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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3316939" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 433: Jumping Away[I don’t see a thing.]    That wasn’t entirely true. Loki could, in fact, see quite a bit. All around him the wreckage of starships of various types hung in space. They were outside the Gateway near the center of where some of the fiercest fighting had occurred. Loki was currently busy navigating through the pieces of debris, trying to avoid getting hit again as a great deal of the pieces were large enough to leave marks. Through all of this, he was also doing his best to, as Marix had told him ‘keep an eye out for anything odd’.    Since then, she had said nothing, and Loki was left to try to search for whatever it was they were searching for. Something had happened to her. He had felt the sudden panic that faded suddenly, but nothing else. Beyond that, all that Loki could tell was that she had felt...well...something. She had said nothing else about it, and was doing what Loki had seen her do many times when something was bothering her: trying to figure out the source of the problem as soon as possible. It seemed that, to Marix, explanation had a way of slowing down her process of finding out what was going on.    Loki tipped himself slightly to the side, letting a rather large chunk of an X-Wing float over without actually hitting him at all. Making sure there was nothing else close to hitting him, Loki turned the brunt of his attention back to Marix. [If you could at least give me an idea of what I’m looking for this would be a lot easier...] he trailed off then changed his orientation again to avoid what looked like a piece of floating asteroid that was likely the remains of a Yuuzhan Vong ship. [...and I wouldn’t be coming so close to getting bombarded with wreckage...]    For the first time since they had passed through the Gateway to reach this location, Marix’s expression changed. The glossed-over, ‘I’m not in right now’ look faded and her eyes seemed to gain a bit more life. She blinked twice then reached up to run a hand through the black stripe in her hair before finally saying quietly, “Take us out of this...move to the rest of the wreckage.”    If Loki could have sighed, he would have. Instead he simply found a safe course out of the thick wreckage and started, slowly, towards the other group that was closer to the Gateway. As he did, he managed to divert enough of his attention to keeping an eye on her so he could see any other changes and said. [What are you looking for?]    “I don’t know,” Marix answered in the same voice as before.    [But you have an idea.] Loki managed to push it more mainly due to the fact that he had gotten out of the thickest area and wasn’t fearing for...well, not his life, but his comfort, at least.    This time, she sat back and, as he noticed she had a habit of doing, glanced upwards, “Loki...what happened before I told you to change course?”    That was an...odd question ,to say the least. But, at this point, he decided it was not the time to question and just the time to, well...answer. [I felt a surge of panic from you. Then you...cried out and then you told me to come here.]    Marix seemed to think about this for a few moments, then asked, “That was it? You didn’t feel anything else?”    [Not a thing...] he paused to maneuver around a very large chunk of durasteel that was likely the remains of a very large ship’s hull. [...should I have?]    Sitting forward again, Marix’s eyes scanned the view in front of them, “I felt a surge of pain like I haven’t felt since...since...” she closed her eyes, shaking off a memory as far as he could tell, then went on, “...since before I left home the first time...”    Loki understood that. He remember what she had been like then...very clearly. While he didn’t know all of the details, Marix had told him a great deal of what had happened in her time as a Tam’Day’U before her exile. He directed his attention to not hitting another object before responding. [What does that mean?]    “That it wasn’t the Force,” she answered right away, though it was obvious her attention wasn’t completely there. Her eyes followed an object for a moment before returning to the previous state of simply scanning things idly, “And there is nothing physically wrong with me. That leaves two other options, and if it had been the Network, all of the Empire would have felt it and I would have known...”    Loki was able to follow that line of thought, but didn’t exactly feel comfortable finishing that sentence for her. There was something unsettling to him about that subject, and even in his mind he was avoiding any specifics about it just to be safe. Perhaps he simply was trying his best to help to protect Marix in his own way, which was something that, if she found out he was doing, she would yell at him for. Despite that, though, Loki still did it. In a way, he really was a lot like Jyren.    Out of no where, Loki felt a strange sensation from Marix in the Force. He ‘looked’ to her and saw a curious expression on her face. Before he could ask, though, she spoke up, “Did you feel that?”    It was obvious she wasn’t referring to what he had felt from her, but something else. Because of that, Loki had only one answer as he tried to find a safe place to sit still in the middle of all of the floating starship wreckage. [Feel what?]    Marix bit her lower lip a moment as she was working through how to explain, then finally seemed to find a way, “Something...familiar but...”    Realization must have struck her right then, as she suddenly went quiet. It was that sudden silence that altered Loki to what she might have felt. He knew where they were sitting. He knew what kind of ship that piece of durasteel floating past was from....and he knew why there were chunks of asteroid-like Vong starship pieces floating around through it all at the same time.    [Is this what brought you out here?] he asked, still hedging around the subject and hoping she knew what he meant.    “I’m not sure...” she said quietly, shaking her head, “It feels...felt like an echo of sorts. Strong enough to be felt but...I don’t think anyone else could notice it,” sighing, Marix rested a hand on her stomach, “Maybe that was an echo, too...I think I’m losing my mind again.”    Loki was about to say something to that, but he caught a sudden movement off in the distance. Any movement like that out here was completely unheard of, and he immediately shifted his attention to it. In the distance, he could faintly make out an object shooting out of the wreckage they had first been in. [Marix! There’s a ship trying to leave!]        “What?!” the previous somber mood was gone as she dove forward and tried to see it on the sensor screen.    Spinning around, Loki started to move as fast as he could towards where the ship was flying towards while avoiding the larger pieces of starship around him. As he wove through them, he detected a buildup of energy. [Its going to jump to hyperspace! I can’t catch them!]    A growl escaped Marix, as the idea of a ship being out here was as angering to her as it was worrying to Loki, “Get a lock on their vector and plot every possible jump from there!”    That was asking a lot. However, Loki had done that before, and so was on it in a second. The second after, though, the ship disappeared. Trying to ignore this, Loki finished what he was doing. Thankfully, there weren’t many places to jump straight to from this close to the Unknown Regions that had safe routes. [There’s only one straight shot from here from their vector.]    “Plot a course,” Marix said as she was sending a message back to the Gateway, telling them what was happening. Loki was busy doing his best to plot the course and get them to a safe spot to jump to hyperspace from while she sent it, so he didn’t really have a chance to pay attention to anything that she said to them.    A few minutes later, they were in hyperspace.    A few minutes after that, Marix finally asked, “Where are we going?”    Taking a short break from making sure everything was going fine with himself, Loki answered simply. [Mygeeto.]</blockquote>

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