Between The Darkness And The Light

Dmitri humming, walks back to his ship, grabs a datapad, and walks back. He takes apart the insides of it and puts them back together without even opening it. He phases his fingers through and takes it from there.

Shein is in great health other than the organism. His liver doesn't seem to have the least bit of damage. Must be the spice in his diet. He actually falls asleep while there. The Keeper stays asleep as well. The thing seems to have small tendrils that have gone through the skin and attached to the brain stem. The tendrils cannot be seen once they're on the stem, but it's clear that the connection point is there. Removing just the Keeper will leave the tendrils in place, so the Keeper must be able to regenerate itself through what is left behind.

Lucas looks at the results too. He raises a brow. "It goes further than just that. I swear the thing tried to wrap around my whole brain, not just the stem."

Esteban wrinkles his nose at the image. He looks at Shein, then shrugs. "It might be worth a shot having a deadly psion take a crack at it, but slowly."

"I agree," Thorgood says. "There isn't a doctor in the galaxy who would confidently operate on that, and there isn't a techie in Burnination who would try to precision teleport that free of his brain. But if a psion could kill those tendrils, and someone like Dmitri remove the outside section, we might do enough to it to kill it off."

"How sure are you?" Jenova asks.

"Well, seeing as the only information I have to go on is how a vampire felt when his captors decided to tr-"

Jenova sighs loudly.

"Not more than 30% sure," Thorgood finishes.

Teresa frowns. "That's not very sure!"

"Thank you Teresa," Thorgood says, "for that clarification."

"Risk?" Jenova asks.

"None to Shein," Thorgood says, "but I'm really not convinced that that will necessarily do the trick. And if it doesn't, and we wake it up, that would be a danger."

(OOC: Pass.)

Lucas raises a brow at Thorgood. "None to Shein that we know of. I don't know how that thing really works on mortals. I said it was worth a shot, but Shein will have to be monitored closely." He glances at Shein. "By the way, he should probably be restrained. Just in case that thing wakes up. I mean, I know Shein's a damned good fighter and that little ability he has makes him down right deadly. I know Esteban and I can restrain him with no problem and can probably get to him before he could get up, but just in case, ya know?"

Esteban is silent for the moment. He's just listening to the options right now.

Shein actually starts snoring lightly. If there were doubt about whether he was aware of anything going on, it's probably gone now.

Thorgood nods in assent. "You are correct," he says. "none that we know of."

He also presses more buttons, causing straps to appear on the floor. They can be fastened to the table to keep Shein from moving.

Jenova pulls out another comlink, and calls Arren.

Arren answers rather quickly. "Yes?"

Lucas pulls Esteban aside and begins talking to him in whispers. Esteban frowns, but then nods.

Jenova quickly explains what Thorgood thinks he'll have to do, showing him the scan of the organism. She asks if they can beam him in here now that Shein is asleep.

Arren is silent for a long moment, then just nods. He's clearly pissed off, but it's not directed at anyone who's conscious in that room. Once he's there, he physically checks Shein over, then looks at the Keeper. He checks the scan again with a frown. "This thing is actually attached to his brain?" He sighs. "I don't know what good I can do, but I'll try."

Lucas looks at Arren. "Just go slow so we can make sure whatever you're doing isn't going to kill him." It wasn't a suggestion.

Arren nods to Lucas. "I do know what I'm doing, Lucas."

Lucas looks like he's going to comment again, but Esteban takes hold of Lucas' arm and shakes his head.

Arren turns back to Shein and focuses on the Keeper. "I can't find... no, wait, there it is." Three seconds later, the Keeper's eye opens suddenly and Shein wakes up. Hopefully they strapped him down already. Otherwise, Lucas and Esteban are there, holding Shein down as he actually tries to get at Arren, the look in his eyes rather murderous. He's aware of what Arren is trying to do, but the Keeper seems to have complete control right now.

The straps are in place, but were never intended to hold someone in top military fitness who really wants to escape. As such, holding down is probably a good idea.

"Tell me if you need any external prodding Arren," Thorgood says. "Ask for anything you think could remotely help you; I could zap the creature, Dmitri can pull it off, etc."

Jenova is frantically tapping away at her comlink. Probably making sure all the doors are locked, and/or that Shein's transport vessel isn't looking for him yet.

"Should I try now?" asks Dmitri, vibrating his hand.

Arren shakes his head. "No. In fact, don't move. No one move. We're not alone." Arren's attention is shifted to an empty corner. A second later, something phases into view. A person, or at least it looks like a person. It's grey, the same color as the Keeper. It looks like it could really use a good scrubbing with the cracks in the skin, but on second look, that's probably just how it normally looks. Well, there's only a few seconds to get a really good look at it because after it phases into view, a second later it's on the floor bleeding from the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears. A couple seconds after that, the chest implodes and the head explodes. Yeah, Arren's pissed. How he knew to look there is unknown.

How that thing got in there is a good question. One Arren doesn't ask. The answer? Well, this thing doesn't work on the same physical space as others do, plus it's got a natural cloaking ability. Too bad it wasn't immune to psions.

About four seconds after the thing is dead, the Keeper detaches and drops to the table and Shein passes out, though he's stable otherwise. Maybe a little bit of shock involved. The Keeper doesn't move, even when Lucas pokes it experimentally.

"Mind telling me what the Hell that was?"

Thorgood is visibly shocked by the creature, but the table Shein is on beeps once when Shein goes unconscious, and Thorgood makes screens appear and looks them over. If there is something wrong with Shein, the machine should be able to tell what the problem is.

Teresa has a Shruiken Catapult out before the creature falls fully to the ground, but she holds her fire.

When the first drop of blood touches the floor, alarm sirens go off. The nearest sounds like it is from the top of the room, though there is no fixture that is easily identifiable as an alarm.

Teresa rolls her eyes. Jenova jumps up and runs to the door. Just as she arrives there, there are pounding noises on the outside. The sounds of simmershields going up all over the base is clearly heard.

Jenova shouts something at the door, and the pounding stops. The door slides open and Jenova steps out. After several more seconds, the alarms quiet, and Jenova steps back inside.

"How the HELL did that get in here?" Thorgood blurts.

Arren looks at Dmitri. "No fucking clue." He looks at Thorgood. "Again, no fucking clue." He looks back at Shein. He raises a brow as a clump of tendrils slip out from his shoulder. They're clear and look like rice noodles, only much thinner.

Shein stays unconscious, but there's nothing wrong. The tendrils aren't all gone, but they are disappearing.

Arren finally decides to explain. "I could sense the life force, I guess, of the thing over there, through the thing on Shein. Didn't know I could do that, but I guess it makes sense." He shrugs.

Lucas just looks at the spilled blood. "Damned shame. Waste of good blood there."

Arren just rolls his eyes and Esteban looks ready to smack Lucas.

The blood seems to disappear. The pools of blood visibly shrink, then vanish altogether. The Burninites offer no explanation for this, but they seem unalarmed.

Thorgood removes the straps from Shein.

"Hopefully that means we're all friends again and we don't have to go to war over me stealing prisoners from the Rutians, right?" Teresa asks. Starting a war probably would really weigh on her conscience.

"Hopefully," Jenova says. "And hopefully Shein wakes up."

"Good, because it would suck horribly to have Rutians shooting at my troops again."

Arren looks at Teresa. "I doubt it. I'm still trying to figure out why Shein would have done that to Esoteric. I'm betting it was whatever was controlling him that made him give that order. My experienced opinion says that he'll keep the order in place and go with things for now. He won't declare war on you though. I don't see him doing that, even if he's likely to keep up appearances for now. Why Esoteric got attacked, I have no idea."

Lucas shrugs. "Wasn't explained to us."

Esteban seems more interested in Shein's condition than the conversation.

Shein doesn't wake up. He's sleeping it off, but everything pretty much says he's fine. The tendrils are still falling off though. That's got to be a good thing.

Teresa presses a bunch of buttons on her comlink, and a table and chairs appear in the room, accompanied by the standard flash of light accompanying any beaming. She takes a seat, and so does Jenova. Jenova runs her hand under the table for a moment, and a cup of tea appears on the table. There are chairs enough for all, and Jenova can make most common items appear. Blood might be out of the question, though.

Thorgood doesn't come over to the table, but pulls a chair over to the medical scanning table that Shein is on.

The body on the ground looks like it's falling apart, or decaying at an extremely rapid pace. As it falls apart, it disappears into the floor. Again, none of the Burninites act as if this is strange at all. At this rate, the entire body will have gone away in a few minutes.

Dmitri accidentally wears a dent into the table and is smacked on the hand by Svetlana.

No one seems to question the rapidly decaying body. At least as long as it doesn't smell.

Arren doesn't sit down. He stays near Shein.

Esteban and Lucas do sit down. They don't request anything to drink though. They're probably fine for now.

Arren does smirk a little at Dmitri's denting the table.

Shein stays asleep.

Eventually, Arren will recommend he take Shein back to Dreva, but that Kennah and the kids stay hidden for now. He even suggests that Esteban and Lucas stay put as well.

Jenova informs everyone that they're free to go. She also promises Arren, Kenna, Shein's family, Lucas, and Esteban safe lodging until they deem it safe to leave.

Thorgood declares that Shein can be moved, as if Arren had asked him.

(OOC: Pass.)

For six months, nothing occurs. It's as if whatever was woken just decided to leave everyone alone. Well, after that bit of peace and quiet, in which Lucas, Esteban, and Shein's family stayed where they were, things started up again. This time, the Prill were attacked. Arren knew it before the reports came in. The Rutians stayed out of things for some reason. They didn't go in afterward like they did on Esoteric. They completely stay out of it.

At the same time as the Prill were attacked, the Pandati were hit hard as well. The Rutians, again, stayed out of it.

The Selathorni, preforming some remote observation of the Pandati (imperialism and what not), notice the attacks and offer them some aid if they so desire. Not so much for the Prill.