Private One Step Ahead of the Devil

[Starlin Dinn]

Kytrand
The Deep Core
The Sacred Deserts
​

It had been a great many days since the vessel had flown its roost, stealing away the boy from a hangar suspended in space and time and propelling him across the Galaxy on some unknown pursuit. A wild goose chase, that was what Uncle Theryn would have called it, a random journey to Force-knew-where, for Force-knew-why. A pit formed in his stomach as he once again pictured his guardians frantically searching for their ward to no avail. He was not in Mercuitie any more, not even the great Ámathosi Desert spread out before him. All he could see through the viewing port were the endless streaks of starlight passing them by; it had been a terrifying sight at first, but now it was simply... there.​

​

The android had been of little help to him, it would not speak when spoken to, would not move, would not direct, and so Starlin had been forced to exist around it, without it, in that hollow metal shell. Forced to figure it all out for himself. He'd found the refresher first, then the simple galley, and finally a place to rest his head. There were books there, countless books made of flimsiplast that spoke of a great many things Starlin could not wrap his head around.​

​

A great turning point had been the discovery of the ship's manual, tucked away within the cockpit. Starlin had spent much of his travel time pouring over it, trying to make sense of the various buttons and switches that made up the control panel, walking the length and depth of the vessel with a floorplan in hand, and - perhaps most importantly to Starlin - seeking a way to get the pilot android to respond.​

​

The latter had been and remained the hardest, most frustrating part, but whenever he felt himself becoming overwhelmed or upset by it Starlin would take a break to meditate, to breathe, just as Theryn had taught him to. There was no obstacle he could not overcome if he remained calm and focused, and the Valkyri's words echoed in his mind throughout.​

​

He could not tell exactly how much time had passed, he tracked it solely by way of his internal body clock. How often had he been hungry, and accessed the galley to eat? How many times had he laid down to rest? It was impossible to know for certain, but he got the feeling that at least eight days had passed before he felt that sudden lurch that came as they exited hyperspace.​

​

Starlin rushed to the cockpit, staring out of the viewing port to the sight of a world spread out below. First an orb of greens, blues, and browns, then as more of it took over the port and the endless abyss of stars was blotted out, browns became more orangey-yellow, then tanned, before a vast desert lay before them. Deserts Starlin understood, deserts Starlin knew, his home might have lay upon an oasis but all around was red and orange rock, all around was sand-and-stone.​

​

Was he home again?​

​

Had all of this been some strange nightmare?​

​

But Mercuitie did not manifest before him, the way it had when he had been a boy coming around that riverbend, in fact nothing particularly stood out to him at all. The odd ruin half submerged in sand, crumbled and lost to time, perhaps, but nothing of substance.​

​

Then, a blip, a reflection caught in the sun. Metallic, and growing larger with each passing minute.​

​

It took some time for Starlin to recognize it as a fellow starship, after all he had never seen one before finding himself in that hangar however many days prior it might have been.​

​

"What are you doing?" the boy asked the android, as the ship began to land, "Is this it? What is it? Where are we?" ​

​

Silence reigned.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Twilight had fallen in the desert. The darkening sky, unpolluted by smog or the artificial lights of a city, proved an amazingly clear canvas. Even the most distant suns pierced the firmament with vivid, blazing light.

"Look Daddy! A shooting star!"

Starlin's gaze was fixed not on the horizon, but on the little girl standing before him. His daughter was almost six years old, yet sometimes he still found it hard to believe that she was real. Born from a love he had once thought lost, to parents who should've been too old to have a child, she was living proof that anything was possible.

Her small hands gripped a pair of macrobinoculars pointed almost straight up, mouth hanging open as she zoomed in on constellations and planets far beyond Kytrand. She had found the binoculars buried in a closet aboard the Bright Knight that morning. They were old and beat up by years of wear and tear, but the lenses still worked. He convinced her to wait until dusk before she went stargazing. Couldn't have her blinding herself by staring directly into the sun.

"Ah, I missed it." Starlin pouted. "But I'm sure there'll be another one."

Syd turned to look at him, brow furrowing. The two looping blonde braids hanging at her shoulders swung as she shook her head. "But I can still see it," she said, pointing. "Look!"

Starlin looked - and did a double take. "That's... not a shooting star..."

It was a starship.

---

Not just any starship, either. The Bright Knight's scanners confirmed what Starlin's gut had warned him of the moment he laid eyes on the vessel.

It was Leviathan. Unmistakably, irrefutably, undeniably Arcturus' ship.

But Arcturus wasn't on board. Starlin felt certain of that. Nor were Ishani or Eloise.

So who was piloting the thing?

He had to find out.

Boarding his starfighter, he left wife and child behind. If anything happened, they knew what to do. Rising up into the starry night, he approached the all-too-familiar shape of the Leviathan with caution. Arcturus may have been his friend once, but in the end he had returned to the Sith. Starlin hadn't forgotten that. He couldn't.

Hailing the ship, he sent a message:

<Greetings, Leviathan. This is Starlin Rand of the Bright Knight. You've entered space under my protection. State your business.>

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

As the distant ship grew larger, so too did the entity that flew up from it. "Is that a bird?" the boy asked, though he had come to understand that the pilot would not answer him, "Why are its wings so stiff? Is it like an albatro--"​

​

He took a step back as bird became ship and neared them in the air as they broke through the atmosphere and descended in earnest.

"It's going to hit us!" he exclaimed in fright, "Do something!"​

​

Of course, no collision occurred but that did not stop Starlin's heart from beating in his throat all the same. When a voice called out, a step back became a visible leap of surprise. He looked around this way and that, but he saw no entity. "Was that you?" he asked of the droid, who ignored him once more.​

​

Ignored him, but not the other voice.​

​

<Gree-Tings Star-Lin> the pilot droid began, voice stuttered and janky. ​

​

Starlin took half a step forward in response to his name being uttered. "Finally" he huffed, "Look, what's--"​

​

<This is PL-TO3 of the Le-vi-a-than, executing protocol 5T4R-RND. Precious car-go on board.> There was a momentary pause. <I re-peat. Precious car-go on board.>​

​

For his part, Starlin stood there gawping like a fish.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

The response he got was choppy, but he could parse it enough to deduce a few clues. It was a droid's voice on the other line, the message full of code words and directives. If it had piloted the ship here, its route was almost certainly pre-programmed too.

Arcturus didn't know about Kytrand, so it wasn't the planet he was after. He must've found a way to track the Bright Knight, or maybe even Starlin himself. Why? Well... There was one obvious answer. After all, Eloise had found her way to him when she ran away. And she had mentioned having a bunch of other siblings somewhere called Z... Zath - Zarathustra? Zithera?... It started with a Z.

Point was, there was probably some other Dinn kid onboard. What else could the "precious cargo" be? And yet, Starlin couldn't help but frown at the idea. Once upon a time, he hadn't minded collecting space orphans and runaways. But things had changed. He didn't particularly relish the idea of being treated like the Sith family's babysitter. He hadn't seen nor spoken to Arcturus or Ishani in decades, for feth's sake, and any news he heard of their dark exploits made him dread the day their paths might cross again. So why would they think they could just foist their little hellions onto him whenever the need arose?

The message was automated, he thought. A long, long time ago, most likely. Back when things were different. Arc never bothered to change it because... He probably never had the chance to.

Starlin rubbed his eyes and sighed.

<Copy that, Leviathan. Requesting permission to board.>

If nothing else, he needed to assess the cargo.

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

"What is going on..."​

​

He wasn't even asking the droid at this point, because, well, what was the point? Instead he sort of just exhaled long and hard, pinched the bridge of his nose, and slumped into a random spot on the floor. Overwhelmed. If there was one word for the past eight-or-so days of his life, it was that. Plain and simple.​

​

Or, not so simple.​

​

Nothing had been simple since he'd heard that blasted music in his head and followed it to the arch.​

​

"Please, don't" Starlin said, voice deflated, as he heard the request to board from the other side of the transmission. "Please, PL-whatever you said your name was..." He felt bad, he couldn't quite recall.

<Copy that, Star-Lin.>​

​

A pause, during which time Starlin genuinely thought his pleas had gotten through to the droid. Short lived, of course.​

​

<Perm-ission granted. Dock-ing se-quence initializing.>​

​

"I hate you" Starlin whined, not even Theryn's calming words could get through to him at this point. Instead Starlin just put his head in his hands and tried not to cry in frustration.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin docked without incident, landing his starfighter inside the hangar. Scanners showed only one life form aboard. The Force confirmed it. But he still maintained the same cautious bearing as he made his way down the corridors. Just because he sensed no imminent threat didn’t mean he was safe…

The door to the cockpit slid open before him. Peering inside, he spotted the pilot droid stooped at the controls before his gaze naturally gravitated to the sole living being on the vessel: a young man sitting curled up in a ball on the floor.

With his face turned away, Starlin couldn’t see past the unruly blond hair on top of the boy’s head. He took a step forward, slow and measured. “Hello there,” he greeted, resting his fists on his hips.

Starlin was by now well into his fifties. He wore desert robes for protection from the sun, but his age showed in his face. His hair was still black as can be, with a mop of thick, unruly curls on his head and a bushy beard. The whiskers hid the gauntness of his face, but above them his baby blue eyes were creased with lines of laughter and sorrow in equal measure.

He glanced at the pilot again, fleetingly. It was an older model, scuffed and rusting. “You look like you’re in dire need of an oil bath,” he muttered. Force knew what was going on with its internal systems. Facing the boy again, he said, “My name is Starlin Rand. I’d like to know what’s going on here, so if you could please enlighten me, I'd appreciate it.”

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Though Starlin wasn't in complete fetal position, he was pretty damn close especially as the door slid open and permitted entry to the stranger from beyond. He pressed his hands over his eyes, looking very much as though he was nursing a killer migraine, because, well, he was, and set his back to the rest of the cockpit.​

​

Starlin was still in the same outfit he had been wearing when the arch-incident had taken place, crisp white robes to stave off the heat and sandstorms of an entirely different desert, interspersed with beautiful blue detailing. High quality, noble in cut and style despite the desert vibes, though admittedly it had seen better days by now. The boy had showered, but he had not found any way to clean his clothes and the manual hadn't exactly enlightened him to how.​

​

He curled more tightly in on himself as the voice called out, embodying Darien mentally even if not physically. He was not big on company, certainly not strangers, he preferred to hide behind the gilded walls of the Ziggurat back home, or find solace at the river's bed, than be on show like Theryn.​

​

Though Darien would never be caught dead in such a compromising position. That should have been enough to make the boy sit up and present himself properly, but he didn't.​

​

"Go away" the exasperated boy mumbled, though there was no punch behind it. Did he really wish to be left alone on this blasted ship, with a droid who would not speak to him? No... No he did not. He was about to sit up, to apologize for being so rude and assure the man he had been raised better, when the stranger's words caught him off guard and left him frozen in place.​

​

"Starlin?" he finally asked, voice a little louder than it had been though still a whisper. Had he heard that right? Star shifted, moving from his side to his bottom before finally turning to face the man. His eyes were a distinct blue, the kind you did not often see with such intensity.... His Father's eyes. "You're not Starlin, I am."​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t know what circumstances brought you here, kid, but I don’t think it’s within your best interest to be hostile toward me,” he said, taking another step forward. “What’s the ‘precious cargo’ here, Pee-el?” Almost as soon as he said it, he realized Ohthree would’ve sounded much better. Welp. Too late now.

Before the pilot could answer his question, the boy on the floor turned to look at him. Starlin’s breath caught in his throat. If he’d had any doubt in his theory as to who or what the cargo was, one look from those familiar eyes silenced it.

"Starlin? You're not Starlin, I am."​

“What?” Starlin blurted.

Surely he didn’t. He wouldn’t.

But he did, so apparently he would. “Why?” Starlin muttered, brow furrowing. Even after everything, Arcturus still liked him. Still considered him a good friend, enough to name a son after him. It amazed him sometimes, how much the Sith lived in complete denial of reality. He supposed they had to, or else their minds would shatter.

Or maybe he just liked the name. It was a pretty cool name.

“You don’t have a monopoly on the name, kid,” he said, gazing pointedly at the boy. “Since you’re not being very forthcoming, let me take a wild guess. Your name is Starlin Dinn. You’re from some bumfeth planet in the Unknown Regions. Something happened, and this ship carried you off. Now you’re here, and you’re upset because you’d rather be back home playing god with the natives than talking to some old Jedi Master that your dad told you you could trust, for some reason.” He held out his hands in a shrug. “That about it?”

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Starlin stared for a long while, no words, no movement, just slack-jawed confusion as the man correctly guessed his name, and... well, at least some of his circumstances. When his mind finally caught up with him though, his brows knitted together and he emphatically shook his head.

"I'm not a God" he said, sounding almost offended by the accusation. Unlike the other Dinn children, Starlin had been spared the toxicity of such sentiments when Theryn took over his care. "And my Father never told me anything about anything, certainly not a Je-di Master, whatever-that-means." His back was to the cockpit wall now, knees pulled up to his chest though he kept his hands down at his side. The stranger did not seem best pleased to find him here, and Starlin was not used to confrontation.​

​

"I don't know why I'm here, I don't know where here is, what this is," he looked around the cockpit as he referenced the ship, "and I certainly don't think I can trust you." His frown deepened as he leveled his gaze back on the other Starlin, before he shrank in on himself.​

​

"You knew my Father?" the boy finally asked, voice quieter. Guarded. "Do you know where he is? Is he... alive?" In spite of everything, of being abandoned some thirteen years prior, and forgotten by the rest of his family, there was still that small boy trapped inside him who wanted to know what had happened.

Starlin Dinn ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Well. He was half right.

The kid was a Dinn, though apparently he didn’t know his father. Nor did he know what a Jedi was. Starlin had a hard time wrapping his head around that. For him, it was a little like not knowing what two plus two was—utterly basic knowledge that everyone learned from a young age.

It was all the weirder because Arcturus and Ishani were Sith. Sith Lords, even if the title was self-proclaimed. Why would they not have taught their children not only what a Jedi was, but to hate them?

And what about Ishani? Did the kid not know his mother either? Something wasn’t adding up here.

“Yeah, I knew your parents,” Starlin replied. “It was a long time ago. We haven’t spoken in years.” Hesitating a moment, he added, “He’s probably still around. Just not… with you. For whatever reason.”

He knew a little about the home life of the Dinns, based on what Eloise had told him when she tracked him down. None of it was good. If Starlin II had somehow escaped all that, he’d been lucky. Really fething lucky.

“Did the droid bring you here?” he asked, gesturing to the pilot. “You didn’t seek me out? You couldn’t have ended up here accidentally. How did you end up on this ship?”

He paused. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm overwhelming you with questions. I'm just trying to understand, same as you. Maybe we should start from the very beginning..."

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

He felt his heart sink into his belly, and the world beneath him span.​

​

Father was alive.​

​

Father was alive, but he didn't want him. Nobody wanted him. Theryn and Darien had worked hard to see he wanted for nothing, they had cared for him like he was blood, but they hadn't been parents to him, just guardians. Uncles who had no problem handing him off to servants whenever they'd had enough. Starlin had never blamed them for that, he knew that raising some other man's child had never been on the cards for either of them, in fact he had been more than grateful to have them.​

​

But knowing that his Father had been out there this whole time? It made it harder to swallow.​

​

His breath caught in his throat, and his eyes stung. "And mother? The others? They're alive too?" He shifted forward, voice hoarse as he struggled to process and to breathe. "They're out there, somewhere?" Maybe it was the days of isolation, of trying and failing to gain the droid's attention, or maybe it was a valid response, but for the first time in a long time Starlin felt a genuine white-hot rage bubbling beneath the surface. "They just, what? Left me there? Forgot about me?"​

​

Starlin looked to the droid when it was spoken of, and scoffed. Shrugged. "Brought me here, brought itself here, damn thing won't say a word to me, no." He shook his head, then put it back in his hands. Still struggling to find air enough to breathe, his chest was rising and falling rapidly.​

​

"I don't know, one minute I was home with my Uncles and the next..." He frowned. "There was an archway, it called to me. I walked up to it and then..." He looked around the ship. "I wasn't in Mercuitie anymore. I was in a big metal room, and... this thing was there. Nothing else. No way out. I made the mistake of coming onboard and... I don't know, it had a mind of its own. Brought me here, I guess."​

​

He rubbed his forehead, then clenched a fist in the curls of his fringe.​

​

"I don't know what's going on" he whimpered.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“I… assume so?” Starlin scratched his head. “Do you not have any contact with your folks?”

The boy alluded to having been left somewhere, abandoned by his family, though he didn’t know why. “I have no answers to that,” Starlin replied. “But if what I know about your parents is anything to go by, you’re better off with your uncles than them.”

It was a stone cold and almost brutal thing to say to a lost child. But it was the truth.

Starlin listened as the boy told his story. He knew nothing of the uncles he spoke of—Arcturus mentioned no siblings, and while Ishani had a brother, they weren’t close. Probably not literal uncles. He didn’t recognize the name Mercuitie, either. Something to ask Eloise about, maybe.

He didn’t dare mention her. Raised outside of the fold though he may have been, there was no telling how Starlin II would react to the news of his sister’s whereabouts, let alone her change of allegiance. Nor did he reveal Marcus’ untimely death. Best to not let any sensitive information out until he was certain the boy wasn’t going to be a problem.

“It sounds like the droid was just following its programming,” Starlin said. “Your father probably wrote the program as a failsafe in case you were ever in danger. You were the ‘precious cargo’ it was meant to bring… to me.”

As he spoke, his voice held a faint tremor. He shut his eyes tightly, fighting the tears prickling along his lids. Arcturus’ betrayal—and it was a betrayal, after everything he did to try and help him—still stung even after all these years. The fact that he would have sent his son to him anyway, to a Jedi, almost made it worse. Because, Force, it meant that there was still some feeling left in Arcturus. A sense of friendship, of brotherhood, which still survived. Maybe there was some part of him that regretted what he had done. That wished he had stayed with the Rands in that little apartment on Coruscant.

No. Starlin wouldn’t wallow in what could have been. He had learned to live with his mistakes. Nor would he play babysitter to a boy who, from the looks of him, was already an adult. It's too late for that now, Arc.

Opening his eyes, Starlin crossed his arms over his chest. “I can send you wherever you want to go,” he said. “If you want to go home, I can reprogram the droid to take you there. Or you can go somewhere else. It’s up to you.”

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Starlin shook his head.​

​

"No, Sir," he confessed, that build up of emotions sputtering out before it could fully boil over. In an instance his rage had become cold, hollow upset that faded into resignation. "I haven't seen any of them since I was a little'un. Father took me to the City, then... he just vanished. And no one ever came for me."​

​

One blink sent a cascade of tears down his tanned cheeks, though the boy was quick to wipe them away. The action was bordering on harsh, and he felt a pang of frustration for letting them spill at all. Theryn would have told him to let it all out, but the man before him was not his carefree Uncle.​

​

"I'm sorry" Starlin finally said, as he realized how all of this must have looked from the outside. As he understood at once that he was intruding on the life of someone who had no obligations to him. It was Darien and Theryn all over again, only they at least had known him since he was a babe. It had been a more natural integration.​

​

This?​

​

Starlin swallowed. "I don't know where home is" he confessed, "and... I don't know where else there is. The, uh, droid? seems to listen to you, maybe you could get it to send me somewhere, I don't know, safe..?" The boy's brows knitted together. "I-I don't mean to be a bother."​

​

Whatever reason his Father'd had to send the ship here, he had clearly missed his mark. Starlin would not beg and plead for help from a stranger, he would find a way to make this work until such a time as he could make his way home again.​

​

He wiped his eyes a second time, then set his head back against the wall. He felt stupid, though none of this had been his doing.​

​

"I don't know what happened with Father and you, but... I'm sorry it ended badly."​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

The two Starlins stared at each other. Though things had started off tense, the hostility between them had faded with understanding. And now? Now it was just plain awkward.

“Do you not want to return to your uncles?” Starlin asked. Something about the way the kid talked about them seemed to imply that there was no love lost between them. Or just an absence of genuine feeling, maybe.

"I'm sorry."​

“Man, don’t be sorry,” Starlin said with a shrug. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t ask to be sent here. Hell, you stumbled upon this ship by accident.” Poor karker didn’t even know what a droid was, for crying out loud.

He turned his attention fully to the droid. Opening a panel on its back, he connected one of its wires to his datapad, bringing up its programming. After years of sitting inert and unserviced, it was a bit corrupted. Nothing unfixable.

"I don't know what happened with Father and you, but... I'm sorry it ended badly."​

“Yeah, well…” Starlin muttered without looking up from his work. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you all about your dad’s flaws and failings. He’s a coward, for one. But I gotta say… Keeping you in the dark was a big mistake. If you stay out here, kid, you’re in for a rude awakening. If you can handle that, you’ll go far. If not… pretty soon you’ll wish you had never listened to the ship’s call.”

Finishing another line of code, he discreetly typed in a new destination: Vonnuvi Jedi Enclave.

Turns out he couldn't help himself.

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

Awkward was certainly one word for it.​

​

Just another thing Starlin could thank his wonderful Father for.​

​

"I mean, I would... but I don't know where they are" he confessed, "and I get the feeling we didn't come from there, so... I don't know if this ignorant fellow can even bring me back." Said, of course, with a nod toward the droid. "I'll find them again, I will." He had to, they were all he had in the Galaxy.​

​

But he wouldn't trouble other-Starlin any longer.​

​

"I know" he said, brows knitting together, "I'm just sorry it became your problem." However temporary that problem might have been.​

​

Tilting his head a little to the left, Starlin regarded Starlin. "I take it you two had to have been close once? Seeing as I'm named for you and all."​

​

His heart skipped a beat as he was warned about the potential rude awakening in his future, gaze drifting back to the viewing port. "You think it was intentional? That he left me on purpose?" Left him to be ignorant of the Galaxy at large. Starlin shook his head, not really wanting to know the answer, then sighed. "Doesn't matter, I'll deal with it one way or another."​

​

Pushing up from the floor, back set against the wall, Starlin stretched and huffed beneath his breath.​

​

"I take it that's it then?" he said, as other-Starlin finished up with the droid, in part glad that this awkward encounter would be over but also not ready to be alone once more. "It's time to go?"​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin stayed quiet, pretending to be totally engrossed in coding. Was it his place to educate the kid? Or was he better off staying ignorant?

He could practically hear his master's voice: Ignorance may be bliss, but it isn't always right.

Pulling the wire from his datapad, he carefully placed the exposed circuitry back inside the droid and closed the panel. The pilot's eyes lit up as it powered back on.

"I don't know why he named you after me," he replied to Dinn. "You'd have to ask him yourself."

He hesitated.

"The Jedi are guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy. We use the Force to do good. You do know what the Force is, right?" With a gesture of his hand, he caused a nearby cup to float in front of Starlin II's face. "The Sith want to conquer the galaxy. They use the Force only for themselves, to gain more power and control.

"Your mother and your father are Sith. In your father's case, it was all he ever knew. I tried to help him escape that life, but he ended up running right back to it. He was weak and afraid, so he took the easy way out."

Starlin took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh.

"Yeah. Time to go." He gave the droid a pat on the shoulder, the metal pinging at the touch of his hand. "It'll send you on your way. Good luck."

Starlin Dinn​

 

[Starlin Dinn]

There was plenty the boy wanted to say, and more he did not know how to say, but in the end he left it at a very simple, deflated, "Okay."​

​

He knew he was not likely to get an answer on his naming, if his Father had avoided him thus far the likelihood of him reappearing for a sit down chat was slim to none. Looking at other-Starlin, though, he could read between enough of the lines to have a picture painted. Jedi, Sith, an attempted escape and a crawl back to darkness.​

​

It was clear that his Father had ruptured something good. Was naming him after this Jedi his way of keeping his memory alive, even when he could not be with him? Clearly, his Father still cared. Or... had still cared.​

​

Was that why he had left little Starlin behind?​

​

Was he now too much of a reminder?​

​

"Huh?" he said, as the Jedi made his way from the cockpit, mind catching up with the rest of his words as he was pulled from his thoughts. "Oh, erm, yeah. Okay." He swallowed. "Thanks, Other-Starlin. Sorry again."​

​

He did not move from his spot against the cockpit wall, eyes tracking the man until the doors closed behind him, one last word of warning to get out of the Deep Core called over the man's shoulder. It wasn't much longer before he heard the other ship start up, and then they were in motion again too.​

​

"Pee-El" he said, not too sure about the name - he'd have to think about it - "I know you don't want to talk to me, but... thanks, I guess."​

​

The droid did not answer, instead from the ships systems music began to play. Sad and somber and at times a little thrashy, it told a story words could not.​

​

Fin.​