Apprenticeship (Closed, Arheim)

[Sir Aaron]

Vince stepped off of his ship, his Kowaikan Monkey-Lizard attached to his back, as usual. He had his hood up, hiding his face from the rest of the world. He always did that though, he was a bit paranoid when on a new world. He had stopped on this particular planet to refuel his ship and check it, he thought that the hyperdrive engines had gone out on him a while back.

He looked around the planet, it was beautiful, the small town bustled with people, but he kept his guard up, and his body hidden. His Kowain Monkey-Lizard just glanced around and snarled. He made several rude, but commical, comments on the area, which he was quickly hushed by Vince.

"How many times must we go over this? I know you like to be funny, at least you try to and think you are, but one day, we're going to be facing down the barrel of a blaster, and I don't want any fights or any reason for the Jedi Council to be suspicious of my activities. It's hard enough avoiding Master Robert now that's he found our home on Naboo..." Vince snarled at the small creature, which just laughed it's annoying, shrill laugh.

Vince slid to the underbelly of the ship and began checking compartments and parts, everything seemed fine there. He then moved to the hyper drive engine and all looked fine. He waved down a nearby droid and told the creature to fill his ship up, and with a nod, the droid went to work. Vince decided to stroll through the town.

He was in Drev'Starm, the capital of the planet, Bothawui. He looked around at the Bothans, the original race of the planet, interesting looking creatures they were, but his main focus was to get filled up, and back to Naboo, as soon as he could. He let his eyes roam the mass of people of every race strolling up and down the busy streets.

"By the way, remind me to get an astromech droid sooner or later for that blasted ship of mine, I know I shouldn't have tried to repair it on my own because my engineer skills are a bit rusty, but I thought I could do it" the creature on his back jsut rolled it's eyes and made a few insulting comments.

Then, finding a small restaurant, Vince entered in, removing his hood as he did so, and took a seat. The building was pitiful, it looked like it would fall at any moment, though it was packed, it seemed like a popular little place. He picked up the menu before him and looked down and the items listed.

[A®heim]

A strange, multi-winged craft descended from the skies of Bothawui. After a shakey approach, the mysterious ship touched down on a landing pad alongside what looked like a poorly restored TL-1800 freighter in the capital city of Drev'Starm. Falo climbed down from the cockpit and immediately approached the service droid.

"I'm having trouble with the ship's atmospheric balance. Perhaps one of the rear stabilizers has broken loose." he said to the droid.

The LE repair droid circled around the ship to inspect the rear. And, after a bit of clanging and a large crash, returned to Falo.

"I'm surely most befuddled sir, the stabilizers are fine, however, your left engine fuel pod is ruptured. What's most curious, sir, is that this craft seems to be, as most are, equipped with engine power garders that would prevent such an accident. On closer inspection of these garders, I found them not only disabled but broken upon as if by some great force."

Falo smiled to himself, he had indeed attempted to speed his trip by removing the garders through useage of the Force. He knew now he must be more careful before attempting such reckless acts.

"Can it be repaired?" he asked the droid.

"Of course sir, I'll have it ready by tomarrow without trouble."

Falo thanked the repair droid and began his quest for information. If he were to find his purpose, his race's homeworld would be a good place to start searching. He stepped down from the loading dock and proceeded in to the city.

Though much more densly populated than his home planet of Krant, Falo felt his eyes well up as he recognized the local fauna his mother and father had so avidly studied. The memory of his parents chilled him like a spear of ice thrust through his heart. Before he could loose himself, he shook the thought away.

"I'm not here to relive nightmares, I'm here to discover what I'm meant to do." He thought to himself.

He wandered through the city streets and, for the first time in over 7 years, felt at home among the familiar architecture and people. A delicious smell reached his nose and his stomach churned. He realized nothing but preserved NutriPaste onboard his ship for 2 weeks had left him longing for some fresh cooked morsels. He followed his nose to what appeared to be a fairly popular resturant.

The building appeared rickety and poorly built but upon closer inspection he noticed it wasn't a building at all. It was a species of large tree that grew roots in the form of spindly web-like structures that many Bothans use as sheltering. Though fragile in appearance, these wood fibers had a tensile strength nearly equivalent of durasteel plating. Falo smiled as all he had forgotten from his childhood studies slowly returned to him.

"Well," he muttered to himself, "it's a start."

Following the enticing scent into the facility he was, with some trouble, able to find an open table and seated himself. Many heads were turned in his direction, each posessing the same inquisitive expression. Falo didn't blame them, after all he was still clad in his pale robes he had recieved from the academy and exactly fit into the casual norm around him.

As he was trying to decide what to order, he heard a high-pitched cackling beside him. A very peculiar creature resembling a small reptillian primate was jabbering at him and gesturing hysterically at the lightsaber at Falo's waist. Falo regarded the creature with a look of slight irritation as it became very obvious that he was being insulted in whatever language it was chattering.

"You want this?" asked Falo, unclipping his light saber from his belt and held it out for the creature to smell, or whatever it wanted.

Without warning, the creature snatched it from his hand and scampered off into the crowd.

"What the-!" exclaimed Falo as he lept after the annoying renegade.

He squeezed his way through the crowds and was about to give up hope of ever finding the critter when he spotted bouncing up and down on a table gesturing to me and chattering which was undeniably "THIEF! THIEF! THIEF!"

At the table was seated a curious figure. He was clad in similar robes and had the definate bulge of a light saber at his waist. That and the immense force aura emminating from him told him that he was not dealing with your normal citizen. Even though he was hooded, it was obvious that he was no bothan. A voice in Falo's head told him that his life was far more valuable than his light saber, but falling to his inquisitive nature he strode cautiously up.

"Excuse me, may I have my...uh..." There was no way he could lie about the identity of the weapon, "well I'm pretty sure you know what it is." stammered Falo.

The irritating creature just glared at him.

[Sir Aaron]

Crumb and Vince had chatted merrily a bit before Crumb had excused himself into the crowd of people, seeing a young man walk in by himself. Unsure of the creature's antics, Vine just ignored him, and was paying more attention to the plate that had just been placed before him. With a grin, he picked up his knife and fork and began cutting at the meat, and eating the food ravenously.

He had to admit, for a small place like this, it was delicious. He occasionally would bring his cup up to his mouth and take a sip but would began shoving more meat down his mouth. It was perfectly coooked, tender, juicy, and absolutely delicious, what wasn't to like? As he brought another bite to his mouth, he chewed the food.

Though, all thoughts were interrupted when Crumb came running back to the table, howling in laughter, and a strange object in his hands. Vince rolled his eyes, and became slightly paranoid. He slid his hand inside his robe, his hand on his lightsaber ready, he was anticipating a fight to break out with who ever owned that object Crumb had.

Jumping on top of the booth and sliding between the wall and Vince, Crumb looked up and let Vince see what he had taken. Oh gods, he's taken a lightsaber! Just what I need.... Vince said to himself mentally, taking the tool from his odd, prankster friend.

Then a young boy, one of the original races from this planet, came walking up to him. A young Bothan boy, Vince could feel the Force flowing from him. Vince smiled at the young boy, he didn't look like he was in his teens yet, though possibly, he knew where there was a Padawan, a Master was near by, the last thing he needed.

"Of course" Vince said, handing the young boy his lightsaber, before standing up and walking out of the restaurant quickly.

When Vince stood up, Crumb climbed onto Vince's back and stuck his tongue out at Falo. Vince through the door open and rushed to his ship. He glared over his shoulder at Crumb who just smiled innocently at him.

"What the devil were you thinking?" Vince asked Crumb enraged.

"You'll see, that boy was alone, he was too young to be alone for a Jedi" was all Crumb would say.

Vince just sighed and finally slowed to a stop when he could see his ship and caught his breath.

[A®heim]

Though Falo was startled by the mysterious man's retreat, he didn't allow it to phase him. Composing himself, he asked for his food to go and calmly followed the path the man took. He knew he was flirting with death, this man could be anything; a pirate, a criminal, a rogue jedi or worse... Falo halted in his footsteps as he thought out exactly what he was going to do.

"I have a feeling that learning more about this figure will be useful in my journey. Sort of a nagging feeling that he plays heavily into my destiny." Falo thought to himself.

After a few minutes of careful pursuit, Falo was lost. All around him streets and buildings stretched out in seemingly endless columns. He was about to loose hope when he heard the jabbering again. He looked down the street and spotted the small creature that had started all this bouncing excitedly up and down on a nearby booth, much to the annoyance of the vendor, gesturing wildly in the direction of the starport.

It appeared that Falo was not the only one curious in this interaction. Heartened by this instruction, He hurried off in the direction of the landing platforms. The man's pet seemed content with the success of his mission and proceeded to leap about chattering wildly.

As Falo approached the starport cautiously for fear of angering the what he had now decided was certainly a Jedi (though whether official or rogue he did not know). He spotted his craft and walked up just in time to see a robed figure walk about the loading ramp into the TL-1800 parked alongside, his twittering bandit clinging to his back. Falo remained hidden till the rickety craft had lifted off. He had a plan...

[Sir Aaron]

Vince, looked over his shoulder one last time at the crowd of people, he was sure the boy hadn't followed him, good, he figured the boy must had gotten scared and deciding that all was self, he hated that his trip must be cutten off so soon. A moment later, the Protocol Droid approached him and informed him his ship was ship shape and ready to go, so with a nod, Vince quickly ran up the ship's ramp and sat in the cock pit. He sat, there, pulling the Kowakian Monkey-Lizard from his back and dropping it into the seat next to him.

"Okay, let's get the hell out of dodge, now, if that young boy had a Jedi Master with him, I don't need Master Robert having any clues on my where-abouts" it didn't matter any more, all that mattered was that Vince had nothing to do with other Force Users, too many painful memories, so he hit the switch to the ship's ramp, though there was a loud crack from the back.

Vince sighed, he took a few death breaths and then calmly pressed the button again to lift up the ramp to the ship, though nothing happened, just another loud crack. The stupid droid didn't do it's job, it just made the ship worse, but that made no difference. Because nothing would be on the ramp, no one would want on this scrap metal ship anyway.

So, he brought his fist down on the this time, he could hear the ramp slam shut and the door close tightly, and next thing he knew, they were in the air off the planet, it would be a long trip to Naboo, because he also note from a monitor showing the status of the ship, the robot had failed to make any improvements to the hyper drive, he just seemed to make them worse.

"Crumb, now I know why I haven't gotten a droid to keep on deck when I fly around help repair the ship and stuff, because they are some of the most worthless, hard to work with creatures I have ever seen. Though, I've got the best co-pilot any man could want" Vince smirked over at his partner, who just looked at him before reaching under his seat with a handful of some green goo and threw it in Vince's face before laughing maniacally.

"I got that" Crumb spoke a few words between laughs, "From the waitress in the restaurant before grabbing the young Jedi's lightsaber. And I told you, he was too young to be walking in a place like that on his own, I don't think he had a master, there was something about him that told me to lead him to you, you can't keep running away from your life" Crumb said a bit seriously, before throwing more green goo in Vince's face.

The two laughed and made light conversation on the long way home. Most of the events involved Crumb throwing something at Vincent or making light of their past together and Vince's follies. Though, both looked forward to being home again, it had been so long since they had been on Naboo.

[A®heim]

When the ship had passed out of sight, Falo let out his held breath and stepped from behind the fueling aparatus. He could've sworn he would be caught when the homing device he had placed on the ship got lodged in the machinery of the ramp mechanism. He had waited in fear as he heard the ramp grind against this obstruction. Luckily, it seemed his quarry had been too flustered to think anything of it and the ship ascended without complications.

Now it was time to orchestrate his plan. Hoping the homing device hadn't been grinded into oblivion, he boarded his ARC-162 and began the takeoff procedures. His craft ascended quickly into the atmosphere of Bothawui. He hadn't made it two thousand feet altitude when he lost nearly all control. Trying to hold back the panic welling inside him as the craft whirled towards the planet's surface, Falo opened up his ship's diagnostic screen.

Not only was the engine pod still ruptured, but it appeared to be no longer even CONNECTED to the reactor.

"Damn that useless repair droid! He made it worse!" shouted Falo in vain.

He tried to remain concious as the craft rolled about as if it were having a seizure. He activated the hologram module and brought up a 3D image of his ship's engines. Falo closed his eyes, peace and calm quickly replacing his terror. He contemplated what must be done. It would be a challenging feat but would it really be much different than repairing the engine by hand?

He felt the force flow through him as he gazed at the hologram. To his immense relief, he wathced as the internal engine realigned itself with the reactor pipe. In a final effort, he warped some unneeded insulation around the breach and fastened it shut.

He opened his eyes as the ship stabilized itself. He felt his energy drained from him and, hoping that he had the strength to pilot his ship through this ludicrous venture he was about to undertake, he readjusted his controls. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he removed a small object from his pocket.

The signal was faint but it seemed that the homing device was still intact. Smiling, falo set course for the pulsing beacon and readied his prototype comunication system.

<<if you are curious about exactly what Falo's ship is and can do, it can be found in the ship section of the boards. It is called The Valkyrie.>>

<<moved to space>>