With This Blast Shield Down (Aella)

[Jorus Merrill]

"So."

Jorus turned his chair around to scrutinize the young woman who'd just climbed into the cockpit. The Gypsymoth wasn't a large ship, but even in here, [member="Aella"] looked small. He chewed on his lip and leaned over to tighten the straps on the copilot seat. The seat groaned on its old gimbals as it turned to face her, and he gestured for her to sit. Rust flaked on the deck.

"There, that oughta do it. Welcome aboard the Gypsymoth. I'm Captain Merrill -- don't bother calling me Master. Aella, right?"

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Aella had been in her fair share of freighters, hitchhiking her way from the unknown regions into so called 'civilisation'. Running with pirates and smugglers to pay her way to the core. Perhaps not the best way to make her entrance, but it'd made her streetwise at least and despite what the common belief was, pirate and smugglers weren't all that bad.

"Yes, Captain." she said, slipping into the set offered. She cast her eyes around a slight smile on her face. There were few in the galaxy who hadn't heard the name Merrill, to find herself in his ship felt surreal. "She's seen some wars, hasn't she?" she commented, not unkindly before settling her gaze on the Master before her.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Aella"]

"A few, yeah. This is the ship that dropped assault concussion missiles on the Templar fortress at Roon, destroyed Circe Savan's command Star Destroyer over Void Station, carved out the Mara Corridor, charted satellite galaxies -- yeah, she's been around." He patted the console fondly. "Also where I raised my daughter and trained my only one-on-one student ever. Don't take this the wrong way, but I was expecting more Jedi to show up. I haven't taught this stuff one-on-one in years."

He turned the chair to face the viewport, and the Yavin sky. "I've gone through preflight already. Let's go take a look at the Gordian Reach, what say ya? Here, pull up the chart and let's take a look at what's around."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"I am surprised that you've not had more turn up, but I'm not going to complain." she grinned "Don't worry Captain, I'll go easy on you." She spun the chair round, reaching for the nav console, the chart flitted into existence before her. She tried to recall what little she'd read on the surrounding area. A jumble of mining, agricultural and industrial worlds with only one or two commercial planets. A good handful of uninhabitable systems too if she recalled correctly.

She pursed her lips. "Not a great deal to see." she said, almost sounding sad. Her eyes caught sight of the Denarii Nebula. "What about here?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Aella"]

"The Denarii? Good choice. I'll set us a course."

***

The trip took an hour or so; he'd taken a shortcut past Torque, and dropped them off an ancient space station, in the middle of the nebula. He spent the time talking over the history of instinctive astrogation with Aella. "This is Denarii Station," he said, and gestured at the nebula. "Now, I know for a fact that it's possible to get through, to Near Indosa or Presbalin or even Trinovat. The nebula's pretty slim. If you get the jump wrong, worst thing that'll happen is some turbulence; our shields can take whatever the Denarii can throw at us. Now, thattaway is Presbalin. Nice old place, lots of alien ruins, and -- most importantly -- it's the nearest safe port. Go ahead and take the controls. Line us up, find us a good spot to jump from, but don't jump yet. Oh, and do it with your eyes closed. Don't run into the station."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Aella, for the first time since she'd stepped into the cockpit felt her nerves creeping up on her. Eyes widening slightly, she swallowed against them, wiping slightly clammy hands on her trousers, she took the controls before her and closed her eyes. She could hear the blood rushing through her ears, too loud to allow her to listen to anything else.

Focus. Don't run into the station. Trust your instincts. Don't jump yet.

One hurdle at a time. Steady breaths slowed her heart rate, allowing her to listen. To hear the hum of the ships engines, the gentle groan of metal adjusting to the heat. Fingers gently moved the controls, trying to get a feel for the ship itself as she guided it away from the station to avoid any collisions while she did.

She slipped into an almost meditative state, trying to find a pull in the ebb and flow of the force around her. Following it tentatively until it stopped tugging her along.

"Here." She said finally, opening one eye to look at Jorus.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Aella"]

"Sure," said Jorus with a shrug, all anticlimactic-like. "I was messing with you. The only thing you'd run into, microjumping that way, is a Wookiee fart's worth of turbulence, at best. But let's plug in this vector to the drive and see how far we can get. Maybe the joke's on me and you've found a straight line through the Denarii Nebula. Those don't last, by the way. Whole region shifts."

He brought the Gypsymoth into alignment with the vector she'd indicated, shrugged again, and threw the levers. Stars flared to starlines.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Aella opened both eyes and clicked her tongue. "And there was me thinking Jedi Master's didn't have a sense of humour." She quipped sarcastically. A small smile found its way to her face all the same and she found herself relaxing slightly. So eager to please, she'd not realized just how tight her shoulders had been.

Releasing her grip on the controls slightly, she watched the blue tunnel of hyperspace quietly, marvelling at the patterns that danced across the viewport. "i always forget how pretty it is." she mused before an alarm shrilled, warning of the revert to realspace. She shuffled in her seat and tightened her grip on the controls once more.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Aella"]

"If it hadn't sunk in yet from my lack of pebble levitation, lightsabre swinging and general brownrobedness, I've never quite gotten the hang of Jedi Master long enough to lose my sense of humor. Then again, same goes for a lot that do lift rocks, swing sabres and wear burlap. Image doesn't make a Jedi. A sense of proportion's what counts."

The ship reverted, dropping back to realspace. An especially bright star was off the port bow, main sequence. "Nice work," he said, eyebrows raised. "That's Presbalin's primary. It'd take us a couple years at sublight to get there from here, but it's not a hard microjump to plot -- long enough that you're not dealing with proportionally huge margins of error. Go ahead and give it a shot."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"The only Masters I have met have been those at Yavin academy, and even then, my time with them has been limited." She paused for a moment "I've spent more time with spacers, smugglers and pirates. The etiquette of Jedi is somewhat alien to me."

Eyes lit up with childlike pride as the star glided into view. She nodded at his instructions. "What I know of Jedi, are only what I have heard in stories. Safe to say, there are few in the career of working against the system that like them." hands moved with ease across the console. "For most of them, Jedi and Sith are the same thing, they only bring trouble...or a big paycheck that has 'suicide' written all over it."

She fell silent, not wanting to disrupt her concentration, listening to the silent song of the force, following its call as best she could before glancing briefly at Jorus. "May I?" she indicated at the levers.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Aella"]

"If you'd like to," he said, pulling his hands from the controls. "Even with your instincts, though, remember that this will have to be quick. A microjump lasts seconds or less. And...don't aim straight for the star. Just in case."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Aella nodded at his reminder, adjusting the ship's direction slightly before throwing the lever with a barely contained grin. they barely had time to admire the hyperspace tunnel before the stars appeared in lines, she counted three maybe four seconds.

The ship bucked horribly as it slammed into turbulence, the little joy that was in her face at her success so far, fizzling away in an instance as she fought to bring the ship back under control, heart hammering in her chest so loud she was sure Jorus could hear it.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]