Remnants of the Earth

"I will know!" Emrys shouted at her. "If you do this, if I let you do this I will know, and he will know. It will be the same. He'll execute us both. Hell he might execute my whole damn family to make sure there's no one else they can get to threw him."

Alarm sounded. Warning lights flashed. The attache had had believed him, and relayed that the threat was where he was standing.

Don't be fucking stupid. She was his responsibility she wasn't supposed to be trying to sacrifice herself for him. What the actual fuck? She was just a damn Candidate. Touch the system and inform security to secure the fucking priestess. They need high powered rifles. 

"I didn't take anything from you, and all I've known from you is unfounded attack," Emrys said, "I didn't even know you existed until you attempted to kill me. I have no reason to believe anything you say or that you will return him to me at all."

Shore up your mind. I don't know how they, it consumes minds. I don't know if it can be resisted. He grabbed Nova by the wrist and pulled her away from the cell with his left hand as he drew his weapon with his right, emptying his pistol into the prisoner. They could die. It was difficult as fuck to kill them, but they could fucking die. It was high powered thing for a hand gun, the best he could find.

RUN. We're getting out of here if we have to steal a ship. He was dragging her along even as he urged her on. He was headed toward the docking bay.

Emrys would not give then the priestess or their coordinates. Over his dead fucking body. His son would just have to be forfeit. Emrys always knew he would have to be, as soon as he'd lost him. Despite his efforts made to the contrary. Rojgher would never ever allow him to give up information or captives of such importance to what was clearly a seriously dangerous enemy and live to regret it. Besides that, Emrys was loyal to Aedolis, he always had been. Any cost. That's what he'd always believed... he just... never thought the cost would be so high.

TRIMM was fucking STUPID as shit to keep two of them here. Didn't they know they had linked minds? Fucking Emrys knew after ten seconds of interaction with them. And their magical abilities... it was dangerous having one around. Why the fuck did they need this charade? Why didn't they just escape and steal a ship?

Run was not an instinct Emrys usually had, but he'd fought these fucking things before, and he knew the whole damn station was probably outclassed by them.

Emrys looked at the attache when odd sounds started coming out of the cell. "Leave this place, and raise the guard now, you won't be able to contain them." There was a serious urgency to his tone that prompted the attache to respond immediately.

He was gone before the prisoner spoke.

Emrys had secured his family before he left. They were in the citadel, the most secure place on Adelos, his dragon was near by to them, and they were under guard - guards he had insisted on meeting in person to make sure they were not part of red tide. He didn't think he was being paranoid at the time, but now he was glad he'd taken such steps.

THey really didn't understand how arrangements worked. His dragon would kill him if he gave them anything. He'd hoped to use this meeting to his own advantage somehow but he seemed to be quickly running out of options.

"You will get nothing from me until I see my son. Nothing else will convince me that he is alive and in tact." It was a stalling tactic, but also the truth. He could do neither of the things that they asked of him. He didn't even know the damn coordinates they were at... Only the pilot did, and he was no longer here.

He could probably get into the systems and figure it out, but it was better just not to know.

He also couldn't deliver the priestess, because while he might be able to physically... he'd just be murdered by his own people for it.

"You did fine," Raf said gently, "she's fierce and more importantly she's happy." He kept brushing his fingers threw her hair, trying to sooth her. He was out of practice with being gentle. It felt... awkward, even though it was nice when she leaned into his touch. "I will," he said, "she's safe here." When she finally fell asleep, Raf sat there, holding up the bottle of plasma until it was empty. Then he removed the IV before heading upstairs to play with the kids.

About an hour later Griffin arrived home from the mines. He dropped his filthy vac suit by the front door, and went into the kitchen and kissed Janeese by the stove. "It smells like heaven in here," he said, "who's your patient on the couch?"

"Raf's friend."

"Raf brought... a woman with him?" he arched an eyebrow.

"And her kid," she responded with a smirk, "maybe he's thinking about settling down."

Griffin laughed. "Impossible."

"Go call the kids down to dinner," Janeese said.

Griffin kissed her again before climbing the stairs and banging on bedroom doors. "Supper's ready! Let's go, who's hungry." In short order a noisy stampede of kids was rushing down stairs in search of food.

"Don't be animals!" Janeese shouted, "set the table, we have guests!"

"Hey Val," Raf said mussing her hair, "why don't you go wake up your mom, see if she's hungry." In the mean time, Raf went and grabbed a stack of plates, and one of the kids started setting them out around the table.

"Little kids in the living room!" Janeese shouted. The living room table had sense been cleared and sterilized, so the four youngest kids set up plates in the living room where they could sit around it on the floor.

There was fresh baked bread, pasta with some kind of vegetable sauce, meat cutlets... though Raf wasn't sure it's source, vegetable salad and a fruit salad. Raf hadn't seen so many fruits and vegetables in, well in years... they were hard to come by in space, and he hadn't had a home cooked meal in as long. Gods damn, he could just about eat a loaf of fresh baked break and a bowel of fruits and die happy right now.

His mother - the woman who gave birth to him - hadn't given two shits about Raf. Liss had taken care of him... until he was older and some of their clients started looking at him with interest too... then his mom thought she might be able to squeeze a buck out of him too. He was out the window before money even exchanged hands. He still missed Liss some days, but he rarely even thought of his mother these days.

"She'd be tickled by it," Raf said, "if she knew."

Anyway... enough of that.

He snatched up some child's abandoned blanket off the floor and draped it over Ava to cover her up a little until she could get her shirt back on. Then he sat on the arm of the sofa as he continued holding up the glass bottle of plasma that was now half empty. He brushed some hair out of her face, and his fingertips lingered on her shoulder for a moment before he took his hand back, resting it in his lap.

Raf got a shit eating grin on his face then. "I mean... there's plenty of things that can be done gently."[/b] He snickered.

"Oh please," Jeaneese said, "call me Jeaneese. Raf you can take her to the couch if you want, but make sure she lays back down. If she pulls my fresh stitches I'm gonna be pissed."

"Yes, ma'am," Raf smirked, until a wooden spoon connected with his shoulder. He broke out into laughter and then reached down a hand to help Ava up.

Raf gave her an encouraging smile. He swallowed hard when he caught an eye full of Ava's back, but he didn't say anything... didn't give an outward response. He knew scars like that - he had some like that. Most of his weren't careful, but he'd been cut, stabbed, shot, blown up, and burned. He'd been tortured before too. He wasn't comparing or competing, just... understanding. Realizing they had a lot more in common than he'd thought. Even if they dealt with it differently.

"Actually I do," Janeese said, "I've got  a local, and then a muscle relaxer I mix with some regular pain meds and a mild sedative. It won't knock you out, but it will keep you relaxed and help you stay still.

Allya washed her hands in the sink and dawned gloves before pealing off the old bandages. "Close your eyes," the teen said, "the light's bad for them." Then she shined that blue light over Ava's entire body. "Alright, you can open your eyes if you want."

By that time Janeese had washed and gloved and drawn up two syringes of medications. "Start an IV on her, so I can get these in, and then I give you the local. As soon as I push these, Allya you hang that bag of fluids, Raf you hold it. We'll wait on the plasma until she's done. I don't want to waste it. I've only got the one."

Raf nodded and moved to where he could be an impromptu IV pole.

"Small poke," the girl said, and by the time she'd said it, the IV was in. A moment later, Janeese was pushing meds, and then seconds later Ava would feel warm, sleepy, and relaxed. Allya was hanging the meds as Janneese held up the last syringe.

"You're going to feel this... it burns going in, but you'll go numb quickly." Janeese didn't give her any warning, just started administering it in a circle of stabs around the wound. She'd start going numb immediately, but she waited about three minutes for her to go totally numb before she started.

Janeese held her hand out over the wound then and the biofoam got warm, not too hot though, and melted. She flicked her fingers to the side and it floated out of the wound bed and landed in and out of the way spot on the table.

"Allya, steralize."

"Yes, mama." The girl held that blue light on over the wound for a minute.

"Good, and my hands now." Janeese moved her gloved hands around under the light to get them as sterile as she could. "Alright now, stitches out," she flicked her fingers over the wound and the stitches that hadn't been torn untied themselves, before all of them exited the wound and landed on the table.

"Sutures."

Allya handed an individual suture on a curved needle to her mother with forceps. Janeese took it and went to work on the nicked artery firs. Three sutures there. Another six for the inside of the wound, and ten to close up the outside. Allya sterilized the wound again. For good measure, she glued the thing with liquid stitches too, then placed a medicated dressing over it and taped it down good. Then she wrapped her entire abdomen with an ace wrap. "That binder will help you not pull those stitches again. "No showers for three days, and wear the binder for ten.

"Allya hang that plasma when the NS is done, and for you..." Janeese took off her gloves and rummaged threw her bag and came back with two pill bottles. "Antibiotics, twice a day for fourteen days. Who knows what you got int there the first time around. And pain meds... one ever six hours as you need it.

"You don't get up until all that plasma is in. You hear?"

"But! Flying Liss is a lot easier than a car," Raf protested, "as long as you leave her in auto pilot. You just tell her where to go." He winked at her conspiratorially. Then he flashed a grin at Ava.

"Here we are," Raf sad and knocked on the door, "four twelve. Griffin's house." He didn't need to know - but one day Val might.

Inside the squeals and shouts of children could be heard. A muffled "Uncle Raf is here!" and a chorus of "I'll get it!" followed. The door burst open a moment later and no less than seven children ranging in age from four to maybe seventeen all tried to fit out the good, giggling and shoving. Four of them looked to be actually related - the youngest and the oldest of the bunch... but the rest looked distinctly different from not only the four obvious siblings, but also the other kids.

Within moments the kids were tackling Raf and practically carried him inside the apartment. Inside, the apartment looked like somewhere seven kids lived. There were toys and books everywhere, and somewhere in the background a movie was blaring.

"Raf!" a woman's voice called from the kitchen, "You better be hungry."

"Mama" "Mama" "Mama" was called out seven times, almost in unison. "Raf brought guests!"

"Oh? What's that now?" the woman leaned out past the kitchen wall and nearly dropped her spoon. "Hun," she was moving quickly into the living room now, "you need a doctor... Lucky you, Raf brought you to best one on Trenz." Read that as only doctor on Trenz, but she was a good one.

"Scat!" and the kids took off in different directions around the apartment, one of the younger one's grabbing Val by the hand and carrying her off with them.

"What's your name?" the little boy asked her. "I'm Tomar."

Janeese turned her attention on Ava, looking at her side as if she could see the wound threw her shirt and dressings. "You popped those stitches," she said, "we need to get you patched up before you bleed out on my living room floor.

"Allya!" she called out sharply, "Get my surgical bag, fluids, and... I think I've got one unit of plasma left... I need you to scrub in on this one."

"Yes mama," one of the teenage girls called down from the upstairs railing.

"Raf there's a plastic table cloth in the closet." Raf went and fetched it and spread it out on the living room floor.

"You take your shirt off and lay down right here, dear... don't worry about the kids. It's nothing they haven't seen before," she glanced over head, "and Tomar's got your 'lil one in his room."

"Subject #00259," the attache responded promptly, reading off from his data pad. "I'm sorry sir, this subjects file is secured above my clearance."

"Send me the file," Emrys said, and as soon as he had it, he unlocked it.

This was what he was looking for. Not exactly but close. They fed him to the Priestess. I don't know if she's still here.

Raf noticed that pause. She wasn't fooling anyone. "Val," he said with a smile, "I bet you'll still be full of energy after bouncing up all these stairs... can you carry your ma's bags? It'll be a big help." Her kit wasn't that heavy. Once the girl had her mom's things, Raf came around her good side and picked her up before she could protest and started huffing it up the stairs. That way, if she struggled, it not only would hurt like a mother, she probably make them both go rolling down the stairs.

"C'm on Val. I used to run with gear that weighed more than you and your ma on my back... I'll race you to the top."