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Post by tress on Mar 27, 2011 2:57:39 GMT -5
Out of it, somewhat, he still turned white with the shock of feeling the pain. She had done it on purpose, but he wasn't in any state to do anything about it. With the paleness came coldness and the blackness once again grew around his vision. He tried to say something, but he was breathing harder now just trying to stay awake. In the end, he says nothing but "Retribution" he thinks as he goes under with a combination of the meds and fainting again. If he so happens to remember when he wakes up after all this was done he would get her back somehow. Someway and it was going to be a ....... I don't know. I'm sick give me a break  *code edited to work 3/28* |
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Post by kharivestra on Mar 28, 2011 16:49:22 GMT -5
Listening to the barely whispered word Tress had managed to utter before he passed out again, most might have felt their stomach knot at that little remark, but not Khari. This ongoing game of theirs, one upmanship if you would, was one where virtually anything was fair within reason, and she fully expected there to be some sort of retribution for her retribution. What might have been considered a tad immature she could have easily waved off as just another small way to make a day that bit more interesting. And why not indeed?
She would have been lying through her pearly white teeth if she'd said that she hadn't done that last thing with a smidgen of jealousy though - but what he wasn't conscious to see he couldn't comment on. Happy that he was probably too medicated to remember, or indeed cause further incident for the meanwhile, that left Khari to deal with this unexpected visitation.
Upon seeing Banner linger in the recovery ward doorway, she appraised him with a small nod, then turned to glance at the attending medic, "Look after the Senator, i'd hate to have a diplomatic crisis on our hands to top off what has already transpired. Inform me when he regains consciousness...properly that is."
Confident that would be the case, Khari crossed the floor and met Banner at the midway point, taking him to one side so as not to be standing in the way of any of the patients or staff passing by. Looking at the man, he appeared to be having one hell of a day, the signs of stress and fatigue were plain to see from the haggered expression that kept his brow tense and eyes rather distant, though it was apparent he was very much in the here and now, because his hands seemed to be shaking until he clasped them at the small of his back appropriately.
The nerves, she trusted, had nothing to do with what he'd just been through, moreover the fact he'd requested to speak with her personally. While she wasn't adverse to hearing reports straight from the bantha's mouth so to speak, it didn't happen often either, at least not with those as low ranking as a Captain. But with the Colonel out of action, he was the next best officer who had been on the scene, and since Klask had trusted him enough to carry out that extraction as swiftly as he had, that bespoke a silent confidence that she could, at least to the most base of degrees, trust him too.
Her smile was sincere enough, short, but sweet, "I thank you for your concern Captain, I am fine, little more than a few scrapes, I trust you were able to get most of your team and any survivors to safety?" His safety went without saying, since he was standing here before her, there was little she could do to make him feel more at ease, aside from ensuring him with her line of questioning that this wasn't going to be a hard-nosed interrogation.
"But please, this data?"
He wasn't kidding either, she hadn't been more than a little girl the last time that had happened, the Ten were always fighting amongst themselves. Consequentially she had been brought up not to be wary of back stabbery, but to expect it at every turn, traitors, in alliances once made, were everywhere after all.
All the pretenses of affront dropped from her otherwise neutral tinge to her eyes then, replaced in stead by a genuine concern, there was no telling how deep that particular conspiracy ran. What was more, she wasn't sure she was going to like the answer.
"A fair assumption, what did you discover?" She asked with a genuine curiosity, better to limit the subsequent damage from this one while there still might be time.
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Post by tress on Mar 29, 2011 15:30:02 GMT -5
Dreams is what filled his time. Dreams of pain and death. Adventure and glory. Oh, yes. There was romance in there, too. Mostly, well all of it revolved around him. Storming the citadel to get to the princess. Taking her back to his harem of "dancers".....this is where the pain comes in, and boy does it.
Even knocked out with pain meds, he still jerked up and cried out as they were fixing his shoulder. Fused bones and the separation of them was harsh on a pain medicine addled induced dreaming of a man hell bent on shacking up with his entire harem.
To be woken up as he was out of a nice dream did him no good since he was strapped down. Adrenaline and panic set in fast, "What are you doing to me, release me !" he shouted at them all. He saw them all in medical gowns around him and the first thing to pop in his head was he had been captured and getting experimented on.
"where am I? What are you doing to me !" Had to be the Grey Jedi, that damn Dooku and his droid pet had caught him. Khari where was she? "Where is Khari? If you have hurt her....." They were responsible. "Damn all you force users !"
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Post by Heg'zi A Klask on Mar 29, 2011 17:52:15 GMT -5
Banner retrieves a set of data-chips from his pocket and hands them to Khari before rummaging in if a pouch for another item.
"Something is out of place, if you view the recording on the first, that is what supposedly transpired on the ship and how Arri died. The wounds do not quite match up, and the blood that should have been about was not right. I've my share of beings cut down before and it is out of place." He pulls a small high end data core from the pouch, and holds it out for her to take, he also has an uncomfortable expression on his face.
"I have a few other suspicions that the girl in the hanger is not your assistant. I do not know who to contact to make sure you get a true and accurate autopsy of her, but for one, from the evidence at Kaur's she was bare-foot when they fled your apartment, and this body's feet are unmarked... You know what the service areas are like. This is the security computer core from Kaur's, it has a considerable amount of data on it, he had not been keeping up with wiping it regularly it seems. And no, I have not had time to review it... As far as I am concerned, it needs to disappear; some things only need to be seen by your kind of people."
He regretted the wording when it came out of his mouth, but the flush to his face and the awkward smile he attempted, was a good indication he meant it as a matter of fact and not insult. He and most of the people on this array were of a whole other class of people, who's lives while complex were nothing of the world she moved in. The things that may or may not be on that core could only confuse a proper investigation if it was not sorted through by one with a proper understanding. He knew Klask was from the higher levels of Kuati society, but had to wonder if even the Old Man would have tried to make heads or tails of it.
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Post by kharivestra on Mar 30, 2011 14:28:16 GMT -5
As if he had just remembered that he was carrying them, she watched while he fumbled through his pockets to procure the data-chips and the reader, patiently waiting for him to do what he had to, the more she stressed him out the clumsier he would get anyway. Though she did feel like setting his mind at ease, she wasn't a complete monster...though some of the tales she'd heard were definitely advantageous when dealing with some persons aboard this array. Thankfully for Banner, he was more man of the hour than he was one of the afformentioned.
Soon enough, the image of the scene flickered to life with a single tap of his fingertips against the reader's interface, emmitting a light all of it's own, the image that followed after this recording, was already burned into her memory - it was a little much to stomach still. Disguising her apparent disgust, Khari observed the rotating image with a critical eye, listening to what it was that Banner had found so odd about this in particular. It was key to her objective that she didn't mention at any point that she had also found the scene a little convenient for her tastes, Tress included in that opinion, he had been the first one to bring it to light.
"This is the footage from the security feed that was recovered from the interior of the ship? Do the time codes match up with those of when all our communications and systems went down?" Khari asked, watching the scene play out again on repeat in silence, looking through the image rather than at it as her mind played over the facts, rather than the emotions that should have gone with watching such an event. Not that she should give a damn, Arri had betrayed her beyond all reconning, what added insult to injury was that this was, she suspected, a poor cover up and that girl and her Falleen counterpart were probably still out there. No doubt they were laughing at their good fortune, but should she ever catch up with either of them, they would be laughing on the wrong side of the nearest airlock.
"I wonder about this, it all seems a little too well staged - the angle, for one, is good enough to have been made for a holonet thriller." Khari met his uneasy gaze then, paying no mind to his slowly fading nervousness, "And you are suggesting that these injuries we see her sustaining here, are not concurrant with the way her body was placed?"
Smiling thinly, she was content to nod along to the facts as he shifted through the images, pausing at the one where Arri lay, face up, inert gaze staring off into nowhere, sprawled out on the hanger floor, blaster burns in all the fatal places. It was a sickening sight, faked or not, someone had to have died to bring them this authenticity of an execution.
"We are of the same mind on that, let me assure you. I need not tell you how deep this could possibly run, you were witness to the majority of it all, I can, however, ask that you pass this onto investigators as soon as possible. I want to know everything they discover, bear in mind, everything." She stressed that last point most of all, "What you have just told me only confirms my initial suspicions, the blood spatter is more coherrant with someone being dropped from a certain ammount of height and yet the video feed you just showed me displays Arri clearly being shot with a model of blaster that would cauterize the wounds a tad too proficiently for there to be any spatter, however slight. Add to this your comment about her feet and it begins to paint the perfect picture of a cover up, what I wish to know is why? They had to know I would seek prosecution of course, but why all this to begin with?" Pressing her palms together, she brought her index fingers to her lips, ponderously
But now he drew her attention to another object, one far more interesting than the last if she was being honest.
Khari's expression soured, but only slightly, instead taking on an air of haughty curiosity. Quirking a brow she could see him struggling inwardly at trying to work out a way to soften the blow of his poor choice in words. Better to put him out of his misery now, than to stand there in dead cold silence and wait for him to excuse himself.
"My kind of people, Captain? And what kinds of people might those be?" She took the core from him, though, turning it over in one, elegant hand and wondering what interesting details lay in it's memory banks. Khari could only imagine, this might provide the answers she had sought, but she would be damned if the investigation team would get a look at this first - she had more reason than most for wanting to know what was contained in it, judging by the ammount of dirt Kaur and the rest of the Kuhlvults had supposedly been digging on her, nothing could be left to chance. What if they had known about the plot to get her where she was now?
That irate shout, followed by several more, possibly saved Banner from a fate worse than public humilliation, because it certainly captivated the Kuati aristocrat's attention. She didn't turn to regard him instantaneously, moreover she just seemed to stiffen in posture, her demeanour didn't change drastically at all, she had been caught mid-flow and evidently that had been her saving grace too.
Affording Banner a rather apologetic look, she did cast a wary glance back over her shoulder to see Tress attempting to flail and shoo away the medics who were now desparately trying to calm him down with calm words and placating gestures -
"Hmm, they might have done better with a tranquilizer dart..." She commented under her breath without really thinking about what she was saying. Then she looked back at Banner, "I see the Senator is awake again...thereabouts. You'll have to excuse me, I believe I should save those kind people from more of his delerium before he does himself further injury." Resisting the urge to release the nervous laughter that had bubbled up from her vocal chords, she turned away, only to pause and then turn back again, her words far more serious this time, facade of stoic nature fixed back in place,
"Thank you, for these, the order to pass those data-chips on to the investigators still stands, I will be taking possession of this, however" She lightly weighed the other object in her hand, before pocketing it thereafter. "I wish to be kept up to date with all eventualities as I said before, and do send my regards to the Colonel...I will hopefully see him when he is in recovery."
Sashaying her way across the room, back towards Tress' bedside, she made sure to step into his field of vision, ignoring the medic's look of 'about time too' in favour of attempting to placate the irate senator in much the same way the medics had, only the drug free alternative.
"I'm quite alright, but please, I must insist you calm down...this is hardly the place for a scene, you're in a medical facility aboard the KDY orbital array. You remember how you got here, in the transport? You were injured in a fire fight back at the hanger but these people here...they are only trying to help you." Regretfully, she couldn't have taken anything but the chiding tone she had, rather than what she wished to say, though with this many onlookers and Tress' rather open outburst, she had to exercise some damage limitation.
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Post by tress on Mar 30, 2011 15:25:47 GMT -5
He was still raving at the medics when he heard her voice, not her regular soothing voice, but her Kuati snotty tone that grated on his nerves and made him want to shock her by unorthodox means.
He laid there, looking at her studying her for the span of a minute. Then laid his head by down looking up at the ceiling trying to manage through the pain he was still feeling. His arm was numb from neck to fingers, but he still felt things when the bone was touched. "I don't like them. They are unhelpful and have the worst bedside manner that is on par with a rutting gundark." He didn't know why he said that exactly, but it was out now and he tried to hide his grin. He found the humor in him saying that out loud, but he lost it with a jerk and a hiss as they scrapped at his bone again.
"That one there is going to die slowly, i swear it." He says through gritted teeth to Khari. Though they were done with what they had to do, others came to prep him for a bacta submersion. "Just have them slap a patch on it, I don't want to go through that." He says pleading with her, would she be mean and force him or help him?
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Post by kharivestra on Mar 30, 2011 17:53:35 GMT -5
Tress was so clearly not taking any of this, the only good thing to come of it being the fact that the pain seemed to be sobering him from delerious to abrasive sarcasm...a small improvement was better than none, she supposed with some amusement, until she was left making excuses for him yet again. All part of his charm, she thought, considering acting delerious herself so she didn't have to apologise profusely.
The Kuati blinked, unsure wether or not she should laugh or berate him for saying those words. Not that she blamed him for being angry, what he'd just been through was a highly pain inducing procedure and by the looks of things, he had a little way to go yet before he found an even state of happy comfort.
The attending medic frowned in disapproval of Tress' thoughtless words, though no doubt she had heard far worse in her years attending to the various crew members and families up here on the array. You really did get people from all stages of the heirachy coming here, and none of them in the best shape, obviously. As it was they seemed over stretched to deal with this kind of issue, but it had been the nearest medical facility to the site of the incident, and they weren't going to gamble with people's lives.
"He doesn't mean that," Khari assured the zabrak female, then shooting Tress a hard withering glare, "Do you?"
When she realized he just simply wasn't going to calm, and nothing but them leaving him be would quell his desire to lash out verbally, it was more than Khari could do not to groan as she tiredly held up a hand, halting the medics in their stride, and waving them away with a short shooing wave. A spell in a bacta tank really would have done Tress the world of good, he wouldn't be in agony for a start, but he was adament he wasn't going in and the powers that be only knew what he would have done if they had tried to force the issue.
When they were out of earshot, leaving the desired bacta patch at his bedside, she glanced down at it, then back up at him while picking it up.
"I'm glad to see you're feeling more like your old, difficult self." Khari said, not afraid to chide him there either.
She held up the bacta patch, "Do you want to do the honours or shall I? And don't even think about telling me I have the bedside manner of a rutting Gundark or you're on your own."
For all her berration, she really was just glad he was awake again, and more coherrant than before, even if he was ammounting a world full of awkward conversations for her, she knew they'd be laughing about it weeks later.
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Post by tress on Mar 30, 2011 18:09:53 GMT -5
"I do mean it and not ashamed to admit it." He tells khari something like mischievous deviousness in his eyes. "I will kill the fat one first, that over there. Followed by that one there. " He nudges his chin at each of them in turn, before he faces away from them all. His eyes only on Khari.
"I hurt, just want it to go away." He tells her defeatedly, his eyes closing.
He didn't like the chiding manner of her speech and he glared. "And if you do so happen to have their mannerisms? Then what?" He asks. The thought of putting on the patch himself had him paling, but anyone else touching him to put it on had the same effect. He didn't want to get dunked, though no one was going to touch him or make him listen to reason.
The hard way it is then. "Knock me out and put me in the tank." he tells her through gritting teeth again, it would be faster he thought.
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Post by kharivestra on Mar 31, 2011 8:51:18 GMT -5
She didn't know wether to roll her eyes or face-plant her hand at this point, his agitated state had less to do with the drugs than it did with the stress she supposed. That wound didn't look like the nicest of things to be bearing, even if it was surgically repaired to some degree, his arm would be out of action for some time if they didn't apply some form of bacta treatment. But being who she was, she only had so much patience, and it was wearing thinner by the second. And not once had he actually thanked her for the fact he wasn't laying in the morgue right now. Allowances could only be made so far and he wasn't listening to reason, however this time, at least, she held her peace.
"Please refrain from killing any of the staff until they have at least finished tending to the wounded, hmm?"
That was all he was getting on that one, though her tone and demeanour had softened somewhat since she had walked over here - what people couldn't overhear wouldn't give them ideas.
A small sigh of sympathy escaped her, she remembered that feeling a little too well after a particularly nasty incident had seen her in the medcenter a few years ago. The pain had been tollerable, the company not - in the end Khari had discovered she could only deal with one or the other, not both at the same time. So perhaps she should leave him alone? But he'd said he wanted the pain to go, not her. A small comfort perhaps but it would do for the time being.
Placing her hand gently over his, her warmth bleeding through to his, she tried to reassure him.
"Perhaps a spell in the tank wouldn't be so bad? You can request a sedative, sleep through the whole ordeal." She suggested prudently, tilting her head to get a better look at him, his pallid complexion was not encouraging in the slightest. He really did need that treatment, it caused her to wonder how people had managed without it in times long since past. Unthinkable to her now, something they all took for granted.
That had her taken aback, which was a rare thing for her, she who seemed to keep her cool through almost anything in the board room, who had taken almost everything this far in her stride. But now? That first comment had her bristling more than she had in days worth of accusations. So he wanted to be like that? She didn't care how much pain he was in, she hadn't deserved that.
Posture stiffer than ever, she placed the bacta patch in his good hand firmly without a word not a glance. When she did look down at him all he would have found in those usually warm dark eyes was irritance and hurt. All sensibility told her that he didn't mean what he'd said but that didn't stop it from stinging as much as it had.
"Fine, you don't want my help, you can manage perfectly well on your own. I get that." The kuati strode around the side of the bed in the general direction of the exit that Banner would have taken. Before she had taken too many paces away that he wouldn't be able to hear her anymore, she looked back at him,
"A gundark would have pushed you towards that shot, but don't thank me, I only saved your life." As she was walking away she regretted saying that so laced with pain, but she was what she was, there would be little changing that and all anyone was, was a victim of their own circumstances. Maybe now that she had left the medics would take matters into their own hands and give him a good dunk in the bacta tank - pungent scent aside, it might improve his mood tenfold if he wasn't dealing with the abject pain in his shoulder.
Still quietly seething, she stepped into the corridor beyond the recovery room, fingertips pressed gently to her temples, massaging away the stress caused by the situation and her grinding teeth. Khari couldn't even go home to recover herself...that, too was a crime scene; curse that blasted Falleen and Kage Dooku, they had given her more hell than was due for an entire lifetimes worth in the space of a couple of days. Force users, why did they always have to drag the entire unsuspecting galaxy into their irritatingly destructive mess?! Something had to be done about that, and if she was the one to kick it all off them so be it, the normal inhabitants of this galaxy needed to have a voice, it was about time that happened.
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Post by tress on Apr 1, 2011 0:56:42 GMT -5
She was being serious or trying to appear that way, when he was doing everything he could to keep her from stressing out over all this. Yes, he was in pain. Yes, they had been attacked. Though through it all they had survived and would sooner or later uncover whatever was going on. The time in a bacta tank would be the hardest thing he would have to deal with. A sort of captivity for him while she was out on her own, no one she could trust implicitly like him.
So he continued on his quest to either irk her to anger where she can use it to her advantage or throttle him to within an inch of his worthless life. She would decide....he just hoped it would be the first.
Yeah, that would work. Sleep through the whole thing, but his thoughts still went back to her safety which was why he had wanted to slap a patch on his wound. Even though it was much worse that a patch could deal with.
Push again he thought, but there was no need, he previous remark had hit home. She was well and truly hurt, then anger would set in....if he was lucky he wouldn't be woken up to electro shock treatments while still in the bacta tank.
Only to late did he forget to thank her for saving his life. He felt that deeply, he should have thanked her over and over, but instead he was rude and impolite. Sighing he reached into his pocket and pulled out something that had been there waiting for this precise time. If this didn't get him killed, it would at least show her he cared. "Put me under and stick me in the tank to heal, but first here..." he hands over the device and smiles. "I have a problem and this helps. Though now that i am here you can fix it for me......I cant hear out of my right ear." he sees the doctor look it over with a confused expression and Tress closes his eyes not wanting to see this next part. "turning it on high helps me hear more clearly, but its broken. So put me out and fix my hearing....ok?"
The doctor nods and puts turns the device around in his hand studying it while the nurse gives Tress a sedative which knocks him out. Weirdly he was smiling as he went under, but the doctor did not see it as he was flicking the device on high......
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Post by kharivestra on Apr 1, 2011 13:46:42 GMT -5
What was going on in the recovery ward was all a mystery to Khari. She had stayed a few moments, just outside the door, trying to take stock of the situation. She was angry, no doubt about it, seething however had ceased to a dull grumble that was her trying to make head or tail out of just why he'd been deliberately trying to irk her to the degree he really had. And for that matter, why had she let it?
Maybe she should go back? No...that wouldn't achieve anything save to make her angrier and to open herself to more of a verbal lashing. Running a hand through her hair to smooth it's rather erratic style, strands pulled free in the chaos that had befallen them all in that hanger, what she wanted was to be able to go back to her quarters and rest before reading all the reports on the whole incident. That wasn't an option, and that left the other option, leave the array for Kuat it's self, or borrow a relative's private residence up here. The latter positively soured her mood further, and with a small self applicable groan she realized that would mean actually asking her own mother for some sort of help.
Another option shot to the nine hells of Corellia then.
There were numerous high class hotels aboard the array, she would just take up residence in the one she preferred and remain there until she could have her apartment back. A little inconvenient for her, but it was better than having to speak or breathe the same air as that cantankerous old witch. With her mind made up, she began to walk away when a sudden feeling overcame her completely...
Had she not been quite so tense she might have cried out in surprise, much as she had when in conversation with the Imperial Regent. This time, though, she nearly jumped a mile in the air, starting with enough ferocity to make the poor medic passing her jump into alertness as if to thwart an attacker. When she didn't immediately see any danger, she spun to face Khari, who was now leaning hard against the wall, doing her best to remain upright. Instantly, the other woman was at her side, concern in her expression and voice.
"Are you alright m'am? Maybe you should si-"
Khari waved one hand rather erratically, then reined it in when she realised she was apparently flailing a little.
"FINE!....Absolutely fine, never better, I just....Just uhh really need to...Kill...someone!" She squeaked, tensely, knees threatening to buckle while she kept her mind on anything other than that which was foist upon her, quite literally in this case.
Damn Zann, damn actually forgetting about this amid all that fuss, she was going to get him for this if it was the last thing she did before she collapsed somewhere in a heap of rapture. Cursing profusely under her breath, her eyes tightly shut while she fought through the interesting miasma of anger and quite something else entirely, when she did open her eyes, she found the medic a little closer than was comfortable right now, peering at her strangely.
"Really, i'm fine...it's just a little, ocular...discomfort. I was just on my way to get it seenTO!" The feeling came and went, then returned again with furious intensity, but by now she was already moving, stalking - albeit with a highly awkward gait - back the direction she had just been, into the recovery ward, just in time to see the nurse administering the sedative to knock Tress out. His hands were empty though, so what was going on?!
That was when she spied the doctor, or rather what he held so delicately in his hands, puzzling over the little device as if he hadn't quite gotten the full story. And Khari could have bet her entire inherritance on him not having the facts straight in the slightest.
He, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to her plight until she was almost at his side, reaching out to swipe the little switch from his hand with both of hers. Fingertips closing around the device, she nearly fell over sideways with her own momentum lost, turning the thing off in time to catch herself and suffer a rather unsightly stumble.
Bewildered, the doctor didn't say anything when he realized who he was looking at, no, instead he just stood there for a moment, watching as her 'discomfort' faded, leaving her look like she had just been for a small jog, in stead waiting until she turned round to face him, hefting the little device in her hands and waving off his concerns.
"I was looking all over for that, thank you, you saved me quite a search."
The doctor frowned, not quite understanding - which was just fine by Khari. "Isn't that...?"
"Senator Odak's hearing aid, yes, I informed him that I knew just the person to see to this and I fully intend to honour the agreement too. Leave this with me, I will ensure it gets into the right hands." Pocketing the switch, she tried to recover what scraps of dignity she had left, taking a single cleansing breath. While she could have simply left it at that, there was still the small matter of payback and revenge was a dish best served cold...or in this case, while you were wide awake.
Taking a cusory glance at Tress as the nurses were taking him to the bacta tanks on a hover gurney, it didn't take much of her skills to feign a sudden, deep concern. So good in fact, when she turned back, it looked as if the doctor she stood next to was going to ask her what the matter was.
"They sedated him? But he was saying to me only moments before I left how he was severely ill as a result of coming round from such aenesthesia combined with bacta treatments!" Khari volunteered in that pressing Kuati way that meant she wasn't going to be argued with. "No, we can't have that, he's our liason from the RGE, if he goes back to Carratos and explains this is how he was treated I will never hear the end of it. It could have dire consequences for-"
The doctor, though it wasn't his place to do so, interrupted poste haste.
"Say no more Lady Vestra, I will rectify that before he reaches the tank." He was already hurrying to catch up with the nurses as he said this.
But she wasn't done there yet, calling back over her shoulder - "Oh and doctor? He's delerious...I apologise in advance for his unpolite uncooperation. Pay it no mind...any of it."
Satisfied with her insidious work, she settled down next to the bed that had been assigned to Tress, and waited for the afternoon entertainment to begin. It certainly beat reading reports.
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Post by tress on Apr 2, 2011 2:03:37 GMT -5
The thing that woke him was the cold liquid touching his warm body. A gasp of awareness and the realization of things that shouldn't be happening. He had a mask, a rebreather over his mouth and nose. He was wet and free floating in something cold. All this he could tell without opening his eyes, but to test things he swung with his right forearm and it made contact with glass.
That made him open his eyes and pound on the glass to get someones attention. His shoulder still numb was a good thing, but the dull ache traveling up and down that arm wasn't.
He heard voices as only warbled sounds with his ears filled with liquid. The vindictive minx was going to make him suffer for what he had done. Get him in the worst way possible, knowing his fear of tight confined spaces. He saw her seated serenely there by the bed he thought. Pressing his face closer to the mask he made sure and pounded the glass once for effect.
Next, he did something he hadn't done in years. He spun floating away as he was and pulled the wet cloth wrapped around his 'pride' to give her his backside. Knowing one could talk and be heard while submerged, he said plainly for all in the room to hear. "This is the only thing you kuati will ever see from a Zann....."
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Post by kharivestra on Apr 2, 2011 5:48:58 GMT -5
She sat there, crossing one leg over the other to adjust the fall of her skirts, keeping half an eye on the bacta tank's across the way. It wouldn't be long now, she had witnessed the nurses administering the drug that would ensure he came round from his brief slumber, but it would only take full effect when he was dropped into the tank and completely submerged like those floating near to him.
Swaddled in a rather ungainly looking cloth that hid his blushes, she almost chuckled at that sight alone...well, he had been being a big baby about this earlier.
One more point to the Kuati, then. She thought.
And sure enough, a few seconds later, his eyes snapped open drearily. It took a moment of submersion, becoming used to the rebreather, for Tress to realize just where he was, but the second he did he looked livid. Khari couldn't hold it back anymore, letting that oily, self-satisfied smirk bloom in full upon her lips. Ah, she thought, revenge was sweet, even if the pungent smell of bacta was not.
Watching the proceedings while Tress hammered on the side of the glass with a balled fist, Khari was chuckling away like a mad woman, drawing the glances of several who passed her, be they patient or medic. All turned and observed the source of her amusement, departing with bewildered expressions and even more confused thoughts. Well, who was she not to take a small moment of mirth at the good Senator's expense? It was no secret who he was now, she might as well add to the pretense that nothing untoward was going on. If they witnessed her taking some sort of perverse delight in his discomfort, so be it. He wasn't in any real danger of course.
"Off worlders, what can you do?" Khari commented with a shake of her head and a dismissive shrug at a passing intern, who rolled their eyes in response to what Tress was doing. "Charge him for any damages, I hope that glass is thick."
Leaning back in her chair, Khari smiled sweetly at Tress and then gave him a little innocent wave, wiggling her fingertips in a small flourish that was all sarcasm.
When he did that, she could scarcely believe her eyes. Not only was it highly childish - making her clamp down on the urge to laugh at his playing the fool - it was also extremely offensive. He certainly wasn't doing himself any favours on the political field. Fortunately, there were few who mattered here to witness it. Save for herself that was, who's haughty, highly strung attitude had returned in full force. And yet she couldn't take her eyes off the sight, his posterior pressed up against the glass wasn't exactly the most flattering view she'd ever seen him in, but it did prompt a reaction...
Reaching into her pockets, she pulled out her personal datapad, tapping a few symbols and then raising it's underside in his direction. There on the bottom of this thing, lay a small intergrated holocam. Ensuring she had him in plain sight, she hit record with a single tap of one manicured fingertip.
"Smile senator, you're on the holonet... well, you certainly will be if you persist. I'm sure you're superiors would love to witness how you negotiate...I know I am thoroughly entertained right now." Leaning out to one side so he could see her face clearly, she flashed him another saccharine smirk, "This is a new angle for you and I have to admit, it suits you."
Whatever the reasons for the start of this little back and forth they had going, she wasn't going to lose - it just wasn't in her nature to settle for second best.
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Post by tress on Apr 2, 2011 14:54:04 GMT -5
While rubbing his backside against the glass, he heard something he never would have expected, but still he kept his posterior plastered on the glass.
He had a choice to make now. He could either not show his face and keep his identity hidden with a plus side of still getting an even more POPULAR female vote next election for his nice backside, or cause an even bigger uproar by turning to face her showing his full front side. Maybe add a few hip thrusts for effect, if she was recording this might as well make it....big.
Turning to face her, he saw they had an audience now just behind her that had stopped after hearing what she had said earlier. Embarrassment had no place in things now, it was purely the case of who would win over the other.
So there he was still floating facing a crowd of interns and nurses, with khari saving everything for posterity. Though his face was covered, he was smirking underneath.
"When you kuati speak of perfection and excellence, you speak of the Zann's of Anaxes." He said to everyone there present, but this part was for Khari solely. "If your in doubt just ask the swooning group behind you....that or wait until i am out of here to be reminded of why it is so."
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Post by kharivestra on Apr 2, 2011 15:56:18 GMT -5
She was holding the datapad up there for the entire duration, he had evidently become aware of what she was doing because he'd actually started playing up to the camera. This was either the single best move he'd made in his political career, or it was going to be career suicide - right now she couldn't decide which but either hinged on if she would actually pass this video on.
And then came the hip thrusting....
Now that drew more than the usual cusory glance from those in the same room. People actually stopped what they were doing to stand and stare at what was going on across the way. And, no doubt, Khari assumed, they were all wondering exactly the same things that she would have had she walked in on this display. But she knew better than to let this rile her up, it was all for effect and she hadn't even begun to do what she intended yet. Perhaps that was why, then, she had smiled throughout in that very self satisfied way that promised more.
"Citizens of the RGE, this is what the newly elected Senator from Anaxes believes is proper protocol for liasing with neutral worlds they wish to bring into the fold. Alliances that are tenuous enough as it is with the recently discovered knowledge that covert operations for that very empire have been occurring here for some time now. This, my friends, is Tress Odak-Zann behaving as, I would imagine his entire family believe is appropriate...and believe me when I say I have discovered knowledge that it is, cheek prints on the bridge of the flagship eclipse's main viewport are one thing, security holos another. "
People were starting to gather around now, with some of the younger members of the team turning their heads slightly to one side in sync with the way Tress was slowly floating round as if in orbit of an unseen gravity source. And through it all, Khari silently seethed, keeping her cool knowing she really would have the last laugh in this.
Letting him dig his hole a little deeper, he did all the work for her.
"But do not take my word for it, I'm sure he has something to say on the matter...so, Senator Zann, what say you?"
With an overdue, theatrical sigh and flourish, she turned the camera on herself.
"And there you have it, straight from the raving-squill's mouth. I truly hope your Emperor does not get to see this, for his sake, I would hate to think the thousands upon thousands of humiliations he would bestow upon such a simple, base creature. It's not his fault he was born male. Were he Kuati we would have ironed out these kinks, but well...I'm rather glad he isn't. You have my deepest sympathies." Shutting the holorecorder off, she rose elegantly from her chair with a great ammount of mock-sadistic poise, then gently shouldered herself a path through the gathering and bewildered crowd.
Pausing under an arms length away from the glass, she tapped on it with one finger rather hard, a sound that had it ringing through the sheer volume of water, that would have undoubtedly irritated him.
Holding up the datapad, she waited until he floated right side round again and could see her.
"I'm going to secure myself a residence for the evening, maybe when you're done here with your uhh entourage, we can discuss what happens to this footage? But don't take too long, I get bored very quickly and I might just feel the need to share this prematurely."
With a single chop of her head affirmatively, she started to stride away from the tank, not looking back once. Leave him to his little display if that was what he wanted, he'd be wondering just what she was up to for some time either way.
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Post by Heg'zi A Klask on Apr 3, 2011 15:18:25 GMT -5
He was not sure if it was the pressure on his body, the rawness of the things rubbing in his throat, or the light which had seemingly just suddenly appeared, though he may have been in it for quite a while.
It took a few false starts for him to realize that he was not actually dead, though it did seem like that could change at any moment. He realized he was strapped down, a fact that became clear when they pulled him up out of the bacta and laid him down still on some sort of rig to administer more direct care on his chest.
"Good gods! are those my lungs?"
He was not sure if he had actually spoken, or if it was just his eyes flickering with the glop of bacta that had alerted the staff working on him. But their panic in realizing he was awake prompted a flurry of activity that resulted in a return of nothingness.
After Klask had been drugged back into a coma, one of the doctors left the care-unit and went down the hall, peering into various rooms until he found the person he was looking for, the woman who came in with these two...
"Lady Vestra?"
He paused for a moment, giving her a respectful amount of time to decide if she was paying him any attention or not.
"The report had said to keep you informed of one of the KSF men, a Colonel. He is alive, and it is looking like he may actually survive, possibly recover. Do you have any directives on the matter? He keeps coming around, but his wounds are nearly terminal, so we have been trying to keep him under. If you need to speak with him however, I will make arrangements."
He waits expectantly for her reply, with the typical detachment and odd focus of a medical professional.
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Post by tress on Apr 3, 2011 23:49:34 GMT -5
And with that the stakes went higher just normal with their little game, though this time she might actually have won. He wouldn't have told her, oh, no. There was no point in giving her ideas. This would continue on and on until they both called quits. Though there was no fun in that.
If she left how could he up the ante? How could be even the score? Stuck in a liquid filled tube had its drawbacks, one of them was helplessness. He was vertically in a cage and the outside world was unreachable.
"And leave me here unprotected?" he manages to shout out using his audio hookup. "I was attacked on Kuat, think of the repercussions of them coming back to finish the job." It was more like he wanted her close by and he didn't want to be alone. Could have said it better, but what was done was done.
"As a guest here, its your duty to protect me...." The crowd wasn't looking at him anymore, but all turned to face her as she walked away. Her own people would wonder what she would do now. He was a public figure and influential person being a senator. The public opinion of her would fall, but he assumed she would call for more security to guard him. "Help me, Khari...your my only hope."
Would she step to the challenge or one up him, either way since everyone was facing away from him, he gave her a few more hip thrusts with a smirk.
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Post by kharivestra on Apr 4, 2011 9:22:10 GMT -5
Khari wasn't looking back, but she was in no hurry to leave either, especially when she wanted to make a point of drumming the fact she was supposedly serious into Tress' mind. Oh it had always been a game of oneupmanship from start to finish, be it their meeting on Obroa Skai or under more official terms, theirs had always been a turbulent relationship. That, she reflected, was half the reason it was so good, opposites they might be but somehow one always managed to compliment the other in the most interesting of ways.
The sudden address made her glance over somewhat dumbly at the doctor who had spoken to her, brows raised in silent askence - he had her attention for the time being, all she did was nod to confirm she was the one he was looking for.
Her expression brightened some, that was an unexpected surprise, judging what Banner had told her earlier, the Colonel was touch and go there for a while, he'd taken a near fatal shot to the chest and by some miracle of medical science they'd managed to get him somewhat stable at the very least. Of course, if she was taking this doctor at his word, that could change if he didn't receive the proper and correct care.
Mind made up, even before he'd finished his sentence, she shook her head, dislodging several strands of disheavaled inky black hair from where she had tucked the tendrils behind her ear.
"No, if you say the Colonel needs to be kept under then do so. He needs his rest and he's certainly earned it." She said matter of factly, that much was sincere enough. "However, when he is in a fit state to talk, I would like to be notified at your earliest convenience? Thank you."
A few things had become clear to her over the course of this week; one of them, was that she had been right all along in her opinions concerning the fact the ten were obviously keeping an eye on her - their reasons would be numerous. The next was that this went deeper than they had originally thought, though this was a given. And lastly, force users - what had occurred over the course of the last 72 hours had been down to force users and they alone. Had they been regular denizens of this galaxy, the damage that had been wrought on the array's main spaceport would be barely a scratch on the vast paintwork. And nobody would have gained access to that secure hanger, nobody would have taken that living ship and she wouldn't be suffering this great embarrassment right now.
When next the Ten convened, she expected scathing scrutiny in regards to this.
Tinny and vocabulated, Tress' voice filtered across the room in that strange mechanical way associated with the speakers on the side of the bacta tank's monitoring station. His words so filled with surprise and outrage, that she actually found herself bunching up, shoulders rising slightly in a stiff pose that took several seconds to dissipate.
Apologetically she glanced at the doctor again, no doubt he had not have had to put up with things like this as an every day ocurrance, but she certainly didn't envy his job.
The 'repercussions' Tress was talking about were unlikely with security keeping a tight watch over this center - where the lives of the important, self or otherwise, were concerned, no expense was spared. This had been something of an emergency job but enough time had passed now for there to be much to be concerned about.
Slowly, and with that sweet little smile gracing her visage all over again, Khari turned on one heel to pivot in the direction of Tress' tank. The crowd had begun to disperse, but they would have much to talk about with their families over dinner that night as a result of the Senator's underwater antics.
"You and I both know that you are very much well protected here. If your feeling a little exposed then I would suggest you shouldn't have taken that harness off." She said with a nod in his general direction, clasping her hands - datapad still firmly held in one of them - at the small of her back.
Redistributing her weight onto her right hand side, she leaned slightly, looking at him disbelievingly. He was just trying to put her in a bind here, making it look like she would be the bad party if she did leave him here alone, extra security or not. However, if it was one thing she had inherited from her mother's side of the family - the only side worth noting - then it was bloody minded stubborness. She pressed her lips together in a thin, tensioned smile.
"Come now, what would you have me do? I'm hardly physically intimidating, all that would achieve is putting the both of us in the enemy's line of sight. Besides, after your little speech I imagine you have really endeared yourself to the fine people of Kuat. You could always ask your entourage to form a barrier between you and...well, just about everyone willing to take a shot at you." And if he was wishing for her to step up to the mark, he would get that wish.
Khari took a few steps back towards his tank, observing the crude little performance with what was supposed to be a straight and dignified face. But he didn't cease there, continuing until she barely restrained a hiss of silent laughter, casting her eyes elsewhere for the duration whilst she regained her composure. This was an image that was going to be burned into her eyelids for some time...and he knew it, didn't he?
"I never thought I would see the day a Zann requested help from a Kuati. " Reaching forth, she tapped on the glass again like she had earlier, knowing that ringing would go straight through him like a basso rumble. "What would your grandfather say? Aside from chiding you for cheating on your final exam at the naval academy...but we won't mention that. Behave for the nice doctors Senator, they are far more inclined to help you if you aren't waving your landing gear at them."
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Post by tress on Apr 5, 2011 15:53:29 GMT -5
"You cant just leave me her to get prunish could you? While your safely tucked into bed and me here floating open to attack?" He tries again, but again she looked like she had cornered him. He was stuck here and unless he struck a nerve, he was going to remain here alone for the time being. Though not without one last dig, he just had to wait for the right time.
"I am in need of your healing touch?" He tried only to hope she didn't remember the earlier remark of bad bedside manners and more after that. He wanted to laugh at that, but not while trying to garner sympathy from Khari.
"Pain and I don't work well together, I might have said some things i shouldn't have. Done things that I'm not proud of..." He tells her looking down while he floated maybe not his best showing, but what was done was done.
Sound in water, her tapping was making him wince but he kept his calm and heard her out. Thinking what to say next and if it would have any hope of working on her. "He is the one that encouraged it, to be honest. Cheat the system, profit from it, use it to your advantage. " at her landing gear comment he looked down at himself. Then up at her and smirked as he inched closer tot he glass surrounding him. Head close to the glass he says, "Come here, i wish to tell you something...."underneath his mask he smirked
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Post by kharivestra on Apr 5, 2011 16:44:14 GMT -5
She looked down her nose at him disbelievingly whilst leaning back on her heels gently, somehow she'd never had him down as the vulnerable type - and she still didn't, he was still playing that game with her and clearly just waiting for a time to strike. Question was when.
"Bed? Oh I wish I had time for that, I really do...no i'll be spending my time taking stock of everything thus far. You know how it is, or maybe you don't, I won't pretend to be an expert on how the people of Anaxes conduct themselves, but judging by what I have seen on them thus far, they really do like to take the easy route. Pity that always seems to backfire so often." Diligently, she patted the pocket she had now secreted the datapad in, keeping that safe would be key to her side of the game. The prominence of such actions wouldn't be lost on him, she knew it, nor would it be lost on anyone else who still cared enough to listen in on this.
A frown darkened her entirely imperious expression. When last she'd checked with him, she had the bedside manner of a rutting Gundark, as had all the medical staff in the near vicinity and there was no way in the hydian way she was falling for that again.
"Flattery might work on your entourage, senator, not on me. I don't believe 'rutting gundarks' are capable of comprehending it in any case. Next suggestion." Khari added cooly, adopting that signiture unimpressed haughtiness she seemed to wear so well.
Where was it? He had to have something up his proverbial sleeve, yet she hadn't seen hide nor hair of it yet. He was looking for a way past her resolve, perhaps genuinely seeking out some sign that she did, in fact, give a damn? Idly, she wondered if he was a dab hand at sabacc, she wasn't half bad herself, and therin she understood why it was important to give little away until the opportune moment came where she could exploit a weakness in his own plans. No, she truly hated losing.
Still glaring frostily, she debated simply leaving him to his own devices for a while. When he was discharged he would know where to find her, and thus would ensue this bout of oneupmanship, little doubts there, albeit in private. What made this so awkward, and therefore easy, was the public aspect of having to downplay exactly what they were to eachother. She could hardly let him get away with what he was saying, especially when in the company of others who would hear.
Taking a single step forward, Khari took a moment to cast her eyes upwards, noting that the top of the tank was covered at present with the elevating arms used for extraction down, awaiting his departure from his treatment. Good, so he couldn't make waves and deliberately drench her then. Not that he'd be able to do much to effect that with his arm still in poor shape.
"This better be good."
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