Beyond - Legends Danni's Quest (Jacen/Tenel Ka, Danni Quee) Completed 11/19

I know real life gets in the way -- but is there any chance for an update????

 

Am keen for an update haha Nah, hoping alls well and there is an update soon.

 

Egad....it's been a year and a half. Yikes. Okay, so I've got this thing finished...finally...and will start posting again on Monday. I'm HOPING that there is still an audience for my silly little story. Sorry about not finishing and/or updating sooner...

 

It is about time that you showed up.

 

Woot! Woot! Awesome news!!!

 

I know, right. Some people are just SO-O-O rude with starting a story and leaving everyone hanging.

I don't know that it's THAT good...awesome news would be: "World Peace finally achieved..." But still....thanks!

 

Chapter 37—Homecoming​

​

Two days later, Fountain Palace, Hapes—

Isolder stood holding his granddaughter’s hand at the back of the Palace hangar and watched as the Rock Dragon made its graceful entrance. Squeezing Allana’s hand, he glanced down and saw that the her face was scrunched in concentration; not wanting to interrupt, he simply watched as she ‘communicated’ with her parents. A large ‘Solo’ grin crossed her face as she opened her eyes and returned the squeeze, “Mommy’s really happy.”

It went well, then. Isolder thought as he returned Allana’s infectious smile. Tenel Ka had only given he and Gadell a rough idea of the plan her and Danni had cooked up, and he had worried about his daughter—Jacen Solo had broken her heart once, and Isolder wasn’t sure if he could bear to watch his daughter go through it again. Oh, he knew that it was unfair to blame the young man for getting captured by the Vong, and he didn’t…much; but the way Jacen ignored his daughter after his return to civilization still rankled: she found out he was still alive via a news report, for crying out loud. Pushing those thoughts aside, Isolder allowed himself to be led by the hand to his daughter’s ship as the whine of decelerating engines reverberated through the hangar.

To her credit, Allana somehow restrained herself until the boarding ramp was completely lowered and her mother appeared at the top of the ramp before running pell-mell up the ramp, giving her mother a fierce hug.

“Hi sweetie!” Tenel Ka enthused as she lifted her daughter off of the ramp and walked towards her father. “Were you a good girl for Miss Danni and Papa?”

“Yep.” Allana replied, not noticing the glance her mother shot Isolder, getting a small nod in reply. “We got to stay with Nana Leia and Grandpa Han! We made pancakes!”

​

Tenel Ka could not help but smile at the comment. For reasons he never explained, Han always enjoyed making breakfast for guests—the more the merrier. Putting her daughter down, she kissed Isolder on the cheek. “Father.” She greeted politely before backing up a step, “What have I missed?”

Rolling his eyes at her professional demeanor, Isolder took his daughter’s hand, giving it a warm squeeze, “Not as much as me, apparently.” He answered, running his thumb over her new ring. “Should I start packing up my office?”

Beaming, Tenel Ka shook her head, “Not right away…but soon.”

“Excellent.” The Prince replied, his smile mirroring that of his daughter’s, “I’m getting too old for….”

Before he could finish, Allana rushed back up the ramp, “Daddy!” She screeched launching herself at her father.

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

As Ship remained in orbit over Dathomir, Lumiya dejectedly sat in her seat and staring at the ceiling, seething at her inability to find Jacen. Her apprentice had been missing for over a week now, and his trail was becoming increasingly harder to track.

Nine days ago, she had felt a moment of panic in the Force before it suddenly disappeared. Knowing that very little could panic Jacen Solo, she thought about rushing back to Coruscant, but quickly ruled it out. The next day, as she was settling in to delve into the Force to find her student, she noticed the ‘creeper’ across the bottom of her holonews channel announcing that the Hapan Queen Mother had just left for a short holiday. Pondering the news, the Dark Lady scowled; wasn’t Jacen friendly with the Queen Mother? And the Queen was just happening to be leaving on a vacation the day after Jacen disappeared? Coincidence? Lumiya shook her head—Sith don’t believe in coincidences. When there was no news the next day about the Queen Mother visiting any of her other worlds, she became even more suspicious; Lumiya knew that there were all kinds of ‘royal watchers’ in the press who loved to report on the Queen, so in order to escape the insatiable appetite of the paparazzi, Tenel Ka would have to go somewhere really remote. Lumiya ruminated on that for a while before something clicked and she jerked forward in her seat: Dathomir. The Queen had ‘kidnapped’ Jacen and taken him to Dathomir. Clever girl.

For three days, Lumiya had mucked about on the jungle planet, trying to find any trace of her apprentice, before finally conceding that he wasn’t there. Frustrated, she and Ship talked about other possible locations the Queen Mother might have absconded with Mr. Solo, the choices ranging from Dagobah (Luke always bragged about the place to his students) to Myrkr. On its face, Myrkr seemed the most likely—it was sparsely populated, not on any major trade routes, and had the added bonus of the ysalimiri—but the two of them were loathe to waste time travelling to a planet where finding two Force-sensitive people would be almost impossible, even on a good day. Just as they were about to concede defeat and wait for the Queen to return to Hapes, they felt Jacen’s presence flare with an unmistakable sense of grief and guilt before it was quickly smothered. Pulling up the charts, they plotted the direction the feeling emanated from and found that Lorrd was in that general direction. Idly, she wondered why her student would return to the place where they had first met, knowing that she had not left any evidence of ever being on that depressing planet. But, the two of them did not have any better leads, so off to Lorrd they went.

Wandering around Lorrd City, Lumiya was able to narrow down Jacen’s ‘Force shadow’ to the city zoo, but could not come up with anything more concrete. Meandering about the zoo, she got the distinct impression someone laughing at her and sharply focused her attention on her fellow zoo-goers, earning several confused looks. Before she could delve again into the Force, she briefly felt Jacen again, only this time he felt smugly satisfied. And a long way away.

You’re not going to believe this, Ship had told her when she got on board, he’s actually on Dathomir now. Cursing at her lack of patience, the two of them rushed back to the jungle planet, only to find…nothing—nothing except the sound of amused laughter again just at the edge of her consciousness.

So, in orbit over Dathomir, Lumiya sat and stewed as she let Ship decide where to go next. As she did, the unmistakable sense of unbridled joy washed over her before trailing off. Startled, she briefly let herself soak in the feeling of love, a feeling that she had not felt in a long, long time, before tamping it down; the Sith had no time for love, after all. “Did you feel that?”

Kinda hard to miss. Came the smug reply.

“Where did it come from?” Lumiya replied, ignoring the rejoinder.

Coreward. Ship answered, pulling up the charts and showing the cone of probability. As he zoomed out, A-ha! She (He? Lumiya decided that she really should find out.) exclaimed, sounding triumphant. He is on Hapes.

Lumiya frowned, it made sense, she supposed, but she was tired of this wild mynock chase. “Perhaps. But Coruscant is also on that vector.”

When was the last time Jacen felt happy about being on Coruscant?

The veiled woman pursed her lips, Ship was right, of course; she had noticed that Jacen was a bit less…depressed…lately on his home planet, but happy? Not really.

Doesn’t the Queen have a daughter? Ship asked, rhetorically.

Lumiya scowled, What did that have to do…her thought trailed off. “Set course for Hapes, best possible speed.”

Yes, mistress.

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

Picking up Allana, Jacen concentrated on the Force link he shared with his daughter and realized that her one simple word meant more than he ever thought possible. For the first time, the two of them shared the bond of father-daughter. For the first time, he was Daddy and the thought made his heart leap. Looking over at his wife and father-in-law, he basked in their glowing smiles and the four of them shared the bond of ‘family’ for the first time.

“Hi Princess.” Jacen replied, kissing his daughter’s cheek. “Were you a good girl for Miss Danni?”

Allana scowled as she rolled her eyes. “Yes,” she replied with the indignant, I’ve-already-answered-this tone that only a five year-old can pull off.

Chuckling at her tone, Jacen gave her cheek another kiss and made his way down the ramp, nodding at his father-in-law. “How fares the Consortium?”

Isolder grimaced as he turned and the four of them started making their way into the Palace, “We’ve had some interesting developments…” As the walked, he told them about what they had learned from Coronet and that they were putting out feelers towards Vol Barad.

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

Forty-five minutes later—

With a sense of trepidation, Danni answered the knock at the door to her guest room. Before she could react, Jacen pulled her into a warm hug—the embrace that he wanted togive her that day in his office all those months ago.

“I’m sorry, Danni.” He whispered into her hair, feeling her nod as she relaxed and put her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry.” He repeated as he backed up a step, grabbing both hands as he did, flooding their link with friendship and love. For a long moment, Danni luxuriated in the feeling as she gave him a once over; for the first time since she had come back to the ‘real’ world, she finally met the Jacen that she remembered; the Jacen that was always upbeat, always whimsical, always caring. “Care to take a walk?” he asked, interrupting her musings.

“With the new Royal Consort?” She teased, releasing his right hand. “I’m not sure I can decline.” Seeing his bewildered look as to how she knew, she gave him a small shrug and tapped his wedding ring with her right thumb before releasing that hand as well. “I do get paid for observing things, you know.”

Jacen grimaced slightly as he removed and pocketed the ring—not because he did not want Danni to know, but because others might be just as observant. “It’s hush-hush for now.” He started to explained as he led his friend down the hallway, his voice a scratchy falsetto, “It just will not do for the Queen Mother to elope…protocol must be observed.”

Danni, of course, had never met Ta’Chume, but still chuckled at his impression of the former Queen. “Oh goody, ” she teased, rubbing her hands together eagerly, “…all the more to blackmail the two of you.”

Chuckling, he gave her a side-long glance, “I’m not sure blackmailing the Queen Mother would be the safest thing.”

“I’ll risk it.”

Jacen nodded, his smile disappearing as he took a deep breath to apologize for pulling his lightsaber on her that night on Coruscant. Before he could even open his mouth, Danni could sense what he as about to say and put held a finger to his lips. “It’s okay. Tenna said that it was an act.” Seeing Jacen’s nod, she continued, “I just need to know why.”

Sighing, he looked over at his friend and waited until they were at the entrance to the Gardens before answering. “I needed a way out…needed a way to escape Lumiya.”

“You were hoping that I’d shoot you?” The blonde asked disbelievingly.

Jacen shrugged slightly, “I didn’t think you’d kill me, and I didn’t have a lot of time to plan, so I just guessed that you had some sort of plot figured out as to how to get me off-planet.” Opening the door, he continued, “Never would have guessed that you were in cahoots with Tenna, though.”

“You’ll find I’m full of surprises.”

“Indeed.” He replied knowingly. “Speaking of surprises, Allana mentioned your ‘job hunt’.” Chuckling at his friend’s chagrined look, he leaned over and stage-whispered, “First thing to know about five-year-olds: they’re lousy at keeping secrets.”

​

“So I’m finding out.” Danni deadpanned as she bonked into him with her shoulder, “I looked into the job at IC, but it looks as if I need to move to Hapes if I’m going to continue to be your apprentice.”

Jacen glanced at his friend, as he steered her around the large fountain, heading toward one of the paths on the far side. “You’d still like to be my apprentice?”

Danni nodded, hearing the surprise in his voice. “If you’ll have me.”

“If you can handle all of the baggage that comes with being my apprentice, I’d still like to teach you.” He was trying to sound casual, but Danni could hear the disbelief in his voice; clearly he expected her to want to distance herself from him. For a while they ambled around the gardens in a companionable silence before Jacen glanced her way again, “Thank you, by the way.”

Danni gave a non-committal shrug. “I didn’t do anything that anybody else wouldn’t have….”

“NO!” Jacen interrupted loudly, stepping in front of her to look her in the eye, “No. You did something that nobody else did. You found me when I was lost.” He paused, taking a deep breath, clearly trying to reign in his emotions, “None of them tried; not Jaina, not my mother, not my uncle, not even Tenel Ka. None of them tried to save me from myself.” Once again he embraced his friend gave and her a quick kiss on the cheek, “Thank you.”

Danni gave him an understanding smile, knowing full well what it was like to look death in the face and have someone save you from it. “You’re welcome.”

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

Hiding in the shadows on the patio, the Queen Mother watched the scene below her unfold and let out a quiet sigh.

“Are you okay with them?” Gadell asked softly, as he made his way towards his boss.

Tenel Ka shot him a wry smirk. “If you would have asked me that a few months ago, I’d have had her thrown out of the Palace.” Taking a deep breath, she continued, “Now?” she shrugged, “They share a bond that few have and one impossible for an outsider to understand: He rescued her from a certain death at the hands of the Vong, and she saved him from what might have been a worse fate.” Giving her friend a pointed look, “Are you okay with them?”

​

Chuckling humorlessly at her tone, Gadell nodded, “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit jealous, but…” cautiously, he took his oldest friend’s hand before continuing softly, “Everyone needs a friend.”

“Fact.” His Queen whispered, lowering her head to his shoulder. Gently, he let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist and was rewarded with a small sigh; the two of them watching as the sun disappeared behind the distant mountains.

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

Office of the Deputy President, Coronet—

Marné fidgeted on a pastel couch in the Deputy President’s antechamber, trying her best to look bored instead of panicked, because she was certainly the latter. When the she had read the Hapan diplomatic cable a few days back with Tahiri and Stefan, the other two were at a loss on how to approach Vol Barad about avoiding the war the Corellian President seemed almost desperate to start. Because the ‘Hapan Peace talks’ were getting more attention in the press, both the one-time Jedi and the Hapan diplomat were becoming a known commodity in the capital. Marné, on the other hand, was still largely anonymous—a fact that the Corellian negotiators constantly reinforced with their blank looks when she would offer a rare input. Suddenly, this anonymity became an asset: “Because Malinza took office two days ago; I’m technically the Chief-of-Staff for the Bakuran Senator.” She had told the other two, “Maybe I can get an appointment with Barad.” In truth, she had fully expected one or the other to waive off her idea. Instead, and much to her chagrin, Tahiri loved the idea, telling her that …we’ll make an honorary Solo out of you yet! The Nubian certainly hoped not—she doubted that she could handle all of the stress.

Wanting to keep her new boss informed, she called Malinza Thanas, a woman she had yet to meet and told her of what she had in mind. Surprisingly, her new boss grinned wickedly at the plan. And here I thought you were going to be boring and diligent, the new Senator told her. We’ll make a great team! At this, Malinza terminated the call, leaving her poor chief-of-staff confused—Marné was boring and diligent…wasn’t she? Ten minutes later, Senator Thanas called back, telling her chief-of-staff that she had finagled five minutes of Barad’s time.

Suddenly, Barad’s office door opened, shaking the Nubian from her thoughts. “You Ms. Pelletier?” The Deputy President asked gruffly.

Remembering her courtesies, Marné stood as she answered. “Yes, sir.”

For a long moment, the Corellian simply stared at her, clearly sizing her. “Tell me, what brings Senator Thanas’s Chief-of-Staff to Corellia?” He asked in that same gruff tone, still trying to decide whether or not she warranted any of his time.

The Nubian woman answered without thinking, “The last time Corellia wanted ‘independence’, Senator Thanas became an orphan. She wants others to avoid sharing her fate.”

Deputy President Barad merely raised an eyebrow as her retort hung in the air. Finally, just as Marné was thinking she was going to be thrown out, Vol nodded once, “I see that working for Solo has given you some backbone.” He replied, before continuing, “Walk with me to my next appointment.” At that, he brushed past her and opened the door, the younger woman rushing to catch up.

As she did, Malinza’s final instruction sounded in her head, If he’s like the politicians Bakura, it’ll be a ‘walk-and-talk’, which means he’ll be away from his staffers the entire time. Use this time wisely. Shaking her head at the fact that everyone she worked for had this uncanny ability to predict events, she caught up with the Corellian. Not wanting to waste time, she cut to the chase. “Senator Thanas is concerned about the Prime Minister’s rhetoric. Surely you see the corner he is painting everyone into…he’s not leaving anyone room to maneuver.”

Barad shot her a glance as the two rounded a corner, “Corellia has shouldered more than their fare share of the costs of reconstruction; we feel our tax dollars would better be spent at home rather than giving it to some backwater world like Bakura.”

Marné managed, barely, to avoid rising to the bait, realizing that the Deputy President was trying to throw her off-stride. Shaking her head to regain her composure, “Omas is not going to let you simply leave.” she said quietly, paraphrasing Barad’s own words, “This will start a war.”

“A risk we are willing to take,” the stately man replied out of the corner of his mouth as he returned the greeting of one of his staffers as they passed.

​

“A risk that a head-strong young bachelor is willing to take.” Marné replied quietly, knowing that she needed to tread carefully. “But what are the thoughts of someone with a little more to lose? Someone who might have a son or two in the CDF?”

The Deputy President’s step faltered for just a fraction of a second, but otherwise had no other reaction—it was as Marné had simply commented on the weather. Eager to press home her advantage, she continued quietly, “Real power comes from helping the less fortunate. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Barad sighed sadly and was silent for a half-dozen steps before finally looking over at Marné with tired-looking eyes. “What’s your play in this?”

The Nubian woman shook her head once and played her final card, “The Prime Minister has many skeletons in his closet.” She let that hang for a second, “It would be most unfortunate if he were forced to resign because of them.”

For a brief moment, Barad’s eyes showed some excitement before he willed it away. “Yes.” He said drily, affecting a bored look as he came to a stop at a hallway intersection, “Most unfortunate.” Giving the Nubian a small nod, he continued professionally, “Please tell Senator Thanas that I appreciate her concern. I’ll give it some consideration.” With that he turned left and headed down the hall, his back a bit straighter than it was earlier. Smiling to herself, Marné turned the other way and made her way out of the Executive Office building.



A/N: Again, my apologies for leaving this story on a limb!

 

Brilliant political "negotiating" with Marne and Barad. And sweet talks between reuniting friends! Struck again by your grasp of Jacen! Thanks for giving him the warmth and happiness and humility to apologize and grow. LOL-ed over Lumiya and Ship's puzzlement and realization.

 

Nice update. I am having a little trouble remembering what happened earlier in the story. Unfortunately I am so busy lately I don't have time to reread it. Hopefully I won't get too confused. I'm glad you are back. I hope everything is going well for you.

 

Nyota-- Thanks! Oddly, I used an episode of 'The West Wing' as a basis...where the staff was always negotiating on a 'walk and talk'. Sometimes the key to politics is saying something without saying anything. Truth be told, it's probably a grasp of what Jacen was, but thanks. I still have never bought into the whole '...he changed while out and about...' argument. Ship is fun to write...snarky 'Sith' are rather fun.

JL-- I considered doing a 'recap', but I didn't think my story warranted the time: it really is just a 'girl saves boy' story, so I figured the finer details weren't all that important. I can give you a summary, if you wish! Things are...okay. All things considered, that's not doing too badly. Thanks!

 

Chapter 38—Breakfast Club​

Next morning, Fountain Palace—

Entering the kitchen, Danni wasn’t surprised to find Allana already at the table, but was a bit confused at Kenara Do’ma’s presence. “Morning ‘Lana! Hi Kenara,” she chirped as she walked over to the caf maker and poured herself a cup. Nodding at the chef, she grabbed a croissant and sliced it in half, making a breakfast sandwich with some of the cheese and ham that he had laid out on a silver platter on the kitchen island.

The air traffic control officer, still wearing her blue navy uniform, nodded, “Hi Danni. I noticed the Survivor on the inbound log, and meant to come stop by and see you earlier, but I kept forgetting my Palace pass.” She shrugged sheepishly, “And I’d forgotten where I put your number.”

Danni smiled at the younger woman, knowing that the Hapan officer had actually written it on her hand the time they met, “It probably just wore off.” Ripping a leaf from the pad hanging on the fridge, Danni wrote down her comlink code and handed to Kenara, “Want me to put it in your phone?” She deadpanned.

Amused, Kenara narrowed her eyes in mock anger and playfully ripped the paper from her new friend’s hand, “That won’t be necessary.”

“Good morning, Ms. Danni.” Allana greeted, swallowing a bite of oatmeal. “Can we go fix my dress today?”

The blonde woman scowled, trying to recall what the princess was referring to. Suddenly, it came back to her and she gave the girl a warm smile. “That’s right, I told you that I would take you to fix the rip.” Allana nodded eagerly, and Danni leaned forward conspiringly and stage whispered, “Sure! But we’d better hurry up and go, before your Mommy and Daddy wake up.”

“Too late.” Came Jacen’s voice from the stairway, entering the kitchen a moment later. Unlike Danni, he seemed totally unsurprised by Ensign Do’ma’s presence in the kitchen and nodded in greeting before giving Allana a kiss on the cheek. Continuing over to the pastry tray, he glanced over at Danni, “But…” he said thoughtfully, “…Mommy has a meeting with the Service Chiefs at 0900, so we can sneak out then to do…whatever it is that we need to do.”

Allana opened her mouth to confess their scheme, but heard her mother’s footsteps from the stairs. Sheepishly, she took spooned another bit of oatmeal into her mouth.

“What do you need to do?” Tenel Ka asked curiously as she ruffled her daughter’s hair.

“I told Allana that we could go to the information broker this morning to look for some data on big felines.” Jacen fibbed smoothly to his wife as she grabbed a cup of caf. Her attention tuned to the caf maker, Tenel Ka did not see the wink that he shot at Allana, or the big grin she gave him in return. Somehow, Kenara managed to swallow her laugh while Danni hid her smirk behind her cup of tea. Han had taught his son well, it would seem.

The Queen nodded thoughtfully, oblivious to what was transpiring behind her, “Ah." She replied, turning around, "Grab some political history information as well. You have a lot of boning up to do.”

Jacen bowed theatrically, earning a laugh from both Allana and Kenara, “As you wish, Your Majesty.”

Tenel Ka responded by playfully tossing a croissant at him.

After a leisurely breakfast, and knowing that the Queen Mother would be at her meeting for a while, the four conspirators finally left the Palace about 0915. “Why can’t we just walk?” Danni complained as they walked down the steps. “It’s not all that far.”

Jacen shook his head. “It’ll hurt less if we take a speeder.”

Kenara looked over at him, confused. “Why would walking hurt?”

Jacen glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and answered drily, “Because Gadell will break my arm if we don’t take some sort of transport.” As Kenara chuckled, he nodded his head at Danni; “I have no desire to make her boyfriend mad today.”

Danni backhanded him across the shoulder, and gave him a mock-offended look. “Stop that.” She then pointed at Kenara, who was trying very hard not to laugh, “And you had better stop laughing.”

Allana stopped at the bottom of the stairs, her hands on her hips, clearly put out at their conversation. “Now I know what Mommy meant—she said that you two act like you’re married.”

As Jacen and Kenara laughed, Danni harrumphed. “I was fine with that idea, but apparently I wasn’t good enough for Mr. Social Climber here.” Allana only looked confused as Kenara and Jacen laughed even harder.

Finally, after finally catching his breath, Jacen gave Danni a kiss on the cheek. “I love you, Danni.”

The blonde woman smiled, “I know.”

“Ohhh, now Mr. Gadell and Mommy are going to be mad!” Allana added in her ‘know-it-all’ voice, scowling at the three adults as they collapsed on themselves in laughter.

After a few moments, Jacen finally found his breath. “Why don’t I get the speeder and just meet you three at the Liebowitz shop?” Ralph Liebowitz was still not very well known outside Chume’dan, but Isolder maintained that he was the best tailor on the planet. To be fair, he had attended the Naval Academy with Liebowitz’s father, so was probably a bit biased, but the it’s not as if the three of them had any better ideas as where to get a zipper fixed.

Danni nodded in acceptance as Kenara answered drily, “Ah, the ‘letter of the law’ approach.”

“Exactly.” Jacen answered, waving his arm at the young Naval Ensign, “You’ll got far in Her Majesty’s Navy!” With that, he headed in the direction of the garage while the other three headed for the courtyard’s private entrance.

Later, after dropping off Allana’s dress, the four of them walked up the street to the information store, where they had been browsing for over an hour. Allana had picked out a Panteras of Lorell disk and a Hummingbirds of the Mid-rim coloring book and showed Jacen what she wanted to buy. Smiling, he nodded pridefully and ruffled her hair, “That’s my girl.”

Allana smiled at the praise, and he could not help but notice the famous Solo lopsided smile. “What did you pick out, Daddy?”

Grinning widely at her question—he didn’t think he would ever tire of being called ‘Daddy’, he answered, “I got a riveting story detailing the escapades of the first Hapan monarchs.”

His daughter eyed him suspiciously, somehow sensing that his enthusiasm was a bit…feigned. “Are there pictures?”

Jacen looked down at the jacket cover and saw that it was mostly done in a dry, academic font. “Probably not, sweetie.”

“Then it can’t be all that…” she scrunched her cute nose, clearly trying to remember the word Jacen had used, “…riveting.”

They both heard a chuckle from further down the aisle and turned to see Kenara walking towards them. “She’s got you there, Solo.”

Jacen shrugged agreeably before tilting his head, “Have you seen Danni?”

Allana piped up, “She’s over in the Maths section.”

Kenara narrowed her blue eyes, her tone one of disbelief. “Maths has a section?”

Allana nodded and grabbed the woman’s hand, starting toward the back corner of the store. Jacen shook his head as he followed behind, “Apparently so.” He lowered his voice to a whisper, “I think she’s going to take the job here in Chume’dan, teaching at the Poly Tech.” While not as prestigious as many of the other colleges and universities in the Consortium, the Chume’dan Polytechnic College offered two-year degrees for students who wanted either to pursue more ‘hands-on’ careers, or needed a little more study to get into a more traditional school. Because of her late start at finding a position for the coming year, Danni contented herself with teaching lower-level math this year.

Kenara nodded, her short black hair bobbing behind her, “Ah. Lower pay but better benefits?” she whispered knowingly.

“Something like that.” Jacen agreed as the two of them continued to follow Allana towards the back of the store.

Just as Allana promised, the three of them found Danni in the ‘Maths’ section, holding what looked to be a teaching packet in each hand, clearly trying to decide which one she should purchase. Shaking his head, Jacen commented, “Just buy them both.”

Danni frowned in response, “They’re two-hundred credits a piece. I can’t afford that.”

Jacen rolled his eyes at her statement; Danni was already falling back into her ‘research scientist’ mode, where she needed to account for every credit. Truth be told, it was kind of endearing, particularly when he knew she still had a lot of credits in the bank. Flabbergasted, Jacen grabbed both packets, adding them to the small stack already in his left arm; “I’ll buy them, then.” Looking down at one of them, he read the title, “Trigonometry and its Wonders.” Behind him, Allana made a face. Glancing up at the blonde woman, “Don’t you have a degree in astrophysics?”

Scowling, “Yes, but I’m teaching Trig and Introduction to Astronomy.” Her eyes narrowed, “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I took trig?”

“Thirty years?” Kenara asked innocently. The young Hapan knew that Danni was only thirty-five, but she could not pass on an opportunity to make fun of her ‘old’ friend. Jacen tried not to laugh at the comment, but the mock glare on Danni’s face was too good, and he let out a chuckle.

Turning her ‘withering’ glare to Jacen, Danni tried her best menacing voice, “Laugh it up fuzzball.” At that, Jacen broke down in laughter, joined by Danni a moment later.

Looking up at a bemused Kenara, Allana asked quietly, “What’s a fuzzball?”

Kenara merely shrugged as Danni and Jacen erupted into another round of laughter. Ruffling her hair again, Jacen looked down at his daughter, “Grandpa Han is going to have to explain that one to you.” Rearranging all of his purchases to his right arm, he took Allana by the hand and headed to the checkout at the front of the store, “Let’s go buy Danni’s books, shall we?”

“I love you, Jacen.” Danni said playfully, backhanding his shoulder playfully as she did.

Winking at her over his shoulder, “I know.”

As they left the store, Kenara spotted an ice cream parlor down the block. “Who’s up for ice cream?”

“I am!” Allana screeched, raising her hand high in the air.

“Me, too,” Danni agreed, smiling at Allana’ enthusiasm. “Textbook buying always makes me hungry.”

“Probably from all of your indecisiveness,” Kenara deadpanned, dodging her friend’s backhand. “Jacen, you in?”

Shaking his head, “I’ve got to make a stop at a store further down.” He quickly made a show of gesturing to his left-ring finger with his thumb, getting a knowing nod from both women. Looking down at Allana, “It won’t take long. I’ll meet you in a couple of minutes, okay?”

“’Kay.” Not even bothering to say ‘goodbye’, the Chume’da took both women by the hand and started across the street. The three adults all shared a look—Yep, Tenel Ka’s daughter.

Shaking his head at his daughter’s leadership ‘style’, Jacen made his way down the street towards the jewelry store a little further down. As he did, he smiled at the irony of what he was doing: for the first time since she had come back into his life, he had lied to Danni Quee, and had done so over jewelry. Truth was: Tenel Ka didn’t want a wedding ring, telling him that the sentimental value of his engagement ring was all she needed; he was getting something else entirely.

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

“Can I help you, sir?” Asked an elegant brunette saleswoman in that slightly haughty tone that Jacen always associated with jewelers.

Smiling politely, Jacen answered, “Well, I hope so. A friend of mine mentioned that you are the finest jeweler on Hapes.”

The woman’s light green eyes widened in shock and she gave the unmistakable impression of being affronted—as Jacen knew she would. “Not on Hapes, sir…of Hapes. We are the finest purveyor of jewels in the Consortium.” She fixed Jacen with an icy stare; daring him to state otherwise and then deliberately ran her gaze over his attire, clearly deciding if he were worthy to be in her store.

Jacen nodded absently, patently ignoring her stare, and peered down into the display case. As he continued to look at a several very nice engagement rings, he asked off-handedly, “Do you cut raw stones?”

She answered with a ‘harrumph’, “Of course. What did you have…?”

“Good…” Jacen interrupted, reaching into his pocket, “…I need a bracelet made from these.” With a self-satisfied smile, he placed two polished fifty-carat rubies on the counter.

For a long moment, the woman stood transfixed by the gems on her counter. Even being the ‘finest jeweler of Hapes’, she did not see uncut gems of that size very often. Clearly forcing her hands to remain at her sides, but unable to keep the longing out of her voice, the saleswoman asked timidly, “May I?”

Jacen gestured at the stones nonchalantly, “Of course.”

Picking one of the gems up, she shot her customer a curious look, “Where did you obtain these?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.” He grinned as her eyes narrowed, “I did come about them legally, however.”

Nodding absently, she removed her loupe from her shirt pocket and began to inspect the stone, holding it up to the light. “Nearly flawless. Not the best color I’ve seen, but I haven’t seen a quality like this in quite some time.” She explained as she appraised first one and then the other, Jacen nodding as she did. Again, it was what he expected. Once he decided to forgo the path of the Sith, he had spent hours researching how to make best use of his ‘Sith’ flame-fusion machine, wanting to make a ‘thank you’ gift for the woman who had the courage not to idly sit and watch him destroy himself. After a couple of false starts, and lots of practice, he had finally found the proper recipe for making a synthetic stone that didn’t look synthetic. Suddenly, it occurred to him that if he were more flexible, he could probably make a lot of money with his new process.

As she replaced the monocle, there was no mistaking the slight look of lust in her eyes, “I really must insist you tell me where you obtained these.”

Smiling politely, Jacen shook his head, “I really must decline.”

With a deep sigh, she placed the ruby down on the counter next to its mate. “Very well. With these, I could make a fantastic necklace and a matching pair of earrings.” He could almost see the wheels turning in her head; the possibilities for such stones were endless.

Shaking his head again, “No, I don’t require anything quite so…flashy.” Suddenly, the saleswoman’s demeanor changed and he felt a flash of admiration from her; Jacen understood the need for restraint. “What I propose is a bracelet of alternating diamonds and rubies of about…” he pointed to an example in the display, “…that size.”

Smiling warmly at the younger man, the saleswoman nodded appreciatively. The bracelet he had indicated had diamonds of a quarter-carat each, large enough to be noticed, but not so large as to be ostentatious; her customer was a kindred spirit indeed. “Of course you wish for the diamonds to be of the same quality.”

“Of course.”

Looking down again at the gems on the counter, her expression turned thoughtful, “I won’t need both rubies for the bracelet you propose. What is your plan for the other one?”

Jacen allowed a small ‘gotcha’ smirk, “I was hoping you’d take it as partial payment for the bracelet.”

Raising a well-manicured eyebrow in surprise, “Really?” Jacen said nothing and could feel her excitement of what she could do with such a gem, even as she tried to feign indifference. After a few moments, the corners of her mouth rose slightly for the first time as she conceded, “I think we can work something out.” Getting a friendly chuckle from her customer, she reached under the counter and grabbed a notebook. “Okay, here is what I propose…” Quickly she sketched out her idea. Instead of the traditional straight bracelet, her design would make a graceful sine wave as it wrapped around the wrist. “Also, instead of alternating one-to-one, I think we ought to make it appear a bit more random—maybe one-two-one, followed by two-three-three—something along those lines.”

From the dark recess of his mind, Jacen’s algebra homework popped back into his forethought, “Like the binomial theorem?” Jacen smiled at the thought of his astrophysicist friend having two different mathematical formulas as part of her bracelet.

Looking up at him from her notebook, she pointed at him with her pencil, “Hey, I like that—Pascal’s triangle!” Frowning slightly, “I’ll have to figure out how many of each stone we’ll need, but that will work.” She was clearly in her element now, enjoying the creative collaboration with her customer, “I know that most girls like gold better, but I really feel that platinum…”

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by a large explosion coming from the park across the street. Before he even realized what he was doing, Jacen had leapt over the counter and pulled the woman to the ground as he ducked behind the displays.

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

After spending the last hour-and-a-half with her Defence Chiefs, Tenel Ka looked at the small stack of flimsies in her ‘In’ box and sighed. Half-heartedly, she started to reach for the top report before she stopped, and leaned back heavily in her chair. Turning around, she instead sat and pondered the lovely spring day occurring just outside her window. With the sudden realization that she had the Palace pretty much to herself today, she quickly got up and went to the office’s hidden ‘fresher and changed into a pair of blue shorts and white sleeveless top. Quickly, as if afraid of being caught, she grabbed a datapad off of her desk, snuck into the kitchen to grab a drink, and headed out to the patio off of the kitchen.

Settling into a comfortable lounge chair, she pulled up the novel she’d been reading on her datapad and flipped back a couple of pages, trying to remember where she had left off. Quickly scanning the text, she nodded as she remembered that the protagonist’s illegitimate son had just left for the great wall separating their kingdom from the wild. Just as she started to pick up where she had left off, she heard a large explosion from the direction of the city center.

Springing to her feet, Tenel Ka expanded her Force presence and was only vaguely aware as two of her guards materialized from seemingly nowhere. “Queen Mother…?” Teegan Kjus’ question trailed off when her boss held up her hand, still searching through the Force for answers. After a few moments, Tenel Ka found the source of the explosion—apparently, two teens had tried to launch a rather large model rocket, and it had not gone as planned; even from this distance, she could almost hear their raucous laughter in the Force. Shaking her head at the exuberance of youth, she glanced at her two guards, “It is nothing to worry about—just a rocketry experiment gone wrong.” Still chuckling to herself at the failed rocketeers, she started to collapse her Force awareness and almost missed the ten coolly professional, and definitely hostile, beings located not too far from the Palace and getting closer.

Sergeant Kjus was about to resume her patrol of the grounds when looked she noticed her boss’s small smirk had slowly turned into a scowl. Concerned, she watched as Tenel Ka closed her eyes again to search in the Force. Suddenly, the Queen’s eyes snapped open with a look of alarm. “Mum?” Teegan asked, knowing that it takes quite a bit to alarm the Queen Mother.

Tenel Ka looked over at her Guardsman, “Call a ‘birthday party’, and do it quietly.”

Trying to hide her shock, Teegan nodded once and hurried to the kitchen. Millennia ago, before the advent of radio, the Palace used a system of acoustic tubes embedded in the walls to communicate within the vast complex. While decidedly outdated, these tubes were still a useful way of communicating if there was a comm outage or, as in this case, if they wanted to communicate without being monitored from the outside. Quickly locating the kitchen’s ‘speaking’ tube, Sergeant Kjus flipped open the brass cap with her thumb and pressed a small button on the wall, blowing compressed air throughout the system with a tell tale ‘whump’. That sound, and the accompanying blast of air, would alert the other Palace Guard that a test of the acoustic system was coming. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Teegan spoke into the tube in what she hoped would be a professional voice, “All players, all players…today is Teegan Kjus’s birthday…please report to the Throne Room for a birthday party!”

Her heart racing, she leaned her head against the wall and listened for the other five patrol teams to acknowledge the message. After the last team acknowledged, Teegan turned and sprinted towards the first-floor armory. A birthday party was code for all of the Palace Guard to race to the armory to grab ‘presents’ for a ‘party’—it meant that the Palace was under attack.

After Sergeant Kjus left to make her announcement, Tenel Ka refocused in the Force to get a better feel for how many attackers were out there. Searching the surrounding neighborhood, she still only felt the ten malicious presences. Knowing what she did about military tactics, she realized that there was probably more, but did not have the time to look. Steeling herself for the coming battle, she sent out a call for help: Jacen! Trouble!





A/N: Thanks again for reading! Quick question: What IS a bookstore called in SW? Surely people in-universe browse for reading material....don't they? Where else would someone kill an hour over a cup of caf? I dug around, but didn't find much...perhaps I dug around on the wrong site.

 

Wow, amazingly brilliant tones here! The homey we're having fun feels of the conspiring over breakfast and the tour of the book shop and the wonderful gift of the bracelet! To be followed by and Glad Tenel Ka and her staff consequently are so vigilant and ready for stuff to pop in a second!

 

Thanks! As you pointed out, I totally had them browsing a bookstore when I envisioned this scene and first wrote it...only afterwards did I remember that books are pretty rare in the SW universe...but I had to assume that people still bought 'written' information from somewhere.

And Jacen owes Danni something besides just, "Thanks for not letting me be an idiot."!

An aside: I totally stole the 'Ralph Leibowitz' name: we know him as Ralph Lauren.

 

Nyota's Heart; Jedi_Lover. Let me know if anyone else would like a tag...or if I'm being too presumptuous with the ones I've done!

This chapter is a bit longer than the previous ones--I couldn't find a better place to break it up without ruining the flow of the story.

Chapter 39—Setting the Board​

Chume’dan City Centre—Hapes

Not for the first time in her life, Tsacira Svindal found herself flat on her back looking up at a handsome young man. This time, however, the young man in question was ignoring her completely as he knelt at her side behind the counter, keeping one hand on her chest to keep her from getting up as he peered over it, clearly trying to determine the location of the explosion they had just heard. Since she had nothing else to do, and because she had nothing else to look at, she ran an appraising look over her customer’s form, liking what she saw. Perhaps she should coyly ask if the bracelet in question was a gift for his sister—he looked like a smart man and would know what she was inferring and would agree that it was—giving them both a reasonable cover for a rendezvous later. As her eyes traveled downwards, she noticed he was unconsciously flexing his fingers around something hidden in the pocket of his tunic as he continued to look out the store windows. A weapon of some kind, if she had to hazard a guess. Not wanting to interrupt as he continued to scan the surrounding area for...whatever it was that exploded, she became very aware that his hand was still resting gently on her chest. After a few more moments, when it was clear that the loud explosion was not something sinister, Tsacira quietly cleared her throat, “Young man?” Still looking out the window, Jacen nodded absently to indicate that he had heard her. “As enjoyable as I might find this situation; if you want to continue, you’ll have to meet me after work.”

Confusedly, Jacen looked over at her and saw where his hand was. Reflexively, he jerked it back, clearly embarrassed both about ducking behind the counter in such a fashion and about where his hand was. Tsacira shook her head good-naturedly and held out her hand indicating that she would like to be helped to her feet. Smiling warmly, Jacen complied and Tsacira again had thoughts of a rendezvous—he DID have a fantastic smile. Smiling in return, she tried to relieve the awkward tension, “I’m assuming you served in the war?”

Jacen’s smiled knowingly, his estimation of the jewelry saleswoman rising significantly. With a tone of sadness, he answered, “I did.”

Tsacira placed an affectionate hand on his shoulder, “My brother was a Marine and still flinches at the sound of a barking canine—says it reminds him of those Vong creatures.”

“My fiancée has the same problem,” Jacen replied, thinking back the vornskyr incident on Myrkr. “And I still have trouble with….”

Jacen! Trouble! Like a blaster bolt, Tenel Ka’s plea rang in his head and his attention instantly snapped towards the Palace. Reaching out, he quickly got sense of a very anxious Tenel Ka, and nothing frightened him more than when she got that way. Leaping over the counter, he looked back at the slightly older woman, “I’ll be back when I can. Whatever you come up with will be fine.” With that he dashed out of the store, leaving a confused Tsacira Svindal standing behind her counter.

Sprinting down the block towards the ice cream store, Jacen ‘shouted’ at Danni and Allana: Trouble!

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

“Should we get Daddy something?” Allana asked as she sat down next to Danni. The two of them were sharing a rather large hot-fudge sundae while Kenara sat across from them munching on her chocolate chip ice cream cone.

“I wo-ould,” Danni drawled slowly, smiling at the girl’s thoughtfulness, “…but I’m not sure what he likes.” Watching Allana take a big bite of whipped cream (and steal the cherry), she gave the princess a mock scowl, getting a shy giggle in return. “He won’t be too long, though.”

She was about to take a bite of their sundae when a huge explosion sounded from just outside, rattling the windows of the ice cream parlor. Without knowing how she got there, Danni found herself under the table, half on top of Allana, whom she had wedged between herself and the wall. After a few seconds that seemed to stretch on for hours, Kenara stuck her head under the table, her blue eyes full of concern. “Danni? You okay?”

Letting out an ashamed sigh, Danni nodded and kissed the top of Allana’s head as she did. “Sorry, sweetie.” The princess gave her an understanding smile; somehow, the scientist got the feeling that this probably wasn’t the first time the Chume-da had been man-handled by a security detail, or the first time she had seen someone panic at a sudden noise. Grimacing at the thought, she awkwardly corkscrewed herself back onto the bench seat, wondering how she had managed to get her and Allana under the table so quickly. As she was helping the girl out from under the table, Jacen’s voice suddenly sounded in her head: Trouble.

Seeing Allana’s look of surprise, it was clear that the girl had ‘heard’ her father as well. Reacting instantly, Danni grabbed Allana’s hand and rushed to the door, calling, “We’ve got to go!” to a clearly bewildered Kenara.

Flinging open the glass door, she glanced to her right and saw Jacen a block away, running toward them at a dead sprint. Immediately, she picked up Allana and started running away from Jacen, knowing where he was headed: the speeder parked half-a-block away. As if on cue, the black Palace speeder roared to life, its twin engines emitting a throaty roar as they came up to speed—Jacen having found the remote start. Hearing footsteps, Danni looked slightly over her right shoulder and saw Kenara coming up behind her, her face scrunched in concern. “You drive.” Danni yelled at the younger woman and watched as the brunette put on another burst of speed, easily beating her to the vehicle where she jumped and slid across the speeder’s flat front like she was in a holovid police drama. As Kenara was getting in, Danni opened the rear door and placed Allana in her booster seat, Jacen’s footsteps getting louder behind her. Expecting him to get into the front seat, she was confused when she heard him head for the rear of the speeder and open the boot. Shaking her head, she returned her attention to Allana, fastening the girl’s restraints.

Job done, she quickly joined Jacen at the back of the speeder, grunting as a black, armored, multi-pocketed vest hit her in the chest. Grabbing the vest before it fell to the street, she stood slack-jawed at the wide array of weaponry Jacen had uncovered in the boot, belatedly noticing that he had already thrown on his vest and had slung an assault rifle over his shoulder. Wordlessly, and without looking back, he handed her a smaller automatic weapon and shoved a large-caliber ballistic pistol down the back of his pants, the grip still visible over the top of the waistline. Quickly, he grabbed extra battery packs for his and Danni’s blasters, several magazines for the ballistic weapon, stuffed most of them into the various front pockets of his vest, and finally grabbed another wicked-looking blaster from speeder’s ‘armory’ before shutting the boot.

As Danni donned her vest, Jacen stuffed battery packs into several of its front pockets, then turned and pointed the handle of the wicked-looking blaster at Kenara, who had re-exited the vehicle and now stood wide-eyed at back corner of the speeder. “Do you have somewhere you can take Allana?” he asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

To her credit, the brunette recovered quickly and took the offered weapon, understanding the seriousness of the situation. “Yes. I can take her to…”

Jacen put a couple of fingers to her lips and shook his head; “It’s better if you don’t tell me.” Nodding to where his daughter sat in the back seat, “Lay low and try to contact us when it looks clear.”

Kenara nodded, fighting to catch up with events. “What should I…”

“There’s an ‘emergency escape’ kit in the boot keyed to Allana’s bio scan.” Jacen interrupted, “If things get ugly, use it to get her off-planet—the kit’s got everything you need…money, identification, disguises, credit chips…everything.” The Hapan ensign nodded once to show she understood, acutely aware Jacen was entrusting her with the future of the Hapan Monarchy. Handing her an extra battery pack for the blaster, Jacen gave her one last instruction, “Contact my sister if you don’t hear from us. She’ll know what to do.” Quickly he moved to the opposite side of the speeder and re-opened the rear door.

Allana sat wide-eyed with worry as Jacen squeezed himself onto the floor of the backseat, kissing her forehead as he knelt in front of her. “It’s okay sweetie.” He soothed, “Mommy called a ‘birthday party’ at the Palace, so Miss Danni and I are going to help.” He shook her head as her eyes widened further in surprise, she knew that Mommy wouldn’t call a ‘birthday party’ unless she were in big trouble. Sensing his daughter’s growing panic, Jacen took her hand and kept his voice calm, “It’ll be okay. Mommy has some of the best protectors in the galaxy, and we make a very good team.”

Allana nodded quickly, her Mommy and Daddy did make a good team—she had known that for as long as she could remember. Reassured slightly, she watched as Daddy’s face turned more somber before asking, “Do you remember Auntie Jaina’s comm number?” Allana nodded slightly as the song Mommy had taught her from the time she was a baby popped into her head: Jaina, Jaina, who can I turn to…?

“Good.” Jacen said softly, squeezing her hand. “If we don’t find you in three days, call Auntie Jaina and she’ll come get you, okay?” Fighting her panic, Allana nodded again to show she understood his directions, and that she understood that something was really wrong—Daddy wouldn’t be telling her this if he wasn’t very worried. Daddy leaned in and kissed her forehead again, and she felt her panic start to ebb a bit, “I love you Princess. Be a good girl for Miss Kenara, okay?”

“I will.” She replied, wanting Daddy to know that she would act the proper princess. Daddy only smiled his warm smile before shutting the door, watching her with worried eyes as the speeder pulled away.

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

​

After returning to her office, Tenel Ka quickly pulled up a holo of the Fountain Palace and studied it as she overlaid her Force perception onto the map floating above her desk. Frowning, she marked the locations of the two intruding groups, somehow thinking that those locations should mean something.

As she studied the holo, Captain Kjetiele Aamodt quietly approached, appraising the map as she did. “How confident are you of these locations?” She asked quietly.

The Queen Mother closed her eyes for a second and nodded, “Very.” She replied, pointing at the two locations, opening her eyes as she did. “Give or take a few meters.”

The Captain of the Guard nodded thoughtfully, “Good. At least we know they are working with old data.” Seeing her boss’s confused look, she started to explain as the rest of the Palace Guard started filing into the large office, all of them outfitted for combat. “They are headed for the secret escape tunnels the Killik’s used on their attempt to kidnap the Chume’da…it’ll take them a while to get through all the duracrete we used to seal the entrances.”

Forcing the horrible memories of that day from her thoughts, she nodded at Aamodt’s observation, impressed that the captain would remember something that happened many years before her arrival at the Palace. “You are correct.” Turning her head slightly, she asked quietly, “What do you think?”

Kjetiele gave her boss a sidelong glance, knowing that the Queen wouldn’t do what was probably the safest option: evacuate. Replying so only Tenel Ka could hear, “How many are out there?”

“Each group has five. I sense no one else in the immediate vicinity.”

Captain Aamodt nodded and turned to address the Palace Guard, taking a deep breath as she did, “We have two groups of infiltrators of five beings each.” She pointed at the map, “Here. And here. They will probably post one person at the entrance, with the other four entering the tunnels. I need eight people to go out and form a perimeter around each entrance.” Immediately, everyone raised their hand to volunteer and Kjetiele quickly pointed to four, “You four, take this group….” She again pointed at the map, “…and you four take this one”. She again picked out four Guardswomen and their target. “Signal us when in position.”

Tenel Ka grimaced and interrupted, “Actually Captain, they are probably monitoring our frequencies…we should form the perimeter, but wait until signaled before taking any further action.” Seeing the captain’s nod of acquiescence, she continued, “Take them alive if possible, but not at the risk of yourselves or anyone else. Any questions?”

Corporal Ruud raised her hand, “What is the signal?”

Tenel Ka smiled, “You’ll know.” This garnered a few chuckles, “Anything else?” No one made a sound, and she used her best ‘Command voice’, “Use the Garden Gate, it’s less likely that they will spot you.” She nodded at the group, “May the Force be with us.” With that, the eight women filed out of the room.

For a long moment, the only sound was that of the retreating footsteps reverberating down the hallway outside the Queen’s office. Finally, Tenel Ka looked at her four remaining Guardswomen, “The intruders do not know that we know they’re here; we are going to try and trap them in the tunnels and eliminate them as a threat.”

She got nods of agreement from her Palace Guard, no one wanting to point out that with an almost one-to-one personnel match-up, and with nobody coming to reinforce them due to the communications ‘black-out’, the odds didn’t look great.

“What do we do now?” asked Teegan Kjus.

“We wait.”

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

For a long moment, Danni stood beside her friend as Allana’s speeder pulled from view, the silence thick with despair. “Jasa?” She whispered quietly, putting her hand on his shoulder, “What now?”

Shaken out of his reverie, Jacen quickly re-slung the assault rifle over his shoulder and started down the street, glancing over at the blonde woman who was just now catching up. “Now, we find the polis.”

Unlike many places, where the police can never seem to be found when needed, the Hapan civil authorities still insisted on maintaining extensive police foot-patrols in every city. Was it more expensive? Yes. But, it also assured the populace that help was never far away. Knowing this, Jacen took off down the street at a fast jog, Danni sprinting to catch up before he had gotten too far ahead. Crossing one of the side streets, Danni spotted the local patrol about a block down and made sharp left, tripping Jacen up as she did. Quickly, Jacen recovered his balance and started sprinting towards the police officers, “Konstapel! Konstapel!” He yelled, trying to get their attention, “Vi behöver din hjälp!”

As one, the pair turned their attention down the street and quickly became alarmed at the sight of two well-armed civilians rushing up the street, their hands dropping to their holsters. Sensing their unease, Jacen quickly raised his arms as he slowed his approach and used his best ‘authority’ voice, “Drottningen är i fara! Ta oss till palatset!”

The two officers shared a look, clearly unimpressed by Jacen’s call of alarm. With an air of authority, the older of the two officers straightened to her not-quite-imposing full height, and rested her right hand on the top of her sidearm, “The Queen is in danger?” The senior Sergeant asked, her voice sounding almost bored as she watched Danni come to a stop beside her friend. Turning her attention back to Jacen, her voice turned cold, “How do you know this?”

Danni did not need to understand Hapan to know that this conversation was not going to end well. Frustrated, she reached out with the Force, grabbed Jacen’s lightsaber from his belt and ignited it, levitating the weapon in the space between them and the polis officers. ”Do you know what this is?”

For several heartbeats, both of the officers stood agape at the floating sword, their blasters remaining half-drawn. After a pause, the younger of the two found her voice. ”Ja.”

“Can you think of anyone else in Chume’dan who might have one of these?”

Moving her eyes from the green blade to Danni, the same officer replied quietly, “Ja.”

Danni turned off the blade, but continued to leave it hovering in the air. Tapping her temple, “Do you think that person might be able to communicate with us?”

Comprehension dawned on the Sergeant’s face. “Ja.” She turned and gestured up the block where the front end of a police cruiser was just visible, “Följ oss.”

“Tack.” Danni replied as she floated the lightsaber handle back to its owner and started to follow the officer, blatantly ignoring his gob-smacked look. The last time she had practiced Force levitation with Jacen, she had trouble raising anything larger than a stylo...and now here she was using fine motor-skills that even some fully trained Knights had trouble with. Hearing his rushed steps as he caught up, she gave him a glance and deadpanned, ”I’ve been practicing.”

“I can tell,” Jacen replied drily, wisely choosing to not comment on the way the lightsaber seemed to waiver the longer she had held it. ”Thanks, by the way. I had assumed they would recognize me...figures that we bump into the only two poliser who don’t follow the gossip pages.”

“Since all of the eligible suitors seem to intent on killing you, maybe they figured you wouldn’t live long enough to matter.”

Jacen only shot her an amused look as they got into the back of the police cruiser. As they accelerated away from the curb, the younger officer picked up the microphone and was about to activate the transmitter...

“No!” Jacen yelled from the backseat, startling the younger officer whose hand was about to key the microphone. “Don’t call this in. Whoever is attacking the palace will be monitoring the police freqs.”The younger woman gave him a curious look, but said nothing. Jacen continued to explain, ”I’m not sure what we’re getting into.”

After a couple moments more of haranguing, and Danni’s idea of using the data link in lieu of the radio, they finally convinced the two Chume’dan police officers to ignore protocol and remain comm silent on the drive to the Palace. Problem solved, Jacen fell silent and immersed himself into the Force, trying to get a feel on just how much trouble Tenel Ka was in.

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

As Kenara pulled the black Palace speeder away from the curb, the weight of the DL-44 blaster in her lap reinforced the gravity of the situation that even Jacen’s worried look could not: that in about ten seconds she alone would know the whereabouts of the heir to the Hapan throne. Forcing herself to remain calm for Allana’s sake, she glanced in the rearview mirror and watched as the girl nervously picked at her bottom lip. “We’re going to go my parent’s house, okay sweetie?” Allana nodded absently as Kenara continued, “My dad likes peace and quiet, so they’ve got a place out in the woods about twenty minutes out of town.” She paused, trying to come up with something that would help ease the girl’s mind. “Hey! I know what we can do! We can spend this afternoon in the tree house that Dad and I built. Does that sound okay?” Again, the girl nodded absently, and Kenara got the distinct impression that Allana was still ‘talking’ with her father.

Not wanting to interrupt, Kenara instead turned her attention to the task of ‘laying low’—a task that suddenly became much harder than she could have imagined, what with her chaperoning the Hapan heir. Every speeder that approached from behind suddenly became ‘suspicious’, forcing her to change routes to lose this ‘tail’ at the earliest opportunity. Indeed, it seemed that she had driven down every street in the city trying to make sure no one was following them; furthermore, she had elected to take the longer, undulating route to her parent’s small farm instead of the much quicker multi-lane highway, in the hopes she would be more likely to spot anyone following her.

Four times she had aborted turning into her parent’s driveway because another speeder would pop into view just as she was about to make the turn. Finally, Kenara was able to make the turn onto the gravel, tree-lined driveway unobserved and she allowed a small sigh of relief and saw Allana’s questioning look in the rearview mirror. Smiling, the Hapan ensign answered, “We’re almost there, sweetie. The house is just ahead.” As if on cue, the speeder broke into a small clearing in the woods, a small two-story house sitting on the back third of the property with a slightly larger garage angled to its right, the driveway making a circle in front of the two. “Here we are…home sweet home!” As they pulled up, a tall, tanned gentleman in his early fifties appeared from the back of the house, a small garden spade in his right hand. Shutting off the engines, Kenara opened the door and hopped out, indicating to Allana that she should stay in the speeder for a minute. “Hi Dad!”

Instantly a broad smile crossed Andreas Do’ma’s face, replacing his look of suspicion, “Hi Honey!” He called, approaching his daughter and giving her a warm embrace. “New ride?” Andreas asked hopefully, nodding at the rather large black speeder. He had long argued that her current speeder, a two-seat Crotalus convertible, was far too impractical, and much too fast, for his daughter.

Rolling her eyes at her father’s over-concern, Kenara chuckled good-naturedly at the ribbing. “Nah, it belongs to my...” she paused for a beat, “…supervisor.” Grimacing at her sort-of-truth, she made her way to the speeder’s back door. “Anyway, something came up last-minute and she asked me to take care of her daughter for a couple of days.”

“Ah.” Her father replied knowingly, “She doesn’t trust her daughter in your street-rocket.”

“Something like that.” Kenara replied as she opened the door and helped her charge out of her booster seat, picking up the red-haired girl. Turning back to her father, she continued, “Dad, meet A…melia.”

“Hi Amelia!” He replied brightly, stepping closer to squeeze the young girl’s hand, “My name is Andreas.” Mr. Do’ma, of course, had caught the two slight pauses in as many sentences, but said nothing. Nor did he comment on his daughter’s supervisor’s choice of speeder; just how did an air traffic control supervisor afford a My’til Phantom? Quickly, he decided not to press the issue. If he had learned nothing else over the course of his adult life—seven years as a Navy radar technician, twenty-six years married to an accountant, the last twenty-four spent also as a father—he had learned that the truth always comes to light.

Oblivious to her father’s musings, Kenara continued, “I figured it would be more fun for us out here instead of in my townhouse.”

“With the added bonus of free babysitter help.” The older man added drily, before turning his attention to the frightened-looking red-haired girl clutching desperately to his daughter’s arm. Smiling warmly, he nodded his head at Kenara, “Did she tell you about her stuffed critter collection?” Amelia shook her head, and Andreas gave her a wink, relishing the opportunity to embarrass his daughter. “I thought not. Come, let’s go take a look.” At that, he gently hoisted Amelia from his daughter and the three of them headed into the modest home, Andreas launching into a story about the time he had taken Kenara to a nature preserve and she just had to have a stuffed pardalis, and that it had to be ‘almost life-sized.’

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

​

“What is he doing?” The younger officer asked Danni in broken Basic after observing Jacen’s facial twitches for a couple of minutes.

Shooting her friend a cursory look, she turned her attention back to the officer. ”Communicating with the Queen. I think.”

“This is possible? To talk like that?”

Danni shrugged, ”It is for them.” She looked again over at her Jedi friend, ”It’s not something all of us can do.”

”Ah.” The woman’s face turned confused, ”Why not?”

“Do you have a friend you know so well that you can tell what she’s thinking without having to say anything?” Danni asked, answering the question with a question. After giving it a moment’s thought, the younger woman nodded. “The Force is like that; the better you know someone, the better you can communicate without talking.”

As if on cue, Jacen sat up and addressed the younger officer, ”Pull up a map of the Chume’dan. Please.” He added, seeing Danni’s castigating look. As the officer did so, he tried to lean over the seat to get a better look, thumping his head against the barrier. With an amused look, the driver slid the partition open, allowing Jacen to squeeze through the opening with a muttered, ”Thanks.” He fiddled with the computer keys to zoom in on a small playground about two blocks southwest Palace grounds. ”Drop us off here.”

The woman in the passenger seat gave him a confused look and shook her head, “There is nothing there.”

“Ja det finns.” Jacen replied quietly, ”But no one outside the Palace knows about it.” He paused and shared a grim look with both policewomen, ”Until now.” The driver nodded knowingly and made a turn towards where Jacen had indicated as he slid back through the window into the backseat an once again closed his eyes in concentration. For another couple of minutes, the three women said nothing as the cruiser tore through the town; not wanting to disturb whatever conversation was going on between the Queen Mother and her best friend. As they were reaching their destination, the one-time Jedi re-opened his eyes and leaned again through the window. Tapping the older woman on the shoulder, ”You wouldn’t have any military experience, would you?”

She nodded, giving him a concerned look, ”Ja. Fem år som en infanteriofficer.”

Before she could ask the question he knew was coming, Jacen gave her a satisfied nod, ”Good.” Again, he started to play with the display on the cruiser’s nav-display, scrolling to a large park a few kilometers to the north of the Palace. Pointing to a small wooded glade on the eastern side of the park, he switched to Basic, hoping that she could follow, ”There are three, maybe four, people here…” he tapped the screen, indicating their position.”…who are too alert to be idly walking around.” After seeing that she understood, he continued, ”My guess is that this is their rendezvous point; which also means they probably a ’get-away’ vehicle there as well.”

The woman’s tactical training was starting to take over, ”Ja, that would be the most prudent place to meet.” she replied as she brought the cruiser to a stop next to a small, slightly derelict, sunken playground sitting at the edge of a seldom-used city park at the base of an almost sheer cliff. As the cruiser came to a stop, it occurred to the officer that she had never been to this section of town.

Grimacing distastefully, Jacen continued, ”We need you to find some backup and take them out...quietly. Alive, if possible. Do you think you can do that?”

”Does this come from the Queen?” The woman asked, suddenly suspicious as the warning bells started ringing louder in her head. A pair of off-worlders had run up to them, bristling with weapons, and insisted that the Queen Mother was in great danger. Now, after demanding to be dropped off blocks away from the Palace at some out-of-the-way the man insists she go to some remote part of the Humlegardens to ’take out’ a few people? This charade had gone on long enough.

”No.” Jacen answered honestly. In truth, the only thing he had really gotten from Tenel Ka was the location of one of the Palace’s secret exits. Most of his meditation had focused on trying to find everyone connected with the plot to attack the Palace, finding three groups of three to four individuals each. Two of the groups were in the immediate vicinity of the Grounds, so he assumed that Tenel Ka already knew about them and had a plan on how to deal with them. That left the group in the park unaccounted for, and Jacen couldn’t let them leave the planet, not if he wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on. Leaning back through the glass, he dug his comlink from his pocket, passing it up for the two polis to take, ”But it can. Just hit the ’redial’ button.”

For a long moment, the senior officer regarded the man in the back, and was shocked at the intensity in his eyes. Glancing at the comlink, she noticed that the first seven numbers did match that of the Palace switchboard and made a snap decision. ”That is not necessary.” She replied finally, pushing Jacen’s hand back through the window. Dropping this pair off at some out-of-the-way playground hiding at the bottom of a ravine on some cul-de-sac seemed harmless enough; as did going to the Humlegardens to check in on some tourists ambling about.

"Tack.” Jacen replied as he tried to open the door, only to find it locked. Shaking his head, he looked expectantly at the two officers.

Smiling, the younger woman got out of the passenger seat and opened the rear door to allow the strange pair out. "Vara försiktig,” she added softly as they rapidly made their way down the steep embankment to the playground, getting a slight nod from Jacen in reply.

After the police speeder had driven away, Danni sighed and rushed to catch up with her friend, who was making his way at a brisk walk over to the ivy covered wall on the far side of the small playground. ”Where are we going?”

"We-e-e...” Jacen drawled as he started running his hand along the wall underneath the ivy, his brow furrowed in concentration, ”.... are using an alternate entrance to the Palace. IF I can find...” He stopped, moving his hand back a few centimeters. "Ah, there it is.” As he ripped some of the greenery away from the wall, Danni started to see an old archway carved out of the rock, the opening having bricked over long ago. ”Tenel Ka ’told’ me to use this entrance, so...” He explained as he exposed more of the hidden doorway, ”...here we are.” Stepping back, Jacen gestured to the blonde, "Open ’er up.”

Danni scowled at her friend, "How?” She asked indignantly, only to get an impatient shrug in reply; obviously, he was leaving it for her to figure out. While part of her was honored that he trusted her ability enough to do this, she was also very aware that time was of the essence and that Jacen was really in a hurry to help his wife—every moment the two spent here as she struggled with opening this door was another moment the danger to Tenel Ka increased. Casting her eyes around the archway, she tried to push aside her fears that she would be too late to help before remembering Vectivus’ lesson: Embrace your fears. Use them. Through the Force she immediately saw the weakest point in the mortar and tapped it firmly with Force-enhanced strike from a fist-sized rock she had picked up, causing the whole section to collapse, revealing a metal grated door. Stepping over the pile of bricks,she ’saw’ a series of cables and counterweights that formed the release mechanism and followed the cables back to a lever on the wall about two meters back. With a satisfied smirk, she quickly pulled the lever and the grate rose silently in its track.

Turning to look at her ’master’, she was rewarded with a large smile. ”Impressive.” His smile faded a bit as he stepped over the rubble and started to jog down the unlit tunnel. ”We’ve got to go.”

After scurrying to catch up again, she cast a quick look at Jacen, ”Where does this end up?” she asked as he activated his lightsaber to use a glow-rod.

”I have no idea.”

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

One of the perks of her ‘Jedi’ training, Danni decided as she did a decent job keeping up with Jacen, was that she was able to make the two-kilometer-or-so run in the broad, poorly lit tunnel without getting TOO winded. Just as she was going to comment on this fact, the tunnel exploded into a ball of white light as the overhead lights suddenly illuminated. Blinking rapidly as she tried to clear her vision, she ran into something metallic with a loud thunk. “Ow!”

“Watch your step.” Jacen commented drily from off to her right.

Frowning, “You could have warned me.” she replied darkly, rubbing her left shin as she looked at the offending tarp-covered object. “What is this thing?”

“Getaway speeder.” Jacen replied curtly, pulling the grey tarp off the black, 4-door speeder and opening the driver’s door. Quickly, he keyed in the ‘initialize’ sequence and gave a small nod of approval; the speeder was fueled and ready for use. Closing the door, he nodded towards the ceiling and explained further, “The Royal Family might have to evacuate the Palace by alternate means.”

As she watched her friend ascend the ladder built into the tunnel wall, Danni again marveled at the fact the Queen Mother was still sane.

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

Out of professional habit, the four Palace guardswomen quietly formed a ‘perimeter’ and posted themselves in three of the room’s corners, with Captain Aamodt checking and re-checking the doors, windows and sensors. If the four women took notice of the Queen’s nervous pacing, they made no comment; oddly, they found solace in the fact that their leader was just as much a person of action as they were. After what seemed an eternity, but was in actuality only fifteen minutes or so, Tenel Ka suddenly stopped wandering about the office, walked purposefully to behind her desk and knelt to the floor. Curious, the other four women approached the desk and heard an audible ‘click’ as the Queen released a latch and pulled up a section of the parquet.

“Huh.” Jacen said as he poked his head through the opening, “So that’s where this ends up.” Grunting, he levered himself up and sat on one side of the opening, sticking his hand down to help Danni up through the hatch. “Clever.”

“We are glad you approve.” Tenel Ka replied drily, but there was no mistaking the small smile in her voice and everyone could feel the tension in the room drop a bit.

Jacen just smiled and gave the Queen a quick peck on the cheek, before standing and helping her to her feet. “So…. what’ve we got?” He asked the group as he leaned against the wall, quickly returning to the business at hand.

“Two groups of infiltrators…” Kjetiele started to explain as she gestured to the holo, smiling slightly as the GAG Colonel took Tenel Ka’s hand and gave it a small squeeze.

After she had finished with her quick situation report, Jacen gestured towards the holo, “I know this tunnel ends up in Allana’s room…” he commented, pointing at the right-most tunnel, “…what about this one?” Gesturing to the tunnel on the left.

Tenel Ka shrugged. “That one leads to the Visiting Dignitary Suite.” Seeing Jacen’s confused look, she elaborated, “Ta’a Chume’s old apartments.”

“Oh.” Jacen replied, “We should just let them torch the place.” Ignoring his wife’s half-smile, he addressed Captain Aamodt, “Kjetiele, you stay here with Tenel Ka.” He turned slightly, “Teegan, you and I are going to head to Allana’s room.” Seeing her nod, he turned again, “Larussa, Byana…” he nodded at the remaining two Guardswomen, “…you go with Danni to secure the Dignitary Suite.”

Sensing his ‘apprentice’s’ unease, he turned to her and unslung his assault rifle, handing it to her and taking her smaller weapon in trade. “Keep it simple: capture if possible, but don’t risk your team.”

Slinging the rifle over her shoulder, Danni nodded offered he and Tenel Ka a grim smile before looking at the two members of her team. “You’ll have to lead the way, I’ve only been here once.”

Byana Kovalain flashed a predatory smile, “Roger that, ma’am. Follow us.” Almost as one the two Palace guards turned to the left and exited the Throne Room’s side door, an apprehensive-but-trying-not-too-look-it Danni Quee trailing behind the pair by a couple of paces.

After the three of them had left, Tenel Ka turned and gave her husband a withering look. Before she could open her mouth to voice her objections, Jacen retook her hand and lowered his voice, “I need you to stay here, Tiki. Allana needs you to stay here.” It was a low blow, using Allana as leverage, but he knew that while she had no regard for her own safety, she most certainly did for her daughter. Seeing Tenel Ka’s ugly frown, he glanced over at Captain Aamodt for help.

Taking the cue, Kjetiele took a couple of steps closer, “The Colonel is right, Mum, we need to be able to get you out of here if the need arises.”

With a resigned sigh, Tenel Ka nodded. “I hate my job.” She whispered, more to herself than anyone.

Jacen smiled and gave her hand a squeeze, “We know.” He waited a moment for his wife to look up, “That’s why you make a great Queen.” As expected, his comment earned him a scowl and he leaned forward, kissing his wife on the forehead. Pulling back, he whispered, “I love you.”

“I know.”

Snorting once in laughter, Jacen gave her a wink before turning his attention to Corporal Kjus, “Let’s go.”






A/N: Thanks for reading!

 

Very superbly paced action! Jacen is very good at improvising -- he already knows how to get things moving Hapan style and he and TK have a great rapport! It's like they were never apart. The "I love you" & "I know" thingy will always bring out a grin!

 

Thanks! This was tougher to write than I thought it would be...I needed to keep the sense of urgency that everyone was feeling without it becoming trite.

IMO, Jacen always struck me as someone who would be good at blending in, so I don't think it's too much of a stretch for him to learn Hapan. He and Tenel Ka always seemed to be so comfortable together in earlier books, so I'm just getting us back to that.

I think it's obligatory to have that quote at least once in a SW story!

 

Nice update. Sorry for the delay in responding. I started reading on Tuesday and I just finished.

 

Ha! Yeah, I know...I TOTALLY break the '1000-word chapter' ideal that is talked about in the 'pet peeve' section. My INTRODUCTION takes 1000 words. I don't know if you've seen 'Amadeus', but there's a scene towards the beginning where the Hapsburg Emperor tells Mozart, "There are too many notes."---"Well, which ones should I eliminate?"

 

So glad to see this back, and it's already off to a gallop I see! I really like the mix of character-based stuff with the action/adventure and political thriller plots that are weaving together here. One thing that I especially noticed was the way that Danni and Jacen's friendship is kind of brought back into the story (which seems like a good lead-up to whatever finale is approaching, since Danni was originally the catalyst for changing things here). And Tenel Ka's "I hate my job" is just the perfect understatement for the moment.

 

I think the underlying theme of the train-wreck that was everything after NJO is this: Friends don't let friends turn Sith. We all need someone to be in our corner and lend an understanding ear, a word of encouragement, a smile, a hug.

I feel bad for Tenel Ka, actually. Jacen, Allana, and Danni get to to all of the 'fun' things that are part of being associated with Crown...being informal with the guards, sneaking out for ice cream, launching new Battle Dragons, etc, while she, along with Gadell and Isolder, have to do the actual ruling. All that responsibility has to be wearing after a while. Here's a woman who was the best in her class at hand-to-hand, and she's got to sit and be ready to run--I think she just wants to kick someone's shebs.

 

@Nyota's Heart; @Jedi_Lover; Kahara​

​

As always, let me know if anyone wants to be tagged...or if you want me to stop! The next chapter is a bit shorter...​

​

​

​

Chapter 40—Moving the Pieces​

​

It didn’t take the pair of them very long to reach Allana’s bedroom, and Jacen’s mind was racing as he tried to come up with a plan to deal with ‘his’ four intruders—lightsaber or automatic blaster? Using the lightsaber would offer him and Teegan a bit of cover, but would force her to do all of the shooting and make it, essentially, one against four. Using his blaster would even the odds a bit, but he doubted that the two of them could take out four trained professionals without them returning fire, probably killing them both. In the end, he went with a hybrid approach—using the small automatic blaster in his left hand and the lightsaber in his right, he would be able to attack and defend simultaneously. In theory. It was something he had never tried before and he made a mental note to practice this technique—assuming he lived through the day.

Once at the emergency escape exit in Allana’s room, Jacen turned his head to his right to address Corporal Kjus, who was standing just behind him.

“Here’s the plan: I’m going to open the door when they get to about ten meters away. With luck, we’ll catch them by surprise and be able to take them out.” Teegan nodded to show she understood, and Jacen continued, gesturing with both hands, “I’ve not tried this before with a weapon in each hand, so stay on my right side…I’m better with the ‘saber than with the blaster.” Again, Teegan nodded, this time a bit more apprehensively. “It’ll be fine.” He assured her, “Just try not to shoot me.”

Corporal Kjus smiled slightly, “Wouldn’t dream of it.” She leaned forward to whisper in Jacen’s ear, “You’re our Jedi, too.”

Solo turned his attention back to the escape tunnel, chuckling quietly as he did so. Stretching out with the Force, he immediately sensed the four invaders in the tunnel as they slowly make their way up the passageway, disabling the intrusion sensors as they did.

“Forty meters.” Jacen whispered, “they’re leap-frogging along both sides of the passage in pairs; you take the two on the right, I’ll take the two on the left.”

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

With all of the running Danni had been doing over the last twenty minutes, much of it in full military gear, she was starting to get a bit winded…even with the Force. Finally, the three of them made it to the Dignitary Suite, and the two Guardswomen looked at her expectantly.

“What’s the plan?” Larussa asked.

Plan? Why did they think she had a plan for this? She is an astrophysicist for crying out loud; the last time she had seen earnest hand-to-hand combat, she was twenty-one and was desperately trying to stay alive for just one more day. Before she could open her mouth to state this fact, she remembered the way she had looked at Luke Skywalker and Saba Sabatyne and even Jaina Solo during the war. Jedi are supposed to know what to do—the fact that she had only had a few months of training mattered not a bit.

Taking a deep breath, Danni looked around the suite hoping to find some inspiration. Finding none, she decided to go for the practical, “First things first, where’s the tunnel door?”

“Oh, right.” Larussa answered sheepishly, forgetting that the other woman wouldn’t know the layout of the Palace as well as she did. “Through here.” She headed off down a small hallway to the left and in to the suite’s master bedroom. “It’s just to the right of the bed.” The younger woman pointed to where the door was, only visible if one knew where to look.

Danni nodded to show she saw the faint outline as she glanced around to find the activation switch for the door and found it hidden in the design of the wallpaper just above the lamp on the nightstand to the right of the bed. Still lacking for a plan, she again focused on their immediate tactical needs—like finding something to use as cover. Quickly surveying the room, she saw a dresser on the wall to her right.

“Byana, move the night stand.” Immediately, the blonde Guardswoman complied, moving the nightstand to the foot of the bed. As she did, Danni used the Force to move the dresser into the spot Byana had just cleared, the dresser’s width taking up the bottom half of the door. After she had put the furniture into position, she had a quick thought. “This door doesn’t open in, does it?”

Chuckling once, Larussa only shook her head. “No, Ma’am. They all open up.”

Before she could reply, Jacen’s voice sounded in her head. Forty meters.

“Kriff.” She muttered; so preoccupied had she been on coming up with a plan that she had forgotten to check on where the enemy was. Closing her eyes, she started to scan the tunnel ahead of her.

Hearing her swear, the two Palace Guards dropped behind the dresser, aiming their rifles at the still-closed door. “Trouble?” One of them asked.

“The other attackers are forty meters from Jacen.” Danni answered. “Ours are more like fifty meters and around a corner that is about five meters in.” Pausing, she quickly relayed her information to Jacen and could sense him sending encouragement. Smiling grimly, she knelt beside the other two, “I wish we had a way to better even the…” she broke off, spotting several silver spheres dangling from Byana’s web belt, and her smile turned predatory. “Detonators.” She whispered to herself.

“Ma’am?” The two Hapans whispered back in unison.

“Hand me two of those detonators.”

Wordlessly, Byana put her rifle on the dresser and removed two thermal grenades from her belt, and handed them to Danni, saying nothing about the other woman’s tremoring hands.

Taking the detonators, Danni again stretched out with the Force to get the enemy’s position…still about forty meters. Nodding to herself that she still had time to do what she had planned, she slid the activation levers, ignoring both the blinking indicators of the now ‘live’ grenades and the wild look of surprise on the soldiers’ faces. Pressing the escape door switch with her elbow, the three of them watched the door quickly and silently ascend into the wall. Taking another deep breath, she slowly released her thumb first off of one of the detonators then the other, using the Force to keep each activation switch depressed. Exhaling slightly, she floated the two detonators to the inside and outside corners of the sharp right-hand bend in the tunnel and closed the door.

“Thirty meters.” She told the two Guardswomen and sent the other two Jedi. “Twenty.” Another interminable amount of time. “Ten.”The lead assailant was now at the corner, and Danni waited another three heartbeats before releasing her Force-hold on the detonators and ducked behind the dresser, pulling the other two women with her.

It had been over ten years since she had felt a blast from a thermal detonator, and she had forgotten just how much explosive force they possessed; the three of them were thrown off of the floor a couple of centimeters. Immediately after the explosion, she pushed herself off of the floor and opened the door, the two Hapans opening fire as soon as the door cleared the top of the dresser, with her joining in right after. From the time of detonation to the time the three of them stopped firing couldn’t have been more than fifteen seconds, but it seemed to last a year.

“Clear.” Larussa called, keeping her weapon trained on the four bodies lying in the tunnel.

“Clear.” Byana confirmed.

Her ears ringing both from the blast and all of the rifle fire, Danni said nothing and jumped over the dresser. Making her way to the downed troopers, she hugged the near wall so as to give the other two women a clear field of fire. Quickly, she kicked their weapons towards the two Hapans. Job done, she knelt by each of the four and checked for a pulse, finding only a very weak pulse on the man furthest away from the open door.

“We need a medic.” Danni called over her shoulder, slightly confused as to why she didn’t hear herself say anything. Keeping her attention on the still barely alive man, she tapped the butt of her rifle on the floor and heard nothing. Frowning to herself, she scanned the man with the Force to find the extent of his injuries.

Danni? A baritone voice sounded in her head, one she probably should recognize, but she ignored it as she undid the man’s tunic, grimacing at the eight blaster wounds in his torso—any one of five of them were definitely fatal. Danni? The voice was louder this time, more urgent. “What?” She yelled in frustration as she looked over her shoulder, only to see Vectivus standing in the middle of the passageway behind her. We have to help Tenel Ka. Confused, the scientist only looked at the ghost for a second before the words registered. Immediately she stood and sprinted out of the tunnel, hurdling the dresser at the far end. Pointing at Larussa, “You stay here and sort this out.” Pointing at Byana, “You come with me.” Or at least that’s what she hoped she said…she still couldn’t hear anything.

As Danni tore out of the suite and into the long hallway, Nelani materialized, directly in her path. You’ll need me to drive. Before she could even decipher what Nelani meant, her world went black.

​

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

Forty meters. In Allana’s room, Danni’s voice sounded Jacen’s head, and he was impressed at the way she was trying to sound calm. From what he had heard both from Danni and his wife, the poor woman had been through entirely too much over the last few months: from leaving her home, to dealing with his irate sister, to meeting Force ghosts (both Jedi and Sith), to having her ship rebuilt, to having him pull a lightsaber on her…Danni’s nerves had to be fried—she needed a vacation.


Tilting his head slightly to the right, “Thirty meters,” he announced, getting a nod from Corporal Kjus as she knelt behind him, using him as a barricade—her head and rifle at his right hip. Frowning morosely at being used as ‘cover’, he flipped his blaster to ‘auto’ and flexed his fingers around both the lightsaber and the blaster. After a few antagonizing seconds, “Twenty.” Frowning, he realized that he heard Danni at the same time and knew that had to mean something, but did not have the time to puzzle out what. “Ten.”

After waiting another couple moments for the rear pair to start their move, he hit the door’s release with the Force. “Now.” With surprising speed, the door retracted into the ceiling. Even more surprising was the reaction time of the his Hapan ally; before the door had gotten even ten centimeters up the track, Teegan was firing her heavy assault gun, the chatter of the weapon much quieter than he expected. Just as quickly, he was moving to block incoming shots, only to hear them ricochet off of the backside of the door. Kriff, he thought as the door finally receded high enough where he could see his assailants, this could get ugly.

Instantly, his world consisted of two things: blocking and firing—survival or death; the air alive with incoming and outgoing blaster bolts. Jacen heard a small grunt of pain from his right forcing him to tighten his defense. As he did, he dodged his head slightly to the right to avoid a shot that hummed by his left ear and he simply allowed another bolt to graze his left side, so focused was he on keeping Teegan Kjus alive. Shortly after a pair of assailants fell, he somehow noticed that there was an increase in ambient weapons noise from his end of the firefight, but a decrease of out-going blaster beams. Too busy to determine why that was, he kept deflecting the seemingly endless incoming fire while continuing to aim and fire with his left hand.

As quickly as it started, the firefight was over, the only sound a repeating click as Jacen continued to pull the trigger on the ballistic pistol, its magazine clearly empty. “Clear.” He heard Teegan say, her voice strained. Confusedly, he glancing at his left hand as he stopped pulling the trigger, and saw the automatic blaster at his feet—clearly, he had swapped weapons during the fight, but had no memory of doing it.

Checking the escape tunnel, he confirmed Teegan’s call. “Clear.”

As he quickly reloaded his pistol, Jacen glanced down at the young Palace Guard and saw that she had taken a round to her right leg. Grimacing, he returned his attention down the tunnel. “How bad is it?”

Corporal Kjus’s voice was laced with pain as she ejected the power core from the big gun. “It’ll keep for now.”

“Roger.” Deactivating his lightsaber, he returned it to his belt and swapped hands with the pistol. “I’m going to check on our friends. Cover me.”

“Just a sec.” Jacen heard a chunk as Guardswoman slapped another power core in place. “Go.”

Keeping close to the left wall, Jacen used the Force to levitate the assailants’ weapons, dumping them on Allana’s bed, and kept his pistol trained on the four assailants. Once he was within five meters or so, he let out the breath and replaced his weapon to the back of his waistband. Three of the intruders had too many wounds to count, and the other was missing most of his neck; clearly he and Teegan were not trying to take any prisoners.

Sighing, he turned and made his way back to Corporal Kjus, startled at the number of blaster burns sprayed everywhere behind her and at the chunks of plaster, wood, and masonry scattered throughout Allana’s room—it looked as if a detonator had gone off inside the room. Shaking his head on how lucky they had been, he knelt to take a good look at Teegan’s right leg, frowning at the deep wound. As he slowly pried the charred cloth away from the gaping wound with his right hand, he gently applied some Force anesthesia with his left and started to apologize. “Sorry…”

“It’s fine. Who needs a patella?” Kjus interrupted softly, her voice a bit strained, as she looked around the room and surveyed the devastation, “Without your Jedi voodoo, I wouldn’t be talking to you.” Jacen nodded as he bandaged the wound, hearing the admiration in her voice. “Besides,” she continued, “Looks like they got you a couple of times.” As she talked, she grabbed the gauze packet, tore off another square piece and lifted Jacen’s shirt. “Hold this.” As he did what she asked, she grabbed some tape, “This one is going to leave a scar.” She stated, matter-of-factly, “And your ear is a mess.”

“Really?” Jacen replied, touching his left ear. Instantly he wished that he hadn’t; there was a sizable chunk missing from the top of his left ear. Grimacing, he started to comment, but closed his mouth, a confused look on his face. After a few seconds, “Do you hear anything?”

Teegan turned her head to get a better listen. Frowning, she replied, “That sounds like….”

Jacen was gone before she could finish.

​

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

The silence in the Throne Room was almost deafening as Tenel Ka leaned against her desk, smirking at Captain Aamodt as the Army officer moved around the room, re-rechecking the rooms security.

After a minute or so, Aamodt caught her boss’s amused look and forced herself to stop, leaning slightly against the main doorway. “Sorry, Mum. Never could sit still.”

Unbidden, Teneniel’s voice sounded in her head: Will you not sit still? For just one second? causing Tenel Ka to smile slightly, “Me neither. It took me forever to learn to ‘…be at peace…’ so that I could meditate.”

Kjetiele chuckled at Tenel Ka’s mediocre impersonation of Luke Skywalker. “How did you learn to meditate?” Indeed, the Queen Mother seemed to be in perpetual motion: twirling her stylo when reading a brief, bouncing her leg under the table at meetings, tapping her feet at dinner, walking around the office when on the comm—some of the staff joked that a sure way to drive the Queen insane was to strap her down and make her completely immobile.

“Jacen helped me.” Tenel Ka replied warmly, before her eyes narrowed in concentration. The other two Jedi were a loose battle-meld and had announced they were in position, her husband announcing the distance to his attackers. “Our ‘company’ is forty meters out.”

Aamodt said nothing as she quickly made her rounds around the room, making sure the escape hatch into the tunnel below the office was still open before taking up position against the double doors leading to the formal dining room.

Forty meters. Danni’s voice sounded in her head, and Tenel Ka could feel her friend’s apprehension through the link. Indeed, her friend’s nervousness felt like a cold fog was enveloping the Palace. Closing her eyes, she immersed herself deeper into the battle-meld. Thirty meters. Almost as one, Danni’s and Jacen’s voice sounded in her head, and Tenel Ka frowned as she opened her eyes; it was almost as if someone was coordinating both team’s assaults. Twenty. The Queen Mother drummed her fingers against the desk as the cold sensation drew closer. Suddenly, she realized that the sensation was not coming from within the meld…but was something physical. Ten meters. “Kjetiele…” she whispered, picking up her lightsaber off of the desk as she withdrew from the battle meld, “…step away from the….”

With a thundering CRACK, the double doors exploded inward off of their hinges and Captain Aamodt was thrown across the room, crashing into the wing-back chair with her lower body, toppling the chair, the collision slowing her momentum and slamming her to the floor and she impacted the parquet violently with her left shoulder before tumbling onto her stomach and side, skidding back-first into the table at the far end of the room, hitting one of the wooden chairs with a dull thunk. Whether dead or unconscious, Tenel Ka could not tell.

“You have something of mine, you little Hapan slut.” Lumiya announced coldly, her boots echoing through the formal dining room as she marched across the parquet.

Scowling, Tenel Ka tilted her head to the side, “I have paperwork that says otherwise, Shira.” She allowed a small smirk as she saw Lumiya’s green eyes widen in surprise. “Jacen has belonged to me for a long time.”

“Silly Dathomiri witch…” the Sith Lady goaded as she ignited her light-whip, the snap-whip echoing around the large dining room behind her, “…thinking you’re a match for me.” With a sudden flick of her wrist, her light-whip snapped towards the Queen Mother’s head…

…Only to be intercepted by a turquoise blade that materialized out of seemingly nowhere. With precise timing, Tenel Ka yanked her blade to the right as the yellow tendrils of the Sith’s weapon wrapped around the blade, catching Lumiya by surprise, and ripped the weapon from the woman’s hand, hurtling the weapon across the room. The whip deactivated as it flew before hitting the far wall and clattering to the floor.

“Silly Sith bitch,” the Queen replied calmly, “…thinking you break into my home and hurt my family.”

With impossible speed, Tenel Ka launched herself at her opponent, striking at the Sith’s chest, hoping to end the fight before it had a chance to begin. Even caught off guard, Lumiya’s reflexes were still up to the challenge and she managed to get her own lightsaber out and activated in time to stop the blow, her red blade clashing against the turquoise. “You won’t beat me…” Lumiya taunted, “…I was taught by Palpatine and Vader.”

The Queen Mother smirked, but said nothing. Instead, she kicked out violently with her right foot, again catching Lumiya by surprise. Her kick connected with the Sith’s right knee, the metal joint hyperextending with a loud pop. Seizing the initiative, Tenel Ka launched a three-strike riposte at the Sith’s mid-section as a feint and then slashed her opponent across the face with the butt-end of her lightsaber, the Rancor tooth leaving a deep gash across Lumiya’s right cheek and breaking her nose. Pleased with the sound, Tenel Ka launched another four-stroke attack that started high and ended low, catching the Sith on the right thigh, leaving a huge gouge, destroying more of the servos and leaving the right leg nearly immobile. She feinted an attack low to the right leg again, and used the momentum from Lumiya’s block to strike at the woman’s head. Lumiya ducked, but the blade caught the top of her head, knocking off her headdress with a wet-sounding rip and the Sith shrieked loudly in pain.

Her head seemingly on fire from the pain, Lumiya tried to back away from the onslaught, but her right leg simply would not respond quickly enough and she found herself having to stand and fight. Seething at the one-armed woman’s unorthodox attacks, she immersed herself deeper into her hate and let it consume her. Energized, she counter-attacked, satisfied with the look of shock on the young Queen’s face as she managed to land a weak blow on her right hip, drawing blood. Unfortunately, her counter-attack lost momentum, and she once again found herself on the defensive. She was unsure where the one-armed Queen Mother had learned her fighting style, but she would try to find out when this was over. Assuming she lived through the day—right now, she was losing, and losing badly. Incensed at her inability to beat a lowly deformed one-time Jedi, Lumiya again focused her anger and re-attacked, raining blows at her opponent’s head.

Tenel Ka could feel the anger boiling off of Lumiya, anger that drove the woman to ever more ferocity. Despite being pushed back into her office, the Queen realized that she just needed to wait for the right opening. Three ripostes later, she had it: Lumiya, due to the damage to her leg, overcommitted to an attack and her momentum took her too far to the left. Tenel Ka blocked and forced Lumiya’s blade low. With a flick of her wrist, she reversed her blade and neatly sliced the Sith’s lightsaber handle in half, the blade deactivating with a fizzle. Her opponent disarmed, Tenel Ka kicked out with another Force-aided kick and the Sith woman was launched back across the room. “I learned from the man who defeated both Vader and the Emperor.” Tenel Ka taunted as she strode purposefully toward Lumiya, who was struggling to get to her feet.

“Mommy?” Called a girl’s voice came from the Throne Room’s main door. Startled, Tenel Ka jerked her head to look before instantly realizing that her daughter was nowhere near the Palace. Before she could get her head fully back around, she felt a searing pain in her right thigh. Angry at being duped, she swung downwards with her weapon, catching the Sith woman halfway between the right wrist and elbow, removing that part of her arm.

“Almost.” Lumiya commented, her voice filled with pain, “You almost had me.”

Tenel Ka looked down and saw the deep gash inside her right thigh, bright red blood pouring from the wound, Lumiya’s vibroblade on the floor. With a sudden rush of air, she felt herself thrown violently across the room and with a loud CRACK her world went black.







A/N: Thanks for reading.

 

Riveting edge of seat action and a nail-biter at the end there! Whew! TK is amazing! Lumiya is just sneaky!

 

Nyota: Thanks! In YJK, so much is made of Tenel Ka's warrior nature, and it's something that we only get to see once in profic...'Dark Journey', I think, where she takes out a bunch of Peace Brigade thugs. I think that she'd still be REALLY good at hand-to-hand, so her battling a Sith, who is just as rusty as she is, wouldn't be too big a leap.

An aside: in all of the lightsabre battles we see, both combatants face each other like medieval knights. Because TK lost her left arm, she's not going to be able to fight that way--it leaves her entire left side vulnerable to attack. Instead, she's going to fight like a fencer...'sideways' with quick jabs, strikes and parries. In my view, because no one sees this style in-universe, Tenel Ka is going to present a huge tactical problem for Lumiya.

Of course she's sneaky...she's a Sith!

 

@Nyota's Heart; @Jedi_Lover; @Kahara​

​

​

​

Chapter 41—Check​

Four hours later, Magda Keto Hospital, Hapes—

Isolder stopped just inside the doorway of the ICU room, stupefied by the state his daughter was in. The top of her head was heavily bandaged, including her right eye. Her right arm was resting on her stomach, where he could see a multitude of burns and cuts covering her hand and arms. There were two IVs in her right arm, a breathing tube ran to her nose, and her skin was much too pale. Perhaps most depressing was the sound of the heart monitor and breathing apparatus; the repetitive beeps and hisses only made the scene worse. Visibly bracing himself, he continued into the room and sat in the chair on her right side, squeezing his daughter’s hand as he did.

Never taking his eyes off of his daughter, he addressed the other person in the room, “The doctors say you saved her life.”

From across the bed, Jacen winced in pain as he collapsed to the back of his chair with a defeated groan, “I don’t know that I did.” Sighing, he looked at his father-in-law, “I’ve tried to ‘find’ her, but it’s like trying to grab fog…I know she’s there, but I don’t have anything concrete. I don’t know if I did enough.”

“Jacen,” Isolder replied kindly, “…you managed to stop the bleeding from the wound in her leg and performed some sort of combat surgery on her skull to relieve her cerebral swelling. All while combating some Sith woman.”

“Danni did all of the ‘combating’.” Jacen replied despondently, gesturing at his wife and all of the medical equipment in the room, “I did this to her. She’s here because of me.”

“Yes, she is,” came a soft voice from the door. Both men looked to see Danni enter the room slowly, the tap of her cane audible over the room’s equipment. Ignoring Isolder’s wince as he noticed the sling holding her right arm, she continued, “She’s in here because she loves you and knew you would save her in the end. Without you, your wife would be in the morgue.” Nodding her thanks as her ‘Master’ stood, she allowed Gadell to take her cane and help her to the chair.

Jacen moved to the other side of the bed, “No bacta?” he asked Danni, trying to change topics.

Danni shook her head, “A dislocated elbow and a sprained knee will keep for now.”

Isolder was about to say something when the Palace Press Secretary stuck her head into the room. “Your Majesty, the press corps is here. We need to issue a statement at some point.”

Isolder sighed; could no one leave them alone with his daughter for just a few minutes? Before he could reply, Jacen put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll go. This was all my fault.”

The Crown Prince shook his head, “No. If you go out there in your current state, you will say something you will regret.”

Jacen gave him a pleading look. “Please, I feel that this is something that I need to do.” Danni looked at him in alarm and his face became determined, “Something in the Force.”

Isolder looked over at Danni, “Can you accompany him?”

“And yank him away in case he starts to say something stupid?” She replied drily as she levered herself to her feet with the cane, “Sure, I can do that.”

The press secretary did not look happy. She gave Prince Isolder the sternest look she felt that she could get away with, but the acting regent merely raised an eyebrow daring her to say something. Not wanting to start a fight she knew she would lose, she backed down and turned her glare towards Jacen, clearly blaming him for what had happened. Icily, she addressed the Jedi, “Colonel Solo, if you’ll follow me.”

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

Garden District, Coruscant—

A comlink’s harpsichord tone startled the two occupants in Jaina’s apartment. Jag looked over at Jaina next to him on the couch, “Who calls at this time of night? It’s 10:30.”

Jaina shrugged and picked up. “Solo.”

“Hey, honey.” It was her father. “Turn on the news.”

“Why? What’s up?” Jaina asked, grabbing the remote to turn the vidscreen to the all-news channel. Her eyes widened and she put her hand on her mouth when she saw her brother talking from behind a Magda Keto Hospital—Chume’dan podium.

“We’ll be right over,” Han added, “…let us know what we miss.”

Jaina was too stunned to reply and immediately started searching for her brother in the Force and was shocked at what she found: Jacen was a disorganized tumble of emotions—and he looked even worse. His eyes were having trouble focusing, his left ear was bandaged, the white, v-neck shirt he was wearing was streaked with bloodstains, she counted five blaster scorch marks singing the edges of his shirt, and what the hell happened to his left hand?

Jaina leaned forward and turned up the volume as her brother was continuing: “…to inform you of her injuries: the Queen Mother has a fractured skull and some swelling of her brain.” Jacen took a deep breath, and Jaina sensed it was to calm his emotions. “Currently, she is in an induced coma to relieve the swelling. She also sustained a rather nasty laceration on the inside of her left thigh.” Jaina noticed that he began flexing his fingers on one hand, something he always used to do when he was nervous. “The medical team insists that she will be removed from her coma in a few of days time and will likely be walking around in about four to five.”

Jacen paused to take a breath, “One member of the Palace Guard is in ‘Critical’ condition, and another is in ‘Stable’ condition. Additionally, three other Guardswomen have been treated and released with relatively minor burns and abrasions. Finally, a Chume’dan poliser suffered a broken arm and will be released shortly. We are still in the process of notifying the families of some of the injured women and are unwilling to release any names at this time. ” Jacen paused, mainly because he did not think that he could continue just then, but also to allow the members of the press time to absorb all of the information.

“The Palace was attacked by eleven persons of unknown identity; all eleven were killed in the attempt. Additionally, two other persons committed suicide via cyanide after being engaged by Chume’dan Polis.” He paused again, noticing the grim looks on the assembled press corps as he looked around the room. “That is all I have for now. We will release more information as it becomes available.”

“Who is responsible for this?” Someone yelled from the back of the room.

“The Sith.” He answered flatly and stunned silence filled the room. Not wanting to wait for more questions, Jacen left the podium.

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

Solo-Fel Apartment—

After her brother had finished, Jag turned off the vidscreen and let out a long breath. Before he could say anything, Jaina whispered, more to herself than to him, “The Sith?” Abruptly, she got to her feet and headed into the bedroom. She returned three minutes later with a green canvas bag thrown over one shoulder; all of her time spent with Rogue and Twin Suns Squadrons had taught her how to pack quickly. Giving Jag a quick kiss, she told him, “I’ll give you a call when I get there.” Jag nodded but said nothing as she made her way to the door.

When the turbolift door opened on her level of the parking garage, her parents were standing in the doorway, their faces pale with shock; obviously they had listened to Jacen’s statement on the way. Han took a look at the duffle on her shoulder and moved out of the way, “Take the Falcon. It’s faster than anything the Order will have.”

Jaina nodded, “Thanks, Dad.”

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

Do’ma residence, Hapes—

Andreas watched the press conference from the kitchen in shock. Years ago, such an attack on the reigning Monarch would have not even been newsworthy; now it felt as if someone had attacked his own daughter. Instinctively, he looked over at his daughter sitting on the edge of the couch in the living room hugging a clearly distraught ‘Amelia’ in front of her as they watched the news. Smiling at the scene, Andreas turned his attention back to the cooktop as he continued stirring the noodles on the stove, puzzled that their young guest seemed more alarmed about the broadcast than either he or his daughter. Pondering this fact, he took another look at the girl in his living room and his eyes widened in shock. He quietly left the house via the back door, returning just as quietly a minute or so later.

Grabbing a comlink from the counter and placing it in his pocket, he called to his daughter. “Kenara? Can you help me set the table?”

“Sure thing.” Kenara replied as she stood, kissing Amelia on the top of the head, “I’ll be right back, okay?” Amelia nodded, but said nothing as she hugged her stuffed feline tighter to her chest.

Entering the kitchen, Kenara opened one of the drawers, grabbed four settings of silverware and proceeded to open the cupboard to get plates and bowls. Items in hand, she headed out to the patio and started laying out the dinnerware.

“What have you gotten yourself into?” Andreas hissed as he took the silverware from her, keeping his voice low. He was aware, of course, that there were still elements of society that clung to the Hapes of the past, aware that there were still cults that craved anarchy above all else. Rationally, he also assumed that there were probably small elements of the anarchist movement in the Royal Navy; he just did not think his daughter was stupid enough to join one. “Tell me why the Chum’da is in our living room. Tell me why there is enough firepower in that speeder….” he pointed towards the black sedan in the driveway, “…to take out an armored brigade. Tell me why I shouldn’t call the polis right now.” He flashed his comlink. “What. Have. You. Done?”

Kenara looked at her father in alarm, realizing he thought her to be part of whatever happened to the Queen Mother. Looking into her father’s determined ice-blue eyes, she quietly responded, “I don’t know if we can trust the polis.”

Like many Hapans her age, she had thought that the centuries of scheming, terrorizing, kidnapping, and murdering by the Nobility had finally run its course, that Hapes was finally civilized. But the way Allana reacted to the explosion in the town center was telling—clearly Tenel Ka and Jacen thought Hapes to still be a dangerous place for the Royal Family and trained their daughter as such.

Knowing her father had not forgotten the days of yore when family members would turn on one another to gain political favor, she quickly explained about going to the Palace because of an airspace violation, about being invited by the Queen Mother for dinner. Told him about another early-morning phone call to the Palace, about becoming friends with the Queen Mother, Gadell, Danni, and Jacen, about what had happened that afternoon in the center of town. She tried to emphasize that he had raised his daughter right, that she took her oath to ‘…support and defend the Consortium against all enemies…’ very seriously.

When she had finished, Andreas gave her a proud nod and a quick hug. “I’m sorry. But when I realized who she was, and when I saw all of the weapons…”

“It’s okay. I still haven’t caught up with…”

“Mr. Andreas?” a small voice interrupted from the screen door, “The noodles are boiling over.”

“Fan!” He swore in Hapan, racing into the kitchen, dodging Allana as he did, and grabbed the pot handle, trying his best to avoid the scalding water as dumped the whole thing into the sink. “Well, so much for dinner.” He joked, looking at the two women standing in the doorway and saw that Allana was still clutching the pardalis with both hands and realized that he had a new worry: he was now responsible for the safety of the Chume’da just as much as his daughter. Which also meant that if anyone had seen Kenara leave with Allana, it would not take too long to figure out where they had gone. Luckily, he knew of a place where they could hole-up for a bit; his wife’s partner had a cabin on the edge of nowhere up in the mountains. Kneeling in front of the Crown Princess, he ‘beeped’ her nose, earning a shy smile. “Allana, I know a place that has the best croque monsieur and krumkake. Would you like to try?” The girl nodded and seemed unsurprised that he had deduced her true identity. “Okay,” he agreed, noting with some pride on how well the five-year-old was holding up, “But you’ll need your shoes!”

Allana nodded again, and went to the living room to get them. As she did, Andreas looked over at his daughter, “Grab some toiletries, we’re headed to the cabin.”

Kenara smiled at the way he father reverted to his ‘Petty Officer, Second Class Do’ma’ voice when he needed something done now, and did as he asked. After picking up a few necessary items from the ‘fresher, she met Allana in the living room and left out the back door, seeing the note her father left for her mother on the table, Gone fishing.

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

Thirteen hours later, Magna Keto Hospital, Chume’dan—

Jacen checked his notes before addressing the crowd of reporters in the filled-to-overflowing auditorium. Overnight, the number of reporters covering this story had quadrupled, severely straining both the hospital’s press facilities and its communication network. He looked up, waiting for the ‘go-ahead’ signal from the Queen’s press secretary before starting.

Seeing her nod, he addressed the crowd. “I’d like to update everyone on the condition of the Guardswomen involved: Kjetiele Aamodt is in recovery following yesterday’s surgery to stop some rather serious internal bleeding, and is still listed in ‘Critical’ condition. However, she is alert, so we are optimistic.” Jacen looked down again at his notes. “Teegan Kjus had surgery this morning to repair her right knee and will probably be released in a day or two.” He paused and allowed a smile, “Both women wanted me to pass on their thanks for all of the cards and flowers they have received. However, both them and Prince Isolder respectfully request that individuals donate to the ‘Wounded Warriors’ fund in lieu of gifts.” As he spoke, the holonet address for the fund was displayed on the screen behind him, along with a holo of Corporal Kjus’s room, where her smiling face was almost lost in a jungle of flowers, balloons and plants.

Chuckling, he continued, “I snapped this holo ten minutes ago, and NO, we didn’t strategically place anything…her whole room is like this.”

Pausing for the press corps’ laughter to die down, Jacen again consulted his notes, and his tone turned somber, “The Queen Mother’s head injury is healing a little faster than expected, and the doctors are cautiously optimistic that she will be removed from her induced coma ahead of schedule.” With this news, it almost seemed as if the room’s mood got lighter, “Because of her head injury, the doctors were unable to use bacta on her leg, but the wound has been completely sutured closed and they’ve assured me that any scarring will be minimal.” Jacen took a breath and ran his hand through his hair, “I have no other prepared remarks. I will now take any questions.”

Jacen cringedinwardly as about 90 hands flew into the air. Randomly, he pointed at a Hapan reporter who was assigned to cover the Palace. “There are reports that you saved both the Queen Mother and Captain Aamodt. Is this true?”

Jacen shrugged, “I simply did the best I would with the tools I had available. Any medic would have done the same.”

Rika Berglund would not let him off the hook that easily, she wanted him to tell Hapes that his Jedi skills saved their Queen. “I’ve been told that your actions to mitigate her cerebral swelling is why her recovery is likely. That her brain swelling would have otherwise been debilitating.”

Jacen sighed, “I was able to use a ‘Force trick’ to partially separate two plates of her skull; due to the nature of Captain Aamodt’s injuries, I had to be a bit more aggressive and use the Force to stop the bleeding.” He answered clinically, “The doctors deserve all of the credit, I was merely the first on the scene.”

Rika nodded in satisfaction; his answer was everything she had been hoping for—knowledgeable, honest, humble.

Ignoring her reaction, Jacen selected a different reporter.

“Who was this Sith Lord, and why was she targeting you?”

Well, here goes my career. “Her name is…was,” he corrected, “Lumiya. As to why she was targeting me…that’s a bit more complicated.” He took a deep breath. “Some time ago, I met her on the planet of Lorrd. She said some things that made sense to me at the time and I decided to place myself under her tutelage.” He paused and ran his right hand down his face. “Fortunately, two friends of mine became aware of the direction that I was headed and intervened.” He sneaked a sideways glance at Danni. Thank you. She gave him a small smile. “I’ve been trying to extricate myself from Lumiya’s thumb for the last several months, and I think that she was trying to voice her displeasure with my current actions.”

Off to the side, Danni cringed. What is it with Solos and understatement?

Once again, reporters’ hands flew into the air. He picked another Hapan reporter. “Who are these two friends of yours?”

“Well, one of them is upstairs in a coma.” He nodded his head in Danni’s direction, “The other one is the lovely woman to my right, Ms. Danni Quee.”

More hands. This time, Jacen pointed at a Duros. “Are you a Sith?”

Jacen shrugged and looked over at Danni for guidance. “Do Sith Lords have press conferences?” A few chuckles were heard as Danni gave him a one-shoulder shrug. He turned to the throng and continued. “I certainly hope not. I am not proud of the path I was on.” He sighed. “As for my recovery: I am going to look at this the same way that treatment councilors who treat spice addicts and alcoholics look at their charges.” Jacen looked around the room. “When you get treatment for addiction, councilors will tell you that you will always be a recovering addict, a recovering alcoholic. I guess that I’ll always be a ‘recovering Sith.’”

Jacen gestured towards at someone who looked to be a Kuati. “What do you expect the reaction to be from the Jedi Council?”

He chuckled humorlessly. “In all honesty, the Jedi Council gave up on me sometime ages ago. Really, the best that I can hope for is to be able to talk to my sister again.” Frowning, he realized that he hadn’t talked to Jaina in a long time, and he realized how much he missed her. He opened up his Force link with his sister and found her right there, offering up her love and support and much closer than he expected. Jacen inwardly smiled at her contact. Through the Force, he sent: We’ll talk later.

Damn right. She shot back.

He gestured toward another human male. “What are your injuries?

Jacen raised his eyebrows and smiled, “I was beginning to think that nobody cared.” This got another round of chuckles from the assembled reporters. “A few cuts and scrapes.” He gestured to his right hand. “The hand looks worse than it really is.” He looked back at the reporter, “Thanks for asking, by the way.” This drew more smiles.

“What happened?” the same man asked.

Grimacing, Jacen deadpanned, “I tried to catch Force-lightening with my hand.”

“Can you do that?” A shocked voice asked, somewhere from the back of the assembled reporters.

Colonel Solo rolled his eyes as he let out a snort, “Not very well, apparently.” This drew more snickers from the members of the press corps.

Everyone was looking around to see if there were any further questions. Jacen shrugged, “Thank you very much for your time. We will be sure to update you with any changes to the Queen Mother’s condition.” And, with that, the throng started to filter out of the auditorium.

|​

O​

_____(___)_____​

​

University City, Coronet—

Restra Schøke sat nursing her ale in the back corner of one of the ubiquitous tapcafs surrounding Corellia’s main University, it was starting to really sink in that what she was about to do was not only over-stepping her authority, it would most certainly get her fired from her current position and likely arrested for treason against the Crown. Taking another swig, she realized that she wasn’t as worried at the last potential outcome as she ought to be. If she had learned nothing else in her time working with the Corellian Prime Minister, it was that sometimes sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. Smiling grimly to herself, she caught sight of the mocha-skinned woman just entering through the front door and subtly signaled her location.

“Thanks for coming.” Restra said quietly, pushing a bottle of Nubian Stout towards the younger woman as she sat down.

Fighting a grimace, Marné answered nonchalantly, “No problem. Tahiri’s at the Alliance Embassy trying to figure out what happened.”

“Good luck with that.” The Hapan woman replied icily, “Chume’dan is locked down pretty tightly; accurate information is going to be pretty hard to find.”

Marné frowned; she had hoped that one of Her Majesty’s ‘Attachés’ would have access to better information than the diplomats. With a long sigh, she commented, “We were hoping you’d know more about what happened.”

Restra shook her head, “Most of my communication with Hapes is one-way: I only pass information to them.” She paused and signaled for the waitress as she downed half of her bottle. After ordering another Selonian hard cider, she gave Marné a long look. “Do you have a secure comm with your boss?”

“No.” The Nubian answered casually, taking a swig from her bottle, “But I can swing by the Bakuran Embassy…”

“Not Malinza Thanas.” the older woman interrupted, her voice hard. Glancing around the tapcaf nervously, she continued in a lower voice. “Colonel Solo. Can you contact him secure?”

For a long moment, Marné stared at her counterpart, as the noise of the tapcaf seemed to overwhelm the two of them, trying to ascertain what else the other woman knew. As the waitress reappeared, Marné considered leaving, but decided that it was best to see what cards the other woman had. Frowning, she waited for leggy waitress to set the order on the table before finally answering with a shrug.

“It depends on if he is still carrying his GAG comlink. Why?” There was several seconds of awkward silence. Finally, when it was apparent that the woman was not going to offer any additional information as to why she wanted to contact Jacen, Marné leaned forward as she glanced around the busy pub. Keeping her voice low, she asked, “What’s this all about? What is going on?”

Restra only stared at her ‘contact’ for a long moment, clearly trying to decide whether or not she could trust the other woman. With a barely audible sigh, “Gejjen is behind the attack on the…on Tenel Ka.”

If the violet-eyed woman was surprised, she hid it well. Instead, “What evidence do you have?” she asked calmly.

The brunette shook her head, “Nothing conclusive.” She paused to take a drink, before she gave the other woman a stern look, “But I need to get this information to the top now.”

Marné nodded, “And official channels would take too long.” She paused, “I haven’t talked to him in a few weeks.” Sighing in defeat, the Nubian woman dug her GAG comlink out of her jeans pocket; missing the almost imperceptible nod Restra gave to one of the patrons a few tables away. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan…” a young, muscular, sandy-haired man said as he leaned on the table nonchalantly, “…is that you finish your Stout and the two of you join my friends and I…” he nodded behind him at another table of three other ‘CorSec-but-trying-not-to-look-it’ individuals who were not there when Marné entered, “…on a tour of the city.” He looked back at the Nubian woman, “You okay with that, Marné?”

Upset with herself for being so easily duped, and even more disappointed that she allowed herself to be followed, she took a swig of her drink, glaring at the Hapan woman across from her. Putting the bottle down, she glanced at the CorSec officer, Nope, CorIntel. Marné mentally corrected, “Sure. I haven’t seen Coronet’s tourist spots yet.”

Restra smiled tightly, as she got out of her seat. “It’s not what you think.”

“Sure, it’s not.”

T​

_________|_________​

(___)​

​

​

A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry about the slight delay...my editor hadn't quite finished with this chapter last night. As always, let me know if anyone wants in or out with a tag.​

 

I liked that comment. lol! Nice updates!