What's Behind Door Number One?

[on_repeat]

WHO: Echo & YOU-SA OTA
WHERE: The Agrii Ship
WHAT: Lost
WHEN: Yes Now-ish
WARNINGS: TBD but I'm pretty sure it's N/A. Will update as needed.

----

His initial disorientation quickly subsided the moment he realized nothing was familiar.

It was huge, yes. But oh, it was different – very different from the Venator-class Republic Cruiser Echo was used to living on between missions. Through the dark visor of his helmet, he looked up, scrutinizing the lines running along the corridors, the shape of the bulkheads, the lights. However, it soon dawned on him that he would have to learn where everything was before any further venturing was done.

"Which means we're back to square one," he muttered under a breath, shouldering his blaster while he stood there to figure out his next move. And after staring down the way at the nearest door, he sighed. "Well. Looks like I got the time. A little exploring won't kill me..."


* * *

His first point of inspection:

"Large an' empty. I wonder what could've been held in here."


* * *

Second point of inspection:

"Inventory," he almost snorted through his vocabulator. The thrill in his tone (or lack thereof) was evident. "Always loads of fun."


* * *

A third point of inspection:

"...What is this, a refresher?"


* * *

Hits and misses were plenty the more he looked around, but for some reason, it wasn't boring him. Wherever he ended up next, he was sure to find something interesting.

Comments

2

[happybeeps]

The lack of thrill was justified, and echoed by Poe who was in the middle of going over the inventory with BB-8 when they were interrupted.

The droid peered out before sounding the alarm at what he perceived to be some sort of Storm Trooper, barreling towards him with a screech and his arc welder buzzing.

Poe wasn't far behind him, knife drawn as he still didn't have a blaster, but he knew his history well enough to recognize the intruder as a clone trooper. Whether that was good or bad was still a bit shaky.

"Buddy- woah, hang on," he instructed, waving BB-8 off and keeping a wary eye on the trooper. "You new?"

[on_repeat]

He just took a few steps in for the hell of it, but hearing the shrill screech jerked his head in said direction of the BB unit hurtling at him with assumed weapons drawn. He was very sure he had never seen anything like it before, but he knew when he was under attack. "–Hey, whoa!"

Good thing he only stepped back to draw his blaster. When Poe spoke up, he looked up from the oncoming droid, staying where he was while gauging the pilot. "Yeah. You can say that," came a vocabulated reply, human enough to intone some caution in his response. "I figured I could pass the time learning the layout of the ship. What are you doing in here?"

[happybeeps]

"Checking on the inventory, Making sure we've got enough to to last until we get back to Temba.

BB-8 murmured some distrustful beeps, dialect a few generations after Echo's time, but if he understand binary he should have been able to grasp the gist of it.

"Clone Trooper, BB, not Storm Trooper," he corrected.

"M'Poe, Poe Dameron. This is BB-8. He's a bit...jumpy, don't mind him."

[on_repeat]

Now that they were talking to each other, Echo's stance gradually relaxed. Under the helmet, he gave the droid a sidelong glance, barely catching the gist of the tonal differences BB-8 warbled.

"Storm trooper?" Of course he'd sound perplexed by the misnomer, but he nodded at the correction. "ARC-1409, but I'm also called Echo," he said, introductions made. "That one's feisty. Never seen a droid of his make before."

[happybeeps]

"After your time," Poe answered for both, "Well after." He winced a little with the weight of having to dump that on someone. "Good to meet you Echo. I'm from 35 ABY...which, I'm realizing now is not going to mean a whole lot to you. It's uh...more than 50 years after your time. This place, it pulls people from all over time and space."

[on_repeat]

Fifty years. Of course he wouldn't have known what 'ABY' meant. It almost hit him like a flash grenade, but he stood his ground, mulling the time frame over and over again in his mind. "Cayde mentioned different times and places," Echo replied, his throat somewhat taut as he considered this. "But you're still from the same timeline. Have there been any others from our galaxy?"

[happybeeps]

Yeah, it's a lot. He knew. But it wasn't really a revelation he could ease him into.

"There have. A few from around my time. Some from a little closer to yours. There were a few from thousands of years ago. Right now there's only a few of us. Me, Cal, and the Mandalorian...and his kid. You uh...wouldn't happen to have any details that'll help me place you on the time line, would you? Any recent events of note...?"

[on_repeat]

"Thousands of years ago? That's a wider range than what I was first thinking of," commented the ARC Trooper. "And the others – they're gone?"

Shifting his weight onto one leg, he draped one arm over the other holding the blaster as he recalled his most recent memories. "We're a year into the war...no, two years, actually. Kamino was attacked again after the Seppies – the Separatists – failed the first time. I helped defend Tipoca City and was promoted for my efforts once the battle was over." He then looked between Poe and little BB-8. "I've been on several more missions since then."

[happybeeps]

"Trust me, I get how disorienting it is." More or less. He hasn't had anyone come in from too far in his own feature, but still, this timeline stuff was a mess.

Poe thought back over his history. "So you work for the Republic," he determined, resisting the urge to finish with 'still'.

[on_repeat]

Echo nodded, studying Poe for a moment. "And what's going on fifty years from now?" Because he still had no real clue as to what the man did for a living other than having a droid companion rolling with him.

[happybeeps]

"..." Poe hesitated, and that may say more than words ever could. "It's a long story, you sure you want to know what's coming?"

[on_repeat]

The clone looked off to one side, shrugging the second he looked back at Poe. "I have the time." That moment of hesitation didn't bode well, but it brought about many more questions than it should have.

It also meant it could be devastating. Not worth knowing. "...You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he offered. "We can always talk about something else instead."