Project Boussh: Best Medicines
by Durandir

Terra Group heaved a collective sigh of relief as Alison's limp form 
finally slipped beneath the surface of the bacta. Now, if they could 
just keep the feisty swordswoman in there for a while, she'd soon be 
as good as new.

"How on earth did she fight, in her condition?" Becki shook her head 
in wonder. "The girl's got to be made of Rubbermaid or something."

"Plasteel," Face offered with a grin.

"Whatever it is she's made of," Sharon smiled, "it's at least as 
tough as what her sword is made of."

"Indeed, Ooryl was impressed with her stamina and skill," the Uber-
Gand commented. His mouthparts moving into an enigmatic smile, he 
added, "As was Atner. Unfortunately, he will no longer be able to 
express his admiration."

"Yes, Ooryl," Emily spoke up, "finish telling us the rest of what 
happened. Alison actually challenged Atner to a duel?"

"No, not exactly," the Gand began. "Corran was fighting him, and--"

Ooryl's recitation was interrupted just then by a commotion at the 
door of the med bay. The Ewoks nearest the door sent up an excited 
chorus of yubs, and one of the Noghri on guard turned to the Terra 
Groupers within and said, "Someone approaches. Four people, and they 
bear two more with them--one of these on a stretcher."

Those within exchanged looks of uncertainty, then Kristy moved to the 
door and cautiously poked her head out.

Immediately she broke into a relieved smile. "Mirax! Why didn't you 
tell us you were coming up here?"

"We've been a little busy," the captain of the _Pulsar Skate_ 
answered as her group reached the med bay's door. Mirax waved a hand 
toward the hover stretcher floating between her and Iris Sewallei; 
farther back limped Hobbie Klivian, looking pale and uncomfortable, 
supported between--of all people--the Mendellians Fir and Fenya. "Got 
any spare bacta tanks?" Mirax asked.

Kristy nodded happily when she recognized the boy on the stretcher as 
Rekla, the Resistance fighter wounded more than a day ago in the 
Darwinia raid. "Yes, and it's about time he met up with one of them. 
Come on, hurry."

Mirax and Iris guided the stretcher into the room, and Sharon led 
them to one of the unoccupied tanks. Iris called over one of the 
medics, a man whom she recognized from her days of service in the 
Palace, and between the two of them they soon had Rekla safely stowed 
away in the healing fluid. 

Meanwhile, catching sight of Hobbie, Emily ran up to him in 
surprise. "What happened to you, Hobs?"

"What *doesn't* happen to me?" the pilot answered mournfully. "It's 
nothing, Em. Nothing a little bacta won't set right in no time."

"Well, at least *you* don't object to being treated," Emily smiled, 
hugging him carefully before Josh and Mike came to lead him away to 
the bacta.

Relieved of their burden, Fir and Fenya moved to stand by Rekla's 
tank, gazing up in awe at the alien technology by which their young 
comrade was to be healed. Becki and Kirret, greatly relieved to see 
the two men safe and sound, caught up with them there. "But when did 
you get here?" Kirret asked her fellow Resistance fighters.

"And how'd you end up with Hobbie and Mirax?" Becki added.

Fenya answered both questions with an equitable shrug. "Just worked 
out that way."

"We finally finished with the troops in the tunnels," Fir expanded on 
his companion's explanation. "It wasn't good, once they got clear of 
the traps in the caverns--of the others fighting with us, only two 
were left standing at the end, besides ourselves. But we kept at it 
and, well, there were four more standing on our side than on theirs, 
at the end. So I sent the other two through the cross tunnels to let 
our other groups know how things had gone. Then Fenya and I went on 
to the Palace."

Fenya nodded toward Iris and Mirax, who were talking now with 
Morwen. "Met them just after we got out of the tunnels."

"They had Rekla and the foreign pilot," Fir resumed, "and they had to 
get them to the med bay. So we offered to help. Thayer had come in 
with them, Iris said, but he had a call from the Terra Group leader 
just after they got into the Palace. He had to go help them with 
something, elsewhere in the Palace."

"Heard his speech just before we got here," Fenya grinned.

"Yes," Kirret said quietly, the ghost of a half-smile hovering at her 
lips. "We heard as well."

"Kirret, dear..." Iris's pleasant voice reached them suddenly from 
where she stood with Morwen and Mirax. "Might I borrow you for a 
moment? Fir and Fenya too?"

As the three of them headed over to join their Den Mother of the 
Resistance, Becki started to follow, but then thought better of it. 
It struck her in an instant just how tired she was, after hours of 
fighting--her first war! how odd it sounded to say that--and she 
hadn't slept at all the night before, either, the night of her escape 
from this Palace. Momentarily overcome by exhaustion, she stepped 
back to lean against the tank where Rekla now bobbed, half closing 
her eyes to more peacefully watch the world go by--a trick she'd 
learned from Macavity. For a second she wondered what had become of 
the cat--had she really seen him in the Palace, after all? Or was 
that just her imagination? But she couldn't muster the alertness just 
now to worry about his whereabouts. He'd turn up, sooner or later. 
When this was all over, he'd come strolling in, as if he'd only been 
out chasing birds and was now quite ready for her to see to his 
supper.

Perhaps, after all, that was all he had been doing, chasing birds. 
But what peculiar birds...

Her disjointed thoughts had nearly given way to sleep, when the sound 
of Kirret's voice brought her eyes wide open again.

"My lord!"

And there was Kirret, looking quite elegant in a curtsy. And then she 
saw why: there in the doorway was Thayer Atner, new-made Dictator of 
Mendellia. (She couldn't really say newly crowned, could she? He 
hadn't been crowned yet. Briefly Becki wondered if Terra Group would 
have to miss the coronation, since friends on the Admonitor awaited 
them. Then it occurred to her to wonder if Mendellian Dictators were 
installed with a coronation at all, or whether it were actually a 
much simpler process than that.)

The cheer that had erupted in the med bay when Thayer's earlier 
speech was heard over the speakers was now repeated, and the Prince--
no, Dictator--smiled joyously as he entered the room, with Sci, 
Corran, and Shalla filing in behind him. He was immediately 
surrounded by his comrades of the Resistance, merrily passing him 
from one embrace to the next.

Becki hung back, keeping one hand on the bacta tank as if to reassure 
herself of the reality of her surroundings. Part of her would gladly 
have joined the Resistance folk in congratulating their leader, but 
she could not bring herself to leave her quiet corner. She was, it 
seemed, overwhelmed by a sudden attack of shyness. It had been one 
thing when he was just the Prince, though more fugitive than prince, 
and a fellow soldier fighting with them against General Atner, their 
common enemy. Now that he was the Dictator...well, she found herself 
inexplicably shy in the wake of it all. In the face of her own 
admiration, she was always so terribly shy...

Thayer, having just spun Iris around several steps in a merry dance, 
suddenly caught Becki's eye and grinned. She blinked in surprise, 
then smiled back. It had been more the grin of a Prince than of a 
Dictator--perhaps things hadn't changed as radically as they had 
seemed at first.

The commotion in the med bay finally calmed, and Thayer, glancing 
around with a beatific smile--it was the Dictator smile this time, 
all regal beneficence--began to speak. "My friends," said he, "you of 
the New Republic, you of Terra Group, and my own fellow Mendellians--
well, you all heard my first speech, so I need not tell you again 
what cause we have to rejoice this day." A few moments of cheering 
interrupted him; indeed, the people gathered there, finding that 
their struggle against the former Dictator had finally come to an 
end, saw very good cause for rejoicing. 

Thayer continued, "But I wish to express my gratitude, and that of 
the Mendellian people, to all of you for the part you have played in 
today's drama. You, my countrymen, who have fought alongside me so 
long and kept faith to the very end--I hope that I shall prove worthy 
of your faith; and I hope also to retain your fellowship, though it 
be now in a Palace rather than in our caverns. 

"And to you of Terra Group and our allies of the New Republic: 
Mendellia owes you much, for all that you've done today. Alone, we 
might never have had the victory over my uncle; your help came when 
we needed it most, and you truly made all the difference in today's 
battle. So I thank you; and Mendellia, while I rule it, shall remain 
the friend and ally of the New Republic. We shall be most sorry to 
see you go; but I know that your mission calls you now not to rest 
but to yet another fight, with a foe far stronger than Eugor Atner. 
In gratitude for your help here, I would offer you our help with your 
next battle. If there is anything Mendellia can do to assist you in 
freeing your friends, you have but to name it; whatever is within my 
power shall be done. I only wish I could do more."

The cheering commenced again when he'd finished. After a moment, Sci 
offered to introduce Thayer to the New Republic and Terra Group 
personnel whom he'd not yet met, and Thayer gladly accepted. Becki 
watched them walk off toward where Emily and Mike were standing, then 
she sighed and turned back to the bacta tank. Keeping one hand 
pressed lightly against the surface of the tank, she walked slowly 
around it, staring up at the boy floating within. Rekla seemed to be 
unconscious still, and the wound in his side was simply hideous. How 
long, she wondered, would it take the bacta to cure it? Surely even 
now it wouldn't be too late for the boy. But he'd been wounded so 
many hours ago, and lost so much blood...

After a while, lowering her eyes from the boy's wound, she was 
startled to see the form of another hand, opposite hers, across the 
sea of bacta. Then she recognized Thayer's face, hazy when seen 
through the pink fluid, gazing up at Rekla from the other side of the 
tank. The Prince--no, Dictator, she reminded herself again--looked 
down then; seeing that she had noticed him there, Thayer smiled and 
waved. Becki had to giggle at the way the bacta between them 
distorted the motion.

He stepped around the tank to join her. "So this is the miraculous 
bacta."

She nodded. "I just hope we got him into it in time..."

"It seems to me," Thayer mused, glancing back up at the wounded 
boy, "that already he looks better than when I saw him last. The 
color returns to his face."

"You sure that's not just because you're seeing his face through all 
that pink?" she grinned.

Thayer shrugged. "Still, I believe he is improving. It's ironic, 
though, that there was bacta here in the Palace all the time."

"Not like we could have gotten to it when he was first wounded, 
though."

"No. Well, we shall make the bacta available throughout the island 
now that I am Dictator. And we have a good start, too, with all the 
bacta that Iris earned us today."

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that!" she laughed. "How many kills did she 
have, anyway?"

"Seven in all--so seven shipments of bacta from Mirax."

"Seven! She's deadlier than she looks."

"You don't know the half of it," Thayer grinned.

"That makes Iris an ace now, then..."

"Ace?"

"Oh--the New Republic pilots are considered aces after they've made 
five kills."

"Interesting." He looked thoughtfully toward the bacta tank 
again. "Then both Reth and I would be aces as well. I'm certain we 
each had well more than five kills in the battle today."

"Congratulations."

"I'd be happier about it if not that I fear most of those we killed 
today were our own countrymen. Some of their tactics...Reth and I 
recognized things we'd learned in Mendellia's Air Force. Not all of 
those tactics translated well to the TIE fighters in which my uncle 
sent them against us. And with the New Republic pilots on our 
side...it was a massacre."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "We faced a lot of Mendellian 
conscripts, too, fighting here in the Palace. Poor things...they 
ought never to have been caught up in something like this."

Thayer nodded grimly, but before he could speak, there was a chirp 
from his comlink. He answered it, and immediately Reth's merry voice 
sounded:

"Hey, boss, I hear things went well for you groundside! 
Congratulations, sir!"

"Where did you hear that?" Thayer grinned.

"Oh, from these dozen or so TIE pilots who just now powered down 
their weapons and announced that they'd like to surrender and swear 
allegiance to the new Dictator of Mendellia..."

Thayer's face brightened at the news. "Mendellian pilots? So they 
weren't all killed?"

"Well, unless their ships have gone on autopilot or something...they 
look pretty alive to me, sir."

"Well, accept their surrender and swear them in, Reth."

"They're wanting to surrender directly to the throne, Thayer..."

"Tell them that the throne now authorizes General Nivag to accept 
surrenders in its name."

"General-- Good Grace, Thayer, you don't waste any time, you know 
that?"

"That also," Thayer smiled, "is a policy of the new regime. We 
*don't* waste time. So hurry up and swear them in, and then get down 
here, Reth. My new Minister of State has been looking for you. A 
certain Lady Xarim."

Reth's exuberant laughter echoed over the comlink. "Does *she* know 
yet that she's Minister of State? Right, Thayer, I'll be down 
shortly. Ten out."

"So," Thayer breathed a sigh of relief as he put the comlink 
away, "it is better than we feared. Some of them yet live."

"Yes." Becki's curiosity finally got the better of her 
shyness. "Thayer...how'd it go? With Atner, at the end...we know that 
we've won, but not how."

"You haven't heard yet what happened?" he asked in surprise.

"No, Ooryl was starting to tell us but then Mirax got here with the 
bacta brigade. So the story was interrupted."

"Well, I wasn't there myself for most of the confrontation, so Ooryl 
or one of the others shall have to tell you that part of it. Your 
Terra Lead called me just after I'd got into the Palace with Mirax 
and the others...he explained the situation with your friends on the 
Admonitor, and said that they were going after Atner just then, and 
that it might be best if I were there to take power as soon as they 
had him. So I ran to my uncle's office...by the time I got there, 
whatever happened had already happened; my uncle was bound, one of 
his guardsmen down, the other seemed to have surrendered to your 
team. But Eugor escaped his bonds just as I arrived, and he started 
to attack your Lead; so I shot him."

"Oh." She hesitated, unsure of how one ought to respond to such news. 
So Thayer'd finally achieved his revenge. She'd seen how joyous he 
was when he first arrived in the med bay, but now he seemed much more 
somber. 

"I fear," he frowned, "that it would have been better if he had lived 
to come to justice. But at that moment, there was no other way."

"No, of course not. I'm sure Sci was glad to see you," she grinned.

"You might say so," he grinned back. "Well--I suppose I really had 
better go let Kir know her new position, before Reth gets here and 
beats me to it."

Becki laughed and shook her head. "You really don't waste time."

"Generally, no." He started away, then looked back. "Are you coming?"

"Sure," she said, jumping up from where she'd been leaning against 
the bacta tank. Tiredness and shyness both subdued, for the moment, 
she followed him on to the next glad duty of a Dictator.