Post by Bobbi on Oct 1, 2008 11:50:52 GMT -5
They'd come out of hyperspace near Zolan, as planned, and the GDR was primed, as planned, but Sadhric hadn't left. He had calmed down somewhat, paced a lot, and started snipping away at what he saw as a monstrous knot of new problems while he checked over Prudence's drive system.
During those first couple of hours through the rift, Jaysten had disappeared. He was working, just as Sadhric was, but on a different kind of problem. He had quite a few things to contend with, including the fact that he had a grudge to get over, and he had to do it swiftly. Forgiving wasn't always as easy as some people would have liked to believe. But, in cases like this, it was needed. That meant that Jay would have to face it, grow up a little bit and move onward. He'd come to that conclusion, and set out to wander the hall ways of the ship, still a bit deep in thought. This was how he came up on The Mechanic, slightly distracted with contemplations of what was going to happen in the near future. "Uh, Mr. Tlin? I know you are busy and all, but I just wanted to ...say I'm sorry for what I said to you before. I had no right. Just...wanted to say that..." And with that, Jay turned and started back down the hallway that had led him to where Sadhric had been.
The Mechanic didn't hear Jaysten until the teenager had spoken, because he'd been dragging a heavy lock-cylinder free of its housing in the bulkhead. When he did, the thing was halfway in and halfway out, and he shifted his grip and braced it with a knee out of reflex, but sliced the palm of his hand on an exposed edge of old metal. He let out a hiss, only snatching a glance at Jaysten as he felt along for a better place to grab the five-foot-long device. "It was my fault," he managed through a grimace, starting to lever the thing down to the floor.
"Doesn't matter who's fault it is, or was, Mr. Tlin." Jay said, turning around to find Sadhric pulling the lock-cylinder out of it's compartment. He moved to offer his aid. "I had no right to confront you like I did. This isn't the time, or the place, for settling grudges, or getting vindictive. There's too much at stake for that. Here, let me help."
Sadhric didn't argue about the offer to help, and once Jaysten was there to take some of the weight, the cylinder slid more easily free, and could be eased to the deckplates. Once it was down, Sadhric put a foot on it to keep it from rolling, and checked out his hand. There was a thin smear of blood on the device, but not an emergency's worth. "It matters to me," he muttered, working some ancient flakes of paint out of his cut. "I usually don't fail this much in such a short amount of time. I'm not used to having to deal with things like this."
"Yeah, this isn't really how I usually work, either... Training sessions, and Force lessons, are quite a bit different then being out in the field, and on assignment..." At that he frowned, eying Sadhric's hand. "It isn't life threatening, is it?" He was, of course, joking. A cut that small wouldn't even be considered a real wound unless it became infected.
It was his right hand that he'd hurt. That hand already had Bacta on it--but the Bacta was smeared across the knuckles, which were unevenly split and still a little swollen. "You haven't had any great examples to follow," he said, ignoring the joke. He flexed the hand and unceremoniously wiped the palm across his pantsleg. "I'll rectify things."
"You don't have to worry about it, Mr. Tlin. Just give me a chance, that's all that I ask. I know I'm not as experienced as you, or Jeryndi, ...or...just about any other person out there qualified enough to come on this ...whatever you want to call it. But, I am a Tekal, and I do share more then just the name."
"I meant in general. My first mistake was letting you all come." He shrugged, kneeling down and rolling the cylinder toward him until its panel was facing the ceiling. He pulled it open and began systematically disconnecting components and arranging them to his right. "Don't take that personally. Once I made that mistake, though, and didn't correct it... I should have made the rules clear." He glanced up at Jaysten, assessing his expression, and then went back to what he was doing. "I'll do that, later, when I'm finished in here. We'll get everyone together in the galley or something so that you can all decide how committed you are to making this work."
Jay remained where he had been standing, just watching Sadhric go to work on the locking-cylinder. He was quiet for a moment, his expression having grown serious. He didn't mind what Sadhric had said. All in all, he honestly wondered why The Mechanic had allowed so many people to follow him into this. But, things happen for a reason... "I want to see this through, Mr. Tlin. I want to get my Uncle back, and I'd prefere alive, over dead, any day."
Sadhric just nodded, and seemed absorbed in what he was doing. He didn't say anything for a few moments, but he finally sighed. Still without looking up, he said quietly, "When we're in a better position, hopefully with Solomon aboard, maybe we can talk."
"Maybe." He said softly, resolving that he'd probably have to give up on holding Sadhric to that. If it happened, it happened. There would be no pushing of any issues, at least not with Sadhric. "So..um... what's the plan? I mean, where do you plan to start looking for him?"
"I lost him at Naboo, so I start looking for him at Naboo." The Mechanic shrugged, his tone off-hand, as if starting there went without saying. He now had two neat rows of parts next to his knee. "I jump into the Empire's communications, read their thoughts, and piece it together."
"So, it is really The Empire, then?" He mulled over that, chewing lightly at his lower lip. "I've been thinking about that, wondering, really... I don't know if you'd have an answer to this, and I don't think its something that the others have thought about... but, what if these guys are able to track us through the Force? I mean, most of us on board are Jedi, right? There are people here that have been trained to track us down and kill us. What's to stop them from sniffing us out once we get close enough?"
"Death, hopefully," Sadhric said. He pulled out one last part, looked it over end to end, rubbed a little crud free of it, and then put it back in. He did the same for the rest of the pieces, one at a time, refitting them carefully in their cylindrical housing. "But if not death, then readiness. And flexibility. Because it may not be altogether a bad thing if you all are noticeable."
"What do you mean?" He asked, watching Sadhric refit all the pieces back into their casing.
"Well, provided that you all are at least halfway competent, you could, in theory, make for an excellent distraction. Because I can slice all I want, but sooner or later someone is going to have to physically haul Solomon back from wherever he is."
Sadhric closed the panel once he had gone over all the guts, and nodded toward the gaping shadow of the housing in the bulkhead. "Help me get this back in place." He took the end with the ragged piece of metal, careful to keep his hand clear of it this time, and got ready to lift. "I didn't say we'd try it," he said, thoughts back on the main topic. "I said we could--if circumstances present themselves right. And they probably won't. But you can't look at those worst possibilities and not see their potential for being turned into the most advantageous ones."
Moving back in, and hefting the other end of the cylinder, Jay timed the lift just right with Sadhric, helping The Mechanic to get it back into it's place in the bulkhead. "Do you mind if I ask you something else?" He'd spoken only after taking a moment to judge his words carefully. This up coming question was one that, hopefully, wouldn't upset Sadhric, or cause him to shut up tighter then the fit of that locking-cylinder inside the bulkhead. "Why are you doing this? Don't take it as an offense that I am asking, Mr. Tlin, but... why put yourself on the line like this?" He knew what the stakes were for Jeryndi and himself. They were both very close to Solomon. Lepri was along because Jeryndi asked her to come. She was there for Trander, and for team support. Decon? Well, Jay could only assume that he was there because either Jeryndi, or Lepri, had requested him to come. So, what were the motives for the myserious Mr. Tlin?
Wiping his hands off on his pants, Sadhric winced and eyed Jaysten briefly before he went to secure the cylinder. "Not sure what you'd believe," he said with a shrug. "We can try this one, though: It's my fault Solomon's over here. He was assisting me, and I didn't give him the backup he needed in order to do that safely."
"You feel responsible for him being in this situation, then?"
"Yes." The Mechanic swung the grate back down over the bulkhead and locked that down, too. "You want to go get everyone, and tell them to meet in the galley?" He frowned, hesitated, and then added: "Except Cato. Leave him wherever he is."
After a moment, Jay nodded. "Alright." And with that, he turned and headed off to find Lepri, Jeryndi, and Decon.
Lepri was already in the galley. One table was laid out with three tubes, super-conducting cores, a bag of indigo gems that were now precut, several emmitter matrixes, three power-cells, and a stack of dimetris circuit board, as well as high energy reflectors, obviously the makings of a trio of lightsabers. It was the only real place to do the work. There was a small bag that contained a small fusion generator that would allow her to charge them as soon as she had them ready to put together, but that would be a few hours yet.
Decon was laid out in the hold, where there was the most room, with his rifle. Along the far wall were several dots of different colors, or at least they appeared to be dots, but they were actually spots of light that were projected by a portable sniping practice system. Every now and again, his rifle would discharge soundlessly as a beam bolt of laser would streak across the bay, but instead of being galvaned particle beams they were just harmless light.
Not for the first time, Sadhric found himself hoping that Solomon had found a way to hand the capital ships in his holomessage their asses. That he was incognito somewhere, and figuring out how to get back--or even that he already was back on the other side, and that they'd just missed him by using the rift near Station One. It was sort of a useless line of thought, and he discarded it, making one last pass through the compartment before following Jaysten in the direction of the galley.
Jeryndi was sitting in the hallway next to the galley... Legs outstretched. When he saw Jaysten coming, her got up slowly and stepped down into the galley. He was still dressed in his rogue'ish clothes. He wandered down, leaning down to look over at Lepri's sabers that were in the process of being built... He had one that he was in the process of building himself, as a spare, but this was one of those moments that that wasn't meant to be worked on.
With Sadhric not too far behind, Jay slipped into the galley behind Jeryndi, taking a brief glance at what Lepri was working on. "Have either of you seen Mr. Prater? "
"Cargo," Lepri said absently, jerking her thumb in the indicated direction.
The Mechanic came into the galley and went immediately to pull out some more Bacta. He slapped a patch on his palm, and looked over his bruised knuckles again before deciding not to waste a second patch on them. Still, the sweet smell filled the long room.
Jeryndi looked up. "I can help you with that if you want me to," Jeryndi offered. No strings attached. A genuine offer, with neither sarcasm or anything else in the tone.
"I'll be right back, then." He continued on his way, heading off in the intended direction of the cargo hold. Once there, he paused just in the doorway, watching Decon in his practicing of the shooting of targets.
Glancing over at him, Sadhric shrugged. "Not a bad cut," he said quietly, "just in a bad spot."
The shots were quiet, much quieter than most blaster rifles, but then again, as soon as he put in real power packs instead of just practice gear, it would be heard for a couple kilometers. He would breath in, then breath out half a breath... shot... sometimes he'd fire two shots at two different targets nearly instantly, which was quite hard for snipers to do. After a few moments he looked over at Jaysten. "You wanna try?"
"Maybe later." He said, giving a small smile. "Sadhric wants to meet with us all in the galley. He's got something he wants to talk about... After that, though, sure!"
Decon nodded, then hopped to his feet in one smooth motion, then picked his rifle and the unit up off the floor. Powering down the projector he hefted his rifle in the other hand and joined them in the galley, flopping down at one chair, setting the projector on the table, then began checking over his rifle as a meticulous habit. Always maintain your weapon, always make sure it is as ready to perform as you are.
Jeryndi nodded slightly, then shrugged. "I can help it heal faster, take away the discomfort... But that's totally up to you," he says, giving Sadhric a small smile.
"Maybe later," The Mechanic said, because about that time Jaysten and Decon had joined them. He just got right to it: "It's been made starkly clear to me that I have made some errors. I'm going to correct them right now. Whether you realized it or not, when you invited yourself, or agreed to let yourself get tagged into this, you all put yourselves at my disposal. You agreed--tacitly, I'll grant--to shelve your personal opinions and priorities in favor of mine." He folded his arms. "Since I failed to make that clear, in the spirit of fairness, you've got this one chance to change that. And you're not going to change it through arguing or talking pretty... You're going to change it by either leaving, or accepting that I will leave and forget about you."
After having retrieved Decon, Jay headed back to the galley, and took up residence in one of the empty seats. Once there, he just sat quietly and listened to what Sadhric had to say.
Lepri just glanced up from her work then looked at Sadhric, then turned her attention back to the sabers, making a sound like snoring. "You're being boring, Sadhric. It goes without saying we're at your disposal. You've made it clear you have no intention of putting any of us to good use." Her words were half distracted, or at least they seemed that way. Pulling out a small file she began using the hand-tool to refine the shape of butt cap of one saber. "Now if you actually intend to share some of what you know, so we're not all in the dark and can maybe, just maybe lend a hand, isntead of being a burden, that would be all sorts of swell. ... Opinions asside and all. None of us came here to sit around and do nothing."
Decon had nothing to say, as he finished his inspection and let butt of his rifle rest against the decking, with the barrel and grip resting against one thigh, muzzle pointed toward the ceiling "We're here to help, as always."
Jeryndi listened, then sighed softly... He scratched absently at his dirty lip... At this point, he had nothing to say. These days he didn't say much at all unless it was something useful... And whatever he had to say irght this moment wasn't useful. Quite the opposite.
Sadhric's expression was thoughtful as he nodded. Unfolded his arms. And left. Not angry, not really surprised. Lepri's words had said one thing, and her attitude another, and Sadhric had made what he considered to be an honest attempt. So there wasn't any need to try again, was there? The GDR had been ready to go since he'd hit Cato in the face.
Dropping his head back for a moment, Jay shut his eyes, let out a deep breath and then stood. He excused himself, moving to follow after Sadhric. "Mr. Tlin, wait, please. "
Lepri got up from the table, and looked at Jeryndi. "I'm getting really sick of this shit," she said then turned to follow, this time it wasn't a walk, it was a run at speeds born of the Force to reach him before he could reach the turbolift. She caught up to him and skidded to a stop. "I was agreeing with your terms. So why leave? You got what you wanted. Is that not good enough?"
Jeryndi followed after at a more leisurely pace, but did follow. And wasn't exactly slow. He caught up a moment later, sighing to himself. "We're here to do what needs to be done, Sadhric... I wouldn't be here if that were not the case... Please, just... Can we not work together? Even if its in seperate teams..."
"We already did this once," Sadhric said without stopping. It might have been to Jaysten, or it might have been to Lepri. He didn't bother to specify. "I dislike repeating my mistakes. I chose A before; I'll choose B this time. And you all can have the ship, of course. Use it or sell it, as you please. Keep your shit together and you'll be fine."
"That's not not acceptable," she said to Sadhric.
"You can't do this without help, Mr. Tlin. You said it yourself: your slicing will only get you so far." He ran a hand through his short dark hair, and shook his head. "If you can't stand the weight of all of us being around you, then pick. You choose who you'd rather have helping you. You make the choice of who is going to aid you, because doing this alone isn't an option. Not with the risks that we are going to be running."
"And if you choose to leave, Sadhric, you're basically saying that our coming was pointless. And that's not an answer I'm willing to accept right now. Your leaving does not help us as a team save Solomon. Its just Sadhric. We're here. We know the risks involved. You're calling the shots. Now you're calling the shot to leave us behind and go off and do this thing on your own, because we didn't react the way you expected us to? Or because you made a mistake... I realize you've probably not done the leader thing before, but being a leader means you don't leave your team behind. When you accepted us, you became the leader. Just as you said back there in the galley. You can't leave. Not like this."
Without intervention, the turbolift doors would close. Sadhric didn't look like he was agonizing over it. He had, in his own mind, put some order to the chaos his thoughts had been in, and that order was enough.
One hand swept up and pressed against the side of the door triggering the sensors that would keep the door open. The Cathar was half tempted to bodily yank him out of the elevator. She knew in a million years that a human his size couldn't match her strength without the Force or cybernetic or other technological enhancements, which she doubted Sadhric had bothered to go for. Instead she just looks at Sadhric. "When Solomon is dead, because you turned your back on us, it will be your fault. Do you want a friend and student of yours to die, just because of your sense of pride?"
"You should consider letting the door close so that I can leave, now," Sadhric said quietly.
"You should consider staying."
At that very moment, or very close afterward, something happened. Jay had just taken in another breath, and had been about to exhale when something twitched within the Force. It felt familar, he knew the sensation, and a took a moment for him to recognize it. He hadn't felt it in so long. "...wait...where?" His words were muttered, probably barely audible to those around him. The sensation lingered for a moment longer, and then blossomed brightly in pain before fading, just as swiftly. When it cleared, Jay found himself on the decking, his eyes squeezed shut. Solomon...
OOC note: the sensation that Jaysten has just encountered coincides with Larnavoi shocking Solomon awake from a previous post I had made.
The Mechanic hadn't heard Jaysten, but when the young Tekal fell, he ducked around Lepri and went to one knee. "Cheap trick," he muttered, but he was leaning in to check the kid out. "Jaysten."
Jeryndi had been pissed... He gave no outward sign of it, but both Jaysten and Lepri would've been aware of it... It boiled underneath thes urface... But when the contact came, from Solomon, he felt it, too. He blinked, swaying on his feet a little. He wasn't as close to Solomon as Jaysten was, but their connection in the Force was pretty strong given the experience of passing Trials on Ossus together.... "Shit, man!" he muttered under his breath. Forcing himself to sit down. He rubbed at his forearms, absently, and glanced at Jaysten. "Damn, I know you felt that harder than I did..."
Lepri just turned around, letting the turbolift doors close behind her and just watched Jaysten, then closed her eyes, momentarily letting the Force wash over and through her. "At least we're closer, so their Force Chain is stronger. That's good... and bad. Jaysten, have you done much exercise with shielding your mind and body with the Force?"
"I can't move." He muttered to Sadhric, while trying to force his muscles to respond. Everything along his spine was locked in place, at least for the moment. He tingled, pretty much all over, and he felt like the little hairs on his arms were standing on end. It had been unexpected, and so he hadn't been defending himself against something like that. Not that it was a bad thing, at least now they knew for sure that Solomon was alive. "...Help me up..."
The Mechanic did not, in fact, help Jaysten up right away, instead doing some preliminary things to make sure that Jaysten hadn't hit his head, or hurt his spine--he'd have to get his pack from the GDR, or get Jaysten to the medbay, to do much more than that.
Lepri looked at Jaysten and then gave Jeryndi a nod. Help him.
Jeryndi nodded to Lepri, placing a hand on the back of Jaysten's neck... He closed his eyes, coaxing Jaysten to sleep after shutting out the pain... And doing a check over him. "He's fine," he says quietly. "Just in shock from the initial pain... There's nothing physically wrong with him. He was just picking up on Sol's pain. Buuuuuuut.... It won't hurt to take him to the medbay to sleep it off."
Sadhric's head snapped up. "Any idea where he is?"
Lepri walked over to the two of them then simply bent down and picked Jaysten up with little effort at all. "He's within a dozen parsecs probably, but maybe we can narrow that down some, give us a direction to look in," she suggested. "When Jaysten wakes up, we can get more definitive information. Um... there's a risk with it though."
Jeryndi nodded to Lepri's words. "He's in too much pain to get anything clear... It was a resonance, not an intentional reaching out... Kinda like a Force S.O.S... Wasn't like that. He's either suffered severe trauma or is being tortured... Likely the latter. He's not lucid enough to communicate clearly, even if we tried... Jaysten's our strongest connection to him. But he probably won't sleep for long... If we find him, though... There's a chance they can find -us- relatively easily."
Sadhric nodded, straightened up after Lepri picked Jaysten up, and turned around to step onto the lift.
"So you're just going to leave.... Just like that," he says quietly. Eyes focused on Sadhric.
"Focus, Jeryndi. Go help Jaysten."
"I've got Jaysten just fine," she said. Jeryndi was a capable healer, but Lepri was just as much a capable healer if not more so, after having to help keep him in one piece after Altar, and all of the other things that had happened. Jaysten was work fit for a simple first year intern, not someone skilled in Force Healing.
"I am focused," he says quietly. "Jaysten will be fine, I know this for a fact... You're leaving and you've not said anything... Were you even planning on comumnicating withu s at all once you left?" he asked, just matter of fact. Not really upset. But maybe a little disappointed. He heaved a soft little sigh, brown eyes narrowing slightly.
"I am leaving," he agreed, standing so that the lift doors remained open. "You'll be okay. And I'm sure things will settle down after I'm out of here."
"Will you be back?" -Lepri
"More importantly, are you going to let us help? Within your scope of plans..." -Jeryndi
Sadhric's laugh was really just an amused breath. He nodded to Jeryndi. "You take care. Don't let Jaysten get hurt."
"That's not an answer." -Lepri
He sighed, shaking his head. Looking to Lepri with a resigned look. "And we're not going to get one. Best to just let him go." -Jeryndi
"It's absolutely an answer," The Mechanic said firmly, stepping back fully into the lift. The doors slid shut.
"And he wonders why I want to kill him," she said with a poison edge, then turned around and headed for the medical bay, depositing Jaysten there a few minutes later and checked his vitals.
"Actually, I doubt he wonders about that at all," Jeryndi muttered, following along behind her.
jedi_lepri: "It was a figure of speech Jeryndi," she said flatly, her ears laid back against her skull. "The really bad part about being a Jedi is I can't do anything about it."
The GDR had been ready to go since before Sadhric had spoken to Cato, so it wasn't five minutes before the black ship shot out from the hold, made some distance, and finally made the jump that had been programmed into it since Sadhric had first sent the Prudence in the direction of Zolan.
Jeryndi sighed, leaning against the doorway to the medbay. "I know... But Sadhric will be Sadhric, as annoying as that may be. I've found that letting him have his way is better than bickering pointlessly with him... If he really doesnt' want us here, he wouldn't have let us come... Or just ditched us without a word... I think he's got plans for us. Even if he doesn't realize it yet."
"Be nice if he'd actually share them instead of being a dick. I'm getting really close to beating it out of him, un-jedi-like as it is, thats a lot more acceptable than killing him."
"Sadhric can be positively infuriating. I don't deny that," he says with a smile.
She nodded then sighed. "Why cant you have normal friends?"
"Because, damnit, I'm not normal," he says with a laugh.
The Catling just sighed and turned, heading out of the med bay, and back to the galley.
Decon was still there, now leaning against one wall, with his rifle propped up off of one leg, smoking a cigarra and with a glass of something alcoholic he'd managed to scrounge up."Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."
"Bite me," he says to Decon, flopping down into a chair.
"I was talking to her," he said, gesturing with the glass.
Lepri looked over at him. "Go eat vacuum, fighter-jock." She flopped down in her chair previously, but didn't go back to work. Instead, she idly fondled the gem that was suspended from a necklace she always wore, which was faintly glowing while saring at the bag of crystals on the table.
"Ew." was the only retort there was to say.
During those first couple of hours through the rift, Jaysten had disappeared. He was working, just as Sadhric was, but on a different kind of problem. He had quite a few things to contend with, including the fact that he had a grudge to get over, and he had to do it swiftly. Forgiving wasn't always as easy as some people would have liked to believe. But, in cases like this, it was needed. That meant that Jay would have to face it, grow up a little bit and move onward. He'd come to that conclusion, and set out to wander the hall ways of the ship, still a bit deep in thought. This was how he came up on The Mechanic, slightly distracted with contemplations of what was going to happen in the near future. "Uh, Mr. Tlin? I know you are busy and all, but I just wanted to ...say I'm sorry for what I said to you before. I had no right. Just...wanted to say that..." And with that, Jay turned and started back down the hallway that had led him to where Sadhric had been.
The Mechanic didn't hear Jaysten until the teenager had spoken, because he'd been dragging a heavy lock-cylinder free of its housing in the bulkhead. When he did, the thing was halfway in and halfway out, and he shifted his grip and braced it with a knee out of reflex, but sliced the palm of his hand on an exposed edge of old metal. He let out a hiss, only snatching a glance at Jaysten as he felt along for a better place to grab the five-foot-long device. "It was my fault," he managed through a grimace, starting to lever the thing down to the floor.
"Doesn't matter who's fault it is, or was, Mr. Tlin." Jay said, turning around to find Sadhric pulling the lock-cylinder out of it's compartment. He moved to offer his aid. "I had no right to confront you like I did. This isn't the time, or the place, for settling grudges, or getting vindictive. There's too much at stake for that. Here, let me help."
Sadhric didn't argue about the offer to help, and once Jaysten was there to take some of the weight, the cylinder slid more easily free, and could be eased to the deckplates. Once it was down, Sadhric put a foot on it to keep it from rolling, and checked out his hand. There was a thin smear of blood on the device, but not an emergency's worth. "It matters to me," he muttered, working some ancient flakes of paint out of his cut. "I usually don't fail this much in such a short amount of time. I'm not used to having to deal with things like this."
"Yeah, this isn't really how I usually work, either... Training sessions, and Force lessons, are quite a bit different then being out in the field, and on assignment..." At that he frowned, eying Sadhric's hand. "It isn't life threatening, is it?" He was, of course, joking. A cut that small wouldn't even be considered a real wound unless it became infected.
It was his right hand that he'd hurt. That hand already had Bacta on it--but the Bacta was smeared across the knuckles, which were unevenly split and still a little swollen. "You haven't had any great examples to follow," he said, ignoring the joke. He flexed the hand and unceremoniously wiped the palm across his pantsleg. "I'll rectify things."
"You don't have to worry about it, Mr. Tlin. Just give me a chance, that's all that I ask. I know I'm not as experienced as you, or Jeryndi, ...or...just about any other person out there qualified enough to come on this ...whatever you want to call it. But, I am a Tekal, and I do share more then just the name."
"I meant in general. My first mistake was letting you all come." He shrugged, kneeling down and rolling the cylinder toward him until its panel was facing the ceiling. He pulled it open and began systematically disconnecting components and arranging them to his right. "Don't take that personally. Once I made that mistake, though, and didn't correct it... I should have made the rules clear." He glanced up at Jaysten, assessing his expression, and then went back to what he was doing. "I'll do that, later, when I'm finished in here. We'll get everyone together in the galley or something so that you can all decide how committed you are to making this work."
Jay remained where he had been standing, just watching Sadhric go to work on the locking-cylinder. He was quiet for a moment, his expression having grown serious. He didn't mind what Sadhric had said. All in all, he honestly wondered why The Mechanic had allowed so many people to follow him into this. But, things happen for a reason... "I want to see this through, Mr. Tlin. I want to get my Uncle back, and I'd prefere alive, over dead, any day."
Sadhric just nodded, and seemed absorbed in what he was doing. He didn't say anything for a few moments, but he finally sighed. Still without looking up, he said quietly, "When we're in a better position, hopefully with Solomon aboard, maybe we can talk."
"Maybe." He said softly, resolving that he'd probably have to give up on holding Sadhric to that. If it happened, it happened. There would be no pushing of any issues, at least not with Sadhric. "So..um... what's the plan? I mean, where do you plan to start looking for him?"
"I lost him at Naboo, so I start looking for him at Naboo." The Mechanic shrugged, his tone off-hand, as if starting there went without saying. He now had two neat rows of parts next to his knee. "I jump into the Empire's communications, read their thoughts, and piece it together."
"So, it is really The Empire, then?" He mulled over that, chewing lightly at his lower lip. "I've been thinking about that, wondering, really... I don't know if you'd have an answer to this, and I don't think its something that the others have thought about... but, what if these guys are able to track us through the Force? I mean, most of us on board are Jedi, right? There are people here that have been trained to track us down and kill us. What's to stop them from sniffing us out once we get close enough?"
"Death, hopefully," Sadhric said. He pulled out one last part, looked it over end to end, rubbed a little crud free of it, and then put it back in. He did the same for the rest of the pieces, one at a time, refitting them carefully in their cylindrical housing. "But if not death, then readiness. And flexibility. Because it may not be altogether a bad thing if you all are noticeable."
"What do you mean?" He asked, watching Sadhric refit all the pieces back into their casing.
"Well, provided that you all are at least halfway competent, you could, in theory, make for an excellent distraction. Because I can slice all I want, but sooner or later someone is going to have to physically haul Solomon back from wherever he is."
Sadhric closed the panel once he had gone over all the guts, and nodded toward the gaping shadow of the housing in the bulkhead. "Help me get this back in place." He took the end with the ragged piece of metal, careful to keep his hand clear of it this time, and got ready to lift. "I didn't say we'd try it," he said, thoughts back on the main topic. "I said we could--if circumstances present themselves right. And they probably won't. But you can't look at those worst possibilities and not see their potential for being turned into the most advantageous ones."
Moving back in, and hefting the other end of the cylinder, Jay timed the lift just right with Sadhric, helping The Mechanic to get it back into it's place in the bulkhead. "Do you mind if I ask you something else?" He'd spoken only after taking a moment to judge his words carefully. This up coming question was one that, hopefully, wouldn't upset Sadhric, or cause him to shut up tighter then the fit of that locking-cylinder inside the bulkhead. "Why are you doing this? Don't take it as an offense that I am asking, Mr. Tlin, but... why put yourself on the line like this?" He knew what the stakes were for Jeryndi and himself. They were both very close to Solomon. Lepri was along because Jeryndi asked her to come. She was there for Trander, and for team support. Decon? Well, Jay could only assume that he was there because either Jeryndi, or Lepri, had requested him to come. So, what were the motives for the myserious Mr. Tlin?
Wiping his hands off on his pants, Sadhric winced and eyed Jaysten briefly before he went to secure the cylinder. "Not sure what you'd believe," he said with a shrug. "We can try this one, though: It's my fault Solomon's over here. He was assisting me, and I didn't give him the backup he needed in order to do that safely."
"You feel responsible for him being in this situation, then?"
"Yes." The Mechanic swung the grate back down over the bulkhead and locked that down, too. "You want to go get everyone, and tell them to meet in the galley?" He frowned, hesitated, and then added: "Except Cato. Leave him wherever he is."
After a moment, Jay nodded. "Alright." And with that, he turned and headed off to find Lepri, Jeryndi, and Decon.
Lepri was already in the galley. One table was laid out with three tubes, super-conducting cores, a bag of indigo gems that were now precut, several emmitter matrixes, three power-cells, and a stack of dimetris circuit board, as well as high energy reflectors, obviously the makings of a trio of lightsabers. It was the only real place to do the work. There was a small bag that contained a small fusion generator that would allow her to charge them as soon as she had them ready to put together, but that would be a few hours yet.
Decon was laid out in the hold, where there was the most room, with his rifle. Along the far wall were several dots of different colors, or at least they appeared to be dots, but they were actually spots of light that were projected by a portable sniping practice system. Every now and again, his rifle would discharge soundlessly as a beam bolt of laser would streak across the bay, but instead of being galvaned particle beams they were just harmless light.
Not for the first time, Sadhric found himself hoping that Solomon had found a way to hand the capital ships in his holomessage their asses. That he was incognito somewhere, and figuring out how to get back--or even that he already was back on the other side, and that they'd just missed him by using the rift near Station One. It was sort of a useless line of thought, and he discarded it, making one last pass through the compartment before following Jaysten in the direction of the galley.
Jeryndi was sitting in the hallway next to the galley... Legs outstretched. When he saw Jaysten coming, her got up slowly and stepped down into the galley. He was still dressed in his rogue'ish clothes. He wandered down, leaning down to look over at Lepri's sabers that were in the process of being built... He had one that he was in the process of building himself, as a spare, but this was one of those moments that that wasn't meant to be worked on.
With Sadhric not too far behind, Jay slipped into the galley behind Jeryndi, taking a brief glance at what Lepri was working on. "Have either of you seen Mr. Prater? "
"Cargo," Lepri said absently, jerking her thumb in the indicated direction.
The Mechanic came into the galley and went immediately to pull out some more Bacta. He slapped a patch on his palm, and looked over his bruised knuckles again before deciding not to waste a second patch on them. Still, the sweet smell filled the long room.
Jeryndi looked up. "I can help you with that if you want me to," Jeryndi offered. No strings attached. A genuine offer, with neither sarcasm or anything else in the tone.
"I'll be right back, then." He continued on his way, heading off in the intended direction of the cargo hold. Once there, he paused just in the doorway, watching Decon in his practicing of the shooting of targets.
Glancing over at him, Sadhric shrugged. "Not a bad cut," he said quietly, "just in a bad spot."
The shots were quiet, much quieter than most blaster rifles, but then again, as soon as he put in real power packs instead of just practice gear, it would be heard for a couple kilometers. He would breath in, then breath out half a breath... shot... sometimes he'd fire two shots at two different targets nearly instantly, which was quite hard for snipers to do. After a few moments he looked over at Jaysten. "You wanna try?"
"Maybe later." He said, giving a small smile. "Sadhric wants to meet with us all in the galley. He's got something he wants to talk about... After that, though, sure!"
Decon nodded, then hopped to his feet in one smooth motion, then picked his rifle and the unit up off the floor. Powering down the projector he hefted his rifle in the other hand and joined them in the galley, flopping down at one chair, setting the projector on the table, then began checking over his rifle as a meticulous habit. Always maintain your weapon, always make sure it is as ready to perform as you are.
Jeryndi nodded slightly, then shrugged. "I can help it heal faster, take away the discomfort... But that's totally up to you," he says, giving Sadhric a small smile.
"Maybe later," The Mechanic said, because about that time Jaysten and Decon had joined them. He just got right to it: "It's been made starkly clear to me that I have made some errors. I'm going to correct them right now. Whether you realized it or not, when you invited yourself, or agreed to let yourself get tagged into this, you all put yourselves at my disposal. You agreed--tacitly, I'll grant--to shelve your personal opinions and priorities in favor of mine." He folded his arms. "Since I failed to make that clear, in the spirit of fairness, you've got this one chance to change that. And you're not going to change it through arguing or talking pretty... You're going to change it by either leaving, or accepting that I will leave and forget about you."
After having retrieved Decon, Jay headed back to the galley, and took up residence in one of the empty seats. Once there, he just sat quietly and listened to what Sadhric had to say.
Lepri just glanced up from her work then looked at Sadhric, then turned her attention back to the sabers, making a sound like snoring. "You're being boring, Sadhric. It goes without saying we're at your disposal. You've made it clear you have no intention of putting any of us to good use." Her words were half distracted, or at least they seemed that way. Pulling out a small file she began using the hand-tool to refine the shape of butt cap of one saber. "Now if you actually intend to share some of what you know, so we're not all in the dark and can maybe, just maybe lend a hand, isntead of being a burden, that would be all sorts of swell. ... Opinions asside and all. None of us came here to sit around and do nothing."
Decon had nothing to say, as he finished his inspection and let butt of his rifle rest against the decking, with the barrel and grip resting against one thigh, muzzle pointed toward the ceiling "We're here to help, as always."
Jeryndi listened, then sighed softly... He scratched absently at his dirty lip... At this point, he had nothing to say. These days he didn't say much at all unless it was something useful... And whatever he had to say irght this moment wasn't useful. Quite the opposite.
Sadhric's expression was thoughtful as he nodded. Unfolded his arms. And left. Not angry, not really surprised. Lepri's words had said one thing, and her attitude another, and Sadhric had made what he considered to be an honest attempt. So there wasn't any need to try again, was there? The GDR had been ready to go since he'd hit Cato in the face.
Dropping his head back for a moment, Jay shut his eyes, let out a deep breath and then stood. He excused himself, moving to follow after Sadhric. "Mr. Tlin, wait, please. "
Lepri got up from the table, and looked at Jeryndi. "I'm getting really sick of this shit," she said then turned to follow, this time it wasn't a walk, it was a run at speeds born of the Force to reach him before he could reach the turbolift. She caught up to him and skidded to a stop. "I was agreeing with your terms. So why leave? You got what you wanted. Is that not good enough?"
Jeryndi followed after at a more leisurely pace, but did follow. And wasn't exactly slow. He caught up a moment later, sighing to himself. "We're here to do what needs to be done, Sadhric... I wouldn't be here if that were not the case... Please, just... Can we not work together? Even if its in seperate teams..."
"We already did this once," Sadhric said without stopping. It might have been to Jaysten, or it might have been to Lepri. He didn't bother to specify. "I dislike repeating my mistakes. I chose A before; I'll choose B this time. And you all can have the ship, of course. Use it or sell it, as you please. Keep your shit together and you'll be fine."
"That's not not acceptable," she said to Sadhric.
"You can't do this without help, Mr. Tlin. You said it yourself: your slicing will only get you so far." He ran a hand through his short dark hair, and shook his head. "If you can't stand the weight of all of us being around you, then pick. You choose who you'd rather have helping you. You make the choice of who is going to aid you, because doing this alone isn't an option. Not with the risks that we are going to be running."
"And if you choose to leave, Sadhric, you're basically saying that our coming was pointless. And that's not an answer I'm willing to accept right now. Your leaving does not help us as a team save Solomon. Its just Sadhric. We're here. We know the risks involved. You're calling the shots. Now you're calling the shot to leave us behind and go off and do this thing on your own, because we didn't react the way you expected us to? Or because you made a mistake... I realize you've probably not done the leader thing before, but being a leader means you don't leave your team behind. When you accepted us, you became the leader. Just as you said back there in the galley. You can't leave. Not like this."
Without intervention, the turbolift doors would close. Sadhric didn't look like he was agonizing over it. He had, in his own mind, put some order to the chaos his thoughts had been in, and that order was enough.
One hand swept up and pressed against the side of the door triggering the sensors that would keep the door open. The Cathar was half tempted to bodily yank him out of the elevator. She knew in a million years that a human his size couldn't match her strength without the Force or cybernetic or other technological enhancements, which she doubted Sadhric had bothered to go for. Instead she just looks at Sadhric. "When Solomon is dead, because you turned your back on us, it will be your fault. Do you want a friend and student of yours to die, just because of your sense of pride?"
"You should consider letting the door close so that I can leave, now," Sadhric said quietly.
"You should consider staying."
At that very moment, or very close afterward, something happened. Jay had just taken in another breath, and had been about to exhale when something twitched within the Force. It felt familar, he knew the sensation, and a took a moment for him to recognize it. He hadn't felt it in so long. "...wait...where?" His words were muttered, probably barely audible to those around him. The sensation lingered for a moment longer, and then blossomed brightly in pain before fading, just as swiftly. When it cleared, Jay found himself on the decking, his eyes squeezed shut. Solomon...
OOC note: the sensation that Jaysten has just encountered coincides with Larnavoi shocking Solomon awake from a previous post I had made.
The Mechanic hadn't heard Jaysten, but when the young Tekal fell, he ducked around Lepri and went to one knee. "Cheap trick," he muttered, but he was leaning in to check the kid out. "Jaysten."
Jeryndi had been pissed... He gave no outward sign of it, but both Jaysten and Lepri would've been aware of it... It boiled underneath thes urface... But when the contact came, from Solomon, he felt it, too. He blinked, swaying on his feet a little. He wasn't as close to Solomon as Jaysten was, but their connection in the Force was pretty strong given the experience of passing Trials on Ossus together.... "Shit, man!" he muttered under his breath. Forcing himself to sit down. He rubbed at his forearms, absently, and glanced at Jaysten. "Damn, I know you felt that harder than I did..."
Lepri just turned around, letting the turbolift doors close behind her and just watched Jaysten, then closed her eyes, momentarily letting the Force wash over and through her. "At least we're closer, so their Force Chain is stronger. That's good... and bad. Jaysten, have you done much exercise with shielding your mind and body with the Force?"
"I can't move." He muttered to Sadhric, while trying to force his muscles to respond. Everything along his spine was locked in place, at least for the moment. He tingled, pretty much all over, and he felt like the little hairs on his arms were standing on end. It had been unexpected, and so he hadn't been defending himself against something like that. Not that it was a bad thing, at least now they knew for sure that Solomon was alive. "...Help me up..."
The Mechanic did not, in fact, help Jaysten up right away, instead doing some preliminary things to make sure that Jaysten hadn't hit his head, or hurt his spine--he'd have to get his pack from the GDR, or get Jaysten to the medbay, to do much more than that.
Lepri looked at Jaysten and then gave Jeryndi a nod. Help him.
Jeryndi nodded to Lepri, placing a hand on the back of Jaysten's neck... He closed his eyes, coaxing Jaysten to sleep after shutting out the pain... And doing a check over him. "He's fine," he says quietly. "Just in shock from the initial pain... There's nothing physically wrong with him. He was just picking up on Sol's pain. Buuuuuuut.... It won't hurt to take him to the medbay to sleep it off."
Sadhric's head snapped up. "Any idea where he is?"
Lepri walked over to the two of them then simply bent down and picked Jaysten up with little effort at all. "He's within a dozen parsecs probably, but maybe we can narrow that down some, give us a direction to look in," she suggested. "When Jaysten wakes up, we can get more definitive information. Um... there's a risk with it though."
Jeryndi nodded to Lepri's words. "He's in too much pain to get anything clear... It was a resonance, not an intentional reaching out... Kinda like a Force S.O.S... Wasn't like that. He's either suffered severe trauma or is being tortured... Likely the latter. He's not lucid enough to communicate clearly, even if we tried... Jaysten's our strongest connection to him. But he probably won't sleep for long... If we find him, though... There's a chance they can find -us- relatively easily."
Sadhric nodded, straightened up after Lepri picked Jaysten up, and turned around to step onto the lift.
"So you're just going to leave.... Just like that," he says quietly. Eyes focused on Sadhric.
"Focus, Jeryndi. Go help Jaysten."
"I've got Jaysten just fine," she said. Jeryndi was a capable healer, but Lepri was just as much a capable healer if not more so, after having to help keep him in one piece after Altar, and all of the other things that had happened. Jaysten was work fit for a simple first year intern, not someone skilled in Force Healing.
"I am focused," he says quietly. "Jaysten will be fine, I know this for a fact... You're leaving and you've not said anything... Were you even planning on comumnicating withu s at all once you left?" he asked, just matter of fact. Not really upset. But maybe a little disappointed. He heaved a soft little sigh, brown eyes narrowing slightly.
"I am leaving," he agreed, standing so that the lift doors remained open. "You'll be okay. And I'm sure things will settle down after I'm out of here."
"Will you be back?" -Lepri
"More importantly, are you going to let us help? Within your scope of plans..." -Jeryndi
Sadhric's laugh was really just an amused breath. He nodded to Jeryndi. "You take care. Don't let Jaysten get hurt."
"That's not an answer." -Lepri
He sighed, shaking his head. Looking to Lepri with a resigned look. "And we're not going to get one. Best to just let him go." -Jeryndi
"It's absolutely an answer," The Mechanic said firmly, stepping back fully into the lift. The doors slid shut.
"And he wonders why I want to kill him," she said with a poison edge, then turned around and headed for the medical bay, depositing Jaysten there a few minutes later and checked his vitals.
"Actually, I doubt he wonders about that at all," Jeryndi muttered, following along behind her.
jedi_lepri: "It was a figure of speech Jeryndi," she said flatly, her ears laid back against her skull. "The really bad part about being a Jedi is I can't do anything about it."
The GDR had been ready to go since before Sadhric had spoken to Cato, so it wasn't five minutes before the black ship shot out from the hold, made some distance, and finally made the jump that had been programmed into it since Sadhric had first sent the Prudence in the direction of Zolan.
Jeryndi sighed, leaning against the doorway to the medbay. "I know... But Sadhric will be Sadhric, as annoying as that may be. I've found that letting him have his way is better than bickering pointlessly with him... If he really doesnt' want us here, he wouldn't have let us come... Or just ditched us without a word... I think he's got plans for us. Even if he doesn't realize it yet."
"Be nice if he'd actually share them instead of being a dick. I'm getting really close to beating it out of him, un-jedi-like as it is, thats a lot more acceptable than killing him."
"Sadhric can be positively infuriating. I don't deny that," he says with a smile.
She nodded then sighed. "Why cant you have normal friends?"
"Because, damnit, I'm not normal," he says with a laugh.
The Catling just sighed and turned, heading out of the med bay, and back to the galley.
Decon was still there, now leaning against one wall, with his rifle propped up off of one leg, smoking a cigarra and with a glass of something alcoholic he'd managed to scrounge up."Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."
"Bite me," he says to Decon, flopping down into a chair.
"I was talking to her," he said, gesturing with the glass.
Lepri looked over at him. "Go eat vacuum, fighter-jock." She flopped down in her chair previously, but didn't go back to work. Instead, she idly fondled the gem that was suspended from a necklace she always wore, which was faintly glowing while saring at the bag of crystals on the table.
"Ew." was the only retort there was to say.
