In search of the next story

[Sorel Crieff]

They must have seen the ship at the same time. She saw the flare of sunlight glinting off exposed metal.

It was an old ship, a small light freighter. The sun was kissing the horizon, bathing everything in soft gold light, and Sorel was amazed the ship hadn't yet been discovered and claimed by anyone, as far as she could tell, more than the fact that it was almost entirely uncovered — was that the ship was intact.

There was absolutely damage. She could see that even from this range The cockpit windshield was missing several panes, presumably shattered on impact, and the two that remained were webbed with cracks. The fuselage was breached in a few places that exposed corroded, melted wiring and hunks of missing cable.

“What are we waiting for?” she said to Orihime. “Let’s go.”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

She looked at her arriving at the ship and as Sorel spoke well there wasn't much she could say to argue with that as the padawan got out of the jeep and set it so none of the scavengers would be able to take it away. Her work and attention on some of the parts of the ship. "Alright then, lead the way." She said it crouching down though touching the sand while she looked at the broken cockpit hoping there was somethings in there they could maybe see to identify it. "Oh this is exciting." She was practically vibrating with the force and energies while going forward a little and touching the hull on the way towards the cock pit... Now all that was left was to hope there wasn't something living inside of there or like it was going to start sinking.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

It was a ship and it was in one piece. Unlike visiting an old Temple, or even searching its abandoned rooms, this felt different. This was their find — most likely it had been under sand for years, centuries even. The terrible storms that frequented Jakku had uncovered it for them.

Shadows were starting to stretch from the freighter across the sand. The ship had listed to starboard, either because of the storm or simply the way it had gone down, and a large dune was beginning to sweep over the hull on that side. Another day, a strong wind, and the whole ship might end up hidden again.

Sand slid beneath her feet as she summited the dune. With a running start, Sorel leapt down and landed atop the hull. The exterior of the ship was burning hot, still holding the heat of the day, and she hissed in pain as she pushed herself back to her feet. She could feel the burn through her boots. The ship remained stable. It didn't rock or wobble as she worked her way forward toward the cockpit. One of the missing panes was wide enough for her to slip through. Looking down she saw where the desert had spilled into the freighter, making almost a ramp of sand to aid her descent. She got down on her hands and knees, gritted her teeth when the hot metal burned her, and crawled inside. Once she was through she rolled onto her back and slid the rest of the way down.

She ended up between two seats, the pilot and co-pilot positions. It was much cooler inside and strangely silent. The noise of the desert, which seemed quiet at the best of times, was entirely gone. There was nothing, just stillness. Ahead of her, the cockpit door hung half-open, its panels split and akimbo, and beyond that there was only darkness.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Orihime was following Sorel and being careful she didn't want to get buried so set a beacon and remember their pack with food and some equipment. She could easily cut through the hull with the enhanced power cell her saber used but wanted to be fair and kind while moving. First along the hull behind Sorel and then inside while she put her light on her hip with a small look. "I wonder if there might be tings in here." She was looking at some of the stuff inside as more ideas came to her in ways to try and using the force as she held up a hand clenching her fist to pull at the light and make a small glow ball to stick at the far end so she could go over some of it. "It feels nice to be out of the sun even with the circlet."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

“Well its’s better than the heat and more cosy than an abandoned temple. And who knows what we might find.”

There first thing to be answered was what happened to the crew. But a quick scan indicated the ship was missing its escape pods. The landing cycle, Sorel guessed, had been initiated by the autopilot in an attempt to save the ship.

She made her way with care, working from the cockpit back. Due to the way the ship had settled, moving through it was treacherous though not unmanageable and every now and then she accidentally bumped into Orihime as she lost her balance. She moved slowly, using Orihime’s light. They found the crew quarters and Sorel indicated they should take a cabin each.

“I’ll take this one,” she said and headed into the one on the left.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Looking at her as she offered a smile climbing slowly and carefully while she let Sorel discover the slippery and dangerous places. Not the greatest but it was a little better as she could catch her to fix her footing. As they kept going through she liked the lighting to be able and guide their pathway through the ship. She observed the escape pods, te lack of well life from dying in the desert so that was a good thing when she got near the crew quarters getting a look over at Sorel. "ALright but be careful and shout if you need me for anything." She was more then happy to work on a few things while searching popping into the quarters while she climbed towards one of the bunks and touching it looked around. Even with Sorel it was still so quiet compared to other places she had gone.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel felt a little odd at first. She was used to exploring places that had been stripped of anything valuable — and even mundane items had usually been taken. Here, on the other hand, she was faced with a small room that still contained all of the trappings it would have had when it was flying. The desert heat and the immersion in sand meant the items were well preserved.

Sorel knew a bit about ships. This was most likely a Star Cruiser — a later design that was built to be used by other species. In its day it would have been able to challenge the infamous Star Destroyers. It could take them a very long time to search through the whole ship, most of it was no doubt still hidden under the sand. So Sorel started one room at a time. She stared at the unmade bunk, and felt slightly uncomfortable about checking for personal effects, but decided the previous occupant could have been dead for centuries, so pressed on — albeit with a degree of respect.

She found uniforms — she figured perhaps this was a New Republic ship — and a variety of personal effects as well as an ancient looking blaster. There were also data pads and flimsies dotted around. Sorel accessed the data pads and downloaded their content to a memory chip, keen to see what information they might hold that would be of interest to historians.

Then she moved on to the next cabin, and the next. They were all similar and she had viewed half a dozen before she found one of real interest. It contained no uniforms and on first glance might have been overlooked as unused. But there was something oddly familiar about it, so Sorel checked every drawer and cupboard and finally found what she was looking for. A solitary data pad with a familiar logo on it’s metal reverse.

Spoiler

“Orihime, come here, I think I’ve found something interesting.”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

She could feel something here, less obvious but more in line wit something you felt as you pushed onwards towards some of the larger goals. It gave her a better feeling when going through all of the personal effects of the people here. Looking through all of it carefully and with respect before she heard Sorel call for her. She picked up one of the datapads as well as a belt from the different armors she could find. They were easier to go through while she gathered some of the supplies for grapples or power packs they could use. If nothing else damaging and them and using them as grenades would be a way to go for protection as she held one of the belt digging out sealed food cubes wondering what there might be. She opened the small pack getting in there with Sorel touching it as it was kind of chalky and gooey. "Ehh I found some food."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel glanced at the gross substance in Orihime’s hands. “Food? Fit for whom?” She wrinkled her nose. “Not for me, that’s for sure. Not now, not ever.” She showed Orihime the datapad. “For analysis later. I suspect it’s protected but someone must have access codes to see what it holds. If nothing else, it might make a useful addition to the Temple library. It must be centuries old.”

The remainder of the cabins produced much of the same — personal effects but little of note. Next they found the galley and half the rations had spoiled or gone to dust. But what was more interesting was the green light.

The reactor core should have been dead. There shouldn’t have been any power running to any system onboard. Yet there was a green light blinking. Remembering basic ship schematics, she indicated Orihime should follow her, not sharing why. Finally Sorel found a control panel. There was a light emanating from it. It was weak, but it was there. And it illuminated two words on the button.

Sorel pressed it.

Overhead and all around them, lights flickered to life as auxiliary power was restored to the ship. “I wonder if that means it might still fly?”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Looking at her friend and having a small look on her face in thought. "Well never know you might be really really hungry and these things are supposed to have a long shelf life.... Think of it for science." She said it with a smile on her face as a joke but did smell it before leaving it there while searching with sorel. "And if scientific curiosity doesn't get you then well we'll just have to find something else." She was still looking around though at the different thing to try and see many if they could find the codes. The idea of a reactor still having power as she spoke. "That would be something but I don't know if the ship itself is still good enough to fly or move. This long and there might be more breaches."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel pulled a face at the prospect of trying to eat anything in the name of science, especially when it was centuries old. But the hunt for the reactor changed her focus.

Sorel nodded at the sage advice from Orihime. Power was one thing but flight was another. “With so much under the sand, unless a storm reveals more of the hull, I wouldn’t want to fire up the engines anyhow. It would simply melt the sand into more crackle.”

“But there s a lot more ship to search, there must be an armoury and even a hangar if we’re lucky. Although it’s likely to be full of sand too. Anywhere in particular you’d like to go looking?”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

Looking at Sorel with an idea, she was thinking about if there ere any rooms on the ship she would want to search and... "Maybe find the captain or vip's quarters just in case. I've always been interested in learning about some of the ship designs or what captains think." She was interested in all of it while moving towards the larger rooms of the ship. She wondered what else they might find and with that datapad it meant there had been a jedi here possibly or something from the jedi order that they should search for. "Plus we can investigate that datapad finding whatever might be on it or hidden in the ship." Saying it as she rubbed her hands together reaching out with her senses to search out in case there was anything.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel nodded. “Captains tend to have their cabins away from the crew’s quarters. It may be near the bridge — and we walked past it — or we simply haven’t come across it yet. I wonder if we can find anything that will help us here.”

She scanned a couple of the data pads before chuckling with delight. “Bingo. Here is a deck plan.” She quickly scanned it and pointed at the screen. “Here, next to the armoury at the heart of the ship.” She traced a route from where they were to the captain’s cabin with her finger. “Off we go.”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

That sounded like a plan. "Alright lets go." She was paying attention to it while the deck plans could give them things there might be breaches ot dangerous things they had to deal with. So likely they might have to go through the tubes for maintenance instead just in case. She had her light ready for anything as well as a second one. "So what are you hoping to find on a ship like this?" She was curious about it as well as with all of the things they could do before the jedi padawans went about some of the bigger things. She set a small beacon to work with so they could keep track somewhat of where they were and had been. She would need to work and convert the deck plans so they could work with a better map.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel thought for a moment and then grinned. “Oddly I have no idea what I hope to find. Anything would be a bonus. Something Jedi if I was pressed for an answer. Not necessarily valuable, just…I don’t know…interesting.”

“Good idea with the beacon, no point in searching the same area twice. Had you something specific you’d like to find?”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

"Exactly." She was looking at some of the things while going and wondering what things they could do in the end for some of the things here. Orihime was hoping for a map and to search over with a few more things. "My mother and corvus found a map when they were exploring an ancient ship that led them across the galaxy. Who knows what there might be, what if it is just a map taking us around. i know there is some things out there that were hidden by the jedi and lost to time." She was talking but still exploring with a bow of her head to get some of the bigger things while she opened a room prying it when she tossed a light in to illuminate it and there was a jedi emblem on the banner in there. Orihime straining her eyes while she pried it open with a nod of her head. "In here."

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel liked the idea of some Jedi treasure map. Some secret location — or even one that was known to exist but exact coordinates lost in time. Like the Valley of the Jedi, that remained hidden for centuries.

Then Orihime spotted something and opened a door to their side. Sorel missed the clue herself, so was glad her fellow Padawan spotted it. Their eyes fell upon the Jedi symbol at the same time and the familiar grin spread across Sorel’s face. “I’m not sure what method of deduction you used to pick this room, but I’m sure glad you did. There just has to be something special in here.”

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

"Well maybe one day I'll tell you." She said it with a smile though getting the door opened and she was standing there for a moment longer to make sure it wasn't going to close on her or Sorel when she thought about it and... well she and her sisters didn't really tell anyone how they knew some of the things. THey just let it come off as they had natural talent maybe or at least instinct whens he entered the room and held her light up. "My mother always said I had the instincts to find the lightside. Also that I would know when i was around darksiders. Same with with my sisters." She smiled again a little weaker thinking about them before going to search around the room and work with some of the drawers in case of lost treasure maps.

 

[Sorel Crieff]

Sorel smiled. Some secrets were fun to find out later. Although Sorel herself carried one that she would never share — not today and not one day.

She was aware she was staring into space and so she snapped out of her thoughts and decided to help to search the room. So she systematically went through each drawer, examine the contents, hoping to find a flimsi or a datapad that could lead them to some exotic and secret location.

[member="Orihime Ike"]

 

[Orihime Ike]

[member="Sorel Crieff"]

She was looking at Sorel with a nod of her head to all of it and Sorel seemed to be thinking about something. her inability to be read with the force was something she could work with. Orihime though stopped for a moment and she was glad she was wearing her stuff a it made her look like she wa channeling the force with a nod of her head and she reached out. It was hard to well work with some of the bigger things while she was tracking all that she could acros the room looking under the bed and finding an armband while she touched it. "It looks like there i some circuits here. My mother told me about these, some crime lords used to make them, you can have a key on it and to unlock datapads you slid it over."