Star Wars: Brave Misdeeds

Chapter 7

"To the moral mind, courage and faith are the same virtue."          —Keets <DSL>

"Soelle. Soelle? Soelle!"

Soelle tried to shake herself free of the mindless haze to which she had escaped. She was unsuccessful and remained imprisoned in a medically induced fog. There was no doubt in her mind. The nightmare was getting worse, far more personal. Rather than being the victim again, Soelle determined to act against the traitor. Lomm once told her that to take charge in one's dreams was to control the outcome of the vision. Upon entering the surreal scene, Soelle struggled desperately to act against fate. While lying on her stomach, staring into the desert valley floor, she fought in vain to turn herself over. If she could avoid the first deadly, mortal blow of the traitor's lightsaber, she might forever terminate the dream itself. However, like a freighter caught in a tractor beam, unable to deviate course, she was forced to suffer the same fate as she had in previous dreams.

Who was this unfortunate man? Soelle thought in desperation. Why was she doomed to relive his mistakes? When the agony and the sound of her own scream awakened her, there was only one thing Soelle found she could control—her tears. She was determined; there would be no tears. No tears.

"Soelle!"

Thickened with moisture and sweat, the slave collar at her neck drooped heavy on her shoulders. The worn leather caught and held the chill in the Talus night air, transferring it to her skin. Soelle shivered. In a few hours, she was supposed to fly to Naboo on a reconnaissance mission to track Rebel base locations. If the Rebels were watching her, she had planned similar trips to Lok and Tatooine to divert them. The journey would take time, most of the morning and the day, as she collated coordinates and verified them. That left little time before the base operation on Naboo that very night. She needed to be sharp, to be fresh, to be alert. There was no time for the intrusion of dreams, good or bad. To avoid the nightmare, she took a double dose of the sedative Kesi gave to her; it had failed to keep the terror away.

"Soelle! Halle metes chun, petchuk!"

Startled by the severe tone of the voice calling her and the choice of expletives spoken in her native Socorran, Soelle dragged herself from the thick reverie of her mind. "So'kea," she whispered lethargically, her voice heavily slurred. "So'kea." Her bare feet ached unbearably. They were cramped and throbbing from where she had placed too much weight on them in the stirrups. Clamped against the saddleflaps, her thighs burned and threatened Rebellion under the strain of her exertions. Beneath her, Rosebud cantered aimlessly in erratic circles in the town square. Badly winded, his fur soaked through with sweat, the falumpaset remained ever obedient and continued to lope though he was swiftly approaching exhaustion.

"Soelle!" Memcha screamed. Out of breath from chasing after the bolting falumpaset, the Twi'lek managed to snatch the reins and brought the animal to an abrupt halt. Gasping for breath, Rosebud laid his head on her shoulder and panted. Suffering the mental link with the beast, Memcha sensed he was near collapse. "What manner of insanity is this!" the Twi'lek demanded from his rider. Using the momentum of the sudden stop, Memcha yanked Soelle from the saddle.

Legs muscles failing her, a disoriented Soelle tumbled from the saddle and fell into the thick grass. Rolling to her knees, she continued to fight her way through the seductive embrace of the powerful sedative. Nearly as breathless as the falumpaset, the young soldier laid in the grass, fingers digging into the soil as if to find an anchor point..

Infuriated by the condition of the falumpaset and Soelle's apparent disregard for the animal's welfare, Memcha yanked the base-buster to her feet by her arm. It wasn't until Soelle incoherently sank back to the grass and began mumbling unintelligibly that Memcha softened. A scientist, she recognized the mark of an overdose and the culmination of consequences from weeks of poor sleep and mentally disturbing dreams.