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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2915076" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 368Hyperspace was always empty. Outside of realspace and locking the ship and its crew in its own little universe away from everything they new, save the Force itself. But even the Force felt slightly hollow as Marix stared out Loki’s viewport and into hyperspace. Everything felt that way lately...and it seemed like there was nothing at all to fill the emptiness that actually managed to cause some kind of physical pain. Minor, yes, but nagging. The reason for it was quite obvious, of course.    There were very good reasons why the many Alraxians that shared a Link always stayed together. Or at least, near one another. The science behind the hows and the whys of it were fairly well known, but it was never anything of interest to Marix. A Link had never been in her thoughts, as it was not something that would ever happen for a Tam’Day’U...who would be dead before it even became close to becoming an issue. But it seemed that Marix always found a way to go against the expectations of...well...everyone. Including herself.     To think that she had ever reached adulthood was amazing enough. To go on and realize that she had freed herself and her fellow Tam’Day’U from their literal slavery to the few Alraxians who would admit they existed was even more amazing, to the point of being completely unimaginable. Not to mention the fact that these Tam’Day’U were now Knights of the Alraxian Empire and helping to train the rest of the Knights in combat techniques that were becoming more and more necessary as the years went by. And a Link? With, of all people in the galaxy, an idealistic human who she’d somehow gotten herself attached to and then become a bit more than attached before running into the one thing that helped to finally break the training she had been given: Emotion.    To Marix, the emotions were the most amazing things. She had grown up without any, though she did know the textbook definition of an emotion and how to use against her targets, it was never something she was actually exposed to. But then, first thanks to the smuggler, Max, and then Jyren...something had happened to break it all. And from what was something that even she could admit was a wonderful thing, falling in love and even(this she admitted quietly even to herself) having a family, the opposite end of the spectrum came along, too. And it was this utter emptiness that Marix felt now that she couldn’t get out of her head...sitting around didn’t help, of course...and she couldn’t sleep. Didn’t want to, actually...but...    Something hit her. A flash of everything at once, completely out of no where, causing her eyes to jolt open as she knew exactly what it was. In a rash move, she yelled out, “Get us out of hypspace!!”    [What?!] both her tone and sudden reaction got a strong shock from Loki, as he was just as unused to seeing her act like that as she was.    “Get us out of hyperspace!” she repeated again, this time sitting up in her chair and scrambling across the controls to find the damned thing herself since the Kanyak wasn’t cooperating.    And he wasn’t planning on it, either. [I can’t do that! Who knows what we could—]    “Fine!” Marix growled, having found the controls herself, “I’ll do it myself!”    And she did.     Four very violent jolts rocked the ship from the sudden reverting back to realspace, and while they were suddenly out in the black emptiness between the many starsystems of the galaxy, Loki was sure they’d come very, very close to hitting...something.    [Marix, what is wrong?!] Loki was now distracted, immediately attempting to make sure everything was alright with both himself and his old friend who seemed to have completely lost her mind.    Her silvery-purple eyes looked straight up for a half second, an icy determination in them, “What’s the nearest system?”    Loki didn’t miss that she failed to even acknowledge his question. Deciding it was nearly pointless to fight this, he did his best to find out, checking stars against his internal databases, if they could even be called that, for a few short moments before answering. [Agamar is just a few light years from here.]    “Take us there, now,” Marix’s voice held that same stern tone, and while Loki started making the preparations for the jump, he couldn’t help noticing that she felt fine through the Force...in fact, she felt better than she had been in a long while.    Just as they were making the short jump, Loki decided to attempt once again to understand why she’d nearly gotten them killed. [What is it, Marix?]    When the lines of the stars extended and they shot forward, a calming wave seemed to sweep over the entirely of the ship. And yet she didn’t answer.    She didn’t answer for the simple reason that she wasn’t actually that sure why she’d acted like that. She felt...something. Something strong, and something very close. It was so strong in both the Force and through her very being that it pulled her to it. Marix had never experienced such a strong feeling before, especially coming out of no where and hitting her like a tubolaser blast. And, after only a few moments of managing some rational thoughts, she knew exactly what it was.    It was the link. Somehow, it had gotten stronger. The absence of it for a long while caused the sudden return of it to overwhelm her to the point where, right then, Marix knew she couldn’t allow it to go away again. Or at least, some unconscious part of her did, and made sure the rest of her was going to go along with it...though, now that she truly understood what had happened, Marix definitely agreed. They had tried it, and she had known the problems that might come up...but maybe she hadn’t really known them. It was not something that was viable anymore. It made it harder for her to do her job and find a way to protect her people from this war.    And, very quietly, Marix said, “Jyren is at Agamar...” she paused a moment, feeling the familiarity of the link but realizing that there was more than just the wonderful feeling of having it back, “...and he’s in over his ears again.”</blockquote>

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