ICE STORM
"I've made it!" Commander Wilhuff Tarkin thought triumphantly as he looked out the window of his small but choice new Coruscant apartment. Not since the days when his great uncle Ranulph served in the Galactic Senate had a member of his family been stationed on Coruscant itself. Hence, he had something to prove, and his family's reputation to uphold.
Despite young Tarkin's Outer Rim heritage, he currently found life being exceptionally good to him. A dream of an opportunity had recently come his way just as he successfully completed his debut term in politics as the lieutenant governor of his homeworld, Eriadu. The Chancellor himself had assigned Tarkin to his covert staff, reactivated his commission in the Outland Regions Security Force, and moved him to the capital.
Personal enrichment had accompanied his professional advancement in the form of one Lady Typhani Octovano of Phelarion, the sole heiress to a prosperous megonite mine with connections to the locally influential Motti family. He'd been seeing her for several months now, and felt inexplicably drawn to her, in a way he did not understand and could not explain. Even when he first met her, he remembered, he had introduced himself by his middle name, Adrian, a label used only by his family and close friends, without even thinking about it. In another uncharacteristic move, he had allowed himself to become intimate with her within the first month. That unusual attraction had bothered him at first, he recalled, but he had come not to question it. Typhani thought the universe of him, he knew, and, because of her own status, she didn't care whom he commanded or what he governed. Although he couldn't quite say the same, he was nonetheless grateful to have fallen into a suitable alliance, but yet still have feelings of love and affection for her. He'd somehow always feared a loveless relationship for the sake of political and financial gain. And yet, because of their mutual assets, he knew full well that such is how they would be perceived in public and in the media. Still, he mused, having an appropriately stationed and well connected partner on his arm would be very much to his benefit in his new role on Coruscant, and, he realized, would likely spare him from something he abhored--glib young women who lusted only after his power and position.
As the cool Phelarian summer turned to cold late fall, he and Typhani made plans for what would be their last trip to the Octovano's camp on Lake Phelarion until spring, and possibly also for a long time thereafter, considering the recent change in his career and his relocation to Coruscant. Hence, they sought to make the most of this cherished time alone together.
Typhani sent her servant, Nardo, to pick him up from the spaceport as she and her father were entertaining company for the evening. He arrived on the back veranda to find Typhani visiting with a stocky, dark-haired boy about ten years old. The child had a new remote-control hover toy, a model Corellian corvette, and he was very eager to show it off. "Well, what have we here?" he asked as he ascended the steps.
"Adrian, this is my favorite little cousin, Raolf," Typhani introduced, smiling fondly at the boy.
"Hi," Raolf said sheepishly.
"My brother and I used to play with those all the time," Adrian responded to make conversation as he sat down next to Typhani.
"The box said it could flip and roll and stuff, but I can't figure out how," the lad continued, twittering with the remote.
"There's a trick to that," Adrian continued. "It's easy once you know how." He took the remote and quickly showed the youngster how to make his new toy perform to his liking.
"Cool!" Raolf exclaimed again and again. Nardo then interrupted his fun by calling everyone in for dinner. On their way in, Typhani smiled smugly at Adrian, as if she had a surprise for him, which she did.
Young Raolf ran excitedly up to his mother. "Hey Mom! Guess what! Typi has a real boyfriend this time!"
Blushing, Typhani continued her introductions. "This is my Aunt Cryshallis. She's Papa's younger sister." She then turned to indicate an older Phelarian man sitting on the divan. "And, I'm quite sure you'll recognize my Uncle Selden."
Adrian could barely contain his excitement as he found himself face to face with the galaxy's most legendary tactical genius of the time, the Grand Admiral Selden Motti! He had read everything the man had ever written, pored over his battle tactics, and attended every guest lecture he ever gave at Carida.
"Ah, so this is the younger Wilhuff Tarkin!" the Admiral began as he rose. "Governor Paige has had many good things to say about you, young man, as have others!"
"Others?" Adrian queried.
"In good time, son, in good time!"
The two then began a conversation that lasted all the way through dinner into after-dinner drinks and conversation. Yet Adrian's delight turned to disappointment when he learned that the Admiral and his family would be departing that evening. "Yes, I'm afraid so," Typhani confirmed. "In fact, we have spaceport dropoff duty on our way to the lake. But they visit often now." Still, the military discussion continued all the way to the spaceport.
"Bye, Adrian!" Raolf called as he followed his mother into the terminal.
"Good-bye, Raolf! See you soon!" he called after the boy, and then turned to his devious girlfriend. "I can't believe he's actually your uncle! I had no idea!"
"'Well, most people don't," Typhani commented dryly as they continued on their way. "For a long time, Uncle Selden and his family had nothing to do with us. For awhile, he even discouraged Aunt Cryshallis from visiting Papa--because of appearances--because of the way Papa did business. He . . . he felt he couldn't afford a black mark of such nature against his family's reputation. But, when Papa finally decided to clean up his act a couple of years ago, they reestablished relations with us. And, when Papa landed your contract, well, that finally put us back in good graces." She declined to tell Adrian that despite the differences between them, Nostremi's brother-in-law's position had spared him trouble, shame, even incarceration, on more occasions than he or his daughter would admit.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Adrian finally asked as stepped out onto the lake property.
"I didn't want you falling for my Uncle Selden before you fell for me," she said suggestively, batting her dark eyes at him. Adrian flinched in sudden realization. He understood the rules now, and he admired her all the more for playing the game so well.
"Don't be ridiculous, Typhani," he said, taking her hand. Instead of entering the main cabin, they almost instinctively turned down the narrow footpath to a small converted garden house that Typhani used as a private retreat. The little cabin had since become sentimental to them as the site of thier first, and most intense, passionate encounters.
That night, they inadvertently fell asleep in Typhani's retreat. As they lay warm and content in each other's embrace, Typhani's level of consciousness elevated only slightly when she began to hear what sounded like a spray of tiny rocks hitting the little square windows of her small retreat cabin. She was accustomed to that sound, and so it failed to alarm her. Only the sputtering of the heaters and the dimming out of the lamp brought her into full alertness.
She crawled from under their blankets with a start, and kneeled in an old recliner so she could see out the window. What she saw unsettled her a bit, but she was not frightened. Still, they would have to move fast.
"What is it?" Adrian asked as he sat up.
"Come on, quick. It's an ice storm, and we've lost power. The generators have gone down. We have to get to the main cabin," she told him, and began to put her shoes on.
"Well, then, we should just head back to Port City," Adrian said, casting the blankets aside.
"It's too late for that," Typhani told him plainly, still no alarm in her voice. "The repulsorlifts will freeze with this much moisture in the air, and the air cushion will turn to a solid block of ice. Besides, visibility is already down to zero. This one's come on fast, and we aren't going anywhere."
"Then how are we going to find the main house, especially in the dark?" he asked, a bit concerned.
"I crawled around this camp before I was old enough to walk. I know the way. We'll find it. Zip this all the way up," she told him, pulling the zipper of his jumpsuit well up under his chin. "And, uh, we'll need to take these," she added, reaching for the thick fur throws, handing him the one with the blue lining, and taking the purple-lined one for herself. "Put this over your head, and keep your head down. The ice can be like fine shards of glass."
Typhani adjusted her own jumpsuit, put the other throw over her own head, and moved toward the door. "Hold that blanket tightly, it's awfully windy," she warned him and reached behind her for his free hand. "Don't let go of me, no matter what," she told him.
"Aren't you being just a little melodramatic?" Adrian chastised her, thinking her a bit bossy as well. But at that moment, she pushed the door open with her shoulder, stepped down from the cabin, and pulled Adrian behind her. Their soft-soled athletic shoes offered no grip on the thick crystalline sheet of ice that had already begun to form on the ground, and they both went down as the cabin door clapped shut behind them. They immediately lost their grip on each other. "Adrian! Don't move!" Typhani shouted.
Now he realized that she was not being melodramatic. Cold-weather survival had been part of his military training back on Carida, of course, but that had been for biting cold--dry cold--in a combat situation with the appropriate gear. But this was a clammy, clinging, wet cold driven by a hard wind that gripped the body like being thrown into freezing water. All they had were their thin mylar-type jumpsuits--they had left their jackets in the truck--and a couple of blankets, and if Typhani lost her bearings in the night . . .
"Typhani, I think we should go back inside and wait until daybreak!" he called to her.
"We've no way to heat it," she called back to him, locating him quickly, but the wind was howling such that they could barely hear each other. "The temperature may keep dropping, and the ice may be too thick by then--it's going to crystallize! By morning, everything within a meter of the ground will be frozen solid!"
With each other's help, they regained their feet, but couldn't keep their balance on the ice for long. Typhani feared that she might lose her bearings if she fell and slid around in another direction. Thinking fast, Adrian realized that if they put their blankets down before them and crawled across them, they could get traction and make progress that way by crawling off and pulling the blanket around each time.
"Just stay right next to me," Typhani shouted, but they were soon both so cold that they could not feel each other; keeping track only by the sound of the fabric of their jumpsuits rubbing together.
They forged steadily ahead in the direction of the main cabin, but soon Typhani became concerned that her cold-natured companion from the more temperate Eriadu might fall behind. But with the next cast ahead of her blanket, her hand struck something rough and solid--the wall of the main cabin. Together they pulled themselves up. Throwing the now-wet blankets back over their heads, they held themselves up as they stumbled along the cabin wall. The front porch was only a few agonizing steps away, and soon Typhani had her hand on the door. Her hands were so numb that she could no longer feel anything as she fumbled with the keypad. Finally, the door popped open, and Typhani pulled Adrian into the cabin and slammed the door tightly behind them. "We made it!" they both exclaimed breathlessly.
"The lumas are in the closet over here," she said, casting her wet throw aside. Every part of her body ached with cold as she groped her way in the dark. The main cabin, having not been used, was only slightly warmer than outside, but at least it was dry. She found the closet and quickly activated one large luma.
Now that they had light, they knew that their next priority was to get out of their wet clothes and into something dry. They proceeded down the narrow hallway toward the rear of the cabin. As they entered the small bedroom, Typhani set the luma on a table, and began pulling dry garments from the closet and a large storage trunk.
As she turned to face Adrian in the low blue light of the luma, he noticed that she looked like an ethereal nymph with a fantasy of ice crystals frozen in her long, black hair. "What?" she asked. He reached out to touch her hair, and it crackled, frozen where it had fallen about her shoulders. She laughed. "It'll thaw," she assured him. They removed their wet clothing and wrapped themselves in dry fleecewear the Octovanos kept on hand for such emergencies. Typhani noticed that Adrian seemed a little unsteady, although he hadn't perceived it himself. "You're too cold," she told him. "Come on."
Adrian followed her into the cabin's living room, where a stone fireplace occupied most of one end wall. "They better have cut some wood," Typhani muttered under her breath as she went to the glass-panelled doors and pulled the curtain aside. To her relief, a full rack of firewood stood outside the door. They soon had a warm, crackling fire going, and so they spread their wet blankets and jumpsuits out to dry and sank down on a plush rug and some soft sofa cushions to continue their evening where they had left off.
Adrian was not concerned. It was several days before he would be expected back on Coruscant. And, having grown up on noisy, congested Eriadu, he found the Octovano camp in the midst of the great expanse of the Phelarian forest a most interesting departure from his norm. Other than the crackling of the fire, it was so quiet. A place, he thought as he methodically ran a wide-bristled brush repeatedly through Typhanis long, thick, ebony hair as it dried, where it would be easier to tune out the galaxy and think, plan, develop strategy, work on tactics, give rise to projects, and let the inner technical workings of his mind run free. The two silhouettes in the glow of the crackling fire soon folded into one, the ordeal outside in the ice now all but forgotten.
That night more than ever before, they both set aside their concerns and inhibitions--their social stations and public roles--and allowed their passions for each other to run free and deep, unable to satiate themselves of each other. Adrian in particular had never allowed himself to assume a vulnerable or submissive stance in such circumstances, but as Typhani moved over him, he relented and accepted her, much to their mutual delight. Finally, they lay joined yet exhausted, fulfilled.
They woke up again around daybreak. Wrapping the now-dry blue-lined faux fur throw around him, Adrian walked to the back door of the cabin and looked out the window down the footpath toward Typhani's little retreat. What he saw was fantastic. The ice had indeed crystallized about a meter deep. If they had stayed in the other cabin, they would have been literally frozen in, he realized, as the bottom of the door was now blocked with ice. Adrian had seen snow that deep on Coruscant, but this lacy layer of ice--it looked something like frozen soapsuds--was new to him. Typhani had walked up behind him. "It's solid," she said. "but brittle. It shatters like foam glass if you hit it just right, but as long as the temperature stays down, it's as strong as plasteel in places. Papa says it has something to do with the crystallization process."
"It does," Adrian told her, looking over his shoulder at her.
"It actually makes the moss grow," she explained. "The ice puts it into hibernation, and so when it melts, the moss thinks it's time for a new growing season, and so it grows faster."
"How long before it melts?"
"Oh, only a day or two. The temp rarely stays down long enough for it to last longer," she explained.
"Your father, won't he send someone after us?"
"Oh, no," Typhani told him. "He knows I know what I'm doing, and there are at least half a dozen places I've been taught to batten down when this happens. Papa taught me how to think fast and take care of myself." Adrian found that attractive. In terms of women, he had always preferred brains and the ability to use them over bodies and the ability to flaunt them. He recalled once telling his younger sister, Morgana, when she was about fifteen and he seventeen, when they had once again been left alone to care for themselves and their nerdy younger brother, Wendell Gideon, "One thing I can't stand is a weak-minded woman who can't think for herself!" Morgana had been whining and brooding about having to spend another long, boring, stifling, hot, smoggy summer in their familys sprawling ocean-front compound, Villa Galaxia, on the west side of Eriadu City. Typhani could certainly think for herself. Act for herself. Speak up for herself. Take care of herself--and anyone around her who needed or wanted it.
"Hadn't we at least better contact your father and let him know we're all right?" he asked.
"There are no comms out here, Adrian. When Papa comes to the camp, he comes to think. He won't have them," she explained. Adrian, on the other hand, didn't particularly like being without communications. After all, what if there was an important message from Eriadu--or Coruscant? As he glanced back out the window, he realized that he had left his briefbag, containing his mobile transponder, in the other cabin, and there was presently no way to get in there.
"Well, then," he said as they again put their arms around each other, "that means we have the next two days all to ourselves, doesnt it?"
"I was just thinking the same thing," she said suggestively. "We'd better find some breakfast, though," Typhani said as she turned into the cabin's well-stocked kitchen. She began to flit around the room as if in fast forward, pulling cooking utensils from here and cans and boxes from there.
Adrian leaned back against the counter and watched her, becoming more and more satisfied and intrigued with what he saw. Typhani was as well-bred as he, and they both had an ample entourage of servants and droids at their disposal in their primary homes. "You know how to cook?" he asked in a nonchalant manner so as not to seem condescending.
"Yes, believe it or not," Typhani replied as they connected a backup battery to the short-wave oven.
"Where did you learn?"
"From the servants in our kitchens. Adrian, it gets dreadfully boring around here in the dead of the winter. There's not much else to do. I actually like to cook, though. It's creative. It rewards you tangibly and comforts you for your efforts," she explained.
Silently, he watched her work, and as he did, the momentous and life-changing conclusion that she would make a very good mother who would bring up intelligent, strong-minded sons and sensible, competent daughters came to his mind. He realized then that he had indeed found an ideal partner, someone he would not have to worry about every time he went on travel, and someone he knew could survive and carry on no matter what the future brought, or took away from them. But could Typhani, would she, actually leave her birthright and her father behind on Phelarion to follow him on his ambitious exploits around the galaxy? She had mentioned how long the winters were on Phelarion. It would be the dead of winter soon, and she would be bored. He would find out.
* * *
"This new assignment you're taking on Coruscant," she asked later when they had resumed their seats back by the fire, "What exactly does it involve?"
Even though he knew he loved Typhani, Adrian's lifelong suspicion of others never wavered. Not knowing yet how much he could trust her with such highly classified information, and particularly in light of her connection to the Mottis, he told her little in very generalized terms. "There are some, well, undesirables on Coruscant that Chancellor Palpatine sees as a threat to his goals for the Republic. We need to make sure they don't recruit anyone else to their numbers. I'll be, let's just say, building a database and keeping track of things."
"From Commander to database developer? Isn't that a bit of a step down, Adrian?" she asked, concerned.
"Oh, no. The new assignment is in addition to my command."
"Such intrigue!" she mused. "Did Chancellor Palpatine himself put you up to this?"
"'Can't tell you that either," he said, watching her reaction closely. He didn't want her to pry too deeply, and he would have to speak to her about that if she did. "What do you think of Palpatine?" he asked.
"Oh, I really like him! I like his attitude! Uncle Selden says he's going to really straighten things out around this galaxy. I'd love to meet him someday," she said enthusiastically. She looked away, the excitement leaving her face. "But why Coruscant? It's so blasted far away! Clear the other side of the sector!"
"Well, that's where the action is right now, my dear," Adrian explained.
Typhani had long since made up her mind that she loved him and wanted to be with him no matter what, but she did wonder what, in the end, she was getting herself in for. "What do you think it might bring, in the long run?" she asked.
"Ultimately?"
"Mmmmm," she indicated, nodding, taking another sip from her mug of the thick, frothy, hot beverage she had made.
He looked thoughtful for a moment. His long-term, lifetime vision for himself had already begun to form, to clarify, but he dare not acknowledge it yet, not even to himself. "No one really knows for certain. There are going to be a lot of changes over the next few years. Those in the right places stand to gain immensely--power, wealth, notoriety, who knows what," he told her.
"And Coruscant is the right place to be?"
"For the moment," he replied. Perhaps he should not wait until the dead of winter after all. "You know," he said, slipping an arm behind her back as they leaned against the hearth, and each other, "you could come along. We might even bump elbows with Chancellor Palpatine at some official event. You're quite intelligent, Typhani. You could end up being very well placed."
Typhani considered herself well-placed where she sat. "No, no, I can't do that. I know what I said in the heat of anger, but I can't really leave Papa. He's getting old, and I have to keep an eye on him and learn how to run the company--the business part of it. How to handle the workers, get new contracts, watch over the books . . . No, Adrian, I have too many responsibilities here," she said, looking away.
"I see," he said, not expecting his hopes to be dashed before he had even fully acknowledged them to himself.
She deeply wanted it both ways, though. The inner workings of her own mind began to move. Perhaps she could simply hire the right employees, the right managers, when the time came. Or, perhaps she could find someone to help her. Perhaps she already had.
"Then again," she began, "I've hardly been off the planet except for school. Our customer base comes from all over the galaxy. Papa is very well traveled, but I'm not. Sometimes I think I could be a better businessperson if I had some experience and knew where my customers were coming from."
"Have you spoken with your father about this?"
"Not directly, no," she answered. She looked up at him decisively. "But perhaps it's time I did."
They sat quietly for some time, and soon they both fell asleep again.
* * *
They were awakened near nightfall by a loud grinding noise followed by the flickering of lights and the hum of the cabin's furnace coming on. "Oh, at last!" Typhani said, sitting up. "We don't have to sleep on pallets by the fire tonight!" she said, relieved. She preferred a deep, soft, warm bed in a well-heated room.
As they blanketed themselves into the bed for the night, Adrian and Typhani savored the close contact with each other. Their fledgling relationship had just passed its eight-month anniversary, and yet they had already grown well past their initial infatuations, and past the raging, ravishing, ravenous passion that had sent them rending after each other. They had already discovered how to bestow deep, sensual, and tender pleasures upon one another, more so even than many couples whose relationships had lasted many times longer than their own, as if they had somehow always known how to touch each other, how to reach each other at the very seat of the soul. And, their young relationship had also already endured a blow that would have surely ended most others. They had settled into a natural, mutually nurturing closeness that could only be defined as love.
They had talked extensively about the future over the past months. The time had come for making decisions, and acting upon them.
Typhani stirred as the dark night sky began to streak with faint blue. She rose, and looked out the cabin window. "Adrian, it's almost sunrise," she said, "and the ice is melted enough so that we can make it to the lake. Come on! Theres nothing like the Phelarian sunrise this time of year!"
Adrian did not want to get out of their warm bed. "You're the one always talking about being warm," he said. "It's cold out there."
"Here," she said, reaching into the closet. "You put on Papa's big hunting parka." Something told him to relent that morning, and so they quickly put on their jumpsuits. Typhani retrieved her leather jacket from her truck and, hand in hand, they made for the rocky lakefront. "I know this one place," she said as they approached and ascended some large boulders, being careful not to disturb the gray-green moss that grew at their base.
A soft mist rose from Lake Phelarion as Adrian and Typhani stood in each other's embrace at first light. The time had come, they knew, to give voice to their feelings for one another. "Your father will just have to understand," Adrian began.
"What?" Typhani asked. She had been lost and absorbed in his gaze and their closeness. The golden light of the rising sun case a soft glow across her face.
"I am in love with you, Typhani," he said directly and decisively, drawing her even closer to him.
"Adrian, I have loved you since . . ." she began. Typhani realized then that, in their case, it had not been love at first sight. It had been love at first sense. "I've loved you from the moment I first perceived your presence, if that sounds at all reasonable."
"It does," he said. "I knew something was going to happen before I ever came to Phelarion. It wasn't until you stepped into the upstairs hall that I understood." For a long time, they remained locked in their embrace, as if some unseen energy field was bonding then inexorably together for some distant yet unknown purpose of its own, creating a union so rare and sacred that nothing and no one could ever break it.
By mid-afternoon, the main road was passable, and so they finally headed back. As the glow from the lights of Port City finally came into view, Adrian asked her, "You knew there was a storm coming, didn't you?"
She smiled curtly at him. "No," she said, "but I had hoped for one."
As Typhani drove around behind the house, the lights on the back veranda came on full aglow, and out came Baron Nostremi, arms open. "Ah, see there! All safe and sound!" he boomed as they got out of Typhani's truck and started up the back steps. "You are fine young man after all, I see. You take good care my daughter!" he said to Adrian.
"We took care of each other, Papa," Typhani assured him.
"An' you stay nice and warm, no?" he asked, eyeing both of them.
"Yes, Papa, we did, thank you," Typhani told him.
"I think I'll run across to the office and check some things on the holonet," Adrian said after they had gone upstairs.
"I'd come with you," Typhani told him, as she approached him and they embraced each other again. She dropped her voice to just above a whisper. "But I have to speak with Papa about something." Of course, he knew what she meant.
"I have to be back on Coruscant in three more days," he alerted her, "so I'll need to be out of here day after tomorrow."
"I know," she whispered.
Adrian's work on the holonet took him longer than expected. When he returned to the house and went quietly up the stairs, he could hear Baron Nostremi snoring loudly and contentedly from his room at the head of the hallway. Typhani's door was open a quarter of the way, and he could see that she was in bed, asleep. He proceeded the few steps to the guest room that had by default become his over the past few months and slipped out of his jumpsuit into some warm sleepwear. He turned out the light and took one step toward the bed, and then turned around. Typhani had never left her door open before.
Adrian closed and locked her door behind him. Typhani moved instinctively close to him in her sleep as he sank into bed next to her.
* * *
The next morning, Nostremi Octovano stood in the portico with the cold, sharp wind blowing his beard and overcoat, waving his arms as he exuberantly called after his daughter in his deep, booming voice as she ran with open heart and an open arms across the plaza, her cascading jet-black tresses flowing in the wind behind her, "Go! Go, my Typhani! Go while you can! Your birthright will be here waiting for you! A fine young man you have! You are his destiny, and he yours! Together you will make the very stars take notice of you! Go! Go!"
Typhani ran up behind Adrian as he made his way across the plaza toward the offices, on his way to finish his work on the holonet, and she threw her arms around him as if to prevent an escape. He turned in her embrace to face her. "I'm going with you," she said, smiling widely and breathing hard from her run through the plaza, her dark eyes bright and clear with passion and resolve. "To Coruscant!"
"To Coruscant, then, for now at least," Adrian said, knowing that they would undoubtedly return time and again to the deep, rich bounty and wide-open space that was Phelarion, and to Typhanis birthright. But for now, they looked toward the wide expanse of the galaxy above, and to the full, rich, and exciting life ahead that they would build together.
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