Across the Universe: To Sail Beyond the Sunset

[Alndys]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"]

What had begun as a peaceful moment of appreciating a rare sight suddenly became a matter entirely flavored with silvery shards of near panic - hostile humanoids could be bought off or negotiated with. Huge beasts the like of which lingered among endless deserts and massive storms? Not so much.

Now she kind of wished she had let Jorus bring that damned shotgun.

"We're a little out of the range of Tatooine-the hell could it be?" Alna asked pointedly, fishing out her radio from it's little space on her toolbelt... not that there were many things out her to catch a distress signal in time. With any luck, whatever it was was too big to notice or care about them and would pass right by. Right?

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Alna Merrill"]

"Tikulini tunnel worm, maybe, though I've never heard of one big an' brave enough to bother a capital ship. Or things like they get on Blenjeel -- three-jaw sand burrowers. Or maybe there's some critter out there like a krayt dragon type thing-"

The ship trembled again.

"-but bigger. Or it might be the storm. Could be what my infrared picked up was some kind of natural heat discharge and I just jumped to conclusions." He chewed his lip in thought. "We've got who knows how long til the storm drops, so no visibility. Going low to get some is a bad idea. My scanpack's in the Daragon. What I've got...well, might as well give you your present now. Slipped it in there after I got my belt from ya."

He pulled out a small, flat pad and handed it to her. "Lightbringer sensor node. R and D kicked it back up to me a couple days back. I wasn't sure whether you'd find it your kinda thing or not, but give it a shot. It's kinda useless to me -- I fuzz it up -- but it'll let you keep track of me right through ten metres of lead, or tell you if some Sith knucklehead's sneaking up. Might be whatever's out there has a bit of a glow to it."

 

[Alndys]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"]

"I was about to say - if you're giving me a force-tracking gizmo because you're intending to try and figure out what that rumble is without me, I'll wring you out like a dish rag." Alna promised flatly, giving the device a cursory glance. It was a handy little tool, to be sure - not that Alna had many people in her life that were especially force-bright aside from her husband. And she usually made it a point to know where he was from him. He wasn't the sort of man she regularly had to track down.

But he WAS the sort of man who liked his gadgets and was fairly proud of them. Even if she didn't see herself finding much use for the Lightbringer sensor, she gave it an appreciative look over with some tastefully compliments as she figured out how to get the damned thing working.

It beeped and whirred once it started working, and Alna pondered the results - sidling up to Jorus as close as she could without sending the sensor array into a tizzy. "Alright. So - doesn't LOOK like anything is popping up, but it might be deep. Or it could have been passing by." Alndys mused quietly, squinting as she messed with what setting she could find. "Wouldn't that be nice? If whatever beastie it might've been was just on it's way somewhere else?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Alna Merrill"]

"Oh shush. I learned my lesson about running off on adventures without you when I..." He pondered. And pondered some more. "It happened. It definitely happened."

A gentle rattle percolated up through the nearest access shaft.

"Too many options, too many possibilities. Can't get better. This right here, this is real life. I tell ya, some days I strongly consider just handing things over to 'Cousin Aldiel' and 'Selka' and that crowd. Force knows they'd probably do as good a job as we ever did, and make a few less headaches for our managers. I want to be doing this with you, not thinking about how many stocks to create for an IPO and how to acquire half the Techno Union with our pocket change."

Somewhere, by hand or by wind or by critter, a blast door slammed shut. Jorus checked the ammunition of his sidearm.

"It's not in our natures to walk away, but this ain't the life for us."

 

[Alndys]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"]

"Then let's do it. " Alna decided abruptly, sliding the gizmo into her tool belt to free up her hand for her own pistol. "We keep talking about it, and it's pretty clear we aren't happy - and as much as we aren't the sort to walk away, since when do either of us just accept life on its own terms?"

"Look, we proved what we could do together." Alna pointed out. "But I won't miss being a CEO; I don't think you will, either, aside from having all the credits in the universe to sneak funding to revolutionaries like i wouldn't notice."

"I married a scraggly, sketchy troublemaker living out of a ship not much better than mine. Silk Holdings was fun for awhile, but let's go back to being Jorus and Alndys, raise Mara proper. Can't stand handing her off to Nanny droids anyway. "

 

[Jorus Merrill]

@[member="Alna Merrill"]

"I used to make decisions like this with my gut, instead of just..." He waved in dismissal. "Getting all businesslike. Pro-con, who's affected where, what the fether's got to do with the price of durasteel. And right now I'm tired of running on what-ifs and businesslike things. Yeah. Let's walk away. Little fund for Mara's education, couple of toys, the Daragon for living, the Gypsymoth and your old freighter for when we need to walk soft -- all we need, right there." His eyes gleamed. "And I happen to have the inside track on an asteroid field full of salvage.

"Oh. That, and we're standin' in a pretty solid bit of salvage just now. Looks a bit different when our schedules open up, don't it. Soon as this sandstorm clears, we can give a call, get the lawyer team on it. Feth, I won't miss havin' my own in-house counsel." He hawked and spat, pondering the sandstorm. "Fifty-one percent to 'Selka' an' 'Aldiel,' maybe nineteen percent split up 'tween some proportion of the employees, thirty percent for an initial public offering -- aw, feth it. Fifty-one to the Force ghosts, they can take care of the rest an' all the headaches with it. I'm fethin' done. Time for an honest living.

"And I reserve the right to blow the crap outta that nanny droid. Fether keeps correcting me with the bit with the stuff, and never gets the mashed yams right. It grates on a man."

 

[Alndys]

@[member="Jorus Merrill"]

"It's amazing, you know." Alna pointed out with a smirk. "All of a sudden, you look five years younger."

She carefully dusted off her front with her hands, then wiped her hands off on her behind. "Hell, even The Daragon is a whole lot of fancy. I vote we park that bad boy for long trips & emergencies, just fly around in one of the freighters for awhile. That's how I was raised... and if I'm honest, how I pictured my 'happily ever after' going down."

"But I'm ramblin'. Let the suits handle it." Alna decided, stepping forward to snag Jorus by the collar and pull them together for a warm, hopefully rewarding kiss. The Lightbringer in her tool belt gave a quiet 'fweeep' of alarm at the proximity, but Alna silenced it with an absent swat before she slowly pulled away.

"In the meantime, Mr Merrill, we're going to be treated here awhile, even if bre'er sandworm decides to make trouble." Alna huffed in mild complaint. "What's our next move?"