Executioner's Gambit: Denouement (Patreon)

Somewhat changed over my first attempt.

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As she lowered Tori’s limp body down, the casters started rolling out from under her.

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” shouted Sese, an increasing amount of panic in her voice with each subsequent expletive. “It’s sliding! Grab the chair, Daskatoma, before I drop her!”

“Sorry!” apologized the krakun as he cupped his claws behind the office chair. He crossed his pinkie talons behind the wheel base to keep it from rolling any farther back. “I was afraid of crushing you!”

The chair had stopped sliding, but now it was spinning around its base. Sese growled in frustration. “Just hold her still, damn it!” After some more graceless flailing, she straddled Tori’s thighs with her own and squeezed her legs together, then grabbed the strap she’d strung across her shoulder and wrapped it quickly around the rusty red geroo’s chest, tying her in place against the chair’s back.

Only when she’d finally snugged the strap tight could she finally relax. “Is that okay?” Sese asked, quickly dropping to her knees. “Can you breathe okay?”

Tori took a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s fine,” she said. “It’s no big deal. You can dump me on the deck.”

“I’m not dumping you on the deck!” grumbled Sese, but Tori was giggling anyhow.

“I’m fine. I’m fine, really,” said Tori as she tried to smile. “Thank you.”

“Okay,” said Sese, wiping her paws on her hips. “I’ll wait for you in the airlock. Just gimme a yell on the intercom when you’re ready to go.” Then she pointed at the krakun, “And you—don’t keep her long. Doctor Amhela said short outings to start.”

“I know! I know!” promised Daskatoma.

Sese waved and then left the way she came, leaving Tori alone with the commissioner.

A silence stretched until Daskatoma was practically vibrating in place. “Well?” he demanded. “Show me!”

Tori looked at her paws laying open in her lap, then holding her breath, she squeezed, straining. At first, nothing happened, but then her fingers began to curl—not closing all the way into fists, but still mostly closed.

Tori released the breath she’d been holding and then panted, trying to recover from all the exertion, but now the krakun was literally bouncing. “You did it!” he said, excitedly. “You moved your fingers!”

“Wait! Wait!” said Tori. “One more!” She looked up and to the right, concentrated, and suddenly her right ear moved with a distinct twitch.

“You moved your ear!” said Daskatoma, pointing.

“I can’t do the left one yet. I tried.”

“Soon! Soon!” he promised. “You couldn’t even move your fingers a couple days ago.”

“I know,” she sighed, “but I just can’t wait! I want to stand. I want to walk.”

“Walk? I want to see you run!” the krakun laughed. And with that, he pinched the base of her office chair between two talons and rolled it quickly across the deck.

Tori, still strapped in place to keep her from spilling out of her seat, grinned and sighed, “Whee!”

At last, he stopped her momentum and turned her seat, so she was facing him once more. “You look good, Tori,” he said. “Really good. I barely even recognized you!”

“Yeah. I feel that same way, Dask, when I look in the mirror,” said the geroo. “And this body looks so young! I’m terrified that strangers will mistake Druka for my dad now.”

The krakun boomed a laugh. “Small price to pay,” he said with a smile. “And look at your ears! You have ears again. They’re so cute.”

He sighed and lowered himself to the deck so she could look him in the eyes. “I wanted to visit you while you were stuck in bed, but I couldn’t fit in the corridor.”

Tori yarped a laugh. “You barely fit through that escape hatch.” She closed her eyes, taking a moment to visualize it. “Can you imagine if the captain had to order a team of engineers to mop engine oil all over your smelly rump? You’d never have lived that down.”

He started to shake his head but then froze. “You can smell me?”

“Yup!” she laughed. “Oh! And last night, I had a whole beer—all to myself! Had to drink it through a straw, of course, which was weird, but beer! I can’t tell you how nice it is to be off the painkillers finally.”

“You don’t hurt anymore?” he asked. “Not even when someone touches you?”

“I don’t hurt at all!”

Daskatoma grinned and gave her a wink. “I bet Druka is happy about that!”

“Daskatoma!” hissed Tori, as if scandalized.

“Sorry!” he laughed, but he didn’t sound it in the slightest.

“But really, he’s been the best,” said Tori, “been there for me every moment.”

The krakun picked up his strand and pointed to the photo she’d given him. “I forwarded that to your folks. Are you sure you don’t want to send them a video?”

“I will,” she promised, “when I regain more movement. I’ve still got a couple months of rehab ahead of me. I don’t want them thinking of their daughter as an invalid. Just seeing me without the scars is enough for now.”

He smiled at the picture for a bit before setting his communicator back down.

“Hey, Dask?” she said, bringing his attention back to her. “Thank you. I was really terrified about getting the surgery, even with you agreeing to my stupid banishment idea.”

The giant reptile rolled his eyes. “You thought I’d toss you out an airlock when I got back?”

“More or less, yeah,” she said, earnestly. “I’m glad you didn’t.”

He lowered his chin, resting it slightly against the deck. “I don’t suppose you’ve … forgiven me?”

Tori sighed, her eyes lowered as well. “I told you, Dask, that’s not really something you can forgive.”

“I understand. I just hope that you’re…”—he drew a deep breath and let it slowly out—“well, not as angry at me as you were.”

“I’m not, not like I was,” she told him. Tori wanted to reach out and pat his scales, to reassure him, but of course, she couldn’t. “It’s helped to have some time to lay about and think. I’ve tried to imagine what I would have done if I’d walked in your pawprints.”

He looked up, and she tried smiling. “I’m sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but I doubt that I could have come up with anything better. Besides,”—her clear, caramel eyes looked about the room, taking in the change of scenery—“I’m really having a hard time feeling angry these days.”

“I bet.” With a talon, he scooted the chair one way and then the other, smiling at her giggles while her arms and legs flopped uselessly about. “It’s nice seeing you get your life back.”

They shared a final moment of silence, then Daskatoma stood. “All right,” he sighed. “I don’t want to keep you, or Sese will kick my tail, but I’m so glad we got a moment to visit.”

He reached over and rang the intercom button. “You gotta heal up quick so we don’t have to keep tying you to the chair.”

Sese came in and easily scooped Tori up in her muscular arms. “At least you’re light,” she said with a little grunt.

“Bye! Good seeing you, Dask,” called Tori as Sese carried her through the airlock. She laughed, “Next time I’ll be able to wave. I promise!”

Inside the airlock, Sese set Tori carefully down in the corner so she could crank open the second hatch.

Tori twitched her ear, her voice almost a song, “Is that one of Holly’s beads I spy on your necklace?”

Sese paused, and her ears grinned wide, taking a moment to pet gently at her necklace. “It might be,” she admitted.

Sese opened the hatch and picked Tori back up in her arms.

“You know what I did last night?” Tori whispered.

“Uh-huh, you told me on the ride down here,” said Sese. “You said you had a beer.”

“No, no, no,” giggled Tori, “after the beer…”

Sese ducked through the hatch, cocked her head, and looked down, taking a moment to study the geroo in her arms. “Did you get laid?”

“I might have,” admitted Tori. “First time in … I dunno. A year?”

Sese gasped. She lowered Tori into the runabout parked beside the airlock and helped her into the seat. “Long time! And how was it?”

“It was…” Tori sighed, “gentle. Too gently, really. Druka still treats me like I’m made of glass.”

“Well, you have been for so long,” Sese said. “He just needs to get used to you being you again.”

“Yeah, I know, I just can’t wait,” said Tori. Then, she promised, “Once I have some self-control, I’m not gonna show any self-control. I’m gonna bite him and bite him and bite him until he has to hold me down just to stick it in me. It’s gonna be glorious!”

Sese yarped a loud laugh and took off, driving them quickly down this corridor and that.

“Um, that’s my deck,” said Tori as they drove past the exit ramp for Level 15.

“Yeah, but I just wanna take you by our apartment real quick,” Sese said. “Something I want to show you.”

“All right,” said Tori. “I don’t mind. It’s just so nice to be up out of bed for a change.”

At Sese and Holly’s apartment, Sese opened her door and then came back for Tori. Without setting her down, she kicked the door closed and then carried the smaller geroo back to the bedroom where she plopped her down on the bed.

“Uh,” Tori said in a quiet voice, “I hope I didn’t give you a wrong impression by bragging about last night…”

Sese rolled her eyes. “I didn’t bring you back here for that, you goof! I just wanted to share a secret with you.”

“Now, I’m not sure if I should be relieved or disappointed,” Tori chuckled. “I mean, it’s been a year. I have a lot of catching up to do. I just wish I could do more to participate…”

Sese grabbed a soft pillow from the head of the bed and flung it at the prone geroo. Tori didn’t react, of course, so it laid there across her face for a moment before Sese snatched it back up. Then, she carefully propped up Tori’s head and tucked the pillow behind.

“Thanks,” laughed the smaller female.

Sese smiled, resting her weight on one knee and both palms. “Whatever happened to the other case?” she asked. “Didn’t the captain want you to figure out who had filmed Boots?”

“He did, but I told him that I don’t know the first thing about that sort of investigation,” said Tori. “Frankly, I’m doing the best I can investigating murders—and for most of that, I’m making it up as I go along.”

She sighed. “Besides—and kindly keep this between us—I don’t think there was anything wrong with making that video.” She closed her eyes and rested against the pillow. “Telling stories is wonderful, and I love how that one was done. I think we should be making more videos, not fewer.”

Sese went to the closet, but before opening it, she turned about, blocking the door with her body. “The thing is,” she said, “this is the biggest secret, okay? I’m only gonna share it if you can promise to keep it to yourself.”

“Yeah, of course. You can trust me!”

“I mean a total secret,” said Sese. “Not even to Druka.”

That gave Tori pause. She hated keeping things from her mate, but if it was that important to her friend… “Yeah, okay. I won’t tell him.”

Sese opened the closet, and standing up on her toes, she rooted around on the top shelf until she pulled free a box that had been tucked in behind some others. She knelt on the bed beside Tori, holding the box up too high for the prone geroo to see inside. Then, asking once more, “Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise! Just show me already,” groaned Tori.

Sese gnawed her lower lip and eventually set the box down on the bed. From inside, she pulled a cub’s toy—a stuffed krakun with silver boots.

It had to be the plushy used in the video Boots.

“Sese…” Tori whispered, “please tell me that’s not—”

“It is,” said Sese, matter-of-factly.

“Oh jeez, Sese! You didn’t—”

“Me?” she laughed. “Oh no, this is Holly’s! He created Boots.”

“Oh, no, Sese, the captain will kill him if he finds out!”

“And that is why we’re going to keep it a secret.” She took a seat on the bed and crossed her legs, setting the toy in her lap. She made its arm wave. “Hi, Tori! I’m Boots!” she said in a squeaky voice.

Tori couldn’t peel her eyes from the thing. “How long have you—?”

“Long time,” yarped Sese. “We came back here after our first date, and he practically threw it at me. He wanted me to be in on his little secret so badly!”

“You have to destroy that,” begged Tori.

“Oh, Tori,” Sese sighed, shaking her head. “Don’t you see? Boots was the linchpin, the catalyst for change. Yes, it motivated a killer, but had it not been for that video, you never would have come here, never had your surgery, Holly and I might never have met…”

Tori closed her eyes, groaning softly.

“Boots led to Holly’s promotion. Now, he’s training other administrators, and everyone seems so much happier. Haven’t you noticed?”

“Yeah okay, things do seem a little better—”

“A little?” Sese laughed. She set the toy on Tori’s chest so its playful expression stared directly at her.

“Why?”

“Are you kidding? Holly loves this stuff. We both do,” said Sese. “He’s been making these things all his life, and Boots was the first one he was actually proud of enough to let anyone see.”

“Anonymously,” interjected Tori.

“Yeah, but that’s okay. Holly’s a private guy. He doesn’t need to be famous … or maybe infamous.”

The rusty red geroo groaned and closed her eyes. “If you’re not going to destroy that thing, at least promise me he won’t make more.”

Sese just laughed as she picked through the box’s contents, pulling out thread and scraps of material. “That would be tough considering that I’m already helping him make the next one.”

“Well, please stay safe,” Tori sighed. “If I can’t talk you out of it, I hope at least that everyone enjoys whatever you two create.”

“How could they not?” asked Sese. She snatched away the plushy krakun and replaced it with a plushy geroo that had red fur and brown eyes.

“You’re gonna make the most adorable little hero, Tori.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vjlv3cUTtMXB7md9w8BRT-dTxS6Q2ZTpHONgR9TOp8A/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?