Wind in My Sails

[Adder]

“I’m trying!”

And she was. The autopilot, as it turned out, wasn’t fast enough. The tiny ship was still bucking on the forceful waves and the back of the beast. If they didn’t do something soon, that… thing was bound to break the vessel in two.

So she broke into the navicomputer instead. Not digitally, no – she wasn’t much of a slicer – but in her preferred way. Much less likely to encounter dumb fail-safes this way. With a hydrospanner in one hand and a light in the other, Adder rummaged around the wires and circuitry until she found the speed cap. Classic.

Most modern vehicles of any type and make came with these, because manufacturers simply couldn’t guarantee that everything would hold together if the owners cranked it up to eleven. With city speeders and the like, removing the cap was a piece of cake, but this was no cheap job. It was a damned fine boat, though Adder wished desperately that it weren’t.

“Just… use the Force or something? Distract it?” the redhead yelled as she strapped the torch to her datalogger, freeing the dexterous fingers of her cybernetic hand. With it, she could perform actions far too precise for human coordination.

Actions like rewelding a chip, for example.

“I need more time!”

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

The force? What the kark would the force do in this situation? She could try to calm the creature beneath the waves, but that was easier said than done. For starters she didn’t even have any idea of what it was. That was kind of the basis of using the force, knowing what you were doing to start with.

She shifted slightly.

“I ca-” There was another crash of waves as the beast pressed itself against the side of the ship, rocking it and tearing away at the underlay of the ship. As the shadow moved away from the boat Aela could spot flecks of paint and splinters of wood floating up from beneath the water.

“Poodoo.” She said as her eyes followed the shadow. “It breached the hull.”

There was no telling how bad it was, but they had to make it to land, fast.

Her fingers flexed, and then suddenly she pressed her hand forward. Instead of pushing at the beast however, instead of trying to seize it or anything of the sort, she pressed towards the sails. It was silly perhaps, but she pressed the already powerful winds harder, pushing the sails and propelling the ship forward towards a distant haze on the horizon.

Hopefully they would find something.

 

[Adder]

The ship shook, ominous cracking echoing along the cabin. Were that the noises were Adder’s first concern. She’d narrowly avoided cutting off her finger with the white-hot flame of her hydrospanner’s blowtorch. While she was, thankfully, still in one piece, the same couldn’t be said for the precious systems she’d just burned through.

Somewhere above, an annoying red light was reminding her of the same.

“Feth.”

As she scrambled to her feet, another powerful buck nearly floored her again. It felt different, though, and there was no creaking this time. Curious and frightened – mostly frightened – Adder scurried up the stairs to rejoin Aela at the stern.

If she’d frazzled the autopilot, the least she could do was keep watch. Jedi or not, the redhead was certain her eyesight far outpaced the blonde’s. Leaning forward on the rail as far as she could, Adder squinted intently at the horizon as her cybernetics zoomed, adjusted, and compensated.

“There! Turn right— more, more!”

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

It quickly became more and more evident that things weren’t going as planned. The ship was taking on water, and even with how fast they were going the creature beneath the waves was still following along with them.

The red fin flew up from between the waves, pressing into the air for half a second.

It lingered up above the water for a moment more, then suddenly Aela caught sight of the creatures eye. Her lips thinned as she saw it, an orb bigger then her head and laced with a thick black line of a pupil. Aela’s teeth sunk into her lips.

“Come on!” Aela shouted to herself, pressing with the force and pulling the wheel in the direction Adder had shouted.

They had to make it to land.

If the ship sank before they reached the shallows, if that creature was anywhere near them...she wasn’t sure they’d manage to get out. The ship rocked as water began logged within its hull, Aela barely hanging onto the wheel as she caught sight of a pair of islands.

 

[Adder]

Her mind was nothing more than a string of profanities at this point. She wasn’t even sure anymore if she was yelling or if it was just her thoughts that had gotten so loud. Maybe it was the whining, high-pitched noise of metal disagreeing with an oversized sea monster.

Sheeeeeiiit.

White knuckles were all that kept her upright as she clutched at the railing, screaming directions at Aela whenever the fether below or the winds above yanked and pushed them off-kilter.

And then there were the waves.

It occurred to her that this was why she preferred the void between the stars. Why her fingers felt more relaxed around the controls of a frakking rustbucket careening through hyperspace at impossible speeds.

“Frakking frak!” Maybe Thalvi was seeping through – who the frak knew. Sulon had rubbed off on her a bit, but that bit was also as far as it would ever get, seemed like.

Oh no you don’t.

Teeth bared against the howling wind, Adder turned to the blonde with wide eyes. “Give me the wheel,” she said, sudden clarity of timbre cutting through the baying of a dying ship.

Wasn’t much she could do against the bloated fish-thing, but she could damn well pilot anything with a set of controls and an engine. Besides, if her judgement was worth shet – and it was – that stretch of land wasn’t too far away anymore. A click, at most. The damn boat shaking and the constant spray of water messed with her sensors.

But hell, at least getting her eyes gouged out had been good for something, right?

The curveballs life throws at you. Un-frakking-beliavable.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela relinquished control of the wheel, if only because it would allow her to focus on pushing them forward faster. At this point steering didn't really matter all that much, it was a straight shot towards those islands and they needed to hit the shallows before this creature could completely sink them.

The Jedi Master dashed forwards.

The sails were already taught with wind generated through the force, Canvas stretched to it's last inch. There wasn't much more she could do. She wasn't her father. She couldn't control the weather and she most certainly couldn't just lift them up and carry them towards the islands. The most she could do was ensure that the wind kept coming in a steady stream. The creature dug at the bottom of the boat, biting, clawing and tearing at the hull.

It was hungry.

"Go!" She didn't really yell at Adder, more at herself.

Her fingers struck out, hands open palmed, pressing the force to create greater gust. She tried desperately to push them faster, to rush them towards the islands. Yet even she could see that it was hopeless. The bow of the ship began to dip forward, fall beneath the waves as water swirled into the already breached hull.

They were going down.

 

[Adder]

Frak. I owe Trent a new force-damned ship.

Her chest swelled, and then hysterical laughter spilled from her lips, overflowing. Because shet, what else are you gonna do when there’s a monster from the deep chewing at the hull? Cry?

Frak no.

Adder coped with all the bad shet in her life in pretty awfully (by shrink standards). She didn’t really resolve anything, just washed it down with a good helping of something strong and fiery until her vision went black. Rinse, repeat, until her head was so full of cotton and pulsing anguish that there was no place for bad thoughts anymore.

But frak, she never cried.

A determined yell sounded somewhere behind her, and she felt her legs working even as her mind stumbled a bit. Seemed like a dip into her drunk escapades had left her with a bad case of sea legs.

She snorted again, even as she clambered up the mast that was rapidly becoming a horizontal beam. Didn’t need to look down to see the jaws closing around their little boat with gusto. The waves had drenched her to the bone a while ago, but it didn’t even reach her consciousness through all the screeching of metal and nasty, reverberating sounds of swallowing.

“Jump!” she screamed, unsure if Aela was even close enough to hear.

Her feet pounded in a breath-taking sprint for three more paces, and then the beam ran out far above the churning waters.

Adder took a leap of faith, there was a rush of air, a shrill noise... then quiet.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela wasn’t entirely sure if the beast was eating the ship or if the hull was finally falling apart, but it didn’t really matter at this point. She could feel the vessel drop into the water, lower, lower, and then finally the nose broke through the waves.

She tried to find the beast before she jumped, tried to see where it was, but the red shadow that had swam beneath the ocean seemed gone.

Her head shook for half a second, and then she burst out into a sprint. She heard Adder scream, but in truth the yell barely registered on her mind. If they got caught within the swirl of the sinking ship they could easily get pulled down beneath the waves, trapped within the wooden hull. She hit the water with a rush of air escaping her lungs, splashing into the surprisingly warm ocean just a second after Adder.

Aela’s eyes immediately popped open, stinging from the salt.

She saw the boat begin to sink, falling beneath the crystal clear water and quickly sink into the depths. Below it she saw the monster, fully in view now. It was massive, larger than the ship and with a maw big enough to swallow both she and Adder. Her head swiveled, hair half caught in the waves. She caught Adder in her gaze, then motioned towards the west.

Towards the islands.

 

[Adder]

[member="Aela Talith"]


It felt like space, for a couple of breathless seconds. Untold depths spanning in every direction as far as the eye could see. A leering blackness amid the bright speckles of coral and the gleam of scales as schools of fish flickered between the ragged arches of salt-worn rock.

It felt like peace, Adder amended.

But then her lungs started to burn, and she saw wheaten blonde hair catch light in the corner of her vision. She swirled, saw her gaze. Nodded.

To the west, the water filtered more and more sun, and maybe (she thought) there was even the shift of sand under the waves. Not that she could appreciate the beauty any more; her chest was too tight, her skin crawling with a thousand needles as she exerted her muscles with air she didn’t have.

Still, her arms parted the sea, her legs stroked with powerful lunges, pushing her ahead, closer.

Spots were beginning to swim before her eyes, and her mouth tasted like rock. Her limbs felt heavy, weighed down with chains and ferrocrete blocks (Like the mob in the Underbelly used to do. To this day Adder can remember the bloated corpse they pulled out of Liberation lake on her second day. She’d puked her breakfast out, and the dinner from the day before).

Breath rushed back into her lungs in torn gasps, mixed with salt and sputters of water. She clawed at waves, and then she clawed at sand, until her body lay still in the sun and the sea stopped lapping at her legs.

Ad Yrá Kjormenkaur Traficit was alive.

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She had always liked the ocean. It had been her favorite part about growing up on Borleias. The Archipelago that made up their home was home to dozens upon dozens of islands. Some were miles apart, others only a few hundred meters. Aela had fond memories of traveling between them, first by boat, then later when she grew by swimming between them. It had always been a straining task, but as she learned more about the force she also learned about supplementing her strength, and as she swam in the ocean now Aela called upon that strength.

The Jedi Marshall swam slower than Adder, lagging behind the woman as she frequently turned and watched the beast below the depths.

The creature seemed preoccupied with the sinking ship, turning on it several times and smashing into it. Great jaws bit into the wooden hull, crunching and breaking it apart in great gulps. Eventually Aela turned for good, swimming after Adder and deciding that the creature would not pursue them. They entered the shallows quickly, the beast unable to follow them. She slowed herself as they came upon the sands, her arms growing tired, and her lungs beginning to sting.

She felt the sand kick beneath her feet.

Aela reached out and touched the sand beneath the water, grasping onto it and pushing herself to her feet.

The force still flowed through her, eyes wandering the beach ahead. She caught sight of Adder, laying already upon the sands. A heavy breath caught in her throat for a moment, fear pulling through her until she saw the woman half roll onto her side. The Jedi Marshall released the breath she had held and looked towards the island itself, eyes narrowing along the expansive beach that ringed the island.

 

[Adder]

She was pretty sure that she ran out of curses, because all that came out of her mouth was an exhausted puff of air. And salt. And water.

Ugh.

“Aela?” she croaked out, craning her neck to check the coastline for the taller woman. It felt like a weight off her chest when she saw her treading the shallows, bright eyes on the horizon. The blonde looks unharmed, but the wet clothes clinging to her body do an excellent job of diverting her attention from the aches blossoming in her muscles.

With ragged motions, Adder found her feet again, wringing out her own soggy shirt. She slogged through the swirling waters and onto the beach proper and did her best to comb the sand out of her hair.

“You alright?”

The land ahead didn’t look like much from their vantage point. A few rolling dunes and low shrubbery rose steadily from the shore, obscuring anything that might lay beyond. Adder frowned, hand twitching for her holster on instinct.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

"Yeah." Aela said as she frowned slightly, an off feeling pressing at the back of her thoughts.

The beach looked like any other coastal beach that Aela had ever seen. The water lapping onto the shore was the same crystal blue that seemed to permeate all of Naboo and the island itself seemed to stretch back beyond dunes and into a thick jungle like forest. Beyond that she couldn't see much save for the subtle curve of a distant mountain of rock. Her gaze fell onto the nearby shrubbery, watching it for a moment to see if anything moved before slowly slogging her way onto the sands.

"Are you?" She asked as she came onto the sands, pulling off her soaked shirt. "That was a long swim."

She knew that Adder hailed form Coruscant, and the young woman found it unlikely that she'd had much experience with swimming in the past. "Rest for a bit, I think we're safe here."

Naboo didn't really have many land based predators, at least none that she could think of. The Titavians generally tended to only hunt at sea, and most of the mammals that made their homes on Naboo were peaceful omnivores. Aela half turned back towards the ocean, expecting to the the beast that had hunted them somewhere out in the sea. Of course she found nothing, only the calm lapping waves falling onto the beach.

 

[Adder]

She was gonna say ‘okay’ but it came out more like an awkward high school stammer because feth, those abs.

“I— uh, yeah, yeah. Bit winded, I’ll be fine.” Sure, she wasn’t the youngest anymore, but her lifestyle didn’t exactly support the unfit.

But feeeeeth.

Also, wraps. Figures, she’s a warrior for life (despite Adder’s attempts to coax her out of it). The redhead made a small, strangled noise in the back of her throat, dragging her eyes away from the sudden expanse of naked skin.

Her tongue snuck out to wet her salt-chapped lips, and with a short cough Adder focused her keen gaze firmly on the horizon. Only on the horizon.

“I’m not sure my datalogger survived that bath,” she said after a moment, scowling at the device on her wrist. “We should also dry our clothes. Probably gets cold overnight.”

They had sailed well into the afternoon, and even though it was summer and the days were long and warm, she wasn’t taking any chances. Hypothermia was a queen.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela looked back towards the island. Adder was right in what she said, it would get cold, especially considering they were on an island. The ocean was not a kind mistress, Aela knew that better than most, and overnight temperatures would drop and very likely the wind would bite. Their clothes would have to be tried, but more importantly they needed to find shelter. "We need to get inland."

She said firmly.

"For now at least." She doubted that they were in any sort of shipping lane, and right now they could hardly signal anyone anyway. Shifting slightly the Jedi Marshall walked a bit up the beach, shaking her shirt out and wringing it out as she wandered up one of the dunes. She pursed her lips, looking a the rash of shrubbery that lined the end of the beach and eventually transformed into a teeming jungle. "We need shelter and a fire."

Priorities. "Then we can see about anything else."

Survival was on Aela's mind now.

It was an odd to see just how quickly she switched gears. One moment she was having fun and enjoying herself, the next she rolled herself into the character of a Jedi Marshall. Commanding, firm, and with a plan.

 

[Adder]

“Yep,” she sighed, popping the ‘p’. For another second, Adder lingered on the coast, and then she marched off after the Jedi. They scaled the dunes with little trouble, the shrubs anchoring usually treacherous footing.

Along the way, Adder made short work of her jacket and shirt, slinging them over her shoulder along with her holster. Soon enough sand gave way to actual soil, and the coastal plantlife became thick underbrush between towering tropical trees. The redhead stopped in her tracks, eyeing the ground and the darkness between the trunks.

Maybe it was lucky she still liked to smoke from time to time. She couldn’t have been happier to find the lighter in her inside pocket, and after a few strikes on the hammer, it coughed to life.

“Guess I’ll gather the wood,” she said, gesturing to the ground.

“Doesn’t look like cave terrain, so…” she trailed off, waving a hand uselessly, “we’ll build something?”

She released a breath and looked away, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

She peered around for a moment. The trees didn't exactly look like they were the most stable. Some appeared to be half broken and rotten, others were leaning over so far that they were about to fall on their own. Aela guessed that a storm had come through recently, or at the very least powerful winds. It would be helpful for now, though she was concerned that something like that might happen soon again. She frowned for a moment then motioned to the tree-line.

"I can tear those down and we can build something with them." It wouldn't exactly be easy, but luckily Aela had the force.

"My concern is fresh water." She was already parched, and if they were going to be here for long they would need something to supplement hydration. "I didn't exactly grab a water bottle before jumping off the ship."

Aela smiled, as though she were trying to make a joke.

There was nothing funny about the situation of course, but...well a little levity was always needed. In truth Aela was far less concerned about surviving on the island then she had been at sea with the monster biting at their heels. At the very least they had a measure of control here on the island. Once they had fire and a shelter they could set about seeing where they actually were, not to mention trying to signal for safety. She imagined that eventually someone would come looking for her.

Though she had no idea how long that would take.

 

[Adder]

Yeah, okay, orders. She could work with that. Old instincts stirred as she gave Aela a half-hearted nod, mind already racing. It wasn’t the first time she was stranded and SOL, but it was the first time she was all that, and also in the middle of nowhere.

“And here I was hoping for a boring vacation,” she joked in turn, flashing a grimacing smile at the blonde.

She kept a knife in her boot (because you never know when a powerpack’s gonna run out), but her blade would be no match for the thick jungle. “Go get ‘em,” she said, yanking the blade free. “I’ll look around for a stream… or something.”

Honestly, she'd take a puddle at this point.

She’d never been shipwrecked before, but prioritizing came naturally after so many years of service and sacrifice. With a sigh, she glanced at the Jedi one last time before draping her dripping clothes over a low branch. Didn’t make a show of it, just stripped down to the basics and let the hot sun bite into her bronze skin. All those months chasing petty criminals over the scorch of Baron’s Hed had paid off after all.

With deft fingers, Adder quickly disassembled her datalogger as well, hoping that once the components had dried, the device might work again.

Slim chance, though.

A wince, a grin, and the redhead took off over the dunes in search of fresh water.

[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Shelter was the most important thing on her mind, right after water anyway. If they were going to survive those two things were the most important. Food they could garner from the sea, Naboo had plenty of fish, but Water and shelter was what they would need the most. Fire would also be relatively simplistic, mostly because they still had one great advantage that others in the same situation wouldn't have; The Force. She could still do great things, as long as she had the energy.

A heavy sigh filtered from her lips.

Slowly Aela stepped up to the edge of the forest. She began to scan the different trees there. A few of them were perfectly upright, but most of them had been bent one way or another by great winds and storms that had likely torn through the region. The Jedi Marshall inspected each of them with the same methodical gaze, eventually selecting for or five logs that looked ready to fall over anyway. She slowly sat herself down, dropping into a cross-legged position and resting for just a moment.

She could have done it standing up, but it was easier this way. Aela closed her eyes and began to focus. The force flooded into, first a trickle, then turning into a raging torrent. Her chest rose and fell, then slowly her eyes opened. Fingers reached up and out, slowly curling. There was a slight creaking as one of the heavier logs found itself wrapped within invisible chains of the force. Pressure began to build, the creaking grew louder and loud, and then suddenly there was a loud CRACK that echoed through the forest. The tree snapped almost at it's root, falling to the ground with a heavy thud and a kick of dust.

Aela let out a breath. "Okay. Next one."

She was systematic in how she tore down what would be their shelter, moving through the trees one by one.

 

[Adder]

Not a minute into her trek, Adder could hear the telltale crack of a felled tree. It pulled her lips into a minute smile despite the abysmal situation they’d found themselves in. At least Aela was progressing in her task; the redhead was having no such luck.

To avoid the brunt of the sun’s cruel gaze, Adder had moved into the shadow of the treeline. The sand didn’t try and burn its way through her boots here, and she was marginally less likely to die from the brutal heat.

Not that croaking from thirst was a much more appealing option, mind you. She’d heard tales before, of folk stranded in the desert without a drop of water, and it sure as hell didn’t sound pretty. Her throat was already parched, her skin prickling with beads of sweat.

“Come on,” she muttered under her breath as she crested yet another dune. The land stretching out before her looked identical to the expanse she’d crossed moments ago. The only sounds surrounding her were the rustling of trees and the calls of hidden birds. Water had to be somewhere, though, otherwise there wouldn’t be a forest to speak of.

She eyed the thick jungle to her left, gnawing on her chapped bottom lip. Maybe there was an oasis deeper in?

With one last glance at the sun to aid her in wayfinding, Adder disappeared into the trees.


[member="Aela Talith"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Adder"]

Aela wasn’t exactly a construction worker, nor was she a wildlife survivalist. Her sister could likely do a far better job at crafting something that would protect from both wind and rain, but...well Aela would do the best that she could.

Growing up on an island that was very similar to this one helped at the very least, she had vague memories of her family building small hutts just for fun, though usually they didn’t last more than a day or so before Micah or Maleah destroyed them in some way. She shifted the trees and their branches in such a way that they would loop together, using the force to weave a roof into a smooth outer facade.

It was difficult, and precise work, but in the end worth it.

It took her about an hour to finish the makeshift structure, and at the end of it she was drenched in sweat. The finished product...well it left much to be desired. It was neither a neat hut, nor a little house that one really wanted to stay in. Rather it was a simple tent of sorts, built with thick palm branches and heavy felled trees.

It would do however.

At least for the few days that Aela planned to be here.