The Nine Million Credit Woman

[Eluna Thals]

Location: Unknown



Out to sea, the crashed shuttle rolled over in the water, the billowing flames finally squelched by the swallowing waves, leaving only a thick halo of black smoke in the morning sky. She washed to shore, rolling onto the beach as she coughed seawater from her lungs. Fingers traced down her torso, finding jagged shards of metal that pierced her in three places. Her white shirt was pink around the edges of each impact from blood loss. She carefully extracted each piece of shrapnel, tossing them aside.

Warning: Low Power
Multiple systems impacted

Her green eyes looked around at her surroundings with a look of confusion and fear. Then her eyes closed. The waves continued to wash up and around her.

[Li Ho Fook]

The brushstroke of black smoke piercing the dawn sky was an ill omen. A sign of evil to come, and cause for fear and distrust.

At least that's what Li Ho Fook's elders would have said of it, though he shuddered at its sight all the same. The projectile bore not the velocity needed to be a meteorite, nor did it burn in the correct manner, and it was large. No, it was part of a ship, or an escape pod, and for his sake he hoped it not to be the latter as he watched it streak down to the sea his retreat overlooked. Many things tempted him as he set down his half-eaten breakfast. The urge to pack his things and run was first and foremost in his mind, followed quickly by the thought to be still and silent, and light no lanterns or fire through the night, to remain hidden. This was his world, and as far as he knew, his alone, and the wah wished to keep it that way.

Over a mile away, his ship sat dormant, covered over by foliage, in total shutdown. No piece of electronic equipment operated within any detectable range, nor had he seen sight of other civilization. Perhaps it was the xenophobia of his people cutting through, or perhaps his own greed, but Fook had taken great pains to never be found on this world, which didn't even have a name, as far as he knew, and he'd made sure was classified as hazardous on the galactic survey.

But there, floating toward shore, gleamed the hull of an escape pod, and it was not sinking. The planet would not extinguish the life which threatened his privacy, and so the wah breathed a sigh of resignation as his heart could not be so cold as to leave someone when they may need aid. Forgetting the remaining half of his breakfast, Fook stood and took up a short spear before strapping sandals to his footpaws and hiking through thick forest down toward shore. If nothing else, his crab traps needed to be checked.

If his sandals made noise, they chose not to allow it through his trek, silently crossing terrain until at last he reached at the border of the forest and beachhead. From the treeline he could see a humanoid figure upon the sand, and his beady black eyes studied her - it appeared to be a her - for any signs of... he wasn't sure, really, while he weighed revealing himself or not. Then he saw the bloodstains on her shirt, and he knew he could not hide. To ignore the plight of someone in need was to ignore the plight of all humanity - even if Fook wasn't Human. "Dag," he whispered to himself, then took a breath and marched out across the scrubgrass and sand toward the woman in the shallows.

It must have been quite a sight, a short, orange and black furred humanoid animal, dressed in simple linen jacked and trousers, bearing a steel-tipped spear. His orange and pale sand ringed tail bobbed behind him as he walked, nearly dragging on the sand as he went, Fook drew close, but stopped a good twenty feet away from the strange woman.

"Are you all right?" he called out in Basic. "Where have you come from?" A nagging impulse in the deepest parts of his being told him he should have stayed at home, and let this stranger find her own way. It's what his people would have done. But Fook had stopped being one of his people long, long ago.

[Eluna Thals]

The woman didn't respond to the Wah's question in the slightest. Only the subtle and slow rise and fall of her chest gave any indication she was still alive.

[Li Ho Fook]

Not dead. Fook's shoulders slumped in the moment's defeat. Sometimes dead is better. If she were dead, all he'd have to do is dig a grave and make a little monument, and then he could go on with his life feeling like he'd done the right thing. But no, she just had to be alive. A real way to spoil a guy's morning, he groused.

"Dag," the word fell from his lips again, and he stepped closer, wary of a trap. When none came, he reasoned she was truly unconscious, which presented another problem: she was a giant. Most people in the galaxy were giants, he found, whereas he was a completely normal-sized figure of a man at 4'2". Giant or not, however, he couldn't leave her lying in the surf. His crab pots could wait, even for the next day, if they had to, while this woman clearly could not. She also couldn't be carried while he held his spear, so with a mighty heave, he hurled the short weapon with power well beyond what a being his size should be able to muster, sending it whistling into the distance, hoping it would land in his vegetable garden back up near his home a mile away.

"Okay, lady, let's get you out of the drink, shall we?" Fook grunted to himself before crouching down near her head to grasp beneath her arms from behind, in order to pull her up the beach. A tug, and she remained put. Another tug, barely any movement. "Damn, homegirl, what you been eatin'?" he snorted. A pause, and he summoned up strength, not in the same burst with which he had thrown his spear, but a consistent, flowing river of strength through his body, amplified by the living Force. A third tug, and this time she moved. The wet sands providing traction, Fook dragged the strange woman further up the beach and out of the surf before getting under one arm and heaving her up onto his back in a form of fireman's carry. The trek back to his home would be long, but at least there he could tend to her wounds, and she could warm up and dry.

[Eluna Thals]

Power systems: Critical
Restoring active mode, power preservation protocols engaged.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked at her surroundings with an expression of wariness. The last thing she remembered was the pounding surf of the ocean. Now she was somewhere completely different. It was a dwelling of some kind, one that she'd never seen before. It was a simple, but tidy place.

She glanced down, noting that she wasn't wearing the clothes she'd had on before. The wind picked up in the open window, and she caught sight of her garments drying on a line. The pink stains on her shirt had been washed clean, and it looked like it had been mended. In their place, she had two bolts of silk or something similar to it. One cinched tight around her chest, and another had been tied around her waist like a sarong. In between, she saw a crisscrossing of bandages and dressings around her middle. Exploring hands found similar wrappings over her neck and shoulder.

She moved to get out of bed, searching as she did for signs of who or what may have brought her here.

[Li Ho Fook]

A short bamboo stick prodded against the woman's shoulder urging her to lie back down. "Woah there, don't sit up too fast, you might pop your stitches," a voice said from the other end of the stick. Whatever his plans for the day had been, Fook had found them ruined by the need to care for and monitor this injured stranger.

As there was no way she would fit in his own small bed, he had created one for her out of whatever cushions or soft materials he had, and he had tended to her wounds as best as possible. With how little she had bled while stitching her up, Fook imagined she had already suffered great blood loss.

"You fell from the sky," he explained. "I found you on the beach and brought you here. I've done what I can, but you need rest. Sit up slowly, and carefully, and drink this."

A black-furred paw offered an earthenware cup of something warm and rich-smelling. Not a tea, but more of a broth of some sort.

[Eluna Thals]

The look of bewilderment remained on her face as she settled her green eyes on her host. Diminutive and hirsute, but obviously sentient. So he'd been the one to mend her and bring her here? She glanced away, trying to remember anything further back than the beach. There were hints and possibilities, and that was all.

Her host gave her a steaming mug, and the girl took it with both hands, hovering her nose above the rim. Deciding that what she smelled passed muster, she sipped. It wasn't unpleasant, but it also was somehow unfulfilling. She gulped down the first sip, and looked back to the alien.

"Naah aah ahma?"

She halted mid-query, an expression on her face as if something was wrong. The words she'd asked him, they didn't come out as words at all.

"Ammaa neee? Neee maa aah!"

Worried, she touched her hands to her lips. Something was seriously wrong. She knew what she was saying weren't words, but every time she tried to speak, gibberish came out.

[Li Ho Fook]

Fook held up his paws in what he had come to learn was the universal symbol to hold on and calm down. Who this woman was, he had no idea. What she was, even less of an idea. He'd carried human women before, as bounties, and had done many things with other human women who weren't bounties, to know that one doesn't weigh as much as this one did. At least and not still fit into a size six, at the very least.

"Woah there, calm down," he spoke gently. "You had a bad accident. You might have hit your head." A realization dawned upon him, and his ears drooped while his tail went still.

"I don't know what language you are speaking," he said. "Can you understand me? Just nod if you can understand me."

In his heart, Fook prayed that this woman understood Basic, or at least one of the other few languages he could passably speak. If not, a translator would be needed, and that was the last thing he wanted to activate at the moment. Too much was at stake to risk that.

[Eluna Thals]

Begin system diagnostics_

For a half second, she was in her own world, not looking at her host. Behind her eyes, billions of commands per second were executing, in an attempt to turn over every positronic stone in her digispace to discover what had gone awry.

The girl was pulled away from her internal panic by external stimuli. Her host also knew that something was wrong, and he was just as far from the solution as she was.

She nodded in response to him. A small motion once, but the second time more definite.

Trying the broth again, she made a face.

"Enuuta, enuuta!"

Hearing the words coming out of her mouth only made her grouse in frustration. She mimed the motion of putting something into the mug, almost as if she was holding an imaginary spoon.

[Li Ho Fook]

A nod. Another nod. Good, that at least meant baseline communication could be had, and communication was the cornerstone of trust and cooperation.

That said, he crimped his brow at her motion toward the mug. A spoon? Clearly she was indicting a spoon, but why would she need one? There were no chunks in the broth, and it had emulsified well so it didn't need a stir. No, he replayed the motion in his mind - she wanted to add something to it. Likely something with better flavor.

Gently, the wah shook his head. "Listen, I know it doesn't taste great, but it's good for you," he explained. "It'll help you heal, and might clear your head a bit." To demonstrate its safety, he ladled a smaller cupful from the cooking pot near the hearth, and took a swig. "See? It's safe," he encouraged her, though the look on her face appeared far from encouraged. His fuzzy ears drooping, the wah resorted to bribery.

"If you drink it all, I'll let you have a sweet." It wasn't the wisest offer. The woman had a belly wound, which he did not know the extent of. Medicinal broth would be fine, tea was out of the question, but a sweetened ricecake with bits of candied persimmon? That should be fine, shouldn't it?

[Eluna Thals]

The words were barely out of the Wah's mouth before she immediately changed her stance on the mug of broth. The girl took sips, accelerating into gulps, steadily tilting the mug up until the contents were spent. She returned the mug to her lap, then suddenly remembered the drink was pretty hot. She stuck out her tongue, waving halfheartedly with one hand as if to fan cool air.

"Ahh."

But it didn't blunt the reason why she'd done it. She looked at Fook with expectant eyes.

[Li Ho Fook]

Fook smiled as she began to drink, but that smile quickly faded to wide-eyed worry as sips turned into straight chugging. Blinking, he looked her over again, wondering what sort of strange person he had rescued. Still, a promise was a promise, and he nodded slowly, reaching out to take the cup back from her.

"Okay, didn't expect you to go that fast, but it should help," he said. His bushy, ringed tail bobbed behind him, only gently brushing the floor as he walked to his pantry cupboard, and the lid of a ceramic jar clinked as he removed a special treat. A two inch by two inch square of pounded rice cake, sweetened with honey, nutmeg, and bits of pistachio, topped by glittering nuggets of candied persimmon. Holding it delicately between two claws, he returned to his guest, and politely placed the sweet into her outstretched hand.

"Here you go. Just... don't inhale that like you did the broth, okay? Don't need you choking on me," he chuckled.

[Eluna Thals]

Sugarplums practically danced in her eyes as the girl took the sweetmeat from Fook's paws. She turned it over in her hand, then held it under her nose to smell it deeply. Within, the gas chromatograph quickly turned aroma into data, finding precisely the thing she wanted most right now.

Fructose identified_

She took a little bite, which elicited her eyes to flutter closed as a muffled "mmmmm" hummed through closed lips. Another bite. Another bite. She exercised as much self control as she could to maintain decorum, but wasted little time taking in the most efficient fuel source to power her critically-depleted power cells.

Moments later, the sweet was gone, leaving the girl sucking the residual honey off her fingers.

[Li Ho Fook]

The wooden chair Fook sat upon creaked as he leaned back, studying his new guest, and mulling over the consequences of her even being there. If she had crashed, that meant there had been trouble somewhere, and no one should even be near the planet they found themselves on. Fook knew this because he'd had it classified as gravitationally unstable, with emanations of dangerous magnetic pulses. Of course there were none, but as long as it was listed as such in the main navicomputer databases, no one would come near it.

So why was she here? Had she followed him? Had his precautions not been effective enough? Or was it all some strange accident? The questions ran through the wah's head as his black eyes looked Eluna up and down once more, then glanced to the line her clothing hung from, now dry. Answers would be needed, but their priority would have to be carefully sorted.

"My name is Li," he said. "This is my home, and I'll do my best to care for you until you've recovered. But I need to set some rules. First, don't go running off. There's nothing out there, and you're in no condition to be on your own. Second, if someone may be looking for you, I need to know how to contact them. Third, if you're on the run from the law, don't tell me, I don't want to be involved in that. Fourth, bathroom is out back." He jerked his thumb toward the back door.

"Other than that, you're free to get up, and get dressed, if you want, though I will be wanting to check your bandages twice a day, to make sure you're not developing an infection," he continued, then one of his fuzzy ears perked. "Do you even know where you are, by the way? Or how you got here?"

[Eluna Thals]

Memory search [krz454cc998] Unknown parameter link error.

Her eyes looked away slightly, fixated on nothing as she thought. A moment later her brows knit and she shook her head. Nothing. As if today was the first day of her life. She didn't even know her...

A gasp. The girl touched her fingers to her lips.

"Aman kera shalala eekta."

Again, the sounds coming from her mouth didn't at all match the words in her head. She thought about that for a second. With an index finger, she tapped to her head, then to her chest, then shook her head.

[Li Ho Fook]

A sigh of frustration - more at himself than at his new guest - whistled through Fook's nostrils, his fuzzy lips pursed as he contemplated the new information. She could understand his language just fine, that was clear enough, but she couldn't speak it back? What manner of injury would have caused that? And more importantly, would it be able to heal, or would he have to get her somewhere for treatment? Those questions were pushed gently to the background of his mind as he attempted to make sense of her nonverbal communication. The combination of gestures triggered no immediate recognition, and his head tilted as he sought clarity.

Only when he considered the entire encounter did it make sense. He had asked her name, and she apparently realized she did not know herself. Head, know. Chest, herself. Possibly a bit of a stretch, but closer than any other theory his mental gears could grind out at a moment's notice.

Easing back up off his chair, the Wah returned to her side, dropping to one knee for a better look at her head, and any injury he may have overlooked. No, nothing else, and the Wah remained there, stumped.

"So, you don't know who you are," he said. If he was right, she would agree. "Well, I'll need to call you something. How about... Ana? Short for anonymous. It means identity unknown." He attempted a smile. "Yeah, so maybe I'm not the most creative, but it beats calling you Stranger."

Standing again, he glanced out the window over the bed. Mid-afternoon, he would get nothing done today, other than watch over his new charge. She looked pathetic. Despite a strong build, and dense musculature - lifting her had been no easy task - she appeared lost and afraid. Fook knew little else to do but pity her. And pity often came with a side of sweets. Relenting his better judgment, he smiled and procured another sweet rice cake, and handed it to her. "Here. I'd say you'd be spoiling your dinner, but, you've had a rough day," he winked, grinning.

[Eluna Thals]

She liked the name, and the corners of her mouth turned up into a smile peeking through ambivalence. She played back audio of him saying it. Watched his lips form the words again and again.

"A.aaa naaa. Aaanaa."

Her mood lifted again with a second offered treat. This time her smile showed teeth, and met her eyes. She took a bite, trying not to be over-eager about it.

"Aanaa." she spoke again after swallowing, pointing to herself. Then she pointed to her rescuer with an expecting expression on her face.

[Li Ho Fook]

The Wah smiled as well, his own little fangs showing as his face brightened, beady black eyes gleaming. Bi-directional communication established! The first step toward figuring out who this woman was so he could get her off his planet!

"Li," he spoke clearly, his paw pointing to his own chest. "I am Li. Ana, Li." The paw pointed at the correct person for each, as his tail bobbed with enthusiasm.

It was a tempered enthusiasm, however, as names would only get them so far. He wished he could run a medical scan on her, to see where her injuries truly were, and if he could even treat her here, or if she would need services beyond his limited abilities. But to go to his ship and fetch his scanner would be to reveal that there was tech on this world, and he possessed it. A dead giveaway that there was more to him than met the eye, and a violation of the facade he'd so deliberately built upon his retreat world. Perhaps when she slept, though. That would be safe, Fook imagined. Give her something to help her sleep, so she wouldn't wake as he scanned her. It was his only compromise.

He then pointed to the half-eaten sweet rice cake in her hand. "Lian gao," he said. "That is called lian gao. I made it."

In the back of his mind, Fook wondered what he was even doing. He knew what he should do, now that she was stable: he should gas her, get her loaded on his ship, and drop her off at a medical station. It's what would be best for her, and for his privacy, but it would not solve the most vexing of his problems; where had she come from? He'd gone to great lengths to have the surveys for this planet falsified, and listed as toxic, uninhabitable and lifeless. He was far enough in the outer rim that no one should simply be passing by, so why had her ship been close enough to eject an escape pod which would get trapped in the planet's gravity well? And were there others who landed elsewhere he did not know of? Did they have communication equipment?

The sudden fear of being discovered shot through his heart like a lance of ice, and he asked, "Are you alone, Ana? Did you have friends, up there?" he pointed up.

[Eluna Thals]

"Ana. Li. Lian gao."

Ana went through the paces of using the words he'd provided reference for. She grinned.

"Ana sipa lian gao tenopi!" She smiled, which reluctantly faded when she realized the sentence still came out of her mouth half-baked. She sighed, shrugging.

Then Li asked her a question. She followed his finger to the roof of the ceiling, then looked back at him, raising an eyebrow as she stood up. She got on her tip-toes, peering at the rafters of the simple lodging. There wasn't anything or anyone up there.

[Li Ho Fook]

A black-furred paw rubbed the bridge of Fook's muzzle as he watched his strange guest become even stranger. "No," he muttered. "Not there. Outside," he attempted to clarify.

One wall of his home was made of sliding wooden panels, currently open to face his garden, where Eluna's clothing flapped on a line in the breeze, drying after having been washed, and the sky could be seen over treetops beyond. But Fook pointed out the window beside them, instead, up to the blue sky above.

"You fell from there," he explained, his paws mimicking an object falling to the sea, complete with splash. "Were you with others, up there? More like you? Friends?" With each word, he looked for hopeful recognition in her eyes, all the while knowing what he'd have to do if he couldn't break through to her. She shouldn't be there, and he knew it, yet some part of him found it was enjoying having company, strange as this Ana was.

"Were you on a starship?" the Wah then asked, a word no low-tech, backwater primitive should know.

[Eluna Thals]

"Oh!"

Ana followed where Li's paw pointed, understanding now what he meant. She stood at the window, eyes fixated on the sun hidden behind a cloud. Reaching out with a finger, she drew a line from the sun and cloud to the sea in the distance.

"Starship."

Turning back, she looked at Li, then looked around the room for something she could use to convey her thoughts. Ana whirled around, not finding what she needed, then promptly left the room, looking elsewhere. A container was opened here, a drawer was opened there, until she found a pot full of dry rice. She spread two handfuls over the floor, and frantically began to arrange the grains.

[Li Ho Fook]

Ears flattening in confusion as he watched, the Wah followed Ana about, putting items back in place, and closing drawers behind her in an effort to keep his home neat and tidy. "Careful with those!" he called out as she rummaged through a few containers of spices, then he gasped as she heaped rice upon the floor.

"Aw, dag, yo!" he found himself slipping back into his bounty hunter persona momentarily. "I harvested that!" His voice came as a whine, watching Ana sully hours of hard work, and ruin perfectly good, organically-grown rice from his very own paddy. Sure, he had more on his ship, but that was store-bought, and therefore less special. But there was no sense in trying to explain further to a madwoman, so he simply stood by and watched as an image too shape.

Or at least he hoped it would be an image. It had better be, he thought to himself, after wasting a couple quality meals like that.

[Eluna Thals]

Ana moved quickly, arranging hundreds of grains of rice in a precise way that began to quickly take the shape of a ship (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/DP20_Frigate). The detail of her rice-shaping was precise and exact, and nothing about the representation appeared crude. Ana finally finished, looking at her handiwork without a glimmer of comprehension in her eyes. She then looked at Li.

"Starship."

[Li Ho Fook]

Grain by grain, the image began to take shape upon Fook's carefully-crafted wooden floor. At first, it could have been one of many ships, but as details emerged, Fook's humor drained until his black eyes stared at the rendered craft. Corellian frigate. A gunship. The rice making up the outlines of the cannons made the purpose of the craft unmistakable, and he could feel his toe claws trying to bite into the floor while controlling his reaction. Slowly, he looked up from it to Ana, studying her carefully.

"This was your ship?" he asked, his voice flat as his eyes locked upon hers.

While a few Corellian ships were still in Imperial circulation, most were run by the Alliance, which meant that Ana was likely Alliance herself. In some ways, that was a relief, as Fook found the Alliance to be far more benign than the Empire, but another question was raised: Why would the Alliance be out this far into the Outer Rim, near a planet he'd been sure to get tagged as basically worthless, and incapable of supporting life? There was no tactical reason for it, and if Ana had jettisoned in an escape pod, what had damaged her ship to necessitate such an action?

"Alliance?" was his next question. He'd already given away that he was not as low-tech as he appeared, by knowing of starships. But to ask about the Alliance would betray that he knew of galactic politics as well. Deep inside, the Wah prayed he would not be forced to kill his new guest in order to protect his privacy, yet he knew the call for it may arise.

[Eluna Thals]

"Hm?"

He asked, she guessed, with a word she didn't understand. Ana's head canted slightly and she shrugged. Rising from the floor, she proceeded to inspect the rest of the Wah's kitchen, quickly finding the source of the sweetened rice cakes.

"Ah!"

With an unabashed wide smile, she reached into the jar with each hand to retrieve two treats, nibbling one around the edge, then doing the same with the other so as to keep them both as close to identical shapes as possible. Meanwhile, she tried to piece together missing words in her head to missing memories, and the scant few of each that she held onto in the here and now.

"What is Alliance?" mouth half-full didn't stop Ana from compounding with another bite.

[Li Ho Fook]

"Hey, you'll spoil your dinner!" Fook found himself echoing his grandmother as he snatched the jar of goodies, and used a length of twine to tie the lid on securely, keeping at least a few sweet snacks safe from his plundering visitor.

"Alliance," he then brought the conversation back to its focus. "This way."

Leaving the rice ship where it lay on his floor, the Wah padded over to a low desk, which bore an ink tray, brush rack, and a roll of paper. Seating himself upon a cushion, Fook tipped a bit of water into his ink tray to moisten the ink stone, then unfurled a length of paper, holding it in place with a pair of round, flat stones which had been hand-polished.

"Your starship flies through the stars," he spoke, selecting a brush and using its tip to mix the ink in his tray to an acceptable opacity before moving it to begin painting. "In those stars, there are two great kingdoms. The Alliance," his brush created a good facsimile of the Alliance symbol, "and the Empire." Crafting the Imperial gear took slightly longer, yet it was clear that the wah had a deft paw with the brush. Pulling the brush back, he leaned away so that Ana could get a clear view.

"Do you know these symbols? Is one of these your kingdom?" he asked, having shown no deference to either name nor symbol.

[Eluna Thals]

She watched him paint attentively, eyes unblinking over every stroke he made. When at last the comparative work was completed, the girl inspected both symbols, and mused over the question put before her. After a few moments, she looked up to her host.

"I don't know these. Which kingdom is Li?"

[Li Ho Fook]

The Wah looked up at Ana, his eyes studying her, and he found truth in her words. She truly had no idea.

"I am not Alliance, or Empire," he replied. His brush set to work on a third symbol, very unlike the other two. It was a pictoral language character, likely a word, which he framed in a neat square. "I am Wah. My kingdom is very small, and very far away. We do not interact with either the Alliance or the Empire, but I am different. I travel both kingdoms."

Rinsing his brush out in a cup of water, he then hung it to dry. It was almost too much to make sense of; a strange woman having lost her memory in a crash, now oblivious to her own past. If he didn't know better, Fook could swear he was trapped in some terrible daytime drama holovision program. But he did know better, and still he wasn't sure what to do. Nearly any action he could take would reveal he was not some low-tech farmer, and jeopardize his hideaway in the process. Yet he had to do something, so he racked his brain for an answer.

"You should probably rest," he spoke. "You were badly injured, and your body needs time to heal. You may not be tired, but it's probably best if you lie down again. Besides, I need to go dig in the garden and come up with dinner. Or cast a few nets and see what's under the surface, out there," he nodded to the sea.

Immediately it struck him. Words came rushing back, words from his past, from the monks and priests of his homeworld. "Cast a net into the mind, and catch what lurks beneath the surface," he'd heard them say, before using the Force to sooth the minds of those who were troubled, or inconsolable. While he'd never been terribly good at any of the mental arts, back home, it was at least worth a try.

Standing up, he picked up his cushion and brought it around to where Ana's head had been in her makeshift bed. "Here, lie down. I'm... going to see if I can spark some memories," he said, sitting upon his cushion once more, paws spread to either side of her pillow.

[Eluna Thals]

"If Li is Wah, then Ana will also be Wah."

The words coming out of her mouth were finally beginning to represent her thoughts, and she gathered some reassurance that whatever Li had done to help was working. But before she could explore that further, her hirsute host began pleading with her to return to bed.

"But I feel fine. I can help you."

But he insisted, and she lay down again, with the promise of doing something to bring her memories back to her. She lay still, wondering what was going to happen next.

[Li Ho Fook]

Among the Wah, there were those who followed the path of the monk, devoting their time and study to the mental and spiritual arts provided by the Force. And then there were those who followed the path of the warrior, training their bodies to fight and endure great hardship without suffering. Fook was of the warrior path, so it was with great trepidation that he looked down at Ana, praying he could remember what he'd learned when he was a teenager.

"Close your eyes. Focus on yourself. On the last thing you can remember," he said. His warm pawpads pressed against her temples and cheekbones, and he closed his own eyes as well. "Focus on your starship, we'll start from there."

A month's worth of mandatory cross-training in the mental side of the Force was all he had to call upon. A month's training when he was a teenager with thoughts filled with fighting and girls.

Deep breath, block out everything else. Focus only on yourself and the one you are working with. He told himself. The Force flows through all things: muscle, memory, emotion, they are all tied. It is simply a matter of navigating the forest.

Any navigation required a target, so he settled upon that ship, searching for any memory of it which was not from his own experience, desperate for some linking memory which would allow him into Ana's brain, to find where things had gone wrong. To his surprise, it did not take much time to find it, yet what he found was not what he expected. Schematics, technical details, combat capabilities. Was Ana an engineer? Why would she know so much detail about it? No, this was data, not experience, he needed to go deeper. "Were you happy on your ship?" he asked. It was a crude attempt at sparking a related memory - a face, a name, anything, which could lead him on the right path, before the amount of irrelevant information he was receiving would become too much.

[Eluna Thals]

"I don't know."

Ana's brow furrowed slightly as she tried to remember her previous surroundings. Despite her efforts, it remained formless. She focused on the emotion instead.

"I remember being happy, but somewhere else. There were mountains. I had ice cream, no - they called it gelaat."

Momentarily she had a smile of recollection, but it went away, followed by Ana peeking one eye open.

"What are you doing to my head?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

[Li Ho Fook]

"I'm trying to find you within it," Fook replied. The pads of this fingertips relaxed, seeming to breathe out the same sigh his lungs expelled, before pressing once more with his next breath.

"It is something the old masters tried to show me when I was a boy. I'm... not very good at it, but it's worth a try."

Once more, he pushed his own mind into what he understood of Ana's, his very being mingling with her own, seeking out landmarks of memory from which to begin building a map.

"...they called it gelaat."

The replay of words shot up a beacon of light in the far distance of Ana's mind, and Fook rushed toward it. He was not ready for the sensation of what he found. Flavor - true essence of flavor - slammed into him with a jolt, as did texture, temperature, and sight. He could see it before him, then the mountains beyond. It was clear, full, yet he could not look around, instead trapped within one point of reference. Beyond the chemical composition of the gelaat, there was feeling. He had found a true memory.

A torrent of information began to flood in, pathways opening up to other sensations, other memories, and quickly it became too much. Reeling from it all, Fook extricated himself from Ana's mind without ceremony, and tumbled onto his back as his paws left her face, panting.

"Woah..." was all he could manage, blinking as he felt the memory fade from his own mind. It wasn't his memory, it didn't belong there, yet an echo remained. "Did... did you see that? Feel that?" he asked, lying on his back as the room spun.

[Eluna Thals]

The sudden resonant shock of vivid memory and the emotion of each charged moment hit Ana with intense, foreign feelings. She gasped, sitting up suddenly from the spark of reconnection, however brief.

"There was a little pause..." she whispered, not sure of the meaning of the words she said. Her fingers edged against her lips, tracing the ghost of a feeling of someone else's in a kiss she could swear was real.

[remiwhite1011]

(OOC: Hi, my name's Remi. Mind if I join in?)

Isaac groaned as the screen flashed red. His shuttle was out of fuel, and he needed to land, now. Scanning the ground beneath him, he saw the skeleton of a house peeking out over the forest green. He grabbed his blaster rifle, strapped a handful of grenades to his belt and came in for an emergency landing. After getting his balance on the walls of the cockpit, he trudged down the ramp and through the empty forest. He couldn't help but chuckle as he thought of Endor's vast forests- Hopefully there weren't any furballs throwing spears at him this time around. And hopefully there were some humans down here.

Pushing through the branches with mud on his Stormtrooper armor, Isaac went to the house and knocked on the door. He made a mental note to call Command as soon as he was done here.

[Li Ho Fook]

As Ana sat up, Fook brought himself to his footpaws, rubbing one of his temples in an effort to clear his own mind. Monks had told of sharing experiences with others through such telepathy, calling it a blessed union of shared life, yet he had never truly understood what it meant, before. There was a memory in his consciousness, a memory which was not his own, yet there it was, as vivid as elements of his own past, and he stared at Ana, then at his paw, wondering if he'd shared the memory, or if he had stolen it.

A little pause. An apt thing to say, as it was what both needed. Yet in that pause, Fook found little time to reflect. Large, fuzzy ears pricked, rotating back toward his door as he heard footsteps approach, then a knock at the low entryway.

Damn it! He cursed himself silently. One stranger was too many, but now a second one? This was too much. There was no way anyone should have been able to find him, no reason for anyone to attempt to land on a planet listed as hazardous and unstable. And to find the only house he was aware of on the entire surface? That reeked of orbital scanning. No, his hideaway was uncovered, he would have to flee after this, and give up his hard-earned solitude.

Holding a finger to his lips to indicate silence, the wah plucked down a sword which hung from a post, drawing it silently, and holding it beyond the edge of the doorframe as he opened it just a crack to see who could possibly be outside. He was not expecting white plasteel armor, and likely his unwanted visitor was not expecting the speed at which the little furball could move.

In an instant, the door was flung open, and Fook was outside, toe-to-toe with the newcomer as his blade whipped through the air to jam its point beneath the man's chin, threatening to push further. His beady, black eyes narrowed, Fook snapped. "Weapons! Drop 'em! Now!"

If a Stormtrooper was here, despite this fellow being rather short for a Stormtrooper, then the odds were high that Ana was Empire herself, which spelled trouble. But worse, if she was Alliance, and this man was hunting her, the compromising of his retreat was far more dangerous than originally expected.

[remiwhite1011]

Isaac was startled at the fuzzy creature's speed. He was even more surprised at its bravery; Shouting commands at an Imperial stormtrooper wasn't something you did if you liked your freedom. Nonetheless, he dropped his rifle and took a step back, admiring the house the creature built itself. He took off his helmet and placed it in the dirt, drawing a short breath as his mind went into negotiation mode. Hopefully, this thing wasn't averse to helping an Imperial get off this planet, especially one that wasn't even on duty.

"Heyy, I'm not here to hurt anyone", Isaac said, his casual tone masking his nervousness. "You're probably wondering why I'm here. Let me come inside and I'll tell you everything." He paused, wondering if telling it was the smartest decision. Nah, he'd save that for later, provided the creature didn't skin him alive right now. Besides, he was already talking too much. Isaac stood in the grass, waiting to hear its reply.

[Eluna Thals]

The moment of disorientation passed quickly as sounds picked up from outside. Li rose to investigate, but not before signaling that she should keep quiet. Almost immediately, there was a scuffle. The alien's voice, previously so calm and soothing, now spoke in a sharp, authoritative timbre.

Quietly, Ana rose to her feet, padding around to a window that might offer her a better vantage of the sudden visitor. Pushing aside the bamboo screen slightly, she frowned in confusion. It was a human like her, but this man wore a strange armor she didn't recognize. However, her frown only deepened when she saw the weapons he lowered to the ground. Who was he?

[Li Ho Fook]

"I think you can explain outside just as good as you can inside," Fook replied. He advance as the trooper backed up, keeping his sword point in threatening range, though his eyes darted here and there to see if there were more troopers lying in wait. If he were in bounty hunter mode, with full gear, he'd have Guan Yu run scans, feed him information overlays to his goggles, but there was no tech, here. Not a single electrical signature anywhere near the small house and its garden, or anywhere else on the planet which he was aware of. It was moments like this in which the Wah cursed himself for not being able to remotely activate any of his gear.

"Grenades, too," he insisted. Curling his toes over the magazine of the dropped blaster, he pulled it back toward himself, then picked it up to bring to bear on the newcomer, his sword thrust through his belt. Despite his rustic appearance and 4'2" stature, the Wah commanded the weapon with the grip and control of a seasoned veteran.

"How many of you are there? Don't you know this planet is dangerous?" he demanded more than asked. "Your comms are fried by now, if they weren't before. Electromagnetic interference, so you're not getting off this rock. But that doesn't explain why a Stormtrooper is doing so far from home, which I think is the most important question of all. Since when does the Empire dare to encroach on Hutt space?"

The comms comment was a lie, but it backed up the warning listed about the planet. The sort of warning which told you that if you landed on it, you were never getting back off. It was how he had protected his privacy thus far.

[remiwhite1011]

Isaac kept his mouth shut, listening to this furry thing bark at him. By the time it stopped talking, he could hardly keep himself from punching it in the face. How dare this creature talk shit about the greatest galactic government to ever exist? He knew the comms weren't fried; He could see that just from looking at the silver cylinder in his belt. That meant he could have his squad down here any minute now. Then this fuzzball would be the one fried. There was a probably a whole race of aliens in these forests, too, easy pickings for the Empire to civilize, or at least trade with. On second thought, the Empire would probably enslave these people, assuming all of them were as primitive as this thing. As much as he disliked aliens, Isaac shuddered at the thought of chaining people up and beating them, like he'd seen the Hutts do on his homeworld. And if there weren't any aliens... Well, Isaac didn't like being Force choked either. He wasn't ready to risk wasting the Empire's time.

But he was getting ahead of himself. Right now, he had to get his damn gun back. He let his grenades fall to the ground, kicking them into the bushes to show they weren't a threat.

"Look", he began, putting his ego aside and trying to speak with reason. "We don't want to waste the Empire's time, so let's just talk this through. To answer your question, I'm..." He paused, debating whether it would understand what leave was. He reckoned he'd be better off talking at this creature's level, using simple words to get his point across.

"I'm taking a break from being a soldier. I want to go home and relax, but my hyperdrive broke and I wound up on your home. I'm not going to hurt you." Isaac chuckled. "Judging by your reaction, it probably wouldn't end well for me." He put his hands in front of him, opening his palms to show his sincerity. "Now put your weapons down and I'll get out of your way. There might even be something in it for you if you help me out, courtesy of the Imperial war machine."

As Isaac awaited the creature's reply, he went over his options. This creature didn't look like the bartering type, so it wasn't likely he could get some shelter out of him. He was probably better to park his ship near here, where he could observe the creature and take his stuff by way of ion cannon, if he had to.

(OOC: Hey, are there any other lifeforms on this planet besides your character and Ana?)

[Li Ho Fook]

(OOC: As far as I, and Fook, are aware, there are no other sentient life forms on the planet. There are plenty of animals and wildlife, yes, but basically it's a planet on the Outer Rim in Hutt space, which hadn't been properly surveyed. Someone surveyed it once and classified it as hazardous. Fook found it later, investigated, and updated the hazard warning to basically a full "Do Not Land, Ever," sort of danger, status in the galactic registry, in order to keep it private. It's his little retreat, and he very much likes his privacy there. Li Ho Fook is a bounty hunter, and one of high standing. He's also the only one of his race really out and about in the galaxy, though he's got about 20 aliases he uses. Because they're all him, those who MIGHT recognize him as a Wah (immensely rare unless you've interacted with him before, or follow the happenings of the Bounty Hunters Guild) think that all Wah are completely identical. And, even those who know Fook as a bounty hunter are mostly unaware that he is Force-adept. That's something he keeps on the down-low. He works both sides of the galactic divide, but doesn't really like the Empire much at all, and tends to stick to Alliance and Hutt space, when possible. Hope that info helps! I'll try and put in more info as it becomes relevant, and it makes sense in posts. Fook is basically a 4'2" red panda.)

"Only thing I want from the Imperial war machine is for it to stick to its side of the galaxy, and leave me the hell alone," Fook spat.

His ringed tail lashed behind him once, before he could still it. "Taking a break from being a soldier? On leave, or was that just a fancy way of saying you've gone AWOL?" he chuckled. One ear canted back toward his home in an attempt to discern any movement from Ana, yet it was quiet. Thank goodness for that, he told himself.

Lowering the blaster rifle to hip-fire level, the Wah looked Isaac over. "If your hyperdrive is down, you're in a bad spot, regardless. Ain't no tech on this planet, and I don't recommend radioing for help. Like I said, Hutt space. Never know who you might attract." So Isaac hasn't fallen for the fried comms ruse, but they were truly in Hutt space, and calls for help were often met by less than savory characters. "And seeing as I'd rather not have my home overrun by raiders and the like, I respectfully ask that you bear that in mind while we figure out what to do with you."

There was a hint of logic that a hyperdrive malfunction had indeed brought Isaac to him. With a navcomputer on the fritz, there was little telling where you would punch out of hyperspace, or when. It could mean that a short trip was made long, or in the completely opposite direction, depending on the malfunction, meaning Isaac might not even know where he truly was in the galaxy. It was the best explanation as to why he was so far from Empire space, at the very least, meaning the likelihood of others being on the surface was low. Of coure, like his own ruse, that could have also been a lie, and he could be after Ana. "Wasn't expecting two visitors on the same day, and all that," he let slip.