#*puts a magnet up to his monitor so the polarity of internal magnets gets warped hence distorting him in funny and/or horrifying ways* ;3

[valeriapryanikova]

Console.WriteLine("NO RISK, NO REWARD.");

[ventoren-legacy]

The Lab Incident

“Start it up again.”

“Yes, sir.”

Akirris’ commands were never met with hesitation or question. He walked a fine line between employer and Sith Lord, operating labs on neutral planets. He had no compunction about hiring the best minds and using them to their full extent, no matter where they placed their allegiance. Eilissa was no exception. The young female Nautolan was a star pupil and a legendary assistant, by Akirris’ way of thinking. Pulled from his intern pool after she signed up for self-defense classes, Eilissa had proven invaluable as a personal assistant and lab tech. When she proved Force-sensitive, it was only natural for him to take her on as an apprentice.

She keyed the necessary commands into her datapad as Akirris kept his eyes on the monitors, watching the data readouts. He was attempting to reconcile the magnetic polarization of the hyperdrive test module with a relic from one of the ancient ruins on Dromund Kaas - a simple test, designed to explore the physical ramifications of Force manifestation. The power from the relic leaked out into the room, he could feel it and he knew Eilissa could too, like a living thing, oppressive and overbearing. As a Sith, wrestling with such things and bending them to his will was a skill he had learned - and he attempted to impart those skills to others, including his assistant. Now it was just a matter of measuring and recording its effects on the hyperspatial anomaly created by a hyperdrive.

As the hyperdrive spun to life, the readouts began to fluctuate. Reaching out with the Force, Akirris turned dials and pressed keys on the harmonizing actuator’s control panel, attempting to regulate the frequency of the hyperdrive’s magnetic resonance with that of the relic. Soon, both were humming firmly, their resonances bound at the same frequency through polarization.

It was a breakthrough, but Akirris had no time to revel in it. Suddenly, despite his care, the readings spiked, sending the indicators into the red. “Shut it down,” he yelled over the noise, as the hyperdrive test module spun faster, whipping the air in the lab into a circular breeze. As it ripped flimsiplast and styluses from desks, shifted tools on shelves, and roared ever louder, Eilissa’s dark eyes grew wide with concern. “It’s not shutting down, sir,” she said, tapping keys on her datapad with growing frequency.

Akirris glanced at her, glanced at her datapad, then reached for the power cables with the Force. He was too slow.

Orrana looked up from her outdated copy of Sith Socialites Magazine in the waiting room. She felt the pressure building in the Force, and she felt another pressure building, a tension that warped her sense of reality. Used to the effects of unshielded hyperdrive experimentation, she almost went back to her reading, waiting for Akirris to begin his lunch break, but a spike of alarm, first from her husband, then from his new apprentice, sent her to her feet. She felt a new wave of imminent danger, and began to run, not away from it, but toward, reaching deep into the Force to lend wings to her feet.

The explosion rocked the entire facility. As it began, Akirris felt time stretch and slow as his adrenaline spiked and he reflexively poured his awareness into the Force. Shifting his focus, he reached for Eilissa, wrapping her in the fist of the dark side and yanking her to him. Twisting, he covered her with his body - and armored lab coat - as flames began to lick up the inside of the hyperdrive casing. He pushed downward with the Force and upward with his legs, leaping for the doorway with all the power of both he could muster.

The blast followed milliseconds after. The door’s automatic sensors were too slow to open, and Akirris and Eilissa were thrown against the heavy durasteel, slamming into it hard enough to leave a dent. Heat and light rushed toward them, flames licking through the igniting oxygen in the air, threatening to put an end to all their experimentation, forever.

Suddenly, the heavy security door was ripped free of its frame, shooting outward, and a wall of Force energy imposed itself between the groaning scientists and the gout of flame, a purple crackling brilliance holding certain fiery death at bay. Physics strained as the fire pressed outward, but slowly, inexorably, it was forced back, held by the will of a powerful Sith Lord.

Orrana strained to hold an explosion that would rip any capital ship apart, reaching deep through the Force and hissing through her teeth as she pulled against the Force itself, bending more and more to her will, channeling enough that it threatened to burn her from the inside out. She fed the hungry maw of the Dark with her own rage and fear, the thought of what she had almost allowed to happen filling her with a profusion of both. Akirris was not allowed to die until she was done with him. Akirris was not allowed to die in the arms of another woman. Akirris was not allowed to die. She would not allow it. She. Would. Not.

Even cushioned by the Force as he was, the impact was enough to stun him. Barely aware of what he was seeing, Akirris slid forward, pulling himself with one hand, pulling the unconscious form of his apprentice along the floor with the other. Orrana stood above him, her face twisted in a seething expression of fury, both hands outstretched as she held the flames at bay. He watched in awe as they began to recede, forced into a roiling ball of heat and death by Orrana’s will.

Orrana strained to pull the Force to her, but it hurt, oh stars, how it hurt. She screamed, fury and pain ripping from her throat as she held the explosion in the Force, crushing it with her will to see Akirris live. When her own pain and fear were not enough, she turned to other sources. She pulled the fear of the other employees - fear of the explosion, fear of their sith lord employer, fear of herself - into her, amplifying it with sorcery skills long practiced. When that still was not enough to contain and direct the dizzying torrent of fire and ice the Force poured into her, she reached for the only other source of the Dark Side. Gripping the energy from the recovered relic in the fist of her will, she tore it free from the hyperdrive resonance, funneling it toward herself. With a final surge of effort, she clenched the explosion in the Force, smothering it with the Dark Side, and suddenly it was gone, wiped from existence by her rage, winking out to leave only the smoldering wreck of the hyperdrive test module and the melting, charred relic, bereft entirely of what Force energy it had once contained.

She turned her attention immediately to Akirris and Eilissa, delving each of them with the Force and flooding them with the leftover energy she held. Flesh and sinew, cloven by shrapnel from the exploding hyperdrive casing, knit itself back together. Burns soothed themselves and healed without a mark, and with a final blast of energy they both shot awake, sitting up with gasps as Orrana wiped the effects of the concussive blasts from their brains, returning them to alertness.

She rounded on them as soon as they were able to understand her. “What were you thinking? A blast like that could have leveled the facility, not only yourselves. I’ve told you time and again that you need to do the research on which relics you’re using, not only on how they interact. Just because it resonates with the Force doesn’t mean it’s safe to use. How could you have almost let this happen? How could you…” She broke off, trying unsuccessfully to strangle sobs as the Force and her adrenaline both drained, leaving her gasping and empty. “H-how c-could you alm-most l-leave m-me…”

Akirris shot to his feet, moving with alacrity to catch the pureblood Sith Lord as her knees buckled. He sat down with her as she collapsed, winded from the ordeal and Orrana’s display of power. “It’s a mistake I’m not likely to make again. You saved us both, mon chere,” he said, his thick accent from the Mirialis River Delta made thicker by emotion. “I’m so proud of you.”

Eilissa knelt close by, scanning them both to check their vitals before centering herself. “Thank you both, my lords,” she said, humbly. “I’d have died if not for you.” Orrana and Akirris nodded as the fire suppressant system in Akirris’ office laboratory kicked on, dousing the smoldering wreckage and putting an end to the danger.

When they were finally all recovered enough to stand, Akirris spoke first. “We’re going to need to order a new test module.” Orrana rolled her eyes and kissed his cheek. “You’re going to keep trying until you get it, aren’t you,” she asked. He nodded. “Stubborn swamp donkey,” she said, lovingly.

                         Fin