Ryshana sighed in a bit of frustration Mercenary Captains, they're all the same, Ryshana thought to herself. "With all due respect Captain, this isn't about your ship. This is about you doing something to save the life of one of your fellow crewmates. Whether or not you have 'Betsy' or any other blaster on you, you are threatening not only Tasser, but you're threatening Jana. Now put 'Betsy' on the ground. For Jana's sake if anybody's."

Nic was in conflict what Ryshana said was true, but could he risk lowering his weapon? He knew Jana could end up dead if he lowered his gun or not. Nic had came to a decission he didn't like it but it was the only real option, he had to rely on a stranger and thats somthing he hated doing.

Nic removed one of his hands from the gun and held it out while he lowed the gun and placed it on the floor. 'you better know what you're doing Uti."
((can All check the discussion thread please.))

Looking back over at Tasser and Jana, Ryshana noticed that he was still holding Jana hostage. "Alright now, there's no gun in you face, and so just let her go," Ryshana stated.

((this should be the cue for Tasser to 'flip out' and defy Ryshana.))

Tasser sinisterly grinned and then laughed loudly, "You stupid people now whats going to stop me killing you all?" He said as he pulled the knife forward getting ready to stab jana in the chest.

"Crap!" Beryl exclaimed, as she witnessed Nic laying down Betsy, then another exchange of words, and then Tasser looking like he was going to stab Jana anyway. "C'mon, Nic! Rush him! Now!" she yelled at the image on her floating screen as if she were cheering at a swoop race viewer.

Nic couldn't possibly hear her. Of course, the racers never seemed to hear her words of advice either.

"Beryl?" Riebe called. "What's happening?"

Ryshana suddenly sensed something dark and sinister come from Tasser. Something wasn't right about him, and Ryshana knew that her hostage negotiations had just failed. Time for Plan B.

Tasser sinisterly grinned and then laughed loudly, "You stupid people now whats going to stop me killing you all?" He said as he pulled the knife forward getting ready to stab jana in the chest.

Gathering the Force in her legs, Ryshana suddenly dashed forward faster than any normal being could. Grabbing the hand that was holding the knife with her left hand, Ryshana delivered a punishing elbow strike to Tasser's face. Twisting his arm around with a sickening snapping of bones, the knife dropped from his hands. Still holding his arm, she brought her right leg around his left leg and locking her foot against the other side, she pulled him towards her. His lower leg then snapped in two.

The whole exchange had taken just two seconds to perform, and Tasser was writhing in pain. Rolling over, he fell off the catwalk. Ryshana quickly jumped over the ledge after him. Grabbing a nearby tool, Tasser swung at Ryshana with his good arm, only to have Ryshana catch his wrist. With a quick flip of the wrist, the tool dropped from his hand as more bones could be heard snapping. Rolling over, Tasser fell into a recess in the floor.

The only problem was that it wasn't a recess; it was the lower airlock. Pressing a nearby button, the floorgrid closed over the airlock.

Jana felt herself literally pushed forward and she stumbled straight into Nic's arms. That's when she realized how much she was shaking... perhaps this whole experience had been more terrifying than she'd originally thought...

Nic grabbed Jana, He felt her tembling in his arms. He held Jana for a few moments, His concentration was solely on her for many seconds. Then his focused changed and he moved his head to see Tasser in the Air-lock. He didn't know how it happened but he knew Ryshana did it. Nic looked Tasser in the Eyes.

"You hurt her and i keep my Word." He grabbed his com-link with his left hand and hold Jana in his right. "Jack flush the Air-lock." he said calmly.

Beryl didn’t have the time to explain, however… she did know of a way to describe the scene to Riebe in a few short words.

”…with the blade held here at this angle, just at the edge of the cheek bone, the hostage taker has total control,” said TCTA Instructor Joss Kaymen demonstrated with a student while the rest of the class watched. “Even if he’s stunned, his autonomic reflexes will still likely cause the blade to penetrate. However, if the position is changed,” He demonstrated by moving the knife forward, “it is now possible to disarm them without serious injury to the hostage. A volunteer, please,” he asked. “Beryl?”

Beryl remembered what had happened next to Instructor Kaymen. It had been the talk of the school for weeks.

She had rushed him, as he had instructed her to, and she did successfully manage to ‘rescue’ the hostage. She had also managed to wrestle the knife away from him. And in the process…

“It’s just like the Kaymen incident,” Beryl responded to Riebe. She shuddered as she recalled the sickening sound of live bone breaking.

"Ooh..." The wince sounded clearly in Riebe's voice. "Ouch. I once had my arm snapped like that... believe me, it's about as fun as it sounds."

---------

Jana turned her head slightly to stare into the airlock. Suddenly, the woman usually so eloquent with her words was reduced to, "He... I... just... ooh..."

She turned her head into Nic's chest and tried to will herself to relax. It wasn't working. Her shaking continued.

Nic placed the com-link back into his pocket and wrapped his left arm around Jana.
"C'mon 'Short stuff' You're stronger than this, It's all over now." He whispured into Her ear.

Jana looked up at Nic and nodded slowly. "Yeah... sure."

She glanced again at the airlock and shivered slightly. Then, after squeezing Nic's hand slightly, she moved away on slightly unsteady legs and went to find Beryl.

“Right, Riebe, I’ve got to go,” Beryl said, as the incident played out to a close on her screen. She figured that Jana might need some moral support now that it was over--support that she didn't want Nic to know she needed. After all, there was nothing Jana could have done to avoid the situation.

“Maybe catch you later, if you’re still around.”

She began to shut down the sim, then paused.

“Oh, by the way,” she asked, “Jana was sort of… concerned about you when we met earlier. Erm… do you have any problem with me telling her who you are?”

"If you think it'll put her at ease a little after what she's just been through, go ahead and tell her by what name you both knew me," Riebe answered. "And maybe I'll stick around... just in case I might be of some use."

“Will do,” Beryl said to Riebe, and she disconnected the sim.

Quickly removing her visor, gauntlets, and belt, she hurriedly shoved the entire sim unit and all its bits and pieces under the bed. She trotted out into the corridor only to see Jana struggling her way up the ladder at the far end.

Beryl immediately went to assist her. With a concerned look on her face, she asked, “Hey? You alright?”

"Good as can be expected," Jana muttered. She glanced around and headed straight for her room, half hoping Beryl would follow.

Beryl had no intention of leaving Jana on her own. She trailed slightly behind her, carefully observing the first mate for any delayed signs of shock. Otherwise, like it or not, Jana would be going to med bay, even if that meant Beryl had to drag her there kicking and screaming. Well, maybe not exactly kicking and screaming. Probably just a lot of heavy scowling and a few biting remarks. And a look. There was always a look.

Just inside Jana’s room, Beryl shut the door behind her. “I saw what happened through the Headhunter’s cameras,” she said to Jana. “And before you even say it," she wagged a warning finger in the air, "there was nothing you could have done, so...”

Beryl was suddenly startled as she caught a glimpse of herself in Jana's mirror--and saw her own mother. Cripe! She frowned at her finger, then lowered her hand. "So, don't blame yourself," she said in conclusion.

"I could have paid more attention coming out of my room," Jana shot back. "Of all the times for me to loose my defensiveness, this had to be it?"

She pounded a fist on her desk. Then she broke down and collapsed on the bed.

"He was gonna kill me, Beryl," she said quietly. "And you know the wierd thing? I thought in a situation like this I'd be scolding myself... it's what I've done before... but I couldn't help thinking about..." She hesitated. "About the ship and Nic and how..." She shook her head, her thoughts now so jumbled she couldn't make enough sense of them to push words out.

Beryl put an arm around Jana’s shoulders. “Hey, just take deep breaths and relax,” she said soothingly. “Inhale…exhale…that’s it.” Beryl waited for a moment, listening as Jana’s breaths became more steady. “There’s no need for you to try and put it into words right now. I know how you feel.”

And she did. She’d lost someone before, and the hollow feeling still echoed inside her. That was partially the reason she had been blockade running before she had come on board the Echo. But now wasn’t the time for anecdotes from Beryl’s past. Now was the time for comfort and advice.

“Jana, you’ve got to put this behind you. It’s the past now. Granted, it’s really recent past, but it’s past. Just keep your mind focused on the positive side.” She paused for a moment. “The Galaxy Killer is gone. That’s a definite positive. He didn’t kill or even maim you. That most assuredly positive. And Nic is fine. Sure, he might have a bruised ego, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” She frowned slightly. “Okay, so Captain What’s-his-name, didn’t get off so lightly, but he knew the risks and he of all people was better prepared than any of us for an escape attempt. He died with honour. So that’s a positive, too, right?”

Okay, maybe this wasn’t going so well. Perhaps a change of subject.

“And during all of this, I found out who our ‘mystery sim pilot’ is.”

Jana rolled over to look at Beryl. "You did?"

Cloud busted out of his room. "I'll flush the airlock. Sorry for not helping. I figured I wouldn't be of much use." Cloud then rushed to Jack.

Beryl grinned at Jana. “Well, of course I did. What do you think I am, some kind of numpty?” She suddenly held up a hand. “Wait. Don’t answer that,” she said quickly. “Anyway, this ‘Riebe,’ like your ‘Riebe,’ also fought alongside the Jedi. And she also taught at the TCTA. And unlike what the database said, I presume Riebe, also known as Tarla Vel, is very much alive. Either that or I was talking to a ghost of a past instructor with an extremely long memory and a penchant for handwritten lines.” She shivered for dramatic emphasis. “My worst nightmare if there ever was one. And you thought the Galaxy Killer was scary? Bah!”

Jana's eyes widened and she actually giggled. "Tarla Vel? Oh, that name definitely brings back memories. She was the one with short blonde hair that we discovered was really brown when she forgot to dye the roots, right? I think that was right before she left..."

It was good to see Jana smile a bit.

"Vel was still an instructor when I grad...wait a minute?" Beryl frowned. "Her hair was brown?!" Beryl raised her eyebrows, then she laughed. "Oh, that sneaky little.... I knew she wasn't a natural blonde like me! I knew it! You must have found that out the year after I left. Damn!" she added. "Oh, how I would have liked to have been there to see that!"

Jana smiled thoughtfully and said, "Were it not for her green eyes, I'd have thought she was..."

Her smile faded and she muttered something unintelligible before getting up and going again to her computer. She looked up Tarla Vel.

"Corrupted file, presumed dead," she murmured. She looked up a series of names and all of them stated that the file was corrupted and the person was presumed dead. The records reached clear back to fifty years before the Empire and Jana looked up at Beryl in surprise.

"Just how old was she? Is she?" she exclaimed.

((Beryl would remember Tarla saying something like, "I'm old enough to know what's wrong with the galaxy and young enough to do something about it."))

"Hey, I got a thousand lines for asking that question once," Beryl warned. "And even then I only got a cryptic answer. Let's see..." Beryl thought a moment. "Old enough to know what's wrong in the Galaxy, but still young enough to do something about it. Whatever that means. I don't know. Maybe she was 'mathmatically challenged' or something." Beryl snorted. "No wonder she left Corellia to go to the Jedi. With cryptic answers like that, she'd fit right in."

Beryl peeked over Jana's shoulder. "Erm...just curious, about something," she said. "What does that database say about our remaining passenger? I saw her move on the viewscreen when...sorry, I saw her blur on the viewscreen when I was monitoring what was going on. She must have had some kind of special military training to be able to do moves like that. Don't you think?"

Jana typed in 'Ryshana Uti' and got 'no entry'.

"That's exciting," she said dryly. "Looks like our passenger's lying about her name."

She shook her head. "But I agree... something's different about her."

She stood. "On that note, I think I'll go find Nic. If you can find Tarla/Riebe's signal again, try and see how much info you can get out of her... I want to know as much as I can seeing as she seems to be keeping a very close eye on us. After all, when we dropped out of hyperspace, so did she, it seems... and we're not picking up any readings of other ships around, so..."

She left that thought unfinished and left the room.

On the way back to her own room again, Beryl smiled, glad with the thought that Jana was feeling more like herself now after her harrowing ordeal—and back to giving orders as the First Mate. Well, not exactly orders, she thought. More like… strong suggestions.

Nevertheless, Beryl began to pull out the sim unit again. Then she paused. There was no sense in appearing too eager to find Riebe. If she had dropped out of hyperspace when the Echo did, it was likely she was planning to stick around for a while. If for nothing else than to find out what happened to Jana.

Beryl smiled. “Nothing like a bit of suspense to keep someone hooked,” she said aloud to herself. She neatly packed up the sim unit in its box, and put it back under her bed.

She yawned. She was suddenly tired. It had been a long day. An exciting one, without a doubt, but a long one. She quickly stripped down to her underclothes,and then slipped under the covers with the intention of getting a few hours of sleep.

Ryshana sighed to herself. She had been hoping that the situation wouldn't have gone in that direction. Granted, the crew would be minus a HeadHunter, but at least they'd be alive. Still, even with the situation resolved, Ryshana still didn't feel quite right. Something was still very wrong, and Ryshana had no idea what it was.

Heading back up the catwalk where Nic was, Ryshana studied him for a moment. He definately wasn't bad looking. At little 'rough' around the corners, but then again, she felt the same way about herself to an extent. She started to smile as she realized how much Nic reminded her of Jeez. In an instant, she remembered serving along side him during the Clone Wars; she remembered arguing with Jeez over aspects of the Force; she remembered their escape from the Jedi Purges; she remembered how she was starting to fall in love with Jeez; and then she remembered how much her love for Jeez cost him his life.

With that, the smile quickly faded, and Ryshana approached Nic. "You alright Captain?"

Nic steered at Ryshana for a few moments, although he did not see all of what happened it all happened to quickly. Ryshana did not look weak and he knew she served in the war, so she would have some close combat training, but she moved too quickly for a normal person. She made the trained psychopathic killer look like an idiot child. Somthing was very wrong.
"Yeah I'm fine, Thanks for what you did." Nic said as he walked away from her and headed up to the Cockpit.

Jana found Nic in the cockpit. "Our only remaining passenger is a mystery, Nic," she said. "Point number one; she dealt with Galaxy Killer far too easily. That observation leads me to point number two; she's not in the Galactic Sentient Registry. There is no record of a Ryshana Uti ever being born. Not on Ryloth, not anywhere."

She sighed. "I understand people like their secrets, but maybe this is one we might want to consider looking into a bit more."

"Not...again" Oliver suddenly shouted, and runned to his room. Vormiting sounds came again from Oliver, while he actually mumbled: "Help...mother...".

The sounds of someone there is crawling, is coming from Olivers room.

"Cloud discovered the same thing, I just dismissed it for his drinking." He thought for a few moments. "Well i've learnt one thing from all this... You need to evaluate your screening process."

"Flushing that guy out of the air-lock was like flushing the toliet but without the clogging. It's a shame about Captain Wade, he was a good man" Jack said to himself before going Nick and asked him "Any clue how long it'll take till we are able to get hyperspace back online?"

"I don't know you'd have to ask Cloud." Nic said as moved towards the ships comm. "Hey Cloud how long till you get those engines going."

"Alomost done." Cloud said to Nic. After a few seconds, he said "Done."

"Good. But it'll take 10 or 15 minutes before to get it warm up. Hyper-drives arn't ment to fail in that way. We're lucky it wasnt damaged that much." Jack said and walked to the cockpit

Ryshana sighed once again as Nic started to walk away. She could sense his uneasiness, and she realized that he knew she was more than just a war veteran. As she headed back up to the main deck, Ryshana reached out to see how Jana was. Meh, she's a tough one. She'll be alright, Ryshana thought. Still, it wouldn't hurt to check on her.

Heading to the cockpit, she overheard Nic and Jana talking. "Our only remaining passenger is a mystery, Nic," she said. "Point number one; she dealt with Galaxy Killer far too easily. That observation leads me to point number two; she's not in the Galactic Sentient Registry. There is no record of a Ryshana Uti ever being born. Not on Ryloth, not anywhere."

She sighed. "I understand people like their secrets, but maybe this is one we might want to consider looking into a bit more."

"Cloud discovered the same thing, I just dismissed it for his drinking." He thought for a few moments. "Well i've learnt one thing from all this... You need to evaluate your screening process."

Stopping where she was, Ryshana paused for a second to think.

"O.K, We shold be fine untill then." Nic said as the proximity alarm started to sound. "I have got to learn to shut up."

Nic took his seat and checked the Sensors, An imperial Dreadnault had just entered from Hyperspace. and began to head strait towards them. Nic hit the sensor jammer of Clouds making to prevent them discovering the ships Ident' Codes. The Comm unit started to beep indicating a Hail from the Imperial Vessel, Nic hit the audio only.

"Kuat Class Freighter, Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded." The Imperial officer said through the Comm.

"ERRR, Negative, We are having problems with our err, Enviromental Systems. Oxygen is minimal. May i ask why you need to board us?" Nic asked after his obvious lie.

"Look Insolant, We are aware you have an Enamy of the Empire on board, Hand over the Fugitive Jedi and we may not destroy your ship with you on it." The Officer said with a frustrated tone to his voice. Nic switched off the Micraphone and looked at Jana.

"Please don't tell me we just flushed a Jedi out the Air-lock." Nic said refering to Tasser

As the proximity alarm blared, Beryl cracked open a solitary sleepy eye.

“Aw!” she groaned. “I was just in the middle of a good dream!” She threw off the bedcovers and hurriedly slipped on her trousers. “Typical,” she muttered grumpily, as she pulled on one of her boots. “This better be worth it.”

She stood, hopping on one foot as she struggled to pull the other boot on. Not bothering with her overshirt, she grabbed her flight jacket and hastily threw it on over her tank top. Struggling to get her other arm in the sleeve, she darted through her door and headed down the corridor.

She slid deftly down the ladder and ran across the catwalk to the hanger bay and the Headhunter. It didn’t take her long to prep the ship. She had made several ‘quick step’ modifications so prep time was now counted in seconds, rather than minutes.

Systems all ‘go’, helmet on, bubble hatch closed—she was ready.

“I’m good to go, Nic!” she said into the comm, as she flipped the levers to warm up her weapons while she waited for him or Jack to release the QD (Quick Drop) doors. “Erm...what’ve we got?”

Ryshana heard the proximity alarm, and she felt a minor shift in the Force. Someone was coming after her right now, and Ryshana had a funny feeling on who it was. Still close enough to the cockpit to overhear what was going on, Ryshana heard the Imperial Captain demand Nic to prep for boarding.

Well, I guess my life is now in their hands. I hope they know what they're doing, Ryshana thought. May the Force be with them.

"It would explain how he escaped..."Jack pressed the inter-com and said Beryl "No need. We've only got to wait three more minutes till hyperdrive is back up.." He then turned to the captain "Tell them we flushed him. I think his body isn't far behind us"

"Galaxy Killer isn't the Jedi..." Jana murmured. She stared at Ryshana. "She is."

"B****ks..." Said Jack as he began to swifty press buttens "..and you have no intention of giving her to them. Two minutes till we can enter hyperspace. Captain, see if you can delay them."

"Damn it, This has not been a good day." Nic stated looking at Ryshana. "I can tell you guys one thing, It'll be a cold day on Mustifar before i let Bucket heads step foot on my ship."

While Nic spoke the Dreadnault launched its full compliment of Ties (18) and fired an ion cannon.

"<twi'lek Curse>, They've disabled our engines." Nic looks at jack and Jana "Launch Beryl, And get to the turret." He Hits the intercom. "Cloud we need a Engine Reboot, Now." he then faces Ryshana "I'll deal with you later."

Nic then rus too into the common room.

((occ- @stringershs- This is where Ryshana saves Nic, So i'll allow some Char control if you need it.

@Extream- The reboot only needs to last the time it takes for Jana and Beryl to take out 4 or 5 ties.))

"Beryl!" Jana called over the comm. "You'd best be gettin' out there!"

She ran to the turret and powered on the targeting computer. This was no time to be fair. Suddenly, a small starfighter which Jana found startlingly familiar came into view and Riebe's voice cracked over Beryl's comm unit in the Headhunter.

"Well now we get to do this for real," she said wryly. "Have at them!"

She ploughed through one fighter and shot another. Jana shot down a third.

“Ooh! Nice one, SithHunter! Glad you could make it to the party!” said Beryl as she flew the Headhunter at full throttle head on towards the rest of the pack of TIEs. She took out two on her way in, and as it looked like she was going to collide with the TIE leader, he suddenly veered out of her way.

“These guys have no bottle whatsoever,” Beryl said disappointedly, shaking her head, as she pulled up hard and looped to flank the rest from behind. "The sim was more exciting than this." At least now the TIEs were scattered and had lost the protection of their formation.

“Stay out of range of those cannons, SithHunter,” she warned Riebe as the Dreadnaught began to fire upon her. “We just need to keep ‘em occupied out here long enough for the Echo to escape.”

Riebe laughed and began dodging the cannon fire.

"It's unwise to underestimate someone," she told Beryl. Smash! Her fighter rammed the Dreadnaught's shield generator. The shields faltered and collapsed as the generator exploded. Riebe's fighter came out of the fireball, its nose seriously dented.

"That's enough ramming, I'd say," she said, chuckling. "I'll need repairs after that... and that's the last time I use inferior materials for repair!"

Her fighter spun away from the Dreadnaught and she asked Beryl, "Your ship ready yet?"

“Not sure,” Beryl replied, as she did a barrel roll between two oncoming TIEs. “Short Stuff? What's your status?”

The TIEs very narrowly missed crashing into each other.

“Damn,” Beryl grumbled as she noticed the two TIEs still on her targeting screen. “Too much throttle."

Another flanking twist to avoid cannon fire, then an extreme dive to port to bring her just behind another TIE. She shot playfully to the left of it. It veered to the right. She shot again, purposefully missing it just to the right. It veered back to the left.

“Anyway, SithHunter, what are you on about ‘inferior’ materials?” she asked Riebe, while continuing to toy and harry the TIE in front of her, drawing its companions' attentions away from the Echo. “I’ve never seen a ship capable of doing what yours did. Well,” she added, “not one with the pilot still intact and capable of intelligible speech, anyway.”

Tired of playing with her prey, she took aim at one of its ion engines and winged it. Unbalanced, it spun out of control and bounced across the starboard side of the Dreadnaught. “Ouch,” Beryl winced. “I know that had to hurt.”