Chapter 58: Chapter 58

A Young Girl’s War Between the Stars

Felucia. 36 BBY/964 GSC.

I let out an annoyed sound as my alarm went off. Rolling over, I turned it off and forced myself out of bed. I stumbled slightly as my vision swam briefly, my head throbbing and my body soaked with sweat.

I feel like shit, I mentally complained, pulling on a set of jogging pants and a baggy tee-shirt. Making my way outside, I winced as I stepped into a sauna. Even the mornings on Felucia were abysmally hot and humid, and it would only get worse as the day wore on. I forced myself to move, walking over to the small area we’d designated for training, where I got to work stretching. When I felt like I was good and limber, I started jogging around the perimeter, not using the Force at all as I let my body run on auto-pilot.

I was halfway around the perimeter of the camp before I finally felt like I was truly awake, or at least awake enough to face the day. My sleep the last few nights had been restless and miserable. They were plagued with feelings, senses of the Force and emotions. I felt watched and somewhere in the middle, as though the planet itself were trying to speak to me but didn’t know how. If this continued much longer, I might have to do something drastic.

I finished my run and hit the sonic shower in the very small officers’ quarters available, then got dressed. Collecting a few stored tea leaves, I made my way to the mess and collected breakfast and hot water, and went about making myself a cup of tea. After the first few sips, I sighed as I started feeling normal again.

Taking out my datapad, I read over the latest surveillance reports and frowned. Our technology was having just as hard a time of picking out the enemy from the surroundings as I was using my senses. Our technicians did the best they could, but the pirates knew the planet and knew how to disappear. The most we had were a few suspected sightings during the night, what might be the pirates observing from a distance but our analysts were uncertain, and daytime patrols in the area turned up nothing out of the ordinary—no sign of their passing if anyone had been there.

Thinking back to what we had gotten from the locals as I absently ate my breakfast and drank my tea, I brought up the maps of the area and the patrol routes we’d taken so far. The locals had been unhelpful and reluctant to part with information. They confirmed the pirates were here, but either they didn’t know where they were hiding, or they knew and were actively withholding the information because they didn’t want to face reprisal from the pirates if we didn’t get them all.

Understandable, of course—they had to live here, after all. Still, that hindered our ability to attack the pirates and deal with the threat decisively. Instead, we had to scout and do recon, and find them the old fashioned way. Thus, patrols into and over the jungle. So far however, we had found nothing—or at least, nothing conclusive.

Alright, if we can’t just fly over and find them normally, and patrols are likely a waste of time without a direction to patrol in, then we’ll have look at it from a different angle. So… if I wanted to hide somewhere on this planet, where would I hide? Or better question, what things would I want in order to hide in this environment.

Opening my terrain map, I began filtering search areas.

Proximity to fresh water if I didn’t want to burn fuel to constantly recycle water. Somewhere I could easily hide a few small ships, such as a valley. Somewhere easily defensible, and preferably with natural terrain features to discourage the local wildlife and where I would have sight lines on the surrounding area, like a mountain. Somewhere convenient I could use as improvised housing, shallow caves I could easily clear out for instance. Proximity to locals, for easy access to supplies and information if I’m staying here for an extended period—but I’m not taking a speeder because I don’t want attention, so I’ll either walk or use a mount, and I don’t want to camp out overnight often so it won’t be more than two or three days away by mount.

I quickly narrowed things down and got a few locations to narrow our search grid down a bit. Then, I began plotting today’s patrol paths.

We’ll split the platoons down in half. Third Platoon can stay behind and guard the base while Fourth sleeps. First and Second will go out and I’ll split them up between locations. I’ll stay with half of First Platoon and follow the most obvious path up the river and into the mountains from the city while the other three fan out and cover the other routes to either side. That should cover the most likely paths.

With that, I finished up my meal and handed off my dirty dishes to the soldier on KP duty, then made my way to our field command unit to prepare the morning’s briefing.

I yawned, slipping into my bunk and pulling my datapad over with the Force. Mentally, I began going over what we’d learned.

There were trails all through the jungle, going from the various villages who made their homes along the local waterways down to the capital. All four patrols had encountered a variety of locals in several villages who were all very tight-lipped about non-Felucians passing through. The best we got was confirmation that they had seen some recently, but they wouldn’t say how long ago or what direction they came from—but it seemed obvious to me that they were coming from somewhere upriver.

Unfortunately, the fact that those trails were all well-traveled meant we didn’t have any leads on what the pirates were using to get around on or any specific set of tracks to follow. Nothing that would help narrow things down and tell us where they were coming from. It was a bit frustrating, but at least we were on the right track and I wasn’t completely off base. It was just a matter of time now. Time and preparation.

Our drone operator had the forethought to suggest setting up one of our probe droids to watch the trail and alert us if it detected anything, all while broadcasting everything it was seeing back so one of our men could add it to the security feed for the night’s watch and check to see if the pirates were using the trails at night. The jungle was dangerous during the day, so anyone traveling at night was either desperate, or up to no good.

I spent a few more minutes marking out new routes for tomorrow, before shutting the datapad down and turning off the lights. Pulling my computation orb off the small desk nearby, I closed my eyes and slipped into meditation, trying to filter out the alien jungle night sounds and listen to just the hum and rush of air of the air conditioner and the rhythmic, even clicking of beads as I practiced with the Force. I stopped when I felt the environment start slowly mimicking what I was doing.

Eventually, I fell asleep to the quiet, steady clicking…

Only for the world to erupt into noise some unknown amount of time later, an explosion from somewhere inside the camp hitting so hard it threw me from my bunk and onto the floor. That saved my life as, a moment later, a stream of red blaster bolts punched through the walls of my shelter. I reacted reflexively, throwing up a shield as the fire continued for a few seconds and I blinked, heart hammering in my chest as I tried to fight off the effects of sleep deprivation and get moving. A pull with the Force jerked my belt over and I snapped it on, before grabbing my rifle as well.

Spinning up an optical camo formula, I threw open the door and rushed outside, my feet not touching the ground as I fell back on training and gained altitude, running detection formulas and assessing the threat. What I found made my jaw clench and muscles tighten with fury.

Our fuel depot and the ground around it was on fire—that had been the source of the explosion. Thankfully, doctrine meant we kept those well away from anything important, just in case of sabotage.

The stream of red blaster bolts was still ongoing from the treeline and my men were returning fire, but no one had figured out yet that no one was manning the machine gun. I didn’t detect any living beings larger than a small dog around it, so I dropped the optical camo formula and descended. “Cease fire!” I called, using a public address formula to boost my voice.

The men reacted as they should, stopping their fire, but that didn’t stop them from staring as I descended to the blaster equivalent of a machine gun. Finding the mechanism holding the trigger down, I disengaged it and the fire stopped. Conjuring a light and running more detection formulas, I began looking over the scene as the men began approaching.

It was Lt. Saz who spoke up. “Sir. You’re uh, out of uniform.”

“I am quite aware, lieutenant,” I rolled my eyes, ignoring the looks I was getting. I wasn’t a child anymore, physically—I’d have to be mindful of that in the future, if it was going to prove a distraction. “I want a full sweep of the base. Look for any evidence of sabotage. Get two squads to do a sweep of the perimeter as well. Get me a team here to follow this trail into the forest and see where it leads,” I ordered, pointing to the disturbed ground and bent foliage leading away from the blaster rifle that had been set up on a makeshift tripod and aimed specifically at my quarters. “And finally, have whoever was on watch report to me in twenty. I’ll be in the security room, going over the feeds. After I get dressed.”

Seeing as they had already seen me fly, I grabbed the rifle and rose into the air, before zipping off for my quarters. Stepping inside, I looked around with annoyance. Luckily, I didn’t have anything too valuable in here—just my rifle, lightsabers, and my computation orb, and I knew for a fact that it would take a lot more than a hit from a blaster rifle to destroy the orb.

Holes filled the walls and debris covered the floor and my bed. Smoke wafted through the air from the fried air conditioning unit and burnt durasteel of the shelter. A gesture and a bit of Force telekinesis blasted the smoke out the front door, sucking in clean but humid and hot air. Opening the small closer where my things were, I got dressed, then took a few minutes to clean the worst of the debris out, before making my way to the security office.

The officer on duty stood and came to attention. “Sir! I’m reviewing the footage now.”

“Good,” I nodded, motioning for the woman to sit back down. “Let’s have a look and see whose ass I need to put my boot in.”

The private backed the footage up and I watched the short firefight in reverse, then the explosion. “Slow down,” I instructed, and she nodded, slowing her reversing through the footage. She went all the way back to sunset with nothing happening. No one approached the tanks. Nothing flew anywhere near them. No droids or drones dropped anything on them. No blaster fire or missiles. We didn’t pick up any sounds of old fashioned gunfire either, so that ruled out a slug thrower.

“I don’t get it. Was it just an accident?” the woman asked, and I shook my head.

“Unlikely. Keep reversing it,” I instructed, and she did so.

We paused every time someone approached the tanks to confirm their identity and their purpose for using them throughout the day, and every instance was accounted for. No one lingered. No one did anything outside of exactly what their job entailed. Even the smokers knew better than to light up near the fuel tanks.

Finally though, something caught my eye. The previous night, deep in the night, we caught someone walking up to the tanks, then bending over and slipping something into the middle of the cluster of them. “Who is that?” I asked as the private adjusted the video and focused on one of the few shots of the individual from the front as they were leaving. “I don’t recognize them.”

“I… don’t think they’re one of ours,” she murmured, shaking her head.

“And yet, they’re wearing one of our uniforms and walking around like they belong. See if you can see where they came from.”

The woman nodded and switched cameras, finding the man and following him back around to the barracks, only for him to walk behind it and disappear in the gap between the barracks and the perimeter wall. She switched cameras a few more times, but there were no cameras with a view on that area. The ones that could see where it came out showed that he didn’t.

“Did he climb the fence?” I asked, and she shook her head, pointing to another feed.

“He would have shown up here. He didn’t cut a hole through the fence either, or we’d have seen him leaving on one of the perimeter cameras.”

I was still thinking about it and going over the footage again when the door opened and the lieutenant in charge of Fourth Platoon stepped in and saluted. “Sir. I apologize. There’s no excuse for—”

“Save it,” I waved him off. “Did you have men on watch and were they doing their jobs?”

I nodded. “Then we don’t need to discuss disciplinary action. Besides, have a look at this.”

I had the private play the footage again and the man frowned. “That’s not one of ours. Where the hell did he come from?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. Let’s go have a look, shall we?” I asked, hopping up from the chair and making my way outside, the lieutenant following.

We hurried to the barracks and inspected the area where it sat nearly against the wall. The man frowned. “It’s a tight squeeze.”

“Yes. Turn your light on and shine it in there,” I instructed, then slipped into it. I was still smaller than nearly everyone else, so it wasn’t nearly so bad for me as I made my way down the narrow shaft. Halfway in, I frowned as I felt the ground give a bit beneath my feet. Casting a light formula, I stepped back and examined the ground. It was impossible to see from the outside, but right up on top of it, I could make out what looked like a net or something that had a bunch of local grass tied to it. Picking it up revealed a tunnel leading down into the earth.

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“They tunneled in,” I called back to the lieutenant.

“You want me to send someone to see where it goes?” he called back, and I shook my head.

“Ma’am, there could be traps, or the enemy could be hiding in there.”

“I am aware. If I’m not back in half an hour, send someone in after me,” I nodded, before dropping down into the hole.

It went down ten feet according to formula scans, with a ladder made of bricks leading back up to the surface, built into the side of the wall. The walls were entirely too smooth and showed none of the signs of a person using tools to carve them, but they didn’t have the organic look one would see with burrowing creatures either. They were entirely too mechanically precise for either of those options.

Droids. It’d have to be some sort of tunneling droid, I realized. Which means they could have more set up. They could have an entire underground complex and that’s why we can’t find them.

Looking around, I found a low tunnel in the wall, facing away. It was about three feet high, so even I would have to either squat or crawl. I killed my lighting formula and spooled up nightvision and an infrared illuminator.

If I had my Mando helmet, it would have auto-adjusted, the thought crossed my mind as I started making my way along the tunnel. Unfortunately, I was firmly in the middle of a growth spurt and I was shooting up like a weed. I had outgrown everything but my chest piece, and only that was spared because it was built with me getting bigger in mind. Even my current pants were about an inch short in the leg and starting to get tight about the hips…

Shaking my head, I focused on my surroundings, running a detection formula and scanning ahead, but not picking up anything except the walls and floor of the tunnel. Pausing a moment to study them a bit closer, I saw that whatever droids they were using had fabricated bricks and evenly installed support arches and braces all along the tunnel and had bricked up everything, so it wasn’t just dirt—even the floor was brick. We hadn’t been here that long and there was no way this was a preexisting structure, so that meant the droids they were using worked extremely fast. It also meant that nowhere was truly safe, when the enemy could just wait for us to set up, let our guard down, then come in with their tunneling droids and dig up under our walls in a matter of days.

The only solution is to either stay mobile, or take to the trees. And they destroyed our fuel depot. So we’ll have to replace that before we can.

I eventually found the end of the tunnel and another brick ladder. Carefully climbing up, I directed a scan upwards, detecting men around me. Grabbing my radio off my belt, I keyed up. “This is Lt. Mereel. I’m about to surface from a tunnel near what looks like one of our patrols. Don’t shoot me.”

“Roger that, LT,” one of the platoon leaders radioed back.

Pushing the letting off the top of the tunnel, this one backed by branches tied together to create a surface someone could stand on and not fall through, I climbed out and winced as gun lights immediately turned my way. I kept a shield formula ready, but a moment later, the lights lowered and I made out the uniforms of my soldiers. “Where am I?”

“Only a few yards from the blaster rifle that was rigged up, LT.”

I nodded. “Start looking for another tunnel. Our saboteur is probably long gone by now, but I want to know what direction he went.”

“Yes, sir,” the man nodded and signaled the others to fan out and search.

I turned and made my way back to camp, thinking as I went.

Republic Command was wrong. We’re not dealing with simple pirates, we’re dealing with an insurgent force who knows the terrain and have a vested interest in staying here. This simple ‘peacekeeping action’ just turned into Space Vietnam! Shit! We’re not equipped for this!

Nodding at the guard on the gate, I made my way back to my quarters, to find a repair crew already working to patch the holes and replace the air conditioning unit. I grabbed my personal holocom and left them to their work. Heading to our communications prefab building, I nodded to the comms officer on duty, who quickly saluted.

“As you were,” I nodded, moving over to the main communications terminal. Tapping away at it, I began putting in the call that would likely see me not being promoted—but I didn’t care about the promotion and I’d rather keep my people alive than continue forward blindly.

The terminal let out an annoying beep and I frowned. Looking to the comms officer, I asked him, “Is there something wrong with the equipment?”

Turning his seat to face me, the man shook his head. “No, ma’am. We lost comms yesterday night some time, we’re not sure when. When the duty officer went to send in our reports this morning, we were unable to establish a connection. We ran diagnostics and those came back clean, then the lead comms officer put together a maintenance crew and we physically checked the machine to verify, and it was fine. Shortly after that, we noticed that it wasn’t just our comms that were down, but everything outbound from the planet—communication, video, holonet, everything. We checked for jamming, but we’re clear. Local radio and holo calls work just fine. The lead comms officer determined it was a problem with the system’s relay, not our gear or enemy action.”

I blinked, my mouth slowly falling open. “And no one thought to report this to me, why exactly?”

“Well, this is a backwater Outer Rim system, so those sorts of equipment malfunctions are common. They’re also outside our jurisdiction to do anything about. The local authorities likely know, but they can’t do anything about it. So we’ve got to wait until someone leaves the system and reports the network outage. Then it’ll probably be a few months before they send someone out. We’ll be long gone by then.” Apparently, some part of his hindbrain registered danger and he hurried to shift the blame, “At least, that’s what my superior said, ma’am!”

“I see,” I ground out, before turning on my heel and hurrying out of the room. I’d sort that failure out tomorrow. Before that, I needed to do something about the current situation. It sounded like a coincidence, but experience and my gut told me it was enemy action. That we had been intentionally cut off. The question was, why.

The obvious answer is that the pirate force is larger than we thought. Or they’ve grown too bold and they want to send a message to the Republic by disappearing the people sent to remove them. Either way, I need to confirm it before jumping to conclusions.

I made my way back to my quarters and grabbed my emergency vac suit, then headed to the restroom to pull it on under my uniform. Setting the collapsible helmet on my belt, I headed for my next stop.

I found Lt. Saz on my way to the motor pool and pulled him aside. “Sir?”

“Lt. Saz, I’m heading into the city to hire a ship for a reconnaissance mission.”

“Recon, sir? I thought sensors were humped.”

“They are,” I confirmed. “I’m not doing recon on the planet. We’re experiencing a comms failure and I want to confirm whether it’s coincidence or enemy action. For now, assume it’s enemy action. Send a team into the city to secure more fuel, then start preparing to abandon the base camp.”

He looked unsure, but nodded. “Understood. Where are we relocating to?”

“We’re going to be on the move. We’ll use the AT-TEs to bunk the men in shifts. But we can’t stay here when our position is compromised because the enemy can just burrow under our walls and take us out when we least expect it.”

Lt. Saz winced. “The men aren’t going to like that.”

I sent him a particularly dry look. “I imagine they’ll like dying even less.”

“Right. They’ll deal with it. I’ll get it done.”

“Good. Double the watch until then, and make sure we’re sweeping the interior of the camp.”

With that, I left him to it and hurried to the motor pool. Sliding onto a speeder bike, I started it and took off, turning for the nearby capital—one of the few places on the planet with a spaceport that might have a ship I could hire. I stayed low and fast, occasionally shifting the bike to one side or the other to stay out of a straight line trajectory, just in case—with my senses as confused as they were by the environment, I wasn’t going to risk being an easy target for some overachieving sniper and I didn’t want to run a shield formula the whole way.

Thankfully, the flight was relatively short and soon enough, the lights of the small city were flashing by beneath me. I found the space port and brought the bike to a stop in the public parking area, then hurried for the tarmac where I had seen a ship that looked like it was preparing for launch.

Spotting the freighter with its ramp still down, I hurried over and looked around, spotting a human man standing nearby as he watched the service droids refuel the ship. “Excuse me,” I called, drawing his attention. “Are you the owner of this ship?”

He looked me up and down once, his eyes pausing on my lightsabers, before nodding. “Yeah. Help you?”

“I’d like to hire your services for a few hours.”

“Hours?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Doing what?”

“The holonet is down. We can’t get a signal out to headquarters. I need to go up and verify the local holo relay’s current status. If it’s down, I’d like to hire your services to deliver a message as soon as you’re close enough to another relay to send it.”

“That’s it? Fly up, check the relay, fly back and drop you off, and if it’s busted forward a message?” he asked to confirm, and I nodded. “Alright. Call it five thousand credits.”

I winced. “Highway robbery.”

The man grinned. “Maybe, but do you see anyone else around willing to take the job?”

Making an annoyed sound, I conceded the point. “Fine. Payment when you drop me off.”

“Deal,” he agreed, holding out his hand. “Name’s Kirkland.”

I shook his hand. “Tanya. How long until we can be under way, captain?”

He looked over at the fuel gauge and hummed. “About five minutes.”

“I’ll be back in four.”

Moving away, I took out my personal holocom and called the base. I reported my success in hiring a pilot and the plan, and got a quick status update.

I made it back to the Capt. Kirkland’s ship just in time for him to disconnect the fuel nozzle. He led me up into the small freighter and closed the hatch behind us. Climbing into the seat beside his, I strapped in as he ran through the startup sequence.

It only took a few moments for him to finish, then we were airborne and climbing. As we got further from the planet, I felt the tension drain out of my body as my senses cleared up. I yawned, blinking as I suddenly felt the lack of sleep of the last few days, and having what little sleep I was getting tonight rudely interrupted.

“Holonet relays are in the L2 point, so it’s going to take a couple of hours to get there if you want to take a nap,” Capt. Kirkland offered.

“Thank you,” I nodded.

Easing the seat back into a reclined position, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off. Unfortunately, what felt like only minutes later, I felt a growing worry from nearby.

Opening my eyes again, I frowned as I took in my companion for this little excursion. Leaning the seat back up, I asked, “What’s wrong?”

He reached out and tapped at a console, which showed a radar reading. Studying it for a moment, I raised an eyebrow. “That’s a large number of small signal returns.”

“Yeah,” he grunted, and space shifted through the transparisteel windows as he turned the ship around and accelerated back towards the planet.

“What are you doing?” I asked as his worry began to climb.

“Missy, that relay’s been blasted into a cloud of debris. That wasn’t an equipment failure or an accident. Someone shot the damn thing with a missile. Probably pirates. So, I’m heading back to the planet, dropping you off like I said I would, then I’m hauling my ass out of this system. Go ahead and make that recording now and I’ll shoot it off as soon as I can.”

Nodding, I took out my personal holocom and did just that, before sending the recording to his ship to send off later. Once I was finished, I asked, “Nothing else on radar?”

“No. We’re clear for now. Let’s hope it stays that way.”

“Alright. In that case, wake me when we land.”

Capt. Kirkland nodded and I made myself comfortable and drifted off again. Only to once again be rudely awoken, this time by the feeling of the Force screaming a warning at me and alarms going off in the cockpit. Looking around, I quickly took in the instrumentation as Capt. Kirkland hastily ran through the sequence for a jump to hyperspace.

Radar lock. Missiles inbound. Enemy ship approaching from the planet’s moon. Hyper drive is going to take too long to spool up. We’re not going to make it.

“Do you have a vac suit?” I asked, quickly pulling my helmet off my belt, snapping it open, and pulling it on. Latest content publıshed on NovelHub(.)net

“Personal forcefield and a helmet with an air supply,” he answered, pulling his own helmet on. “But I don’t think it’s going to matter much if those missiles hit.”

“They’re going to hit,” I told him as I grabbed my rifle and unstrapped from my seat. “Brace for impact. I’ll do what I can to protect us.”

He sent an incredulous look at me as I focused and began preparing a shield formula. A moment later, the missiles hit and the ship exploded around us, leaving only a shielded sphere holding our two chairs intact.

“What the fuuuck—” he started to ask as I pushed the seat away and turned around under my own power.

Formulas came to life as my computation orb went to work, picking out the target still bearing down on us. I drew a bead on the enemy ship as a sniping formula sharpened my vision, allowing me to see the pig-like alien behind the transparisteel cockpit window. Taking a breath, I charged an explosive formula, then fired.

Shields flared and the ship abruptly jerked. The rifle in my hands protested as I charged a second shot—laser formula, concentrated beam, armor piercing. A red line connected the rifle in my hand with the pilot, then straight through him and the ship itself. The rifle sparked and died in my arms, but the job was done, as I felt the pilot die, and the craft quickly shot by us. I turned and zipped after it, quickly catching up and forcing the hatch open with the manual override. Jerking the pilot out, I tossed him out the open hatch and got the ship turned around and slowed down as I assessed the damage.

Good news is, the shields aren’t completely screwed and I didn’t hit the reactor. She’ll make it into atmosphere. Bad news is, I got the hyperdrive. She’s not leaving the planet without repairs. I’m not getting that message out any time soon. Damnit.

I looped around and quickly found Capt. Kirkland. Pulling him onboard with the Force, I sealed the ship and got it repressurized, with the force field doing the work of keeping the atmosphere in, but we kept our helmets on just in case. The man took the seat beside me and simply stared, radiating incredulity.

“A Jedi. We can’t jump to hyperspace, the hyperdrive is dead. Get us back down to the planet. Once we’re there, I’ll take your contact information and forward it to the military, to have you reimbursed for the loss of your ship. Until then, I need to concentrate.”

He took hold of the second set of controls and nodded. “Whatever you say, lady.”

Closing my eyes, I focused, reaching out with the Force. Projecting my mind and spirit outwards, to the strongest connection I had…

“Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi—” I trailed off, taking in the scene before me.

Obi made a high pitched noise somewhere between a scream and a squeak, and dove under the sheets. Satine, on the other hand, simply smiled—not bothering to hide or cover herself as she held my gaze, radiating emotions somewhere between amusement, annoyance, and teasing. “I’m afraid she’s indisposed at the moment. You wouldn’t mind calling back later, would you?”

I groaned quietly, rubbing at my forehead as I looked away. “Unfortunately, circumstances prevent that. It’s now or never. I need backup on Felucia as soon as possible.”

I felt the other woman’s concern as she sat up on the bed, shifting from obviously mid-coitus to all business. Obi actually managed to poke her head out from under the sheets at that. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ll save the longer story for later. Short version: I was sent here on assignment for the Republic with a team for training to eliminate pirates. They’re dug in too well, it’s impossible to find them, and they’ve cut off communications in and out of the system. They tried to assassinate me directly tonight and I suspect they’ll begin making a more direct effort against us soon.”

“Can’t you use the Force to find them?” Obi asked, clutching the sheets to herself as she sat up as well.

I shook my head. “Felucia is alive, and not in a good way. It’s scrambling my Force senses.”

Satine stood and moved across the room, grabbing a robe and pulling it on. Sitting down in front of a holocom terminal, she quickly began placing a call. “I’ll get someone out there to you as soon as I can.”

“Thank you,” I nodded, and pulled away, back to my own body.

“You look annoyed. Bad dream?” Capt. Kirkland asked, glancing over at me.

I bit back my first and second response. The captain didn’t deserve my ire. That should be reserved solely for the pirates. “I’m fine.”

“Every time the ex-wife says that, it means the opposite.”

“Yes, well, I’ll thank you to keep your observations to yourself, Capt. Kirkland.”

That said, I closed my eyes and tried to get a bit more sleep, and maybe burn the mental image of what I’d seen from my mind—and ignore the way my body wanted to react to what I had seen. This was neither the time nor the place for any sort of ‘self discovery.’

I wasn’t sure which was more annoying. My body deciding now was a good time to remind me it existed and had needs, or the feeling that made me unsure if I wanted to wipe that smug look off Satine’s face with a blaster or by some other method.

I wasn’t jealous. Really.

Satine’s face was just very punchable for some reason.