Sittin' Pretty

[Kora Tau]

"You know, I'd bet ten credits that you've got nothing better to do."

There was no answer. Nothing from the AI squawk-box or even the digital readout. It was answer enough, and made a rather unhappy frown cross the features of Kora Tau.

"You're doing this to get back at me, aren't you."

Still no answer.

Mako was giving her the silent treatment,. She hated the silent treatment; it reminded her of her mother. The fingers of one hand danced across the front control dash in an effort to cajole the ship's AI into responding while the other lifted a glass of Corellian ale to her lips. A sip, and the Arkanian swallowed. She made a face, baring her teeth at the control layout before her.

"You know, no one likes a belligerent computer."

As before, not a single response.

"C'mon now! We've been dead in space for three days!"

Nothing.

She sighed, and sat back in her seat.

"Well fine then. Two can play at this game, you dumb rack of computer chips."



And so the Baudo-class star yacht continued to drift through space, lazily hung in the starfield like a lost marionette.

[Kora Tau]

"You know, I never meant any of those horrible things I said to you, right?"

Still, not a peep from the AI.

It was enough to drive a person insane, and Kora gave a grunt, reaching out to strike the nearest control panel with the flat of her palm.

"Don't be a stubborn dewback!"

There was another moment of silence, and with an almost defeated sigh, she took another level from her drink.

"I only have so much beer in the cooler units, you know," she grumbled, "Maybe- " a quick mental calculation, "-five more days."

Five minutes passed, and Kora tried a different tactic.

"I love you, Mako."

[Dave Skywalker]

Blip.

Blip.

Blip.

Blip was good. Dave could manage blip. It was one of the more polite, least offensive noises that Henrietta made. Way better than blorrt, woo-woo, or the dreaded kaaaw. Although blip could easily become kaaaw under the wrong circumstances, so, I mean, don't take blip for granted, man.

Wiping a scant dusting of cracker crumbs off the front of his shirt, Dave Skywalker sat up in his captain's seat, setting aside his tube of crackers and can of aerosol cheese. He followed blip to it's corresponding screen, a sensor readout that showed, sure enough, the signature of a nearby ship. Didn't appear to be in a hurry to get anywhere, which considering the general nowhereness of the present surroundings, seemed pretty gonzo. There was probably a perfectly good reason to drift along in dead space, but a courteous spacer was always mindful to share the stars, and to look out for other folks out in the abyss. Giving a cough to clear his voice, Dave tapped his comm switch to broadcast on local band.

"Uh, hey man. Everything copacetic over there?"

[Kora Tau]

She had left the bridge, intent on a mission to inspire her disgruntled ship to begin talking to her once more. As such, the chime of an incoming transmission, followed by "Uh, hey man. Everything copecetic over there?" went unanswered.

With her cup in hand, the Arkanian grumpily made her way through her ship, muttering words that weren't so much curses as unintelligible words strung along into a laughably incoherent series of sentences.

Midway through her third sentence, Kora stopped as a wallpanel beeped at her.

'Message for you.'

Finally!

"Nice to see you do still know how to talk," came the grumbled answer as she reached a free hand up to tap at the panel.

"Maybe you should make a habit of it. Sharpish-like, you know?"

A slim finger pushed the playback button, and the sound of a man's voice sounded out. His tone seemed... lazy? She couldn't place it, but it at least didn't put her on edge. Making a face, she depressed another button to initiate a callback.

"Just sitting pretty and enjoying the view."

[Dave Skywalker]

"Uh...yeah."

Dave, prompted by the woman's appreciation for the view, took a look around. They were in the booniest of deep space locales. While he'd occasionally had a bout of altered state stargazing - who hadn't? - it probably wasn't the safest boondock for that sort of thing. Even if that one patch of stars aft starboard most definitely looked like a naked lady sunbathing on the back of a giant turtle.

To top it off, the star yacht wasn't exactly stable. More like adrift. Slight variations in yaw and pitch told the tell-tale that she wasn't exactly stopped on her own power and was more or less continuing whatever inertia she had once she'd stalled.

Still, it wasn't exactly his problem. He wasn't gonna pry, and if someone wanted to drift like a sitting duck out here, he wasn't going to spend too long risking his own neck to convince them otherwise.

"Well alright man. Just figured I'd check and see if you needed anything. Don't get killed or anything out here man."

[Kora Tau]

She gave the panel a funny look before shifting her body's weight to one leg.

"No of course I'm not 'copacetic'."

She took yet another sip, wobbling just a small bit on her feet before letting a grumbled "And I'm not a 'man'," out from between downturned lips.

"I'm drifting and my ship is being a stubborn dewback and won't talk to me. I've got supplies for five more days of this, but after that I'll be hitting 'Game Over' rather quick-like. So if you're not a pirate or a slaver or any other number of less-than-reputable individual types, I would positively love some assistance."

[Dave Skywalker]

"Alright, sorry man-er-whatever. Uh, hang on lemme see what I can do."

Not the most ideal ship in any circumstance, Dave's CorelliSpace Gymsnor-II was a straight ticket fair-to-middling light freighter, and he wasn't exactly Han Solo. Still, he'd spent a few years in space and hadn't exploded so that had to account for something. Wiping away a few pieces of trash off a usually-unused section of his work console, Dave scrutinized the tractor control. In lieu of slaving nav computers together for a sync-up (since hers seemed to be on the fritz), he'd have to arrest her ship's yaw and align it for docking on his end.

"Alright, uh, I'm gonna like, stop your spinning around so we can dock."

Took only a second to lock the tractor beam targeting, and as an afterthought a moment before he hit engage, he muttered.

"Oh yeah you might want to hold onto something."

[Kora Tau]

The warning came too late, and with a startled yelp, Kora tumbled forward as Mako lurched. Her upper torso twisted as she fell, cup still in hand and very much half-full. Her whole frame seemed to spin in the air for an eternity, white eyes wide as she kept the locked upon the rim of her drink, angrily will what was inside to stay inside.

And then she hit. Rump first, it was not the most graceful of landings, but it was a landing regardless. Better yet, her ale remained unspilled.

A moment passed, and she let out a long breath. "Not fun," came her grumped estimation, and feeling as the other ship's tractor beam moved the Mako about, Kora grunted as she slowly made her way back up to her feet. A pulled face as she sipped her drink.

"Thanks for the warning, friend."

He didn't sound too bad... a little spaced no doubt, but not bad.

[Dave Skywalker]

He couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. Kinda sounded that way, but he'd let it slide.

"Alright, um, hang on again. Let me, uh, oh here it is."

Working the attitude controller on the tractor beam, Dave pulsed the beam to change the shearing differential across the hull of the yacht, rather than pulling it anywhere, working to align it in a controlled way. A few seconds of pulsing and the yacht's docking port became visible in his viewscreen.

"Got it. Okay, uh, I'm gonna approach slow and align."

Moving to another console, Dave toggled his propulsion to maneuvering thrust only, and began feathering the joystick. On most ships this would be done automatically, but his auto sequence computer was busted. He'd fix that at some point. Besides, this was kinda like coloring inside the lines. Just make sure you stay inside the lines, is all.

Henrietta responded accordingly, a few quick portside bursts of thrust moved the freighter horizontally. The occasional pitch adjustment was made until Dave was confident he was on an aligned vector. A few meters before link, he fired starboard thrust to arrest his inertia, and the ship lurched a bit. A little too heavy handed. Price you pay for going manual.

"Sorry. Sorry for the bumps, man. Okay, um..."

He checked the readout on the seal. All green, solid landing.

"Yeah. You can blow that hatch. Be down in a sec."

[Kora Tau]

Certainly in no hurry, Kora made sure to unlatch the holster cover latched over the blaster at her hip. Her glass was still in hand though, as she had no intentions of setting it down. If she did, there was a good chance that it'd get knocked over. She ambled her way through the Mako, in no hurry at all to get to the hatch. The end of her short journey did come about however, and Kora stopped at the heavy doorway, giving a quick look through the small transparisteel window before reaching over to pull down the release lever. With a whoosh the hatch slid open.

With one hand on the blaster's rubber grip and the other holding up her cup so that she could finish off its' contents, the Arkanian edged forward to peer through the now open doorway.

[Dave Skywalker]

Dave paused before heading below deck, checking to see what condition his condition was in. Clothes were clean-ish. A brief smell test left a little to be desired, so he ducked into the refresher for a quick splashing of Bloodstripes Aftershave. A few quick puffs on the last of a mostly-spent Ithorian roller helped to level his nerves, and he scooted down the ladder to the deck below, where an ale-swigging lady was already poking about here and there.

"Oh, hey, uh..."

Padding across the decking in his bare feet, Dave rummaged around a box near the door and retrieved a pair of sandals, which he slid onto his feet. When he stood, he took a look at the woman, and the gun at her hip.

"Whoa, hey man! No trouble!"

[Kora Tau]

The sudden exclamation made her freeze, wide white eyes locked on the man as both hands went up in front of her.

"Heyo mate... ain't looking for trouble."

And as an afterthought, "I'm chill if you are."

[Dave Skywalker]

"Yeah, chill man! Totally! Cooler than cool! Ice cold!"

Still, wasn't every day that someone stepped on his ride with a big iron on her hip. The sudden excitement caused Dave to cough a bit of the after effects of his Ithorian green, and he took a moment to take a half step back, lest the gunslinger think that a bit of a weed hack was fightin' words.

"Name's Dave, but most folks just call me Sky. Big Sky, Sky Guy, His Royal Skyness if you're not into the whole, you know, brevity thing."

[Kora Tau]

For a short moment she was speechless, taking him in and the litany of names that he presented her with. It was... not what she had expected.

Hands going down, Kora made a strange face before venturing to speak.

"Ok... Sky."

She sipped again from her drink, though mostly it was to give her time to think of something else to say. There was always the obvious, she supposed, and in a show of good faith, she reclipped the holster's cover closed.

"I'm Kora. Most people call me... Kora."

[Dave Skywalker]

"Kora. Alright then. Welcome to mi casa. Uh..."

Dave seemed to lose himself in thought, and then brightened up on recollection.

"Oh yeah, computer probs. Right. Okay. Got it. Hey, you want a be-"

His eyes traced down to Kora's other notable piece of equipment, her mug of ale.

"Ah...already covered, I see. Let me just, you know, get in my element and we'll have you purrin' like a kitten. I mean your ship. Not that you don't...if that's your persuasion."

Sidling over to the far wall of the cargo hold, Dave retrieved a glass from a cabinet that looked like it had seen plenty of use, then approached what appeared to be a large refrigerator with four protrusions on the front of it. Pulling a handle down, he filled his glass from a tap.

"So yeah. Your computer. What happened to it?"

[Kora Tau]

Following at a distance, Kora watched with keen curiosity at Sky's movements, and the glass that he filled with... oh by the gods above!

The sight of the taps was like some sort of vision of heaven, except for the fact that Sky's mention of Mako was enough to sour the mood, and her features instantly fell into a sour look.

"Nothing is wrong with it, it's just... "

A cough, and she took another swig.

"... I threatened to sell it to Jawas."

[Dave Skywalker]

Dave made a pained face as he killed the tap, waiting for the beer's head to billow up and settle down a bit.

"You can't go threatening an artificial intelligence, man. They're sensitive souls. Well, if they had 'em."

He quaffed a few gulps of beer, leaving a thick line of foam clinging to his mustache.

"Well, I guess we start from the top then. Did you try turning it off and on again?"

[Kora Tau]

"He's too smart for that," came the grumbled answer, as Kora let her body lean against a bulkhead.

She gave a shrug, and finished off the dregs of her ale.

"He'll come around in a few day's time, I hope. He usually does."

Her white eyes seemed to stare past him, to the altar of taps.

[Dave Skywalker]

Dave shrugged. It was worth a try. First rule in tech support, after all. As he was about to suggest a second option, he noticed Kora's eyes gravitating toward his taps.

"Oh, sorry man, I figured with you bringin' your own you were all set. Help yourself to a bit of my old house label, sure."

He gestured towards the taps casually, again quaffing a hefty pull of beer.

"Don't have the fastest hyperdrive in the world, so it helps to pass the time going from A to B, if you know what I mean."

[Kora Tau]

Something he said - house label - made her pause, and she cocked an eyebrow.

"You make your own?

"I'm impressed."

Normally she was one for the regular staples; Corellia Pale, Coruscant Light, Selonia's Best, and if she was feeling froggy, a bit of Tatooine Stripe. Nothing fancy, and certainly nothing that she had the patience to make her own self. She stepped forward, toward the taps. As she passed by him, the Arkanian caught a whiff of aftershave which made her send a sideways glance his way. Her pace slowed as she came to a stop, and leaned over only a small bit, gave his shoulder a rather obvious sniff.

A smirk, and she turned her gaze upward.

"Classy."