He surged out of the water of the docking bay, staggering under the weight of the enviro-suit and his burden. He kicked off the booster pack, throwing himself off balance, and half-fell against the sub.
Without the added weight, he managed to use the sub as leverage to hoist them out of the water and onto the dock.
She was terribly still. He couldn't see her face through the polarized faceplate, and his heart contracted as he struggled with the fastenings of her helmet. Jolee pushed him away, using expertise and ungloved fingers to work on the clips.
Carth fumbled with his own helmet, dropping it without a second thought as he stripped off his gloves and shrugged off the heavy suit.
Her helmet's seals broke and Jolee lifted it off, her hair, matted with dirt and sweat, tumbling free. Carth went down on his knees next to her, cradling her head as the Jedi unsealed her suit and checked her vitals.
"C'mon, sweetheart, it's not your time," Carth said under his breath, searching her face. She had a nasty gash over her left eye. Her eyes were closed, her lips blue, and again his heart wrenched. There was panic in his eyes when he looked across her body at Jolee.
"It's been too long," he said, his voice cold, and the guilt tore through him like flame. If he hadn't given in to his loneliness, she wouldn't have had the chance to go out there, and she would still be alive. His fault, he thought, his.
It had taken him too long to make it through the tunnels, too long to get into the second suit, too long to find her. Even with the booster, he hadn't been in time.
"It takes more than a few minutes without air to kill a Jedi," Jolee snapped curtly. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he seemed to relax.
The hair on Carth's arms and neck stood up as he felt the tingling along his skin, like a near miss by a blaster bolt.
For a long moment nothing happened, and the guilt washed over him again. Abruptly, her eyes flew open as her back arched, a startled gasp forced from her lungs as they began to work again and the color rapidly returned to her cheeks. Carth felt his jaw drop.
Kirre looked up at him without recognition for an instant, a cold, alien look on her face, and he almost recoiled. It was gone as quickly as it had been, and her eyes were her own again.
She didn't say anything, just looked up at him with those radiant green eyes, and then they drifted closed again.
"She'll be fine, so you can stop worrying like a mother hen," Jolee said crossly. "Any chance we can leave this fish trap now?"
***
The trip back up to the surface was slow and uneventful. Jolee had taken over the sub's controls, the rescued Republic mercenary serving as co-pilot. Carth folded himself into the back, Kirre cradled in his arms.
She slept through the ascent, and Carth found himself to be, to his disgust, relieved. As the water lightened around them, he found his old doubts returning, and he didn't like what that told him about himself.
She shifted slightly in her sleep, and he almost reached out to her, almost brushed the hair from her forehead. He let his hand drop, and he wished with all his soul that things could have been different.