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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3398751" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 442: Next Stop[Part of me was hoping you’d get back with an army behind you so we could make a fun exit.] Loki commented idly as Marix calmly took a seat in her usual, currently freezing cold, chair.    She had taken the time to shed the extra layers of clothing and return to her Alraxian body...but it was still cold. As she placed the small datacard she had retrieved one of the organic consoles, she spared a glance at the glassy-white of the crystal spires that surrounded them. Looking back down and starting to dig around for the datapad that should be around somewhere, she said, “I decided that they didn’t need the exercise.”    [You’re no fun...but then again, you never were.] the feeling of a sigh passed through the Force from Loki. [Why you have to be all sneaky is beyond me. Its only fun when they see you.]    “You’re worse than Jyre—,” Marix ended that sentence quickly. Thankfully, it also coincided with her finding the datapad which meant the entire slip could be, and was, ignored...at least she ignored it.    Loki, on the other hand, was unsure of how to respond and instead sat there being...curious and concerned at the same time. She hadn’t said much since arriving, and though he’d been ready to leave, the general impression he was getting was they were in no rush at all. That, alone, was worrying. They were always in a rush to escape whatever chaos had been caused...well, no...not always. Decades ago, that had been the norm. But ever since Jyren had appeared it seemed like those days were gone, and it was something Loki didn’t mind. He loved the rush of an escape, and welcomed the change. Now, though, he was bored.    [What is that?] he finally asked, noting that the datapad’s screen was lit up for more than a minute so she had time to read whatever was there.    “Flight logs,” Marix said in a distracted voice. After a few more moments of quiet, she added, “Hutt Space.”    Loki gave it a moment to make sure she didn’t add anymore to clarify, and when she finally didn’t, decided it was alright to ask. [...what about Hutt Space?]    Setting down the datapad in the empty seat next to her, Marix sat up straight in the chair and look out the viewport again, “The ship has been traveling in and out of Hutt Space consistently for the past two weeks...different planets all along the border and then a few deeper. Each return trip is taking the ship back into Vong-occupied planets.”    [Scouts?] Loki asked, starting to get an idea for where they might be going.    “No, that doesn’t make sense,” she shook her head before reaching up to get a few of the black strands of her stripe out of her face then looked up towards. A look of concentration appeared on her features and then she said, obviously thinking out loud as she usually did, “It was a Rodian freighter. Smuggler types. They would know Hutt Space. It looks like the Vong are implanting...things into these smugglers. They’re using them. That would mean the Vong would know Hutt Space, too...or should.”    The thoughts trailed off into nothing. Loki was going over all of this, too, though with a definite lack of information as Marix was doing her usual thing and only speaking half of the information out loud. Working with what he had, though, he attempted to help. [They’re obviously looking at Hutt Space, though.]    Slowly, the lack of movement from Marix turned into a nod. A sigh escaped her and she leaned forward again, “Still too many pieces that don’t all fit together.”    That, at least, Loki could agree with. [Where to, then? Back home or...?]    “Not home yet,” she said rather quickly, then realized that Loki caught that and added, “There’s something...wrong about all of this, Loki. I can feel it. Its connected to us, too. To home. We have to follow this trail to the end and make sense of what the Vong are up to with the Empire.”    Again, Loki couldn’t help but agree. As he started to prepare himself to leave the icy and rather annoying to navigate planet of Mygeeto, he decide there was another important question. [Then where do we head?]    It didn’t take too long for Marix to think about that and her answer wasn’t a surprise to Loki at all, “Nar Shaada.”    It was the logical place to go in Hutt Space. The only thing was that Loki hadn’t been there in...well...years. He knew that Marix, too, hadn’t been there for a very long time. The last time he knew of was when the newly-merged Marix and Shadow had gone with Jyren and the Voorts...chasing after that damned Delta Nine and Halpak...who had captured Loki...    He didn’t like remembering those times.As he was starting to get into the sky, carefully moving upwards and trying not to scrape against the crystals around them, Loki heard Marix make another comment to him, “Please try to get us out the way we came in. The less they see us the better.”    And then she started to get up and head out of the cockpit. [Awww...telling me not to have fun then you run off?]    She stopped and glanced up, a tendency he’d always noticed and was mildly curious about, “I need to rest and...figure out what’s going on.”    When she left the cockpit, she didn’t leave Loki’s ‘view’, but he let his focus shift to the task at hand. That was what had been bothering him so much lately. On the surface, it was just like the old days. Just him and Marix, sneaking around where they weren’t supposed to be and, somehow, not getting caught. Yet...that was the distant past now. The years in between had changed so much for the both of them that it just wasn’t possible to go back to that again.    They’d both lost friends before. They’d lost people that had hurt them both in ways it shouldn’t have, especially for Marix, the supposed emotionless Tam’Day’U. But, eventually, the pain had gone away and the loss accepted. Alraxians celebrated death as a return to the Force, though for some it took time to see that way. But now...now it wasn’t going away. It was affecting everything, even in small ways. Loki couldn’t help but worry about Marix. It was a situation she had never expected to be in, for obvious reasons.    If he could have sighed, he would have. Instead, Loki turned skyward, and headed to the atmosphere and away from this cold, out of the way planet. He had a bad feeling about Nar Shaada.</blockquote>

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