A Change in the Tides

[Sakri]

The streets and walkways of Coruscant were far from what she would ever call home. The hustle and bustle of billions of people, the artificially generated and controlled rain, the lack of a proper night sky from the light pollution of a trillion sources.. there was far too much around for her to ever be truly comfortable. Still, detours and supply runs had to be made, and so it was that this evening, the golden-skinned humanoid found herself walking the many pathways of the capital world.

This was not her first trip here, nor did she suspect that it would be her last; as such, she knew her way around, at least in the vicinity of the spaceport she frequented. Her current venture had led her even further outside her comfort zone, but now it was time to make her way back. Her black traveling cloak was pulled shut, and her two-toned red and gold hair was pulled back underneath her hood. Truthfully, she didn't mind the rain too much, but she had no intentions of loitering just to appreciate it. Elsewhere, far from this world, something had been calling to her.. the whispers of a change in the tides were tempting her towards them, and she was not one to ignore the current's pull.

She moved with purpose, her map updated with new data and her travel pouch restocked. It was time to leave this world once more..

 

[Dain Krendl]

The night air was cool and wet with rain, which slaked down the walls of every vertical surface, running in rivulets, collecting in pools. Despite the late hour and inclement weather, the streets of Coruscant's most popular entertainment district were bustling with beings from all corners of the Galaxy. They wore thick, warm layers or cluttered the walkways with rainwards held over their heads. They pushed and shoved and harassed one another as they moved from one cabaret to the next, leaving seedy homes of pleasure to return to their empty lives. Street merchants and food vendors clamored for the attention of the crowd, their competition driven by convenience. Overhead, law enforcement zipped back and forth amidst the trade ships and transport speeders, their lights flashing through the rain and reflecting like a strobe throughout their little piece of the ecumenopolis. The night was young...and old...ageless, really.

"I don't care how dangerous the lead is, you gave me your word." Dain grumbled in frustration to the man lounging across the table from him. The Cerean's eyes flicked sideward, scanning something over Dain's shoulder as if he hadn't heard him speak. Dain clenched his jaw and sat back, trying to show he was relaxed. Erydon wouldn't engage with him in such a tense state. "Are you finished?" Erydon asked patronizingly as he looked back to Dain. The rings circling his towering dome glinted in the dim light of the booth. The nightclub was filled with as diverse a crowd as the streets without, law enforcement still had a presence here in the form of strobe lights that flashed from one end of the smokey hang out to the other. Dance floors were segregated by booths and bars where various spirits were being served. Everyone was busy drinking and losing themselves, no one cared about two men in a booth.
"Look, I did what you asked, and I don't like being strung along." Dain apologized, trying his best again to relax by slumping his shoulders. The Cerean saw through his false persona. "You did, you're right," the Cerean nodded, "But like I said, there's a lot of danger involved, and I'd like to keep you around in case I need a guy like you again."
Dain rolled his eyes, "Sithspit. You're worried that telling me what you know might come down on you. You're trying to figure out if you need to get more out of me to make it worth your while." Dain hunched forward again, abandoning any attempt to look relaxed. "Whatever it is, I can capitalize on it," he shrugged, "Maybe cut you in a little."
Erydon lifted a lone eyebrow, "Not likely. One doesn't merely split the profits of a Force Nexus."
Dain narrowed his eyes. "Impossible."
The Cerean shook his head, "I kid you not. I never have."
Dain looked away, absorbing the news. He ran a hand down his cheek, trying to process the information. "Where?" He asked, looking back to his contact.
Erydon remained silent for a moment, taking a long, slow breath. He stared across the table at Dain as if trying to decide if he should tell him the rest. "I don't know," he said finally.
Dain slapped a fist on the table in frustration, "Don't gimme that, dammit." He grimaced. "You know damn well--"
The Cerean held up a hand, "But someone does." Dain fell silent. "Who?"
"Some woman, I don't know who she is or where she's from. But she's a Firrerreo, gold-skin. Word is she's on the trail of the Nexus. I'm not sure if she's aware of it's actual location, but she sure knows more than me." Erydon reached into his blouse and drew a datachip. He tossed it onto the table; it slid to Dain's side, where he clapped a hand down and inspected it.
"That's everything I have on her, mainly where she's been. Do what you will, but remember these old Jedi artifacts are nothing trivial to play with." Erydon's tone was serious, but Dain shook his head. "A Force Nexus isn't an artifact, and it's not Jedi, either. It predates these things."
The Cerean looked inquisitively at Dain, "So what is a Nexus?" He asked. It was Dain's turn to play the fool. He shrugged and grinned, standing with the datachip in hand. "No idea." He said shortly, before stepping out of the booth and turning away. Behind him the Cerean called. "Dain, be careful. She'll kill you, if what I've got on that chip is true." Dain touched a finger to his temple and nodded, then vanished into the crowd of patrons and sound and light.

[member="Sakri"]​

 

[Sakri]

The Cerean's information was indeed accurate. The Firrerreo woman was searching for the Force Nexus in question, though she knew it not by that name. For her, it was simply a far-away pull.. unidentifiable, yet inescapable. It was something she needed to investigate, to find for herself, to see the source of the call.. whatever and wherever it might be.

The myriad of light sources around illuminated the way for her, leading her down a thankfully uneventful path to the spaceport. Once she was underneath proper cover, she reached up with both hands and lowered the hood of her cloak, allowing a spare moment to fan her now-exposed hair out over the folds of fabric. With that accomplished, she made her way into the spaceport proper, by this point accustomed to the necessity of customs and credentials checks. As always, though, everything was up to par, and she made it through with no hassle at all.

Once inside, the golden-skinned humanoid wove a path through the crowd toward an old YT-1930 transport. As she approached, she made a small hand gesture from within her cloak, reaching out into the current and triggering the craft's ramp extension. It was clearly a well-practiced maneuver, as she arrived at the foot of the ramp just in time for it to have touched the spaceport deck. The cloaked traveler started up into her ship only to pause with one boot still on the deck, frowning slightly. Her own presence in the current had been a slow swirl since the siren's call had surfaced, but for a moment, she had felt.. an eddy of sorts, around her.. but now it was gone, faded into the backdrop once again.

All things in time.

If it was anything worthy of attention, it would reveal itself soon enough. If not, then it was already beneath concern. Her features regained their composure, and she strode up into the belly of her craft..

 

[Dain Krendl]

The gun runner sat with his back to the wall in the far corner of a dingy bar, his data pad sitting on the table next to his beer. The 'pad took a moment to read the chip he'd been given by Eyrdon. A "thinking" icon blinked repeatedly on the screen while the 'pad processed the device, then the screen went black. Dain groaned and smacked the device against the heel of his hand. "Come on..." After a moment the 'pad flickered back on, and green text began streaming across the screen. After loading a wall of text the data pad left behind a blinking cursor. Dain instinctively entered the device's password and the chip's data was released in a cascade of text files. After organizing the chaos, Dain managed to prioritize the available data by timestamp and began sifting through it all.
Most of the data was junk, or lacked the context Dain would need to make any use of it. Most of it was profile data about the woman, who was so far nameless. Dain had no idea who'd sourced the intel, but it was disorganized and clearly gathered from multiple assets. Must be government then, Dain presumed. The private sector did better quality work, and criminals would never compile their data in such a way. Only government did both, poorly.
After a while of sifting, an entry finally caught his eye. The timestamp was only three hours old. The entry was from a government intel drone Erydon had jacked into his local network. Almost missed the collection period, Dain thought to himself as he reviewed the information. The entry was a text transcript of the drone's facial recognition protocols. Apparently it had picked up a description match for a Firrerreo with gold skin in the region's spaceport district. Dain saved the file to his local storage and drew a second data pad from his jacket. This one was specially modified with the planetary government's security access codes, allowing him to jack into most of the open circuit surveillance systems bequeathed to local law enforcement. He ran a search for the same recognition patterns triggered in the drone, then sat back and sipped at his beer while the data pad initiated a search across a district's worth of security stations. The search ran for several minutes before it yielded a hit. Dain leaned forward over the screen and checked the highlighted entry. It was a from a holocam near the spaceport's primary landing zones. The accompanying video file was short. Dain accessed the file, downloading it rather than streaming. The clip was only 8 seconds long. It looped, showing the image of a young woman in a crowd pulling back the hood that covered her face and adjusting her hair. Red and gold hair showed her shoulders before the loop ran again. Dain watched the footage over and over, picking out the woman's fair features. She stopped for a reason...Dain realized, but couldn't say why. Was she being followed?
Dain shut off the 'pad and swallowed down the rest of his beer. He hurriedly left the bar and hailed a taxi speeder, giving the pilot directions to the spaceport sector. During the flight he watched the security footage loop several more times, trying to pick out other details he may have missed before. Maybe she was looking at her destination before she was distracted...Dain restarted the footage and played it frame by frame. Through the rain, he picked out the fuselage of a starship in the direction the woman was facing. He recognized it as that of a YT-1930 transport ship. Dain grabbed his other data pad and checked the public transport registry. He found the vessel almost too quickly. She's not trying to hide, Dain realized. Whether that was arrogance or naivety, Dain was unsure.
Dain paid the pilot when they arrived and stepped back out into the rain of the night near the outskirts of the spaceport. The area was filled with people flooding in and out of customs and other checkpoints, making Dain fight for space as he rushed toward the landing pad where the woman's vessel was registered. He reached inside a pocket for his keyset, pressing a pair of buttons that would remotely activate his own straighter, a BLT-S8 K-wing that was docked at a nearby platform. He wanted to verify the 1930's location before running to his own ship. Dain pressed on through the crowds, rivers of rain running down the folds of his jacket, wetting his boots and trouser bottoms. When finally he reached the platform, the freighter was spinning up its engines. He caught a glimpse of the red-haired pilot through the transparasteel viewport of the cockpit. To her he was just another face in a rain-soaked crowd of strangers. Within moments the freighter was lifting off, its repulsers roaring as they carried the vessel into the night sky.

[member="Sakri"]​

 

[AgentWisconsin]

...

 

[Sakri]

The YT freighter lifted off, and she spared not a second glance at the crowds or scenery she was leaving behind. They had served their purpose -- in that they had stayed out of her way and afforded her no trouble -- and were thus of no further concern to her. Perhaps they would be one day, but that day was not now.

As her ship pulled up and out of the spaceport, she brought her datapad out of her pocket, opening the map data she had acquired from her brief foray into the galaxy's capital world. Long had she trusted in the path the current had laid out for her, and when she had seen the system data, she had simply known that that was where she needed to go. So it was that she input the new coordinates into the navicomputer, glancing briefly out the viewport as the sky's last remnants of colour faded from around her ship.

The freighter sailed forth, and she mentally prepared herself for the journey ahead. It wasn't long before she engaged the hyperdrive, and the stars extended into starlines, the freighter disappearing from sight in a flicker of pseudomotion. Outside, the twisting blue-and-black tunnel of hyperspace set a fitting backdrop for the twists of the current she was following in her mind. Sakri sighed, then closed her eyes, reaching out with her senses, then looking inward at the swirls that surrounded her and made up her core, reflecting on what possibilities could lay ahead.

Despite her continual hopes to the contrary, something told her that this was going to be an eventful trip.

[member="Dain Krendl"]