Across the Stars (Draiya, Morgan)

[Ndonsa]

To almost anyone in the galaxy, the flight from Ossus to Jovan Station would be considered mundane.

Ndonsa was not new to flying through the stars, the whorls of hyperspace folding around the ship as it moved, but she had not been off of the planet Ossus for over a year. Sometimes her time there felt much, much longer (https://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?55442-The-Repeating-Day-10-138). The weeks she had spent with Evil Dirk were further and further in the past, and this now, this was new. Her first trip off world as a Jedi Padawan.

The Kufu's tail twitched uncomfortably as she walked off the ship onto what the other padawan, Draiya, had said was a space station. Not another planet at all, more like a giant space ship that did not fly. She did not wish to spend time with the young female human, but Anbira had told her to go with Draiya and the Knight Evanar on this mission. It was a simple information gathering trip, one that did not need three Jedi, but the Council was eager to get their older students out into the galaxy, and so they were now on Jovan Station.

Her ears laid back at the amount of life that surged around the wide hallway they found themselves in. Shops with bright colorful lights, aliens of every hue, all speaking at once... Ndonsa nearly turned around and got back onto the ship. It was too much after the quiet of Ossus.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Home.

It was a feeling that was slippery and hard to define. One that Draiya had never been able to put into words. All of the love and loathing that went into her complicated relationship with being a subject of the Cizerack Pride, it all came back to Padawan Naaiyaneya the moment those airlock doors slid open. Dozens of languages and twice as many dialects filled the air, mingling with the sweet notes of perfume and fresh blood. The bold earthiness of a thousand spices nearly hid the acrid stink of fresh manure, hastily tidied away so that it's offense was fleeting. There was the pepper-and-grass smell of fresh jeeta, thick green leaves hung in boughs from atop merchant stalls.

The Padawan watched the crush of sentient life passing before them at the opening of the concourse. The Pride Marines in their garish liveries never failed to draw notice. The ladies of commerce in their silks. Equal numbers of humans and other aliens interspersed between to create a gumbo of mixing culture. And to seal it even further, Draiya could hear from one of the balconies the wailing harmony of a pair of kiisau players, offering a gift of music to all for a pittance of a few credits.

This was Syragor. It was a thing that happened, unconquered no matter how many times the Pride might try and diminish it. All of the good and the bad, freely trading amongst itself. The only thing missing was the poverty and occasional squalor. Draiya resisted the temptation to shut her eyes to the world and experience the full of the thing with second sight. She knew she could easily lose herself if given the chance.

A moment of red-furred hesitation caught Draiya's attention, thankfully. It appeared that Ndonsa was less than enamored with the experience.

"Arre you okay, Ndonsa?"

If Draiya was affected, how much was the shaman going to feel? Had she even seen anything resembling civilization prior to arriving at Sanctuary? Hopefully she didn't plan on trying to read the bones out of a rubbish bin.

[Morgan Evanar]

Ndonsa seemed to hit stimulus overload. The bushy tailed padawan had almost frozen up, while Draiya seemed to be on a wave of nostalgia. Morgan knew then his work was cut out for him.

"Ndonsa, follow me." He needed to get her somewhere quiet as possible so she could find her center. He knew Jovan well enough to know where one of the quieter spots was the Alliance fighter hangar. To the Padawan's credit, she simply followed in the wake left by two meters of Jedi Knight. While not a mentalist by any stretch, Morgan had learned long ago that if you projected enough intent into a crowd and were big enough, it tended to part. They just needed to get to the nearest lift when they hit a crowd wall. He turned his lanky frame sideways and continued the press. An errant hand went for his big blaster pistol in the half-zipped spacer jacket. He grabbed and twisted until he heard a gasp, and then he applied a bit of extra force until he heard the pop of a dislocated, maybe broken wrist. Morgan heard an anguished cry, but didn't look back. He'd let the Jovan authorities know to be on the lookout for someone with a minor to major wrist injury.

He shifted his focus to the two Padawans, and could feel their distinct shapes still following him. Good. They were almost to the lift.

[Ndonsa]

She had followed Knight Evanar when instructed, trying to relax while the scents and sounds of the station pressed in around her. She had left her spear on the ship - having been told that it was not appropriate weaponry to bring aboard Jovan Station - and she felt unbalanced without its familiar weight. There were many Cizerack on board, many i the red uniforms they loved so much, but also ones who were not part of the military who ran the station. Civillians, they would be called.

Her ears laid back again as the crowd pressed in near the turbolifts, Knight Evanar injuring one who got too close to his blaster. She did not look at the person who had tried to rob the Jedi as she passed him. He had gotten what he deserved, if not less. Morgan - he had asked them to call him Morgan - bade a door open, and it slid aside, revealing a tiny closet. He motioned for her and Draiya to enter as he held off others who wished to crowd inside, and she obeyed. The Kufu looked around curiously at the small space.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya kept a keen eye on the man who'd tried to accost Master Evanar. He'd handled the situation with an equal amount of discretion and force, and Draiya would've been surprised at how easily it went unnoticed, save for her time back home. Little crimes came and went with disturbing frequency in large crowds.

In the lift, the Syragori turned an amused eye to the Kufu, who gawked at the marvels of a turbolift with her dinner-plate eyes. There were going to be an awful lot of these sort of moments, weren't there?

"It's a turrbolift." Draiya said, doubtful even as she spoke that the word would actually mean anything to the shaman. "They carrry you up and down, mostly."

[Morgan Evanar]

The lift opened up after another twenty seconds of transit. About a third of the station's supplies were housed here, and the outer bays were for cargo transfer. It was closely monitored and patrolled by station personnel, but it was nowhere near the press of sentience that was the main deck.

"It can take a while to get used to the press of a crowd." He didn't know Ndonsa well enough, but she seemed much more attuned to the Living Force.

"Most of this deck is storage." He explained. "Not a bad place for a quiet walk."

As a former member of The Wheel, he held the Alliance rank of Lieutenant, and probably could get access to an empty warehouse. He'd prefer if it didn't come to that, but he didn't know if Ndonsa was agoraphobic or simply overwhelmed.

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa turned around awkwardly in the tiny room as the doors opened behind her, the tip of her tail flicking back and forth as she prowled out into a completely different space. She could feel Draiya staring at her, and kept her surprise hidden. A turbolift - instead of stairs. She knew of these things, but seeing them was a new experience. The new experiences that Master Anbira wanted her to have.

The area was certainly quiet - the three Jedi seemed to be the only people around. Ndonsa nodded to Master Evanar, and then as they continued along a wide hallway designed for droid-lifters she began to realize that they had no real purpose for being there.

Draiya was still watching her, as if the girl thought she might explode. Ndonsa felt ashamed at her behavior when they had first arrived. Now the others were treating her as an infant who needed swaddling, and their Jedi duties were being neglected. Her inner ears flushed, and she stopped walking. "Do we have a purpose here, Jedi Evanar?"

She would not admit she had been overwhelmed, but... the shaman would 'swallow her pride' as Master Anbira would say. "To get used to a crowd I must be in one." She would do better.

Ndonsa studiously did not look at Draiya, who was probably laughing at her.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"A quiet walk?"

Draiya held a skeptical look as Master Evanar's tactic. Her brows knit, but eventually the Syragori just shrugged and fell into step alongside the Kufu. Ndonsa's admission elicited a nod of her head, and the dark-haired youngster looked back to their chaperone.

"Masterr, you werre a little vague about what the mission was. Arre we looking forr something? Someone?"

It would make sense, to her at least. Draiya's sense of living energy was growing stronger by the day, and Ndonsa was a good hunter too (as long as she didn't literally hunt a sentient on a space station...with a spear).

[Morgan Evanar]

"Both." Morgan's answer was direct. His search for peace and quiet had started sooner than he wanted, but now he could explain what they were doing on Jovan.

"Remember Velmor? I think that was part of a series of test runs. They hit Jabiim too, but they made an effort to make it look like someone was using the Force." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small what looked to be a glove in a clear plastic bag, and a pile of parts.

"Tractor beam projector, but miniaturized. Feed it the right field and even I could look like I'm doing telekinesis reliably. Anyway. I made a list of parts, and I only know about half of them. We're here to find out what they are, and maybe where you can get them."

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa viewed the mechanical items Knight Evanar displayed. They were to identify and locate them on the space station. She looked at the tall Jedi, and back to the parts. "I will be no help with this."

She stood back, letting Draiya take a closer look.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

They weren't much better utilized by the Syragori girl, who looked at the components with a bit of uncomprehending glaze in her expression.

"This looks rreally complicated." She handed the evidence bag back to Morgan, a look of trepidation on her face that quickly swallowed down into something more steadfast. Draiya squared her shoulders, throwing an arm around Ndonsa's own in a sign of solidarity.

"But we can definitely worrk a beat together." The latchkey padawan smirked, suddenly recalling the badly-subtitled police procedural holos of her youth.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan chuckled at Draiya's use of "work a beat."

"It is complicated. Whoever did this is on the cutting edge of tractor projector design." He said with a hint of appreciation. Good engineering was good engineering.

Their protests were noted.

"Both of you have a much stronger connection to the Living Force than I do. Both of you can effortlessly pick out details that won't be obvious to me. And you both think differently. Master Laran hinted that you might need some time in crowds, Ndonsa." And that Morgan needed to spend more time with his fellow Jedi.

Jovan had turned into something of a defacto hub for certain types of cargo, especially components. When the Alliance and Empire had carved up the galaxy, many smaller vendors were left without home markets. The paperwork was nightmarish but while supply lines rebuilt internally, many of the manufacturers needed the existing market to survive. The import and export of these unique parts were incredibly closely scrutinized by both governments, but both knew that without them, some critical devices would not exist in a meaningful fashion for long.

Pirates knew this. They plied Jovan's trade routes for unlucky ships with valuable goods. And there was a smuggling market for them, too.

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa shrugged off Draiya's arm, the sound of her many necklaces sliding against each other loud in the empty space. She would not be working a beating on anyone with her, and even Knight Evanar seemed to find the idea amusing. Ndonsa did not like being made fun of.

"I could throw the bones," she said, sure that the Jedi would refuse. Ndonsa patted the leather pouch of knuckle bones that she always wore on her belt. They had often helped her see what the future might hold.

[Morgan Evanar]

"Working a beat is police slang. It means to patrol an area." He explained, although on Nar Shadda it often came closer to the more literal meaning Ndonsa had grabbed on.

Throw the bones. Why not? This galaxy was big and weird, and doubly so when it came to those sensitive to the Force.

"Let's see what the bones say."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya suppressed the urge to blow an Oh Goddess out in a breath, taking a step back from the shaman as she crossed her arms. She'd never been able to make head or tails out of Ndonsa's peculiarity. Whether it was a crutch she leaned on or part of some kind of stagecraft that wasn't fooling anyone, the Syragori never understood what the Kufu saw in the jumble of bones she kept in that bag. Second sight only found the faintest threads of life, in the sense that yes, whatever the bones belonged to had once been alive.

But fine. Whatever. Let her throw her grody bones on the floor.

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa narrowed her eyes, unsure if the Jedi was serious or not, but the wall of unbelief she felt on her left from Draiya was enough to get her to pull the leather bag from her belt. The Kufu inclined her head toward Knight Evanar, and sat cross-legged on the metal flooring of the station. Holding the bag in one hand, she muttered under her breath, closing her eyes as she concentrated on the scrying chant.

to-see-what-was-to-see-what-is-to-see-what-will-be-to-see-what-was-to-see-what-is-to-see-what-will-be

The leather warmed in her hand as she kneaded the knuckle bones within, each carved with symbols that indicated different things. Direction. Elements. Body parts. Friend, or foe. War, peace, death, life. She had carefully carved new bones for the bag, indicating things in her new life. Ship, planet, stars. The combinations they could land in were without end, and each combination meant something else.

to-see-what-was-to-see-what-is-to-see-what-will-be

Ndonsa turned the bag over and the knuckle bones fell out, some bouncing on the deck until they came to a stop. As she opened her eyes she saw that one was balancing against Draiya's boot. "Please do not move," she warned the girl as she quickly took in the positions and symbols of the other bones in the pile.

"What we seek is near," she said after a long moment. "Our enemy in this is also near. On the station? Marketplace. A ship comes, but it will be too late." Ndonsa indicated the bone resting against Draiya's foot. "Very far, but on it's way to pick up more. There may be a connection to you," she said, looking up at the other padawan. "Perhaps from your home planet?"

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan stroked his chin in thought. He contemplated both the concept of what Ndonsa had done, and how it might be applicable. Ndonsa quietly collected her knuckle bones, while Draiya looked on in mild exasperation.

"We'll have to keep that in mind. You're from Syragor, right Draiya?" The older Jedi asked. Draiya could scarcely stop from rolling her eyes. She sighed and answered.

"Yes."

"Ready to brave the crowd again?" He asked the Kufu padawan, who straightened a moment and then nodded.

"Right. I'm not as familiar with tractor beams as I am with, well, other stuff. So I figured the next step was to ask an expert. If we can scare up one of the station engineers, they might be able to give us a better breakdown of what we're looking at." He explained while they walked back to the lift.

The rode together in silence. Morgan watched as Draiya lit up when they returned to the press of the crowd. Ndonsa steeled herself, more prepared for it's roar. They cut a path toward engineering, and the crowd thinned somewhat.

When they arrived, the sign did say "Engineering" and "Authorized Personel Only," but the door was closed. Morgan gave it a solid rap and waited.

[Gradoona Pod-Floewander]

The door slid open, and the entire archway was filled with the sight of a hulking Herglic with a soldering iron.

"C'maaan, I tooold ya to knaack it aaff with the...ooh!"

Gradoona's little eyes blinked. She let out a barely-audible whistle. Civvies. Two humans and a Nehantite, or probably a Nehantite. She reached behind, giving the back of her navy work trousers a quick upwards tug.

"If youu guys gaat a service request, praabably should put 'er aan the civilian maintenance queue. What paad are ya aan, eh?"

[Mayael Rakkamar]

"I told you there have no side effects. I need make stronger. Cannot see bones yet."

The voice came from beyond the natural roadblock that was Gradoona. The voice grew louder as it spoke, heralding the arrival of it's owner moments before she appeared at Gradoona's side; peering around the edge of the doorframe. The four-armed Codru-Ji was dressed in her Alliance uniform and tool belt, and on her face she was wearing a strange device that resembled bulky goggles with lenses that kept shifting and changing colors like a kaleidoscope. One pair of hands rested on her tool belt while the other unstrapped the device from her face and lowered it, revealing a smile on her face.

"I love you fur!" Her face only blossomed more as absolute joy cascaded from every orifice and threatened to suck her entire face into her radiant smile. "I have red fur like this when I was pup."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

At the sight of the Herglic crowding out the doorway, Draiya gawked. No matter how many times she'd seen a Herglic when traveling with her family, it always seemed to impress her. How did they travel so much and not get stuck in normal-people-sized doors. Her surprise was only diverted by the sight of a bubbly-spirited Codru-Ji woman apparently fawning over Ndonsa's hair. Draiya's side-eye ricocheted from Mayael to Ndonsa to Gradoona and finally rested on Morgan.

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa retreated from the ...person with four arms. She had never seen anything like her, or the enormous grey skinned thing in the doorway, and her tail was stiff with how uncomfortable she was with the situation. Taking a deep breath, the Kufu offered them both what she considered a polite smile, from behind Morgan.

Her paws clenched and relaxed, longing for the comfortable weight of her spear. Ndonsa took another deep breath, falling back on her meditation training. She would get through this.

[Anauri Rabeak]

"Look, but don't touch without permission, Mayael," a fatherly voice chided from behind the pair.

The thump of a heavy pair of boots closed in from within the room, accented with a mild click in each step, denoting them as magboots with their power cells currently in the off position. As the footsteps came up behind the two engineers, a pair of thick, brown-furred paws were gently placed on the women's shoulders, and guided both Mayael and Gradooa apart like a set of swinging doors.

Between them emerged a brown-furred male Nehantite with a broad frame who stood a bit over six foot. Easily twice Ndonsa's age, his muzzle had begun to go gray, and an old mechanic's cap on his head covered where his headfur was starting to thin. He appeared adorned in a standard mechanic's fare: heavy trousers with reinforced kneepads, and a tee shirt tucked into a toolbelt which looked nearly as old as himself. The only thing which set Anauri apart from any old engineer was his uniform jacket, with the name "Rabeak" over the left breast pocket, and the insigina of Chief Engineer on his shoulders and collar.

"Can we help you?" he asked, only then realizing that there was another Nehantite before him, and not just that, a Kufu. What in Garfife's teeth was a Kufu doing off-world? Especially as far as Jovan?! She was cute, though.

[Morgan Evanar]

"Not quite Civvies. Morgan Evanar, Alliance Navy." Morgan explained, and retrieved his Alliance identification card.

Evanar, Morgan
LT - Navy
Followed by several vital statistics.

"I hope so. This thing is a bit beyond my technical reach." He hefted the bag holding the projector glove, and inside with it were several sub bags, neatly labeled with the carefully extracted components.

"I'm helping the Jedi with an investigation. This is Padawan Draiya Naaianeya and Padawan Ndonsa. We're trying to figure out everything we can about this tractor projector."

[Gradoona Pod-Floewander]

Gradoona shrugged at the particulars, giving them a cursory once-over before letting the Chief and Mayael get a gander. The next few things out of Morgan's mouth definitely got the Herglic's attention. The gasp of surprise might have asphyxiated them if they were on a lift together, and the Herglic's beady eyes went wide as she looked to the pair of...

"Hoooly penguins in pirogies!! Youu're woorking with JEDI?!"

Gradoona's blowhole squeeed in high-pitched glee, her tongue curling in on itself as she excitedly looked from Draiya to Ndonsa. Okay, so the human kid...she didn't look like a whole lot of interesting, but the other Nehantite definitely looked the part, what with the necklaces and baubles and they probably meant something spiritual and, and, and...

"Geeepers! Wow! This is sooo...I dunnoo!"

Gradoona reached towards Ndonsa, and paused, thinking better of it. It wasn't the best manners to go poking and prodding strangers, and probably less okay when they were Jedi Knights or Jedi Padawazoo's or whatever Lieutenant Evanar said.

"Gee...my first Jedi!"

She suddenly realized she was making an idiot of herself, and Gradoona attempted to right the ship, returning her attention to Morgan even as she fished a device from her belt.

"Sorry eh? Oh lookit, I knooow ya gaat impoortant business yaknoo, but do ya miind if I get a quick holo oor twoo aaf me and the twoo Pada...wa...yaknoo? Ooh Nanwa is gaanna be soooo jealous!"

[Mayael Rakkamar]

"What is Jed-dai?"

Her partner's extreme interest and excitement provoked the question. It must be something important. Planetary royalty, perhaps? The quizzical expression on her face melted away the moment she got a good look at the object in the bag. It was replaced with a look of fresh baked excitement sprinkled with curiosity and frosted with mischievousness. She craned her neck to get a better look. The harsh artificial lightning kept reflecting off the sides of the bag making it difficult to discern exactly what was inside. It looked like a glove of some kind. The Jed-dai said it was a tractor projector. Very compact. Very advance.

"Squibs do amazing thing with tractor beam. Too big for Squib. Is broken, need fixed?"

[Ndonsa]

The piece of tech Knight Evanar was showing the engineers could have been a rock for all she understood it. No, she would have understood a rock much, much better. But the holocamera the big one was holding up was something Ndonsa was at least passably familiar with. She didn't like pictures taken of her, which was a fear deeply rooted in her shamanistic teachings.

It was a fear with no base. She would try to be nice.

As Gradoona inched nearer for a good angle on her camera without getting too close, Ndonsa's eyes were drawn to the letters on the brownfur's jacket. R-A-B... Rabeak. Just like Hal. Her ears tilted forward a bit, staring at the male Nehantite. A relative? Perhaps... a many generations removed grandson? The Jedi Knight (who had not told them his position) and the others were talking, but Ndonsa stared at the older male, trying to see any familial resemblance in his face.

[Anauri Rabeak]

Anauri's pink eyes had widened a touch as the J-word was dropped, and immediately he looked between the two padawans, then glanced over their shoulders to see if there was a third one hanging back. A very specific third. Nothing but empty hallway.

Lost in his distraction, it took Jovan's Chief Engineer a moment to catch back up to speed on what Morgan was presenting them with, and he allowed Gradoona precisely one holopicture before clearing his throat to restore order.

"Lieutenant, why don't you and your Jedi friends step inside," he suggested, backing up to allow them room. "If this is an investigation being undertaken by the Navy, I imagine it's something that should be handled behind closed doors. Besides, lighting's better in here," he chuckled. "I've seen some crazy shit done with tractor beam tech, but never anything that small - even from Squib tech."

As he walked back to one of the main workbenches, Anauri could not escape the piercing stare leveled at him by the red-furred Kufu, and he found it mildly unnerving. Still, perhaps it was a cultural thing, and he tried to smile at her - a smile made easier when he saw her ringed tail - an oddity for most Nehantites he'd met. "Technically these are the second Jedi you've met, Gradoona," he announced as he cleared space on the workbench and flicked on a worklight. "Remember Stashia? She's a Jedi now, too."

His pink eyes drifted back to the two padawans, a hopeful expression on his face. "Speaking of which, she didn't happen to come along with you, did she?" Thoughts returned to the beautiful, black-furred female, and the day and the more... intimate time they'd spent together.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

This was Draiya's first brush with anything resembling celebrity. It wasn't something that anyone on Ossus mentioned as a possibility for Jedi adventurers. How to deal with enemies and attackers? Sure. How to deal with a possibly-adoring fanbase? Not so much. After a moment of bewilderment, the Syragori allowed herself to be herded along with Ndonsa a few steps clear of the door. The Herglic practically bubbled as she prepared her holocam, and the brief setup gave Draiya enough time to consider how she might appear. Blank-faced and stoic? Maybe, but considering the audience, Draiya took a bit of creative license. She struck a pose.

"May the forrce be with you!"

Confident grin on he face, she extended a peace sign just before three snaps were taken. Gradoona melted into a puddle of gratitude, giving Draiya a swallowing handshake before moving onto Ndonsa. In her wake, Draiya caught Master Evanar watching the two of them. With a lopsided grin, Draiya shrugged, before following him into the engineering office along with Ndonsa.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan's face contorted and he coughed at the excited Herglic's phwee. He stood aside as the Padawans were excitedly (Draiya) and somewhat distractedly (Ndonsa) holo'ed.

"Stashia's on Ossus, to the best of my knowledge, Chief." He said as he followed the Chief Engineer to a workbench. He watched Anauri's shoulders slump slightly at the news, but he still motioned for the bag containing the glove and components.

"Droids and systems are more my thing. I realized I was over my head once I got to the emitters." The emitters were still on the glove, each still on their respective fingertip. Each part in the bag had been labeled meticulously and a series of 2 dimensional images had been put to a flimsy with numbers that matched each component label.

"They left the common stuff marked, but I still don't know what a third of it is."

[Gradoona Pod-Floewander]

"Oh? Well yeaah I remember Chief, but yaknoo I didn't realize youur girl was a friggin' Jedi till aafter the fact!"

The Herglic thought back to that encounter, feeling it probably was for the best that she didn't know. For the Chief's sake. She probably would have messed everything up for him! Gradoona squeezed past, gently herding Draiya and Ndonsa out of the way with a generous amount of "soorry"s. She converged in a huddle with the Chief, Mayael, and the Lieutenant, all gathered around the strange assortment of illicit tech.

"Soo it's a microo-tractor emitter, eh? It's naat the miniaturization that's the praablem, it's the metallurgy and the crystallography."

She held the glove up to her eyes for closer inspection, clacking.

"I mean, suure, youu tootally caan nano-engineer a woorking tractor array, but see it's aall propoortional, yaknoo."

Gradoona glanced to the Lieutenant.

"Any idea how much looad this sucker can heft?"

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa put Knight Evanar between herself and the huge fish person before the female? could hug her. She made sure that she was on the opposite side of the room from the Gradoona as the engineers gathered around the table and the tech Morgan produced. This Rabeak did not seem much like Hal at all, though he did give her tail an appreciative glance.

She ran her paw along her many necklaces, fingering the one made of teeth.

[Anauri Rabeak]

As Gradoona posed her question to the lead Jedi, Anauri worked his way in to gently tug the bag from her giant, blubbery fingers. A work light with magnifying glass found itself swing into place over the work table, and in a more recent demonstration that he wasn't a young buck any longer, Anauri fished out a pair of reading glasses from his jacket pocket, bracing them across his muzzle. His paws began to reach for the opening of the bag, then he paused, reaching for a pair of nitrile exam gloves first. They were pulled on with the deftness of a surgeon, and only then was the bag's contents carefully exhumed and laid out upon the table.

"Garfife, this is tiny," he grumbled, carefully examining the setup with the aid of both glasses and magnifying glass. "First observation, this can't be handmade. Don't care how steady your paws are, this level of miniaturization needed a machine to assemble it so precisely, and I'm talking some serious high-end machine at that, not your backyard hobbyist grade."


The glove itself was placed down so that Anauri could study other elements. Some were basic supplies already small enough to be used as they were, yet there was still an effort to keep things to an absolute size minimum, so a bit of expense had been spent on better components in a field where competition abounded. Then it was back to the glove, but not so much for the equipment, but the leather itself.

"As handy as Squib are with tractor beam tech, I doubt they made this," he observed out loud. "Gloves are a tricky thing to cut and sew, and I reckon this one is made for a human hand. Mine wouldn't fit in there correctly. Squibs might be studious little engineers, but they're shit at tailoring. Most can't even be bothered to wear more than a damn loincloth. I'd rule them out on basis of this being a glove instead of a wristband or the like. If I had to put money on it, the manufacturer is definitely human, because humans have a propensity to design based around what would fit a human, ignoring other racial inconsistencies." He glanced back at Morgan. "But what do you need to know more: where it came from, or how it works? And if I'm allowed clearance to ask, why is it that the Jedi, of all people, need to know?"

[Morgan Evanar]

"About 200 kilos based on the recording we have. The power supply was destroyed in an incident." He responded to the Herglic. Morgan paused and realized that it was unlikely his enemy was here. It was theoretically possible, but almost anything was. Down that long corridor lay madness. He watched Chief Engineer Rabeak with his hands behind his back, but he peered over his shoulder to watch him work. He was grateful for his height then. His initial conclusions regarding it's manufacture mirrored his own: it was constructed by a professional or group of professionals with serious equipment and resources. And then the engineer took an angle he hadn't though of regarding the glove itself.

"We think someone is working towards staging an incident to look like a Jedi was at fault. Where it came from is the logical next step to finding out who's behind this. And we're trying to keep whoever's behind this from going to ground, so your discretion is appreciated."

[Anauri Rabeak]

"Power supply could be anything, really," Anauri shrugged. "As long as it delivers the right current, could be a pocket-sized pack for a quick burst, or a larger case or backpack array. Battery's just a battery."

It didn't actually need to be said, but the engineers on Jovan had learned that their Chief liked to talk while he sorted out a problem, even if it was simply stating the obvious. Still, it wasn't a good sign when he sat back, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his muzzle, and vented a grumpy sigh. "Damn. Gonna need a closer look. Excuse me."

With that, the bulky Nehantite extricated himself from the throng of Jedi and engingeers, with the glove left on the table so that he could go rifle through a few of the larger drawers of his toolbox. A muttered chorus of, "No. No. No. Not that. Where the hell is it?" accompanied his search until at least Anauri located what he was looking for, and a thin metal box with handle was drawn out to be carried back to the work table. Once again he needed to push through the crowd to re-take his seat, and the box was opened.

"Haven't used this thing since school," he chuckled. The box opened like an old-school laptop, complete with screen on its upper half, and Anauri located the power cord to plug it in, before lifting a stalk on the box's lower half, revealing itself to be a camera. "Circuit board microscope," he explained for the benefit of anyone who was too young to recall creating boards by hand - which might have been everyone there but himself. The glove was brought into view of the camera, and the screen displayed its view at 20x, soon clicked up to 50. What had appeared as threads or thin wires under the magnifying glass suddenly exploded to life as woven braids of nanowire, some with inline crossovers, their connections perfectly fused to larger elements scattered throughout the glove.

"Hot damn, this is certainly no hobbyist work, this is cutting-edge," he whistled. "I've seen nanowire before, but not used for anything like this. Only a handful of companies can even make this stuff, and two or three of them would have slapped their name all over it, even if just for notoriety. There's not a name on this thing, even on these tensor emitters. I'd say this was cooked up by someone's R&D department, likely after-hours, and from the way these transistors bridge directly off of their capacitors, this looks like Novaladex or Phylon engineering, to me." He clicked the zoom up to its 70x max, staring at the screen while gently toggling the camera along the length of one wire. "Hell, this could even be from OMEN, but I doubt it. Not made for a Nehantite paw, and they don't give a shit about the Jedi, as far as I know."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya stood at the periphery with Ndonsa, looking about as clueless as she did as the others in the room plied their technobabble. The Syragori noticed that Ndonsa was particular about keeping her distance, no-doubt getting spooked by the previous round of gladhanding.

"Firrst Herrglic, huh?"

Draiya shrugged, keeping her voice a bit low.

"They'rre big and loud, but harrmless. Mostly."

At least in her limited experience with the family convoy. More than a few Herglic freighters crossed their paths between ports.

"Rran into a few of them with my Rrou'mai's business. They'd always trrade us cheese."

[Ndonsa]

"...cheese?" Ndonsa shook her head slowly. She had grown up without the so-called pleasures of cheese, and found it hard to believe there were creatures who would pay for things with the stuff. "The galaxy is vast," she muttered, unable to help the distrustful glance she sent toward Gradoona.

[Mayael Rakkamar]

No one in the throng crowded the Chief's space than his newest sparky. If she could, she would have crawled inside his head for a better look. Soft mutterings in Codruese escaped her mouth from time to time.

"I see not feedback system. Effective, but dangerous. Power supply could explode. Power cells only be so small. External power supply best solution."

Further musings were silenced as Anauri rose and returned with a second device that sparked just as much curiosity as the first. What an interesting device, for seeing very small things. She could only marvel for so long though, as her attention was pulled to the details of the circuit boards and nano-wire the device was revealing. She was attempting to make as many notes as she could of everything revealed. Mayael assumed the Jeedai would be taking the glove with them once they ran out of use for the Engineers, and deep in the cogs of her mind she was already developing a plan to build a tensor glove of her own. Well, attempt to build one. A device this complex would be difficult to replicate, but there was knowledge to be gained even in failure and it would be a lot of fun to try.

"Is beautiful."

[Gradoona Pod-Floewander]

"Sheesh, I'll say!" Gradoona agreed with Mayael, peering at the magnification of the nano-wire matrix. Her attention shifted, and the Herglic blinked as she leaned a little closer.

"Hang aan a sec, chief. Can ya pan back there a smidge? Oop, too faar...there."

Couched around the emitter housing, Gradoona saw a half dozen small rectangular pieces of metal.

"Looks like a heat sink array, eh?"

Gradoona's eyes closed. Dead air filled the next few seconds, sprinkled with an occasional click. She shook her head.

"It's haard to hear it, but I think they're compaasite wafers. Doonium maybe? Some ceramic in there? If that's the case, they'd suure as heck be efficient. Dunnoo abouut 200 kilos, but that sucker should be able to shed a thermal load. Seen some Skakoan tractor arrays set up like thaat."

[Morgan Evanar]

"Cleaner work than some of the custom droid brain interfaces I've seen." He gave a low whistle after he shook the sound Gradoona made from his head. While out of his field of expertise, he'd seen enough detail work in droid design and slicing that he could appreciate this sort of thing. Skakoan participation was possible, but difficult to trace if the work took place on the homeworld.

Phylon made the most sense. It was a large Imperial concern. They had the expertise and funding to take on black ops side jobs. Internally, it wouldn't be hard to drum up motive or keep it off the books. Novaldex was the easiest place to look. None of this was ideal.

"Thank you for your time, Chief. This has been very illuminating. And your discretion is most appreciated."

[Morgan Evanar]

"Well, that was enlightening. I'll send something nice as a thank-you." He stated when the door closed behind them. Drayia seemed a preoccupied by her newfound minor celebrity. Ndonsa still was unsettled.

Something felt wrong as soon as Morgan crossed the threshold back to the main engineering corridor. There wasn't anyone there but the padawans. After a minute of crossing through corridors that were either lightly occupied, or only occupied with station personel, Morgan's mind occupied the space with calculative speculation. Skakoan tractor design manufactured by what was probably Phylon's black ops department, or something that was scrounged from the Skakoan after the Clone Wars.

"We should get some lunch." He mused aloud.

Draiya responded with an enthusastic affimative and suggested a type of Cizerack cusine Morgan hadn't tried yet, but had recalled the location of three levels down. Ndonsa seemed to be going with the flow. She appeared to concentrate on maintaining her calm in the ebb and flow of the crowd.

That was when he noticed that they were being followed. The consistent amount of displacement that stopped roughly when they stopped, paused before corner, and then resumed after. There were diversions into side corridors, and then they picked up a new tail. They were only halfway to the restaurant. While Morgan could be liquid through a crowd, it wasn't an effective tactic against active pursuit, not when one stood an even two meters. The Padawans were a problem, too.

They were nearly to the promenade overlook when the first and second darts went airborne. Drayia ducked, and the Kufu sidestepped. The options were bad. There wasn't enough time to draw and use the blaster as a bat and knock them down. Morgan could let the crowd take the darts. He did not. His left hand snapped out into the airspace Ndonsa had just occupied, while the cupped right hand rose. he felt the metal fins slice the inner skin of his right index finger. He was distantly aware of trail of blood droplets behind the now-tumbling dart. The dart harmlessly tumbled into the distant transparisteel above the outer edge of the promenade.


His left hand did not have a good solution. There wasn't enough angle to deflect it. The dart piereced his left palm's epidermis and then it fought it's way through the graphene layers that grew in the dermis. When the forward momentum of the dart's metal body stopped, the liquid contents continued to surge forward through the tiny perforations in the tip. The contents of the dart emptied themselves into the hypodermis, which likely reduced the effectiveness of whatever it was. It would be several heartbeats before he had to contend with the payload.

A pair of hooded humans rushed at them the moment the darts took flight. This group was coordinated.

"Get security!" He instructed the padawans. Morgan shifted his feet to reset his balance while he pulled the dart free and put it into his pocket. His left hand felt numb, but he managed to close it into a fist. The pair of assailants attacked in loose unison with vibroblades. They were practiced, but not expecting someone to be able to simply grab the knife hand and punch a haymaker.

The first asailant went down. Morgan's left arm went numb, and his fist fell open. He swung the arm as a distraction. It forced his oponent to rotate towards him, and buried the blade into the Jedi's left hand. There was surprising amount of resistance as it pulled it's way through carbon fibre reinforced bone and graphene skin weave. It was enough time to deal a knockout blow before he felt his heart numb.

He could see the crowd begin to close again while Jovan Security pushed it's way through, but that was through increasing distance. He was greatful that his mangled left hand didn't hurt, because it certainly would later.

Morgan hoped there was a later.

[Ndonsa]

Draiya had been talking about something called "kwi-seen" as they walked through the crowds for the second time, it was something to do with food, but Ndonsa was not listening. She was trying to concentrate on their path, and on remaining in the calm of the Force. For so many beings to just accept that they were floating in a vast nothing, contained in a metal box, no matter how big it was, was difficult to understand. She was determined to become as accustomed to it as they were.

Conversation lagged when the Kufu did not reply to a question, and Knight Evanar's demeanor began to change. Ndonsa sensed attention on them at the same time as Draiya turned to look behind them, and then the girl ducked. Ndonsa felt danger coming quickly, and stepped to the side as Morgan threw himself in front of the darts.

"Get security!" he yelled, his voice booming as two cloaked beings pushed through the crowd. Ndonsa's ears flattened, unwilling to leave the Knight's side, but Draiya reacted quickly, slipping out of sight in the crowd that was beginning to realize something was happening. Morgan took a knife through the palm as his reactions slowed, and Ndonsa threw her paw forward, pressing the air into a hard ball and slamming it into the second attacker, knocking them backward off their feet.

[Untaaura Verratoa]

Seconds later, a trio of Jaani'sarri marines were closing in on the fracas. They shoved away the few rubberneckers who wouldn't clear the lane. The leading two Cizerack troopers drew shock batons from thigh scabbards, snapping the telescoping cudgels into a deployed position with a crackle of energy. A quick moment to assess the situation showed a wounded humanoid being defended by a smaller, agitated, and hirsute alien creature. Opposite these, two hooded men seemed to fit the description of the perpetrators. One of the men lay momentarily sprawled on the deck. The other seemed to still pose a threat.

As one of the marines moved in to pin the prone man to the ground and apply stun cuffs, the other two closed distance on the remaining perpetrator.

"Put jyourr weapon down now!"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

She'd come back with the marines, having reluctantly done Master Evanar's bidding. Why did they need the help of others here? Couldn't the Jedi help themselves. Draiya returned just in time to see Ndonsa apparently echoing her unspoken sentiments, handily unseating one of the shrouded assailants. She didn't get to dwell on the observation for long before the nearest Jaani'sarr brusquely pushed her out of the way to get into the action. The Syragori padawan bristled. She had her reasons to be standoffish around the felinoid enforcers, but it couldn't be helped.

There were alternatives to fighting, however. Draiya let the marines pass, then closed ranks with her fellow Padawan. Squaring to the danger, Draiya took a step back, kneeling by Master Evanar's body. Not dead. She could clearly see his life energy, though there was a torpor to what she felt. She quickly inspected his hand where he'd taken the shot, finding an embedded dart. The Padawan drew it out, examining the make before tucking it into one of the storage compartments on her tunic's belt.

"I could rreally use yourr help herre, masterr." she said to no one in particular, invoking her own mentor longingly. There was no better healer in the Jedi Order, and she'd certainly know what to do.

"Ndonsa, Masterr Evanarr needs a doctorr."

[Morgan Evanar]

The assailant simply smiled while they backed away to the railing.

"Put jit down!" There was a crack of bone or tooth that broke, and they swallowed the liquid that flowed out before tossing themselves over the railing. Foamy spittle trailed in the air, and then splashed the lowest deck of the promenade when the emergency tractor system slowed the body's descent to a dull, soft thud. Another figure below immediately swarmed the body and removed several items, including the projector gauntlet, and then disappeared into the crowd below.

"Sha'shaa forrda." One of the marines muttered when they looked at the body below.

"Hje's been poisoned! He needs a doctor! Help me!" Draiya pulled at Morgan's inert body. The 120 kilos of him mostly stayed put.

"Kosa!" She yelled, and this seemed to snap the Jaanni'saari back into focus. The picked up Morgan with a bit more than the expected effort while one raised the comm for a medical emergency. A minute later they were met by a team of medics with stretcher.

"What've we got? Blade wound on one hand and a wound on the palm."

"Poison dart. I've got jit here."

"Patient is male, human, roughly two meters..." One of the medics pried an eyelid open and shined a light while another put a hand on Morgan's carotid artery.

"No heartbeat, definitely not breathing."

"Unresponsive."

"I have the dart. It's poison."

"Okay kid. Stay with us."

When they got to the infirmary, they quickly moved Morgan to a trauma room. Ndonsa and Draiya were mostly ignored while Morgan was intubated and his heart artificially stimulated.

[Vek Vek]

"Twenty cc's adrenaline. Thirty cc's promalezan."

Vek leaned over the patient, peeling back one of Morgan's eyelids to shine a pen light. The iris did not contract. The nurse attending him shook her head, stepping back.

"I've got his vein but I can't get a stick for intra-V."

The Durwi leaned up, nictating membranes wiping over his eyes quickly.

"Not in medical school anymore. Adapt and overcome. Use double aught biopsy needle."

The nurse sighed, annoyed she didn't think of that herself. She quickly threaded the stronger needle on, pushing it against Morgan's arm with effort. The skin finally gave way, and she secured the line.

"Chromatography suggests neurotoxin, derivation of compounds found in Rishi lichen. Synaptic pathways should be corrupted, but electrostimulation positive. Interesting."

At least the patient was breathing and pumping blood with outside help. It still didn't explain how little damage was done.

"Doctor, I ran his chit, we've got a chart on the patient."

Vek stood upright, his mood brightening.

"Fortuitous. May answer many questions."

"Subject is one Evanar, Morgan. Alliance Naval Service. Born Nar Shaddaa."

The nurse paused, raising an eyebrow.

"Says here that Mr. Evanar has a history of extensive biological augmentation. Dermal graphene weave, metabolic acceleration..."

"Curious and ethically questionable. Still would not explain neurotoxin inefficacy. Myolin sheathing undamaged. Subject responsive to direct electrical stimulation."

To emphasize, Vek applied a dermal stimulator clamp to the patient's shoulder, and the muscles instantly tensed until removed.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan's eyes ripped open and he looked around frantic. It took his mind several seconds to process that he was in a Kolto tank. The intubation tube had been removed and the hole in his neck patched. He could feel the breath mask around his face, the nutrition line in his arm, and the waste removal system cinched around his legs and waist. He experimentally moved his limbs.


Left leg, knee, foot - check. Right, check. Right shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand. Slight pain in the palm. Fingers: check. Left shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand. Morgan gasped. Sithspit! Fucking sithspit that hurt. He didn't try the left fingers, and remembered the blade ripping through flesh and carbon fiber reinforced bone.


The Kolto tank gave everything a blurred, hazy quality and he could only make out shapes and colors.


"He's awake."

[Untaaura Verratoa]

"Good."

Major Verratoa's ears triangulated forward on instinct, relaxing slightly as she watched the human twitch and shift in the kolto soup. Watching someone go through the tank was always an unsettling experience to her, so Untaaura averted her eyes a moment later. With a bad enough injury, you never forgot the experience of a dip. The phantom taste of bacta never failed to bring a dose of psychosomatic nausea.

"When wjill he be out?"

"Within the hour, I'd say. Give or take. We're still not completely certain if there's any nervous system trauma."

Verratoa gave a curt nod to the nurse.

"Let me know when he'ss able to sspeak. jI want hjiss sstatement."

Blue eyes followed along to the pair of gathered Jedi Padawans. They narrowed with scrutiny.

"Padawan...Ndonssa? Come wjith me."

[Ndonsa]

The room they had been pushed into to wait while Knight Evanar had been rushed away by the doctors was ...bland. Ndonsa had spent an hour pacing until Draiya had begged her to stop, and then at least another hour sitting in a chair designed to make sleep impossible by its uncomfortable shape. The two padawans were spending the last time part arguing about whether or not they should return to the ship or rent a room of some kind on the station, when a droid had entered the waiting area to escort them in to see Morgan.

The healing room was similar to what the Jedi had on Ossus, but more compact. Ndonsa had never seen a person dipped in the healing goop in a tank before, though she had been told of it's miraculous properties. Seeing the Jedi Knight in such a state caused Draiya to momentarily look away, but Ndonsa stared curiously. One of the uniformed security from the station was there as well, and the female called her aside.

Ndonsa gave Draiya a nod. "The ship, if I do not return." She followed the cat-like being out of the humid room.

[Morgan Evanar]

He knew he was still on Jovan, and there were no restraints. He could leave any time. Morgan wouldn't, though. It would destroy the implication that he was just a member of the Alliance Navy, and not a Jedi. If his theory was correct, if this group knew he was a Jedi, that would put him in further danger. And he had minimal evidence for any of it, beyond the three attacks he'd witness or cleaned up after.

Three figures entered the room. The reddish brown blur was Ndonsa, and the other short blur was Draiya. The other was a Cizerack with a nameplate that read "Verratoa". He noted the emblems and plaques on the Marine.

He waved his right hand slowly in the viscous thick liquid, mindful that his left was a messy bundle of damaged tissue and pain.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya pressed a palm to the glass of the tank, her eyes slowly fluttering closed. It was easy to feel Master Evanar's presence through the force, but in this proximity it dulled everything else in the room. The Syragori sensed anticipation, pain, but also an analytical awareness that she'd long-ago learned was as signature to Morgan as genetic code. Feeling that familiarity, Draiya drew her consciousness and awareness along the leylines connecting her to him.

I am with you, Master, she communicated without speaking, slowly opening her eyes when she was confident that they could share in this exchange.

The doctors say you've been poisoned.

[Morgan Evanar]

Morgan floated mute for several moments before anything beyond raw contemplation was obvious.


Yes. The response came matter-of-fact. While this sort of communication came naturally for many Jedi, his nature made it difficult. Or he had not figured out how to get to wherever it was that most other Jedi were. He gradually re-digested several important facts. The first was that he should probably be dead or comatose, and that he should eventually find out why he wasn't dead or still comatose. He wondered how physiologically human he was. He decided that when he could, this medical incident would be scrubbed.


There were people using ner-do-wells for both financial gain and as increasingly less clumsy false flags as Force Users. These false flags were specifically designed to be trial balloons with multiple bonuses of upsetting unsympathetic populace to the Jedi by implying Jedi were responsible. This group were willing to both kill and die for this cause. This group had extensive or at least well placed resources. He did not know their motivations or structure beyond being antagonistic to the Jedi.


All Jedi are in danger. He added. It was a thought borne of calculation but there were undercurrents of concern and slight frustration.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya took in Master Evanar's projected thoughts. For a moment, she offered no response, instead reflecting on what painfully little she knew. A conspiracy to turn the court of opinion against the Jedi by framing them for certain rotten deeds. It made sense when assembled as a small basket of facts, but there was still so much painfully beyond her grasp.

And now this. Master Evanar lucky to be alive, and two padawans on a space station and in their fair share of trouble, if that disinformation continued.

What can I do, master?"

[Untaaura Verratoa]

In the other room...

Untaaura made use of an empty examination room, gesturing to a nearby stool for Ndonsa to sit. Closing the door behind her, the Major slid her cap off her neat shock of blonde hair, tucking it under her arm.

"jI rrememberr jyou. Frrom Osssuss, jyess?"

Not that she needed the Nehantite to confirm that, but it helped to find common ground to begin their conversation. The diminuitive Cizerack didn't sit, but instead leaned against the examination table with her white-gloved hands clasped in front of her.

[Morgan Evanar]

Go back to Ossus with Ndonsa. It was more of a sigh than anything else. This back and forth was giving him a bit of a headache from the concentration he required.

Draiya was a bright, capable young woman but he wasn't aware of any particular danger when he brought two Padawans to Jovan for offworld expertise. In theory, it had been a milk run. He had been fortunate that Jovan's engineering staff was very knowledgeable and that the next step had been revealed to him. He just needed to follow the money. And then something. He'd figure it out when he got there.

Share my notes with the council. He added. I'll send them once I'm out of this contraption.

It would have been irresponsible to leave the Jedi blind or unaware of a dangerous threat looming. Maybe one of the other Jedi knew something about this he didn't.

You did good today.

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa followed the Cizerack officer for a short time, but her patience ran out as the female seemed intent on separating her from her companions and little else. She stopped in a hallway, one leg back slightly and her paw going up for a spear shaft that should have been on her back but was actually on their ship, very far away.

"What do you want?" Her eyes narrowed.