Well forgive us these smiles on our faces (Recon Run: Ord Biniir, Sith Ascendancy)

[Rosa Gunn]

Rosa eyed the nautolan and the girl with growing suspicion. They had no real story, so far as she could see, they'd happened upon each other as much as they'd happened upon her ship. She shot Jorus an accusatory look, like it was his fault she had liars on her ship. Which in truth it was. "We'll be with the Vagrant Queen in about quarter of an hour. If I don't treat him before then, the dreadnought is well equipped to handle cosmetic wounds." She brushed hand over the smuggler's eyes, easing him gently into a restful sleep, before moving to the one Jorus was working on, shooing him away with a wave of her hand.

She made him sleep first, knowing even with the anaesthetic healing would be painful for him. She didn't look up form her work when she spoke again, knitting the wounds on his lips closed before popping his shoulder back into place with a resonating 'pop' and kneading the muscles around it, forcing them to relax further, easing away bruising that might come.

"Considering we've just saved your skins, I would appreciate some honesty." She lifted her lilac eyes to meet the startling blue ones of the girls. "Particularly from you."

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Seydon"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Rosa Gunn"]
[member="Xin Boa"]
[member="Jorus Merrill"]
[member="Seydon"]

Oh great. Juuuuuust great. Now Kinsey had to worry about some powerful jedi's ire thanks to Xin's big mouth.

The younger Starchaser was good with people. Her twin brother used to joke she never met a stranger. But she'd been naive as well, which had gotten her in trouble with a sith lord. One time. One misstep. And she was still paying for it years later.

"It's not like I lied to you," she muttered, starburst blues flipping up to meet the healer's lilac gaze and panning to Xin. They narrowed slightly on the nautolan before drifting down again. Fingers with converter grease-stains finished smoothing out a bacta patch on one of the rescued men. "It's just something Larry over there stole from me about a month back. Been tracking him 'cross the 'verse to get it back because....," voice trailed off.

"I'm not going to hurt him or anything," gaze flashed to Larry who seemed to be faking sleep. But his head was cocked so he was definitely listening. Sticky hands Larry.

Lips pursed and her jaw clenched shut.

"It's just dangerous, okay?" The girl huffed, shoving back strands of dark hair. She had her own secrets she didn't feel like spilling in front of a ship full of strangers. "Could draw the ire of a sith lord if activated."

And get her arse in all sorts of danger. More-so than she already was. Shooting off one more glare in Xin's direction, eyes remained on her first aid work, clearly finished with the topic. Silence was as bristly as a porcupine.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Seydon"]

"Alright so it's dangerous. But...wait it what?" Mostly Xin had wanted to ensure that she had a good reason for bothering the wounded smuggler for it now. The man had literally been crucified minutes ago.

Silence was his firm reply. Now Xin was a nautolan stood tall, arms crossed over his chest, with no one paying attention to him. He deflated slightly and let the silence play out for a few seconds more.

"Think I believe you. If that matters at all," he announced. The man was careless by all accounts. It was how he'd ended up in an Imperial lockup when he was supposed to be scouting some routes for the fleet. Apparently he'd decided he could scout ahead and shift some contraband at the same time. Wesseq hadn't been impressed, but the Fleet looked after its own. No one else did.

"How does it get activated and how do you know it hasn't been already?' he asked quickly. The rest could wait until later, but with belief came the desire to ensure that they weren't being put in any more danger than they were already in.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Seydon"]

Jorus met Rosa's glare with as much chagrin as he could muster, which wasn't a lot. She could handle two spacers and a reputed Sith amulet that might or might not be here. Frankly, she was better suited to it than Jorus. And trinkets, dangerous or not, didn't register as important right now. Not with five crucified smugglers to tend, four of them with their tongues removed. Did they even make prosthetics for that? Kark.

He mumbled an excuse and headed to the cockpit.

"Hey." His hand settled on Seydon's shoulder. "Perfect pickup. I owe you one." He slouched into the copilot seat. "All five are breathing, conscious, and doped to the gills. Tongues removed. Oh, and just so you know, there's some question about whether one of'em had a Sith amulet. Rosa's got all that under control."

 

[Seydon of Arda]

Seydon parted the control authorities over to Jorus’ seat in the co-pilot rig, relinquishing steerage to automatic-piloting. He was just partially stuck in his seat’s webbing, clipping out of crash straps, when Captain Merrill imparted the ‘artefact’ detail. The Dunaan struck a look back down the gantry hall opening down to the hold below.

“...Least they’re in one piece. Mostly,” He said and swigged on a magnetic canteen sluicing with a brackish electrolyte concoction. Tried not worrying over his wife’s potential exposure to a Dark Side relic. The itch nagged the back of his conscience, Seydon trying to focus on vessel read out consoles.

“...Feth,” He swore and tossed the canteen back into its holder, tugging Winterfang and Razorlight back across his shoulders, pulling up his nose-mask. “All we need. Helm’s yours, lorda.”

He tracked down a gangway to the hold, entering the bay-proper through a second level grille walkway overlooking the stuffed confines, sliding down a maintenance ladder. His head stuck through the aft truck box flap, peering in at Rosa, the Nautolan, and the human girl hunched by sickly bodies dark with grime and blood. Hand was stuck in a coat pocket, tight around an old Korriban compass. The needle was gently turning under its crystal lens.

“...We’re alright back here?” He asked generally.

[member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Rosa Gunn]

Rosa moved to Larry, who was absolutely pretending to be asleep. She didn't bother making him stop, but the fact that he jumped at her touch was a dead giveaway. "It doesn't matter." She replied to xin's questions. " Not only is the amulet not here, but it is very likely to in Sith hands."

Larry opened one very worried eye. "Your friend was crucified for smuggling, which means his ship was likely impounded and searched. Might be he found a safe place for it, but it's like that the energy of the amulet itself would draw a Sith to it. Ultimately, to get it back you're going to face worse than you did today."

She looked round as Seydon appeared in the doorway, his face concealed behind his mask. She smiled. "We're good." She knew what was in that coat pocket and what had drawn him back here. She left Larry's side, letting him peel back bacta patches to marvel and fresh pink skin with wide eyes, suddenly forgetting his was supposed to be 'sleeping'.

Three down, two to go. Fatigue was beginning to show in the slight tremble of hands buy Rosa's face was set. She knelt the other side of the patient Kinsey was tending too.

"I don't expect you to take the advice of a stranger, in fact, someone as young as you I'd expect you to shun it, but I'll give it to you anyway. Let it go. Nothing good will come of it."

This one has his tongue missing, his eyes were wide and shock was turning his lips blue. Rosa placed a hand on his forehead. "You're ok." She told him gently, drawing his wife flitting eyes to settle on her as she bathed him in warmth and comfort in the force. "Sleep now, I've got you."

Blood was oozing from a wound in his side, cursing under her breath she placed her hands over it. Looking past Kinsey atvher husband. "Wanna put the caff machine on love?"

[member="Seydon"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Xin Boa"]

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Seydon"] [member="Rosa Gunn"]

Think I believe you.

Surprise zipped across her features as her blues looked up to lock onto the nautolan's gaze for a sec. The questions came firing off like rapid fire slug rounds.

"I," she hesitated, gently cleaning some grime off the man's face with a wet towel. Mouth snapped shut as she was effectively saved by the Jedi Master. Thing was? If it had been activated they'd be in a feth ton more trouble now. So chances were it either wasn't discovered yet but...

She blanched when the reality of what Rosa said sunk in. Chit. Chit. Chit. Made sense. If it really was unretrievable, it would draw the closest Sith Lord. Like a magnet. Especially if it had fallen out of the casing that blocked its effects.

Only a matter of time before Sage got it and used psychometry to track her...

She gulped.

"You're right. Nothing good WILL come of it." She left it at that.

Blood from the smuggler oozed over her hand and for a moment she stared at it blankly as copper mixed with bruises and ship grease. Wary-gaze sized up the dude with the face mask and that hand in his pocket. Pistol of some kind? Made her fingers twitch at her side, becoming more aware of the lightsaber hilt at her side.

She rarely used it. In fact, part of her wondered why she even carried the thing. But she KNEW why. In case HE ever caught up with her, she'd need it.

"What's the closest starport to where we're headed?" Starchaser-blues glanced between Xin and the two force master. Masters? Yeah. Probably masters. For now, she ignored her blood-stained hands.

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Rosa Gunn"]

Xin didn't care much for caf. It had always seemed to him like something middle aged people needed to drink. Still, that one comment seemed a demarcation between what they had just been through and more regular life and hospitality.

He looked down at the resting smugglers. From a distance it had been an act he could keep from his mind. A sad story of something happening to other people. Something over there, too far to really see the details. Now it was up close and he couldn't help but imagine being put through that himself. It seemed a wasteful thing to do. The sith had just locked him away for a couple of years.

"We've not got great medical kit in the Fleet," Xin admitted. "Can I stay on this next ship until he can be transported safely?" He asked. The smuggler would probably appreciate some good bacta before heading back. "I can either call for a pickup, or you could fly past the Fleet."

He turned to the blue eyed girl. "We can talk more about what was taken layer of you want," he said. The forceful tone from his voice was gone now. The healer was probably right, but there weren't that many actual sith. He didn't know much about magical amulets and how far they could drawn one from though.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] [member="Rosa Gunn"] [member="Seydon"]

Though he'd never flown the Golden Rose so far as he could recall, the transport had standard controls. It glided into the Vagrant Queen’s sphere of influence and docked easily enough. He'd parked in a vacant spot on the ORC dreadnought’s hangar deck. A spit away, snubfighters waited at five minutes’ notice, in case the Sith came calling. Jorus ran an abbreviated postflight shutdown, keeping one eye on the hangar outside. He didn't see any of the acceleration that might indicate enemy contact on long-range sensors.

The comm squawked. “Sundance, this is Hangar Control. The expanded medical team will be with you in two.”

“Control, Sundance. All five principals are stable. I'm no medic, but I can tell you they were crucified. Puncture wounds on hands and feet, dislocations, tongues removed. We'll need to get a prosthetician on the horn once we're out of the woods.”

 

[Rosa Gunn]

"I'm not sure on both counts, you'd have to ask Jorus, this is his neck of the woods, we're just..." She glanced up at her husband who was busy making up the caff. "...passing through I'd guess you'd call it. Somehow we never manage to resist it when Jorus asks for us to do something stupid. He'd never turn someone in need away though, so I reckon you'd be ok to hang around."

The bleeding had stopped, just. She focused for a moment on the blue eyed girl, acutely aware as the empath always was, of the fear that shivered through her. Perhaps she'd been a little harsh. "If I were you, I'd stick around on the Queen as well. Whatever you're looking to run from, isn't going to get you here."

They were interrupted by the arrival of the medical teams, Rosa slipped into the role she new second best to negotiator, running the medics through each patients vitals, wounds and what had and hadn't been treated. Helping them load them onto stretchers and off the Rose. When she returned, bloody fingers clutched the door frame for support as exhaustion hit her full and she swayed there for a moment, before making her unsteady way to the sink to wash her hands.

[member="Seydon"] [member="Xin Boa"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]