suddenlycaptain | CONTACT ;; ataraxion

[ Well. That was fast. Nathan's always been good at sending her recruits, though. ]

Carolyn Fry. [ There's the sound of metal hitting metal, then her voice is a little clearer. ] I'll need to know any previous experience you have. If you don't actually have any, that's fine too; we're in no position to turn away help. I also need to make one thing clear: a lot of what we do isn't flying. We don't have enough fuel for that, not if we need to evacuate. It's almost all shuttle repair and maintenance, especially right after a jump.

[Ahsoka is an eager one too. If she can find something to do to help, she'll jump right on it.]

I've flown a few starfighters, co-piloted some smaller transport ships and crash-landed a larger one that was damaged but no one died. My Master was also teaching me mechanics so I have some repair and maintenance knowledge. Even if that's all we do, I'll gladly lend a hand.

Master-- another Jedi?

[ She doesn't mind Jedi. Usually. ... It depends. ]

Just out of curiosity [ because until she ended up here, the last thing Carolyn flew was one she crash-landed as well ] how many passengers were on that larger ship?

That's right.

[Obi-Wan told her that Anakin was on the shuttle crew.]

Eight. It was a rescue mission and the ship was damaged in the firefight. We were hurtling towards a star when I took over.

Not bad.

[ There's a bit of a rustle, Carolyn running her hand through her hair. ]

You can come on down to the shuttle bay. I'll show you around.

I'll be down in a few!

[She cuts the feed and hurries on down, nearly running into the shuttle bay. Ahsoka slows to a walk once she's inside and looks around. The girl is definitely not human but a lightsaber hangs from her belt.]

Carolyn?

[ It's the lightsaber more than her name that lets Carolyn know that this girl is who she's looking for, and while there's the temptation to give in and stare, she doesn't. Instead she wipes a bit of grease off of her hands and heads over. ]

That's me. Ahsoka, right?

[A Jedi doesn't go anywhere without it. Or at least they try to keep it with them. Ahsoka had no idea who she was looking for when she came down here but the voice is the same.]

Yep! It's nice to meet you. [She bows a little.]

You too. [ She doesn't bow, but she does incline her head a little. ]

The shuttle bay's the only place on the ship with windows. We get some people down here just to look, sometimes; can't really keep them out, but if they're drunk or high or waving around loaded weapons, then we don't feel particularly bad about kicking them out. Doubly so if they're doing something that could damage the shuttles or one of us.

[ Right into business, that's Carolyn. ]

The jumps damage the shuttles enough. We've got eight working right now; current repair rate is about one every two jumps, thanks to the general mayhem of the Tranquility and the sorry state they were in when people first started showing up. [ Also because the mods won't let us repair them faster so that we don't break the game. ]

[Jumping into business is perfectly fine with her. She listens quietly, absorbing all of the information.]

Got it. Toss out anyone who could do damage.

[Ahsoka may be small but she can do it.]

Supplies to fix them must not be easy to come by all the way out here either.

They're not. Any of the ones that are beyond our repair capabilities usually get scrapped for parts.

[ Carolyn nods toward some of the rows of shuttles. ]

We've stopped at a few stations and, in between nearly getting killed, grabbed what we could. There was a pirate ship a few months back that we were able to scrap some things off as well. Couldn't take the ship itself, unfortunately.

Makes sense.

[No need to waste something they can take apart and get more working shuttles out of them.]

I can help with that. Getting supplies off a dangerous station. [In the future.] Too many pirates?

No, it was deserted -- we did have pirates on this ship once, though. You should read the welcome material.

[ Carolyn's lips press together. ]

This station decided to have a full-scale functional meltdown. I'm still not sure if that's better or worse than the station full of people that tried to brainwash us into their hivemind.

[Ahsoka nods.] I managed to skim some of it before I came down here.

[And she has every intention of reading it.]

Both sound pretty bad.

[ Good girl. ]

There's something seriously wrong with this universe.

[That makes her frown.]

There's something wrong with this ship. It makes it difficult to sense anything beyond it.

There are a lot of things wrong with this ship. But the places we've stopped aren't right, either.

[ She shakes her head. ]

According to the people we've run into, the Tranquility has been missing for over forty years -- understandable, considering how time passes during the jumps . But the Cyllene disappeared at about the same time. No one's found either, save the pirates who showed up here, and they were killed. Strela Outpost vanished off official records, too. But we've been to the latter two while traveling on the first.

Is there anyone left in this galaxy? I read something about planets but did anyone go down to the planets when we were close to them?

We've never been close. We've stopped at three stations. One no one was technically allowed to visit. The second was the brainwashed hivemind and the third was empty.

But there are people left, according to number 19. Joe. [ Beat. ] He was the only one who arrived the nineteenth jump, and he's from this universe, unlike the rest of us.

CONTACT ;; ataraxion

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