Encounter on Lothal (Kylo/OC)

Chapter 3

Tana Talurra thought she would never arrive at Lothal, so many hours was her ship aloft. During the flight, she changed back into her uniform, trying to ignore the wrinkles caused by its being stuffed into the survival pack.

Tana was fastidious in her habits, and a wrinkled uniform went against the grain of her character. She was a dedicated, loyal, hard-working officer. Having been in the corps for several years, she was committed to her career and the First Order. It was her whole life, and she was willing to make great sacrifices on her own part to gain more success, including helping Kylo Ren. She thought of herself as a heroine for her efforts and was hoping a promotion would be in order once the travail was over.

Finally, she arrived at the coordinates sent her by Ren. She could see his shuttle in its landing configuration but the ramp was up. She was hoping he would be conscious enough to grant her entrance. Lifting her comm, she signaled the leader, hoping against hope he was still alive.

"Lieutenant Talurra to Commander Ren, come in," she stammered breathlessly, her fear breaking through her façade of bravery. Silence greeted her, so she called again, this time nearly frantic as she tried in vain to remain calm. "Commander Ren, this is Lieutenant Talurra, come in!" After a few more nerve-wracking moments, the ramp began to lower and a tired voice broke through the comm unit. "It's about time, Talurra," Ren's deep voice rumbled across the comm. Tana's voice broke with gratitude, and she nearly wept with relief. "Coming aboard, Commander."

Tana did her best to pull herself together, unwilling to have Ren see her so emotional. As she strode down the hallway, looking for the dark knight, she heard him from the main quarters. "Back here, Lieutenant," his voice weakly calling to her.

She sped through the doorway to find him lying in his bunk with sticky, drying blood saturating the sheets and his eyes set deeply purple with exhaustion and dehydration. "Gods," she muttered under breath, wondering how he was still alive. "We've got to get you a medical transport out of here."

"Can't," he replied weakly, "they can't know I'm here. You are my medical transport," he replied, smiling weakly.

"They who?" she asked incredulously.

"Supreme Leader... Hux..." his head lolled to the side as his eyes closed, the last remnants of his strength sapped by speaking.

"We'll see about that," she muttered, starting an intravenous line to rehydrate his body with blood and water. She thought of sending a distress signal but thought better of it after what Ren had told her. Instead, she worked tirelessly to patch his wounds, sewing nanosutures into his lacerations and applying synthskin to bond the flesh back together before salving it all with bacta, then running a tissue repair on his ankle before wrapping it. She couldn't believe what bad shape he was in and wondered what had befallen him on his journey.

Finally, she mopped up the floor with baffles made for fuel spills, the equipment doing an excellent job on the bloody mess and then rolling him aside to strip the stained linens from the bed which he barely registered, so fatigued was he. Reeling from lack of sleep and the efforts to tend his wounds, Tana sat down, falling asleep on the floor near Kylo, the two of them overcome with exhaustion...

After what seemed like days, Tana awoke, feeling a nudge to her shoulder.

"Talurra, wake up," Ren demanded.

"Hmm? Oh!" she sat up with a start. Ren was trying to rise from the bunk and frustrated with his circumstances.

"I need a shower... and so do you..." he said, wrinkling his nose. She nodded, embarrassed. Qaderos' shuttle had no refresher so her long trek here was without access to any hygienic facilities.