Recover, Reload (Noah Corek)

[Yasha Cadera]

Eiru,
The Australis Duchy Estate

The body which breathed rested ill in its’ bed. In an attempt to bring about another bought of speech in the recovering Yasha Cadera, Doc Allard set her youngest twins Viggo and Taika in their cradle beside Yasha’s bed.

It would be alright, she’d yet never harmed one of her own children and Theo Allard was there. The nurses were there. At the end of another achingly long shift, Theo’s head began to droop. [member="Adara Raxis"] compelled the Concordian doctor to work beyond kiffar endurance. Through her manipulation of the Force, she controlled his waking and sleeping.

Her mother was all that mattered.

Then Adara ran away.

Trying to keep up his former schedule, Theo was exhausted. He curled up in the chair by the window only for a minute. Just one minute.

Five minutes’ rest…

Viggo woke from his nap, little lungs exercising that oft woeful bellow of a ten month old baby. Screaming in tears, the boy sat up in the crib he shared with Taika, who jolted awake by her brother’s screams, started crying in tandem.

Yasha jolted half-awake. The Biot on her right side raising as the spear-like nail protrusions lengthened. And lengthened. The Biot raised up, tilting toward the crying twins. Milked yellow eyes stared at the scene from Yasha’s face, the fog once more over her cognizant mind.

What were these strange screaming creatures? Were they foes? What would stop their incessant noise!?

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Yasha Cadera"]

Eiru Estate
Noah's Personal Quarters

Noah sighed as he rolled his neck and stared into the mirror, the dark bags under his eyes evident even to him. He just woken up from a good ten hour rest after having been awake for 48-hours. It was not the longest he had stayed awake, nowhere near the longest in fact. But now in his older age even this relatively short period of sleeplessness got to him and the ten hour rest he had felt like a godsend as he stared at himself.

His days recently had been spent by Yasha's side, observing all he could and trying to help where he could. It was...taxing both physically and mentally but it was the only thing keeping him from going insane with worry. Sighing once more he pushed off of the sink in his quarters refresher and walked into his bedroom. Picking up his armor plates off the bed he attached them to his armor's magnetic attach points on his bodyglove.

Once all the plates were on he made sure to stretch and roll his joints to make sure nothing was out of place. Satisfied he opened his door and began the trek to the Yasha's recovery room. It took only a few minutes to get there and was Noah glad it didn't take any longer as he gasped as soon as he entered the room. Seeing what was happening he quickly dashed forward, pinning the biot against the wall. "Theo! Get the hell up, I need you!"

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Theo grunted in his sleep, momentarily shifting on the chair he’d fallen into. [member="Noah Corek"]’s shout beckoned to the doctor, and Theo burst awake in a stunned flash.

“Kad Harang!” Jumping off from the chair, Theo rushed the crib as the babies cried. Throwing himself between the wall-bound Biot and the babies, Theo pushed the crib away, and it bumped into a bounding [member="Ambrose Cadera"].

“What happened!?” Ambrose pushed the children out. The sound of their retreat caused the Biot to jerk and finger-spears to chase their escaping trajectory.

“It was only for a minute! I sat down for a minute!” Theo boomed, voice thin. “Lucy must’ve gone on break, I… I only sat down for a minute.”

On the bed, Yasha’s lips curled open in a snarl, the Biot working her lungs and throat like a bellows, cursing in a language too guttural for any present to speak.

“Armour, armour, the armour!” Theo tore off his lab coat, tossing it over the sight of Noah’s armour plates. The Biot twitched and began to still, finger-spears pulsing back into the alien right hand.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Yasha Cadera"]

Noah was oblivious to the others around him as he kept the biot pinned against the wall, the safety of the twins foremost in his mind. It was only when Ambrose spoke that his attention was drawn. "Theo nodded off, I'm guessing the biot either got annoyed by the twins or saw them as a threat and that lead to the current predicament we are in." His eye turned to Yasha as the biot began to control her body and let out a stream of words that were incomprehensible to him.

When Theo threw his lab coat over his armor and the biot calmed down Noah snorted. Of course it was scared of him and his armor. Sighing he pulled the lab coat tighter over him and tried to hide the sight of his armor from the biot. Looking over to Theo he pointed a finger at him. "I told you a week ago Theo, you need some help, I'm calling my sister in here to get you some help so you can stop working these crazy hours, you'll be no good to Yasha if your dead."

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Ambrose growled as he shoved the twins off on a Clan Cadera assistant, rushing back to Theo and [member="Noah Corek"] as the doctor threw the lab coat over beskar’gam. The Biot thrashed. Yasha grunted awake throat worked by the Yuuzhan Vong creation which sustained her life.

“Never alone! We know she can never be alone.” Ambrose transformed into his lupine form and lunged, front paws on either side of Yasha’s shoulders. Between Noah and Ambrose, the Biot calmed. The arm fell slack and Yasha panted out a groan.

“N-nngh.. N-oa’ik..” Yasha gasped in pain, shuddering under him with wide vulnerable eyes.

Sitting on the bed’s corner, Theo began to search the readouts of her stats to figure out what actually made the difference.

“Sonics… I think… I think it was the sonics.” Rubbing his temple, Theo held his head in his hand. “Y-yeah, I… I can’t do this without… Is she… how far away is she?”

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Yasha Cadera"]

Noah nodded along with Ambrose's assessment of the situation. "For once I find me and Ambrose are in agreeance. Yasha must have around the clock security, if not for her own safety then the safety of those around her. When I contact my sister I'll inform her to bring a small contingent of Clan Corek Supercommando's. Once they get here I'll mix them with the Clan Cadera and Australis guards and we'll set up a rotating guard shift. Six hours shift at all hours of the day. Your thoughts Ambrose?"

When Yasha called his name the response was immediate, he rushed to her bedside as fast as his legs would carry him, his hand reaching for her natural hand and taking it. He began to stroke her hand to comfort her and leaned forward to press a kiss against her forehead. "I'm here cyar'ika. Me. Ambrose and Theo are here. We're gonna get you all better again, that's a promise." He listened to Theo's explanation and nodded. "That makes sense. The biot probably thought the twins crying was some kind of sonic attack and was only trying to defend Yasha and itself."

When he asked how long it would take Asha to arrive Noah pulled out his datapad and quickly brought up a application. "Manda is kind to you today Theo. My sister is on a mercy mission on a nearby planet. It's less than a three parsecs away. I can send her a message and have her here by the end of the day. With any luck she should be able to help out with all this biot crap too. After getting her general practioner degree she went back and got a degree in Xenobiology with a focus in Yuuzhan Vong Biology."

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“She did have it. Corek, the Biot kills at least one nurse a week.” Theo grunted staggering on his feet as the exhausted man reached forward for the bio-bed reader to flick through hormonal changes, metabolism, anything which could give him earlier warning of the Biot’s caution. “The.. the staff won’t come. Don’t you get it? Adara’s gone.”

Red rimmed eyes were rubbed on his sleeve.

“She was compelling all of us, every single one. We had no choice to tend Yasha, but Adara’s gone, so… my nurses refuse to die.” The Biot twitched as [member="Noah Corek"] left it for Yasha’s other side, and Theo flinched. Instinct took him to the floor, as four spine-fingers elongated and grabbed hold of his now tattered shirt.

Lifted and set him back on his feet. Theo visibly shook, once so strong as to be the Mand’alor’s personal physician, the man who delivered all her babies, including Adara.

“Am…” He stared into the yellow eye of the Vong Biot implanted in Yasha’s shoulder, and it stared back. No motion. No sudden movements of any kind. No loud noises… A spear-talon dragged across Theo’s cheek. “Ambrose…”

Theo whispered as hoarsely as he was ragged. Ambrose lifted his mighty head, nuzzled the right shoulder. The biot descended back to the bed, and Theo’s legs cut out as he crashed against Ambrose’s side.

“Do it. Do it now.”

“Promise? He promised… he promised everything would be alright… is everything alright, yet?” Yasha nuzzled into the kiss on her forehead, shaking her head to clear it. “I don’t feel alright… she’s scared.”

 

[Noah Corek]

Noah swiped his hand over his eyes when Theo explained just why the medical staff had been working so diligently and tirelessly in recent events. “I want to say this is a surprise to me but it’s not. That doesn’t excuse what she did though. I’ll make sure to talk to her when she returns or the next time I see her. The medical personnel from Clan Corek will have a little more nerve, they’re all former or current combat medics.”

Noah watched the scene in front of him as the biot came towards Theo, he tensed at Yasha’s side just in case he would have to restrain the biot. Thankfully it was all for naught as Ambrose was able to calm it. Looking toward Theo he nodded and pulled out his datapad, quickly typing off a message and sending it to his sister. As Yasha stirred he leaned forward and pressed another kiss to her forehead. “Shhhh cyar’ika shhhhh. Rest, we’ve got you.”

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“When she returns? Noah, Adara is gone. Poof. She booked it hardcore and left this Galaxy. Wherever she is, what makes you think the word ‘back’ is in her vocabulary?” Eiru resided in the Galaxy next to the tumult they left behind, so far past the villains of their present situation they were better than gone. Nothing could chase them but what demons they brought, and the demons Adara left in the shells of those who worked and died for her mother’s body.

“You think we lack nerve!? You think I and my staff just what, stood on sidelines while Mandalore burned!? We’re all warriors you… feth!” Theo kicked the nearest chair and sent it tumbling to the ground. “Who do you think was patching half of your Mandalorians together while you played Republic Soldier and avoided the Civil War, eh? Who do you think were at the Infernal’s side during and after every battle!? We… are… spent. Any strength we had left Adara leeched from one to give to the other.”

Pressing his index fingers into the inner corner of each eye, the exhausted doctor leaned against Ambrose, as the gurlanin ferried him back toward his chair by the window. Numb from toe to elbow. Numb from watching an alien biological machine eat their beloved Yasha by centimetres.

Theo watched Noah dote on Yasha from dull throbbing eyes so bloodshot he forgot what colour they naturally were. Ambrose’s nose nudged him back, and Theo’s eyes almost immediately shut.

Yasha eyed Noah through a cloud in her mind. Whether she knew who or what he was remained mysterious. Untenably unknowable.

“Shar-ee-ka… she knows this word.” Lips poised without moving, the voice constricting and flowing from a throat bidden by the pulsing green and yellow flesh of the Vong. “The weak one yells. Now the weak one sleeps. When does it die?”

A single yellowed eye gleamed from the centre of what used to be Yasha's right shoulder, staring at Theo Allard.

Noah Corek