Private Held in the Currents of the Force

[Lyra Ventor]

The cargo doors groaned open just enough for Lyra to slip inside after him, the little Anzellan still riding indignantly in her pocket. The moment she crossed the threshold, she regretted taking a full breath.

Her nose wrinkled immediately.

"...Ew."

She pinched her nose between two fingers, though it did very little to keep out the thick scent of stagnant water, decaying vegetation, and years of damp air trapped inside the wreck.

"This is a wonderful smell you've discovered," she muttered, her voice muffled slightly behind her hand.

As her eyes adjusted to the dim light filtering through the broken hull, they settled on the podracer half-buried beneath the collapsed ceiling. Despite the moss, vines, and corrosion claiming it inch by inch, its shape was unmistakable.

Lyra slowly walked around it, taking in the cracked cockpit, the severed power coupling, and the roots that had claimed the machine as though nature itself had decided it belonged here now.

"Most interesting..."

She glanced down toward the little engineer peering from her pocket and gently nudged the bronze-painted chassis with one boot.

"Look familiar, bud?"

The Anzellan immediately launched into another rapid-fire stream of animated chatter, pointing emphatically at different sections of the racer while waving both hands with enough enthusiasm to suggest he recognized far more than he was willing to explain in Basic.

Lyra smiled to herself before looking toward the ventilation shafts where Syn had already disappeared.

"I suppose that's a yes."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

The jedi master looked at her and then at the engineer as he sniffed the air for show. "No worse then when some jedi try their hands at cooking." He gave a small look though as the sound of the engineer in her pocket was there but the jedi master was moving through the cargo bay and checking on parts of it. "At least his talk of a crash is true, we are able to check on that and we'll be able to see a few more things maybe. There isn't the smell bodies leave after they have decomposed so them not being here is something against his story." He was moving but stopped near the rooms while bringing a hand out and prying the door open.

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra looked up from the moss-covered podracer, one hand still loosely covering her nose as Syn made his comparison.

A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," she replied with a grin. "Mostly because I don't want to discover whether you're speaking from personal experience."

The humor faded as she followed him deeper into the cargo bay. His observation made sense. For all the years the wreck had sat here, the signs of a violent crash remained, but there was a noticeable absence of what should have been left behind if people had died inside. She found herself looking around more carefully now, searching for discarded equipment, personal belongings, or anything that suggested what had happened after the ship came down.

"So either they survived..." she murmured thoughtfully, "or someone made a very thorough effort to remove every trace they were ever here."

She glanced down at the Anzellan, who was once again offering an animated commentary from her pocket.

"Which means our little friend is either telling us most of the truth..." Her eyes shifted toward the door Syn was forcing open. "...or he's leaving out the part that explains everything."

With one last look around the cargo hold, Lyra stepped closer to the doorway, her curiosity outweighing the lingering smell. Whatever answers the wreck still held, she suspected they were no longer in the cargo bay.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He gave a nod of his head to her. They couldn't threaten the little engineer to make him speak and ripping it from his mind was not the jedi way... but it would be easy and he didn't speak more about it for a moment. With a look though as Lyra he was opening some of it. "If he was being transported then there is a chance, he could have been in one of the cargo crate, with his size they could be converted to be a prison cell i some cases. Not perfect but if there was a problem then it could be used." He said it and was moving as the thing sneered and waas shouting but the jedi master remained there as he opened another door and was speaking at the ejected escape pods.

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra glanced down at the Anzellan as Syn offered another possibility. The image of someone his size being transported in a converted cargo crate wasn't exactly pleasant, and it did explain why he reacted so defensively whenever they started asking questions about the crash.

"I'd be grumpy too," she admitted quietly. "Though I'm beginning to think that's just his natural state."

The little engineer immediately launched into another string of indignant complaints, pointing an accusing finger at her as if personally offended by the observation.

Her smile softened as she looked back toward the opened compartments.

"If he was a prisoner, that changes things," she said thoughtfully. "It means there may not have been much loyalty between him and the crew to begin with."

Then her attention shifted to the escape pods.

She stepped closer, studying the empty launch tubes with growing interest.

"Escape pods..." she murmured. "If those were launched, then somebody got out alive."

Her eyes moved between the pods, the Anzellan, and Syn.

"Which means our little friend may not be the only survivor after all."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He gave a nod to that, launched escape pods could go a long way and he was moving as he searched. "They might be or they escaped before they crashed, or they were put in there and launched while the ship was used to escape. A dozen possibilities but there is no one here at least that I can smell. So that is something and the location data may be able to help us." He was looking at more of it though as they could go through the ship with his senses in the cockpit while he was checking it and the glass itself of the viewport. Where it was shattered and there was more he was checking as he slipped through the viewport to move around the exterior of the ship. "There is not much else."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra lingered by the empty escape pod tubes, her gaze moving from one launch bay to the next as she pieced the possibilities together. Every answer seemed to branch into half a dozen new questions, and she was beginning to understand why people devoted their lives to archaeology.

"I suppose that's the frustrating part," she admitted. "Every piece of evidence fits more than one story."

She rested a hand against the scarred bulkhead, looking over the weathered interior before glancing toward the shattered cockpit.

"At least we've narrowed it down," she continued. "There was a crash. There were escape pods. There aren't any bodies. Whatever happened next, it happened somewhere other than here."

The little Anzellan muttered another round of commentary from her pocket, earning a sideways glance.

"Which means," she said with a faint smile, "our smallest witness is still the best source of information we've got...even if he insists on making us work for every answer."

As Syn slipped through the shattered viewport, Lyra stepped carefully into the cockpit herself, her eyes immediately moving over the damaged consoles and dead instrumentation. Old habits took over. Even after years of decay, she couldn't help but instinctively look for the navigation systems.

"If the location data survived," she called after him, "that's probably our best lead now. Flight computers have a habit of remembering where they've been long after everyone else has forgotten."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He gave her a nod to the navigational data. "If you can recover it try to. The ships designation and anything to identify it would go to giving any information and closure to the people who might be wondering if there is anyone." He said it as he stood there and his senses flared as he could feel it in the force and spoke . "Alema." He said it while looking up and the force was vast here and bright makign the skies blinding to him before he was looking over at all of it. He waited only for a moment while bringing his hands down onto the ship and then reached up as he threw force energy to clear a section of the canopy allowing him to see the skies for a moment. Overgrown canopy before he was looking as he could hear the ship and feel it against the skies. "Those hyperdrive enegines are well worth it."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra nodded, already kneeling before what remained of the cockpit console. Years of moisture had left much of it corroded, but experience told her not to judge a flight computer by appearances alone. More than once she had coaxed data from systems that looked fit only for a scrapyard.

"Wow, you're telling me," she called back with a grin as Syn praised the hyperdrive. "Anyone who keeps one running long enough learns to appreciate them."

She carefully brushed away moss and debris from the navigation console, exposing cracked displays and weathered access panels. Pulling a compact toolkit from her belt, she removed the damaged cover and searched for the memory core buried deeper within the assembly. Even if the primary systems had long since failed, there was a chance the navicomputer's storage had survived well enough to preserve a designation, registry number, or fragments of its last recorded jumps.

"Come on..." she murmured to herself. "Just give me something."

Then she paused.

The jungle had gone strangely quiet.

Outside, the sudden rush of air through the opening in the canopy drew her attention upward. Sunlight poured through the gap Syn had created, and beyond it the unmistakable silhouette of a ship seemed to emerge against the sky.

A smile spread across her face as hope replaced the uncertainty that had followed them through the valley.

"I think..." she said quietly, looking up through the broken viewport, "...I think we might finally have our ride home."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He looked as she joined him and was looking up at the Alema as it was coming closer. The bottom most part of it reaching them as the airlock doors opened. The lowest cargo bay would be there for them and he spoke. "Alema does not waste time when she wants to find someone." It helped that the engines were force based and made for folding space practically. he knew that that was a bigger part of it before he was moving and checking all of it. "I'll make sure that Alema is watching our guest for this. She will better be able to watch him if he tries anything." THe jeid master was moving though while he went forrward. "Were you able to get anything from the ship?"

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra's eyes followed the descending silhouette overhead, relief washing over her as the Alema settled into position. After everything they had endured to reach this point, seeing a familiar ship felt almost unreal.

"I liked her already," she said with a small smile before patting the pocket where the still-grumbling Anzellan lay. "And I think having someone else keep an eye on our little friend is probably a wise idea."

Before following Syn, she reached back into the damaged cockpit one last time. Her fingers disappeared beneath the ruined navigation console until they found what she had been hoping for: a weathered memory core, its casing scratched and stained but still intact. Carefully brushing away the last bits of dirt and moss, she slipped it into her other utility pocket, making certain it was nowhere near the Anzellan.

"I found this," she said, giving the pocket a light pat. "Looks like the navicomputer's memory core. Whether it's readable is another question, but it survived the crash better than the rest of the console."

She stepped toward the waiting airlock and gave Syn an encouraging nod.

"We'll have to get it to a working terminal before we know what it's hiding."

A faint smile crossed her face.

"With any luck, it'll finally start giving us answers instead of more questions."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

He looked at her and gave a nod of his head. He had no idea what it looked like but if it looked better then the console he could accept that. The aairlock closing on them as the lift went up and the Alema opened up. A projection of the ships spirit coming as she spoke. "You had me worried, search the universe for you two is not support to be the answer to the question Alema where did your master disappear to?" She was speaking and Syn just looked at her. "We are fine, the displacement of the doorway was unexpected." The projection looked as she was flying but and remained there with the doors open. "It wasn't just you, the team that went in after you disappeared but they were found on Ahch-To, Which rreminds me there is a new temple the jedi have discovered on Ahch-To."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra let out a long breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding as the airlock sealed behind them. The familiar hum of the ship felt almost foreign after the damp silence of the hidden valley. For the first time in what felt like ages, she wasn't wondering what waited around the next corner.

She smiled sheepishly as Alema's projection appeared.

"Sorry," she offered with an apologetic shrug. "We didn't exactly plan on disappearing into another part of the galaxy. If it helps, we'd have preferred a much less dramatic route home."

As Alema explained what had happened to the rescue team, Lyra blinked in surprise.

"Wait...they ended up on Ahch-To?"

That certainly put their own ordeal into perspective. Whatever strange phenomenon had pulled them away clearly hadn't been selective.

Instinctively, her hand rested against the pocket holding the recovered memory core.

"Well," she said, glancing toward Syn before looking back to Alema, "at least we didn't come back empty-handed. I managed to recover what appears to be the crashed ship's navigation memory. Once we can get it plugged into a functioning terminal, we might finally learn who that crew was...and maybe how our little passenger ended up stranded in the first place."

She gave the Anzellan's pocket a gentle pat before another thought crossed her mind.

"A newly discovered Jedi temple on Ahch-To..." she mused. "I'm starting to think the galaxy waited until we disappeared before deciding to uncover every ancient mystery it had been hiding."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

The ship blinked as the projection remained there and little at the little friend. "As long as he stays out of my systems, I am not opposed to using my defensive repair drones. Or sealing and spacing pests." The ship was saying it and looked at them all and Syn was moving once they were at the ready. Only adjusting a few things when he took the equipment packs from his thigh sheaths with the saber and put them in a casing with the droids. To make sure they were repaired and stocked. He was going towards the bridge. "Acceptable." He was moving for the bridge as he only breathed in and then outwards. "THey also loaded a fighter into the haanger bay, I told you flowers was a better first option."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra instinctively rested a hand over the pocket holding the Anzellan as Alema mentioned spacing pests.

The little engineer immediately responded with an outraged burst of chatter that sounded remarkably like a formal objection.

"I think he'd prefer the repair drones," she said with an amused smile. "And I'd rather not test whether he can survive being introduced to vacuum."

As Syn stowed his equipment with the maintenance droids, Lyra reached into her other pocket and carefully removed the weathered memory core. She turned it over in her hands for a moment before tucking it safely back into the pocket.

"First stop for me is a terminal," she said. "If this thing still has anything readable on it, I'd like to know before we get distracted by the next mystery."

Then Syn mentioned the fighter.

She looked over at him, unable to suppress a laugh.

"I don't know," she replied, a grin spreading across her face. "Flowers are certainly the less expensive option, but I imagine a starfighter makes a rather memorable first impression."

Her eyes drifted toward the bridge as she fell into step behind him.

"Though I have a feeling whoever received it is going to remember both."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

"Given that the fighter is for you according to the designation I am guessing memorable impression. Not sure if this is the first or third now though." The ship was speaking and the computers shifted as she brought one online with a look. "I have a computer though that you can use. Just try not to give me any viruses. The agena fluid circulates throughout the ship and you could end up causing it to react for a purge." THe ship was speaking and had the organic computer there as the console showed a basin it could go in with the reddish-orange fluid as it circulated. "Master Syn is heading towards the medical bay to be decontaminated in case there is a problem."

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra blinked. "...Wait." She looked from Alema to Syn and then back again. "The fighter is for me?"

That thought lingered for all of three seconds before Alema mentioned decontamination. Lyra paused, lifted one arm experimentally, and gave the sleeve of her jacket a cautious sniff. Then the other.

"Do I need to be decontaminated too?" she asked, looking at herself with exaggerated suspicion. "Because I've spent just as much time crawling through that valley as he has, and I'd rather not accidentally introduce an ecosystem to your ventilation system."

She walked over to the organic terminal, carefully removing the weathered memory core from her pocket.

"And no worries on the virus," she said reassuringly as she examined the basin filled with reddish-orange agena fluid. "I'm pretty sure there isn't one attached to this."

A grin crossed her face.

"Though if it suddenly starts trying to reprogram your life support, I will be very surprised."

With that, she gently lowered the memory core toward the waiting interface, curious to see whether decades-old navigation data still had one last story left to tell.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

"I would recommend it yes, My olfactory sensors are detecting high levels of as teens call it stank clogging the filters." Alema seemed to be making a joke but the terminal accepted the core as the basin flooded and submerged it. Tendrils finding it while the display was showing the outer casing and then it was going inside and working on data recovery. "Data recovery beginning, restoration of what can be fixed in progress." Alema spoke as she had the projection aand waas moving. Brignign the ship into a position as the shielding shimmered. "Security position over star, flare shields are active for security measures. If someone tries to get into the vents, There won't be anything left.

 

[Lyra Ventor]

Lyra slowly lowered her arm, casting Alema's projection an unmistakably flat look after the comment about her "stank." She didn't dignify it with a response, though the expression alone carried enough mock offense to make her opinion perfectly clear.

Instead, she turned her attention back to the terminal as the reddish-orange fluid engulfed the memory core. Her curiosity quickly replaced her wounded pride while the tendrils worked their way across the ancient hardware, delicately probing for anything salvageable.

"Come on..." she murmured quietly. "You've survived a crash and however many years in a swamp. One more miracle isn't asking too much."

Beside her, the little Anzellan stiffened the instant Alema mentioned sealing the vents. He sprang upright inside her pocket, arms flailing as an indignant stream of rapid-fire protests spilled out. Whatever he was saying, it was abundantly clear he considered unrestricted vent access a fundamental right.

Lyra reached over and gently nudged him back down into the pocket with one finger.

"I don't think she's negotiating," she said, unable to suppress a smile. "Honestly, after watching you disappear into ventilation shafts every five minutes, I'm surprised she waited this long."

The little mechanic answered with another furious burst of muttering, crossing his tiny arms as if personally insulted by the entire concept. Lyra only smiled a little wider before returning her attention to the recovery display, quietly hoping the old memory core would finally reward all of their effort with a few long-overdue answers.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Lyra Ventor

The ships projection looked at her and none of it was up for debate, worse she only narrowed her eyes at the engineer in the pocket as the internal superstructure changes and the materia created spikes on the vents to block parts off. The Alema was making a path for Lyra as Syn was in the decontamination shower for the moment just standing there and allowing the water to steam and wash him for the moment. He was allowing the force to expand from him before he sensed Lyra and stood there only for a moment. Rarely without his sash over his eyes as the flesh was smooth and more like dimples where it had grown over.