Miss Me?

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt looked over everything once or twice. He wasn't too surprised to see that most of the systems were either old or ancient, with some even still having original parts. He frowned for a moment and shifted himself so that he could get a better look at one of the inertial dampeners. There was a slight crack in one of the cases, though the electronics seemed to be fine.

"Just give it all to me." The courier said with a half distracted voice.

This wouldn't be easy to fix, or rather, it wouldn't be easy to fix permanently. Perhaps when they were on Naboo he would be able to do a better job, but for now all he could do was patch the system long enough to let them fly and sleep properly.

The first step would be resetting the system.

The second would be to make sure they didn't blow up from Kurt accidentally hitting the hyperdrive.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Alright." The blonde said as she looked to find something vaguely resembling a tool box that she could put all of the items into without them floating away from her while she attempted to bring everything to Kurt. It would take a minute or two but Jamie was able to secure each of the tools into the small box and drift her way over towards Kurt.

"Here you go." Her hand released the box, allowing it to float slowly down towards him before she made her way back to the small bench area and sat herself atop it, holding herself so she didn't drift away. Her eyes watched Kurt while he worked, a small smile on her face, admiring him. "You know a little about a lot, huh?"

For a moment she studied him, then her eyes fell to her feet as she amused herself by swaying her legs about in the weightlessness. "I used to think I knew myself quite well. You've shown me that there's a lot about myself I don't know." Perhaps that sounded strange to him, but it was pretty clear to her. "I thought I knew exactly what I wanted, what I was going to be and do in life. I thought I knew so much about the galaxy, even having never explored it, just through reading. But it's just not the same as experiencing it."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt grabbed the tools, fiddling with the hydro-spanner for a moment so he could adjust it for the correct size that he needed. "I do."

The answer was a quick one.

"Dad always said it's good to know a little about a lot and a lot about one thing." That one thing for Kurt was piloting. "You don't need to know it all, just the important bits, from there on out you can ask the experts. Generally there's always going to be one guy that knows his stuff, you just have to find him...or her."

He said the last part with a smile, then ducked below the deck. There was a slight ratcheting, then a stop as Kurt listened to what Jamie was saying. He paused his work for a moment, thinking and then popping back up so that he could look at her while he spoke.

"The Galaxy is a huge place. It's impossible to even know the half of it, but you learn as you go." He smiled again.

That was a lesson that he himself had learned early on.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"You got quite a head start on the learning as you go bit." She joked, shrugging her shoulders. "I think I might be a bit late to that party."

At eighteen she knew only a few things: proper etiquette and manners, posture, how to articulate, dress, and sword fight. A rather small, narrow-minded list of proficiencies on the grand scale of things. Put bluntly, she could speak, display herself, and swing a very particular style of sword well and little else. The whole Force thing was just an unrefined, accidentally stumbled upon gift. Meanwhile Kurt, a few years older, was able to pilot, race, fight, repair, and generally understood the way of the galaxy in a way that Jamie likely would never quite grasp.

While appreciative of his gifts and talents, in the back of her mind she was constantly reminded that she was significantly less useful overall in their relationship than he. And it was that thought that constantly pushed its' way to the forefront of her thoughts, making her wonder what he really saw in her at all that he couldn't get elsewhere. It was a question she really wanted an honest answer for, but one that she was terrified to ask, and equally as afraid to hear what the answer might end up being if Kurt had to actually think about it in any great depth.

"So how bad does it look?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Not too bad." He admitted, ducking below the deck one more time to fiddle with the Inertial dampener. "I can fix it, at least for as long as this flight lasts. We might have a glitch here and then, but I think we'll be okay as long as nobody throws us in a tractor beam."

Or they didn't run into a blackhole.

Both of those things were unlikely though, and Kurt had every confidence in his own piloting skills. He frowned for a moment, shifting slightly so that his arm could reach back further into the controls. There were a few loose wires, probably one of the reasons that this thing wasn't quite working. He maneuvered the hydro-spanner slightly to the left, reaching back to connect the cables before slowly withdrawing himself from the machinery. A frown pulled at his lips. "Okay babe, Hang on."

The repair hadn't been difficult, in fact it had been mostly simple. As he had suspected the old man had likely never even really thought of the gravity on this ship. More then likely the Alien had unplugged the Inertial dampener and removed some of it's components simply because it was generally one of the last things anyone ever thought about on a starship, well, anyone but Kurt. The Messa had three inertial dampeners, mostly to increase and decrease gravity at the drop of a dime.

He waited for Jamie to get situated, then pulled the small lever on the machine.

In an instant the floating tools came crashing down, Kurt dropped to the floor, and with a slight clang the metal paneling next to his head nearly came crashing down on him.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie's rear made a small thump on the top of the bench as Kurt reactivated the gravity.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, not quite realizing that the full pull of the force would be so sudden. For some reason she imagined a slow fall from the small distance she had been holding herself above the bench at, given that they were still in space, even if it was artificial gravity. One more thing she could say she learned! Her attention shifted from the surprise of gravity to the clang that the metal panel made as it fell directly next to Kurt's face.Quickly she pushed herself off the table with her hands and dropped to the floor to check on him.
"Are you alright?! Did that hit you?!"

Jamie pushed the steel plate a bit to the side, further away, leaning over him to check for possible cuts or scrapes. He'd been banged up quite enough lately and the blonde wasn't sure she could handle seeing him injured further. Seeing that he was fine she sat beside him so that he'd have enough room to maneuver himself back upright.

"Good job!" The praise was followed by a kiss on the forehead before she extended a hand to help him sit all the way up again.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He pulled himself up, though the sharp pain in his back was an immediate reminder that things weren't going to be entirely painless for their four day trip. Kurt grimaced slightly. He hadn't really thought about the after effects of the wound very much at all, just knew that it was there due to the constant pain. Now however he thought about whether or not he'd have a scar, whether or not he'd have that odd phantom pain on his spine.

There had been a few racers with that, phantom pain.

Most of the time it had been with amputations. One of them would lose a hand or an entire arm, then for the rest of their lives they'd feel an odd sort of sensation where the appendage used to be. A few times thought Kurt had seen others grimace and even shirk away due to pain from gashes or other long healed wounds. For some odd reason, the idea of that scared him. The Courier frowned for a moment, then slowly began to shake his head as he tried to dispel the thought.

"Let's find the bedroom." Nubian's were generally quite nice when it came to their sleeping quarters. The ship wasn't designed to house many, usually just one aristocrat and some servants, but the room that was designed for the aristocrat was meant to be quite nice. Kurt hoped that the old man hadn't changed the bedroom too much.

He really needed to lay down.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Take it easy." Jamie urged, seeing the pain in his eyes and the twitch of his cheeks. She knew it was the lacerations in his back. We should have stayed in the hospital longer... "Here, let me help you up." Taking Kurt's hands she gently and carefully aided him in standing up slowly. "You're not exactly ready to be doing this kind of work you know. You don't want to open those cuts again. Besides, -" She paused, taking his hand into hers and lacing her fingers between his. "Who will pilot this rickety old thing if you can't?" Leaning in she lifted herself up on the tips of her toes and kissed his cheek. "Anyway, bedroom. Let's go get you taken care of."

A slow walk through the galley and common areas outside of the engineering bay and around a few corridors and hatchways would lead them to the main passenger suite. As Jamie slid her finger over the entryway button the two half doors parted ways and granted the pair entry to a rather spacious room. Luxury back in the day was still rather extravagant, even by the current standards. The bed was large and looked to be incredibly soft, the canopy provided for extra privacy, a silken curtain surrounding the entirety of all four sides. "Wow, this is nicer than I expected." Jamie remarked, quite obviously impressed with the accommodations.

"Here, lay on your stomach and relax. I will go get fresh bandages and antibiotics to redress that wound, okay?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt hobbled to the bedroom, letting out a whistle as he saw what was laid out before him. He had expected some luxury, but this? This was a bit out of it for him too. Truth be told Kurt had never been in a room quite this fancy before. A whistle passed his lips. "Pretty swanky."

That was an understatement.

As the Courier crawled forward onto the bed he suddenly found himself half sinking into it. He gave a slight recoil of surprise, his eyes growing wide as he pressed his palm into the mattress. A grin passed over his lips, his head slowly turned towards Jamie. Her gave her a small smile, then nodded towards the bed.

"It's a water bed." He laughed. "Or something like it anyway."

This would be interesting.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Oh?" She said, taking a few steps closer to the bed and pressing down to feel the small wave that it created, sending ripples throughout as Kurt's body rose and fell as it passed beneath him. Jamie laughed, having always wanted one herself. It was like sleeping on a cloud in a way, if not a bit difficult to get out of once you had climbed in.

"These are nice!" Turning to face the opposite direction she let her back fall on to the bed, sending another wave of ripples over the bed before using her feet to push herself up towards the headboard. The blonde then rolled onto her side to face Kurt and smiled back at him.

"We need to take care of that back. Those bandages need changing."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Yeah." Kurt agreed, feeling an odd sort of itchiness begin to crawl across his back. He wasn't quite sure how bad it all was back there, he knew that it hurt, and he knew that he could at the very least still feel everything, but he imagined that the wound itself was quite nasty.

Manka cat's weren't exactly known to be friendly in that area.

In truth though Kurt had realized that they'd been lucky. Manka cats were fierce predators, but they weren't like Acklay's or Nexu. They wouldn't hunt down prey once they were hurt, Nexu? They would come after you at the drop of a hat. Those things were vicious, evil, and known to bite whatever and whenever they could. If Kurt and Jamie had encountered one of those things he doubted that they would have made it out alive like they did, especially considering that they mostly hunted in packs.

He shook slightly.

The thought of being eaten alive made him nervous. "Help me take off my shirt, will you?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She gave a quick nod and an "Mhm." The girl then sat upright, behind Kurt and helped slowly remove the shirt, taking care to make sure that it didn't snag or catch on the bandage as it was taken off. The wound was hard to look at, not in a way that disgusted Jamie, but because she felt a deep sense of guilt for how it had happened, knowing full well it was entirely her fault for his pain.

"Okay. Sit still." Easier said than done given the platform they had chosen to sit on was anything but firm. "It's likely that the bandage itself is partially stuck to the cuts, so we'll have to go slow so that it doesn't re-open. Try not to move though. I don't want to make it worse than it has to be."

Jamie went about retrieving the fresh bacta and bandages before returning to Kurt's side, placing them neatly beside her as she kneeled behind him. With a particular amount of caution and grace she very slowly began removing the long strips from shoulder to lower back. Every few seconds she would pause to cut away the gauze so that it didn't get caught, or weigh down his back. Once the blonde reached the end of the wound she set the trash on the floor and examined him for a moment. She wasn't a doctor by any stretch, but she knew what infections looked like. "It looks clean, so that's good." She propped herself up a bit higher so that she could kiss Kurt's neck, giving the cut a few moments to be hit with fresh air. "It's going to leave a pretty good scar, but we can always just say you saved me by fighting off the huge monster cat." She laughed, hoping to make light of the rather bad situation.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I doubt it'll come up much." Kurt said with a smile. "I don't generally go running around without my shirt."

Not the least because he was a pilot.

He had expected a scar, though he still had no idea just how bad it would all be when it finished healing. Truth be told, he didn't particularly care. The bacta would make sure that the wound would be closed within a few days, hopefully before they arrived on Naboo, and after that things would go back to normal. For now he was still in a bit of pain, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle, especially considering that he had Jamie here to console him.

That always helped.

"Besides, chicks dig scars." He half turned to her and winked, teasing her a bit but reassuring her by reaching around himself and giving her a light squeeze of her leg.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

There was no helping the laughter that followed Kurt's comment. "They do, huh? Then I guess I'd better keep you covered up." She remarked with a gentle poke of her index finger against his side. "Wouldn't want you being chased by girls all over the galaxy." Another small laugh found its' way out before she leaned forward, her teeth pulling at Kurt's ear as a bit of a tease. "Right, now let's patch you up." The blonde returned to a more serious attitude so that she was focused on making sure that the bandages were placed correctly and that no dirt found its' way in as she was setting them. Three long patches, one for each claw's trench that had been made in Kurt's skin were laid, followed by a single wide overlap to seal out any possibility for infection.

It didn't look pretty, but in a few days he would hopefully be free of any pain and have full mobility again. That was all she could hope for. Perhaps then they could get back to normalcy and continue enjoying the company of one another while on Naboo. Naboo...She thought to herself for a few minutes just how that was going to go when they arrived. Jamie wondered how her parents were going to react with her return, especially with the person they'd had jailed for her apparent abduction now arm in arm with her. That would likely require a thorough explanation.

"All done." A small smile came forward as she laid back on the bed to see his face. "Should be good until tomorrow." Her arms held out, fingers curling back and forth in silent plea for him to lay on her so she could hug him.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Tomorrow.

For a brief moment he wondered just how they were supposed to tell that.

Awkwardly enough Kurt had earlier noticed that all of the clocks on the ships were broken, at the very least all the ones that were in the cockpit. It wasn't like the Chrono's were super important, but it did make the whole thing a little bit...silly. Of course that fact would be withheld form Jamie for now, if only because he wanted to see just how long it would take for her to notice the same thing. He smiled slightly as he stretched, his arm reaching towards one of the fancy banisters as he stretched. "Okay."

Kurt said through half a yawn.

"Why don't we explore our new ship a bit?" He asked. "It's not huge, but there's a few rooms we haven't seen."

That was true of every ship of this type. These vessels had been made to be the height of luxury and class, one quite literally couldn't get any fancier then they already were, and that meant there was always something hidden or tucked away.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Okay!" She said excitedly. "As long as you're feeling up to it, that is."

Hopping back down to the floor she stretched her arms outwards and let out a yawn. "Maybe we should make a list of things that need fixing while we have a look around. I'm sure we can find what we need to get things back up to speed on Naboo."

The blonde gave a rather careless shrug, "Or we can maybe trade it for another ship. Collectors like old things like this right? Might be worth something to someone." Ships weren't really anything that held her interest, so the exact value of antiques such as this weren't too high on her radar. Jamie was more paranoid that something was on the verge of breaking in a ship this old, something that wouldn't be noticed until it was too late. There was a certain level of comfort in knowing that the ship you were traveling in was at least manufactured in the last hundred years.

Her fingers pressed lightly against the door lock, retracting the door upwards to allow them passage back into the corridor. Turning back Jamie grabbed Kurt by the hand and tugged him out and into the hall.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt took on an almost offended look.

"Trade it?" That wasn't what he wanted to do with the ship at all. Something like this...it could be great. They could fix it up, make it great again, it wouldn't even be that hard. A few wires here, maybe a new hyperdrive there, a little bit of an adjustment to the engines and everything would be golden. Of course most of the interior would also have to be replaced, but he could fix that in a few afternoon. He frowned for a moment and then shook his head. "I can fix it."

That was an insistence.

This ship was a beautiful thing, he didn't want to see it sold. "Besides, It's a good memory isn't it?"

It had after all been practically gifted to them.

They weren't newly weds or anything, but it was a sort of gift given in the spirit of love. The Old Alien junker had seen Kurt and Jamie as what they were, a couple in love. The ship had been given to them partly because of that, and it wasn't something Kurt wanted to give away.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie raised a hand and turned her head slightly as her eyes shifted, submitting to the tone and gesture Kurt was giving that indicated his disinterest with getting rid of the ship. "Okay, okay." She let the arm fall back to her side.

"I was just saying it would be less time spent fixing another ship if we just traded it for something newer."

The blonde wasn't too sentimental when it came to ships. So long as it didn't get her killed it was fine by her. If Kurt wanted to spend the time fixing up an old junker than she wouldn't object, even if she thought it was a waste of time. To her it was the memory of the moment that held sentiment, not so much the ship itself. Pictures and holovids always held sentimental value to her, because those were captured moments of life that would live forever. A ship, transport, or tool could never hold that type of meaning in her eyes.

"It's a good memory." She agreed. "That's what matters to me. Not the ship itself."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Well." He started with a smile, half limping as a pain lanced through his back. "Think of what this ship could be!"

The Nubian was quite nice after all.

Sure she had some years on her, but everything could be fixed easily enough. They could really work this vessel into something great, more than a simple transport really, and Jamie didn't have a ship during training. Sure it would be a bit weird if she went back to Keira with one...but maybe she could stash it, that way she could come and see him whenever she wanted. Brilliant idea really. "Just needs a new coat of paint."

Among other things.

"Look." He pointed towards one of the smaller doors at the end of the hall. it was almost hidden, as though it had been part of the wall.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

A smirk formed on her face, followed promptly by a silly, sarcastic look of forced thinking and pondering. The girl raised one hand, placing it on her temple, scrunching her forehead as her eyes focused narrowly towards Kurt, as if straining to think. "Hmmmmmm" she hummed between closed lips.

"Still looks like a dusty old relic from seven generations ago to me!" Out came the tongue as she continued wandering along beside Kurt until he pointed at the door to another room. Jamie raised a hand and lightly scratched the side of her head. It looked strange to her, as if it wasn't meant to be there originally. "Is that normal?" She asked, curiously. The door looked notably smaller than any other, and not out of necessity either. There was certainly plenty of space to cut away a full sized entryway. So why in the Force would it have been made so strangely?

"Was someone too lazy to finish making it the proper dimensions? Or was that never intended to be a room in the first place?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]