((A fair warning to anyone just starting this story, it is literally a book of over 70 thousand words and the equivalent of about 200 pages. However, if you continue onwards from this point with that in mind, you will not be disapointed with the actual story itself. The Story is 100% complete, and 100% up, so go ahead and read it all!))

The crowds thronging the sides of the auditorium chanted, “Bring out the slaves! Bring out the slaves!” Even the buyers who had travelled from all over the galaxy found themselves caught up in it. Although the vast majority in the hutt controlled building were just curious onlookers, interested in what was being auctioned today, security was tight and they didn’t allow anyone who wasn’t a buyer onto the main floor. And few would argue with a group of the pig like Gamorreans, wielding two-handed axes at the entrance.

The whole building was circular, open to the sky, and dilapidated. Its original function was probably a sports arena during more prosperous times. Now it was used as an auction house; with slaves being its main attraction.

Since it was alleged to be exotic human type slaves today, the street rabble still came to get a peak anyway they could. When they were finally brought out and paraded along the platform, the place grew silent; the buyers who were closest were busily looking over the goods. Led by a rather large green Gamorrean with a hefty axe in hand, the slaves were chained at the wrists, and ankles, as well as to each other in a line. Around their necks they wore thick old tech shock collars, which tended to keep even the bravest in order.

Among the first to be auctioned were four Humans and a Wookie. And when the silver protocol droid began the bidding, the crowd erupted with thunderous noise again. Beyond the auctioning platform there was a large dome cage, where most of the slaves were kept in holding until their line was brought out. These were guarded by more Gamorreans and a few Weequay.

Watching the whole thing from a small platform much higher up, was a figure in a brown robe with the face hidden by her hood. She had been there since before everyone flooded into the building, watching it all unfold. Behind this figure, another approached. His hair was kept short and blonde, his body athletically muscular, and he was somewhat taller than her. His outfit was simple, though accenting his figure. Heavy black boots, brown pants, a black t-shirt, and a brown leather vest. On his right waist was a pistol in a much worn holster.

Coming to stand next to the robed figure he looked at her, “It’s all in place. Now we just wait and follow while my team takes care of it.” His voice had an unknown accent that she couldn’t put her finger on.

She glanced at him for a moment. His gray-blue eyes seemed so sure and focused, yet she detected something he was hiding. His weather worn features told of spending a lot of time on the surface of some wind worn world. He wasn’t handsome by any means but there was something there that had always told her that deep down he had a good heart; though by his profession you’d never know it. “This place is disgusting,” was her only reply.

“The whole moon is like this; slaving, extortion, murder, stealing from your own mother. That kind of thing is normal here.”

“How do you know the right buyer will take him.”

“Burke has a thing for exotic humans so he’ll want him for sure. Heck, few have seen his kind even here on Nar Shaddaa. That and I’ve bribed an advertiser to mention the fact that this auction will have a Chiss, and no Chiss had ever been taken as a slave on this world before. Though that is a little white lie because I have no idea, but they won’t know or care about that part.”

“You better be right. This is too much of a risk if he’s caught. I mean we aren’t dealing with a small time criminal here. This is The Exchange.”

“Don’t worry, Kaida. I’ve got it all covered. I’ve got a person down there that will raise the bid just to make sure Burke’s man takes the bait.”

She turned to face him, “I can’t believe I’ve paid you for this.”

“Do you have a choice? Who else can get you the holocron?”

“The fact that I don’t have much contact with your kind doesn’t mean you’re the only one who can do it. It’s a big galaxy.”

“A Jedi and a criminal aren’t usually seen chumming together. Even on this bantha spit.”

She sighed, “Tarko, this isn’t chumming; this is more like a Jedi turning to desperation.”

“You spared me. It’s no life debt for sure, but well . . . you spared me when my crewmates and I probably didn’t deserve it. But it’s done and that’s why I’ve agreed to help you. Remember that.”

“I felt I had to pay you something for this.”

“The money you gave me barely covers the fuel to come out here, let alone the contacts we needed to bribe for information. And don’t forget all the time and risk my team had to spend slicing just to find out who had it. Normally I’d charge a hundred times the amount you gave for a job like this.”

“You do jobs like this?”

“Blast no. This is crazy.”

“Then why’d you really agree to do it Mandalorian?”

The blonde man scratched his chin as he watched the bidding frenzy below end, and the slaves sent back to their cages to be picked up after the auction was over. When a new line of slaves was brought to the platform for the next round, he decided he had the right answer for her, “Because Blue wanted to do it once he heard about the Jedi Holocron. And only my father was Mandalorian, I don’t count myself as one.”

“Tarko, why is he interested in the holocron?”

“I don’t know. Chiss are a mysterious bunch aren’t they? Never know what they’re thinking. Blast, I’m lucky if Blue says one thing to me during the day. But when your job came up, he was talkative all of a sudden.”

“Strange. How well do you know him?”

Tarko shrugged slightly, “Six months maybe. He came in on a job for me when we needed someone to infiltrate this seedy club to get the goods stolen from a sleazy real-estate developer on Coruscant. Core slime, all of them. I spit on their crooked ways.”

She smiled, “So says the criminal for hire.”

“So says the criminal for hire.” Watching in silence for a bit before he spoke again, “Blue is the best I’ve seen. He’s got to be about the best actor, quick thinking, great with a blaster, especially a scoped one. He’s gotten me out of more trouble than I can count. And my math skills are pretty good,” he grinned.

“You trust him?”

“Only with my life.”

* * * * *

Watching the next line of slaves ordered out and the gate slammed behind them, Jion remained calm and composed. There were no guards inside the giant circular cage, but outside there were many. Still, even though he didn’t plan to escape just yet, it was comforting that he had an easy out anytime he wanted to, so long as no one was watching. He kept an eye on his surroundings just in case he needed to do some on the spot improvisation however. Easy out or not, this was quite dangerous; though through a lifetime of dedicated training, fear didn’t come into the equation. Now all his experience would be needed to act the part of a downcast slave in order to succeed in his task. Because the last thing a Chiss could ever imagine, was to become a slave to some moactan teel.

So beaten were their egos, the other slaves in his line hadn’t even looked him in the eyes since entering the auditorium. Jion had complied without a struggle when he was handed over by his team to the local Hutt slaver. Though a few shockings were still in order just to show every slave who was in charge. As painful as they were, he had endured much worse back home.

After several more lines were brought out, his was up next. And when he stepped onto the platform he instinctively tried shielding his eyes from the bright lights, but his chains prevented it. As he turned to look away instead, he noticed that the crowd had grown silent once again.

Oh, he knew it couldn’t be because of the Mandalorian slaves in his line, nor the green Rodian, or the pale female Rattataki. Those weren’t all that uncommon. It was him. He could feel all those eyes staring. It was his color of course, and the fact that his kind was relatively unknown; especially as a slave. Chiss were supposed to be a proud and intelligent people, with a knack for not only staying out of galactic affairs, but hiding their existence from the rest of the galaxy entirely.

Upon looking to his right, he could see the brow beaten Mandalorians at the end of the chain line, and how they attempted to stand and look proud. Their faces were heavily scarred, and Jion assumed that it wasn’t just from their constant need for war, and more likely stemmed from requiring lessons that their shock collars wouldn’t provide. And accordingly, they appeared less than what their warrior reputation would have them be. They knew their fate was inevitable and didn’t seem to relish it, since they would most likely be sold off to some private or planetary gladiatorial ring. At least there they would fight to the death as befitted their culture.

Yet what allegedly awaited him would be worse, and he was certainly dressed for it. That more than anything was the most difficult thing to accept with this play acting. Though he believed himself more than capable of surviving for a time in a gladiator circuit, but because his kind was so rarely caught and sold like this, as well as being young, and in top physical shape, they touted him as a pleasure slave. They gave him something to wear around his waist, but he was bare-chested and felt a little uncomfortable at being exposed like this just to attract some lonely buyer. Except, it was worse than that, because if all went to plan then he would be sold off to be part of Ra’teren Burke’s harem. If the rumors were true, he was a sick, depraved Human if ever there was one.

But morality didn’t come into play in this. His mission did, and like it or not, a Jedi holocron was on his target list. Not just any one, but one in particular that was highly sought after; though the hard part might be getting it away from the Jedi who gave them this job once he finally retrieved it. Regardless, his luck couldn’t have been better getting a lead on its whereabouts since it had changed hands so many times recently.

The opening bid for Jion was placed high, and few amongst them could be bothered at that price. Though they used a datapad to place their bids, these last three buyers felt the need to announce their bid, as they set it in, in an attempt to feel smugger about upping their competition. The price was set on a screen right next to him, and it was already up to forty thousand credits after only a few bids. And just from the sound of her voice, Jion knew one of those bidding for him. It was Neren trying to drive up the price so he’d be even more noticeable and worthy or pursuit, and at the same time drown out the other competitors, just so Burke’s agent would be the last bidder. On top of rarity, Burke favored a high price for his harem. It was all about prestige.

Camren Veras, the man working for Burke was well known, and always traveled with two bodyguards. Even though Burke was based on Nar Shaddaa as a district crime boss for the exchange, he only traveled in a heavily armed ship to and from his home. Where he resided, was a place totally unknown. Tarko followed him several times in his own ship only to lose him in the tall buildings, or to once have his vessel flip around and turn its guns on him. Since then they gave up on following, and instead relied on subtler means.

When the bidding got up to eighty thousand, and Burke’s agent was the only competition, Neren gave in and left making an overly poignant scene on her way out. Now pleased with himself, Camren and his bodyguards waited till the auction was over and went to collect the prize for his master.

As he was brought to his buyer, Jion could feel the man practically drooling over him. He made a brief bow to show respect, but wasn’t about to supplicate himself to this thing. He cringed inside as the man had him turn around in a circle to display his body.

“Fine, this will be most fine. Your kind resembles humans to exactness; except for the blue colouring of course. Mr. Burke will be most pleased I should think,” as he looked to his datapad and tapped a few keys. “Says you’re name is Atell. No last name?”

Jion glared at him out of the corner of his eyes. The human male was skinny, and had a tanned shade of skin, with a noticeable hooked nose. His hair was a dusky brown with white tips. His glaring, deep set dark eyes made Jion feel like he was peeling away his exterior and gorging on the insides. He could feel that the man wanted him, and it was most uncomfortable to be treated in a manner like this. He shut down emotionally and continued to play his part as the willing sex slave; for now at least. He cleared his throat and deliberately spoke softly, “Chiss names are difficult for outsiders to pronounce, so we shorten them. Atell is my name.”

“Then that will do,” he motioned for his guards. “We’re going now.”

Led away, the last thought Jion had before leaving the auditorium was that his team better come through for him on this. The only consolation was that he wasn’t completely powerless, since he did have hidden tools on his body that had gotten past both the hutt slavers and this Camren Veras. Yet, if all failed and he was stuck as a sex slave, he didn’t think he’d be able to deal with that.

* * * * *

“Now we wait, and be ready for when Blue sends us his location,” said Tarko as he sat back in his chair in the lounge of his ship.

Kaida took a seat close to him but she was anything but comfortable here. This ship currently under the name Vesper, though not exactly top of the line or in good repair, was known for criminal activity within the Republic. That and the crew who weren’t the same Tarko had with him a few years back, were neither friendly nor very savory looking. “So what have you been up to these last few years Tarko Jornaa?” she said trying to feel more at ease. She lowered her hood revealing her long auburn hair done in a pony tail. Her eyes, the color of a deep blue ocean scanned Tarko as if trying to detect anything amiss.

“I could ask you the same thing Kaida,” he said with a grin. He always grinned like that, and she guessed he thought it was charming, but it actually bordered on the side of obnoxious. Still, it was part of Tarko’s charm. Along with his accent, he’d break out in a funny order of words when excited. She remembered that used to make her laugh sometimes, and that she used to try to hide it.

A flicker in his eyes again told her that he knew something, and she gave a faint smile in return. “The Jedi Order always keeps its members busy.”

“So does my job. But I can see you want to know if I’ve gotten in worse over the years. No, I’m afraid it’s still theft, extortion, and bribery; we work for this group or that, depending on the money and jobs. Yet smuggling pays most of the bills. So have no fears, and relax my Kaida. All is well,” again he displayed his rather unpleasant looking grin.

Yortor, a reptile like Trandoshan came to the table on the other side of the room with a mug in each hand, and after setting one down he passed the other to Tarko. Kaida watched him, leery of his species because of past experiences with them. His scaly yellow skin and long arms that ended in claws were unnerving, although through the force she felt nothing threatening.

“You see,” said Tarko with a hand pointing at Yortor. “You ask for something to drink here, and you get a nice ale. Things aren’t so terrible in this life. We get paid pretty well for the jobs we do,” he took a quick swig, “and we don’t hurt anyone too bad. The ones we do are mostly other scoundrels out to harm people anyway.”

“But sometimes you do get involved with hurting innocents.”

He drank deeply from his mug before speaking again, “You should try this stuff. We lifted a whole crate from this warehouse on . . . ,” he looked at her, paused, and then laughed to himself. Pointing at Kaida now, “I sometimes forget that I’m in the presence of a Jedi.” He sank back into his chair and continued drinking.

She shook her head and sighed, “Thank you but Jedi don’t drink.”

Yortor said something in his language from the table, while staring at her with his eerie horizontally slit eyes. She gathered that he claimed to know otherwise.

From the entrance to the room rushed Neren who held onto the door frame with one hand to steady herself, and her shoulder long brown hair flew to the side. “They’ve left. We need to get ready.” Neren looked over at Kaida sitting in the chair. “Is she coming with us or not?”

Neren was a tall and lanky woman, several centimeters taller than herself. From just meeting her the day before, Kaida didn’t need the force to tell her that Neren didn’t approve of her being here. Yet the importance of the item she sought outweighed any discomfort. “If your captain will let me,” she said staring at Neren.

Quickly finishing his mug, he went and put it on the table, “Then it’s agreed. I was going to invite her anyway. It’s rude to keep a Jedi waiting, and Tarko Jornaa is not one to be rude.” Neren disappeared from view without a word, and Tarko motioned for Kaida to follow him. Come, we will make preparations to ready the Vesper and be gone in a moment’s notice.”

From his cell, Jion waited out the twenty minute trip. But there was no jump to light speed, so he assumed that either they remained on Nar Shaddaa, or there was the more unlikely possibility of it being Nal Hutta; though he couldn’t imagine an exchange officer living in a place so dominated by the competition. The guards who brought him out of his cell were human, as were all the members of Burke’s staff that he’d seen so far. It was a rumor that the man disliked creatures too alien looking for his pleasure harem; but oddly liked every human type from each and every culture in the galaxy. Jion gathered that this extended to his staff as well. Though he had also heard the turnover rate for them was high, as well as seeming to have the need for someone new to add to his harem every week or two.

That was where the rumors of the man’s depravity sprang from. Apparently few slaves lasted long enough to survive the place. What was said he did to them, Jion would rather not contemplate at the moment.

During his jaunt off the ship and into the bay of the base, Jion noticed that he had been treated relatively gently by the guards compared to what he assumed a normal slave would experience. Eventually it dawned upon him that their boss probably didn’t want any bruises on the merchandise. Though being blue skinned tended to severally mitigate those.

Camren led Jion to a large room somewhere deep within the installation. Inside were another male and two females seemingly in the middle of setting up a bed along with a cart full of sheets and nightwear next to it. They were all human, and the women were dressed provocatively. Jion stood there with his jaw agape for a second before remembering himself.

“This is where you will be staying Atell. The accommodations will be cozy, and the head of services will teach you how to act around Mr. Burke. Plus the girls will show you how to pleasure him. The rest is up to you to learn on your own.”

Surprised at the accommodations with his roommates, he said, “I see.”

When Camren and his two guards left, the male who had been busy setting the mattress down on the bed turned to Jion and said, “And I am the head of services. I would like you to call me master, but that would sound like I’m above Mr. Burke wouldn’t it.” Jion noticed the two women looked to one another and slightly shook their head, as if they had heard his opening speech one too many times. “No one here is above Mr. Burke. Know that, and that will make this very simple.”

Jion took a deep breath. The pleasant fantasy of having two attractive women teaching him how to pleasure someone went only so far when he remembered that he would have a master to perform on. With that in mind, he had to get out of this place as quickly as possible or he was going to be looking for a quick way to end his own life. This was a disgrace for a Chiss, especially one such as him to endure.

“This will be your bed. There are two large closets here, one male and one female where all your bedroom attire will be found. Mr. Burke has preferences, and often times he will want certain clothing to be worn before visiting him. He will often be alone or sometimes have friends attending. You may be called to him by yourself, or with any of the three others who normally sleep here. Upset him, and he may conclude your services; which is a nice way of saying, thrown out an airlock. Now remember, Mr. Burke has a wife on Nar Shaddaa, to which you must be . . . “

At this point Jion drowned out the rest of his speech by taking note of the room and how he was going to escape it. The ceiling was high at about three meters. There was a metal door that had an electronic locking mechanism on the opposite end of the room from where he entered. He counted four beds including his own, with unoccupied space for three times that number. There was a lavatory and a sink in the corner of the room, which was closed off with a screen two meters high for a little privacy. Above the washroom was a camera that was in a perfect position to get the whole room except for what was right underneath it.

When his lecture was finished a few minutes later, Jion had been ordered to rest for the evening, even though it was midday on Nar Shaddaa when he’d boarded the ship. In this place they went by Mr. Burke’s time. The next morning his shock collar would come off and a tracking chip would be placed under his skin. Then it would be time to learn his trade. So he showered, dressed in his given nightwear, and as the lights were dimmed, took to his bed. However, he wasn’t planning on any sleep.

During the middle of the night another person entered the room, washed up and then took the last bed. This is what Jion had been waiting for, and he pretended to slumber for approximately an hour so that the new person would be asleep, before slipping out of his bed and into action. He went straight for the washroom, closed the screen behind him, and while feigning to wash, touched a button on the underside of the shock collar. Counting down in his head, he quickly dried his hands on a towel and braced for the thirty second mark. A bright flash of light went off from the collar and he endured the full battery of the shock all at once, as it burned itself out sending a small electromagnetic wave that would disable the camera. The pain was excruciating and when he realized it was over, he released a deep breath.

There was no lingering pain however, it was just quick and over with. The fifth member of his team was named Kossj, and right now Jion mentally thanked him, for working by his side to create the special shock collar. The Chiss then quickly unlocked and removed the crude circular thing from his neck. Looking at the camera and hoping it was disabled before peaking out to see if any of the others were stirring, he saw no movement, or anyone looking back at him. He figured he’d have anywhere from a few seconds if the person monitoring the cameras was alert, to a few minutes if not.

Creeping across the room in his bedroom clothes, he made it to the electronically locked door and went to work opening it. On the inside of the collar, he picked out a mini EMP shielded datapad that was about thumb-sized. He had had an argument with Kossj about the necessity of such a thing, but in the end Jion won. Though it set back finishing the collar for a few weeks in order to create such a small shielded data pad that folded in two, and fit in snugly with the rest of the components.

Unfolding it, its display had a green light that he tried to hide from the others by covering it with his body. Tapping into the door mechanism, he then went to work to unlock it. After twenty seconds it was done, and the door clicked and slid all the way up to hide in the top part of the frame. Outside the room, the hallway was lit brightly enough, but there was no one there, nor were there any cameras that he could spot from his position. Realizing that the new light would wake everyone in the darkened room, he looked back to see if anyone was roused. Seeing movement in the farthest bed he stepped through to the other side of the door and then closed it the same way he had opened it with his datapad.

Free from the bed chamber now, he stalked silently along the corridor. The next intersection had doors at either end, but the hallway he was in continued forward to snake around the corner. Now he had to find a terminal to download the base schematics onto his datapad to guide him, because he had no idea which way to go. Slicing into a simple locked door was one thing, but slicing into the local main computer access, to search for directions would be quite another. And Jion was no master slicer. Though Kossj was and had created this datapad to help him do just that; nevertheless he would need to get close to a terminal to use it. In times like this, he wished he had a droid in tow.

Not knowing which one could be a closet or the guard’s barracks, he picked the door on the right. It opened upon his approach just as a brawny armed guard was stepping out. His eyes went wide when seeing Jion, and the Chiss charged towards him to wrestle the blaster rifle from his grip. Kneeing the guard in the center of his stomach, he made him lurch forward, and then with a free hand Jion gave him a swift uppercut to the neck, making him recoil backwards with a groan. Easily ripping the gun from his grasp, Jion turned it back on its owner and fired several shots.

Then, stepping over the corpse he went in to look around with his rifle at the ready. The room wasn’t anything special; in the center it had a large generator monitoring system that reached the ceiling, with computer controls for it at a desk on the far end. Turning around, he pulled the dead guard away from the door, and hid him from sight on the other side of the generator. Once there, he looked to his left and saw beyond a thick glass window into a very large room that held the main power to the base. This he could use, and was planning on finding this room. He didn’t want to leave any traces, and wanted to destroy the base once he had the holocron. With luck he had found this room first. When going up against the exchange, one didn’t leave any loose ends unless they intended on living a very short life.

Although he wanted to, he couldn’t shut off the stations power since he still needed to get through it, and shutting off just the main power in order for the backups to kick in would alert everyone. So he thought of a better route. By slicing into the computer he could take control of it and remotely direct it from a distance. That is if no one came in here and found what he did, but that was a chance he was willing to risk. Since there were no cameras in here and most likely no one would be scheduled to work here in the middle of the night, it was doubtful that his modifications to the computer would be caught. Anyways, he planned to be out of this base as soon as possible, and that wouldn’t leave much time for his work to be discovered.

So Jion used his datapad to slice into the terminal and got to work. After five minutes he was happy with his alterations. The backups would not kick in if he turned off station access to main power. Upon retrieving the base schematics before he left, it showed him that he was in a very large facility. Even more odd was that it showed no way out except for the docking bays. This place wasn’t on the moon of Nar Shaddaa or even Nal Hutta then. So where could it be? Scanning the data he eventually concluded that it was completely isolated. It had to either be a space station or a base on an asteroid because it certainly wasn’t a large ship.

Regardless the job was essentially the same, get in, grab the item, get out and then blow the place up. Though he would need to take control of the security room and shut it all down first, otherwise he’d be hounded throughout the base if a shootout began. And most importantly, since neither he nor anyone on his team knew where he was, he needed to contact Tarko to get picked up.

Getting the layout of the base on his datapad, he found his target. The security room was down the long snaking corridor, and past a guard room. That would make it difficult with his current nightwear on. He turned to look at the dead guard behind him. Jion would need to take his clothes, and hope that he could get past any others without them spotting his blue skin, or the blaster scorch marks on the uniform. He almost thought it better to run through as he was, but if the outfit granted him a few seconds without being noticed, then that could be all he’d need.

Tightening the black pants around his waist, he donned the white shirt, along with a sleeveless black vest, and then stepped into the guards black leather boots. But upon looking at his reflection in the glass, Jion saw that the outfit was noticeably too big for him. It would have to do however. When he left the room, Jion felt much better now that he was armed, though the uniform and boots were overly large.

Surprised that the base hadn’t been alerted yet due to the camera being out in the bed chamber, and especially with his absence, he hurried down the passageway to his first goal. Opening the barracks door he didn’t stop to see if anyone was staring at him, and hurried to the exit on the far side. The room was full of bunk beds and about half of them were currently occupied. The light was thankfully subdued, but not enough that people couldn’t spot how out of place he was from close up.

When he was two meters from the door, one of the guards approached him and said, “Lerrick?” Ignoring him he passed through the door only to hear that name called once again. Fortunately the door behind closed and the guard hadn’t followed him through.

He was now in the security room, and he followed a ramp up to the next floor. There were three people at their desks here busy typing away on their data pads, and the camera monitors were on the wall above a large computer console that was currently unoccupied. Fate had been with him so far; however he knew not to relax until he was safely away with the holocron. Next to the top of the ramp was a lift which led to every floor in the base. That would take him to the holocron, if it was where he suspected it would be.

Going over to the computer console, he locked the door back into the guard room below, and sent off the message in the frequency chosen by Tarko to retrieve him at his new coordinates. The console showed that he was indeed on some asteroid in the outer reaches of the system. Interesting, he wondered if this had to do with their fight for criminal supremacy against the Hutt’s. Otherwise why would it be so far out of the way and hidden as it was?

A red flashing light along with a loud siren went off next to the computer. Jion sighed; he had forgotten to try to shut off the alarm if an unauthorized message was sent from the station. He grabbed the blaster he had set next to his chair and stood up. The three security guards had just gotten to their feet themselves, though clueless as to what set the alarm off. Each of them looked at the Chiss with the scorched holed uniform questioningly. Jion aimed the blaster at the closest one and began firing. He took two down in as many seconds, but the third had pulled out a pistol and was firing back. Jion leaped to the floor and began shooting at his legs. The guard dropped next to his desk while yelping in pain. Jion calmly came to stand over him.

He hesitated for a moment, and then said, “I’m sorry.” He fired at the man’s skull killing him instantly. Shaking his head slightly for a second, he hurried back over to the computer console and began scoring it with blaster fire to prevent anyone from using it to track him throughout the station. The console exploded with sparks and a small fire started that consumed the inside. The alarm then died along with the computer which set the room into an eerie quiet. Taking one of the communication devices that was wrapped around one of the guards wrists, he keyed into the frequency to contact the Vesper. The device was only short range, not like the console that used the full power of the station. He knew he couldn’t speak to Tarko until they were closer, but he hoped they would get here soon. Before he left the room, he decided to take one of the blaster pistols just in case. He tucked it into the back of his belt on his right side.

Next, he entered the lift while wondering what the security guards had been doing if not watching over the base. It seemed suspicious to him, but then he was aware that criminal organizations ran the gamut when it came to efficiency. For all he knew the three of them were on their datapads and talking to some girl in a Nar Shaddaa chat room.

Taking the lift from level three up to the highest point which was level eight, Jion felt a slight disturbance that his training had taught him to be aware of. Exiting the lift onto another long corridor that snaked around a corner beyond his sight, his datapad guided him to a room just before its end. As he traveled past many doors to either side of the hallway, he felt it quite suspicious that if this was Mr. Burkes room ahead that this level wasn’t full of security. At the last bend he peaked around the rounded corner and spied two guards standing right next to the entrance to Mr. Burke’s private quarters; though it wouldn’t be that difficult to take them down since both guards were currently occupied in a conversation.

Again, suspicious of just how easy it had been, he pulled back to figure out a course of action. Coming up with something simple, Jion ran around the corner with his two-handed blaster waving high in the air and yelled, “We have intruders in the security room! Come, we need to gather everyone so we can take it back!” The guards bought it and left their post, bolting past Jion. As soon as they had gone a meter beyond him, he turned his weapon on them and fired. Grabbing the pass card from around one of their necks he placed it around his.

The door to Mr. Burke’s room opened without issue now that he had a card, and Jion stalked inside, ready for anything. It was quiet except for the low hum of the station, that and very dark. However, Chiss had the ability to see well even in low light environments, even so, there were no lights on at all besides a few console lights in the very far corner of the room. So the best he could see was just a meter in front of him. The place smelled of exotic perfumes, and the flooring was very soft and plush, like it was thickly carpeted. Doing his best not to stumble into anything and wake up the room’s owner, he moved slow. Eventually he came to a set of cushioned stairs and climbed them cautiously. Once at the top a small light came on and Jion froze. Sitting up in a very large bed was Camren Veras. He had just pulled back from flipping on the light and was watching him, but Jion could tell that he had taken the Human by surprise.

“You . . . what are you doing here?” he said in an irritable but commanding voice.

“Hello Mr. Burke,” said Jion casually as he aimed the rifle at him and fired several shots. His body was shoved to the headboard and his head slumped forward. Jion strode over to make sure the man was truly dead and found that he most definitely was; especially considering the large hole that was still steaming in the middle of his chest. He supposed since no one really had any knowledge of what the real Mr. Burke looked like, if there really was such a person, Camren must have been him. Though at this point he neither knew, nor really cared if his real name was Ra’teren Burke or Camren Veras. Perhaps neither; but all that mattered was that he was dead. Not feeling the least bit of guilt, since Mr. Burke was well known for murder, slavery, and sadistic sex harems, Jion turned his attention to finding the holocron.

Besides the various pillows everywhere, there was also a bunch of large bizarre sex machines on the floor near the bed, and sadomasochistic gear hanging from the walls, with no small amount of chains and whips strewn about. He supposed he’d just missed the party. Beyond all that, he quickly spotted a large safe in the middle of the wall on the other side of the bed. Stepping over to it, he pulled out his datapad and went to work to get it open. It took him a few minutes but by this point he wasn’t too worried since security here seemed abysmal; though it did cross his mind that he should at least search the rest of the room before trying to open the vault, since all he could see was darkness beyond the bed due to the limited light. And it seemed to be a very large room. Too late, before he knew it, he got it open and as the door slowly swung outwards his heart raced with anticipation.

There in the center of the safe was a holocron, though he couldn’t be sure if it was the holocron he had been looking for. He picked it up and held it in his hand while studying it. Through his limited training in the force, Jion did his best to activate it. If it truly were a Jedi holocron from a master, one who Jion was informed held dark secrets, then it would bar him from accessing it due to him not being of the appropriate skill level for a Jedi. He couldn’t do it, but he could feel the mind of the Jedi master that it had copied, test him. He’d been excluded without hesitation. Regardless, this was good news, and he was pleased.

Jion accessed the comlink at his wrist again, “Vesper, this is Blue do you copy?”

There was static as he waited for a response, and then all of a sudden Tarko’s voice came to life from his wrist, “Blue? You won the race?”

Smiling at the sound of his voice, Jion responded with, “Affirmative. Meet me in the parking lot. I can’t give you an exact ETA.”

“Copy, will do. See you shortly.”

Suddenly the room was brightly lit as if a whole host of lights were shined directly on him. Blinded for a moment, Jion covered his eyes with his left arm. It didn’t take him more than a second to realize he’d been set up. Calculating his next move, he placed the holocron at the tip of his rifle holding it hostage.

A male voice spoke, but it was directed at his comlink, “Cut all transmissions to and from the station.”

And then he heard a mature female voice, one which was cold and calculated, “There you have it Chiss. You have delivered everything right into my lap. You’ve taken care of my right hand that was scheming to kill me and take my place, and you’ve given me your band of thugs for hire. The lone Jedi, I will have my forces on Nar Shaddaa eliminate soon enough. The secrecy of my station’s position will remain secure, as well as will be my position within the exchange. And I will reap a fortune for the holocron.”

Jion cleared his throat, “Well I’m happy you’ve got everything going for you. If you’ll excuse me, I must be off.” The light was still too bright to see clearly beyond the bed area, though he assumed that the room had several guards with their blasters pointed at him.

“Don’t bother. You’re surrounded, and if you shoot the holocron you won’t live for very long I assure you. There is no getting out of here my blue friend,” she waved her hand and the lights were dimmed enough to see everyone better. She took a step towards Jion, “But where are my manners. I am the real Ra’teren Burke. And your real name is?”

He looked at her oddly, “But you’re a woman.”

She laughed, “My, everyone always falls for that. What a woman can’t have a harem? A taste for flesh such as mine is not restricted for men to enjoy only. A woman with power has to have a hobby too. Poor Camren here,” she looked at him for a second. “I promised him he’d have the blast of his life if he came to my bedchambers tonight. Well, just look at him now. It’s like I always say, I keep my promises. My promise to you is that no one sees my face and lives to tell about it.”

“I see, well in that case you can call me Atell.”

“Fine keep your name then.”

He studied her. She was a middle-aged highly attractive woman, with jet black hair, an aquiline nose, and high cheekbones along with a rounded jaw. Her piercing brown eyes spoke of authority and intelligence however, and he knew without a doubt that she wasn’t one to be trifled with under normal circumstances.

She talked into the comm at her wrist, “Commander, when the ship comes within range I want our fighters scrambled and all station defenses to fire on it.”

“Yes sir,” came the response a second later.

She turned back to face Jion and noticed him staring at her. Scowling, “Now that you’ve had a good look at me, take the holocron away from the tip of your blaster.” She motioned for one of the guards to approach him.

Jion knew her type, and how to manipulate her. She craved domination, and submission from potential partners. He gave her his most charming smile, “Wait. If you come and get it yourself, then I will give it to you without a fight.”

She hesitated, and the guard captain right behind her shook his head. Making up her mind she smiled coldly, “Fine. No tricks or funny business.”

“Oh I wouldn’t dream of it,” he smiled charismatically while counting the guards in the room with them. There were six in total. Four behind her and two that had taken up position by the door he came through.

When she got close enough Jion made his move, he threw the holocron up into the air to land on the bed next to him, while at the same time let go of his rifle to fall to the floor. He finished his move by grabbing Ra’teren and whirling around behind her, to then pull out his pistol from the back of his belt and pointing it at the side of her head. She hissed loudly, and Jion sensed her whole body tense as he held his arm across her neck. He held her forcefully as he moved her to turn around and face back towards her guards.

“I figured you’d take me more seriously if the tip of my blaster was right at your head instead,” he said calmly into her ear. Looking at the nearest guard he spoke loudly, “Now tell them to put their weapons down if they want a living crime boss by morning.”

She looked at her guard captain and said, “Do it.”

When Jion was satisfied that the guns were no longer pointed at him, he motioned for Ra’teren to retrieve the holocron off the bed. As she leaned over to do so, he kept his weapon pointed on her, and when she stood up with it in hand, he grabbed her and held his blaster to her head again. “Now, you call off your attack on my ship and then I’ll get out of here.”

He gave her a few seconds, and when she didn’t respond, Jion jammed his blaster roughly into the side of her head, “Listen to me, I will end your murdering thieving life right here, and then turn my gun on all your guards. Trust me; out of my magnanimous nature I am doing you a favor by keeping you alive.”

She spoke into her comm, “Commander, ignore my last order. Let the ship land in one of the docking bays unharmed.”

After the commander acknowledged, Jion moved her to the doorway and said to the guard captain who was watching them, “No following, or doing anything of the kind to prevent my escape.” The captain nodded, and Jion pushed her out the door then slammed it shut behind him. He blasted the door control next, and then told Ra’teren to move down the hallway with her hands up.

Just as they got to the door to the lift at the floor entrance she said, “No one who sees my face lives. Do you understand that? I will hunt you down. Even if you kill me, The Exchange will find you.”

“My dear, how will they know who I am if you and everyone here is dead? Now get inside the lift.”

“I see,” she said calmly before taking a step forward and then all at once, she leaped back sideways, with her right arm cuffing the blaster away from pointing at her. Dropping the holocron roughly to the floor, she took out a ten centimeter long knife from her side pocket, and then leaped towards Jion, as he tried to bring the gun back on her. He found her surprisingly strong, since she was able to hold her own against him. Was she augmented he wondered? No normal human female was this strong, especially being as thin as she was.

In the midst of his left hand holding a knife back that was nearly at his heart, and the other being held down by her other hand while trying to aim his blaster at her torso, he decided to change the game. Losing his hold on the blaster to do so, he used all his strength to perform his next move.

Falling down to the floor and pushing her off backwards with his hands and legs, she went tumbling, but not before the knife nicked through his guard uniform. As he stood up and flipped around to face her, he found her with her knife right there trying to slash at his face and throat. Leaping out of the way of the attack, he grabbed her wrist and was able to motion the knife away from him to turn it towards herself. She used her other hand to hold her own arm back, then when she realized she the tip was still coming towards her, she released her grip on the knife so that it clanged to the floor.

Looking at him she smiled as she locked her hands around Jion’s wrists in a holding grip, “Do you have any more weapons to bring out that we can lose?”

“You just won’t quit will you.”

“I told you there’s no escaping here. No one sees my face and lives to tell about it.”

He kicked her leg, and then freed his wrists by twisting away from her grip and shoving her off. Stepping back towards the blaster on the floor, she read his intent, and as he dropped down to retrieve it, he found her on top of him with her arms preventing him from turning it on her. They stumbled about on the floor for a bit and she managed to push the gun out of Jion’s reach. Face to face now she said, “Oh would you give it up already?”

She was pretty even up close, and smelled intoxicating, but due to her dominating, cruel personality, she reminded him too much of someone that he’d rather forget. Besides, the last thing he wanted was to be a sex slave that would get used up and die to her sadism. She did the unexpected then and forcefully pressed her lips against his, biting his lip in the process. When their mouths separated, he could feel the blood running down his chin, and could see a smear on her lower lip to which she licked off. He watched her and grimaced, “You’ve got a disgusting appetite.”

“What Chiss? It was supposed to be on the menu tomorrow, but I guess I couldn’t wait,” she said as she licked her lips again. “You would have made such a good member of my harem.”

He heard footsteps from the far end of the corridor, and then saw the guards along with their captain coming from her quarters with weapons in hand, and he knew he was a moment away from losing it all. Breathing in deeply, he looked into her eyes and said, “I’m sorry, but I prefer to work without the whips and chains.” He summoned his limited ability to push with the force while using his feet as leverage, and off she flew against the opposite wall. Then he quickly turned to his datapad and pressed in several keys as swiftly as he could. The station’s power suddenly went out and everyone in the hallway was left in the dark.

Remembering the direction where the holocron had dropped, Jion used the force to bring it to him. With that now in hand, he moved into the lift, hit his datapad to turn the power back on, then struck the door button to slam it shut. Finally he was off, and on his way back down to level four. The last thing he saw was her face glaring at him menacingly as the door closed. Shaking his head, he hadn’t realized beforehand what a cunningly dangerous person he was dealing with.

But Jion had the holocron and that’s all that mattered. That and except for the fact that he was now weaponless, but he should be alright, at least he thought. As the lift opened up to level four, Jion stepped out into a large storage room that was many floors high. Beyond that were two enormous docking bays, but much closer and facing him were about twenty security guards with their weapons trained on him.

“Hands up,” said their lieutenant.

Jion raised his arms; the holocron was in his left hand. “It’s alright boys I’m disarmed. Your incessantly pleasant boss saw to it.”

“We’ll determine that,” He motioned to two of his guards to arrest him. “We have the intruder mistress,” he said speaking into the comlink at his wrist.

“Good, hold him until I get there. I should just be a minute,” she replied.

They took the holocron, and just as one of the guards behind him reached up to grab his wrist to put on a set of flex binders, the Vesper surged into view and roared its engines in the left bay. Jion smiled when all the guards stopped and looked at the ship, that’s when he acted. Spinning halfway around to elbow the guard in the face, he then skipped the rest of the way around to kick him squarely in his midsection. The guard stumbled backwards and smashed into a crate. He then fell to the floor dazed.

The Vesper came in as close as it could to the storage room, and after seeing all the guards and the one Jion was fighting hand to hand, the ship opened fire; aiming for the guards further away from the Chiss to give him cover. The ships guns picked off several with its opening shots, and a few seconds later the whole level shook as the laser fire hit a crate in the corner that exploded.

The nearest guard to Jion was the one with the holocron, and she turned around to face him as he approached. She pulled out her blaster from her holster but the Chiss was quicker. He grabbed her arm and wrist to successfully force the gun from her. Then he turned and cuffed her in the face with his right hand. Jion took a step back and then pummeled her with a left, then right, to follow it up with a powerful uppercut to the side of her chin. The guard collapsed and Jion snatched the holocron from her hand.

He grabbed the blaster that was on the floor, and turned it on the one he had kicked into a crate a moment ago to finish him. Jion then took cover behind some barrels that shielded him from the rest of the guards who were now firing back at the Vesper. The ship stopped shooting a few seconds later. Guessing that since his friends couldn’t see where he was, Tarko wasn’t about to risk hitting him. The cargo ship landed and the ramp door opened. Out popped Yortor, and Kaida. The Jedi drew her lightsaber, and stepped forward in front of Yortor to deflect anything coming their way. The green glow of her lightsaber clashed with the red from the heavy weapons fire the Trandoshan was spitting out. Anything in the warehouse that moved and didn’t have blue skin was blasted.

Turning to his datapad again, Jion keyed in the commands to overload the station’s generators, but each time he attempted to do so he found that his commands weren’t being carried through. But then he realized what happened. She did it. Ra’teren knew he had gotten to the generator control room and she went there to end his control. “Damn her,” he said, but his voice was almost drowned out even to himself with the noise of the fighting raging around him.

Realizing that he couldn’t do anything more to Ra’teren, he sighed. Supposing that he better get out of here now, Jion stood up to pop his head over the barrels and saw two easy targets. He made short work of them, and then walking with a crouch, moved as fast as he could between what obstacles he could find on the way to the Vesper. When he was close enough he darted out from behind a small crate, and got behind Kaida and Yortor to run up the ramp and into the ship. At the top he shouted down for them to get in, and Yortor raised his large gun into the air and screamed a Trandoshan cry of victory. The alien then turned around and ran up the ramp as the blaster bolts kept coming towards him and Kaida. She had no trouble reflecting everything and once she was alone, she turned around and in two seconds her lightsaber was deactivated, and she was at the top of the ramp behind Yortor.

The Vesper then raised its landing ramp, and hovered several meters off the floor before unloading dozens of shots, along with a missile into the storage room destroying everything in sight. A large explosion followed the ship as it backed out of the bay. The Vesper quickly turned around and then roared away from the station.

Feeling a sigh of relief now, Jion said, “Thanks for the help.”

Yortor clasped a clawed hand over Jion’s shoulder and made what had to be a Trandoshan attempt at a smile. He then nodded at him, and went off to operate the turret, and this left Jion and Kaida alone by the ramp exit.

She looked at him and then at the holocron in his left hand. “I suppose I should be the one to thank you. You did something that I alone could never have accomplished.”

“Is that what I did?” He gave her one of his most pleasant forced smiles, and walked past her towards the cockpit with the holocron still in hand. Out of one fire and into another he mused. But why was she here at all? He hadn’t expected this. So should he turn and shoot her before she realized she was in danger? He considered it for a second. But she had done nothing . . . and this stuck in him hard. He had some fondness, and a lot of experience being around force users. In a way he considered them his kin. They had so much power, and the whole galaxy seemed to revolve around them. But killing someone in cold blood who just risked his life for him? He had to admit that he had crossed that line before, but to this day that still bothered him. He stopped a few meters from her, and then slumped forward slightly. Fine she gets to have it, but not from his hands.

The Jedi watched the Chiss walk away from her, but just before he turned a corner he looked back at her for a fleeting second before moving out of view. There was something extremely odd about him; like he had a different sort of energy field surrounding him that was not typical by any means. Placing her lightsaber at her belt she followed Blue. After all, he had something that belonged to her. Did he forget? Or did he want to be asked for it first? Anyways, she supposed with everything he’d just been through it was probably the former.

Just before coming around the corner herself and into the lounge, she heard a voice that she’d previously only heard on the ships comm before; and when she saw them, Blue and this other member referred to as Talky by the captain, turned out to be a brown-skinned Nautolan. Coming up to hug the Chiss, Blue gave him a great big smile in return. Oh how varied this crew was she thought as she watched. Typically criminals aren’t this diverse; a half-Mandalorian captain, a Human female, a Trandoshan, a Chiss, and finally a Nautolan. But strangely absent was a droid of any kind.

When the Nautolan saw Kaida he ended his friendly embrace of the Chiss and came over to greet her. “Hello and you must be the Jedi I have heard about. I am Kossj Toa and I am pleased to meet you,” he said with a smile.

Kaida smiled back, and was a little surprised with how sociable he was, “Nice to meet you too.”

“Ahh, but you will find that our captain isn’t the friendliest one on the Vesper. That title goes to me; which is probably why Tarko sticks me in repairs so much that I practically live in the engine room. Thankfully I have Blue to keep me company sometimes, though I of course do almost all the talking.”

She looked past Kossj to see that Blue had disappeared. “It has been a pleasure uh, Kossj, but I must see to the captain right away.”

He feigned a friendly sigh, “Nobody has time for talking these days. But I understand, matters of life and death or I suppose in your case the survival of the republic and all. Why it was just the other day that Neren called me Talky too . . .” He stopped when he realized she wasn’t interested and watched her walk past him to the corridor that led to the cockpit.

Just then that the ship rocked as if hit by a laser blast.

“Talky! Get on that engine and give us everything it’s got!” blared Tarko over the ships comm.

Kaida herd Kossj storm off behind her as the metal deck plating rattled with every footstep. She thought Tarko’s accent a bit odd the first time she met him, but now that she’d known him for a while she came to find it humorous at times; though she couldn’t place where it was from. Half Mandalorian and half what she wondered? Kaida planned on asking him sometime, but now they had a ship to save.

When she got to the cockpit she saw Blue standing behind Tarko in the pilot’s chair. “Blue now that Neren is off the ship I’ll need you to copilot.” The Chiss nodded and took his seat next to Tarko. There were only two seats up here, so she remained standing a meter behind them, and did her best to stay level with all the jerking about and the occasional laser hit that the ship endured.

“What is it, exchange fighters?” she asked.

“Worse. It’s a small war fleet that jumped in between us and Nar Shaddaa; two cruisers, three frigates, and about fifty fighters. So it looks like Neren will be on her own for a while.”

A fighter flew by overhead, and hit the Vesper with one of its shots. A second later, from their view through the front side window they saw the top turret take it out.

“We need to get out of here fast,” exclaimed an excited Tarko.

“Thirty seconds to jump,” said Blue.

Red laser fire flashed past the front of the Vesper, and Tarko steered the ship into a loop to come back on the same vector a few seconds later. “This is insane. What did we do to stir up this much attention?” He looked at his copilot, “Blue? Did something happen on the asteroid station that I am not aware of?” His attention was interrupted by a series of laser hits that raked the top of the Vesper, and the fighter that hit them darted in front of the ship. In response to that, the shield gauge flashed and blared in alarm.

Kaida went to stand behind the pilot’s seat and closed her eyes and breathed in deeply to calm herself, while Blue and Tarko frantically tried to keep them alive. To come so close, I cannot lose to a bunch of criminals. Not now. The force is with us.

Tarko snarled, “Nobody hits the Vesper like that! Blue equalize the shields, and give me some weapon energy. I will make sure this laserbrained, chuff-sucking leech goes back to its maker!” The Vesper angled itself to aim at the fighter that was nearly out of range and fired a dozen shots. The last couple hit and the fighter exploded in a ball of fire.

She opened her eyes to see the fighter taken out and Tarko cheer. Even Blue had a smirk on his face. “Nice shot,” said Kaida.

“Tarko always has nice shots, right Blue?” Blue didn’t respond. “You see, Blue agrees.”

This brought a smile to her face. Tarko was quite the character, which went a long way in endearing himself to her when they first met a few years ago. She noticed that Blue had set the holocron on the flight controls in front of him. She could use the force to pull it towards her. It was hers in any case. But she wanted to remain polite and not start something. Maybe Tarko wanted to deliver it to her personally?

“Ok ready now,” said Blue.

“Hit it!” yelled Tarko.

The ship lurched upwards slightly as the stars turned into bright lines and they entered hyperspace. She could feel the crews relief, and she had to admit that she felt much more calm herself.

“Whew, now that was fun. We’ll have to try that again sometime when the odds aren’t a hundred to one,” said Tarko.

“Well that was one promise she couldn’t keep,” said Blue after several seconds of silence.

“We need to talk about what you did in that place,” said Tarko looking over at his Chiss friend.

Blue absently nodded in response as he checked over the computer instruments, but he stopped as if something came to mind, “Why is Neren not on the ship?”

He had a silky core world accent which surprised her. Kaida didn’t know much about his kind but she had fought and killed a few during the war when she was just a padawan. She had assumed they were all aligned with the Sith Empire, but apparently some weren’t. However, the verdict on this one wasn’t out yet. There was something about him that she couldn’t put her finger on.

“Oh, we had her take one of the Jedi looking robes we used on that job to pretend we were a . . . oh ah haha,” he looked at her. Tarko cleared his throat as he turned back to the Chiss, “She pretended she was our Jedi to throw off The Exchange. She knows her way around Nar Shaddaa, and we have a lot of contacts she can take shelter with. It was better than leaving our dear Kaida Merek behind I think.”

Blue nodded. “Here it is,” he handed Tarko the holocron; though she could tell just by watching him that it wasn’t an easy thing for him to do.

Tarko looked at it, “All this fuss for a palm sized cube eh?” Watching her he bit his lower lip, and then handed it over to her. “It must be very valuable.”

Taking it in hand and observing it, “Oh it is; to the right people of course. To non force users, it’s useless.” Taking her eyes off it, she looked at Tarko then Blue. His red eyes were practically glowing as she mentioned this last part. Putting the holocron down to her side away from Blue, she said “Ok, our arrangement is complete. If you’ll just set me down on the first civilized world then we can part ways.”

“Not so fast,” said Tarko.

“What?” she said defensively.

* * * * *

“I’ll have something with rum, something sweet and double the rum,” said Neren to the overly-large bartender in one of the less run down sections of the city world. She placed the credits on the bar and slid it over to him. Looking behind her again, she swore that a Rodian and a Human male had been following her for the last few blocks. And when in a state like this, Neren tended to go for something heavy to drink, not much, but something that did the job of calming her nerves fast.

The enormous bartender was back in a minute with her request, a thin, tall glass of something yellow-orange. She didn’t care what it was, so long as it worked. Gulping it down as quickly as humanly possible, she placed the empty glass on the bar and turned to go. Then she saw the Rodian and Human enter the bar, but they weren’t looking directly at her. She was frightened. She could hold her own in a firefight, but she was alone, and didn’t know how many more of them were out there. It was only a few blocks from an old friend that would hide her too, However, she knew if those two really were after her, then she’d never make it very far out the front door of the cantina.

Turning back to the bartender she said, “Is there a back door I can use to get out of here?”

The bartender just waved his right arm towards the washrooms in the back. Hurrying over that way she spotted the service door and rushed through it. She entered the kitchen and there were half a dozen staff working away cooking and preparing food. It smelled disgusting whatever they were cooking; probably something alien.

Seemingly uncaring about the intruder in their kitchen, she walked past them as quickly as possible towards a door that led her into a hallway with a storage room and the staff washroom. Between the two was a door to the outside. Yet, before going that way, she stopped and listened when she heard a voice holler from the kitchen, “Was there a robed brunette that came through here?”

That was her queue to run, and she burst out the backdoor and sprinted down the alley. At the end of the lane three figures emerged, and she went to draw her blaster pistol.

“Don’t bother,” said a deep male voice that she thought she recognized.

It couldn’t be him; it had been so many years! Not taking any chances, considering that she didn’t know if she was still in his bad books, she said, “Come any closer and there will be trouble,” Neren still kept her blaster within her robe, and out of sight. She still needed to act the part of a Jedi just in case.

“We know you are not the Jedi, Neren, so you can stop the theatrics.”

Realizing her disguise must have been seen through earlier; she relaxed, withdrew her hood, and holstered her weapon, “Alright, Talk.”

“I recognized your face on the camera about an hour ago.”

“Warken? Why should I care what you want?”

“I’ve recently been promoted to be Mr. Burkes new second, and he would like to renegotiate your old employment.”

She cautiously began taking a few steps closer. He was a dark skinned human with shortly cut, curly black hair, and was very tall, even more so than that hulking bartender. When she came to stand before him, the two she spotted following her, the Rodian and the Human approached from where she exited the cantina. “This place is as good as any to have a discussion; so out with it.”

“This job your boss was hired to do,” He made a cutting sound with his tongue. “The holocron was to be delivered to a Sith master in a few days time. Now that we cannot hold up our end of the deal, The Exchange will be in quite the bad situation with a major power in the galaxy. This we just cannot allow.”

“I’m waiting to hear where my part comes into this Warken.”

“Mr. Burke wants the holocron back. Come with us and help, but if you make the foolish decision not to then we’ll make you come along with us anyway. It’s going to happen either way Neren. You can work with us and make a profit, or don’t and I can promise you that you will not like the consequences.”

She thought about it for a moment while looking at the filth covered ground. What did she care about the arrogant Jedi for anyway? They’ve done nothing good for the galaxy except to bring ruin upon it with their civil war. War that had her family killed when she was just a teenager. The Sith were no better, but when it comes to either of them, she would take good money over loyalty. Having to live in this hellhole of a world for all those years after the war taught her how to survive, and she knew the situation she was in right now could only have one good outcome. Who was Tarko anyway? He was just some small time smuggler suffering from a case of excess personality. She made her decision and grinned, “Ok, but I want good pay for this. I won’t work for next to nothing anymore.”

“For this, of course,” he smiled.

She eyed him cautiously, “But I want assurances first. That apartment high up in the rich area I was always talking about having?”

“Done.”

“My name on the deed and half a million credits; oh and I want a good paying position within The Exchange.”

“We’ll see what we can do.”

She smiled, “Alright then let’s do this. To start, you need to ditch the group for a bit and come with me to a friend.”

* * * * *

“The deal was that I would be given the Holocron and that was it,” said Kaida suspiciously. What could he possibly want? The force wasn’t telling her that she was in any danger, but she was ready for it just in case.

Tarko rose from his seat slowly and then looked Kaida in the eyes, “Kaida, we need to talk.” He glanced at Blue before turning back to her, “Though I suppose it will involve all of us, so Blue, Yortor and Kossj should be present as well. Neren, well she is out of reach for the time being.” He began walking down the corridor from the cockpit. “Come,” he said almost commandingly.

Blue stood up, while looking at the dials one more time and then walked past her. When he was gone, just to be sure, she attempted to access the holocron. It opened up and she was acknowledged by an old Jedi master that had passed away centuries before her time. It was the correct holocron, but exactly what was on it was beyond her; though she knew for certain that her last master was quite familiar with it. She would need time away in a safe place from anyone else to uncover its secrets. Putting it in a large pocket with her Jedi robe, she started for the common room, unsure of what Tarko was planning.

Upon reaching it, she saw Tarko standing in the center of the room with Blue and Yortor sitting in the chairs, “So how many did you get Yortor?” the captain asked.

The Trandoshan responded in his language, but Tarko seemed to be able to understand him.

“Just two? I wasn’t even trying and I got one. Has your hunting instincts been failing you? There were many fighters out there attacking us.”

Even Kaida could tell that Yortor’s response was anything but kind.

“With that mouth I’m surprised you ever had a mother.” He leaned against an intercom, pushed the button and said, “Kossj, come to the common room if you please. But leave the talkity talk there. You are coming to listen. And maybe you’ll answer a question or two, but we’ll find out when you’re here.”

When everyone was there and seated, Tarko began while on his feet. He pointed his finger at Kaida and said, “Ok. I don’t think you know, but Kaida and another Jedi are responsible for saving the life of my crew and I nearly three years ago when we . . . got into a dust up with a group of bandit Mandalorians. She saved the Vesper. She saved our good crew. And once we were boarded and taken into custody, she was the one who questioned us. She let us go, even when there was a whole list of things the republic could have charged us for. I feel I owe her my life.”

“Tarko . . .”

“No it’s alright Kaida. I want to help. We’re not the thugs you take us to be, well maybe a little. But that doesn’t mean we cannot help.” Tarko turned to look at Kossj, “Now its talk talk time my friend. What did you find when looking into the holocron?”

Kossj leaned forward in his chair and smirked, “More than we ever needed to know to get it. Your holocron was initially lost because of the Sith attack on the Jedi temple on Coruscant. The Sith who had it was later tracked down by a group of Jedi, and after a long battle, they prevailed.”

“Well out with the part that has to do with Kaida you waterbrain,” said Tarko.

“I was just getting to that,” he said with a big smile while looking at Tarko. “It seems that your old master, the one that you spent most of your padawan years with, had the holocron and has since defected to the Sith. And you, well you are on the republic list of missing Jedi as well. Anyways, how the holocron came from his possession and into that of The Exchange I could not find.”

Tarko gave Kaida a menacing scowl, “So tell me Kaida, is this true? Are you a Sith now? If so all that lecturing about being a bad criminal, well that was just not good manners. And I hate bad manners more than I hate the Sith, and the Mandalorians.”

“No,” she stood. “I have not fallen to the dark side. But you are right, my old master has, and he was a good friend and teacher. I . . . I miss him, but the Jedi council has dismissed his case as not worthy of attention.”

“And you disagree,” said Blue looking at her calmly.

Quickly turning to face him, “Yes I disagree. We can’t just abandon our people for switching over. There has to be consequences, or at the least . . . I need an explanation.”

“Attachment is the path to the dark side,” smiled Blue. “Didn’t they teach you that at Jedi school?”

“And what does a Chiss who goes by the name of Blue know about the Jedi? Your kind does its best to stay out of sight, and cares nothing about the galaxy at large. Well except for your people’s stupid decision to join sides with the enemy. But here you are working for a . . . a smuggler and for all I really know you are operating for the Sith yourself!”

“Ktah, moactan teel,” he cursed her.

“Ok calm down the two of you,” said Tarko.

After a long moment of silence Kossj said, “Um Kaida, Blue is not his real name. That’s just what Tarko called him when out on missions, and it sort of stuck.”

“I figured so. I know their names are unpronounceable to humans,” she said sternly while glancing at Kossj.

“It’s Jion. The human version is Jion. You couldn’t pronounce Sollj’io’ntalli properly if you tried,” said the Chiss.

“Fine, now that that is out of the way. What is it you propose Tarko?” she said before sitting back down and eyeing the captain warily.

“I propose we get you out of trouble with the Jedi. I propose you give them the holocron, and get back to being a member of the good side. No more of this running around and consorting with half-bad criminals. I can’t in good conscious let you do this alone.”

“Well I’m touched that you care so much, but I have to do this on my own. Though you are right, I should contact the council and let them know I have the holocron. Thanks to you, your team, and especially,” she waved her hand in Jion’s direction, “The Chiss.”

“I’m glad my human name was so easy to say,” Jion said sarcastically.

“Kaida, let us help you,” said Tarko.

“Yes, you need not do this alone,” said Kossj.

Yortor grunted as his way of agreeing.

She sighed, and closed her eyes. “Well then, it appears help is coming my way whether I want it or not,” opening her eyes again. Shaking her head for a moment before speaking, “I agree. But first let me contact the council before everyone but Blue gets excited.”

Tarko smiled, “Ok good!” He clapped his hands together, “Then we are going to work together as one big happy family. Or team. Well they are the same to me anyway.”

“Right, well I follow the captain’s orders. The Jedi isn’t in charge of the mission or of me,” said Jion gloomily as he got up and walked to the medical room.

Kossj got up and followed him, “Were you injured on the asteroid?”

“Yes, but nothing serious,” said Jion before he and Kossj left the room.

Yortor watched Kaida silently, until Tarko noticed him and said, “Yortor, I want a nice brandy. We have some bottles in the back of the storage. You know the good stuff?”

The Trandoshan got up without a word and went off to the back of the ship. Kaida watched him go, and then looked to Tarko expectantly.

“What is wrong?” he asked.

“Among other things, your Chiss friend. I don’t trust him.”

“He just got you that holocron, what else do you want from him.”

“I’m not sure, but he doesn’t seem right, and a Jedi tends to get a feel for these things.”

* * * * *

Jion grabbed a bandage to press the kolto to the top part of his left chest. His red eyes quickly scanned the medical computer to see if there was an infection. “She aimed for my heart if you must know Kossj.” A little irritated that Kossj always bombarded him with dozens of questions after one of his missions, when all he wanted to do was to relax, and meditate in the shared quarters before anyone else interrupted it with their presence.

“This is the Mr. Burke we’ve been hearing about for years? It’s actually a woman?”

He looked at Kossj, “Yes it is a human female; and a rare breed from my experience among their kind.” Kossj’s brown head tendrils often swayed or twitched, when he was this excited, and sometimes Jion swore there was a little more light shining behind his large round black eyes.

“How so?”

“It’s a long story, but I’ll write a report about it if that will satisfy you.”

Kossj smiled, “You and your reports. You act like you’re in the military sometimes. I think I’m the only one who actually reads them.”

Jion didn’t respond for a long while as he stared at the monitor. The computer showed him that there was nothing in his blood to be worried about. “Tarko will want to read this one.”

A few hours later, after he’d writing his debrief, Tarko came to visit him, while Jion was changing out of the blaster scorched uniform in his shared bunk quarters.

“When stopping for a few minutes for a course correction, and to throw off any pursuers, I found out some things. We have a few hours left until we’re at Corellia, so do you care to tell me what the hell went on in the asteroid station?”

“It’s in the report I wrote, you can read it anytime you want.”

“Blue, we have gotten out of sticky situations before, but it seems we have the whole galaxy interested in this holocron. And it probably wouldn’t have been so if you had done what you said you were going to do and blow the place up. I can only do so much damage from outside in the Vesper.”

“Believe me I tried,” said Jion as he undid and pulled off the black guard pants, leaving him in his underclothes.

“I do Blue. You are the best I’ve ever worked with. So this is what makes this very difficult.”

Jion stopped and eyed Tarko, “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to drop you off with Kaida, and head back for Neren with just the three of us.”

“But you’ll need a copilot,” said Jion looking concerned. However, he knew that this would greatly increase the chances of retrieving the holocron from her, so he knew he would have to agree to it, even though he didn’t like it. His mission had priority.

Tarko held up his hand for a moment, “I’ll be fine. Kossj can copilot and if things get messy then he can get his talkative butt down to whatever needs repairs. Besides, he talks just too much. It gets irritating. I think I’ll have to deliberately get the Vesper damaged just to get him out of the cockpit.”

Jion nodded, “Why me?”

“Isn’t it obvious . . . you are just as good as any Jedi. Your people have trained you very well. That would make you the best person to watch her pretty back. There’s more too. When we came out of hyperspace, I scanned the holonet for our kind of chatter coming from Nar Shaddaa. They are looking for you. The call has gone out for half a million credits for a Chiss who might go by the name of Atell, and whose ship matches the Vesper’s ID along with an alias that I gave for the owner. And since we are going back into Nar Shaddaa where your picture is all over for the bounty hunters, it doesn’t make any sense to bring you. Even if you were to just hide on the ship, you know as well as I do that your skills would be put to much better use helping Kaida.”

Jion nodded.

“This Mr. Burke wants you alive though. Which I do have to say is better than wanting you dead, and will at least give you a chance to escape if caught,” he smirked.

“It’s not much better.” He realized that Tarko was attempting to inject some wittiness into it like he always did. To Jion, his humor never really found the mark with him. Instead, they just all came out as bad jokes. Though Tarko always said he was too serious.

“Well at least you get to live a while longer.”

“If the Sith get into this, then being dead would be preferable.”

“Yes. The holocron was in their hands last wasn’t it. Well if they get involved then we run. I know a little hiding spot on a world that I’ve told no one about. We can buy up supplies and live out there for as long as we want.”

Jion shook his head, “I couldn’t do that.”

“No,” Tarko sighed. “No I suppose you couldn’t. That’s the thing about you. You need to be a part of the galactic life.”

Jion said, “Yes. Now if you will excuse me I need to take a shower.”

“Alright, we have to get to work on changing the ships transponder code, maybe a little paintjob when we land, and oh we’ll need a new name. But I so liked Vesper.” Tarko continued to talk to himself as he left the quarters. When the door closed, Jion could hear his muffled voice yelling at Kossj for some reason or another.

When he was in the shower he began to pour on the soap and started to scrub. While doing this, he thought about how he could get the holocron from Kaida. A fully trained Jedi, taking something so valuable that they would protect with their life, this seemed almost impossible. Maybe if he gets to know her however, he might find a weakness; though that idea felt heavy in the pit of his stomach. He had a history with force users. Technically he was one; though one that hadn’t received full training, and had turned his back on it all. It was an experience he didn’t want to repeat with someone else.

His master was female, and was not only his trainer, but his superior, and his lover. And how it ended, was the most painful thing of all, because it didn’t end, and it turned into a nightmare. Right now, he was grateful to be away from her. She was a Sith trained Chiss, one who was highly gifted in the force from birth, and more rare than one in a trillion.

Her name was Cae’tel Yiss, one of those Chiss sent off to the Sith to be trained in their ways from a young age. He remembered how unbelievable it was that she had chosen him out of all people from the Sabosen Household Phalanx. From his earliest memories he trained to be in this guard unit and just a month after he’d joined, she had come. She had so much power, so much strength and beauty. She stopped and looked at him when he was on guard duty among dozens of others that day. To her, he stuck out compared to everyone else. And Cae’tel immediately requested that Jion be taken under her fold and trained. Reluctantly a few months later the house agreed to give her this concession. He was only fifteen at the time, and to the Chiss, that was the age considered to be a full adult since they matured so much faster than humans.

However, at the time this change wasn’t easy on his relatives or for him, because it was an honor for the Sollj family to join the Household Phalanx. And there had been so many in his family line that Jion had followed into the house guards. Now, taken from this honor, he was no longer addressed by others with his family name. Though in his own mind, he was still Sollj’io’ntalli. To serve his new master, he was given the simplified core world version of Jion. Yet with her, he was given a unique position of power, but one that was not at all spoken of officially.

He was still young at heart, innocent, and very naïve back then. Cae’tel being only five years older than he, both beautiful and powerful, eventually became his obsession; and she felt his desire for her too. One day during training, she took it upon herself to get physically close to him and they became lovers from then on. Everything he wanted seemed to be on the verge of coming true at that point. He dreamed of marriage and starting a family with her, to serve the Chiss Ascendency, and to officially retake his family name by returning and living amongst his kind.

But none of these were on her agenda. She was insatiable when it came to how much physical interaction she required, and some days after she had been gone for weeks, she wouldn’t let him out of her sight from the bedroom. He knew she loved him, since through the force he certainly felt it, and he was terribly in love with her too. Yet things wouldn’t last this way, and he began to understand why as his training continued in the ways of the Sith.

Her love making turned more and more violent, her attitude and treatment towards Jion became more and more about having power over him. It was the Sith way to dominate, and to destroy, and though the Sith always sought an apprentice to teach them what they knew in order to gain power, he was more than that to her. And she had let him be less subservient and more an equal while they were madly in love together.

That changed when she put to use a gift she had somehow acquired through the force against him. It was a way of sapping someone else’s strength, and though she was just practicing it when the two initially met, she became more proficient at it as the years went on. Cae’tel eventually started using it on him all the time, and he did his best to fight it off, mentally and physically. As the years went on, they found that her power hardly affected him anymore. Though in the interim, he found his force powers waning, and believed it had something to do with her ability to life drain. When she found that her power no longer worked on her apprentice, she instead focused on destroying his spirit.

Jion was prideful due to his heritage and upbringing, and it eventually became her obsession to break him of that; until it was just about the only thing between them besides getting together for the occasional biological imperative. But he knew the truth. Though he still loved her for who she used to be to him, and didn’t want to bring harm to her, he refused to give in, and fought her off to a standstill. He knew that her love for him had become a shell of what it was, and once he was broken and hers to command, everything between them would be gone. And all he would be was a mindless apprentice to an uncaring master that he had seen time and time again in his travels among the Sith. It was either that, or the unthinkable. That she really did want to kill him. They had their physical fights, and sometimes he thought she’d gotten a little too serious. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to believe she wanted him dead.

Regardless, Cae’tel had wanted the challenge, the hunt, but once caught he would be of no use to her. So he held onto a dead relationship, one that to end it would mean to end her, or lose himself in the attempt.

It went on for years this way until he could no longer take the abuse. The training stopped when she grew frustrated with his lack of progress and destroyed his lightsaber in fit of rage one day; soon after he left the Chiss Ascendancy. Though he wasn’t running, he still had orders to carry out and missions to complete from Cae’tel. She granted him this much. He feared because of their past connection that she would be able to find him no matter where he went, so escape seemed impossible. But a reprieve was different, even one that took years, even when he lied, and took much longer to accomplish what she asked. He would do it to stay away from her.

It had been more than half a year since their last contact. Though this particular mission given to him was difficult, it would also take a long time to accomplish. Now that he was so close to finishing it, he almost didn’t want to; because when completed, he would have to see her again. Although he knew it couldn’t go on like this forever. One day he would have to face her and end what was between them. His dreams for himself were never about becoming an all powerful Sith. It was about his people, and his family. He had never wanted the power she craved, but he had wanted her. Unfortunately, he realized years ago it would either be her or him. And since then, he had lived only for the day.

He awoke from his thoughts and noticed that he’d turned the shower cold without thinking again, and it had probably been like this for ten minutes. This was part of his training. No comforts; and to live with the bare essentials in order to better harden him. He switched the dial back to warm, and rinsed himself off.

After getting out of the shower and drying himself, he shaved, put on some deodorant, and decided to wear his old black Chiss Ascendency uniform. There was no insignia on it, it was blank, and bare which fit with his normal everyday mood. He combed his short black hair, and when dressed, put on his holster with his blaster inside. He then hid his long knife in an easily accessible side pocket along his pants. Jion noticed his charric rifle that sat in the back of his locker. He hadn’t used it for some time and its ammo supply was nearly exhausted. Jion did know of a few places outside of the Ascendency to get more, but he didn’t want to. Although against a lightsaber it was his best bet, since the particle based weapon couldn’t be reflected. And he could possibly need it for this next mission Tarko was sending him on. Instead, he slammed the locker shut and was about to leave the room.

What about Kaida and the holocron? He needed to decide right now what he was going to do before she was with other Jedi and gone. Maybe it was best if he forgot about it for now. Maybe a Sith will steal it again. Maybe, just maybe none of it mattered. But it did. It greatly affected his entire reason for being out here among the foreigners. Cae’tel wanted him to get it, and she couldn’t be denied. He hated being in this position. If he was to get it for her now, the Jedi would have to die.

Then to hell with it all, he didn’t care about it either way. If he had the opportunity then he would, if not then what was his life anyway? It was one big prison as it was. At this point there was no reason to even fight for his master. It felt better to just keep working and not think about the big things. Just keep working. He opened the door and stepped out.

Jion was greeted by Yortor and given a glass of brandy upon entering the common room. Kaida and Tarko were there discussing what to do next. Jion took the glass and instead of nursing it, he downed it as fast as he could. The burning in his throat was nothing compared to what he was about to face.

* * * * *

“Well, come in Neren my child. I haven’t seen you in oh, at least a year,” said the severely balding old Human. What was left of the hair on his head was matted grey tufts, which along with his large jovial smile, made it impossible to see him as anything but harmless. He was skinny, short, moved slowly, and had leathery old skin that was mottled with age. But his almond eyes still held a lot of life.

This made it all the more difficult for Neren, especially since he’d sheltered her whenever she needed it in her younger days. When she joined Tarko’s crew she introduced the two to each other. Since then, Tarko and Uncle Uin had become good friends. “Thanks for allowing me to stay here until Tarko returns, Uncle Uin,” she said smiling back. Once she and Warken were inside and the door closed behind them, she removed her hood, then walked up and gave him a hug.

Uncle Uin’s place was about mid-way into the lower levels. Nar Shaddaa was a moon completely covered by city, and the lower you went the more dangerous it became. Though his place was locked up like a fortress, and all the old passage ways on his level had been blocked off and sealed decades earlier. To access his home, one used a trick on an elevator that was up in the higher levels. A code put in the proper order with the buttons brought you down to his floor. From there he had a camera to see if the person was legitimate, otherwise the meter thick plasteel door wasn’t going to open.

In his younger years Uncle Uin was known as the fixer. Anyone who needed a new life or ID came to him. He was good, one of the best, and he most certainly charged like one. Though he had ticked off enough people over the years, and slowly, he came to live a more and more fortified life. Bribing the local crime boss who controlled the district where he operated, in order to stay out of his business was a given; though when he quit his enterprise and went off the grid, few had ever heard from him again, especially since he used his skills to create a total new life just for himself.

In his new life, a girlfriend who was a generation younger than him, had a weak spot for the homeless young, and when she could she spent time helping at a local shelter. This was how Neren came to meet Uin. When his girlfriend passed on, he let Neren stay here when she had nowhere else to go. He would feed her, buy her clothes, and made sure her health remained good by taking her to a doctor for her yearly physicals, as well as for up to date immunizations.

“Has Tarko contacted you Uncle?”

“No Neren, it has been some months since that rapscallion and I have talked over the holovid. Not to mention everyone else leaving an old man to his loneliness. So how have you been little one?”

“Well Uncle, I’m not so little anymore. You keep calling me that,” she tried to smile but it came out forced.

“Oh, you’ll always be little in my eyes Neren.” Her forced smile soon faded when Uin looked at who Neren brought with her. “So, who is your friend?”

“Oh him,” she hesitated. “Uncle, I’m so very sorry.” She produced her blaster from her robes and pointed it at him. “We need to occupy your home for a bit. I’m sorry but Tarko just wasn’t paying me enough, and we need to do a little business here.” She looked directly at his old eyes, and then turned away after a second. “Again I’m sorry.”

Uin shook his head, “Oh Neren. What sort of crowd did you get in with now?”

As she was about to answer, she closed her eyes and stuttered until she finally blurted out, “Uncle Uin, just please take a chair and this will be over with quickly.”

“Do you need money is that it Neren?”

“Is the old man loaded? It wouldn’t hurt to have some spending money,” said Warken.

“Just never mind,” she said glancing at Warken. Turning to face Uin again she said, “Uncle sit down and I’m going to tie up your hands to the chair.”

A few minutes later Neren accessed the holovid while Warken watched Uin in the other room. It took many attempts, but she kept at it and after an hour Tarko finally answered, “Where the heck have you been?”

“We’ve been on the run and just came out of hyperspace Neren. Are you ok there?”

“Yes,” she smiled. “Yes everything is ok. I’m safely at Uncle Uin’s.”

“No trouble then?”

“None at all. Listen, I don’t mind staying here, but I was wondering when you would bring the Vesper back and pick me up?”

Tarko thought for a moment, “We have a few things to do first, but when we come back the Vesper will have a new name.”

“Where exactly are you?” And right after she asked this, Warken stepped into the room, though still out of sight from the holovid.

“After we put together some changes to the ship at our usual spaceport, we’ll be making a stop for the Jedi. Then, we will come back to Nar Shaddaa. I will contact you with the new name and ID.” Tarko looked away as if distracted before returning his attention.

Neren guessed that something was up. And if she knew Tarko at all, she understood that he would never come back blindingly trusting anyone if things had gotten that bad where he was forced to run. “When can we expect you back here then?” she flinched afterwards at the ‘we’ part.

“We’ve run into an issue with the exchange. I would say a day or two at most. There is no telling if we run into trouble in our usual haunts. Unless someone on our end blabs, then we shouldn’t have a problem now should we Neren?”

“No boss. No we shouldn’t.”

“Good. We’ll see you soon. Tarko out.”

The holovid shut down and Neren stared at the projector while lost in thought for a moment. Tarko didn’t realize how much trouble he’d gotten into. In the two years she’d been in his crew, they’d never run into anything close to this in scope. She knew it was a bad idea the moment she met that Jedi, and had tried to tell her captain as much. Now, the Exchange would kill him, and she’d be fortunate just to make it out of this alive. She knew this once Warken told her she had to help them. If he paid her like he said, then at least something good would come of it all. Even so, it still sat like a rock inside her. Neren checked the location of Tarko’s transmission, “They sent that from Corellia.”

Warken came closer and said, “I’ll let Mr. Burke know. We have forces that can be there shortly, though maybe not in time to catch their ship if they just do a drop off. Whatever the Jedi is doing, the Exchange will intercept them, and when your old boss returns for you, we’ll be ready.”

She laid both palms over the holovid computer and was lost in thought for a moment. “Good. Now about my payment?”

“When we have the holocron back, you’ll get everything you asked for,” he said in a rather snide tone.

“I don’t want Uncle Uin hurt.”

“Well, that depends if everything works out Neren.”

With a roar, the Vesper, now renamed the Quicksilver, took off behind them. And the Chiss checked his blaster pistol again. “Do you have to do that twice? You already did it on board before we took the ramp down,” said Kaida

“Sorry, it’s an old habit.”

She sighed, and then looked around the spaceport. “Well, the day is nice. But there’s no time to waste, so let’s get to the rendezvous to meet . . . with my old friends.” The two of them began walking. Coronet city was abuzz with ships coming and going above them, as well as with people piling onto the tram network which was where they were headed to at the end of the port.

Jion cleared his throat, “So, have you been here before?”

Surprised he attempted conversation; she responded with, “Why do you even care Chiss?” They carried on walking for nearly a minute in silence before she realized that she was being a tad cruel to him, and besides, if he was her escort then it would be better if it felt like they were actually on the same side. “I’m sorry. I’ve not been myself these last few months.”

“With your old master turning to the dark side, yes I can see how that would weigh on your mind.”

She smirked, “Oh Blue. If you could only have the smallest bit of understanding of what it’s really like.”

He took a while to respond, “Try me.”

She came to a halt, and turned to look at him. He’d stopped as well, and gave her a quizzical look in return. Kaida stared at him for a long drawn out few seconds before speaking, “I know nothing about you, and you know nothing about me. Maybe its better we keep it that way? So what do you say?”

“I’d say you’re wound up too tight.”

Kaida laughed, “Me? I could easily say the same thing about you! Who are you Chiss? I mean who are you really?”

He looked away at a group of people that passed by them, and without turning back to face her he said, “I’m someone that has more in common with you than you think.”

“And how is that? What is your stake in this?” she said while glaring at him.

Turning to look directly into her eyes, “I retrieved you your holocron, and it nearly cost me my life. It’s not like I had any payment for that assignment, nor for this one. The rules are if Tarko makes any profit off the missions then we take our fair share. My name is now at the top of the Nar Shaddaa wanted list, and I’m here to see you safely until Tarko returns to pick me up.”

Kaida smiled, “That doesn’t answer the question.” She crossed her arms waiting for a response.

“I have reasons for not wanting to go back home. Does that suite you?”

She shook her head. “No, not by a long shot Chiss. You see I am used to honesty and people being open about what they do. You are the most closed off person I have ever met. It’s like just getting you to talk is painful. Also, with you, you are so difficult to read. Your mind seems deliberately walled off to me. That sort of screams spy, or agent. Know what I mean?”

“Look. I have a past I don’t wish to share with just anyone. I’m not an outcast; I just prefer not to deal with my people for the time being.”

She caught a slight flicker of emotion when mentioning his people. “Well thanks for that at least. You do actually have a past and a personality.” She put a hand on his shoulder as if to comfort him. “But I can sense that there is a deep pain within you that you are trying to keep locked away.”

Jion looked away from her eyes, “I would prefer if we get moving please.”

“As you wish,” she said as she released her hand from his shoulder, turned around and began walking at a brisk pace. Behind her Jion hesitated then moved to catch up. Frowning, he was difficult to get even the slightest thing from him, and through it all she was making a mess of it. “Jedi are usually open with each other so forgive me if I seem pushy over things that don’t concern me.”

“I um. I’ve had . . . I’ve had experience with force users before; and not all of it good. In fact it’s something I’d rather forget.”

“Sith?” She said without turning to look at him.

“Yes.”

“Then that makes two of us.” Through the force she reached out to him, and felt how tense he had become. Stopping again, she turned to face him just as he stopped right before her. “Look, I know I’m not the easiest person to work with.” She looked around them and then scrunched up her face a moment before turning back to face him. “We are a few hours early, and there’s no point in getting there that prematurely. Let’s . . . oh I can’t believe I’m saying this to you of all people. Let’s go and sit down to talk and use up some of this excess time.”

Jion smirked, “Me of all people? Well, you have my thanks for the charity. If the Jedi feels so inclined, then who am I to stop her.”

She breathed in and out deeply while recalling the Jedi code to prevent herself from being overly sensitive with her response, and instead smiled at his jab. “It won’t hurt too much. This I promise.”

Twenty minutes later the two of them were sitting at a table in the starport café. Kaida had a glass of water, while Jion nursed an ale and chewed on a breadstick. “The food aboard the um, Quicksilver, was never that great anyhow.” He smirked, “Like after one of our raids on this poorly guarded Czerka warehouse. It was supposed to house low tech arms Tarko was going to sell for cheap, but instead what we found was that it was full of old RepMed vita paste that was used in hospitals. Tarko was really disappointed at first. Until Yortor broke open a packet and tasted it. He swore it wasn’t that bad and that we should take it all and try to sell it.”

Without noticing, Kaida found that she had a smile on her face as she followed Jion’s story. “I take it Tarko agreed?”

“Yes. And our entire storage space was jammed with it for over a month. We couldn’t get a buyer for it since it had expired already, not even for next to nothing. So Tarko,” Jion started to chuckle, “Tarko made Yortor eat it at every meal. Eventually when the Trandoshan had hardly made a dent in the amount we had. Tarko decided to jettison the whole thing into space.”

Her smile widened, and then she s*****red.

Jion started talking faster, caught up in the moment, “It had gotten so bad by the end, that every time Yortor went off world Tarko was paranoid that he was going to go eat real food. And then there was all the midnight snacking that Tarko was suspicious he was doing on the regular stuff. I caught him doing it once, but didn’t say anything. What he did do though, was actually assign Kossj to be at his side morning and night, figuring poor Kossj wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut if Yortor was disobeying him,” Jion laughed.

Kaida laughed along with him. “You know, it’s nice to see you smile. And to see you so talkative.”

“I have my moments.”

“Well you should have them more often.”

“Maybe it depends on the company I’m with.”

“I think you just complimented me.”

“Well, I mean look at who I’m stuck with out there. And Kossj sometimes endlessly blathers on. I just learned long ago to tune it out; which one has to in order to get some of the repairs done. Tarko knows a little, and I’m pretty good with it, but Kossj is almost a genius with that sort of thing.”

“I noticed. He’s usually stuck in the back hashing some sort of work around together to keep things running.”

“Yeah, that and slicing; which he does for fun in his spare time. No one even knows how much money he’s siphoned off from all the illegal activities he has going on. He’s talkative in person, but on the holonet he’s a whole different personality and knows his game. But I’m probably talking too much now.”

“No it’s quite a nice change from what I thought you’d be like.”

“We’ll look at this; you got me talking quite a bit there didn’t you. Now it’s your turn,” he said before finishing his glass.

She just smiled in response, “We should probably get going. I would like to get to the park earlier than the time they agreed to.”

“Ok. I suppose I can scout out the place first.”

“I was hoping you would. So am I paying or are you?”

“Well that depends on a couple of things.”

“Oh?”

“Of course. Is this a business deal or is this a date? Because if its business, then you’d have to pay and if it’s a date then I’d have to pay,” he said.

Kaida could tell he was doing his best to charm her, and she had to admit that he had a bit of a gift at it once the brooding silent act ended. She rose from her seat and grabbed the bill, and after clearing her throat she said, “It looks like I’ll be the one paying then;” though she still had a smile on her face.

Jion rose from his seat, and put a hand on hers, “But that depends on what kind of a business deal we have going. If you’re the client giving me work, then I pay.”

She tenderly withdrew her hand, “Ah but if I’m not paying you, and you are doing it for free then there is no need for that. I’m fine paying,” she smiled.

“Even if I’m working for you free or not, I’d still pay because you are providing me with work. Besides, I don’t often use that part on my tax returns.”

“Which government, Sith or Republic?”

“Do you actually think I pay taxes? Besides all you had was water, which they charged for of course.”

“I suppose not then. If you insist, then be my guest,” she handed him the bill. “But it seems to me that you had it all figured out that you would end up paying anyhow. So you didn’t need to put up that show just to try to prove to me that you were a gentleman.” At that moment, the smile that lit up his face and the glimmer in his red eyes touched her. She found him striking, and though his coloring was quite different from a human, the rest of him looked pretty good. He had a straight and cute nose, handsome jaw, and highly attractive piercing red eyes. Realizing he’d broken through her hard shell, her pale skin flushed.

A few minutes later when they stepped onboard the tram, Kaida thought she sensed a familiar presence. She turned to Jion in the crowded tram and said, “There are Jedi here in Coronet City,” though Jion didn’t respond.

A short time after they reached the far side of the park, and exited the city’s efficient transportation, Jion turned to her and said, “We are being followed.”

Her immediate response was to say, “I feel no danger.”

“Then you aren’t looking for it,” he said nonchalantly.

* * * * *

“We must keep going though. Don’t stop and look, just trust me,” said Jion. There was no point in trying to lose them, not when they were together. “I have a plan, but you will be alone for a while.”

“I’m sure I can handle myself Jion.”

He wavered for a second. She called him by his name for the first time, and it actually made him feel pretty good. But now wasn’t the time, he controlled his breathing to calm himself and to focus on the situation. “Ok just keep walking to the meeting. I will see you there when I can.” His training took over now and just before the two of them entered the park, Jion split off on the last available side path that went to the right. He moved quickly, and without looking behind him.

In his immediate area, the narrow alleyway between two walls was devoid of anyone else for the time being. From what he could tell, it skirted this entire side of the park. He spotted a thick support jut in the wall ahead, so he hid behind there. He felt energized, awake, and that nothing was going to stop him. Kaida’s life was on the line, and no one was going to threaten that. So there would be no hesitation, not for this.

Twenty seconds later he heard footsteps running his way. He pulled out his serrated long knife, and waited until one was close enough before stepping out. Moving as he was trained with lightning speed and precision, Jion grabbed the human female by the back of the neck as she ran into him, then plunged his blade right through her throat. Just as the Zabrak male next to her skidded to a stop, and began to raise his blaster at Jion, he ripped the blade out, and in an overhand throw the knife went into his targets chest.

Running up to him to prevent him from firing, Jion held the Zabrak’s blaster downwards but gritted his teeth as the gun went off anyway. It merely hit the duracrete, but his plan was to make this silent since he didn’t want to attract any more attention. Engaged in a life or death struggle with his opponent, Jion pulled the knife from his chest, only to thrust it into his midsection several times. With each one the Zabrak groaned, until the last to which Jion felt him lose all his strength. He let go and the male fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Retrieving his knife, he wiped the blood off on the body.

He hated messy kills. It wasn’t his style, that and the fact that he detested the idea of someone suffering needlessly until they finally died. When it was his final moment, he wanted it over with fast. Blood from both corpses was pooling on the duracrete by his feet. Looking at them, he surmised that there was no time to bother hiding his work. He needed to get into the park and make sure Kaida was ok.

Instead of backtracking, he sprinted forward to what he hoped would be another way into the park. Turning left with the wall, he ran for several minutes following along its breadth. Here there were people, and he knew it was only a matter of minutes before the bodies were found. Though it didn’t matter now, he had a job to do. He passed by them, and when he finally reached another opening into the park, he slowed down, caught his breath and tried to act calmly. He was blue, and stood out substantially among Humans, but running through the park was even more of a giveaway. Not sure how far the meeting place was, all he knew was that it was under one of the tram rails and next to one of the supports. So he followed along the nearest one at as casual a pace as he could, without jerking his head about looking everywhere. For all he knew there could be a hundred more people waiting for them.

Seeing Kaida standing off in the distance at what appeared to be the right place, he was already headed in her direction. Though his senses told him he was being watched. Who were they he wondered? The ones he killed were plain clothed, but that could be anyone. Who would know about this meeting? He doubted the Republic would be sending in agents like that after him, more likely they would just be watching then come into assist the Jedi with a whole squad of local police or troopers. He doubted the Sith were involved, not yet anyway, so that would leave The Exchange. Neren . . . he concluded was the leak. It was the only way they’d know where they were.

Still ahead, he saw two robed figures he assumed to be Jedi appear before Kaida. Faintly, he heard one of them saying, “Kaida Merek.” But the rest was subdued to the point that he wasn’t close enough to comprehend. Then he heard one shuttle fly over head and then another. Jion ran over to the nearest tree and hid from the meeting point. He peaked around the trunk and watched as both shuttles came to land near the group of Jedi. Their ramps opened and out jumped about thirty people armed with a myriad assortment of blasters.

Sloppy he thought. If they knew who he was, and they most certainly would, they should have waited for him to join with the others at the meeting; though upon glancing back in the direction he came, he saw two plain clothed humans running directly towards him. There was shouting coming from where the Jedi and the band of exchange thugs had landed; and these two coming towards him had their weapons drawn as they slowed their pace.

“Stand up with your hands in the air,” shouted one as they aimed at him.

Jion started to stand up, feigning distress that he was caught, and then in a flash pulled out his blaster, and took the first one out and then the second without them even returning fire. And right then, he heard a barrage of weapons fire going off in Kaida’s direction.

He leaped around the tree to see how he could help. The three Jedi were standing in an outwards facing circle, with their different colored lightsabers reflecting incoming fire. Several dead bodies lay nearby and the odd Exchange agent continued to drop from reflected bolts. The Jedi were doing well until one of their opponents threw an explosive into the middle of their group. Two Jedi managed to leap out of the way, but one was not so lucky and fell when it went off.

Jion’s heart raced, and he involuntarily stopped for a moment, he hoped it wasn’t Kaida. He watched the two Jedi get up. The one closest to him was still deflecting blaster bolts, and her hood was suddenly thrown back. Kaida’s auburn hair became exposed, as her ponytail whipped about. But she was alright still. Feeling a bit relieved, he ran closer and slunk behind a nearby tree. Though they were doing ok against The Exchange, another explosive or two like that, and they might not be. He breathed in deeply and then got to work.

Their numbers being about a third less now, but they still continued to fire on the Jedi. Yet most of them were taking cover wherever they could since they figured out their own weapons were being reflected back on them. In their tunnel vision, they were so fixated on their original enemy that they didn’t even see him coming. Jion simply walked out from behind the tree and began picking them off. Four went down in easy succession before those next to them bothered to look at who was killing their comrades. Jion managed to cull two more before he was forced to take cover behind another tree. But as he did so the Jedi saw the opening he created and charged the ones now firing at him.

They were made short work of, and just as Kaida came around the tree to look for him, the surviving exchange thugs boarded their shuttles and took off. Jion holstered his blaster, and then looked at her. Saying snidely, “You were right; you can take care of yourself.” The other Jedi, a tall human male in armor, with short brown hair, and light skin ran to his fallen companion in the middle of the battlefield. “Are you ok?” Jion asked Kaida.

“I’m unharmed. And you?”

“Never better,” he replied. “But your friend apparently isn’t,” he said while nodding his head towards the fallen Jedi.

“No,” she said gravely as she also rushed over to see if she could help.

“He’s dead,” said the male Jedi as he stood up to face Kaida, and Jion detected a hint of accusatory blame in his voice.

“I’m terribly sorry Tyrell.”

“He had just become my padawan,” he sighed. “Kaida, if you have the holocron, then now is the time to give it to me so that at least the Order can take something constructive out of this senseless violence.”

Jion rolled his eyes, if this was what all Jedi were like, he was thankful Kaida acted more . . . human he supposed, and not so detached and overbearing. He came over to look at the dead Jedi. It was a young green Twi’lek male, and Jion could see as he lay there that his backside was scorched through to his front. He sensed the Jedi scrutinizing him. Turning to look away from the padawan, Jion didn’t want to interfere with things not his business, so he planned to keep himself occupied by looking for survivors among The Exchange.

“You consort with known allies of the Sith Empire now Kaida? Have you fallen that much?”

Jion stopped, turned around and watched the two of them now, concerned that this may not end up as peacefully as he thought. She looked at Jion, and her features seemed highly uncomfortable as she thought of something to say in return.

Turning to face Tyrell, she said, “Jion has nothing to do with the holocron, or my situation with the council. But he is the reason I have the holocron at all right now.”

He eyed Jion suspiciously before turning back to Kaida, “Kaida, will you at least accompany me back to Tython?” She didn’t respond and just looked at the grass next to Tyrell. “This holocron is of great importance to the Jedi Order. It has information only for the wisest of masters, and is not even suitable for one such as myself.”

She looked at Jion, and then back to Tyrell. “I . . . Gethren. Jedi master Gethren had it last. I have to . . . I mean I should have activated it and learned all I could from it when I had the chance. Now that it’s time to give it up, I find I can’t. It’s my only link to Gethren. And I need to study it to redeem him from the Sith.”

“Kaida, you are not much younger than I. But you should know that the holocron is coming with me whether you agree to it or not. All I know is that it details things we cannot in our inexperience understand, and is simply just too dangerous for us.”

“No. I will not give it to you. I’m sorry. I made a terrible mistake coming here,” she turned to Jion. “Let’s go.”

“No? I lost a padawan over your terrible mistake, and it would be an equally terrible mistake if I left here without the holocron.”

“You heard her, we are leaving,” said Jion. He didn’t twitch a muscle but was ready to grab his blaster from his holster in a moment’s notice.

“Kaida? This is your final warning,” he said resolutely.

Before even Jion could react, Kaida had her lightsaber out and ignited as she spun around to face Tyrell. “I’ve given you your answer,” she said irritably.

Not sure what to do now since Kaida acted first, Jion watched and waited.

Tyrell produced and ignited his own lightsaber. Holding it close to his head, the blue glow lit his face and exaggerated his solemn look. “Kaida Merek you are turning to the dark side. I can feel the emotions within you; namely attachment and a desire for things forbidden such as passion.”

She struck at him, only to have her attack deflected by his lightsaber. And their duel began with her green saber against his blue. Jion was not comfortable in the way he saw Kaida acting. He knew the dark side, and had never let it consume him as it did Cae’tel. He feared that Tyrell was correct, she was slipping.

Back and forth they battled each other with neither gaining the upper hand. “Kaida, you have no way of winning this. Even if you happen to defeat me, you would fall to the dark side completely.”

“That is a matter of perspective. I’m tired of the council turning away from Jedi who go over to the Sith. Gethren needs me. And if you or any other member of the order won’t do something about it, then I will!”

She slashed at Tyrell several times only to have each one parried, before coming to their next pause, “Does your intention include turning to the Sith as well?” he asked.

“One does not have to go over to their side just by disobeying you or the council. They say the Sith deal in absolutes, but I see the order as being no better.”

“The council is wise in its decisions Kaida; they only seek harmony and peace for the people of this galaxy.” He shut his eyes for a second, “I feel anger within you.”

She continued to try to find an opening past Tyrell’s lightsaber with attack after attack but it was to no avail. Jion also feared he was correct in his insinuation that he was the better fighter. Though he couldn’t let her lose, because if that happened then the holocron would most likely be out of his reach for good. He’d already let her take it this far, even going so far as allowing her to give it away. With her alive he still had a chance to recover it.

Then suddenly she gave up. Kaida turned off her lightsaber and backed away a step. “You are right, I am angry. But I know I cannot lose the holocron, and you’re just going to have to deal with that because we are leaving now.”

“This is no better than attacking me Kaida. The holocron is not leaving with you,” he said right before he charged at her with his saber high in the air ready to cut her in two. Thankfully Kaida was ready for his assault and ignited her lightsaber just in time to hold him off, for now at least.

Jion heaved a sigh. He contemplated shooting at Tyrell but knew most likely they would all be reflected from such a capable opponent. If it reflected and hit him or Kaida, it would all be over. He thought of taking the padawan’s lightsaber, but he had doubts he could even measure up to Kaida’s skill with it, though with two of them against one, it would certainly increase the odds. But in the end he felt it was too dangerous. Instead, he concocted a simple plan that required neither weapon.

Another break in the fight and both combatants used it to catch their breath. The Chiss readied himself. And when Tyrell began going on the offensive again, Jion closed his eyes, and recalled his force training. He fully sensed them moving a few meters in front of him even without needing to see them. Kaida was just barely holding her own, and without a doubt would falter at any time. Tyrell managed to knock her lightsaber aside, and went in for the kill. At that moment, Jion summoned all his power with the force and pushed Tyrell attempting to throw him to the ground. Instead, all his did was to distract the Jedi, who turned his head to face him with a look of surprise.

This was all Kaida needed to regain her balance, and she cut off the arm holding his weapon. In the next second her blade was protruding through his back. Tyrell looked down in disbelief at her lightsaber, and then collapsed to the grass at his feet.

Jion opened his eyes, and looked at Kaida, wondering how she was going to take this. She turned off her lightsaber and stood there staring at Tyrell. If she had fallen far enough now . . . he worried for her. Instead she did the last thing he would have expected. Turning around, she walked over to the nearest tree, sat down in the grass in front of it, and covered her face with her hands. Then Kaida began sobbing.

There was nothing he could say. Jion gave her a moment, and then walked over to her. He put his right hand on her left shoulder and then sat down right next to Kaida.

“I can’t believe I killed him,” she said after a minute. “Look at me, I’m a wreck. This isn’t how Jedi are supposed to act at all.”

He felt the need to comfort her, to distract her from what she was going through. “Kaida, I have something to tell you,” he said amid her trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. “I was once in love with a Sith woman.” She looked at him without saying anything, expecting him to continue. “Yes. She and I were quite the pair in my late teenage years.”

She stared at him and appeared to be trying to read his intentions, “That would explain a few things about you. You know the force, I saw you use it against Tyrell.”

He smiled at her, “Yes, but don’t tell anyone, especially Tarko.”

She watched the grass at her feet for a couple of minutes while her eyes remained reddened and puffy, and Jion was content to let her. “We can’t stay here. I’m surprised the city police haven’t been dispatched yet.”

“I’ll bet the exchange bribed them to look the other way if a firefight broke out in the park. Though you’re right, they should be coming soon.”

She stood up slowly, “Then let’s get out of here.”

“Anywhere in particular?” he said as he rose to his feet.

“I don’t care, but I would prefer it be off world.”

“Do you know of a smaller spaceport out of this city?”

“Small? No. But it will do. Follow me.”

Before answering the holovid, Neren composed herself as best she could. “Tarko it’s so nice to see you again! Are you here on Nar Shaddaa?” She cringed; she was never this friendly with him.

“Yes, we just came out of hyperspace and will be landing soon,” he said before studying her.

“Ok, I have your new ID. And will see you here shortly.”

There was a pause, “Neren.” Another pause, “Well see you in a few minutes.”

She turned off the holovid. Then looked at the doorway where Warken stood. And without saying anything he walked over and looked at the computer. After he found the Quicksilver’s ID he relayed it to his forces. “Lieutenant, have the strike teams ready to go as soon as it lands. I want that ship. Kill everyone inside. I’ll be there as fast as I can.” She noticed that his previous somewhat amenable deep voice had now changed to one that was all business.

“Copy sir.”

When he turned to look at Neren she was facing away from him, “Now is your chance to earn everything you asked for.” She just nodded and went to the doorway. “And we’ll be taking the old man with us. Just to be sure.”

She flipped around to face Warken, “What? That wasn’t part of it.”

“I need to ensure your loyalty. Words are just words until the deed is done. So we are taking the old man and that’s all there is to it. And you will also leave your blaster behind,” he pointed his pistol at her. Yes, the scary Warken she remembered from her past had returned. This was the one who had terrified her; all business and no morals.

She closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them again, she couldn’t face him, “Alright,” she pulled her blaster from her holster and left it on a desk. “I’ll watch over Uncle Uin.” She could hardly believe that it had gotten this bad. She was a fool alright, and even she knew it. Would Warken hold to his word? She should have known that it would turn out this way. At least with Tarko she didn’t have to worry about getting shafted. That and she should have known better that in The Exchange this sort of thing was the norm. When it came down to it, she was in this mess all because of a sudden sense of greed over family.

“As long as both of you are with us that’s all that matters. Now let’s go, the shuttle will be arriving outside in a minute.”

Twenty minutes later the three of them, along with a whole squad of hired muscle arrived to hover over the spaceport where the Quicksilver docked. Neren was on edge; the closer she got to actually bringing this all down on Tarko the more she realized what a mistake she made. Of course, one part of her said that it wouldn’t be all that bad if she was assured of the money, but growing up on the streets had taught her not only greed, but survival instincts. Thinking it over since leaving Uncle Uin’s place, she realized that there was no deal and probably never really was, but rather she had allowed herself to become a willing hostage. Worse, Warken would most likely shoot her when this was all over.

She used to call Warken her man about five years back. He had a little more class and style than your typical Exchange thug, and she saw him rise through the ranks just in her short time with him. When he was younger, he was a trooper in the war against the Sith, but when the war was called to a truce, he drifted. From the tidbits he told her, what he went through was too much to handle and he couldn’t settle down afterwards. He needed constant excitement, he needed the thrill of the kill, and at the same time he tried to do everything to blank out the memory of friends lost, and the atrocities he saw firsthand.

Neren met him when the Exchange touched her life, which at the time was using one street gang to wage war on another, so they could get in on a more lucrative spice deal. And she just happened to live in the heart of that area. Being connected with the gang fighting for survival against outside encroachment, she learned a whole new aspect of staying alive on Nar Shaddaa. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, she turned her back on her friends, and joined the rival gang. In doing so, she told of all their old secrets, which was instrumental in finishing them. When Warken met her shortly after the Exchange won, they immediately hit it off. Soon after, she became a low level Exchange lackey that represented the crime syndicate. Her job was to deal with the gangs in person.

However, he had gotten worse just in the months they were together; though he wasn’t exactly rough with her, he had done some pretty nasty things that she disproved of. The worst was when he executed a man right next to her, then laughed as his brains splattered on her face. Shortly after that, she left him.

It was fortunate for her that she was able to stay out of his way on Nar Shaddaa for the next year, and during this time, she hoped that he thought she was dead. Uncle Uin helped a lot during this time, like he used to when she was younger. Getting off world and into smuggling for a few years kept her busy until she met Tarko, it was then that things seemed more secure in her life, sort of like it was with her Uncle. And now she was going to be a part of killing him, and most likely get Uncle Uin and herself killed as well.

When they were about to land at the port, Warken received information on his comm. “Damn. The attack on your blue friend on Corellia failed. It looks like it’s up to us now.” He called in to his forces already in position to order them to start. When the door to their shuttle opened, just as she prompted Uncle Uin to step down, she heard the shooting begin. Looking in the direction of the noise she saw Tarko, and Yortor scrambling back up the ramp to the Quicksilver. Their boxy transport had enough carbon scoring, and blast marks on the outside from all its adventures, that she doubted that a few dozen blasters could do much worse to it.

Then without letting up, a large group of Exchange thugs boarded the ship. She found it curious that the ramp hadn’t been brought up yet. The Quicksilver only had one top set of rotating cannons, but it had quite the forward firepower with four lasers, and two missile launchers. None of which would help in this fight unless they lifted off. She remembered Tarko telling her the best defense if the ship wasn’t in the air was to let them come in where they would be easy to pick off in a crossfire. However, with all those Exchange punks already aboard, she hoped he was right

As they walked towards the Quicksilver, Neren numbly stared at what had been her home for the past two years, and the closer they got, the louder the blaster fire. When they came to stand at the bottom of the ramp, Warken ordered all his goons with them on up. Then, into his comlink he called in for more backup.

The weapons fire inside was intense, and Neren could clearly pick out Yortor’s heavy repeater. That and the screams from those getting killed were horrendous. Warken pulled out his pistol and motioned for her to go up too. Uncle Uin wasn’t his concern at this point, and the old man was left to be on his own. Neren knew, this might be her last chance now. The tall Exchange leader pushed her when she hesitated. It would be suicide to walk into Yortor’s repeater fire. But Warken had his blaster aimed at her head, so she reluctantly went up.

When she was near the top of the ramp, she saw three Exchange thugs that had huddled to either side of the ships blast door and remained out of danger. The rest of them had been taken out, or were still moving but in no condition to fight. Behind her she heard Warken’s footsteps following her up, and she turned to see him wave his gun at the three to order them in. One shook his head, and then a few seconds later, started to run back down the ramp. Warken shot him, and the human male fell to land at Neren’s feet. Then the other two, a Rodian, and an Aqualish, reluctantly went in with blasters firing.

There was more heavy repeater fire from inside, and then silence. Warken put his blaster to her back and said, “Your turn.”

She heard a strange raspy noise coming from inside as she took the final steps to the top, and stood with her back next wall, centimeters from the doorway. Calling from around the corner, “Tarko? Yortor? It’s me, Neren.”

The heavy repeater went off pelting the wall she was behind as well as the one through the open blast door. And she’d seen that they had already sustained considerable damage from the fight as it was. Tarko yelled, “Yortor, Yortor, Yortor! Enough with the blasting the walls over and over! I think you just like shooting that stupid thing. Didn’t you hear Neren is here?”

She could hear Yortor respond in Trandoshan, “They come, and I shoot.”

“You should know who you are shooting at before you pull the trigger then. Do you know how much damage you’ve already done? I’ll have to practically replace all the panels in the mid-section of the ship, and that’s not counting whatever you damaged behind them. Not to mention that you keep firing even when they are already down, and I look and you’re not even aiming at them anymore. What have you against my walls huh?”

“He’s injured Tarko,” said Kossj.

Kossj was probably right, now Neren knew what that a raspy noise was from inside. It was a Trandoshan like sound, and Yortor must have been struggling to breath. She peered around the wall, “Don’t shoot I’m coming out.” She saw Yortor take a step into the open.

“We won’t fire Neren,” said Kossj.

“But there has to be some explaining on your part, so keep your hands up high,” said Tarko.

“Alright.”

Just as she took her first step out, Warken mumbled, “If you want to get something done . . .” and shoved her to the floor to land on several dead bodies, as he stepped into her place in the open. He quickly took aim at Yortor and fired two shots, and then hid behind the wall on the other side. Neren looked up and saw Yortor collapse on the floor plating making a loud thwump.

“Damn you to the hells, Exchange slug!” screamed Tarko.

The idea of lying on corpses not appealing to her, Neren got up on her hands, to then she see the blaster pistol in a dead Twi’leks fingers right in front of her. Doing her best to conceal her next actions from Warken, she slowly reached out, and then plucked it.

Behind her, she could hear Warken speaking into his comlink on his left wrist again. “Where are you? Get here right now!” He looked over at her, “Neren get up.” Then calling out to the crew of the Quicksilver, “Neren is my hostage. Do anything and she’ll join your dead crewmate.”

Tarko called back, “Fine, what do you want?” She could just barely see the tip of his blaster from behind the base of the ships holovid.

Neren stood and Warken grabbed a hold of her from behind. Holding his blaster to her neck, he was so tall he towered over her, and she wasn’t considered short. Down the ramp she could see Uncle Uin, standing there looking helpless. When their eyes met, he started climbing the ramp.

Warken saw her line of sight, and said, “Play along or your Uncle is dead.”

She held the blaster in her left hand tightly. Warken hadn’t noticed it.

Warken shouted so Tarko could hear, “You and anyone else still alive will drop your weapons, and march down that ramp. My people will take care of you from there.”

There was a long pause and Neren could practically feel Tarko working it over in his head. Then Tarko screamed in anger, “You osik loving haar’chak! We’ll come peacefully,” he turned to Kossj who was behind a couch. “Come talky man. It seems we’ve lost this fight.”

Now Neren knew it was her last chance, and she tried to break free of his grasp in order to shoot him, but Warken was too strong and held her tightly. Now spotting the blaster in her hand, he turned his own on Uin who was now halfway up the ramp and shot. “No!” she screamed. Turning to look at Tarko and Kossj, “He’s alone, there’s no one left to help him!”

But by then both her crewmates were weaponless and standing in the open. “One more word and I shoot these two,” said Warken as he aimed at Tarko. “I need you alive Neren. I need you to get this ship running, and I need you to contact your Chiss friend.”

“Neren, don’t help him. He’s nothing but a shab,” said Tarko.

“That’s quite enough out of you. Your funny curse words don’t mean anything to me, and I’m growing tired of listening to them. Ok, hands up, and get down this ramp, try anything and I’ll . . .”

Just then a blaster went off, and Warken was hit in the side. While he flinched in pain, Tarko and Kossj looked to each other wondering who had shot him. Neren got her cue, and elbowed him in the gut. Warken stumbled back to the wall, and she turned around and shot him several times in the chest. He slowly slumped to the floor as his brown eyes settled on her. They were empty and lifeless a moment later.

She turned around and ran down the ramp to Uin, dropping her blaster next to him and trying to hold him up. “Uncle Uin. I’m so sorry I got you involved in this!”

He was barely clinging to life as he attempted to look at her. A small holdout blaster was in his hands and he dropped it, “It’s ok my dear. I’m an old man. I’ve seen and done worse in my time,” he chuckled weakly.

“I had no idea you had a gun on you. When did you pick it up?”

He smiled, “It comes from looking old and feeble, and feeling like it too. No one suspects that I’m armed. You or your Exchange friend didn’t bother checking me remember?”

“Oh Uncle,” she held him tight. “Thanks for that,” she kissed his bald head.

Tarko and Kossj, now with their weapons back in hand stood at the top of the ramp. “I’m sure Neren did everything she could to keep these Exchange hut’unns from doing this. Right Uin?”

Uin looked into Neren’s eyes and said, “Right. From the very beginning she fought tooth and nail, and never gave in,” he wheezed.

She hugged him, “I’m so sorry Uncle. I really am.” She held him in her arms for a full minute before she realized he wasn’t breathing anymore. Eventually she looked up at Tarko with tears in her eyes.

“He was a good man. I’m going to miss him,” said Tarko.

“Me too. I’m sorry Neren,” said Kossj.

“And I’m sorry, but we need to get out of here before more schutta come,” said Tarko.

Neren nodded, “Ok help me bring his body up the ramp. We can . . . we can stop by one of our haunts and have his body cremated. He always said he wanted his ashes to float among the stars, and not be left on this world.”

They put both Uin and Yortor on the med center floor and covered them with a white sheet each. Then a few minutes later when they lifted off and headed away from the moon, Tarko turned to Neren and said, “Blue left a message for me, and just before we came out of hyperspace I got it. He is alive, and so is Kaida, but he said it was close.” There was a long pause before he continued, “I will forget the whole thing happened Neren. Speak not a word of it, just don’t do it again.”

She was about to defend herself, but she knew he was right. She didn’t have to bring Warken to Uncle Uin’s home. She didn’t have to contact Tarko over the holovid and give his location away. They weren’t playing games with The Exchange. This was her family, and she basically gave up on them. And all this Tarko gathered without knowing that she actually did turn on him for money. Or he might even have guessed that too. She’d been a fool, and Uncle Uin, and Yortor paid the price. It came down to sacrifice, one she should have attempted, rather than helping the enemy. If she feigned to help Warken, she might have had a chance to take him down at a later time. If not, then her life for the survival of her crew and family would have been worth it. After a minute she responded with, “Ok.”

Tarko punched the intercom, “Kossj, we need to get these stinking di’kuts off the Quicksilver. So if you don’t mind, I’d like you to forget about the repairs. Neren and you can get to work with putting them in the storage bay, so we can jettison them before they begin to make the whole ship smell like osik.” Neren nodded, got up from the copilot seat and went to the back.

“Boss you sure know your swears today,” was Kossj’s reply.

“Never you mind! It comes from travelling a lot and hanging around with talkative people like you. Now get to work please. The thought of thirty dead schutta lying a few meters from my bed and my food doesn’t sit right.”

* * * * *

While the Imperial shuttle came into the bay to land, Ra’teren couldn’t help but feel embarrassed at the mess that her cleanup crew was still sorting through. That, and the blast marks all over the walls didn’t help. The Chiss and his friends had cost her dearly, and she planned on repaying them in kind.

Next to her was her new captain of security. The one the Chiss had foiled she had tortured and thrown out an airlock. Those who attempted to stop him by the hanger bay were lucky they all died from the attack by his ship. Or she would have personally made them suffer until they couldn’t take it anymore and begged for the airlock too.

The shuttle was unmarked, and its ID declared it was part of some common shipping company. Neither the Imperials, nor Ra’teren Burke wanted anyone to know of their partnership. Though previously only those above her in the Exchange, and the people she worked with knew who she was, she had to make an exception for the one Sith she had been dealing with. She knew they were the most powerful force in the galaxy, and she also knew they were not the kind of people to play games. Which she figured was because the Sith had no sense of humor, or taste in adventure.

As the ramp lowered, the ship powered down, and out came a dozen Imperial soldiers marching ahead of their master to take position. Each one had a rifle in both hands, and came complete with the full grey body armor along with their drone like helmets. And then after a full minute three black hooded figures descended as well. Three? But she was only expecting one! Feeling highly uncomfortable, she did her best to act as if everything was normal.

The three Sith marched directly for her, and the soldiers marched along side flanking them. While she watched, Ra’teren swore she could almost feel the aggression, the brutal military machine mindset instilled into these people. They were a scary bunch. She’d dealt with her fair share of intimidating people in her time, the Hutts being some of the worst, though nothing compared to the Sith. Nevertheless they were predicable. They were completely obsessed with personal power and domination over others. Weakness, no matter how insignificant would be taken advantage of. It was a way of life she knew well; with the only difference between them being that they had the force on their side.

When they were close enough, she recognized the one she had dealt with a few months before. It was Cae’tel Yiss, another Chiss who had started the whole business with the holocron to begin with. As for whom the other two she brought with her were, she didn’t have a clue. Ra’teren wore a look of distaste, “I invited only the female Chiss. Why are there three of you?” She had to act strong, but clever enough not to be insulting.

The Chiss female turned to look to the male next to her, “Intriguing isn’t she? If she had the gift of the force she would have made an excellent Sith.” Cae’tel Yiss, Ra’teren had liked from the moment they first met. She was beautiful, and strong, and her black robe that was open to the front, revealed clothing underneath that showed a lot of flesh. She was almost a younger Chiss version of herself. She would go into a wild like pose at times, and though for most people would seem ridiculous, she managed to pull it off and still remain highly seductive. Her voice was attractively feminine, with a slight inflection of sarcasm. And she wished she had a chance to play with her in more intimate surroundings, if just to see if she could bring out more of that animal side of her, and if not then just for pure pleasure and the fun of trying to dominate.

The male glared at Cae’tel, “But she doesn’t, so she isn’t worth the effort imagining it.” Though it wasn’t that easy to see his face under his hood, along with his voice, and white hair, she could tell he was an older human male well past maturity. The third one wore a glossy black, human looking mask under his hood, and seemed content to stand at a slight distance. If he was an apprentice, or a master, she couldn’t tell.

Cae’tel turned around to look at her surroundings, “Did he do this?”

“Your Chiss friend? Yes he and his band destroyed just about everything we had in our forward storage bay.” Ra’teren felt a touch of anger after admitting it.

Turning quickly to look at her with yellow eyes that threatened to tear her apart, she said, “Apprentice and lover, human. He’s much more than just a friend,” Cae’tel twisted her head and body partway towards the masked Sith who was almost behind her. “This is what you will be going up against Darth Vor. My apprentice is most devious, and methodical, and there is no task I have given him that he couldn’t accomplish.”

“He will not stand up to me. He doesn’t even have a lightsaber,” said Darth Vor in a deep male voice.

“That is because he refused to learn his lesson,” Cae’tel turned to Ra’teren, “He retrieved the holocron, good. He is still passing my tests. Oh Jion, you have been elusive haven’t you.”

Ra’teren was unimpressed, “This is all fine and good, but the only thing I am concerned with right now is compensation for taking part in your game of catch the Sith. The money I have received so far, five hundred thousand credits? Doesn’t cover the costs I have suffered of loss of personnel, destroyed equipment and supplies, as well as the damage the male Chiss did to the facility. That holocron was to be mine to sell for a lot of money, but it appears to be out of my reach now.” She reached up to hold her forehead. She had a slight headache accompanied by a spat of dizziness.

“You will be compensated shortly,” said the older human.

Something that had bothered her from the beginning was her ignorance of what made the holocron so important to begin with, “What is on it anyway?”

“Weakness. Weakness for both the Jedi and the Sith. It is best kept in the hands of feeble minded Jedi, such as Kaida Merek who will be tempted, and hopefully lure others with her to the darkside,” said the older male.

“So you are using it as a weapon then,” she felt worse now. Something was happening to her body to make her feel weak and dizzy. A drop of blood ran from her nose, and she reached up to press her fingers to it in order to stem the flow.

Cae’tel inhaled deeply through her nose and turned to look around her again in a near feral like pose, “I can smell him. I can feel that he was here only a few days ago.” She turned back to Ra’teren Burke but lost none of her animal like act. “Tell me, where is he? I have sought him for months and will not be denied!”

It had become increasingly apparent that something really was going on to make her feel this way, even though she didn’t know the cause of it. Ra’teren swallowed uncomfortably; she began to feel weaker by the second. “Here is the information I said I had,” she passed it to the old male, and did her best to ignore the Chiss. “Now will there be anything else? Any further requests that cannot be done over the holovid?” It was about time for them to leave, since she could hardly stand. She swayed to the side and her captain grabbed her just in time to prevent her collapse to the floor.

“Mistress, what is wrong?” said the captain.

“Does it have his last coordinates?” asked Cae’tel to the older Sith male, obviously uncaring about Ra’teren.

He smiled, “It does, that and his whole team. Including . . . Kaida. They were last seen at Corellia.”

“Then we don’t need to bother with The Exchange anymore,” she said before holding out her hand and using the force to lift the guard captain into the air. He grasped at his throat as she began to choke the life out of him. The low level Exchange staff that was cleaning the debris stopped and watched. With all the Imperial soldiers there, they were helpless to intervene.

Ra’teren who had felt some reprieve from the life drain looked up to see her guard captain choke to death. His body crumpled to the ground next to her. “We had a deal. I helped you,” she said as strongly as she could to Cae’tel, but it still came out much weaker than she wanted.

Cae’tel locked eyes with Ra’teren and she immediately felt worse than ever, “You simple, simple fool. This is how we do business. If you believe in a next life, then pray you will remember that.”

“We have no more use for you,” said the older Sith male as he watched her lose all her strength and was at the edge of passing out of consciousness on the floor. “No one must know of the holocron. It’s not worth it even to the Sith.”

Weakness, no matter how insignificant would be taken advantage of, and the only difference between them being the force indeed. The force was a lot more significant than she had previously given credit.

Then as the Sith turned around to board their shuttle, the last thing Ra’teren heard before dying was the Chiss saying, “After we come out of hyperspace at Corellia, contact the fleet, this station is to be obliterated.”

When finding out what Kaida had in mind to get away from their pursuers Jion laughed at her, and then tried to dissuade her from it. Though he agreed after a lengthy discussion that nearly turned into an argument, but Kaida understood that in the end he just wanted to get off world and would consent to anything. Since Tarko had let them know that they would be late with returning, and she knew that any transport ship that left the planet would easily be tracked to its destination, who would think to check a cruise ship?

The tickets for a ten day luxury cruise were quite expensive to book months in advance, but to catch one of the few cabins left that was to leave that same day? Thankfully Jion offered to cover the entire thing, because Kaida was down to her last few thousand credits given to her by the Jedi Order.

The cruise ship was smaller, held fewer passengers and was more luxurious, compared to some of the larger ones that operated. Jion had insisted on checking out every floor of the place to get an understanding of the layout before he would settle down; though Kaida suspected that he was just trying to avoid her. The point of hiding out on a cruise ship was to keep away from poking your head out in public as much as possible. And a Chiss in republic space drew attention.

She was sitting on the floor in their cabin meditating when Jion showed up about four hours later. He was quiet and respectful of her space, and just sat in one of the chairs nearby. Kaida opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him, “You were gone a while, were you having fun with the girls at the bar or were you actually out there scoping the place out?”

“I think we’ll be ok so long as we lay low. Trips out of the cabin should be kept to a minimum.”

“Alright. I just hope that Tarko will meet us back on Corellia when we return, and without incident. He seemed preoccupied when we talked to him before leaving.”

“He’ll be there. Early or late, he’ll be there. If Tarko is anything, unreliable isn’t one of them.”

“You and he have become good friends since you joined his team,” she stood to go sit down on the bed next to his chair. She could tell he wasn’t very relaxed, and she wanted to put him at ease. If she could just coax that charming part out of him that he’d shown her on Corellia . . .

“It would seem so,” he said quietly. His red eyes that she found so out of place at first, and which she now found intriguing watched her cautiously.

“Not in a talkative mood are we? If it’s about sharing this cabin, well we can see about getting you to sleep in another room if you want?”

“This trip is . . . together like this. I’m not sure if it is the smart thing to do. Besides, I need to watch your back. I can’t do that from another room can I?”

Kaida smiled. She realized she’d made him feel highly uncomfortable staying here with her. Jedi work together closely for years and this between two experienced members wouldn’t be given a second thought. Besides, Tarko had said he couldn’t be at Corellia right away. And with that in mind, it only made sense to do this considering how many were after them; the Jedi, the Exchange, and most likely the Sith will enter this sooner or later if they haven’t already.

If they covered their tracks well enough, then no one would think they simply took a cruise for a while, and instead think they went off world to some other destination. To Kaida, it made perfect sense. Though, she wasn’t a hundred percent sure with herself if that’s all she wanted out of it. Being around him had made her feel better about herself, that and she found herself liking him in spite of everything. Especially since he seemed to not only accept her for all her faults, but understood her. “Well, I suppose with the proper surveillance equipment you could,” she grinned.

“All I need are my five senses.”

“But you have more than that with the force.”

“My force abilities are limited. They aren’t . . . well it’s complicated.”

“So it would seem. You are in love with a Sith,” she twisted his words so he would clarify the subject.

He smirked, “Not in love. That part of me is dead. It’s the memory of her that I was in love with that remains with me. Her current state is . . . I’m not sure if I should talk about it.”

“We have ten days to do nothing but talk Jion, and you aren’t the person I thought you were. Or at least what my prejudices had assumed. So, I would like to be your friend.”

“Ten days,” he shook his head slightly. “I can’t believe we are doing this.”

“It’s not like it’s an open invitation to become my lover. It’s just to get away. If it makes you more comfortable you can sleep on the floor.”

“Well we did claim to be on our honeymoon.”

“Funny,” she said as she undid her ponytail and reached over for her brush at the end table. The holocron was sitting there as well, and when she began brushing out her hair she noticed that he was watching her. Being concerned he was picking up on things that she didn’t want him to know, she turned away from him; but in the end she thought she made it more obvious in trying to hide it. Kaida was entering a new frontier that her training told her to avoid at all costs. Though it was being overridden with these new emotions she was experiencing. And with the way things were going, and how she felt about her blue friend, she almost didn’t care anymore about Jedi rules.

He finally responded with, “You are a very interesting Jedi.”

“And you’re an interesting Chiss,” she turned to smile at him before getting back to brushing.

When she was finished with her hair, and after a long moment of silence he spoke again, “Alright, you seem to know a fair bit about me. How about I ask a series of questions, and then it’s your turn to ask me whatever you like.”

Facing him again now, she shook her head while giving him one of her biggest smiles, “Oh no, you seem to know a lot about me even without asking questions. I hardly know anything about you Jion. And I would like to get to know you better. All I really know is that you are trying to avoid going home, you used to love a Sith, and you are acquainted with the force. There’s a lot in the middle that begs to be asked.”

“Ok, you have me there,” he smiled at her, and this made her feel drawn to him even more. “Ask away, but if I don’t want to answer then don’t try to force the issue. As Tarko would say, it’s not polite.”

“Alright. Let’s start with who she is.”

Jion looked uncomfortable while he silently watched his right hand that was rested on the arm of the chair.

“Are we going to start with a no to my first question?”

“No, I’ll answer the question. I haven’t talked about it with anyone before, so it’s just not that easy for me to discuss.”

She nodded, eager for him to get right to it, “Take your time then.”

“Her name is Cae’tel Yiss; a very powerful, very dangerous woman. Not the kind to bring home to meet your parents I can assure you. She taught me the ways of the force, and she took me out of Chiss society. I am essentially her apprentice, and without her I have no link back to my people. She knows this, and uses it against me.”

“But why are you separated from her? Why aren’t you at her side doing her bidding, or plotting to kill her and take her place like all Sith?”

“Well it comes down to a couple of things.”

“Such as?” she hadn’t realized that she was somewhat leaning forward towards him. Though the distance between them was still over a meter, she corrected herself by leaning back a little with her right hand on the bed for support.

“Such as that she has an ability that is cruel and sadistic. But she revels in it, and I seemed to have developed an immunity to her power.”

“What is she capable of doing?”

“She has the limited ability to drain the life from someone near her. It normally takes a while, but if she particularly focuses on it she can speed it up. I cannot tell you how or why I have developed the ability to block her out. Otherwise I would have died long ago. I do know no one else seems to be able to fight it off like I can, force user or no.”

“That brings to mind Darth Nihilus.”

“I thought you might say that. I did some research on him and thought she might get progressively worse like he had. But no, she hasn’t at least not in the years I spent with her. It’s localized, one person at a time, and she hasn’t progressively gotten more powerful. Though once she starts doing it she is full of excess energy, and that is when she starts . . . starts acting a little odd.”

Mulling over what he said for a long moment she then asked, “But why aren’t you with her if you are immune to it?”

“Because my ability to use the force was getting weaker around her, and it got to the point that both of use believed that eventually I wouldn’t have the ability at all. At the least, even without the force, I have my years of training that I went though in my youth when joining the Household Phalanx.”

She stared at Jion, almost pitying him. “I can’t imagine losing my ability to use the force like that. Especially with someone you once loved.”

“It’s not something I would like to repeat I can tell you that.”

“So now I’m curious. How does it feel to be around me?”

He stumbled while trying to say, “With my immunity?”

She gave him a big smile, “Yes.”

He shifted his eyes to the right before coming out with his answer, “Well. I can feel that you have the force, a little. But I don’t feel like you are a battery that’s recharging my ability if that is what you mean.”

“That’s too bad then. Perhaps in time away from her you’ll recover.”

“It’s been half a year, and so far I don’t feel any different. But enough of that, it’s my turn.”

“Oh wow, it seems like you are really eager to know something about me. So go ahead.”

“No more than you of me it would seem,” he smirked. “Now, who was your master you are after and why do you think he turned to the darkside?”

She stared at him, and her smiled faded. “Good question, and it cuts to the point doesn’t it.”

“That would be how I operate.”

“His name is Gethren Isenikaar, and he was a fantastic instructor during my padawan years. During the war he fought bravely and together we killed many Sith and their followers. As for why he turned to the darkside? I assume the answer lies in the holocron,” she looked at the hand sized cubed item that rested on the top of the end table on the other side of the bed.

“You don’t remember hearing him saying anything that would give you any understanding of why he joined the Sith?”

“No,” she couldn’t say it. Though she disliked lying and was never good at it.

“That is a lie.”

“And you say you are losing your connection to the force.”

“One doesn’t need to when it’s so obvious. What happened Kaida?”

“He left for a few years, and was on a mission to bring peace to Hicheng Nar. It’s a border world that was left in a civil war after the Treaty of Coruscant; the Sith had infiltrated it and tried to sway it over to their side. Gethren had brought with him his padawan, but when he returned to Tython he claimed his padawan had died while on his assignment.”

“Did you get a chance to talk with him after?”

“Yes,” she shifted uncomfortably. “Don’t ask please.”

“That bad huh.”

“He wanted me to take this holocron and study the teachings. I refused, and he left with it and joined the Sith.”

“Then it seems to me that he came back for you, otherwise why would he return to Tython?”

“Yes.”

“Then he asked you to join him?”

She nodded.

There was a knock at the door, and she instinctively reached for her lightsaber. “It’s ok, I called room service. But it’s smart to be cautious just the same,” he said as he walked to the door with his hand over his blaster in its holster.

“You did? From where? And without asking me what I wanted?”

“You can order anytime for yourself you know. We aren’t a couple right?”

“Of course.”

“Then there is nothing to worry about,” he opened the door and was greeted by one of the staff. She heard a, “Here you are sir,” the door closed, and then Jion carried several bottles over to a small bar in the center of the room against the wall, where glasses and other alcohol stood waiting next to a fridge.

“You’re going to drink?”

Plopping a couple ice cubes into a glass, and then mixing it with a red liquid and some alcohol, he turned to her and said, “I can see that it will be a long cruise.”

“Well good then. Maybe you need to loosen up.”

“That’s it; I’m making one for you too.”

“Wait . . . I don’t drink.”

“You drink water don’t you? This is just a bit more potent,” he grinned at her before turning to make hers. “Don’t worry; I won’t make it as strong as mine.” When he was done, he brought Kaida her glass, and then said, “Cheers, to a successful fake honeymoon.”

She raised her glass to tap his. “Yes. To that.” All things considered, she was already in it deep, so she guessed that one drink wouldn’t hurt. He sat back in his chair again and watched as she took a sip. “It tastes . . . it’s not bad actually.”

“I knew you’d like it,” he drank down a fair bit out of his glass.

“So are the questions done with?”

“No. One last one if you don’t mind.”

She smiled, “Alright one last one.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m as old as I need to be. Why? How old are you?”

“I’m twenty five.”

“That seems rather young to have joined a Household Phalanx, and then trained for years as a Sith apprentice.”

“Chiss age and mature much more rapidly than you humans. By the age of ten we are the equivalent of a human at twenty; which would make us in comparison to your kind, about ten years older than my actual age.”

She nodded, “Then I would be thirty two if you must know.” She took a long sip. Ten minutes later and they were both on their second glass. Kaida really felt the alcohol getting to her. She found herself laughing and smiling way more than usual, and she could tell that Jion was loosening up as well. However, if that was from the alcohol or from her acting as foolish as she was, she didn’t know.

After he made her burst out laughing again, she looked at him, and found herself saying what she didn’t want to say, “You know you are handsome for a Chiss?”

“I think the alcohol has gotten to you. Perhaps that should be your last. But thanks for the compliment, I think.”

“Well. It’s true. Just take it for what it is,” after saying it she felt a bit relieved, and she wondered in her alcohol influenced mind if he knew she very much liked him. Although it was difficult to tell if he felt the same way about her since he was so calm, and quiet about everything. Regardless, she knew she was blushing; her pale skin was bad for that.

He smirked, “Kaida?”

“Yes?” she was dying to hear him say something nice about her now. That she was pretty, that he liked her, wanted her. Anything!

He looked to the floor lost in thought. “I’ll be taking a sheet and a pillow to sleep on the floor tonight.”

She stood up, “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” she couldn’t believe it.

“I’m not going to take advantage of you and have your lightsaber at my throat in the morning. So yes, that is all I have to say.”

“Jion?”

“Yes Kaida?”

“I don’t accept that.”

He sighed, “You are an attractive human female. You have beautiful blue eyes, pretty reddish-brown hair, and the shape of your face . . . yes I think I know what Gethren said to you.”

“What? Wait a second. Look I’m not going to just take that. Stay out of my business with Gethren please.”

“Well then what do you want, Kaida?”

She glared at him, “What do you think? I want you, you idiot!”

He stood up saying calmly, “Then there is only one thing left to do.” Jion walked over to her and she almost threw herself against him. She closed her eyes and they kissed; gently at first, but then the moment took both of them and they fell sideways onto the bed kissing vigorously.

Kaida had never felt this emotional surge of passion before, and she was both overwhelmed and lost in it. The only real thought she had was that this is what she wanted.

* * * * *

Upon opening his eyes, Jion was greeted with Kaida’s auburn hair close to his face. His blue arm was wrapped around her midsection, and the sheets covered only the lower half of both their bodies. Her soft skin greeted his touch, carefully so as not to wake her, he gently brushed his fingers along her waist. Her white skin was all the more apparent when she was naked, and it sat in brutal contrast to his blue. He smelled her hair, and it was enthralling.

Breathing in contently, he hadn’t expected this to happen last night as it had. Admittedly he liked her, obviously more than he realized until they were all over each other. He wondered how it all began, because she had made it quite clear how much she disliked him when they first met.

He lifted his head to look at the local time on the clock, and saw that it was close to afternoon. They had stayed up quite late last night, ordering in food, and he’d fixed her another drink, as well as having a few more of his own. Eventually they both passed out. In the end he had more fun than he remembered having in years.

Being used to his own kind, he was familiar with them and could spot an attractive Chiss woman from a kilometer away, but with these humans it was different. Once he had gotten used to her, and talked to her at the café where she seemed friendlier, it was then that he noticed that she wasn’t bad looking. By the end, he sensed something between them. This made killing all those Exchange goons much easier. Since he wanted her to be safe, and he would have made sure she was by any means.

However, what had he gotten himself into now? They slept together. So how would she feel when she woke up? She was a Jedi after all, or a fallen one. It remained to be seen where this went from here, if anywhere at all. Yet more than likely she had never experienced these emotions before; whereas he had.

Jion thought about her qualities, how she looked, her pleasant deep yet feminine voice, and how she made him feel. She wasn’t Chiss, but she was just as perfect and as flawed as any of them. Taking it further, Kaida just wasn’t any woman; she was a force user, the type he liked. In his eyes, a woman that matched Cae’tel’s looks, a woman that would fight by his side, and finally a woman that wasn’t Sith. Also, she had a strong presence and character, one that he could appreciate and respect.

When it came to her looks, he found that he really liked her nose. It was what was described as a celestial shape. Long, not too narrow, but ended in just a tiny little lift. Her eyes were large, bright and cheery, with long lashes. Next, was her high cheeks and oval jaw, which he found amazingly attractive. Yes, he held a beautiful Jedi under his blue arm, but when it came down to it, she was one that he felt hardly worthy of. However, she did seem to like him, even before he made her those drinks.

With all these traits combined, he couldn’t delude himself; he could see himself falling in love with her. Conversely, his heart was guarded from his experience with Cae’tel. There were too many complications, too many people that wanted the holocron, and too many who wanted them dead; or at the least under the heel of his master. How could this ever work then?

Enjoy the moment; the future is too far away to be concerned with. Words he had taught himself to live by. This however, was different, and it bothered him to think like his old ways now. His emotions wanted to open up and allow it all, to accept her, yet his mind said it was just too fast. Yesterday they were just getting to know each other, and now thoughts entered his mind of loving her. Maybe he was a bigger fool than he thought.

He lay there awake while holding her for some time, patient that she would rouse soon. In his mind, he readied himself for how she would react. He went over all the probable possibilities of what she’d say. If she freaked out and became upset, he would step back and distance himself from her. If she acted like nothing happened, he might very well do the same, but not without at least an attempt at bringing it up. Though, if she embraced it, if she wanted him still, and didn’t regret a thing, then he would throw caution to the wind. He would accept her and open his heart a little, at least for now.

Eventually she woke, and he let her sit up. She looked at him with her pretty blue eyes; pretty blue eyes that appeared very groggy. “Oh, I feel terrible,” she paused while looking around the room. “I think that last drink was a little too strong,” she said before putting her hand to her head.

“You were enjoying it at the time.”

“I need to use the washroom,” Kaida got up and covered herself with one of the sheets, and shuffled off without even looking at him.

He watched the small of her back and admired her thin neck, as well as her form under the sheet. She was taller than your typical human woman, and athletically built. Yes, he certainly liked what he was looking at. However, this was not the start Jion wanted. For himself, he felt nothing, no grogginess or the smallest sense of a hangover, but he was used to drinking. He’d started doing so on a regular basis with Tarko since joining his crew. However, it could have affected her much differently. So Jion remained in bed, waiting for her to come out. He would face this and not ignore it.

With the sheet wrapped around her a little better, Kaida returned several minutes later to grab her robe, and the plain clothing she wore underneath. “We’ll need to get more to wear. I can’t keep putting this on the whole time here.”

“Then we will.”

“Ok, I’m going to get cleaned up, and we need to get something to eat.” She stopped to look at him, “Did you want to order in?”

Jion thought about it for a moment, “You know what, I think we should go out.”

“Really, and I thought you wanted to hide here the whole time?”

“I hide enough in life. Let’s go out, get something to eat, buy some clothes for both of us. Maybe go do something. I want to have fun. Are you up for it?”

Kaida looked a little uncertain, “I feel pretty rotten right now. Perhaps after a shower and something to eat I’ll feel better.”

As she began walking to the washroom again, he said, “Kaida?”

“Yes,” she replied while turning around.

“Are you all right?”

“Of course,” she walked off.

He sat up. Ok that was horrible. Considering what they just did, you would at least expect her to say something. That it was a mistake, or that she was happy. All things considered though, she was suffering through a hangover, so he would have to wait. It could be worse he supposed. She could have been throwing up.

An hour later, and they were eating out in public at one of the ship board restaurants. The prices were outlandish, as it was for the whole cruise to begin with. It was a good thing he had saved up a lot in his bank account, because for the average person, this trip would be ruinous.

They chatted a bit, but for the most part it was just small talk. It came to dawn on him with the way she was acting now, and how she carried herself, that she was being standoffish. He wondered perhaps if she just didn’t know how to deal with what happened. So he said to her, “Kaida do you regret last night?”

She finished her glass of juice before replying, “Why do you?”

“Not at all. Now answer the question please.”

She stared at the table with a solemn face, “I’m not sure. I don’t know what to think now. All I know is that I’m no Jedi anymore. I killed Jedi Master Tyrell, and then I got drunk and made love to a Chiss. What would the council say to that?”

“What do you say to that?”

“I don’t know. It’s confusing. I don’t know what to say to you Jion,” she said now looking away from him.

He nodded.

“It’s happening a little too fast I think.”

“What is?”

“How I feel. I suppose. You know what I mean?” She still avoided looking at him.

He put his hand out to touch hers, “Ok, I understand. I feel the same way.”

“Do you?” she looked him in the eyes, and he could nearly feel hers move to tears, but she held it back. “I’m out of the Jedi Order and worse, I’m a wanted fugitive. The Jedi want me, The Exchange want me. Where can we go? What can we do?”

He pulled his hand back, “All I can say is that I know what it’s like to not have a home anymore.”

“Well perhaps you do, but that doesn’t help me much right now does it?”

“Alright. You’re upset, and probably don’t feel very well. Let’s continue this discussion at a later time. For now, let’s eat and try to feel better.”

She sighed, “No, I’m not being fair to you am I? I still feel awful from drinking, and I just want my head to clear.”

“That’s why we should talk about it later,” he tried to smile for her but it came out flat.

It was quiet after that. They finished up and left to look for new clothes. Kaida insisted that Jion get his first, while she would judge his choices. After waiting for a bit, she even went about looking for clothes she thought would look nice on him. He chose five outfits that she approved, and it was then that Jion noticed Kaida’s attitude had brightened. He had thought of wearing something new each day, however, it would be impractical when leaving the ship, and waiting for Tarko with two suitcases of clothing each, while at the same time trying to keep an eye out for trouble. A trip to the laundry room would have to do for them then.

When it came time for her new clothes, she hesitated. Kaida reluctantly informed Jion, that all her life, she had been wearing Jedi robes and simple clothing underneath. She had little to no fashion sense for herself. Furthermore, she elaborated with the fact that she had dressed conservatively even compared to other Jedi, and now wanted to break that tradition with something more colorful and elegant. So, she made a few choices, and Jion with his better sense of style helped her decide what to get. They both agreed to buy one thing expensive and formal, so that they could wear it out to an event if the need arose. Because in the end, it was a ship meant to be fun and entertaining, in spite of everything they had gone through recently.

Jion still had no idea what the situation was between them however. Nor did he really want to bring it up. He knew space was the only thing he could give her. She did seem content to be around him however, though she wasn’t acting like anything more than a friend at the moment. Getting back to the cabin to change, it suddenly dawned on him that Kaida hadn’t even bothered with the holocron. “You are going to find out what the Jedi master has to say on that thing aren’t you?”

After looking at it the holocron for a couple of seconds she said, “I’m almost afraid of what I am going to find if I do. You are right though, I have been putting it off. Perhaps I shouldn’t anymore.” She looked at him, “Maybe there will be something on there that will help me.”

“Or maybe make your situation much worse.”

“I don’t think that would be possible, but either way I will need time alone for it.”

“Then I will give that to you. Give me just a moment and I’ll return in a few hours.” He changed into new clothing, and when he opened the washroom door to step out, he watched her for a moment before slightly adjusting his silver-grey satin dress shirt, and black pants one more time. The shirt fit just a little loose on his fit body, but otherwise looked decent. Jion then left the cabin quietly.

He ended up with an alcohol free fruit drink in hand, sipping it slowly while watching out one of the viewports from a comfortable chair. Jion wasn’t one to be openly sociable with people, though he spoke to the bartender for a short while, asking about ship events and such, yet for the most part he was content to be by himself. However, his thoughts became occupied with wondering what was so special about the holocron, and why it had such a hold on everyone. About two hours had passed, but he figured that he would give her more time. After all, there really wasn’t much point in returning if they had this thing between them.

Then just while he was thinking this, to his surprise Kaida showed up and sat in a chair next to him. “Hey stranger,” she said while giving him a large smile. His heart skipped a beat when he turned to look at her; this wasn’t the same woman he left in the cabin. She was dressed up in the expensive outfit she had gotten, and looked amazing. It was a colorful display of purple and light blue, which highlighted her auburn hair, and exemplified the pale whiteness of her skin. She wore a flowing long gown complete with an artificial red jewel, which hung around her neck that she had just had to get to go with it. Her straight hair was let down, and flowed down the back of her neck to reach just past her shoulders. He liked it that way; it was much more attractive than her usual ponytail.

“Kaida?” he said dumbstruck.

“Yes, Jion?” she smirked.

“I didn’t . . . what happened?”

“It’s all ok now. Everything is so much clearer than it used to be.”

“Yes, I’d say things have changed with you.”

“So would I. But did you want to stay sitting here all night? Or did you want to go do something?”

“I’m a little underdressed in comparison. What did you have in mind?”

She stood up, came over to him and picked up his hand, “Come. I know the perfect place.”

This was not the Jedi he had met several days before. This was a princess if he ever saw one. “Lead on,” he said as they held each other’s hand and left. She took him to an expensive, exclusive restaurant and they ate their meal while sipping on wine. Her attitude had completely changed to one more pleasant, and even flirtatious. This new Kaida was someone he enjoyed being around. Afterwards, Jion led her to a place he was really hoping to take her to.

“Ok where are we going?”

“You’ll find out when we get there.”

“It seems I’m not the only one with a surprise. You were planning this weren’t you?”

“Maybe,” he grinned. Hand in hand again, Jion led her to the starboard observatory, where they could see that the cruise ship was passing by a nearby purple nebula. It was part of the cruise ship’s entertainment for the passengers, of which Jion had gotten the tip from the bartender earlier. It was quiet in here, and the most you could hear from the other passengers were feint whispers. Within the multistoried seating, they picked a spot in a section with the fewest people. The lights here were dimmed, and soft music was playing in the background. They watched the nebula for a few minutes in silence, and then they slowly leaned towards each other, until Jion put his arm around Kaida and brought her close.

“This is incredible,” she smiled. “And terribly romantic.”

Kaida curled up into him, and he felt the warmth from her body. His spirit soaring now, he turned to look at her, “I’m glad you like it.” She met his eyes and they watched one another for what seemed like a long moment before their lips met, and they kissed passionately. Stopping now and then to look at the nebula, eventually it got to the point where they were much more interested in each other than in the view. After an hour of this, they hurried back to the cabin.

“You’ll have to show me what that holocron had to say one day. Maybe it could help me too,” said Jion as he almost kicked the door open, and the two of them rushed inside.

“It just might,” she said smiling at him.

Then they were at each other again with tongues exploring each other’s mouth, as well as with hands discovering, touching, fondling. She shoved the door closed, and then the two of them kicked off their shoes. He raced after her to the bed, where they began removing their clothes amid further kissing.

Both Yortor’s and Uin’s ashes were packed into their urns in the Quicksilver’s cargo bay, and when the doors opened they were released. The lids were on lightly, and the pressure of deep space meeting atmosphere blew the ashes into a fan like shape away from the ship. When they were far enough, they closed their bay door and the Quicksilver turned around to look. From the front viewport, the three crewmates stood watching the ash float about in random cloud like formation.

“May they find happiness wherever they are,” said Kossj solemnly.

“Both of those two will find the peace out here they couldn’t in life,” said Tarko quietly.

“Goodbye Uncle Uin, you will be greatly missed,” Neren had tears in her eyes. “And good bye Yortor, you were always the best shot by my side,” she looked away from the ashes and to the stars beyond.

After a few minutes of silence, Tarko sat down in the pilot’s seat. “Talky, while we were out having them cremated at the spaceport, how did the minor repairs go?”

Kossj turned to face the back of his captain, “There shouldn’t be any more power issues with the small stuff. The main cable to the holovid was replaced, since it wasn’t reliable anymore due to the damage of the attack. Also, I had another look at the engine, and my modifications held up. So other than just replacing half the wall panels in the center of the ship, there’s nothing more that should bother us. Well, maybe some minor things might crop up like . . . “

“Hey! Make a list of them and get it fixed when you can. We’ll all help with the panels when we set down again.” Tarko stared out at ash cloud, “We might have to change our name and ID too.”

“We probably should, just to be on the safe side,” said Neren as she sat in the copilot’s seat.

“You are right. What do you two think it should be this time?”

“Oh, how about the Quickvesper?” said Kossj.

“Talky?”

“Yes, boss?”

“Go and make a list of things needed to be fixed, like I told you.”

“Right boss,” Kossj padded away, and the floor panels faintly rattled with each step.

Tarko turned to Neren, “Ok, I will let you pick this name since the last two were chosen by me. Any ideas?”

She mulled over a few and finally settled on The Uin. She figured that no one really knew who he was, especially since Warken was no longer alive. With that thought, came the warm memory of tossing his butt out into space with the rest of The Exchange thugs shortly after leaving Nar Shaddaa. “Alright Tarko, I have it. This one I’d like to keep for a bit if we could.”

“I still miss the Vesper, but sure Neren, whichever one you want.”

“I like The Uin.”

Tarko nodded, “Then The Uin it is.” The ship turned from the ash cloud and began accelerating away. “We’ll need to lay low for a few days. Blue said they were going to hide on the cruise ship, and it would be out for ten days. We’re to meet them back at Corellia to pick them up when it’s over.”

Neren smirked, “A ten day cruise with just the two of them?” She laughed. Her mind went wild with what they were doing.

Tarko grinned and then turned to her, “What? What is so funny? This is Blue we are talking about with a Jedi. What could they be doing?”

“Tarko . . . you don’t know Blue at all I think.”

“It’s hard to when he hardly says anything.”

“You need to be more personal with him.”

“Neren, I ask him about his mission I sent him on, and he says, ‘Read my report.’ I try to ask him about his past, and he says its private then walks away. All I know is that he’s really good at what he does, with no questions asked. Something’s he blown up, like that freighter smuggling all that spice to Ord Mantell, by improvising on the spot. I still don’t know how he did it, even when reading his report. What I do know is that he’s worth a hundred times what he gets working for us. It’s almost like he’s just using us to lay low and forget his past life.”

“He might be doing just that. There have been a few times I’ve been able to get him to open up though, and he’s such a different person when he does. You need to treat him more like a person and not just a crew member; although, I guess being the captain, that wouldn’t work too well. Anyways, all I’m saying is that he has the same wants and desires any of us do, and he even has a sense of humor too.”

“Like what? I think I saw him smile once, since meeting him?”

“Oh boss, you exaggerate a bit.”

“Maybe. Still, he’s so quiet and serious. I don’t know what you did to get him to talk.”

“He’s lonely you know. I can just tell. He’s probably been like that for years. Then there’s the Jedi . . .”

“Kaida, Neren. She is a very good person, and we went through all this just to help her. Though now I am thinking that the cost is getting too much with a crewmate and an old friend dead. Once we pick up Blue, we need to say our goodbyes to Kaida. I just don’t want to lose any more people. If she loses us Blue too, she would have some serious answering to do for Tarko Jornaa I can tell you that.”

“I don’t think it will be that easy to separate Blue from her,” she said smiling.

“And why do you say that?” he looked back to the control panel and hit a few buttons. “Plot us a course back to the starport will you Neren?”

She fiddled with the navicomp in front of her, “It’ll need just a minute or so.” Neren looked at Tarko, “I say that because I just have a feeling about him. He’s on a ten day cruise with her? In the same room too? They’d be an item by the time it’s over. He can be quite the smooth talker when he wants,” though after saying that out loud, the thought of Blue and the Jedi being together didn’t sit too well with her.

“Blue hit on you Neren?” he said laughing.

“No, no. Though, when we were undercover in the cantina a month back . . . he was smooth as heck with the girls. I was stunned. The first thing I thought of was that this was not the Blue we know at all.”

“This Blue you speak of I have never seen. Well, if it happens it happens, but she is a Jedi you know. They are all about protecting the Republic; and not into getting emotional with people, especially normal people without the force.”

“From what Kossj told me, she’s not even with the Jedi anymore,” and it serves her right, she thought. Though on the other hand, he does deserve to be happy, since there was certainly nothing on this ship to give him that.

“Hmm. Well Blue didn’t say, but my guess is that things went wrong with the Jedi they were supposed to meet; which would explain why they are hiding out right now. Is it ready yet?”

“In a second,” she said after looking at the computer. “We’ll just have to see. But like I said, I have a feeling about Blue.”

“Enough feelings, pull the lever back.”

The Uin lurched upwards as it shot into hyperspace.

* * * * *

Dark shapes closed in all around, threatening to suffocate the life out of her. They covered every open part of her body, but after a moment she realized she was still alive. Rather than preventing her from breathing, or squeezing her to death, it was worse. They fed on her, draining every aspect of her being. Kaida squirmed and tried to fight the darkness off but it was impossible. She could hardly move. Suddenly, in the background she heard a female cackling. Eventually the darkness covering her face opened up, and let her see the source of the laughter. “The victory is not yours! You interfere, thief!” said the phantom form of a female Chiss.

Then abruptly, Kaida’s eyes opened into a darkened room. She shivered. It was cold sweat; a rather awful feeling too. Was that a random dream or was it . . . she thought about it for a moment. Was it Jion’s master? She turned around to look at him. He was lying on the bed and was still; though after watching him for a few seconds she could just make out his breathing. Pulling the cover back over herself, which she must have kicked off in her sleep, she grabbed her pillow, and then moved in to cuddle with him. She relished the warmth of his body. Kissing his cheek she rested her head on her pillow, and watched Jion. She hoped that she’d fall back to sleep doing this. After a few minutes she did.

Kaida felt him get up a few hours later. She rolled over and opened her eyes intermittently while catching glimpses of the ceiling. The room was set up so artificial light came on slowly as a normal day would back on Corellia. The door to the washroom opened, and then closed. Rubbing her eyes she took a deep breath then exhaled slowly.

That dream was terrible. Was it her own fears now attacking her, or was that the real Cae’tel? Should she tell him? If it was not anything, she didn’t want to bother him with it. However, she recalled that nothing with the force was a coincidence, and that all life was the force. So in the end, she decided to wait and hopefully the nightmare wouldn’t come again. One bad dream didn’t have to get in the way.

When he came out a while later, all showered and clean. She stared at his naked form in the full light for the first time. He was fit, and trim, and his arms and legs had a bit of muscle to them. That, and he was completely human looking. Not hard on the eyes either. She liked to look at him, especially his handsome face. He was like blue candy. The memory of their torrential love making last night came to mind then. It was nice to inspect the body she’d clung to and touched all over. “My Chiss, no modesty I take it?” she said before rolling over and giggling.

He smiled in return. “You’ve already seen me naked, twice now. And well no, I don’t really care. Sorry if that offends.”

“It doesn’t, but I suppose I am a bit of a prude when it comes to myself.” Kaida rolled back to stare at his nakedness, while he snatched out clothing from the closet that he had hung the day before. Jion had several black tattoos on his right pectoral, and along his right arm. Sith markings, she believed. She’d seen it on a few during the war, and it only made sense that he would have a few after apprenticing to that monster.

“One thing I am curious about.”

“Yes?” she said still watching him.

“How did you find me? It’s a big ship and I wasn’t close by.”

She considered it a moment, “I suppose I never thought about it. I just knew where you were. The force guided me I suppose.”

“Hmm,” he said while looking at a shirt he must have been contemplating wearing.

She watched him intently, trying to put into words what she felt from him. “You have a particular energy Jion, and it’s not like anyone I have ever met. It’s like you have the force but don’t. It’s hard to put into words. Though I can say this, it’s really easy to know where you are. I guess if you were in another star system, it wouldn’t be.”

He eyed her without fully turning his face, “We should put that to the test one day; although I don’t particularly like the idea of being so easy to track with the force.”

“I suppose not. It makes you easy for Cae’tel to find. But don’t worry. All force users have a particular feel to them; even though yours is just different and stands out from the rest.” She got off the bed and pulled on a sheet for cover. “Oh, what to wear today? Nothing could top last night.”

“I wouldn’t mind it if you didn’t wear anything actually,” he smirked.

She looked over at him, and then dropped the sheet showing her off completely to match him, “You like?”

His red eyes feasted on the sight before him, “Yes I certainly wouldn’t mind if you wore nothing on this trip."

Kaida smiled from ear to ear, and then burst out laughing. “I suppose it’s not all bad then. Look all you want,” she said playfully while spinning in place.

“Kaida Merek, you really are an interesting Jedi. Did you want to go out or stay in bed? Because after looking at you, I’m starting to get ideas that staying in bed might be better.”

“We can order in,” she grinned wickedly while eyeing him hungrily.

Except for this morning, over the course of that day and the next, the two of them were out enjoying everything they could on the ship, and their nights were full of passion. She was so happy, she felt like she was about to burst. This was an entire new world for Kaida, one she never, ever wanted to leave. What was the Jedi Order in comparison? Her life with them was all about self control and restraint, but this . . . this was real. These were worthy memories and experiences. This was really living. On top of that, they couldn’t be in a more perfect place for her to experience it all. As far as she was concerned, she never wanted to go back. This was her life now, and she couldn’t imagine it without him.

Two days later, she awoke in the middle of the night again after a terrible dream, one very similar to the first. This time Cae’tel said something that haunted her. “We are coming . . .”

She decided that Jion didn’t need to know that. The last thing Kaida wanted was to rip him out of his happiness, and in doing so bring her with him. Except, it didn’t end; there was a feeling she had of something unpleasant coming her way, though she couldn’t be certain of what it was. Yet, Kaida didn’t want to think the worst. That Cae’tel could be coming here personally, to kill her and to retake her apprentice, was something she put out of her mind. She would not allow such a thing to happen anyway. Not when living in paradise.

However, Kaida was neglecting her meditations in favor of having fun lately. She was living like Jion had; all just for the moment. Now with these warnings, she couldn’t afford to risk it. If she wasn’t go to tell him about her fears, then she had to act more like who she used to be; that of a Jedi who meditates and seeks reflection, as well as understanding on all things. Or, Kaida realized what she had could all be snatched away from her. Getting up in her new nightgown, she brought a pillow with her over to the floor to sit on, and she began her meditation ritual. While in a relaxed state, she recalled the old Jedi masters teachings from the holocron. This made her feel a lot better and more confident about her recent decisions. Jion was not a mistake.

The past month was full of drama. If her life was one long line on a piece of paper, and big events were spikes, then recent events would be about as large a spike to ever be recorded. Leaving the Jedi Order to save Gethren, killing Jedi Master Tyrell, and her heart grew warm as she reached the next one, falling in love with Jion. Kaida knew it then without a doubt. She really did love him with all her heart. However, the easy step was to realize it; the second was to inform him of it. In that, she almost felt more comfortable telling him about her bad dreams. Revealing her feelings to others, even Jedi was never an easy thing for her. Through the years, she had emotional pain she chose to lock away, since she was unsuccessful in working through them as the other Jedi did. Gethren was just about the only one who knew full well of her inner strife, and it had brought them close as master and padawan.

There could be no going back now. She could not consider herself a Jedi any longer. Though at the same time, she despised the idea of becoming a Sith. Perhaps there was, as the master in the holocron taught, a middle way. Yet, this way had brought Master Gethren to the darkside. What would that eventually mean for her then? Would she eventually fall too? What if she had a falling out with Jion, or worse, what if he gets killed because of her? The latter was too much to even consider. Because she imagined herself on a path of revenge that might not ever stop.

This was a tricky path to walk for her, so she believed she must, while being in her nigh uncontrollable love state, remember the Jedi teachings to calm herself, and to remember who she could turn into if that failed her. Non-attachment was one of the basic tenants of being a Jedi. Her whole life had been turned on its head now; first her old master and now a Chiss.

With all these things considered, troublesome questions came to her. Where would she go after this? What would she do? What about Gethren? Should she continue to try saving him? Then with a pleasant but sinking feeling within, she understood that Gethren no longer mattered to her. Jion did, and upon reflecting on it, she realized that trying to save her old fallen Jedi master, was nothing compared to trying to save what she had now. Perhaps the Jedi Order was right to begin with then? Nevertheless, along the way of her folly, she ran into something much more worthy of fighting for. In her trip into madness, she found reason. Or was it just more madness? It didn’t matter anymore. Saving Gethren was just as much on principle, as it was with her attachment to him. Jion wasn’t attachment; he was submersion into a new life.

Ok, then where would she go and what would she do? Kaida couldn’t picture herself as a member of Tarko’s crew. Besides, she would jeopardize his whole operation with the Jedi searching for her. Gethren left without a fuss, but she killed a Jedi when she left, that was a big difference. That and she didn’t have the Sith Empire to shelter her, nor could she bring herself to go to them. She would have to retire then, or more accurately, go into hiding as an exile. It was really the only option. Kaida would have to take herself out of galactic affairs, and spend the rest of her life on some out of the way planet where travelers were few, if any. Except, would Jion come with her? Or could he if he wanted to? That was the question now wasn’t it.

She spent the next few minutes breathing in and out deeply to clear her mind. Even with that, she noticed by the time she was finished and stood up, that the feeling of some sort of impending doom was still there. Kaida looked over at Jion, though she could hardly make out his form in the darkness. Should she tell him then? Kaida supposed she would have to soon. Because the ship didn’t make any stops until the very end, and if something was coming then they would have to board it by force.

Regardless, she still put it off that day and the next out of pure selfishness. Kaida just couldn’t ruin the fun they were having. Then, when they were out eating dinner after they had slow danced to music, which was something completely new to Kaida, Jion turned to her all of a sudden with his eyes in alarm, saying, “Do you feel that?”

Kaida put her fork down and finished what was still in her mouth quickly. Feeling it too, she closed her eyes to focus on it. “Yes. The darkside is close. They must have come out of hyperspace nearby.”

“My blaster is in the cabin.”

Opening her eyes, she realized the carefree fun was over. “So is my lightsaber,” she said unhappily, as they both stood at the same time, their dinner half eaten. Just as they got to the restaurant exit, the ship was hit by several laser blasts; though the cruise ship was large enough not to shake too violently. Kaida’s hand instinctively went to the left side of her waist to retrieve her lightsaber, but grasped nothing. Her black skirt that showed off her long legs, and white top was something no Jedi would be caught wearing; she even had on lipstick, and earlier had gotten a cosmetic to show her the inns and outs of how to apply the whole range of makeup. Jion had certainly approved of it afterwards, though she wasn’t certain if she could recreate how nice it looked without much practice. However, she realized how comical she might look to a Sith right now; especially if she was caught without any means of defending herself.

A few seconds after the ship took the hits, the general alarm went off. It blared noisily away, and everyone stood up from their tables. People started pouring into the wide corridor from the shops outside the restaurant, curious as to what was going on. Then, over that, a very loud droids voice sounded over the speakers saying, “Do not panic. All passengers please return to your quarters and fasten the doors. The situation should be resolved shortly.” In spite of the announcement to not panic, nearly everyone did. Shouting and screaming began in earnest, as the cruise ship staff and security tried to get the situation under control. Humans and the few alien passengers crowded the long narrow hallways, impeding Jion and Kaida from getting to their cabin quickly.

The two of them did their best to hurry along the corridor, and then they felt the ship was hit as if from a minor collision. The whole thing vibrated and shook, causing many people to shout in fear. Seconds later, they could hear a fire fight break out between ship security and the intruders just when they were a minute away from reaching their cabin. This made Kaida and Jion nearly trample the people still in front of them, right as everyone behind started doing the same thing. Bursting into their cabin, Jion quickly grabbed his blaster and knife, then put his holster on, and Kaida retrieved her lightsaber. The door closed by itself after a few seconds.

She had been a bit of a fool not to have it on her. Jedi do not leave their lightsabers behind, she had duly been taught since a youngling.

“What now she asked him? Though she wanted to rush out and protect the ship, she wasn’t sure if it was the best idea.

Jion thought about it for a moment. “You know, I have no idea. If they are after us though, which they have to be. They will not make it that easy for us if we just stay in here. My guess would be they could track us down through the force if they really wanted to. But if I were them,” he rubbed his fingers on his chin while in thought. “I would try to take over the bridge first, and then come after us. That way there would be no way for us to escape.”

“I agree. Maybe we should go and confront them?”

“Kaida, please take your holocron, and anything you really need with you.”

She thought if they couldn’t make it back to their cabin, then what else would she need besides her lightsaber and the holocron? The robes would certainly stay behind, and perhaps . . . perhaps that was for the best, now that she thought of it. Except, there were no pockets in her current attire, so holding a holocron in one hand and a lightsaber in the other wasn’t a good way to fight, “Jion, can you take the holocron? I’ll need both hands.”

He chuckled, “Umm, as you can see there’s no room in these clothes to hold it either.”

“It stays here then. We’ll just have to trust in the force that we’ll be able to retrieve it later. I’ll just put it in the safe just to be sure.”

With the holocron secured away, and her lightsaber in hand now, Jion opened the door ahead of her, while holding his blaster in his right hand. He peered outside to see what was happening. Then, he looked back at her, and nodded towards the hallway. It was safe, and the screaming, thundering horde of people had ended. Stepping outside, she followed. There were just a few people in the corridor now, most of them staff. The door closed behind them, and they both crept down the hallway towards the source of the fighting.

Coming upon the scene, the battle had calmed down to just a few sporadic shots being fired, which took place in the hallway on the opposite side of the large, open lounge. From behind a couch on a small balcony they watched it all below. They saw many dead bodies. Most of them security, but Kaida spotted a few civilians among them. Of those still moving, were several war droids right next to where a boarding craft had burrowed into the hull. The silver droids had bulky round heads, but skinny bodies with a blaster rifle each. Along with those, there were a few humans fully donned in armor, like those of a Mandalorian. Still, that elusive dark presence was still nearby, though she couldn’t see its source.

A passenger bolted from a nearby room, and one of the armored humans shot him forcing him to crash to the floor. Jion seemed like he was about to leap out and attack after seeing that, but she held him back. Whispering, “There was nothing we could do. Let’s just wait to see if they divide up and give us an opening.”

He nodded to her, acknowledging that she had the better plan. Then he turned back to watch the invaders, and muttered something nasty about mercenaries.

‘We are coming,’ Kaida recalled Cae’tel saying. Though she would have guessed that Jion would know it if his master was here for him. He hadn’t said anything about it, so she supposed it must be someone else. They were dealing with a Sith neither of them had encountered before.

After a couple of minutes, one of the war droids and a mercenary left the lounge for the opposite hallway. This left just three war droids, and one armored human here with them. A moment later, from that same hallway, they heard intense fighting breaking out, and Kaida guessed that meant the rest of the ships security was making a stand. She looked at Jion, and put her hand on his back, he turned to her, and then moved to her lips, and they kissed passionately for a few seconds.

“Now,” he whispered when they were done. “I’ll cover you from a spot near the bottom of the stairs.”

“I’ll get the sentient’s attention, and you take out the droids.”

Jion nodded, and Kaida took the lead with her lightsaber now ignited. They hit the stairs and moved with good speed towards the bottom. When they were half way there, the mercenary noticed them and shouted, “The Jedi is here!” and she and the three war droids began firing on them. Kaida deflected each and every bolt that came at her, while Jion had downed one of the droids by the time he slipped behind the edge of the bar, to take shelter at the end of the stairs.

The armored female shot flames from her wrist at Kaida when she got close, and though she leapt out of the way, her skirt was singed. She patted it down with her free hand once she noticed. After seeing that, Jion took aim at the mercenary, and dealt her a quick half dozen hits. Eventually, she fell backwards and out of the fight. Kaida was on the other two droids in a second, slicing them in half before they even knew she was there.

Kaida smiled at Jion as he emerged from around the bar. She liked how well they worked together. Almost without even needing to plan, they just knew what to do. He stood up and came over to look at the dead woman. Kaida then deactivated her lightsaber.

The mercenary wasn’t moving, but he said, “I don’t want to take the chance.” Jion took her weapon, and holstered his. “Besides, my blaster’s energy isn’t infinite.”

She turned to look down the far hallway where the fighting had gotten even more intense. “Shall we go and give them a hand?” And, just as she took one step towards the battle, she stopped, nearly frozen in place. Looking to Jion she said, “It’s here.”

“I can feel it too.”

From the hallway emerged a tall hooded figure in black. When he saw Kaida he made a snarling noise from behind his glossy black face mask, and produced his lightsaber. It ignited with the typical Sith red.

“Oh I hate these people,” said Jion, as he took out his own blaster, to have one in each hand. He fired shot after shot at the Sith warrior, but each was reflected. One bolt being a hair’s breadth from returning on him.

Seeing this, Kaida ignited her own lightsaber and charged at the Sith. Their two sabers clashed, and after several parried slashes, she used the force to throw him back. He went into the wall next to the hallway where he had just come from. Her thoughts raced with the idea of him hurting Jion. The notion really got to her, and she began to feel hatred towards this vile creature. An alarm went off in her head just then, when she realized how she was feeling. She backed off a step and took in a deep breath, but still held her lightsaber in front of her at the ready.

The Sith was back in a few seconds and returned to confront her, “Pathetic.” “You have a lot of potential fallen Jedi. Embrace the anger. Don’t back away from it now you fool.”

Her emotions were kept in better check than she would have thought, and she felt the anger slipping away. “I may no longer be a Jedi, but I will never turn to your side either. So give it a rest.”

The Sith touched a button on his wrist before attacking Kaida, though nowhere near as ferociously as she had done to him. “You are no different from your master. I can feel the same weakness that turned him, and it will get you as well.”

“I would rather die than become one of you,” she retorted.

“That can also be arranged,” and right after saying this, several droids appeared in the hallway behind him and began firing at Kaida.

She backed out of line of sight from the hallway, and the Sith followed her. With the Jedi no longer their target, the droids spotted Jion and began to fire upon him. Kaida saw that he took cover in time, and then feeling slightly relieved, she turned back on the Sith with renewed vigor. She refused to get angry, but even so, Kaida wanted him eliminated as quickly as possible. Their sabers clashed back and forth, and he was surprisingly agile, even managing to do a flip in the air while parrying her. Then suddenly from behind her foe, she saw a couple of small explosions spill out of the hallway. Droid parts crashed to the floor, to land a couple of meters behind the Sith. Kaida had been so fixated on her enemy and her emotions that she hadn’t paid attention to what took them out, however she gathered that Jion must gotten them, or the security did.

Kaida paused for a moment to catch her breath, and the Sith continued talking, “You dress vainly like a Sith. Even your face is all done up so. I know some Sith women that would envy how you look now, being too scarred, and changed by the darkside that they no longer look so pretty. A beautiful and powerful woman like you would be welcome amongst us.” He looked at Jion for a second, while he stepped out into the open once again. “Though Cae’tel Yiss’s toy would have to be returned to her. That or you could fight her for it.”

“Kaida, he’s just trying to make you angry. Ignore his nonsense.”

“I know,” she smirked.

“And I know how to turn you,” the Sith slashed at her several times in rapid succession, and this forced her to back away a step. Then without hesitation, he turned towards Jion, and leapt into the air at him with his light saber about to cut him apart.

Seeing this, Kaida reached out with her left hand, and used the force to push the nearest couch towards Jion, to knock him out of the way. The Chiss hit the ground, and the Sith landed right where he would have been, slashing the couch in two. Just as he turned to finish his prey, Jion let loose a hail of blaster bolts while lying on his side. The first few were deflected harmlessly, but the last couple caught him squarely in the chest, punching squarely through his armor.

The Sith reached up to feel his wound, dropping his lightsaber. Jion stood up and kept both blasters pointed at his foe. Then Kaida was there in a flash, and cut the Sith down, “Kaida!” yelled Jion. It was too late, the Sith was lying on the floor dead. Jion threw the mercenary pistol away, holstered his own and approached her. “Hey!” he said while reaching a hand out to her.

She was not herself. Kaida was engulfed with uncontrollable rage, and was breathing in and out almost to the point of hyperventilation. She was fixated on the dead Sith before her, and just then Jion’s blue face appeared in her view. Almost like an automated machine, she just turned off her lightsaber, and stared at him blankly. Inwardly, there was nothing outside of raw emotion still stewing over the Sith. There was not even any recognition of who Jion was at the moment.

“Kaida . . .” he came over to her and put both hands gently to either side of her face. He then looked her right in the eyes. “It’s me. Remember?” He slowly moved closer and kissed her gently on the lips. Pulling his head back a little he said, “Kaida . . . I love you.”

She blinked, and seemed to notice him for the first time. Her rage subsided, blasted away by his revelation. Then Kaida grabbed him forcefully, and his hands went flying from her face. They kissed intensely for a long moment, her tongue eager to feel his. Between the short pauses, and while they caught their breath she said, “I thought he was about to kill you.”

He took a small step back to look at her, “I don’t care. I don’t ever want to see you change like that again. I’ve been through it before, and I don’t want to lose you to the darkside.”

“Jion you can’t die like that. You just can’t.”

“Why,” he smiled, dragging it out of her, knowing the only thing she could say.

“Because you idiot, I love you too,” she grinned back at him.

Stepping down the ramp, Neren and Tarko came out to greet Jion and Kaida. They had docked at a small, almost unknown urban center on the far side of the planet from Coronet City, on Corellia.

There she was, the Jedi she hated. Neren then noticed how close she stood next to Blue! He was wearing a nice looking, vertically striped, brown dress shirt and black pants, with his typical black shoes. Except he was not all in black! Furthermore, here the Jedi was without her robes, and was dressed in grey toned pants, with a matching grey and white top, she wore nice black leather boots, her face was done up nicely with makeup, as well as having ditched the pony tail for flowing long hair. She already could see that she had been right about them. They literally screamed ‘we’re together!’ How lovely this was. Jion and Kaida put down their suitcases to smile at them.

Neren feigned a smile back, “Hey Blue, you incorrigible loner!” She looked at Kaida for a second before her blonde captain blared his own greeting.

“Blue, Kaida, how nice to see you here! And what is this, Blue smiling? Blue never smiles. Something is not right here,” He went and grasped Blue’s hand and shook it violently. Then he shoved his hand aside, and bear hugged him while patting him on the back with his right hand, “Glad to see you alive and well my Chiss friend,” he said softly. Releasing him, he then stepped back while wearing his usual grin, Tarko then turned to Kaida, brushed aside her hand too and gave her a big hug as well, “You too Kaida.”

“Well this is a nice way to be greeted. Good to see you too Tarko,” said a beleaguered Kaida.

Once done, he stepped back to look at both of them, “Ok, no doubt you two have a lot of storytelling for us, but we should get out of here quickly. Come we must get The Uin going!”

Jion looked to Kaida, “Another name change. It means they got into trouble again.”

“We always get into trouble,” said Tarko as he grabbed Kaida’s suitcase.

Neren then went and picked up Jion’s. She found it a little heavier than she would have thought, and stopped to use both hands. The other three were already almost inside the ship, and Neren struggled to catch up. When she took her first step onto the ramp she thought she saw a shadow move underneath The Uin. She stopped, dropped the suitcase, and crouched a little while scanning the bottom of the ship for the source of the movement. Maybe it was a trick of the light? Looking around the small but crowded spaceport, there were half a dozen ships and just a few people working maintenance on them. Nothing appeared sinister or out of place.

So Neren shrugged, picked up the suitcase with a grunt, and ran up the ramp as quickly as she could. Damn Tarko and his manners when people came to his home. If he refused to allow them to carry their own stuff in, then why wasn’t he the one carrying it all? But no, captain’s orders were to help. Hitting the button, the ramp closed shut behind her and she stood watching just in case.

When she picked it up again and went around the corner, the others were gathering in the lounge. Neren brought the suitcase to Jion and dropped it by his feet. “Ok enough! It’s too blasted heavy for me.”

Jion turned to her, “Thanks Neren, I can take it from here.”

He looked happy, and it bothered her to see him like this.

Kossj came over and gave Jion a big hug too, “We really could have used you back on Nar Shaddaa. You wouldn’t believe how much trouble we had with the exchange.”

“From what we experienced in Coronet City, I can just imagine,” said Kaida.

Jion looked around the room, “Where is Yortor?”

“I’m sorry Blue, but he didn’t make it out,” said Kossj.

Jion’s former cheerful demeanor suddenly deflated, “Oh. That . . .” he turned to Tarko. “What happened?”

“We need to get going. I don’t like the feeling this planet gives me right now,” said Tarko. Tarko turned to Neren, “Come we need to get into hyperspace, then we can talk, and find out what we all did when separated.”

Neren jumped into the copilot’s seat. A minute later they were airborne, and headed away from Corellia. “Terasta Station?” she asked without looking at Tarko.

He nodded, “Terasta Station.”

After they were safely in hyperspace, Neren leaped out of her chair, and was almost back in the lounge in a heartbeat. She really wanted to see how Blue and the Jedi interacted, and she wanted to be proven right. Part of the excitement ended, when she only saw Kossj there getting a bunch of drinks ready for everyone, “Where are they?”

“Blue and Kaida? They took Blue’s old room; I’ve offered to take Yortor’s. The smell might take a while to clear out though. Those Trandoshan sure have an odor to them. What did you want to drink Neren?” he said in the middle of pouring a glass, but hadn’t noticed she was already gone.

She paused in front of Blue’s door. He’d never gotten upset with her entering before; even that one time when she caught him dressing after a shower. Although, he did say she should give them more privacy, and knock first in that brooding tone he used to carry all the time. No one really had much modesty on the ship, and it wasn’t uncommon for the guys to barge in on each other. Though with Neren they tended to give her more privacy, but it never stopped her before from doing what they do to one another.

She shrugged, oh well, he was family right? Neren opened the door to Jion’s room and took a step in. She saw them embraced in each other’s arms, with Kaida in the middle of saying, “It’s never easy to lose family like that.”

“Oh so I see how this is going to be,” Neren blurted out without thinking. Yet even she knew that she was taking it too far; though now that it was out, she would have to back it up. Even so, seeing the two together like this made her lose all sense of herself. The Jedi with Blue? This wasn’t right! She crossed both arms and stood waiting for a response. As they extricated themselves from each other, the look on both their faces was one of surprise as well as annoyance.

“Jealous Neren?” said Tarko as he came to stand next to her. “Kaida won’t be stealing Blue from us.”

Neren blushed. With the father figure of the ship now here, she was slightly embarrassed. She then instinctively twiddled her right hand through her long brown hair. Taking a step back Neren was about to leave the room, but curiosity prevented her. She just had to hear what they were going to say.

Tarko stared at Jion and Kaida, “Well Kaida? You wouldn’t be stealing our Blue from us would you?”

Kaida’s expression couldn’t have tickled Neren more; she was at a loss for words and seemed highly uncomfortable. A smile worked its way onto Neren’s face just then.

“We’ll talk in the lounge, now out! Both of you,” said Jion firmly.

“Ok. Let’s go Neren,” he turned around and extended a hand to usher her out with him.

Neren sat in a couch and waited fifteen minutes before Jion and Kaida finally emerged from the room. “What took you so long, did you break in the room already?” Jion just smirked, then took a drink from Kossj and sat down in a chair.

“We were putting our things away Neren,” said Kaida as if reassuring a child.

“I didn’t ask you,” she looked at her scowling.

“Neren what’s gotten into you?” asked Tarko who was just given his third glass of brandy by Kossj, while sitting comfortably in his chair. “I didn’t think you’d be the jealous type.” Jion watched Neren curiously, while Kaida took a drink and sat in a seat next to him.

Neither did she, but the Jedi irritated her. With her life changed all those years ago from their pointless civil war that ended up putting her on the street, she had nurtured a hatred for their kind. It was made all the more worse that Kaida was just one of those high and mighty types, that was a perfect angel and no one could touch her. And Blue, oh Blue why did you have to get involved with her of all people? He was only two years older than herself after all. It was then that she realized she really was jealous.

Not wanting to bring more attention to how obvious it must have been to everyone else, she got up, grabbed a drink and guzzled it down as fast as she could. Then filled the same glass with rum and some juice, mixed it, then sat back down and got through half of it as quickly as she could. Neren was showing a side that she hadn’t before to her friends, and she felt like a young teenage girl getting lectured by Uncle Uin for stealing from him again. Needless to say, she refrained from making eye contact with anyone.

If this was her family, then Tarko was the father, Kossj the annoying brother, and Blue the cute guy that moved in next door. The cute guy who’d been snatched up by the ***** her dad worked with, who lived across the street. She smiled at that analogy. It fit perfectly.

When the attention on Neren died down, and everyone was seated, Tarko looked at Jion and said, “All I can say is that Yortor died fighting, and was responsible for taking out most of those trying to take the ship. His heavy repeater did so much damage that we spent most of the time you two were away repairing the inside of The Uin. But it was worth it.”

“We counted over thirty dead Exchange when we piled them together. If it wasn’t for him, I doubt we would have made it,” said Kossj.

Jion cleared his throat, “He did well then. I wish I was here to fight beside him.”

“Yes. It was quite the sight to see,” said Tarko.

“To Yortor,” Jion held up his glass, and everyone including Neren did the same. “To Yortor,” they all said, and then they took a sip of their drink.

After a minute of silence, Tarko spoke, “So what happened on board the cruise ship?” he said while wearing his usual grin.

“It was attacked by a Sith boarding party, or at least a Sith who hired some outside help,” said Kaida.

“Well the fact that you two are here tells me that you beat some sense into them.”

Jion nodded, “Many innocents died though. We were fortunate to have prevented them from taking the ship. Though without Kaida here,” he smiled warmly at her, and reached out his hand slightly, as if he was about to touch hers but thought better of it. “I doubt I could have done it at all.”

“It is a shame when that happens, but you two are safe, and to us that is what counts,” said Kossj smiling.

“Yes. I’m glad you made it back safe Blue,” said Neren with a half smile while glancing at him.

“It will be a few hours to Terasta Station, so tell us what happened with you two? Kaida you look like a Jedi no more. Then there is Blue, who is smiling, and talking, and happy.”

“What is there to say?” said Kaida.

“Well as odd a match up like this is, I will support it. May you have happiness together,” said Tarko before downing the rest of his glass. “Though what we do with you two from here I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?” said Jion.

“Well, is Kaida going to join the crew, or are you two leaving now?”

Kaida and Jion looked at each other for a moment, before Jion replied, “We decided to get out of it for a while. You know that place you had talked about that no one would ever find? We’d like to go there.”

Tarko laughed and almost spit out his drink, “The Uin is going there after picking up supplies at the station. We too must lay low for a long while. The bounty on the ship and its crew now reach five million credits.

With that much, every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for us.”

“You must have really hurt them,” said Kaida.

“I think it’s a combination of everything we have done. Apparently we are being blamed by the exchange for the destruction of one of their bases on Nar Shaddaa. From my research, I believe it is the asteroid base. Somehow it was blown up, and we’ve been framed for it. Though they refused to say where exactly it was, because they wanted to keep their little operation a secret,” said Kossj.

Tarko smiled, “Well that is another good thing against those schutta. Anyways, you two are welcome to come with us. It will be very out of the way, and there will be very few living there. They are good people though.”

“We’ll come with you,” said Kaida as she reached over and grasped Jion’s hand. “We all have reasons to get away from everything now.”

“I hate to rain on your fun guys, but I haven’t given you an answer on that Tarko,” said Neren with disdain. She was only twenty three, and they were going to plop her down on some nowhere world, only to no doubt live a life of boredom. She wasn’t like Warken who needed constant action, but she sure as heck wasn’t a monk either.

“Neren I have told you it won’t be forever. A few months, maybe a few years. Things need to quiet down. Do you realize how much five million is? There will be no where safe, no where we can go do business. Even going to Terasta Station is dangerous right now, but we cannot do this thing without loading the ship up with food and other things to last.”

“You make it sound like a camping trip. Is there any civilization at all in this world?”

“Yes, mostly spread out farms, and a small community here and there. Still, it’s nothing at all like Nar Shaddaa.”

She sighed, “Well Nar Shaddaa was a bantha spit anyway.” She crossed her arms thinking. Tarko was right, five million credits was a ridiculous amount, and with the threat of bounty hunters constantly hanging over their heads, good ones this time, there was no way to carry on like they used to. They’d be getting attacked by people born on worlds that she never would have heard of; along with aliens that she never knew existed. Meeting her captain’s gaze now, she squinted for a moment, like it was really difficult to finally come out with a decision, “Ok, but I want your promise that we only try it out for two months. And if I can’t take it by then, then we sell the ship, get new names, and live separately in far off places.”

Tarko smiled, “Well, what if it’s not so bad there?”

“Then I live the life of some farmer, get hooked up with some yokel missing most of his teeth, and shoot out half a dozen kids by the time I’m forty.”

“That’s if you are lucky to find one with any teeth at all!”

She laughed, “Ok, allowing for that!”

“Deal,” said Tarko with a large smile that quickly overpowered his grin.

They reached Terasta Station a few hours later, and Neren was assigned a list of food and supplies to have delivered to The Uin. While Tarko and Kossj bickered over weapons, ship parts, and tools. Jion volunteered to come with her at the last moment, and she could tell that he wanted to talk with her, and not just accompany her for her safety. When they were off the ship, and left the landing bay to enter the busy market section of the station, Neren turned to him and said, “Ok out with it.”

“I just wanted you to know that she makes me happy Neren. Happy like I’ve never been before.”

“Ok I get it, she does things you like in the sack,” she said sarcastically. That *****!

He chuckled, “No Neren. I love her for who she is. She’s a good person, and you just have to give her a chance.”

Neren glared at Jion, “You love her?” What nonsense is this now!

“I do. Why else would I want to spend my life with her on this backwater planet of Tarko’s?”

She looked to the side in thought. If Blue loved her, then she couldn’t be that bad. Worse, and most telling of all, he willingly wanted to go to Tarko’s secret hiding place to be with her. He must really be in love then. However, she still didn’t like it one bit. Turning back to meet his eyes, “She’s a Jedi Blue. That’s all I need to know.”

“She’s not even that anymore. Kaida is, well she is giving up all that.”

“You know they can’t. Using the force is a part of them.”

“Yes, well you know . . . not completely. Though, she will no longer be going around acting for the Jedi Order anymore. We hope to live on our own in seclusion and not be bothered, nor get into anyone’s business.”

She sighed, then looked at Jion and reached up to touch his short black hair; though she didn’t have to reach far because the difference in height between them was only a few centimeters. “I told you, you should get some more style to this thing. Maybe if you had you would have picked up a better woman.”

He smirked, “Maybe.”

Neren didn’t want to say anything more about it, because she didn’t want to feel like more of a fool than she already did. He must have guessed by now that she had a crush on him. Pulling her hand back, she smiled, “Oh, ok.” She gave him a hug, “I’ll be watching her; one wrong move and . . . I’ll shoot her and no more ex Jedi.”

He chuckled again, “Alright.”

A couple of minutes later, they reached the merchant she’d dealt with more than a few times. Yet, even though she thought that nothing was amiss, Jion however, had warned her that there might be someone following. This station was known for its seedy dealers, and questionable transactions. It was basically a mini Nar Shaddaa just outside the Core, but one not affiliated with any major power. So there could easily be a bounty hunter watching the market place for them. Jion stood off a couple meters from her, watching for anything suspicious in the market, while Neren tried to strike a good deal with the Toydarian. When she was satisfied, she paid the alien and then walked over to Blue.

“There’s something not right about this,” he said.

“Have you seen anyone?”

“No. I feel something though.”

“What? Are Miss Jedi’s powers rubbing off on you?”

He looked at her, “No. I’ve always been force sensitive Neren.”

She raised her eyebrows, “Well I’ll be freg’d. I’ve had a crush on an evil force user all these months. What’s next? You’re Chiss royalty?”

He didn’t reply to that, but a few seconds later he said, “This is not good, we need to leave immediately.”

“What? Why?”

“Just come!”

They ran though the market and back towards docking bay. “Would you just tell me?”

Jion spoke into the comm at his wrist, “Base pick up. Base this is Blue, pick up!”

Then suddenly from behind the stalls to either side of the market exit, two armored warriors appeared with their blasters pointed at them. They wore blue and white Mandalorian armor, complete with jetpacks. Jion and Neren stopped and stood still. The one on the left motioned for them to turn around, and when they did, Neren saw that there were dozens of Imperial soldiers now flooding into the market. Against such odds, Neren knew it was hopeless. Thankfully Jion realized this too because he sighed and put his hands up.

After their weapons and comm devices were confiscated, they were led to a private booth in the marketplace, where at the back was a door guarded by two Imperial soldiers with blaster rifles. Past this was a large room with computer monitoring equipment, which a couple of techs were busy working away at. On the wall behind them were racks full of weapons, and a handful of bunk beds in the center of the floor. This was a Sith monitoring post, and probably had been here for some time.

The computer techs got up from their chairs when they entered and left the room. Neren and Jion were told to sit on the nearest bed and wait. The two Mandalorian bounty hunters remained with them, as well as did half a dozen Imperial soldiers when the door closed. Neren and Jion looked at each other, but she didn’t have to read the terrible look on his face to realize how bad their situation was.

Ten minutes later, Jion shook his head and then buried his face into his hands. “No, not now,” he whispered, though it seemed like he was talking to himself.

“What’s wrong?” asked Neren.

“Quiet, no talking,” said an Imperial soldier.

Then the door opened, and two black hooded figures entered the room. A soldier closed the door behind them. Neren turned to watch Jion stand up with a contemptuous look to his face.

“Sit down,” said the same soldier as before.

Both newcomers removed their hoods to reveal their faces. One was a mature human male, while the other was a Chiss woman. “No. It is quite alright. Let him stand. In fact, let him do whatever he wants,” said a striking female Chiss in a disparaging tone. Her yellow eyes were nearly glowing. The two Chiss couldn’t be more opposites. Whereas Blue seemed to want to blend in and not get attention, this female was all about getting everyone in the room to notice her when she entered. Neren caught glimpses of how much flesh she exposed behind her open to the front, black robe. With her long and stylishly straight black hair, everything about her seemed to be about sex. Neren found her highly repulsive just looking at her.

“You know her Blue?” asked Neren.

“I used to.”

“Come now. We know each other very well. We are married after all.”

Neren’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“You still don’t tell anyone about it? My dear Jion, I am beginning to think you don’t like me,” she cackled.

“The woman I married died long ago. What this is,” he pointed at Cae’tel, “is a person that lost its soul. She’s nothing but a monster now.”

“Sit,” she pointed at him as her face contorted to something menacing. When he ignored her she shouted, “I said sit down!” She pointed both sets of fingers at him and, blue lightning shot out from the tips, hitting Jion but he stood through it defiantly. She let up after a few seconds, and said while smiling, “It’s just like old times I see.”

“He’s a strong one. Either he really hates you or your powers do little to him,” said the older human male next to her.

“It’s a little of both,” said Jion through gritted teeth.

More lightning flowed from Cae’tel’s fingertips then, and an arc of it touched Neren making her leap into the air and onto her feet. The pain from being touched with that for not even a second was excruciating. She didn’t know how Jion could stand it. However, eventually he did sit back down, and Neren moved over to sit on the next bed just in case.

“Much better, though I can still feel your defiance my love.”

“What a sick, twisted, waste you are Cae’tel. You have spent the last several years playing this game. When will it end?”

“When you finally surrender yourself to me completely!” she shouted angrily.

Neren looked at Jion, but was too afraid to say anything, though she wanted to. After seeing what he’d been hiding from all these years, she understood why he was the way he was.

Jion began laughing, “Just kill me Cae’tel! Do it and get it over with. Because you know that’s what will happen when I surrender anyway.”

“That would defeat the purpose,” she said turning to the other Sith with her. “Come, we have what we came for. Your former padawan will fall into our trap.” She motioned for the soldiers to bring the captives.

Then totally unexpectedly, Jion leaped to his feet and threw out his right hand to use the force. He managed to pull one of the soldier’s rifles to his hands and began shooting directly at Cae’tel. Spinning around, her double bladed lightsaber ignited just in time to reflect his shots. Neren huddled sideways, with her arms over her head. The noise of it in such a small room was earsplitting.

Just as the other soldiers and the two bounty hunters brought their weapons around to aim at Jion, the Sith male said, “No!” and used the force to push them into the walls to either side.

Jion kept firing at Cae’tel and she continued to reflect his shots into the walls, but one bolt directly hit a soldier who was just getting back up. He fell to the floor dead. Through it all, Neren found herself screaming, hoping the insanity would end.

“Give it up!” the female Chiss reached out with one free hand and tried to use the force to pull his blaster from him, but he resisted, and his shots started to go off wildly. He kept pulling the trigger even after the blaster’s energy was exhausted. Then, Neren stopped screaming, and turned to look at him. She could see the anger there, the desperation in his eyes. He truly hated this Chiss woman to a degree that Neren had never known in her life.

“Tie his bloody hands up,” said the human Sith calmly. The soldiers immediately surrounded him and took his expended weapon. Jion appeared spent by then anyhow, and didn’t offer any resistance to having his hands roughly yanked to his back before flex binders were placed on.

“How’d you find me Cae’tel?”

“Your mistake was returning to Corellia. I had at least hoped you’d get off the cruise ship before then, which would have been the smart thing to do. I simply had one of my agents tag your ship with a homing device.”

“Let’s go,” said the Sith male.

Neren stood now and waited her turn to be brought out. Cae’tel watched Jion for several seconds, but not with the smug look Neren thought she’d have. Instead, she looked thoroughly displeased. When Neren glanced at Jion, she saw that he was looking at the floor, seemingly downcast. Yet there was still strength in him when he turned to meet her eyes; and he almost had a bit of a crooked smile on his face. This helped Neren feel immensely better, since if anyone could get out of this, he could.

“Remember the plan Darth Isenikaar,” said Cae’tel after turning in his direction.

He laughed heartily, “If you still think it would work with this Chiss male.”

“I know it will.”

He nodded his head, “Then let’s get on with it. My new apprentice will find her place with us on Balmorra then.”

Darth Isenikaar stepped out of the room, as did Cae’tel after telling the guards to bring Jion and to watch him carefully. Neren was up and prodded along at the end of the line, separated from her friend. They must not have worried about her being a threat since they didn’t bother with binding her hands behind her back.

Neren wondered if her crew and Kaida realized that they had been taken. If she was any kind of Jedi, and loved Jion like he seemed to love her, then Neren figured that she should most certainly have felt something through the force. Because after what she just saw Blue go through, surely it would have touched her. These force users, they were a different breed than us normal’s.

Upon reaching a docking bay on the far side of the station, Cae’tel turned and walked to the back of the line to stare at Neren. “Can I help you psycho Sith lady?”

“Neren,” said Jion trying to shush her.

Ignoring them, Cae’tel looked at the guard behind Neren and said, “Release this one.”

“Why?” asked Neren.

“Because I have a use for you. Go to your ship, and tell them everything you saw here. And tell them, that we await the fallen Jedi on Balmorra.”

Neren stared at her, and found she was even more displeasing to be up close like this. The air was thick, and made difficult to breath. Just wanting to get away from her, she nodded, “Fine.”

Cae’tel turned to leave but stopped herself and spun on Neren, “Oh and this is for your insolence,” She slapped Neren across the cheek, her long nails purposely cutting her face, “As well as to make it seem more convincing.”

Neren gasped in response, and then the guard shoved her to let her know that it was time for her to leave. She looked at Jion one more time, and his eyes lost some of that strength he had before leaving the room.

“I’ll be ok Neren,” he said in a solemn tone.

“Come, we must hurry!” yelled Cae’tel as she walked quickly towards her shuttle. Since he kept his head watching Neren, and slowed the soldiers up behind him, they pushed Jion to keep up with their mistress.

Neren turned and began to run. She moved so fast that she mistakenly ran straight into an Ithorian, tackling him to the floor. She got up, and said, “Sorry.” But without helping the alien, she kept on running as if her life depended on it. The Ithorian sat up and watched her run off, and then yelled at her in his alien language.

Memory flashes of Neren the young beggar went through her mind. It had been ten years since she’d ran through the streets of Nar Shaddaa, homeless, hungry, and always running from one trouble to the next. In truth she craved security, even though she still had a wild streak in her. Living on this world Tarko had described, if true, certainly wouldn’t be the worst place for her to end up. With the thought of security, long forgotten recollections of her family came to her.

Neren was just her street name, but one she had gone by since her family died at the end of the war. Her real name was Atera Kodaar, and she was orphaned at the age of thirteen when the Sith bombed and sacked Coruscant. Moving in with her aunt and uncle, she was a bitter angst filled teenager. Her anger wouldn’t have been placed so much on the Jedi Order, if it wasn’t on their advice for the Republic to make peace with the Sith over the incident. Her Uncle talked about how the Jedi and, the Republic let them down, and Neren took it to heart.

However, not liking her new home, she got involved with the wrong crowd. Under the guidance of a twenty something male, she left with her street friends when they travelled to Nar Shaddaa for more lucrative work. Of course they were all going to be used for prostitution, although she didn’t figure that out until it was too late. Fortunately, Neren escaped after a few months, but with nowhere to go, and still not wanting to go back home even if she could, she remained on the moon and learned to survive however possible. That experience was the hardest of her life. She was a spoiled young girl before coming to that world, and it was a rude awakening to live like that. Neren’s only consolation was that she didn’t become addicted to the spice, that she later ended up pushing for the gang she worked with.

She faded back to reality nearly five minutes later when she got close to where The Uin was docked. Blue was taken, Tarko and Kossj would be in a fit of worry, and there’s no telling how the Jedi would react. However, she was sure they would know already. Now all she had to do was to join with them. Yet, when she found The Uin’s docking bay, the metal door was sealed. Neren looked around, and then she spotted somebody by the controls, so she ran over to him. “I need to get into this bay, my ship is in there!”

“The shield and the blast doors are up. I haven’t received the all clear to . . .” just then his comm beeped and his superior told him to open the door.

When the door and shield were down Neren stepped into the bay. She looked around for her ship, but The Uin wasn’t there.

* * * * *

Right after Jion was strapped into his seat in the Imperial shuttle, her fist slammed into the side of his face, again, and again. Cae’tel’s strength was enhanced through the force, and he found the blows painful. Though, he was thankful she didn’t use her nails on him. He’d experienced that a few times before, and bore the scars on his back to prove it. “If this is just your way of saying hello, I’m not sure you’re going to like it when it’s my turn,” he tried to say snidely. Although he was sure that the blood flowing from his lip down to his chin, only served to encourage her that she was on the right track.

“You fired a blaster at me! How many times have I told you, to make an attempt on my life only if you have any chance at all of carrying it through?”

“Ok, I’ll tell you what. You undue these flex binders, give me your lightsaber, and stand ever so still . . .”

“Shut up!” she screamed at him while hopping in the air to slap his face as hard as she could.

Jion’s head flew to the right, and he really felt it. The slap was much worse than any of her punches, that and her scream left a slight ringing in his left ear. Turning back to look at her he said, “Come now, all I’ve seen from you so far is your gentle side. When does it get rough?”

She glared into his eyes, and after a moment he felt her anger subside. Lust came to the forefront of her thoughts now, “It’s been a long time my love.” She put her hand down into his crotch and rubbed, “We have some catching up to do.”

Jion began to laugh, “I think you’ll need to beat a heck of a lot more out of me before I’d agree to that.” However, he knew better. When she went into her mood like this, she liked to project sexual thoughts and emotions through the force, and it was very hard to resist. That and how damnably sexy she dressed behind those black robes. She really wasn’t wearing much more than lingerie. In addition, he knew that she was proud of her elegant, long blue legs, and always showed them off whenever she could.

Cae’tel was unpredictable when it came to sex and killing, and those two qualities seemed to be just about the only thing she did in last few years he’d known her. Though the former wasn’t so bad, it was the latter that made it not worth it.

She whispered into his ear, “Oh I think you’d come around, someone already has.” She smiled, and then removed her hood, if just so he could see her whole face more clearly. Her yellowish eyes penetrated into his. They were mesmerizing, and he lost his train of thought. Her black hair fell down to cover the left side of her face, until she brushed it back with her free hand. Yet, all he saw was her eyes, drowning out all else for the moment.

Then, memories of their past came to his mind, or were placed there, he wasn’t sure. She had such power over him. Stirring him, were recollections of the love she used to profess, and the love that he believed he could feel from her back in the day. This lasted only about twenty seconds however, and at the end he wondered if any of it was real. In spite of everything, she was a master of manipulation.

Shaking his head to clear himself of her power, he returned with his own fearsome gaze, “Cae’tel, did you ever really love me?”

She smiled wickedly, “My husband, I’ve always loved you. From the first day we met, I knew you’d be the one for me. Our time apart is very painful, and I will not allow it anymore. We will be together until the end from here on in.”

Her words made his countenance shrink. She could make one believe her when she wanted to, but it almost didn’t matter. He missed those days. He missed the warm mental image he held of her, when he believed it was real. The days when it was just the two of them and nothing else mattered. It tore him up inside.

Her hand moved from his groin, to gently caress his cheek now; right where she had both punched and slapped him. Cae’tel was doing it again. In and out he’d fade, and she could taste that he was near to the point of giving in to her. She came so close as always. He had to fight it off; he had to remember who he was, and who she really was. Jion detested her invading his mind and emotions like this. “I don’t know if I believe any of it.” Clear from her invasiveness for the moment, he could feel her thoughts turning to other means to get to him.

“You like what you see under my robes don’t you? I wore this outfit especially for you darling.”

He grinned at her while a drop of blood from his lip splashed on the sleeve of her robe. There were half a dozen soldiers in the shuttle cabin with them, and he knew she was straining herself doing this in front of them like this. She so hated when others watched. It got in the way of her mental concentration, which she needed in order to use the force to dominate him. “I didn’t know you had turned into an exhibitionist. Though if you’d like to make love right here in front of everyone, the floor is a good option.”

She flipped her head up and around to look at the others nearby and her hair flew along with it. She removed her hand from his cheek, and her lustful desire faded. Cae’tel turned back to him, “I haven’t. But when we get to Balmorra we will make up for lost time.”

The thought of her doing so would require his hands to be released, though knowing how wild and dominating in bed she could be, she might just keep them on; which might require that he find a way to get out of them himself. “I’ll bet we will.”

She roughly tapped the same cheek with her hand, “I can read your thoughts my love. No escaping now,” she smirked. “Though I am curious to see what you’ll try to do. So we shall make a game of it.”

“Cae’tel, don’t you realize that I’m just not that interested anymore. I do have a headache after all.” Jion had a difficult time justifying having sex with his estranged wife, over his love for Kaida. Then he remembered that he had to guard his every thought, but it was already too late.

Cae’tel used a finger to wipe away the blood on his lip, and then kissed him but not in any kind of gentle way. It stung, and he tried to turn away. She roughly yanked his head back to face her, “So, you do have feelings for the Jedi. Well, this was expected. Now, I will need her to get what I want from you. But I do so love our games my dear.”

“You’re not going to get it Cae’tel. I could never completely give myself to you. You are too wrong for my tastes, even though it took me years to realize it.”

“Oh, I think I will. Besides, you loved me once. Don’t you carry any of that in you anymore? The sex was mind-blowing was it not?”

The manipulations never stopped with her. On and on it went, but he wasn’t going to fall for it this time. Kaida, he had to remember Kaida. When he thought of her, it gave him strength enough to block Cae’tel out.

This was why he despised their meetings, and did everything to try and avoid her. They went through this every time, and each time she partially reached through to him. She would open his resolve just enough to sneak in. Still, in the past few years, he would berate himself over being that desperately lonely inside to accept her, even if it was just for a short while. He hated himself afterwards, he always did.

The thought occurred to him, that perhaps not all of her good side she showed him in their first years was legitimate. She knew he wasn’t like her; he wasn’t interested in the power that all Sith crave. So instead of breaking him, she very well might have been attempting to appeal to his better nature. However, he doubted she could keep it up long enough to convince him that she wasn’t inherently wicked. Nevertheless, she was on to something, and this was why he loved Kaida so much. She was the opposite of Cae’tel, she was inherently good, and it wasn’t just a show.

Cae’tel stared at him, “I know you Jion. Do not forget that,” she ran her finger along the length of his nose. Then, she turned to the soldiers behind her, “Clean him up.” After that, she left for the cockpit.

It was then that Jion became aware that Kaida Merek really was his weakness, because he would do anything for her. Though oddly, just now he felt like something was trying to get his attention through the force, and it wasn’t from his wife.

Her first memories were of her father. At the time he was everything for Kaida, and showed her all the love and caring a young girl could ever want. Her family worked for the Mining Guild, and Kaida was born on her parent’s survey ship. Her father had accepted a profitable year long expedition, scouting for minerals in unexplored areas of the galaxy. While they were in the outer rim, her father brought the ship out of hyperspace between the stars, because her mother had gone into labor. In the middle of nowhere, far from republic space, Kaida was born.

Growing up, she never really knew what happened to her mother. All that Kaida’s father told her, was that she had died when she was very young. Later, inquiring into the history of her father’s ship, she found out that they were attacked by pirates, and assumed that was how she was lost.

Kaida was kept away from a real home for several years after her birth. Her father brought her with him long after she should have been properly socialized with others her age. Apparently, he’d known since she was born that she was force sensitive, and this along with the loss of his wife, brought him to shelter her. Even when his expeditions were over, and he returned home to republic space for good, he was still reluctant to give Kaida up. Although, since a blood test was a requirement for her medical checkup to attend school on Corellia, at age six he could no longer hide the fact that she had a high midi-chlorian count. Discovering she was force sensitive, he had the Jedi knocking on his door.

Though it wasn’t impossible for the father to keep her, and the Jedi disliked taking force sensitive children once they developed a family attachment, the war demanded they kept their numbers replenished. The Jedi explained the complications that most likely would occur in her life if she wasn’t properly trained, and her father gave in. From there, he was torn away from her life when she was taken away. To Kaida, it was a hole that never healed.

The war between the Republic and the Sith had been raging for six years before she was even born, and it had cost the Jedi Order dearly in number; so much so that they fast-tracked as many younglings to padawan as possible. Being taken in several years older than what was normal, Kaida had full memory of her father, which of course led to complications. Normally however, while her situation would have been watched more carefully, times being what they were, it was overlooked. Yes, she was flawed more than most, but she was a good student, who dutifully followed her instructions. This was what the Jedi needed throughout the war, rather than focusing on perfect stability.

She was devoted to her training, but there were issues when it came to interacting with others. However, when she became a padawan, things changed when her master entered her life. Gethren Isenikaar came to mean more to her than just her trainer, he was also a friend and confidant. Gethren had an amiable personality that she quickly came to appreciate. He sensed the pain she harbored, and did his best to work with her through her issues. In the end this brought them into a close platonic relationship. Though, at times she wondered if he didn’t desire to take it further than that, because when she was in the later stages of her training, he alluded to it several times. However, the age difference of thirty years kept the issue out of the question for her, at least until she had gotten older.

Years later, when he came back to see her on Tython, he had come at an opportune moment. She had been a knight for some time, and had just had her own padawan pass the trials to leave her side, which was a sensitive issue for her, since Kaida had never dealt with separation as well as she should. So, she was vulnerable and highly emotional when Gethren came to her.

She remembered well Gethren’s words to her that day, “Join me and we can renew what we had as master and apprentice.” He meant as Sith of course, and she refused him. Then he told her how he felt. How he had missed her all those years they’d been apart, and that now that she was older, and more experienced in the force, they could be together. He confessed his love for her, and though she told him she never wanted to see him again, upon thinking about it afterwards, she realized that there was something there between them. For her it may not have been romantic feelings, but she longed to be by someone who understood her. A small part of Kaida regretted turning him down.

He left, and just as she’d told him that she never wanted to see him again, Kaida feared it would come true. Months later, she started petitioning the council to seek out and return her old master to the Order, only to be turned down every time. Then, she took it into her own hands and without sanction left the Order to do it herself. This was why she sought out Tarko, and that in turn led her to meet Jion.

However, at the moment Kaida hardly cared about her former master. She focused on only one thing, and it was a struggle not to give into negative emotions that would bring her to the darkside. In her mind she kept going over, and over, that one day she and Jion had alone on Corellia. After the cruise ship returned to Coronet City early from the attack, they quickly traveled to the far side of the planet and away from the capital. Then, they spent half a day out in the endless long grassy fields, which covered much of the part of the world they were in. They talked, laughed, but most importantly, they discussed her condition.

Jion knew how to live with it. At least she hoped he did. They meditated together, and he taught her how he dealt with anger and fear, since he’d discovered his own way of coping with them under the constant stress of the darkside. Now on Terasta Station, she was putting it to the test, but it was a struggle. Still, so far she was grateful that she hadn’t completely lost herself to rage like on the cruise ship.

While waiting for Jion and Neren to return, her alarm began when Kaida felt that something was wrong through the force. The door into the station had been closed to them, and they decided to try the next docking bay. Finding access there, Tarko and Kaida engaged in a long running battle with Imperial soldiers. This led them to the far side of the station, where she almost reached Jion before he was taken away in the imperial shuttle. However, that was when the real battle took place within her. She breathed in and out deeply, calming herself. The lure of the darkside was so powerful, that Kaida had to stop and meditate right there on the spot because she was so close to losing it. She blanked out Tarko’s shouts to get up and return to the ship with him. Then some minutes later, when she felt strong enough to return focus back on the universe around her, she stood and calmly walked with him back to The Uin.

Upon finding Neren already there, Kaida felt Tarko’s relief, though she herself hardly cared at the moment. Kossj had remained behind with the ramp up, and was ready to take off at a moment’s notice for another bay incase the doors were shut again.

Through it all, Kaida had never felt so distressed, but at the same time, as aware and alive with the force as she did right now. Everything around her was touching her thoughts, Tarko’s sense of urgency, Kossj fear of losing his friends and being alone again, and Neren . . . she calmly walked up to her and took her by both shoulders.

She looked up at the cut across her face, “Do you have any idea where they were going?” Kaida breathed in and out deeply, trying to keep calm. Even so, she felt Neren’s alarm at her impatient aggressiveness. The young woman knew where they went, Kaida could feel it. It was written all over her. When she hesitated, Kaida had violent urges of ripping the answer out with her lightsaber, or better yet, by strangling it from her with the force. Though fortunately, she was able to keep herself from doing those things.

“Balmorra. The Sith ***** said Balmorra.” Kaida felt Neren’s tension leave once she revealed it, and even a sense that with a Jedi helping, they actually had a chance to get Blue back.

Without another word, Tarko ran for the cockpit and frantically got the ship started up, and The Uin backed out of the bay. Neren leaped into the copilot’s seat while Kaida stood behind Tarko, just as she did after leaving the asteroid station. Except, hopefully this time, there wouldn’t be a fleet waiting for them right outside. She closed her eyes, and reached out with the force to see if there was any immediate danger. She felt nothing. More relaxed now, Kaida considering that despite everything, she was doing well just by hanging in there. Opening her eyes again, she watched as The Uin headed away from the station. They were seconds away from jumping into hyperspace.

“We’ll get Blue back. If I have to smash this Sith to pieces with my bare hands, we will get Blue back!” exclaimed Tarko, though Kaida could sense an inordinate amount of fear in him right now. Whether that was from concern over Jion, or from facing the Sith, she didn’t know.

Balmorra was not too distant from Corellia, but it was somewhat backtracking across the core. Needing several stops for correction, it would take them time to get there. In total it was estimated at more than three whole hours. Kaida would need to meditate, and maybe while doing that, she could reach out to him. At the least, it was worth the effort. Was it the force driving her to feel like this, or was this just genuine love? Or was it both working with each other to make it so difficult? Now she knew how force users could easily fall to the darkside. Love was really the most difficult emotion to balance. When it worked well it was fantastic. It made everything else pale in comparison, but when it didn’t, it threatened to rip all reason and sense from you.

In their quarters she sat on the mat Jion used for his meditation. Breathing in and out deeply, while slowing its pace down, she eventually found her center. Her emotions were nearly at peace again. There was no more of a whirlwind of uncontrollable anger. She remained like this for some time. Then, she reached out with the force to make contact with Jion.

At first, it was just a pebble thrown at his door. Then another, and another until he answered. She found it humorous that he didn’t know who was there, but after he finally acknowledged that someone was trying to communicate, it took him just a second to realize who it was. There was no exchange of words back and forth. It was one of emotion, and more of the sum of the message wrapped into understanding all at once.

She could feel that he was doing his best to remain calm, but he was still tense. Though he wasn’t afraid, he had however been experiencing some measure of despair when she first touched him. That started to lift now. She wanted to know if he was hurt. He replied that he had experienced much worse under his old master. She felt relieved and let him know it. Then she told him she was coming, however Jion wasn’t sure if he wanted her too; since he didn’t want her to be hurt. He let her know that they wanted her to come, and had a plan for her. In response to that, Kaida informed him that there was nothing in the universe that would prevent her from reaching him. He found that amusing, but at the same time it made him feel much better.

While they communicated like this, she felt his love for her, and it had a calming effect. The force had been with Kaida like never before while she sought him on the station, and here she was feeling his emotions almost like they were her own. Something had changed within, she felt more focused, and in tune with her abilities. When they said their farewells, she came out of her meditation calm and determined. She was no longer afraid of losing him, but she would find him no matter what, no matter the cost.

When it was nearly time to come out of hyperspace at Balmorra, Kaida went to the cockpit. Kossj was operating the turret, and Tarko and Neren were in their usual seats. They expected resistance, possibly even the whole Imperial navy. All the same, Kaida sensed that the crew was in this with her. Tarko was afraid but determined, Neren stubbornly wouldn’t back down, and Kossj would do his part. At the least, they wanted Blue back nearly as much as she did.

They exited hyperspace. Though there wasn’t a whole fleet waiting for them, there was a sizeable defense force around the planet. Tarko looked to Kaida, “If you know what to say or do, please don’t hold back. Because this is worse than anything we’ve tried to get past before.”

* * * * *

Still wearing the flex binders, Jion left the shuttle with his hands tied behind his back. The six soldiers followed after him, as Cae’tel led the way to what he assumed to be her latest home. It was a wrecked factory, long abandoned, with no sign of habitation nearby. He wasn’t too familiar with Balmorra, though he had been here once before briefly while at his master’s side. Back when he believed in what he was doing.

She led them through what at first seemed like the original door, though he noticed it was in too good of working shape to belong here. This meant that they had painstakingly done their best to disguise this place. Despite the fact that parking the shuttle out front was a dead giveaway, but now that he thought of it, that might have been left as a sign for Kaida to follow. The door opened when Cae’tel went to walk through it, and then Jion heard another shuttle coming overhead. That must have been the one Gethren was in.

The door opened up into an elevator, a turbolift that took them down a few floors. They stopped to get off into a large room. The floors, the walls, the ceiling, It was all monotonous grey plasteel. There were computer consoles along both walls to either side, along with a handful of people monitoring them. In the center of the room was a long, high bed of colorful flowers and plants. This was Cae’tel’s place alright. The soldiers shoved him forward once their mistress stepped out.

They followed her for a few meters before Cae’tel turned to her escort saying, “I won’t require your services until I return. Leave us.”

“Yes, of course,” replied the captain.

Jion followed her past the room, through a long winding corridor with many doors, to end in another large room without a door, of approximately the same size. However, this one was filled with flowers and plants that were set up in long rows. Overhead along with the normal light, he noticed there was an extra set that held artificial sunlight. There was one other door to the room, to which he already knew to be her personal chambers.

This brought to him memories of their old home together in Chiss space, back on Bogo Rai. It was basically a small facility donated to them by the Chiss Ascendency, in cooperation with the Sith Empire, and was meant to be a small force training academy. There were many rooms there, but the two of them basically only used three; the large training floor, the garden, and the bedroom. Few ever came to bother them. It wasn’t unheard of for there to be Chiss force users, but it wasn’t as common as it was outside their territory. If that was because the Ascendency was against it, or Chiss weren’t as attuned to the force as others, Jion didn’t know. He did know that the Sith were hoping for a flood of new force sensitive Chiss recruits into their ranks, which had been very slow to materialize.

Cae’tel loved her plants. She loved to cultivate and to grow them. He hadn’t shared that interest with her, but he recalled that it was one part of her that he used to adore, and admire. Though, later he learned she also liked to drain them of their life if the need came to her. Jion had always wondered if it was through her long hours spent with them, that she first discovered her bizarre ability. If it had, then it never got in the way of her interest in gardening, but perhaps gave her more of a need to do it.

She stopped to look at him, and smirked while pointing to the closed door, “In this room, my love.” He followed her inside, and she pressed a button to close it. Inside, there was a large bed, a comfortable looking two seat couch, several book shelves, and pots full of blooming flowers spread throughout. One of which was fully wilted he noticed. After seeing that, he felt his flex binders unlock in his hands a second later. “Those will be unnecessary too.”

The bindings fell to the floor and he rubbed his wrists. “Ok, I’ll bite, what’s going on?”

“You, and me. That is what is going on,” she removed her robe and displayed what she promised him underneath.

Jion looked at her curiously, “I see, so now the sex and pain begin?”

She gave him a faint smile, “If you would really like to, we can still do that. All in good time though. Sit,” she pointed to the couch.

He took a seat, “Are we to discuss things civilly?”

“Jion,” she stopped and hesitated. “You are right about me. I have been terrible.”

The rumble of laughter worked its way up from his stomach to his mouth, but he suppressed most of it, and instead let loose a small chuckle, “What has gotten into you? No, no, no! You,” he pointed at her, “are evil, and I am good. It’s always been like that. Don’t change sides now.”

She smirked, “You always were funny. But now I . . . Jion, I felt what passed between you and your Jedi love on the shuttle.”

“Are you going to give up and let me go then?” he stood.

She nodded, a solitary tear passed from her left eye.

This didn’t seem right. Was this real, or a trick? Regardless, he had had enough, of her, of the years he’d been tormented, and even of this Sith base he’d only been in for less than ten minutes. If he had an actual chance to leave then he wouldn’t refuse. Taking a few steps towards the door though, he stopped himself, “Wait.” He turned back to her. “I haven’t seen you cry in nearly ten years.” He reached out with the force and felt genuine sadness there. He struggled with the idea, but resigned himself to stay and find out what was going on. Sighing, “Alright, what is wrong my wife?” Jion felt her improve immediately, though there still was some residual grief within her.

She spoke in Cheunh now, the Chiss language. “With the hatred you showed me on Terasta Station, and the love you feel for another, it made me think. In doing so, I’ve recalled a part of me I haven’t felt for years. So yes, I have been a terrible ***** to you for most of our union.”

“Cae’tel, if this is another way to get to me . . .”

“It’s not. It’s the full truth between us. I remember loving you just as much as you love her.”

“Except, you feel nothing for me now?” he felt he had to ask. He decided to talk in his native language as well. If she was being open, and wanted to actually speak with her heart, then their language, with its myriad of different tones compared to basic was preferable. That and he hadn’t used Cheunh in a long time.

Besides, her demeanor, and the way she spoke had changed. It was softer now, and more delicate. She didn’t seem like an overbearing predator anymore. Instead, Cae’tel seemed frail, and more personable. This was a side he hadn’t seen of her since he loved her.

“I feel something; otherwise I wouldn’t be saying this to you. At first I used to think that you were obsessed with me, and that’s what started it all. I craved the closeness with you, and I wanted the passion to fuel my energies. I was deeply in love with you at one point Jion, otherwise I wouldn’t have agreed to your marriage proposal. This changed as time went on however. About the same time you lost your love for me, you became my obsession.”

“This is all well nice and good, and I wish you had said this at least five years ago. That, and turned away from your desire to use the force to drain life. Had you done so, then we could have re-kindled our relationship. Now, there isn’t much there anymore, and I love another. You drove me away Cae’tel, it was your anger, your hatred, and your consuming desire to bend me to your will.”

“Jion, you mistake me. I am not trying to get you back by saying these things. I have just come to appreciate how things have been, and are. We may not be together anymore, but we can have an understanding between us.”

“What understanding between us? I knew all of this about you years ago.”

“Then this is about my own understanding. I accept what I am. I cannot change that now.”

“You can always change Cae’tel. We aren’t stuck in a place unless you want to be. Choose to be.” Several seconds of silence passed between them, and then Jion walked over to her book shelf. He scanned the titles, “Some of these are mine. You brought them with you I see.”

She stood and came over to look at them too. Placing a hand on one particular book, she pulled it out half-way, “This was your favorite, a book on Chiss philosophy and ethics. A rare one, considering how focused we are on duty and obedience.” Cae’tel paused while pulling it out and flipping through it, “I couldn’t bring myself to part with your things.”

When she put it back, he read the title, and looked at some of the others. They were in fact his old books that he used to pour through, and study in his free time. “Philosophy is my field of interest. I learned to appreciate the workings of different modes of thought, once my whole world was gone. I had to, in order to deal with you. You took me away from our people, from my family, from my duty,” he said turning his head to look at her. Cae’tel’s yellow eyes met his, but Jion’s was the fiercer.

“I became all of that to you.”

“I didn’t ask for it.”

“But your superiors thought better.”

“That doesn’t make it right!” he realized he’d become angry. Though his emotions didn’t control him like it did for most other force users, it still had a bit of an effect. The majority of the time he could snap out of it with a thought, with some however, he needed to meditate in order to calm himself. Fortunately, experiencing Cae’tel’s fits of emotion had stimulated in him a large measure of self awareness and control during his training.

She put a hand on his shoulder, “What’s done is done. You have to live with it, and so do I. Neither of us may like it, but there it is.”

“Words of wisdom, from someone who can barely control themselves.”

“Words of wisdom indeed. Jion, a large part of the galaxy is conducted in a way that isn’t right or fair, but like I said, there it is. I am hurt, I admit it, and it is my own fault. I did drive you away from me, although that still doesn’t change a thing. I still want what I want.”

She used her hand around his shoulder to turn his body to face her. Then she hugged him, nuzzling her head along the bottom of his cheek. He resisted at first, but then relaxed. “Why don’t we just go our separate ways and forget about the whole thing?” he said.

“Ideally I would say yes,” she said with closed eyes.

“Well?”

“I can’t let you go my husband. I can’t and won’t.”

“Then what do you propose?”

“I propose you do what I’ve asked of you.”

“And I can’t do that Cae’tel.”

“I know my love. This is why it is so difficult,” she stepped back and looked him in the eyes again.

“What will happen if I give in?”

“You’ll die of course.”

“Why do you need this so badly?”

“Because, you are the only one, the only thing that can resist my ability to life drain. I have fought and killed hundreds with it, and nothing can stand in my way but you. You are the only one who could deny me my victory; of all things my own husband, right by my side.”

“It wasn’t just that, when you did try to kill me those few times, you could never defeat me in combat.”

He felt anger stir within her, “No. It is like the force itself prevented me. I don’t understand you; this, from someone so close and of my own kind too. What drives you? What makes you tick? You are an anomaly Jion, you really are. I once loved you for it, but then when I couldn’t tame you, and break you to my will, I began to hate you.”

“So that is why I must die, just to fulfill your hatred of me?”

She put a hand on his cheek, “I missed your face.” She leaned in to kiss his lips, “I miss your touch.”

Thoughts of Kaida came to him, and how much he wished he could swap away Cae’tel for her. However, he had to admit to himself that a part of him missed his wife too; this, from the good stage of their marriage. He gave in to her lips, and kissed her back, though there wasn’t the raw passion there that he had with Kaida, this was more of an attempt to re-kindle memories. She smelled wonderful, and her touch felt electric to his skin. Before he knew it, their tongues met, and he was about to start undressing himself.

She groaned with eagerness, but he stopped when he realized what he was doing. He pulled away from her, “Cae’tel, no. I can’t do it.”

She glared into his red eyes, “You love her that much to be this faithful? Am I not everything you could want? You are aroused my husband, what is wrong then?”

He looked over her body. It was exquisite, especially when shown in such an outfit that left little to the imagination, “Anyone who desires a woman, would be a damn fool not to want you on your looks alone.” He shook his head and sighed, “Ideally if things were the way they should be. You wouldn’t be this twisted soul, and you’d have me, completely. Ideally, then if that was the case, I’d end what I have with Kaida Merek, if just because I made a promise at our ceremony to be true to you. But ideals aside, you weren’t true to me, so you left me with no other choice.”

She turned away from him, and went to sit down on the bed. “I don’t think you understand what it’s all about do you?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not the sex; I wanted that just for one last time before it’s over. I mean . . . are you telling me you have no idea?”

He looked at her funny, “No. What are you talking about?”

“The force, your force power, what you do to resist me. That is what I am talking about.”

“I’m using the force right now?”

She laughed, “Jion. Do you mean to tell me you didn’t know you had this shield up all the time?”

“A shield? No.”

She looked to the floor by his feet while thinking, “You must have subconsciously put it up without even realizing it.” Meeting his eyes again, “This is what I mean when I talk about giving yourself to me. You have a shield around you that blocks out other force users, well most of it. I can still read your thoughts, and I know what you’re feeling, but I can’t compel you to do anything, or use my ability to drain you.”

There was a long moment of silence in the room, “I suppose this is why I can put up with your lightning too. I never knew I was even doing it.”

Cae’tel smirked at him, “To give yourself to me, you must let it go. Will you do that?”

He smiled back at her, “Hell no.”

“Then we are right where we started.”

He stared at her, “If you loved me you’d never ask that horrible question again.”

After he sat on the couch again, she was quiet for nearly a minute. Staring at her and trying to read her thoughts and feelings, he supposed Cae’tel hadn’t changed. Though there was a moment there that he almost thought she would. If she chose to give up on her sick ability, and forsake the darkside, then there was a small chance that he might just take her back. If Kaida could leave the Jedi Order, then why couldn’t Cae’tel break away from the darkside? He wouldn’t like the idea of ending his relationship with Kaida, but he might just do so because it was the honorable thing to do. Chiss culture demanded stoicism, and his service to his wife though grim, wasn’t over yet.

Regardless, that line of thought was short lived. She had been candid with him since he entered her room, but he knew that as soon as they were apart she’d be back to her own ways again. Really, all she had done was to attempt to justify her actions, even though she seemed to regret them. She wasn’t fully a monster, and never had been. There were aspects of her that he liked, his past and who he was had come to be too wrapped up with her, and that was what made hating her completely, a bit difficult.

“Do you know why I sent you away from me for months at a time?”

“To get me to do things I didn’t want to do, while at the same time hunting me down?”

“That’s not why at all. If you think so then you never understood me either.”

“Then tell me why.”

“It was because I was trying to break away from this desire of mine to make you submit. I want it so much though, I can’t help myself. The darkside compels me to take it from you, even though I have fought it to the point of going mad. I want you to submit, but at the same time a part of me doesn’t want to kill you. A part of me, that’s nearly dead now, only wants to return to the day of our wedding, and to live like that for all time. Do you think it’s easy to be like this? I have a hunger, a desire I cannot back away from.”

“You can force yourself to give it up! Why carry on with this insanity?”

“You are the only one I couldn’t defeat, the only one Jion. I sent you away because it was the only thing I could do. I loved you, I still . . . love you,” she looked at him with large eyes. “If I could cut this part out of me, then I would do it without hesitation. Unfortunately, I cannot, though I’ve tried. I tried so hard. I sent you away because I didn’t want to hurt you anymore. I sent you away on those tasks, because I didn’t want to give you up. Do you understand what I mean?”

“I do. Even though it changes nothing, I think the one to be pitied here is you.”

“Of that, I do not need.”

A minute of silence passed. He’d had enough now. Nothing was going to be resolved, and if he stayed long enough her emotional state would eventually turn to anger, “You said you’d let me go.”

She nodded, “You can leave whenever you like, though you will have to be escorted out by my soldiers, and you will have to wear the bindings again. Darth Isenikaar might stop you however, and there I will not interfere.”

“Why? Just let me go for bloody sake.”

“Because he and I made a pact to work together and . . . and because you will return to me of your own free will. I have seen it. So it really doesn’t matter, if I just let you walk out of her unmolested or not. You will come back, though I don’t want to make it too easy on you.”

He could feel some of her old self returning already, and he thought it best to leave right away. Looking over to the floor where the flex binders lay, he stood up, then reached his hand out and used the force to pull it to him. He placed it around his wrists himself, and heard it click shut. “I’m ready,” he said while looking at her with disdain.

Tarko was waiting for her reply. Without a doubt in her mind, Kaida already knew the answer. The door to Balmorra was left open for them. Standing behind his seat, she stared at the computer screen from over his head. The readout, detailed the frigates and interceptors on patrol, as well as a couple of orbiting stations. No one was coming out to meet them, “No there won’t be any resistance.” Then she went to the computer screen, and put her finger to a position on the planetary map. She guided it along it until she found the right spot, “There. Make for this point on the world,” she tapped. “It’s an old abandoned factory, in an area devoid of population.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Neren. Kaida eyed her for a second, and Neren just replied with, “Oh.”

Kaida was correct. The defense force didn’t even ping their ship. The Uin entered the atmosphere, and was down in the area she’d pointed to in minutes. They could see the ruins of an enormous building off in the distance, and they slowed down to approach. “That’s it. They are all down there.” She could feel Jion, Gethren, and even what she believed to be Cae’tel close. Adding to that, there was also a host of others with them. Most likely soldiers she supposed. Coming close to the structure, they saw two Imperial shuttles parked just outside of it. The area around the building was rocky and not very hospitable. Leading away from the front of the building, was a pockmarked road that went off into the distance. The factory looked like it hadn’t been used in decades, possibly even upwards of a century, since most of its roof had collapsed, leaving large parts of its top fully exposed to the elements.

“I take it this is the correct place,” said Tarko. He then touched the intercom, “Talkie, get down from the gun. We’ll need you.”

“Right, on my way boss.”

They landed on part of the road, a few hundred meters from the two shuttles. It would take a few minutes of walking to reach the building, but Tarko wanted to play it safe. He said he wanted to have a clear vision of anyone approaching, as well as having The Uin face towards the shuttles, so that if need be, he could lift off and fire on them quickly. There was no one outside they could see, and everything appeared quiet and calm. When The Uin powered down, Kaida felt the darkside waiting for them. Her old master was fully aware of her presence.

Tarko stood and looked at Kaida for a second, before moving off to the center of the ship followed by Neren. A feeling struck her then, that one or more of this crew was not going to make it out of here. The thought entered her mind of telling them they didn’t have to help. That it was too risky, and that only she had anything seriously at stake here anyway. However, even if they somehow agreed to that, she knew better. She would be facing her old master, the Chiss woman, along with potentially dozens of soldiers, and Kaida would need their help to make it through this alive.

The crew gathered in the lounge, and geared up. Tarko had two pistols, where as Kossj and Neren had one pistol each, as well as a two handed blaster. The Half-Mandalorian held a small device in his hand, and then slipped it over his right wrist. “A little something I have been saving for a long time.”

Neren looked at it, “Oh the shield.”

“Yes, but I don’t think it has much of a charge left.”

Each of them was dressed in their usual attire, which was essentially without armor. Tarko wore his customary heavy black boots, along with brown pants, and a brown vest over a white shirt. Neren was dressed in woman’s beige leggings, had a black leather coat over her brown shirt, and on her feet wore matching brown shoes. Kossj had on dark brown, leather tunic overalls. On his feet, he wore a slightly darker shade of brown boots, and had a long-sleeved green shirt under his top. Kaida noticed that his choices of color, matched pretty well with the tone of his brown skin.

Kaida had donned her old, brown robe. Though her hair was still down, she didn’t apply any makeup to her face. Albeit she was no longer a Jedi, she didn’t want to go around shouting it out loud, by wearing the look she’d wore while love struck with Jion on and since the cruise.

Kaida waited patiently. She would face Gethren, she would probably have to face Cae’tel, and she knew she’d be tested to her limits. Thankfully, since her meditation on the way here, she felt much better when dealing with the emotional aspect of it all. She was in control of herself. She’d have to be now, for if she met her old master in a confused state as she was a few hours ago, then she’d be easy prey. Kaida touched the edge of the holocron that lay in her pocket, if just to be sure it was still there. It was. Kaida was ready for this.

“Good, are we set?” asked Tarko. When no one responded, he walked over to the ramp entrance and hit the button. Tarko led the way down, followed by Neren, Kossj, and finally Kaida.

When she got to the bottom and could clearly see the building, several figures emerged from its front entrance. Tarko and his crew kept walking casually, though not without caution, since she watched his head turn to scan the area around them. Kaida was sure there were others nearby, probably set up for an ambush. Though at this point she hardly cared, all she wanted to do was to get Jion and leave. If some of the crew died, then so be it. Light or Darkside of the force, it didn’t matter to her at the moment, it was just something that had to be done and damn the cost.

Gethren and Jion were amongst those coming out to meet them. She could feel their presence before she could even make them out clearly. Cae’tel strangely was not there. Flanking them, were ten Imperial soldiers, and two armored types she assumed were bounty hunters. However, she could clearly sense more inside the factory, and others elsewhere in the rocky hills to either side. They met in the middle of the old duracrete road, halfway between The Uin and the building.

Jion, with his hands bound behind his back stared at her. She felt that he was of two minds at the moment, half of him wanted her to leave and not endanger herself, and the other half was relieved upon seeing her. Their eyes met, and she wanted to say something that would comfort both of them, but thought better of it since Gethren was right there.

Looking away from Jion, Kaida readied her mind for a showdown between herself and her old master. She knew he wouldn’t make this easy on her. Either he would offer her Jion at a cost too high to accept, or she’d have to take him by force. And she was done trying to convert him away from the Sith. He had something too important to her to play games with.

Gethren spoke first, “So Kaida, you have accepted my invitation to join me after all.”

She sneered back, “You’re a fool Gethren. I might have left the Jedi Order, but I would never join your kind.”

“It’s Darth Isenikaar now, and you will join me,” he stretched out his right hand and used the force to throw Jion forward to the ground.

He used his knees to prop himself up, and looked at her from his kneeling position. He smiled first before talking, “I don’t think it was a good idea for you four to come out here.”

“You shut up Blue, we are here to save you from these beasts!” exclaimed Tarko. She wondered if he didn’t put up such an overt display of bravado sometimes to disguise his fear, because his outward demeanor didn’t match how he felt inside. He was scared, which was odd because though this might be the worst situation she’d ever been in, it certainly wasn’t hopeless. She wondered what it was that had Tarko in such a fright.

Kaida suddenly cleared her throat, hoping to get it across to Tarko, or anyone else with her that she would handle this, “Alright, Darth Isenikaar then. Tell me what you want?”

“Your obedience, you will be my apprentice, which is a small price to pay for one you love.”

“Is that all, and what about the Chiss?”

“He gets to live, for now.”

“Kaida, Cae’tel is just using you to get to me. She’ll have us both dead if we give in,” said a relatively calm Jion.

Darth Isenikaar looked at Jion, “Not true. I want Kaida as my apprentice. What Cae’tel Yiss plans for you does truthfully involve her too, but she will not die.” He turned to look at Kaida, “Think of it. You as my apprentice and your Chiss friend goes free. That and I would like the holocron back. Then all your friends can go. We have no use for them anymore.”

“Turn around and go now, Kaida. It’s not worth it,” he said with pleading eyes.

“Jion, I would never leave you to these monsters.”

“Don’t listen to them, Kaida. They will kill us all as soon as you let them,” said Jion now more desperately.

“Then we won’t let them,” she said before her lightsaber flew to her hand and ignited. She was focused on Gethren, and moved at lightning speed towards him, this while her lightsaber was held just above her head, ready to stab downwards. The crimson light from his weapon rose to deflect her green in the last moment. Fortunately, her spur of the moment, aggressive attack took him by complete surprise, and he was forced back several steps. Not letting down for an instant, she nearly had him with a few successive strikes, but the Sith regained his composure quickly.

It took Tarko and everyone else a second to realize that the fight had begun, and Kaida heard him shout, “Ok get back to the ship!”

Absorbed with watching the fight, Tarko’s words woke Jion up, and he jumped to his feet. He ran past his captain as swiftly as he could, and caught up with Neren and Kossj.

As for Kaida, she was putting everything she had into this fight, and felt way more in tune with the force compared to her battle with the masked Sith, and especially Tyrell. She wasn’t sure exactly what had happened to elevate her to this state, though if she had to guess it was because she’d never had such a strong reason before.

She stepped back from Gethren giving pause to the duel; she had a quick chance to glance at what the others were up to. She saw Tarko backing away while still facing the Sith forces, but now he had his shield activated. It covered him in a feint red glow, and at that very moment he pulled out both blasters and began shooting at the Imperial soldiers. Two went down fast, and then the rest of them, including both bounty hunters reacted.

One bounty hunter used his jetpack, to send him up into the air and from there began firing on Tarko, while the other ran for cover behind a nearby rock. The eight imperial soldiers remained standing in the open while shooting back. “Get to safety!” she shouted to the Half-Mandalorian. Then, just as Gethren advanced on her with a sideways slash, she parried it aside, to watch Tarko turn and sprint for the ship. She even sensed that he took several hits to his shield on the way, but thankfully it only failed with the last shot it absorbed as he reached the safety of the bottom of the ramp.

Feeling that her friends were safe now, she fully concentrated on her old master. Their exchanging attacks, parries, and counters, were happening at a pace that she could only keep up with by being completely attuned to the force. She wasn’t surprised that he was this good, and more skilled than anyone else she’d ever faced, instead she was more impressed with the fact that she was able to match him; she realized though that eventually one of them would tire out.

Kaida was betting on it being him since he was significantly older. On the other hand he wasn’t the same person she knew back in her padawan years, and his conversion to the darkside possibly afforded him new abilities she hadn’t seen yet. His fighting style was close to his old ways as she remembered, though there were some subtle changes. His stance was altered, and more aggressive. Also, he didn’t hesitate to exploit any weakness, even hammering away at the same spot in an attempt to create an opening. Kaida was sure that this was the predator like Sith influence working within.

Hearing The Uin start up, she glanced towards the ship, and it almost cost her life. She parried his attack just in time, and she ducked, and then leaped backwards, if just to give her a moment to see what was happening. Kaida was just able to glimpse Jion on the bottom of the ramp with his hands free, while shooting at the soldiers, before Gethren was on her. Then the ship lifted off into the air.

* * * * *

Jion had removed his flex binders himself, by using the force. It wasn’t that he couldn’t have taken one of the soldier’s blasters from them, to help Kaida against Darth Isenikaar; it was however about one specific weapon that he needed, and that was inside his locker in The Uin. Especially since it was still fresh in his mind how futile a blaster was against Cae’tel. He ordered Kossj to grab his charric from his locker, while he remained at the bottom of the landing ramp. In the meantime he’d borrowed the Nautolan’s blaster rifle.

Tarko was up in the cockpit with Neren when it lifted off, and Jion held on to the lifter strut with his left arm, his rifle strapped over his right shoulder. He could already picture the ships guns lighting the place up. Seeing Kaida still battling her former master, he reached out to her and sensed that she was holding her own, and wasn’t in any trouble. The Imperials were still firing on him and The Uin however, and the lifter provided little cover. Then, there was a break in the shooting, and he aimed carefully while the vessel was still. Jion fired several shots at the Mandalorian who had been hovering in the air only moments ago. Thankfully, his aim was true and the target went down. Jion couldn’t see the remaining Mandalorian, and assumed the person was behind cover somewhere, so he took aim at the soldiers.

Right at that moment, The Uin dipped its head towards the shuttles and fired. Jion almost lost his rifle, and held on tightly. Tarko wasn’t holding back either. With each shot from its four forward lasers the whole cargo vessel vibrated, to then shutter with the release of its missiles. At least two salvoes were launched. He heard the explosions, but could hardly see under the nose of the box shaped craft what had been hit. However, it had to be the two shuttles.

The Uin swiveled left and right, while continuing to fire its lasers. Jion guessed that Tarko was now picking off the soldiers. It was unsaid that his captain was mindful of Kaida down there; though he still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of her being so close to it all, particularly since he was unable to see what was happening.

All of a sudden, Jion sensed a ripple in the force a second before he heard and felt it. Some new weapon was fired against them, and the whole ship shook and jerked to its right. Fortunately, his early warning had him using both arms to hold on, or he might have fallen right off. He could picture it in his mind. It was some sort of large, ground based turbolaser that had come from Cae’tel’s hidden base.

Then Kossj was at the top of the ramp with his charric rifle, but there was nothing Jion could do to safely catch it in his predicament. If The Uin was hit while reaching out for the gun, then he might lose his grip and fall. “Hold on to it Kossj!” he shouted as the ship turned to face this new foe. Just as it fired on the turbolaser, it was hit again several times. The shields must have failed, since he heard metal being pummeled.

Kossj shouted back to him, though with all the noise Jion couldn’t make it out. He gathered he was trying to say he needed to help with the ship, or worse, he was going to raise the ramp, which would preclude him from getting down to help Kaida. Nevertheless, Jion needed that gun. He looked down to the ground. It was about ten meters to the pockmarked duracrete road beneath him. Then, The Uin shook again but this time violently, as pieces of it were blasted off. It veered off to the right to avoid any more hits, but at the same time it came closer to the surface. If Tarko was going to take off now, then Kaida would be left on her own. Jion couldn’t let that happen.

Looking down, the distance was nearly half of what it was before, but now it was over rocks. He looked up at Kossj and shouted for him to jump. His friend shook his head and shouted back, “No way!” Unfortunately, the Chiss was in no mood to argue. Jion may not have liked doing this, especially to a friend, but he felt he had to. He looked up at him, closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and used the force to yank the Nautolan loose from whatever he held on to, and then Jion let go of the strut and fell.

He looked below at the rocks coming up to meet him. Jion had not even a second to use the force. With his blaster over his right shoulder, and held firm by his right hand, he used his left to slow his descent. The force allowed him to land safely on his feet, while using the rifle and his free hand, to brace himself from falling forward into a large rock in front of him.

Kossj however, was not so lucky. Jion heard the whump behind him as his friend hit the ground and made a cry, as well as the distinctive sound of his charric going off. Jion closed his eyes; he could hardly believe what he had just done. Standing up and twirling around to go to him, in the sky above, he glimpsed The Uin with its left side billowing black smoke. The ship was limping away into the distance, though it remained low to the ground as it left the area, the turbolaser continued firing. However by this point, it was out of its line of sight.

Coming to Kossj, he could see him bleeding from his mouth as he lay on his back. By chance, Kossj landed in the open between two large protruding rocks. Seemingly undamaged, Jion’s charric rifle lay beside him.

Jion breathed in and out deeply to calm himself, “I’m very sorry Kossj. Did you land on your back?”

“No. I sort of hit my side, trying to keep your rifle safe. I don’t know what it was that dislodged me. Maybe it was because The Uin was hit.”

He wasn’t aware that Jion had the ability to use the force, but it was best to keep that from him anyway. “Can you get up?”

“I think so,” he said reaching out a hand to his Chiss friend. Jion helped him up, and Kossj grunted with the effort, but seemed well enough. “Must have smacked the side of my face when I landed,” he touched the outside of his cheek. “I think I might have broken a tooth.” He felt the inside with his tongue and spat a small object into his hand, “Yup, great.”

“Well, it could have been much worse if you landed on one of these jagged rocks. Just look around us.” Suddenly, the turbolaser stopped shooting, and there was an uncomfortable silence.

“I guess, yeah.” Kossj bent over to pick up the charric, and looked it over while Jion turned back towards where Kaida would be. “Well here it is. It looks well enough, maybe just a scratch. I can buff that out and paint it when we get back to the . . .”

Jion hefted his blaster rifle, and prepared himself to go back into the fight, “Just hold on to it for me please. It doesn’t have much of a charge left.” He strained to listen, and could just barely make out the sound of the clashing lightsabers. At the least, there was no blaster fire from the soldiers anymore, and the turbolaser had stopped firing.

The Nautolan shook his head, “Sure Blue.”

“Let’s go. Kaida needs us,” said Jion already moving. Kossj followed dutifully along behind him. It took them a couple minutes to get past the rocky area and into a position to see what was going on back by the old factory. There, he could see Kaida and Darth Isenikaar still going at it. This had to count as one of the longest lightsaber duels he’d ever witnessed. Other than that, he spotted the top of the turbolaser tower sticking out next to the factory. It was some secret Sith base he concluded; one that Cae’tel had been using as her own. Outside of the factory he could see half a dozen soldiers milling about; one was inspecting the two destroyed shuttles, and the rest were pulling the mass of dead from the road towards the building.

“I’m going to need some back up here. You have your pistol with you,” he said taking aim from behind a long rock that allowed both of them concealment.

“Of course.” Kossj put the charric down and took out his blaster.

Though he wanted to help Kaida with the Sith, he thought it best to eliminate the soldiers first. “Wait for me to fire Kossj.”

“Right Blue.”

He remained patient while watching them. Then, when two of the Imperial soldiers were close enough, he fired a quick shot at each, and dropped both.

“Good shooting!” said Kossj quiet enough that it was nearly a whisper.

The other soldiers raised their rifles and began firing in the direction they believed the two shots came from. Jion ducked out of sight, and motioned for Kossj to do the same. It was better if they didn’t see exactly where they were. They blasted rocks half a dozen meters away, and this let Jion know they hadn’t pinned their position down just yet. He waited ten seconds after their return fire stopped. Then Jion motioned that he was going back up.

Quickly taking aim at the soldiers, he noticed that all four were about as close as the previous two. If he had time to think of it, he would have thought how foolish they were, that they acted invincible behind their body armor while their comrades died in droves around them. He fired three more shots, while Kossj let loose half a dozen. Three more fell, two from Jion. It seemed the scope of their vulnerability finally got through to the last soldier, since he or she began backing away while still firing at them. Kossj stood up from his cover and took aim.

The Nautolan eliminated his target, however now that he was exposed; suddenly a jetpack noise came from out of nowhere, and the other Mandalorian appeared high in the air above the road with two blasters in hand. The blue and silver paint on the armor came into Jion’s eyesight as he aimed and fired several times, but while doing this, his target fired on Kossj. The Mandalorian went crashing down to the rocks below, and Jion turned to his left to see if his friend was alright.

Kossj had been shot twice, but both were in non-critical areas. It was his right arm and left leg. He’d dropped his blaster to the ground, and was leaning forward against the large rock they had taken cover behind. “I’m ok, I’m ok,” he said to Jion as he wreathed in pain.

Jion leaned over him, “Hey, you did good. You just need to know when to duck.”

Kossj faced him and smiled, “I’m not going to die with these wounds, but I sure would like to get something for the pain.” He nodded towards his right pant leg.

Jion set down his blaster, and put his hand inside Kossj’s pocket to fish out the kolto pack. “Good, hang in there because I’m going to still need you,” Jion smirked at him.

“The republic soldiers used to have a saying, ‘Kolto for your cuts.’ But it should be, Kolto for the pain,” he said before grunting.

“Then that would make it seem much worse than it is.” Jion applied a bandage to his right arm. “For soldiers out in the field, you never make it sound bad, even if it is. Cuts works better that saying pain. Where I come from we have our own saying when someone gets injured fighting.”

“And what is that?”

“You’ll live.”

“That’s it?”

Jion cleared his throat as he moved around Kossj to apply a kolto bandage to the injured leg. “Chiss don’t complain. We are . . . very stoic.”

“I can see that. So what do you think of the injuries?”

Once the last bandage was on, Jion looked at Kossj. “You’ll live.”

The Nautolan chuckled, “At least I don’t feel it as much anymore.”

A yelp from Kaida off in the distance, and then the sound of lightsabers clashing together brought him back to focus. He grabbed his blaster rifle again, passed Kossj his pistol, and helped him move to a position where he could fire his blaster while laying on the rock.

Jion took aim at the Sith. Kaida leaped high out of the way from a slash, to end on a rock that reached up from the ground at the outside of the road. He fired. It was reflected high into the air. He fired again with a couple shots that would have been dead on. Both were reflected harmlessly away. Even so, doing this just to give Kaida a chance to catch her breath would be worth it; though in the end he realized that normal blaster fire would be useless against his target. Kossj opened fire as well, but only half his shots were of concern to his target. Nonetheless, Jion observed that it kept the Sith busy.

Then Darth Isenikaar hurled several rocks at their position, one exploding above them, hurling shards everywhere. While covering his face with his left arm, Jion was pelted with several rocks on his head, and one hit his back and stung. It must have penetrated his clothes. He was after all, still in his brown striped dress shirt. “Kossj are you ok?”

“I’m alright blue. I think a rock nicked one of my tendrils, but I’m still in it,” he said after coughing from the dust.

Jion brought his blaster to bear on the Sith again. He watched as Kaida and Darth Isenikaar slashed and parried back and forth. If he didn’t care about her he would have gladly shot, since now that he was occupied, Jion’s chances of scoring a hit were improved. But he didn’t want to take the chance of her getting in the way the last moment, or for the bolt to be reflected towards her. Now he decided to use the charric, but still, he needed an opening. They were not only whirling about when slashing at each other, but they were leaping around too. It made it very difficult to get a good clear bead on the Sith even without worrying about it being reflected.

“Kossj, don’t fire yet. Hand me the rifle please.” Setting aside the blaster for the charric, he looked at the charge meter. He sighed. Of course it hadn’t changed in the months since he’d use it last, though he wished it had. It was so low it barely registered, and he’d be lucky to get off a few shots. It didn’t help that one was wasted when Kossj fell. He held it in front of him while leaning against the rock, “Wait for it.”

Kaida and the Sith dueled at close quarters for twenty seconds, before he leaped away to land near Jion. He was closer now, than he had been so far in the entire fight. Currently, Kaida and his target were far enough apart, and Jion used the force to hit Kaida with, “Stop! Leave him to me.” Out loud he said, “Now Kossj!” The Nautolan fired. The shots went out wildly towards his target, catching Darth Isenikaar’s attention.

The Sith was busy reflecting all the ones that came close, and Kaida had gotten the message. Jion aimed, and then said, “Now try reflecting this one.” He pulled the trigger after getting a good bead, and when Darth Isenikaar moved his lightsaber to reflect the shot, he found it went right through. Jion pulled the trigger again, and nothing. “Ktah!” The shot had hit right above the heart, and though wounded, his target wasn’t out yet.

* * * * *

“They’re gone!” yelled Neren. The Uin had set down just a minute before, and she’d come back to the cockpit, right when Tarko had finished monitoring the ships systems for the damage report.

“What do you mean they are gone?”

“I checked the ramp, I checked the whole ship. They’re not onboard anymore!”

Tarko stood up and faced her, while running his hands through his fine blonde hair, “What happened, did they get shot when they were down there?”

“Try the comm.”

Tarko pressed a button on the comlink attached to his left wrist, “Talkie! Are you there Talkie? This is base.” He looked at her, his face revealing a lot of concern, “Talkie come in.”

“This is Talkie. Where are you base?”

“Base is out of the races, and is resting on the couch. The kind of down time Talkie lives for.”

“Copy Base.”

“How is Talkie, Blue and . . .”

“We’re still in the game, though the races were rough, Blue hasn’t lost a bet so far. Talkie might need to take a break for a while, and work off the debt though.”

Oh this was ridiculous. It was an Imperial base that they were only a few kilometers away from. Neren put her left wrist to her face and hit her comm, “Kossj, this is Neren. Are you ok?”

Tarko gave Neren a look of horror, “What are you doing?”

“Tarko! They are monitoring us, and they know who we are. This is a stupid game to play right now.”

“Don’t break protocol. It’s how we smugglers survive out there.”

Kossj replied, “I’ve been shot, but I’ll be ok. The others are fine.”

Neren felt relieved, “We’ll come and pick you all up as soon as we can.”

Tarko stepped towards her, and swatted Neren’s wrist away from her face, “Stop that!”

“Copy that um, Base,” replied Kossj.

Neren glared at her captain, “What has gotten into you, Tarko?”

“My sense of survival, I haven’t decided what we’re going to do yet.”

She shook her head, “I don’t understand. What else is there to do?”

“Neren, The Uin is damaged. I haven’t even had a chance to see how bad it is. Talkie and Blue are with the Sith. And a great big turbolaser came out of the ground to blast the ship. What am I supposed to do?” he said heatedly.

“We don’t abandon crewmates Captain Jornaa,” she crossed her arms and stood her ground.

“We don’t get in over our heads like this!” They stared at each other for a few seconds. “Neren don’t give your captain that look,” he said calmly. “We need to go inspect the damage before we can decide anything.”

“Fine, let’s see how much hurt The Uin took first, but I’m not going to change my mind.”

“We’ll see,” he said before leaving the cockpit.

She followed behind him, though her anger had subsided for the moment, there was no way she was going to leave them here, even if the ship would never fly again.

“The damage report showed the port engine was overheating and needed to be shut down,” They went through the lounge, “Did you close the ramp?”

“Of course Captain.”

“It took out our port missile launcher, and damaged the shield emitter,” he turned to Neren. “Let’s just hope they didn’t put a hole through the side of the ship. We can’t go into space venting atmosphere. Though there is no smoke inside, this tells me that the armor held.”

She shook her head in agreement, “Right again Captain.”

“Neren! When do you just call me captain?”

“Well . . .” she stared him down. “What did you say to me when we left Nar Shaddaa?”

Tarko thought about it for a moment, “I think I told you to forget the whole thing, which sounds like good advice to me right now.”

She almost leaped forward to slap his face, but held back. “Tarko! We are family, and we don’t abandon them! Before coming here, we were all going to settle down on your planet and live in our own community.”

“That was before. I didn’t know the Sith wanted Blue so bad. One thing I have come to realize Neren, is that you don’t mess with the Sith. Even the Exchange and the Hutts don’t measure against them.”

“I don’t care if we are fighting the universe itself. Family is family.”

Tarko turned away from her and left for the aft. Talking mostly to himself now, he said, “I need to check on the ship and do what repairs I can. Talkie and Blue aren’t here, so that leaves the job to me.”

Neren knew very little about ships, and engines, but she had helped however she could over the years; which just usually meant passing the correct tools to Kossj or Tarko. She sighed, “Tarko, I’m coming to help.”

It took them ten minutes for Tarko to figure out where the damage in the coolant line was. Holding the datapad over it, he scanned the readout. “I can’t replace this. It’s on the outside, and we have no spare tubing.”

“Kossj might be able to come up with a work around.”

Tarko put his hand to his chin as he turned, and walked towards the back, “I could lower the power output in the port engine; its only one of the two coolants tubes after all. It wouldn’t give us as much, but at least we wouldn’t need to go with one working engine. Though I better turn that pipe off, otherwise it’ll just leak over the side of the ship.”

At least things didn’t appear as hopeless as Tarko was letting on at first. The man could be very stubborn at times. Panic about the state of The Uin had probably turned into fear about fighting the Sith in his mind. Though this side of him Neren hadn’t seen before, and it bothered her that he would just cut and run like that. While Tarko was down on the floor adjusting the engine, Neren thought of her crewmates and became worried. She even wished Kaida would come out of this ok. At the least, Blue deserved to be happy.

“Ok that should work. Though there is no guarantee it just won’t blow when I start it up again.”

“I suppose we have no choice.” A few minutes later, both of them were in the cockpit, and Neren was practically praying to get out of this situation. When Tarko started The Uin’s engines, the whole ship rumbled for a few seconds and Neren braced for the worst. It settled down after a moment but it didn’t sound too healthy. “Is it going to be ok?”

Tarko turned from the pilot’s seat, and looked at her with clenched teeth, “I . . . hope so. We need to run it for a few minutes to be sure.”

“Oh by the . . . ! I thought you knew what you were doing!”

“Neren, if you haven’t guessed by now. This planet I refer to for us to settle down on, is my home planet.”

“I don’t get it, what are you trying to say?”

Tarko turned to monitor the computer for a few seconds before facing her again, “I.” he sighed. “I was part of this community that had gone to this unknown world we later named Penataire. It was in my grandfather’s time. There were just a few hundred of us, and no other intelligent life lived on this garden planet. It was before the war obviously, because I’m coming up on forty five soon, and the Treaty of Coruscant was ten years ago. So we are talking maybe sixty or more years back.”

“Ok so you come from some unknown planet with hardly anyone living there,” she said testily. She was about to tell him none of that mattered, that we still needed to get their crew back. However, Neren had the notion to stop and listen this time. Patience had never been her strong point, though with recent events, she was beginning to appreciate the concept. Besides, what he was saying seemed to hint at just a little more than why his repair skills were lacking. Perhaps this was where he was going to explain why he would be willing to leave without the others.

“We had a problem with a group of Mandalorian raiders in the area,” he hesitated.

“Go on.”

“My mother was ***** in one of their raids, and nine months later I came out.”

“Oh.”

“She couldn’t bear to look at me apparently, and sent me off to another family on the far side of our world, where a group from the colony had split off for some of the best soil that Penataire had to offer. Though, I was never really accepted by anyone. They kept calling me that Mandalorian kid. When I was nineteen I learned how to pilot our only working ship, and took over that role from my adoptive father. I shot down my first enemy shortly after. Since, the osik Mandalorians wouldn’t leave us alone,” he took in a deep breath while staring at the control panel.

She stared at him for a moment, “But what does this have to do with anything?”

“It has lots to do with anything since I am not finished my story!”

“Let me guess, you went on a spree of revenge against every Mandalorian after that?”

“No. When I was young at the time I felt like that. But growing older, and seeing the galaxy makes one think more. Now, I may not like Mandalorians, but I don’t hate them. I am part Mandalorian.”

“If you shot down one of their ships, then weren’t the people happy with you?”

“Maybe a little, but I was still not one of them. Not fully, and I doubt I ever could be. A few years later, when they came back, by then I had managed to find myself someone who accepted me. He and I lived on our own, and even took care of an orphan girl that we accepted as our daughter.”

Neren was getting a sinking feeling in her stomach when it started to come together in her head, and she wondered if Tarko even realized it, “Go on.”

“Our happy home was attacked, and they killed those I loved, then they burned my house and farm down. After that I couldn’t stay on my home world anymore. There was nothing there for me, the people hated me, so I stole the one ship they had and left. I’ve lived out in the stars for the last twenty years. So now you know why I know so little about repairing. Farming I know, raising crops, and Nerfs, I know. Flying ships I know, but fixing ships? I didn’t go to any school to learn engines; I just learned what I have learned, along the way from people willing to show me when needed. Though I have to admit, I like the flying and shooting, not the fixing. The fixing is what Talkie is for.”

He confirmed it then for her. Getting away from tough situations was all he and his people ever did. When things got bad, they ran. They settled a world away from everyone else in the galaxy, one without any other sentient’s, they didn’t accept Tarko because they saw their enemy in him, and so he left to be away from them. Then, when his loved ones were killed, he left too. All this man knew to do was to run when times got hard.

It was a story he didn’t feel too comfortable speaking of. That and it dawned on her that perhaps one of the reasons he took care of her, and accepted her for all her faults, was that she reminded him of that little girl. Everyone seemed to have their secret past aboard this ship. Though to her, none compared to the revelation that Blue was married to that insane Chiss woman.

However, now he wanted to cut everything and run again, even if it meant going back to that world to live on his own, and even if it meant leaving three members behind. Neren reached over to touch his hand, “Hey, Tarko? We’ll get Blue, and Kaida, and Kossj, and go back there as one family. We do it together, or we don’t go at all.”

He glanced at the instruments, and then stared at the computer for a second, “The port engine seems to be functioning at about forty percent.”

“So, what do you say? How about if we can get it up in the air, we go get our family back?”

Tarko nodded, without saying a thing.