Private The Lost Guardian

[Evelyn Shaw]

“So, let me get this straight…” Evie began, pausing as she placed the helmet over her head and let it seal onto the suit. “This ship has just been floating through space, untouched and unnoticed by anyone?”

A few months back, Amea had proposed they shifted their focus towards salvaging. It seemed out of blue at first, but then Evelyn remembered why they had taken a little bit of an ‘extended vacation’

Their last couple of jobs had ended a bit too risky. And while neither of them were shy about being risk takers, they also weren’t naive. They needed to take a few steps back and reflect on how things had been turning out. Which resulted in one day Amea bringing up the subject of ‘salvaging’.

And Amea being Amea, she had done her research. Not that Evelyn needed much convincing to begin with. She already had a bit of a habit of picking up bits and pieces to tinker with, during their downtime between missions. And even after some initial missions, that habit evolved into something of a hoarding ‘problem’.

Fortunately, they had a large enough ship that they could afford a room or two being filled with…well junk. Anything and everything that caught Evelyn’s eye, that wasn't stuff they could sell.

Their latest target was one brought about by a whim. They were passing through the area when their scanners picked something up. Amea had used her fancy abilities to modify them to detect stuff that would otherwise go ignored. Their initial examinations had revealed the vessel was without power, completely depressurised due to an apparent damage to the hull.

So their first objective was to get onboard and get things running again, if they could get the shields working then they’d be able to fix the pressurisation. It was why they were bringing a hover-cart with them, a portable generator resting atop it.

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

“Well, when you put it like that it sounds like it could be bad.” Amea said as she glanced at her mirror image in the visor of her helmet. “But yes, it’s a ship that has just been conveniently floating through space, untouched and unnoticed by anyone.”

The mirror image in her visor disappeared as Amea turned the helmet around and pulled it over her head to seal it up properly. This whole job felt like a walk in the park compared to the stresses of the old. For one there was a lot less gunfire hurled at them, and even more so the lies that they had to tell themselves to justify what they were doing were a thing of the past.

All things considered, salvaging was a legal-ish field of work depending on the approach. Did the two of them usually work on things that were less-than-legal every now and again? Duh. Was this one of them? Hard to tell. From the scans they had run this thing seemed pretty much dead, meaning that in reality this was a lot more gray than they might have liked.

Amea latched onto the hover-cart as the airlock opened and gave it a push to get them going.

“The design looks kind of… Odd.” She remarked over comms. “Not in a bad way, just a ‘we might be finding a lost noble’ kind of odd.”

“We might want to keep an eye out for anything to identify these people by.”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

“Hmm, agreed. The design isn’t anything you’d find being mass-produced these days.” Which meant it was a more unique vessel, or a design that wasn’t regularly manufactured now. Either way, it was a mystery that was just waiting to be solved.

The Echani followed behind the hover-cart as it was pushed into the airlock. Even over the comms, Evelyn could hear the heavy footfalls of their suits. They were certainly cumbersome, but better to have restricted movement than trying to survive without oxygen.

Evelyn waited until Amea was in, before activating the airlock. The door closed shut, going through the process before the system deemed it safe. With a sharp hiss, the airlock door between them and the vessel opened. Immediately they were hit by the Zero-G as both salvagers were lifted off their feet.

“Yeah, still not a hundred percent used to this feeling.” Evelyn laughed lightly, floating over to the hover-cart to grab ahold of it. “Alright, the first stop is the engine room. I can go hook this up myself, if you want to start exploring the ship a bit?”

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

"Uh, no. I don't think so." Amea chuckled. "If the generator awakens this thing and it decides it doesn't want us around, I would rather be near you than on my own."

Not that Amea was afraid of death or anything, obviously she had dealt it enough for that to not be a problem, but this was Evelyn. She was capable of protecting herself, yes, but Amea would never forgive herself if she let something happen to her that she couldn't undo.

The magnetic soles of Amea's boots clamped onto the hull with a mute bang.

"Could you imagine if we were still using those old suits from back in the Old Republic?" She mused aloud for Evelyn to hear. "These might be bulky, but those were worse."

Like wearing 30 sweaters at once compared to these maybe… 10 or 12 sweaters. In part because of the armour to hold off small debris, but also in equal part to keep the non-existent elements of space out. You know, radiation, extreme heat, extreme cold, and all that.

"This way to the generator." Amea noted and floated toward it. "Won't lie, I really hope we don't run into the owners of this thing. It looks expensive."

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

Evelyn wanted to raise a finger in protest, but then she thought about it and realised Amea was right. They were about to float into an unknown ship, abandoned by its unknown owner or owners, who could’ve no doubt left numerous unknown traps for anyone who dared to board the vessel.

It was a better idea to move as one, in case they ended up in a situation they needed help getting out of. And as Amea had aptly stated, the very ship could tear itself apart once the generator was on.

“Honestly, this ship feels old enough we might just find some of those ancient suits.” Not that she was going to complain about how bulky their current spacesuits were. She’d trade the annoyance of walking in the damn things, with keeping themselves safe from the vacuum of space.

The Echani floated along, gently pushing the hovercart as Amea led the way to the ship’s engine room. Along the way, Evelyn took note of the numerous scars and blaster burns that adorned the interior. None of them were fresh enough to be relatively recent.

“The owners? Probably not, the ‘owners’ on the other hand, there’s always a potential risk.” Abandoned vessels like this one were like candy to pirates and the like. But so far, it seemed like they were the only ones out in this neck of the galaxy.

Once they floated into the engine room, Evelyn went about hooking up the portable generator to the ship’s main one.

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

Evelyn got a quiet but confirmative hum out of Amea. Maybe they should have been prepared to space the suits then, just in case, and do the galaxy a favor. There was no telling what type of fool would try to repurpose it given just how chic retro was and how far back into the future 'retro' seemed to go.

"Right, well… Just be careful, alright?" Amea chuckled despite the evident worry. She turned around to look in the direction of where the fired shots had been directed at. "These blaster marks aren't fresh but they are still oddly accurate." She said and pointed to the end of the corridor to make sure Evelyn noted it as well. "No organic, at least not any organic back then, would be this accurate. My bet's on droids."

And that made the idea of starting the generator somewhat more terrifying.

"We should probably keep the gravdrive turned off, just in case." She suggested and floated into the engine room. "Not saying droids are unable to calibrate for it, but we certainly have a better chance of throwing them off-balance if we do."

"How's that thing coming along?"

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

The Echani paused her actions, chuckling as she looked over at Amea. “I might not have the fancy tech powers, but I can plug in a cable or two into the right ports.” She joked, taking a moment to comically waggle the cable she currently had in hand. Although, it did admittedly take Evelyn a bit to figure out the correct connections. The ship’s main engine wasn’t exactly the most modern thing in the galaxy. But it was more often the case that new tech was just the latest iteration of what came before.

As Amea pointed something out, Evelyn floated over to see what she was talking about. The Echani’s eyes swept over the spot down the corridor, humming in agreement.

“I think you’re right, the pattern in the blaster marks are accurate, but there are some oddities in the spacing...” Evelyn paused, realising she was about to ramble. “It would depend on the type of weapon they were using, but I’d say whatever they were shooting at, they got some hits along the way.”

Evelyn popped back into the engine room, floating over to finish the setup. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Not to mention we’re not exactly kitted for a fight.” Their suits could protect them from space, not so much when it came to blasters and blades.

“Just got one last switch…”

A few seconds later the entire ship rumbled to life, shaking and arguable creaking as its numerous systems started to crawl back online. Evelyn tensed up, hoping that the ship wasn’t going to suddenly tear itself apart. But as the emergency power shifted to standby, and the lighting started to flicker to life, it seemed the vessel was still operational.

“So far, so good.”

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

No fancy tech powers, but that brain more than made up for it. Amea gave Evelyn a look of adoration while she still had her back towards her, giving her take on the shots and whatever might happen once the generator lit this place up again.

The power went on and Amea shielded her eyes from the light for a moment before she slowly floated around to look at Evelyn and make sure that all was truly as good as it had been so far. She gave her girlfriend a nod and let the small propulsion emitters twist her around so that her feet faced what should have been the floor.

A lack of gravity was always weird like that. Up and down sort of stopped matter and made it hard to discern what would be what if gravity was somehow flipped on again.

"I am not detecting anything…" Amea mumbled as she withdrew her pad and gave it a quick look. "Sensors seem juuuust fine…"

Amea put the pad back on her belt again and floated down the corridor from where they had brought the generator.

"Awfully quiet for a ship that's been stranded for seemingly hundreds of years." She mused and carefully glanced around a corner. "I mean, yeah, the creaking but…"

"I wonder who used this ship…"

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

The old ship rumbled and shook some more, a surge of electricity flowing through its systems. Evelyn floated after Amea, but not before grabbing the datapad that had been attached to the portable generator. Her eyes were glued to the screen, knowing well enough that Amea had her guard up should anything try to jump them.

But as they cautiously made their way through the ship, the Echani caught sight of something from the corner of her eye. The light fixtures were fluctuating, initially just flickering erratically which Evelyn brushed aside. However, as they continued, she noticed that the lights were gradually growing brighter, more intense.

And then the walls around them began to violently shake all of a sudden.

Evelyn let out an audible curse, before quickly messing with her datapad. The intensity seemed to increase for a moment, until it began to level out and quieten completely.

“Hundreds of years might be hitting the nail on the head,” she said, showing Amea the datapad. “Our small generator almost overloaded the ship’s power capacity. It’s that outdated.” The portable generator was meant for an ancillary function, to provide an extra ‘boost’ where needed. Realistically, it shouldn’t have any issues helping get a ship like this one back online. “Something could be damaged of course, it would explain why the capacity is so low…”

The Echani’s words began to drift into muttering, up until she realised she was talking to herself.

“Right. We should get to the cockpit, there’s still a few systems we need to reactivate.”

Amea Virou​