Private Two Sides of a Coin

[Darth Daiara]

The lack of color returned to her cheeks, her nose flaring as she stared down worse case scenario. "No," she breathed, not meeting the jedi's eyes. She remained locked in place, her body coiling as she thought to move a dozen different ways. One moment it felt like a joke, the next it was impossible-- her eyes snapped around the small space, desperate for a glance of something that could save them. She jerked open the closet again, only to find it as bare boned as before.

There was nothing essentially life saving in the small place. If you're going down, a single part was unlikely to stop it. She reached numbly out and took down the oxygen masks-- even though they wouldn't need it for days to come.

It dawned on her they might not even last that long. The cold was just as deadly as no oxygen...

And fire eats air.

She held out the mask for him to take, still not looking at him as she processed their situation. "Of all the things," she mumbled bitterly. She shot him a sideways, accusatory look, then closed the door and dropped to her knees. She could be felt reaching out to the force immediately, her mind stretching for the connection of peer. Or perhaps her master.

Of the two, she had better luck. They were in sith space after all, albeit on the edge. Space was big, they were without navigation. Her eyes snapped back open in a wash of stress, realizing being located floating through the belly of empty space was as impossible as survival.

She had to try something.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

Zaavik's teeth released the wire, cutting the projection off unceremoniously. He pulled his arm from the panel and discarded the rigged holo-display, letting it dangle awkwardly from an exposed bit of the panel. Rising, he fell back into the seat again, sighing. The oxygen mask would be leisurely tossed aside after he accepted it, hand drifting to rub over his eyes.

Anxiety was tangible, though beneath it was a dogged contemplation. Gears turning in his head, solution after solution considered, marked off, discarded. He tried to quell doubt and dread, reminding himself that there hadn't ever been anything he couldn't manage to weasel his way out of. Though, the realization that this might be the first and final insurmountable situation festered into consternation.

He was on the verge of a conniption. Two open hands, contrasting in material rubbed over his face before resting into a mask. From the outside, he would have appeared to have given up. An insistent bouncing of his right knee said otherwise. Combing his mind for an idea, despite the weeds of dread drying up ingenuity. Fingers parted and a probing eye peeked at Aradia as he felt her reach out to something distant.

"That won't work," he groaned. "Even if you get through to someone, the odds of them finding us are only a half-step up from non-existent." And they'll kill me soon as rescue you. He'd keep that last part off his lips. A slow lean would bring him to a sufficient angle to peek out one of the pod's minuscule viewports. The station they'd taken off from wasn't visible from here, not even a speck or glimmer. How fast were they going? Focusing for a moment, he felt their direction in the cosmic force. Galactic Northwest. What was northwest from the station?

New Imperial Space? A Sith pod drifting onto their sensors might as well be surprise target practice. "There's gotta be a way out of this," he mumbled.

 

[Darth Daiara]

She felt trapped.

Suffocated.

Wild.

Every war had had a back door she could of taken. Every infiltration had an exit strat. The times she put her life at risk were calculated-- controlled. There was no control inside this shattered pod. There was no exit. There was no plan. This entirely unexpected and every angle they looked at appeared hopeless.


She started at him, watching her own melt down play across the planes of his face. They were going to die.

Really. Truly.

And not even to each other.

Her eyes squeezed shut, all the things she had been chasing suddenly feeling so ... minuscule... so petty. As they always did when she stared down death.

"There's gotta be a way out of this."

His words pushed her, her mind straining through all of her training for a solution. It came to her so suddenly-- a small hope that she barely dared to give life to.

"The Legacy Run," she whispered, her eyes opening. She leaned forward, her tone gaining urgency. "Did you ever read about what happened in the Hexal System? With the emergences?"

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

Zaavik raised a brow. It took a brief intermission of thought before the gears in his head began to turn. He blinked several times, head tilting off-kilter as he recalled what she was talking about. "What about it? It was over a thousand years ago, what's it got to do with anything?" As well as he could recall, it was a hyperspace mishap caused by misuse of hyperdrive technology by a dubious third party. Though, whether or not it was intentional was still up to speculation.

"Are you-?" He sneered, shaking his head. "No, genius, we're not even close to lightspeed!" he rebuked, figuring she was spooked about causing another incident or something. Although, a glimmer of optimism could be sensed from her, which didn't exactly fit his assumption. Whatever she was getting at, he didn't see what the Legacy Run incident had to do with any of this. "Not that our speed would make much of a difference, considering how screwed we are."

He crossed his arms, leaning away with his head turned in slight shunning. A hand came up to scratch at the light stubble on his chin, displeased expression contorting with the relief of an itch. "Maybe if we're lucky someone will happen by. Though, if my recent luck is any measure-" His eyes turned, giving her a sideways glance. Sharp, as if blaming her for something. "I doubt it."

 

[Darth Daiara]

"Ugh. Do they teach you nothing in Jedi Murder School? The Jedi moved one of the cargo holds out of the path of the sun. A bunch of Baridum. Goes boom-- no?" She rolled her eyes, her breath already showing around her. The temperature dropped significantly, the heating coiling failing for a moment.

She shivered, pulling heat into her core via the force.

"We're hardly any mass at all. If we could just find a habitable planet-- or really anything at all-- with a few nudges-- I mean. I think I'm strong enough," she quipped, cocky.

She shuddered, the sudden chill forming frost crystals on her lashes. She shot a worried glance the screens, the power dipping. "...We have 70 hours of oxygen to find somewhere."

Or 140, if one of them killed the other.

She didn't say that out loud, aware she'd need his strength for this. She wasn't one to leave her life to fate's hands. She needed action.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

"Tibanna," he corrected. "-But I see what you mean." 'Jedi Murder School' wouldn't even evoke a glare. He ran a finger through his hair, brushing it away from his face as he considered. Steering the pod as a collaborative effort sounded doable, but there was a glaring issue with even trying at all. He stood, peeking through a viewport again, eyes drifting back and forth in a wide scan. "Without a navcomputer, though, how are we going to find anything? The nearest star doesn't even look like a sand grain from here."

The back of his right hand wiped across the glass, clearing the fog left behind by his vaporous breath in the sudden cold. For whatever reason, the temperature drop didn't seem to bother him. If that was because the strike suit or some unseen measure was up to her to infer. "We could steer towards a star, but at this speed, we'll be nothing but bones on arrival."

His back had been turned to her for a longer period than was wise. She had plenty of time to run him through, but he felt a certainty that she wouldn't. Disregarding the fact that certainty had failed him last time where she was concerned. She needed him alive, lest she dies with him. Were he a bit less smart, he'd feel invincible. He sighed, remarking: "I guess it's better than nothing."

 

[Darth Daiara]

"At this distance, a single nudge-- one degree difference in our protectory could land us lightyears to the left of where we're heading now. Or right-- up-- down-- I don't know. We just-- we need to try." She told his back, a hint of warmth returning to the air.

Relief flooded her when he finally agreed, her breath coming a little easier than before.

She merely nodded at him, preparing herself for a meditative trance that would leave them both vulnerable to the other. She felt just as sure he wouldn't harm in this moment. Not only because he stopped trying to since he picked up that damn coin, but because now they both understood how vital their collaboration was. A chance was better than the four days they were staring at.

"You're probably going to need to sit down. ... It will take us a while... before we find something."

If.

And if it was good enough.

And if they strong enough to project there.

And if the free burning fuel lasted long enough to send them the whole way.

So many ifs. She let out a shaky breath, extending a branch by closing her eyes first. She fell head first into the force, her signature rippling out in a sorrowful melody. It was dark... pained. Composed of naivety struggling against the poisonous grip of corruption. And in the back, a subtle note rounded it all out, high and pure...

Hope.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

"If we find anything at all," he suggested. Turning, he plopped down into the seat once again. A drawn-out moment of hesitation preceded his intent to oblige her idea. If he were to fall into a trance here, he'd be even more vulnerable than turning his back. Going once on a better suggestion? Nothing. His eyes remained glued to the floor as he begrudgingly settled himself into a forced calm.

Reddish eyelids fluttered softly, falling shut as his brain tuned into a trance. His own signature rippled out after hers, an explosive conflagration contrasting her calm and downcast refrain. It was bright, burning like flames. Zaavik's individual presence in the Force was turbulent, just like the fluttering wisps of inferno it appeared as. Serenity and turmoil danced with one another in a constant bid for control, the Light winning out only by sheer stubbornness in defiance of the other.

That flame beamed away like a streak of red on the void, reaching out in search of something, anything of use. It strained, the thread of his presence thinning as it stretched further and further, slowing with exertion. Something out reached out from him, separate from the searching thread that had expanded outward from him. It was a concept, forming words as it resonated from him across to her: Help me.

 

[Darth Daiara]

Hesitation.

Her mind slowly uncoiled from the opposite direction, her energy recentering in the small pod as she considered the request of the flame before her. She raised a brow, skeptical.

They could cover more area separate. But then again, they could cover more distance together. Two sets of eyes catching what the other might miss-- bolstering each other-- she knew the strength gained by working in pairs, she just never thought...

Never thought she'd be doing it with a jedi.

She let out a heavy breath of acceptance, her energy slowly entwining with his. Each movement was intentional. Careful. Like a wild animal reaching out for a scrap of food from a trap. Some parts of him left her wincing, the light burning against the darkness that lingered in her.

Her grimace would be unseen as she pushed past it, accepting pain for the possibility of survival. His mind suddenly gained the ability to stretch out, tenfold, the sith a well of power he would not want to look too closely into. Light and dark intermingled, neither dampening the other as they found strength as a whole.

Time fell out from under Aradia.

It was the brittle cold of a falling pod that brought her sharply back to her body. She gasped, jerking to life. Blue lips chattered as she looked around in disorientation.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

Contrasting dark bolstered into his light, a bottomless wellspring fueling his efforts. The flame stretched, burning tendrils probing the Cosmic Force for any shred of salvation out in the endless cold black of space. Slowly, though his mind was projected distantly, he became more and more aware of his own consciousness expanding. He felt hesitation, but something about it was strange, alien even.

More and more thoughts came that seemed involuntary, amorphous concepts that he couldn't trace. As their conflicting signatures began to intertwine, a braid with a barrier betwixt, they become even more tangible. AS the barrier degraded, all at once he could feel a whole that was his own, and foreign all the same. Anger, strife, uncertainty, anxiety, all familiar but none his own.

Zaavik gasped, eyes shooting open, head snapping backward as his distant presence snapped back into him like elastic returning to form. Frantically, in a daze he looked around, fight or flight response screaming into his instincts.

It had chosen fight.

His fingers stretched out, saber hilt flying to his hand and igniting in the same motion. The tip pointed directly at Aradia as he stared back, eyes wild. "What the hell was that!? What are you trying to pull!?" he shouted with an accusative inquiry.

 

[Darth Daiara]

The heat of the blade pulsed over her, warming the brittle air. Aradia stared him down with tired wariness, the mental strain of their task starting to creep into the corners of her mind. She breathed the force into her, bringing strength into her core as she held his gaze. She could feel the disorientation pulsing off of him.

She felt it too, the dimly lit confines of their coffin felt foreign after hours spent suffused in the force.

"What? Nothing," she quipped back, the green hue of his saber pulsing shadows across her face.

"I thought i felt something to east quadrent."

They had felt several things already, all implausible in their own way. She pulled her legs into her, shivering violently as she looked to the screen. "Hour five and you're losing your mind already, Jedi. Great."

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

Zaavik sneered. "Don't act like you didn't-!" His words cut off, hemming and hawing in tow. "Whatever," he conceded flatly. He crossed his arms over one another, leaning back and kicking one foot up onto the opposite knee. "I didn't feel anything anywhere." Aside from the obvious, that was.

Though he had up to this point been seemingly unbothered by the cold, he finally began to shiver slightly. With discomfort, he shifted, blowing stray hair out of his face. A frigid vapor rose with his breath, dissipating in the space between them. What was going to kill him first? Aradia, the cold, or suffocation? Zaavik had no illusions of a grandiose death somewhere down the line, but this was downright indignified.

"East quadrant sounds vague," he finally piped up. "What was it?"

 

[Darth Daiara]

"...I don't know," she admitted, disoriented. She rubbed at her face, her bodily needs pulling sharply at her attention. She stretched out her stiff legs and reached behind her, clumsily opening up the cupboard and tugging out some of the rations she had found. She ripped open a packet with her teeth and haphazardly caught the dried food that tumbled out.

She didn't offer him some, sharing wasn't a trait the academy fostered.

"I need a break," she grumbled, the hope she had once fostered severely diminished. She gave another shudder, then gestured to the console. "Can't you see about fixing that?" The coils had started faltering more than not. What was the point of all that oxygen if their lungs turned to ice.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

"If I could, I wouldn't be suffering the cold. It's an energy conservation method, the coils that still work are going into a low setting to save overall vital life support enough energy. We won't freeze to death, they won't go that low." It was clear by his voice, lacking the usual confidence, that he was only mostly certain of that observation. Out of the two of them, though, he would be the one to know, right?

"Yeah, fine," he conceded begrudgingly at the idea of a break. He didn't have any desire to feel that again, but the sooner they figured this out the better their chances. Still, he couldn't force her to help him. On top of it all, she did look diminished. Exhausted, even? He couldn't help but empathize, Sith she may be, but Zaavik wasn't heartless. Try telling her that, he thought.

He pulled his knees in, tucking his arms around them; almost mimicking her completely. His head fell onto his knees, the strained bun in his hair finally giving way after all the jostling it had taken. Purple strands just beyond shoulder's length fell around his legs, covering his head in a fibrous veil. How long had it been since he'd slept? Everything suddenly felt heavy.

Drifting off now would mean death though, wouldn't it?

At some point, not even he could tell for himself if he was asleep or not.

 

[Darth Daiara]

"Wake up," came her harsh words, barely ten minutes passed until she cut them both out of their reprieve. "Back to it." Her words were brisk, wariness still in her bones as she pushed herself to cross her legs and brace to go back to work. No one had ever gone easy on her before. She wouldn't be starting now.

Food wrappers crinkled as she pushed them away, her gut coiling with the anxiety she held tight to. Strength in emotions-- she made no effort to match his calm.

"Back to the east quadrant then? Maybe pay attention to what I was narrowing in on, I think there might be something promising there," she lied, unable to release herself to the probability of her death. Her breath puffed into the air, tapas bringing a flushing warmth to her cheeks. "Hey." She kicked him with her foot, trying to force him back into it with her.

 

[Zaavik Perl]

「DELUGE」
Darth Daiara
​

So he had drifted off. Had this been normal circumstance, Zaavik would have been raising his voice, threatening bone breakage and blood feud for whoever was interrupting his dreams. The Zeltron was the firm antithesis of a morning person. This was not a normal circumstance, however. With the last kick, his head shot up, exhausted fury on his face for a moment before he quickly snapped out of it, remembering where he was, the situation he was in.

His eyelids drooped, cerulean irises only slits against vermillion. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to-" he stopped suddenly, yawing. Why am I apologizing? he suddenly realized. Chalk it up to the gears in his head still beginning to turn. Not that it really mattered anyway. If anything, he was just surprised she hadn't got him in his sleep. For a moment, he began to wonder if this was all part of some elaborate ruse.

No, couldn't be. He didn't have confidence that she could even be that crafty.

"Okay, okay," he muttered begrudgingly. "We'll try again." He took a deep, forceful breath. Didn't want to fall asleep while trying to get this done. "You start. Reach out, I'll follow."

 

[Darth Daiara]

She gaped at him, frustration flaring.

"Will you take this seriously?" She protested, giving him another solid kick. "We're 65 hours from running out of air. Force knows until the coils burn out or the fuel runs dry. We're not even guaranteed tomorrow, and here you are dragging your ass like we have all week. In case it hasn't registered in your dense jedi brain, we're dying. " She gave him another instigating shove with her foot, roughing him up.

"Act like it, will you?"