...
Act II
A Christmas to remember
Chapter 4
Hey there, Sexy, come here often?
"Questions? Are you kidding me?" Matt wanted to know. Even though the whole situation was still too surreal to accept it just like that, he knew that he had hardly any other choice but to do so. She was here. Sarah Kerrigan. In the flesh. Right now, he wished to be anywhere else. But since when did the universe ever bother about what he wanted, hmm? Suddenly Sarah started to laugh.
"Oh, trust me; I know exactly how you feel." she said. Only then he realized that she was referring to his thoughts and his expression turned sour.
"Oh, don't be such a baby, Matt." Sarah then told him. "There is nothing inside that skull of yours that is of any use for me. Or something that you should be ashamed of. In all seriousness? I don't think I have ever felt a mind that deserved to be called "boy-scout". But you're damn close to it." She gave him a warm smile. Perhaps it was meant to ease his mind. Well, it didn't.
"Why are you here, Sarah?" he wanted to know. The smile vanished from her face in an instant and she turned her head away. She took her sweet time before deciding to answer his question.
"In all seriousness? Probably because I wanted to be alone for some time. Last couple of, well, days? Weeks? Months? Wait a sec, Matt, how much time has passed since, you know..."
"Since you left us?" he offered.
"Charmer. Yeah, how long?" she asked.
"You don't know?" Matt thought that hard to believe.
"Would I ask if I would know?" Why should she ask something like that? She could read his mind, right? So, what was the point of that question? All she had to do was to check the mind of some human close by. So unless she was planning something...
"Enough!" Sarah suddenly barked and looked back at Matt. "I haven't come here to conquer the sector, Matt! I haven't come here to cause any trouble either. Why does everybody act like I'm about to cause the goddamn Apocalypse! In case no one has told you; I saved this damn sector from total annihilation!" Matt could hear the pain in Sarah's voice. And he couldn't just hear it, he could also feel it. He wasn't psionically gifted and he had never truly understood what it meant to possess this ability. Though he had come to the realization that to most "gifted" ones, it was more of a burden than an actual gift. However, he instantly realized that what he was feeling were Sarah's emotions, her anger as well as her pain. Instead of answering her question, he simply turned his head away and looked around.
"What are you doing, Matt?" Sarah wanted to know.
"You're the mind reader, you tell me." he mumbled. The room was a mess. It had always been a mess. Jim had never been truly someone to keep everything clean. He was the kind of guy who needed a woman in his life. It didn't mean that he needed a woman to clean after him, Jim was able to do that on his own. But he needed someone that completed him. When Sarah had been with him, this room had been so clean that you could transplant a liver without any problems. After her "death" on Tarsonis, it had turned into a goddamn Zerg-hive. Matt grabbed a chair that lay on its side and put it back on its feet. He then walked over to the heater on the wall, grabbed behind it, and pulled a bottle of booze out. He sat down on the chair and opened the bottle before he started to down it with long, deep gulps. There were so many bottles hidden on this ship, he could stay drunk for the rest of his life.
He could feel how the alcohol burned its way to his stomach and how he started to calm down.
Now he knew why Jim had turned into an alcoholic.
He lowered the bottle and took a deep breath before he looked back at Sarah.
"You have some nerves showing your face here, Sarah." he then suddenly said. Sarah pulled her brows up in surprise when she heard the tone in his voice.
"Excuse me?" she asked in disbelief. She had expected all sorts of reactions toward her return, but not this one.
"You are so full of yourself, aren't you?" Matt spat out. She could feel his hostility towards her, his barely contained anger.
"Must be nice, playing all mighty goddess while the rest of us have to deal with all the mortal crap like breathing, sleeping, and fixin' the goddamn universe."
"Are you okay, Matt?" Sarah wanted to know. Suddenly he jumped up and threw the bottle of booze against the wall. It exploded with a loud BANG! and the alcohol splattered through the room. Some of it landed on Matt's uniform. However, the drops that came close to Sarah stopped in mid-air before they simply fell on the floor.
"NO!" he screamed. "I'm not okay!" He looked at her. "Two years. You were gone for almost two years. Have you any idea...HAVE YOU ANY GODDAMN IDEA what crap we had to deal with during that time?!" Sarah didn't know how to reply to that. Like said; she had expected all sorts of reactions. Just not this one.
"I was-" Sarah started, but she was cut short by Matt.
"I DON'T CARE!" he roared, grabbed the chair before he too smashed it against the next wall. "I DON'T-" He grabbed another chair and threw it against the wall. It didn't stop there though. He grabbed another empty bottle and smashed it too. And if there was one thing inside the room in virtually infinite numbers, it was empty and half-empty bottles.
"...CARE!" he screamed and destroyed another part of the room. It was an impressive display of mindless destruction. Sarah couldn't remember the last time when Matt had lost control. Truth to be told: She couldn't remember if he had ever lost control at all...
Sarah watched as Matt decided to rearrange the room's interior. It was a rather impressive display of explosive behavior. And it lasted as long as Matt found something to smash. The only thing he didn't wreck was the bed Sarah was sitting on.
"Do you have any..."
SMASH!
"...idea..."
SMASH!
"...what we had to endure!" he roared. "We've been struggling ever since the war ended, we're trying to help people..."
SMASH!
"...every day it's the same nightmare. Trying to solve the mess others have made. YOU!" he pointed at her. "...have made!"
"Maybe I made a mistake and removed some important pieces of your brain after all." Sarah mumbled, referring to earlier, when she had removed the alcohol from Matt's body with a mere thought. Matt turned towards her and spread his arms.
"That's right, everybody! Here she is, the one and only Sarah Kerrigan! Fixin' shit no one has asked her to do! And making things worse in the process!" Suddenly Sarah's eyes widened in anger and rage. She jumped to her feet and clenched her hands into fists.
"How dare you. HOW DARE YOU?!" she roared and without even realizing it, her psionic powers reached out and smashed Matt against the wall like some sort of ragdoll. The air was pressed out of Matt's lungs and when he slid down the wall and landed on the floor, he immediately groaned in pain. The moment Sarah saw that she made a step backward and gasped in shock. She pressed her hands against her mouth when the full realization of her action hit her.
"Matt!" She hurried towards him and knelt down right next to him. He hissed when the pain from his broken bones hit him and tried to get back up, but it was out of the question.
"I'm sorry, I'm...here, let me fix this." Sarah then said and closed her eyes. In her mind, she could see his injuries. It was nothing life-threatening. Just a broken arm and a broken leg. Any half-decent doctor would probably be able to fix him up. But it didn't change the fact that she had nearly killed him in a sudden outburst of anger.
Humans were so fragile; how could she have forgotten that? She could see his fractured bones inside her mind. Fixing them was easy, all she had to do was to put them back together and then-
"GHA!" Matt gasped in pain when he felt how his fractured bones returned to their original state.
"I'm sorry." Sarah whispered. "It won't take long." Fixing Matt's injuries only took a few seconds, but when she stood up and backed away, she was afraid of Matt's reaction toward her little "outburst". But instead of running away or screaming at her he simply started to laugh
"Hahaha." His laughter started to fill the room and by now Sarah truly wasn't certain that she hadn't caused some serious damage to his brain earlier.
"Hahaha...oh, this is just perfect." he cheered and continued to laugh like he had just heard the most hilarious joke of all times. There was some blood dripping from his brow, but it was nothing serious. Still, as he wiped the blood off his forehead and looked at his red hand, he started to laugh again.
"This..." he then said. "...this has to be the worst day of my life." He leaned back and closed his eyes before he fell silent. His breath was ragged and Sarah could see that he was still in pain. Not physically, but he was suffering from something else.
"Why have you come back, Sarah?" he wanted to know. Sarah lowered her gaze.
"I just wanted to be alone for some time, that's all." she told him. "The Hyperion was just the only place I could think of."
"I wasn't talking about this particular place, Sarah." Matt then interrupted her. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Why have you come back here? To this sector? To our...I don't know...plane of existence? Why did you come back?" Suddenly Sarah realized what he meant. She gritted her teeth in anger, but this time she kept her emotions in check. Well, mostly in check...
"You're telling me that I should have stayed in the Void? Is that what you mean? That this galaxy would be better off without me?" Their eyes met and suddenly Sarah felt how a cold shiver ran down her spine when she saw the cold look on his face.
"Yes. That's exactly what I'm trying to say." There was no sign of fear in his voice. All Sarah felt was utter refusal.
"Well, isn't that nice." she said and put her fist on her hips. "And why would you say that, hmm?" Perhaps it was time to not throw people around and break their bones but instead to act snippy.
"In all the years we've dealt with each other, Sarah, your presence has always meant one thing; bad news. So why the hell are you here. What's your agenda?"
What's your agenda? Why have you come back? What is it you want? Conquer? Rule? Destroy? Devour? That was everybody was thinking, right? Sarah had a hard time controlling her anger. The Zerg inside her wanted to jump at Matt and tear him apart. However, that was not the nicest thing to do, so...
"You're so full of yourself, aren't you?" she finally said and knelt down next to him. She pressed her hand on his chest and pinned him down. Matt gasped in shock, it felt as if there was a whole planet resting on his body right now.
"Because we used to be on the same side, Matt..." Sarah hissed. "...I won't hurt you. Not more than I already have. I'm sorry for breaking your bones. But let me make this clear: I have not come here to conquer the sector, take command of the Swarm again, or do anything else. I'm just here, and I want you to remember these words, I'm just here because I wanted to find some peace and quiet." When she removed her hand from his chest, she stood up and made a few steps backward. Matt felt how all that pressure on his chest vanished in an instant. He took a few deep gasps and enjoyed the feeling of sweet oxygen inside his lungs. For a long time, neither of them said a word. It was Matt who finally managed to start a somewhat more civilized conversation.
"Why do you look human again?" he wanted to know.
"Because I want to. But if you prefer the old look..." Sarah said while sitting down on Jim's bed. Just before Matt's eyes, her whole body started to shift and merge into something different. Something nightmarish. Something all too familiar.
"...I always looked better in purple." the Queen of Blades cooed. Matt's eyes widened in shock and terror. So she had returned. She had just played him for a fool and-
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Sarah barked and turned back to her old, human self. "Quit being so paranoid, Matt!" She shook her head and the horrible, horrible nerve cords turned into red hair again.
"You're...not Zerg anymore?" Matt asked.
"Obviously." Sarah just replied.
"So you were deinfested again?" he wanted to know. Sarah opened her mouth, but no words left her throat. Deinfested? Like when they had used that shitty Xel'Naga-artifact on her? Sarah didn't care if that thing had saved the day, it had caused her unspeakable pain. Should something like this thing ever show up again, she would destroy it immediately.
"No, I wasn't deinfested. I guess you could say that I...moved up the ladder."
"What have you become?" Matt whispered and Sarah shrugged her shoulders. That was a question even she couldn't answer.
"I tell you once I've figured that out myself. So, are we done yelling at each other? Because I'm actually not in the mood for any more drama." she sighed. She suddenly felt exhausted. Felt still exhausted. She still had the trip to Aiur in her bones. Matt decided to stay on his butt. He looked at his broken arm. His formerly broken arm. Strangely enough, both his leg and his arm felt amazing. And not just those two appendages felt better. He looked over to Sarah and then he raised his hand, moved it behind his head, and pulled a small panel to the side. Without even looking, he grabbed inside and pulled another bottle of booze out of the open wall.
"Where-" Sarah asked when she saw that. Matt opened the bottle and took a deep gulp. He spluttered some of the stuff on his torn-up uniform, but he didn't care about that right now. When he lowered the bottle, he grimaced and enjoyed the burning sensation in the back of his throat.
"I...*agh*...I had to look after Jim for years, remember?" he told her. "He tried to hide his booze all over the ship. Hehe, always thought that I wouldn't find his hidden stashes." He took another sip and then he finally calmed down. His eyes seemed somewhat empty right now and he stared at the wall on the other side of the room.
"Ask me how my day was." he suddenly told Sarah.
"Pretty shitty, I assume." she said.
"Ask me how my day was!" he repeated his demand. Sarah sighed and decided to do him the favor.
"How was your day, Matt?"
"Oh, thank you for asking, Sarah." he mocked her with an over-the-top sweet voice. "It was actually pretty good. Until I got up. You know..." he started. "...the shower was somewhat cold, but so what. It happens. But hey, there was water coming out of the showerhead, so all's good, right? Not like when Stetmann had linked the waste disposal system to the water purifiers. Whoa, now that was some crazy shit! Literally!" He sighed and tilted his head to the side. "I had scrambled eggs, but they were not so great either. Too squishy, if you know what I mean." Sarah couldn't remember the last time she had some scrambled eggs, so no, she didn't know what he meant. She couldn't even remember how they tasted. But Matt didn't seem to care about that. "...then the Treasury Department told me that I have to cut the budget again. Again! They want me to cut at least 15 percent. 15 percent, Sarah! You know what this means? I'll tell you; it means that all the plans we made so far are utter garbage!" Sarah could feel how his rage started to return. "And then we had the interview. Oh, the interview! I can't wait to read tomorrows papers!" he spat out. "Matt Horner! Most idiotic idiot of all idiots that have ever lived in this idiotic universe!" He leaned his head forward, only to slam it back against the wall. He did that several times and Sarah knew that it had to hurt.
"DamnDamnDamn!" he hissed with each hit. When he was finally done sodomizing himself, he looked up to her. "And to make my day perfect, you decided to show up! How quaint. So, Sarah...please, for old times' sake, tell me; why are you really here?"
She looked at him for a while and then she decided to cut him some slag.
"Fine." Sarah finally sighed and fell back on Jim's back. She closed her eyes and then...
"I tried to help. I really did. After Amon's death I...I thought that I should stay behind. Give you time to escape. All that power, all that knowledge, it took me some time to figure out the most basic things. And please, don't ask me what I'm capable of. You wouldn't like the answer." she told him. "I went to Ulnar and looked for clues, for knowledge. For something that would help me understand what I've become." Even though Matt didn't possess any psionic abilities, he realized that Sarah didn't really know what she was now. It was somewhat reassuring to know that. A confused Sarah Kerrigan was better than a Sarah Kerrigan who knew what she wanted to do.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked. She turned his head to the side and their eyes met.
"Does it look like that?" she shot back.
"Guess not." Matt mumbled and took another gulp. He lowered the bottle and took a deep breath. "And then? Why did you go to Aiur?" Sarah sighed and looked back at the ceiling.
"I...I guess I wanted to help. Undo some of the damage I've done and-"
"PFFFFFRRRR!" Now it was Matt's turn to splutter some liquid all over the room. Sarah frowned and looked back at him, but first, he had to cough out all that liquor inside his throat. And then-
"Hahahaha!" he started to laugh again. It sounded like he was truly amused.
"I fail to see what's so funny about that." Sarah snarled.
"Hahaha...oh, I bet you can't see that. Okay, let me tell you what's so damn funny..." Matt said. "You're funny. Ha! Sarah Kerrigan trying to help people! Now that is truly a good joke!" Sarah jumped back on her feet and suddenly she truly thought about smashing Matt so many times against the wall that even she wouldn't be able to put him back together again.
No, that isn't you. You don't want to hurt. her own voice spoke to her, and Sarah started to wish that this voice would leave her alone. She looked down at Matt, who took another deep gulp. She could sense how the alcohol started to affect his mind again.
"They never trusted me. To them I'll always be nothing but a threat." she whispered. But instead of fading away, she heard that familiar voice inside her mind again.
They don't know you. They never did. the voice answered. People will always be people. You can't change the way they are. Even though she knew that it was just a voice inside her fractured mind, she felt like it deserved to get an answer from her.
"If people never change, then what's the point in helping them? Hmm?" she whispered again.
You can't choose what you are...the voice then told her. ...but you can choose what kind of person you want to be. And you're better than that. I know that.
Better than that, huh? No one had ever said something like this about Sarah Kerrigan. No one, except Jim. Sarah watched how Matt continued to down ungodly amounts of alcohol. As she watched him, she felt something new, something she hadn't felt before. She felt sympathy. This Matt Horner right in front of her wasn't the flawless boy-scout she once had known. He was a tired man who reeked of alcohol and was close to a mental breakdown. Watching him like this, it made her wonder if she even wanted a "normal" human life.
"Whadda'ya know of us, Sarah." she finally heard him mumbling. His voice was slurred and it was impressive to see how fast he had managed to get himself drunk again. "...whadda'ya know of any of us." He had to hiccup and then he giggled. "You never cared for any human. So why should you care for Protoss all of the sudden? Oh, I wish I could have seen it! Watching how Artanis kicked your ass..." Sarah opened her mouth and wanted to say something like: "Actually, I kinda wrecked the Golden Armada with a mere thought." However, she decided to say nothing.
"Your whole life...is nothing but death and destruction. Nothing you ever did was for the sake of others. You're a bringer of death, Sarah Kerrigan. You never believed in something bigger than yourself." She could sense how Matt meant every single word he threw at her. But she didn't react like usually. She didn't hurl him around and she didn't yell at him. Instead, she knelt down right in front of him and looked him straight into the eyes.
"I never believed in something bigger than myself, huh?" she asked him before she shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I guess that's true. But since no one ever believed in me-"
"Jim believed in you." Matt then said with an empty look on his face. "And look what you've done to him." His eyes wandered up and when he looked at her, she could see his pain and despair.
"Jim's dying, you know?"
Sarah didn't say a word. She didn't react either. All she did was to listen to him ranting. Matt turned his head to the side and closed his eyes. "Ever since you left...it's like something has changed inside of him. It's like he lost the will to live. I tried...I tried to be the friend he needs." His eyes turned watery and she could see how he fought the tears back. "I don't know what else I can do to help him. To see him like this, it hurts. Not that you would know what it's like. To see someone you truly care about just withering away. Must be nice to be a cold-hearted bitch..." The alcohol helped him to say all the things he would have never told her under normal circumstances.
Sarah looked at him for some time. His eyelids started to flutter and she sensed how tiredness started to affect him. It had been a rough day after all.
"The world..." he whispered. "...would be better off without you, Sarah..."
Just mere seconds before he slipped into unconsciousness, Sarah leaned forward. Her lips were just mere centimeters away from his ear.
"You don't know me." she whispered to him. An exhausted frown appeared on his forehead, but he was too tired to reply anything. "You never did, Matt. You're just like all the others. And I don't owe you a thing." It appeared as if he wanted to reply something, but then his head simply fell to the side. Sarah watched Matt for quite a long time before she finally decided to stand back up. She then turned around and walked towards the door. Suddenly she stopped and thought about erasing his memories. However, when she saw the drunken, sleeping Admiral in his torn uniform, she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time.
Pity.
"Don't worry about Jim, Matt." she then said. "I now know what I have to do." Then she left the room for good.
"...and then the female puts her sploart into the males kavis and they both share their romala by using their foliks, but only if the female is kuvnar and the male is harvv." Karax explained the last details of how Protoss "did it". Brent, who took another sip from his glass, nodded when he heard that.
"Sounds trippy. But what if the the female is kuvnar and the male isn't harvv?" he wanted to know. Karax tipped with his finger on his chin when he heard that question.
"Well, in older times it was considered a somewhat shameful thing and you would not speak about it. However, only if the two were from the same clan."
"And if not?" Brent asked.
"Then it usually led to war" Karax said.
"Ah. So basically like prom night gone wrong. Yeah, I know what'cha talking about." Brent mused. Karax sighed and dropped his shoulders.
"Still, I wish I could have witnessed it with my own two eyes. Watching humans mate would be highly interesting!"
"Meh, if you have seen it once, you have seen it all." Brent told him.
"But I have not seen even one!" Karax complained. He and Brent were sitting at a table inside the canteen. They had switched tables so Brent's little imaginary guests would have enough room. He looked at the bottle in front of him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure out how much was left inside.
"I cannot help but think that this is a missed opportunity! I want to learn new things! It is somewhat frustrating to see such an opportunity just pass without being able to do something!" the Phasesmith complained. He held a glass full of liquor in his huge hands, but he hadn't touched his drink ever since Brent had started to down more of that stuff. Though without a mouth it was somewhat problematic to drink something. However, Brent knew better than to argue with an alcohol-induced hallucination. Especially if the other hallucination next to him looked so sexy.
"I always wondered..." Brent mumbled while looking over to Izsha. "...how do Zerg make little babies?" Izsha, who couldn't hide her uneasiness, tilted her head to the side. She felt a great deal of hesitation towards answering his question, but her Queen had told her to "be nice to the humans". Sometimes she missed the old days where she could have just ordered an infestor to do its job.
"Zerg larvae are generated inside hives. The Swarm dictates what they will become. Once the decision is made, they-"
"BOOOORING!" Brent interrupted her. "Not the hive! I know you got these Queens! These...breeder queens, these..."
"If you're referring to the Broodmothers, then yes; The Swarm is led by these-"
"Yes! Broodmothers! And they make the babies, right? So, you got any males? And do all the Broodmothers look like you? All tall and dark and pretty? You don't happen to be one of them broodmothers by any chance?" Brent leaned forward and looked at Izsha as if he wanted something from her.
"No, as a matter of fact, they do not look like me. I am a special kind of breed, one of a kind."
"Oh yes, you definitely are." Brent cooed. This was highly unnerving. She was used to humans being freaked out and openly hostile towards the Zerg. But this male Terran...
"Forgive me this question..." Izsha asked. "...but do you suffer from extensive brain-damage?" Suddenly Karax's eyes widened when he heard that.
"Oh! If so, can I take a look at your brain? I have never seen a human brain before! If you could remove it, I could study it. I will return it to you once I am done, I promise!" But Brent decided to ignore that comment. He was pretty certain that he still needed his brain.
"So, beautiful..." he instead said to Izsha. "...how do you make little babies? Eggs? Eggbabies?" Izsha sighed. She would never disobey her Queen's orders, but right now she felt the urge to put as much space between her and this man as possible.
"If you want to know how Broodmothers are able to propagate; they carry a copy of all the different DNA-strains used by the Swarm inside their bodies and are able to produce eggs that can morph into various different Zerg-organisms."
"Yeah, but what about your males?" Brent wanted to know. "You know. Nuki-nuki-time and such." Izsha had no idea what "nuki-nuki-time" meant, and she was certain that she didn't want to know.
"We do not have any "males". Zerg are genderless or possess a matriarchal line. If a Broodmother lays eggs, they receive nutrients from the surrounding creep. If no creep is available, the Broodmother may lay her eggs into another organism who will provide nutrients until the Zerg is ready to hatch." Instead of being appalled by that, Brent only showed her a goofy smile.
"You could lay your eggs inside me anytime, strange yet beautiful snake-lady." he mumbled.
"As I told you before, I am not a snake-lady!" Izsha insisted. But Brent wasn't even listening. This hallucination was so awesome!
"Oh, what a dreadful day!" Karax moaned. "What a missed opportunity! The things I could have learned! All I know about human mating habits is strictly theoretical!" He looked over to Brent. "I do not suppose there is another male Terran nearby who would be willing to mate with you?" he asked with a pleading tone in his voice. Suddenly this hallucination wasn't so great anymore.
"Hey, I am a male!" Brent protested. Karax blinked in surprise when he heard that.
"You are? Oh, forgive me. You Terrans all look some strange and alien to me. I just assumed you were female because you are rather...skinny."
"And now things just became awkward." Brent groaned. "What would a Protoss know about Terran mating-habits anyway?" he asked with a sour tone in his voice.
"A lot actually. We studied the Terran physiology when we first encountered your species many years ago. Thanks to our advanced technology, we were even able to hide probes inside the bodies of humans. But do not be alarmed, we did not cause any harm. We only picked humans who were sleeping and warped them on our vessels. Human bodies have a lot of room to spare, so they did not find the probes nor did they bother them." Brent knew that he wouldn't like the answer, but he just had to ask.
"Where did you hide those probes?"
"Most of the times in a lower orifice between their legs." Karax then said. Brent pulled his brows up when he heard that.
"You put it in their butts?"
"What is a butt?" Karax asked, but Brent just shook his head.
"Forget it! So, what did you learn about human "mating habits" by probing people's butts?" Oh God, this was wrong on so many levels. However, at the same time so very amusing! Maybe this was just a hallucination. Yet even then Brent realized that he should probably go and see a psychiatrist.
"It is actually a rather fascinating process! Since humans are a two-gendered species, there are both males and females. During sexual intercourse, the male sperm infiltrates the female ovum and they merge, creating a new lifeform. Then the fertilized ovum will-"
"WHOA WHOA WHOA!" Brent interrupted Karax. "Where did you get that stuff from?" he asked with a sour tone in his voice. Karax seemed completely confused at Brent's sudden outburst.
"But...uhm...our data showed it and-"
"Yeah, but that's data you gathered from people's butts!" Brent shot back. "That's not how we roll." Since this was just a hallucination, he decided to have some fun. "First thing; We are not a two-gendered species. We actually have three genders!" He raised his hand and showed Karax three fingers.
"We got men, we got women, and we got jackasses!"
"Pardon me?" Karax asked. He had never heard that term before.
"S'Simple, Kajak!" Brent then said.
"The name is Karax." the Phasesmith corrected him.
"Whatever. So, this is how it really works. Men, we do have a unique organ. One that women don't have. It's called a "wallet". Before a man meets a woman, that wallet is usually pretty big. Roughly triple the size of a human liver. Now, women, they smell if a man has a big, fat and juicy wallet. And they will try to make his dragon fly."
"Dragon fly?" Karax asked.
"You know;" Brent said to him. "Choke his lizard."
"But Terrans are mammals, not reptilians." Karax told him, to which Brent sighed.
"Not that. You know, squeeze his little John. Show him the other side. Do the hustle!" But Karax had no idea what Brent was talking about. Sadly enough; neither did Brent. He was just repeating what the other guys at the academy had used to describe it.
"I have literally no idea what you are trying to tell me, Captain Brent." Karax then said.
"Nuh, so much for my hallucinations entertaining me." Brent mumbled. "Guess it's time for another round." He then pulled another bottle up from below the table and refilled his glass. This ship truly was made out of nothing but steel, cables, and bottles. He downed another couple of shots before he looked at Karax.
"Now ya' lissstens, you big, gray and cuddly bear with leather for skin..." he gargled. "...it's all in the wallet. Once the female finds it, she sucks...hehehe...I said "suck"...she sucks it empty and basically all she leaves behind is an empty and dead hu...hu...husssskkk..." Suddenly tears started to stream down his face. "Oh Tiffany, why did you leave me?!" Karax, who was completely overwhelmed by Brent's sudden outburst, looked over to Izsha.
"Is what he says truly correct?" he wanted to know. However, Izsha had no memories from the time where she had been human. She tried to remember what she had learned about humans from Abathur and the Queen of Blades.
"It sounds about right." she then simply said. Now Karax's eyes widened in shock and surprise.
"But it means that all our knowledge was incorrect! Oh, I need to write this down! This changes everything! Please excuse me, Lady Izsha, but I need to learn more about this topic!" he announced, stood up and just ran out of the room. Before Izsha could even react, he was already gone. This wasn't good! She was supposed to look after this Protoss. Next to her, Brent refilled his glass and downed another load. Suddenly he froze and for a few seconds, it looked like he had turned into a statue. He stopped crying and had to hiccup. Then his head simply smashed onto the table. Izsha's head jerked back and she had no idea what was going on anymore. She tilted her head to the side and wondered if he had finally succumbed to fatigue. That's when suddenly Brent's head shot back up in the air.
"'S fine! Was just testing the integrity of the table!" he shouted. He blinked a few times before he looked up to Izsha.
"Whoa...big snake-lady. Kinda hot if you ask me." he then said. Was this Terran broken?
"For the last time: I am not a-"
"Izsha!" her Queen's voice suddenly reached her. She turned around and bowed her head.
"My Queen! You have come to save me!" she said with a relieved tone in her voice. When Sarah entered the canteen, she looked at Izsha, then at Brent and then at Izsha again.
"What the hell are you...no. Nevermind. I don't want to know. Come, we have to go. There's something that needs to be done." With that said, Sarah turned around and was about to leave the room. Izsha sighed in relief and prepared to leave as well. That was when Brent suddenly grabbed her hand and looked up at her.
"Can I have your number, dark beauty?" Brent cooed.
"Has the whole universe gone mad while I was gone?!" Sarah shouted when she heard that. She turned around and snapped her fingers. In an instant, Brent's higher brain functions went offline and his head smashed into the table once again. This time he stayed down. Izsha looked down at the young Terran, still unsure what he had even meant by that. However, it hardly mattered. Her Queen needed her, that was all she cared for. Without wasting another second, she followed Sarah.
She had no idea where they would go next, but Izsha didn't care about these kinds of details. As long as it was far, far away from this Terran male.
Unfortunately, they didn't go to another planet right away. Instead, Sarah stopped at a nearby looking glass. Outside you could see a planet. It wasn't very pretty, most of its surface was covered with deserts and dead plains. You could actually see the craters where the nukes had detonated. Korhal had definitely seen better days, and the planet had never truly been able to recover after the old Confederacy had decided to give the inhabitants a "show of force". But there were still billions of people down there.
It was a brown, dark and gritty world, ravaged by man's wars and filled with those who lacked the strength to fight for themselves. An icy shiver ran down Sarah's spine. From the distance, Korhal reminded her of Tarsonis. And Tarsonis reminded her of...
"My Queen? Is everything alright?" Izsha asked. Sarah's head jerked up and she looked over her shoulder.
"Yeah. Yeah, everything is fine. I just need a second to gather my thoughts." Ha! That was a good one.
Matt's words still haunted her, and even though she tried her best to ignore them, it was just not possible to do so.
Sarah Kerrigan trying to help people! Now that is truly a good joke! his words echoed through her mind.
Your whole life is nothing but death and destruction. Nothing you ever did was for the sake of others. You're a bringer of death, Sarah Kerrigan. You never believed in something bigger than yourself.
The world would be better off without you, Sarah...
She clenched her hands into fists.
Better off without me, huh? Perhaps Matt had a point. No matter which direction she turned to, there was no place where she could go. And wasn't this the most important thing? Having a home? Having a place where people would wait for you? Sarah had no place where she could go. She only had Izsha. And the only other person that she cared for was...
"Get ready, Izsha." she then said.
"Where are we going, my Queen?" Izsha asked.
"Korhal. We're going to Korhal. There's someone I need to see. Someone I have to talk to." She didn't want to say his name, but she knew that she had to do this. She had tried to avoid this whole situation for far too long. But now that he was so close...
"You are going to see the Terran James Raynor." Sarah's eyes widened in surprise and she looked up to Izsha.
"How did you know?" she whispered and Izsha lowered her gaze.
"I can feel your troubled mind, my Queen. I can sense his presence as well. You have stated that he means something to you. I might not understand the nature of your relationship, but I see that it causes you much distress. Will seeing this man ease your mind, my Queen?" her companion wanted to know. Sarah opened her mouth and wanted to say "Yes!". But then she lowered her gaze as well.
"I don't know. But I owe him an apology. I hope it will set him free. Both of us." She had tried to remove Jim from her mind on Ulnar. But perhaps it had to be the other way around. In order to be free, she had to set him free first.
"In that case..." Izsha said with a soft voice. "...we should go and see this Terran." Sarah wanted to reply something. But just then she realized how far Izsha had come. And how much she cherished her advisor's companionship. So, all she did was to nod.
"Yeah...let's go." she whispered. And then they were gone.
Rory Swann was drunk, he knew that. However, it didn't stop him to work on this highly advanced and very dangerous FTL-drive. He had no time to sober up, he had to fix this thing in order to get the Hyperion out of here. All thoughts about Matt being a dirty and rotten bastard were gone. Well, most of them were gone. He still thought that Matt had turned into an arrogant and spineless coward, but it didn't matter anymore.
Because he got the Hyperion back!
Oh, baby, he had so many ideas!
Only thing he had to do was to fix this coupling and-
"Greetings! My name is Karax! Would you like to shake my hand?" he suddenly heard a strange voice. Swann's upper body was deep inside the entrails of the FTL-drive, so he had no idea who that "Karax"-guy was. Probably one of those useless technicians that worked on this station. These kids truly didn't know anything about how to fix a battlecruiser.
"Sorry, bud. But I'm somewhat busy over here. You're one of those tech-kiddies?" Swann wanted to know.
"Tech-kiddies?" Karax asked confused.
"Technician! Are you one of the station's technicians? Jeez!" Swann groaned.
"Well, I am a Phasesmith, and therefore you could consider me a kind of technician. However-"
"YaddaYaddaYadda. Don't need your life's story. You're here to help? Then get a wrench and start diggin', cause this baby ain't gonna repair itself."
"Working? On this...antique? Oh, how fascinating! I will start right away!" Swann could hear some heavy footsteps. Like, really heavy footsteps.
"Yeah, yeah. If you want to make yourself useful, go check the underside of the engine. And don't screw it up!"
"Right away! Oh, this will be so fascinating!" Karax announced and was gone before Swann could say anything else. When he finally did, the "technician" was already gone.
"Hey! How dare you to call the Hyperion an antique!"
