Private My Shadow Runs With Me

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily opened her eyes again to look at him. "I think, I understand. You don't want to seek the freedom because you believe you deserve it." She wanted to hug him, but she was warm and comfortable. Sleep was tugging at her but she fought it.

"What if instead of you seeking it, it sought you? If one of those three ways came to you through... I dunno, call it fate, if you will. Would you still turn it down?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"I've wondered that too," Velok said. "I usually think I would accept it. I'm that tired."

He leveled a very large claw at her in a warning that was only half a joke.

"As long as nobody arranged for it, to get around what few principles I have. So don't go calling all your many Jedi friends behind my back, oh Alliance citizen."

The console began to beep a reversion alert. He shifted over and reached around the chair to use the nav panel.

The shuttle dropped into realspace in a starscape like any other, except that off to the left it was far brighter — the stars of Companion Cresh — and off to the right was a vast and clearly visible galaxy. An irregular, organic, poorly-lit station drifted in deep space before them.

"Gadma," he said, grateful for the change of subject. "The core of a dead Yuuzhan Vong worldship."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"Who me? Velok the Youngest, you wound me." she replied with mock indignation "How dare you insinuate I have Jedi friends."

The beeping chased away any remnants of tiredness, as the blue rush of hyperspace faded away.

"Holy shit." she breathed. It was like someone had torn the knot out of a giant tree, each arm of the station twisted and torn like splintered bark. But no tree Lily knew grew that big. She was out of her seat, leaning as close to the viewscreen as she could drinking it all in as they drifted closer. "I can't decide if its beautiful or not."

She set her now empty mug on the console, settling back into the pilot seat to fly them in, doing her best to focus on flying and not the bizarre structure around her. Refuelling would be a must, but beyond anything else, Lily wanted to explore, just a little.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

The Niathal had great sensors; Velok vaguely recalled this model had been designed for survey and exploration work in the years after galactic civilization began to coalesce. Boats like this had aided that coalescence. The sensor screens pulled up a number of airlocks, some more likely to be good prospects than others, just based on small landing lights, dit-dah beacons, and a very limited amount of traffic.

"I don't get the sense this place has any unified traffic control system," he said. "I think we can dock at any of these airlocks, or fly into some of these larger gaps and find pressurized zones in there. From what I'm seeing in these nav files, much of the structure doesn't have atmosphere. Did you find any space suits back there, in case you need to pass through hard vacuum at some point, or there's a decompression, or...?"

He left unsaid that there was no possibility of a suit in his size.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily cast Velok a sideways glance. An airlock meant she'd likely be going in alone, which was something she was used to, yet somehow the idea of leaving the Whiphid behind filled her with a small sense of fear. Like leaving your friend to watch your food and coming back to find they'd eaten it. "Yes but..." there most definitely wasn't a spacesuit big enough for him. "...Lets try one of the bigger spaces, people naturally want to congregate so maybe we'll find more there."

She winced as something scrape the top of the ship, adjusting the thrusters to compensate, here eyes flicked between the sensor readouts and the viewscreen, guiding them carefully through to the largest pocket she could find. there was a little more traffic here, though by normal spaceport standard it was essentially empty. Lily followed a small fighter that looked like it should have been part or a large group, carbon scoring streaked across its hull. It'd either lost or been separated from the rest of its squad. Setting down was easy enough with ample space between her and the next.

She flicked through a power down, knowing they'd need it for a refuel. "I'll go get on one of those spacesuits, just in case we do need to go a little further."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

While Lily Rhodes suited up, Velok hastened through the airlock into the station. For the first time in hours he straightened to his full height.

This part of Gadma Station was all modular prefabs and salvage. Only the occasional gap in the ceiling, walls, and deck revealed the dead surfaces of the Yuuzhan Vong worldship this had been. He chipped away at it with a claw and found it something like a cross between wood and bone: hard, tough, certainly weaker than hullmetal.

There were people and droids around, but few. A rusty protocol unit tottered forward.

"Welcome to Gadma Station," it said. "Would you like to purchase navigational data, station maps, food, water, supplies, recreational substances, or armaments? We accept wupiupi and a range of other standard physical currency."

He swapped a few stray coins for a pair of station maps, one for him and one for Lily.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

The spacesuit was surprisingly sleek, easier to maneuverer in. with the helmet clipped to her belt she slid through the airlock with ease, sealing it shut behind her. Accosting the nearest droid she arranged for a refuel before catching up to Velok, tiptoeing to peer over her arm at the maps he'd purchased.

"This place feels weird." Between the bizarre material and the scarce population, Lily felt a little on edge. Her small stature had always made it easy for her to disappear among crowds but here she felt exposed. He initial excitement had been rapidly replaced with suspicion and she felt her self gravitating just a little closer to the Velok's imposing frame as if seeking some form of protection.

Focusing on the map instead she pointed at what looked like a small trade hub. "Maybe we can scout these out, see if there's someone who can offer a good price for our little haul?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

​

Despite a lifetime or two bumming around the Outer Rim's least reputable ports, the trade hub area turned out just excessively grim. This was a rough place by any possible estimation, the absolute armpit of the Unknown Regions.

Maybe twenty-five years back, the first expedition to Companion Cresh had found this worldship core and begun setting up prefabs and pressurizing sectors. Stragglers and opportunists had expanded the station in haphazard ways. Nobody controlled this station; nobody with resources had its best interests at heart.

There was a trading post guarded by a couple of Weequays with serious muscle. They gave Velok the eye and let him and Lily enter the post without hassle. The proprietor was a greasy human. Velok let Lily take point on bargaining and began to wander the shop, keeping close attention on affairs at the front counter.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily's tension eased a little as they made it into the trading hub. These were people she understood, people living on the edge. Okay so Coruscant wasn't exactly the edge, but there was an edge of desperation in the air here that was so tangible she could taste it, and it tasted just a little like home. She rested her forearms on the front counter. "Hey," she cocked her head on offered the greasy human a smile. He clicked his tongue in response, flicking the ash away from his half done cigarette, clearly not in the mood for pleasantries. Fine by her.

Reaching to her hip, she set one of the portable scanners she'd brought for an example stock on the counter between them. "Something you might be interested in?" He stubbed out the cigarette and stepped forward, picking up the device, clearly intrigued. "Seems like something that might sell like hotcakes out here. Top of the range, barely used, programmed for environment scans."

"This the only one?"

"Maybe."

He snorted in response. "I can give you thirty for this one."

Lily wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Forty for one or, if you want three more, we can come to a deal?"

The haggling was fast, easy almost. They settled on a 140 for a set of four, meeting in the middle for unit price. the deal sealed with a handshake and Lily did her best not to bounce happily to Velok with a little purse full of coin. "They'll swing by the ship before we leave to collect the others. You hungry?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok's stomach rumbled in a way that shivered dust from the ceiling. "I'll let that be my answer," he said. "Well done."

Five minutes put them at a slopshop that served the local equivalent of delicacies: various bits of surviving Yuuzhan Vong biotech. For his part, Velok procured a whole pot of amphistaff gumbo. The snake-weapons had been chopped into sections the size of his thumb joint and stewed for hours over a basic cooking surface. The power glands conferred their own unique sour-hot spice to the dish once rendered down this far. He crunched vertebrae happily.

"I don't want to settle in here and I don't think you do either," he said. "We could cram ourselves back into the shuttle, maybe after a night's rest-" No more than a night, or the odds of some kind of attack would rise, his curse being what it was. "-and keep moving back toward known space. The easiest, safest route, though not by much, takes us through Companion Besh, Firefist. The big convoy that came out here launched from there, building off a couple of Outer Rim Coalition expeditions. There's at least two colony worlds on file, one former ORC, one Nagai, and then we could take the Nagai Trade Spine from Firefist to our home galaxy. Now that said...Firefist has an awful lot of interesting sights, by all accounts. Safe corners, opportunities. Might be some worthwhile places there."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily's legs swung happily from the high stool, her own small bowl of gumbo all but devoured, she sucked the marrow from the vertebrae, only half listening to Velok. Her attention one the few other bodies that lingered, bent over their own bowls of food in hushed conversation. She forced her full attention back to Velok when she realised he was looking for some form of response.

"Sleep, move on and see what interesting things pop up along the way. Seems like just another day to me, I'm in." With a belly full of food and a pocket full of coin, the idea of seeing just a little more of their companion galaxies seemed a little less daunting. She flagged down the food vendor, ordering another pot of gumbo to go, might as well have some on the shuttle, even if it would only last them for one more good meal. "We should head back, vendors gonna come looking for the rest of his scanners soon."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

He had his worries about that - both the visit and the fact that the vendor's people knew where their shuttle was docked. Those worries persisted as they wrapped up their meal and headed back.

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

The shuttle was just as they'd left it. Apparently the vendor had a reputation to uphold, or just didn't feel like crossing a nine-hundred-pound Whiphid with nowhere to go and nothing to lose. Velok keyed the hatch and started digging out the modules that Lily Rhodes had bargained off.

"We should start thinking about fuel," he said. "We've got enough to get us down the road to Firefist's closest edge. There are nav beacons leading to a few little ports and colonies. The nav data we have is pretty basic, but should be more than enough to get us in range of better options."

He straightened up as the vendor and the two Weequays came around the nearest prefab corner, armed but not obviously hostile.

"Here you go," said Velok, gesturing at the modules. "No issues, good business all round."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

As Velok dug out the modules, Lily set the big pot of gumbo on the table in the small galley, fingers snatching a piece of amphistaff meat from the surface and popping it into her mouth. She heard Velok talking and headed back out to see the vendor and his thugs had arrived. The tension in the air was palpable. Lily put on her best smile and slid in front of Velok.

"All working and in the same condition as the one I left you with, see." she plucked one up and turned it on handing it to the vendor. He hesitated for just a moment, before taking it, his eyes flicking from Velok behind and back to her. He shrugged, muttering something along the line of "can't be too careful" gestured for one Weequay to collect the others and moved away.

"This place is intense." She made a mental note to move about with a blaster pistol on their next station. Just to be safe.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok was keenly aware that he'd sacrificed his lightsaber to get off the Longjumper's Mark and had no other weapon. Oh, he could punch, crush, Force-push, but all of those would either be tactile bloodshed or out him as a Force-sensitive. Besides, it wouldn't be hard for locals to outmaneuver him in close quarters. If they acquired some resources at their next stop, a means of defense was rising fairly high on his list.

"I'm going to strip out the copilot seat if I can. Squatting behind it and reaching around it won't work long-term. I'll keep it intact and shove it in the hold; maybe someone'll buy it at our next port." He eyed the patchy metal and dead Vong biotech that comprised the ceiling. "Somewhere with a sky, I hope. I've spent my share of time aboard ships and in stations, but...days like this, I miss the ice plains of Toola, or the Temorzhai Ridge on Gertafuu Six."

He cracked his neck and began, resignedly, fitting himself back into the shuttle.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"Sky would be nice, maybe an ocean too?" Lily followed Velok in, once she was sure the vendor wasn't coming back. "Maybe we can trade the seat for one that fits you...or steal a bigger boat?" He'd mentioned Whiphid raid vessels before, maybe they could find something in his size instead of hers. She sealed the airlock behind them. If they were going to travel together, they might as well both be comfortable and Lily could find comfortable in the most uncomfortable places, it was easy to do when your standards were low.

She wasn't sure at what point this had become less about getting Lily home and more about enjoying each others company on some spontaneous adventure, but she wasn't complaining. She liked the whiphid, she could learn a lot from him, she might even walk away with a friend at the end of it all. Something she'd not had for a long time.

"I'm sure we can figure out some other things too to accommodate you, its a long journey after all."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Similar questions weighed on Velok as he checked the copilot's seat for electronic connections, ripped them and the seat loose, and made the last wires safe unprofessionally but effectively.

He knelt where the seat had been and fired up the navicomputer and sensors. "To clear the air, this ship is yours so far as I'm concerned. I'm happy to fly with you. I need space and I'll find it in time. Maybe that looks like a bigger ship, or a corner of some freighter's bay, or a patch of land on one of these moons you hear about that's never seen people. I'd like to work toward something again. It's been too long."

The screens were clear. He thought about popping out to buy some nav data from that droid they'd seen before. But nav data in places like this could have bad routes, or hazards left off, as part of operations to scuttle and salvage travellers. Better to stick with the few vetted coordinates in the system and work from there.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily removed the spacesuit while Velok set to work on the co-pilot chair, returning it back to its locker before leaning on the cockpit doorframe, hands shove deep into her pockets. "Well, in that case, you're welcome to stay as long as you like." She looked down at her feet, shuffling them uncomfortably.

"Its, uh... nice to travel with company for a change. Gets lonely." She shrugged. "Who knows, maybe you're curse won't get you in one of these galaxies." she stifled a yawn. It'd been a long day. "I'm gonna get some sleep, get an early start." Pushing off the door frame she shuffled off towards on of the crew rooms, smiling to herself as she went.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Rest well, Lily-named-for-a-plant."

The Toglannoq had a range of talents in the Force drawn from survival in frigid wilderness worlds. A Toglannoq adept could stay awake in the teeth of hypothermia and shock. Velok applied that art and settled in to ponder hyperspace. The intergalactic void was a straightaway, arguably. A few jumps, the right long jumps with the right gear between the right beacons laid down by Cotan Sar'andor 's expedition, could take them from Gadma to Firefist. Not easy things to get right even on familiar gear. He put a little more strength toward his technique for staying awake and clear-headed.

With that clarity came memory, some of it very bad. He sat there and stared into the blue.

---

Around the time Lily Rhodes woke, Velok eased the shuttle out of hyperspace. Firefist blazed in front of them, too close to be any clearer than a diffuse swathe of brilliant stars across most of their field of view. The comscan screens showed the next beacon in the nav trail, deeper into Firefist; a Tof beacon; a Nagai beacon; a Maccabree beacon; an old ORC beacon indicating a colony world.

"We have options," he said over his shoulder.

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily slept deeper and heavier than she ever recalled doing, having a nine hundred pound whiphid watching your back seemed to work well enough to turn off all of Lily's normal survival instincts. That combined with a full belly worked wonders for her REM cycle. Taking a minute to run her fingers through her hair before giving up and shoving it up into a pony tail she shuffled barefoot into the cockpit as they reverted out of hyperspace.

"I see that." she moved forward casting him a quick glance. he hadn't moved from where she left him, which meant it was unlikely that he had slept. "Well, we need fuel, a colony world will have that and more. We can do a quick pit stop, rally together any other supplies we might need and try our luck with one of the others." She shrugged. "I'll follow you lead."

Velok Brokentusk