"So what exactly do you plan on teaching the Sandpeople? They already know how to use a blaster quite effectively, as we well know." Shan asked the next morning as she sipped on Blue Kelry Tea. She was sitting cross legged in her bunk, staring at him over her cup. "My shoulder remembers it quite vividly."
Kenobi looked over at her from his standing position in the center of their tent. His damp, freshly scrubbed hair sticking to his brow. He took a spoonful of his oatmeal before answering.
"Well, for one, they need to be taught how to shoot more effectively at moving targets." he began. "I saw them aiming for the pirates on speeders and they weren't even coming anywhere close." Shan took a sip of her tea.
"That'll be your department." she said once she had swallowed. "I am terrible with a blaster." Kenobi gave her a smirk before continuing.
"Secondly, they need to learn how to fend the pirates off at close range. The Sandpeople are deadly when they have the high ground, but when they're in melee with gaffi sticks against blasters, that's where they seem to run into trouble." Shan dropped her tea on the nightstand.
"So how is this going to work?" she asked, pulling back her unbound hair to tie it up. "Are we going to set up a training camp for our boys in tan?" He gave a smile at her jest.
"I was thinking we take twelve of their best warriors. Once they are proficient enough, they can take over training the rest of their protectors. We can hang around for a few more days to help out, but hopefully we're successful and they won't need our help." he said as she dropped her arms.
"I was thinking," Shan started, "training the whole force to deal with both pirates and the Empire would be a lot to do in the short time span we have. The Empire could retaliate any day. In fact, I'm a little surprised they haven't yet." Kenobi cocked his head at her.
"What do you propose?" he asked. Sahrea dropped her feet to the floor and stood up. "We split it into two forces. One to deal with the Empire and one to deal with pirates." she explained, her face cast in a warm light of the lantern.
"You know as well as I do that the Empire and pirates have very different attack patterns." This was true. The Empire was more strategized. They had formations and followed orders. The pirates had a mix of a blitzkrieg and guerrilla like style; attacking quickly and suddenly, without any real rhyme or reason to their pattern. That ultimately made the two close to being opposites.
"Good thought." he mused. He gave a sigh. "Well I wasn't expecting this when we woke up that morning." he said with a smirk. "I'm back to my general days."
---
"Again." Shan commanded, crossing her arms. She watched as Kenobi took a step back, staff directly out in front of him. It had been a grueling few hours. The Sandpeople had set up a tent on the exterior of the camp for them to use for their training sessions. It was merely a wide tarp over sect of sand.
Most of the raiders were able to pick up the techniques quite easily. They were proving themselves to be great warriors. Over the last week, they had gone through blaster, melee weapon, and hand to hand combat training. Most had picked up their teachings quickly, but a few had stumbled on them, including the one Kenobi was currently working with. Shan's fingers were tapping against her forearms.
The former Jedi slashed out at the raider's side. The Tusken dodged and stabbed towards his chest. Kenobi blocked it, shoving the raider's staff upwards. It connected with his foe's, sending a wooden clack throughout the area. The two backed off at a raised hand from Sahrea.
"Excellent." she praised. "Pair up." Shan flung up a hand, gesturing for them to move. "This'll be our last exercise of the day." Her hands tightened on her forearms as Kenobi fell in beside her, watching over their trainees. They both stood in silence as the raiders practiced their new knowledge.
They hadn't spoken any more about what they had discussed that night in the tent, but she knew that it would have to be addressed at some point. Sahrea wasn't sure that she was ready to face that. Either way, things would change and that frightened her.
But she knew she couldn't pretend forever. She couldn't pretend that he didn't have her heart. She couldn't forget how his touch made her spirit leap. She craved more and more to close the distance between them. To feel his warmth. It was easy to ignore now, with so much going on, but she had no idea how long her willpower would last once they returned home.
"Well, they're no clones, but they aren't too shabby." Shan commented, boxing up those worries and shoving them into the back of her mind. She hoped that Obi-Wan hadn't caught her moment of discomfort.
"I agree. They learn quite well." Kenobi stated as he stretched his arms out. Sahrea made a noise through her nose. "Well they haven't hung around this long without learning to adapt." she leaned against the staff she had been demonstrating with. Kenobi made a face as he rubbed at his bicep.
"I hadn't realized how out of shape I had gotten since going into exile." he said. Shan brushes a sweaty lock off her forehead.
"I'm the same. I could barely stand up the day after the first training session." she replied, watching the nearest two Tuskens spar. "You always said you like sparring matches. Why don't you take the next round tomorrow?" Kenobi suggested. Sahrea gave him a mockingly surprised look.
"But you do such a great job!" Shan exclaimed, her voice high with jest. Obi-Wan gave her a look. She cracked a smile. "But if you insist." Kenobi rolled his eyes.
"We'll have to go over the blaster training a-" he cut off as a Tusken Raider entered the tent. He was flanked by the translator droid, whose vocabulator was acting up again. In fact, he was completely unintelligible now. Only gibberish poured from his mouth.
"Oh for the sake of the Force." Sahrea barked with rolled eyes. "Come here." she commanded the translator. "Ender, hand me a pilot's diver and a pair of pliers." she said as the translator meandered over. The droid wheeled awkwardly over the sand, happy to have something to do. He had been sitting grumpily behind her, silent except for a few beeps complaining about the sand in his gears.
"Beep, beep, tweeeeee, boop doo." the mouse droid said. The corner of her mouth pulled up. "Yes, I promise to clean out all the sand in your hardware." he tweeted back happily as a flap on the MSE's side dropped open. A small arm appeared, holding the requested tools.
"Thank you little friend. Now I'm going to need you to be step for me." Kenobi chuckled at Ender's indignant sounding reply. Shan huffed out her nose.
"Oh stop whining. It's not my fault I'm too short." she chided. The mouse droid beeped grumpily, but wheeled forward anyway. Shan put a boot on his back and hoisted herself up.
"Let's see what's going on here." she said. The plate covering the droid's throat clearly hadn't been removed in a long time. There was a ton of build up on it. Sahrea had scrape a good amount off with the pliers before she was able to finagle the stubborn metal off.
"Damn, how old is this droid?" she said once the plating was removed. There were gears and wires and circuits and conduits, all unfamiliar to the Gray. "I don't even recognize some of these parts." Shan had to dig deeper into the droids throat, shifting wires around and disconnecting a few other pieces,
"But, luckily for us," she stated as she found a square looking plate clipped into the back, "vocabulators have used the same basic design for the last few hundred years." she popped the part out.
"Can you fix it?" Kenobi asked as Shan examined the piece in the light. The translator droid had a most disgraced look on his face plate at having a stranger poking around in his inner mechanisms.
"Well it looks like the initial problem was a frayed wire, but your whacking it ended up cracking the the whole thing." Shan explained, a grumpy look on her face. She stepped off Ender's back.
"I have a polyhedrant bonding agent that should rectify the problem until a new one can be installed." She reached down and handed the Pilot's Driver to her droid.
"The wire though, that I can replace." she said as she sat down in the sand. The MSE put a new wire in her empty fingers without being told.
"Thank you Ender." she said as she pinched the red wire between the nose of the pliers. The translator droid watched her work, looking most perplexed as Shan disconnected a few circuits to expose the crack. She stuck the pliers between her teeth as Ender handed her the bonding agent. She filled the split in the vocabulator, the clear liquid filling up the crack. It darkened as it began to dry.
Giving the tube of polyhedrant back to Ender, Shan spit the pliers in her hand and focused on the bad wire. She removed it easily and handed it off to Ender. She then refitted the new one quickly and efficiently.
"Easy fix." she said as she started putting everything back where it belonged. She reattached a few disconnected circuits, although one was being stubborn. It had built up carbon scoring around the side, making it hard to reconnect. She applied some stronger pressure and it fit right back in.
"There we go." she said, content with her work. "Now let's try this out." She stepped back onto Ender and placed the vocabulator in with a click.
"Testing. Testing. Testing. Testing." the droid repeated as he cycled through different languages. He stopped after a moment, finding the fix acceptable. "Thank you human." he stated in perfect Basic. Shan smiled, happy that she was able to help him.
"You're welcome. What is your name? " she asked, closing the panel on his throat. He turned his blue lighted eyes on her. "I am A-4Q2." he introduced.
"Well it's nice to meet you Ayfor. My name is Sahrea." He turned to the Tusken Raider he had entered with as the male urred to him. Shan had forgotten he was even there.
"Oh yes. We have been sent here to warn you. The Empire has been spotted by the ridge. A squadron is on its way and should be here by nightfall."