Private Welcome To Hell (A Voyage into Corellia's DMV)

[Kayla Ordo-Shan]

The Corellia Bureau of Spacelanes and Registry wasn't much to look at, just a long hall of polished stone and durasteel desks, lined with terminals that hummed quietly beneath flickering holoprojectors. Citizens and offworlders alike shuffled in slow-moving queues, datapads clutched in hand, while a droning voice from overhead repeated, "Now serving kiosk forty-three."

Kayla slid her cowl back, jaw tight as she took in the sight. "Figures," She muttered under her breath. She had faced down bounty hunters, cutthroats, even creatures that could tear a man in half. But this, this endless tangle of bureaucracy, tested a different sort of endurance.

She stepped into line, waiting as a Dug ahead of her argued in rapid-fire Basic about cargo tariffs. When it was finally her turn, Kayla approached the official; a Bothan with spectacles balanced on the end of his snout. Before Kayla could say anything, the Bothan spoke.

"Form twenty-seven-B?" He asked without looking up.

Kayla arched a brow. "I just need information. Starfighter registry, dated around the end of the Brynn-Wars. It belonged to my father."

"Historical records require form twenty-seven-B," the Bothan droned, sliding a flimsiplast toward her. "And depending on the make and model, you may also need form eighty-nine-A. Assuming it was a military craft."

Kayla pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling slowly through her teeth. "It was military. Galactic Alliance issue."

That earned her the first flicker of attention from the clerk, his ears twitching as he keyed something into the terminal. A faint blue hologram blinked to life, rows of coded registry data scrolling past.

"Name of the pilot?"

Kayla hesitated, the word catching in her throat. She hadn't spoken it aloud in a long time. "Kadan Ordo."

The clerk frowned, scrolling deeper into the archive. Then, after a long pause: "There's… a record. But it's restricted access. Flagged under sealed war records." He looked up finally, meeting her gaze. "You'll need more than forms to see this file."

Kayla's lips pressed into a thin line. The whispers of her ancestors, faint but insistent, stirred at the edge of her awareness. She could almost feel them urging her on.

"Then tell me," She said quietly, leaning in just enough for her voice to cut through the hum of the office. "Whose permission do I need to get?"

This was going to be absolutely insufferable, she could feel it.

Tags: Kayla Luspark

 

[Kayla Luspark]

​

Companion: "Vido" V-2 Series "Minimech" Astromech​

Tag: Kayla Ordo-Shan​

Ah, Corellia. Home to explorers, scoundrels, gamblers, a corporations, and the ordinary alike. "I still don't understand why I had to be the one to come down here and deal with this," she complained to the knee-high astromech next to her.

It chirped and warbled something back at her, unintelligible to most people, but for those who understood.. "[One, I'm short. Two this had to be handled in-person, not by a 'representative.' Three, this is a personal vehicle with special considerations. Not part of a military organization. More hoops to jump through, and astromechs don't jump.]" The latter ended in a semi-rude blat.

Kayla couldn't quite keep the smile off her face at the droid's partial indignation. "Well you at least have all the forms, right?"

"[Of course I do. What do I look like, some half-wit gonk?]" Kayla opened her mouth to answer but Vidu cut her off. "[Don't.]"

"I was just going to say my faithful companion and life-saving assistant," she replied, her tone innocent and assuaging.

"[Sure you were.]"

"I was."

If a droid could stare with one photoceptor... "[Remember, I know your X-wing intimately.]"
"Is that a threat," she asked, breaking into a grin.
"[Take it as you like.]"
"I'll take your mom as I like."
"[That doesn't-- I don't have a mother.]"
"I know, and it shows."

Vido's circuits sparked a bit, suddenly smelling of hot metal and ozone. Kayla shook her head, still agrin. They'd been working together so long, Vido was more than just a droid at this point. Friend, partner, and a bridge between her fighter, and all her duties..

Ahead of her, she noted another woman having an intense discussion with a Bothan. She leaned over the counter and Kayla couldn't help but take notice. Also the mention of the GA military caught her ears. And the name Ordo. Quietly she listened, trying to determine if this was a Bothan problem, bureaucracy problem, or a military/classified information situation.

Reaching up she tugged the cap down lower, resisting the urge to step in. Judging by the shape the woman was in, she was a fighter or soldier of some kind. The last thing she needed was to be openly recognized on Corellia. Not that there was anything wrong with it. Just ... being a public figure, no escort, it left her vulnerable. Plus she'd never hear the end of it from her insufferable mother.

Still, she could feel the younger woman's blood pressure rising from three meters away. Bothans had that effect anyway. Still, she fumbled with her GA military I.D.

Vidu bumped her right leg, drawing her attention downward. "[You okay, boss?]"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just.... trouble."
"[Oh.]"

Kayla looked back up, watching the other woman.

 

[Kayla Ordo-Shan]

"Permission? You do not just ask for permission, did you not hear a word I said?!?" The last thing that Kayla has sent, made the Bothan's fur ruffle. He looked at her with contempt, and began to produce an abomination of bureaucracy. Kayla shifted from foot to foot as the Bothan's sharp, twitching fingers waved over stacks of forms, holosheets, and blinking datapads. Each beep and click felt like a tiny assault, a barrage of procedural minutiae aimed squarely at her unpreparedness.

"Let me start again. You're missing twenty-three sections of form twenty-seven-B, three notarized clearances, and-" the Bothan's voice droned on, barely pausing for breath, "-without the orbital registry update and your verification code from the GA military liaison, I cannot proceed. As I said, you need form eighty-nine-A for special-use starfighters, which is separate, and-"

Kayla's eyes widened as a flurry of holo-sheets shimmered up from the counter, each one displaying official stamps, coded signatures, and bureaucratic jargon she hadn't even known existed. Her hand instinctively went to her cowl, tugging it slightly lower as if hiding from the paperwork itself.

"I… uh… wait. One at a time?" she said, voice tight but trying to stay calm. She was failing. "Which one do I even start with?"

The Bothan didn't look up. "All of them, simultaneously, or nothing gets filed. You must comply with protocol."

She exhaled sharply, leaning back just enough to survey the paperwork mountain. It wasn't the worst thing she'd faced-she'd survived worse than a bureaucrat's wrath-but the mental calculus required to untangle this stack, while keeping her composure in public, felt daunting to her little home schooled mind.

"Fine," She muttered, muttering more to herself than anyone else, and tried to find the rightious fury within her to...survive staring at this mass of papers. "Fine… paperwork, you win this round." She flexed her fingers, steeling herself. One form at a time. That's...all that she could do, as she gingerly backed away from the counter, holding her mountain of forms.

There was a strange satisfaction in knowing she could beat this… eventually. She just had to survive the possibility of dying from boredom.

Which...right now was easier said than done. With this collection, she would move back to find a seat and....try to make sense of this nonsense she had been handed down.

Tags: Kayla Luspark