DISTANT HONKING IS NEARLY DROWNED by the bustling of the Rebel shipyard and the corridors that lie beyond. While soldiers unload and disperse, groups of orphans are escorted by guards. The older ones: handcuffed, heading to another ship. The younger ones: get loaded into transport vehicles.
The honking races quickly through the corridors, the source's vehicle carrying two men: the driver and a man in black.
—HONK HONK—"LOOKOUT HERE WE COME!" the driver yells as he jerks around the corner.
The jostle breaks Luke's anxious over-concentration—fortunately—and he manages to stop himself from fiddling with his hands. He closes his eyes to meditate, to calm himself so he can—hopefully—think clearly about the danger at hand.
Another Jedi. Undercover. Killed a Sith Lord and a kid. A strange feeling. Female. A woman—no, I can't let—
—HONK HONK—"MOVE PLEASE! LUKE SKYWALKER HERE! PLEASE MOVE!"
"Please don't use my name," Luke politely groans the reprimand with a mix of guilt and unease. "It makes me sound like royalty."
"But you are, Sir. You are to us," says the driver, nervously looking back and forth between Luke and their path.
"Just don't please," not surprised, but otherwise bothered by such admiration.
"But it worked loads better than just honking and yelling."
.
Luke rushes through a door that is guarded by a dozen Rebel soldiers with unreasonably large blasters. He enters a small industrial cargo bay with more of the same guards surrounding his sister. She's too focused on speaking to eye Luke, but her large sigh and loosening joints helps to confirm that she felt his presence. He stands behind her guards where he could see who she was talking to.
A woman dressed in black sits handcuffed in a cage with semitransparent walls of a glowing pinkish-yellow substance. She sits on the floor looking at Leia peacefully, with a faint smile of optimistic invincibility.
"No, there are always options, with time, and you have no right to now," Leia berates her.
"I had no choice," she says softly, "it goes higher than laws or what I wanted, and again I didn't know your law until I felt your shock," the woman replies. Her tone maintains a stable range between monotone and politely informing, with only a hint of frustration. "He assigned me to his orphan training facilities because of such a thing. He didn't want to destroy potential soldiers any more than I did."
The guards open just slightly to let Luke in Leia's circle. He stands next to her as they each put an arm around the other in unison. From here on, they never really stop making physical contact in some way, whether supportive or casual, whether standing arm to arm, or a hand casually on the back or shoulder. A natural closeness of being so bonded.
Leia sighs. She finds it hard to take her eyes from their prisoner, but equally as hard to take her eyes off her brother, so she alternates between the two. "Luke, I haven't been able to interrogate her for very long, I'm so glad you made it here quickly, I don't have much time before I'm required at a very important reconnaissance meeting, I haven't been able to get much of a real feeling of her because I need to keep her in this Plasma Carriage—it's made out of the same stuff that barrier was that we couldn't use our power through to push buttons—"
"Right, she might use her powers on us too," giving a look into Leia's eyes to remind her he could read her. Over the years, it was becoming easier to read Leia's specific thoughts due to them both training in the Force.
Leia was more than overwhelmed to be able to read his in this moment however, but the reassurance that he could read hers eased her a little further. "I found a bounty posting for her—from us—so I sent 3PO and R2 to get—"
"That could take forever they walk so slow. How much time do you have?"
"I put—"
"Oh," mind-reading it.
"—them on a truck. Yes, thank you." She reaffirms her grasp of his arm, grateful that she wouldn't have to waste as much time explaining everything, grateful even more-so for the one true companion she had in this world. "I wish I could just hand over jurisdiction to you so you could continue when I leave, and I don't even think holding her much longer is safe: the cage must open to feed her."
"I haven't heard of Audinic either by the way. Do you have the bounty entry to pull up?"
"I think I can here, but we won't be able to see the hologram here until R2 gets back," Leia says, motioning her guards to follow her to a computer and starts searching through entries. "The name she gave me was Terra Go of the Light of Audinic... But her name with the Sith is—was—Blazen. She was being groomed as an apprentice... The name 'Blazen' doesn't show up but 'Terra' did." Finding the entry, "Ok, here: Terra of the True Light."
The woman speaks up, almost jocular, "Only half of that is right—or two-thirds, whatever—It's funny, Terra's apparently a common name, so you people tend to call me it like you're nicknaming a pet or something. But it's Terigo please. T-e-r-i-g-o. Type that in. I'm curious if anything pops up." Leia and too many others had been mistaken by the 'reh'/'ruh' of the ri syllable sounding too similar to the 'raw' of Terra.
"Anyways," Leia and Luke turn from her, "Terra is from—"
She laughs: "Oh come on!" making a playful cross-armed pout for just a moment.
Luke felt Leia was equally as stunned by the woman's mood. She faces death or imprisonment without concern? Without fear?
"And—"
But the door opens and R2 and 3PO wobble in as fast they can.
"Master Luke!" 3PO says. "It is so good to see you back."
Luke only gives him a nod and follows R2 to the computer, hoping 3PO will get the hint he's busy with thoughts. Once R2 is hooked in, Leia starts sifting through files on the screen.
"Okay, so here's the details of the bounty posting: He was on the—"
"He?" Luke asks.
"Well," Leia stretches belief, "maybe she was undercover, like with the Sith."
"Well, then just look for a holo."
Leia's frustration pushes her to continue reading, wanting to find something that matches this sane-looking psychopath, "He/she was on the Jedi High Council but banned for following his depraved religion of the True Light and its sadistic trainings."
"R2, just pull up the holo," Luke says.
And projected out of R2, there it shines. A large holo of him talking. Just him; the others are cropped off-screen for the bounty entry, and the audio is turned off.
The image is indeed a man. No older than 50, with a youthful face that even a Sith Lord would call beautiful. His teeth show frequently through his continuous smiles, and his giggle moves his whole body, genuinely; not one perfunctory white-lie in any ounce of his gestures. This man... if he had hugged you as a stranger, you would feel glad he did. Luke and Leia even seem to become softer watching him.
R2 warbles.
3PO says, "R2 says his home is a planet called Audinic, which was destroyed a few years ago. R2 also says the entry says his age is 722,—"
"What?!" Leia says.
"—and the entry is 110 years old, but this most recent holo was recorded 5 years ago. R2, are you sure? That's not possible. I'm terribly sorry Master Luke, but R2 has become quite fond of this system's network grid in the past week and hasn't been himself lately."
R2 warbles a retort.
"What do large processors have to do with anything," 3PO retorts. "She's just a computer."
Luke was still pondering the holo, but was not as surprised by the age as Leia. Transfixed by the holo, he tells her, "Yoda was 900. I had always thought it was just his race that allowed him to live that long, but this man is human. Maybe it has more to do with the Force..."
"May I see?" the woman asks, nearly solemn if not for a desperation in her breath, almost choking her. "Does it say where he was last seen?"
Luke and Leia turn to her and see she is on her knees perched as high as she can, trying to peek at the holo. Catching their eyes, she returns herself to a sitting pose and smiles as if she said I'm being good, so can I?
Leia says, "R2, go show her."
R2 moves to her and projects it just outside her cage wall. She squints past the plasma and her eyes wonder many things.
"I think..." she says, "...this is my greatest grandfather, I was named after him. I don't know for sure, I only met him once when I was little, but he would be about 700—The Light rejuvenates you while the Dark ages you—And my greatest grandfather's name is Terra and he was on the Jedi High Council, but I don't know what the True Light is."
Luke says, "How old are you?"
"27." Two years older than Luke and Leia.
"Anyways," Leia says, "What's so sadistic about your religion that we would put a bounty on a Jedi Master for a million credits," and mumbling under her breath: "(which is more than we can spare)."
"I have no idea," but she wonders about their reaction when she killed the child. Her tone, as it has been, maintains a stable range between monotone and politely informing, "But I also don't understand your people and what you would consider sadistic. I don't exactly understand why I'm here," motioning to the cage.
"Because you killed a child and you see nothing wrong with it!" Leia roars. "You commanded his gun away, so you could have commanded him into custody."
The woman's informing tone doesn't change in the least from before, "Saying the same thing doesn't help me understand. I felt that was too much of a risk, not knowing your laws, and considering you wouldn't believe me—don't believe me. Telem used me here because my powers can see into people with that much depth, but that trust took time. This boy was on the edge of acting now. He could have found any means of attack and wanted to shoot you into dust right then and there. I figured at best he would be executed anyways, but anything less than that was too risky. I apologize that I was unaware of what more I could have done, but I can't apologize for saving you. Your death would've killed thousands in the long run, millions. And he would have never joined the Rebellion, not without being a spy for the Empire, not with that much fear and hatred."
Leia rolled her eyes, having wanted to spit on every word, but Luke had been thinking about them. He was wondering about the woman's lack of fear and her determined, stable eyes—whether they were from emotional control, or maybe she was so powerful there was nothing to fear, or was she just insane despite her sane eyes? Two of those three options were deadly. He was no longer stunned by her composure, and instead: disturbed.
"What did you feel?" Luke asks.
"She said she felt incurable Darkness in him, the kind that the Sith covet and use to create their sickest soldiers, and that the kid wanted to kill us all. But she did NOT see the future of that young boy's life. We can't know the future."
Luke knew better but kept his mouth shut.
"Really?" the woman says, a hint of irritation back again, with a sliver of condescendence, but mostly hidden by her sunny glow, "It's all random? Then why do we make any decisions at all?"
"Well," says Leia, searching for words, but refusing to be proven wrong, "some things are more likely than others."
"Exactly. Hence my decision."
"You didn't even give him a chance! People change. Our, father, changed after a life of Darkness." She nearly spat on the word 'father,' despising the word for what sickness she witnessed in him, destroying her family and home in seconds. But Luke had always pushed that Vader had changed back to Anakin, so she hoped it was true to at least win this argument.
"Leia," Luke starts to speak quietly to her, but when he puts his hand on her back, she senses the rest in his mind, "Calm your anger, I can (feel it begin to cloud your judgment)."
She turns to him and almost growls, but she turns away from them both to close her eyes and do a short meditation. She tries to relax the Force's essence-heat caused by anger, but urgent thoughts distract her. "I don't have time for this—"
"I never met Vader, but all Dark users seem to suffer from something," the woman says. "I don't want anyone else to suffer from the Dark," and she mumbles almost to just herself: "(which is why I don't want to kill anyone to escape)."
"Oh but you'll kill a child?!" Leia yells.
"Hey. I saved a child," she says, calm, "and the thousands he would have caused to die. (Why are you people are so simple minded about these things?)" she mostly asks herself. "How is it that any of you can become Jedi with such impulsive thinking." Amidst her neutral expression, Luke sees her smile now seems forced, as if fighting off something within herself. "Would you rather have had someone kill your father when he was a smiling child, or say 'no let's just wait to see if he kills ten billion people first, and then decide, we'll just apologize to the widows and orphans, they'll understand, we saved one child to put ten billion at risk, and oops, we guessed wrong, our impulsive emotions trump rational thought.' "
Leia was beside herself, so Luke felt he should take over to let her calm, if possible. "If he had died young, he wouldn't have created us," putting both hands on Leia's shoulders, "So I can at least be grateful for that."
"What?!........"
Luke and Leia start.
The woman's voice was sharp, incredulous, disgusted, and her brow furrowing more and more. "You're grateful?... You really think you're worth ten billion lives?! You self-important child! Selfish sick BASTARD!"—BAM zzpt ZAP ZAP—In one second, her fist had slammed the floor, sparks flew from it, a bolt of electricity burst from her body, hitting the cage, and a second bolt hit the wall's cables. Now lights in the grid around her flicker and shut off. The darkness hides her completely.
"TAKE AIM! MOVE BACK MOVE BACK!" Leia commands, pulling out her blaster, and Luke pulls out his lightsaber, ready to unsheathe it, cautious, moving back with the group.
Emergency lights turn on, casting yellow light behind her, shadowing her face. She was sitting as she was. Luke hears her breathing deeply through her nose and possibly whispering. Whispering? He stretches his Force's essence out to get a better sense of her intentions.
With a voice drained of all life except a faint whim, she says, "Ten billion lives. You make me sick, kid. I would gladly give my life for a thousand, but I feel I can save more." The last bit sounded like it cheered her up.
A short moment of tense silence goes by. Softly, politely, she says, "Your handcuffs broke from the shock. Sorry," sounding genuinely so. She moves her arm to toss it—
"STOP! Don't move! Stay where you are and don't do anything!" Leia commands, with her hand aimed at the woman's mind.
"Leia," Luke murmurs, "that won't work on her, sh—" but he watches the woman obey.
"It's worked so far, see." Leia says, "How else do you think I got her into the cage. She wouldn't have gone willingly." At no point do either of them take their eyes off of her.
"Maybe she did, or—" Luke says as Leia senses the rest in his mind.
"Faking? Hell," Leia says, "then she's just faking to penetrate our forces and take us out from the inside," strengthening her grasp of her blaster, yet her body creaking with the rest of the men about what move to make.
"(Ow)," they barely hear the woman say, her leg jerking off the hot floor-lamp it was positioned over. The floor-lamp now shines up on her.
"I SAID,—"
"I'm sorry, the light was getting too hot," she says with a gentle voice and a friendly smile. The light reveals a casual face and polite eyes that peer into the two siblings.
With the Plasma Cage broken, Luke had been peering into her. It seems to get easier as each moment goes by. By now, strangely easy. Welcoming. And suddenly her eyes are on his, having moved from gazing into Leia, most likely trying to judge her intentions just like he was trying on her.
Leia is oblivious to their eye contact, focusing on decisions. She realizes she should calm her emotions to allow her Force's essence and mind to strengthen. So she lets Luke handle sensing the woman. She tries the best she can to clear her mind, to relax it. Though she doesn't dare close her eyes, she doesn't notice the woman's eyes gradually change.
Both Luke's and the woman's eyes slowly widen more and more as the Force's essence flow through each other, through their minds. They both feel a dense concentration of the Force in the other; strong skill. As their stretched essences wander around in each other, with safety in mind, Luke first keeps his mind closed off to this summer breeze of her essence trying to get in. But he soon lowers his guard... the desire to be understood was just too great. Similarly, her essence inside her feels like warm water, but she seems to pull his essence in, as if suffocated by the lack of it. Though he tries, he can't sense specific thoughts, only general emotions... He feels a warmth he only felt when laughing with Leia. He nearly smiles before he catches himself and—she pulls her essence away from him and pushes most of his out. Her mouth closes, her face droops, her eyes relax with disappointment, sorrow. Her warmth suddenly becomes tepid, then cool. Luke thinks, Had she seen something in me—is that why? Had she just interrogated me?
"Luke Skywalker," she says with disappointment, but disappointment for what, only she knew.
Luke says proudly, "Jedi, Luke Skywalker."
Her eyes narrow to ask, "Jedi... Self-appointed? Or by default because they're all dead?"
"What?" Luke says, his eyes sharpening.
"I mean the Force is... strong in you, (very strong,) but you don't seem... I mean I hope I'm wrong, but..." giving a hopeful smile and tossing her hands out with shrugging shoulders as if to say 'but come on, look at yourself.'
Luke's eyes narrow further but one brow catches a little higher with 'huh?' "I was trained by Jedi Master Yoda and have since completed the training."
Leia was taking the moment to calm herself, but it wasn't exactly working, so she extends her Force essence to read the woman while Luke questions.
"You knew Yoda?" the woman's eyes widen for a moment, then narrow in attention.
"Yes," he says proudly poised. "You did as well?"
"No. He was the only one on the Jedi Council that was older than my greatest grandfather, or so I heard," she says softly tranquil.
"Did Yoda train him in the Light Side? Or who trained you? A Sith Lord?—"
"What?" her eyes flickered narrow and head tilted.
"What."
"I don't understand," she says. "Yoda wasn't a master of the Light—or the Dark. He was a Mid."
"What?" his whole body gently froze, curiosity flooding his eyes. "What's a Mid, is that his race...? I..."
"A Mid is an emotionless Jedi with powers between the Light and Dark. The Middle. My father trained me in the Force. He explained how the Mids were too afraid or lonely or too lazy or too emotionally young to master emotional growth, so they hid in the Mid with no emotions rather than risk being overpowered by the Dark if they failed with the Light. My great fathers have little respect for Yoda for his arrogance towards our greatest grandfather."
A sense of wonder had overcome Luke from her religion's ideas, especially the word 'growth,' but so many of her later words had weighed him down enough that his wonder became cloaked with concern and offense. "So, you were trained on the Light Side?"
Leia, calmer yet the stress of time pushing her to lead again, "You mean the True Light Side."
"No, the Light. If you people keep calling yourself the Light Side, maybe that's why the bounty-entry creator wrote the True Light Side, or maybe Terra had to call it that to differentiate. But you people are not of the Light. I mean I haven't felt too many Mids before, but you especially—" eyeing Luke "—your presence feels below what I would think the Mid would feel like. You're mixed with the Dark, with all that arrogance and guilt and pain swirling around."
All of Luke's wonder dies. His body stiffens. He wrenches the rest of his Force's essence from her and his gaze flickers between glaring at her and glowering at himself, and vice versa, glowering at her and glaring at himself; with all internal pains past and present. It renders him as too brooding, too disconnected from the situation.
Leia feels his swirls of chill & sparks and it pains her to know that her brother struggles. Though because she knows him, she can't help but to agree with the woman on this. Leia's gaze slides to her and flutters with woe and worry. It sobers her a great deal. "How is it that you weren't corrupted by the Dark Side, even a little," trying not to look at Luke, hoping he didn't realize she meant him, "and even managed to keep things from the Sith?"
A smile of an end-of-stressful-times softly blends into her lips, "It was a continuous, tedious effort of causing him to fluctuate his emotions so his Force essence would be unstable and therefore he wouldn't be able to predict the future or see my hidden thoughts."
Though Luke's attention gets pulled back to the woman, Leia speaks for both of their feelings, "I don't understand... How—"
The cargo bay door opens and they all turn to a man accompanied by a guard. "Leia, a message for you."
"I know," she spat, trying to aim her frustration at herself. "I'm trying to finish as fast as I can—"
The woman seems to understand and speaks quickly, "Dark Jedi seem to only sense very strong Dark emotions, but not many others. Darth Telem had observed from the Emperor long ago when he was Senator Palpatine that if he made his decisions & negotiations when void of emotions like him—in the Mid—it allowed for logical complex thoughts, capable of strategy rather than simplistic impulsive costly violence—like the Emperor in recent years. So Telem only used hatred to conjure strength with his Dark powers. Apparently like Palpatine's Mid state, my neutral or empathic feelings were hidden from Telem because they only dwell in the Mid or Light respectively, so whenever I sensed he was less Dark, I would do something to piss him off, making him fully Dark so he couldn't get close to sensing what I was hiding."
Especially with the speedy words, Luke and Leia both didn't quite understand. As Leia waved the messenger away, Luke says, "So... The Dark Side can only sense Dark emotions and the Light Side can only sense ?Light? emotions?"
"No."
Leia sighs, exasperated. Her dire concern for time meant Luke's digression from important details was more than irritating. Low and strict, she says, "So are you saying you're not influenced by the Dark Side, but only the Light Side?" Her disgust trails with hatred again, "So the Light Side allowed you to kill a child while you were smiling?"
"The orphan's parents were killed in front of him, by Rebels. His parents were esteemed officers of the Empire. And from there he experienced far worse things. I had learned orphans are put into slavery or recruited—or kidnapped—by the both the Empire and Rebellion."
"No," Leia says, insulted. "They're well taken care off with us."
"How could you know that? Whatever you've seen, not all of them are. I was employed by the Empire to mostly accompany raids that stole orphans from your Rebellion. Most targets were not orphanages. Most were from mining facilities and factories," giving a head-tilted smile of a mother scorning her favorite child. She adds, "(They were easy strategic targets: poorly guarded and would hinder your productions in the long run. Telem ordered me to use my senses to find those that wouldn't bend, and kill them...)" She seemed to forget why she was mentioning this part, trailing off as if her emotions drained out. But she didn't seem to regret giving the information as if she wanted them to make their judgment based on as much information as possible. She had showed no fear of how it might get her killed.
"Then she's definitely on the Dark Side, especially with that lightning," Leia says turning to Luke, ready to be done despite so many concerns.
"I killed the next Emperor—killer of thousands and to-be killer of millions—and you're upset over four children? Verses millions?—"
"Four?!"
"—You people are all depraved," she finishes. Luke noticed a laugh had tried to accompany her smile, but that her eyes hindered it as she looked away, not from any sort of fear, no, her eyes were unwavering. Her will was clearly resilient. They all could tell she had looked away due to being disappointed by whom she was surrounded by. But only Luke saw that she also seemed to see so much loneliness in the cargo bay's empty space now...
The cargo bay doors open again with another messenger and guard. Leia groans a sigh, "I know—I'll be there soon—wait outside. Luke, I—"
"Teach me your laws and I won't disobey them. I serve to save the galaxy," she says with a serious smile. This wasn't a plea; she meant to console Leia's fears.
They look to her, then back at each other. Leia tries to speak again, but... there was no need. Luke could feel her struggles too, squeezing her shoulder.
He steps out from the guards' protective circle, their hands gliding along the other's arm, naturally trying to stay connected, until their fingertips reluctantly depart from the other's hand.
"Luke..." Leia warns, but she understands what he's doing.
The guards re-raise their monstrous blasters from their drooped positions of holding them up for so long.
Luke steps closer to the woman and closer still, focusing to feel her presence once again. He takes a risk and closes his eyes, trying hard to aim for specific thoughts. He feels... a fire opal of thoughts and emotions: they were like sparkling drops of sunlight with a warm breeze swirling around, like the soupy substance in a galaxy's spiral. Blending with this warm soup was cool fog seeping in from underneath. The fog was protecting the warmth from several deeply lain hot sparks. And these sparks flickered out at times from cold rocks scattered below.
Honing-in on this broad sense of her mind, he could only feel specific pieces of thoughts and memories; just bits of phrases and words. Hymn and—the—that love—remember—in a—warm water—Hol Baumann—it isn't—brother's waiting—minor cause—trees are—my new path—space is cold—the last Jedi—no one—so cold alone...
Leia was the only other person he could touch minds with so closely. It must be because she's Force-sensitive too. He couldn't help himself from being swayed... "Release her to me. I'll—"
"What?!" Leia's teeth clamped down on any more. No, he has that youthful determination that always gets him hurt—He heard that didn't he.
Luke continues out-loud until he senses she's reading it, "...I'll keep a tight guard on her. I'll get a better feel for her and what she's capable of. (I don't know what she is, but she's not aligned with the Dark Side. Whatever she says she is—this other Light Side—it could be useful, it has to be, it's something I've never seen before, never heard of, I have to learn about her powers."
"Luke..." so much of her fear—cold essence—pulls Luke into her. He embraces her as they absorb each other's feelings for a bit. They stand with his mouth at her ear as if whispering instead of mind reading.
I will try to contact Yoda, like you suggested, on both of these issues.
Luke... Finally, please! Anything to get you to speak to Yoda. You've been staying on isolated missions for longer and longer, and when you come back, the Darkness—the coldness—and those 'rocks' in you—
I know, solemn now.
—And I sense your judgment about this woman being swayed by...
I know. So very solemn, weighed down with so much. I'm sorry. Just trust me. Trust me to both of these issues.
The many fiery angers & frustrations billowing back and forth in her actually become stabilized against the chill of her fears. It sucks back the tear that was collecting at her eye, and she sighs with all her might. "I don't have another Plasma Carriage but obviously it wouldn't last. Keep her here, highly guarded, or with you away from others, until I can send final jurisdiction—She did kill—I'll be back later." She kisses his cheek with a quick embrace and rushes out saying, "Guards! Luke's in-command until you're otherwise informed."
The door hisses shut behind her.
Luke moves out of the circle again. The guards raise their scary blasters once more with a sigh. He stands looking down at the woman while she sits looking up with hands in her lap.
Now only human noises and the hum of electronics can be heard among the false-silence. A soothing ringing of the infinite layers of serenely vibrating metal drowns out distant procedural buzzers, turning them into rhythmic echoes and a haunting resonance in the humming industrial atmosphere...
.
...Two black-clad figures, standing in light; one lit yellow, one lit white...
.
...Luke could just barely feel her essence seep into him again. So soft and warm. He wondered if she was trying to hide it with subtlety, or if maybe it was an accident, because she didn't look focused on using the Force like how he would've needed to be. But her face was showing signs of reading his feelings. With faint pinching of determined, thinking eyes, her expressions remain soft and subtle as they always were, with such smoothness when they settle, like massaging bread dough.
There was the temptation to talk to her, but there was much to be done. Luke notices R2 and 3PO had slipped out long ago, thankfully I suppose. But now he could really use a messenger, or maybe this computer...
"Terigo..." Luke says, making note of whether she responds instinctively like it is indeed her real name.
"Yes." She does.
"You're free to walk around, but stay on that half—in the yellow light. I have a lot to organize: checking in with our General, discussing missions, arranging dinner to be brought here, and so on. So..." He almost apologizes for inconveniencing her.
"Okay. Thank you," she says.
Again he almost apologizes, out of habit, and instead sighs through his nose.
"Guards: take breaks in turns, but keep sharp, and keep your blasters a split second away from firing, in case she uses the Force on one of us."
"Me first, my knee is killing me," says the oldest one, immediately sitting on a conveyor belt, resting his blaster to aim at her. The others sigh and rest their massive blasters, fiddling with how to keep them aimed without strain. They remain stiff and alert, if not more anxious now, now that the Jedi was dropping his guard.
The woman gets up immediately and starts to stretch while Luke starts to work on the computer. As time goes by, they both eye each other from time to time, especially when he thinks he hears her whisper. But she seems more interested in the guards. Eventually she lies down to continue watching them all with curious eyes...
* * *
Outside, in a junkyard decorated with blaster burns, Rebel soldiers finish testing their blasters against the red Perk shields. The massive translucent things gleam even redder—almost like embers—in the orange light of the sunset. Their lieutenants reluctantly order them to grab the shields and retire for the night.
Whether they were tired from the night sky of the Inverse Sea distorting their sense of time, or tired simply from a hard day's work, their exhaustion was easily shadowed by their laughter and boyish camaraderie from the pure glee-of-invincibility of holding a Perk shield.
* * *
Han Solo drifts his gaze from Luke's computer screen to the group that just entered the room. Leia storms out from this group towards Han.
"No," she barks at him. "No, tell me you're not getting involved in this—Luke—"
"Cool it," Han groans. He points to the computer screen, "I had already signed on to this mission before he did, I can't back out now."
"Like hell. Who's the recruiter? Which mission?" pushing him aside to look at the computer screen.
"It's Lieutenant Colonel Griggam," Luke says. "He apparently knows the ore industry well, but he's new to command. It's one reason why I chose his mission,—"
"Same here," Han mumbles with a quick glance to Luke.
"—they'll need the most help over there and—"
"And it will give us an idea who he is..." Leia says, connected to Luke's mind.
Terigo sits eating the last of her dinner and watches them like they were theater.
Leia sighs, rubbing her forehead with closed eyes, knowing she may have no influence over a Colonel she's never met. She holds back the fury she has for Han to speak to Luke, "And you really think this is a good idea, bringing that along" —thrusting her finger at Terigo— "when you don't know how capable this Lieutenant-whoever is, and you haven't tested her out to see if she won't kill you for thinking the wrong thing like how ugly her hair is or something."
Terigo's chewing slows as she only absent-mindedly combs her fingers through her tussled hair once, but wasn't bothered by Leia's comment.
"Hey," Han says. "I'm not going to borrow any money from her, so she'll have no reason to kill me."
"Killing you is the last of my worries, she's a Jedi like Luke—"
"Don't worry, it's three to one, we can handle her. Pretty ones can't fight worth a Gonk," giving her a sour eye before turning back to the computer screen.
Leia straightens with more than just sarcastic offense. Luke senses she's beyond consoling and reluctantly turns back to the computer screen. Leia says, "Fine, get out of here. Hope she kisses you with a Mynock."
Leia storms out. Terigo smiles from the two of them as if watching teenagers in love.
Han eyes Terigo's smile, "Don't get any ideas. She does that. That's her goodbye."
"What's a my-knock?" she asks.
He chuckles once, remembering that good ol' adventure of hiding in that space slug's cave-like belly, "A thing that looks like her, but you can shoot in the face."
She chuckles. Luke smirks to himself.
Luke presses a few final buttons and starts collecting the mess from the scraps of food at the computer. "I'm ready to take off. How 'bout you?"
"Yeah, I'm done. (I was just looking something up.) I made reservations just outside the base so we don't have to sleep here ever again," knowing his irritation for cramped noisy bunkers would be mutually understood. "Chewie will be back in the morning."
"How did you manage reservations? I couldn't get past the outer network."
Patting Luke on the shoulder, "Live and learn, kid. Live and learn."
Luke's eyes roll and he glares a little at Han from the corner of his eye, "Han..."
"What."
"...Never mind... I'm exhausted, let's go. Guards: follow us surrounding her until we leave the base. Get every little crumb," motioning to remnants of their dinner. "We don't want any more Lickers."
They all pull themselves together and collect their food scraps as Terigo stands while doing the same.
As they leave the room, her attention is suddenly drawn to the floor and then behind them, but she loses further interest. In the silence behind them, out of a nook in the floor, a slimy tentacle wiggles and convulses to lick up crumbs.
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