Post by Talau the Ever-Lurking on Jun 12, 2014 11:17:40 GMT -5
It had been a little over a month since her ‘death’ and Samantha sat, rather dejectedly, on her bed in the Familiar compound. Everyone she knew thought she had been killed by a mercenary and bounty hunter while on Corellia. No doubt her ‘return’ to her home planet had been ‘foolish’ but it had been a plan. Only a very few knew that she still drew breath and…sadly…none of them were her closest friends. Well, one of them might as well have been. Her old captain had been in on the plot, subtly providing her with the corpse needed for this particular Undercity Shuffle.
What was an Undercity Shuffle?
An Undercity Shuffle (coined for the undercity of Nar Shaddaa) was when everyone looked right….you went left. Most good outlaws knew about it, a few employed it, and most times it required nothing short of a dead body (or other such vastly interesting object or circumstance). In this case, it was a body…a body the kind captain had managed to procure for her use. The details had been finely ground until the lies and the truth became almost indiscernible from one another. At the end of the ‘little’ game of cat and mouse between her and the mercenary hired to ‘kill her’ the HNN had been feeding the galaxy images of her final battle with the man worthy of good cinema. All the better to fool people with. From the high speed chase through Coronet, to the shot that had propelled her over the edge of the platform they’d stopped on and the explosion of her speeder, rendering what was left of the corpse unidentifiable.
In all respects Sam should have been quite pleased with how things had turned out! She would no longer be hunted, free to move about the galaxy as she wished without fear. Sure she’d had to lay low for the first month just to be safe, but she’d been doing that anyway. The part that had the poor woman pining so was the fact that she also couldn’t risk any one else knowing she was alive for that time. It included her brother, Sev, Hunter, Archer, Athar….no one. Their reactions had to be natural, just in case…If any of them were questioned, or even asked, about her death they had to react how they should if she had actually died. Even they had to believe she was dead…at least for a little while.
Tapping her fingers restlessly on her knee, she stared at her datapad…then her eyes moved to her holo-comm, then back to her datapad before boring a hole in the floor once more. She just couldn’t stand this any longer. Not only had the Familiar compound started to feel claustrophobic, but she just generally felt the need to go….and go anywhere. It was more than that, however…every day she was eaten away at the fact that she couldn’t just tell the ones most important to her that she was, actually, alright. As her alarm to wake up went off, she sighed and glared over at it for a moment before shutting it off. Adopting a stern look for a long moment as she stared at the chrono, she gave a firm nod that said she had decided.
Getting up, she dressed quickly enough, donning blood stripe pants, an olive drab shirt and her father’s old bomber jacket. It felt good to wear the thing again…and no doubt it would be a welcome sight. Setting up the holo-recorder, Sam settled herself at her desk and began recording…
Tiny paws scampered swiftly through electrical, air, and maintenance ducts of the Anthelion as one determined little droid picked the swiftest path to her destination. Every so often she would have to return to the ship’s normal corridors, often surprising the people moving through them by her glistening and glittery little body dropping from above or popping out at them from the side only to scamper swiftly across their path with a hurried chirp of an apology, then vanish once more into yet another small space.
No doubt many were quite perplexed at the sight.
When she dropped out of one of the ventilation shafts onto the deck that held the crew quarters for the fighter pilots, Diana finally paused, small head twisting this way and that as she sat up on her hind quarters and looked around. The last she had checked the sergeant she was searching for was still in this area, but there was just no telling with people (let alone pilots, she was learning). They moved so often…even when someone told them to stay put! Not that she’d given Sergeant Sevchenko any warning of her coming. In hindsight that probably would have been a good idea, but she’d just been so excited to get the message she had that she’d forgotten all about that sort of thing in her hurried attempt to reach the man.
This was news he would most certainly want!
Scampering along the hall just as fast as her little legs could run, she darted in, out and around the feet of the people passing through the area, making a few of them jump slightly in surprise at the sight of her and look around for her counter part…the captain. Of course, Diana wasn’t exactly a stranger down here without her, but…it seemed to be what people called a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction. Quickly she flicked through the information on crew down times, rest days and shore leave as she ran…nearly missing her target door in the process. Skidding on the metal flooring, she was quick to engage the magnets on her hind feet to stop her, leaving her front ones free to keep her from outright face-planting because of it. Twisting around she was glad to see the doors were open and at least one of the occupants present. As she skittered in, visual processors scanned the area within an instant.
”Hello! Hello! Sergeant Sevchenko!....Sev!....Oh I am so very glad you’re here! Sit down…no wait! Close the door then sit down, dear! I have a message for you that you will very very much want to have, but you won’t want anyone not your wing to hear!”
The little familiar was practically dancing around in her excitement as she spoke, bounding part way to the door and then back again (more than once) to make her point quite clear that he needed to do as she suggested. Once she had some assurance that the door would get closed she bounded up onto the small desk-table that was built into the room and began fiddling with a little compartment in her belly, producing a wire that she promptly plugged into the holo-projector on the desk. It wouldn’t have been the first time she’d done this, played courier for Sam to the men here, but it was certainly the first time she’d used the projector, typically only dumping text…letters…onto Sev’s datapad if Sam felt that sending it outright may be too risky. It hadn’t happened often, but…once or twice it had.
Once she had herself properly jacked in, the little FIDES would sit on her haunches and stare, wringing her little paws in anticipation until everyone seemed ready…
As the projector came to life an unmistakable form would appear, instantly recognizable to any of the (now third) wing who saw it, right down to that well-worn leather jacket, still with the Seventh patch on its right arm and her call sign embroidered on the left breast beneath the collar. She looked a bit sad, perhaps upset was a better word, the slight slump in her posture just barely noticeable through the jacket and in her expression…though…considering she wasn’t smiling, perhaps that was the real giveaway.
”Hey Sev. Hopefully you’re not the only one seeing this since this is meant for all of you, really. I…know this seems very odd, probably a little difficult. Don’t worry, this isn’t some morbid post-mortem message. Actually, it’s anything -but- that. I know…that it’s been a month since I ‘died’, and I am so SO very sorry. I wanted to tell all of you much much sooner that I was alright, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t take the risk that something might happen to compromise all the work that was done to produce that little Undercity Shuffle.”
=She sighed a bit there, shaking her head a little before continuing on.=
“The uproar has died down now, it seems. I’ve been keeping my eye on the news and I think, finally, it’s safe enough to send this to you and the guys. I kinda still can’t believe I had to go and fake my own death just to get my freedom back, but at least now I can go back to Corellia without worrying about people looking at me cross eyed.”
=Finally a slight smile would appear on her face, her features softening to something a bit more ‘normal’ for the young woman. Now that she had the apology (this one anyway) out of the way, she could move on to things a bit more personal.=
Sev, I think that after everything that’s happened…it’s time for me to make good on that promise of a vacation, right? So let me know when your next shore leave is. I’ve an idea for something fun.
Hunter, I’m sorry. I must’ve really worried you. I promise I’m not stupid enough to have gone to Corellia without a plan…obviously. Hope you’ve not been taking it out on Archer, he can’t help it that he’s a chatter box. Anyway, I promise I won’t go around getting myself killed any more. Maybe we can go out flying sometime on Kuat. It’s got some really nice views and there’s a patch of hills that are perfect for flat-hatting and stunts. Not exactly canyons, I know, but those are hard to come by ‘round here!
Archer, I hope you tried to keep those two from sulking around -too- much. I know it couldn’t have been easy for any of you, but I’d hate to think that those two could get away with sulking and being too moody without you trying to help ‘em out. You know, I’ve been bugging for a good dance partner for a while now...pretty much been cooped up here for this whole time. Next time you’re out here we’ll see if I can still keep up with you.”
=She grinned at that, chuckling and shaking her head a bit before sighing slightly.=
“Jennings, I really don’t know you well enough. I’m sure you’ve been there for the guys through all this, and I’m glad for it. Hopefully it helped them at least a bit to have someone who wasn’t exactly emotionally invested to talk to, you know? I owe ya. What I owe you….who knows! I’ll try to figure something out.”
=Chuckling once more she’d glance over at something not too far off (her chrono) before smiling a little.=
“I’d better get going…I still have work to get to, but I wanted to get this message sent before I did. I’m sorry it took so long, try and forgive me for it, eh? Love all you guys. Be good, fight hard, fly fast and let me know when shore leave is!”
With that the message would cut and Diana would unhook herself from the projector, looking around at them with wide eyes and bright green whiskers.