Private Rebirth

[Inanna Harth]

Temporary refugee camp, Tython

Evening found Inanna, utterly exhausted, finally heading back to the makeshift morgue. It was hours before she could tear herself away from working around the camp, and even then she felt vaguely guilty to be leaving. There was still more work to be done.

But she had a mission of her own to complete, and she’d be neglecting her duties if she didn’t bring the remains of Arimanes Bosch home for burial. Er, back to the other refugee camp for Shi’ido. Home was off-limits to them.

The “morgue” was a series of tables stacked with coffin-shaped containers. Some were labeled, others were not. The sight of so many unidentified remains depressed her, but she forced herself to focus. Arimanes’ had his name on it.

Had she been less tired, she could’ve used the Force to move the box onto her ship. But she didn’t trust herself not to drop it. That meant she needed at least one other person to help her carry the thing. Looking around, she tried to find a person or a droid who could assist her in the morbid task of pallbearing.

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

There was little time for breaks in the camp, especially for the medical volunteers.

Not that this could really be considered a ‘break’.

It was just another cold reminder of the toll that had been extracted. And not just on those who had fought for her homeworld.

Tython wasn’t exactly a densely-populated planet. But it had a semblance of civilization. She should know, after all, having been raised near one such community, as humble as it was. One not far from here, for that matter. For all she knew, the unmarked coffin laid before her carried a past neighbor, or childhood friend. Amani swallowed the sickening feeling that crawled up her throat.

Her glassy-eyed stare was only disrupted after she recognized the presence of another living soul under the tent canopy. The mirialan blinked and looked over, the circles under her eyes dark enough to be mistaken for a fresh set of tattoos at first glance. It was the woman from before. They’d never had a chance to meet before all the action, although the morgue tent wasn’t exactly a great place for conversation, either. Nonetheless, there was a sense of need behind her eyes; A need which Amani considered her duty to fulfill.

She approached the woman, and cleared her throat to get her attention, “...Hey,” Was all she offered, plus a flat, tired smile that seemed uniform across most of the camp’s aids.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“...Hey.”

“Yeah,” was Inanna’s drowsy reply, before she jolted awake. “Oh, uh—hello. You’re that healer, right?”

She’d never learned her name. The situation had been too chaotic. “I’m Inanna Yomin,” she introduced herself, hoping the Mirialan would follow suit. “I’m looking for someone to help me move one of these… coffins onto my ship. I was asked to transport it to the next of kin.”

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

"Um, yeah. I was there when-" She shrugged and cut herself off, deciding to let that topic take a break for once, "I'm Amani." The Mirialan gestured to herself.

"Ah…" There wasn't really a nice way to explore Inanna's current situation. Amani's eyes fell to the casket, then returned to the woman, "I guess that's what I'm here for. Things have finally slowed down at the med wing. A little, anyway," She stepped over to the opposite side, and pulled out a datapad. An apologetic look spread across her face before she typed in a bit of relevant information, effectively 'checking out' the transaction. A depressingly clinical way to have to treat victims of attempted terracide, but at the same time… can't exactly have just anyone wandering off with a body.

"...What's your relation?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Adoptive sister.” In memory, anyway. No legal records of the adoption had survived the diaspora from Lao-mon, but Inanna doubted Amani would bother to ID her.

She abruptly realized that she hadn’t checked the contents of the coffin. No one had been around to prompt her to identify the body. “I should probably make sure it’s him first,” she said. “One moment, please…”

Stepping away from Amani, she walked up to the box. Finding a control panel on the side, she pressed a button and the lid slid open, revealing the corpse of a middle-aged man. Held in stasis to slow the decomposition process, the stasis field had also preserved his injuries (he’d been crushed by rubble) as well as smears of dirt and dried black blood.

The face was intact and recognizable. Inanna stood over the coffin and looked at it a long time, perhaps for longer than was necessary, before she finally turned away and replaced the lid.

“Right,” she murmured. “It’s definitely him.”

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

"Sister…" Amani mumbled to herself as she keyed in the information, then waited nervously as Inanna opened the coffin. A figure laid at rest inside, still preserved in the state they had more or less been left in. There was something uncomfortably liminal about the sight; Peaceful, but still bearing the marks of the tragedy that had brought them here.

The woman confirmed the body, and Amani added that piece of information as well with a frown, "...I'm sorry." She set the datapad aside, uneager to make the process any more robotic than it already was. The healer waited at her end of the casket, for whatever time Innana needed to process the loss and/or take up the other end, so they could begin their solemn duty.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Apart from her silence and hesitation, Inanna seemed relatively unmoved by the sight of a dead sibling. The loss of so many family members and friends in the years since the war had begun had left her numb. It was as if she had no more tears left to shed.

She nodded in acknowledgement of Amani’s condolences, then moved to take the other end of the casket. She expected it to be heavier, but it was quite manageable between the two of them.

Her ship was parked a short distance away. A white solar yacht, it didn’t quite suit the somber occasion, but that couldn’t be helped. With Amani’s help, Inanna carried the box up the boarding ramp and into the vessel, where a room had been cleared out in preparation for this new cargo.

She set it down carefully, magnetizing it to the floor so it wouldn’t move around, then straightened. “Thanks for the help,” she said.

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

They each took up their roles as pallbearers, making the short trek to Inanna’s ship where the casket was then laid. “Don’t mention it. It’s the least I could do,” Amani waved her hand, then reaffirmed the meaning of that phrase, “Really. If you need to talk or just… have someone around or… whatever. I’m here.”

A moment passed before she spoke again, wanting to make sure there wasn't some sort of pressure put on Inanna to meet her halfway, “There’s also supposed to be some kind of… group meeting thing? Later. In the camp. Like a uh, group therapy, for people who want to share. Get some things off their chest. If that’s more your speed.” Amani herself didn’t really have any intentions of going, or at least not sharing. Her work was a bit more important to her than a chance to vent.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Oh, uh, well…” Inanna rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “I don’t know if I would want to talk to a bunch of strangers about it…”

Shi’ido were generally reserved creatures. Personal and private matters weren’t spoken of outside of the family or trusted friends. Inanna no longer had much of a clan, though, and so she had kept most of her emotions bottled up. Her work gave her a focus, but it was more of a distraction than anything else.

Taking a closer look at Amani, she noticed the bruising under the young woman’s eyes. She expected a relief worker to be tired, but not an insomniac. Was she a native to this world?

“Do you need someone to talk to?” she asked.

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani chuckled, “Yeah, me neither, honestly.” It’s great that it worked for some people, but even if she did feel she had the opportunity for it, she wouldn’t exactly choose to profess her woes on an entire crowd of random people.

The mirialan had not expected the question to be turned back on her however, “Oh, um… no, no. I’ll be alright.” She seemed to shrink a bit, rather obviously not giving the full story. But she hadn’t really intended to anyway. “...Do you?” Amain still offered. Maybe one stranger was more acceptable than a dozen.

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna laughed. It was more of a giggle, really. “Out of all the people in the camp, I wind up with the one who’s just as stubbornly private as I am,” she said. “No thank you. Mine is just one more tale of tragedy and woe out of trillions, full of the usual clichés and tropes. It's not even really worth telling.”

Shrugging her shoulders, she sighed. “I should probably get going. One more thing—would you happen to know if Count Organa is still in the camp? Or has he left yet?”

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani could only shrug sheepishly at Inanna's decision. She was free to cope with her woes however she pleased, but the Mirialan couldn't really bring herself to join in on her self-deprecation, "Fair enough. Just as long as you don't feel like you have to keep it hidden."

The mention of another did spur a little more of a reaction, "You mean- Alicio? Er-" He was a Count, then? First time she'd learned it. "Uhh, I assume he's still around. I haven't seen him since… last night."

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

"Fair enough. Just as long as you don't feel like you have to keep it hidden."

Inanna only hummed in acknowledgment. Amani was correct in her assessment—she felt like she couldn’t talk about it—but it wasn’t an issue of shame, it was an issue of trust. She didn’t trust someone she’d just met.

Amani’s response to her question caused her eyes to narrow slightly. It wasn’t the casual use of Alicio’s first name that made her squint, it was the pause before last night. As if it held some special significance…

“I have a message to give to him,” Inanna said. “I should probably deliver it in person before I leave.”

She could just as easily send the message via comms or the Holonet, but what was the fun in that?

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

"Ah." Amani rested her hands behind her back, looking a little more awkward than the situation warranted. "Well, I can't imagine he just got up and left. You know how he is," Her brow furrowed at her own choice of words. She'd just met the guy less than 24 hours ago, but was talking as if she'd known him all along.

"...Maybe check the admin wing?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Right.”

Inanna turned as if to leave, then stopped, a thought suddenly occurring to her.

“Are you a doctor? Like a camp medic? Who are you affiliated with?”

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

"Uh-" She tripped over her own line of thought, not expecting the sudden question, "I'm a medic. Camp volunteer. Pretty much been here since the battle started."

Amani blinked, "...Why?"

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Camp Spyridon on Erakhis is short on medics. Preferably ones with knowledge of Shi’ido physiology. Would you or anyone you know happen to have any knowledge or experience in that field?”

Amani Serys

 

[Amani Serys]

Amani raised a skeptical brow, “...Shi’ido are notoriously mysterious. They’re a biological marvel, but there’s very few sources to study from…” The thought didn’t quite occur to her that she was actually speaking to a member of said species, but it’s not like she was saying anything derogatory, “That said, I’ve done my research. On that which is available anyway.”

“Are you offering me a job?”

Inanna Harth​

 

[Inanna Harth]

“They’re also currently an endangered species, thanks to a biological weapon engineered by the Maw.” Inanna’s tone suggested that she was intimately familiar—far more than she would’ve liked to be—with this weapon. “It’s possible to counter the effects and ensure survival, but time is of the essence. And if there aren’t enough hands on deck…”

Amani cut straight to the point. Inanna nodded.

“I am. If you wouldn’t mind leaving here, that is. I imagine there’s still a great deal of work left to be done on Tython.”

Amani Serys​

 

[Amani Serys]

“I’d be happy to help. But you’re not wrong, Tython is still in…pretty bad shape. I just…” Amani bit her lip in thought, fighting an internal argument with herself over the conflicting issues. With a sigh she finally admitted, “...Tython is my home. If I leave now then… I feel like I’m turning my back on everyone here.”

“...How much time are we talking, exactly?” She didn’t want to leave, but she wasn’t very well going to condemn a species to death for the sake of home and hearth, if it came to it.

Inanna Harth​