500 PARSECS ~

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Heh, Krayt Dragons.

"Sure feels like a nice time to get swallowed up." she'd mumble, feeling more glum. It was as if the perky sunflower that was Kaile was just wilted in the heat of the Twin Suns. It took another fifteen minutes to reach the pylon. There was nothing but the howl of the occasional gust of wind and the scurrying of distant womprats fighting for territory.

Another wipe under her nose, and she gave a sniff. Setting down her bag by the pylon, Kaile went to work. The panel was there as Jonas had promised, and after searching for her servodriver. Kaile got to work. There was something mindless about working with your hands. It helped at keeping her thoughts at bay. Things she didn't want to think about.

But it was so hard to wipe away from her mind the seared image of Kurt's wounded expression of betrayal.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Jonas didn't hear Kaile's last words, though if he had he very likely would have attempted to comfort he girl.

Perhaps he was simply ignorant, or unable to see things that were right in his face. The Old Man's wife would have accused him of such, and more than once when raising Kurt Jonas had been unable to see rather obvious things regarding his own son. That didn't make him a bad parent of course, just the opposite, but it had made for some awkward moments within Kurt's teenage years. That time had now passed of course, but perhaps if Jonas was more suited to reading people he would have noticed the sad slump to Kaile's walk.

Either way, the Old Man kept on doing his work. He moved a lot faster than one might expect, replacing the metal panel on the pylon he had been working on and quickly snapping it onto place before moving on to the next broken machine.

This was what his days were like, simple, easy, mechanical work.

A lot of people would have scoffed at him for this, in fact most of his friends from where he had been born would have decried his current occupation as the work of a peasant, yet Jonas was more than happy. He didn't mind this work, and he certainly didn't mind living on Tatooine with his wife. He liked his life, and he wouldn't have traded it for the galaxy itself.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

The sandstorm had left plenty of sand upon the moisture collector. It was steady work. A few minutes dusting off the sand, cleaning it as much as she could, then on towards securing the panel. Six bolts down in an x pattern, making sure that they were nice and tight.

Kaile had always been good with her hands. Started back when she was a kid. Due to her size, she had small hands and thin arms, allowing her to wiggle her way into an engine and secure a hard to get bolt or do a few torques. There was also the safety wiring, and more often than not, it saw her sitting in the middle of a hyperdrive engine for hours on end, securing the safetywire, putting in pins, turning into a grease monkey.

She was good at it. Not the best, but good. Once she had the cybernetics implanted, it just made it all the more easier. They gave her information on cultures, planets, general mechanics, slicing. Languages, oh being able to learn all of them languages. That had been fun. Nice.

Yeah... Her crestfallen face would give one last check to the pylon.

That had been nice.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Jonas finished up the final pylon with a last smack of the metal panel into place, a wide grin crossed his face and he looked down at his handiwork with a lopsided smile. There was something about fixing things with his own two hands that made it more worthwhile. He could have sent the droids to do this, could have done nothing, but this was better somehow. The droids took time, and they often did it wrong anyway, hence why his wife usually insisted that he do it.

A shrug rolled over his shoulders.

"Oh well." He said to himself as he picked up his toolbox and moved towards the pylon that Kaile had headed towards. There was a chip to his step, almost a happy little bounce to the way that he moved, as though here were happy that the day was going so well. It was of course because his wife would be coming home tomorrow, which meant...well, things.

"Alright there, miss." Jonas called out. "How'd you do?"

There was no hint of disappointment in his tone, suggesting that even if Kaile had set the thing on fire Jonas likely wouldn't have been upset.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"All done," Kaile would say, a bit startled at hearing Jonas come on her way. Her mind was all out of sorts she wasn't really paying attention. Quickly, she brought down her goggles from the crown of her head, settling them over her eyes. He wouldn't be able to see her puffy eyes from her last bout of crying while she was setting up the panel.

"It's good to go," she'd try and say in a chipper voice. Kaile didn't want to worry him, and he was such a kind man. No, the less she indisposed him the better. Bending down, she began to sort her own tools back into her satchel. Still looking down, Kaile's soft voice would start, "Mister Meyer."

She didn't want to look at him at that present time, so she took a little bit of time at securing her pack.

"If'n it wouldn't be too much trouble, would you be able to take me to Anchorhead?" the way she asked it would be hard pressed to deny her anything. Granted, this was Kaile, but she was holding onto the last bit of strength she had. She didn't want to break down, and if he got to questioning, she was afraid she just would.

"I need to take care of some things and I don't want to bother Kurt."

That was no lie. If anything she wanted to avoid him all together.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Anchorhead?

For a moment Jonas pondered that. He was sure that Kurt wouldn't mind being left alone, and it wasn't like Anchorhead was all that far away either, perhaps a three hour ride by speeder, half our if they used a shuttle. The farm had both a shuttle and a speeder of course, the shuttle being used to reach orbit then quickly dip back down in order to get places quicker and load more heavy equipment. It was an old CEC shuttle, but it worked just as well now as it had twenty or thirty years ago, a bit rusted out.

"I reckon that'll be fine." Jonas said, his accent a bit put on, a grin pulling at his lips.

"Do you need anythin or are you set to go now?" The barn with the shuttle was on this side of the farm, kept away from the main house mostly because it's bulk was a tad annoying to keep around Kurt's Pod-Racer. Of course they could also take the Speeder, but Jonas figured that the young lady wouldn't want to sit with him as they dashed through the desert. "We can take the shuttle."

He wasn't all that exciting of a fellow after all.

At least, not anymore.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"I just need to get some things real quick, won't take me long at all." Kaile said, hands coming up as if to assure him. So there it was. Okay, he would be able to. A shuttle would be good. A shuttle meant that it would go faster, she wouldn't have to think.

Kaile didn't want to end up thinking.

A weak smile shone, but the melancholy in her eyes would be hidden away by the goggles. To anyone, it would seem as if she was merely making sure the sand wouldn't fall in her eyes. Nothing to be too off put about.

"I 'preciate it." her voice was getting thick again, and she took a breath, straightening her shoulders. "Would fifteen minutes be alright?" It would take a bit to get back to the Messa, then grab what she could. Only the most important things.

The rest... a knot grew in her throat, and her tongue felt thick. Well the rest had been bought with some of Kurt's money and hers, but maybe he could go ahead and cash the rest of it in to get himself something for all her bother.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Sure sure." Jonas said with a smile. "Meet me over there when you're ready."

He needed to get the shuttle out of the barn anyway, which would take him around ten or fifteen minutes. The vessel would spool right up, hopefully, but sometimes the doors on the barn stuck, especially after a sandstorm like the one that had happened last night. Tatooine was harsh, and it's weather certainly didn't help those who were living here survive or thrive, though for some odd reason Jonas found the challenge to be quite...thrilling in a way.

"Maybe tell Kurt we're leaving before we go, eh? Since you gotta go back to the house anyway." He smiled at her, then gently patted her on the shoulder before turning around and heading towards the barn.

The man seemed entirely oblivious to the body language that Kaile exuded.

It wasn't that he didn't care, it was just...well he had never really had to deal with that sort of thing. His wife was a strong woman, hardly ever cried or anything, same with Kurt, the boy hardly ever got upset when he had been a kid and before that...well Jonas had never really been the ladies man that his son was. He simply didn't have the experience to recognize the problem, as sad as that was.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"I'll take care of things." Kaile said with a half wobbly voice, something that could be thought to be a sore throat from the sand or the dry air. Tell Kurt that they were leaving? No. No way. He wouldn't want to see her anyways. All she could see was just the look of disappointment and betrayal. No, she didn't want to see that again.

Kaile knew every inch of his body, read it like her own. He didn't look at her the same, and when he withdrew and couldn't even look at her, she knew that it was it. He was second guessing everything, and likely he'd wonder. There was no going back from that. No, she couldn't bother him anymore. Much the less his family. Jonas was just...

And again, her vision began to blur. I'm such a watering pot, she'd chide at herself. A few steps back and she'd turned, leaving Jonas to do what he needed to get done as he made his way to the shuttle.

Utterly dejected and miserable, the next few minutes were spent trudging her way to the Messa. When she went up to the airlock to type in the keycode, she couldn't help but think back when Kurt had given it to her. That had been right after Bahrain, after she'd been kidnapped. Kurt had insisted on taking care of her, looking after her wounds and looking over them himself.

He gave her the access code after that, signaling that this was her home as much as his. That had been one of the happiest days of her life. She'd been so giddy with joy, practically toppled him over as she jumped him laughing. Then the celebration after, worn and weary but sated, and her staring off into the darkness with a grin that could split her face from ear to ear.

It felt nice to belong.

Walking through the Messa after that was as if she was participating in a wake. To degree, there was some validity in that. Kaile and Kurt had created countless memories on this ship, and she didn't mean just the sex. No, it was the way you could see how Kurt fell in love with the Varactyl Class. Oh he'd fallin for that bright red paintjob and her speed at first sight. She saw how ecstatic he was thereafter, so nice to see after he'd been so wretched when he'd lost the old one. He'd lost everything that day, every little trinket or memory from home. Gone.

Kaile had decided then to try and give a little bit of that back.

So she spent time searching and lookin for the poster; that had taken a better part of a month and a good amount of bartering to get it. A signed copy too. The podracer miniature took even longer, but with a little bit of pulls on some favors in the Alliance, she'd managed that one too. The rest had been just trying to spruce it up to make it more like a home. To make him comfortable.

It was nice seeing him smile at all that.


Her lower lip began to tremble again, and she did her best to focus. She couldn't linger long. Kaile went straight to her room. No more dawdling. Inside, she collected the datachips and all the electronic holoarrays. Quickly she would shove them into her bag. Really, those were the most important, everything else --

Gorram it.

Kaile straightened, the strawberry blonde panning her gaze from one end to the other. At the posters, the colorful string of lights. Bobo's little perch. The golden cube Kurt had given her...

Again, her throat felt thick, and she knew she was going to start sobbing again if she didn't get done right away. No, everything else he could sell off. Get money back. But the prize from the race...

Walking up towards it, Kaile gently plucked it from its perch. She studied it, letting her thumbs caress over the gold inlay. Thoughts went racing through her mind, and a second later, a white knuckle grip would press upon it. Picking up her bag, she swung it over one shoulder, leaving her room to head towards the other.

Kurt's room was never locked. Never needed to be. Considering they spent time in both, it didn't matter. The first thing that came into her sight of vision was the life sized poster. His small desk, with his lamp. The pod-racer and then on the other side of the room his bed. Sparse in nature, but just right.

Lightly jiggling the shiny, Kaile took a step forward before she could change her mind. Very carefully, Kaile set the shiny, golden and intricately decorated cube on Kurt's desk. It was her silent goodbye.

Unwilling to linger any longer, Kaile backed away from Kurt's room. The next few minutes were a blur, she didn't even remember leaving the Messa or locking it up.

By then her heart was utterly broken and numb.