Author's Note:
All rights for SWTOR, its characters and events belong to BioWare and LFL. I just enjoy extrapolating the story of my smuggler beyond that seen in-game.
I've written snippets about Kathrynne here and there and figured I would finally publish a bit about her. She's the daughter of my main, my Jedi Knight. The story will contain a few allusions/spoilers about the Jedi Knight storyline.
This snippet takes place shortly after regaining the ship at the end of Coruscant and, so far, extends into the bonus series of Taris.
My name is Kathrynne Kimble-O'nasi and smuggling during wartime isn't quite what I had always pictured in my mind. I grew up hearing stories from my Uncle Moff about his glory days as a smuggler when he and my mother had teamed up to fight the Empire. The reality was quite different. Gun deliveries and blockade running isn't quite the adrenaline rush that I thought it would be. But I do enjoy it, even on its humdrum days. I mean, what else would I rather do? Be a Jedi like my mother or sister? Uh, no. The warrior monk lifestyle is definitely not for someone with my...passion for life. Be a soldier like my other sister? Yes Sir, no Sir and all that? Again, no thank you.
No. I'm content enough with my lot. I mean, I'm the captain of my own ship, a Corellian XS Light Freight that Uncle Moff helped me to get when I had built up enough credits. And he taught me the ropes of the business, including maintenance and upgrading the ship. So even though it doesn't look like much, the Shadow Dancer can outrun most ships in the galaxy. Best of all, my lifestyle gives me freedom. Its my not only my source of income, but my home and my escape from the monotony of everyday life that most people have planetside.
And Dad, knowing my tendency for getting into trouble when I have too much free time on my hands, has begun to teach me to be a field medic. He says that that a little healing knowledge can go a long way to saving your life. So I'm supposed to be studying that in my "downtime" during hyperspace treks across the galaxy.
Kathrynne tossed and turned. Usually she slept like a baby in the oversized bed on her starship, the Shadow Dancer. It was one of the many things that pissed her off when Skavak stole the ship. She never really felt like she got a good night's sleep anywhere else. But not tonight.
After having rescued Shadow Dancer from Skavak's clutches, she and Corso had explored the ship. They found pieces of some elaborate plan of that slim-ridden filth in the form of several odd, and very large items in her ship's hold. There were also records in the ships's logs, but neither she nor Corso could decode them. So they travelled briefly to Nar Shadda where the picked up Kaliyo Dajanus, on loan from Kathrynne's cousin Kara. But that's a story for another time.
Now the ship was berthed in an unfinished docking bay on Taris. Kathrynne had rather liked the green openness of both the docking back and the planet at first-until the storms hit. To say that Kathy hated storms was like saying Tatooine was a little warm. The pounding rain upon the durasteel hull, punctuated by heart-stopping thunder reminded her of how very small and weak sentient beings were in comparison to forces of nature such as this. Normally, people just took weather for granted. On most planets, you were protected by towering buildings or permacrete and durasteel, hardly ever having to venture outside. And many planets had a climate control system to prevent such storms. But there was no such system here, not on the long-devastated planet of Taris. Although once a Coruscant-like planet, the soaring citiscape now lay in scattered ruins atop grassy hills.
Kathrynne glanced at the chrono. 2:00 am local time. She had already laid in bed without any hint of being able to sleep for the past hour, so there was no point continuing this farce. The smuggler slipped on the pair of shorts that matched the tank top she preferred for sleep and padded down the corridor toward the kitchenette. Another crack of thunder made her cringe, her heart speeding for the seconds following the loud boom. Part of her wished to enter the crew quarters and curl into a ball behind her brave and overconfident first mate. Not long after meeting Corso Riggs on Ord Mantell, she'd watched in fascinated horror as the man faced down a savrip chieftain, taking a beating from the hulking beast without flinching. He was not only physically strong but also incredibly brave. She definitely wished she could borrow a little of that kind of strength and courage about now. But it was the middle of the night. Not only would it not be fair to wake him, but it also wouldn't be fair considering his recent drunken admission of his admiration for her.
Kathrynne wasn't quite sure what she felt for the man. When they first met, she thought he was a naive farm kid, never off of the planet. That put him firmly in the "hands off" category. She didn't go for robbing the cradle. But then her soldier friend, Eriana (now leader of Havoc Squadron), dug up some basic records on the man. Included in the file were birth records, which revealed that Corso was a lot older than Kathrynne had suspected at first glance. A year older than herself to be exact. And now that she had some time to get to know her partner, Kathy had witnessed glimpses of a man that had seen a lot of death and tragedy at a young age under his usual exuberant and cheerful personality. Now that "hands off" attitude Kathy had felt was gone, and she couldn't help but notice him as a man. A very attractive man, especially since having cut his hair into the stylishly messy doo he now sported. She also couldn't help but notice how Corso's underarmor clung to his body, leaving little to the imagination. Actually, it was more accurate to say that it fueled her imagination, so much so that she was quite willing recently to take Corso up on his offer for "drunken gunplay." Now she was glad now that she hadn't. Yeah, she was Doc's daughter with all the flirty tendencies and hormonal surges that that implied. But Kathrynne didn't sleep around. "Cock tease" was what her sister, Karynne, called her. Kathrynne chuckled to herself, And Karynne would know. But Kathrynne just felt that if she was going to be that vulnerable with someone, it had to be for something that meant something-that it was with someone with whom she was willing to offer her heart, not just her body. And, from what Kathy had witnessed so far, Corso had a similar view. It was refreshing, really. Especially in a profession where sex was used as a tool, a weapon in one's arsenal to get ahead of the competition. Like Darmas, she thought.
Kathrynne, now in the kitchen, poured some milk into a mug and placed it into the reheater. She quickly removed the mug before the device had a chance to beep more than once, then moved to the couch and sat down. Another clap of thunder made her body quiver. She pulled her legs up onto the couch and wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her forehead on her knees and willing the storm to go away.
"You okay, Captain?" a low, gentle voice asked.
Kathy started. She hadn't heard his footsteps in the hall. Then again, it was hard to hear anything over the thunder. "Uh, yeah. Fine. You can go back to sleep. I was just..." she unwound from her ball-like position as she spoke, feeling a bit embarrassed that Corso's "strong" captain was covering due to a little rain storm. She finally found the courage to look at him. His stance was awkward, unsure as he rubbed at the back of his neck with his left hand. She was struck dumb for a moment as she stared at him-the play of muscles in his biceps, leading to his bare chest then down to his perfectly defined abs. Wow, she thought-about as coherent as her thoughts got in that moment. She forced herself to look up from his body into his blue eyes. They showed his worry.
"You sure you're okay, Cap?" he repeated.
Kat looks so small and vulnerable sitting there curled up in a ball like that, Corso thought. He wasn't sure when, in his head, he started thinking of her as Kat rather than Captain. But he always did have a tendency of giving out nicknames. Then she looked up at him, got this blank look on her face and even stopped talking mid-sentence. Perhaps she's having a seizure or something. He definitely was worried now. "You sure you're okay, Cap?"
"Yeah I, uh..." but he didn't wait for her response. He had already crossed the room and knelt in front of her to better look at her. He was no medic, but her pupils seemed even and she didn't look ill. He saw the warm milk sitting on the table. It was luke warm by now but he handed it to her. "Here. Why don't you take a drink of this?" She seemed to snap out of her daze, took the cup and brought it to her mouth. Thunder struck and the captain jumped, blue milk sloshing out of the mug and onto his his chest and arm.
"Oh geez, Corso. I'm sorry." She quickly grabbed a napkin from the table and started ineffectually wiping at the spilled liquid running down his bare skin.
He gently took her unsteady hand. "Kat, you're not okay. You're trembling." He tried to catch her eyes. "Please. Tell me what's wrong, what I can do?"
The sincerity in his voice caused Kathrynne to finally look at him. She hated looking weak, especially in front of her crew. But in the time since Corso had joined up on Ord Mantell, he'd become more than just an employee, hadn't he? They had fought together, patched each other's wounds after long days of fighting the Black Sun and the Justicars. She and Riggs had become friends. And she trusted him with her life every day. She just wasn't sure she trusted him not to laugh at her-or to lose respect for her.
He slid onto the couch next to her, still holding her left hand in his right. His eyes were steady on her face, searching. She stifled her reaction to the next clap of thunder but she knew he still caught it. His eyes dropped from hers and took a deep breath. "You know, my sister Clary used to be afraid of thunderstorms." He stood, pulled the afghan off of the back of the couch and wrapped it around the smuggler's shoulders. "When there was a big storm, Mama would have us grab our blankets and sit by the fireplace." He moved into the kitchen, taking her mug with him. "She'd make us some hot tea and tell us stories until either we fell asleep or until the storm blew over."
"They still use fireplaces on Ord Mantell? I didn't see any in the homes when I was there," Kathrynne asked, her voice a bit unsteady, but glad for the distraction.
"Well, you really only saw the houses of the city folk when you were there." He filled a teapot with hot water, adding some loose tea leaves to the pot. Her returned to her, tray in hand. "Out in the country, things are still...well, things tend to be simpler, more old fashioned." He chuckled ruefully at himself as he sat, then filled a mug and placed it into her hand "As if you didn't already think I was some backward hick, I think I just confirmed it."
Kathy smiled at him in gratitude, wrapping her hands around the warm mug. "I don't think that about you, Corso. Actually I find it rather refreshing." She closed her eyes as she took a sip, savoring the subtle flavors in the tea. She opened them again, her eyes meeting his. "You're a good man, Corso Riggs, with a good heart."
Corso felt captivated by the clear blue eyes that held his. They were sincere and open to him. For perhaps the first time, Kathrynne had put down her pretenses and her over-the-top flirtation to be real with him. He felt a flicker of hope that perhaps there might be a chance for something deeper to develop between them. The the former mercenary felt torn between a desire to explore that thought further and to take things slowly with this woman. "I'm nothing special. You're a friend and my captain. So I'm here for you. Any time you need me." He poured a mug of the tea for himself and took a sip. "So how you feeling? You think you can go back to bed now?"
Kathy shook her head, feeling vulnerable again. She drew her legs up onto the couch, head resting upon her knees-the same ball-like position as when he first walked into the room. Corso noticed that the blanket had slipped from her shoulders. He reached for the afghan to cover her, his hand grazing her back and noticing as he did so that the muscles were knotted and tight. Tentatively, he lightly rubbed her back. A sound between a whimper and a moan escaped the woman's lips. Corso retracted his hand quickly, unsure if he had done the wrong thing.
"No, don't stop," Kathrynne murmured. "I mean...if you wouldn't mind...I didn't realize how much my back hurt until just now and that felt good." Looked back at him, her clear blue eyes reflecting both her physical and psychological discomfiture.
"As you wish, Captain," he responded almost automatically.
Kathrynne repositioned herself and dropped the blanket to give her co-pilot better access to her back. "You always this formal, Riggs?" she teased to deflect her fears.
He shrugged. "Just how I was raised, I guess-to show people respect by using their title. I 'spose I could call you 'Miss Kimble' if you like. But 'Captain' just seemed more fitting." His hands began to work small circles into the muscles along each side of her spine.
The woman moaned softly, her body relaxing into the massage. "I appreciate the thought, Farmboy. But my friends call me Kathy." His hands moved up her spine to her shoulders and neck. She swept her black hair to the side and bent her neck forward. She hadn't anticipated that he would actually be this proficient. Her back was definitely more relaxed. Other parts of her anatomy, however, had become tight as she thought about other uses for his nimble fingers. Unbidden, the image of Corso in the throws of passion calling her name flashed through her mind. "Kathrynne would be good too," she added huskily, feeling heat rush to her cheeks.
Corso couldn't help but notice the change in tone of the encounter as he continued to work each individual knot and sore spot on her back, neck, and shoulders. While he was glad that he had succeeded in distracting her from her fears, working on her back also made it obvious that she wasn't wearing a bra. Add to that the little moans she didn't even realize she was making and her husky tone. Well, now he was becoming a bit too distracted. He tried to laugh it off. "Okay...Kathrynne. But out in front of other folks I'm still going to call you 'Captain.'" She just nodded, apparently absorbed in her own thoughts. Corso took a deep breath and tried to distract himself by composing a mental list of upgrades that would make to Torchy when he got her back from that lousy slime-sucker, Skavak.
They sat in silence for a time. When Corso felt that most of the knots had been worked out, he gently patted her back. He settled back against the cushions of the couch."All set, Cap-Kathrynne. You think you might be able to sleep yet?"
She yawned and thought for a moment. "I'm tired physically, but my mind is still too occupied to sleep." She slid her body so that she could look at him more comfortable. "You don't have to stay up with me though. Why don't you try to catch some sleep?" She yawned and stretched, her body arching as she rolled her shoulders.
"I'll, uh, stay up as long as you need me, Cap...uh, I mean...Kat."
She stopped her stretching and looked at him, her head tilted. "Kat, huh?" She leaned over his reclined form and placed a kiss on his cheek. "I like it." She wrapped her arms around him, giving him an affectionate hug. "Thanks Farmboy, for everything. You're a sweetheart."
Her returned the hug, feeling a bit awkward and yet pleased at the same time. "I'll always be here for you...Kat" he responded with a smile.
Kathy hadn't really planned on lingering in the embrace. But he was warm, her body was relaxed, and in his arms she just felt...safe. When he didn't seem particularly in a hurry to let her go either, she snuggled against him, resting her head on his chest. She thought about telling him why she was afraid of storms-about the time she was stranded in an electrical storm without shelter at summer camp when she was ten. But she suddenly felt so very tired. She was asleep before she could even formulate the words.
Corso felt when Kathrynne's body relaxed completely against his own and her breathing became even. He pulled the blanket over them both, kissed the top of her head and fell asleep, feeling happier than he had in a very long time.