Chance Encounters

Hideous

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It had been a few weeks since Sufi had left home, and things were not exactly going as well as she'd hoped. She'd rented herself a small apartment in an area that was several notches below what she'd been used to her entire life, but was surprised to find out that even that was quite expensive considering how little credits she had left. In hindsight, blowing almost all of her money on a high quality set of gear before even having a single job or contract was probably not the wisest decision. Apparently, finding work when you didn't have any experience or contacts was surprisingly difficult, even in the darker parts of the city. Sufi was managing to scrape by so far by hitting the various casinos and card rooms in her area, but she hadn't yet mastered the arts of gambling to the point where she could make a large and constant income from it.

Regardless of her financial situation, she wanted to get out and forge her own path through the galaxy, not stagnate on Coruscant for ever. Sufi loved Galactic City, but she knew that it was time to break out of her comfort zone and explore as many of the different avenues of life as possible. Leaving her father and friends behind had already been very difficult, and distancing herself away from her home even further certainly wasn't going to make things any easier, but it was just one of those things that Sufi felt needed to be done. It was going to be hard in the moment, but it would surely pay off in the long run. With that in mind, she quit her job, packed her suitcase once again and handed her keycard as well as her final monthly payment to her landlord.

Completely determined to go through with her choice, Sufi briskly made her way towards the nearest spaceport, finding herself in surprisingly high spirits. It wasn't until she'd actually made it there and could actually see all of the ships that the full scope of what she was about to do really hit her. She didn't like second guessing herself as she tended to psyche herself out unnecessarily when she did, but it was pretty much impossible to block all of those thoughts from circulating through her mind. In a matter of minutes, she'd gone from feeling excited and happy to becoming an apprehensive mess. Sufi paced around frantically under the long black cloak and hood that she was wearing, trying to weigh the pros and cons of her potential departure over and over in her head. Thinking about things in such a logical and structured fashion definitely wasn't her strong suit, either, so she wasn't really accomplishing much other than perhaps looking a bit crazy to people who were passing by.

After a while, Sufi managed to get a hold of herself thanks to a self-inflicted and much needed slap across the face. Back to her usual self or at least pretty close to it, she stormed off with renewed vigor in search of the first decent looking ship that she could find. It didn't need to be some sort of five star cruise liner, but some of the ships looked like they were barely being held together by a few layers of duct tape and she wasn't really comfortable enough with space travel to even think about stepping foot on them. It wasn't too long until Sufi came across the massive and sturdy looking Turhaya, which inspired her with much more confidence than any of the previous vessels she'd checked out. It was a bit somber and ominous looking, but she couldn't be too picky unless she wanted to spend the entire night in the starport.

As she approached the docking bay where the Turhaya was parked, Sufi could make out several dock workers loading and unloading crates and other containers from the cargo hold, as well as one person overseeing them. As she got closer, she was quite surprised to recognize the man in question as a Cathar. Sufi had only seen a few of them in her life, and all of them had looked quite wild and disheveled, but this one seemed to be considerably more put together than she was. Quite intriguing, to say the least.

"Hi, excuse me!" Sufi greeted him with what probably seemed like slightly excessive enthusiasm. Shut up! Stop sounding so nervous, she chided herself mentally while the Cathar turned to face her. "Uhm, yeah, I was just looking to get to...well I'm not too sure yet, I guess any planet with a major city would do. I can pay, I've got one thousand credits!" she blurted out impulsively right before realizing her folly. Shrewd bargaining skills, idiot! Deciding that it was probably better if she just stopped talking before doing herself any more disfavors, Sufi just pulled her cloak a bit more tightly around herself while awaiting his reply. Not everyone was all about the credits, she told herself, trying to remain positive. Besides, it wasn't as if it was the only ship in the entire starport, so even if things didn't work out it wasn't the end of the world.
 

Jiang Winters

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Mal was tired. Very tired. It wasn't so much physical exhaustion as it was mental and emotional. The last two weeks had been utterly miserable; it had started with his attempt to do some good in the galaxy by freeing a shipment of slaves. One would think it'd be a simple endeavor; break them free, take them to the police, and then go on one's merry way. But no, of course not! A goody two-shoes Jedi Knight broke into his ship and threatened him at saber-point to do exactly what he was already doing, but instead of going to the Corellian Security Force, the Knight insisted on taking the slaves to the Bac family compound on Alderaan... And of course, upon his arrival, Mal had found a gun shoved in his face while some uptight frat kid threatened to sic the police on him for intruding on private property, and continued to wave that threat around for the longest of times.

He could barely remember how he got out of that sticky situation. All he could recall was that the Slaves left, and the moment he saw aforementioned frat kid and Jedi leave, he ordered his crew to take off no matter the consequences. They'd spent the last two weeks putting as much ground between them and Alderaan as they could while still taking contracts, and as such, they'd spent two weeks worrying incessantly about whether the uptight, arrogant, and absurdly self-righteous Bacs would be butthurt enough to send the police after them.

Perhaps needless to say, he'd been left with a very bitter taste for anyone with the name 'Bac'.

The Cathar sighed as he sat on a crate and watched over the horde of minimum wage laborers unloading the Turhaya. This was his last stop before he and his crew moved towards the outer rim - he was getting sick of the Core worlds. He loved Corellia to death, but in his professional opinion, every other planet had a chip on their shoulder, and if they didn't have a chip on their shoulder, then they had a stick up their butt!

He rubbed at his chinfur and let his tail swish behind him as he continued to casually observe the workers. Doc was sitting in the midst of them, barking rapid-fire commands at anyone who got out of line. Ordinarily, Mal would be happy to let them take all the time in the world, but he wanted off Coruscant as soon as possible and they were the only thing slowing him down. Still, aggravated as he was, he couldn't bring himself to shout at them to hurry up.

Mal's ears perked as someone spoke to him. The feline pushed himself up to his feet and turned to face the newcomer; a girl, human or near-human from the looks of her. She was young and, compared to him, small in stature. She seemed pleasant enough, though, and her cheerfulness was enough to bring a small smile to the cat's face. The cat's tail swished as she spoke, and he nodded once. "Don't usually take on passengers, but if you're paying, that's different. Our next stop is Taris; don't have anything planned past that, so you're free to ride along until you find a place you want to get off, or until I get tired of the company, whichever comes first."

After speaking, he extended his work-weathered hand to her and allowed his smile to warm slightly. "But first, I ought to introduce myself. I'm Mal."
 

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"Sufi Lyrithene. Pleasure to meet you, sir," the girl exclaimed as she grabbed the Mal's large hand with both of hers and shook it energetically. At that point, she was just glad to have happened across a friendly person on her very first try, since she really wasn't in the mood to deal with any jerks or waste her time shopping around for a ride. She didn't really care about the price anymore, even if she was probably going to overpay thanks to her earlier slip up, that wasn't a big deal. In fact, her sudden change of fortune had even caused her nerves to be completely replaced by excitement in regards to taking off on an adventure somewhere totally new. Sufi had only traveled away from Coruscant a few times in her life, and even then it had only been to a couple of luxury resorts when she and her father had gone on vacation. This time she was going to experience the real galaxy, not the artificially glamorous tourist version.

It had been a long day though, and Sufi was just as anxious to find out where she would be staying aboard the ship so that she could unpack and finally relax as she was about leaving the planet. She didn't want to come across as being rude or pushy though, so she just took a seat next to Mal and contented herself with waiting patiently until he told her that she could board. She watched the dock workers continue to load and unload things for a time, finding the very energetic member of Mal's crew who was giving them orders and directions to be quite amusing. It wasn't too long before random questions began popping into Sufi's head though, and she wasn't the best at holding back her curiosity or her tongue.

"So what is it that you do, sir? Whatever it is, seems like you're doing pretty well at it! That ship must cost a fortune."

She sounded genuinely impressed, and she was. Not only that, but she could certainly learn a thing or two from a successful entrepreneur, so that was another possible perk that she was looking forward to. Judging by Mal's general appearance and demeanor, her guess was that he was probably not just a simple merchant or trader, but anything was possible.
 

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"No formalities, Sufi. It's just Mal," he replied warmly. The feline thrust his paw-like hands into his pockets and surveyed the hired hands once more. Doc had them working faster than before, though they were still slacking. He sighed and hitched his shoulders. "It's getting too gorramed hard to get decent help these days," he mused silently.

He took a seat again as she plopped down. The feline leaned forward and propped himself up by placing his elbows on his knees, one ear perked towards Sufi. Her question caused him to hitch his shoulders - again!- and glance to her. "Nothing too special," he said, "I'm just a freighter captain. We can haul about a hundred tons of cargo at a time, and we've got thick armor and powerful engines, so most of what we transport is very valuable or very time-sensitive. Makes us a lot of money. Only thing that sucks is most of our pay is hazard pay."

He realized that his explanation might raise some alarms in Sufi's mind, and so quickly added on to his previous words, saying, "Not that the next leg of our journey'll be dangerous. We're just moving a couple high-end speeders to Taris, and we're taking the primary trade routes. Have to do a bit of skirting to get around the blockades, but it's nothing dangerous. It'll just take a few days is all. Anyways; if you get bored of watching the dockhands offload our current cargo, I can show you to your quarters."
 

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Sufi nodded at Mal's request for her to simply call him by his first name. It was generally her instinct to be rather informal anyways, but she had made a conscious effort to be extra polite towards him just in case since he was a stranger and she knew that some people were very uptight about nonsense like proper social etiquette. They'd only met a couple of minutes ago, but Sufi had a good feeling about her new Cathar acquaintance. Then again, she usually had good feelings about most people initially, so perhaps that wasn't saying all that much. Either way, there was no point speculating too much about Mal's character, as she would surely get to know him better soon enough which was better than any random assumptions that she may have come up with.

Her mouth was already half open to address the hazard issue that Mal had brought up, but the Cathar had already anticipated her concerns and immediately attempted to dissipate them. He was more or less successful in doing so. Sufi believed him when he said that this particular journey was supposed to be safe, but she was still a bit fidgety when it came to space travel, so the prospect of running into problems did continue to nag at her mind for a while.

Those thoughts were mostly pushed to the background when Mal offered to show her to her quarters, however, as those were of course the magic words that Sufi had been waiting for. She strongly hoped that they were at least decent, but judging from the size of the ship and the fact that Mal was very properly groomed and well put together, she couldn't help but guess that the living conditions couldn't be too lackluster. Sufi nimbly hopped back to her feet and grabbed her suitcase, wasting no time at all.

"Well, as much as I enjoy watching sweaty, muscular men haul things around, I would love to get settled in now that you mention it," Sufi exclaimed. With a slight spring in her step, she followed Mal up the ramp that led into the Turhaya's belly, curiously glancing around everywhere as he led her towards her quarters.
 

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Malcom laughed heartily as Sufi made her quip about 'sweaty, muscular men.' He liked the girl already - she was cheerful and energetic, and seemed to be gifted with a since of humor. In those ways, she reminded him greatly of Carter, which pleased him greatly. He rarely took on passengers who he found to be agreeable, and so if he and his crew got along with Sufi even half as well as he thought they would, then the flight to Taris would be a pleasant one.

He escorted her past the workers and into the cargo bay. From there, it was only a short walk to the small elevator leading up to the crew deck. Once he and Sufi were inside, the feline punched in his access code to unlock the elevator and directed it to take them to the next deck. "Only room we've got open is tucked right between my room and Carter's. It's not bad; all the trappings of a typical motel room. Comfy bed, clean, dresser, night light, personal computer terminal, and all that. Only thing is, this ship is half freighter, half warship; everything aboard her is compact, so your room will look a bit small." The elevator's rear doors slid open and he stepped through them, heading aft once more. "Aside from that, it'll probably suit you just fine. My room isn't any bigger than yours, and I sleep just fine in it. 'Course, I'm a cat. We're kinda drawn to boxes," he joked.

The corridors made the ship feel much smaller than it actually was. Barely big enough for two people to walk side by side and lined with exposed conduits and piping, the halls had far more in common with the walkways of a battleship, not the clean and spacious interior of a civilian craft. The military styling of the Turhaya was reinforced by the presence of automatic pressure doors every ten meters, dividing the ship up into distinct sections in order to help control damage and restrict the danger of decompression. Despite their apparently military lineage, the corridors managed to be somewhat cheerful in appearance; the edges of the durasteel floor grating were painted a soft green, while the grating on the ceiling was edged blue. White light strips set into the sides of the hall cast soft light across the interior, helping to give the ship a sense of warmth.

Scarcely fifteen meters away from the elevators they came to a junction in the ship's corridors. "Okay, to your left is the galley, crew lounge, and a few miscellaneous storage areas. To your right is the med bay. Straight ahead of you are the crew quarters and refreshers. They only go down this hallway about ten more meters, then there's a big locked blast door leading to engineering. You shouldn't have cause to head back there, though."

Once he'd explained that section of the living quarters, he meandered down towards her room and pushed open the manual pressure door leading inside. "And now, your room. Make yourself at home, it's yours until you leave the ship."
 

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The Turhaya's interior was indeed considerably more cramped than it seemed when observing it from the outside, but Sufi wasn't too fussy about that. She wasn't really the princess type, and although she did enjoy comfort and luxury as much as the next person, she could also be perfectly content with a bed and a hot shower. Safety had been her primary concern, and the ship seemed just as sturdy from within as it did on the exterior, so she couldn't have asked for better. Her knowledge of spacecraft design was far from expansive, but even she could recognize a few of the well thought out precautions taken such as the numerous pressure doors.

All things considered, Sufi was quite glad with the way that things had ended up turning out. She had wanted new experiences, and this would definitely be one of them, so it was actually far more interesting than a commercial flight would have been. What was even more awesome was that she'd already met a very likable and charming member of a species which she'd never really had any contact with. It may not have been the most telling sign of things to come, but it still filled her with optimism in regards to her upcoming journey through the galaxy.

Sufi mostly nodded as Mal described and pointed things out to her, doing her best to try to remember everything. Even so, she would probably forget at least half of it by the time they were done talking. She probably looked quite innocent to the Cathar., glancing around at everything with a tinge of fascination in her eyes that made them appear even rounder than usual. Already feeling very at ease around the large feline, Sufi didn't hold back an amused giggle as he joked about his supposed penchant towards boxes. She was usually drawn to anyone who didn't take themselves too seriously and had a good sense of humor, and it seemed like she'd definitely lucked out in that regard.

Once they'd made it to her new room, Sufi politely thanked her host before stepping inside and making herself at home like he'd suggested. She was a bit too hyper and excited to sleep, plus she didn't want to miss the take off because it was a pretty big deal to her, so she just got settled in a bit instead. First things first, she threw her cloak, leather suit and boots off, more than happy to finally be able to slip into something more comfortable after a long day of running around the city. Her sword, which had been strapped to her back and more or less concealed under the cloak until that point was left propped up against a corner.

Having changed into a pair of pink sweat pants and a black tank top, Sufi allowed herself to collapse on the bed for a while, finally giving her sore feet a much needed respite. Closing her eyes and allowing her body to relax completely, she eagerly waited to hear the rumble of the ship's engines.

((Feel free to fast forward to whatever point you feel would be appropriate. If you want to, of course.))
 

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[Okie! ^_^]

~Four Hours Later~​

"We ready to take off, Mal?" Carter asked as she trotted into the cargo bay, where the Captain was surrounded by three dock hands. A wage dispute had gotten a bit out of hand, and rather foolishly, the trio had resorted to brutish bullying and gang tactics to try to weasel credits out of Malcom's pocket.

"No you ain't," one of the workers said tersely, "We feel like got stiffed on our pay, and we want some compensation!"

Saiko growled in irritation. "I paid you the amount your crew chief agreed to. Nothin' more, nothin' less. You don't like that, you take it up with him, not me."

The dockhand bristled. "You're the one who paid us, so that makes you the one who stiffed us! Now I don't care if it was the crew chief or all the gods who agreed to your crappy-ass pay, I want some decent money and I ain't leavin' this ship until I get it!" he snapped, stepping forward and shoving Mal. The cathar made no move to defend himself and so staggered backwards before catching himself. Sensing that victory could be achieved through bullying, the dockhand stepped forward and grabbed Mal by the collar of his shirt. "You listen here, kitty cat; you pay each of us five hundred creds, or you're gonna regret stiffing us!"

Mal had had enough. He braced his hands against the smaller man's chest and shoved him away with enough force to send the human tumbling to the ground. "Now you listen to me," he snapped, "You get off my ship right now, or I'm gonna throw you out. Your choice."

The dockhand made the wrong choice. The moment he got back to his feet, he swung his fist at Mal. The ex-Navy commando effortlessly side-stepped the clumsy blow, grabbed the man's wrist, then flipped the man around and pinned his fist to his shoulders and twisted just enough to cause debilitating pain. The human howled as Mal marched him right 'round his two stunned colleagues and more or less tossed him off the cargo ramp. As the dockhand bounced and tumbled to the ground, the Cathar turned back to the other two and folded his arms across his chest.

"Carter, start the ship," he ordered. He made his way back towards the rear of the hold, and paused to glare daggers at the remaining pair of dockhands. "Get out," he spat. Neither of them were as aggressive as their friend, and so wasted little time in scampering out of the cargo bay, leaving Mal and company to their business. The ramp was sealed the moment the last hand was out, and Mal breathed a sigh in relief. "Too gorramed hard to find good help these days," he muttered irritably.

His engineer came trotting over to him. "What was that all about, skipper? I heard bits and pieces..."

"Wage dispute, Mei Mei. Poor sods wanted more money. Hate to say it, but their pay is pretty lousy - once their 'union' gets a cut of their pay, they make maybe half of what minimum wage is, if that. I'd shell out some extra cash if I could, but..." He let his voice trail off and he hitched his shoulders.

Carter frowned. "Then why'd you act so... Y'know, Mal-like?"

He smiled thinly. "Had to keep 'em riled up. I'd rather deal with angry dockworkers than hungry people, Carter. One group I can say 'no' to - the other I can't."

She slowly nodded. She knew their financial situation was bad - Mal wasn't saying anything, but she'd heard him thanking the gods when their passenger had signed on. They were hurting for cash, and how! The Turhaya was an expensive ship to keep spaceworthy. They were already swimming in maintenance and fuel fees, and the expense vouchers just kept piling up. She was amazed that Mal managed to keep even half the bills paid.

The two headed up to the ship's bridge. Carter settled into her customary pilot's seat, while Mal stood behind her as she fired up the engines. The young woman flicked on the intercom, and announced, "Ladies and gents, this is your pilot speaking! We're about to take off, so clear your cabin and workspace of loose items and take a seat! We'll be airborne in just a couple minutes!"

The excitement in Carter's voice reflected her seemingly inexhaustible supplies of energy, and her enthusiasm was echoed by the throaty roar of the warship's powerful drives as they came on-line. The entire ship vibrated - it was nearly time to take off!

[Feel free to assume that the ship took off during your post and describe it however you please. Also, the bridge area is pretty clearly marked, so it'd be easy for Sufi to get to it if she wanted to watch. ^^]
 

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The sound of a young woman's voice suddenly being projected through the intercom caused Sufi's eyes to flicker open as she faded out of a dream which she'd already began forgetting. Apparently, her plan of lying down for a few minutes had turned into somewhat of a long nap, not that she really minded missing out on several hours of waiting. She rubbed her eyes before lounging around lazily on her bed for a short while longer before finally building up the willpower necessary to get back on to her feet. Not wanting to miss what was undoubtedly one of the most important moments in her life thus far turned out to be motivation enough, though. Sufi gave herself a brief once-over in the mirror before leaving, attempting to tame her slightly ruffled hair by brushing her fingers through it which didn't end up making much of a difference.

After shrugging towards her reflection, she gave up and stepped out into the narrow corridor, scanning her surroundings quickly to find the arrow that gave directions towards the bridge. She could vaguely remember seeing it on her way in, so it wasn't too long before she was on her way. A mix of nerves and excitement - mostly the latter - were bubbling through Sufi as she walked the short distance towards the nose of the Turhaya. Not only because she was leaving her home, but also because she hadn't actually met the other members of Mal's crew yet. From the very little she'd heard or seen of them, it seemed like they should all get along pretty well, but it was still far from being a given.

The sound of the doors opening and closing had surely alerted everyone of Sufi's arrival, but she didn't say anything for fear or distracting the pilot from doing her job properly. She had no idea how much concentration was actually necessary to fly a ship like the Turhaya, or of any kind really, but the countless buttons, switches and lights flickering everywhere certainly made it look complicated enough. Sufi made her way over towards Mal, remaining discreet before leaning in a bit closer to him so that she could whisper. "So, everything go alright with the...whatever those dock guys were doing?" she asked, trying to make small talk. She tended to be a bit clumsy at it, but there was no way to improve if she didn't practice, after all.
 

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Mal'd noticed Sufi's arrival on the bridge, but didn't turn to face her. The feline was a bit busy fighting a pill bottle to try to dig out the last dose of low-level painkillers - he felt a headache coming on, and the relatively cheap medication was an excellent way to fight it off without impairing his ability to function or forming a habit. The feline popped the two pills and dry swallowed them, then chucked the now-empty white bottle into an incinerator chute.

It noisily banged and clattered its way down the chute towards its fiery d00m, much to Carter's chagrin. The pilot shot a glare at Mal, but her 'angry face' made her feel utterly ridiculous. Within a split-second, she just smiled and hitched her shoulders and went back to her pilot-y duties. The ship lurched up into the air as she brought the repulsorlifts online, then started to ease up and out of the starport to join with the rest of Coruscant's sky traffic. It'd be a minute more until they finally broke atmosphere - after that, they were home free.

Meanwhile, Saiko turned to face Sufi and smiled thinly in response to her question. He didn't respond immediately. Instead, the cat gave her a very brief once-over. Her clothing had changed dramatically, lending her a much more relaxed appearance. The girl was easy on the eyes and pleasant to talk to; he had a feeling that, once she started looking, she'd be able to have her pick of any man [or woman] she wanted. The cat forced his train of thought back to her query and shrugged. "Could've gone better," he admitted. "Had a few disagreements, but it's all been worked out."

"Disagreements?" Carter chimed in, "Heh, way to put it mildly, Kitten!"

Mal growled and chucked a wad of paper -a pre-flight checklist, if he had to wager a guess- at his pilot. "Bizui!" he ordered. His grin belied the playful, almost sibling-like nature of their exchange, as did Carter's laughter.

"No, I won't 'shut up', or whatever bizui means!" she replied with a grin.

The cat shook his head and waved a paw dismissively at her, then turned his gaze back to Sufi. He gestured to the navigator's seat - it'd position Sufi just behind and to his left, where she could watch him and Carter, who were sitting in the pilot and co-pilot's seats, while still having a line of sight on all the cockpit windows. "So, yeah. It's dealt with, hopefully with no lingering ill will. Feel free to take a seat - just don't fiddle with anything. That console's broken. The last time Doc used the navigation panel, it zapped him pretty good. Poor bastard talked fast for a week."

He paused, softly biting his lower lip, then tossed in, "...Faster than normal, anyways."
 

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Sufi raised a hand up to her mouth, covering it as she giggled discreetly in response to the lighthearted quips being exchanged between Mal and the pilot girl. She still hadn't caught her name yet, but there would be plenty of time for that when everyone wasn't so busy overseeing the Turhaya's take off. For the moment, she was content with simply looking on in awe as the Cathar ans his pilot effortlessly ran through the motions necessary to get the massive hunk of metal that they were all sitting in airborne. Actually being able to see out of the window wasn't terribly important, since it would probably end up being scary more than anything else. Still, it seemed like an important way to mark and remember the moment.

Unconsciously, Sufi had all sorts of nervous ticks going off at once, betraying the calm and collected image that she thought that she was projecting. Every few seconds she would twirl her hair, nibble at the skin around her nails or mess around with her nose piercing, unable to keep perfectly still. The four hour nap certainly hadn't done anything to keep her calm. She made sure to keep her hands away from the malfunctioning console at least, heeding Mal's warning about it. As they finally began taking off, though, Sufi more or less ended up calming down and just enjoying the ride. It wasn't really as big of a deal as she'd been making it out to be in her head, but that was often the case when it came to things that weren't directly in her control.

Before too long, the Turhaya had made it out of Coruscant's atmosphere without issue. Of course, Sufi had felt some mixed emotions as she watched the planet's massive buildings gradually shrink before going out of sight, but a bit of nostalgia was nothing that she couldn't handle. As soon as the ship was stable enough, she hopped out of her seat, having already grown tired of sitting. "So...what do you guys usually do to pass the time while you're traveling?" Sufi asked matter-of-factly. "Oh, I'm Sufi by the way, nice to meet you," she added with a smile, addressing herself to Mal's friend whom she hadn't been introduced to yet.
 

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Sufi's energy didn't go unnoticed, and it had Mal and Carter chuckling softly by the time they were out of atmosphere. Mal wondered how they were going to survive - Carter was hyperactive enough, and Sufi seemed just as energetic. With the two stuck together on a single ship, he half-suspected that their combined enthusiasm and chipper attitudes would combine to create a gigantic ball of pure bubbly bliss that would consume the entire galaxy!

Or, alternatively, just drive him to drink.

Once they were out of atmosphere and she was standing, Carter set the autopilot and rose from her seat, stretching out. Mal remained seated, ears perked towards Sufi as the girl fired off a string of questions. Lucky for him, his pilot was only too eager to answer. "Lots of things!" Carter chimed in, "We play holo-deck games, video games of all sorts, card games; we talk, we laugh, we exercise, we maintain the ship, we tie braids in Kitten's mane while he's asleep and try to translate all his silly cuss cuss words..."

"Hey!" Mal interjected, but Carter ignored him and continued.

"Basically, we just have fun!" she exclaimed cheerfully. "When we're not having fun, we're probably still having fun, just... Y'know, while fixing the ship, doing jobs, getting shot at. All the fun little things. Anyways, I don't think I've introduced myself!" She stepped forward to Sufi, and held out a small grease-and-soot-stained hand.
 

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If she hadn't been sure that she would get along with Carter before that point, Sufi definitely knew that they would be good friends as soon as they'd started talking. Minus the whole getting dirty and repairing complicated machinery bit, it sounded like they could very plausibly have been sisters. It was clear that Mal was pretty fun and playful too behind his considerably more serious and adult demeanor, but it was good that at least one person aboard the ship could be the mom, so to speak, to keep things from getting out of hand.

"Awesome! Although I have to warn you, I'm pretty good at games, so don't expect to be keeping any of your high scores!" Sufi's enthusiasm matched Carter's perfectly as she shook the other girl's hand, not minding that she might have to wash her own afterward. "Oh, ever try adding some beads to it?" she asked, referring to Mal's mane. "He would look so adorable!"

She glanced over to Mal - although he was still sitting was his back facing her so she couldn't tell if he was amused or not - and then back to Carter. "Anyways, what kinda jobs are you guys doing that you're getting shot at? Sounds exciting."
 

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Carter had to cover her mouth with both hands to muffle her giggling. "He would be adorable with a beaded mane!" she exclaimed. "We're gonna have to do that to him sometime, maybe even put some glitter in his fur to really spice him up!"

"Try it," Mal growled, "And I'm sticking pink dye capsules in your shower heads. You won't be laughing when your skin is brighter than a zeltron's!"

As was usual, Denise ignored him and focused on Sufi. She liked her; the younger woman fit in well, and her personality seemed to mesh well enough with her own. Needless to say, Carter was delighted to have found a relatively kindred spirit, and was only too happy to entertain all of Sufi's questions. "Some of the cargo we move is super valuable," she explained. "So much so that piracy and thieves are always a big problem. But between Mal and Doc, we've never had any trouble. They're both really good in a fight, probably 'cuz Doc's crazy and Mal is..."

"Ex-Navy," the cat finished.

Carter beamed again. "Right!" she declared. "Anyways, so, uh, yeah! We're always pretty safe. S'long as we've got Mal to protect us, anyways. Assuming he's not snoozing in a box, like the big kitten he is."
 

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Suffi giggled along with her new mischievous accomplice, and Mal's reply was actually only making her laugh harder as she pictured herself and carter sporting neon pink skin. They were definitely going to have a lot of fun together, that was for sure. Apart from the prospects of having fun with Carter, Sufi was also imagining what it would be like to face pirates like the ones that the other girl had mentioned. Of course, she didn't wish for the Turhaya to come under attack, but she wouldn't say no to an opportunity to test her skills if it came along.

After Carter had made her last comment, Sufi's eyes went back to Mal again as a slight look of confusion could be read quite easily across her face. "Wait, so do you really sleep in boxes?" she asked in complete seriousness. At first she'd been pretty confident that it was a joke, but now that both Carter and Mal himself had mentioned it, she was beginning to think that maybe they were being serious. It didn't matter to her, obviously, since Mal could sleep wherever he pleased, but she was curious nonetheless to learn more about the Cathar.
 

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Mal had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing his tail off at her question. How could she possibly believe that he slept in a box? Sure, housecats loved boxes, and he'd made more than a few jokes about boxes and he was a cat, and she was young and almost undoubtedly naive when it came to the ways of aliens, and... "Oh." He mentally facepalmed when his train of thought finished rolling out. His tail curled at the tip and he smiled warmly at her as he realized that he was probably the first Cathar she'd ever met, and so she probably was baffled by almost everything about him.

"I've only slept in a box a couple times, and both were under protest," he replied. "I always sleep in an honest-to-goodness bed or bedroll, like any human would. I was raised by humans - I don't actually have that many Cathar-esque habits. Well, aside from clawing things when I'm bored, or purring when I'm happy, or flicking my ears, or... Okay, so I guess there's a lot of Cathar things I do, but it's the cultural things from my species that I've never taken to."
 

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"Oh, okay..." Sufi replied as her cheeks blushed slightly, her pale skin doing nothing to help conceal the pink tint that they were taking on. She was a bit embarrassed now that it had finally dawned on her that her question was a bit silly, although Mal's friendly attitude kept her from really feeling too self conscious about it. It was quite amazing to her that he'd actually been raised by humans rather than members of his own species, although it did explain why he acted pretty similarly to one of them, which was not what one would expect after noting the glaring physiological dissimilarities.

It made her wonder what she would have turned out like if she'd been raised by Cathars, for example. Would she be purring and scratching and flicking her ears like them? Actually, now that she thought of it, she wished that she could purr, since she'd always found it enjoyable to listen to. One of Sufi's childhood friends had a beautiful fluffy cat, and she'd always loved caressing it's throat so that she could feel the little vibrations as it purred away happily. Shrugging her shoulders slightly to herself, she hopped over to a different topic.

"So what's our first stop? Anything fun to do there? How long until we get there?" she gushed, losing herself a bit as her curiosity once again got the better of her. "Oops, sorry, I should probably give you time to answer," she added with an apologetic smile.
 

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Carter laughed. "It's fine!" she exclaimed. "There's really no need to apologize. Our first stop is Taris, we'll be there in... Eh, two days. Taris is basically one biiig city, so I'm sure it'll have something to do. Mal's never let me off the ship, though, the big meanie," Denise teased.

"There's a reason for that," Mal said. "Taris is a hellhole. It's chock full of racism, elitists, humano-centrists, gangsters, and more corrupt cops than you can shake a gaffi stick at." The feline leaned forward and rested his elbows atop his knees. "Sure, the upper levels of the city look real fine, but it's all whitewash they slapped up over the grime and the blood. If you're human, it's fine for you - you'll never once see past the facade unless you really want to. But if you're not, well..."

He paused, chuckling. "Then you'd best be ready for a fight, because their kind won't wait one second to pick one. I've been in my fair share of scuffles on Taris, so believe you me, this place is far from hospitable. But like I said, if you're human... It'll do. Now, that said," Mal paused and turned to fully face Sufi, "If I were you, I wouldn't get off there. I wouldn't even take one step outside the tourist districts. We'll be leaving quick enough once we get on-planet; we're just dropping off some sport speeders and then leavin'. From there, we get to pick our next destination at will. I was thinkin' of some R&R on Naboo."

The feline spontaneously pushed himself to his feet and made for the door. "Carter, Turhaya's in your hands. Set a shipboard alarm to go off once we're five hours from Taris. I'm going to go make sure everything in the cargo bay is tied down properly. Sufi, you're free to wander any part of the ship that's not locked. If you need anything, just give me or Carter a shout - or if you get desperate, there's always Doc, but he's crazy," he warned half-jokingly, before ducking out the door and heading back towards the lifts.
 

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"Sounds like a charming place," Sufi remarked sarcastically after Mal had run through the list of things that made Taris a less than ideal place to live. Come to think of it, though, it sounded like work may be easier to find there so she made a mental note of that. Perhaps she would end up heading there some time in the future, but for the moment she was more than content with tagging alongside Mal and his crew. There was no denying that she had quite little in the way of general knowledge or experience when it came to traveling the galaxy, so having seasoned friends to rely on was definitely a huge boon. Even more importantly, it was nice to finally feel some sort of companionship, as she'd been feeling woefully lonely ever since abandoning her former life.

"Well then, I guess you're going to be stuck with me for a little while longer then," Sufi added with a quick wink in the Cathar's direction, making her intention to heed the feline's advice clear. She was actually really happy that Mal seemed fine with the idea of keeping her around longer, which lead to her spontaneously throwing her arms around him and giving a light squeeze. The top of Sufi's head only reached the Cathar's neck, easily making him the tallest person she'd ever embraced. If only Mal knew what a prestigious record he held!

After having released Mal from the hug, she waved goodbye to Carter and headed for the door, yawning and stretching her arms out as her body remembered that it was still tired after only four hours of rest. "I'm off to get the rest of my beauty sleep. See you guys in the morning. Wait...is there such a thing as morning in space?" Sufi asked nobody in particular, pausing for a moment as the doors in front of her slid open. She just shrugged her shoulders slightly before resuming her pace, working her way back to her quarters by memory now that she had a pretty good idea of what the Turhaya's interior layout looked like.

Having regained the privacy of her room, Sufi stripped down to her underwear and quickly slipped under the covers of her bed, already starting to get goosebumps after only a few seconds of being uncovered. She pulled the covers up to her neck and then proceeded to roll around while shifting into several different positions and fluffing her pillow until she'd gotten accustomed to the new bed and everything was just right. She started to think about how their short stop on Taris would turn out, but Sufi's speculations were cut short as she fell soundly asleep in the next couple of minutes.

((Sorry for the slowness, crazy day. Also, time skippidy skip if you wish! ^^ ))
 

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[Mkay! Gonna just skip to the next day, then depending on how that pans out, we can either skip to another day once we've done some more or cut right to Taris]

Carter giggled as she watched their passenger give Mal a hug. The Cathar wasn't used to being embraced in any way; for a cat, he seemed to go out of his way to avoid physical contact with others when it wasn't necessary, and so to see him stand ramrod straight in surprise was highly amusing to her. However, her amusement morphed into adoration as she watched him loosen up and loop his big fuzzy arms around Sufi, giving her a gentle hug in return. He even gave the girl a quick nuzzle over the top of her head and purred!

Denise giggled again as Sufi let go of the captain, allowing him to pop off into the corridor. She waved goodbye to her new friend and beamed at her. "Sleep well, Sufi! If ya need anything, give us a shout!" she said. The engineer's attention was swift to return to her ship. In mere moments, she was engrossed within the wealth of holographic readouts and two-dimensional screens arrayed before her. So lost was she in her work that Sufi's final words went almost utterly unnoticed, as did the teen's final disappearance from the ship's bridge.

Mal, meanwhile, stole off to the cargo bay as he'd said he would. Doc wasn't down there. The madman was most likely holed up in his quarters, tinkering on something or setting his fingers on fire again. Mal wasn't bothered by the loneliness of the bay, in fact, he preferred it. He needed a bit of time to think. Sufi had caught him off guard with her hug; it wasn't often that he received one. Usually, he was only hugged on his birthdays, and that was after he was good and drunk, allowing Carter to glomp the living daylights out of him without any kind of ramifications. In fact, the only person he could remember who just hugged him spontaneously had been his late wife.

The feline's hand absentmindedly drifted to his chest. He 'pawed' at his dog tags through his chest, his fingers feeling out the familiar firmness of his dog tags and wedding band. He caught himself after a moment and forced his hand to his sides. "Gotta stop thinking about her," he muttered. It'd been years since he lost his wife - years that he'd had to get over her. He needed to pick himself up, to move on, to be strong again; he wasn't going to spend a decade weeping with a bottle in hand.

He shook his head and growled at himself, rolled up his sleeves, and made his way to the nearest stack of crates. Maybe doing a bit of physical labor would clear his head...

~10 Hours Later~

Mal'd spent two hours shuffling crates before he'd worn himself. The feline had taken a nap behind some boxes in the cargo bay, but what he'd intended to be a thirty minute cat-nap wound up being a whopping seven and a half our long snoozefest. He woke up with a stiff back courtesy of the hard deck plating and staggered up to his quarters, where he secured a change of clothes. A long, hot shower did wonders for his spirits and his body; it washed away a good portion of his stress, cleaned out his fur, and loosened up his muscles and left him feeling as limber and energetic as a kitten.

It also left him feeling hungry!

The starving Cathar, barefoot and wearing olive drab cargo pants and a black tee-shirt, wandered from the showers towards the galley. His short fur still glistened with moisture and his mane was slicked back; evidence that he'd cut short his time with the fur dryer in favor of getting noms. He half-wondered if Sufi was up. If she was, he'd probably make enough food for the both of them. If not, he'd make something for himself, then wake her up and see if she wanted some chow. Either way, he was going to get food.

The galley was a fairly modern little set up, with glossy black counters. The appliances were set into pop-up mountings that retracted and 'hid' within the countertop when not in use, giving the galley a very sleek and utilitarian appearance. Four high-backed swivel stools were arranged around the island and were bolted to the floor for stability; as there was no table, it served as the ship's only real dining area... It and the couch in the crew lounge, anyways.

He tapped the holographic display of the fridge -a minimal profile affair concealed beneath a section of the counter, which opened up to reveal the interior of the fridge- and began browsing through the perishables that had been purchased and placed into the galley. Once he knew what Carter had bought while out grocery shopping, he'd figure out what to make for breakfast.
 
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