The Fast and the Unutterably Serene

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

CORUSCANT UNDERCITY

A good swoop bike was a real joy. A flight through the undercity at a substantial portion of the swoop's maximum velocity? That only counted as joy in the sense of neurotransmitter levels and cantina stories after the fact. In the moment, said flight felt a lot more like white-knuckle terror. On the plus side, of course, she was a Merrill and a Warden of the Sky; her first training in instinctive navigation had involved a carefully hidden bottle of warm blue milk. She might not match her father in that respect, but she could definitely handle quasi-podracing through the mossy, jumbled foundations of mile-high skyscraper blocks. Even if the place smelled like Cthons and hawkbat droppings.

The man beside her -- and sometimes behind, and sometimes ahead -- was [member="Vaudin Miir"], who'd represented the Iktotchi people in the Republic senate for years. Secretly, of course, Miir was a Force-sensitive and a veteran of the Vagrant Fleet. Her father had taken exactly one serious Padawan, ever: one student to whom he'd taught just about everything he knew. Miir was that student, now a Master in his own right. He had no trouble keeping up with her, or surpassing her, even if she was fairly sure his coat pocket held a half-empty flask.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

The swoops screamed along the nearly abandoned lanes of the all but forgotten undercity as the two compatriots fought to keep themselves from becoming colorful smears on crumbling walls. Vaudin hadn't worked with Mara before and to say he had his concerns would be wholly accurate but she had Merrill blood, how much more could she ask for. His too large hands gripped the handles of the swoop with white knuckles that stood out brightly on his reddish brown skin. His twin heavy blasters rested on his hips as the wind tore at his jacket and trouser legs. The strange mix of terror and exhilaration was almost enough to make him take up a life as a racer, almost.

He swept from beside the girl to behind her then back to her side as they passed through a narrow in the street. The missing contents of his half empty flask didn't seem to effect his reflexes in the least as their navigation instincts demanded a sharp right that produced enough 'G' forces to give those unprepared more than nausea. Dust and loose debris billowed in their wakes as they passed. The speed kept most of the stench of the rotting refuse and dead creatures at bay but the fact he got a whiff at all was a testment to what they would face on foot. They were getting close, he gut said so, and he rarely doubted his gut.



[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

There were precious few ways to take a ninety-degree turn at podracer velocities. Mara swung right, then cut left across the elbow, leaning in. The corner of a building narrowly missed her head, but she rose as she turned. Her repulsors grabbed the facing wall and took the bulk of the impact. Her swoop's underside grated on the wall, a sturdy duracrete foundation, casting sparks across a group of surprised Cthons.

She came down off the side of the wall and went right-side-up again, then coasted to a halt against the foundation, leaving room for Vaud to touch down.

"Should be right here," she said. "Good thing Dad found the record, or this would have just sat here forever." She eyed a chunk of wall like any other, then glanced up. So far, her gut didn't indicate trouble inbound. An abyss of garbage and debris stretched out ahead and back the way they'd come. Footing was precarious, and a piece of rusty rebar through the neck could kill you just as dead as a Sith lightsabre. There'd been a platform here, she saw, but the Mandalorian Ijaat Mereel had destroyed the Sith temple not far from here, and some of the larger junk had, dare I say it, come in like a wrecking ball. She'd stopped near a rusty old comm panel with a nonsensical corporate logo beside it, put in place in better days. It had been broken since the day it was installed, a dummy front for another function.

Corroded keys rasped as she punched in the drop vault's combination. A camouflaged phrik door slid aside.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

The phrik plate issued a grinding noise from the years of dust and grime that coated nearly everything in the undercity. Vaudin slowly slipped a blasyer from its holster as he checked behind them for the off chance of a tail. His grey eyes scanned the path behind them and caught sight of a foot jutting beneath a large duracrete slab that had fallen from force knows where. Someone else had been close to this area before. He wondered if they knew what they'd been close to.

"Let's get this done, kid." He said as he turned and moved into the vault with his blaster at the ready, "Luck don't last forever."

He entered the room and pulled an empty bag from his back and began searching for anything of value that he could carry. No reason to leave these items for someone else to stumble upon. The package would be among the other goods somewhere.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

Long ago, beneath the Jedi Temple, long diagonal drop tubes had led from the basements to deep, distant, individual vaults. This was one of them. Back in the day, when Coruscant first fell, the Tionne Holocron and the Great Holocron had gone down a tube into a vault like this. So had Grandmaster Darron Wraith, for that matter. Jorus Merrill had extracted the holocrons from occupied Coruscant. What he hadn't known, though -- what he couldn't have known, until recent rediscovery of a crucial record -- was that at least one drop vault had been missed. But it didn't contain a Jedi holocron.

The holocron of the Dark Lord Soren Vintitus had been one of the first rediscovered in the modern era. Fourteen centimetres tall, formed of alchemical crystal and stone, it started to give off a palpably ugly aura as Mara approached. The fallen Jedi Master Talon Vosra had surrendered it to the Council along with himself. And then, in the chaos of the Coruscant evacuation and the Temple's destruction, the holocron had been utterly forgotten.

At the back of the vault stood an insulated cabinet, linked to the end of a diagonal tube that stretched up and over for a couple of kilometres. If she was to crawl up there, she knew, she'd find herself sealed beneath the Valley of Dark Lords. As it stood, though, they didn't appear to be in any danger. Yet. Once they took the holocron from the vault, its presence might be felt. Its whispers might be heard.

Fortunately, there were countermeasures for such things.

She slipped it into a padded bag, an Oubliette Satchel made by her aunt, and the holocron's chilling presence vanished again.

"I feel like I need a shower."

 

[Vaudin Miir]

Vaudin shouldered the bag of Jedi trinkets, lightsaber materials and datacards mostly, everything an aspirant would need to start his or her training. Vaudin couldn't really use the items but if they left them it could lead a sharp minded pursuer to the conclusion they were more than looters.

He turned toward the girl and gave her an involuntary look up and down. Years of next to no restraint around pretty women were evidently catching up with him as he squeezed his eyes shut and suddenly felt a strong desire to empty the rest of his flask. A shower?

"Yeah, me too, Kid." He said in agreement. He just looked his best friend's daughter over as if she were a new hyperdrive. He needed to take a bath in guavian brandy.

He holstered his blaster and swung his arm through the second strap of the pack and tightened it down to keep it from being ripped off. There was no need to leave the vault open so he waited for the girl to clear it and punched the code to seal it back up.

"Alright lets get the hell off this rock." He said as he stepped back to the swoops and pulled his flask from his jacket pocket for a quick sip, "Showers are back on the ship."

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

The joys of being an empath, and a really strong one: Mara felt a blush creep up her cheeks and down past her collarbones. The problem wasn't just his regard, but his embarrassment. His mind had its defenses and such, but even the hint that she'd caught told her plenty.

She steadfastly ignored the possibility that the shower remark had been innuendo. Steadfastly.

The vault sealed shut behind them, and Mara threw a leg over the swoop bike. The Oubliette Satchel wasn't exactly capacious -- it barely fit the Vintitus holocron, let alone protected it. She'd need to be careful on the way out, and she hadn't thought to bring another backpack to hold the satchel. Still, she'd latched the buckle, and that should suffice.

"Let's go for a roundabout route, lower speed," she said. "Take it slow and we should get out of here just fine."