Star Nomad Cast (starnomadnpc) wrote in starnomad, @ 2015-05-24 19:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | character: luke skywalker, character: rikki barnes, date: [61.06], location: coruscant |
Who: Luke Skywalker & Rikki Barnes
When: 61.06, a couple of days following this.
Where: Skywalker apartments, Coruscant
What: Rikki has a possible source & she wants a second opinion.
Status: COMPLETE
The chip had laid on her conscious as she worked through the information that was on it. As far as she could tell it was trade routes, smugglers and even reputable merchants that were flagged as Peace Brigade or at least dealing heavily with the Yuuzhan Vong. If this was real then it was not good. Not good seemed to be an understatement. But it was also information that they didn't currently have, at least not on her end. Luke and his resources might know more, could do further checking to see if it was exactly what it was assuming to be. If it wasn't, well, she knew where to track this kid down even if it was likely just the setting up of another trap. After all the Peace Brigade had known about her meeting with the bounty hunter. But they hadn't recognized her. This kid had done that and on top of that known about Lyric. If he wasn't an ally then Rikki had a bigger problem on her hands. She knocked lightly before entering into Luke's office. There wasn't a meeting scheduled, she hadn't seen anyone come in or out for a while. It was now or never, Barnes. "Master Skywalker?" Rikki stepped into his office, allowing the door to shut behind her before continuing. "If you've time, I've something important to bring to your attention." There was nothing like your galaxy falling apart on you. Luke had found it difficult to keep his hope steady over the past few weeks. He had managed mostly, failing only a few times, and he knew only a few had noticed - Mara, almost certainly, and Anakin certainly as well. But the outward representation was one of calm. Calm, patience, steady belief that in the end the good would triumph and they would find peace and justice in the galaxy again. The light side of the Force would prevail against the surrounding darkness. It was the thing he focused on every morning as he sought meditation - the light, the truth, the things they could bring - but then the day would bring less light and more darkness, less truth and more obfuscation, little whispers, little things, and Luke Skywalker was beginning to realize that he wasn't prepared to lead the Jedi - and in a big way - not in the smaller ways he had frequently feared in his youth. How many Jedi before him had been in similar places of darkness? But had there even been anything like this in the galaxy? Thus Rikki's interruption was welcome - whatever she had to bring to him would be different from the impossible maps he'd been reviewing. Those maps had come from his nephew, the same nephew that currently was caught in a system where the Yuuzhan Vong and the Peace Brigade were seeking him out and there was not enough between those forces and the young man Luke wanted to protect - perhaps even as much as the girl who stepped into his office. But he couldn't protect him, and Rikki had been surprisingly calm upon learning of his disappearance, so perhaps this wasn't the place to worry... Always in motion was the future, as his one time Master had once told him. "Of course. Come in Rikki," Luke nodded his head towards a ottoman near him and motioned for Rikki to take a seat. "What do you have for me?" Honestly Rikki would have felt more comfortable standing but she also knew that Luke would be more at ease the other way. The information she had... She had already started to change things in little ways. Ripples as Mara had said. There was no telling just how much or how little her actions would change how the future came together. She could only keep doing what she was good at, which was to try and help people no matter how big or how small. "I was approached yesterday in the undercity." She started, taking her seat. Her back was straight as a rod, a small grown in place on her face. "I told you about the meetup Anakin and I had that went south. The person who approached me claimed to be with the original contact I had, the one who lyric confirmed had been murdered." Reaching into her pocket she fished out the chip and handed it over, datapad pulled out next. "He handed me this. It seems to be merchant and smuggler information, a listing of peace brigade ties. I've done what background checking I can on the information. He said it was a good faith offering." Luke listened quietly while she spoke. He had heard about the meet-up, and he'd been concerned that perhaps what he'd asked her to do was too dangerous - too much for her skill sets and what she was used to doing either at home, or even here - and perhaps equally important too much to drag his nephews or niece into, because where Rikki went Anakin seemed to go... Well until Anakin ran off to Yavin 4 to try to rescue the Jedi initiates. He was also reasonably certain he had not had the full story of what had happened the night with that contact but he wasn't certain what she or Anakin, and he'd spoken with both of them, were leaving out, it was just a feeling that there was some other piece. Perhaps this would uncover that, perhaps not, and perhaps it wasn't anything he needed to know about. Truthfully, Mara was much more laid back about the fact that Rikki Barnes had been Anakin's fiancee in another universe. Luke might have been the first to believe Rikki, but it seemed that Mara was willing to sit back and allow things to unfold far more easily than Luke was able to do. He was doing it, keeping his tongue to himself and sitting on the desire to ask Rikki questions that he had no business asking - not when he trusted her - but the darker the war got, the closer he knew they got to the point in time when Anakin supposedly died, the more he wondered. Sitting back and trusting the Force was sometimes easier said than done - even for a Jedi Master. For now he turned her words over in his mind. "What has your checking found out thus far?" Luke had been told everything that was important about the meetup that had gone south. Rikki had been meticulous with her reporting, as always. But the fact that Anakin had kissed her was a detail that both of them felt was best left out. Honestly Rikki hadn't even really been able to process the shift in their relationship, whatever it would end up being, before Anakin ran off to Yavin 4. It was expected, sure, but it left Rikki in the awkward situation of her heart on edge, knowing that this could very well be a teenage crush on Anakin's end even if the Anakin in her mind scoffed at that attempt to write off his feelings. It could be though, this Anakin had never been kissed and now he was going to be back with Tahiri. Anything on that line of thought would serve no purpose in this meeting right now. Instead she kept on task, because work was easy to focus on. It was even easier when she was handed something like this, which shouldn't even really exist. There was no way it could be that simple. "From what I've been able to dig up on my end it seems legit." Rikki pointed to the datapad. "I've all my research there. You've more information than I do on a lot of this, but from where I'm standing the information is proving valuable." "I did some digging on him, or at least what I could find." If he was telling the truth but so far everything was checking out. Which Rikki wasn't sure what to think of that. At least deception would make sense. This was someone reaching out, asking for a chance if it wasn't all a trick. "His name's Darius, or at least that's what he said. If that is his name then information puts him as a small time bounty hunter who runs with a Peace Brigade crowd. And information like this... Either he's been spending way too much time tracking down their trade routes or it's information from the inside." Luke looked at the datapad, and then picked it up to begin scrolling through it. If it was something from the inside and he was offering it to them he was doing so either with the knowledge of the Peace Brigade in an effort to lure Jedi to them, or he was doing so with the desire to help the Jedi - but why? Luke wondered briefly if he'd become a little too old and too cynical in the past year. Why not? There were people who supported the Jedi, and there were people who even if they would not openly support the Jedi, did not support the Peace Brigade. The Peace Brigade was made up of smugglers, pirates, riff raff, and others who got caught up along with it - there was nothing to say this person wasn't one of them. But could they trust their life on it? After a moment he began pulling information on the routes into his work, and seeing where they matched up. He worked in silence for a moment, until he leaned back in his chair and looked at Rikki. "Well, this confirms a suspected route - this matches a 99% guaranteed route..." He ran his hand over his chin. "There's no reason for someone to spend as much time as we are tracking down trade routes unless they're trying to avoid them. And most bounty hunters and smugglers wouldn't be bothered by peace brigade more necessarily than anyone else. So it's almost certainly one of those two things The question is - which." "And if we're wrong, is it worth the risk." Rikki added what they were both thinking. Leads like this didn't just turn up out of nowhere. There had to be some kind of catch, some reason he was here. As much as Rikki believed in the good of people, or at least tried to, it would never be so plain and simple with most people. And from what she had dug up this kid had ties to the peace brigade. If he was one of them... "What I can't figure out though is." Rikki looked up at Luke, her frown a little deeper. "He knew what I looked like. He knew about the meeting. And he'd have known that I knew what my contact looked like if his story about being a backup plan is true. So if he's wanting to catch Jedi, why didn't he let me fall into a trap? Anakin was with me, and even if he wasn't he knew my ties and if I disappeared could guess someone from our side would come looking for me. Live bait is better than no bait." Luke nodded quietly. Rikki had assessed the situation about where he had. But the bounty hunter they'd been supposed to have met with and who had been killed had protected both Rikki and Anakin to the point of death. If another younger bounty hunter was showing up with the same information what was his play? He could have ruined it, had Rikki captured... Anakin with her. It was just so difficult to know anything for certain in the Force. Everything was clouded and it was leaving Luke feeling handicapped to even know which thing to trust. He turned back to the datapad and ran some additional information. There were some things they suspected that weren't on there but so many of them were confirmed by this data which meant there was more information to hand to Leia and Han when he saw them and convinced them to check out some of these additional sources. "What's your gut feeling, Rikki?" It wouldn't be the end all or be all. And Rikki didn't have the Force. But she had experience and honed instincts to play off of and Luke would be remiss to not ask the question. What was her gut? It was a good question but it wasn't one she necessarily expected. Maybe she should have. Like had not given her any reason to believe he doubted her instincts. It was just frustrating at times, surrounded by force users. They had a level of instinct that she couldn't touch but so did she, one born of years of training even if it wasn't innate. And while the Skywalkers never made her feel less for that, much as her powered teammates never had, there were moments when she felt blind compared to them. And part of it was a drive to simply train harder to put herself on their level. "Steve believed in seeing the best, in believing in redemption." Rikki said carefully, taking a deep breath. Steve would want to believe, he would want to take the chance because if you could bring one person back from the edge that gave hope for the rest. "And I believe in that as well. But I also know that if there's a hint of betrayal there are consequences that can't be taken back." She needed more information to move forward. This was a pretty big gesture to try and gain trust and while it might be part of a long game she hadn't had a feeling of deception. Granted she wasn't always the best judge either. "I want to move forward on the information. I can bring him in on my own work, keep him away from information on the river. And he will be my responsibility. Any failure will be on my head." Luke put the datapad down and watched Rikki reviewing the information. He understood what she was saying that Steve would do because it was what Luke himself would lean towards most of the time. The stakes were high though and if they made the wrong call a large number of people including Rikki herself could be endangered or possibly killed. "We should come up with something small-- a way to test his intentions," he said simply. "If he passes that, we try something more." Nodding, Rikki knew that was more than fair for Luke. He had the entire order resting on his shoulders more than usual. And while she knew anakin and the students would be alright that did little to ease their fears. After all she had changed so much already in little ways, who was to say this wouldn't end up changed as well? She certainly couldn't. "I can work with that. And he will have to if he's honest about helping us." She watched Luke for a long moment before forcing a small, awkward smile into place. It was supposed to be reassuring, whether it was she had no idea. "But if he is, this could be the beginning of helping bring more back. Weakening their supporters definitely couldn't hurt." Luke thought through the different things he had going on with the river and contacts wondering what of the many things he had happening might make the most sense. Perhaps he could connect this person with Rikki to one of Karrde's people. Ultimately that would be someone with extra experience in this galaxy for sensing a trap and while Rikki had a lot and Luke trusted her, there was nothing quite like years of experience with smugglers, pirates, pilots, and that lot to help introduce cues and tipoffs. They were things even Luke wasn't completely knowledgable of and had to rely on the extra edge the Force gave him. But for the moment something simple. "We could ask him to find something we know but that he doesn't know that we know... That may be the simplest way to approach this beginning point." "It's true." Rikki knew the risks in letting in someone who couldn't be trusted. There were so many lives, so many people at stake. Trusting some one might not always be her first instinct but they needed all the allies they could get. And if this was a good faith offering, it was a pretty big offering to start with. Confirming information was a solid way to proceed. "He wants me to meet with him tomorrow." Rikki didn't know if Luke would want her followed, she likely would have Elix at the very least shadow her since he seemed to know lyric. Maybe he didn't also know the little rodian though it seemed unlikely. Still Elix had a better shot at blending in. "Tomorrow," Luke said softly. It wasn't a lot of time, and he didn't love the idea of a meeting with someone that was pre-arranged like this. Then again, he had to know that Rikki would likely have back-up. And he'd taken her off guard the first time. If his plan had been to grab her for a nefarious purpose - why not do it the first time? Why wait until she was warned, and prepared, and ready for a possible ambush? "Then here's what we're going to do," he said simply. "I'm going to have Artoo run this data against our until he figures out what this has we don't, and vice versa - once we know what we have that this doesn't we can pick up something that should be seemingly simple enough to confirm - and feasible that we might actually need. I'll get that information to you, and then you'll have what you want him to tell you." Luke ran his hand over his chin and considered options once again. did he send someone with Rikki or simply let her go on her own. And if he did - whom? A few months ago he would have sent Mara. Mara's training and unique skill set made her an obvious choice for staying out of the way, for actually being able to help Rikki if something came up, and being able to react to trouble. But Mara was pregnant enough at this point that he was not even going to mention it. She would say she was fine, but he didn't want to risk it, and he suspected Rikki would probably agree with him despite Mara glaring at them both. "Do you want back-up?" he asked finally. Throwing the option to her. It again, wasn't the final call, but her perspective was valuable regardless. It was a good question and one that really didn't have a correct answer. Luke's plan was good, about as much as Rikki could have come up with. Luke had more information that could be used as a plant to check than Rikki did. And he had a better judge on what would be important and what wouldn't. But the question of backup was exactly what she had been pondering over herself. This was a risk and she knew that. It could very easily be a trap that she was walking into. But if it wasn't then the time frame was likely because that's what he had to avoid detection from the Peace Brigade. "I don't want to put any of the Jedi at risk in case this does go south." Rikki answered simply. Luke had people sure but most of them were exactly the kind of people that the Peace Brigade would want to take in if this was a trap. If only she was captured, well, that would suck, but it also wouldn't be giving them what they wanted. She wasn't force sensitive, she couldn't be traced back to the Jedi. By any record Rikki Barnes didn't exist. And the only name he seemed to know was Nomad. "Elix or Lyric can shadow me. If it goes south they'll find you. But I don't want to risk anyone if my gut's wrong." Luke nodded and frowned slightly. It wasn't ideal, but it was precisely the sort of answer he had expected from Rikki and it was honestly what he would probably have recommended. It wasn't as if he didn't have Jedi who could provide a shadow, but no one would be as good as Mara would have been, and with her not an option, there came the very real question of whether having someone follow her would actually cause more harm than good and not wanting to do that it was better to simply not risk it. "It's the logical way to handle this, but one condition - you tell me where, and when, and you provide Elix and Lyric with comlinks to contact me directly and immediately should it be needed. I'll make certain you have those." Rikki nodded, the conditions not unreasonable at all. She was an asset to the Order in her own way despite lacking force sensitivity. And Luke cared about people regardless, he wouldn't want something happening to her or lyric and Elix. Still she couldn't help but hear Steve right then, all worry and letting her go along because he knew there would be no amount of arguing that could convince her otherwise. A small hint of a smile found its way out. "Of course, Master Skywalker." It was almost painfully familiar but it wasn't a kind of pain Rikki minded. "You sound like Steve sometimes. It's nice." Luke took the datapad and hooked it into he main computer to copy the files for Artoo to access later that afternoon. As he finished that he turned around to Rikki and offered her a small smile as well. As unbelievable as the girl's story had been, she had more than proven her worth and the risk that Luke had taken in trusting her. And yes he might worry at times about the wisdom of putting her in such close proximity to Anakin but so far the good had far outweighed the bad in that regard. If Anakin made it through this current ordeal, perhaps Luke would sit down and talk with him a bit about Rikki... Not to tell him exactly the truth, but to find out from his nephew, where the two stood. If time allowed... And there was no guarantee of that. At her words though Luke found a smile, a small one. "I think I would like your Steve, should we ever have the opportunity to meet." |