In the Pipe, Five by Five

Posted on Sat Jun 16th, 2018 @ 8:57pm by Bomoor Thort & Thane & Amare
Edited on on Wed Aug 21st, 2019 @ 10:42pm

2,929 words; about a 15 minute read

Chapter: Chapter V: Unbound
Location: Red Raptor, Thaal System
Timeline: 1500 hours (Caanan Time (20hr clock)), three days after "The Key"
Tags: Caanus, Vaarthul, heritur, Archae Wulhart, House Verus, Kaon, Vaa, skaal, Kaon-Thaalda, GalactaWerks, slicing, Rodian

OLD

Thane's blue eyes continued to move between his two companions as he spoke. "Even so, ofttimes, springing a trap is a good means by which to take control of a situation, and I'd much rather take charge of whatever this twist of fate might be than let it manipulate us. It could lead us to some wellspring or font of brilliant power, or even some kernel of knowledge we could use in our fight against the cult."

Or, he added silently, making a point of not eyeing Zaracoda, some secreted Sith lore.

"From what I could decipher in the images I saw, I'm not convinced Caanus is the ultimate destination, though." Thane's mind's eye flickered back to the slobbering beast that had assaulted him, the sickly-sweet stench of its flesh-ridden breath and decaying incisors still present, even though he had in fact not been subjected to it in reality. "Although I have never been there myself, I saw... beasts - the abominations that dwell on one of Caanus' moons: the Vaa-Thaalda."

NEW

The Red Raptor slipped out of its days-long journey from hyperspace into the Thaal system, on course for the crusty foreboding desert moon, Vaa.

On this particular occasion, Thane had claimed the pilot's chair within the freighter's cockpit, his pale hands running across the controls of the ship that Sev Rezer usually maintained lordship over. For the moment, however, the Mandalorian was tending to business away from the Raptor he had elected to not share the details of with his crewmates, not that this offended the former Jedi Knight much. It was not that Thane especially cared to control the starship himself, although his piloting skills were nevertheless adequate and perhaps greater than the average non-Force sensitive, but rather the importance this particular journey held for him.

Watching the abnormally stretched white-and-blue field of stellar streaks shift back into normal space, his eyes widened imperceptibly at the view now before him. Hanging in the distance, a violet-and-myrtle marble sat against a backdrop of ancient twinkling stars, two smaller spheres lazily strewn either side of its massive, distant form.

Seeing Caanus now, he could not pretend it was entirely familiar. Of course, Thane had seen images of the world hundreds of times throughout his life since first joining the Jedi Order. Ever gripped with a fascination for history and a desire to understand his own origins and world, he had delved into numerous texts and files regarding Caanus in the past, and was every bit a student and example of its culture, understanding, enjoying (and now publicly embracing) that which his homeworld had to offer. Naturally, he had seen images of the purple globe on several occasions, although it never quite married up with the glowing recollections he had of the planet's own terrains and verdant landscapes. After all, an image was not the same as the genuine article.

He had not even entered the star system since his enrollment with the Jedi years ago, and had even striven to suppress that part of his identity during his earliest training, seeking to eliminate too much fascination and curiosity as to what might have been, or even could be. Even now, having accessed his accounts and come to indulge within the dark side of the Force and Sith ambitions, he felt an anxious ambivalence within himself. He made a point of not reaching out with the Force to touch upon the world.

Eyeing Caanus and the continents beneath the stormy weather systems that eternally spiralled across it, he could spy the general location of his family's ancestral lands - of the lands his father still resided within, cooped up and depressed, hidden away within the depths of Vaarthul. With a few simple commands, a single transmission and personal introduction, Thane knew he could be stood before the lords of Caanus a prodigal son - the son and heritur of Archae Wulhart returned and triumphant, a would-be king in his own right. He could confront his ailing father, throw down the pretenders who poured poisoned whispers into his ears and claim the planet as his own, restoring the legacy of House Verus.

But, no. This was not the time.

Punching in a few more commands, Thane stamped down on the reverie and his lingering longing to set foot upon the brilliant green grass blades of his home once more, and the Red Raptor's sublight engines rumbled as they increased speed, propelling the old smuggler's vessel towards Caanus and its two satellites.

On one side was Kaon, half-lit by Caanus' primary - the star Thaal - a verdant forest moon teeming with life, whilst to the other, steeped more in darkness than its sister, was their destination: Vaa. Even concealed by the shadow of Caanus, Vaa's nature was clear; it was an amber-grey ball, deep ridges like scars across its near-lifeless surface apparent even at this distance in space, great deserts punctuated periodically with chasms and petrified forests.

Near-lifeless, Thane mentally repeated to himself as he looked at the grim visage of their destination.

He turned to look at his two companions, seated as they were in the co-pilot and port passenger chairs respectively, thinking on what to immediately say. It had been an age since he had stepped foot on Caanus, and Thane had never been to either of the moons - not that such things had ever been encouraged by Caanans.

"Both moons are considered taboo subjects," he elected to say, glancing to both Bomoor and Coda, "embarrassing things for the noble skaal, 'lords', to ignore or actively dismiss. In ancient times, the first Humans who settled Caanus allegedly ejected the native species, the Thaal, from the world, exiling them to the two moons. Over the generations, they changed. A lot."

There had been some limited expeditions, even by non-Caanans, to determine the state of the Thaalda, but not so much in recent years. Thane had also discovered that some of the early Caanans, during their various wars, had 'tamed' captured Kaon-Thaalda to serve as footsoldiers, but it had been millennia since then, and all travel was since prohibited by the local governing bodies.

"It is telling," Bomoor added, somewhat enjoying the revisiting of Caanan history for Coda's benefit, having heard much previously, either from Thane himself or his own digging on his friend's origins, "that these moons are so rarely visited, particularly Vaa. Many cultures look up to their moons, early in their development and see them like great mountains they must climb to achieve some measure of growth as a species. It is not surprising that Caanan culture is so insular when those moons are not aspirations to achieve, but rather memories to forget."

He looked to his friend, who was still craning backwards in the pilot's seat, fairly certain his words would not be taken with any offence, "It only makes it more of an achievement when individuals do face those fragments of their past, as we shall do together today. That being said, I am still not all that clear on how our little cargo ship is going to gain clearance to the moon, when it continues to be, as you say, taboo."

"There's a basic orbital station that manages traffic in the system," Thane said, turning back to the controls. He produced an orange datacard from one of the drawers nearby and inserted it into a console. "Zaracoda promises me this should broadcast a GalactaWerks frequency. The company has a hunting and acquisitions license with the Republic allowing it to enter certain restricted zones for exotic creatures." He gave Bomoor a knowing look before looking to Coda. "Let's see how good she is."

"'She' is very good," Coda said with a quizzical look at him wondering why he was talking about her as if she weren't even in the room.

Thane's plan was riding on Coda having managed to dig up short lists on coded frequencies GalactaWerks used in the last week. The data she obtained had a high degree of integrity since GW cycled their non-emergency comms on a bi-weekly basis. Blackhat slicers across the Darknet--the underbelly of the galactic holonetwork--had been data-mining and dumping small, yet juicy chunks of secure info from GW's corporate offices far more frequently in recent days. There was considerable speculation on the 4jin newsgroup forums about a possible insider leaking the info as part of some revenge plot, but whether it was true or not, it meant a lucky break for the ship getting by that station unscathed.

Bomoor's expression softened at the young woman's confidence in her abilities. While some within the Reborn Jedi Order would have disapproved of a padawan answering her master in such a way, his own experience had taught him that the Force flowed most naturally when one had the utmost confidence in success.

"Then we will not encounter any problems," the former Jedi Consular stated, "So, let us open a communication channel and head down without further delay."

Thane activated the ship's communication system, sending over the digital subspace equivalent of a handshake to his homeworld's orbital stations.

After a brief delay, the audio from the communicator clicked as someone picked up the call from the other end, "This is Caanus Orbital Control," came a plain, practised male voice, which sounded most-likely human, "Vessel designation: YX-1980 460593CTF; please state your destination and the purpose of your visit."

"We're independent, uhh, traders of exotic goods," Thane began, adopting an accent that could be considered the former Jedi's interpretation of gritty Corellian, a stark contrast to his usual formal tone. "We're contracting for GalactaWerks. We were hoping to do some hunting on Vaa."

"I see," the voice stated, not betraying any sense of doubt to the listeners in the cockpit, "Vaa traffic is tightly regulated. You must transmit valid clearance codes now or be denied access."

Thane nodded to his apprentice, and that was Coda's cue to start punching in the alphanumeric sequence in the comms console beside her. The plucky Rodian slicer that taught her everything she knew about the trade verified the code as the current one only hours before arriving in Caanus, but he warned her through a cryptic message over the darknet that it was coming dangerously close to expiration; the GW security codes were on a tighter rotation schedule than the comm frequencies. It was all or nothing now.

Watching as the pale dusty-looking moon drew ever closer through the wide windows of the Red Raptor, Thane made a conscious effort to not reach out towards his countrymen manning the orbital station in a vain, cynical effort to influence their interpretation of the situation. Instead, he decided to continue flying as casually as he could.

“Thank you for your compliance,” Orbital Control stated back, “Slow and maintain your present course, while we run the codes.”

There was a slight rustle over the intercom as if their faceless Caanan security official had stepped up for a moment. A muted voice could be heard but not distinguished before another shuffling sound announced the return of the man, “Your clearance codes have been accepted, therefore you may resume your course to Vaa. I must remind you to limit your operations to the terms of the Vaa hunting and acquisitions license, accessible on the holonet. In addition, please confirm your departure with us before you leave the system.”

Nodding at the confirmation, although obviously not for the benefit of the controller, Thane turned and gave Coda a brief small but warm smile, making clear his appreciation for her efforts. "Thanks, Control," he said back over the comm array, once again throwing on the Corellian accent, before throwing a glance back to his companions as he continued to work on the console. "Well, that was very probably the easy part," he said, pleased but reticent, much of his nostalgia ebbing with the consideration of what was yet to come.

“Very possibly,” nodded Bomoor, “But, nonetheless, well done to Coda for finding those codes.”

Coda smiled faintly and gave a curt nod. Thank the blackhats, she thought. She knew it was a stroke of luck on her part finding the GW data dumps. She made a mental note to try and reach out further into the criminal cyberworld after the sojourn on Vaa was concluded. She could slice systems, sure, but she was still like a child playing with toy blocks compared to the hotshot data crackers out there. The Force and its mysteries, however, was of far greater interest to her now.

With Vaa now consuming most of their view from the cockpit, Thane glanced at the readout of the moon on the nearby wall console, which also doubled as a star map when navigating through the galaxy. It was not as complex or as easy to visualise as the holographic display they had in their strategy room, but it certainly served its purpose.

Rather than directly consulting with the map or airing the question, Thane retrieved the Force-imbued key from within his tunic, and allowed a part of his consciousness to be subsumed by its inner power - just enough to brush against the faint currents that trickled out from it through Thane and towards Vaa. Not even needing to close his eyes to dip into the power, he felt a surge of purpose strike him as he reviewed the lunar map, which could only be best described as familiarity.

"Here," he said, tapping the map in an area almost exactly in between the moon's equator and north polar region.

As the ship sped forward, the black void of space began to lighten as the first layers of Vaa’s atmosphere began to surround the vessel. Looking at the holographic display Thane pointed to, Bomoor expanded the view to scout for a landing site.

“Unsurprisingly, there are limited structures, but there is a plateau at these co-ordinates that we could land the ship on,” the Ithorian commented, pinging the co-ordinates to Thane's pilot display, while still flicking through the latest survey data on the moon, “There is a lot of mist in that region so you may need to use the sensors to guide you in. Even Sev might have some difficulty and his landings are pretty flawless.”

Sev was a name Coda wasn't familiar with. She fought every instinct in her to ask about him, and held her tongue so as not to distract Thane's focus on a clean touchdown.

"Thank you," Thane replied, although his last word was cut short by a sudden hard jostling of the Raptor, as a heavy gust of dust-laden wind thrust itself against the ageing freighter. With a tight grimace, the Caanan made a few adjustments on the console, finding the the task not as unpleasant as he had expected.

And ol' Mandalore the Beast always made this look so hard, he thought to himself, instinctively narrowing his eyes as the visibility through the viewport became obscured, as promised by Bomoor.

A thick fog had engulfed the crew's entire view, obscuring the brief sight they had of needle-like trees that had been jutting sharply up towards the cloud-riddled skies. Flecks of moisture appeared to dot across the window as they continued their descent, occasionally harried as they were by sudden volleys of wind.

Although it was not yet nighttime on Vaa, the dusk-like quality of the skies was known to be an almost permanent feature of the dead moon, with mysterious sources of light occasionally spilling through the chasms and ancient greyed tress that dotted its surface, before immediately blinking out of existence once again. The skies were a dark grey, almost entirely blanketed by thick and formless clouds, whilst the fog the ship cruised through obscured nearly all vision, the Raptor's external lights doing nothing but causing bright reflections on the impenetrable mists.

After a few careful minutes of navigating the weather, using the navigational systems and calling upon the Force to guide his actions - an old Jedi trick, although one Thane had not particularly practised over the years - he settled the old vessel on the plateau Bomoor had indicated, having found it odd how the wind had suddenly dissipated as they had drawn closer to Vaa's surface. Although a crumbling sound reverberated beneath the Raptor for a few seconds after landing, causing each crewmember to offer one another brief glances of concern, anticipating the worst, their worries did not come to pass.

"Well then," Thane said, rising from his chair as he locked down the main console to face both Bomoor and Coda with a sardonic smile. "Shall we take our magic key and go for an aimless walk on the dead moon?"

Although he used some of his usual dry humour to conceal his own genuine, and perhaps childhood, trepidation regarding their upcoming amble, Thane was not so sure he had even convinced himself he was truly keen to set foot on Caanus' dark embarrassment.

He had not yet forgotten the sight of those abominations in the key's grim vision - or the old poem he recalled was commonplace in his childhood, hidden as it had been until just now in the recesses of his treasured youth.

Even Skaal pure of heart who live in light,
Will be prey when Vaa blooms bright,
When the Thaal do come by night.

And Thane was certainly not pure of heart.

TBC

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