk who came in.Yeah, that makes sense. She remembers now, telling Keshin he could leave. Her head was a mess.

Joanne's heart rate and blood pressure begin to slow down from the infusion and careful suturing and repair of the wound. Joanne feels a shock of pain and pressure as her neck artery begins to function again, and she cries out in pain. However, the pressure subsides slowly, even though every part of her upper body feels like it's aching. Joanne's vision focuses where once it was swimming in panic and ignorance, and she realizes by what force she is being healed for the first time.

Joanne's expression is incredulous. "O..Ossanlin?" she says, clearly stunned. She coughs, realizing it probably wasn't the brightest idea for any of her vocal chords or neck to vibrate at this point. But it was unbelievable. Why was the Andalite she'd nearly killed helping her? Was it a different Andalite? Couldn't be--- They'd be even less likely to help. Although Joanne never could tell them apart.
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Keshin shudders and swims towards the edge of his watery container as he experiences vibrations suggesting someone just put something in there, and took it out again. <<What on Earth are they doing? What is happening right now?>>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

<Calm down Joanne.  You shouldn't try to speak just yet.  Give it a few hours at least.  The repairs are new and will cause some pain.>

He slowly moves to Joanne's shoulder, cutting the fabric away to give him a clean surface.  He gently cleanses the area with sterile solution and washes away some of the dried blood, the reddish clear liquid sluicing down another invisible force-field tube.  <I'm sorry you are unable to move at the moment, but such delicate surgery required immobility.  As soon as I'm done suturing your shoulder, I will relax the field some.>

He putties the muscle tissues and then sutures them back together.  Then he sutures the skin carefully, though more-quickly than he had the neck tissues.  This was a much less-delicate area to work in.  After several minutes, he finishes the shoulder and commands the force-field to relax so that Joanne can move around some, but encounters some resistance, like being surrounded on all sides by a fluffy pillow.  <You need to rest before you get moving again.  Do you want me to retrieve Keshin?  One finger extended is yes, two fingers extended is no.>

[Shenmue654]

Joanne hears Ossanlin's voice in her head, clear as a bell. Joanne purses her lips, not thrilled about not being able to let loose the words that threaten to burst from her, but agrees to this. Joanne sits through Ossanlin's repairs of her body, her memories and feelings slowly coming into sharp focus. This guy saved my keelster. For no reason. He...he had been wanting to say sorry to me. But why? What happened to him?

Joanne gives Ossanlin a rare look of genuine gratitude, and a smile. Joanne then notes her mobility and twitches her fingers and her arm, turning slightly, but unable to get up fully. She definitely, definitely wanted to see Keshin. She felt...uncomfortabl e, even naked without him. She had never really had a good strategy for dealing with people. She holds up one finger.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin glances at Dalik.  <Please retrieve Keshin so they can be reunited.>

[Terenia]

"Hacking?" Dalik responds, eyes flickering. A smile crosses his face. "No, not a ship as lovely as this."

His response is interrupted by Joanne's attempts at speaking, and Ossanlin's brief conversation with her.

Approaching her tableside, he finds his smile softening. "You'll be okay," he says to her, echoing his earlier words, hoping that perhaps now she is lucid enough to hear them. "I'll bring him to you."

He shoots Ossanlin another glance, but says nothing to the Andalite, obediently stepping off of the ship and striding down the ramp.

When he pushes back into the bar his eyes go to Tara immediately. William's lip twitches upward. "Do you have control over yourself now?" he asks Myitt icily, approaching the bar and reaching for the dish containing Keshin.

[Myitt]

Myitt glances at Dalik.

She says nothing, but lets him take Keshin away.

[Terenia]

Terenia's fingers twitch as Dalik enters, but Fayleth forces her gaze away, back to Myitt. "We need to go home," she says urgently.

Dalik lifts the small dish, not waiting for any response from Myitt. Instead he gives her a look of mild disgust before turning back to the Andalite ship. Carrying Keshin with care, the dish cradled against his bare chest, he uses his shoulder to push open the door.

"He's unharmed, miraculously," Dalik reports as he steps back onto the Mirage, eyes going immediately to Joanne then flicking to Ossanlin. "She's stable enough to be reinfested?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

<Aside from some pain, yes.  The artery is likely even stronger now than it was before.  it is sutured and bio-patched.  Her blood pressure and heart rate are back within acceptable human parameters.  I suppose there may be some mental ramifications.  Life-threatening trauma can induce a state of shock upon the nervous system.  But she is responding cogently to conversation, which is a positive sign.>  He pauses a moment before continuing.  <This pair is...intimately linked.  I'm certain they wish to be with each other, especially in such a trying situation.  Quite frankly I'm surprised you got Keshin to disengage at all.>

He nods to Dalik, dipping his many-fingered hand into the bowl containing Keshin.  He slowly withdraws the Yeerk, repressing a shiver, a purely physical reaction to touching the slimy flesh.  He holds Keshin up to Joanne's ear, patiently waiting, trying to ignore the slimy, slithery feeling against his fingers.

<Thank you.>  He grimaces a moment, still waiting for Keshin to reinfest.  <Feel...free...to poke around my ship.  It's clear that you want to and while I don't trust you as yet, I have learned recently that trust must begin somewhere.>  He doesn't mention the ship's non-standard real-time recording feature which would record everything that happened in or to the ship.  The feature is all but impossible to circumvent and would tell him exactly which components or files Dalik accessed or tinkered with.

[Shenmue654]

Jeffrey feels vaguely like somebody had taken a gigantic jackhammer, but used it to drill only a miniscule hole into his head--- All pressure, no substance. It was a sensation he was rather intimately familiar with, given how many times he had been knocked out, but he still wasn't thrilled to wake up to it. Ugh...Yeerk buddy? I think we ****ed it up...Or probably just didn't... Jeffrey groans and lifts himself up unsteadily, looking around. count on how many damn friends your bounty hunter chick has got.

Jeffrey blinks, dusting his vest off. He's not thinking spectacularly clearly at the moment, but he's still pretty sure there's an absence where the Yeerk is supposed to be. Yeerk buddy? Hello-o? No luck. Myitt must have gone back to her own body. Jeffrey feels a whiff of disappointment, but turns his attention to other matters. Like what position he was in. That was important, wasn't it?
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Keshin slowly slithers his way back into Joanne's ear, eager to reach his friend as soon as he can. Keshin crosses the divide between the earlobe as he can, causing Joanne to briefly wince in pain at his speed, but soon seem to fall out of focus. Keshin stretches his body into every familiar groove, across like a blanket onto every lobe, ravenous for contact with the one he left behind.

It isn't long before she, metaphorically anyway, leaps onto him. <<Kess! You're okay! God! God! I was worried! I was worried...>> Delicate hands ruffle purple hair, in a fantasy that only they can share. It wouldn't be enough, in Keshin's opinion, for him to infest someone else. What they wanted was an impossibility--- to touch not minds but each other's skin, each in their own bodies.

<<I'm fine. It's alright. Are you safe?>> Keshin's tone radiates concern and protectiveness.

<<Sort of. Blue...blue deer guy has been taking care of me...okay? Okay?>>

<<Ossanlin?>>

Keshin moves a hand through Joanne's hair and gives Ossanlin a tired, level glance that can only belong to him. "...I...we're not fully together, but th-thank you, War-Prince," says Keshin. "We'll...owe you one. On the house."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin raises an eyebrow, briskly passing his hand through a clean field to strip away the Yeerk secretions.  <You don't owe me anything.  The 'thank-you' will suffice.>  He pauses, looking back at Joanne's eyes with his main eyes.  <I...know you have difficulties.  You're dependent on an expensive medication simply to survive.  It's driven you to do things you might not have otherwise done.  I think...>  He pauses again for a moment.  <I think that Joanne's condition could be cured.  For good.>

[Shenmue654]

Keshin has no idea how he is supposed to respond to that comment. He can almost, if he squints hard enough, understand the mental place it is coming from--- Genuine concern, a very Andalite do-no-unnecessary-harm ethos that comes from the resolute and rigid thoughts of the finest of their warriors--- but it was still ridiculous. Keshin barks out a throaty laugh at the naked arrogance of the statement, and then braces himself on the side of the field around them as he coughs out blood, sweat, and saliva.

<<Kess, we are not ready for primetime with our speech yet. Don't pull anything stupid, okay?>>

<<Fine. But, look...Just look at this bull****, for a minute.>>

"Ossanlin, you...you think..." Keshin swallows, but his incredulous gape can still be seen through his eyes and face. "We haven't tried? Are you...are you mental? I didn't....think...you were..." Keshin sighs again, trying to get a bearing on Joanne's voice, but it is extremely difficult. "...there is no way to fix this. Every cell in the body!" Keshin points vigorously at Joanne's chest. "Every one has the defective gene. Every one carries the miserable..*cough*...curse that drives us through the days. What can you possibly do?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin looks away for a moment before deciding to come out with it.  <You've...seen what I'm capable of.  Some of it, yes?>  He breathes deeply and continues.  <I can...alter...time in some respects.  This timeline is skewed.  Well, it would be considered as skewed from the original stream's point of view.  In the original timeline, my people attacked the rebellion base and decimated their entire population.  Only a few survived.>  He looks back at Joanne and Keshin.

<You got caught up in it.  Why you were in the sector I've no idea.  You wouldn't tell me.  You and the other survivors of the attack were taken prisoner.  I...absconded...wit h the Tyrennian and a skeleton crew to rescue the survivors.  It was quite a surprise to see Joanne in the non-Yeerk holding cells.>  Ossanlin relaxes the field a bit further to try and ease Joanne's pain.  <At...well at Tara's behest, I released the both of you along with the other rebels.  What followed was truly amazing for a time.  Andalite, Yeerk, Human, and Hork-Bajir working in synchronicity aboard the Tyrennian.  We developed new technologies...powe rful technologies.>  He shrugs a bit non-commitally.  <I combined my abilities with morphing technology to create a synthesized genome for Joanne, the same in every aspect except for the removal of the fatal flaw.  Joanne basically nothlitized herself in her own body sans the faulty gene.  It worked perfectly.>

He holds Keshin's gaze for a moment before going on with the story.  <Eventually many of the rebellion members peeled away into their own sect again...finding some base to hide away in.  It was devastating to the Tyrennian and to those whom remained, but we resolved to carry on.  We had no other choice.  You stayed.  You...became my First Officer.  Second in command of an uniquely advanced Dome Ship.  We were...friends.>

<But I changed all of that.  And you have every right to be angry with me for it.  Because when I undid the destruction of the rebel base from within the timestream, I undid the good that came out of that timeline as well, including Joanne's curing.>  He pauses again before continuing.  <So you see...it's possible that her condition can be cured.  I did it once.  But there's no guarantee it could be repeated, or that the results would be as successful this time through.>