Courtney laid there thinking of her most recent dream. She had had it before but it was still strange to her and always happened when she started to forget it. In her dream Courtney wakes up in a small room on the top bunk of a set of bunk beds. She jumps down and turns to the bottom bunk to see she's woken a feline looking girl that looks around 7 or 8, maybe 6.
"Good morning." The lioness would always say with a strange accent, rolling her 'r's in a strange way and adding the slightest hint of a 'w' after the 'g' in 'good'. Her face was completely covered in a brownish, almost coppery colored, fur, with an angular face and small nose, very much like a feline. She had pointed ears near the top of her head, and a thin mane from her brow to behind her jawbone and around her neck. She was wearing a thin, loose robe of a light tan coloring. Courtney was also wearing one just like the feline-girl, she knew because she always did in her all of her previous dreams like this one.
"Good morning, Trijalla." Courtney would say in response. She would then turn around and her vision would change. Everything would be in a strange green hue. She would see clone troopers, or what she assumed were clone troopers since they looked like storm troopers but were slightly different, and had blue details on their armor, while all the storm troopers she's seen has been plain white or a few grey details. They started firing at her, their blaster fire blue, and then people behind and beside her would start firing at the troopers with red blaster fire. When she looked at those around her, they were just dark, humanoid figures, but they always continued marching, unafraid of being shot down.
After both sides taking casualties, a blue light came from the enemy's frontline. It was a single beam stretching about three feet long and white in the middle. 'A lightsaber!' Courtney realizes. He's a Jedi. And she feels fear from seeing him. She can never figure why?
Just then she heard Charlie's breathing change; a pause, for a second or two, and then a deeper breath, and quickened breathing. 'He's awake.' She realizes. She stayed where she was, unmoving. She heard Charlie mess with his clock, then paused, probably deciding if he should get up. He got up after a few seconds and opened his curtain; another pause, probably to see if she was still asleep. He then walked to the refresher and closed the door, apparently convinced she was still asleep.
She went back to recounting the dream in her head. After seeing the Jedi's blade, her vision turns to black then names show up. The same ones Charlie remembered on the "first day". "Charlie, Courtney, Jirako, Jijna, Viktor, Via". She opens her eyes to three figures: a Gossam, a human, around the same size, and a Rodian, their features indistinguishable because of a bright light shining from behind them. Courtney tries to move but fees restraints on her arms, legs, torso, and even around her head.
"The restraints are unneeded, you know that right?" asked a strange somewhat high-pitched voice, probably from the Rodian. "She always follows the rules. That's why she's called 'The Law'. She even manages to keep 'The Man' in check."
"That may be true, but this process is incredibly painful. We don't want her to thrash around." said a more human voice.
"Enough, chit-chat." said another strange voice, though different than the first, this voice seemed to be smoother in pronouncing it's words. "Let's get this over with." The three move forward and around Courtney and stands the bed she was strapped to completely vertical. She could never distinguish the detail of the three people because they always seemed to be in front of lights like they were when they arrived, or behind her and out of view. They step behind her where she hears a few loud bangs and the sound of connecting and strapping things together. All three then leave the room and leave her like that for a short amount of time, then she feels a burning sensation in her mind and in a second, it's down her whole body. And she always wakes up after that.
Charlie was still in the refresher when she finished recollecting the story. She then started thinking about the part of her dream where her vision is green and she sees the Jedi. The first vision Courtney is sure she has figured out. Courtney was an orphan or something and she still has a fragment of her memories and the feline-girl, Teijalla, must have been her roommate, but the second part… She has no idea. No idea why the troopers were shooting at her and her "comrades", whoever they were, and why she felt so fearful toward the Jedi. And she couldn't figure why her vision was in a green hue. It made absolutely no sense. None of it. 'Maybe it's a mixture of several memories and the added strangeness of dreams." Courtney thought.
Then there are the names. Perhaps they're there just from her memory of Charlie saying them back on the "first day". 'Or maybe I knew those people too.' Finally, the last part of the dream. The three figures. She knows she knows them from somewhere, but the question is from where. Courtney believes one of them to be Sier, the name she remembered on the "first day", but which one? Before she could think on anything else, Charlie exited the refresher, she could see, through a crack in her curtain that he was dressed in work clothes for the diner. His hair gelled to stick up, almost like a top cut, but not quite. He went into the kitchen, which could still be seen into from the bedroom(s). He made two meals, one for himself and one for her, as always. He didn't finish his meal before he had to leave, so he took his leftovers with him to finish on the way.
Once Charlie left Courtney got up and headed to the refresher to showered, coming out wrapped in a towel, and going back to her section for her clothes. After putting on a nice, white short-sleeve shirt, and a pair a black pants that were tighter than most of her other pants, she ate her still warm morning mean. After finishing it, she rinsed both her and Charlie's dishes, then grabbed her things and headed out the door, locking it with her key. She walked toward the mall, which was quite a ways away. Along the way she found a taxi speeder and got in, asking the driver to take her to the mall.
The mall was small, compared to other malls in the "better parts" of Coruscant, but still had around thirty shops in it with even more kiosk. Once inside, Courtney headed to the security entrance. She pulled her ID card from her pocket and scanned it on the door console, unlocking the door. She went inside and went to her locker and got her uniform and put it on over her clothes. She then headed to a jewelry store in the mall and went into the security area in the back.
"Hey Court," a man who was also wearing a security uniform said as she passed. The sound of his voice made Courtney's shoulders to drop a little and a small sigh to escape her. His voice , to her, was clear that there was a question soon to follow, and she knew exactly what that question would be.
"No Junior, I won't accept your offer to go on a date." She said still walking without looking at him.
"I never asked that." Junior said defensively.
"Yes, but you always do and you're no good at masking your voice, or your body language either." Courtney said matter-of-factly.
"Oh come on, give a guy a break. You can read anybody easy, even if I try. I still don't know how you can do that." He said as they reached the back where the cameras were. And no one was there.
"Junior, is this supposed to be your station?" Courtney asked solemnly.
"Well you see, umm, yeah it kinda is, but I, uh wanted to welcome you when you got here so…" He said a bit nervous.
"So you left one of the most important stations in this store?" She asked seriously and slightly scoldingly though not angrily. "I appreciate your thought, but that doesn't give you reason enough to leave your station."
"I think it does," Junior said under his breath though Courtney still heard him.
Courtney sighed. "Junior, one of the reasons I won't accept your offer is because you keep proving that you have a tendency of being unreliable and irresponsible. You have many great qualities but your few rotten shuura ruin the batch." Junior's face took on a shameful look. Courtney put her hand on his shoulder. "No one's perfect but most of your negative qualities can be removed. You just have to get rid of them yourself." He looked up at her and smiled at her, and she smiled back.
"Thanks Court." Junior said.
"You're welcome, and thank you for not being upset. Most people don't want to hear the truth about themselves, and will just deny it." Courtney said.
"Well I guess I see what you're talking about. Could you help me though?" He asked.
"I could," Courtney answered, "but so could many of your other coworkers that you work with when I'm not around."
"So…" He started to say, but Courtney knew what he was going to ask.
"You can start by getting back to your job," she nodded toward the security-camera room. "If you need me ill b in the front, just call me over the coms." She finished, grabbing her communicator from the rest of the coms that were charging next to the security screens, and walking away toward the front of the store, toward her station. She reached the front and sat in her "booth". It was a swiveling, high chair next to a large podium/stand thing with a portable holo-computer on it which was hooked up to a scanner next to the door. The scanner was programmed to be constantly searching for any trace of a special formula that is put on all of the items in the store that only the cashiers can remove after it is bought. However, recently people have found a way to block the scanner from picking up the formula; making the scanner less reliable now. Which is why Courtney had been repositioned from a wander, someone who goes around the store making sure nothing unusual is going on and nothing's out of place, to entrance and exit manager. Her job was to make sure people didn't make it out of the store with merchandise unpaid for.
She had been working this position for two weeks now and had only caught one person so far. As she sat and waited, looking at the screen constantly and looking at the people leaving the store to see if any show signs of thievery, she thought, thought about several things. She thought about what she was going to do about Junior, should she continue ignoring his proposals, or should she give him another chance? She thought about her old job as a wanderer, she had enjoyed that much more than sitting around looking at every person like they did something wrong, she could wander the aisle looking at all of the jewelry ad see what she could save up for or just browse, mostly just browse. She thought about her dream, if it was important and if so then how it was.
Several hours passed with nothing happening. She started to get really tired at this point.
"Hey Court. I think we have a 'zerek'; he's headed your way. A human male, brown hair, tall; about 5'11", maybe 6 feet," Junior's voice came in through her earpiece to her com. A "zerek" being a shoplifter.
"Roger that Junior, I'll keep an eye out for him." Courtney said into her wrist com. She eyed everyone that left after that; there was two female Twi'leks, a human mother and child, and a young, rich looking female human. Then a tall man with dark brown hair started heading for the door.
"Courtney, I saw the man again. It looked like he was headed for the door," Junior's voice came in again.
"Understood," Courtney said quietly. She watched the man head for the door. He walked in a confident manner, standing tall, and shoulders out, like a man of respect. He even didn't flinch when he saw Courtney glaring at him, acting like he didn't see her. It was faked. Even the most innocent person will give a slight change in their demeanor when a security officer stares at them. His demeanor remained 'I am the most innocent person. Don't worry, because I'm not worried.'
Courtney stood up to intercept him. He noticed but acted as if he expected her to go to something or someone else. Instead she walked in front of him and stopped. He stopped before running into her.
"I'm going to have to ask you to come with me." Courtney said calmly. The stranger gave a look of annoyance. 'She seems to suspect me but I didn't do anything to raise suspicion. I can still fool her easily.' Courtney read his body language and face clearly.
May I ask what for? I was just browsing and didn't buy anything. I was looking for a nice piece for a friend; they're leaving and we're throwing this big farewell party." He said giving his excuse.
Lies. The farewell party for a "friend" seemed to be true, but that wasn't why he was here, or the reason he stole whatever it is he had. "I'm still going to have to ask you to follow me." She said making it obvious she wasn't buying the story.
"Please, I have to get going or I'll be late to my work." He came up with that one just now probably.
"I'm afraid you'll be late, now please follow me." Courtney demanded. Anger spiked all across his face and there was slight movement in the shoulders, as his right hand made a movement towards his coat pocket; 'He's got a gun!' Courtney realized.
She whipped her gun out of its holster, switching it from lethal to stun as it came out, and shooting the man straight in the chest, knocking him out before he could act. A woman nearby screamed and the cashier people stood in slight shock, prepared to grab their concealed weapons if they were needed. Courtney bent over the body and searched through the fancy cloak to reveal green slime splattered on the insides. 'This might be what's been blocking the scanner from working.'
"Courtney, Scanners picked up a stun charge fired and I could hear a small amount of commotion out there. You ok?" Junior said into hear ear.
"Yes I'm ok, and the suspect is stunned. Get Greg down here to take him to the back and notify the authorities." She replied into her communicator.
"Roger. Any civilians injured?" Junior asked genuinely concerned for the welfare of everyone. That's one of his good characters; he truly cares for the safety of every being he comes into contact with.
"No Junior, none."
After a pause, "Ok roger that. Greg is on his way." Junior said.
"Roger that, thank you."
Hey, sorry for anyone who's actually following this, but I've been super busy with school, but I've gotten this chapter done finally. If there are mistakes you guys notice, feel free to let me know, I don't have a beta reader and I'm editing this myself, so I expect some mistakes.
The next chapter won't be out for a while, but hopefully it'll be uploaded quicker than this last chapter.
Disclaimer: Star Wars is own by Disney, not me; though I take ownership of my original characters and the plot of this story.
-TheGreatNate