Eons Adrift

[Kyyrk]

[youtube]https://youtu.be/eJUGYhZmpU4[/youtube]​

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A soft beeping filled the cabin as the small freighter dropped out of hyperspace. Radar contact. A few moments later, visual contact was made. Dorin's brow knit together under his helmet. "Keep the ship steady, start scanning for pirates." The pilot was all too happy to oblige. Though Dorin was better at hiding it, he was just as jumpy as the freighter pilot he'd hired to bring him out here. Well, not here specifically. This was just a stop along the way. Hadn't intended to stop for anything, except for the distress signal. Dorin stood, and placed his sword back in its sheath on his back. "I don't feel anything. I think we're alone out here. Take us closer. I want to check it out." The pilot shot Dorin a nervous look, but moved the freighter closer to the discovery.

The thing that drew Dorin here was the distress signal. Not that they had received one, but...how it had been received. It was sporadic. Garbled. There had once been words to it. But the file had corrupted, so there was naught but static. Static across a radio frequency that no one used anymore. And there before him sat the source. An XS class Freighter. Worn, corroded, and damaged. Dorin turned, moving back to the airlock. Something wasn't right here. This wasn't just a derelict. He tapped a button on the side of his helmet, and the familiar hiss of his vacuum seals engaged. He closed the inside door, and hooked himself to the ship's EVA tether. The outer door opened, and he launched across the gap, slamming into the side of the derelict. He scrambled for purchase, finally hooking his fingers around a gap in the plating. As he came to a stop, he pulled his feet underneath him, and began to crawl towards the ship's airlock.

He hooked the tether near the door, creating a life-line he could use to get back to his transport shuttle, and opened the hatch. Once inside, he took a look around. Dark. The ship either had no power, or was flying in low profile mode. Likely the second. Dorin advanced slowly into the ship, casting his gaze about the interior. Aside from hull damage to the starboard side behind the bridge pylon, it seemed in...good condition. For a ship that was thousands of years old. He stepped into the outer ring, and traveled around clockwise to the aft of the ship. Engineering. A momentary glance over the equipment confirmed that the ship was in low power mode. No lights, no life support. Dorin reactivated the Life Support, and took his helmet off after the air began to circulate.

He pushed forward to the Cargo bay. If anything was to be found, it would be there. The bridge was behind a blast door, meaning the nearest computer would be in the cargo bay, if not the captain's quarters. As he stepped into the cargo bay, his suspicions were confirmed. Stasis Tubes. Looked like Rakata tech, if he had to guess. Probably the only folks that had stasis tech from the days of the XS. Four tubes, to be exact. Deceased. Deceased. Nominal. Dece...Nominal. Dorin turned back to the tube. One of the passengers was still alive. "Got a survivor. I'm waking them up."

Dorin looked at the panel on the side of the tube, and pressed a couple buttons. There was a hiss, and a snap as the seal broke. The glass cover raised slightly, then stopped. Dorin opened it the rest of the way by hand, revealing the body of a young woman, likely no older than her early thirties. Without the support of the chamber, the body slumped forward, and Dorin moved to catch her, easing her down onto the floor in front of the tube. He pulled a small lantern out of his satchel, and turned it on, setting it on the floor. He didn't need it, of course, it was for her benefit. Human, or near human at least. He leaned her against the tube, crouched in front of her, a hand on her shoulder to steady her. As she began to come to, he started talking to her. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Miss. You're safe. You've...been in stasis for a little while, from the looks of things. How do you feel?"

[member="Britalla An'thar"]

 

[Britalla An'thar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hA_R3L4pw​

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Being in stasis was a lot like being in a deep sleep, but at the same time as the power dipped and peaked Britalla's mind was able to work, it was ever so slowly that the thousands of years that she spent locked in that prison outside of him felt like hours. During those hours her mind replayed what had lead her to jumping into an already ancient stasis pod that no one knew worked in order to try and preserve her life long enough to be rescued, it was just a normal cargo run, with an abnormal cargo, or just an average Tuesday for a wartime smuggler. Near the front lines on the wrong side of the Empire-Republic boarder a Republic archaeology team had made quite the discovery a cache of ancient technology, seemingly more advanced than anything either side had so both governments were eager to get their hands on it. The Sith blockaded the planet as they did a search of the planet to find the cache and the Republic scientists, Britalla was hired to cross the boarder, run the blockade and get the "assets" as the briefing called them back home safely, but as given by her current situation things didn't exactly go as planned. Britalla made it to the ground, loaded the tech and scientists, and blasted off for orbit, but while running the blockade the ship had taken a single nasty hit, not having the time to make a calculated jump to light speed anymore Britalla made a blind jump, intending for it to be a short hop into deep space where she could make the proper calculations to get them to safety, but the hit caused a massive back dump of power into the hyperdrive and launched the ship far into space. Being several light years away from the nearest inhabited system and not having the parts to jury rig a working hyperdrive they put the ship into low power mode calculated the course necessary and put their faith into the machines, hoping they would be found before they expired.

Only Britalla would be so lucky as she took a sudden deep gasping breath as her body was shocked into living again for the first time in so long, her mind was flooded with sensations again and it looked like she might have been sent into some sort of over stimulation, fortunately the dim light and near silence helped end it rather quickly.

She coughed a few times and spat a hunk of phlegm onto the deck, it was her ship anyway, "Took you boys long enough." Britalla coughed again, while she wasn't in danger, it was clear being in stasis for so long hadn't treated her well.

"What's the date anyway? It feels like I've only been out a few hours."

Britalla tried to get up off of Dorin and stand on her own two feet, although fairly unsuccessfully as she had to lean back against the pod that had held her only a minute or so ago.

[member="Dorin Arkx"]

 

[Kyyrk]

Dorin kept a hand on the girl's shoulder as she tried to stand. At best, it was a reassuring gesture. At worst, he would be holding her down, allowing her to stand, but not letting her move much beyond that. She wasn't well enough for that kind of activity. "Take it easy. No running before we're ready to walk." He glanced around the cargo bay briefly, searching for a space suit. "We need to leave. Your ship was running on minimal power when I found it, I doubt the life support will hold out much longer." Spotting an equipment locker across the room, he made sure she was stable against the pod, then moved across to investigate. "I had hired a transport to...well, that's not really relevant right now. He's waiting for us."

Dorin pulled out a space suit, and checked it over for leaks. The thought crossed his mind that she might be wary of him once she came to her senses and got a good look at his armor. Best to get her to the neutral territory of the transport shuttle before then. "Picked up your distress beacon, and we decided to investigate. You're about five years of real-space travel from Nar Shadda. I'll note this place on our maps, and I'll help you get a salvage crew out here for the ship."

He turned, and walked back over to the girl, having determined the space suit would hold while they transferred back to the shuttle. "Here, I'll help you get this on." He paused for a moment as he began to help her into the suit, then asked, "What's the last major galactic event you remember?"

[member="Britalla An'thar"]

 

[Britalla An'thar]

Britalla tried to shake off the hibernation sickness as she started donning the spacesuit that Dorin had shoved on her. "Karking force man, give me a minute to adjust, those things aren't exactly nice on the body yeah know, let me catch my damn breath alright?" Bri said as she gathered up a bag of stuff that had been in stasis with her, guns and important documents mostly.

"I know the date I left for this journey on you nimrod, I might have been knocked out, but that didn't make me stupid 25 ATC, the Empire of Zakuul fell, the Republic and the Sith started fighting again, so how long was I out for, ten, twelve years?"

Britalla didn't think anything was too odd as she sealed up the spacesuit and put her junk in a vacuum safe bag so that she could take them across safely.

"You mind dropping me off on Nar Shadda? There's a Hutt there who ows me a favour or two for keeping some of his shadier dealings under wraps, he'd be able to get my baby back in working order and put me on the trail to credits again."

[member="Dorin Arkx"]

 

[Kyyrk]

Dorin paused as the girl mentioned how long she'd been asleep. 25 ATC. That was nearly five thousand years ago. He was glad that his expression was hidden by his helmet. He cleared his throat, and said, "Let's discuss this on my ship. Head for the airlock, I'm going to power everything down."

Dorin walked back to the engineering compartment, and shut off the power grid, including life support and the distress beacon. He reemerged a minute later, moving towards the airlock to meet Britalla. He took a second to sync his comlink with her suit, before opening the door. He helped Britalla out onto the tether, then climbed out himself. The walk across was uneventful, and Dorin was glad for that.

As soon as they were across and in Dorin's transport, he called across, "We're aboard. Change of plans, we're heading for Nar Shadda."
Dorin looked at Britalla, taking her helmet from her, and helping her out of the suit. "Listen, miss, it's probably best you have a seat..." He guided her towards one of the passenger seats, and took a seat across from her. He reached up, and removed his helmet, revealing the sickly pale skin beneath for a brief moment before covering everything except his mouth and jaw with his veil. "My name is Dorin, of House Arkx. You've...been asleep for a while. Lots of things have changed. Like that Hutt? He's dead. Don't know who you're talking about, don't need to. I know he's dead. The New Republic has been founded on the edge of Mandalorian space, who has become a galactic power in their own right. In the outer-rim, the Confederacy of Independent Systems has been established. Out in the galactic west, the First Order has been established. The Sith are still in control of Dromund and the surrounding systems, but have moved their capital to Bastion."

Dorin fell silent for a moment, before he looked at Britalla, and said, "The current year is Eight Fifty Two after the Battle of Yavin. Which means...you entered stasis in 3630 prior. You've been asleep for four thousand, four hundred and eighty two years."

[member="Britalla An'thar"]