Private Wheel in the Sky

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

TAVLAR MILITARY ACADEMY
SOMEWHERE IN THE OUTER RIM
​

Iskendyr was assigned hangar duties, his job consisted mainly of keeping track of the TIEs. Sometimes he had to make room for shuttles, or rotate over to the signal team. The Tavlar Military Academy was just outside Rimward Trade League territory headed toward the Ison Corridor for supplies and full maintenance. Which meant he'd get some time to himself, always something to look forward to. Thus far the shift had been fairly routine and ordinary, patrols and training went on without a hitch. He had been busy taking count of the TIEs that needed maintenance when an alert sounded. Yellow alert to be more exact, so he rushed to set his tools and tablet in their proper location and began to make room as the instructors and administrators barked out their orders.

There appeared to be an issue with a ship getting close to them and their licenses. Whatever the case was, the ship was being brought in and Iskendyr was making room for it. The cadet Sergeant barked out his own set of orders delegating tasks as he worked with the other cadet nco's in the hangar. Each of them wore black uniforms red trimmed shoulder epaulets and for him being a sergeant the sash across his uniform. It wasn't often that the school took other ships aboard but on occassion especially when ships strayed too close to them and didn't give what was deemed 'appropriate' answers they were brought in. Not everyone complied, but sometimes they did, other times they were forced to. The ol' SSD's tractor beams were quite strong, and it was always good practice for the students operating it.

When the ship was brought in, the students were cleared from the area as was protocol, but he and a few others were made to stick around and observe the procedures. Nothing unusual for him, these particular occassions were far and few between so it was always good to see what would happen. The instructors and a few administrators flanked by stormtroopers began to speak to the person or persons that had been aboard the ship, Iskendyr did his best to try and get a look at the person.

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily had tried to run, the last thing she needed was imperial attention, but a fault in the hyperdrive had spat her out where she was definitely not meant to be, she'd been attempting to fix it when the star destroyer had loomed over her. Unable to provide any of the codes they were asking for, or even a papertrail for how she'd come to be in possession of the old Niathal-class shuttle, she'd tried to make a run for it with her sublight engines.

The imperial officer didn't believe a single word she was saying, his disbelief was so loud it was almost in her own mind. Storm troopers were beginning to pull apart her ship, tossing out her belongings, most of which were pieces of salvage. Looking for something incriminating. "Look for the last time, my hyperdrive has a fault. I had no intention of stopping or imposing where I'm not welcome and-" one of her books went sailing past her her "HEY! Is that really necessary?!"

She moved to pick it up but felt a shift to her left as a blaster came up to stop her. "Really? You're gonna shoot me for picking up a book?"

"Looks like a lot of illegal salvage."

"And you look like an Imp who is way out of his jurisdiction. The salvage is of Toff origin, which means I didn't get it from this galaxy and your laws don't apply."

"Where did you get the ship?"

"Same place."

"Do you have papers for it?"

Another book flew out, this time Lily caught it. It was the first book she'd ever owned, Velok had gifted it to her. "No, I don't have fething papers for it. Who has papers for anything?" She hugged the black bound book close to her chest as the two stormtroopers who'd been ransacking her ship finally stopped, coming back down the landing ramp.

"Its clean."

"Actually, its a fething mess now, thank you very much." Lily snapped as the imperial officer handed her a datapad. "Whats this?"

"Papers. Fill them out, we each get a copy, your ship goes on our permanent record. You can repair your hyperdrive and then be on your way."

"Great." Lily looked defeated, scrolling through the long form half of which she didn't understand. The officer and his stormtroopers walked away, leaving her amid the carnage they'd made.

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Isky watched as the administrator departed, shooting each of the students a look. "I'll stay sir," Iskendyr volunteered, and the others were happy to let him have it. Most there didn't want to do much more than watch the poor girl have her stuff trashed about. He didn't particularly care one way or another. He headed over toward the ship and the girl, a pair of troopers followed him, protocol really. As Iskendyr approached he held up his hand and signaled for the troopers to stand watch. He knew why they were there, mostly for his protection. "Hello, I'm Cadet Sergeant Iskendyr Yvarro," he introduced himself, "I'm happy to help you fill out the form and clean this up."

Another two cadets showed up looking none too thrilled, "these two cadets will be assisting me in the task." Whether they liked it or not, both were brand new so they had no say in the matter. "An interesting ship you have here, haven't seen anything like it." He began looking at it, hands clapsed behind his back. One of the cadets brought him a set of gloves, as he and the others put them on as to not contaminate the girl's belongings. "I can also help you get parts for your ship, we've several machinists and fabricators aboard." His tone was friendly enough, "and don't mind them, it's protocol."

Iskendyr said of the stormtroopers there. He had heard her exchange with his administrator, even if the ship came from elsewhere the fact of the matter was it was now in this galaxy, and had strayed far too close to the ship. Still, he was a little sympathetic to her plight.

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily Started to pick up her books, fortunately nothing more than crumpled pages and her own wounded pride. She was rattled. Lily didn't have much in the way of stuff, in fact having stuff was a relatively new concept to her and for it to be treated like trash left her off balance. "Gee thanks." she replied sarcastically to the offer of help. "How generous of you to offer to clean up the mess your people made."

It was only after the words left her mouth that she looked up and felt a little colour flush her cheeks. He was about her age, and Lily had to admit, kinda cute. "Sorry. Its been a rough day." she picked up the last book, and stood. "I'm Lily, and this" she nodded to her ship "Is Pilgrim's Rest. She's a niathal class, built for exploration and mapping hyperlanes. Cool, huh?" she glowed with pride.

Her eyes travelled from the ship to the scattered belongings and her face fell. "She's everything I have." At the mention of mechanists and farbicators she brightened just a little. "Thanks...Cadet Sergeant?" was she supposed to call him by rank or by name? "If you can shove the scrap into that crate there, I'll go put these back and you can pass it in."

One of the other cadets picked up a large cushion, his nose wrinkling in disgust at it. Freeing a hand Lily snatched it from him. "I'll take that." She cast an eye to the storm troopers but they didn't seem to care. She disappeared up the landing ramp, a stream of curse words slipping her lips as she saw the state of the inside of the ship. Every cubby hole had been emptied onto the floor. This was going to take hours to sort.

Well at least she'd have something to do during her next hyperspace leg.

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

He should have expected a bit of sarcasm, especially with how the administrator handled the whole situation. Iskendyr didn't let it bother him, he had experienced worse. "Certainly looks like a rough day, but it needn't end as one," he stepped forward and obliged her, setting 'scraps' into crates. He motioned and ordered the other two cadets who were a bit younger than he was, "you can call me Cadet, Cadet Sergeant or just Iskey if you'd like." He knew it could be a lot to handle what with the ranks and all. Not a system or school for everyone.

The Dosuunian boy was careful with what he picked up. He didn't want to damage anything else, "Pilgrim's Rest, eh?" He stood up with a few items in his hand and looked over the ship, "that does sound fun, mapping hyperspace lanes and exploring." At least she didn't have to bother with school. "Just let me know what sort of parts you need and I can procure them for you. I'm not great with repairs but if you need assistance, I'm sure I can get one of our droids to help."

Iskendyr stepped up closer to the ship, still keeping his distance. Lily disappeared into the ship via ramp, and he turned to keep the other cadets in order making sure everything was picked up. "If you'd like, I can help sort out what's been trashed around up there, the Administrator never leaves anything unturned." Of that he had experience with, inspections with that particular administrator were the absolute worse. "Often on inspections, if even one thing is off by as small as a centimeter he'll toss the whole place." Iskendyr confessed hoping the ability to relate would allow him to help her finish cleaning up.

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Iskey..

She smiled to herself, picking a path across the mess to the gallery table and dumping the books there. The cushion she took further up the corridor and to the cockpit, dropping it back into its place where the copilot chair should have been. She missed her oversized friend but this had been her journey to take. And he'd be back at Jaibrek when she was ready.

A small sigh and she picked her way back to the landing ramp. "Oh, I don't actually map hyperspace lanes. Its just what she was built for. I just explore. I'm also not great with repairs but I'm learning. Every port I pick up something new from the mechanics there. I'm pretty sure its a calibration issue but I'll need to run another diagnostic to check."

Standing at the top of the landing ramp. "You can come aboard, Iskey." she gave him a small smile. "No point bringing that lot on until I've tidied up in here, there's no where to put it. You're Administrator is an ass." Without much thought, she began picking things off the floor and tucking them away into whatever cubby hole she could get them into. It was clear that Lily had no semblance or understanding or organisation. Nothing had its place, so long as it was off the floor, she didn't care where it went.

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr didn't think too much on the current situation, and simply kept up with keeping tidy. He was half-turned away picking up another crate when Lily mentioned she didn't actually map hyperspace lanes. Still, with a ship capable for it, the opportunity to do so presented itself. Repairs aren't his strong suit either, but he was taking more engineering classes next term. It was interesting to hear how she learned from different mechanics from each of the ports she'd been at. He was almost certain none of the instructors would be so inclined, droids maybe, instructors not so much. "You run the diagnostics and like I mentioned, if there's a part you need. I can acquire it for you."

He climbed board along the ramp, carrying the crate. Iskey caught her small smile and offered one in return, "fair enough, I'll have them stay where they're at." Iskendyr looked around for a place to set the crate and once he had done so, walked back down to give orders to the other cadets. He then went back up aboard the ship. Iskendyr had heard the last part and replied, "he's just one among many here, of which I cannot blame him. We're the future of Empires." His voice rang with conviction.

He looked around the ship again and began to notice that the ship itself wasn't always organized. "Would you like assistance in getting this organized? Or do you prefer the... doom piles, as my cousin Ethanael likes to call them."

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"The future of Empires, huh?" Lily smiled, it wasn't condescending. If truth be told, Lily was only just getting used to the idea of having dreams beyond live another day. She cast a glance about the mess she was shoving haphazardly away. IT wasn;t that Lily was particularly bad at getting stuff organized, it juts that...well, why waste time doing that when there was so much other fun stuff to do.

"Hey, if you wanna organise my shavvit, you fill your boots." she grinned, flopping onto the floor, forgetting that she had a mess to clean up and a ship to fix. Curiosity got the better of her an Lily love nothing more than to ask questions. Because if you didn;t ask, how else would you know? "What does it look like, this future of Empires you're all working towards?"

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

"Yeah, or that's the line they use to recruit new families, anyway," responded Iskendyr off-highhandedly as he began to take things out of their places and organize them by type, color and size. He knelt down to a shelf and started to clear it out, "mhmm, you wouldn't happen to have something I can use to wipe this down with, do you?" Getting up he looked around the area and continued about on his task. Future of Empires, yeah, about that, "I suppose given the name of the school, uh..."

Iskendyr turned in Lily's direction and stopped a moment, "you're not from here so, I'll give you a quick recap of this galaxy's history." With that he gave her the run down of the New Imperial Order's split from the Sith Empire back when Darth Carnifex ran it, and how Irveric Tavlar ran the New Imperial Order, how it became the Empire. Which meant he gave her the briefest, run down on the wars, all of them including the Second Great Hyperspace War. "So now that-that's out of the way, uh, this school likely hopes to produce Imperial leaders who can revive said order and Empire."

"Sorry if this is all a bit boring, the history and what not," he added whilst holding two items in his hand deciding where they should go best.

"I however am not from... well, I don't share in their vision as it were," he then began to tell her where he was from, "see, I hail from Dosuun a world in the Unknown Regions that once led the First Order." Iskendyr all the while cleaning up the ship, having rolled up his sleeves whilst doing so, gave Lily a small, brief history of the First Order. From the legacy that had been the Grand Moff, the woman who had been the cousin of his grandmother. "She raised her, sort of, I suppose and then my grandmother revived the First Order but it also kind of wasn't..." His voice trailed off as he continued to clean and organize with that famed Imperial effiency.

Iskendyr looked at Lily, his uniform a little dirtier than it had been when he came aboard, "if I'm going on too long, please tell me to stop."

"That didn't quite pan out, but by the time that First Order collapsed, grandmother had gone to live with my grandfather and had been raising my mother and her siblings." Not everyone was so keen to walk away from power like that, "my family just hopes I'll restore honor to our name, be the next big admiral." Then he gave her the spill on his great-grandmother and her famed success with the Omega Crisis back in the First Order's fledgling days.

"All that to say, this school is hoping spur the next great galactic empire," although Iskendyr wasn't particularly interested, "I'm just here because my aunt thinks our family is a bit spoiled on our homeworld. My mother is very sick so my aunt's been taking care of me, so in her... infinite wisdom." He had just flinished with one section of the ship's organization. "I'm here." Isky looked over at Lily and offered a warm smile.

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily listened with rapt attention, she loved nothing more than to learn. She didn't have the heart to tell him that although she called Firefist home now, she was Coruscanti born. Not that it mattered. You didn't learn a lot about the history of the galaxy when you grew up in the undercity. You learnt about hiding running and who not to trust. She helped him clean, though he was already grubby so her appearance hadn't changed much. The ship was looking much better though.

"Your mums sick and you're way out here? That's gotta be hard, I'm sorry." She paused leaning against the galley table and folding her arms. He had to be what? Fifteen? Not only did he have the weight of a family name to return honour too, whatever that meant, he had to deal with being apart from family. Lily had no idea what any of it would feel like, but she could imagine.

"Is it what you want? To spur on the next big Empire?" she was curious to know, was he utterly committed to the idea or did he have some other secret dreams.

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr relaxed against a cabinet unit, he heard Lily express her condolences on his situation, "thank you, but it's... well, it is what it is as my aunt says. Truth of it is, I think she's got me out here to spare me from the worst." The idea of his mother passing made him a little misty eyed but he wasn't about to let that show. He did what he knew to do, compartmentalize it for later. She asked him if he wanted to spur on the next big Empire and to be quite honest, "no."

"But, I do like the ships, and the vehicles, especially when we get to run the big simulations. I get a real thrill out of it, but of course those are simulations," he said with a sigh not that he was really hoping for actual battle, "my aunt Ryssa is going to give me a tour of our family's shipwright. We own a lot of companies but the big one is our shipwright, it's our foundation. I'm quite excited to see it."

"What about you? You always live out ... where you... were from?" That was a terrible way to phrase it, he had a sheepish grin on his face and scratched the back of his head, "what's it like out there?"

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily wanted to ask why was he here then? but then she remembered that kids who had parents and families went where they were told. She'd never been bitter about being an orphan, even less so about being a street kid. The galaxy was what it was, some people had it great, some people didn't and she would always seize the good when it came her way. She wondered, briefly, if she'd had parents, where she would have ended up..

"The Firefist Galaxy?" she grinned, excitement flashing in her eyes "Its wonderful. The Nagai and Toff are your main players out there and their ancestral enemies. The toff are..."she wrinkled her nose "probably some of the worst people I've ever seen. Cruel viscous. The nagai are deadly but also incredibly gentle. Its uncivilized in most places, in comparison to here, but the little pockets you do find are something else. I'm not from there though, just kinda ended up there by accident. that's a whole other story, with some questionable activity I should definitely not share with an imperial, no offense."

She shrugged "I fell in love with Jaibrek, its mostly empty, lots of land for settlers, but the bazaar there? Incredible. Its at the gateway between this galaxy and Firefist so the variety of goods and people that flow through is endless." She tilted her head. "You should see it, I could whisk you off this hell hole and take you. I'd even let you fly."

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr remained there, leaning against the cabinet, shoulders relaxed as he tossed a rag between his hands. He listened to Lily intently, she had his full, undivided attention. The Firefist Galaxy, it even sounded cool. Nagai, Toff. Toff sounded no better than Sith who he felt ought to be put out of their misery. He chuckled a little and put his hands up, "no offense taken." He shifted his weight between his feet and continued to listen. Jaibrek. He tried to pronounce it in his head, no matter which way he was sure it was going to come out wrong. For the second time, he chuckled, laughed a little more and confessed.

"As cool as that sounds, my family would be awfully sad without me," he stood up straight and folded the rag neatly, "and I would miss them quite terribly." He always did, "but you definitely do a good job of selling Firefist, perhaps one day I'll go and have a visit." Whenever he was done with school which shouldn't be too much longer. "Could probably take a break before headin' to college, and head over there for a spell or two." Depending on the length of the journey, although it already sounded long.

He placed the rag on the cabinet and looked around, "see, much better." His arms motioned around them.

"Did you want to run that diagnostic scan?" He asked and then added, "you're right about this school being a hellhole, but home is great. Maybe, one day you can come visit. I can arrange the transports and everything, once you get out to Commonwealth territory, I've got it covered." Iskendyr said with a smirk, "for once I'll actually make use of the name."

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"I'd be happy to give you a tour. Drakeport is a beautiful place and Gadma Station is well worth a visit too. Its like noting you've ever seen before. Not much there, but still worth seeing. I think its part of an old Yuuzhan Vong ship?" She cast a glance around the ship, it did look a lot better and it was nice to actually know where everything was. No doubt she'd make a mess of it in a couple of days but she would at least try to make it last. "Thanks."

She headed to the cockpit, assuming he'd follow her, she flopped into the pilots chair, starting the diagnostic she turned and knelt up in the chair, looking back at him. Arms reasting on the chairs headrest. "I would love to visit. I should warn you I'm not great with the noble folk. They normally have a tendency to rub me the wrong way, normally because I'm seen as a bottom feeder. I grew up in Coruscant's undercity."

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Following Lily through the ship, he listened as she listed off the places to visit. "Yuuzhan Vong?" A beat, "cool." He found a seat that looked like a co-pilot's chair, or at least navigation or something of the like. He looked over at her, as she had occupied the pilot's seat in a rather sporting fashion. Noble folk? Well, he supposed to some degree they were considered nobility but it was all rather faux pas. They held no actual titles, not on Dosuun and not on Galidraan. Of it was just fluffed up from their great-grandmother's family, "not sure about noble, although my grandmother would probably say we are, we're mostly just rich." He admitted.

"I wouldn't worry so much about it," Iskendyr remarked and managed to seat himself there in the aforementioned co-pilot/navigator seat. "my aunt's got most of them distracted by this Rik Perris guy she met," Then he leaned over and whispered, "he's with the Alliance." Then continued at a normal volume sitting up right in the chair, "plus there's this rather odd Corellian who always hangs around. Mr. Bloodborn, Kurayami Bloodborn as a matter of fact. Not entirely sure how he met my great-grandmother or how he's still kicking but he's been a family friend for a very long time."

"And that doesn't take into account all the people my grandmother met, and subsequently used to bring her beloved cousin back from the dead." In other words, she hadn't much to worry about. "They won't take offense if you don't get on with them straight away, but I can assure you that for the time that you're with me. You won't have much to worry about." Iskendyr offered her a genuine smile and then looked over at where he was seated. "Right, so, where... how do we run a diagnostic scan on this?"

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

"Your family sounds...interesting." she said with a grin, her face fell at the casual mention of bringing someone back from the dead. "Wait wait wait, hold on, you can do that? Well not you as in you, but you as in the generalised you. People can be brought back from the dead?!"

Lily was astonished. She was fairly certain that however it was done had everything to do with the force. Its limits seemed utterly endless. Dangerously so, the more she thought about it, the more she was certain she didn't actually want to know all of its applications. She bit her lower lip, lost in thought for a moment.

Iskendyr's question brought her back into the room and as if in answer the console behind her beeped. "I, ugh, started it when we got in here." She slid round to face the screen eyes canning the diagnostics screen. "Looks like a fault with the null quantum field generator. Would explain why I was pulled out of hyperspace so early. I'll have to replace it." she flicked a button to bring the hyperdrive into view on a holoprojector, beckoning him to look at the holoprojector slowly moved to highlight the part. "I hope your machinists don't charge much, thats an expensive piece and I'm a little low on funds."

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

"They are," Iskendyr answered without even looking in her direction. He hadn't even mentioned the one auntie who served with the New Imperial Order, and ended up joining forces with a Jedi at the Battle of Tython! Then, the shock, of bringing back someone from the dead, "apparently so. According my grandmother she had to make contact with several prominent Sith. Team up with her cousin's half-sister to find where they kept this secret project. Which is, the First Order kept a lot of their best people cloned up just in case something happened. Something, something, great grandmother went to the Netherworld to fetch said cousin's soul, it's an entire process apparently." He explained still not really bothering to look at Lily as he busied himself with the readings that he could decipher.

He did finally look her way after the console beeped, "It was from my understanding not recommended."

Iskendyr read the diagnostic screen and listened as Lily spoke, "well, don't worry about it either way, I can take care of that." If anything it'd be tossed as an extra charge for his aunt to pay. He'd answer those questions later, "let me go ahead and have my fellow cadets here go get that for you. Did you want anything to eat? Maybe some beverages? We've got fizzy glug, big dapper, doctor blue and a few other brands I think. There's always water of course."

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily filed the topic of bringing people back from the dead under things to talk to Velok Brokentusk about, though she was fairly certain he'd file it under things he did not want to discuss with her. And if he did, Lily was ok with that too.

Her stomach growled loudly in answer to his question, drawing a flush of embarrassment to her face. "I am starving." She turned to upload the image of the part to a holodisk and handed it to Iskey so he could give it to the cadets. "It'll probably take them a minute to make, so food and a drink would be great. And maybe you can show me around?

Iskendyr Yvarro

 

[Iskendyr Yvarro]

Iskendyr smiled, no, grinned in a way that was hard to describe but to say the least there was most certainly a grin. "I can't exactly show you around the ship," he began in an apologetic tone, one that faded into hope, "at least not the way you're thinking." He headed out of the cockpit and began to descend the boarding ramp. He issued out orders to the other cadets who complied, moving to get the parts necessary as well as a few refreshments ready. Extending a hand out toward Lily, Iskendyr's grin had yet to fade, "but if you trust me, I can give you a tour around the ship."

He inclined his head toward one of the training TIEs, a two-seater which was perfect.

"I know today hasn't exactly been the best for you, but perhaps a small trip around the proud Tavlar Military Academy can help?" Isky ran a hand through his hair pushing loose strands back. Ever the gentleman he'd wait and extend his arm out for her to take. All the while, the stormtroopers simply exchanged a glance with one another and shrugged. "Plus, we can probably buzz the tower, make the blokes in traffic control class a bit of a surprise."

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

His grin made Lily raise a questioning eyebrow, her own smile spreading across her face. Whatever her was up to, it was mischief and Lily couldn't help but get sucked up into it. She followed him out of the cockpit, snatching the data pad the Administrator had given her off the galley table she paused at the top of the landing ramp, hesitating for the briefest of moments as she galnced back into the Pilgrim's Rest.

She looked back as Iskey ran a hand through his hair and her heart skipped a beat. She smiled, biting her lower lip. "I would love nothing more, Mr Yvarro." she replied coming down the ramp and taking his arm. You only lived once, why not seize the opportunities with both hands.

Iskendyr Yvarro