Giving birth to an Unknown Future Terror (Open)

[Smidget]

The Past

The life of a street rat is not an easy one to live. There are no new clothes, no gifts for birthdays, your next meal is usually taken from dumpsters at the rear of restaurants. There are no hot showers, no long luxurious baths and you're lucky if you are able to find shelter from the elements. In fact, you're lucky if you even survive to see the next sunrise or sunset.

Cassandra and Daerlayne had met years ago, when she was only fifteen years of age and he had just turned eighteen. They met on the streets, the lower bowels of Coruscant, to be exact. She had been busted for picking the pockets of an undercover Agent at the local (albeit scummy) tavern. Daerlayne ran interception; aiding the young, dirty and rather scraggily looking girl. There was something about her though that caught his eyes - whether it was the pretty face hidden beneath the grime and dirt or the fiestiness that radiated from the dark irises of her eyes - something about the young street rat just intrigued him.

However, Daerlayne's interception only lasted for so long and eventually, later that evening, 'Smidget' was apprehended and hauled in. But, she was not taken to the usual Corsec headquarters as most prisoners are. Instead, her captor took her to an interrogation house, where he proceeded to use ancient but effective (usually efffective) means of torture in an attempt to break her wild spirit and force her into working for him as one of his informants.

Unknown to Cassandra, Daerlayne had tailed them to the interrogation house and when her screams of agony became too much, Daerlayne came to her rescue once again. Accompanied by his gang of street toughs, the 'Dockhands' raided. Clearly outnumbered, the undercover agent fled, leaving Cassandra unconscious on the floor; battered and bloody.

With a tenderness rarely associated with street toughs, Daerlayne lifted 'Smidget' into his arms, carrying her all the way across the city and back to the 'Dockhands' hideaway - near the docks. Once in the sanctity of their abandoned warehouse, Cassandra was laid on an old tattered blanket and tended to around the clock for a week straight; during which she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Finally able to remain awake, Daerlayne didn't receive the thank you or appreciation he so richly deserved. Instead, he received a tongue lashing and attitude like he's never seen before. Needless to say, since that time, Smidget and BirdDog have been together ever since. More or less.

As the last three years have passed, Cassandra and Daerlayne's relationship has grown. Trust is a hard thing to come by for Smidget and Daerlayne's patience, roughness, and understanding has been her savior; hence earning her trust. Friendship spawned and blossomed into romance, romance into love and now the two are inseparable. The 'Dockhands' are still laying bets as to when the two street toughs will bite the bullet and tie the knot, but that future has yet to arrive.

Also over the years, Daerlayne's influence has done wonders for Cassandra. No longer a thief (though the temptation is still there), she had found herself working an honest job, etching out an honest living.

Until recent events (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33490) changed the status of her employment.

As the city grew dark and the temperatures began to plummet, Cassandra, Daerlayne and the rest of the Dockhands packed up what little belongings they own and moved on; in search of another city to call home.

Their travels led them to a freighter parked on a lone landing pad at the spaceport. Daerlayne's talk with the freighter's owner proved fruitful as they were given free passage to Umgul City, located on Umgul - home of the famous Blob Races.



Present Day

"Come here, Cassie."

Every time she looks at him, her heart races and her palms sweat; even three years later he can still get that reaction out of her. With a small smile etching her lips, Cassandra strolls over and slips her arms around Daerlayne's waist, pressing her cheek against his chest as he wraps her within his embrace. She's safe here, in his arms and in his presence. Nothing can hurt her when she is with him. She knows this and he is her sanctuary. For Cassandra, home is where the heart is and her heart is with Daerlayne - therefore, where he is, she is home.

"Be careful today, ok? I haven't had too much time to explore the city yet, so just go to your interviews and come straight back here. Got it?"

Hugging him snuggly against her body, she nods her head, murmurring her 'mhm' in response. Worried about her safety, Daer lifts her chin and makes direct eye contact with her, quiet for a minute as he gazes deeply into her beautiful eyes. Her eyes - swirling pools of dark ash grey, like the color of spent charcoal; the eyes that sweep him off his feet each and every time he looks into them. She doesn't know it, but she is his everything. She is his reason for living and she'll be his reason for dying.

"I promise to be careful and I promise to go straight there and come right back here. I won't go anywhere else."

Satisfied with her word, he kisses her tenderly on the forehead then places a kiss upon each of her cheeks, finally her lips.

"I love you, Cassandra. I really do."

Her eyes, her smile, her whole face just lights up as she whispers that she loves him too while watching him grab his jacket and head out the door. Cassandra runs to the window of the small room they've rented and waves to Daerlayne and the Dockhands as they head off to find employment of their own. Once Daer and the others are out of sight, Cassandra finishes getting herself ready and heads out too, but not before making sure that a certain disc remains tucked safely within the inner breast pocket of her own jacket.

With a local paper in hand, several help wanted ads circled in red lipstick, Cassandra hits the streets. After walking for the past hour, she finally reaches the first location seeking employment.

"Well, this is it."


Umgul City General Hospital

The sound of sirens approaching draws her attention and stops her heart for but a beat or two. Some memories are just hard to leave in the skeleton closet, but she realizes that she is far from the agent who nearly took her life for picking his pockets three years ago, so she reminds herself that everything is all right. She's safe and she's safe because of 'BirdDog'.

After watching an ambulance swing into the emergency area, Cassandra crosses the open courtyard and enters the hospital. Following the directory signs, she ends up in Employment Resources and spends the next hour filling out an application. Though she has no degree's and no medical schooling, there are still a good number of positions that she can fill; which surprises her in a way. When finished, she turns in the application and finds herself wandering the halls, no destination in mind.

Another hour passes and Cassandra notices that she's found herself in one of the teaching labs, nosing around the computer systems and poking around at some of the test tubes and eyeing some things in formaldehyde; things that she is sure she doesn't want to truly know what they are.

All the while, her hand has been gently pressing against the disk contained within the breast pocket of her jacket.

She doesn't even realize this...

The sound of approaching footsteps and voices startles her. Sounds like whomever it is or they are, someone is coming here to this lab. Looking around quickly, she realizes there really isn't any place to hide, so she does her best to look rather inconspicuous while attempting to hide behind a fake skeleton tucked back in the far corner of the room.

Maybe they won't notice?

As if anyone could truly hear someone else breathing from across a room, Cassandra holds her breath anyways as she notices a man in a doctor's coat enter the lab. The lights were not on before, but they had come on the minute she entered. Automatic sensors are responsible for that. Still, maybe she won't be noticed, or so she hopes as she continues to hold her breath and prays that the doctor whom has entered, leaves before she either exposes herself with a huge gasp of air or passes out.

[Kria'thn Ki]

Kria’thn was bound to what only could be called a large board, hovering slightly above the ground. To large for any normal bed, his injuries seemed numerous and quite severe, thankfully the slumped form of the Charon was sedated.

The doctor whom had come rushing into the room had a few people helping him push the arachnid. Far too engrossed in what they were doing, moving Kria’thn on to a table, they hadn’t spotted anything out of place for now.

Strangely though, the doctors were not immediately rushing to aid his injuries, they seemed more intent on prodding and poking him. They seemed to be studying curiously. Though it was true, his race was not a common sight now; it appeared they callously wanted a subject of study, not as concerned with a live patient.

The violent acts that had brought him here, were evident across the entire form of his body. Surgical equipment maintaining his life force, hanging on to existence by a thread, resisting the urge to fall with an unearthly desire. He knew in the pit of his soul that he had yet to find that connection he sought. He could not be claimed until it was fulfilled, else nothing of his spirit would remain.

The Charon stirred, his thoughts far from the events around him, not even on the events that had led him here. Oddly in his delirious state, Kria’thn’s thoughts were on a certain name, for some reason, echoing prominently in his mind.

Kria’thn’s spirit was calling outward, beckoning…Cassandra…

[Smidget]

She can only hold her breath for so long and at the moment, her lungs feel as if they are about to explode. As the doctor - or doctors - that entered go about poking and proding, murmuring excitedly to one another, Cassandra inhales a deep breath of air, filling her burning lungs to capacity.

Thankfully, none of the others now occupying the lab had heard her. A few more quick and deep breaths are taken then she's able to resume a normal breathing rate.

They say that curiousity kills the cat. Most don't know that satisfaction brings the cat back. Cassandra's natural - and sometimes naive - curiousity gets the better of her now as she slowly pokes her head to the left (so the skeletal shoulder bone isn't blocking any part of her view) to take a gander at what alien creature has the doctor's buzzing like busy bees.

At first, she can't see all that much, with the rats in the white coats hunkering over the poor creature. The conglomerate moves, towards what she can only assume to be the foot end of the thing, opening up an eyeful for her to see.

Visibly, she cringes. Anything that has more than the standard two legs of a human scares her. To make matters worse, this one is spider-like and all those spindly legs set her creepy-nerves off, forcing a shiver up her spine which in turn sends her shoulders shuddering.

"Terrific. I hate creepy crawlies!"

Apparently, the labcoats hadn't heard her muttered disgust at the creature they are so hopped up over. Good. She doesn't need to have them then that thing chasing after her.

But, curiousity holds her attentions to the creature still - just lying there as they jab, poke, stretch and pinch the poor thing in places that would have made her howl (not to mention hit someone for doing it) already.

Fear of the unknown is what keeps others from stepping forward to learn about just what it is that has them so scared. Her fear of the eight-legged freak keeps her at bay. Or is it more to the point of she simply doesn't want to get caught by the doctors?

She waits.


And waits.


And waits some more.


Finally, what seems like forever ends when the doctors hurry out of the labratory to answer the call of some emergency just brought in through the ambulatory entrance. A code blue or some stupid code like that.

When all is quiet and she is sure the thing on the grav-bed isn't moving, Cassandra slowly emerges from behind the skeleton. On tip-toe, she begins across the room, heading for the door. About to step out and return home as promised to Daerlayne, she pauses with her hand gently gripping the door handle.

A subtle touch to her breast assures her that the disk left in her charge is still safe, she glances over towards the arachnid again. Something tugs at her heart strings, seeing the creature laid out like that. Her eyes linger, drifting over the thing, then she notices droplets of blood on the floor. She follows their trail, lifting her eyes from the floor to the arachnid once more, then notices a few areas where the thing has been injured.

Cassandra chews at her lower lip both thoughtfully and apprehensively. She could easily just open the door, walk down the corridor and go home - as promised - and dismiss the creepy crawly without batting an eyelash.

She could. She could do that.

But she doesn't.

Compassion rules over reason and Cassandra slowly lets go of the door handle, once again crossing the room on tip-toe while praying to whatever possible deity exists that the thing doesn't jump up and eat her.

Half-way there, she stops in her tracks, taking a moment to make sure that the creature is not moving a muscle. Other than its breathing, things seem calm. Then again, appearances can be deceiving.

Assured that the beast isn't going to pounce, she finishes her approach, wrinkling her nose as she looks at the thing. The look of disgust slowly conforms into an expression of sympathy, seeing all the tubes and hoses, life support lines and whatnots going into and coming out of the creature's body. Standing to the arachnid's right, she tilts her head to the side and examines its facial features, knitting her brows gently as her heart truly begins to ache for the thing.

Bah, she always was the one who felt bad for the villain or the frankensteins of the movies. Yes, she is twisted in that regard.

"Tsh! And they have the nerve to call themselves doctors. They couldn't even bother to bandage any of your wounds or even cover you up. I swear, sometimes I wonder whom is the more savage of the races - humans or the aliens."

She goes on, muttering her discontent over the way these supposed men of science have treated another living lifeform, while she wanders the room and finds a few supplies.

Once she has found several rolls of gauze, surgical tape, antibiotic cream and bandaids - its the best she could find in this anatomy teaching lab - she sets to work on doing what little she can to clean up the wounds and get them bandaged.

"I do hope they've sedated this thing good, though. I don't feel like becoming someone's dinner today."

[Kria'thn Ki]

Kria’thns dreams were of far off distance planets, barren wastelands and harsh winds, howling against rocky cliff faces. All these scenes set against an erie hazy of grey. Millions of voices, screaming and crying out to no avail, as world upon world was drained of life. All these vague memories and so little he actually remembered.

Thousands of worlds his species had hunted and slaughtered, before turning on their own lands and people. All in an effort to reach that one perfect ideal, but they had not seen sight of that ideal and so few remain now to try.

Kria’thn’s delirium was clearly gaining pace. He stirred against his restraints, rolling slightly into Cassandra, as she did her best to help him. The Charon mumbled something, oddly he had again refocused on her name.

“Cassandra stop … it…”

He gasped in a feint whistling voice. It was hard to describe how or why, even how he had known her name. So close to death, the bounds of reality seem somewhat blurred. His subconscious had simply ‘felt’ her nearby and reached out.

As the unnerving, feint voice subsided, his arm crashed into one of the machines connected to him. It was a machine supplying some sort of sedative, quite harmless to the average patient, it was having an extremely toxic reaction to Kria’thn’s chemistry.

Although using rudimentary material, Cassandra seemed to be doing a surprisingly good job of bandaging his more serious wounds. Many of the smaller injuries, that had pierced the damaged body suit Kria’thn usually wore, had for the most part healed themselves. Though his armour had been removed and placed elsewhere, it had done a good job of keeping him alive to this point.

Despite her efforts, the strength within Kria’thn seemed to be fading. A glaring warning light appeared on one of the monitors, highlighting the fact. Though his now bound injuries did not seem to be the obvious cause…

[Smidget]

When the arachnid-like creature begins to stir, Cassandra steps back, yelping out with startled surprise.

"How do you know my name!?"

Every fiber of her being screams for her to simply run - run and never look back - but the compassionate heart forces her to stay and look on in something that might be considered shocked horror. Backing away a few more paces, Cassandra yelps out again, cupping her hands against her mouth as the monitor goes crashing down to the floor. The lines connecting that machine to the things body are pulled taut, threatening to rip free of its skin.

She waits for the thing to stop moving around before cautiously stepping near. Two steps closer and she pauses, wondering how in the heck that thing knew her name! Slowly, she looks around the labratory, seeking any kind of surveillance cameras, recording devices or anything that could be misconstrued as a prop in an elaborate set up. Her search proves to be futile.

Swallowing back a hard and dry swallow, she steps closer to the thing once again, her heart still pounding furiously deep within her chest. A slow glide of her tongue moistens her lips as she nervously rubs her hand lightly against her left hip. Hesitant, she slowly reaches across the creature's midsection, (careful not to brush any part of her body up against any of its numerous legs) and eases the stint from the arachnid's body. She has no idea that was providing the sedative for the thing, just that the machine has been knocked down to the floor and it looked rather painful to have those lines pulled as tight as they were.

Another of the monitor's begins to beep insistantly, a red light pulsating with fevered intensity, making Cassandra's heart rate accelerate to atleast 240.

"What do I do?!", she looks around frantically, hoping that someone - anyone - with medical knowledge comes barrelling through the lab door.

But nobody comes.

Figures.

"Think Cassie, think!", she tells herself, messily rummaging around through the drawers and cabinets, carefully but quickly reading over the names of the items she happens to discover, though she isn't sure why. She has no medical experience, no official schooling or even any kind of field experience - what good can she do for the creature when she doesn't even know what it wrong with it?

Deep within her subconcious mind, the images that the arachnid saw, she sees too. Not force sensitive, Cassandra is an empath - she just doesn't really know it. Even if she were aware of this unique ability she possesses, she's too old to receive any kind of 'formal training' in mastering it.

Cest le vie

[Kria'thn Ki]

As the machine connected to him fell to the floor, the spur of activity ended and a calm fell over Kria’thn, his body falling completely still. The red warning light continued to flash, surely not long till it attracted unwanted attention.

It looked for a moment as if that was it. As the mechanical cords fell from his body, it seemed that it was all over. The sedative slowly dripped its clear liquids across the surface of the polished floor, the monotonous dripping sound, cutting the silence like nails across a board.

As all appeared lost, there was a small twitch in one of his arms. For a moment, that seemed to last forever, nothing happened, then slowly another leg twitched. With a thud Kria’thn’s torso sprang upright, ripping at the restraints and catching his head on an overhanging light, it just as quickly fell back down again.

The Charon’s eyes shot open darting from side to side, a shrill screech echoed from his lips across the hallways. Again his body moved sharply, tearing the restraints from the grav-bed and violently upending it. He scuttled for a second full with life, before slumping down next to Cassandra, in a barely moving heap.

Kria’thn gradually turned his head to Cassandra.

“You… you have spared my life.”

He said blankly. The concept was the total opposite to his entire way of thinking. Sparing a life went against his whole purpose. It was too much to take in, in such a short space of time and in his present condition, he was in no state to reason such ethics.

For the moment he sat there helpless, the beings whom had brought him here would surely of heard the commotion. The question was, what was he supposed to do now?

[Smidget]

As the arachind-like creature unleashes a shrill screech, Cassandra hunches her shoulders deeply, covering her ears with her hands and squeezing her eyes shut tight. Her hands over her ears provide minimal protection from the horrid sound eminating from the creature and Cassie ends up letting out a cry herself.

When all is silent again, she slowly opens her eyes and lowers her hands away from her ears, blinking slowly while looking from the creature - around the room - then back to the creature again.

Hurried footfalls echo throughout the outer halls, voices speaking rapidly - too difficult to understand anything that is said - accompany those rushing bodies.

Suddenly, the thing lurches upright, forcing another cry of surprise from Cassandra; whom steps back against the wall, watching in fascinated yet horrified surprise as the beast slumps back down once more.

'Is it dead?', she wonders; furrowing her brows deeply while keeping a close eye on the thing.

When she feels its safe to approach the creature once more, she eases away from the wall and begins to head over - cautiously and with much trepidation. Half way there, the thing bolts up off the grav-bed, ripping the lines from his body and seemingly hurling himself towards her.

Cassandra screams, scuttling backwards to avoid getting tackled by the beast. In her rush to get away, she trips over the back hem of her skirts, spilling herself to the floor where she lands with a hard thud upon her backside.

Another shriek as the beast ends up landing right beside her. With the wall behind her, she has no where to go in order to get away, so she sits there; drawing her legs up as close to her chest as possible while keeping wide, dark eyes fixated upon the arachnid-like being.

“You… you have spared my life.”

Ack! It speaks to her! AGAIN! Scared beyond anything, Cassandra stares blankly back to the creature, usure what - if anything - to say to the thing.

Those pounding feet echoing in the halls grow closer and closer. At one point, Cassie risks taking her eyes off of the thing to glance towards the door then back to the alien.

"They're going to find you in a minute. If you can stand ... I can help ... you. They're just going to use you for a pin cushion if you stay here."

Her voice is very shakey, soft spoken, barely above a whisper. The shakiness in her voice reflects the trembling her body seems to be doing from being so scared. Still, in all of this insanity, her hand subconsciously brushes over her left breast, checking the safety of the disk contained within a pocket.