Sine glanced at her watch, "The lift is taking forever," she muttered under her breath. Her five year old son, Tangent, occupied himself by repeatedly pressing the elevator call button. Finally, she heard a soft two-tone chiming and saw the doors part. Quickly, without glancing inside, Sine grabbed Tangent and entered the elevator.
It was a large elevator designed to carry twenty people, and the far wall was transparent, giving a view of nighttime Coruscant. Pushing the button for their floor, Sine turned away from the many people in the lift without a second glance. Distractedly, she stared at the door while thinking about what needed to be done before the Mathinian ambassador visited for lunch tomorrow.
The lift jolted. Then it stopped. Everyone was carried into the air by their upward momentum, only to fall to the floor. A red light flashed on the control panel, but it seemed the only thing with any electricity.
Instinctively, Sine reached for her child as she lay on the elevator floor. Failing to see him, she scrambled up.
"Ma'am?" came a voice from behind her. Turning, she saw a young man dressed in the armor of a clone trooper, though Sine could tell from his face that he was no clone. Beside him stood another dressed the same way. All those details slipped away when she realized he was holding Tangent. Relief flooded over her.
"Oh, Tangent!" she cried as the trooper set him down. Holding her child close, she spoke to the one who had caught him, "Thank you."
"You're most welcome ma'am," he nodded.
Squinting in the dim elevator, Sine found and pushed the "Open Doors" button. When nothing happened, she pushed the red "Help" button. Finally, she pressed the yellow "Call" button, but no one answered.
"Hang on," said a female voice.
Sine turned, and watched as a figure knelt down. Suddenly, a blinding green glow appeared in the kneeling girl's hands. After her eyes adjusted, Sine saw that the glowrod had been kept in a pocket on the outside of the girl's right boot.
"May I?" the girl asked as she gently pushed Sine aside and studied the control panel.
Examining the figure further, Sine noted the girl's flight suit and cargo vest. Looking past clothing, she observed a young face wearing an investigative expression, and long dark hair held away from it with an ornate silver clip. Overall, the impression Sine received was of a girl perhaps fifteen years old.
When the girl pulled some sort of tool out of a vest pocket and began to fiddle about with the lift controls, Sine instinctively grabbed her wrist. "What are you doing? Were you ever taught not to play with elevators?" Sine demanded as an unbidden image of the lift plummeting toward the city's underlevels sprang into her mind.
Shooting a potent glare towards Sine and forcefully removing her hand, the girl turned back to her task.
"Sister knows what she's doing," spoke up a tall, thin, young man who wore a flight suit that matched the girl's.
"Are you her older brother?" asked Sine, noting the matching clothing, hair color, and slim build, as well as the use of the word 'sister.'
Grinning, he replied, "She's my older sister actually, just turned twenty. I'm seventeen years old." He held out his hand.
Sine shook it, figuring that if she were stuck with these people, she may as well get to know them. "I'm Sine Trig, and this is my son, Tangent."
"I'm Brother," he replied, mystifying her. Seeming to understand her confusion, he continued, "It's not my name, or some sort of societal title, but it's what everyone calls me, and it's sort of my name." He made an expression she couldn't decipher, "So please, call me Brother."
Sine felt highly unenlightened by his quick explanation, "You can call me Sine," she declared. " Wait, so is she, um…" Sine tilted her head towards the girl at the control panel, who was running diagnostics.
Brother smiled. "Sine, this is Sister."
"Hi," the girl turned away from her instrument's screen and waved, "It's a pleasure to meet you," Sister turned back.
Deciding to drop the conversation about their names, Sine changed the subject, "Are all of you together?"
Another young man stepped forward. Crossed leather straps ran across his chest and attached to his belt. From his longish dark hair to his black boots, he wore only one color. Although it gave him a formidable look, Sine could not find it in herself to fear him. "Yes indeed. I'm Namialus," the dark figure introduced himself, "and this is Natalie Cresent," he gestured to a girl dressed as a jedi padawan.
Sister interrupted quietly, "If someone could open the ceiling access hatch for me?"
"Sure," replied Natalie, raising a hand and using the Force to slide open the panel.
One of the troopers gave Sister a boost through the hatch.
"Thanks Wolffe," she called down before stepping out of sight.
Meanwhile, Namialus continued to introduce the other elevator occupants, "This is Gamma," he pointed to the trooper who had caught Tangent, "and this is Wolffe," he gestured toward the trooper assisting Sister. Stepping in the direction of a young woman in green robes, Namialus continued, "This is Kim."
"Hello, Sine, it's nice to meet you," spoke up Kim.
The lift was once again dim now that Sister had left with the glowrod, so Sine could only see the outline of a lightsaber attached to Kim's belt. "Surely she's too young to be a jedi" thought Sine to herself. In fact, the whole group seemed rather strange.
"Hi!" Tangent's voice broke into his mother's thoughts, "Are you a jedi?" he asked in an excited voice.
Before Kim could reply, Sister called down from her position atop the lift, "The mechanism seems fine, but for some reason it's not getting any power."
"Leave it to me!" yelled up one of the two remaining teenagers Sine had not been introduced to. He then stretched out his arms and sent bolts of electricity into the control panel. The elevator shot down. Sine felt her organs protest at the swift drop.
"Sister's still in the shaft!" shouted Brother as Sine tumbled into the jedi Kim.
While Namialus yelled, "Banshee!" and shoved the power source aside, slowing the lift, a third armor clad figure stepped forward. He wore some sort of colored metal armor vastly different from a clone soldier's gear. Firing mini rocket propulsion systems in his boots and gloves, he shot up through the still open hatchway. When the elevator finally stopped, the one called Banshee stood looking sheepish while Namialus glared at him. Moments later, the only remaining nameless person landed on the roof with a solid thud and lowered Sister down to stand beside Gamma.
"Are you alright?" asked her brother and Kim simultaneously.
"Yeah," she answered, leaning against the wall. "Thanks Chex," she told the one who had caught her.
"No problem," he casually spoke as he jumped down into the elevator.
"I want out now." Sine struggled to remain calm.
"It's alright, ma'am," comforted Gamma, "I wouldn't venture out into the lower levels of Coruscant merely because I felt rattled by the lift."
"Lower levels?" Sine held tightly to Tangent, who was shaking, and looked out the window, which showed buildings towering far above them. "It can't be," her head was spinning, "It's not possible to go down so quickly."
Brother spoke up, "You don't know Banshee. His Force Lighting can pack quite a punch."
"How can you all be so calm?"
"Things like this seem to happen to us a lot," observed Chex.
"You should have been there for our ride on the local public transport earlier today," added Banshee, grinning, "I electrocuted two hijackers at the same time. And Nat used the Force to smash a crate of Jell-O cubes onto the leader while Gamma did this cool move where he—"
The lift lurched.
"What was that?" asked Namialus, looking at Sister.
"How should I know!" she called back as the elevator abruptly shot down a meter and once again stopped.
"Take an educated guess!"
"Fine," she thought a moment, "I would propose that Banshee's power surge bypassed the programmed safety protocols and overstressed the lift mechanism, which is now breaking under our weight. Therefore I recommend we exit as quickly as we can without adding any unnecessary strain to—"
Again they shot down. This time, when the motion ceased, an alarming tilt replaced it.
Without waiting for instructions, Natalie drew her lightsabers and cut a large, perfectly shaped rectangle into the elevator doors. Kim thrust out her right hand and Force Pushed the section out to land with a thud in the hallway beyond.
Sine wanted desperately to get out of the little, square, elevator room, but she was also afraid of lower Coruscant, and the still red-hot opening, and even the strangers with her. Seeing her hesitation, Gamma lifted Tangent through the makeshift door. Her son stood quietly on the other side, a look of excitement caused by seeing a jedi padawan use her lightsabers on his face. Quickly Sine crossed through, nearly brushing the side with the back of the hand. To her surprise, almost no heat radiated from the metal.
As Sine tripped over a crack in the pavement, Brother steadied her. Glancing back, she was surprised to observe that the lift had not yet fallen. After a moment's reflection, Sine decided that it probably wouldn't fall now that their weight had been removed. Turning back to the grungy corridor, Sine Trig realized that her adventure was just beginning.
Author's Note: ShogunNatarii is writing a fic about how these and other characters came to live under one roof, and it is called "The Luminous Beings".