As Reena and her new Zaetherian team member shot the breeze waiting for Raymond and company to return from their meeting with the Council, the Sorlas suddenly developed the nagging feeling that she had somewhere to be before she thought to check the time on her suit's UI interface. She did. [color=9e0b0f]"[i]Vaas[/i], it's that late already?"[/color] she hissed, irritated that she had been ignorant of how late she had been talking to Galvus before turning to the Zaetherian in question to explain. [color=9e0b0f]"I apologize, I just realized that I'm late for an appointment. Feel free to wait for the Captain, I'm sure he must be finished with his meeting by now."[/color] She gave a slight bow before turning to go on her way. [color=9e0b0f]"Take care, Galvus Velinian. I hope all of our interactions will be as pleasant as this one was."[/color] Reena winced behind her helmet at the way that sentence sounded. The traditional way of saying goodbye in Sorlasan, like most phrases in her native tongue, lost something in the English translation.

Checking the time again, Reena broke into a faster paced walk as she crossed the Spire walkways, earning a few mean glances from passersby which she chose to ignore. After a few turns into one of the seedier segments of the Spire, she spotted the holographic faux-neon sign proclaiming [i][b]The Moorhen Midget[/b][/i] in large block letters with the outline of a shapely human female lounging across the o's. Below it stood a bouncer, a rather large and beefy alien that bore a striking resemblance to the bulb of the Shaso͞on Blossom, who looked Reena over with his beady little eyes with contempt and suspicion. The Moorhen Midget was about as sleazy a place as you could find on the Spire, and besides the skinflint owner pretty much everyone who frequented the Midget was desperately poor. Reena, bedecked in her expensive and valuable envirosuit and belonging to a species known for being generally wealthy, did not look like she had any business in a place like this. Still, the bouncer nodded his lumpy head slightly and let her through. A sensor in Reena's suit went haywire as the combined scent of human tobacco, alcohol, and bodily fluids wafted over her, and the rest of the place looked no better. Cautiously slipping past a staggering drunk on her way to the bar, Reena looked over the filthy counters and mismatched furniture with disgust, thankful that she was sealed off from the toxic environment around her. The din of conversation was incredible, and a bout of shouting followed by crunching wood indicated that a fight had started somewhere in the back. Suddenly aware of the weight of the sidearm on her belt, she took a seat at a somewhat intact stool and tried to flag down the bartender, thinking longingly of the sweet taste of a Jenberry milkshake.

"Hey there, gillwoman..."

Neera paused at the sound of the racial slur. The sensors in her helmet indicated a rough-looking Yhei male standing behind her, his reptilian eyes gleaming and toothy grin stretching from ear to ear. The small band of thugs with him were all leering at her as well, with the bouncer some distance away pretending not to notice. Neera barely moved as the leering alien drifted uncomfortably close to the side of her head.

"That's a pretty suit you got on. I wonder..." the Yhei slurred in his gravely tone, running his hand alongside her arm as his putrid breath left a fog on the side of her helmet. "...if you're just as pretty underneath, gills..." The room seemed to drop by ten degrees as the repulsive Yhei flicked his tongue out at her, like a cobra sizing up its prey before it went in for the kill. Stupid cobra.

The crowd at the bar went deadly quiet as the distinctive whine of a charging energy weapon echoed across the room. The Yhei's face went through every color of the rainbow before settling on a lumpy shade of white as the barrel of Reena's machine pistol pressed against his windpipe. Not even appearing to turn in his direction, Reena was satisfied to see the look of confused terror on the little sleazeball's face.

[color=9e0b0f]"Try me."[/color]

The Yhei quickly removed himself from around her and took a generous step backwards before breaking into a run, he and his friends shoving past one another as they tried to escape. Her gun still held in the air where the Yhei's neck had been, Reena felt the eyes of every lowlife in the bar looking at her. Casually, she replaced the gun on her belt, not bothering to switch it off again as a show of force. As the usual din of the tavern returned, Reena heard a familiar, deep-voiced laugh somewhere behind her.

"You certainly know how to make friends, don't you?" mused a slightly accented human voice.

[color=9e0b0f]"You should see how I make enemies,"[/color] Reena said lightly, a hidden smile crossing her face. [color=9e0b0f]"Good to see you again, Doctor,"[/color]

"Likewise, Reena Vaemas," Doctor Hector Bahri said, bowing slightly before occupying the seat next to her. "I hear you helped with a cure for that, ah, 'mole-rat' poison. I'd love to hear about it." Reena explained all that had happened on the voyage with great detail as Bahri listened attentively. Bahri had always been a great listener, Reena recollected. A damn good surgeon too, considering that he probably saved her life after a sniper's bullet ended her Hype-fueled rampage a couple years back. A kind and exceedingly gentle man, the good doctor had even stayed longer then he needed to help her cope with the Hype withdrawal. [i]'I make sure all my patients are cared for,'[/i] he had said with a gentle chuckle when Reena barked at him to go away. [i]'Whether they want me around or not.'[/i] At the time she hated the tiny, dark-skinned human's guts for refusing to let her suffer in peace, but nowadays there was no one she trusted more in the universe, except perhaps Captain Chase. 

[color=9e0b0f]"...and now the Captain and Driani are presenting the cure to the council. It's a rough formula, but it worked, and hopefully it will keep working."[/color]

"Sometimes, that's all we can hope for," Doctor Bahri said with a knowing smile, sipping on an ice water that he had ordered halfway through her account of the latest mission. "How have you been holding up, though? You mentioned that you had an episode in there." Reena hung her head and stared at the remains of her Jenberry milkshake.

[color=9e0b0f]"I...don't know..."[/color] she admitted after a long pause. [color=9e0b0f]"I was controlling it fine, but we were going so long, and I was tired...weak...Great Malunista, someone almost died because of me."[/color]

"There, there," Doctor Bahri said soothingly, taking his hands in hers as a comforting gesture. "Falling down does not make you weak. The fact that you could stand up again proves it."

[color=9e0b0f]"You honestly believe that?"[/color]

"To paraphrase one of my childhood heroes," the Doctor said with a knowing grin. "You're much stronger then you think you are, Reena. Trust me." Reena was glad that her tear-filled eyes were hidden behind her suit's helmet. They left the seedy tavern to continue their conversation in the hallways, with Reena talking about her new teammate and the history between their people while Bahri talked about the patients he met and the medical breakthroughs he hoped would come from a new medicine he was working with. Reena was so enraptured by the conversation that she nearly lost track of time again.

[color=9e0b0f]"I think I need to go meet with the Captain,"[/color] Reena explained sadly. [color=9e0b0f]"It was so good to see you again, Doctor,"[/color]

"Before you go," Doctor Bahri said quickly. "I wanted to talk to you about one of my students. Audrey Ortega, are you familiar with her?"

[color=9e0b0f]"Not particularly, why?"[/color]

"She's been doing studies into non-human biology, more specifically she's been focusing on the Sorlas' unique biology. No no, I'm not asking you for anything invasive," he said with a laugh as Reena stopped dead in her tracks at that statement. "I just thought you would be interested in seeing what she was working on." He handed her a data-pad, and a cursory glance told her it was clearly some sort of Sorlas environmental suit with one glaring flaw.

[color=9e0b0f]"Did Ortega finish this? The helmet's missing from these blueprints."[/color] Reena looked up at the Doctor for an explanation, but he only smiled at her in anticipation. After a few seconds, it clicked. [color=9e0b0f]"You're joking..."[/color]

"It's a fascinating concept, isn't it?" Bahri said casually, as though he were talking about the weather. "A Sorlas environmental suit, lightweight yet durable, and with no need to be sealed off. A marvelous little project if I ever saw one." Reena couldn't speak. She suddenly felt the suit enclosed around her a little more then usual, the sensors gently connecting with her neck and her breathing amplified slightly within the suit's confines. She wondered what it felt like to have the sun shine on her face since the nearly twenty years she had been away from Sor, to explore a world without that familiar barrier.

"I told Ortega that I knew a suitable test pilot for when she gets the first suits built," Bahri explained, pleased with her stunned reaction. "Not a guarantee, but I think that she'll be interested to have someone like you to work with." Reena could not find words, in English or in Sorlasan, to express how she felt at that time. Instead, she numbly asked Bahri one small question.

[color=9e0b0f]"Why me?"[/color]

"Everyone deserves a second chance," Bahri explained happily as he turned to leave. "Good luck on your next mission, Reena!" And just like that Doctor Bahri hobbled into crowd, leaving Reena to stand there staring at the blueprint, dreaming...