The Fury

It was a very, very slow day on the Fury. The Wrath, Darth Solange, was attending a Dark Council meeting. As usual she had only taken Broonmark with her. Vette and Jaesa were sitting on the couch next to the holocommunicator, while Quinn was working in the cockpit. Pierce was in the cargo room and cleaned his weapons.

"I'm soooo booored!" exclaimed Vette and yawned. "Why didn't she take me to this meeting?"

Jaesa smiled. "Perhaps because she likes her fluffy bodyguard and because a room full of grumpy Sith and a mouthy Twi'lek are a bad combination?"

Vette laughed a little and looked at the former Jedi. Jaesa had become a very good friend to her, they were roughly the same age and the Twi'lek discovered that she was really funny when she wasn't in her Sith-persona.

"Ah, always these slur! Poor me! I… I… think something broke inside me!" mocked Vette.

"But you're right – it's really boring… we don't even have a goal anymore after Baras was defeated. Do you think that the Council will give Solange finally another assignment?"

"I sure hope so! If we don't get some action soon I will go crazy and do CRAZY THINGS! AAAAHHHH!"

Upon her scream Pierce as well as Quinn raced into the room.

"Who would've thought that a wee girl could make such a noise?" asked Pierce and threw jokingly a towel he usually used to clean his gun at her. Vette ducked skilfully and threw the towel back right into the Lieutenant' face. From the corner of her eye Vette saw that Quinn had a disapproving look on his face, but instead of scolding them for their behaviour he simply returned to the cockpit.

"Hey, that's no fun if Quinn doesn't do his uptight routine!" complained Vette. She enjoyed to ridicule the Captain for his stiff disposition, he got always angry while trying (in futile) to reason with her.

"If he knows what's good for him, he will keep his trap shut!" said Pierce while picking up the towel. "I never understood why Solange let him stay on; I would've killed him back on that station. Quinn has betrayed us!"

"Come on," interjected Jaesa, "he is useful. And it has been almost two months since that incident. We should go easy on him."

"Never!" replied Vette and Pierce in unison. They were both surprised and Jaesa laughed at their surprised looks.

"I'll leave before that happens again," murmured Pierce and left.

Two hours later Vette and Jaesa had played the sixth round of pazaak in the mess hall.

"Damn it, how long is this meeting gonna take? Solange should be back by now! Your turn, Jaesa."

"Nah, I don't like this game – you always win. But what about another game we used to play in the Jedi academy?" Vette hesitated; Jaesa had a strange glint in her eye. But her bold nature won over her caution.

"A Jedi game? Bring it on!"

"All right, we will pose each other challenges to 'develop our personalities' as the Jedi called it. It should be something doable and yet something we couldn't accomplish in a day."

Vette smiled and became exited. "What are the limits?"

Jaesa smiled back and leaned towards her friend. "There are no limits! We could challenge each other with something that will take a few days, a Jedi Master challenged me to levitate a rock once. It took me almost a week to lift that damned thing. But I'm sure we will come up with something more fun than that!"

"Oh yes!" Vette was now positively exhilarated. "Let's meet up in an hour and pose each other a challenge!"

The Twi'lek wandered through the Fury and tried to think up a challenge for Jaesa. It had to be something she could do on board of the ship, just in case they had to leave Dromund Kaas because Solange got finally some work to do. Speaking of Solange… her private quarters were as dull and dark as any Sith chamber… if someone were to decorate the Darth's room in a more blithely way… YES! Vette sniggered at the prospect of having Solange going into her room and starting to scream because Jaesa had swapped her dark relics with flowers. And since Jaesa had to replicate everything and try to sneak into Solange's room it would at least take a few days before she could complete this assignment.

With a broad smile she returned to the mass hall and found Jaesa already waiting for her. The former Jedi had an equally broad grin on her face, Vette was already curious what her challenge would be. Perhaps she had to teach Pierce how to pronounce more clearly? Or programme Tovee with rude comments to greet them when they return from a mission?

"Are you ready?" asked Vette still smiling. Jaesa nodded and started to laugh as she heard her challenge.

"Oh, that's going to be such fun! Solange will positively be shocked!"

"Yeah, imagine the look on her face as she sees suddenly pink ribbons instead of black daggers hanging on her walls! But quick – tell me my challenge!"

"Very well, I challenge you to go on a date with Quinn."

Vette let the words sink in, her smile disappeared. "What?"

"Convince him to go on a date with you – or is the challenge to though for the best-looking Twi'lek… eh, on this ship?"

"You said something doable! How on earth can I convince Capt'n Obdurate and Oblivious to do something like this?" Vette gave Jaesa a loop-sided grin. "And btw I'm not only the best-looking Twi'lek on this ship, but also in the whole sector!"

"Are you up to the challenge or do admit your defeat?"

"Right on! I'll charm Quinn in a way that not even Capt'n Cold can withstand!" boasted Vette and raised a fist in the air to underline her resolve.