Friendship, Honor, and the Rihannsu

[NDak 0]

Destorie’s flitter hovered above the sprawling hospital complex while he waited for the approval to land. He hadn’t been prepared for how emotional the situation had made him, let alone the anxiety he would feel as his flitter finally began to descend to the flitterpad. Settling on the pad with a gentle burst from the retrothrusters, he was quickly out of the canopy and making his way towards the central green glass tower where his chief engineer was clinging to her life after apparently burying her own kaleh into her stomach.

 

Showing his Galae credentials, he quickly moved through security and onto a lift carrying him to the critical condition ward. The nurse at the counter had given him a rather strange look when he asked if anyone had been to see her, like that she was surprised anyone would and that brought even more concern to him.

 

The hospital itself was fairly unsettling; Destorie had never liked them. He’d heard that the Lloann’na tried to make their hospitals feel inviting and welcoming, but the Rihannsu never bothered with such pretenses. They were, like this one, cold, antiseptic and altogether dreary. As a young boy he’d spent several weeks inside one of the better ios on ch’Rihan when he’d came down with pneumonia, and ever since had preferred to stay out of them whenever possible; of course the irony there was that over the last five years of his life, he’d logged more hours in Talon’s sickbay than he cared to remember, perhaps more than just about anyone else on the ship.

 

Stopping outside the door, he craned his neck to see into the room. It was quiet; only the machines provided ambiance, and not even a nurse was attending in the room. He glanced across the hall to where a nurse sat behind a counter with several monitors.

 

“Hello,” he said. “I am here to see Laehval t’Temarr. Is she expecting anyone, or her doctors?”

 

“Na,” the nurse said after glancing towards a chart. “She is na due for another visit from the doctors till this evening. And na, na io has even came to see her yet. Au are the first.”

 

He lifted his brow. “Have au na notified the family then?”

 

She looked a little confused, just like the nurse at the front desk had been. “Family?”

 

“Ie, she has them au know.” He thought that sounded a bit incredulous, but he couldn’t help it. Shaking his head and making a mea culpa motion with his hands he sighed. “She is house S’Temarr surely that was in her records?”

 

“Na,” she said. “I was there when they admitted her. We could find na record of her family. I can show au the records auself if au wish.”

 

“Na,” he said distantly. “That will na be required. I will handle it myself once I am done. I assume her status has na changed since the update to my ship?”

 

The nurse shook her head. “Ie, na changes. She is stable, but is on life support and a feeding tube. The doctor thinks she could recover but…”

 

He held a hand up. “Ie,” he said. “I read the report. They are unsure if there was any permanent brain damage.”

The nurse nodded, then added softly, “Did au know her then?”

 

“Ie,” he said. “I am her executive officer.”

 

She nodded. “A friend then?”

 

Destorie glanced back towards the room where Laehval lay on a biobed, somewhere between life and death. A friend? He wasn’t entirely sure how to even respond to that question. In nearly seven years he’d been aboard Talon he and Laehval had their share of difficulties, but they’d also grown close over the years and he thought he’d come to know her fairly well; on the other hand the events during and after the mutiny had caused him to question his knowledge of Laehval – and then there was this.

 

He knew that she’d been upset, but he’d neglected to go check on her before leave, deferring to her famous need for privacy. Now, with her nearly dead – at her own hands – he found himself questioning the wisdom in leaving people to their own devices.

 

“Ie,” he said finally. “Or as close to io as she has.”

 

“Good,” the nurse said. “She could use one I think.”

 

Destorie lifed a brow. “Oh?”

 

“Ie. While I understand it, I have never fully approved of those who choose to take their own life to save their ‘honor,’” the nurse said with a clearly disapproving scowl. “It seems strange to me to feel that au have ever came to a place where au think au can never regain au honor.”

 

“Perhaps,” Destorie said distantly. “But hopefully h’nah that elements have spared her, they will allow her that opportunity.”

 

“Let us hope.”

 

Destorie nodded again to the nurse before making his way into the room. It was strange to see her there in such a position. As long as he’d known the woman, he’d thought of her as an immovable object, brimming with confidence; yet here she was laying in a biobed in a non-descript hospital with a self-inflicted wound – an attempt to save an honor he wasn’t sure she’d ever lost.

 

For Destorie, the notion of killing oneself to preserve ones honor was close at hand. His name sake, Daise’Enriov Destorie N’Dak had committed such an act after his forces surrendered to the Lloann’na at the end of their war some two hundred years before; an act that had preserved the families honor, but had left a legacy for which he would always be compared. He too had also considered the act both when he’d been captured by the Lloann’na ship Arcadia and again after the events that followed his return. He decided then that he still had much of his honor and could regain it, but the truth had been he couldn’t bring himself to actually go through with the act.

 

In some ways, he now admired the strength of t’Temarr’s resolve more than ever, even if he questioned her actions.

 

Exhaling and stepping more fully into the room. He pulled a chair to her side and sat down.

--

He left the hospital aboard his flitter feeling almost the same as when he’d arrived. He was torn between his own feelings and inadequacies; his need and feelings for Laehval (both professional and collegial); and an overwhelming feeling of guilt. On to top of that he couldn’t shake the exchange with the nurse about her family.

 

Just what was that about?

 

As he headed back to his family estate in the capitol city, he sent a message to Talon to begin pulling off her files for him as soon as possible. He also tapped out a note to t’Rexan notifying her that as soon as he touched back down he’d be touch with an update on t’Temarr’s status.

[Lerak trPexil 0]

“Na,” the nurse said after glancing towards a chart. “She is na due for another visit from the doctors till this evening. And na, na io has even came to see her yet. Au are the first.”

 

He lifted his brow. “Have au na notified the family then?”

 

Poor Lerak does not even know yet. Ah well, more coasters and more sweets! Good log.

[STSF_BluRox 0]

Nice log Destorie!