The station's hanger door opened and the Ninbus started it's slow entry into the hanger. The landing legs deployed as the ship prepared to make it's connection with the hanger deck.
'So these friends of yours', started Jiri as they made their final decent, 'are they friendly?'. Plex shrugged as she answered, 'sure they are, but you might perhaps call them an acquired taste… idealists they are, not realists'.
Jiri was thinking about what this might mean as the ship jolted to a halt.
Roruk came into the cockpit, saying something to Plex. Jiri was only just starting to understand the complexity of wookie communication, he was a long way off understanding Roruk, but he was getting more used to the sounds, mannerisms and feeling that the wookie was attempting to convey.
Plex's reply was heavy with sarcasm, 'Yes, I'm sure he is interested in seeing me, I'm ever so glad he went out of his way to mention it, thanks Roruk',
As Roruk left the cockpit, Jiri raised his eyebrows in Plex's direction, a subtle way of asking what that was. Plex shook her head in exasperation as she answered, 'his name is Wern, trust me, you will see for yourself once we get off the ship'.
Roruk was already off the ship speaking with someone, a small man with a hunch in his back. He had an upturned nose, and his determiner seemed to be very confrontational. His voice was raised at the wookie as Plex and Jiri made their way down the walkway of the Ninbus into the stations hanger bay.
The small man's voice rang clear with annoyance, 'look, I don't care how unwell he is. I don't care if you have a crate full of lepers in your ship, this is not a charity we are running here. The resistance cannot just give away medical treatment to everyone in the galaxy…'. He stopped as soon as he saw Plex coming his way.
He promptly left Roruk where he stood and waddled over as fast as he could towards Plex. 'Oh it is you! Oh for a moment I thought that beastly wookie lied to me! You are as beautiful as the last time I saw you! Maybe even more so if that is even possible'. He grabbed Plex's hand and brought it up to his mouth, planting a kiss on it.
'Hello Wern', Plex's face scrunched up as she spoke, she wasn't very good at hiding her emotions. Jiri decided that he might try to intervene and make things more comfortable for her. Jiri motioned towards the little man, 'and you are?'. The man flashed a stare at Jiri, 'annoyed that you are interrupting my courtship'.
Plex knelt down to meet him face to face, 'listen, I have a good friend on my ship, and he's dying… he needs surgery'. Wern's face turned to apathy and disinterest. Seeing this emotional shift, Plex decided convince him with a more unorthodox approach.
She stood up straight and put the back of her hand to her forehead, aching her neck back. She begun to speak in an overly dramatic voice, 'oh my good friend is dying, and he will surely be dead within a day. Who could save him? Why, any man who could save him may capture my heart!'.
Jiri sniggered and almost burst out laughing, it was without a doubt the worst acting performance he had seen in his life.
Wern's eyes went wide. His hands begun to fumble with the device he was carrying. 'Wait, I can! I can save your friend, I'll let the medical staff know that there is an emergency and we will get him seen to immediately!'.
Plex clasped her hands together, pretending to swoon, 'Oh Wern! My heart is fluttering with joy! Such a man to have the power to save my friend from certain death! I can hardly contain my… umm… joy'. Wern grabbed her hands, he licked his lips as he spoke, 'yes, so maybe I can take you on a date? I know a place that is really the best for -'.
Plex cut him off. She dropped the act, apparently out of patience, 'yeah okay, whatever, get my friend out of the cargo hold and into medical and we'll go wherever you want'.
Wern ran away making a squealing sound. He ran a few steps before turning to blow an awkward kiss at Plex. She forced a smile before clapping her hands rapidly, signalling him to hurry up.
Plex caught Jiri's expression. He was struggling to contain his laughter. Plex broke into a smile and playfully punched Jiri in the arm, 'oh common, was it really that bad?'.
Jiri smiled and shook his head, laughing while he spoke, 'I've seen some bad performances in my life, some truly awful acting…'. Plex almost laughed as she pushed Jiri in the chest, 'oh shut up, it wasn't that bad, he brought it and Tyken is getting the help now'.
Jiri kept playing, 'but at what cost? You killed someone just now, and the victims name is theater! Oh wait, a second victim, good taste is now dead too'. Plex's laughter was loud and infectious, Jiri begun to laugh as well. Plex playfully hit Jiri in the chest as she put her head to it.
They both stopped laughing. Plex was standing with her head in Jiri's chest. She looked up at him and they locked eyes. A few moments passed before Plex remembered herself, she turned around adjusting her clothes. A brief silence followed, before Plex broke it, 'we need to meet up with the people running this place. They are the friends I told you about. Common, I'll take you there now'.
Plex lead Jiri into an office. At a desk sat a large woman, arguing with a solider. She was pointing at a map sprawled out on her desk, 'a direct assault is suicide, we'd lose too many people, if we were to do this we…'. As soon as Plex entered the room she stopped talking and stared. She suddenly got up and threw her arms outwards, 'Plex! Welcome back!' as she ran up to Plex and gave her a big embrace. Plex hugged her back, 'hey Lyn, good to see you again. How goes the fight?'.
Lyn gave the solider a nod, 'we can continue this later'. The solider saluted her before leaving the room. Lyn sighed, 'how long do you have?'. Plex replied, 'a while, one of ours is in your medical ward getting patched up, so we'll be staying a few days at least'.
Lyn gave a weak smile, 'that might be enough time to fill you in on everything'.
Lyn glanced at Jiri, then addressed him, 'Oh, sorry for the lack of introductions, I'm Lyn'. 'Jiri', he replied. Lyn continued, 'you are welcome to stay as long as you like, any friend of Plex's is a friend of ours'.
Jiri's curiosity once again got the better of him, 'Ours? Who are you people? What is this place?'. He could almost see Plex rolling her eyes, it would seem what was about to be said she had heard many times before.
Lyn begun, enthusiasm in her voice, 'We are an idea, the idea that all of the galaxy should be free, free to do as they will without fear of being killed for profit, free to speak their mind without being hauled away into a prison of some kind, real freedom to do as one wants'.
Jiri was slightly confused by this, 'well there is no law around these parts. We are not under the rule of the republic, nor the first order. Does that not mean we are already free?'.
Lyn looked at him hard, 'the law is non-existent because those with power do not respect order. They make up the rules and enforce them however they want, making it up as they go. If you cross them you die, that is normally as complicated as they make it. We want this to change, we want to bring order to this sector so that we might create a better life for all people'.
Jiri thought about this, 'so you want to become a government? To be the ones that establish the rules?'. Lyn's gaze was unwavering, 'essentially, yes. This is why this station was created, why we are doing everything that we can to bring light to this dark sector of the universe'.
Plex's arms were crossed, an annoyed expression was all over her face, 'yeah, I've heard all this before. I can't wait until you get to the part where the unicorns jump over chocolate rainbows in lala land'.
Lyn sighed, 'Plex has never been a big believer in our ambitions'. Plex shook her head as she continued, 'I don't believe it because I've seen enough of the galaxy to know better, people don't care about your little rebellion you have going here. They are too caught up in their own affairs to worry about the fate of an entire galaxy. What you say all sounds great, but in the end, you won't be able to fix all of the problems that are faced by the people here'.
Lyn replied, 'fixing all of the problems is not the goal, the goal is to give people the freedom to make their own mistakes and problems rather than fix everything for them'.
Plex was still combative, 'and if you were to succeed? Eventually your organization would become what it was created to fight, it always happens. You can't change people, their greed, their inhumanity to one another. You can try to make change happen, but in the end, it's just inevitable that life will revert back to survival of the fittest, the strong will take from the weak and the weak suffer and die'.
Lyn smiled slightly, 'does that mean we shouldn't try? Being an example of the change you want to see in the universe is the only way to make those changes happen'. Lyn paused before continuing, 'That's why station New Hope was created'.
Plex's eyebrows raised as a perplexed expression went over her face, 'you named the station New Hope?'. Lyn looked slightly confused, 'yes, why?'. Plex shook her head while raising her hands, apparently conceding, 'no ok, name it whatever you want'.
Lyn slapped her hands against her knees, 'well that's enough talk for the moment, time to get you to your quarters… umm…', she shot a look to Jiri and then back to Plex, 'are you two…', she took her index fingers and started to push them together. Plex turned red as she looked at Jiri, he was rubbing his head, also unsure of how to respond. Plex answered awkwardly, 'Um… separate quarters please Lyn'.
Lyn spoke as she led them out of the room, 'okay, separate quarters it is'. Her voice lowered as she walked near Plex, 'you really should though Plex, he's a cute one'. Plex turned bright red, 'Lyn!' she exclaimed, as she looked over at Jiri, hoping that he didn't hear. His giant grin suggested that he had.
They passed the hanger as they went to their logging's on the station. Wern spied them as they passed, he knew they were going to the station's accommodation area. This meant they would be on the station for a while, at least overnight.
He opened his holo-cron communicator. A solider appeared 'you had better have some good intel to be contacting us like this Wern', the solider was curt, Wern's reply had as much authority as he could muster, 'put me directly through to Kinshoo right now. Trust me, he's going to want to hear what I have to tell him'.