Private A to B to C

[Kairon Rees]

"Sorry, they're still a bit frozen," he apologised.

"If you wanna give it a go I'll drop someone a message when we're connected to the holonet again," Kairon said.

They tended to fly off the main routes and away from the subspace relay stations. That way they avoided inspections, but they could be without any good holonet access for hours or even days.

"You can...well...there's a way to get that off your datapad and onto mine," he said, scratching at the side of his neck.

There was a way. Asmus had shown him once and he had immediately forgotten.

"You got a holomail address?" he asked.

 

[Loxa Visl]

"Haa-" she'd only just bitten into one just moments before his apology and winced as it firmly and frigidly resisted mashing. Devil fruit. She tongued it out onto her hand with an affronted glare at the thing.

"A Man will, yes?" Loxa contrived from the many words he spoke quickly that she mostly couldn't understand, though the general sense she got from him was yes. The witch narrowed her eyes then as he asked about data transfer and found some recognition there. It behooved them to be technologically savvy, even if they couldn't fully explain things to others in galactic standard basic.

She raised her brows at him and pulled the datapad back to herself, turning one side up and plying out the memory chip, "Data cart," she said to him before holding it out, "sa-ke?"

 

[Kairon Rees]

"Erm, yeah..." he went, taking the chip.

He turned and went to grab his datapad. Kairon set it on the table with the memory card next to it. He grunted and looked at the datapad as if it had betrayed him.

Kairon turned it around on the spot, looking for the slot. Asmus was good with technology.

He swore under his breath as the datapad came up with a pop up of questions about how to handle the new data chip. He tapped the screen over and over so hard it sounded as if it would crack until it relented.

"Right, got the picture saved. When we're close enough to a relay I'll send that on," Kairon said. "Can't promise it will help."

"For what it's worth, hope you find them from your...memory-dreams. What happens if you do?"

 

[Loxa Visl]

At the very least she understood the impossibility of a promise. How could he promise on the acts of someone else? Someone quite potentially across the entire galaxy? He couldn't, and she nodded soberly to the point in understanding.

Carefully taking the data chip back, she gave the man a thoughtful look.

"This One will keep follow memory," she replied, "until This One learn why."

Why the memories came to her, of all people. Merely an unremarkable witch, one of thousands, with no claim to fame in any facet. Not even her origins as a slave gave her credence. If nothing else, among the higher caste of witches she now stood titled alongside, Loxa was still considered lesser.

"It is good," Loxa nodded finally, "to have purpose."

 

[Kairon Rees]

"Yeah, guess if I kept dreaming of someone I'd probably put a bit of work into that myself," Kairon agreed.

He wasn't certain if that was the same as having a purpose. Kairon didn't really think of himself as having a purpose.

Once he has. He'd been a driven, focussed man. Looking back, those were the very worst years of his life.

It wasn't satisfying, not to go drifting from place to place and hoping there were enough credits to keep them in the sky. Surviving was the best path he could see ahead of him.

"Well, I'm gonna check on the engine and turn in," he said. "I'm going to go to bed,” he clarified in plain words.

---

Kairon woke suddenly. Something was wrong. He placed a hand on the bulkhead behind his bed.

The hyperdrive was down. They should have been going for another whole day. Kairon got up sharply, nearly falling over himself.

His room had been locked. He has to use a local override code to get out into the corridor.

Loxa Visl would be woken by Kairon banging on her door.

"You do some weird magic shit?" He called out. If she opened the door she would find Kairon leaning against the bulkhead, a blaster in his hand.

 

[Loxa Visl]

It wasn't just visions and dreams of strange people or places, quite often when traveling through space Loxa dreamed of walking. No, not quite walking - pacing. Back and forth along a corridor that seemed so alien and yet so familiar. Counting steps, back and forth, keeping in time with a rhythm that felt incredibly distant.

Back.

Twelve steps from one end to the other.

And forth.

Twelve steps to-

There was the face of the man she'd shown to Kairon the night before, taller than kairon but not quite so broad through the shoulders. The dark blond of his hair looked almost gray in the saturated light of the ship. He didn't smile, but he wasn't unfriendly.

"You do some weird magic shit?" he said, but it was not his voice.

Loxa's eyes snapped open, glowing a pale gold within the darkness of her bunk. Amidst the drowsiness of her waking, she didn't fully comprehend that Kairon had spoken to her, but she felt his presence outside the door. Fumbling slightly to find the door release, she smacked at the wall several times blindly before it finally hissed open and blinked blearily up at the man.

"Magic in space no safe..." those glowing eyes landed on his blaster, "problem?"

 

[Kairon Rees]

"Problem," he stated flatly.

There was a loud thud. A reverberation through the spine of the ship. The whole vessel rocked, hard enough that the inertial compensators were too slow to shield them from it. Kairon stumbled.

For just an instant, instinct kicked in and he started to lift the blaster in Loxa's direction.

He didn't look like a tired old smuggler. There was danger in his eyes and a ferocity in the shape of his lips.

The moment passed. His rational self kicked in. This wasn't her.

"I was about to say a small problem with the engines, but I was wrong. We've got a big..."

"Kairon Rees."

"What's that krunt doing on my intercom?" Kairon hissed. It was the other passenger.

 

[Loxa Visl]

Magic is space was not safe, but Loxa would tempt fate if it meant saving herself from a blaster bolt to the forehead. When Kairon aimed his weapon at her with that glint in his eye, the witch drew her hands together, fingers crossed and twisted, ready to defend herself with but a thought alone.

The moment quickly ended, drawing both confusion and alarmed curiosity forth. Loxa's eyes widened at the sudden voice over the intercom and she hunkered down slightly as if unsure of where it was coming from.

"Big speak," the witch finished for him, looking back to the Captain, "Davix."

She thought she understood what was happening but that didn't necessarily mean she knew what to do, "Captain," she said to him, "what do?"

 

[Kairon Rees]

"Kill the fucker," Kairon grunted.

"This is your reckoning. And you didn't even see it coming."

"But that sounds like we've just been grabbed by a larger ship."

Kairon turned away from the door, tilting his ear to try and get a sense of where the metallic groan came from. There were too many places to get onto the intercom to work out where Davis was. If they were being boarded he wanted to know the entry point. The old freighter had a few of them.

"Do you understand?" he asked Loxa. "Being boarded?"

 

[Loxa Visl]

Oh dear. This was ... certainly not a situation the witch had ever intended to find herself in. Though it happens.

"Yes," she nodded, carefully drawing herself up on her feet with either hand planted on the walls of her cubby for stability, "This One can fight," Loxa offered him, "but This One not have weapon."

 

[Kairon Rees]

"Fortunately I know a man with a lot of weapons," Kairon said.

There was a look in his eyes. He didn't look frightened. He looked angry. He looked as if he wanted this fight.

He banged on Jarrick's door loudly and tried the door.

"Locked boss. Its the magnetic safety catch!" came a shout from the other side.

Kairon grunted in frustration. It meant that Davis had deliberately locked Jarrick, the ex-soldier, into his room. And he had let Kairon out.

"Wait here," he told Loxa, going back into his room.

The voice on the intercom resumed.

"How do you do it Kairon? How do you sit down and pretend to have a nice meal? Greet guests like a normal person? After what you did?"

Kairon returned with a heavy scattergun under one arm and a small blaster pistol in his other hand. He held it out for Loxa.

 

[Loxa Visl]

Alarming was perhaps an understatement given the current situation. Loxa carefully extracted herself from her cubby and stood near the doorway, opting to leave her staff behind for its obvious restrictions of use in such confined spaces. She tugged her jacket more snugly about her as a shiver ran up her spine and a frowned etched itself onto her face.

Upon Kairon's return, the witch looked to the offered pistol with a visible shift of wariness but took it with a hand that was quite accustomed to the feel of it. So many questions that she wanted to ask, though now did not seem an appropriate time. What was toy? Why was this passenger threatening the Captain who had been nothing but hospitable? She supposed everyone had their demons.

"Where is?" she asked with a flicker toward one of the nearby speakers, "One place or many?"

 

[Kairon Rees]

"Where is?" she asked with a flicker toward one of the nearby speakers, "One place or many?"

"He'll be in the engine room or the cockpit," Kairon grunted. He looked up, eyes following the corridor above.

"If I were him I wouldn't be right above us whilst taunting me," he said. There was a dark look in his eyes.

Kairon climbed the ladder up using just one arm. He lifted the scattergun to lean the barrel against the deck above.

"If we get to an escape pod you can go," he said. "This isn't your fight."

Kairon climbed up. As expected the cockpit was empty. The controls had been locked out, the engine deactivated. They were running on batteries.

Another loud bang echoed through the ship.

"Someone just docked with us."

It meant he had to fight his way to the back of the ship.

 

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa remained below at the bottom of the ladder to keep watch, the weapon in her hand armed and an ear listening quietly for Kairon's words. He couldn't see her from where he was above, but the witch shook her head in dissent of his plan. Escape in a pod? Leave him behind? No, the people of this ship were now her roving clan and she was honor bound to them in the same way she was to her sisters when they traveled together.

Muttering something beneath her breath, Loxa closed her eyes and slowly released a long, low breath. Her knees bent until one touched upon the metal grating beneath her in a crouch and her whispered words persisted against the clanging of the docking party.

A hymn of summons, an incantation of power, a curious array of tribal markings appeared along the bronzed skin as ghostly sigils, glowing in the dimness of the ship's emergency running lights, slowly spread along the length of her bare forearms. From the light grew three figures, the markings pulling away from her flesh to take tangible form. With a sizzle of arcane energy in the air, three Tailrings took shape and began to slough their pale glow like shed skin.

Clicking, hissing, and short chirps followed as Loxa opened her eyes, now glowing golden, and silently ordered them to scour the ship for this turncoat.

"This One will stay," she said while rising to her feet.

 

[Kairon Rees]

Kairon was wishing he could have used something to break his crewmate out. Jarrick knew his way around a boarding operation. He had been a republic marine for several years.

Kairon had first hired the man to look after security for the operation, but really he was more a partner now. Jarrick knew how to keep his head in the midst of a fight. Kairon didn't and that worried him more than the danger.

A hymn of summons, an incantation of power, a curious array of tribal markings on her bare forearms appeared along the bronzed skin as ghostly sigils, glowing in the dimness of the ship's emergency running lights. From the light grew three figures, the markings pulling away from her flesh to take tangible form. With a sizzle of arcane energy in the air, three Tailrings took shape and began to slough their ghostly pale glow like shed skin.

Then again, perhaps he didn't need to ex-soldier for this. Kairon had seen the use of the Force on just one occasion and it had been nothing like this. He took a half step back before stilling himself.

"Alright then."

The intercom crackled again.

"Hand yourself in Kairon. You could say that Karma is back to bite you."

Kairon's expression darkened. He turned his face away from Loxa, not wanting her to see the mix of shame and blind fury.

He headed for the corridor that led through the cargo pods. Kairon dropped to one knee and went still as the ghostly apparitions past him.

Hearing footsteps, he shouldered his scattergun. He saw figures moving and waited half a second to check it wasn't Mai before he pulled the trigger. The scattergun sent a spread of blaster bolts down the corridor.

There was a scream and Kairon rolled to one side before anyone could shoot back.

"Fuck."

 

[Loxa Visl]

Loxa scaled the ladder up to the level above to join Kairon while Davis jeered over the intercom. While none of this made much sense to the witch, she shouldered her confusion for a level of deliberate presence. A threat to the captain of the ship meant a threat to her mission, her purpose, and so she would do what she could to see this threat taken care of. She was busy checking the blaster he'd given her, ensuring the safety was no longer on, to see the look on the Captain's face. Even if he had tried to hide it.

The shadows of her three tailring familiars slithered past them both, stuck along the ceiling and walls like shadow clung to corners.

Loxa moved at Karion's heel, keeping off his back just enough to give him room to move, but not enough that she couldn't also cover him. A marine she was not, but a warrior? Yes, that she was. The witch pulled against the side as Kairon let off his first shot down the aisle, her pale gaze falling dark as she closed her eyes to see into those of her pets.

<<Nach,>> she said, which likely meant nothing to the man while she struggled with her translation, "mm- enemy ... far? Fair." That didn't sound right.

She tapped the side of her blaster against the bulkhead four times, "That many. No Davis."

 

[Kairon Rees]

She tapped out the number four.

"You have fingers you know?" Kairon replied.

A blaster bolt flashed past, striking the far wall. Even if he got through this in one piece, they were going to make a mess of his ship .

"That slippery little shit must be up in the cockpit," he said.

Kairon pointed just the muzzle of his scattergun around the corner and fired.

"There were three of them standing?" he asked, holding up three fingers. Another blaster bolt flashed by. He felt the heat of it in the air.

"I do appreciate the help," he growled. Time was not on his side. The bording team was in a bad position, but he couldn't advance down the narrow corridor easily.

 

[Loxa Visl]

The witch gave the Captain an odd look about her fingers, looking down at her hand with her golden eyes flashing in the dim light of the ship. She supposed he meant she could have shown him? But that seemed ill advised as it meant he would have to take his eyes off their targets and she risked him not being able to see them anyway.

"This One will look in pit..."

Slipping further behind cover, Loxa's gaze once more grew bright as she channeled through her familiars. The three tailrings scuttled across the ceiling above the heads of their assailants. She counted one, two, three ... a fourth slumped against the bulkhead.

"Three," she nodded as the creatures pressed on through the ship.

Quiet chirruping and trills echoed through the hall followed by gentle wooshes of their wings and a stuttered snarl or hiss. They were fast, but Loxa was not familiar with the ship, and shifting between the three as they diverged along separate paths to scour the various routes for the cockpit was tedious.

"Pit door..." Loxa asked him, "red?"

 

[Kairon Rees]

"It's red," he confirmed.

Part of him had hoped she might posses some magical spell that could eradicate every intruder on his ship in on go.

"If I were him I would be in the engine bay to cut the power," Kairon grunted.

Another few shots rang out. It was a standoff. One long narrow corridor. If any of them stepped out into it then Kairon's scattergun would eviscerate them. Kairon couldn't hope to take out all three of them in a mad dash down the corridor.

He had a suspicion - given the use of the word Karma - that they were going to want to capture him alive for some real payback.

"I need a plan," he grunted to himself. He couldn't change into a space suit quickly enough to get past them. He didn't have any grenades.

Or do I? He thought, looking back to the kitchen.

 

[Loxa Visl]

Engine bay. Red pit door.

Two tailrings split off. One continued in pursuit of the red door. It arrived after much dithering about complicated intersections of ladders, halls, and metal nooks. Slithering down along the bulkhead, it hooked around the jamb of the doorway to peer in through a circular viewport. Amidst the flaring of emergency lights, she could see no one inside.

"Not pit," Loxa said to Kairon, blinking her eyes open. Her other tailrings were en route to the engine bay, but it would take them a few minutes.

She looked to the Captain as he looked back to the kitchen. Was he meaning to fall back?

"This One can shield," Loxa nodded to him, offering him cover to do what he needed to, "a man go fast - now!"

Shifting out into the narrow passageway, Loxa dropped into a kneel and raised her free hand up alongside the other now holding the pistol. Light flared within her eyes again as the glimmer of a ward formed before her, taking several bolts of blaster fire.