Mana Pool Snippets - The Days After

Two

Serene darkness surrounded Jaruka. His body floated in the emptiness with no pain, no hate, and no cares.

So this is what bliss feels like. Finally. He smiled.

It felt right. There were no more worries to juggle; no more Denverbay, no more Galactic Council, no more Terra Firma, and certainly, no more staying afloat in space. Nova Company and his family would miss him, but life kept going, at least his wants were met.

Peace—it was what Jaruka strived for in his life, and he had gotten it. He thought for a moment that staying in the darkness would not be so bad.

A disturbing idea surfaced. He could not remember how it had happened and horrific childhood memories jarred him awake.

Oh goddess, my promise!

Jaruka opened his eyes and red water obscured his sight. Blood, he thought. "Crog!" As he spoke water rushed down his throat, tasting sweet and acidic. My blood! Some dipshit stabbed me! He flailed his body as water splashed, he gripped a sturdy edge and pulled himself out of the water.

Once he was able to sit up, Jaruka coughed and took huge, gasping breaths. His skindreads felt heavier; it had to have been three hours in the water, or his blood, to swell them twice the size as before, but they were still strong enough to withstand a blade. He pushed his skindreads back from his face, letting the remaining water splash onto the window and wallpapered walls.

He checked himself for stab wounds, mostly on his back. There was nothing so....

Jaruka jerked his head to the left felt an intense headache that caused him to yell. He had no mirror to see, but he was certain that there was a blue and purple bruising lump on the back of his head.

"Ah...what the...," he said. "What the crog happened?"

Blinking, looked at the white bathtub he had been in, filled with the red water. The smell was the same, but it did not match to anything he had come across before. The rancid smell from the furry animal was gone. "Aw, did I get sneezed on?" His clothes were still on, soaked, strained, and weighing him down, but his universal translator was on the white tiled floor. He grabbed the translator and froze as he realized where he was.

The bathroom decor was alien to him, there were too many odd knickknacks for comfort. He cursed under his breath. It was a human bathroom, the bathroom at the winery. "Just my luck. I got to get out of here before bullets fly."

He buckled his universal translator back around his neck and stuck the earbuds into his earholes. A red-tailed hawk perched on a towel rack across the bathroom let out a short cough to gain his attention, unamused by Jaruka's actions.

"Oh, it's you," Jaruka said in clear English. "You must be...what's your name..." He snapped his fingers. "Ms. Walsh's bird...Kisada!"

"It's Arana," she corrected him sourly. "No doubt some brain damage is present."

"It's a headache, smartass," he lied. He barely knew Scott and Katie's totems, having only spoken to them for a few seconds at Groom Lake. "So tell me. What Terra Firma creature sneezed on me? And why am I not itchy or smelly? I can think of a dozen creatures hocking red mucus at me but none with medicinal properties."

Arana said nothing, and did not move.

"Alright. Please tell me the truth." Jaruka ground his teeth with the second word.

"After what you did? You ain't going nowhere until you apologize."

"Not from me."

Arana jabbed a wing at him. "Deal with it."