{{ urbania's void - chapter 05
...boys will be boys (day negative thirty-eight / -38)
Sometimes I wonder what life would've been like if I had failed to save Tenel Ka. It doesn't seem like almost a month ago that all of that happened. I still dream about those long days and nights at the Palace.
But whenever I have the dreams, they always turn out worse than what actually happened. These aren't like the visions I was having... they're just dreams. Unreachable but vivid enough to think about while you're awake.
There have been many different ones. But they're always the same...
I go to rip the mechanical arm off of Tenel Ka, it falls to the floor. She bleeds to death.
Or Gadell, Tenel Ka and I, fighting on her balcony. They overpower me and throw me over the side, cackling wildly, then they turn on each other.
In another, I wake up in the bacta tank and unearth myself only to look at the vitals on her bacta tank's screen and see that she has none.
Me, tied to that chair that night in her room. Her and Gadell doing more than they had really done.
That's probably my least favorite.
Jacen Solo sat in the cockpit of the Fact. It was a small cruiser ship that the Galactic Alliance had given Jacen and his partner, Zekk, for the intel mission. It had no name when they got it. So of course, they found that their first duty was naming the ship.
"Everyone always has these really regal and strong sounding names," Zekk had said, settling himself down into the chair on the left of the cockpit. "Let's name it something totally irrelevant."
"The Crystal Snake." Jacen suggested, with a joking smirk as he thought back the days of his animal menagerie.
Zekk knew where he was going, and naming the ship turned into a session where both men thought about their times during the Academy days.
"The Leafy Decorative Yet Yummy Salad."
Jacen threw his head back and laughed, the noise echoing in the cockpit as they silently moved through space. "The Lost One."
"Just one?" Zekk pointed to himself.
"Just you. You were the real lost one. You were so confused back then, Zekk." Jacen pointed to him.
Zekk snickered at Jacen's comment. "I think I've found myself now." His face lit up after that. "We'll name it the Rock Dragon Junior."
A remorseful smile crossed the General's face as he was reminded of the Hapan Cruiser and it's beautiful owner. "That still sounds too much like a normal ship name though."
Zekk leaned forward in the stiff chair and clapped Jacen on the shoulder, "I think the name should relate to Tenel Ka. Cause I know that's all you're thinking about, correct?" He added a sarcastic and prodding wink to the last sentence.
"This is a fact." Jacen replied to Zekk's inquiry with the reply they had heard most from Tenel Ka in their younger days. He replied with it as a silly little saying, since they had been talking about the Queen Mother, but Zekk's emerald eyes lit up afterwards.
"That's it. We'll call it the Fact!" He giggled insanely as he looked out to the blanket of stars in the viewport. Leaning forward, he grabbed the comm attached to the board in front of him and spoke into it, pretending as if they were about to land.
"Hi there! This is the Fact! Give us landing permission or die by our swift, mad Jedi hands, fools!"
Jacen crossed his arms over his chest as he slouched in the chair, resting his feet up on the control panel in front of him. He chuckled at Zekk as a genuine smile crossed his face. Zekk was obviously acting silly to try and cheer Jacen up. It was working slightly. The Fact; an odd name for a ship, but he didn't mind. It would remind him of Tenel Ka whenever he heard it.
Just like everything else reminded him of Tenel Ka.
Each group had been sent to a separate planet before finding the Urbania, and Zekk and Jacen had been sent to Corellia. They had tried their Mindmaps on, on the way to Corellia, shifted around as Kaidin and Tessick and gotten used to being flat-out perverts and all around vicious men. After taking the Mindmaps out, they thought about things they needed to get to make everything more convincing.
On Corellia, Jacen and Zekk bought a whole new set of clothes, weapons and items to outfit and complete their disguises. Jacen was drawn to bloodstripes, being part Corellian; but also because he always saw bloodstripes as a sign of confidence. Ever since he was little, he thought of them like that because of his father.
He thought bloodstripes would work well with Kaidin.
Zekk went for anything tight-fitting. Tessick's thoughts and memories showed him the life of a man who lived for women, blood and money.
When they finally arrived on the Urbania, they found the place they had been assigned to live in and acted like they were buying it as a long term place. After the agent who sold them the place left, Tessick and Kaidin checked it out more in-depth.
"What's with the balcony on the 'fresher?" Tessick glared into the huge bathroom. He found it odd that it looked to be in better shape then the rest of the place. "Ooooo! A tub! I haven't seen one of those in forever!" Tessick was used to showers in small cramped spaces like the ones that ships had. Actually seeing a tub, where you could fill it up and soak in it amazed him.
The walls of the room were a shiny silver shade, as well as the sink. The curtain that went around the tub was light gray and the floor was gray tile near the sink and tub, it turned into a crimson carpet over by the huge glass windows and door.
"Seriously though, why the balcony?" Tessick stalked over to the glass, pressing the button to let the door slide open and he stepped out into the cool air, raising his arms above him. He yelled as loud as he could, "DO YOU WANT TO WATCH ME TAKE A SHOWER?!"
Kaidin stood in the doorframe back at the entrance of the refresher, leaning against it with his arms crossed.
Tessick reentered from the balcony and skipped over to the tub, leaping into the empty basin. The tub was made from a clear material, which was perfectly see-through and it almost felt like transparisteel. Tessick loved it.
"Kai!! If I was taking a bath and you came in... YOU WOULD SEE ME NAKED!!" Tessick jammed a finger down at the tub he was standing in, a look of pure awe on his face.
"Stang, 'Sick, your insight amazes me. Please no more, my head might explode." Kaidin let his voice roll out in a monotone sound of boredom. After a few minutes of watching Tessick act like a fool in the refresher, Kaidin turned away from the room, mumbling, "Last time I let you take glitterstim before bedtime."
He could hear Tessick's continued wails about how neat the refresher was as he sat himself down at the dining area's small four-sided table. They really needed to get moving on finding Ryled.
Jacen and Zekk really needed to get moving on finding Raynar.
Yawning, Kaidin cracked his neck to the side and stood up from his short break, stalking to his room. The flight was long. He was tired. It was time to sleep. And not even removing the Mindmap, he fell into his bed and was instantly out.
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