Chapter 27: Tav Mi'zya

Thellus Asteroid, Dressel System

"I am awesome," Tav growled, staring at his sexy hulking reflection in the mirror. His golden-speckled amber eyes blinked back at him. His fur danced excitedly.

Then suddenly, two other figures appeared in the reflection behind him. They were distorted and a difficult to make out, but Tav remembered the smell. His reflection's eyes narrowed; his fur stood on end.

"WAIT!" Tav yelped, his fur swirling nervously.

His reflection bit the two faint figures, snarling and roaring like an animal.

"Noooo!" Tav snarled. "STOP IT!"

The reflection continued nipping the figures, biting them with a feral grin.

Tears formed in Tav's eyes. "I am a monster," he croaked despondently.

"No," his reflection snarled, standing up, flashing his white teeth.

"I'm… I'm not?" Tav growled.

"You are afraid. Monsters are not afraid," his refection snarled, narrowing his speckled eyes at him.

His snout fell open. His fur fell flat.

Emerging from the mirror, Tav's snarling reflection tackled him.

Tav yelped in terror. His wrist was suddenly caught in his reflection's snout. His reflection was viciously biting it, squeezing harder and harder. Tav continued yelping, struggling to pull his hand from his reflection's snout. "PLEASE!" he yelped desperately, pleading with his reflection. "I give up! Don't hurt me!"

Then Tav heard a clanging noise. His reflection was gone, and he was in a bright room.

"Huh," Tav muttered, realising the clanging noise and pain was his hand. He was tugging on his hand, which was handcuffed to a durasteel hospital bed. With each tug, it hurt his wrist and the chain clanged loudly. [I… uh… what's going on?] he mumbled in Bothese. His mouth was completely dry.

A cop sitting on a plastic chair lowered his datapad. "Doc! Tav Mi'zya's awake!"

"I… what?" Tav croaked, this time in Basic.

An Askar Bothan with dark brown fur entered the room holding a chart and a light. "Tav? My name is doctor Pavew. You are in the New Aroo Hospital. Do you remember why you are here?"

"No," Tav growled. Then his pupils dilated. "Shtak. Holy kriffing shtak!" he yelped, tears in his eyes. His fur fell flat.

"I take it as a 'yes' then," the doctor said. "Tav, I need you to relax," the doctor said consolingly. "Now Tav, are you going to hurt me? Can I step closer?"

"No," Tav sobbed. "I won't hurt you. I am sorry. Can I have a water?"

"You should put a kriffing muzzle on him," the cop suggested.

"Sasha? Can you get the patient a water?" Pavew asked into the hall, then stepped closer. "All right Tav, I need you to relax and look straight ahead," he said, shining a light onto his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Tav stammered, his fur swirling with guilt. "Are they all right? The cops I bit."

"Yeah," Pavew answered distractedly, continuing to shine the light. "They are all right. Both needed stitches. Neither of them slipped into a coma."

"A coma!" Tav yelped. "How? How long have I been out?"

"Three days," Pavew said consolingly, putting a hand on Tav's shoulder. "Not that long in the grand scheme of things."

A human female entered the room holding a paper cup of water.

"Thank you," Tav growled, taking the cup from her. He desperately drank the water in one gulp. "How though?" he gasped.

"You know dehydration can cause brain swelling right?" Pavew asked.

"No," Tav growled.

"Well, it can," Pavew said with a smirk. "You activated your adrenal implant with a blood alcohol content of .34, suffered from severe dehydration, and slipped into a coma. It probably caused some permanent brain damage, so we will be testing your cognition in a bit," he explained, then turned to Sasha. "Could you tell Nezir Tav is awake?"

"Nezir…" Tav growled. "What?"

o-o-o

"Pam Tav!" [Oh Tav!] Nezir yipped, rushing into the room and hugging him.

Tav hugged her back with one hand, tears in his eyes. Holy shtak! My family are visiting me after what I did. His fur continued swirling with guilt. "Pam Nezir, nokiz—" [Nezir, I didn't—]

—"Pam shar!" [Dad!] yipped Glazir and Ralosk, Tav's children. Glazir, age eight, had blonde fur much like Tav, while Ralosk, age fourteen, had shiny grey fur, almost between Tav's shiny blonde and Nezir's jet-black fur.

He yelped as Glazir hopped onto the bed excitedly. Her knee sank into a bruise.

[Hey! Off the bed!] Pavew snarled.

[Be gentle with daddy,] Nezir growled sternly. [He is hurt,] she added, wincing as she touched a Bothan jaw-sized cluster of stitches on his ear.

[It's… I love you all,] Tav sobbed, batting his ear reflexively. [I don't understand though. How are you here?]

[We flew here from Bothawui.]

[But the kids… school?!]

[You were in a coma Tav. This is serious. We needed to be here for you,] Nezir explained. [Research shows that coma patients wake up faster if relatives are nearby. Did you dream about us Tav? I knew you would dream about us!]

Tav remembered his horrible dream about his own reflection. [I don't remember,] he groaned, his fur twitched once with guilt.

[Why do you have a handcuff dad?] Ralosk growled sternly.

Tav sighed despondently, laying his head back against the pillow.

[Daddy has been naughty again,] Nezir sighed. [Is this really necessary?] she asked the cop while tugging on the chain to the bed.

[If it were up to me, he would be wearing a muzzle,] the cop muttered sternly.

[It's okay Tav,] Nezir said consolingly. [San Ti says you will probably just get a few months in prison, maybe six months, a demotion, and some rehab. A year at most.]

San Ti'trek was a lawyer in the Bothawui Navy, a friend of Tav's.

[A demotion… prison?] Tav croaked. His fur began swirling nervously. [For being an alcoholic?]

[No, Tav] Nezir growled, narrowing her eyes as an angry scowl formed on her snout. [For the other things you did.]

[What other things did dad do?] Ralosk growled curiously.

Tears formed in Tav's eyes. I hope they aren't hurt too badly. I need to apologise.

[Will grandma be mad at daddy?] Glazir asked, blinking her dark-red eyes.

[Well… uh…] Nezir started. [Grandma is already mad at daddy right now. Don't worry though, Glazir, I won't let her hurt daddy.]

Tav exhaled in a long whistle. Admiral Gyar'trek knows.

o-o-o

After passing a cognition test, Tav was put in an orange jumpsuit and promptly whisked away from the hospital.

"Can't I just spend another night at the hospital?" Tav whined, holding his handcuffed hands up in the backseat of the police speeder.

"Uh, no," the cop driving the speeder said.

"Look on the bright side, Colonel," the cop in the passenger seat chuckled, "at least this will count as one night served."

"Oh yeah," Tav snarled angrily. "Good to know. A night in an Askar prison by myself counts towards a night in a nice Bothawui prison when my family flew all the way here to see me. All alone!"

"You won't be alone," the driver guffawed, laughing uncontrollably.

o-o-o

"KLAYER!" Tav yelped. "What's going on?"

"They gave us one holocall," Klayer snarled. "Mayer and Gavrisk called their parents. Malazor called her Clan. Grafisk and I… sir can you guess who we called?"

"Me," Tav sighed, stepping into the cell. Once inside, he stuck his hands out to allow the jailer to uncuff him.

"Yes sir. We called you. Did you answer? No," Grafisk snarled.

"I am sorry Sergeant," Tav croaked. "I let all of you down."

"At least you look damn good in orange," Klayer muttered. "Look at me!" she waved her orange sleeve around, contrasting with her swirly rusty red and white fur. "I look like a kriffing clown!"