Homecoming

[Coren Starchaser]

Yeah, he was being professional story teller right here. Shaking his head he nodded. Right, just get it out, man. He looked at his food. Right, could they just skip to the part where he showed her the ship he was working on completing for her? Probably not. “Alright, so yeah, the rest of this I’m still putting together, myself. Starting from the back…”

He looked at his hipster co-pilot.

“Yes, there was a cryo situation. I dunno much about what happened before that wasn’t logged into datacrons aboard the ship here. Amnesia and the like. Kelly, well, late wife. Jared and Kaia? Yeah, kids. But… not? I wasn’t here, I wasn’t…” He motioned a hand off to the side, as if swatting a fly. “Anywhere.”

He looked at her, a bit of his face scrunched up, not sure how she was going to handle all that.

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

Blue-eyes widened beneath glass lenses. Late wife? They widened a little more. Kids?

Blink. Blink-blink. She knew her voice was in there somewhere but she couldn't help but stare at those other blue eyes across from her a little longer, lips slightly ajar. It's not that she was surprised that Coren had a wife and kids - a past, but she was more surprised that he had never mentioned...

"Why didn' you say anything earlier?" She found her voice. "That's like, a big deal. Family." She had a set of parents that didn't give a kriff and constantly shipped her off to boarding-schools. Didn't care when she got kicked out either. Didn't even care to check-up to see if she was dead or alive. It was clear they had never wanted her to begin with.

"Wait. Are you saying....," this was Spark really trying to connect his story-telling dots, "you had two kids. But then you were in freeze for 17 years and you're not sure why or who put you there? And, and - - - you woke-up...was Kelly already gone?"

She asked that last question cautiously. It sounded like it would be a painful memory. If she woke-up 17 years later and found someone she cared about gone, yeah. #thatsucks

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Yeah, see that? The one thing he didn’t want to tell Spark. He wasn’t sure why. Was it a crush, could he even have a crush on her? Was that… allowed? Regardless it kind of was a thing, now wasn’t it? The reason he was avoiding things. Or maybe it’d complicate their working relationship. That was a thing too.

Why’d he not say anything before? “Not quite sure, to be honest. Just… trying to swallow it all myself? Wake up from cryo, not knowin’ who the hell ya are, and someone tells you that?” He shook his head. “Didn’t wanna complicate anything with us working together.”

“Kind of woke up around that whole time when everything was going down… With Corellia breaking. Kelly was around then… she wasn’t? Never came back. And can’t sense her, couldn’t for the longest time. When I got out we could sense each other but it… nothing, no memories, nothing like that. The kid thing, well they’re grown now, but…” He shrugged.

“It’s a thing, y’know?” He looked at her, wondering what she was going to say. “Its like… getting into a novel a few chapters in and trying to play catch up."

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

She leaned back in her chair, hands falling to her sides. Wow. And she thought being technovirused by the sith was bad. She was surprised Coren had it as much together as he did.

She certainly wouldn't.

She nodded numbly to his rhetorical question, eyes spacing out for a bit. "Wow," she whispered. Eyes scrunched up. She didn't know whether to be mad at him for not telling her sooner, awed that he finally opened up, hurt on his behalf and what he had gone through-what he'd lost, or in shock. Maybe a mixture of all of 'em.

"I don't know how to react," she said quietly. Gaze turned down as her lithe-fingers picked at the edge of the table on her side.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Having it together was nothing. Coren really didn’t know much better, and all he could do was keep going forward. That meant pushing himself, his ship, his mind, to wherever it would go. Learn what he could about himself. He was a spacer. You kept flying, you figured it out. You got past the issues and you found where you were going.

He shrugged at her as he looked at his empty plate. “Guess there really isn’t much to hear, y’know. It happened, its goin’ on. Jared’s a pilot here, runs the Wing now, his sister, she’s…” Well, he wasn’t sure, out doing her Odyssey, he knew she was popping up in Levantine space.

“In order to change the topic, though, if you’re finished eating. I wanna show you something I’ve been working on.” In his spare time. It kept him from thinking about, well, everything. He would get up with her if she was ready to take it the next bit of the tour, food and heavy conversation out of the way.

Keep flying.

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

She picked intently at the plastic edge of the table a bit longer, listening. There were a buzz of questions running around in her head. She would definitely need time to process this all, like working a new code. More so, she was more caught off guard by all the different emotions going on in her head.

She wasn't usually a feeler; it was exhausting.

She looked up warily, wonder what Coren had to share with her now after ALL THAT. "Yeah, I'm finished," pushing hesitantly away from the table, she went to follow him.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Long-winded, was what that was. Long-winded and a wide explanation. He needed to get it out, but now? He had no idea how to fething deal with those thoughts and feelings. Normally when he needed to get his mind off of things, he went to work on the ship, his, the one he was building her, something or another. His only goal was to keep moving forward. Life had dealt him a strange hand and he just needed to play it as well as he could.

Nodding when [member="Spark Finn"] stated she was good, he grabbed his tray and started leading her through the mess hall.

“So, yeah, that was heavy. I uh…” He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. “Ain’t really sure myself what’s going on. But… I got something that might take your mind off it?” He nodded towards a door, for Spark it might look like where they came in, but it wasn’t.

Through the door, and yes, he’d keep up with any questions she had, and not lead her too far, would be a hall, but at the end of the hall, there were the sounds of machines and droids. Lots of work going on in the production center, but in the center? A polished gun-metal gray ship.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]
"No," she put up a hand, "I'm glad you told me." Hand came down to rub at her other arm awkwardly. "I mean, we're a team and heavy stuff like this should be known in case someone," yeah, mostly the sith, [member="Sage Bane"]'s face definitely popped up," tries to use it against us."

It was the same reason she told Coren about the technovirus and her experience with [member="Darth Carach"]. In a way, the Sith Lord had caused the slicer to spur out on her own, away from the Jedi and Sith alike, to join the underground. Ears picked up on the sound of working machines.

They exited the hall into some sort of work center. Gaze piqued with curiosity. On reflex, her mind reached forward and brushed against the ship, exploring the tech and systems. She didn't go too deep. It was only polite not to pry.

"What's all this?"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

See? He wasn’t really expecting it to be that… dry? Then again the Warden of the Sky didn’t know where his own damned head was at. Nevermind where Spark’s could be. Yeah, it didn’t make sense. But he didn’t know what he wanted to hear. Either way it probably wouldn’t be… right? He didn’t know. Time to move on from that whole scene.

To something far more interesting.

Yes, he needed to trust her. She trusted him, it was fair. And she never game him a reason to not trust her. That was half the reason they were where they were right now. He grinned at her, a bit awkwardly, when she was reaching out to the ship.

The engine, the one he got the Santhe contract for, the Whisper Drive, had been installed, and final cues and touches were just being finished up. Most of her systems were up, using names that Coren heard Spark drop on her preferred computing companies and the like. Plus the avionics handled by him. “This? I’ve been doing some work. You ain’t got a ship. Wanted to fix that. So… I kind of, built one? Refurbished parts, she’s… I haven’t given her a name yet.”

Game on, [member="Sage Bane"]

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

"What?!" Feet were literally bouncing up and down. A mixture of surprise and excitement and shock, definitely shock. "Wait," she turned to face Coren, torn between gawking at the ship and gawking at him. "For real?!"

#omgeee #bestsurpriseever #eeeEeeeEEEE!!!!

The awkwardness of that earlier, heavy conversation quickly disappeared into these new feelings. So many feelings for the analytical slicer for one day!!!

"Oh my fricken' codes!" The short space between them vanished as she tackled him in a gangly-armed hug. "No one has ever. Holy nuna!!" She released him just as quickly, bounced up and down in place a few more times, then gave him another hug-tackle.

This time, she stayed there and squeezed tightly.

"Seriously?!!"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren grinned. He wasn't quite sure what kind of reaction he'd be getting out of Spark for the ship. Half of him expected a whole '...but why?' reaction. This one? Yeah, it was infinitely better. Sure, he could be losing his co-pilot to this new ship, and why not? The vessel was all sorts of new, and he thought he'd done a pretty decent job on crafting it. Repairing Sienar, Santhe and Corellian Engineering products was one thing, crafting something new? A bit different.

"Yeah, for real." He was awkward with the hip lingo.

"She's got adv--" and he was quickly cut off with a hug. That was a nice feeling. Real nice. And his arm instinctively went around her, not both, just one. Holy Nuna. Yeah, that could be what he was thinking too. Definitely. When the second hug came in, he smiled and nodded. "Yeah, she's all yours."

Right, they were supposed to tour it, right? He didn't want to quite move. "She's, hopefully, set up to give you everything you'll need. In a ship and a computer system." Though he assumed gangly-limbs would upgrade that system real fast.

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

"Oh. Em. Geeeee!!! I still can't believe it," the breathless whisper left her mouth, close to Coren's ear. "Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" She finally pulled away, color tinging those pale cheeks, whether it was from realization of how close she was with that hug or just the excitement of that fricken' ship was hard to say. Probably a combination.

She was already bouncing toward the ship. Yes. Bouncing. A bouncing slicer.

"Can I, can we tour it? Test flight? Please-please-please?????"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

See? Now if Coren was any other man, he’d probably have known what to do with this situation, but right now? It was going to be one of those moments where a week later, when he was walking the halls of either the Treader or the Event Horizon out in the Unknown Region and some lowly ensign or LAA intern will hear him cuss out ‘feth! Shoulda kissed her.’ And he’d probably kick a mouse-droid.

Most likely that was what would happen.

He did like the closeness, and the soft sound of her voice, feel of her breath on him. That was not too weird to say, right? Nah, couldn’t be.

Clearly this was the most excited he’d seen her. The ship was ready for flight, sure, it could use a bit of fine tuning before any mission was done, but for flight in the safety of the Levantine Sanctum? Sure!

“We can definitely tour her, she’s not… that big, but I figure enough to make it so you can go rescuing folks on your own. And before you fly in her, you gotta name her. Spacer law.” Or something.

Superstitious Coren was superstitious.

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

While Coren was standing about gawking, she was already halfway up the ramp. Then he said something about a name and she froze. "Uhhhh." Glasses were resolutely straightened on her face.

"Hmmm."

Sandy-brows crinkled in thought. She thought about something with a hashtag in it, but really? #Toomuch. Face brightened and she tracked to Coren's eyes.

"How about the Flying Nuna?"

She almost said Starchaser's Flying Nuna but thought that would be too presumptuous.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Yeah, right, bouncing and moving. He shook his head and laughed to himself. While she was frozen in thought, he decided it’d be a good enough time to follow her up the ramp. He smirked as he walked past her. Looking back as he entered the ship and she was still thinking. He was expecting something that had to do with computers that he never was going to understand.

And then came a name he’d never once expected to hear.

The Flying Nuna… Well, he was fairly sure that wasn’t registered at any planetary system.
“Flying Nuna works, she’s your ship after all.” He grinned and nodded forward. First would be the main lobby, pretty basic, refresher and kitchen off the main area, all pretty… simple, functional. Not many bells and whistles here.

Wait, his flying nuna?

Probably best Coren kept his Sense skills in check.

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

Excited bubble turned into something a little more nervous as she double-checked the crash-webbing. They weren't going down. She wasn't nervous because of that. She was nervous because Coren, one of the best pilot's she knew, was sitting right there. Right. There.

#gulp #stop #it'llbefine #takeaselfieinyournewship!!!!!

"Pre-flight checks are...,"'speckled-face squinted at the controls, "good." Thin, pale fingers gripped the controls. "Here we go." The ship. Her ship lifted up smooth as an uninterrupted data transfer.

A smile made it on a face scrunched in concentration. After a few loops and testing of systems, she finally leveled the Flying Nuna out.

"That was some serious cool, Coren."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Right, he thought this was a good idea.

He needed to keep telling himself that. Sure, Spark was his co-pilot, but that kind of broke down into her being his RIO. Radar intercept Officer, basically, his sensors girl, and co-pilot. But to be honest? Starchaser was the one with his hand on the stick. Hell, he’d even fight Merrill to see who would fly, if the pair ever ended up on the same ship.

Imagine the waste that would be.

While [member="Spark Finn"] was going over her pre-flight checks. Coren was talking. About the systems involved. “So, because she’s your ship, she’s a bit… slower than someone I’d fly. But I wanted to put more power to the systems. Sensors and nav are done by me. Something to keep you from getting lost or caught by surprise.”

Earlier, when they toured before she jumped to the cockpit, he had made a point to show her the computing system. It was enough to make even Napster jealous, hopefully. He figured that Spark would take the time to fine tune it and increase its powers.

But the navigation and sensors, that was Coren’s realm. He helped make the nav system, using a bit of help from his comrade [member="Jorus Merrill"] and his own personal skill set. Master pilot, not really the master shipwright but the systems involved? He could easily power out a bit through the sensors.

Wasn’t like he was making the ship submersible.

Still, back to the flight. Yeah, even with inertial compensators, he was feeling it a bit. She had to get the whole… connection with her ship down. It was one of those things, a connection between man and machine. Needed to know your vessel, needed to love her. Love kept her flying. And attention to detail? That meant you wore it like clothes.

She’d get there.

“So, I did alright with her?”

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

She set the ship down gently, well, fairly gently. With landing checks done, she could finally afford to give Coren her entire excited-grateful-nervous attention. She beamed and broke through her own personal space bubble and took his hand. Thin-fingers always meant to fly across datapads and screens squeezed his digits.

"Yeah. I love it Coren," then she started to babble again. "The systems you put in are a perfect baseline. Once I upgrade the security and put in some new coding we could fly this in anywhere. Anywhere. Including enemy territory. I could scramble the IFF codes to match almost anything."

Yup, she said 'we.'

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Well, at least he did that right. Coren smiled as the flight ended. Not because it was ending, truth be told, given a bit of time, [member="Spark Finn"] would turn into a passable pilot. Yeah, passable, but he was comparing her to him and the likes of Jorus Merrill. Couldn’t touch instinctively astrogating Corellians pilots. Jet fuel for blood, after all. He let her take the lead on the post-flight check.

He had put work into the ship, and he was glad it didn’t go unnoticed. Of course, the work he put in would pale to what Spark could do. But all those thoughts went out the window when she grabbed his hand. Yeah, that was happening. His eyes went wide for a moment and he looked at her.

She did say we, didn’t she? Hmm. Interesting. “I’m glad you like it, even if you have to fix my coding.” He said this with a smile, trying to get a rise out of her, because, well, it was easy sometimes. "I can get us some transponders we can swap around. Use them on the Tiburon a lot." That was how he kept the One Sith off their trail.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

"I don't know if anyone can fix your coding," she snorted, "it's a good thing I'm good at my job." Blue-eyes behind glass lenses stared at his own. "And yeah, transponders."

And suddenly, she was very aware of the warmth of his fingers around her hand. A blush creeped into her fair skin. She wondered how he felt. Was he holding her hand out of awkward pity? Was this socially okay?

Fingers slipped slowly free as her eyes looked away in uncertainty.

"Okay, cool."

Ugggh. Horrible transition. #notgoodwithpeople

"So, anything else you wanna show me?"