Chapter 103: Consequences of Running Away

Lus guided the crawler across the rocky ground, approaching the entrance to the base camp where they'd originally landed on Sliaryt. He didn't dare try to hop the fence and risk getting shot by the guards, so he was going through the normal entrance to explain the situation to them.

Varyna was buckled up in the backseat, laying down and sleeping. She was looking much better after he gave her whatever anti-infection concoction his [Chef] skills had led him to make earlier. There was hardly a trace of whatever infection had originally ailed her now.

He slowed the vehicle as they arrived at the well-guarded entrance to camp. The guards were pointing weapons at him and issuing clear commands for him to stop and exit.

Lusac complied, bringing the crawler to a complete stop and then popping open his door. He stepped out into the dim morning with his hands in the air. A breeze blew past, chilling him to his core without his shirt on. He must look ridiculous to the guards.

"I'm one of the volunteers. I have another one with me, but she's badly injured. She requires immediate medical attention," Lus said. He kept his hands up, remaining as neutral and non-aggressive as he could.

"This is a stolen crawler. You're a criminal," one of the guards–a male Kremel–said. His blaster continued to point at Lus's chest.

"I know. I can explain everything. But please, let us in so my friend can receive medical help," Lusac pleaded.

The Kremel stared at him as one of the other guards approached him and quietly spoke in his ear. After several seconds, the head guard sighed and lowered his weapon.

"You're clear to enter. On foot. Someone else will come get the crawler and your friend," he said.

Lusac nodded. "Of course. Whatever you need. As long as you help my friend."

And as long as you aren't going to pat me down and take away my prize, he added silently to himself. The last thing he needed was to lose the artifact piece when he was this close to the end of the mission.

The Kremel roughly grabbed him and yanked him forwards as another guard stepped up into the crawler. Lus kept his steps light and held in his complaints against unnecessary physicality since he was desperate to remain on the guard's good side and avoid drawing extra attention to himself. The pottery piece was tucked away as safely as it could be in his pants pocket, but that wouldn't protect it very well if the guard decided to check him for weapons–not that he had any. The all-in-cutter was left in the crawler alongside the medical kit.

Lusac was taken back through the camp as everyone turned to stare at the commotion. He tried not to be bothered by all the eyes on him, especially since he was still missing his shirt, but it was a difficult task. It seemed his "stealing" of the crawler had been quite the big deal around the camp.

Eventually the Kremel deposited him in some type of holding cell within one of the tents. Someone handed him a coat which he eagerly put on, and afterwards they directed him to sit on one side of the metal table.

The guards left the room, and Doctor Swith entered.

"Lucas," she greeted him coldly.

Right. Lucas Absti. He'd nearly forgotten his forged identity in all the commotion of the past few days.

"Doctor Swith," he said. "I understand how all this looks, but you have to understand that we didn't mean–"

"Didn't mean to abandon your duties as a volunteer, steal one of our precious few vehicles, and nearly get another person killed?" The woman raised her eyebrows.

"Well, not the nearly getting someone killed part at least," Lus muttered, breaking off eye contact from the hard woman. "It's just that… well we–I just wanted to–"

Swith sighed and leaned back in her chair. "You're not the first explorer-treasure-hunter to come to us under the guise of aiding the sick. Unfortunately, the laws of Sliaryt are rather lenient, even for scum such as yourself, especially since you returned the crawler in one piece. The only punishment I can give is sending you back to the station and ensuring your name is put on the ban list. You also cannot list Sliaryt volunteer on your resume. Understand?"

"Of course. I am sorry about the trouble I caused. I hope the other volunteers were of more help. The nefitisians deserve to be taken care of." Lusac lowered his head, silently thanking the Watcher that he might pull this off after all.

"Fine words mean nothing coming from the mouth of trash." Swith stood up. "The shuttle is waiting to take you back."

Lusac looked up at her. "What about Var-Veran-Veron–"

"Veronia is being stabilized. She'll be accompanying you on the shuttle back to the station where they can offer her proper medical care. She will endure the same punishment as you for abandonment of her duties." Swith shook her head. "If only there was a better way to vet our volunteers."

Lus stood up. "Sorry again. And thank you for taking care of Veronia."

"Get out of my sight." Swith pointed to the door.

He happily complied, a touch of guilt eating away at him as he exited the room and followed the Nemarian guard out of the tent. While he hadn't come here with any real intent of helping the nefitis victims, he did feel a lot of sympathy for them, and part of him wished he'd been able to do something for them before he went off on his mission.

Lusac was taken to a small medical station which took a sample of his blood and tested it for nefitis. It came back negative, and he was cleared to leave the planet.

The guard continued back through camp, taking Lus to the shuttle landing pad and the small security checkpoint. Miraculously, the scanners didn't take any notice of the artifact piece in his pocket, and he was dismissed without any trouble besides a couple of sneers.

The Nemarian guard went with him on the shuttle and remained nearby as he buckled in. He nervously tapped his foot, avoiding looking at his temporary warden while wondering how long it would take for Varyna to join them so they could lift off. He was ready to get back to the station so he could take his shuttle and return to the Argo.

Or first the secret moon base to drop off the shuttle and then return to the Argo. Though now that he thought about it, he had no way of telling the crew that he was coming back so much earlier than planned. Hopefully the Suppliers–as they liked to call themselves–would be able to help with that, though he had a feeling it might cost him. He hoped Cewi would be able to cover that for him since he'd brought only a few slivers of cryptin with him on this mission.

Lus was pulled from his worries by the arrival of a hover cot holding Varyna's unconscious body alongside another guard. This guard secured her coat against a wall, nodded to the Nemarian next to Lus, and then exited.

"We have both of the travelers. You're clear for take off," the Nemarian said into his radio. He then sat in the seat across from Lus and buckled up.

The shuttle rumbled to life as the hum of the engine roared throughout the inside. Lusac braced against his arm rests as the shuttle lifted over, finding the trip even bumpier than when they'd descended to the planet several days earlier.

Once they were past the roughest part of the ascent, Lus relaxed his hands and glanced over at Varyna. She was still asleep, but she had an IV hooked up along with some medical equipment to monitor her vitals. He hoped she would be okay. This injury had been his fault, and he didn't want her to die before she fulfilled her dream of getting into the Demon Division.

A dream he could easily help with… if he just gave up Leviathan.

I'm not going to do that, he quickly thought. Leviathan was a Demon, sure, but he was a good Demon who really didn't do much outside of making sassy comments and annoying Lus. Plus losing Leviathan meant losing his system and, worse, losing Avil.

If he didn't have Avil, Becky would stop coming around so much too, and he disliked that idea most of all.

But maybe there was a way he could help her out. He wouldn't give up Leviathan, but he could always talk to the Demon and see if he knew where any of his old friends–or enemies–might be. Then he'd just send that tip to Varyna. She got a Demon to hunt that didn't involve him, and he no longer had to worry about the crazy COPS officer chasing him down. It was a win for both of them.

"I'll do that then," he murmured to himself.

"What did you say?" the Nemarian asked.

"Sorry. Just think out loud," Lus said sheepishly.

The Nemarian rolled his black eyes and went back to ignoring him.

It wasn't much longer before the shuttle arrived at the space station. Once they were safely docked, the guard unbuckled and stood up.

"Come on. Let's get you out of here, lying thief," he said to Lus.

The door to the shuttle opened, and several medical personnel rushed in to take care of Varyna. Lus exited the ship right behind the Nemarian guard who motioned him towards an rather unhappy female Kremel.

Dlt.

"Lucas. I heard about what happened on the planet." She glared down at him. "I have to say, I'm disappointed. You seemed to be one of the good ones."

Lus shirked under the fierce gaze. "I know. M-my curiosity got the best of me. I'm sorry."

"I don't care for excuses. Now if you'll come with me, I'll see that you're on your way as soon as possible–"

"A moment, Dlt," someone new called out.

They both turned to look at the Human man dressed in scrubs exiting the shuttle. The other medical workers were guiding Varyna's cot down the ramp.

"I was hoping he could come with me to the medical bay and answer some questions about how this injury to Veronia occurred," he explained.

Dlt nodded. "Whatever you need, Doctor."

The man looked at Lus who took a breath and briefly recounted running into the nefitis gang, getting captured, and then getting rescued and how during that "Veronia" got sliced with a sword of some kind. He then detailed how there seemed to be some kind of infection so he went off hunting for herbs and made something up for her which appeared to have cured it.

The doctor nodded. "Yes. I see hints of an infection healing. I was going to ask about that. It wasn't nefitis, but early analysis indicates it was some type of cousin virus. Whatever you did completely neutralized it. How did you come up with the herbs?"

Lusac shrugged, realizing he was going to have to admit a bit more of the truth. "I have a [Chef] class with a [Skill] called [Ingredient Selection] that guided me to the proper plants. From there my [Chef's Intuition] told me what to do."

"You don't happen to have any more of the concoction with you by chance, do you?"

Lus patted his pocket–the one without the pottery piece. "I actually saved some just in case I needed to give her more." He dug out the wrapped up herb poultice thing he'd made the night before and handed it to the man.

"Thank you. You're free to go now." The doctor walked away with the apparent miracle cure Lus had accidentally made.

"Come on." Dlt motioned to the exit. "You're getting shipped out, remember?"

"Yeah. Yeah." Lus followed her out.

As they walked through the hallway, Lusac noticed a group of mean-looking Nemarians going by. What in Suns' names would they be doing here? Everyone avoided Sliaryt.

"Dlt, what's up with all the Nemarians?" he casually asked.

"Hmm? Oh, just some visitors. They're actually here to see your friend, Veronia," the Kremel said.

"Huh. Okay. They must be dedicated friends to risk coming here."

"You're telling me." Dlt shrugged.

They soon arrived at the hangar with Lus's borrowed shuttle.

"I'll hopefully never see you again. Bye, Lucas. You're absolute scum for pretending to want to help the nefitis-infected and then bailing, but that's between you and your god," the Kremel said. She gave him a half-hearted wave and left.

"I really managed to piss everyone off, didn't I?" Lus muttered to himself as he walked to the shuttle.

Something was tugging in his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about those Nemarians who came to see Varyna. He just didn't get a COPS vibe from them. They reminded him more of the kinds of people he'd seen on Pragtin, which was full of criminals like gangs and mobs…

The Nemarian Mafia!

Varyna said she came out here because the mafia was after her. Those guys weren't here to visit a friend, they were here to kill Varyna.

Lus took a calming breath. He didn't necessarily know that. And even so, how was it any of his business? He was at his shuttle, with the artifact piece, ready to return to the Argo and be finished with this mission.

No.

He shook his head. He wouldn't let her die. Not after she gave up so much to save his life. Lus pulled up his system screen and bought a new [Skill], spending half of his remaining [XP]. He was going to need all the help he could get, but he was going to save her. Whatever it took.