Rico Nerai, or Dr. Nick as he preferred to be called, sat in a cell designed to hold a vicious, wild
creature who would resist confinement at all costs. That terrifying creature now sat in a near-comatose
state in the cell, being force-fed his dinner because he refused to move enough to so much as twitch his
tail. Something had happened to Tarik in the few short minutes between the time he�d been talking
normally and rationally to Nick, and the time in which he�d heard the word �cage�. The bright,
intelligent, seemingly stable creature had regressed to a point that was near catatonic, unable even to
speak as he had before. There was some huge trauma in his past that had reduced him to this.
Something Tarik had mentioned before haunted him. He�d mentioned that during the
destruction of the lab, part of a wall had fallen down and broken his cage open. To anyone that would
have been a terrifying situation, but there was more mixed in with his fear of cages than just that. Nick
held the scaly head up by his goatee, trying to encourage Tarik to eat something on his own. The orange
eyes stared dully past him, not hearing, not caring. Nick sighed, letting Tarik�s head drop back to his
chest again. One long ear nearly smacked him in the face as his head drooped. Nick pushed it back into
position against Tarik�s head, but it fell again. A sad chirrup came from the green being, and he closed
his eyes. "Tarik, don�t do this, please," Nick said, lifting his chin again. He didn�t respond this time, so
Nick lowered his head back to his tan-brown chest.
"Tarik, i know you�re in there. You have to start talking sometime," Nick said, standing and
leaving the bowl on the floor next to Tarik. He sighed in disgust, walking out of the cage and slamming
the door shut. "Fine, have it your way. I�m sure the Emperor�s going to love meeting you like this."
Tarik didn�t twitch. "He is waiting for you. i ran that code on your wrist through the computer, and he
picked up on it immediately." Nick sighed again, "Tarik, do you even know what the emperor is? he�s
like a shriveled little version of Vader with twice the power. He�s going to fry you alive if you don�t
wake up." The point of Tarik�s ear flicked, and he sighed absently.
Nick banged his hand off Tarik�s cage in frustration. "Come on! i�ve been hearing stories about
you for the past few hours, tell me at least one of them is true!" he said, gesturing in exasperation. Tarik
didn�t move, but he sighed deeply, closing his orange eyes again. "I give up," Nick said, walking a few
paces away. "I refuse to believe you�re the same creature that single-handedly broke four rebels out of
an imperial detention center, right under Vader�s nose." Tarik�s ear twitched. "You�re nothing more
than a overgrown freak of a lizard with the i.q. of a fish!" Nick shouted angrily, storming out of the
room. Tarik sniffled a little quietly, not moving. "Not a freak," he said quietly, sniffling as a tear ran
down his cheek.
------
Back on coruscant, Kyel and Riker finally finished loading the �salvaged� cloning cyllinder into
their ship without being discovered. Kyel grinned repulsively the entire time, giggling about showing-up
his brother and muttering about his father being pleased for once. "It�s time that arrogant snot learned
his place. I may be younger, but i�m stronger than he�ll ever be," he muttered to no one in particular.
"Kyr is so lost, even since he stopped visiting Erik, he�s gotten stupid. Dad knows it, he�s just waiting
for me to prove i�m better than dear old big brother." Riker ignored most of his vengeful ramblings,
concentrating on securing the cylinder to the cargo bay floor. "Not to interrupt, your grace, but how
about some help here?" Riker finally growled, pulling the cables as tight as he could get them. Kyel
frowned for a moment, then sighed, walking over to help lash down the cyllinder
"This thing is starting to smell, did you have to cut those hoses off?" Kyel grumbled, obviously
not comfortable with actually working for a change. "Yes, now hold that one still," Riker snapped, tiring
of the demented boy�s behaviour. Kyel�s frown deepened, then he swore as the cable slipped loose and
nicked his hand through the gloves. He stood, giving the tank a kick and stalking off. "Finish it
yourself," he snapped, walking off into the corridor. Riker shook his head, giving up on Kyel�s erratic
temperment. At least now he knew why his father had pawned the boy off onto the emperor to be
trained, he didn�t want him anywhere near himself. Hopefully Dreu Kirunne would be a little more stable
than the unpredictable Kyel.
Hopefuly.
----