First burgers, then free slaves. Nah, flip it.

[Kinsey Starchaser]

Falleen
Docking Platform 87


"Bibs, try her again." The BB8 unit warbled from the cockpit as the port wing-flaps went up then down. Grease smeared across the teen's face as the hydrospanner tilted in a different direction. "Son of a gorram-gundark. Try it again. Half speed."

The Starchaser always had a mouth with a vocabulary fit more for a room full of drunken navy officers.

Had to get the MC15 Niathal-class shuttle in top shape. The teen finally got a bid on the net for a job. Looked like she wasn't about to starve. And looked like she didn't have to go crawling back to [member="Gabriel Sionoma"]'s ranch. Even though she never met the ol' man, just the healer there. That woman had saved her life.

Now she just had to wait for the client's representative to show. And she was mostly sure it wasn't a trap. She was prepared for someone like [member="Sage Bane"]. At least, she told herself she was.

Too-blue eyes looked away from the stuck flap and scanned the platform out of caution but mostly from paranoia.

[member="Katya Shorn"] [member="Lorn Breac"]

 

[Eun]

First of all, the space port served only spicy food. Kate hated spicy food. Sure, protein paste ship rations taste bland, but you were supposed to eat food because it made hungry rumblings go away, not because you 'savored' the taste. Didn't make any sense. Kate ate food when she had to because her body insisted on having to eat. It was lame, because it slowed her down. Made her take time out of her day to pop open a protein pack. Sitting down and eating a bowl of curry? She didn't have time to sit down. She had places to be, a ship to run, and slaves to save.

Which was why she now had a curry colored stain on the front of her shirt.

Grumbling inwardly, Shorn made her way out onto the platform.

She spotted a brunette wielding a hydrospanner in front of a dilapidated Niathal and gesticulating at a BB unit. Kate recognized her from that, uh, 'investors' meeting with Damian. Ugh, Starchasers, she sighed.

Kate came to a stop in front of the Niathal and crossed her arms.

"This the hunk of junk you plan on flying, grease monkey?"

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

Spoiler

I tried to keep this shorter but... well I got carried away. Tl;dr: the last three paragraphs are the important bits for the thread. Everything else is backstory.

Space was cold. Really cold.

The cold made Lorn tired. Really tired.

After many failed attempts and bitter scoldings from various spaceport security guards, the Neti finally managed to sneak his way onto a vessel back on Ord Mantell. Well, not so much as sneak as amble without anyone noticing. He couldn't get the thought of his family out of his mind. Lorn wanted to find them or at least wanted to know what had happened to him. And they weren't on Ord Mantell, as far as he could tell. Lorn asked a lot of people and no one had any knowledge of the Lorn family.

He had learned that the only way off Ord Mantell was with credits or by ship. And he hadn't seen any credits, just credit chips. He still couldn't understand the mystical concept of money, or how to get a credit off of a chip. But the Neti could understand ships. He saw them lifting up into the skies, flying about, landing. Ships were tangible. His only challenge was to get on one.

So he did.

His first ship was a struggle. Lorn was not sure what was big or small for a ship but this one seemed pretty big to him, almost impossibly so considering it needed to lift up off of the ground without any sort of support that he could see and then fly about. He got a little lost trying to find his way around. The hum of the engines was rather grating on his senses. And it wasn't long before he started getting very cold. He couldn't find water or soil. Eventually he just stuck himself next to a window, but the light from the stars felt so distant. Not like on Ord Mantell, or Qiilura.

Of course he was discovered sometime along the trip. Lorn didn't have much energy, but he did have enough for a brief conversation. The owner was kind enough not to "space" him, whatever that meant. He let the living plant off on the next planet, wherever that was, and Lorn recuperated.

Lorn learned his lesson. He shrunk down to a more comfortable and energy efficient size. And each time he would sneak-amble aboard a new vessel, he'd bring some moist soil with him to snuggle his little roots in.

He repeated this process several times with several different ships. Each new place he would look around for the Lorn family, but he felt no closer to them. He felt just as far as he had for as long as he could remember. Lorn did like all the new worlds he was visiting though. They were all so unique. New plants, new animals, new landscapes. The people always seemed to be the same though.

Eventually he ended up on a smaller ship, or at least smaller compared with some of the ships he had traveled within. He liked the shape of it, a little bulbous, almost like a root. It was appropriately unattended for a brief period of time, and Lorn was able to sneak-amble aboard. He had found the process much less mired by people since appropriating a smaller size. So Lorn found a cozy spot to cuddle up with some dirt and a nice viewport overhead and slept the trip away.

When he awoke, it was to humidity. The moisture was at once refreshing and stifling. But Lorn could feel the warmth of the sun shining in from the viewport, and that was enough to energize him. His leaves bristled as he stretched and yawned. His eyes opened and his roots retracted from the soil spread haphazardly across the metal floor. The diminutive tree, standing only at 35 cm stretched a bit more, easy to do with less of a body to stretched, and walked the direction he had entered the ship...

Only to find two people and a little metal ball outside. Lorn, not one to be bashful, approached the two with a smile on his face. "Hello!" the Neti said in a small voice appropriate to his then-small stature, adding a wave in for good measure.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Katya Shorn"]​

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Katya Shorn"] [member="Lorn Breac"]

Starchaser-blue eyes went to the voice. Oh. K.S. Katya Shorn. The girl that gave her cousin slash whatever-he-is some serious smack at his whatever-it-was business meeting. "Hey. I'm a Starchaser. Flying's in my blood. As long as it has a mostly working hyperdrive, we're good. Don't be worried."

The teen offered Katya a brilliant smile that was known to have melted the hearts of droids. And men. And women. And on occasion, a trandoshan.

BB-8 warbled from the cockpit.

"Gorram." Giving Katya a 'hold one moment' gesture, the teen kicked the jammed flap. Once. Twice, until it responded to the controls.

"See?" Her breathing was a bit heavy. "We're good." Slipping down from the wing, her boots landed lightly on the docking-platform floor, offering a greased-up hand to Katya. Well, about to.

A little voice interrupted the would-be gesture. Spinning around, Kins' gaze settled on a little tree-person. Coming from her ship. HER ship.

"The feth are you? And what the nine-Corellian hells you doing in my ship?"

Where was that flame thrower Abric gave her?

 

[Eun]

"Uh huh."

She definitely did not uncross her arms, but she absolutely raised an eyebrow. Just one, because she was irritated and not surprised. Projecting about the curry spill? Sure. Maybe. But that's none of your business is it?! No, she didn't think so. Hmph.

Also, who the heck has to kick their ship to make it work? Even if the girl was a Starchaser, and by definition a capable pilot, Kate was by no means convinced.

Especially not when some little plant dude popped out of the ship, dirt spilling everywhere. Was he adorable? Yeah, kinda, but that didn't really matter right now. Adorable stowaways were still stowaways.

Kate knew what she'd do if some punk had tried to stowaway with the Heralds. Give him a good scare, maybe threaten to put him out an airlock.

Privateers had a reputation to uphold, after all.

"Hey," she glared icy daggers at the cute plant, then looked over at Kinsey. "Want me to dump him off the platform?"

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Lorn Breac"]

 

[SirMayday]

Jan took his fork and poked the bowl of.......he didn't know. The shopkeeper had said something along the lines "itxawelicacyereundisplanet" and Jan being the curious individual he was, ordered it. It was a bowl of something similar to noodles, and Jan didn't see the harm in it.Now he sat at a table alone, ready to eat whatever he got until he saw it rumble slightly. He poked it again, and some of the noodles creeped away from his fork. Great, it was alive. Jan took his fork in his hands and stabbed it into the bowl, and heard a tiny screech come from it. He stabbed the food again, again, and again until no more shrieks came from it. Jan then took the fork and twirled the "noodles" around his fork and shoved it into his mouth. He slowly chewed his food, investigating the taste in his mouth. He swallowed, and was hit by the spicy taste attacking his stomach. He slightly bowed his head, as he steadied himself. After a few seconds the feeling went away. Jan then looked at the food again and his fork.

"Hmm, wasn't really that bad" Jan said as he dug back in to the bowl.

After eating, Jan took his helmet and put it back over his head, the HUD lighting up to its usual light orange. Jan looked at the clock on his HUD, he still had time before his ship was done getting repaired. Krak asteroids. Jan decided to take a walk around the area, and look around this spaceport of spicy alive noodles. Jan walked around the station analyxing people as he walked by them. Smuggler.... Smuggler... Mercenary.... Merchant.... Family.....oh another Smuggler. Jan was on his 13th smuggler as he spotted something of interest. An MC15 Niathal-class shuttle.

Sure it looked like a piece of Krayt piss, but hey it looked like someone tried to retrofit it. He saw a girl kick the jammed flap, untill the ship complied. Jan shook his head. He had some gear that could make the ship more safer and .....well more of a ship. Jan started to walk over to the group, zooming in with his helmet. He was about to introduce himself when he saw a.....plant walking. Jan stopped in his tracks as he went over the data banks in his microcomputer. Nothing, but why was it so familiar.

"OHHHH wait, I've seen one before."...........well dead. Jan then noticed he had said that out loud, and the people at the ship had noticed.

"Well.....your not very eco friendly." Jan said after an awkward pause to the woman who had inferred to get rid of the plant.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
[member="Lorn Breac"]
[member="Katya Shorn"]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

Lorn just smiled away, oblivious to curses he didn't understand or the subtle changes in tone or expression from one human's voice to another that were telling of emotion. The small plant's words bubbled from his little vocal chords with rapid pace, happy simply to be having conversation. "I'm Lorn!" he responded excitedly to the first person who addressed him. "Or Breac! Or both. Or neither! Humans have so many names for things." He paused and thought for a moment. "Oh! Some humans have also called me Neti. But I've never met anyone else with that name.

Anyway, I wanted to leave that last planet... whatever it was called, I don't remember. I couldn't find any hint of my family so I found a ship and got on! Flying around sure is cold, so I got tired and slept. But all this water in the air feels very refreshing!" He looked back and forth between the two women. Though subtle, the living tree naturally began to absorb the moisture from the humid atmosphere and his sinewy plant tissue swelled ever-so-slightly over the course of their conversation.

Without missing a beat, he continued rambling on. "Platform? Where is the platform? Is there dirt there?" Lorn asked with genuine curiosity. "Where are we? Do you know any other Lorns by chance?"

As another person walked by, announcing something out loud, Lorn looked over at them. He hadn't heard whatever it was the person said, but he was always happy to converse with someone else. "Hello!"

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Katya Shorn"] | [member="Jan Valdum"]​

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Katya Shorn"] [member="Jan Valdum"] [member="Lorn Breac"]

No matter how annoying or somewhat cute this little stowaway Netti thing was, it/he? was attracting attention. Too much attention. "Might be a good idea Kat. But I think the faster we get out of here, the better."

The teen motioned to the interior of the shuttle. Was the plant dancing when he spoke? Don't get distracted Kins! "Kat, can you take care of the plant?" Obviously, it was up to Katya to determine what 'take care of meant.' "And tell the BB8 unit where we're going in the O-rim."

It was clear Kins meant to take care of HUD guy. He reminded her of someone. She just didn't know if it was good or not.

"Nothing to see here, mister. Well, besides something you've already seen before." She grinned with a little danger behind the smile. "Whelp, see ya."

 

[SirMayday]

Jan kneeled down to the plant creature and turned his head a little to the side as he took in it's features. He then slowly nudged the plant with his hand and the plant gave an "OOMPH".Yeah it can talk......hmmmm.....could probably sell him for something.....put that idea to the side for now. Jan then patted the plant creature on the head, or what he thought was it's head, and said "Hello little one." He turned his head to the woman, who had a curry stain on her shirt.

"If you don't want him I'll take him, no need to throw him off the platform." Jan stared at her for 3 seconds taking in her appearance and stature more. Attractive, but an impatient attitude, probably has something to do, or she doesn't enjoy this transaction.

Jan then turned back to the shuttle, and took in it's features. It looked rundown, a little broken, and colored like a Bantha tried to take a dump over it. Tried being important, the Bantha probably gave up after it saw the ship.

And tell the BB8 unit where we're going in the O-rim."

O-rim...O-rim....what could be in the O-rim for these people to fly in this hunk of junk..........pirates....no ship not capable....so something stealthy....smuggling?........ NO, wouldn't do this in the open.........hmmmm

Jan was taken out of his conscious when the greasy woman came up to his face and gave him.....her greeting. Jan frowned a bit, at the subtle threat. He clenched his right hand for a second, but quickly relaxed it and decided to mess with this woman as punishment. What was the best way to mess with a woman? Easy, remark on her body. Gets the blood boiling real quick.

Jan said with a hint of boredom "Yeah, you've got nothing that I haven't seen before" Jan purposely trailed his eyes over her body and saw her face get red in anger, or embarrassment. Jan turned his eyes to the ship and said "Well the ship though, looks like it may be on the fritz..I could take a quick crack at it too make your ride to the O-rim.....more comfortable for you, your curry friend over there, and your BB8. Can't leave ladies like you to fly off without me being sure it would fall apart, and don't worry I'll do it for you free of charge. You just have to let me come with you guys... You know to make any quick repairs if I miss anything..." Jan bowed his head. Nobody saw the small grin on Jan's face as he thought of the situation and the opportunities for fun flashed through his mind.


"By the way, name's Jan, not mister sweetheart." Jan said as he turned back to the greasy woman. He took off his helmet and and let his bald head, stubble chin, and youthful face be seen by the women. He did a small half smile to the group.
[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
[member="Lorn Breac"]
[member="Katya Shorn"]

 

[Eun]

"Suuure."

Kate's eyebrows scrunched together. Well shoot. The little dude didn't seem all there in the head. Neti? Sounded familiar. She'd look it up on the h-net once they got onboard. Still... she couldn't just dump him over the side of the platform.

Sigh.

Looked like plant boy would be tagging along for a little while longer until they could figure out what to do with him.

Kate started to try and pick up Lorn with the Force when Stranger McStrange decided to open his big mouth and start gabbing about how he could make everything ok.

The privateer captain rolled her eyes. Wouldn't mind tossing this guy off the platform.

"Seriously? Beat it, buddy."

Turning back to the plant, Kate reached out and attempted to encapsulate him in a telekinetic grasp and float him back inside the ship. She started walking toward the boarding ramp.

"C'mon Stargazer."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Lorn Breac"] | [member="Jan Valdum"]

 

[SirMayday]

Jan frowned, slightly desperate, and turned his head to "Stargazer" and changed his attitude and said "This is your ship right? A pilot has a duty to her ship, and the people within it. I won't cause any trouble, and if your leaving now I can make some repairs while the ship is moving. You wanna know the truth? I'm bored, haven't done work in a couple days. I'm literally dying to get off this station, and I can hold my own with whatever you guys are doing. What do I gotta do to convince you and curry over there?"


[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
[member="Lorn Breac"]
[member="Katya Shorn"]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

Neither human seemed to have any answers for Lorn, so he stopped talking and listened instead. A tree could be very patient, after all. On the other hand, observational skills were often lacking. He shared a glance with the one called "Kat." He cocked his head to the side, not understanding the social cues that an expressive face could hold. The Neti continued wiggling happily about, displacing the water rapidly collecting within his trunk. His frame was now noticeably larger than when he had disembarked from the ship, though still small in comparison to the humans. Condensation collected on the leaves adorning the cap of his head.

Lorn could tell immediately when he was lifted as his sensitive roots could no longer feel the cold, metal surface. He looked down, and saw that he was floating. Inquisitive but unstartled, he looked around for a moment trying to find the source of his levitation before recognizing that familiar feeling.

He looked back at "Kat" once more. "Ohhh. You can use Force! I couldn't feel it before. Maybe because I was tired. I've met a few other people that I could feel with the Force too. They were nice. Are we going back on the ship? Does this mean we're all going somewhere? Are there other Force people there too?" Innocently, he swivel-wiggled around and waved at the other human further removed from the ship. Lorn didn't know if he knew the others or not, but he was the only one not moving towards the ship. To Lorn, that was a parting of ways. "Bye! If you meet anybody named Lorn, tell them I'm looking for them and I'll find them someday!"

[member="Katya Shorn"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Jan Valdum"]​

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

First of all, Kinsey's face most certainly did NOT flush red in embarrassment or anger when the Jan-dude got more than a little cocky. But there was definitely an eye roll in there. Kat had Lorn-Lern the Fern-whatever well under control by the sound of its receding voice up the ramp.

"What do you need to convince me?" Twin-brows shot up in credulity. The teen was already walking toward the ramp, calling over her shoulder. "First, don't insult me. Second, don't insult my ship. Third, don't insult my crew. I can't stop you from following us. But if you really want my trust? Don't cause a scene when we leave."

She was at the top of the ramp now, Palm hitting the switch to seal and lock the doors.

"Because you're not getting on this ship." The doors continued to close as she gave Jan one last look. The mission was too critical to let strangers hop on now. Maybe he would follow them. Maybe not. But right now? She had a job to do as captain.

And unfortunately for Jan, the smartarse slot was already filled.

[member="Katya Shorn"] [member="Jan Valdum"] [member="Lorn Breac"]

 

[Eun]

The little dude was asking a lot of questions. Kate narrowed her eyes at him and did her best to look menacing. It worked pretty well with her crew, despite her being just seventeen years of age, but then they'd also watched her body slam soldiers with her mind. Also, they hadn't been plants.

"Calm down before you set your photosynthesis out of whack, Bean Sprout."

Starfleecer said a few parting shots behind Kate before the ramp closed. Shorn raised an eyebrow, shrugged, and released her telekinetic hold on Lorn. She didn't think he was all that harmful, for a stowaway, but it wasn't really her call. If Kinsey wanted to lecture him, then he'd probably be getting an earful. Do plants have ears?

Whatever.

Kate started walking toward the cockpit.

"Let's burn sky until we see lines, Starqueen."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Lorn Breac"] | [member="Jan Valdum"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Katya Shorn"] [member="Lorn Breac"] [member="Jan Valdum"]

The hiss of the closing ramp fluffed her hair. But it wasn't like a glam-shot often seen in holos. It tangled dark-strands in her eyes and mouth, over the grease marks already across her flesh. Spitting some wayward hair from her lips, she passed Lorn where Kat had dumped him.

"And you. No funny business and we won't have problems. And watch where you spread that soil, 'kay?"

Stars, was this how Uncle Coren felt when she and Dax used to run around his ship? Being the responsible one was lamesauce. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Don't get your spanner shorted out, Kat." Grinning at her peer, she slid into the captain's seat. Bibs, her BB8-unit rolled on in, bumping past Shorn.

"We've got docking clearance. Where exactly are we going Kat? Felucia, Dathomir, Wayland, ugggh, hope it's not Jakku. I definitely did not bring any sun block. And I think Lorn would shrink."

 

[SirMayday]

Jan huffed as "Stargazer" sent him on his way. He was curious where they were going and wanted answers. Looks like he would never find out. The girl was right, he had played his cards wrong. He thought he could win them over with some logic and some funny statements. As the closing ramp shut, Jan decided not to say anything or cause a scene, it would be too childish. Jan gave the ship a wistful glance then put his helmet back on. He saw he got a notification from the shipping yards. His ship was fixed, he could leave....nah I'll pick up some credits and find a bar. Get a drink before I leave.

Jan went back to his ship and got a couple hundred credits, and found a place called the "Star Cantina". Great it reminds of that Star girl, curry person, and the talking tree or whatever....man I wanted to go. Jan was sulking bad about the past situation, and there was only one thing that could fix it. Hutt Brandy. It's pretty strong, but one shot never hurts anyone, right?

6 shot laters...​

​

"Hello stranger" A nervous voice said behind Jan.

"Elo" Jan said as he waved to the bar attendant, and gestured at his empty shot glass. He turned around and was greeted to a young rodien.

"Me and my partner over there were wondering, what are you?" A rodien shakily gestured to a table behind him. Jan stared at young human who waved his hand.

"Eh vig wobot Jawa, Krak uff" Jan said not wanting to talk to some strangers.

"Haha, we mean your..profession" The rodien said after a slight pause.

"merk" Jan said as he started to grasp the meaning of the conversation.

"Good, and how good are you in combat" the rodien asked.

"I vould stab yu and all of yu in here with my eyes klos" Jan said as he waved to the bar attendant again.

"I believe you." the rodien as he took a step back away from Jan.

'Yep" Jan said without even looking at him. The bar attendant came over and started to pour another shot.

"Good we want to hire you, for a protection job" the rodien said with a nervous smile.

"wat" Jan asked

"Protect my partner, myself, and.... the cargo. We are doing a business transaction in the O-rim. you'll be there if it goes south."

'I'll du it" Jan said. He was already bored, and what harm can happen?

"Good we'll pay you 15,000 credits. Here are 7,500 now, you'll get the rest when you finish the job." The rodien said as he took the credits out of his pocket.

'EY! why me?!" Jan said starting to get suspicious.

"Seriously? You stabbed three guys, and cut off another's hand a couple minutes ago when the tried to talk to you. I came over here to see if you could be hired before the security force comes to arrest you." the rodien said with a surprised face.

"............ I did?" Jan said as he looked around and noticed a lot blood on the floor around him and all the other bar patrons keeping their distance giving him nervous looks. Jan looked at his shot he was about to drink, and pushed it back to the bar attendant.

"When we..... go?' Jan said as he started to get out of his seat.

"Now." the rodiem said.

"I need to pic some stuff firt, I'll meeet yu at da ducking spation." Jan said he shaking shook the rodien's hand, and stumbled out of the bar.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"]
[member="Lorn Breac"]
[member="Katya Shorn"]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

Lorn's head cocked to one side in one of his over-exaggerated estimations of human body language. "Photosynthesis?" He thought for a moment. "Oh! I learned about that in school. That was a long time ago." He continued on excitedly. Even one sentence of response was enough to keep him going. "I don't think that's how it works. But if we're going in to space again, I'm definitely going to need some sleep. There just isn't enough light. Oh, I know! do you have a lamp?"

He was placed down aboard the metal floor near the entrance ramp from the ship without much more ado from "Kat." "Thank you for the lift!" he exclaimed genuinely. He started to skip-waddle-walk after her on his still lengthening legs, until he felt the whoosh of air breeze past from behind him. The Neti turned around to see the one "Kat" had called "Star-interchangeable word" tangently walking towards him. She regarded him for a moment which he greeted with a smile.

"Funny business?" the little tree's brow furrowed in consideration of this phrase. He took it literally. "I'm not good with credits. Or comedy. But I'll try, Mrs. Star-...something." As she moved on through the ship, he followed behind as quickly as he could. "It's ok. I left some soil in another room! But if you have a pot I could collect it!" he called after her, wiggle-dancing his way to the bridge behind to two much taller women, oblivious to the situation, plan, scheme, or otherwise they were discussing.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Katya Shorn"]​

 

[Eun]

"Mrs. is for married women," Kate corrected reflexively, then pointed at Kins. "She's not married. Unless it's to her ship."

Silly plant.

"Also, I don't have a lamp, but..."

Focusing, Shorn immersed herself in the Force and remembered her training with the Disciples of Twilight. Feel, don't think. A lot of people thought that space was dark because there was no light. That wasn't true. It was dark because it was so big. Stretching out in the small confines of the cockpit with her senses, Kate could feel the warmth from the artificial lighting in the ceiling. A steady glow of electricity. Reaching out, she took those light waves and bent them with the Force. Not to make her invisible, which was the usual practice, but to focus the light. The same way a magnifying glass did.

Concentrated light poured down onto the plant.

"Juice up while you can, sprout. Can't keep this up forever."

A bead of sweat started to form on her forehead. She wiped it away with the back of her hand and glanced at [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]. "Chiss Space, then we link up with the others."

[member="Lorn Breac"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Lorn Breac"] [member="Katya Shorn"]

"It's Starchaser," Kins called over her shoulder to the hitch-hiker. "I'm sure there's a cooking-pot you can grab in the galley. Help yourself. I prefer takeout anyway." Kat could definitely kick her cousin's butt in a fight. Just look at that light manipulation. Then again, Damian would love the spotlight for himself. He'd be too busy drooling over Kat to ever actually fight her.

Too-blue eyes rolled at the thought.

"Right, Chiss space it is. Buckle in peeps."

Bibs warbled and beeped. "Coordinates set." Without any further flurish, they entered hyperspace. Space? This was her element. She inherited her Uncle's innate ability with the force to navigate the right places to be at the right times. It translated to moving through crowds fluidly, too. Finding open spaces was kind of her thing. The teenager could punch in coordinates without a nav-computer. But would she want to?

Feth no. Only if she had to.

It was a short jump. They'd be exiting soon. "These others are our employers or part of your crew, Kat?"

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

"Wow! That's really neat." The sentient tree could feel light shining down onto him. Leaves on his head sprouted and opened naturally in response in the stimulus. As the ship took off, shooting up into outer space, the warmth that Lorn needed to maintain his state of being awake and energized didn't falter as it often did. The radiant woman above him seemed to dazzle his senses, though it wasn't just light he felt. There was something else; that familiar tingle he had only recently learned was the Force.

"This Force stuff is really amazing, huh? It's so... alive." The rush of energy running through him caused a brief shiver and the small branches and leaves adorning the crest of his bark-laden head rippled as the shiver crept all over his body. The light was so concentrated that the Neti really didn't need much. "Thanks! I'm gonna go get that pot now!"

He waddle-padded quickly out of the cockpit to find wherever this galley thing was. Lorn wasn't sure what it was for but the place had to be somewhere. Eventually he came to a spot where there were a bunch of metal bars and hooks holding containers of some kind. He scrambled up a few cabinets and grabbed hold of the smallest one. The sleek metal slipped from his clumsy grasp and clanged and rattled against the similarly metal cabinet just below. Thinking nothing of the noise, he started to hop back down. His foot tripped a lever of some kind and the familiar trickle of water sounded somewhere beneath him. The plant looked down, attracted by the sound and scent to indeed see water gently rolling from a metal tube into a basin, to which he exclaimed an excited "Oh! to the empty room.

Lorn slid the pot under the water, making sure not to make the receptacle too heavy for him to carry while he was still as small as he was. More carefully this time, so as to avoid spilling, the Neti climbed down from the cabinet, the water faucet forgotten behind him, still definitely running water. With his sinewy arms wrapped around the small pot, he excitedly ran off to the place where he had left the dirt before. He liked the spot, right under a viewport. But he would much rather spend time with his new friends. So he gathered the dirt haphazardly into the pot, dusty streaks and puddles still spread across the floor. The water soaked the dirt nicely, but was far heavier to carry with the added weight.

Minutes later he re-entered the cockpit dragging the pot behind him. "Hello!" he announced his little presence to the room. Placing the pot so that he could see the stars flying past and both the pilot's chair and co-pilot's chair, he hopped up and into the pot. His root-feet dug into the moist soil. A sigh escaped from his mouth. Lorn already felt a little more at home.

The little sapling wanted to thank his two new friends for the light and the pot, so he did the only thing he really knew how. The Lorn family always seemed to like when he did it anyhow. Concentrating on the moisture flowing through his body, he focused energy, sugar, and water to his hands. In a moment, two small growths appeared, one on each palm. A moment later those growths turned to buds. A moment after that, the buds opened. Another moment and the petals had colored a soft yellow. He hopped back out of the pot and reached upwards towards the tall women. "Here," the diminutive being said, holding a yellow flower in each hand. "Thanks for helping me, Kat and Starchaser."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Katya Shorn"]​