Private Edge of the Abyss

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Seastone was moving them along with a nod. "Oh yeah, five Ana clones. That way when I make a plan, I only need four out of five of them to agree to the plan and that means it will work." She said it and Aya was looking outwards as she spoke. "Stay to the farside." She said it as the Seaweed Sea was there a treacherous, expansive barrier of thick, yellow-green algae that covers miles of open ocean from the island and going high, forming a shifting, dangerous labyrinth of narrow channels and dead ends. The dense vegetation, moved by unpredictable winds and currents, easily showing other trapped ships by clogging engines, resulting in complete, hopeless gridlock.

The stagnant, foggy air inside this maze severely limits visibility, making it nearly impossible to navigate or escape the rapidly closing, deceptive paths. Below the surface, the dense algal canopy hide a dangerous ecosystem of specialized predators in the dark waters as Aya was pointing it to Mistral. "There they use the weeds for camouflage, attacking ships and crews once the tangled plants hold them fast in a tight, constricting grip. With escape impossible for most, the intense pressure from the accumulating, heavy seaweed can warp and destroy even the strongest of hulls, sealing the fate of any vessel lost within this deadly, living trap."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana looked out across the sprawling mass of yellow-green seaweed and felt her remaining optimism quietly pack its bags and leave. From a distance, it had almost looked beautiful, another strange natural wonder on an equally strange world. Up close, it resembled something far less inviting. It looked alive in the wrong way, shifting and breathing with the currents as though the sea itself had decided it no longer wanted visitors.

"I don't suppose there are any brochures that mention the blood-draining weeds and camouflage predators," she muttered, watching the fog drift lazily across the tangled channels. "The tourism department seems to have omitted a few details."

Seastone's earlier comment finally caught up with her, and Ana glanced sideways toward the Twi'lek with an incredulous expression. "Also... absolutely not." She shook her head firmly. "One of me is already sufficiently anxious about your plans. Five of me would spend all day arguing over risk assessments and none of us would ever agree to anything." A small smile tugged at her lips. "Though I appreciate that your success criteria only require eighty percent approval."

As Aya pointed out the maze's hidden dangers, Ana instinctively took a half-step closer to the center of the boat, her eyes fixed on the narrow channel ahead. "Let's stay on the far side," she agreed without hesitation. "If there's a hidden palace in there, it's welcome to remain hidden." She folded her arms loosely, never taking her eyes off the living wall of seaweed. "I'm beginning to suspect this planet has a personal objection to people surviving long enough to become repeat visitors."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

There was a look from Aya and she spoke. "Well there is a reason most stay on shore." She said it and Mistral was looking at it as Seastone spoke moving them away from the massive thing. "You say that now about the clones but think of it this way. You could for universal. A galaactic council of Ana. Everyone of them from a different world who brings your brand of power and rule. THen in a decade or two you all fall into civil war about who is the real one and we have the clone wars two electric boogaloo."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana looked at Seastone for a long, silent moment before slowly shaking her head.

"That is not what caused the Clone Wars," she replied with the patient tone of someone correcting a historical inaccuracy she suspected would immediately be ignored. "And absolutely not."

She folded her arms across her chest with quiet conviction.

"One Ana is already enough anxiety for the galaxy. I refuse to be responsible for five more."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral was mostly not speaking and making a point to work on the ship with the shark and the wookiee. They were able to be off in the distance and Aya looked at Ana. "You are engaging with her and Seastone is going to come up with some crazier things. Wait until she tells you about her idea for new bedding that we were going to make on the ships." Aya was moving as she looked though and Seastone was taking them far off from the massive maze though as she watched. "But keep eyes on the water there is a chance we could still be attacked by whatever it there. It is in some ways like an iceberg with more below the surface."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana looked from Aya to Seastone and back again, a faint smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"So your professional advice is that I stop encouraging her?" she asked dryly. "I'm not convinced that'll work. I have a feeling she'd come up with these ideas whether anyone was listening or not."

Her attention shifted back to the water, the smile fading into quiet vigilance as she scanned the surface beyond the boat.

"I'll keep an eye on the water," she said with a nod. "At this point, I'd rather spot whatever's hiding beneath it before it decides to introduce itself."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

"Oh she will but she won't have someone to point parts out she can build off of." She said it while Mistral was looking and they continued going far off and around. The massive mass itself wrapping along the ocean before Seastone was looking. "How big is it going to be?" Mistral was wondering but it was on the edge of it in places as Aya spoke. "Large, it has areas going through the storm and into the open ocean beyond the islands. There were stories of much more brave captains using it to avoid the storms but stories are stories. You don't see much of that." Mistral gave a nod before he was walk to check parts of it. "Stories are good and fish tales on the oceans make for legendary tales."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana let out a quiet laugh, shaking her head as she watched the endless wall of seaweed drift past the boat. The conversation had somehow wandered from hidden palaces and murderous weeds to legendary captains and Seastone's imagination, and she wasn't entirely sure where the line between fact and fiction had disappeared.

"You're probably not wrong," she admitted, glancing toward Aya. "It's in my nature, though. Someone says something unusual, and I immediately start picking it apart to see how it works...or how it could go horribly wrong."

Her eyes drifted back toward the maze stretching across the water.

"As for the stories..." she said with a faint smile, "I imagine most of them started with someone surviving something they probably shouldn't have. The details just get a little grander every time they're retold."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral gave a nod of his head to it. Dish tales had a way of doing that where one thing became something larger and larger all of the time and given that some of these tales could be hundreds or even thousands of years old it meant that it would go even more. "True." He was watching it for a moment though as Aya was taking in more of it. "Either way, there is danger and presence. Where the water recedes from the storms means ships can be thrown into it and they get stranded deeper in. It is more disorienting in that but it is also how you will find when flying over it different vessels scattered with debris and no singulaar superrstructure."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana followed Aya's gesture, her eyes tracing the seemingly endless stretch of tangled seaweed until she could just make out the dark shapes caught within it. From this distance, they barely resembled ships anymore. They were simply silhouettes swallowed by the living maze, their outlines softened beneath layers of growth until it was difficult to tell where wood ended and vegetation began.

"That's...unsettling," she admitted quietly. "Not because of the stories, but because those are real." She folded her arms against the cool sea breeze, unable to pull her gaze away. "You can almost convince yourself they're just rocks until you realize someone built them... and someone probably expected to sail home in them."

After a moment, she looked back toward the clearer water ahead with a small shake of her head.

"Let's make sure ours doesn't become part of the scenery." A faint smile returned as she glanced toward Aya. "I've seen enough abandoned things for one mission."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

"I have no intention of it, can't spend credits when you are dead and can't tell people tales of being awesome." She said it and went to go and check on the two that they had while the larger woman was there with her one arm and she came up out of the hold. SHe was large but she was looking at least a little better for now and she had been asleep for the day and a half. Before Mistral was going and remained there watching it. Seastone was bringing them around and further outwards. The better chance for them to be able to move out of the way and the boat was getting further and further away from the maze. "Well we will hopefullyavoid parts of it."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana watched the endless wall of seaweed gradually shrink behind them and found herself releasing a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The farther the boat moved from the maze, the lighter she felt. For all the stories of hidden treasure and legendary captains, she was perfectly content never discovering whether any of them were true.

"I support that plan wholeheartedly," she said, looking toward Aya before glancing back at Seastone. "Avoiding parts of it sounds like an excellent way to continue spending credits and telling people tales of being awesome."

Her gaze drifted to the larger woman emerging from below deck, relieved to see her looking healthier than before. A small, genuine smile crossed Ana's face.

"It's good to see everyone on their feet again," she said quietly. "Let's keep it that way and make it home without adding any more stories to the collection."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral gave a look while he was walking and Seastone was checking on the bearings. "We still got the lady in the hold who can't move, those spiders are nasty." SHe said it while they were looking over different parts of it all. The sea getting more choppy and Aya was there while she was directing Seastone with her hand. "We're going to have to ease into the larger waves, we don't have the repulsors to handle it." The twi'lek gave a nod of her head while Mistral and the wookie were securing the others down and around them. He gripped the railing for a moment before he was crouched down and making sure the repulsors were clear and secured in their location.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana glanced in the direction of the woman still recovering below deck before looking back at the increasingly rough water ahead. The calm they'd enjoyed earlier was disappearing beneath larger swells, and the mood aboard the boat shifted with it. Everyone had fallen naturally into a task, each person securing something before the sea had the chance to decide what stayed where.

Without needing to be asked, Ana moved to secure the loose gear nearest her, tightening straps and making certain nothing could slide free once the waves started tossing the boat. She gave each fastening an extra tug out of habit before steadying herself with one hand on the railing.

"I suddenly miss stable floors," she admitted with a wry smile, watching the bow begin to rise and fall against the approaching swells. "Computers don't usually try to throw me across the room while I'm working."

After making one final check that everything around her was secure, she looked toward Aya.

"Just tell me if there's something else I can do," she said. "I'd rather be useful than become another thing everyone has to tie down."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

"Work on the other side. We lose those repulsors, you are going to be liking things a lot less." Aya said it while she was working and the shark was rotating in the back with one hand on the railing and she had a grip while cleaning and working on the repulsors. To allow it to better be improved. Mistral could see it as he was wiping the seawater from the intake so that it wouldn't get jammed up. Any small pieces of seaweed would be handled. Mistral was looking at the boat was being navigated itno the rocks with the waves getting laarger and Seastone was standing there. "Oh we are good and lost now HAHAHAHA." Her cackling laugh as she rotated the boat, didn't just move, she used the speed of the wave coming down to rotat it between some rocks had Mistral looking pale.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana nodded without argument and immediately crossed to the opposite side of the boat. She crouched beside the repulsor assembly, bracing one knee against the deck as the vessel lurched beneath her. It wasn't elegant work, but she followed Aya's instructions as closely as she could, clearing away every strand of seaweed she found before it could work its way into the intake. If everyone else trusted these repulsors to keep the boat alive, then she would too.

The sea had become noticeably rougher. Each swell lifted the boat higher than the last before dropping it into the trough with enough force to make the hull shudder. Ana kept one hand firmly wrapped around the railing while the other continued working, forcing herself to focus on the task instead of the maze of rocks and crashing waves surrounding them.

Seastone's delighted laughter echoed over the wind.

"That is somehow the least reassuring thing you've said all day," Ana muttered, not taking her eyes off the repulsor. She felt the boat swing sharply beneath her as Seastone rode the wave between the rocks, and despite every instinct telling her to look up, she resisted. Looking wasn't going to help. Trusting the people who actually knew how to sail might.

Taking a slow breath, Ana finished clearing another clump of seaweed from the intake before tightening her grip on the railing as another wave approached. "Let's just make it through the other side," she said quietly, more hopeful than afraid. "One piece would be my preferred outcome."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

She was looking at her as she spoke with a look of excitement. "ONly way to get away from where you see is to go into the unknown." Seastone was laughing as the spray of the waves was there and she brought the boat around as Mistral and Aya were keeping the repulsors going. THe boat moved further and further before they were coming down and Mistral watched as the rocks were the least that he wanted to see but Seastone was guiding them though as the mass of seaweed could be seen and it was larger now as they went down further and further. With a channel sucking everything in. "Crapbaskets, get those going." Seastone shouted as they were going and Mistral cleared it while they were climbing and fighting against the intake of water until it filled and shot them up over some of the rocks.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana braced herself against the railing as the boat lurched violently beneath her, one hand gripping the metal hard enough that her knuckles turned pale. The roar of the water swallowed almost everything else, the channel seeming less like a passage and more like something intent on dragging the entire ocean into its depths. She spared one glance toward the towering wall of seaweed before deciding she had seen quite enough of it.

"You know," she called over the crashing waves, somehow keeping her voice remarkably even, "there are old stories about whirlpools that swallowed ships whole. Sail too close, and they pulled you into the deep, never to be seen again." Her eyes flicked toward the churning water ahead. "I'm beginning to suspect those stories were written by someone who vacationed here."

As the repulsors surged and the boat climbed over the rocks, Ana tightened her grip and leaned with the motion instead of fighting it. The sudden lift stole her breath for a heartbeat before the hull slammed back into the water on the far side.

"I'd really appreciate it," she muttered once the impact had settled, "if the ocean would stop trying to eat us."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral listened to her and gave a laugh to that while he was movign and trying to get it cleared for the moment. Aya shouting over it all as seastone was cackling from the piloting. "YOu have no idea." She said it as the water was rising behind them and Mistral was looking at it. "Ah we might need to go faster." He said it and Aya looked back as they cleared more and came up rising above the rocks while Seastone positioned them when it was coming down and she held a hand. "Wait for it, when I say, cut the starboard engines." She said it and Aya gave a nod of her head as Seastone waited until the water was receding and the stone pillars were appearing like blades from the water. "Now." She said it and Aya cut the engine as the boat lurched between two rocks and through the storm into the ocean.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana gripped the railing with both hands as the boat lurched violently to port, every instinct screaming that this was the sort of maneuver sensible people avoided. She felt the hull skim between the towering stone pillars with scarcely enough room to spare, the roar of the storm fading behind them as they burst into open water. Only then did she realize she'd been holding her breath.

"There has to be an old spacer's tale about this," she said, finally exhaling. "A captain forced to choose between the thing waiting beneath the waves and the rocks waiting above them." She glanced back toward the maze disappearing into the storm before shaking her head. "I always assumed stories like that were exaggerations."

A nervous laugh escaped her as she loosened her death grip on the railing.

"I'm very relieved to discover they apparently weren't." She looked toward Seastone and Aya with genuine appreciation. "And I'd appreciate it if we didn't have to test whether there's a sequel."

Mistral