The long way back to you
Chapter I
Arkanis system, 3 BBY
She was not in the mood to go into the facility standing in front of her. No...not really!
Her father said it would be a wise career move and that she really should be honored with the appointment to the Imperial Academy. After all, said appointment had come from the Emperor himself! She should more than happy, right?
Right...
If she forgot three important aspects:
First, she was the quite obviously a female trying to become a pilot.
Second, she was alien. Humanoid in every other sense, but alien nonetheless. Her blue skin and red glowing eyes were sure to stand out amongst every other cadet.
Third...she really didn't want to go anyway! Yes, she loved flying above all, but becoming a TIE-fighter pilot had not been on her priority list!
Yet, here she was!
As the transport shuttle approached the Venator-class Star Destroyer orbiting Arkanis, she felt her stomach contract. She really should have fought this harder, but lately speaking to her father was nothing more than an excuse for another fight...and she was tired of fighting him.
The landing dock was pristine and shiny...unlike her father's Flagship, which was nevertheless tidy but not to point of obsession. He always preferred things to be more functional than visually impressive!
Which meant the Vensenor Academy Directing Officer was pretty much another stuck up snob...great!
Leesa exited the shuttle and proceeded to join the rest of the cadets, lined up waiting for their placing on the quarters, and to be given their uniforms. As expected, everyone's eyes were on her! They glanced at her, giving her a superior look, but nothing more...
Two officers approached the new batch of cadets, and gave each one of them a key card and a datapad containing all the pertaining info about the assigned quarters, rules and maps of the Academy.
"Cadet Lees'Alani?" The older Lieutenant inquired.
"Yes, sir."
"You'll have separate quarters, of course! The Director asks for your presence on his office, after you've been settled and properly uniformed, is that clear?"
"Clear, sir. I'll report as soon as I'm able, sir."
"Good." The Lieutenant gave an arrogant smirk. He was one of those speciesist jerks she was expecting to find here. No surprise there, then!
After a couple of hours getting acquainted with the facility and having picked up her uniform, she headed to her quarters on the fifth level.
The room was small and devoid of pretty much any creature comforts, but then again she'd expected that from an Imperial facility that trained people to fight and die for the Emperor! Don't get too comfy boys, just obey and die for "uncle Palpatine"...
Leesa guessed being shipped off to Vensenor, was her father's equivalent of a time out!
Good ol' Senior Captain Thrawn! Well, he was not winning "dad of the year" award anytime sooner!
In way she understood her father's fears of the Far Outsiders ever venturing this part of the Galaxy and destroying everything in their path. But she couldn't for the life of her, understand why the only people who had a chance to stand against them, had to rule under a tyranny flag...
The Ascendancy could be somewhat rigid and formal, but it had never been tyrannical! Why her father had aligned himself with the Imperial forces, was something beyond her.
Of course she had to be stubbornly vocal about her points of view! Her father had not been pleased in the least to realise his younger daughter kept beliefs more suitable to a rebel.
He'd tried to make her understand the futility of a disorganized movement, that was trying to bring back the Republic, which had been on all accounts, a dying, corrupt, incompetent governing entity.
How could she deny that the galaxy needed a firm hand ruling the trillions of sentient beings, spread across the galaxy? Couldn't she see the havoc, the mayhem that had the Old Republic become? Even the extinct Jedi Order had been ineffective to keep law and order, and had therefore fallen along the way...
That had been the last drop! That man in front of her, sputtering senseless words was not her father anymore...not the caring, loving man she had known through her childhood! That man had died with along with her brother Thyrin and her mother, Taria...
Within a week, her appointment, signed by Palpatine himself, had been delivered in her hands. She hadn't argued...there was no point anymore...
If he truly wanted to further isolate himself from the rest of his family, that was his problem, not hers!
All she could do now, was concentrate on the matters at hand and show these xenophobic pricks just what she could do!
They wanted to indoctrinate her...bring it on!
Like the blond Alderaanian she'd met on Coruscant waiting for their Academy placements to come, had said: You can always try and change things from the inside!
She would sure try!
It had been two weeks since her arrival at Vensenor, and things had not been easy on her. Like she 'd expected, every instructor and pretty much every other cadet at treated her coldly, their speciesism surfacing all the time.
Even the Director had informed her that she was not to expect a special treatment just because Palpatine had appointed her personally...He'd given her a wry appreciation and mumbled something concerning her father's reach on that facility and how he expected her not to cause any problems during her stay!
Asshole!
Thankfully, she could always blow off steam on the Simulators! She loved flying more than anything, and even though just doing simulator runs, she could turn her full attention to that task and abstract herself from her whereabouts!
Which was she was right now...flying against the cocky redhead cadet that seemed to believed he was the greatest pilot alive! Ok...so he was damn good! Right now he was giving her a run for her money!
He right on her tail, and no matter how much she tried shaking him, he always seemed to guess her next move. She pushed the Twin Ion Engines on her fighter to the limit and broke hard to port, sending her fighter in a upwards tight loop, trying to make him outrun her so she'd appear right behind him, after finishing her loop...only to find out he'd actually been able to follow her on that maneuver, and was still on her tail!
She hated him!
"Tired of dancing around yet cadet Alani?" He asked, a conceited tone to his voice. They had done this many times and so far he'd come out on top...figuratively speaking that was! Not that he'd minded to go literal on that!
"Cut the chatter cadet Layn! Or are you growing tired? Because, you know, I could do this all day..." She bit back. Xander Layn was undoubtedly to most obnoxious guy she'd ever had the chance of meeting!...If only he wasn't also the sexiest guy she'd ever encountered... taller than most pilots usually were, he was lean and with just the right amount of visible muscles! The red hair, complemented with the emerald green eyes and light freckles on his cheeks and nose...
She liked that combination, indeed!
Not that she was going to admit that him...
"Alright then! Come and catch me...if you can!" He smiled to himself. Flying was everything to him! Sure, this was just a Sim exercise, but while they were not going for the real thing, this kept him entertained!
But not too much...He had to remember what he came here to do! He had a mission, and he couldn't fail his father!
Under the fake identity of Xander Layn, a merchant's son from Andara, he'd presented himself for service at the Vensenor Imperial Academy. His role was to collect as many intel as he could, but also search for possible elements that could be brought to defect to the Rebel Alliance.
All the pressure was on him, after all having the Alliance Intelligence Commanding Officer for a father was quite a burden to carry on his shoulders! If anyone was expected not to fail was him: Pash Cracken, the son of Airen Cracken!
If only he could get through the blue-skinned sexy cadet's defenses...
She would be quite an asset to the Rebellion, if she could be persuaded! Pash had sliced into her filed and copied them, erasing all traces of his slicing activities on the main computer.
The intel on her had proved to be quite fruitful! The daughter of the, so far, only known alien officer to serve the Empire; she'd been born on an unknown planet on the Unknown Regions, and had accompanied her mysterious father on his ascension through the ranks of the Imperial Navy. It stated there that she an eidetic memory or, as with was more commonly called Holographic and Audiographic memory.
There was word of an agent codenamed "Targeter" that was supposed to have the same kind of memory. She was sent everywhere doing all sorts of missions for the Alliance...imagine if they could have two such agents on their side!
He had to find a way to "probe" her and find out if she could be turned to their side!
"What the..." Pash gasped! The screen had just turned black and showed a 'mission over' message. " Where the hell did you come from?"
"Lesson number one: No daydreaming while flying! Lesson number two: I can catch you, boy!" Leesa had just taken advantage a moment of distraction to pull a very tight U-turn that put her head to head with Layn, firing her lasers on him dead center! She had finally got him!
The canopy of both simulators opened to reveal a smiling Leesa and flabbergasted Pash!
"Let me assure you, that was the last time you caught me unaware..." He was supposed to be one of the best pilots around, if not the best! His father had pretty much told him so himself...but seemingly all it took was one moment of distraction and he was vapebait. He had to get his thoughts together and take this as humbling lesson that he was still not as good as he'd believed himself to be! Arrogance was going to get him killed...
"Ahh...poor little Laynie...never been vaped before? Continue acting like that, and I assure you you'll get quite acquainted with that fact! Enjoy it while it doesn't earn you a time off dipped in Bacta...or being vaped to atoms!"
"No need to get cocky, Alani! It was just your first time getting at me...and i'll make sure it will be your last!"
"Don't count on it!" Leesa countered, smacking him on back of his head. "And i believe you owe me a round of Ale?"
"The things you do for an Ale..." Pash smiled . "Let's go then, i could use a drink myself"