You Need A Pilot

[Cassius Droma]

The young Zeltron had a point – somewhat. He could think back fondly on the time he had with her, yes… but the manner in which their relationship was cut short wasn’t necessarily his choice, or hers for that matter. “I suppose so,” Cassius said, his voice fading, possibly as an indication on the focus he was putting into his work. In reality, he was going back to that place in his mind where he’d lost her. Then he had to remind himself of the time they’d met, when they’d both been accepted into the A-wing squadron, when they’d been assigned to each other’s wing…

“I guess Jedi aren’t supposed to have attachments anyways, right?” he asked.

Cassius turned to the overhead bin, the tools and parts all clacking together as his hand fumbled around for the part. Typically, they were all organized, but were probably knocked loose by the fancy flying he had to do in the asteroid field. After rummaging around for a bit, his hand came back, and he sighed in victory. He had a new power conduit. Touching the diagnostic tool to it, it came up green. Perfect.

As he turned back to the panel in order to yank out the blown out conduit with the new one, he asked. “Have you been liking your time with the Jedi so far, though? Any cute Jedi caught your eye?” They were just on the subject of ‘liking’ people, so he figured he’d keep it along that vein – it was a typically lighthearted subject.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario wasn't deceived by Cassius' silent business; she could feel very well that there were still thoughts, or rather feelings, on the subject going through his head. It came as a relief when his mind swayed from the dark path it was taking, the hints of pain melting away and dissolving into mere melancholy.

"I don't really know what that means, honestly, but if you ask me, nobody is supposed to dwell on things like that", she stated firmly. As she stood there, looking at him with her hands on her hips, it sounded practically like an admonition. Absurd as it may have been, it didn't seem like she was putting on an act.

She dropped her pose immediately as he asked her a question in return, her hands falling limply by her side and her gaze lowered to the floor for a moment. His words had set her thinking in a direction that she had not even really consider with regard to her own person. There was so much novelty in the world right now, and of course what he was talking about was potentially part of it - but she somehow hadn't really noticed that she wasn't actually too young for that anymore, and all the activities and studies she was engaged very much distracted her from even thinking about it. Maybe they shouldn't - maybe she was missing out on something?

Eventually she looked up again. "It's been a wonderful time so far, there are so many things to discover! And my teacher is such a lovely person", she said with a smile. That was certainly the truth. "But I've noticed a funny thing", she said vaguely. "Jedi tend to be better-looking than regular people. At least for those species where I can judge." That she had indeed observed, only it hadn't quite occurred to her that that might have... consequences.

"What's your teacher like?" she asked a propos of her own previous remark.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

Again, it seemed as though he struck some sort of nerve. She was quiet for an uncomfortably long amount of time before she answered him again. Cassius was somewhat glad that his body was halfway in the bulkhead so as to not have to look at her during those pauses. Her tone perked up, however, when she finally did respond, and she noted how Jedi seemed to be good-looking in comparison to non-Force users.

Cassius chuckled a little at that. “I guess you’re right - I hadn’t noticed that before,” he said as he put his diagnostic tool down and leaned into the machinery once more. His hands fumbled slightly as he tried to put the new plasma conduit in, and it was having trouble fitting in properly. Finally, after some finagling, the part snapped in and the electric sound of power running through it filled Cassius with relief. He touched the diagnostic tool to it just to make sure - green.

“Master Jade is great,” Cassius said, removing himself from the bulkhead and turning around. “She’s not exactly a… traditional Jedi, but she’s taught me a lot since I’ve gotten here. I really need to spend more time with her, honestly. I’m still very new to the whole Jedi thing.”

After securing the maintenance panel back where it belonged, Cassius went back to the cockpit and climbed inside. He flipped on everything, and the engines came on with a loud purr. “Hyperdrive’s back!” Cassius exclaimed, seeing that everything was green on his layout of the ship. “Let’s get out of here, yeah?” He fastened his crash-webbing. The only thing to worry about now were the pirates… if they were still around.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Cassius' pronouncement that Master Jade was not a very traditional Jedi conveyed very little information to Rosario, who wasn't very clear on what specific traditions there were on top of just being a Jedi, apart from the odd robes that many, though not all, seemed to prefer. She was about to ask what he had in mind when he announced that the hyperdrive had been restored.

This threw her back suddenly into cold, hard, physical reality. And a frightening reality it was, too. It was one thing for the hyperdrive to be back, but quite another to find their way out of this asteroid field and past those pirates. Rosario could observe the anxiety creeping back into her mind, but could do nothing about it. These thoughts had a magnetic quality, and as much as she tried to rip her attention away from them, it would return there moments later. The idea of leaving right now, in particular, conjured a strong feeling of impending doom.

Rosario followed hesitantly into the cockpit and reached it only when Cassius had also fastened himself in his seat. "It's not a good idea", she almost murmured. "They're still out there. I just know." She looked at him helplessly, knowing that he had no reason to believe her and terribly afraid that he wouldn't.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

He could sense her suddenly tense up as he expressed his desire to leave. A frown crossed his lips. They couldn’t stay in the asteroid forever, and the sooner they left, the sooner they could get home. Reaching over, he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. His green eyes met her blues, and he tried to put as much confidence in his voice as he could muster.

“Hey,” he said, “look. I know you’re scared, but I’m going to need you to trust me. The longer we stay here, the higher the chance gets that they’ll find us. I dodged these guys before, and I can do it again.” Taking his hand off her shoulder, he turned back to his console, focusing on the navicomputer. “See? I’m going to pre-program the jump back to the Providence so that as soon as we clear the asteroids, we’ll be on our way. Alright?”

Whether she was ready or not, Cassius had to get them underway. He fired up the engines and disengaged the magnetic locks keeping them on the interior of the asteroid. Slowly pulling away, he aimed the ship down the long tunnel that brought them here and eased down it. The opening could be seen soon enough, and as Cassius pulled up the sensors to predict the asteroid’s movements once more, he had the U-wing fully emerge from their hiding place. Since he’d docked closer to the lower part of the field, he decided to head down, rather than travel the whole length of the field again.

“So far, so good…” Cassius muttered, keeping his eyes open and the sensors scanning.

They were just about clear when a loud beeping from the sensors drew his attention. “Moof-milkers were waiting for us…” Cassius gritted his teeth, gripping the controls as a volley of laser fire came their way. The U-wing rolled, and Cassius could feel a pang of fear in his stomach – not for their situation, but for Rosario. He didn’t want her to be afraid – he had this. However, fighting them off wouldn’t do him any favors. If they wanted to stay alive, they had to make their escape now.

Weaving through the last few huge hunks of rock, Cassius immediately reached for the silver hyperspace handle. Pushing it forward, the ship hummed in a loud whine before they snapped into the blue tunnel of hyperspace. Sighing, Cassius sat back in his chair. They’d made it out.

“That’s it. We’re safe. We’re going home.”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario noticed how her heart rate increased and her breath became constricted, while a feeling of coldness crept over her skin intermittently. Almost dazed, she dropped into her seat and fumbled stiffly with the belts, managing to fasten them only when the ship had already taken off. Then she sank into herself, her mind becoming absorbed in the observation of the pulsating sensations that made up her borderline panicked state. She was only very dimly aware of their surroundings as Cassius steered the ship out of the asteroid field. She pressed her eyes closed and tried to resist being pulled out of her reverie when the warning sound started to fill the cockpit, trying to integrate its sound as only one more component of the perceptual mixture. She noticed the inertial forces on her body as she ship started to roll, but didn't open her eyes to see the shots missing them. Her whole attention was caught in the frantic attempt to pull herself away from the thought of death and towards bare perception. She didn't quite succeed: the thought did not recede into the background, it sat there, looming, threatening - but at the same time, it was oddly as if she didn't actually come to realise its significance. It was just an abstract idea that her mind didn't really engage with - there was no wondering what it would be like to die, no wondering what would happen in the world after she was gone, whether anybody would be sad, or why it would even be so bad. Just a pure, primitive, and almost nonsensical awareness of its badness. It was almost as puzzling as it was terrifying.

Eventually she ship escaped into hyperspace, Rosario's body being jerked in the seat. She opened her eyes and looked straight ahead dizzily, without focus, for several seconds. The comments Cassius had made on the situation were only now, in retrospect, rising to consciousness. "I told you so..." muttered Rosario. "You didn't have to do that, you know", she complained with a bit more force, but she didn't manage to sound very indignant. "We could just have waited. I'm sure they'd have lost patience before us." There was a part of her that watched the rest of her speak these words. That part noticed its own existence and was very confused. Then it noticed its own confusion, too, found it justified, and became even more confused.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

Rosario didn’t seem too keen on him going out so early. She would have rather he waited for the pirates to have left before he tried to make a run for it. He sighed, putting his elbow on the console next to him. “Okay, maybe,” he started. She did have a point, after all. Then again… “But at the same time, the longer we stayed in that asteroid, the higher of a chance there would have been of them eventually scanning the asteroid we hid in. They would have eventually found our life-signs, and either come in after us, or just blown up the asteroid and harvest what was left.”

He looked forward, the blue hyperspace tunnel glinting in his green eyes. “Besides… it was only two of them. I would have had to be a pretty bad pilot to have been disabled or blown up by them.” He paused, letting the silence linger in the air between them. This wasn’t exactly a stellar first time out and about in a starship, and it certainly wasn’t the seminal final course that he was hoping for. Some instructor he was.

“So I guess this means you won’t be flying with me anytime soon.”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

The emotions she had triggered in Cassius drew Rosario's attention, while she paid little mind to his words. At first she felt a disappointment tinged with just a little bit of annoyance. As he spoke, explaining his actions, it briefly strengthened and then, ironically, turned towards insecurity and frustration. Rosario still had a queer feeling and found herself helpless in the face of this development, surprised by it and unsure how to react.

"I... what?" She looked alarmed at Cassius' sudden final remark. At this moment, she couldn't see at all how it followed from the foregoing or the situation. "Who else am I going to fly with? Do you think I'd have managed that alone?" It was obviously a rhetorical question.

She unclasped the buckle that held together the seat belts, assuming without thought that the flight through hyperspace would be sufficiently stable. She felt an inexplicable urge to move, to experience her body again as fully hers to control, following the odd episode she had just gone through.

Standing behind Cassius' seat, she put her hands on the headrest and leaned against it, looking above his head into the blue swirl beyond.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​

 

[Cassius Droma]

The smallest of smiles began to tug at the edge of Cassius’s lip as she responded. Seems like she wasn’t angry with him after all. Good. Maybe this wasn’t such a bust. Glancing down at the controls, Cassius thought about something he was going to do if this had gone well and he’d managed to get Rosario to fly them to Lannik and back. Granted, that didn’t happen, but Cassius was so short on time… he was due to fly out to Silver territory within the next few days.

As the young Zeltron leaned over his chair, he looked back up and into the bright light at the end of the blue swirling tunnel. “Well, I hope you can learn how to fly by yourself soon, because this baby is yours, now.” He lightly touched the console. He’d been through a lot of scrapes with this thing, but it was only right that he was able to pass it on. The experienced pilot was looking to purchase something a little bigger in the near future, anyways.

Sighing, he leaned back, his body relaxing for what felt like the first time in hours. He closed his eyes and listened to the rumble of the engines as they passed through hyperspace.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario noticed that Cassius seemed preoccupied with something. From her position behind his seat, she looked at the top of his head, waiting with the slightest apprehension for him to resolve whatever was going on in his mind. And suddenly, he came back to the present and said the most astonishing thing.

"What... ?" mumbled Rosario in confusion. At first she felt abandoned, frightened that he wanted no more to do with her, that she might have got on his nerves or scared him away. Then she realised that she could not feel any negative emotion from him. On the contrary, he was quite confident and positive, relaxing in his chair. He hadn't said it in his words, but it was almost as if he was encouraging her.

"Why, thank you!" exclaimed the girl finally, having got a grasp of the situation. "Thank you so much! That's so sweet of you." She smiled brightly and flung her arms around him from behind and above, where she was standing. For a moment, she hesitated, about to ask whether he was really sure about this. But she caught herself thinking this, and stopped the words from forming.

The whole thing was somewhat overwhelming. It appeared to bring with it a host of responsibilities, but also possibilities, an opportunity not to be wasted. This actually made her uncomfortable, it wasn't something she wanted to think about now. She would sort this out later; for now all she wanted was to get back to the safety of the Providence and her master's guidance. She was allowed to think like that, she decided; she was just a Padawan who was really quite new to the galaxy at large.

With this resolution, Rosario exhaled and dropped back into her seat.

[member="Cassius Droma"]​