trans_9 | 'Meat' 'n Greet

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'Meat' 'n Greet

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a green-skinned alien and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

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"Hey, Jedi are supposed to keep a few surprises up our sleeves. It's why they make the arms on our robes so big."

Luke groaned, but the smile on his face completely counteracted that. "You'll give away all our secrets at once," he said, ruffling his son's hair affectionately. "And then Obi-Wan won't have anything left to teach her about the Jedi mystique."

He ran his fingers through his hair, restoring it to its rightful, parentally-untouched, proper style of tousledness, and noting that the tentacles had done a fair job wringing all the goo out of it. "Right," he sighed dramatically, "no more revelations about our stylish wardrobes." He glanced down at his own tentacle-supplied uniform. "We should probably get back to talking about the world-saving stuff anyway."

"Do you wish Jed-Eye attire?" Arha said, eying Ben speculatively, blue-within-blue eyes quite possibly even more intense as she figured his dimensions. "I have left over fabric enough should you wish both tunic, pants, and a cloak. They would be cream and sand."

He glanced down at whatever the ship had dressed him in. It was comfortable enough that he hadn't thought about getting anything else to wear -- he was still more interested about the Ohm than suiting out in Jedi attire. "What's inconspicuous around here?"

"I do not know," Arha said with a slight shrug. "People dress in a manner comfortable to them. If you are comfortable as you are, then such is a good thing. If you would like something closer to the style of your home universe, we shall talk and find something suitable for me to fashion. It would be my honor to make this place seem a little closer to a universe that is your own if you wish."

He groaned inwardly, but kept his expression neutral. Despite the sleeve quip, clothes really weren't high on his list of priorities. "Thanks," he said, pulling up a smile. "That'd be useful."

"Good," she said and then her voice cooled and colored with a measure of sorrow. "You wish to know about the Ohm," she said it bluntly, quietly. "There is not much information at the ready, but we know that they destroy whole universes, whole timelines. Such is what they have done for each and everyone of us. Those who are still in the pods that you have just left are all that remain out of whole universes. The threat is dire and some may never get their universes back, but there is a chance that if we all manage to work toward the ultimate goal of restoring each universe, those who wish it, may go home to their homes. Each one of us is needed in a unique way, I believe. This is our mission and this is also our new existence."

She studied him intently.

"I am sorry that this is not more pleasant," Arha added gently. "I only wish it were." She gestured lightly. "What I know is only a faction of the situation, I am afraid. There are others who have more knowledge than I on this matter." T

He took a long moment to process it all. "You're telling me," he said slowly, "that our whole universe is gone? Not just a few star systems or sectors, but the whole thing?"

"Yes," she said, her voice completely honest. "I would not lie to you over such a thing." Arha glanced at Luke for a long moment. "It is not any easy thing to accept and it is a great sorrow to have to tell you this, but you should know this truth."

It was not something to keep, anyway.

Something didn't add up. "But Jaina's here from ages ago," he protested, "and all dad's New Republic pilot buddies. So their universe can't be gone, because dad and I are still in it years later."

Arha let out a soft sigh.

"They are all from different points in time in the same universe," she said quietly. "Perhaps in the destruction of the timeline, that was the only way in which Stacy and the former crew of this ship could save them. Time itself is most likely more fluid than one may expect and the technology aboard this vessel is highly advanced. It is quite possible that in order to save as many people as possible in a collapsing universe that they simply pulled people out from random points in their lives all at once. Theoretically, if one views time as something living and fluid, the continuity would not be broken if all points of a timeline were affected at once. Thus, you and your father remain whole, your mother, too, and Jacen, Jaina, Wedge, Tycho, your uncle Han, your aunt Leia--though they are much younger, and all those who find themselves from your Universe, exist here, in this place."

"Mom," he repeated stiffly. He curled in on himself mentally, snapping his Force presence off like a glowrod, and stared at her. "Mom's here? Jacen's here?" Wherever Jacen and his mother were, it was somewhere he and his father shouldn't be; his mother had told them that much at the Lake of Apparitions. Things were officially very bad.

Arha winced at the sudden void and sat abruptly, blinking for a moment before drawing her knees to her chest. Oh. It was the reaction that threw her into a blindingly fast calculation of possibilities and her face paled in response. Out of all those situations only one was correct.

A set of circumstances had lead to Jacen Solo killing his aunt.

"Your mother is here," she said after a moment. "Younger, much younger but here. And whatever your cousin was in your future, he is not that now. Understand this. I know not what happened, for I have not asked, nor will I inquire, but remember that those who arrive just as you did, are not always who or what you may remember them as being."

She was silent for a long moment.

"I am sorry, Ben," she whispered. "I am sorry. Do not shut yourself off like that. I did not think -- such was not a wise thing for me to do to you. I--" Arha closed her mouth and somehow managed to look even smaller than she was as she rested the point of her chin on her white, leather clad knee.

"Do not go away."

But Ben was very glad to keep his Force presence hidden away. Confusion, surprise, remorse, sadness, excitement at his mother being here and alive and a fleeting, sudden anger at this ship for dredging up Jacen Solo whipped through him. His heart felt like it had dropped to his stomach and his stomach felt like it was a tight lump in his throat, leaving him unable to speak normally after his first, startled outburst. He'd made his peace with Jacen, but that had been Jacen trapped in the Lake of Apparitions, smiling out of damnation, not a flesh and blood Jacen. Not Jacen before Caedus. And his mother... he'd frozen just seeing her face again Beyond Shadows. He had no idea how to handle her being here.

It was childish, he knew. It was childish like staying closed to the Force years after the Yuuzhan Vong War had been childish. But his heart ached and his fists were clenched, and he didn't want this strange woman or his father to feel the swirl of emotions dancing inside him. "Thanks," he managed hoarsely. "Good to know."

There had to have been another way to have said such a thing! She should have known. She should have known such things. What good was she that she did not have the right words, the right things to say, what good was all of her joy at each and every Jed-Eye when it caused her to not see?

Arha sat there, motionless, and wished very much that she had said nothing at all. But you could not take things back once they were done and she was left with this. He would have found out through worse means, perhaps. He might have encountered Jacen, he might have seen his mother. It mattered not.

She had shut him off. Her words. Her attempt at answers and honesty and love of all things Jed-Eye. She did not stop to think, not with all of her ancestral experiences behind her.

"It is not," Arha said in a strangled voice. "And I have caused pain. I did not wish this. It could have been prevented, delayed...I should never have spoken and I have no words that are apology enough."

"No." The word came out firmer than he'd expected. "It's fine. I like knowing." Knowing that Jacen -- Jacen, not Caedus, apparently, and for one shining moment that thought took him back before Bimmiel, when he'd traveled with Jacen after the Swarm War -- was a good thing. He'd be ready to meet his cousin. He prove he'd meant it when he'd forgiven him at the Lake. And he wouldn't give in to anger when he saw Jacen. That would be what Caedus wanted. He smiled weakly. "Anything else I should know?"

She wasn't fine with it, but she collected herself anyway. Arha took a few steadying breaths, measured ones. She could not remember a time in which she had done so much damage all at once. In other Other-Memory came moments of similar things, but not a one hit her so hard as this.

Arha would not sit well with it.

"There are X-Wings and a very large city and terribly strange bathrooms," Arha managed. "This ship is very large and there is much to see. As to any more damaging news, I believe I have jammed my own foot so far down my throat that I may be talking around it for quite some time."

None of the color had returned to her face and she sat in the same place as if frozen to it. But she had attempted for humor, such as it was.

"That is the worst of it," she said, her blue-within-blue eyes flicking to Ben's. Her voice lowered to a half whispered. "I think that is the worst of it."

"X-Wings?" he echoed, confused. "What are the X-Wings for?"

"In case we find ourselves under attack from the Ohm," Arha said. "Or anyone else out there. It is good to have pilots and there are whole stretches of vehicles within the hangar bay. You should go and see. There are many, many things from different universes. I have been told that your uncle's ship is there, the Millennium Falcon, is it? Such a thing Jaina has mentioned working on. There is quite a squadron. At the moment, I find myself enjoying the simulations."

A gleam of brightness found her face.

"I like the flying. It was something I had never done before."

"Yeah," he said absentmindedly. "It's fun." He was glad that the conversation had moved away from his mother and Jacen. "Do the Ohm attack a lot?"

"I do not believe they have yet," she said with a slight frown. "But, I believe at one point there were space pirates. And undead things released from some strange part of the ship. Things can go from relatively quiet to exceedingly frightening in moments, but in those moment I have met your father, touched the Force, been trained by Obi-Wan, built my own lightsaber, and met so many people that I would never have met."

She offered a lopsided smile.

"Such now includes you," Arha said in a subdued voice.

Ben tried taking a more direct approach. "And no one thinks it's weird that the big bad destroyers of worlds never attack?"

"Mmm...that is a good point," Arha said thoughtfully. "They are engaged with the Daligig, the race that created this ship. It is possible that one ship such as this one is not of pressing concern quite yet."

"Shavit." Ben's hand strayed to his lightsaber belt. "So how do you know they even want to attack?"

'Meat' 'n Greet

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