Private You Again?

[Phineas Karr]

"I can't take on ruining your life too. So tell me now if you're....you're being serious?"

Phineas immediately felt bad. He should have realized the joke would completely sail over her head due to the fact she was completely stressed out. Not having had any parents or siblings or even a girlfriend ever in his life, it was difficult to understand connections such as hers. On paper he could understand but when it came to the actual feeling? Never. It wasn't something he had experienced in his life before.

"Yeah, I'm just joking. Nothing serious." Maybe he should try a joke again? "I would have had to have had a life in order for it to be ruined. Which, lucky for both of us, I clearly had nothing going on. Even if I did, I don't mind helping. I think you would do the same for me? If I had such a situation? I'm more than ready to try to find your family."

He paused.

"So stop crying, start driving, and let's see what we can accomplish."

 

[Naomi Carolina]

She pushed the heel of her hand across her freckled cheek. Wiping away the traitorous moisture there. Watery eyes held his gaze to make sure he was being serious. Then a slow nod. She could work with that. The last thing she needed to think about was if she was ruining his life.

"I can cry if i want to," she sniffled. Trying for light hearted even if she was really reaching for it.

They continued down the tunnels for awhile until she finally turned back to him, her sniffles becoming less.

"I would do it for you, too. You know. If you ever needed help Phin, I'd be there for you. And not just because of this."

And she meant it. She'd do that for any of her squadmates. And perhaps Phin, especially. Thoughts she quickly pushed aside as the narrow tunnel they'd been driving in opened into a larger cavern with more traffic that they merged into.

"Did you check the back? I wonder what they even have us transporting."

 

[Phineas Karr]

"Yeah you can cry if you want but it gets in the way of work. Although....I've always been a big advocate of crying on company time."

Phineas was trying to be lighthearted as well, key word was trying. Didn't mean he was succeeding any. More importantly, he needed her head in the game. This was too risky for her to be crying and focused on the wrong thing. Phin didn't like playing around with life and death situations with someone else involved. Himself? No big deal. With another person he had no choice but to be cautious.

"Don't know, didn't look. Less I know, you know? Let me check..."

Unbuckling himself, Phin stood and squished himself towards the holding area on the ground transport. It was a shaky mess but he finally made his way back and his worse fears came into light. Quickly shutting the cargo area door, he scrambled back up to Naomi.

"Hey darlin' we got a problem - we're transporting people. Sentients. Alive. Slaves." He shook his head, thinking. "We can't deliver 'em. I won't deliver 'em."

Naomi Carolina

 

[Naomi Carolina]

..I've always been a big advocate of crying on company time."

That earned him a small smile. A brief flash of sunshine on a stormy face. She wondered how much of when Phinny spoke like that, how serious he was. Or if it was a ruse to lighten the mood. If it was the latter, he was doing a good job. She kept the transport steady as they neared the first bits of traffic. Other speeder cars and buses all merging for the first checkpoint they'd come across. Hand tightened on the wheel as they approached.

She didn't know how she could tell from here but they were the black-clad sith soldiers. She could just...feel it. Like how she could feel when to dodge a turbolaser with her ship. When to spin just the right way.

"Chit," she swore as Phin rejoined her. For the briefest of moments, one she would be ashamed to admit, she thought about pushing through. Doing what needed to be done to find answers about her mom and brother. As quickly as the thought and desire entered her head it wafted away like smoke on the wind.

"I won't either," she finally whispered. "What are our options? They won't be safe if they stay on-world. They'd just be snatched up again."

And the unasked question.

How would they get the info for her mom if they didn't show up at the other end with the cargo they were expected to have?

Naomi swallowed, the weight of the 'verse back on her small shoulders as they drifted closer to the checkpoint gates and those sith soldiers.

 

[Phineas Karr]

"I won't either," she finally whispered. "What are our options? They won't be safe if they stay on-world. They'd just be snatched up again."

Wheels in his head were spinning rapidly. That didn't happen often. Typically his thoughts were much more measured outside of battle. During battle often times he could think on his feet. Most of the time he was just the typical dim-witted twenty something year old man. He could tell thats how Naomi Carolina viewed him too. Yet one of them had to think of something. She was far too close to the situation to think straight.

"Maybe we can convince them to assist us? I mean there are like thirty people crammed back there and us two. We need to get into this compound right? We get in, try to deliver like normal. I unshackle all the people back there....when the guards come to open the door we just ambush them. Could die. Could live and be successful. Who the hell knows?"

He paused.

"Its either that or deliver them and then become an alcoholic so I can live with the horror of what we have to do."

 

[Naomi Carolina]

"Okay," she nodded as she slowed, her fingers girpped tightly around the wheel. "We got this," a long exhale as she tried to shift to more of that bravado she wanted to feel. The kind she got when she was leading the squad. "Why don't you go talk to them and unshackle them? Tell them the plan?"

Hazel eyes switched to his face as she looked at the checkpoint. Sitting up a little straighter in the seat. Though her shortness still remained.

Small but mighty.

And darned determined.

"I'll handle them."

As they pulled up to the guards, Naomi rolled down the window and flashed a dazzling smile. She couldn't see their faces. They were covered by helmets with a long-thin darkline where their eyes could peak out. But even that was tinted enough so she couldn't tell where they were looking.

"Standard cargo transfer. Here are the papers. My husband is in the back." She tried not to wince, remembering a little too late how this world felt about women. Reaching over, she handed them what had been left in the truck. This was the guarded compound. Looked like only this one set of gates around the perimeter. She could see beyond the gates there was an off-loading area with cargos and crates stacked up and a guard or two milling about. Then a double set of doors leading to a two story structure built in the caver walls.

Wordlessly, the guard handed her back the papers and opened the gate, motioning for her to go through.

Step One. Easy Peasy.

Now the hard part.

She knocked on the back of the cabin door after she parked them near the loading doors.

 

[Phineas Karr]

Systematically, Phineas went about unshackling all the prisoners in the back. Some would call it a suicide mission. Not in his mind. In his mind these people had already been marked for death. It may have not been around the corner but the labor camps would surely kill over half of them. Wasn't as if they would get medical treatment or nutrition - might as well make a run for it.

"We're freeing all of you. There are guards out there with guns. I cannot guarantee anything. Sit here. Fight. Run. I cannot tell you what to do. Take this as you will. The back doors will open in three....two....one..."

Phineas burst out the back of the transport, onto the startled guards who were reaching up to grab the handle. Suddenly blaster fire rang out as he came into view, shouts on the yard. Some of the prisoners were with him, following close behind. Yet they were overcome with rage and soon began overpowering the guards, beating them retaliation.

He would use it to his advantage.

Running up to the front, he opened the door, grabbing one Naomi Carolina out of the drivers seat. Hand grasped hers as she seemed in a daze. All but pulling her along, they were dressed enough like the guards but not quite to move about in the chaos. Seemed like the facility was down at least two of them from what he saw.

"Which way to your family?"

 

[Naomi Carolina]

Prisoners were dogpiling against the guards. Errant blaster bolts rang through the dark air. Naomi's fingers curled around Phin's. She paused by the body of a shot guard and swiped his badge off his uniform.

"I don't know," she murmured but motioned to the doors as she ran with Phin. "But in here is a good place to start. Maybe we can find a data room. Something with logs of who might be here." Running up to the swipe at the door, the ran the guard's badge across it. The red light turned to green and there was a mechanical click as something unlocked before the metal door slid open.

There were two guards waiting for them as they went inside. It took them a moment to realize she and Phinny weren't on their side. Naomi took advantage of it and rammed her shoulder into the first, knocking him to the ground while falling on top of him, her hands going to wrestle with the blaster he held between them.

 

[Phineas Karr]

Phinny just followed her, keeping an eye on their back. There was a small concern the guards would come after them but the way the recently freed prisoners were acting towards their captors they were safe. No way those guards were getting out alive. So they snagged a keycard and entered, immediately greeted by two guards. Naomi Carolina got into a tussle with one right off the bat, leaving him in more of a lurch.

Punching the one guard cold and leaving Naomi to struggle, the redhead took care of one distraction before grabbing the blaster and firing one shot off. The guard immediately stopped moving. He fired off another shot to the guard he knocked out. The noise may carry but he had plan.

Helping Naomi off the guard, he took the keycard from her and rushed to the central control center, swiping it across a section marked 'all doors'. A very loud buzzing sound before metal on metal. The doors were rolling back. He had freed all the prisoners on this level of the facility. If anyone was coming for them they would be certainly hampered.

"Alright....data..." Phineas started working on getting the dataterminal up, unsure what was controlled by passwords. "Not sure we're going to get far..."

 

[Naomi Carolina]

The body slumped beneath her. She'd nearly had the blaster wrestled free when Phinny stepped in. She'd been in plenty of dog fights in the skies. It was one thing blowing up a ship and it was another coming face-to-face with it. She couldn't help that small feeling of numbness - somethign she didn't know as shock, overtake her.

And she'd been in plenty of brawls back home.

But for some reason all this felt a little different.

"Thanks," she murmered to Phin, trying to shake off those lingering feelings. She could sort through her complex emotions later. There wasn't time now. Swiping the guard's blaster she turned her body so she kept an eye on their backs. Hazel eyes looking more dark green scanning the halls even though she knew the majority of guards left would be headed out to the yard.

"Look for Dashiell or Carolina. I'm not sure if Ma used her maiden name or her married one."

If she used her real name at all.

"Maybe 'round this date." She gave Phin a date range about when she escaped the planet while her Ma and little brother were stuck behind. Eyes scanned over his shoulder at the names and descriptions. The anxiety growing in her gut. "Wait. There!" She pointed to an entry on the screen. The name was under Carolina. Two entries. One for her Ma and her brother. But the status listed as: Transfer - Hoth Base. Naomi stepped back.

"They're not here," she whispered.

 

[Phineas Karr]

"No, but we know where they are. Let's go. Come on..."

Phin knew if he let Naomi Carolina wallow in her misery nothing was going to get done. There was a prison riot happening all around them. Despite the uniform, Phin noted they were relatively safe from the prisoners. Obviously they weren't the ones who had been inflicting cruelties for weeks on end.

Using his comm, he took all the information he could from the terminal. They may need it sooner than later. Question was what to do next. He had multiple ideas running through his ginger skull already. Just had to put them in place and actually make them work. In time. Once they were back on his ship and back in the skies to Hoth.

Phin took her hand again, basically dragging her though the chaos. He was determined now.

"...back to my ship. I've got a few ideas to tell you once we get into hyerspace. Just keep your head down and follow my lead."

 

[Naomi Carolina]

They made it to the ship and Naomi got them out of the atmosphere and back into hyperspace with a course set to Hoth. All that build up? Anticipation? Hope? And for what?

Just another lead.

And she was in defeated mood.

"We'll arrive in a few hours," her normally fiery self clearly deflated. Pushing back from the controls, she wandered to the back of the ship and slumped down on one of the cots. Drawing her knees up to her chest and circling her arms around them, resting her chin on the top. She stared at nothing.

"We're going to a sith base. There's no way we can just blend in this time, Phin. It's too dangerous..." her voice trailed off.

 

[Phineas Karr]

"We're going to a sith base. There's no way we can just blend in this time, Phin. It's too dangerous..." her voice trailed off.

"Cause we're not goin' got blend in. Not this time."

A crazy plan, hatched while they were leaving the prison. It had given him ideas. Ones that hadn't first sprung to mind when they were thrust into the situation of delivering the enslaved sentients just hours ago.

"We're going to crash the ship. Pose as poor, out of our luck merchants with mechanical problems. We're going to have to destroy the ship and we only get one shot at this. If we fail, we will be dead. The story is believable, its just everything else. Its your call. You tell me if you want to push our luck or just forget the entire thing."