[right][h3]T'a Tarinai[/h3][/right] _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ There was a reason for the big placard with bold Basic letters underneath this freighter that read “DANGER! Do NOT remain inside while gear is retracting!”. T’a groaned weakly as the light freighter exited hyperspace with a jolt, but remained on the brink of unconsciousness. A week of no sunlight, food, or water had left the Zelosian T’a Tarinai in dire straits. She wished she didn’t have to disembark the passenger freighter that had ferried her from Zelos II to Ord Mantell, but she simply ran out of funds. A half an hour later seemed like an eternity to T’a as the ship started rumbling once again, shaking like a bantha with fleas that signified the ship had entered hyperspace. T’a groaned weakly and curled tighter around the landing gear strut in the fetal position. She longed to see the sun and dreams of the Zelos sun flashed behind her eyelids. Those dreams were rudely awoken by the sound of the landing gear bay doors opening beneath her. Suddenly adrenaline pumped through her with the new action, and she screamed – but all that came out of her parched, unused throat was a choked coughing whimper. As the gear retracted, slower than all the other gear undoubtedly due to her added weight clinging weakly to it, she vaguely found herself flying over a seeming bottomless drop. Momentarily, the brink of starvation didn’t look so bad as she redoubled her efforts to desperately cling to the landing gear strut. An open-top taxi whizzed by mere meters underneath Tia’s feet with the Aqualish driver shouting angrily at her in his native tongue. The ship slowed, but not by much from where T’a was now half standing, embracing the pole like a long lost lover. It slowed further so her hair no longer whipped around her face, and the walls of a palace shot by at a safer distance underfoot. The ship neared the ground and seemed to take forever before it finally landed. The sudden impact of the strut on ground was all it took to throw her onto the ground face first. Gravel bit into her cheek, knees, and right elbow, simultaneously tearing a hole in the right knee of her flight suit exposing a gash of green blood. Having not been exposed to sunlight or nutrition for weeks, the blood possessed a sickly yellowish white tinge to it and ran thinly, more like actual blood than the chlorophyllic sap of which it was primarily composed. T’a Tarinai lay there on her belly, too weak to rise. The weak Nar Shaddaa sunlight beating down upon her through clouds of pollution just barely keeping her conscious. [i]This is where I die[/i] she thought, vision blurry as people approached her. The ends of her auburn hair reached up to the sky as if they had minds of their own, trying to reach the rays of sun. This photonastic response intensified when the platform the ship landed on suddenly began to descend, bringing her further from the light.