Mise En Place

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

For a few quiet moments, s'Il held T'yeellaa's gaze. The was curiosity in her eye, as well as a small glimmer of probing interest.

"You speak of all these things that are expected of you or one in your position; but what is it that you want?"

A simple question on the surface that held a myriad of complexity beneath.

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

What did she want?

The first thing on her tongue nearly blurted out - command of Haifa'Iro'Iro again. But as much as she loved the ship, that wasn't the answer. Nor was the answer to command a larger ship. Those were points on a line she was currently walking. Mother had said that Jovan station would be a posting to attract a great deal of attention. Attention that would take her places.

Was that it? Ambition for it's own sake? She wasn't that shallow, so what was it?

"Wjith all due rresspect, rrou'a? jI want to be the one gjivjing jyou orrderrss. Thjiss jiss the path jI've taken, and jI want to go asss farr asss jI can and know jI djid jit mjysself."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It was an answer that caused an honest smile to finally show itself, and the Lupine afforded her guest a respectful nod.

"Remember that, and it will one day happen."

Taking a shifting step back, she opened the door and retreated back out into the corridor.

"And when it does, I will serve as faithfully as I always have."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

There was a faint smile on T'yeellaa's face as she watched Captain s'Ilancy leave. She hadn't salved her with a saccharine platitude. She'd left the K'ohta'rrou with her own justification as her road map.

"Captajin..."

She seated her cap back squarely on her head.

"Perrmjisssjion to jinsspect the brrjidge?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

A moment of thought was ended agreement.

"Of course."

[Q. Samus Dage]

* * *

The bridge was a quiet place for the time being. With both the Captain and KHER gone, it seemed almost ghostly, even. Oh, there was the normal chatter going on at muted levels, but something was missing that was - well, it was rather obvious.

Samus Dage sat in the Captain's chair, sifting through the contents of a datapad as Mr. Rahgus made his final telemetry reports with Jovan Command. Everything normal, everything standard and much as they'd been the last time they'd been through.

Scrolling past a few of the report titles, Samus idly tapped the uppermost subject line and set about skimming over its' contents.

"Clearance to begin our exit trajectory, Commander."

"Mm."

The Farguhl knew Dage well enough to understand his permission had been given to continue, and Rahgus gripped the control throttles as he pulled the slightly back. Comfortable in the pilot's nest, he went about bringing them about, setting his course and waiting for KHER to finish plotting the course for their next jump.

"Looks like we'll be a few more minutes until the jump."

"Mm."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa found her way to the bridge unaccompanied. No need for a hand-holding tour, the K'ohta'rrou had long-since made due diligence a part of her life as a naval officer. New ship? That meant knowing where everything was found, backwards and forward. Even though Khera'va'ssio was only a temporary post, T'yeellaa certainly wasn't going to embarrass herself by asking a junior officer for something as simple as directions.

All backs were to her as she entered the room, which suited T'yeellaa just fine. She strolled up to stand just behind the captain's chair.

"Ourr courrsse jiss sset forr Teloss?" She asked, more rhetorically than anything. It was the best way to announce her presence. T'yeellaa resisted the urge to look to the man in the chair, keeping her eyes fixed ahead at passing space.

[Q. Samus Dage]

"That it is," came the easy rumble as his eyes continued their inspections of the report he was currently engrossed in. It was all much the same, and with a sigh he lowered the 'pad down to perch it atop one leg. A thin-lipped expression graced his features, brow slightly pinched as his eyes moved up to take in the view before them. Despite the mundane appearance, Samus was focused on making sure that their time before the jump was as it should be. He was doing what he knew best, and felt at home. T'yeellaa's presence was a welcome addition, though both of them knew that just because they were together for this little mission did not necessarily mean they were free to act as they wished. Each had a job to perform. Though, in a strange bit of reflection, he realized that this was the first time that she had seen him, well, actually doing his job.

"Should be a few more minutes before we enter hyperspace. KHER is finishing his calculations."

"We're past the jump boundaries for Jovan, Sir," Rahgus didn't even bother to look back as he spoke, and instead kept his attentions forward.

Leaning forward, the blonde rested an elbow on the armrest while twisting his upper body around to look at the K'ohta'rrou.

"If the K'ohta'rrou wishes," his free hand moved to gesture toward the shallow stairway that led up to the viewscreen walkway, "... she is more than welcome to give herself a front row view for when we jump."

A brief wink was snuck in.

"It's a nice view."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

He wore the chair well.

It was an on-the-fly assessment, and T'yeellaa couldn't help but evaluate him on even the smallest detail. Of course, why wouldn't he? He'd commanded a frigate before this posting, with combat action notched on his jacket to boot. In comparison, the only combat T'yeellaa had was from border interdiction - battling flea-bitten pirates and slavers along the Thalassian frontier.

The very frontier they were now heading towards.

While the frontier was now a portion of the larger border between Alliance and Imperial space, it had just a few years ago been claimed by the Empire in it's entirety. Of course, there was claiming and there was enforcing, and the Empire didn't see much value in deploying their star destroyers to deal with criminals who were more interested in focusing their depredations on Cizeri ships. Piracy flourished in the gap between Imperial interest and Cizeri reach. Now, with the so-called peace in effect, the pirates of the Thalassian frontier were squeezed by one side on one day, and used as proxies by the same side the next. Neither side had spent a great deal of effort in putting the problem to rest entirely. The calculus may have made sense to someone like her mother, but to T'yeellaa and other officers of the line, it was irritating.

The K'ohta'rrou snapped out of that particular drudgery, putting her critical eyes at ease, so that instead of treacherous star systems, she could see beauty. Gai'tou was, even in a Captain's chair, a pure romantic.

"A vjiew frrom the brrjink, Commanderr?" Her ears perked.

"jIssn't that morre of an jImperrjial tendencjy to sstand sso farr ahead on the deck?"

[Q. Samus Dage]

A single eyebrow rose in answer, and he held a smirk at bay.

"Sometimes a view is just a view."

Finally he allowed a bit of a smile to peek through.

"I highly doubt anyone here would accuse you of being too Imperial if you chose to indulge. Captain s'Ilancy does it often enough as is."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"Then jI wjill deferr to the Captajin'ss conventjion."

What went unsaid was T'yeellaa's belief that the best seat in the house was indeed a seat. From a distance in the Captain's chair, you tended to find perspective. Still, this was a voyage of firsts. Gloved hands clasped behind her back, T'yeellaa ascended the trio of steps to the forward catwalk.

Beneath her feet, the telltale vibrations of course correcting maneuvering jets went quiet. The ever-so-slight changes of pitch in the starfield became as still as a painting. On Samus's word, next would come a thrum of spooling power, then the brilliant starburst of hyperlight.

She couldn't pretend to be that nonchalant. It was always a beautiful sight.

[Q. Samus Dage]

Moments after they entered hyperspace, Dage rose to his feet. He moved to the pilot's nest, standing beside it with a strangely satisfied look on his face. The kaleidoscope of pinwheeling starlines was always beautiful, and he never tired of watching the spectacle.

"What's our time in the lane look like."

Rahgus peeled his own eyes away from the viewscreen to study the holographic readout resting just beyond the left control throttle.

"Looks like a few hours. Three and a some change."

"Fair enough," he pushed away from the nest, moving toward the stairs. Up and onto the walkway, the Commander approached the K'ohta'rrou, his hands clasped behind him as his lips held a smirk. He stopped beside her, and turned his eyes to display cartwheeling before them.

"He's a warship, but at least he offers a good view, yes?"

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

There was a lot more that she wanted to say in that moment. Riding on a feather in the winds of hyperlight was more than just a view. T'yeellaa had once been a Suun'da'rrou - a Captain of the Trade Navy. Her transition to K'ohta'rrou was the necessary one step back for the promise of three steps forward, but she couldn't give a damn what they called her when the day was done. She missed this. The life on a ship. The sense that where it moved, so did you. It was more than the literal. Moving light years was insignificant to where your heart could go. This was freedom.

Samus was looking at her. Well, he was looking at the hyperlight vortex, but she knew that he was paying just as much attention to her in the peripheral. What she wouldn't give to have a clear bridge. To share a kiss, alone save for ten billion stars moving by too quick to get a good look.

"When jI wass a cub, jI'd look jinto hjyperrljight and bljink."

T'yeellaa demonstrated, snapping her eyes open and shut in quick procession.

"jI'd trrjy to bljink sso fasst that the lasst thjing jI mjight ssee beforre the black mjight be a ssjingle pojint of ljight."

Her tail swayed close to Samus, pausing just away from the calf of his right leg, as if there was a forcefield of impropriety preventing further incursion.

"jIt'ss alwajyss sseemed to me that therre'ss morre to the maelsstrrom than jusst sstarrss. Jusst ljike Tu'aa Hyeeiaali jiss morre than jusst the pajint on the canvass."

[Q. Samus Dage]

"It's freedom."

A simple enough answer for him. Dage had been a country rube on Myomar, growing up with his best friend Marlon Kori and spending days maintaining grain sifters and herding livestock. It was idyllic in a way, but it was... sameness. There had never been the ability to go beyond. No way to break free from the normal everyday life of... exactly what had been done each day before. But then, Dan Thrule had come along. He'd had a young, sour-looking Jedi survivor with him, and both had promised hope. They'd not promised survival, but they had brought the strange, unspoken notion that there was more. More than the same. More than the ho-hum of maintaining sifters and watching over herds.

"It's a promise of more to see and more to know."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

Like he'd stolen the words off her tongue. It wasn't that she and Samus were alike in every way. It just happened to be that they hit the same notes when they mattered. The rest was just harmony. She knew the context of freedom he was talking about. He never talked much about the one bantha world he was from, but T'yeellaa knew well enough that he couldn't shake it off his boots fast enough.

In the cool flicker of blue light, he looked handsome and thoughtful. The lines on his face didn't age him so much as told a story, and she never got tired of reading it. And she'd turned a page to a new chapter, finally able to see Commander Dage in his element. Confident, self-assured, mastering rapport with his crew.

"jI alwajyss hated to rreljinqujissh the conn. jI ussed to alwajyss put off mjy rreljief forr asss long asss posssjible. Everrjythjing frrom herre feelss ljike jit alwajyss ought to. Even on a bad dajy."

[KHER]

* * *

Master Jedi, I assure you that we have plenty of time to discuss the particulars of this Code of yours. We'll not be arriving at Telos for another three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and zero-four-one seconds. That is more than enough for you to explain the inconsistencies.

KHER had found the old Jedi easily, cornering the poor man with insistent curiosity. He towered over Zem easily enough as the two now found themselves sharing a lift. Well, the MMU had more or less imposed himself rather than ask to accompany; after all, Master Vymes was aboard his larger half. It was within his rights to engage in questioning the validity of a creed if he so desired. And right now, with the Captain's round about blessing, KHER had done his level best to pry an answer from the Jedi. There was no getting an answer from the Captain - he'd tried often enough and each time she simply deflected or actively ignored him.

I have studied your Creed and analyzed it to the best of my ability, but whatever wisdom is said to be held... I have yet to understand it.

[Zem Vymes]

"The inconsistencies?" Zem asked, mildly perturbed yet unsurprised. This had all the makings of a setup. He wasn't exactly fond of Loklorien's droid avatar, but it was mostly a harmless annoyance. It was probably best to humor the thing for a few minutes before making his way to the bridge.

[KHER]

It holds direct contradictions of itself. This is detrimental to its' effectiveness.

If droids could blink, KHER would've done just that as slowly as possible.

Would it not be better for the Jedi on the whole if their Code gave a singular message?

[Zem Vymes]

"I'd expect a machine to ask that kind of question." Zem replied with a pinch of genteel sass as he crossed his arms.

"The Jedi Order isn't trying to make a homogeneous product. This isn't widgets. What you see as direct contradictions is ambiguity in a living document that a lot of folks spend a lot of time thinking on. It's the journey to suss that out which helps a Jedi to grow."

[KHER]

But if the message was clear from the beginning, then there would be no need for the Jedi to think on such things. Would that not be preferable?

This need for vagaries confounded him, and his processors could make neither head nor tail of it.

It seems that the simple act of existence has enough ambiguity. Why include it in your creed?