Alice Walker's Story

Alice stood by as the exchange commenced, carefully listening. Her assignment was going along rather swimmingly. She had infiltrated the Aschen Special Projects Division some time ago and had integrated herself into their operations quite effectively. It wasn't easy work by any means, and many, many hours went in to researching everything she would need to know in order to blend in, but she did it.

Now, she stood on an Aschen vessel, drifting through what was known as the Cryo System, as Kianna spilled details about the planet that got its namesake from the system. It was hostile planet, in both atmosphere and culture. Kianna was busy introducing these new arrivals, a people Alice knew nothing about, to the planet.

She would undoubtedly be put to work protecting these people as they navigated Cryo, but that was all part of the job. She had to do whatever was necessary to maintain cover, and to gather as much intel on the Aschen and their affiliates as possible. Her other sisters in the Black Widow Company were likewise surveying other cultures, disguised in similar a similar manner as she. However, she was one of the Company's best, and was therefore selected to integrate with the ASPD. It was precarious work, to be sure, but if anyone could pull it off, it was Alice.

The crewmembers of the Void Explorer on The Kobol's Gleaming were Kaz, Lan, and the still leg-less Maria. After showing the Aschen engineering teams the minimal damages necessary to be fixed, Lan had taken to building some new legs for Maria. Much lower quality than the rest of her body, but it would suffice once they were done. For now, they were bundled up with the mechanized armature on his back.

The three of them (Maria with her head twisted 180 degrees to peer over Lan's shoulder) were looking down at the planet while Kianna described it to them. It was a gorgeous planet that, ultimately, only spacers would truly appreciate the view of. Kaz himself had always been partial to the subtleties of a frozen world, often visible only from orbit.

The description of how dangerous the planet was did not strike Kaz as outwardly strange, but the slavery piqued his curiosity.

"Slavery," he asks, turning a surprised look on Kianna. "That is a criminal enterprise here?"

Looking back towards the planet as he awaits her answer, he adds, "I would like to see a bit of the local culture regardless."


Lan meanwhile simply looks around the bridge suspiciously. Ever since they had been picked up by the Aschen he had been reviewing everything with scrutiny and wary suspicion. On the mention of getting planet-side, he perks up. "I want to go too," he says loudly.

To say she was bored was putting it mildly. Even showing Kaz around the ship and eating with him and going with him to deliver the food didn’t satiate her need for something exciting. Schuyler had tried to entertain herself by training, but that didn’t last very long and neither did going to work out. She left Kaz back with his crew and returned to her quarters, pacing back and forth for a few minutes before deciding to do a few hundred pushups and sit-ups. She didn’t know why she was so antsy, but it was beginning to irk her off immensely. Maybe she would be able to get off the ship once they reached Cryo. If not, there was a chance that Schyuler was going to go batshit crazy. Luckily, she rarely got this way and the redhead figured it was because of the two instances when her power was on supercharge.

“Uuuuuuuughhhhh… damn it, Cal, you butt.” Grumbling at her brother, who had been busy since they picked up Kaz and his crew, Schuyler was extremely glad when they, including Kaz’s crew were summoned to the bridge of the Kobol’s Gleaming.

Slinking into a place on the bridge where she could study the crew without it seeming obvious, Schuyler slid into a seat and crossed one long leg over the other. Getting comfortable, she silently listened to Kianna’s description of Cryo, paying close attention to the Void’s crew when she mentioned slavery. Merely arching a brow when Kaz inquired further about the slavery, she moved psychically from one Void Explorer crewman to the next, making sure nothing nefarious was going on within their minds. Her gaze fell momentarily upon Alice and Schuyler studied her a moment, realizing she hadn't really gotten to know the woman. Perhaps soon she could rectify that and perhaps that would stop the strange feeling she was getting from the female.

Kianna shook her head in response to Kaz's inquiry on slavery.

"Slavery is legal," Kianna explained. "Though, many planets within the Empire have enacted laws to bar its practice locally. Unfortunately the practice remains supported on the federal level, and it can be difficult to enforce humanitarian regulations on planets like Cryo which are notoriously difficult to police. Once you get out beyond the core worlds and central systems, our resources grow thin - especially with war knocking on our front door. And right now we're about as far from anywhere civilized in the Empire as you can get."

"I suppose if you are insistent on leaving the safety of the ships, it's best to be informed. If you have any questions about the locals before we set down in Lochcrest, you might as well ask now," Kianna said. "Alice, can you see that a small security detail is organized before we arrive? I don't want any accidents down there."

"And Schuyler, I want you to find Zaria and hit the slave markets. If you locate what we're looking for, contact me at once."

It was an interesting option for Kaz, heading to the planet, and he would be able to learn a great deal about the local cultures in doing so. He wondered if they would be able to go and wander on their own, or if they would have a bodyguard.

"Do you think there will be appropriate facilities to repair our Armature," Lan asks, gesturing to Maria. "While the shipboard resources have been great, she's going to need some actually new materials."

Kaz nods his affirmation that they would need this. "One matter of importance... I don't think our currency will mean much here," he says, taking out a couple of unfamiliar credit chips. "To that end, perhaps we can help you find what you are looking for, in exchange for the repair costs for Maria and... maybe something that will assist the recovery of our wounded."

Schuyler admired that Kaz and his crew wanted to go off the ship to explore, especially after Kianna explained how dangerous the planet was. However, it appeared Alice would be going with them with security, so they would be as safe as possible. Part of her was glad she hadn’t been assigned to go with the group, but the other half was just a smidge jealous. She was enjoying her time with Kaz, but alas, that time was over. Saluting towards her boss when instructed to seek out Zaria and go searching through the slave markets, Schuyler turned about face and strolled out of the bridge.

“Yes, ma’am.” She grinned before completely leaving the bridge and heading down the hallway.

Before searching out Zaria, she headed back towards her room and slipped into something more casual, which basically meant she pulled on her weaponry and slid a jacket on over them to make it look like she was nothing more than an innocent redhead. Dropping the communicator into her pocket, she scribbled a note to Cal and stepped out of her room and headed towards her brother’s room. Slipping the note beneath his door, she snorted and turned right back around. Heading towards the workout room, she hoped it wouldn’t be too cumbersome to find her crewmate. She wanted to save her energy for strolling through the slave markets.

"If the Cryons are good at anything, it's fixing things," Kianna replied.

Living the lives of pirates and smugglers left the locals with a knack for patching together all manner of repairs with whatever they could get their hands on out here on this desolate ice rock.

"I'm afraid what we're looking for will require a delicate touch and familiarity with the locals," Kianna added. "Alice here will see to any expenses necessary to get your android repaired, and we can square away on the matter later."

"We'll be in Lochcrest in a few minutes, if you would excuse me..."

She swept from the room and left Alice to the matter of the foreigners as they began to set down over the city.

Lochcrest, like the rest of this barren planet was frigid and near uninhabitable, and a blast of icy air flooded the hangar bay as the hangar doors were opened to permit Kaz's men to depart the ship.

The docking yards they had set down on where at the outer fringes of the city to accommodate larger vessels, and it would be a bit of a walk through the freezing wind to reach the city itself. Attire would have been provided in the form of layers of thermal-wear and goggles that would keep them from freezing to death, and small portable oxygen canisters were a necessity for traveling planet side. The atmosphere was enough to maintain human life, but the poor oxygen levels were apt to leaving one feeling rapidly fatigued by strenuous activity. One had only to look for an absence of oxygen canisters to pick out the natives who had evolved an advanced physiology better apt for handling the low oxygen levels.

It was a rugged city, with its people more rugged yet, and it offered an unnerving realization of the sheer levels of isolation one subjected themselves to when they stepped onto this wasteland of a planet. With bared skin a recipe for frost-bite or worse, there was a certain measure of anonymity to the city as well. Thick clothes, goggles and other protective gear left an individual all but indistinguishable from the next.

Even the slaves blended among the free-peoples, though if one had an eye for what to look for, they might note the ragged state of their clothes that were often in little better state that rags. One such group was being herded off a large transport vessel in the distance, still shackled as they were being prepared for delivery to the slave markets. From the look of it, there were even young children among the throng of slaves. Some were fortunate to still have the leg of a parent to cling to, but for many, they had been orphaned.

"Welcome to Lochcrest," Cal told Kaz and his men as he fitted his goggles in place and threw a thick scarf around his face to protect it from the frigid air.

He didn't much care to spend his afternoon out there, but orders were orders. Also accompanying Alice's escort party planet side were Dayson, and Asha - another of the recently graduated additions to the SPD.

They finally made it planet side. Cryo was, quite aptly described, as a frozen hellhole; it was the Ninth Circle incarnate, and Alice was not much of a fan of planting her feet within it. Alas, her duty to the Republic demanded determination and, most importantly, the ability to maintain the guise that she was actually one of the citizens from the very society she was now ingratiating herself into. Playing the part as an officer in the ASPD was no easy job by any means; her identity was a very well-guarded secret, and keeping it that way took a lot of low-profile effort to fly under the Aschen radar.

She wasn't a fan of the possibility of being executed for perpetrating espionage.

Quickly donning the equipment that was issued and essential for making treks to Cryo, Alice was placed in charge of Dayson and Asha, the three of them forming the security detail that would escort Kaz and Lan around Cryo. Departing the vessel at Lochcrest, the team on board the craft were to set off and acquaint the crew's guests with Isirian culture; what better way to introduce them than to parade them around a deadly, ice-laden slave planet?

Okay, so in all his life he never imagined himself to be in this position. When he'd decided on the job, he'd thought of the fact that he'd be travelling and seeing places which was what he'd always wanted. He'd been shown the dangers ofmthe work, and what would be wanted of him, but somewhere in Dayson's mind he'd acknowledged yet ignored it, hoping that he could travel without getting into tough situational but here he was, doing what he signed up for.

Back before everything, he would have complained - a lot. He would have thrown a fit about going out in freezing conditions and at the fact that he just wanted to be travelling. But now, a job was a job. He had to protect. Though he wasn't much use for physical protection, despite trying his best (with a lot of complaining) to build up muscle. No now he was in the thick of it all. At least he would be good at one thing though, because Dayson was observant and perceptive in situations where he felt he was in danger. And he wasn't sure about this place. And like usual, until he was placed on the dangerous missions, he liked to ignore that aspect of the jobs the travelling made up for it. And surely this would be the fastest way to find his one so that he could leave eventually and settle down. That silly little dream was still lurking in his head.

He was covered from head to toe in thick gear, yet still he could feel the cold creeping up against his skin, even lightly against his thick clothing. The googles thank God protected his eyes. And thank God also that he could control his abilities. Before he'd been captured, he'd not known how to turn off listening to other's people's thoughts and feelings, but now he had a good grasp of that. That was why he was there after all, what better protection than having someone know other's thoughts and feelings. Of course, some people couldn't be read, but most would have no idea that Dayson was even reading them. And he was protecting someone, so it was all for a good cause.

Once in Lochcrest, standing before the slaves that had been rounded up, Asha had walked slightly ahead of her colleagues, and had set her gaze on the enslaved children that were right there, before her eyes. Even the frost that collected on her goggle lenses couldn't blind her to that.

She stood there for eons, it must have been, gazing at them, fingers clenching and unclenching, gloves complaining in their thickness. She barely remembered that Dayson and Alice were there. She only saw one thing. For those moments, the cold didn't bite her. She only felt the knot in her chest.

Quickly, she turned to face her comrades, keeping her wistful expression behind a deadpan. "So what is it we're supposed to do now?"