trans_9 | The food could be worse

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The food could be worse | Mess Hall [Open]

Kyle had decided to actually try to food for what it was this time rather than have the Sensoriums disguise it as something else. It wasn't as bad as he expected, just extremely bland. That put it one step above some military rations he'd had. He could live with bad food. It was the lack of caf that was annoying. He'd thought somebody would have picked some up when they'd stopped off at a planet. No such luck however. So he had to put up with working on training exercises for the Rogue's commando component without any delicious beverage.

Tapping on his Omnicom he started to organize his notes. Demolitions training, marksmanship, and of course stealth all being laid out in a schedule. Preliminary of course. It would still need Wedge's approval. Considering that some of team were civilians he had to alter the normal framework of the training. Overall he felt they should be able to get everyone trained, and ready to go fairly quickly. The Sensoriums did simplify the logistics of training a great deal. Not to mention saved him a lot of prep work. Not to mention all the benefits of live fire training without the danger.

Deciding it was time for a break he set the Omnicom down and lay his head down on the table. Closing his eyes he focused on listening to the sounds of the ship. Slowly he reached out with the Force getting a sense for what the norm was. This massive ship, and it was alive. It certainly was a unique feeling. At first it was almost impossible to sense anything else. Soon he was able to separate it from others in the Force. The ship becoming a comfortable background noise.

The food was bad, the situation was even worse, but for the moment Kyle felt at peace.

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He grimaced, and not because of the nutrigoo in front of him. "Keeping an eye on a Sith."

That snapped the smile right off Kyle's face. How could he have missed a Sith? "Fill me in. Who, and where?"

He sighed. "Her name's Vestara Khai. Human, female, mid-teens. Dark hair, plus a little scar right here." He pointed to the corner of his lips. "She and some of her friends came out of nowhere and attacked me and dad. We wound up chasing her halfway across the galaxy, finally took her prisoner, and then ... she and I ended up here."

"Just fantastic. Not even a reformed Sith." His mind raced with all the very bad situations that could result from this Sith running about unchecked. "Has she tried anything? Is your father alright?"

"He's fine," Ben assured. "He's from two years earlier than I am. Vestara had to reintroduce herself -- and no, she didn't try saying hello with a lightsaber this time around."

"That's good, but I doubt she's ruled it out." Frowning he scratched his beard. "Anything else you can tell me about her?"

He sat back, all thoughts of forcing himself to eat temporarily abandoned. "When her strike team attacked us," he said slowly, "there was a Sith Meditation Sphere with them. I don't know where it went after that, but I don't think it's here. I'd know. After the attack, we traced her to Dathomir, where she met up with some Nightsisters. She wound up selling them all out to her Sith buddies and shipping them off-world." He frowned, thinking about what she'd said to Bright Sun after that -- that she'd helped his father fight those rancors off, and added, "She's not bad with a lightsaber, either."

This girl had sold out Nightsisters! Bad news all around. "Even for a Sith she sounds dangerous. We need a plan, and a way of monitoring her. How committed to the Sith do you think she is?"

The question took Ben by surprise. When he thought about it, Vestara wasn't much like Caedus had been at all. Sure, she was tricky and had stabbed her Nightsister allies in the back, but could he see her lashing out with Caedus's temper, strapping someone into the Embrace, or torturing a prisoner to death in frustration? Passion was key to the Dark Side, but she seemed more controlled, less volatile than Caedus had been by the end. Though you spent months thinking Jacen wasn't like that, either, he reminded himself, and look what he did... "Committed," he said anyway. "I'm pretty sure she was brought up Sith."

"We're going to need to keep a close eye on her. I'd especially like to see just how she reacts to some situations." Already he was thinking of ways to throw her off balance if he had to fight her. He'd better let Wedge know as well. He really wish he could understand what the ship was thinking by bringing Sith on board. "Of course that's stating the obvious."

He didn't like the lack of options.

"She'll react by lying, and then telling lots of lies to cover up the lying, and smile the whole time."

"You know one of these days a Sith is going to be really clever, and tell the truth." He personally hoped it never happened. He much preferred when they were predictable in their evil. "Here I thought all I had to worry about was the universe eating bugs."

"It's never that easy," he said, smiling faintly.

"If it was I might actually get that vacation." If he wanted that he should have never become a Jedi. "So any other impending disasters I should know about?"

"Aside from the destruction of the galaxy? Nope. I'm out of bad news."

"Well if that's all," he quips, but the humor in his voice has faded. Glancing down he pokes at his Omnicom for a minute. "Are you holding up alright?"

"Better than I'd have expected." He did have some theories why -- and bouncing the ideas off Master Katarn, who had been podpopped at the same time as Ben, might be useful. "At least part of it is because I don't remember. I didn't feel it -- the ship just told me about it. And the ship could be lying to everyone. It's not like we can prove it wrong."

"Very true," Kyle said nodding. "I don't like flying blind. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of options for independent conformation of the facts." Jedi Master or not it was frustrating.

"I'm surprised that the information on the Ohm is so limited."

"Only one person here has ever met them -- and they haven't attacked the ship with the current crew on board."

"That's one eyewitness at least. Did you get to talk to him?" Kyle asked raising an eyebrow.

"Until he ran off," Ben scowled.

"Did you get his name? I'm pretty sure the two of us could track him down if we wanted to." Anything to get first hand information. This second hand nonsense was just going to lead to disaster if they had to face the Ohm.

"Cargn, or 'The Seer'."

"What is it with people and ominous titles? He shouldn't be hard to find with a name like that. People tend to notice when someone goes around calling themselves The Seer." His distaste for titles is clear in his voice.

Ben shrugged. "At least you know not to invite him to squadron parties."

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