Private What was lost

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Kyra Perl
It was a long time since Trextan had felt quite so useless. For the last few years he had kept himself from being swept up in galactic events. The One Sith had wanted to use him as a weapon, the Galactic Alliance, and even his father had wanted to do the same. Stepping away from it all to find himself and to offer small help where he could had seemed the right course, even if there had been bumps along the way.

Looking back, to see the devastation caused by the Bryn, had challenged his views. Still he didn't want to take up arms to join a great crusade. It was how he had ended up here. A zeltron who had been a teenager with a training saber when they had last met had been chairing the meeting. Experts had offered advice on how to shape this rebuilding project. It had left him feeling small and helpless. He had felt this way when Jacen had found him cowering on his first real battlefield.

This was why he lingered and walked after Kyra once she had finished.

"Hey, hey, sorry," he said as he accelerated a few steps to angle across her path. "I know I volunteered to help...guard a ship. Do you know when that might be necessary or...if there was something else I could help with. Maybe something that doesn't need a...I actually don't know the word for an expert in seeds and plants. Professional gardener?"

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra slowed, her urge to break away tempered by the distraction of Trextan's questions.

She remembered his face, it was hard not to. He had lead the rescue mission that had pulled her and Acadia from the hands of a force cult. It felt like a different life time? Had she had her arm then, or was that after the war? It all blended in the angst that had made up those years. Her old troubles felt childish in retrospect.

Almost embarrassing.

She cleared her throat and focused on the question at hand.

"Honestly, we don't even have material to guard yet. ....And it doesn't seem likely we'll be able to restore much of the Tingle arm, not to what it use to be. It's too late, best we can do is restore their atmospheres and revive some of the basics. What we really need is to be prepared for the future."

It was all vague and unhelpful. After all that talk she was coming at with the negative light, even she could see that. She let out a long breath and added--

"We could do with ears on the ground, letting us know if anything begins to look off. It takes a lot of resources to invade and destroy. If we pay attention, we might see the signs. And who knows, even a week of cataloging could make the difference."

They were words she told herself when it all appeared overwhelming. She wasn't trying to move mountains, just push the balance of it all a little more towards good.

She could do that. Right?

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan nodded slowly, digesting this. He remembered a time when he had seemed competent and powerful to jedi trainees. Seeing the scale of devastation made him feel small.

These problems, now the war was over, needed people who knew things. Scientists and generals and leaders.

He had been brought up by warmongers and it was what he knew. These problems could not be solved by hitting them with a lightsaber.

This was preservation of life forms that would otherwise die out. It wasnt like the refugees from the Tingel Arm; you couldn't deploy animals and plants into existing ecosystems and hope they didn’t destroy it.

"I know some Wardens who might hear things better than me," he said, by which he mean he didn’t hear much at all. "I can catalogue and I guess if one of the transport ships gets held up by a pirate interdictor I'll be aboard counting."

Trextan scratched at the back of his curly hair. Something caught his attention and the wheels needed a couple of turns for him to realise.

"Did you..." he looked down at his artificial hand and then to hers.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra looked down in palpable confusion. "Did I wh-Oh." Her fingers flexed, pink and soft and very much alive. "Yeah," she answered, feeling a smidge dumb. "I, um. I had it regrown." It would have cost the family a pretty penny, if not for the fact that her father was able to pull strings. It was the right decision for her, even if she did see the maturity in learning to love herself the way she was. Scars and all.

A hint of embarrassment warmed her cheeks. "Took a lot of physiotherapy and time." She didn't want him to think she got off easy. Some how when she found herself faced with other amputees, she felt the need to prove she had earned her stripes.

"A lot of time." She tugged her sleeves down and cleared her throat.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"I think I've got used to this now," he replied. He opened and closed his fist a few times.

Trextan could deal with hard work and physio. He had been through enough when it had first happened. The arm now felt like it was a part of him.

He didn't have a lot of spare credits and his father was no longer a Jedi Marshall who could direct military resources. He couldn't afford a cloned arm and he certainly couldn't afford to have this arm refitted if it didn't work out.

Trextan smiled and let his hand fall down to his side.

"You ever roll over and hit yourself with the metal hand in the night?" he asked.

 

[Kyra Perl]

A small smile cracked through her guarded expression.

"Or break a glass cause you squeezed too tight," she countered, a laugh embedded into her word.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"Ah now that I've got the hang of," Trextan replied. He flexed the fingers of his artificial hand. "Now I'm used to it, it's actually got really fine control."

Trextan had the arm in a safety mode for a very long time. During that it's maximum power had been hard limited to stop him breaking someone's arm with what he thought was a gentle squeeze.

"Sorry, I came to offer what little help I could. Instead I'm talking about...arms. But does that one now feel the same as your old one did? That makes it sound like picking a landspeeder..."

 

[Kyra Perl]

"It's fine..." she dismissed with a tight smile. "Sadly I think I could answer more questions about my arm than what we will do-- this whole thing is... overwhelming."

She unconsciously rubbed her fingers together, then nodded. "More or less. Sometimes there's still phantom pains-- at night, when sleeping. Dexterity is a work in progress. I use my left hand when I have to. But... don't really get into scuffles anymore, so largely, it's life as normal."

Normal. What a concept.

"...Are you thinking of trying?"

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

"I think...I am content with how things are right now," Trextan said, closing his hand and seemingly closing that chapter of this conversation. It was interesting to see that it could be done and to hear how the process had taken. His arm had been severed above the shoulder. It would be a lot of healing to do. For now he was content, but that could change.

"No surprise this is overwhelming, but it seems like you're doing a good job to me," Trextan replied. He remembered their first meeting and how she had manipulated some information out of him. He preferred her in a motivational role to that.

"Seems you got a lot of people who want to help," he added, as a reflection on what she had achieved so far.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra took the chance to look around, the faces of her support still lingering as they chatted out pleasantries or ideas for the future. The most notable, in particular, was her father in a corner. Coren Starchaser caught her glance and smiled. She looked back down to her feet and rubbed the feelings away.

"Yeah I... I guess I do," she acknowledged, a smidge of heat to her cheeks as she cleared out her throat.

"So Um. I'll let you know? About shipments or planets, when we get to it." No longer an if, but a when. Progress was something, even if it was as small as tense.

 

[Trextan Voidstalker]

Trextan briefly let his gaze wander the room. It was a long time since he had been attached to anything, even something as loose as this. The alliance had been Jacen's cause, the sith ad essentially abducted him.

"Yes," he said with a slow nod, "please."

It didn't feel like much help to accompany a shipment, but it was important to offer what he could. A quiet ride on a ship would be better than the alternative where he actually had a purpose and had to repel a boarding party.

The years of sith training had taught him to rise to meet any challenge. Sometimes he had to remind himself ha he shouldn't look forwards to violence.

"Oh, you need an actual way of contacting me..." he muttered, fishing for his datapad.

 

[Kyra Perl]

Kyra smiled tightly and took out hers as well, holding it out so they could sync up. It only took a moment, her screen blinked, the contact app flashing and showing Trextan's face before it faded out.

"Right then. ... Thanks for coming." She offered him a small wave, then turned and drifted back to the lingering crowd.

She came upon her father, who hadn't drifted far from the corner he had silently occupied, and wrapped her arms around him in a sudden and wordless hug. Coren Starchaser

Trextan was right. ... She was pretty lucky. She hadn't notice all the support until now. She squeezed her father tightly and soaked up the moment.