Carth:
"Are you telling me she's been like this for a while?" Zelka Forn demanded. His dark eyes glared holes into me. Now I was a monster. Why didn't I just take Rian to a doctor like I had wanted to?
"I didn't want to move her." I protested.
"We don't have time for this nonsense. Hold her head still while I inject her with this."
Zelka pulled a syringe from a cabinet and gave it a critical eye as he flicked the needle with a finger. I placed a hand on either side of Rian's head and held it firmly against her knees. A muffled whimper escaped her as Zelka inserted the needle into her flesh.
"Shush, you big baby." I whispered.
Zelka began cutting all the stitches that I so painstakingly put in place out. Once the wound was reopened, he scrubbed it fiercely with soap and water.
"Telos? Why Telos?" Rian giggled, delirious.
I jerked upright, with a start. What did Rian know about Telos? Could she have somehow figured out that it was my home planet?
"What about Telos?" I asked.
"Worthless…pathetic rock…" Rian's words fell into gibberish. Damn it, if I had to shake answers out of her, I would.
"She's barely conscious and babbling because of the anesthetic." Zelka explained, his fingers deftly applying kolto to her wound.
The doctor's commentary was the least of my concerns. Who was this woman? Lean, wiry muscle pulsed beneath her golden brown flesh. She wasn't soft, hell she had taken on two street thugs with the zeal of a Mandalorian.
Rian Vega, age 26, specifically requested for transfer by Bastila Shan…
"It looks like this was getting infected and she has a very high fever, if that's all then she should be okay." Zelka kept his face down in his work.
Why had Rian been transferred? One person can't be so important in the scheme of things. Well, Bastila Shan, sure, but not someone like Carth Onasi. So what made Rian Vega important enough for Bastila to want by her side? And what did she know about Telos?
"She got clobbered in the head real hard." Zelka snorted. "The back of the head, where that nasty gash is, is where the cerebellum among other things is located. Fortunately, that part of the brain only controls motor skills, so the more important things should be fine. But if you see her stumbling around or complaining of double vision, bring her back."
I nodded absently. There was something about Rian that made me feel so at ease, I didn't like it. It was probably those eyes of hers. Deep pools of violet a man could get ensnared by and drown in. She had pulled that little trick on me in the cantina earlier. I think after that encounter, I'd have the strength to shrug off a Sith interrogation. But, I couldn't let my guard down, not on a strange planet, not for the Jedi, not for Rian Vega, not for myself.
"I'm all done with your head." Zelka told Rian. I released her head and she sat up abruptly.
Rian swayed and I caught her with my arm. She blinked and there was a certain vulnerability that played across her face. I think that's what it was, that despite the hard bone, muscle and sinew that was Rian Vega, there was something inside that wasn't as tough as she would have liked.
One of these days I would understand her. I only hoped that I managed it without ending up with a poison-tipped dagger in my spine.
