Private The Schemer and The Medic

[Aiden Satazuriki]

The destination was Theed, but it had been a long journey from the outer territories to High Republic space. The ship was due for a stop to refuel. Due to the political importance of the ship, specifically the person aboard, it was agreed that a small attachment of Republic forces would be waiting at the station to provide escort from that stop and onward to the capital. An external ship would escort the vessel, but some would be positioned aboard the ship for communication purposes.

Aiden Satazuriki, the precious cargo in question, found himself staring off into the star littered void of space through the window in his quarters. It was a weird thing to get used to. A month or two ago had been his first time off world in the first place. It was intimidating, seeing how truly vast the galaxy beyond the atmosphere of his homeworld was. Yet, it was oddly freeing in a way. Endless opportunity to achieve his goal surrounded him. Just the sheer statistics of the amount of factions and empires he could approach and court for favor made his dream feel all the more reasonable somehow. He idly takes the pendant with his family symbol, forged from silver and amethyst, into his fingers as his purple hued gaze looks it over. To have the galaxy as his oyster while being so far from the chaotic and nonsensical politics of his home. It was just as relieving as it was intimidating.

His thoughts are interrupted by one of the guards knocking on the door. He calls out evenly in response. "Enter."

The guard peeks his head in. "We're due to arrive at the space station soon, Milord."

Aiden nodded slightly, a polite smile on his lips. "We will be on time, then. Excellent." Folding his arms into the traditional robes of his home that he wore, he followed the guard out of his quarters.

Meanwhile, the republic soldiers that had been assigned to the ship had been given a bit of freetime to wander the station plaza at their leisure. It was like a mall of sorts. There were some clothing stores, a few weapon shops, and a lot of various food stalls that sought to enchant the tastebuds of visitors who had likely been living off of protein cubes and other generic preserved foods. It'd have been an hour or so after they were let free to wander that a small commotion happened at the entrance of the plaza. Passing people moved out of the way as a dark purple haired individual was escorted by guards in traditional attire, his hands folded into his robe as he gracefully strode along behind them, amethyst gaze curiously darting about. A polite, perhaps just a bit too pretty, smile adorned his face. It was to hide how overwhelmed he was, not that anyone would be able to tell.

Xiaoyu

 

[Xiaoyu]

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The station carried a different kind of noise than most places Xiaoyu had worked.

Not the urgency of a battlefield, nor the strained quiet of a ward where people tried not to show pain. This was… layered. Voices overlapping without direction. Laughter that didn’t quite belong to anything serious. The scent of fried foods and over-sweetened drinks clinging to recycled air. It was the kind of place where people forgot to pay attention to small details.

Which was usually when problems began. Xiaoyu stood just off the main flow of the plaza, positioned near one of the quieter vendor stalls where the foot traffic thinned just enough to observe without being jostled. A paper-wrapped skewer rested untouched in her hand, long since gone cold. She hadn’t bought it to eat. Her gaze moved slowly, watching how people walked, not just where they went. The slight imbalance in someone favoring an injured leg. The way a merchant kept wiping their hands against already-clean fabric. The subtle tension in shoulders when armed personnel passed too close. It was a habit, and also how she noticed the little things that others would often miss.

The crowd didn’t react all at once. It never did. It started in small ways; people adjusting their paths half a step earlier than necessary, conversations dipping just slightly, a thread of space forming where there shouldn’t have been one. Xiaoyu’s eyes followed that disturbance rather than the obvious. And then she saw him.

The guards came first, and then came the man himself; traditional attire, not Republic standard. Protective, but also… performative. That told her enough before her gaze ever settled on the figure they escorted. Dark purple hair. Composed posture, hands hidden within robes, the smile was the most telling part. “Not used to this,” she murmured quietly to herself, almost absent-mindedly, though her eyes remained fixed on the procession. It wasn’t the way he looked around. Many first-time travelers did that. It was the way he stopped himself from looking too long at anything. That kind of restraint didn’t come from comfort. It came from instruction… or pressure.

Her grip shifted slightly on the skewer before she finally set it aside on the vendor’s counter without a word. The vendor didn’t protest, for it had not been consumed and yet had been paid for. She stepped into the edge of the flow, not directly toward him, but angled; intercepting the path naturally rather than forcing it. As the group drew closer, her pace slowed just enough to time it. And then...A man to her left stumbled. It wasn’t entirely staged. The man had been unsteady already, his breathing shallow, complexion just slightly off. Xiaoyu had noticed him minutes ago and chosen not to intervene. She caught him before he hit the ground, lowering him carefully.

“Don’t force your breathing,” she said softly to the man, her tone calm, grounding. “You’ll make it worse.” It placed her directly in the path of Aiden’s escort; close enough that they would have to either slow… or acknowledge her. Her eyes shifted to the guards first, as though assessing before shifting to Aiden, “High stress environments don’t suit everyone,” she said, her voice carrying just enough to be heard without raising it. It could have been directed at the man in her arms, except it wasn't. Her eyes held his for a fraction longer than necessary, waiting to see what he would do with that.

Aiden Satazuriki​