Haven had turned into a large base of activity. Many frigates and even light cruisers have been making their way to the planet as of late as Vaukt sent out his defection order. Special Operations officers and soldiers of all stripes mingled in their ships. Waiting for their leader to arrive. Orenk, far off from Haven, sent out the signal to Vaukt that the planet had been secured. No turning back now.
The frigate Nukaz and the frigate sized light cruiser Conventia were the last to arrive, coming in from Krata after dropping off Commodore 'Kodoros and the Vortians at the de facto Federation capital. Vaukt was quick to get on the radio, pinging Vult's channel and waiting for a reply.
Wary of Empire traffic through the system, much of the gathering was instructed to hold on the darkside of Haven as close as they possibly could without risking being drawn in by its gravity well to its wrath in atmosphere. A growing fleet hidden by an even greater natural threat to the errant vessel or probe passerby.
The Commander, back aboard the Ghost of Irk, answered the incoming hail from the familiar frequency.
"I assume that new contact on our scanners making everyone nervous is your inbound vessel?"
"That it is. Two of us. Sko bought the frigate he had and I'm on my small, older model light cruiser. Zha's…sleeping, a lot, I'm a bit worried. Zutel's on standby to come grab her I take it?"
"Everyone has been waiting for precious cargo to arrive." Vult cryptically spoke in reference to Vaukt and his passengers. "I'll send my medical team via shuttle once your ship fall in and form up. Expect them in ten."
"Roger that. Vaukt out." The cruiser and the frigate moved into formation on the dark side of the planet with the others. Vaukt, half armored by this point, was relieved to see the shuttle come in with Zutel, Sula, and Posa stepping off.
"General, long time no see." Zutel greeted, carrying her medical equipment in a bag over her back.
"Good to see you again." He gestured for them to follow him, bringing them to the infirmary where Zha's been recovering from her experience ever since the rescue on Vort. He hardly left her side, having taken up sitting in a chair ever since they boarded, as apparent by his armor components nearby.
Zha lay immobilized in the infirmary. Anemic, dehydrated, and body bruised, battered, and broken. She was breathing, thready and shallow, but breathing unassisted. Much of the trip between Vort and Krata had been spent in a similar state of affairs minus occasionally being forced awake to eat or drink.
Sula, watching as Posa took the lead as instructed to begin assessing Zha's condition beneath her supervision, turned her attention to Vaukt.
"How long has she been like this?"
"Since Vort…before I even got there." His visage immediately turned sullen. "When I walked into her cell to rescue her she could barely lift her arms. I had to carry her out of there."
Noting the General's disposition, her hand rose to grip his shoulder consolingly. An odd, surreal sight to see such a stalwart, prideful man reduced to this. He truly did care for her and it pained him to see her suffer this way.
"She's here now in the best hands in the universe thanks to you. If she's half as stubborn as Rem was, she'll be fine." She attempted to make light of the ordeal before turning her attention back to Posa while she opened Zha's eyelids, checking for dilation and reactivity to light. "Well, Corporal? What is her condition?"
"Can see countless lacerations and contusions of varying stages of healing all over her body." She commented, pulling the neck of Zha's shirt up to peer down over her torso, shining her light inside. "Shallow breathing, sign of fractured ribs on the mend. Have to get a more in-depth look for any other fractures elsewhere."
"Concussed?"
"Yes."
Zutel moved, intending to begin treatment before Sula stopped her with an outstretched hand. Her goldenrod gaze turned back to the understudy.
"Treatment?"
"Intravenous fluids for dehydration and malnutrition, medication regime for pain management as-needed, full body scans to ensure there aren't any other unknown injuries?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?" Sula inquired, less stern and more clarification.
"Telling." Posa nodded.
"We may make a respectable nurse and then doctor out of you yet, Posa." Zutel smiled before looking at Vaukt. "Any idea what happened on Vort?"
"From what Saro told me? You know, your usual various beatings, the warden wanting to tear her antennae out, and…well, Kuru."
"Kuru? Never heard of that out of IIA before. What is it?"
"Was one of Zha's closest members of her staff. The warden and Xilch had Zha held up against the bars of her cell and…they…painted her with his brains. Point blank shot with one of the old mass driver shotguns from our inventory. Saro was bound to be next in short succession and that's…when she broke." Vaukt shoot his head.
Posa, amidst making calculations for medication delivery and preparing IVs, noted Sula's expression.
"Something wrong, Ma'am?"
Reluctantly, she looked to Vaukt, searching for the words.
"...I feel it prudent to notify you now…but we should be able to mend her physically…mentally is another story. Their objective was to break her for confession…and they succeeded. She may not be the same as she was, Sir."
He couldn't suppress tears welling or one that escaped to run down his face.
"I'll worry about that…I actually care deeply for her more than I ever thought possible for anyone. I ran headlong into a long odd situation to save her…whatever it takes, however long it takes, I have no intent on abandoning her."
"We'll do our best, General. The rest will be up to her." The Medical Officer attempted assurance. "Do any of the others require medical attention?"
"My medics were able to take care of the broken bones and everything else…most everyone else has recovered but the woman of my affections has been the most concerning and I wonder if her PAK is even compensating for it sometimes." He paused and sighed. "They executed three others outside in the prison yard in full view of her cell the day before. Then they do…that the next day. By whatever celestial beings watching over this universe, I swear I'm going to box up every single IIA officer and send them to Vylat. Make them a meal for their Alpha Queen."
"Somehow I feel you won't be alone in that task." She attempted dry humor, looking back to Zha as Posa and Zutel worked. "We'll run a diagnostics check on her PAK to be certain of any abnormalities originating from it. Dark as it is, piecing Rem back together and monitoring her progress has given us a lot of insight in regenerative care. I can share our notes with any other medics attached to your units."
"That knowledge may actually be great for the movement at large. I know what medical staff I have are going to be greatly appreciative of it. I'd offer you their notes on various cybernetic suites but…it seems like your team has clearly figured out prosthetics attachment and have a working relationship with the Vortians for high quality materials."
"Yeah, cloned organs too, tell him how your new eye is, Posa." Zutel gestured to the understudy with her new right eye.
She looked up from their work, confused.
"Uuuh…it's an eye? It does…eye things?"
"See? Like she was hatched with it."
"Maybe they should have grown a new brain for you too while they were at it." Sula poked fun at her expense.
"Hey!"
Vaukt sighed and went to his seat nearby as the medics worked.
"I always thought Posa was a good chuckle back when she was working with Zutel under me. Very bright personality."
"Grenade fragments to the face didn't change that at all. She said she wanted to keep the eyepatch though."
"What, she thinks she was some old fashioned space pirate or something?"
"Oh, yeah, she was a space pirate for a bit, all right." Zutel snickered, remembering what was said in the medbay many months ago. "Hopefully you won't be swabbing more poop decks eh, Posa?"
The Corporal didn't even dignify their banter with her attention as she gave a sarcastic laugh while she worked, rolling her eyes.
"All of ya, real comedians. I did my time changing out poop bags. Someone else's turn next time."
"Last I checked, Zutel and I outrank you." Sula countered with a smirk.
"Ha! We're filthy traitors now and not in the military technically! So nyeh!"
"I'll beat you up if you don't do what I tell you, how about that?"
"...I need to find my own minion."
"Plenty of drones that Rha saved on Haven last you guys told me. Maybe you can find your own bottom bitch among them." Vaukt commented with a chuckle.
"He's right, you know," Zutel added, "could bring on some new trainees and then Posa will actually be experienced and giving training for a change. Our little understudy is coming along and growing up so fast."
Days would pass with Zha on the mend and coming around. A very important meeting still needed to happen. The Shadow Strikers were effectively traitors, Vaukt on the other hand still had a highly organized military force; a military of only special operations and a handful of Elites and Troopers rescued from Vort, but a military force all the same. With the movement thrust into such a position, they needed to have a talk about their future.
Zha was awake, mobile in a wheelchair with Vaukt keeping her company, and with a fresh set of casual clothes courtesy of Vaukt. The Conventia became a hub of activity with Vaukt and Zha finally seeing themselves unhooked along with many others. Among them, the liberated prisoners like Dyb.
The General brought Zha to their personal mess area set aside for both of them being the effective High Command of the rebellion. He parked Zha's chair at the end of a table and uncovered the plates of food one of the cooks left for them. Sula was right, she wasn't the same as before, but she was still his Zha. She was sullen, distant, quiet, even her flirtations hadn't returned.
"My sweet, talk to me. I know you went through a lot on Vort at the hands of those putrid beasts. I hate seeing you like this."
The worst of her visible wounds had subsided, but scars remained in the wake of the more grievous injuries. Physically weak and frail from the untold days of starvation and restlessness, holding her head upright took focused effort. Face gaunt and expressionless features, her vibrant eyes hues darker matched her disposition. Disassociation and repression, Sula mentioned the symptoms being. Common in the aftermath of traumatic experiences. Sometimes temporary…sometimes permanent.
Nothing in particular held her interest. Only an unwavering, long stare into the void of space through the viewport adjacent with Haven's swirling, angry atmosphere not far below comparatively. Chaotic, wild clouds electrified non-stop with millions upon millions of lightning discharges. A dangerous, beautiful backdrop from afar.
He looked out the porthole briefly to the atmosphere. "It's something, isn't it? Storms that will tear a starship apart, windshear that would tear apart anyone unfortunate to be outside, an electric intensity of untold power. Truly a marvel of atmospheric dangers to behold from the safety of space."
A pause, a sigh, he turned back to Zha, withdrawing a pack of cigarettes and his lighter, offering them both to her.
"Had my stock of Vortian smokes refreshed lately…fresher than the stuff we ran into back on Vort. I know how much you like to help yourself to my smokes anyhow."
Zha did not react. She did not speak or move, not immediately. Several agonizingly long seconds passed before a hard swallow and shaky exhale followed.
"...I know I'm not there. You are here…but I never left."
Vaukt sighed… "I…wish I could help better than just talking this out with you. It's been ages since I've first been confronted with my own mortality." He paused to help himself to a smoke and lighter before leaving it near Zha. "I don't know how else to say it other than something changed in me and…I almost welcomed it. I didn't fear death, I loved combat…" another pause as he turned away from her. "And I realize that must make me sound like a monster to you now."
"...I failed them."
"How? How did you fail them?"
"Wiza…Aiks…" Zha muttered, face twisting in discomfort. "...Kuru…"
Her pained expression turned to Vaukt, eyes welling with tears.
"...and you."
"You were in your cell unable to aid them somehow…they died for you, like any loyal soldier would, they bought you time."
A frustrated palm slammed on the table, rattling the flatware as she ground her teeth, fighting back tears.
"For nothing. I failed them. Failed you. Broke."
"You're alive, Zha, you didn't fail me there." Vaukt took a drag on his cigarette. "Look at what you went through. You went through more than any sort of training I put Special Operations through. You went above and beyond the expectations of interrogation. You didn't fail me, you absolutely impressed me with how long you lasted."
Zha's attempts fell on deaf antennae as a scowl of self-contempt turned her haggard visage down, shaking her head.
"Died for nothing. They know now. Pathetic. Weak."
Silence followed as Vaukt took another drag of his smoke. Something more rousing, inspirational?
"The shift to an active rebellion was inevitable. Sooner than we liked but no plan survives contact with the enemy." He looked at her again. "They didn't die for nothing, nor is anyone who's going to die after this ending the Empire. Our freedom from this system, that's what they ended up giving their lives for even if they didn't realize it. You told me before, you sent people to their deaths by your own orders, these are closer to you, you know more of loss of those you bond with. Want to make their deaths worthwhile? Come back to me, see this through, win and they can be listed among those who died to end the Empire."
He sighed, shaking his head. "I have a war to fight, I want you with me."
Under normal circumstances to a convalescent Zha, his logic would have been sound and reasonable. Inspiring, even. He may as well have been talking to a brick wall as unresponsive as she was. What good was she now? A failed, compromised leader who cracked beneath pressure? Her actions bore consequence, experiencing them first-hand as they all selflessly stood by her side to the bitter end…only for her to make it all for nothing, a pathetic coward pleading for mercy.
Nothing…
That's when tears started running down his face as he stood from his seat. All of his combat experience, all of his time under fire, all the problems he fixed and then he can't even fix this. What was he supposed to do? What could he do? The pain was certainly real as he collected his smokes and lighter, headed for the door. He told Sula he would worry about this and yet he couldn't do a damn thing about it, a problem he couldn't soldier his way out of as he usually could. All while there was a war effort to coordinate…
He stopped short of walking out the door. "I…can't help, Zha. I genuinely can't. This isn't something I can just blow a hole in a wall, make something dead, or take some hill I personally don't particularly want or need. I don't know what I'm supposed to do…and it pains me that I'm just absolutely fucking helpless to help you when you need me the most. Some lover I am." He walked out the door, immediately kicking a wall as soon as the door shut behind him out of frustration before heading to a conference room on the vessel.
Tears ran down his face of a hardened soldier turned helpless in the face of something he couldn't manage. A victor of so many campaigns yet now he was confronted with something he couldn't manage. Then a realization struck that maybe there was someone who knew. Wiping tears from his eyes and lighting another smoke he made a call to Red Team's Lieutenant, hoping she was available.
After a few moments, the connection established to the sight of a puzzled Aero. Realizing it wasn't an accidental call and authentic, she immediately straightened up with a crisp salute.
"General, Sir!"
He idly waved a hand. "Relax, Aero, this is official, not personal." He paused, a look of sadness evident about him. "I…can't help Zha after what she went through. She's just not there; she's…distant, self loathing, everything Sula said would go wrong after an incident like that. I can't even help her…absolutely helpless."
"Yeeeah…she mentioned as much. Not in detail though. Hippopotamus Oath or somethin' like that. I haven't seen her since you got back, but it sounds bad…and you look like you could use a hug."
"Hippopotamus?" Vaukt blinked before throwing a hand up. "Nevermind. I mean…if anyone needs a hug, it's Zha, but you'd probably realign her spine and break her ribs again. I don't know how to help her. I know it sounds calloused and it pains me to say it but can this be helped?"
"...can what be helped? Zha? Maybe? I dunno. I only caught bits an' pieces of some of the stuff. It isn't like stubbing your toe or falling down. I mean, would you wanna talk about that kind of stuff after going through all of it? I don't blame her."
Vaukt sighed. "I revel in situations facing my own mortality…embrace it…welcome death, defy it. I…enjoy my work…a lot, and I'm sure to someone as kind hearted as you it sounds like I'm evil or something. I can't soldier my way out of this problem and…I don't know if I can keep this going if she's like this."
"First of all, I take offense to that. I can crack skulls just as good as the rest of you. Secondly…you're right, you can't soldier your way outta this one, but you cannot give up on her. Pretty sure you're the only reason she isn't dead and not because you rescued her."
Silence followed as he took a drag on his smoke. "And I don't know what to do. I'm now having to coordinate all of this in a war effort and I don't think I can even make time for her like I want to."
"Well, that's a load of dookie if I've ever heard it." Aero scoffed on the other side to his surprise. "Can bet your c'hurta I'd drop everything and everything for Vard. Not like you aren't a stranger to it. Zipping halfway across the known universe to mount a daring rescue as her knight in shining armor? That's 'bout as romantic as you can get. What's the universe matter if you can't enjoy it with the ones you love? There's a whoooole bunch of people able to shoulder the burden of steering this mess of a ship into the waiting storm. Only war you should be worrying about is the one she's fighting."
"Well it doesn't exactly help if I can't fight an enemy I know nothing about" He let out a frustrated slam of his fist onto the conference room table. "I don't know what to do."
"Maybe not, but it isn't your fight to fight. It's her's…least that's what I gather from Sula in how she described how that stuff worked. You are her logistics and support. She's on the front. All you can do is keep her supplied and morale up. I'm sure if you could just jump in there and beat up whatever was troubling her, she'd let you in a heartbeat."
"She would…I should probably go give her a hug. See what I can do." He paused to take a drag of his smoke. "Anything else I may need to ask Sula, probably hopefully your advice helps."
Vaukt got up when the call ended and made his way back to where Zha was. He needed to check on her. Cigarette in his mouth as the door whisked open. He walked over to his sullen lover, sticking his lit cigarette between her lips before taking a seat near her again.
"Look, Zha…what you went through…we all react differently. You're…here, I've gained a thirst and a desire for my job. I can't fight whatever it is you're going through for you. The most I can do is…be here for you. Somehow. I'm not going anywhere, not after what I went through to get you. Like I said, I'd fight the whole Empire for you by myself if I had to."
Her weary brow furrowed into a mixture of frustration and annoyance to face him. In the same motion, she removed the smoke and forcibly stubbed it out on the table next to her tray of untouched food. The urge to lash out at his insensitive commentary, strong as it were, was resisted. Even he wasn't so dense to note her mood.
He stopped and shook his head, even with Aero's advice he was still trying to fix the problem. "You know maybe it's better if I don't talk." He lit yet another cigarette for himself. "Let's just enjoy being together?" So helpless to do anything other than provide her with his physical presence.