At Wit's End [Talau]

[Mara]

He grunted softly, hearing her knock and call and ignoring the little nickname. No, he wasn't asleep. He had tried, but sleep wasn't coming to him. Ean's mind was still filled with her ranting speech and his own regrets of his previous actions. But he had to push those away and back into the past. One thing the man had learned was not to dwell too much on unhappy things. A hard lesson, though, nonetheless. One that had taken him almost his whole life to figure out.

It was better to live in the present. And his present involved spending time with this woman, whether she liked it or not and vice versa. He stretched and got up off his bed. Before settling down, he had removed his boots and jacket, and so as he walked to his door, his stockinged steps were a lot quieter and the leather of his jacket wasn't there to rustle. Opening his door, he saw a reflection of himself; disheveled hair, tunic half untucked. Ean wrestled his shirt the rest of the way out of his trousers and quickly ran a hand through his short hair. It would do. He wasn't trying to impress anyone anyway. Closing the door behind him he padded softly through the ship and moments later ended up in the cockpit, where he quietly slipped into the copilot's chair.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

This time around, she barely heard the man as he came along up behind her. Considering the fact he had no boots on and no coat it was understandable, but when he practically appeared behind her, she almost jumped in surprise....almost. Glancing over to him through grey eyes, she watched him sit down again and nodded.

Right. You know which one is the navi-computer, right? It's already got the coordinates set for the next jump, so don't touch, but that's where you add them in and find information on the various planets. We still have two jumps to make, so here's how to continue.

She stood and leaned over his shoulder slightly so she could more easily point out the features she needed him to remember on the touch screen.

This is the list of entered coordinates, that one there is the one we want, so to enter it, you need to press it, then the accept key there.

She didn't touch anything, that was his job if he wanted to learn, or get there for that matter. Moving away from him, she motioned to the lever she had used before.

This is the gear to activate the hyperdrive. Only once the coordinates are set should this be touched....otherwise we could end up in the core of a star or crashing onto a planet. From there you flip this switch and the ships auto does the rest.

With that, she sat down again and folded her arms, watching him silently. For all she cared they could sit there for the rest of eternity, but if he ever wanted to get a move on he'd have to take the initiative to do as she said.

[Mara]

Ean listened quietly, nodded at various points throughout her instructions to show that he was listening and understood. He was glad she was going through it slowly. The man didn't like to admit it, but he know he wasn't the sharpest blade in the drawer. Even in the lower grades of his school education, he didn't comprehend things right away unless explained deliberately or multiple times. And most of his teachers didn't have the patience for him, and he slipped behind, unnoticed among the brighter students.

He didn't feel as if she were teaching down to him, either, which pleased him. Ean only felt that she was being cautious, because if he messed up, they would both be in deep bantha poodoo. If these lessons went well enough, he thought about considering revoking his idea to not teach her anything. Of course, he would be careful with which fighting techniques he let her learn and which he didn't.

But he pushed all other thoughts out of his mind. He needed to concentrate on what she was saying; another fault of his was his daydreaming while he was younger. Ean took a deep breath and focused on her words. It seemed easy enough, just a few steps to follow and in the right order. Enter coordinates, check. Then he needed to push a couple buttons, flip a lever and a switch... easy. Hopefully.

When she stopped and returned to her own seat, he ran over the order of steps again before reaching a hand out towards the navicomputer. Ean pressed the key to lock in the coordinates and then entered them with the other. Nothing blew up, so he continued on, feeling more confident now that he had started. He didn't realize flying was so easy; even he could just push a bunch of buttons. Ean pulled the hyperdrive lever into the 'on' position and then flipped the switch she had indicated.

The ship lurched briefly, making him grab onto his armrest with one hand, before it smoothly entered hyperspace, the blue lines flickering outside the viewport. Ah, not too hard at all. At least he hadn't broke a sweat or anything. Another deep breath and he said, half to himself, "I always thought it was harder than that..."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

((Dire's Ryn would like to join us sometime, and since Ryn's about to have an encounter with A/A/V Ean might be interested in...questioning...him.))

Sam watched closely as Ean went through the steps she had laid out for him to follow. So far so good. As the ship slipped comfortably into hyperspace Sam allowed herself to relax again. As he spoke, however, those grey eyes clamped onto his own eyes seriously.

No, but that was the easy part. Remember, I've had the hyperdrive warmed up and set to go for a while, as well as the fact that I'd already found and input the proper coordinates for the jump before hand. Everything else is more complicated....that is only one small part to be able to fly a ship on your own.

She looked back down at the control panel, standing and moving around him to look more closely at a blinking button then up to one of the small readout screens, her eyes scanning the information there. Sighing, she relaxed again, nothing out of the ordinary, just some minor heating in one of the coils. She'd keep an eye on it though, just to make sure the heating didn't continue. Moving back to her seat, she gazed at Ean for a long moment trying to decide what to do next. Well, as much as she hated being stuck in front of the control panel without actually flying the ship manually, the blond figured that it was time to start teaching him about the various aspects of the ships control board.

If you're ready then, I'm willing to start teaching you the uses of the various controls we have spread before us.

[Mara]

As she spoke, his dark brown eyes shifted over to meet hers unwaveringly. Of course, there was more to flying a ship, especially a large one like this. Hyperspace travel was only a small percentage of what it meant to fly. Ean's muttered thought had been only half serious, after all. Though, he had wished it were true, that it was that easy to fly a ship. Just pushing buttons and it did the work for you. But most of his recent experiences with flying hadn't been at all close to the cockpit, so what did he know what went on in there to make his ride as smooth as possible?

As she finished and got up, scanning various controls, Ean took his gaze off of her, staring again into the viewport at the stretched stars of hyperspace. For some reason, it was quite calming, despite the jolting effect of it. He could have been lost in his thoughts and thinking of a million different things: his mission, for one, but Ean kept his mind as blank as he could. Focused but calm. He felt more relaxed looking at it, ready for more lessons in flying this thing.

To Ean's satisfaction, Samantha returned to her teaching. He wanted to get it all out as much as he could; he felt that he learned better if there weren't a lot of break periods in between related subjects. Unlike most students who preferred to jump from project to project to keep from being bored. He turned his head to her again, nodded for her to continue.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

((Edit: ah hell...copy paste color was teal from working on an Aunna post >_< ))

As he nodded his readiness, she began to lay out the set up of the control panel spread before them, detailing how each of the controls was connected to the readout screens above them for easy monitoring. It wasn't difficult for the woman to relate the various names and uses for the controls on the ship, but then again, he wouldn't need to remember ALL of the names since, as was standard for most ships, the controls were labeled with their name with raised lettering. Only a few of the tags had been worn down past the point where they were no longer intelligible, and she was certain to point these facts out to him.

After several minutes of translating the various types of controls, she decided to test him a little bit. Honestly, she didn't expect him to remember most of the controls...not yet...but some of the more important ones, she needed him to remember easily, even so soon after learning them. Pulling her hair back loosely, she tied it there and turned to look at him again.

Right, now I don't expect you to remember all of this right away, but there are a few I DO expect you to remember immediately, so I'm gonna give you a quick quiz.

With that, and without giving him a chance to say otherwise, she pointed a finger at the keypad beside the navicomputer that was used for inputing the coordinates.

That keypad...what is it's use?

[Mara]

((Whoa, you switched colors... ))


Ean listened quietly as she pointed out the dozens of controls and switches on the panel in front of them, explaining their names and their purposes. Some of them went immediately over his head but a good share of them were easy to remember. And not just because they were labeled. As Samantha went through them, Ean tried to make a mental map in his head, placing the various buttons in locations and quadrants. If he made it seem like a warped sense of geography, he could remember it a lot easier.

The subject hadn't been one of his best or favorites in school, but the last few years of his career had forced him to focus on locations. Ean needed to know all angles of attack around his prey in order to have a smooth job. Without having to consult a map or other materials. It had to be in his mind. Just like this control panel; he was sure that in an emergency, he wouldn't the time to scan all the labels to find which control or display he needed. He'd be extra crispy instead.

He had his map put together vaguely and gathered more information as the blonde beside him explained more items on the control panel. There were so many, but he tried to just sort out the important ones. Well, the ones that seemed important to him. Controls related directly to flying and to weapons. Ean had been concentrating on his mental map when Samantha's word cut to his core: a quiz!

Immediately his heart seemed to double in rate, and he forced himself to remain calm, taking a deep breath. This was no time to panic or get upset about things. He could do this. He could remember, couldn't he? Ean chided himself for relying so much on remembering the locations of items that he didn't clue in onto most of the functions of the items. Thinking that if he could find the dial, he would know what it did.

But now she was pointing to something that wasn't on his mental map. He had no name for it and, thusly, no purpose for it. It was familiar, though; Ean just had to think about it. Something was poking him at the back of his mind. He knew the keypad had been used recently. Was it something he had used to put the ship into hyperspace? Or had Samantha just pointed it out to him during her lesson just a moment before?

Or... yes! Earlier, before they had left sublight... the navicomputer. She had had the coordinates already inputted, so he didn't need to. Ean turned to Sam with a smile, but he allowed himself no more visible show of his remembrance. Just because he remembered one thing was no reason for a party. "For the coordinates. For the next location."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Sam nodded, pleased by his first answer. Moving her hand to a panel of lights (in green, yellow, and red) that indicated the status of the engines, hyperdrive, shields, and life support for the ship, the blond blinked at him for a moment.

And these lights? Tell me about them.

She waited for him to answer before she would move on. This was a several part answer, and the beauty of the question as she phrased it...it allowed him to "teach" her about the lights. The best way to learn something other than doing...teaching. In order to teach something you had to KNOW it, it forced you to be able to relate your knowledge as clearly as possible, to demonstrate it.

[Mara]

He moved his gaze to where she was pointing--a panel full of blinking lights. Ean searched his mind, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds to reference his mental map before opening them again. The man stared at the panel again, trying to remember. He didn't need to know where the panel was, so his map didn't help; he needed to know their purpose. Ean thought back to her lesson, trying to remember what Samantha had said about them.

When that failed, he tried to figure it out the only failsafe way he need: by simple deduction. A method that had helped him a lot over the years. Intelligence wasn't always the best tool to use. Sometimes simple wit and process of elimination worked just as well. There were several groupings of lights in yellow, green and red. Ean felt that they must be levels or degrees of something. Green being good, red being bad and yellow in-between. But what were the levels representing?

He leaned back in his chair, thinking. Most of the lights were in green, so that was good, right? And the ship was still functioning pretty good, right? The lights must have to do with the status of things on the ship and not directly involved with the flying of the 'Blazer. That had to be it; they were status lights.... but for what exactly? Speaking before he knew the complete answer, Ean opened his mouth, hoping the rest would come to him after he said it out loud. "Status lights... " Still not looking at her but gazing intently at the lights, he tried to remember their individual roles without reading the labels. "For the engine... shields... hyperdrive... life support systems... all the things that make up the core of the ship."

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

So far so good. This question took him a bit longer to answer, but he was nearly there with the answer. Sam had watched Ean's actions closely as he'd tried to remember what the lights stood for, and at first she'd not thought he'd answer correctly. To her surprise, and mild pleasure, however, he did answer correctly...but could he tell her which set of lights was for which system? Moving around him she covered the labels for the lights with a hand, grey eyes gazing at him steadily.

So then what do the light colors mean? And which set of lights is for what system?

It shouldn't have been a tough question, the colors of the lights were typical of status lights, he was clever enough to figure that out, and all he needed to get the second part of the question right would be to flip shields and hyperdrive around in his original statement. That, again, was common sense...engines (be they sub-light, hyperdrive, or --goddess forbid-- fuel injected) were typically set beside each other, and then other systems (such as the shields and life support) were grouped together....keep like items together was the idea, and this ship was no different.

[Mara]

Ean's brow furrowed a bit; the order he had given her hadn't been right? He thought he had remembered them correctly, but apparently though he had gotten the names right, he didn't pair them up with the right set of lights. Keeping his gaze on the panel, he tried to think back to his mental map again, trying to see if he had put those lights in a certain order in his mind. He hadn't relied on the labels a moment ago, but Sam had covered them up anyway.

At this moment, he really wished he was anywhere else. Even chasing down a rabid rancor would be preferable right now. Ean was beginning to feel the tendriles of nervousness and anger he used to feel in school. When he couldn't figure something out and got frustrated at himself for not performing well. And his teacher would get exasperated and ignore him for the students who did understand, leaving him even worse off than he had been before.

The man forced himself to calm down, counting to ten, again in his mind. He needed to focus on those lights. If it wasn't engine, shields, hyperdrive, life support, etc... what was the order? Ean leaned forward a bit in his chair, resting his elbow on a knee, his chin in his hand and closed his eyes, bringing up the map once again. He knew the engine had to be first; that was the most important part. And Ean knew that the life support systems and the various shields were important as well as the hyperdrive.

He decided to just say something, whether it was wrong or not. It couldn't get any worse, anyway. Ean just had to clamp down on his emotions and hope that Samantha would be patient with him and not abandon him as his teachers had. Eyes still closed, he took a deep breath and started. "Engines... then the hyperdrive... " He paused a moment; life support had to be better than shields, right? And then it was was everything else. "Life support... all the shields.... " Ean rattled off the other systems that had lights on the panel, weapons systems, inertial compensators, all kinds of things.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Sam smiled and removed her hand. He'd been close...oh so close...and honestly, the way he said it the order made more sense, but that's obviously not how the builders had thought of it. Patting his shoulder lightly she shook her head.

No cigar Ean. You were very close though, and if you ask me it makes more sense in your order...buuut....the order was Engine, Hyperdrive, Shields, Life support. Just keep that in mind and you'll do fine.

She actually felt sort of bad for the man...when she'd asked him to name off the order he almost looked like he was going to have a panic attack. She should really try to explain again the reasoning behind the order...it might help.

I'll remind you again that the order can vary from ship type to ship type or manufacturer to manufacturer, but generally the order of the status lights goes like this: all propulsion systems (that includes engine and hyperdrives), shields typically go next (I tend to think it's because they're your defense and so are supposed to keep the life support intact), after that comes life support (personally I think this should be first on the list, but whatever), and then weapons, and so on. Okay? So here we have our engine lights, our hyperdrive lights, our shields lights, our life support lights, our weapons lights. Those are the main ones. Got it?

Sam allowed herself a slight smile as she plopped down into the pilot's seat again. It was time for some easy stuff now to give the guy some confidence back. He seemed like he needed it.

Alright, moving on then...

She pointed to the lever that activated the hyperdrive, waited for his answer, then moved on. Next came the manual controls for piloting the ship, again she waited for a reply before moving on. Her hand went up to the diagnostic screen above her head and repeated her act of waiting for a reply. It would go on this way for the navi-computer, the button for switching between manual and auto piloting, and lastly the switch for the engines.

[Mara]

Ean allowed a small smile to play across his face. So Samantha also felt that the order he spoke out loud made more sense than what order the manufacturer put them in. But he had to put that behind him. The order didn't matter as long as he knew which lights were for what. The feeling that she agreed with him almost made him miss the light touch of her hand on his arm. He knew there wasn't much emotion behind the gesture, and so he ignored it for now. Ean didn't need to waste any thoughts thinking about hidden meanings; women were always a puzzle to him, especially this one. And he preferred to keep it that way. This woman was here to help him, no more. He was sure neither of them was expecting more than a civil relationship anyway.

So he turned his focus back to her, his face going back to its well-worn expressionless state. She reexplained the order to him, and he nodded his assent and understanding. The fact that all ships would be different and have unique control panels worried him slightly, but for now this ship was the only one he would be on, and probably for quite a while. Though he was sure he would capture this loose major, he knew it wouldn't be easy and would probably take a few weeks, if not more. And if he learned how to fly it well enough by the time he delivered the major back to the Republic, perhaps they would let him keep the Trailblazer. It'd be easier than learning a new ship again.

They went back over the other controls she had first pointed out to him, and he slowly but surely regained his memory of them, correctly identifying their names and function, if applicable. Ean was a bit rusty at first; the strain of trying to remember the panel lights and labels had taken a lot of out of him. But he quickly got into a sort of groove as they went through the levers and buttons together.

In the lull afterwards, he turned his gaze back to her, face still without visible expression. Ean cleared his throat; he figured there was no better time than now to try to repair their very shattered relationship. He knew already that she was going to be happy with anything he might ask her to do in the future, and now he finally understood why. However, he did want to be on better terms with her. In case of any danger ahead, he needed to know that she trusted him. The state of the relationship could be the difference between life and death for her and even himself.

"I... I want to thank you for doing this." It was hard for the man to say, but he knew it was necessary, and that the blonde needed it.

[Talau the Ever-Lurking]

Sam was well pleased by the fact that he seemed to be getting things down fairly easily. He struggled a bit at first, but after a few items Ean seemed to get the hang of her questioning, and aside from one or two reminders he got everything right. The questioning wasn't long lasting, her heart just wasn't in it, but she continued on. Once she'd covered everything she felt was important for this first lesson, the young woman relaxed back against the seat and gazed out at the swirl of stars flying by them in a tunnel of bright streaks. Grey eyes unfocused wearily, all signs of the stereotypical bumbling blond secretary had vanished ages ago, replaced instead by a solemn and thoughtful woman.

The gentle blinking of the lights along the control panel reminded her of her time as a little girl upon a smuggler's ship and how she used to sit there on her father's lap with her brother talking, or just sitting quietly and gazing out at the stars. Later on in their lives her father had given them lessons about how to fly a ship. She'd enjoyed those times, but now she found herself in the reverse roll...as the teacher. Samantha wished desperately right now that her father was still alive...he'd have known what to do in a situation like this. A few hot tears prickled at the corners of her eyes, and she blinked a bit more than normal to clear her eyes of them. Coughing a little, the beauty only barely heard what Ean said. Turning grey eyes to him, the orbs gave little hint of life, but she gave a faint smile to him anyway and nodded.

Don't thank me...not yet...you still have a lot to learn.

With a sigh and another glance out the transparisteel viewport Samantha stood and stretched slightly before checking the timer for how long they had left before reaching Mygeeto. Two hours...it seemed an eternity to her mind, being stuck with this...man. She supposed he was a man...she could, of course, think of other, worse, things to call him but....he wasn't as bad as them yet so he'd stay a man for now. Now that she knew how much time she had left to avoid this man on this tin can she turned and walked from the cockpit quietly, heading back toward the galley. At least there she would be able to stretch out a bit.

[Mara]

Ean conceded the point; he did have a lot more to learn, but he would get there eventually. Learning labels of things and finding out where they were was all and good, but he would have to actually get in some hands-on training to put his lessons to the test. And that was something that actually made the man nervous. Not much could phase Ean, but having to fly this ship for the first time might actually be one of his very few fears.

He sighed and stretched his arms a bit still sitting in the copilot's chair. It wouldn't do to get ahead of himself. He just had to think about the present and the search for Major Borgonia. Mygeeto should be coming up fairly soon. The lessons would slowly increase over time, gathering speed as he gathered knowledge. Ean just had to let them come and put his trust in Samantha.

Folding his arms behind his neck and stretching out his legs, he thought about that puzzle of a woman as he watched her leave. Just when he thought he was about to figure her out, she jumped on a completely different wavelength. She was either yelling at him, or helping him. Glaring at him silently or giving him a smile. Ean couldn't figure it out. Women were probably the one thing in the galaxy he would never understand, especially this one. This one was different than most he had met. Of course, that might be partially due to the location he had met the others in. Sam wasn't the type to be waiting outside on a street corner in front of a sketchy dump of a hotel.

Whatever or whomever this woman was, he wouldn't be close to figuring her out, so Ean put it out of his mind. If she wanted to confide him, she would. If not, no skin off his back. The woman was merely there because she was useful, a tool. He had to just keep remembering that, and he should have no problem working with her. Getting to know here, now that was where trouble always started, and the man wanted to avoid that as much as possible. This mission was going to be hard enough as is. He didn't need to get his emotions involved. Emotions tended to crack up cold-blooded killers.

He sat back up again and turned to his chrono, tuning it to local Mygeeto time. A lot of people he had met liked to keep themselves on time with Coruscant or their home planet to avoid confusion with friends and family. But Ean preferred to stay in touch with whichever planet he happened to be on. Made it easier with contacts and with his prey. He stood up, his back popping as he pressed a hand to it. Sitting in that chair had made him stiff. Though they would be reaching their destination soon, he decided to head to his cabin for some rest. It was approaching night, Coruscant-time, but when they landed on Mygeeto, it would be daytime, and Ean didn't want to be caught with his lids down while searching for the traitorous major.

So he made his way out of the cockpit and towards the cabin he had claimed for himself. After locking the door behind him, he flopped on the bed, sleep coming immediately. Ean had learned to take sleep when he could and had tuned his body to fall asleep quickly. One never knew when you would be able to rest again.


[to Of Geese and Gundarks...]