(Two)
Wolverine was the first to wake. He was foggy and disoriented from Fallen's disastrous jump. Soft voices trickled into his dim awareness, Seth and Kimble were arguing from somewhere around him, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Logan groaned and wiped his eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. He was on the floor just outside the cage, he hadn't been tossed very far when they jumped. He looked inside the cage room and saw Fallen lying motionless on the floor behind her stick. It didn't look like she was breathing. He could smell burnt plastic coming from the lower level. He saw the trap door was open and took a big sniff. Burnt but not burning. Thank God for small favors.
He got to his hands and knees in a daze but paused when he saw a white figure walk briskly out of Fallen's lav with a med-kit. It was the Kimble hologram. No, wait, Logan thought to himself. That wasn't possible. The hologram was supposed to be restrained, never mind running. He blinked, squinted. No, it was real. Kimble was really there. Wolverine got up and walked on rubbery legs over to the cage. He tried to enter through the door, but a security grid lit up in the doorway and a force field blocked him.
"Security grid 6 activated," Lucky chirped helpfully.
"Hey!" Logan grumbled, frustrated.
The Kimble hologram was kneeling on the floor next to Fallen. He was shirtless and dressed only in the tight fitting black jeans. He had the med kit open and ignored Wolverine as he rummaged around inside it. His hair slid down over his shoulder and he tossed his long dangling pony tail behind him in irritation. He gently turned Fallen onto her back, being careful with her head and neck. Wolverine thought he saw a dim glow of blue light where Kimble touched her bare skin as if there was some kind of static charge between them. Kimble paused for a moment, puzzled, and looked with wonder at his hands.
When Wolverine had first seen the Kimble hologram all those days ago and recognized something different and special about him, he had been quite correct. What he couldn't possibly have known was the impact Kimble would have on all of their lives.
Kimble was in fact quite sentient and more than a little clever in his own way, but had been clueless about what to do when Fallen had overloaded the ship with her Ristle power, it had all happened too fast. Seth had been quicker, ordering Kimble about. Seth had known the overload would likely destroy the ship so he had rerouted as much of the power as he could to keep the ship from imploding as Lucky had warned. Kimble had known better than to argue with his talented brother and had done as Seth had commanded. Seth's quick thinking had worked as far as keeping the ship intact, but there was the risk that Fallen would have been injured from the backwash as the power had been routed through the ship's systems. Someone would have to get to her as soon as possible after the surge had passed and Kimble got elected. Seth had frantically activated the hologram program before the surge had burnt itself out. Being the most capable to use it, Kimble flung himself into the hologram, dragging his personal files with him, represented by the black bag. All of this had taken less than a couple of seconds.
Once Kimble was in the hologram, Seth had used an access key to unlock the last of the Siskan program codes. These codes would 'finish' the hologram and restore it to what it should have been originally. Seth had discovered the key just before they left Cerise but had been waiting to use it. He had wanted to wait for Fallen to help him with it but now she'd taken that option away from him. Seth had no choice but to try it alone. He had believed Kimble had a better chance of helping Fallen with the hologram whole and complete.
Kimble's personality had only just fully loaded itself into the hologram cube when he saw a blinding flash of light. Fallen's volatile Ristle energy overload next surged from the ship into the hologram as it had all the other ship systems, changing the chemical nature of the hologram itself and turning it into something else. The restraining cubes exploded violently from the overload, freeing Kimble from the limited area of the shop room. At the time Kimble had thought he had heard a scream from somewhere far away, he realized afterwards that it had come from himself. He had felt a kind of searing pain as a torrent of brilliant sensory data flooded his thoughts. These things had been muted before because the hologram hadn't been complete and the sharpness of his newly restored senses assaulted him now. Sight, smell, sound, touch. His mad dash from the lower level to the cage had been a blur of sensation and brightness.
Now, here in the cage room, the lights were almost too dazzling for his sensitized eyes. He could feel the vibrations of the ship through his furry bare feet on the floor. He could smell the melted plastic from the abused wiring and hear the sounds of the distressed passengers, most notably Logan who was shouting at him from a distance too close for comfort. His hands tingled with every contact of Fallen's skin. When he recognized the sensation as a pale reflection of when she powered the ship, it occurred to him that he was absorbing tiny amounts of her Ristle energy as he touched her.
When he had previously been part of the onboard operating system, he would get a taste of Fallen's Ristle power every time she rode the stick. It was a wonderful, orgasmic rush whenever she fired off a big bolt to launch or boost. He could never explain why he felt what he did and never told Fallen about it. He thought it might have something to do with the Siskan pleasure programming codes but he couldn't be sure. If Seth had felt the same thing he had never said anything about it and so Kimble had kept his little secret to himself. Now he had to try and ignore all that was happening to him from the restoration and take care of Fallen his precious Mistress.
It was in the nature of a Siskan Courtesan to care for its Master or Mistress and Kimble was no exception. His greatest difficulty at the moment was that he didn't know how much longer his current power supply was going to last or what would happen to him once it was gone. Fallen needed him now and she was his only priority.
"Okay, Seth. What now?" Kimble growled towards the screen in the Main Room, doing his best to hide the panic that was shaking his words. "What do I haves to do next?"
Seth's portion of the control room now took up the whole screen, making him appear larger than life. It revealed the full extent of his grief and anguish, he was barely able to keep from crying. "D-do a Med-scan," he answered in a quivering voice.
"Easy, kid. Let's jus' do this," Kimble said without looking up. He was terrified by the whole situation, but needed to keep Seth calm and so he gave the appearance of patient tranquility. If Seth became aware of how frightened he really was, this whole thing would only get worse. Kimble put the Med Strip on Fallen's forehead as directed and Seth began a scan.
Lucky read off the results. "Ristle energy backwash. Damage to the Neural Ristle Process. Severe trauma to the left quadrant. Shock. Bio- rhythm failure."
"Shit! What do I do now?" Kimble growled again.
"You have to do CPR," Seth answered quickly. "I'm sending you the file now."
Kimble paused as instructions on CPR both flooded his mind and came up on in a small box on the viewing screen behind him. Even though he was out in the hologram, Kimble had a kind of telepathic link with Lucky, similar to a wireless modem, that allowed information to be sent back and forth between himself and the ship. Fallen had installed this capability in the hologram when she first began to restore it and it was this that had allowed him to link up with Lucky and 'borrow' Lucky's resources to learn and store data. A file transfer was as good as learning something instantly and with his computer driven mind, Kimble would never forget it once installed. Now, as qualified as any EMT that had trained for years, he laced his hands into position and began pumping Fallen's chest, his fingers still glowing slightly from the contact with her skin. His execution of the procedure was perfect, he breathed into her mouth and pumped her chest with skill as he repeated the process. Working harder now, he began to mumble to himself angrily, "Stupid! Stupid, kid! Fuckin' quitter! No goddamn fuckin' patience!"
"Bio-rhythm resumed," Lucky chirped.
Kimble heard and sat back on his ankles, wiping his chin. He was sweating from his labor and from the rising tide of the panic he was trying to hold back. He knew how to take care of people, sure, but he had never had to rescue anyone like this. He didn't want to think about Fallen being gone, what that might mean for him and his brother. He was getting overloaded with new sensations and it was hard for him to stay focused on what he was doing it had been far too long since he'd been out with all of the hologram intact. His hands were tingling with energy and it was distracting him.
Maylee, the next passenger to get free, now joined Wolverine at the cage's edge. "Kimble? But how..?" She saw Fallen lying still. "What are you doing?"
"Bio-rhythm failure," Lucky prompted again.
"Damnit!" Kimble cursed and went back to work. Pump. Pump. Pump. Breathe. Pump. Pump. Pump. Breathe. "C'mon, Fallen, ya stupid little bitch!" He smiled angrily as he worked. "Give me a command override, will ya? I'll give you a command override - Fuckin' breathe!" he shouted into her face.
"Bio-rhythm resumed."
Fallen convulsed and inhaled deeply from her mouth in a startled gasp like a fish that had suddenly been yanked from life giving water. She coughed and moaned in pain, thrashing, her eyes open now but unfocused, seeing nothing. Kimble held her face in his hands and looked deeply into her eyes. So pale blue, so beautiful he could fall into them forever. He had always loved the look of her. "Fallen? Fallen, kin ya hears me?" She mumbled something incomprehensible. "Hey? Ya in there, girl?"
Her eyes closed.
"Bio-rhythm failure."
"Fuck!" Kimble snarled in frustration. He began pumping her chest again.
Seth cried out, he couldn't restrain himself any longer. He was helpless and trapped in the control room, in no position to help. He stood up and put his hands to the screen and sobbed, "Fallen, please! Don't you leave me! Not now!"
"Don'tcha bail on me, Seth!" Kimble hollered without looking up from his task. "You bail an' I'll go back in there an' kick yer fuckin' ass!"
"Let me in, Kimble!" Maylee demanded from outside of the cage. "Let me help her!"
"Bio-rhythm resumed."
Kimble sat back on his ankles again, his sides heaving. The Honor Sword rippled darkly against his bright white skin as he breathed, a detail that only enhanced the reality of his actually being there. He wiped his face and looked at the sweat on his hands, not quite believing it was really there for him to feel. He was real again, alive. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry, he wanted to scream. His panic and the sensory data overload was making it hard to maintain his control.
The tinny voice of the Lucky Dragon clicked on again, this time offering advice to the badly frightened hologram alone in the cage with his poor, damaged Mistress. "Bio-rhythm stabilizer, substance code: B21, recommended. Fallen. Body mass 92 pounds. Dosage12cc."
"Help me, Seth!" Kimble ordered, dismissing his mesmerizing sensory overload and dutifully turning back to the screen. "Gimmie the fuckin' file!"
"Sending!" Seth replied, gasping as he tried to control his sobbing.
Kimble turned to the open medkit and pawed through the bottles. They all had tiny labels on them with numbers. He selected the one Lucky said and grabbed a syringe. As he ripped the sanitary paper wrapping open, instructions on how to inject blinded him. He swayed unsteadily and blinked, trying to absorb it all. His poor brain was going to explode, he was sure of it. This was all so unreal and happening way too fast.
"Kimble, let me in!" Maylee repeated, angry at being left out. She was the medic after all. "Seth! Kimble won't let me in!"
She was ignored.
Kimble plunged the needle into the bottle and expertly drew out 12cc with the same skill he had while performing the CPR. In a span of mere minutes he was as good as any nurse could have been. He traced Fallen's arm, found the vein, injected. He startled visibly when Valentin slammed his fists against the cage.