Scraping Together the Past, the Future and the In Between: Chapter V: Uncomfortable Discussions

The man woke up to his own voice that was uttering something unintelligible. He was in a brightly lit room, laying on a table his head spinning. He felt a little sick and terribly disoriented. Turning his blurred gaze from the ceiling to the center of the room he saw someone sitting on a chair close to him, watching him. The woman was leaning forwards, her chin and hands resting on the hilt of a vibroblade that was standing on the tip of its blade. The man's brain were somehow working in a way that was uncomfortably sluggish, and understanding his situation or his surroundings required a lot of time. First he recognized the weapon, it was his vibroblade. Then he realized who the woman was. The man tried to get up but he couldn't. His body didn't take orders from him. A silent whimper escaped his lips and caught Rila's attention.

'So, you are awake.' She stood up and walked to the man, and gently tapped his cheeks to make his head clear faster.

'Oh, don't...' The man complained in a hoarse voice, trying to get up again but being barely able to lift his head from the pillow.

Noticing his attempts to move, Rila spoke. 'Your motorics will start functioning within a standard hour, and there's no point in trying to rush it. Remain calm and wait. In the meanwhile, we can talk.'

The man's drowsy thoughts locked up completely. 'What? ...Uh... I'm sorry.' He muttered.

'Really? Sorry for what exactly?' Rila's matter-of-fact tone had changed. Her answer sounded almost amused.

The man in return, was embarrassed and felt helpless. He couldn't avoid this being reflected in his words. 'I'll make this up to you. I'll pay you. It shouldn't have gone like this.'

Her amusement turned into a frown. 'And how would you do that? There's no way you could pay for the damage you have caused by destroying half the station. I don't want you to rob half of Nar Shaddaa trying to cover for that. Instead, you can answer some questions.'

Now the situation was getting indeed uncomfortable for the man. He was lying on his back, unable to move, defenceless and exposed, his head still messed up from the sedatives. Fear crept quietly in his mind. Of course it had to come to this, an interrogation. 'What questions? And why? Who are you?' The man asked, but Rila continued mercilessly. 'We are talking about you now. You, tell me who you are.'

Restlessly, the man decided that he wouldn't want to talk about this subject at all. 'Look, there's not much to tell, and it's not nice or interesting.' The man was glad that he could turn his face away from her intensive stare. Almost instantly, Rila got up from her chair, walked to him and turned his head so that she was again looking him in the eye. Then she tapped his cheeks again, now less gently to shake the dizziness off him and to make him more talkative. 'Just tell me.' She commanded.

'Let's drop that particular subject.' The man replied in an annoyed, more awakened voice. It was really not in his best interest to start going through his personal history right now.

Signs of impatience could be heard in Rila's words as well. 'You'll answer me, and you will stay here until you do. I can increase the dosage of sedatives in your veins before they wear off, if that is required. And don't bother try lying to me, it's useless.'

The man didn't like what he had just heard. She was obviously serious. Seeing no way out of it, the man started talking. 'I'm no one really. I don't actually have a real name and I don't do anything. I only do random jobs like the one that went horribly wrong here at the station to support my miserable life. I'm not interesting.'

Despite his words, Rila seemed interested. 'Hah. That's clearly not all. Our previous encounters and the medical examination I did to you told me far more than that.'

The man's anxiety kicked back in, and Rila's calmness somehow made it far worse. For the first time he realized that he was wearing a white gown, something like the long-time patients of the medical bays across the galaxy usually wore. Along with that, he also noticed the heavy bandages wrapped around his right side and the weird numb feeling around them. 'What exactly is it that you want to know?' He asked.

'For example, how long have you been killing yourself?' Rila threw a question in the air.

Without much thought, the man answered. 'You know I was shot with a disruptor and then I got beaten up by you. That was mostly unintentional.'

'Mostly?' She almost laughed. 'Disruptors are awful weapons. They do massive damage and you can't protect yourself against them. The shots cannot even be deflected by...' The strict professional tone retuned quickly in her voice. 'I mean, what they do, cannot be fixed by standard issue kolto tanks. Trying that was stupid of you. As was forcing me to kick your ass.' She grinned briefly and continued. 'But no, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about your obviously serious drinking problem.'

Why would she dig up something like this? If anything, this was stupid. The man replied in a grim tone. 'Drinking is the least of my problems right now.'

'Yeah, it seems to be greatly overshadowed by your attitude problem. As a physician, I am forced to discuss things like this with my patients.'

Perfect. Now she was teasing him. The man managed to change his position on the table a bit and cast Rila a black look.

Rila was still unwilling to leave the matter. 'So have you been drinking like a bantha for five or ten standard years? It's hard to tell.'

'Something like that. If you really like to know, I also did spice for a while, but quit because it only messed me up worse. There. What's the fracking point?' After spitting out his distinctively angry response, the man tried to sit up again, not quite succeeding. His physique was still unwilling to co-operate with his will, and his attempt only led to him slamming his chin painfully to the table's corner and almost falling to floor. Once again, Rila left her chair to help him out. He lifted one of the man's arms back to the table and pushed his shoulders down, setting his head back to the pillow. 'You are being difficult. I told you to wait.'

A moment passed with Rila dwelling in her thoughts. Suddenly she began to speak again, now in a subtle tone. 'Drowning your sorrows in cantinas for years isn't the Jedi way exactly, is it?'

So, she knew, and it was what she really wanted to discuss. It was also something he certainly did not want to talk about. He felt a strong urge to try to get up and get away but he couldn't ignore the fact he wasn't able to do that. There was no avoiding this. Irritated and depressed, but trying to calm himself down out of necessity the man answered plainly. 'I wasn't drowning my sorrow, I was drowning in my sorrow.'

Again, Rila fell silent. She picked up the man's vibroblade from the floor and walked aimlessly back and forth across the small room's floor, pondering. Just when the man started thinking if he should say something or try moving again she turned her analysing look at him. After inspecting him with her gaze for a time that felt very long indeed, she asked in a firm voice: 'You were not one of those fallen Jedi, were you?'

The man answered as simply as he had done the last time. 'Not in a sense you are referring to. But I did fall on my face, or was it on my ass... I don't remember.' The words came easier than he would have believed. This confused and scared him as much as it built his confidence. Rila looked like she was about to sink in her thoughts once more, but this time the man interrupted her. 'I suppose now you can tell me who you are.'

She snapped out of what she was wondering in her head and totally ignoring the man's question blurted out her own. 'Do you know anything about Master Zez-Kai Ell?'

'What? No.' This was something he didn't understand at all. Again. This conversation didn't make any sense, so much was clear.

Rila sighed. 'Oh, sorry. My name is Rila Kajastus, you already know that. I was once trained in the Force so that I could use it for healing.'

'So, you are a Jedi healer. That certainly explains how you knew where to strike in our little fight.' The man was well aware of the techniques that made the healers sense disturbances like pain and suffering and their sources, such as wounds or ailments on those around them incredibly accurately. He wondered how much she would really know about him due to this.

'Yeah, my abilities can also have other, not so pleasant uses. I guess that would always be the case with the Force,' she said.

While Rila was talking, the man yanked himself in sitting position, finally somewhat successfully. Rila went to help him again, and when he was sitting firmly enough on the table Rila sat next to him. She was staring at her feet that were hanging off the table's edge, her toetips just above the floor. Rila was yet again distracted from her thoughts by the man. 'What did you give me, wookiee tranquillisers?'

'Not those, luckily.' She answered. 'You'll be just Ok soon enough. By the way, I washed your clothes. There was a real need for it. They should be dry by now, wait here and I'll bring them to you'

Right then the question about the time hit him. The man yelled at Rila's back as she was heading towards the medical station's storage room. 'How long have I been in here?'

She responded behind a pile of clothes that he recognized as his own. 'For some hours. It's evening already.'

His time was running short if he was to leave this moon and escape the problems he had caused for himself. Tomorrow, somewhere around this hour, 'Latea Tek' would take off, with or without him. That was just about the only thing he was sure of anymore. The man got dressed in his own clothes again, and told Rila he had to go. Rila nodded. 'I suppose you understand that no-one will hear of what we have spoken here.' She spoke while escorting the man to the station's locked door. 'Absolutely,' he answered. Rila opened the door and the man walked out. Nar Shaddaa greeted him with a cold breeze that had the familiar smell of exhaust fumes and air pollutants, as it always did.