Thorn: Double-dutch

[Salem Ave]

Within the magicians cell, he had sat for hour upon hour. The events which had transpired a day ago on Coruscant (http://www.swforums.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12812) had brought a mood upon him, one that caused him to retreat into his books. Salem had made his way into the library and rifled through tome after tome to find more information on this 'Thorn' and the person named 'Mask', whom had been brought into the scene back at Jen's apartment. So far, he had located nothing on both topics, so had decided to search elsewhere.

Transport hopping back to TSE, he found himself in the Empire's own library of information. After an hours looking still not fruit to bare for his labouring, and Salem was growing irrated. It was at this point that he uncovered a small and fairly vague document on a group named the 'Nightstalkers'. The file briefly detailed the groups goals, which Salem read to himself:

1) Conquest of the trade routes in the galaxies, ergo monopolization of virtually every market.
2) Destroying the Jedi and eventually the Sith also, so that they can seize total control.

A soft growl passed his lips as he tossed the file aside, getting up to his feet. He needed to get out and start roving the galaxy for this character who had threatened his friend (and also the aims of the Empire, as the bio stated). Unfortunately, the technical knowledge which the Sith Disciple possessed could be written on the back of a stamp - hence he went in search of one who he knew had a craft ...

... and found himself at Lana's door.

[Lana Westbrooke]

She opened her eyes at the feeling of a dark presence that drew nearer to her dorm. Standing, Lana proceeded to her entrance and withdrew the door open, looking upon an acquaintance of hers, Salem Ave. Her lips slowly curled into a small smirk as she opened the door wider and stepped back to offer him inside.

"...To what do I owe this pleasure, Mr. Ave?"

[Salem Ave]

"I come with a requessst."

Salem took one step inside, but moved no further. He was a man of few emotions, yet at this moment his eyes showed a hint of the repressed rage he was feeling.

"If you arrre frrree, I have sss-omething I need yourrr help with."

[Lana Westbrooke]

"Ha... Look at me, sitting in here alone, on a weekend... What else could I possibly be doing...?"

Sarcasm graced the Disciple's voice as she walked towards her bed and shut her thick volume and placed it back onto her shelf, and again, Lana turned to face Salem with a soft smile. Crossing her arms over her chest, she slouched in her usual pose and continued:

"...What can I do you for?"

[Salem Ave]

"I need to know how to fly," he said bluntly, watching her with ever-ebony eyes.

[Lana Westbrooke]

"To fly... Wow, you're asking me for flying lessons?"

Lana broke into a soft laughter and proceeded past Salem swiftly, heading towards the Shipyards.

"...We don't have a second to waste, boy. Don't forget to close my door behind you...!"

[Salem Ave]

He turned slowly on one heel and followed in her wake. The cheery air that surrounded Lana would, on a normal occasion, have made Salem feel uncomfortable - but today he was in such a bitter way that he failed to notice it at all. Reaching the shipyards took no time at all, and within a few minutes walk they reached the entrance into the first high roofed hangar. Salem remained silent as he walked, burning inside.

[Lana Westbrooke]

She paced over to her pride, Dark Apocalypse, and stopped to gaze at it before continuing. She pressed a button upon her belt, and the ramp leading to the interior of her ship opened.

"...This is my ship, 'Dark Apocalypse.' Come."

Lana walked up the ramp, and upon entering the ship, she turned and waited on Salem to follow behind.

[Salem Ave]

The Dark Apocalypse - he observed it from afar at first, then climbed the ramp as instructed. It was much like many other ships he had seen on the short trek here, though undoubtably it held some form of sentimental value for Value. With a name like Dark Apocalypse one would expect a catatonic warship ... alas.

A slight laugh escaped his lips as Salem's mind processed his thoughts.

"Verrry nice sss-hip," he hissed, running his palm down over the surface of the wall to his right.

"What type isss it?"

[Lana Westbrooke]

"It's a YT-2400... Nice, huh?"

Lana grinned and turned again, nearing the front of the ship, towards the main controls in the cockpit with Salem trailing behind. She gestured to the controls and turned to him.

"The cockpit, the main controls... Pretty basic, so far. Here, sit over there and we can begin the lessons."

She motioned to the seat to the right, beside the one she decided to sit in herself.

[Salem Ave]

Like a shadow, he slipped down into the base of the seat, with seemingly now movement between standing and sitting. He traced his hands forward over the arm rests of the chair, eyes scanning the dash of controls before him.

"I'm rrr-eady," he said, hands itching to touch the array of buttons.

[Lana Westbrooke]

She looked over and him and laughed quietly again.

"...Calm down, we'll get started in a minute. Alright, now..."

Her eyes looked upon the control board as her fingers pointed to a few of the buttons that had to do with the starting of her ship.

"You press these buttons first in this order."

Her fingers lightly padded over the buttons in perfect coordination before she looked over at him again.

"You try. There's a set of the same buttons on your side."

[Salem Ave]

One hand shot out and ran over the series of button in perfect order, with a slighty speed. Then retreating the hand, Salem awaited instruction, looking around expectantly.

[Lana Westbrooke]

"Great! It's like you're a pro at this already, sheesh... Now..."

She pointed to a few switches above her head on another board.

"You flip these to get the engines started. And then..."

Lana looked over the controls again and placed her hand on the middle lever in the propsed series of five. She continued:

"...You pull this down half way, then pull the one to the right just the same. That will ready the ship for take-off. Ready to try?"

[Salem Ave]

"Yesss,"

Nodding, he began to mimic Lana's movements. At first he reached upwards, without looking, and flicked the few ignition switches forward. A rush of noise could be heard somewhere within the ship, as the engines slowly began to warm up. He then moved onto the middle lever, dragging it backwards to the hallway mark. Finally he passed his hand over to the right, and yanked down the second lever. There was a great tremble in the ship as the engines kicked in fully...

[Lana Westbrooke]

"Wonderful."

She grinned over to her 'apprentice' in flying and nodded slightly to the keypad.

"That there registers to the prompter. I'm a novice to flying myself, that's why I have a slave-service to do it for me. Type in commands, then enter them with this button."

Again, her finger reached over to point at a button that rested beside the prompter, set in the middle of the controlboard.

"...Just experiment with that a bit, you know, to get the feel of things."

[Salem Ave]

With a rat-tat-tat he drummed his fingers once again over the top of the counter, pressing buttons and knocking switches in a frantic fashion. As a result, the ship jerked a bout a bit then pushed forward at incredible speed - thrusting into hypersace. Salem's face became painted with a look of horror.

[Lana Westbrooke]

Unlike her accomplice, Lana's eyes sparkled at Salem's accomplishment.

"...Good! You now know how to enter hyperspace. Keep trying things out..."

Her eyes scanned the prompter a moment, reading it's message of:

Destination.....: co-ordinates?_

"Any place in particular you'd like to go?"

[Salem Ave]

He didn't know many names of planets, however he recalled the one where Jen currently lived as the name seemed to roll off the tongue.

"Corrrusss-cant?"

[Lana Westbrooke]

"Alright. So you take your destination... Add in the co-ordinates..."

While she was instructing Salem, she took charge and started adding the co-ordinates of Corusant into the keypad.

"--And voila!"

She looked over to Salem and smiled, allowing for her ship to take them to the appropriate destination.

"Do you have any questions, thusfar?"

[Salem Ave]

"No, misss."

Salem watched the screens infront of him with fleeting eyes as his gaze darted from monitor to monitor.

"How long will it be beforrre we exit to Corrr-uscant?"