Sinkhole Station, the Maw [a week after Luke went beyond shadows]

[momslilassassin]

The repairs were finished on the ship, and Luke still hadn't returned from beyond shadows. Ben was returning from his daily trip to check on him (his dad's suck-nozzle kept shifting out of his mouth and he was getting pretty dehydrated), and had poked around some of the other ships looking for anything food-like.

The Mind Drinkers had made themselves at home as visitors in the Shadow and were going through provisions faster than Ben had thought possible. At this point, the first thing they'd have to do when they left the Maw was get more supplies. At the beginning it had been worth it to get them to feel comfortable and learn about how they'd ended up here, but Ben was getting uncomfortable with how comfortable two of them in particular--Rolund and Rhondi Tremaine--had gotten with just stopping by to talk to Ender for hours. And eating everything in sight.

Ben wasn't jealous. At all. Really.

And also shut up.

"Ender?" he called as he stepped aboard the ship again. "You around?"

Ender	Jane still had trouble accessing most of what she called her 'domestic links' in this galaxy, but she was here-- and she had plugged into the station with ease. If something happened, Ender would have an advantage on the Mind Drinkers, and he liked it that way. He'd also squirreled away just a little food. There was something disconcerting about the Tremaines, interesting as they could be, and that, in turn, had left him back at the considerable distance of Battle School. (There were other factors for that, but they weren't important at the moment, so he didn't dwell on them.) "I'm here," he said, looking up from where he was standing, bent over a panel checking the ship's systems. Just in case.
Ben	Ben's eyes looked momentarily relieved when he saw Ender: this place was oppressive and setting off all kinds of mental alarms for him that were growing to be exhausting. "No friends yet?"
Ender	"No, it's just me," Ender said, fingers flying over the panel. Jane vanished in a flash. He pulled away, a little smile on his face. "How's Luke?"
Ben	"Dehydrated," Ben said with a little frown. "I'm thinking of taking a bag of saline with me next time and hooking him up to a drip, assuming no one's drunk all of our saline yet."
Ender	Ender made a mental note to check whether he needed to secure some saline, too, to add to one of his caches. "He shouldn't be dehydrating this quickly," he said, frowning.
Ben	"His suck-nozzle keeps getting dislodged," Ben said. "I think someone's moving it."
Ender	"That wouldn't surprise me," he replied, casting a glance towards the galley. "We're being held under siege here."
Ben	Ben nodded, leaning against the door and sighing heavily. "I don't know what would happen if I tried to wake Dad up or I would have done it already." He tilted his head and frowned again. "We've got company coming."
Ender	"The Tremaines, I assume," Ender said. He'd been doing his best impression of an unmovable statue for a few days now, and the look he threw towards their most likely point of entry was fairly blank.
Ben	"Nail down the seat cushions before they try to eat those too," Ben murmured for Ender's ears alone before turning his attention to the door as the Tremaines entered. "Is it lunchtime already?" he asked, smiling. "I'd lost track of time."
Ender	"Just about," Ender agreed. His expression had molded into a perfectly friendly smile. "Hey, Rhondi, Rolund. Welcome back. We're just slumming it right now." And people-- well, if by people you meant Jane-- wondered why he was currently forging a new career in boobytrapping space stations.
Ben	Ben took an unconscious step closer to Ender as Rolund came in, and then began herding the siblings toward the galley. The less time they had to poke at the internal systems of the Shadow, the happier Ben would be.
Ender	The less time the Shadow spent here period, the happier Ender would be. Not that you would be able to tell by his face as he followed the little parade into the galley. "I'm afraid we haven't got a special on the menu today."
Rolund Tremaine	"That's all right," Rolund said, smiling at Ender. "Do you have more of that nutripaste left?"
Ender	"Not a lot," Ender said, as he consciously matched Rolund's smile. "We're going to have to start rationing soon, I'm afraid." Technically, he already had, but the Tremaines didn't need to know that.
Ben	Ben made very certain that nothing in his expression or his Force-sense made it obvious how much he resented Rolund and Rhondi's intrusion into their space as Rhondi took Luke's favorite chair and began slurping down nutripaste. "I could get you a couple of glasses of hyperdrive coolant," he offered. "Your deaths would be long and painful, but it's better than what you're putting yourselves through now." Okay so maybe his loathing was a little obvious.
Ender	Ender shot him a wry look. "That's a little ungracious, don't you think?" he said. "We've still got enough water to last us a while, anyway." He glanced towards Rolund. "How have you been?" Yes, he was absolutely aware of the absurdity of the moment, but he wasn't going to be Ben and telegraph what he was really feeling.
Rolund Tremaine	"Better now that we can spend time in such interesting company," he said, gesturing to the seat next to him for Ender to sit down. "Do you have more questions for us today?"
Ender	Ender sank down into the seat as if it wasn't strange to be invited to sit down in what he'd privately gotten to consider as, at the very least, his own homebase. "There are always questions to be asked," he said, "Doesn't always mean I'm in the mood for it. Maybe it's your time to speak."
Rhondi Tremaine	"Which would be difficult to do if we were barfing blood," Rhondi added between sucks on the nutripaste pack. "Plus its difficult to go beyond shadows that way. Is your ship fixed? You said it would be a few days ago."
Ender	"It's getting there," Ender said, shrugging gently. "You know how it is with spaceships, especially when they're of a certain age. There's always something else to replace."
Ben	"We're not leaving without Dad in any case," Ben said, setting down a hubba juice in front of Ender. "So we might as well take our time." Or finish days ago and tweak the weapons systems, like he'd been doing.
Ender	"With other words, you're stuck with us a little while longer," Ender said, wryly. "Sorry about that." Ben tweaked weapons systems, he built mechanical explosives and coordinated with Jane about the schematics of the station. Everyone had their hobby.
Rolund Tremaine	"You won't hear complaints from me," Rolund said, smiling in a way that looked painful, given how dehydrated he always seemed to be. "There's really no reason to go back to the unreal galaxy ever again, you know."
Ender	"I'm not Force-sensitive," Ender pointed out, not for the first time. He met Rolund's eyes easily, friendly. "The 'unreal galaxy' is all I've got, and it's been pretty solid to me thusfar."
Rolund Tremaine	Rolund game a slightly pitying smile. "You're missing out on so much," he said. "Beyond shadows is the only true reality."
Ender	"That's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it?" Ender said, lightly. "My reality feels true enough to me."
Ben	Ben tried not to roll his eyes as he sat down near Rhondi. "You really don't have an interest in leaving the Maw ever again?"
Rolund Tremaine	"Why would we?" Rolund asked. "We have everything we need here, and new beings showing up with food when we need it." He'd long ago learned to ignore the wailing klaxons from the control center.
Ender	"Until one day, they might not," Ender said. He was having more trouble ignoring the wailing klaxons; he was having more trouble ignoring a lot of it. It felt like being in Battle School again, literally in the room with the low gravity, figuratively here, where he couldn't stop wondering where the next big change, the big blow would come from. But he was older now. "But you wouldn't care, would you? You'd just go beyond shadows."
Rolund Tremaine	Rolund shrugged. "There is no life, there is no death, there is only the Force," he quoted. Behind him, Ben barely controlled a twitch at such a perversion of Jedi teaching.
Ender	"Ah, doctrine," Ender said, "Such an easy thing to hide behind." He glanced past Rolund at Ben. "Without life, there isn't going to be death, that much is obvious," he said, "Some of my people believe there's such a thing as an eternal soul, and the rest is just hubris. But that doesn't make their bodies breathe any less." He needed to get out of the habit of debating with Rolund; it occasionally went disturbing places, and he didn't mean subject matter.
Rolund Tremaine	Rolund smiled just a touch too warmly at him. "Well, I was never a Jedi, just a Force-sensitive child trained in espionage."
Ender	Ender was fairly annoyed at himself for noticing that smile at all, though he was hoping that wasn't actually showing. "You never did quite go into your background." He was trying to find a non-violent solution here.
Ben	Which was good because Ben was currently entertaining himself with ways to beat Rolund up. Kriffing Rolund. "Force-strong spies was an Imperial idea, wasn't it?" He glanced at Ender. "Palpatine hated Jedi, but didn't mind finding beings with powers he could corrupt and exploit."
Ender	"Of course not," Ender said. "Having the power without the religious beliefs attached, that's an attractive prospect when you're a despot trying to keep his own power base." He glanced towards Rolund. "Training must've been tough." He was not going to make Ben any happier today.
Rolund Tremaine	Keeping Ben happy was not on Rolund's list of priorities anyway. He leaned in a little closer to Ender and smiled. "It wasn't so bad. I had my sister with me. There were other Force-sensitive students with us as well in the colony Daala had set it up toward the end of the warlord era. We weren't considered fit for military service, of course, but she found a use for us."
Ender	"Spying," Ender echoed. And in his head, 'found a use for us'. That sounded familiar, to put it mildly, and in the confines of his mind he wondered if anyone else in this universe had used and trained child warriors. "So you and your sister have been together all this time?"
Rolund and Rhondi Tremaine	Rolund and Rhondi nodded simultaneously. "We were sent out from the Maw when were adults," she added, "gathering information or subverting security on vessels we wanted to find their way back here, but we didn't feel compelled to stay. It was only after Centerpoint Station was destroyed that we felt the longing to return."
Ender	Ender shot Ben a brief glance. Centerpoint. And the Maw, for that matter. "Didn't you think that was odd?" he said, carefully. "That that longing set in so suddenly?"
Rolund Tremaine	Rolund shrugged. "Perhaps. When Daala denied our requests to return home--and not just ours, the entire intelligence service was feeling the same thing--we believed that the entire war had been orchestrated to expose us and we deserted en masse and returned here."
Ender	"I see," Ender said, sounding interested, but his next statement had nothing to do with that at all. "You know, the two of you taking a lot of time off from beyond shadows to keep an eye on us."
Rolund Tremaine	"Just trying to make you feel welcome," which if not a blatant lie, was wildly insincere.
Ender	"Or make use of our hospitality, at any rate," Ender said, casually.
Rolund Tremaine	"It's been a little bit since someone docked with hubba juice and other snacks," Rolund replied.
Ender	"I thought you were planning to go beyond shadows and die there, anyway," he replied. "If life is such a big illusion."
Rolund Tremaine	"Anxious to get rid of us?" Rolund asked. "I thought that was just Ben."
Ender	"Anxious to leave," Ender corrected, lightly. "And curious about the holes in your philosophy."
Rolund Tremaine	"We don't have holes in our philosophy," Rolund said. "We're not a religious order like the Jedi or the Aing-Tii, who fear us. We've been draw here by what we find beyond shadows." He stared right at Ben. "You understand. You feel the call too."
Ender	"'There is no life, there is the Force'," Ender quoted. "That's doctrine. That's philosophy. It's also untrue, because if it were true, you wouldn't be sitting in our galley eating everything you can get your hands on. That alone would lead any rational being to question this 'call' you've followed, but you don't. People question ideas, but they often don't question religion."
Ben	Ben nodded, trying unsuccessfully to stop dwelling on the fact that he'd spent two years living in the Maw or on how his destruction of Centerpoint Station had apparently led directly the mass psychosis of a group of Force-sensitives. "If the Force was all you needed to sustain your bodies, you wouldn't be tearing through our stores like a herd of rontos," Ben added, narrowing his eyes. "And someone's been moving Dad's suck tube. Why?"
Ender	Ender's expression was decidedly more friendly. "Ben poses a good question," he said, mildly.
Rolund & Rhondi Tremaine	"We've just been trying to help you," Rhondi said. Rolund nodded along. "The sooner your supplies run out, the sooner you'll see the only real sustenance you need is the Force."
Ben	Ben felt a cold rage snaking its way through him, urging him to kill the Tremaines now before they killed him. He shook the urge off. He could feel the deception in Rhondi's words, but Jedi didn't murder people for lying to them. "Why don't you just return beyond shadows and stay there without drinking or eating anything? If you last more than a week, I'll believe what you tell me."
Ender	"Good point," Ender said. His eyes fixed on Rhondi. "Either way, I'm still not Force-sensitive. In fact, I'm not Force-anything, if you paid attention at all." The Hive Queen had taught him a thing or two around the Aing-Tii.
Ben	Rhondi shrugged her shoulder very lightly, and Ben had to shove down an impulse to reach over and toss her bodily from the ship. If they were trying to prevent Ben from keeping Luke alive, to blithely sentencing Ender to a horrible death of slow starvation, all to tempt Ben to go beyond shadows himself...maybe the Tremaines did need to die. Maybe all the Mind Walkers did. That last thought finally shocked Ben from his rage. Wholesale slaughter was not really his thing. Ben had spent two years in the Maw and was now beginning to have paranoid thoughts about the people living here. The conclusions were alarming. "You better go," he said coolly to Rolund and Rhondi. "If I were you, I wouldn't come back."
Ender	"I suggest spending some time thinking about why you're here at all," Ender said, less coolly - there was a note of compassion in his voice even now. "This doesn't make sense. You know that." Privately, he was wrestling with the knowledge that he wouldn't die here. That they could take Ben and Luke, but that-- that that would be so pointless a death he wouldn't be able to suffer it. That he'd let Jane free him and he'd go on, and he'd have two more deaths on his conscience even if he couldn't have stopped them from happening. But he let none of that show on his face, and he hoped it was too cerebral to be properly sensed.
Ben	Ben's hands were shaking with rage even when he felt their presences receding from the area around the Shadow. He turned away from Ender, trying to regain his equilibrium. "You seem fairly...mellow...about their desire to leave you to starve to death," he finally offered.
Ender	Sure. Pin the tail on the sore spot. "Just because they desire something doesn't mean it's going to happen," Ender said, looking at his back. "I'm arrogant enough to assume that if it's between me and them, I'm going to win." Matter-of-fact, but not an attitude he'd tended to fess up to at Fandom.
Ben	Ben went still. "Are you thinking of killing them?" He didn't add the "too," though he wanted to.
Ender	Ender shot him a sharp glance. "I'd rather not make that my number one plan," he said. "They're trying to get to us, Ben. Don't let them succeed." No matter how hard Rolund was trying to push him off-balance.
Ben	"Rolund's certainly put you in his sights," Ben commented, still not turning around.
Ender	"Yes," Ender said, digging into his pants for a protein bar that the Tremaines hadn't found yet. "Now that is annoying as all hell."
Ben	Well, if Rolund had known it was in Ender's pants...in Ben's opinion it wouldn't have slowed him down in the slightest. He turned around finally, looking relieved. "In that case, you're very good at being polite."
Ender	Ender felt mildly irritated by that relief, but reminded himself that Ben was welcome to feel however he wanted to feel about it. He took a bite from the bar. "It never hurts to be polite," he said, "Especially to would-be captors."
Ben	"They're a lot sneakier than I'd given them credit for," Ben admitted, sitting down across from Ender and taking a sip of his (carefully hidden away from Mind Drinkers) caf.
Ender	"We're a lot cleverer than they are," Ender said, "At least in theory. They're sneaky, but not exactly subtle." Considering all the looks Rolund kept giving him. Not that he noticed those. Too much.
Ben	"Especially not the looks Rolund gives you," Ben added helpfully. "He's practically tattooed your name on his ass." Ben, of course, was above such things.
Ender	This time, Ender did shoot him an irritated look, and got up. "Thanks for the visual," he said.
Ben	"In big, girly script," Ben added, sounding equally irritated. A part of him knew that picking a fight with Ender was the opposite of smart right now, but another part of him needed some kind of release. And a third, newly paranoid part, wondered if Ender was really his friend any longer.
Ender	Ender was... exactly as paranoid as he'd ever been. Slightly more frustrated than usual, but that wasn't Rolund's fault, for the most part. "I can handle Rolund," he said, in that tone of voice that implied he felt that closed the case.
Ben	Ben arched up an eyebrow. "Then why haven't you?"
Ender	"Who says I'm not?" Ender asked, evenly. He really was starting to get angry. And he'd been doing so well for a few years, too.
Ben	"Because he keeps coming back?" Ben shot back, feeling Ender's anger and letting it feed his own. "Eating our food, ignoring everyone but you...I'm not blind."
Ender	"We need information," Ender said, "And we need these people to think we're eating out of their hands at least to some degree as long as they have your father." He took a bite from his protein bar. "Or were you implying something else?"
Ben	This was treading dangerously close to that line Ben hadn't ever crossed. "I'm not implying anything. I'm saying flat out that I thought you would have better taste." So much for the line.
Ender	Seriously? Ender had enough sense left in him not to point out that Ben disliked any boy even remotely close to Ender; he also had enough sense to realise that fighting now would just give the Mind Drinkers more of an advantage. "It's obvious you're not thinking rationally right now," he said, fighting to keep a grip on a part of him that was steadily growing very offended. Maybe it was Wiggin pride, maybe it was years of having to deal with other people trying to control his life, but it wasn't happy. "Cool down."
Ben	"It's usually easier to do that," Ben mumbled, reaching up to massage his head. "I don't like it here."
Ender	"There's something out here that's messing with the Force-users' minds," Ender said, flatly. "I'm trying to see how far it goes and if there's something we can do about it. Not trying to set up a date."
Ben	"Pretty sure Rolund doesn't know that," Ben replied, leaning his head against the cool metal of the wall and trying to regain his equilibrium.
Ender	"Pretty sure Rolund is trying to put me off on purpose," Ender said, mildly. "Get yourself back together, Ben. The last thing we need is you losing it."
Ben	Ben looked momentarily panicked, then walked over closer to Ender and leaned into his personal space. "If I do--" and he was pretty sure it was more of a "when" than an "if" at this point "--I can't be allowed back to Coruscant, okay? It's bad enough there with Jysella and Valin and the others, but if Luke Skywalker's kid has gone barvy? It'll end the Order."
Ender	Ender leaned back ever so subtly against the counter behind him. He was going through enough trouble without everyone invading his personal space here all the time - he had a hunch that was why Rolund was trying to get at him via this angle. "Right now, I'm more concerned about the possibility of you thinking it's a good idea to go chasing after your father," he said. "But if you go barvy, I'll see about getting you locked up back home."
Ben	"Thanks," Ben said, flopping into a chair and closing his eyes. "At this point the only reason I'd want to follow Dad--against orders--is to tell him to hurry the kriff up because everyone here wants us to die. But he knew that before he went beyond shadows."
Ender	"He did," Ender agreed. He wasn't pushing away from that counter yet. "But he figured it was worth the risk."
Ben	"He also didn't think it would take a week," Ben added. "His spirit guides or whatever they are that are with him certainly don't look like the Force is sustaining them without food and water, and I have no idea how to hydrate a Gotal."
Ender	"If he doesn't snap out of it soon, we're going to have to take him and run," Ender said. "Whether he likes it or not. The risks are going to get out of hand sooner rather than later, and I'm commandeering this vessel the moment they do."
Ben	"You're going to commandeer the Shadow?" Ben gave him a little look. "Really." Maybe the paranoia was right.
Ender	"For as long as it takes us to get to the next planet," Ender said, unmoved by that look. "I'm not leaving you here to lose your mind, Skywalker."
Ben	"And I don't think leaving the Maw is going to stop it," Ben replied.
Ender	"Maybe, but it's a start," he said, "And at least we won't have anyone pillaging our stores." He pushed away from the counter. "I'm going to make a quick trip along the perimeter." See how well Jane was doing with wiring herself into particular controls. Check on his failsafes.
Ben	Ben sighed. "Okay," he said. "I'll stay here and try not to lose my mind." It didn't come out as much like a joke as he'd been hoping for.
Ender	Ender's expression softened. "Try a distraction," he said. "We've still got plenty of Tony's stuff you haven't made use of." He did not mean the tissues and lotion, no.
Ben	"Car racing it is, then," Ben said, nodding and looking exhausted. "Be safe, kreetle."
Ender	"I'll be fine," Ender said, mildly. He sighed, and reached out to give Ben's hair a little ruffle.
Ben	Ben closed his eyes and sighed. He didn't know why that had made him feel so much better and he wasn't really interested in searching his feelings about it at the moment. "If you're not, call," he said. "Dad's already out of reach. I don't know what I'd do if you got hurt too."
Ender	"Will do," Ender said. He gave Ben a quick smile, and only then did he pull his hand away. He pulled his gloves out of his pockets and yanked them on.
Ben	Ben gave him what he hoped seemed like a friendly wave before curling up in his chair and staring broodily at nothing.
Ender	Ender sighed, and left the ship, making sure it was shut securely before he went. Just in case. "You have no idea how creepy it is in here," Jane complained through his earpiece. Ender set his mouth in a grim line. "I can make a few guesses," he said. "But you and I, we have nothing to do with the Force. The only dangers we have to face are mundane. So let's make sure it's this place that cracks first, and not the Skywalkers."

[OOC: Taken and tweaked extensively from Troy Denning's Abyss. NFI, NFB, OOC fed pie.]