Ask Coruscant For Force Sake

[Astra Calloway]

Astra wasn't keen on spending any more time on Coruscant than she had to, she felt uneasy on the ecumenopolis, or in any city for that matter. Although a native Corellian, she was raised on Dantooine and spent much of her life among the rolling hills and meadows that encompassed the planet, knowing nothing of a life outside of the outer rim planet until she joined the Jedi Order three years prior. The galaxy still felt strange and unending to her but every day she felt a little closer to people through the force and through learning about different cultures and she finally began to feel like she was starting to find her place within it all.

As she sat in her ship finally, after a long day, she tried to start it but the engine made an unsavoury noise as it spluttered to life to which she groaned and put her head in her hands. She was far from qualified at even diagnosing a problem with the ship, let alone resolving it. She sighed and gathered the courage to try and find the problem before no doubt asking for help, though how likely it would be for someone to be willing to do so was a different matter. Being a Jedi wasn't exactly a lucrative business, they didn't have lots of credits knocking about, and at times it would be more beneficial to keep your allegiance a secret which would leave Astra in quite a sticky situation.

She had a small amount of credits on her, of her sister's money she had borrowed for emergencies and now might prove to be one of those times. Astra hopped out of the cockpit and dropped to the floor to open the panel she believed the culprit to be behind, only when she stood staring at the inner workings of the ship she was none-the-wiser and just stood there, confused, suddenly having a great respect for all the mechanics and engineers in the galaxy.



@KinkyPrawn

 

[Segri Targe]

"Listen you can of bolts, if you don't land this piece of junk at the nearest landing pad immediately I'll blow your dome off and land it myself!" Segri growled at the little BG unit connected to her ship, the barrel of her pistol pressed against its dome. It beeped and whined with fear and quickly did as it was told. Segri holstered her pistol and sat in the pilot's seat, still trying to figure out exactly how it all worked. It was ridiculous. No speeder or swoop she heard about had this many controls. Why on Coruscant would a person need this many controls and buttons on a ship? The parts weren't that complex. It made no sense...

Her thoughts were interrupted when the BG droid landed the ship rather roughly, causing her to knock her head against the wall of the ship. "Hey, watch it!" she shouted at the droid, who proceeded to retreat in hiding behind the co-pilot's seat. She glared at it for a few seconds longer before standing up and moving towards the landing ramp and disembarking. Outside the ship she squinted and raised an arm to shelter her eyes from the bright sunlight.

The discomfort didn't last long and soon she stood outside her ship with her hands on her hips, taking in a deep breath and enjoying the sunlight on her skin. She had seen sunlight before through the holes leading to Underworld, but she never got a chance to experience it like this.

After a few seconds she opened her eyes and looked around, still squinting from the bright sunlight around her. The air was different. Despite the pollution in the air, it smelled so much fresher than Underworld. The sounds were different as well...until she heard the familiar sound of a ship stalling and failing to start. She glanced towards the landing pad next to hers, watching as a young woman got out of the fighter and tried to see what was wrong. She clearly didn't know a thing about ships, judging from the hopeless look she gave.

She huffed, chuckling to herself over the girl's crisis. But as she turned to go looking for some stuff she needed, she stopped and turned to look at her again. She stared at her for a few seconds, then reached a conclusion.

"Hey, blondie! Ship karking around on you?" she called out as she approached the woman, brushing her dreadlocks out of her face as she reached her. She looked the ship over then back to her. "Need help?"

@Sunfrog

 

[Astra Calloway]

Astra stared hopelessly at the ship, wondering where to begin even diagnosing the problem but before long her train of thought was interrupted when a female voice called out to her. She turned to see who had referred to her and saw a tall Zabrak woman approaching who she sensed no ill-intent from yet, though would remain cautious in case she had ulterior motives.

"Uh yeah... I don't know what's wrong with it." She admitted. "Would you? That would be great, I don't have a lot of credits but I have some." She offered, hoping the offer would suffice since she didn't want to be indebted to a stranger, especially not beyond the realms of money. It seemed like a kind offer on the front but for now she was unsure if and what the Zabrak wanted in return for her services.

From her experience, people here tended to be motivated largely by wealth or anything that benefited them personally and although she wasn't cynical, this tended to be the case. She didn't judge those who were motivated by money, after all they needed to do what they could do survive in a galaxy that would show no mercy but one would soon come to learn that kindness often came with a price.

"Are you a local?" She asked the woman, hoping to build up some kind of rapport if they were going to be working together, although Astra wasn't sure what use she would be, perhaps it would be better to let the Zabrak get on with it, she seemed pretty confident.




@KinkyPrawn

 

[Segri Targe]

Segri reached the ship and looked it over. "Credits certainly make it more appealing." she said as she stuck her head into an open panel and took a look around. In all honesty, the credits were only a bonus. She wasn't doing this for the credits. She just...wanted to help her out. But she won't turn down free credits.

She burst out laughing. "Holy kark, lady! Where'd you get this ship, a thrift shop?!" she shouted with her head still in the ship, laughing all the way. She finally emerged and looked at her. "I can fix it, no problem. Shouldn't be too much fuss. Just lemme get my toolkit." she said and turned to move back to her ship...but to her surprise, her BG unit was standing behind them with her toolkit hanging from one of its little arms. She stared in surprise at it for a second before accepting the toolkit. "...Thanks." she said, clearly surprised over the gesture. The little droid gave a happy noise and stuck around to help out some more.

She fished around and pulled a set of tools from the case and started picking around in the ship. "I guess you can call me that, yeah." she said as she worked. In all honesty, she was shocked to think she was from this planet. Because Underworld felt like a completely different planet compared to the surface. "And you? You local or offworld?" she asked, getting her head out of the ship to look at the woman.

@Sunfrog

 

[Astra Calloway]

When the Zabrak didn't turn down the offer of credits, though she didn't seem picky about how many credits so it was probably a bonus for what would've otherwise been a good deed and Astra couldn't say she blamed her, times were always tough, so she took the small bag of credits out of her boot ready to give to the woman. It only seemed fair, they were helping out each other after all.

"Yeeeah, I know it's not great... but it does the job." She shrugged. If she had the means of getting a better ship she would but credits were scarce in her family and the Jedi Order didn't exactly provide an income. "Thanks, I really appreciate it." She said with a smile. Despite feeling rather intimidated by most of the people she had met on Coruscant, this woman was proving to be quite forthcoming and genuine.

"Off-world." She replied. "Corellian but spent most of my life on Dantooine until I was twenty." She added, though she was unsure if such a statement would be to her detriment rather than benefit depending on her companion's feelings on either planet. "What's your name?" She asked. "I'm Astra." She held a hand out to Segri but then immediately realised it may not be within the woman's culture to shake hands and she became painfully aware of her cultural ignorance.



@KinkyPrawn

 

[Segri Targe]

"Dantooine?" Segri asked her as she fiddled with something in the ship. "The kark were you doing on Dantooine? You don't exactly look like a farmer and neither do you look like a smuggler or something." she thought aloud as she worked.

She emerged again and rummaged through her tool case for a specific tool. The woman decided to introduce herself and asked for the Zabrak's name. She stood up straight and looked at her for a second before giving a shrug. "The name's Segri." she reached out and with a greasy hand she gave Astra a firm handshake. "Now what are you doing on Coruscant? Got tired of all the grass?" she joked with her.

@Sunfrog

 

[Astra Calloway]

It seemed like the conversation was drawing closer to Astra revealing her status as a Jedi which she was wary to do as it wasn't always received well but she decided to test the waters before saying anything definitive. "I was raised there by a Jedi after my parents were killed." She replied, pausing to see if Segri reacted negatively to mentioning the Jedi.

"Astra." She replied as she returned the handshake. Segri seemed friendly enough and Astra couldn't sense any hostile intentions as of yet but she didn't know how far to trust the woman. The question Segri asked next was hard to avoid and even harder to lie about but Astra did her best to do so convincingly. "Uh... visiting a friend." She smiled, hoping she wasn't called up on it, though Segri could very well suspect who she was by now, only Astra hadn't confirmed it.


@KinkyPrawn

 

[Segri Targe]

The conversation certainly took a dark turn as Astra dropped her comment. Segri paused with her fixing to shoot a glance at the girl, raising an eyebrow. "Damn...didn't see that one coming." she muttered. "Sorry to hear that." she continued with a small smile before continuing with her work. She finally pulled a panel open with a grunt then peered inside. "There's the issue. Bad fuses. Probably got dinged up or something over time." she explained, the ship slightly muffling her voice.

She pulled the fuses out and threw them into her tool case. "I got some spares on my ship. Come on." she gave a nod towards her ship after grabbing one of the fuses then made her way towards her ship. The droid followed closely beside her. Astra explained why she was on the planet, prompting a chuckle from Segri. "I hope you know where she lives. Coruscant's a big planet...like really big." she explained as she walked.

In her ship she scrounged around a bit, looking for the fuses...and in the process making sure Astra didn't wander around. She didn't want to risk her realizing that this was a stolen ship. Once she found a pack of fuses and made sure they were the same, she led the way back to the girl's ship. She started slotting the fuses back in and closed the ship up. "Just hold up a sec..." she turned to face her. "You said you were raised by a Jedi. Isn't having families, like, forbidden or something? I thought they are a bunch of celibate virgins or something that didn't take on kids and stuff? How did you end up in his care?" she asked her, resting her wrench against her shoulder.

@Sunfrog

 

[Astra Calloway]

"Yeah, well..." She shrugged, seemingly not bothered by it. There had been a lot of years to come to term with what had happened and the peace she had gained through joining the Jedi had helped, though it was upsetting she found that not ruminating over the past was very important. "Oh, I never could've figured that out." She confessed, this certainly wasn't her area of expertise. "Thanks again." She said with a smile as she joined Segri.

Astra shared a laugh with Segri. "Yeah, yeah, so I've heard." She agreed. Despite having only been to Coruscant a handful of times, she knew far more about it than she cared to know as its reputation preceded it. This was certainly not a planet she wanted to get stranded on.

As she waited with Segri, a small part of her was happy to know that there was still some unsolicited good in the galaxy. Although she had offered Segri credits, the woman had never asked for any so she was glad to still have faith in people. When Segri told her to hold on, Astra froze, nervous about what she was going to get asked but relaxed when it wasn't such a difficult question.

"Oh, no no, that's an old Jedi Order, this is a different one, they change over time... a lot." She answered truthfully. "This Order allows marriage and kids and stuff..." She stopped herself from going into too much detail. "Or so I've heard." She added to try and negate the fact she seemed quite knowledgeable about the Jedi.


@KinkyPrawn