Across the Stars

Chapter 5

Shira stood in front of the clones, waiting for the ramp to lower. Rex couldn't take his eyes off her. He found himself memorizing her. The way her curls laid on her shoulders, the way she held herself. The slight lean on her right foot. Her shoulders up and back, tall, and proud, but at the same time open and inviting. Her hands, not soft and delicate, but sturdy and solid. This woman was so different than the one he had pictured.

The ramp finally hissed and lowered to the ground. Shira took a deep breath and plastered the most fake smile Rex had seen her use yet. She practically glided down the ramp to the landing pad. Ah, there's the senator I've been expecting.

"Mr. President." Shira's sugar-coated voice rang across the landing pad. She walked over to a man, and Rex couldn't help but be instantly disgusted.

This man was different from Shira in almost every regard. His black hair had been gelled to within an inch of its life, his clothing reeked of money. Currently he wore an elaborate black and blue robe over a green tunic with heavy embroidery. His trousers ballooned down to his knees where he wore stiff brown boots polished so much Rex could see Shira's reflection inside of them. His posture was as stiff as a rod and his blue eyes were hard and sharp. His smile was more of a sneer when he watched Shira nod her head in submission.

The man raised Shira's hand to his lips and pressed a long showy kiss to her fingers. Rex frowned and glared at the man from behind his helmet. This man clearly would throw her off the landing pad if he thought it would do him good.

Rex was interrupted from his analysis of the Senator and the President of Brentaal by a personal comm link with Hod.

"That guy's a piece of work."

"You said it."

"The Senator sure is laying on the smiles now. Wonder if she was just playing with us."

"No." Rex said a little too quickly and forcefully.

Hod chuckled. "Touched a tender nerve, have I vod?"

Rex blushed under his helmet. "She's clearly laying this on. This is the act. Surely you can see that."

"I didn't say this wasn't an act. I only said that she's good at it. Maybe she could just be doing an act with us. She is a senator after all."

"It's not an act Hod. Trust me."

"Oh? How do you know?"

Rex paused. How did he know? Maybe the senator was just putting on a brave humanitarian face for the clones. Maybe she would send them to death just as fast as this President would.

Rex shook his head. The way she talked to them, the way she cared, and was open, that was real. "You've seen her Hod. You really think she's corrupt?" better to turn the question back on Hod then let him in on the moment he had had with the senator earlier.

Hod paused, thinking through the brief time he had spent with the Senator. "First impression? No. She seems like one of the good ones. I guess we'll have to see what happens next."

A new voice cracked through the comm, Razor.

"Cut the chatter you too. We're moving out." Razor hadn't heard the conversation as it was an internal comm line, but could tell from the way Rex and Hod had slightly turned into each other and the nodding of their heads in conversation that they were talking.

Rex looked forward and saw the President and the Senator were now moving towards what Rex could only describe as a palace. Rex finally looked around and did a double take. He had seen pictures of Brentaal, but they really didn't do it justice. Birds sang as the flew, providing music as Rex looked around. The palace was built into the side of a mountain full of trees. Most were green but the occasional blue or purple gave the whole forest a mystical feel. Rex heard the babbling of a waterfall crashing down in the distance. The only planets Rex had been to were Kamino, Geonosis, and Coruscant, and they all paled in comparison.

Rex was shaken out of his trance of the planet by Hod shoving his shoulder and laughing. "Come on vod'ika, we've got a senator to protect. You can look at the flowers later."

Rex smiled. Vod'ika. No one had really called him that besides Cody and Wolffe. Rex was almost exactly the same age as Hod, but now he had been adopted as a little brother. Rex didn't really mind so much now that he thought of it.

Rex took one last look at the world around him teeming with life before he turned and chased after his new ori'vod.