It was late and in the morning we had work to do. I have to see for myself the about what these two have said about the jedi. I felt safe enough with these two and confident that they wouldn't do anything during the night, even if they aren't convinced I'm a jedi they should be convinced I'm a Mandalorian Warrior.

I got out of my 'nest' and looked at the two men on either side of me, both where asleep and Yaoksi I knew needed it. I took this opportunity to have a closer examination of the vessel we had found. From the part of the ship that was visible it appeared to be one solid piece of metal, like someone took a block of metal and carved the entire hull out of it making it one piece. I couldn't find any panels, doors, view ports, or controls of any kind on it, although they might be buried.

Seeing as how I could do nothing further until the other where awake I abandoned that project for now. I moved over to Kyan to get a closer view of him, even after all the stories I had heard about the great Boba Fett and the blood thirsty Mandalorians I came to question those notions ever since meeting Kyan. He was like the one honest store owner that you knew as a kid, or in my case the bartender who didn't water down your drinks the drunker you got because you wouldn't notice. Something made me feel at ease around him, like I am with Yaoksi or Thea.

"Kyan," I whispered. "Kyan, can we talk."

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"I have a friend, actually its Yaoksi's friend as well," I began. "She was a jedi at the academy before the imperials destroyed it and now doesn't have anyone to teach her. I don't understand this force stuff you use and I'm not even sure If I believe in it."

"But I promised that I would help her, so if we get out of here can you please help my friend become a jedi?"

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I could see that my mind was wandering off because Link looked at me like one stares at a statue.

"Sorry, I was thinking about things," I replied. "I don't know whether or not I can teach your friend the ways of the force or not, its hard to teach someone how to teach someone an ability when one has lost that ability themselves, but when we get out of here I will come with you and see what I can do."

"For now though lets see if we can fix this ship."

I walked over to the place Yaoksi was sleeping and placed my hand on his shoulder gently nudging him.

"Wha--?" For a moment I flailed about mentally, trying to put a name to a locale, to remember where I was, how I had come to be there, what had happened. Not to mention who in blazes was making physical contact with me. Then reality descended as I pulled out of that weird not-quite-awake state I had been in, and looked up into the face of a Mandalorian helmet.

"AAUUGGHHH!!"

Before I knew it, I was up on my feet, half crouched, my eyes darting all around me. Then the rest of reality descended, and I remembered everything.

"AAUUGGHHH--ahhh, good morning!" I smiled broadly, segueing the involuntary yell into what I hoped would pass as a sigh of greeting. I sniffed, cut a look around again, found Link, who was sitting there preening her fur, and returned full circle to Mr. Not-Quite-a-Jedi. My focus didn't remain on him long, though; damned if that armor he kept wearing didn't give me a case of the willies.

I puffed out my cheeks, turned away and began studying the ship which hulked over us. Now that the ambient light was brightening, I could see that it was unlike any kind of ship I had ever seen. Tentatively, I reached out a hand to touch it... only to yank back. For the durned thing was not only strangely difficult to look upon, it somehow felt weirdly--

Alive.

I put my hands on my hips, and started circling the thing.

"I dunno about this," I called out as I moved along. "I've not seen anything like this before; if the controls are as alien as the ship itself appears to be, I don't know if I'll be able to fly her.

"And I've flown plenty in my lifetime, believe me, pal."

With that I stopped, having come fully round the ship to where I had started. I sidled closer to Link and stood by her, waiting to see what the mystery man would say or do next.

[ 10-04-2007 02:49 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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I had suspected that the ship was different from most, I was hoping that the strangeness was just 25 years of technological breakthroughs not something different all together.

"Lets not give up until we see what these controls look like, at the very least once we find a way inside we can use it for shelter."

No hatch, view port, engine, or any typical ship component was visible which lead me to three different theories. One, she ship was very big, which I immediately dismissed because the crater would have been larger. Two, the hatch or the engine where still buried and we didn't have further to dig in any direction to find them. Or three, this ship doesn't follow standard starship principals.

Probably why he's not a jedi, among other things, I reasoned to myself. I squinted at him briefly, determined to keep a close watch on him, but an even closer one on Link and my own back.

"I never suggested that you did question my piloting skills," I finally replied, keeping my voice even.

"All I was saying was that this vessel is utterly alien to me, which makes me speculate that I probably won't be able to pilot it. I mean, if we can't even figure out how to get inside it, how do you think we can figure out anything really tough?

"And no, I don't think we should cut into the hull either."

For the love of--!!!

"I haven't a clue what this ship is made of, so it follows naturally that we won't be able to repair any damage we make. Besides--"

I waved a hand around.

"I don't see any handy-dandy shipyards around here, do you?"

I waited a moment, then scanned the area around us. It was similar to tundra, the kind of environment one would find at high latitudes as well as elevation. While we appeared to be in a kind of depression, undoubtedly made by the impact of this strange ship, there did seem to be rocks and relief in the immediate vicinity. I could only believe we were at somewhat high elevation, wherever in all the universe we were, and was willing to bet that if we would scramble back up the slope we'd fallen down we'd see mountains.

"I suggest we just leave here, and see if we can find anything in the way of civilization. Once we get out of this mountain range we're probably in, who knows what we will find?"

[ 10-05-2007 03:28 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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"Is he always like this?" I asked.

I didn't give either a chance to respond because the question was more posed to diffuse the tension of our situation.

"I haven't explored much of the surrounding area, so I don't know what we will find. There is sentient life here, however I've never seen them. They managed to pick the ship I traveled on clean while I transfered what I could from it to here. For some reason they avoided this place, and they leave no tracks that I could find."

I looked over what supplies we had, between the three of us we could at least carry all the food, all the other supplies I managed to salvage would hinder us on a hike or was to damaged to be of any use. Yaoksi and Link didn't carry much with them, just their cloths and I knew at least Link had a vibroblade while Yaoksi appeared unarmed.

I shook my head.

"Sorry, but if it's not a blaster I don't want anything to do with it. Too archaic, in my book, not to mention a questionable way to protect oneself. Too close for comfort, if you ask me."

I cast a look around, now lifting my brow.

"What do you have in the way of supplies? At the very least we're going to need water, or something to carry it in should we find some en route."

I couldn't help but cringe inwardly at my use of the pronoun we; it was making me more and more uncomfortable that, lacking a reasonable excuse for Link and I to go on alone, it seemed we were somehow being "forced" into bringing Mr. Almost-a-Jedi along with us. For to tell the truth I really didn't like the idea of linking up with him anyway.

Not at all.

[ 10-07-2007 11:28 AM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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I pulled from the supplies I had a canteen and tossed it over to Yaoksi. If he had been expecting a full canteen he quickly realized it wasn't one.

"We have only half a canteen of water between the three of us. There are maybe one or two watertight containers that could be used for carrying water if we find any."

She sure is hanging onto every word and move he makes! I grumbled to myself, for that's the way it appeared to me. Then I sighed, realizing further that my fledgling paternal instincts for Thea had simply transferred themselves to the little Ryn, which in turn was maybe making me look at this entire situation in from a somewhat slanted point of view.

Which wasn't going to do much in the way of helping to assure that we ever got out of it.

I sighed, and shook my head.

"I'm better off in the understories on Coruscant," I finally admitted. "And even then, only with a blaster. I'm not a real fighter, but I've managed to survive the places I've happened into which weren't so nice. But now--"

I waved the hand that was holding the canteen, wincing to hear how hollow it sounded.

"A little guidance is in order, I suppose," I finally muttered before affixing the loop on the canteen to my belt. Then I shot another look around.

"Maybe we can find water here, ya think? I mean, yeah there's no trees here, but we seem to be up kinda high. If we go down we have to come to some kind of growth, which would mean water, right?"

I pushed back the horrible possibility that we could be in the Upper Highlands on Tatooine, or on some other completely desert planet and that there just wouldn't be any water.

We've got to find some, and then find somebody to assist us. We just have to...

[ 10-16-2007 01:59 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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"There are many kinds of worlds some have water many do not, but even if this is one of those worlds that lack water I do not believe that the force would bring the three of us here to die in such a meaningless manner. The force has already helped us thus far, none of us are injured, we have food, supplies..."

I was drawn the ship before us, for some reason it gleamed in the sunlight differently then before. Approaching the ship I ran my hand across the surface it moved across like the ship was covered in oil, no wait not oil. I brought my had to my face and confirmed my suspicion's.

Well, then--!!

"Dew?" I inquired, taking a step closer to investigate this unexpected event.

Yup, sure as shootin' looks like dew to me, which means...

"Ok, that's a good sign," I went on, now drawing back and taking another quick look about myself. "Dew means there's moisture in the atmosphere, and that means there's surface water somewhere around here, if I remember my geography right."

My glance around didn't find anything liquid, however, other than the film which slicked the strange little ship. I drew in a breath, gave my vest a yank.

"Well then, I guess we need to set out and find it, unless you plan on licking that ship." I nodded curtly toward the eerily glistening hull protruding from the rock. Then I took up the few odds and ends that had been tossed my way.

"Shall we?" I finished, this time nodding to Link to let her know I hadn't forgotten about her welfare, even though she seemed to be gravitating more and more to the newcomer. Waving my free hand in the general direction of downslope, I waited for our intrepid almost-a-Jedi to make the first move.

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"We are in some sort of crater or depression heading down further into it isn't the best course of action, we might be wandering for hours maybe even days before realizing we ran into an impassable situation. Instead we must climb higher to a high point so we can get a good view of our surroundings and gather some reference points."

"Going uphill we can accomplish two things at once." I whispered. "We can get an idea of the terrain like he said and while we are up there and I can set up a holonet relay. If what he said about his ship was true they would have filed a flight plan, eventually someone is going to realize that the ship never reached its destination and might come looking for it. At the very least in case Aaron and the others manage to find this planet we should be able to comm them."

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The crater we climbed out of was blasted into the side of a mountain about halfway up from appearances. I could only see 200 meters up the mountain before clouds obscured the rest of it from my view. The other direction was an entirely different story. I couldn't tell exactly how high up we where on the mountain if I had to guess it would be be 1km to 2km. From the base of the mountain to about 7km away was nothing but rocky waste land but right after that it drastically changed. There where what appeared to be plants, probably some kind of grass. I had a feeling if I could still had my force connection I would feel something very wrong or weird with this place.

I was so lost in thought that I failed to notice when the two arrived behind me, but when I did they appeared to have the same shock and awe that I had.

"No different than Hoth, just higher," I snorted. Then before he or the silent Ryn could respond, I stepped boldly forth to negotiate my alpine descent through the altogether too deep snow.

[ 12-27-2007 03:55 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Yaoksi Joao ]

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Making sure everything was good to go I followed after the others, They didn't get far from where we emerged from the crater and the snow impeding their progress a little so catching up took little time.

When I caught up to them I whispered to Yaoksi, "We're set if our friends show up, do we have a backup plan in case they can't find us."

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"Good," I managed to gasp, wincing with each breath. Damn but the air was cold up here; at least I ought to be grateful that it was at all breathable.

Ahead of me the figure of Kyan marched blithely on, snugly impervious to the elements by virtue of his Mandalorian armor. I cast a briefly envious glance his way, then tugged on my entirely too-thin shirt. Then I motioned for Cel, who looked snug as a bug in her white fur, to continue onward.

"I think we'd better get to lower elevation and somewhere warm before we start worrying about any backup," I replied as I continued the grueling descent.

"Because right now I'm so cold I can't think; all that comes to mind is making a gigantic SOS out of rocks and putting it on the mountainside, but I'd rather expend that kind of energy just getting down from here."

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"Its not much, but ryn fur has to be warmer then nothing," I said. "When we get out of here whats our next move, we don't exactly have the best of luck."

I was hoping that some conversation would take Yaoksi's mind off of the hike down the mountain. From what experience I have conversation tends to distract the mind from other tasks and makes the time go by faster
hopefully it would help Yaoksi until we could find something or someplace warmer.

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Not to mention just WARMING me--!

--and for the merest of seconds I paused, smiling like a sap. She of course didn't stop, and the tightening of her tail as she drew ahead reminded me to get my feet working again. As did the cold, which crept rapidly deep into my bones during that short period of time.

"I dunno, kiddo," I repeated as I began slogging ahead once more. My tail-wrapped arm hugged against my side, sharing the warmth of the fur with at least a portion of my body, while my other arm pumped in an effort to keep the blood flowing rapidly. I knew this was just expending calories I didn't have to spare, but I'd think about that later. Right now--

"It doesn't look like there's any signs of civilization on this rock, does it? But appearances can be deceiving; I remember this time on Talus Fourteen--"

Off I went into a wild and woolly story involving an emergency landing on one of a gas giant's thirty-six moons, one involving a waterfall, a six-legged furry worm, and a voluptuous native woman--

Ok. So let's leave out the part about the woman...

--and what it took to find my way out of those particular straits.

"And the radio was out, and my blaster needed recharging..."

On and on I went, embellishing as I did, letting the words eat up the time and the passing time eat up the meters, bit by bit encroaching upon the terrain below, which a deeper part of my brain was still pondering as to the probability of its offer of any sort of reasonable escape from our plight.

Despite its apparent lack of six-legged worms.

--------------------

Taking this as a sign that a break was in order I removed my helmet to get a breath of unrecycled air while waiting for the others to catch up. We almost reached the base of the mountain from here the terrain changed from snow covered inclines to fields of boulders. Seeing that the other two had caught up to me I sat on one of the large rocks nearby and motioned for them to join me.

I was paying so much attention that I lost track of Kyan, when the next time I noticed him he was resting at the base of the mountain waiting for us, how he moved so fast with that armor and a pack was a mystery unto itself. It took only a few minutes to reach the spot where he was waiting. Instantly we where greeted with his input of the situation.

"Food and shelter maybe, but from what I can tell with my equipment there is no discernible sign of technology being used. At least any technology that I know of. So f we find any civilization I don't know if they have anything that would be of help to us."

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I was so beat that the durned rock felt like a pillow.

But not so much so that it would lull me to sleep; although it felt good to take a load off and rest awhile, hopefully for a good LONG while, I wasn't any too anxious to stay where we were. Boulder fields are far better than snow, but--

"That doesn't surprise me, kiddo," I said as I leaned back, grimacing when a fresh pain shot through my side.

Sure showing your age, Yaoksi you ol pirate...

"But then we can't judge an entire world from just one spot. I mean, how far of a range do you have? Maybe there's civilization somewhere beyond; we'll just have to hike out of here. For all we know, it's like we are hiking out of the Sand Wastelands on Tatooine; there's not much for lifeforms there, but it doesn't mean that there's not life elsewhere."

A sudden thought crossed my mind, and I turned to Kyan.

"What does the Force tell you, jedi? I mean, aren't you supposed to be able to sense these things?"

The simple act of speaking took an unexpected toll on me; saying no more I heaved a sigh and closed my eyes, and let my body fall backwards across the boulder. All of a sudden it was feeling mighty good to just lay there.

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