Sylvana lay staring at the ceiling, actively wishing that sleep would overtake her. Alas, it was to no avail. She had spent a wonderful evening with Hobbie, and her mind was now flying faster than the Millennium Falcon through the Kessel Run.
After leaving Rocket City, they slowly made their meandering way back to the Terrans' borrowed quarters. It was not long before they found themselves walking along the final hallway.
"Though I admit this city world is nothing like anything I could imagine, I do miss terribly the nature back on Terra," Sylvana sighed sadly. Then she chuckled as she mangled an old saying. "My kingdom for a tree!"
"There is a garden nearby, would you like to go there tomorrow night? There are quite a few trees there, one is most likely ancient, Kelly's taken a liking to that one," he said off handedly, "perhaps you will too?"
"Kelly?"
He had to think quickly. "A- a Terran who's come to live here," he explained.
As they reached the quarters, Sylvana leaned against the doorframe. "That sounds terrific, I would love to go there with you."
He took both her hands in his, "Looks like we've reached the end of the line."
"Looks like it."
He transferred both her hands to one of his, and lifted his free hand to cup her cheek. "I'm so glad to see you again, Syl."
She smiled. "Vice versa, Hobbie."
"I guess I'll come by for you tomorrow evening then."
"Guess so." Softly, she closed her eyes and leaned her cheek into his hand as his calloused thumb brushed her cheekbone.
"Goodnight then, Sylvana." He spoke her name softly, as though with a caress, then gently brushed her lips with his own.
She opened her eyes a moment after he drew away, as his hand dropped to squeeze her shoulder gently in farewell. "Goodnight, Derek."
He palmed the door open for her, and they parted company.
"I'm never going to get to sleep, I don't even know why I'm bothering to try!" Sylvana grumbled quietly as she hit the bed with a fist. With a sigh, she quickly got out of bed, and shortly appeared in the common room dressed as she had been earlier.
She drew in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly as she melted into the calming forms of Tai Chi. She hoped they'd calm her down enough that she would be able to get some sleep.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, why do you think something's wrong?"
"I've been watching you `part the mane' for the last three quarters of an hour."
"I told you, nothing's wrong."
"You're all keyed up, can't you sleep?"
Mistake number one, letting her insomnia be known.
Sylvana stopped and hit the back of the nearest seat. "Can't you see, I'm sleeping right now? I'm exhausted and so entirely asleep that I'm conversing and exercising in my sleep!"
Arrek just looked at her.
"Okay, okay, I Can't sleep. I'm not tired and I can't sleep. and I'm bored out of my skull. Are you happy now?"
"Yep," he grinned.
"Pardon?"
"Well, that means that I don't have to be awake all night on my own." He smirked, "You up for some exploring?"
She looked at the wall chrono and the numbers 0313 glared back at her. She shrugged, "Sure." She went to grab her jacket, and found that it'd fallen that afternoon.
She frowned when she saw Emily's distinctive footprint on it. "I thought I tossed it on the chair before I got ready to go out tonight," she mumbled to herself as she shrugged it on. Then she patted her brother on his shoulder and pointed to the door. "Let's went."
Silently, they exited the quarters and walked to the building's exit. There was no one there, which was fortunate, so nothing could interfere with their sightseeing plan. As they left through the doors they stopped, jaws gaped open at the vista surrounding them.
The sky was nowhere to be seen. Huge monoliths in its way as lights cascaded across them like multitudes of twinkling eyes, each of them seemingly looking in every direction for the elusive sky. Endlessly, they searched constantly shifting and changing colour.
Mistake number two, wandering Coruscant at night.
The noise was terrific. A constant drone of landspeeders, unintelligible languages, and machinery, assaulted their ears as they surveyed their surroundings. The noise constantly wavered high to low pitched, multiple bangs every so often signaling a crash of some kind. It was hard to think straight with such a constant barrage taking place.
The smell too, it was a strange odour tinged both with sweetness, yet the sour taste of lubricants and filth tainting it. It was as if there was another layer to Coruscant, one that clung to everything and everyone. He had been standing outside only two minutes, yet he was sure he stank like the city. His face felt oily as though there was a slick coating, like a kind of moisturizer, only without the moisture. His skin was slick, but dry, and this assault on his senses was beginning to become overwhelming. Arrek hoped he would readjust within the next few minutes.
Traffic buzzed through the city like insects, each of them carrying out a specific job, the drones of a hive. Arrek wondered absently where the queen was. It amazed him; there was so much when he looked up, but even more when he looked down. Down seemed always more interesting to him and his sister. It had more possibilities, was more alluring, intriguing. It whispered to him, the darkness it held, the fact that you see something new every way you turn.
Arrek looked at his sister. He knew she felt the same. Silently, they walked into a turbolift. Even more silently, almost breathlessly, she hit the lowest button on the display.
Things were about to get interesting.
They both knew it was a bad idea. Wandering Coruscant alone when you've been there barely two days doesn't really conform to "prudent" in any language. Yet, it was the only option. The one that made the most sense, the one that would pay dividends. They were siblings, they worked together, they had a bond, they learned from their mistakes, they did things no other person would, they were content, they were excited, and . . . they were ready.
Mistake number three, going to the lower levels of Coruscant.
After nearly a quarter hour of descending, they finally reached the last floor the turbolift would take them to. The doors opened abruptly, jolting them out of their thoughts, for the view on the way down had been nothing but spectacular. The further down it went, the greater the view became.
Looking up, all that could be seen were rays of light reaching out to lights opposite them and intermingling in a pattern that constantly shifted as new lights were introduced or old ones faded out.
The traffic was lighter down here, and consisted of mostly beat up vehicles that seemed older than most of the buildings they traveled through. Cloaked figures walked through the narrow passageways, heads stooped, always looking down at the floor with one eye, but ahead with the other.
There was a variety here that astounded him, so many different looking peoples, and such different surroundings he had never even dreamed about before. The graffiti on the walls was impossible to decipher, each telling a story in a random series of lines and symbols Arrek knew had to be a language.
Walking through a throng of people reminded Arrek of where he was. If he looked out of place, he'd be preyed upon fast and would probably not live to learn from his mistake. Turning and looking to his sister, he found that she had already aped the stance that was most common amongst the people down here. She looked almost native, only Arrek's skill for reading body language telling him she was just doing a good imitation.
It did unnerve him a little though. He should be more careful. This was Coruscant at night, a whole new place that he hadn't even been able to comprehend in the books. Probably because no one had been down here long enough to make a decent accounting of the place.
There was music now, music and shouts instead of the drone of traffic he'd experienced outside the walkway they were going through. The music was disjointed and random, it seemed to him, but he knew that not everyone had his tastes in music, and doubtless he wouldn't find any Terran music here at all. Maybe when he was older and bored, he'd open a Terran nightclub here, it might be interesting to see how it would be accepted or rejected for that matter. They continued walking though, occasionally stopping to look at some trinket in a store window, or looking inside a nightclub to see if it'd be safe or not to get a drink.
Safe. This place was not safe, it was dangerous and would swallow them in a heartbeat. Daytime was probably the wiser time to come here, but it was too late to change that. They had started the jump into the fiery hoop, he just hoped they landed burn free on the other side.
After walking for a while longer, it suddenly occurred to Arrek that he hadn't a clue where he was. Everything looked the same, but ultimately different. It was one more piece to the Coruscant jigsaw.
Mistake number four, allowing themselves to lose their way.
They kept on walking, Arrek in the lead a few steps ahead of sylvana. He was pretty sure that they were going the right way. They wanted to go up and then back to the building they were staying in, but it was finding a way back up that had started to prove difficult.
Too busy thinking and not concentrating on walking, Arrek tripped over something that cried out. Picking himself up, he looked at the short creature he'd stepped on. It gibbered at him in some weird click filled language and then moved on quickly as if fearing some sort of retaliation. Arrek shrugged and kept walking.
He knew he should confer with Syl, but she was so busy looking around trying to keep an eye on everything. Arrek knew it was best to leave her be for the moment, as someone who had an affinity with nature, being on a city world was not the best place to find a comfort zone.
Picking up his pace a little, he carried on walking. It would be best if they got back to their quarters as soon as possible so no one would notice their absence and worry about them.
They were lost. He knew it with all his heart, but he knew Syl was depending on him to find them a way out of here. He knew that she knew they were lost as well, but he was sure that she had faith in him to get them out of here. Now it was just a question of having faith in himself, and using his brain.
He'd been lost in many places before, and always found a way back. Doing it on Coruscant would be a challenge, but the kind of challenge he would relish. Now it was just a question of trial and error. He was sure about the error part, and hoped he was ready for the trial.
Looking around, he could see the walkway opened out into some kind of plaza. A plaza of trash and miscreants, it seemed. He started walking even faster, hoping Sylvana would be able to keep up with him.
The buildings rose ever higher as they walked along, and Sylvana began to slow down as their surrounding weight increasingly crushed in on her. Usually she would keep at least one hand free, but her need to become invisible, identical to her surroundings, was so great that she shoved both her hands in her pockets after pulling up her collar, and she hunched her shoulders while watching the ground before her . . . and everything else, for that matter.
Mistake number five, getting separated from her brother.
Whatever that ferrocrete stuff was they used for the walkways here was almost springy in places, and in others it was so hard it jarred her spine. All manner of refuse lined the walkway, scattered along indiscriminately. Mentally she shook her head.
Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw someone. She looked up in time only to see a little girl with fiery hair and a hat several sizes too large, a cape that dragged the ground behind her trailing her wake.
Kids shouldn't be on streets like this. I shouldn't be on streets like this, she sighed. "I miss the country," she mumbled softly to herself.
As she walked along, she got the unmistakable feeling of being watched by someone with ill intent. Yet, she'd borne the feeling of being watched since before she and her brother had gone to Mendellia. Thinking this was simply a matter of course for an overactive imagination, she didn't pay attention to the malevolent undertones of this newer aspect of the feeling any longer.
Mistake number six, ignoring her gut feeling.
As she passed a side alley, they grabbed her. A dirty hand slapped itself over her mouth to hide her cry of surprise.
Another hand patted her down as she squirmed, and it came up with her pistol.
"A slug thrower, how quaint," a low voice said as she heard her weapon clatter to the ground somewhere.
She growled slightly and bit down on the hand over her mouth, then kicked behind her to push the assailant away.
"Feisty. I like that in a human female," a deceptively smooth voice taunted as she backed away. "Grab her!"
She finally saw who her attackers were. A small gang of aliens. As she reached up to grab her laser scalpel and poignard, a Trandoshan charged, and quickly wrapped her arms painfully behind her, effectively pinning her down.
The wolf-like image of a Shistavenan approached on one side, a terribly scarred Devaronian walked slightly behind and to the left of, what could only be, a Bothan.
The way they leered at her made her skin crawl.
The Bothan pulled out a vibroblade as he approached. "Such a fair prize to be wandering the deeps at night. I am fortunate." He flicked the blade on in one hand, while jerking her chin up to face him with the other.
The light from one of the few glowlamps in the area fell across her face, shining in her grey-ringed eyes, falling soft on her blue and black hair. She glared, then spat at him, and he backhanded her so hard that her brain rattled. "I think I will teach you a few manners first, Human."
"You could use a few manners yourself," she growled back, matching the menace in his voice.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you," he growled, bearing sharp fangs as his fur ruffled.
She stomped down on the Trandoshan's foot, startling loose his hold, and slipped out of her jacket in an attempt to escape. The Shistavenen ran after her and caught her easily, his clawed hands raking bloody welts upon her right arm as she struggled to free herself. The Trandoshan soon reappeared, holding her more securely than before, his feet set wide apart so she could not try to get loose again.
"Tough girl, huh? Let's see how you like this." He nodded, and the Shistavenen pulled her arm out straight. She struggled but was unable to draw it back. The Devaronian pushed back her shirt sleeve, exposing her forearm from about a handspan beneath her elbow down. The Bothan pressed the blade to the sensitie skin of her forearm, and began to carve a winding trail along it. He didn't cut deeply enough to cause death, only enough to cause extreme pain and scarring.
And he laughed. His taunting laugh was at the same time throaty and cackling. She whimpered slightly and bit her lip to keep from crying out, she would be strong.
Mistake number seven, not calling for help.
Tears stung her eyes, but she refused to let them fall as a show of weakness. The blade slowly carved its meandering way, leaving a crimson trail in its wake. "Animals," she ground out between her teeth as the blade finished its trail by gliding across the back of her hand then to the tip of her third finger.
He backhanded her hard, then, causing her to see stars once again. With one fist, he grabbed her braid and yanked her head back, then leaned down to plunder her mouth as he roughly kneaded her breast with his other hand. She bit down on his tongue, hard, and received a gut punch as he pulled away.
Sylvana doubled over in pain, then hissed as she was jerked upright again. The blade reappeared, "You haven't had enough?" He grabbed her chin once again, more firmly this time, and jerked her head sideways to look at her right cheek.
She grit her jaw angrily, still glaring daggers.
"Such a nice scar . . . a pity it's nearly faded. You'll thank me later for repairing it," he laughed low as he placed his weapon against her cheek. The vibroblade slowly drew a precise line through the center of her old scar, deepening it and splitting it as well as drawing it a little longer.
There is a threshold for pain that, once crossed (be it by quantity or by quality), no matter the height, cannot be ignored. Each individual threshold may be higher, or lower, than another. Fear, or intense emotion, often can affect its height. It is unknown which is the case for Sylvana, yet one thing is certain. It had been ignored far too long, and would not be any longer. With a mind-shattering finality, it had been crossed.
Sylvana opened her mouth as her throat produced an eerie, otherworldly scream.