A Decision - Part Two

[Arrenhe tr'Khev 0]

NOTE: These events take place during the leave.

 

A Decision

Part Two

Arrenhe tr'Khev

 

Eleven days after coming home, Arrenhe tr'Khev exited the theatre after a good rehearsal. His first solo concert was coming up in two weeks, and while the diminutive musician continued to feel the butterflies, the good rehearsals and preparations were boosting his confidence. His mood therefore was quite high as he took the back route toward his new favorite restaurant as he traversed the streets of the capital city.

 

The place was small, not terribly attractive inside or out, but the kitchen held a secret weapon in the chef. He'd been introduced to it by the Maestro tr'Julan, whom Arrenhe had to admit had been accurately pigeonholed by his mother. Considering the elder musician's influence, Arrenhe had little choice but to live with the advances, which were quite subtle and almost sweet, at least. If he had to live with come-ons from a dirty old man it would be an entirely different story.

 

Taking a right turn into an alley to cut some time off his walk to the diner, Arrenhe was lost in his own thoughts as usual. Therefore, he didn't see the three young Rihans that blocked his path until he nearly ran into one.

 

"My apologies, excuse me," he said absentmindedly as he attempted to slip between them. He was stopped by a strong pair of arms and pushed back. He then noted two more blocking the path behind him, and he knew this was going to be a troublesome event.

 

"Au are na going anywhere," said the largest, and most thuggish looking of the lot.

 

Before Arrenhe could even open his mouth to try to diplomatically navigate his way through the incident the five Rihans moved in on him. Hand-to-hand had never been his specialty, and in the back of his mind as he was being summarily pounded half to death he recalled the words of one of his instructors, reminding him to stay out of arm's reach and use a disruptor.

 

With his intentions of resigning from Galae he had na disruptor, or any other weapon for that matter, available while his Galae communicator was tucked away at home. Na that he would have had the time to use them if they were available. He offered his assailants na resistance, but it did na matter, as they were seemingly out for blood regardless of what he did. Stripped of his possessions, the final injury and insult was given as he felt the bite of a dagger into his right shoulder.

 

The five Rihans ran off, their pockets full of his credits, his civilian communicator, and a few of the other accouterments that he'd been wearing. Arrenhe himself lay on the ground, dazed and in pain, his green blood painting an abstract vision onto the alley. After a moment his mind cleared just enough for him to realize that if he didn't go find help, he could bleed to death in the alley. He staggered to his feet and zig-zagged his way through the maze of the alley into the lot of a repair shop, where he collapsed onto his knees. Crawling his way to the door, his right arm dragging on the ground, he then collapsed onto the floor just inside the door and passed out.

 

***

 

When he came to, he was quite groggy and confused. Looking around, he also noted that he was alone in a hospital room, splayed out over a hospital bed. After a moment the memory of his attack surfaced to his mind, and he shut his eyes again as if he were trying to shut out the vision of it. There was quite a bit of discomfort all over his body, and his right arm was tingling quite uncomfortably. He groped around a moment until he found the call button and then weakly pressed it. After a moment a Maenak entered, looking over an ISD. The lanky medic looked over Arrenhe for quite a few seconds before he spoke.

 

"Ah, au are awake, mnekha," the Maenak said. "How are au feeling?"

 

"Agh," was the best Arrenhe could manage in reply.

 

"Ie, quite expected. Let me double-check au's vitals before I give au any anesthetics." The Maenak looked over the readings on the screen next to the bed, a low trailing hum coming from his lips as he perused the data. "Au look quite stable, so I can give au something," he said before he injected something into Arrenhe's left arm. After the drugs had a moment to enter the body and circulate, he perused the bio-data again and nodded. "Mnekha."

 

Whatever the Maenak had given him it did the job, though the tingling sensation in his arm did na dissipate. He tried to wiggle his fingers, but the tingling changed into a burning and he winced. The Maenak had caught the maneuver as he'd turned back and clucked down at him.

 

"Na recommended, lhhai. Au's arm is still recovering from the surgery. Now, we did na find any ID information on au when au were brought in, and we could na find au in the local database. Could au tell me au's name?"

 

"Huh," Arrenhe responded. Na better way to prove that he did na fit the part of dheno, as they'd apparently na even bothered to check the Galae database. "Arrenhe irKai tr'Khev, Galae ID 4432-DF-33271-ZK."

 

"All right," the Maenak responded, his voice clearly dripping with disbelief. Nonetheless he entered the information onto his ISD and pulled requested the data. His eyebrows shot up as indeed Arrenhe's file came up. "Ie, here au are..."

 

"For now," thought Arrenhe, though he said nothing as he allowed his head to fall back into the pillow.

 

"All right, the authorities will na doubt be in as soon as they figure out au are conscious. Probably better to get that over with sooner rather than later, and I believe au can handle it." He continued to make notes on the ISD. "We will be keeping au for today. Tomorrow au can probably be released if everything looks mnekha. Au can arrange with au's own Maenak some physical therapy on that arm."

 

"What's wrong with it?" Arrenhe asked. "It's... na working right."

 

"Hmm... When au were stabbed, besides tearing through some muscle tissue it also severed the main nerve pathway. Do na worry, we were able to repair it, au will have full use of au's arm after a bit of therapy." The Maenak's communicator beeped, and after a quick check of it, he began heading out of the room. "Must run, another emergency."

 

Arrenhe sighed. It looked like everything would be all right.

 

***

 

Fifteen days later as he sat in the the office of Kellah t'Rillae, his family's Maenak, things were definitely na all right. He'd been undergoing physical therapy at a Galae hospital since his release, and the strength and use of his arm had returned, but na anything like "full use." So, he'd arranged an appointment with t'Rillae for another opinion. Her diagnosis floored him.

 

"I'm sorry lhhai... The damage to the nerve was quite serious, and even with the best medicine in the quadrant available it looks like the repair work couldn't quite match the excellent nerve-response that au naturally have. Given a few more months, au will certainly have 'standard' response through the nerve pathway... I'm afraid though that it will na be like it was before. Au will have to make some adjustments to be able to continue playing."

 

"Adjustments..." Arrenhe responded weakly.

 

"Ie," responded t'Rillae. Her face was full of compassion as she dealt with her patient. She'd seen and heard Arrenhe play a number of times, and she knew that while he would still be able to play some instruments after he'd adjusted, his performance capability on the very demanding hrini would be diminished by half as the instrument took precise control from two hands to be played well. "At this time there's just nothing we can do, au's hand and finger movements will just na be as refined as they used to be with the right hand. Certainly we continue to make advances, and I will certainly keep an ear open for anything that might be done to return au's nerve impulses back to au's native state."

 

"Hanny'yo," Arrenhe said after a few moments of utter silence. He knew what it meant. He took his leave of the Maenak and returned home, utterly destroyed.

 

His ri'nanov stood waiting for him in the foyer when he returned. Seeing the look on his face, she immediately moved to him and offered her comfort.

 

"I'm finished," Arrenhe said, his voice thick with sadness.

 

"Na, au are na," Nalah said firmly into his ear as she held him.

 

"I can na play anymore."

 

"Au are still a brilliant musician," Nalah replied. She'd received a call from t'Rillae as Arrenhe was in transit, so knew full well the diagnosis and what it meant, but also had the objectivity of distance. "Will au's right hand keep au from composing? Does it stop au from singing? It is na as if au's only talent lie in that abominably difficult instrument."

 

"The hrini was my gift, ri'na'."

 

"It was io of many, my son." Knowing he'd need to grieve for his loss, she let him go after a gentle peck on the top of his head.

 

Arrenhe fled to his room and allowed the emotions to overtake him, and he was lost in pain for hours. By morning, however, he was spent and his mind clear. The Elements clearly showed, cruelly, that it was na yet time for him to leave Galae. As he had na yet tendered a resignation, there were na hoops to jump through on that end. The conversation he had later that morning with tr'Julan was na an easy one, and the old Maestro flung curses left and right at the thugs who'd played fate's role, the Elements, even the Klling'hanns.

 

The concert was canceled, as were all of Arrenhe's plans to take an apartment in the capital city. The remaining few days of his leave were spent tidying up his affairs and the end of his physical therapy.

 

His emotions, however, were na quite as settled as his mind, and a good part of him felt that his life was over; the fact that he still drew breath was merely inconvenient. Returning to the Talon, however, was probably as sure a way to stop that as any other he could think of, and it may have the side benefit of improving his family's reputation and position.

 

For the first time in his life, he cursed the music in his mind and strove to quiet it as he made his way to the transport facility to return to the Talon. He figured most of the crew would be clueless as to the change in his life's course, and that suited him fine. Knowing, however, that t'Ksa was a very thorough Maenak, he figured she'd notice the updates to his Galae medical file; he could only hope she'd find it a mere curiosity, and seeing that it didn't affect his Galae service she would na put things together as to what it meant.

 

Rather than play music in his off time now, he would try to concentrate on becoming a better dheno. Even in his depressed state that thought could still bring him at least a gruff chuckle.

[STSF_BluRox 0]

trKhev,

 

This was an excellent log!! I enjoyed reading it very much!

 

tRexan