Styria-class Galleon Sunrise, in orbit via Jomark


The dim lights of the bridge softly bathed the bridge of the crew in a dull copper light. Their gray uniforms seemed to almost gain a patina-like quality to them. That is, except for a pair of women who lingered by one of the ship's rectangular viewports. The first, a thin woman with short bob of hair the color of a light toffee, idly tapped through the screens on her datapad with a stylus. The other woman seemed younger and shorter than her, and unlike the rest of the room's occupants, didn't wear a uniform. She gazed at the world with glazed eyes. Instead of the Confederate grays, she wore a simple pair of loose-fitting olive-colored cargo pants topped with a tan long-sleave shirt. She turned to face the brunette CMF officer.


“I know this is our stop, but still...I expected...something more...”


Glancing up from her datapad, Captain Vivianne Floriane coyly smiled at the Jensaarai.


“You were expecting something more grand? Something seemingly more populated or civilized perhaps?”


She nodded, “I guess I expected there to at least be a city we could see from orbit.”


“There is,” replied the brunette, “Chynoo. But it's kind of hard to see. You'll think it's small though, and it's only faintly visible even on a good day. Nothing like the worlds of the Confederation Proper...”


“But large enough that I'll be able to blend in?”


“Not as a local,” mused the other woman, setting her datapad down, “but maybe as a tourist. They get travellers every once and a while to visit...well...the ruins of what they call a castle. You have to understand, it's a backwater world. Those on Jomark live a pretty simple life. Most of them are fishermen living in small cooperative communities...but you already knew that. You knew all of this...so why quiz me?”


“I wanted to see how you'd react,” suggested Kitty, twisting a strand of her newly dyed raven-black hair, “because it helps me to get to know you better.”


“It almost sounds like a manipulative ploy that I've heard more of a few traders trying when they meet new people...but I thought a Jensaarai wasn't suppose to be manipulative...”


“I'm not a Jedi,” defended Hawk, “nor will I pretend to be one. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't trust you, or I'm trying to get some sort of angle to put some leverage on you later on. But when you work alone a lot like I do, sometimes it's just hard to see how people will react to you when you're in a tight spot. To see if they support you, or simply let you dangle out there all on your own.”


Floriane raised a dark eyebrow, “I don't think Jomark has any dangers in it that'll require my assistance to you. It's a place for people to get away from it all. Why are you coming again? I know us bartering for a bunch of seafood is extremely exciting and all...but CSIS wouldn't send you here just for that.”


Kitty pursed her lips, “No, they wouldn't. But like you said, there's probably nothing down there that I won't be able to handle...”
 

YKL-37R Nova Courier Dawn's Light, Jomark


The light courier skimmed the upper reaches of the Jomark's atmosphere, skidding on top of the layers of gray clouds. Vapors rapidly streaked by the cockpit of the craft until finally, the Dawn's Light soared through the thickest layer of clouds, where she got her first close-up view of the world. Thousands of islands beset with gentle lapping waves flitted past the jensaarai. Her cerulean eyes picked up a stick jutting up from the horizon, which seconds later revealed itself to be the mast of a local fishing trawler. Taking her eyes briefly away from the ship's HUD, she noticed several sailors on the sea-going vessel point and gawk at her ship. She turned her eyes back to flying the vessel.


“I can't imagine living without modern conveniences these days. How does a civilization so close to the Mid Rim lag so far behind?”


Her midnight blue trimmed R3 unit twittled a terse response. She briefly glanced at the ship's communication's screen and cracked a grin.


“No, I'm fairly certain you couldn't convince them that you're a god. You're not that amazing, and these people aren't that ignorant of galactic society. Galactic society is just ignorant of them.”


The droid beeped and bopped a few more times.


“You know what Joe, I don't think so. But give me a break, would you? I'd rather not crash us just yet. Besides, we're almost there.”


The expanse of undulating waves shrank into the dark continent of Kalish. The system's yellow sun was just beginning spread its rays on the shores of the world. But even at her distance and the lack of light up ahead, she could see a mountain rising out of the darkness upon which a squat, four-sided castle rested. Local rumors spoke of Jedi exploring the castle some years back, not that she believed them. She eased back the throttle of her craft, putting the Dawn's Light at the speed of a fast sprinter. Light entered the harbor of a village nestled in the shadows of the mountain, revealing several dozen fishing craft, though none were as large as the trawler she had passed on her way in. As her craft edged even closer, the fuzzy shapes of wooden buildings began to appear just beyond the Jomarkian craft. Her R3 unit began to wildly whistle.


“Fine, fine, I'll activate it if it'll shut you up. But I don't think they've seen us yet.”


She flicked a button on the ship's dashboard, activating the CSIS-installed sensor mask. The craft vanished from sight to blend into the salty air. The Jomarkian's sensors are probably too primitive for me to worry about, but I suppose Joe's right. There's always the chance someone else is around here too. The Dawn's Light soared within kilometers of the village before she tilted the pilot's yoke to the side to search the land for a place to secret her ship from prying eyes. Finally, she spotted a little cove of trees nestled on the edges of a spur jutting out from the mountain. After setting the craft down, the Pelagian woman took out several camouflage nets and began to canvas her craft with them. Half an hour went by before she completed that task. Joe made a few muted bops and beeps.


“Look, it shouldn't be that bad. It's probably nothing more than a rumor. The only thing I really have to worry about is the locals staring at me odd, m'kay? I'll give you a call on the comlink if things get bad all right? You just keep the ship ready to go if I need it, and we should be all set...”
 

Kitty slipped by a pine tree and quietly treaded down the slope towards the waking village below. She briefly paused as the wind stilled. Several hundred meters away from her, the peoples of the village began their morning routines. Wheeled vehicles began to shuttle people around and out of the village, while several of the smaller fishing craft began to set out to the sea. The jensaarai paused and reached out with her mind to the currents of the Force. She had never really encountered such serenity in the Force. To be sure, she had been places where there wasn't much life, and only the distant memories of it fading away on the landscape. But Jomark was different. Life continued to exist and even persist over thousands of years, yet its people seemed not to harbor any negative emotions that she had encountered on other worlds. Perhaps there is some truth the idea of leading a more simple life. She continued to hike downwards past more trees and into a clearing before the start of the main village itself. As she entered the streets, she felt various people gaze at her. Kitty turned her eyes onto one Jomarkian who couldn't have been more than twelve standard years old. The child's brown eyes looked her up and down. She smiled, and kept walking. Curiousity...but I suppose that extends both ways. A baritone voice called out to her from across the street.


“You're new here. You need some directions?”


She turned her eyes to the voice. A lanky man with shaggy red-gold hair fidgeted with his coat and offered a brief smile. Hawk returned it and stretched out her awareness to concentrate on the man.


“Yes.”


His grin grew wider, “You just couldn't be more specific. Where do you need to go to?”


“Nowhere in particular, but somewhere. I guess...do you guys have a tourist booth or travel agency?”


He just laughed.


“Well, now I know for certain you're not from around here, I mean, Jomark. Sure, people come around from the rest of the galaxy from time to time to visit, but there's no reason to really visit here. I guess we've had people calling themselves archaelogist go visit the fortress up top, and a couple times a year a person comes looking to go fishing, but you don't really look like either of those types.”


“What do I look like then?” questioned the woman.


He paused, “I'm not sure. Lost? Tired? Just getting away?”


She nodded, “Something like that.”


“Where are you from?”


Kitty hesitated. Chances that he's ever heard of Pelagia? Probably little to none. But I suppose I could be more recent...


“The Confederation.”


“More of a broad strokes kind of girl, I can respect that. I'm Keith, by the way,” informed the man stretching out a hand.


When did he cross the road? She thrust her hand into his. And somehow I've already lost all situational awareness and training. And I'm actually being honest with him. There's something different about this guy...


“Well lucky for you, the boat I work on is ah, not shipping out for a while.”


“Oh?”


“Motor failure,” said the man, beginning to walk next to her, “so if you'd like, I can you show around for a bit...misses?”


“Gwenaëlle.”


He raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, now I know for sure you aren't from around here. Have you had breakfast yet?”


She shook her head.


“Let me take you to grab a bite then.”
 

Maximillian's Bar & Grill, Cary, Jomark


It hadn't taken the duo twenty minutes to get to what Keith called downtown Cary, whose main street only ran twenty meters away from the shoreline. A light breeze had shuffled into the down, bouncing off the small storied buildings of the town and carrying with it the salty scent of the nearby sea. It almost reminded her of Pelagia, yet there was some unknown substance from either the sea or the nearby woods that just slightly broke with the her memory of her homeworld's ambience. Several people had greeted Keith, and by extension her, until they had entered one of the more fancy buildings with an unusual amount of windows compared to the rest of the town's buildings. A man with a bulbous nose walked up from behind a well-worn bar counter.


“I was wondering if you were going to stop by like the rest of the crew,” said Max, sparing a glance at the woman, “and who's this? New girlfriend you picked up at another port?”


Keith blushed, “No, not exactly. An out of towner who I'm just showing around Cary.”


Max eyed the woman curiously, “This hereabouts isn't too different from the rest of Kalish, aside from the abandoned castle up top. I'm afraid there's not much that there is at your hometown, unless you're from the Yucabe Isles perhaps, but you don't look their type...”


“Ah, Max, she's not from Jomark. She's deigned to visit us from the galaxy beyond.”


Max eyed the woman skeptically, “You're not one of those castle affeciados, are you? But you don't look like their type either...”


“Max, how about we get some food, and after that maybe she'll let you interrogate her then.”


Max nodded, “Sorry miss. I take you're using credits?”


“I've got credits, Confederate credits,” said the woman, “but also some CMF trade coins. Will either of those work?”


“Coin should be fine, but you can keep your creds.”


That had been the one thing Captain Floriane had insisted she take along. While Jomark had seen the occasional foreigner every once and a while, they hadn't come up with a solid currency exchange. Many of the more similiarly undeveloped worlds that the CMF traded with were also in a similar boat, having little use for a foreign currency based on a computer chip. This had forced the CMF to start making its own currency out of precious metals, which most undeveloped worlds could at least melt down for their own practical use later on. Kitty turned her cerulean eyes to Keith and slightly tilted her head to the side.


“He isn't going to ask what I want?”


Keith smiled and shook his head, “He only makes one type of breakfast, Fisherman's. It's good, trust me on that. He does have a lunch or dinner menu, which gives you a few more options.”


“I take it you've been off your boat long enough to find this all out?”


Keith nodded, “The boat needs some work done, and it's almost shipshape, but the crew isn't. Truth be told, I'm not sure all the crew will come along again on the return visit.”


“Why's that?”


“We got attacked by a giant squid, almost sank.”


Kitty eyed the man carefully. Quietly, she probed the man's emotions. He doesn't feel like he's lying...Keith shook his head and pulled out a photo from his jacket.


“Hey, don't worry about it. I wouldn't trust that much of a fishtale either if I didn't see this either. I've never seen one like it before, and I've pulled up my fair shair of critters from the deep in nets before.”


She took the photo from his hand. It appeared to show a massive, salmon-colored tentacle sliding across the deck of a larger trawler. Yet despite the blurred motion, Hawk could see that the tentacle had notice segmentation that she had never seen in any other molluscs. Glancing at the upper edges of the photograph, she noticed that one of the tenacles flared out from it's tip. She quietly put the photograph down.


“You know it's not really a squid,” said Kitty quietly.


“It isn't?”


“I've tenacles like that before. Keith, it's a starship, an older starship. If you want to be exact, it's a Trident-class Assault Ship. Right before we were born, the Clone Wars raged, and a large government called the Confederacy of Independent Systems used ships like that to attack worlds with a lot of water. The only real question is who and why. No offense, but I can't see the fish on your ships as being that valuable to an offworlder.”


“Except for your Confederation,” shot back Keith, “they don't seem to mind coming by and buying it by the tons...”


“I'm sorry,” replied Kitty, resting a hand on his shoulder, “ I didn't mean it like that. I just mean it doesn't make sense to me. If someone has the means to get that ship, they could easily buy a couple of your trawlers, and robot men to man it to get the fish they want. Have you heard of any other ships being attacked like that before?”


He shrugged, “Only one. But there was only one man who said he'd seen something like that before, and he was the only survivor on his ship to tell the tale. No-one ever believed him before this.”


“And who does now?”


Keith paused, “Some of the crew on the boat of course. There's no point in interviewing him though. He's on the opposite side of the sea, retired I think. Too scared to continue after that.”


“No matter,” said the Confederate, “Do you have the coordinates where you were attacked?”


“I can get them. Is this how you're going to relax?”


“Not exactly what I was planning,” replied the woman, “but I didn't really come here with a plan except to do briefly check out of the world.”


“Like an explorer?”


“Something like that. Come on, let me take you to my ship.”


Keith frowned, “A ship ship, or a space ship?”


“I guess you'll just have to find out soon.”
 

After eating breakfast, Hawk found herself with a half dozen men following her through the confinerous woodlands towards her ship. All but one of them was one of Keith's shipmates. The sixth man, a blonde boy just out of adolescense with a crooked nose, had simply said he was curious to see what a real starship looked like. Judging by the chatter behind her, most of his fellow Jomarkians were as well. She deftly slipped past one of the final trees and glanced backwards.


“I thought this was your world, not mine.”


“We're fishermen,” shot back Keith, stumbling over a fallen log, “not some ridiculous wild beast like you.”


She suppressed a grin and sauntered towards her freighter. A series of tootles echoed out from a nearby evergreen to reveal Joe, half-covered in pine straw. Hawk shook her head at the astromech droid. What did you manage to get in now? I swear an astromech droid is more work than a pet, regardless of what Adrian says...Tapping a button on her comlink, the Pelagian lowered down the Light's ramp down to the ground. The R3 unit rolled over to her and gave her a series of muted tones. She glanced at its readout display.


“Joe, relax, they're friends.”


No sooner had she said that then the Jomarkians burst through the branches of several nearby trees to gaze upon her ship. Several of the men's mouths dropped, but the blonde boy snapped a quick shot of the landed vessel with his camera, before scampering back towards town. Well, I never expected him to actually stay... She let her thoughts stride through the pine trees to brush up against the young man's excited giddiness. It made her smile.


“You just going to stand there smiling like that all day, or are we going out there?”


Kitty shook her head.


“Sorry Keith, seeing all of your surprise and excitement of the Light reminded me when I took my first starship ride,” lied the woman, “but this won't be quite the joyride, I imagine. Come onboard, and gentlemen, this is Joe, my ah, co-pilot.”


“A robot?” said one of the man, gazing at the cylinder, “Well, I guess I should have figured as much with people who have starships.”


“Indeed captain,” smiled Keith, slapping the older man on the back, “see what happens when you're actually nice to people.”


Kitty's smile faded. Who's being nice to who? Or rather, who's helping who...She shook the thought away and led the Jomarkians into the courier's hold. Their eyes wandered everywhere, glancing at technology thousands of years ahead of their homeworld's. While most of the sailors dwaddled through the hold behind her, Keith kept right behind Kitty as the Jensaarai entered the cockpit. Her mind wandered out and brushed up against his thoughts; a swirling mixture of emotions assailed her. Kitty had expected his curiousity, excitement, or even pleasure, but not his longing. She ripped her mind back to focus on the physical world before her. The agent rapidly punched in a series of commands into her console, pulling up a holo of the squid-like vessel. Hawk turned her steel blue eyes on him.


“Back when I was a kid, back on Pelagia, several of these came up from the surface and almost wrecked my home.”


“Your home? Why?”


She glanced down, “My people's House lives on floating cities on Pelagia, and we have our enemies, rival houses so to speak. I don't know which one of them sent the ships to sink our city, but I know it succeeded in taking my dad away from me.”


“I'm so sorry-”


Hawk shook her head, “It's not like that. He didn't die, he just went away to get ready to fight them the next time they came. But anyways, I'm sorry about your ship.”


“Thanks,” said a gruff voice behind her.


She turned around to see the rest of the trawler's crew hovering just behind the doorway into the little pod. Well, this could be getting a little awkward now...Joe pressed through the gang of sailors and rolled up to plug himself into the co-pilot's station. Kitty pulled a headset comlink over her head. She glanced backwards.


“You gentlemen may want to take a seat in the hold for now and strap in. Except the captain and Keith here, I've got chairs for the two of you right behind me.”


The courier slid forward on its repulsorlifts from its camouflaged enclosure before jetting out into the skies. She had expected the two men in the back to talk a bit more, but neither did, leading to an awkward silence punctuated by bursts of chatter between herself and the R3 unit as they headed the starship to scene of the assault ship's last attack.


“You know what I don't get?” said the Jensaarai, turning her attention to the passengers behind her.


“Hm?”


“Why didn't they kill you, or at least destroy your boat?”


Keith raised an eyebrow, “We got it too tangled up in our nets for it to do a whole lot.”


Well that explains why it attacked them. Was probably checking something out underwater when it got scooped up by the trawler's net. But still...if they were friendly, why not reveal themselves and work something out? If they were hostile, they could have easily destroyed the trawler with its weaponry...which suggests we have someone just trying to keep people away from it without killing people. In other words, another gray person like myself. Hawk tapped a button on her comlink.


“Galleon Sunrise, this is Dawn's Light.”


“Sunrise here. What can I do for you, Miss Gwenaëlle?”


“I'm probably going to need some airborne backup. Can I borrow some of your drones? I'm just investigating a lead...”


A few minutes of silence elapsed before she heard an acknowledgement of her request and an affirmation that reinforcements were en route. Keith leaned up against the back of her chair.


“Drones? You have friends here too?”


“I'm a Confederation official,” half-lied the woman, “it comes with its perks at times.”


The Captain frowned behind her, “The same Confederation that's been buying up all of our fish?”


“The same.”


“Why, I just don't understand it,” said the sea captain, “you've got all this fancy technology, but you're coming to little old us here for fish?”


Kitty spared glance from one of the world's three moons, an icy ball of white, to look at the man.


“Sometimes there's not always a lot of food to go around recently. You have to imagine, not every world is like Jomark here, which is a real beauty. Some worlds are covered in active volcanoes like the one dormant above the village, or covered in huge cities built of metal and stone. The whole planet covered, not just little bits here and there. There's a lot of people who live there, and not a lot of places to get natural food. They import from everywhere else.”


“Oh.”


“I want to see them someday,” mused Keith, “think there's a chance...”


“Too much in the future,” replied Kitty tersely, “got to think about right now. That squid-like ship just doesn't have tenacles. It has...rayguns and missiles, a whole sort of other things that could hurt us.”


A series of black pinpricks began to flood their viewport, prompting some quiet prayers from the grizzled captain and Keith. Kitty eyed them carefully as they grew larger in her viewport. The Piranhas swooped and buzzed around her ship, forming a protective screen. Joe let out a series of beep-bops that brought the Jomarkian's eyes from the floor back to the ceraglass canopy of the courier.


“They're ours,” said the woman, “they're little robot fighters...and they came just in time too. We're here.”


The Dawn's Light dived through layers of clouds towards the coordinates the sea captain had given here. A series of rocks jutted up through the waters around them. Shallower than I thought it'd be. Her eyes scanned the surface below, seeing nothing unusual amon the sea-form tipped waves crashing down upon the barncle-encrusted rocks. It was as if nothing was there. Hawk pulled back on the yoke of the craft, leveling out its dive so that the Dawn's Light just hovered above the sea's surface.


“Joe, give me a full scan of the water below us. Look for any active energy signatures...something artificial-”


The droid's head roated so it's large photoceptor stared her right in the eye and offered a loud retort.


“I'm not insulting your intelligence,” replied the woman, “I just want to make sure we're on the same page.”


The droid produced a series of jarring sounds, producing a miniature hologram that elicted a series of oohs and ahs from the Jomarkians behind them. Joe had pulled up a scan of the sea floor along with a blinking red dot slowly crawling on the sea bed floor. She glanced at her passengers.


“Well, at least there only appears to be one. And it doesn't seem to want to come out and play with us.”


“So what are you going to do?”


“Make it come out and play,” decided Hawk, “if nothing else, they should at least pay to fix your ship up.”


She eased up the yoke of the craft and gently tilted the nose of the Dawn's Light to point at the waves below. Transferring Joe's findings to her targetting grid, she armed a pair of concussion missiles and launched them into the sea below. The two missiles barely entered the water before they exploded, sending a powerful concussive shockwave down to the floor and creating a few geysers that sprang forth into the air. Her console lit up, indicating an incoming call. She tapped a button, to reveal a lean man with graying hair tied up in a ponytail, along with a squat sullustan. And here I thought it would be the Sunrise wondering what the hell I'm doing shooting up the ocean.


“Look lady,” said the man, “we don't want any trouble. Mind telling us why you're trying to sink us?”


Hawk slightly tilted her head downward, “Minding telling my passengers why you attacked their fishing boat?”


“Trawler,” corrected the sea captain, “bigger than a mere fishing boat.”


The man sighed, “Oh. It's you guys...your net entangled our craft-”


“I figured that much out already,” interrupted the Jensaarai, “along with the fact that you didn't want to reveal your ship's true nature to them, letting them think it was a squid...Why are you crawling the sea floor? It's not it's a typical activity on this world...”


The Sullustan angrily chirped at her.


“Look pal,” said the man, jabbing the alien in a stomach with a finger, “I don't feel like pissing her off. I know those ships around her. They might not get to us right away, but they will bring someone or something that can. We can't fight off the Confederation if they come knocking...Look, Miss...Miss...”


“Gwenaëlle,” filled in the Jensaarai.


“Miss Gwenaëlle, we're prospectors, taking a look at what one of our probe droids found here.”


“And what did they find?”


“Deposits of manganese nodules,” informed the prospector, “it could be worth a lot once it gets processed. I'm sure the Confederation, at least the CMF would be interested...”


Hawk frowned, “I'm going to guess that you didn't talk to anyone on Jomark about this.”


“Well...no...”


“Tell you what, mister...”


“Comin,” said the prospector, who then pointed his finger at the Sullustan, “and this is my navigator Lubl.”


“Why don't we all come to surface and have a talk with some of the Jomarkians and see if we can get work things out. If not, I'm going to be calling in a lot reinforcements from above.”


“No need to get so aggressive Miss. It'll all work out, I promise even the good sea captain here will be happy. I guarantee it.”


Kitty lowered her brow, “I guess we'll just have to see.”
 

Some days later...


Fobrag, Kalish, Jomark


Kitty waded through a throng of Jomarkians gawking at an exhibition of droids from Uffel. All around the outskirts of the village of Fobrag, the Confederate Merchant Fleet had set up exhibits about the wonders of the Confederation. Among the most popular attraction to the Jomarkians had been a guided holo tour of the worlds of the Confederation. At first, she had felt it exhilerating to feel all of their emotions of wonder and amazement on such a grand scale; it had been an almost intoxicating experience to feel wave after wave of emotion swell up and flow all around here from people from so many different walks of life on the world.


Now she despised it all.


The jensaarai popped upon the door of a prefabricated building that the Sunrisehad set down to monitor the exhibitions. Several data droids along with a few human analysts sat down at consoles, watching holo-feeds and recording data on what exhibits and subjects brought in the most Jomarkians. Captain Floriane had all said it had been done in the name of understanding. She argued that it allowed the Jomarkians to see what the outside world was truly like, and it allowed the CMF to figure out what to bring to the world in future in order to improve their profit margin. Kitty walked up to Floriane, overlooking a monitor depicting a group of children and parents talking to a childcare droid.


“You wanted to see me, Captain?”


The raven-haired woman turned around.


“Yes, I did. The Jomark Cooperative has nearly finalized their compact with the prospectors.”


Hawk blinked, “Got all of them to see the benefits of modern civilization.”


Floriane hesitated, “Look Miss Gwenaëlle, I know you don't like this one bit. You think we're corrupting their civilization or something like that by bringing them back into the galaxy under the aegis of our protection. But it's ultimately their choice.”


“Not that we haven't done any influencing. No, not like those prospectors have been...wait a minute...there's something about the CMF finiancing a stake in the prospectors' claims and operations.”


“It's being done in a sustainable way that doesn't directly threaten their traditional way of life...”


“But it's going to affect it.”


“The change is inevitable. If it is not us, it will be someone else,” defended Floriane, “I'm beginning to regret inviting you to observe the public signing of the compact. But you're most prominent symbol of the Confederation besides our ships now, and really the only person most of them can recognize from it.”


“Aside from the aliens and droids they've staring at the fair...”


“The only one they know, at least somewhat personally. If you don't want to do it, I can't make you, nor will I try. But when we first got here, you asked if I would be there for you. You even tested. Was I not there for you? Can you not at least be there for your own country?”


I can be there for parts of my country...but what's done here is done. There's nothing more I can do. At least they're protecting those settlements that want to stay independent, and letting there be outsider free zones...I guess the Confederation did more to preserve their old way of life than other nations would have. She turned her eyes onto the other woman and spoke softly.


“I'll be there.”