Captain Typho's Blog

OOC: New Blogger Woes

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

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

Stay out of trouble

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

We said our goodbyes in Moenia.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: It’s time to go home.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The End.

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Something warm, yummy and fresh

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

We arrived too late to get the shuttle.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Time to wake up.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

The invites were tagged

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

Soon we'd have to report back to Padmé.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: This journey’s almost over.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Your Twi’lek Stalker

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

A stalker?

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

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

Listening to: Cranky Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Punished? How am I—”

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

In a matrimonial way

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

We finally said goodbye to the Trandoshan.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

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

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

It'll go faster if we do it together

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

We had a body to dispose of.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Like we need to blow something up.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jardena picked up the keys and headed for the speeder.

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

“Be careful, ok?” she said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Back to reality

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

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

Feeling: Mulling things over.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Next time I’m in distress

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

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

Feeling: More relaxed.

Listening to: The sleepy voice of Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Holler if you need help

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

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

Feeling: Sleepy.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Holler if you need help,” she said.

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Can't hurt

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

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

Feeling: Warmer.

Listening to: Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

“Nice place,” I remarked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Should we burn the body?

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

What to do with the body?

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Exhausted.

Listening to: The faint voice of Jardena.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I scribbled my response quickly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Nice place,” I remarked.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

A pair of tusk-cats

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

A pair of tusk-cats entered the camp.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Pain in many places.

Listening to: Purring.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some time around dawn I fell asleep.

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

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

Can You Hear Me?

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

Jardena went in search of the Trandoshan's vehicle.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: In need of bacta.

Listening to: Still can’t hear a thing.

Continued from here.

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

And that she did.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Issues:

Possible traps set around vehicle

You can’t hear to defend yourself

Unlikely, but backup BH is possible

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

I Surrender

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

His weapon was a bowcaster.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: This is not going well.

Listening to: I can't hear anything.

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Keeping score

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

A Trandoshan was behind the attack.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

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

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

Detonator.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Everything I’ve done will be undone

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

That looks deadly.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Like I’m being watched.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Detonator.

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Bondage, eh?

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

Booze and bondage.

Where: Dee’ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: I can’t feel my legs.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

We could neutralize them

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

Dorme and Grandpa Bibble got it on.

Where: Dee'ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Grossed out.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

Unbelievable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Dessert before dinner

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

Dorme and her lover met in Dee'ja Peak.

Where: Dee'ja Peak, Naboo.

Feeling: Chilly.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Nothing like a snowstorm

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

I thought I saw a gualama.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Cold.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Rich husband, fancy house, big ring

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

Dorme bought her own engagement ring.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Ready to go.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Not the brightest thing out there

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

We began our surveillance in Moenia.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Eager to get started.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Do you want me to do this myself?

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

Jardena had questions for me as well.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Contemplative.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~

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

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

I can’t remember how the dream ended.

I hate dreams like that.

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

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

~~

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.

Don't Be You

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

I had some questions after the party.

Where: Moenia, Naboo.

Feeling: Contemplative.

Listening to: Jardena

Continued from here.

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

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

Be like Mal? Bail! What the—

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

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

But reason won out over the flush of anger.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To be continued...

See Jardena’s blog for her point of view.