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Always, Push Forward
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Sunday, 18 Oct 2015, 0:03 AM | Message # 1 |
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| Hyperspace always unnerved him.
Meditation was difficult enough without the creaking of bulkheads and ceaseless thrum of the hyperdrive assaulting him, oppressive and constraining. The living things that he could connect to so easily felt so disconnected now, removed from the fabric of the universe as they were. In his silence, all he could find when he reached out with the Force was Daneira, her emotions masked to him as he felt her presence in the cockpit.
HWK-290's were a reliable, if somewhat cramped, transport vessel; and with no proper meditation area Karth had settled on the cargo hold as it was the only room with any real space. Of course, this meant an uncomfortably close proximity to the hyperdrive, the source of his current misery.
Holocrons were tricky things, oftentimes. With the Emperor having tightened his grip on every last vestige of Jedi lore and history, those that remained undiscovered were precious commodities. The small, crystalline device hovered in the air before him now, Karth's black eyes focused intently upon it. In his mind's eye the Force churned around the device, every ounce of willpower he had pouring into the latticework in some desperate attempt to unlock it. It was to no avail, however, as the device simply hovered, buoyed by his own will, and he allowed it to gently float down to the floor and rest.
"Frag," he spat, a summation of all the frustration the last twenty four hours had brought him. His face, and Dani's, no doubt plastered over all Imperial channels by now. His ship lost to him, the woman he thought dead for twenty years suddenly alive and a part of his life again. And to make matters their absolute worst: the holocron he had traveled to New Plympto to retrieve, the entire reason for his being there, was inoperable.
It was a delicious sense of irony the Force had. He had gone there to put the past behind him, only for it to swallow him like an inescapable tide.
From its place in the far corner of the cargo hold, Kima whistled what Karth could discern were words of assurance. Two decades spent in the droid’s company had allowed him to glean some understanding of binary language, though it was more being able to pick up the tone of the droid’s speech than any real meaning. All the same, he smiled at his droid as the astromech wheeled over to him. Karth placed an affectionate hand on its cranium before he stood.
“Yeah, I know. I’ll keep trying.”
“Dwoooo…”
“No, I’m not giving up. C’mon, give me some credit.”
Sleep would be difficult enough to wrestle with even without that damnable hyperdrive, and so Karth had resigned himself to a night of coffee and reckless pacing. As he made for the galley (which, in fairness, was closer to a miniature kitchen sequestered in a small nook of the ship) Karth tucked the holocron back into his pocket.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 18 Oct 2015, 11:00 PM | Message # 2 |
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| She sat in the pilots seat of the Caecelia, a familiar and comfortable ship despite the time she had spent away from it. Dom used it more than she did in the years before he passed, and after that, it barely moved from the hangar bay that it rested in. Dani had no use for it until now, but it was easy enough for her to become accustomed to the old ship again. It was the only thing in the past twenty-four hours that she could become accustomed to again. That easily, at least.
Karth was on the ship with her, she could feel him. While she could not feel what he was feeling, she was so out of practice, he was there. His presence was familiar and surprisingly comforting. It still almost did not feel real, him being alive. Daneira had mourned him, she had no body, but she placed a marker and mourned him with every breath she took. And with every one of those breaths, she wished that she had been able to take his place. That was how deep her love was- she felt that his life was more important than her own.
She left him be for a while though, giving him time and space as she took the ship off world and deep in to hyperspace. Dani had no plan as to where to go, just away for now. A few jumps in different directions, she thought, would at least put them out of any range of the search that the Empire had inevitably launched by now. Once the jumps, three of them in total, were done, she finally got up and left the cockpit, leaving the ship on auto pilot. She was tired, but she hated coffee, she always had, so tea....she thought a tea might help.
But as she entered the small galley, she found herself face to face with Karth, who was entering the room from the other direction. "I was just going to make a
tea." Dani murmured. "Coffee?" She offered as she reached for two cups and a tin that held the grounds for the dark, bitter drink that she remembered him liking so much. He drank it black, as dark as his eyes, as she remembered, and sometimes he had barely spoken two words in the mornings before he had at least a cup.
"I made a few hyperspace jumps...different directions....If you just tell me where you want to go, we can set some coordinates...."
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Tuesday, 15 Dec 2015, 4:14 PM | Message # 3 |
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Officer
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| "I wouldn't even know where to start, to be honest," he answered from the doorway. His arms folded across his chest as he took several hesitant steps into the room, keeping a good distance from her as though she might lunge for him at any moment. Or maybe it was out of a desire to keep her there, that getting too close might result in her evaporating before his eyes, Karth couldn't tell yet. He offered a polite nod at the notion of coffee, resting his hip against the counter. His lightsaber rang out as it made contact with the plasteel, and the sound caused him to jump. "Mmn, forgotten what it's like to wear one of these," he murmured as he felt the hilt in his palm. Still foreign, even after all this time.
He allowed his posture to slacken, if only just. One hand slipped inside his pocket to thumb at the holocron again, his brow narrowed as he struggled with how he might even begin to open it. "I came back to New Plympto to get something, and now that I have it... I have no idea what to do with it."
It was an admission of failure, which she would no doubt remember as being rather par for the course, for him. For all his talents De'Qora could never allow himself to celebrate a simple victory like making it off an Imperial planet alive. Even in the past, when they both had their whole futures ahead of them and no lifetime of heartache to temper their enthusiasm, Karth had always been a stick in the mud. He used to wonder, late at night as she slept cradled up against him, how someone so vibrant and friendly could fall for him.
She offered out the cup of coffee a moment later, and he accepted with a murmured 'thanks'. "Wherever we go, I'm sure we'll be hounded, now."
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Saturday, 19 Dec 2015, 0:52 AM | Message # 4 |
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Officer
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| She had noticed his hand in his pocket, from the corner of her eye, as she made the coffee for him. While he may have been the type to easily admit failure (even if there was none), she was never the type to accept it. For the briefest of moments, Dani wished that -she- was what he came back to New Plympto for. It wasn't at all the case, though, because he thought her to have been long dead and gone. But still, the thought was there.
As as she handed him the cup, and then took her own, she dutifully ignored his statement about them being hounded now. While it was not a direct swipe at her, it still felt rather passive aggressive and brought back her feeling of guilt for her mistake. For the moment, she really did choose to ignore it.
"Well, what is it? Maybe we could figure it out..." Dani paused thoughtfully as she sipped the hot tea from her mug. "...Together." They always worked well as a team before, but she wondered if the years and distance would have changed that.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Sunday, 20 Dec 2015, 2:54 AM | Message # 5 |
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Officer
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| She was prodding, already Karth could sense the hopeful lilt that swept over her. An empath's talents were often a blessing, but there in that galley Karth wanted nothing more than for her to be an enigma to him. He didn't want to open up that wound. And Daneira would be thankful for it, in the end. He wouldn't risk his heart a second breaking if he was to lose her again.
Karth finally managed to look her in the eye, once he had gathered the strength to address her directly. No sooner did he look into her piercing blue eyes that he felt the head from when her tank had gone up in flames. A memory he had finally been able to suppress, brought once again to the fore. Instinctively, De'Qora flinched away from her, composing himself only just.
"It's..."
Why was he hesitant? She had to know, he certainly couldn't expect to keep her in the dark forever. But this quest, until now, had been one he had intended to see through alone. "It's this," Karth finally said, drawing the small holocron from his pocket and offering it out to her, sipping from his coffee cup with his other hand. The holocron was small, barely the size of a credit chit, a small crystal in a golden frame. It resonated with a deep, untapped power that any Jedi, no matter how far removed from the Force they might be, could sense. There was a history there, unspoken and vast, and it longed so for unearthing.
"I've been trying to open it since we hit hyperspace," he breathed, the exasperated sigh dragging out on that last word. It was late, and he was very tired. "But I'd probably have better results beating my head against a wall."
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 20 Dec 2015, 11:28 PM | Message # 6 |
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Officer
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| Daneira rested her mug back onto the counter top before she took the holocron from his outstretched hand. For the briefest of moments, their fingers touched, before she withdrew her hand and brought the small object closer so that she could examine it. It had been years upon years since she had felt that amount of power, or had seen any type of Jedi artifact such as the tiny, glimmering holocron.
"I will understand completely if you do not want my help." Dani finally said as she pulled her gaze away from the holocron. "It is offered, though. I may be distanced from the Force, but that does not mean it is distanced from me." She offered the object back to him, and would pick her mug back up if he would take it from her.
As Dani sipped her spiced tea, she turned her back to Karth and moved to the smallish seating area in the galley/common room. The decor, if it would be called that, was old and outdated, but clean. She dropped down into a seat at the table and finally looked back to him. "Or I can drop you off wherever you want to go. You and Kima. It is your choice. I have nowhere to be, now."
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Monday, 21 Dec 2015, 1:38 AM | Message # 7 |
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Officer
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| When their hands touched, however brief it was, he felt the glimmer of something between them, an echo of what once was. She hid her feelings from him well, but there was no denying what could be felt from pure instinct alone. Time was it would have taken but a look for them to tear each other's clothes off their bodies, or offer up comfort when the other was ready to buckle. Now, she was a ghost with the face of the woman he loved. Had loved. Silence dominated the galley, then, broken only by the quiet oscillations of the onboard filtration systems as the life support kicked in to deliver them fresh air. In the galley's dim light, he wore the countenance of a man whose well of answers had long ago run dry.
"I'm in no place to turn down help of any kind," he finally murmured. If he had his own ship, perhaps he might have turned her down. As it stood, Karth couldn't afford to be using public transport of any sort, and he didn't have the credits to afford seedier methods of transportation. His thoughts flashed briefly to the Starwander, then, hoping against hope that his prized ship had escaped the inevitable Imperial search intact. He took the holocron back from her with a grim smile, rolling it between his fingers as he scoured every forgotten corner of his mind for something. Anything.
"I've no idea where we could even go," Karth conceded, fingers tightening on the coffee mug as he thought. That wasn't entirely true, of course. There were a great many places in his mind that would serve well to hide them from Imperial scrutiny until the heat died down, if it ever would. "The holocron's important, either way. There has to be a way to open it." He had glossed over, in typical Karth fashion, the help she had offered in that endeavor. Whether it was out of spite or ignorance, or some other sort of misplaced feeling of his, De'Qora gave no indication.
After a moment, he slipped the holocron back into his pocket and sighed. There had to be something that wasn't clear to him, a solution just on the precipice of discovery.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Monday, 21 Dec 2015, 1:52 AM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Monday, 21 Dec 2015, 2:50 PM | Message # 8 |
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Officer
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| "Well." She started, slowly examining Karth De'Qora with her ocean blue gaze. "I am sure that either of our home worlds is out, and Coruscant is definitely out. Because I am an idiot, we cannot go back to New Plympto....ever." She was idly flipping through the systems in her mind as she sat there with her tea clutched in both hands.
"I am going to need a new lightsaber...." Dani murmured idly. "I've been using blasters for too long." At that point, she was talking more to herself than making a plan. It was something that needed to be done, along with other things.
Dani finally rested the mug on the table, abandoning the tea entirely as she stood and paced the floor before she stopped in front of Karth. "The moment you died, I ceased to be a Jedi. I need to find that again...because if I am remembering correctly, a holocron can only be activated with Jedi powers....which I think we are both rusty at"
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Friday, 25 Dec 2015, 2:48 AM | Message # 9 |
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Officer
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| There was several moments of silence, before Karth came to the conclusion that she had had enough. He broke the quiet with a sigh that was no doubt familiar to her, the sort of sigh he would make right before issuing one of his trademark apologies. Years together had attuned them both to every subtle facet of the other's personality; and it was truer than ever that no matter how old someone got, they never truly changed.
Where once he would have bridged the distance between them to run his fingers through the tresses of her hair, or place his hands on her shoulders to smooth out the tension, now De'Qora kept his distance. He rested his lower back against the nearby counter, arms folded, but the edge in his voice had vanished. When he spoke, for the smallest of moments Dani would have been able to glimpse the Karth she so fondly remembered, the one so carefully hidden from the world lest it be left tattered and broken.
"You're not an idiot," he breathed. "You saw something wrong and tried to stop it. I'd have done the same. I did do the same."
Kima, wheeling into the galley a few seconds later, whistled the Binary equivalent of an agreement. The astromech rolled its way over to Karth, bumping against the Jedi's leg before coming to a halt. Karth smiled and placed an affectionate hand on the droid's cranium, fingers tracing over the plasma burns and latticed scratches. His chassis barely shone in the galley's faint light; and his smile widened as he remembered a time when the astromech shined, polished silver and green. Kima had certainly seen better days.
"The only thought I had might be..." He paused, eyes glazing over as he was once again worlds away from that galley. "... We could try Dubrillion."
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Friday, 25 Dec 2015, 2:50 AM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 27 Dec 2015, 9:26 PM | Message # 10 |
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Officer
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| Dani sat silently, scanning her recent memory for anything regarding Dubrillion. She had not, however, kept up on any form of Galactic news in her small and formerly quiet part of the Galaxy. So if anything was happening, or had happened there, she would likely not know about it.
"Whatever you think, is fine with me...Karth." She said his name out loud, and it felt strange because it had been so many many years since she had spoken his name. Dani pushed herself up, abandoning the tea again. "It will not take long for me to set the coordinates and we can be well on our way." She said as she started to move past him so that she could go to the cockpit of Caecelia.
While Karth may have still been shut off towards her, she had no issue letting him feel her confusion, and distress, among other things. For a brief moment, she stopped near him and sighed heavily. "Again....I am sorry." Dani started. "For more than you know." It was only after a moment of hesitation that she finally flung her arms around his neck, however brief, and whispered to him; "I am glad that you are alive."
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Tuesday, 29 Dec 2015, 1:54 AM | Message # 11 |
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| He assumed, of course, that she meant to input new coordinates after they finished the current hyperspace jump they were in. It was a simple enough matter to input the next set of coordinates to automatically launch as soon as they came out of hyperspace, but he pushed off the counter all the same so that he could peer over her shoulder. Old habits died hard, after all, and Karth had an unfortunate habit of micro-managing.
"No questions asked, huh?" He started, gaze following her as she walked past him. Even after twenty years, his eyes were still drawn to that gentle sway in her hips, however brief the look he chanced was. He was still a man, after all.
She paused, then, and he opened his mouth to speak, assuming she had some sort of retort or bite-back planned. He was surprised, then, when she threw her arms around him and held on, her voice whispered pain in his ears, the memory of their nights together on Ixtlar rushing back as a floodgate was opened. Karth's entire body stiffened, and he fell silent, the room drowning in absolute quiet save for the ship's oscillations. Kima, from its corner, beeped and whistled an acknowledgement in the Jedi's direction.
Karth, either unable or unwilling to move, finally drew his arms around her and gave her back a tentative, reassuring pat. He refused to return the embrace, he was not about to go down that road again, the wound was still fresh.
"It's... okay," he breathed, careful to avoid the scent of her hair.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 8:48 PM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Tuesday, 29 Dec 2015, 2:47 PM | Message # 12 |
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Officer
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| It would be difficult for him to avoid her Raven, jasmine scented locks for too long. Much to her surprise, she did not let him go like she should have, if she did not let go, he could not disappear. With a heavy sigh, several lingering moments later, she released the man and looked up in his eyes for only the briefest of seconds before tearing her gaze away. "I may have argued with you before, Karth, but there was never a time that I did not trust you. Why should I start now?" Dani asked in response to him.
"For the Forces sake....do you not remember when we were on Bellassa? I did not trust anyone....there was no way I could have. And I still trusted you." Atria had ended up dead, Karth knew that, but Danieras faith in his help never waivered. Not once. That sad memory aside, she gave him a small smile.
Before she she said anything else that she was thinking, Dani straightened up, and shut up as well. "Anyway....I will go and pull up the nav computer and set those coordinates as soon as we drop from hyperspace. The sooner we arrive, the better I think. We are not well stocked for a terribly long haul right now." Before she walked away, knowing full well he would follow because of his old habits, she let her hand brush his arm for the briefest moment before she turned away.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Saturday, 02 Jan 2016, 11:14 PM | Message # 13 |
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Officer
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| He was unable to answer her. The former Jedi—still trapped in the memory of a life long lost—could not or would not find the words to thank Daneira. He was rigid in her embrace, his every muscle tense. She could no doubt feel it, how twenty years had taken more than its proper toll. His muscles were more taut, a far cry from the lithe young man she remembered. Broken, re-healed bones could be felt along certain joints, if she were to pay any heed. Internally, if she were to try and sense any sort of reciprocation, a glimmer of the love he held, there was none to be found.
For all Dani could tell, this man was not her Karth, but some droid wearing a dead man's face.
Released, Karth's body slackened, ebon eyes focusing intently on a nearby wall panel as she made for the cockpit. There was a jolt, however brief, when she touched him a final time. For the slimmest of moments, the impassive facade cracked, and Karth De'Qora was once again human. And in his mind came a rush: words he longed to say, explanations she might want to hear, an apology. But pride forced his mouth shut, and all he could summon her was a thankful nod.
Left alone in the galley, Karth slumped down into a chair beside the pazaak table that doubled as a dining surface. He lurched forward, bracing his forehead in his palms as he fought to silence the disparate voices in his head. His nerves frayed, sparking with misplaced aggression. In the back of his mind, her tank flashed with crimson fire again. He was on New Plympto's surface, a chorus of death ringing in his ears, blaster fire kicking up dirt and debris to cloud the battlefield in earthen wisps. His chest tightened, and he felt Crass' knife bite into his back, missing his heart by centimeters as blood filled his lungs.
After a moment, it passed. Karth let himself rest against the table, and choked back a quiet sob. Kima, ever the faithful and attentive droid, rolled over to its master and rested its scratched silver cranium against Karth's leg. De'Qora reached down, placing a thankful palm upon the droid's head, and allowed the tears to flow freely.
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 8:49 PM |
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| Daneira_Farris | Date: Sunday, 03 Jan 2016, 11:14 PM | Message # 14 |
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Officer
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| In the cockpit, Daneira had similar memories come flooding back to her. Her did not involve Crass, but fire and explosions. A blaster bolt through the abdomen, and another through the shoulder, then water and darkness....and death. With a sigh, she fumbled with the switches on Caecelias console before she brought up the nav computer to double check coordinates.
As she pulled the lever to drop the ship out of hyperspace, Dani leaned back in thr pilots seat. It was only then, when the darkness of space enveloped her ship, did she realize that she had tears running down her cheeks. It wasn't his fault, no, she didn't blame Karth at all. This pain and confusion that they were both suffering, was her fault.
With the coordinates set, and Caecelia back into hyperspace, Dani retired to her quarters to try and meditate or rest....or at least get her emotions under control.
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| Karth·DeQora | Date: Sunday, 10 Jan 2016, 5:02 PM | Message # 15 |
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| One week later...
Dubrillion was a world untouched by war.
The Myto Sector had been in the heart of Separatist space during the three-year conflict, but the battles themselves had never touched the pristine shores of this Outer Rim world. Now, like so many other planets, it had fallen under the reign of the Empire and was left to wither in Palpatine's grasp. Despite this, a casual look at the white-sand beaches dotted with settlements and cities, with lush, green terrain beyond them, made their approach into Dubrillion's atmosphere almost... welcoming. Beauty could still be found, Imperial occupation or no, and that was enough to fill his heart with renewed hope.
Seated in the Caecelia's co-pilot seat, Karth transmitted a fresh set of forged identification codes, and traffic control cleared them for permission to land in the capital shortly thereafter. Allowed a moment to relax, he sank back into the faded leather seat and ran his black-gloved hands through his hair, which had been shorn close and his beard freshly-shaved. Their faces had been broadcast across all proper Imperial channels, by now, and a haircut helped only so far as diverting eyes that didn't spare more than a passing glance, but every attempt to disguise themselves had to be made. The last thing they needed was an Inquisitor breathing down their necks again, after all. Daneira sat beside him at the controls, and Karth braved a glance over in her direction.
They hadn't spoken much since that conversation in the galley, both of the former Jedi going out of there way almost to avoid the other, though the effort was mostly on Karth's end. His sleep in the week after that night had been troubled, fraught with concern about her being back in his life, or how he worried that he had involved her in something that would get her killed. Meditation hadn't helped, it had only brought more of his nightmares to the fore. Every time he closed his eyes, tried to focus the Force internally, he saw her tank bursting into flames. It didn't matter that she was here beside him now, for him Daneira might as well have been a thousand parsecs away.
From her position at the communications console, Kima whistled an acknowledgement, followed by a low and foreboding binary drone. Karth, trying his best to stay optimistic, shook off the droid's concerns.
"We won't be here long," he assured Kima, arms folding over his chest after he smoothed out the loose-fitting, black flight vest he now wore. In addition to the gray-wrapped boots and matching pants, he wore a combat vest over the ensemble, having reasoned that pulling out a lightsaber to deal with blaster fire would only draw more attention. It was winter on Dubrillion, and he had found an old, maroon cloak in Daneira's cargo hold that would suffice to keep him warm, but the material itched and caused him to scratch without realizing. "We're here to look into the holocron, then we're back into space."
Kima, unconvinced, echoed another series of beeps and whistles, and even to those that couldn't speak binary the caution in the astromech's tone was palpable. "We're not going to get caught!" Karth shot back with a nod. "Will you relax?"
Karth De'Qora, Fugitive Jedi
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." ~Ernest Hemingway
Message edited by Karth·DeQora - Tuesday, 19 Jan 2016, 11:14 PM |
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