FORESIGHT and SCOPE: BOOK TWO

C H A P T E R S E V E N T Y

FERN'S POV

THE NEXT MORNING...

"Y-you" Tech stuttered, completely petrified with apprehension. "have selected me to be the one who accompanies you down the aisle?..."

"Who else would I ask?" I scrunched my nose, amused by his reaction to my out-of-this-galaxy request. I then reached out and grasped his hand. Boy, I'd wish I caught an image of his face... "I want my best friend—you—with me all the way."

The intellectual clone's bulging, light-brown eyes shimmered with emotion behind his spectacles. His fingers closed over mine and squeezed tightly. So much so, our connected hands trembled. "It would be my absolute honor, Fern."

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"Lyana, go fetch that green box from my closet. It'll be on the bottom probably buried underneath something." Phee casually waved the tan-skinned girl on, then narrowed her eyes at me mischievously as she pointed down at a lone stool in the room Omega and I have been bunking since our first week on Pabu. "You, Fern, sit here."

"This really isn't necessary." I insisted, knowing what she was up to. I shuffled over as a Hutt's sluggish pace. "Hunter and I just want to exchange some vows while Shep officiates."

"That's fine," the pirate shrugged as she grew impatient and forced me down by my shoulders. Once I was planted, she began unbraiding my hair. "but you are going to look like a bride doing it." She then fished out a shell-encrusted comb from the vanity's drawer and gently smoothed out my wavy locks. Omega observed from afar, stooped on the foot of the bed with her legs crossed. A broad smile remained plastered on her face.

A bride...? I swallowed the anxious lump forming in my throat.

I've never considered...nor imagined that I would become one after Hunter proposed... It never occurred to me up until this very moment that I—a genetically-modified clone soldier—had the capability of becoming one in a future beyond war...

What a surreal feeling...I've been engaged with Hunter for approximately fourteen hours and within the next two or less, we will be legally married. By the Force, we really did spring this on Shep last night, didn't we? He seemed more than happy—not at all offended we didn't give him a full-day notice...Then again—

"I got it!"

Interrupting my entranced thoughts, Lyana burst into the room with a large, rectangular container in her arms. It was definitely green, with gold trimming and regal-like designs on its surface area.

"Nicely done!" Phee cheeked. "Bring it here; we'll open it once we are done pampering this lucky woman right here." She clapped both hands on the outside of my upper arms, causing me to jolt in my spot, and she shook me playfully. I whipped around and jabbed a finger at her with a wrinkled nose. "No pampering, Phee."

"Trust me, Fern." She slurred, swivelling me back to the front and resumed her grooming.

I reluctantly did as I was told, double-crossing my legs to restrain from squirming. There was no mirror (for that would ruin the final reveal); my anxiety flucuated, spiking every minute or so, then dulling down until my whole body felt heavy, weighing me into the stool. Phee had to occasionally remind me to straighten my posture. She brushed, trimmed with a thin pair of shears, and adorned my raven locks. Periodically, she requested a colored ribbon from the vanity's counter, to which I obliged with a bleak groan of uncertainity. I began to regret my committment in trusting the humming pirate when Lyana laid out an assortment of natural make-up products...