Private Hop, Skip, And A Jump

[Kahlil Noble]

The Hydian Way ended on Imynusoph. Since the day it was mapped out, there hadn't been much change. No need to go out farther, not in those days. Not until recently. As the Galaxy continued to be revenged by war after war, and with planets once again being utterly destroyed, safe paths to planets to relocate refugees had become an ever needed commodity. Especially paths not so widely known. Private contracts to scout out wild space and find new directions, that's what brought Kahlil to Imynusoph.

He sat in the space port, waiting inside the small cafe that treated all sorts of travelers. Real local place for the Imyni that inhabited the world. He sipped at a cup of Caf, idly scrolling through a datapad with the specifics of the job. He, and another pilot, were being contracted to find safe, quick, and most importantly discrete passage to Yalaran. The relatively unknown world was hidden by a stealth generator. A perfect place for people trying to escape the wars that ravaged their homes to lay low until it was safe to go home.

Right now though he just had to wait.

Aeshi Tillian

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

Aeshi paused at the entrance to the spaceport cafe, letting her eyes drift across the small crowd. Her eyes went past the feathered Imyni, who made up most of the crowd, and the regulars who made the Terminus run on a regular basis.

She was looking for the stranger. Someone she’d not seen on the world before. There was one, he certainly got the type and the fatale seemed to fit.

One hand rested on the grip of her .48 as she approached the table. She raised an eyebrow and leaned over the back of one of the chairs.

“You Khalil?”

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"That'd be me, yeah." His gaze shifted towards Aeshi Tillian as the woman walked over. At first he just assumed she had business this way, though once she actually approached him it was pretty obvious this was his contact.

Or a bounty hunter. Could never be too careful. He smiled warmly, nodded his head, and looked otherwise at ease. But he was ready to run if he needed to.

"You here for the skip jumpin' I take it?"

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

Aeshi nodded and stepped over the back of the low chair to take a seat, propping one boot up on the edge of the table as she studied him. “Captain Aeshi Tillian. Good to meet you. And yeah, I guess you could call it that.”

She set a data pad on the table. “I’m a little more instinctive abd methodical about it though than skip jumping. My trade post also serves as a GUIDE waystation, so we’re kitted up with soe hyoerspace probes and rations. Any specialist equipment you need?”

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Likewise." Especially since she wasn't actually here for a bounty. A wave of relief was obvious as he leaned back in his seat and took up another sip of his caf. His eyes lowered to the datapad. Aeshi Tillian was already a bit more prepared than he was for it. In truth he'd likely of used the Force to help guide him down the right path. Now? He again sipped his caf, listening to what she said. What she asked.

"If you got any extra probes I wouldn't mind buying some off ya. Otherwise I should be set. Got plenty of long range scanners to make sure there's nothin' waiting on the other end. You want anythin' to drink?"

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

Aeshi nodded as Kahlil spoke, but just shrugged. “Sure, if you’re offering a drink. Anything strong will do, especially if it’s not some I made myself.”

She considered his words, reassessing her action plan as she made adjustments. “How many probes do you need? I’ve stockpiled about forty of the smaller ones, so that should be plenty to get us to the destination. I paid just under a thousand for each of them.”

Another pause. “What sort of range are your sensors capable of?”

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Strong. Booze? Kahlil shrugged and waved over a waiter to order her something. Rum. Rum was strong, yeah. That worked. With that ordered he turned his attention back to Aeshi Tillian . "Justa couple for just in case things. My scans are good, but they don't pick up everything, y'know?" Then the question of his scanner.

"Depends. It's a Dedicated Energy Receptor that can scan up a couple parsecs, but not a very wide field. Enough to know where I'm jumping isn't instant death, not enough to know everything around it. Like I said, couple probes for just in case don't hurt."

Aeshi Tillian

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

Aeshi nodded in appreciate for the rum, giving a small chirp of thanks on Imyni before turning her attention back to Khalil. “Yeah, I can sell you three or four, no problem. Good backups that way.”

She pursed her lips as he talked about the sensors, slowly nodding. “Yeah, that’s good. A few parsecs is a good jump distance for this.”

Unless she went off the charts, which she might if she felt it necessary. Or not necessary, but just felt it. She always found that hard to explain to people, so she usually didn’t. A few taps of the fingers brought up a chart of the unknown regions beyond Imynusoph.

“I’ve been studying the few maps we do have and running comparisons between them, especially gravitational anomalies and orbiting bodies that can be used to identify gravitational fields. Do you know of any more?”

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Three or four was more enough. With that business settled the next topic came up. Which was more like homework, something he rarely did as a child. In this case? No one could be too careful trying to figure out a safe route in uncharted space. There was absolutely nothing more dangerous than not knowing where to go when anything could be in the way. Blind jumps were the worst.

"I picked up a couple more obscure maps. More like a list of rumors, but can never be too careful. Grant it, jobs to find a path not used so a lot of this is gonna be guess work. Fun, right?"

Aeshi Tillian

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

"Obscure maps are good," Aeshi agreed, adjusting the displays of her information and frowning at the data as it scrolled across the page. "Any little fragment helps, especially ones with different grav bodies. We can run them all through my ship's computer and see if it can calculate some estimated locations based on galactic movements and gravitic waves."

While she enjoyed jumping into the unknown and always came out alright, it was because she knew what risks to take and what risks to not take. "Guesswork is what this all comes down to, typically." Aeshi agreed. "Need any last supplies before we kit up?"

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"Nope, should be all loaded up." He paused just as R6 sent a confirmation. His ship was loaded with supplies he'd bought while waiting for Aeshi Tillian . Good. The larger figure stood up, downed what remained of his coffee, and stretched. "Alright! Let's get this game of chance underway, yeah? You wanna jump first or shall I?" There was that, and of course the matter of where she wanted to start from.

"We can skirt close to the edge of the known route for a little bit. Get a head start before we start really going."

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

Aeshi nodded slowly, downing the last of the rum in a single long drink. "Let's jump to the last charted location at the same time. That will let us sync our navcomputers and jump-times to each other so we can make the sort of predictions we'll need. Once we get out to the end of the map, I can take the first jump after we launch our probes."

She considered that last suggestion before giving a curt nod. "I think that's a smart idea." She shrugged back into her jacket and adjusted her hat. "I'll see you in orbit, then. What's your transponder code?"

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Worked for him. Kahlil gave another nod, a smile, and his transponder code before starting to head out himself. "See ya in orbit, yeah. I'll have R6 link up with ya when we get there." He knew a lot about flying a ship, sure. But not everything. With that said he left back to The Bastion, hopped up into the freighter, and was immediately met with a sarcastic woop from his droid companion.

Kahlil just laughed.

"We'll be fine. Got a couple probes at least so we don't need to jump too blin- We'll be fine." He snickered again as more boops and bips interrupted him, then got into the cockpit. It wasn't much longer before he ended up in space, waiting for Aeshi Tillian 's signal so they could start all of this.

"Won't be too bad for a couple hours work, I think."

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

Aeshi gave a cocky grin and sauntered off to her landing pad at the trade post, tossing the keys to one of the Imyni lounging alongside the landing pad. "You're in charge, man. Don't burn the place down." The avian trilled a laugh and pocketed them with a wave before ambling back inside the trade depot.

She strode up the ramp of the Requiem and tossed herself down in the captain's chair, her co-pilot coming out of the cargo bay with a datapad and a non. Another trill from the Imyni and Aeshi grinned.

"Great, we're good to go." It wasn't long before they were on a slow ascent into orbit, adjusting course to swing around the planet to rendezvous with Kahlil. "Bastian, this is Requiem. En route to your location. ETA is ten minutes."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Kahlil lounged in his captain chair, idly going through a new pack of Galactic Illusionary Gaming to pass the time. The com beeped, pulling his attention from the holo Kjara before he put the cards away. "Read ya loud n' clear Requiem. I'll get a scan going while I wait." Not that they were in any place to start the scan, but at least this way he wouldn't be too bored waiting.

Ten minutes later and sure enough the path ahead was clear. Once Aeshi Tillian dropped out close by he'd pick up the com, grinning.

"Let's get started, then."

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Kahlil Noble

Aeshi sent an acknowledgment through the comms as she spun her chair around to face the navcomp. "Do you have the map data?" She opened up a large-bandwidth channel. "Ready for the transmission. We'll take a look at them all in conjunction and see what we can piece together."

Rumors, myths, legends. She was looking for any old corroborating data when it came to finding a world hidden by a cloak. Assuming, of course, the planet truly existed. But then, she'd been one of the people to find Qi-Ko, which had been nothing more than a dream and a feeling. Yalara at least had records of its existence. But without that feeling in the Force, they would have to do this the old way. Data comparisons, gravitic analysis, probes.

It was a slow, fairly tedious process. That was why every datum helped.