freedomliveson

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Oh man, I'm so sorry to hear. No worries. I'll be here whenever real life calms down :)

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

that'll work! You can do one planet and I can do another?

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Alright, so I imagine our trip of Odessen going one of two ways:

1. We can skip forward to Odessen and have the time gap be two months(or whatever we decide). We can summarize any events we want to include in the time skip and maybe detail one or two instances we really want to include. This way we can get to Odessen a bit faster.

OR

2. We can have posts where the crew arrives at each set of coordinates and discuss the kind of environment they find themselves in, maybe arriving at a planet or two to observe the differences in this part of wild space versus Zinuthra and Qunesu?

What say you?

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

The concept of a “Revanite” was one that he had never heard of, but made sense. Revan was a mythological figure, almost launched into the status of Demi-god. People would be attracted to worshipping that kind of power, even going so far as to think they could learn how to be “like” Revan. Yerbol wondered silently how the Revanities could have made it to Odessen with just hyperspace travel, let alone how the Council knew that there were Revanites on the unknown planet, but then again, that data they extracted from Lehon might have had more than Yerbol thought. He would have to ask Vano how she managed to figure all this out when they returned.

When Cheriss asked for the Elders to chime in, Matthew’s normally youthful countenance appeared to age almost instantly, wrinkles creasing his forehead and brow.
“There’s no guarantee that you can find a working communications device that far out in unknown space, but if you do, I would suggest patching into whatever frequency is available from Zinuthra. I, along with the rest of the Council, could care less who receives the information first. As long as SOMEONE knows where you are, we’ll feel better. Besides, I think the Alliance intelligence people would be more celebratory about receiving a landmark transmission from deep within Wild Space than we would.”
“A fair point. Besides, we probably wouldn’t be able to address it right away.” Yerbol cocked a brow, prompting the Miraluka to explain:
“We don’t just sit around and await your reports, darling. There are more things at play than even your little group knows about, issues that only we can address. And before you ask, it’s better that you don’t know about them. There’s a reason why we take care of these matters ourselves.”
“That’s not to say you’ll be completely on your own, though. We’ll try to provide support whenever we can, but Malu does make a good point: when you leave this part of Wild Space, we can’t guarantee very much support even if we wanted to.” An uncomfortable silence fell on the meeting, Matthew breaking it after a few moments:
“But there was a reason why we sent you, ALL of you, on an operation like this. All that has been accomplished up until this point has led you to this. Bracknell, Illesia and the Xiis, Manus…the Force guided you through this and other trials to prepare you for what you will go through. We believe in your abilities to succeed.” He shot the Champions a smile.
“Besides, you two really have been operating independently ever since you’ve been a team. The only thing that changes is that you won’t have to tell us very much because we won’t be able to hear you.” A half-hearted chuckle from Yerbol.
“We’ll do what we can to report back. I presume our little portion of the galaxy will be intact when we return?”
“As much as it can be, Yerbol. You do your part and we’ll do ours.” The Elder had been leaning forward, but now sat back, looking the group over one last time, a trace of some unreadable emotion glancing through his eyes.
“May the Force be with you. All of you. Come home safe.” Right as the transmission ended, Ethan asked in a still slightly bleary tone:
“So ah…how are we going to last six months on the ship?”
“Yeah, kid’s right. What IS the plan for getting to Odessen without starving to death?” Kira and Ethan’s questions were met with a nod of affirmation from Yerbol, who had been wondering the same thing ever since Neta dropped the “six month” revelation on them.
“Well, remember, the coordinates were plotted using standard hyperspace calculations. Slipspace generators can shave time off, but with these unknown jumps…well, we’re kinda shooting in the dark.”
“Cool, cool…but that didn’t answer my question.”
“We won’t BE flying for six months, Ethan. Our first stop might not take us more than a couple of weeks.”
“But that’s a ‘might’? Not a ‘definitely’?” Neta shook her head, looking at the Champions and Kira with mock desperation.
“He REALLY doesn’t know how we operate, does he?”
“Ethan, our entire profession leans on this kind of uncertainty. Better to embrace it now than try to fight against it.” The apprentice gulped down a knot forming in his throat, nodding before Neta added:
“We’re fueled up and ready to get to our first set of coordinates. I’m going to go punch in our destination and then…we’ll be off.” The pilot left the CIC along with Ethan, who the party could hear asking questions about how fuel efficient slipspace generators are as the cockpit door closed.
“Hey ah…sorry to drop in so suddenly. I know you weren’t counting on company, but it’s nice to be a part of something like this.”
“Are you kidding? Having you along is a comfort. You’ve been through even more than we have.” She chuckled.
“Agreed with the last bit, but not so sure about being a ‘comfort’. Never was very good at encouraging that kind of an atmosphere.” Her eyes were cast down for a few moments, then quickly told the group:
“I’ll ah…I’ll be around. We’ll have time to talk, I’m sure.” With that, she disappeared, leaving three.
“You want to watch our departure, honey? Might be nice to see known space. Won’t be seeing it for a while.” He took one of her hands in his, glancing down at her with a somber smile.

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Hey there! Apologies for the delay, but MAN did work kick me around this week. Worked until about 7:30 pm the past two nights and was doing all sorts of stuff the other days. Today is(THANKFULLY) a day to recover, so will be getting you something in the next couple of hours :)

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

There's always a spot on vacation where you don't seem to hit. I remember when I went to Hong Kong, there was SO much that I missed out on due to time. Hopefully you can visit that village again soon :)

Haha! I think the puppy thing kinda bled in from our own experience at the moment. My wife and I are anxiously awaiting news from our breeder about a corgi puppy. I can't wait.

Sounds good! Didn't think about Revan's mask, but that would be loaded with the Force.

I'll get you a post on Monday. I'm not feeling all that great today, so I don't think my posts would be very good xD

Have a good weekend!

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Oh fun! I've always wanted to go to Wales. Glad you had a fun time :)

Figured the Council would want to talk to them one last time before they go into the unknown, hence the meeting.

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

“REAL bacon, indeed.” He handed her food and drink, laughing at her profession of love before responding:
“I needed to do this sooner, then, eh?” Yerbol didn’t mention very much to his partner about his interaction with his apprentice, instead choosing to have a nice, happy, normal breakfast with his wife. In a way, their meal reminded him of their honeymoon, which was the last block of time where they had spent time together without the needs of the galaxy weighing on them. It made the Champion long for a time when they could make this their everyday course of living rather than what they currently had to deal with. Maybe after this(how many times had they said that phrase), they could go on a sabbatical. Maybe set down roots somewhere nice where the hounds could gallop without restraint and they could just…exist. Maybe get a dog…a real dog. One that didn’t inspire fear in the hearts of those who saw it. That would be nice.

His serene portrait of where they could be had to be stowed away after breakfast unfortunately, seeing as Vano had transmitted coordinates back to the Commodore for them to examine. Before they left their room, however, Yerbol stopped Aria from leaving, placing a hand on her shoulder as he told her quietly:
“When we get through this, I promise you that we’re going to do more…normal things. You deserve a life free from dangerous missions into the unknown and replete with bacon.” He drew her closer, placing his arms around her waist.
“One last kiss before go back out there? The apprentices don’t need to know that we express physical affection for each other.”

A smirk.

_______

“You’re sure about this?” Kira ruffled her auburn-colored locks that were now beginning to grow past her shoulders.
“Yeah. I can’t…” Her lips pursed, eyes cast towards the untouched mug of tea.
“I can’t just sit here, Neta. I won’t.” Neta leaned forward, taking one of her hands and squeezing it reassuringly.
“Glad to know you’re taking a better route than I did after Vivi passed. Mercenary work pays well, but makes you an ‘enemy of the peace’.” Kira snorted a laugh, hand withdrawing to wipe away the brief shimmer of tears that had formed in her eyes before resuming eye contact with the former spec ops officer.
“I did my time as…well, something like that. Didn’t get paid like you did, though.”
“It’s not all that cracked up to be.”
“Says the girl with five different luxury homes and kids in private school on Alderaan.”
“Hey, hey, those were Alliance funds, honey.” A shared laugh as Kira stood up, right hand briefly running over an ornately carved lightsaber hilt.
“Don’t want to keep them waiting, right?”
“Ah, don’t worry. Vano sent us all a message last night saying that the coordinates were in. I’ve got a course already plotted, but I want the kids to figure it out, too. Critical thinking and all that.”
“How long should we wait?”
“Until I’m done with my coffee.”

________

“It’s not like Malachor, kids.” Neta appeared in the doorway of the CIC, a wide smile on her face.
“Atmospheric conditions from what we can pull from the records we got are favorable for a smooth landing. To think that we’ll actually be able to break into an atmosphere that won’t try to kill us.” Yerbol jutted his chin out, asking with mock indignation:
“You know where we’re going already, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
“And you ran all the scans probably last night?”
“Uh huh.” She plopped into a nearby chair.
“And you didn’t tell us?”
“Hey, you guys made it sound like you didn’t want to be disturbed. Vano sent us all messages and…well, I’ll assume that all of you were busy?” Yerbol tried desperately to suppress a flush of pink that rose to his cheeks, but he knew it was too late, so he spoke quickly to extract more information about their destination:
“So what do you know?”
“Well…” She leaned forward, interacting with a few command prompts on the projector, which spawned several columns of data that hovered over the planet. Ethan quickly started to spurt out information as he processed it:
“Atmospheric particles at point two zero, climate patterns read steady, gravity w-“
“I got this, Ethan, but thank you for the intro.” He smiled sheepishly, silencing himself before Neta continued:
“All of the numbers you see there were left on the astrogation charts. Revan left us just enough to work with.”
“Which is?”
“Sets of coordinates that we’ll need to use to jump to that part of the universe.”
“What?”
“This planet, Odessen as he called it, isn’t accessible as a direct jump from known space. You see that long number there? With all the decimals? That’s how far the planet is from Lehon in lightyears.” Yerbol stopped trying to read the number after the sixth decimal point.
“BUT, there are coordinates here…” She motioned to the left hand column which had four sets of numbers neatly stacked on top of one another.
“That we can jump to without running out of fuel.”
“So if we jump to these coordinates, we eventually end up at Odessen?”
“Right. Problem is…I don’t know where the coordinates will have us ending up. Even with me and Vano working on it together early this morning, we still couldn’t find a known path. Essentially, we’re jumping VERY deep into unknown space, way past Zinuthra and Quensu.” Yerbol swallowed hard.
“Do we have estimates on how long it’ll take for us to get to Odessen, then?” She nodded.
“Six months.”
“What?”
“Six months in hyperspace, BUT remember, we’ve got slipspace generators that can cut our travel time down and that doesn’t account for each segment of the journey.”
“Can the Commodore last that long?”
“Should. The ship was designed for long-haul recon and battle assignments, so we should be fine with what we have now. If not…we’ll figure something out. Besides, we’ve got an extra hand onboard.” Kira entered the CIC, a half-smile creasing her features.
“Thought I could join you guys for the ride. Sounds fun.” Yerbol couldn’t help but smile broadly at seeing Kira look like her old self again, telling her:
“It’s so good to see you again.” The smile decreased in scope as he asked:
“Wait, the Council…did they send you?”
“Kinda. I volunteered myself for this assignment and they put their stamp on it. They can tell you more when we set out.” Yerbol wanted to ask for more detail, but instead nodded.
“Well, we could use the help, especially from someone who helped take down the Emperor.”
“Exactly why she’s here.” Neta chimed in as she rose.
“I’ll get us up into orbit and then you guys can have your meeting with the Council.”
“Before diving into the unknown.” Ethan muttered, the apprentice vacillating between utter excitement and crippling anxiety.

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

Aaaaand thank you for reminding me about Kira...

causeimayhaveforgottenalready

XD

Hey, how was the vacation? Enjoy yourself despite this global heatwave?

You never see it coming[Freedomliveson/The Elvenqueen]

When the loading ramp made contact with hangar floor, both of their apprentices vanished very quickly, leaving the Champions with cart blanche to do…well, whatever they wanted. It was a strange feeling, but one that Yerbol could easily get used to, especially when Ari mentioned their agenda for the day.
“A hotel room DOES sound nice, but our place on Coruscant has set a high standard for us. Guess that means we’ll have to stay at someplace even swankier to compensate.” He shot her a playful grin as the duo intertwined hands, walking past bustling Alliance personnel, heavy machinery and other assorted reminders of work with a kind of reckless glide that is normally present in those who receive a chance to take a vacation.
When they emerged out of the hangar, they were greeted with the crisp, refreshing air that was the norm for Alderaan, even with the capital city just a taxi stop away.
“Let’s just…be, today.”

Which they did. After checking into their hotel, Yerbol voiced his desire for food, which then led to a discussion about WHERE to eat. Eventually it was decided that they were to enjoy the serene environs of the planet, setting up a picnic spot at a park just outside the city limits where there wouldn’t be too many onlookers who would call the city guard on the hounds. They had arrived and were enjoying a nice lunch when he had turned around to watch Taral chase down a pack of squirrels, about to comment on how little of a challenge the hounds were facing on Alderaan when he was met with fateful of snow. His spouse’s cackling triggered an immediate response.
“Oh no. We’re not doing this.” Before she could react, he scooped her up in his arms and found the biggest snowlike he could find, plopping her down with a satisfying thud.
“Somehow, you make a snowpile look very inviting.” A smirk crossed his features as he joined her in the snow and the Champion was very grateful there weren’t park visitors around their location for a few moments.

He was also very thankful that before he had to kick the hounds out, they had departed, giving them both snorts of approval for them to leave before setting off past city limits. This left them some time.

Which they took advantage of.

_____

His eyes opened to a few slivers of sunlight peeking through the heavy curtains that he had drawn last night before he had entered the fresher unit, silently wishing he had drawn them tighter so that they wouldn’t be roused from sleep. Groaning in protest, he cast a glance at the chronometer next to their bedside and rolled his eyes.

Seven forty five local time.

On the one day they had off, he couldn’t even sleep in. Figures. Then again, the activities of last night(and early this morning) were more than enough to compensate for the early rising. Yerbol turned over, placing an arm around his partner’s waist as he drew himself closer to her, planting a handful of kisses on her neck before settling onto the pillow, eyes closing. Maybe he could sneak in a couple of more hours before they were drawn away fro-

His comm unit vibrated.
“Oh for the sake of all that’s living…” He muttered, choosing to ignore the vibrations and closing his eyes. Whoever it was, they could wait.

It vibrated again with even more incessancy.

“Fine, fine.” Rolling out of bed, he stumbled over to the comm unit laying on a coffee table nearby, the unit half covered by his shirt(how did it end up here? Oh yeah…heh.) and answered:
“Yerbol speaking.”
“Hey, Yerbol…ah…could you come down here?”
“Ethan? What’s going on?” His apprentice’s voice was shaky when he responded:
“I think…I think I’m sick.”
“From what?” Silence.
“From. What?” A mutter.
“What was that?” A more audible, yet slurred answer this time:
“Cocktailswithgirls.” Son of a bantha.
“Are you hung over? That’s what this is, isn’t it?”
“I think…I’ve never been…hung over before…my head hurts.”
“Just…where are you?”
“Ah…” A pause.
“Think I’m...outside a big house.” Well that helps.
“What district? No, wait, forget it, just send me your coordinates and I’ll get you back to the ship.”
“Ok.” The call ended abruptly, Yerbol receiving coordinates and plotting the destination before biting his tongue in an attempt to suppress a loud stream of curses. Ethan was right outside House Kenaya’s complex, the aforementioned house a pivotal family that had lobbied for Alderaan to be one of the first Alliance planets to have the Qyaari involved in building Alliance governmental policies. They were trusted allies.

And somehow Ethan was right in front of their main base of operations. Hung over.

It had to be his apprentice, right? It couldn’t be Aria’s. Nope. She had to get the one who probably fell asleep at a library watching holo-vids of Alderaanian history. Grimacing at his lack of clothes once more, he walked to his spouse’s side of the bed before whispering:
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. With breakfast. And caf. I promise.” He kissed her cheek, taking one last longing look at the bed before he dressed and walked out of their hotel room.

___

When Yerbol arrived, he found Ethan standing against the complex’s outer wall, two armed guards bearing the emblem of House Kyanna flanking his position. Ethan’s nearly red hair looked duller somehow, his eyes somewhat bloodshot, clothes limply hanging off of him. With a shake of the head, he addressed the guards:
“Yerbol Massani, a Qyaari whose apprentice decided to embarrass the entire Order. My sincerest apologies if he was any trouble.”
“None at all this morning, sir. We didn’t even know he was here until Lady Jetsa told us of a ‘frumpy visitor’ at the gates that she saw on her security feed.” The matriarch of the family saw him. Great.
“Well please convey my deepest apologies for the unsightly visitor and I will personally see to it that he is disciplined for his actions.”
“Of course.”

__

The taxi ride back to the outskirts of Aldera was silent, Ethan occasionally drinking the electrolyte beverage Yerbol had purchased for him on the way to his location. It wasn’t until they reached the Commodore when Yerbol spoke in a restrained manner:
“What happened last night?” Ethan shook his head.
“I don’t know, I just-“
“Bull. Tell me what happened.” Ethan’s eyes widened slightly as words began to tumble out of his mouth:
“I was at the swoop track and I was betting on races and there were these girls there and they were cute and I told them that I was here on official business and they kept asking about it and I told them that I was your apprentice.” He stopped, smiling proudly.
“They liked that. Thought I was a big shot, bought me some drinks and-“ Yerbol grabbed Ethan by the collar of his shirt, eyes ablaze with indignation.
“YOU USED YOUR POSITION AS A QYAARI TO GET DRINKS?!”
“Woah, woah, I’m not finished, I’m-“
“YES. YES YOU ARE. GET YOUR ARSE BACK ON THE SHIP, NOW!”
“But-“
“SHUT IT!” Yerbol inadvertently clamped down on the boy’s collar so hard that he ripped a chunk of fabric as he tore his hand away in disgust. Ethan stood still, jaw slightly ajar as Yerbol jabbed a finger into the boy’s chest.
“You have NO idea what we’ve done to get to where we are now as an order and yet you flaunt our status like we’re bloody celebrities?! If I had known you were going to be that reckless, you would’ve been on lock down the moment we landed!”
“Hey, hey, I can have fun, can’t I? I mean, we’re allowed to blow off steam?! You and Aria went prancing off to-“
“ON THE SHIP!” The apprentice’s brow furrowed in frustration, turning on his heel back towards the ship, storming up the loading ramp.

As his initial wave of anger faded, he knew that many of the things he had said were ill-advised. He could have handled that better, but to see the carelessness, the stupidity that Ethan exhibited was jarring. He needed to talk to someone who had been through something like this before, someone who had a lot of experience training younger people-

Malu. She’d know how to handle something like this.

Yerbol walked out of the hangar and took a taxi back into Aldera, the stop about a few blocks away from their hotel. He located a restaurant that proudly declared they served breakfast along with lunch and dinner, strolling in and placing an order before finding a seat and withdrawing his comm unit, placing it on the table in front of him. He did a quick scan of the restaurant, happily acknowledging the scant populace of the eatery with a nod. The Champion then withdrew an earpiece from a hollowed out compartment on the rear of the unit, planting it firmly in his right ear before reaching out to Malu’s frequency without thinking of what time it was on Zinuthra. Thankfully the voice that answered didn’t sound like it was roused from slumber:
“Yerbol, what a pleasant surprise.”
“Sorry about the ambush, but I ah…had a bit of a blow up.”
“Oh darling, that happens in a marriage.”
“No, no, not with Ari, with Ethan.”
“That happens quite a bit, too. Well, tell me what unfolded." Yerbol summarized as much as he could, fully aware that he was in a public place and omitted as much unnecessary detail as he could. When he was finished, Malu chuckled.
“What?”
“That sounds very much like a typical apprentice.”
“How so?”
“Think about this for a moment. Apprentices, even in the former days, were young, weren’t they?”
“Yes…”
“How old were you when you first became a Padawan, hmm?”
“16.”
“Right. Aria was even younger than you when she became an Acolyte. Did either of you know very much when you started?”
“No, but we were teenagers with little to no field experience. He's older and was hand picked thanks to his experience…or I assumed that.”
“You assume correctly. He performed well enough in field assignments, but we passed on several other more qualified candidates.”
“What?”
“Yes, we passed on several who we thought would be a better fit on paper…except for Kytra. She was one that we knew would flourish right away, albeit with a little guidance here and there.”
“So you gave him to me for what purpose?”
“What else? To become a Champion.”
“But you said there were others who would be a better fit!”
“Certainly. His arrogance, irreverence and sensitivities towards the opposite sex were all noted. But surely you’ve seen his aptitude with the Force? He has so much potential to succeed and we trust that you can bring it out of him.” Sighing, he placed a hand under his chin, asking her:
“You really think that much of me?”
“Of both of you. You two represent the future of our order and it would be a shame to not use your talents to train others.” Yerbol was quiet for a few moments, allowing Malu to continue:
“Apologize for your outburst, but make sure that you reinforce that those kinds of behaviors are what made Force users very unpopular in the galaxy. He will learn, grow and adapt. Trust me. I’ve had apprentices with worse attitudes and they grew out of them with enough guidance…and yet this isn’t all you have on your mind, is it? Too bad it’ll have to wait.” A moment later, the woman he had placed an order with planted a bag with their food on his table.
“I mean, I can talk about it with you later.”
“There won’t be time. I know you’ll figure it out. And with that, I must be off. Take care of yourselves…please.” The call ended, Yerbol both grateful and mystified by Malu’s sound advice and cryptic messages about the larger issue at hand he was struggling with. In any case, he had to return to Aria. He was hungry.

When he entered the room, he quickly apologized:
“So sorry I had to leave like that. I brought an offering if that helps?”