Resolder clipped his communicator off and turned to his cousin, pulling the earpiece from his ear. "It's done," he announced.
The princess didn't look up at him. Instead, she kept bouncing a long blonde curl in front of her eyes. The lock sprung coil to uncoil so close in front of her nose that she nearly went cross-eyed to look it. "I know. You really need to shield your thoughts more. Not that I mind them, I like your thoughts."
He sniffed half in approval and half in wondering why he bothered to say anything in the first place.
She continued to play with her curl, waving it in front of her face. Her lips formed an awed, 'O'.
For a moment there, he was tempted to believe she was either bored or mentally-lost, but there was a peculiar glimmer in her eyes as she watched the strands move.
"Did you know that even hair reflects a person's aura?" She bounced it more aggressively. "It's like an iridescent wave of energy that flows like water around the strands."
Resolder arched a dark eye brow and spread his arms out on the couch's back next to her. "Hair is part of your body."
"But I thought hair was technically dead," she stretched the lock nearly straight to eyeball it. "Just like fingernails."
"It grows, doesn't it," he replied, drawing her from her hair-watching. The moment the comment left his lips he winced.
The princess blinked at him for a few parsecs then laughed. "You should see your energy retreat into itself. I'm not going to kill you for expressing your opinion."
She cupped her chin as if considering and glanced up to the corner of the room with a half-devilish twitch her lips. "Then again…I might smack you."
After a flicker of surprise, he realized she was only teasing.
Resolder chuckled, shaking his head. "If only we could see what you see."
Sadness tempted her eyes. "If only I could see what you see," she said quietly.
Resolder stiffened, launching into an array of apologies that she silenced with one hand.
"No," she said then patted his shoulder ending the gesture with a playful push, "You are family," as if that explained everything, "And did you know, your head looks like a big ball of bluish green fire with black holes for eyes?"
He froze. "What?"
"Got you," Apple burst into laughter, falling back against the plush pillows.
Stopping mid-giggle, she sat straight up and looked in the direction of the door. It hissed open to allow Lieutenant Ru enter. The dark twin.
"They've launched, haven't they?" She asked him the moment he opened his mouth to speak.
The lieutenant's expression twisted into a nasty grin. "They were out of the hangers well in advance of receiving the order from Major Stagis."
"Good." She folded her hands in her lap, a knowing smile twitching at the corners of her mouth.
Aster headed directly for the officer's bar and poured himself a juice. "Don't know what you intend to accomplish by poking the monster, your highness."
Resolder choked. The older man was audacious.
Apple patted his back as he coughed out his surprise. Then she focused on the lieutenant, "He's not a monster, Aster, he's misunderstood."
The officer swiveled on one heel to face her, lifting his glass for emphasis, "I meant the Supreme Leader, your highness, not your nephew," adding under his breath, "although he too is a raging beast."
"Did you now?" Her surprise was palatable. "I'm half astonishment."
"I hide my thoughts well," he smiled against his cup before taking a drink.
"That you do," she laughed then gave him a pointed look, "Except when you are looking at nasty images of my half-sister."
A mouthful of juice spat across the bar.
Resolder laughed as the man stumbled to wipe his mouth with the back of his sleeve.
"Didn't know you saw that," Aster recovered, looking only a tad repentant.
"I didn't," she shook her head still maintaining her perfect posture, "But you did. And I saw them through your eyes," she explained matter-of-factly.
His olive-skinned face paled.
The princess shuddered in a delicate manner, "Of all the force users, it has to be your eyes that I can see through."
Aster finally had enough decency to make a full body grimace. "I'm not a good man, your highness," was all the apology he offered, "You probably should avoid looking through my eyes and find a different hobby."
"Or perhaps, you should find a different hobby," Resolder challenged him pointedly.
Aster flashed him a toothy grin and poured himself another drink. "Nope."
"You've got a call, honored one," Roan trundled in, holding an imager in her palm with a hologram of Lt Commander Ru standing out of it as River sashayed after her.
Resolder stretched his neck to scan the adjoining game's room that they came from.
"She's not here," Roan snipped at him as she past.
Face reddening, Resolder shrunk into his tall frame. "I wasn't looking for Blaze…" Cough, grumble… "I mean, I don't know what you are talking about."
River and Roan exchanged a look then rolled their eyes.
The red-headed sister flicked his hair forward, "Give up. She's not into you."
He swatted her hand away to hurriedly fix the mess she made on his head. "I'm not—" He began but frustratedly clamped his mouth shut against the fear that he would make a further fool of himself.
"It's the Lt. Commander," Roan put the imager in front of the princess's blind eyes, changing the subject back to business.
The hologram officer groaned, "She's blind, Lady Roan. She can't see my electronically generated image."
The woman slit her violet eyes at him condescendingly, flicking back her luscious ponytail over her shoulder. "Then why send a hologram at all, egg-less?"
"Because her communicator is turned off," the image glared back clearly offended by her Hapan slang, "And I can't leave the command deck."
Apple sighed loudly, drawing their attention. "So I take it, all the other command staff are…?" She let her meaning fall to the air.
"Unfortunately," Lt Commander Ru answered, "that is affirmative."
The princess grinned widely at the space next to the hologram. "That's a shame." She was a terrible actress. The back of her hand met her forehead in a dramatic manner. "What ever are we going to do?"
Roan snorted and the hologram officer dropped his face into his palm.
Licking her lips, River poked her finger through Ru's transparent abdomen. The image warbled around her finger. She poked him again and again.
"Would you please cease that?!" Lt Commander Ru groused then recovered with a formal gentleness for the princess, "The general is on his way to the command deck, your highness. Major Stagis has been implementing—"
"Oh dear! I'm afraid we can't rely on him," Apple covered her mouth with her hands in an exaggerated disappointment and concern, "General Hux is still unconscious in the infirmary."
The hologram twisted in confusion. "But…?"
"It's so sad and unfortunate," she shook her head, causing the other women to mimic her motion and 'expression,' "How can we possibly manage without him?"
Lt. Commander's transparent eyes flitted from face to the next. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Then I must have been… misinformed…"
A devious grin spread across her lips, "Very misinformed."
—
Commander Rokens swayed on his feet, grabbing Hux's shoulder, "General sir," he slurred ignoring his superior's wincing at the gesture.
"Yes?!" Hux hissed, plucking the man's fingers off him. His eyes narrowed at him studying his subordinate's, "I thought you were finally sobering."
"No…" the Commander smiled moistly, "stone cold drunk."
Hux regarded him with disgust then turned to clanker towards the door, "Never a drop of alcohol on this ship again!"
"But there's something important I need to tell you," Rokens began reaching out to him.
The young general stiffened. He clicked slowly around, dragging the orthotic bound other leg in a metal screeching half circle to face the staggering commander. "What?" He waited… and waited.
Impatience reddened his features up to his auburn hairline. "I'm waiting."
Rokens lifted his index finger and opened his mouth, letting a huge, aromatic belch.
Hux coughed and sputtered, waving his good hand furiously in front of his face. "Commander, I swear on—"
He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence before Doctor Wintlock hit the side of his neck with a transdermal syringe. The young man slumped, the seasoned physician catching him under his armpits.
"Took you long enough," Rokens straightened himself, completely sober. He pointed to his face, "the facade was starting to wear off."
Within a few eye blinks, the inebriated redness slowly gave way as the commander's normal skin colored returned and his bloodshot scleras turned white again.
"The sedative had to be exact for his… unique metabolism," Wintlock grunted under the general's weight, "Grab his feet."
"Those pills you gave me," the commander burped again, "did the trick—I looked like a blasted alcoholic in two parsecs—but they also can give a man profound gas." He bent to hook his arms around Hux's ankles and let out a loud fart.
He grinned as the foul stench wafted in the air around them, "Sorry."
"No you're not," Wintlock's nostrils twitched, "Those capsules were necessary. Fooling the staff are one thing. Fooling this one," indicating the unconscious ginger curled awkwardly against his chest, "is another feat entirely."
Rokens scanned the nearly empty infirmary. "Where is everyone?"
"Gave them the day off. Less pairs of eyes, the better," he hefted Hux's upper body to get a better grip on him.
A brown eyebrow raised. "And they weren't suspicious?"
"Faked a viral outbreak."
"Nothing serious I hope," Rokens grinned.
The seasoned physician just stared at him, the scar over his eye twitching, "I hope," he emphasized, "the princess knows what she is doing."
"Come now," Rokens let a small burp when they hit accidentally whacked Hux's broken arm against a metal counter, "A little optimism goes a long way."
"I'm a doctor," Wintlock replied as glass beakers fell off, shattering at their boots, "I have no optimism."
They stopped at the nearest patient room.
The door refused to open.
Rokens struggled to get a better hold on Hux's feet as he kicked at the door missing it entirely. "Did you lock it?"
"No." Dr. Wintlock narrowed his eyes at the secured door panel.
Shifting their load so that he was nearest to the door, the physician elbowed the control panel. It sparked and the door hissed open to reveal a couple busy in the act of getting to know each other's faces.
The two jumped apart startled, blinking against the lights flooding in on them.
Wintlock cleared his throat, "The First Order paying you to give the Lady Blaze a tour of the infirmary, Dr. Yeals?"
"Dr. Wintlock," the young physician attempted to straighten his shirt with some decorum. Too bad the shirt's tail was sticking out his pants zipper. "I… ah… we were just discussing the… ah."
"Seriously?!" Rokens dropped his half of the general with a loud jarring to throw his hand out at the door. "You just had to desecrate this room? This one!"
He paused in his complaint in consideration, "Nice bra. Is that silk?"
Blaze brightened, thrusting her chest out. "Thousand weave silk and I got it on sale."
"Purple would look better," he rubbed his jaw considering, "with your skin tone, you could get away with a rich plum."
She glanced down at it, "They only had red, but I think you might be—"
"Any year now," Left holding up the general-load, Wintlock rolled his eyes.
The others scrambled to help him.
The commander put a hand on his lower back and stretched it in an arch, before hiking his thumb at the disheveled couple. "I'm out. Silkie and her man toy," that warranted him two glares, "can haul him now. He's a lot fatter than he looks."
"You're one to fat shame anyone, " Blaze tipped her chin at the commander's belly rolls as she grabbed Hux's feet.
Rokens rubbed his hands on his belly, pouting, "I'm not fat. I'm calorie-challenged." He belched a long-winded exclamation point to his sentence.
Blaze sneered, "Sexy."
He practically twitched his eyebrows, "Aren't I though."
Ignoring them, Yeals moved to relieve Wintlock of his burden. He looped his arms under the general's upper body.
"Those Hapans better do their part and distract Major Stagis," the commander surveyed the other two hefting Hux into the air. "He can't find out about any of this. That man couldn't be trusted to keep quiet even if we threw him out of airlock— Not that I haven't considered it," his eyes bulged and he covered his mouth, "I did not just verbalize that, did I?"
"Commander," Wintlock stretched his shoulder, kneading it after a few circles of his arm, "Warning: The drug's affect on your inhibitions might not wear off for a few more days. I'd be careful what you say and to whom."
"Just for scientific inquiry," Yeals asked concerned, his accent thick on each consonant, "Is there anyone else besides the Major that is NOT apprised of the princess's scheme?"
"Lord Ren," Wintlock and Rokens answered in unison.
"Good Helsa," the young doctor's face drained of color, "we're bantha fodder."
A long silence filled the air between them, finally broken by a whistling then puffing clapping of the commander's backside.
"Did you just…" Blaze choked back a repulsed dry heave, "pass gas?"
"No," he said quickly as another wheezing rumble erupted out of him. "Not at all."