post-Grakkus

[notallofus]

Zeb's finally gone to his bunk to rest, not least because the Ghost is now safely in hyperspace, headed away from Nar Shaddaa and toward -- well.

Toward somewhere else. Kanan hasn't had the energy to ask. But he also doesn't want to take a break, because that would give him time to think, and to dream.

Which is why he's currently in the galley, brewing up a large stash of caf to keep himself up for the next four to eight hours.

He's fine! Really!

Comments

[notallofus]

"We've got other responsibilities," Kanan says with a crooked grin. "I know. And -- I honestly can't say that I want to go back."

It was creepy, and unsettling, and they still couldn't take even a fraction of the material with them. And destroying the lightsabers . . . that feels wrong, too.

[for_everyone]

She nods, her eyes dropping down to the table again.

"But we got something out of it." Hera reaches back, down to her pocket, and pulls out the holoscanner. She sets it down on the table, and taps one side, white light gathering over it, into the shape of the refining tech they'd now destroyed.

[notallofus]

"Did you have time to scan all the way through?" Kanan asks, leaning forward to peer at the holo.

"Because I'm both curious and afraid of the potential scale of this thing's throughput."

[for_everyone]

"I did."

She looks over the holo, but with no more certainty than she had before. Her knowledge of mineral refinery is limited, let alone when it comes to kyber.

"But I hope this makes more sense to someone else out there than it does to me."

[notallofus]

"It's got to," Kanan says, with something like blind faith.

"I mean, someone had to build it, and the chances they were the smartest and best mining equipment engineer in the galaxy is . . . not all that high, right?"

[for_everyone]

"But someone that specilalizes in kyber?"

Hera shakes her head. "I don't know how many there were, but if the Empire's this interested, they must have hunted down as many as they could."

[notallofus]

"Now those would be records we could -- okay, somebody could track down, though, right? Missing kyber specialists? Kyber specialists all transferring to one particular think-tank attached to an Imperial Academy or something?"

There's got to be something. This feels . . . important, not least because it's confusing.

[for_everyone]

"Probably," she says, though she reaches to switch the holo off again.

"Someone out there must know something about this. It's all about finding them."

She lets out a breath. "And the Empire's been good at making that difficult."

[notallofus]

"Not just for the fancy intellectual types, either," Kanan says, exhaling heavily.

"Which makes it even harder to pick out a pattern."

Damn them.

[for_everyone]

Hera watches the now-dark holo projector, flattening her hands on the table again.

"Right now, we did what we could."

It's a big galaxy. And sometimes it does come down to what you can manage.

[notallofus]

"Maybe one day there'll be enough of us all over, doing what we can, to really . . . change things all over."

The Jedi used to try to do that, before. Certain arms of the Republic, too. And if even the people who think they can't stand up do . . .

[for_everyone]

Hera stays silent at first, her eyes still on the table.

Then, "That's the idea."

[notallofus]

He half-smiles, though it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"Time's the real killer, huh?"

[for_everyone]

"And patience."

She doesn't look up. "Sometimes it feels like patience is literally killing us."

[notallofus]

There's a moment where Kanan looks startled, eyebrows lifting. It's not quite taken aback, but he's certainly pulled out of his own melancholy thoughts.

"We'd all be dead a lot sooner without it," he says quietly.

[for_everyone]

"I know."

And she does. She does know that. Finally, she raises her eyes to him again.

"Kanan, is there anything - besides drinking too much caf..."

[notallofus]

"Or sitting here talking?"

He musters another smile, wan and not very convincing.

"Not much, I'm afraid."

[for_everyone]

"I can do sitting and talking," she says, now also smiling, if faintly.

"At least for a little while."

[notallofus]

"I guess I'll leave all this caf in the thermos, for Zeb to use if he ever decides to wake up."

It's kind of like a promise, he supposes.

And he will eventually try to get some real sleep.