Private Prodigal Child

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Alwine Bergen ​

ZELTROS



The contract was straightforward.

Well, contracts plural.

One was from the Galactic Alliance: they needed someone to ferret out a spice-trafficking ring and disrupt or end its operations. Most of the activity centered around a casino on Zeltros and the Alliance was willing to pay to have someone at least find the damn thing, if not arrest the whole bunch.

The other was from a Hutt crime lord who wanted the ring gone because it was infringing on her own business on Zeltros. Payment would be awarded on receipt of proof the ring was eliminated.

Adelle did like when two contracts lined up for double the pay. Made things so much easier. She pushed a button on her left vambrace, increasing the strength of her helm's filter, then entered the Xtasy Casino. The lighting inside was barely brighter than the twilight outside. Lifeforms of every shape, size, and lifestyle crowded the machines, the tables, the bars, and booths. Zeltrons dominated the staff: bartenders, dealers, waitstaff, dancers, bouncers. Every now and then, Adelle did see a droid waiting on tables or cleaning up a mess. Smoke created a thin haze in the main lobby and nearly every being had a drink in hand. By dint of being on Zeltros, the Xtasy Casino held to the baseline quality of all the other resorts and casinos. But only just. And while Adelle didn't like Hutts or their dealings, the Rose Rhapsody resort and casino deserved to crush this cheap imitation.

Weaving her way through the throng was no easy task and here, no one cared if she was Mandalorian or not. The music vibrated in her armor as she scanned the crowd, even while knowing the deals and the bosses wouldn't be out here in public, but backrooms and private booths. Adelle opened herself up to the Force, seeking out intent.

She was surprised to find another presence here, searching as well.

 

[Alwine Bergen]

Adelle Bastiel

---

ZELTROS
The Xtasy Casino

It was never supposed to be Zeltros. Not for her, and certainly not for her daughter.

Alwine Bergen moved through the casino. She looked like she felt, out of place and out of patience, and trying very hard not to show either. The air was thick with perfume and laughter, and she absolutely loathed it. Everywhere she looked, someone was shamelessly touching someone else. A hand on a shoulder, a brush of fingers, a shared smile that promised... things, it was the kind of place Alwine's teenage daughter, Aethelwulf, would call beautiful.

And it was exactly the kind of place Alwine hated.

Her eyes swept the crowd, sharp and searching. She could feel the press of life all around her, sense the pheromones, the synthetic lust, the colours that were designed to drown out thought. Gods, even she was beginning to struggle. Somewhere in the endless sea of shimmer and bare skin was her daughter. Fifteen years old. Headstrong. Wolf. Too much like her mother in all the wrong ways.

Alwine had told herself she would give the girl freedom, space to grow, to find her own edges. To give her the childhood that she herself couldn't have even dreamed of because she hadn't known such options existed.But every time she did give her child that freedom, Aethelwulf managed to find new and inventive ways to test them. This time, it was a party or a "gathering". Which somehow translated into sneaking off to Zeltros on the back of a transport with a group of "friends" who were all, without exception, not enough trouble to get themselves involved with Galactic politics, but too much trouble for her teenager.

The music pulsed through the floor. Alwine pressed forward anyway, past laughing Zeltrons and glowing drinks with little paper umbrellas in them, her expression schooled into neutrality.

She didn't notice the Mandalorian at first, as the armor blended well enough with the shadows, but the presence in the Force did. A sharpness, like the scent of ozone before lightning. Searching.

Alwine stilled. For a heartbeat, she reached outward, brushing the currents of intent that filled the room. Somewhere nearby, someone else was hunting. Gods, she hoped the hunter was not after something her daughter had been involved in.

Either way, it was going to be one of those nights.

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Zeltros, Xtasy Casino
Tag: Alwine Bergen

Fear. It rippled through the Force from the other presence. Adelle paused her scanning, head tilting to the side as she let the tide of life and the Force wash over her. Not for itself, but fear for someone else. Familial. Fear of her--or perhaps what she might mean for this other person. Adelle considered her options: she could ignore it, focus on her objective, and try to minimize collateral. In fact, that's what most hunters would do, with varying convictions on the last point. But Adelle had been a Jedi, a dedicated Knight and Master in all but name. It pained her to know she was the source of someone else's fear, could be the source of someone else's pain.

Adelle sighed resignedly but reached out through the Force to the other presence. Telepathy was hard with people she didn't know; projecting images was far simpler and less taxing. She conjured an image of herself and a silhouette belonging to this other person sitting at a table, talking. Behind it, she layered the feel of a question: asking to talk. With the question posed, Adelle made her way to a table that had yet to be cleaned off. A waiting droid trundled over, projecting a holographic menu.

"Corellian ale," she said. The droid beeped and rolled away. Adelle unlatched her helm and set it carefully on one of the only clean spots on the table. Now she just had to wait and see what the other presence would do.

 

[Alwine Bergen]

Adelle Bastiel

---

Moving over to a small group of people who seemed to have a short blonde among them, Alwine stiffened. It wasn't anger or malice, but she wasn't quite certain what it actually was. Perhaps… Fear? Her fingers tightened on the edge of the table she had paused by, her jaw firm. She had felt plenty in her time: grief, exhaustion, loss… but not this. Not fear for her daughter. Was it the effect of the hormones in this place or was it truly hers? She was uncertain.

She inhaled slowly, grounding herself, feeling the subtle pull of the Force through the thrumming room. Her daughter could be here somewhere, and she couldn't risk setting the wrong people off in the search for her, making the location more dangerous than it was moments ago. She stepped forward, careful, measured, letting the currents of the room brush past her without grabbing her attention. At the edge of the table, she paused and projected an image of herself, one hand brushing her daughter's hair back from her face, protective, silent. It was a simple message: I'm not here to fight, but I will protect. It was as good as any a message, she supposed.

Then she spoke, low and steady, letting her words carry both weight and restraint.

"I am looking for a girl," she said, "Looks a bit like me, fifteen years of age, most likely brought here until false pretenses."

The woman she had asked ( Adelle Bastiel ), if nothing, was a Force User. Perhaps she would know something. Her gaze swept the room again. Somewhere in the haze, a small, reckless pulse of life caught her attention. Aethelwulf. She allowed herself the barest flicker of relief, and then the cold reality of the task ahead returned.

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Alwine Bergen



She could feel a flicker of something like but not quite recognition as her message was received. An image was sent in reply, a mother smoothing hair back from a child's--a daughter's face. The woman had something here to fight for. Adelle respected that. Soon enough, a small blonde woman walked over to her table, determination in her body language.

"I am looking for a girl," she said, "Looks a bit like me, fifteen years of age, most likely brought here until false pretenses."

"I'm afraid I haven't seen anyone of that description," Adelle said. She turned her scarred face to look the woman in the eyes, sympathy and steel in her own mismatched eyes. "But if you say she's here under false pretenses . . ."

The waiting droid came trundling back with a pint glass of Corellian ale. Adelle took a sip, grimacing. They had stored it wrong. And overcharged for it. She set it off to the side and picked up her helm. False pretenses and a young female never boded well.

"I'll help you find her first," she said, sliding the helmet back into place. The vocoder roughened her voice. "I've been hired by both the Alliance and the Hutts and those kinds of contracts get dicey real fast."

She was light on her weapons this hunt: just the Westar-34 pistol, her lightsaber, and the service knife most Mandalorians in the Empire carried. A crowded casino didn't lend itself to open areas and long ranges. Adelle began her scan again, punching in a command on her left vambrace and adjusting filters for facial scans and identification.

"Fifteen. That's young to be gallivanting across planets." Although, at least historically, a Mandalorian youth became an adult at sixteen on passing their verd'goten. "Does she usually hang out with these sorts of . . . crowds?"

 

[Alwine Bergen]

Adelle Bastiel

---

The Force User who had sent her that message through the Force had not seen anyone by that description. Alwine's shoulders visibly slumped. She had dared hope for a split of an instant that perhaps there was something here, but alas, there was nothing. As the other woman took a sip from some pink drink, Alwine made to move away, to continue her search. But then the woman spoke again.

Were the Alliance or the Hutt hunters good people these days? In truth, she was not certain. She had been tucked away on a backwater planet for years now, doing her best not to keep up with current events, since she knew that knowing about them would make her want to rush back to the galaxy at large and become involved again. But she had chosen to remain at home and be a wife and a mother first, and later became just a widowed mother. It was a simple life. On nights like this, she wanted the mundane-ness of it back.

Something shifted inside of her as the woman mentioned gallivanting across planets. That was not what had happened! Aethelwulf was a good girl, even if too adventurous for her own safety. Alwine would never cease to believe that, regardless of what her daughter did.

"She is young," she said, her voice betraying her fatigue, "I promised her she would soon be a free woman and be treated as an adult. So I take her with me on relief missions when I go. Things like helping refugees, helping the poor, and all. My daughter is very good at finishing her tasks as quickly as possible and then sneaking off in search of adventure. She is such a lovely girl, and her heart is good. But she has not yet learned that the galaxy is full of people who will use and abuse that."

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Alwine Bergen

The woman was quick to explain and paint a picture of a dutiful daughter, correction lingering in the air between them. Adelle had meant the comment innocently enough: most teenagers she'd encountered that were on a different planet from their parents or guardians were there because of rebellion or the desire to 'see the galaxy.' She never liked it when more than a few of them saw that the galaxy could be incredibly cruel. The woman sounded exhausted, describing the work they did and her daughter's adventurous spirit, the goodness within.

"I hope for her sake she has yet to learn that still," Adelle said quietly. "That lesson is best learned when it can be learned in safety."

Still, if she was here, on Zeltros, in a casino . . . Adelle only hoped they weren't too late.

She entered a command on her left vambrace, using Leigh's program to hack into the local security surveillance to broaden their search. The facial recognition search worked faster, flickering over the hundreds of faces in the crowded casino. Absently, Adelle saw why the Hutts wanted this particular business rival gone: in spite of the corners cut, the cheap fun offered drew far more business than their investments in Rose Rhapsody did.

The search in the open areas turned up nothing, and Adelle didn't want to press her luck by hijacking the security cams in the private and VIP sections. That would tip someone off.

"No luck in the open areas," she said, keying a command to have the programs run in the background but keep her HUD clear. "Are you able to sense her at all?"

She had no idea how this mother felt about the Force, or if she even knew about the Force, but those that could affect it and were affected by it generally could feel close bonds through it.