| abstract
| - Star Anchorage 859.b6 -- Corusca City: Coruscant Bustling at all hours of day and night, this starport is one of many thousands like it on this world. A massive, multi-layered affair, the port itself is constructed of thousands of honeycombed-shaped durasteel pads arranged in an interlocking pattern. Huge elliptical durasteel beams arc up from out of the confusing strata of construction below to support each suspended platform. Certain sections of the starport are clearly designated for different uses, with commercial flights leaving one section, heavy cargo being moved from a different, and medium-sized capital ships perched on another. The planet's port authority keeps the steady flow of space traffic safely interwoven with grid-like streams of subspace traffic. There is activity everywhere. Star maps, chronometers, languages, governments and perhaps humankind all look toward this planet to set a standard of some sort. A sprawling cityscape spreads out in every direction -- including vertical directions -- for as far as the eye can see. This is Coruscant. The boarding ramp of /Voidstalker/, a Sardakh Kale-1 starship docked on one of the upper tiers, begins to descend onto the tarmac upon which she sits. Out from the boarding ramp comes a small astro-droid, marked with blue paneling. The little droid, identified as R2-D2, rolls off the end of the ramp when it touches the tarmac, bleeping and chirping to himself as he rolls around to the underbelly of the ship, and comes to rest at the starboard landing strut. The starports (all however many hundreds, if not thousands, of them) are natural hubs of activity on this planet. Endless streams of activity are constantly coming and going and weaving overhead. An aero-shuttle breaks off from one of the smaller streams and gently glides up to the edge of the platform. Hovering at a stop, its doors slide open with a pneumatic puff. After a sputter of individuals disembark in an orderly fashion, clearly experienced with starport routine, a more jumbled mass of young sentients spills out of the doors, with an economical-looking cylindrical droid bringing up the rear. One particular girl, however, stays mostly at the edge and back of the throng, her nose in a datapad. "Please children, get out of the way of the doors. Let the other nice people pass," the droid instructs automatically. R2-D2 extends a small grappling arm and makes a minor adjustment to one of the landing struts on /Voidstalker/. Of course, this happens at precisely the moment when the black-clad Luke Skywalker is walking out of the starship as well, and when the landing strut rises a couple of inches, it throws off Luke's balance. "Artoo!" he cries, and spares himself from falling off the ramp by grabbing hold of the ramp's nearest piston assmebly. The little droid blats a response, and twists the device again, causing the landing strut to rise another four inches too high. Luke slips again, his hair messed up as he goes dangling off the side of the ramp, and falls with recovered Jedi grace to the landing tarmac. Once he's landed, he plants his fists onto his belt, scowling. "Artoo," he scolds, and points with a thumb down toward the tarmac. "/That/ way." His feet fall silent onto the landing tarmac and his eyes scan across the faces. Sekes turns every which-way as he checks the different faces.. He runs his hands over his clothes and coses his eyes, soon slipping his gloved fingers into his pockets and he makes his way along through the crowds, peering past his slitted eyelids.. He then opens them up a little bit, letting out a breath through the material that covers up his mouth. Herding the children, actually more like bumping into them, the humanoid droid with the cylindrical torso and limb components keeps intoning its guardian drone. "That's it children. Step along. Now good. Stop. We will wait here for the next tram. No shoving and bickering please." The way the droid goes on, the kids mostly behave themselves in a vain hope that it will stop being so annoying. But the one girl keeps ignoring the droid. Arise lets her peripheral vision tell her where the rest of the class is, while she keeps reading the displayed file. With a few sharp whisles, R2-D2 spins the motivator and the ship's level goes back to where it was. Luke lets out a thin sigh, but can't help but grin just a little. "Okay, you've had your fun for the day, now get to work on flushing those repulsorcoils. If Rook or Ai' ask, let them know I'm making a visit to the Senate chambers in regards to the upcoming hearing." This news causes R2-D2 to emit a sort of low pitched moaning sound, his dome spinning back and forth. "I know, Artoo," he murmurs, then turns and steps away. "Keep an eye on the ship while I'm gone, too." He then starts moving away from the /Voidstalker/'s landing pad, and makes to move toward a nearby tram station... one which just so happens to have a herd of children moving toward it. Now that they're settled, the guardian droid gets into the oh-so-complicated task of passing the time. It measures the area where the children are standing and calculates a path around the exterior of the blob. Of course, they'll move and fidget, but then it will just recalculate its course. Thus, the droid begins its circuit: walking a couple meters, stopping to scan the group again and scan the starport for obvious threats, then walking another couple meters... Meanwhile, the girl Arise gets comfortable for the wait by taking a seat on the tarmac. Her free hand steadies her smooth sitting motion while she is more mentally engaged in the reading. she smooths the hemline of her tunic around her delicately folded knees. A couple of other kids follow the cue and sit down also, dust on the ground be darned. Luke gets in line behind a group of human travelers who separate him from the group of children. A couple of the people in front of him turn to give him a recognizing glance. "Master Skywalker," one says, nodding in greeting, and Luke returns the gesture with a genuine smile. "Hello there." He can sense the disgruntled feelings in the human's mind... many people blame the Jedi and the New Republic for the economic strain that is clenching down upon Coruscant. Yet he doesn't address it... not today. Skywalker. That name will catch your attention. A little skeptical of what she overhears, Arise looks up from her reading and glances around for some verification. But there he is, just a few meters away. Um, okay. If she doesn't take this opportunity she might be wondering about what-ifs for a long time. So after dusting herself off with a small hand, Arise stands and walks back to the man, casting cautious glances at the other people in line. Almost there, she screws up her nerves and looks up to ask, "Mister Skywalker. Sir... can I please talk to you?" The chaperone droid erks in its programming when it sees Arise's motion, and it has to interrupt its patrol to follow her. But before it can object it jerks to a stop upon seeing Skywalker. Fine. It's safe. But this is so irregular! "Arise!" Luke is surprised to see her, but he bends over and looks into the young one's eyes with a good-natured smile. "It looks like you're getting on the same tram as I am. I'm headed to the government complex, we can talk on the way there." Indeed, the tram is currently arriving, and the front of the line begins moving into the station. "What's on your mind, young one?" he asks, his smile fading. It's clear that Arise is trying to keep her expectations of this encounter low, even though her heart is pounding. "I have a question. I met someone in the Parliament district yesterday when I was outside studying, and she offered to teach me some self defense. To help me be more independent, she said." Hoo boy. The words come tumbling out as she feels a self-conscious mandate to justify herself. "I was careful, and security could still see me, so I hope it was okay to talk to her..." The chaperone droid has a moment of conflicted programming when the line starts moving, but hten decides to concentrate on herding the rest of the children onboard. "It's okay," Luke says to the security droid, motioning with his hand. "I've got it." He looks back to Arise and begins walking forward with her. "Well, did this woman tell you her name?" he asks, curiousity mixed with concern as he moves along with the young one at his side. "Perhaps I've heard of her." With a clear expression in her eyes that reflects anticipation of concern that she thought someone might have, Arise saves her place in the file she was reading with the jab of a button. "I wrote it down." She flips to a file that is blank except for a couple of lines. Her name is Valkyr Tenebre. She said she was from the Rim and she's staying in the Traveller's Hostel." She shows Skywalker the screen. Luke tilts the datapad so that he can read it, then tilts it back down moments before it is their turn to enter the tram. "Very well, I'll ask at the Senate building for an information file on her. I'm a little concerned that someone wishes to teach someone of your age self-defense... it seems a little over the top to me." He helps Arise on board the tram before entering himself. Hugging the datapad to her chest, Arise ducks her head down as she enters the tram, odd because the door frame is nowhere near her head. "It seems like her culture teaches their young to be self-reliant when they're pretty young. She mentioned how they start apprenticeships at 12. Maybe being on the Rim they have to be tougher than we do." She looks around for an easy seat to take, that gets her out of the way of other travellers. "But anyway, I told her I would have to ask for permission. I don't want to waste your time, but if you could tell me who else I could ask..." "No, I'll look into it, Arise, or at least, I'll have one of the Jedi look into it for me if I can't," replies Luke. "The name sounds... familiar... somehow, but I can't figure out how." The tram doors close, and soon the train is speeding off toward the south. "How have you been these past couple of weeks?" It's sounding like the matter will be taken care of by those more in the know, so Arise is satisfied that so far, she hasn't done anything wrong. She scootches over in her seat to allow more room. The current situation, however, riding in an air tram with Skywalker, is a little weird. She gazes at some point in the air in between herself and the seat back in front of her, and replies, "I've been okay. I had an idea and I'm doing what you suggested. But I don't think this is a good place to talk about that," she adds matter-of-factly. Luke's eyebrows fall down over his eyes a little, and he nods his head. "I understand," he says quietly, and finds his seat as the tram zooms off toward the Parliamentary District. "Well, things are /starting/ to get a little more settled. But, like you said, young one, this probably isn't the best place to talk about it." He smiles just slightly, a grin with a shade of mirth. "Is the rest of your class headed for the Senate tram stop?" A thought momentarily puckers the bridge of Arise's noce between her eyebrows. Shouldn't he know the likely answer to his own question? Her mind scrambles a second to figure out how to answer. She mirrors the chit-chat tone of Skywalker's inquiry. "Yeah. We were transferring on our way back from a museum. Field lessons this morning. I look forward to them every time, because then it's not just being stuck on our floor for weeks and weeks." Luke nods his head at that. "That's good. Hopefully you won't be stuck in this situation forever." Lobby - Government Complex - Corusca City: Coruscant The clean lines of this massive entry chamber seem to command the space rather than simply contain it, the stately grace suggesting solidity rather than overt power. A large half-circle makes up this lobby, backed by sweeping steps that lead, one set on each side, up to a balcony loosely enclosed by arches and pillars. The stairs themselves are wide and of white stone, curving protectively around an alcove between them, wherein benches form a semicircle around a laughing fountain. The walls around the lobby are etched with simple phrases; freedom, fair governance, and balance are highlighted in words spoken by recent leaders as well as those of the Old Republic. The decor is simple, white stone accented by blues and greens, the walls lifting high to meet a dome set with sparkling enamel above in the likeness of the inspiring emblem of the New Republic. That pucker between Arise's brows flashes back, this time it's more self-reproaching. "I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. I'm grateful for the care. It's just hard sometimes, not knowing what's going to happen." Valkyr arrives from the Parliamentary District. Valkyr has arrived. Valkyr noticed Arise heading into the Senate building, and she smiled, and walked up the stairs to follow. She liked the young lady, and would enjoy speaking with her a little bit more. She nods to the staff here, expecting guardians of some sort. "Well, you won't hear any complaints from me," replies Skywalker. As the tram pulls into the Government complex, he rises and moves toward the entryway. "Now lets get you back with the rest of your class, shall we?" As the doors open, Luke exits the tram and and keeps an eye on Arise as he looks for the other children. Arriving back in the government complex, the rest of the children scatter toward the turbolifts to go back to their assigned haunts. The instructor droid seems relieved to be in a more familiar parameter space and goes off to make its report about the field trip. Lingering in the lobby, and still hugging her datapad, Arise replies simply, "Thank you, sir." She pauses for a moment, then quetly turns to follow the other kids to the lifts. "May the Force be with you," says Luke in departure, before turning and heading his own separate way toward a turbolift that leads toward the Senate chambers.
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