From Bad to Worse

[Evelynn]

Vivian stood within the sonic shower, shoulders slumped and with gizka excrement in her hair. The over-applied eyeliner and mascara that graced her face smudged messily down her cheeks. A sonic shower, when was the last time she had been forced to use one of them. A woman with her kind of purse was used to the luxury of hot running water, not this common faire.

Incorrect. She was no longer a woman with that kind of purse.

Cut off from her fortune, kidnapped by some loser on some rust bucket of a ship, infested with gizka and poop. How she had fallen from grace. Was this a dream? No, her dreams were normally spice-induced flashbacks of the morning before. This, was a true nightmare.

Once she was clean, the woman floated out the refresher like a tragic potato. He still hadn't fixed the gravity yet. Standard.

The Captain's chambers were looked over with an eye of disdain and disgust as her naked form floated across to the dresser. A fat gizka that had followed her into the room watched on. A sharp turn of the head and a look of daggers caused the creature to croak fearfully. “What are you looking at, ugly!” she hissed.

The gizka, of course, being an animal and not a sentient being did not respond.

The dresser was opened, and immediately Vivian shrieked. Was there a dead body? An ambush of Black Suns?! A bomb?!? YET MORE FLOATING GIZKA POOP?!?!

No. You'll see.

Pushing herself throughout the ship, Vivian floated angrily (who knew such a thing was possible) towards the engine bay, where her new partner was last headed. She wore a magnificent brown attire that was at least three sizes too big for her, essentially she looked like a potato sack. Frumpy. Tragic. Did I say brown?

“Have you not fixed the KARKING GRAVITY YET?!”

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

Logan floated upside down in his frumpled leather jacket, several wires running from the small computer on his arm to a wall panel at the far end of the room. His other hand was buried arm deep in what appeared to be a mess of random crisscrossed wired, his eyes were focused on a hovering screen projected in front of him by a tiny floating droid that displayed what the camera in Logans hand was currently picking up.

Between his teeth was a screwdriver, and as Vivian began to shout at him Logan opened his mouth to reply, causing the utensil to float away from him.

“This ship is a hundred years older!” He paused for a moment then said more to himself. “Actually, its older.”

Letting out a curse he scrambled slightly, letting his left hand swipe up the screwdriver at the barely the distance the wires allowed. With a sight he replaced the thing in his teeth and continued to poke the camera about the inside of the wired panel.

Logan was by no means in expert in fixing ships, but he was an expert in computers, and apparently that knowledge somewhat transplanted to Starships. Since they had stolen the bucket of rust Logan had been able to effectively repair most systems, though others like the Gravity were still quite...glitchy. Letting out a sigh Logan logged another broken wire on the small holo-map he was creating and continued poking the camera around.

 

[Evelynn]

That didn't fly.

Princess Vivian Talina Octavia could not accept his excuse. Accustomed to the best service that credits could give, she had fully expected everything to be functioning within five standard minutes. Of course, now that she was also devoid of spice to affect her flow of time her judgement had been righted, and it left her unhappy and impatient.

“I don't care if it's a thousand years old!”

Far be it from her to play the role of the bantha-headed Mandalorian tactical failure. The age of a ship didn't matter. Technical details didn't matter. What mattered was that she was not currently getting what she wanted. The woman's arms flailed dramatically and a cross-eyed gizka caught in the impacted spun harmlessly through the engine bay, kicking it's legs uselessly to try and stop the spin.

“No, I don't care if it's a million years old!”

Kicking off of the wall, the Lady of the Potatoes floated towards Logan. There was a menace in those blue eyes, and also a certain tiredness. How long had she been awake for now. Not time to crash? Have a nap? You'll feel better after a nap, you know. Get that 'stim out of your system.

As she approached him, her right arm drew back, dainty little fist preparing to go. However, instead of striking him, she opted to bash the panel right next to the one he was currently working inside of. Not exactly safe procedure.

“Fix it! Fix it NOW!” she demanded as she whacked the panel again, holding absolutely zero concern for Logan's health and or safety.

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

A slight shock ran throughout his entire body, electricity surging through him he let out a loud yelp and immediately withdrew his hand from the panel. The small camera flew out across the room and bounced off the far wall for a second. Logan let out a growl, his lips turning down into a sneer as he looked at Vivian, still upside down.

He spit out the screwdriver again, letting it float before his face.

“I can't fix it. There's still two dozen system that come before gravity, like life support, and shields and the GODDAMN FRESHERS!” With the hand that had been stuck in the panel Logan picked up the screwdriver and threw it at Vivian, albeit with the sharp end facing away from her so it wouldn't actually hurt that much should I strike her.

Logan didn't want her bleeding all over the place.

 

[Evelynn]

For a moment Vivian felt smug as she observed her kidnapper receive a brief electric shock from her panel bashing. Yes, that would teach him nicely, the incompetent boob.

Unfortunately instead of working harder this only served to make the now mildly miffed man completely cease his repairs. Good help was so hard to find. Of course, then he had the audacity to not only shout back at her but to assault her with the screwdriver! How rude!

The blunt end of the tool bounced off of her right temple, causing the socialite to yelp angrily. Eyes suddenly narrowing there was a moment of stillness as they both floated there, staring angrily at each other like two cats about to fight, or maybe frak...no, no definitely fight.

As if he hadn't raised a good pint about the life support and the freshers she span around. “Just hurry up, would you,” she spat, kicking violently off of the same panel and in the direction of the exit. Once more she batted the still spinning cross-eyed gizka away from her as it floated into her trajectory. “And get rid of these creatures too. Just be of some use.”

With that she was gone, planning to go back to the captain's chambers to strap herself into the bed and try to get at least some rest. After all, Viv was having a very trying day and she deserved some rest.

"Croak."

A little red gizka floated there behind Logan looking directly at the slicer with his one eye, a hint of expression upon his scaly little face as if to say:

Women, huh?

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

Logan muttered something under his breath that sounded very much like the word 'Schutta' and then grasped the camera out of the air with his loose hand, petting the little Gizka before shoving the camera back into the panel.

Before long the young Slicer went back to work. He managed to get through most of the systems, documenting which of the wires were broken and exactly where they went to, repairing them was another matter, though he managed to scrounge most of the parts he needed from other sections of the ship to ensure that Life-support and Shield were up to full strength.

The meager weapons on the ship however were in a permanent state of offline and the gravity would have to remain in its current state until they could somehow get more parts. The ship would fly though, and to Logan that meant they would live another day. After working for nearly nineteen hours, Logan finally allowed himself some sleep.

A few hours later Logan found himself strapped into the captains chair of the ship, thick leather holding him in place.

 

[Evelynn]

Sleep did not come instantly to Vivian.

No, even long after the positive effects of spice had worn off there were still shades of your high. It is called the come down, and it is your body telling you that you need to rest, relax and perhaps drink some water for those chapped and chewed upon lips, however you cannot sleep. There is still a lingering that keeps you awake, a hint of subtle stimulation and it is misery. You cannot escape your own self-inflicted headache-inducing fatigue.

Need to wind down further, girl, and so she lay there. Strapped into the Captain's bed after evacuating all gizka from the room. It was in this time that she mulled over what had happened in the last twenty four hours. She had been cut off from her fortune, kidnapped by loser and now quite possibly with a bounty on her head for slighting a crime lord, perhaps if she knew it was the Black Suns that Logan was running from then that might have been the straw that broke the bantha's back, but not yet.

Eventually however, eyes drifted shut and a very long sleep came to Vivian Octavia, all the while as Logan slaved away to repair what he could.

You think rest would have softened Vivian's foul mood, but baby that is just her general attitude.

So when she woke up, unbuckled herself and found that she was still floating there was rage. Extreme rage. But first she floated through to the refresher, examining her face in a mirror before deciding her visage was acceptable to go and scream at a foolish peon. Like the Jaws of anti-gravity she prowled, still dressed in that shapeless brown attire.

There, in the captain's chair. She sucked in a lungful. A group of gizkas sensing discord in the air began to scatter, flailing their limbs wildly. Brace yourself.

“WHY IS THERE NO. KARKING. GRAVITY?!”

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

Instead of screaming back Logan instead calmly began to shift several key controls on the terminals in front of him. He very carefully did not look at her, or even address her for quite some time, instead flicking about with controls until eventually he had secured their passage out of Hyperspace and also contacted the security platform ahead of time so that they would be allowed to land, he thanked the force for the invention of the holo-net and finally shifted to Vivian.

He very carefully turned the chair towards her, then locked eyes.

“Because it was either gravity...” He paused. “Or oxygen, and I would much rather breath than walk.”

The interesting Red Gizka let out a burp as if to punctuate Logans words. The Slicer looked down at the odd little creature for a moment, then gave it a nod of acceptance and respect before turning back towards the controls. Any second now they would drop out of hyperspace, and he didn't want the broken auto-pilot taking over.

 

[Evelynn]

So it turns out that life is not like Faster Than Light and you can't just send a man to a room and expect that the systems will get fixed one-by-one. How disappointing. Of course, being that Vivian is not on Earth nor does she own a copy of Faster Than Light she did not know this game mechanic system of fixing things, however that didn't make her exempt from expecting the same results.

He ignored her for a while, further inflaming her spoilt temperament. Her rampant impatience was boiling over. However then he turned. They looked to each other, shooting daggers like sworn enemies before the epic duel.

Gravity or oxygen? She didn't care. Breathing? Whatever. He was wrong. He was rude. He was awful.

Blue ices, like sharp icicles dashed across to the burping red gizka and immediately the creature moved to hide behind Logan's legs, who had just turned his back on her.

“Why...” she started, voice shrill and seething, “...are you so karking rude?!”

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

He raised an eyebrow, turning his head towards her.

“Me? I've been doing my best to fix this ship and keep us alive. I got the air working, the engines, the hyperdrive, for christ sakes I made sure we had shields so if we were attacked we could get away! I'm not a karking mechanic, i'm a slicer. This isn't exactly my area of expertise.” Just as he spoke the blue streaks of stars thinned out, and they dropped out of hyperspace.

Before them, almost immediately, appeared a massive trade hub. The huge space station was home to dozens of ships, massive freighters, tiny shuttles, and even a few Destroyers from several different factions. Logan let out a whistle as their tiny transport floated beneath a Wyyrlok class Destroyer belonging to the One Sith.

He had never expected to see them here.

“Look lets just get on the station.” So I can leave you there. He smiled at the afterthought.

 

[Evelynn]

[member="Logan Valde"]

He kept throwing sense at her.

The man was a slicer, not an engineer or a mechanic. Oxygen is more important than gravity. Not to mention the fact that Vivian had done nothing but cry, take a sonic shower, sleep and scream. She had no room to talk here, but of course, she was Vivian Talina Octavia, so she would make room to talk. Check that privilege.

She didn't respond, rather just pursing her lips and observing as they dropped out of hyperspace. A beat of excitement went through her chest as she realised she could walk upon solid ground again, perhaps get some 'stim and maybe a cocktail.

Priorities.

“Fine,” she said, floating over to the co-pilot's chair and strapping herself in, likely much to Logan's chagrin. The one-eyed gizka croaked grumpily, possibly implying that it was his seat.

“How long until we touch down?”

Loser.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

Logan slowly turned to her, then looked at the station directly ahead of them.

“Two or three minutes.” He stopped for a second. “Probably less.”

The ship floated closer to the station with eery passing second, and asking when they touched down was like asking when they were going to take the next breath. It was obvious it was about to happen within the next five seconds, so why freaking ask it. Logan let out a sigh just as they passed through the open hangar bay doors, from there it was a simple matter of guiding the ship down onto its landing struts.

The entire ship seemed to groan and moan as it landed. Every bolt and screw seemed to creak and shake, causing Logan to cringe slightly. He let out a sigh of relief as the ship steadied itself, and only stood when all the noises ceased.

“Lets get going, we need new parts.” He didn't mention that he was going to leave her here.

 

[Evelynn]

The next few minutes were painful as they sat there stewing in their disdain for each other. She, a horrible and spoilt brat with no care or consideration for others and he, well, since he had gotten involved in her life everything had spiralled downwards in spectacular fashion. Of course, he wasn't the cause of all of it, but he was there to blame.

On the other hand, the gizka was happy to lurk at Logan's feet, believing that he would provide a certain amount of protection from the two-legged banshee monster.

“Fine,” she said once more. It's never fine when women say that it's fine.

They had barely set down upon the space station before she was unstrapped and off. She stormed out of the rust bucket with a very petulant sneer slapped across her face, stomping down that boarding ramp she was the picture of feminine rage. At this point she no longer cared what she was wearing, just wanting to get back into civilisation.

Apparently civilisation was distracted however. Huddled masses of shocked citizens gathered at surrounding screens as breaking news was broadcast across the station. Inside of her mind, she smirked triumphantly before calling back to Logan.

“Looks like the news has broke about my kidnapping!” she crowed, folding her arms across her chest in an exceedingly smug manner. “We'll have to put a bag over your head, you're a fugitive loser now!"

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

Logan followed the girl out, albeit at a snail like pace. He grasped Betty and his blaster, though he hoped he wouldn't need the latter like he certainly would the former. Then he moved to follow Vivian, tailing her onto the station and coming to meet with the huge crowd gathered around the holo-screen. His eyes flickered to Vivian for only a second, hearing her words and feeling a tightening in his chest.

No, certainly not. They wouldn't cause this much ruckus over a single girl.

All these people wouldn't care about her...

Right?

“...invaded and taken by the One Sith! The Republic bravely counterattacked but it seems their forces have been pushed from the surface. In the last few ours the One Sith have begun to drop some sort of living weapon onto the worlds surface” Pictures on the screen showed hundreds of thousands of fleeing people, dozens of burning ships, Aldera City in complete ruin and pictures of fleets mobilizing in orbit, Sith fleets. “Its chaos across the shinning jewel of the Republic. Panic is high and evacuation ships have been stopped, wait....we seem to have lost our feed. Ladies and gentlemen...Alderaan is lost.”

Right.

Logan stood at the back of the crowd, absolutely stunned. His eyes slowly drifted over to Vivian, his gaze falling on her as if in fear of her reaction.

 

[Evelynn]

She sauntered over, half-filled with a smug satisfaction that it was going to be her face plastered all over the screens, perhaps finally with a reward posted and a nice blurry action shot of Logan and her getting out of the speeder. Yes, that would grand, if she turned in her own kidnapper would she still get the reward.

The young woman caught a glimpse of the news feed, an image of one of Aldera City's more famous sculptures dedicated to the pursuit of art in a backdrop of fire, rubble and bodies caused Vivian's heart to skip a beat.

No.

The words from the reporter soon became a muffled mess as a lump gathered in the girl's throat. What about Belleau-a-Lir? It was an island city, it could be safe, right? Isolated? They could still be fine, her parents could still be fine. A high-pitched whine began to sound within her mind, causing her to flinch as her eyes began to mist.

The Sith...they hadn't done this to Coruscant...why would they....?

This wasn't real, this was a joke. She had only talked to her father....her father.... Head now spinning Vivian whirled around and began to just walk. She need to find a comm station, she...had to call and see that this was all some big prank. Alderaan couldn't fall, it just couldn't! No no no, she would call and everybody would be there and everything would be right and this would all just be some strange false anomaly, a dream, a nightmare. This couldn't have been happening!

With tears of disbelief beginning to stream down her cheeks, Vivian staggered away from the screen, the crowd and Logan.

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

Logan eyes Vivian, but he made no move to follow her.

There was no way he could say anything to console her, there was nothing he could do to check she was okay. No means of making this alright. His eyes shifted for a second, moving back to the screen to watch the reporter speak more about the possible ramifications of the fall and what the Republic should do next. His feet shifted, and he picked up snippets of conversation.

“Serves em' right, damn richies.”

“I can't believe they would destroy the place, Corus-”

“Where will they go next? They're on a rampage, they can't be stopped.”

“I'm headed to the outer rim, no Sith care about whats out there.”

Dozens of people spoke, rambling and bumbling about this and that. Logan only barely listened, trying to get as much information as he could before quickly stumbling out of the crowd. He searched for Vivian only briefly, finding her in the corner of the Hangar, crying.

He watched her silently for a moment before realization dawned on him.

There was no way he could leave her now. She was alone. Her planet was conquered, her family likely dead, and the fortune he had tried to extort from her was likely stolen by the Sith. She was helpless and alone. Slowly Logan made his way over towards Vivian, biting his tongue and instead simply putting what he hoped to be a comforting hand on her shoulder.

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

 

[Evelynn]

Scarcely aware of where she was walking, Vivian stumbled throughout the station, not actually making it very far but hardly registering anything besides the fact that she was moving forward. She bumped into a few bodies on her aimless path, but upon seeing a visibly upset young girl people decided to avert their gazes and stay out of it. The burden of a stranger was not to be theirs.

Within her mind she tried to convince herself that there was hope, that Belleau-a-Lir was isolated in a magical anti-Sith bubble but even she wasn't so delusional.

They would have stayed, they would have fought, she knew her father, her mother, they were stubborn creatures just like their daughter and there was no way in hell that they would have run and abandoned their planet. Even if they did, all the evacuations were stopped. Her parents, her siblings, everybody.

She found herself sat in the corner of the hanger, knees pulled up to her chest and head upon those knees. When she stopped her search for the communication station she didn't know. There was a lot of things that Vivian didn't know at that moment, like how to breathe normally, or how to stop crying....or how to just...make everything stop spinning or stop that high pitched ringing as if she herself had been caught in one of the many explosions that had no doubt ravaged her home planet.

A hand touched down upon her shoulder.

Without looking to even see who the hand belonged to, she reached up, clinging onto the man's wrist and burying her head into his forearm, great tragic tears spilling forth as her shoulders convulsed with large sobs.

For once, Vivian Octavia had no words.

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

Logan stood there for a few minutes, letting Vivian spill her tears. Eventually the two of them began to draw attention, though even then the Slicer simply waved people on by. Two minutes passed, then three, then five. Eventually the man let out a loud sigh and bent down. He picked up Vivian, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her back to the rust bucket of a ship they now called home.

It wasn't a long walk, though as he made his way Logan began to chew the inside of his cheek in exasperation. Why him? All he wanted was to kidnap a girl for some money, pay back the Hutts, and be on his merry way with an upgraded computer and a nice new pair of pants. This wasn't his thing, this wasn't his path in life. It wasn't fair. With heavy boot steps Logan trudged through the ship, putting Vivian on her bed and laying her down as comfortably as possible.

“I'll...I'll be back. Promise.” He tried to sound comforting, though for him it was hard. His people weren't exactly known for their emotional spectrum, the fact that he could feel at all was a freaking miracle.

Slowly turning away from him Logan stepped outside of the captains quarters, squatting down next to the interesting little one eye Gizka. He patted the thing on the head, then pointed into the captains quarters, making a bawling motion by rubbing his fist in his eyes and simulating tears on his face. The creature seemed to nod furiously, then jumped off into the captains quarters.

He let out a sigh, then turned to head off the ship.

 

[Evelynn]

The world around her faded away.

When was the last time she had spoken to her brother and sister, or had even seen them? I mean, she reserved a certain amount of bitterness for Tyrral, being that he was the glorious second child, a chance to rectify the mistakes of the first but she didn't hate him. Then there was Elara, only eight already a proper young lady. Would Sith stoop so low? Kill an eight year old? How?

No, don't think about it. Don't you think about that Vivian.

But she did.

The last thing she said to her parents were angrily muffled with a sock in her mouth, swearing about how they couldn't cut her off in a petulant fit. That was the last thing. The last time she saw them. Hadn't even said bye. Couldn't remember the last time they said goodbye, or that they all smiled together. The last time they were a happy family.

Or were proud of their eldest daughter.

Vivian never noticed as Logan carried the weeping woman out of the hangar and back on the ships, a few onlookers making the connection of Alderaan's demise with her tragic state. They quickly averted their gazes, the common citizen not knowing how to deal with the tragedy of others.

Before she knew it, the girl was back upon the ship laid down upon the bed, chest still lurching in great ugly sobs as she considered the faces of her family and friends, faces she wouldn't see again. Laying on her side, slightly curled she barely paid any heed to the one-eyed gizka that had hopped up upon the bed and laid down in the nook of her body. The creature did not verbalise, nor did it move. It simply laid there with her as the spoiled socialite cried herself to sleep.

[member="Logan Valde"]

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Vivian Octavia"]

Logan went about his tasks with an almost methodical speed. His first stop on the station was the local chit machine, where one could extract credit chits from their bank account. These things usually held thirty to forty thousand credits in various forms of chits. Hacking them was dangerous, especially if you stayed nearby afterward, usually you were caught after hacking since most of the credits had some form of tracer.

On the station it would hardly matter, he and Vivian were already on the run, and one more crime wouldn't really hurt.

With that in mind, Logan found the Chit machine and plugged Betty. Quickly leaning over the screen Logan ran a simple spike program and wiped the droids operating system, installing his own in under a minute with the aid of Betty. He smiled slightly, and then keyed in a large sum of money to take out. Before long Logan held a series of credit chit each worth more than a few thousand.

Enough to by parts for the ship, but not enough to live on forever.

His next errand was parts. He moved through the stations markets and selected several things, filling a cloth bag that he purchased from a vendor. Most of the parts were minor, small wires and tiny systems that weren't necessary for the ship. The larger ones were either too expensive, or beyond his capability of repair. One special thing he made sure to find, was a grav-system.

The thing was expensive, but it would be worth it at the very least.

Lastly, Logan found himself walking through the more civilian markets of the station. Here he filled a separate backpack with clothes of all sorts, hardly the most fashionable, but at least something that would get Vivian out of the rags she was wearing, and maybe get her complaining again.

Strange that he was missing that.

All in all it took Logan a little under two hours to gather everything he needed, and when he came back it was with two backpacks, a cloth bag filled with food, and a large servo-driver clamped between his teeth.