Lyla shook her head, tails swaying. 'No. We fight like hell and run away. If we succeed, we'll have gotten eyes on our enemy. If we fail, which seems to be inevitable in our job, then they'll capture us to take our cargo and the Gold will track them at a safe distance, while we escape and take them down somehow... It's in the hands of the goddess.'

Lamar smiled and then said, "Then, take the stick for a second." When she did he quickly retrieved  his bag and began searching it one handed looking for a device. "Where are you you little sith spawn..." He muttered. After a few minutes he found what he was looking for and pulled a small electronic device up. "Ha!" He exclaimed animatedly. "This little beauty will do nicely. I just need to modify her and attach her to our long range transmitter when we stop at our next leg of the journey. Then she will send a coded hyperpulse beacon to us every time she comes out of hyperdrive until I send a special code, or the device is removed, which will be difficult, as I'm gonna make it very hard to find."

Lyla peered curiously at the device, but the scout was already left a bit lost by it. 'Coded hyperpulse...? I'll take your word for it, but good work. Will you need a hand installing it, or will it need an EVA?'

The short hyperspace jumps and sublight flights gave both crews plenty of downtime. Lamar set up a tracking device on the Wayfarer. There was less to do on the Alabak's Gold but that was home so it easier to relax and let the time flow.

After four mundane hyperspace jumps the two starships emerged in a dense cloud of stellar gas. The astronavigational calculations predicted a sixteen hour sublight flight through a cluster of gravitational fluctuations before the next safe hyperspace jump would possible. After engaging the sublight drive both ship's computers set off their proximity alarms. The wail of the alarms echoed throughout the starships, disturbing everyone whether they were resting or working. The stellar gas cloud hid almost everything from the ship's sensors but they could detect a large object up ahead. The sensor's showed that the object was moving very slowly.

After the first jump, Rynn had decided the completely trust the pilot not to get them killed as they made their way through hyperspace. And so he closed his eyes, hidden by his skinsuits visor and took himself a little nap. Strapped in to the seat kept him sitting upright, but a perceptive person would notice the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. "What the Cruk." he said, shaken by the alarms out of his reverie. Glancing at the screen showed that whatever it was, was big. "Moving to the torpedo launcher controls. Let me know if you get anymore info." he said, unstrapping himself and moving to the gunner's controls.

Klyn stayed 'out of view' - which was not that hard in that area - in case the trap was sprung.

He waited for more information on the slow object, trying to gather the little data they had to see what it could be. Big rock, dead ship... or trouble.

Lamar straightened up in the seat where he had been relaxed while piloting as the klaxons began warning of the object ahead. Quickly silencing the alert so he could think he began maneuvering the ship so the shuttle could maintain it's distance from the object until they could decide what to do about it. "L.T> You better get up here!" he sent over the ship comms.

'What have we got?' Lyla asked urgently soon after, coming into the cockpit behind them and rolling her tank-top down her midriff. Not needed to pilot or for much else on board, Lyla had retreated to a small bare cabin for a nap, a nap that had been cut too short with the sudden scream of alarms. She'd risen in a flash, and dressed on the way. 'Is it our pirates?'

After a moment of action the crew of the Wayfarer were prepared. Rynn sat at the control for the torpedo launched, he was primed and ready for battle, however all he could see through the viewport was thick, billowing yellow and white gas clouds. Lamar prepared for evasive manoeuvres. Lyla somewhat half dressed made herself look decent as she took command of the situation.

On the other starship, the Alabak's Gold Klyn slowed the engines and began to drift, his eyes on the sensors. Klyn scanned the object, his analysis reported that the object was eighty metres, at least twice as long as either of their starships. The objects movement was slow and erratic. Its metal content was extremely low, it appeared to be made mostly of carbon compounds and water, and there appeared to be a small energy source at its centre.

"I'm not sure what it is L.T. It looks like, from the readings I'm getting it's an asteroid of some sort, but it's showing a power source as well. Asteroids don't normally do that,so I'm not sure..." Lamar said as he worked to keep the ship from getting any closer to the anomaly.

Trying to wake herself up in a hurry, and without the benefit of caf, Lyla tugged on her tails until she felt it. 'Could it be a ship? Parek said the pirates used Skipray Blastboats, a space barge, and some kind of huge container ship... Can we get an image of it?' Hardly waiting, she went to the sensor array, trying to access a visual image of the thing, or at least a silhouette. 'Is there a Jayne's Starships?'


OOC: Perception 15, Use Computer (untrained) 12

From the sensor readings Lamar could not discern what manner of thing the object was. Staring into the billowing gas clouds Lyla tried to perceive what the thing was but also to no avail.

Then slowly after many moments the large object emerged from the gas clouds, no more than two hundred metres from the front of the ships. It was amazing to see, the object appeared to be a huge serpentine body perhaps eight metres long. It was a creature of some sort, with a sinuous, many-segmented body and a huge pair of gossamer wings stretching from its back. One of the wings had a small tear. The serpent's eyes were open, but glassy. Once it had emerged the creature hung limply in front of the ships, unmoving.

Peering into the nebulae, Lyla had expected to see a ship, an asteroid, or anything. But she had not expected to see that. 'That's no ship.' she breathed, eyes widening and tails raised in amazement. She knew some lifeforms were able to survive in space, in vacuum, intense cold, and radiation, from mynocks to Givins, but she hadn't expected to see something so big, so majestic, and so right here. 'Wow... First, let's see what you are...' she began, searching through her datapad.


OOC: Knowledge checks: Galactic Lore 21, Life Sciences 14

"Well... that's unexpected" commented Klyn.

As a space traveler he had heard of strange creature living in space - not really knowing how, by the way - but it was the first time he actually saw that one.

"Any idea of what it is?" he asked Terra " It appears to be either wounded and tired or somehow comatose?

If it's dead - or dying, we don't know how to heal such a thing - maybe there are things of value we can get from its body."

Her own expansive knowledge and a search of the datapad has Lyla stunned to identify the object as a living creature, a Duinuogwuin or Star Dragon. Widely believed to be mythical a creature, a dead or nearly dead specimen floated aimlessly in the space before them.

On examination it's scales on its underbelly were silver and those on its back were pale blue.

'By the Goddess...' She'd not wanted to believe it; she'd wanted to be sceptical, to be practical and not get carried away with space legends. Yet she couldn't deny it, and she double-checked it—the more reliable pictures and details she found matched the creature off the Wayfarer's bow too well. 'It's a Star Dragon!' she gasped in awe, hardly believing she'd ever see a creature so majestic. 'A Duinuogwuin. They're ancient, almost mythical.'

She peered again at the Duinuogwuin, noting the torn wing, blank eyes, and immobility. 'Looks a bit sick though...' She activated the communications system, contacting the Gold. 'Klyn, Tera, bring the Gold in closer. I have a very strange patient for you...'

"I've heard tales, but I didn't think they were real. Just scary stories pirates tell their child captives... but here it is." Rynn said through the comms. "I'm prepped if it lashes out Boss. Kyln, you guys be careful."

Lamar sat stunned, a single tear rolling down his cheek at the sight. Even his cold persona couldn't be unmoved at this sight, it was just too beautiful. Though he was angered to see it injured. "Why is it injured?" He asked.

'Evasive only, we don't want to risk making it worse.' Lyla advised Rynn, though she was sure he had the same idea. It might be a giant space dragon, but she was treating it the same as any injured beast she encountered while out on the trail during her scouting days, and was keenly aware of the risks. With deep respect for nature, she'd always tried to take good care of them. When she didn't eat them, anyway.

'No clue. Could be an accident, a fight, something else. We don't know enough about how they live.' Until Tera arrived to give a second, better opinion, Lyla donned her medical interface visor, peered at the screen and tried to assess the star dragon's health, though she might be too far away and too separated by screens and cameras for the visor to help much.


OOC: Treat Injury 18

The crews of both ships looked at the massive star dragon with fascination. The creature floated toward them as lifeless as space junk. It was a surprise to all of them when like a faint whisper in the back of they minds they felt emotions form at the edge of consciousness. They suddenly all felt hunger and weakness, a closeness to death. All knew with certainty that this creature was dying from starvation and that it's mind was somehow connected to theirs.

Klyn moved the Gold, hoping no-one was around to catch the com exchange or it would ruin their plan.

When the creature's mind somehow connected to theirs, all thoughts of possible profit from parts of the legendary being vanished.

"So... what does something so huge eat in the vaccum of space? And how much?"

"Ships? Asteroids? Planetoids? Your guess is as good as mine." Lamar said as he scanned the creature with every sensor that the ship had, which admittedly wasn't as many as he would have liked. "Are there any other space borne creatures that exist?" He wasn't a space jockey, he didn't usually live among the stars, so he wouldn't know.

Overcome with the unexpected emotions, Lyla rocked back on her heels and her head-tails drooped. 'Woah! Does anyone else feel really hungry suddenly?' she said in surprise, touching a hand to the base of her lek-tchun and trying to massage out the mild headache. 'And... dying?' She looked up at the Star Dragon on screen, whispering in amazement 'It's you, isn't it?' And with that somehow she had her answer. That Force thing she'd never quite believed seemed a little less unbelievable then and there.

'Ah, no one knows what they eat.' she answered at last. 'Well, I guess they know, but no one else has ever examined their biology... But there are a number of space-dwelling creatures: mynocks, exogorths, space plankton, feeding on each other and organic gases and radiation – enough to support an ecosystem.' she explained. 'But as for what a Star Dragon eats, your guess is as good as mine... Well, almost as good.'

Wondering if the communication could worth both ways, Lyla fixed her eyes on the Duinuogwuin, asking aloud 'What do you need?'

The attempt of telepathic communication by Lyla may have been primitive in comparison to the sophisticated mind of the Star Dragon but it was enough to gain a response.

Fleetingly and weakly Lyla sensed the word oxygen in her mind.

Oxygen. Lyla blinked, confused and wondering. What was that? A random memory, a wild guess, or information inserted into her brain? She shook her head, her tails looping around her. It was hard to know which thoughts were her own, and which were of something else entirely. 'Okay, I'm not sure where this is from, but – oxygen.' She opened a communication to the Alabak's Gold so they could collaborate. 'Can we give it any oxygen? Maybe from medical, atmospheric stores, welding equipment?'


OOC: Did we get any cargo from RMC to help our ruse?