Rescue on the Riverside

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Are you absolutely sure those coordinates were correct?" Cotan growled at his droid, which quickly reassured him that they were. How many times he'd asked, he wasn't sure; the astromech likely remembered, but it knew better than to say. Cotan groaned, rubbing at his eyes and settling back in his seat. "Fine."

It wasn't fine.

The pair had been in hyperspace for quite a while by that point, on their way to a set of coordinates that he didn't imagine anybody had ever been to. Except, of course, one person; [member="Asha Hex"] had apparently managed to get herself stranded, and sent out a distress call to any Je'daii who might pick up. Luckily for the both of them, that was Cotan.

But it was definitely an odd location to be at. He cracked open one eye, glancing at the navcomputer again. The coordinates were way off of the galactic disk, but still weren't in either of the satellite galaxies. An old, dim star in the stellar halo, with an orbit so eccentric and long that it hadn't been anywhere near the core since long before the earliest recorded civilizations in the galaxy. And apparently it had a fairly habitable planet.

How Asha had managed to land herself on such a far out rock, so far outside the breadth of any galaxy-spanning nation, he didn't think he'd ever be able to figure out. But now she was stuck, farther out in the stellar halo than anybody'd been before, with no fuel or way to get back. "How close are we, Kiss?" he asked his droid, still irritable.

The answer of 'not very' didn't do anything to lighten his mood.

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Cotan jerked awake when he felt the ship lurch; sure enough, they'd finally reached their destination, after who-knew-how-long. The trip itself had certainly been going a couple days; not quite as bad as trying to navigate the mess that was the Kathol sector, but it was still a long distance. Outside of the viewport, he could glance a large slice of the galactic disk and core, far below.

But as the ship was piloted by his droid further to its destination, something else came into view.

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His eyes widened with surprise. Sure enough, it was a habitable planet, and a big one too; noticeably larger than Naboo was, at least. "Well, she certainly found a good place, didn't she?" he joked to his droid. "Run some scans, see if there are any signs of intelligent life down there besides our wayward friend." He took the yoke, taking charge of piloting the ship now.

K1-S5 ran multiple scans, and as Cotan drew in closer, he could see the signs of cities and the like in various areas on the surface. None of them seemed active, though. A burbled reply from his droid confirmed that. "Empty, eh?" he muttered. Somewhat hopefully; it was better than the alternative, that the entire planetary population had been wiped out.

However, as they drew closer to the planet, coming in for a landing next to The Prophet, he shuddered, and not just from the thought that the planet's intelligent life had been completely exterminated. When he and his droid descended the boarding ramp and made their way out into the clearing where Asha was sitting, he knew why, and it left a sinking feeling in his stomach. The entire planet was steeped in the Dark Side.

Still, he had other things to attend to beyond those worries. "Good thing I'm always around to bail you out of trouble, eh?" he joked at the red-haired girl as he walked up to her, before wrapping her in a hug—and ignoring the mocking noises his droid made behind him. "I've missed you these last few months. Seen anything else interesting, other than just this place?"

 

[Lief]

Time had become meaningless in the weeks since her arrival om this strange, lifeless world.

It was not empty, oh no far from it, this had once housed a great civilization and its remnants lingered all around, but of people there were none. Living, anyway. She had sensed other, more nefarious lifeforms as she skirted the perimeter of the world's large cities. Once upon a time she might have ventured inside, more guts than sense, but these days she knew better. It was one thing to meddle with breathing, thinking darksiders... And another all together to mess with the dead.

Whatever secrets the cities held, Asha had remained far from it all.

The Prophet had all but died by the time it reached this place. There had been a malfunction within the main hyperdrive, and apparently the issues had only spread and worsened since then. It had been a bittersweet moment, realizing that she might never see it fly again, and while she had learned enough to keep her vessel maintained the problems facing it now were far, far from her abilities.

And so she had come to be stranded in this place.

Two weeks had passed without communication to the outside world. She was so far out that her commlink was rendered useless, and the long range comms on her ship wouldn't work without the juice her vessel was lacking. Without power much of the ship had been off limits to her, so she'd taken to sleeping in the entry. Thankfully she still had access to one of the smaller pantries, meant for longer lived rations, though she hadn't as much of that stuff stocked as she might've liked.

Naturally an inquisitive girl, it hadn't taken her long to venture from the safety of her ship and its crash site in search of something more. Something which could sustain her when the rations ran dry. Water which would not poison her, fruits, that sort of thing. It hadn't taken her long to find that first eerie city.

It hadn't taken her long to realize she should avoid it at all cost.

When she found a solar array, she knew that some of her troubles were over. With enough power to get some of the ships systems up and running she was finally able to send out a distress call, and the rest of her ship became open to her. No luck with the engine though. She knew that it would have to be a waiting game.

If anyone even braved the journey.

The past few days had been spent in meditation, shot through with periods of Flow-Walking. It had been some time since she had walked the threads of the infinite, so she took it slow. Soon enough though she was thoroughly engulfed.

That was how she was found, cross-legged upon the ground and eyes closed lightly. Deep in thought, lost in another time, another place.

But that did not stop her from opening her eyes at the first spoken word.

"Cotan?" she breathed, peering up at him as he spoke and rising into his embrace. She hadn't expected it to be him, but now that he was here she was glad it hadn't been anyone else.

Asha smiled, her arms wrapping naturally around him, head settling against his chest in just the perfect spot.

"I've missed you too; I'm sorry I left like that..."

Up and vanished without a word, in truth she could barely remember what it was that had caused her to do so. The pull of the Force, perhaps... Somehow, that was usually the answer.

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm kind of used to it," Cotan replied. He held the embrace for a moment longer before pulling back, glancing over at her ship. The makeshift solar panel-power-system was interesting, to say the least. "I imagine that's how you were able to send out the distress signal," he observed drily, a small grin on his face. Hiding the worry.

The idea that Asha could've ended up stranded here, for good, wasn't one that he liked having just thought up. It seemed this world brought with it a lot of bad imaginations.

He shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment. Stay focused, Cotan. "Well, I suppose all we have to do now is get you out of here. Looks like your ship'll have to wait until I get a bigger group to come by and pick it up, though." Behind them, K1-S5 gave a long, sarcastic whistle. Cotan glared at the droid for a moment, before turning back around. "As you can tell, he missed you too," he said, putting on a wider grin.

Before it soon fell again, the aura of the world reaching out and bothering him yet again. "How were you able to keep from losing your mind in this place? It's ridiculous."

[member="Asha Hex"]

 

[Lief]

She couldn't disguise the frown which played upon her lips, somber and sorrowful. That Cotan had experienced such time and time again left her feeling horrid, and she could only hope that she hadn't contributed too much to that. When he pulled back she seemed somewhat reluctant, though ultimately she stepped back when he did and watched as he assessed the situation.

"I don't know how safe it would be to bring more folk this way" she muttered, at the mention of a return trip, "If losing Prophet is the price I pay for stupidity, then so be it. She's just a ship..."

Just a ship. Asha didn't quite believe her own words, that ship had been with her since the start, but material possessions weren't worth getting heartbroken over, not if it meant saving strife. Perhaps it was time for something else, something new. After all, this ship held quite the array of memories and not all were good.

"What, this place?" Her gaze strayed to the city that was just within sight, over on the horizon, and let out a small shrug of her shoulders, "This is nothing compared to the things Aellin mustered up." A small shiver ran down her spine at the mere thought of the Graveyard and its puppeteer, and one hand slowly rose to her throat. Sometimes she could still feel it there, the heavy weight of that band, but all her fingers brushed against was skin.

She let out a tiny sigh of relief.

"Movement meditation helps to clear the mind."

[member="Cotan Sar'andor"]

 

[Cotan Sar'andor]

Cotan gestured at K1-S5 to go and check out Asha's ship, and determine the full extent of the damage, before raising a hand up and pushing back some of her hair. "It's never just a ship," he said quietly. "Even that old Sith transport I used to fly around in wasn't just a ship. That's like saying the temple on Ceto is just a building."

His hand lingered where it was for a moment, stroking her cheek, before he noticed her own hand raising up to her throat, the small shiver that went through her body. His brow furrowed in concern, he dropped his hand back down. "Sounds like a story you'll have to tell me," he said in response. As busy as they both were, he'd never really had the opportunity to learn a whole lot about Asha's life from before they met.

The same, of course, could be said for how well Asha knew his past. Something that would have to change some day.

K1-S5 came back quickly after interfacing with a terminal, rattling off the list of problems. The droid was going so fast it really did sound like a rattle, even. "Well...your engine picked a great time to malfunction and send you out away from the disk, didn't it?" he joked back to Asha. It was certainly far outside of his capabilities to work on where they were, but if he could get a frigate or a larger vessel out, they might be able to drag it off-world and back to a repair facility.

Neverminding the other reasons Cotan would need to bring people over. "Well, if moving meditation works, how about we go on a small excursion?" he suggested. "I want to find out something about this place before we leave, especially since you know I'll have to report it to somebody. Maybe Coren." He turned, facing the astromech that was looking at him quizzically. "Yes, Kiss, you too," he said. "I'll need somebody around who can jumpstart a computer terminal and pull some information out of it, after all."

He glanced at the city that was out on the horizon. The speeder he had in his cargo hold should be able to get them to it and back relatively quickly, though he had a sense of apprehension just looking at it. It was one of the smaller ones on the planet, but even then, it still felt wrong. Not that he was showing it by this point. "What do you say?"

[member="Asha Hex"]