Hyperspace

[Jet Almeara]

Jet visibly relaxed when Taaru settled, he was still a bit confused she guessed but he wasn't about to tear this section of the ship apart in a force tantrum - which was good, Jet wasn't sure if she'd recovered enough of her own energy's yet to have stopped him short of knocking him out again and she seriously doubted how committed she would have been to that particular path.

"There you are" she continued soothing because well - what else could she really do? "Things will be clearer soon" she promised though she had no idea just how much he was understanding. not that that was important at the moment - right now she only wanted to keep him calm until he fully regained his senses. Having reached his side she picked a few bits of stray glass from the sheets. "Perhaps we should send for a nurse?" She suggested after a few moments, glancing at Jorunn - though with the whole glass shattering episode she was fairly certain more then a few of them were lurking somewhere outside. "I think he's calm enough to handle one, aren't you Taaru?" She didn't expect an answer but spoke loudly enough for someone outside to hear - clearly someone had to check him over..but the last thing Jet wanted was some frightened jittery nurse in the room to set him off again.

[Taaru Masako]

Things come to him in pieces. His first realization is that he is safe, and with friends. Then he begins to realize who precisely these friends are....one of them is family, the other one is as good as family. He reaches out to his daughter first....though his faculties are not at their best, he can nevertheless feel her distress pouring out in waves. She reaches out to him, striding around the bed and taking his left hand. In tears, she kisses the palm and sets it against her cheek. The warmth confirms that this isn't, as a seedling of doubt suggested, still some twisted dreamscape to be rent from him at any moment.

She says something, to which he can only offer a smile, though bruised. He doesn't know what she said, but it sounded relieved, and he wanted to encourage that feeling in her.

The other person, he recognizes, finally, as Jet. Despite his mental image of her, this one is smiling for once. It is unusual, but he is glad for this also, and tries to project this back at her, successful or not.

The other figures in the room are a swirling maelstrom of activity and noise compared to these two fixtures, and he has neither the capacity nor patience to bid them much heed.

Eventually Jorunn and Jet are replaced with unfamiliar nurses and a visibly reddening and irritated Doctor Cottle. He takes that time to sleep.

[Jet Almeara]

Things had progressed swiftly once Taaru had briefly regained consciousness and while she was fairly certain this entire ordeal - which had started on a planet now far behind them - had left her with a few new worry lines she was more then just a little bit relieved.

Relieved enough to withstand Dr. Cottle rants and anger in good humor, she hadn't even snapped back at the man while he snarled at her about force users breaking things - hadn't even blinked when he'd done it in front of that insufferable Thruvaran Mikhail while she merely nodded and apologized and promised to try and keep things under wraps from now on - no matter that the person responsible for the destruction was once more asleep. Typical...Taaru destroys things and she ended up sweeping up his mess.

But none of that mattered at the moment, Jorunn had crashed out in the way the sleep deprived tended to do once their stress was relieved and Jet was content to bask in the good nature Taaru's waking had placed her in and doze lightly in an out, cracking an eye now and again when someone wandered by to check on Taaru or passed by the window.

[Taaru Masako]

3 days pass....

Life continues as normal aboard the Faustus. It's crew has grown more accustomed to their circumstances. Marines, sailors and airmen alike continue their routines, training and maintaining. Already there are cliques: Engineers, fighter and transports pilots, grease monkeys....all with their own designated meeting spaces and rituals. The new additions, the the DW mercs and their Thruvaran counterparts, become more integrated into ship life, a process accelerated by the rumors being passed around about their contributions to the dust off on Rendili.

Taaru has spent most of this time bed ridden. Since initially waking up, he has suffered a bevvy of tests to ascertain what, if any, damage he sustained to his mental acuity and mobility, leaving the task of assuring everyone that he was in appropriate ranges for someone recovering from TBI to Mikhail. He'd also been administered a few neurofactor cocktails to stimulate the healing process, and had recently been able to stand again, with some assistance. By and large, however, he was limited to bed rest, while the physicians monitored.

Jorunn remained by his side most of the time, but upon his insistence (after having regained the faculty to do so) had returned to her duties with the other Thruvarans. The group had been visiting him in piecemeal, Doctor Cottle insisting there be no more than three visitors at a time as to not "overstimulate" his patient. Miko had filled him in on what their little band had been up to in the mean time: Mostly maintaining their equipment and training in simulators, but also learning from the combat recorder data acquired from each of their suits. It was invaluable data, the first incidence of the new MACS seeing implementation in a real battlefield outside of Corellian space. A copy had already been sent back to Centerpoint for dispersion through the appropriate rank and file.

Jet had also been by off and on, as had Erika, though the latter seemed more preoccupied with the continued exploration of her own bunk, instead of making herself known to the med wing.

However, despite the near constant attention and the seemingly clean bill of health, Taaru couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He remembered a dream of some sort, but not the details.....

It also didn't help that he was BORED OUT OF HIS MIND.

[Jet Almeara]

Sitting in the Med wing was boring - Jet having spent untold amounts of time recovering in there herself throughout her life knew this quite well. There wasn't much fixing it however as Cottle feared over stressing his patient even while Jet knew Taaru sitting idle for long periods of time was potentially far more dangerous then any over stimulation could be. It would not be long before he started taking apart medical droids or womanizing the nurses and demanding his early release...if he hadn't already started said activities.

So she endevored to sneak him in small things to do, read over or otherwise keep him at least a little bit busy when she could - unfortunately Taaru was not the type to be entertained by the latest holomags or shows, even ship gossip didn't intrest him for very long and so she was forced to bring him other things...like data readouts from training exercises and simulations, ideas about integrating an AI into the mansions security systems or even into the ShadowChaser. But small projects he could play around with while stuck in a medbay were slim pickings and she was quickly running out of ideas.

In fact today she'd only managed to stir up his favorite sandwich. Food was just as good as projects right? Probably not but at least she wasn't completely empty handed when she wandered in. "I brought lunch" She announced cheerfully before scanning the room for any signs of destruction since the last time she'd been to visit.

[Taaru Masako]

Taaru looks up from the worn pages of a flimsiplast book in his hands, reclining comfortably on the bed in a seated position. Scattered about him are numerous other volumes in all shapes and formats. There are technical readouts and blueprints lying across his legs, manuals and works of literature stacked near his bed. A couple of datapads and a holoprojector are also evident.

He rests the worn copy of "Mandalorians: Identity & Language" on his thighs, cracking a smile at her.

"The Diktat of the Five Worlds, bringing a common soldier his lunch? The boys'll never believe this at home, Ma'am."

[Jet Almeara]

Jet rolled her eyes slightly and set the lunch on the table near his bed - after clearing space for it and eying the precarious stack she'd created for a few seconds to ensure it wasn't going to fall and spew papers all over the place. "This place looks more like a library then a medical room" She told him "Or the abode of a creepy old historian" She further teased him. "Surprised Cottle hasn't fussed yet...of course he's probably just happy your staying put"

[Taaru Masako]

He marks his place by earmarking a page and tosses the book on top of the blueprints at his feet.

"Cottle and I have an understanding. I get to have a few things to keep me entertained, and he enjoys the pleasure of not having his instruments in the lab 'recalibrated'," he says, air-quoting the last word with his fingers for emphasis.

"Besides, I'm still the CAC around here. Even if Miko is picking up the slack for now, I still have to do paperwork and stay informed about the goings on."

He twists to reach for the proffered sandwich, wincing slightly. His ribs weren't doing quite as well as his bandaged head.....

"Bane's blight! You remembered my favorite," he extols, unwrapping his lunch and taking a bite. He gestures for her to have a seat, still chewing.

[Jet Almeara]

"I've seen you make it enough" Jet found herself oddly pleased that he appreciated the sandwich, force put a wounded person in front of her and she turned into a damned sap..well no it did have something to do with who the wounded person was she knew - and just how much he'd worried her by getting hurt in the first place which was probably why she made the remark she did rather then saying something more light hearted. "Ribs still hurt? I guess next time you'll not miss the giant slobbering sith monster coming to sideswipe you into oblivion"

Of course after she said she regretted it, she wasn't supposed to be stressing him out, she was supposed to be making him feel better but it was too late now and she could only grimace slightly and offer an apologetic smile as she sat down "Sorry, shouldn't have said that"

[Taaru Masako]

His immediate response is to stare at her with a mild degree of incredulity, while swallowing the first bite. It wasn't like her to be petty like that. But he quickly realizes that it wasn't pettiness.....it was a poor, but sincere, attempt at compassion.

"No, it's fine," he says in conciliation. "It's part of the life, though, getting into scrapes and narrowly escaping. In the heat of the moment, you can forget your other responsibilities, sometimes.

[Jet Almeara]

Jet sighed "I know, I know, It's just" she waved her hand at his current state "You had me..allot of us... worried is all. Trust you to find trouble while trying to steal maps of all things." She teased him, more then willing to turn the conversation away from both her former worry and her desire to lecture him about paying better attention to his surroundings so it never ever happened again. Which would be a silly thing to lecture him of all people about. But there it was Jet had a tendency to yell far more then comfort kindly when someone had worried her. Most people knew that and suffered through her angry tongue lashings knowing that it wasn't really anger at all which fueled them...ask Erika she'd certainly been the subject of many such fits in the past.

But, Cottle would likely ban her from the med wing if she went off while Taaru was still recovering and surely his wounds and this forced recovery time would be enough to make him more careful in the future...at least for a while right? "It's a simple mission...we can do it with our eyes closed" She pitched her voice to mimic his. "Didn't you say something to that effect when you left?" She asked with a smile. "That part...I do find vastly amusing"

[Taaru Masako]

"Pffff," he exhales with mild annoyance. " I may have said something like that, but I was operating under the principle that the planet wasn't going to be invaded by an 'old friend'."

He is momentarily distracted while shuffling through some things on his bedside stand. Eventually, he finds what he's looking for, and withdraws the knife Jorunn had given him before going into surgery.

This he uses to cut the sandwich in half, which he should've done in the first place, but was too famished to remember.

"And besides, it isn't me you should be worried about. It's Cpl. Zarram's family," he said solemnly, nodding his head towards the cryo-room down the hall. In addition to keeping inoperable patients in stasis for transportation to better medical facilities, the cryo-room also preserved the bodies of deceased service members during a tour of duty. The next time the Faustus came in contact with a homeward bound Corellian ship, they would transfer the body for delivery.

[Jet Almeara]

Her face affected a brief flicker of surprise at his words. "I see someone's been chatty with you haven't they?" Not that she'd been keeping the information from him exactly..but she had hoped to spare him the worry of knowing Freedon was out and about until he was back on his feet with more regularity. Clearly a pointless task, for all she knew it had been the ship itself that had told him...dratted AI. "Freedon himself wasn't there..I'd have felt him he's far to strong to miss and isn't the type to hide his presence, but yes after everyone returned to the ship I was able to identity his symbol on the invading vessels."

Watching him cut his sandwich with the same knife Jorunn had given him while he was unconscious was a bit odd, she had been so insistent that he have it then Jet had assumed it was of some importance..but he was using it like a common butterknife now. Ah well..she'd never pretended to understand some of the Thruvarans ways and brushed it off.

"...I will do what I can to see they are taken care of as I always do, sad thanks perhaps for what they've given but theres little else I can do" she remarked without glancing in the direction of the cryptotanks..she knew quite well where they were thank you.

[Taaru Masako]

"Yeah, I've been in touch with Lilith. But I already had my suspicions when I was planet-side. I've ever really known Sith to use that two-pronged design for a saber. It's how I had the idea for mine." He says, indicating his personal weapons. "And I didn't figure Chase would be dabbling in Sith bio-engineering.....it's too old school. Freedon fit the bill much better."

[Jet Almeara]

"He always did like his bio-engineering" She agreed after a few moments of thought "It makes me wonder just what he was after, doubtless you've also been told they narrowed down his probable location and figured out what you want to do" She stated "Personally I'm a fan of not poking the sleeping predator at the moment, I honestly don't care if he decides to steamroll over some alliance or Imperial planets and I'm not keen to draw his attention until I figure out just what his current mood is regarding Corellia." It was nice - finally - to be able to talk about these things with someone other then her overly righteous 'honor of the sky' type captain, even knowing Taaru considered the sith nothing more then an inconvenience and would certainly aggravate him if he thought he had reason too, he was somewhat easier to reason with - and Jet was pretty damn sure that if it came down to a straight up fight between her and Freedon, she wouldn't be the one walking away clean. He was far older and knew things she couldn't even conceive of, it would likely be good not to fight him unless she had too...and then there were the dreams, she'd slowly come to realize that they were linked to Freedon though she hadn't worked out all the pieces yet. In any case she wasn't about to share that with Taaru at the moment.