The icy tone in Rhijans' voice was easy to feign...because, it was only partly feigned.  "And just what do you think it is that I'd be doing to her that would result in some kind of medical intervention?" he asked, stiffening slightly.

He leaned forward, not quite threateningly, but with a dangerous expression, making sure he stayed in the man's peripheral vision.  "Just what kind of medical background do you have, anyway?" he asked,letting accusation color his tone heavily.

After all, a good interrogator could have a fairly extensive medical background...so he knew just how far to push a subject, and then how to bring them back to start all over again.

In the back of his mind, alarm bells began to ring.  After all, there were only so many things that sounded like a rampaging Wookiee.  And he only knew of one Wookiee on the base...who was supposed to be watching over Haarmon...

I've got a bad feeling about this... he told himself...and then forced himself to focus on browbeating the medic to keep his focus away from You-Why.

"Armor it is."  Another check down both hallways.  Clear for now.  "Let's go."

With that, Shard leads the way - as noted - down the hallway that leads to their destination: Stores.  Her free hand flicks on her comlink as she walks.

+ Rhijans?  You there?  Small change of plans; I'm hitting the stores to talk to Barsh's boss and get him armor, then we're heading for a bolt-hole. +

The assistant turns back towards Rhijans, "I don't think you'll be doing anything that would require medical intervention.  At least not deliberately.  If I did think that, then I'd be calling for security, not offering you a compromise.  She's weak, however, and just talking to her might be enough, especially if something you say causes her any stress."

Behind the man, You-Why hurries his approach to Kedra's bed.  And not a moment too soon... the droid moves behind the screen, just as Juragga comes in through the door carrying Haarmon.

And that is when Shard's voice comes from the comm, announcing a change of plan...

And talking of Shard... she finishes her brief explanation of the changed plan, just as she peers into a side corridor.  A movement catches her attention, something behind them, only visible in her peripheral vision in the brief moment while her head is turned.

An astromech droid which seems to be following them...

"Get behind me," Shard mutters.  "And fast."  She points at the droid. "Stop there," the former apprentice calls out.  "Now." 

It could be a droid.  It could be something else, entirely - a remote system containing an explosive device, for example.  Void, it could be a droid programmed to assassinate; who would suspect an R2 unit?

Her mind shifts, slowly moving toward that place of balance between icy reason and heated emotion.  It's getting easier the more she does it, now.

Juragga gobbled for medical attention for Haarmon, not really aware of the finer points of droid mayhem.

Rhijans' mouth had just opened for a response that never made it out, as Juragga burst into Medical.  He moved quickly toward the Wookiee, looking at the droid as he did so.  "Do you understand Wookiee?  Because if you don't, we're gonna have a helluva time trying to get him to explain what happened..."

And then Shard's comm call added to the chaos.  "Sure, why not?" he replied, drily.  It was near impossible to tell if it was sarcasm or sincerity.  "All our other plans seem to be changing, go ahead."  There was a pause...and then he added, in unmistakably sincere fervent tones, "Be safe."

He hoped that not too much of Juragga's chaos had made it onto the comm call.  He'd puzzled out that something was wrong with the team almost as soon as he heard it...and he was sure she was more perceptive than he was.  At least when it came to emotional understanding.

And, for a brief moment, he let himself wonder how You-Why's inquiries behind the screen were going.  The good thing about Juragga being here and frantic was that there was plenty of chaos to distract the medical droid.

The bad thing was, the Wookiee was carrying Haarmon...

There is a sudden rush of movement in the infirmary.  Two of the medics try to take Haarmon from Juragga, then change their minds, instead indicating that the Wookiee should place the groaning slicer on  a bed so that he can be examined.  Rhijans steps aside to give people room to move, and to work.

Coincidentally the movement carries him a little closer to the screen which conceals Kedra.  He can hear You-Why talking quietly, at least it sounds like his voice, but the exact words are hard to hear over the noise in the room.

The medical team, including the droid, gather around the bed and start their examination of the wounded man...

Barsh does what he's told without any argument.  He moves in behind Shard, and then, because he's nervous and curious at the same time, he peers past her at the droid.

The R2 unit itself stops, but not without launching into a tirade of whistles and chirps which sound positively offensive.  It rolls backwards and forwards a few centimetres at a time, like a man shuffling his feet impatiently, and twists its head from side to side, angrily buzzing, whistling, clicking and squealing at the Jedi.

"I think you've annoyed him.  Astromechs can be a bit... irritable." Barsh murmurs...

"The R2 can be annoyed all it wants," Shard mutters back.  "I honk everyone off, and I'm not about to stop just because one person is a meter tall and has a metal shell."  She eyes the droid with some displeasure for a long moment before continuing.

"Look, I don't know if you're following us or just happen to be passing this way.  If the former, stop.  I can't understand you without a translator, and right now everything I don't understand is a security hazard.  If the latter, find a different route.  Again, security hazard.  But continue following us, and I'll disable you."

Not 'forced to disable'; Shard firmly believes in taking responsibility for one's choices.

It was convenient...and Rhijans was eternally suspicious.  With everyone else focused on Juragga and Haarmon, Rhijans eased back to a position where he was just outside the privacy screen, taking care to not touch it and give any visual clue of his presence, and tried to hear as best he could over the sounds of a highly distressed Wookiee.

Haarmon thought he was awake. And aware. And relatively lucid. But then Rags brought him to the infirmary and Rhijans was there too. And golden-undies was lurking over behind a privacy screen. So maybe he was hallucinating? Was this some kind of fever dream symbolic of his desire for unity and belonging?

But whatever was going on, family reunion or brain damage, he found himself feeling comforted and safe all the same.

He put one hand up and tried to snark off to Rags about being carried over the threshold and maybe they were, like, married now, or something. But he didn't have the energy. And that's when he knew he was really hurt.

He did, however, chuckle once or twice at his own, unvoiced cleverness.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:09, Thu 21 May 2015.

The R2 unit unleashes another stream of polytonal invective - at least that's what it sounds like - and then it stops.  There is a faint crackling hiss, and the droid suddenly projects a hologram, life sized, in front of itself.  The image gives a shallow bow and says, "Hey, can you give R2 three XP72 regulators and a power coupler.  I have to do some urgent repairs.  I'll sort out the tickets when I get back, I don't have time to do it now."

The image fades, and the droid makes an attempt to move past Shard, whistling angrily...

Rhijans can't hear clearly from his position outside the screen, but it certainly sounds like You-Why is questioning Kedra...

On the bed, Haarmon is slipping in and out of conciousness while the medical team work on him and Juragga hoots anxiously.  Finally the doctor says something, and one of the organics says to the Wookiee,

Haarmon was tired. So, so, so tired. Everything in front of him wavered and shimmered like the heat haze across a star field. He wasn't sure if he could feel most of him or not, but whatever he did feel was pretty far away.

And then, more or less all of a sudden, Shard was there too, talking to Barsh. And an R2 unit. Did she just come in? Is this, like, my life flashing before me eyes or whatever?

If so, he hoped he could skip High School.

Or maybe it WAS all a hallucination. And this was, like, symbolic of his need for unity and belonging? Or something like his true family or something?

Didn't explain the pissy R2 unit, though. Probably something to do with his mother.

"It wants you to get out of its way," Haarmon mutters, both to Shard and to no one in particular, "it needs to get... Quartermasters... shortest route... in its way... also that you're a dumb bloodbag..."

It looks on the level.  It even might be on the level.

Shard doesn't buy it yet.  Too much wrong.  For one thing, the odds of their particular quartermaster giving out that gear without any kind of proper certification - in her experience - are close to nil.  For another, how is an R2 unit supposed to carry the equipment back?  They have, at most, one small manipulator arm.

Shard puts her foot against the R2's casing and pushes it back; a moment later, blue-white fire ignites in the hallway, forming a barrier across its path.  "Barsh," she calls out. "You know that guy in the hologram?  Friend of your bosses?"

Rhijans didn't entirely buy the story, but he waited in silence to see what the reaction was from the protocol droid.  There was definitely more going on inside that shiny casing than the standard programming package...

At the doctor's diagnosis, Juragga sags against a wall and slides down to a sitting position, visibly deflating, and covers his face with his paws.

Barsh sighs, a mix of relief and frustration, "It's one of the regular freighter pilots, Conal Something-or-other.  Swings through about once a month with supplies and scrounges parts for his flying junk pile.  As far as I know, the only threat is that the requisition dockets will take me until his next visit to get in order.  Reliable pilot, by all accounts, but sloppy with his documentation." 

And now Rhijans can hear You-Why trying to calm Kedra down. 

The medical staff continue to work on Haarmon, who suddenly groans loudly and tries, unsuccessfully, to sit up.  Though it must be said that at least some of his failure is due to people actually holding him still while the doctor buzzes and chuckles and clicks and whirs, and works on his injury.  His shirt is opened up, and an applicator nozzle begins to spray something mildly numbing over the wound...

Rhijans didn't nod, visibly, but he grinned inwardly.  He didn't know how complete standard protocol droid programming was...but You-Why had a very complex packet.  He'd shown Rhijans he could play the heavy and present himself in a disturbingly heartless manner...here he was, giving Kedra the soft touch.

Whether or not the droid's lack of confidence in the team was true mattered little to him...the presentation of it was done in such a way that Rhijans could truly appreciate what the droid was trying to do.

For the moment, at least, he was satisfied that anything that could be learned from Kedra would be.  He eased quietly over to Juragga and rested a hand on the Wookiee's shoulder, in a rare gesture of understanding that showed there was more to him than the cold professional exterior he carefully maintained.  This was his team.  They'd separated on his suggestion.

And Haarmon had gotten shot.

That didn't sit well with him.

Shard pauses, lips parting slightly.  "...Haarmon?"  It's the barest of whispers, just like what her mind thinks it 'hears'.  But it's not hearing; she has experienced this enough times in the past to know that much.

*snap*  The icy blade deactivates, vanishing.  "All right.  Pass."  She motions the droid onward.  "But if you get shot full of holes the next time you ignore someone with a security emergency, don't come running to me."  She crooks a finger at Barsh.  "Let's follow him, but stay at least twenty paces back."

Beginning to walk, Shard allows her spirit to drift between fury and ice, opening herself up.  More, she reaches out as she had in the Hutt's den, this time seeking a mind not here, not in front of her, but far more familiar.  Flash of teeth in a cocky smile, heavy sarcasm in the voice, a pistol spinning around a finger....

~~ Haarmon?  Where are you? ~~

For a few minutes there, most of Haarmon's focus was on the white-hot ball of furious pain that was his chest cavity. Once they numbed it there was a moment of pure, lake-water cool, summer-breeze-awesome relief from the pain, and then almost immediately he found it was getting harder and harder to focus.

Without the pain to hang on to, he started to fade and he felt like he was looking at everything from the bottom of a very deep hole.

And apparently Shard was going to be his guide to the next world. Was she dead too? Or was this more hallucinating? Funny. I always figured it'd be Rags. But at least it's not the R2 unit.

But whichever the case, it was all interesting enough to get him up off his metaphysical behind for another few seconds. Because if this was it, good and proper, once and for all, it, then he supposed he ought to get moving. Probably had some sweet holo vids on the other side.

~~ Pfft. Some spirit guide you are. You're supposed to tell me where I am. But I'm hanging with the crew over at medlab. Can I get one of those dying moments of clarity? Maybe some sweet final words? Rags is pretty torn up about the whole thing. ~~

~~ You're INJURED? ~~

Fortunately, thinking occurs at speeds greater than speaking.  Asking how he was hurt...pointless.  He's in the infirmary.  Juragga feels he's going to die...as does Haarmon himself.  And he's communicating with her in this fashion.

~~ Haarmon, forget the sweet final words.  I need you to think about the injury.  Think about it...like a computer issue to be solved.  I've seen you almost feel your way through these things.  I want you to do the same here.  Just consider the injury - not all of its little problems, but the injury as a whole - and start directing the resources of your body to fix that problem.  ~~

All the while she's marching down the hallway, hunting for a turn-off toward the med-lab.  "Change of plans, Barsh.  There's been a situation, and we need to get there, fast."

Barsh shakes his head and stops walking, "Wait, what?  I thought we'd already established that I'm your star witness, and I'm going to end up very dead if we don't get me to somewhere safe, and soon.  And this would destroy your chance of finding out who's been causing all the trouble around here.  Now you're changing plans on me?"

In the medical bay, the doctor extends a small nozzle from the palm of its hand and starts to spray bacta onto Haarmon's wound, which (now that it's been cleaned up a little) is looking a lot less serious...

One of the human assistants approaches Juragga and mutters something to him... 

You-Why, meanwhile, continues his quiet discussion with Kedra, who just keeps repeating that she never tried to get Barsh killed.  She'd just called her friend in an attempt to find out what was going on, and that friend had taken it upon herself to deal with the apparent traitor...

Juragga nods in relief at the assistant's words.  Shaking his head, he rumbled about it being Juragga's fault and why o why hadn't Haarmon stayed behind the doorway like he'd asked the kid to?

He remained seated on the floor, grateful for Rhijan's support.  He looked up at the kid on the med table.  The wound wasn't serious, they said, he rumbled.

There was a patch of singed fur on Juragga as well - he'd been shot too - but the massive wookiee barely seemed to notice.

Haarmon started to be aware that things in the Medlab, with his body, weren't as bad as they seemed. The shock was wearing off now and the pain was mostly taken care of by the attendants, and that whole dark tunnel to the other side was mostly fading. He even thought he could probably manage a weak moan if he tried.

So, then what was happening here with Shard? If he wasn't dying, and he wasn't in so much pain he was hallucinating, and he wasn't... what? What in void was happening? He tried to do what she said, to focus on his body, and on his energies or whatever, and try to heal himself, but the whole thing made him so flustered he lost the connection completely and opened his eyes.

"Rags?" he called out, weakly, "Hey Rags? Didn't no one ever tell you wookies ain't supposed to cry?"

Shard spins back, her hand going up to her earpiece.  "I've just received a message that one of my teammates has been shot and is in the infirmary.  Give me a second; I'll try to get some kind of update.  If things aren't critical, we'll keep going."

As much as it pains her to say.

With a flick, she switches the com on again to their frequency, trying to get in touch with Rhijans.

++ Rhijans.  Come in - what's the situation? ++

Juragga roared in glee, which quickly turned to a rumble of indignation. He was NOT crying, and what the hells had Haarmon been thinking, poking out and getting shot like that? His parental scolding did little to conceal his relief at Haarmon's awakening.