Echoes from Outer Silence

[Sebastian Thel]

​

In between walls of durasteel, Sebastian rummaged through shelves of paper and pieces of disassembled weapons. The hull the ship surged into the atmosphere as he quickened his movements, pulling out draws and darting around for any sign of the datapad he sought. He heard the footsteps of the angry pirate who left the captain's pilot's chair, praying for his life that he had not heard Sebastian making a mess in the back of his ship.

"Kark!" The runaway cursed as a shelf fell open, toppling scrolls onto his head. Steel-capped boots thudded through the corridor outside and the beep of the fearsome droid who accompanied the captain alerted Sebastian to their presence. Wearing a plain jacket and puffy trousers tucked into brown boots, Sebastian appeared utilitarian and unassuming.

The captain shoved the door open. Sebastian quickly rolled onto his stomach and hid beneath the bottom shelf, covering his face with a map as the pirate and the battle droid surveyed the locker area. Every part of Sebastian's body froze as he tried not to make a single movement.

"What the kark happened here?!" The gruff man exclaimed as he saw the mess. As the ship pulled into the atmosphere of Jakku, the announcement of the spaceport through the communicator distracted the captain. Just Sebastian's luck.

He quickly rolled out of his place and wrenched open a drawer on the opposite side of the corridor. Inside, a datapad displayed a window containing the coordinates he sought. A Force-user from the Confederacy required his skills in deciphering a geometrical disturbance on Jakku called the Echo Sphere. Armed with his capacity for numbers and running from things, Sebastian and Scherezade prepared to uncover whether or not the sphere was caused by the Force.

The only thing they knew was the sphere caused Force-users to lose their minds. How and when remained to be uncovered, which was where Sebastian came into play. Grabbing the datapad, he whipped his notebook out of his jacket and scribbled the coordinates, very messily, since he did not have time to put on his glasses. Shoving the notebook into his pocket, he darted out of the corridor, only to be greeted by loud swearing.

"You've been sneaking around my ship you little bastard!" The pirate shouted as Sebastian planted his back against the wall. As the man drew his blaster, Sebastian ran for his life, slamming the button to activate the landing ramp. Blast bolts rang out against steel as he sprinted into the spaceport on the edges of civilization.

With the coordinates in his notebook, he gripped the strap of his satchel, running for dear life and looking around in a state of panic for any sign of his Force-using companion. Sebastian hid behind a corner as the criminals occupying the space port became alert, not knowing that Scherezade had seen him first.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Another sandy planet. Another place where you had to choose between layers of fabric to make sure the sand didn't introduce you to new cavities in the body that you had previously been unaware of, or no layers of fabric, to deal with the heat. Sure, it was dry heat, and thus easier to bear than humidity, and still. When she was on cold planets, she missed the warmth. And then places like this made her wish she could call her aunt and ask her to turn the entire place into a giant popsicle.

Still, this was where that silly sphere thingie was. For some reason, someone in the CIS had decided that locating it and figuring it out would be a task that was up her alley. She really couldn't understand why. Usually, when the young Sithling was dispatched, it was to wreck as much violence and humiliation as possible on whoever it was that played the enemy d'jour. Still. It was an Opportunity™. Show them she could use her brains as well as her appetite for destruction.

And anyway, this stupid sphere things caused Force Users to lose their chit. Which made it dangerous. She had enough of a headache dealing with such matters when it came to the nearly unlimited information that her grandmother had burned into her mind, she didn't need objects that could make things worse to lay around and exist.

She'd arrived at the place she was supposed to meet her contact enough time in advance to so she could buy food. Scherezade, her body, most definitely not in line with her age, always demanded food. It was annoying, especially when it tended to reject anything sweet, which was what was easiest to come by. She was just about to dig into the fifth hot dog (and not think about the origins of its meat) when she heard the commotion.

Most people, when hearing blaster shots, ran for cover.

Scherezade, with her four months of existence, knew it probably had to do with anything she was involved in.

Dropping the food, the young woman broke into a sprint, darting by the corner [member="Sebastian Thel"] was hiding in, and straight in front of the pirates that had been chasing him. Her Czerka knives sprang from her sleeves as she launched forward at the bigger one of them, each knife landing on the opposite side of the dude's neck. It was a clean decapitation, and the blood spurted from his body like a fountain.

Looking behind him to see if any of his comrades though it was a good idea to join, she merely gave the warning; "I gave him an easy end. If any of you buttheads decide to do what he did, I'm going to make it slow and painful."

With that, she turned around. Her face and pink shirt by now were drenched in blood. Warm blood on a warm planet. Euch. And still, the face beneath the blood, seemed almost child like, in both youth and innocence.

She walked back to the corner where she had seen the young man trying to hide, and tried to wipe the blood on the back of her sleeve as she did so. It was futile. She needed an actual shower. But whatever, that could wait.

"Hi!" she greeted him, giving him a carefree smile that went from ear to ear, "Hope they didn't give you any trouble before landing. I'm Scherezade and we're going to have a bunch of fun with this stupid sphere thingie!"

 

[Sebastian Thel]

Whispers stirred in the spaceport where Sebastian hid. The clank of the pirate's steel-capped boots traveled around the corner, alerting Sebastian to his approaching presence. He darted from the shadows and across the hangar bay, where he almost collided with a young woman. Before he could react, she whipped out a pair of knives and sliced the man's head clean off his shoulders. Sebastian backed into the wall and watched the blood fly, cupping his mouth in terror as the scene unfolded.

More men who had witnessed the murder soon gathered around the pool of blood, and Scherezade prepared to dismember every one of them. They marched forward and threatened readied their weapons, before she leaped into battle and tore through every morsel of flesh. Gasping in horror, Sebastian turned away from the site. For having traveled far, he was still not accustomed to the sight of death.

One man lunged forward and reached for Sebastian's arm, whom he scratched directly in the face. He tried to hit him in the head with the barrel of his gun, just as Sebastian ducked and crawled away on his hands and knees. Scherezade's knife came swooping above, slicing a deep cut into his mid-section and spilling his organs. Turning over on his backside, the mathematician had to hold his mouth again as he watched the viscera fall.

A still silence hovered over the spaceport as the fight ended. Red dust hung on the air, tinged with the smell of fuel and blood. Scherezade did not offer a hand to Sebastian, who pulled himself to his feet. She was soaked in blood, which he thought must have been very uncomfortable in the heat and sand.

"Thank you, I was just about done for!" Running a hand through his pin-straight hair, he offered her kind smile and a nod of appreciation. With her shirt soiled, he pulled off his jacket, which he handed to her if she would rather wear something clean. He wore a plain T-shirt with bracers and military trousers tucked into boots.

"Just be careful, my notebook is in the pocket." The notebook contained the coordinates leading to the Echo Sphere. "I still need to decipher the coordinates." He said with a raised eyebrow, warning her not to get his equations drenched in blood. Just as Scherezade mentioned the Echo Sphere, which she belittled, Sebastian recoiled, realizing that she may not be exactly interested in decrypting a geometrical anomaly.

"Well it's called an Echo Sphere and it's not stupid." He corrected, slightly taken aback by Scherezade's dismissal of the mission. "I mean I think it's really interesting, but I get something like that isn't for everybody." As he handed his jacket over, Sebastian and Scherezade began to walk towards the nearest town, which was nothing more than a strip surrounded by cantina and fuel stations.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade blinked at the offered jacket. She scanned her mind to try to remember when the last time that anyone offered her something like this had happened, but came up with nothing. Still, she declined it with a friendly shake of the head and a little shrug. The planet was too hot for clothes in general, but society rules deemed public nudity as an inherently bad thing, so she was going to have to just tough it out.

"No, it's stupid," she replied, looking over the men the two had just taken care of. As she spoke, she rummaged through their pockets and clothes, removing credit chips, food cards, and a few blaster, "you saw what I just did. That took no effort, and it was pretty much controlled. I'm also relatively untrained and the amounts of damage I can do are limited. Now imagine someone like me but with amplified powers and an inability to control themselves. Go batshyt crazy. That's what this sphere does, and that's why it's stupid."

The two were walking now, and she led him lead the way, since she knew pretty much nothing about the area. The intel pad was lying somewhere in her ship, but she'd never gotten around the actually looking it through. Her lack of reading intel prior to missions was probably going to get her into trouble sooner than later.

Letting a small flare out with the force, Scherezade looked at [member="Sebastian Thel"], eyes narrowing for a split of a moment. "So you're not a Force User," she remarked, "why'd you get stuck with the mission of orb retreiving rather tha wait for it in some lab?"

 

[Sebastian Thel]

When Scherezade refused the jacket, Sebastian only shrugged before throwing it back on over his bracers. The young woman seemed very direct and not particularly interested in geometrical anomalies, which naturally made Sebastian feel awkward. He winced as she retorted, calling the Echo Sphere stupid, without considering the highly cryptic science behind the creation of such a device.

"I agree that the intention behind the device is reckless and cruel, but the Echo Sphere itself is a highly cryptic mathematical occurrence." As they walked, Sebastian argued his point, while reaching into his pocket for the coordinates he had written down. "The destructive nature of the sphere leads me to believe that it may be a naturally occurring phenomenon, rather than something created by a Force-user." Cupping his chin in thought, he analyzed the coordinates and continued to walk with Scherezade towards the town.

"As you said, what kind of Force-user would create something which drives Force-users mad?" Sebastian mused aloud as the strip of buildings came into view. When Scherezade asked why he had been sent to decipher the Echo Sphere, he paused with a sigh and creased his brow. "Because, Scherezade, the sphere affects the minds of Force-users who get too close, which means it doesn't affect me." He explained, having believed the reason to be quite obvious.

"I can collect the necessary data needed to destroy the sphere without being affected the properties, while you fight off criminals who wish to steal it from me." Nodding, he followed the music into the town, where a broken sign hung above a decrepit cantina. Sebastian and Scherezade beheld the sign, before walking inside.

The cantina was largely empty, save for a few criminals and rogues who drank by tables. A sultry tune played from a speaker and a muscular alien cleaned the bar. Leading Scherezade as he walked up to the man, Sebastian produced his notepad where he he had collected the name of an artificer who knew the location of the sphere. He held the page up to the man, who said nothing more than a grunt, then pointed to a woman sitting in one of the booths. She was Zabrack by the looks of her, although her horns were covered by a headscarf.

"Her name is Tia Marek, she commands a horde of pirates guarding the sphere, we need to convince her to dismiss them." Leaning into Scherezade's ear, Sebastian whispered to avoid the woman hearing them. As he approached the booth, he watched the woman exchange one glance with the bartender, before downing her glass of whiskey and leaving through the back door. The bartender shot both Sebastian and Scherezade a wary eye as they followed.

Once outside, Sebastian found Tia smoking a cigarra near the fuel station. He approached her calmly with his hands folded together. "Hello Miss Marek." Sebastian said in a friendly tone. "We know a thing or two about the treasure you've found, and we're here to relieve you of it." He offered as Tia continued to stare at the horizon. Turning her head, she glared him down and took a drag on her cigarra, refusing as she narrowed her eyes.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

What kind of Force-user would create something which drives Force-users mad? She could name at least a dozen without thinking about it too much, which meant that there were probably a whole lot more. Being a Force User, specifically one who belonged to the Darkside, meant that you were constantly at a competition with the others. There was no place for everyone to be an alpha, and the Darkside culture feasted on this in every possible manner.

He was right when he said it wouldn't affect him, but Scherezade had her own reasons to worry. How close would she be able to get to the thing before it took over? He wanted her to protect him while he dealt with it, but how big was the radius of safety? What if a mile was enough? Half a mile? A foot? There was too much they didn't know, and for all she knew, she was just as likely to end up killing him on this mission as their enemies were of ending up with the pointy end of her knives protruding out of their chests.

But she gave these thoughts no verbal words. Sebastian didn't need to know what she was thinking about. The pirates had scared him enough, voicing her worries would only worry him more and potentially cause him to do a U-turn on this. And him doing a U-turn did not bring her closer to her goal.

Instead, she just followed him silently to the cantina, knowing the blood on her skin and clothes did the work for her in terms of announcing don't krak with me.

Their contact's name was Tia Marek and whatever it was she was smoking, it stank to high hell. She was also not overly impressed with Sebastian, which meant that Scherezade had to interfere. And that... Well, diplomacy was far from being her forte. She didn't know how to make small talk, did't know how to use words to be subtle. She was a shoot first ask questions never sort of a girl.

"The least you can do is answer in words, you butthole," Scherezade said and rolled her eyes, "where's the krakking sphere and how much do you want for it. The sooner you tell us, the sooner we can leave this fart of a planet and return to proper civilization."

Tia Marek was obviously not impressed.

Scherezade raised her right arm and concentrated for the briefest of moments. An orb began to form above her outstretched hand, green and vibrant as the color of her eyes.

"This is called the Sutta Chwituskak," she explained, "it's Sith Sorcery, and it can cause a lot of damage to buildings, ships, trees, all the works. Sometimes you need more than one, but I can conjure them pretty fast when I'm feeling threatened."

The girl looked from her orb to Sebastian, and then to the woman.

"So how about you tell us where the sphere is, or I'm gonna check how many nanoseconds it takes for my pretty orb to blow a hole in that oversized zit you call your face?"

Of course, there were gentler ways of going about it. Scherezade had Mandragora training, which technically gave her the ability to dominate people's minds. But she did not know this woman, and she did not know what she was capable of. Dominating minds was something that was easy to do on the dumb and the weak. This woman had connections, so she wasn't dumb. As for weak... They'd know soon enough.

Scherezade flashed everyone her most child-like smile and waited for an answer.

[member="Sebastian Thel"]

 

[Sebastian Thel]

At the very least, Sebastian had tried to be friendly. The cantina music trailed off beneath the desert wind, leaving him tilting his head curiously at Marek, who eyed him up and down with contempt. He winced slightly at Scherezade's response, knowing an aggressive approach might prompt the pirate to react with violence. Sebastian could not blame her, he struggled with being honest too, although he had learned from experience to watch what came out of his mouth.

"Info on the Echo Sphere is worth more than pair of you karkers put together." The Zabrack woman leaned on the barrel of her rifle, which she stomped slightly on the ground. She licked her lips as she glared at Sebastian and Scherezade, almost mocking them with her narrowing eyes. "Trust me, you can't crack it." Tia warned, just as Scherezade threatened to blow a hole in the woman's face.

"I dunno, I'm pretty good at solving puzzles." Slipping a hand into his pocket, Sebastian affirmed with a sly grin. The green energy glowed between Scherezade's hands and Sebastian repressed a gulp, trying as hard as possible to avoid a potentially violent situation. As Scherezade channeled her powers, he saw Tia stand backwards and lift her rifle off the ground.

"Okay, listen." Splaying his hands against the air, Sebastian tried to calm down the two combatants. "When I decipher the sphere, I'll let you keep ten percent of the data I manage to recover." With a nod and a smile, Sebastian looked to Tia, then back to Scherezade, hoping that his compromise would work. He watched the pirate grit her teeth and to his disappointment, raised her gun and fire two rounds at Scherezade and himself.

"Shez! We need the coordinates from her!" Sebastian cried as he gripped his hair, cowering backwards into the wall of the cantina. As he raised his head, he saw Tia run behind the corner where she quickly regathered with her comrades.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]