{{ urbania's void - chapter 37
...heads will roll (day thirty-six / +36)
The chamber overwhelmed them. It was a fairly large room, circular and hollow. The ceiling reached indescribable heights and the walls were a sharp metallic silver, obviously made of durasteel. The middle was polluted by a huge machine, littered by buttons, switches, screens and seats. Many, many seats, all surrounding the outside of the machine, facing the walls of the chamber. On the bottom half of the room, the walls were covered in a huge three-hundred sixty degree holo-screen. Above the machine were pipes and thick wires, criss-crossing from wall to wall. They were made from all sorts of dull durasteel and they glinted lazily in the dim light of the chamber.
The four Jedi were pushed into the silent hall by their respective people who had come to pick them up from their rooms. The door was shut behind them.
And they were left to stare.
Jacen instantly turned to Zekk and gathered the sniffling man up in his arms, hugging him to his chest. Gadell had wrapped his arms around Tenel Ka's shoulders and she responded in turn, splaying her palm out across his back. After returning Gadell's warm gesture, she rushed over to Zekk's side and the Admiral followed, all four of them fitting oddly together in a calm embrace.
They were alone, frightened and unnerved. What were they doing in this room? Why were only the four of them brought here?
The peaceful scene was broken by a cerulean-haired girl, a young woman with a lost expression on her face. Her hand brushed over Tenel Ka's shoulder, causing the Queen Mother to stir out of her friends' grasps. Tenel Ka's breath caught in her throat, and she just stood, staring at the woman.
The click of heels caused the Jedi's heads to collectively turn to the right, where a tall, blonde man stepped forward, crossing his arms over his chest. The fabric on his ragged worn-out overcoat laid tattered down his arms. His green eyes danced to the blue-haired female then trailed back to the huddle standing close together.
Eyes shifted to the left when a shuffling noise sounded and a young man with a jagged crimson mane stepped out from behind the ominous machine, a sly smile across his smooth visage. His hands carefully crept along the cool metal of the machine as he carefully stalked around it.
Something between a cough and a cackle erupted from above and the four sets of worried eyes shot upwards, landing on someone that made them all wince. He sat perched sideways atop the machine, one leg dangling over the edge and the other laying on the metal, stretched out in front of him. His gray gaze peered down at them like gathering storm clouds, strands of black and green breaking the pale shade of his face.
Jacen felt Tenel Ka grab his wrist from behind him. Her fingernails absently dug into his arm -- he had never felt such urgency and panic from her. It was at the sight of him...
High above, near the top edge of the circular chamber, a transparisteel window carved a rim a few meters under the ceiling. And through that window, people watched the scene unfold.
"Who'd you put in the 'maps?" Welk inquired, as he threw a small piece of Corellian candy into his mouth. Lomi Plo ripped her gaze from the scene below them and narrowed her eyes.
"Just some Quads. No one special." A pause in her sentence gave her a chance to cross her arms over her chest. "Although I picked Quads that seemed easily swayed. I wanted the Mindmaps to sink into them quickly and effortlessly."
"It worked." Raynar Thul pressed his palms up against the clear surface and stared down below as everything unraveled.
A growl erupted near the door of the room and Jaina glanced over from her seat by the window. Lowie stood at the now open doorway, where a droid sat with two plates of food in its mechanical digits.
The droid had come around a couple times up to where time sat now, to deliver meals. The door to the room would unlock and open and the droid would be alone with food. Quadripdici were at either end of the corridor, Lowie had checked at one point. They knew they couldn't use the time the droid was there to escape.
So they would just cooperate at take the trays of food and let the droid shut the door and twiddle it's way down the hall to the next room. The meal in the morning, it would come from the left end of the hall and the meal later that night, the droid would come from the right.
Lowbacca and Jaina didn't even have to voice it to each other... they both knew that the other was doing the same thing everytime that robot showed up.
They were both studying it, narrowing their eyes, running their gaze up and down the metallic being, trying to find a way to use it to their advantage.
That meal came to the room that morning, the two took the food and made a few quick adjustments and as the door shut behind the droid, Lowie and Jaina instantly looked to each other and grinned.
Rez Nyena stepped forward and pulled Tenel Ka's hand away from Jacen's. She took it in her own and tugged Tenel Ka away from the group, leading her towards the machine. As they both got closer to it, Tenel Ka let her eyes trail upwards.
Kaidin looked down on her. He quickly shifted around so he was on his haunches, peering down to the small crowd below. He looked from face to face, taking in every expression.
Tessick Ladreen, snickering slightly, arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were trained on Zekk Arkenna who stood a good distance in front of him, arms wrapped around a shivering body with bloodshot eyes.
Khee Verelen was slowly making his way to the Hapan Admiral, Gadell Vessau, who was standing perfectly still -- so still it didn't even look like he was breathing.
Jacen Solo stared upwards to Kaidin, an uncharacteristic expression of anger on his face. And without warning, Serasai leapt from the machine and landed in front of Solo, grabbing him in his arms. The Jedi were pushed to the machine and sat down around it, facing the screen.
They heard a voice. A familiar voice.
"Hey there."
Lomi Plo.
"We're going to test something out on you four." There was a pause in her words that gave Zekk, Jacen, Tenel Ka and Gadell a chance to exchange worried glances. "We've been toying around with Mindmaps and the databases and all things related and we've stumbled upon something interesting."
Welk took over after that.
"If the bodies of the deceased are recoverable after their death, there is another batch of information pulled from them during the post-death examination. Like another census. It helps medics with the cause of death and things like that."
Another pause.
Raynar spoke.
"We found out how to get into the database and pull the memories of how they died, how it felt, what they thought, what everything looked like..."
Lomi Plo took the comm back over. As the words dripped out of her mouth, Rez, Khee, Tessick and Kaidin were walking towards the door. Kaidin spun around and walked backwards, throwing a little wiggle of the fingers to the Jedi, who were locked into their seats. His eyes glimmered with an unnerving spark of evil.
"And now we're going to see how putting you right in the middle of it affects your minds."
The door shut, they heard laughing and then the world as they knew it spun out of view...
"I was thinking; if ---" Jag stopped speaking as the door's lock was released. His head turned towards it as Kyp's eyes did the same. Kyp looked passed Jag and tensed up, ready to spring into action if need showed itself. The door slid open and it was just the droid, delivering their evening meal.
The stoic pilot stood and retrieved the plates from the droid, who paused for a moment and retreated back to the door, exiting the room. He handed a plate to Kyp and sat back down across the wooden table from him, breathing a small sigh before digging into the gruel in front of him. Kyp did the same, but scowled as his spoon hit something hard.
"What?" Jag inquired, setting his own spoon on the pile of mush.
Durron's sneer grew as he began smearing gruel back and forth, away from the object he had tapped with his spoon. His smirk vanished and his eyes lit up as he found something potentially helpful.
"What is it?" Jag leaned forward a little, keeping his normal nonchalant expression plastered across his face.
"A datapad."
Jag's expression changed quickly, to one of surprise, as he scrambled around the table, peering over Kyp's shoulder at the datapad in his hands. He viciously blew a lock of Kyp's silver-streaked ebony hair out of his view so he could read the message at the same time.
Hey boys -
Furball and I are next door to you, on the right. Our room is full of tools and datapads and other odd items. We realized we could use them - and the food droid - to our advantage.
Reply back to this message and send it back with the morning meal tomorrow. We have to see if this works out alright before we start sending the datapad to the other rooms.
Stay safe and don't get into too much trouble. They're probably watching.
- Goddess
Exchanging sly smiles, Kyp and Jag laughed quietly, the grins coming easily to them - a relief after being serious and tense for the previous few days. Jag took his seat again and Kyp set the datapad between them.
The pilot crossed his arms over his chest. "What should we say in return?"
Silence wafted around the room, hanging stagnant between the two men before Kyp blew it away with an exceptionally evil little giggle, grabbing up the datapad.
The next morning, Jaina Solo dug the datapad out of her mountain of gruel and laughed at the response, showing it to Lowbacca. A huge smile had crossed her face, not just because of how they responded but also in delight at the fact that their plan actually might work.
Probably watching?! Then Jag and I had better stop cuddling so much, hm?
And that was all he wrote.
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