Come Fly With Me

[Delila Castillon]

Most of the trip Delila sat in the common area with Miss DeVoe, making small talk while she worked on her datapad. The long stretch of time when she wasn't needed was useful, allowing for less of a backlog. Most Embassies were overseen by their own Director, at this point she was helping each Security Director and making sure the security protocol stayed tight.


"Coruscant? If I knew we were coming here I would have saved the fuel."


They were meeting the new crew member for the first trip and a redhead entered, completely excited. In a jumble of words, Delila could pick out 'noble' and 'are you'. There was a light scoff on her part, looking down at the plain button up shirt with slightly rolled sleeves, along with standard spacer pants and military issue boots. Noble was far from it.


"Pleasure to meet you Miss Immarya, I'm Delila Castillon." Hand extended out for a greeting. The redhead had issues working with Jedi but this one still appeared in training. Hopefully they wouldn't clash too much.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Marina though the entire scene was pretty amusing.
Especially when the elder woman who happened to be the pilot of the Corvette mentioned the fact that she had been addressed as a noble. naturally the elder woman figured the young woman had been meaning Marina. Still, as awkward as it were, they all pretty much thought it hilarious. But the woman had to go and Marina bid her farewell and straight line flying. Something of a slang she had picked up. Although by the look of the other pilot...maybe she had delivered it wrong.

"Well...lets go find your lost ship.." Marina joked in a mock horse tone, mimicking some part to a holo-cinematic epic. Again, maybe she delivered it wrong as it quite didn't have the effect or reaction she had expected. But what did it matter, they would have plenty of time on this mission to get what triggered their funny bones. "Heh... it's an old joke...." She played it off.

As they entered the Mariner IV there was a bit of tit-tat about actually saying to someone they looked..noble? Here on the docks on Coruscant? That was pretty funny in itself, especially thinking the elder woman on the dock there was nobility. Well, the elder woman had taken it as a joke, so no harm, no foul. No one was offended,just got a belly full of laughter.
And wouldn't you know it, Marina spoke just as fast and over the girl as well as the girl did. For someone who was on the outside looking in, the two could have seemed like sorority sisters.

"Oh Delila....this is our new crew member Iona Immarya" Marina introduced the girl to Delila, as they came up inside the Mariner IV.

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona had beamed at the woman for a solid three seconds more then satisfied with a rather flawless introduction, by her standards. Slowly, ever so slowly, she realized the puzzled expression on the woman's face, how she kept looking around almost checking for cameras like this was some kind of practical joke. Iona opened her mouth to repeat her introduction as she was at a loss for what to do when a blond woman showed up, [member="Marina DeVoe"]. The coin dropped and so did her stomach when she realized that she had Iona'ed it up again, she had gotten the wrong ship and it wasn't her fault if she sometimes got her 'b's and 'd's mixed up, really, who makes the different between letters being the direction they faced!?

'Oh, this is great, good job Iona. Yes, this is exactly how you want to start out a journey because everyone loves to go on possibly dangerous exploratory missions to uncharted regions with a Jedi who can't even fight the right hanger!' She could feel her face heating up as she, once again, babbled, "Hi, yes, I-I'm Iona, its uh, nice to meet you! I may have gotten mixed up, but I mean, really, who.. this.." She drawled off as the older woman, who she had mistaken for Marina, laughed, well, at least there were no hard feelings as the last thing she wanted was to get scolded by the masters for something or another, she wasn't sure what, but they could always find something to smack her knuckles for.

Like a puppy who got caught chewing on something quite expensive, she sullenly followed Marina to the correct ship after mumbling something that even she wasn't aware of. She came out of it, slightly, when they entered the ship, the one she was supposed to have gone to the first time and she let her azure eyes roam around the interior. It was nice. Nicer then most all the other ships she'd been on but those were always either warships or commercial flights where she was packed between a bawling baby and a man, or woman, who should have stopped eating four or five tons ago. Iona hopped she had a bucket handy because, nice or not, if things got rough outside, she was probably going to repaint the interior of the ship and that would just be the cherry on the wonderful first impression she had managed to cultivate.

When Iona was introduced to [member="Delila Castillon"], she couldn't help but marvel at the differences. Marina seemed like one of those friendly nurses who made you almost want to get hurt again, that kindness that made people yearn for the maternal, while Delila struck her as a soldier. She reminded Iona of some more veteran soldiers she had met, rough, laid-back but with a razors edge to them, "Hi, Miss. Castillon," Iona said giving her a shaky smile, her confidence well and truly shaken from her Iona episode earlier.

"You can just call me Iona," she said before breaking into a fresh ramble, "I mean, if you want to. Just no one has ever called me 'Miss' before, and I don't really feel like one? No one even calls me 'Master Jedi'," she said, deepening her voice to mock one of the masters at the temple, Master Velarin who took special pleasure in lecutring her, "I mean, once someone did, but I think they were being sarcastic, you know? Like, putting that extra emphasis on Master."

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Marina DeVoe"]


"Ah, the old sarcastic title thing? Bit overrated, especially at my age. You'll have nothing to worry about Iona. As for me, its just Delila. "


Sarcastic comments on the other hand? Dells doled those out like candy. No doubt Iona and Marina both would hear a few of them by the time the trip was done and over. Since Marina was the nice, chatty, caring one it was probably best for the blonde to have someone like Iona on board. Delila was certain Miss DeVoe and herself were polar opposites. Nice to have someone in the middle.


"What made you join this three hour tour?"

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Ok, cool..." Marina nodded, exhaling a relief that the crew had finally met and were under one hull, so to speak.

"Now Delila's got the forward cabin across from mine up by the cockpit and...uhm...well, you Iona get to pick whichever one you want. The only thing is that they don't have full accommodations and you'll have to use the bathroom in the corridor. Other than that anything you need to know about the ship is in the floor layout. That you can access on any of the touch screens on the walls and consoles."

It were then that the droid came by Marina's side and be beeped it's present.

"Oh...and this is TK-1213. he's my little handyman and fixer-upper when not giving me a hard time.." She joked, making light of the earlier interactions it had concerning Delila. The droid naturally objected to the fact that he never gave Marina a hard time. But a little bonk on it's turret shut it up. Not that those digital beeps were likely translated by Iona or Delila, but that little nudge on it's head casing certainly got understood by the droid.

It then spun itself around and started to head down the corridor toward the cockpit, be-beeping away.

"Ye, yea...get the engines fired up, I'll be right behind you. " Marina replied.

"Alrighty...let me see about getting us underway....Iona...cabin. any cabin. I'll see you ladies once we make the jump." And with that, she hightailed it to the cockpit.

* * * * * * * * *​

The Mariner pulled away from Coruscant, but had to clear all of the incoming and outgoing traffic that was synonymous with the system. it literally had to get once again 1.2 million miles distance to get a clear jump window. naturally even at sub-light the mariner only took a few minutes and just before her drives kicked in, the city planet of Coruscant was nothing more than the size of a handball.

Coordinates set...countdown to jump in
...4....3....2...1...0 ...............

Marina leaned back and took a breather, before hitting the switch to darken the glass. the cockpit went to nice cruising dim lighting.
Her droid were going through system checks and the readouts were displayed, where Marina was overlooking them over.
"We're not at optimal, TK...any reason for that?" Marina asked seeing that they were at 1.1 hyper-speed. her own perception of the streaming data and graphs indicated they could push the drives.

The droid's explanation of the reduced speed was that the jump were winding them along a few tight clusters and indicated the points.
"Hmm....I see... so then we have much more clear sailing after that. Ok, good, let's not push our luck. inform me when we pass those points." And with that, she left the droid keep monitoring the Mariner IV's progress.

It weren't till after Marina had gotten herself something to eat that the ship's hyper-drives were doing 0.9 optimal speed. They were now making better than good time. They were faster than an X-wing going through hyperspace.
For the most part, with Marina going to and from the cockpit to galley and back, including getting some shut-eye in her cabin; somehow or other she didn't criss-cross her two associates somehow. Only the gods knew how, being a small corvette class ship...

It weren't till they were near 2 hours to drop point that marina came out of her cabin, all refreshed and a bit on the hungry side that she ran into her crew mate.
"Well hello...or should I say good morning?" Marina said, all bright eyes and bushy tailed. Seriously, she had her hair in a pony tail....

It really didn't matter or make a difference at all whether it were night or day, it were just an expression out in space. Still, it were a habit when one had come out of a long sleep, followed by a shower and readying for what remained of the waking hours.

"Get any good sleeps in?" She continued as she made her way to the stim-caf peculator.

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona had stayed hidden in her cabin for most of the journey, not because she was distant and didn't want to engage and mingle, she most certainly did as both other women were both far more experienced and felt more mature then her and the inner need to feel accepted was as strong a compulsion as anything, but what she didn't want them to see was how pale her face was and every time she climbed out of bed she wanted to bend over and spill her guts, quite literally, all over the floor and after the mishap from before, that was something she doubted she could so gracefully recover from.

Her arm lay across her eyes as Iona did everything she could to pretend she was anywhere else but there, preferably, with some solid ground beneath her and a beautiful blue sky stretched out above her. Iona felt the ship drop out of hyperspace, dropping with her stomach which continued to roll angrily, and she gave voice to his discomfort with a long groan. It was almost a relieved groan as dropping out of hypserspace meant they were close... or they were under attack from pirates wanting to pierce the thin metal can they were hurtling in, sucking them all out into the cold void of, once again her stomach rolled angrily in her stomach and bile rose to the back of her throat.

Iona took three quick breaths and swung her legs over the edge of the bunk and instantly regretted her life decisions as nearly collapsed back down, but drawing upon reserves of strength that always surprised her, she pushed herself to her feet, rubbery as those were feeling at the moment, and made her way out of her chambers and was met with the happy face of [member="Marina DeVoe"] who was taking the journey far better then Iona was, but she had yet to meet many people that hated space as much as herself.

"Mornin'," Iona mumbled, the brightness and chipper nature of Marina only making Iona realize just how awful she felt in comparison. At the idea of sleep, Iona snorted a little, "Not even a little... How much longer till, you know, we are there?" She asked, the faintest trace of hope in her voice.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"None?.... You mean you've not gotten a good sleep the past 16 hours since we jumped from Coruscant?...Oh my..." Marina could see the bit of distraught the poor girl seemed to be showing.

She had her share of passengers who somehow weren't comfortable speeding through the abyss faster than the mind could conceive worming their way by star systems and not being gobbled up by their gravitational forces or what not.

" ... we're still a bit off from the Region we're aiming for. Still got an hour or so before we drop out near the Bilbringi system..." Marina took her stim-caf that had completed it's dispensing cycle and moseyed on over to the galley table.

She sat down a minute, hoping to find out what she could do to help her crew mate somehow get through the crossings. The Bilbringi system were not their destination at all, but a jump stop-over so that they could re-angle for another efficient jump that would take them again near a known system in the edge of the Unexplored regions. There they would all surmise a planned jump to an exploratory start point.
unfortunately the second jump to the the Bilbringi system was again a long one, that calculations put it at over 19.5 hours. If the poor girl had found it impossible to rest, then if she couldn't catch up on sleep, she would be a mess.

"Only that is just a few minutes out of a jump as we su-light it to another calculated point, then we jump for quite some time till we come out near the known system of Ansion.... " She explained, trying to give Iona the idea that they were almost half way there.

"Ansion is the nearest known system in that sector of the Unexplored Regions that we can safely drop out....any further and it's too great a risk that we...ahem...miscalculated running into a wall..hehe.." She tried making light of the fact that it would not be wise to jump farther than one could calculate that a clear path was ahead of them. Sure, short jumps were easier as sensors could pick up small asteroids or shipping lanes, not to mention star systems. But long jumps into uncharted regions were a gamble. dark matter, asteroids and rouge planets and such were hard for sensor to pick up at those distances and jumping blindly without a near 100% guarantee would be like a speeder coming up on a black wall on a moonless night with no headlights.

"Ahem...sorry, not meaning to get you more unraveled...just trying to ease your mind about it.
Iona...Just know that I aim to keep us..you as safe as I can. Iona... I'm no risk taker." Marina gave her a reassuring smile.

Marina would have had no problem if this were one of her own trips to actually do a real stop-over and put down on a friendly system. Unfortunately, this weren't and to do so, were not up to her. Sure they had provisions to do so under emergency situations, such as a crew member getting sick or injured.
So what options did they have if the girl wasn't in tune with hyper-travel?

"Look...if you want, you can-" But she were interrupted by the alarm that came over the comm.

It weren't blaring or any red lights flashing...just a reminder alarm.
Marina turned to the panel on the wall, taking note of the countdown. They were nearing their drop point.
My how time flies in conversations...

"Ah, good. We're coming to our drop point." She said, getting up.

"Iona...listen....make yourself some hot cocoa and get something to eat. I'll be back after we jump again...Ok? I'll be back." With that, Marina gave the jedi a reassuring smile and lightly patted her arm, before she turned to head back to the cock-pit.

* * * * * * * *​

​

"I see it, TK... it's just debri...pft...garbage..." Marina shook her head as they were passing what registered as garbage...most likely dumped from a large freighter or what not. The Mariner was traveling at sub-light after they had dropped out of hyperspace near the Bilbringi system, and were en-route to a pre-calculated jump point entry. The were re-angling for an optimal trajectory jump to their next destination, the Ansion system. from there, they would be once more travel in sub-light till they plotted their first course jump to an exploratory new system. But that jump, they would all have to decide on.

Countdown to point jump...4....3...2...1...0........

The jump went without flaw and as calculated, the mariner was on a clear cut course to the Unknown regions to a known system...travelling at her optimal speed of 0.9

Once more securing the cockpit and leaving her droid to overlook the crossing, marina stepped out of the cockpit and headed back to the galley. She hopped maybe that Iona had done as she had suggested and may have retired to one of her chosen cabins for some catch up sleep.
If not, then that was why she were heading back as promised...to see what she could do to further ease the poor girl's mind.

 

[Iona Immarya]

Sixteen hours? It had felt like an eternity to her, but it always did. At least it was better then the commercial flights she sometimes had to take as the only thing worse then flying was flying while stuck next to a large group of people that either smelt weird, played overly loud vids or, the worst, a baby that couldn't stop screaming. Her heart plummeted when she realized this was just the first of more then a few jumps and then, between each jump, they would probably need to fly normally for a bit. Her face turned a particularly shade of pale when she mentioned slamming into a wall, "L-Let's not do that," Iona said weakly.

This was going to be awful series of jumps, but, like normal, eventually she would get so tired her body would force herself to sleep even if it was a rough sleep. It would all be worth it once she touched down on the planet's surface, got to feel the earth beneath her feet and be one of the first to ever see it. All be worth it, at least, she really hoped it would all be worth it.

When [member="Marina DeVoe"] left to start the next jump, Iona moved to the kitchen and got some water as it was gentle enough to, hopefully, not cause her stomach to yell at her too much and she did need to stay hydrated as much as she possibly could. She settled into a stool next to the table where they would be eating at, and leaned against it heavily, letting her forehead rest against her hands as she mused her situation.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

She hadn't been sure, but standing there letting a minute pass let her know that the young Jedi was sleeping, when she returned as she had promised.
Under normal circumstances she would have gently awakened her passenger and guided them to their cabin. But she knew the poor thing had not gotten any prior sleep at all during their first jump from Coruscant and right now this was certainly overdue.

"Oh dear..." She said before quietly backing away and heading to her own cabin.
Inside, she went and withdrew a small blanket and stepped back out in the hallway, just hesitating enough in front of Delila's cabin which was right across from hers. Well, at least the officer was passing the time in comfort.
marina would have liked to awaken the jedi, but thought it best if she got some sleep...even if it were slumped over the galley's table.

She kind of tippy-toed over to Iona and gently laid the small comforter over her. The temptation of stroking her hair before bidding her good-night as her mother did, Marina forego. maybe this was the poor girl's only chance to sleep...exhaustion. It would do her good over anything else.
Marina stood over her a minute watching her sleep before she turned and went intto her own cabin.


* * * * * * * * *



"Oh wow... shoot.." She got up silencing the alert.

Marina had passed many hours after retiring to her cabin, reading and catching up on her log entries. They weren't for the Mariner IV, but a sort of journal...keeping memories of her adventures and people she met in a book. The type of journal that were similar in construction as the ones she loved to read, made of pulp...paper.
Then of course, eventually surcoming to sleep herself.
Now answering the alarm she had set to sound off when the ship was closing in on their destination, marina stretched and readied for a new day.
She showered up and tidied her cabin before emerging.
The Mariner IV was going to come out of the jump in less than a quarter hour. She looked down toward the galley and could see the comforter she had put on the sleeping jedi neatly folded and on the cushioned seat. A smile graced Marina's features as she assumed maybe the girl had shortly awakened after she last saw her, and had retired to her own cabin.
Only Marina could only guess at which one she had chosen.

The be-beeping of her droid calling her from the cockpit, reminded her that they were approaching their drop out point.
in no time she settled herself in her captain's chair, while TK went through the system diagnostics and ship functions. The droid also checked and readied the sub-light drives to engage the moment the Mariner IV's hyper-drives went off line.

"Ok...counting it down, TK" .....4.....3.....2.....1....0...

The Mariner IV dropped out of hyperspace and into normal space.
Marina took over piloting the moment the ship dropped below light speed. They had entered the known system of Ansion. Well, about 600 million miles distant from the planet that is. But as far as the ship's sensors were reading; they indicated the nearest star system was well three times that distance. And that one only had un-inhabitable planets..too close in orbit for life.
Their destination had indeed been Ansion, but only as a safe drop point. They were now in the Uncharted Regions and to blindly jump around without proper charting and calculations would end their exploration real quick.

"Ok...all looks good TK....keep on this heading at sub-light." She said, getting up from her chair and over to the nav-comp console.

"I'll download the Regional map and bring it over to the galley. We'll discuss our next jump as to what system to explore. Keep the long range scanners searching for habitable systems...
I'll see you later..."
And once she downloaded their current position to known relative systems, she left the cockpit and headed over to the galley.
She figured on making some stim-caf and maybe get some breakfast going. She was certain the rest of the gang had set some kind of alarm....
They had reached their point destination. Now it would be a team effort in deciding their next move.

 

[Delila Castillon]

There wasn't much for Dells to do on the flight. Most of the time she was trying to lay low and stay out of the way and that typically lent itself to lounging around in her cabin. She had encountered the second girl from time to time, it seemed she didn't sleep and was throwing up at a frequent rate. Delila had seen it before, the girl wasn't used to flying around. Hyperspace wasn't horrible but it tended to do a number on the stomach for the unfamiliar.


It wasn't until they had arrived at their rough destination did she emerge. Naturally she was fully dressed and ready to go, tucking the last bit of pants into her boots. Strong smell of caf wafted through the small vessel and Delila drifted towards the source. It was just the blonde so far, hopefully the younger sick one was getting some rest.


"Morning. Nothing on the scopes I assume?"

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Oh...good morning Delila..." She had to turn to see whom it were, as she was opening up the warming compartment, ready to withdraw the pancakes from one level and the eggs and other breakfast goodies from the other.

"I passed your cabin before and wasn't sure if I should wake you or not. " She walked over to the main table, putting the trays down center. They were cool to the touch as they were designed that way...only the foods cooked to desired levels, while the handling trays once the exciters went off dropped down to room temp, making them safe to handle and withdraw from the cooking compartment.

The holo-pad that she had brought over from the cockpit lay there on the table and Marina slid it over and toward Delila.
"I guess you already checked our present location. We've dropped out on the outskirt of Ansion system.
I've got TK up front there piloting us out of the system altogether and heading deeper into the Uncharted Regions. Last I checked...no, hold on a sec..." Marina activated the holo-pad and the regional section of their location came up.
V
v
v
v
v
v
v

"Anywho....here is Ansion and were like heading due N into the sector. TK's got the long range scanners...ahem...scanning." She almost chuckled, as she realized she were keeping the terminology simple. But this was Delila and an officer. She perfectly could understand marina if she spoke technically.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean that. I am so used to transporting civilians.
I have the scan arrays set to 2.2 in an envelope of 0.6 forward. Our current heading velocity is 0.9 sub-light. We can't miss picking up a pebble 1.3 million miles ahead of us." She gave Delila the run down.
The map was scaled down to simplify a quick viewing of their present location in this part of the galaxy. Each hex represented a sector and if they should be crossing it in a jump, at the max speed of the Mariner IV at 0.9, it would take about 12 hours, give or take, depending on many factors.

It was good that she was paired up with another old salt so to speak, as far as space travel was concerned. It would make piloting the Mariner IV through Uncharted territories that much less stressful, as there were so many variables of uncertainties as to what or whom they would encounter.

"Well...got us this far...what do you say we grab the coffee decanter, dig into breakfast while you go over the map, then we'll cross loop all possible plot algorithms of viable stars in the sector... then we decide on where to jump to.
...or we'll flip a coin...hehe..."

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Marina DeVoe"] | [member="Iona Immarya"]


"Good morning Miss DeVoe." Deep blue eyes took in the main table laden down with various breakfast items. Delila had seen such spreads in holovids, embassy breakfasts, five star resorts. Never on a vessel or any type of transport. Reminded her of stories she had heard of leisurely cruises older folks took on warm,tropical water planets. "I have been setting alarms, no need to worry."


Caf mug was retrieved and Dells filled it with dark liquid, liberally adding in sugar and creamer. Dark tan soon swirled in her mug as she sat down to look at the map. Sip of caf was taken as her eyes studied the map and potential routes. There was a slight yawn and she tried to shake off the last bit of sleep - being stuck in a tin can could be tiring in itself.


"No, I'm not a very technical person unless it comes to battles or something similar....you can keep it simplistic, please." Breakfast was starting to be placed on her plate. Delila shrugged and looked at Miss DeVoe. "My vote is for a coin."

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona stumbled out of her room, looking worse for wear, long strands of her crimson hair having broken free of their bond to lay haphazardly around her, the rest still trapped in the ponytail. During the second portion of their jump, she had managed to fall asleep although that was less by design and more her body shutting down from sheer exhaustion. She could have fought it by drawing on the force, but sleep, troubled as it was, meant less time awake and a slightly faster trip. She couldn't wait to make planet fall and she desperately hoped that was on the agenda.

She came out just in time to hear certain details, such as how fast they were moving, how far away they were from glorious land, and she was hit by a fresh wave of nausea. 0.9 sublight. She didn't know exactly what that was as Iona was certainly not well versed in space travel, but she hoped, by the force she hoped, that didn't mean 90% the speed of light as that would promise vomit that would travel nearly as fast. Iona collapsed into a free chair and mumbled, "Morning."

As she looked at them, Iona could not help but feel a minor pang of jealously at how easily travel was from them. It was something that was simple, routine, even fun to some extent. Life truly was not fair.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Good morning to you..." She turned to see Delila all dressed, pressed and ready to roll.

Marina smiled, chalking up the woman's perfect form and ready action as part of her military lifestyle. It were good to know that the woman were dedicated in that aspect, taking her role and function seriously.
...except for the part of conflicts.
"Well, I for one would hope your expertise wouldn't have to come to service." She replied bringing the last tray of foods she had finished preparing.
"I mean, meeting hostiles and such. Do hope if we do, we can assure them that we're not advanced scouts for an upcoming invasion..haha.." Marina joked, although that possibility rang true most times.

The Mariner IV had originally been drawn up as an Explorer craft for the earlier Republic navy. It was a Loronar scout designed vessel. Only the Mariner IV had been stripped of all weapons and outfitted, renovated to a transport civilian corvette class ship. Still, it had it's design beginnings as a military craft....

It were a minute past Delila's first sip of caff, that a rather groggy looking half-sleeper came strolling around the corner into the open galley.
"Well, hello you....hope you got some sleep.." Marina said as the young girl approached the breakfast table.
"Have yourself a seat and dig in....I'll help style your hair later, if you want.."
Marina knew the young jedi had what she knew as space sickness. Something she knew about, but never experienced it. It could be a bit similar to when she herself is planet side too long. The feeling of being grounded and fearing that imaginary roots would sprout out of her feet to take firm hold of the ground and never for her to touch the stars again...
Well ok, that was silly, but it were the only thing Marina could compare what the poor girl must be feeling being out in free space...with no up, down, left or right. For all they knew, they could be streaking across open space upside down and sideways.
But her offer to perk up the young girl with a good hair styling after her shower would hopefully ease her dreaded passage through space.

Beep beep beep...
Came an alarm, drawing Marina's attention. It were from the cockpit. TK was slowing the Mariner IV. Marina could feel the fore thrusters had engaged.
"Ok...something's up..." She were about to scramble toward the cockpit when TK, sent an update to the holo-map that Delila had looked over, giving her opinion to let it ride on whatever system came up first.
And the first system just appeared. It were now just a mere 45 million miles near them, but the sensors were already modeling it in front them in a 3-D holo gram.

The system..or rather the sole rogue planet was identified as Asfandia.
"Asfandia?...no freakin way!" Marina drew closer to the rendition, with a childlike amusement in her features.

"Oh my God..you know the odds of finding this thing are?" She looked over to her companions, who for the moment, didn't know what she were ranting about.
"Asfandia was reported as a free proto-world that had once been part of a system before it broke away in Wild Space." She stood back, arm folded, hand to chin studying the planet. They were now 37 million miles and closing.

"Heh... we should record it's present location and drift trajectory....wow...imagine that. Not many have seemed to spot it as it just ....drifts around." Marina nodded, reveling in having accidentally stumbled on the rouge planet.
"...Oh shi-t-zu...still dead as a door nail..." She moved her hand around the 3-D rendition of the system, bringing up the data her ship's sensors used to analyze the planet.
It's atmosphere mostly comprise of hydrogen and methane...internal radiation from the core were above human threshold too, for long term hermetic habitation.
The planet, despite being a treasure to find, was a dud.

"Bummer..."

 

[Iona Immarya]

Do her hair? Iona blinked a few times not really sure how to respond. No one had ever offered to 'do her hair'. She knew people did do that, friends, family or people that were paid to do so, but her hair? It sounded bother interesting and uncomfortable, she was saved from having to really give an answer as she was quite sure what answer to give when something came up, a planet! Her spirits soared when she saw the floating ball of dirt hovering on the display... and then swiftly returned to the gutter when [member="Marina DeVoe"] talked about it more. Couldn't hold human life, meaning they wouldn't be going which meant she wouldn't get to make landfall.

She had no idea what the details of what she was saying had meant, but well, anyone can understand what 'dead as a door nail' meant. Didn't exactly take a genius. Iona's bottom lip stuck out as she pouted letting out a small sigh as she did so. That was the way of the force, it seemed. To build up her hope and then dash it brilliantly, such was the adventurous life of a Jedi Padawan suffering thrown in as a free bonus.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

De be beep beep... her droid asked if they should establish orbit around the rogue planet.
Checking their current position to it, they were a mere 2.5 million miles and still closing in on it. The live data streaming in was being recorded, as Asfandia were a rarity to come upon, as it was always wandering about with no clear trajectory, rather like a bobbing apple in a choppy sea. or space with minute gravitational pulls varying it's journey through the galaxy.

"Sigh..." Her head slung low a moment in disappointment.
"No, TK...just file the recording and coordinates. Resume full sub-light through current sector." Marina's eyes came up again on the holo rendition of the planet. It started to reduce in size as the Mariner IV picked up speed again and was passing the rogue planet. It soon disappeared out of sight as the ship reached encroached near light speed.
Once more the sector as far as the ship's sensors were picking up was just open space.

"Well...seemed first catch of the day was a bust" She eyed the young girl.
"Don't fret...we'll find something interesting out here....I'm sure there's more fish in this sea for us to hook..." Ok, so it wasn't funny. Not many landlubbers found that funny.

"Come on, sit down....breakfast's getting cold." Marina didn't know how to help the jedi through this little fishing trip for viable planets. "...should try to put a little soft solid to quiet down that little noisy stomach."
She were certain she could hear the poor girl's tummy asking for something. But one thing for certain...that little wild stray of fire red strand hair in front of the jedi, just begged for her to-

"There..." Marina said, after she tucked the stray red strand of untamed fire out of her features.
It were done so quick, as to almost seem like the girl's hair had done so on it's own. If Marina were good at something, it was quick touch ups. And the girl looked like she could use some good professional help in bringing out her best.
" ... you have such pretty features. You should have me see about bringing them out more..."
Ok, so it were girl talk. But still, the girl apparently did OK with presenting herself adequately. But Marina could see that she were more than adequate, [member="Iona Immarya"] were pretty. Only that like most jedi, apperances weren't top priority.

Anywho, they just may be sailing through this much called dark space for some time, until they should happen on another system. They were after all in Uncharted Space, and what little systems were pinpointed already on the galactic map, they were far from close to each other. Then again, they could happen upon a system any moment too. But until then, there was time to be passed and retiring to one's quarters was fine at first, but sooner or later one could succumb to what some refereed to as as 'Cabin Fever'.
What better way to pass the time than by doing hair?

Ok, so maybe the hair thingy weren't going to fly at all, with say [member="Delila Castillon"], as most likely Marina would get the look of death, even suggesting she come near her hair. Still the temptation to share a few girl time doing hair when there was nothing else to do but time, couldn't be said that Marina wasn't going to find a way to break some ice with the woman.
"More...stimcaf, Delila?" She asked,eyeing the woman to see what her take was on Marina wanting to play hairdresser...

 

[Iona Immarya]

Iona had never been on a sea but if it was anything like space, she knew that was another type of ship she was never going to step foot on. Instead of floating off into space, she can drown, instead of suffocating in a vacuum, she can suffocate under water, and, well, while there was no risk of getting struck by meteors, there was an issue of giant unknown sea monsters that could be lurking in the depths. While it seemed astronomical she would run into such a beast in the great blue, with her luck, it was almost guaranteed and the last thing she wanted to be was excrement floating through the water, "I'm never going sailing now," Iona said as she suppressed a shiver.

She gave a noncommittal shrug to the suggestion she eat. Iona knew she had to, but like a grumpy child she was almost determined to make it by sheer pout power alone. Caught between the great struggle of pout and reason, Iona poked at her omelet with her fork, her azure eyes starring deep within the yellow surface, watching it wiggle as she prodded it. She had an omelet before, she couldn't recall what was in it, but she knew they were amazing and that she had a strong love of eggs. They were neat and, it seemed, everywhere she went people had their own take on eggs, their own way of making them with their own sides. It was almost a way to measure and judge a place, by the quality of their eggs.

Reason out wrestled the pout power, by just a fraction, and Iona cut off a small piece of the omelet, the cheese locked within oozed out. The gold against the fluffy yellow eggs far more appetizing then the idea of something 'oozing' was. Impaling the piece with her fork, she popped it into her mouth-and then nearly choked when [member="Marina DeVoe"] tucked a lock of her hair away. It was so quick it had caught her by surprise and with her stomach the way it was, she was in no position to move. What Marina said next surprised Iona even more, pretty?

It wasn't the first time she had heard that, Iona had nearly been sold as a slave on Nar Haaska awhile ago, well, it was an undercover mission to help liberate the slaves on the planet, but the slavers had said much the same and said she was a 'luxury' slave and was forced to wear force-forsaken shoes that hurt her ankles to even think about. It was still hard to really think of, that she was 'pretty'. She knew beautiful women, the kind that demanded attention simply by walking in a room, from simply existing. As a child, she was a dirty urchin on Coruscant, as a Jedi, she was just another girl in the robes and life was taking too many changes to really pay that much mind to herself or the opinions others had of her facial features.

Was she pretty? It seemed hard to really fathom. She kept her hair tied back because it was easier. She cut it, often with her lightsaber, when it got too long. The only time she had worn makeup was that ill-fated experience on Nar Haaska. Iona didn't exactly have easy access to makeup and, while admittedly she had sometimes thought about it, she had never had the compulsion, or if she was being honest confidence, to make that leap. Plus, the masters would give her a very long speech about vanity that she didn't want to listen to. And now, she, Marina, a noble from Alderaan, who Iona felt was so much more refined then her and likely had more then a few young nobs chasing her thought she had pretty features? And wanted to help her bring those features out? It was, well, it was confusing so all she managed to muster was a very intelligent, "T-Thanks."

 

[Marina DeVoe]

They had been travelling at sub-light for two days now and aside from Asfandia, there were 3 other as interesting finds as the poison planet of death; 1) an abandoned old hull of a freighter, drifting about, with not even enough durasteel for a jawa to salvage, 2) a 34 meter stream of ice crystals that for 3 seconds were the height of yesterday's catch, and of course 3) an interesting asteroid the size of a peanut.

"Interesting..." Marina said, talking to herself, playing with the peanut sized asteroid in her hand.
"...wonder from where it originated from..." What else could she do? At least if they could bring something back from their great exploration, it would be the peanut size asteroid. It was cute and quite light, most likely compressed rock than mineral or metal, she figured while examining it. She had been toying with it on and off for God knows how long. Normally on solo trips she'd be nestled somewhere on her ship immersed in one of her favorite books,or losing a few games of chess to TK. But she had not only

Yes, it was the explorer trip of doom, if there was a score board keeping tabs on their progress. They should have at least accidentally run into another system by now. The odds should of been in their favor...but nooooo.
Out of billions of star systems in the galaxy, they hadn't yet hit on one viable system yet. It was horrid!
And the ship's sensor array had been checked and re-calibrated 4 times already. They were working fine, as the peanut in Marina's hand clearly proved. They had spotted it 39 million miles away before they scooped it up.

Nope, this part of the sector was a bust. But there had been no time limit, other than for them to call it. And right about now, even Marina felt like throwing in the towel. More so for the sake of the poor little red head girl who seemed to show signs of some weight loss on this trip already.
It weren't for the sake of the food on board giving out... no.
The Mariner was well stocked for as long as a six month journey. And that was based on a full crew of 8, and there were only three...so no, the Mariner had plenty of food.
No, it were that the poor red hair jedi girl just wasn't built for space flights, mostly spending her time between retiring to her cramped quarters, trying her hand at eating something and then making the arduous trip to the bathroom.

Flush... came the all too familiar sound of the poor girl making her round again.

"Lord...that's 23 today. That poor girl's going to whither away to bones if we don't settle down somewhere..." Marina clamped down on the peanut rock, she was concerned...had been concerned about Iona, their youngest crew member, since she had been taken on board. Marina's attempts at making it bearable for the poor girl just didn't seem to fly. All she could do was give her the electrolyte drinks, which was mostly water so the girl didn't dehydrate herself, and saltine crackers as they had the least impact on space sickness. But something had to give or else she (as Captain) would have to throw in the towel on this mission. She could not afford to get Iona sicker than she was.

"Oh shoot!..." She exclaimed when the peanut asteroid became two pea sized smaller asteroids in her hands. She broke the asteroid playing with it. "...seriously?" Even the asteroid was nothing but compressed dust.
This mission was not only boring, but it was a disaster. Marina had never given up on anything, but this was just too cruel a punishment. There was no way of knowing if and when they would find something of worth out here. Even now she were hoping for some lost wayward solar cell to have broken off something elsewhere and somehow or other drifted into this BORING sector. Finding space garbage way out here would at least be something which was better than nothing. She'd even settle for another peanut asteroid, seeing she had broken the one they found already. "Sheesh..." She placed the two little pieces of broken asteroid on the side of her coffee cup.


be de beep be de beep... Her droid TK came to the galley announcing that Marina had an incoming transmission.

For a moment, when her droid first popped the bubble of dead boredom, she thought maybe they had run across a system.
But no, that expectation was soon crushed even before she had picked up her head off the table.
It was only TK's announcement that the Council was on the comm.
The droid didn't have to tell her twice, as Marina jumped at the chance to break the boredom, even if it was the Council on the other end.
Good Lord....she had nothing to report, but still dragged her butt out of the galley and to the cockpit just the same...

"YEA?!..." Her eyes were as wide her smile, before she realized to tone it down.
"..er...oh i mean, yes it is a disappointment. Yes, hate to turn around...but OK!
I mean... i'll have to break the recall news to the crew, as I'm sure they had their heart set on -" She nearly overplayed it, as then the Council took to reconsider, seeing how upset Marina was on the recall.

"Say what?...no, no.
That's Ok. I'm sure they'll get over it. Yea...no..no. No problem at all. I'm sure we'll skedaddle on over to this sector as soon as we can...most definitely...sure...yea." Marina did her best to not sound too happy about recalling the present mission. Nor too sad, as playing it sad almost got the Council to consider another crew to head to Commoner. They needed her to see about establishing the planned trade she and her friend [member="Mariya Fleischer"] had planned. And in doing so, would possibly open up dialogue with that government to fortify alliances.

"Yea..sure... yea, no problem. I'll inform the crew and return Officer Castillon to...
Ah, sure thing, will get her there in a jiff, no problem... I'm your girl" She showed her pearly whites, without overdoing it, as she had to make like she were disappointed somewhat. Although that was very difficult to do.
And so it went, the break to the journey of the damned. With a few more instructions and 'yes sirs' to follow, the transmission ended.

Marina couldn't put the brakes on the Mariner IV fast enough. She spun the ship about in a perfect 180 degree and punched the sub-lights at full throttle. Ok, maybe no throttle, but the sub-light drives were fully lit like micro-stars.

"TK get me the coordinates to Commoner, with a stop over to..."

 

[Delila Castillon]

[member="Iona Immarya"] | [member="Marina DeVoe"] OOC : Sorry for being so late, thanks for being patient ladies!


"Hm? Oh yes, please."


Caf was in hand as her gaze was trained on the map floating at the dining table. She didn't particularly mind where they went or how long it took. Delila hadn't heard of half these locations, let alone visited them for one reason or another. Needless to say in that regard her opinion wasn't particularly important in this matter. She was going to ask the Jedi for her thoughts but the poor girl was already running towards the 'fresher again to vomit. There was a tea to suggest but considering they were in the dead middle of space it wasn't exactly obtainable.


Miss DeVoe left to answer a commcall. Delila sat drinking her caf, nibbling on food at the table. Ship was sailing along smoothly until her mug and silverware rattled, the vessel coming to a stop. Having flown countless times in the past it was clear they were stopping and moving around rapidly. No doubt the Jedi girl would be throwing up somewhere soon - the movement was rapid even by her seasoned standards.

Getting up, the redhead quickly made her way down the corridors, assuming the worst.


"Miss DeVoe? Something wrong?"

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Heh... now that was ....weird, TK." She paused a minute, like something she just had was not going down well.
Actually it were not what she ate, but what she was lead to swallow by the Council in that transmission, now that she thought about it.

"Hmm..." She sat back on her pilot's chair, a bit unease, as her droid was calculating a jump back to the Outer Rim. Seemed they were to immediately transport Delila to what sounded like a battle cruiser and have the mariner head to Commoner systems.

"You know..." She were talking to her droid, as it seemed no one on this mission did much talking. So as it may, it was good ol'TK who had to bare the burden of marina's endless chatting...or more to the point, speaking her thoughts out loud.
Of course the droid didn't mind it. Or at least it made like it were listening, by occasionally turning it's turret toward her. But even if it didn't immediately listen, it probably recorded her, so as if asked 100 years from now what was said on this particular day, at a particular hour in this particular moment, it would repeat it verbatim.

"... how really important is a mediocrity transport deal with Commoner systems?...especially the Sovereign wines? It's not like Commoner needs wines so desperately that it supersedes an Important Exploratory mission...you see where i'm getting at, TK?" She began questioning the new orders that she so readily jumped on.

"I mean...well, why were we sent out here so far in uncharted space, just to be recalled to drop-" She cut herself short when Delila came into the cockpit. Most likely the woman may have been going over the star-map and picked up the change in course...or so Marina thought what her companion had been doing.

"Oh shoot... Delila... I'm sorry..." She shook her head, apologetically for not thinking of informing her of the new orders right away.
"... I should have come to you as soon as the new orders came in." She got up, just as her droid informed her that the jump coordinates had been made.

"Oh.. er, excuse me a moment Delila..." Marina took to prioritize the jump over informing Delila of the change in plans.
"Go ahead and make the jump when ready, TK. I'll get the details from you in a moment."

She then turned back to Delila. " Sorry... jump windows don't much care to wait..he-he,
Anyway... I just got word from the Council to change our plans...your plans mostly.
I'm to rendezvous with a cruiser...a Crimson Dehila?..." She shrugged her shoulder as she didn't know what that ship really was or that Delila knew of it too.

"They said it was priority for you to take command of it....then they seemed to want me to go to Commoner system for some small time deal...lol...makes little sense to me.
..er, not the part about you, no. I think you may be going on some training maneuver by the sound of his voice. I don't know." Marina seemed to question as to why the sudden change of plans by the Council.


SWHOOOOOSH - - - - POP!

"WHOA!.." The sudden star burst enveloping them startled even Marina. "...what the-"

She had turned the Mariner IV around and were doing sub-light until her droid calculated the jump. But this was the first time her droid just performed the jump without informing her.

"You know, I'd be common courtesy for you to at least tell me before you were going to light it up, TK.
What's wrong with you. I'd like to get out of this void as much as anybody...but sheesh!" She shook her head in disappointment. her droid never did that before.
"You starting to malfunction on me or what?"

be de beep be...it reported no malfunction just the direct order the was given before Marina talked to the Council.

"What?...why would they give you the order before they talked to me? I give the orders." Marina replied. this recall seemed so...unorthodox. Something was amiss and she somehow wasn't being given the details.
Well, at least they were heading back. She couldn't complain about that.

"Well, sorry Delila....I guess you and I will get to know one another some other time." Marina sighed, as she really wanted to get to know her. Even though the woman kept to herself, marina knew she could be a good friend once they got to really know each other. But all Delila knew of Marina so far was that she was the daughter of a Duke with her own corvette class ship.
If the two had spent more time together, Delila was sure to see the real talent this young blonde pilot really had when pressed up against a corner.




[member="Delila Castillon"] [member="Iona Immarya"]