trans_9 | Fix up, look sharp

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Fix up, look sharp

Jaina was where Jaina always was when she felt listless. The hangar. Though, today she isn't working on x-wings. They may have been looking a bit ropey in their ripe old age, but they had always been a reliable design and today she finds their current batch in annoyingly good condition. Certainly nothing that required any major maintenance and she wasn't about to try overclocking them closer to XJ3 standards without clearance.

No, she would need a project. The Falcon was off limits, but there were still a fair few small freighters and transports collecting dust in the back of the hangar. She paced the deck a few times, looking for one that shouted out at her. The one she eventually plumped for is a small, sleek, ray-like star yacht. They were a relatively common sight in the Core Worlds, popularised chiefly by young and affluent thrill-seekers, much to the chagrin of the freight haulers they swept up on the space lanes.

It was perfect. Smugglers liked to use them so she knew it would not only be fast but easily modifiable. The Terriks' Pulsar Skate was supposedly of the same design, though you'd never know by looking at it. And although she wouldn't have nearly enough parts for it yet, the young mechanic could pretty much gut the thing and rebuild it from scratch, exactly how she wanted it. And of course the longer it took, the better.

An hour later she has a section of the hangar bay cornered off to work on it and half-sits, half-lays amid a pool of schematics, scribbling over the interior layouts. Scrap the passengers' quarters for quads here, bolster the shield projectors there...

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"Having fun?" Ben asked, flopping down cross-legged in front of his cousin and her cloud of schematics.

Chao was already dragging a long pile of parts she already dragged from the neglected ships Stacy found no use protecting. A few plasma coils, Various deflector shield projectors, a disassembled laser cannon, some other slabs of bulkhead she managed to wrench off of ships, none of it too substantial just yet and far from all the parts she'd needed for any project. To be truthful, learning about all the new technologies the multiverse had was limited by just how little the ship had in the way of usable components. Learning about hyper-drive and inertialess engines only made Chao even more hungry to build them herself.

Stacy however, wouldn't let the poor teenage anywhere near most of the ships sitting in the hangar bay. It was like seeing a Christmas gift under the tree but being told you couldn't ever pull the wrapping off. So, Chao had to settle with some of the more neglected ships, ones far from being all that exciting to look at.

She honestly didn't expect to find someone else delving as far back in the hangar as she was, or the schematics just lying around like that.

She stood over the plans, eyeballing the layouts with more curiosity than overdeveloped interest. she was almost completely ignorant of the people around them. If they wanted privacy, they should have cornered the area more tightly.

"Looking for something?" Ben asked lightly.

Jaina followed Ben's field of vision over her shoulder and turned to see the younger girl and her cornucopia of stripped parts, dead to the world as she peered at the Baudo's schematics.

She waved a hand across the girl's field of vision, just to check she hadn't died standing there or something and ventured, "Uh, hello?"

Whoa, Hello there hand! Chao nearly jumped and blinked at the people before throwing up a shy smile.

"Ah, didn't mean to intrude!" Chao quickly inserted, trying her best to feel a little more embarrassed then she actually was. "I was just...never thought I'd see people this far back of the hangar."

She didn't know them, so maybe playing as her old student self would keep things in good nature.

Ben glanced at Jaina and raised his eyebrows. What he was picking up in the Force wasn't entirely genuine, but neither did it seem malevolent. "What's wrong with the back of the hangar?" he asked the newcomer.

The corner of Jaina's mouth quirked slightly as she tucked the hyperdrive and defense layouts under the more domestic schematics. She was the Trickster Goddess and knew a thing or two about poker faces, but she didn't need instinct like that when she had the Force. This girl, whoever she was, had presence.

"This is where all the best gear is kept," she replied slowly, eyeing the girl's stash, "But I guess you've already got that figured out."

Chao caught Jaina hiding certain layouts from the Martian's vision, but took no comment to it. It was only reasonable that you would hide important details like that.

With the woman's comment to her stash, Chao glanced over at her pile of gear and let out an honest shy giggle. Her hand almost instinctively went up to scratch the back of her head. "I was pretty sure most of it was up for grabs. I didn't see any signs or notices of claim..."

Her brown eyes drifted back to the schematics, as her own techno-savvy mind was eager to read more. "..This is pretty impressive! Can I ask what kind of power plant you were thinking of putting in? The one it has now isn't going to work for what I see so far. Probably should add an auxiliary battery for shields in case of failure."

Ben shrugged. "Depends on the parts lying around the hangar, right? Unless you can cannibalize Stacy."

"And I'm not willing to get manhandled by tentacles to find out," Jaina added, chewing her pencil, "Honestly, I'm hoping something else back here has a Quadex core. Falcon's been flying on one of those since before I was born, but short of that I hope wherever Stacy takes us next has a junk industry."

"'Wherever Stacy takes us'?" he echoed, baffled. "I thought we were trapped in not-space because our home dimensions were gone."

Chao shook her head, turning to give a brief look at the boy. She knew a ton of her friends would be all over him if they were here. Good thing they weren't. "From what I understand of Stacy, we're occasionally pulled out of the bleed and into a new dimension to do whatever mission the ship wants us to do. The ship never stays there for long, but it should be long enough for some fresh air on occasion-ne."

She looked back at the schematics, contemplating like she were looking at a grand puzzle. "It might be a little awkward, but maybe you could replace it with two separate power plants from a couple strikecrafts and force them to run in-synch with each other. It would shave you a ton or two and bear less strain on either unit."

"What she said," though a pilot at heart, she still relished the opportunity to get her feet on dry land. Stacy was a far cry from the lush jungleland of Yavin IV or the sprawling cityscapes of Coruscant, "Some think that's the 'Grand Purpose' we've all been dragged out here for. To keep the universes that still exist from going the way ours did. If ours went anywhere at all, of course."

Sitting back in her pool of blueprints, Jaina huffs and ruffles her hair, "Getting the computer to work with dual cores is going to be a headache, especially if I outfit it with droid brains to optimise performance. But if I'm fitting extra shield generators I don't see another way with the parts I have to hand."

"I can help," Ben offered, leaning forward. "I've got the basics down from working on the Shadow, and you can teach me the rest while the parts go in." He grinned. "I'll even keep an eye out for spare parts between carrying out the ship's Super Amazing Grand Purpose."

"I know a thing or two about A.Is, there shouldn't be too much trouble with programming them properly if you're willing to hire me." She never really heard artificial intelligences as 'droid brains', but Chao guessed that was some common slang for this woman's world.

Since this wasn't her project, she didn't even bother to take notice to Ben's request, instead finding herself muttering calculations while fingering through the layout.

"Hey, I'm going to need a co-pilot aren't I?" Jaina gave Ben a grin. She had a lot of love for the Shadow herself. It was partly the reason she had picked out this particular yacht. All curves and very Aunt Mara, "My usual carpetman is otherwise engaged, hopefully snoozing in the pod caverns."

The assent to the new girl's offer came more reluctantly but it was perhaps better they kept an eye on her, especially considering the collection of parts she was carrying around with her, "Hire you? Hire would imply I have something to give in return."

"A co-pilot?" he echoed. "I thought you'd be flying one of the X-Wings."

Chao shrugged at Jaina and gave the young woman a light, but honest smile. "I think learning about your universe's technology is more than enough payment. The principles are similar, but everything has their own quirks and I'd like to learn more first-hand."

Jacen knew his twin sister had been here longer than he had -- he had heard this from Uncle Luke -- but he hadn't had a chance to seek her out until now. Well, he might have had a chance, but he didn't know if he had the... what was the word... courage? It was his twin sister, he knew he shouldn't feel that way. But something had kept him from searching out his other relatives.

He remembered the way Aunt Mara had looked at him, the way Uncle Luke appeared to be calculating things while they spoke. It had unsettled him. He had drawn into a shell -- something he was used to -- and began to think too much. Sure, that was dangerous for him but it felt comfortable, it felt familiar.

As he strolled through the hangar following his sister's presence, he felt himself taking a deep breath before stopping and peering down to where she was furiously working at vehicle plans. He absently began to tap an open palm against the ship he stood near and even as oddly nervous as he felt, Jacen was almost beaming as he looked at Jaina.

"A normal day with the toys, huh?"

Ben’s breath caught in his throat and, almost instinctively, he withdrew himself from the Force, his presence winking out like a glowrod. It took him a moment to realize that he was not looking into the yellow eyes of Darth Caedus, and that this face was not as gaunt as he remembered from two years ago. A visceral flash of emotions surged through him – anger, disgust, shock – before he could force them down and think completely rationally about the fact that he was face to face with his cousin once more.

Remember what mom said at the Lake. Remember what you told Jacen. And he’s not Caedus yet…

Forgiving a damned shade trapped underwater beyond shadows was a lot easier than meeting Jacen Solo again, but he’d made a promise to his mother that he didn’t want to break, not even here.

“Hello, Jacen,” he said, keeping his voice as bland as he could manage.

It was a big hangar, and the bond she and her twin shared had allowed Jaina to feel him coming. Still, she can't help but be caught off-kilter when he speaks up, wincing slightly as she felt guilt lance through her.

Jacen hadn't been the only one who'd been avoiding the other. After the encounters with her aunt and father she hadn't had the courage to home in on her brother's presence in the Force - as undeniable as it was - for fear of finding a stranger in place of her dearest friend.

Where Jacen withdrew and introspected, Jaina let work consume her.

"Just wait until I get started," she retorted, hoping to sound every bit as casual as she didn't feel. A curious pair of eyes found Ben as his projection in the Force clammed up so abruptly. Her uncle had done something similar when she'd first arrived, and the topic... the topic had been Jacen.

But enough of that. She was busy trying to look nonchalant, guys.

Edited 2010-04-08 22:56 (UTC)

"What are you gonna do with it?" His eyes shifted from her to the ships around her, figuring she was going to be tinkering with the one she was sitting closest to.

He was worried, he would admit it to himself. Jaina looked pretty much like she did the last time he saw her... not on the Meatship... so he didn't think what he felt was the same thing he was feeling from Mara, Luke and now Ben. But somehow he knew it was the same. He could read his sister (just like she could always read him). It was like they all knew something he didn't. Jacen could sense it. He couldn't tell what it was though. And he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

He crouched down, placing his elbows on his knees and watched her, almost asking What's wrong? -- but he hesitated and stopped himself, thinning his lips against the words.

What was she going to do with it? Sublimate all that fear and anxiety that a Jedi isn't supposed to have, maybe? Distract herself from the image that had been seared into her brain of a father who didn't know her from Adam and the confirmed dread that her mother would be the same.

"Dunno," honestly, flying the kriffing thing had been the last thing on her mind, "What I'd be doing to the x-wing's if they weren't so karking reliable."

Jaina can feel his confusion in the Force and it breaks her heart. She didn't understand it either, she didn't understand anything about this place or the people that it had brought here. But this was Jacen, her Jacen, the one she'd been with since day one. Force, how could she have been so stupid?

She finally managed to prise her eyes away from the schematics and reaches out... to grab him. It's a hug that only siblings can achieve, one more akin to wrangling cattle than anything else.

"Spast, Jasa! Where in the Nine Corellian Hells have you been?!" roughly translated: I missed you.

When his sister wrapped him up into a hug, Jacen was definitely surprised. In a good way though, of course. A wave of relief had washed over him and he pulled his arms up, returning Jaina's hug with a grin. He hoped she couldn't feel him shaking the slightest bit -- he had been so unnerved by how everyone he knew had been looking at him that he had been stuck in a sort of emotional rut.

He was good at getting stuck in those. Philosophical ones too.

"I..." He didn't know how to respond. But he tried to the best he could manage. Jacen figured his twin had been through a similar ordeal so she would understand. "Last thing I knew I was dozing off in our family's old apartment. It was after the war was over. The Yuuzhan Vong War." He was speaking into her dark hair and wiggling his nose as it tickled his face.

And he knew what she meant.

"I missed you too."

"I don't even know where I last was" she mumbled into his shoulder. She gave him a quick squeeze both physically and with the Force, a gentle nudge of reassurance before pulling away and looking out across the hangar deck.

"All I know is I'm here now."

Turning his head to the sound of the voice, Jacen's eyes narrowed and his eyebrows furrowed at the speaker. It took him a good moment or two before he was able to speak up again. "Ben?"

A smile cracked his face and he chuckled briefly, holding his hands out in front of him, a couple feet apart. "Last time I saw you, you were this big." It seemed like ages ago now. His Aunt Mara and Uncle Luke sitting at one of the debriefings after the Yuuzhan Vong War, trying to get Ben to quiet his coos and babbles. "Now..." Jacen waved his hands in front of him to signify the seemingly overnight growth spurt and age-advancing that Ben had seemed to achieve. Of course, Jacen knew that this had to be another case like Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara here -- they seemed older. They knew more about the future and what it held.

Unfortunately, Ben seemed to as well.

And that was unfortunate for Jacen because he was getting that same expression from Ben that he got from the others. He noticed it almost right away. But why?

He nodded mutely, swallowing hard. Jacen's smile was luminous; his Force aura radiated nothing but goodwill. That expression, that Force presence, brought back as almost many good memories of lazy spaceflights and playful misadventures as it did of the Embrace or the tunnels of Kavan. This Jacen, if Ben had guessed this gesture means that your mom was still carrying you everywhere right, wasn’t a Sith; he was a good Jedi Knight, the brightest star of the new Order. Ben could see why the ship had hauled this Jacen on board – he’d just saved the whole galaxy from the Yuuzhan Vong. Still…

With a selfish pang, he wished for a heartbeat that he’d talked to his father about Jacen first, even if Luke was fresh from the Battle of Shedu Maad and Jacen’s death, because Ben hadn’t the faintest clue what the Jedi way to handle “people who will turn mind-bogglingly evil in ten years” was.

But that was just it – Darth Caedus was ten years in this Jacen’s future, in a galaxy far, far away…

If Jacen were here, he didn’t have to meet Lumiya. He didn’t have to go Sith. He could stay just like this, the hero, for as long as the ship stayed in the Bleed. If there was a point at which no Jedi could return from the Dark Side, Ben couldn’t believe that this Jacen was anywhere near it. If there was darkness in this Jacen at all, then it didn’t have to stay there.

And then, Ben knew what he should do – even though a large part of him wanted to suckerpunch Jacen, even though it might be the one of the hardest things he’d ever done and he might fail catastrophically at it, and even though his mother and Lon Shevu and Nelani Dinn were dead – to honor the promise he’d made at the Lake, and because Ben was a Jedi, and because he’d loved Jacen Solo once.

"It's been a while," said Ben. “It’s good to have you here.”

Jacen tilted his head slightly, his eyes locked on Ben. His expression was one of curiosity, very careful curiosity. Ben looked so much like his mother and father that Jacen could almost feel a shadow of a grin on his own face. Solo suddenly was fairly excited about Ben being here -- as odd as he seemed to be acting, Jacen was interested in getting to know his cousin and his views on the Force and the Order and so on.

But first, he knew he had to figure out why his cousin was acting distant. Jacen could tell from the body language and the feel he was getting through the Force from the air around them that Ben usually wasn't like this (he couldn't see his Aunt and Uncle letting their son act like this all the time). Inhaling deeply, Jacen shoved his hands in the crude pockets of his pants.

"Are you sure about that, Ben?"

"Yeah," he said, speaking more firmly this time. "I mean, this place needs heroes to do something about the Ohm, and you're one of the biggest heroes from the Yuuzhan Vong War." It wasn't a lie, with Jacen as young as he was on this ship. He smiled. "And you're family." Which made it even worse when you turned into be a kriffing murderer -- but you weren't always like that. I remember.

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Fix up, look sharp

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