Whatever was left of Sootoo the Hutt's forces must have decided that it was best to leave the intruders alone from that point on, as they waited in silence for their ship to pick them up. Nobody spoke another word until the Razor was in position to blow a hole in the building and they commed to warn as much.
The entire group backed away to the center of the room, and then they stood between the wall and Mannix, who was still being held midair by Trychon and Raezyr. After the rubble settled around them, there was still a massive cloud of dust in the air as the group moved as one in silence to escort Mannix aboard.
"We're going to have to make a hasty trip to dock up with the Stalker." Raezyr noted as everyone but the Sith prepped themselves for a bumpy ride. "Dianna, please take over the piloting. I have to stay with Trychon to make sure that Mannix does not get thrown about."
Dianna nearly paused to think if she should protest to stay and support the Brothers and their young student, but thought better of it and headed up to the bridge. It was only seconds before her voice was heard over the loudspeakers to remind everyone to hold on to something.
-----------------------
Despite their concern about making it back to the Stalker, there was little interference as they made their hasty orbital rendezvous. Not many planetary systems are truly prepared for a cleared ship to come out of the spaceports and blow a hole in a building right inside a metropolis. Whatever resistance that was ready to be scrambled wasn't enough to keep up with the Razor, in any case.
Trychon and Raezyr wasted no time once aboard the Stalker. Not even waiting for the docking hatch to seal, they made their way to the small medbay, where they could begin administering real help to the boy. Dianna was the next one out of the smaller ship, and she headed straight for the command deck, unsure as to whether or not Trychon could split his concentration enough to have already plotted a course.
When she jogged through the sliding doors, she stopped at the first available terminal. Pulling up a course, she could see that he had indeed already plotted a course. Two short jumps out of the system at random directions and intervals, and then headed to Hoth.
She turned around and headed for the medbay.
When she arrived in the medbay, they already had the boy submerged in a portable bacta tank. It was barely large enough to fit an adult male of most species, but there was plenty of free space for Mannix to float freely. He had tubes injected into his body interspersed at rather small intervals, another advantage to his small body, she supposed.
Trychon and Raezyr were standing over him, not moving. She wasn't afraid to say something, but at the same time, she didn't really want to, either. She watched the boy float up and down for a few minutes, knowing there was no real hurry to the discussion she was about to have with them. Regardless of what was decided, the random jumps were necessary.
After several minutes, which felt like years, she finally spoke up. "Well?" Was all she was able to croak out of the full question she wanted to ask, despite the apparent brevity of 'Well, how is he?'
Raezyr didn't look up, but she didn't expect him to. She grabbed his hand and held it as he started to speak. "Well, obviously he's getting Bacta pumped into him as fast as his body will take it. The tank has also taken over his heart, and other major organ functions. So that's one less thing for us to worry about."
"You were keeping his heart pumping?" Dianna asked. Normally, she thought her jaw might drop at such a statement, but now all she could do was stare at the boy.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him nod at Trychon. "It doesn't take two Sith to levitate a boy. I was holding him in place. We didn't want to take a chance on the stims failing and his heart shutting down. Trychon's fine control is a bit more refined than mine."
She forced a smile in Trychon's direction, though he didn't look up.
She tried to form her next words as carefully as she could.
"I'm uh... I'm not looking for an argument, babe... but Mannix needs the best medical help we can get him. Hoth does not fall under that category. The bacta is great, and we're lucky the Stalker was fitted with some, but he deserves more."
"Sweetheart," Raezyr started, his voice barely above a whisper. "He doesn't have some incurable disease. He has massive burns over his entire body. All they'd be able to tell us besides the fact that every one of us besides Mannix is very wanted by various governments is that he needs to spend some massive time in a bacta tank and, Force willing, a lot of rehab."
"I have very little experience with rehab. At least for others, and for anything of magnitude." She sighed.
She decided the next several days would give her a chance to try and change her lover's mind, if she still thought he was wrong. They returned to their group silence. The only noise between them was the steady thrum of the hyperspace engines, and a nearly imperceptible buzz coming from the machinery in the medical bay.
"You two can go if you'd like. I'll keep a watch on Mannix." Trychon offered, with his eyes closed as though he was staring at the young apprentice and the machinery keeping him alive through his eyelids.
Dianna was the only one to move, and then only enough to rest her head on Raezyr's shoulder.
No comments:
Post a Comment