Old Interests
46 ABY
Since Wolam Tser's retirement a mere few months earlier, Tam Elgrin, Tser's trusted holocam operator, decided to take that very same job on The Perre Needmo News Hour. Today, however, was his day off, and he decided to spend it in his modest apartment on Coruscant by watching Battle of Borleias, the holodoc directed by Tser which Tam had shot during the Yuuzhan Vong War almost twenty years earlier. As he watched, he reminisced about those days on Borleias; having been controlled by the late Kuati Senator Viqi Shesh into doing the Vong's bidding; his near-death experience when he decided to deny Shesh and the Vong what they wanted; and the rest of his time there as a free man up to the point when he took that kid, Tarc, a.k.a. Dab Hantaq, under his wing in order to teach him to be a cam operator.
Dab had gone on to become a successful holojournalist in his own right years after the Vong War ended. The last time Tam had heard about him was when he had appeared during a court session for the trial of Tahiri Veila. And before that, he had been a watchdog in the Jedi Order, specifically for Jaina Solo. Dab wondered how much it hurt Solo whenever she saw Dab on account of just how much he looked like her late younger brother Anakin.
But as much as Tam had missed Wolam and Dab, he had missed the feelings he had for that pretty blonde scientist, Danni Quee, on Borleias. She had left for Luke Skywalker and Wraith Squadron's mission to Vong-occupied Coruscant while he was being treated for the biodevice that the invaders had planted in his head in order to control him. After she was gone, the feelings he had for her seemed to be gone; could it have been a side effect from the mind-manipulation? His reverie was soon interrupted by a knock on his door. Tam paused Battle of Borleias and went to answer the door. Before him then was a female humanoid who he at first mistook to be a Chiss on account of the pale-blue skin. But when he noticed that the eyes were gold instead of blood-red, he knew that something wasn't right; but not in a bad way.
"Tam Elgrin?" the not-Chiss asked.
"Who wants to know?" Tam asked defensively.
"The Magister of Zonama Sekot would want to know," the not-Chiss replied neutrally.
Tam took a moment to himself as he tried to figure out what the woman was talking about. He remembered that Zonama Sekot was the living planet that had shipped off the remnants of the Yuuzhan Vong into the Unknown Regions after the war against them came to an end. But he had no idea who this Magister was. However, he decided to ask the woman who she herself was first before they went anywhere further.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Aken," the woman answered. "I am of the Ferroan race. And I can tell that you have no idea who the Magister is. My apologies, I do not blame you. The last time that Zonama Sekot had contact with the rest of the galaxy, during that horrible war, we had a different Magister. However, since her death, she has been replaced by someone who you are acquainted with, and who wants to see you at that."
"And who would that be?" Tam asked.
"Danni Quee."
"Danni? Why does she wanna see me?"
"That is not for me to know," Aken responded. "It is for you to know. Now, if you will come with me, we must depart for Zonama. She will worry if I do not return with you."
"But I have to report back to The Perre Needmo News Hour tomorrow," Tam said.
"I have already cleared your departure from Coruscant with your superiors earlier today," Aken said. "They will not mind your absence."
"So, wait, they were okay with me leaving Coruscant so I can go to a living world, inhabited by a species that conquered the galaxy twenty years ago, and meet up with said planet's Magister?" Tam asked skeptically.
"They were surprisingly cooperative," was all Aken had to say on that matter. "Now, if you will." She then waved him outside his apartment.
Hesitating, Tam did comply as he walked out and closed and locked the door behind him before joining Aken. He had no idea that this would the last time he would ever step out of that apartment.
"Did you ask them how long I would be gone?" Tam asked Aken as they walked down the apartment complex's hallway from his door.
"I told them that you would be gone for a month," Aken explained as they stepped to the turbolift that would take them up to the roof. "And I said that if you didn't return to your job by then, you would lose it."
"Oh, wonderful," Tam replied sarcastically as he and Aken stepped in the open and empty turbolift. Aken then pressed the button that would take them to the roof.
~o~
A few days later, just short of a week, Aken's Ferroan-designed space shuttle came out of hyperspace into the very system that Zonama Sekot was currently inhabiting. With Tam in the copilot seat, he marvelled at the sight of the living planet with its lush, green appearance. He had seen it in the days leading up to the Battle of Yuuzhan'tar, the battle that would finally end the Yuuzhan Vong War, as part of his job as cam operator, which resulted in the holodoc aptly titled Battle of Yuuzhan'tar. But now he could view this world without having to worry about any Vong coralskippers or anything like that try to shoot his ship down for intruding in their space.
Neither he nor Aken said a word to each other as she piloted the vessel towards the living planet. A few minutes later, they were through the atmosphere and were soaring in to a grass-covered clearing for the ship to land. It wasn't long before Aken fulfilled that duty, shut off the engines, and she and Tam then unstrapped themselves from their seats to exit the vessel.
Tam was the first off the landing ramp, followed shortly by Aken, and right before him was the stunning appearance of Danni Quee; even after all of these years, she was still as pretty as she had been when he last saw her on Borleias. And the robes that she wore as Magister of Zonama Sekot merely enhanced her beauty, making her look like some ethereal figure whose presence could not be diminished by the dull and corporeal.
"Danni Quee," Tam said nervously, "I heard that you were, uh... you wanted to see me?"
"I have," she nodded in a professional tone and manner. "I was simply wondering... how have you been?"
Tam raised an eyebrow. "Um... I've been doing all right, why do you ask?"
"Do you mind staying on Zonama Sekot for about half a year?" she asked. "With me?"
Tam's eyes widened before he swung back to Aken behind him. He briefly turned back to Danni before he lifted up a finger and said, "If you'll just give me a moment with Aken?"
Danni made a gesture that indicated that Tam was allowed to speak to Aken. Without hesitating, he said to the Ferroan, "You said–"
"I know what I said," she interrupted. "Consider yourself unemployed." Her tone was not cold when she said that.
Regardless, Tam took it as an affront. "I want you to take me back to Coruscant," he demanded in a tone that wasn't quite angry... yet.
"That will be for the Magister to decide, Elgrin," Aken replied as she nodded back to Danni.
Tam then turned back to Danni. "Look, Danni, I have to get back to Coruscant, I can't stay here..."
"And why not?" Danni asked.
"Because I have a job to do there," he replied. "And I can't just quit it because you want me to stay here with you."
"Hmm," Danni said neutrally. "Whatever happened to that simple man you once were, Tam? If you stay here, you will no longer have to deal with the complexities of the greater galaxy. You can be free, here, on Zonama for the rest of your life."
"Look, Danni, I like you, really, but being trapped on one planet for the rest of my life, isolated from the rest of the galaxy, ain't my idea of being 'free,'" he said.
"You were a cam operator for a news anchor on Coruscant, you would have spent the rest of your life on that planet," Aken said, still from behind Tam.
He swung back to the Ferroan. "Yeah, but at least I was still aware of what was happening in the galaxy." He then looked back to Danni. "Look, I'm sorry, Danni, but I can't stay here. I have to get back to Coruscant."
"Are you sure you don't want to spend a few days on here first at least?" Danni asked. "You may want to reconsider, change your mind."
Tam shook his head. "I've already made up my mind, Danni. What I felt for you on Borleias doesn't carry here. I've moved on with my life, just as you've clearly moved on with yours. So could you please let me go back home?"
Danni sighed in defeat. "Very well," she acquiesced. "It's a real shame you didn't reconsider. You may step back aboard the shuttle."
"Thank you," Tam nodded politely before turning back, stepping past Aken, and climbing back aboard the ship. But he stopped halfway up the ramp. He then turned back to Danni, look at her over Aken's head. "But I have to ask; why did you want to see me again."
"I needed someone, Tam," Danni said. "After Jacen died, I felt lonely. I thought maybe you could fill in the gap."
Tam gave Danni a glare. "Well, I ain't gonna do that for ya, Danni. You have to do that for yourself." And with that, he continued back up to the interior of the ship.
Aken went to join him, but she was stopped by Danni telling her to, "Wait, Aken."
The Ferroan turned back to the Magister of Zonama, who was walking up to her, and asked, "Yes, Magister?"
When Danni was close enough to her, she pulled out something from her robes and handed it to Aken. In the Ferroan's hands was a simple commlink. Danni then gave Aken some instructions before sending the Ferroan back up the ship.
"What took you so long?" Tam asked Aken when she finally seated herself in the pilot seat.
"Simply closing up the boarding ramp," Aken answered curtly. In order to give credibility to her story, Danni had used the Force to close up the space shuttle's boarding ramp while Aken was walking back to the cockpit.
"Doesn't this ship's console have something that can close up the ramp without you having to do it manually?" Tam asked inquisitively as he pointed to the console.
"I prefer to do some things manually," Aken replied sternly as she turned on the engines.
"Okay," Tam shrugged.
A few minutes later, the shuttle was off the ground and soaring for Zonama's skies.
And during the entire trip back to known space, Tam began wondering whether or not he should have accepted Danni's offer.
~o~
A few days later, the shuttle resettled back down on top of the roof of Tam's apartment complex.
"Thanks for the ride, Aken," Tam said as he unstrapped himself from his seat. "I can take the turbolift back down to my apartment without your help."
"Very well, but before you go, I want to give you something," the Ferroan said as she pulled out the commlink and handed it to Tam.
He looked at it briefly before asking Aken, "Farewell gift?"
Aken shook her head, seemingly oblivious to Tam's dry sense of humor. "The Magister gave it to me," she said. "She told me to give it to you once we set back down on Coruscant. All you have to do is press this button here–" she indicated a button on the commlink "–and within a few days, I will return to pick you up and return you to Zonama. So make sure you don't accidentally sit on it or anything, because I am not going to like a week and half's worth of wasted fuel for nothing." She smiled, indicating that the stern Ferroan had a sense of humor after all.
"Right," Tam said as he eyed the commlink again before looking back up to Aken. "Well, again, thanks for the ride. I'll just see myself outta here."
"Off you go," she said as Tam rose out of the copilot seat and went to leave the vessel.
~o~
Later that night, Tam spent his sleeping hours simply staring at the commlink that he set upon his night stand. He knew that he had a job to do on The Perre Needmo News Hour, and since informing his superiors over at the station of his return, he was due to resume his camera-operating duties tomorrow.
Or, as he absently stared off at his chronometer, a mere few hours.
Tam sighed in resignation, knowing that he'll be tired and not up to par with his experiences once he returned to his job. But, he thought glumly to himself as he stood up and wandered to the cabinet containing his clothes for the day, he had to do that job.
Several hours later, Tam returned home even more tuckered out than ever; he pretty much lived the equivalent of a near forty-eight hour day, which doesn't really bode well for any human's natural circadian rhythms. And no amount of caf he took today gave him the energy he needed to do his job to the letter. It took nearly his entire willpower to slowly trudge throughout the length of his apartment to enter his bedroom, taking one good luck at that damn commlink, and then falling back and collapsing from exhaustion on his bed.
In his dreams, he recalled why he didn't want to be with Danni anymore.
~o~
"Tam?" Tarc said from beside him.
Tam looked over to the little boy who sat with him in the cabin area of Wolam Tser's shuttle. They had just departed from New Republic-occupied Borleias and were trying to find a new home amidst the galactic invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong "Yeah, Tarc?" Tam asked.
"How much did it hurt? When the Yuuzhan Vong were controlling you?" young Tarc asked.
Tam hesitated for a moment before responding, "It hurt like hell. It nearly killed me. Not only up here–" he indicated his head "–but also here." He then pointed to the area of his chest where his heart would be.
"Well, isn't that what happens to the heart when you die?" Tarc asked.
Tam chuckled. "No, no, I didn't mean it like that. I mean that they were forcing me to do things that I never wanted to do; they wanted me to betray the New Republic by giving them information I didn't want the Vong to have. It was hurting me emotionally to harm my fellow sentients like that. You know, that kind of thing."
"Oh," Tarc nodded in understanding. "I had to do something like that, too."
"Yeah, I know," Tam replied. He recalled the story around Tarc; looking like a younger version of the late Anakin Solo, he was used by the now-dead Viqi Shesh as a distraction for the Solos so that she could kidnap an infant Ben Skywalker. "It ain't easy."
"No, it's not," Tarc agreed. He then asked in a less dour tone, "Tam, do you have anyone you like?"
"Of course," Tam answered casually. "I like a lot of people, like you and Wolam."
"No, not like that. I mean... like-like," he clarified in a vague sense.
"Oh!" Tam said in realization. "Well... yeah, actually, there was someone, but it doesn't matter anymore."
"Why not?" Tarc asked.
"Well, it's because she doesn't really like me, is all," Tam answered.
"Why not?" Tarc repeated.
"Well, I guess she just wasn't interested in me," Tam replied.
"Why not?" Tarc repeated again, keeping up to his childish and annoying bout of repetition until he got a solid answer from the adult next to him.
"Ah, she was a scientist who had better things on her mind than big guys like me," Tam answered.
"Well, you know scientists," Tarc said in an adult way. "For all their knowledge of what us regular people can't come to understand, they can't come to understand what we regular people think."
Tam smiled at Tarc's uncharacteristic wisdom. "Couldn't have said it better myself, kid."
~o~
About a week later, Tam finally reconsidered.
And a few days after that, Aken's space shuttle landed on the roof of Tam's apartment, where he stood patiently nearby.
"I hope you didn't sit on that comm," Aken said jokingly as he sat in the copilot seat.
"Sure didn't," Tam replied lightheartedly. "Quit my job, though, just a few hours ago."
"I think you made the right decision," Aken commented as she took the shuttle off the roof and soared for the skies of Coruscant.
Soon, he would be with Danni again.
"So, how do you feel about being the Magister's boytoy?" Aken asked casually after they went into hyperspace.
Tam snorted. "Hopefully, it'll pay off," he replied jokingly.
~o~
A few days later, the shuttle settled back down on the very same clearing that it originally settled when it first brought Aken and Tam here.
And like before, Magister Danni Quee was waiting for them.
But this time, Tam smiled as he stepped off the boarding ramp, looking to Danni.
Later that night, they consummated their newfound relationship.
As Danni and Tam lay there on their shared bed, exhausted and ready to fall asleep from the previous several minutes' activities, Danni said, "You got your payback, I'll tell you."
Tam looked over to his new lover. "Huh?"
"I rejected you when you wanted, and then you rejected me when I wanted you," she said. "Everything's settled now, eh?"
"Oh, yeah," he nodded in agreement. "So paid off."
"What?" Danni asked.
"Oh, nothing," he said with a shake of his head.
Soon, they kissed each other before they eventually fell asleep.
THE END.