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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 1897158" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 86: Backup“You’re sure about this?” asked Voort for the third time. Jen was sitting on the small bed within what was now her quarters in the garrison. Voort was not sitting. He was pacing. And it was getting frustrating. He just couldn’t seem to grasp why she would go with Akan and Light.    For the third time, Jen answered the same way, “Yes, I’m sure.”    Stopping his pacing, Voort turned and looked across the room to her, “Look, Jen, you don’t have to do this to prove yourself.”    “I’m not trying to prove anything!” Jen snapped, not meaning to sound so harsh but getting fed up with having to explain this. She sighed and ran through an old calming technique she’d learned from her mother. After a few seconds, she spoke more calmly, “I need to go. I don’t know why...I just know that I have to go.”    Voort’s mood also lightened some, though he was still looking worried and critical of her. A few moments of silences flowed through the room before he said, “Its Akan, isn’t it?”    Jen wasn’t going to say that. He wasn’t prying into her mind, but at the same time, Jen wasn’t doing a good job of hiding her thoughts. She didn’t really know how to, anyway. Not yet. But that was another matter. Putting her mind in the present, Jen allowed herself a nod, carefully choosing her words, “To a point.”    “To a point?” Voort was getting angry this time. Obviously, she’d chosen the wrong words.    Waving a hand to belay any more words she tried to think how to explain it to him. Voort wasn’t an idiot, and he should be able to understand. Or at least, understand better than Jen did, as she wasn’t completely sure of much of anything at this point. Again, she did her best to choose the correct words, “I care about him very much, yes. But Voort, I love you. There’s a difference,” she paused to look at his reaction. His expression softened. Good. Now that it was explained, she continued, “But there’s more. It’s the more that I just can’t pinpoint. I feel that I need to be there. The only way I’ll know why is if I go.”    That got a short laugh out of Voort, and he stepped over to sit next to Jen on the bed, “Spoken like a Jedi. You have been around that kid too long already. I might have to go, too, just to make sure you don’t get all philosophical and idealistic on me.”Jen smiled warmly, glad that the tension was finally gone, “That almost sounded like an insult.”    “Take it how you like,” he responded with an innocent shrug.    That got a mischievous grin out of her, “I always do.”* * * *It was dark. There was no sign of the planet’s moon tonight, therefore it was a nice pitch black outside. The dim lights of Haladin did little to assist in seeing, but no one seemed to mind. Just being in the city instead of the caves was enough to make anyone happy. Jen was finally making her way to the hangar. She probably should have gone earlier, but Akan or someone would have contacted her if there was any rush to leave. When she found Light sitting on top of the speeder and looking asleep, Jen wondered if Akan was even there.    A loud curse from inside the speeder echoed through the hangar. Nope. He was inside. At the noise, Light’s ear swivelled towards him. Quietly, and still managing to look asleep, Light said, “Yelling at it won’t fix the drive.”    Jen grinned when she saw Akan’s head pop out and glare at Light for a moment, “Its something I learned from you.”    He then disappeared inside the speeder again. Smiling, Jen walked over into the hangar and was surprised at how intense the interior lights were. Light seemed to hear her footsteps, but didn’t show any other form of acknowledgment of Jen’s presence beyond a slightly raised eyebrow. Standing in front of the speeder and leaning on it a little, Jen asked, “So what did he break?”    “I don’t not break anything!” sounded Akan’s voice from inside the speeder.    A hint of a smile appeared on Light’s face, and her eyes finally opened. She looked to her side at nothing, then back to Jen, “He kicked one of the control panels in there when it wouldn’t turn on.”    “Seems to have worked,” Jen commented, stepping around to look into the speeder out of curiosity. Looking in, she saw Akan looking exhausted and annoyed, sprawled out along the front seats and toying with collection of wires from a half opened panel. She leaned her head in a little, and offered, “You shouldn’t mess with any of those. Check the back panel inside. But open it up all the way.”    Akan had jumped at her sudden voice, nearly ripping a few wires in the process. He stopped what he was doing and looked at Jen, “You mean you know how to fix it?”    She smiled, “As well as you know how to break it.”    His ears flattened at that, but he moved out of the way to give Jen room to sit inside. With a bit of an annoyed tone to his voice, Akan grumbled, “It wasn’t working.”    Jen ignored him, and simply opened up the panel. He’d kicked it hard from the look of the dent. It took her about ten minutes, but she got it working again. Akan said nothing for the entire time, just watching her work. Eventually, he managed a thank you and then climbed out to tell Light to get in. As they piled in and Akan took the pilot’s seat again, Jen noticed something odd.    “No lightsaber?” she asked, pointing to the empty spot on Akan’s belt.    He shook his head as the systems switched on, “Shouldn’t need it. Just in and out.”    That short sentence also implied that he didn’t need the two others, either. But at least he didn’t say that directly. In fact, he hadn’t objected once to them going. Sure, it was in his eyes, but not saying anything meant that it wasn’t that horrible of a prospect to him. It was only a few more moments before Akan had them moving off into the desert.     One thing he failed to mention to either Light or Jen(though Light knew through the link), was that Voort and Landau would be following them just in case. The two of them were going to wait for a few minutes after the speeder had left and then head out in one of the operational airspeeders. It wasn’t that they expected something to go wrong...just that...well, actually, they did expect something to go wrong. Even Landau did. Having a secondary group in the sky and far enough back to help was just playing it smart. There was a time limit placed on how long the operation would last, and if one of the three didn’t respond by them, Voort and Landau were going to move in and see what they could do.    No one mentioned that the two of them might also need backup.</blockquote>

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