500 PARSECS ~

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kalie gave an amused snort, shaking her head. Tendrils of strawberry blonde hair would feather down the sides of her face. It was a bit grimy, with the dry salt of her sweat clinging to her temples and along her collarbones. Looking at her right now, one would wonder if she was barely out of her teens. Most would never believe her to be close to pushing her thirties. Maybe it was just that cheerful, jovial outlook she radiated all the time.

"Tell me more about her," Kaile would ask, glancing up as she took another spoonful of stew. She was curious about her, about his father. Everything really. Having a family, how that was growing up, was all a curious curio to the orphan. That's what happened when the first Sith Empire took over Lorrd. There were few Lorrdians that ever really knew or had contact with any blood relatives, if that.

Kurt was more apt to joke and redirect the conversation elsewhere, but sometimes, he would humor her. It reminded her that she still had a few things to talk to him about, and how to exactly brooch that subject was still up in the air. Today was such a good day, she didn't want to ruin it... or his time with his family.

Again, with the biting of the lower lip. I'll just have to play it by ear...

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"My mom?" Kurt mused for a few seconds. "She's smart."

That was really something that aptly described both of this parents. Former engineers and geniuses in their own right. They had made weapons for the SIth Empire a long time ago, until they had fled half the galaxy away after seeing what the things they had developed were being used for. "They used to work together on Dromund Kaas, both born and raised there actually. They were scientists, my mom was the head of a research lab of some sort. When they saw what the Empire was using the things they developed for...well they fled to Tatooine."

Not the greatest place to run away to by many standards, though Kurt had never minded it.

"During that trip they fell in love." He smiled slightly, having heard the story a dozen and a half times. "My moms always been the stronger one, emotionally at least. She was the driving force behind their leaving and keeping dad together after they had found out what had happened."

The Courier smiled again. There wasn't any other way that he would describe his mother, the word strong just fit so well, why tell it any other way?

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kaile would give a slight impish grin.

"I reckon that's why you seem to have Tatooine in your blood." in reference with how well adapted and how lively he became once he came home. It was as if he thrived on this arid environment, a fondness that weathered even the annoying grain of sands.

It was nice seeing him this way. It endeared him all the more to her.

"So why Tatooine of all places?" one had to admit, it was rather out there. While it wasn't as backwater as some other planets - at least not now with Arceneau Trade - it was a hole in the wall to crawl into. Did it have to do because they were both scientists? Were they - are they - hiding from remnants of the Empire?

Well that was a thought.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt mused for a moment. He supposed that if Kaile had been a Sith Empire spy this entire time she would have gone through a lot to actually get to this point. He doubted that anyone would have given that amount of time, especially since she could have just gone to Tatooine and searched for his parents as soon as she'd learned that they were living here. No, Kaile was likely not a spy trying to find a way to kill his parents, but it did pay to offer the consideration for a moment.

He smirked finally.

"Tatooine is the ass end of nowhere. Sure Arceneau has put it on the map a bit, but in reality? We're no one. Nobody cares about Tatooine, nobody really wants to go here aside from the people who already love it. That was why my parents came here." Kurt explained in a lower tone that before, not wanting to wake up his father.

"They were important, knew things about projects the Sith were trying to conduct." Kurt shrugged, neither of his parents had ever really gone into details about what, but Kurt had always surmised that it was hardly pleasant. "They knew that no one would look for them here, and even if someone did, how the hell are you supposed to find them in the desert?"

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

She caught those few moments, those few subtle nuances that ran across his face. The slight question in his eyes as he mulled over if he should continue. Kaile wondered in that instance, what would Kurt say or think if she told him she was a Lorrdian. Would he even know what that meant? Would he know about kinetic communication, and how she could mimic and read the intentions of another just by their body language.

Would he start hiding from me?

A slight chill of worry would run anew down her spine. "Reckon you have a point there," she told him, dropping her gaze into her soup as she took another mouthful. It worried her, what Kurt might think. She didn't want to hurt him; but the longer she waited the worst it might be.

A glance up, a ghost of a smile, "I guess that's why they took to farmin'?" she meant in terms of them being engineers of some sort. "And where you got your tinkerin' lessons and such?"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Yep." He said with a shrug.

Kurt had never really considered why his parents had run away or why they had taken to moisture farming, but neither of them had ever really seemed bothered by any of it. They lived well enough even before Kurt had won his races, and that seemed to have been more than enough for the both of them. Kurt's parents weren't a couple to argue or fight, in fact Kurt had never seen them even raise their voices to one another. They cooperated, worked together and made everything work.

Something to strive for, really.

"Dad's always been more mechanical, thought I think mom did mostly chemical research." The implications of that were rather harsh, considering what the Sith Empire had been known for in it's final days. "She helped me get the fuel mixtures for the Pod right and dad tinkered with the engines. Both of them taught me a lot in that regard, though not nearly everything they know. I was never much interested in physics or higher learning."

Kurt offered her a smirk and a quick wink.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Mechanical Engineering. Chemical Scientist.

A thought came to her then. It was doubtful that Kurt's parents real names were even Meyer. New identities in a new world. A new life.

Kaile wondered if they ever really stood in the limelight when Kurt won the classic. Did they keep a low profile on purpose?

Stop it Kaile!

It was hard. Hard to stop how her mind was hardwired to dig through information, to go through and comb through what is important, what was chaff, and what to follow up with in order to garner more information. Her natural friendliness and easy-going manner made it so easy to pick up information. She would never be as successful as a Cafarel agent, but she could make a good run for their money.

A small gesture of her spoon, and Kaile would add, "Just in podracing?" she'd give a half smile.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt smiled at her and shrugged. Pod-Racing actually did take quite a bit of know how to master. Engineering, chemistry, even physics. It had been a slight lie when he said none of that had ever interested him, because of course he had needed to learn it in order to win his championships. It was part of what had made him so successful in the first place; preparation. He had always tried to look at what was ahead of him, what he would need in order to succeed in the future. Learning the higher education things had been a part of that.

"You guessed it." He said with a grin. "Only thing that stuck."

Another small, white lie, but Kaile would be able to see through that immediately. "What about you?"

He had never really asked Kaile much about her past, mostly because he had always figured that if she wanted to talk about it, she would.

That made an odd realization come to him, he knew next to nothing about Kaile's past aside from the fact that she used to be a waitress. His lips pulled down into a frown as he realized that, though he figured it was mostly because of his own ego and not Kaile withholding something.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

He wasn't being completely honest.

There was more to it than that. What else was there? Before Kaile could ask another question, Kurt asked one of his own.

He never did that.

It was strange. Kaile knew that if anyone from the outside looking in they would figure that they knew each other well. After all, they were roommates, living together... sleeping together. By all accounts, they were as intimate as anyone could be, and friends.

Yet they never really dug into each others pasts or what they do.

"What about me?" she would crack a half smile, one that hid the slight well of trepidation in her belly.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

He blinked. "Is someone being coy?"

Kurt's voice turned up an octave, his eyes narrowing slightly in her direction. The question had already been posed, and the lorrdian knew exactly what Kurt had been asking and why he had been asking it. Kaile wasn't fool enough to miss that question. Some might have thought her on the simple side because of her appearance and her chipper attitude, but Kurt knew well enough that she wasn't dumb, far from it, she was probably one of the most intelligent people that he had ever met.

"You know exactly what I mean." Kurt said sliding halfway across the table halfway. "Do you have any higher education."

His eyebrows did not waggle.

This was not an eyebrow waggling situation, in fact it was getting more serious by the moment as Kurt became more curious about Kaile's past.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

This was different.

It was interesting. The shift in his expression, the slight narrowing of his eyes. The deepening of his tone. The pilot drew closer, his upper body leaning over the table and nearer to the Lorrdian. He was curious.

Curious could be bad.

Curious could make him upset.

One last spoonful of soup, and she cleaned it right off. With the edge of it, she would lightly boop the tip of his nose in her typical Kaile manner.

"Not the sort your ma and pa have." she told him, a truth. No, her skillset was entirely different. "Never went to the university." she would add.

"Folk always said I've a gift for being sociable."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

That implied that she did indeed have some higher education, or rather, that she was taught something else. He frowned slightly, halfway sliding his chair around the table to move closer to her. He was genuinely curious now, and he wasn't very likely to let up on his questions.

"So you were taught by someone then? Something?" Kurt asked, leaning even closer.

He had his claws in now, curiosity taking over completely.

Kaile had never shared a piece of her history, at least not stretching far back at all. He knew that Kaile was a waitress and that was about it. The Courier wondered why she had never much shared much about herself, did she have a dark past? Did she murder people? Had Kaile secretly been an assassin?

He doubted it, but Kurt wanted to know.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

His chair made an audible drag across the floor. Closer now.

It was making her nervous.

She bit her lower lip. That tick.

How would she answer? There were several skill sets she was trained in. The Force. How to be a slicer. A mechanic. A spy. Which one would she tell?

"I have," she told him, flicking her spoon back to rest upon her plate. Kaile was normally better at this, but he made her nervous. She didn't want him to be upset. Or worse, look at her differently.

She could give him just a little bit. Or she could come out and say it. Which should I do?

"I was." she corrected herself, and her expression turned to one as if unsure how to proceed. "The Rebellion actually."

Well that was the truth. It was where it all started.

Guess might as well begin there...

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

His eyebrows raised. That was a surprise that he hadn't expected. The Rebellion? They had fought against the Sith Empire, One Sith, and pretty much every state that had tormented and spread tyranny for the last few decades. His lips thinned slightly, and he quickly made connections within his mind. Kurt might have been young, he might have been goofy, but he certainly wasn't and idiot. His mind began to connect the dots fairly quickly, his eyes widening as he thought about the time that he had Kaile had spent together the trips she had taken, her actions.

Even how she had escaped that syndicate.

It made sense in a way, and immediately Kurt jumped to the conclusion that Kaile was still working for rebellion. That made even more sense, given how often she disappeared on him and where she went. His lips turned into a frown, his expression became pensive, and slowly Kurt began to back away in his chair, half standing up and pushing himself away from the table. "Oh."

She hadn't finished yet, but Kurt didn't necessarily need her to.

In his head he already knew all the facts that he needed to.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

And there it was.

The dawning spreading across his face, the awareness. Then he drew away. Not just physically, no it was more than that. That knot in her belly grew tighter and she felt a little sick.

Feth.

"I grew up there." her voice fell an octave, just a low murmur. Her gaze fell and she studied the empty bowl of stew. He had asked. She told him the truth; one of many that she'd have to reveal later. He couldn't even look at her too. Suddenly she felt a bit claustrophobic, her fingers nervously playing with the spoon, twirling it between her fingers. Just the part of being a Lorrdian, couldn't stand still. Couldn't hide emotions.

Everything was there to see if they weren't trained to hide it.

"Just me." she couldn't help but nibble harder on her lower lip, worrying it more. "Always has been."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt leaned back slightly, his eyes passing over her and towards the floor.

He wasn't sure exactly what to say, though eventually he managed to open his lips. "And now?"

Had she been lying to him this entire time? Had she been using him as a cover?

Oh that thought cut him deep.

The idea that Kaile had just befriended him, gone with him, tricked him and used him just so that she could have a better cover? Yeah that idea cut him to his very core. He frowned slightly, backing up further. Oh he could see the regret on her face, the bite of her lip and the anxiousness that carried through her, but right now he was more focused on the implications of all of this. Had he been in danger? Had his parents been put into danger by him bringing her here?

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]


"I don't work for the Rebellion anymore." that growing sense of a need to pace, to keep her hands busy swelled within her. Her hands fell back from the table and interlocked, otherwise she would be tapping an annoying rap.

"I joined Omega Pyre a few years back..." that was the private military company that had turned into the Omega Protectorate. Her knee began to twitch, rocking up and down under the table, her body needing some way to release the tension she was starting to feel.

Large brown eyes drew up at him. She saw him studying her. One didn't need to read his mind where his thoughts were racing to. The realization. The confusion.

The hurt.

She immediately sat up, "Nothin' we did was part of anythin'." Kaile had managed to perk up, her hands sliding from their nervous clutch to press upon the table. There was an earnestness on her face that pleaded for him to understand.

"I swear. I was just workin' at Yum Bunnies 'cause I was waitin' on bein' told what to do by the Alliance..." as a sleeper agent, all she had to do was merely blend in. Yum Bunnies helped in that.

"Then everythin' at the restaurant happened... and I got fired." she bit her lip again. "I just had to find a way back to where I could find a new job."

She didn't need to stay with Kurt at all. Kaile could have been hired at another restaurant. I could have left at any time..

"... but then you and all... And I only meant to stay a little bit but.." And then everything else.. happened. They became close. His ship was blown up at Commedor, and he was completely wrecked with that. Not to mention, for his security as well as her own safety, she couldn't tell him right out that she worked for the Galactic Alliance as an agent.

"And I couldn't just leave you like that." Okay it was more than that, if she was being honest with herself. "Well.. I didn't want to."

Big brown eyes would stare up at blue.

"It was nice to have a place to come home."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

He could understand that, he saw the logic in it and he even felt like he couldn't really be mad at her for it. What was he supposed to say?

'How dare you want a home?'

Kurt wasn't raised that way, it wasn't who he was. Kaile had needed help regardless of where she had been trained, she had needed something and living with her on The Messa had been fun. He frowned slightly. The greater half of him wanted to outright forgive her, to move past it, but a small piece, a powerful voice in the back of his mind told him that he couldn't, at least not yet. The lie...he couldn't stand it. It pierced him, hurt him. Kurt understood why she had done it, why she felt the need.

Yet it still hurt.

"I need." Kurt slowly stood, letting the chair slide back. "I need some time."

Of course there wasn't really much of anywhere he could go right now, much of anything he could do. The massive sandstorm up above the Farm would still rage for hours still, giving them plenty of time to think. He shifted slightly, backing up from Kaile further still. "There's...there's a guest room down the hall."

Kurt pointed towards one of the hallways, then turned back around and headed towards the garage.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

The betrayed expression on his face. It was heartbreaking.

Kaile felt smaller than Bobo, and she hadn't even gotten to the part that she was able to use the Force. If anything, her shoulders now drooped and there was this heavy weight that seemed to press at her. Her knee stopped its shaking and she became terribly still, hands tucked under her thighs.

The fun they had earlier this morning. How they'd had the time of their life. The pod race ride. The storm... and what came after. That high gave way to a terrible low, making her feel as if she was crashing down with no lifeline and burning in a fiery blaze.

Her eyes began to sting. They began to burn. Her vision blurred and she dropped her head.

"I'm sorry, Kurt...."

It was all she could say; but who knew if he even heard her. He had already gone.

And Kaile never felt so terribly alone.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Should he have stopped? Should he have turned around and comforted her?

Again, the greater part of him wanted to. He wanted to shift and hug her and let her know that in the end it would be okay, but for some reason that voice still carried weight within his head, still pushed and prodded at him. He couldn't quite say why, perhaps it was because he had come to trust Kaile, because he had come to see her as his best friend in space, the only one that he could actually talk to and do things with. He hadn't had someone like that since he'd left Tatooine.

Now it felt like that bond had been sullied, dragged through the mud. She hadn't done it on purpose, or rather, she hadn't done it to intentionally harm him, but it still stung. It felt like someone had punched him in the gut and pushed him down.

"Yeah." Kurt said quietly as he opened the door. "I know."

A hiss and then a slight clang rang through the room as the solid door fell back into place.