Stranded(Closed)

[Yuri Ninx]

((ooc: If you are interested in the story and would like to join, please contact me.))

"I told you they didn't look like merchants."

"You can't do this," Yuri shouted. "That's my ship! My ship!"

"It's inhuman, that's what it is," Riker said.

"Why aren't they coming back? That's my ship! They can't leave us here!"

Drongo scratched at his chin and looked closer at the group. "No, I don't believe they are human. I think they're Trandoshans."

"They're taking off! They're taking off in my ship!" Yuri launched himself forward in a failed effort to catch the now-fleeing Sophia, the metal monstrosity already climbing into the atmosphere.

"I told you they didn't look like merchants," Riker repeated. Yuri cried out as he tripped forward into the dirt and lay there, still.

"... because of the scales, you see. And the face, too. Gives 'em away. They're like big lizards see. No tails, though."

Riker sighed. "We'd best go help him up. Come on."

"... taste horrible, too. If you have to, you need to boil them. It makes the meat nice and tender."



"Where are we?" Yuri asked the dirt in general.

"I don't know; they weren't keen on telling us. I told you, they didn't look like merchants-"

"Drongo?"

"Yes, Cap'n?" The ewok stood to attention. Or tried to, anyway. His face may have stood at attention, but the rest of him was clearly at ease.

"You're authorized to shoot Riker if he says that one more time."

"'fraid I can't do that, Captain."

"Why not, Drongo?"

"They took my blaster." Yuri muttered under his breath. The two crew members occasionally caught their name and the odd curse or, more often, three. Riker was suddenly very interested in his boots.

"Well," Yuri finally said, still face-down in the grass, "Someone best get a fire going. This planet is too damn cold."


****

It had taken some work, and many failed attempts, but the former three-person crew of the Sophia had managed to get a fire going. Red flames licked greedily at the air, their dance a contrast to the stoic atmosphere of the camp. The events of the day were finally beginning to settle in Yuri's brain and push the other occupents over. The smuggler's unmoving gaze was settled on Riker, and it made him itchy.

Riker was a tall man, provided he was, in fact, human. All outward features of his were hidden in the long black clothes he wore. Dark hair covered his face; the only way to tell he was looking at you was the nose that protruded from the mass. If he were to develop a boil on his neck, no-one would be able to tell in which direction he was facing. He was still the best pilot Yuri knew. After himself, of course.

"Did you manage to grab anything before... they..."

My ship! They stole my ship! The thought came forward once more and began kicking the furniture.

Riker spoke up before Yuri began shouting again. "Just what was at hand." Hands dug into his clothes, every now and then reappearing to drop an item on the ground.

"Let's see, a few blasters... a fork... this weird thing with a string on it... a thermal detonator," Yuri ducked when Riker dropped the grenade unceremoniously to the ground, "I think this is a harmonica... and whatever the frell this is."

Yuri risked a look. It was oblong, with metal bits sticking out at odd places. "I... don't know. It doesn't look important."

Riker shrugged and tossed it over his shoulder. In the distance, there was a boom. "That's all. And a spoon. Sorry, it was all I could grab."

To say Riker was light-fingered was an understatement. The collection of odd things his hands managed to grab would put a magpie to shame. He was the sort of person who would steal the cutlery after dinner.

A crackling in the grass revealed itself to be Old Mad Drongo.

Not much was known about the ewok. He had left Endor and become instantly enthralled with a galaxy of sex, drugs and blasters. There was rarely a moment when he wasn't wearing, thinking about, or using a weapon. It wasn't just an obsession. It was a love affair.

There wasn't a being in the galaxy who knew the ewok's real name; anyone who called him anything different than the strange name he had earned for himself soon found their heads being bounced repeatedly into the floor. He was the perfect addition to Yuri's crew. The only thing the ewok required in payment was the ability to shoot someone every once in a while.

He also wore underpants. And an eye-patch. Yuri didn't know why. Whenever asked about it, Drongo became confused and asked "What underpants?"

"I found," the ewoks eyes darted to the pile at Riker's feet. "Joy!"

"What did you find out?" Yuri asked. The ewok paused in his vigorous digging.

"The planet. 'S got a lot of green."

Everyone stared at the ewok. It grinned in confusion.

"That's it?" Riker asked. "You were gone for hours and all you found out is the planet has a lot of... green?"

"I did kill a rabbit."

"Good," Yuri said, "something to eat."

Silence descended on them again. Drongo scratched his chin.

"Something to eat... yeah, that would have been a good idea."

Yuri began to mumble.

"Look at that," Riker said, "you started him up again. We're not going to here the end of this. One day, mark my words..."

"'S not my fault. What was I supposed to look for? Got a lot of green things."

"... and then it'll be, 'Oh yeah? Well remember that time when...'"

"Rabbit put up a fight, too. Dangerous, a rabbit like that."

"He won't even stop at sarcasm, no. He's probably going to get 'ironic' at us."

"Was a damn big rabbit."


And so ended the first day.

[Zell]

"What--"

Zell sat up blearily, wiping the cobwebs from her eyes. She had fallen asleep reading in the lounge of her ship, the Kahel. Again. She glanced at the datapadd that had fallen on her chest and pushed it away, groaning. She'd been having such lurid dreams. No more space operas for her.

She glanced out the main viewport--and froze. No starlines. No intimation of faster-than-light travel. They had arrived back at realspace.

The problem was, it was too soon. They weren't scheduled to come out of hyperspace for five hours yet. The only thing close by was a greenish-blue planet; in fact, they seemed to be in retrograde orbit around it. The problem was, she'd never been here before, and this system certainly wasn't her destination.

And where the frak was Rayt anyway when she needed him?

"Rayt? Rayt! Where have you gone off to?"

She jumped up and started stalking through her small ship, barging in through the rooms and peering round, scowling. The R-8 astromech was small, but not that small. She could feel him nearby. He couldn't hide from her forever.

She spotted her firedrakes crawling around nonchalantly in the pantry. Normally she'd chastize them immediately for trying to get at the food, but they didn't look as if they were after her vegetables this time.

"What are the three of you skulking around there for?"

The glowing insects took to the air reluctantly, buzzing around her. They seemed somehow furtive.

"Do you know where Rayt is?" The insects buzzed even louder, bumping each other much the same way people would point at each other to assign blame.

There was, actually, only one other room that Rayt could be, but Zell couldn't understand why Rayt would be in there. In the first place, there was hardly an space in there for him, and in the second, the humidity was high enough to corrode his processors in short order, and thirdly--

With a long-suffering sigh, Zell strode to the Nest and hit the release button. It slid up smartly, revealing a ridiculous-looking Rayt trying to camouflage himself behind a flowering Gallinorian fern.

"Rayt! What are you doing there? Why have we come out of hyperspace? Where in the Force are we?"

Rayt edged past her, beeping apologetically, then whizzed straight to the cockpit. Zell ran after him, grumbling incomprehensibly, followed closely by the 'drakes. As if to redeem himself by a show of diligence, Rayt plugged himself into his data socket and started explaining profusely, his domed top swiveling in earnestness.

Zell dropped into the captain's seat and stared at the translation scrolling up the screen. "Everything was going fine. We just dropped out of hyperspace for no reason. The hyperdrive won't start again. You don't know why. You don't know how to fix it. The navcomputer doesn't know where we are, and you don't, either. You didn't want to alarm me, so you just headed for the nearest planet that looked like it supported intelligent life, so we could maybe ask around."

Zell just stared at the screen for a few moments, at a loss for words. Rayt and the 'drakes seemed to cower back momentarily, waiting for her reaction.

The young woman only looked up at the ceiling and spoke rhetorically. "Why oh why do these things keep happening to me?"

She shook her head and took hold of the controls. "Fine, Rayt. I can't think of a better idea anyway, so let's just go down there and see what we can find."

The droid and the 'drakes seemed to sag simultaneously in relief.

The Kahel turned gracefully, looking like a gigantic winged seed suspended in space, and started to plummet into the planet's atmosphere.

[Yuri Ninx]

"... maybe if we... ah... maybe... what the frell is that?" Yuri demanded. All three crew members stared intently at the valley in front of them.


But first, a little explanation of what had happened so far.

Last night's sleep had come unwilling, and when it had finally arrived it came in drunk and with a bat. Riker hadn't slept because of Yuri's exclamations of "My ship!" every few minutes and Drongo's attempts to steal his blaster. This left him irritated and unaware of much; this hadn't stopped him from pocketing a few acorns and a very surprised insect, though.

With the morning came Yuri's idea of using the time to scout around and see what they could find, because the only alternative was sitting around waiting for some ship to come plummeting out of the sky. So far, they had braved wilderness*, met the local lifeforms**, and - due to Drongo tripping on something - started a war with the inhabitants***.


"Looks like a town," said Riker.

"Nah, more like a village," corrected Drongo. Everyone drifted into silence again.

Then realization swept in. "There are people down there!"

"Wow... you don't think they could be aliens? We discovered aliens!" Drongo leered. His hand drifted dangerously close to his blaster.

"You don't think they have ship, do you? They look pretty primitive..."

Yuri left them silently, walking into the valley, eyes full of purpose.

"Wait... where are you going?"

"To see if they have a pub."



And they did. In some way. But it was different, somehow. It looked like a pub and sounded like a pub, but it didn't feel like a pub. It had the atmosphere that someone had built it in the knowledge it had to be there, but wasn't quite sure what it was used for.

"What will it be?" There was a barkeep like this everywhere; the sort who is always washing a glass but none of the glasses are ever clean. This could possibly be blamed on a secret cult or a deity with a bad sense of humour.

"Corellian ale," Yuri ventured. Maybe there was the slightest chance this planet wasn't as primitive as it looked.

The barkeep looked confused for a moment, when suddenly a glass was slammed down in front of Yuri. It... tasted like the drink, but it had the same feel as the rest of the village.

Don't know any Corellias... but ale... yeah, ale. That's got a nice ring to it, the barkeeper thought. His hands shot upward and he shouted, "Ale!"

Yuri jumped in surprise. The rest of the patrons thought this comment over, and then suddenly raised their glasses and cheered. Yuri stared in wide-eyed surprise.

"This," the barkeep leaned in conspiratorily and pointed at the smuggler's drink, "is ale." He grinned.

"Yes...?" Yuri managed. This all felt so very... odd.

The doors burst open and Drongo and Riker tumbled in.

"Oh, good, ale," Drongo said.

"S'right! Ale!" The barkeeper beamed.

"Okay... I'll have one of those," said Riker as he took a seat next to Yuri. Yuri leaned towards him while the bartender's back was turned.

"I don't like this place... we need to get out of here as soon as we can."

"Yes. Everything feels so odd, here. Not right, in some way."

They both looked up at the barkeeper. The man grinned back.

"Is ale!"



*a few trees
**a few more trees
***trees again

[Zell]

It was the weirdest planet that Zell had ever seen. For one thing, the cloud patterns she could see from her altitude didn't look right. There were conflicting weather systems that somehow seemed to be jostling each other. There was snow falling next to a hurricane. Electrical storms raging next to a perfectly calm drift of cirrus clouds. And so forth...

"That's strange," Zell thought to herself, wrinkling her brow as she fought to bring her craft down.

And it was a real fight. Pula, Asul, and Dilaw; her 3 firedrakes, whirred anxiously around her as the Kahel jerked this way and that, buffeted by unseen forces.

"What's our altitude?" She called out, hoping all the turbulence wouldn't short out their inertial dampers. Rayt queried the ship.

A number scrolled up on her screen. 34,600 feet.

"Okay," she said, "look for the biggest concentration of technology you can find and head straight--"

Another number appeared on her screen. 25,439 feet.

"What?" she yelped. "That's impossible! We can't have dropped that fast!"

Rayt let out a warble and rising whistle; his equivalent of a bewildered shrug. He further pointed out that he could detect technology from all over the place; but that didn't make sense because they couldn't see anything but oceans, mountains, and valleys, and forests from up here with absolutely no structures whatsoever.

Zell tried to reach out with the Force, but the distraction from her three frazzled firedrakes and 1 frantic droid proved too much.

"Our sensors must be malfunctioning," she muttered instead, punching buttons. They swooshed through what looked like a dense cloudbank, and visibility was instantly reduced to zero. The readings on their gauges became even more chaotic. Zell made a snap decision.

"We've got to recalibrate. We're practically just gliding at this point, anyway. Deactivate the main computer and reboot it after five seconds."

Rayt started to chatter, pointing out the possible ghastly complications of such a drastic action, but Zell cut him off. "I know what I'm doing! Just do it!" Turning away, she mumbled uneasily to herself, "At least, I think I do."

With a remarkably human sigh, Rayt did as she said. Suddenly, all the lights on the control panel went dead. Dilaw, perched anxiously on her shoulder, moaned softly. Zell quickly counted out loud, but just as she reached five, a flash of light suddenly struck the Kahel itself with a deafening craack! The yacht shuddered convulsively. The clouds surrounding them abruptly became darker, and forks of lightning began flashing in all directions.

Somehow, she had managed to fly them directly into one of the planet's raging electrical storms.

"Frak!" Zell whirled on Rayt. "Turn on the engines now!"

With a frightened squeal, Rayt did as she said.

Which accomplished exactly nothing. Rayt jiggled frantically in his socket, but the control panel remained dark.

"Uh-oh..." Zell could do nothing more than hurriedly strap herself in and hang on grimly. The three frightened insects clung to her clothing, trilling softly in fear.

The clouds abruptly cleared and Zell saw--not very much to her surprise--that they were just a few thousand feet from one of the huge inland seas. She closed her eyes and hung on tight.

After what felt like several lifetimes strung together, they hit the water at an angle with a huge splash. Incredibly, the Kahel's flattened shape sent it bouncing back into the air, not once but twice, like a stone skimmed over the water. Zell dared to open her eyes just in time to see the yacht sailing right over the shore and coming back down a kilometer away from what looked like a primitive collection of structures that could be called a town. Still possessed of considerable momentum, the yacht crashed into the ground and slid forward in the direction of the town, progressively carving a deepening furrow in the soft earth until it stopped just a few hundred meters away from the nearest dwelling.

It lay there like a large meteorite, smoking lazily, the front part of its exterior charred by the rogue lightning strike.

A minute passed before Zell managed to raise her head. "Ooohh, my neck," she groaned, massaging it. Thankfully, all 3 'drakes had survived unscathed, although they still seemed incapable of movement. She looked around for Rayt and saw that he was lying on the floor with his arm snapped off, gurgling feebly in shock.

So much for her image as a great and infallible Jedi Knight.

She groaned again and started banging her head against the control panel.

[Yuri Ninx]

The crew ran, fleeing the crowd of natives that were right at their heels.

While they had seemed rather timid, the moment they left the pub someone pointed to them in surprise and shouted. A mere standard second later, the trio found themselves fleeing before a mob.

"What are they calling us?"

"Witches!" Yuri answered. His fist struck someone who managed to come close.

"Okay! So why the frell are they chasing us?"

"Because we're aliens. But I don't think they have even invented aliens yet."

"They're human, though. You're human; why are they chasing us?"

"It's a typical human survival tactic; if it's different, kill it before it eats you or, even worse, starts spreading customs. Besides, they aren't really humans."

"S'look like humans to me," Drongo said. He had a blaster in one hand... paw... thing.

"Yes, but they aren't really humans. They have the same feel about them as the rest of this place."

The turned a corner and came, due to the laws of dramatics, face-to-face with another mob. The crew were forced against each other as the mob circled them, occasionally waving a pitchfork or torch.

"Right, blasters out," Yuri ordered. Drongo already had his pointed at the nearest peasant.

The crowd stopped. They may not have known what the blasters were, but the weapons clearly had a sense of deadly purpose about them.

"Witches!" someone cried out. Calls of "Burn them!", "Witches!" and "Feed the children*!" followed.

"We're just travelers!" Riker tried. Someone threw a stone.

"No! You're witches!"

"S'right!" cried a familiar voice. "They tried bringing their mysterious ale into mah bar! Tried to perform magic on us!"

Someone threw a stone again.

Yuri's blaster fired, red shot firing at the crowd's feet.

"That's right! We're witches! And this," he waved the blaster, "is my magic witching... stick. So let us through or I'm going to witcher you slags!"

The crowd quickly began to run away. Yuri grinned happily.

"Aha! I thought as much."

"Captain?"

"What, Riker?" Yuri asked, and followed to where Riker was pointing. There was a bright flame. Perhaps it could have been some sort of space rock... but not many meteorites had thrusters.

"Sir, I think that's a shi-" But it was too late. Yuri was already running.



* Every village has its idiot.

[Zell]

Zell gave herself about thirty seconds to indulge in self-pity. After that, she decided that she might as well do something about her predicament. Fortunately, the ‘drakes had already decided that they ought to inspect the rest of the ship. They fluttered off into the various nooks and crannies, mournfully surveying the broken stems of the plants, the information chips and the shattered datapadd strewn on the floor, and the other results of their less-than-graceful landing. Releasing a long-suffering sigh, Zell unstrapped herself and stretched briefly, directing healing energy at her neck and shoulders, which still ached from the jarring impact.

Only Rayt seemed indisposed to doing anything yet, or maybe it was the inconvenience of having a bulbous body that made getting up rather difficult. He lolled on the floor, squeaking piteously and shaking his severed arm with disbelief.

“Stop crying like a big baby, that isn’t the only appendage you have, you know,” Zell scolded him, trying not to laugh. “We can reattach that in no time. Better yet, we’ll buy you a replacement. Okay? Here, I’ll help you up.” She extended a hand, and Rayt smoothly floated upright until he was on his wheels again. Once mobile, he seemed much happier. He retracted the useless arm and spun around, gazing severely at the unlit controls as if everything were the ship’s fault. When doing so failed to give him a satisfactory response, he bumped the panel much the way a human would kick a malfunctioning machine in frustration, then opened one of the panels and started toodling around.

“Good. Do that,” Zell said encouragingly, although she didn’t think the little droid would be able to do much. She suspected that quite a few of their processors had been fried by that rogue lightning bolt. She could only hope that they would be able to find replacements somewhere in this planet—she remembered not seeing any structures on the way down, but resolutely fixed her mind on Rayt’s declaration that he had detected signs of technology everywhere. He couldn’t have been completely wrong. Zell had no desire to be marooned in a pre-spaceflight civilization.

Her spirits picked up when she glanced out the viewport and noticed figures running toward her ship. Great. People, and they looked human, too. Maybe the Force was looking out for her after all. Pausing only to make sure that her lightsaber was clipped to her belt, she excitedly popped the hatch. A hearteningly fresh breeze immediately hit her face, and she blinked at the bright sunlight. She focused on the three closest figures running toward her and waved violently.

“Over here!” she shouted.

[Yuri Ninx]

The errant ship came to the ground like a gift from the heavens, a flaming chariot driven by a blind idiot and a horse with no legs. A small crowd had gathered in the town to watch the smoking mess. Everyone loves free entertainment.

Yuri slowed down to a more cautious pace, a move that allowed his crewmates to catch up with him. They all eyed the spacecraft, wary in case it showed any signs of exploding or, even worse, life. If the crew was dead, it made their job that much easier... but if there were survivors, then things were going to get very complicated. They would want to him to help. They would start making demands and complain. They probably even wanted rescuing. Yuri didn't fancy the idea of playing hero.

"Looks safe enough," Drongo said. He lifted the eyepatch to get a better look at the thing. "Seems pretty damaged, though."

"It's better than nothing," Riker replied.

"'S better than being stuck on this frell-hole, that's for sure."

Yuri took a step forward and waved them to silence. "Let's see if we can get it work-" A hatch swung open. "Sithspit!"

"Over here!" the waving figure called out.

I can see that...

"Great... just fracking great."

"Lessee... face, figure, breasts. Yep, definitely one of your females."

"Drongo?"

"Yes, Cap'n?"

"Shut up or I'll shoot you."

"Yes, sir."

They stared at her, unsure of what to do. Helping her meant another person to worry about, and the ship didn't look like it would ever fly again until it was repaired. But going back to the village would mean dealing with the mob again, and Yuri liked his skin uncharred. He was very certain he looked better that way.

"Think we should go over there?" Riker asked.

"Yes," Yuri said, "I suppose we should."

"What do you think we should say?"

"How about 'Hello, we just noticed your ship crash and as it so happens we're stranded on this planet. We were wondering if you would be nice enough to let us take your ship so we can exact glorious revenge on the people who left us here'?"

"Well I told you they didn't look like merchants."

Drongo took a few steps forward, cupped his hands around his mouth. "Oi! We seen your ship crash and were wondering if we could take it, get off this planet and frak the blokes who left us here!"

[Zell]

Zell stared at the three approaching figures: a human male, a tall and very hairy creature, and an eyepatched teddybear that looked like a deranged Ewok. Not exactly the rescue crew she had been praying for.

They halted several meters away, just out of comfortable earshot, and started jabbering away amongst themselves, pointing at her ship. She began to get the faintest feeling of unease; they didn't look like they particularly wanted to help her. In fact, the man looked disgruntled that there were survivors at all. Maybe they were scavengers, like the jawas back at Tatooine. The thought of the Kahel being sold for scrap made her blood boil. She felt at her waist, reassured by the solid coolness of her lightsaber's grip. She would give them the benefit of the doubt, of course. At this distance, she couldn't get a very good reading of their intentions. Proximity would solve that. Either proximity, or...

She looked up in shock as the Ewok stepped forward and shouted, "Oi! We seen your ship crash and were wondering if we could take it, get off this planet and frak the blokes who left us here!"

Okay. She didn't need proximity. They were being perfectly straightforward about it. Her ears filled with a dull roar. She needed...she needed...

She needed to show these turnips that she wasn't someone to fool around with. Setting her teeth, she ducked her head back down into the hatch to bark at the startled Rayt, "I'm going out. You stay. And don't let anyone--I repeat, anyone--in the ship unless I'm with them. Seal the hatch after me. Seal everything."

The 'drakes had swarmed up to her, attracted by the change in her mood. They buzzed around furiously, eager for action. Zell looked at them assessingly. "Pula, stay with me. Make yourself look as big and evil-tempered as possible. Asul, stay inconspicuous. You're going to be our spy and back-up. Dilaw..." she hesitated. "Dilaw, I can't let you out of the ship."

The insect let out a squeal of outrage and clung to her sleeve.

"I can't bring you! You're too--too yellow. You're not frightening and you're easy to see!"

The other two chimed in their agreement to her observations, a little too eagerly. Dilaw moaned piteously, but Zell was adamant.

"No, Dilaw. I don't want you getting hurt. You stay and...and look after Rayt. You know how easily flustered he gets. Make sure he doesn't do anything silly."

This time, it was Rayt's turn to chitter in indignation, but Zell had no more time to soothe their pricked egos. Gently disengaging Dilaw from her sleeve and turning him loose to flutter disconsolately into the cockpit, she jumped three meters straight up out of the hatch, did a flashy somersault in the air, and landed lightly on the charred hull. The other two insects followed her up, Pula glowing and crackling menacingly like a live fireball, and Asul flitting immediately out of sight. The hatch immediately slid shut.

The three were still waiting outside, looking up at her with open mouths. Zell stood up deliberately and put her hands on her hips, making sure that her lightsaber was very visible on her waist. Usually she hated it when her colleages did this, flaunting their Jedi powers as if it made them into gods, but the posture seemed called-for in this instance.

Pitching her voice to make herself sound intimidating and authoritative, she called out, "I am Zell Firedrake, Jedi Knight. May I have the honor of knowing your names?"

[Yuri Ninx]

Yuri pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dammit, Drongo..."

"You know what this reminds me of?" Riker said. He looked like he was grinning, although it was hard to tell.

"What?"

"Bespin. You remember that?"

Yuri chuckled. "Yeah... Torrins put on that dress so he could distract the guards. Best shipment of spice we ever sold. Whatever happened to Torrins?"

"Imperials," Drongo answered. "Shot him up. Completely vaporized. Pow!" Drongo gestured by slamming a fist into his hand. "One moment, right there in front of you, the next there's a scream and Torrins all over the place."

"Oh... yeah. Thank you for the reminder, Drongo."

"Big mess, I tell you!" Drongo grinned. It wasn't a very nice grin, and showed a set of teeth that would set any dentist in the galaxy to spontaniously explode.

"Captain," Riker pointed. Yuri followed his finger to the leaping woman.

"Well, she's a bit a of a show off. Come on, she probably wants to talk to us."

"How do ye know it's a she?" Drongo asked. Riker stood, staring.

"Definitely a she," he gulped. Riker felt things he had only ever had when looking at a nice piece of silverware. If the hair wasn't in the way, people could see his ears burn red.

"Get ahold of yourself, Riker. Drongo, make sure he doesn't try anything."

Yuri moved forward and looked up at the woman, the only evident survivor of the crash. She was certainly attractive; however, any thoughts of that sort were dashed the moment he saw the lightsaber.

Great, he thought, a fracking Jedi.

Yuri stretched lazily to hide his wariness. It didn't work very well.

"I am Zell Firedrake, Jedi Knight." Her voice was authoritive. Typical arrogant Jedi, Yuri noted.

"May I have the honour of knowing your names?"

"Well," Yuri began, "I don't know if there's anything honourable about him, but that one over there with the hair who is trying not to look at you? That's Riker. And that one with the underpants," Yuri pointed at Drongo. The ewok grinned. "That one is Old Mad Drongo. Drongo for short."

Yuri bowed mockingly, "Yuri Ninx, at your service."

[Zell]

Hmmm. Riker, Drongo, and Yuri. Weird names. She'd never heard any of them before, but that wasn't unusual. It was a big galaxy. She was pretty sure she'd never run into them before either. She'd have remembered the Ewok. A walking teddy bear was pretty hard to miss. Especially with a swagger and an eyepatch.

After Yuri bowed, she nodded haughtily and proceeded down the ladder to the ground. It would have been a much more dignified descent if it happened that her ship wasn't charred in places and half-buried in muck at a weird angle. Briefly turning her back to the the three individuals, she gave the Kahel a quick going over. Pathetic. It looked like a burnt almond. No way was she going to blast out of here anytime soon. Not without extensive repairs requiring about three people, a week of hard work, and a load of credits. Next time, she was really going to try to stay awake especially when they were nearing their itinerary. Rayt tended to let this kind of thing happen way too often. She sometimes suspected that her astromech was half-Jedi himself--a magnet for trouble.

With a resigned sigh, she turned to face her "rescuers". Pula lit at her shoulder and glowered there, flapping his wings slowly but steadily so that he could lift off at any time.

"Alright, then. You guys seem to have been here for some time now. Where exactly are we?"

Yuri harrumphed and exchanged uneasy glances with Riker. "Err...we don't know."

Zell raised a slim eyebrow in polite disbelief. "You don't know?"

"We were dumped here," Riker volunteered. "Our ship was stolen."

"I see." Great. "And...do you know of any place where we can go to to get some help?"

"We don't know that, either," Drongo groused, before any of his companions could stop him.

"We haven't seen much sign of advanced technology," Yuri hastened to explain. "No repair shops, or spare parts, or...anything." His tone was slightly accusatory as he looked pointedly at the ship behind her, almost as if she'd crashed it on purpose.

Double great. He could have been lying just to make her feel helpless, but Zell was close enough to read his emotions. He wasn't. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, almost wishing that he was. "Beautiful. So we don't know where we are, where to call for help, and where to go to repair the only ship near this place. Do you have any sort of plan how to get off this planet?"