Questions

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"To be fair, this is half my job. Outsmarting people." A surprising amount of people came to Munin with the idea that they would be able to get away with all the information he had without ever paying him. It was odd really, and didn't help his paranoia any. Dejarik was a game of strategy, that much like his job depended almost entirely on out thinking other people. Of course that wasn't to say that Munin was some kind of expert general or military tactician, but it helped.

"I wouldn't feel too bad." He moved another piece forward. "If you want we can play Pazaak instead."

Munin shrugged. "Or just go to sleep."

They would need plenty of rest for what was ahead of them. There was really no telling what was waiting for them at that laboratory. From what Munin knew it was supposedly abandoned, but from experience with Spark abandoned didn't always mean abandoned. They could encounter traps, creatures, vagrants, perhaps even old experiments. The latter of the options was what troubled him the most really, if only because it was the most unknown of the options.

There was just no telling what they'd find.

 

[Kuzo]

"Well, that makes sense," she muttered, giving the board a hard side eye, as though it had personally offended her. Then she sighed, and offered a self deprecating smile as she looked up.

"My job is a little more about fixing things than anything else," she shrugged. "It makes sense to me, anyway. I don't think I could do what you do. Anyway, let's at least finish this game. Maybe I'll surprise you."

Needless to say, she did not surprise him. She lost. Swapping to pazaak was slightly better. At least it wasn't a complete and utter route. After three hands though, she sat back, rubbing absently at her temple as a headache started to blossom there.

"I think I am going to lay down for the last hour and a half," she said, standing up slowly. She hadn't really planned on going right out and following whatever information he would be able to dig up for her. She didn't know what was coming, what they would find. She'd take something for the pain and then rest.

[member="Munin"]

 

[Munin]

​

Munin didn't sleep, he rarely did unless Spark was in his arms.

When they finally arrived Munin was already in the cockpit, his fingers on the controls and his eyes straight ahead. Staring into hyperspace always made him feel a bit nauseous, the blurred bright blue lines giving him an odd feeling in his stomach. He had been told before that such a thing was normal, though he'd seen more than a few of his clients stare into the ethos for hours and hours on end with seemingly no effect at all. For some reason that bothered him.

[We're there.] He said over the intercom of the ship.

The long-range sensors had already told him that the system was devoid of ships and stations, though they hadn't been strong enough to tell if there was any life on the planet.

They dropped out of hyperspace with a sudden shake, the bright blue and green marble of a planet instantly appearing before Munin as they fell into realspace. He mused for a second, waiting for Irajah to get to the cockpit before he started to accelerate them towards the atmosphere. The inertial dampeners on this job weren't all that great, and he wasn't too keen on accidentally injuring the doctor by making her fall over and smack her head on something.

That'd be embarrassing for both of them.

 

[Kuzo]

She hadn't expected to fall asleep. She figured she'd rest her eyes for a little while, rest. But instead she'd dozed off, fitful and restless.

They were sitting at their kitchen table. The large, cheerful room had always been the center of their home. School work and art and innumerable shared meals had circled around, nestling in to a warm, comfortable background noise of memory. Her feet swung beneath her chair, and if it seemed odd that she was a child again, well, dreams were like that.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry."

She looked up, grinning at her father. He'd just burned a pan of wookiee-cakes and was scraping them in to the trash.

"It's okay."

​"No," he said, his voice heavier than a ruined breakfast should account for, "It's not."

Suddenly he was kneeling beside her. His hands were firm on her arms. As she watched in horror, his face started to cave in. Despite that she was now an adult again, her struggling did nothing against the grip on her.

"It's all my fault, sweetie," he whispered, his voice rasping and hoarse. "Wake up. We're almost there- We're there-"

[We're there]

Very slowly, Irajah sat up. Her head pounded worse than before. Grimacing, she dropped her head between her knees, breathing in deeply and slowly for a few moments.

Well. That one was new.

*****

She joined him in the cockpit a few minutes later, looking even more tired than when she had laid down. Sliding in to the co-pilot's chair, she buckled in silently. Haggard hazel eyes cast out of the front shield, taking in the small planet beneath them.

Without noticing, her hands moved to grip the sides of the seat as the shaking intensified. She knew it was perfectly normal, especially for the atmosphere of a jungle planet (at least, in an academic sort of fashion). Trying to distract herself, she leaned over, checking some of the sensor equipment.

"Not picking up any comm activity," she said softly. "If anyone's down there, they are keeping pretty quiet."

As they dipped beneath the cloud cover, things seemed to even out a bit and Irajah let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

[member="Munin"]

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

As they crept close to the surface of the planet Munin realized just how right Irajah was. It seemed that everything was...well abandoned. They flew over a small village that had become overgrown and completely overtaken by vegetation, trees branching out from buildings, plants surrounding walls, roads cut by thick layers of moss and grass. Munin watched it for a moment, then turned his attention to the topography map.

The lab was just ahead. ”There.”

Munin pointed a finger out the left of the viewport towards a massive building that was half built into the mountain side. The structure looked quite a bit more modern than the village had, though it was still nearly overgrown by plants and moss. Where there had once been massive plate windows were now jagged glass edges, where there had been a neat landing pad was nothing but moss.

”I’ll try and get us close.” Munin said as he pulled the ship towards the edge of the facility. ”Don’t think the trees want to comply though.”

The information broker eventually managed to find a place just outside of the facility itself, a large enough clearing that allowed them to settle down. ”Ready for this?”

Munin asked, already on his feet.

 

[Kuzo]

"Probably not, but I'm going to do it anyway," came the faint reply.

She didn't turn her attention to him the entire time the ship was coming in. Her eyes were glued on the vista before them. Another time, another place, perhaps she would have seen the beauty here. But right now, all she saw were the jagged edges, the broken stone- and the company symbol, half covered in moss on the side the building.

Where had she seen that before?

Even with the clear disuse and age of the facility, Irajah insisted they wear the isolation suits. The ones she'd procured had their own air supply. As long as neither of them tore the suits, they would be protected from anything that might still be here. From personal experience, she had a health respect for anything that could have been manufactured here.

The pair disembarked, each carrying the equipment they thought they would need- not much, in truth. Other than maybe a wild animal or two, it wasn't as though they were going to meet hostile forces in the abandoned lab. It wasn't the kind of thing Irajah was worried about finding here, truth be told.

They crossed the cracked tarmac in silence, the moss muffling their foot steps. While the plate windows were broken, the front door of the facility was still closed- and locked. The key pad was corroded but intact. Irajah was about to step back, letting [member="Munin"] work his magic. But she stopped. Very slowly, she reached out, pressing one, two, three, four keys in careful order. There was no reason for that code to work. No reason whatsoever. But she tried it anyway.

The small light flashed green and the door slid open. Irajah's hand fell bonelessly back to her side.

Why had the security code from her childhood home opened the door? And why had she thought that it might?

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Munin blinked, slowly looking over to Irajah. ”That’s probably not a good sign.”

He was all for surprises, but that one? Well...it didn’t bode well for what they might stumble upon here, or rather, it didn’t bode well for Irajah. For him this was little more than a trip to find information, for her, this was a change of life. They could stumble upon secrets that would shatter her world, find mysteries that she never thought possible.

Munin didn’t even want to begin to think about what she must have been feeling. His own past was shrouded to him, orphanages, laboratories, tests, secret implants. He had known ever since Spark had told him, but he’d not had the courage to truly seek what had happened to him, Irajah had. He frowned for a moment, looking into the dark and dank space of the laboratory ahead of him as he pulled out a small flashlight.

”Let’s get going.” Munin said quietly. "See if we can't find an access terminal."

From his small bag he pulled out a tablet, ready to slice into the databse and find their way around.

 

[Kuzo]

Some of the lights flickered on, anemic and wane, as they entered the facility. At least they knew there was some power still running. Small favors. As they moved through the facility, Irajah was silent. She hadn't spoken since she had unlocked the door.

It didn't take long for them to find a terminal- the key was finding one with power. After a little searching, they found somewhere for [member="Munin"] to settle in. Irajah had a general idea of what he needed to do- slice through whatever security the system still had in tact, and then start combing through the information. It could take a couple of minutes, or much, much longer, depending on how serious security was.

As he bent over the datapad, Irajah drifted away. Hazel eyes flickered around the room they'd found themselves in- an administrative office connected to a small lab, by the looks of it. How long had this facility been abandoned? Twenty, thirty years? She didn't really know how to properly judge these things, but it seemed like a safe guess. She started to circle the room, picking her way carefully over the debris.

Absently, not really conscious of the action, she bent over, picking up a chair and righting it. About to move on, she froze. A binder, dark blue with the company's logo on it, lay beneath the chair. She stared at it, as if it were some sort of poisonous creature, waiting to strike. Then, slowly, she reached down. Gloved hands hesitated, hovering over the cover for a heartbeat or two before finally retrieving it.

She remembered where she'd seen the logo before.

On the bookshelf in her father's office.

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Munin paid no attention to Irajah for a moment, too consumed with the small screen in front of him.

His own datapad had been plugged into the center of the console, numbers scrolling across it as the encryption on the terminal was cracked and broken. His first priority was finding a map of the facility itself, something that would allow them to find their way around without getting lost a million times. His second, and perhaps more important task was finding a history of the facility, why it had been left abandoned and whether or not they were actually safe wandering around here.

"Found a map." He said quietly as he swiped the screen to the right, flipping a switch on the side of the console.

"One second." Munin depressed a few keys, then looked behind him as if he expected something. There was a pause, and then a light flickered to life within the center of the room. It blinked on and off for a few seconds, and then jumped into being. A holo-projection of the facility came into the view. "Should be able to use this..."

At this point he was more talking to himself than Irajah. "We need to find the Archives, I can't access that data from here."

The Information Broker looked towards the holo-projected map, depressing another key. The map shifted, a green line tracing through the buildings schematics. It quickly carved a path through the laboratory, moving deep inside the facility from where he and Irajah stood to the basement where the Archives were held.

 

[Kuzo]

"The archives," she repeated faintly.

She turned the binder over in her hands slowly before opening it. This one simply had a list of dates, times and initials. It didn't really mean anything. She did note absently that the dates were from just around thirty five years ago. When the facility went under? Possible. But this was only the series of surface thoughts, floating on a much deeper mental turbulance.

Her mind's eye toured her father's office as it looked when she had seen it last- almost a year ago, not long after the virus had been unleashed. She'd returned to her home, hoping against hope that maybe he'd survived the same way she had. After all, he'd taught her the technique she was using. It had been a blow, to find his body. In her weakened state, it had taken her almost two days to bury him. After that, she'd searched their home for.... something. Anything. He'd told her, once, that he had been a Jedi. He refused to speak of it, refused to tell her anything about it, about why he had left the order. She only admitted it aloud later, when she was recording events in her journal, that truly, she had been searching for his lightsaber. What would she have done with it, even if she had found it?

His office in her adult years was not dissimilar to how it had looked when she had been a child. His sanctum sanctorum. The one place in the house that belonged solely to him. He had never been unkind about protecting his privacy, but he had been firm. On the rare occasion she would sneak in to the room as a child, she would be gently ushered out once discovered.

All the way on the right, the uppermost shelf. That was where she had seen in. The blue spine of the binder with the down swept wings. There had been two words, written carefully beneath it. What had it been?

Irajah closed her eyes for a moment, breathing in deeply and letting it back out in one, smooth exhalation.

Project Gideon.

Hazel eyes opened again, unseeing as she gazed down at the binder in her hands.

She had a choice.

She could stop this right now. Return to Dossun. To [member="Boo Chiyo"]. Walk away and leave these nebulous, looming questions behind. Tell herself that the reason she had struck out again and again was because the trail had simply been too cold. There were no answers in this galaxy for her. Instead of grasping and seeking something that was long gone, she could focus on building a new life. Let that one go. Live this one.

Or.

"Gideon," she said softly. Then looked up at [member="Munin"] . Slowly, she slid the binder on to an empty spot on one of the shelves.

"When we get there, I need you to look up 'Project Gideon.'"

She was remembering things- things that linked her father to an abandoned lab that specialized in infectious disease. Less than a year after her planet was wiped out by one of the most virulent virus she had ever encountered.

She had to know.

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

He turned to her for a moment, Gideon?

The thought seemingly came out of nowhere, and in truth Munin found his interest more than a little piqued. There was clearly something going on with the woman, something that Munin wasn't privy too. He couldn't pry into her mind, wouldn't pry into her mind, but he could study and watch. His eyes drifted towards the folder in her hands, though he said nothing as he studied her. The steady sound of his breath through the mask's respirator sounded out as he thought about what to do next. The Archives were of course the obvious choice, but there was something...off about her, something that she wasn't saying out loud just yet. He frowned for a moment and then nodded.

"Okay." Munin pointed towards the holographic map.

"That will be our quickest route." The green line made an almost exact path, to the Archives, though there was one big problem; a Turbo-lift. The Archives were located in the basement of the laboratory, and in order to get there one would ordinarily need to take a high speed turbo-lift. Stairs weren't an option, the Archives were buried too deep underground. That meant they would either have to hope that the turbo-lift was still operational, or repel down the now empty shaft. "Let's go."

Munin was pleased that he'd brought rope.

Without any further hesitation the Information Broker unplugged his datapad, downloading the map and their path onto the small device and setting off alongside Irajah.

He had no idea what Project Gideon was, he had no idea if he should even care, but he knew that the Archives would have more than just that. Everything that this laboratory had ever worked on, every secret, every detail would be down there. That was enough to hold his interest.

 

[Kuzo]

The lift, of course, was broken.

About a month ago, her friend [member="Ghorua the Shark"] had walked her through the repair of a turbo lift. But they had few of the tools they needed and honestly, Irajah wasn't certain she'd be able to duplicate the feat without help. Especially because they had no idea exactly what was wrong with this one. Obviously, power wasn't getting to it, but the why and how seemed sort of irrelevant. Especially as [member="Munin"] started setting up the ropes.

Realizing what he had in mind was enough to break her out of her worried silence finally.

"I'm sorry, what, exactly, are we going to do with those? Please don't tell me it's what I think we're doing."

It wasn't that Irajah was afraid of heights. But she had a health respect for them. Especially the sudden stop at the bottom.

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

”Well.” Munin said as he began to unfurl the rope, slowly stringing it around his elbow so that it wouldn’t get caught or tangled on anything. There weren’t many tying off points up here, but that was alright. As long as they found at least one they would be able to make it down the shaft without too much of an issue.

”Unless you can fly.” Munin smiled at her. ”Pretty sure this is our only option to get down there.”

As far as he was aware, even Force Users weren’t capable of flight.

He had seen Spark fall onto the ground more than once for that to be possible, and he figured that others weren’t all that much different. Of course he had no idea whether or not Irajah was a force user, but he also highly doubted that she was some sort of angelic species that had been hiding wings this entire time, if only because...well they wouldn’t have fit into the suit. ”It’s perfectly safe, I brought harnesses.”

He offered her a reassuring smile.

 

[Kuzo]

Irajah was not particularly reassured.

But since the choices still seemed to be press on or go back, it didn't really matter how comfortable she was with it. It was either all in or all out. And at this point, with the memory of that binder and the words Project Gideon floating behind her eyes, going back didn't really seem like an option. The door had been opened, and now she had to see what was on the other side.

She watched while he set everything up, offering an extra pair of admittedly inexpert hands when needed. It didn't take terribly long, and she was even less reassured by the time they were done. It seemed like an utterly insufficient number of ropes and knots, though [member="Munin"] seemed pleased enough. Since he was also going to be swinging along with her, if he was willing to put his life in the hands of a half dozen knots and some synthrope, then she figured she could do the same.

Planet destroying virus? That was fine. Shape shifting, murderous mandalorian? No problem. Crash landing on a planet that wanted to kill them? Suuuuure. Buildings exploding and angry giant whale men? She had this. Distrustful ex-slave orphans? She'd be okay.

Apparently, despite all of those things and her ability to remain calm therein was thoroughly challenged by the neverending darkness of the shaft beneath their feet.

She thought she was going to be sick for a second.

The ropes were set up. He'd showed her how to use the descender. Her harness had been checked and rechecked.

"I don't think I can do this-"

Munin thought otherwise.

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

"It'll be fine." If Spark could manage it without falling then she certainly could. "Just think about it as an adventure, something you've never done before. Don't look down and just steadily descend as you go. There's no need to worry, I'll stay up here until you hit the ground."

Mostly because he had to.

Some might have thought that Munin was being oddly supportive, but...well it wasn't like he was a monster. He didn't think he and Irajah were friends or anything, but that didn't mean that he had to be rude to her. Though he had been raised an orphan in the worst of conditions Munin knew exactly how far a kind word or two would go. There was a time to push someone, and then there was a time to lend a supportive hand. Right now, Irajah needed more support than a push.

This place already pushed her enough. "You'll be fine, I promise."

He offered her a smile, though it was barely recognizable behind the mask.

The Archives were important, and Irajah had already shown an interesting bit of knowledge about this place. He would have offered to go on without her, but that the knowledge she held, wherever she had gotten 'Project Gideon' from, made it so he couldn't go alone. She would just have to suck it up and jump.

 

[Kuzo]

"Wait, I'm going down alone?"

It made sense, when he explained it. After all, he knew what he was doing and she didn't, so, to a point she had to trust that, indeed, they had to go down one at a time.

She breathed in, letting it out slowly.

It wasn't the worst five minutes of her life. That spot was saved for something clearly objectively worse that this. But she would put it in a solid second place for that dubious honor. Her feet lost their purchase often enough that she lost track. It became an endless purgatory of breath, step, release, breath. Those five minutes felt much, much longer to her.

Even with the ropes (which she had kind of thought would do most of the work) her arms and legs were shaking by the time she reached the bottom. She had just enough forethought to scuttle out of the way (she was seriously considering vomiting then curling up in a ball until the other side of forever) before sliding down the wall and covering her head with her arms. After all, [member="Munin"] still had to make his way down.

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

Munin was hardly an expert when it came to rapelling down Turbo-lift shafts, it was rather difficult, troubling, and if there was even one problem...splat. He tried not to think about that as he made his own descent to the bottom of the lift, though his headlamp illuminated his way quite well. He frowned slightly as he reached the half way point, letting out a deep breath.

This was stressful.

The Information Broker reminded himself that next time he would need to take a repulsor pack, or maybe a straight jetpack so this probably didn’t happen again. Luckily for their way up he had an electronic tower that would pull them back up...but well this was way harder than he had thought it would originally be.

”Heads up.” He called down as he reached the bottom. ”Don’t want to sit on you.”

He saw Irajah slip out to the side, his feet hitting the floor a few seconds later. ”See, Not so bad?”

Munin said as he began undoing the harness.

 

[Kuzo]

His words echoed slightly in the darkness. She looked up at him, dark hair plastered to her pale face. She breathed in then out again through her mouth and said slowly, only the barest shake in her voice-

​"That.... was hideous."

Blood? Guts? Whatever.

Heights? Apparently not so much.

Helping him undo the harnesses and put some of the gear away, Irajah eventually managed to get the shaking in her hands under control. They left the ropes- after all, they had to go back up-

She was trying not to think about it.

Switching on a small hand light, she flashed it through the opening and in to the hallway beyond. Just as with the upper level, when they stepped in, a light flickered on. Just one, but it meant that awful experience hadn't been in vain. If there was power here, then there was a chance [member="Munin"] could access the information in the archives.

Irajah looked right, then left, remembering which direction they needed to go from the map he'd showed her. Best way to handle stress for her was to do something- to get something done, accomplished. So pushing forward was, as always, the only real option.

"This way," she said, heading off down the corridor.

 

[Munin]

[member="Irajah Ven"]

He followed after her, pointing the flashlight just ahead of them so they didn't bump into anything as they walked. Surprisingly, this section of the laboratory wasn't completely overgrown. There were no vines, no moss, no plants of any sort in fact. The doors and walls seemed to be completely intact, there was no dripping water and everything seemed to function well enough, save for the lights of course. Munin wondered briefly why this place had been abandoned.

"Do you remember anything else?" Munin slowly began to probe.

'Project Gideon' hadn't been the first thing she'd brought up, there had to be something else. Perhaps thoughts of this place when it had been operational, moments in time that they could learn more about. He didn't want to press too much, but anything was valuable at this point.

"Maybe why this place was shut down." He swept the flashlight in front of them. "Or something..."

His voice sounded innocent enough really. Part of him was sure that they would find the answers they were looking for in the Archives, but the curiosity that had slowly been breeding in his skull was overwhelming him. Munin wanted to dig, he wanted to know, and he wanted to do both immediately.

 

[Kuzo]

She didn't answer right away. They walked in silence for almost a full minute before she spoke. It would have been easy to think that she wouldn't answer at all. And then-

"When I came to meet you, I didn't expect to find anything particularly useful," she admitted. "I mean, I had hoped that I would, but, I haven't had the best luck so far. I figured that, if you came up with nothing, I'd ask you to help me track down some information about something else."

She paused, peering through the transparisteel of a door off to the side. Empty office. They continued on.

"When you turned this up, that seemed.... kind of irrelevant. I figured I'd back burner it. It wasn't as important, you know? And then..... I remembered. The company symbol. I. I was going to ask you to help me find information. About my father. Who- what he was, before."

She was obviously struggling to find the words.

"I've seen this symbol before," she said, pausing and indicating the large icon painted on the wall. She swept her light across it, her brow furrowed, a frown on her face.

"On a binder. In his office. It was labeled 'Project Gideon.'"

She looked back at [member="Munin"], hazel eyes bleak.

"The security code? I don't know why I did it. It was before I remembered the binder. My subconscious, or something I guess. It was the code for the system in our home, when I was a kid."

Irajah fell silent then, pressing on.

She didn't know yet what all of it meant. But she needed to find out.