Private My Shadow Runs With Me

[Velok Brokentusk]

CONNESTOGA-CLASS HEAVY FREIGHTER LONGJUMPER'S MARK
EN ROUTE TO YUUZHAN VONG GALAXY

A world's worth of complexity crammed this ship: fuel, instruments, skilled crew, supplies of every kind, cargo bays waiting to be emptied and refilled again with the curios and riches of a broken galaxy. You could find a lot of dark corners to stow away in this expedition, even if a stowaway happened to be nine foot six and nine hundred pounds.

He'd come aboard at Cosm's Well via a service airlock that his shoulders barely fit through. Large portions of the ship weren't pressurized. He'd brought a basic portable survival module and worked his way into the endless miles of cargo corridors until he picked the right spot.

The theory of the trip was simple. The Curse of Ultaht had dogged him for decades, a penalty for a grievous murder. Any population centre he visited came under attack by someone sooner or later. So being on the single loneliest vessel in existence, out in the deepest void where there simply was nobody who could attack, foiled the curse and let him rest. And thus once he set up his little warren between cargo containers, using stolen bits and pieces, he slept very, very deeply for the first time in over thirty years. The risk that someone might hear his snoring was negligible. Right?

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Rule number one of sleeping rough; sleep light and if you can't sleep light, sleep near someone who does and might consider saving your skin when someone comes to slit your throat to steal your hard earned coin, if only so they can have a share of said coin. Nothing went for free afterall.

Lily had not intended to be on board this ship when it took off, but she'd gotten so lost routing through unguarded cargo for something she could sell without drawing attention that by them time she realised they were taking off it was too late. She was savvy enough to grab equipment that would keep her warm and help her survive through wherever they were going. Worst case scenario she'd have to find a way out of the cargo hold to steal food.

Well, that was her predetermined worst case scenario. She did not anticipate being woken up by what sounds like a beast growling not too far from where she'd chosen to hold up. She didn't have any conventional weapons, just a crowbar she'd been using to pry open boxes. Heart racing she stayed where she was for a moment when the rumble came again, louder this time. Wait…was that snoring?!

Lily relaxed the tight grip on the crow bar, squeezed out from the hole she'd found between boxes and tiptoed towards the noise. The source turned out to be a whiphid in a deep sleep, once she;d wager, even from where he was curled up was almost twice her size. He snored again, making her jump. "Godfethingdamnit" she muttered. If she didn;t wake him up, the noise he was making might draw attention to one stowaway which could lead to an investigation for more and that was something she couldn't afford.

Lily hesitated for only a moment before giving the whiphid a swift kick at his legs and jumping away out of reach, just incase there were some adverse reactions.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Upon being kicked, Velok woke from dreams of unhappy murder. His great three-clawed hand found his appropriately scaled lightsaber all by itself. The blade punched a hole in the nearest cargo container; bins of foodstuffs began to smolder and container metal dripped as slag. The saber's reverberation filled all spaces nearby, cast red light everywhere, and revealed a small humanoid with a crowbar.

As his brain jolted into functionality, he deeply regretted turning on the saber. It made distinctive damage, it made a good deal of noise and light, and it scared people. He deactivated it, leaving molten metal as the only source of gloomy light. He anticipated the small humanoid running away. If the humanoid ran, he'd have to grab her, by hand or with the Force-

Or would he? She hadn't looked like crew.

He held his breath in the gloom.

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily stifled her own shout of surprise as the space between them came to life in a red hot humming glow, she retreated several more steps out of reach of the carnage she'd just caused, never taking her eyes off the whiphid, because in this moment, he was the biggest threat to her existence.

She dropped the crowbar she'd held and extended her palms towards him.To her relief the lightsaber deactivated. "Easy, big boy, I'm not looking to die today" She chanced a glance around them, straining her ears for any other noise beside her own terrified breathing. Running would have been an option if she'd had somewhere to run to.

She dared not move, worried she might trigger a secondary reaction. "You, uh," she licked her loops nervously, "you were snoring pretty loud, didn't want to…um…" she trailed off before adding.

"Please don't kill me."

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok's eyes adjusted to the very limited light, which faded further as the breached metal cooled. Fuelled by irritation, he stretched out to the Dark Side for a sense of the humanoid. A fellow stowaway, physically panicked or startled, but keeping her cool, under control. The detail of that impression faded with his irritation. You couldn't get much from the Dark unless you were willing to be angry most of your life, and these days he wasn't.

"It seems like both of us want our privacy," he said. "Our peace and quiet."

A chuckle welled up as he realized that her prodding him with the crowbar might have been the effect of the curse - and the best the curse could do out here in the intergalactic void.

"I suspect we two could come to an arrangement. I can lift and move items, pry locks open - and you can move through much smaller spaces, much more quietly than I can. What do you need most so far?"

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Did he just laugh? Lily blinked and gave herself a small shake, trying to ease away some of the tension that had coiled in her muscles, ready to launch her into a full sprint should she need to get out of harm's way.

The question caught her off guard and she pondered it for a moment, bending down to scoop up the crowbar now that she was fairly confident her fellow stowaway wasn't going to impale her. "Well," she said, bringing the crowbar to rest across her shoulders. "I had no intention of being stuck in here, so I'm short on rations." That was a half truth, she hadn't eaten for two days before she'd started snooping for something in the cargo hold. "Also wouldn't mind knowing where I'm going either."

She cocked her head to one side. "You got a name, big boy?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Velok sniffed the air. His lightsaber had punched a jagged hole in one of the cargo containers that defined his hiding place, and the smell of scorched ration packs was quite strong. He called on the Force (in very limited ways; this expedition had at least one Jedi Knight aboard) and gripped the hot metal to rip it open farther for ease of access.

"Food," he said. He ripped open one of the little high-calorie bricks and consumed it, wrapper and all. "Seems like survival rations, last-ditch. Unlikely that anyone will come looking for them unless and until the better food gets used up. One of these should last you a day or perhaps two given your size."

He popped another brick in his mouth.

"As for our destination, I picked this ship because its flight path goes through the void between galaxies. We'll be seeing stars that nobody from either of our species has ever seen - assuming we find a window."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily's mind and eyes fixed on the rations he was eating, her stomach rumbled, and she hoped that he had not heard it. She inched a little closer to the open box, keeping half an eye on him, as she retrieved a couple of blocks then retreated again, careful to keep the space between them.

He hadn't given a name, but that was the least of her concerns. "I'm sorry, did you just say void between galaxies?" there was a slight hint of panic in her voice "As in, we're leaving the galaxy to go to another?"

She stared down at the ration block in her hand, suddenly feeling sick. She'd intended to travel to the outer rim territories, planet hop until she found somewhere where coin purses were fat enough for her to maybe procure more than one hot meal a week. Lily didn't have big dreams, but when the world you grew up in centred around simply making it through to the next day, it was hard to see beyond that.

"That's fine." she said. "Totally fine, other galaxies have people in them with…credits…or something like it." She took a breath, and exhaled slowly. "Window…" she shoved the rations in her jacket pockets, hunger momentarily forgotten. "Might be one in the engine room which i think," she stopped to listen "Is that way." she pointed to her right.

Void between galaxies…

"I'm Lily," she extended a hand. If she kept talking, she might just keep the panic attack at bay.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"Ah, after the plant." Velok shook his head at these human names and shook her offered hand carefully. His fist was roughly the size of her entire torso. "I'm called Velok the Youngest, Velok Brokentusk. I wouldn't recommend trying the engine room. It probably has many crew: the hyperdrive engines on this ship are as big as a capital ship all by themselves, to make the jump. Yes, the expedition is going to another galaxy. How long it stays depends on what it finds. It might be as long as several months. Personally, I'm looking forward to the silence. But if you want to get off the ride, so to speak, stealing one of the shuttles might be possible. Maybe."

He squinted in the gloom.

"Have you found any light source yet? My lightsaber isn't ideal for that."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"Right..."

Her stomach churned. "Yeah, i found...wait here." She scurried away back to the hole she'd squeezed out of earlier and shoved all the supplied she'd collected into the middle of her blanket, among them a couple of lanterns. Low energy consumption, and she reckoned she could fine the stash she'd stolen them from easy enough.

Lily paused, in the safety of her little den and took several deep steadying breaths. Everything would be fine. So she'd spend a few months stuck on one ship, it wasn't a big deal. There was food, light and plenty to explore and now, she even had someone to talk to. She'd been in worse spots...

Somehow, those worse spots seemed less terrifying than the idea of being in a completely different galaxy.

Scooping up the corners of her bundle she pushed it out of the hole before squeezing out after it. She found her way back toward Velok dropping the bundle between them. It wasn't much, a couple of heaters, lanterns, plenty of blankets and some odd bits of metal that she thought looked valuable. She set one of the lanterns on a crate and turned it on casting them in a soft yellow glow. "I have another and I think I could fine the crate i got them from again if we need more."

She settled herself down on the floor, leaning her back against a crate and finally pulling out one of the ration blocks, breaking bits off, popping them in her mouth and chewing slowly. "If we were to steal a shuttle, am I right in thinking, based on what you said about the hyperdrive being so damn big, that it probably wouldn't make it back? Which means I'm stuck in a cargo hold for several months....and.." she looked pointedly at him. "You chose this? Why?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"If you wanted to steal a shuttle," said Velok, relaxing in the cozy new light, "I would help you, mostly for something to do. I think you could make it back to Father Torus or go sideways to, what was the other one...Gadma Station or the Nagai Trade Spine, and make your way back into our galaxy. But I would stay on this ship.

"I have a curse," he explained. He picked a shred of wrapper from the crevice of one metal-clad cut-off tusk. "It's a punishment I've carried for much longer than you've been alive. If I visit a city or town, it gets attacked sooner or later by someone or something. Out here, there's nothing to launch an attack, just a void. I'm having my best sleep of the last thirty years. That may change once we reach the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy, but from the briefing materials I stole, it seems that galaxy's believed to have been laid waste thousands of years ago, pounded down to rubble in many places. So hopefully there won't be too many possibilities for my curse to get traction there either."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily pondered the idea of stealing a shuttle. If she was smart enough and played her cards right, it would be her shuttle. She'd finally have something…somewhere that was her own. Maybe she could even do a little more than petty thieving, smuggling wasn't that hard. And from what she knew, it paid well.

She was suddenly faxed with a plethora of possibilities beyond, find a meal, and live to see another day. It was overwhelming. But there had to be a catch, right? Nothing came for free. There was no such thing as 'out of the kindness' of someone's heart.

"Well I'll be damned," Lily said softly, regarding Velok with a touch of pity once he'd finished a very brief tale of woe. "I never thought I'd meet someone who's life was worse than mine."

She let the statement hang in the air for a moment. "What do you get out of helping me get out of here? Or more importantly, what do you want?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

"For some time now it's been clear that my exile - no possible home or base of operations, no allies or friends - is what I deserve. That doesn't make the loneliness any less grinding, Lily-named-for-a-plant. The silence of the void, the freedom from attack, is a relief but does nothing for the loneliness. So I enjoy my moments of connection. I tell fortunes in spaceports. I steal the occasional...well, the less said of that the better. And sometimes I help small castaways steal shuttles from rich, free, well-connected men who will barely miss them."

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily popped another bit of the ration block in her mouth, using the slow chewing as an opportunity to gather her thoughts and weigh her options as limited as they were. Stay here, keep a sad lonely whiphid company while in the belly of a ship that was barely pressurized. Or take a chance that this sad lonely whiphid who could easily snap her in two, saber or no saber, was genuine in his want to help her, just because it gave him something to do.

She re wrapped her ration block, tucking it away again into her inside pocket. It was nice to have a full belly for a change, but too much would make her sick. "Ok, if you can help me steal a shuttle, then I'd like to offer something in return. I don't have much but, if I'm still breathing when you make it back to our galaxy yourself, you're welcome to call in, for company...or a favour, should you need it."

She brushed her hands off and extended one again. "Deal?"

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

Again, a handshake, a solemn deal. He thought of telling her she ought to be more careful about shaking hands with other species. Try that with a drengir or a bor gullet and there'd be all manner of complications. But he didn't want to be overbearing or condescending or otherwise impose on this arrangement. So what if he was, conservatively, ten times her age and size? No need to be paternalistic.

"A bargain if I ever heard one," he said, and shuffled up to his feet within the confines of the space he'd set up. "A favor for a favor. What could be more pure?"

---

The Longjumper's Wake was a multiconfiguration box two kilometers long. Cargo areas were interleaved with all manner of other functions. The nearest of its several small-craft bays were quite near indeed.

Velok's route emerged at a control room. He slipped in, somehow, and put the hangar oversight officer to sleep with a word and a wave of his hand, then came back out to present Lily Rhodes with a key fob.

"That was the easy part. Here, look." There was a gantry with a view of the hangar. Old MC15 Niathal shuttles sat there in two ranks of three, in good order and repair. There were a couple of people in sight, crewers at work. Outside the hangar, hyperspace rushed past. "How do we get you from here to one of those shuttles, through a basic preflight, and outside?"

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily pursed her lips, to stop the burning question of how the feth he made that man go to sleep, with nothing more than a wave of his hand. She tucked the key fob away into another pocket. Any fighting would alert the rest of the ship to intruders and would ruin Velok's chances of several months peace.

She scanned the hanger below, looking for less obvious access point, the ventilation system would get her in there easy enough, and if they killed the lights she could fine her way easy enough to one of the ships, she'd spent a lifetime moving quietly in the dark as to not to be seen, but the preflight checks were bound to stir trouble. They needed something to draw attention away from any noise the ship would make.

"Getting down there is easy," she moved to one of the consoles, bringing up the ships schematics ease, peeling away layers till all that remained were the ventilation shafts and pointed out the simplest route from where they were to the vent closest to the ships. "We'll need something nosier than the ship while I run pre flights. Maybe we could overload a couple of cleaner droids? They should be controlled from here, no?"

The outside part was even more daunting, moving one ship out of another in hyperspace? She'd be lucky to not get torn apart. "I am not the best pilot." she said softly.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

That was the weak point of the plan, wasn't it. Whether Lily Rhodes had the skill to make good use of that shuttle once she left the hangar - exiting hyperspace, finding her way to a safe port, then back to well-trodden space. If not, this plan was just a complicated way to kill her, wasn't it.

Which led to the really unpleasant conclusion that either this wouldn't work at all...or he needed to go with her.

That didn't necessarily mean he had to give up his intergalactic silence, though. Cosm's Well had been workable; attacks had come only intermittently. Someplace like Gadma Station or the Nagai Trade Spine might offer him similar options. A shame, but a manageable one. A regret, but not the worst regret he dealt with.

"I flew my share of Whiphid raider ships once upon a time," he said at last. "Now. A distraction...that, I can do. If you feel confident flying it alone, take off as soon as you can. If not, open the hatch when you lift off, and I'll join you if I can."

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily gave a small, nervous nod. She definitely did not have the confidence. She could feign it, but all that would do would get her killed. So, what did she do? Take away a mans chance at peace for the first time in thirty years? And in return? How an earth would a favour from a street rat weigh up to the value of that?

She pushed it from her mind, as hard as she possibly could, dragging an empty chair the the air vent in the corner and pulling free the grate. She paused, giving the enormous whiphid one final look "Good Luck" she whispered before hoisting herself inside. The vents weren't too cramped, a big ship needed to shift a lot of air, and the small space didn't bother her, if anything it reminded her of home. If she could call Coruscant home, it was certainly where she grew up, but she had no emotional attachment to it.

She paused at a junction, forgetting which way she was supposed to go an listened for the gentle hum and clatter of a hangar bay. When she found the grate she peered through looking to be sure the nearest crew member wasn't in sight before gently pushing the grate out, careful not to drop it to the floor as she dropped to it herself.

Pressing herself against the nearest crate she scanned around for an opportune moment to make a dash for the nearest ship.

Velok Brokentusk

 

[Velok Brokentusk]

There had been a time when he excelled at distractions that were truly impossible to ignore. So few of the old instincts applied to this situation. His grandfather had taught, many times, that his core principle was to avoid actions that would make him contemptible to himself.

After thirty years under the Curse of Exile, Velok Third of his Name, called Brokentusk, had a similar and simpler credo. He hadn't quite put it into stable words, but it centred on not wanting to live with the weight of broken things that could never be fixed. A younger him would have found that contemptible. But the younger him had been a fool.

All that to say, he was loathe to take extreme action here, not just because he might well be staying here for a long time if she didn't open the hatch, but for its own sake.

So no pyrotechnics, just a glance down the right hallways and a toss. A heavy metal cylinder rolled and tumbled and came to a halt in a distant intersection, not terribly busy.

Within a couple of minutes, around a corner, he heard mumbled commentary, wondering what the thing might be. Then a rustle, a clank, a snap-hiss, various exclamations as people realized they were holding a red lightsaber the size of a large thermos. Shouts of alarm rose. Actual alarms would follow.

Lily Rhodes

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily inched her way along, using equipment boxes and goodness know what else to conceal her presence. There was an engineer between her and the ship his nose so close to the datapad he seemed utterly oblivious of the world around him. She could chance it? He was only one guy, she could probably take him down, a good throat punch...

Her train of thought was interrupted by an echo of shouts from further along the corridors. Take the bait, she pleaded in her head, the engineer slowly looked up, and set his data pad down even more slowly, or at least it seemed it to an impatient Lily. he finally moved, taking off with a brisk walk that broke into a job leaving Lily a clear path.

A brief tap on the key fob as she approached lowered the landing ramp of the shuttle and she scrambled on board, raising it behind her and looking for a lock in the controls. A brief check of the ships cargo hold confirmed it was equipped with all the food she needed, along with enough equipment for a mini expedition, scanners she didn't recognise and a couple of blasters too. Easy money makers, provided she could fly off this thing.

She tried not to get caught up in the excitement of possibility, fingers trailing the walls of the corridors and she made her way to the cockpit, sliding into the pilots seat, she began the flicking the controls to life, a soft hum emanating from the shuttle as it came to life and she started began the rest of the pre-flight checks. Waiting for diagnostics to load her gaze lifted to the rush of hyperspace just beyond the hanger entrance and her happy heart sank just a little.

She was not confident, hell the most she'd flown was a few getaway runs. short distances, small hyperspace jumps. This....this was beyond her skill. She leant over the console, craning her neck to see if she could spot Velok. A beep snapped her attention back down as the diagnostics reported all green. "You better be close, big guy." she murmured, brining the ships engines to life. A trill of adrenaline ran threw her as she took the controls, lifting the craft gently off the hangar floor, before hopping out of the seat to open the hatch above.

Velok Brokentusk