Bunker Down, Boys! ( C.O.R.)

[Kay-Larr]

Not everyone trusted the idea of others arriving on Kesh to create their own spaces and oversee the newly formed Confederacy of the Outer Rim. It came at a bad time when Kesh was just rebuilding. Perhaps the mistrust was due to a lack of knowledge of everyone in question, but the whole thing didn't sit well with some people. Or perhaps some had suspicions about just about everyone. The thing about trust is that it had to be earned and not given.

Kay's trust in strangers had taken a mighty blow. Normally she saw the good in everyone and tried to draw it out in the open, but not now. Her recent encounters with the Jackals and more specifically with Thraxis has taken her optimism down a peg or two. And like a battered Lady she was more keen in finding extra ways to protect herself, extra avenues to escape, than anything else.

So she had taken it upon herself to pull on her resources and to start to build a bunker. It would be semi-underground with various entrances and exits, numerous storage rooms, armouries, living quarters and reinforced sub-sections to protect against attacks. Each entry point had a locking mechanism that was in itself a puzzle.

Her plan was that people could live in it for years if need be. But this was just the start of it. Kay had found the perfect location in an abandoned port city by the water. Some of the caves and tunnels were already there. They just needed to be expanded, reinforced and in some cases rebuilt. And with other reconstruction projects already in the works, finding workers for it might be a bit tough. Not to mention she had to be discreet about the whole thing.

Kay sent out just a hint of what she was up to to others in the Confederacy to see if there was any other interest. She waited in one of the outside chambers, sitting on the floor, making notes and drawings on the puzzles and bunker as a whole on her datapad. Her satchel rested on the ground beside her and her small blaster which was normally tucked away, instead was in easy reach on her lap, just in case. There was a lot of work to be done.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Lady Kay"]

Solan had arrived a bit behind others, watching for a few long moments and waiting for his eyes to scour this as he realized that for some reason Kay had found it needed to acquire a bunker for herself on the world for which he oversaw. Why he wondered and that was why he was here. He would help her, that much was true but he wanted to be sure she was ok and wanted to know why rather than simple going on without that knowledge. His hands crossed behind him and for a few long moments he stared at the work being done while he walked till he found Kay on the ground with notes and drawings before her to which he just gave her a slightly saddened look at seeing her in such a situation. "Hmm, you know Kay, i cant say that i have ever seen you like this and quite honestly its not a welcome change if i may say so myself... You seem so worried."

His hands rested on his leg for a moment and he looked over the designs, they were intricate enough, he had been in the past bunkers that the previous Voids had created before him and had been able to study them in enough detail to know what just it was to look for in terms of holes in the defenses. He could lend his aid and he had told the others to gladly do so, but until then he was going to simply wait and see if he could help her in some way.

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Solan Charr"]


Everyone that passed her by caused her to look up. Most of the time however it was just the workers, busying themselves with the tasks she had given them. That is until Solan arrived. He had gone through enough already and so did his sweet daughter. He didn't need to be burdened with her problems on top of it.

Kay turned her attention back to her datapad, working on the solution to one of the locking mechanism's puzzles. The trick was to start with the solution and move backwards from there, yet she needed to be clever about it and not make it too easy. Her eyes never looked up as she spoke to him. "I'm sorry, but we live in dangerous times, Solan. We can never be too careful. I'll pay for it out of my own pocket if need be, so don't worry. It might take a few years, but it'll be paid for. We will have a place to go to if we are over run and out numbered....And no one will have to die...They will be safe."

Kay was going through a bit of shell shock. Watching people get tortured and killed in front of you can do that. For the moment, keeping herself busy was the best way that she knew how to handle it. Only time will tell if it works.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Lady Kay"]

Solan's eyes focused in on the woman for a few moments before speaking himself in response. "Just because it is a dangerous galaxy does not mean that one need resort to such... drastic measures. This place is safe enough and i would do anything to help people rather than sit here alone and have my safe place.... i realize you may not be the same way Kay but there is the fact i had thought you cared just as greatly as i did about helping others. The Bunker is a good idea, and you need not worry about the money, i am just worried about what is driving you to do this. As for people dying, no one can stop that. And those that try only pervert the natural path of the galaxy." He looked at her closely and stared at her for a few more seconds.

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Solan Charr"]


She looked up at him then, as soon as he nearly suggested that she didn't care about others. "I do care. I'm building this place to help them too. You never know what could happen. Allies could turn against us so we need to be able to keep people safe."

She closed her eyes for a moment as she swallowed a lump that was building in her throat. Time to push it all down, store it away. There was time for herself later when all of her projects that she was either helping or making were finished.

When she looked up, she did her best not to sound or look ashamed. "I did a stupid thing. I was blackmailed into surrendering to an Assassin that worked for the Hutt Cartel. I thought that I could get away easy, but I was wrong. I was brought to their slave camp near Sempra's palace for a few days where I was tortured...mostly mentally and emotionally for a few days by Thraxis. I tried to escape, even had some help, but each time we were thwarted. He killed people, tore them apart right in front of me and tossed their bodyparts into my cell." She couldn't help but laugh a little as the whole thing seemed like a bad joke or a bad dream. "I guess that I pissed them off too much, wouldn't you say?"

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Lady Kay"]

Solan's hands crossed in his lap before he sat down and looked at her face for a few very long moments. She seemed to have suffered far more than he had thought at first and looking at her now he could tell she was unnerved as possible. "Look Kay, people die, just as is the natural order. We cannot save them all and nor should we try to save them all because its simple as that. I wish there was a way though, a way for us to protect every being out there but your position not only here today but in teh republic... yes i keep up with the senate." He leaned back and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments before grimacing. "Kay, im going to say something very simple. If you focus on the past and the grief and all the pain, you will become afraid and you will slip up. The Jedi are right about that, fear is the enemy of any good action."

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Solan Charr"]


So he knew about her being in the Senate. What else did he know? He already knew that she was a Force user and they were forbidden from holding such a position in the Republic. But she knew that she could trust him to never use such information against her. They shared a trust among friends that was hard to break.

Kay still felt guilty about the deaths of those slaves, but maybe Solan was right and that they were going to die in such a manner regardless of how defiant she was towards them. But her fear? He was right about that too and she had thought that what she was doing would help her to restore her courage.

"You're right...thank you. I am trying to do the right thing, always." She looked to him briefly before turning to her datapad and changing the subject a little. "Who are the people that are coming here and why are they coming? Can they be trusted?"

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Lady Kay"]

"Kay, stop worrying about people, they can be trusted... Look you can't truly know everyone in this world, its hard to know and trust everyone but if you have that hope that people will stick true to their path. Look you cant become paranoid that everyone around you wants to harm you or others. Its life and theres more than enough times when people can come to arm you in the cruelest of ways." He sighed as she really was different after that one experience. It almost pained him considering the difference in her personality and how the woman had been so unnerved by one experience. "And Kay, i can feel emotions, remember. Trying to hold anything in is just going to hit me like a brick from a building."

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Solan Charr"]


It wasn't the first time that she's had a bad experience. She watched her husband die in the same way and almost died herself, were it not for her friends coming to her rescue. So to have nearly the same experience happen yet again, well, it was one of the reasons why she chose to never get too close to anyone.

"Well if you say that they are all right, then I will respect your opinion." Kay rubbed the back of her neck. "This is...a change. You're giving me the same advice that I would give someone else. But this isn't the time nor the place to just....get it all out of my system. " She gave him a bit of a small smile, wanting to lighten things up a bit for herself. "Maybe tonight after my evening tea, I will have a council meeting with my pillow in my quarters."

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Lady Kay"]

He laughed as his friend spoke and nodded to her with that grin on his face. "If you say so. Just make sure that council meeting is kept under control, i dont need to hear that you were shouting at your pillow. There is no way that he deserves such a fate as the wrath of the Lady Kay." He smiled at her and ran a hand over and through his hair as he stared at the designs she was working on. His body lowered itself as he took one of the designs in hand and studied them greatly. "What were you thinking in terms of this locking mechanism puzzle that you mentioned?"

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Solan Charr"]


She chuckled a little. The wrath of Lady Kay. Is there such a thing? At worst she'd probably just give an angry glare, or maybe shout out in anger. But that's about it.

But now to her locking mechanism. She hoped that he'd like it. "I was thinking that it could be a combination lock of symbols. And if our people forget it, clues will be left in different areas as to what symbol and what order. But to a stranger, they wouldn't recognise it."