• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

The droid withdrew and Elegos came into the room, with bandages, some salves, water and sponges to clean up my hands. “Though I am not formally a healer, one learns to deal with wounds like these when building a settlement.”

“Carving out a new life is bound to give anyone new skills.” I smiled carefully, a bit surprised by the Caamasi’s scent. I found it slightly spicy and woody, almost like Corellian whiskey, but a touch sweeter, reminding me of warm beverages my mother would make for us when the family would huddle together during winter nights. I found the scent comforting and something that seemed to make the small grey room in which we stood seem less oppressive.

Sitting on the room’s table, I looked up into Elegos’ eyes as he cleaned the blood from my right hand. “I have a question for you.”

“I will do my best to answer it.”

“When I arrived on the scene down there, you were on the ground, bleeding from the nose. Remart said you’d hit him, but from here, feeling the strength in your hands, looking at your musculature, I know that’s not true. You are not that far removed, physiologically speaking, from Selonians that I believe Remart would have been left standing if you’d hit him.”

Elegos cocked his head slightly to the right. “I tapped him on the shoulder, wishing to thank him. I believe I surprised him with my approach, which is why he turned and struck me.”

“But, if you had wanted to, you could have snapped his neck with a single blow, couldn’t you?”

Elegos’ brow furrowed, then he looked down into the basin of bloody water. “For Caamasi, momentous events produce memories that are very striking in detail—you might consider them holographic, but they are more to us. Almost tangible. To have that sort of memory of killing someone, no matter the reason, is a terrible burden to bear. Such a memory would not fade with time, and would become a heavy burden indeed. Because of such things, we have always sought to promote peace and understanding, harmony and unity.”

I nodded. “And that’s why you stunned instead of killed the others down there.”

Elegos straightened up. “I thought I had killed them. I stunned them because you had left the blaster set on stun. I could not have let them kill you, and would have accepted the burden of such memories in your defense.”

That surprised me a bit. “So, when you held the blaster on me, you thought a shot would kill me.”

He bowed his head forward. “Until you took the weapon and shot Remart, I thought the men I had shot were dead. It was only when you shot a man you could have easily beaten to death, that I realized the men I had shot were merely sleeping.”

“Now that you know they live, will that memory fade?”

The Caamasi gave me an enigmatic smile. Flesh tightened around his eyes, sharpening the purple striping that rayed out from their corners. “I will keep it intact for other reasons, I think.”

He started to shift over to work on my left hand, when Admiral Tavira entered the room and shoved him away. She grabbed my left hand and caught the broken bones in a pincer grip. “I am not pleased at all with you, Jenos Idanian, not at all.”

I locked my jaw so I would not cry out as she tightened her grip. Through clenched teeth I said, “I am sorry to hear that, Admiral.”

She released my hand and raked a stare over me. “You look a mess.”

I snorted. “You should see the other guy.”

“I have, damn you.” Her expression went from angry to something colder, and brought a smile with it. “You administered quite a beating to Remart. And why?” She flicked a hand out, thumping it off Elegos’ breastbone. “For this piece of alien meat? Why?”

I gave her a cold stare. “I needed a servant, nothing more.”

Fire flared in her eyes. “You needed a goad to use on Remart.” She folded her arms across her chest. “You are so easy to read, Idanian. I know you too well.”

“Do you?” My guts began to churn for reasons I could not identify. “I should apologize to you for spoiling your fun, I suppose, but I saw no reason to let Remart murder someone who had done nothing.”

“Remart said this one struck him.