Captain Typho's Blog

OOC: New Blogger Woes

2007-02-27T23:51:00.000-05:00

I've updated this blog to the new Blogger. I seem to have been successful here, but not so successful with Star Wars: Unplugged. Read my post here and see if you can help.

Stay out of trouble

2007-01-23T17:46:00.000-05:00

We said our goodbyes in Moenia.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: It’s time to go home.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

There was about 30 minutes to spare when I was done. “Sorry about that,” I mumbled as we headed to the shuttle.

She took my hand. “No worries, I figured you needed as much sleep as you could get. And you can sleep on the shuttle ride.” We took our seats and she looked over at me and said, “What kept you up so late? Are you worried about staying?”

I scratched my head absently. “I thought it was more about being unable to relax because of wondering if our Trandoshan friend has any other friends, but... maybe what you said is true.”

“So have you decided to stay on Naboo? Will you stay in your house or go to Theed?” She took my hand. “You know, they do have excellent doctors on Coruscant.”

“So I’ve heard,” I said. She laid her head down on my shoulder. It was one of those public displays of affection that I was going to miss when things got back to normal. “I think I know what I’m going to do.” I relaxed next to her and dozed off and on until we reached our destination.

A few hours later we arrived in Moenia. We walked in silence back to our lockers in the shuttleport. I had made up my mind to stay on Naboo for my rehab. I’d briefly wavered when she’d mentioned the doctors on Coruscant. Maybe that was her roundabout way of saying she wants me to come back with her. So… why not just say that? But that’s not her. Or maybe it’s me. Maybe there’s just something about me that makes it impossible for her to say or do anything that may come off remotely vulnerable. I guess that’s the way it is with us. Always guessing.

I gathered my gear from the locker and consolidated the bags with what was left from the gear we took to Dee’ja Peak. “Give me whatever you don’t want to take back with you,” I said. “You’re taking that voopak back to Coruscant?” I asked. “You’re starting to collect them now. You’re not going to eventually become one of those old spinster ladies in Theed that they occasionally show on the news, living in a house with a thousand voorpaks, are you? This is how it starts,” I joked.

“Hmm,” she mused. “Well, then I suppose I should make you come back to Coruscant with me to make sure that doesn’t happen. Either that or we can run off and secretly elope. I hear that’s the thing to do these days.” She smiled suggestively.

“Oh, I’ll be back on Coruscant with you. It’ll be weeks, though. As for running off and eloping, well, seeing as how I can’t run, that’s out. But the fact that the thought has crossed your mind has been duly noted,” I added with a wink.

“You don’t actually have to run, we could just take a cab to the city clerks’ building,” Jardena persisted.

I’d vastly prefer an elopement to a ceremony that took a year to plan and which was basically for the benefit of other people. Not that I took her seriously, of course. She was joking, I think.

I reached out and took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Well, goodbye for now. Have a safe flight.”

“You too. And stay out of trouble,” she said.

I gave her a kiss and I shouldered my bags. It was a long walk to my gate, so as slow as I was going, I had to start moving now.

I took a look back at her and smiled briefly before I turned the corner. There was a lot on my mind, but the dominant thought was that it was going to be a long, boring flight back to Kaadara. And there will be many long weeks ahead without Jardena.

The End.

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Something warm, yummy and fresh

2007-01-09T20:53:00.000-05:00

We arrived too late to get the shuttle.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Time to wake up.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

"We could try to get a transport to Moenia tonight then go where we need to go early in the morning. Or we can stay the night here, then head to Moenia in the morning. Which would you prefer?" she said.

"If we're lucky enough to make it into town in time to catch a shuttle, we should definitely take it," I said. "If nothing's available, we'll stay overnight in Dee'ja Peak. I can take over with the driving if you'd like to relax a bit."

"I'm good, but thanks for the offer," she replied.

The last shuttle to Moenia had left when we arrived. We purchased tickets for the next morning and found a hotel to settle in for the night. "So, I'm feeling like getting some take out, something warm, yummy and fresh. Maybe hot chocolate for afterwards. What do you think? I'll go pick it up and bring it back," she offered with a smile.

"Sounds great," I said, retuning her smile. It was her neck of the woods, so she probably had a specific place in mind. I sat on the bed and propped my leg up to check the swelling in my knee, then I pulled up my shirt to see how the wound in my side was doing.

"While you're out, could you bring back some more bacta, bandages and a cane?" I added. I wasn't entirely joking. I could use the aforementioned items. The cut on her arm probably could use tending to as well.

"I'll see what I can find," she replied.

While she was out I took a shower then caught up on local news. I saw my uncle on the holonet with Queen Jamillia and I was tempted to call him, but I'm not supposed to be here, so that was out.

The sports coverage was lackluster so I was bored by the time Jardena came back with the food.

"So, food or medical first?" she said.

"Meds," I replied, reaching for the bandages and bacta. I changed the dressing on the blaster wound and put a little bacta on the scalp wound. The latter was in good shape. There wasn't anything useful I could do with my ears and I didn't want to touch my knee anymore.

"How's that cut on your arm looking?" I said.

"Ehh, I'll live. It just needs to be cleaned and spritzed and I'll be fine. Anything good on the holonet? Anything about the party, Padmé, or Bibble?" she said as she walked into the bathroom. I gathered that she was taking care of the gash on her arm. When she came back out she sat down to join me for dinner.

"There was a piece about the guys making the documentary about the Chancellor," I said. I had some of the hot chocolate. It was perfect for this weather. "There was also a segment about the party and a critique of the costumes. The reporters interviewed the Queen. They really wanted to talk about the war, not the party, but she kept steering the conversation to other topics. The reporters also attempted to interview my uncle, but he was a bit resistant," I added with a grin. My uncle isn't terribly media savvy.

"Well, who can blame them for not wanting to talk about the war? It was a Gungan who motioned for Palpatine to have emergency powers and all that good stuff. I think she's doing fine, Padmé is just a hard act to follow." Having finished her meal, she said, "I'm going to get ready for sleep, we have an early day tomorrow."

I nodded absently as I concentrated on the food and Jardena got ready for bed. I polished off the food, which was odd because I really wasn't that hungry. I thought that having such a heavy meal would make me feel sleepy, but the opposite was true – I was wide awake. I made a go of trying to get some sleep, but when that didn't work, I ended up in front of the monitor, watching the holonet. I know that was probably extremely irritating, but I just couldn't get comfortable. It was one part mental, two parts physical.

"Dante, it's time to get up. The first shuttle leaves in about an hour."

I looked at Jardena blankly before her words finally registered. It was morning. "Oh. Right," I said. I scratched my head and yawned. It felt like I'd only slept for two seconds. I got up, hurriedly took some semblance of a shower and got ready as quickly as possible.

There was about 30 minutes to spare when I was done. "Sorry about that," I mumbled as we headed to the shuttle.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

The invites were tagged

2007-01-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

Soon we'd have to report back to Padmé.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: This journey’s almost over.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

“Sure thing,” I said. I reached back, retrieved the surviving deck and got to work. The state of the data was poor, to put it mildly. We had audio, but little in the way of video. I worked through the mess, running filters to patch the corrupted data and fill in the gaps.

There was little of interest at first. Minutes and minutes of the happy couple talking about nothing. Then I started delving into the incoming transmissions for Bibble that Jardena’s gear had intercepted. A staffer at the Chancellor’s retreat had contacted Bibble and informed him that “the invitation in question had been collected and its embedded chip confirmed its identity.” We’d been marked.

I took my headset off. “Great news – the invites were tagged with a chip,” I said. “It never occurred to me that they were tracking the invites. That’s almost funny, considering I’ve been tracking Dormé through her use of marked credits. They might not know why we were at the party, or where we are now, but they know we’re around and that we were operating incognito.”

This will probably drive them underground, I thought. Or at the very least make them very circumspect.

“Hmm, not good, I’m surprised we both missed that. But would it be possible that he thinks that Padmé sneaked in and he didn’t notice her? And even if we’d known the chip was there, I doubt we could have removed it and still gotten in to the party. We should probably keep a very low profile when we go to pick up our stuff from there,” Jardena said.

“Good point,” I said. I turned my attention back to mining the audio. I played it out loud so that we’d both hear. Sure enough, Jardena was right about Bibble. Instead of assuming that the invites had been passed on or stolen, he was sure that Padmé had been at the masquerade party.

“I understand that it’s bad manners to record guests at events like this, but we should have, we should have made up some story about the need for security in times like these, it was the Chancellor’s house,” said Bibble. There was a gap in the recording, then he asked Dormé, “You were mingling, you were supposed to keep an eye out for her, didn’t you see her? Or at least whomever she came with? If she starts getting suspicious, we’ll be in grave danger.”

The conversation continued in the same vein, then there was some distortion and unidentifiable sounds. The last salvageable scrap of audio was Bibble saying, “Ah, my new friend is here.”

“If the ‘new friend’ is the Trandoshan bounty hunter, does that mean Bibble really does know about us,” I said. “Or could the Trandoshan have discovered us independently?”

“My guess?” she said. “The Trandoshan was probably hired to kill Padmé and he was the one who figured out we were here, he could have seen our speeder, or surveillance cameras, tracks, or even smelled us. But I don’t know if we were a side trip or he told Bibble. I don’t think Bibble knew about us, I think we would have caught some strange veiled terms and there would have been less talking if he’d known.”

She paused, then said, “I really hope he doesn’t know. If he did know that it was us specifically, there will most likely be repercussions, and probably fairly quickly. If he just knows that he was being watched, but not by who, then we should be ok. In fact, my alibi could be me working on my apartment to get it fixed and yours could be that you’ve been on Naboo, but resting and recovering from a knee injury you got during the blackout. I doubt your mom would blow your alibi,” she said, flashing a smile.

“No, but she’s going to point out that, should anyone else inquire, a blackout isn’t a very plausible explanation for how I got shot, had my ear drums ruptured AND blew out my knee,” I said, smiling in response. “Unless I live in a very rough neighborhood on Coruscant.”

“True,” she said with a shrug, “Wishful thinking.”

It took several hours before we reached a small town where we could stretch our legs and refuel. When we got back in the speeder she mentioned that at our current pace we’d reach Dee’Ja peak at sundown.

“We could try to get a transport to Moenia tonight then go where we need to go early in the morning. Or we can stay the night here, then head to Moenia in the morning. Which would you prefer?” she said.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Your Twi’lek Stalker

2007-01-07T20:21:00.000-05:00

A stalker?

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Uh, oh. Feels like an argument coming on.

Listening to: Cranky Jardena.

Continued from here.

I smiled, thinking. “I suppose I’ll have to be the one who does his bachelor party. That oughta be interesting.”

“It could be a lot of fun, you just better request time off now so as not to have to worry about work,” she said.

“I’ll probably still be rehabbing, so time off might not be a problem,” I said. “But the logistics of arranging this will be a problem on crutches.” An idea started to form in my mind. Maybe I could arrange to do this on Coruscant. He’s never been there, so that would be a blast for him. And I think I know someone who could help with the arrangements...

She stood up. “Well, we better get started so we can make it before it gets dark. We can catch a shuttle from Deeja Peak back to Moenia and pick up our stuff. We should be able to make it out of here by tomorrow morning hopefully. Unless you want to stay. I could stay with you for a day or two, but I have to get back to my post soon.”

“Stay with me where?” I said curiously. “Here? But you just finished cleaning the place up.”

“I meant when we got back to civilization, back to wherever you were planning to have your leg cared for. But like you said, your mom will take care of you and I wouldn’t want to intrude on family time.”

Was it me, or did she sound a little miffed? She picked up a bag and put it in the speeder.

When she came back inside, she said, “Anyways, you made enough of a splash on Good Morning Naboo that you being home might get some attention. No need to add to the drama or romantic intrigue. She took two more bags out to the speeder then returned. “Ready to go?” she asked.

I nodded, shouldered my bag, and made my way back down the steps to the speeder. Once in the speeder I looked back at the house. Under other circumstances it might not be a bad place to spend a vacation.

I took some more painkillers, but either they were weak or I was getting used to them. Now that was a troubling thought.

I was silent for the first 20 minutes or so of the trip into town, then I asked, “What did you mean by ‘No need to add to the drama or romantic intrigue’?”

“I meant if I stayed with you at your parents, there would probably be a pretty good chance of people finding out. Your mom does work for the government, they are a gossipy group. If our peculiar luck continues, we’d wake up one day to see BB:N fans peering in the window. “And with that small but persistent rumor about you and Dorme,” Her voice trailed off and she gave me a teasing smile.

“Hey!” I warned with a mock frown. “I see your point. I would love to take you home with me, but that will have to wait for another day,” I said.

I scratched my head, considering what I wanted to do again. “It’s just that if I go back to Coruscant, it’ll be very inconvenient. My girlfriend, unfortunately, is a very busy young lady. I might have to hire someone to help me out while I convalesce. That’s the downside of being a bachelor. I might have to get a droid, or a maid, or call up a pretty Twi’lek dancer, or…” My voice trailed off as Jardena’s had and I flashed a grin.

“Ha, ha,” she said humorlessly. “Have fun hanging out with your Twi’lek stalker—”

“I do not have a Twi’lek ‘stalker,’” I interrupted. “If anyone has a stalker it’s—”

“—it’s kind of unfair to be punished for working, but—”

“Punished? How am I—”

“—but if you’re offering to let me quit work so that I can sit around all day doing nothing other than be at your beck and call while you work, I’d give that some thought,” she concluded curtly.

“Okay, OKAY, I’m sorry! Wow, you really can’t take a joke today, can you? Disposing of Trandoshan bodies and incinerating speeders while freezing our butts off makes you cranky, I guess?” I said, trying to smooth over her ruffled feathers. “But what you just finished up with – you know, retiring from a dangerous profession and spending more time with me – is a great idea. I’m amazed – and happy – that you’d even consider it. I’m sure you’re not serious, but do keep it in mind. It is an option.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow in response to my offer, so I could only smile and shrug. Well, I’d put it out there. Maybe she’d consider it again sometime in the future.

She was pissed, so she dropped our discussion and turned to something else.

“We have lots of surveillance on that data deck,” she said, gesturing to the deck on the back seat, “Now might be a good time to review it, just so we know what we have and what we don’t before we leave the planet.”

”Sure thing,” I said. I reached back, retrieved the surviving deck and got to work. The state of the data was poor, to put it mildly. We had audio, but little in the way of video. I worked through the mess, running filters to patch the corrupted data and fill in the gaps.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

In a matrimonial way

2007-01-01T14:07:00.000-05:00

We finally said goodbye to the Trandoshan.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: I’ve lost all feeling in my extremities.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

Turning to me she said, “I think we’re good to go. Stand back -- I’ll give this a push and we’ll see what happens.”

She leaned forward to give the speeder a push and, ignoring her request to stand back, I added my weight to her effort. The speeder and the Trandoshan in it weighed a lot, repulsors or no. I braced myself, gave it a better shove and I was rewarded with the sight of the speeder floating off, heading inexorably toward the gorge. That was worth the raw, wobbly feeling in the knee any day.

I couldn’t resist peeking over the edge to watch the speeder’s descent. The vehicle was in free fall for a brief time, then the repulsors activated, causing it to rappel off of the sides of the gorge. Jardena activated the detonators and BOOM! The speeder and its dead occupant blew up. The vehicle burned brightly. It looked like it would take some time before it was totally consumed.

“Do you want to watch it burn completely, or would you like to head back? There is virtually no chance of the fire spreading. It’s all rock and snow down there,” Jardena said.

I scratched my chin. I was freezing, my joints were stiffening up and I wanted to go back to Jardena’s cabin, but I wanted to be sure, otherwise it would always bother me.

“How long will it take to burn?” I asked. Maybe it wouldn’t take too long.

She glanced down at the burning speeder. “I would guess anywhere from 20 - 40 minutes. I’ll be in the speeder, I want to get out of the wind.” Without waiting for a reply from me, she turned, headed back to her family’s speeder, and got inside.

I, however, needed to make sure the deed was done. Forty-five minutes later, it was over. I limped back to Jardena’s speeder and sat inside blowing on my hands for a few minutes. The heater was on, but it wasn’t doing much.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said hoarsely.

“No need to ask twice,” she said as she eased the speeder back towards the cabin.

I still hadn’t made up my mind if I was going to stay here or not. Not here as in stay in Dee’ja Peak for another day, but here as in stay on Naboo another few weeks or not.

“Aww, hell,” I muttered aloud to myself as I realized something. I’d conveniently neglected to factor in one thing – my father would be around if I stayed in Kaadara to convalesce. Stuck in the same house as him while doing physical therapy? Joy.

When we pulled up to her family’s cabin, she said, “If we’re taking off today, I just need to clean up some before we go. I can call Patrin and let him know that we were here and that the speeder will be in town.”

I nodded. Her brother would be cool about it and keep our confidence. No one else would know we’d been here.

She must’ve noticed that I was limping more as I made my way into the cabin, because she said, “Just sit and hang out, I need to wash some stuff, put things back in place and pack our gear, I should be done in less than an hour.”

Being stubborn, I packed my own bag and put away my own equipment. It was slow going. I thought about helping her do the rest of the cleanup, but the bending and lifting was beyond me. I mean, yes, I could’ve gotten it done, but it would’ve slowed down the whole process, which made little sense. Reluctantly, I found a place to sit and silently watched Jardena doing all the work. Again.

When she was putting the finishing touches on everything, I ventured something by way of conversation. “So, how’s your brother doing?”

“He’s doing well, he likes being his job and his wife just started teaching again. And the kids are doing great, they keep my mom content on the grandbaby front, though she does give Brishen and his wife a hard time about not having had several kids by now.” Jardena smiled and rolled her eyes.

I nodded knowingly. “I guess by the time mothers reach ‘grandmother’ age they’ve forgotten the challenging parts of being around small children,” I said. “I suppose all mothers do that to their adult children, although I must say, my mother seems to have given up on the grandmother idea. She’s very disappointed with me in that respect.”

"I doubt that your mother has ever been disappointed in her baby boy," she said teasingly.

"It's called 'unconditional love,'" I said with an easy smile. "I have to get it from someone," I teased back.

“Speaking of being maternal and such, how is your cousin Kory doing?" Jardena said. "Isn’t he in a matrimonial way?” There was a teasing sound to her voice. She took a seat next me to catch her breath, having finished cleaning the house.

“Yes, he’s supposed to get married in about two months,” I said. “I got a message from him a few weeks ago. He was very stressed. He was asking for my advice. Me, with my bad track record? I told him, let the girl’s mother make all the decisions about the wedding, and leave it at that.”

I smiled, thinking. “I suppose I’ll have to be the one who does his bachelor party. That oughta be interesting.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

It'll go faster if we do it together

2006-12-19T18:03:00.000-05:00

We had a body to dispose of.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Like we need to blow something up.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

Her mood had changed. I had thought she wanted to get this over with and go back to Coruscant. Although I did like it here, I needed to leave before the fact that I wasn’t at 100% and she was picking up the slack started to get on her nerves.

I shook my head. “We need to leave and get back to reality,” I said.

“You sure,” Jardena teased, “It will be the last time we have time alone together with no one calling or even knowing where we are.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you could be right,” I mused.

She patted me on the butt. “But this could be your way of telling me that you have your limits for dried and defrosted foods.”

“I don’t mind the food,” I said. “You did a great job.”

“Dante, I know you’ll get mad at me for this, but I think you should stay,” she said unexpectedly. “We need someone to go through the data and I don’t know what’s important and what isn’t. I really don’t want you to hurt your knee more, the harder you are on it, the greater the chances it won’t fully heal.”

I pointed at my ear. “Did you say something? I didn’t catch that.”

She gave me an irritated look. “Dante, I’m being serious, I don’t want you jacking up your knee any more than you already have.”

I had let her go get the bounty hunter’s speeder on her own in the first place, and I still didn’t feel right about that, so was going to stick it out. Suppose something else had happened to her other than getting cut by the weapon in the bag?

“It’ll go faster if we do it together,” I said. I headed for the closet where I’d hung up my jacket.

Jardena picked up the keys and headed for the speeder.

Outside I said, “I’ll drive the Trandoshan’s speeder. You follow with your family’s vehicle. What are the coordinates?” I held out my hand and she handed me the Trandoshan’s keys and the coordinates of the location she’d chosen for disposal of the body.

“Be careful, ok?” she said.

“I’ll be fine,” I said. “What are we going to use to ignite this thing?”

“I have that covered. No worries.” She said. She climbed into her speeder and prepared to follow.

The drive out to the site she’d selected took way longer than I’d anticipated, but when we got there the site was sufficiently secluded. I was grateful to get out of the Trandoshan’s speeder. The vehicle didn’t handle that well and it had been slow going on the snowed over trails.

Jardena came over as I stepped out of the speeder. “We need to get it as close to the edge as possible. I can set the det tape in the trunk, then we can send it over the edge. It shouldn’t actually crash if we leave it in neutral, it’ll just bounce hard at the bottom. Then I’ll trigger the charge which will cause a small but very hot and fiery explosion. There is plenty in there that should burn.”

She was unwinding her det tape as she spoke. “Or we could do a grenade. A girl should always have a grenade,” she said, smiling.

“A girl should definitely not have a grenade, ‘cause she’ll use it,” I replied. I popped the trunk so that she could set the tape. I emotionlessly stared at the Trandoshan’s folded up body. His scales had faded a bit. He had a slightly fishy smell. It was a good thing that the weather had been cold, or there surely would’ve been quite a stench by now.

Jardena recoiled from the minor smell, and backed away from the speeder. “I don’t usually stick around long enough for the bodies to get stinky,” she said.

“Don’t get squeamish,” I said. “It’s not that bad.” She had an overly sensitive nose.

She placed the tape around the trunk and closed it. “There, all we need to do is adjust the repulsors so that the vehicle has a softish landing, and we’re good to go.” She popped the hood of the speeder and adjusted the computer so it would land the way she wanted.

Turning to me she said, “I think we’re good to go, stand back, I’ll give this a push, and we’ll see what happens.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Back to reality

2006-12-10T20:46:00.000-05:00

Where: Jardena's kitchen, Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Mulling things over.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

I’d have to get a droid or lean on one of my lieutenants or Moteé or somebody and it would turn into a hassle. Then again, I wasn’t supposed to officially be on Naboo in the first place, so I was probably going to have to do this on Coruscant anyway by default. Frak, this was going to suck.

Feeling hungry, I made my way slowly downstairs to see what Jardena was cooking.

“Sleep well?” she asked. She was sitting down at the table having tea. “Would you like some?” she asked, gesturing at the tea.

“Yes, thanks,” I said. “My sleep was so-so. It was all right until the pain killers wore off, then I couldn’t find a comfortable position.” I took a sip of tea and added, “I’m toying with the idea of having my knee taken care of here on Naboo. It’s probably not the smartest idea, but I’m not sure if I want to wait three, four more days to get back to Coruscant to have surgery. You know?”

“It’s up to you what you want to do, we could head back into town after we dispose of the body and get a shuttle back to where we came in and leave as soon as possible,” she said.

Jardena shrugged, indicating that it didn’t matter to her one way or another if I stayed on Naboo to rehab for the next month or two or went back to Coruscant with her. Not what I’d expected, but I shouldn’t ask questions that I don’t want honest answers to. And she is nothing if not honest.

“If you get it treated here," she pointed out, "then you’ll have to have a reason why you were and are on Naboo. Though Padmé could probably make up some reason, saying that you had to come back to Naboo to get something. But it would let people know that you’d been on planet recently.”

I shrugged in return, and didn’t reply. Right now I didn’t really care who knew. Besides, I was confident that I could lay low, if that’s what I wanted to do.

I helped myself to the pancakes and syrup, and after a couple mouthfuls I smiled and said, “I think it’s only fair for me to warn you that you’re spoiling me. You’re setting the bar too high for yourself. I’m going to expect you do to this for me all the time and I’ll be disappointed when you don’t.”

Although I was (mostly) kidding, there was some truth to that. When we got back to Coruscant and things returned to “normal,” I was going to have to readjust to not waking up next to her every day and not having her around doing this incredible rare (but appreciated) domestic stuff for me. So I had to enjoy it now, since it was going to be over very soon.

I changed the subject. “How much – if any – of the surveillance we did is salvageable?” Obviously the detonator the Trandoshan had thrown at us had trashed most of our gear and recording devices.

She made a face. “Most of the audio, only some of the video. We don’t have anything left that would absolutely identify Dormé, voice prints can be unreliable at times, particularly when some of the feed was made during a blizzard. I was downloading the audio on to my personal deck and had downloaded some of the video feed.” She paused, then added, “It would be useful to Padmé for her to know that Bibble is out to get her, but we really didn’t find out why. I could try again to download data from the recon probe we left, if it’s still active.”

“Do that,” I said, nodding. “Then we’ll put this mission to bed. My boss will have to be happy with what we got. We certainly got more than we bargained for.”

Jardena continued her breakfast silently. Not having anything in particular to say, I ate in silence as well. She looked like something was on her mind. Ordinarily I would’ve asked what was the matter, but I was thinking about me and mulling over how I wanted to proceed.

When we had finished, Jardena picked up the breakfast dishes. "Are you up for dealing with the speeder and its many contents? I'm worried about your leg. I don't want you hurt it any further," she said.

It was a question I couldn’t say no to. A few days ago I told her that I felt I always I have to be perfect for her. This was one of those times.

“I’m good,” I lied. “Let’s do this.” I was not good. I was going to go out there and frak myself up some more, but what could I do? Let her go out there and do all this physical work? That’s man stuff. She’s already doing everything on this mission. She knew it, and I knew it. If I can’t even dispose of a speeder, what does she need me around for? Nothing.

She put away the dishes and walked over and unexpectedly sat on my lap. I winced in anticipation, but she managed to avoid bumping my knee when she sat.

"Did you want to stay here another night or head to civilization as soon as possible? The choice is yours, I'm happy to do either," she said.

Her mood had changed. I had thought she wanted to get this over with and go back to Coruscant. Although I did like her family's lodge, part of me felt that I needed to leave before the fact that I wasn’t at 100% and she was picking up the slack became an issue.

I shook my head. “We need to leave and get back to reality,” I said.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Next time I’m in distress

2006-12-09T13:49:00.000-05:00

Where: The Oneida cabin in Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: More relaxed.

Listening to: The sleepy voice of Jardena.

Continued from here.

“Say, I like this place of yours,” I remarked. “How come you never mentioned it? Maybe this is your secret place where you take your other boyfriends?” I arched an eyebrow. I was teasing, of course, but I did find myself wondering if she’d ever brought another man here. I mean, it was a possibility.

“It’s not ‘my’ place, it belongs to my family, and I haven’t been here in years. I never mentioned it because I was worried you’d give me a hard time about it when we were first dating.” She propped up her head on her hand and looked at me. “And no, I’ve never brought a boyfriend here before. It’s been an interesting experience being here without a herd of family around. It’s rather nice.” She looked at me curiously. “Why do you ask? Do you have a little place tucked away that you take all your girlfriends to that I don’t know about?” she teased in return.

“You know most of my spots, but there is one place you’ve never been…” I paused dramatically, teasing her again. “You haven’t yet been to my new house.” I grinned. She’d been to the old house in Kaadara when we were first going out, but not to the one I bought for my family a few years ago.

“I don’t make a habit of bringing women there…” I frowned, suddenly remembering. “Actually that’s not true – Dormé’s been there. I took her there after her ‘kidnapping.’ For all I know she left some surveillance devices in my house.”

“So you whisked her off to your house at the beach after her kidnapping? That must have made her all giggle and happy, she always seemed to like to be rescued.” Jardena said. “And she seemed to need it a lot too. I could see how that might have started a bit of an unrequited longing on her part.” She hid a joking smile. “I mean you did carry her to the safety of your car then take her to your beach house.”

“‘Whisked away’ is too strong a phrase, but, yeah, I did take her to my house and let her stay overnight,” I said. “She was acting helpless.” I knew how that sounded to Jardena, who is anything but helpless, and has zero tolerance for weak behavior.

“What can I say? I’m a sucker for that and she must’ve known. I didn’t know she was playing me,” I said.

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m in distress,” she said. “Though wouldn’t the idea of dating a girl who looked like your ex and your boss weird you just a bit?”

“Yes, which is one of the many reasons why Dormé had no chance with me,” I answered.

Jardena snuggled against me and I draped an arm around her. The sun had set and it had gotten dark rapidly, but it was a cozy darkness.

“We should come back here some time, preferably when no one’s trying to kill either of us,” I whispered as I started to drift off to sleep. “Though I’d really prefer the beach,” I added with a yawn.

“Me too,” she said as she drifted off into sleep.

My last thought before I drifted off to sleep was how awkward it would be if her parents or one of her brothers showed up here unexpectedly and walked in on us like this. The thought made me chuckle.

When I woke up Jardena was already gone, presumably off checking her sentry droid or scrounging up breakfast. I yawned and stretched, then checked my various injuries. My hearing was good. The head wound was healing up fine, as was the side wound. The latter was probably going to leave a scar, however. The knee was predictably stiff, and it didn't look to good. There really wasn’t more that we could do for it with just bacta and some bindings. It needed professional medical attention, the sooner the better. Limping around on it wasn’t doing me any favors.

I considered whether I should have it operated on here on Naboo, or back on Coruscant. I’d probably have to be off my feet for weeks after the surgery, then there’d be physical therapy. Who knows how long that might take. And, though I’d rather not deal with it, I was going to need some amount of help while recovering. The advantage of being at home was obvious. Good old mom would look out for her son indefinitely, no problem, till I was back on my feet. On Coruscant, different story. Jardena would be too busy to babysit me, so I’d be on my own. I’d have to get a droid or lean on one of my lieutenants or Moteé or somebody and it would turn into a hassle. Then again, I wasn’t supposed to officially be on Naboo in the first place, so I was probably going to have to do this on Coruscant anyway by default. Frak, this was going to suck.

Feeling hungry, I made my way slowly downstairs to see what Jardena was cooking.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Holler if you need help

2006-12-05T19:39:00.000-05:00

Where: A cozy cabin in Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Sleepy.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

She used her datapad to scan for any signals. She looked at me and said, “I don’t detect anything that’s transmitting. You want to open the bag?”

I nodded. “No problem.” I carefully unzipped the bag and suspiciously eyed the contents. Our friend the Trandoshan had carried quite an assortment with him. “Three detonators, a carbine, another small bowcaster, ammo, a DL44 pistol,” I said.

I whistled softly as I pulled out a wicked-looking blade. “I don’t even know what this is, but I’m glad he didn’t get to use it. This must be what cut your arm.” I put it down. I was wearing gloves, but I didn’t want to get sliced. Now that would make an awesome souvenir.

I turned my attention back to the bag. It was almost empty now, but there was something stuck at the bottom. “This thing is heavy, whatever it is,” I said. Then I touched something and a serrated dart made of bone launched itself from the bag, narrowly missing hitting both me and Jardena.

“Oh, frak this,” I said, disgusted. I should’ve seen that booby-trap coming. I put the weapons out of the way in the garage without further incident.

“Hmm, well, I think that definitely means things are clear and we can take a break,” she said. She reached into the speeder and took the last bag out, then set it in neutral and guided into a clear spot in a small overhang. Then she went to get some first aid supplies. She sprayed more bacta on her arm, then turned her attention to me.

“Sit down,” she ordered, pointing to the couch, “Let me wrap your knee so it doesn’t get any worse than it already is. Then I’ll make us something to eat.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. The little excursion outside and the minor lifting and stretching involved in moving the bag and the weapons into the garage had been surprisingly difficult. I’d been trying to act the whole time like the knee wasn’t really bothering me, but obviously I’d failed and she’d noticed.

“Not too tight, okay?” If she’d become used to patching up clones and people in the field, she’d probably had a lot of patients that didn’t complain much. Not that I complain, mind you, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt. I was reluctant to mess with it.

She pushed my pants leg up, inspected the swelling, and proceeded to wrap the knee firmly. When she was done, she said, “So what do you want to eat? We have a lot of pasta, rice, and other non-perishable foods in cans. Anything you don’t want to eat?”

“Uh, no pasta,” I said. I always appreciate a home-cooked meal and it had been a while since I’d had that with Jardena. I was curious as to what she was going to put together, given the limited resources.

While she busied herself in the kitchen, I gingerly inspected the wrap she’d put on my knee. She’d done a good job, only causing a minimum of pain, but I probably should’ve stopped her. I wanted to take a shower, so the wrap was going to get wet.

From the kitchen she said, “It’ll be good, I promise. And you might want to take a bath instead of a shower and...” She paused. “Hmm, I guess I should have waited on the leg, though that is waterproof. You could just take it off after the shower before you get into bed.” She came and sat next to me.

“Sorry I can’t do better for food, but,” she gestured a bit as she shrugged. “Nothing fresh.”

I shrugged and put my arm around her. “I don’t care. I’m just glad we’re indoors and we’re not eating energy bars in a tent.” I was also glad no one was trying to kill us.

The meal was great. I’m not sure how she was able to pull it together with the ingredients at hand, but she’d done it. I was feeling mellow and content. A full stomach and pain killers will do that to you. “So how do I go about convincing you to cook dinner for me more often?” I said with a smile. “You know, like on a daily basis?” Small chance of that. Not with our schedules back on Coruscant. And this sort of thing isn’t really her style anyway.

“Perhaps several times a week, but daily would require a career change for both of us that would have us home by dinner,” she answered. “And while I might have one coming up, I don’t think you do in the near future. But if you do, I’ll make you dinner. You’d just have to help with dishes.”

I smiled. I could do that. Not for the first time on this trip I found myself wondering how our relationship will change when we’re back on Coruscant.

After the meal while collecting the plates she said, “I’ll do the dishes, you can go get cleaned up if you want.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. Ordinarily I’d offer to do the dishes, but sleep was catching up with me. “I’ll do the next set,” I promised. I headed in the direction of the shower after she pointed me in the right direction.

“Holler if you need help,” she said.

The shower was an adventure. I came close to slipping getting in and when getting out I put a bit too much weight on my right leg and narrowly avoided a nasty spill. Luckily there were no witnesses. I stepped out of the bathroom and Jardena met me at the door.

“I made the bed in the loft area, it’s warmer up there and it’s safer, just in case. The stairs up have a rail you can use as a brace if you need to lean on something.” She gave me a kiss. “Let me know if you need anything.” She headed off towards the shower.

I looked at the stairs dubiously, then made my way up the stairs carefully. It took awhile, and when I made it I relaxed gratefully on the bed. I looked at the wrap on my knee, debated a bit, then decided to take it off.

Not long after she emerged from the shower. When she climbed into bed with me she looked surprisingly happy and content. “What’s the smile for?” I asked, reaching out to stroke her cheek. “Is that for me?” I grinned.

She leaned over and kissed me on the forehead, “Of course,” she replied.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Can't hurt

2006-12-01T18:11:00.000-05:00

Where: A cozy cabin in Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Warmer.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

She walked in and headed to the pantry. I followed her slowly and helped myself to a glass of water. I found a place to sit and reached into my pocket for some painkillers.

“Nice place,” I remarked.

“It meets our needs, it has food, it’s warm and we can regroup here,” she said matter-of-factly. She went off looking for something. “We need to find a remote area where we can burn the speeder, preferably some place far from here. There is a speeder in the garage, we can use that to tow Dormé’s speeder.” She returned with some maps and sat down to look them over.

“Then we can come back, get our stuff in order and then head to town. I’ll call my brother and let him know the speeder will be there,” she said.

“What will you tell him?” I said curiously.

“Uhh, I haven’t figured that out yet, I’m hoping inspiration strikes on the ride into town,” she answered.

She smiled. “You know, I was hoping all we’d have to do was some easy recon, then we could go spend a couple days on the beach, just relaxing. I hadn’t planned on trying to dispose of a body out in the woods.”

I would’ve liked to spend some time with her back in Kaadara on the beach. Ah, well.

I smiled back. “The speeder rental company will probably hold me liable for the vehicle that got blown up. I may lose my license,” I said. My hearing was a thousand times better. Things only sounded like they were down the hall, not in a tunnel now. Great stuff, bacta. My knee was still jacked up, though.

She waved her hand dismissively. “They did the entire transaction on a computer, so I took the liberty of erasing your information as well as any information they had on computer about the speeder, just in case it came to a bad end. I did the same at the hotel. No one needs to know that the head of Senator Amidala’s security was on planet. And the rental company was busy enough that while the car might be missed, they most likely won’t remember us.” She rubbed her neck. “It’s also nice they didn’t have any surveillance. I like Naboo, still a trusting place.”

I nodded. She had been very thorough in covering our tracks. That was a load off of my mind.

She handed me the datapad. “This location should work for what we need, it’s remote, has all sorts of drop offs and crevasses and it’s a place no one would go for a hike or to camp.”

“Let’s get something to eat, rest a bit, then go. Okay?” I said. “You still look tired. I think we’re safe here, right?” I frowned, thinking. “Unless there’s a homing device on the Trandoshan, or his gear. Or his speeder.”

“Dormé’s speeder had one of those positioning systems in it, but I deactivated it before we left our camp site. I didn’t want anyone to follow us. And unless the Trandoshan had one in a body cavity, all I found on him, aside from weapons, was his ship’s remote. Which was also deactivated prior to leaving camp.” She made a face. “I’ve never looked in his bag, though. I have no idea what exactly is in there.”

“Let’s check to make sure. Can’t hurt,” I said. The painkillers were kicking in, but I wanted to get this out of the way. Then food, a shower and an afternoon nap would be nice.

“Yes it can,” she replied, indicating her arm, “but you’re right, we need to make sure.” She stood up and followed me outside.

She used her datapad to scan for any signals. She looked at me and said, “I don’t detect anything that’s transmitting. You want to open the bag?”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Should we burn the body?

2006-11-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

What to do with the body?

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Exhausted.

Listening to: The faint voice of Jardena.

Continued from here.

When Jardena woke up, I was sitting next to her. I could definitely hear something now, but sounds seemed distant and hollow. Not wanting to inadvertently yell or mumble, I scribbled on the datapad and handed it to her:

Good morning. Do you feel better? What happened to your arm? There is no food. Sorry. Had to give it to pair of tusk-cats.

She took the tablet from me and spoke. I could dimly hear, “Can you still not hear yet?” she said. “Maybe you need a bit more bacta in the ears.”

“I could probably use some, but I can hear you pretty much, although you sound like you’re in a tunnel and some words are indistinct,” I said. My own voice sounded distant as well, but it was way better than it had been in the immediate aftermath of the explosion. “We need to ration the bacta anyway.”

She finished writing on the tablet and handed it to me:

I feel better, not so tired now. I cut my arm on something in the speeder, the bounty hunter had a bag of weapons in the back seat and I cut my arm when I took the bag out. I guess I’m lucky it doesn’t look or feel worse. What do you want to do with the body? The speeder? And where do you want to go from here? And does the speeder look familiar to you?

I took the tablet from her and read it. I didn’t want her to keep saying “What? What?” if my voice was too low, so I preferred to write my answer:

Trandoshan bounty hunters into poison, so gave you anti-toxin last night on hunch. Guess it didn’t hurt.

Don’t want to carry around dead body and ground’s to cold to bury it. Tempted to say search body then burn if possible?

Remove all identifying marks from our speeder & leave it. Salvage any surveillance data. Take BH’s speeder and get to better shelter, regroup, then off planet. Bibble/Dormé likely awaiting BH’s return. On to us, or at least know they’re being watched by someone.
Speeder is Dormé’s?

I shook my head when she offered a food cube. She could eat it. I wasn’t hungry.

She shrugged when I declined the cube and took the tablet.

I can break down camp, can you strip down the rental speeder? I have coordinates of a place to regroup that’s safe and out of the way. Should we burn the body in the speeder after we get to safety? We could take it somewhere remote and dispose of it. It’d probably fit in the trunk. And what do you want to do about his weapons, leave them? Very possible they’ll never be found. And yes, I think it’s the speeder Dorme drove, how nice of her to loan out her transport.

I stood up. “Let’s break down the shelter. We can do this,” I said.

“Thanks for the anti-toxin shot,” she said. She gave me a kiss and handed me the tablet, on which she’d written down some coordinates. They meant nothing to me since I wasn’t familiar with the area. As long as it put some distance between us and Dormé’s cabin and this place, it was good.

I scribbled my response quickly.

If Dormé’s speeder has tools, stripping speeder will be no problem. Yes, we can burn body elsewhere. We should take the weapons.

I set about getting the tools I needed. We had to make this fast. We’d been here too long already.

She took care of breaking down most of the camp while I took care of breaking down the speeder. She worked fast and before I was halfway done she was off to retrieve the bounty hunter’s cache of weapons. She returned quickly, moments after I’d finished my task of converting the speeder into anonymous metal. I was sweating and chilled.

She put the gear she’d retrieved on the ground. “If you’re done, help me get the body into the trunk, I can’t lift it alone,” I heard faintly.

When I say that it was a struggle to get the dead reptile in the trunk, I’m not kidding. We got it done somehow in sloppy fashion.

Jardena looked exhausted. “Ready to go?” she asked.

“Let’s switch places,” I said, indicating that I could drive. “I can get us to wherever we’re going since you’ve already programmed the coordinates.”

“Are you sure?” she said, but she let me take the driver’s seat. She doze a bit as we drove, but I can’t say that she slept well.

I don’t know why I’d thought that we were heading to one of the abandoned lodges that we’d passed on the way up, but that was not the case. When the coordinates indicated that we'd reached our destination, we were pulling up to a well-maintained roomy lodge. Jardena entered the access code and I finally got it.

Oh, of course. This is her place. One of her family’s houses, I should say.

“There is a speeder in the garage,” she said. “We can tow this to a remote area and burn it,” she gestured to the trunk, “and its contents. Let me look over some maps to find a good place to take it.”

She walked in and headed to the pantry. I followed her slowly and helped myself to a glass of water. I found a place to sit and reached into my pocket for some painkillers.

“Nice place,” I remarked.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

A pair of tusk-cats

2006-11-16T22:18:00.000-05:00

A pair of tusk-cats entered the camp.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Pain in many places.

Listening to: Purring.

Continued from here.

As soon as she left I regretted having encouraged her to go. She would’ve gone anyway, but if anything happened to her…

Maybe it was a blessing that I couldn’t hear, since I would’ve reacted to any and every sound. Being deprived of that sense, I had no choice but to rely on my sight. I doused all the lights, positioned myself at the tent’s opening, and sat under the moonlit snowy sky with two rifles and ammo.

The first half hour was the hardest. Then I got numb and actually felt better. Still, in my mind I was running through all of the possible things that could happen to Jardena. That’s where my mind was when the creatures entered the clearing.

I saw the eyes first and almost had a heart attack. Glowing eyes reflected the moonlight. Them, I thought, but a split second later I realized that these were quadrupeds, not bipeds. The pair padded softly towards me. I could’ve squeezed the trigger, but as the moonlight illuminated them I saw what they were – tusk-cats. I put down my weapon. Oh, they were huge, no doubt, but the way that they were acting told me that these were probably domesticated. Naboo royalty sometimes ride them in parades or in hunts. If they’d wanted to kill me, they wouldn’t have approached the shelter this way.

They sniffed the area where the detonator had gone off, then they sniffed the speeder. They pawed at the Trandoshan’s body and hissed at it, not liking the smell. Finally they came within arm’s length of me, sat and purred. Uh oh, they clearly wanted food. But more importantly, I actually heard the purring, which meant that it was probably extremely loud, but I was getting back my hearing. All I had a bag of Almond-Kwevvu Crisp-Munchies, which I shared. They weren’t too impressed, but they ate it anyway before moving on. I don’t know where they went, but I felt better knowing they were out there. They’re natural guardians, so if anything happened they might come back to help.

I saw the lights of a speeder approaching, but long before it got within shooting range she’d flashed the lights in a coded pattern so I’d know it was her. A sense of relief flooded over me, but then she stumbled and fell to her hands and knees as she got out of the speeder. I sprang up to help her, or rather I tried to but my knee buckled. She got up on her own. I felt useless.

She made it into the tent, took off her boots, smiled distantly, then went to sleep. She didn’t sleep very well, however. She was shivering and mumbling. That couldn’t just be from the cold. I’d noticed that she’d sliced her arm pretty good and that hadn’t happened in the fight with the Trandoshan. On a hunch, I fished an atropine injector from the medkit and administered an anti-toxin dose to her. For good measure, I gave myself some painkillers as well. I’d aggravated the pain in my knee with my earlier stunt.

Some time around dawn I fell asleep.

When I’d woken up I had had illusions of starting to break down the camp and moving what was left of our things into the other speeder, but I’d quickly run up against the limitations of my injuries. I’d put away some things, and even managed to fashion a makeshift cane from a sturdy branch, but I hadn’t accomplished much before a twinge of pain forced me to concede that I needed to take it easy.

Good morning. Do you feel better? What happened to your arm? There is no food. Sorry. Had to give it to pair of tusk-cats.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars Captain Typho Typho Jedi Clone Wars Fanfic Fan fiction Trandoshan

Can You Hear Me?

2006-11-12T21:56:00.000-05:00

Jardena went in search of the Trandoshan's vehicle.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: In need of bacta.

Listening to: Still can’t hear a thing.

Continued from here.

He lurched back, but tried to pull me in front to use as a shield to foil any shot Jardena could take. I silently willed her to take the shot anyway, regardless of the risk.

And that she did.

She shot him in the back. Then, as he involuntarily released his hold on me and fell backwards, she shot him twice in the forehead.

The Trandoshan finally slumped and the big reptilian eyes dimmed. I looked in the direction of the tree’s base, and there Jardena was, standing with her rifle still pointed at the Trandoshan. She lowered it slowly and trotted forward. I held up a hand, took the Trandoshan’s dropped pistol and shot the still form twice more in the head.

Hey, you never know. They do regenerate, so I’ve heard.

I was panting heavily. The adrenalin was rapidly leaving me and the cold was setting in. Jardena came forward with a bacta pack and said something. “Can you hear me?” I think, though of course, I could not. She put bacta in my ears and it burned like hell.

With her help I managed to get back to the shelter. It had been damaged, but it was better than staying out in the open. Jardena tried to patch the tent as best she could, then she helped me patch myself. There was the gash on my head from the head butt and there was the bowcaster wound on my side. These could be easily taken care of – bacta was meant for those types of wounds. But I had heard (and felt) something pop in my knee, and it was swollen now and painful. Classic signs of a torn ACL. The bacta could reduce the swelling, but I’d need some minor surgery here, or back on Coruscant.

“I wonder if I can file for workman’s comp?” I whispered. Bad joke, of course. We were in trouble. I felt exposed, worse than before. She smiled tightly in response. She ministered to my head injury and tried to get me to lie down, but I didn’t dare. I needed to stay up and alert. I did wrap a blanket around myself. The heating system in the shelter was not operating properly and it was colder than it should be.

I hated to make the following suggestion, but I had to put it out there.

“Maybe you should try to find whatever vehicle the Trandoshan came here with,” I said in a (hopefully) low voice. It wasn’t a very good idea, but it was all I could think of. It was dark now, and it would be dangerous, but our speeder was essentially trashed, we’d lost most of our gear and if something else happened (or if the bounty hunter had allies), I would be of little help. Maybe we could stay here and be all right. Maybe not.

I handed her a salvaged datapad so she could write her reply.

She pressed a finger to my lips, then whispered something: “A little loud,” I think. She took the datapad, scribbled her response, then handed it back to me.

Already located possible transport heat signature to our NNE. Was unsure of whether to check out or not.

Issues:

Possible traps set around vehicle

You can’t hear to defend yourself

Unlikely, but backup BH is possible

Will go do recon, but need to fix your side first. Can you handle your knee?

I worked fast on my reply as she fixed her pants (it had gotten ripped somehow) then bundled up for the trek out in the cold. She’d made up her mind to go, despite all of the reasons against it she’d written. I handed the pad back to her.

Looks like you’ve already decided to go. I will be okay. This is the best move, but I’m worried about you. Very concerned about trek in this weather and booby trapped vehicle. Check Trandoshan’s body. May have key or disarming device.

She read my response and nodded, then she handed me a data pad on how detailing how the gear in the tent worked. The tent was damaged and could use some patching to keep out the cold. She kissed me, lifted the tent flap, and was gone.

As soon as she left I regretted having encouraged her to go. She would’ve gone anyway, but if anything happened to her…

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

I Surrender

2006-11-09T05:19:00.000-05:00

His weapon was a bowcaster.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: This is not going well.

Listening to: I can't hear anything.

Continued from here.

Then we were grappling and rolling away from the tree and out into the snow. If he wanted those Jagannath points, he was going to have to earn them the hard way.

We had rolled down a little slope away from the tree. He came to a stop in the prone position and instantly tried to bring that weapon around again, but I was too close. Being a Trandoshan, the bounty hunter’s arms were longer than a human’s and I had to neutralize his superior reach by tying him up, sticking close the way a brawler would to prevent him from using the bowcaster.

It was a good idea in theory. In reality, since the Trandoshan was taller than me and outweighed me, it was nearly impossible to accomplish this goal. I couldn’t move as fast as I would’ve liked. The snow was my enemy and even if I hadn’t blown out my knee somehow in the explosion, the Trandoshan still would’ve had a physical advantage on me. So I reverted to what I know best, using my environment to my advantage.

The bounty hunter’s mouth was moving. He was saying something, but who knows what it was? The ringing in my ears masked nearly everything. Whatever he was saying, it certainly wasn’t “I surrender,” that was certain.

Everything happened quickly. Fights are always like that in retrospect, but when you’re in the moment, time stretches. I couldn’t let him use his height and weight against me. He tried to get up, I brought him down. He tried to regain his balance, I kept him off balance. He tried to shoot me again, and at some cost to myself (I think my head is bleeding), I trapped his arm, forced his weapon down, and when the weapon discharged, he’d shot himself. That made him drop the weapon, finally.

He wasn’t done yet, however. He was stronger, and the burst of energy I’d had at the start of the fight was rapidly ebbing, sapped by the cold and a battle with a physically superior opponent. A glancing blow stunned me, and he now had the upper hand. Having lost the bowcaster, and still in a crouch, he produced a blaster in one hand and palmed my head with the other, and I knew this was it. I was done. A flick of the wrist would break my neck.

But he neither fired at me, nor broke my neck. Instead a shot was fired back behind him, and that’s when I knew Jardena was alive. I saw my chance. My hand reached out, blindly searching for something, anything to use as a weapon. It found, of all things, a handle. The shovel had shattered and the pieces had flown far and wide. What was left of it was a handle and a 15cm shaft of wood. Practically a stake. Unhesitatingly, I grabbed it and shoved it up and under his rib cage. I don’t know Trandoshan physiology, but I daresay I hit some vital organs.

He lurched back, but tried to pull me in front to use as a shield to foil any shot Jardena could take. I silently willed her to take the shot anyway, regardless of the risk.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Keeping score

2006-11-06T04:14:00.000-05:00

A Trandoshan was behind the attack.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: I’ve got a fight on my hands.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

My first thought was that the "thunk" was a cone that had fallen from the tree. Then I saw the blinking lights.

Detonator.

In the holovids, in war movies and such, when the protagonists (or the villains) see a bomb or a grenade, they get to react to it. They get to shout, or jump on it heroically, or even flee in cowardly fashion. In reality, there was no time.

I think I did say something. I think I did shout a warning, though it was almost certainly unintelligible when mingled in with the sound of the blast that came a second later. I had only had time to register the reality of the detonator and start to spin away and throw myself behind the speeder when it went off.

Two things saved me – the sturdy rental speeder (if I survive this, I must remember to buy stock in that company) had acted as a partial shield, and the snow had dampened the blast and made the grenade’s effect sub-optimal. Still the shockwave rocked me. I narrowly missed being pinned by the vehicle when it flipped over, but I felt a searing pain in my knee.

A cascade of snow fell from the tree, but mercifully, the entombment that I’d feared didn’t happen. Everything got really quiet, which didn’t make sense until I realized that it probably wasn’t quiet – it was me. I couldn’t hear anything. I didn’t get to muse on whether that condition was going to last or not. We were under attack, obviously. Was Jardena okay? She’d been much farther away from the blast. I had to hope for the best.

I lunged for my DLT20 rifle that had been thrown from the speeder and had embedded itself in the snow tantalizingly just out of reach, That was when I was hit full force by a 150 kilo Trandoshan and whatever was going on with my knee was replaced by an all new pain.

A funny thing about Trandoshans. They have this religion that’s all about points and keeping score. They believe they get Jagannath points when they kill things. They get even more points when that thing is sentient. Still more when they kill something in a special way. Our Trandoshan friend here was going for bonus points, clearly. He’d softened us up with the grenade, then he intended to do us in, up close and personal. He pinned me with one scaly foot while he cracked off five shots from a small modified bowcaster in the direction of the shelter. I didn’t know if any of those shots hit her. I prayed they didn’t.

He swung the weapon towards me. I flipped him. He must’ve thought I was hurt worse than I was. He managed to crack off another shot, awkwardly aimed at me, before going down. Something tore through my right side.

Then we were grappling and rolling away from the tree and out into the snow. If he wanted those Jagannath points, he was going to have to earn them the hard way.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Everything I’ve done will be undone

2006-11-05T13:59:00.000-05:00

That looks deadly.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Like I’m being watched.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

“You let me fall asleep! Why’d you do that?” I complained. How long had I been napping while she was out there freezing and doing all the work? I shook my head and stifled a yawn. “Never mind. Let’s see if we can find something.” I was hoping we could make it to one of those abandoned lodges we’d passed. We could set up our shelter in there. My only concern was that the old cabins might now be home to some forest animals.

“You were exhausted and all the Dormé crap was making it worse,” Jardena said. I watched as she entered some coordinates into the speeder’s control panel. Talk about attention to detail. She’d had the presence of mind to record the location of one of the cabins when we’d passed them on the way up? Smart girl.

“There, that’s where we should head. I know it’s not close, but I think it’s our best option. Well, if the trip takes more than an hour, you might have to drive, but hopefully it won’t, it’s only 10 km away.” She steered the speeder out onto the trail and we were off.

“I’ll take over whenever you want,” I said. But I dozed off again, and I awoke with a start. The snow was even heavier now and we were going slowly.

“Damn,” I muttered. Visibility was pretty much zero. I surveyed the scene outside the window and I felt uneasy. I looked at the speeder’s map display. It was distorted and essentially useless. For the second time today I brought up the lifeform overlay screen. I thought I saw a blip… No, it went away. It couldn’t be trusted.

I turned to Jardena. I didn’t want to ask if we were lost, but I did ask, “Are we more likely to get stuck if we stop, or keep going?”

“A little from column A, a little from column B,” she replied. “And what’s worse is that the positioning system seems to be fritzed out and navigating by landmark.” She gestured out the window. “Isn’t a helpful solution right now.”

Soon after we saw a bank of huge snow-laden trees. “We could park the speeder under those,” she pointed, “and then be prepared to dig out when it’s all over.” She looked over at me. “We could keep moving, I’m just not sure where we’re moving towards. Or we can shelter.”

I looked at the trees dubiously, imagining a ton of heavy snow falling off the branches, covering our vehicle, and burying us alive.

“Okay, let’s try it,” I said, making a decision to stop here anyway. Floundering about blindly and heading to nowhere was infinitely worse.

Jardena guided the speeder towards a likely looking tree and we came to a stop. Now that we were no longer moving, things were eerily quiet. Snow has an odd way of insulating sounds that throws me off. I could hear the sound of my own breathing, though in reality it was faint.

She nudged the speeder under the tree branches. The ground was heavily packed with snow.

“One of us needs to set up the tent and the other needs to shovel out the path the speeder came in just in case we need to get out quickly,” she said. “I can do the tent,” she offered, “I’ve set them up before.”

“No problem,” I said, taking the shovel. I got to work quickly, starting from the base of the tree and working outwards. The snow was heavier than it looked. Definitely not fluffy or powdery. It wasn’t long before I began to wonder why we hadn’t had the presence of mind to bring a snow blower. Obviously we couldn’t have prepared for everything, of course. My back protested, but I ignored that pain and the ache in my fingers.

I didn’t appreciate how well the tree shielded us from the wind until my digging took me out from under the branches. I was hit with an icy blast of air that took my breath away. Some snowflakes got in my eye and when I blinked, I thought I saw something on the horizon.

I stood perfectly still, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I felt horribly exposed. My cold weather gear didn’t exactly blend in with the wintry surroundings. If someone wanted to pick me off, it would be child’s play.

Nothing happened. There was nothing but white-coated wilderness and rocky hills as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t too far in this weather.

I released the breath that I’d been holding. I was angry with myself. I was letting my dislike of these surroundings get the better of me. Hopefully Jardena hadn’t seen my little episode. That would’ve been embarrassing.

As I trudged back to the speeder, I noticed the hard-fought path I’d dug was already coated with a dusting of snow. “If the snow doesn’t let up its pace, everything I’ve done will be undone in a few hours at best,” I remarked.

“I can come out and maintain it, we just need a cleared path in case we need to get out of here. Hopefully we won’t,” she said.

Jardena had worked quickly and the tent was almost done. She’d set up the shelter close to the trunk of the tree away from the speeder and out of the wind.

I opened up the speeder’s hatch to toss in the shovel. Something impacted off the hatch with a soft “thunk,” bounced away, and sank into one of the snow banks I’d created by the path.

“Don’t break our transportation, otherwise it’ll be a hard hike out of here,” Jardena said distantly. I wasn't listening. I was focused elsewhere.

My first thought was that the "thunk" was a cone that had fallen from the tree. Then I saw the blinking lights.

Detonator.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Bondage, eh?

2006-10-22T17:19:00.000-04:00

Booze and bondage.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: I can’t feel my legs.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

An uncomfortable thought entered my head. For Jardena to casually toss out a suggestion like that, did that mean she’d ever had to do something like that in the GAR? What had they done to my girl?

“It’s one of many options I’m trained to consider, but it’s not an option that would work in this situation. And yes I would do it, she’s been trying to murder two people I care very much about.” Jardena adjusted her HUD glasses to keep the snow out of her eyes.

“I know that sounds extreme,” she said, “and it is, but it’s natural the thought would occur to me, it’s probably the only time anyone would ever get them alone and unguarded. But this is an intel mission, so don’t worry, I won’t go all commando.” She smiled at me. “And hey, it’d mean not having to watch them enjoy their particular form of dessert.”

I listened as Jardena went through her reasoning. On paper it made sense. We could end the surveillance right now. Padmé would no longer be in danger and I wouldn’t have to worry about any more ugly accusations besmirching my character and embarrassing my family. Nevertheless, I said, “Neutralizing these two was not what I came here to do.” I paused. “But if our surveillance continues to consist of marathon vigils in which we get to watch other people having sex, I’ll put a blaster to my head and neutralize myself.”

She rolled my eyes. “No need to do that, Bibble is old and I doubt we’ll get much more of that.” She stretched a bit. “Besides, that would mean that you’d get out of surveillance duty, and that just wouldn’t be fair,” she added. She grinned, but then continued in a more serious vein.

“Haven’t you ever wondered just how long she’s been involved?” she said. “What if she’s been at it for years? What if she was the one that leaked the info that led to the landing platform bombing? That was known by someone deep inside, the only thing she wouldn’t have known was your last minute switch of Padmé to the fighter.” She shook her head, scattering the snowflakes that had gathered on her hood.

I nodded slowly. “I’ve wondered about that myself -- if she accidentally killed her own sister. That would’ve made her even more unstable than she already was.” I thought for a second, wondering if I should bring up something that was purely hearsay. I decided to go ahead. It was relevant.

“As far as unstable goes,” I said, “when I started surreptitiously probing my team and asking questions about Dormé, all sorts of things came up. Several people hinted that she was a binge drinker. She also liked to ‘borrow’ things that weren’t hers, to put it nicely, and that included money and personal effects. She was supposedly into bondage videos, and maybe not just videos.” I shrugged. “I don’t know what to think and how much of what I heard to believe. But I can see that she was not well liked by the rest of my team, and I hadn’t been aware of that. Cordé was the one everyone had liked.”

“Bondage, eh? Kinky. She always struck me the type who wanted attention, any type of attention. Maybe that’s why she does what she does.” Jardena shrugged. “You ever notice how much taller she was than Padmé?”

“I noticed,” I said, “but I never really noticed until she was playing the role of Padmé with me on Ansion.” I frowned again, wondering to myself once more if Dormé had been behind the kidnapping and the poisonings.

Jardena adjusted the listening droid’s output and we got back to work.

“We don’t have much time now, Amidala must be dealt with before the child is born. I want you both to be able to live in peace and safety and that can’t happen while she lives,” Bibble was saying.

“Why the hell are they so convinced that Padmé is a danger to their kid?” I muttered. “I don’t get it. Does the child stand to inherit something important? Is the child related to Padmé in some way? But that doesn’t make sense.”

“Perhaps it’s how he’s lured her into helping him? Maybe it’s the story he’s been told to secure his assistance? Maybe it’s code for something?” Jardena scrunched her nose. “This is getting a bit convoluted and weird for my training. I slice computers and droids, much easier, much more straightforward.”

I snorted. “Are you kidding me? This is so far out of my line of work it’s not funny.”

“You must do more to discredit her security, perhaps you should contact his parents, that would cause some level of upheaval. Perhaps we could involve his uncle, Typho seems very conscious of Panaka’s opinion of him,” said Bibble.

“I will try harder, I think it complicates things that he’s involved with another former handmaiden,” said Dormé.

“That bitch is going to make me have to take a paternity test to squelch this,” I fumed. “And they better leave my uncle and my parents out of this.”

Jardena put her hand on my arm. “Dante, the people who matter will know that it isn’t your child. And we’ll resolve all of this before she could possibly be due. The truth will be out far before the kid. And like you said, she might not be pregnant.”

“If she’s not, and the two of them are still acting like she is out here in the middle of nowhere, it means they know they’re being watched,” I said. “Is that possible?” The thought did bother me. It had been too easy to set up our surveillance. Even tagging them at the masquerade party had been too easy. That meant trouble in my book. Nothing ever works that smoothly for me.

I went in the speeder with the intention of getting warm, then coming back out to rejoin Jardena. The next thing I knew it was pitch black outside, snowing harder, and Jardena was climbing back into the speeder with the gear.

“I think we need to find a shelter, this is getting worse and we have data to review,” she said.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

We could neutralize them

2006-10-18T01:17:00.000-04:00

Dorme and Grandpa Bibble got it on.

Where: Dee'ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Grossed out.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

Then Bibble said he wanted “dessert” before dinner. I shivered and turned to Jardena. “I can’t watch this,” I said.

Jardena continued to watch the sordid scene, seemingly unphased. “Well, you do have to give Bibble some credit. At his age, who’d have guessed he was still that spry and flexible?” she joked.

“Stop already!” I said, covering my ears.

Jardena had been kidding about Bibble's flexibiity, but Dormé's was no joke, at least from the glimpse that I'd seen. Dormé had to do a LOT of compensating to make up for the elderly Bibble's shortcomings. Ten minutes later, I had to turn the sound off too. The commentary was actually worse than the visual. “Should a pregnant woman be doing that?” I said. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

Unbelievable.

Dormé – what a whore. I had heard rumors about her from different members of my team back on Coruscant, but if anything, they’d been polite.

The temperature dropped and the snow started falling. The back of my neck felt cold so I pulled the hood over my head.

Eventually Bibble was spent (eww) and Jardena tapped me on the shoulder and clued me in that I should tune in again. I turned on the audio and video. The surveillance equipment did a good job of enhancing the low light video – too good.

“Whose belly is bigger? Bibble’s or Dormé’s?” I joked to Jardena.

The odd couple was chatting in bed. The conversation turned to the masquerade party. Bibble was miffed. “I made sure she was sent her invites. And you said that they had arrived before you left. I can’t understand why she didn’t attend, there was nothing pressing happening back on Coruscant. The conceit of that woman, she can’t be bothered to attend an event for the Chancellor?” said Bibble.

“Perhaps something came up and she could spend time with Anakin, she always tries very hard to make time for him,” Dormé said as she tried to comfort her lover.

There was no other way to interpret that. Bibble and Dormé knew that Padmé and Anakin were together.

“Damn,” I said to Jardena. “Not good. Padmé needs to know that they know.”

Jardena sat back. She looked disturbed for a minute, then she said, “This is a remote isolated place, people rarely come out here in the winter. The house isn’t even registered to Bibble, I bet no one knows they’re out here. We could neutralize them and no one would find them until much later.”

I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. I sat up. “Hey, that was a joke, right?” I said, giving her a worried look. “You really had me going there for a second. I know you wouldn’t honestly suggest that you’d murder a pregnant woman who used to be your friend. If you could do that...”

I didn’t bother completing the sentence: If she could do that, I did not know her. I had to assume that Jardena had said that as a joke, but it had been a rather distasteful one.

An uncomfortable thought entered my head. For Jardena to casually toss out a suggestion like that, did that mean she’d ever had to do something like that in the GAR? What had they done to my girl?

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Dessert before dinner

2006-10-15T01:48:00.000-04:00

Dorme and her lover met in Dee'ja Peak.

Where: Dee'ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Chilly.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

“Nothing like a snowstorm to make this more challenging,” I remarked. The rented speeder was an off-road vehicle. We’d almost certainly be putting its capabilities to the test.

“Well, it will help us with our cover, most likely hide our tracks, and since they’ll be forced to stay inside with each other, it might prompt all sorts of interesting conversations. So it could be a good thing, at least in regards to information collection. And I did pick out the best cold weather clothing they had, which is pretty good, especially for civilian wear.” Jardena said.

“Oh, trust me, I do appreciate the winter gear,” I said. I pulled my hat down around my ears. “Let’s hope they do use the snowstorm as an opportunity to talk. They may use it to do something else that neither of us wants to see them doing,” I said, adding a retching sound for effect. What a visual.

Bibble’s and Dormé’s dots stopped moving about 10km ahead of us. Jardena turned to me and said, “How close do you want to go in with the vehicle? I’d prefer we get it as close as possible, but leave it on the trail so we have an easier time getting out when we need to leave.”

“We’re going to have to get a little closer, I think. This distance would be fine ordinarily, but if we need to quickly sprint 10km in inclement weather to get to this speeder, it might as well be parked 100km away,” I said.

“Yeah, and 10km dash in snowshoes no less. I was thinking of getting as close as possible. But that’s something I always get dinged for in performance reviews and after mission briefings. I figured I’d ask what your SOPs were,” she said.

We managed to get the speeder several hundred meters away from Dormé’s cabin. We busied ourselves with camouflaging the speeder, then Jardena and started setting up a small army of cameras and recording devices all around the perimeter of the cabin. I finished placing my set then picked a concealed spot where I could comfortably conduct surveillance for the rest of the day. Jardena finished placing her set of devices and sat down next to me.

“Well, here we go,” she said. “So my primary desire of this mission is get info either confirming or denying what Padmé told us. A bonus would be specific intel about when where and who. And my best case scenario is that who ever is in charge might give the good gov’nor a call.” She had a very pleased smile on her face.

“That would be an amazing stroke of good luck,” I said.

Hmm, she’s really into this, I thought to myself.

“In addition to finding evidence for or against what Padmé claimed,” I said, “on a purely personal level, I’ve got two things I’d like to know. First, I’d like to know if she really is pregnant or not.” Having seen Jardena convincingly pull off a false pregnancy the other day at the masquerade party, I know Dormé could certainly do the same.

“Do you think that she’s not pregnant?” Jardena asked. “Why fake it? Other than to get you in trouble. And Bibble is playing along pretty well if she’s not pregnant. It’s not the most fun thing to pretend to be.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Bibble would know if she’s not pregnant, even if he can’t go to obstetrician visits with her.” I paused, then continued.

“Second, what is her connection to those people who supposedly kidnapped her a few months ago? If that was faked – and it had to have been – what were they really trying to do?” I paused again, running things through my head.

“Thinking back on Dormé’s ‘kidnapping,’” I said, “if the plan had been to lure me somewhere and kill me, it almost worked. If that’s what it was all about, it was a good plan. It’s almost funny, but if my father hadn’t been there that day, they would’ve succeeded.” The irony of that part of the incident wasn’t lost on me.

Jardena arched an eyebrow. “Did the locals ever do a follow up on the two men? Figure out where they were from? I’d hate to think someone has been trying to kill you for that long.”

“The investigation is ongoing,” I mumbled. “They recently contacted me on Coruscant and I had to submit a sworn statement about what happened.” I hoped that statement would suffice. For once my father was in trouble because of me, and not the other way around.

There was a third thing I wanted to know, but I couldn’t mention it to Jardena. There had been similarities between Dormé’s “kidnapping” and Siri’s abduction on Ansion. In both cases, the victim had been sealed in a container that was to be transported – an unusual and distinctive m.o. Had Dormé been involved in that too?

“I wonder how far back I need to go when questioning Dormé’s actions,” I said. I was thinking aloud again.

The thought troubled me, because I had once seen Dormé as a helpful and supportive friend. I have known her (and Cordé) about as long as I’ve known Jardena, though in retrospect, obviously not nearly as well. Ignorant of her true motives, had I ever unwittingly helped in anything wrong she was involved in?

Jardena and I settled in to our snug (but frakking COLD) surveillance nook and began our observation of the governor of Naboo and a former handmaiden. I never thought I’d say that in the same sentence.

When Bibble showed up Dormé wrung her hands and sobbed about how long it had taken him to get there. Bibble apologized and gave her flowers. AWWW!

She apologized for having burned what she’d cooked, and he said, no problem, he’d cook dinner for her. AWWW! I stifled a laugh. How completely and utterly domestic.

Then Bibble said he wanted “dessert” before dinner. I shivered and turned to Jardena. “I can’t watch this,” I said.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Nothing like a snowstorm

2006-10-10T22:47:00.000-04:00

I thought I saw a gualama.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Cold.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

I glanced thoughtfully at the strawberries, the cream and the honey that we hadn’t touched yet from breakfast. I couldn’t let that go to waste, right? I slowly looked her up and down. “A plan is forming even as we speak,” I promised with a grin.

It was a relief when Jardena broke down and bought some cold weather gear since that meant that I could get some too without looking like I was overreacting to the dip in temperature. Hey, 60 degrees is cold to me, so I was freezing.

The surveillance of Bibble, which could’ve been tedious, was made bearable and at times actually fun by the fact that Jardena and I were working together and were in synch for the first time in a long time. Whether we learned anything useful about the target was debatable, however.

The first day Bibble didn’t leave the grounds of the retreat at all. Some Gungan construction crews were doing extensive digging at the site so we couldn’t get as close as we would’ve liked. On the second day Bibble made a brief trip into town, had lunch with the mayor in a public restaurant, then went back to the retreat. On the third day two significant things happened. The first was that late in the afternoon Bibble abruptly dropped off of the map while in the main house, only to reappear hours later, still within the grounds.

“What was that all about?” I remarked. “I thought the tracking powder had been discovered or had worn off, but it’s looking like that’s not the case. There’s some seriously heavy shielding somewhere in that structure. The Chancellor sure wants to ensure his privacy.”

Another blip suddenly reappeared on the very periphery of Jardena’s map.

“Well look who’s back,” I said, pointing. It was Dormé’s signal. It was stationary at the moment.

“How much time do we have left before the powder wears off and we lose both signals?” I asked. My breath made little smoke trails in the frosty air. I casually stuck my hands back in my pockets.

Jardena handed me a thin pair of thermoregulating gloves. “It can last up to 3 weeks, but after 9 standard days, the signal starts fading. I wonder why Dormé is back?” she said.

“I bet she got tired of waiting and whined for him to come up there or she’d do something drastic,” I said disparagingly.

Dormé’s blip remained stationary. After about 30 minutes going back and forth on the grounds, Bibble’s blip moved towards the speeder bay. “He must have been packing,” Jardena remarked. Moments later, Bibble’s speeder exited the grounds, heading in the direction of Dormé’s blip.

Jardena looked at me. “Time for us to get moving. Would you like to drive or would you like to navigate?”

“You can drive,” I offered as we went for our speeder.

We passed through the outskirts of Moenia, and then the suburbs. The houses became few and far in between as we put distance between ourselves and civilization. Jardena gave me a run down of the area where Dormé was entrenched as I studied the map display. As we entered the hill country it began to get overcast. Frowning, I overlaid a weather map on the tracking map.

“Hmm, I’d thought they’d stop to get some supplies,” Jardena said.

“She’s probably been stocking up,” I said, “which is a good thing for them, because they’re going to get snowed in.” I pointed out the weather front moving into the area. Of course, if the happy couple were going to get snowed in, so were we. Snow doesn’t discriminate.

“On the way out, we can chat with the people who run the stores, figure out what they saw and heard from Dormé,” Jardena said.

I nodded, but said, “We do need that information, but I wonder if it’s safe for us to question people?” Dormé could’ve taken the simple precaution of asking people to alert her if anyone came around asking questions. And because of that stupid reality show, we couldn’t easily go anywhere on our own home planet. I was beginning to seriously regret having appeared on that show.

On the way up here we’d passed at least half a dozen lodges that had been almost completely reclaimed by the environment. The abandoned structures had a stark skeletal appearance. Why did Dormé want to “nest” out here anyway? Then it occurred to me that the creepiness was precisely why she may have chosen this place.

For my own benefit I brought up another overlay, this one showing nearby life forms. Nothing larger than a vir vur registered, though an hour or two ago I thought I saw a wild gualama. I took my eyes off the map and surveyed the desolate terrain of the hill country ahead of us.

“Nothing like a snowstorm to make this more challenging,” I remarked. The rented speeder was an off-road vehicle. We’d almost certainly be putting its capabilities to the test.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Rich husband, fancy house, big ring

2006-10-06T03:19:00.000-04:00

Dorme bought her own engagement ring.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Ready to go.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

“I think we should follow Dormé, set up surveillance, and see if we catch anything,” Jardena said.

“Shouldn’t we follow Bibble?” I suggested. “They’re bound to hook up again anyway. Besides, he’s the mastermind behind whatever’s going on. It’s certainly not Dormé.”

“Fine, we can follow Bibble, I don’t think either one will produce anything exciting. If we get anything, it’ll probably be when they are together,” Jardena said. “I was just thinking Dormé because it would allow us to set up while only she was there. But you’re right, if we stay with Bibble, we might catch something we’d miss watching Dormé.”

I helped myself to some more eggs, then returned to something Jardena had said previously.

“I’ve got a list of everything she’s paid for using the relief funds. The maternity clothes and things, that’s obviously for her. The hunting equipment could be for anyone, but the cold weather gear, judging by the sizes, is for her and at least one other adult,” I said.

“Oh, get this -- she bought her own engagement ring,” I added. “Bibble wouldn’t do that for her, I guess.”

Jardena made a choking sound. “They’re engaged? I thought this was some sort of clandestine fling.” She picked up the fork she’d dropped. I thought she’d be surprised, but her reaction was more disconcerted. What was that all about?

She collected herself, then shrugged. “I think she always wanted that – rich husband, fancy house, big ring, posh speeder, kids. I just figured she’d make a play for a Senator, not someone like Bibble. A ring would make her feel important. It’s a visual sign that there is someone out there who wants you. And no one knows if you bought it yourself or not.” She paused and sipped her tea. “Is it a big expensive flashy ring?” she asked curiously.

I wasn’t sure why Jardena needed the specifics of Dormé’s engagement ring, but I paged through my datapad to the list of Dormé’s expenditures and recited the details.

“It says here ‘Pink Sapphire and Triangle Shape Diamond Set in Filigree Engraved Platinum.’ The price was… 7,120cr.” I shook my head disapprovingly. “Yes, I think that qualifies as ‘big, flashy and expensive.’”

She made a face to show that she disapproved also.“I don’t think they’re engaged. I’d almost be willing to bet she wear the ring on her off hand when he’s around. But I’m also being unkind, they could be, Dormé is a very pretty girl. But still, tacky ring. I liked the one you gave me.”

“Did you?” I said doubtfully. “It certainly wasn’t platinum. If you liked it, maybe that had more to do with what it represented than what it was.”

Despite what I’d said, it made me feel good to hear her say that, and it did make me smile. We’re seldom on the same page when it comes to gifts and such. When I'd bought Jardena’s ring I hadn't planned adequately and I couldn’t afford something like what Dormé had bought for herself. Jardena's ring had been way more modest. I had been embarrassed to give it to her, but it was the best I could do at the time. I wonder what happened to it? She probably threw it out of an airlock when I called off the wedding and it’s floating in space somewhere. That would be perfectly understandable, though disappointing in an odd way. I opened my mouth and was about to ask her what had happened to the ring, but changed my mind. Bad question. It could be interpreted so many ways, virtually none of them good. Best to let it pass.

“That could have been part of it,” she said, “but I definitely loved the way it looked. I thought it fit me and my personality well. I still have it in a box of my belongings at my parent’s house.”

“Oh?” I said, nodding. I left it at that. Wow, I guess she wasn’t as mad in the immediate aftermath of the breakup as I would’ve thought.

“What’s up with the pink stone? Sapphires come in more than just blue?” I said idly. “Anyway, I doubt they’re really engaged. If they were, she wouldn’t buy her own ring. It’s got to be for show. An old guy like him, he can string someone like her along indefinitely. She’s needy. She’d buy something like that to feel better about herself.”

“Sometimes people really need that kind of validation” Jardena observed. “I think Dormé should have quit after Cordé’s death and gotten some serious counseling, but she didn’t and here we are.”

“But you see, I don’t know why we’re here,” I said. “Yes, of course we’re here because we want to help Padmé, but what I mean is, what is Bibble’s goal? I’ve been thinking about this ever since we first talked about it back at the Skyhook Park. Padmé said they want to kill her, but that’s not the real goal. Without having at least a solid theory about their motivation, we’ll always be one step behind them. That frustrates me. It means we have to count on Bibble doing something obvious, or hope that Dormé continues to be a weak link.”

“Well, attempts on Padmé’s life are nothing new. She is a pretty significant figure in the Senate. Killing her would send a very strong message on the part of the Separatists. The Nemoidians still have it out for her. Maybe she’s unknowingly blocking something somebody wants. I definitely think Bibble is acting under orders, I don’t think this is his idea.”

She paused and thought. “Do you think he could be acting on behalf of a corporation? She’s not been too willing to give military companies blank checks and carte blanche to do whatever they desire.” She repositioned her utensils – a nervous habit. “The only other thing I can think of that has caused some raised eyebrows is that she never wants to grant the Chancellor more emergency powers, but that’s all I can think of and I doubt that is the issue. Politics is your field, I just shoot droids.”

“My field? I’m just muscle,” I said humorously, but I shared with her some insights about people in the Senate who had an adversarial relationship with our senator.

Jardena put down her tea cup, finished off her breakfast and stood up. “I’m going to get dressed and start getting our stuff ready to leave.” Then she smiled and offered, “Unless you had other plans?”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Not the brightest thing out there

2006-10-05T04:44:00.000-04:00

We began our surveillance in Moenia.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Eager to get started.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

Over breakfast I was eager to find out how well the tracers we’d put on Dormé and Bibble were working. “Are they still in the area, or have they moved on?” I asked. “Are they traveling separately or together?”

Jardena activated the tracer map on her datapad. She pointed out the spot that represented Bibble. He was still at the Chancellor’s retreat. However, at first glance, Dormé wasn’t on the grid. Jardena pulled back the zoom and at the very edge was Dormé’s marker.

“That’s interesting,” she said. “She looks like she’s traveling towards the mountains. Didn’t you mention she had been staying out there somewhere?”

I nodded. “I found out in a round about way. Her family was issued cash after the hurricane. Most people don’t realize that transactions made with that cash is being tracked the same way vouchers are. A number is assigned to each family. Most of the money granted to her family was used in the Kaadara area within six weeks of the hurricane. Months pass then bingo! Purchases are made in Theed in a maternity store. Days later there are purchases of hunting equipment and cold weather gear made in a sporting goods store in rural Dee’Ja Peak. Finally, home improvement supplies were purchased in the same area -- paint, furniture, that sort of thing.”

I looked at Jardena’s map again. “Why did they split up so quickly after the party,” I muttered to myself.

“That was ballsy, buying maternity clothes in Theed. Do you think she bought the hunting equipment and cold weather gear for herself or Bibble?” she said, stirring her tea. “So we think she bought the equipment for herself or for someone else.” She looked at where I indicated in the Dee’ja Peak region. “I think I know that area, it has old hunting cabins from hundreds of years ago.”

I shrugged. “Dormé’s not the brightest thing out there. She probably thought she was being smart by not using her own credit line or Bibble’s. For that matter, Governor Bibble is either not too bright either and he was never briefed on the allocation and tracking of relief funds, or he doesn’t know she’s jeopardizing their secrecy.”

“He probably doesn’t know. I still don’t know how those two came together in the first place,” she said.

As we watched, Dormé disappeared off the edge of the map.

“Well, they aren’t a public couple, and Bibble most likely had things to attend to today,” Jardena said. “He’ll probably follow her later in the day. It would look odd, the two of them traveling together, especially since she isn’t hiding her pregnancy.” She frowned.

“I think we should follow Dormé, set up surveillance, and see if we catch anything,” she said.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Do you want me to do this myself?

2006-09-29T06:06:00.000-04:00

Jardena had questions for me as well.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Contemplative.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

“Hey, you,” I eventually said. “You had quite a lot to say on the subject of babies tonight. How much of that was you messing with me, and how much was real?”

I gave her a light kiss on the back of the neck to let her know I wasn’t mad or anything.

She thought about that for a moment. “Most of it was messing with you. You seemed like you were trying to start something, so I figured I’d give you a hard time. I still don’t like the name Riani, though,” she said teasingly.

“You never give up, do you?” I groaned. But I gave her another kiss.

“You sounded like you had our lives planned out. This is something you’ve been thinking about? If not, you really had me going there for a bit. You have a fine career ahead of you as a holovid actress in the unlikely event you ever choose to leave the military,” I said, chuckling softly.

“Somehow I think I’d have even less time as an actress for a life. And I don’t have our lives planned out, we only got back together recently. But I do know that I want more than one child. I said that stuff about a second baby to get a reaction out of you. Too bad you had the mask on at the time,” she said with a laugh. “I try not to plan too far in advance, we live such fluid lives, it makes planning hard and at times, a bit pointless.”

She stretched comfortably next to me. “But I guess this is as good a time as any. Do you even want kids? I remember what you wanted four plus years ago, but that might have changed.” She tilted her head back to look at me. “And even if I do manage to get out of the Navy, would you leave your job with Padmé?” She rested the side of her face against my chest.

“Being with you down the road is dependent on me leaving my job?” I said. Once again she had surprised me. She’d never expressed any particular concern about my job before.

“Well, I was referring to having kids, I’m not doing that alone. But down the road, I don’t want to be on Naboo while you’re on Coruscant, that wouldn’t work, I’d get lonely,” she said. I would miss her too.

I thought a bit about how to phrase the answer to her real question. It felt good and comfortable to have her close to me like this. What I had to say next, though honest, was likely to turn things cold again, but it couldn’t be helped. It deserved an answer.

“As much as I know you’ll be a great mom... I have doubts about my ability to hold up my end of the bargain,” I said quietly, looking down at her. I’m always uncomfortable about touching on things that involve my father, but I wanted her to understand where I was coming from.

“I don’t know if I’d be a decent father, Jardena.” I don’t know if that makes sense to her. Jardena wasn’t raised in a house full of chaos. She had a good childhood (though her mom comes across as a control freak).

“I wouldn’t want to let you – you and our kid -- down that way,” I said. “I know what it’s like to be let down that way.”

I reached out and gently touched a stray strand of light-colored hair that was covering her light-colored eyes. I hoped they’d revert back to their familiar hues soon. I felt like I was with someone else.

She listened then said, “I want kids, and I have no concerns about your abilities to be a dad. I won’t and don’t expect you to be perfect at it, no ever is. But I think you are limiting yourself by assuming you’ll be the same as your dad. This is your life and parenting styles aren’t genetic. There are places that teach classes on parenting styles and techniques, so you aren’t stuck with the one you grew up with. And anyways, your mom was great, just use what she did that you liked.” She shifted, then continued. “I’m not making light of your concerns, but to me they aren’t something I worry about with you.”

She looked up at me. “Dante, this is so far off in the future I don’t think it’s worth worrying about right now. You are the master of your own destiny. You can either take control of it and be what you want, or just stand back and be swept along. And we’ve been here long enough that the heat is starting to make me dizzy. I’m going to take a quick shower then head to bed.” She leaned over and gave me a kiss.

I kissed her back, but said nothing. She got out of the tub and went to take her shower and I was left mulling over my own private thoughts.

~~

That night in my dreams we were back at the masquerade party. Again I was trying to track Dormé and Bibble, but it was difficult because Dormé was a vir vur. I was trying to tag her with Jardena’s tracking powder, only it was baby powder and it was getting everywhere.

“Do you want me to do this myself?” Jardena said, exasperated. “Mal could do it. Bail could do it.”

I can’t remember how the dream ended.

I hate dreams like that.

Unable to get back to sleep immediately, I got out of bed, murmured “Sorry, I’ll be back,” to Jardena, threw on some clothes and left the room. I walked outside the hotel and strolled around its grounds for a while, breathing in the crisp night air. Light flurries were falling. I recalled that I was with Jardena the first time I saw snow.

When I finally went to bed again, I hadn’t made up my mind about anything, but I had a dreamless comfortable sleep.

~~

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Don't Be You

2006-09-28T00:35:00.000-04:00

I had some questions after the party.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Contemplative.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

I hesitated. “She’ll know it’s me. I don’t know if I can pull this off.”

She looked at me. “No, she won’t, don’t be yourself. Be...” She paused for a moment, “Be how you imagine Mal, be Bail, be a character, but don’t be you. I think it’s a simple court dance with limited interaction. Enough to do what we need and not so complicated that you can’t remember this.”

Be like Mal? Bail! What the—

“Ok, how about I bump into her, maybe do what the vir vur did for a bit, will that work better for you?” she said.

I shook my head. It was my problem after all, not Jardena’s. No, I’d take care of it my way. I moved towards the dance floor. The musicians began a new song. Bowing formally to the ex-handmaiden, I took her hand then joined the throng involved in the ritual of court dancing. Mercifully, she made little attempt at conversation and my voice was distorted by the mask when I answered. We moved through the heavily stylized steps. Throughout it all she was distracted, her eyes ever on the figure of the governor. I wanted to snatch the mask off of her face. I wanted to order the musicians to stop playing and have this out with her here and now in public.

But reason won out over the flush of anger.

When the music had concluded, the deed was done. We’d track her. We’d be sensible about this. I merged back into the crowd and finally found my way back to Jardena.

“You don’t know how hard it was not to throttle her,” I said flatly. I balled my hands into fists, flexed, then let it go.

She slipped her hands into mine. “We can leave now if you want, we don’t have to stay any longer.” She squeezed my hands. “We could go back, take a warm bath, relax, not worry about anything for a little bit.”

“We’ll do that,” I said, “but before we do…” For the second time tonight I bowed and formally asked someone to dance with me.

Back in the hotel, we relaxed together in a warm bath. Again my arms encircled her, but it was easier this time without all of the clothes. And the fake pregnancy belly.

“Hey, you,” I eventually said. “You had quite a lot to say on the subject of babies tonight. How much of that was you messing with me, and how much was real?”

I gave her a light kiss on the back of the neck to let her know I wasn’t mad or anything.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

After I get you pregnant

2006-09-25T02:40:00.000-04:00

What should we name the baby?

Where: Moenia, Naboo. Chancellor Palpatine’s Retreat.

Feeling: Mildly argumentative.

Listening to: ~~Baby mama~~ Jardena

Continued from here.

“Niya?” I said raising my eyebrow. The effect was lost because of the mask.

“What’s wrong with Niya? Anyways, I think Riani sounds too much like my middle name. And Akira? Bleh!” She disdainfully waved her hand.

“Niya is too much like my mother’s name,” I explained. “I chose Riani because it’s like your middle name. And Akira is a kick-ass name for a boy! You have a better suggestion for our son?”

Were we playacting, or was this drifting into a real difference of opinion? It seemed like the latter.

I was enjoying the argument. It’s true – I piss her off on purpose sometimes, just to provoke a reaction. Her accent comes out, her eyes flash, everything goes up a notch. She’s so cute when she’s mad.

But I don’t care what she says – Akira Typho is a kick-ass name.

She opened her mouth to argue, but changed her mind. “Ok, Akira is fine, so long as I get to pick the middle name,” she decided. She put her hand on her lower back and rubbed it a bit.

Jardena looked like she was getting tired (but not of disagreeing with me, of course) so I looked around to see if there was a seat available or if I could evict someone from one. Nothing materialized, so I gave her a shoulder rub instead.

“I don’t like Riani, maybe as a middle name, but not as a first name. What about Indira, I really like that name,” she said.

“Indira Typho is an awfully snooty name,” I replied. “But I suppose if we had a daughter she’d be a pampered little princess. I wouldn’t deny her anything, so it’s probably fitting.” I wrapped my arms carefully around Jardena and her expanded waistline and let her lean against me.

“I’m the one who physically has to give birth here, I think I should get to name the baby,” she persisted.

“That is so sexist,” I said, knowing she would find that label irritating. “It’s ‘our’ baby, not ‘your’ baby. What, after I get you pregnant I have no further say in anything?”

“What? How is that sexist? I have to actually bear the child and then nurse her, I think that qualifies me the right to name her. You help with ‘our’ baby and you can name the next one.”

Eh? What’s this?

I may toy with provoking reactions from her, but Jardena is the master of this game. Mr. Vir Vur was long gone, but Jardena was still on this topic. There was now no doubt that this was a real conversation about me, her and a future positive pregnancy test, and not just for show. The pendulum that is this relationship had swung completely the other way. A couple days ago on Coruscant this woman wasn’t speaking to me, now she was telling me what she was going to name my baby. Excuse me, I meant my babies, plural.

Dante, you must’ve been doing something right with her on the flight over...

She was still going. Oh, there was no stopping Jardena now. Evidently she’d put considerable thought into this. “…and you get plenty of say, such as how to paint the baby’s room, what type of speeder we should get, In fact, I’ll even let you insist that your mom come help us when the baby is born instead of mine.”

“Uh,” I said.

Okay, this was getting a little scary now.

I was about to say something brilliant like, “Aren’t you getting a little too into this role?” but luckily I was saved when her attention was focused elsewhere.

The discussion of Jardena having my baby – babies! – was tabled. For now.

A woman passed by behind Jardena, then melded back into the crowd. “That woman smells a lot like Cordé did,” Jardena said.

How odd. I never would’ve made the connection, but she was right. A perfume, a combination of hairsprays and lotions. Whatever it was, Cordé had had a signature.

I quickly lost sight of the figure in the crowd. She had drifted towards the center of activity – the dancing.

“Dammit,” I muttered under my breath. I hadn’t gotten a clear look at her.

“Did you even get a glimpse of her outfit color?” Jardena asked, following me.

“Blue, white and pale green,” I said. “It’s not much to go on, but my instincts are saying it’s got to be her,” I said.

“Do you think you could get close enough to her?” she asked me. “See if you can get her to dance with you,” Jardena’s voice echoed oddly in my mask, almost like my conscience speaking in high-tech fashion.

I hesitated. “She’ll know it’s me. I don’t know if I can pull this off.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

So tell me – Boy or Girl?

2006-09-24T09:55:00.000-04:00

A vir vur quizzed us about our baby.

Where: Moenia, Naboo. Chancellor Palpatine’s Retreat.

Feeling: Curious

Listening to: A vir vur

Continued from here.

“I feel very out of place here,” Jardena said, echoing some of what I was feeling.

I needed to think positively. Dormé WAS here. She wouldn’t be able to resist. She was clingy and if she’d latched onto Bibble, she would want all the perks that being a rich man’s lover could bring, even if being here jeopardized what they were trying to achieve – whatever that was.

“That makes two of us,” I said leaning down to whisper to Jardena. “I’ve been to important functions with Padmé, but never as a guest, always on duty. And never anything close to this. Things are so different on Coruscant.”

Think, Dante, think. You do know Dormé. What colors would she choose? What mask would she wear? If she had always been involved with Bibble and they were up to no good, maybe she’d always been wearing a “mask” and I’d never seen her true face, so to speak.

Inspiration hit me. I remembered her obsession with last year’s hurricane. Her costume would have something to do with the sea or air, I thought. Look for greens and blues. Think abstract. But she won’t be too flashy. I scanned the crowd for someone short, unassuming and pregnant.

Besides my girlfriend, of course.

We had been at the ball only a short while before the positive and negative aspects of being in the company of a “pregnant” woman became apparent to me. On the positive side, no one was paying any attention whatsoever to me, so I was free to scrutinize other people or act less than social without anyone noticing or caring.

I saw that people cleared a path for Jardena. People smiled and offered her seats. People wanted to feed her. Some forward people – perfect strangers – wanted to touch her belly like she was public property! I had to rein in a very visceral negative reaction to that. How do real expectant fathers handle that?

Then a new challenge appeared – the “tipsy party guest that wouldn’t be denied.”

“Kai, is that you?” said a lanky young man sporting a vir vur costume. He bounded up to me , mimicking the rabbit-like movements of the familiar creature from Rori. “Yes, it IS you!” he said delightedly. He snagged two glasses of sparkling wine from the tray of a passing waiter.

“This one is for you,” he said handing me one glass.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not Kai,” I said.

He wasn’t listening.

“And this one is for you, Tascina,” he said to Jardena, “but I will consume it on your behalf.”

He took a healthy gulp of wine, then said, “So tell me – boy or girl? What names have you chosen?” Whoever he was, he seemed determined to stay and quiz us.

“A boy,” I said instinctively.

“A girl,” Jardena said simultaneously. She glanced and me and covered quickly. “Actually, we don’t know, it’s going to be a surprise. We just, obviously, have different opinions on what the child is.”

The vir vur wanted more information. “Well, what about names, you have to have thought of some names,” he insisted.

“Niya if it’s a girl and—”

“Riani,” I said, interrupting Jardena. “Riani if it’s a girl. Akira if it’s a boy.” Don’t ask. I was just amazed that I’d been able to come up with anything at all. Baby names was not a topic I’d put much thought into, though I suddenly had a sneaky suspicion that Jardena had.

“Well, which is it,” the man persisted. “I rather like Kai’s choice better.”

“I like my choice too,” I said. Jardena looked like she wanted to protest, so I used that to our advantage. I turned to Mr. Vir Vur and said, “The wife and I are still battling over this, if you know what I mean. Do you mind if we catch up with you later?”

Thankfully he took the hint. After insisting to “Tascina” that we must attend his party next week in Keren for his gallery opening, he departed. I looked at Jardena.

“Niya?” I said raising my eyebrow. The effect was lost because of the mask.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Let’s stick together

2006-09-23T20:35:00.000-04:00

Jardena's costume passed the test.

Where: Moenia, Naboo. Chancellor Palpatine’s Retreat.

Feeling: Apprehensive

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

I handed Jardena my datapad when we got in the speeder. We had a 90-minute drive ahead of us. Once we were on the way, I talked about what I’d downloaded while she was out. There were aerial photos of the retreat, film clips of the groundbreaking ceremony, a walkthrough of the mostly completed main building, and an interview with Sio Bibble conducted by Good Morning Naboo. The interview gave me little insight into the man. It was mostly your typical political speech, long on praise of the current administration, short on specifics about solving current issues.

“Did you bring that composite gun with you?” I asked curiously. “‘Cause Queen Jamillia will be at this function. Security will be extra tight. There are also some people making a documentary of the Chancellor who will be filming this. They were very disappointed that the Chancellor won’t be here, but there is a war going on after all. Nevertheless, some people are hoping he’ll put in a surprise appearance.”

“Yes, I brought the gun,” she said, “though it’s still in its pieces. And I’m not too worried about getting it past security. This thing is pretty exotic and made of a composite material that’s not really found anywhere but some outer rim worlds. The gun was a gift from another officer, a friend from the Academy, who is really into unusual and exotic weapons.”

I was curious, but I didn’t ask who the friend was.

Jardena chatted as she sifted through the intel I’d passed on to her. “I’ve not met Queen Jamillia. Is she nice?”

“Honestly, I think she’s a bit cold,” I said. “She’s not like Padmé -- she doesn’t relate well to people outside of Naboo royalty.”

“I hope the Chancellor doesn’t show up,” Jardena said. “That guy still gives me the creeps, sorry.” It was not the first time I’d heard Jardena say something about the Chancellor. With the political climate the way it is and the fact that we’re mired in a war, I hope that she doesn’t express these sentiments in front of other people. Times are changing, and you never know.

“I’ve been around him many times, since he keeps close contact with the Naboo delegation,” I said neutrally. “He gives off absolutely nothing. He’s very difficult to read.”

The sun was setting and it had started to drizzle lightly. Suddenly I saw a trio of large avian shapes streaking across the sky, heading towards the setting sun.

“Hey, look at that. Peko-pekos!” I said. The huge birds usually travel only in a mated pair. In Naboo folklore, seeing three of them meant good luck. “I didn’t know they had them in Moenia.”

“Maybe that means we’ll get all the info we need tonight,” she suggested.

Let’s hope so, I thought to myself.

“Wow,” Jardena said as we pulled up to the massive main building on the grounds. The retreat was still under construction, but already impressive.

“Ready for all of this?” she asked, looking at me from behind her mask.

I nodded and gave her a thumbs up. I stepped out of the speeder as the valet took over. I went around to Jardena’s side of the vehicle and took her hand. There was a pavilion outside of the main building where wine was being served and a huge screen was showing the groundbreaking ceremony over and over. The crowd was quite large.

“Hardly a Gungan to be seen,” I remarked. It was a typical human-centric Naboo party, though there were a Gungan or two and a few off-worlders. I spied the mayor of Moenia with some members of the local business community in the outdoor pavilion, but there was no sign of Governor Bibble yet. Or Dormé.

There was a crackle of thunder and the drizzle picked up and became a light downpour. We ducked under a canopy to avoid getting wet. It was chilly outside. Up in Dee’ja Peak they were probably getting their first snowfall.

“Should we go inside, look around out here, or split up?” I said to Jardena. I wasn’t keen on us splitting up, but we could cover more ground that way. Also, she probably preferred to work alone, more so with our earlier tiff and all.

She held my hand tightly, for a second seeming uncharacteristically hesitant. “Let’s stick together for right now. We should be fine so long as we don’t lose sight of who we are.”

“Is there a double entendre in that?” I said. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. I didn’t need an answer.

As we approached the security checkpoint Jardena revealed to me that she’d anticipated they might do a life form scan on her to see if she really was pregnant. Always two steps ahead, she had incorporated a docile voorpak into her costume. Well, I never would’ve thought of that, that’s for sure.

The main hall with its seemingly endless sea of costumed Naboo humanity made me immediately doubt the feasibility of our plan. How would we find what we needed to find in this throng? What kind of costume would Dormé wear? Would she find a way to stick close to Bibble? Would she be foolish enough to be here at all?

“I feel very out of place here,” Jardena said, echoing some of what I was feeling.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

You’re evil, you know that?

2006-09-22T00:02:00.000-04:00

Jardena's surprise was a doozy.

Where: Moenia, Naboo

Feeling: Still calm.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

Then she stepped out of the bathroom. I saw the hair, the eyes, and yes, THE BELLY. I think “recoiled in horror” would best describe my reaction. Her brilliant costume consisted of a prosthetic that made her look like she was in her third trimester.

Jardena rolled her eyes at me. “You didn’t like any of the other dresses. And it occurred to me that people might mistake me for Padmé since she was invited. I needed to do something that would keep people from mistaking me for her. Anyways, you know how Naboo upper class is about pregnant ladies, they tend to not hassle them too much.”

I didn’t say anything. So not funny of her to do this. You know, since I’m falsely being accused of getting someone pregnant? In retrospect, I should’ve fully supported the exotic dancer / chainmail outfit.

Jardena’s eyes narrowed. “Dante, get over it! It’s a disguise, it’s not like I’m actually pregnant! No one is going to know either of us, so it’s not like you’ll have more rumors to deal with. And the outfit is only for the party. Are you really that adverse to pregnant ladies?”

I blushed. “No, of course not,” I said. Okay, I’m irritated, but we have a mission to do, so I’ll treat it like a mission.

“And you’re right – no one’ll mistake you for Padmé now,” I conceded.

But you see, I know my luck. Someone will recognize her and another stupid rumor will get started and this will add to the grief I’m getting. But I guess that’s added incentive for me to make sure we don’t get caught.

“Uh, you said on the way over that you were going to incorporate some surveillance equipment into my outfit? Let’s get that done,” I said, trying to refocus. “Have you already incorporated some of your gear into your costume?” I gestured broadly at the pregnancy bulge. Who knew how much she could stash in there?

“Are you planning to use the tracing powder you showed me on Bibble? Or were you thinking of something else?” I asked, striving to be professional about this.

She took my mask and inserted a small camera and recording device that blended in neatly with the decorations. She handed me one of the small bead communicators to place in my ear, before turning to work on her own mask. As she did so, she said, “I figured we could both carry the small pellets, and they are small. We don’t want the powder to be inhaled by anyone else, that makes tracking a lot harder. The small gray disk in the box with the pellets will disable the tracking properties of the powder. It’s harmless, but there is no reason to have it active any longer than needed.”

She fiddled with her own mask some more, adding a piece of film that would act as a HUD and display a variety of information to her. Both of our masks had opaque lens covers, as was the fashion, so my eye patch was not visible.

Abruptly she said, “Dante, we don’t have to attend this if you don’t want to. We could focus our attention on where she’s living.” She fiddled with her mask some more to see if the HUD was working and said, “Given your reaction, perhaps we should arrive at separate times in separate vehicles.”

“We’re going together, or we’re not doing this at all,” I said firmly. I looked at her. “You’re evil, you know that? In light of the fact that you know I’m not happy about what Dormé’s doing to me, you could have come up with something else.” In spite of myself, I ended up cracking a smile. She’s so wrong.

“Actually, I did put that into consideration,” she countered. “In light of what Dormé is doing to you, do you think anyone would expect you to show up with a pregnant woman?”

I had no answer for that.

I stood up. “Are you ready to go?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said, donning a voluminous maternity cloak.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Promise you aren’t going to freak out

2006-09-21T00:31:00.000-04:00

Jardena surprised me with her costume.

Where: Moenia, Naboo

Feeling: Calm. No, really.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

I did a double-take. What? Are those chains? I must’ve missed something.

The dress consisted of thin gold chains of various lengths that created a mesh. In other words, she was basically wearing labout what an exotic dancer would and she was going to go to the masquerade ball like that.

“Uh… Isn’t that a little revealing?” I said diplomatically. I winced. I sounded like someone’s father.

If she was trying to make sure that no one at the party recognized her, this was the way to do it. They wouldn’t be looking at her face, that was for sure. I could see her lingerie through the chains! Which is great, but that means other people would be seeing that too. Still, I had to say something to smooth this over.

“It’s ah… nice, very nice,” I said.

Jardena’s eyes dimmed. Without a word she turned and marched back into the dressing room.

“Sorry,” I called after her as she disappeared into the fitting room to change again. When she came out, she dismissed me.

“Why don’t you go back to the room, get all our stuff ready and then I’ll meet you back there," she said. "I have a few more stores to try and there’s no reason to drag you along. Anyways, that way you can get ready and we won’t have to fight over bathroom space.” That sounded reasonable.

I made a show of protesting a bit, but in the end I was glad that she’d sent me packing. I gathered up her things, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and gratefully went back to the hotel.

Once there, I got a haircut (I had it trimmed shorter than I usually wear it) and a shave and took a shower. When I got out she still hadn’t gotten back yet. It didn’t seem too early to get dressed, so I did so. The suit she’d picked out for me was great. Not constricting, good cut, dark reddish-brown in color. The boots were black and hard-soled, but comfortable.

I examined the mask she’d selected. It was styled to resemble an ikopi, complete with curved horns. It looked more fierce than poofy, thankfully. I tried it on and looked at the complete outfit in the full-length mirror. Not bad. Jardena had pulled it together well.

I took off the mask again. The only problem would be with peripheral vision, but that couldn’t be helped. I was playing around with the datapad, having downloaded some maps of the Chancellor’s retreat, when she returned.

I smiled. “Found something you liked?”

“I found something that will work,” she replied. “And in the end, that’s the most important thing. But I think I’m going to have to lighten my hair color a bit, though the stuff I have will wash out.”

Lighten her hair? Hopefully that didn’t mean platinum blonde.

She took all of her stuff in the bathroom and started a shower. I occupied myself by watching a teräs käsi match on the holonet. Eventually she opened the bathroom door a tiny bit and said. “Ok, you have to promise you aren’t going to freak out when I leave the bathroom.”

Oh, that sounds ominous, I thought. She probably went and got something “out there.” Probably that exotic dancer’s outfit.

“I promise,” I said. “Come on out, love.”

Men will be staring at her panties all night.

A worse thought entered my mind. Suppose she got a Jedi costume. No, she wouldn’t do that. Besides which, that would be hard to pull off. And it wouldn’t be very funny.

Then she stepped out of the bathroom.

I think “recoiled in horror” would best describe my reaction.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Are those chains?

2006-09-20T00:01:00.000-04:00

Jardena's dress was a bit revealing.

Where: Moenia, Naboo

Feeling: Bored sithless with shopping

Listening to: Salespeople

Back to my trip to Naboo with Jardena...

Continued from here.

Moenia is a “new” city by Naboo standards. A little over 80 years ago a massive wildfire had destroyed most of the downtown area and surrounding suburbs. An attempt had been made to recreate the original structures in Naboo’s traditional architectural style, but since everything was “new,” the city had a falseness to it and an almost themepark feel.

As we settled into our hotel room and unpacked our things, I said, “Do you think it would be valuable to scout out the area by the Chancellor’s retreat ahead of time? Or would that interfere with getting the costumes we need to get into this party?”

I had a feeling that getting the costumes was going to turn into a long process. It was probable that since this was such a huge affair, if there weren’t a number of costume sources available we might be in a bit of a jam. We basically needed someone willing to do a same day order, and craftsmen on Naboo are notoriously meticulous about their work. In other words, slow. And pricy.

“Oh, by the way, are you confident we’ll be able to sneak weapons into this affair without getting busted?” I said.

“I guess we could, though security is probably pretty decent,” Jardena said. “I'm willing to bet, though, we could get pretty good aerial pictures of it in town. It is the biggest and poshest house in town and people love to take images of things like that.”

I grunted noncommittally.

“As for the costume, I was just going to get a pretty gown and a nice mask, so as not to stand out too much. Were you thinking costume or just mask? And we'll have to think of something that incorporates your eye patch, that is pretty distinct,” she said.

“You pick something for me, I trust your judgment. I don’t care about the costume, as long as it’s nothing effeminate,” I warned.

“As for weapons, I have a composite gun that breaks down into pieces that I bring. I've gotten it past Senate security, so I figure I can get it through the party security.” She smiled sweetly at me.

“Oh, yeah? Well you won’t be doing that again, miss,” I vowed.

She shot me a mean look. “You're just jealous because I figured out how to do that and you haven't.” Then she stuck her tongue out at me. Cute, but silly. I know somebody who’s going to get busted the next time she sets foot in the Senate building, but I ain’t saying who it is.

She placed some things in the room’s safe, then turned to me. “We should probably get started on finding costume. Are you ready for a lot of shopping?”

I groaned. “Let’s get this started,” I said, grabbing the keys to the rented speeder.

I’ve been out with women who like to shop. Jardena is middle-of-the-road when it comes to that sort of thing, but nevertheless, hours were passing. After the third store (or was it the fourth?) my mind started wandering. I was sitting with a pile of bags around me while Jardena tried on dresses.

I found myself thinking back to the last time I was on a shopping expedition with a woman, which was back on Ansion with Siri. The amount of money I threw down that day! Gifts for her, gifts for her friends, gifts for people I never met, jewelry...

Jardena stepped out of the dressing room, did a little pirouette, and asked me what I thought.

I did a double-take. What? Are those chains?

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Interlude: "Next time I’ll be the loving mother"

2006-09-19T00:42:00.000-04:00

When: The night before my trip to Naboo

Where: 500 Republica, Coruscant

Feeling: Like I pulled an all-nighter.

Listening to: A much calmer Ms. Sapphire

Continued from here.

Flashback to the night before my trip to Naboo…

I thought for a bit, then said, “I don’t know this Darth Nepharia, but I do know that it’s a rare person who gives away something for free. Think about what she wants from you before you make any kind of decision. If she was a friend – or at least someone benevolent – she wouldn’t be trying to confuse you. And more importantly, don’t assume only she can answer your questions, whatever they are. I bet you already have the answers you seek.”

“How can I feel? How can I feel and no-one else can?” she asked me. “How?”

I shook my head. “Is that the question you want her to answer? I can guarantee that she can’t answer that question for you,” I said seriously. “She can’t answer, because it’s not true. There are trillions of beings in this galaxy, and most of them feel something. I think when you say no one else can feel, it’s because you think no one feels what you feel, or no one feels as deeply as you feel. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you weren’t a Jedi, you would know that.” I looked at her sympathetically.

“The rest of us muddle along through life, getting hurt and hurting other people, hating some people and loving others, feeling anger, sadness, joy, ecstasy. I appreciate what the Jedi do for us and for our Republic, but I feel sorry for you, because you defend what you’re not allowed to have. You must be the loneliest beings in the galaxy.”

She looked down. “I’ve got so much held in here… I want to release it all… My master taught me to allow emotions to flow through me instead of repressing them. It worked for so long… But what he taught me doesn’t work anymore, I’ve now reached the time in my life when I need someone to love…”

“But what he taught me doesn’t work anymore, I’ve now reached the time in my life when I need someone to love…” she said. She stood on wobbly feet and, unexpectedly, held out her hand. I took the offered hand and stood. I don’t know if anything I’d said had helped her, but maybe it had. I had one more bit of advice.

“Before you look for someone to love, love yourself,” I said carefully. “Don’t beat yourself up so much. Give yourself permission to feel whatever it is you’re feeling. You’ll like yourself more, and when you like yourself, love has a way of finding you.”

Force, I can’t believe I said that!

I gave a little embarrassed shrug. This much is true -- you can’t solve an internal problem externally. And when you’re looking for love, that’s when you don’t find it. But how completely lame to say that.

A glance at the window showed dawn was coming. I would need to be at the starport soon for my flight to Naboo.

She laughed a little at my ridiculous words. Chalk it up to the fact that I was sleepy and it had been the wee hours of the night – now dawn. But I’d coaxed a smile out of her, so I must’ve done something right.

“Maybe we should do this again sometime,” she joked. “Next time I’ll be the loving mother, and you can be the helpless child… I’m sorry I woke you up and stayed so long Dante… You have no idea how much you helped me…” Before leaving, she gave me a hug and whispered in my ear, “Thank you so much.”

“Any time,” I said, hugging her back. “And somewhere down the road I will take you up on your offer, so I hope you mean it,” I warned.

The End

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Interlude: "When she touched me I felt safe"

2006-09-18T17:45:00.000-04:00

When: The night before my trip to Naboo

Where: 500 Republica, Coruscant

Feeling: Mildly confused

Listening to: A whistful Ms. Sapphire

Continued from here.

Flashback to the night before my trip to Naboo…

“Well, let’s see,” I said. I reached out for one of the candles illuminating the room. I held it near her and eyed her critically. “Let’s see if anything’s wrong. Two arms, two legs. Three lekku, which is unusual, but attractive. And various other parts, also attractive.” I smiled. “Everything seems to be in order. Nope, I don’t see anything wrong with you. What do you think is wrong with you?”

She smiled sadly. “You’re so kind to me,” she said softly, “I would wish nothing more than to kiss you now, and love you forever…” She closed her eyes.

Uh, oh. I began to be worried that she might feel I was leading her on. I opened my mouth and closed it again. I had no clue how to respond. Thankfully she continued.

Opening her eyes again, she said, “But I can’t… I respect Oneida too much…”

I was confused. This was the second time she'd mentioned her. It seems she knows Jardena outside of having done investigation into the stalking incident for me? When and where did this happen? Jardena has never mentioned her. Then again, I can see why she wouldn’t mention a Twi’lek Jedi/exotic dancer to me.

“Dante… I’m not well, in my head… In my soul… Something is wrong… I don’t know what…”

“Well when did this start?” I asked, still trying to be helpful. “Someone made you doubt yourself? Besides that jerk, Obi-Wan, I mean.”

She nodded weakly. “She called herself Nepharia… I see her when I close my eyes… Darth Nepharia… She spoke to me and I couldn’t get away, and when she touched me I felt safe… I felt like I would have if I was in a mother’s arms. She had answers I needed… She still has them, she won’t tell me… She messed with my brain… I feel like I can’t think for myself…”

To be continued…

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Interlude: "None of them can help me"

2006-09-17T02:43:00.000-04:00

When: The night before my trip to Naboo

Where: 500 Republica, Coruscant

Feeling: Mildly confused

Listening to: A plaintive Ms. Sapphire

Continued from here.

Flashback to the night before my trip to Naboo…

“You… you must have female friends, right?” I asked. “Other Jedi who could help you with the things you’re experiencing and keep your privacy?”

“Oh…” she said. “No… The only female friends I have are Barriss, who is so code set she wouldn’t understand, Becca, who wouldn’t know how to help me, and Oneida, but I only met her once. But I needed you…”

She pulled away from me, tears flowing again, and sank to the floor. She grabbed on to my leg.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered.

She looked up at me again with the pretty eyes, and the pretty face and the trembling lips. She laid her head gently against me, and I wavered. She was lonely and she needed a friend, or something more than a friend. And...

No. Won't go there.

Still, I’m not going to turn away someone who, it seems, has no one else to turn to.

I sat down next to Erifia, put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a hug. A comforting hug, nothing more. “Okay, tell me why you think you’ve got no friends. That can’t be true. I like you, and I’ve known you for, like, two seconds.”

She placed her chin on the other side of my neck, and pulled me close again. Then she suddenly became self-conscious, pulled back and curled up in a ball. For a second I had thought she was about to kiss me. Must’ve been my imagination.

“I have friends,” she said, “just none of them can help me like you can, like you are...”

She teared up yet again. She seemed so grateful for what I was doing, and I wasn’t doing anything at all.

“So you don’t think anything is wrong with me?” she asked plaintively.

To be continued…

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Interlude: "I need love…"

2006-09-16T15:26:00.000-04:00

When: The night before my trip to Naboo

Where: 500 Republica, Coruscant

Feeling: Oops. Don't touch the lekku.

Listening to: A tearful Ms. Sapphire

Continued from here.

Flashback to the night before my trip to Naboo…

I couldn’t help but acknowledge that there was a very attractive young woman in my arms in my candlelit apartment. But I do have a girl, even if we’re not speaking half the time. Funny, but she never comes to me with any of her problems. This is different for me.

“I loved him...” she said, referring to Obi-Wan. “I loved him... He helped me so much when I was a padawan... He stopped Aayla from beating on me... and he did what you are doing now... Will you beat him up?”

She gave me a squeeze. She sounded like she meant it.

“Sure, I’ll beat him up for you,” I nodded. “Of course he’ll probably cheat and use the Force and he’ll decapitate me. If he does, my mom will be very unhappy. Maybe Jardena too.”

Erifia held me a little tighter. She seemed both frightened and lonely. I realized I was getting into a bit of a danger zone here with her, but I wanted to help. She needed a friend.

“So you’ve known Obi-Wan since you were little?” I said, searching for something to say. “If you’ve been friends that long, maybe you should give him another chance? He may not have meant to hurt your feelings. Maybe you... surprised him with your admission about how you felt?”

“Dante…” she cried, “Why do I have to feel and everyone else not?” She wrapped her arms around my waist and laid her head and her lekku on my shoulder. “Dante… I’m scared without love I’m going to become a Sith… I needed him to love me back… I need love…”

She started crying again and her lekku began writhing in a very peculiar (and sensual) way. I started to pat her head again and it occurred to me – aren’t a Twi’lek’s lekku an erogenous zone? So if was stroking her lekku, was that equivalent to…

Er, better stop before you get in trouble here, Dante.

I gave Erifia a last reassuring hug, but then carefully pulled back from her embrace.

“You’re not going to become a Sith,” I said firmly. “I can’t tell you about Jedi stuff, or the dark side, or any of that, but I can tell you something about the nature of men and women. You might think that you need Obi-Wan because you’re having a crisis, but you’re stronger than that. You don’t need him for anything, much less love.”

My shirt was wet with her tears. The scent of her clung to me. Her sad eyes were very pretty. I shook my head to clear my mind of errant thoughts.

“You… you must have female friends, right?” I asked. “Other Jedi who could help you with the things you’re experiencing and keep your privacy?”

To be continued…

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Interlude: "I can't get her out of my head"

2006-09-15T23:49:00.000-04:00

When: The night before my trip to Naboo

Where: 500 Republica, Coruscant

Feeling: Mildly confused

Listening to: An unhappy Ms. Sapphire

Continued from here.

Flashback to the night before my trip to Naboo…

“No…I’m not okay,” she said. She pitched forward and stumbled into the room, holding her arms out to me.

I neatly caught her as she pitched forward and I held her until her breathing was more steady and the tears had abated. She wasn’t hurt, as far as I could see in the candlelight – as least not physically. “Want to tell me what’s wrong?” I said kindly when the time seemed right. “Or if you don’t feel like talking yet, that’s fine too.”

She began to cry and said, "ForthelastchallengeIhadtobecomeasith, and, whenIbecameasithIwenttothetempletofindsomesortofforgiveness. But, Icouldn'tsleepatnightandmydeadmasterwouldn'ttalktome, then, IwenttogogeticecreamandObiWanwasthere. So, hestartedscoldingmeaboutwhatIwear, and, hetoldmeoputonacloakandIaskedhimifitdispleasedhim, and then, I Kissed Him, andthenhestartedgoingonaboutthecodeandhowhecouldn'tfeelanything, and, ItoldhimhowlongIlovedhimlikethat and, Isaidthatitwassadhehaddied. And I had to find out, soIkissedhimagainhescoldedmeoncemoreandsaidifIdiditathirdtime, that, he'dkickmeoutofthetemple…"

Her words came out in a rush that was barely intelligible, but I thought that I’d understood most of it. She was overwhelmed by her emotions and the Jedi she’d turned to had been far from helpful. I didn’t know how helpful I could be, but I’d certainly try.

She sobbed some more, clung to me and continued.

"ThenIwenttodatooinebecausewhenitrainsno-onecanseemecry, and, therewasawomantherewhokepttellingmeaboutcorruptionofthetemple. She wouldn't shut up! IkepttellinghertoandIthreatenedtokillher, She touched me. whenshetouchedmeIfeltsafeIlistenedtoherShewasaSith…"

She held me even tighter. "I can't get her out of my head, shestherewhenIclosemyeyestellingmeeverythingisgoingtobeokay."

Erifia released her hold on me and closed her eyes. She grabbed her head, as if in pain.

"Get out…" she said, clearly not to me. "I don't know what to do…"

I let her lay her head on my chest. I patted her lekku comfortingly and said, “I can’t pretend to understand everything you’re going through, but from what you said, it seems that you’re scared that the things you’re feeling will lead you to becoming a Sith? It can’t be that simple, Erifia. It can’t just be emotion that makes a Jedi go wrong. There has to be evil there to begin with. I’ve only known you for a little while, and I don’t see that in you.”

I tilted her head up gently with my fingers so she’d look at me. “Okay Ms. Sapphire, tell me about Obi-Wan. He was mean to you? You want me to go beat him up?” It was a joke, of course, but I was trying to cheer her up.

To be continued…

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Interlude: "Can I please come see you?"

2006-09-14T23:56:00.000-04:00

When: The night before my trip to Naboo

Where: 500 Republica, Coruscant

Feeling: Sleepy

Listening to: A frantic Ms. Sapphire

Flashback to the night before my trip to Naboo…

I was having a dream in which I was stuck in the elevator at 500 Republica during the blackout with the entire Rodian senatorial delegation. The air was getting a little thin.

Suddenly the com beeped. I let the recording take over.

“Dante...” said a female voice. “I’m so sorry. It’s a terrible hour... But I feel like dying... can I please come see you?”

“Hello?” I said sleepily. It took me a second to realize who it was -- Erifia -- and it who it wasn’t -- Jardena. “Yeah, sure, come on over.” It was the middle of the night and I had a flight to Naboo in a few hours, but she sounded distressed.

“The power’s still out in the building, so you’ll have to do a lot of walking to get to this floor,” I advised. “And bring a flashlight.”

“Okay,” she said. She abruptly hung up. I shook my head. This didn’t sound good.

~~

In record time she was there. With the power still out the buzzer wasn’t working, but I could hear someone at the door. When I opened it, there she was, Ms. Sapphire, looking quite unhappy, despite an odd smile on her face.

“Hey, come on in,” I said, taking her hand. “I apologize if it’s a little hot in here. No backup generator, no AC.” I did have some light, however, in the form of candles on my coffee table. I had on some shorts and a t-shirt, but it was still hotter than I would’ve liked.

I offered her a seat and said, “Has something happened? Are you okay?”

Immediately she burst into tears.

“No…I’m not okay,” she said. She pitched forward and stumbled into the room, holding her arms out to me.

To be continued...

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Jedi | Twi'lek | Clone Wars | Fanfic | Fan fiction

Every chance I get

2006-09-06T04:09:00.000-04:00

Where: A shuttle to Naboo

Feeling: It’s about that time.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

“To be honest, I can’t really tell you more than that, things have been pretty hectic recently and that makes it a hard question to answer,” she said. “What about you, what do you want out of all of this and out of me?”

“I thought about this a lot after the first time you asked me,” I said. “And like you, trust is important to me. I sometimes feel like I’m walking on eggshells with you and you’re waiting for me to do something wrong. I feel like I can’t make a mistake. I feel like I have to be perfect around you, and I’m not a perfect man. I may not even be the right man for you. When I’m stressed out thinking like that, that’s when something is going to go wrong.”

The next thing I had to say was going to be tricky. I looked at her seriously. “I know where the trust issues stem from for you. But I want to be forgiven for breaking our engagement, Jardena. It’s done. I can’t fix the past. Even proposing to you again wouldn’t negate having broken things off before. If we can’t get past that, we’re going nowhere.”

I paused, then went on.

“You said you want comfortable and safe? Well, I can compromise and settle for comfortable and safe, but I’d prefer fun and exciting,” I smiled. “Maybe it can only be like that when you’re first getting to know someone, but I’d like to believe we could have that again.” It was once that way with her.

“I don’t expect you to be perfect, just honest,” she insisted. “And I think the trust issue stems from breakup, but in a different way than you think. I’ve gotten over the break up, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I was anywhere near ready to get married. But despite that acceptance, the end of our engagement left me with the feeling that I wasn’t your first choice. That’s what I’m mostly over, it just lingers a bit when dealing with certain women.” She smiled a bit, though I’m not sure why, given what she’d just said..

“As for fun and exciting, that’s fine, as long as you don’t qualify a few days ago as fun and exciting. When I say comfortable and safe, what I want is a person who I know I can go to and not have to worry about what he thinks of me; just to be able to know that he loves and cares for me.”

I thought about what she said. Fair enough. But I had something else to add to the list of what I wanted…

“Oh, and one more thing,” I said, getting up and crossing the room to sit on her bed next to her. “I like holding you close, I love kissing you, and I want to make love to you every chance I get, ‘cause you are so damn sexy. So, no, I’m not sleeping on my side of the room tonight.”

I flashed her an innocent look. “Besides, like I told you the first night, there’s a draft in my corner of the room. You wouldn’t want me catching a cold, would you? Then you’d have to take care of me and nurse me back to health and that’s a lot of work. I’m a very demanding patient. So when I crawl under the covers with you, I’m doing it for your benefit.”

She laughed and rolled her eyes at me. “I think it’s a bit odd that we ended up in a drafty space ship cabin. And I did offer to try to find and fix the issue. But,” she sighed temptingly, “I guess you’ll just have to sleep over here since I can’t do this mission by myself.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

That assumes that you want me

2006-09-05T02:19:00.000-04:00

Where: A shuttle to Naboo

Feeling: Like I'm giving up too much info?

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

“That’s been bothering you this whole time?” I asked. That would explain some of Jardena’s unwillingness to really relax with me. Maybe she thinks I’m just biding my time with her, waiting for Siri to come back.

“Are you sure?” she asked. “And it’s not a silly question, your relationship obviously ended rather suddenly and with very little closure. When relationships like that end, sometimes people take a long time to recover from that kind of ending,” she said. “And yes, that’s been kinda what’s been bothering me.”

“You asked if I’m sure I wouldn’t go back to her? Yes, I’m sure. I don’t go where I’m not wanted or needed. It’s that simple.” I spread my hands. I preferred not to go any further with this. Discussing one woman with another is generally a no-win situation. However, Jardena clearly wanted more. Against my better judgment, I continued.

“You keep saying ‘relationship,’” I said. “It’s not a relationship if only one person thinks it is. That’s how it was with her. I was doing all these things and she found it all very amusing. She’s very...” I searched for the words and couldn’t find them. Flighty? Cruel? Incomprehensible? Immature? Deadly? All of the above. But mostly Siri was as unattainable as any woman could ever have been. And that, unfortunately, is always attractive.

“She is who she is. I couldn’t will her into being who I wanted her to be. Stupid of me to even try,” I said finally. “Yes, I’m done with her.”

Well, went on a bit too much there. Too late now.

“Too much info?” I said with a shy smile. If I’m really lucky we’ll never, ever talk about Siri Tachi again.

A deep breath. My turn.

“I thought you were going to ask me something else, so since you didn’t ask me, I’ll ask you,” I said. I looked at her seriously. “What is it that you want from our relationship, Jardena? From me? That assumes that we have a relationship. That assumes that you want me.”

If Jardena wanted a way out, I had just given it to her, I realized.

“Right now I just want a nice safe comfortable relationship that isn’t stressful. I just want to want to be trusted and I want to be able to trust you. And I assumed we had a relationship, dysfunctional as it may be. If we don’t have one, you get to sleep in your own bed tonight by your lonesome,” she warned.

“To be honest, I can’t really tell you more than that, things have been pretty hectic recently and that makes it a hard question to answer,” she said. “What about you, what do you want out of all of this and out of me?”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Do you still have feelings for her?

2006-09-04T15:31:00.000-04:00

Where: A shuttle to Naboo

Feeling: I didn't see that one coming.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

Jardena paused at the door. “I can neither conform nor deny any involvement in the happenings at 500 Republica 24 hours ago.” Then she headed off to get some food.

~~

“You know,” she said, two days into the trip, “a masquerade is much more about the masks, how pretty they are, that they are worn, than they are about the over all costume. If we could just find something nice to wear and a mask, we’ll be set.”

I nodded noncommittally. I’d been cooped up in the room for virtually the whole trip, messing with my guitar and downloading the programs back into it. I couldn’t really wander around the ship because there was the possibility of being recognized from Big Brother: Naboo. This was a shuttle going back to Naboo, after all.

She propped her head up on her hand. “Can I ask a question that might ruin the mood for the rest of the trip?”

Here it comes, I thought to myself. The segue from talking about clothes and masks to something personal wasn’t entirely unexpected. I knew that the dreaded relationship talk had been hovering in the air and I was ready. If she asked me if I really never did anything with Dormé (or Cordé, or Sabé, or whoever), I was ready for that. If she wanted to talk about the broken engagement, I was ready for that. If she wanted to resurface the “What do you want from this relationship” thing from a few months ago, I had an answer figured out now. If she wanted to talk about ~~that asshole~~ Mal, I knew just what to say about that too.

“Yes?” I said.

“Have you gotten over Siri?” she asked. “Or do you still have feelings for her or... Would you go back to her if she reappeared in your life?”

“What?? No.” I said. Naturally Jardena had unerringly asked the ONE question I hadn’t prepared for.

Then I realized that she might take it the wrong way, so I quickly said, “I mean, ‘No, I wouldn’t go back to her,’ not, ‘No, I’m not over her.’”

I paused, trying to figure out what this was really about.

“That’s been bothering you this whole time?” I asked. That would explain some of Jardena’s unwillingness to really relax with me. Maybe she thinks I’m just biding my time with her, waiting for Siri to come back.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Armed, armored or bugged

2006-09-03T16:37:00.000-04:00

Where: A shuttle to Naboo

Feeling: Things are getting better

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

"So, when you arranged for rooms, was this really the only one left or were you being optimistic?" Jardena asked teasingly.

I looked at her and merely smiled in response. She already knew the answer to that question. Unfortunately she didn’t follow up on it.

"After the party, we head to Dee'ja Peak to check out Dormé, right?” she said. You do know that it's pretty close to winter right now, right? How are you at cold weather camping?"

My smile faded somewhat when she mentioned camping. "I'm fine with it," I said. I knew what she was getting at. Let’s just say being out in the wilderness isn’t one of my favorite activities.

"I'm sure Dormé will be at the masquerade thing with Bibble. We won't even have to go to Dee'Ja Peak to find out what we need to know," I said easily. I was determined to make it a non-issue, so I changed the subject. "So show me some of this gear you brought," I said. Jardena had an impressive array of gadgets with her.

She pulled out a case and showed me her treasure trove of listening, tracking and jamming devices. She’d already activated a jamming device earlier so that we could talk privately. I carefully examined some of the gear she had spread out before me, and I asked her various questions about how it all worked. Her face lights up when she talks about her job and gets to show off her skills.

"I also have a small spy droid in my other case, but I don't want to activate it here," she said. She showed me a bead that you could place in your ear as a listening device and some powder that was designed to be inhaled by the target, who could then be tracked from a distance.

I have to admit, her work is fascinating. I don’t see her retiring any time soon. She loves this life. “Say, who’s taking care of your pets while you’re away?” I asked. The thought had just popped into my mind.

"I have an automatic feeding and watering system that makes sure they're fed. If I'm gone too long, Tak will probably check in on things,” she said. She refocused on the equipment. "Not to be an anti-social traveler, but with all this kit, one of us should probably be in the cabin at all times. It's a three-day flight, right?" She thought for a second, then, obviously thinking ahead said, "You do remember how to do court dancing, don't you?" She smiled curiously.

I made a face. “No, I don’t remember. I don’t want to remember,” I said. There’s an aspect of Naboo’s culture that’s formal to the point of being ridiculous. If I want to dance, I’d rather go to a club.

"Well, if you aren't going to dance, then you can hang out along the sides and watch people, maybe I'll even incorporate some surveillance equipment into your outfit. I, on the other hand, intend to dance. I've always liked court dancing." She stuck her tongue out at me, acting childish and playful. "I have to admit, as much fun as this could be, it'd be nicer if we didn't have to be armed, armored or bugged. I'd like to go out and not worry about who's watching me or listening to me, just be an insignificant person. That'd be nice."

We needed to talk about the fact that we had never resolved who had been stalking her and get everything out in the open, but I let the opening she'd created pass. This wasn't the time, though that talk needed to come soon.

"If you show me some of these dances and refresh my memory, maybe I'll dance with you," I said. "I don't want to spend the whole night watching other people interacting. That's 90% of what I do on my job."

She looked at her watch. "I don't know about you, but I'm super hungry. No breakfast due to power outage." She shrugged innocently. "Do you want me to grab you something while I'm there or do you want to get food?"

"Can you pick me up something?" I said. "I'll stay here with the gear this time and go on the next food run." As she was about to leave I said, "That blackout in the building... that was you, right?" I looked at her curiously.

She paused at the door. "I can neither conform nor deny any involvement in the happenings at 500 Republica 24 hours ago," she said. Then she headed off to get some food.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Were you being optimistic?

2006-08-31T23:57:00.000-04:00

Where: A shuttle to Naboo

Feeling: See the title.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

"So where are we going to start with Dormé and Bibble?" Jardena asked.

“I have it on good authority that Bibble is going to be in the Moenia area,” I said. “Word has it that he’s going to be inspecting the progress of the retreat the Chancellor is building outside the city. A huge function is planned in the city – a masquerade ball, in fact. Everyone who’s anyone will be there. Except, ironically, the Chancellor.” I shrugged.

“Now, Dormé was a little harder to track. Her family lives in Kaadara, but I have a reliable source that says she may be living in the mountains in your neck of the woods – Dee’ja Peak.”

Jardena made a face. "Well, there goes the neighborhood," she said. "On the positive side, at least that is terrain I know pretty well."

She rolled onto her belly. "Do you think Dormé will go to the masquerade? If they want to be together as much as Padmé overheard, this might be something they would chance. Since everyone would be wearing masks, it'd be hard to tell who was who. And it technically would not be unusual for a former handmaiden to get an invitation. Eirtae has become quite the social butterfly, why not Dormé? Well, aside from Eirtae's family having connections and money, of course."

She looked at me. "When does the party happen? Soon, or do we have time to check out Dormé first?"

I stretched out comfortably next to Jardena and folded my hands behind my head.

"I doubt it," I said. "We have about 24 hours from the time we land until this party takes place. Since I'm not a snob from Dee'Ja Peak, I'm not sure what these functions are like," I said, imitating that cute accent of Jardena’s. "I assume one can't just show up in costumes bought at the local MegaMart. Yes? You'll probably want to go buy some things."

She rolled her eyes at me and looked at the datapad I’d handed her. "People in Dee'ja Peak are not snobs. And if it's invitation only, we need invitations. As for costumes, nothing from MegaMart. But we also don't want the best or most noticeable costumes at the party. If it's as big as I think, people will have had their costumes handmade well in advance. Actually, what we really need are nice basic costumes and very good masks. There are probably stores in the main city that have something we could borrow."

Putting the datapad down, she said, "I have to admit, I'm surprised Padmé wasn't invited to this. These types of parties are very much her thing and you'd think if they were trying to kill her, why not lure her back to Naboo.”

"Of course Padmé was invited," I said. "It would've been a huge snub if she had been left off the list. But she's not here because she had the opportunity to spend some brief quality time with her husband, so she took it."

"However..." I reached for my bag and pulled something out. "You asked for invitations, I've got invitations," I said, producing them with a flourish.

She smiled at me. "Ok, one hurdle down. I think I can figure out the costumes when we get there." She paused, seeming to notice for the first time the coziness of our cabin. It was compact, but comfortable. There was room for privacy if necessary, but…

"So, when you arranged for rooms, was this really the only one left or were you being optimistic?" she asked teasingly.

I looked at her and merely smiled in response. She already knew the answer to that question.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

I wouldn’t trust me either

2006-08-30T23:09:00.000-04:00

Where: A shuttle to Naboo

Feeling: Relieved?

Listening to: A familiar voice.

Continued from here.

The trip was going to be long enough that I’d need some entertainment. I had brought my guitar with me, but in retrospect that might not have been a good idea. When I went through the starport screening they had messed with it and the circuitry was scrambled. Now I had to painstakingly retune it.

I was busy doing so when my cabinmate arrived.

For a second when Jardena opened the door I was sure she was going to turn around and walk back out. Then she smiled and to say I felt a sense of relief would be an understatement. I smiled back as she put her luggage away. I pushed the guitar aside.

She sat down opposite to me on her bed and before I could say what I’d rehearsed, she beat me to it.

"So I didn't get a chance to say this earlier, but I'm sorry for how things ended. I lost my temper with you and shouldn't have," she said. She blushed and looked at her hands, avoiding eye contact.

“Listen,” I said. I kneeled in front of her to get her attention and I took both her hands so she’d look at me. “I didn’t handle that right. I thought I was doing the right thing. In my own stupid way, I was trying to protect you. Someone who would go to that much trouble to come between us... Who knows what they might do? I don’t want anyone to hurt you, Jardena. Especially not me.”

I stopped, but my words were coming out in a rush now and I had to continue.

“I thought... Frak it, it doesn’t matter now. What I want to say is... I say the wrong things and I do the wrong things. I know you’ve never really trusted me again since I broke off the engagement. I don’t blame you for that. I wouldn’t trust me either, if I were you. And what just happened with the frakking video didn’t help, I know that. But you do know that I love you, don’t you?”

I didn’t give her the opportunity to answer. I kissed her instead... and the next thing I knew we were being interrupted by the announcement that the flight was departing.

It was nice to be able to relax with Jardena this way but, unfortunately, she wanted to get down to business. Padmé’s business, that is.

"So where are we going to start with Dormé and Bibble?" she asked.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Something we used to do

2006-08-24T21:33:00.000-04:00

Where: 500 Republica, then a shuttle to Naboo

Feeling: Awkward is an understatement

Listening to: My messed up ~~heart~~ guitar. Same difference.

Continued from here.

“Are you okay here?” I asked. It was a useless question, but I had to ask.

Jardena scrutinized the neighbors before answering. "As well as can be. I was in the middle of... house cleaning." She was being evasive.

She took the papers from me and gave them a cursory glance. "Well, the timing is excellent. I won't be expected on the base for a bit due to all of this." She waved her hand vaguely in the air.

I found myself desperately searching for something -- anything -- to say so that I could legitimately stay with her a bit longer. I came up empty. I admit that somewhere in the back of my mind I had this fantasy that I’d come over here and I’d magically say all the right things. We’d end up in bed together, and this time it wouldn’t end like the last time. We could start over (yet again) and there’d be a clean slate. Only, the slate is never clean with us, much as I want it to be. Each mistake resurfaces every problem we’ve ever had.

She was fiddling with her hair. It was somewhat like one of the old handmaiden signals for “Everything is okay,” but her body language was saying the exact opposite. It was not okay. I was not welcome here.

Time to go, Dante.

“Well, I don’t want to interrupt your cleaning,” I said. I made the “be safe” sign, but I’m not sure why I did that. Force of habit, I guess. It’s something we used to do.

I tipped my cap and started to leave, but something made me turn around. “If you find a way to lock your door, there’s an impromptu food fair going on in the plaza two levels up,” I said. “The restaurants are giving away food since they’re afraid that it’ll go bad before the power comes back online. You could go up there and get something, but the emergency stairs are packed. It could take you an hour to get up there.”

I paused, feeling awkward again. Maybe I should’ve brought her something when I passed through there on my way down. Or should I offer to go get something now? Maybe I should offer to stay and watch her apartment and her voorpaks while she goes?

Not knowing what to do, and not really wanting to be turned down if I offered to help, I took the easy way out. “Well, I’ll be going,” I said.

"So I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked as I walked off.

“I’ll be around,” I called over my shoulder, before I faded away into the darkness of the hallway.

Twelve hours later I was in a comfortably equipped cabin on the transport to Naboo. The transport was fully booked. I was reminded of the flight I had taken to Tatooine and the Sullustan whom I’d played cards with. Cool guy. I wonder whatever happened to him.

The trip was long enough that I’d need some entertainment. I had brought my guitar with me, but in retrospect that might not have been a good idea. When I went through the starport screening they had messed with it and the circuitry was scrambled. Now I had to painstakingly retune it.

I was busy doing so when my cabinmate arrived.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Are you okay here?

2006-08-23T22:16:00.000-04:00

Where: 500 Republica

Feeling: The things I do for my boss...

Listening to: Aimless people with no power

There was a muffled BOOM.

The lights in the office got blindingly bright for a split-second, then every electrical device in the suite -- including the terminal at which I was printing out my travel confirmations back to Naboo -- went dead.

“FRAK! Frak, frank, frak, frak--" said Lt. Montrose, echoing my thoughts. He’s our droid engineer and today he’s performing scheduled maintenance. All of the droids are hooked up to the computers and they’re having their memories backed up and their firmware upgraded. Or at least they were until the power blacked out. We should’ve failed over to the backup generators without missing a beat, but the lights remained off. The familiar subliminal hum of machinery in the office was eerily absent.

“The droids are ruined!” Montrose said. He’s a little too attached to his machines, but he had a point, they were going to be hard to replace.

“Relax, it’s just paperwork,” I said. I was more concerned about the extent of the power outage. It quickly became apparent that while the blackout didn’t extend beyond the building, at least several floors and several thousand occupants were affected.

After 20 minutes of making sure all of my people were accounted for and safe (Wrora was apparently stuck in an elevator), I had to run an errand. Padmé needed my help to find out the connection between Dormé and Governor Bibble, and I would have to work with Jardena to get this done.

Steeling myself, I left my team and took to the building’s emergency stairs.

Jardena’s blacked out quadrant was as chaotic as ours. Many of her neighbors were hanging out in the hallways and socializing, making the best of a bad situation. There was the option of simply taking to the emergency stairs and going down to a floor that had power, but people were strangely reluctant to leave their suites. They were afraid of theft, I suppose. Most of the doors couldn’t be locked with the electricity out so they were stuck where they were.

I saw Tak (I think it was Tak), leaving Jardena’s apartment. He was probably making sure she was okay. I nodded at him, but didn’t stop to chat. I knocked on her door and as I waited I thought about another power outage a few months ago back in the Big Brother: Naboo house. I had used that opportunity to spend some quality time with Jardena with no prying eyes. That had turned out well.

I started to smile to myself, thinking about that.

Then she opened the door, looking frazzled and thoroughly irritated. She was wearing a skimpy top and though she was undeniably sexy as always, she was pissed. Something told me it wasn’t the blackout that was irritating her. My smile faded.

She hates the sight of me.

"Did you forget somethi--" she said.

“No, I didn’t forget anything,” I said with a sigh, answering her strange question. I noticed she was staring at my hand.

“Oh, this,” I said awkwardly, “I managed to get everything booked for you before the power outage.” I handed her the papers.

“Are you okay here?” I asked. It was a useless question, but I had to ask.

To be continued...

That thin line

2006-08-15T02:57:00.000-04:00

Where: My place

Feeling: Will the stalker ever be revealed?

Listening to: Erifia

Continued from here.

“What about that guy, Mal? I mean, it’s got to be him, right?” I said.

“No, it’s not Mal, he was my prime suspect, and then I looked. He was following the spies following you,” she answered, “He was trying to protect you.”

I doubt that.

She looked up at me. “You care about Jardena. Even over your own safety. As long as she is all right, you can keep going. Not all Jedi are idiots, Dante,” she said, again with a soft voice.

“I know that in emotion you don’t traverse that thin line... Between good and evil. When you try and hide it, you’ll succumb... Look, I’m sorry I failed you. I know it was important to you.” She turned and went to the door and laid her hand on the handle.

I wasn’t sure if her comment about good and evil was directed at me, or if she was revealing something about herself. I realized that I didn’t really know or understand Ms. Sapphire at all, but it did get through to me that I’d hurt her feelings.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’m sure you did what you could.”

“As much as I could, I took my abilities, pushed them to the end, and I was able to crawl back again. Look, I’m going to go, I’ll be out of your life forever. Goodbye, Dante,” she said. Her words were so cryptic. Not for the first time I wondered if all Jedi speak that way.

She walked out the door, leaving it wide open, and did something totally unexpected. She walked blindly down the hall, stopped, sank to the floor and buried her face in her hands.

Déjà vu. Another upset woman leaving my apartment. This one wasn’t screaming and throwing things, but that didn’t make things any better. Whatever doubts I may have had about her sincerity went away.

I followed Erifia and sat down next to her in the hallway. If any of the neighbors peeked out and saw us, it didn’t matter. “Are you okay?” I asked, concerned. “I do appreciate what you tried to do for me. I mean that.”

She rubbed her eyes, looked up and said, “Yeah, I’m fine, thanks for asking... I do wish I could have done more.” She stood, and I stood as well. “I’m not very good at the whole showing men emotion thing,” she joked and smiled. Again she surprised me by giving me a hug.

I think she’s better at showing emotion than she thinks she is. Certainly better than another Jedi who will remain nameless.

“You’re a sweet guy,” she said. “Keep it up okay?” She released the hug, and looked at me. “I have to get back to what it is I do. Keep in touch? If you need anything, give me a ring...”

I nodded. “I’ll do that,” I said. Then I added with a wry smile, “I may even come see you dance again, although that’s probably not wise of me.” True.

Erifia turned and walked away. “Thank you,” she said, and then she was gone.

End.

It's got to be him, right?

2006-08-14T23:27:00.000-04:00

Where: My place

Feeling: Anticipation?

Listening to: Erifia

My security system told me who was at the door. Given the level of secrecy Ms. Sapphire had employed previously when contacting me, I was surprised to see her here. Was this good news?

I opened the door and tried to keep the eagerness out of my voice as I said, “Come in, come in.” I had the presence of mind to offer her a seat and something to drink.

Then I took a deep breath and said, “So... what do you have for me?”

“I’ve got good news and bad news,” she said in a soft voice. “The good news is Oneida isn’t and wasn’t in trouble at all.” She paused and looked at me expectantly.

To me the fact that someone had been showing excessive interest in Jardena’s private life was trouble no matter how you sliced it, but I assumed what Ms. Sapphire meant was that Jardena wasn’t in any physical danger. Though how she could know for sure, I don’t know.

“What was it all about then?” I asked. “Just a prank?” I frowned with concern. “And what’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is three Malastarian spies were after you to try and get you to turncoat on the Republic. They had been following you for some time, waiting for a good time to get you to join them as a contact. But I have failed in the mission you asked, I do not know who messed with the picture, and neither do the three I had arrested...” She dipped her head down, looking away from me.

“Malastarian spies?” I repeated slowly. What would they think they could get from me? I didn’t understand it. But what I did understand was that this great plan I’d had for resolving this crazy situation with Jardena had just gone up in smoke.

I didn’t know quite what to say to Erifia. Was the person behind the video and the stalking that good? Was Erifia that bad at this? Had she really tried, or was the task just too unimportant for a Jedi’s skills?

In the end all I could say was the truth. She was avoiding eye contact, but I gently reached out, tilted her head up so she’d look at me and said, “Thank you for alerting me about a problem with the Malastarians. But I don’t know where this leaves me.”

“If you’d like, I can continue making sure no spies get to you,” she said. “I failed you. I do not expect payment at all. I tried... I watched you, I could find no one watching you with a holo-camera, I even tried rerouting it back and I got fifty-thousand locations. Whoever did this was out of my league. They must have been trained since birth to be a slicer... I was trained much later...”

She pulled away and wiped her eye. Was she crying?

“I don’t care about any spies,” I said, trying to explain. “There’s nothing they can do to me. I only care about...”

I only care about Jardena, I meant to say, but I stopped myself before completing my sentence. Erifia’s face had gone completely blank. She couldn’t understand what I meant. I was talking to a Jedi, after all, and it was frustrating. Everything I could’ve said about worrying about something you care about would’ve been an abstract concept to someone that follows their code.

“Well, thank you for trying,” I said finally. But I couldn’t resist asking one more thing. “What about that guy, Mal? I mean, it’s got to be him, right?”

To be continued...

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

I'd like to keep my personal life personal

2006-08-09T09:02:00.000-04:00

Where: Skyhook Park

Feeling: This flashback is at an end.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

Jardena offered a hand to me to help me stand up. “We should probably get started looking into this. I’ll check out Bibble and see if I can manage some time to travel to Naboo.”

“How incognito do you think we need to be when we go home? If at all?” I said. I held her hand comfortably as we slowly walked towards the park’s exit.

“Honestly, I’m not sure. I would say we shouldn’t hide that we’re going or that we’re on the planet. I’m not so sure we should make our itinerary common knowledge, though. Would you want to do surveillance on either of them while we’re there? I’m not sure we’d catch anything useful in a short time.”

We were walking slowly, taking our time leaving the park. “What do you think?” she asked.

“If we’re going all the way back to Naboo, we can’t not spy on them,” I said. “But you’re right -- it’s doubtful we’ll catch them doing anything obvious.”

She seemed to like this park, so I made a mental note that we should come back here again.

“As far as a cover story, I could say I’m looking to invest in some property or some businesses and you’re along to give me some advice. That way when we travel to a few different cities it doesn’t look in any way odd,” I said. “Does that work for you?”

She nodded. “Yes, though I think we should only mention that if asked.”

“You know, if Good Morning Naboo finds out you’re back home, they’ll want you on the show,” I warned her jokingly.

She made a face. “If that’s the case, then I’d like to avoid them knowing we’re on planet. I really don’t want to be on TV again. That and I’d like to keep my personal life personal,” she replied, smiling up at me. “I’m sure you can appreciate that.”

“You mean you don’t like being the object of public speculation?” I said. “Then I guess I can’t drop by my house to say hi to my mom, ‘cause she’ll tell everybody.” I pouted, indicating that I was joking.

Jardena nodded. “Well, we could always stop by and say hi to friends and family just as we’re leaving, that way, if anyone gets told, we’ll already be back on Coruscant, where we are thoroughly uninteresting and unexciting. Of course this could end up being lowkey time off if Padmé is wrong, which is also fine by me.”

I nodded in response.

As we walked on a little further, another question popped up. “Who do we want to observe?” she asked. “Or do you just want to let the intel we collect decide that?”

“The latter,” I replied. “I don’t know what we’ll turn up once we start digging.”

It occurred to me that we’d never actually worked together on a mission before.

“This should be interesting,” I said, more to myself than to Jardena.

~~

Well, it would’ve been interesting.

I’m still trying to decide what to tell Padmé when she asks for an update from us and we’ve got nothing.

Which reminds me -- Ms. Sapphire must’ve found something by now, surely?

End.

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic | Jedi | Fan fiction

Would you have married your Jedi?

2006-08-08T10:48:00.000-04:00

Where: Skyhook Park

Feeling: Curious

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

For a while I said nothing, then I looked at Jardena. “Humor me -- if you fell in love with a Jedi, what would you do? If you were in Padmé’s position, I mean. Just curious.”

“Hard to say," she said. I’d like to think I’d be smart enough to avoid that situation. Jedi have taken an oath to their order, a relationship would be a direct violation of that. I’d have a hard time fully trusting someone who could easily ignore or disregard something of that magnitude and importance.”

She thought for a second, then said, “I certainly would not have fallen for Skywalker. As for being in Padmé’s place, I can’t put myself there, we’ve had vastly different experiences. Maybe she fell for Anakin b/c she saw him a protector. Which is funny since he’s rarely around these days. Honestly, I think I would walk away if I fell in love with a Jedi.” She sat back and made an odd gesture. “But who knows, maybe it’ll work great between them.”

Her take on why Padmé may have fallen for Anakin was interesting, and (not surprisingly) completely different from my take on the relationship. “That’s funny. I would’ve said almost the opposite. She likes to ‘fix’ things and he strikes me as one of those ‘tough guys’ who’s needy on the inside. In other words, someone who needs ‘fixing.’ I could see her gravitating towards someone like that.”

Jardena gave me a look I couldn’t read, then asked. “So, what would you do if you were in Padmé’s shoes? Would you have married your Jedi?”

“At her age, I could walk away from someone I was in love with and tell myself it’s the best move for all concerned. At my age, maybe not,” I said.

“At your age? You make it sound like you’re an old man,” she teased, gently poking me in the side.

“Trust me, when you’re 30-something you’ll start feeling old too,” I countered.

“You’re not that much older than she is.” She stood up and turned to me. “And somehow I doubt, even at your current venerable age, that you’d settle for something you didn’t think was wise.”

“Why, thank you. I’m glad you think so highly of me,” I said, joking somewhat.

She offered a hand to me to help me stand up. “We should probably get started looking into this. I’ll check out Bibble and see if I can manage some time to travel to Naboo.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic | Jedi | Fan fiction

If you were in Padme's position

2006-08-07T11:27:00.000-04:00

Where: Skyhook Park

Feeling: Curious

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

Jardena smiled at me. “How exactly does one go about annulling a secret marriage?”

“If it’s a secret legal marriage, it can be annulled, silly,” I said mildly. “If it’s a real marriage they signed legal documents and there were witnesses, right?”

“Yeah, but annulling a marriage could draw some attention to them.” Her smile faded a bit. “They might not run into problems for some time. As long as the war is going on, they won’t be around each other enough to get past the romantic aspect of a secret marriage. And what if she wants out and Anakin doesn’t. He can be... erratic at times.”

I nodded, mirroring her concern for Padmé. “He has a stalker vibe, that’s for sure.”

“How do you propose we start investigating Bibble and Dormé?” she asked, changing the subject. “I could look into finance records for both, maybe see if I can find out who they’ve been calling. You should be able to go through some of Dormé’s information from the datapad and terminal she used while she was a handmaiden.”

I agreed with Jardena’s approach, but added, “I’ll also have to discreetly question my staff to see if anyone knows anything outright or noticed anything that could be of help.”

“Well, I can start looking into Bibble when I get back to my apartment. I’ll wait to see what you find out about Dormé. I think we’ll probably have to make a trip to Naboo to do some information collection and talk to some contacts.” She frowned.

If we go back to Naboo I’ll have to fight the urge to confront Dormé directly, I thought to myself.

Frowning, Jardena said, “I still can’t believe she went off and got married and didn’t tell anyone for so long. What if she gets pregnant? That’ll be a hard one to explain to the constituents.”

“She didn’t take an oath of celibacy when she became a senator. She doesn’t owe her constituents any explanation if she gets pregnant,” I said. “Besides which, she’s so well-liked, people might actually respect her privacy.” This was the woman that our planet had wanted to abolish term limits for, after all.

She shrugged. “It’s possible. I’m just so used to personal privacy being eroded during this war in the name of ‘security,’ it’s hard to think that privacy really exists. And I think she’s entitled to be as romantically active as she wants, but having a child would complicate her life, and Skywalker doesn’t strike me as the type who’d change a diaper.”

“I’ve never changed a diaper. I’d probably try to get away with not doing it by feigning incompetence,” I said with a laugh. True.

From out of the blue Jardena voiced a new concern. “Should we tell Master Kenobi about this? Anakin is breaking some serious rules, it could put a lot of people in danger.”

“We shouldn’t be the ones to tell Master Kenobi,” I said firmly. “Padmé and Anakin need to take responsibility for that. Hopefully they trust him.”

For a while I said nothing, then I looked at Jardena. “Humor me -- if you fell in love with a Jedi, what would you do? If you were in Padmé’s position, I mean. Just curious.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

This has "annulment" written all over it

2006-08-04T17:44:00.000-04:00

Where: Skyhook Park

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

“I can’t believe she did that to me. What did I ever do to her?” I said.

She shrugged. “There could be countless reasons. She could have been in love with you and felt spurned, she could have felt she deserved more recognition, or maybe she just wanted to get you fired so there would be some level of upheaval in Padmé’s security. I really don’t have a good answer for that,” Jardena replied.

All of Jardena’s suggestions about Dormé’s possible motivation were plausible in a odd way. “If she felt spurned by me, if that was what this is all about, she should’ve said something,” I said. “It probably wouldn’t have helped, however.”

I shook my head. “I probably overstepped the bounds of our friendship by asking her to go with me to Ansion. She was never the same after we got back. I assumed that was the reason she resigned until I heard the rumor about her being pregnant from Moteé.”

I paused for a second. “If she was a spy, she wasn’t a very dedicated one. Why resign? Why get pregnant?” I belatedly realized that my last statement was somewhat sexist.

“Do you think Dormé knew about Padmé and Anakin’s marriage?” she asked.

I frowned, worried. “She could very easily have figured out what was going on with Padmé and Anakin. That would give her tremendous leverage over both of them if she chose to use that knowledge.”

I changed the subject slightly. “By the way, did you notice how Padmé glossed over my question about whether Anakin plans to give up being a Jedi?”

“I don’t think Anakin is likely to give up being a Jedi,” she said. “And I don’t think Padmé wants to admit that. They’ll both hide behind excuses like ‘the Republic needs me’ or ‘you’re too important to the cause to quit’ and my personal favorite, ‘I’m the Chosen One’. Maybe when the war ends it might change.” She paused and looked at me. “What do you think?”

I mused aloud, “I agree that it’s doubtful that Anakin would give up being a Jedi, but what about her? I don’t think she’s in any hurry to resign as senator. I wonder which one will be the one to bend? They’re both strong-willed. Would she take a less active role in politics, or remove herself from the public view entirely if the story broke today? And would she be happy doing so?”

I paused, thinking. “She loves being a senator, and she’s very good at it. He loves being a hero, and he’s good at that. If they both keep their respective jobs, they’ll see each other maybe six times a year. If he resigns from the Jedi order or is kicked out, what’s he going to do with himself? Open a droid repair shop or become a professional podracer? If she resigns as senator, she’ll be bored out of her mind in about a month. I wish them luck, but this has ‘annulment’ written all over it.”

Jardena smiled at me. “How exactly does one go about annulling a secret marriage?”

What did I ever do to her?

2006-08-03T09:41:00.000-04:00

Where: Skyhook Park
Feeling: Like there’s a lot to sort out
Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

“Then of course, there's the connection to Dormé that she suspects." I frowned.

"I can start looking into Bibble, though I think a thorough investigation will require at least one of us going to Naboo for a fact finding mission. We probably shouldn't mention this to anyone." Jardena looked at me pointedly for some reason.

"As for Dormé, do you know why she left? Was she really pregnant? That would be a serious misstep on her part if her role was to be someone on the inside of Padmé's security," she said thoughtfully.

I was still focused on the “don’t mention this to anyone” part of what she’d just said. I knew who she was talking about, but still her words had surprised me. “But why wouldn’t I ask my uncle for help?” I said. Uncle Panaka has resources that I certainly don’t. I know Jardena was somewhat intimidated by him back when she was a handmaiden, but that was a decade or more ago.

"Dante, what would he say if we told him that Padmé suspected Bibble? That we were going to investigate Bibble? What if he told someone about it? Even if he didn't think we were nuts, what happens if he tells the Queen about it? It might get back to Bibble."

“Uncle might scoff at the idea that Bibble was untrustworthy, but he certainly wouldn’t betray our confidence,” I said, but I let the matter drop. There was something to be said for letting as few people in the loop as possible. I guess.

"As for Dormé,” she said again, “she might have inadvertently been passing information on to Bibble. She might have decided to help him after Cordé’s death. Maybe she resigned because they had all the intel they needed. As for getting pregnant, maybe she really wanted a child, that isn't uncommon in women."

Hmm. Best to ignore that part...

“I have no idea what happened with her. She left me an odd message that I didn’t understand when she handed in her letter of resignation to Padmé. I responded after I got back from Naboo and asked her to clarify, but she never did,” I said.

“I can see how Cordé’s death could’ve been the catalyst for a lot of things for her. It hasn’t escaped me that she’s got to be the one behind the ‘Typho got a handmaiden pregnant’ rumors. I don’t see how that rumor helps her at all, however. I can’t believe she did that to me. What did I ever do to her?”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic | Fan fiction | Jedi

Skyhook Park

2006-07-31T23:48:00.000-04:00

Jardena and I needed a place to talk.

Where: Skyhook Park

Feeling: Where do I begin?

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

Thinking back to a conversation that took place some time ago...

~~

I watched wordlessly as Padmé left Dex’s Diner in a rush. When she was gone I turned to Jardena, shook my head slowly and said, “Please tell me that was all a joke and I was just too dense to get the punchline.”

To put it mildly, I was having some difficulty taking in all that my boss had just told us.

Let’s see:

Padmé was married. In fact, she was married to a Jedi, and not just any Jedi.

Check.

Padmé had been attacked by a bounty hunter, but never bothered to tell anyone.

Governor Bibble was trying to kill her.

Check.

Padmé suspected Dormé of betraying her.

Check.

Padmé wanted Jardena and me to investigate the governor.

Okaaaay.

I looked around the diner. Too many unsavory beings, not to mention the caf was weak. “I don’t even know how to begin sorting this out,” I said, “but I do know this isn’t the place to do it. Where would be a good place to talk?” I didn’t want to go back to 500 Republica just yet.

"We could head to one of the skyhook parks, they tend to be pretty private," she offered.

I hadn’t thought of that. “Good choice,” I said. I paid the bill and we left the diner.

~~

The skyhook park was, as Jardena had described, private, though there were beings walking their pets, adults with children and lovers wandering around the gardens.

We took a seat on a bench near a fountain. Impulsively, I plucked a flower from a tree overhanging the bench and tucked it behind her ear. It reminded me of the flower she’d given me on Naboo a few months ago. She’d been nervous when she’d done that. It was very endearing.

I decided I might as well be the one to start. I trusted that she’d activate her anti-surveillance device to keep this conversation between us.

“You know, I always assumed she’d eventually get married, but... not like this,” I said. “I knew there was something going on between her and Skywalker, of course.”

"You knew she and Skywalker were involved?" she said, sounding surprised.

"I could see that there was an obvious attraction, especially on his part," I said, "but I assumed she'd put a stop to it. She's always been very mature, but he's very impulsive. You know, Jedi aren't always what we expect them to be." I didn't bother to elaborate on that.

"Jedi are their own creature, and it seems while there are many rules to govern them, very few actually seem to follow those rules," she said.

She sighed and sat back against the bench. "I figured she'd get married, but not to someone like him. And I figured her wedding would be the social event of the year on Naboo, not some clandestine wedding with nobody there. But Anakin? He's such a whiny kid!" She frowned and crossed her arms.

"And then there are her suspicions about Bibble," she commented.

I shook my head. "If it is true... was he always corrupt, or was he compromised somehow? Then of course, there's the connection to Dormé that she suspects." I frowned.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic | Fan fiction | Jedi

Flashback

2006-07-27T22:57:00.000-04:00

Padmé has a secret.

Where: Naboo delegation HQ, Coruscant

Feeling: Like I’m having a flashback.

Task: Performance evaluations.

I folded the note and put it away. I’m not sure why I keep reading it -- the content doesn’t change.

Guess what?! I'm being courted by three men, and another. The first three are kindly gentlemen whose Galactic common really isn't that good...

In other words, Ms. Sapphire is diligently working on my case. And so I remain patient.

Back to work.

~~

Ah, performance evaluations. I hate all admin work. I like doing things and making things, not filling things out.

I had submitted the weapons qualification scores to HQ back on Naboo. Everybody had passed, though it took some doing. The physical training scores had been sent as well. Again, everybody had passed, though a few members of my team have been slacking off and are close to being flagged for the weight control program. A flag means no promotions, no leaves granted, no positive actions of any kind, so the incentives for performing to standard are there.

With that done I turned my attention to the last component of the performance reviews -- psychiatric evaluations. This was a new regulation, mandated by the office of the Chancellor for all Senatorial delegations. The official line is that the psych evaluations are for the benefit of the delegations and the Republic cares about everyone’s mental health and general well-being. The rumor mill (i.e., the Alderaan delegation) speculated that the psych evaluations were a tool to determine who may have Separatist leanings and/or to uncover possible terrorists in our midst.

Whatever the real story, I had to schedule these for my people -- and for myself.

As I set up the appointments and sent notifications to my team, I thought about the potential sticky points with my own evaluation. Would he/she/it doing the evaluation ask me scripted questions, or would the session be self-driven? Were my reality show appearances going to be a problem? I’m all for Republic security, but there are personal things that need to remain personal, and confidences that need to be kept. I was particularly concerned about any lines of questioning that might lead to Padmé’s secret.

Thinking about that last issue led me to recall what had happened after I’d last spoken to the senator.

Cue the flashback.

To be continued...

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Jedi | Twi'lek | Clone Wars | Fanfic

I’ll Believe It When I See It

2006-07-22T01:43:00.000-04:00

Tak on the Range

Where: The zeroing range

Feeling: Like I could’ve learned more.

Listening to: Weapons being stowed away

Continued from here.

“Does she seem to enjoy her work?” I ask.

Tak seems reluctant to answer, but he does. “The Lt. Cmdr works with lot of Naval officers I don’t know. I am not sure if I have met a Cmdr. Andros before. But as to her temper about the job, Lt. Cmdr. Oneida has mentioned missing Naboo. The Naval bureaucracy has a different style than the Naboo Security Forces and I think that is vexing at times. I think overall the Lt. Cmdr enjoys her job, more so when the job is off Coruscant.”

He looks like he’s about to add something else, but he doesn’t.

Her “temper” about her job? What an odd phrase. I wonder what that means.

It is good to hear from an independent source that she does miss Naboo. Maybe she’s really going to go through with leaving the military this time. I hope so. I want Jardena to be safe. With this war getting worse, anything could happen. Still, as far as her retirement goes, unfortunately, I’ll believe it when I see it. Can they really afford to let her go? I have my doubts.

Something Tak said makes me frown a bit. “She prefers when she’s not on Coruscant?” I ask. Well, we did have a major blow up, though part of that was an act on my part because I was concerned that we were being watched. Not too brilliant, I know. It disturbs me that she’s being stalked and I’m taking steps to do something about it. I’m hoping that Tak here can help my investigation.

I get right to the point. “Listen, Tak, I’m sure you know that Jardena is my girlfriend. Without getting too specific, some weird things have happened recently and I’m concerned. Have you noticed anyone she works with or anyone she knows... hanging around her excessively, or crossing the line in some way? You see, someone is stalking her indirectly. I’d do anything to protect her, so if you’ve seen anything, or you know anything, I’d like to know,” I say seriously.

Just then Tak’s comlink goes off, preventing him from answering my questions just now.

Wrora has finally passed. I use the opportunity to sit with Moteé again. I compliment her on how much better she did this round. It’s just nerves now. I feel confident she’ll make it on the next round. “Take a deep breath, and let it out. Then take another breath and hold it,” I say to her. “You know what I do sometimes? I pretend I’m taking a picture of the target, then it becomes easier.” She seems to find that suggestion silly, but she laughs and seems more relaxed.

Tak concludes his conversation and returns to say to me, “Captain Typho, I have been called away for the rest of the afternoon. I will have another rangemaster take over right away. If Moteé needs any further assistance this week, I will be willing to work with her.”

He lowers his voice, then says, “As for your other issue, I have not noticed anyone on base acting out of line. If I have any concerns or see anything out of the ordinary I will contact you.” He adds in a normal tone of voice, “Good luck on the bet with the Corellians.”

“Thanks for your help on the range today, Tak,” I say.

Still, it’s only half an hour more before Moteé, the last of my people to leave the zeroing range, is ready to join the others who are going through the process of qualifying. Ultimately, she isn’t the last person on the firing line. Surprisingly, Dysar has that distinction because of some issues handling the DC-15S blaster carbine.

I knew I’d long since lost the wager, and the Corellians brought that home by sending over one of their officers to collect. They could’ve handled that better, but fair is fair, so I paid up. Next time it will be different.

We pack up our weapons, ammo and other gear to head back to our headquarters. I thought about what little I’d been able to get from Tak about Jardena. A wasted opportunity there, but if he’s to be believed (and he did seem trustworthy) no one’s overtly harassing her on the job, so at least her “secret admirer” has some subtlety. And it was good to know that she does talk about going back home to Naboo. We were supposed to go back together to investigate things for Padmé, but things are a bit up in the air now, to say the least.

I hope Ms. Sapphire is making some progress.

End

Read Tak's point of view on his blog.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone trooper | Clone Wars | Fanfic

My Favorite Subject

2006-07-20T21:19:00.000-04:00

Moteé needed some extra help.

Where: The zeroing range

Feeling: Nosy.

Listening to: The sound of small weapons fire.

Continued from here.

I propose to Tak that we replace that outline with one of a battle droid. “They might be more comfortable with this,” I say. “We do things a little differently on Naboo.”

“Not a problem, Captain. I’ll have them changed in a few minutes,” says Tak. He contacts the range center and they facilitate my request. “Captain, did you want me to work with Wrora and Moteé to help bring them up to spec or take the other troops to the firing range?” Tak asks.

“I’ll work with you to help them,” I say. “I assume you have some subordinate that can go on with the others to the qualifying range? If so, you and I can stay here and focus on these two. Lt. Dysar will take charge of my team over there.”

“I would prefer to work with you to help Wrora and Moteé, Captain,” agrees Tak. He gets on the horn again with the range center. “This is TK 266. Send EK 1994 down to range six. Have him contact Lt. Dysar of the Naboo security force and assist with range duty. TK 266 out.” He turns back to me. “I am at your disposal Captain.”

We start from scratch with Wrora and Moteé, emphasizing posture for Wrora and breathing for Moteé. Once again we send them to the line to try to get past the calibration stage of today’s task.

While they’re on the line shooting at the automatic targets, I can’t resist using the opportunity to ask Tak something harmless that I’ve been wondering about.

“So, you work with Lt. Cmdr. Oneida?” I ask. “How long have you served with her? Since she was stationed here on Coruscant, or further back?”

Tak ignores me and comments about Moteé’s shooting. “Captain, no offence, but Moteé breaths like a Gundark in heat. I think we are going to have to work a lot more with her.”

I raise an eyebrow in response, but I don’t reply. Luckily she didn’t hear that. I wonder if the demeanor comes directly from Jango Fett, or if that’s just Tak’s personality. Not knowing any other clones, I have no idea.

Eventually, he says, “I met Lt. Cmdr. Oneida 5 months after the Battle of Geonosis. I don’t know how long she had been on Coruscant. All I knew was she was given a high security clearance and the power to pick the troopers she wanted. I can’t talk about our missions, but I have served as an escort for her on and off for the last 13 months.”

He gives Moteé some tips while I help Wrora some more. As we watch them go at it again, I explain to Tak, “Moteé is one of our newer handmaidens, so she was chosen first because of her looks, second because of her fighting skills,” I explain. It sounds odd, but that’s because it is. “A more experienced handmaiden was recently let go.”

I return to my favorite subject -- Jardena. “So, you’ve worked with Lt. Cmdr. Oneida for over a year. That’s a long time. I realize that you can’t talk specifically about your missions, of course, but does she work with Cmdr. Andros often? In general... does she seem to enjoy her work?”

To be continued...

Read Tak's point of view on his blog.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone trooper | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Home on the Range

2006-07-18T23:33:00.000-04:00

We've got new weapons.

Where: "The Works" on Coruscant

Feeling: Focused.

Listening to: A range safety briefing.

Range day.

I used to like going to the range when I was a cadet. There’s a whole bonding thing that goes on as your team goes through the process of qualifying on your weapon. Breaking down the weapon and cleaning it always takes about an hour. There’s always someone who brings a special cleaning kit and he/she insists on proving that their weapon is cleaner, and therefore superior to everyone else’s. Not surprisingly, that’s the person who always seems to bolo (fail to qualify) on the first round.

Here on Coruscant, range day was turning out to be a little different. I’ve got a good team, but everyone here qualified back on Naboo. When you’re used to a certain range, there’s a familiarity about the routine that gives people an advantage. Also, admittedly, I know half the team had memorized the “random” sequence of targets on the final range so many scores may have been inflated. On Coruscant my guys are using brand new weapons on an unfamiliar range in a crappy sector called “The Works.” My gut feeling is we’re going to be here all day.

I arrive at the range first to go over things with the clone trooper running the show.

"TK 266, sir. I'll be your range master today," he snaps "I was expecting your supply officer, though."

"I was up and decided she could use a sleep in,” I say. Not so, of course. Lt. Toru had been up late because I had tasked her with getting the weapons and ammo from the starport, but I was up because this situation with Jardena is still driving me crazy. "Well, let's get started then," I say.

The trooper offers me some caf, and by way of small talk I mention to him that I’ve made a wager with the Corellians that my team would qualify in fewer rounds than theirs. The trooper -- who knows what blowhards Corellians can be -- agrees to give my guys whatever extra help they need to get up to speed.

“Do you have another name, TK 266?” I finally ask him. “I think my... a friend of mine mentioned you’re called ‘Tak.’ Would you mind if I use that name?” I think this is the clone that works with Jardena. How embarrassing if he’s not.

I’m somewhat uncomfortable with clone troopers. It took me awhile to figure out why, but what bothers me is not them, per se. I’m bothered by the fact that the Republic uses clones at all. If this Republic is worth saving, free beings of all species should be fighting for it, not clones who have no say. I mean, let’s be blunt -- they’re conditioned to fight and they have no say in whether they live or die. That’s the definition of a slave, right? Isn’t that, well, morally reprehensible?

But I guess I think too deeply about things.

The clone nods warily and acknowledges that, yes, he is the “Tak” that Jardena has mentioned and, yes, it’s okay for me to call him “Tak” also.

“Tak,” I say, “I don’t want this wager I’ve got to get in the way of what we’re trying to do here. If we’re here until dawn, so be it.”

Tak starts calibrating the weapons, but I stop him. My guys need to zero the weapons themselves. That’s part of the process of getting used to a new weapon, and it’s the way I was taught. More importantly, no one can really zero a weapon for someone else, since everyone’s eyesight is different. It occurs to me that the last point may not be true for clones. “We aren’t ‘built to spec,’” I explain to Tak and I tap my eye patch. A lame joke, but he gets the picture.

When Lt. Dysar arrives with the rest of my team, we get down to business. I have them disassemble, clean and reassemble the weapons again, because a tactile element is important in my book. After the safety briefing they get to work zeroing the DC-15A’s. The standard is that in 18 rounds or less the shooter must achieve five out of six rounds in two consecutive shot groups within a 4-centimeter circle.

Wrora and Moteé have trouble from the start. My concern about the wager is quickly shelved. I’m more concerned about the prospect of two people on my team who may not be able to handle the new requirements of their job.

As most of the team moves from the zeroing range to the qualifying range I approach Tak. “I’ve got a few team members who need some extra help,” I say to him. “I’d like to change the targets.”

The zeroing range requires that the shooter fire at targets from a foxhole position at a generic humanoid outline. I propose to Tak that we replace that outline with one of a battle droid. “They might be more comfortable with this,” I say. “We do things a little differently on Naboo.”

To be continued...

Read Tak's point of view on his blog.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone trooper | Clone Wars | Fanfic

100 Proof

2006-07-17T02:01:00.000-04:00

My life is a comic book.

Where: Still on Coruscant.

Feeling: Like it's been weeks since I posted.

Listening to: The soft whisper of my computer.

What: In celebration of my 100th post I made a comic page recapping the last year. Click the image to view the large size.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Comic Life | Fanfic | Clone Wars | Comic Book

Use it to your advantage

2006-06-23T23:09:00.000-04:00

What the sweep revealed.

Where: A sleazy club, then my place.

Feeling: I’ll be glad when this is over.

Listening to: The sounds of silence in my apartment.

Continued from here.

“Is there anything else, any more information you need from me? How much of an initial payment do you require?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” she stated as she stood. “You’ll pay me once it’s done, Or, I’ll collect it from your flesh,” she added with an innocent look. “If you need to contact me, you’ll need to use a secure line and call my ship. There should be someone to answer there and she’ll say I don’t know a lot. I will start tonight at midnight.” She gave me her number on a piece of paper.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said as I took her number.

She walked to the door and opened it. “If you see me, then I’m not doing my job right.” For some reason she had decided to hang her weaponry from her three lekku. Subtlety did not seem to be part of her plan. Part of me was pleased with the thought that I’d lucked out and picked someone who seemed capable of resolving the situation quickly. Part of me was sure I was making a big mistake here.

I motioned to her to close the door again. “One last thing,” I said. “My apartment may or may not be bugged. I scanned it and I think it’s clean, but another scan wouldn’t hurt. Can you do that?”

She nodded and left. I let some time elapse, then I left as well.

~~

I took my time returning to my apartment, just in case someone from the club was overly interested in my movements. When I arrived I found a note on my table, and next to it a small device of plastic and metal, not much bigger than a baby’s fingernail.

Now you know it’s here, use it to your advantage – EA.

I tossed the device on the floor and casually crushed it with my foot. Good. She’d passed my test. Instinctively I reached for my comlink to call Jardena to say... I’m not sure what. Reluctantly, I put it down again.

No. Not until this is over.

I took a shower and went to bed. As I lay in my room staring at the ceiling and futilely trying to will myself to sleep, I couldn’t help but appreciate the irony of the fact that for some reason today there were no messages waiting for me, no urgent matters to attend to, and nothing going on that simply couldn’t wait.

Funny how that works out.

End.

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Jedi | Twi'lek | Clone Wars | Fanfic

A calling card

2006-06-22T23:52:00.000-04:00

Erifia. Spy and Jedi.

Where: A sleazy club.

Feeling: Why does she have to be a Jedi?

Listening to: Erifia is schooling me on slicer culture.

Continued from here.

Having dropped that bombshell, she proceeded to replay the restaurant video and murmured as she watched it.

A Jedi.

The last thing I needed or wanted. My experiences with them have been poor, to put it mildly.

"If you are a Jedi, why would you moonlight like this?" I said. I didn't like this. Either she was a pathological liar, in which case I had no business hiring her, or she was indeed a Jedi, and she was building a nest egg on the side while a war was going on.

"I was trained as a Jedi knight, and instead of being like the other Jedi, I opted for spying, and in doing so, the Jedi Temple scarcely recognizes my existence," she said, looking up from the video. "I finished a big mission for the Republic. They've given me a leave of absence… Only to call me if it was really important."

Forestalling any questions, she said, "Okay, now that that's out of the way, look here." She played back a small section of the recording for me. "Anything out of the normal there?"

"You tell me," I said smoothly. I believed (hoped) that everything said in the video was untrue, but as they say, the best lies contain some elements of the truth.

I considered asking Erifia to prove she was a Jedi. Of course, if she was, that might get dicey.

"Watch, closely, right here…" she pointed at an area on the holo video, and said, "See, whenever a slicer is really good, he or she will leave their mark. Something that other slicers can pick up on."

For a split second I saw a mark of some kind, then it was gone. A circle with something in it.

"The slicer's mark. It probably appears in the other two as well," she said.

I scratched my chin. "A calling card? Whoever did this isn't very bright," I said, more to myself than to Ms. Sapph--, er, Erifia.

"I'm not a big slicer, never have been, I don't have the patience for it, but I have a calling card too, just like ever other slicer in the galaxy. Mine is two sabers crossed, and one moving up from the center, I usually leave it in a dark indigo, partially hidden on screen."

I shook my head. I didn't understand the slicer culture, but that was unimportant. "This should make your investigation that much easier, I hope."

It was time to bring this meeting to a close. I needed to be out of here soon.

"Is there anything else, any more information you need from me? How much of an initial payment do you require?" I asked.

To be continued...

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Jedi | Twi'lek | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Ms. Sapphire

2006-06-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

She doesn't like sapphires.

Where: A sleazy club.

Feeling: This woman is trying to fleece me.

Listening to: The sound of a cash register.

Continued from here.

She looked at me and said, “And let’s just say, I find this person spying on her? Do you want him captured, imprisoned, or dead? Dead is extra.”

“Imprisoned. I’ll take it from there,” I managed to say, but what I was thinking was, “$1,500 credits an hour! Plus expenses!”

But after quoting that figure in the next breath she went on to say she’d do the job at a fraction of the cost. “Why such a deep discount?” I asked suspiciously.

“I am giving you the discount because you are helping someone else -- something I happen to believe in -- but I do believe each kind act has only greed and self-centered thoughts behind it. I won’t ask you your real reason for seeking my services, and you don’t ask me why I am giving it to you so cheap,” she said. She stood and extended her hand to shake mine.

“Fair enough,” I said. I shook her hand while contemplating her philosophy that kindness is the veneer for greed. “What should I call you? I have to call you something?” I said.

While waiting for her reply, I down to business. I showed her a hologram of Jardena and I gave her the details on the messages she and I had received. For surveillance purposes, I told her where Jardena lives and works.

“I’m going to need daily updates from you, even if it’s just to say you haven’t gotten a solid lead yet,” I said. “Needless to say, this is very important to me. I’d like this handled fast and discreetly. Don’t get caught -- either by the stalker or by the subject.”

She didn’t respond directly to my conditions. Instead she said, “Listen, do you have the hologram, the one of her at the restaurant? I need to see it first.”

I showed her the restaurant video and watched in silence. Though she hadn’t asked, I played the two messages I’d extracted from Jardena’s comm, as well.

When we were done I handed her a data disk with all three messages. “Take this and see what you can find,” I said.

I paused, then said, “Since you won’t tell me your name, or give me an alias, I’ll have to give you one. I’ll call you Ms. Sapphire.”

I realized that by dealing with an unknown quantity such as Ms. Sapphire I was potentially putting myself and Jardena at risk. However, I had a backup plan in case the dancer/spy proved untrustworthy.

“I never liked the color sapphire,” she said, “And it seems it will be rough to work with you Dante, if you don’t know my name. My name is Erifia Apoc, Jedi Knight, and Republic Spy. I’m risking a lot telling you this. So now we are even.”

Having dropped that bombshell, she proceeded to replay the restaurant video and murmured as she watched it.

To be continued...

See Erifia’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Jedi | Twi'lek | Clone Wars | Fanfic

"Dead is Extra"

2006-06-20T18:52:00.000-04:00

Dig the shades.

Where: A sleazy club.

Feeling: I should’ve had a drink first.

Listening to: An indigo blue Twi’lek

Continued from here.

"I hear you're good at what you do," I said. I coughed. My voice was a bit hoarse.

The dancer stiffened. I sensed she had the wrong idea about me and I shook my head. "I need your services, but not those kind of services." I paused, thinking how I wanted to phrase this.

"I have a... situation with an individual that requires some outside observation," I said. I waited to see what she would say. I wanted to ask her her name, but anonymity was crucial on both sides.

"I'm just a simple Twi'lek dancing girl," she said, batting her eyelashes, "What would I know about spying on people?"

For a second I was afraid that I had the wrong person, but, no, this was the girl I'd been told to look for. "Let's just say you come well-recommended," I said. "Is there something I could do to convince you that I'm not a cop?"

"Remove the disguise, and tell me your real name, and tell me the real name of who you would have me spy on if I wasn't a Twi'lek slave dancer.”

I had come to the club wearing modified Ubese body armor. A partial mask disguised my face and I was not wearing my signature eye patch. I was reluctant to expose more of myself than was absolutely necessary, but I sensed I wouldn't get much further here without some concession on my part.

"My friends call me Dante, and the person I need your help with... her name is Lt. Cmdr. Jardena R. Oneida of the GAR." I paused. "I don't need you to spy on her, per se. I believe there's someone already spying on her, or stalking her. I need to know who that is."

I stopped to gauge the Twi'lek's response. If I'd engaged the wrong person I'd said too much and there would be trouble.

She raised her eyebrow for a long second, then said, "I usually work for $1,500 credits an hour. Plus the cost of any of my own expenses." She paused again. "But, if you are truly only looking out for Oneida, than I will cut that down to $500 credits a day. I'll cover my own expenses."

Her lekkus wiggled in a distracting fashion. She looked at me and said, "And let's just say, I find this person spying on her? Do you want him captured, imprisoned, or dead? Dead is extra."

To be continued...

See Erifia's blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Jedi | Twi'lek | Clone Wars | Fanfic

I hear you're good at what you do

2006-06-19T01:18:00.000-04:00

A Twi'lek dancer caught my eye.

Where: The underbelly of Coruscant.

Feeling: Ready for whatever.

Listening to: Dance music that goes, "Thump, thump, thump..."

If the club had a name, I didn't know it. It was simply, "The Club." It was some twenty levels down from my residence at 500 Republica and the Senate where I spent most of my time on Coruscant. But what I needed could only be found here, below those lofty heights.

A friend of a friend of a friend had directed me here. The clientele was foreign to me, but I had taken no chances and I'd modified my appearance to some extent. As I walked in the door, I glanced around. The club was packed and the mingling of the scents of beings of a dozen worlds didn't add to the ambiance.

The woman I sought was on stage. She was a dancer, a Twi'lek, lithe and beautiful. She had three lekku, which was unusual. Men tried to reach out to her as she performed, but she would have none of that. A few unlucky souls received kicks to the head when they overstepped their bounds.

I smiled. She caught my eye, I caught hers. I inquired with the bartender and secured a private room, hardly more than a booth. When her set was over, she came over to join me.

She stepped inside the booth. Her indigo skin had a sheen to it and her breathing was like that of someone who'd just completed a satisfying workout.

"I hear you're good at what you do," I said. I coughed. My voice was a bit hoarse.

To be continued...

See Erifia's blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Jedi | Twi'lek | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Intermission: Alphabet Meme

2006-06-16T01:52:00.000-04:00

Cadet. Captain. Carry on. Corellia.

Things are a little, ahem, unsettled in my personal life, so while I’m sorting things out, I will indulge in a meme.

Old Old Lady of the Hills gave me the choice of the letters “C” or “P” to use for this game. Vancouver Voyeur gave me the letter “T.” I’ll use “C” here and “T” elsewhere.

The rules are as follows:

Come up with 10 words starting with a letter that either you choose yourself or that someone chooses for you.

These words must be meaningful to you and you must give an explanation of why each word is important to you.

The letter “C.”

Cadet: I became a cadet in the Royal Naboo Security Forces at about age twelve. Ironically, I never intended this to become my career -- I joined because I was having issues at home and I didn’t want to live with my parents. My mom and I had been living with my uncle for about five years, but when my parents got back together, uncle told me I had to go back home with them or enter the military. I chose the latter.

Can't: I hate it when people tell me I can’t do something.

Captain: It was a huge deal for me and my family when I made Captain and took over the position as Senator Amidala’s Chief of Security.

Carry: As in the phrase “Carry on.” The first time I entered a barracks and everyone snapped to attention and I got to say, “Carry on,” it was quite a thrill. I felt like I was finally somebody. It’s a military thing, you wouldn’t understand otherwise.

Celebration: I love parties. I must get that from my mom.

Clean: As in “clean slate.” Back on Naboo I always wanted to be judged for who I was not for who my uncle is. I think I’ve succeeded. At least on Coruscant it hasn’t been a problem.

Coast: I grew up in Kaadara near the ocean. I aspire to be a beach bum one day.

Corellia: When I was a lieutenant I was sent offworld for the first time to take military classes on Corellia. That was a big culture shock to me. I had thought that since I’d been to “large” cities like Theed on my homeworld I’d be well-equipped to handle living on one of the Core Worlds. Wrong.

Course: While I was studying on Corellia, I got to know this girl from my homeworld. She seemed shy, so I wanted to make sure those skeazy Corellian guys (you know how they are) left her alone. She and I took a Combat Lifesaver course together, among other things. Almost married her.

Cousin: My best friend is my cousin, Kory. We’ve lost touch since I’ve been stationed on Coruscant, however.

If you would like to play the game leave a message in the comments and I will respond in the comments with your letter.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Meme | Fanfic

Friends with benefits

2006-06-07T23:37:00.000-04:00

Her comlink was tossed around a bit.

Continued from here.

With a sharp look at her, I got out of bed and went into the living room. When I returned I had her comlink in my hand. I needed to know if she really had received a so-called false message from Mal -- or any message from him -- at all.

She knew what I was looking for. She grabbed the comlink out of my hand, keyed in the password, then chucked it at me. “There! They’re both there, dated and labeled! Watch them to your heart’s content! Watch all of the messages on there if you want!” she shouted.

I caught the comlink thrown at me. Again I rubbed my temple. What a night this was.

I pointed to myself. “You’ve got nothing to say to me about this?” I watched as she got out of bed and haphazardly threw on her clothes.

The video was still playing on the monitor, over and over.

“‘Friends at best,’” I said, repeating her line. I put my hand over my heart. “I’m touched. I guess that’s ‘friends with benefits.’”

I looked at her comlink and accessed the messages. So, they really did exist.

Some lines in the messages stuck out in my mind. The one addressed to Mal mentioned “a continuation of our previous conversation.” The one addressed to Jardena made reference to him asking her about “seeing other people.” This didn’t help one bit.

I followed her as she headed for the door. I opened it for her and as she walked out I tossed her comlink back at her. “Hey, take all of your things,” I said. “I don’t want any of your stuff in my apartment.”

She spun around and screamed at me. “What the hell do you want me to say to you! Why should I even bother, you won’t believe what I tell you!” She threw the comlink again and it hit the wall and broke.

In response, I closed the door. I scooped up the battered comlink and sat on the couch, weighing the pieces in my hand. I let out a deep breath. I had some things to think about.

That scene had been ugly, but I had my reasons.

She’ll figure it out.

End.

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Make me try new things

2006-06-06T21:48:00.000-04:00

We watched an interesting video.

Continued from here.

When I couldn’t stand it anymore I put my hand on Jardena’s shoulder, made sure she was fully awake, and made her watch.

Start of video:

JARDENA: You’re looking handsome today. Is it just for me?

MAL puts a hand on her back and guides her into the restaurant. They sit in a booth by the window wall.

MAL: This is a great place. I always enjoy it when you make me try new things.

J: I know, I remember. So Mal, you going to flirt with me all day or do we get to bypass a lot of the small talk?

MAL looks confused.

M: Sorry, I had thought we weren’t going there again, now that you’re seeing Captain Typho.

J: I never said we couldn’t be together again. The “Captain” and I are friends at best.

MAL looks intrigued.

J: You didn’t think I could be serious about him, did you?

M: Jardena, I hadn’t thought so. This reopens possibilities for us. Maybe we should get out of here? I have to work, but would love to see you. Later?

Jardena shakes her head, no.

J: Soon. Not yet.

MAL puts his hand over hers in an affectionate gesture. After about 10 minutes they get their food packed up and leave the restaurant.

MAL walks her back to his speeder, then drops her off at hers. He kisses her on the forehead.

M: I can’t wait to hold you again. I’ll call as soon as I can.

She nods, then gets in her speeder.

End of video.

“Offhand, I’d say that was the most entertaining thing I’ve seen all night,” I said to Jardena with an edge to my voice. I massaged my temple like a migraine was hitting me full force.

The video was playing in an endless loop.

With a sharp look at her, I got out of bed and went into the living room. When I returned I had her comlink in my hand. I needed to know if she really had received a so-called false message from Mal -- or any message from him -- at all.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic

What do you intend to do?

2006-06-05T22:29:00.000-04:00

Our date ended at my place.

Continued from here.

“You can take your time with that,” I agreed. “And I’ll take my time with something else,” I said as I invited her into my bedroom.

My obligations could wait a bit longer as well.

~~

When we got up to the edge of the bed, she surprised me by pushing me back onto the bed and playfully pinning my arms down. “You know, a small part of me is waiting for one of your officers to come bursting in with some ‘urgent’ information,” she teased while kissing my neck.

“If someone on my team comes knocking on my door tonight, I swear there’s going to be one very unhappy officer on the first transport back to Naboo tomorrow,” I vowed.

I really should check those messages (it really is irresponsible not to, and I do take my job seriously), but... later. I’ll wait till she’s asleep, run and check them, then come back to bed. That’s the plan. I can probably get away with that with a minor amount of bitching if I wake her. I’m not going to kill the present mood and piss her off, not when she’s like this -- clearly letting her guard down and enjoying being with me.

I laughed as she straddled me and kissed me.

“Now that you’ve got me trapped, what do you intend to do to me?” I looked up at her in mock dismay.

I love when she’s playful and spontaneous like this. It reminds me of how it used to be when we were first together. I miss that chemistry. Every now and then I see signs that we might have that again, but then we both pull back, which is frustrating. I didn’t used to have to work so hard to make things right.

Don’t get me wrong -- there still is chemistry, but we’re older now. We’re both more subtle, more guarded and generally less impulsive. We took risks then. It’s risky to love somebody.

“Hmmm, I don’t know,” she replied thoughtfully, “but whatever it is, it doesn’t require your shirt staying on.” She released my arms and slid her hands up my shirt to help remove it.

She kissed my chest, then sat up, “You know, I’m so used to getting interrupted, that I think I may have forgotten what happens after this point. Do we discuss politics, sports, how the crops are growing back on Naboo?” Still smiling, she traced a line down my side with her finger.

Okay, I can play this game.

I sat up. “I have a few topics in mind,” I said. “Ladies fashions, for one. I think women from Naboo wear too much clothes. I intend to do something about that, starting with you.”

I finished easing her out of the dress I’d already unzipped. Her lingerie soon followed.

“Of course, the men tend to overdo it as well, which is something you can help me with.” The rest of my formal attire was retired for the evening.

“On the topic of the weather, it’s chilly outside, so that means I get to hold you really close.” My arms slipped around her waist and I smiled at the familiar warmth of her body touching mine.

“Last, but not least, on the subject of business... a merger is coming in the near future,” I said as I placed a slow line of kisses from her earlobe, to her neck, to her collarbone and downward.

~~

It was the middle of the night. Still sleepy myself, I listened to the soft sound of Jardena’s breathing. I thought about getting out of bed to check those pesky messages, but I was feeling too comfortable lying next to her.

I decided to be lazy. There’s a large monitor that dominates one wall of my room. When I’m relaxing in here I watch sports and news, but I can, of course, check my messages here too. I propped myself up on one elbow and carefully reached over Jardena to grab the remote sitting on the small table beside my bed. I pointed it at the screen and it came to life with the volume a tad too high. I winced and quickly turned down the sound. I looked down at Jardena. Still asleep? Yes. I gave her a light kiss on the shoulder. For good measure, I dimmed the screen.

I used the remote to scroll through the menus to my messages. Predictably, some of the “urgent” messages weren’t as dire as the senders claimed. A few were important, however.

Subject: Cruiser Engine Overhaul
Sender: Lt. Dysar

My authorization was needed for an immediate engine overhaul on the Naboo cruiser to be performed by non-Naboo mechanics. No problem. I replied and emailed Dysar the go ahead to handle that first thing in the morning.

Subject: Surveillance Procedures: Update
Sender: Royal Naboo Office of Internal Security

That one had a video attachment. Hmm. I decided to skip it for the moment.

Subject: Request for Sworn Statement
Sender: Kaadara Security Force

The shooting incident that had occurred when Dormé was abducted was rearing its ugly head. I had given a statement already, but it looked like they wanted more from me. Damn.

Subject: Arrival Confirmation (#012-62569-9939061)
Sender: Coruscant Starport Administration

The shipment of the new weapons we’d be taking to the range tomorrow had arrived and was sitting on a loading dock at the starport awaiting our pickup.

I reached over Jardena again and got my comlink off the table. I called (and woke up) Lt. Toru and told her to take five officers with her to the starport and secure the weapons now. I tried to speak in a low voice so as not to wake Jardena, but she stirred a little.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “I’m almost finished.” I gave her an affectionate pat on the ass.

I went back to the message entitled “Surveillance Procedures: Update” and opened it.

Attached is a video surveillance file. Lip-reading technology was used to enhance the audio with 99% accuracy. A written transcript is also provided.

I regularly review and forward surveillance videos for training purposes to Naboo, but it’s rare for them to send one to me. Was there an action item that I had missed? Not good.

I brought the brightness on the screen back up, then I sat back and watched the video. It was short, but it was personal and painful to watch.

I made myself watch it again. And again.

When I couldn’t stand it anymore I put my hand on Jardena’s shoulder, made sure she was fully awake, and made her watch.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Take your time

2006-06-04T23:49:00.000-04:00

You have priority messages.

Continued from here.

As we walked into my apartment I couldn’t help but see a light flashing on the monitor on the other side of the room. That meant I had some “priority” messages.

No, I’m not gonna look at ‘em.

We chatted some more about the proposed birthday plans and I offered her something to drink. Nothing alcoholic, since I know her tolerance level.

Despite how well things had gone in the latter half of the evening, in the back of my mind was the temptation to bring up the false messages again. I wanted to see the one that had been sent to her, but I decided Jardena was going to have to be the one to broach the subject and offer to show it to me.

The computer made a *ping* indicating that another message had come through. This is why I’ve gotten into the habit of spending nights in Jardena’s apartment. I’m too accessible here.

I looked at Jardena. “I’m off duty for the next 24 hours. Besides which, I didn’t hear anything. And neither did you.”

I inclined my head towards my bedroom and smiled, suggesting what I’d rather do with her than check email.

”I didn’t hear a thing,” she said, giving me one of her sweet, seductive looks. She put her heavy purse down on the table and the comlink inside made a “thunk.” She rolled her eyes and said, “At some point I’ll have to show you those messages. But no hurry on that, right?” She smiled slyly as she played with the curls at the back of my neck.

In response, I placed one hand lightly on her hip. The other tugged at the zipper of her dress.

The fact that she was willing to show me the messages was more important than seeing the messages themselves. That could wait a bit. “You can take your time with that,” I agreed. “And I’ll take my time with something else,” I said as I invited her into my bedroom.

My obligations could wait a bit longer as well.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Is there any way I could convince you?

2006-06-03T23:56:00.000-04:00

Mon Calamari ballerina.

Continued from here.

After Jardena ordered and the waiter went away, I said frankly, “Your friend is very touchy feely. You may think you’re friends, but he thinks of you differently.”

She folded her hands on the table in front of her and looked straight at me. “I know, it’s something I’ve dealt with for a while now, and it was going fine until today.” She shifted uncomfortably. ”He’s never been that forward before. And I don’t think he’s the only one.”

She paused. “Look, like you pointed out on Naboo, the girl to guy ratio is pretty skewed, it’s bound to happen that a few guys like me more than they should. I am dealing with the Commander, but I also have to work with him, so I can’t exactly tell him to shove off.”

“Actually you could,” I said. “There are regulations against fraternization. But I understand if you don’t want to go there.”

The waiter returned with the wine I’d ordered. He poured it for us and left.

“I should give a toast to whoever’s behind these messages,” I said. “That’s a lot of effort to break us up, if that’s really what it’s about. It’s not going to work, though.”

I took a sip of the wine and made a face. Bitter aftertaste.

“Offhand, I’d say your friend’s behind this,” I said.

She didn’t raise her glass, but she did take one small sip of the wine. She looked distant.

“I thought about that,” she replied. “But unless he’s got some impressive slicing skills that I’ve never seen him use, I don’t think he could have done the tech for it. But I could be wrong,” she conceded.

She rested her chin in her hand and looked at me. “So is there any way I could convince you to change the topic to something a little less stressful and unpleasant?” She smiled softly.

“We could talk about the weather. Sports? The economy? The state of the Republic? No?” I said, making a show of changing the topic. “I’ve got it -- you could tell me how you’d like to spend your birthday this year so I don’t do or buy anything you’ll hate.”

I returned her smile. I wish she didn’t have so many admirers, but it’s hard to stay mad at her.

Her smile became warmer. “My birthday? I hadn’t thought about it. And I always liked what you did and what you gave me, I just worried about breaking it.” She paused, thinking. “I’d like to do something fun and laid back. Maybe visit the mountains here. I’ve not been yet. Unfortunately, there aren’t any beaches here. Do you have any thoughts or ideas?”

“Well, since you mentioned it, we could do the touristy stuff at the Manarai Mountains,” I said. “They have monuments there and shops and restaurants. It’s also the only place on Coruscant where you can touch the planet’s actual surface.”

I was really hoping she wasn’t saying that she wanted to go camping. I’ve had some bad outdoor experiences.

“That’d be fun, we could stay at a bed & breakfast and get to see if this really is a planet and not just a ball of buildings like the urban myths say,” she joked.

The mood had changed and our date went well from that point. After we left the restaurant we went to the Galaxies Opera House to see the ballet. Later, Jardena was particularly animated on our way back home.

“I was an interesting experience, I will give it that,” Jardena said with a hug and a kiss. “Thanks for taking me, I had a lot of fun,”

“It really was... something, wasn’t it?” I said, giving her a kiss on the top of her head. In truth, though I was glad she’d enjoyed the evening, I had found the ballet utterly incomprehensible. I had played it safe and applauded when everyone else had, but to my mind, we’d just spent two hours watching fish swim. When I was a kid back in Kaadara, people used to watch fish swim for entertainment too, only those fish were big and ugly, and they’d kill you if you get too close. Very exciting, if you like that sort of crazy thing.

As we walked into my apartment I couldn’t help but see a light flashing on the monitor on the other side of the room. That meant I had some “priority” messages.

No, I’m not gonna look at ‘em.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic

He thinks of you differently

2006-06-02T23:17:00.000-04:00

Jardena and her friend? Not.

Continued from here.

She shrugged, scanned over the menu, then looked back up at me. “Did you do anything fun or exciting today?”

I put down the menu. It would’ve been really easy to not say anything else on this topic, but I thought about what she’d said. The message from Jar Jar was now suspect since it had put me in the right place at the right time to see something that looked wrong.

“For someone who doesn’t watch a lot of holo-dramas, you’ve outlined the plot pretty well,” I said.

She smiled. “I have had more time than I’d like listening to my troopers go over holo-dramas. They love that stuff, though hearing them break it down puts more of a military spin on getting the guy or girl than I’ve ever heard before.”

The waiter came back to our table and asked if we were ready to order.

“I need more time,” I said.

When the waiter left I said, “No, I didn’t do anything fun today, but I did see something that someone evidently went to great lengths for me to see.”

She looked confused for a second, then said, “Wait, were you in the area of the diner?”

“I got an email from Jar Jar asking me to do a security check for Padmé on a new store in CoCo Town,” I said. “At least I thought it was from Jar Jar.” I shrugged.

“Yes, I saw you and your friend,” I said, answering the unasked question.

She sat back and looked at me shrewdly. “Is that why you’ve been in a bit of a bad mood today? I promise, I don’t have anything romantic going on with Mal, we work together and he is a friend.”

The waiter returned to take our order.

I frowned briefly when she said that I’d been in a bad mood. A bad mood? A bad mood would’ve involved me going across the street when I saw them and making her “friend” Mal lick dirt off the pavement. But I didn’t do that. See, I’m civilized.

“I’ll have the roast duck with the mango salsa,” I said to the waiter.

After Jardena ordered and the waiter went away, I said frankly, “Your friend is very touchy feely. You may think you’re friends, but he thinks of you differently.”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Too many holo-dramas

2006-06-01T23:40:00.000-04:00

The restaurant was Corellian.

Continued from here.

I looked at her. “Tell me everything,” I said simply.

She shrugged. “I didn’t have to go into my GAR office today, all I had was computer updates and reprogramming to do. I’d gotten most of it done in the first part of the day. At about 1130, I got a message on my holo-com from Cmdr. Andros asking if I’d meet him for lunch at this place in the CoCo district since he was headed that way. I sent a short confirmation, but didn’t actually talk to him. We met about noon, and about 10 minutes in realized that we’d each gotten a message, but neither of us had sent them. The messages were a bit fuzzy, but pretty good. Mine had Mal’s image and voice. His was just a voice message.” She paused.

“I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to track the signal back. Whoever sent them is very well trained. And I can’t figure out the reason for it -- if they’d wanted to do something to us, the situation would have been ideal to take out two intel officers, though I’m not really important intel.”

Well, that didn’t sound so bad. Yeah, it was bad in the sense of a possible security breech, but that’s not my concern. It wasn’t lost on me that none of what she’d said explained the level of familiarity this Andros guy had showed toward her.

“What exactly did the message you received say?” I asked. “It had to have been pretty convincing for you to assume it was him.”

“It was his likeness and his voice, and he referenced something that very few people would have known about,” she said. She didn’t explain what exactly that “something” was.

I didn’t say anything for awhile. The way she described it, it was a work-related issue, but what I’d seen sure looked like a social meeting. I mean, the frakking guy had a flower, for crying out loud.

I was determined not to be unreasonable about this. But I had one more question before letting it rest.

“Any theory who would want you and your friend to have lunch in CoCo Town? And why?”

Okay, that was two questions.

I pulled up in front of My Kor Vella and let the restaurant’s valet take the speeder. I took Jardena’s hand as she stepped out of the speeder.

She looked over at me as we walked in. “That’s just it, I can’t think of anyone who would, unless it was work related, then it could be people I don’t know. I mean, if someone was trying to cause trouble between us, they’d have called you, right?” I commented.

She smiled at me as she took in the décor of the restaurant. “Good choice.”

I gave her a kiss. “You’re welcome,” I said.

The waiter led us to our table. As we took our seats I said, “What did you mean when you said someone wanting to cause trouble would’ve called me?”

“Well, if you want to cause trouble in a relationship, it wouldn’t do much for your cause if you just sent me out to lunch. Logically, they’d want you to see or know what had happened, or show you just enough to let you make your own conclusions. At least that’s how I think it works, I don’t watch too many holo-dramas. As I said before, I don’t have any good ideas who might have called us.”

She shrugged, scanned over the menu, then looked back up at me. “Did you do anything fun or exciting today?”

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic

Busy day for you?

2006-05-31T19:17:00.000-04:00

We planned a night on the town.

Jardena gave me access to her apartment a few weeks ago. She reprogrammed the security system to recognize me and let me in without her having to be there to approve it. She joked that she was doing this as backup in case she got shipped off somewhere and needed someone to feed Edee and Bodooka, but it was a trust thing. I reminded myself of that fact as I stepped off the elevator and walked down the hallway to her apartment.

I’m not going to bring up what I saw earlier today. I’ll deal with that another way.

“Jardena?” I said as I opened the door.

I heard her answer from the living room. I found her dressed for our date, but sitting on the floor with datapads and PDAs and surveillance equipment all around her.

The voorpaks were preening and trying to get my attention. I reached into my pocket and pulled out some biscuits for them.

Since she was clearly still crunching on something, I said, “Take your time. We’ve got over an hour before our reservation.”

I was curious and I would’ve liked to ask what she was working on so intently, but the nature of her job means she can’t always be forthcoming. That makes for awkward -- and short -- conversations sometimes.

“Sorry about the clutter, it’s been a long afternoon,” she said. ”I’m pretty much ready to go, unless it’s still a bit early,” she said, looking at the chrono.

“Then we should go,” I said. “I think we have time to spare, but you never know about traffic.”

I gave the voorpaks one last treat while she grabbed her things.

“Is that new?” I asked, meaning her outfit. I thought so, but I wasn’t sure. “Very nice,” I said. It was revealing in all the right places.

She smiled. “Yeah, it’s new. I haven’t been out much in the last couple of years, so I figured I should go shopping when I got to Coruscant.”

I started to add, by way of conversation, that I had had an assignment today at a store she might be interested in. Only, I suddenly realized that I couldn’t say that. If I mentioned that I’d been in CoCo Town today, it might make her wonder if she’d been seen.

I didn’t want to say where I had been and I didn’t want to ask the perfectly normal question of “how was your day?” and face the possibility of hearing her lie about or at least omit the part about where she’d been earlier -- and who she’d been with.

Consequently I found myself in the position of having virtually nothing to say during the trip from her apartment to the garage.

We drove in silence for awhile until she asked, “How’d your day go? Have things gotten less hectic with Padmé on vacation?”

I reached out and tweaked her knee as she stretched and got comfortable in the passenger’s seat and showed some skin. “Stop that -- you’re going to make me crash my speeder. And I’ll make you pay for the repairs,” I joked. I flashed her a grin, smiling for the first time that evening.

“Well, if you’re going to crash the speeder, I should do something more exciting that just adjust my dress,” she teased.

As I merged into traffic, I finally answered her question. “While I was on my leave of absence a lot of changes were put in place to tighten up security for all of the senators, so there are new procedures and policies I’m not up to speed with yet. I was informed that a psychiatric evaluation has been added to the performance reviews. Also, my entire team needs to qualify on new weapons. We’re going to the firing range with the Corellians the day after tomorrow and I have a little wager riding on how long it’ll take their team to qualify. So I have enough to keep me and my team busy for awhile.”

“I really hope you give the Corellians a hard time. They have way too much fun harassing my troopers.”

Before I could stop myself, I said, “Busy day for you?”

I frowned. Stupid. I’d vowed to myself that I wasn’t going to ask.

Before she could answer I quickly said, “Speaking of Corellia, this restaurant we’re going to is Corellian. Their senator's chief of security recommended it to me, so it better be good.”

“I’m sure the food will be excellent,” she replied. “Do you not want to know about how my day went? Or you’re worried it’ll be the same boring day as usual?”

There was a really good chance that pursuing this line of questioning would lead to a wretched evening for both of us.

But dammit, I wanted to know.

I looked at her. “Tell me everything,” I said simply.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Technorati tags: Star Wars | Captain Typho | Typho | Clone Wars | Fanfic