Confessions
Locations
Tia’s Apartment
South Pads, Nigita
Hesperus
Coruscant
Veragi Prime
Kuat
Corellia
Bracca
Adasta
Outer Rim
Nigita
Ossus
Hapes
Kamino
Trevannen
Rishi Maze
Resurgent
Makeb
Endor
Alzeera
Mandalore
Factions
Vigil Compact (Republic)
First Order
Harmonium Council
Vyjand
First Order
Players
Tia O'Mandalorio (Laurie)
Sabbath Rune (Jack)
Syatt Walker (Scott)
Fausto (Roger)
T-3PO (Scott)
Velayna Marus
NPCs
Lt. Lee Meriweather
Jayanna Korrs (JK)
Dr. Connor Mathison
Agent Lee Rambaud
Cpt. Assyria Cromwell
LX-73
Adm. Malachy Veloth
BX-917
Jaessa
Lady Adasta
Cdr. Caerr'Lon
High Magister Hexid
Libra
Adm. Malcolm Terrek
Werner Marus
Vaselar
Tattle (TTL-8)
Short Public Excerpt/Summary
Game Date: 10.FORN.35 ABY
Tia pays JK a visit on the Hesperus, looking for some much-needed advice.
JK's comm pings. "(cough) Beeep! You have reached the Pilot's Retirement Home answering service. If this is a message regarding yet another maniacal delve into other people's nightmares, we'll get back to you as soon as we can." You hear a hand hastily covering a microphone. "(ahem) So, you know. Leave a message at the beep. Um, Beep." There's a somewhat nervous peal of laughter. "Hey, I'll call it a win that you didn't just block my number altogether. I promise, no immediate fire to put out this time - really!" There's some amusement in Tia's voice, but she also sounds unusually self-conscious. "Honestly, I was mostly hoping to see if you'd be willing to let me stop by - bribe you with cookies and do some groveling." She pauses. "Maybe ask you a few questions - only if you're up for it! But....yeah, mostly the groveling. And I swear - cookies with me would be WAYless exciting than dinner with Sabbath. We can play holochex or something - that sounds about right for the Retirement Home, right?" There's another pause. "But, um, you can always give me a call back later. After you get the 'message'." "Ah well, you got me, then. We're on the South Pads, big, ugly hospital ship. Only a few other shuttles out here tonight. so hard to miss." She pauses for a second. "Um, just comm when you get here and we'll put down the main lift. Parking outside isn't the best option out here unless your speeder has an auto-turret with a hair trigger. The only folks that use these dark pads are people who don't enjoy being looked at all that much." "You got it - will do." Tia's voice suddenly sounds much lighter. "Comm you in a few."
Some time later, Tia arrives at the South Pads. Pulling out her comm, she punches in JK's number and waits. Below the massive bulk of the Corellian Star Shuttle (a complete misnomer for a ship that large), a cargo lift descends as the ground lights come on. More than adequate for the Vondell, Tia pulls onto the platform, which rises into the belly of the cargo hold. The hold, aside from the ubiquitous crates of Vigil medical supplies and the two shuttles at the far end is mostly empty. JK waves from a central booth in the center of the bay and waves her over. Tia notices a pair of tubolifts to either side. Once the Vondell is in position, Tia hops out. She makes her way to JK, giving her a smile and a little wave. Then, she pulls out a large, carefully wrapped package, brandishing it in front of her. Once she reaches JK, she gives a ridiculously exaggerated bow, holding it out with a flair. JK seals up the control room and takes the package off her hands. "Bribery is liable to get you everywhere on this ship. Doc has taken to calling me a 'Damned Space Pirate'. But that's mostly because I keep threatening to keel-haul him if he puts any more Kuati synth-pop into the ship's playlist." Tia grins. "There's an assortment in there of T's best - though I made sure there's plenty of chocolate chips, since those seemed to go over well enough last time." She gets a thoughtful look on her face. "Can't say I've listened to much Kuati synth-pop, but I gotta admit, their soap operas are pretty damn addicting." JK hits the panel on the side of the turbo lift and the doors open. "Let's just head up to the lounge, the view ain't half bad and the couches are way better than the jump seats down here." The lift ascends to the main deck. Tia follows JK to the forward lounge. Most of the rooms on this floor ware open and a light music feed can be heard throughout the corridors. Tia's not sure, but she thinks it's Arkanian. The ship appears to have been recently cleaned and other than the occasional droid, no one else appears to be on this deck. The lounge is a wide room with a curved forward wall nestled against the hull. Large vertical windows look out across the city to the odd tiered platforms of the hub, partially lit by the evening lights. Looking from this distance, it's clear how much of the city is unoccupied or under-powered. JK flops down onto a couch, where she's already got a few bottles of pop in a chiller tray. "If you want anything else, there's a full mess kitchen behind that counter, and refreshers are just down the hall past them." Looking around, you see a blanket and pillow on one of the couches, as if she's been sleeping here. Tia smiles. "Thanks." Stepping towards the windows, she looks out at the city. "You weren't kidding about the view." "Yep, there's lots of places that look better at a distance. Coruscant was one of them, at least what I saw of it." She flicks off the cap to a pop and puts her ubiquitous boots on the lounge table. "Never went back after the war, place kinda sours on you when you see your ship turn to ashes around you." She toasts to you with the bottle. "Here's to hoping that doesn't happen here. "Don't mind much that you sandbagged me the other night. Just so you're clear. Lot of ways that sort of stuff can go South, good to have artillery nearby." Tia turns from the window to look at JK, and a flicker of guilt passes over her face. "Thanks for saying so, but...still think I'm going to take that as my queue to start the promised groveling portion of this visit." She chuckles ruefully. "You have no idea how relieved I was when you answered that call. And...I'm sorry I wasn't more clear about what you were walking into. Not that I really knew all that was going on myself." Tia grimaces. "Probably not my brightest moment. It was....a very long day already, by that point. All I can say is that at the time, I couldn't quite think of a good way to say, 'Hey JK, Sabbath's kinda freaking me out - no, his eyes aren't bleeding, and no, I haven't actually seen him do anything violent, but...things seem kinda weird, so mind coming over, anyway, just in case? Like, now?'" She sighs. "Not to mention I was a bit paranoid about how he might react if he happened to overhear me saying that." She shakes her head, then gives JK a look of unadulterated gratitude. "Thank you. For getting over there so quickly. And for...well, everything. That night would've been a hell of a lot worse in so many ways if you hadn't been there. Thank you for answering when we needed our local safety." JK waves her off. "Bah! Let's just say I take the second half of my oath a bit more seriously than the first - 'So Others May Live.'" She adds, "It's kinda weird how much the volume of power on this rock makes everything worse. I mean, people getting all this additional power to draw from in the force, then they step off and are weaker." She shivers exaggeratedly, "Reeks of codependence. "Have half a mind to see what it would take to evacuate it and turn it into a glowing cinder." She sips at her pop. "I mean far less people than Veragi..." then she considers who'd notice. "Yeah, and that's why I never made it in the Intelligence racket." The corner of Tia's mouth turns up. "Is that why so many of you seem to hate this place so much? Fears that it'll be a breeding ground for codependent Force users?" "You say 'Tomato', I say 'Addict', bout the same in the end. But enough about my doom and gloom, I've got a real home to go to (occasionally), what about you?" She frowns with her eyebrows, "Not stuck here are you?" Tia chuckles lightly. "Nah - I'm here by choice. Given how much interest there'd been in this place, seemed like it might be a good place for an aspiring businesswoman to set up shop." She snorts. "Of course, that was back before I really knew anything at all about all the Force-related bullshit I'd end up stumbling into here." She shakes her head, seemingly exasperated with herself. "Like I told Sabbath the other night, sometimes the most dangerous thing to you can be what you don't know you don't know." She shrugs. "In any case, I guess I'm pretty invested here now - so not stuck, but not really planning on leaving, either." "Funny" JK pauses, "You sound like Doc. Miserable because of what's going on here, too caught up to leave." She winks, "Though your reason's a bit more relatable to most folk. He's got this thing about 'We have the ability, we should fix things.' and I don't have the heart to beat it out of him." Tia hesitates, biting her lip. "Still miserable, huh? I haven't seen him since he came up here," she nods to indicate the Hesperus, "but....well, he kinda seemed like he could use a vacation last time I saw him planet-side. Was hoping he might be happier on the ship." "Yeah, well happier, maybe. Here we can at least relax and not worry about towing The Director's line. The demotion to Chief of Surgery was a sting, and all the bullshit they laid on his feet about 'Leaking info' didn't help." She taps a comm panel on the table. "But we're trying to get back out into the black. Start his colony work back up. Assyria assigned a bunch of other med crews to the routes, so we're seeing what other sectors we can find." She finishes up her drink as one of the protocol droids comes around the corner. "LX-73, Tia; Tia, LX-73 (don't know that you've been introduced) He's one of our best hands on this pirate ship." The deep blue droid nods. First Mate, Captain, do not demote me to deck hand or I'll have you at the wrong end of a Mutiny.The droid says with a monotone. Arrrgh. "Awesome! You've been reading those trashy serials from Corellia I lent you then! We'll have this place a right Privateer's Parlor in no time." She pauses, then asks seriously, "73, Is Doc down for the night? Didn't want to wake him if he was." The droid responds, Yes, Captain. He was resequencing the BLX signal processor all afternoon. "You made sure he ate?" Affirmative, though I am dismayed by his fondness for Nutritional supplement 908 instead of any prepared meals from the galley. All the technicians used to swear it tasted like hull sealant. "Nah, he loves that stuff when grinding on problems, he said it tastes exactly like the instant noodles he used to get on Imperial Center in University." She salutes the Droid. "You're welcome to stay, just talking shop, but that was all I needed," she closes. Tia's lips twitch. "Ahoy, LX-73. Nice to meetcha - and glad you're keeping the Doc stocked up on grub, even if it's just hardtack." Exactly, Ma'am.Turning to JK the Droid asks, Shall I get this one a mop and bucket or should I wait until after you and the press gang club her over the head? JK laughs at the two of you. "No need, 73, she's got more than enough to clean up after." Yes, Mistresses, I shall be off then. I still need to find that last power fluctuation in the main lab and the Mice are not as helpful as they would like to believe. "As you were, Sailor," she answers. The Droid waves and nods then heads off towards the far corridor. "I may have to live with Auriga being Vigil property and assigned to the base, but at least this is Doc's." Tia chuckles as 73 heads off, but then turns to raise a questioning eyebrow at JK. "Wait - are you saying the Hesperus isn't Vigil property?" "Nope. When Doc sent folks to Bracca to find out what happened to the contractors restoring her, they ran into Zyg's. The guys broke the contractors out of the lock up and they just handed over the ship, no questions asked. They never had an employer who'd go to the trouble to check up on a bunch of Ugnauts, and free them when they were in trouble." She shrugs. "Shitty galaxy this is these days if that's the truth, but I'm not looking a gift hulk like this in the mouth." She waves her hands around, "Sure, she wears the colors and has the comms. But most of the upgrades we put our personal budgets on. We had years of back energy credits as I creatively quartermastered lots of gear out in the colonies." She notes the crossed eye brows. "We get funded in real currency out here since we're dealing with people not on Adasta's market." She winks, "So we stockpiled for a rainy day." Tia blinks in surprise, then smiles, looking impressed. "How about that. Good for you two. Doc's given a lot of people a good turn - nice to see someone giving him one." She glances around the ship as if with fresh eyes before snagging a bottle from the chiller. Popping off the top, she finally drops down onto the couch, folding her legs beneath her. She chuckles. "Kinda makes the pirate shtick more fitting, too." "Yeah, just don't let the whole 'Little grateful pig-people gave it to us' get around. I know where you live, after all." Tia snorts, and motions as if zipping up her lips. "Your secret is safe with me. Clearly, you rescued the ship single-handed from a rival band of pirates. No other explanation would hold water, anyway." She smirks. JK mock salutes "Yep, only the best for a filthy Separatist." Tia chuckles slightly. After a moment, though, her smile fades, and she regards JK more thoughtfully. "So when she goes back up, you going with her? Or you staying here on base?" JK frowns at the unasked question. "Yep. We're a pair, all right. I'm a volunteer, got no rank anymore. It's why I don't wear the trappings unless I have to." She leans back on the sofa and calls out indirectly. "Hesperus? Something a little more peppy, just on this deck, forward lounge only. Maybe some Shyraw of Duros from my collection." Aye Aye, Captain.Replies a disembodied voice. The Arkanian classics are replaced by swingy cantina tunes. "There we go." She seems to relax a bit. "They can always pull me back if they need to, but I have no more orders in any official capacity. My status was reset on the way back from Adasta last time." She avoids Tia's gaze. "I'll still keep my commitments and work on our 'Project' as best I can. But I have to tell you, I'll be glad to get off this cursed rock." "Ah." Tia takes a sip from her bottle, then glances at it as if wishing it were something stronger. "Another thing that changed on that trip." She smiles sadly. "Can't say that I blame you for wanting to get out of here, though. Even if selfishly, I'll miss having you around." She pauses for a long moment. "Wasn't sure what I would've done. If you hadn't answered, I mean. Wasn't sure who my next call would be." She smiles, but despite her best efforts, it seems rather strained. "Guess I should probably figure that out, just in case. Any suggestions?" JK considers that for a moment or two. "As long as it's not violent, his friends first, always. But if he's gone round the bend, sadly, the Director." She sees the micro-expression. "She has a team to stop it. But if it gets to the point that her team can't because she wasn't informed?" JK shudders. "Likely have The Admiral show up and prosecute with extreme prejudice. I'm not the only one he taught. And while they aren't my skill level, they make up for it in numbers." Tia pauses again, her expression empty. Finally, she sighs. "I don't even want to think about it. This is why I called you that night - you have the skills to deal with it, but...you're also a friend. He respects you. And...I know you care about what happens to him." Tia frowns. "Under normal circumstances...." She suddenly stops, making a face, "Yeah, who am I kidding, none of this is fucking normal." She snorts. "Let's try that again. Barring something particularly extreme happening, I really don't see Sabbath getting violent like that. At least, not on his own. And he's damned stubborn enough that I don't see him deliberately pulling Dark Side energy and letting that Sith bitch get her hooks in him that way. But..." She trails off. Wincing, she looks up at JK. She opens her mouth and closes it a few times. Looking frustrated, she finally says, "There's no easy way to say this. I'm concerned about what he might do if anything happens to me. Or...if for any reason he suddenly didn't have me. Or thought he didn't." She frowns, and she uncomfortably looks down at her hands. "Damn, that sounds egotistical." She sighs. "Just....please hear me out. I care about him, JK. It's not as if I want to be thinking about who to call if everything goes wrong. Last thing I want to do is make a call that gets him killed." She makes a harsh sound that might have been a laugh. "Even if he comes back from it. "But lately..." She shakes her head. "He's always been hella overprotective, but he's just been so damn intense about...well, me, and...it's starting to worry me." She bites her lip. "He's always worn his emotions on his sleeve, but they've seemed so...close to the surface lately. And he overreacts any time someone takes a potshot against me or says a cross word my way." Again, she winces. "And then he got drunk. Although he did at least say he wasn't going to do that again, so I guess that's good." She scowls. "Who'd have thought the man would be such a lightweight? Never splitting a bottle with him ever again." She blows out a long breath. "Look, there's still an awful lot that I don't know about all this Force stuff. Maybe I'm overreacting. But from what I have learned...it kinda seems like those kinds of strong emotions can cause trouble. Be an opening for the Dark Side. Am I reading that wrong? Or should I be worried that if he gets too angry or upset, that it might give that Sith bitch a chance to get at him?" She chews anxiously on her lip. "Right now, I'm honestly afraid of saying something that might set him off. You should've seen his face when I went home with 917 instead of with him. I just...don't know how he'd react if I told him that it's been a bit...much... or asked him to bring it down a notch. Let alone if he knew how much he scared me that night. It just...hasn't seemed prudent to risk it, given the stakes." She swallows. "And that's not even going into the explosion that I'm worried might happen if something actually happened to me. I just..." She looks down at her hands, her expression pained. "I hope he'd keep his self control, but...right now, I don't know that he would. And...I don't want that on my conscience. Any of it." She hesitantly looks up at JK. "But...other than be careful and wait until we can hopefully deal with that damn Force demon, I don't know what else I can do. I'm not a Force user - hell, I'm really not even a fighter. If things went south...well, I know I'm not any kind of artillery. But I'm likely to be the one in the line of fire, one way or another, if something were to go wrong." She rubs her temples. "JK, all I have are words, and right now the potential consequences of using the wrong ones seem too damn high. I'd like to believe that he'd be fine if I tried to talk to him, and explain some of this, but...all my instincts are screaming at me that the risks of him reacting...badly to my telling him any of this outweigh any possible pluses from it. And I'm not willing to roll those dice. Not with his life, mine, or any others." She shivers. "Not when I don't have any good options for dealing with it, or putting the brakes on the conversation, if it all went wrong." JK listens quietly, giving Tia the space she needs to unpack what she's telling her. Tia's good enough at reading people to see the glimmers of recognition and regret cross her face. As Tia brings her confession to a conclusion, JK sighs. "So, you know, I didn't know anything about the Force until the day I was reborn a Vanguard. In my day, Jedi were a thing to be feared, beyond the law, beyond appeal, they showed up, tested children, then the children went away, forever." She pauses to take a drink and regain her composure. "I think my parents moved us out into the Outer Rim because they knew. I got caught up in the separatist movement after I got out of the piloting academy." She cocks her head to the side, "Thinking back, I guess I technically cheated my whole way through academy by using the Force. "Anyway, just to paint you a picture, everything I know about the Force was trained into me after I had already lived a life." She pauses and shifts her seat so she's facing you. "But it came from people who had lifetimes of watching others with power. The Lady collected the writings and knowledge of nearly every tradition she encountered. Most of which are long gone from the Galaxy, burned away by millennia of war between the top two. "There's a reason we keep our distance." She lets the sentence hang there for a moment. "We're living weapons at the end of the day. All the philosophy, spirituality, and religious nonsense you paint it in won't polish that turd." She shrugs, "The Vanguard don't really concern themselves with the Why anymore. We care about How. And the how of the Dark Side (and man do I hate that term) is that when in passion, we're stronger. Point Blank. We're stronger because we no longer take the precautions of channeling only the power we need, and from what we have. We ignore the consequences, tear our own bodies apart for more power, blind to the pain, ignorant of the consequences." She points at Tia's chest, "You know those tensions and internal screams you have when caught in a bad situation? The ones that make you tremble with adrenalin, desperate to fight or flee?" Tia nods. "Now give that barely restrained instinct the power to rip a starship in half. "So that's the how." She pauses, "At the end of the day, we all are capable of horrible things when we're hurt. We say the wrong things to people, hit them, burn bridges, sabotage relationships. Many a light-sider has been derailed by emotions they couldn't control. Of the ones I've had to hunt, Fear seems to top the list. "But you know all this." She cocks an eyebrow. "What you're really asking me is if I know a way to not make it true." Tia bites her lip. "Or maybe a way to at least try to avoid the worst scenarios from coming true, at this point." She sighs. "There's a difference between the possibility of disaster and the reality when it's already hit. So far, the explosion hasn't happened. That means there's time to take steps to try to prevent it from happening at all." She looks down at her hands. "Because...well, even if you're right. Even if it isbetter for Vanguard to be distant...it seems a little late to talk about Sabbath keeping his distance." One corner of Tia's mouth quirks up, and she looks at JK somewhat ruefully. "When it comes to me, the distance is gone. The man's nothing if not passionate. Hell, from the first day we met, he's done pretty much everything he could to get rid of any distance between us. He's damned persistent, when he wants to be, and....well, I guess that worked." Tia's focus goes inward, and slowly her smile fades from her face. "But that begs the question of where to go from here. Even if I tried to pull the plug, to put some distance between us," she chews on her lip, "I don't think it would really be much of a solution, now. Knowing him - no matter how I did it, he'd either be devastated or furious. Or both. Which sounds like it would defeat the purpose - it would just skip straight to putting him in that fight or flee mode we were trying to avoid in the first place." Tia's lips thin. "I won't do it. Certainly not as long as that thing is haunting him. It's not worth the risk - seems like it would be setting him up to fall." Tia raises her chin, and her eyes are determined. "That bitch is NOT going to get at him because of his feelings for me. It's just...not happening. Not if I can help it. And I really don't want to gut him like that, especially at a time when he really needs all the help and support he can get." She takes a deep breath, then slowly lets it out, and her gaze turns to JK. "So. What can I do? I'm certainly open to suggestions." She gives the other woman a small, tired smile. "It's not as if I haven't been turning the problem around in my head. Piece by piece, question by question. But...I just can't see a safe way for me to even talk to him about it." She shakes her head sadly. "He just seems so....raw, sometimes. Volatile." Her eyes are troubled. "Not in a...violent way, but...." She sighs. "It's a bit...alarming at times. To be on the receiving end of that kind of..." Trailing off, Tia just shakes her head, as if unable or unwilling to continue the thought. JK polishes off the cocktail in a bottle. "He's going to have to pass the test somehow. Delaying it at some personal cost is not something I'd ever tell someone to do. But I've done it. But whatever you do, live. Don't live for any of us. It just bakes in resentment, despair, and makes it harder when you eventually break. That's not blame, that's people." She laughs, "All people." Chuckling she begins, "I've never said more than two sentences to the Lady, but Assyria tells stories. She was there in the long years during the High Republic, before the Clone Wars and all of this century of death. Some of those stories paint a picture of a person just as flawed as the rest of us. Someone just as sad about those who have been lost and can never be found again." JK pops the top of another pop, but doesn't add to it, then grabs a cookie. "That's the most inspiring thing about being one of us, to me. She's just as messed up as the rest of us, despite all that power. The difference is the experience. Heh, maybe we should ask her? "Wouldn't that be a riot? I mean, come all the way out to Nigita to give us a pep talk?" She laughs a little and shifts her legs under her, mirroring Tia's position. "We could sit here on this old ship drinking fizz and snacking like a university dorm. Like a sorority. I bet she did that once too, at least from what I think she is." Tia gives JK a considering look. "People are people, and that usually involves some amount of baggage. Older the person, the longer they have to accumulate more. Just as true of Vanguard as the rest of us, for all your efforts to keep your distance. And you've all had more time than most for them to pile up. Even moreso the Lady." Tia chuckles lightly. "And a sorority, huh? Doesn't sound so bad to me." A shadow briefly passes over her face, but then it's gone and she leans over, snatching up a cookie. "If we're sorority sisters, maybe I can convince you to hide in a nearby closet as backup whenever I finally do try to talk to Sabbath." She starts pulling the cookie apart, popping pieces into her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "Or at least at my place, if I'm at his." She waves the dwindling remnants of her cookie around. "I can promise T would keep you supplied with cookies. They're even better fresh from the oven. And then we could gossip after about how the boy talk went." Polishing off her cookie, she grabs her bag and begins scrounging around in it. After a moment, she pulls out a piece of hard candy and tosses it into her mouth, then offers one to JK. "If it wasn't for all the fucking complications circling around him, I'd've already had a conversation with him, instead of bothering you with it." She makes a face. "I've got every intention of living - that's part of why I haven't talked to him about all this yet. I'm not too proud to ask for help when I'm out of my depth." Tia shakes her head. "I don't know about you, but a pep talk would work for me right about now. You think her schedule's open?" She chuckles, then looks at JK curiously. "What exactly do you think she is, that a gaggle of sorority girls would seem familiar?" "When I got out from under being a Hunter, and kicked my way back to the Inner Rim. I cast about on projects for a while. But, as Vanguard, I still had to check in, in case I was the one that went off the deep end." She takes the candy. "So I reported to Assyria and Caerr'Lon, they oversee all the local colonial operations this far away from the homeworld." "Which is odd, I mean the Admiralty and the main fleets are full of Vanguard, massive operations. Yet here's this little task force of mostly contractors, just plodding along and doing relief efforts half the galaxy from home." She pops the candy into her mouth and pockets the wrapper. "This was before they were assigned squires. So it was just the two of them." JK smirks, "Then I started hanging around them and talking to them more. Man, are they full of stories. Assyria's got to be the damned prototype for Jedi. She's everything the myths say they are. The courage, conviction, justice, peace, it's all there. Nothing like the Jedi of the War, who were as messed up as any Vyjand I've ever fought. Then there's Caerr'Lon, who's a whole other level of weird. I mean she was a Nightsister Mother, ruled an entire coven, could raise undead with a whisper and rip the will whole out of any who challenged her. Yet she's the most insightful and self sacrificing Vanguard you'll ever meet. Both of them threw away massive indoctrination from opposite sides of the Force and managed to arrive at the same place. They became best friends while doing so." JK kicks her feet back out onto the table and leans back, sort of talking to the ceiling as she remembers, "They came to the Vanguard a long time ago. From what I can tell, the Lady needed to spread us out more to see where the enemy could possibly breach the barrier. We wouldn't find Vector Prime for several hundred years more. So for the first time, she reached out into the Force and looked for others whom she never knew. Those two were the first, and sadly, the only ones who keep coming back. I can imagine Hexid being a bit beside herself that day. Here you are, First Magister, think you're a master of the power you've basically architected for four millennia, and Lady Adasta just walks up one afternoon and goes 'I'd like to find some new friends, shouldn't be that hard.' then freaking does it." "Anyway, A & C told me some of the stories they got second hand while working together in those days. When the Vigil was just Vanguard, no others, well, except the Libra." JK starts absently making gestures as she talks, as if drawing things in the air. "The Lady always surrounded herself with the best and brightest. Always looking to them to make the decisions, but always trying to get them to see things the way she did, bigger pictures. As if she knew if they looked at things a different way, they'd see the same obvious answer, so she wouldn't have to tell them what to do. They'd come to it their own way. "That's someone who's been in a sisterhood for a long time. Even if hers has guys in it." Tia hesitates for a long moment as she mulls that over. Finally she gives a small laugh, and looks up at JK. "There's precious little about any of this that isn't odd in one way or another, if you ask me. Seems lucky that those two have been assigned together for so long, given how close they are, though." She smiles, though a little sadly. "It's good to have friends around, especially when you're far from home. Have they been the only lucky ones assigned out here? I hope they at least get some leave occasionally or something - give someone else the chance to deal with backwater places like Nigita and the crazy people who live on them." She gives JK a smirk. She leans back on the couch, taking a sip from her bottle. "I wonder if the Lady has anything to do with keeping them paired up - she does seem to have an understanding of the bonds that tie people together. Sisterhood, friendship." Tia pauses. "And she certainly does have a rather interesting way of putting things into perspective. Nigita's a bit far from Adasta, but I suppose I could always invite her over for tea - return the favor, and see if she'd be willing to share some of that perspective again. Maybe through more conventional means, this time - all these Force shenanigans are starting to give me a headache." She glances at the bottles still chilling. "I wonder if she'd like pop instead of tea." Her eyes slide back over to JK, her expression mild as she waits. "So it's true then?" JK closes her eyes. "Assyria hinted that you had gone to the Assembly tower. She looked kind of scared about it. Well, as much as she does about anything." She reopens her eyes. "Man, that's got to really twist your head if it does cartwheels in mine. I mean she barely speaks to the Vanguard. I mean I don't think she talks to anyone other than the Libra and her bodyguards for more than a minute. Heck I don't even think she leaves the tower. "And here you are, outsider, stranger, normal as the day is long, not a wick of Force in your candle, and You go to tea." JK absently scratches the back of her head. "Always a curve to throw at us." Tia gives a low chuckle, but there’s the barest hint of relief in her eyes. “And I’d be perfectly happy to stay normal, thank you very much. It's not as if I asked to start having visions shoved into my head, you know." She rubs her temples. "And Assyria looked scared, huh? Believe me, I get why my having tea at the tower is hella strange - yeah, my brain is still spinning from the fact that it happened at all, can't quite wrap my head around that one - but why would it frighten her?" "Why would it frighten her?" JK shrugs. "Sounds like a normal, healthy response to the unknown to me. Makes you pay attention more. "I mean she's already concerned about why she wasn't put on the front line for bringing those Vanguard back. Then she finds that the person whose judgement she trusts the most goes and reaches out to someone who doesn't know anything about us at all?" JK shrugs. "Pretty valid reaction to not knowing what's going on." Tia winces a bit. "Sorry. Not trying to question Assyria, just..." She gives JK an apologetic smile. "Guess I'm a bit jumpy. Because you're right - there's an awful lot I just don't know. But given the little I do..." She sighs. "Let's just say that if folks who clearly know more than I do are acting scared, I'd rather know why in case there's something important I'm missing - not make assumptions that it's something I'd consider normal or already know about." Tia gives a short, self-deprecating laugh. "I mean, you're certainly not going to get any objections from me that it's a valid reaction to not knowing what's going on." She tips her bottle back, taking a long swig. "Point." JK sits back and folds her hands in he lap. "Didn't get the sense it was anything specific, but then I don't stick my brain in people's heads by default, so I didn't pick up on anything other than apprehension. I mean, it is certainly a twist for me, but I don't think like a lot of the others, at least not anymore. "At the end of the day, I know what I know, and I don't waste time with what I don't. I've got other stuff to do." She closes her eyes. "I worry sometimes that if the Force were to suddenly, I don't know, just go away that none of these..." She waves a hand around, "Vanguard, Harmonium, Sith, whatever Space Wizards, would just up and die. They aren't real people without their powers, they've thrown everything into perfecting those skills and couldn't farm a tract of land, dig a ditch, or turn a wrench if their lives depended on it. "How do folks not have fallback plans? How do you go through life only good at one thing?" She shrugs, "That kind of specialization is for insects." Tia chews thoughtfully on her lip. "I don't know," she finally says. "In general, not going to say it isn't smart to have a backup plan. I've only met a handful of Force users, and only since coming to Nigita. With my rather limited understanding of Force bullshit," one corner of her mouth quirks up, "it just seems like another tool in the tool belt to me. But a versatile one. I mean, I've seen it heal, and persuade, and stun, and, of course, throw shit around." She shrugs. "I guess people use what they know. Doesn't seem so terribly different from playing to any other advantages - using your wits if you have them, or strength, or grace. Can use those for a lot of things, too, and there are often benefits to specializing." Absently, she swirls the remnants of her bottle in one hand. "Higher risks, too - definitely in more trouble if for any reason you suddenly lose that strength and can't do what you've specialized in. But that doesn't mean folks don't have any other skills, even if they’re not particularly developed. Or that they couldn't learn new ones if they needed to.” She chuckles lightly. "Sabbath's pretty invested in the whole throwing shit around thing, but I gotta admit he makes a pretty good omelette." She pauses. “In any case, I don’t think skills alone determine what makes people real. I’ve known some pretty skilled people that didn’t have an ounce of realness in their whole body, and wouldn’t recognize it if you gave it to them on a silver platter.” Tia frowns. "But based on what I felt in that tower…” She winces, giving JK an almost apologetic look. “She...gave me a glimpse of it, I guess. What it’s like to feel the Force.” She hesitates before plowing ahead. “I can't imagine being used to having that and then suddenly having the sense of it just be poof - gone." She shakes her head. "For me, it was just going back to normal. But if you've had that in the background your whole life..." Tia shrugs. "I'd think that would be harder to adjust to than simply picking up new skills. More like going blind or deaf." She gives JK a thoughtful look. “The way you talk about it sometimes, though - almost sounds like you don’t see it that way.” "True enough. I actively try to get through the day without using it at all. But that's ingrained in me. It's part of our training. But that's because we don't trust it." She looks at Tia and squints a bit, "So we don't use it unless we need to." She chucks her thumb back over her shoulder, "Even Assyria and Caerr'Lon try not to use it unless they have to, and they both have powers they cannot turn off." She mimics the long gloves that Caerr'Lon wears and the visor Assyria has. "But they still try to. "While we practice, hone our skills, master others, we still set those tools aside at the end of the day." JK lifts the front of her jacket open revealing an empty belt. "The same way I don't wear a pistol in my own home. "Constantly relying on the power alters your perceptions." She moves her hand back and forth between the two of them, "It disconnects you from others, from understanding how they live." Tapping a finger against her temple, she continues, "Why bother getting to know someone if you can pull their emotional state and thoughts right out of their head? Why learn to see life through the eyes of a day laborer and work in the fields if you could do his job with a wave of your hand?" Mimicking chopping food and waving her hand, she adds "So when I see a fledgling with emotional issues not even making a meal without pushing objects around with the Force, it sets off all sorts of red flags." Tia shivers. Standing from the couch, she steps over to the bar. She grabs a bottle of something, then carefully dumps it into her mostly empty bottle of soda until it's full. Taking a swig, she heads back and drops down onto the couch. She stares at her newly refilled bottle for a moment. "Point," she finally says. She raises her eyes to meet JK's. "On all fronts." She pauses. "Though I can at least say that I've only ever seen Sabbath use his abilities casually to move things like that. I really don't think he'd use them to break into someone's head that way. And I can confirm that since I've been wearing this," she pulls Lee's Abbatar and dog tags out from where she usually wears them under her shirt, "I've never had any sign that he tried." She pauses, then bites her lip. "Although I guess there was once or twice before I had it that things kinda....vibrated around us a little when he was feeling a bit....emotional." She winces. "I honestly didn't think much of it at the time - it wasn't exactly threatening, and it certainly didn't seem like anyone was in danger of getting hurt or anything." She shrugs, then sighs. "I don't know." She frowns at her bottle. "That seems to be my theme tonight - 'I don't know.' But when he's not freaking me out - I do think he means well, JK. I just..." She looks up at JK somewhat hopefully. "I still think he'd benefit from talking to someone that actually does know something. Like he said the other night, it's not as if he ever had a real teacher." Some faint amusement flickers over her face. "Barring what you've been able to drill into his head so far, that is." JK laughs, "Pretty sure I'm old enough to be your grandmother (I mean if Vanguard weren't sterile as stones), and I still don't know shit." She good naturedly jabs Tia in the arm, "So if you either suddenly 'know' or you find someone claiming they do? Run. Either way, Run." She points to the necklace. "An Agent's shield. Might handy those are. I know the one I keep tuned for Doc has shielded him from too many prying minds on Nigita already." She taps her own, "Since I keep it linked to mine, it has even had to really defend him once or twice. Someone tried compelling him to do something, and his 'Flee Immediately' impulse tripped. Good Times, Good Times." She waves her hand to the side of her head. "Distant past, right? Maybe three months, but who's counting?" She chuckles, "Oh, right, me. "Sadly, I doubt I can teach all of them. Certainly some are so steeped in their indoctrination there's nothing to work with. To them, the Jedi were sinners or saints and the Sith boundless evil. How have they taken it when Assyria told them their hokey religions didn't matter?" She cocks an eye at Tia's smirk. "Sabbath still has hope." JK pauses, "But he's got to understand compassion and love without obsession. He's got to know that empathy and sympathy are worth the pain, and our existence as Vanguard is going to be full of it." She hits a console on the lounge table and a galaxy map appears on the ceiling. She points at the center of the map. "There's 400 trillion sentients in that swirling, brilliant, mass. They could all be consumed in an instant if any one of a trillion trillion things goes wrong. The trick to being us, if there is one, is to know you can't save everyone all the time. That people are always being hurt, and you have to keep your attachment to that pain only as large as you can wrap your arms around. But not so much that you can't see anything else. Grief without despair, love without delirium." "The more you place your power and ability between you and that pain, the more you risk the power overwhelming you." She stops to look at Tia with the hint of concern, "and everyone else around you. "But then, what do I know?" She snickers, "I'm an old fossil, trained by other old fossils, and none of us were bright enough to avoid dying in the first place. So maybe nobody should be listening to us." Tia makes a face. "Still know more than I do about all this Force nonsense, grandma - 'shit' is apparently at least a few ranks up from 'zilch'." She snorts. "But don't worry - I'm well aware that anyone claiming to have all the answers is overselling, and I'm not generally in the habit of buying snake oil. Or peddling it." She sighs. "I, for one, still hold out hope that you'll continue sharing not-lessons of what you don't know with Sabbath." Some unease passes over her face. "And that some of it will sink in, or he'll figure some of all that out. Because blind obsession...it's not all it's cracked up to be." She bites her lip in worry. "No matter how the stories make it sound." She looks down at her hands. "I don't want him to be so overwhelmed that he loses himself," she says softly. She's quiet for a moment. Then shaking herself as if trying to clear her head, she gives JK an incredulous look. "But...back up a sec. You said that some asshole tried to mind-fuck Doc? In the last few months? Does that mean - was it on Nigita? Who?" Tia appears simultaneously horrified and morbidly curious. "Please tell me it isn't someone I know." She pauses, seeming confused. "And what do you mean, that you keep his Abbatar linked to yours? I thought they were all just attuned to the person they're made for?" "So, maybe I shouldn't have said anything, but it was 'Bandit'. Now, I'm a fan of letting people show you who they are when they don't know they can't get away with shit. So this was before he had any inkling of what I am or what Doc represents." She purposefully relaxes the furrows in her brow. "He and some other did some jobs for us, and started to get an interest in the infection the Vyjand were testing. We didn't want to spread misinformation, or fear, until we were certain, and didn't show them the whole picture. I mean, why would we? We hired them as mercenaries and they did their jobs and got paid." She exhales deeply, "But Bandit gets it into his one active brain cell that we're hiding something big from him, as if he has some divine right to know. First one of his other cronies tries to mind probe the Doc, so he catches them and tells them not to do it again." She turns up her hands "You'd think that would be it, right? Nope. Bandit comes barging into the hangar one morning with more of his pals and point blank tries to dominate Doc into telling them the whole truth. "It was so pronounced that Doc's Abbatar pinged out directly to mine and hit him with a serenity pulse - a kind of 'stop thinking about everything and enjoy this perfect moment in the universe' failsafe - a last ditch to get folks out of your head. Then I came in and watched what was going on." She shrugs. "I'm getting old. I know so, because I let them explain themselves and didn't fling them up and out of the roof of the hangar like bad pennies. I tell myself that it was because no one knew what we were, and I had no reason to blow our cover. But I am just tired of killing stupid people just for being stupid. I gave them an out." JK points to her fingers and counts out in time with her speech, "So these guys were hired to do jobs and were paid and patched up for each, have Doc, possibly the nicest employer you could ever ask for, are told that the disease is unknown and currently Doc's organization doesn't feel you have the clearance to know everything about it, have no idea the capabilities and skills of the people and droids he surrounds himself with - " She's now down to her index finger, "And you mentally assault the employer because you feel entitled to an answer?" JK shakes her head, which turns into a shiver at her shoulders as she sheds the anger. "Fuck that guy. Maybe he's seen the light, maybe he hasn't, but that nickname was the only truth he ever spoke. He was a self righteous thug. I, for one, do not intend to forget it." She shrugs apologetically. "Sorry, got my back up. "As for the Abbatar, well, I took some time to learn a few things from Vaselar a while back. Gifted artisan. He showed me that the power to manipulate objects doesn't end with moving them. Taught me some of the basics that the Magisters have mastered in creating the blades and other devices we use, including Abbatars." She pulls hers from inside her collar, "I can't do much, but I can imbue them with a little extra, like that shield I put in Mathison's. I can also attune two together, so that they mirror warnings. Mine grows cold when his is tripped, and sometimes when he needs me, I 'hear' it." JK lets the medallion drop to her chest. "The good Magisters can do all sorts of things with theirs, and I've been trying to master allowing them to extend their warning into unconsciousness. Like a wake up alarm. But still struggling with that. Mostly when on the ground here. Damn planet messes everything up." Tia stares at JK, then gives a single humorless bark of laughter and shakes her head in disbelief. "Bandit. It would be. For fuck sake." She rubs her temples, then takes a plug from her bottle. "I don’t blame you for getting your back up. I don’t know how Doc deals with it - he has the patience of a fucking saint.” She grimaces. “You can be damn sure I wouldn’t forget it if Bandit had tried to pull that shit with me. And I won’t forget that he tried it with Mathison, either.” Her lips thin. “Did you know that he pretty much called me a liar to my face when I told him I found that hilt on Ossus?” She snorts. “As if I’d just been carrying it around in my bag, saving it for a rainy day.” She rolls her eyes. “Then he wants the full story. As if there’s any point in me telling him anything else when he doesn’t even believe the most basic of facts I’ve already shared.” She leans further back into the couch. “Entitled is right. Maybe someday I’ll sit down and try to explain to him that some people actually value a little thing called privacy, and that trust is typically earned, not given out wholesale, under duress, or in response to an insult.” "Hah!" JK laughs out loud. "I'm effectively immortal, and even I don't have time enough for that." She thinks for a minute, "Wait, did you tell him about your meeting in the tower? Does he think you're a plant?" Tia shrugs. “Hell if I know what he thinks half the time. But I’ve made no secret of the fact that a good number of people I care about have ties to Vigil.” As she speaks, her free hand reaches for her still-visible Abbatar, and she absently runs a finger along the attached dog tags. “Or that I think that Doc’s work is important, and the fight against the Vyjand. I didn’t hide that I went to the tower, but as you might guess, I’m not big on sharing all of the details of my personal life with him.” JK shrugs, "He's a product of the system. Take a kid barely out of diapers, ship him off to a bunch of monks that hid while the galaxy burned. They pour fear and doubt under a veneer of contemplation into his ears. Then send him home to watch his only real family get taken away by Slavers." JK taps the side of her head with a finger, "Yep, recipe for a bag full of loose screws even before you get to space wizard bullshit. "You know? You should get royalties on that. It's catchy." Leaning back, she threads her fingers together behind her head, "So you're here now with the only people that don't expect anything of you. People who aren't looking to take anything from you. Maybe, just maybe, ones who have been down similar roads before. "I see why she was fond of you, 'όραση μεταξύ των τυφλών'." JK smirks, "I didn't know what she meant, and I was too caught up in my own crap to get to know her better, but the duality of the phrase matches." She sees Tia's puzzled look. "The Lieutenant. She used that phrase in her after-action report on Hapes. It means 'Vision amongst the blind.' I thought she meant something about your looks and the possessed suitor at the bar, but she has your number." Tia pauses for a long moment. Finally, her eyes close, and she tips back her bottle, her expression empty. Lowering it back down to rest in her lap, she swallows, then looks up at JK. “Wish I still had hers - can’t tell you how many times I would’ve called it.” She sighs. "I’d wondered how well you two might have known each other.” JK looks slightly guilty for a second. "I've been in the core for a while. Before Doc's project, there were others. I keep tabs on what's going on inside, so that those who fight can worry about what's going on outside." She pops her knuckles, "My first pitched battle against the Vyjand was Veragi. Before that, all I'd ever fought were the occasional scout or infiltrator. Tangled with a masquerading ship or two. But Meriweather? Like she was born on the front line and couldn't figure out how to stand back." She pops open a new bottle, and toasts, "People I should have known better when I had the chance. "I'd seen her in the fleet occasionally, transferring from one place to another. There aren't many scouts with my particular knack for navigation." She waves her hand as if a fish swimming, "Then she got stuck here and man did she whip the ground crew together in a hurry. Contractors, construction crews, BX platoons, and all that quartermastering work." She snaps her fingers. "Doc didn't even know what to ask about before he had it. She told me one day during the site meetings that they just used a playbook for converting old Imperial facilities. But it's one thing to follow a playbook, it's another to do it that clean and smooth. "Have to tell you, though, Doc lent me a copy from his neural recorder of the 'Constitution' shindig. First because he thought I wouldn't believe the shit those people were up to. But also, he wanted me to watch her, fresh off the boat, kindly, firmly, politely, tell Bandit to keep his furry ass walking when he wanted to 'Ask the Doc some questions' about Vigil's position." She chuckles. "The amount of 'I don't care what kind of class act you think this is, you step one more foot near my charge and I'll flatten the stripes off your furry ass.' she was radiating was a sight to behold." Tia solemnly returns JK's toast. At her description, a faint smile flickers across her face, and there's recognition in her eyes. "I hadn't been here for very long then - I think that might've been the first time I saw her, at that damn meeting." She shakes her head. "Certainly didn't know any of the relevant history there at the time. Even so, she made an impression." Tia looks down at her nearly empty bottle. "She was easily one of the most capable and reliable people I've ever had the good fortune to meet." She rasps out a quiet chuckle. "And she did have her way with words." Tia finishes off her drink, then sets the bottle down on the floor. "I've seen her record. Would've looked like she was wearing a damn coat of metal armor if she tried to put on all those medals at once. Like a real knight." Something glimmers in the back of her eyes. "Sounds like she'd been through hell. And survived a lot of damage along the way." JK nods in agreement, "Reminded me of my first captain, Dalaven. Lost him at the Battle of Coruscant. Seems a trend." A shadow passes over Tia's face. "Time for a new one - this one's the pits." She's quiet for a moment. Then she sighs, looking up at JK. "Do you know what happened to her other sisters? She never even mentioned them to me. But...seems a lot of them have been lost, too." "So, I only know what Assyria shared with me, as most of it was back in the home system. She kept tabs on them, ever the Jedi, keeping her 'attachments' at arm's length." JK shakes her head. "But aside from one who didn't make it back from Kamino, her cybernetics were rejecting all over the place and there just wasn't time, the rest supposedly had all sorts of adjustment problems. "Not that it's a bad thing to not fit in, but from what Assyria shared, it seems whatever they were bred to do got in the way of who they were?" JK asks, more than tells. "Dunno if that makes sense, but that's how she put it. One by one they either crashed & burned, got too sick to function, or just vanished. "Assyria took it hardest when the only four who tested Force Sensitive died in their trials. Which is frightening, given the odds." She involuntarily shivers. "I mean tons of kids go through the courses on Trevannen every year, and aside from scrapes, falls, and the occasional broken bone, serious injuries are almost unheard of. So for four to die in a year?" "Yeah, that sets off my hunter instinct. That's a Dark Side outcome." She puts up her hands slightly in surrender. "But I wasn't there, neither was Assyria. So all we have are the reports from the investigators and instructors. Some of whom resigned rather than face students again after such a tragedy. "I don't know all of them, and I've only met two. But if the ones that are left are cut from the same stuff?" She absently traces a helix along her forearm using her finger. "Can't imagine the crazy science those long necked fish people were up to, or even why they were doing it." Tia sighs. She gives her empty bottle a mournful look but doesn't move from her sprawl on the couch. "I'd rather not imagine it - can't have been anything good, given their methods." Looking back up at JK, she blinks. "But Assyria, or at least someone at Vigil, knows what was being done there, right? What they were being bred," she makes a sour face at the word, "to do? I would think that they would've found that out when they raided the place, and got the girls out of there." Her expression darkens. "After living through those kinds of experiments…I don't see how the experience could've not left a mark. On all of them." She seems troubled. "So I read a bit about the operation when I thought Assyria might be on the edge. I needn't have worried, Caerr'Lon was all over that." JK cocks her head in remembering the details, "From what I could find, the whole op was a bolt from the blue. A passing trader in the Rishi Maze detected a power signature on the old Cloning Facility and mentioned it to one of Terrek's scouts. The admiral was puzzled, but he lived through the war, just as I did, and was concerned. "He sent Assyria and a small team to scout." JK continues, "From the Series-7 reports afterwards, I think it took her all of three heartbeats between seeing the hacked vid feeds and ordering the dropship assault." "They hit the ground heavy, overwhelming the defenses in a way only her class of Jedi could have done." She admiringly reflects on it, "I'll give them that, when they put their mind to it, they can bring the heat. She made the call, as if it were ever a choice for her, kids first, data second." "By the time the Series-7's had secured the kids back in the dropship, the data center had been scrammed, wiped, and charges were clicking down." She mimics a ship taking off with her hands. "And they were out of there." JK shrugs, "Yeah, we can't tell much about why they were doing what they were doing, aside from all the kids being exceptional in some way. They were all implanted in one form or another. Creepy that, actually, as the only implant they all shared was replacement eyes." She shivers a bit. "And it's not like the kids knew, I mean they were being trained, but not especially one way or other, just speed-educated. Not like a weapons program. "I guess the Intelligence folks may have investigated more, but nothing's ever been made public." Tia nods slowly. "At least those kids were given a chance at a better life. Doesn't surprise me that they were exceptional - Lee certainly was." She’s quiet for several moments. Again, her hand creeps up to toy with the dog tags on her Abbatar. Finally, she sighs. Biting her lip, she looks up at JK. "I feel like I'm hitting you over the head with one thing after the other these days." She gives her an apologetic smile, though it's a bit strained around the edges. “I’m not built for all this space wizard bullshit.” She shakes her head. “I’ve been looking for a way to tell you all night, but I might as well just take the leap.” She looks down at the hand holding the Abbatar. “So, in addition to all of the Force shenanigans going on with Sabbath….ever since that meeting with the Lady…” She swallows. “Well, I’ve been having...visions.” She looks cautiously back up at JK. "Huh. I've heard that seeing her in person can leave a lasting impression, but Visions?" JK points from her eyes to Tia's, "Not enhanced feelings or vivid dreams but, honest 'I am seeing something clear as day and it isn't in the room with me' sort of stuff?" Tia winces, then nods. "Yeah. Pretty much." She hesitates. "I mean...some of them happened when I was asleep. But....at least some of them have happened when I was wide awake." She swallows, then looks sideways at JK. "Like when I found that hilt on Ossus. And before you freak out," she holds up a placating hand, "don't worry, I'm clean. Caerr'Lon checked me out on the Resurgent and gave me a clean bill of health." JK laughs "So that's what she meant by 'I'm sure that one has stories to tell.' Damn cryptic Magisters. Can't just say 'Hey, your friend down there might be getting her head knocked around a bit, check in from time to time.' Sheesh!" She shakes her head. "Yeah, I know something must have happened because I got a note about you being cleared of possession. I mean I double checked after the other night, but still." She puts up her hand then gets up and walks to the counter of the serving area. Calling over her shoulder as she reaches over the counter for something, "So we talking... future... ," she reaches further, ""... past, or maybe even...," she grabs something. She stands back up and walks back, placing a cold box in front of Tia. "Or into people's homes when they're not looking? Lantillian Chocolates, by the way. I'll have the ship whip something more solid up later." Tia chuckles, sounding relieved, then shoots JK a look of gratitude. "You are quickly becoming one of my favorite people on this rock." She pilfers a chocolate from the box, and pops it into her mouth. "Nothing like sugar to counter complicated Force nonsense." Still chewing, she says, "Past. Mostly....distant past, I think. And....largely featuring the same people." She pauses. "The good news....and the bad news...is that it apparently includes Sabbath's damn haunt." She grimaces. "I recognized her. She matches the likeness Vaselar made. And...I have a name for her. Jaessa." "Wait, so you're seeing the haunt, as she was?" JK puts down the chocolate she was about to pop in her mouth. "That can't be a coincidence. And distant past, like before the Empire, or before the Clones, or before people walked on legs?" She holds her hands apart and widens the gap as she's speaking. "I mean distance matters. Like, a lot. "Are you seeing her point of view? I mean, when I swept Sabbath's apartment the other night, the only resonance of her I 'heard' was on Sabbath, certainly not you." She plops her hands back into her lap. "If it is, and she can hide from me, we've got a whole other fish on the line." Tia nods reassuringly, and quickly clarifies. "As she was, but definitely not from her point of view. She's the apprentice. I see through the eyes of her Master. And...distant past as in before the Empire, before the Clones." She looks down at her hands. "On Makeb, before it was destroyed." "Makeb, Makeb?" JK taps the console on the table, changing the holo-image. A brief system profile appears of a main sequence star and a number of rocky bodies in the system. The database spews a sidebar commentary in the squirrely hieroglyphs Tia's come to associate with Massassi. "Damn, that is a while ago. Well before my time. Heck, there's only been a dozen or so Vanguard from that far back. Maybe only five of them left. "So what's that like? Visual? Audial? Physical? I mean my Sense is always in near-sound frequencies, like that hum in your head when you yawn." She looks at Tia's Abbatar, still in her hand. "Does that warn you of them?" Tia chews on her lip thoughtfully. "All of the above. Feels pretty damn realistic. Like being there." Her hand reflexively closes around the Abbatar. "And it...depends? It led me to the hilt - started buzzing like mad. And...it's usually warm, after one's happened. But sometimes they come on so quickly, there doesn't seem to be much warning." She shakes her head as if trying to clear it. "Assyria and Caerr'Lon thought that it might be acting as a focus, though." She looks at JK thoughtfully. "If that's the case...you said that you can do more with your Abbatar, and Doc's. And that other Magisters have been able to do other things with theirs. Given some of the stories you've told about the Lady tonight, I wonder if she....?" She trails off, leaving the question hanging in the air. "She what?" JK furrows her brow. "Turned it into a transmitter so that whatever Force ghost once mentored that freakshow could pour visions to you about her like you're the town drunk at the bar? "Seems a bit odd. Did she even know about Sabbath's... Nah, scratch that. We came back in the Cathedral, if he came through messed up she had to have felt it. That planet's an extension of her from the way Assyria tells it." JK looks up at the ceiling. "Hesperus?" she calls out. Yes, Vanguard Korrs? A very familiar female voice responds. "Can you verify the VidVox field in the ship, please? Also flag the forward main deck as privacy mode? Oh, and while you're scanning, can you get a resonance map of the central anomaly and see if it intersects with the last two incident points?" JK asks. VidVox active and field integrity to 100 meters from the hull. Main deck door controls flagged. Working on resonance mapping. Query: How far back shall I structure the tomagraphy? The ship answers. "From the return of the Auriga from Adasta. That should cover it." JK confirms. Processing will take several hours. I will notify you when complete. "Thank you. Just one more thing, is there any Resonance now aimed at this ship or the incident sites?" JK follows up. Negative. Minimal resonance. "Sorry, about the divergence, just want to make sure about some things and confirm our security while we're talking about what could or could not be done." She smiles. Tia blinks, then raises an eyebrow. "Mind running some of that by me again in Basic?" "Huh, sure? Um, what bit?" JK asks. Tia chuckles a bit self-consciously. "All of it...?" She holds up a hand and begins ticking off points. "What's resonance mapping? What central anomaly - do you mean the tree on Nigita? What incident points?" She shakes her head in confusion. "Oh, okay." JK pauses a second. "The last two incidents were at Sabbath's Apartment and Velayna's father's place. The central anomaly is what we've tagged The Tree." She tries to keep up with the next part using her hands, but it's less confusing to listen to her. "Resonance is what the sensors can pick up when the Force is active. If it can move things in the world, it has to transmit energy in one way or another, right? So if you push an object, you disturb the gravitons of the object. If you sense a thought, you pick up on the delta waves of the brain, or influence them by transmitting your own. Stuff like that." "Since the Vigil doesn't surround our use of the Force with mysticism, we can examine the science of how it does what it does." JK points to the ship. "With solid, wide-band sensors, you can pick up on it sometimes. But when near a Vergence like the Tree? You can see lines of force emanating from it when big things happen. "So I asked the ship's intelligence to correlate its sensor data and see if any of those lines of force cross your street, or Velayna's dad's place, or are aimed at the ship." She smirks, "Covering my bases and checking my six." Tia nods in understanding, though she seems somehow surprised. "Got it - thank you." She pauses, looking bemused. "That may have been the first explanation I've ever gotten on how the Force works that's actually made some sense." She shakes her head. "And you won't get any complaints from me on keeping things secure." She gives a small laugh. "Honestly, I'd rather it not get out that I'm being visited by Force visions. I've got enough shenanigans to deal with without folks knocking on my door and demanding to know what I'm seeing, or asking if I'm becoming Force sensitive or something." She sighs. "Not to mention that I have no idea what Sabbath's reaction to it would be." A flicker of unease passes over her face. "Although somehow...I can't help but wonder if he'd be excited about it." She frowns. "I don't know. But in any case...I'd rather not go there right now." Hesitating, she closes her eyes briefly before opening them. "If we're talking about what's possible, though, I should tell you...it's not just the visions of the distant past. Some of them...." She swallows. "Some of them are of Lee."
"So" JK begins, "When you say some of them are of Lee, do you mean seeing her through other people's eyes, like this Master? Or do you mean experiencing her memories, thoughts, and experiences?" The pilot leans forward a little to listen more closely. "A similar or different point of view may hint to the source of this stuff." She waves absently in the air. "Maybe you could give me an example?" She adds. "I know some of the Lieutenant's story, but certainly not all of it. Don't know all of the force sensitives she might have come across, but powerful enough to shift an Abbatar in any way and they might stand out." Hesitating, Tia seems to think for a moment. "So...it's a little strange? For the ones with the Master, they're all first-person. Like I'm seeing through her eyes. But for the ones with Lee..." She trails off, then takes a deep breath, as if steadying herself. "It seems to be a...mix? Most of them, it's as if I were Lee. Caught in her memories or something. But in one of them...I was still me, but..." Tia pauses, as if struggling to find the right words. "It was almost like I was reliving the moment in slow motion, watching her." Shaking her head, she looks up at JK. "That one..." Her throat works for a moment before she manages to continue in a soft voice, "She took a sniper round for me. Saved my life." Tia is quiet for a moment, and then she clears her throat. "But...you asked about Force users." She watches JK carefully before finally asking, "Does the name Carid mean anything to you?" A muscle works in her jaw. "She...frenzied," Tia finally says flatly. "Went full Code Black." Looking down at her clenched hands, she takes a slow breath before carefully relaxing them. "It...wasn't pretty." From the grim tone of her voice, it's clear that Tia's words are a significant understatement. JK seems a bit puzzled by the first part of Tia's vivid descriptions, as if the mix of visions has given her pause in her assessment. However, as Tia continues, she is much more alarmed at the revelation that follows. "Shit." JK's face drops a bit. "I didn't realize that 'Lieutenant' Lee was the Captain Meriweather that took out Vanguard Carid. I only saw the report and the holo-stills. Battlefield Commission?" She asks, and is answered by a nod from Tia. "That was a bad one. Right in the middle of a combat zone too. Lost forty five men and droids out of a marine company. Most of the droids were not recoverable due to the lightning discharges. So many EOD detonations." JK explains. "No wonder you were so jumpy when Slick got weird. Having that image first hand in your recent memory would make anyone gun shy." JK thinks about it and her eyes widen, "Oh, damn, of course. Velayna as well. Carid looked all of about what? Sixteen? Three decades a Vanguard and still didn't look old enough to drive. I am so sorry you had to see that, even removed from the danger." She takes a long pull on her drink. "Have too many of those moments in my own head." "But as to your visions," She changes topic. "There's some attenuation going on there. Not sure what yet, but that moment with the sniper? Your view of it. Something happened in that moment that the Abbatar needed focus on. Not sure what, but it is the anomaly. Therefore important." "Something important the Abbatar needed to focus on? Why would what happened there matter to the Abbatar?" Tia shakes her head, looking baffled. "I mean, hell if I know. I swear, I've got no clue how you space wizard types figure any of this bullshit out. Or even think straight, with crap like this floating around in your heads." Sighing, she looks down at her bottle, then back up at JK. "Honestly, I don't even really get why I would be having so many visions like this in the first place. I mean, I'm not a space wizard - even if Assyria and Caerr'lon are right, and the Abbatar is acting as some kind of focus, I just...isn't that stuff not supposed to work for me?" Her voice is almost plaintive in its confusion. JK laughs, "That right there is why we strip out all the mystic bullshit when we train our people. Keeping the Force painted in only colors of 'The Will' and 'The Light', and 'Oooh, this scent of Witch Hazel and Cardamon will bring me the Trooooooooooth'..." JK exaggerates waving her hands and flickering her eyelids. She lowers her gaze back to Tia. "It's a fucking barrier to entry played on the unsuspecting by snake oil salesmen since time began." "How about this instead?" JK raises three fingers on one hand. "The first set of visions you are getting are the sheet music to a song. Put there by whatever effect being in the Lady's presence caused." She folds one finger down. "The second set of visions are the musician's personal interpretation of the sheet music. How they play it, all going through the Abbatar you wear." She folds another finger, leaving only her index finger. "Then we have that last vision out of nowhere. It's like the instrument itself suddenly up and decided to strike a note on its own." JK tilts her head and raises her eyebrows in a question. "See, the first two are separate, but clearly linked. But that last one?" "See what I mean?" JK shrugs. "Two is odd, especially from two different sources. But there has to be some synergy tying them together. And I think the key to that might be that out of left field one." She pauses for a second and asks, "Hey, CL took a close look at the thing, did she have any insight into what it was doing or why? Or did she just 'glove it' and tell you you're safe? Any insight from either of them?" Tia heaves a sigh, and her eyes look tired. "For Caerr'Lon, mostly just that it was acting as some kind of focus - and that I wasn't possessed. For Assyria, though..." Lifting one hand, she absently rubs at her temples. "Well...she wasn't sure, so I don't know if she'd call it an insight, but...well, based on what I told her about the visions, she kinda wondered whether the Master in them might be the Lady." Quietly, she watches JK, waiting for a response. "Huh. What about the visions gave her that idea?" JK asks with a look of confusion, caught between her trust for her Commander and the impossibility of the revelation. "Was it something you saw? Was it something you heard? I mean you're not actually looking at the master in the mirror right?" Tia shakes her head. "Nah - no mirrors, at least not as far as I can remember." Again, she sighs. "It was a name. Someone that appears in the vision - apparently there's a battleship with her name? Admiral Terrek's, I think?" She raises one shoulder in a slight shrug. "And....well, according to Libra, apparently the Lady names all of those. So...well...given that Libra doesn't know who it is, but the Lady knew well enough to give the name to a ship....so....well, she wasn't sure, but....as she put it, 'she sensed a pattern'." Trailing off, Tia gives JK an uncertain smile.
"Makes sense. I can see why she'd put that together." asks, "But, you've heard her. Have you heard yourself speak in these visions? Do you recognize the voice?" Tia chews thoughtfully on her lip, as if trying to remember. “The Master has spoken in the visions. From what I remember, I wouldn’t say the voice in the visions is a perfect match. But…I don’t think I can rule out the possibility.” "Huh." JK sort of settles back into the couch. "I can't say that makes a whole lot of sense, going by anything I know." She shrugs, "But I think we're clear on the fact that I don't know much." "On one hand it explains how our Libraries have so many Sith Relics and Resources. I mean the Jedi thing I could understand, but who could have found all that Sith stuff? It certainly explains why Adastan is so close to Ancient Sith in language." She seems to be trying to explain things to herself. "But if it's true then where is all the killing? Where's the fear, the oppression? Sort of staples I would have thought." She shakes her head, "And we've gone out of our way to make things a hassle for the Empire and First Order for decades. You'd think we'd be buddy buddy with them?" She turns to you, completing a thought, "Maybe she's showing you why we're not?" Tia seems to consider. "Maybe. The Master in my visions has seemed to...question some of her own Sith training at a few points. And even do some things that go against it. Seems like it caused some friction between her and the bitch apprentice." She pauses, then looks up at JK. "I mean....from what I understand, there are other Vanguard that were once Sith, right? But it's not as if they're going around operating in that way anymore - even if some of them still have bad attitudes. From what you've said, it sounds like a lot of the folks in the Vanguard seem to have revisited some of their earlier beliefs. If the memories are of the Lady, couldn't she have done the same thing? Maybe just first?" She frowns. "If she had been Sith and had a change of heart, it would certainly give her some perspective that would've been useful to understand where the Sith Vanguard were coming from - maybe even help her be more persuasive in making the case for them to reconsider their world view." She hesitates. "I mean, I know they weren't Sith, but you said even Assyria's and Caerr'Lon's views evolved after they became Vanguard. And...the Lady does make a rather strong impression." "True, true." JK slightly tosses up her hands, "It's just I didn't think it went all the way up the ladder. You hold onto this childish ideal that the people you look up to are somehow not as vulnerable to your flaws." JK looks at Tia sideways, "You know, like throwing in with a secessionist movement that tried to bomb the capital of the Republic or something." Tia briefly chuckles, but then an odd expression passes over her face. “I don’t know. We all have people we admire. But...nobody’s perfect. If somebody doesn’t have your flaws, then they’ve got others of their own, right?” She pauses. “At the end of the day, I kinda think people are...well, people. Warts, beauty marks, and all. Personally, I think it's important to remember that - even of the people we look up to. Especially of the people we look up to." She smirks. "Even if they've got a few extra decades, centuries, or millennia on us. Not just for ourselves, so we can deal with it when they're not perfect, but...well, for them, too." She makes a face. "Sitting on a pedestal might look pretty, but I don't think it's all it's cracked up to be. If it’s high enough, whoever put you there has to start crinking their neck to even catch a glimpse - makes it easier for them to not see you clearly, or have unrealistic expectations. Hard for anybody to always live up to being some kind of ideal.” She shakes her head. “Better for everyone, I think, to know that they’re still people who learned something along the way, but probably made their share of mistakes and picked up some regrets, too.” She gives JK a lopsided smile. “Otherwise, something as simple as sitting down for tea can turn into some kind of production.” She snorts softly. “Not that anything with the Lady seems simple, but….well…” She shrugs. “Eh. Listen to me getting all philosophical.” She shakes herself as if clearing her head, then looks curiously up at JK. “How did you get involved with the separatists, anyway?” "Me?" JK furrows her brow, "That's easy. I have a genetic flaw, I'm not apathetic." She smirks. "For all its propaganda, the Imperial COMPNOR program was sort of right about the Republic." She aimlessly gestures to space. "The Republic was so large and so mired in the interests of the Core Worlds that it was largely apathetic to the people beyond it. Out in the colonies, people were largely at the whim of whatever sector government, corporation, clan, or cartel with the most credits available to push into the galactic economy. The Republic, and its police force, the Jedi, lost sight of the people in favor of the survival of the Republic. They were so inured to large numbers that it no longer mattered that a million here or there suffered individually as long as the sector, parsec, or region prospered. "I joined up with the colonial militia to stop corporate raiders from 'collecting labor' from the world I was on. From there, it was just a short step to the CIS Navy." She mimics walking with her fingers. "I mean that's what I love about the Vigil. We're not trying to rule the Galaxy. We have our system, our worlds, our colonies." She points a finger, "But at the end of the day, if we find something shitty going on back here, we at least try to do something about it. "And if we can't? We at least bring the people home." She sneers in disgust. "The Republic made refugees, we make citizens." Tia nods thoughtfully. “Doesn’t sound like a bad fit for someone with an aversion for apathy.” She smiles at JK. “And what a home you bring them back to. Adasta is certainly something. Hella different from anywhere else I’ve visited, that’s for sure.” She shakes her head as if in wonder. “Can’t imagine what it’s like for the folks who do become citizens, after you’ve pulled them out of some mess. Go from trying to scrape by just to survive to having access to free everything.” "Huh, 'suppose so." JK nods, "Doc tried to explain the economics behind it to me once, but I never had a head for that sort of thing. I mean everyone still works and contributes, they just don't have to do it to survive. Everyone's basics are covered. Extra stuff is worked for. Doc says it's something to do with 'total conversion' of resources, and why there are no extra planets or moons left in the Adasta system. But that's a thing for him to talk about." JK raises an eyebrow, "Also like how this diverts from you considering why she's showing you what she's showing you. I mean, don't get me wrong, I can talk about me all day." Tia chuckles a little, then shrugs. “Mostly because I don’t have any good answers. I mean, maybe you’re right - if the visions are of her, maybe she’s showing why she isn’t all Sith-y. Though why she’d want me of all people - outsider, stranger, normal as the day is long, not a wick of Force in my candle - to see that, I have no idea. Or maybe, regardless of whether they’re hers or not, maybe they’re her way of trying to help Sabbath - just….in an indirect way so that she doesn’t actually interfere too much with him. Since she and the Vigil seem to have been keeping a rather hands-off approach with him, Fausto, and Bandit. And she knows I'm involved enough that I won't get all flighty and leave him to fend for himself. Or maybe to show something about the haunt herself - where she came from, so that we know what to expect or do with her.” She shakes her head, sighing. “I don’t know. Though I'll keep thinking on it. For now, I’m just grateful that it’ll hopefully help deal with the immediate problem.” She shivers. “The sooner we can get Sabbath away from that damn demon, the better.” JK seems a bit more concerned. "So, this is an 'apprentice' of hers? One strong enough to retain coherence in the Force for millennia. That sounds like a Sith Lord to me. So, any clues as to her vulnerabilities?" Tia sighs. “Not so much. At least, not that I’ve picked up on. About all I can say is that she watched her master like a hawk, and that she seemed to be a nasty piece of work.” She chews on her lip, considering. “I mean, she seemed impatient, with a bit of a temper, if that counts for anything. I think she was once a Jedi, before her master recruited her to the Sith.” She pauses another moment, then deflates. “That’s about all I’ve got. At least so far.” JK makes a face. "Great, a fully trained Jedi becomes a Sith. Awesome. Sabbath couldn't have attracted like a Force Sensitive goldfish or something easy like that, huh?" She reaches for another chocolate. "No wonder she's latched on though. There are times his blade has felt him on the edge of giving into rage. He restrains himself, but the cost is there in the echoes." She thinks for a second and pulls up some files, scanning down the summaries of articles from the ship's link. "We may have to engage her in a full on suppression field. As in no powers working at all, just to give us the edge." Tia sighs. "The man never does anything halfway. I swear, he's a damn magnet for trouble." She rubs her temples, then looks up at JK. "And...you're not saying that getting that bitch out of him is going to mean directly fighting her, are you?" She frowns. "I'm a little fuzzy on the details of what this involves other than slapping her out of Sabbath and into a Force prison." "So, um, about that." JK looks down, "Remember when I said it was incredibly dangerous? And that it wasn't something we did a whole lot of? Well, it's because it's the other way around. To do this right, Sabbath goes into the Force Prison, and with help and some luck, I can pull him back out and leave her behind. "Most of the lost Vanguard are simply imprisoned because it risks less people." Tia stares at her in shock. After a long pause, she finally says in a carefully neutral voice. "Ok. Just a few questions. First, what about it is dangerous. Second, in what way does it risk more people. Three, what happens to Sabbath if it doesn't work. Four, if it's not something that's usually done, is there a specific reason that you're willing to attempt it with him - other than the obvious of trying to save him, which would presumably be true of all the lost Vanguard. And five - does Sabbath know about this yet?" JK breathes out a long sigh, "So, let's see if I can get through them all here. Um, all the Force Users involved could be trapped in the Prison. Just straight imprisoning folks only risks the one being imprisoned. Sabbath, and I, will likely be entombed in that Rakata device until the end of time. Let's see, I'm just not willing to end another Vanguard again." She feigns trying to remember, "Oh, and no. He's got enough to worry about trying to keep her from latching onto him and going through the effort to prepare for what he knows will be a fight." She shrugs, "How would he react if I told him that it will likely end me as well? Or anyone else going in to help him?" She gives Tia a knowing look. She cocks her head, "Huh, if I figured this all out in a few days after seeing what was going on, I bet she knew the moment it happened. And that's why you got the notebook full of bad juju." Tia grimaces, wilting. "Point." She sighs, looking pained. "I don't even know if he'd let you go through with it, and even if he did, he'd be hella distracted - exactly when he needed his focus the most." She closes her eyes and runs a hand over her face. "And...you're probably right. She is damn perceptive." She hesitates, biting her lip, then looks at JK with concern. "You sure you want to risk this...? And...if so...is there anything I can do to help?" She looks down at her hands. "I don't have any space wizard bullshit to offer, but...if there's something I can do, I will." She pauses. "On Ossus, when they were in the nexus, Sabbath said he could hear me. Don't know if that would be true if he was in that device, but...if so, maybe it could help get him out of it?" She shrugs helplessly. JK thinks a bit. "Ossus was the fugue state of a powerful Force User in a Nexus echoing events in time. It could never directly do anything to you as you're not Force Sensitive. The prison obelisk is very different. "So," JK goes a little pale, "Those prison things are old, ridiculously so. Made by the same people that invented Hyperspace travel, only they used the Force to do it, not actual engines." She folds her hands together, "When activated, they are stupidly powerful matter to energy converters, they can literally disassemble and store multiple people in an extradimensional space. "We use the least powerful setting on them when triggering them and we still risk being pulled in ourselves through contact." She seems to resign herself to something. "I'm not going to tell anyone to stay home. I just want to make it clear that if that bitch gets out of control and I can't see a way to get him clear, I might not have enough time to warn anyone before triggering the full power of the artifact." "In which case, whoever was there, space wizard or not, would run the risk of being sucked into the damn thing?" Tia looks at her in dismay. "And trapped forever with that Sith - and Sabbath, and whatever unlucky group of the rest of us was crammed in there, too?" She blanches. "And if that happens, then what? That's just - it? Is there a way to retrieve anyone trapped in one of these things?" She pauses, and an uneasy expression passes over her face. "Would anyone trapped in there at least die at some point? I mean... Is it a kind of stasis, or are people conscious for all time, too?" She frowns. JK closes her eyes and lets you think for a minute. Without saying a word, Tia already knows the answer. "Except, if I had to do that, it would mean that Sabbath wasn't there to save anymore." Tia stares at her, aghast. “So...I’m sorry. Let me just make sure I have this right. The plan is to have some kind of super dangerous ritual, where Sabbath gets shoved into a prison without any forewarning, we fight this Sith bitch somehow, ideally in a suppression field to at least reduce the amount of Force bullshit we have to deal with, then you try to pull him out before hitting the emergency button and locking it all down. And we all just hope that it doesn’t go horribly wrong so that Sabbath doesn’t die and we’re not all trapped inside a jail box forever with no possibility of parole.” She gives JK a searching look. “And where will you be during all of this? Outside the box with me and whoever else is there, or inside with Sabbath?" She takes a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "For all we've talked about it, honestly I'm still not even clear on what it means to fight her. How do you fight a Sith demon? Will it be a physical fight? Some kind of Force duel?" She shakes her head in bewilderment. "And…call me paranoid, but… There's no chance that bitch could take over anybody but Sabbath, right..?" She pauses. "As in… She couldn't jump ship and try to grab you somehow, while you're trying to pull him out of there, right…?" JK looks taken aback for a second, "Shit, if that's what it sounds like, yeah, that is bad." She reaches over to put her hand on Tia's, "If it sounds that bad, let me explain, step by step, so it's clear. Okay?" She waits for Tia's nod and sits back, putting her hands back into her lap. "First off, 'Ritual', is a bad term. There's nothing semantic or invocation-like going on. We find a place, strong in the Force, take as many personal precautions as we can, and use the device. It's 'Ritual' as in 'Repeatable Process' not as in 'Space Wizard Mumbo Jumbo.'" She pauses. "Sabbath will be instructed on exactly what is going to go on in there, with one glaring exception, I will not mention that I am at risk as well. Once he agrees, and knows if he fails in the trial, he 'walks' into the Prison by attuning to it. No trickery. We then set up all the artifacts that have been collected about this person that we have, hopefully the saber you recovered and anything else I can track down in the archive, and hopefully if we have found the right place, they will toss an anchor on her boat." JK takes a sip of her pop, "I then explain to everyone left at the site that while this is going on, it is not unknown for the violence within to draw the attention of other Force beings that tend to accumulate around strong sites. Sometimes the thing inside the Prison, until secured, can lash out through the device as well. Once all are on board, I activate the entrapment portion of the device and go in as Warden. I can change the terms of the conflict going on inside to a limited degree, and hopefully, once she's exhausted, I can let him back out." She rubs her "bad leg" for a minute, offhandedly remarking that it's still weird to have it. "Distance is a thing with this process. On some level being close to bolster one or the both of us if we are injured or drained is a huge boost, but that close, she can lash out at you. Putting some distance between the artifact and yourself, and you may run into what ever horrors the Force has decided to vomit out in response. But if those get close enough to interact with the Ritual, it can be all over in a heartbeat. I mean, if our bodies die while we're in there, we're stuck no matter what. "And there is the nature and limit of the exact risk. If you're outside the perimeter of the effect, or Vergence, you're safe from the lockdown if I have to trigger it. If you're inside? You can resist if you aren't attuned, but it's a gamble, especially if you're weakened in any way. "As for her jumping around? It would have to be another Force User. They would have to also be attuned to the prison to give her an exit path. And they would have to not be wearing one of these." She taps her Abbatar. "There is a very small chance that the Lockdown will destroy the Prison in the process, I mean it is just a gate to an extradimensional space. In that specific circumstance, she could possibly jump to another Force User in the Vergence, given sufficient Dark Side corruption in them. But mundanes should be safe, especially ones already protected." JK looks in hopes of understanding, "I know this is all weird and space wizardry, but it isn't to us. We don't preach a religion or bury ourselves in mysticism. This is a science and a skill to us. We know what can go wrong, and why. We don't hide our ignorance in waxing poetically about 'The Will of the Force' or other nonsense. Sometimes the anchors aren't enough. Sometimes the creature is stronger than we know. Sometimes the victim is more vulnerable than we know. Sometimes people make the worst damn decisions, even when trying to save their own life." She looks exceedingly serious for a moment, trying to staunch something from leaking out around her normal joking demeanor, "Whatever happens to him, happens to me. Ride or die for this one. I am just not going to bury another one of my own, not anymore. So take some small comfort in that." Tia sighs, looking tired. "Thank you - although that's not as comforting as you might think. I just hope we pull this off and you both make it out of there. I don't want you trapped in there any more than I want him to be." She makes a sour face but then visibly seems to gather herself, looking up at JK with a small, strained smile. "You really are a good teacher, though - that at least gives me a better idea of what to expect on this nightmare ride." She chews thoughtfully at her lip. "All right, a few follow-up questions." She holds up a hand and begins ticking off the fingers as she speaks. "You mentioned something about a trial for Sabbath?" She raises a finger. "Will there be spare Abbatars available for any Force users there that don't already have one?" Another finger. "Do you have a place in mind to do this?" Another finger. "When you say horrors. Do you mean actual monsters will appear and try to get to your bodies - our bodies? - and tear then to pieces?" Another finger. "What kind of information might help you find more in the archive? I can certainly rummage around in my head and try to see if I can think of any other details from my visions that might help." She heaves a sigh. "And depending on when all this actually happens, maybe I'll even have a few more to sift through by then that'll offer some extra clues - given how many I've already had, I think that's probably more likely than not." She frowns, then looks at her outstretched hand, all five fingers now raised. "All right, so maybe that was more than a few questions." She gives a sheepish shrug. "Well, let's see what we can get out of the way first, right?" JK points to Tia's Abbatar. "Were you wearing that when you received all of your visions? "Mind if I ask it some questions?" Tia gives a small nod. “I was.” She hesitates only briefly before she slowly reaches for her Abbatar, carefully unclasping it and holding it out to JK. Absently, she rubs the spot on her neck where it had rested, her eyes never leaving the pendant. “Questions all around, today. Here’s hoping it has answers that can help.” JK accepts the pendant and looks puzzled for a second. She taps the edge of her own to it and asks "αντηχήσεις ανθρώπων και τόπου" The amulet hums slightly, and hers begins to glow. At the edge of Tia's hearing familiar phrases and sounds reach out of the whispers. Moments from her visions, yet not all of them, replay in glimpses as she recalls those sounds and voices. JK clasps her hand over the amulet and the sounds cease. "So underneath the things you saw, there's a sound I hear. I think it represents her. It gets stronger when she's in an echo, and weakest when she's not. There's a weird moment though." She hands the amulet back to Tia. "Over the voices I heard a sniper round go off and the snap of a lightsaber to deflect it. But her sound was strongest there. But something was off. I don't think her voice was within the vision at all. So her sound came from elsewhere. "Do you remember where you had that vision? I heard all sorts of echoes of storms and massive lightning strikes." Taking the Abbatar, Tia immediately refastens it around her neck. “Ossus.” She swallows. “That’s the vision I had on Ossus. When I found her lightsaber hilt.” "Then I've got a place to start looking. That strong a resonance means she was there when something either powerful happened to her good or bad. It's a tether we can use." JK adds. "For the rest of the questions, Abbatars are made for the wearer, or at least attuned to them. I had one I created as a test learning from Vaselar. But I gave that to Velayna and imprinted it to her. It won't work for anyone else." JK frowns with her eyebrows. "As for horrors, just look at all the insanity this world has spawned as reactions to the vergences. Infected Ewoks, crazed plague victims lost in the jungles, stalking creatures in the maintenance levels that track with the Force. Heck there are even tentacled octopus things in the deep jungle that hang on trees, cowling themselves with Force controlled darkness." She gestures around the room indicating the world. "And that's just what we know of. Worlds so poisoned by Force Nexus, dark or light, change the very nature of creatures nearby. Even Light side energy changes the natural path of creatures exposed to it," she continues. "You've been to one of our artificial Nexus points on the big ships, right? Those are perfectly balanced, each resonance countered by its opposite in equal amplitude. The entire field so calibrated that it effectively silences itself. Then we wrap the whole damned chamber in a Cortosis skin to make sure." She taps the side of her head. "Trust in the science, but make sure just in case. "If the vergence is disturbed enough, and what we're doing will disturb it, things nearby get agitated. And if they're big enough, well. Lunch time. "So, um, last thing. Really two things. One, is it always that warm? Two, you said your visions were of Lee. I didn't hear her at all, and I expected to." Tia blinks. “‘That warm?’ It’s felt normal to me this whole time.” She reaches a hand up to hold the pendant, and her brows furrow. “The only time I notice it get warm, or vibrate, is when I’m actively having a vision - or when some other Force bullshittery is going on. Isn’t that how they’re supposed to work?” She frowns, then looks uncertainly up at JK. “When you say Abbatars are attuned to the wearer - do you mean all Abbatars, or only the ones for Force users?” She pauses. “I guess what I’m asking is….well, is it unusual that Lee’s Abbatar works for me? And...” She shakes her head in bewilderment. “I have no idea why you didn’t hear Lee, if you should have. Can you think of a reason why you wouldn’t? I mean….she’s definitely been in my visions. And, while I’m no expert in all this, I think I’ve had enough of them by now to tell the difference between a vision and a daydream.” She chews her lip thoughtfully. “Often enough, they come in a stream - one of the Master immediately followed by one of Lee.” JK frowns as if she was expecting a different answer. "Um, so I was kind of hoping you'd say yes. Because that's unexpected." She comes clean, "When I touch any Abbatar that isn't mine, it should always warm as a warning. Sort of like a dog growling at anyone not their companion. It's kind of wired into the devices by the attunement. It says, 'Don't mess with me, I'm not yours.' I got it when I picked up Sabbath's blade too. All our attuned devices imprint on their users. "I've never heard of one changing loyalties. But they have been known to get quirky over time. They develop traits from their users. But that's only supposed to happen to Force Users. I mean that's like changing souls, for a more pedestrian description. Shouldn't be possible. "As for the missing visions, maybe the same trait that lets it protect you hides her from prying eyes." She shrugs. "Vaselar is better on manipulation theory. But you also had it and you examined by Caerr'Lon, and she's an out-and-out prodigy. If she thinks nothing's wrong with the two of you, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. "For the timing, there's a great deal of synergy in the scenes that the visions pull, right? You said there's something following on. Maybe the Visions are coming from the Abbatar itself? Like a tuning fork echoing the note. I mean she probably got that at Graduation from boot camp. So it's been in her presence, what 18? 20 Years? I'd have to look up the service record to be sure. "Long time to build up resonance. Long time to be with someone and not pick up a thing or two." “Seventeen,” Tia answers automatically, then pauses as her own words seem to catch up to her. Looking up at JK, she gives a small shrug. “Her service record’s on my wall - I walk by it every day. She was so damn dedicated, it seemed like an appropriate tribute, somehow. And I haven’t been able to bring myself to post a picture yet, so...” She clears her throat. “Anyway.” She sighs wistfully. “Just when I thought some of this might be making at least a little bit of sense, we come across something that ‘shouldn’t be possible’.” She rubs her temples. “Ah, well - you did give me the standard disclaimers at the beginning.” She hesitates, her hand still on the pendant, then says haltingly, “You know, it is...ironic, though. That something impossible would happen with her Abbatar after…” She trails off and her focus seems to turn inward, as if she were still trying to assemble her thoughts. After a moment, she shakes her head, glancing upward at JK. “For all I know, it’s nothing, but…” She bites her lip, then continues in a soft voice. “After Endor…Sabbath told me that he tried to save her. On the Alzeera. That he put his Abbatar on her and did...something. Hoping that she would come back or something.” She shrugs slightly, her expression empty. “He didn’t really go into details since it didn’t wo-” She stops, then simply repeats, “He didn’t really go into details, and it didn’t seem relevant at the time to ask.” She swallows, faint shadows flickering in the back of her eyes. JK sighs, "I saw. I was there." She kind of half-shrugs, "He was hoping, and praying, but we know the Force doesn't work like that. He came back with his. She didn't. "Caerr'Lon would have found her. Not for me, not for her, but for Assyria. She's looked for all her lost daughters, even the ones that failed the trials. None have come back." She pats Tia on the knee, "Shouldn't doesn't mean can't. And you said The Lady did something to show you these visions, to help. Can't isn't a word in her vocabulary. If she thought that helping Sabbath might place a burden on you, maybe she asked the Abbatar to show you memories to help you. "I don't know what they showed you, but maybe they help explain why your friend chose to fight, and chose to stay. If it means anything, anything at all, know that we would have likely not succeeded if she didn't. She never stopped, I don't think she knew how. The number of times she stepped into a breach with the droids to give us cover enough to fall back and recharge? Insanity. "I thought it was just the exo-suit. Now I'm not so sure. But I am sure we wouldn't have held the reactor room long enough. "I am also sure that all that Force mysticism bullshit the rest of these wizards spout at each other is just that. Any all powerful energy looking to save the galaxy doesn't throw people like that away. "Hey, this is getting to a maudlin point where chocolate and sweets ain't going to cut it. You game for a ride?" Something brittle shows briefly in Tia’s eyes, but then she blinks and it’s gone. Her mouth twists into a small crooked smile, and she chuckles faintly. “You think there’s something a ride can do that sugar won’t?” She raises a somewhat skeptical eyebrow at JK, then gives a good-natured shrug. “What the hell - why not? Seems a wasted opportunity to turn down a joy ride with someone who can spin an orbit around an unstable black hole - with or without sensors. I’m in.” JK smiles broadly, claps Tia on the knee and jumps up from the couch. Over her head she calls out "Hesperus, warm up bay two!" She waves for Tia to follow and heads to the central turbolift. A few minutes later, after donning a surprisingly comfortable pressure suit, Tia is standing in one of the two forward shuttle bays of the enormous cargo deck. In front of her is a piece of machinery that simply looks menacing. "Like her? She's an MM4n3 Fang. Picked her up from an Imperial scrapyard after the Fall of Mandalore decades ago. Took a while but she's factory pristine." JK tilts her head, "With a few modifications." The hatch pops up at the tone of her remote, and a boarding ladder descends. Tia starts up and looks into the cockpit and turns towards the navigator seat before JK pipes up, "Nope! Front seat for you. I'll get us out of Nigita space from the navcon." Puzzled, Tia sits in the seat, and it molds to her like it was made for her to sit in. She pulls on the helmet as JK gets into the second seat. You can hear her already flipping switches. Suddenly her voice comes to life in Tia's ear. "Comm check. You good?" Tia gives her the thumbs up over the seat. A few moments later the engines flare to life and within seconds, the ship is floating out of the lower bay door and sliding across the landing pad towards free air. Gently the craft rises out of Hub air control. Tia watches the telltales changing, and JK points out the throttle, spin, and attitude controls. It really does appear to be simple to fly, as if the craft wants to move and just needs the slightest coaxing to run. Clearing the atmosphere, JK punches in a few coordinates, changes the vectoring of the ship and calls out, "Deep Breath!" Tia barely sees the words [i5 Drive Online in 3...2...1] before space disappears for a split second, along with her sense of self, then just as suddenly reappears. As Tia gets her bearings JK answers the unasked question, "Blink jump. Used to pull them on the bucket heads all the time. Put's a light year between you in a fraction of a second, they couldn't figure out where we went. Jump past enemy lines, under defenses. Good times. "So, you've got the conn. Showed you where the controls were. I got safeties enabled back here if anything weird happens. And you, my dear, have half a trillion kilometers between you and the nearest solid object." She taps the throttle, boosting to combat speed. "Have at it. Scream if you want. Here we're all eagles and the stars can just suck it up, because we're faster." Tia glances at the controls, then back over at JK. “I can’t believe you’re having me fly this thing. You do realize that I’ve literally never flown anything before today, right?” She smirks. “Although I suppose you’ve never seen me drive, so you haven’t learned that I’m best kept on auto-pilot.” Her smile falters ever so slightly for a brief moment, but then a muscle moves in her jaw and her mouth stretches into a harsh grin, something fierce sparking in her eyes. “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Without another word, she leans on the controls, sending the ship streaking through space in a wild blur. At first, she simply goes, rushing headlong in a straight line without turning or altering course, her eyes fixed unblinkingly forward as if trying to outrun some invisible enemy directly behind them. But eventually, as if by some unseen signal, she suddenly pulls up, sending the ship spiraling into a series of wide, erratic loops. She hits the turns hard - her lack of experience obvious, though the ship’s smooth handling prevents the ride from becoming as teeth-jarring as it might have been. Then, letting out a sharp burst of feral laughter, she abruptly reverses course again, sending the ship diving back the way it came, twisting unevenly as she fidgets with the spin controls. “You still sure this is a good idea?” she yells, without looking up from the console. JK chimes in, "Absofrackinglutely. Your laugh is all I needed to confirm it." She has to almost shout over the comm through the roar of the engines vibrating the small double cockpit. "You can't hit a thing out here. Nearest star is hours away at even this engine's output. Scream! Roll! Spin! You'll never move this fast on the ground, and you're never in this much control either. Nothing steps in your way out here in the Black! "It's home! We were born of stars!" She cackles with delight as Tia pulls a barrel roll and cuts sharply to spin away, inverted. "Out here, you decide which way is up. No matter what anyone stuck in the dirt tells you, you know this is everything in the Galaxy. The dirt clods, the people, the fights? It's all noise and tiny. "Here we are endless." A startled laugh bursts from Tia, and her posture loosens subtly. “Don’t know that I’ve ever screamed at space before - well, except maybe a few times when Sabbath was flying.” She grins. “Usually I save that kind of noise for the people who’ve earned a few choice words - and the fights.” She sends the ship into a wild spin, careening off into the night. “And sure, I bet you’re in control when you’re in the pilot seat,” she calls out in a wry voice. Pulling up and back, she attempts a lopsided figure 8. “Don’t know if I can quite make that claim, but I’ll settle for the speed - and the lack of obvious guardrails and ’responsible’ chaperones.” She gives JK an exaggerated wink, then hits the controls - and the ship goes shooting off into the distance before plummeting in a tight corkscrew. She lets out an inarticulate whoop before she again reverses, sending the ship rotating end over end. She looks away from the controls long enough to glance sideways at JK. “I can see why you like it out here.” Turning back, she pulls the ship out of its spiral, then begins racing it in irregular circles. Tia runs through the paces, then really gets serious about swinging the ship around once JK disables inertial compensation. The ship continues to go in one direction, but can spin to aim at any other. She shows Tia the toggle control on the stick to do it herself and Tia indulges in more absurd spins, rolls, and twists. Laughing the whole way through. "Why am I not sick?" she asks, after spinning through a convoluted knot of maneuvers. "No gravity, and Inertia isn't that harsh a mistress. The pressure suit handles the blood flow, so you don't red out or black out when you go against your old trajectory," JK explains. "Though I like to think Space just wants us to fly." A few more passes through some dust clouds produce an incredible luminous wake. As much as they both feel that time hasn't passed, it has. Realizing that back on Nigita it's nearing 2am, JK plots the course back."Deep Breath..." she calls out just before the Hyperdrive pops on for a few moments, hurtling them impossible distances in seconds. "Hey?" Tia asks, "I didn't get sick in that violet tunnel either?" "Too short an exposure. In a blink jump, we're not in the wormhole long enough for the resonance to synchronize with the shield. Like skipping a stone. Barely even on the water long enough to get wet." JK replies, taking over main controls. The approach to the Hub feels different this time. Tia swears the Abbatar is faintly vibrating as the ship enters the atmosphere, but when she checks, it's gone. Maybe it's just her imagination playing with her. Or she realizes that out in the Black, none of this mattered, and seeing it from above is like putting a coat back on and feeling the weight. She notices that JK seems quiet herself. "Is it always like that for you? Coming back?" Tia asks. "Yep," the pilot replies. Upon arrival back in the Hesperus bay, Tia hangs up the pressure suit and smooths out the clothes underneath, laughing a little at how creased they'd gotten. She looks over at JK and realizes the other woman is dressed the same as she was in the lounge. "That thing a pressure suit too?" she asks. "Nope." JK smiles, "Space Wizard Bullshit. I alter the way my body behaves when I need to." "Of course you do." Tia laughs, "So, we can do this again, right?" "Anytime you want." JK claps her on the shoulder. "Now get on home before that knucklehead sends the cops out looking for you. He's going to be staring out that window anyway." "Maybe he'll be sleeping by now," Tia responds hopefully. JK raises an eyebrow, and Tia sighs in defeat. "Yeah, fine - he'll probably be asleep in the chair by the window and stare when he hears the speeder," she admits. "Well, it's a good thing you have such a quiet..." JK turns to look at the big black speeder on the drop lift. "Okay, maybe just 'Good Night', then." She squeezes Tia's shoulder then heads off to the lift controls. Tia gets in the Vondell and hits the igniter. The bay thunders with the growl of the airspeeder and she can't help but laugh at it. Driving through the streets of the hub at this time is always peaceful. Though lots of that has to do with those droids keeping things quiet in the neighborhood. Tia pulls into the spot in front of the townhouse and cuts the engine. Looking up through the tinted canopy, she's surprised to see that Sabbath is, in fact, not there. Then wonders a tiny bit if that's a good thing or a bad one? Passing through the door, Tia didn't realize how tired she had gotten. She greets Tattle on the way in, placing a hand on his weird eyestalk of a head, thanking him for opening the door for her. She means to ping T, but decides instead to sit down on the couch first. She passes out as soon as her feet shake off her shoes and she puts them on the table.
"Would you really have spaced us?" Tia asks. Lee moves over onto the couch and drapes her arm over Tia's shoulders. She leans in and kisses the top of her head. "At that moment, having known you for what, two or three days? Never. I couldn't imagine a world without you in it." she answers.
The hand on Tia's should shakes her gently. T-3P0 quietly asks, "Tia, you will give yourself neck strain sleeping on the couch like that. Let's get you to bed." Tia gets up, the dream fading, confused, and follows T-3P0 to the master suite to get to bed.
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