An Offer You Don't Refuse - 9.075

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Some things you learn and forget, like Applied Quantum Logic (a traumatic experience to be sure), and some never leave you, like knowing that from world to world, fish almost always swim the same way. Taataani's smile was almost jovial, gesturing to the pile of a half dozen fish she pilfered from the stream. Sure, now she was freezing, but the sense of a small triumph was keeping her warm, at least until the fire could finish the job, and get the damp out of her clothes.

"Two forr jyou. Two forr me. Two forr Taurrifar, jif he feelss ljike eatjing."

She gestured dismissively.

"jIf jyou want them burrned ljike jyourr people do, that'ss on jyou."

For emphasis, she dug her claws into a fish, and brought it up to cram a mouthful.

"Feelss ljike jI'm a ljittle gjirrl agajin, campjing out."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben took one of the fish and held it over the fire, grinning at Meorrrei's change in mood. She'd done something, something that had helped them survive, and was understandably elated, after everything had spun out of control.

Control was an illusion, Ben knew, but he still liked some semblance of it. They still didn't have heat on the ship, but with the auxiliary power supplies back, it wouldn't take long to reroute some power to the climate controls.

"You know, it does remind me of camping," Ben agreed. "My father would take me and my brothers out camping. We'd pile into the speeder and go for hours. He didn't stop until we had to jury-rig our comm units' transceivers together to get a bad signal."

Ben grinned again. He'd not thought about his family for quite some time. It wasn't as bad an experience as he'd thought.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Peeling a bit of fish off in a bite, she swallowed.

"We neverr had jit sso rrusstjic. Even when we made an efforrt to go to the wjilderrnesss, motherr jinssjissted on brrjingjing a ssmall convojy."

She thought about old nostalgic memories, of a half dozen overloaded speeders, and one overblown prefabricated housing module. Power everything, and not a luxury left behind, seemingly.

"jI had to prractjicalljy beg to hjike bejyond ejyessjight frrom camp."

She deferred to him and the survival skills he'd obviously shown.

"Ssoundss ljike jyou got the betterr lesssonss frrom rroughjing jit."

[Ben Merasska]

"Maybe," Ben answered, pulling a chunk of flesh from the fish and chewing thoughtfully. "I still can't set up a tent to save my life. Or fashion a good fishing pole out of branches and woven grasses"

The sunlight began to lengthen, setting the snow on the distant mountain tops alight, gleaming brilliantly in the cold, clear air. It was quiet around their crash site, but Ben was hoping that it was more the trauma of the crash and not that there was a predator of any kind lurking around them.

Everything was conspiring to remind him of the past.

"We decided to go in early spring once. We made it to a river, big evergreens around, a lot like these, in fact. And it started raining. My father and I, heh, we needed to set up the tents in the rain." Ben started laughing. "I was horrible at it. My brother had brought his girlfriend and they sat in the speeder and got the heaters and stuff ready."

His soft huffs of laughter turned to deep hiccups as he spoke through it.

"We finally got the tents set up, and my brother and his girl took the one I set up. We wake up in the middle of the night to screaming. My brother needed to piss, so he went and pissed on a bee-hive. He had to run, but was still pissing as he ran. He tripped over my tent, and the pegs came loose and his girl ended up rolling down through every puddle on the way down the hill side. And it started raining again as my brother was trying to get her out of the tent, and he's still pissing, and my father and I are shouting out things for him to do while we're laughing. We had to carry her up, wrapped in the tent like a cocoon."

Ben finally settled down, and took another bite of his fish, savoring the warm and distinct taste of fish-meat.

"The tent was too small for us to all share it. I ended up sleeping in the speeder while we waited for the tent and blankets to dry. They never let me set up a tent again."

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Taataani blinked at the pure testament to bad luck Ben laid out in front of her.

"Oh dearr..."

Shaking her head, she smiled, thinking back.

"The worrsst we everr endurred wass when we'd have a hunt. Of courrsse, the rrou'kai'touua thjing to do...ah..."

She trailed off, not sure how to explain that concept in Basic. She scrunched her face a bit in thought.

"Ljike forr jyou...a male...forr humanss to ssajy macho? That, but forr a woman. Asss a teenagerr mjy ssjissterrss alwajyss wanted to catch ssomethjing larrge on a hunt."

She paused momentarily to suck a fish eye from the head in her hands, and continued.

"Morre than a few tjimess, what jI hunted...caught me. And carrjied me. And carrjied me...jinto the camp...knockjing everrjythjing overr, and nearrljy trrampled me when jit got tjirred."

For emphasis, she rubbed at her exposed and disheveled head.

"So no, thjiss jiss not mjy fjirrsst concusssjion. And not mjy fjirrsst campjing djissassterr."

The good memories helped, and her voice turned almost pleading.

"Majybe ourr luck wjill turrn arround."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben laughed, imagining a younger Meorrrei riding a large nerf-like creature into a campsite, holding on for dear life, all for the shot at bragging about the largest kill. Thinking of nerfs reminded him of the mountains in spring again, with the herds moving slowly, enjoying the thawing of the snow covered hillsides.

Ben shook his head, realizing he was picturing the scene on a hillside he could barely see through the distance, instead of the greener hillsides he remembered.

"I wouldn't call this a camping disaster," Ben answered slowly, licking his fingers. "We weren't planning on camping, it just sort of... you know, happened."

He spitted his second fish after gutting it, and frowned slightly, the feeling of familiarity growing on him. The guts, the fire, the scenery...

"These fish are familiar," he frowned, and then looked up to give the trees a closer look. "These trees are, too."

Carefully setting his fish down on one of the rocks that formed the barrier of their fire, Ben stood and looked around more closely. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to a tree and pulled one of the needles from a low hanging branch.

"It can't be possible," he said, and took off at a run through the trees, heading up the mountain they'd found themselves on. He could hear Meorrrei following him, but he ignored anything she said, his entire being filled with the potential...

He stopped, finally finding a clear outcropping that allowed him a clear, unobstructed vista of the mountain range they'd crashed into.

"It is," he said, laughing in relief, pointing into the distance. "It's a colony world! Look!"

In the distance, silhouetted by the position of the sun in the sky, was the stern end of a positively ancient colony ship. Nearby was the undeniable outline of dwellings, built from stone and metal, though no activity could be seen from their vantage point.

"A colony world!" Ben said, grabbing Meorrrei in a hug and spinning her about. "A colony world!"

[Taataani Meorrrei]

The dawning look of hope caught a spark in her eyes as they widened.

"Then therre could be..."

Her pulse quickened as she moved to survey what Ben had suddenly discovered. She looked, and the tempo of her tail sway confirmed it.

"Ben Merrassska jI could kjisss jyou!"

A wash of emotions bubbled up, as well as the terrified urgency for Taurrifar. She turned around, embracing her fellow survivor as she pressed lips in forceful procession at each side of his face.

"Saia'charthnaai ra hei nainthe we can do thjiss, Saanjarra, we can!"

She wanted to run for it immediately. She wanted to just take off and go until she fell exhausted, then continue onward. As long as she could find someone to help.

Then she looked back to Taurrifar, and the dilemma set in. Going for help would be leaving him to survive on his own for a day, maybe longer. Could they afford that?

She looked back to the vista, and exhaled deeply.

"How do we do thjiss?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben's exultant smile lessened to nothing as the implications of Meorrrei's questions sunk in. By the looks of the terrain, it would a day or two of travel to even get there. Depending on the state of the people there, it might take a day of talking and negotiating something or other for supplies and clothing. And then, the trip back.

He followed Meorrrei's look back to the shuttle, barely visible in the distance. Travelling with him in tow would likely be worse, even if they had something to carry him. Could they both afford to leave him by himself for that long?

Ben looked back at the old colony ship and sighed.

"One of us will have to go. The other will have to stay. I don't think we should leave him by himself, and we definitely can't bring him along."

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Taataani nodded, knowing this meant she was about to have to make one of the most difficult decisions she'd faced in a long time. She closed her eyes.

"jI'll go."

When she opened them, her expression was one of a weary, steadfast, and grim determination. She headed back to camp, and went to where Taurrifar was being sheltered. Kneeling at his side, she placed both hands on his chest.

"Hello therre, drai'eerra."

The male, who had been asleep, cracked open his eyes, and when he saw Taataani, he smiled.

"We've found a ssettlement. Out jin the djisstance. jI thjink thejy majy have a doctorr, orr ssomeone who can help."

Taurrifar gulped heavily from some water she offered, and she blotted the clammy perspiration from his forehead with a cloth.

"jI'm gojing to go fjind ssomeone, Taurrifar. ssomeone to help jyou."

He started to stir, worried for her safety, and she put both hands on his shoulders.

"Mjisstrresss, jI'm...jI'll be okajy to wajit..."

"Goddesss damn jyou ljissten to jyourrsself jyou sstubborrn krrou'i. jYou'rre hurrt."

Her voice wavered a little.

"And jit'ss sserrjiouss, Taurrifar. Pleasse. Let me do forr jyou everrjythjing jyou desserrve. Let Captajin Ben help jyou when jI'm gone. Be sstrrong forr hjim whjile jI'm awajy. He'll need jyou to be."

Taurrifar reached up, running a hand through the thin tuft of grey hair that was Taataani's real head of hair. Until now, he was one of the few that had seen her this way, but it was how he knew her most intimately. He smiled.

"jI wjill wajit forr jyou, saarra'mai, ljike an old trree wajitss forr the sseassonss. And jI wjill keep Captajin Ben ssafe."

Taataani leaned down, and shared a kiss with her husband.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben gave them their time alone, as much out of respect as awkwardness and unfamiliarity. Meorrrei was going out, alone, into an unknown situation. Ben would have done it, but only as a last resort. He would have, first, tried to see if there was any way of contacting the settlement first.

But the beacon had been going for just over a full standard day by now, and if the settlement had any sort of equipment, they'd have heard the beacon and responded. That wasn't a good sign.

While Meorrrei sat and spoke with her husband, Ben got together as much equipment as he could. He squeezed a bit more power of the auxiliaries and got the ship's short range communications working after a bit of jury-rigging and a large antenna made out of an ugly assembly of spare wiring.

"Here," Ben said as Meorrrei walked down the boarding ramp and into their makeshift campsite. He handed her his jacket, and a couple thicker shirts. "This should be better for you than just a sweater. It's not the best, though, and it's not waterproof, so try not to get wet."

He pulled out his comm unit.

"I've got the short range systems working, but they drain power from the auxiliaries too quick for us to keep them on all the time. Send a ping from my comm unit when you get there, and I'll get the thing running and we can communicate."

He hefted a pack, filled with clothing, some dried fish, and her husband's boots, pilfered some time earlier.

"Good luck," he said, pulling on a thick sweater over a couple layers of tunics. "If it takes more than a day, find some place dry and start a fire. Don't try and travel at night."

[Taataani Meorrrei]

She was loaded down, cold, wet, tired, sore, and sleep deprived. Any other day, these offenses would be the greatest transgression she'd ever faced. Life had suddenly snapped her ridiculous existence into sharp focus. These things did not matter. They must not matter. What mattered right now was lying in agony in that makeshift shelter. And he was worth every toil and every iota of suffering.

"Ben, thank jyou."

He'd been an invaluable anchor to her in this tragedy. There was no way she would be able to pull herself together without him, and the words she gave as payment seemed painfully short of the mark.

"Sstajy warrm. Sstajy out of ssjight. Keep hjim ssafe. Keep hjim companjy. Talk to hjim, okajy? He'ss..."

Her voice caught in her throat, and she swallowed hard.

"jI need to go. Ja'irra korra'nai, Ben. The besst of luck."

She didn't linger for a response. Turning away quickly, she began her trip at a hurried clip, blinking burning tears out of her eyes she didn't want anyone to see her shed.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben watched her go, pushing every last word threatening to come out of his mouth back down his throat and into his lungs. He'd only waste her time, and they didn't need him trying in vain to convince himself that she wouldn't die and leave him alone on this planet alone with her husband. He'd always worry about it, until it did or didn't happen.

He turned and looked at the campsite, which was rough looking and very much centered around the hulk of the grounded shuttle. He tried to keep himself from focusing on how quiet things had gotten; how the only thing he could hear was the whispers of the trees moving in the wind.

He fled the outdoors, heading inside and checking on Meorrrei's husband, who was moaning softly in his bunk. Ben moved to give him some more painkillers, but stopped when he saw exactly how much was left.

Meorrrei's husband looked at him, making Ben want to look away.

"Ssave it," he murmured hoarsely. Ben nodded, putting the rapidly diminishing medical supply away, and left the room, heading back into the engine compartment to work on making the climate controls functional. If he was warm, then perhaps he could sleep and recuperate more easily.

Taking the voltage meter in one hand and a hydrospanner in another Ben schooled his expression into one of determination, and went to work.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

The gentle slope of the landscape put momentum behind her, and Taataani started out at a brisk pace. She weaved through stands of evergreen trees, listening ahead and behind for signs of trouble. Regularly she would stop, swivel her ears, and pick up the pace. She didn't pause to think, to reflect, or dwell on things that might slow her down. She simply moved. Her breath came out in steamy puffs as she trudged onward, losing her vantage and temporarily losing sight of the old colony ship as she descended the gently-sloping mountainside they had crashed on.

She held onto her blaster for dear life. It was her fighting chance against the great unknown around her.

[Ben Merasska]

Around Meorrrei, the forest was silent, the only sounds the wind in the trees and the crunch of snow beneath her feet. Lower down the mountain they'd crashed onto, the evergreens grew more thickly, and were interspersed with the skeletons of brush and bushes.

-------------------------

Ben stopped working on the climate controls in frustration two hours after he'd begun, his fingers numb and bruised from the growing list of mistakes he was making. He saw crystals growing on the wiring; the moisture in his breath was freezing onto them.

He stopped by at Meorrrei's husband's bunk, and winced as he looked at him.

He stepped out of the ship and kindled the fire from the coals it had left behind, and ate some of the fish they'd left to dry near the fire, and cried.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Taurrifar heard the human reaching his breaking point, and he cleared his throat a little. He felt a strange chill, and drew the blanket tighter around him.

"Captajin?"

He didn't want to hear him cry. He didn't need anything to cause him to lose hope.

"Captajin, come herre."

He waited for Ben to arrive.

"Do jyou ssjing, Captajin?"

-----------------------------

Taataani had to move carefully, and had to be sure of her direction. To someone without a reference point and with no map skills, that was a difficult feat. In the taiga, she had to occasionally scale a tree to find her bearings, and that exposed her to the biting wind above. She was starting to lose her energy reserves. She moved slower and slower. The dull ache in her body intensified with every mile. She paused beneath a tree, catching her reserves, and tucked into a piece of fish, following that with water. In the trees beyond, there was the sound of movement. Wild game, perhaps. She watched for any movement, but every moment she lingered, she felt herself wanting to sleep.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben hurriedly wiped his eyes and nose, sniffling and grunting, surprised at himself for his breakdown. He didn't lie to himself; he knew he wasn't the most emotionally stable person. Still, his chest hurt something awful.

He expected to hear his father, older now, calling his name, asking if everything was ready for supper. He expected to see his brothers walking out of the tree line, laughing and dirty, carrying bundles of wood for the next day's worth of fires.

He'd run so far, for so long, and here of all places it caught up to him completely, the emotional knowledge that he was it, the last of his family. He thought of Juroden, and of Ranneth, and it struck him then, that Ranneth was right.

Alderaan was dead. Alderaanians were dying out. The Empire had declared war and won with one shot from the Death Star, and though it was long since destroyed, now a ring of debris around Yavin, it couldn't bring back anything.

Ben Merasska was alone in the galaxy.

He pushed everything back down into his stomach, and could feel the acid churning, trying to eat away at it, but it was indigestible. He knew it would come back up, but perhaps he could keep running, and find his island of peace.

He stood, and walked back into the ship, and sat next to Meorrrei's husband.

"I did sing, once," he said with a watery grin. "My family stopped me and told me it classified as torture."

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As Meorrrei travelled, signs of civilization began to appear, though most of them were hidden and so beaten by the elements they weren't recognizable as anything other than once having been made, not grown.

As she rested beneath the tree, a huge, four legged animal ambled into sight, and let a long, slow, low reverberated from its chest out through its nose. It ignored Taataani for the most part, simply watching her, its head low, brandishing it's large rack of horns jutting from its head in a lazy warning.

Behind it ambled three more of the creatures, all dark brown and hairy, making their way down the mountain-side to the mostly frozen river below.

Beyond them, interestingly, what looked like a cairn of rocks was assembled. The top most rock was oddly shaped, and set too perfectly on the others to have been placed there haphazardly.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Taurrifar smiled at the self deprecation.

"Asss long asss jyou feel what jyou ssjing, krai'ssha to whateverr anjyone elsse ssjingss."

The Cizerack inhaled deeply, and when he sang, it was a quiet, slowly-metered verse, and one he repeatedly broke meter to catch his breath within.

"Shai'a l'os maa'tiie ne
Oi'rre na hui'me te
Voi na'kee'kee russ
Shai'a l'os maa'tiie ne"

He gestured to Ben to try with him on the refrain. He went slow enough for the human to at least mime the words. As he said, it didn't matter, as long as you felt it.

----------------------------------

Seeing a break from the eternity of tundra in her midst, Taataani instantly made for the cairn. She needed something to keep the fire inside her alight. Something that told her that just beyond the distance, there was someone who could make things right. Nothing natural set that cairn in place, and she was certain that whatever the colony ship had brought, was now leaving messages for her to find.

She hoped. It was all she could do.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben hadn't been lying about his talent with singing.

"Shai'a l'os maa'tiie ne
Oi'rre na hui'me te
Voi na'kee'kee russ
Shai'a l'os maa'tiie ne"

But the meter was what saved him. He allowed the song to push away the feelings gnawing at his gut and focused solely on it, and by extension, the moment. He did indeed let himself feel the song, and what he felt, he liked.

"What does it mean?" he asked.

---------------------------------------

The cairn stood in the middle of a small patch of treeless ground, and the stones looked ancient and worn. The top most stone was not stone, though it looked weathered and worn. It was a small block of duracrete, and on it was a small plaque of durasteel, in which was carved, messily but still clearly enough to be read.

Sleeper Ship Discovery Farren Serrille A Good Man

There were no dates, nor an age for the man the rocks covered.

Meorrrei traced a finger along the lettering, and frowned on seeing a discolored mark beneath the man's name. She pressed it, and it sunk, slowly, into the durasteel that surrounded it.

A woman's voice echoed through the small clearing, almost indistinct due to the age of the recording.

"Farren Serrille, a biochemist, age... around thirty. Died of infection due to a bite of a wild hound. Without antibiotics to treat the wound, and were unable to reach home, north by northwest, before the fever took him."

The recording fell silent, save for the static and what was undoubtedly the sound of the wind. Taataani waited for a moment, and turned to leave, but the recording became clearer, and the sound of the wind in the background was lost against the backdrop of someone weeping. A man's voice was picked up, but she didn't need to hear clear words to know the man was trying to soothe the woman.

"He was a good man."

The recording ended.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Taurrifar gestured for the water canteen. He sipped lightly, and with a careful swallow he explained.

"Mjy fatherr taught me when jI wass ljittle. jIt'ss a ssong forr fatherrss and ssonss.

On the ssummerr grrasss jI rrun
Therre'ss no carress todajy
Though jit majy be cold tomorrrow, ssoon agajin
On the ssummerr grrasss jI rrun."

He pulled the blanket a little tighter.

"The besst ssong jI can thjink to ssjing rrjight now."

---------------------------------------------

Taataani had felt cold for hours. Now that cold cut her to the quick. She replayed the message in her head over and over again as she continued to trudge on. It was a message of hopelessness. She tried to banish it from her head but it was freezing her reason like frostbite.

Finding a respite from the wind, she stumbled into a small dell and found a patch of ground on a leeward side of a hill that was barren of snow. She needed to rest. Easing down to her knees, she pulled her tail in around her middle, trying to stay warm. She looked for some bastion of defiance inside her to tear down whatever this bleak message had built in her mind to poison her resolve. Finding little to console her, her entire body began to shake with a quiet but agonizing sob. Her eyes closed tightly and her teeth bared, as if she couldn't even surrender the indignity of letting the sound of crying escape her. So she suffered in absolute silence.

[Ben Merasska]

"It's not bad at all," Ben said, trying not to look down at the shapes hidden by the blankets. "I like it. It's very... uh, domestic. Homely, or homey, if you know what I mean."

He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling of the bunk, feeling the cold seep in through the layers of clothing.

"The fact that you can sing at all says a lot," he said, looking at the gusts of mist as they billowed from his mouth.

"That you can sing and feel it, well, I think you're the most stable of us at the moment." Ben grinned again.

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The cairn behind her was silent, bearing witness to her defiant outpouring of grief and hopelessness.

The trees stood about, their brown, green, and white livery all surrounded her.

But within them, a shape moved.

And in the distance, there was a long, moaning howl.