Backwater Moons and Cheap Freighters

[Davin Jusik]

lactic Lines Freighter #1790, Somewhere between Corellia and the Outer Rim

A light flickered above the rows of identical benches that filled the cargo hold of the converted junker. A sign of either poor electrical work or janitorial neglect. In the middle of the whole get up sat a both serving various fried treats and other commodities staffed by the most unpleasant Twilek one could expect to meet. The occasional cough or sniffle was the only sound to be heard besides the hum of the engines.

Max sat quietly in a far corner of the dimly lit, sparsely populated ship he'd booked passage on under a false name. The ticket had been cheap and the interior showed it. Though Max didn't care, he'd been grateful just to make it off of Corellia alive after IIA had dropped the ball on an informant. A small shudder made it's way through the ship, jolting the hull as if a small earthquake had originated within it.

Troubling, but probably nothing.

Max made an attempt to doze back off, trying not to think of those old tales of ship's falling apart mid jump.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

With her new life under the much less watchful eye of her potential employers, Morgan Redeaux decided a break from work was in order. After two years locked in one compound, she wanted to see more of the galaxy and not just from the holonet. She marched into a Coruscant travel agency and told the uninterested booking agent to "Surprise me." He nodded, send her an e-ticket and let her know she was going somewhere in the Outer Rim on an extended tour of historical temples and ancient civilizations.

But Morgan's first warning that the travel company wasn't completely on the up-and-up was the misspelling of the company name: Tours Galorrs. The protocol droid had noted that of course but didn't think it signaled anything malicious. And for the most part, it didn't. The travel agency wasn't criminal... well, maybe a little. But mostly the owner was extremely cheap.

Her second warning was the state of the ship she was traveling on which finally made Morgan realize that she may have been swindled. But no matter, she thought. I'm going to try and enjoy this trip despite the surroundings of Galactic Lines Freighter #1790. The HRD sat quietly in another corner of the junker. Because Morgan was a machine, the smell of the fried food didn't bother her, nor did she need refreshments. She mostly kept her eyes glued to a set of flimsiplasts, instructions on how to rebuild a vintage droid.

But once the ship shuddered, Morgan looked around to see the other passenger reactions. Should she be afraid of that kind of movement? Or was it normal for a freighter in this type of condition?

The fact that one of her fellow passengers was going back to sleep was a comforting sign, so she also returned to her analysis of the blueprints and step-by-step instructions and thought nothing of the odd shaking in the ship.

[member="Maximilian Vinticus"]

 

[Davin Jusik]

[member="Morgan Redeaux"]
Another shudder. Worse this time.

Max sat up slightly and glanced at the other passengers. Then it happened again, shaking the entire hold violently. Max cursed and hooked his seatbelt as the entire ship seemed to move in a downward motion. As his heartrate climbed he couldn't help but laugh. Was this going to be his end? After years of voluntarily placing himself in danger on untold occasions a crash was what would get him?

The absurdity of it broke the barrier of fear as the decent quickened.

He almost couldn't believe it.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

When the ship lurched and groaned again, her stomach felt catapulted into her throat. When the engine made an unusual knocking sound and the frieghter dipped suddenly, Morgan knew they were in trouble. Yes, she was a droid but her metaprogramming made her able to feel fear like any other human, near-human or alien, and right now, abject terror coursed through her circuitry. She carefully unhooked her seatbelt and steadied herself, looking around the hull to find the exact model of the ship. But she lost her balance and skidded across the floor to land with a crash on one side of the ship. And with gravity doing what it does best, she was pinned down to the floor of the frieghter.

But if she knew the model of the ship, the protocol droid could access her powerful data storage and find out where exactly the escape pod or pods were kept. Assuming this hunk of junk even had them.

“What is the ship’s model?!?” Morgan asked loudly over the roar of the malfunctioning engines. She caught the eye of a dark haired man who appeared to be somewhat terrified but also a little... resigned? Nonchalant? Almost as if he found some humor in the situation. It wasn’t really a time for jokes, she thought but humans did have some strange customs at times. “Does anyone know if there is an escape pod?”

There was little more the droid could do as she didn’t know how to repair ships on the fly, nor did she know how to pilot one. She only hoped if they crash landed that her synthetic, mechanical body would not be too harmed or her memory chip at least would be salvageable if she was too damaged. The HRD didn’t like to advertise she was a droid but if there wasn’t an escape pod, and worse if there was one but they couldn’t all fit into it, she may have to reveal what she really was in the hopes that any survivor would be able to recover that vital chip so she could be rebuilt.

[member="Maximilian Vinticus"]

 

[Davin Jusik]

Over the roar of the engines and the intense shaking of the ship Max heard a lone voice expressing something besides either a profanity or shriek of terror. It snapped it out of his grand universal cynicism for just long enough to have a cognitive thought. After quickly locating [member="Morgan Redeaux"] he shouted to her while pointing to what used to be his left,

"That door and down the hall. Can't reach it without slamming into a bulkhead, unless we level out!"

He began looking around for anything that might be of use. Unless they moved quick they'd be stuck when the ship hit wherever it was headed. Though there was no rational way of discerning which would be safer.

Just as it was beginning to look as if all hope was lost, like the hand of some benevolent deity had reached across the cosmos the ship turned. An effort by the pilot to attempt to lessen the impact on the ship by putting it off it's center. The door now sat Max.

Only one option.

Kark it.

Max unbuckled his safety belt and fell roughly ten feet to the wall opposite his seat. He felt his left wrist crack and his vision spin as he impacted the surface. The agent managed to stumble into the open door and fall yet again, slowing himself with his right arm by grasping a few "handholds".

Unfortunately for him, his forehead met another chunk of durasteel as he reached the door to the pods and his body went limp.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

Lucky for Morgan the human male with the dark hair made a concerted effort to reach the location of the escape pods. As the ship leveled off some, she also began crawling on her hands and knees towards the door that this same passenger was able to somehow open. But then he hit his head and was knocked unconscious.

No, no, no, no, no, she thought. Not now, when he was almost there. The droid grabbed the same handholds that [member="Maximilian Vinticus"] had and trying not to trample on him, swung herself into the small room which contained the lifepod’s latch. She immediately noticed there was only one pod, but it appeared big enough to hold five or six passengers. After a bit of steadying herself, she used the control panel on the side of the latch to open the pod door, but it wouldn’t budge. She even tried to physically pry it open with her hands but to no avail. It wouldn't make sense if the pod needed an access code from the pilot because what if the pilot was incapacitated? It had to be some other restriction, she thought. Morgan scanned the latch for any indication of the escape pod’s model and saw that it was a Class 6 Escape Pod which according to her data entry on this particular emergency craft meant that only living beings could enter it and droids could not.

The HRD knew that she couldn’t slice into the pod to override that restriction without more time. Someone, anyone would need to get inside the pod and ready it for detachment from the ship. Frantically Morgan crawled back over to the human who lay unmoving.

She kneeled beside him and tried to shake him as gently as she could as the ship made another panic-inducing drop. “Oh please wake up, Sir! I’m a droid and I can’t get into the escape pod!"

The unpleasant Twi’lek heard Morgan from the across the ship but was trapped between the heavy drink cart and the ship’s hull. However he was able to toss her a medpac with a pretty good throwing arm. Morgan rooted around in it and found a small stim plug. She grabbed the human's arm, wrestled it out of his jacket and rolled up his sleeve. Right into his arm she administered the plug which was designed to give a slight shock to the patient as well as a dose of stimulants to wake them up.

 

[Davin Jusik]

The moment [member="Morgan Redeaux"] put the stim into his skin Max shot up. His wrist sent sharp signals of pain up his arm and his head throbbed horribly, but he was awake. Apparently he had to open the latch, something about her being a droid. Max pushed the button and as carefully as possible made his way into the newly opened hatch.

The viewscreen showed a brilliant shimmering surface. An ocean, rushing up to meet them. He strapped himself in and spoke to the droid as she entered. "You drive."

Max didn't have time to communicate much else.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

At least he was able to get the hatch open, she thought relieved. Morgan let the human crawl in first and then she ducked in after him. The Class 6 Pod was padded on the inside which was a good thing because she sensed that her new companion was injured. It would also help them in the case of a crash landing which seemed more than inevitable. The droid stopped for a moment, wondering if she needed to go back and save the Twi'lek flight attendant, but once she saw the glimmering, blue sea from the available portholes, she knew there was no time and she closed the hatch with a satisfying thunk.

Morgan scanned the pod console for the main command to unlatch it from the ship. She tentatively pressed a button and the lights on the pod went off and on. Okay, clearly that wasn't it. Oh by her Maker, where was the unlatching function??? She ran her hands over the console buttons like she was playing a piano concerto. Finally, she heard a popping sound and the escape pod's thrusters kicked into action. The pod detached itself from the ship in the nick of time, but Morgan didn't know how to maneuver it into a safe landing so the craft hit the water violently and sent both her and the human head over heels in the interior.

[member="Maximilian Vinticus"]

 

[Davin Jusik]

Time seemed to slow as the escape pod launched itself from the underbelly of the vessel and towards that great expanse of blue below. Max became very aware of his surroundings as the ocean crept it's way around everything.

The impact felt as though it would shatter every bone in his body, but the padding did it's job well. He lived.

Max gave an audible sigh of relief as the pod pulled itself to the surface. Apparently it was the one thing on the vessel that had any money put into it.

He gave a laugh. That desperate, holy shit I'm alive laugh that only came around when you nearly leapt into oblivion. The sun was bright through the viewport, and a few small landmasses were visible in the distance.

"I'm Max by the way." He said with a small chuckle as he nursed his dead wrist.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

After the pod finally floated to the surface, Morgan inspected her own injuries. Her synthskin wouldn’t bruise, but her biofiber could be torn as it was designed to be as close to human tissue as possible to the point of fooling medical or life scanners. Her dress was ripped at the shoulder, and from her left scapula to nearly the small of her back, there was a large gash. She must have slammed into the console which wasn’t padded. There was no blood but the biofiber was peeled back and her circuitry was exposed. She wiggled her shoulders a little to test out her joints. Everything seemed to be working so hopefully this was just a surface wound. But she would eventually want some type of cover on the gash, so the wires and metal didn’t become further damaged.

The HRD looked out of the viewport and then went back to the console, turning on the viewscreen which was fed by holocameras on the outside of the craft. Both of these things would help them navigate their way to land.

She turned her head when the human laughed and after he introduced himself she said, “I’m MR-X97 but you can call me Morgan. Oh you’re hurt.” She rooted around the escape pod. “There should be a full medkit stored somewhere. It’s actually a galactic law that emergency crafts have at least one medkit." She opened up a compartment inside the pod and both of them would see the supplies - a medkit, some food and water and other survival gear. There was even a civilian hunting blaster. Morgan opened up the med kit and took out the medical scanner which would assess Max’s injury.

“If it’s broken, this device will be able to tell. Does it feel broken to you?” she asked, running the scanner about two inches away from his injured wrist.

[member="Maximilian Vinticus"]

 

[Davin Jusik]

"Yeah it's broke. I've done it before." Max said as he took the offered medkit and began placing a splint on his arm. "Thanks." [member="Morgan Redeaux"]

"Well this isn't the worst planet to crash land?" He continued as he looked around the outside of the cabin. "You shoot at all?" He said, looking at the hunting rifle.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

As Max began patching up his broken wrist, Morgan tried to figure out what planet they were actually on but unfortunately the escape pod didn't have sophisticated sensors or location tracking to compute coordinates into an actual planet name.

When he asked if she had used a blaster before, she turned from the console to answer. "I've held a blaster but I've never fired one before. Maybe when we're on dry land you can show me how. If we can find out what planet we are actually on, I will be able to give you the historical, geographic, biologic and cultural details on it," the protocol droid said. "And especially the details on any possible carnivorous predators."

Morgan hoped they were floating towards the land mass but it was impossible to tell from the viewscreen. "What do you think? If we turn on the pod's thrusters and put them on low, we may be able to push it forward. Unfortunately I'm not much of a pilot. Maybe you can help figure out how to get the pod closer to land?"

[member="Maximilian Vinticus"]

 

[Davin Jusik]

"I think that's a pretty good idea." Max said to [member="Morgan Redeaux"] as he flipped the necessary levers and accelerated the pod through the water. "Well hopefully we're not to far off the beaten path."

The pain in his arm and head continued, which only served to aggravate him slightly. He ignored it. His mind wandered to his last assignment. It'd felt different from before. He was becoming uncomfortable with killing and found himself questioning the validity of his work.

"That's one thing I can definitely do." Max said as the ship moved along. It was a little strange, talking to someone who looked like a human but wasn't. Not that it was the first time he'd met an android, but it always unnerved him a bit. Robots were hard to read and one could never be sure if their programming was hiding something. In his line of work misunderstanding signals meant death.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

Max seemed to know what he was doing with the pod’s thrusters and his firearm skill also would be good at defending them if they ran into any hostile beings. But hopefully they would just get to dry land and a friendly town or village would be nearby and they would part ways there.
Then again, Morgan could not grab her belongings and her carry-on held all of her credit chits. Even if there was a lawful, advanced civilization near to shore, she would have no way of booking passage off of the planet without proper currency. She did however have a few friends she could holocall.

But anyway with Max at the helm of the pod, the HRD busied herself by looking through the supplies. She saw him wincing and said, “I can tell you’re in pain. Here take this.” The droid tossed him a pack of pharma that she had found in the medkit. “This will help.”

The protocol droid then sat on her knees and looked over her shoulder to inspect her own synthskin wound. There were not many tools in the survival supplies with which to repair herself. But maybe they would get lucky and find a droid repair shop somewhere or at the very least a junkyard. Even a small salvage place would be helpful. In order to protect her vulnerable circuits, she would settle with covering the wound with cheap metal if there was no biofiber available.

[member="Maximilian Vinticus"]

 

[Davin Jusik]

"Appreciated." Max said to [member="Morgan Redeaux"] as she handed him the medicine. He quickly applied it with a sigh before resuming edging the pod toward land.

"If you want that fixed there may be some sort of tool elsewhere in here that can patch it up, failing that we could apply a lot of heat."

Max wasn't really sure what material the droid was made of, but figured it was similar to most metals.

The vessel buckled as the waves increased, they were fast approaching a small tropical looking island that was mostly made up of a treacherous looking mountain, with beaches and a forest surrounding.

 

[Morgan Redeaux]

“I’m not actually sure about heat,” Morgan said warily. “My circuitry is a little complex. But maybe you can help once we get out of the pod. The wires and metal can be fixed with rudimentary engineering tools... it’s the biofiber which will be difficult to find. It’s not like it’s going to be growing on those palm trees over there.” If he inspected her closely he would see that, despite the gash in her back, her skin was fair and soft, the synthskin extremely convincing. The rip in her dress revealed more of her body than she would like but there wasn’t anything she could do about it right now.

The HRD looked at the viewscreen again and checked the distance to land on the console. “Not far now,” she said. “What is your story, Max? If we’re going to be stuck together, I might as well know a little more about you.”

The protocol droid was inherently curious. Although she remembered a time when she wouldn’t stop asking Mr. Redeaux questions and he eventually disabled her speech module for a few hours to teach her a lesson. Hopefully Max would not be as hesitant to make conversation.

[member="Maximilian Vinticus"]