[Rylan's Quarters]
After cleaning himself up, and going over all the divisional reports, Rylan leaned back in the chair by his desk. Sitting with his right arm resting on the surface of the desk, his legs stretched out, crossed at the ankles, Rylan picked up the holomatrix card that had caused so much problems earlier. Absently taping it's corner against the edge of the desk, he tried yet again to push away the thoughts that plagued him.
The Academy....Llunih -- and boy! didn't that one hurt! -- D`Tarik acting so strange when they first got on board, Vyynd and his *endless* list of those 'qualified' to be in the striker unit; and now he had D`Tarik's angry words when they had been trapped in the fvadt holodeck to think about as well.
But most of all, his thoughts kept returning to his family.
_________
Why had his mother been such a susse-thrai? How could she have disowned him so casually as she had? Granted, she threw out his father when Rylan had been ten. That had been a bit of a relief, actually, as his sire had quite often beaten Rylan and his younger brother whenever the man had been in one of his fouler drunken moods. The screaming and yelling matches that he had heard from his parents for most of his early life, had ended shortly after that. Not so much because his father had been thrown out of the house, but because the man had drunkenly drove a flitter into the side of building. Everyone had said it had been because Branak tr`Tuhmek had been drunk at the time; and Rylan didn't doubt that he had been -- in fact he knew his father was -- but he had also known that his father had purposely crashed that flitter. He knew, because when he had awakened that morning -- long before his mother actually told him of the news -- there had been a recorded communiqu� from his father on the computer terminal within Rylan's room.
Sitting in the very flitter that he had died in, his father, drunkenly ranting, had this to say:
"Before I do this thing....I feel I should warn au." his father began in a serious tone, "Ninte mother is a conniving, scheming, alduterous social-climber. She married me, to get my families estates." he paused a moment, then added as an afterthought, "Which she succeeded in doing as I won't be using them anymore." Branak's blood-shot eyes traveled back to the screen and he exclaimed, in an almost frighteningly enthusiastic tone, "So I guess she won on that -- Yay for her!"
Branak had paused to take a rather long drink from a bottle, then continued, "I have my suspicions that ninte brother," he pointed an accusatory finger toward the screen, "is really only ninte half-brother. Still...." he raised a thoughtful brow, "I've spent a lot of my money raising that brat, so I feel pretty fvadt justified in claiming him as mine!" he shrugged indifferently, "I guess."
After pausing long enough to finish the bottle in his hand, Rylan's father tossed it over his shoulder then reached down and grabbed another, opening the bottle as he spoke, "As for au, Rylan...well...." Branak smirked, "I've always pretty much *hated au*. If it hadn't been for au, I would na be finding myself, drunk, in a flitter -- that I'm seriously thinking of using." Branak laughed at that last, then took another drink again.
"What was I saying....?" his father had trailed off for a moment, rubbing his head absently, then looked back to the screen, "Ah ie! A warning!" he smirked, "Au know what? Ninte mother will do the same, fvadt thing toau!" Branak grinned maliciously, then nodded, "Ie, she will! She's goingto ruin ninte life!" he laughed at that, "Trust me on this, Rylan -- she'll find a way! And au know what?" Branak leaned a little closer to the viewscreen, and as if confiding some great secret of the universe, he said, "Au.... would have *deserved* it!" His father grinned, and leaned back in the flitter's seat once again.
Branak took another drink from the-Elements-only- knows how many bottles he had in that flitter before continuing; "Au see...I figure that since au came at a pretty piss-poor time in my life..." he nodded thoughtfully, "and pretty much bound me to that susse-thrai...that au *definitely* deserve *everything* that au got coming!" His father burst into another fit of drunken laughter, and then the message ended.
_________
Still plagued by the memory of that last communication from his father, Rylan found himself standing in front of the replicator, with a glass of Rhennish traveling upwards towards his lips. He had been so lost in thought, that he hadn't remembered crossing the room, let alone ordering the drink. *Am I that bad, then?* he wondered to himself, looking at the glass as if it were a snake about to bite him. *Am I doing the same things he did?* he paused, slowly setting the glass back down in the replicator, *DT apparently thinks so.* Reflecting on this, he thought, *But I can't talk to him. He wouldn't care about any of this anyway. And neither would Vyynd. They both have their own problems to worry about, without me trying to make them listen....or understand.*
Sighing defeatedly, unsure of what to do to stop the thoughts of the past from haunting him, Rylan once more picked up the glass and crossed the room again to sit down in his chair. He thought absently as the glass once more traveled towards his mouth, *What I need is a Kehnsia.....* About to take a drink, his eyes fell on the defective holomatrix card, and once more the glass halted before it had reached it's destination. Remembering who's matrix was contained within that card, Rylan began to have an idea.....
Without having taken even one sip of the Rhennish, Rylan sets the glass down, and snatches up the damaged holomatrix cell, "Computer! Where's tr`Rekkohan?"
"D`Tarik tr'Rekkohan is in Emni t`Meihan's quarters."
"Excellent!!" Rylan exclaims excitedly, running out the door in such a hurry, he forgot his jacket and shoes.
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