Nelkf hit the cell wall hard. In front of her she could just make out a fuzzy white blob shutting the door. She hoped she hadn't gotten her vision permanently damaged in that little...scuffle. She reached up to rub her aching skull. She could feel blood, and it made her curse out loud. What harm could it do?
To her left, in the shadows, some one spoke. "Yeah, you'll be bleeding a bit. At this point you should be grateful they left you blood to bleed with."
Nelkf dragged herself to her feet. So that was what they had done. They had taken blood samples. Damn, damn, double damn! No wonder she was dizzy. She steadied herself with her tail, scanning the dimly lit room with her glowing green eyes. That made her angry. "How would you know?" she snarled at the being. She was unable to see past the loss of blood.
"Because when you've been here a year," one shadow began to leave the others behind, "you get to know the routines. And believe me Xeno, that's no tromp through the botanical gardens of Coruscant."
Nelkf began to grin. Her cellmate was a Human. All that pushing around... the crash.... The capture.... She was just itching to take it out on someone.
She tried to jump, but the blood tests had made her weak, and she fell. She snarled angrily and swung her tail, but the Human simply stepped out of range. He knelt beside her, and she turned her head to bite him.
"Whoa! Take it easy!" he exclaimed, leaping back.
"Get away from me!"
"It's okay, I only want to help. Why do you want to kill me? We only just met. This isn't the best way to start off a friendship."
"Sklinths hate Humans," she snarled, curling back her upper lip and letting out an animal growl.
"Sorry to hear it. Is that what you are?" the Human cocked his head as if he really wanted to help Nelkf.
"Don't forget it, bastard. Now get the Sith away from me before I get mad!"
"You're in a good mood now?" the Human shook his head and laughed. He had brown hair, a slightly darker shade then Nelkf's, but still a nice color. "You know, we Humans aren't all that bad."
She growled and backed away from him, daring him to get any closer. "Any species that dictates what so much of the Galaxy should say and do and think can't be good. That's what I think of you and your little governments."
The Human rolled his eyes partially. "Yeah, well, nice to meet you too. I'm Jax. Actually, my real name is Aarx Jaklen, but I hate it."
"Nelkf Karlian's the name," Nelkf snarled, "For all the good it will do you. You wouldn't know what it means."
"Well, anyway Nelkf-"
"Karlian!" she snapped.
Jax chose to ignore her insistence. "Would you maybe like to get off the floor now?" he extended a hand to help her up.
She glared at it like it was a rabid draagax.
The Human Jax laughed again. "Come on. It's only a hand. It doesn't have fangs."
She carefully let him help her up. One eye was trained suspiciously on him at all times. He smiled when she stood across from him. For a Sklinth, Nelkf was very plain looking, but she guessed the Human found her attractive. Strangely, she did not feel the burning disgust she knew she should.
"So, anyway, why are you here? A nice alien like you doesn't just land in Imperial hands and get thrown in here for no reason," Jax smiled.
Oh, please, Nelkf thought. "That is something I would rather not talk about. All I will say is I flew an Y-wing that crashed here. They have a little grudge against me, those Imps," she looked at him suspiciously for the millionth time. "What about you?"
"Ah," Jax smiled like it was a badge of honor and he was being asked how he earned it. "Let's just say I was a little careless on my last shipment."
Wonderful. I'm stuck in an Imperial hotbed with a Human smuggler. What else can go wrong? Suddenly, Nelkf felt dizzier, and had to sit down or risk humiliating herself with a faint. Something told her she was not simply suffering from blood loss.
Jax apparently noticed. "Got their attention, you did. They gave you this truth serum stuff. They call it TYNAX. I call it a scientific hangover."
Nelkf swore mentally. Not only did they now know everything about her, but they also knew she was.......
No, no, those days were dead. She wasn't that... that....person anymore. That person was dead. She tried to distract herself with other thoughts.
Hmmm. There was a curios thought. She knew a lot about truth serums. She had purposefully developed immunities to all of the New Republic ones. She had secrets in her past that she wanted no one else to know.
So, this was a new one. But that would mean it would have to have been developed here, on this world. But what were they doing developing truth serums in an Imperial prison? She tried to get more information from the smuggler. Knowledge was power. "TYNAX. That's a new creation, isn't it?"
"I suppose to you it would be," he said with a grin. Nelkf hardly noticed.
"So why are they developing truth serums here?" she said with hardly a tint of gratitude in her voice.
The Human paced the cell. He didn't seem worried, simply bored. "I've got news for you Nelkf," for a second time he ignored her wishes not to be called by her first name. "This isn't just a prison. It's a testing lab. And you and me, we're the test subjects."
"Sounds like the double crossing bigots," she snarled.
"Yeah, Imps decided a ways back that animals aren't as good for testing as Humans," he glanced at her, showing he was not thinking only of his race. "Or other races."
Ally, a small voice in the back of her head suggested. It sounded just fine to Nelkf. She couldn't stay here. She may as well take someone with her while she escaped. If for nothing else, she could use the smuggler as a decoy to lure the Imperials away from her scent. "So the fools built this as a prison and furnished it as a lab," she shook her head, forcing a smile, but keeping her cold glare trained on the Human, lest he try something funny. "I have to hand it to the bastards. Sometimes they seem almost sentient."
The Human nodded back, aware that she was still insulting his race. "Yeah, every once in a while those Imps think of something good. Not often, but it happens."
Something told Nelkf to switch the subject. It was getting dangerously close to home. "So, what were you smuggling when you got caught?"
"Oh, you know. Anything I can. Contraband, mostly."
"I'm guessing it was some sort of drug," Nelkf growled. "How you Humans take advantage of other species' weaknesses is staggering."
Jax skillfully pulled them back on topic. "Well, anyhow, I was passing through this area to avoid difficulties, and out of no-where comes this Star Destroyer and knocks me down. I killed a few stormies on my way in. I don't think they liked that. I don't see why."
Finally! Some sense in this guy! "Welcome to the club Jax. I left a nice impression on a few stormtroopers myself before they got me. I've had quite a bit of vibrodagger training, and it was fun to use the old skills."
"You know Nelkf," this time she let the Human use her first name. He smiled. "I think you and I are going to get to be good pals."
She sniffed, but smiled tauntingly. "Don't count on it."
"You might just be interested in what I have to say about their little toys and stuff. It's important to get an idea of what they're going to do to you."
"Agreed. With these new truth serums-"
"Like TYNAX," Jax interrupted.
She glared warningly at him and continued. Her old training begged her to kill him, but she ignored it. "-it will be important to know what they have to throw at me."
The smuggler shrugged. "Most everyone does, unless they want to wind up as lab meat."
Nelkf gave him a knowing stare. She knew what knowledge meant. It was all the difference between life and death to someone like her.
