Amilthi Camlenn
Meditation Junkie
Amilthi was travelling along the Triellus Trade Route on a civilian liner for people of modest means, and as such the journey was anything but luxurious. She cared little for material comfort, however, and found it easy enough to blank out unpleasant sensations and retreat into her own mind by way of meditation. Her simple attire suggested, if anything, a station below that of most of the other passengers, and those who inevitably approached a lone woman travelling by herself were always met with an unresponsive sort of politeness that had them come away thinking her odd and not very interesting.
Lunch was being eaten in some sort of mass when the ship dropped out of hyperspace once more, presumably to adjust course. Amilthi noticed an ominous feeling rising inside her. She looked around, but naturally none of the other passengers paid much attention to the perfectly regular event, and there was no sign of anything unusual. The feeling did not recede, but grew further, a sure sign that something unfortunate was about to happen. After a few seconds, Amilthi rose from her seat and with swift, purposeful strides walked over to the counter where the food was served.
"I need to talk to the captain, now", she told the server sternly, the fingers of her right hand tracing and arc in the air before her. She would do the same to the captain to make him jump the ship out of the system, no matter the course. If she was to do anything effective to prevent the imminent calamity, rather than stand by, bound by propriety and social rules, then these people's self-determination didn't matter now. "I see, you need to talk to the captain..." "Hurry!" hissed Amilthi. People frowned and then looked at each other in alarm as the server suddenly started to run towards the door, followed with swift strides by a woman in a flowing skirt.
The bridge was a few stairs away, and they were only a few metres away from the door when suddenly an alarm began to blare, red lights flashed above the door, and a second layer of metal closed over it, sealing it shut. A blink of an eye later, a jolt went through the ship, accompanied by the noise of an explosion.
A question came to the fore in Amilthi's mind: was there anything she could have done, how many seconds faster would she have had to be? By an act of will, she pushed it aside as unproductive and irrelevant. Now she needed to remain calm and wait for the events to unfold to react as was appropriate. The past was already settled.
The terrified server looked at Amilthi as if she wanted to be told what to do. The fact that she had just done what Amilthi told her seemed to have triggered a general presumption in the young woman that Amilthi was a person to look to for directions. "Get -" The Jedi was interrupted by a voice suddenly bursting from speakers, drowning out the alarm. "This is the captain, get the passengers to the life pods!" He sounded shaken, and as if to comment his words, a second explosion followed.
It had been no more than a few seconds since the alarm had begun, and now, suddenly, that was the only thing that remained audible. No further explosions followed, and from her position, Amilthi couldn't see any signs of damage to the ship.
It could all have been a critical failure of the engine or some other component of the ship, but somehow this didn't feel right to Amilthi. She felt menaced, as if there was some indeterminate external source of threat. She waited, and the silence, or rather, the alarm, continued uninterrupted. If whoever was there wanted to blow up this ship, they would have done so already - the half-minute or so that had passed was plenty of time for that. If Amilthi was right that this was someone else's doing, and no an internal problem, then whoever that was was going to board the ship.
She suddenly sprung into action and ran down the stairs they had come, back towards the mass. As she entered it, people were scurrying out at the other end. There were anxious screams and the cries of children that made it more difficult to keep calm. Instead, Amilthi was growing impatient and annoyed at the fact that she couldn't do anything as long as she didn't know where the hull would be breached. Not that she was exactly looking forward to a fight, inevitable as it now felt. But she experienced a certain indignation at the idea that someone would target a completely defenceless civilian liner, and that made her want to deal with that someone.
Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror at the scene she witnessed: a metal thorn of some sort ripped through the hull of the transport and hit right in the middle of the corridor at the other side of the mass, through which the passengers were trying to escape. One was smashed into the opposite wall, others were hit hard and thrown to the side. The few who had remained on her side of it were turning back and running at her in panic. Amilthi reached for the lightsaber at her hip under her robe as the metal thorn retreated slightly and then suddenly split, opening a passage to the vessel it had come from, and in the process ripping apart parts of the floor and a hapless man who lying on it, unconscious from the initial impact.
The blue blade sprung forward from her lightsaber hilt with the familiar faint buzzing sound as the Jedi advanced toward the opening. There was no satisfaction in her feelings having been entirely correct. A cold, eerie calm descended upon Amilthi as she stood right next to the hole in the wall, her lightsaber raised, in anticipation of what would emerge from there. Her mind was razor sharp and she was acutely conscious of so many things at once. The feeling of the grip of her sword in her hands, of the soles of her feet in the boot on the ground, of the position of her legs that would allow her to step forward and retreat swiftly, of the smell of heated metal that emanated from the damaged parts of the ship - and, finally, of the approach of something not yet visible behind the outer wall.
Lunch was being eaten in some sort of mass when the ship dropped out of hyperspace once more, presumably to adjust course. Amilthi noticed an ominous feeling rising inside her. She looked around, but naturally none of the other passengers paid much attention to the perfectly regular event, and there was no sign of anything unusual. The feeling did not recede, but grew further, a sure sign that something unfortunate was about to happen. After a few seconds, Amilthi rose from her seat and with swift, purposeful strides walked over to the counter where the food was served.
"I need to talk to the captain, now", she told the server sternly, the fingers of her right hand tracing and arc in the air before her. She would do the same to the captain to make him jump the ship out of the system, no matter the course. If she was to do anything effective to prevent the imminent calamity, rather than stand by, bound by propriety and social rules, then these people's self-determination didn't matter now. "I see, you need to talk to the captain..." "Hurry!" hissed Amilthi. People frowned and then looked at each other in alarm as the server suddenly started to run towards the door, followed with swift strides by a woman in a flowing skirt.
The bridge was a few stairs away, and they were only a few metres away from the door when suddenly an alarm began to blare, red lights flashed above the door, and a second layer of metal closed over it, sealing it shut. A blink of an eye later, a jolt went through the ship, accompanied by the noise of an explosion.
A question came to the fore in Amilthi's mind: was there anything she could have done, how many seconds faster would she have had to be? By an act of will, she pushed it aside as unproductive and irrelevant. Now she needed to remain calm and wait for the events to unfold to react as was appropriate. The past was already settled.
The terrified server looked at Amilthi as if she wanted to be told what to do. The fact that she had just done what Amilthi told her seemed to have triggered a general presumption in the young woman that Amilthi was a person to look to for directions. "Get -" The Jedi was interrupted by a voice suddenly bursting from speakers, drowning out the alarm. "This is the captain, get the passengers to the life pods!" He sounded shaken, and as if to comment his words, a second explosion followed.
It had been no more than a few seconds since the alarm had begun, and now, suddenly, that was the only thing that remained audible. No further explosions followed, and from her position, Amilthi couldn't see any signs of damage to the ship.
It could all have been a critical failure of the engine or some other component of the ship, but somehow this didn't feel right to Amilthi. She felt menaced, as if there was some indeterminate external source of threat. She waited, and the silence, or rather, the alarm, continued uninterrupted. If whoever was there wanted to blow up this ship, they would have done so already - the half-minute or so that had passed was plenty of time for that. If Amilthi was right that this was someone else's doing, and no an internal problem, then whoever that was was going to board the ship.
She suddenly sprung into action and ran down the stairs they had come, back towards the mass. As she entered it, people were scurrying out at the other end. There were anxious screams and the cries of children that made it more difficult to keep calm. Instead, Amilthi was growing impatient and annoyed at the fact that she couldn't do anything as long as she didn't know where the hull would be breached. Not that she was exactly looking forward to a fight, inevitable as it now felt. But she experienced a certain indignation at the idea that someone would target a completely defenceless civilian liner, and that made her want to deal with that someone.
Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror at the scene she witnessed: a metal thorn of some sort ripped through the hull of the transport and hit right in the middle of the corridor at the other side of the mass, through which the passengers were trying to escape. One was smashed into the opposite wall, others were hit hard and thrown to the side. The few who had remained on her side of it were turning back and running at her in panic. Amilthi reached for the lightsaber at her hip under her robe as the metal thorn retreated slightly and then suddenly split, opening a passage to the vessel it had come from, and in the process ripping apart parts of the floor and a hapless man who lying on it, unconscious from the initial impact.
The blue blade sprung forward from her lightsaber hilt with the familiar faint buzzing sound as the Jedi advanced toward the opening. There was no satisfaction in her feelings having been entirely correct. A cold, eerie calm descended upon Amilthi as she stood right next to the hole in the wall, her lightsaber raised, in anticipation of what would emerge from there. Her mind was razor sharp and she was acutely conscious of so many things at once. The feeling of the grip of her sword in her hands, of the soles of her feet in the boot on the ground, of the position of her legs that would allow her to step forward and retreat swiftly, of the smell of heated metal that emanated from the damaged parts of the ship - and, finally, of the approach of something not yet visible behind the outer wall.
[member="Inyri Takan"]
