"What do you say we head down to the surface? Find a pretty spot?" Ben kissed the side of Rey's neck as she stared pensively at a beautiful patchwork of blue and green on a planet just outside of charted space and outside the view panel in their quarters aboard the Redemption. It had been four months since she'd told him about the baby, and even though her belly had grown rather enormous in that time he could still barely look at her without wanting her. Though she was more than halfway through her pregnancy she was even lovlier to him than she had been the first time he had ever seen her.
"It would be nice to feel some sunlight for a change." She mused then teased, "I'm almost as pale as you anymore."
"You still have a ways to go for that." He chuckled, rubbing her belly with both hands, cuddled into her back. "But it would be nice to touch solid ground for a while."
"Mmm, yes, and feel a breeze, smell some flowers…" she said dreamily. "See how my TIE handles in atmosphere." Despite her rapidly expanding waistline and sore back Rey prefered the cramped cockpit of her Silencer far more than the comfort of a shuttle's passenger cabin.
"No shuttle?" He sounded slightly surprised.
"No way." She replied, at the rate her belly was growing she'd be lucky to even fit inside her TIE for much longer, she was unwilling to pass up an opportunity to fly it while she still could.
"Oh!" Rey gasped at the sight of a frothy waterfall cascading down a sheer cliff surrounded by dense green jungle. "How beautiful!"
"Wanna land here?" Ben asked for the tenth time as they skimmed the treetops side by side in their matched pair of TIE Silencers.
"Yes!" She exclaimed awed by her first glimpse of a rainbow, she sent the image to his mind. "Look at all those colors!"
Ben couldn't help but grin over her obvious excitement.
They landed in a small clearing nearby and hiked over to the waterfall while he explained the dynamics of water and sunlight that caused the brilliant fragmentation of light known as a rainbow.
"Rainbow? What an inadequate word for something so lovely." She said just before they reached the stream of fast flowing water at the base of the waterfall.
Neither said anything for a few moments as they drank in the sight.
'It's really loud!' She shouted into his mind.
He winced and replied in a normal tone, 'want to move downstream some?'
'Nah, the view is worth the noise.' She grinned up at him as she spoke in a much more normal tone in his head.
'Not much sunlight down here.' He noted.
'No, but it's nice and warm.' She wrapped her arms around his neck. 'And secluded.' She kissed his neck. 'And we're all alone…' Her lips moved to his jaw. 'In a tropical paradise.'
He turned his head to welcome her lips with his. 'And overdressed.' He thought, sliding his hands along her sides.
'Very overdressed.' She agreed.
A long time later…
They reached the clearing where they'd left their TIE fighters just as the sun finished setting and twilight began to creep in. After an evening of not coming across anything worrisome the pair were startled to catch their first glimpse of native life.
"Whoa!" Ben breathed, pulling Rey to a halt. "There, by the white tree." He whispered.
Rey looked and didn't notice anything but shrubbery. 'Where? I don't see anything.'
'A creature, about my size, to the right of the white tree.' He flashed her an image.
A moment later the creature moved and Rey nearly jumped out of her skin. It blended well with it's surroundings. As if it knew it had been spotted the creature stepped forward, it's colors shifting with every movement making it seem almost like a ripple in the air.
More ripples started moving toward them from the tree line all around the grassy clearing. Dozens of tall thin beings with skin like thousands of faceted diamonds materialized all around them.
Ben was mildly intrigued beneath his concern, by the beings' apparent ability to trigger an innate type of cloaking. They wore no clothing and appeared to be without gender. Their skin glittered in the fading blue twilight like diamonds. Each was crowned with flowing hair of silvery white that shifted and changed along with the creature's skin.
The tallest one, apparently the leader, waved a white spear with a shiney black point in their direction and spoke in a voice like crackling glass.
'Do you suppose there's a chance they don't want to kill us?' Rey thought nervously.
The being with the white spear repeted itself.
'Doubtful.' Ben said, doing his best to track all of the aliens' movements at once while paying attention to the leader in particular. 'Be ready for anything.'
The being pointed it's spear at the TIEs then to the sky and back to them while speaking to it's companions.
'There are too many of them.' She thought.
'No,' He replied confidently. 'They're primitives, just keep your head, we've got this.'
Several diamond-skinned beings moved toward them brandishing black half crescent blades as long as their arms.
'I hope you're right, because it looks like we're about to find out.' She turned her body away from his to warily eye the beings behind them.
As they cautiously moved nearer their silvery white hair turned into a metallic pale blue color and their skins silvered to look like chrome.
Ben ignited his saber and flourished his blade, crouching, prepared to attack the encroaching aliens.
Rey and Ben slipped fully into each others mind as Rey's staff snapped to full length and the blades ignited. She didn't do anything fancy with her weapon, simply held it at the ready in front of her, horizontal to the ground.
The beings with the black blades stopped and their hair turned black as their skin became an opaque smokey grey.
The leader let out a sound like a scream and pointed to Ben with his spear before shouting something in it's odd crackling language. A ripple passed through the crowd as being after being changed to the smokey grey, black haired look of the ones closest to Ben and Rey.
Rey swept her eyes from side to side as being after being dropped to it's knees and laid it's weapon down. A chorus of melodic crackles went up even as the beings bent forward and touched their faces to the pale green grass.
Ben thought he was ready for anything, but it took him by surprise to watch as even the leader laid it's weapon down and began to worship him and Rey.
'Ok…' Ben admitted. 'I wasn't expecting *that.*'
Rey turned a slow circle, watching the beings as they sat up on their knees, chanted together for a moment, then touched their faces to the ground again. 'What are they doing?' She couldn't quite register the change in their situation.
'Unless I miss my guess,' Ben said ironically. 'They think we're gods.'
'Well, ok…' She gawked. 'I wasn't ready for that either.'