Chapter 25 – Thete and Brax
Tchan had actually begun to find Volag-Noc very cushty. He was in amongst people he would now call his friends, which was something he never would have imagined when he'd first arrived. He was making friends, in Volag-Noc.
It had fast been clear that around here that Braxiatel was the boss, and Tchan was extremely glad to be counted as an ally of his. Braxiatel was the man who kept the place running smoothly, which was an astounding feat in itself. A hostile place full of the worst the universe had to offer that could have easily spiralled out of control without security was probably now the safest place to be in the universe. The people were jolly and accommodating, and as long as you didn't go near the cells it was like a happy, if slightly motley and dysfunctional community.
Tchan had been in Volag-Noc for a week, now – a very pleasant week. It was a Tuesday when he got bored of his normal routine, and decided to have a wander.
More by coincidence than anything he found Braxiatel in a control room, sitting in a chair staring at a screen with narrowed eyes.
"Braxiatel?" Tchan wondered from the doorway.
"Something's not right," Braxiatel muttered in reply to him.
Tchan took that as an invitation to move forward, checking the scanner. "What?"
"There's a ship arriving," Braxiatel continued. "And it's not prisoner transport."
"What is it?"
"I don't..."
The ship suddenly registered, requesting landing permission. It identified on the screen.
It was a Judoon ship.
Braxiatel's frown deepened considerably. "What are they doing here?"
"Maybe they've come back to run it?" Tchan suggested.
"Perhaps," Braxiatel responded, but didn't sound convinced. He leant forward and approved the landing request, before reaching for the PA system.
"This is Braxiatel," he began, his voice echoing around Volag-Noc. "The Judoon have arrived. Go inside your cells, be quiet, and stay there until further notice. Thank you."
He hung up the PA comm and went to the door, holding up his arm to hold back Tchan. He peered around the corner and waited, silent and still.
It took a good few minutes for the Judoon to enter, and in sync, they marched in a group of eight down the corridor. Braxiatel followed without hesitation, Tchan hot on his heels. Together they followed the Judoon down the corridor stealthily, tailing them as they made their way through the maze of halls in a steady march. Tchan dare not breathe a word, just taking Braxiatel's lead. It soon became clear where the Judoon were going as they approached the giant red door Tchan had questioned when he'd first arrived.
"Why are they going in there?" Braxiatel muttered to himself, frowning. Tchan looked at him. He looked confused, and worried...
"Make sure it's dead," one of them gruffed, and a Judoon in protective clothing and a helmet opened the door. Immediately Braxiatel whimpered, his hand flying to his head.
Tchan was alarmed. "Braxiatel? Are you okay?" he whispered urgently.
"Oh no, it can't be, it can't..." Braxiatel breathed, his eyes wide as he stared at the Judoon.
"What?" Tchan persisted.
"They're all dead, they died, in the War, they're gone..."
"Who's gone?"
Braxiatel swallowed, his entire body shaking. He didn't answer Tchan. "It's him, no, it's him!Please don't be in there, please don't be in there..."
The Judoon reappeared, carrying a body hidden by rags between them. A hand was sticking out from between the blankets. It had a single ring on its finger.
"No...!" Braxiatel gasped in horror.
"What?" Tchan asked urgently, quite terrified by Braxiatel's sudden complete change in demeanour.
Braxiatel looked at him, and his eyes were suddenly so narrow and dark. "Tchan, have you ever killed anyone before?"
Tchan blinked in surprise at the question. "No..."
"Then stay back, and never start," Braxiatel grated, pulled a gun from inside his shirt, and ran forward to the Judoon.
"Braxiatel!" Tchan cried, but the corridor was already ablaze with gunfire and Judoon bellows. Tchan dived to safety, covering his head in fear. It was only twenty seconds until the fight was over, and suddenly Braxiatel reappeared, completely unscathed and carrying the body still wrapped in rags.
"Stay in front of me, clear the path to my cell," Braxiatel ordered Tchan. Tchan was so terrified by this point he just obeyed.
Thankfully they met no one on the way to Braxiatel's cell. When they got there, Braxiatel ordered Tchan to lock the door and stay quiet.
Braxiatel lowered the body to the bed carefully, and pulled back the rags to reveal a thin, gaunt face with messy, choppy brown hair. Tchan stared at the humanoid man – his eyes, nose and mouth were all covered in a clear sticky substance. He could swear the man wasn't breathing.
"Theta, Thete," Braxiatel said urgently, putting his fingers on the man's temple and closing his eyes. "Look at me, Thete."
"Who is he, Braxiatel?" Tchan asked quietly.
Braxiatel either didn't hear the question, or completely ignored it. He used the blanket the man was wrapped in to wipe the sticky substance from his eye, and carefully pulled up the man's eyelid to reveal a dark brown iris.
"By Rassilon," Braxiatel breathed, a ghost of a smile appearing on his face. "Can you see me, Thete?"
There was utterly no response. Tchan was convinced the man – Thete – was dead, but Braxiatel didn't seem to think so. Braxiatel pulled more blankets away and Tchan could see the man was in tattered, dirty prisoner clothes with chains wrapped around his wrists.
For a moment Braxiatel just stared at the man, his eyes wide in horror, before he looked at Tchan. "Get me a knife – under my bed in the metal box."
Tchan immediately ducked down to retrieve it, finding it within seconds. He pulled it out and handed it to Braxiatel, who tried the chains, but they were fusling chains and impossible to release without the right tools.
"Othering Other!" Braxiatel swore in exasperation, instead cutting through Thete's prison clothes to pull them off. The skin under his shirt was red and cracked.
"Okay," Braxiatel breathed, and turned back to Tchan. "He's not here, nobody knows he's here, you don't even know he's here, you were never with me! Do you understand!?" he hissed.
Tchan nodded quickly. "He's not here."
"Not a word to anyone," Braxiatel persisted.
"I won't say anything," Tchan assured him.
"Swear on your life!"
"I swear on my life," Tchan said quickly, beginning to get a bit scared now.
Braxiatel jumped to his feet, going to the door. "Stay here and watch him. If he wakes up, tell him Brax is sorting this out. I'm locking this place from the outside."
"Okay," Tchan muttered. "Where are you going?"
"He needs medical treatment; I'm going to visit the med-bay," Braxiatel replied. "I'll be back in half an hour."
"Okay," Tchan repeated as Braxiatel stepped through the door. "But Braxiatel, who is he?" Tchan asked again.
Braxiatel turned back, nodding as if to confirm something. "He's my brother, Thete, and no Judoon is going to get their hands on him. If they find him, they'll kill him."
Tchan nodded. "Okay. He'll be safe, Braxiatel."
Braxiatel didn't reply to that, just looked at Tchan, then Thete, and then shut the door.
As promised, Braxiatel returned thirty minutes later with bags of things from the medical bay. Tchan helped Braxiatel to link the still unconscious Thete to several medical machines and drips. They redressed him into comfortable clothes that wouldn't irritate his already damaged skin and got Thete as comfortable as possible with tens of blankets and pillows.
"Can I ask something?" Tchan wondered when Thete was settled.
"Yes?" Braxiatel asked.
"What's that sticky stuff on his face?"
"It's a non-porous barrier," Braxiatel informed him. "It prevents any intrusion on a molecular level. Kept him safe."
"Safe from what?"
Braxiatel's eyes suddenly darkened, looking at Tchan seriously. "Alere flammam."
Tchan's face remained blank. "What's that?"
Braxiatel's eyes disconnected with Tchan's to look at the floor. "It's an execution gas. It's one of the worst ones ever to be made. It is illegal everywhere. It kills anything it touches; it sets you on fire and burns you alive. When you breathe it in it sets your insides on fire. Everything just burns. It's the worst death imaginable... The Judoon gassed out the Screaming Souls block with it several months ago, just before they left." He looked back at Thete. "He should be dead. I thought everyone in there was dead..."
Tchan felt very sick, just at the description of it. "How is he not?"
"Thete's so clever, he's always been clever, he suppressed its effects," Brax replied. "He switched off his non-vital organs and put himself in a trance coma so he wouldn't consume energy, he turned on his sweat glands to prevent himself from catching fire and created the non-porous barrier to stop the molecular intrusion – he completely sealed himself up to stop the alere flammam getting inside him and burning his organs. Some slight skin damage, but he's still alive. Alive, but in a coma."
"But he'll wake up?"
"I don't know," Braxiatel confessed, closing his eyes. "This is the lowest kind of coma a Time Lord can access. This is the meditative state most Gallifreyans go into for a few years before they reach their death day."
"... He's dying?"
"Sort of. Everything is at a minimum, his respiratory bypass must nearly be gone. He might wake up if I can reach his mind and ease him out; tell him he doesn't need to protect himself anymore."
Tchan nodded. "Good."
"You have your answers, and now you should go," Braxiatel suddenly said, still staring at his brother. "It's dangerous for you to know he's here. Leave, and forget him."
Tchan looked between the brothers, and only felt sympathy. Braxiatel had looked after them all in the prison for so long. Tchan would probably be dead without him. Now it was time to pay his debts.
"No," he started boldly, and Braxiatel looked up at him in surprise. "I'll help you. I won't tell anyone, I promise. You need help. He needs help."
Braxiatel gazed at him for a moment, considering, and then he just nodded. "Thank you."
They worked on a rota. Braxiatel had to leave more than he liked to sort out prison affairs, but on those occasions Tchan stayed with Thete. Not that anything ever happened. He just lay there, silent and still. He wasn't even breathing.
Everyone else questioned where Braxiatel was as he was around less and less these days, but Tchan just speculated with them. He kept Braxiatel's secret. The less people who knew about Thete the better. Those Judoon had been there to 'make sure' Thete was dead, and Braxiatel clearly would sooner give his own life than see his brother die. So Tchan was going to help him all he could.
Braxiatel had gone out to sort out the new arrivals when Thete finally stirred. Tchan was taken completely by surprise when Thete suddenly took a sharp intake of breath, jolting Tchan out of his daydream.
"H-hello?" Tchan stammered, leaning over the man. Thete's deep brown eyes opened, just slightly, his pupils fixing on Tchan. He tried to say something, but the sound died halfway through his throat.
"It's okay, you're okay," Tchan said quickly, hands in the air. He hadn't really prepared a speech for this moment and was finding himself completely caught off guard. "Braxiatel's here, he'll be back in a minute. My name's Tchan. You're Thete, aren't you? Braxiatel says you're his brother."
The man's eyes widened slightly and he tried to speak again, but he couldn't seem to be able to make coherent noises.
"It's okay, just relax," Tchan said, feeling like he was repeating the same lines over and over. "Something really bad happened to you but Braxiatel says you're gonna be okay."
All Thete could do was gaze at him. By now he'd given up trying to talk.
"We're in Volag-Noc," Tchan continued, searching for something else that could reassure the Time Lord. "The Judoon tried to take you but Braxiatel stopped them."
Thete managed a tiny nod. Then his eyes shut again as he slipped back into unconsciousness. He was still breathing.
Tchan was jittery for ten minutes, unable to remain seated until Braxiatel returned. When he did, Tchan immediately jumped to meet him at the door. "Braxiatel! He was awake!"
Braxiatel looked at Thete immediately. "Did he say anything? What did you say?"
"I told him who I was and where he was and that Braxiatel was looking after him," Tchan said quickly. "He couldn't really talk."
Braxiatel nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Tchan. You should leave to eat."
"Okay," Tchan replied, smiling at Braxiatel before he left out of the door.
Braxiatel dropped to sit by Thete immediately, resting his hand on his brother's hearts in turn. They were beating stronger. He checked his breathing next – he could feel small, warm breaths on the back of his hand from Thete's mouth and nose. They were both excellent signs that he was rising from the coma without too much of a problem.
For now, all Braxiatel could do was wait. He changed the bag on the feeding tube, and then sat down and stared at his brother, waiting.
It was dawn when Thete stirred again, a small moan escaping from his throat as his fingers began to flex. Braxiatel noticed immediately, leaning over him and watching his hands gently clench and unclench.
"Thete?" Braxiatel asked gently.
Then Thete opened his eyes, looking straight at Brax through sunken eyes. "Brax," he croaked.
"Theta," Brax said gently. "It's me."
"Please... not him," Thete suddenly whined.
"No, I'm here, it's really me," Brax said quickly.
"No, no, no... Not him, not him..."
Brax rested a hand on Thete's, leaning forward to look deeply into his brother's eyes. "I'm real, I promise I'm real. I'm here, Thete."
Thete groaned and raised his hand, struggling to keep it upright. Brax took it and held Thete's fingers to his temple, opening his mind completely to allow his brother to explore and confirm it was him.
Immediately Brax could feel Thete going through his memories of Thete's own childhood; of two brothers playing when Thete had been a tot. A much older Brax had taken time to look after his little brother and play with him, even when times had been rough in their House.
Brax watched the memories with him; of them both constantly in competition – always trying to better one another. Numerous fights with a perigosto stick and evenings filled with intelligent debate. They both watched the time Thete had fallen into the River Cadenflood and Brax had had to dive in and rescue him, after which they swore a pact never to tell their mother. Neither of them had.
Thete went even further back, back to his looming that Brax had watched, together with all of their cousins. The two brothers watched him come out; dripping and screaming as all of his cousins laughed and pointed at his belly button.
"Brax," Thete wheezed, dropping his hand.
"Hello," Brax replied, smiling.
"Hi," Thete said, but couldn't manage a smile.
Brax gazed at him for a moment, lying there so weak. "Can you access the healing coma?"
"No," Thete croaked.
"I'll help you in," Brax said, resting his fingers on Thete's temples. "Ease down, Thete."
He did, and within seconds he was in the coma. Brax drew back, and allowed himself to smile.