(Untitled)

[organicmeatbag]

He's helpless with not knowing what to do. Everything - surgical removal, kolto, herbal medicines - they've tried only makes it worse or does nothing good. All he can do is watch on as the parasites grow in strength and size to encase his son's arm

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[jedi_exile]

Kira's staring past the datapad in her hand and has been for the past half hour when Mical finally calls back. She's not sure what hour it is, let alone what day and if only a short amount of time has passed or if it's been weeks. It feels like too long regardless, even as time slips through their fingers, as Revan worsens.

But he calls back and Kira snaps out of her funk, pushing away from the table to answer it. She's barely uttered a hello, her voice cracking, before he's jumping right into it.

"--found it on corroded medical file from before the Wars. They poison their victims, it's actually fascinating" He's babbling, quickly trying to get all the information out and his excitedness about the creatures makes Kira blanch.

"Sorry." Mical sighs. "It's just...interesting."

Kira raises her eyebrows at him, glancing behind her at Ranthus before asking. "Mical. How do we kill them?"

He mutters to himself for a moment before sighing and looking at her. "The file was severely corrupted. I found something out but I don't know if...it works."

[organicmeatbag]

Ranthus leans in over Kira's shoulder, having followed the conversation closely yet kept his distance until now. "At this point, we should be trying everything. What is it?"

[jedi_exile]

Mical nervously clears his throat, looking at Revan's father. "It says...something about electricity. Not anything helpful about it, but I believe it's relatively safe."

"Relatively safe?!" Kira hisses. "No mention on how much or what to do? I'm just supposed to hook my husband up to an electrical current and hope that doesn't kill him before the kriffing bugs do?!"

[organicmeatbag]

Ranthus rests his hands on Kira's shoulders, clearly trying to calm her, even as he frowns at the news himself.

He tries to work out in his head how it might work, what they could. Their lasers hadn't even been able to cut through the hard shells of the creatures when they tried to remove them surgically. They'd even tried to remove the parasite by cutting into its soft underbelly yet it only seemed to agitate them more.

But...

"Their undersides," he mumbles, more to himself than Mical or Kira as he pulls up a picture of the Orbalisk. But he does point out the diagram to them, soon to explain. "They have a small section of an exposed soft underbelly. If we could direct a current through there, maybe we could stun them enough to loosen their grasp."

He looks to Kira.

"It would need to be a strong surge. We barely harmed them with our lasers, only agitating them in the process."

He won't tell her about how Revan yelled out in pain when they tried that.

[jedi_exile]

Kira shuts her eyes before ducking her head in a nod. "Fine."

She bids Mical goodbye before clicking the comm off and moving to stand. "We should...get things ready. I want to be in there when it happens. I...need to see how it progresses."

She presses her hands into her hair and sighs. "How...how long will it take to get things ready?"

[organicmeatbag]

Ranthus is already taking notes of what they'll need on a datapad as he toes on a pair of boots, not bothering to lace them. "Give me a couple of hours and I'll let you know," he says, rushing out the door before Kira can so much as get in another word.

[jedi_exile]

She just stands there for a long while after he leaves, lost in thought before she moves to the kitchen to grab something to eat really quick before wandering around for a few hours. She tries to nap, it doesn't work. Finally, she makes it back to the medbay where they have set all the equipment up.

Kira feels utterly lost as she watches Ranthus, stares at everything except her husband's form. She inhales sharply before stepping forward, muttering that this better work.

[organicmeatbag]

To direct the current as careful and as best as they can, the team standing in have a droid ready to do the work for them. It moves in, its thin, needle-like arm at the ready as it closes in on where Revan rests fitfully on the bed, him lost in a delirium of feverish dreams.

A spark of electricity erupts from the end of the needle in test before the droid closes in on one of the parasites. They don't know where to start with the charge, of how much power it would take to stun the creatures, so they start low.

Too low.

Revan cries out, convulsing, from the sudden activity of the parasites buzzing dangerously, the jolt having done nothing more than annoy them.

"We need to up the charge."

[jedi_exile]

"Gods." Kira whispers as she stands back, her hand pressing against her mouth again. "Try not to...do that again. Annoy them."

But don't...kill her husband either. There's not much she can do but sit there and dictate and worry.

[organicmeatbag]

They try, again and again, and each time they raise the voltage a tiny click more, as much as they dare, the previous tests only adding to the parasites' agitation. It's torture on Revan and their soon pushing the limit of what's safe for him.

Ranthus frowns, commanding the droid to hold off on the next test, as he turns to Kira. "How far do you want to take this?"

[jedi_exile]

Kira looks at Ranthus, her eyes watery as she gestures at her husband's body. "Do it again. Just one more and then we'll stop."

She looks down at her hands, noticing that they're shaking. She shoves them into her pockets to ignore it.

[organicmeatbag]

Maybe it was the Force at work, at Kira's tiny plea of one more chance, or a mere strange coincidence, but by the time Ranthus has a chance to even realize the try had actually worked, the droid was already on to removing the next.

It works quickly and methodically in the process of removing and scooping each of the stunned parasites into a sealed container programmed to produce an electric charge strong enough to kill them. They'll incinerate the carcasses later to be certain.

[jedi_exile]

Kira feels dizzy as she steps closer to her husband, watching as they remove the last of the bugs and put them into the container. The top of her head feels tingly, her face feels white as she leans heavily on Revan's bed.

Her fingers skim over his arm, the one that hadn't been infected in the first place. She glances over her shoulder at Ranthus, biting her lip. "Is he gonna be--?"

She drifts off as she wavers slightly.

[organicmeatbag]

"We'll keep an eye on him," Ranthus says as he steps near to the bed and runs a quick scan of Revan's health. "His vitals look good, but we'll know more in a few hours."