Coming in For a . . . Evasive Maneouvers! (Open)

[Ginnie Dib]

Piloting a starship was the easy business for Aditya, well it was almost as easy as fixing the ships she pilfered and reclaimed. Needless, piloting was simple, landing on the other paw was the sort of difficult that had less to do with looking where you wanted to go and more with buttons, levers and distance judgement.

"How'd I get into this mess? Oh yeah!" She dashed under the console and ripped a panel off with her fingernails, fiddling with wires and slot cards.

"Comm, comm, comm. Talk to me communications array!" A bleeting klaxon flickered loudly in her tender ears, flooding the cockpit with a collective of choir-like shrieks and whistles.

"Yeah, I know, I know! I'm plummeting into a planet, yep! Got it! Thank you!" Hopping back into the pilot's seat, Aditya punched the landing gear controls.

"Work or die time! Work, please! Working is better! It leads to fun times and repairs I promise to make if we survive this. . . aha!" She slapped a comm button on a general frequency.

"This is the Lambda Skiff Myrmadinas, repeat Lambda Skiff Myrmadinas requesting landing coordinates! And a fire extinguisher! Over!"

The panel behind her burst into flame, the klaxons went silent for a few precious seconds. Nice of them, giving her time to shriek like a baby by a burst paper bag. Aditya practiced her best statue impression, before the console flickered back to life, warnings and whistles blazing.

"Oh, there we go! Come on, you! Pull up! Slow down! Do that landing thing you do!" One foot on the console, the other on the ground, Aditya pulled at the emergency stick and figured if they didn't hear her message, someone would certainly see the billowing cloud of smoke buffetting in a straight line toward whatever golden shiny thing she was heading toward.

 

[Qhorin Solas]

I would've had to have been blind not to see the smoking ship heading straight for the Citadel. I'd taken my speeder up and down and up and down the torturous mountainside, engaged in 'moving meditation' to clear my mind and heart even as I navigated the dastardly turns and steep inclines. I reached out in the Force to touch the mind aboard the ship and found myself completely unable to find purchase in their thoughts, whoever they were. I didn't sense anything from them -- neither panic, nor fear, nor despair. Just... nothing.

I reached deeper into the force, thrusting my hands forward to ensnare the ship with hooks of telekinetic energy. The attempt was as difficult as I'd expected it to be; though I knew that the mass of an object had no bearing on a Force-adepts ability to manipulate it, my brain still thought, traitorously at that, that the ship was simply too large and too heavy.

I summarily ignored my brain, and reached deeper still. The strain of effort showed in my face, in my clenching teeth and twitching jaws, in the thick vein running the length of my forehead. I literally shook with effort, but my struggles were not without success -- before my mind's eye, the shuttle began to slow, stabilizing against the pressure of my telekinesis.

Eyes squeezed tight in concentration, I assisted gravity in lowering the ship to the earth, away from the looming specter of the Citadel. It wouldn't do for the ship to land there; whomever was aboard might have to die, and I wasn't much in the mood to kill the unfortunate pilot. Here, on the mountain trail, I'd be able to direct them to the city below and avoid unnecessary bloodshed. With each passing second the effort became easier, as I settled into the abundance of energies flowing through my body.

With a long, bone deep sigh, I gently set the ship down off to the side of the mountain path, flattening a copse of trees in the effort. I took another breath to calm my jumping nerves, and after collecting myself, walked over to investigate the 'wreckage'.

@[member="Aditya Amadis"]​

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"I'm too young to be corpsified! I haven't had enough nightly pursuits! I haven't bathed in champagne or built a droid from scratch!" She shrieked, punching buttons with both her gloved fists, until lo and behold!

The ship slowed down. In the cataclysm, Aditya swore something fell off it, she heard metal wrending and twisting wire, the smell of burning atmo twinging her nostrils to the point of tearing up her black and red eyes.

"I need to learn how to park!" She bellowed, clutching the co-pilot's chair upside down, legs wrapped around the front and arms clinging to the seat. She bit down on the side for good measure and that was how Cronos would find her imobile yet flexible body: curled upside down clinging for dear life. Her engineered goggles hung off one ear, dangling with gravity toward the floor. Inside the ship's cockpit the tangled pit of wiring sparked and spat errant electricity outward, blue smoke peppering the air.
@[member="Cronos Aegir"]

 

[Qhorin Solas]

I stepped aboard the wreckage, careful to mind the hanging wires and protruding, jagged sections of torn durasteel plating. In such a strange, uncommon situation, I relied wholly on the Force to guide my actions, giving to it my doubts and suspicions.

"Yes," I agreed, moving deeper into the ship, "you need to learn how to park." The woman clung upside down to the co-pilot's chair, goggles hanging haphazardly off her face. "You didn't do a very good job." I looked around at the ruined starship. "You did a terrible job, actually." Carefully, I ducked beneath the electricity spewing wiring and extended a helping hand, should she need it. "Marcus Terran," I said by way of introduction. "We need to get you out of here and down to the city; you might require medical attention."

@[member="Aditya Amadis"]​

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"I'm. . . " Aditya's eyes creaked open by microns, shutting twice before the process was complete and she identified the voice with a man. A helpful handy man!

"I'm alive!" All at once she let go of the chair, tumbling to the ground at @[member="Cronos Aegir"] 's feet. Aditya cackled, grabbing 'Marcus'' hand and pulling herself to her feet. She stumbled and nearly spilled to the ground again, but after a few quick and decisive steps, her laughter chilled to genuine glee.

"The ship's homing beacon fried. I couldn't access the targetting computer or landing gear, wow. Pleased to meetcha Marcus! I'm Aditya. Aditya the Fix-It Mechanic! For my next trick I'll repair and fly at the same time!" She shook and shook and shook his hand with a near feral grip, slipping out of it to fix her goggles on her head and look around at the wreckage.

"I need my tool kit, some wire and sodder, twizzling candy ropes and seven gallons of mead. Can get this rust bucket working in... you're offering medical attention? Free medical attention? What with the trauma and the potential damage to vital bits. . . yes. Yes Marcus Terran I will get down to the city."

Nodding her head definitively, Aditya gulped and stumbled to the side, then back the other way, then forward toward a small crate. The petite woman started tugging on the crate's one unbroken handle, trying to heave it toward the exit. Her trousers torn, a thin layer of red had indeed begun to form above her knee, the foot of her right leg tottering uneasily. Still she heaved, ankle crackling.

 

[Qhorin Solas]

What a strange woman. Between her queer cackling, enthusiastic handshake, breathless ramblings, and drunken-esque stumbling, I surmised that she'd endured some sort of head-trauma during the crash. There was no outward evidence of such, yet her behavior persisted. Unbidden, a smile crept across my face. Yes, she was strange... but so too was she amusing.

"Marcus is fine," I told her, stepping forward to assist her with her struggles. "Take it easy; I'll get that." It wasn't her head that had been injured, I realized, but her leg. Blood stained her trousers, just above her knee. "My speeder is just across the road. Go on over and have a seat, and try not to put to much pressure on your leg." I pulled the Force into my self, gripped the crate's single handle in my hand and lifted it with ease. "I'm right behind you."

"So, Aditya," I began, stepping off the wreckage, voice light and tinged with curiosity, "what brings you to Atrisia?"

@[member="Aditya Amadis"]​

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Marcus. Yep. Marcus. Thanks for carrying my tools. Mean more to me than breathing." She left out the truth of it, that one cargo box was all she owned. Her entire life boiled into a melee of necessities and hard-won prizes. The man seemed to be smiling so Aditya took it as a sign of good fortune and kept hobbling on.

"Oh, you know, a little of this, a little of ... ooo a credit!" She bent down to scoop up the credit coin on the floor of the small vessel and tumbled into the wall. "Gravity. Gotta get used to a new planet's gravity. And which way's up. Do you ever get that? Travel to a new planet and it's all topsy? I mean, you've gotta think about it, it's a completely different world, and space is so open and any-which-way and then your perspective of up, down, sideways, it all changes. Drives me cray-crazy."

Holding her head and her body upright with it, Aditya hop-skipped out of the ship and looked around for the speeder in question. "Looking for a safe place. The kind of place a girl can build in, you know? Figured the Atrisians would need mechanics and engineers and that's what I am. Probably have enough dancers. Laying stakes."

Had the Epicanthix been easily read via the Force, @[member="Cronos Aegir"] would have seen a slew of half-truths and nervous deflections, but as all of her kind could attest no mental effort however powerful would crack the shell. Aditya hoped, oh she hoped, that @[member="Kei Amadis"] had made it this far, that he'd come for bastion here, where the Underground Criminal Organizations were studiously vast and defiantly territorial. Maybe, oh maybe they hadn't seen the bounty on him yet. Maybe she could find a niche hidden and unaware where her husband could set his boots and survive. Such curious hope led her to the Atrisians.

"Don't have a home of my own, you know, kind of want one. Atrisia seemed better than the Fringe, or those religious nutcase Jedi in the Republic. 'Sides, heard good things about your engineers." She plunked herself down in Marcus' speeder and pushed her gloved palms on her leg. They slid a little, she pouted and cinched tighter without much concern reaching her face. Peering down at the upholstery, Aditya yanked off her gloves and wound the fabric around her leg wound and tied them tightly together. Upon her left hand, an elaborate and colourful tattoo began from the tip of her ring finger down halfway to her elbow. It looked raised, barely peeling and freshly done in reds, ceruleans and yellows. Symbols were etched in the wafting designs, as if she wore history on her skin.

"Do you guys get new immigrants often?" Maybe he'd heard something about new folk coming, maybe he knew where immigrants went, maybe this helpful saviour would be the next link on the chain the the Amadis family.

 

[Qhorin Solas]

It was almost ironic that she considered the crate worth more than breathing, when she seemed to talk more than she drew breath! She rambled on at a mile a minute, a stark contrast to my less talkative brethren at the Citadel, as well as the other agents beneath the IIB's umbrella.

But she was right though. We did need engineers. More minds like @[member="Cara Sampson"], who'd designed the Emperor's flag ship. Despite a minor malfunction during the engagement against the Klaxxi above Csilla, the ship had performed admirably.

Or so I'd heard. I hadn't witnessed the battle myself, as I was fighting said Klaxxi and their Ozzlite slaves beneath the surface of Csilla, in its frozen caverns and tunnels.

I sat the crate on the back of the speeder, securing it with couplings designed to hold various cargo. I climbed atop the front of the speeder, and Aditya sat behind me. It was of considerable size, the speeder, with a natural dip behind the main seat for a passenger. I revved the engines after I strapped myself in, the gentle hum of the reactor core like music to my ears. It was an antimatter reactor, and pulsed with crackling, violet light. The speeder was beyond top of the line, a prototype not due to go into production for quite some time yet, as they were so expensive to construct.

Being an Inquisitor had its advantages.

"Lately," I began, turning the speeder's nose to angle down the mountainside, "we've experienced an influx of Chiss due in no small part to the Liberation of Csilla. And I wouldn't mention the Jedi, if I were you. They aren't well liked around here." Tentative treaty with the Republic notwithstanding.

I shifted gears and clamped on the accelerators, taking to the winding trail at rapidly rising speeds. I saw every curve and sharp turn before they happened, but I was so familiar with the trail I'd have been able to navigate its length even without the Force. As it were, we careened down the tortuous slope at breakneck speeds, the wilderness around us a blur of green and brown.

Within moments, the city was upon us, looming tall at the base of the mountain. The mountain trail dipped into a tunnel that curved beneath the earth; I eased the accelerators as I drew near it, and by its end, had slowed almost to a crawl, to better navigate the darkness. Officially, the mountain path didn't exist. State-of-the-art hologram technology kept it hidden from the general populace. On our side, it was just a path. On the other, it was a wall.

"The medcenter isn't far," I announced as the tunnel opened into an empty building site on the fringes of the city. An empty traffic lane curled around the lot, and I followed it into the city proper. Some ways away from the building we came upon growing throngs of speeders and people navigating the many concourses of the city. The medcenter, a tall, thin structure hundreds of levels tall, was further down the lane, sandwiched between a short, domed building and a wide, stocky block of durasteel -- a droid factory, if memory served correct. "All Atrisian enjoy free medical care. The medics will be able to register you as such after a series of standardized tests, also free. Then I'll see about contacting someone at Junbei Hao about your engineering skills. They'll want evidence of your expertise, but if you're any good, they'll accept you."

I weaved my way through the traffic and parked in front of the medcenter. Humans and humanoids milled about, the streets thick with denizens. "If anyone gives you any trouble, tell them that you're an associate of Special Agent Terran." I waved her on into the building. The Force had given me no reason to doubt her, and so I gave my full assistance.

@[member="Aditya Amadis"]​

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Where'd you get your speeder? I've never seen anything so fancy actually being driven!" The engineering state of Atrisia notwithstanding, Aditya bounced in the back of the speeder, testing out the concave seat and setting herself to inspect each piece she could touch. The ride was impressive. Having spent more time fixing up junkers than she'd been in top of the line vehicles, the young woman giggled with glee. "What, will saying the name Jedi get me shot or something? I ain't one, no how. That save it? I'll be good about it, honest!"

"Faster! Faster!" she screamed, gasping as the world bled by like vast strokes of paint on glass. Her head snapped to the side, she clung with one arm and let the other slowly drift toward the edge of the vehicle, letting it whip back as the air caught it. Inspecting and playing as she was, Aditya missed the city's looming view, until it snuck in and stole her attention.

"Aw, wow. Kei's gonna love this place!" She blurted, eyes gleaming with velocity driven tears. That and she was sticking her head out the side. Knowing her groom, they'd both need the medical care on a regular basis. She leaned on the side, taking in what she could of the city going by, asking question after question about which building was that, what was over there? Did the women wear dresses or trousers with more care? Was there a strong ballet and culture scene? The droid factory looked curious, utilitarian and vague. She wanted to inspect it, mosey in and tinker with whatever was inside. A factory? A school? A legislature? Aditya had no idea. "Is there someone at that Junbee Hoya place that has immigrant information? I lost track of my husband, but he said he'd meet me here, or try, or . . . I wanna know he's ok, you know? Him and his shipmates, Nato, and umm fire dude and this chick named Sari? Sairee? mopey looking thing, gave me the willies. You're being awful nice, is it your job to pick up strays, or are all Atrisians so spiffy?"

As he took her through, Aditya took notes of the city on a piece of flimsy, stylus in her hand she was tossed to the side on a turn. Her tongue sticking out of her mouth, she pushed her uninjured leg on the back of Marcus' seat and scrawled while speaking, "Special... Agent... Te-r-r-an. . . Right! Thank you! Thanks .. Spe-spe-c-ial Agent Terran! What's the Junbei Hao? And can you hoist my crate off? I can scootch it in from here. Honest!"

She got down and started limping toward the crate, dusting her hands off and slipping her ideas flimsy back into a pocket 'somewhere' on her bodice.

 

[Qhorin Solas]

"Where'd you get your speeder? I've never seen anything so fancy actually being driven!"​

​

"If I told you," I yelled over the wind whipping passed my ears, "I'd have to kill you." I was only half-joking. In truth, she'd probably never see this model being driven. Aside from production costs, the antimatter engine, while exceedingly powerful, was also prone to instability. If not for the Force, it'd have blown on me several times over already.

"What, will saying the name Jedi get me shot or something? I ain't one, no how. That save it? I'll be good about it, honest!"​

​

"No, not shot." Just locked in cell and tortured if it was discovered she had ties with them. "But don't worry. You've got nothing to worry about." I knew she wasn't a Jedi, or a Sith, or any such Force-adept. Of course, she could've been especially skilled at hiding her Force signature, or she could have a Taozin amulet.

I doubted it though.

"Is there someone at that Junbee Hoya place that has immigrant information? I lost track of my husband, but he said he'd meet me here, or try... I wanna know he's ok, you know? Him and his shipmates, Nato, and umm fire dude and this chick named Sari? Sairee? mopey looking thing, gave me the willies. You're being awful nice, is it your job to pick up strays, or are all Atrisians so spiffy?" ​

"Junbei Hao," I corrected. "And no, they don't deal in such information. You want the ISB; Imperial Security Bureau. If he's here, they'll know." I made no mention of 'Sairee', who could very well be Sera, the woman who'd pledged herself to me on Coruscant. I kept her far from Atrisian space and the reach of the Inquisition. If her husband was who I thought he was -- one of the men who'd had a crystal in his chest -- then our meeting was more than simple coincidence. It had to be. "You could say that's my job. Picking up strays and keeping them out of trouble."

"Junbei Hao is the leading engineering company of the Empire." I climbed off the speeder and grabbed the crate, unhooking it before handing it over. "I'll see about this husband of yours. I know some people in the ISB; I'll give them a call. If you went, you might have to wait hours. What did you say his name was? Kei?"

@[member="Aditya Amadis"]​

 

[Ginnie Dib]

Laughter reigned. "This speeder could kill me anyway! Wow! Custom!" The half-truth went flying behind her head like the rest of the scenery, just as the tense situation for force sensitives and their families. "Hope not! Took me forever to find a place like this." Wasn't that why such strong methods existed? To aide and guide and protect the citizens who were simple folk trying to get by?

"Okay, so the Junbei Ha-ao is the best engineering company, and the IBS, no wait, ISB is the group that would know if Kei made it. What do the Imperial Security Bureau do?" The first glimmer of concern stroked across the naturally trusting woman's face, but it vanished as she started heaving her crate up to the Medical Center. "Thank you for picking me up and you know, rescuing me from firey doom and a bombastic crash landing. You know where I'll be, so umm. . . wow, you're being awesome. I hope everyone's this nice!"

Was there an insidious beginning to his knowledge? Maybe if she'd paid more attention, maybe if she hadn't hit her head, maybe if she hadn't needed medical attention and a decent nap. Aditya chattered on.

"Kei Amadis. He's Epicanthix, like me. He's. . . he's. . . I want my husband to be ok, you know? Safe." Aditya brought a small holoprojector locket from around her neck on a lengthy chain. She flipped it and a gleaming blue image appeared. It was Kei in mid turn, an amused yet perturbed smirk on his lips. The image shifted as he turned to face the lens his smirk grew into an unabashed grin, wily and genuine. His image got bigger then fled upward, as if he'd tackled her. The image flickered back to the beginning and Aditya pushed it back from whence it came. "Thank you, Special . . Special Agent Marcus Terran. Gosh, I'm bad at names."

As she made her way into the Medical Center, Aditya started breathing heavily, by the time she got inside she collapsed on the front desk with a huffle. "Help. I think I herniated my spleen."

 

[Qhorin Solas]

"Okay, so the Junbei Ha-ao is the best engineering company, and the IBS, no wait, ISB is the group that would know if Kei made it. What do the Imperial Security Bureau do?"​

​

"I misspoke," I confessed. "Junbei Hao deals with weaponry and armor exclusively -- you want Imperial Shipworks for everything else; speeders, starfighers, freighters, corvettes, and every other kind of starship or vehicle. They used to be a bunch of different companies, but the Emperor combined them all into one entity. And ISB handles security..." I said, deadpan. "They monitor traffic coming to-and-from the planet, and deal with any threats to Atrisia, be they domestic and foreign. They'll have it logged if he's here."

"Thank you for picking me up and you know, rescuing me from firey doom and a bombastic crash landing. You know where I'll be, so umm. . . wow, you're being awesome. I hope everyone's this nice!"​

​

"No problem," I said with a smile. "It was my pleasure." And really, it was. I enjoyed saving lives far more than I enjoyed taking them. That's to say nothing of my other discoveries -- namely, the identity her husband Kei.

"Kei Amadis. He's Epicanthix, like me. He's. . . he's. . . I want my husband to be ok, you know? Safe."​

​

She had a holoprojector of him. It was the man who'd been with Sera on Coruscant. One of them, anyway. "Don't worry," I told her. "He looks pretty resourceful -- I'm sure he's fine." If I remembered correctly, he'd gotten caught up with the Jedi. If he wasn't resourceful already, he certainly would be if he'd joined the Jedi.

"Thank you, Special . . Special Agent Marcus Terran. Gosh, I'm bad at names."​

​

"Like I said, Marcus is fine. I'm not big on formalities. I'll come back and find you after I have a talk with the people over at ISB." I gave a short wave and sped off into traffic.

I had a lot to think about.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Thanks! And stuff." Aditya nodded poignantly. Stuff, well that covered everything didn't it? Everything that mattered. "Yeah, stuff!" Real pride.

Inside the hospital, Aditya gasped and groaned, grabbing her throat, then her kidneys, and ended up getting a checklist to file for her troubles. "New Patient Checks. . . grrrmrrhhhggrrrI'llchecktheirlistsgood..." As she sat, every once in a while she fumbled the stylus, groaned loudly and whined, "Oh my spleen parts!"

After the fourth contortion and fifth scribbled questionaire about dietary habits and former addresses, a medic and a medibot came over to her. "I. . . I see the - hey move a bit you're messing with my tunnel vision... dude! Did you jus-didyoujustouchnmmmzzzzzzzz"

Sedated and flopped on a gurney, Aditya was rescued from the boredome of the waiting area, and the waiting area was rescued from another of her modern dance contortion fits and groans. Everybody won. Hours passed, until brought to with a clean a bill of health as minor surgery, bacta patches, a shower and a few shots, Aditya Amadis stood at the entrance to the medical center in a brand new set of clothes (was it her fault if she confiscated the sweater from a lost and found bin, and the under bits from a Nurse's station? Little did Aditya know that bundle of clothing in the Nurse's Station was for patient use anyhow, but shh. She was proud.) with a hoverpulley plugged under her cargo crate.

Washed up and blood-less, Aditya looked more like a swan with a mop of unruly black hair, which had been washed, brushed, and braided down her back by a friendly nurse named Marj. She sat on her now hovering crate, kicking her feet out one at a time, one of which was still bandaged in an air-cast from ankle to knee, and she clutched a package to her chest.

Papers. Medical papers. The first step in a citizenship plea meant more than credits, or ships. For the moment Aditya quietly watched the city bustle, happy as a Nemoidian in a slime pit.