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[Rolth Wygraant]

Despite being accustomed to his Knight's sudden segues, the command caught Wygraant off guard. He glanced past to see if Commander Belgen had been in earshot. He was not.

"The Nazzri system? I don't understand."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

"I do not require your understanding," Vissica countered with even-tempered finality as she pushed past Wygraant to survey the planet below, "only your compliance."

[Rolth Wygraant]

"My lady," Wygraant began, treading carefully over tactful ground, "the Nazzri system lies well across a highly monitored section of the border. It's highly likely the probe would be detected and intercepted."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

Wygraant's words confirmed what Vissica suspected. She nodded.

"I understand. Launch the probe."

[Rolth Wygraant]

There was to be no more arguing the point. Captain Wygraant gave the faintest of nods.

"As you wish, my Lady."

He pivoted to the crew pit below, snapping a gloved finger.

"Prepare probe for launch."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Contruum System

There was a peace in space that contrasted sharply with the actions of those that inhabited the velvety blackness, as though it was some sleeping giant content to do nothing but exist in repose while beings from all over went about their daily lives, skipping from planet to planet, world to world, home to home. Some lived peacefully, some chose to make war. It was always the way of life and living.

The quiet of the inky darkness enveloping the Contruum System was no different, and the moment of stillness was broken by the crack of a silent thunderclap as a dusty green beast burst through the seam of hyperspace to settle easily into much more calm surroundings. What had once been starlines were now glittering jewels in a sea of black.

Khera'Va'ss'io banked starboard in a lazy arc, his hull slipping easily through the nothingness as he set his course to the orbiting shipyard over Contruum.

On the bridge, Captain s'Ilancy sat patiently, her eye ahead of her, staring. She had spent much of the trip through hyperspace as such and content to allow Dage the freedom to make sure that all was as it should be.

Inwardly her thoughts were jumbled, trying to piece together a coherent string that would explain the previous night. It was not so much the act of it, but rather the reasons behind the actions taken to seek her out. From what she could gather at this point, the Selonian had become desperate to right some sort of percieved wrong that'd been done, and it was that sort of drive and motivation that fed the worry she could not help but feel growing.

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

With the order given, Vissica promptly left Wygraant's company for the seclusion of her quarters once again. Again, the darkness enveloped her as she drew to her haunches. The Selonian worked through the sensory exercise of the previous day, finding it less difficult and taxing to do so now that she knew where to look. After a few moments, she again felt that familiar presence so close and yet so far away.

"Why have you abandoned the Jedi?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Samus was standing beside Raghus, both relaxed enough to trade words with interjections of muted chuckling. Her XO sent a quick look over his shoulder to her, making sure that she was still where she needed to be, and the Lupine afforded him a simple nod as she turned her eye downward. The small readout on the arm of her chair glowed as she scrolled through the incoming ship reports. All the same, all rote, all as they should be. With the shipyard looming ahead, there was a comfortable ease to be found in the knowledge that KHER was seeing to the more mundane aspects of check-ins and manifest reviews.

It was when she looked up that everything grew dim. Samus and Raghus were pushed away, though they did not seem to care as the fell away. Even KHER and each of the small tick and whirs of his ever-moving servos faded out.

And again she was pulled from the moment only to be unceremoniously dropped into another state.

In that moment there was a flash of frustration in the face of Vissica's tenacity.

"Do you not have some other poor soul to grind beneath your heel?"

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

"You interest me." The Selonian replied flatly across the void in even monotone.

"You did not answer my question before. The light is with you, but you hold yourself apart from your Jedi past. Why?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Narrowed eyes, a pinched expression.

"What you told me earlier of my life was broad strokes and basic information that anyone could find.""

There were still some things that she would hold close to her chest. Whatever the Knight wanted, she would have to earn it.

"What else do you know about me."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

"Admittedly little."

There was disappointment to the Selonian's projected voice.

"I know you are not human. I know you once traveled with a smuggler named Sanis Prent. I know that Director Esalis has been pointedly interested in you as well. There was a scientist, now presumed defected to the Alliance, who seemed to know a great deal. Colonel Karrnage. Do you know him?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"I am aware of him."

Everything was still basic. Still mostly common knowledge. She pulled in a long breath, the air feeling almost stale in her lungs as she furrowed her brow in thought.

An exhale, then a blunt statement.

"Manaan affected you."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Yes."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It was an honest admission, that much was easy to discern, and the Lupine's next query followed almost immediately on the heels of Vissica's affirmation.

"Why."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

"It is unfinished."

There was something deep inside Vissica's chest, pulling her with the power of a gravity well. She tentatively licked her flews.

"You defied the Empire. You should be my prisoner. It is as I said when we fought before."

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"I defied nothing."

She felt herself lean back in a seat that she was only half-aware of sitting in. Two forms in the distance could be made out, but they were ignored for now.

"The Empire broke the terms of the agreement by slowing their evacuation and sabotaging a kolto refinery."

[Matatek Sel Vissica]

"Plead your case before the Empress," Vissica replied dismissively, "What becomes of you after your capture is not for me to decide. I promised you in chains. A Selonian keeps her word."

She wasn't interested in digging heels in a shouting match, however. Vissica tactically withdrew.

"Colonel Karrnage's niche field of study was in paraxenobiology. The study of extinct, rumored, and artificial species. Why did you attract his interest?"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The shapes in the background were drawing close, their forms becoming more crisp as she recognized the hurried, long-legged gait belonging to Samus and the more fluid strides of Raghus.

"We are through here."

A hand grasped her shoulder, and the Lupine felt her body being given a light shake.

[Q. Samus Dage]

"Captain!"

One moment she'd been there, and the next her eyes had unfocused, her entire posture stiffening. At first he'd thought nothing of it and continued his bickering with Mr. Raghus, but it didn't take long before a second look caused puzzlement to flit over his features. Oh, he was used to the old girl going off and getting lost in her thoughts as she seemed to've made a sport of it, but this was something else, and Samus pulled away from the pilot's nest while tugging on the Farghul's jacket cuff, an unspoken order for assistance.

Still she was unresponsive, as if the trance she was in held her prisoner, and grasping her shoulder, the blonde delivered a firm shake.

"Lok!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

The connecting bridge that had intruded into her thoughts was abruptly severed, and her eye focused on the concerned face of her second in command. A moment of disorientation swept over her before she screwed her eyes shut, and s'Il leaned back in her seat.

"I'm fine," she sighed with a slightly hoarse tone, as though her vocal chords had gone unused for decades.

"Just... thinking."