To object too vehemently meant to arouse unnecessary suspicion. And he remembered he had promised her something...
"Ani, one request..." there was no ice in his eyes. There was no smile either. "I would very much like to be sure that the blood sample will be destroyed as soon as it's no longer needed by you."
An unusual request... To say Ani was surprised would be an understatement. On the other hand, he probably knew what he was asking for.
"But the gods of Coruscant and the Galactic gods, how can I explain it to him..."
"I promise you," Ani said firmly, fixing Tardis with a gaze as gray as autumn twilight. "I'll do it in front of you."
Her face leaned over his hand. Tardis hardly felt the prick, but a drop of blood ended up in a small container. Ani took out her deck, tapped on the keyboard, and exited the galactic network. Only after that did icons and long formulas appear on the screen. The doctor had already realized that the pilot was different from those she had always treated, even when she was serving, but to have such a blood composition... The girl rubbed her temple, not taking her eyes off the deck.
Did he know that he had "it" in his blood? Yes, otherwise he wouldn't have asked for it to be destroyed... She didn't stop at deleting the files, but erased the program. She leaned towards the case.
"This will do..."
She had never had to destroy analyses, she simply didn't need anything like that, but the reagent would work. A heavy, oily drop fell into the blood container. The drop of blood flashed with a scarlet foam for a moment and, hissing, turned black and viscous, and then dried, leaving a gray film on the walls of the container, which began to slowly melt. Finding anything resembling blood composition there was a futile endeavor. The container, melting before her eyes, went into the recycler.
"Your hematocrit is excellent, Mr. Tardis, the red blood cell count is normal, but without accounting for blood thickening. So, refrain from dancers after all. Otherwise, all indicators do not cause me concern," Ani said.
"Except for those factors."
"I was careful, Mr. Tardis. I can't do anything that would harm my patient," the girl added quietly.
All this time, her gray-green eyes had been watching her intently from under her lashes. Would he understand who he was dealing with? Wouldn't he? How would he react?
She couldn't resort to the Force. It was annoying: he was used to knowing, if not exactly what the other person was thinking, then at least guessing. Now he had to rely only on the unreliable human five senses.
Tardis felt deafened, blinded... And for some reason, he experienced a peculiar, almost painful pleasure from this helplessness. From the forced necessity to trust a person for whom he had no dossier.
"Does she understand the degree of risk she's taking, and the price of this trust?"
Trust has no price, the pilot reminded himself.
"I'm more concerned about you harming yourself," Tardis replied just as quietly. "Thank you."
"A warning, a threat?" – a quick glance at Tardis in search of confirmation or denial of her thoughts.
"I understand, Mr. Tardis. I will be extremely careful," quiet but clear words. And a strange feeling of calm and coldness within. Her consciousness fiercely defended itself from what she had seen on the deck, as in a moment of danger. Don't remember, don't compare. As soon as memory pulls the trigger... Later. Everything later. She would think later.
"But in any case, a doctor first saves their patient. Not themselves, Mr. Tardis."
Ani knew what she was talking about.
The pilot was silent, watching her. In any case, it means... He didn't need another corpse on his conscience...
Another one?
A dull ache inside.
There was nothing. There was nothing.
"Ani, I think there's one topic worth discussing. When you get back."
"Okay, Mr. Tardis. When I get back," Ani agreed hastily.
"Later. Everything later."
And she'd have to postpone the examination too. It was unknown how long this internal freeze would last. And the doctor's hands, which were trembling... No. Ani, for whom the silent wait for the last drops of protein nutrition to enter the pilot's vein seemed like an eternity, disconnected the IV drip.
"That's all for now, Mr. Tardis, I won't give you anything else right now. I'll be calmer this way," she lowered her eyelashes. "If you don't need anything else..." the desire to be alone was her only desire now.
"I'll be back soon," the girl promised already at the door.
"If it's not too much trouble..." she heard behind her, "bring me some plastic. For sculpting."
"What?" – she threw him an absent glance. "Ah, plastic... Yes, Mr. Tardis, of course, I'll bring it..."
The door closed slowly behind her. Much slower than the girl disappeared into the twilight of the corridor.
Ani didn't even notice how she found herself in a speeder above the parking platform of "The Last Haven," where her patient remained.
"Tardis... Tardis... Gods of Coruscant, who are you?!"
"You know. You saw it on the deck screen," her consciousness replied coldly and dispassionately. Yes... Those icons and formulas of chemical substances, firmly linked to blood elements... She sharply threw the speeder down, towards the flow of traffic, swerving between them almost vertically. Although they were already in a hurry to get off the route of the rusty suicide speeder. A childish trick, on the edge, intended to shake herself up and prevent the thoughts overwhelming her mind from exploding it...
"So that's how it is, Mr. Tardis... I've always been instinctively ready for something like this. Maybe because of the interrogator?" – she chuckled sadly. "And under different circumstances, would our meeting have been different?"
But she wasn't ready for anything different. She had seen "it" for the second time. And the first time, in the blood of a captured rebel, it had almost cost her her life. She was here and alive only because she didn't know what it meant. Even the truth serum was powerless against it. Although she endured the torture droid simply out of stubborn protest, outraged by the injustice. It was later that she understood from slip-ups that what she had discovered was evidence of a person's superpowers. And now again... The only difference is that she knows. And she can no longer deceive the truth serum... Wasn't that what he warned her about? Or is the difference still in something else?
She didn't notice the rattling and humming of the speeder.
"The difference is that it's Tardis? No, it's that..." – the thought that came to her mind struck her with such absurd clarity that the speeder, feeling free, lifted its battered nose, wedging itself into the upper lanes... But, squeezing everything out of the machine that its maneuvering capabilities allowed, Ani managed to avoid collisions, although from the fierce faces and unambiguous gestures she saw, it was clear not only that a collision was almost inevitable, but also everything that other drivers thought about her mental abilities and lifestyle. And still, teenage races on Coruscant were worth something... Returning to her thoughts was agonizing.
"No. No, and no," Pola said resolutely to herself. "This will never happen. And I don't want to think about it anymore. Period."
A few minutes later, the car began to land near a house, just like most in this block. After pressing the button on the deck, the door reluctantly lifted upwards, and the speeder, rattling with all its internal parts, carefully flew into the open maw of the gate. It was quiet in the garage, and Ani, getting out of the speeder, found herself almost home.
The apartment greeted her with its usual twilight light and silence. The activated holovisor gave her a bunch of advertising messages, a couple of holocalls from a local criminal inviting her to dinner, several meaningless calls from Orri, a reminder about payments... The screen went dark. She had never been interested in Nar Shaddaa news.
The bag she had flown to Nar Shaddaa with quickly filled up, mostly with portable equipment and medications. She scanned the room, which she would never return to anyway, and closed the door behind her.
Everything had changed. After the blood analysis? Or a little earlier, when he trusted her? Or after he offered her to work for him? Or even earlier, when she saw him on the street, emaciated and dying? If she had known then who he was, would she have agreed to become the crew's doctor?
Ani threw the bag under the speeder's seat.
"There are no answers to these questions, you know," Pola told herself. "You're just a doctor, Tardis is your patient, he has a good hematocrit and chances of recovery. You've forgotten about everything else. About everything except what the patient asked for... And he seemed to ask for plastic for sculpting..."
The hangar door creaked as it detached from the concrete, but Ani didn't wait for it to fully rise. The speeder crawled on its belly and took off, rocking its side as if saying goodbye to this place. The navigator gave her the coordinates of several bohemian-style shops in the area. The closest one, almost next door, was a few hundred meters from her apartment. A couple of minutes later, Ani was entering the shop under the promising sign "Hudo."
"Miss wants something?" – a voice sounded from behind her. Ani turned around. The shop owner, a Toydarian, flapped his wings towards her.
"So I'm asking, what does miss want?" – he repeated, starting to get annoyed.
"Two packs of self-hardening sculpting plastic, preferably soft," Ani said calmly.
"Soft for her," the Toydarian grumbled into his hairy proboscis. "Everyone wants soft, who's going to buy hard? If you're a master, you can make a masterpiece out of hard... But everyone wants soft..." – but after rummaging, he still got her soft.
"Thank you," Ani paid without arguing and left the shop.
The rules of aerotransport traffic are usually written in blood. It doesn't matter whose, but under every prohibition, there is an invisible list of hundreds and thousands of names of those who will never sit behind the wheel again. At the same time as Ani, another traffic participant decided to take off, and the girl felt a sharp impact that threw her car forward, into a moving garbage truck, which she grazed with her right corner, and then, by inertia, the girl was thrown out of the flow in the speeder, which was beginning to lose control. The sensors on the control panel indicated that the power cell had been damaged, and its charge was beginning to drop.
From the shock, Ani didn't even have time to feel the pain. But she couldn't take a breath of air. The sharp impact threw her onto the control panel, right onto the protruding part of her solar plexus. The safety system had worked, but apparently with a delay...
What is this red mist in front of her left eye? And... she's... falling? Hutt... the power unit!
The sensor hummed mournfully, drowning out the roar of the car, the control panel flickered weakly and immediately went out... She could only land along the trajectory of the fall, without wasting the remaining energy. The main thing was to have somewhere to land... Her eye, not covered by a bloody curtain, saw the place. The concrete street below. She had to make it and land. Not skim. If the calculation was correct. Her fingers, clenched on the steering wheel to the point of cramping, Ani couldn't unclench, although the speeder barely obeyed her anymore. And the panel was barely flickering, as if the speeder's heart, having exhausted all its strength, was stopping.
"Make it... Otherwise... Otherwise, there will be nothing. And Tardis will think that I..." – a lightning bolt flashed through her mind, as if it mattered what that SIB officer would think if she didn't make it.
The concrete street was rapidly approaching, and Ani even managed not to crash from a height, but merely to make a landing, scaring away passersby. A very hard landing, but a landing nonetheless. She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. Only now did she feel something warm crawling down her cheek. Her hand became sticky. Blood.
The speeder scared away most of the passersby and, contrary to series and movies, did not explode. It showed no signs of life at all. The most curious began to peek out from their hiding places.
Ani had crashed in some poor sector, because most of those she could see were dressed in worn-out clothes, and their faces showed a clear disregard for sanitary norms.
"Okay..." Ani said to herself, looking around the street. She had never been here before. Dirt, poverty bordering on destitution, which would evoke disgust in some, and pity in others... But Ani realized that in such an environment, not only numerous bacterial diseases but also social vices quickly multiplied. And the place she couldn't leave, despite her best efforts, with her broken speeder, was not the best place to stop. Ani took an antiseptic-soaked wipe from her bag and somehow wiped her forehead, pressing it against the bleeding wound. Her head ached and felt a little dizzy.
"Concussion. But mild," Ani concluded to herself. Nothing seemed broken, only her shoulder hurt badly. She needed to get out of here somehow. The doctor took the intercom from her belt and dialed her partner's number.
"Orri, hi, it's Ani," she glanced at the people who were cautiously curious about the girl, "I've had a bit of an accident. Could you pick me up from..." – she raised her head, reading the sign of the nearest establishment aloud, which caused her head to throb painfully, and the sign to swim to the side. And she almost immediately disconnected the call with her partner.
There was no point in thinking that Orri would fly here for her.
But she couldn't call that authority figure she had treated once? He would fly, but there was no big difference between him and this gathering crowd for her. Ani twirled the comlink in her hand. Calling Tardis was out of the question. In his condition, unnecessary worries were dangerous. And he had already had his share of excitement for the day. But if she hesitated any longer...
Ani frowned, looking around. It might be that there would be no one left to save. She needed someone closer... The hangar... The hangar where she had patched up the Duro pilot was not far away... The man in the black visor. Mr. Nemo. The second to last call was to his number.
"Mr. Nemo? Good afternoon! This is Ani Wedge, doctor..."
Nemo was standing at a rental car lot when he received the call. He didn't have time to recognize the voice; they introduced themselves faster.
"Judging by your voice, the day is far from good," Nemo spoke kindly, but his voice clearly carried notes of anxiety. "I'm listening."
"Now I need your help, Mr. Nemo," Ani spoke into the intercom, while tensely watching the circles that someone had already made around her speeder. Her hand was on her blaster, but as a medic, she always found it difficult to shoot at living beings. "I had an accident, the speeder is out of order, I landed on the lower level," she gave the coordinates and the name of the establishment nearby. "And here... Please, pick me up here, if you can," she held her breath, waiting for Nemo's answer.
"I'll be there soon," a short pause. "Hold on, I'm fast."
"Thank you, Mr. Nemo," the intercom could hardly convey the full extent of her gratitude. "I'll be waiting for you. Only," she added hastily, "please don't tell my patient about this."
"I'm holding on, Mr. Nemo," she said quietly, hanging the comlink on her belt. I wonder what could stop two intimidating-looking Aqualish with olive skin under rags, heading towards her speeder with something resembling a crowbar?
Her hand squeezed the blaster on its own. Judging by the determination written on their grim faces, there was only one answer. But... Pola Carrada shot to save the lives of the wounded. And her own. But she never took a life, not from anyone. And just because they lived differently than she did. Ani sat up slightly in her seat.
"Hey, guys, stay where you are! Don't come near my speeder if you don't want trouble!" she shouted, addressing the Aqualish.
One of them, in Ani's opinion, younger, not so dark, snarled at her:
"Shut up, bitch, or we'll get you too!"
The second grinned. The presence of a girl in the speeder made the task even easier and more pleasant.
"Alright, stop!" Ani commanded, taking a breath and drawing her blaster.
"Too soon. Very soon..." – it flashed through her mind. "Nemo won't make it..."
"Guys," she began in a conciliatory tone, "why do you need trouble? I'm a doctor, I really need transport for work, I treat everyone, even from the lower levels. And you yourselves might be left without help just because I can't fly to you."
"You'll buy a new one," the dark olive-skinned one spat. Other people started gathering around the Aqualish, listening to the conversation.
If she fired, a crowd would inevitably gather, and people would come out of that diner...
But, at least, while she had them in her sights, they stayed put, glancing at the blaster in her hand.
"No, I won't be able to buy a new one," she stalled for time. "Where would a simple doctor get the money for that, if they treat people like you?"
"Nothing, you'll earn it," the young one roared. "And we'll help you, find you a good place." – the Aqualish's words were drowned out by laughter and approving shouts. "Yeah! Awesome! We'll sell her!"
Encouraged by this, the young one took a step towards Ani. She aimed the blaster at him.
"I can't even imagine what they'll do to you after this," Ani promised grimly, "believe me, a sarlacc pit will seem like a beautiful and desirable fate. He," Ani gestured upwards with her head, "is quite inventive in that regard..."
"Enough singing, bird!" – the dark olive-skinned one got angry. "You'll sing differently for me now!"
He threatened, looking at her with fierce eyes. All four of them. The girl seemed to want to demoralize his accomplices, and that couldn't be allowed. He lunged towards the speeder.
The blaster spat a red beam over the Aqualish's head, making him freeze in place, and blew out a piece of the wall behind him.
"Next time, it won't be pieces of the wall that fly out, but brains from someone's head," Ani promised.
"One. The charge will last for another 24... If I shoot once a minute, I can last another 24 minutes. If I shoot twice a minute... And if I shoot continuously, only 10 seconds."
Her head was no longer ringing, but if she turned her head sharply, everything in front of her eyes began to slowly swim in a continuous round dance – aliens, building walls, signs...
It seemed the Aqualish and his gang, after whispering, decided to change tactics. No one wanted to get a hole in their skull for a rusty speeder that could only be sold to a junk dealer. The girl couldn't sit in the speeder all the time. She'd get out. Fall asleep. Pass out. Look, her forehead and hair are bleeding. That's when they'd take everything without fuss or noise. They settled on the concrete nearby, occasionally casting appraising glances at her. They were in no hurry.
Her fingers still clenched the blaster. To avoid being caught off guard if someone decided to check if she had forgotten her promise.
How much time had passed? It seemed like hours... Or was it just dragging on?