Trial of a Lorrd: Avatar
Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 5:31pm by Bomoor Thort & Amare
Edited on on Wed Jun 8th, 2022 @ 2:02pm
3,800 words; about a 19 minute read
Chapter:
Additional Stories
Location: Qatamer, Kinyov Province, Lorrd
Timeline: Afternoon, Day 3, follows "ToaL: In Medias Res"
OLD:
"A Nautolan?" Danni said to himself with more than a little surprise. "Don't get many of your kind this far from Coruscant. Hm, still breathing I think." He wondered who it was that he hit. He recalled seeing someone tall and as grey as charcoal ash that stepped in his speeder's path. The person wasn't blue and petite like this. He glanced all around him and saw no one else. There was no way they could have disappeared so quickly if they managed to avoid getting hit; there was nowhere to hide for miles in any direction on the Flats.
"Hang in there, kid," Danni said to as he opened a flask of water that he drew from a pocket on his racing suit. "Help's on the way." He coaxed her dry, cracked lips apart a poured a small amount of water to which there was almost no response. On the one hand, the alien girl was breathing, but it was shallow, and almost non-existent.
NEW:
Coda had prayed that the desert was just a dream, and that Thane was using his power to peer into her mind to test her resolve. When the strange human in the odd racing suit found her, however, trying to save her life, she knew the desert hell was real, and that Thane wasn't coming for her.
As she awoke with a migraine in safety and comfort, she tried to remember all that transpired on the second day, but very little was coming back to her beyond her harrowing skyward battle with Zennibalas. She remembered something about a man in a sinister mask, a little Nautolan playing with figurines...it was all a blur.
"Uhnnn..." Coda mumbled as she started to break from her brief coma. "Wha...where am I?" A heavy-set female human dressed all in white from head to toes in a loose and completely non-flattering outfit who had been attending to the medical equipment nearby noticed her patient coming around.
"You're in Qatamer Memorial Hospital, dear," answered the nurse whose lightly-brown face was also covered in white except for her pretty obsidian eyes. "Can you tell me your name for me please?"
"My...my name...?" Coda slowly replied. "It's...I-I'm..."
"It's okay," the nurse gently assured her. "Take your time. You've suffered extreme dehydration. It's a miracle you came through."
"C-Co...it's Coda. Zara-...unnnh, my head..."
"The doctor will be here in just a moment," the nurse said as she typed in her basic assessment into the computer next to the bed using a holographically-projected keyboard interface. "We've haven't brought anyone like him here in a really long time. It's not often aquatic species visits Lorrd, you see. Our pharmacist had to make medications from scratch just for you based on the doctor's recipes. You're very lucky he was on hand to help."
"Th-thank you," Coda said softly with her deepest gratitude. A sudden thought then occurred to her. "Um, I had a bag with a few things in it..."
"Your physician will be able to tell you more," the nurse replied to the implied question. "Your things are in safe keeping for now. Oh, and here he is now. Hello, doctor!"
Striding into the rehab room was a dishevelled-looking older Human man with rosy-pink skin and muzzy brown hair, just beginning to grey at the corners. He wore on old lab coat, which was slightly too small for him, perhaps from his younger, slender years. On the arm was an insignia of some academic institution.
“Hmm, oh, yes. Good afternoon,” the man spoke in clear but accented basic as he moved to Coda’s side, “I’m afraid I cannot spare much time away from my research.”
Before the nurse could say any more, he waved his hand in the air dismissively, “Yes, yes; I know I’m the only one around with experience in Nautolan physiology but I seem to be the only one who recognises how much of a crisis our ecosystem is in and how important it is to find a solution.”
He gave a brief glance to the blue Nautolan woman lying, still dozy, upon the bed before flicking up her medical details, “I see she is coming to, perhaps this will not take long…”
He scrolled through for a brief while, nodding and muttering to himself, “Good… just below normal… should recover with minimal infusion… oh!”
He stopped and glanced back at the nurse before peering down more deeply at the patient, “Well, well, no wonder you are doing so well: your midicholorian levels are exceptional. Quite useful little symbiotes… yes, quite useful indeed.”
The still-unnamed doctor paused to think for a moment, grasping his slightly pudgy chin with one white-gloved hand. He mindlessly flicked through the last few details on the chart before closing it and turning back to the nurse.
“She is stabilised for now, but an amphibious specimen… uh, patients such as this should spend some time submerged underwater in order to regenerate her outer membranes. She should be transferred to the Academy where I have a tank that can be chemically balanced to replicate the waters of the Nautolan homeworld.”
"We can prepare a medical capsule for the transfer," the nurse said with a nod. "The attending physician will require your endorsement on the release forms, and they will need to be signed by the patient."
“Fine, yes, fine,” the man replied, screwing his face up slightly, “Let’s just be quick about it. The Academy is clearly the best place for…”
He turned back towards the bed, only to be met with wide, dark, questioning eyes.
"What is the Academy, and may I ask your name, please?" Coda, both distraught and confused, asked the scientist.
“Oh, no need to worry, my young friend,” the man’s voice took on a bouncier air, “I am Doctor Edrick Alefgard from the Lorrd Academy of Aquatic Studies. It is there that I intend to take you, if you are willing. Your body has been put through quite a strain and it is my opinion that the Academy is the best place for your rehabilitation.”
He added, in his most convincing tone, “I shall cover all medical expenses both here and at the Academy if you simply agree and sign the release forms.”
Coda gazed down towards her legs covered under the cotton white bed sheets, and then looked at her left wrist where her ID band showed the name "Dori, Jayne", a generic name some worlds used for persons lacking any form of identification. She glanced over at her right arm and saw the clear transfusion line. There were also tiny needle poke scars near the connection point where they missed the mark the first few times. They had attempted to insert the line brachially, but learned that Nautolan blood vessels didn't match up to where they were located as with Humans; it wasn't even close. They also had to use a large bore needle since Nautolan dermis was thicker, and the atavistic musculature was a bit more robust and connected to the bones in ways that made finding a good artery more difficult for the nurses than they were used to.
"If it means I don't have to have a tube in my arm anymore, then yes, I'll gladly sign. Thank you so much for helping to save me, doctor. I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay you for this."
Doctor Alefgard waves his hand nonchalantly in the air, “Pish, think nothing of it,” he heaved, “Although, perhaps you will be interested in seeing the work we do at the Academy. We’re going to save the entire ecosystem with our work and perhaps you could be some small part of it.”
He coughed and withdrew his arm to hold onto the breast of his lab coat as though he had said too much, “Regardless, let us get those forms signed and have you transferred post haste.”
Turning to the nurse, he demanded, “Can you take care of the release form details for Miss… oh…”
He turned back politely, “What was your name, my dear?”
"It's Wolph," Coda replied with an eagerness on her face as she wanted to leave and see the Academy, almost forgetting why she was on Lorrd in the first place. "Zaracoda Wolph. W-o-l-p-h...sounds like the furry animal to off-worlders--erm, I-I mean those who aren't Nautolan. It's supposed to sound like 'Wall-ph' underwater." She felt embarrassed with her awkward explanation of her name as her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of blue. "Sorry, I'm feeling a bit anxious. I'm new around here."
“No need for apologies, Zaracoda,” smiled Dr Alefgard, “We are all a little strange from time to time and I hope you can forgive my own eccentricities as we come to know one another.”
The nurse had said Dr. Eldrick had prescribed a light sedative to make the transfer to the Academy more comfortable, but in practice the dose was enough to put Coda out for hours. She awoke to find herself trapped in a bacta filled medical capsule. There was a round window over her face to look through, but all she could see directly above was a bright red light. Generally, she didn't mind tight spaces, could do just fine in them for long periods of time, but if she was restrained and didn't have the freedom to move about freely, crippling fear would start to set in.
"Hello?" she tried to say not knowing there was no chance she could be heard through liquid and her sealed enclosure. "Is anyone there?!" She started to slap at the window with open palms, mindful of a past accident where punching glass had caused it to crack and sliced her hands. "Someone, please! Open this up! Help!"
A few frantic moments later, the light changed from red to green along with a single klaxon indicating the change of lockdown status. A pump connected to the capsule started to drain the bacta, and when it was gone, the lid popped up, and Coda sprung upright with rapid breathing having been on the verge of a total panic attack.
She made the mistake of looking up at the bright green light, and turned away in pain as it blinded her for a second. She gazed about and saw she was on the floor of a small sterile white plasteel room that was a bit larger than most double-occupant prison cells. Although mostly featureless with no views of the outside, there was a visible spherical surveillance camera behind her, and a small table with an opaque white package in the corner next to a short door that was barely her height.
Still a bit groggy from the sedative, she struggled to rise up from the capsule, and clumsily tripped on the side upon stepping out to end up tumbling hard against the wall. She managed to stay on her feet, but it took her a moment for the blood in her body to get up to her head.
"How long...have I been out?" she partly asked herself, the question starting to feel like a recurring theme for her, but also hoping someone would tell her. She turned and saw that the camera had rotate to follow her movements, so clearly someone watching, and it spooked her.
"Is someone watching? Dr. Alefgard? Are you--?" Another soft klaxon was heard, and she turned to see a small spotlight shining over the table in the corner with the package. "That's...for me?" she asked. A few short astromech sounding bleep bloops from the camera spoke in the affirmative. "Uhh, okay. I guess you insist." Further chirps from the camera indicated it did indeed.
She went over and took the package in hand, and saw the water spring-like logo of the Lorrd Academy for Aquatic Studies. She unzipped it open and a bundle of white and navy blue clothing fell to the floor. She knelt down and unwrapped it to discover it was a two-piece swimsuit meant for humanoid females. The top was akin to a tight-fitting short sleeve t-shirt with a diagonal divide between the white and blue with the Academy's logo at the center, but it seemed deliberately cut short to reveal the midriff. There was also the strange addition of three horizontal slits on the back, each one wider than the last. The bottom piece was a typical two-strap bikini bottom that had decent coverage. It was overall an upgrade from her soaked hospital gown, but not quite as comfortable or stylish looking as the swimwear she used to have on Glee Anselm.
"Um, may I have some privacy?" she asked turning to the camera, but there was only silence in reply. "Please?" she pressed more insistently, but the camera was motionless and unrelenting. She huffed in frustration. "Hmph! Whatever." Then added in a whisper to herself, "Pervert."
Keeping her back to the camera, she changed, mindful that someone was watching, and it embarrassed her to the extreme. It wasn't so much a sense of being prudish as nudity among Nautolans was hardly a social taboo, even in public in some places of recreation, but things were different with outsiders, especially those who were not family. Upon fitting into her suit, she looked down at her exposed blue belly and was shocked to notice how much weight she'd lost in just the two days since being unceremoniously deposited onto Lorrd, and how emaciated she'd become overall. She wasn't quite bone-thin, but she was almost there, and her stomach growled to add audible drama to her malnourished condition.
Another klaxon sounded behind her, a small light shining over a moonpool hatch on the floor on the other side of the medical capsule. Narrowing her eyes at the camera, she moved over to look down as the hatch popped open on its own, the opening barely wide enough for her to go through. All she could make out below was clear water, some common foliage she recognized from her homeworld, and the familiar scent of sea salt that relaxed her nervous tension a bit.
"You want me to jump down there?" she asked the camera, and this time the friendly bleeps affirmed what was obvious. "Fine. I guess I have no choice." The camera let out a digital chortle, but she failed to see the humour in the situation. Coda fell to her knees, and bent forward to dive in head-first.
Her thin blue body descended, twisting over gracefully in the water, until her bare feet touched the fine sand that lined the bottom of the large tank she now found herself in. Her surroundings were, as the doctor had indicated, a near-perfect replication of the aquatic conditions found on Glee Anselm, right down to the composition of chemicals in the water.
As she came to rest, the figure of the doctor came into focus as he stepped towards the thick glass separating the submerged Coda from the outside. He opened his mouth to speak, drawing in half a breath of air, before remembering something and turning towards a small panel on the wall. Pushing a button, Coda was aware of the hatch above her swinging closed and locking firmly.
“Zaracoda, I am so pleased that you are finally aroused,” he turned back towards her with that friendly smile he had given her when they had met at the hospital, somehow less convincing when seen through several inches of glass, “I was afraid you had been too heavily sedated. Those fools at the hospital know nothing about your biology but, no matter, you are submerged now. How does the water feel? Good, no?”
A very noticeable wince of pain appeared on Coda's face as Alefgard spoke through his vocorder system which relayed his spoken words from the air to the water in perfect clarity. However, Coda had her hands up to the sides of her head, nodding, but in auditory agony.
"Y-yes...ungh," she whined in discomfort with a harsh oscillating vibration thrumming in her head. Her words could be heard over the sound system's outputs as clearly as if she were standing right next to the doctor, "but your comlink thing...whatever it's called...it's really loud."
Alefgard looked genuinely concerned and hurriedly dialled down the underwater speaker through his control panel, "I'm terribly sorry, how does that sound now?"
"Much better I think," Coda said with an exhausted grimace on her face. She began to look around her enclosed environment and started to swim gracefully to and fro a few times, almost aimlessly like a fish in a bowl.
"Oh good, I am relieved," the doctor placed a hand on his chest, "It's my first time testing the system with a real aquatic being. I knew it worked, but obviously got the audio gain a bit wrong: physics is not my true passion."
He removed his hand from his chest and gestured across the tank, "But I am pleased the tank is to your liking. I reckon you should stay submerged for a little while longer in order to regain your strength. After all, this is what your body was built for. If it weren't for the unquestionable ambition of your race to reach the stars, you would always be deep in the oceans of your homeworld."
Sometimes I think we should have stayed there, Coda thought to herself as she settled down and returned to gazing at the doctor and his peculiar lab which featured a clinical exam table in the center with adjustable medical light domes and mechanical arms hanging directly above it. Dr. Alefgard was standing near a bank of high-end computers, monitors, holo-projectors, and network servers; the kind that would have made her slicer friend back on Nar Shaddaa, the Contrarian, bristle with envy. To her, it seemed more like an advanced hospital operating room than a biology lab.
"Doctor, I'm really hungry," Coda said, arms wrapped around her abdomen as her digestive system rumbled. She wondered if her stomach had learned to use the Force to make its groans louder than before. "And, do you know how long I need to stay here? I have to be somewhere off-world in less than two weeks. I-I can help your Academy. I'll work to pay for my passage and earn my keep. It's the least I can do."
Edrick sighed and shook his head, “You will be provided sustenance, but perhaps, before we get into any further details, I should explain to you the situation we find ourselves in here on Lorrd. You see, while the people out there have been living their lives in blissful ignorance, a terrible plague threatens their very lives. An unsuspecting foe that threatens to taint the very lifeblood you find yourself in now: water.”
He paced over to a screen and brought up a display of several extremely magnified bacteria; dyed a violet colour so its elongated cell wall and inner cytoplasm popped out against the white background. The long little microorganisms writhed unpleasantly on the sped-up footage, which showed the cells dividing and spreading.
“This,” the doctor gestured firmly, “Is Lorexobacteria: an extremely resilient bacterial strain that is currently known to infest almost all major water sources on the planet. Able to survive in freshwater, seawater, hard water and even in extreme temperature conditions such as hot springs. It photosynthesises and multiples until it creates a thick yellow-green algae layer on the surface of the water: suffocating the life below its surface and has also proven hazardous to ingest by all living organisms.”
He turned back dramatically, still holding is finger pointedly in the air, “But here’s the interesting part, my friend: until a few years ago, Lorexobacteria did not exist. Not just on Lorrd, but on any documented planet. So, either we have been visited by bacteria from beyond the known galaxy or this is one of the most extreme cellular mutations ever documented…”
He squinted, looking deep into Coda, “Perhaps it was both.”
Deep concern crossed over Coda's face. The idea of such a horrific waterborne disease would be extremely deadly on Glee Anselm. Even the Nautolans were no strangers to resilient diseases. Some mythical stories even spoke of a terrible deep sea plague that forced the pre-historical Nautolans to adapt on land which lead to the ancient wars with the surface-dwelling Anselmi tribes.
"Stars," Coda said in astonishment, shivering with fear in spite of the warm temperature-controlled aquarium she was in. "Can anything be done about it? Surely the Republic can send help, right?"
Something about the mention of the Republic made the doctor uneasy. Coda could sense it, despite the man’s strong mental resistance. He shook his head and paced away from the glass, becoming a blurrier shape once again.
“The Republic… does not know the full extent of the situation,” he stated plainly, “Besides, I have no desire to see some GalactaWerks research team descend and quarantine our world…or worse.”
Something seemed to take hold of Dr Alefgard; a spike of anger, directed inwards, causing him to violently clench a hand on his temple, “It was my mistake! I will fix it! No Republic interference.”
He stormed over to a reinforced lock-box and released the latch by imputing his fingerprint. He prized open the box and carefully lifted out a rusty-coloured object, which he carefully but enthusiastically carried back in both hands to the tank. Coda now saw that it was some sort of old gauntlet, with odd runes adorned upon it. Some seemed similar to those seen in Cabal’s lab on Vaa.
“You see this Coda?” rasped the doctor, “When I found this Sith artefact, that’s when the bacteria appeared. This was the start of it all and I know, I just know, it is also the key to ending it.”
He began to wrap the gantlet around his right arm, “Well, this and you, of course.”
Coda's first instinct was to swim back and away from the doctor, her water breathing growing more intense as her large aquatic eyes fixated upon a small metal iris-like opening on the back of the gauntlet which revealed a blood-red stone no larger than the tips of one of her fingers gleaming with a font of intense energy within. The glow pierced her vision and its living consciousness easily seized upon her thoughts. Entranced, and unable to move, she was helpless to resist as a deep booming voice spoke directly into her mind...
"Obey my will, acolyte...and the dark side of the Force shall permit you to keep your life. Refuse...and this human under my control will end your miserable existence. The choice is yours."
TBC
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