41:03:15 GrS
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Looking determined in a gray tank top and dark blue spacer's pants, Taz activated one of the remotes and tossed it into the air where it hovered a couple of meters away. Since leaving Lantillies he'd committed himself to improving his skills with Aurora Ascendant. It had been over four months since he'd actually used the lightsaber in desperation on Rho-277, flailing wildly about. He'd managed to kill two stormtroopers that day, but that had been nothing but dumb luck.
Since then he'd pored over the lessons from Roh Mikkal, the Jedi Combat Master whose teachings he'd received from the captive Imperial researcher, Nanvarr. Yet reading about Shii-Cho, the most rudimentary of the Jedi's seven lightsaber combat forms, left him cursing how little he understood.
A four-year-old padawan could best me, he'd realized while studying the lessons. It left him feeling low and he'd resolved to do something about it. Lyra teased him when he told her his plan but he'd spent the morning moving all of the ceraglass crates against the back wall of the cargo hold, leaving a sizable open space that he could move around in.
Weeks before while tinkering with his saber he'd discovered the circuits for varying the power and length of the plasma blade. He thought practicing on low power would be a good idea, especially after reading descriptions of lightsabers slicing through doors, walls, and even reinforced alloys and permacrete. No need to ventilate my new ship with a clumsy swing.
Lyra entered the cargo bay and sat on a step. She watched with vague amusement as Taz pulled opaque blinders over his eyes and ignited Aurora Ascendant. The diminutive spherical remote maneuvered around him on precise vectors. Taz held the lightsaber over his head in what looked like a ready position and balanced on the balls of his feet.
The remote made a sudden change of direction, jetted up near the ceiling, and let loose a jolt of low-powered blaster fire. It caught Taz on his hip a split second before he could interpose the glowing amber beam of his saber. He yelped and reset, letting out a frustrated growl.
Lyra uttered a quiet chuckle under her breath. "Good thing that wasn't a real blaster, Oktos."
"Hey, you try doing this when you can't see!" he protested, drawing a deep breath. "Quiet, now. I need to concentrate."
"You think it'll be quiet during a scrap?" The crashing chaos in the bar jabbed instantly at her memory. The Hrakian, blazing and enraged, stomping across the ground, his burning, terrible eyes stabbing right through her soul. Her finger, twitching on the trigger, the scream of Sera's blaster, the stench of incinerated flesh...
Lyra uttered a plaintive noise and hugged her knees to stop the shaking. She forced her eyes back to Taz, letting his contest with the remotes gradually wash away the terror. She felt a little sympathy for him. After all, he was trying to piece together the training that mere children would have mastered under the careful tutelage of their Jedi proctors. Taz had no one; only ancient holo recordings to go on.
Over the past months she'd watched him struggle to learn the skills of a Jedi, and fall into gloom when success eluded him. Yet he persisted day upon day. His dogged desire to learn more about the Force, the way he scratched and scrabbled for every little bit of mastery made her want him more. Must be you're attracted to hopeless cases, Lyra. In quiet moments when she let herself feel vulnerable she realized how much it hurt to see him grinding away, only to fall short.
A scuff of boots behind her made Lyra glance over her shoulder. Reiko stood in the doorway looking back and forth between her and Taz, wearing a hesitant expression. Lyra let go of her knees and patted the step beside her. The other woman paused a beat, then sat next to her.
Taz continued sparring with the training droid, avoiding some of its attacks, cursing and barking when he took a shot. He tried executing one of the footwork sequences from Master Roh's lessons, but only succeeded in tangling up his feet. He fell to one knee, peppered by shots from the remote though he managed to dodge one and deflect a couple more.
Seeing the expression on Lyra's face, Reiko asked, "Are you rooting for the remote?"
Lyra's amused grimace morphed into a brief smile. "No, but it's fun to watch."
"So, what do you think of the Skipjack Chimera? Do you like the ship?"
"She's not what I expected." Lyra frowned for a second. "Not that I expected anything specific, I guess. But yes, yes I do." Lyra weighed one of the remaining remotes in her hand. "What do you think of her?"
"She's quirky," answered the engineer with an affirmative nod that made her glossy hair bob and glint under the cargo hold's bright lights.
"Thanks for all the work you did on her systems. You didn't have to, you know."
"You think I should have left her as she was?" she riposted, sounding a little defensive.
"No, that's not what I meant."
"I wasn't meddling with your ship."
"Didn't say you were," Lyra answered evenly.
Ever since Reiko's arrival at Lantillies, Lyra had sensed that something was off with the engineer. She'd spent years holding everyone at bay, so it wasn't hard to see the signs in Rei's manner. She had an idea why but she hadn't broached the subject. She'd been feeling out of sorts herself, between the pirate attack, the bar brawl, and shooting the Hrakian, to say nothing of what owning her own ship meant for her life aboard Allegra. She felt like the deck had suddenly fallen away, leaving her adrift just when she'd grown comfortable living with Sera and Rei.
Piloting Allegra's Heart and helping to get Rixon Charter Service off the ground had filled her with purpose, made her feel useful and needed. Taz wanted her too. He loved her and he was trying to make her happy, but she couldn't shake the feeling that the closer she grew to him, the farther she was being pulled from where she wanted to be. The pirates and the fight at the bar, standing shoulder to shoulder with Rendix, feeling the horror of that life-and-death struggle with the Hrakian, had unexpectedly drawn her closer to the imposing former Rebel soldier.
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Despite their constant sniping she appreciated Sera's calm certainty and her steely resolve. For a woman who exuded such confidence and command, who possessed such lethal skills, Sera had a surprisingly caring, even gentle side that Lyra couldn't help admiring. She realized with a start that she was developing a real affection for the Corellian.
Lyra knew that Reiko sensed it too. She seemed stiffer around Lyra, even aloof. That's not what I want. Not at all.
She screwed up her mouth, handed the remote to Reiko, and picked up the other one. Her eyes were impish as she activated the remote then nodded to the one in Rei's hand. "Turn it on."
Reiko wrinkled her brow but after a second she pressed the power switch.
Lyra cocked her arm back and cast her remote into the air. It hovered with squirts of reactant gasses, joining its fellow to harass the blinded Taz in tandem.
"Hey, not fair!" he complained as the second remote began firing in a sparse pattern.
"Who said gunfights are fair?" She shouted, fixing Reiko with a wicked grin. Lyra nodded at the remote in her hand. "Go on, give him a real challenge."
Rei looked unsure but she half-heartedly tossed the spherical drone into the air. The remotes whirled and spun around Taz, harrying him as he struggled to dodge and deflect the three-way onslaught. He yelped, yipped, and swore his way around the cargo hold while Lyra giggled at his predicament.
Even Reiko in her dour mood couldn't quite repress a grin, though she wiped it from her round face an instant later. "It's not nice."
"That's what makes it fun," Lyra said, grinning ear to ear as Taz cursed her from the other end of the bay. "You're doing great!" she yelled back.
"You're making fun of him."
"I'm not," she answered with a laugh. "Well, maybe a little." Then in a low voice, she added, "but only because I love him."
Lyra's earnest look made the engineer pause. "You told him?"
"Not yet," she admitted. "I'm still... not ready for what comes with those words, once I say them."
"You're scared."
"I—" Lyra halted and watched Taz block a quick double blast from one of the remotes. "What about you?"
"Me?"
Lyra took a breath. "It feels like you're scared of me getting closer to Rendix."
"I'm not scared," she protested immediately.
"I wasn't trying to take your place when you were gone you know. What happened at Lantillies, it was..." She shuddered anew, reining in her wavering emotions. "I was terrified that I'd never see him again, or you."
She took Rei's hand. "When those sketworms were swarming around us, there were a few seconds when I thought we might not make it. But I knew how tough Allegra was and Sera didn't even break a sweat. Then in that bar they just kept coming, one after another. But there she was in the middle of all that chaos, fighting, keeping me safe even though we'd probably never have gotten into the brawl in the first place if I'd kept my big mouth shut. And that crazed Hrakian I had to shoot—"
She tightened her grip to hide the shaking. "I wanted to run, Rei. I wanted to run." Lyra fell silent for a while. "She never said anything, never blamed me, even when she was all banged up. But even for all that, she wanted it to be you she was fighting for. She wanted it to be you she was protecting. You know that, don't you?"
Stunned by Lyra's fierce expression, Rei found herself at a loss. After a few seconds she managed a nod.
Lyra took her other hand. "Rendix needs you and so do I. You're both..." Now she was the one struggling to find words. "I loved Allegra. I've mourned her all these years, Rei. Sometimes it hurts so much it feels like I only lost her yesterday." A tear appeared at the corner of Lyra's eye and fell down her cheek. She sniffed and steadied herself with a deep breath. "But since I've gotten to know you and Sera... I still miss her but I don't mourn her as much as I used to." She wiped the tears from her face and affected a melancholy smile.
"Lyra, that's—I don't know what to say."
"You don't need to say anything, Rei. Sera makes me feel safe, like Allegra did. You make me comfortable with myself, like Allegra did." She flashed a wistful smile. "But as fond as I am of both of you, you can't take Allegra's place. And even though Rendix and I got a little closer in the past couple of days, I can't take your place with her. Not that I would ever try." She gave Reiko's hands a reassuring squeeze. "Your friendship means... well, a lot. I just wanted you to know that."
Reiko looked amazed for a moment, then she let slip a little cry and threw her arms around Lyra. With a sniffle she said, "I guess I've been acting pretty silly, haven't I?"
"Maybe a little," Lyra chuckled gently and hugged the engineer back.
Reiko looked as serious as Lyra had ever seen her. "The way you feel? Her team used to say the same thing. On our ship, Colonel Naveen commanded the Ballista platoon. Everyone looked up to her, Sera most of all. Lieutenant Kestalos led the commandos when we joined the Alliance forces on Jakku, but he was killed a week after we arrived. Sera-sha was the ranking trooper so she got temporary command even though she wasn't an officer. They told her it was just for a couple of weeks, until they could ship a replacement planetside. But the replacement never came.
"She acted like she took it in stride but I could tell how much the responsibility weighed on her. She wanted Colonel Naveen to be proud of her so she shouldered all of it, Lyra, and she never complained, not to me or anyone. She didn't complain when she had to take on all the duties of an officer, either. Never even once.
"She had it rough though. Whenever someone under her command didn't make it she... took it really hard. I could see what it did to her, how it wrecked her inside. She wouldn't say so but I knew. Do you know how hard that is, watching the woman you love suffer like that week after week?" Tears filled Reiko's eyes and spilled down her smooth cheeks. She was quiet for a while, regaining her composure. "I was so happy when she decided to muster out, but you know what?"
"No, what?"
"She needs people to protect. I thought it'd be enough for it to be me, and it probably is," she grinned, "but even though I don't like it sometimes, more is better. Sera-sha knows what it's like to lose her closest friends and what it's like to have her family ripped away. She and I are a family but you and Taz, you're kaashuub to us. You're our family, too."
Lyra wore a solemn look. "I feel the same way, Rei."
Reiko nodded and smiled. "If it couldn't be me then I'm glad you were there for Sera."
"Anytime, Rei." She let go of the engineer's hands. "Now, stop skulking around this ship and go take care of her."
"I will," she assented in a brighter tone. She glanced at Taz, who was still getting the worst of the exchange with the remotes. "What about him?"
Lyra grinned and got to her feet. "He looks like he's had enough punishment for one day. I guess I'll rescue him." She patted Reiko's arm and walked toward Taz, pressing the standby mode on the controller. The remotes gathered together and hovered in place, emitting pleasant polyphonic chimes.
Breathing hard, his shirt soaked with sweat, Taz extinguished his saber and took off the blinders.
Lyra's smirk faltered when she saw the welts on his arms and the burn marks on his clothes.
Moons, I hurt him. "I—I'm sorry, Taz. I didn't realize they did that much damage." Her eyes were soft and contrite.
"It looks worse than it is." He grinned though she could sense his frustration.
"I think it went pretty well for your first time."
"Do you?" He sounded excited.
"No, not really," she teased, "but I didn't want you to feel bad." She touched his arm, looking sympathetic. "It'll take time, just like learning anything new. You'll get it, I know you will." She put her hand on his chest and her smile grew warmer. "I'm rooting for you."
"Throwing three remotes at me when I can barely handle one makes me doubt that."
"Come on," Lyra prompted, wrapping her fingers around his. "I'll treat those burns and reward you for your hard work." She led him out of the cargo hold with a coy smile and a playful gleam in her coppery eyes.