Bleah, something's wrong with the barrier thing and it's weirding me out. _ Anyway, enjoy the next chapter!
"Uh, how did he get up here?" Rowan asked as he entered beside Kobayashi.
Capt. Mentzer looked a little nervous and worried. "I do remember telling you that he was under your jurisdiction! Now get him off!"
Vader's body tensed and he turned slightly to look at the captain. The look was a neutral one, with no anger in it, but something in his eyes told them that he didn't approve of the captain's behavior.
Rowan got a good look at Vader's blue eyes. They were deep and expressive, hiding nothing. Right now they expressed displeasure, and yet… contentment. It was very odd to see the blend, but it was there nonetheless.
Darth Vader looked at Capt. Mentzer for this way for at least half a minute. Throughout that whole time, the bridge was dead silent; nobody moved. Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone, and Vader returned to watching space from the view port. Capt. Mentzer looked visibly relieved.
Kobayashi looked paler than usual, but he still walked over to Vader. "Come on, Little One, let's go."
Vader didn't move.
"Little One, let's go," Kobayashi stressed slightly. "You're not allowed on the bridge."
When Darth Vader turned around, the displeasure in his eyes had gone. Instead, it was replaced by curiosity and confusion. Rowan looked at Kerrick, who seemed to have seen something like this before. They would definitely discuss this later.
"Why not?"
Rowan immediately returned his attention to the front of the bridge. Vader was leaning against the wall and looking at Kobayashi curiously.
Kobayashi blinked, not expecting the question. Carh'la stepped forward. "The bridge is a busy place, Little One, now come on. We'll explain the details once we leave."
Vader looked at her for a while before starting to walk towards the group. On the catwalk over the depressions that held many technical stations, he hopped down towards a terrified-looking midshipman and leaned over him to look at his data screen. He watched it for a while before scrunching his nose slightly and then rolling his eyes.
He leaned and stood up straight once more. The midshipman watched him with fearful eyes. He didn't seem to notice, however; instead he walked out of the pit and looked at Capt. Mentzer.
"Who are you?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"I—My name is—you really don't remember?" Capt. Mentzer sputtered before being elbowed by Kerrick, who received a dirty look for his trouble.
"What were you looking at, Little One?" Marrax asked.
Vader blinked and then looked back at the station where the terrified midshipman was. "I thought I heard something,"
"You—you heard something? There's nothing to hear in space!" Mentzer said.
Before anyone could blink an eye, Vader was centimeters away from Mentzer and was examining his uniform, completely oblivious to the entire bridge crew jumping to their feet and Mentzer flinching.
"Why are there bars on your clothes?" he asked, looking at Mentzer's rank insignia.
"Okay, time to go!" Mormi said, taking Vader gently but firmly by the arm and leading him out of the bridge. Rowan followed behind Kobayashi while Mentzer panted for air.
The door to the bridge hissed closed behind them and everyone rounded on Kerrick. Apparently Rowan wasn't the only one who noticed that Kerrick wasn't as surprised as the rest of the group about Vader's odd mannerisms.
"What happened last night?" Ooke asked.
"He did something similar last night," Kerrick explained. "When I was taking him for a bite to eat, he exited the turbolift and walked just as we… well, know him to walk. He carried himself like Lord Vader but the moment he paused in uncertainty, it vanished like it was never there in the first place."
Rowan felt someone pulling his sleeve and looked to his left to see Vader tugging it. Surprised and a little bewildered, Rowan pulled back. Vader tugged harder. The two practically got into a tug-of-war fight until Kobayashi walked over, a thoroughly amused expression on his face.
"How did you get on the bridge?" Kobayashi asked Vader.
The boy merely shrugged. "I wanted to look around."
Kerrick shook his head. "Last night it took you a minute to figure out what I was saying. How are you learning to speak so quickly?"
"You told me," Vader said simply. "And I practiced!"
Vader's tone, which had been neutral, suddenly took a lighthearted and excited note, almost as if he were proud of his accomplishment and wanted praise from them.
"Uh, that's great, Little One," Mormi said awkwardly, a little frightened by his speed-of-light progress.
Vader cocked his head to the side. "Why can't I go on the bridge, anyway?"
"Well, it's a dangerous place," Zhymmia explained, speaking to him for the first time. Her voice was shaky. "And people have a lot to do in there, so you can't get in their way,"
"But I only wanted to explore!"
"Well, enough exploring," Carh'la laughed, relaxing. "Come on, Little One, you need to eat something."
Capt. Ton Mentzer took a deep sigh of relief as Vader left the bridge with the Imperials assigned to watch him.
Vader's eyes had terrified him. Ton saw a host of emotions and thoughts swirling in those blue eyes. His eyes were like the ocean; on the surface where the sunlight hit, he was merely curious and confused, but once the water became darker and murkier, there was Darth Vader, lurking in the cold darkness, just waiting to come back out. Ton could have sworn he saw Lord Darth Vader scrutinizing him through those eyes.
Lt Cdr. Moeema Norhek remained silent as Lt Cdr. Carh'la Tade tried to convince Darth Vader to go to the mess hall.
"You have to eat, you know," she said.
"I'm not hungry," Vader replied.
"Well you can't just wander around aimlessly,"
"Why not?"
"Because this is a military ship,"
"What's military?"
Everyone paused. Moeema's friend Lt Cdr. Kerrick Chelcu sighed. "It's, uh, oh Force, forget it. I'll explain later Little One."
Vader looked at them all curiously before beginning to walk off.
"Little One, you can't just walk away from us," Cdr. Mormi Leeel said. "You have to listen to us."
When Darth Vader turned around, his eyes showed skepticism thinly veiled by confusion, but it quickly dissolved into more curiosity. "Why?"
"Because we're in charge," Mormi went on. "We know more than you and can take care of you."
"Oh," Vader looked down at his boots before perking up again. "So, can I go exploring now?"
Mormi and Carh'la laughed. The rest were still a little tense, but even Kerrick settled down. Any parent in the group seemed to.
Moeema herself had jumped on the idea of raising a trouble-prone youngling, but she hadn't expected it to be Darth Vader. Still, he seemed to be fairly innocent… besides, Moeema always enjoyed younglings, so she might as well not stop now.
"Sure, but on one condition," Moeema said to Vader as she tried to gather up all of her courage. "You have to eat lunch first."
Vader pouted, giving a very realistic impression of a puppy.
"And that's not going to work on me," Moeema replied as everyone burst into fits of laughter.
"Fine," Vader said. "Where do we eat?"
"The mess hall," Ens. Zhymmia Kenzee answered. "It's this way,"
The group led him to the mess hall. The moment he entered, the chattering in the room stopped; apparently the information about Vader had spread throughout the entire ship already.
"Good Force it's only been, what, two days since he arrived?" Lt. Kobayashi Beillane muttered to the group.
"Actually this is the second day," Lt. Shiine Reukli replied. "Remember we just decided what to do with him last night,"
"Oh Force, you're right," Lt. Beillane sighed. "I wonder if it's all of Death Squadron or just the Executor that knows…"
While this conversation was going on, Vader had grabbed a tray of food that Mormi handed him and was almost finished eating, completely oblivious to the fact that every eye in the room was on him. He licked his lips after eating everything and then hopped up. Only then did he realize that everyone was staring at him. He looked at them a little nervously, sensing their discomfort. Vaguely, Moeema remembered that the huge power outage yesterday morning was caused by Vader's panic.
"Uh, Little One, why don't we go exploring now?" she suggested.
Darth Vader watched the other inhabitants before excitedly turning to Moeema. "Okay!"
The pair left the room. Moeema wondered why she didn't hear the others talking.
Vader began skipping ahead, laughing his head off. "Come on, let's go! Let's go this way!"
Moeema laughed at the boy's bounciness. She had never imagined exploring Vader's flagship with the Dark Lord himself bouncing around as a youngling. "All right, Little One, we'll go this way."
Darth Vader led her down to a turbolift that went to the prison blocks. Moeema paused. "Are you sure you want to go this way?"
"Yes," Vader nodded. "I want to see what it is."
When they arrived, the officers and stormtroopers cast wary and curious glances in their general direction.
"What are you doing down here, Lt Cdr. Norhek?" a commander, Lt. Shiine Reukli's superior, asked her.
"Uh…" Moeema paused, not quite sure how to explain her predicament. She had assumed that everyone knew about Vader, and where were the others? They were supposed to go with her and Vader! They had been with her and Vader in the mess hall; why didn't they follow?
"She's taking me exploring!" Vader piped up excitedly. "Do you want to come too?"
The commander looked at Vader. "Who are you?"
Now Vader paused, unsure of what to say. "Um…"
"I asked you a question," the commander said stiffly.
"He's with me, sir," Moeema quickly compensated. "His name is, um, Lo."
It was the best she could come up with, and it was an abbreviation of his alias, so she thought it appropriate.
"What is your rank, Lo?" the commander continued.
"What's a rank?" Vader asked.
Moeema was about ready to beat her head against the wall. This was getting worse and worse!
"I beg your pardon?" the commander snapped. "Are you fooling around with me, soldier?"
"Is that what I am?" Vader asked. "I'm a soldier?"
"Um, sir, you'll have to excuse him, he's not well," Moeema hastily interceded.
Darth Vader remained silent, looking at her confusedly.
"Then why did you bring him down here?" the commander asked, sounding impatient.
"Because I wanted to come down," Vader replied simply before Moeema could say anything.
"Lt Cdr. Norhek—"
"Cdr. Sypikne, what are you doing?"
Moeema and the commander turned to see Capt. Mentzer standing in the entranceway. Both immediately saluted him, along with everyone else in the room… except for Vader.
"What are you two doing down here?" the captain asked Moeema and motioned towards Darth Vader.
"Well, sir—"
"We're exploring," Vader replied. "You never answered my question, though."
"What?" Capt. Mentzer looked a little unnerved. "What question?"
"I asked who you were," Darth prompted.
The captain shook his head slightly. "My name is Captain Ton Mentzer. Now answer me this: how do you know how to speak so well?"
The commander gave Capt. Mentzer an odd look, but Vader just shrugged. "That guy told me."
"What guy?" Capt. Mentzer and Moeema both said.
"That guy," Vader stressed, pointing up at a random spot on the ceiling.
Everyone was confused. "What are you doing?"
"I'm answering your question," Vader said as if it were the most obvious thing in the galaxy.
"But—but you're pointing to the ceiling," Capt. Mentzer stuttered.
"Sir, who is this boy?" Cdr. Sypikne asked the captain.
"I believe his minder can answer that question," Capt. Mentzer replied before dismissing him with a wave of his hand. He then turned his attention towards Moeema. "He can't be out of control like this. I placed him under your care of a reason."
"He isn't out of control, sir," Moeema protested. "But you can't possibly expect someone with his—his condition to be satisfied with being cooped up in a room all day. He has to be able to move around and besides, once he explores the whole ship, he'll at least know where everything is in case there's an emergency."
Capt. Mentzer sighed before taking a small step back when he noticed that Vader was looking right at him. "Very well, just get him out of here for now."
Moeema saluted once more and motioned for Darth Vader to follow her out of the detention block. Instead, she saw him entering a storage unit that held interrogation devices. "Little One, get over here!"
He didn't hear her or he was ignoring her; she couldn't quite tell which one it was. Either way, Vader began looking at an interrogation droid and was about to touch it when both Capt. Mentzer and Moeema grabbed his arm.
"Don't touch that," Moeema scolded. Vader looked a little startled and took a step back.
Moeema sighed and gently took his arm, leading him out of the room and into the turbolift. She saluted the captain and the commander and then palmed for the lift to take her back to the deck they were originally on. The moment the doors closed, she turned to face Vader.
"Little One, I can understand your curiosity, but you must be careful," she said to him. "Just as we said earlier, this is a military ship. That means that this ship is designed to enforce order and security in the galaxy we live in, but it also means that this ship has dangerous items on board. You can get hurt playing with those items and we don't want that, so please just listen to us."
"Okay," he muttered a little timidly. "Is military a good thing?"
Moeema laughed lightly. "Of course it is, but it's also a dangerous thing; that's why you need to be careful. Don't worry, Little One, we'll help you out."
"What did he mean earlier when he asked what rank I was?"
"Oh, that's something we have in the navy,"
"Wait, what's the navy?"
Moeema sighed. This was going to be a long day.
"You see, Little One, the army is ground enforcement while navy is space enforcement. We're in space and this is where our jurisdiction is, so we're part of the Imperial Navy."
"What's Imperial?"
"Oh, good Force," Moeema muttered.