And eye for an eye, a hand for a hand

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Kriff, this hurt. This hurt almost as much as child birth. Almost. Not quite, but it was certainly up there. As Zandra was led out of her ship by one of her last surviving crew mates, she swayed. She'd drugged herself against the pain with enough glitterstim, AKA 'Stardust' to kill most sentient beings. Thankfully, Zandra had developed a good tolerance for it. Oh the joys of drug addiction.

"Where?" she asked quietly as they moved down the street in the dead of night. She had the stub of her right arm wrapped in strips of her favorite shirt. Not so favorite anymore. Ah well, when she got a new hand, she could steal another one.

"Just ahead, Cap'n," Corny replied to his heavily drugged and injured captain, "Down there. Let's go a little faster."

 

[Doctor Azure]

Doctor Lorane Azure was sitting in his office and playing with bits of metal. Lately, it seemed like his armory always needed tinkering. His jet boots were in need of tuning up, his guns needed cleaning and new bullets, and his glasses needed fixing for something like the millionth time this year. Basically, he was expecting a quiet night... right up until a proximity alarm went off on his security system.​

​

There was a drunk-looking blonde woman being half-carried by a man who looked less drunk, but more likely to cause trouble. Lorane picked up the nearest loaded gun and put his glasses back on as he stepped towards the door with his shirt half-open and his hair tousled like a dog's. As the door automatically swung open, he cocked his pistol and took aim at the man's head.​

​

"Clinic's closed, kids. If you're here for something that's not of the clinical kind of work, you better tell me if I'm gonna shoot you or simply kick you off my stoop until business hours. I don't take real kindly to bounty hunters."​

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[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Zandra weakly looked up at the voice while Corny stopped in his tracks.

"Tha's why were here," he snapped, "Cap's hurt."

To emphasize the point, he grabbed Zandra's stump and pulled it up to show him. The pirate captain weakly hissed in pain and snatched it once again out of his grip. Didn't he know how raw and sensitive it still was? Even drugged half to death,Zandra was still in a good bit of pain.

"We can pay," Zandra slurred, swaying on the spot, "Whatevs ya wan'..."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Son of a queen!"​

​

Lorane stepped away from the door to let the two people in and sat down in his chair while he looked for some bacta and medseals to put over the stump of the woman's arm. He found them and then dived into the storage closet again to look for a way to cauterize the wound. He found a small blowtorch. Crude, but probably effective. He looked at the captain and her crewman and handed the torch to him as the doctor unwrapped the makeshift bandage on the end of her arm.​

​

"Now, this is gonna hurt like hell, but I'm gonna use that blowtorch to cauterize the wound and then drop bacta and medseals over it."​

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[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

He wasn't lying. It did hurt. Yeah. She was willing to say that hurt about as much as childbirth. She screamed while Corny held her down. Sweet swaying stars above! Zandra never cried. It just wasn't in her. Even when she had kids, she never cried. But now, tears flowed freely down her pale cheeks. Combination of stress, drugs, and a hell of a lot of pain.

Then it was gone.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

As Lorane carefully placed bacta and medseals over the now-burned closed stump of the woman's arm, he smiled gently and patted her shoulder. She'd be okay, most likely, after she came down off of whatever painkillers she'd gone and given herself. He collapsed into his chair and gestured towards her as he talked to the man who'd brought her.​

​

"What's your captain got juicing her up like that? Probably gotta flush it out soon, 'cos I need her sober enough to answer a few questions."​

​

The Chiss doctor tossed the blowtorch back into the cabinet before turning back to the metal bits he'd been playing with before. There was one clump of metal that seemed to be shaping up into a pretty decent-looking metal finger. He pulled on the bottom joint and grinned as the digit seemed to curl up and down at him. Mad science is fun.​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

"Stardu- err, glitterstim is what most people call it," Corny answered gently holding his captain as she panted and shook. It was all very sweet- or would be, if he wasn't so damn terrified of her. His Captain was a fierce woman. Nobody on the ship liked to make her mad.

"I ain't... I c-can talk," she stuttered, "W-what're ya doin?"

She wasn't looking at the chiss though. She was staring right over his shoulder. Calico watched her from the other side of the room. He met her eyes, scarred face heavy with worry. She raised her left hand, reaching out. She could touch him. She knew she could touch him. If she just reached a little further...

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Eugh, Stardust... No wonder she's smashed like a window"​

​

Lorane leaned across his desk to get a good look at the woman's eyes. They weren't pointed at him. She was looking past him... Maybe even through him. Seemed like she was even more frakked up than most glitterstim addicts. He pulled his chair out from behind the desk and dropped it in front of the captain, sitting down and staring into her face.​

​

"Alright, captain... If your head's clear enough to focus on what I'm saying. You gotta stay here a few days and heal up that arm. Let me watch it so it won't get infected or the like. And you're not getting your hands on any of that damn spice while you're here."​

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[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

The doctor moved in her way. She made a face, looked around him, looking for her husband. He had just been there. Not more than a few feet away. Where did he go?
Oh. Right. He wasn't there after all.

Zandra lowered her remaining hand, sighed.
She was a mess.

"Yeah, b-but, hurts..."

That was putting it lightly. She felt like her entire damn arm should have fallen off, not just the hand. She was half tempted, in her drugged up state, to ask him to just chop her arm off up to her elbow. So stupid.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Stardust ain't a painkiller, lady. Painkillers are painkillers. And I can't even give you those, because who the frak knows what your 'dust was laced with? Not me, and I'd bet money that you don't either."​

​

Lorane glared daggers at the woman's crewmate as he spun in his chair.​

​

"And I doubt that you knew enough to question your captain's idiotic spice bender. Bloody pirates."​

​

He rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. These two had barely even gotten here, said almost nothing, and he was already about as aggravated as anybody in the galaxy could make him. He managed to calm himself down enough to smile gently and put a hand on the woman's shoulder.​

​

"Look, Captain... I know it hurts, and I hate to say this, but you've got to deal with it for a couple of days. You gotta dry out so I can give you actual medicine, and so I can figure out whether or not I can fit a prosthetic on you."​

​

What he didn't add was that it was extremely likely that he'd give her alcohol if she asked for it tomorrow. As much as his medical knowledge warned him not to drink, he was an alcoholic, and refusing people alcohol when they seemed to be in need of it wasn't something he did unless he knew for a fact it would be seriously detrimental. He stood up and offered his arm to help the blonde woman up.​

​

"C'mon, Cap... I'll show you to a room."​

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[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Corry grimaced and shrunk back. Great. The captain heard all that. She'd probably kill him tomorrow for letting her do it. But then, she woulda killed him for trying to stop her. Better to die later, he supposed. Lady Z was a difficult woman to predict.

"I'll... err... go watch the ship," the pirate said, backing up as his captain was led away, "Be back tomorrow."

At one point in time. Maybe.

The blonde stumbled to her feet, swaying this way and that, as if a strong wind was tugging at her. She'd heard every word the Doctor had said, but she was hardly paying attention. She was quite busy studying the glittery fuzz at the corner of her vision. Every time she tried to follow it with her eyes, it just disappeared. How... odd.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane smiled a little awkwardly as he put an arm around the blonde woman's waist to keep her from falling down as he half-carried her to one of the rooms behind the clinic. He didn't figure he needed the actual safehouse if he was here to guard her the whole time. As he opened the door to one of the rooms and sat her down on the bed, he smiled at her again.​

​

"Well, Captain, feel free to ask me for whatever you want. I'll be sitting here until I'm sure you're asleep."​

​

He grabbed a vial full of Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster from a belt pocket and took a swig.​

​

"My name's Lorane, by the way. Lotta people like to call me Doc Azure. Or Doc. Call me whichever. What's your name?"​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

She was sitting on a bed now, staring blankly ahead. Nothing made sense. Where was she again? This wasn't her bed. Her bed had significantly less clean sheets and piles of clothes. She decided that for the moment, she really did not care who's bed it was. For now, she just let herself slump over to the side until her messy blonde head hit the pillow.

"Lor...ane? L-lorane is a girls name where I c-come from, Doc."

The Echani pirate managed a tiny ghost of a smile. Behind him, the hallucination of her husband was back, watching her. His brown eyes watched her carefully. He reached up to his chest, fist curled over his heart. Zandra went to mirror the ghosts gesture, only to be reminded of her missing hand.

"Zandra," she sighed, "Names Zandra."

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Humor. That was a good sign. Meant that the woman wasn't so messed up that her brain wasn't connecting. Lorane chuckled quietly.​

​

"Well, I could've spent a rather long time trying to correct the pronunciation of my name in Cheunh, but who wants that? So, my name's Lorane."​

​

The Chiss noticed Zandra staring near him again, slightly confused. He knew that glitterstim was pretty hallucinogenic, but he'd thought that talking to the person was enough to make them focus. Apparently not.​

​

"Zandra... Like the pirate?"​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Were she a little more with it, she might have taken his question as a warning sign. She was a wanted woman. It was dangerous, especially in her state. She could easily be dragged in and cashed in for her rather large bounty.

"Yeah," she answered, absently waving her hand in Cals direction, "Like the pirate. He knows too. It's okay."

The ghost of her husband said nothing to her. Her hallucinations never spoke. A little bit of a disappointment, actually. She really wondered if she got high enough, if the hallucination of her husband might speak back to her.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane sat back in his chair a bit as he took another swig of his Blaster. So she was Zandra Tal'verda, then? Didn't matter to him, much. He was in the business of running a safehouse for her type. Even if he hadn't felt bad for the pirate, he wouldn't have sold her out as a matter of principle. It was his job as a doctor to patch people up, and it was his job as an underground guy to protect them until they could be set loose on the galaxy again. The Chiss doctor laughed as he spoke again​

​

"Wish I could tell if you were talking to me, or if you were talking to whoever the glitter is making you see."​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

"Ya can't see 'im?"

Of course he couldn't. Calico was gone. Dead, alive, it didn't matter. She hadn't seen him in almost two years now. He was gone. So gone, he might as well have never existed in the first place. Probably would have been better for her if he hadn't. Hanging by this tiny thread of hope was hardly what Zandra would call a life. A part of her hoped that someone would find his body decaying somewhere. Someone would come along and snap that thread and let her just fall into the deep dark of despair. At least then, she'd have a change to climb out of it eventually. But no. Here she was, just... dangling. Uncertain. Forever.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Lorane looked around, just in case she was actually looking at some small animal on the wall or something, but he didn't see anything. He tried to speak as gently as he possibly could, sighing sadly.​

​

"I'm sorry, Zandra, but there's nobody there. You're hallucinating. Me and you are the only people in this room right now."​

​

All the Chiss could do was wonder what had gotten this formerly infamous pirate so depressed that she was spiced and looking around the room like a lonely child without her stuffed animal. Even when she sobered up, he didn't think it would feel right to directly ask. Maybe she'd tell him on her own, but he doubted it.​

​

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

He was right, of course. Even high as a kite, Zandra knew he was right. She was seeing things. Again. As usual. It was the only reason to take Stardust. It gave her one more chance to see him. One more conversation with him, even if it was entirely one sided.

"Where'd Corny go?" she asked, suddenly aware that her crew mate had vanished. She finally looked back at the doctor as if she had not just moments ago been talking about someone who wasn't there.

[member="Doctor Azure"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

"Your glorified crutch of a crewmate? He nearly shat himself when I started yelling at you. I'm surprised he was brave enough to hold you down for the torch."​

​

Even though the sudden return to lucidity surprised Lorane, he wasn't complaining. At least she wasn't talking to ghosts anymore. That was both detrimental to her psychological health and frakking creepy. Now he felt like he could relax a bit instead of worrying about whether or not she would come down during the night.​

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[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]​