An Old Dance

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Two dolls danced across the room, controlled by an invisible force.

On the other side of the glass, two discussed what they were witnessing.

“For one without training, she is advanced.”

“For one with training, she is advanced for her age. It would be dangerous to leave her to learn on her own.”

One looked to the other, while the pale girl’s light blue eyes with the occasional fleck of green and grey opened from beneath strands of black hair. She laughed, a melodic sound. The dolls fell over. She picked them up and twirled in a circle.

“I agree, she must come with us, for everyone’s sake.”


http://panicked.org/swf/mili2/mili-v2.jpg

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Taris

She heard a crash. It was a loud crash, and the stone beneath her trembled at the impact of something. Milivikal woke and found she could not breathe. There was a dulled, thinned glass separating her and the rest of the dimly lit room. She panicked, flailing against the glass while her vision blacked out. Milivikal reached out with her fear. She hated the glass. It trembled before her and then burst.

The first breath was sweet. Her chest heaved, and the room filled her pale blue eyes again. Panic subsided, and she realized how foul the air smelled. k’Vik sat up. Glass fell off of her face and chest onto her legs and the slab she was on. She frowned, as she could not remember being put here. Perhaps they had thought her dead. The old spell remembered from a tome of the ancient Sith had been a desperate gambit to stave away the Jedi Masters. Milivikal pulled away the layer of gauze, taking the broken glass with it. She looked at the faded brown robes Jedi robes that she had been dressed in.

Milivikal found she was unsteady on her feet. It did not surprise her. The spell was supposed to render her “dead” for a span of months. The condition of the room indicated otherwise. No, she had been asleep far longer. She rubbed the robe’s sleeve between her thumb and forefinger. It felt too fragile and thin. Centuries, perhaps? She did not know the power of the spell. It was possible, she supposed, that she had been put on display as a reminder. The display for her lightsaber had long been vandalized. She would have to construct a new one.

Milivikal k’Vik shuffled onto what used to be a manicured street. It was collapsed in places, and rubble covered in others. Exposed metal framework was everywhere. She pulled a piece to her hand. Her body was weak but the Force was still strong. She smiled as she could feel the meter long tube carry away her limited body heat.

She felt him before she saw him. Down on his luck, the old man’s only companion was a dented and dying serving droid. The droid carried an IV sack, filled with vital fluids needed for the man to continue his lowly existence. She approached. Her eyes shone through her mess of black hair. The old man looked up to a wicked grin of perfect white teeth. His body floated above the ground for a moment and she plunged the metal pipe through his stomach, pinning him to the massive rubble chunk behind them. It’s duty completed, the servant droid shut itself off. Milivikal stripped it of medical equipment and ran a primitive IV from the old man’s leg to her neck. She had learned that her blood type would accept any other blood. His would now be put to use.

[Caine Korhal]

Caine and his undesirable associate, Jack, were traipsing through a crumbling, abandonned district of Taris, looking for a certain object. The object in question was a very old lightsaber - an artifact of the bygone era of the Old Republic. Their employer had told them that the lightsaber was being kept in a museum, though the tone of his voice suggested to Caine that it wasn't an entirely accurate noun to use in reference to wherever the hell they were going.

Wherever the hell, indeed! The maps Caine was able to find were severely out of date and failed to pinpoint the multitude of sudden drops through gaping holes in walkways hundreds of metres high, or weak girders that were prone to crashing through walls when one least expected it.

Still, it could have been worse.

Now this wasn't usually the sort of job that Caine undertook - he would consider it below him, running errands such as this. But the thing that made it all worthwhile was that his employer - a private collector - was willing to pay through the nose to get his aging hands on the lightsaber. The wealthy old man had a certain desire to not only aquire rare artifacts such as lightsabers, but also collate any historical references regarding their former owners. As such, he had supplied Caine with a hologram of an attractive - though Caine would call her hot stuff - young woman. Though Caine's mind tended to consider many possibilities and, given the supposed age of the lightsaber, viewed the woman in the hologram to be young-looking for now. But the history-collecting was for the old man to do. Caine's concern was the lightsaber and so it puzzled him as to why the old man had even bothered to supply the hologram. When he quizzed his employer on the matter, his reply was simply 'Just in case...'

And here they were, Caine and Jack (unfortunately for Caine), on Taris - the supposed location of one of a few tangible artifacts echoing a golden age of prosperity and its eventual downfall.

The two men turned a corner passing yet more clusters of abandonned, ruined buildings. Though Taris had been rebuilt after some sort of attack thousands of years previous, the clean-up operation wasn't exactly thorough. Vandalism was still rife and gangs prowled the walkways and districts at night. A run-down factory could be seen across from their current location, beyond a deserted air-lane; a faint whisp of smoke meandered up into the distant pinky-blue halo of sky above.

'Hard to believe this is Upper Taris!'

[Milivikal k'Vik]

She sat for an indeterminate amount of time fading in an out like a cat on a windowsill. She could feel herself growing stronger with the fresher blood. The spell may have kept her alive in a sense, but her body needed a jumpstart. The first hour she had been so weak that she could not hold her head up. The hours slipped by, and after a final nap, she felt strong enough to be on her feet again. She picked across the dead man’s belongings. He would not need them anymore. His canteens, one larger one with water and one with some sort of alcohol found themselves on her person. She left behind the vast majority of his nostalgic pack that referenced family she did give a fraction of a damn about. She tossed the broken droid bits and smashed blaster over the edge, into the abyss below. There was one blaster of questionable repair with an equally questionable charge in its energy pack. More importantly, there was a simple 20 centimeter kitchen knife that was still wickedly sharp and decently balanced, if oxidized. k’Vik rolled the blade’s handle between her fingers for a moment, the blade flashing in the light. There were a few foodstuff she kept, but mostly she threw the rest of the pack out.

Milivikal stared at the skyline, looking for a familiar monument or landmark. There were none. It had been too long or too radically changed. Whatever district she was in had been too badly beaten or neglected to make heads or tails of it. Her sense of direction was strong. She would make her way to a different district, one properly populated, and then away from the festered planet. She picked her way across the smaller, mostly intact walkway to what remained of a major thoroughfare. Gaping holes in the permacrete revealed oxidizing metal beneath. This district had been long abandoned. She picked her way toward the largest structure on the road, what appeared to be a broken factory.


Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now theres a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend,
You martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper,
You prisoner, and shine!

[Caine Korhal]

They had managed to navigate the crags of crumbling duracrete and twisted, melted metal inside the factory. It appeared that the building had been bombed very recently. A gaping hole in the roof revealed the glow of a sky that was getting ready to shift into early evening. Caine let his eyes drop from the ceiling to the large open warehouse doors across from him. And just outside, approaching the factory, was the woman in the hologram. He ducked down behind some machinery, confident she had not seen him. He gripped his blaster.

Jack was on the opposite side, across from Caine, on the other side of the doors. He popped his head out from behind the metal lathe and whispered as loud as he could.

"Jack! She's coming, but my power cell's dead. Run at her with your knife!

Now anybody with half a clue would know better than to carry out such an order unless it was given by a superior being. But intellect aside, Caine and Jack were more or less equals in the criminal underworld. But unfortunate for Jack, Jack wasn't very bright and so leapt up and charged towards the woman unquestioningly, brandishing a lethal-looking vibroblade in one hand. He was barely three metres past the door when Caine ran out after him and fired a single shot from his blaster. It hit him in the back of the head and the body collapsed awkwardly as it tripped over its own feet, just a few metres in front of the woman.

Caine holstered his blaster once again before calling out to the unknown woman.

"Close call, huh!?"

Behind a friendly grin and welcoming eyes, Caine's mind clocked up the overtime as a plethora of possible answers argued amongst themselves.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Milivikal canted her head to the left as the body collapsed in front of her, meters away. She hid the blade back into the folds of her robe. Slowly her head came back on the level and she regarded the grizzled man in front of her who had just holstered his weapon. He had confidence that she had not overheard him because it was nearly impossible. She had overheard him, of course.

No, it had not been a close call. Mili had three steps before he closed, and, with Jack’s stance, it would have been trivial to hamstring him. She turned over the deceased with her foot, his face a mix of surprise and pain.

“Yes.” She lied. Her was voice was clear and shockingly precise. It was unnaturally pleasant. She picked up the vibroblade that was only a few inches from Jack’s hand, and slipped it into the belt that helped hold the robes together.

She grinned, an eerie mirror of Caine’s own face.

“What are you here?” She asked in his own vocal rhythm but in her own perfect pitch. Her face became nearly blank, but her eyes were curious.

[Caine Korhal]

"A couple of reasons really...".

Caine produced a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

"...trying to figure out why my current employer hired my ex-partner to kill you..."

He took a drag on the cigarette.

"...and then hired me to save your life."

Caine exhaled slowly. The smoke rushed out of a crease in his lower lip and drifted up into the evening sky. He took another drag before speaking again...

"As well as wondering who you are."

He revealed the holographic image of the woman and handed it to her.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Milivikal took the holo and held it like it was an unwanted bug that she was unafraid of. It was a nuisance and she wanted it gone gone gone. She turned it on. She snorted. It was from her time as a padawan. Her hair cut short, and the goofy braid, but the same face, the same pale skin, but her eyes had a larger measure of tranquil calm. Mili tossed it aside, and it bounced and rolled until it stopped, upside down. It was an odd artifact to have, even after a few hundred years.

“The place of my untimely…” Milivikal played with the concept of death, but she had not been dead. “…my untimely stasis has long been looted. If you sought the lightsaber it is been long scooped, and not by myself!” She added, snorted and scoffed. “My coffin friends were not so fortunate. I was one of the centerpieces, and everyone else was crushed by the weight of time and rubble.” She waived her head back and forth and rolled her eyes to add emphasis on how tiresome the whole affair was.

“According to record I have surely been dead for some time. Why would your employer employ someone to kill someone who is dead? But for now? I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. Only for however long we need to be.” She explained.

“I find your story unlikely, for all these reasons. But I will tell you who I am, if you get me away from sad Taris. Be more honest with me in the future. I can hear comfortable falsehoods as easily as an uncomfortable truth.”

[Caine Korhal]

Damn! Guess I didn't think that one through! Force users! Pfft!

Caine scratched his head awkwardly.

"Damn, you called my bluff, huh!? Okay I'll come clean - I came for the lightsaber. And since you don't know where it is that leaves me in a crummy situation. That artifact's worth a lot of money to me..."

He paused, playing back what she had said. She was a little kooky. I am he as you are he as you are me!? What the hell did that mean? It was either genius, or insanity that this one suffered from. Or maybe it was both!

"You say you want off Taris. I don't blame you - it ain't exactly District Seventeen on Coruscant. I tell you what - if you can make me an exact copy of your lightsaber for me, I'll take you anywhere you want to go and split the money my employer's offering. What d'ya say?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Money sounded useful. k’Vik seldom used it herself, finding it easier to bend a weak mind. This time it had some appeal, though. Besides, Caine had no chance against her, armed with a lightsaber or otherwise. She ran a finger across her lips, her eyes skyward in thought. The orange bladed weapon would not be impossible to duplicate, but not simple. Lightsaber crystals were not everyday items.

“It may end up being as expensive to make the saber as the reward. The Jedi Order numbered thousands, surely it would be easier to find a different one. And what of the Order? Do they still stand arrogant and flapping about?” The state of the Jedi was a concern for her. She had been hunted so aggressively.

[Caine Korhal]

"The Jedi Order!?"

Caine looked around idly, surveying the ruins for some sort of visual clue as to what this woman's past actually was.

"The Jedi have no Order anymore. Haven't for years now. Not since the formation of the Empire some twenty or so years ago. Just how long were you in stasis for?"

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Milivikal shrugged dismissively. It was no longer important to her.

“Before this district turned to ruin.”

[Caine Korhal]

Caine paused before saying something that would have ultimately made him look foolish.

"Well I'll be damned. I would ask which side you were on but its kind of apparent in your tone."

He flicked the cigarette butt over the nearby guard rail that kept the long, fatal death drop and the two mysterious characters separated.

"Well you might be happy to know that the Jedi are pretty scarce these days. The Clone Wars cut 'em down to size, thats for sure! They're dotted about the place - people say they've seen one or know someone who knows someone who knows one; that kinda thing. But I heard people talk about dark Jedi popping up in recent months. Supposedly they have some sort of connection or kinship with the Sith - or maybe they're just pallid, gloomy fanboys of the old players, who knows!? Whats certain is that things are gonna get real interesting from here on..."

He reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved his cigarette tin. He opened it and held it out towards the woman.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Other Dark Jedi and Sith? k’Vik would either eliminate them or carve her own niche. She was not deeply concerned. Milivikal shook her head at the tin of cigarettes. They did not interest her either.

“Lead. This place wastes our time.”

[Caine Korhal]

Yeah, but you sure don't, thought Caine as he started walking away from the factory. He tried to walk beside her as much as possible while still being somewhat in front as to lead her to the hotel. He hated coming across as ignorant.

"My ship isn't too far from here. Shouldn't take us long to reach it."

They soon came by a freight elevator, most likely used by construction and labour droids such as binary load lifters. It was covered in rust; evidence of cheap materials used after the catastrophic maelstrom that engulfed Taris warranted a clean-up operation. The damage was all but total, and the repairs expensive. Corners were inevitably cut. The lift looked like it had seen better days, but was still functional. They stepped inside, though it wasn't enclosed by any means. The same rails that made up the many walkways were the only barrier, though a large frame was in place, suggesting that the elevator once included vast windows. Caine walked across and slapped the large button on the simple control panel. With a heavy judder the platform kicked into action and started its descent.

"By the way, I'm Caine...Caine Korhal."

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Milivikal muttered the name to herself and decided she liked it. She inclined her head and smiled slightly, but said nothing. Instead, she listened to the lift rumble up its track. It worked, that was all that really could be said for it.

“We need to go to Dantooine.” She said as the lift came to a halt.

[Caine Korhal]

They stopped on a level many hundreds of feet below the factory. Though in a state as brutally ruined as the last one, this district had evidence of once being rather luxurious. Curved corners and remains of overhead arches suggested wealth and prosperity. Indeed, this area was one of the more expensive commercial districts of old Taris. Abandonned, bombed stores and cafes aligned the slight stretch of walkway that led to the hotel some few hundred metres from the elevator.

"Dantooine huh!? That'll take a couple of days. Whats on Dantooine?"

They exited the elevator and started walking in the direction of the hotel.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

“Lightsaber crystals.” She explained, and followed Caine to one of the few buildings that was not ruined. Mili daydreamed she could hear his brain grind into action while it formulated the way to make the most money possible.
“Do not be clever. Unless you know how and have the proper gifts, making a Jedi weapon ends in disaster.” Her voice was filled with the dark foreboding of the monster under the bed, only real.
“The construction of such a weapon requires special intuition.” She added, in case her point was not clear before. Milivikal then turned to the devastation before her. She found it amusing. Taris never deserved its success. The planet just happened to be an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere none too far from the trade routes. Its people were not the intrepid explorers from Corellia, nor enterprising like the merchants of Coruscant.

[Caine Korhal]

"Well I'm an opportunist - not an entrepreneur. I'm not about to start a mining operation on Dantooine. Sounds too much like hard work if you ask me!"

Despite this, he put a mental pin in Dantooine, just in case.

They entered the lavishly-fronted hotel with its many columns and still-working fountains. They passed the lobby, walking across its varnished, wooden floor like royalty in a hurry. Then, they turned down a corridor that was partially furnished with small wooden tables adourned with wilted flowers and priceless vases. But the surroundings soon took on a more desolate tone as the tables they passed were broken and charred, littered with the remnants of shattered vases and other ornaments. In its day, this corridor led to a grand dining hall and ballroom, but the devastation of Taris reduced it to a barren wasteland of mangled metal and splintered wood, with crockery and cutlery making up some kind of bizarre culinary undergrowth over the floor . As they entered the immense room it was clear that it had started to rain. Droplets spattered on broken plates and the odd whole one, filled half-smashed bowls before spilling onto the tables, and made puddles in the depressions beneath the floor debris.

And sitting in the middle of it all, like a diamond in the mud, was the Ace of Coins, Caine's YT-2400 Corellian transport.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

It was obvious the ship was of Corellian origin. It was modular and still held several of the same cues, such as the location of its weaponry and docking points. Either that or it was an eager copycat following the same design philosophies. It was smallish, though, and the sight of missile tubes and the gunnery arrays made her question how aimed at being a transport it was, and how much it was for other things.

“You have a fine ship, Caine.” She told him, and danced between the mud and raindrops while she followed behind him to the ship. She was speckled with dots of water while he was damp. Her shoes were nearly dry, while his were muddied.

“Are we to go Dantooine directly?” Milivikal asked, uncertain of the itinerary.

[Caine Korhal]

As they approached the ship, Caine reached into his right jacket pocket. He fumbled about for something.

"Well that really depends. If you want to, we can head straight for Dantooine. But I personally could do with a stop along the way. You know - grab a bite to eat, maybe stretch my legs. Then we'd get back on our way. But it's your call..."

He revealed a small, cylindrical device that fit into the palm of his hand. It was divided horizontally into two symmetrical parts, connected by a black disc that was visible. It was tapered, being narrower at the ends and wider at the middle. Caine twisted the device, then pulled the two segments away from each other. The cylinder opened up; the two halves connected by an internal mechanism that allowed it to lengthen. He pulled the segments away as far as they would go, only several inches, before twisting them again. His timing with the various motions was particular and varied. He continued, closing the device once more and then twisting the cylinder again. The black disc seemed to contract slightly, allowing Caine to press the device together like a button. He did this several times, again in a particular fashion at varying speeds. After a few seconds, a red glow appeared on one end of the cylinder, like a button. Caine pressed his thumb over the glow.

"Ladies first."

A ramp descended from the underbelly of the ship as the various systems came online inside.

[Ramoth Ocran]

I apologize.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Was the device a beacon call or security measure or both? k'Vik was not sure, but also was not that curious. His hands performed precise, calculated motions to activate the thing. She climbed the ramp. There was a newness to this ship, and it felt more advanced. There were no veins for a fluidics system. Like the exterior, though, it felt distinctively Corellian. Milivikal found herself running a finger along the corridor walls of the ship. Her eyes looked about, trying to take it all in at once. Caine was behind her, she flashed him a glance of pure, childlike curiosity.

“Is this ship Corellian?” She asked. She hoped it was, if to only have an anchor to the familiar.

[Caine Korhal]

"It certainly is."

With the touch of a button the ramp raised up and locked once more, with a brief mechanical clang, followed by a subtle hiss of pressurization. Caine idly made his way to the cockpit, passing by the locked entrance to the cargo bay as he did so.

"Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-2400 light freighter. I always preferred the look of her to the earlier 1300's."

Once inside the cockpit, he activated the repulsorlift generator, ready for takeoff.

"I assume you're ready to go, but if there's anything else you need to take care of...now's the time to do it."

[Ramoth Ocran]

OOC: I sincerely apologize. My character does not belong here.

[Milivikal k'Vik]

“I think such a ship did not exist, although I never really bothered to identify anything beyond what sort of ship it was.” She replied, now more certain. Some things did not change because there was no good reason to do anything differently. Correllians and their spaceships apparently agreed.

“Let us be off. Taris is a miserable world.” She could hear and feel the hum of the repulsors powering up. It was not unpleasant, she decided, and sank into the other chair in the cockpit. She buckled herself in, not confident in the stability of the upper atmosphere. There was no need to risk being flung about.

Once they cleared the atmosphere, both Caine and Milivikal relaxed slightly.

“So where is it you want to go?” She asked.

[Caine Korhal]

The Ace of Coins drifted away from Taris with a low hum in its engines. Caine turned on the autopilot while he fiddled with the navi-computer.

"There's an agri-world called Agamar about half way to Dantooine. Its neutral for the most part so there's little Imperial presence besides a garrison that's basically keeping the door open. I've been there a couple of times and I know this great little place that serves the best Keeli rice you've ever tasted! It'll take about 2 days..."

He trailed off, moving back to the pilots chair.

"Okay. All set, here we go. So long Taris - thanks for the lousy weather!"

Starlines engulfed the cockpit windows as the ship accelerated past lightspeed. A white flash replaced the view with the swirling blue vortex of hyperspace.

"Like I said - it'll take about 2 days to get there, so I guess we've got some time to kill. I can show you to your quarters if you like."

[Milivikal k'Vik]

Milivikal nodded. It would be a decently long trip, and she could use the time to reorient herself and get a general idea of where the Galaxy was. Once shown where her quarters and a newsfeed was, she parked herself there for hours on end, reading rapidfire about the recent events.

[Caine Korhal]

As the ship cruised through hyperspace, Caine busied himself in the engine room. He'd been tinkering with the power generators for the past few hours, trying to restore them to the way they were before Jack had messed around, supposedly improving efficiency. Caine tended to ramble on to himself in a rant when he was alone.

"Crazy spacehead! I'm glad I shot him, he's screwed this up good-style! Damn generators were working above peak performance before he got his hands on 'em and now they're fifteen percent below standard output! Jack, if you can hear me on the other side...if you weren't dead, I'd kill you!"

He threw the hydrospanner on the floor beside him and stood up, rubbing his neck from the strain of working underneath the generators. On his way to the restroom he popped his head inside Mili's quarters.

"I'm making myself a drink if you fancy one..."