Run!

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan did not notice Rhianna's entrance into Serenity. Morgan didn't even notice her enter engineering. He had been working since dawn. He first installed the hyperdrive. Morgan wanted to be certain that the hyperdrive was working correctly, along with the rest of the ship. The feeling of danger surrounding the ship would not stop haunting him.

It was mid-afternoon, and he had been subsisting on the ration bars that had been restored to their cabinets. Wrappers littered what used to be a grocery bag. Morgan was in the middle of another diagnostic run. The first quick and thorough runs had gone by cleanly. The drive was operating exactly within spec. Morgan's paranoia was manifesting as persistence. Besides, it would only be prudent to check it again. The test sequence was queued up again. The hyperdrive hummed quietly to life. Dimly, Morgan felt a hand on his back.

[Rhianna]

Giving his shoulder blade a little caress, Rhianna scolded gently. "It is way past time for you to take a break."

She was not immune to the tension in the air. Not at all, in fact she was very aware of why he was moving with such a sense of urgency. Although she had not been able to successfully meditate on what was coming, she sensed that there was something in the near future that was going to place their little group into some manner of peril.

But that was no reason for him to work himself into an exhausted frenzy! Morgan needed to take a break and she intended to see that he did.

"Let's go get something to eat that does not come in a wrapper..", she suggested. Although she was not going to complain about ration bars when that was what they were down to for sustenance, Rhianna had grown up on fresh foods.

The processed and packaged variety were to be choked down with some effort..

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan initially recoiled slightly at the touch. He was high strung at the moment, but quickly relaxed after a breath.

"Yeah, you're right." Morgan stood slowly, since he had been sitting for hours. He was a little stiff. He lifted his arms, arched his back, and turned around. Rhianna was dressed in pants and blouse instead of her normal dress. It hugged her lithe body, but she looked a little uncomfortable in it. The garments were still foreign to her. Morgan didn't say anything, but smiled a little. His hands had other ideas, but he kept them in check. Rhi's long legs and shapely hips were well represented. The medium brown pants and pale green blouse contrasted spectacularly against her red hair.

"You said something about, ah, "lunch menus." Rhianna air quoted, and pronounced the phrase a little unusually. "I found a place." She smiled. Rhianna had learned a great deal in the last year. A large part of Morgan's brain wasn't interested in lunch menus, but enough of it was.

"Fantastic." He replied, and grinned. "Lead the way."

[Rhianna]

Totally pleased with herself that she had succeeded in luring Morgan away from Serenity for a little while, Rhianna gave him a sunny smile and did as instructed.

"It's not far actually. It says they are a 'round the chrono' place, whatever that means.. I just want soup.. I'm not interested in being there for a whole day..", she was babbling cheerfully. Little things seemed to go right over her head. She took most things quite literally which often made for some humorous mistakes.

It would be nice to get out for a while. Just the two of them. It wasn't that she was necessarily avoiding being alone with Morgan.. It was just easier to keep her mind off him and on the situation at hand if they had others with them. Lunch seemed a harmless enough activity however, and she was rather hungry.

The walk didn't take long. "There it is!", Rhianna pointed upward and across. One level up from them boasted a brightly lit sign:

Gorandah's Eats - Open Round The 'Chrono!

"Looks good?", she asked him with a hopeful expression.

[Morgan Evanar]

"Yes." Morgan replied, dazed. He hadn't realized how hungry he had been, and now it came to the fore. His mouth salivated. His eyes dilated. It smelled like typical but well executed diner fair fit for most galactic species. A slightly overweight Twi-Lek female in a mid-length skirt, short sleeved blouse stood behind the hostess' podium and popped a big pink pink bubble before Morgan and Rhianna got there.

"Welcome to Gorandah's. I'm Jae. How many?" She asked. Chew chew snap-pop.

"Two." Rhianna said, and held a pair of fingers aloft, which slightly obscured her smile. Morgan smiled a little, too.

"Right this way." Jae said with a slight twang. She ended the sentence with another pop of a gum bubble.

They sat at a two person table. The chairs were somewhat lousy, but Morgan didn't care, and neither did Rhianna, who seemed to be pleased that she had pulled Morgan away from Serenity. Morgan handed Rhianna a menu from behind the spice shakers, and plucked one for himself. It folded out, and only took Morgan thirty seconds to read. Rhianna chewed her lower lip as she both decided what she wanted and worked her way through the menu.

[Rhianna]

There was absolutely no way she felt like trying to decipher all the text on the menu right now. She'd learned a lot of it, and could muddle through the menu if she had to, especially with Morgan to help her, but today it was not necessary. She was a girl on a mission. Her blue gaze settled on a picture of a steamy bread bowl of chunky soup and her stomach turned over in a noisy demand.

"I want that..", she laid claim to the featured soup, giving her order for that and a glass of milk to the server droid who had rolled over to take their lunch order.

Morgan placed his meal order too, and they both settled in comfortably to wait. Rhianna found that time and again her eyes were drawn almost magnetically to his..

"Thank you for coming with me..", she smiled, resting her cheek on her hand, her elbow braced on the table before her.

[Morgan Evanar]

"Yeah." Morgan managed, his focus mainly on his stomach. He mostly had bantha burger on the mind. "It was a really good idea." He wondered what Rhi was thinking about for a blink, and then it was back to food. Fooooooood.

"So... what did you do these past few weeks?" He asked. He'd spent much of the week to or from Ord Mantell. It was weird: he lived next door to her but they'd been so distant since coming to Cloud City.

[Rhianna]

"Well, I spent a lot of time on my own, in the room. I have been trying to put together some of what I had started learning as a child, with what I have learned since Serena saved me. I do not want to lose my past..", she explained quietly.

"In a way, the wind on Vortex inspired me..", she smiled, toying with the straw in her drink.

"I missed you when you were gone.", she admitted. Rhianna was just not going to get any better at trying to pretend away attachment.

[Morgan Evanar]

"Me too." Morgan said. "I'm a lot more comfortable here than on Vortex." he admitted.

"I know," Rhianna smiled, "much more in your element."

"I guess so. Vortex was so... flat." He explained. Rhianna laughed.

"Compared to this, yes!" she added, which got a smile out of Morgan.

"They have tours of the city that take about twenty minutes. You want to do that later? I mean, we've been here for several weeks and barely seen any of it."

"That sounds fun." Rhianna nodded.

The food showed up a minute later. The toppings on the bantha meat were fresh enough. Morgan took a bite and closed his eyes. Right thing at the right time.

"Mmmmm." He managed slowly. Rhi grinned through the spoonful of soup. Morgan was funny to her. It was so rare that someone was as engaged in food as he was. He took another bite, still lost in his food void. Morgan was nearly finished when he set the burger down, and stuck a pinky tip in the soup.

"Not bad."

A darkly dressed human male and a Gran entered the diner. The human pulled the dark stocking on his head down.

"Allright! This is a robbery!" He yelled. Most of the diner turned and looked, including Morgan and Rhianna. Jae put her hands in the air slowly.

"Put all your valuables in the bag!" The Gran produced a DL-44 blaster pistol from his jacket, and waived it menacingly as he followed the human collecting wallets.

"Fast now! We're on a schedule." The Gran grunted in agreement, pointing the blaster more directly. The wallets came out faster, but shakier. The jewelery and earings came off with more trembling and tears.

"What do we do?" Rhi whispered. Morgan only shook his head. He stared into the window outside, eyes distant while she looked more troubled. He gripped the edge of the small yet sturdy table with both hands

The pair of robbers arrived at their table. The Gran pointed the blaster at Morgan.

"Valuables!"

"Yeah... okay." Morgan said quietly, distantly. This robber was becoming twitchier by the moment. Morgan's right hand unglued itself from the table and headed for his wallet.

Time slowed.

Down! He thought at Rhianna as strongly as he could. Her body began to sink. Morgan lifted up with his left hand. He leaned against the back of the chair and pushed off the floor hard. The Gran was not expecting anything, much less a heavy table rising into the air. By the time he got a shot off, it was into the tilted table top. Rhianna was halfway to the floor. Morgan kicked out again, his feet connecting with the single column that supported the table. The table sped forward. Morgan tucked his chin in, and lifted his feet up. Rhianna was crouched, completely clear of the now-airborne table. The table impacted the Gran's gun-arm first, then the body and propelled him into a securely anchored bar top. Morgan was nearly rolled into a crouch when Rhianna struck, her leg lanced out into the human's knee. A painful crunch and pop came to the fore.

[Rhianna]

Rhianna's blue eyes widened a bit at what she had just done. It had been purely instinctual. In fact it seemed that she was still running on the same senses. Slowly her shocked gaze pivoted to Morgan, like she would see some kind of plan of action there in his face. Of course, it was not that easy. Looking away, she knew they were on their own this time.

She found herself rising swiftly to her feet, her hands loosely curled at her sides. Rhianna watched the Gran. If his gun arm so much as twitched, she was prepared to upend the contents of a stimcaf' pot over his head. It was probably not classified as proper use of the Force, but she would deal with that later.

The human male, had dropped to his good knee. His injured leg was held at a useless and unnatural angle. He was wasn't screaming, but the angry, near guttural order that came from between his clenched teeth, spoke of the pain he was in.

"Get them...", he spat.

It was bad.

She muttered quietly. "Damnú!.." It was a word Morgan had never heard from her before. It was not considered polite, and she had not yet taught him any of her language's 'bad words'.

The Gran moved. Rhianna moved. Her right hand lifted from her side, twisting from palm up, to palm down. The Gran suddenly found his stalky three eyes bathed in a steady stream of Jae's 'just brewed' blend. As he tried to cover his bare, burning face, the human made another bad move. She saw him out of the corner of her eye. Her hand moved in a small gesture, sliding to one side. The now empty serving carafe for the stim flew straight into the human's head with a little crash.

Sidestepping the felled plates form their meal, and the flailing arms of diner patrons just trying to get out of the way and keep their heads down, she made her way to Morgan's side.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan scooped up the blaster thanks to Rhianna's distraction. The pair of robbers still clawed at their scalding faces. Comfortable with a blaster, he flipped the weapon to stun. He shot the Gran first. The blue wave of energy dissipated, rendering the robber unconscious. Morgan then stunned the other robber.

"Jeez." He said, and sighed. He shook his arms some in an attempt to relieve some of the attention and let go of the adrenaline. He took a deep breath, and looked over a Rhianna. She was fine, barring an adrenaline high. She looked at him, eyes wide and dilated.

"Jae, you should call the police." Morgan called to the counter.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Jae said, and began to rise. Her eyes went wide, and she ducked back down. Morgan and Rhianna looked over at the door. Two more thugs were coming, both armed.

"Run!" Morgan said. Rhianna bolted for the back door, and Morgan followed. The thugs had the door open, and shot at the running pair. Morgan ducked his head down, and a bolt of red flashed over as he rounded a corner. Rhianna had a good head start, and managed to get the door open. Their pursuers only saw a glimpse of Morgan as the door slammed shut.

"Damn it!" One of the thugs growled, and shot the door in anger.

"J and F are screwed, lets get the speeder. Bastards." The other said.

"Listen up you listless, spineless sub-sentient refuse! Don't move, or do anything except breathe." The first thug came back into the diner proper, blaster held high, pointed at the ceiling. He walked to the stunned robbers.

"Any one of you screw that up, I will shoot you." He then turned and shot the robbers, twice each.

"I shoot screw-ups." He growled. The room was dead silent except for the second conscious thug.

"L, get the bag." L scrambled, and pulled the bag full of valuables free, and headed for the door.

The first thug followed after. A scream of repulsors could be heard as the black speeder took off.

"L, I think a bit of revenge is in order. Swing round back and see if we can't find those two."

Morgan and Rhianna had just stopped running at the mouth of the alley.

"I think we are fine." She said between breaths, hands on her hips. She didn't look winded in the least from the short run.

"Yeah." Morgan said, his breath barely sped up. He slid the power pack out of the blaster, and smashed the weapon against the wall, top of the barrel first. It popped into pieces. The barrel seperated from the focusing array, and the focusing array came off the handle.

"We should put off that sky tour for another time." Morgan said.

"That is a smart idea." Rhianna agreed. They walked onto the small side street together, back towards the street that would take them past the diner.

Morgan paused. He could hear a speeder, and it was coming around the corner.

[Rhianna]

Wide-eyed, Rhianna reached out, grabbing a fistful of Morgan's sleeve. She tugged back on him, as hard as she could. Even as she did so, the wall before them was singed and there was the unmistakable sound of a blaster shot.

"Go back!", she cried! The front of the speeder was coming into view.

Pivoting on her toes, she moved fast, sprinting back the way they had come, past the diner's back door. She kept low and quickly ducked behind cover. There wasn't much..

This was Morgan's kind of turf. He would be better at navigating them through the floating city-ship. "What do we do..?", she asked quickly, her eyes were scanning around for anything that could help them.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan ducked behind the same small pile of refuse as Rhianna. He looked around, and noticed the striped caution lines around them, and the big red button and lever on the side of the diner.

"Down." Morgan said over the blaster fire.

"What?" Rhianna exclaimed, half confused, half panicked. They were running out of cover and time. Morgan, low to the ground, sprung at the controls. He yanked the heavy switch upward, and mashed the button. A blaster bolt singed the wall next to him, missing only by a hair. He reflexively ducked down.

"Morgan what are..." there was a loud electrical buzz, and the door swung free. For an instant, Rhi seemed to hang in the air. Gravity grabbed her, and Morgan dove after her. Blaster bolts splashed the ground. The panel flipped back up.

"Those dumb bastards." L said. "If they survive that... well, just call the Uggos and promise fifty creds."

[Rhianna]

Although she could not quite contain the squeak of surprise, Rhianna managed not to scream as the ground beneath her suddenly disappeared. Morgan had quite literally meant down. Suddenly, she found herself sliding down some sort of chute, the walls of which were covered with.. Rhianna dared not contemplate the questionable moisture she was sliding through, but it did not smell good.

As she was swung roughly around a corner into a somewhat larger, and far less clean tunnel Rhianna tipped her head back to see that Morgan was sliding along behind her. It seemed they had managed to escape by way of the city-ship's garbage system. Other things began to descend with them. Pieces of scrap metal. Dirty, carbon covered bits from ships that had been cast off and also, what appeared to be a crate of eggs that had spoiled before they could be served at one of the local restaurants.

With her face puckered in sheer distaste at their situation, she almost missed the next surprise. The tunnel ended ahead. Several other chutes like the one they were in converged ahead, then dropped out of sight into the air. As she slid over the edge, she did scream..

All the way down, until she landed in an inglorious heap atop a mountain of garbage, like she was the queen of it all.. "Oooommppht..", Steadying herself, she rolled out of the way even as Morgan came down behind her.

"This...", she announced, with little humor, "..is déistineach.."

[Morgan Evanar]

Falling in an arced trajectory was familiar to Morgan. Being chased across Nar Shadda's rooftops had been part of life. He pulled his knees up and twisted his body in the air so that he would land feet-first. He extended his legs, knees bent to brace for the impact. Instead, he landed and sunk in to his thighs.

Oomph. Was all he said, and the sensation of something slimly and rotten crept down his leg. He cringed. The entire room was illuminated by a single red status light. There wasn't much reason to make it bright, since it was garbage. Cloud City probably had a thousand such installations below the streets and buildings. Morgan blinked, and his eyes rapidly adjusted to the poor light.

"Yeah. It's better than blaster bolts." He said, pulling his now reeking, slimed legs from the trash.

"By very little." Rhianna said. The pair made their way to the edge, and pulled themselves up to the access walkway. They stood for a moment. Rhianna's face was a mix of relief and displeasure.

"This is not how I wanted to tour Cloud City." Rhianna said. She leaned against the wall, and drew in a breath through her mouth. Morgan looked at the only exit, and gave the recessed handle a tug. It barely moved. He frowned, and then put his ear to the door. Morgan tugged on the handle again. He didn't hear a locking mechanism, just simple metal against metal. Probably a padlock or combination lock. There wasn't a need for expensive or complicated security. Who would want to wander through garbage?

"It's locked. Probably just a padlock or combination lock." He announced.

[Rhianna]

As he had done, Rhianna too put her ear to the door, which only succeeded in making the side of her face feel as icky as the rest of her. Pushing away, she knocked on the door with her knuckles, rapping against the ringing metal like she half expected someone to graciously open it for them and speed them on their way.

Nothing..

She looked to Morgan. "Tell me you know how to open this?"

[Morgan Evanar]

"Well, uhm." Morgan said, and leaned against the door again. That was a good question. He'd probably twist the handle off before he broke the lock. The handle didn't exactly have to be made of high-grade metal.

"No." He admitted a minute later. Rhianna closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Now we are stuck."

"Yeah. Maybe." He sighed. "At least we're not being shot at." Rhianna rolled her eyes and leaned against the wall.

"Why didn't you just blink us away. Or whatever that is."

"I'm not sure I'd put us in a safe place. I guess we could..." Morgan blinked. "I've got an idea."

"Will this idea open the door?" Rhianna asked.

"It should." Morgan said. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. The door was there in front of him. He focused on it. Morgan could see the layers of metal, with the cheap duracrete fill in the middle. He could see the socket for the handle, and the simple latch that held it shut. He could see the lock, and the simple strip of metal with a hole in it that held the door handle fast on both sides. All he needed to do was move the lock here. Morgan could see the big combination lock now, with it's mechanical tumblers. He could feel it's mass and heft.

A barely audible pop echoched softly. The lock then fell onto Morgan's left foot.

"Ow." He winced.

[Rhianna]

"Oh! Will you live?", she asked in teasing concern, knowing he was fine.

Pulling the door open, she waited before passing through. Stretching out with her senses, Rhianna tried to see if there was any other life to be detected down here amongst the garbage. Feeling no one in the immediate vicinity, she proceeded through the door into a dim corridor, lit by a slowly flashing yellow light.

As they walked she tried in vain to find a clean place on her clothing to wipe her hands. "That was good thinking, Morgan. I sometimes forget that all things are connected, not just things that actually live."

Her point was proven a moment later as she was surprised to round a corner and come face to metallic face with a protocol droid. Indeed, these mostly sentient machines had taken some getting used to.

"Ahh! Hello.", she smiled.

"You aren't supposed to be down here.", said the female sounding voice of the droid.

"Yes, sorry. We're a bit lost.", Rhianna grinned over at Morgan. "Might you point us in the right direction, Miss..?"

"Miss? Oh, my goodness! Are you referring to me?", the droid sounded shocked. "I've never been called 'Miss' before. I am LE-3PO, where is it you would like to be?"

Rhianna, clearly capable of charming even protocol droids, smiled. "We would like to find a 'lift back up to level 135, if possible, Ellie?"

[Morgan Evanar]

It wasn't just a protocol droid. It was a strange amalgamation of a protocol droid, a sentry droid, and some cheap astromech parts. It didn't seem to be armed, which is what Morgan was initially concerned about.

"We need to go up." Morgan added. He was suspicious of the droid and it's hastily-assembled nature. He wondered how much of the sentry programming was still intact.

"State the nature of your arrival." Ellie replied.

"We fell." Rhi said, a little taken aback.

"I will escort you from the premises." Ellie stated. Rhi looked back at Morgan and he shrugged.

"Thank you." Morgan said. The pair followed the droid through a series of corridors, all dim, and barely lit. There wasn't much debris on the floor, and the corridors were wide enough for easy access of equipment, which made stumbling the dark more forgiving. They arrived at a lift after three minutes of walking. The droid socketed into a control panel and opened the door to a cargo elevator.

"Please boards the repulsorlift."

"Okay." Rhianna said. Morgan followed closely, a single hand on her hip. The door slid shut. The lift began to go down.

"Crap."

[Rhianna]

"Agreed..", Rhianna seconded with a little nod. "Crap."

Backing to the side of the lift, she leaned against the wall. "I don't suppose that Ellie made a technical error?"

The way their day was turning out, something like a simple technical error sounded too tame. "I have a bad feeling..", she admitted.

Her feelings were not only troubled for the two of them, there was something more. She was of the opinion that they were not the only ones in trouble at the moment.

The lift plummeted down deeper into the city. The noise and hum of constantly running machinery grew closer as they suddenly slowed to a stop...

[Morgan Evanar]

Above them, the droid jacked into this lift's control module, leaving specific instructions regarding mass and control lockout. The lift was accelerated at a frightening pace. Morgan could feel gravity's hold weaken on him. Rhi's eyes were wide, concerned.

"It might stop very..." he began when the lift halted, throwing the pair onto the floor.

"...suddenly." He stood, and helped Rhianna to her feet. The door opened, and they were blasted by wind. Not cold, not warm, but at least a hundred kilometer winds. Rhianna pushed the door controls, but they didn't respond.

"Morgan, the door does not work!" She called over the wind. He looked at the button she mashed, and it was the correct one.

"Let me check something." He called back. Rhianna moved aside. Morgan tried various buttons, but the lift simply refused to respond.

"Don't tell me it's remote admin'd." He muttered. He balled his fist and punched the panel next to the controls. It crumpled slightly, and Morgan bent the access panel away. It was, of course, remotely administered. The lift asked permission to do things instead of simply doing them. It made for a more efficient system, unless it was hijacked by a service droid.

Morgan stepped out into the gale and looked around. They were on one of the older gas platforms. Cloud City would suck up the cloud of Tibanna around it, and then send it up to be carbonite frozen. Massive empty tanks and bladders littered the platform. Everything was weathered and beaten.

Rhianna stepped out of the lift. The door shut behind immediately, and the motors whined to life once again. Morgan and Rhianna watched it leave through squinting eyes.

"That droid was no good." Rhianna huffed, and said something not as nice in her native tongue about it's programmer.

Below them was a massive funnel, used to collect trace gases from the prevailing winds. Rhianna carefully walked to the edge, crouched down, and looked over. She reached out. She could feel the wind ripple and twist. She knew it's intensity. Morgan, meanwhile, had pried open the controls to the lift, and found it just as dismal as the set in the lift itself. Rhianna backed away from the edge and stood carefully. Force sensitive or no, the wind could rip someone right off their feet.

"Any good?" She asked after a quick glance at the panel.

"Nope." Morgan said. He didn't have the equipment on him to fool the droid and the computer. He might be able to do one or the other, but it would probably take hours, maybe days.

"I have an idea." Rhianna announced.