Private Trip to Bastion

[Cora]

The bar on Aurora Station was buzzing with life, but Cora wasn’t there just for pleasantries that day. As she sat at the end of the bar, sipping on an amber concoction the barkeep had poured her, her eye scanned the area looking for someone she knew. Someone she could count on. She had an important, top secret mission to go on, and had to find the right person to help her out. Then a familiar pair of glowing blue eyes entered the rec zone, the guard heading for his lunch break.

He had been the one to introduce her to the Station. As far as her life in the Order was concerned, they went way back. She caught his eye and motioned for him to come take a seat beside her with a flick of her head. As he was settling into the seat, she jumped straight into business, no small talk, no cheers with the drinks. It was unlike her to skip those traditions, but she had an important quest to get on to, and time was already running out.

“Saul,” she spoke in a hushed tone, her words flowing quickly from her mouth. “I need your help.” Her eye darted around the area before she continued. “I need to get on the next transport to Bastion.” Then she flashed him a fistful of credits. “And I need to get there and back without Laphisto knowing I’m gone.”

Cora knew that just saying that would have Saul concerned about what she was up to. But an excuse didn’t come to her easily. “Look, there’s something I need to get from there. It’s for Laphisto! It’s just… A surprise!” Hoping that her cheerful tone would help sell the story to the cyborg, she followed it up with a forced grin. Maybe he wouldn’t be great at reading her body language.

Saul Whesai

 

[Saul Whesai]

From the first look Cora gave him, the cyborg knew he saw trouble. He used body language to make a living by reading vendors and customers faces about what they were and were not willing to accept when doing business. And yet still he sat down the seat beside her because he knew if he wanted Cora to live through whatever crazy idea she had been planning.

Saul just listened for a moment through narrow, suspicious eyes and he got even more suspicious when she flashed the credits in his face. Was he above bribery, no... The cyborg used to be a street urchin after all. But he went along for her story for now and used this chance to have a little fun. Closing her hand around the credits, he would push her hand back towards the humanoid, telling her silently to keep them. "So, you do have a pretty big crush huh? I guess those red cheeks I saw at the registration desk when you said his name really did mean something. The real question is what can you get him on Bastion that you can't get on the station?" It was an open question, letting her fill in the details on why she wanted to go down to the planet still then. Until then, he would take the newly exposed and embarrassed look on her face as payment.

Cora

 

[Cora]

Saul had rejected her bribe of credits. She knew this could only mean one thing. He was going to need some other form of payment. But what was it that he was looking for? She had nothing else to offer him. She cocked her head to the side and furrowed her brows, looking at him quizzically. Saul was hard for her to read.

Then he spoke, teasing her. Cora felt her cheeks heat up. Embarrassment and anger at his suggestion that there might be so much as a hint of that kind of connection between her and her boss. Besides, the giant dinosaur wouldn’t share that kind of emotion with any of his subordinates anyway, she was sure. Did he just want to see her squirm?

In the long silence between them, her mind raced as she tried to think of a reasonable response to his question. The longer she took to respond, the more suspicious Saul would become, so she had to come up with something fast. “Uh…” She stammered. “It’s a… force user thing. You wouldn’t understand it.” There, maybe that would buy her some time.

Saul Whesai

 

[Saul Whesai]

Were those cheeks red hot because she was angry at him, saying wild things, or because she actually did like the Supreme Commander? Who knew, and from her reaction, it wasn't a good idea to ask about the topic again. Seeing her squirm was worth the price of throwing stones at the hornet's nest.

Raising an eyebrow at her flimsy response, Saul was tempted to call out her nerfshit right now, but let her dig even deeper for herself to lie in. Hopefully it would contain her coffin by the time this was over. "Rightttttt... Tell you what. You use those credits to buy me lunch, and I'll come with you on your little... adventure to buy something for your future sweetheart. Deal?" Getting out of the station wouldn't be hard; he would have to change the shift schedule so they both had liberty at the same time. What Cora had in mind, that would most likely be the hard part.

Cora

 

[Cora]

A smile crept across her face. Lunch was an easy payment, better than whatever else he might have wanted from her. She rolled her eye and let out a chuckle. “You ever gonna give that a rest, Saul?” At least he was willing to help.

Cora tapped her fingers on the bar anxiously before adding a little extra context to her secret mission. “Buying isn’t the word I would use, exactly…” She paused for a moment, debating whether she had already disclosed too much unnecessary information. “You sure you’re up for the… assignment?”

Saul Whesai

 

[Saul Whesai]

Saul smiled back as he watched Cora trying to keep herself from strangling him. "Well, you haven't denied it yet. Besides, it's fun seeing you want to murder me, so no." Who she was interested in romantically was her business, but it was fun to give her a... stress test, just like she was giving him.

The cyborg could help but glance down at her fingers. Something was definitely up with her. Sighing, he finally said to her while looking like she had aged him a hundred years. "Cora, what are you actually trying to do? And don't give me some bs because I will report you in an instant. Skirting around the truth like this is making it seem like you want to make a bad decision you'll regret." Saul let the silence exist between them, looking at one of the Bolo ball games on the bar's overhead monitor. Ensuring that the force-user wasn't trying to get them both killed was important. Just as trying to get Ronto burger out of her was of equal importance.

Cora

 

[Cora]

Cora glanced around the room again, then back at Saul. “Fine.” She hissed, then leant in close to him, motioning for him to do the same. In a low, hushed whisper, she revealed some of her plan to the cyborg. Enough to keep him satisfied, she hoped, but still not the whole plot. “There’s this facility I need to… investigate.”

She chose her words carefully. “They are experimenting with the Force. I think it will… help. But," A sigh. "I don’t have the clearance.” Admitting finally that this wasn’t something she was supposed to be doing, and could land her in a lot of trouble.

Shaking her head, she looked down at her hands. "I can’t let him down.” There was a pause as she bit her lip, her jaw tight and rigid. “Look, I just… I really need to do this.” Her silver eye met his, pleading with him to not report her. “So, will you help me?”

Saul Whesai

 

[Saul Whesai]

If Cora were listening to the force around her, she would feel two feelings coming off the cyborg: nervousness and dread. If she knew about what Liin Terallo was working on, how many others did... Hell, how many people knew about the powers he was testing by himself? Taking a couple of seconds to compose himself, Saul chuckled as he reached over to hold her shoulder. "Slow down, Cora. If people could become Force-sensitive out of nowhere, there would be massive armies of force users throughout the galaxy. If they are experimenting, the scientists that the Diarch assigned to this task aren't making much progress. Whether Liin was actually making progress on her task, she wasn't telling him. The Cyborg was glad she didn't, it gave him it out when people like Cora came rummaging like this into a place she didn't belong.

Looking into her eyes, the cyborg tried to sense Cora's state of being and why she wanted to look into this subject. Not letting the Supreme Commander down, he understood. The humanoid probably had posters of the Order's horned Commander-in-Chief over her bed. "I'll help, but first you've got to tell me why you think this affects Laph, why you think not looking into this will let him down? I'm just trying to understand why you are so gung-ho about this." It was his one last chance to try to convince her that looking into this subject was a bad move. Otherwise, things were going to get very complicated, very quickly.

Cora

 

[Cora]

A spark shone in her eye for the brief moment Saul said he’d help her. Then quickly faded when he asked her to disclose more information. As she turned her head away from the cyborg and closed her eye tight, her face contorted. “It’s me.” Her voice cracked under the weight that bore down on her conscience.

She shook her head and her nostrils flared, still refusing to look at Saul. “I can’t… I’m not… Argh!” An anguished cry escaped her. The dark side of the force surrounded her, pressing down on her chest. It became difficult to breathe. She clawed at the bar, her knuckles turning even paler.

They stewed in silence for a few uncomfortable moments before her gaze returned to his. It was a cold stare. “Does it really matter?” There it was again. That shift in her psyche. Once the dark consumed her and the pain ceased, all she felt was the cold. She couldn’t fight it anymore. It was exactly the thing she was trying to avoid. Trying to hide. She’d let him down again.

“If you won’t help, I will do it alone.” She pushed herself away from the bar and stood up. Looking over her shoulder at the cyborg she added, “It’s not about armies, or the lack of progress.” A pause. “It’s about balance.” Then she turned away from him again and took a step toward the exit.


Saul Whesai

 

[Saul Whesai]

Saul leaned back, eyebrows raised at the display. Something was clearly eating her up inside. Saul tried to find the words to calm her, but none of the words in his brain. Only one thing went through his mind as various patrons looked up from their lunches to see what was happening. It was a bit crazy and blowing his cover at what he was could be a risk, but it would certainly stop her in her tracks before she tried to hurt Liin Terallo for her work.

Getting up from his seat, he quickly paid for one of the bottles of Fizzyplug out of a vending machine and cracked it open. Putting the bottle cap on his thumb, he practiced something he had done a hundred times in his quarters. Summoning up all the energy he had, he pushed it out through his thumb, sending enough extra force to propel the bottlecap forward as he flicked it, giving it enough force to dig into a dartboard by the bar's entrance. Causally sipping his drink as he walked up to her, he asked her a question, sounding like he had just walked a mile as he said. "And if I said I was one of those experiments, what would you do to me...?" If the answer was destroy him on sight, he'd better get ready to defend himself.

Cora