Zule and Fay moved together through the corridors of the Chiss ship. Zule walked slightly ahead, her eyes shifting from one wall to the next, checking for anything useful—loose panels, storage compartments, maintenance kits, or old gear that hadn't been locked away, her hands hovered near her belt, ready to reach for her tools if she spotted something worth grabbing.
Fay walked a step behind. Her hands stayed by her sides. She wasn't tense—not compared to Zule anyway. Every few minutes, she glanced down a side corridor or paused to check a door. "We should head to the cargo hold," she said after a short pause. "That's where we'll find the most supplies. Crates of parts, weapons, maybe even medical gear or fuel cells."
Zule gave her a sideways look. "And how exactly are we supposed to carry that much? We don't have a lift cart. I'm not dragging it back by hand."
Fay didn't flinch. "Jaden's probably close to restoring power. If he does, we can use internal lifts. Or carts, if they're still operational."
Zule didn't answer, but she didn't argue either. They reached a bulkhead and turned, leaving the main corridor behind. The side path narrowed as they moved deeper into the ship's lower levels. Eventually, they reached a maintenance hatch. Zule climbed through first, pulling herself into the duct. Fay followed close behind.
The service duct was narrow. They had to crouch at first, then crawl. The metal floor was rough under their hands. Dust clung to the corners. The walls were lined with small pipes and bundles of cable, some of them secured with brackets, others loose. Every few meters, a small light pulsed overhead,. Occasionally, one of the pipes hissed faintly. They kept moving, inch by inch. After a while, they reached the end of the passage. Zule pressed her hand against a latch, then pushed the access panel open. They stepped out into the cargo hold.
It was large. The ceiling was high, and the room stretched in every direction. Crates were stacked in rows, some sealed tight, others left half-open. A few had been broken apart. Others were covered in dust. They split up. Zule walked along the nearest row of containers, checking labels, then forcing one open with jer cybernetic hand. Inside were energy cells—some dented, some intact. She checked a few, then moved to the next stack. Fay crossed to another row, opening cases and sorting through their contents. She found tools, replacement parts, backup coils, and handheld scanners. She laid them out in a neat row and started checking their condition.
Then her torch passed over something near the far wall.
Bodies. Six or seven. All Chiss. They were slumped together in a corner, arms and legs tangled, uniforms stiff. None had weapons drawn. They hadn't tried to fight. Fay stood still for a long moment, just watching them. She didn't speak.
Her shoulders dropped slightly.
"So much death," she said sadly.
She turned away after that and went back to the crates, one hand reaching for the next lid. Her movements were slower than before, but steady. She picked up each tool, checked it, set it aside. One crate at a time. As they worked, Fay glanced over at Zule, who was focused on a container of circuits.
"Zule," Fay said abruptly, breaking the silence.
"What?" Zule replied, not looking up at first.
"It has been a while since one of our sessions."
Zule stiffened instantly, her body going rigid like a coiled spring, hands freezing mid-motion on the crate's edge.
Fay smiled softly, though there was a knowing edge to it. "The sessions are not mandatory, Zule. You need only tell me if you do not wish to continue them."
Zule's throat worked visibly, words catching as she struggled to find her voice. Finally, she managed, "I don't enjoy the sessions."
"I understand that," Fay said gently.
Zule stopped what she was doing entirely, setting down a tool with a clatter. "It has been five months since the Gala and since Darth Nihilus was incarnated. Since Velea died." Her voice cracked on the name. "I see everyone... be happy and be normal... and I just don't understand how they could not feel the same way I do."
Fay smiled sadly at her.
"Jaden most of all," Zule continued, her words tumbling out now. "I don't understand how he can be so normal."
Fay stepped closer. "Jaden struggled a lot with Velea's death, more than you might realize. But he soon saw that clinging to that pain, that grief, would only lead to his own destruction. Love is a powerful force, Zule, but it's important to know when to let that love go—otherwise, it twists into mere obsession, eating away at you from the inside."
Fay reached out, touching Zule's shoulder lightly. "Mourn Velea, remember her fondly, but don't hold onto anger for her sake. Collan Eislo is dead; he won't feel your rage. It only poisons you."
"I know that!" Zule snapped, her eyes flashing with raw emotion, pulling away slightly. "I just... I don't want to let go."
Fay nodded, her understanding deep and patient. "It will be a difficult journey, Zule. Even Jaden continues some of his sessions with me, when the shadows creep back in. I hope you will as well."
"Maybe..." Zule muttered, trailing off as she turned back to scavenging, her movements jerky but purposeful.
At that moment, the power surged on, lights flickering to life overhead, bathing the hold in a hsrsh glow. But it was drowned out almost immediately by a deafening alarm— a wailing siren that pierced the air. Red emergency lights started to flash alongside it.
Zule clapped her hands over her ears, shouting over the noise. "What the hell is this?"
Fay's face tightened. "It sounds like the quarantine alarm!"
"Let's get this stuff back to the ship," Fay said urgently, grabbing a crate. Zule nodded sharply, hoisting her own load, the two of them hurrying toward the grav carts as the alarm blared on.
...
Jaden and Aubrie finally reached the engine room after a long walk through the lower corridors and a crawl through the service ducts. The halls on the engine deck had been narrow, with low ceilings and sharp corners that made it hard to see far ahead. Their torchlights showed only short patches of the way forward at a time. Which only seemed to make Aubrie more jumpy. The door to the engine room took a few seconds to respond. When it opened, it did so slowly, releasing a faint burst of stale air. The room inside was dark except for a few small lights on the consoles—red, orange, and blinking slowly. The room still had power, just very little of it.
The engine room itself was large. There were rows of consoles along the walls, each one built into the surface and locked into place. The screens were dim. Most of them were dark, but a few still had power and showed simple readouts or standby symbols. Thick cables ran across the ceiling and down the walls. Some hung loosely, while others were held up by metal clamps. A few of the clamps were missing or broken. There were panels removed from some of the machines. One had been taken off and placed flat against the floor, and a coil of wire was half-pulled from its casing and left out.
The floor was not clean. There were tools lying around—spanners, screwdrivers, a small case of fasteners. A portable light unit had been set up near the back wall but was turned off. Nothing looked damaged. There were no signs of burns, no exposed fuel lines, no melted parts, no cracks or scorches. The machines were dusty in places, and some of the labels had faded, but everything important looked like it had been left in working condition.
Aubrie stepped inside first. She kept her light aimed at the control stations and moved slowly, checking each console as she passed. "This place hasn't been attacked," she said. "There's no damage."
Jaden followed behind her. He stayed quiet for a moment, looking around. The equipment had not been shut down during a fight. There was no panic in the way the tools were left. No broken equipment. Whoever was here last had done maintenance or adjustments, then left without finishing the job. The power was still running through the backup systems. The engine core itself was idle but stable.
Aubrie's posture was rigid, her shoulders hunched as she swept her torch around, eyes darting to every corner. Jaden noticed it immediately, she was as feeling nervous and uneasy; this was the same girl who spent months in an active war zone. "What's wrong?" he asked, stepping closer.
She hesitated, glancing at him with a forced half-smile. "Just... a bad feeling."
Jaden nodded slowly, his own senses prickling with that same unease. "I feel it too. But there's nothing to worry about we won't be here too long." He forced a grin, trying to lighten the mood, and in a sudden move, he scooped her up by the waist, lifting her effortlessly onto one of the wide consoles. Her legs dangled over the edge, the metal pressing against her thighs through her clothes.
Aubrie's eyes widened, a huge blush flooding her cheeks as she steadied herself with her hands on his shoulders. "Jaden! What are you doing?" she stammered, her voice a mix of shock and embarrassment, heat rising to her face.
He leaned in, his grin turning mischievous, hands resting on her hips. "You need to relax, Aubrie. Just for a minute."
"This isn't the time to relax," she protested, though her blush deepened, her body betraying her with a subtle shift toward him. "We have to fix the ship, look for survivors... this is crazy."
"Mhmm," Jaden murmured, before closing the distance and kissing her deeply. His lips claimed hers, tongue slipping in to tangle with hers. Aubrie melted into him almost immediately, her resistance crumbling as she kissed back, her hands sliding up to his neck. But then she pulled away, breathless, her cheeks flaming. "We... we should do this back in our room," she whispered, avoiding his gaze.
Jaden didn't let her escape, kissing her again, slower this time, before trailing his lips down to her neck. He nipped gently at the sensitive skin there, his breath hot against her ear. "Do you not find this exciting?" he whispered.
She did—force, she did. The thrill of it, the naughtiness of fooling around in this forbidden, eerie place, ignited something in her. Her core grew warmer than usual, a slick heat building between her thighs, making her squirm slightly on the console. "I... yeah," she admitted softly, her resolve shattering.
With that, Aubrie let Jaden do whatever he wanted, her body yielding as he worked it. He knelt briefly to tug off her boots, the leather thudding to the floor, then hooked his fingers into her trousers, sliding them down her legs along with her underwear in one smooth motion. The cool air of the engine room kissed her bare skin, making her gasp, her blush spreading down her neck as she sat exposed on the console, her legs parting instinctively.
Jaden stood again, and quickly shoved his own trousers down just enough to free his hard length.
Aubrie gasped sharply as he positioned himself and slipped inside her, the sudden fullness stretching her, her wet heat enveloping him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer, her face a deep crimson as she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. He began to move, thrusting slow and deep at first, their bodies rattling the console creaking faintly under them.
"This is so wrong," Aubrie said breathlessly between kisses, her voice hitching as he hit a sensitive spot. "We need to get the power running... look for survivors..."
"That can wait," Jaden growled, picking up the pace, thrusting harder, his hands gripping her hips to pull her into each stroke. The slick sounds of their joining echoed in the quiet room, her moans spilling out—soft at first, then building to desperate gasps as pleasure coiled tight in her belly.
Aubrie clung to him, her nails digging into his shoulders, her body arching as the tension snapped. She orgasmed cutely, a series of whimpered cries escaping her lips—"Oh, Jaden... ah!"—her face scrunching in adorable bliss, legs trembling around him as she hugged him tight, burying her face in his neck. Not long after, Jaden followed, groaning l as he flooded her hole with his cum, hot pulses filling her deeply, their bodies locked together in the aftershocks.
He drew back slowly, slipping out of her with a wet sound, a trail of their mixed release trickling down her thigh. He pulled his trousers up, securing them with a satisfied sigh. Aubrie, still perched on the console, hit his shoulder lightly, her blush lingering as she tried to compose herself. "We should've waited," she scolded, though a small smile tugged at her lips.
Jaden smiled back, unrepentant. "How many chances do you get to do this?" he replied, winking. She hit him again, playfully, shaking her head as she hopped down to retrieve her clothes. Jaden shifted his focus to the engines after they got dressed and composed themselves, his mind snapping back to the task at hand as he moved toward the main control panel in the center of the room. The massive console hummed under his touch as he pried it open with a quick twist of a tool from his belt, revealing a nest of circuits and switches that flickered weakly.
"Power's still trickling through," he muttered, more to himself than Aubrie, his eyes narrowing as he adjusted the settings.
He activated the backup power with a few flips of the auxiliary relays, and watched as secondary lights blinked on across the board and a long beeping noise built up from the dormant systems, bringing a trickle of energy online that illuminated the panel fully and allowed him to dive into the core commands.
"There we go..." he said under his breath. He thenn got to work on bringing the engines themselves online, his fingers movingg over the holographic interface as he rerouted power flows and initiated startup sequences.
Aubrie looked around. "Everything's powering up. How long until we're at full capacity?"
"Few more minutes, maybe," Jaden said, keeping his focus on the screen. "Depends on how stubborn this thing gets."
He glanced over at Aubrie, who was still a bit flushed from their earlier moment, and gave her some instructions to help him with other parts, "Check the coolant levels on the secondary manifolds and recalibrate the fuel injectors on the port side console. We'll need to sync them before the primary systems kick in or we risk a surge."
As he scrolled through the data streams, Jaden frowned suddenly, his brow furrowing deep as he spotted something weird buried in the engineering logs. Wait a second... what the hell?"
Aubrie sensed something was wrong. She stepped closer, concern etching her face. "What is it?"
Jaden replied, "The engines were shut down manually. There's nothing wrong with them—no system failures, no damage reports." He pointed to the log. "The captain used his command codes. Full override. Locked the system out completely."
"Why would he do that?" Aubrie asked, leaning over his shoulder to peer at the screen.
"I'm not sure," Jaden said, shaking his head slowly. "Could've been a mutiny. I don't know. Something made him shut everything down, like he didn't want the ship going anywhere."
"Can you bypass it?"
Jaden shot her a quick grin. "Who do you think you're talking to?"
He cracked his knuckles and dove back into the code, his fingers blurring over the keys. Jaden then bypassed the lockout with a clever hack that spoofed the captain's codes using a backdoor algorithm he improvised on the spot, unlocking the restrictions one by one until the systems relented.
"Come on... almost there... got it."
He activated the engines with a final command. Main power surged online, flooding the room with full light and sending vibrations through the floor as overhead lights snapped on one by one. Then an alarm blared suddenly, loud enough that both Jaden and Aubrie were disoriented by it and had to cover their ears. "What the hell—?" he shouted over the sound.
Aubrie looked around quickly. "What is that?!"
"No idea," Jaden said, leaning back into the panel to investigate. "Let me check the logs—" He scrolled fast, eyes flicking across the screen.
"It's the quarantine alarm. Auto-triggered when I brought the main power back online." A sudden chill crept over him. Something about it felt wrong. He overrode the alarm, silencing the wail, but noticed the red lights still flashed across the room.
"That's not good..."
Just then, Scout and Fay came through on the comms in his earpiece, voices crackling with urgency.
"Jaden, what the hell was that?" Scout ssked.
"We heard the alarm," Fay added. "Everything alright down there?"
"The ship's under quarantine," Jaden answered. "That's what the system says. I haven't found the reason yet, but it explains the lack of power."
There was a pause before Scout replied. "That can't be good."
"We should pull out," Zule said through the comms. "We've got enough already."
"Hold on," Jaden said. "We still need warp capability. Scout, how's the warp core looking?"
"Not great," she replied, sighing. "But I think I can patch the relays and stabilize the generators. We'll need replacement parts though."
"We're en route," Zule cut in. "Fay and I found some spares. We're heading to the hanger bay now."
"Good," Jaden said. "Get the warp core ready. I don't want to stay on this ship longer than we have to."
"Agreed," they both said together, and the line went quiet.
Jaden turned off the comms with a tap, then looked at Aubrie, who was still staring at the flashing lights. "We're heading back to the ship."
"Yeah," she said, nodding quickly. "Let's move." But before they could take more than a step, a loud crash echoed from the corridor outside. The sound of tearing metal followed, like something breaking through the walls. The floor vibrated slightly.
"What was that?" Aubrie whispered.
Then they heard footsteps.
"...Run?" Aubrie asked, already backing toward the exit.
"Yeah," Jaden said. "Now!"
(AN: Damn Jaden… there is a time and place, but yeah some weird stuff is happening on the ship, who knows what may happen. Anyway don't worry too much about this taking too much time, adrift is only 1 chapter I've just broken it up for this site so I can post daily. What that means is after this chapter they'll be back to Coruscant and into the Star Wars Clone wars movie. Hope you enjoyed.)
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