[Sometime after the Ori skirmish]
No sooner had the people almost completed the rebuilding of the colony and healing of the wounded from the latest battle that had raged across the hot desert sands, then another small crisis had sprung from the landscape. The time for the Chaylrenh <*very big* spiders> hatchlings to break free from their buried egg-sacs had come upon the recovering Rihannsu with a vengeance. Drawn by the smell of blood and vulnerable prey, thousands of the venomous hatchlings swarmed upon the unsuspecting Rihannsu. At least a dozen young wounded soldiers had fallen prey to the 6 inch predators as they lay in the hospital tents awaiting their turn for the medics attention. Surrounded by shouts of surprise and shrieks of pain-wracked terror, those that could bravely fought against the multi-legged beasts, until the hot desert air was thick with the cloying smell of the black blood of the infant Chaylrenh-a and the Rihannsu-a own dead.
[Sometime later, in Xenobiology -- Lab 220]
Farien Rylan tr`Tuhmek's frustrated groan of resignation earned him a questioning glare from Afweirrea Arrain Mirok tr`Aimne. Before the Rekkhai could ask what the problem was, Rylan shook his head, and turned back towards the curse of his existence since he had come to this fvadt Academy. There was just no escaping the small, book-wormish, mad-scientist-in- training. Farien D`Tarik tr`Rekkohan was in every io of his classes, every io of his assigned labs, and to make matters even worse, D`Tarik was even his room-mate in the student dorms! Rylan was going to be stuck working with the sad, and almost frightening little Rihan until he finally graduated! He could only pray to the Elements that they would grant him assignment to a different ship -- preferably halfway across the galaxy from wherever tr`Rekkohan was to be stationed!
It wasn`t that he didn`t like D`Tarik. After all Rylan had to admit the kid bordered on genius! Whenever Rylan had needed help figuring out a problem, he knew he could count on D`Tarik for such help. But the Farien's experiments where just a little too much to have to live with, day in and day out. Io such experiment had followed D`Tarik around campus for weeks before the Afweirrea-a had *insisted* that tr`Rekkohan keep the creature locked in his room. *Rylan's* room! tr`Tuhmek had -- on more than io occasion -- considered murdering the frightening tribble- borg-whateveritwas concoction that D`Tarik had called his Pet. Knowing what kind of fuss the planned demise of the thing would bring from tr`Rekkohan however, caused Rylan to take a more sensible approach to the matter at hand, and demand that D`Tarik keep the thing locked in it's cage -- at *all* times. D`Tarik agreed that he wouldn't let the creature free as long as Rylan was present in the room, and had even went so far as to take the thing for a walk outside when tr`Tuhmek was trying to study. So that had been the end of the argument.
"Might as well get started." Rylan grumbled to the ISD-reading tr`Rekkohan as he made his way to the lab table, "But this time, try and remember that we're supposed to *disect* the thing -- na bring it back to life!"
"Ie..." the bookworm's head bobbed in agreement as Rylan walked passed, "But where's the fun in that? Where's au'rh quest for knowledge?" he continued, following closely at Rylan's heels, "Where's au`rh sense of adventure? Where's au`rh thirst for pursuit of ....."
"Right here." Rylan impatiently interrupted, pointing to the dead Chaylrenh that lay on it's back with it's twelve spindly legs curled over it's exposed underbelly. "That's where. Now, if au do na mind, tr`Rekkohan," he handed the Farien the laser scalpel, "Can we just please get this over with?"
D`Tarik's head bobbed again, and smiling, took the pro-offered instrument. He leaned in closer to the specimen, surprising Rylan with this new-found getting down to business' attitude. But Rylan's surprise was short lived as the scalpel in D`Tarik's hand froze, poised over the sausage-shaped body of the Chaylrenh, and the grinning face looked up to his own once more. "Hey!" D`Tarik cheerfully interjected, "Do au think Afweirrea tr`Aimne would mind if I saved these legs?"
Silently cursing himself for asking, Rylan queried confused, "Why would au want to save it`s legs?"
"Well...perhaps Sprinkles would like them, don't au think?" the boy's grin grew wider.
"tr`Rekkohan," Rylan warned softly, "Au give that creature...."
"Sprinkles." D`Tarik nodded, cheerfully supplying the name of his pet
"Sprinkles." Rylan repeated with a raised brow, "As I was saying, Au give.....Sprinkles anything else....and I will have to kill it. I'm sorry, but I ....I'll just kill it. Okay?"
[ Xenobiology lab -- 220 ]
"I will just pretend au did not say that." D`Tarik said flatly.
"Just disect the thing, will au tr'Rekkohan?" Rylan says with a sigh, readying his ISD to take notes, "*Please*?"
"Very well...now what did I do with that knife?" he looks around a moment, then discovers the scalple in his hand, "Okay! Lets get to work." At first, D`Tarik starts to slowly cut the thing open, but then suddely cuts at top speed and starts cutting out and yanking out the insides of the thing, placeing them on the table. He does this in about 2 minutes.
Rylan stares incredulously at the Scalple-weilding lunatic, "Do au even know what all those parts are?" he casts a look to the empty ISD in his own hand, then at the mess on the table, then looks again to D'Tarik.
D'Tarik stops cutting and looks up from the body with black blood splattered on his face, "Of course I do silly..." he starts pointing to everything, giving it the most comple name known for each part. Poor Rylan - never very good with science - has little idea what he's talking about, much less how to spell the things D`Tarik's pronouncing at top speed. "See? What do au think I am, stupid?"
Rylan raises a brow at that, "I never thought au were stupid tr'Rekkohan." then grumbles quietly, "Crazy maybe...but never stupid. What's that io again?" he points to squishy item number one, ready to enter the info if he can get DT to pronounce it slower.
D'Tarik looks at the item and tilts his head, "That? That is Sprinkel's poo...Sprinkels! How did you get out of your cage?!" The little half robot - half tribble - half who knows, runs across the floor.
Rylan jumps back and struggles to contain hisanger, "tr'Rekkohan ...au promised me au would keep that....that.... *thing* locked in it's cage!! Au promised the Instructors! What's it doing out?" he glares at Sprinkles as the thing cowers behind D'Tarik, then jumps up on DT's shoulder with a small squeek.
"Hmm...maybe it cut its way out because of the small laser I grafted to it shoulder." DT explains, pointing to the small laser grafted to the top of the creature's head.
"I warned au tr'Rekkohan..." Rylan nods his head slowly, obviously *very* angry, "I've warned au *too many* times.... au just had to add io more thing to that....that.... *creature*!!" he slams the ISD down, "Either remove that laser, or I'll kill the fvadt thing!"
"But, if I remove the laser how will it defend itself? Hmmmmm?" DT asks, then gives Rylan a look, "How can you be so mad at this face?" he points to the thing's lime-green fur. Sprinkles waves a long red tenticle at Rylan as DT asked his last.
Rylan himself, looks almost ill at this, "tr'Rekkohan.... that *thing* is dangerous!" he looks to the smaller boy desperately, "Au went and gave it a *laser*, D'Tarik!! A *LASER*!! If it can cut through it's cage...what's to keep it from hurting some io else? What if it hurts *au*?" then adds extremely worried, "What if it takes after *me*? Remove it....*NOW*."
"It wont hurt anyone...he just does not like being caged up. And he never leaves the room...."
Ry raises a brow at that, "Never leaves the room??" he leans a little closer to DT, "Then what_s it doing *here*, in the lab?? What if tr`Aimne sees it here? Au could be expelled! Au *promised* them au would keep it in its cage!" he paused a moment, then added with a sagely nod of his head, "Do au know how students are expelled from the Military Academy? They're SHOT, DT! Dead! That's how."
D'Tarik looks like he really had no idea, "Really?! No!!" As if it could understand Rylan, the green-furred thing jumps to the ground, runs to its over-sized cage in the corner, and pulls the door shut with its crab-like claw, then gives Rylan a nasty look. "See...." DT says worriedly, "au hurt his feelings...and scared me!"
Rylan watches the creature scurry away with a look of fear on his face, then looks at D'Tarik at his words and sighs, "I'm sorry tr'Rekkohan....but it's the truth. I didn't mean to scare au. But au needed to know." He doesn`t mention the creature's feelings at all, "Besides...." he hesitates, then whispers quietly, casting another glance to the creature in the cadge, "That...*thing* scares me."
D'Tarik only looks confused at this, "How can au hate him so much? Hey," he changes subjects, "anyway au go to the lab and get some jars for the parts of the spiderthing."
Rylan looks back to D'Tarik again, debating whether he should explain why he disliked Sprinkles; then decides that it would be a waste of time, and nods, "Ie. Good idea. Shouldn't take me too long." he agrees, turning to leave, heading for the storeroom. "Remember though..." he calls over his shoulder, "Leave that thing in it's cage!"
"Okay, fine." DT says with a resigned little sigh. As soon as the door to the lab closes, he claps his hands and the ball of green-fur pushes the door to its cadge open and hops itself over to D`Tarik and jumps on his shoulder. "Okay!" DT tells it happily, "Let's have some fun now that he's gone. Now..." he tells the creature, "I've been needing to test this for some time... just need to put this back..." he starts toput all the parts back in the spiderthing, and when he's done he grins like a lunatic.
Picking up a hypo, D`Tarik injects the spiderthing with something unknown to anyone else but himself.
[In the storeroom...]
Rylan rummages around for a moment, finding various sized specimine jars, and picks out a few. He stops when he sees t`Sahrl come into the room and close the door behind her.
Knowing that DT was waiting on him, Rylan debates all but a half-second, then shrugs his shoulders and smiles to the girl as he starts up a conversation. "Jolan'tru. How's the project going?"
The two talk together for awhile and after he's rewarded with a promise of a future date, Rylan gathers up the specimen jars and heads back to the lab with a wink to the girl as he goes.
[The Lab.... ]
For most of the time Rylan is gone, nothing happens, but this doesn't seem to bother D`Tarik who's still grinning almost crazily. Then suddenly... one of the spiderthing's legs twitches. Then another... then all of them seem to first curl, then uncurl themselves again. Rylan had no more opened the door to the lab - balancing specimen jars percariously as he did so - when the spiderthing suddenly jumps off the table. "It worked!" D`Tarik calls out happily, then suddenly frowns, "Wait... this could be bad...."
"Eh?" Rylan looks up after he'd gotten the door closed again and had started to walk closer, not having a clue as to what was going on, "What's bad, tr`Rekkohan?"
[Xenobiology Lab 220]
Rylan hesitates a few feet away from the table as tr'Rekkohan suddenly stood on his chair, and cast a rather sheepish grin his way. Rylan hated that look. That grin always sent chills down his spine. It usually meant that tr'Rekkohan had just 'discovered' something he thought of great importance. Something like the addition of those sickening red tenacles on his pet, Sprinkles. Almost afraid to ask, Rylan shakes his head and says in a rather stern tone, "Tell me au didn't add those legs to that creature of yours."
"Na...." D'Tarik's evil little grin grew wider, "I didn't do that." He casts another look down, as if trying to see something under the table, but refusing to move from his perch on top of the chair he was standing on. "I didn't do that at all." he softly chuckled.
Noticing that Sprinkles was once again perched on D'Tarik's shoulder, a passing thought as to what the smaller boy might be cautiously looking at made Rylan's own curiosity perk up a notch. Ignoring the presence of D'Tarik's 'pet', Rylan began to walk closer to rid himself of the specimen jars he was holding so that he could have a look under the table himself, when the sudden horrible realization hit him, and made him pause in mid step. The table was empty!
"tr'Rekkohan...." Rylan began, obviously puzzled, "What happened to our project?" He glanced up to meet the other boy's eyes, "Sprinkles didn't eat it, or anything?"
"Na...." tr'Rekkohan flashed another grin his way. "Sprinkles is a vegetarian." he cheerfully supplied, skirting the issue entirely. "He doesn't eat meat at all."
"Ie...." Rylan's brow rose slightly in irritation, "then where's the fvadt spiderthing?"
D'Tarik's eyes slowly looked downward, then traveled back up to meet Rylan's own. In horrified understanding, Rylan's face turned pale, and his own eyes followed the path that D'Tarik's had earlier. The spiderthing was on the floor a few feet away. It seemed to be waiting for Rylan to step closer. "Elements tr'Rekkohan!" Rylan could only manage in a whisper, "Please tell me that this is a different io....na the io we were working on!" The spiderthing seemed to lightly bob in time with each word Rylan spoke....like it was sensing it's prey from the sounds Rylan made.
"Ie, that's the io!" D'Tarik cheerfully agreed, "Au see, I've been working on this new....."
Rylan interrupted D'Tarik' explanation when he suddenly let go of the specimen jars in his arms - letting them crash to the floor - and freed the kalen from his belt with one fluid motion. The spiderthing didn't retreat at the unexpected shattering of glass, but charged forward with a speed that was terrifying.
Rylan took quick aim then released the kalen. It sunk neatly into the spiderthing's back, pinning the creature to the floor, where it convulsed a few times, and released a high-pitched squealing sound, before it suddenly became still once again.
"Why did au do that?" tr'Rekkohan's shocked voice demanded, confusion clearly written on his features, "Don't au know what a discovery like this could...."
"Don't au ever do that again, tr'Rekkohan!" Rylan's angry retort cut the Farien's sentence off. "That thing was dangerous! Io bite, and we would've been dead from it's venom within hours!"
"But....my discovery!." D'Tarik argued with a spoiled-child's whine, "Don't au know how important...."
But Rylan refused to stay and listen. Instead, he stormed out of the lab, slamming the door behind him.
[Later....at the Akhiy'Fvai (black dog) Bar]
"So what's got au so quiet, anyway?" Vyynd tr'Khaine asked after the third round of drinks had come to the table. "What did that crazy room-mate of yours do this time? Give that creature of his a big, bulbous eye?" he softly laughed.
"Na....worse!" Rylan muttered dismally, taking another drink. "The madman actually went ahead and somehow managed to bring our project back to life!"
"That's impossible." Vyynd stated flatly. "It probably wasn't dead in the first place."
"Na....I saw him remove it's organs." Rylan's head shook slowly, "Then, when I came back from the storeroom...there it was. As alive as au and I."
"Hmmm...." Vyynd paused in thought. "Perhaps he was only playing a practical joke on au? Au know, switch the dead io with io that's alive."
For the first time that day, Rylan was actually beginning to feel better. "Ie!" he nodded with a smile, "I bet that's just what he's done, too!" he chuckled softly, "Guess I was too shocked by the thing to realize it before."
"Ie." tr'Khaine nodded, in agreement. "It was only a switch, that's all." Though Vyynd didn't believe that for one minute.
[ Walking back from the bar ]
Vyynd and Rylan walked down the hallways toward Rylan's room. Laughing and talking amongst themselves, they finally found the right room and stumbled in. Vyynd quickly looked around the room and surveyed the cages, making sure Sprinkles wasn't around, and also that D'tarik was absent.
Rylan grabbed some books off of his desk and turned to Vyynd, "Well I really have to get back to the lab, make sure D'Tarik hasn't brought something else back to life..." Rylan laughed a bit.
"Ugh...I think that last drink didn't agree with me too much" Vyynd sat back on the bed rubbing his forehead, "Mind if I crash in ninte room until I feel better?"
Rylan looked down at Vyynd from across the room and smiled, "...Sure, just watch yourself." Rylan turned and headed out the door, "Hope au feel better..." The door hissed shut as Rylan walked on.
Seeing that he was alone, Vyynd sat up and started rummaging through the room.
[Xenobiology Lab 220]
D`Tarik stood over the spider-like thing pined down to the table by many pins. He could not believe how much it took to hold the thing down, nor could he believe that it was still alive after having a kalen driven into it's back.
"Hmmmm.....this is not working out the way I planned at all." he mumbled to himself, "I thought I could bring it back to life, but this...."
The thing's legs were twitching wildy, it's back had been split open, and all it's organs were spread out on the lab table again. D`Tarik tilted his head and looked around at all of the thing's insides. It's black heart lay on the table next to him, beating faster then it had when inside the thing's body.
He knew that something had gone wrong. Not only had he brought the thing back to life, but he had made it so the thing could not be killed...not easily anyway. D`Tarik was going have to test a another theory of his.
Picking up a hypospray full of the thing's venom he walked over to a cage holding a Rharit. He looked at the half rabbit-half rat thing and grinned. "Ok, let's hope I'm wrong about this...". He opened the cage and injected the contents of the hypospray into the Rharit. The furry creature squeeked and ran back to the far corner of the cage, trying to hide from the Rihan that hurt it. D'Tarik closed the cage and sat back waiting.
Faster than D'Tarik would have believed, the Rharit began to twitch, it's body reacting much too quickly to the spiderthing's venom. D'Tarik had expected the venom to work, but not this suddenly. It was as if his formulae had made it more ..... potent somehow.
Within seconds, the Rharit stopped twitching and fell motionless to the floor of it's cage. "Hmmm....this is not good....not good at all..." D'Tarik stood for almost a half an hour trying to figure out what the stuff he made was really doing to his test subjects, when the door to the lab opened behind him and Rylan walked in.
Before either Romulan could say anything, a crash was heard right next to D'Tarik, making the smaller of the two boys spin to see what happened. The Rharit's cage had fallen to the ground, and the door to it busted open. The thought-dead Rharit ran across the floor between Rylan's legs and out the door of the lab before either boy could stop it.
Rylan sighed, and crossed his arms. Casting a raised brow, he awaited an explaination from D'Tarik.
[Within the Academy.... ]
Sodain tr`Riog is in the student buildings, wandering around and a little pissed about the state of affairs. He's still in his normal training atire from training the Gai`Shian students the art of Swordplay earlier. After awhile of wandering, he starts to whistle, his usual cheerful self returning - but slowly - as he goes up stairs.
[Xenobiology lab 220...]
Rylan folds his arms across his chest and looks impatiently to D'Tarik, "tr'Rekkohan? What was that that just ran out of here?"
D'Tarik looks form the on the floor to the door a few times, then looks to Rylan, "Ummmm...I have to go now." he unholsters his disruptor, and starts to walk to the door.
Following D`Tarik out into the hall, Rylan demands, "Na! Explain now! What's going on?"
D`Tarik hides his disruptor inside a flap of his labcoat, but keeping it at the ready in his hand as he speedily walks off down the hall; his eyes seeming to scan everywhere at once, "Sorry... na time to explain. We just have to find the thing. And put ninte disruptor on full power..."
Rylan grabs DT's shoulder and stops him, "Na! I'm na doing io more thing au say! Tell me what's going on! Why do au need a disruptor for a rharit?!" Unknown to the two boys tr`Riog hears the shouting from the stairwell, and comes to stand on the landing, observing the pair for a moment.
"Okay, fine!" D`Tarik pulls out of Rylan's grip and turns to face him, "If au must know, that thing is na dead...nor alive. Or that's what I believe, anyway. If I'm right, the only way to kill it is to vaporize it into nothingness. We have to find it before it bites something or someone... because if it does that, whoever gets bit will become just like the Rharit."
Rylan tries to keep from laughing, "If it bites someio.... they may turn into a Rharit?" he shakes his head, "And I thought *I* was the io who'd been drinking!"
Listening in, tr`Riog stares rather blankly at the two kids, a frown slightly crossing the edge of his face as he heads closer to the pair.
Rylan notices the teacher, and bows his head slightly, "Jolan`ru rekkhai..." he says, hoping the teacher keeps right on going.
"Jolan`tru..." tr`Riog looks from one to the other, "What is going on here?"
Casting a look back to D`Tarik, Rylan waits for him to explain the situation, as it was DT_s fault, really. D`Tarik only shakes his head and smacks his forehead, not even noticing the teacher at all, "Na!!" he says of Rylan's previous statement to himself, "Look, anyio bitten by that thing will go into a state between life and death. 'Undead', if au will...."
tr`Riog clears his throat, looking from one boy to the next, "What exactly is going on here Farein-a?"
But again, D'Tarik doesn't answer the teacher, just keeps going on with his excieted statements. "And au have to believe me! When was the last time I tried to kill one of my experiments, Rylan?" he asks, putting his hands on his hips in a show of defiant anger.
Growing pale at DT's statement, Rylan turns to the teacher a bit helplessly, "Ahh...I'm na sure, rekkahi. I've been drinking... so he's na exactly making much sense to me."
D`Tarik growls in frustraition at that, "I must find it! I don't have time for this!" and turns suddenly to run down the hall.
Casting a nervious glance to the teacher, Ry calls out behind the running boy, "Hold on! Maybe he can help!"
tr`Riog nods, "Well, since I'm going to be filling out some kind of paperwork over this, I might as well. What are we killing now? And where?"
Rylan had winced at the paperwork remark, then explained as best as his intoxicated mind could, "A Rharit, rekkhai." he shrugged, "I don't know where it went. It ran out of the lab...." he pauses to watch DT peek around a corner of the hall, and whispers as he walks forward, "I don't know what he's done to it...but it can't be good."
tr`Riog rolls his eyes at the explaination, but being a former member of tr`Rhagarokk's crew, is more then aware of the 'scientific danger' involved with mad science students. "Understood..." he nods, drawing his sword, "Where exactly did au last see it... skampering?"
As the teacher and Rylan approach, DT answers, "I would guess, it's somewhere nearby...." he points to the female Farien laying on the ground in the middle of the empty hallway ahead, with a mall bite on her ankle. She's laying there still...not even breathing.
"Elements!" tr`Riog declairs quietly, "Au know au will recieve the death penalty for this? Experimental animals are na toys-- na games! If au get any of the students killed, au will face my hand! Now get this thing trapped and collected!"
DT looks calmly to the teacher, "As I said before. that woman there is not dead."
Rylan - who had grown considerably paler at tr`Riog's words, punches DT on the arm, "What's wrong with her then? Why isn't she moving?!"
"I don't care if she's dead or na!!" Riog shouts, his booming voice echoing in the empty hallways, "Get the test-subject secured! The wounded can be handled afterward!"
Hearing the teacher shout, a look of worry finally crosses DT's face, "Give it a moment..." he says quietly, just as the woman sits up with an empty, blank look on her features. "See?!" DT nods, thinking the problem of 'hurting other students' was solved completely, "Told au. Now we have to find the thing and fast. But I am not too good at tracking things. Maybe our great teacher could help?" he looks to Riog hopefully.
Rylan answers instead, "Ie...I'll be right back..." he runs off down hallway, opening the door to the storeroom.
The woman, meanwhile gains her feet and looks at D`Tarik. Starting to walk towards him, DT backs away. "See...this is na good..." he says quietly as if to himself. Rylan comes running back a second later with a multicorder in one hand, trailing a rather large cage in another - as all the small cages were currently being used for other projects. He halts a few feet away at hearing DT's mumbled words.
tr`Riog frowns, seeing the woman in a zombie-like state. "Na. This is NA menka!" he fires a rather nasty shock into the woman's brain, knocking her out. "Now...the animal?" he glares at the smaller of the boys.
As the woman falls, Rylan mutters to himself "I'm just too drunk for this..." he sighs and steps forward, shoving the cage forward towards DT.
Hearing Rylan's mumbled statement, Riog suddenly grins, "I have an idea...." then quickly bashes the drunkard on the head and tosses him into the cage. Nodding towards the shocked DT he motions the smaller - and conscious - of the boys down the hallway, "Slide that down the hall and wait for the thing to come out. We are on the upper floor of the west wing. Na vents, na lift shafts. Only the stairs I walked up lead out of here."
D`Tarik stands there unmoving, looking from the teacher to the cage and back again, trying to figure out a way to save his friend. "Ah...look, at least let me drag the cage down the hallway..."
"Go ahead." tr`Riog nods and gestures for him to go on again, "More bait is more bait..."
Taking hold of the cage, D`Tarik pushes it forward, walking slowly down the hall. He gets a few steps away from the teacher who's watching him, and takes out an ammonia capsule from a pocket of his lab coat. Snapping it, he waves it in front of Rylan.
Ry comes to and tries to slap the foul stuff away from himself, "What the hell...?" he says groggily, rubbing the top of his head. When his eyes finally open he peers through the blur that's his vision and notices the cage around him. Turning a murderous eye to the smaller boy as he still diligently pushes the cage forward, Rylan growls low, "I'll kill au for this D`Tarik! Get me out! Now!!"
"I didn't do it! It was the teacher!"
Rylan starts to rattle the cage apart, "GET ME OUT *NOW*!!"
As DT hurriedly - but shaking a mile a minute - unlocks the cage, tr`Riog down the hall watches a small shadow on the upper side of the hall move slowly towards the arguing boys. The shadow slips down behind the two students, neither one noticing it over their yelling. The Sodain edges forward and starts to build up kenetic energy.
Rylan scrambles out of the cage and grabs D'Tarik by the collar, ready to punch him one. Poor D`Tarik closes his eyes tightly awaiting the punch that he was sure to come. Seeing tr'Riog out of the corner of his eye, Rylan's fist pauses uncertainly, and let's go of D`Tarik, believing himself to be in some *serious* trouble.
Looking down, Rylan finally sees the shadow that had been creeping closer, just as it starts to lunge at the pair of boys. He pushes DT out of the way, as Riog swings forward into the now very hot air before him and lunges with his sword. The tip of the curved blade glows red against the heat and air pressure, and slices the little bugger in half.
D'Tarik gets thrown against the wall and knocked out by the combo of being pushed and the force of Riog's attack. The attack also affected Rylan, who slumped to the ground and passed out as well with the kenetic backwash that flooded the hall.
[Still in the hallway outside Lab 220]
Rylan groaned softly as he sat up, his hand immediately traveling upward to cradle his head. As if the pain in his head wasn't bad enough already, the ringing in his ears was sure to help bring it that much closer to the worst hangover he'd ever had. When he had finally coaxed his eyes opened, there was a brief pause as he discovered he had been laying on the floor of the Academy's hallway. Just what the Areinnye had gone on last night?
Looking over to see the empty cage, and the small pool of blood a few feet away from it, was enough to bring his memory back .... some what. The fuzzy images that he had didn't seem real though. More like a bad nightmare induced by all the booze he had consumed. But there was the evidence right beside him that the garbled visions in his head had really happened after all.
He winced again in pain as he heard the shout of "VAED'RAE!!". Out of reflex, he scrambled to his feet, noticing out of the corner of his eye that D'Tarik stood a short distance away, already brought quickly to attention. Rylan copied the stance as best he could, but swayed a little unsteadily all the same. An erie'Arrain stood before the two, looking them over in a rather detached sort of way, though Rylan did not fail to notice that he was given a more disapproving eye than D'Tarik.
"The re of au must be tr'Rekkohan and tr'Tuhmek." The erie'Arrain stated flatly.
"Ie rekkhai." D'Tarik nodded, "I'm tr'Rekkohan, and that's...."
"It wasn't a question." the erie'Arrain interrupted. Holding out an ISD towards Rylan, he continued "Au are to report to the Orrha of the Academy." he paused again, then added disdainfully to Rylan, "I would suggest au at least get cleaned up first, Farien." Before either student could speak acknowledgment of his words, the erie'Arrain turned, and headed back to where he came from.
"The Orrha-a office?" tr'Rekkohan repeated when they were again alone. He paused, considering it for a moment, then flashed a nervous grin, "That can't be good."
[Later, in the Dirctor's Office]
A quick shower and change into a fresh uniform later, they were at least presentable now: the perfect picture of two exemplary Farien-a. Of course, the quick stop at the infirmary to get rid of the pain in his head had helped Rylan tremendously. It seemed the boy had na only been suffering from a hangover, but a slight concussion as well from that blow to the head in their party's earlier attempt at using him as bait.
Both boys were quietly sullen, fearing the worst, as they heard the Orrha bid them enter. Standing at attention, ramrod straight as always, those fears were realized with the first words spoken quietly from Khre'Riov tr'Cretak in a matter-of-fact way.
"Ninte executions have been scheduled for this morning." He paused dramatically, looking from one shocked boy to the other before he continued, "Or they would be, on any other occasion."
The Director nodded to someone off to the side, and a female voice purred quietly from behind them, "Au will sit." The boys didn't hesitate to obey that voice. Their knees had been knocking so bad by that point they probably couldn't have stood much longer anyway. The female came around to stand in front of the two, and leaned against the desk. She wore the bored expression that many in the Tal'Shiar seemed to possess. That look that said she had better things to do, and wasn't thrilled to be wasting time much better spent on other projects.... projects like torturing two unfortunate Farien-a who happened to get on her bad side, for instance.
"After reading this report," she casually tossed the ISD she held to the desk, "it's obvious the re of au are just the sort of people we've been looking for. We've had reports of Nveni-asi yy'a <'walking-dead'> before. Since au re seem to possess first hand experience and knowledge of such creatures, ninte only alternative to a death sentence at this point is to be deported to the most recent site of this type of problem."
She paused a moment, waiting for any questions or protests they might present, but the speechless boys only stared back at her with a kind of blank look; like small, frightened creatures about to be devoured by much bigger prey. Quickly covering an amused smile at this, EnEredh t'Llweii reached over and stripped the rank pips from the Farien-a collars.
"Au will, of course, loose ninte military rank." she purred in that same quiet tone, "At least, for now. We shall see if au redeem ninte-selves." Turning, she picked up two more ISD's on the desk, and thrust them into the unwilling hands of the boys. "Au have io dierha to get ninte things together. Au will be met at ninte dorm-room by the escort assigned to au."
She flashed them a brief smile, devoid of warmth in any sense of the word, "I trust I do na have to explain why au have such an escort. Dismissed."
[After Vyynd's search of DT and Rylan's room...]
Vyynd carefully stepped out of the room, looked down the hallway in each direction, then continued on. He stopped along the hallway to do some work on a computer terminal when he noticed someone walking toward him in the hallway, he looked up and recognized the person as an erie'Arrain, and instantly stood at attention. The erie'Arrain looked Vyynd over slightly, then addressed him. "...tr'Khaine, au are to report to the Orrha's office." He commanded as he handed tr'Khaine an ISD.
Vyynd bowed as the erie'Arrain turned back to the terminal, ended what he was doing, then headed directly to the Orrha's office.
[After a very discouraging appointment with the Director...]
"Great, how did I end up getting appointed to babysit those two? At least Rylan will know what he's doing." Vyynd muttered walking toward his dormitory. "This should just be *loads* of fun..." he continued on even into his room as he started to get ready, packing whatever he knew he'd need. Once ready and slightly rested, Vyynd headed for the starport.
[Dorm Room...]
Rylan hit the send button on the recorded message to his Mother and Step-Father, trying to explain the situation he found himself in, and just hoped to the Elements that he didn't get kicked out of the family for this. He then turned to finish packing - being sure to throw in some needed supplies and equipment.
D'Tarik holds his hand up in the air like he has just remembered something and pulls a handful of ISD data disks form his bag with an odd smile on his face. Noticing that out of the corner of his eye, Rylan grumbles, "What're those for?" he closes the bag and sits on his bunk, adding, "I hope au`rh na planning to take that creature along with us...." he glares at Sprinkles in his cage.
"Well I did a little reading up on the kind of stuff we are more then likely going to encounter on this mission...and thought that reading these would really help."
"What kind of reading?" Rylan says without much interest.
Suddenly realizing what Rylan had said earlier, D`Tarik protests, "Na! I'm not leaving him in his cage!" he claps his hands and the Tribble pushes open it's cage and jumps on to D'Tarik's shoulder. "And as for the reading... I found that Earth, believe it or not, knows much about the living dead."
Rylan frowns at seeing the creature jump to D'Tarik's shoulder but lets the argument die for now. "Au'd listen to Terrians?" he raises his brow, and shakes his head again, "What would they know? Au act like this is all a game tr'Rekkohan. It's na! Don't au understand what kind of trouble au and ninte experiments have gotten us into?!"
"These files contain," DT holds the ISD's up next to his face. "all kinds of data on the living dead. Many books written by an Earth author called Stephen King. One named Bram Stoker wrote a few too. And there are also a few movies in here! Okay, let's move out!" he completely ignores Rylan's other angry statements.
Rylan scoffs at the smaller student, "Au'd listen to Terrian *stories*? How's that supposed to help us at all?" he sighs, then stands and picks up his bag, "Ie...might as well go. tr'Khaine will meet us at the starport. I've already received his message saying as much." Then shakes a finger at tr'Rekkohan, "Au'rh lucky that it's him and na some io else! Otherwise we'd probably be killed at the fist sign of Sprinkles!"
D'Tarik quickly covers Sprinkels 'ears', "Don't talk about killing him when he can hear au! And as for the stories....na matter who they may be by, they could still help me and au."
"I don't see how." Rylan retorts, "Au don't even know what that stuff really is that au made...nor can au find ninte notes on what au did to make it. How are we supposed to do *anything* about these....things?" then grumbles as he steps out into the hallway, "If they're even real." He stops, waiting for D`Tarik to catch up. "How are we to know that these things really exist? Eh? Maybe they're really taking us to a nice secluded spot to shoot us after all. Au ever think about that tr'Rekkohan?" he nods sagely, more than a little ticked off, "Guilty by association.... that's me! I didn't even *do* anything!!"
D'Tarik emerges from the dorm room, his head turned toward Sprinkles, "So au see, that's my theory on why Klingons are so mean." he stops, suddenly turning to Rylan, "I`m sorry, did au say something?"
Rylan rolls eyes, "Elements! If I wasn't in enough trouble already...I'd strangle au!!" then off he storms, down the hallway.
The two boys remain silent during the flitter ride to the starport - except for the conversation between tr'Rekkohan and Sprinkles. They meet tr'Khaine there, then all three, and the creature, beam onto the transport.
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