Foundations and Factions 6

Coruscant never changed, I thought, as I guided my ship down through the thick fog to land on the private landing pad that belonged to Thrawn’s apartment. It was as full and busy as ever, even in the early morning. The spires of the tall buildings poked through the fog looking a little like long nailed fingertips reaching to the sky, the hands of the condemned raised up looking for rescue. It felt odd to be back here, and the weight of the past which crept its way into my gut made me sullen and quiet. I guess Uncle Vahlek understood this because he didn’t say anything as I shut the ship down and gathered my things. In many ways this was a homecoming for me because I had been happy in this flat with Thrawn for a while. It had been a place of safe refuge and love. As I entered the lock code opening the door I felt a terrible wave of sorrow and of loss but I didn’t understand why, it made me hesitate at the entrance of the flat.

“Are you alright Lei'lei?” My uncle placed his hand on my shoulder, his concern was genuine and palpable. I had to fight the urge to turn around and burrow myself in his arms and cry like I had done as a small child. Instead I just drew a deep steadying breath.

“Old ghosts, Zte’sa.” I said with a shrug and we stepped over the threshold.

The flat smelled unused but clean. The faint scent of Thrawn’s soap lingered in the air reminding me sharply of him but his presence was no longer here and the flat felt empty, despite the furniture and décor. I suppose I understood in that moment that no matter what happened in the future I would not live here again with him as I had done before Endor. I think that Thrawn had known this too when he, exiled and publicly shamed, had removed his most treasured possessions and art work, many of which now adorned his private quarters on Nirauan.

I sighed as I dumped my bag on the floor, ignoring my uncle, and went to the kitchen to look in the cupboards and cold-box to see what I would need to buy. I had no idea how long we’d be staying here but I didn’t plan to starve or order out. I was surprised to find a note on the kitchen counter and even more surprised to read it was from Shiv.

Hey Rim Girl, I heard you might be paying us a visit so I stocked up on the essentials for you. Word came that you needed to tie up loose ends here. I have looked in on the place from time to time as the Admiral requested so there should not be any nasty surprises, like Dathomir spiders hiding in the bathroom. Buzz me when you get in, we have a lot to talk about. Missed you tons. Love Shiv.

My uncle vanished into the spare room and dropped off his small pack. His ability to travel so light never ceased to amaze me. I set the water cooker on to make tea and searched the freezer for something we could use for breakfast. When I had left this flat to go with Lord Vader to Endor it had never occurred to me that I would not be coming back for well over two years so there had been food in the fridge and things left about. I looked around and knew that Shiv had taken care of everything. That Thrawn had trusted him enough to give him the access codes made me grateful. I found some pre-made breakfast scones, heated the oven and shoved them in to cook.

I needed to wrap my head around the fact that I was actually back on this crazy world and that a huge chunk of time had passed since I was last here, because for me it felt as though I had only been gone for a couple of months not a couple of years. I wasn’t sure I understood how this was even possible, but I guessed as I set breakfast things on the counter it was to be expected when one slips into a coma and then vanishes to a planet on the edge of the galaxy where time just moves differently. While my Uncle showered and changed I made stimcaf and reacquainted myself with the place I had once called home. I knew that the very first person I should probably try to see was Ysanne Isard but she could wait instead I decided to see if Shiv was awake.

“Merly?” said a sleepy looking holo of Shiv.

“Surprise!”

He yawned and ran a hand through his tousled blond hair. “Surprise? Where are you?”

I nodded. “Just got in, wanted to say thank you for taking care of the flat.”

He was still half asleep and I could see him trying to wake up. “Wait, you’re here on Coruscant in your flat?”

I nodded again. “Listen, you feel like having breakfast with us?”

“Now? Us?”

“My uncle is with me and yes now, though if you could pick up some cream and some butter on the way that would be good. I’m baking scones.”

“Uh…okay…be there in about fifteen minutes.” He said. He was still not quite awake. I signed off and went back to taking care of breakfast, waiting for my uncle to finish so that I could take a quick shower. Shiv arrived twenty minutes later to the scent of freshly backed scones and stimcaf. I heard him come in and went to greet him, unable to say even one word before he had swept me up in a huge hug.

“We thought you were dead.” He whispered in my ear holding me so tightly I thought I heard ribs crack.

I just hugged him back and nodded. What was there to say? When he finally let me go to look at me I could see that he had aged a little and that worry and stress had eaten into his boyish good looks.

“Siavaan, it is good to meet you.” My uncle said from behind me.

Shiv grinned and shook my uncle’s offered hand. Then he handed me a bag of groceries. “I bought cream, jam, butter and some fresh fruits.”

“Well breakfast is done, so let’s eat. I’m hungry.” I said.

As we sat and ate I told Shiv my story before he could bug me about it, this time I did not leave much out so there were a lot of things that my Uncle had not heard before as well. When I was done both he and my Uncle just looked at me in stunned silence.

Shiv sighed. “We heard about Endor but the news was censored. The backlash from Lord Vader’s and the Emperor’s death was pretty awful. Coruscant was in total martial law and people were being shot if they were out after curfew. Of course, that all settled down after the memorial service and once Pestage was recognised as the official leader. It was chaos, internally but from the outside things seemed to carry on as usual. When Pestage was killed and Isard took over things began to get a little odd but even that settled down into some sort of normal routine. She doesn’t interact much with people like me so it isn’t as if I have much contact to the inner circle any more. All the Emperor’s concubines and consorts were given severance packages and told to go home, most of the palace is quiet as the work force has been cut down by nearly a half. Isard tends to run things on a tight military style schedule, she doesn’t have time for civilian bureaucracy.”

“I need to see her.” I said. “I have updates from Thrawn for her.”

“Well if you are lucky she’s here but most of the time she’s not on Coruscant that much these days. Theory is she spends most of her time at some secret base of operations, though I don’t know much about that. If there is a hidden base some where it is really a well kept secret. I do hear a lot of whispers about the Lusankya Facility, which she heads up. People go in but they never come out. She had a lot of her own staff members taken to that detention center and no one and I do mean no one knows where it is. The latest theory is she has some ISD in space but no one really knows for sure.” He said with a sigh. “I don’t do much work at the moment, it seems she has little use for the fineries that the Emperor did, but they haven’t actually fired me yet either.”

“What about this sickness I’ve been reading about?” I asked.

Shiv shrugged. “No one is really certain about that either. It breaks out in pockets, mostly in the alien sectors and it is pretty deadly but because no humans have contracted it yet and it isn’t wide spread there has been very little said or done about it as far as I know. At first they thought that it was an issue with the water purification system but that checked out all right now they think it is some bacterial thing brought in on imported fruits. The word around the palace is that the rebellion has been testing some biological weapon but personally I don’t buy that. They wouldn’t target aliens for a start and I don’t think they have the facilities to create weapons like that.” He sighed. “So really no one knows, but I can tell you this, bacta apparently cures it so as long as there is enough bacta to go around, no one seems too worried.”

I blew out the breath I had been holding and sipped at my stimcaf. “I need to get into the palace.”

Shiv shrugged one shoulder. “Well that won’t be difficult, you have active clearance, you still work for the Empire and you carry official documents from a Grand Admiral.”

“How easily will I be able to move about in the palace?” I asked.

“Depends on where you want to go.”

“My old flat, Lord Vader’s office, the Emperor’s inner sanctum.”

Shiv made a face. “Hmm, your old flat won’t be an issue. That part of the palace is hardly ever used any more. Not sure if Lord Vader’s office will be accessible or not and the Emperor’s inner sanctum won’t be accessible at all. Isard had all his rooms restricted and shut off, but left untouched, which was odd. It was as if she expected him to come back. There are armed guards posted at all entrances to his quarters and offices and the whole area is under constant surveillance, you’d never get by any of that without being detected.”

I nodded. I didn’t tell Shiv that there were ways of bypassing the security and I had alternative routes to gain access to some of the rooms I wanted to go to.

“Well, my first order of business is to see Isard or at least get Thrawn’s dispatches to her. After that, my time is my own.”

Shiv looked at me and then at my uncle who had remained very quiet through out most of the conversation. “Why are you really here?”

I stared back at him for a long moment then said. “I need to set up a reliable information network for Thrawn.”

Much to my surprise instead of being shocked Shiv just nodded, “I thought it might be something like that.”

“You did?”

“No one, absolutely no one, seems to know that there is a surviving Grand Admiral out there, it’s weird. I mean Thrawn was sort of a secret to begin with but Isard squashes all talk or mention of him. The rumour is that he is dead or was a myth to begin with. He was exiled and he vanished, remember? But even weirder is all holo news or gossip mention of him has been erased, you too for that matter. It is as if the pair of you never really existed.” He said. “I thought this was very strange given how good your Admiral is with strategy and planning so I did some quiet digging. Seems Isard is scared to death that he will come back and remove her from power to take over as galactic emperor. So she has essentially wiped all traces and information about him off the system. As far as the outside galaxy goes he does not exist.”

I nodded slowly. “She’s been lying to him about how things have been going between the Empire and the rebellion. He needs a way to gain information that hasn’t been censored or altered by her and her people.”

“Spying is considered treason and is punishable by death, if you get caught you’ll be shot.” Shiv warned.

“I know that, I don’t plan on getting caught.”

“No one ever does.” Shiv said with a snort. My uncle laughed.

“Well I don’t plan to rush in and rummage around her drawers!” I replied. “I have other possibilities.”

They both nodded and the three of us lapsed into silence as I poured more stimcaf.

“So, give me the gossip!” I demanded after a few moments. “How is everyone, Master Kjestyll, Cati, Bobbyn, Maxxi and Ynyth?”

Shiv drew a deep breath. “The Bunduki masters vanished shortly after the Emperor’s death. In fact the entire school seemed to disappear. No one knows where they went but I can tell you they were not killed.” He said.

My uncle nodded. “They would have relocated the school to a planet that was remote and outside the reach of the Empire and the rebellion. It is possible that they went to Anzat.” He said. “I had heard that all the Bunduki schools had suddenly vanished after the Emperor’s death. The news that a new Jedi had returned to the galaxy may have been enough for them to wish to return to their underground ways of teaching. The Bunduki form was founded on the premise of beating force users without having to be force sensitive or a trained jedi.”

“Why Anzat?” Shiv asked looking at Uncle Vahlek.

“People fear the Anzati but some of the best assassins come from there. It is a good place to have an underground Bunduki school, though I suspect that there are many worlds the masters would have gone to. They spread their training out and they are mobile. Anzat is just difficult to explore or invade. The Anzati can be quite deadly, you know.”

“You don’t think they were killed do you? I mean, that is possible.” I asked.

Shiv shook his head. “No, they vanished. One day there were classes and teachings and all the equipment was still there, the next it was as if they had never existed and Isard was not happy about it, I can tell you that for nothing. No, they were not suddenly wiped out or secretly eliminated, they left of their own accord right under her nose without her knowing.”

I felt a small amount of peace knowing that Master Kjestyll was safe and teaching some place else but also a certain amount of sadness that in all probability I would never see him again. “What about Cati and the others?”

“Well, I told you in the last letter that Bobbyn went home. I haven’t heard form him since. Personally I think he was glad to get out of Coruscant while he could. His family owns a hotel so he could just go and work there. Maxxi vanished. I think he joined the rebellion if you want my honest opinion but who can really say for sure. One day he just didn’t show up for work any more. I know that Antygra’s death really changed how he felt about the Empire so it makes sense he would want to fight back. Ynyth and I are still together. It is a lot easier now that she got a job in the civilian sector but our schedules clash more than they used to, she’s at work right now but she’ll be thrilled to hear you are back safe and alive. Cati is still the same. I know she’d love to see you. She asks about you when ever I get the chance to talk with her. Her work keeps her busy. It doesn’t seem to matter to the rich and bored that the Emperor is dead and Isard is in charge, they still live as though nothing bad had happened. So the demand for fine clothes has never gone out of style. Cati is as busy as ever.”

I smiled and looked at the Chrono. “I should get ready and go see if Isard is home. The sooner I get this over with the sooner I will be able to do what I came for.” I said.

“I’ll come with you. They know me so it will help you with security, even with your clearance they’ll ask questions. You are unknown to most of the guards now.” Shiv said, helping to clear away the breakfast dishes.

“What about you?” I asked my uncle.

He just smiled. “I have some friends to look up and need to buy some things for your father. You have your comm, when you need me use it or else I will see you when you return here for lunch or supper, unless there are other plans?”

“No plans, at least not yet.” I said. “First I need to reacquaint myself with the Palace and make sure Isard doesn’t think I am anything other than a dumb assistant.”

My uncle laughed. “I do not think she even cares about you, Lei'lei. I am certain that the only reason she will even blink your way is because of the disks from Thrawn that you carry. If you had been on her mind she would have had you hunted down and murdered a long time ago.”

“That’s very comforting, Zte’sa.”

“He speaks the truth though.” Shiv agreed.

“She had an arrest warrant out for me!”

Shiv nodded. “Yes, you and dozens of others because she thought you might come back and try to somehow contest or threaten her position but as soon as that idea was squashed you became no more important to her than I am. It was only because the Admiral actually requested it that the arrest warrant was rescinded, mostly I think she just forgot about it. In the few months after the Emperor’s death, Isard went nuts trying to get rid of any would be threat. One of the few people she was truly worried about was Mara Jade. She had her arrested but in the end Jade escaped and Isard hasn’t seen or heard from her since.”

“You both make me feel very unimportant.” I said half pouting, half relieved.

“Good, be thankful that you are unimportant in the eyes of this new regime. It will make the job you plan to do a lot easier.” My Uncle said gruffly.

I sighed, knowing they were right. In the over all scope of things, as far as the Empire was concerned, I was an office girl whose boss had died. It was long enough ago that most people would not really remember me if at all. I glanced at Shiv who just nodded and smiled. It was time to go and test this theory out.

“Be careful Lei'lei.” My uncle said as I slipped on my long coat.

“We will. “ Shiv replied with a grin, making my uncle smile.

I checked my satchel to make sure the data disks with Thrawn’s messages to Isard were still there then slung it over my head and followed Shiv out. I hoped it wasn’t a sign of things to come that the weather grid had somehow decided to anoint my homecoming with a deluge of rain.

Foundations and Factions 5

I landed in Kor Vella with the minimum of hassle. It was easy enough to pretend to be just another transport ship heading back to the Core, after all my papers were in perfect order and Corellia had not officially joined the New republic and was, to the best of my knowledge, still following Imperial Law. Once I cleared through planetary customs, paid the landing and docking fee and got the ship’s papers sorted out I made my way to the starport lounge. I ordered a Corellian ale, then found a dark, quiet wall-side booth and sat down to watch the holo-screen that was playing mindless music vids on the far wall. I was a little early so I had some time to relax. It was mid day local planet time and it was raining outside. Corellia was a beautiful world by most human standards, with a temperate climate and varied landscapes ranging from large wild mountain ranges, forests and grassy flatlands to sandy beaches which edged wide bodies of fresh water.

Kor Vella was a small city that sat on the hillside which over looked wide flat grasslands, there was a branch of most governmental office here but the main place of commerce and the primary destination for most travellers was Coronet, the capitol. The starport had been built at the foot of these hills and seemed sleepy and quiet more because of its location than lack of traffic. Enough off-worlders passed through Kor Vella that no one would really notice me and because it was, more often than not, a transit star port, one person sitting alone waiting for someone was not out of the ordinary.

I nursed my ale which was disgusting so drinking it slowly wasn’t hard to do. The message I had sent Uncle Vahlek had been short and cryptic. I wasn’t even sure it had reached him but since the only way to find that out was to show up at the designated meeting point I had come anyway. Thrawn had not been happy about it but he had no better ideas. When I had left early in the morning, Nirauan time, due to something that had come up at the last moment which required his attention he had not been at the docking bay to see me leave. Just as well in the end, long drawn out goodbyes were not our thing and even less so given the current circumstances we lived in. He had made his feelings for me plain enough the night before and I much preferred his method of showing me how he felt in the privacy of the bedroom to than stiff and formal farewells in a public area.

I smiled at the memories thinking about him brought up and toyed with my pendant. His way of communicating, without actually speaking, never ceased to astonish me. His hands became words, his lips became expressions and his body had spoken entire paragraphs telling me how he felt. Together, it seemed to me, we wrote entire books on the art of physical communication.

“Do you know how beautiful you truly are?” He had whispered in my ear as his fingertips trailed over the skin of my belly. I had shivered under his caress; goose bumps had rippled across my flesh the wake of his touch. Warmth had flooded through me making me whimper for more. It had made him smile, knowing his touch could reduce me to the role of supplicant whispering his name with a need so intense it threatened to swallow me whole.

When I had had enough of his games I had wrapped my legs around him and pulled him to me, feeling the shape of him mould to me, become a part of me, gasping at the wonder and sheer pleasure such a simple act could bring. He had made it last, despite my urging, ignoring my pleas in favour of the rules he made up as we went along, using his weight, his strength and his often astonishing stamina to play for time. He knew me too well but this worked both ways, after many years I now knew him as well. I had dug my nails into his back leaving dark indents, like little crescent moons in his beautiful blue skin, marking him as mine through pain and pleasure, smiling at the moan of need that escaped from the back of his throat. In the bedroom, in our bed we shed the masks we wore day in day out in front of everyone else on the base. Only here could we share openly and I could not love him more for this stolen time, these precious moments, where I was allowed to see into his soul with no holds barred. With our hearts pounding against our chests, breast to breast we reached that place where time seemed to stop, where a universe imploded and the pleasure so intense it was almost painful. Then that moment sprang forward and swept through us both like a raging storm, leaving us panting and exhausted in its wake. Wrapped around each other, speechless and languid we finished what we had begun with kiss and caress, his fingers tracing ice across the heat of my flushed skin.

In the quiet of the aftermath we had talked about the journey I would take the next day. Originally I had wanted to travel in Dantassi guise but he had talked me out of that saying it was unusual for the Bone Traders to be seen so far into the Core so the disguise would actually call more attention to me than draw it away. Still, I had packed my Dantassi clothes anyway; everything was on the ship just in case I’d need it, hidden away in case some one actually could bypass my security to get in and toss the ship. In the end it seemed pointless to travel in disguise. After an fairly extensive and interesting search of the New Republic’s most wanted lists I discovered much to both my chagrin and relief that I was a nobody, considered just another of the palace public servants and utterly unimportant in the over all galactic scope of things. While a part of me was a little perturbed that I didn’t even warrant a mention in the end I was glad. It made travelling a whole lot easier when one was not on the list of the Republic’s most wanted. I wondered what any of the CorSec patrols I had passed by on my way out the Starport would think if they had known who I had worked with. It seemed surreal to me that Lord Vader was dead and that Coruscant loomed under the shadow of invasion by the very forces his own son was a part of.

I sighed, shaking myself out of the reverie of memory. “Be careful.” Thrawn had murmured in my ear just as we were falling asleep. “I don’t want to have to come chasing after you.”

I had only nodded and burrowed into the warmth of his body to fall asleep. When I woke he was already gone, on duty and working.

I sipped at the ale which was bitter and too warm for my tastes then pulled the news flimsies I had bought at the small tourist shop out of my bag to read the latest gossip and news. I had been away from the core for long enough that I didn’t recognize half the names in the scuttlebutt section and the news of the Fall of Borleias was either too old or the government had censored it because there was no real mention of it in any thing I read. The only thing that really caught my eye was a small news blurb about random pockets of strange illnesses showing up on Coruscant being blamed on rebel terrorism or faulty water processing depending on what news agency was doing the reporting. It was a peculiar sort of virus though as it only seemed to target aliens because so far no human had been struck down with it. For some reason these stories made the skin prickle and my stomach knot but I shrugged the sensations off and went on reading.

Mostly the gossip seemed to center itself around the general antics of Luke Skywalker and his sister Princess Leia Organa as well as that of Han Solo which made me smile. Leia Organa was unknown to me but Luke had been a whiney Tatooine farm boy that his friends had once nicknamed Wormie. His friend, Han, had been an Imperial Academy dropout turned smuggler. Now, according to the flimsies, the three of them were the heroes of the Galaxy, running around doing great deeds.

I wondered if Lord Vader had known that he had also had a daughter. I also wondered if that would have made any difference to how things had eventually turned out in the end. I doubted it, sometimes fate just did what it wanted to and you had to make do with the hand you got dealt. In spite of the fact that the New Republic consisted of many people and species, it was Leia Organa who seemed to be the most prominent figure head of the new government, although she didn’t exactly rule it was her everyone seemed to turn to for answers. I stared at the holo image of her embedded in the flimsy and sighed. I couldn’t see any family resemblance to Luke but I had seen images of her mother and she was definitely Padme’s daughter. I wasn’t too sure what side of the family Luke took after though; in the images of him he looked haunted and worried, as though the entire fate of the whole galaxy rested solely upon his shoulders. The last of the jedi, the reporter had called him and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Maybe that he was the last of the jedi but he wasn’t the only Force user around. I wondered how he planned to start a new movement of jedi knights and set them up as the galactic peace keepers, as was mentioned in the article I read. I wasn’t sure how this was possible seeing as how he was supposed to be the only one around and I sure as hell wasn’t about to apply for membership. That sounded an awful lot like indoctrination for my tastes. While I did not believe everything the Emperor had told me about the Old Jedi ways I knew for sure that some of it had been based on truth. I had my birth mother’s diaries, and I did not want to lead the same sort of life she had led, running around the galaxy doing the bidding of some noble minded council forsaking any chance of a life of my own. I wondered what Luke would do if I were to go to him and tell him I was the daughter of a jedi and a clone, that I had been trained to use my force powers by his dad and the Emperor. My guess was it would scare him silly and he’d brand me as some sort of a Dark Side heretic and have me shot on sight. That thought made me laugh out loud.

“Now just what is so funny?” A voice from behind me said softly in my ear, making me jump, just a little.

“Zte’sa! I wasn’t sure you got my message. You’re earlier than I thought.” I said folding the flimsy away, not turning around to look at him.

“You let your guard down. I thought you had been taught better than that.” Uncle Vahlek chided softly.

I just shrugged to hide the fact that he was right. “I knew who you were.” I lied as I got up to face him and then after a staring at him for a second, I flung my arms around him. He hesitated for a moment then returned my embrace, but I could feel his uncertainty.

He pulled back from my hug, holding me by my shoulders at arms length and looked at me as though he were trying to place the memory of the face he knew with the one he was actually staring at. “You look well, a little thinner than I remember, but well.” He said after a bit.

“You sound surprised.”

“Well, the information we got was that you had almost died at Endor then you essentially vanished off the radar for over two years. I am wondering if you are who you say you are.” He said coolly.

I sighed. “When I was small you gave me a toy fambaa. I named it Boo. It still sits in my bedroom in the Mos Eisley house on Tatooine on a shelf next to a box which holds things that belonged to my mother, the woman who raised me, not the one who gave birth to me. While we still lived in the house near Bestine, the doll got torn one day, when I tripped and fell, running with it in my hand coming to see you when you returned to visit from some trip you had taken. I cried so hard that everyone thought it was because I had scraped my left knee but really it was because Boo was hurt. You carried me and Boo into the house and while my mother took care of my bloody knee you sewed up Boo for me and the stitches look like little exes. There are five of them.” I said.

For a moment he stared at my face, searching my eyes for signs of deceit and then, when he could not find anything to make him think I was a spy or worse, he relaxed. “We missed you Lei'lei. Everyone has been so very worried.” He said pulling me back into another hug, one that was bone crushing and genuine. I breathed in his scent deeply. He smelled of sand and wind.

“I sent news and letters.” I protested, my voice muffled in the folds of his coat.

“Visiting would have been better.” He scolded, letting me push back from him.

“Well there were reasons for not doing that!”

He backed down a little. “Yes, there were and your Admiral friend explained them to your father but still, you should have come home.”

I looked at my flat, warm disgusting ale on the table. How was it that no matter how old I got my Uncle could always make me feel like a four year old. “Well, it was complicated.” I finally said which made his lips twitch, just a little.

“Well, if there is time perhaps you can uncomplicated it for me.” He said in a tone of voice I knew only too well.

“Well, if you feel like taking a little trip to Coruscant with me, I am sure there’d be time enough.”

My uncle raised both his eyebrows and gave me a look which said “Are you out of your mind?”

“I have to go back.”

“What are you playing at Lei'lei?” he hissed.

I glanced around. The starport cantina was starting to fill up, it was evening now and people were getting off work, stopping in for a drink before shuttling home. “I have a friend I need to visit.” I said by way of explanation.

Uncle Vahlek looked around and assessed the room, then returned his gaze to me. “When was the last time you ate?” He asked suddenly changing the subject.

“This morning, by planet-side time.”

“Well then, I guess we should order some food because if I recall you are a terrible cook and I know a place not too far from here where they make great food. It’s quiet and we can catch up.” He said and before I could protest he had all but dragged me by the arm to the ticket terminal and before I knew it we were shuttling out to a nearby city I had never been to before.

Pax was more of a small town than a city and was nestled between the foot hills of the Bra’d’orian Mountains and the river Rye’sa. My uncle had occasionally spoken about this place, he had worked here for a while at one point in his life, but it was not a popular spot on the destination map of most tourists. Like most small towns it had a few shops, some pretty houses, a med center, its own shuttleport and a town hall but the majority of the people here commuted to work elsewhere on the planet. My father would have called it a sleeper town, a place for those who didn’t want to live in the hustle and bustle of big city life; I probably would have called it boring.

It was still raining when we stepped off the shuttle. My uncle tugged my arm and we walked swiftly to the local watering hole, a little cantina called the laughing Svelt. It was homey and quiet inside and more importantly warm and dry. We shed our wet coats and I followed as Uncle Vahlek made a direct line for what I guessed was his favourite table.

“Sit, I’ll go order us some food and something to drink.” He said and before I could protest he had vanished to the bar. When he came back he was holding two drinks that did not resemble the horrid ale I had been nursing at the Star port bar. “Selnia, the cook here, makes a wonderful meat pie, so I ordered that as it is on the menu today.” He pushed a glass at me and I sniffed at it suspiciously. “Forvish Ale, try it. Much better than that swill you were trying not to drink in Kor vella.”

I did as he suggested and was pleasantly surprised at the slightly sweet taste the cold ale had. “Much better.”

He nodded. “Aye, most Corellians will never admit it but Corellian ale is not exactly the best of beers in the galaxy.” He sipped his own drink and then settled back in his chair, looking at me. “You’ve changed, Lei'lei, you look…grown up.”

“It’s been a while since you saw me last, that was bound to happen.” I said gently.

That earned me a look. “Well, like I said, you should have come home sooner.”

I sighed. “I couldn’t.” I said. “I thought that Thrawn told you all why.”

“The messages we got were simple and without detail. The first one which arrived about a month after the battle of Endor essentially said you had been injured badly, that you were alive but in critical condition. The second one said that you were still recovering but were unable to be moved. The third message said that you were well but were being transferred to a safe place for rehabilitation. After that the only news we got were the small and, I might add, cryptic letters from you along with the very occasional update from your friend, the Admiral.”

I made a face and drew a very deep breath and then as plainly as I could I told my Uncle everything that had happened from my meeting with the Emperor until I woke up in the med lab on Nirauan. It seemed surreal to talk about it, to place it in some sort of context with a coherent time line. I had lost many months in the coma and speaking of it just made that seem all the more bizarre. When I was done my uncle just stared at me, his eerie pale green eyes searching into my soul for answers to questions that I wasn’t sure he’d ask out loud.

“We never knew how bad it really was. If I had known I would have come out there and so would your father no matter what the danger or what your friend said.”

“I think that was why he never told you. He was so angry with me and so many other things were going on. The medlab were I was recovering is in a place that is secret, almost no one knows about it. He was not going to risk that even for me.” As I said these words I knew it was only partly the truth. Thrawn would have told them if I had been dying, I was sure of that. He had other reasons for his secrecy, I just hadn’t quite figured them out yet.

“Perhaps.” Uncle Vahlek said quietly then he shook his head, “Honestly, Lei'lei, you are sometimes remarkably stupid though. What ever possessed you to go charging off into unknown space alone?” Uncle Vahlek snapped then bit back on his obvious anger.

“I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time. Now I just don’t know what I was thinking.” I said wearily, this was a question I could not answer to anyone’s satisfaction, not even my own and I was getting tired of it cropping up every time I spoke with someone.

Uncle Vahlek made a face but backed down. I suppose he knew a thing of two about spur of the moment actions that had long lasting consequences. “So where did he send you to heal then?”

“With the Dantassi on Hjal.”

Uncle Vahlek smiled a little. “Your enclave?”

“Yes.” I said. “I spent a long time recovering there and learning under a master Jhal’kai. What had happened to me, what the Emperor had done….” I shook my head. The horror of Palpatine’s plan for me and my awful force talents still made me shiver with fear. “Healing was a painful, difficult process, Zte’sa and I couldn’t have done it on Tatooine, not with the warrant Isard had out for my arrest, not with worrying that at any moment the Empire I had worked for and been loyal to would break down my door to drag me off to a detention Center just because of who I had worked for.. Thrawn was right to send me with Navaari. There was no other place for me to go. I found peace on Hjal.”

He looked at me steadily for a moment, then gave me a curt nod and looked away. He understood these things, I was certain of it. “So, are you and your Admiral still together as a couple?” He asked carefully.

I couldn’t help my smile. The flash of memory from the night before and thinking about the bonding ceremony on Hjal made me miss Thrawn as well as the Dantassi. “Yes, despite my idiocy, he is my chosen bond mate and I am his.” I said looking into my uncle’s eyes so he would get the full impact of my words.

“Bound? Officially?” He asked in surprise.

I shook my head. “As official as it will ever get without difficult clan legalities getting in the way. It’s complicated.”

“With you, everything is complicated.” He said, shaking his head. “Did you just pledge to each other then, privately?”

I shook my head and told him about what Thrawn had done and then how I had answered him after the fact.

“I have not heard of that being done in many years.” He said softly, more to himself.

I was taken aback. “You know about this?”

“Lei'lei, you are not the only one who has experienced other cultures besides human.” He reached out to pat my cheek. “He makes you happy?” He asked steering the topic away from him and the barrage of question I suddenly wanted to ask.

I nodded. “I suppose papa will want him to marry me properly?”

“Marry you properly? Lei'lei what in sarlacc’s name do you think he did?” My uncle chuckled. “That he bound to you in a public ceremony will suit your father well enough.” His pale green eyes bored into mine. When I didn’t get the message he shook his head ever so slightly. “Foolish child, you don’t need papers and officiates to make a binding true. Marriage, in the way you think of it, is just a contract to protect rights and property. In some cultures you would have been considered wed the moment he bedded you.” He said with a gentle expression I didn’t quite understand. “As I recall, the Pen’nai Da’ataith is an old and powerful rite in Dantassi lore but I have never heard of it beng used to bind a ‘traeth before now. Your admiral is a very clever man to have pulled off what he did with you and the Dantassi. He must love you very much to have done things this way.” He spoke thoughtfully, considering his words with care.

“Perhaps.” I said with a shrug that I hoped came across as offhanded.

“Or perhaps that should be rephrased; he loves you enough to put up with you for life.”

I made a face. “Well, I think that works both ways Zte’sa.” It occurred to me that Thrawn was not exactly the easiest man in the galaxy to cleave to permanently either.

“Aye, so it does.” He replied thoughtfully.

We were quiet for a moment, stopping to sip the ale and it seemed strange to me that I would feel as though I had to reacquaint myself with someone that I had known my whole life, but I had hurt him, hurt my whole family by staying away for so long, by almost dying and not giving them a chance to say goodbye. Navaari had told me that I would pay for the error in judgement I had made for a long time because it had such far reaching emotional consequences. Up until now I had not really believed him. When I couldn’t stand the silence any more I broke it. “Have you heard anything from Jyrki at all?”

If my question surprised him he did not show it. “No, but I did not expect to. For quite some time we thought you had died at Endor. I assumed he thought the same if he did not also fight in that battle and die himself. If he thinks that you are dead, he has no reason to come near me or your family.”

I nodded. I had not heard anything from or about Jyrki since before I left Coruscant, before the battle of Endor but I couldn’t say it made me sad. “I don’t think he was at Endor, at least not in the middle of the battle and I don’t think he’s dead at all.”

“What makes you so certain?”

“I would have felt it if he had died, I am certain of that.”

My uncle simple stared at me with raised eyebrows for a moment then nodded gruffly, if he had anything more to say on the subject it was interrupted by the arrival of our food. It was surprisingly good and we ate, for the most part, in silence. After finishing our supper which included a very nice desert, we shuttled back into Kor Vella Spaceport and boarded my ship without any hindrance or problems. As I started the engines, my uncle strapped himself into the co pilot’s seat without a word. Once we had cleared Corellia’s atmosphere and headed out towards the Corellian Run hyperspace route he turned to look at me. It was an expression I had long come to associate with patient lectures and being told off.

“So, Lei'lei, why don’t I go make us some tea and when you’ve set the auto pilot you can come back and join me and perhaps explain what I am doing here and why we are headed to Coruscant?”

I just looked at him and nodded. Tea sounded good but conversation didn’t. He wasn’t going to like what I was going to tell him, and he would like it even less when he learned why I was doing it. Still, I was grateful he was with me and I had missed him and the rest of my family more than words could actually express. When I was done giving him the jist of my plans and he was done telling me how stupid and rash I was for attempting this I would nag him for news from home. One of these days I hoped I could go back and spend a well earned holiday on Tatooine, though I was certain most of it would be spent either explaining and apologising for what had happened or filling Bel in on all my romantic stories. At least, I thought ruefully, as I set the auto pilot she would be happy for me because that was one part of the story that was mostly a happy end and Bel loved happy endings.

Foundations and Factions 4

It was just past four in the morning when Thrawn’s comm went off waking us both up. He got up with the ease of those used to being woken up to deal with situations that required instant awareness and answered the comm.

“Yes?”

“Grand Admiral, I am sorry to disturb you but the news could not wait.” It was Voss Parck and there was an edge to his voice that suddenly had me also on alert.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Sir, we just got word that Borleias has fallen.”

There was a moment of weighted silence in the bedroom and then Thrawn moved. “On my way.” He said crisply. I sat up, hugging my knees watching him. Light from the low moon filtered into the room illuminating his body as he dressed. “Go back to sleep, sj’iu Tekari, there is nothing you can do.”

“This is sooner than you predicted.” I commented, ignoring his instructions. I was also wide awake now, even if I wanted to I could not return to sleep.

He nodded. “Yes. I am guessing that incompetence on the part of whoever was in charge of the garrison on that planet is in part to blame.”

“What will you do?”

As he fastened his white uniform jacket he glanced at me, the red glow of his eyes seemed brighter, sharper in the dark. “I do not know yet.”

“Coruscant will be next?” I asked although it wasn’t really a question and I already knew the answer I just wanted to hear him confirm it.

“I am certain of it.” He replied, “It is simply a matter of when and how.”

I nodded. Hearing him say this made it real and suddenly I was afraid. “I have friends on Coruscant, people I care about.” I said quietly, thinking of Shiv and Cati.

“I know.”

“If you want me to go to the Core using the Sigiri I still need ….”

He held up his hand. “I know that as well, but even I cannot make space travel any faster.” He said with a touch of impatience. “Go back to sleep. There is nothing you can do to help this situation.”

“I could make you spiced coffee.” I said swinging my legs over the edge of the bed to sit up. I wasn’t even remotely sleepy now.

His gave me one of his rare smiles. “I retract my statement then, that would be a help indeed and I am certain that Voss would not complain either. We will be in the command briefing chamber.” He said giving me a light kiss on the cheek before heading out.

Borleias was considered an important planet in terms of the fight for the Core. Now the New Republic fighters would push for Coruscant, just as Thrawn had predicted and I was scared for my friends. If the battles I had seen had been anything to go by, an invasion of Coruscant would not be pretty. I sighed as I got up and headed for the shower, this was going to get ugly, I could feel it in my bones.

Once I was clean and dressed I made my way to the small kitchen and prepared a large carafe of Spiced coffee. It had become something of a treat for Thrawn and the officers who enjoyed it and I didn’t mind making it since I liked to drink it as well. Once I had delivered the tray to the briefing room, I went to the hanger.

“Morning Miss, you’re up early.” The deck officer on duty said as I walked into the hanger bay.

I smiled. “Couldn’t sleep, figured I’d get some work done here.” I said nodding to where the Sigiri sat.

He grinned back. “No matter how hard you stare at her, Miss, that ship’s hyperdrive will not magically come back to life.”

I returned his grin. It had become a running joke that if I could have created a new hyperdrive just by wishing alone it would have happened a dozen times over. I had known that her engines were shot, it was a wonder that she had made it to Nirauan at all considering the extent of the actual damage. I had hoped I could repair them on my own but as it turned out, while the sublight engine could be fixed with a lot of work, the hyperdrive was completely beyond repair and I needed a new one. There were no spare class one hyperdrive engines to be had on Nirauan so that meant waiting on a supply ship from Bilbringi. The waiting was driving me crazy.

“I know.” I told him. “But miracles sometimes do happen.”

He just shook his head. “If you are looking for something to do there are a couple of TIEs that need attention.” He said breaking into my thoughts. I laughed. TIE fighters always needed attention.

“Well, I guess it is a good thing that I can’t sleep then.” I said and I went to pick up my tool kit. Thrawn had been right about the need for mechanics and the Chief engineer had been more than happy to have me onboard as part of his pit crew.

I had been on Nirauan for almost four weeks and for the most part things had been relatively quiet. Once I knew that I couldn’t fix the Sigiri and that I would not be allowed to rip the hyperdrive out of one of the other shuttles I settled down to a routine of teaching language classes three times and a week and the rest of the time helped out in the pit. As I had feared, teaching basic to a small group of taciturn Chiss was not a lot of fun. At first they had not really wanted to be taught but were there because Thrawn had ordered them to be there, however things changed a little once they found out I could speak their language. I had not let this secret out of the box, hoping to teach Basic by simply speaking it. Sometimes total immersion was the best way to go but the Chiss, as well as being brilliant, were also incredibly stubborn and while they attended the classes they did not go out of their way to learn a language they considered to be beneath them. They were fluent enough in many of the Outer Rim trade languages so learning basic was not high on their list of priorities. They all did just enough work that I could not bitch about them to Thrawn and for the first week we got nowhere fast. During the second week’s classes I got fed up of the whispers in Cheunh, and when one snide comment was made, just loud enough for me to hear it I lost my temper and hurled an insult of equal nastiness right back at the young man who had made the joke. The silence in the room was deafening and then one of the others broke it.

“You speak and understand our language?” He had asked in utter astonishment.

I had nodded.

“Why did you not say this?” Another had asked.

“Why should I have to, I am here to teach you Basic, not chit chat in Cheunh.”

“Why should we learn Basic at all?”

“Because all knowledge is worth having and the more languages you speak the more knowledge you will accumulate.” I replied. “The Admiral believes that by learning the most common language spoken in this Galaxy you will have a distinct advantage. Not learning it because you don’t like it is foolish.” I had told them all tartly. My temper had gotten the better of me and I was too annoyed to consider the fact that by Chiss standards I was being rude.

“Most non Chiss do not even try to speak our tongue, it is too difficult for them but you have learned well.”

“I had a very good teacher and I wanted to learn more about your culture. In order to do that learning the language was tantamount. No language is beneath me, all serve to teach. Your prejudice against Basic does not serve you or Grand Admiral Thrawn well at all.”

The younger one who had made the joke in the first place had nodded. “Well, if you can learn our tongue then I will try to learn yours.”

After that things had gotten easier and I was greatly relieved. Still, I was glad when the class was over and I could head back to my favourite place, the engineering pit, and relax by fixing ships. It was the one thing in my life that felt uncomplicated.

About four hours after I had begun working on one of the TIEs that needed some repair, hunger and the need for stimcaf got the better of me. I had just finished putting my tools away and was about to head to the mess when my comm peeped.

“Miss Gabriel? The Grand Admiral wishes to see you in the briefing room right away.”

“Roger.” I nodded although the person that belonged to the voice could not see it and made my way to the other side of the compound.

Thrawn stood with his back to the door, arms behind his back, staring out of the window reminding me sharply of Lord Vader. For a split second a wave of sorrow flashed through me and I was surprised that after all this time I still felt his loss so keenly. In spite of his temper and his violent nature I missed Lord Vader and his strange force presence in my life. It still felt as though he had yanked a piece of my soul from my body when he had severed the tie between us. Sometimes I dreamed of him but these dreams were mostly incoherent jumbles made up from memories rather than the eerie flashes into the future that I sometimes got.

“The Dark Wing will arrive in twenty seven hours. I have confirmed she is carrying a class one hyperdrive for the Sigiri and some spares as well as two back up engine, class ten. How long will it take you to refit the shuttle?”

“About twelve hours if I have some help.” I said, and then added. “And if there are no complications.”

“This includes a test run?”

“No.” I told him.

“So how long before she would be space worthy?”

“In theory, two days if all went well, longer if there are problems.”

“You’re hedging.” He said coolly.

“Well, that’s because a hyperdrive is a pain in the rear to replace with all the right dock equipment which we don’t have here so it will take longer. I have already been through one ship disaster I don’t think you or I want another.”

He sighed, I watched as his shoulders heaved. “I have the ISD Fearless on standby and as soon as you are ready to go I would like you to leave.” He still had not turned around to face me and I could hear both anger and worry in his voice.

“The news from Borleias is that bad?” I asked.

There was a moment of silence and then he turned around. “I believe it will not be long before the New Republic push to take Coruscant and I am concerned that Isard has not done enough to secure the core planet or the Imperial Palace. If it falls I would prefer to have more information rather than less. You tell me you can help and I believe you.” He was furious. Now that I could see his face I could read just how deep the anger went but that didn’t make sense. The capture of Borleias had been expected so there was something else which had stirred his ire.

I nodded and for a moment we just stared at each other. “What is it?” I finally asked.

He picked up a data pad off the desk and handed it to me. “You should read this.”

I sighed as I sat down in the chair in front of his desk and trigger the data pad. I read through the report puzzled, there was nothing out of the ordinary here to make Thrawn so angry. The planet had fallen surprisingly enough to a small squadron of X-Wings. The now infamous Rogue Squadron. According to the report, they had come at the planet from the moon’s side using one of the system’s meteor showers to hide their approach and then had destroyed the main power supply conduit which allowed the rebels to gain control of the base. I glanced up at Thrawn wondering what it was that had him so riled up but he said nothing instead he gave me a look that said come on find it, you are not so stupid that I need to spell it out for you, so I scanned back to the start of the report and began to read it again.

I found what he wanted me to but I couldn’t believe it. “This report is dated almost two standard weeks ago.”

His jaw clenched in anger.

“How is this possible? You should have been given this information as soon as it this happened. I know that the holonet system is not that reliable out here but a runner could have delivered a message in less than two days.”

“Isard obfuscates the truth at every turn, hoping to keep me from interfering in her pursuit of galactic domination but she is throwing it all away. This information was deliberately withheld long enough to make it of little use to plan any sort of retaliation.” He spat the last few words out and I tried to recall the last time I had seen him this angry, if I recalled correctly it had been shortly before he had sent me away with Navaari.

I looked at him and set the data pad on the desk. Time was running out and we both knew it. Waiting for a hyperdrive seemed pointless to me, especially since any information he received from official channels seemed to be falsified or worse withheld until it was too late. “I can fly the Ahnkeli Su’udelma to Coruscant.” I said. “Go on world as a civilian. Isard doesn’t have to know how I arrived on the planet does she?”

“The HWK is a fine ship but I would much prefer you had some back up in terms of fire power, it is not the best time to by flying solo in the galaxy at this time.” He countered.

I shook my head. “I disagree. Imperial ships are now prime targets, and a lambda shuttle, even one with teeth, is no match for a rebel cruiser or a battle ship. I could probably out run an X-wing, maybe two but not a whole squadron. I’m not a trained combat pilot and I would not want to try and test my skills against those who are. I understand you are worried about me going off alone but I think I’d be safer in a civilian ship, especially one as antique as mine instead of an Imperial ship with an over abundance of fire power. I am, after all, a civilian pilot, I have the papers to prove it.”

He stared at me for a moment then turned back to the window. He knew that I was right and I was certain that this idea had also occurred to him, he just didn’t want to use it, or me. Attachments… they sure had a way of buggering up well laid plans but I knew that Thrawn could set his aside and see the bigger picture at work. The situation had changed significantly since we had devised the original plan for my return to the Core. An Imperial escort would be a hindrance now, not an asset and he knew this. I was just saying out loud what we were both thinking.

“I do not like you going alone.” He said after a long, weighty silence.

“I could get help.” I countered.

“Who?”

“My uncle Vahlek.” I said thoughtfully.

“The Tze’yusha’Jin?” Thrawn’s eyebrow arched in surprise, he had not considered my uncle at all.

“Can you think of anyone better suited?” I asked mirroring the raised eyebrow with one of my own.

When he pursed his lips I knew I had won. “Alright if you think you can convince him to aide you then I suggest we discuss a plan because if I know you, you haven’t exactly thought this through.”

I smiled a little. “What is there to think through? I make it up as I go along.”

“Yes and that is what scares me the most.” He retorted.

I sighed. “Okay, but can we do this over breakfast?”

“Haven’t you eaten anything?” He asked in surprise.

“No, someone got me up at four a.m. which isn’t exactly breakfast time.” I retorted making a face. I wasn’t the biggest breakfast eater anyway and the thought of food at such an early hour was repulsive. I had to work up to the thought of eating first thing in the morning.

“I did tell you to go back to sleep.” Thrawn replied smugly.

“As if that was going to happen! Anyway, I am in dire need of decent stimcaf, the stuff they make in the pit could be used as coolant fluid!”

His lip twitched in an almost smile. “As well as a shower. As usual, you are covered in engine grease.”

I frowned, wiping at my nose, making the grease spot worse. He shook his head in the manner of those who had long given up. “Go and get cleaned up, my dear and we will discuss these matters over breakfast in my private dining room. While I think your ideas have merit I want more than just spur of the moment making it up as you go along. If you are going to do this for me you need to have a well thought out plan and some back ups in case things go wrong because knowing you, things will go wrong.”

I just grinned and nodded. While the idea of heading back to Coruscant for a possible face off with Isard was worrisome, the idea of getting away from frustrating language classes and a planet full of flesh eating insects to seeing my friends again was exciting and if I was brutally honest I could not wait to go. I loved being with Thrawn but Nirauan was not exactly the center of the universe and I could feel the edges of boredom slowly nibbling away at my soul. I suspected he knew this and even understood it and while he tried to give me work to do we both knew it was not what I was used to. Thrawn needed a personal assistant the way Lord Vader had needed bone china dinnerware. I was glad to have the chance to do something that at least felt useful.

As I made my way back to my quarters to get cleaned up I began a mental list of the things I would need to take with me and just exactly how to word a message to my uncle so that he would get the point but no one else would.