A Long Trip

[Garik Reed]

Rael was exhausted. His journey home had been a long one indeed. He'd answered summons from his family members, fought his first Sith, or so he thought, and well, been extremely bored with by returning to his old life. His old friends praised him, thinking him a fierce Jedi warrior. They were enthralled by his saber, and even more so by his telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Rael found himself pitying them, as they had know clue what world lay beyond their atmosphere. He was hard pressed to find a single Kaleesh in his tribe who'd heard the term, Jedi.

Rael chuckled to himself as he walked into the star port, having just returned from his old village. He remembered all the times they'd been shocked by his actions. He didn't go hunting with them, or go to battle with them in his time there. By the time he left, they weren't even sure he was a Kaleesh, let alone a B'an. Now, the Padawan needed to get off of Kalee.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Caaithiel was not at all thrilled to be on Kalee. She'd barely made it out of her home system as it was. Had she not gone to such lengths as dying her hair, cutting it short, and getting two small facial tattoos, she had no doubt that she'd have been caught by now. Really, though, she needed to escape from the clutches of Imperial Remnant space, and that meant she had to get somewhere better, somewhere less oppressive. Somewhere like the Republic where she could actually make some difference in helping to end oppression.

As she stood at the terminal, she kept looking around to see if she had anyone watching her. Of course she was aware of the fact that made her look even more suspicious than she already was, but what was she to do? Slicing the computer terminal was proving to be relatively easy, but she had to find a ship that was scheduled for outbound departure that day, and was small enough she wouldn't need a crew to fly it. What she was doing was absolutely illegal and the Remnant was known to have a very good cyber security team so she didn't have much time. Fortunately, she didn't need it.

She quickly found what she was looking for. There were two ships scheduled for departure soon. One was a YT-1300, ancient but apparently kept in good condition. The other was a corvette analog. She couldn't fly the corvette so she opted for the freighter. Detaching her equipment from the terminal, she started walking swiftly toward the hangar the ship was in. She didn't have much time.

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Rael, of course, noticed the girl acting strange. How could he not? His time with the Jedi had helped heighten his senses, both physically and mentally. He could feel the anxiety emanating off of her. It was like a giant flare to him. Somehow, a species usually dull-minded had produced a rather natural telepath. Rael pulled his hood up over his head, and mingled into the crowd. He started to follow the girl, making sure to always keep an eye on her. He glanced at the terminal she had been using when he first spotted her, but the techo-idiot couldn't tell what was on the screen. He kept following her, trying to keep a good distance behind her.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

When she reached the hangar bay that she was looking for, she walked to the door terminal and punched in the access code that she'd gotten before. It didn't work the first time. She tried it again, and it still didn't work. Cursing under her breath, she pulled out a second, smaller piece of equipment and jammed it into the terminal. Security forces were on to her. They'd scrambled the access cods for the hangars she'd been looking at. Now she had to decrypt and that might take a while. A quick glance around made her feel a little secure as she didn't notice anyone following her, not even the Jedi in the hood. The device started decrypting the door sequence while she waited.

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Rael watched as the girl stopped at a hangar door. He walked over to a neardy by wall, and tried to mingle himself in with some of the rabble there. He also tried to push himself behind a small crevice in the wall, trying to further hide as he watched her. She fiddled with the terminal for a bit, and looked frustrated. When she pulled out a device, Rael started walking towards her. He slipped one of his lightsabers into his palm, trying to keep it hidden. Once he was close enough, he spoke to her. "What're you doing?" The Jedi Padawan was hesitant to use brute force against her, but if she attacked, he knew he would have to defend himself, and anyone else in the spaceport she might hurt.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

The first thing she did was freeze. She stared at the wall in front of her while the device continued to do its work. Decryption could be fast or slow depending on the complexity of the network. Her tech wasn't the top of the line stuff that some people had, simply because the tech on Crina was a bit behind, so it was going to take it a little bit longer to crack through the Imperial data systems that were locking the door shut. Needless to say, she was caught red handed.

"I.. Uh..."

When she turned to see who had spoken her eyes went wide.

"Freaking spikey thing!"

She practically jumped at the door behind her as she slammed herself against it. She hadn't left the spaceport since she'd gotten to Kalee, so she hadn't really run into any natives, as it were. This was her first encounter, and boy was she thinking it was an ugly thing.

"Get away from me!"

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Based on her initially response, Rael's suspicions were confirmed. She was either stealing, or running any from someone. Either way, she wasn't where she should be. Then, she turned on him, and jumped back. "Woah, hey there. It's fine." Rael raised his hands up in the air slightly, and hence, revealed the lightsaber in his right hand. "I'm a Jedi, I can help." Rael twisted into a different stance, one that place his left foot in front. He wanted to be able to engage, or disengage with her on a whim. "What do you need?"

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

"I need you to go away!"

And just like that the decryption sequence finished, the door opened, and she tumbled through into the hangar beyond, landing on her back and having taken her sequencer with her. Of course it was broken now, but that didn't really matter. She skittered backwards, trying to get away from the... well, whatever it was. It said it was a Jedi, which she knew was something like a Crinan Practitioner, but that didn't do much of anything to ease her fears. She still didn't know what it was, after all.

She flipped it over and climbed swiftly to her feet before running towards the YT freighter. She needed to get out of there before a flight of TIE's wound up on her tail. That would make it really difficult for her to get out of Remnant space. Really, though, she just wanted to get away from the creature that was bugging her.

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Rael sighed as the girl yelled at him again, and stood up to run away. Well, I guess she could have it that way. "Kark, I didn't want to do this..." As innocent as the girl looked, she looked like she was up to something bad. Rael tapped into the Force, and felt its energy flow through him. He held up a hand, palm splayed at one of the smaller crates nearby. He moved his hand over towards he legs, and the crate went flying. It made a lot of noise, as it bumped across the floor. He had no intention of hurting her, just trying to stop her.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Of course she tripped and tumbled right over it, falling with a groan on the floor. Why was he so intent on stopping her? Maybe he was really an Imperial spy? But she knew they didn't like alien's, so that didn't make any sense. She was freaked out by them, and sometimes found herself thinking of them as inferior, but it didn't much matter. This one was trying to stop her from escaping. She didn't want to fight him, but she wasn't being given much choice. She pulled a small holdout from her jacket, set to stun because she wasn't a killer, and fired a few shots in his direction, not really aiming, before she rolled back to her feet and sprinted to the ramp of the ship to go inside. She had to get out of there. She had to!

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Rael groaned as she started to fire a few blaster shots at him. His saber hand was already moving, and the blade ignited, hitting the one shot that would've hit him off to the side. Just as quickly as it had turned on, it shut down, removing the blue hue from the air. Rael started walking after her, determined to not let her get away now. He had a plan as she ran onto the freighter. He yelled out soon after the shot would've hit him, pretending to actually have been hit. Then, he quickly jogged over to the ship, and climbed inside. He looked around, and found a little cubbyhole. Rael slid himself inside it, and kept quiet, hoping she didn't know he was there.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

She didn't. She wasn't really paying any attention at all to him at this point because she was more concerned with getting off of Kalee than she was in what happened to the freaky looking dude with the horns coming out of his face. She slid, quickly, into the pilots seat and started the pre-flight sequence, including lifting the ramp not long after he walked up it to find a hiding spot. The controls weren't hard for her to figure out, but she'd never flown anything as clunky as this old bird before. What was the name of the thing anyway? She looked around her and then just shrugged.

"Hangar bay 23, YT freighter requesting departure clearance on schedule."

"You're a little early but I guess you want to leave. You should know someone tried to slice into your systems earlier so be wary. Clearance confirmed."

"Thank you."

A smile and a deep breath as she lifted off and headed for space above. There were Imperial fleet vessels up there and she watched as she flew by them, but nobody made a move. It was hard to recognize her and she'd been smart in the ship she'd chosen. Once outside of the gravity well, she plotted a course that would take her to Bilbringi. It was a starting point. When she punched the ship into hyperspace and it worked, she sat back and sighed in relief. Finally she was safe.

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Rael felt the ship's engines turn on, and the they started to lift off of the ground, and out of the atmosphere. He stayed in his hidden position for a few minutes, and finally decided to reveal himself. He crept to the bridge, trying to keep his foots steps as quiet as possible. He showed his presence by igniting his lightsaber in the bridge's doorway, with a small buzzing noise.

"Is this your ship?"

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

Caaithielf screamed in fright when he spoke and jumped so far she ended up on the console with her arms splayed against the viewport. This thing didn't know when to give up! She stared at it with her heart racing so hard in her chest she thought it was going to explode at any moment and all of this rush to escape the Empire was going to be for nothing. Right about then she wished she still had her holdout blaster ready, but she'd been sure that she'd hit him down in the hangar. Yet here he was.

"Why are you here! Go away!"

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

Rael sighed as she screamed, and tried to get as far away from him as possible. Damn Xenophobes. "Why are you running so much? Not to mention, why are you so afraid of me?" Rael shut off his lightsaber, and lowered his hand, he didn't want to appear more menacing than she already thought he was. Rael could feel the fear emanating off of her. His reached out to her mind with his, and tried sending her images of peaceful things, of safe things. Some would come across just fine, others a little blurry, and none at all.

Rael started walked towards her, one of his hands stretched out slightly.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

It spoke to her again, and then she started seeing things in her mind. Peaceful things, but she'd seen Practitioners and Imperial Knights at work and she definitely didn't want any part of this little fun thing. Immmediately she grabbed her head and started hitting herself.

"Get out! Out out out! Get out of my head!"

She knew it was him because she certainly didn't have any reason to be thinking of such things herself. Grabbing the nearest thing to her, someone's dashboard bobblehead, she whipped it at him in an effort to get him to stop.

"I don't even know what you are! You're freaky and not human and have horns growing out of your face!"

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

"Sorry, sorry, I'll stop!" Rael ceased his mental connection with the girl, and started inching a bit closer to her. Honestly, he didn't expect the flying bobblehead. It hit him in the shoulder, and he winced, placing a hand on the spot where he had been hit. For a second, he was angry at himself for getting hit. Jedi, much less Kaleesh, were not surprised in battle. He pushed the thoughts away, moving back to the task at hand.

"First off, they're mandibles, not horns..." He wiggled around the two appendages on the sides of his face, showing their function. "Second, I'm Rael. I'm a Jedi, and a friend of the Republic." Normally, it wouldn't be safe to go spouting his allegiance around in a place like this, but, he'd already told her before he thought of it. Not to mention, if she was an enemy of the Republic...well, they were trapped together, and he had the lightsaber.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

"Oh god... I think I might vomit..."

She held a hand over her mouth, and very much looked like she might hurl all over everything at any moment. The wagging mandibles? Yeah, that wasn't winning any points with her. Might as well tell her you eat babies and dropkick kittens for fun. That would be better, probably. At least that she could understand. Lots of people like that back on Crina.

When he said he was a Jedi of the Republic she paused.

"Can you prove that? The Republic part, I mean? I don't need any more mind invasions, Mr. Spiky Face."

[member="Rael sul B'an"]

 

[Garik Reed]

"I can if you get us to Republic space. Why, you lookin' for a hide out?" Rael crossed his arms, and moved over to an extra chair in the bridge. He fell down, and stretched his feet out across the doorway. "I'll tell you this, we don't like criminals. And, I'm guessing this isn't your ship." Rael just stared at her, giving her a, so, what do you think, look. He smiled slightly, and, as it always did for his species, the smile was twisted, and looked very different from a normal, human smile.

[member="Caaithiel Deschart"]

 

[Kamon's OOC]

"Yeah, well, I don't like you, either," she said.

There was no point in hiding now that everything was set as it was. She couldn't exactly space the thing. Climbing off the console, she settled back in the pilots seat. At least then she didn't have to look at his ugly mug any longer. For a little while she sat there doing nothing but muttering to herself about how this whole thing officially sucked. What was she to do, though? At least she was escaping Imperial space and could find somewhere to live where she wouldn't have to see the oppression of the Empire.

"Have you ever heard of Grand Admiral Mason Deschart of the Imperial Remnant?"

[member="Rael sul B'an"]