Galaxy's Edge Space Bar

[Myitt]

Rather than rail against the futility of being stuck in an unconscious host, Myitt resigns herself.

To facing the unknown outside of Jeffrey's head.

Tara will help. She won't let me down.

To facing the reality of what she's just done.

Really it wasn't that deep...was it?

To facing her own addiction.

Slowly, carefully, she disengages from Jeffrey's mind and worms her way out of his head.

Tara is waiting there, just like Myitt thought she would be.

She picks Myitt up and sighs, running a thumb gently along the slimy flesh. "You stupid jerk," she mutters, placing the Yeerk up to her ear.

[Terenia]

"Oh, thank the Kandrona," Dalik murmurs as he sees Keshin's small, gray body protruding from Joanne's ear. He carefully shifts his left hand to catch her, glancing up at the others. "I need something to put her in." Then, more sharply, "Right now! Someone get me water! You!"

This last word is directed at Fayleth, who is still reeling from the horrifyingly realistic flashback. "What?" she asks blankly, her skin pale, each freckle standing out.

"Get water. Now." The fingers of Dalik's left hand curl protectively over Keshin's emerging body. His right hand remains firmly against the wound, sticky red blood working its way through the linen shirt and over his fingers.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

He watches through the swinging doors as his ship lands.  <I don't have stasis capabilities outside of the Tyrennian.  I don't think she'd survive the trip.  But if the blood vessel is not repaired, she will have literally no chance.>

As the ship lands, the ramp descends automatically.  Ossanlin pushes through the swinging saloon doors, the ramp only a few steps away now that the ship has moved.  He trots up the ramp and into the small medbay to the right, powering up the equipment.

[Terenia]

"Dapsen," Dalik breathes as Ossanlin abruptly disappears. He turns his gaze to Tara, but she's stuck mid-infestation. He curses again. "Come here, take her," he snaps at Fayleth.

"You...what?" Fayleth is still staring at Dalik, even as the bartender places a shallow dish of water on the bar.

"Take. Keshin." Dalik speaks tersely.

<<If you take him,>> Terenia hisses to Fayleth, <<it will be to drop him on the floor and end his miserable life.>>

Swallowing, Fayleth reaches out, taking Keshin from Dalik's grasp.

"Thank you," he breathes. Moving cautiously, he gathers Joanne up in his arms. The motion shifts the fabric, allowing the wound to flow more freely for a brief moment and he winces, pressing her against his bare chest as he stands. "Alright, I've got you," he murmurs, using the same soothing voice he used with Cameron earlier. Once he gets his feet under him he follows Ossanlin's path, weaving past the tables and chairs of the bar and hoping he isn't too late as he pushes past the front doors and steps onto the Mirage's ramp.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin engages the stasis field over the first table and starts the computer cycling production of an universal human blood supplement.  He starts powering the computer and bringing up human medical data.  He speaks in a broad thought that should reach the bar.  <If anything happens to Keshin in my absence, I shall be very cross with the party or parties responsible.>

[Myitt]

Myitt, finally in control again, goes from crouching to sitting. Heavily.

She sits on the floor of the bar in a daze, frowning at the gritty floor.

Wavering a little, she looks up at Fayleth and Dalik.

"She's still alive?" she croaks miserably.

[Terenia]

Dalik glances back at Myitt. "Not for long," he says gruffly, then disappears through the doors, stepping onto the ramp and hurrying up. He doesn't pause to admire the Andalite ship, or to wonder at the absurd sequence of events that even led to the possibility of his presence on an Andalite ship, instead focusing on staunching the flow of blood. "Where should I put her?" he asks Ossanlin.


Fayleth doesn't respond to Myitt. She's staring down at the Yeerk in her head. So small, so vulnerable.

Ossanlin's thought-speak makes her jump and she looks up and around, fingers tightening reflexively. Not enough to hurt Keshin, despite Terenia's silent insistence that she squeeze just a little harder...

"Myitt," Fayleth says, trying to clear her head. "Are you alright?" She quickly deposits Keshin into the bowl of water, shaking her hand out and wiping the excess slime on her jeans.

[Myitt]

Myitt stares at the floor.

"I...I don't know what came over me," she says. "I've never felt that kind of..." She trails off, looking up at Fayleth. Power?

Slowly, shakily, she climbs to her feet.

"There's no excuse for this." Myitt shakes her head. "None. Not even grief." She looks down at her hands; Tara's hands, smaller and thinner and more wiry than Jeffrey's. And she shudders, disgusted with herself. Why was it so clear, now?

When it was so right just moments before?

<<Hey, buddy,>> Tara soothes. <<You're gonna be okay. We'll get through this. I promise.>>

Myitt just swallows and nods, and whispers, "Will she, though?"

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

<Here.>  Ossanlin gestures at the gurney.  The lift field would hold Joanne at the perfect height on a cushion of force which would conform perfectly to her body.  <I am only apprised of a field-medic level of competence, though thankfully that training included how to suture tissue.  I only hope the knife was not poison-coated.>  He prepares the suture bio-thread while he waits for Dalik to deposit Joanne's frame on the gurney.

[Shenmue654]

Joanne gasps for breath and winces, her eyes welling with tears. Nothing makes sense right now. All she knows is that the Andalite is there, and she's in pain, and the man holding her in his arms is the only thing that really matters. As far as she can tell.

Joanne glances up at the man with a beatific, delirious smile on her face and says, "...Did you...become...huma n? Can...you touch me...at last...?" The man's physical features blur together with the vision of a human Keshin she had always dreamed of, but she then suddenly shakes her head. "No...No...You're not him....But....Help Me....Please Help me...." Her voice seems weak and soft.

All her energy is being put into not falling asleep. That was what Keshin told her to do.
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Keshin is alone, and he is in someone's hand, and he is scared out of his mind. He is blind, and deaf, and Joanne is alone and there is nothing he could do about it. All he could do was go over and over in his mind the scene: Jeffrey with the knife, and the War-Prince, and Myitt talking like they were old friends. <<How the hell could I have been so blind? That dapsen wanted to kill me the entire time.>>

Keshin resolves never to trust so thoughtlessly again.

[Terenia]

<<Give me control,>> Terenia snaps. <<Give it to me!>>

<<Absolutely not,>> Fayleth responds, horrified by the power of her host's fury. <<I'm not allowing you to murder a helpless Yeerk.>>

<<She tried to kill me first! She's a turelek!>>

<<Did you learn nothing from Terliss?>> Fayleth asks incredulously. Forcibly she turns to Myitt. "Here, let me get you some water," she says, gesturing to the bartender with a shaky hand. Her gaze catches a strange, canine-like creature at the bar, seemingly impassive through the entire gory mess. She looks away quickly, frowning at the bar.


Dalik hurries over to the table, lowering her onto it. He keeps one hand against her neck and shushes her. "It's okay," he murmurs. "Don't speak. Just focus on me, alright? We're going to help you."

<<We. Me and an Andalite,>> Dalik says internally, the sheer absurdity of the situation making him almost giddy.

He glances over at the Andalite in question, frowning. "Do you have a way to stop infection?" he asks. "Suturing it without cleaning it could just kill her more slowly."

[Myitt]

Myitt paces up to the bar counter, right in front of the dish of water where Keshin now lives.

She gazes down at the little Yeerk briefly, before forcing herself to look away, eyes unfocused.

<<I'm so...so sorry I didn't listen to you,>> Myitt begins.

<<It's that guy. That Jeffrey guy, man. It's like he can control what people do and say, or at least influence them to do what he says. That's why you left me, and that's why you did this. I'm sure of it.>>

Myitt nods slowly. "Yeah," she whispers aloud. "That's why I did it."

A slow tremor from the effects of the oatmeal makes her shudder.

"Tara," she says, her fingers gripping the bar counter tightly, "I need help..."

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

<Antibiotic infusion in the synth-plasma.  It is, for all intents and purposes, human blood with a mild but effective antibiotic built in, but synthetically produced from base materials.  I believe the humans call this blood O-negative.  In addition, this is a medical force-field.  It sterilizes all fauna considered to be harmful from everything that passes into it.>  He gives Joanne a quick local anesthetic around the wound.  She might still feel some pain, but a stronger anesthetic would be too risky and too time-consuming at this point.  He quickly inserts an Intravenous needle into Joanne's left arm-vein and begins a slow infusion of the synthetically-produced O-negative blood.

He uses his deft fingers to manipulate the controls of the field, locking Joanne into an immobile position.  He uses a fine-point field to help the excess blood to drain away and to gently pry the lacerated skin and muscle tissues open.  He quickly locates the lacerated portion of the carotid artery and uses the controls of the unit to create a very small force field on the inside wall of the carotid on the other side of the laceration that will not inhibit blood flow, but slows the bleeding to a trickle almost immediately.  Bright red arterial blood drains away through an invisible tube of force-field to collect in a bio bin beneath.  Finally the wound is clear enough for Ossanlin to see the wound.  Not even a cut really...more of a nick.  A deep nick though, to a highly-pressurized artery.

He picks up the bio-thread, needle, and tissue patch.  He gently sutures the arterial walls back together, and then lays the tissue patch over the sutured arterial wall and begins to meticulously suture it down.  Approximately half an hour passes as he works tirelessly to properly patch the artery.  When it's done, he has the machine remove the internal force-field, allowing the artery to face the full brunt of Joanne's critically lowered blood pressure again.  The sutures hold strong with no deformation.

Ossanlin begins to increase the infusion rate of the new O-Negative blood, watching to make sure the carotid holds.  It should, from what he's been taught.  He'd sutured it strongly and bio-patched it.  Either should've been enough to hold alone, but it would be almost impossible for both the sutures and the patch to fail.

[Myitt]

Absently, Myitt swirls a finger around in Keshin's watery prison.

<<Yeah?>> Tara murmurs. <<Let's get help, then. Let me help you.>>

Myitt laughs cynically. "Can't help me," she tells the shellacked bar counter. "Just need to ride it out. Own up to the consequences."

[Terenia]

"Are you okay?" Fayleth asks Myitt again, forcing her attention outward. She glances down at the bowl holding Keshin and frowns.

<<It wouldn't take much.>>

<<Be. Quiet.>>

"Myitt, maybe you should stay away from him." She nods at the dish.


Dalik steps back, putting distance between himself and Ossanlin, holding the bloodied shirt in one hand. There is another smear of dark blood on his bare chest, but he doesn't seem to notice. His attention is on the Andalite, and the technology around him as he suddenly fully grasps where he is.

William has no context for the alien spacecraft, and doesn't offer commentary as Dalik looks around. The Yeerk can't hide his giddy fascination, the array of technology on display utterly enthralling.

"This is...wow," he breathes. His fingers twitch, eager to approach the nearest holoscreen.