Imperial times- Coruscant

Tarik whined softly, leaning on the door and looking into the cell.

"Oh, Nyan," Mina said, her heart sinking.

Nyan sat strapped into a chair, he was unconscious, his head hanging limp against his chest. His charcoal gray hair had been singed in places, and the orange-red of his blood stained the side of his face, tingeing the lighter gray highlights in his hair a sickening shade of pink. Tarik crept closer into the cell hesitantly, making a clicking noise as he pricked his ears toward Nyan�s unconscious form.

"No dead," he said, then jumped as his voice echoed in the empty cell.

"Not yet anyway," Minero said, walking over to the chair. Tarik growled quietly, sniffling at the floor.

"What is it now?" Derek asked, leaning on the door.

"Person," Tarik muttered, sniffing.

"Come on, let�s get him out of that," Mina said shakily. A growl and the sound of a door opening startled her. "Tarik?" she looked to where he�d been, but he was gone.

"There," Minero said, pointing to the shaft of light falling through a door they hadn�t noticed before.

"What kind of sicko puts a secret door in a torture room?" Derek grumbled, limping toward the partially open door.

"The kind Tarik has decided to track down I guess," Minero said with a half-shrug, turning back to examining Nyan�s bonds.

-

Tarik sniffed the air at the intersection of the hallway, the scent he�d been following was getting stronger the closer he got. He heard someone drop something and mutter a curse somewhere around the corner. He poked his green snout around the corner carefully, one long ear twisting toward the source.

A gaunt man in a gray imperial uniform was stuffing files and data-cards back into a case hurriedly. Tarik growled, the officer had the scent of Nyan�s blood on him. He crept closer silently, tail twitching like a feline hunting.

Only a few steps away, the human stuffed the last of the papers into the case and turned to stand. He found himself face-to-face with something with a green snout, orange eyes and a snarl.

"Interrogator," Tarik growled, snorting at him. Onak almost dropped the case to the floor again, stunned. Tarik�s snarl deepened, flexing his claws from their sheaths. Onak froze in panic, then the brief flash of an idea hit him.

He swung the briefcase before Tarik could act, smacking him across the face. Tarik was knocked back a short distance, mildly stunned. He shook his head, recovering from the blow. Onak scrambled to his feet to get away before Tarik could collect himself, but he wasn�t quick enough.

Tarik lunged after Onak, grabbing his leg and dragging him down to the floor again. The interrogator scrambled to get away again, but was tackled by Tarik as he sat his full weight on Onak�s chest. He snarled viciously, slashing a set of claw-stripes across Onak�s face while holding him pinned to the floor.

"Tarik!" a female voice called from behind him.

He looked over his shoulder, seeing Mina emerging from the secret hallway. He looked back to Onak, snarling again. He snorted in the human�s face, backing away reluctantly.

"Come on, we gotta go, the guards are coming back!" she shouted. Tarik grumbled unhappily, hissing at Onak. He raked his claws down the right side of Onak�s chest as he stood and bolted toward Mina. Tarik rushed past her, ignoring the stunned look on her face. She followed him, confused and disappointed.

--------

Tarik sat curled up next to the window of the ship, only half-watching the receding planet through the viewport. He sighed, chirruping miserably thanks to the tranquilizers they�d force-fed him.

He made a few soft clicking sounds as he stared out at the rapidly shrinking ball of sparkling gray that was Coruscant. Mina was arguing quietly with one of the rebel officers who�d rescued them. Tarik curled his tail around the seat restraints, trying to hear them through the drug-induced haze floating through his mind.

"You saw what he did to that guy for no reason, we can�t let him roam loose," the guy officer was saying.

"It wasn�t for no reason, Tarik said he was the one who interrogated Nyan," Mina defended.

"And you believe that... thing?" he retorted, sighing in disgust.

"Yes," Mina said, softly.

Even being half asleep, she sounds pretty, Tarik mused, clicking to himself softly. There was a fine line between having a crush and being completely smitten with someone, Tarik was dangerously close to that line.

He sighed, snuggling into the seat as the stars outside the viewport turned into streaks. A comforting hand on his shoulder as he started to drift off to sleep woke him enough to recognize Derek sitting in the seat next to him.

"Where go?" Tarik mumbled, his words slurred by the drugs.

"Someplace safe, and warm," Derek said. "It�s nice there, it�s like a jungle, lots of trees. Big ones, not the little ones you�ve seen," he said, scratching Tarik�s ear like a giant pet. The green creature chirped and sighed, already falling back to sleep.

"How is he?" Mina asked, standing next to Derek.

"Tired I guess. With the amount of tranquilizers they jabbed him with, I expected him to be out cold before take-off," Derek said quietly with a shrug. Tarik was making some sort of soft chirp/snore that they took to mean he was finally out.

"He�s a fighter," Mina mused, smiling sadly.

"You like him, don�t you?" Derek said, pulling a thin blanket from the compartment under the seat and covering Tarik. Mina looked thoughtful.

"I don�t know," she said, sitting down across from them.

"He�s....sweet," she said, studying the sleeping creature. "He�s not exactly boyfriend material, but he�s nice," she added, tucking the blanket closer to his shoulder. "He�s like...... someone took a person�s mind and stuck it in the body of a big, dumb animal," she said with a shrug. "I don�t know how to explain it. You saw how he came back for us."

"And how he somehow mysteriously convinced you-know-who himself to help us for some bizarre reason," Derek said, leaning back in his seat and shaking his head.

Mina smiled thoughtfully, "That is a puzzle," she said. "Not one I want to figure out though, let it be a mystery. It�s enough that we�re alive," she added, watching Tarik sleep.

Derek nodded thoughtfully, "Yeah, but for how long."

Mina sighed, "I just wish we�d finished the mission before Steve fouled it." Derek laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, nothing like one of your own selling you out to make you feel loved," he muttered, looking out the viewport at the stars streaking by. "Guess Tarik�s kinda used to it though," he said, looking down at the sleeping creature as he sighed in his sleep.

"I mean, he lives by his own wits, well, what wits he has, but he survives," Derek said. "I mean, he�s got Dark Jedi, Stormtroopers, traitorous Rebels, not to mention the entire Empire after him," he paused, thinking.

"Then of course there�s our dear old man in black friend of his," he added with a mystified sigh and a low whistle. "He�s got more adventure in his life than I�d ever want in a million lifetimes." Derek said, studying one of the long-healed scars on Tarik�s shoulder curiously.

"Look at him, he even looks like he�s been through a war," he mused quietly, "He�s got more scars on his hide than an old pair of boots," he said, bringing a snicker from Mina.

"I mean, it�s not like he�s got any way to hide them either, just that wonderful little loincloth and stolen under-shorts combo that looks like he�s been wearing it since he was hatched, or born, created, whatever they did to make him," Derek said with a shrug. Mina fought to keep from laughing.

"Give the poor thing some body-armor if you�re gonna shoot at him at least," he added. Mina finally gave up trying not to laugh, covering her mouth with her hands as Tarik�s ear twitched reflexively at the sound.

"Quiet, you�ll wake him," she whispered, forcing herself to stop giggling. Derek shrugged, smiling.

"Sorry," he whispered.

"So, what do we do with him?" Mina asked, watching the green being settle back to sleep.

"We can�t just keep him, like someone�s lost pet. Technically he�s still imperial property," Derek said.

"Out of curiosity, just where did you find that thing?" one of the other rebels asked. Mina and Derek looked up, surprised.

"Just roaming around," Derek said with a shrug.

"Uh huh," the rebel said doubtful, "He just appeared and saved the day, right?" he asked sarcastically.

"Actually yes," Mina said, "He just kind of showed up one day and hasn�t left." The rebel shook his head.

"Should I ask about the imperial property part I overheard?" he asked, looking slightly suspicious.

"You wouldn�t like that story, it�s long and boring, and full of Stormtroopers and junk," Derek said, sighing drearily.

"Try me. We got eighteen hours to base and I got a curious ear," he said, sitting down beside Mina. They looked at each other, then glanced at the sleeping Tarik.

"Okay, but it�s kind of confusing in parts, and the rest you won�t believe," Derek said, sitting up straighter.

"Just tell me," the rebel said, looking at Derek as if nothing he could say could scare him.

----on to Part 2 of Chapter 5---

© 2000 Michelle Petrosky

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