Job Well Done

[Verana]

There was something about being a Jedi that grew on Vera over the years. She had gotten to know both the horrors and the greatness of human interactions, but nothing that had ever dissuaded her from thinking that she had done the right thing. Her transition from a life in the Silver Jedi to a life with the Praxeum was still something that she needed some getting used to, but in terms of what her duties were they still remained the same.

That didn’t mean Vera wouldn’t miss her friends though. From Irma who had joined with her on Kiara to Charlie who had always been there for her. At least she still had Vax, the once small fox that had found her on Kashyyyk and then refused to part from her side. Vera had reciprocated it and with that made the smaller creature her pet. When it came to moving from the Silvers to the Praxeum there was really just the one friend she could bring with her, and it made the move just a little bit easier to deal with.

So, there sat Vera and her snow white fox on the ground in her room aboard the ship that would deliver them to their mission. Judging by how close Vax kept himself it felt good to know she wasn’t the only one who didn’t enjoy the vast amount of time spent in a deadly vacuum stretching between where they were and where they needed to go.

“It’s gonna be just you, me and Romi.” Vera said and brought the fox in closer to herself. “It’s a kidnapping this time around.”

Last time that her assignment had seen this straightforward Vera had found herself staring down a room in which… No, she tried not to think on it. The imagery was enough to make her stomach wretch and she knew better than to let it. The fox perked its ears trying to understand what she was going through but she merely gave it a smile and continued stroking her hand through its fur.

“Forget about it, it will be fine.” She said and let Vax down on the ground. “We should probably go find Master Jade before we land.”

It was a fox, it couldn’t exactly respond, but Vera spoke to it regardless.

“You can stay here if you want, I’ll be right back.”

The fox jumped up on her bed and laid itself to rest as Vera stepped out of the room.

“Right, now to find Romi.”

[member="Romi Jade"]​

 

[Romi Jade]

Trails of sweat broke jagged lines along her forehead, and they branched and branched. Her eyelids twitched, using their strength to hold it all back. She sat in the center of her quarters, her legs crossed over the other. Heaving, her chest rapidly beat in her efforts to focus herself. Things hadn't been so easy for her since Lola Sayu....

Withholding the affliction from the others, she struggled internally in silence. Suddenly her eyes shot open as she couldn't funnel her energy anymore to suppress it; she did all she could. Standing to her feet, she felt it was time to just focus herself on the mission and not let [member="Verana"] see her this way either.

Grabbing her jacket, well it was really [member="Coren Starchaser"] 's; that thought alone made her smirk. The details of how she got it was something she wouldn't explore, if anyone asked it was hers. With him on her mind just then she broke it down just how she felt it much more easier to cope when he was in proximity. This link they had...was interesting. She hadn't even told him yet...

Tying her hair up in a bun, she exited when the door sensed her presence. Walking down the corridor, she saw Verana who she assumed would be looking for her.

"Hey you." she smiled, "You ready? We should be landing soon..."

It was reported that an apprentice had gone missing, [member="Ember Farseer"] initially was going to handle it, but she assured him that Verana and herself would take care of it since they were stationed at the Praxeum at the time. Besides...she'd taken interest in Verana and wanted to get to know her a bit more since she was new.

 

[Verana]

[member="Romi Jade"]

Everything hissed at you in space. Vera’s hands took turns dragging themselves across each other’s backs as she walked down the corridors of the ship searching for the Jedi Knight who would be overseeing her trials this time around. The beeps of consoles and hum of generators caused the girl no comfort and she felt herself starting to curl up into herself and tried tried to think about anything else. It didn’t work, but she had at the very least tried.

“Hey you.” A voice called towards Vera and she twitched in response. “You ready? We should be landing soon…”

“Yes, Master Jade.” Vera said and spread her arms out in a bow that went too deep and too unstable to really be seen as a real one. “I want to land soon. It will be good to get back on solid ground.”

It would be clear from the way her hands still rubbed together to the way her legs seemed to cross that Vera was tense in this moment. She hadn’t grown up with ships, in fact she had grown up with stories in which ships were almost mythological. Change had come to her and over just a few years myth had become reality and it was a lot for most Kiarans to even handle. Some of the old-timers that still lived out in the wilderness even still hadn’t seen what the outside galaxy had brought them, and in some cases Vera had to admit she wasn’t too sure they were missing out on anything. The medicine and other necessities were nice, but the attention from the outside was not. At least not according to some of the more hardcore isolationists in the cities.

In the end most people outside of the cities didn’t have the time to care. There were more urgent things to worry about than philosophy and ‘proper etiquette.’

“Do you want me to keep Vax in my room for the mission?” Vera asked, her voice shaken. “Th-the masters on Kashyyyk used to prefer that I keep him at home for missions, but he is one of the few friends I still have around and he might be able to help.”

 

[Romi Jade]

Her eyes fluttered in response to her bow, she wasn't a stickler for it but...

Stopping and standing just in front of her, "Flying can...take some time to get use to." She smirked. She remembered a time she hated stepping on to ships. "Don't worry, shouldn't be too much longer. I'd estimate we'd be hitting the atmosphere in the next few minutes." She nodded before pacing off.

She motioned for Vera to join her, though then noticing how tense she was. "Try to relax." she placed a hand on her shoulder. She continued down the corridor towards the cockpit.

"Preferences are...meh." she mused, "I'll leave the decision of bringing him up to you, who knows he may be able to help us." Romi was always taking things as they come; you could only plan for so much. There were lessons to be had in everything and she was open to seeing how things go and responding afterward; that was how she worked.

The door slid open after sensing their presence. She sat in the pilots chair, and disabled the auto-pilot. Through the viewport the tropical world became much more apparent after the clouds and thick fog cleared. "Looks like we're here..."

"You have everything?"

[member="Verana"]

 

[Verana]

[member="Romi Jade"]

The hand on the shoulder helped, to a degree. Flying was something that would indeed take some getting used to, but at least the news that they would arrive soon was something that Vera could ease up from. And Vax could come if she wished, but that just made it all the more difficult to choose. A mother’s dilemma, would she risk her baby or let him miss out and just risk herself? He would be a great comfort, but she didn’t want to risk that. Maybe it was better if Vax stayed behind on this one then.

Vera followed Romi into the cockpit, and sure enough the girl froze up as she took her seat. Eyes stared themselves blind at the approaching planet, and the subtle kick as the autopilot was turned off caused her heart to skip a beat. Steady breaths steeled her nerves to the best of her abilities but habit and fear made things difficult, the sensation that they were about to plunge to their death, crash and burn against the approaching planet and its surface was something that Vera had always had difficulties containing. It was why she tended to keep herself in her room with the blinders shut after all.

The ship touched ground and the girl remained staring at the glass separating herself from the tropical environment just beyond its shiny, protective surface. Only when Romi spoke to her once more did Vera snap out of it with a visible shake and shiver.

“Huh?” The girl muttered as consciousness seemed to return to her. “Oh, uh, yeah.”

She patted the lightsaber on her belt and the shield generator on her arm as well as the pouch of other tools that seemed attached to the other end of the belt.

“I’ve got everything.” She said and let out a deep breath to calm herself. “Do- Do you have everything, ma’am- Master Jade?”

The initial fear was always hard to swallow. She didn’t mean to ask her mentor or assume that she was unprepared, but the question just about forced itself from her tongue like a reflex to deflect the attention away from herself.

 

[Romi Jade]

Her eyebrows furrowed, with one raising slightly just after. She turned in her seat, leveraging herself on the upper portion of the chair before digging her nails in and pulling herself up, "Are you alright Verana?" She mused, because now she was generally concerned.

She mentioned she wasn't famiiar with space flight as well as those from beyond her world, and for that fact it made her a bit nervous but...

Well she didn't think it was that bad, the girl seemingly fell into a trance. The anxiety she could practically feel fuming off the young woman.

Her eyes flickered a bit, she bit down on her lip. "Hey...how about some fresh air huh?" she motioned with her hand, "Lets put our feet on solid ground."

--------- A few minutes later

The ramp to the ship slowly let down, and gave way to a wave of warm air and ambient noises that were familiar with tropical jungles and what not. Though the surface was translucent and iridescent in appearance with colors that had a glow to them. Romi went first....

The heels in her boots clicked against the durasteel plating that covered the ramp. Taking her time she descended towards the surface; solid ground. She turned back to face Verana, looking up at the girl with a hand held out motioning for her.

"It's alright." she smiled, "Come on down."

[member="Verana"]

 

[Verana]

[member="Romi Jade"]

Shoulders rose and sunk in a steady albeit fast rhythm as the ship remained stationary. Vera tended to stay in her room with good reason for these things. She found peace in the lack of lights from hyperspace flight, from the lack of being surrounded by the stars that threatened to devour her. She found it easier to meditate there, and Vera would lie if she said most of her time on ships were spent meditating simply to overcome the fear that it brought her. She had made great strides since her first time on a ship, of course, but that wasn’t saying much. The girl had rolled up in a ball when that happened in pure fear for what she was experiencing.

It wasn’t a good memory, but one that helped her move on regardless. To find herself sitting in the cockpit, albeit frozen in terror, was something that showed progress. While Romi might have asked if she was alright, the girl did not respond. Her brain was still keeping her frozen in place as it came to terms with what it had seen, or rather the fact that it was not dead from impacting with the planets surface.

She did catch the motion of Romi’s hand, and while the terrified padawan was slow to move she did come along. On the way down the corridor Vax had decided it was time to come out and help. His soft fur stroked against her pant leg and Vera felt a warm sensation spread throughout her body. As she ventured down the ramp she still wouldn’t say a word until her boots finally touched against the ground of the planet.

Arms wrapped around Romi in a hug that she didn’t care if the Master needed or would accept. Vax got up on his hindlegs and began to paw at the young girl’s thigh for attention and she broke off from the hug to pick her tiny friend up. The white-haired fox, short-grown as it was, brought a familiar sense of calm through the bond that they shared and she let her hand stroke against his fur.

“Thank you.” She whispered to both Romi and Vax both. “I… I don’t do space flight very well, I tend to isolate myself in places without windows to find peace. I can’t-”

“My first time aboard a ship like that happened when I was fourteen.” Her voice grew in volume to a speaking voice for each word that passed. “I… I’m ashamed to admit it’s a fear I have a hard time getting over.”

“It felt like we were going to crash, and die.”

 

[Romi Jade]

She wholeheartedly expected Vera to grab her hand if anything, but the embrace?

Uhn!

Her eyes gradually grew wide, with her arms left out in a static position. Though she could see the fear fuming from her body, and if a hug could remedy that, then Romi would provide that. She laced her arms around the younger woman and pulled her in. "You're alright. This is the ground now see..." She stomped her heels against the surface, providing what little noise she could to give proof.

Retreating, she kept a hand on her shoulder "I get it." She mused, "I wouldn't let anything happen to you, you have my word." She crept in for emphasis.

"Lets take a look huh?" She turned and took in their current surroundings. "Eh...this is gonna be tricky."

She was feeling this tug...she started walking.

"Lets just move...see what happens."

[member="Verana"]

 

[Verana]

[member="Romi Jade"]

Vera appreciated the gesture. Vax craned his neck towards Romi and Vera eased him towards her to let him stroke his head against the Jedi Master’s shoulder as a sign of appreciation for what she had done for his friend and master. Vera smiled back at the Master as she let the small fox down on the ground and followed behind.

The ground below her feet felt more and more stable for each step they took away from the ship until finally Vera got the pride back in her stride and knelt down to poke at the dirt below their feet. Fertile yet perhaps a bit too wet, like Kiaran forests after a heavy rain season. There were both benefits and negatives to this. Short-term it meant that tracks would be more prominent in the moist ground, but on the long-term it also meant they were covered up by themselves as time passed.

The girl rubbed some of the dirt between her fingers and let it crumble on down to the ground before she stood up.

“Do you hear that?” Vera asked as the pull began to tug at her too. “There’s a… A faint whistle.”

Like a bird or something like it.

“It’s happy!” She exclaimed rather happily herself. “I feel like… It’s looking for…”

The redhead’s cheeks grew red. “... An, uh… Mate.”