World Tree MUSH

  When it had come time to leave behind the desert planet of Tatooine, it had been with some sense of relief. The Rogue Shadow had ascended smoothly, slipping under Imperial radar to flee to orbit, lingering only long enough to afford Li-Ming an unimpeded view of the stars. From there Juno had begun the tedious process of checking and re-checking coordinates. Once satisfied she'd laid in a course to the planet of Dantooine, in a different star system from this miserable ball of sand.

  Hyperspace is an interesting venture for someone who's never travelled through space before. In one moment, the Rogue Shadow leaps forward, straining as her engines shriek and howl. A powerful low frequency hums throughout.

  Then the stars bled. As the ship made its leap, the cosmos blurred and stretched, before tearing themselves apart in a tunnel of whirling blue. Behold, the unreality of hyperspace: About as hostile an environment to humans as it can get. It must be odd to think that people go through this on a regular basis to get from Point A to Point B.

  It's a trip that's going to take hours, so there's some time to unwind.

  The first leg of the trip is spent washing the desert off. The ship does have a small shower. Once Juno makes her way back out, she's down to a different-coloured halter top, black cargo pants, and scuffed combat boots. By the time she lets herself drop back into the pilot's seat, she's still towelling wet hair, taking several minutes to just... do that. It's a rare moment of relaxation.

  All that jarring knocks loose something around her neck; a delicate silver chain that seems about as feminine as anything Juno's ever shown. Clutched in tiny silver claws is a clear blue crystal, damaged but held fast. It's almost the exact colour of her eyes. It feels like an object exhausted; something that once had a whisper of its own power, but has since faded. She doesn't notice it as she takes a few minutes to towel out wet hair.

  Her lips thin as she observes that even when wet, now, some of her hair is starting to show silver.

  "Son of a bitch," she mutters under her breath, mouth twisting. "All right. where're we at?"

  Her lanky droid is tucked into the jumpseat behind the pilot and co-pilot's chairs. He looks up, yellow photoreceptors flickering. Thus far he's been perfectly polite to Li-Ming and happy to answer her questions, even if his answers are at times outrageously technical. "Approximately two hours from the final jump, General Eclipse."

  He's a lot less spiky than Juno, that's for sure.

  "Good. Thanks, PROXY."

  Fair game to be pounced on by a bored travel guest! Look, the co-pilot's seat is even empty!

    No douby, Li-Ming was an absolute menace to the droid while Juno was off getting fresh! Cooped up in a ship isn't /so/ bad for a wizard. Especially not for one as curious as herself! Really, though, she's a model passenger and of course there's nary a hint that she's being ridden by the ancient spectre of one of her fallen peers!

    The transition from familiar gravity to the artificial kind is subtle but the sensation is unfamiliar enough to notice and the view of the planet below is almost enough to get her bouncing with excitement. Almost! She promised to behave. The transition that really gets her is that first pitch into hyperspace.

    Her whole body tenses up and she tries to find some way to stare out into the strange void behind the seeming emptiness of space as if expecting to see something! After a few hours she'll return to the vacant second seat, easing her weight down so she can pester the droid more. Might even be she's picking that positronic brain about everything she can think of regarding hyperspace when Juno returns from the shower.

    "Welcome back." Of course, she immediately notices the pendant. While she can see in detail the nature of things such as magic, possibly even magic such as the Force, there's limits to what she can discern. Even if the pendant had properties at some point, she quickly muses to herself, they're too far gone to interpret.

    Someone canny might notice the direction of her eyes before they flick up to make eye contact. "I'd just been asking your... Proxy about hyperspace. I didn't realize your constructs were imbued with a sense of humor; he just spend the three minutes immediately before your arrival detailing mathematical formulae. Verbally." She suspects the droid of being maybe just a little smug or sarcastic which of course she'll find very endearing!

  "Thank you." Juno's response is a grunt, because she's bent double to shake out her hair, towelling it dry. It's longer than it looks by the way she normally wears it, touched with silver visible even through where water darkens it.

  Blue eyes regard Li-Ming somewhat skeptically as she mentions the droid. Straightening in her chair, Juno does catch that look; the way she reaches up to quickly touch the pendant seems unconscious more than protective. Something treated reverently; something clearly very dear to her.

  "Oh." PROXY was actually helpful? The general actually looks surprised at this revelation. Her question is just a little bit baffled. "I've never heard him so much as crack a joke. You must have been misreading his tone... PROXY is helpful and polite, and also analytical, but I don't think I'd consider him having a very good sense of humour."

  A final pass with the towel is taken over her hair, and she drapes it over a thigh, leaning forward to check the pilot's console. Where are they? Exactly where PROXY said they are. She nods in satisfaction to herself. Good.

  A comb is pulled from a pocket, and Juno regards Li-Ming thoughtfully as she sorts through her hair. "Did you feel something?" Her free hand drops to pluck the chain of her pendant, indicating the bright but broken crystal. "I'd be surprised. It's very old."

    Half-turned in her seat, Li-Ming is revealed tinkering with the underside of the larger of her gauntlets. The rest of her armor is doffed, probably in a neat pile /somewhere/. At least it wasn't anywhere underfoot. She's trying to be a good guest though she's doing her best to test the patience of a being she doesn't fully understand yet. At least this droid isn't assailing her with inscrutable beeps, chirps and buzzes.

    "Hmm, I suppose so. Perhaps I was just caught off guard!" By math, of all things. "Though I'm not certain what I expected to hear concerning the nature of this hyperspace. It seems almost familiar, though I've certainly never seen anything like it."

    Perhaps it's something else, though she keeps that under her hat for now. Watching Juno sidelong, she fidgets with her own ponytail before setting aside her gauntlet.

    "I'm..." She sighs and shakes her head. "Unfortunately, if that pendant contained any sort of enchantment I can no longer see any indication of it. I can only get an impression that it might have at one point but the traces are.." Her brow furrows and she looks at the pendant again. "Where is it from?" Of course, her mind immediately starts trying to thrust forth the notion of seeking lore about the item from someplace. It's an absurd notion of course. She could only manage to read a fraction of a single library in all her years. Imagine trying to scour an entire city. Or planet.

  "I think I might be surprised if you were familiar with hyperspace. It's not the kind of thing that usually carries over to worlds that don't make use of interstellar travel. Even the worlds that do sometimes use different methods." Juno twists her head to comb carefully through her hair. "The Rogue Shadow works, and that's all I really care about, for now."

  The pendant, however, brings her to straighten slowly. She sets the comb down on her thigh, reaching up to unclip the chain from her neck and hold it up, regarding it with lidded eyes.

  "Enchantment?" Juno eyes the trinket, frowning thoughtfully. "I wouldn't know about that. I don't know if the Force works that way, and there are probably better people to ask than me. Maybe that's what you sense... this hasn't been used for a long, long time as anything more than a memento."

  The pendant is offered carefully to Li-Ming, if the sorceress wants a closer look at it. Aside from the faint whiff of extinguished power, there's nothing else special about it. The chain and setting look like silver, but up close, they're actually white gold: The metal matches her hair, before it started to turn silver itself, just as the crystal matches her eyes. A piece of the bottom is chipped and cracked; a flaw that runs through the crystal itself, frosting the blue at its edges.

  "This? It's a kyber crystal. They're used as power sources for lightsabers, the weapons of the Jedi... and their antithesis, the Sith." Juno's explanation is quiet. Distracted. "This belonged to Galen Marek. He was an Imperial agent, but he and I both rebelled against the Empire when we were betrayed by the very establishment we served. After it was made clear that I wasn't ruthless enough for Vader's taste, I was reassigned as Galen's pilot and mechanic. I was to keep his ship running and fly him wherever he might need to go, leaving him free to concentrate on his missions."

  She smiles, fondly; sadly. "But all of this... this was thirty-five years ago, now."

    Rather than offer a further explanation on what she senses out of hyperspace and what she finds familiar about it, Li-Ming nods. Could be that she's just ovwhelmed! So much sensory information all at once! Might be she's just a bit overexcited about the totality of her current circumstances.

    "Possibly. It's difficult to be certain." Of course, this Force thing. Maybe that's what she sensed, staring out into the visual mess of hyperspace? She'll think on that later.

    She extends her hand, accepting the pendant before carefully examining it. "I confess, I'm hardly an expert with items such as these." She probes at it delicately with her senses and the tiniest trickle of magic. "A kyber crystal?" Aside from picking up on the clues of the item's appearance, she'd assumed there was no further information to gain.

    So now, a quick lesson of the value of such an item is hers. "Jedi and Sith. Mm."

    She quiets and goes still, exploring the item and committing the details to memory with her eyes while she listens to the tale. Or what's offered so far. Her gaze seems distant but it's clear she's paying attention when she looks up, her brown eyes seeming almost yellow and catlike for a moment.

    "What happened to him?" It makes her nostalgic, somewhat. "Sorry if I seem insensitive." She holds the pendant out, letting the chain drape across her fingers. She suspects the answer, of course. Her quiet tone says as much, though she's keeping a throttle on her sympathy for fear of it being misread as pity.

    "I've found it's easiest to keep the memory of other's from the past alive through the telling of their tales." She shifts in her seat. "I carry a few such tales myself."

  "I don't know if the Sith use kyber crystals, but I know for a fact that the Jedi do. I've seen other specimens before. This one is cracked, and it won't be of any use in a lightsaber." Juno shrugs. "At least as far as I'm aware. I don't know much about the Jedi or the Sith, in point of fact; I was never Force-sensitive." She sighs, shaking her head in a gesture that says if she weren't so tired, she might toss up her arms. "Half the time I don't understand what they're saying."

  Those blue eyes are fixed on the pendant for as long as Li-Ming is holding it, watching like a hawk. It clearly carries meaning to her.

  What happened to him?

  "He turned his back on the darkness, and he gave his life for the light." Juno leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees, comb dangling from her fingers. "He sacrificed himself to save the council members that would eventually make up the Rebel Alliance's highest leadership. Senator Mon Mothma. General Garm Bel Iblis. Senator Bail Organa. His daughter, Princess Leia Organa, now General Leia... General Rahm Kota."

  The woman blows out a sigh. Tired. She looks so tired.

  "I appreciate the sentiment." Juno's voice is quiet. "After he fell, the Alliance to Restore the Republic was formed. I was one of its signatories, as a witness." So... she's not just a general. She's more than that. Not just one of the highest leaders of the Rebellion, but one of its very founders. One so integral to the Rebellion's earlier days that there wouldn't be a Rebellion without her involvement, or Galen's.

  She breathes out a sigh. "It's been three and a half decades, and I still can't forgive them for taking him from me. Others... heh. Early on, I was told it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but the people who say that rarely experience loss for themselves." She looks down, damp hair spilling across one shoulder. "He's one with the Force, or so Kota told me, after..."

    "Though the idea is fascinating, it would be an insult to consider such a keepsake for use as a weapon." Li-Ming shrugs off the notion of lightsabers. Though interesting, she's well equipped in her own view. "Where are they now, then? They sound very much like the factions of assorted magi and sorceresses about Sanctuary. Full of things to say, rather than things to do. Those few of us who stand out and try to act are so often looked down upon. This Galen sounds like a man of deeds."

    She quiets again, meaning to listen while extending the pendant so it might be returned.

    She swings her gaze back out to the chaos of hyperspace while listening. Finally, she offers, "Damn the notion of accepting loss." If not for the calming effect of the inscrutable nature of that weirdly lit higher dimension or whatever the penominon her statement might have been spoken a bit more harshly. "As is so often the case. The people who act are most often the ones to pay the price. I'm sure you know better than I; you're one who acts as well."

    Her tone shifts, the edge of bitterness gone. "It is my hope that there can be some comfort in death for those I've seen go before me. Though I failed to protect any of them the only course to follow was the destruction of their killers." No wry humor, no boistrous anger. She just relives a moment of the cold, remorseless fury she felt at one point not so long ago. "I would help you extract your justice."

    There's a story in there but she's, possibly foolishly, keeping it bottled up.

  "The Jedi scattered to the winds after the execution of Order 66. Most were generals, slaughtered by their own cloned troops. Some fled. Some fought back. We have a few in the Rebel Alliance, these days." Juno shrugs one shoulder, shaking her head. "They're not that black and white, though. Some are all talk. Some are action." She breathes out a laugh, mirthless. "That's right. Galen was definitely a man of action. He had no patience for politics... he always had patience for me, though. I don't think he'd ever had a real friend before me. "Sorry, PROXY," she throws over her shoulder, "but droids aren't quite the same."

  "I am not offended, General Eclipse."

  Juno takes the pendant back with a certain reverence, and as though uncaring of Li-Ming's attention, she touches it briefly to her lips before ducking to receive the chain. White gold flashes as it settles back into place.

  "I am." One who acts, that is. Juno tilts her head, combing through her hair again. "When they killed him, they cut my heart out. I died that day." The words are calm, almost cutting in their matter-of-fact tone. "And with every Rebel loss, I die again. There's not much left of me. One of these days, I'll give whatever's left to the Rebellion."

  Juno cocks her head, eyeing Li-Ming wearily at that cold wrath. No intimidation. Curiosity. There's a story there. Decades of experience tells her smells a story, there. "Care to talk about it?" she offers, quirking her brows. "Not that I don't appreciate your offer. I can't promise you that's a road with an end, though."

    Settling in after passing the pendant with that shard of kyber, Li-Ming slowly blinks as she allows Juno's words to sink in. A glance at the droid, then noting that gesture before the jewelry is replaced, she simply looks up to maintain eye contact once again.

    Finally, it's her turn. "I've falled so very few friend. Nearly all have been taken. Isendra, sorceress of great renown. She had such incredible tales of facing the horrors of a foretold invasion from the Hells. Murdered by those who would rather speak than act. Deckard Cain, a man of a great many years and wisdom far greater than even I imagined possible. Murdered by a woman and her sickening cult who foolishly grasped at a fallen angel's power."

    She pauses, "That angel, now a man named Tyrael, is now keeper to Cain's great work. He's one of the few I trust from my native plane, though I fear he trusts me somewhat less. I suppose he's not wrong."

    "His neice, Leah." Her composure wavers a bit. Just a bit! She keeps her hands out of sight as she recalls. "We found Leah's mother near Caldeum, where I spent my childhood learning to become... As I am. Adria led us to the tomb of the man that now haunts me, Zoltun Kulle to obtain the artifact used to imprison him. With it, we imprisoned Belial, the demon lord responsible for the years of unending heat that nearly destroyed my adoptive homeland. Subsequently, we added Azmodan to the prison of the Black Soulstone. We thought, I thought that the prophecied invation of the Hells was averted. It was a ploy.

    "Adria, as it turns out, was briefly the consort of the man carrying the soul of Diablo. The lord of all the Hells. Together, they sired Leah. Suffice to say, I was a fool. Caught up in my own glory, I failed to act in time when Adria used the Soulstone on her own daughter who became the vessel for all of the Lords of Hell."

    Her eyes focus again. She looks up. "Of course, I hunted her across the continent to Westmarch. I found her hiding in the ruins of an ancient people. In desperation, she sold her soul for power." She grasps at the air and squeezes, knuckles blanching. "I only hope I destroyed her thoroughly enough that nothing remains of that disgusting witch to haunt the world. I fear my vengance came at a cost. Only she would have been cooperative enough to reveal where the Soulstone has been spirited off to. I never let her so much as scream."

    She deflates a little and quiets. Deeply traumatized doesn't even begin to fit.

  Slowly, Juno starts combing through her hair again, glancing aside only to check the console and verify their current location. It seems the ship is going where she expects it to be. There's no real reaction, so she continues sliding the comb through her hair, eyeing Li-Ming a little bit off-kilter from the angle of her head.

  "Sounds like you live as interesting a life as any tired old general." There is a thread of self-deprecating cynicism in her tone, but there's also an undercurrent of respect. That's quite a lot to deal with by any standards, even if the subtleties escape her. Those blue eyes settle on Li-Ming, a long and thoughtful look, studying those changing reactions; the manifestation of that trauma.

  She blows out a sigh and flicks a hand, dismissively. "Aren't we a pair? A broken general and a broken sorceress. Are you a sorceress? I'm afraid I don't have much experience with worlds that use magic."

  "I'd be glad to accept your help against the Empire, in any case." She sets aside her comb, running her fingers through her hair. "We'll stop aboard the Salvation so I can deliver a report to Commodore Viedas, and then we'll rendezvous with the rest of the fleet. I should have my orders there. Once I have my orders, it's off to Shyre for the rest of the information I'll need for this mission." Juno kicks back in her chair, leaving her hair down; still damp. She kicks her boots up onto the console and folds her arms behind her head, closing her eyes. "Anywhere you need to go before we connect these dots? The Rogue Shadow can get you there fast."

    Feeling a little off-kilter after that bit of tell all, Li-Ming can't really argue that assessment. "I suppose it has been interesting. I've done what I can to right the various wrongs of the world, only for more to crop up. It seems no matter where I look, there's a long road ahead with no end."

    That last gets a sharp look and she snorts! "A wizard. I am no mere sorceress!" She inclines her head, trying to muster at least some of her haughty demeanor. "The rules I accept are my own and the worlds I walk will have to learn trust." Her former masters would be aghast.

    She pulls her own legs up into the seat, resting arms on knees and chin on arms. "Paperwork, of course. I understand the sense of it but honestly, it's beyond frustrating at times." As for the offer, she doesn't look up. "No, I don't think so. Not yet. We'll have to meet up with your friend as well, at some point, yes?"

  "I know all too well what that feeling is like." Juno shifts until she can sit more comfortably in her chair, its moorings creaking as she leans back. It stretches her back comfortably, and to go by her satisfied grunt as it cracks, that's exactly the effect she was aiming for. "Sometimes, in thirty-five years of taking the fight to the Imperials, it feels like the Rebel Alliance's work might never be done."

  "So noted." The pilot's mouth twists in amusement. "I shall endeavour to remember that. Just bear in mind that I have zero frame of reference." A hand dips down to pluck the necklace; blue eyes slide closed as she touches the crystal to her lips one last time. She lets it fall to settle into place at the hollow of her throat, white-gold chain gleaming.

  Juno heaves a sigh that sounds equal parts resigned and tired, reaching up to gather her hair into a messy twist, framed by loose locks, frosted in silver. "I can't say I enjoy paperwork, but I also see its necessity. Especially with an entity as large as the Rebel Alliance. There must be equal communication across the whole."

  There's silence at Li-Ming's questions. Did the scarred campaigner fall asleep? Nope. Not yet. "Just say the word if you do." Then, with clinical precision: "He's not my friend, his name is Mando, and I expect we'll bump into him either aboard the Salvation or on Dantooine, depending on where the Razor Crest is. I shouldn't have any trouble catching up to that antique of a ship."

  Juno falls silent. She doesn't share any more of the plan. If Li-Ming should glance her way, the wizard would find that weary, battered general has closed her eyes.

  No wonder the woman is in such a constant state of exhaustion. Those kinds of losses would drive anybody to ruin, and that kind of emotional strain does exact a price after too long. Small wonder her hair has begun to silver, or her back has begun to complain at her with increasing insistence -- a woman so broken that there is little hope for mending.

  At least she seems to accept that, and her only real hope seems to be that her death serves some kind of purpose, as Galen's had.