Patience, My Young Padawan

[Ariella]

Reine E'ron smiled, her lekku twitching in anxious anticipation of her coming mission, her first as a Jedi Knight. She had become a full Knight only a couple of weeks prior, and needless to say was excited. She was going on this mission with Kalen Uhdea, a male Master of human extraction, and right now they were on their small, unmarked transport shuttle near Dantooine, where they were told that their target was located in orbit of.

This mission involved capturing a Sith that had been causing quite a bit of trouble for the Order, and several Jedi had already been captured by her. She would need to talk to Master Uhdea when he came out of his mediation and ask him what the Sith's name was again.

All that she knew of the Master's plan was that they would be landing on Dantooine, and then stowing away in the supplies that he was demanding the people there give him in return for being spared from death.

Master Uhdea however did not come out of his meditation until their shuttle had landed. "Her name is Aliura Saretti, Reine. You would do well to remember the name tjhe first time you are told, not the twenty third." he says with a smile, opening his eyes slowly to look to her. He answered her unspoken question, having been her Master since she was old enough to follow him on missions and knew her well enough to know she would have forgotten that already.

Their contact from the relatively young training center on the planet hurridly ushered them from the shuttle and into the storage bay where the waiting supplies were held until the entourage from the Dark Lady's ship arrived. Finding an appropriate sized crate, they got inside and got into as comfortable a position as they could manage, waiting for them to get loaded onto the ship.

 

[Irvine]

Aliura Saretti had not become a thorn in the Jedi Order’s side by being reckless and haphazard in her methods of getting things done; especially on a planet where a young jedi training facility stood at the ready. She was a cautious and calculating woman who rarely made a move without considering her next and never bothered taking care of her own grunt work such as, say, provision retrieval. No, this was a troublesome chore that she could not be bothered with unless the cargo was something of importance. This was work for her pawns to take care of while she tended to far more meaningful duties.

Fortunately for the Jedi, Saretti did not tolerate sluggishness in her ranks. The two knights were not long in those crates when the gentle humming of a small cargo vessel filled the storage bay, followed by the clang of the cargo bay doors. Two human men pushing a pair of loading carts stepped out of the cargo bay and made their way down the ramp once the ship had settled in and the cargo doors had opened.

“You know, I don’t see why we’re always stuck doing these kinds of runs,” one of the men could be heard complaining as he slid the lip of the cart underneath of a crate sitting beside the one which the jedi knights were hiding in. “We get sent all of the way out here to this farm rock to pick up supplies while that purple-skinned bitch sits nice and cozy back at base doing only who knows what? Sometimes you gotta wonder if these errands that we get sent on are worth this meager pay.”

“Oh would you just quit yer gripin’,” the other grumbled as he slid his own cart underneath of the crate that the jedi had hidden themselves away in. “Yer lookin’ at this in all of the wrong ways, boy-o. Sure, the pay’s not worth the legwork and the boss-lady’s got yer balls in a vice but yer family is being taken care of back home, right? Sometimes ya jus’ gotta swallow that damned pride o’ yers and let that ‘purple-skinned bitch’ have her way. You’ll live longer and yer family won’t have to bury ya.”

The crate tilted to the side as it was pulled back and strapped into the little hand-cart so that it could be loaded onto the ship. The first man didn’t retort back as he readied his own crate. There wasn’t any use arguing and he knew that much. He could bitch and moan all that he wanted but it wouldn’t change anything. Only action would get anything done about their working situations and just about any action against their employer would end with the same result; a painful death. Not another word was spoken between the two humans as they loaded the vessel down with the crates and took a brief check of inventory.

 

[Ariella]

Reine could barely contain her gasp as the crate tilts, the movement pushing her into Master Uhdea, and a rather awkward position at that. She blushed as she looked up to him and moved herself gently so as to not move the crate. A lesser man than her Master would have still had issues, as she had to stand either with her mound practically in his face, or her ass. If she sat back down, she would only end up in his lap again. By the time the crate was let sit flat again inside the bay of the ship, Reine was sure that her skin would be a nice, deep red, instead of it's pink tone.

When the men left their crate, she whispered to Master Uhdea, not sure what to do now, "Master Uhdea, do you have a plan from here on out? Or do we wait until we get to their base? I thought Aliura would have been on here, but her people said she was back at their base?" she asked, her impatient anticipation showing in her lekku's excted twitching and movements as she spoke.

The Jedi Master sat there quietly for a moment, and then smiled to the young girl, "Please, you can sit again, unless you really do wish to test the willpower of a Master." he says quietly, "We will need to wait in here until we arrive at her base, although we should be able to come out of here at night to stretch, provided it is quiet and no one comes into the hold."

 

[Irvine]

Not long after the crate containing the jedi was loaded into the transport vessel, the clanging of the cargo bay doors echoed through the bay. The footsteps of the laborers faded back into the halls of the ship and the jedi were alone aboard an enemy vessel bound for Aliura Saretti’s presumed base of operations. The two lone jedi were mice running headlong into the den of a great violet tiger, metaphorically speaking. Of course, the knights of the jedi order were known for charging into seemingly impossible odds and then walking out with little more than a few blaster singe marks; if that. Maybe the pair would get lucky on this assignment. Maybe they would be able to bring Saretti to her knees and drag her back home where she could be properly judged.

The hum of the drive cores filled the cargo bay as the ship returned to life and the boxes were jerked back as the vessel tore out of the hangar. The laborers had neglected to tie the cargo down; something that they would be paying for once they arrived at their destination if any of the crates were damaged in transit. Saretti was not known among her staff to be a forgiving woman when it came to mistakes which she viewed as protocol oversights. Of course, her protocol also demanded that all cargo be hand-checked before loading so the laborers had already signed their death certificates in bringing the jedi aboard.

Fortunately for the stowaways, the journey back to Saretti’s flagship would not be a long one. Over the next eighteen hours, the pair or knights would find themselves alone and undisturbed in the cargo bay of the small transport vessel. It would seem that the laborers were not the most diligent duo. Of course, that’s bound to happen when one hates their job as much as these two seemed to back during the pickup on Dantooine.

 

[Ariella]

After a few hours in the crate, Reine eases the side off and steps out of it, gratefully stretching in the cool air of the hold. Smoothing down the clothing she had on beneath her cloak, she closed her eyes and used the force to feel her way around the ship, working out tue size of the crew, finding no force sensitive people aboard, Master Uhdea and herself excluded.

When the vibrating and shudders of atmospheric re-entry began, they got back inside the crate, getting the side back in place before getting themselves 'comfortable' for the next however long until they would have the chance to move again.

 

[Irvine]

Aliura Saretti’s flagship was orbiting around the nearby gas giant of Tamarena in the Dantooine system. It was here that the smaller cargo vessel was destined and it was here that the ship began to slow for re-entry into the flagship’s cocking bay. The jedi had made it to their destination without any unforeseen problems. A quick scan of the large ship would easily make the duo aware of Saretti’s presence here along with another, less powerful force-sensitive individual; an apprentice, perhaps?

A clang and a jolt rang through both of the ship’s cargo holds as the smaller vessel touched down inside of the much large ship’s hangar. A silence soon followed as the retrieval vessel’s engines were cut and their gentle hum faded. The two humans could be heard returning to their vessel’s cargo hold, arguing again by the sounds of it but their words were soon drowned by some clambering outside of the cargo bay doors. The ship’s labor droids were preparing for their task of unloading the new shipment of cargo and delivering the crates to their designated places on the large flying mass of steel.

“Yeah, yeah, ya lousy damned scrap balls. I’m-a workin’ on lettin’ yer asses in,” one of the men shouted as he and his partner entered the cargo bay. Only moments after, the bay doors were opened and the scuttling of the ship’s assorted mechanized crew flooded into the cargo hold and around the crates. These droids seemed much more eager about their jobs than the men had.

Unlike the men who had been fairly careful with the crates, unaware of what they contained, the droids knew that the cargo was merely food and were not quite as gentle in their transport. Two large, humanoid droids flanked the crake containing the two jedi, locked their hands around the bottom lip of the crate, and picked it up with ease with their mechanical might. Once the jedi’s crate was lifted, the two droids began to tear off through the ship in what would have been a jog for a normal man. All the while, the crate was bouncing in their grip, most assuredly making things very uncomfortable for the living package.

 

[Ariella]

Frowning at the constant bumping and bouncing of their crate, Reine could barely keep herself quiet as she bumped her head first against the top of the crate, then the back, and then into the back of Master Uhdea's head. She would be discussing the mode of entry for their next mission with him, and not be stuck inside a crate manhandled by droids. As she managed to settle into a position where the bouncing didn't send her flying around inside the crate, she paled, she could feel a second presence, and although it wasn't as strong as Aliura, it was still quite consumed by the dark side.

Calming herself again, she looked to Uhdea and he just nodded. He had felt it too, and it meant things had gotten complicated. They hadn't counted on Aliura having an apprentice already, and he was beginning to rethink the plan he had for once they had gotten onto the ship. It would mean Reine would have to keep her impatient and impulsive nature in check, but the new one would work if she did. Reine would have to keep the apprentice busy so that he would be free to engage Aliura.

 

[Irvine]

The second presence that could be felt was not, in truth, Saretti’s apprentice. The second being was an old ‘friend’ of the lady sith; if such a term could be understood by those who walked the dark paths of the force. He was a younger apprentice than she, an apprentice of one of her own master’s associates. They had been pitted against one another many times over the course of Aliura’s time as an apprentice and a strange sense of rivalry had brewed between them. They hated one another fiercely but not once had their sabers been drawn as a means to kill one another. If they had been, the one who would emerge victorious was quite obvious.

After several minutes of less than gentle transportation, the droids had brought the crate containing the jedi, as well as several others, into the food storage area of the ship. The crates were all but tossed into the back corner of the room and then the droids were gone. The droids did not check the cargo; that was supposed to have been done by the humans who had picked it up before they even put it onto their ship but that duty, along with several others, had been neglected. Aliura would kill them for bringing two jedi back to her flagship.

 

[Ariella]

After the droids set the crate down none too gently, Reine opens the crate so that Uhdea and her can get out and stretch quietly while he continues to think on the plan for bringing down Aliura. The Jedi Master's mind was calm, but Reine's was not, she was always thinking about something, even when she was not supposed to be. She sat down beside Uhdea and began to try and meditate to settle herself, as she knew that she had to be calm and centered if she were to survive the encounter.

Uhdea on the other hand was the complete opposite of her. He thought he had been assigned her as his padawan because of an accidental slight he had done someone on the Council, why else would he be given such a reckless and impulsive student? He was already meditating, even if he were still standing, using the force to keep him aware of approaching people. "Reine, we will do this if you are patient, and pay attention to your instructions. You are a Knight because the Council declared it, but you are still too impatient, too reckless, to be a true Knight yet. This will be your test."

Although she heard his words, and he knew she had, she did not acknowledge them, working on getting herself back to the state she knew she should be in, and could attain. Her lekku twitched slightly, and she opens her eyes, "What are my instructions, Master Uhdea?" she asks quietly, "I will follow them unless there is a change in circumstances requiring a new tact. What should I do in that case?"

Uhdea smiled to her, her restless nature when calmed down by meditation allowed her to foresee potential trouble and be frank with asking about what else to do. "If possible, retreat to me. If it is not possible, then use whatever physical force you need to, to keep yourself safe. The task you have shall be to keep Aliura's companion, apprentice or otherwise, distracted and away from her side while I attempt to capture her."

Nodding, Reine rose and then quietly crept towards the door, and then vanished into the myriad corridors of the ship. She waited for the old Master to leave, and then followed him, using a little known technique that allowed her to hide her presence in the Force. Uhdea would need all the help he could get confronting Aliura, even with her companion not being at her side, and so she would follow him, and then when Aliura was focused on him, she would strike from behind. For now, she would just be an invisible shadow until Uhdea found her.