Its All Fun and Games Until...

[James Prent]

everything around her was blurred - as though it existed, but existed just beyond what she could see. the girl turned around, arms out in front of her as though she was trying to feel her way in her murky surroundings.

a face loomed before her, but she couldn't make it out. there was a suggestion of blue eyes, and then it was replaced by a screaming woman clutching a baby. "noooo!" she wailed, cowering and covering her child with her body as the girl stumbled back. her arms were extended to warn people away from her, and there was pressure on her chest and she looked down and saw the blinking red light and knew that the bomb would explode and it was too late, too late to do anything.

I woke up with a start, a scream dying on my lips before it got a chance to start. Drenched with sweat, my heart racing, I threw off the covers and hobbled to the refresher. The deckplating was cold under my feet, and I made it in time to puke in the sink. I felt hot, dizzy, and all together not quite right.

Rinsing the sink and my mouth with water, I could feel my heart as it thudded against my ribs. The dream - I'd never had a dream like that before. I knew things about the dream; like that the girl was me, the girl with the bomb strapped to her was me. And I could remember every blurry indistinct detail. I felt as though the dream had been clear, but my perception of it had been inaccurate, if that makes any sense at all.

It didn't to me. I'd never woken up from a deep sleep before and had to throw up, either, so it was a night of firsts for me.

My hands and feet, the most badly injured parts of my body from my run in with the pitchfork toting locals of Planet XYZ, were almost completely healed. On the outside, that is. The skin was new and pink, with only slight irregularities that the doctor assured me would fade with time. My legs were a different story, the ligaments had shortened or something was wrong with them that made it so I couldn't extend my left leg out completely straight. In time - the doctor's favorite two words, I think - in time I would regain all function, as a surgery had been performed on the leg and it just needed (that word again) time to heal.

To be honest, I'd been in quite a funk and hadn't paid much attention. All I knew is that I had a bad limp and if I stood too long the bottoms of my feet started to kill me.

Right now, however, I was more of the mindset that going back to sleep might do me in, so I pulled on my clothes and headed for the mess hall. At this time of "night" the evening crew would be having their second meal, and I hoped to blend right in.

[Byl Laprovik]

I couldn't sleep without exercise, and it was hard to find that sort of thing on a frigate like this. I'd been cooped up like a caged snoovian tiger for too long, and needed to get back to a planet. I'm sure none of the crewers found my company appealing either. A five kilometer run at full tilt down tight corridors meant that I was tromping through the same areas a good two dozen times or more, sending enlisted men and others scrambling for a bulkhead. It was a short distance, but I ran it like my life depended on it. My lungs burned, cycling the clinically dry starship air through them until they were parched. I let my hands pump up to my ears, grip relaxed but swinging energetically. Every footfall rippled on my face, red-hued and glistening with sweat. I was two paces shy of a sprint, turning corners on a dime, and my breathing and sweat told me that I needed to finish soon or I'd hit empty.

I had one more circuit left to run through the forward hull, and I dug in to find my reserves.

[James Prent]

Mess hall, mess hall, mess hall. The words were like a mantra that I thought over and over with every foot fall. Anything to stop thinking about the dream. And as the sound of running made its way to the forefront of my consciousness, I'd managed to concentrate entirely on what might possibly be served in the mess at midnight, but when I turned the next corner that part of my reality flew apart like a supernovaed star.

The runner hauled up just short of me, and I pressed my back against the bulkhead just in case he wasn't able to stop in time. He was red in the face, and leaned down for a moment, catching his breath. I slowly relaxed from the near miss, peeling away from the wall cautiously as the man looked up. His eyes were shockingly blue, and I gasped, my brown eyes flying wide open as my heart thudded heavily in my chest.

I must have looked a fright, short hair all mussed from sleep, bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, and as timid as a mouse in front of this impossibility that loomed over me in the passage. His eyes had been in my dream - but that was impossible! I'd never met the man before!

[Byl Laprovik]

It took me a while to get back to equilibrium. For the moment, I was all heavy breaths, and slowly straightened up as I interlaced my fingers on top of my head.

I'd startled the mousy stowaway we'd picked up from that Corellian flea-hauler. She looked like she'd been sleepwalking, or some other aimless activity that rouses somebody from sleep in the middle of the night. Her lightly curled brunette hair was drawn into a spastic bird's nest of sleep-head.

I wiped down my dripping face with the sweat-pooled front of my crew tee. Peeking over the hem, I spoke breathily.

"You alright?"

[James Prent]

I shook my head before I could stop myself, and then managed to turn it into a sort of half-nod. "Ah, yeah." I couldn't tear my eyes away from his, which was a shame because the rest of him was pretty good lookin'. "Jus' gettin' somethin' t' eat." I clutched my hands together in front of me, anything to stop them from shaking.

I was badly scared, and I wasn't doing a good job of hiding it. Unfortunately, with my peg leg I wouldn't be able to get away from this Rebel if he decided that I needed watching while I 'wandered' the ship. "Well, I'm not eatin' right now, but ..." I felt like I needed air... the scrubbers in the frigate might have failed and I wasn't getting enough oxygen. As I gasped, I tore my gaze from his eyes and lurched forward, making to go around him.

[Byl Laprovik]

She was either out of it, or a bad liar. Something had her rattled. Far from me to care, I wasn't exactly the ship's psychiatrist.

"Thought the orderlies were bringing your meals to your room?"

Working through a series of cool-down stretches, I looked back up at her after grasping the backs of my ankles.

[James Prent]

"Ah, usually... that is, yeah." I scrubbed a hand through my hair as it appeared I wasn't getting around him very easily, and tried to think of a good excuse as to why I was out of my room. "I couldn't sleep - had to stretch the leg. Doctor said that exercise is good," I added defensively, studiously not looking him in the eye as I edged close to the bulkhead and started to ease past him.

[Byl Laprovik]

She seemed excessively defensive, which was a red flag that hooked me.

"I'll walk you down to the mess. I need a drink anyway."

[James Prent]

Frell it all to hell. "Eh, okay." He finally shifted his weight enough to let me by him, but he turned and fell into step with me. Well, not quite in step, as I limped along the passage.

Exercise was good, yes, but in moderation. By the time we made it to the mess my leg was so painful I could barely stand, but I gritted my teeth and kept on going. No longer concerned about food, all I wanted to do was sit down. We'd walked in silence (not the comfortable sort, but the other kind), but as I bent my left leg to make it around the last turn in the passageway my calf cramped up something awful. I think I squeaked as I practically fell, the muscles in my leg tightening to the point of breaking.

[Byl Laprovik]

She favored her left leg the whole way down, and I kept my eye on her. Whatever happened to her on that planet, she was probably still a week away from being up on her feet.

Then it happened. I brought my arms up to catch her as she tipped to her left. My left went around her midsection, and my right around her mouth, cutting off her painful shriek. Her left leg was as rigid as durasteel plate.

"Cramp?"

I eased her to the side of the entrance, putting her shoulders up against the wall.

[James Prent]

I nodded against his hand, my face screwed up with pain as I tried to bend over to feel my calf. To rub it made it hurt even worse, if it were possible, and I couldn't straighten it or bend it or do anything with it.

He removed his hand from my mouth, and I sucked in my breath in a hiss as the muscles of my calf continued to contract. "Sit... I need to sit... Ahhh..." I gritted my teeth and slid down the wall towards the ground.

[Byl Laprovik]

"Stay there. Try to wiggle your toes."

Stepping away, I headed to the produce rack at the front of the mess, and palmed a namana fruit. Giving the peel a quick tear with my thumbnail, I pulled part of the peel away to get at the pulp, and brought it to the girl.

"Eat it. Cramps come from a potassium deficiency."

[James Prent]

Wiggle my toes, he says. I grimaced and did my best, and ended up sniffling and teary-eyed when he came back and presented me with a namana fruit. Desperate, I took his advice and the fruit, biting off a chunk and chewing it.

After a few minutes of agony, the cramp began to lessen, and he helped me up to my feet and then to a proper bench in the mess. I felt like the cramp would return at any moment, and stepped gingerly and was glad to sit down at a table. The peel of the namana fruit in my hand, I laid it on the table in front of me. "Thanks a lot, Mr...?"

Those eyes again. Oh gods those eyes. He looked like he was reading my very soul, and the parts even I hadn't seen yet at that. I looked away quickly.

[Byl Laprovik]

"Byl Laprovik."

I opted out of the handshake on account of sticky namana fingers.

"You're James, right?"

[James Prent]

I licked my fingers and nodded. Seems that everyone was privy to my information these days. "Have I... Have I met you before?"

[Byl Laprovik]

"Not really. I was aboard when your freighter came in. Fly on the wall, mostly."

Now it was time to pry a little.

"What was that ship's name again?"

[James Prent]

I thought about lying, but it looked like he could tell that I was thinking about lying, so I told the truth. It wasn't like it wasn't a matter of record somewhere on the frigate. "The Layla. Skipper is my half-brother."

I self-consciously tucked my still-scarred hands up into the long sleeves of my shirt. "Guess they're long gone now."

[Byl Laprovik]

"I met the skipper."

I left it at that. I didn't think too much of the guy. Just another oily freighter jock who was probably earning his bread on the sly.

"Don't really know where they lighted out for, but they seemed to be looking out to make sure you were okay. Guess that means they'll be back."

[James Prent]

"Guess so," I allowed, but I still didn't make eye contact with him. To be honest, I didn't expect much out of Sanis. The only relation we had in common was our rotten father, and if that meant anything it meant that I probably wasn't going to see my brother again. Anyway, it was easier on you if you kept your expectations low. Less disappointment.

I figured it was up to me to get myself out of the mess that I'd gotten into. I could always join the Rebellion against the Empire, and there had been an undercurrent of quiet expectation that I might do exactly that. But then, they didn't know. Didn't know I was an adept. So they might not want me around, especially if I was going to start blowing things apart with my mind by accident.

"In the meantime, o' course, here I am." I didn't really know what else to say, though to say I was curious about Ol' Blue Eyes was an understatement. How could he have been in my dream? I hadn't even met him before just now.

Unless.. unless it was crazy Force stuff. s'Ilancy would know. I hugged myself mournfully.

[Byl Laprovik]

"It isn't exactly like you're a prisoner here. You can push off at any port of call within reason I'd imagine. It isn't quite a pleasure cruise though, and we're naturally discrete about revealing our position."

She seemed a little mixed up over something. Whether it was just her personal predicament or something else was a different matter.

"You still hungry? I'm famished after a run."

[James Prent]

I didn't think I could eat without puking, but hesitantly nodded. "Yeah, a little I guess." He pushed up from the table, but I remained where I was, afraid my leg would betray me again. "Ah, don't worry about it. I'll wait until morning."