(L,F&E #13) Hunters

The armored woman quickly and efficiently searched the girl, finding nothing but a lightsaber, which she took and put on her own belt. She slapped binders on the girl and then drew the girl to her feet.

The tension in the bay dropped a few notches, but Olanagychew didn't relax. He DID however, reengage the safety on his bowcaster. He didn't let its muzzle stray from her. He jerked his head and the armored woman led the girl out of the hanger bay. A team entered the shuttle to search it, carefully. He followed the girl and her escort. He didn't take his eyes off of her. And he didn't relax completely until she was in a force cage in the brig. He nodded to the armored woman and she hit a control. the binders fell off and landed at the girl's feet. The team left, to resume their duties. He stayed, watching the girl.

Janelle sighed, walking over to the center of the cell and sitting down, cross-legged, assuming a meditative position. She was hoping the wookiee would catch on eventually- if she was a Sith, she would've broken into anger and hatred and shouting and whatnot, along with psychological warfare. Instead, she was completely calm, staying as neutral as possible, as submissive as possible.

With young, pretty brown eyes that had a gaze of goodness, but the unmistakable hint of an innocence ripped right out of her inner being, she gazed up at him.

"I don't know what else you want from me," She said, speaking softly. She sounded like a young girl her age, obviously. That probably didn't help none at all. "If you look through my shuttle, you'll find nothing but uh... shuttle parts. Because I'm dumb at ships, as you can obviously see. If I were a Sith Lord, I'd have tried to slay you all by now. I'd be cursing and seething with anger as the identifiable feature of a Sith Lord..."

Again, she sighed. She was really no good with diplomacy. That's probably one of the things Kirin hated about her. Good with the Force, good with the lightsaber, but WAY too horrible with speaking to people.

It probably didn't help, again, that she was pretty much raised by the Sith. She had to learn how to talk to people all over again.

Olanagychew wanted to believe her, he really did, but he knew the Sith. He knew their deceit and trickery knew no bounds. Had suffered under their slavery for half a decade before being freed. He growled dangerously, and then an armored hand touched him on the shoulder. He looked into the visor of Boss and Boss nodded to the door. Olana left with only one backward look that promised dire things to the girl if she stepped out of line.

"Well." Boss spoke softly but he knew his voice would carry to her ears. He crossed his arms and looked the girl over. She did look the part of a kid. The robes spoke of Jedi, which even now raised his hackles. He acknowledged his residual anger and then focused on the problem at hand. He knew his armor was intimidating, even in Republic colors full armor was always intimidating. Most sentients needed to see another's eyes to feel comfortable. he wanted his opponents uncomfortable. It was just another weapon in his arsenal and he used all of his ruthlessly when called for. He turned her lightsaber over in his hand, almost hoping she would try something dumb.

"Your shuttle, your robes, even your stance, speaks of Jedi." The last word came out with heat, and he paused for a moment before speaking again. "but he..." he nodded to where Olana had disappeared. "...says you are a Sith. Which should I believe?" His voice, while not harsh, was cold.

"Ugh! I give up!"

Janelle was without ideas at this point. The wookiee left, and she was now left with another man who seemed to be a friend of the wookiee. She was a bit frustrated, but there was no point- she knew her intentions, she knew what she had to do, and she knew where she stood amongst the crew of this vessel. In the end, even if she tried her best to speak about the fact that she wasn't a Sith Lord anymore, who's word were they gonna take? Her's, a former Sith Lord turned Jedi, or their own beloved crew member, their friend and brother, who had suffered just as much- if not more- than herself.

She fell down onto her back, placing her hands behind her head. She pulled her left leg up so that her foot was placed on the cold durasteel of the floor, then crossed her right leg over it.

"You're right; I can't fight against the word of one of your own crew members. Anything I say has no bearing in this situation. Even if I tried to beg and plead and convince as much as possible that I'm not Darth Furia anymore, it doesn't matter. There's no way I can fight against the word of your crew."

Janelle yawned. She was prepared to die, but she really preferred to die later, after she did everything she had to do. Of course, she really couldn't control the outcome of events. If she died here, well... not much she can do about it, can she?

"Like you said, it's basically his word over mine. And, if you're the good captain of this vessel like I think you are, you'll probably take his word. I won't hold it against you though. Sometimes, some people just aren't meant to achieve their goals, y'know?"

Boss grinned under his helmet.

This girl's got guts

He walked to a console and keyed a command. The force field deactivated.

"You are the luckiest person in the galaxy right now, you know that? One of the downloads we got, just before we jumped into the Dantooine system to try and attack the Sith there, was an update from the Enclave. Kirin Starlace says and I quote 'You are a drek-brain and please take care of yourself'. Welcome aboard the Stormhawk Janelle." He tossed her her lightsaber.

The double-bladed lightsaber landed into her stomach, causing an audible 'OOF!' to come out from her. Quickly, she sat up, then stood up, grasping the hilt of her weapon and placing it behind her back, hiding it beneath her white robes. She smiled sort of stupidly, scratching the back of her head with her right hand. She walked out of the cell, still grinning childishly at the helmeted captain of the ship.

"Ha... ha ha ha... yeah... well, thanks for the welcome, Cap'n!" Janelle stood straight up, giving him a rather informal- but well meaning- salute. She wasn't too familiar with military jargon yet, but she was trying.

Okay, well, she wasn't trying very hard, but hey, it was still trying!

Boss grinned again. This was just too much. This girl...

"Don't do that." The humor is his voice was clear. "You are not a soldier, and you are not under my command so, cut it out will ya?" He moved to the door.

"Seriously, I apologize. I didn't realize when I sent Olana to the bay who you were. He's... kinda touchy about Sith. He was a slave, and was rescued. By us in fact. I'm not telling you to make excuses for him, just to let you know, walk softly around him. And whatever you do, don't antagonize him. You would regret it, briefly." He sighed.

"We are working on your shuttle, its, like you said, a little wonky." The grin was obvious in his words. "It should be fixed by the time we exit hyperspace, then we can drop you off. We are heading for the Yavin system at the moment. Will that work for you?"

Boss sat at his desk and watched the viewscreen On it he saw Janelle’s shuttle boosting away. He smiled, he liked her. Yeah, she was Jedi, but… she was a kid. The enthusiasm, the boundless energy, the, well, niceness. But under it all he had seen pain, a lot of it, and it had called to him. She had explained her quest; his heart went out to her. He had lost his own family early on himself, so he knew how that felt. He may not have been the soul of tact explaining certain things to her, but he was sure she wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. And he wished her well on her search for her brother. He had reequipped her shuttle with state of the art nav and com gear and he had given her a special comcode, to be used if she really heeded help. It would reach the Stormhawk from almost anywhere in known space. Of course, she wasn’t going to be IN known space for much longer but he had done what he could. He put the young Jedi out of his mind. Now he had a harder job. He paged his XO. Olanagychew walked into his office a few minutes later.

“She’s gone. Thank you for your patience.” Olana nodded, he still wasn’t happy, but he would have been less happy to have found out after the fact that he had blasted a non-hostile. The Wookiee had spent most of the time Janelle had been aboard working in the missile bay. It was one place on the ship where his huge size wasn’t a hindrance. And it was one of the few places he could be sure he wouldn’t run into the small Jedi. That had kept his temper in check, barely. Boss had heard most of the missile techs had been given the day off when Olana had entered the bay. It hadn’t put them behind. The Wookiee had wanted physical labor and he was strong enough to do the work of four or five, as long as it wasn’t technical stuff. Boss smiled slightly. It was against stereotype for a Wookiee to be almost completely technical inept, but Olanagychew managed it. Give him something simple he could make it purr, and weapons, he had no trouble with at all. Give him the simplest none weapon tech and he invariably broke it within minutes. The Wookiee growled a question. Boss sighed.

“No I don’t think we will see her again. She is heading into the Unknown Regions after her brother. Who IS still a Sith Lord still by the way.” Olana growled and Boss shook his head.
“No, if she calls for help and we can, we will. She has been vouched for, by VANDAR. If you want to argue with him, I can arrange it…” He carefully did NOT laugh as Olanagychew froze in midrant. The Wookiee sagged, then groaned.

“No, I don’t blame you. And furrball, neither does she.” The Wookiee froze again, this time he looked thoughtful. Boss took a deep breath. “That’s not why I called you in here.” An interrogative sound came from Olana and Boss smiled thinly, glad the Wookiee couldn’t see his face.

“Nai’s coming back.” Olana looked happy, but Boss raised a hand. “She’s not alone.” Olana’s eyes widened.

<A Jedi comes with her?> Boss shook his head and Olana looked confused. Small wonder, Boss was confused.

“No, she’s bringing a Twilek girl who has attached herself to Nia. Who is also, by the order of the Council, not to leave our sight.” Olana looked more confused and Boss shook his head.

“Apparently, the Twilek girl that Will and Nia rescued on Tattooine has, er, had some kind of episode. She thinks she’s someone else.” Olana looked at Boss, trying to see if the Commander was joking and Boss shook his head. “She thinks she’s a Sith Lord.” Olana sat up straight and Boss dialed his auditory protectors to full as the Wookiee roared. This would be a long day...

<Jedi Enclave on Tython, the same day>

Will woke. He felt…odd. He didn’t hurt. But, something was wrong, very wrong. He shook his head and…it buzzed as if he had downed one too many Telosian ales. He closed his eyes and sighed, the buzzing didn’t stop. He heard steps coming towards him. When he opened his eyes, he saw the form of Jedi Healer Nolikas hurrying towards him. He smiled, and then froze as she didn’t. When she spoke her voice was strained.

“Are you all right? How do you feel?” He looked at her.

“What? Oh, the experiment.” She had wanted to try and get him to…er…merge with something other than his fighter. “Did it work? I feel… buzzing, but other than that I am fine…” She looked at him and he could swear she was scared. “What?” he asked, somewhat tetchily.

“Yes, it worked.” She wilted under his gaze.

“And?” He couldn’t believe this being, who was always joking, was so serious all of a sudden.

“The experiment was success, I found out how you do what you do…” She broke off as he looked at her.

“And?” She sat heavily in a chair next to the… he suddenly noticed he wasn’t in the exam room he had been in, but in the Intensive Care Ward. “What happened?”

“You died in my chair twice. I…I barely managed to bring you back. You can’t ever do that again…”

“Healer, it’s how I fly…” His voice was quiet, disbelieving.

“When you merged to my scanner, I…I think there wasn’t enough power to sustain it…the scanner pulled power from you and… in layman’s terms the surge seared the pathways shut that you used. If you do it again, it will kill you.” He stared at her.

“Healer, I’m a pilot, it’s what I do…” He stared off into space.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea. I…” I’ll find a way to cure it, I swear.”

“Healer, leave.” Will’s voice was cold, controlled and she looked at him uncomprehending. “Leave, now.” She stared, then… she froze. Something primeval spoke through him next. “Get. Out. Of. Here.” She took to her heels. Behind her as she closed the door she heard a wordless scream of rage and pain and the crash of something hitting the door. She locked it, and ran.

<later>

Will was packing as Jina walked into his room. She watched in silence as he emptied the footlocker he had been assigned. She blanched at some of the contents. But she knew he wouldn’t use the items on her, she hoped not anyway. She watched in silence as he packed away disruptors, thermal detonators, nerve gases, security decryption devices, hacking tools, and even what she was sure was a small proton warhead. He wore armor she had never seen, green and brown instead of red, white and brown. He had a blade strapped to his side and a blaster pistol on his hip. She looked at the rifle on the bed and it too was something she had never seen, a long barreled blaster rifle with a scope. She shuddered. A sniper rifle, meant to kill targets at extreme range, giving them no chance to fight back. He turned and looked at her and she froze, there was no expression on his face. It was like looking at a statue, or an assassin droid, she realized. She shook off her paralysis and spoke.

“Where will you go?’

“Eolas needs a scout.” He could have been discussing the weather for all the emotion he showed. No he would have been more emotional talking about rain or snow she realized. She sighed. Eolas was leading a team to chase down the Sith who had attacked the Enclave.

“You should stay here, she can help you.”

“She has helped enough.” Jina flinched back. His words were unemotional but underneath, she felt the rage, still there, still smoldering. He had destroyed the entire ward room he had been in. It had taken three Jedi and not so minor injuries to two of them before they could sedate him.

“Will, you need help.” His head turned back to the bed, and he picked up his pack and shrugged into it fluidly. Then he picked up his blaster rifle.

“I think I have had enough of your help.” She winced, true enough. “I can help Eolas without flying. Now that I can't ever again.” He turned and left the room, leaving Jina to sit, alone and wonder.

((That's the end of this thread. Comments or suggestions always appreciated. Flame at your own risk))