[ic] Tales of the Smoking Blaster I

[Endless Flight]

Jeaubert

"I've been watching for a long time...waiting for the right person to find me", the voice answered. "It appears that you are the one. Please, come closer so that I can take a look at you. My eyes aren't quite what they used to be." As Jeaubert approached the fire, he could make out the features of an old man. His matted grey hair and beard contoured around a face that was weathered and wrinkled. Tattered and stained clothes covered a worn body that had seen better days. Regardless of his appearance, Jeaubert sensed that the man has a strong presence, a vitality that was unmatched by people half his age.



"You came to ask me something, yes?" The old man leans in toward the fire looking intently at the young Anomid.

Gen and Louw

The Rodian brought them their drink after a minute and took the credstick from Louw. As they were sitting there, Louw noticed the man at the other end of the bar glancing at them curiously. He avoided any eye contact and went back to his colorful drink.  The bartender came back with Louw's credstick. [Six credits for both drinks taken off sheet]

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"That your Ghtroc out there in the repair bay?" Louw asked the guy at the bar. Before the man could answer, Louw continued, "I used to fly on one of those a few year... decades ago. Those were some good times back then, though we had some close run-ins with the authorities."

"It was nice to have those side-thrusters to help the cap'n jerk the ship about while you plot the coords," he continued on, "Folks think sublight's what matters is a pinch, but it ain't so."

"Anyhow, what went wrong that you found yourself here?" he finally asked.

[Endless Flight]

The man picked up his mug and took a long sip before sitting it back down. He was a man around 40 galactic years old, brown hair with grey temples. He had thick eyebrows that stood over dark eyes. A thin scar ran down the side of his face, something that looked like it might have been inflicted by a vibroblade. He looked like someone you didn't want to trifle with.

"That it is."

He was also apparently didn't enjoy small talk.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

*Not the talkative type,* Louw observed in his mind.

"Hey, you don't have to talk shop if you don't want to," Louw said, "Just thought you'd be interested in hearing about the pirates."

Louw, instead, turned to Gen. "Cozy place," he said, clearly not meaning it.

"You know, I wonder if it would be a good idea to have our route plotted even before we leave the station's berth. That way we don't have to waste any time blowin' outta this joint once the Blaster's fixed."

"I'll start thinking about a way through that nebula."

He turned to the Rodian bartender "Hey, does someone around here have route plots on how to get out of here without busting your tail? We caught it a bit hot on the way in."

[Jedi Skyler]

"Yes sir, I did," Jeaubert replies amiably. "I wanted to see what you could tell me about those who frequent this place."

"Also, what do you mean about me being 'the right person'?"

[Endless Flight]

Louw

The bartender wiped out a wet glass with a soiled towel then put in on the shelf behind him. "There's only about five people on this bucket, and you've probably already met them all. If they can't help you with that, then you are outta luck."

Jeaubert

The old man smiles warmly at Jeaubert's answer. "I sense that you have more questions than that...and I can help you find the answers." He pauses for a moment to turn the wood in his fire with a poker. "For twenty years, I've been living a hermit's life on this vessel, waiting for a person of special talents to come along. Can you believe that only one person out of hundreds has met that criteria?"

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Five people!?" Louw asked, astonished, "or just five people worthy of note?"

Louw counted them in his mind: there were only four he could recollect.

"I've just met four, yourself included. There's the dandy who met us at the customs plaza, the shopkeeper and the mechanic."

"How can that add up to a working and functioning station - with a bar and a shop no less? Is everything here droid operated? How d'you get by?"

*yeaaah,* Louw thought to himself, *I don't buy a word of it.*

[Jedi Skyler]

"Hundreds?" Jeaubert replies, astonished, one of his brows raising quizzically. "And what exactly do you mean by 'talents?' You have just met me; you know nothing of my history or abilities.

"Do you?" he asks, not sounding a hundred percent sure of himself.

[Endless Flight]

Jeaubert

"Yes, my young friend. I could sense you even before you touched foot on this station. I know nothing of your history, but I can see your talents and that is what is really important." He paused for a moment to dig through a old bag sitting next to him. He pulled out a small silver orb and began to roll it around the palm of his hand. "Haven't you ever felt like you were different from other beings in the galaxy? That you could sense things and do things that you couldn't explain to yourself?"

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert's other brow joins its raised companion, the look behind his vocalizer mask one of incredulity. "I, er..." his voice trails off. "Yes!" he finally exclaims. "There has always been...something niggling at the back of my brain. Something I could never put a finger on.

"But...how could you possibly know that? How could you have 'sensed' me before I even set foot on the station? You make it sound like..." His voice trails off again as the implications of the notions running through his brain run their full course.

"Y-y-you make it sound like you are a...but that's impossible," he whispers. "They haven't been heard of in decades, except for stories."

[Endless Flight]

Jeaubert

"I can do many things!" the man said convincingly. "Sensing your powerful presence comes as easily to me as breathing the stale air on this station." He opened his hand, revealing the silver orb once again. "Impossible? Nothing is impossible for one who is trained in the Force." The hermit looked down at the orb. As if by magic, it lifted off of his palm and slowly glided over the small fire. The orange and yellow light of the flickering flames glinted off of its shiny surface. It hovered in place for a moment and then glided again, this time stopping about a foot from Jeaubert's mask. It then dropped in the lap of the Anomid.

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert picks the sphere up and studies it, the orb and his own silvery eyes reflecting each other as he does so. "My powerful presence? What exactly are you saying? And what is your name?"

Jeaubert glances around, wide-eyed, contemplating. "The Force? That would make you a Jedi. They haven't been heard from in decades! The Empire wiped them out long ago. How are you even still alive?"

[Endless Flight]

Louw

The bartender kept himself busy mixing strange concoctions while answering Louw. "It doesn't take many people to keep this bucket floating in space. Most of the labor on this station is automated. You haven't met Rexis, the station controller. He stays locked away in his control room guiding the few ships that decide to visit. A lonely job for a lonely man."

Jeaubert

"My name is Jax Rholar. Many years ago, I was once a member of the Jedi Order. We were the guardians of peace and justice throughout the galaxy. When the Empire was born, we were systematically wiped out one by one until only a few remained..." His voice trailed off and his eyes looked away as if relieving a horrible event. He quickly refocused and continued. I managed to evade my captors and ended up surviving on this station as a simple hermit, cloaking myself from those who would seek to destroy the last of the Jedi." He smiled warmly at Jeaubert. "Would you be interested in learning the will of the Force?"

[Jedi Skyler]

Jeaubert's eyes go wide again in amazement. "Seriously? You are saying I can learn to do the things like the Jedi coukd in all the stories I have heard? How could I pass that up?

"Oh..." he says, looking a bit crestfallen. "I am part of a crew on a ship. I can't just leave them. I have responsibilities." Then he looks up, a bit sheepishly. "I don't suppose you would consider joining our crew? I'm not the captain, and he of course has final say on crew. But I'm sure there are things you can do that would be beneficial to the crew overall..." The note of hopefulness is unmistakable in his voice.

[Mikael Hasselstein]

"Do any ships pull through there that don't do so by mistake?" Louw asked. "You're not exactly on the Koros Trunk Line here."