[FIC] The Adventures of Jolee Bindo

[Char Ell]

@cm--I'm not so sure he's totally sworn off marriage--I just think he was hurt so bad that he wasn't ready to even consider another relationship for a long while. However, if the right woman came along again, I think he'd be married again in a heartbeat.

I dunno. I think the woman would really have to be someone really special to give Jolee the again to where he would start thinking about the "M" word.

 

Even if he has sworn off marriage, in the game, he makes the comments "Elusive? Me, elusive? Heh. Obviously you've never tried to grab a Twi'lek dancing girl after drinking too much Ondaran willek juice," and "Exactly. You're still at the beginning of your life. There will be men in your life... perhaps many men... but if you're fortunate you'll find love once."

Yeah, I guess you're right. I think Jolee at this point in his life is a playah, all flirtatious with the dancer girl-types but nothing beyond wining, dining, and flirting. Probably to some degree because he is a Jedi but mostly because of what he went through with his wife.

I realized that I have a continuity error that I have to fix, occuring somewhere between chapter 17 and the latest.

 

A Bindo prize goes to whoever can find it before I fix it.

Aw, shucks. I was too late in reading this since you already fixed it. No potential Bindo prize for me...

 

Glad to hear your dad is doing better. The sooner he gets out of the hospital the better though cuz hospital food is .

This fic has surpassed my own, so I finally felt it deemable to read this.

That is so magnanimous of you to decide it was at last worth your time to read Jae Onasi's story. Maybe it's just me but your statement seemed to have a condescending tone to it. But now I'm curious as to what criteria you use to determine how somebody else's fan fic surpasses your own?

[Hallucination]

^He's a horny 13-year-old, he thinks he's the best at everything, at least until he gets put into a locker. You can see it in the following equation: 13 year old + modesty= myth².

[Sable Phoenix]

Yay for hot steamy kiss scenes and mushy stuff! Jolee's various, er, comments on those developments had me laughing into my monitor's face.

 

And it's all seasoned with a heavy dose of lightsaber action and barnstorming. Woohoo!

 

And we finally find out exactly how Jae is related to our beloved orange-jacketed pilot! My only gripe is that you've made Revan male, so poor Carth isn't getting any action (I always found the female Revan story to be much more well-rounded and compelling)... but that is the player's choice after all, so. >shrug<

 

Love this stuff!

[Jae Onasi]

@cm--definitely would have to be a very special type of woman for him--I totally agree with you on that.

 

error 1--had them looking for Dycen'a's false ship registry, so I had to explain why they'd be chasing down a registry on a ship that's laying in little pieces on Li'adin.

error 2--De'layn magically had a drink at the table without an order, because Jolee had ordered a round before she arrived. (which I didn't catch til today, actually)

 

Heh, my dad hasn't made it to "real" hospital food yet--he's still at the broth-and-jello stage, which is probably better than any other food.

 

About JK707--sometimes things get lost in translation on forums/emails because we get zero facial cues that would show that it was irony or joking, even if that potential is small. So, I chose to ignore any 'attitude' at this time until it's proven to be an attempt to be truly offensive. But I appreciate you coming to my defense.

 

@Hall--all I can do is laugh at that comment, because I don't touch with a 10 foot pole anything that involves a combination of 'horny' and 'underage.'

 

@SP--I prefer LSF for Revan (the angst is too good to pass up), but decided to go with the LSM for the story as more 'canon.' That and I don't dare add another sub-theme (Carth waiting for Revan to return, which could be a novel all by itself) to the story--you should see the notes I have trying to keep up with what I've got now. I'm trying to find that balance between action and informational/backstory stuff. The movies all have lots of action interspersed with times where the characters get a few moments to breathe, get needed info, and make witty comments to each other, so I'm trying to make sure to have those elements, too.

Thanks!

[Sable Phoenix]

@SP--I prefer LSF for Revan (the angst is too good to pass up), but decided to go with the LSM for the story as more 'canon.' That and I don't dare add another sub-theme (Carth waiting for Revan to return, which could be a novel all by itself) to the story--you should see the notes I have trying to keep up with what I've got now. I'm trying to find that balance between action and informational/backstory stuff. The movies all have lots of action interspersed with times where the characters get a few moments to breathe, get needed info, and make witty comments to each other, so I'm trying to make sure to have those elements, too.

Thanks!

 

Ooh, ooh, but!

 

I just got hit with an idea, you wouldn't have to make a the whole "waiting for Revan" thing a true sub-theme, it could just influence the way Carth approaches the Jae/Talin thing. I can just see him leaning forward and speaking to Jae in that terribly earnest way he has, "Don't be tentative in love; take hold of it with both hands and enjoy it to the fullest. Spend every moment with the person that you can." And then his gaze would shift to something a million miles away and his voice would get all soft and sad: "You never know how long you'll have them."

 

Oh man. Now I need to go write. Thanks a lot, JaeOnasi!

[Jae Onasi]

"Suck the marrow out of life...."

 

Go for it! Sounds like a good one for the latest kfm challenge....

[Jae Onasi]

Chapter 24: Ship Registries

 

“So, just who is De’layn?” I asked, looking over at Jolee with a raised brow as we left the cantina to make our way back to the Osprey for the dinner with Carth.

 

“She’s a female Twi’lek, attractive I might add, who is in charge of an information business. She has cultivated some unique connections.”

 

“I mean, how do you know her?”

 

“Well, why didn’t you ask that? Pfft. Young people these days just don’t know how to ask the right questions. Always asking one thing when they really mean another.”

 

I waited for an answer for quite some time before looking at him and saying, “Well?”

 

“Oh, De’layn? Here I thought you’d get distracted by Talin’s blue eyes and forget all about the question so I wouldn’t have to get a dry mouth telling you the story. I hate how you young people complain about how boring my little tales are.”

 

“I’ve never complained about any of your stories.”

 

“Hmm, well, you’re right. I guess I’ll tell you then. De’layn was a fellow apprentice at the academy.”

 

“Ah, that explains how she knew without a doubt that Norelden had no Force affinity,” Talin noted.

 

“You really are in love, if you managed to actually concentrate on what she was saying and not be distracted by her gorgeous looks.”

 

Talin replied in a dry tone, “I find I have more than enough distraction without adding anything further, thank you.” He looked over my way with amusement.

 

I shook my head with a bit of a smile, sighed at the two of them, and circled my hand to motion for Jolee to go on with his story.

 

“Oh, yes, you did want to hear about De’layn. She is talented in the Force, and was just about made a Padawan. During training, Iridian plague hit her home planet, and she ended up losing everyone in her family except her two youngest sisters and a younger brother. She decided to leave the Order and take care of them. One of her Force skills is finding information that eludes everyone else. It’s made her a ton of money, and she probably has a better life now than she would have had as a Jedi, to be honest. She invited me over to talk about her little brother, who isn’t so little anymore. In fact, he’s a grown Twi’lek now, with a family and all. I’m his godfather.”

 

“Godfather? You were going to go to her place for a nightcap to discuss family ties?” I asked.

 

“Let me guess. You thought that just because I gave a beautiful Twi’lek with an incredibly sexy voice a wink and a smile that I’m running over to her place to jump in bed with her after dining with you? You two have your minds so far down in the sewer that the rakghouls would have to dig them out of the Taris undercity. Sheesh. Not that the thought hasn’t crossed my mind, you know, but we’ve been good friends too long. She’s going to fill me in on the latest family gossip.”

 

“Then I guess--” I ducked just in time—the blaster bolt was so close to the top of my head that I could feel the air move. Our three lightsabers ignited simultaneously as we spun around to face our attackers. There was a squad of mercenaries running towards us.

 

“Oh, Force, De’layn! She may be in trouble!” I yelled over all the noise of blaster bolts hitting or ricocheting off the metal plates, deflecting three shots in rapid succession before I cut down the shooter.

 

“She’s a Force user. She’ll be fine. Concentrate!” Jolee urged as I ducked another blaster bolt that came much too close for comfort. I could feel the heat and smell a sweet-smoke odor as a tiny bit of my hair singed.

 

Jolee had to raise his voice to be heard above the screams of several people who were running frantically or diving out of the way of the battle.

 

Talin strode with single-minded focus into the fray, deflecting bolts and slashing through our attackers, seeming to make nothing more than tiny flicks of the wrist to make his lightsaber flurry through the air. His saber almost seemed to take on a life of its own as it moved in his hands.

 

Jolee’s skill nearly matched Talin’s, and he took out almost as many of the mercs as Talin did. I was happy to stop a couple of them and not get hit myself, though I did notice it was getting easier to anticipate attacks and make the proper moves.

 

The three of us cleared out the squad of mercenaries in a very short time and without injury. I ran over to the civilians who were lying on the ground to make sure they were uninjured. One man had received a glancing hit from a blaster bolt and had a burn on his arm. He was surprised as it disappeared in moments as I healed the injury, and then he breathed his relief from the pain.

 

“Thanks,” he said, his fear still palpable. “I’ve never even seen a Jedi before. Well, except on the holovid movies, you know. I didn’t know you stopped to help like that. I mean, people like me and all.” His face reddened.

 

“What’s your name?” I asked, giving him a gentle smile as I radiated calm, checking him over for any other injuries.

 

“Jaxin, ma’am,”

 

“Jaxin, I was a servant at a royal court before I joined the Order, and most of us come from very humble beginnings. I’m honored that you allowed me to help you. Now if that arm bothers you, make sure to go to the infirmary right away.”

 

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am,” he said, getting up and backing away a few steps before turning to walk away, nearly floating over the floor, face beaming his pleasure.

 

“That was well said,” Talin said with frank approval.

 

“I guess some of your diplomacy lessons are finally starting to stick.” I looked back at him with a discreet smile.

 

We walked back over to Jolee who was trying to raise De’layn on his comlink, to no avail.

 

“Carth?” I called on mine. “We’re going to be a little late for dinner….”

 

* * * *

 

“You’ve acquired some powerful enemies,” De’layn commented when we found her coming out of the small spot she had hunkered down in to protect herself from the firefight. At her feet were two dead fighters, with the clean fine lines of burns characteristic of a lightsaber attack.

 

“Are you all right, dear?” Jolee asked, the worry wrinkling his forehead and filling his eyes, followed by relief when he saw she was uninjured.

 

“Of course, Jolee. Just because I left the Order doesn’t mean I’ve stopped practicing certain skills.” She smiled and held up her lightsaber. “They never asked for it back, you know.”

 

Jolee grinned, “You always were resourceful.”

 

“Now this is very interesting,” she said, picking up one of the dead fighter’s blasters. “It’s Republic issue. I wonder why one of Norelden's men is carrying this?”

 

* * *

 

I was new enough in the Order that I was still surprised at the power of the two little words, “Jedi business.” That term virtually eliminated the need to deal with any bureaucracy. The presence of Captain Carth Onasi, decorated hero of the Republic, helped that much more.

 

“You look like you made it through this scrape just fine,” Carth said, peering over at me to make sure I was all right.

 

“Not a scratch.”

 

“A little singed hair, though,” Talin said with no small amount of disapproval, the frown tightening his lips. He held up the lock so that I could see the small area that had been blackened from the heat. “That should not have happened. We’ll have to work more on blaster bolt deflection techniques.”

 

The subtle and brief touch of his hand on my shoulder was his expression of worry for me and took some of the sting out of his critical tone.

 

“We found this on one of the mercs, Carth,” Jolee said, handing over the blaster to Carth before he could comment.

 

“Interesting. It’s definitely Republic issue, and it’s new. This merc looks too old to have just gotten out of basic training with a new blaster, only to join the Exchange. I’m not one hundred percent sure, but this may come from the batch that was stolen not too long ago. The Republic was sending us a small shipment of replacement arms to us, and the ship was pirated. We thought it was Norelden, but had no real proof until now.”

 

“This may help both our investigations, then,” I suggested.

 

“Undoubtedly it will. We’ll have Commander Raxton join us along with Commander Aichon. Raxton is my deparment head of intelligence. We’ll let the authorities take care of the rest of the work here and talk over dinner in a more discreet setting.”

 

We headed back to the Osprey.

 

Both commanders met us for dinner, with Carth making the introductions. After a simple but hearty meal, we attended to business.

 

“We understand things got a little exciting today,” Aichon said. He was dark-headed with green eyes, and was taller than Carth by several inches, almost too tall for the ship. He had to duck slightly as he went through doors. He exuded a quiet competence as he worked with Carth.

 

Jolee replied, “Well, if you count a squad of mercs exciting, then yes, I guess it did. I prefer my excitement to come in other ways.” He gave a little lopsided grin that made the officers laugh.

 

Talin maintained the neutral pleasant look that he did so well as he explained, “Jolee had a meeting with a colleague at the cantina. She left before us, or she would have been caught in the middle of the firefight rather than the periphery. As it was, they attacked us very shortly after we left. It was fortunate that it was still early in the evening and there was not as much traffic in the corridors as there would later in the evening. There would have been many more casualties otherwise.”

 

“We don’t know if we were followed, or if someone saw us in the cantina and reported in to Norelden’s people,” I added.

 

Raxton spoke in a smooth manner, “We received information of a possible hit today, and I informed Commander Aichon. Regretfully, my sources couldn’t get enough solid information in time to put out any warnings.” He had a face and quiet voice that would not be very memorable and few mannerisms that would make people immediately recognize him. His brown eyes refused to reveal what was behind them. His light brown hair and not-quite handsome features spoke ‘nondescript Human.’ He was perfect for intelligence work.

 

Carth handed him the blaster we had found earlier. “Is this part of the shipment we were supposed to receive?”

 

Raxton examined it carefully. “Yes. The serial number matches up with the inventory list we received. You said one of the mercenaries had this on him?”

 

“Yes. My colleague recognized him as one of Norelden’s people,” Jolee answered.

 

Aichon took the blaster when Raxton offered it to him and looked it over critically. “This is just further evidence of Norelden’s activity. Why is he after you three, though?”

 

“He’s been after us ever since we stopped an assassination attempt, but especially after we took out his apprentice Dycen’a. We’re still waiting to get useful leads from him—his injuries were too severe for the other masters to extract information right away,” Jolee said.

 

“I heard that Dycen’a had met his demise,” Aichon said.

 

Jolee answered, “That’s the party line we’re passing on the street. We want to avoid any more assassination attempts on Coruscant. It’s much easier if he’s ‘dead,’ you know.” Jolee made sure to make eye contact with everyone in the room. “I know I don’t need to say to this fine group that outside this room, he needs to stay dead.”

 

Talin stayed silent for a beat, and then added, “We have Dycen’a’s ship registry that he was using when traveling to Telos and Coruscant, which we gave to Captain Onasi.”

 

“We know it’s not the Scythe, since that ship was destroyed. We were trying to learn if it was one of Vogga’s ships or the Fujita,” Carth said.

 

“Vogga’s ships haven’t been docking here in recent months,” Raxton replied, sitting back comfortably in his chair, hands laced on the knee of a crossed leg. “He and Norelden had a falling out, and after Vogga lost a few ships he decided it would be wise to back out of operations here until the two of them could work things out.” Raxton leaned forward and tapped the datapad sitting on the table. “It can only be the Fujita.”

 

Carth said, standing up, “Let’s find out who he was meeting. Find me every ship that docked at Telos station near or at the same time as the Fujita. Meet me here for a report tomorrow at the same time.”

 

The two officers responded simultaneously, “Aye, sir.” They left the room.

 

As we prepared to depart for our ship, Carth stopped us. “Jae, I don’t like scares, especially with family. Stay out of trouble.”

 

“Aye, sir,” I smiled and gave him a sassy wink before placing a familial kiss on his cheek.

 

Carth shook his head and looked at Talin. “Did I mention the Onasi women have a force of will that can be challenging to contend with?”

 

“I’m beginning to discover that, sir.”

 

* * *

 

Jolee prepared to leave for his meeting with De’layn. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Come to think of it, you probably shouldn’t do anything I would do,” he admonished. “Ah, well, then, just have fun. Don’t wait up for me.”

 

“Watch yourself out there,” I told him as he opened the hatch to leave. He melted into the darkness with only a little chuckle to mark where he was.

 

Talin closed the hatch after him, locking it. Walking over to where I stood, he wrapped his arms around me. He rested his cheek gently on my head as I nestled against his shoulder.

 

“So what else is Captain Onasi going to tell me about the Onasi women?” he asked quietly.

 

I opened my mind to his, and the waves of emotion washed over both of us, warm and inviting. I reached up to gently pull his head down to mine and let the meeting of our lips be my answer.

[Diego Varen]

Another of Jolee's stories. Good Chapter.

[JediMaster12]

Love Jolee's story and his usual grumpy manner

The last kissy thing sounds a bit like Titanic: the reaching up and pulling the head gently for a kiss. Or was this another real life thing Jae

Just being the devilish git I am but really this is a good chapter and you always have use jumping with these surprise attacks. Now the time is to wait for the next chapter.

[Ztalker]

Woa!

 

You tell the story in a very cool way! I never expected that a story told in an I-perepsetctive (does that word excist in English? ) would work out so well...

 

Keep it up

[Jae Onasi]

Thanks, folks.

@JM12--would you believe I've never seen Titanic? Since I already know the end, I couldn't bear to watch. Too depressing, even with the love story. Humorous note--my husband went to the show (I was away at a conference or we would have gone together). Behind him were two high school girls. One of them said, "I heard the ship sinks" The other said "No way! Oh, I hope that doesn't happen! I'll be so bummed!"

And yes, our little party is being hunted. It's good lightsaber practice for them all.

 

@Ztalker--just because I'm an education junkie...your trivia for the day: "I-perspective" is called 'first person' in English. The other perspective is called 'third person'. Does it get literally translated as 'I-perspective' from your language? I'm always interested in how different concepts translate.

If I'd been smart, I would have done it in third person because it gives so much more freedom to look at things from all the characters' perspectives. The single hardest thing I had to remember, especially in the beginning, was that I could only see the world through one set of eyes. I caught myself dropping into third person quite a bit in the early chapters until I could start to figure out how to alter events for the main character to 'see' them. That's part of the learning process.

 

Edit: gotta tell you all, romance scenes are _really_ hard to write in first person. I don't know if it's because of the feeling of sharing a private moment publicly or because the view of the emotions is so one-sided, but it feels weird to write it that way.

[Renegade Puma]

Great two chapters Jae. I am so enjoying this love story Oh did I mention I am enjoying the mystery and the action flick as well? How do you find the time to write so much? Seriously! Oh well, keep up the great work. As usual you have Jolee pegged through and though.

[Jae Onasi]

Great two chapters Jae. I am so enjoying this love story Oh did I mention I am enjoying the mystery and the action flick as well? How do you find the time to write so much? Seriously! Oh well, keep up the great work. As usual you have Jolee pegged through and though.

 

I have no life. Actually, I don't watch a lot of TV (or if I do, it's with the laptop in my lap, except for CSI and Criminal Minds). More than a few nights I've stayed up way too late trying to finish that one last paragraph. I type faster than I can write, and I had an 8th grade English teacher who made sure, by God, that I knew how to spell correctly and use proper grammar, because that was her sole mission in life. So that makes things go quickly, too.

Thanks!

[Rain128]

Great read Jae, lovin it, you potray Jolee very well, i was reading it on kotorfanmedia because no offence to everyone here there is a lot less clutter with posts like this one guess i have to catch up on the story arc here

[Jae Onasi]

No offense taken--both places meet different needs/wants. I'm behind at kfm--lurked there awhile before I started posting. I'm trying to get caught up there, and I agree, it does have a 'cleaner read'. Not that I dislike the comments here, mind you.

[Hallucination]

@Ztalker--just because I'm an education junkie...your trivia for the day: "I-perspective" is called 'first person' in English. The other perspective is called 'third person'.

Aha! It appears that you didn't know that second person perspective exists. It dictates what the reader is doing, and (as you could guess) isn't used very often in novels. I remember a few R.L. Stein books that used it, but I can't recall any other authers using it.

 

I always wanted to correct someone with a considerably higher education than I.

 

Again, another brilliant chapter, can't wait to see where this is going.

[Jae Onasi]

Silly Hallucination, I did know 2nd person exists. I just didn't want to confuse him, because it's used so very little, almost never. In fact, I didn't even know about the books you mentioned. So, you get partial credit for the correction.

[JediMaster12]

Stop! No Grammar Police ALLOWED! This is a fic that is supposed to be entertaining. All grammar police must leave and let the readers enjoy this fic in peace.

[Jae Onasi]

I have to finish a project for a friend this weekend and am flying to TX for an event, so I probably won't have a chapter for you til Sun/Mon earliest, unless the muse strikes while I'm on the plane and I get some internet access somewhere. Gotta love laptops.

[Darth Jester]

Yay for lappys XD (sorry im in a random mood today) anyway this would make a great comic (if only it was allowed)

[Jae Onasi]

Yay for lappys XD (sorry im in a random mood today) anyway this would make a great comic (if only it was allowed)

 

 

I am seriously artistically impaired. I appreciate great art very much, but I cannot do it myself. My penmenship is better in Arabic than it is in English (which is commentary both on how well my prof taught Arabic penmenship and how truly awful my handwriting is). I have trouble drawing stick people and I never have been able to color in the lines. If there is such a thing as art dyslexia, I have it--I can see it in my head but can't make my hands create the picture. The only artsy thing I can do is scrapbook, but that's because there are lots of magazines with layouts that I can copy/adapt and I have fun/cool tools that make it a lot easier to do. Nor am I particularly bothered by not being able to do art--everyone has strengths and weaknesses and my skills lay in other areas.

 

So, it would never make it to comic book status unless there's an artistic miracle in my life.

[Darth Jester]

Well we can only dream cant we anyway keep the great work coming Jae

[Jae Onasi]

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Traveling went very well, the event last weekend was fabulous, and I've finished almost all my current projects. Dad is out of the hospital and doing well, if tired. My cat is recovering nicely.

So, I had a bit of time to plug away on the latest chapter, and here it is.

 

_______________________________________________

 

 

Chapter 25: The Story of the Firaxan

 

 

“We’re meeting with De’layn again,” Jolee announced the next morning.

 

“I certainly hope it’s at a different cantina. I’m not looking forward to another episode like yesterday,” I drawled.

 

“Yeah, blaster fire does tend to have a bad effect on your hairdo. Thank goodness I don’t have much to lose.” Jolee rubbed the top of his bald head and grinned.

 

“What has she learned?” Talin asked.

 

“She has a contact in Norelden’s organization, and he’s going to meet us to discuss some of the recent happenings. He thinks there’s something bad going on, and he’s thinking of getting out.”

 

“If he’s seen with us, he’ll be out his life instead,” Talin warned.

 

“I’m betting a certain captain could help us out.” Jolee looked over at me with a smile. “I have a plan.

 

“I think I’m learning to be scared of your plans, Jolee,” I said.

 

“Your faith in me is underwhelming.”

 

I grinned back at him. “Count me in.”

 

* * * *

 

“Sure, I would love to help out,” Carth said. “What do you have in mind?”

 

Jolee delineated his plan. “Well, I was thinking that you have a little problem with a sailor named Rineldo who has gone AWOL a long time ago, maybe when you were still a normal person and not a captain of a big ship.”

 

“I shudder to think what your opinion will be of me once I make admiral.”

 

Jolee grinned at Carth’s quip and went on, “One of your men sees him in the cantina, calls you, you come and make a big production of how long it’s been, Admiral Dodonna will be glad to see him in the brig, you might consider airlocking him, blah, blah, blah.”

 

“Do I look like the kind of guy who would airlock someone?”

 

“Well, come to think of it, no. You’re too damn nice. Make something up, then.”

 

“We’ll need to know how long he’s been with the Exchange and on Telos. If we’re going to do a little play-acting, we have to make it good.”

 

A little later the cantina, the three of us met up with De’layn, who had found a table before us.

 

“Jolee, dear, do come sit next to me,” she said in her sultry voice.

 

“I’m delighted as always. Carth has the information,” Jolee said, sitting down next to De’layn.

 

Talin and I sat down oppposite them and looked around the cantina. A small Bith band played some quieter music as background, suitable for a room that was not filled with people. We discreetly noticed a couple of off-duty sailors, one of whom was twice the age of the other. They walked in and found another table in a corner where they had a good view of the room. They ordered a round and appeared to be chatting like any other off-duty service members. It took me a few moments before I realized I recognized one of them.

 

“Carth must think this is really important, because he put Raxton on the team,” I observed. “His disguise is pretty good.”

 

Talin said, “Not surprising, considering how badly they have been trying to break the Exchange open on Telos and eliminate any threat of Sith involvement.”

 

Jolee continued, “De’layn, you get to go do a little flirting with your contact. We’re just going to sit and talk a bit here first before you pretend like you have to find the refresher. Jae, you’ll stop and chat with those sailors a bit, and after you leave the table, they’ll get up and ‘discover’ he’s an AWOL sailor. Now, I have to get something to drink—all this talking makes my mouth dry.”

 

“Where are my manners? Would you like me to order the same for everyone?” De’layn pointed to her drink. Talin and I nodded yes.

 

Jolee answered, “No, just juma for me. I never drink anything blue and fizzy before dinner.”

 

“Always the jokester.” She turned her eyes to us and smiled. “You should have seen him when he was a Padawan.”

 

“Please, do tell us.” I said, leaning forward to capture every last detail.

 

“You’re not going to tell them that story, are you?”

 

“Why of course I am, my dear.”

 

“I’m never going to live this one down.”

 

She began, “Jolee, Mik’oth, and I had a night off one time, and we decided to go see a new holovid that came out. We went out to dinner, had a few drinks, and before you know it, those two were quite sauced.”

 

“De’layn had to help the two of us walk, as I recall. The three of us meandering down the sidewalk must have been quite the sight.”

 

“We finally made it to the theater, and sat down. Actually, Jolee collapsed down.”

 

“I must have had a defective chair.”

 

“Uh-huh. Just what did you do to the chair, Jolee?” I asked.

 

“Well, let’s just say I sat down a little too hard, and the seat dropped out under me, but the sides stayed put. I ended up sitting with my arms just about over my head resting on the arm rests, though I could sort of swing my hands around a bit.” Jolee demonstrated his position in the chair. “I couldn’t figure how to get out of there, and I thought I was comfortable, so I decided to stay that way, kind of folded up.”

 

De’layn continued, “He was happy there, we were happy that he couldn’t get up at all to go wander anywhere, life was good. We were watching some kind of horror holovid. What was it about again, Jolee?”

 

“It was a show about a killer firaxan. It’s a pretty good holovid, actually, but I think we ruined it for some people by laughing all the time. I’m surprised we didn’t get kicked out.”

 

“Some time in the middle of the holovid, the firaxan came up to attack one of the minor characters. Jolee got Mik’oth good there.”

 

“So what did you do?” Talin asked Jolee, a mild smile on his face.

 

“Picture a giant firaxan who has eaten several of the extras already. Here he comes again, mouth wide open and full of huge razor-sharp teeth, taking up the screen. He was about to chomp down on another poor soon-to-be-dead minor character. I got a wild idea. Just as the firaxan’s teeth bit the guy, I grabbed Mik’oth’s leg.”

 

“Oh, no, you didn’t!” I said.

 

“Oh, yes, I did. It was hilarious. He screamed ‘I’m being eaten! I’m being eaten! I'm being eaten!’ and then he nearly wet himself. Ever hear a Twi’lek scream like a gizka that’s just been stepped on?”

 

“No, and I hope I never do,” Talin said.

 

“There was just a little problem with that, though,” De’layn explained. “Some Twi’leks emit certain pheromones when they experience extreme emotions. Mik’oth must have created a huge cloud of them. That generally would not have been a problem because there were only a couple Twi’leks in the theater, and they were the only ones who could have a reaction to the scent. If they had been far enough away, they might not have even been affected.”

 

“However, sitting right in front of us were a couple of Twi’leks, one of whom was about as pregnant as you can get and still not have the baby in your arms.”

 

“I think, Jolee, that she was actually a week overdue at that point. The pheromones made her go into labor, and it was her fourth child so we knew things would happen fast,” said De’layn.

 

Jolee went on, “We were about to call for an ambulance when the male Twi’lek, her husband, informed us in no uncertain terms that we were not going to call the authorities and that he was going to take her to her doctor for care. I told him that baby was about ready to come out and insisted that she needed help now. Well, he was immune to our persuade attempts and insisted with his blaster that we were not going to call anyone, and that now we were going to come with him while he got his wife to safety.”

 

“And you went with him?” I asked, surprised.

 

“We could have gotten out of the situation easily enough, but we knew that the baby was coming at any minute, and her dear husband didn’t have a clue about what to do. We could not abandon her to whatever he had in mind,” De’layn said.

 

“We got in the back of his transport with her and used the Force to sober up and help her with her pain. It was a very nice transport, I might add, with plush seating and gold plating on anything metal, wet bar, linens, about as richly appointed as it gets. Husband drove like a maniac to their home, calling the doctor and everyone else he could think of while weaving around and dodging traffic. The baby decided he couldn’t wait any longer, and out he came, right into De’layn’s hands.”

 

“He was a handsome little thing—had the cutest lekku, too. The only problem was that he didn’t want to start breathing, and then the mother started hemorrhaging,” De’layn smiled at the memory of the baby, and then frowned at the images of a severely bleeding mother.

 

“Here we were, still in the back of the transport while all this is going on, and the idiot husband refuses to listen to us telling him to stop at a hospital. Mik’oth held the mother’s hand, I worked on the baby, and De’layn focused her Force powers on stopping the bleeding. When we got to their mansion, the doctor met us with his bag, took one look at all the blood and me using the Force to breath for the baby, jumped in, and ordered the husband to get over to his hospital immediately. He told me to keep doing what I was doing while he worked on saving the mother’s life. You have no idea how relieved I was when the baby finally started crying a few moments later.”

 

“We all smiled at that one, including the husband. We got to their hospital, mother and baby were rushed inside and all turned out well after a few hours,” De’layn said.

 

“What could possibly be more important than stopping at the nearest hospital?” Talin asked.

 

“He was one of the senior leaders of a crime syndicate on Coruscant with ties stretching all over the galaxy, and he knew the authorities were looking for both his family and him. He didn’t want his wife to give birth in a holding cell,” De’layn replied. “‘His’ hospital was private and the staff there knew how to keep quiet.”

 

Jolee continued, “The doctor explained to him how we had saved both his wife’s and his son’s lives. This crime boss was so grateful that he just about offered us the entire planet in thanks and asked us what we wanted.”

 

“So what did you ask for?” I inquired.

 

“Mik’oth and I looked at each other and said, ‘Help with stopping the Ukatis blockade.’ ‘That’s it?’ he asked. We nodded yes. He said, ‘Done.’ About three days later, a packet arrived for us at the Jedi temple. It was full of juicy and very detailed gossip about the Ukatis king, his ties with a rival crime ring, and what he was doing to his people. The Senate was forced to act after that. They sent in the cavalry and broke the blockade. Then they captured the king and brought him up on charges of crimes against sentients. The crime boss also gave all three of us more cash than we knew what to do with. When we tried to refuse, he told us that refusing his gifts would offend him, and offending him had rather nasty consequences. So, we decided to invest it and use it for our favorite charities and pet projects.”

 

“You single-handedly broke a system blockade because you played a practical joke on Mik’oth?” Talin could not contain a chuckle.

 

“Well, when you put it that way, that’s pretty much how it went,” Jolee replied.

 

“I can’t believe it,” Talin said.

 

“I can’t believe I’m going to have to write this up for my history project. How in the world am I going to write‘Jolee got plastered, scared the bejeezers out of Mik’oth who passed enough pheromones to send a woman into labor, which eventually led to the Ukatis king being deposed’ in a way that is inspirational to future Jedi?” I shook my head in amazement.

 

“I am sure you will do just fine,” Talin said, putting warmth and reassurance into his voice and gave my hand a tiny squeeze. I smiled back.

 

Jolee looked at De’layn and said, “Aw, aren’t they cute?”

 

De’layn gave Jolee a small indulgent smile. Her eyes shifted abruptly to the door. “Riki is here.”

 

“OK, people, here we go,” Jolee said, eyes bright with excitement.

 

Riki ordered his drink and sat down at one of the more secluded tables. De’layn got up, smoothed down her close-fitting dress, brushed her lekku back, and put on her seductress act. She walked slowly, hips swaying, ordered a drink at the bar, and then pretended she had just noticed Riki. She glided his way, smiled brightly and said a few words. He looked her up and down with appreciation and a certain longing look, and then he motioned for her to join him. She batted her eyelashes at him as she settled slowly into the booth, and he waved to the server for another round of drinks before turning his attention back to De’layn, gazing at her in rapt attention.

 

About ten minutes later, Jolee motioned to me. I stood up from our table and walked over to the Republic sailors.

 

“Good evening, gentlemen. Always good to have a Republic presence in a cantina. It makes me feel safer,” I gave them an admiring but vapid smile.

 

“Thank you, ma’am. I was wondering if you had tried the same drinks as they have,” Raxton asked, turning only his eyes to indicate Riki and De’layn and asking in this coded phrase ‘are they the ones?’

 

“Yes, I especially recommend his drink,” I replied with the code that told them that it was indeed Riki.

 

“It’s very kind of you to stop by to talk to us, ma’am. We’ll have to give your recommendation a try.”

 

“Keep up the good work, sailors,” I said, moving on to the refresher lounge.

 

Not too many minutes later, De’layn came through the lounge door. She went to the mirror to check her outfit, and I joined her.

 

“I have good news,” De’layn said, her face animated in her excitement. “Riki has good evidence that points to just who the Sith Lord may be in Norelden’s organization.”

 

“It can’t be Norelden himself, since you said he has no Force ability.”

 

“Riki is pretty sure that it is Antin Thorn, his second-in-command.”

 

“Now we just have to make sure it’s him and figure out a way to draw him out,” I said.

 

We heard the commotion of some shouts and a table falling over outside the lounge door.

 

“It sounds like the Republic’s men have found their AWOL sailor,” De’layn noted dryly.

 

“I hope that they don’t play too rough with Riki.”

 

I opened the door to the lounge, only to be assaulted by the cacophony of flying blaster bolts and more falling tables.

 

“We’d better go help,” I said, and both of us pulled out our lightsabers.

[Diego Varen]

Good Chapter. Nice to see you back.

[Renegade Puma]

Good chapter Jae. I loved the story about Jolee getting plastered and ending a blockade with just a practical joke. Good stuff. Can't wait for the next chapter.