Private The Mind in Twilight

[Dominic Praxon]

// Praxon Estate
// Naboo
// Evening

The sun was dying over Naboo. Deep violet and bruised amber bled across the horizon, casting long, skeletal shadows through the high stone archways.
Dominic sat frozen on the terrace. He had not blinked in minutes.

Around him, the estate grounds stretched out in severe, geometric perfection. Manicured boxwood hedges formed sharp, green labyrinths. Tiered marble fountains spilled water with a rhythmic, heavy splash that only amplified the silence. White stone colonnades framed the horizon, looking less like a home and more like a classical tomb.
Seven days of this. Three weeks since the dark sider tore his mind apart.

His face was a ruined sculpture of hollows and sharp bone. A week of near-total starvation had left his skin pale, almost translucent under the fading twilight. When they forced food between his lips, he chewed with a slow, mechanical detachment. Just enough to keep the heart beating. Just enough to stay trapped in his own head.

The doctors had given up. Neuro-scans couldn't fix a soul shattered by a force mind probe.

So the family turned to a gamble. They called upon his obsession: the Outbound Flight project. They called on them to send someone, a volunteer who could update him on the mission's progress.

The iron gate groaned.

The aged family caretaker led the visitor down the gravel path, past the sculpted cypress trees. The old woman's shoulders were hunched with grief. She stopped at the edge of the stone terrace, her eyes wet as she turned to the younger woman.

"Thank you for coming, Miss Sah," she whispered. The fountain drowned out her trembling voice. "Seven days. Not a word. We think... if he sees some mission reports, if he hears about the work...it might spark something. Please. The open sky is the only thing that keeps the terror out of his eyes."

The caretaker stepped back.

Tatiana was left alone on the stone terrace, facing a man who looked exactly like the statues around him.

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

In the interim as they sought to help Dominic recover, Tatiana had faced her own troubles. Lesser by far, but not everyone took certain details in the report with the same ease the Jedi Knight had. Concerns regarding the manner in which she had dispatched hostiles. She had understood, of course, but not agreed. In fact, her understanding only enabled her to justify her actions. The needs of the many. Tatiana also pointed out that she had not inflicted under pain or suffering on those retired assets. And while she didn't say it aloud, their Knight had made certain not to engage in less 'civilized' means of combat when there were witnesses. And some recordings had gotten 'lost' in the interim. Some. Not all. Tatiana had been interrupted.

None of which mattered when the Praxon estate reached out. She'd been waiting on them to allow visitors. She wasn't as certain about healing an organic body as she could a technological device, but just being by Dominic's side would have been enough.

At last, the blonde stood before the gates and awaited those inside to invite her in. It was a bit surprising to find it was an elderly woman that greeted her; not for her age -- which for her kind was entirely natural -- but because it seemed quite the walk for someone of her advanced age. Add the emotional weight so clearly pressed upon her and Tatiana would have expected them to open the gate remotely and meet her at the door instead.

Once they reached the terrace, Tatiana turned her bright gaze over to the other woman. She smiled for the other woman. Not cheerfully, but a smile all the same. "I will sit with him, and speak of all the work he has missed." Well, not exactly, but no need to confuse someone already distraught. Accept their request and do what needed done.

A moment after being left alone, Tatiana slowly started across the terrace.

As she drew nearer, Tatiana began recounting a quartermaster's report concerning the supplies aboard ship, especially concerning fuel, energy generation, food stores, and water. Her voice was warm, but conversational in tone and volume as she drew nearer. Her blue eyes watched for some sign of response even before she nearer his personal space.

She'd stop at his side and look down at Dominic to weigh his physical state and see if he noticed her arrival. If not enough, she would take a step forward and then kneel down so he could better see her face. "Dominic?"

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

The estate was heavy with the weight of things left unsaid. Dominic sat within it, hearing everything and feeling nothing.

The splash of the fountains, the rustle of the manicured hedges, the soft fall of footsteps on the gravel — they were only sounds. They could not touch the dark, hollow place where his mind had been broken.

Then came her voice.

Inside the quiet vault of his mind, something shifted. The memory woke, but it did not come back whole.

He was suddenly back on the hull, the vast, cold expanse of the galaxy laid out before him. They were watching the comet. He could see the pale fire of its tail cutting through the black. But the warmth of that night was gone. In its place was a terrible, sudden lightness.

His boots failed. The magnetic click that held him to the ship simply vanished.

In the memory, he began to drift. The grey metal of the Outbound Flight grew smaller, shrinking away into the dark. He reached out, his fingers brushing against nothing. Tatiana was there, standing on the hull, her hand extended, but the gap between them widened by inches, then feet, then miles. She was a small, bright point of light against an immense, uncaring void.

"Dominic?"

Her voice didn't come from beside him. It echoed out of the empty space between the stars, thin and distorted by the distance. He was falling upward into the dark, completely alone.

On the terrace, Dominic did not move. His eyes remained fixed on the dying horizon. But as the echo of her greeting settled into his chest, his shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch. A single, breathy sigh escaped his parted lips, soft as a dying ember, before the stillness took him again.

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

Tatiana reached out with both hands to slip her fingers under those of Dominic's, and slowly and carefully clasp them. "Dominic, it's Tatiana." She paused to smile. "You're home. Outbound Flight is safe. You're safe. And you still owe me breakfast." Her head tilted to one side. "You wouldn't want me to eat alone, would you?"

She looked beyond Dominic to make sure there wasn't someone loitering nearby. "Dominic, if you can't find your way back to me... if you can't feel me," a gentle squeeze of the hands, "or hear me, then I'll just have to try healing you myself. I'm not leaving you behind, Dominic."

There was a pause as her lips pressed together for a second. "I've... never connected with someone like you before. I don't know if it will work, but I will have to try even if you can't respond. You will forgive me, won't you? If I try? You're the only reason I'm still here, Dominic. And I'm not leaving without you." Tatiana didn't know how best to articulate what she was feeling or what she should do under those circumstances. There was copious amounts of research papers and psychological papers that could be conjured that said to just talk and be there, but was that really enough? Perhaps she should... dig deeper. But what if that only made things worse? What were the odds? Why was it coming up 'undefined?'

Her right hand released his left only to reach up and brush his hair back and stroke his cheek. Tatiana smiled as she gazed into his eyes. "Do you remember the garden? The bench. You put your jacket around my shoulders. Those were pretty stars weren't they?" Night was coming. Perhaps they would sit under a different canopy of stars together. It would be nice if they could just talk again, alone, surrounded by the galaxy's infinite possibilities.

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

He was back in the arboretum of the Outbound Flight, beneath the massive arch of the transparasteel canopy. Above them, a sea of unfamiliar stars burned with a cold, piercing intensity. He could smell the rich, damp earth of the garden beds.

Tatiana was sitting beside him on the stone bench. He saw her as he remembered her best from that day.

Her skin was gone, replaced by a smooth, polished shell of seamless silver and bronze. She looked like an artist's geometric ideal, a faceless, gleaming statue forged for an exhibition, utterly devoid of human expression. Yet, when she reached out to slip her fingers under his, the metal was impossibly warm. He felt the weight of her presence, a distinct and undeniable personhood radiating through the cold alloy of her hands.

"Dominic, if you can't find your way back to me... if you can't feel me," her voice emerged from the featureless metal face, with a warm but analytical desperation. "Then I'll just have to try healing you myself."

She leaned closer, a faceless mirror reflecting the starlight. "Do you remember the garden? The bench? Those were pretty stars, weren't they?"

He opened his mouth to reply, but the ship lurched beneath them.

The Ssi-Ruuvi attack had found them. A blinding flash of crimson fire erupted from the starboard corridor, shattering the transparasteel canopy above. The explosive decompression tore his fingers from hers, throwing him into the vacuum as the garden disintegrated about them.

On the Naboo terrace, Dominic remained entirely frozen. His hands lay limp in Tatiana's gentle grasp, his chest rising and falling in that same slow, mechanical rhythm. The horror raged behind his eyes, but on the surface, his face remained unmoved.

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

With no response, Tatiana afforded him one more brilliant smile. Of course, something so traumatic wouldn't be so easily dispelled. Shared experiences were helpful, but they weren't magic. Which meant, for Dominic's sake, she would need to use the thing closest to magic at hand.

After she'd straightened up, Tatiana stepped closer to Dominic again. She'd settle in along side him, crouching down to his level. One hand cradled the side of Dominic's head and gently coaxed him to lean toward her shoulder. To an outside observer it'd just be two people comfortably sitting before the resplendent view from Dominic's estate. Perhaps a bit more intimately than expected, but leeway was afforded in comforting someone in his condition, right? They had no need to be aware that Tatiana actually sought to cradle his head against her for something more mystical in nature.

Her other hand lifted Dominic's and slowly turned it over to intertwine their fingers.

"You remember the first time I visited you in your office? You were consumed with paperwork. Reports about every facet of the Expedition as though no one else could review the numbers and demands of such a long and complex mission. I hope you don't mind that I took the opportunity to automate the fuel consumption report. I was going to do the rest slowly over time so you didn't notice at first." Conversation helped her as well. Nothing was certain. It was a gamble, but one she had to take. She could do it.

All Tatiana had to do was take it slowly. Reach out with her understanding of quantum energy fields and the Force and beyond the physical that kept them apart. There had to be a way to understand what had happened to him. Once she found the damage it could be repaired. There was no room for doubt now.

"You had a beautiful view of the stars from there as well as they slid by in hyperspace."

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

The fire of the exploding arboretum vanished as quickly as it had come, but it brought no peace. A sudden, cold pressure rippled through the back of his mind. An intrusion. Panic flared in his chest, the raw, suffocating terror of a mind being forced open once again. He tried to pull away, to fight the unseen weight pressing into his thoughts.

But then, a phantom sensation chased the terror away. It was the memory of a kiss as light as a falling feather, brushing softly against the hollow of his cheek.

He blinked. The suffocating pressure eased, molding into something warm and familiar.

Dominic was sitting on the small, two-seater sofa in his office aboard the Outbound Flight. The room was quiet, filled only with the low hum of the ship's reactors. On his desk, stacks of unfinished datapads sat in neat rows. Through the wide window behind him, the stars merely slid past in long, peaceful streaks of hyperspace blue.

The dark side probe had ceased its tearing. This intrusion felt different.

He looked toward the threshold of the room, his shoulders still tense with lingering anxiety. Standing in the open doorway was Tatiana.

The stoic coordinator, the man who carried the logistical weight of a small fleet, was entirely absent. Stripped of his armor, he looked at her from the sofa, his voice trembling with a fragile, child-like innocence.

"They hurt me."

On the Naboo terrace, the rigid, mechanical posture finally dissolved. As Tatiana touched his mind, Dominic's head sank heavily into the crook of her shoulder. A ragged, trembling breath shuddered through his chest, his fingers faintly tightening against hers in the gathering twilight.

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

"They won't hurt you any more," Tatiana replied from where she sat and where she stood. She rested her head lightly against his own; cradled him in her embrace on the terrace as they sat there in the resounding silence broken only by running water and the soft hush of wind. "I won't let them." They'd done far worse than she'd expected already. It had stricken her when the rescue operation had ended and his status ascertained.

"Tell me how you feel, Dominic. It's okay. You don't need to hold it in." He might have the unassailable air about him, but that didn't mean there wasn't an unconscious part still trying to put on the bold front. "Let me sit with you for a while." All night and all day if need be. His caretakers could bring a blanket if they so chose, but she would use the Force if need be to make certain Dominic was comfortable for as long as it took.

Was it possible to heal from such a traumatic experience? Tatiana already knew research in the field could give no definite answer. Theoretically? Yes. In actuality... only time would tell. Paradoxically, she had both all the time in the world and none at all. Then again, she was here and the multitude were not; from where Tatiana sat she was in control of the clock not them.

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

The rushing blue light of the hyperspace tunnel shone over his shoulder and filled the room, making the space feel cold. And bigger than it should be.

Tatiana still stood across the room from him. She spoke, though her lips did not move. Dominic heard her as if coming across the ship's intercom. Something within him kept the vision of Tatiana at bay, mentally pushing back on the intrusion into his mind, even though he fought against the instinct.

"There is a bruise. Everywhere."

His words were soft. Stripped over the confidence and strength of resolve that marked his persona.

"I fought them. But they did it anyway."

If he hadn't have fought them, it would have hurt less. But if he had not fought them, he could not have lived with himself.

In the garden of Naboo, the haggard looking senator started to breath in a hitched, sharp manner — like a steam valve struggling under the pressure.

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

How should she respond? There were many ways, but Tatiana wasn't certain which one was best for Dominic. He needed to recover from his trauma and find some of his old strength again. He needed confidence. But you couldn't give these things to a person, and if you told them they could simply take refuge away from the world they never would find them again. How to coax him out without traumatizing him anew?

"The Outbound Flight was pushed into the pull of a massive singularity, Dominic. Its gravity waves strained the mighty vessel's hull, and had everyone on edge. Even me." Tatiana smiled as she kept him close, but peeked around at his face. "It felt almost inescapable with all our power committed to one, single act of defiance -- to escape. And after what felt like an eternity, gradually, one second at a time, the ship began to break free. All that effort made it possible to return back to the stars we call home. To see those we hold close, and all the majestic wonders that paint the night sky. Though," she added as if an after thought, "if you prefer the vibrant red of a rose under a mid-day sun I won't be offended."

Tatiana gently hugged Dominic. Her thumb rubbed against his hand as she gently pressed it against his chest. Maybe the world was vast. Too vast for someone so hurt, but they could stay close. They could draw near one another.

Without preamble, she turned her head just enough to give Dominic a soft kiss at the temple. It would take time, but Tatiana was extraordinarily patient.

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

The scene Tatiana described became his reality. His office dissolved into a convoluted array of light and smoke, before the bridge of the Outbound Flight formed about them. Dominic now stood, like a statue, as the room about him shook. Crew — with faces that always seemed turned away from view — called out damage reports, and structural integrity warnings.

Everyone seemed to be shouting at Dominic to do something. He was just the figurehead. No one of real value to the mission. He had no understanding of how the ship worked. No tactical nouse. Why were they calling on him?

He stood there, rigidly. Unmoving. Unable to move. But before him stood the perfect, quiet smile of Tatiana. An anchor for his inner self that dared not rise to the surface.

"The ship is strong," Dominic said, in a wavering tone — before his voice gained a more definite force, "he'll hold together."

Dominic turned. Moving towards the console that he had no idea how to use, and his fingers flew over the controls like an expert. "The pull is stronger to the starboard side...we have to increase thrust there...but only a short bust....just enough to break us free."

He looked up, to see Tatiana still standing there, calm...caring smile.

"Punch it!" He gave the command, and the ship lurched forward.

On the balcony, head nestled into the caring arms of a woman who should not care this much. Dominic finally spoke. Soft, shaky words. "Crew all accounted for...Captain."

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

"So they are," Tatiana breathed softly in response. Only because Dominic managed to endure as well as he had. Given the state in which he'd been rescued many others might have perished in his position.

"Dominic," she added quietly after a few moments, "if you need anything, you only need to ask. I will be right here with you. No one will hurt you." Maybe he still wasn't in the right mind to understand the words, but she hoped there was a sense of comfort that came with them all the same. Hopefully he heard it more than he had earlier. If she had to repeat it again and again until Dominic gave an articulate response so be it.

As for treatment, Tatiana still wasn't certain. Suppressing his memories might help him return to form, but they would come back. Effort could be made for permanent removal, but there was chance of damaging other memories, which was unacceptable. Memories were what made organics who they were. Among countless other chemical interactions, of course. Deleting them would restore him to a previous state in theory, however. As someone with countless literature at her fingertips, Tatiana had a unique position of philosophical treatises on such a thing. There were disagreements, but the vast majority spoke of unintended consequences.

There was still time. She should give Dominic the chance to heal and come to terms with what happened to him. The Jedi would simply have to acknowledge her feelings on the subject just as her own people were forced to. That too might have consequences, but it was the right thing to do.

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

Time passed slowly. And nothing more came from Dominic save the leaning into Tatiana's embrace. His breathing was measured. His eyes distant. But he felt her warmth.

Gradually, as an hour ticked over. His mouth parted one more time. This time, accompanied by a single tear, that tracked down his face before lingering on his bony, malnourished chin.

"She didn't come for me," he whispered.

"She promised she would always be there."

And he faded again, but now...eyes closing...breathing a little more ragged.

Another many moments passed. His hand now, gently squeezed Tatiana's. There was barely any strength left in it.

"I am hungry..."

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

Tatiana wanted to do more, but it was possible to be too hasty. Especially under the circumstances. Dominic had spoken. It was important to take that for the progress it was and not force him to confront feelings... that he might have just become aware of having in the first place. She would, at least maintain the embrace and help him feel he wasn't alone there in the garden.

After an hour, another soft utterance passed through his lips. Tatiana's blue eyes widened a hair as her head shifted slightly to observe his expression. "Everyone came, Dominic. Who didn't you see there?" Of course, Dominic had been in such a state he wouldn't have noticed. The ship had been a wreck. The crew in shambles. Everything they had left had been poured into the rescue operation despite the prudent move to be to return to base for repairs and resupply. They couldn't afford the travel time. Even taking as long as they had had been too long.

Of course, Tatiana was curious who 'she' was in particular as well.

After another brief silence, Dominic gave a frail squeeze of her hand -- which she had to be exceptionally careful in returning. "Do you want to eat out here with the stars, or inside, Dominic?" His involvement in decision making was important, she felt. It reconnected him to the world around him instead of the one manifested in his thoughts. It also afforded him a measure of control over his life that he might feel he still lacked.

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

His mind ventured, for the first brief visit, to the hear and the now. The breeze across his face, the warmth of Tatiana against his face and the reassuring grasp of her hand made for a not unpleasant return to reality.

Why was she here?

Perhaps it was the wrong question. She was clearly trying to help him.

Why did she feel obliged to be here?

The cold reality was that she was new to his life and, despite the comforting nature of her presence, she felt out of place. Like she didn't belong. Like her face belonged elsewhere. On a ship, perhaps. Not in the garden of his family estate. It was like two worlds that did not live with each had crashed into the now, and his mind struggled to calibrate to it.

"Here. Is fine," he struggled to say, eyes averting from the woman that clearly only wished to care for him.

The other question still lingered, unanswered. There was a name on the tip of his tongue. A name that by all rights he should not bring into this moment, not cause an affront to such an offering of affection in what was truly his most desperate hour.

But there was one thing true of Dominic that he could not shake. He hated people he respected seeing him as weak. And that intense dislike was pouring over him in increasingly intensive waves.

"Bastila wasn't there..."

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

Tatiana would have preferred if he ate indoors. The night sky would be quite scenic, and she didn't want him feeling claustrophobic, but it would begin to grow cooler in short order now. His companion simply nodded when his preference was made. A brief message was sent to Dominic's staff without uttering a word that Master of the Estate desired something to eat. And a blanket. Something heavier to make certain he didn't get sick from being exposed to the cooling air.

That Dominic's gaze turned away puzzled Tatiana, however. He was responding to his environment -- her -- though, which was a good sign. Not to a mental manifestation, but to her specifically. Or so it would seem. Progress.

Then, at last, Dominic spoke again. To answer her question. Tatiana batted her blue eyes when he said Bastila's name.

Should she feel relief because he hadn't mistaken Tatiana for not caring enough to come for him, or upset because he thought of someone else despite the rigor with which she committed to Dominic's return? It would seem the two feelings or thoughts were not contradictory, so logically speaking -- from a manner in which a Human might respond -- it should be both. How did you express both simultaneously, however? But then, logically, Tatiana should point out the obvious that Bastila had come. She'd been there with Tatiana. But emotionally that would be in direct contradiction with feeling out of sorts by Dominic prioritizing someone else first.

Emotions were complicated, and if he decision making wasn't capable of handling so many variables simultaneously faster than a Human Tatiana might have stood there like a statue for an extremely long period of time working it all out.

"Bastila." Her expression hadn't changed, but the name wasn't filled with the same warmth she'd been expressing up to that point for Dominic's sake. "When they found you?" To clarify where 'there' was in his mind. When he was taken? When he was rescued? When he was in the cell?

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

The blanket arrived. It was a heavy, plush thing of Naboo silk and dark wool, laid gently over his trembling shoulders by a ghost-faced servant who vanished back into the stone facade of the estate before Dominic could even look them in the eye. A tray of warm, clear broth was set on the low table nearby, the steam rising up to twist in the cooling twilight air.

Dominic didn't look at the food. He couldn't.

His hyper-focused mind was entirely trapped in a desperate, frantic attempt to rebuild the scaffolding of his own ego. It was an agonizing, circular calculation. He was Dominic Praxon. A Senator. A coordinator of bills and exploration of deep space. A man of iron will and precise calculations. Yet here he sat, a broken shell, being cradled on a terrace because he was too weak to hold up his own spine.

And then there was Tatiana.

Her presence was a puzzle his fractured mind could not solve. They had spoken - what? - a half-dozen times? A few meetings, a view of the stars on hull and from garden and a single, fleeting kiss on the cheek goodnight. That was the extent of their relationship. She didn't belong in his family garden. She didn't belong this close. If a woman he barely knew felt entirely obligated to sit in the dirt, cradle his hollow face, and feed him like an invalid...how pathetic had he become? The realization washed over him in suffocating, humiliating waves.

He didn't notice the subtle cooling of her tone when he spoke Bastila's name. He was too blind to see it. He was only drowning in the absolute theft of his security.

When she asked her question, trying to clarify the where and the when of his abandonment, Dominic's fingers gave a weak, spasmodic twitch against hers. His gaze remained fixed on the dying amber of the horizon, his voice dropping to a fragile, raspy mutter that barely carried over the splash of the tiered fountains.

"On the ship..." he whispered, the words heavy and disjointed. "She...she saw me. She promised. Always."

A ragged, shuddering breath hitched in his throat. The Jedi he had quietly entrusted his safety to, hadn't tried hard enough. She hadn't broken through the ship's walls. And when the steel doors finally opened, when the rescue fleet tore him out of that suffocating black cell — she wasn't the one standing there. He was grateful to be alive, but gratitude couldn't piece a shattered soul back together. He felt utterly naked. Exposed to a galaxy that could rip his mind apart at whim.

Slowly, painfully, Dominic tilted his head a fraction of an inch away from her shoulder. Not out of malice, but out of sheer, agonizing confusion. His hollow, dark-ringed eyes tracked over Tatiana's face, searching the lines of her expression for an answer to a question he didn't have the strength to fully articulate.

"Why..." his lips parted, the word cracking under the weight of his deflated pride. "Why are you...here, Tatiana? Who am I...to you?"

He couldn't understand the maths of it. There was no logical reason for her to be his support. And in the quiet space between them, the clouds hung thick in his mind, waiting to miss whatever she said next.

Tatiana Sah​

 

[Tatiana Sah]

Bastila promised always? Was that why the woman just ran off as she had? Tatiana could have punched holes in the exterior of the facility, broken every bulkhead, and left naught but a sea of blood in her wake... Obviously the two woman approached the situation of a hostage in an undisclosed location differently. Explained a lot.

Except for the reason why. Why had Bastila promised that? Why was Dominic seemingly distraught over this failure? He'd had no expectation she would do anything so grandiose, it would seem. A thought that would only be reinforced in relatively short order when the man asked why Tatiana was there.

A cream hand reached out and the bowl of broth floated over until it was cradled by her finger tips. Blue eyes fell to its contents. A meager supply of energy would help maintain the warmth of what had been brought. It didn't look terribly fulfilling, but Dominic didn't look over eager to eat either. The spoon drifted over until Tatiana took hold of it with her other hand.

After she had everything close, Tatiana turned her attention back toward Dominic. "Because you didn't push me away in the garden, Dominic. You saw me without my make up, and agreed to share breakfast." Even if she didn't require 'breakfast' to survive, Tatiana did process solid foods to blend in with those she sought to learn about. There was a quality to partaking in a thing rather than merely reading of it.

"Everyone was worried about you," she added softly. "And I worried I may have lost the closest thing to a companion I had." Tatiana hadn't felt comfortable showing her real self to others so easily. They'd seen it without knowing, of course, when she wore an "environmental suit" or an "EVA suit." That wasn't the same. Dominic knew it was her in the garden; she'd even made it abundantly clear in case he started to second-guess what he'd surmised at first sound of her voice.

"I'm here because it isn't enough for you to see the stars. You need to touch them." True, he hadn't literally touched a star or the comet, but he'd come quite close by being outside of the ship while in the vacuum of space. Only so far you could push protocol with the leader of an expedition while everyone was watching.

Dominic Praxon

 

[Dominic Praxon]

Closest thing she had to a companion.

Dominic didn't answer. For a long moment, he just watched her. It wasn't the vacant stare the healers had grown used to, nor the wary confusion that had shadowed their conversation so far. It was something real. His eyes drifted over Tatiana as if finally seeing her clearly, separating her from the shifting ghosts that still haunted the edges of his mind.

She had come.

The realization was painfully simple. She hadn't come out of duty, or because blood demanded it, or to fulfill some ancient promise that was easier to repeat than to keep. She had come because she was afraid he would disappear.

His gaze dropped. The bowl sat where she had left it, its warmth fading by degrees. Hunger gnawed beneath the deeper ache that filled his entire body, but this time, Dominic didn't recoil from it. His hand crept out from beneath the blanket, trembling slightly as his fingers reached for the spoon.

He hesitated. For a flash, the room warped...metal walls, restraints, hands that weren't his own dictating when he slept, when he moved, when he hurt.

Dominic's jaw tightened. He closed his fingers around the bowl.

It was a ridiculously small act, yet claiming it for himself demanded a strength he hadn't possessed even an hour earlier. He pulled it closer and managed a swallow of the broth. His face contorted slightly at the taste, almost offended by how mundane it was. A faint breath escaped him...not quite a laugh.

Dominic looked back up at Tatiana. He still couldn't have said what had changed, but for the first time, he truly appreciated her efforts.

Tatiana Sah​