Riptide

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"Well, reckon we gotta get what bit of luck we have together, eh?" it was an attempt at a joke, to keep it lighthearted. Truth be told, even Kaile wasn't too sure what they were going to be able to do.

"I'm going to do a search. Maybe some hangers or something around we can tuck the Messa in. " swiveling in her chair Kaile flashed the pilot a brief smile as she saw him come up the ladderwell. His hair was damp, a little bit pale from the cold, but with jammies he at least was comfortable.

"Want my blanket?" she offered, knowing that he was likely very cold.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Hangars?" He sounded confused. "Why?"

They didn't need hangars.

"We'll just go straight up above the storm and into space." It wasn't like they needed to stay on this planet, their business here was concluded, and in all honesty he'd rather be out of the core. This place was still dangerous, as evidenced by the veritable starship graveyard that hung around at the edge of the system. He had no idea what had happened, nor did he have any idea if another fleet like that would pop up any time soon, and thus it was better to get the kark out of there.

It wasn't like flying to a hangar was any safer.

Either way they would have to go through the storm, but at least if they went into space they could get out of here. Plus the higher they went the less of a problem debris became. Not to mention there was less of a chance of hitting a mountain.

"I'm alright though." He told her in regards to the blanket. "Heats on."

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kaile blinked, then burst out in a light laugh. "You're the one who didn't want to leave after I suggested we burn atmo and try to." she reminded him, watching him as if he were being silly. Maybe the cold got to him.

"After you said you rather sit tight I recommended that if we do that then it is best we sit low." Kurt hadn't mentioned anything otherwise to suggest he was going along with her original plan. In fact, he said okay after she recommended them finding a place to secure the Messa so it wouldn't get damaged.

"You feeling okay?"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"I'm fine." He blinked. "I agreed with you after you said it wouldn't take much to burn through atmo."

"I told you it would be rough. I didn't say we wouldn't do it. Are you feeling okay?" He had made it pretty clear that he had agreed with her, having said alright and telling her that it would be difficult. Perhaps his tone had gotten lost in translation, or maybe The Messa's odd acoustics had warped what he'd said.

Either way he was well on board with burning through the storm.

She was right in what she had said. They would either have to keep low and move in the storm, or cut through the atmosphere. The latter option was faster and safer.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Now he had switched the attention over to the Lorrdian. That abrupt question brought a slight pink flush to her cheeks.

Am I okay? Well, let's consider the fact that she was still feeling a bit glum. A droid told her she might be pregnant and she also didn't know who the father might be. Then there was a whole mess of affairs after that that would also be part of the whole.

"Well, let's get going then." she shuffled, not answering the question just yet. Kaile didn't want to lie to Kurt, but she also didn't want to tell him what was going on until she figured it all out by herself.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt wasn’t an idiot. He might have been a bit dense at times, and wasn’t the quickest when learning new things, but he could tell that something was bothering Kaile. He frowned for a moment, but then ultimately decided that it would be best to address it when they weren’t in the middle of a massive storm.

”Alright, buckle up.” Kurt told her as he slipped into the pilots chair.

The engines were already hot, so basically...well they just had to go straight up. That might have seemed easy, but with the wind racing over the valley and the debris flying everywhere...Kurt didn’t know if they would actually be able to make it up there without any trouble at all. He shifted slightly and then took the control, Kaile strapping herself in.

”Hang on.” He said as he pressed the engines forward. ”It’s going to be bumpy.”

The Messa bounded into the air, swooping forward, and then immediately up as its base repulsors pushed it into a vertical flight.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kaile quickly snapped in her security straps. She wasn't taking any changes. Already the wind was doing a number to the small freighter and her belly as well. Nausea rose. Oh please don't let me chuck up my breakfast. A little paler and with a quick nod, the Lorrdian braced her arms along the arms rest and curled her fingers in.

Swooop! The force of engines shoved her back into her seat. The entire cabin was shaking and it felt as if her teeth would vibrate out. Closing her eyes, Kaile attempted to think of happy thoughts. She had every trust in Kurt's abilities, but that didn't stop that free falling sensation from curdling her belly and making her head spin.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

Kurt claimed to be one of the best pilots in the galaxy, and it was a claim that many would support.

He didn’t often fly combat missions, at least not anymore, but there was a way that he moved a ship. A way that seemed to be graceful and subtle beyond all believe. Like a ballerina dancing upon a stage. The guys in his squadron had often joked that he’d been a force user, doing things only Jedi were capable of.

It wasn’t true of course, but...well he really was quite good.

He’d flown through a dozen battles, become a double ace, he knew what he was on about. Yet this storm, this storm was something else. The wind seemed to tug and pull, the air itself seemingly trying to kill them. His fingers gripped the controls tightly, his knuckles whitening as he pushed them up...up and finally above the clouds.

The blissful rays of sunlight shone in on them, and in an instant Kurt let out a breath of relief.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

The glow of the distant sun was a relief. Even the sight of the creepy asteroid field perked Kaile's heart. The nausea was still there and in the turbulent flight, she'd kept that knuckle-white grip on her arms rest.

Breathing somewhat easier, if a little paler, Kaile shot Kurt a half smile.

"Reckon now all we gotta do is get out of this system." and good riddance at that.

"Careful of them asteroid fields... still not too keen on them." she reminded him, moving forward to review the sensor array.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"I'm more worried about the debris." He pointed out with a frown.

She was right again about the asteroids, but those...well those generally didn't have surprises. The Fleets though, the broken ships and the dozens of pieces of wreckage...that could be far more surprising. Space battles created an awful lot of destruction, and that destruction tended to linger for years and years until finally someone came and cleaned it up.

"Unexploded ordinance." He pointed out. "Or maybe MYNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCKS!"

Kurt very suddenly jabbed Kaile in the side with a finger.

He knew something was wrong, but talking about it just yet didn't seem right. So for now he would stick with making her laugh.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

Kaile gave a sudden yelp of surprise, jumping in her chair and bringing her hands up as if to block any further attack.

"Oh my ---you brat!" she gasped out, eyes going wide only to brighten in mild laughter. Kurt had a way of bringing her around, but a tickle fight was one that would get them both distracted to the point that it was likely not going to be safe.

"Don't you dare!" the strawberry blonde warned, hands moving as if ready to block his next move.

"Ain't no mynocks around here anyways!"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

He eased back into his chair. "Don't be so sure about that."

Mynocks were everywhere.

"They're all over the place." His tone remained light-hearted, though he was serious. "This place must be like a feast for them, all those reactors now slowly going cold, the debris they get to munch on. I've always wondered how they get all over the place."

Probably by hanging onto the underside of freighters and the like. "We used to catch them at the spaceport back on Tatooine."

Kaile had always like hearing stories about his past, whether it was his time in the military or growing up on Tatooine.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"Along with the womprats?" Kaile teased back, feeling a little bit better. Color brightened her cheeks but only a tad. Whatever bothered her wasn't truly gone, just left at the back of her mind for now.

"They just looking for a meal that's all." although they could be a real pest to be sure. Too many of them and they'd have problems of their own.

"Wouldn't be surprised to find salvage crews or others looking to use that debris as their home away from home."

A pause.

"Heard from your ma and pa lately?"

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Probably will soon." He doubted that they had arrived just yet, mostly because Kaile hadn't seen any news about a battle in this system. She would have said something earlier, especially considering what they had dropped out of hyperspace to.

He turned slightly as they drifted through the debris.

They wouldn't be able to jump to hyperspace until they managed to clear the remnants of the fleets. Hyperspace wasn't another dimension or anything, it was just...well your ship going very very fast in a single simple straight line. If you jumped into hyperspace with something in your way, you were going to hit it, which generally caused an explosion large enough to crack an entire planets core. Not something that Kurt or Kaile wanted today.

"My parents?" Kurt chirped. "My mom sent me something the other day."

He shrugged. "That's it though."

Kurt sent them a message about once a month, just a simple hello and such.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

"What she send you?" Kaile would ask curiously, bringing her knees up to her chest to get a bit comfortable. Nothing on the sensors save the debris; but even that was playing a bit of havoc on really getting an idea what was out there.

"Just a message?" honestly, she enjoyed her time with Kurt's parents even if it had been brief. She still felt a little bit guilty on how she left too, especially with how well they had treated her.

Hopefully they didn't hate her or anything.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Just a hello." Kurt said as he flew them through the debris field.

"Some news about back home." Tatooine was an ever changing world, that was for sure. "She think the Alliance is going to come take over soon."

Kurt himself doubted that somewhat, if only because Tatooine was still fairly isolated, at least since the Techno Union had fallen. "The Tuskens have been a bit more active lately apparently, but nothing my parents really need to worry about it."

His family had made it a point to keep up decent relations with the local Tusken tribes. It was generally a difficult thing to do, but a gift here, some solid negotiating there, and most of the Tuskens understood it was better to be friends than enemies.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]


That earned a snort of laughter and a bit of disbelief. Not that she was laughing at Kurt's mom, but more at the idea of the Alliance ever going that far south.

"Ain't no reason to," she said plainly, shaking her head. A finger came up to tuck the wayward strands of pale hair behind her ear.

"Too much focus be at the Core..." a thought came.

"Not to mention what have you going on with the First Order now. Word says that perhaps ess eye ess might be looking to send agents over there to find out more." it went unsaid that it could very well mean Kaile too.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

He shrugged.

"My mom likes the Alliance." Kurt thought for a moment. "Don't think I've ever told you that."

It had never really come up before. "She thinks they're the good guys, and unlike the Republic she doesn't blame them for not helping her more when she and my father escaped. I think she's a bit hopeful. Dad's more realistic, plus I think he's happy that he doesn't have to pay any taxes."

Taxes were the root of all evil if you believed Kurt's father.

Of course, Kurt agreed with him in a way and it was and it was an argument he and Jamie constantly had. The Courier liked Tatooine just the way it was, wild, free, and uncontrolled. Jamie...well Jamie didn't agree. She liked civil services, like roads and police forces. Arceneau Trade provided some of those function on Tatooine, but at its core the little dustball was still what it had always been, uncontrolled. Kurt was afraid that if a major government got involved that would change.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

He hadn't.

Surprise came to the agent, blinking a few times before she said, " Oh."

Maybe it was because Kaile spent most of her time out in the black being embedded in places. She'd lost really all sense of what was going on in the Alliance cause she spent the bulk of her time out of it.

"Well, the Republic ain't the best one with the reputation of helping anymore." too much blood had been spilled and questionable acts along murmurs of corruption.

"I don't know..." she gave a small shrug of her shoulder, bringing her right hand up to run through her hair.

"I just reckon we do what we can to keep people safe." we being the Alliance and Omega Pyre.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"It was back then." He reminded her. "Back when my parents first escaped the Sith Empire the Republic was something to look up to, something that they aspired to. My parents went looking to them for help, but...well my mother hasn't ever really explained it, something to do with governments always wanting the best weapons to fight one another."

He shrugged.

Kurt had never really been all that interested in the workings of Government. He had no illusions about his own time in the Republic. By the time he'd joined the government had already been in a free fall, the One Sith taking world after world with no end in sight. For him the fight had never really been personal, not really anyway. He'd joined because he'd wanted to to learn and do something, and eventually...well things had become more about his squadmates than anything else.

He smiled at Kaile. "Either way. I doubt the Alliance will come to Tatooine any time soon."

That meant no taxes for his dad.