Private Some Nights

[Drifter]

Well, it wasn’t the largest. It was perhaps the dustiest. With its matte black hull, it picked up on sand and grit like iron to magnets. The Siccarious- Class Stealth Yacht was made by Santhe Shipyards. Honestly, it was the height that made it seem larger than most. Compared to a YT-series, it was about twenty meters longer and twice it’s height.

“No,” Drifter replied, drawing her attention away from the larger cargo and commercial travel ships. He gestured down a ways, where the folded-up wings of Kalee’s Shadow would be.

“She’s right there. Maybe the fifth largest.” At least it would be less dusty inside. The ship was made for luxury, but since his oma gave him this ship for his thirteenth birthday, it had seen better days. There were a few scuffs here and there, but it appeared well kept.

“Come on, best to introduce you I guess.” Did he mean to the ship or the pilot droid? Both? With Drifter one couldn’t really be sure.

He waggled two fingers to get her to follow him.

 

[Rhea]

“To a ship. You’re gonna introduce me to a ship,” she quipped, staring in his wake. “...Course you are.” She shook her head, letting her arms flash out around her in a desperate flail.

Once again, she questioned what she had gotten herself into.

She followed after him, seeing little other choice. Which of course he knew, that’s why he walked with such confidence and no glance back. She crinkled her nose at the back of his head in a fleeting, childish gesture, literally eating his dust as she tramped along to catch up.

“Please tell me you’re actually alone,” she commented, coming to his side as they reached it.

 

[Drifter]

“Why?” Drifter spun on the heel of his boots, flashing a grin under his helm. Once again, he was walking backward, little dust devils fluttering up with every step.

“Want to know if I live alone?” The obnoxious flirt would not go over anyone’s head. If Rhea could see his expression, she’d catch the smug arch of his brow.

“Has this all been your elaborate plan to get poor, innocent me alone?” He brought his gloved hands to his chest, over the scuffed blue-gray songsteel plates.

 

[Rhea]

Her expression fell, all amusement deflating to a state of grump. Oh he had to be-

“Yeah,” she admitted, deadpan. “To knock you out and steal your food. Is it working?”

 

[Drifter]

At her reaction his shoulder shook as he laughed, the sound resonating for a few seconds. He spun back around and continued with his upbeat saunter.

“Depends,” he shot back with a wide grin. “Are you going to do the dishes? I need a good dishwasher.”

Another chuckle. Drifter shook his head. It was evident she was going through her own issues, and it appeared that also meant that she couldn’t quite see the humor in things. At least to lighten up a bit. Fair.

Bringing his arm up, Drifter used a finger to dial in and trigger the slave circuit of the ship.

“No, I don’t live alone.” He admitted, the pair coming up to the ship.

“Alex doesn’t let me forget it. Practically thinks she owns the ship.”

 

[Rhea]

“Alex?” She echoed, a sense of discomfort filling her. She had taken him seriously when he had first said he was alone. Her further resistance was… well, she didn’t know what she had meant to achieve there, but she didn’t expect him to actually change his tune.

She totally snooped the code he entered. Even as she scratched her head and appeared to look the other way.

The door opened, revealing the dark metal belly of the ship. Compared to the glaring brightness of the outdoors, the insides felt like a dungeon.

There was never a more apt time to wish for a cybernetic eye. And she hated those things.

She took a step back, gesturing for him. “Ladies first,” came the weakened sass.

 

[Drifter]

Drifter gave an amused snort at Rhea’s direction, shaking his head. Not like it mattered who went in first. Without further ado, he stepped inside, the motion sensors activating and illuminating the corridor. They were gunmetal gray, but a closer inspection would reveal the high quality of the material. It was lived in, but not your standard smugglers' haven. Further, up ahead would reveal a small clearing, the living area, currently blocked by Drifter’s body.

“Yeah, she’ll make her presence kn-“ before Drifter could even continue, the most sensuous feminine drawl edged in annoyance would echo down to them.

[ So you finally came back? Do you have any idea how long I tried to connect to your HUD? Why did you shut it off?]

With a snort, Drifter’s helm swung back to Rhea.

“See? Bossy.” Ambling along to lead Rhea to the living area, Drifter called out, “Honey I’m home!”

The living area was a curious cacophony of.. well stuff. There was a large half-moon couch along one curved end of the room. It had a dejarik table in front of it. There were shelves with various Knick knacks secured down, a few trinkets, a few Gree talismans, a Corellian Jedi coin, some scattered datacrons on a table. It was a hodgepodge of technology and tribal decor, with a thick fur slung over the couch, the remains of some animal bones on another table, and what could only be considered to be a collection of rocks and some scales on top of another. The entire place also had a distinct woody and herby smell, a mixture of cedar and lemon mint.

“Welcome to my humble abode. Feel free to drop your bag—“

[ Drifter!] Alex yelped out, the voice floating from their right.

“What?! ” the hunter cries out in mock exasperation, swinging over to glower in mock annoyance at Alexandria.

There, hovering in the middle of the hallway that led from the cockpit, was what could only be described as a one-eyed droid. Or something similar. It had a large ocular sensor and propelled itself off repulsor lifts.

It was Alex.

 

[Rhea]

Rhea took it all in, a sense of awe inside her closed off expression. The subtle wealth of the ship was not missed by her, not with what experience she possessed with both piloiting and repair. This didn’t surprise her though, she had long since suspected he was a bastard child of money, running off from a life of privilege towards gods knows what.

She didn’t get those kinds a people.

Her grasp on the man before her grew even thinner as she took in the sight of the woods and bones and strange, twisting knicknacks. She nearly turned to ask him where he had gotten it all, but the voice rang out behind her. She startled ever so slightly, letting out a soft curse as she turned to eye the droid hovering in the air.

“Ah…” She said, a bit of relief and understanding hitting her. “Alex. Right. Got it. ...How many of those things do you have?” She asked, talking sideways as she turned to Drifter.

 

[Drifter]

Not to be outdone by Rhea, Alex spun her repulsors and in a dry, sensual voice, droned out, [ I see you brought another stray. Did you at least decontaminate this one?]

Het repulsors sent her flying in a half-circle around her, Alex’s ocular zooming in and out over Rhea. If there was a droid capable of making you feel as if under the microscope, it was Alex.

[ It needs a sonic.]

“Hey, be nice!” Drifter warned, shaking a finger at the companion droid assistant his sister had built for him long ago. Nohei knew how much Drifter enjoyed exploring ruins and hunting down lore about the Moross pantheon. The end result was Alex, with a wealth of knowledge in history and religious organizations.

“And you,” he pointed at Rhea, “Alex is not an ‘it’, her name is Alex.”

He meant it. Alex and Teejay were not just droids. They were family.

“Alex this is Rhea. Rhea this is Alex.”

 

[Rhea]

Rhea stiffened, her shoulders rounding back as the droid flew circles around her. She didn’t trust it. Not with a ten foot pole.

“A companion droid,” she noted, not responding to Alex’s taunts.

She gave the droid a slow look over in turn, her lips pursing in distaste. “Does he sanitize you after a fuck or are you just one one to talk?”

A brow was raised, the woman glaring the singular eye down in turn.

Rhea wasn’t very good at making friends, okay?”

 

[Drifter]

That blue ocular flashed red, and Alex gave a swirl, hovering just over Rhea. A small click and small fusion cutter were brandished.

[ Maybe I’ll start sanitizing that mouth of yours first. ]

“Whoa!” Both of Drifter’s hands came up, trying to draw their attention.

“Wow, ladies. Relax. By Imari, you both are already at it.” Mildly annoyed, and glaring at Rhea for triggering Alex, Drifter stepped in between them.

“Hey, get Teejay to get the ship ready. I’ll give him coordinates to go to. Have a mission to do.”

 

[Rhea]

Rhea only felt slightly foolish for fighting with the machine. Especially since it had started it. One might reason that a machine was better to deal with than another person, but Rhea failed to see such logic.

Her time alone had turned her into quite the bitter person, as a matter of fact.

She expressed no remorse for causing turmoil on his ship.

“It started it,” she told Drifter, crossing her arms. As far as she was concerned he was half to blame for this all. Wouldn’t he have picked its programming?

 

[Drifter]

“She has a name.” Drifter repeated with a half sigh, “Her name is Alex, Rhea.” The woman can have all the anti-droid sentiments he was picking up from her, along with her discontent and slight petulance at the situation. However, he didn’t need Alex getting in a huff. Yes, she was a droid, but his sister created a self-aware and self-developing AI personality matrix for Alex. She had as much of a personality and self-identity as Rhea did — even if it was all algorithms.

Also, her personality and voice were solely selected by his sister thinking it would be a hilarious prank.

Gesturing towards the droid, Drifter coaxed here to put away the fusion cutter, “ come on, okay, I won’t turn off my HUD next time. Can we please just get moving?”

The droid’s ocular sensor dilated then flashed to a blue hue. She tucked away the extension. [ Fine. ]

A pause then she added, [ But you better comm your sister]

Under his visor, Drifter gave a grimace. They’d been fighting about this for the past week. Figures she’d try to twist his arm now.

“Fine.” He agreed, gesturing to her to go. With a silent hum, the Ey-3 droid gave one last lingering eyeful at Rhea, then departed.

 

[Rhea]

Rhea’s arms only uncrossed once they were alone, the major edges of her tension slowly melting back away.

“That voice? Really?” She challenged. She let her bag slid off her shoulders, catching the heavy lump by the straps before it could hit ground and cause a thump. She turned from him then, moving towards the living room space she had pointed out to earlier.

She took a long moment to absorb it all, then moved over to place her stuff at the foot of the coach.

“...It suppose to be replicated after this ‘Kai’?” She inquired, her voice nonchalent as she reached out and curiously picked up a bone.

...What the hell.

She glanced up, a brow raised at him.

 

[Drifter]

“Hell no!” Drifter exclaimed, bringing his palm up to rub the front of his visor. The horror that coated his voice was not fake.

“Kai's my sister. She built Alex. Thought it would be a fantastic prank to give her that voice— knowing full well I couldn’t do anything to alter it.” His sister, was of course, the second technomancer in the family, trained by their father himself. Nohei had Alex’s programming locked up tight. It was the same for the ship. Trying to steal it would be a pain.

Drifter gave a shudder, “just thinking about it gives me the heebee jeebees.” After a moment, he caught her plucking a Ysalamir femur bone.

“Ahh..careful,” he warned, more for her sake. “That’s a Ysalamir…” he gave a grimace. “Screw it.”

He came to stand next to her, gesturing at the half-meter long bone set, “Its dead so not much it can do. But if it was alive and you could use the Force, standing near it would cut you off from it. Annoyingly so.” He added nonchalantly, poking at a rib bone.

“Might try and alchemize it… still trying to figure it out. Found interesting tomes about the Matatuki that might help.” A half-shrug.

Along the wall were more curiosities; tomes along a shelf, a few miniature stone statues, even what looked like to be bits and pieces of a lightsaber scattered about. More interesting, however, would be the series of holopictures in homemade frames. The kind ones a mother made you create as if doing a family craft project. They included pictures of his family. One of his mother’s silhouette with a large beach hat sitting by the beach, a broad-shouldered, dark-haired man with a thick beard beside her.

Another of Esme standing in front of a great beast, a Drexl. It was one she caught and raised. It depicted a willowy blonde woman, with a rather somber expression upon her beautiful face. There was no mistaking the Jedi robes she wore. Or the saber at her hip.

Along would be other pictures, another blonde girl, younger, sitting in front of a workbench with a droid in front of her and a smudge of grease on her cheek. Nohei. That was at her shop.

There was also a shadowy one of a pair of kids clinging to each other, fishing pole in hand. Further still of a group of about fifteen preteens, all grouped together. That was as the Jedi temple at Yavin. The brat pack.

It was a medley of memories. Affection. Ones Drifter didn’t mind having about.

 

[Rhea]

She dropped the bone at the mention of its antiforce powers, a touch too ignorant to fully comprehend what that might mean.

But it didn’t sound good.


She rubbed her fingers off on her pants, stepping back from the pile all together and leaving it in favor of scoping out the bookshelves. Such curiosities would usually be toned down and restrained, but after his own unabashed line of questioning he had for her today-- she considered this an earned freebee.

“You’re a strange one, you know that?” She told him, picking up a tiny discarded bone
from the shelf and flicking it between two fingers back into the pile.

“And messy…”

She ran her finger along the wood of the book case, slowly taking in each picture and placing them against the stories he had told her. She would like to think she kept her face expertly blank as she did so, but maybe that was a tell in itself.

The pictures of love and comradery certainly reminded her of where she came from.

Places better left unremembered.

She swallowed hard and turned away from it all, a bitter lump of… oh yes, jealousy in her throat. She was tactful enough to keep that to herself, picking up a lightsaber part she did recognize and fingering it.

“No cleaning droid?”

 

[Drifter]

“I consider that a compliment!” Drifter immediately quipped, giving a faint chuckle. His mere body language indicated that now-familiar joviality and lightheartedness, but it belied the manner by which the hunter carefully observed Rhea from behind the polarized visor of his helm.

Allowing her some measure of privacy to dwell on her emotions, Drifter opted for the path that usually had others thinking he lacked all sense of seriousness. Besides, as soon as she started to play with a covenant saber hilt shell, she’d likely start to feel better anyway. The crystal shards he’d alchemized into it. Though it is not enough to stop negative emotions entirely, the effects of an Angraal crystal are incredibly calming. This effect is quite useful for lightside users as it keeps them calm and present within the battle. This sense of calm and relaxation increases strength and power within the Lightside of the force, making the connection easier and overall more powerful.

But if one were a Darkside user… at best they would be unable to use the lightsaber, at worst suffer a very nasty burning rash.

Time to learn the truth about Rhea.

“No, but it’s an organized mess. I know where everything is. A cleaning droid would only end up sweeping up whatever bits of work I’m doing; last time I had to tear one apart because it took one of my calama shell beads I made. My sis was not happy with me.”

Staring at her he added, “Like that?” Gesturing to the hilt, watching her reaction to it.

 

[Rhea]

The memories that had boiled through her mind faded out,
replaced by the calm that washed over her. Maybe it was her full stomach, or maybe it was the relief from the heat.

At the end of the day she might even admit the help he offered was a balm to her worries.

But as if stood she did not outwardly connect her shifting mood to the object in her hand.

“Huh… curious,” was all she said, turning it to study the piece. She could see the crystal inside, a fact which drew her attention. She peered, tilting it and studying the soft glow.

The crease between your brows slowly softened, the woman staring down at the hilt with a gaze the grew … at ease. The lines inside her features melted away, until a soft smile eventually reached her lips.

She blinked up at him, rolling it between her fingers. “I’ve never seen one of these taken apart before. Where’s the rest of it?”

 

[Drifter]

Rhea wouldn’t see the twitch at the corner of Drifter’s mouth or the way his eyes crinkled at their corners in amusement, but she’d certainly hear it later in his voice. So, she is force sensitive… and lightside attuned.

Curious. It was good, however, to see her calming down due to the effects of the crystal. More relaxed. Less likely to shoot him.

He took a sidestep around her, moving so quietly, and silently it was uncanny. His objective was to pluck a medium-sized box along with one of the lower shelves. With an upbeat hum of a tune, he brought it up. Flipping the lid open, it revealed a velvet silk-lined box, the contents within tucked rather neatly compared to the scattered ‘organized mess’. It contained a series of polished focusing lenses, all of various degrees of curvature. Along to the left are some adjustment knobs, and to the right, a collection of smaller crystals, some polished others still in their raw form. There were a few that for a Force-sensitive like Rhea, would pulse and shimmer with curious effects should she pick any of them up. Others were just mere curiosities that Drifter had picked up, still trying to figure out if they had any interesting capabilities.

“Some of it is here… others,” he gave half gesture around the ship, “scattered around. Depends. I have a tendency to leave things where I am working on them, or putting them away to keep them from rolling off in the nearest thing,” he admitted with boyish sheepishness. It was clear, however, that he enjoyed talking about the parts and whatever trinkets he created.

“Made that when I was thirteen,” He gestured to the hilt. “Feel free to take it apart if you want. Even if you break it I can at least fix that.” a half snort of laughter followed.

“It’s not a droid or a speeder I can blow up.”

 

[Rhea]

He would see the temptation in her gaze. If not to reach the crystal and view it unobstructed, then just get the chance to hold the pieces in her hands for once and see how they worked. She had never dared to experiment with her own saber. Even now she seemed to pay it little mind. It sat unattended to in the bag she left on the floor. While she had certainly started to trust him a little more around her, it would seem as if she didn’t consider the object something to look after much at all.


It was something she carried and didn’t think of. And that was that. The hilt in her hand however? New territory.

“...Maybe later,” she allowed, gingerly putting it back on his shelving unit. She didn’t find it polite to come on his ship and just start tearing his stuff apart. Especially not the pretty things. She may be rude, but she wasn’t thoughtless.

She took the box from him instead, her fingers skimming over the contents and lingering over the components that had that strange umf to them. It had been so long since the man with the saber had saved her, so long since she last thought about the words he had put in her mind. But as she brushed her fingertips over their smooth surface, some of it bubbled back up.

“Force embed?” She echoed, glancing up at him for confirmation. Her brows pulled in as this all brought another question to mind.

“Why do you have all this if you don’t want to be a jedi? ...Who did they come from?” A slight edge entered her tone, a wary accusation. Her saber was from a dead jedi after all. Why wouldn’t his?