Log:Retracing the Steps: Xagobah-Adjacent
Logs from Setis' sunken ship lead to a deep-space monitoring station outside of the Xagobah system. More mysteries and a potentially explosive revelation are turned up.
OOC Date: September 23, 2021
Location: Deep Space Monitoring Station
Participants: Zelo Parrai as GM, Nerys Greystorm, Vhe Tenara, Kasia Ashkuri, Kael Greystorm, Chani Tahn
Analysis has been concluded, and the beacon outside of Pamarthe's system was empty. An Analysis droid started picking up irregularities in the logs, the trail that had been followed out to the edge of Hutt Space. That string of irregularities leads our team here.
Xagobah.
More specifically, Xagobah adjacent.
<<"We're about ninety percent of the way there. It's been a bit of a trek, but this thing is retired, and I'd rather be cautious than not. Should be another few minutes to get there.">> The pleasant tone of Zelo Parrai updates those not in the cockpit, as the Projor Haal is not built for a large crew.
100,000 units.
It seems a long, long way out of the system but sublight travel is the best way to keep ripples to a minimum. The last few beacons they checked were just relays, but as something comes onto the ship's sensors, a scan tells that this one is a little more. <<"We have a small space station. Looks like there is a docking port, so we'll be pulling in in style. We won't know much about the power situation, but the beacon has been retired for years, so it's not likely to be great.">> Zelo looks to his side, where the core of a Perimeter droid is presently resting near the transparisteel window ahead. <"This is the place?>
<"Yes,"> answered Enslow, the droid brain in a small casing. <"She came here, seeking. The trail led to Pamarthe. Where you found her. Where I will someday return.">
Someday. But for today, the Projor Haal, and the crew of unaffiliated investigators, are bound for this station to seek out a trail decades cold. What awaits them?
Nerys, having worked on the information she had helped retrieve from the crashed ship sunk beneath the crater, had volunteered to accompany the team on the next leg of the journey. She had spent most of the time they were underway reviewing her analysis of the information, her head bent over her datapad with Bitty's head nearly touching hers, the two conversing on their private comms. Once they got the announcement that they were almost to the station, the datapad had been set aside, and she had begun the secondary process of ensuring that all of her equipment was prepared, accessible, and the maglock harness on the back of her backpack secured for Bitty to ride in. As she prepared, her voice came across the group's shared comms, "Bitty and I can work on stabilizing the ship's power grid, give us some room to operate." As Nerys prepared, she glanced over to the tall bounty hunter decked out in commando armor, voice switching back to personal comms. "Double check me, Kael?"
"My parents were traders and I do not ever recall this planet even in passing," Vhe admits as she sits in one of the seats, strapped in for their arrival. Her wild hair is wrapped up in the usual colorful scarfs to keep it out of her way as she glances to the others. There is a brush at a deep pocket within the homespun tunic. As it's confirmed that they have arrived but are not yet attached to their location she adjusts her pouches and touches the saber at her side. "With any luck we will be in and out with the information we need." And no one injured.
She glances aside to watch the Greystorms before offering a smile to the two other Jedi.
Kasia wasn't present for the first mission, but having gleaned some of the details about it, she was curious enough to request to come along on this one. She's dressed in clothing far more ready for adventure today, boots, trousers, a jacket, she has a weapon on her hip for just in case, and a bag with a few helpful items with the strap worn across her body. Being not a petite woman and with space being a premium on the ship, she's tucked herself into the most comfortable but out-of-the-way spot she can manage, simply listening to the update that Zelo offers on their progress. The smile from Vhe is answered in kind.
Kael was dozing off in his seat as the flight was going on and when the comms pops up his head moves looking over at Nerys nodding some as he looks over her gear, "Sure thing Nerys. And I can help with the power grid. Somewhat." He leans back into the chair before he looks over the rest of the team, "We'll for sure need to get life support stable."
"Derelict space stations out in the middle of nowhere? What could go wrong?" Chani Tahn muses the statement in idle wonder, half-joke, half curiosity. A warble of bleeps from next to her feet prompts Chani to dip her chin towards the deck of the Razorcrest where a blue and white BB series astromech responds to her comments. "I know you have a Basic vocoder. Why don't you speak to me that way? I don't understand binary." A flat, warbled noise responds, leaving Chani mystified, but under the impression that no matter how many times she asks, she's not going to get a different answer. Hands resting with her fingers gently caged within each other, Chani glances around the viewportless interior of the craft and does the only thing she can do: she waits.
Gaze wandering, Chani spots the smile from Vhe and quirks her mouth up in one that synchronizes itself with a quick nod. It's a botherless endeavor, given how her dark hair is swept back and bound out of the way.
<"I've never been in this section of the Galaxy before. My time was out in the rim and the border worlds. I don't even know if I'm saying it properly,"> the Mandalorian adds as he glances at Vhe. <"Exagobah?"> Not quite there. As those in the back and in the few seats in the cockpit prepare, the Razorcrest closes the distance, nearing the small space station from its 'top' as it arrays in a boxed grid pattern. Steering towards the starboard side, Zelo taps at the ship's computer and pulls up something he had only felt the faintest notion of.
The space station has a lazy... Almost spiraling twist in its rotation. It's not quite stable, and it's in some form of decay, but toward what is anyone's guess. The Nautolan tries to adjust for it, but... The computer fails him. Yes, the computer's fault. He looks over to Vhe.
<"The thing has an odd twist in its step. I'm going to have to stay with the ship to make sure that we stay attached and don't end up in a whole lot of trouble a whole long way from help."> Luckily, what the computer can't do, the pilot can. Angling the Razorcrest as best he can, he brings the ship in and uses small boosters to line up and shift as he follows the station's erratic movements. With a hiss, and a click - and then one from the ship - the docking port is engaged. The ship trembles as it starts to get pulled by the station, and Zelo moves it with it.
<<"You can run a line from my engineering panel, and use it to supplement the station's power. I'm going to have to stay with the ship to make sure we all have a ride home.">>
<"That may have been our departure. Syeta was in a hurry."> Enslow, ever-helpful.
<"Well... It's not going to make this easy,"> replies the Nautolan.
"Thank you." Despite the fact that they had been following the same routine for years now, Nerys never forgot to thank Kael for his help. Once she was ready, and the ship was docked, the explorer got to her feet, giving a final check to Bitty, before she moved towards the docking ring, stepping out onto the station and scanning for the closest computer input terminal. She left the rest to move out as they chose, as she got to work. It was the work of only a few minutes, before she nodded, "I am in the system, working to get us stable now. Bitty, go and grab that cabling from the ship." The smol droid unclamped herself, flying back to the ship to pick up the power access cable. Soon, the pair were hard at work getting the system up and running at a more useful level.
Once they safely shudder into place and the ship is secured, Vhe finally unstraps herself. Safety first. She looks to the others, listening to Zelo as she nods, "Of course, we don't want to lose the ship or the connection. that would not help anything." She steps closer to him for a moment, reaching out to give his shoulder a squeeze in parting before she reaches out. There is a moment as the Force flickers and responds to her before offering some sort of understanding of what lies ahead of them while Nerys and Kael tend to the matter of power.
"Something is off about the station...nothing living that I can sense so far but I can not put my finger on it. Seems a rather commonplace thing to say but we should not split up and be rather careful where we walk. It's probably not altogether stable."
"Pretty sure I've never been out this way either," Kasia remarks on the heels of other comments. "I've been to some strange places, but never here." She tenses as the ship connects with the station, knowing how bad things can go when it's even a little bit wonky, but when there isn't panicked beeping coming from things as a result, she lets out a breath. While others deal with the computer side of things, she closes her eyes for a few moments, opening her eyes as she nods along to Vhe's assessment. "Yeah. It feels unstable here, moving with caution is wise."
Kael walks over to an access panel and starts to log into the station's systems and then shakes his head a bit, "Systems are looking pretty bad here. Power's down to maybe four percent left on battery. The life support is on but it's not going to stay on for long. I'd recommend that we actually run power from the ship to help augment until we can get the proper power generators up." He pulls up the schematics for the station, "Looks like I've got the layout as well. HighBall get that onto your holo projector so we can get a visual for the team."
Once the docking port engages with the station, Chani rises from her seat and moves an arm out to brace against her hand against the wall to make sure the new pattern of gravity doesn't see her tumbling over onto her face. Experiencing no such troubles, the white and blue astromech rolls forward and Chani follows behind. Adjusting her feyd-cloth robe around her to stymie the natural chill that comes with being in space, Chani's sleeves dip back towards her forearms when it comes her turn to navigate through to the station on the other side of the clamp. She's mindful of the cramped transition. The last thing she wants is to crack her head against the seal allowing them to disembark their craft. Despite venturing into the unknown, there is some measure of reward in stepping onto the station and that's being able to stand and move without having to worry about bumping into something or someone else.
Whatever relief this brings is fleeting. Vhe's awareness of the eerie atmosphere influences Chani's own opinion of it and she finds herself honed in on her senses. Her eyes dart from place to place. Her head cants at a slight angle, so her ear is more exposed towards the sounds coming from deeper within the station. "Maybe we should try to get some information from the station system and see if we can find out anything about its integrity. They have warning systems for stuff like that, don't they?"
Zelo puts a hand over Vhe's and gives her a look, even through the custom H-visor of his Skyripper helm. <"Not losing the ship, the connection, or anyone in the team. Be safe,"> he adds, before his eyes turn again to the computer and sensor arrays. It's very minute; all the adjustments and shifts he makes are minimal, but it's a lot of effort for the small payout of no trouble. As the others disembark, he glances to Befour, the BB droid who has tucked herself beneath the nearest terminal. <"Befour, can you prepare our powersystem for outgoing? We'll need some extra output, and it's going to use a lot of fuel. Power a whole station-level output. Just for a short burst."> The Nautolan glances to the computer where the BB unit's tweeeo-reeeeeps are all translated for him. <"I know. But I trust you, and it will help us get out of here faster, and safer."> *woreeeeep* as the BB unit rolls back to the engineering panels and starts prepping for a pass-through.
As the crew begins their work within, stepping on long-abandoned floor panels, touching interfaces and bringing the dead back to responsive output, there is a faint shudder. Not on comms but from the direction of the ship, one may think they hear a faint, <"Kriff."> Then there is a click and a broadcast begins for anyone with methods to hear the team's frequency.
<<"The pattern is irregular and I'm doing the best I can... But fast may be a very good plan.">> Those who don't feel the shudder will still notice the residual stirring as puffs of dust are shaken loose from floor and ceiling alike. <<"Befour's getting the power transfer primed.">>
Once Bitty had returned with the power coupling, the pair returned to work. Kael's report on the power system did not go unnoticed, and Nerys came back on the line, "I'm going to see if I can get us some more stable power." The pair went to work. Nerys continued her exploration of the power system, calling out the proper conduit for Bitty to interface with. The smol droid, once she had her target took care of finding a way to reroute and bypass electrical systems, allowing the much older power systems of the station to accept the input from the much newer, and foreign power signature from the ship they were feeding off of. "Alright, we're powering up now. Trying to keep it from draining the ship's systems."
A nod is given to both Chani and Kasia, perhaps two should take point and another in the back? Hopefully then we can sense anything that may go awry with the Force. IF we need to hurry, splitting up could cause chaos." That said Vhe steps up alongside Nerys and Kael, reaching out to touch the nearest panel while not interfering. The Force that was once used to study the interior of the station with no definite understanding save for a wariness now tries to connect with the long-dormant system.
She gives a soft push at the system to try to soothe its existence back into being. Trying to help those who are more hands on with the reestablishment of power. "The system wants to help us but even with the power we are offering it may not be enough."
With the computer elements handled, Kasia steps away to survey the area that they're currently occupying to look for... well, anything that's off. Anything that might present a danger to the group. She seems to have some understanding of how ships work, a general idea of where it's probably safer to walk when doing an inspection of questionable space spaces. "Be careful over here," she says with a gesture to a spot where two corners meet. "Let's just avoid this area entirely if we can, and move quickly, because this looks like it's ready to break apart and possibly send us out into space. I'd like to avoid a space walk today if possible."
Kael Greystorm starts to look through the systems as he's working on the control panel, keying up on the team comms, "I'm going to start to shut down non-essential systems. Starting with Deep Space sensors. Going to rely on the ship's eyes for anything out there after a bit." As he works on the systems he nods a bit, "Power draw looks dropped by about forty percent. Does that look reasonable with our power input or do we need to drop it more?"
The whole station trembles and Chani angles her arms out away from her while dipping her knees a bit lower to create a lower center of gravity should the commotion get any worse. She's not sure what qualifies as 'worse' in this situation, but watching dust sprinkle along the station's deck plating and hearing the deep, moaning groan of walls, floors, and everything structural within the station groaning suggests it's not something she wants to find out. "It sounds like an animal in pain." The singular notion stands out among the rest. Chani wonders if she fixates on it because it allows her to take her mind off the potential that the fake atmosphere they're breathing may evaporate when the statin disintegrates around them.
"That's not good, right?" Chani's list of life skills stops somewhere shortly after 'can pluck strings well'. The intricacies of engineering are well beyond her. Not so for the astromech near her feet. Wheeling away, Sky approaches one of the nearby dataports to begin interface. Chani catches the movement out of her peripheral vision, and is just starting to say something when Vhe suggests that they take a triangular formation. "Just.. go back to the ship if things get dangerous, okay?" Chani isn't sure if Sky hears her or not. "I'll take the rear," the young Naboo native offers among the three. Vhe and Kasia are far more experienced than she is.
Meanwhile, Sky both bleats a series of beeps and broadcasts to the nearby crew through interface translation that it has located the axis most out of alignment. It provides a power map signaling what the most efficient route would be to help stabilize the external movement of the station.
With the power coupling run and the intrepid Bitty's handy interface translation skills, the station seems to be perking up. In fact, the station has enough power to not only support life but charge up the backup and pass power through to everything in the system. Lights begin to warm after a long sleep, and more of the tinted hue of low-power is being chased away by the return of a long-dead station to the way things used to be. This does, however, bring with it an increase to the tentative moan as the station uses more power to try to correct its course. But something is still out of alignment.
<<"Power supply is looking good so far, we're burning up some fuel but the Projor Haal can withstand more-">> The comm is cut short, and another <"Kriff"> floats down the hall from the ship. <<"Power supply is fine so far, but if you could do something about the alignment, it's firing up on all sides out here.">>
<"She may have left in too much of a hurry."> Enslow, the most helpful.
Inside the station, terminal screens are casting their own glows, and diagnostic scans are taking up some room on the screen as the system basks in the luxury of full power.
Once the system was beginning to power up, Nerys turned her attention to trying to correct whatever it was that was keeping the station out of alignment. She and Bitty were once again accessing their respective panels, "Trying to see if I can correct whatever's keeping the station out of whack. But whatever it is we are hoping to find, it's not our here. We need to get moving on whatever information we're hoping to retrieve." And then, there was a pause. "I'm going outside." And then, because an explanation was necessary, "There is an exterior sensor that is causing the alignment problem." And then Nerys rose, leaving the input terminal after disengaging her interface, and headed for the closest airlock, the clamp of magboots giving her steps a ringing one as she prepped her system for EVA. "Kael, keep an eye on things in here and let me know when you're happy." Bitty followed behind, to manage getting Nerys in and out of the airlock.
Taking up positions, or starting to Vhe comes about at the motion made by Kasia. "Whatever happened here no one cared to preserve what was left behind. I wonder what we will even find her." The dust upon the floor is kicked up and the hum of power gives a sense of security. The colorful Ysanna tilts her head up to give a look to their current path and pauses, her eyes sweeping the ground and allowing her eyes to adjust and take in details now that the lights are coming online.
"Call out if either of you feel anything or see anything...hopefully Nerys can help keep the power stable but something has to be here." She trusts in the others as much as one can. Enough that she begins to take a few steps forward to expand their radius.
Her hand lifts to brush at the power conduits and remain in some form of contact with the station for future use.
"That happens a lot with these old facilities," Kasia remarks with a slight crinkle of her nose at some memory or other. "I was on one once that was worse off than this, and had something still living on it, with something going wrong with the gravity. It was bad." She doesn't go on to describe the bad beyond that, no need to tempt fate more than she has. With that bit of cheerful story shared she lets her focus drift from the present to something less here, eyes taking on a middle-distance sort of gaze for a few beats before they sharpen on the present again. "We need to go that way." She points down a corridor, sort of, possibly turns involved, but she's got a sense of where those will be. It's just hard to explain when it's a feeling. "Yeah, that way." She casts a worried look at the weak point again. "Be careful though, this looks like it wants to pop."
Kael looks over at Highball, "Project up the layout you just usurped from my suit. Display it for the others to see." The droid perched on his shoulder turns and projects a layout of the station as Kael starts to look through the systems some more, "Okay so looks like unless we've got a payload of fuel on the ship we're not getting the station's power generators online." As Kasia starts to point in a direction for the destination he points a thumb back over his shoulder at the holoprojection that Highball has, "Highball realign so that it's showing what's in the direction that we need to go in. Should help with the twists and curves."
"It's sad," Chani offers after Vhe states no one cared to preserve what was left behind. "Kind of. Just the idea." She struggles to put voice to the emotions she's experiencing and allows silence to fill in the blank after. It's not the appropriate time for sentiment when they need to be mindful of their surroundings for the very real purpose of surviving. Chani drifts back some five meters from the forward pair and keeps her head on a swivel. There are moments she glances behind them, too, just to see if anything changes about where they've come from. There's a methodical hesitation to her gait. Chani checks every bit of plating she's about to step onto with half the pressure rather than committing. It changes her gait, but safety is priority.
No acknowledgment relayed back to Sky doesn't change the droid's current focus. Moving through the systems, it isolates the specific location of the thrusters with the most grievous malfunctions and begins to adjust their output. Rather than fighting against each other, the thrusters instead alternate orientation and begin counterforce with applied bursts of thrust at timed intervals. The overall effect sees the station's projected degradation to slow significantly. As before, Sky alerts nearby crew to this via status update over the communication net and through translator for those not versed in the droid's language.
The Greystorms have managed to stabilize the power to the system, at least in the short term. The soft groan of a system under pressure continues to fill the air, even as Nerys makes her way to an airlock to tackle the sensor issue at the source. Kael, via Highball, supplies a map and layout of key systems as Vhe, Kasia, and Chani sweep in the direction of a pull of the Force, toward the place where raw information is held. Dust is disturbed as the first tracks made in a few decades are laid down in the barren station.
Outside, Zelo continues to fight the irregular maneuvers of the station, though one axis seems to stop entirely, reducing the difficulty of his own task. Befour twee-woooooors, and Zelo looks up from the screens to see out of the ship's cockpit, where thrusters are slowly cooling off. <"That explains that.">
<<"Things are a little better out here, but I'm still stuck to these controls. Have you found the log banks yet?">> The Dauntless Courier is the goal, and the trail diverged here. Something in those records must put them on the path that had led a Sith seeker so far astray long ago. <<"The records should go back about fifty years, if it's like any of the other beacons.">>
"Don't think you can decide not to let me in again," was Nerys' comment to Bitty, as she prepped for departure. Smol droid, for her part, offered only a noncommittal chirp, as she waited for Nerys to enter the airlock before she cycled it, exposing the explore to vacuum. She made use of her boots and skill at working in unfortunate places, and Nerys was soon on the hull of the station, following the maps which had been uploaded into her system to make her way towards the sensor that required adjustment. Nerys, being accustomed to moving under lock, made short work of moving to the malfunctioning sensor and she took a knee, plugging in to access the system in order to correct its processing. Nerys, as she worked, keep a weather eye on her surroundings, and she noted, back on comms, "Once I get this finished, I see something on the hull that looks relevant to our current troubles." It would not take long, before the sensor's malfunction was corrected, and Nerys could continue on the next step, literally, of her journey.
"Thank goodness you know where we need to go," Vhe remarks to Kasia as she assures them it's that way but a wariness settles over the Ysanna as the mention of it 'popping' causes her to exhale. "Very well, we treat carefully." She glances back to Chani to be sure they are all moving together and leaving no one accidentally behind. The words from the Naboo native get a nod. "It always is, so much trouble to build and construct bt it is far easier to leave behind. Strange isn't it?"
She picks her way carefully, glancing down at the marks in the dust. "They were fleeing...let us hope whatever happened is over and not waiting for a misstep on our part."
"It always surprises me that these places aren't raided more," Kasia admits as she leads the way down the corridor in the direction of the drives. "That people don't tear these places down for parts faster, I mean," she clarifies. "Though I suppose unless you have a reason to know it's here, the chances of just stumbling upon it are slim. Still." She shoots a smile at Vhe. "Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, it worked today so I'll be glad for that much." She glances back to see if Chani is following, offering her the same sort of smile if she is, then focuses ahead again.
Kael follows along with the rest of the team as they start to head towards the racks of drives. He's looking at the tracks in the dust going in normal... Leaving in a hurry before his hands reach down to check his holsters ensuring that his blasters are ready to go hand reaches up to his shoulder and then a quick turn of his head before he keys up on his comms, "Nerys. I forgot my sword. Can you believe that?"
The last thing Chani plans is to wander off through the station by herself. Save for those backward glances to ensure they aren't being followed or snuck up on, Chani keeps pace with Kasia and Vhe while maintaining that same specific distance. It's a smart tactic on Vhe's part. This allows them to remain together while also not clustering up should something go wrong. Vhe mentions that people were fleeing and Chani follows her gaze down to realize she's right. She'd missed the signs entirely. "It's been waiting for a long, long time if it is." Her addition to the conversation is quiet, and Chani is quick to nod both Vhe and Kasia when they look back. Now that they're getting close, Chani continues with something else. "I can watch guard while you two search, if you want. I don't know anything about digging through systems."
Things on the Projor Haal look good, though not good enough for autopilot. There is less to fight with the thrusters offline now and perhaps even less with the sensor now fixed from the outside. <<"Nerys, I've got eyes on you. I know you're locked in, but be careful. Something on the outside could be... Almost anything.">> Inside the station, a terminal glows, and red lights flash around several of the large platter drives that are racked into the logging terminal.
Nerys made short work of the distance between the sensor and where she could see that a panel had been broken away from the hull. She made some adjustments to her boots as she took a knee, trying to identify what it was that had made impact enough to cause the damage and disturb the sensor. "Looks like we have a device maglocked to the hull, trying to disengage it now." Nerys made careful work of disengaging the magnets clamping it to the hull, a frown crossing her face, as she removed the device. "Some sort of listening device. Looks as though it's been harvesting information from the station's systems. I'm going to see if I can disable it, but not destroy it so that we can access its internal memory to see what it's harvested...and what it might have changed or deleted. Maybe the half-droid can identify what this is or who might have sent it."
Her hand upon the power lines she lowers once more in an attempt to find something, fingers spreading over one of the prints. She disturbs its presence as she glances up at Kasia, "Good to have you along.." she murmurs and then hesitates, a quiet falling over her as her gaze goes distant. Slowly her head cants to the side.
Vhe's fingers flex and she rises to rejoin the others but begins to relay some information. "Setis was here with another..and they worked on that terminal ahead. Whatever they did shut this place down and Setis made it out as the other...walked above. They may have hidden something here...and cut the systems to keep it safe." She points upwards to note a set of prints on the ceiling above them. "Maglocks."
"Glad to be here," Kasia replies quietly to Vhe, though not so quiet Chani won't be able to hear it too. She listens intently as Vhe shares the information, gaze angling upward briefly to look at the indicated prints. Her brows loft curiously, concerned, but they reach the room with the drives and she sets to work. "Uhhh, did anyone else see that?" she asks at the flash of 'rewriting' on a screen. She's worried enough to snatch up some holodiscs and quickly start to pull the information off of the drives. "This is... a lot of data. And I'm not sure but we might be breaking this place for good doing this. Which is a little sad, but..." But they're here to get the information, so that's what she's going to do.
Kael Greystorm spots the rewriting on the screen, "That's no good. It's changed some data trying to see what it possibly was or keep it from going forward with any other changes to the data?" He steps up to a terminal and starts to try and work but it's just not going well, "Sorry looks like they're better with computers than I am." Shocked much? the guy is a tall chunk of armor not a proper slicer.
"The flicker, right?" Chani's response is to Kasia. "I saw it. It said re-something." It was too fast for her to catch all of it. They're stepping into the archives now and Chani lingers near the doorway. She doesn't know if anything is going to try to stop them from doing this, but better to have one pair of eyes watching out for trouble than all trained on the task at hand and oblivious. The first thing she checks is the room, up to and including the ceiling. Vhe's earlier comment about maglocks on the ceiling led Chani to wonder if there was some semblance of hidden pathways up there. It's the unknown that keeps her mind guessing, but it's that same unknown that makes her so alert and attentive to what's happening around them. Her gaze turns outward after, carefully watching the hatch they've entered through. It's curiosity that gets her to glance towards the terminal Kasia is accessing. She doubts she can glean anything from what's going on, but hers is an open one. She frowns and gestures with her chin. "Do you see the panel next to the terminal? The upper right. There's... I don't know, scrapings on the edge. Claw marks? Or maybe someone pried it open with something?"
As Vhe sees echoes of the past, Kasia is presently downloading the records for a ship known as the Dauntless Courier - from the look of things, a Sentinel-class shuttle that passed through this system a few dozen times. Or within a sector of it. - and Kael is stymied for now, as the ghost of rewriting fades into the electronic mist. Chani's eyes lead to a panel that gives every being with Force Sensitivity a very, very bad feeling. Something about that panel says 'Get away, and do not touch.'
Outside, Nerys carries a ceramic plate of unknown purpose, newly detached from the hull of the station. And in the Projor Haal, the Nautolan Mandalorian holds the ship steady and tries to keep Befour entertained as she tries to go explore in the station. <"Everyone will be back soon, I'm sure. Don't make us wait on you, alright? Monitor the power output, our fuel's down to half."> Tweee-erooooo.
Nerys, who had only bits and pieces of knowledge of what was going on inside, as she had access onto the what comm chatter was being shared on the group channel, left them to do what they would do. Making certain to disable the transmitting device while still rendering it accessible for information download and integration was her primary focus. She kept at it, and finally, once it was done, "The device has been disabled. If we can pull the data from the station, we should be able to compare the two datasets and attempt to reconstruct the correct information. I'm going to drop this off on the ship and head back in if I'm needed."
Vhe does not like the look of things being overwritten, the vision enough for her to consider how badly this could all go if they shut down. Maybe on a loop or if they download it will trigger it. She reaches out to the side of the ship again. "Be careful, as soon as you finish there may be a count down for systems to shut down. Perhaps. That may be what I saw," she expresses. "Setis was certainly in a hurry."
The Force is meant to connect her once more with the station's systems but it comes back with nothing but silence. A minor frown forms and she can not hear it, can not ask it questions or perhaps help preserve its current properly functioning position.
Kasia glances up at the panel that Chani is indicating, only feeling a faint tingling of danger from the thing. "That?" she asks, canting her head toward it. There's no doubt in her tone though, she trusts the ladies in the room with her enough to trust their instincts on these things. Which is good, because her own instincts are pretty off concerning the aforementioned panel. "Something off with it?" The news from Vhe makes her brows furrow a little more. "A count down?" She sounds a smidge alarmed, because those so rarely lead to anything good. Her eyes move to the drives, and then she rests a hand on them, trying to focus. Fooooocus. Focus? Nope, nothin. "I'm done here, so should we beat a hasty retreat?" She seems inclined to do that unless warned to do otherwise.
Kael Greystorm steps up to a terminal and inserts his own disks to start getting more information dumped onto holo disks looking over at the panel they're all worried about, "Want me to open it up and take a look inside? I mean what's the worst thing that could happen? The station blows up? I'm sure it's not /that/ bad." As he takes a half step away from the panel.
Chani Tahn
"Kasia?" Chani's voice is almost as still as the recycled station air running on its lowest power setting. "I think you should step away from that panel." Chani's having a moment. She's learned to listen to the voice of the Force in her time as a student, but this is less a voice and a yell. It's an instant, skin-tightening, hackle-raising screech of warning that leaves her gaze fixated on the scrape-edged panel. Without realizing it, Chani has adjusted her body into a stance where her gravity is lower in preparation for attacking or being attacked. Her shoulders are back. Her muscles are still, but waiting to snap like whipcords with reflex. "I think everyone should maybe step away from the panel..." Chani's watching it like she expects it to explode at the slightest movement from Vhe, Kael, or Kasia. Maybe something vile lurks hidden within and is waiting to burst out. Or maybe it truly is the more explosive type of reaction that lurks behind it. "It's... wrong." She can't equate it in more complicated terms.
Inside the station, as Kasia focuses on the drives, one begins clicking, and then a countdown pops up on the screen.
100... 99... 98...
Zelo and Befour wait in the cockpit, continuing to keep the ship well attached to the station, as - inside - a countdown timer reads out on a screen in front of the three Jedi and the armored Kael. Something is, indeed, wrong. Very wrong.
Nerys, having retrieved the device, whatever it really was, headed back towards the airlock. It was not, thankfully, a far walk, at speed, from where she had been working. But she would need to go back into the station, as the ship was still engaged to the station's hull. Smol droid, did, in the end, let Nerys back into the station, the air lock cycling and leaving Nerys with a small distance to close before she could get back into the ship proper to deliver her treasure. "How are we doing in there?"
Again Vhe finds silence in her sudden worry with the count down. Maybe they had done something to make the system unresponsive, either way there is nothing for her to coax or speak to so there is Kael. Only Kael presently who can keep whatever is counting down from reaching its terminus. "Okay well, we should begin back but ..." she looks to Kael than the other women as she begins to slowly make her way back, getting a little distance from the panel now that it's open - not sure how this is all going to end. It could end very poorly.
Kasia seems intent on getting o-u-t, but she doesn't plan to do so with other people there. Other people trying to help, and so she tries to help. That help is soundly rejected by the force, but she tries, and lingers to offer assistance how she can. "I'm going to get very yelled at if I get blown up," she offers unhelpfully, waiting to see if she'll need to try and shield them from an explosion.
Kael keys up his comms, "Oh I think we're just finishing up here darlin why not hang out there on the ship and we're heading your way..." He turns towards the others, "SOoo curiosity is my downfall... I gotta see." He walks over to the panel and pulls out a knife as he pries open the panel snipping some wires as he does so causing the timer to drop to 80, "Well that escalated quickly..." Then he's toying with the system untillll... "There we go about sixty seconds left but it looks like the timer is disabled but the bomb is still alive. And it is a bomb." He turns back towards the others and shakes his head, "Why are you all still here? Run! It's a bomb... Attached to the hull." He starts to turn to heads back towards the ship.
The warning doesn't go as planned. 'Get away from the panel' turns into watching Kael go straight for it, and Chani's breath sucks in before coming to a halt. She doesn't even realize that she's holding it. Her entire body is tension, as if somehow by clenching her jaw hard enough and squinting just a bit more, she can somehow protect herself from the destructive force of an explosion in an enclosed space. If the bomb doesn't get her, the vacuum of space will. Chani doesn't think a station this damaged can structurally withstand an explosion. She could be wrong, of course. It does, every day, withstand the forces of space outside, but those are usually constant, and this? This one would be sudden. Vhe starts to move back. Kael suggests they leave. Chani agrees with all of that and begins making her own way back with bated breath. She thinks they should have just left. "Me too," Chani shares Kasia's sentiment. She's pretty sure she's definitely not allowed to get accidentally blown up.
<<"A what? Everybody on the ship, we're getting out of here now!">> Zelo's hands are locked on the yoke, ready to break the connection with the station and get them far away, but his movements are instinctual as his visor looks behind, locked to the staircase leading to the bay where the crew will have to board. Five off, five on. Everyone goes home. There is a growing sense of relief for each shape to cross the threshold, but the smile inside his helm doesn't come until they're all on board - one wild-haired Ysanna in particular. When they're all inside, the Mando calls out <<"Befour, shut the door, we're out of here.">> With a chirp, the BB unit will close the hatch and sever the connection, sending as much to the computer's readout.
Zelo steers the ship away and, with speed, there is distance between the Razorcrest and the station.
<"Is that where they left the bomb?"> Enslow. The most helpful droid.
