LF Friends, Will Travel

Collateral damage - Part 11

Fluur stood and stared up at the hole in the ceiling, impatiently waiting, feeling useless and stuck. Amander had told him to wait, Amander had said the safest place to be was in this room, that help would presumably be on their way.

A pained canine scream echoed once again through the research station's PA system, the sound of flesh being cut and bones cracking once again.

But how could he just sit here, sit here while Spot was being tortured by some sick slaving asshole? No matter how little, he could help. Fluur's body literally felt like new, the genetic treatment having not only healed his injuries, but made him feel years younger.

He couldn't find a weapon, so settled for a rather solid lump of metal that had once been a chair leg. Since Spot had told him he could now use the stuff, the Zorthian also took a moment to grab a pack of Medigel, shoving it into his pockets. He climbed up onto the chair he'd seen Amander use and poked his head into the hole left in the ceiling.

Panic.

Absolute.

Panic.

Tight, too small. Like it had been too small and too dark back on the Raha prince's ship. He couldn't breathe, there was no air up here, he couldn't breathe!

Fluur felt himself slam into the floor as he lost balance when his legs gave way, feeling the wind knocked out of him as he lay gasping for air as the panic attack remained. The treatment hadn't healed all the wounds from his time as a prisoner.

Another howl of pain from the uplift echoed through the room as he lay on the floor.

Useless.

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Lut'har gave a grumble as he searched through the nearby rooms, looking for another red box that would contain more Medigel. The Raha had to admit that the stuff was impressive, heck, the stuff was fun. Normally when you broke a plaything, you had to stop playing, you could only cut skin and break bones once.

But these Terrans... Medigel changed all that. If you had an infinite supply of the stuff theoretically you could enjoy your new toys forever. He would have to make that suggestion to the Raha royal house: There's no way the Terran government would notice a handful of their people go missing, no government ever did.

However Lut'har didn't have an infinite supply of the stuff, so he returned empty handed back to where he'd been waiting for his quarry to arrive. Where he'd been "enjoying" the strange fur covered Terran. Over the past 20 minutes he'd already used two bags of Medigel to keep his bait alive, to get a few more joyous howls of pain out of the canine. He couldn't find a third, so the uplift would have to remain in its current grievously wounded half conscious state.

Lut'har was frankly disappointed by Amander. The Terran who had supposedly single-handedly taken out an entire royal barge had instead chosen to hide, even as he tortured what was assumed to be a friend of some kind. Even worse, the sensors on the screens in front of him showed two incoming Terran warships. He'd have to leave soon in order to avoid being caught by them.

It really wasn't what he wanted to do, but he guessed that what he'd done so far would be considered enough retribution for the death of prince Hakthas. Still, leaving the murderer alive left a terrible tingle down his antenna. Not that there was anything he could do if the Terran decided to just hide, and there was no point getting caught for no-

He heard the slight movement, giving him a fraction of a second to drop to the floor, watching the screen behind where he had been standing explode into a thousand pieces as a bullet blew through it. He didn't even need to check to know who it was, it was the only other person on this station who he cared about: His target, Amander.