It's in the eyes

[Marina DeVoe]

"Skye?....what's wrong...you look like someone has threatened you."

"You're not making any sense...slow down." Marina said, half hearing what the woman was ranting about. But one thing for certain; Skye was definitely hyped up....could it be delayed shock? Maybe the girl was in shock..or had been in shock and Marina had not noticed due to the entire ordeal she had experienced too. it wasn't something to just chalk up as 'it happens', no.
She, 'they both' were attacked by two desperate men who when pushed had actually stabbed Skye. So it was without say that the poor girl suddenly was succumbing to shock.

"My god....you're a mess.... Sit down for a few and tell me what happened out there?...what did they say to you?" Marina was trying to make some sense as to what Skye was trying to say, but the girl spoke fast and in a desperate tone, even grabbing marina trying to get her point across.

"Skye...calm down.
Was it those men again?" Marina had to ask. But it were odd that they would return. Maybe on Nar Shadda, sure. But this was Faldos and with an Imperial presense. Very few criminals would return so soon at a crime scene.

"Listen to me, if they were out to kill me they'd have done it without bothering to hold me down while riffling through my stuff. They had the knife all along and only used it on you, Skye..." It was obvious they were talking about two sets of people. Marina was still referring to the hoodlums and Sky to something else entirely.

But with the girl pressing Marina about leaving and no place was safe, as 'they' would find her, and then for Marina to go and hide?
Bounty hunters? Was the girl talking about bounty hunters? ...with a contract out on her?...How?....but why?

"Wait...wait hold on a sec....bounty hunters....2 bounty hunters are looking for me?...
Three?!!....sigh..." Marina put her hand on the girl's forearm and gently nudged her to come along with her.
The ramp had already been retracted and it were difficult for anyone to break in unless they had a heavy blaster rifle...on a tripod. The Mariner didn't have any armaments, but it had been originally designed by Loronar Ship Industries to serve as a republic scout vessel. It could take small arms fire as built.

"Here...just sit on the couch or on the bed.." She opened up the cabin across from her. The Executive suite...one similar to her own cabin. There were just two main cabins forward on the Mariner IV. After all, Marina was Queen Organa's intern and would transport dignitaries. Inside was certainly a bed, but also a couch and seating area for a passenger's guest or to entertain. It was for the most part a First Class cabin.

"Yes, I got it, Skye....3 bounty hunters have a contract out on me....yes, I got that.
Now please sit down and lets reason this out." She said in a calm voice.
It was too difficult to understand as to why anyone here, even if it was the First order to put out a contract out on her...and for what? Supplying a hospital with humanitarian aid? The cost of the shipment was nill compared to a contract out on an individual.

And why if it were the First order would they even really concern themselves? First, the hospital was getting free supplies. Supplies that the First Order didn't have to supply. Sure this was an oppressed world, but there was still some kind of working system here. Even a desert world like Tatooine which had Imperial presence allowed commerce and local bartering. How else was the Empire to tax the system?
Marina couldn't take Skye too serious. Not at this point. The girl had just sustained a stab wound and a haphazard fly-by-night surgical procedure. What the poor girl had gone through would have put many people out...out cold.

Marina pressed Sky to sit on the bed while she went to the cabin's private bathroom and soaked a handtowel under the running sink. She then went back over to Skye and gently wiped her face and forehead to cool her off a bit. All the while Skye was telling her that the only way out right now was for marina to hide while she took care of the contractors. The girl was talking about permanently taking care of individuals.
Poor girl, marina thought. So this is the fear the First Order here has put on these poor civilians. Skye along with so many people here through the many years of occupation had apparently been bombarded with such propaganda all their lives. It were fear. Fear was how the Galactic Empire and the First Order seemed to want to control their subjects. It were so sad. marina could see Skye was such a pretty girl. A girl who could have become so much in a fair system of government. here, she not only had little opportunities to live a good life, but had to live in fear. If she could, marina would hide her on the ship and skip away with her...free her. Enroll her into a University...give this poor soul a chance at a good life.

But first things first. to calm the girl down.
"Here...please...I'm not going anywhere and the ship's locked down. We're safe. Now calm down and we'll go over all of this...Ok?" Marina urged her to take a breather. they were indeed safe. hell, if she had to, she could punch them out of this system...and then what?
She knew she couldn't ever return if she broke the 2 day hold over. But if it were possibly, however improbable that what the girl was saying was true...then the best course of action would be to punch out.

Marina had friends...friends in the Underworld. hell, she had good friends in the business that this poor girl was talking about. Her friends could make the contract go away by paying the bounty hunters to cease. Like it hadn't been done before...

"Now first.
Skye...do you have family here?"

 

[Skye Achlys]

Even though Skye complied to going with Marina to the suite opposite to the blonde's, she really started to get annoyed, or more accurately, anxious. The more time they wasted on things like this conversation the closer the danger came. Why did Marina find it so hard to believe Skye? Did she not trust her?

Family. Family.
Asking about Skye's family was just about the stupidest thing one could do, but to realize it was, you needed to know her better. Skye had never really been able to recall her family very well, because she'd been taken by the First Order when she was still very young. And where most children eventually found their brothers and sister in the Order to be their new family as they grew up, that never happened to Skye as a result of her secluded training. Because she had no contacts with other people her age within the Order she never started to see it as family and desperately held on to the faint memory of her true family at home, the one that had been taken from her.
Because of all this the subject was a sensitive one for Skye, and asking for it can result in her scowling at you- or worse.

Surprisingly however, Skye found her fear for and.. connection, for as far as you could call it that, with the woman to greatly outmatch any anger that might have come as a result of Marina's question.

"No", she replied as calmly as she could, even though she was still quite desperate and stressed because they needed to act now. "I don't have any family." She paused for a bit before taking a deep breath and asking, "Why?".

Also, calm down? How? How could she? And how in the world was Marina still so calm? Did she not understand that she was being hunted by ruthless bounty hunters?
"We're not safe! We-we need to do something. Please! Marina!", Skye desperately tried to get her point across, but she could see in the blonde's eyes that it wasn't working.
She let herself fall on her back on the bed and sighed deeply. "Please", she softly whispered to herself as she stared up.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Be be beep be..beep-beep.....

Her droid had made it over to the cabin's door, which was still open.

"Shoot, TK....not now.
Yes...I think she's alright....now please go check on something" Marina didn't have time to explain to her droid that the woman had been hurt and was possibly experiencing the after shock and anxiety of their attack earlier.

"...uhm...wait....do go and check on our perimeter sensors. Secure the ship...lock it down for now...." She figured to have her droid do that to ease the poor girl down. "Go!....now!"

She had sent her droid away and hopefully with it locking down the ship, maybe she could calm and ease the girl down a bit.
But first thing she did was sit down on the bed next to her and felt her forehead.
"Easy...don't need to be jumpy. I'm just making sure you haven't picked up a fever or anything. The hypo should be keeping any infection from festering up,...just want ed to be sure." She withdrew her hand. No fever that she could feel...nor clammy either, which would indicate she were in shock

"I'm sorry to hear you don't have any family, Skye....sigh.." Marina took a deep breath. How was she going to present her with what she had in mind?

"I asked, because I'm about to break even my own rules...well, the organization's rules..." Marina got up off the bed and went over to the refresher room, the cabin's private bathroom. There she got a small hand towel and ran it through faucet, returning with the wringed out towel.

"Just stay down on the bed for a moment.." She then gently placed the cool towel on the girl's forehead.
"...anyway...reason i asked is that if you don't have any family here, then there is no reason not to book...you know...leave." There, marina said it. She were suggesting taking the girl out of the system. This unfortunately meant she could never return here and may just ruin other volunteers from being able to come and give aid. But here was a girl that in the free systems could be anything she could put her mind to. But here, all there was was one day to the next and under the fear of oppression and tyranny.

"...please, just hear me out. If you could hold out two days...if nothing of what you say comes to be and in two days I can leave without incident, come with me. No one has to know. You could leave the ship and at the right time when you know you aren't followed...you return. You hide in my ship. When i get clearance, we both leave, Skye. You could live free of fear..." Well, for the most part, as evil people were everywhere. but at least the girl, anyone out in the free worlds could pursue what they were willing to sweat over. Anything were possible.

"....you can do any-
Sigh...you can be anything you dream of being. There are Universities you can attend. I have the means of helping you. I'm not talking about charity. I'm talking about opportunities for you to be more than you were destined to be here on this world-" Marina was speaking when her droid once more beeped in.

"TK!...can't you see I'm -" But before she could finish scolding her droid for interrupting her again, it beeped and chimed in something unexpected.

"...what?
...who's snooping outside?"

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye dreaded the moment the droid would come back from its search, obviously Marina didn't think much of it, but Skye...she knew. She knew who were out there. And she dreaded them- and what they'd do to Marina.

It shouldn't have, but it warmed her heart, hearing Marina work out a plan and getting through trouble with the idea of helping Skye, helping her get a life.
It was slightly tempting, she had to admit, but she could never do such a things for so many reasons. First of all, she was loyal to the First Order, she had been raised by them. They had taught her everything. It was her life.
Secondly, Skye kept telling herself that the offer Marina had made wasn't an offer to her, but to some made up person who didn't exist. Marina's Skye and the actual Skye were two very different people.
Skye felt gross for still being near the woman. She felt gross for enjoying her kindness and company. She knew Marina's kindess was aimed for someone else.
Skye was First Order.
And she feared the moment of telling Marina, if that moment were ever to come.


The droid.
There it was.
And it went just like Skye had imagined.
Adrenaline rushed through her body but she managed to stay relatively calm for a while as she sat on the bed, turning to Marina and carefully taking a hold of both her hands. She stared into the blonde's eyes when she spoke softly, "That offer is very kind, Marina, but we have no time. What I said was no part of my imagination nor was it hysteria. It was truth. I know more than you think." She sighed deeply. "And now they're here. Even sooner than I thought."

Then the expression on her face changed. She owed this woman something. Marina had not only saved her life she had also cared for her, offered her refuse and so much more. She even offered her a new life.
And what had Skye done? Lied to her. Betrayed her. Skye was the reason why Marina was at danger at this very moment. She owed it to Marina. She owed her life and because of this, her worried and vulnerable expression turned into one of certainty and determination. She would help this woman. She had to.

She let go of Marina and stood up. "Droid, tell me everything. How many did you see? Where were they located? Were they armed? Anything of interest?", she asked with a firm voice. She almost commanded it. Guess the trooper in her started to show itself.

Even before the droid had answered Skye realised she wouldn't understand a single beep, so she quickly turned to Marina with a smile. "If you could tell me what he beeps that'd be great."

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Hmm..." She stood there, arms folded and with a stern expression on her features.

"TK...keep tabs on the perimeter....anything bigger than a rat comes crawling around, tell me." Marina said, not taking her eyes off the girl. The droid beeped about a few before she stopped it during its mid beeping..
"Sheesh!... fine...no rats on this system...krens?" She drooped her tough serious girl stance a moment, turning to her droid, shaking her fist at it.
"Krens then, whatever they are!....Anything bigger than THIS!" She waved her fist in front of its turret sensors.

It beeped some incoherent reply, turned, then went off to monitor anything approaching the ship bigger than Marina's fist.

"Grrr..." It took a moment for Marina to once again get into her serious stance, over the girl.
"Skye....you're working on getting me paranoid. Now how can you be so sure that anyone is after me and for what reason? " She drummed her fingers on folded arms, waiting for an answer. She knew that worked on her when her mother did it, so it may work on the girl too.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


What had happened was that Marina actually skipped a few beats when the droid came into Skye's cabin with the announcement that someone was snooping about outside the ship.
Marina's first reaction was her drawing in a deep breath, like when someone is suddenly confronted with imminent danger.
It were Skye who jumped off the bed and pressed the droid to spill what was out there. Unfortunately, she didn't quite understand the digital language of astro-mech droids, prompting her to get Marina out of her stupper expression and to get her tiny narrow butt moving.

Marina stumbled about a second or two as she fought a panic coming over her, before remembering that they could see the live feed of the cockpit's monitors right in the cabin's holo-screens.
So Skye wasn't immagining what she had warned her about. Killers were right outside her ship. OUTSIDE!
Marina went through a quick series of touches, getting up the live feeds of the exterior cameras.
Both her and Skye were instantly glued to the various views of the surroundings just outside the ship. There were several camera angles systematically giving them a full 360 degree angle of coverage. Sure enough without a shadow of a doubt there was a man seemingly snooping about outside.
marina's heart seemed to have jumped up to her throat, as she stopped breathing altogether, in a futile effort defense mechanism to act like a possum suddenly confronted by a predator.
But as it turned out, the man was going about picking up stray refuge...trash.
Garbage that was laying about outside the ship. It was the hospital janitorial personnel, making his rounds. Marina watched him awhile and in a few minutes he had picked up all the stray refuge that the night wind had blown about and had moved to another area.

She looked over to the girl who was still eagle eyeing every angle the cameras were picking up, but after a minute more with no other signs of movement, their eyes crossed.
It was then that she confronted Marina's poise...her serious stance....and of course the stern look she was proposing to project to the girl.

"Hmm..." She stood there, arms folded and with a stern expression on her features. (back to reading the top again)

 

[Skye Achlys]

Just a fething janitor.
Thank the Force.

Skye slowly averted her gaze from the cameras to Marina, who was watching her with a stern gaze. It made Skye feel odd, uncomfortable and...threatened. The way the blonde was staring at her, while tapping her fingers on her crossed arms, indicated something bad.
"Uhhh", she simply started, not having a proper answer or excuse. For a while her gaze flickered to just about everything it could except to Marina. "It's obvious. Is it not?", she eventually tried. "What you're doing here is illegal. The First Order won't like it. They'll want the supplies for their own army. That's just...obvious, right?", she asked somewhat desperate in a way that wouldn't fool Marina. Normally she'd have no trouble in using words to manipulate others, but the impending conflict with bounty hunters left her a little unconcentrated. When Marina gaze kept staring and almost burning into her skin, she added, "I'm helping you, am I not? Why don't you trust me?", she asked in a mix of many emotions, the main ones being annoyance, desperation and being slightly hurt because Marina didn't seem to trust her.

She stood awkwardly with her hands behind her back and her head tilted downwards so she was staring at the ground. Her pose was that one of a young child who had been caught doing something relatively innocent yet bad nonetheless. "I'm sorry", she whispered, even surprising herself. That was quite odd and uncalled for, she hadn't even told Marina why she'd be sorry, but the 'sorry' was genuine nonetheless. She stayed in that position, staring at the ground, for quite a bit, waiting for Marina's response, whether it would be her asking further questions, becoming angry or something entirely else. If Skye could, she wanted to keep Marina from knowing she was First Order. Not to save her own skin, but because if they, or Marina, were going to survive what was coming, they needed trust- and Skye feared that trust wasn't a thing she'd receive if Marina knew Skye's faction.

And then there was this dread, which had slowly being creeping up at her, around her heart, lungs- around everything. She could feel it. Death, slowly lurking closer, surrounding her, choking her, coming all the much closer, she felt it. It started to become so strong it made her shiver. Again, and again, and again. She couldn't control what she felt but she felt it nonetheless- and it warned her, but the naive and unknowing woman ignored the warning until they became unignorable in the form of a soft thumb seeming to originate from the ship's roof.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Trust you?!..." Marina shook her head in disbelief and irritation.

"What are you talking about...trust you?.....
Why wouldn't I trust you?....you saved my life, Skye. I don't know how far those thugs were going to go with me if you hadn't intervened.
Of course I trust you..." She sighed, as the girl wasn't getting it.
It wasn't that Marina didn't trust or believe her, it was that she thought Skye was imagining that someone would want to put a mark on her here in this system.


And of her activities?...They weren't like real smuggling. There were no profits to be made other than providing humanitarian aid. Hell, even the Galactic Empire turned a blind eye is systems like Tatooine, allowing that system to survive in what means and commerce they could, as long as they taxed the Providences.
Illegal? Sure, but this was like jaywalking rather than smuggling weapons or armaments against the oppressing regime.

What had this girl gone through to be so paranoid? Marina's heart sank to her tummy thinking of how this poor girl had grown up in this system, in fear. Marina understood the symptoms of such fears and maybe she believed the poor girl was succumbing to them. She stepped closer to Skye in wanting to give her a warm hug to let her know that she had a friend right here in front of her that would take care of her...that would scoop her off this system, despite Marina herself being never able to come to it again. But Marina wasn't the only volunteer for the organization...there were hundreds. Naturally, she only knew of those whom she immediately worked with, as it were important for all members to not know who all were and how many were involved. it were to protect the body of the organization. In a way, what the poor girl was saying about the First Order were true. That was why Marina only knew of a handful of volunteers such as her in case the unimaginable happened and what Skye was fearing could indeed come to pass.

But as she were about to comfort the girl and assure her that everything was going to be alright, something seemed to have dropped on the hull, the roof of her ship.
Startled, Marina instinctively looked up at the empty ceiling like she was actually thinking she could see through dura-steel?
What in blazes had fallen on the ship? It's not like they were in a hangar and something had dropped from the rafters or anything...they were in the open yard of the hospital!
Just then there was another thump, not too distant from the first. Marina could make out the minute variances that were telltale indications of whatever it was, were moving.
Her eyes then came down onto Skye's.

"What the?!..." Marina quickly shot over to the perimeter cameras but they were clear, nothing had been picked up on the motion sensors and recorded, say for the janitor who was long gone. Everything was just live and nothing was about. but the sounds of something moving on the ship's roof was undeniably real.

TK then came around beeping about intruder alert on the hull. Marina took in a near panic breath, for the first time wishing that whatever it was on top of her ship were Mynocks of sort, not what Sky had been warning her about.

"What?.." She were then taken by her droid's recommendation.
"Oh hell no!....You're not going up there and check. You stay put and get ready to fire up the engines... and get all maneuvering angle cams on line" She averted TK from going up the service hatch to the topside, as he were designed to do in space or anytime the hull needed servicing.
What she needed were the flight cameras that gave an entire sphere coverage of her ship. They normally came on line when the engines did, as they were indispensable during tight maneuvers. Currently, only the perimeter ground cameras were on line. She hadn't expected something to be dropping down on them from nowhere.

"Skye....you too. ...stay put.Ii'm not going to let anyone hurt you...." She spun around checking to make sure she had the ship secured. It had been from Skye's previous reentry panic warning.
"God why can't they be Mynocks...
Who the hell is up there?" She muttered under her breath.

 

[Skye Achlys]

It really didn't make any sense.
Like not at all.

The moment Marina actually caught up to reality and accepted the fact that there indeed were shady and dangerous people out there, Skye sunk back into her thoughts. She knew they were coming and had already played out just about a few hundred scenarios in her head, but this wasn't one of them. It just didn't match with her own experience.

Her thoughts trailed back all the way to when she was somewhere in her teens. Back then she had a monthly training day, each day with a different mercenary- or bounty hunter. A frown appeared on her face as a result of these memories, because they weren't very lovely ones. Sure, those day had probably been the most helpful ones and the ones she had learned the most from, but her level of skill and learning required extreme devotion, whether she wanted or not.
Those damned days, they had always been so rough. The only way to learn how to fight is through practice, that was obvious. And practice is what she had done against these bounty hunters, and oh boy had they left their marks on her. Sure, the weapons they used were set to 'none lethal', but they still stung like hell. After every day with one of these experienced opponents she usually needed a good week or two before she was completely recovered and well. Of course, she still had to keep training during those weeks so that couldn't have helped either.

Still, it was only now that she realized why she had such a bad feeling about those noises on the roof.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but she seemed to clearly remember that all the bounty hunters she had trained against, she had fought against, were always in one of two groups she had made up. The first group she remembered were the 'silent ones', or at least that's how she called them. The 'silents ones' were the kind that were smart, agile and always unnoticeable and not able to be heard until it already was too late.
She had called the second group the 'fatties' or 'heavies' when she was young, but after a few years she changed that name to the 'tanks'. Tanks were the kind that always wore way too much armor, making them look like a...well...tank. What she also remembered was that these tanks were always carrying blasters with way too much firepower. She had always found it to be really unsettling when she faced either of these types

Ugh. She really hated both groups for different reasons.

But still, this didn't make any sense.
Whoever was up on the ship was definitely one of the 'silent ones' class, because a 'tank' would've probably tried to rip the ship apart by blasting it to bits by now.
But these bounty hunters she named 'silent ones' were the best at stealth. They hardly were so idiotic to just stomp around on top of the ship, calling nothing but attention to themselves. Not if they hadn't suddenly become gigantically cocky.

Unless they didn't need stealth any longer. As far as Skye could remember, they usually revealed themselves when their prey was stuck, not able to escape. Once their prey was cornered, they'd usually make themselves known to strike fear into their prey's hearts, weakening them significantly.

Skye eyes almost lit up when she suddenly called to Marina. "I don't think we can leave."
She just looked with a fixed expression towards the woman for a good couple of seconds before she explained.
"That bonking? That's extremely sloppy. Unprofessional. Not something to expect from these guys. After all, if we knew they were here we could just fly away.
Unless we couldn't."
Without looking whether or not the droid was still in the room, she yelled, hoping that if the droid wasn't here maybe Marina could answer her, "Droid, has their been any alterations or damage to any of the systems? Components? Inside or outside? Maybe something has been attached to the ship? Anything will do."

That had to be it. There was no other explanation for the fact that a hunter had left noises to be heard by its prey.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

Again the droid didn't respond to the girl, opting to go about what it had set on to do...and that was getting the Mariner IV's flight camera's up.

These sensors reported back like cameras in a sense, but weren't anything optical or stationary per say. They created a seamless sum of inputs that created a 3-D view of the ship and it's surroundings. In flight, these images could even portray the ship flying before said pursue crafts. it was like looking at the ship from the perspective of who were engaging it. In short, the 3-D display monitors rendered everything around the ship like it were in a video game.

"What the..." Marina took to hopping in her pilot chair, and taking the control yoke in hand, as that's were she were more accustomed in using this real time flight simulation. She was panning the various angles and came upon the two figures on the Mariner IV like a hawk swooping down on it's prey. Her view angle were like she was looking down her ship from above.

"There's two figures up there, but they seem to be wearing some kind of..."
They were not bounty hunters at all...but First Order troop in mat black, non reflecting armor.
Sure, black was better at night, rather than white. But only if one were using optics. The sensors were all spectrum and although the armor gave then two a sense of blending in with the darkness, the ship exterior wasn't as such and the silhouettes made them stand out against the hull like black ants on white paper. Of course with color correction shifts.

"Sons of bitches!...." Marina looked back out of the cockpit and down the corridor's ceiling. It was where she pegged them to be. naturally they couldn't be seen, but she looked in that direction nevertheless. Then she hit the blast shields and the cockpit meta-shield covered the dura-glass, for extra protection.

"Shoot!
There's more of them coming down!" She spun around giving Skye an unbelievable look. How was a squad of troops bearing down from a transport on her ship? The Mariner IV was a civilian ship and it looked like the troops were coming down on it like it was a military craft.

Be de peep be be dee be peep... The droid was whirling to and from one console as the engines came up.
"All clear!" She shouted at her droid.
In that instant, Marina let go of the yoke, as did TK drew back from the console he were at. The entire cockpit went dark for a second, before marina took hold of the yoke and TK went back to the console.

"Ha...how'd you like that shock in the pants?..." Marina shouted as she strapped herself in tight and punched the sub drives, lifting her ship off the tarmac a meter or so.
"Everyone, Hang on!..." Marina creamed more than shouted as she pulled extreme left on the yoke making the entire cockpit seem like it was in a gravity well, as g-forces pulled everything in the cockpit forward.

"Oh SHIET!" Marina's eyes bulged nearly out of her head. Not due to her ship spinning about throwing whatever or whomever had been shocked outside on her roof, but having the poor girl's body slam right into the console next to her.

"SKYE!!..." Marina shouted realizing she had foregone warning her of the electrical discharge and her wild spin maneuver.
"Oh frak!..." She gasped, finding the poor girl glued to the console by her feet.
Marina's short lived victory had taken a sudden hit. She didn't know if Skye had been near or touching the hull or console and had sustained a shock. That, and suddenly whipping the ship into a spinning G-force generator that not only flung everything not attached off her hull, but everything inside the ship to it's opposite interior wall. Only in the cockpit. It was the forward console. And there contorted like a thrown rag doll lay the poor girl, unconscious.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Hey.... Skye....
...wake up, girl....please wake up..." Marina's soft voice were calling the girl to awaken.
She had a moist towel patting the poor girl's head trying to get her to come too.

The near quiet hum of the Marine's hyper-drives were barely audible, but the star streaks passing the port windows of the Medical Bay was a sure sign that they were well out of the Faldos system.
TK was half way in the bay, beeping a soft concerning tone.

"I don't know TK.... she's been out cold for 3 hours already. God I'm so worried..."She said, looking at her vitals on the med display panel. Nothing internal were bleeding..not even her previous wound. But the poor girl may have been already unconscious after the hull shock and may have slammed into the cockpit console like a rag doll. Still, there was no indication of any blood vessels eruption in her brain scans.

Marina had carried her to the sick bay once the Mariner had cleared Faldos and made a jump. It incidentally was toward First Order Space as it were the quickest and first clear calculation of a jump that came up. And that jump were to end in another two hours deeper into First Order space.
But marina wasn't as worried about that, then of the girl. It had been again her fault in hurting the poor girl.
It was undeniably her fault for getting the poor girl stabbed, then operated on without anesthetic and now...God only knows how much she got battered about in marina's too fevered tactical maneuver. How could she not have thought of the girl?
It had to be the damned Imperial troopers.

"Damn those devils..." Marina uttered to herself.
Shiet always went wrong when they were about.

"Skye...baby, please wake up..."

 

[Skye Achlys]

The galaxy.
It was so beautiful, filled with both light and darkness. Skye could see thousands and thousands of stars and planet as she floated between them. They were beautiful.
Yet there was one which stood out; it seemed to be brighter than the rest, but it also had a strange aura around it. Skye's attention shifted towards this strange star and as her gaze fixated on the star, its brightness grew and grew until she saw nothing else but the light. The light was surrounding her entirely. And then it flashed away.

When she reopened her eyes she found herself on a beach- or actually, floating above one. The gentle waves softly splashing on the sand and against the rocks were extremely soothing, so calm and peaceful from her perspective. The way the waves slowly gained more territory from the sand, this place is general, was so serene, it was perfect. The beautiful sounds of the sea, the air, the smell and the looks, it was all there and it was all perfect.
As peaceful as it could get.

And what was that? Her attention shifted towards a small object which appeared to be lying on the beach, in the sand. Skye drifted closer through the air, so she could have a proper look at this strange object. As she came closer and closer the beautiful bright blue skye appeared to become slightly darker, yet Skye didn't notice.
Ah, so that was the object. It was a mask.

Her mask.

Skye reached out to take it, but for some reason couldn't get close enough to do so. She could not float close enough, the mask remaining out of reach.
Not being able to take it, she just floated there, watching it sit as the waves she had previously labeled 'peaceful' slowly gained more territory and slowly made its way to the mask- and Skye curiously kept watching, she wasn't able to leave or look away, neither did she try to do so.
It didn't take long for the water to rise towards the mask, so Skye hadn't been watching very long when the first drop of water made its way onto the bottom of the mask
and onto Skye's chin?

The woman was surprised to feel a drop of water touch her chin while she was floating above the water. How had it reached her? She sort of got her answer as she next wave came and washed over the mouth of the mask.
Skye gagged in response, water falling out of her own mouth and into the sea below her. As the waves started to go faster and faster the mask started to become more and more submerged. Skye's lungs started to become filled with water as she gagged and gasped for air, only letting more water in in the process. The water then started to get into her eyes, slightly burning and keeping her from seeing something. Any attempt that she made of moving was denied by who knew what as she was solidly kept in place, floating and drowning. The same sea which had looked so peaceful a while ago had now almost completely submerged the mask, and Skye panicked eyes saw it happen. Her heart beat faster and faster- and then it happened, her vision became dark as the last piece of the mask became submerged.


The dark haired woman came to with panicked and extremely quick breaths as if she almost died. She was completely unaware to her surrounding for a while yet slowly opened her eyes anyway. The woman, still not understanding a thing and still stressed and fearful from what she had just experienced, was slightly shaking as well, on top of her panicked breaths. Her now opened eyes were flickering between everything she could she without her actually seeing a thing. The young woman was untrained, dangerous and most importantly in a situation she believed to be life or death. Because of her own strength over which she had no control but mostly because of her fear of dying, she started to shake slightly more. Yet that wasn't the only thing, everything which wasn't nailed to the ground or walls started to shake as well, unconsciously controlled by the panicked woman. The sound of ringing and shaking glass and such filled the room together with the sound of Skye's breathing.
She didn't understand what she saw, yet she started to slowly recognize Marina leaning over her. Skye was still in too much of a...shock - or whatever it was - to get out of it and calm down on her own. She needed someone else for that.
She needed Marina.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

S H U D D E R......everything not nailed down took to motion...

"What the-..." Marina leaned her body over the girl, grabbing hold of the bed's edges.
The ship must have gone through some sort of gravitational anomaly...possibly too close to a passing star system...or so she could only hope.
What ever it was that they must have passed through, it had come up suddenly and the entire ship must have jarred and shook. As thus, Marina held on, securing the girl below her to the bed. But as quickly as the shudder had come, it dissipated. But not the aftermath of what it not only knocked over, but the possibility that the ship or the hull had just been compromised. Yet, cabin pressure and everything seemed suddenly normal again.

"Shi-t-su, what the frak was that?..." She uttered, feeling safe enough to let go of the girl.
Her first reaction were to run to the cockpit and see what the hell they had gone through. It hadn't been anything solid, or else she'd bee having a conversation with an angel. And surprisingly, none of the ship's alarms were blaring their warnings.
But she just couldn't leave the girl all alone...not unconscious like that.

"TK..." she had the comm open to the cockpit.
What in blazes was that?" She asked, now reluctant to leave the girl, as it seemed she were finally pulling out of what Marina had feared was a coma. The poor girl had been out cold and un-responding since their bolt out of Faldos system.

De be de beep....
The answer was just as confusing as her question as to what had just happened. Nothing happened.

"TK, the ship. What did we just go through..sigh." No way the droid could be that thick.

Everything was fine, all ship's systems were stable, was the answer. Why she ask?

"Why I'm asking?...
Why I'm asking....you kidding me?"

No it wasn't kidding. Nothing out of the ordinary had passed.

Had her droid hit it's turret too? Marina couldn't understand how that droid missed the shudder.
Then what was the mess on the Med bay floor? What she had out of the cabinets and drawers to tend to the girl were all over, like as if the ship was hit by a turbulence.
But that at the moment could wait, as the poor girl seemed to take in a deep abated breath like she had been holding it. Maybe the shudder had jarred her to awaken...

Marina put her hand on the girl's forehead, trying to comfort her. Something as simple as a human touch, especially on the forehead when you are ill does wonders for comfort. At least it was when Marina's mom did that to her.

"Hey...." her voice coaxed softly.
"Skye.... baby, you Ok?....it's me, Marina..." Lord, she hoped her name wasn't going to strike fear in the poor girl. Seemed since Skye met up with her, all she seemed to sustain was pain and tragedy.
She couldn't blame the girl for maybe blaming all her troubles on marina. After all, getting stabbed, getting in an entanglement with the First Order on account of Marina and then just simply getting shocked with high voltage discharge and then rammed into a console. Good God, if Marina wasn't 'bad luck' for this poor girl, then what was?

TK once more reported that it ran ship diagnostics and that everything was fine.

"Fine TK...I'll check on that myself. Just please don't go through whatever you went through again....over!...Sheesh..." She cut it off, as it were useless to argue with the thing. Obviously she wasn't going to get to the bottom of what happened over the comm. She'd check on it herself after she knew the girl was alright.

"Skye...baby...." Her gentle voice returned to the girl at hand.
"I'll make you hot cocoa...hear?" Marina's voice softly called. "come on....open your eyes.."

 

[Skye Achlys]

(Not long. Just need to get her fully awake and functional again )

Words...
Softly spoken words slowly made their way into her head and through her brain. The voice.... she recognized it. Did she?
Yes, she did. It was... the woman. The ta- no, it was Marina. Marina.

Marina.

The blonde's name echoed through Skye's head as she slowly opened her eyes even though it took her quite some effort to do so. As her blurry vision slowly started to become slightly clearer, she made out what appeared to be the woman standing next to her. She did nothing but stare at the blurry image of Marina for a good few seconds before she opened her mouth to speak, but only whimpers could be heard.
She tried again, but to no avail. As she closed her mouth again she refocused on her vision, trying to get a somewhat clear sight.
Once she saw Marina more clearly, she gave the woman a questioning look.
She opened her mouth once more with the intention to speak.
"Wh- what h-?"
She closed her eyes again, only to reopen them seconds later with a deep exhale.
"What happened?"
She tried to get up, but when she did she suddenly got quite dizzy so she quickly lied down again. "Uhhhh", she moaned out of discomfort.
Then it snapped back to her. "Soldiers!", she yelled as she quickly tried to get up, only to clumsily fall back on the bed again. "Wha-? Where?"

 

[Marina DeVoe]

'Oh thank the Heavens..' her emotions and anxiety finally seeing the girl coming around.
Marina was relieved the girl was coming out of her coma like stasis, as she had been flung across the cockpit floor at perhaps 2-gs or more following an electrical discharge to the hull that Marina had initiated.

"Whoa...easy there....everything's alright.." She found herself temporarily taking hold of Skye when she sat up screaming about the troops. Or the last memory of them dropping down on the ship from some kind of transport.

"There's no troops....No troops, Skye...they're gone.
Just lay here a moment....collect your thoughts first..." Marina said, letting go of the girl, after she plopped back down on the bed.
Her hand went over to part the girl's hair that had settled partly covering her eyes. Sky's hair had seen as much a toss as the girl.
Marina also got another feel of her forehead, as she looked over the med scans again. Brain activity were elevated, as Skye's consciousness were putting as much scattered puzzle pieces together...along with what could be soreness starting to take effect. But the worst of it would be delayed a few hours, if not till next day when every ache and pain were going to be felt.
Marina had certainly muscle relaxers, but she would hold that in reserve till she was sure the girl didn't have a delayed concussion. Something she was also thanking the stars for not afflicting the girl.

"We're OK...the troopers are gone..." Marina, spoke with relief in her voice. She had been bedside for hours and this was Godsend, the girl waking up and asking questions...especially about the last thing she remembered. Unfortunately, it were something Marina wanted to forget, but as long as the girl had touched on this memory, it were best to ride along side of it. It meant Skye didn't suffer from amnesia or anything else. The girl's memory was apparently intact.

"...and...gulp... sorry to say....I know you didn't want to leave Faldos, but we're in the middle of a jump." She bit her lip a second, as in a way, she just kidnapped the poor girl, now that she thought about it.
How was it that everything pertaining t this poor kid had turned out horrid? But the girl had said she didn't have family, so maybe it wasn't that bad.Still, the girl must have friends who would worry of her whereabouts. But what could Marina have done after flinging those troops off her ship?..hop on over to the other side of town and drop the girl off like they just had a typical girl's night out?

"Anyway... I think those troopers took as much a tumble as you. I hope they're OK...I mean, they had armor on. It's got to be good for something, right?" Yes, Marina was concerned about the well being of the troopers. After all, they were human beings that for the most part were just doing their job, despite having picked a wrong line of employment. And most likely they had horrid bosses.
But Marina couldn't have allowed them to enter her ship and harm the girl or herself. What she did was not nice, but necessary. Still, she did hope they were going to be alright..much like this poor girl.

"Say....how are you feeling? You got pretty banged up in our getaway, you know. Stupid me, didn't think of warning you." Marina palmed her own forehead.
"I was just too focused on doing something fast before they did something to breech the hull." She explained, before taking a deep breath and finding a moment herself to let go of some tensions.
Besides, they were going to come out of their jump in about two hours and she had to yet check on that rough turbulence the ship went through, despite her droid playing it off...

 

[Skye Achlys]

(Am bad at writing hurt Skye, sorry. Postsize will return to normal when she has cleared her confusion)

Skye just listened and gave the woman a confused stare. "Wha-? Gone? Where are we?", she mumbled a lot of questions without really listening for any answers. "I need to....to...help", she mumbled as she tried to get up again, but failed just like the previous times.
She blinked a few times to keep a clear sight before she frowned. "My- my head", she spoke softly as she grasped for it with her hand. It slowly started to feel like her brain was being hit repeatedly with a hammer. She softly grunted in response while having an uncomfortable expression on her face.
She still didn't really understand. The last thing she could remember was the discovery of soldiers landing on the roof of the ship- and now everything had changed. Why couldn't she remember anything? What happened?

The more she tried to remember the vaguer the story inside her own head got. It hardly made any sense, she missed such an enormous gap of information. She was already lucky to be able to remember everything before the interference of the soldiers. Skye didn't want to think about what she might've tried with the woman if she had forgotten that the blonde had been her original target. Ugh. Whatever happened, she had to be grateful for everything she did still remember.

Her gaze flickered around the room. 'Medbay', she thought. So something bad had happened to her. Then a small wave of fear hit her, but it quickly dissapeared as she looked down and moved her limbs, making sure she hadn't lost any. Then what had happened? And what was this 'tumble' Marina was talking about? "What did you-?", she mumbled in such a way it was barely audible.

It took her a while before she looked over at Marina and gazed into her eyes. "Please, tell me what happened, slowly", she asked. She had listened to everything Marina had said, but Skye found herself not being able to recall what she had been told for some reason and therefore asked again; what happened? As the woman gazed into Marina's eyes with a certain confusion, she suddenly reached out to her with her hand, trying to get a hold of Marina.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Ok... yes, sure.....just know that we're alright for now..." Marina replied, not sure what to make of the girl's confusion.

Ok sure, she could tell it all as to what all happened, but maybe that should wait till the girl got more of her bearings. What Skye didn't need was an overload. The girl had to first get her head straightened out before she could process new information...the missing puzzle pieces.

"...I can explain everything...but first lets get you to relax a moment. You've been out cold awhile. Lets take it slow....
Breathe, rest a moment and clear your head. Let me do the worrying for now..." And worried Marina was still.

Sure, it was good that the girl had finaly come around. The scans didn't indicate any head injuries or swelling going on. But Skye had sustained a shock and then her body slammed into the console due to the G-forces Marina's ship had generated in the gyro spin. Yes, all bad...but not life threatening.

"I'm not going to go anywhere... not leaving you..." Marina got the girl to release her hold on her.
"...I'm just going to get you some water...Ok?...stay put." She patted the girl on her shoulders.
"I'm going to get you some ice water....don't try getting up on your own...hear?"

Marina then scurried out of the Med bay and not more than a few skip's distance she was in the galley, retrieving a glass and some ice water. It was then that she noticed the other bottle on the table. It was the one she herself had opened not an hour ago. her eyes then went over to the counter... her glass, still half full. She looked over to the open med bay door and could partially see Skye still laying on the bed. Some items that had been spewed to the floor, were still there. How could they have hit turbulence just minutes before, and only the med bay had been affected...tossed about?
Nothing else on the ship seemed out of place or knocked over...

"Here, you go..." She re-entered the med bay, bringing Skye a drink of water. If anything water was good for headaches. Well, if the girl were a bit dehydrated, it would help. But water couldn't hurt and besides, the girl's lips were a bit parched. Marina was certain she could use a drink.

Sure enough she didn't meet resistance and Skye nearly emptied the glass. After all, she had been out quite a few hours. marina had brought her water bottle with her and she too took a much needed drink.
Putting Skye's glass on the table, she went ahead and felt the girl's head again. She did seem much calmer and their eyes met.
"You gave me quite a scare. ..." she then said, sighing.

"Ok....sigh....what happened..." Marina nodded, as the girl's piercing eyes wanted to know now.
"As you last recalled.... some troopers were on top of the ship.
Yea...I think there were about three...
...yea, three were on top before I discharged 100k or so volts to the hull plates. Low amperes though....non-lethal. Anyway.. I then lifted off and did about a 4-G spin...I think... not sure, as I wasn't watching the data, just the proximity clearances...yea.
Anywho, that spun the troopers or whomever else was clinging on the hull, off." She hesitated a moment, taking in a deep breath, as this part was the reason the poor gild was laid up on the bed in her present headache and confusion.

"Honey....I thought you were standing behind me when I discharged. ...sigh...
You weren't. I think you may have been touching the wall or something that enabled you to receive the same shock meant for the troopers.
I yelled hold on, but didn't see you, nor knew you had collapsed.
i put the ship into a tailspin and that's when i saw you slam right into the console at my feet." There was hurt in marina's eyes as she could imagine the hurt she caused the girl. Maybe Skye couldn't remember anything, but she could certainly feel the aftermath of that event now.

"I then took off right under what appeared to be a transport of some kind and made a quick ascension into open space....got some quick coordinated down and took the first clear jump window.
We jumped out of the frying pan, and into the fire, so to speak.
Skye, I jumped deeper into hell it seems. We're deeper into First Order space and we're going to come out of the jump in less than an hour and a half... I think." It was apparent that Marina wasn't so proud of their narrow escape, for it only got them in possibly more of a jam.

There was no doubt they had the makings on her ship and must have at least figured out her jump's general trajectory...right into the heart of their territory. There was a good chance that they were on the 'Enemy of the Empire' main listing page.
Or more like on their 'All Points Bulletin' transmissions. Most likely worse than having just 3 bounty hunters on their tail now.

The ship was definitely an Outlaw ship in First Order Space.

 

[Skye Achlys]

In the beginning Skye couldn't believe the story she was told. Did Marina really do this to her? The same woman for who she had done all this work? Skye had tried her best for Marina- she had been stabbed for her- and this was how the blonde repaid her?
These thoughts combined with the pain she was still feeling and now knew to be caused by Marina filled her with such anger that it took mere seconds before her glass and other movable things started violently shaking again. However, when Skye saw the hurt in Marina's eyes all of that anger suddenly rushed away as if someone pushed an emergency flush button- and while she stopped being angry, the objects stopped moving.

"It's fine", Skye shortly replied. A sense of pain could too be heard in her voice- not because she was still in physical pain, but because she felt betrayed by whom she thought to be a lovely new person. Her actiond and emotions towards the woman were bitter. She remained silent for a bit, staring out in front of her.
Eventually she spoke again, "Don't worry about being in First Order space. I'll handle that", she abruptly replied. She didn't give a reason for this as she wasn't ready yet to tell Marina who she truly was, but because of her bitter emotion she told Marina what she planned to do. She was going to handle it: by contacting her superiors and asking for the next steps, considering Marina had complicated things significantly. But if Marina failed to drive the bitterness, she had driven into Skye heart, back out again, the dark haired woman might be willing to follow up on the 'kill' order- to simplify and end both this hellish mission- and the woman.

She didn't say anything to the blonde, she merely stared at the wall with an expression which couldn't be fully understood as it consisted of many emotions. Pain and bitterness being the main ones.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

She could understand the girl's frustration and confusion. But what choice did she have or were given?
It would have been quite different if the girl hadn't been so adamant about bounty hunters and all.
Then of course, if the said troopers for what ever reason hadn't gone commando dropping on her ship...sure, she wouldn't have done what she did.
Not if they had come knocking at her door, she wouldn't. There would have been no justification in shaking them off like she did and taking off.

But what was done was done and most likely the poor girl was now as much a wanted outlaw in her own system as Marina was.
Did she feel bad? of course she did. But she wasn't a daughter of a Duke made just to wear party gowns and get all dolled up, no.
Even her brother had not only studied abroad...but had gone to some traditional family male heir monastery thingy, or what-not, for Lord-knows-what, to some undisclosed sector of the galaxy. But her brother had come back all ready to take on his father's responsibility. It was some kind of a male bloodline thingy that the females in the House just accepted through tradition. It was never talked about. Or at least the males never did...not to the females.

But as far as Marina and her sister, including her mother and supposedly her late grandmother too, had all been through extensive training in avoiding kidnapping or just being forcibly taken. This although took place on their system, Alderaan. They didn't go away for years like the men in the family did.
Her family would not have allowed Marina to go star hopping and exploring on her own without some extensive counter measure training tactics on the matter.

"Skye, I'm really sorry.
If the authorities wanted to just talk, they would have come knocking. They gave me no choice....Honestly, I didn't want you to get into trouble. I'm sorry. " Marina couldn't apologize enough to the girl, as she had in many ways turned her known world upside down.

But it were obvious that Skye was not only ticked off on account of the accident, but of the fact that she was now a fugitive in her own system.
"I don't know how to fix it, Skye...you have to believe me. if I could I would." Marina kept talking as the girl gulped her thirst away.

Then out of the blue...or so it seemed at first; the ship seemed to have hit that strange turbulence again. Only this time, the items weren't randomly being shaken, they were oblivious to the ship's generated gravitational field. they were floating like they were being-

"Gasp... Oh shoot!..." Marina realized what was happening and quickly almost jumped backwards.

"Oh dear lord.... oh my...." She then got hold of her nerves and approached the girl again, putting her hand on her shoulder.

But the girl replied it was fine, that she would take care of it.... before the floating items gave way to the gravity once more.
"Frak, me!..." Marina cursed nearly under her breath. But it wasn't to hide it from the girl...just that she rarely dished outbursts like that.

"What kind of talk is that?!....
...and do you know you're force connected?.... " It was rather quite funny as to how Marina went from shock to asking if the girl knew she was connected somehow to the force. So was this how it happened when someone found out they were force sensitive? Marina didn't know that Skye knew what she had done, as the girl was in many ways, still somewhat distraught.

"Gah...this is crazy..." She then said, fixing a loose lock of hair from near the girl's eyes.
"All of this...last night's (they had been in a jump for hours) mugging...the troopers...now this force thingy...too, too much!" Marina didn't know what to say or do really, say for picking up the items on the floor again.
They were going to come out of the jump any time now, and frankly anything was up for grabs as to what was going to happen next.

"Well for one thing.... you're in no condition to do anything, should we somehow be boarded. And listen to me...and listen carefully. If the First order should discover that you're a force user...they will surely take you away...somewhere...they'll want to exploit you..your abilities to suit them. Skye...listen to me...I won't let them get that chance...I won't." She said that almost sounding like an oath. It was obvious that she was set on protecting the poor child.
No way was she going to have the First Order or anyone exploit the girl...not on her watch.

 

[Skye Achlys]

"Marina. Stop. Stop! Just. Just stop", Skye interrupted.
She couldn't take it anymore, Marina seemed to be worrying about her all the time now. She was so sweet, too sweet. Skye couldn't take it. No longer. No. This ended now.
The blonde kept speaking about 'saving' her or keeping her away from the First Order.
But it was too late for any of that.
Far too late.

Skye wás First Order.
Skye was a Disciple of Ren.

She sighed and shook her head. Even though Skye was loyal to the Order she had started to grow fond of Marina and her kindness. There had to be a middle way.
"Listen," she started, "we just need to get you out of First Order space. I can do that. We can do that. Then... then you'll be..." she paused for a moment," then you'll be safe again"
She turned her head slightly so she could stare into Marina's eyes. "Please, please don't worry about me. I'll be fine here. Have been my entire life and will be my entire life. Trust me", she finished with one of her warm smiles.
Her face was riddled with doubt as she continued after all, "I..I know what I am. Okay? I know"

She remained silent for a while before she looked away from Marina, but in a way that she could still get a glimpse of the woman's face so she could read her reactions. Not that she really wanted to.
She'd rather keep this hidden forever, but the longer she waited the worse it would get. And eventually they would meet the Order and then Marina would find out anyway. So better she heard it from her than from someone else.

"Marina, I...I know you didn't have a choice back on Faldos. From what I've seen you're one of the most respectable and kind people I know. You..", she chuckled slightly, "you wouldn't even hurt a murderer if you could help it. Instead, you..," her smile faded, " instead you would nurture her. Marina I..I'm not from Faldos. I was there... on a mission", her voice started to get shaky the more she spoke about this. Her heartbeat rose significantly. Apparently she truly was afraid Marina would hate the woman after this.

"I...I am..," she started shaking lightly. Was she in shock after all? That should have been possible, right?
"I am F- F- First O..o...order", she finally stuttered while her heartbeat went through the roof. Skye was shaking significantly know and soon after she told Marina the truth her head fell to the side with her eyes closed.

 

[Marina DeVoe]

"Skye-..." She tied to get a word in edge wise, but the young woman was adamant about getting something out.

Marina took in a deep breath and buttoned up her lip, deciding it best to hear the girl out. After all, Skye had just come out of what appeared to be a near coma, so letting her ramble on about handling the First order could in a way be good. It would at least show if the girl had some adverse affects being unconscious for so long.
Marina was at least noting that her sentences, however filled with anxiety were, for the most part were comprehensible. They did have well over an hour to spare before they would drop out, so if having the girl get whatever was exciting her off her chest, then so be it.

But what first started as Skye wanting to protect Marina, soon took an adverse turn.

"Wait, what?....what are you saying?" Marina had to interject, as the girl was leading to someplace she certainly wasn't too comfortable with. Sure, Marina couldn't see hurting anyone, but what was the girl getting at? Had she done questionable things to stay alive back on Faldos? Did she think Marina was going to think and treat her differently of her if she did?

"Skye, you're no diff-" But she didn't complete her sentence, as the girl with some hesitation finally blew her mind away.
At first reaction was for Marina to lean back in shock, as this revelation was too incredible to believe.
"Now you stop-" She got a hold of Skye's arms, trying to stop her from going further with this gibberish insanity of hers. There was no way this girl was First Order...no freakin way!

"Skye?...SKYE!..." Marina shouted, slightly shaking her as the girl suddenly went limp on her again.
"Oh shiet!.... not now!" She held on to the girl, wrapping her arm around her and parting her raven hair. Her forehead was cold and sweaty.
"No, no no..." Marina laid the girl down again on the bed, reaching for the proximity controls on the scanners. What the hell had happened? Why was she out again? And what did she mean, she was First Order?...How could that be?

The scanners only showed what it had previously shown....normal unconscious brain activity...no signs of any trauma, blood or any significant bruising.
"Shoot...this is beyond me....God, I don't know what's wrong with you..." She spoke to herself trying to get through the interpretations of what she was seeing on the scanners. If there was something seriously wrong, the diagnostic programs would surely have picked it up and alerted it on the display...right?
But all biorhythms and body functions were within the normal range of human female.
Ok, so the girl was 2 days in her menstrual cycle...but it definitely had nothing to do to cause her going unconscious. Blood pressure was good too now, for someone unconscious. Maybe a combination of stress along with her period put the girl a bit on edge, but nothing to warrant as to why she went out like a light again.

Beep beep beep... came her droid's blaring over the comm. he was calling her to get up front asap.

"What now TK!? I'm kind of in a crisis at the moment...." She retorted back, in a frustrated tone.

The droid then shot back that they were dropping out of hyperspace...NOW!
They still had over an hour to go, but something had suddenly come up on the long range proximity sensors.

"WHAT? What the frak's going on now?!" Marina had not left the girl's side since they jumped from Faldos. TK had been monitoring the ship's flight in their jump since.

Her droid reported that they were on a collision course with a mass gravitational field. They had no recourse at hyper-speed, than to cut off the hyper-drives-
As soon as the droid reported that, Marina heard her hyper-drives drop out. The port window of the med bay suddenly revealed the collapsing star field....the Mariner was instantly decelerating.

"FRAK!" Marina shouted, knowing all too well what that meant.
For a slit second she didn't know whether to dart to the cockpit or what as the girl was unconscious still on the bed.
"Shoot...Oh I'm so sorry Skye....lord I hope you don't come too during this...God, I'm so sorry..." She tightened up the last strap on the girl, securing her to the bed.
No way was she going to have the poor girl fly about the room like a rag doll in a clothes dryer.

She had literally sprinted and jumped into her chair, as the stars seemed to almost come to a standstill.
TK had already the sub-light engines all fired up and in a smooth transition from hyper-speed to sub-light, marina punched the drives. To her starboard was the all too ominous point of the SD, which the mariner now was hard banking to avoid. She felt the shudder of the tractor beam skimming over her hull as it failed to get a grip on her.
Marina had with her quick thinking and coming on the control of her ship that there was a high probability that the mass gravity that triggered her ship to drop out was indeed generated.
Sure enough, as she banked hard and away from the fast approaching destroyer, the 4 spherical bulges of the gravity generators protruding form it, confirmed her intuition.
She had encountered one before and had gotten nabbed soon after. But after some arduous harrowing hours of her getting boarded and cleared, she had sworn to never have them nab her again like that...NEVER!

Well, if she could help it. So she had studied and gone over many military scenarios and simulations in how to outmaneuver the trap. One thing for certain was that the gravity well generators had to be off line in order for a tractor beam to be efficiently aimed, otherwise that too was affected and ineffective. There were literally seconds before Well Grav-shut down to tractor beam efficiency.

The shudder she felt was the tractor beam out of phase still that failed to grab a hold of her ship. It was just a matter of time, the right angle and distance for the SD to grab hold of the Mariner IV.
Marina's only tactical defense was to not book ahead, but do as many evasive maneuvers that put her above and then below the plane of the SD...like a fly buzzing about one's nose.

"Coordinates, TK!.....get us a jump point!" Marina bucked her ship left, right, spin, down, up...all the while getting some beam strands rumbling across her hull.
"I don't know!....any jump point...NOW!!"

Beep de be beep... TK, multitasking alerted her that the SD had launched some Ties

"Oh frak these frakin frakers!..." She was quickly running out of options and to say the least, out of buzzing space as the Ties were now dangerously vectoring in an orchestrated maneuver to box her in...or blow the ship to smithereens.

Be beep de beep... TK had calculated a good jump window, taking into account of the envelope closing in around the Mariner and had projected with a good possibility that Marina was going to angle her ship at a precise-

"Gasp....pant...pant......pant...." She remained there breathing hard, hearing the thump beat of her heart pounding in her head.
They had jumped.
Marina's eyes went over to her droid a moment just looking at him in silence, afraid to utter a word. Had TK just jumped blindly? If so, they's be vaporized any second now...

Beep be bee de... her droid broke her silence.

"EEEeeeek!..." She had screamed, being startled by TK...thinking they had come to their fate smacking into a star.

But the droid only announced their present destination...their new jump trajectory.

"Whew..." she let out a sigh.
"Don't scare me like that!" Marina scolded her droid, although she wanted to kiss it. Well for the time being. The system he indicated, she wasn't familiar with and had to look over to the nav comp for it's location-

"Aw frak me!
...seriously?" She was dismayed. Deeper still they were going into this hell hole of space called First order.

"Gasp!...Skye!...Oh my god..." She quickly undid her chair restraints and darted out of the cockpit and toward the med bay where she had left the poor girl strapped to the bed.

 

[Skye Achlys]

Skye woke up out of breath. She gasped for air as she opened her eyes.
She fell forward, just barely keeping herself from planting her face in the sand with her hands.

Wait...

Sand?

Skye immediate jerked her head up, looking forward. There it was, the sea with its calm and teasing waves. The waves seemed to be back in the same position they had been in last time, before the flood.
Was it- ? Yes, it was the same, again. It was slowly rising, the water was slowly gaining ground, again.
As Skye stood up and looked around, she spotted it: her mask. Once again it was sat in the sand, waiting for the water to submerge it. But not this time. Skye quickly walked, or ran, over to her mask before the water could reach it. She crouched down and picked it up. The moment she laid her fingers on it, she felt her own fingers on her own face. She flinched in response.
Skye picked the mask up, still uncomfortable because she felt the mask like it was her own face.
Then a certain anger took hold of her as she snarled at the mask, "You don't have a hold of me! I own you- I control you!"
With those words she then smashed the mask back in the sand, bracing herself for the hit.

But she didn't feel anything, and when she looked at the ground, the mask was just lying there. It had definitely hit the ground, yet Skye had felt nothing. She carefully picked it back up again. She felt nothing.
Nothing.
Now she watched the mask sit in her hand with a feeling of peace, where looking at the mask here had previously given her feelings of dread and anxiety.
As she peacefully observed the mask, it suddenly faded away, just like that.
It was gone.

Skye lowered her now empty hand- she had conquered her first fear here. She had accepted it, made peace with it.

But that was just one of many.
Suddenly Skye was jerked around by a red light with the figure of a woman. The woman was unrecognizable yet Skye still knew who it was supposed to be.
The woman screamed gibberish in the girls face, but Skye knew what she meant. The woman was ranting about her being a cheat, liar, murderer and just about the worst person in the world.
Oh if Skye could just wish this away, just like she did with the mask.
But she couldn't make peace with this.
Not yet.

"Just stop! Stop! Please stop. I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! Please!", Skye cried to no avail. The woman just kept screaming.

"Please! I beg you, I'm sorry! Please!


Marina!"


~~~~~~~~~

"Marina", Skye whispered as she woke up. What had been a desperate and loud yell in whatever the hell that was had made its way to the real world in the form of a whisper. "Marina", she whispered again, her eyes and cheeks already wet with tears as the blonde haired woman came running back to Skye, who appeared to have been chained to the bed for some reason.
Did...did Marina not trust her? Was that why she strapped her in? Did she hate her?

It wasn't a thing Skye'd normally do. I mean, she couldn't even remember the last time she cried. Yet, the sight of Marina rushing back mixed with her own thoughts telling her the blonde hated her now made new fresh tears roll down her cheeks.