Ah, to come home to Coruscant - and fried granite slug on a stick! -Diary
of Baka Ma'lik
The familiar alarm started and after two beats, Prat slapped the "off" button. The rest of the crew knew they'd be coming out of hyperspace soon. Elibex slowly reached toward the button and pushed it again, causing the system to blurt at them.
"It's already off," he reminded her.
She nodded. "It is, isn't it?" Her eyelids drooped even lower over her large, red-speckled eyes. She had been up since they left Kitzlym, and by now, the shifts had changed again. Because she was the one who was most familiar with the controls, she had to get them out of hyperspace and land only ten kilometers from the Imperial Palace. If they didn't crash into the capital building, they'd be doing good.
The counter continued to wind down. When it reached five seconds, Prat shouted, "Zero!" The pilot reached out and gently pulled the hyperspace exit lever back just as the timer really reached zero. The dizzy mottling gradually faded down into individual stars, arranged in a pattern that confirmed that they were in the correct system. The fact that the planet hung like a sparkling orb ahead and to port also helped.
He breathed a sigh of relief. "A little off, but not bad," he muttered. Glancing at his coworker, he saw that her eyes were almost closed now. "Maybe Jan would like to land us. Why don't you sit in the observer's seat?"
Elibex dragged herself out of the chair and barely made it to the one behind her before falling sound asleep.
"Guess you are tired." He thought a moment about letting the second in command doze and flying down by himself, but his confidence in his abilities was limited to just getting them in orbit if he was lucky.
A small red light started flashing on the console at the same time a bored voice sounded through the cockpit. "Incoming ship, this is Coruscant Traffic Control. Please state your destination."
He held down a button beside the light. "*Gungan Vornskr* to traffic control, please hold on just a moment." He brought the ship to a stop. When he heard no immediate reply, he knew he had to hurry to keep any and all suspicions calmed. Other spacecraft, larger and smaller than the old light freighter, sped irritably past.
The Tatooinian left the cockpit and went across the hall to the girls' cabin, knocking when he arrived and wondering if he was waking her from much needed sleep. The door slid open, revealing one aggravated Twi'lek.
"Elibex has gotten better. I barely felt the landing. So, what's wrong now?"
"We haven't landed yet." One of her almost-blue eyebrows shot up, proving that she was still alert enough to listen. "Bex fell asleep."
An almost-growl escaped from the senior member. "You've been a navigator for over two years. You've watched Jess and Bex operate the controls. There's absolutely no reason you can't land with Baka's help. We don't need the weapons anyway; he's probably pretty bored about now. CTC will give you instructions. Good luck." With that, she closed the door and left him to fend for himself.
He forlornly wandered back down the hall to the gunner's station. When he glimpsed in, the room was completely empty. *Great,* he thought, *he left his post. He's probably just goofing off.* Sure enough, the Bothan was leaning back on the couch in the rec. room, watching his favorite holodrama.
"Baka.," he said, his exasperation apparent. He had the satisfaction of seeing the other jump.
The hotshot gunner turned his head with a shake of his fur indicating polite disagreement with his commander's tone of voice. Actually, Prat was only just above the teen in the command chain. "Yes, what's up?"
"You're going to get some experience in the cockpit today," Prat told him. "You need to get up there and help me land."
At this, Baka stopped the holodrama, and looked at him in disbelief. "You're going to let me fly?" Then he remembered why he had never flown before. "What about Bex?"
"Asleep."
"Jan?"
"She told me to let you navigate." At least, that's how he'd interpreted what she said.
"Okay, let's go!" For sure, he would have been happier if he'd been allowed to pilot, but being allowed in the cockpit at all *and* getting to operate something was the next best thing.
The two left the room to land the ship. When they reached the cockpit, a worried voice was being emitted from the speakers. "Do you need assistance? Is there some way we can help? Hello?"
Prat frowned and pressed the button to respond, reflexively sitting in the copilot's seat. Baka took the other. "*Gungan Vornskr* to traffic control. We're just fine now."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. We'd like to land in the palace district."
There was comm silence for a few seconds as the controllers came out of their alarmed state and settled in to find an appropriate vector for the strange ship. "Uh, here you go. Nice and easy. Have a nice day now."
"Thanks. You too." He breathed a sigh of relief and entered the transmitted coordinates into the navicomp, hoping that they could make it to the surface without a problem.
His auxiliary partner could barely contain his joy at the possibility of being the one to actually pilot them down. "So I get to fly after all?"
Prat glared at him. "No." He set the controls so that Baka would barely have to do a thing other than tell him where the storm systems were. Coruscant was known to have some nasty thunderstorms a little more often than most other planets. "Just tell me where not to fly."
The Bothan's disappointment was almost tangible. "Oh," he moaned, "why not? You've never flown before either."
"But I've seen both Jess and Bex land us several times."
"What if you're not half as good as Bex?" he said, raising his voice a little too loud for even his own ears.
"Shush! Don't wake her up!" the Tattooinian whispered, motioning to the sleeping fish. "I'm going to have to be." With that, he sat and started bringing them into the atmosphere, ending their conversation.
The freighter floated through the clouds, occasionally losing quite a bit of altitude and jerking from side to side, bucking from the air resistance.
"Even Bex is better at landing," the improvised copilot muttered, not meaning for the other to hear.
"Yeah, well you couldn't do much better," he replied harshly, not taking his eyes from their landing platform. As they dropped to ten meters, he brought the repulsorlifts online and somewhat gradually lowered the thrust to zero.
"Now here's the tough part, right?"
"No, now's the part where you be quiet so I can concentrate." For once, it seemed Baka didn't have a good response for something, so he did as was requested of him. Prat lowered the power to the repulsorlifts a little at a time, but not as smoothly as he could have. Still, the ship clunked to the landing platform in one piece. From the turbolift came a small medical team. *Wonderful,* he thought, *I fly the ship and they send a medical team to see what's wrong.* He once again went down the hall to open the landing ramp. At the bottom were the four members of the emergency medical team.
"Where's your pilot? Does he need help?" the first concerned person asked. She immediately came running up the ramp, barely stopping in time to avoid knocking over the annoyed navigator.
"I'm him. I've never flown before. Jan needs to speak to the authorities." He then realized these people didn't know who Janua was.
"Are you okay?" He didn't know why, but he was starting to think no one in the galaxy had any confidence in him. It seemed like nobody trusted him to tell the truth just because he was landing on Coruscant and had never flown before. There must have been many other people in that situation. or maybe not.
"I'm fine. Can you tell me where to go to speak to the authorities? Please?" At least he had until his shift was over to find out where to send the other navigator. On the other hand, there was the whole remainder of his shift for something else to go wrong.
"I don't know. Will you come with me, or are you sure you're not injured. Is there anyone else who can verify that you're okay?" With perfect timing, Baka walked around the bend.
Prat stared at him, trying to scare him into telling the truth instead of saying that he had gotten hit in the head with a huge falling beam just for the fun of it. "It really is his first time flying. I've never piloted either, but we were the only ones available to land the *Vornskr.*" Had Clipper been there, Prat would have told him to "sick" the slender Bothan. He was going to gloat about this for months if Prat knew him at all. But it was better than being put in a bacta tank for no reason.
The lead medical team member looked dubious, but she accepted the excuse. "If you don't feel good, don't hesitate to go to the med center." They turned and left.
"Bad day. Bad day. Bad day," the Tatooinian commented to no one in particular. Baka just looked at him.
of Baka Ma'lik
The familiar alarm started and after two beats, Prat slapped the "off" button. The rest of the crew knew they'd be coming out of hyperspace soon. Elibex slowly reached toward the button and pushed it again, causing the system to blurt at them.
"It's already off," he reminded her.
She nodded. "It is, isn't it?" Her eyelids drooped even lower over her large, red-speckled eyes. She had been up since they left Kitzlym, and by now, the shifts had changed again. Because she was the one who was most familiar with the controls, she had to get them out of hyperspace and land only ten kilometers from the Imperial Palace. If they didn't crash into the capital building, they'd be doing good.
The counter continued to wind down. When it reached five seconds, Prat shouted, "Zero!" The pilot reached out and gently pulled the hyperspace exit lever back just as the timer really reached zero. The dizzy mottling gradually faded down into individual stars, arranged in a pattern that confirmed that they were in the correct system. The fact that the planet hung like a sparkling orb ahead and to port also helped.
He breathed a sigh of relief. "A little off, but not bad," he muttered. Glancing at his coworker, he saw that her eyes were almost closed now. "Maybe Jan would like to land us. Why don't you sit in the observer's seat?"
Elibex dragged herself out of the chair and barely made it to the one behind her before falling sound asleep.
"Guess you are tired." He thought a moment about letting the second in command doze and flying down by himself, but his confidence in his abilities was limited to just getting them in orbit if he was lucky.
A small red light started flashing on the console at the same time a bored voice sounded through the cockpit. "Incoming ship, this is Coruscant Traffic Control. Please state your destination."
He held down a button beside the light. "*Gungan Vornskr* to traffic control, please hold on just a moment." He brought the ship to a stop. When he heard no immediate reply, he knew he had to hurry to keep any and all suspicions calmed. Other spacecraft, larger and smaller than the old light freighter, sped irritably past.
The Tatooinian left the cockpit and went across the hall to the girls' cabin, knocking when he arrived and wondering if he was waking her from much needed sleep. The door slid open, revealing one aggravated Twi'lek.
"Elibex has gotten better. I barely felt the landing. So, what's wrong now?"
"We haven't landed yet." One of her almost-blue eyebrows shot up, proving that she was still alert enough to listen. "Bex fell asleep."
An almost-growl escaped from the senior member. "You've been a navigator for over two years. You've watched Jess and Bex operate the controls. There's absolutely no reason you can't land with Baka's help. We don't need the weapons anyway; he's probably pretty bored about now. CTC will give you instructions. Good luck." With that, she closed the door and left him to fend for himself.
He forlornly wandered back down the hall to the gunner's station. When he glimpsed in, the room was completely empty. *Great,* he thought, *he left his post. He's probably just goofing off.* Sure enough, the Bothan was leaning back on the couch in the rec. room, watching his favorite holodrama.
"Baka.," he said, his exasperation apparent. He had the satisfaction of seeing the other jump.
The hotshot gunner turned his head with a shake of his fur indicating polite disagreement with his commander's tone of voice. Actually, Prat was only just above the teen in the command chain. "Yes, what's up?"
"You're going to get some experience in the cockpit today," Prat told him. "You need to get up there and help me land."
At this, Baka stopped the holodrama, and looked at him in disbelief. "You're going to let me fly?" Then he remembered why he had never flown before. "What about Bex?"
"Asleep."
"Jan?"
"She told me to let you navigate." At least, that's how he'd interpreted what she said.
"Okay, let's go!" For sure, he would have been happier if he'd been allowed to pilot, but being allowed in the cockpit at all *and* getting to operate something was the next best thing.
The two left the room to land the ship. When they reached the cockpit, a worried voice was being emitted from the speakers. "Do you need assistance? Is there some way we can help? Hello?"
Prat frowned and pressed the button to respond, reflexively sitting in the copilot's seat. Baka took the other. "*Gungan Vornskr* to traffic control. We're just fine now."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. We'd like to land in the palace district."
There was comm silence for a few seconds as the controllers came out of their alarmed state and settled in to find an appropriate vector for the strange ship. "Uh, here you go. Nice and easy. Have a nice day now."
"Thanks. You too." He breathed a sigh of relief and entered the transmitted coordinates into the navicomp, hoping that they could make it to the surface without a problem.
His auxiliary partner could barely contain his joy at the possibility of being the one to actually pilot them down. "So I get to fly after all?"
Prat glared at him. "No." He set the controls so that Baka would barely have to do a thing other than tell him where the storm systems were. Coruscant was known to have some nasty thunderstorms a little more often than most other planets. "Just tell me where not to fly."
The Bothan's disappointment was almost tangible. "Oh," he moaned, "why not? You've never flown before either."
"But I've seen both Jess and Bex land us several times."
"What if you're not half as good as Bex?" he said, raising his voice a little too loud for even his own ears.
"Shush! Don't wake her up!" the Tattooinian whispered, motioning to the sleeping fish. "I'm going to have to be." With that, he sat and started bringing them into the atmosphere, ending their conversation.
The freighter floated through the clouds, occasionally losing quite a bit of altitude and jerking from side to side, bucking from the air resistance.
"Even Bex is better at landing," the improvised copilot muttered, not meaning for the other to hear.
"Yeah, well you couldn't do much better," he replied harshly, not taking his eyes from their landing platform. As they dropped to ten meters, he brought the repulsorlifts online and somewhat gradually lowered the thrust to zero.
"Now here's the tough part, right?"
"No, now's the part where you be quiet so I can concentrate." For once, it seemed Baka didn't have a good response for something, so he did as was requested of him. Prat lowered the power to the repulsorlifts a little at a time, but not as smoothly as he could have. Still, the ship clunked to the landing platform in one piece. From the turbolift came a small medical team. *Wonderful,* he thought, *I fly the ship and they send a medical team to see what's wrong.* He once again went down the hall to open the landing ramp. At the bottom were the four members of the emergency medical team.
"Where's your pilot? Does he need help?" the first concerned person asked. She immediately came running up the ramp, barely stopping in time to avoid knocking over the annoyed navigator.
"I'm him. I've never flown before. Jan needs to speak to the authorities." He then realized these people didn't know who Janua was.
"Are you okay?" He didn't know why, but he was starting to think no one in the galaxy had any confidence in him. It seemed like nobody trusted him to tell the truth just because he was landing on Coruscant and had never flown before. There must have been many other people in that situation. or maybe not.
"I'm fine. Can you tell me where to go to speak to the authorities? Please?" At least he had until his shift was over to find out where to send the other navigator. On the other hand, there was the whole remainder of his shift for something else to go wrong.
"I don't know. Will you come with me, or are you sure you're not injured. Is there anyone else who can verify that you're okay?" With perfect timing, Baka walked around the bend.
Prat stared at him, trying to scare him into telling the truth instead of saying that he had gotten hit in the head with a huge falling beam just for the fun of it. "It really is his first time flying. I've never piloted either, but we were the only ones available to land the *Vornskr.*" Had Clipper been there, Prat would have told him to "sick" the slender Bothan. He was going to gloat about this for months if Prat knew him at all. But it was better than being put in a bacta tank for no reason.
The lead medical team member looked dubious, but she accepted the excuse. "If you don't feel good, don't hesitate to go to the med center." They turned and left.
"Bad day. Bad day. Bad day," the Tatooinian commented to no one in particular. Baka just looked at him.