Ask Outran No Longer

[Corran Velt]

Mercifully, no pointed questions followed Corran's avoidance of a specific type of training. If they had, he wouldn't have known what to say. The feelings grinding his guts into paste were the first in his life. They didn't have names. Only churning, boiling discomfort that reared when people came near. It was a new phenomenon and one he detested but as much as he fought to tame it, the grinding resurfaced, wild as ever. Only privacy provided any respite.

Respite was something Ranger Asuchi did not have as the datapad sat before her. It did not contain every last shred of evidence of her past activates, but it did have them neatly compiled in one place. A gathering of evidence. To delete it would make it a massive undertaking to recollect it all. Some may not be even tracible ever again. With that opportunity laid before her, Rylee hesitated. A golden stare eyed the digital device that held all her sins before rising to meet the granite gaze of the lieutenant. Terse words followed. Tears and sorrow had not doused the Pantoran's fierce personality or her clever wit. She saw shadows of a test. Yet honor still seemed to bind her. Almost anyone else in Rylee's position would have pounced on the datapad and deleted everything without a second thought. Instead, it came sliding back to him.

Lieutenant Velt's eyes followed the datapad as it came to halt near the edge of the table. His gaze flicked up to the woman that sat across from him. A truly impassive face made her unable to see the true extent, but surprise made one of Corran's eyebrows tick upward. In it's own way, this felt like a test. Ranger Asuchi had thrown down a gauntlet. Keep the evidence or dismantle his own hard work. Wordlessly, the blond man picked up the datapad and flipped it around so Rylee could see the screen. His thumb hovered over the ENTER key. He pressed it.

Data began to blink away. Destroyed completely as its code began to disintegrate from the delete command. All easily accessible records of Squadron Leader Asuchi's piratical actions vanished into the digital void. The datapad slowly lowered until it came to careful rest on the meeting room table. Corran sat back and returned to his upright, rigid posture. "I have faith in you, Ranger Asuchi. I did from the start," he admitted in a soft monotone, "I don't think it will be misplaced."

@Bex

 

[Rylee Asuchi]

Rylee watched as the lieutenant reacted. His face remained as expressionless as it had done the whole evening. It made his eyebrow raising stand out significantly, though it could have meant anything. Surprise. Confusion. Possibly even disappointment. Fortunately the Pantoran was not left waiting to find out as the bearded ranger promptly picked up the datapad and turned it to face her. Lt. Velt pressed the key to delete all of the files.

The woman's puffy, reddened eyes looked at him, beyond the datapad as the records of her misdeeds disappeared one by one. As he lowered the datapad back down to the table, the lieutenant explained that he had faith in her and had done since the beginning. Why a man so process driven and law abiding would take such a risk confused Rylee and the blonde ranger's explanation only went some way to explaining it. Perhaps in time she would truly understand why he would have made the decision to cover for her. To protect her. But right now, the Pantoran was overcome with intense feelings of both gratitude and relief. It meant that she would be able to live up to her promise without the threat of blackmail and prove that she was doing it for genuine reasons rather than self-preservation, but most of all, it showed that the man she had become to regard as a friend had not given up on her, even after finding out about the worst thing she had ever done in her life. Rylee would forever be thankful and loyal to him for that.

"Thank you, lieutenant..." she said, her voice a little weak. Rylee did not say anything else. Corran would have found this unusual, given how she was normally, but her eyes remained fixed on him, and despite how tired they looked, he would have been able to see that her gratitude was both unrelenting and sincere.

@TerranSteel

 

[Corran Velt]

Simple gratitude was all that was uttered from the Pantoran woman. It was odd as it was courteous. She was a typically verbose person in the best and worst of moods. This whole meeting she had done the majority of the talking. Where her voice said little, her features expressed more. Despite the puffiness and dried tear streaks, Rylee's forceful personality beamed from golden irises. Thankfulness battered against barred gates of his empty emotions. His own eyes moved about her features, observing the curious phenomenon that he once understood but now felt so alien to. Emanating gratitude to someone who had dug up her buried past. He wasn't sure he'd do the same.

Lieutenant Velt supplied a curt, professional nod of acceptance to Rylee's words. He stood up, picking up the two datapads in one hand. Once again at full height, shoulders squared, and looking as rigid as any raw recruit fresh out of boot camp, he subtly gestured towards the door, "That'll be all, Ranger Asuchi. You're dismissed." His gaze only followed her until she passed by his shoulder. Corran refused to turn his head and waited for the sound of the opening and closing of the door before even thinking about moving.

Along in meeting room two, the man stood alone in perfect order. Only the empty table and metal walls remained with him, unmoving and silent in solidarity. Corran turned on his heel in his usual practiced way but the full rotation was never completed. He stumbled as weakness in his legs overcame him. The wall by the door caught him with a weighted thud that echoed against the metallic surface. Heavy breaths filled the silence. His forehead and palm of his head held him upright. The artificial calm gave way to unleashed frustration. A fist, knuckled white, pounded against the metal wall. Once. Twice. The third time the knuckles remained pressed against the surface. He felt no pain from the strikes. He hadn't felt pain in awhile - after-effects of the Sith toxin. All the pain he could feel was inside. Fueled by confusion, distrust, and self-loathing into an endlessly hungry engine that consumed it all and demanded more. More fuel was always at hand. Why did everything fall apart together?

He forced himself into even breaths before peeling himself from the battered wall. Corran closed his eyes in self-chastisement. This wasn't appropriate behavior. A loss of discipline while wearing the uniform. Truly pathetic. The door opened with a hiss and closed with another. Grey eyes stared blankly ahead as the man returned to his quarters. He'd go to the gym deck again. A place where he could exorcise the haunting void before bed. A temporary calm in the darkness. Only then could he think about the next steps with Ranger Asuchi.

//End Thread

@Bex