new chapter up. Enjoy.
The next morning, Jace left home early to go address the chancellor's questions. Madon had sent almost three pages of questions and comments, most likely thinking he'd get under Malcom's skin for interrupting their meeting the previous day with Kia's call. Unfortunately for the chancellor, there was nothing in the galaxy that could get under Jace's skin, not that morning. He was still flying high from the news of twins.
Kia woke up about an hour after Jace left, feeling better than she had in a long time. She even found the energy to take a look at her ever growing list of messages. Though she wasn't actively working at the moment, she was still copied on most official transcripts, just so she could be kept in the loop, if she wished.
Kia took a cup of tea and a datapad to the couch. She placed the cup on the table in front of the couch and began to read messages. Most of them were either old news or simply things she didn't want to hear about, but she found one that warranted a closer look. It was a message with no origin that had been sent only to her. She opened the message and it said only three words: Your Tropical Wasteland.
At first, Kia was confused, not understanding what the message meant, but then she remembered.
Several years before all the chaos with the Eternal Empire, the Jedi had sent her on a mission to check out a formally unexplored planet called Diiranon. They wished for her to determine if the planet would be a good backup site for Tython, should their homeworld ever befall a disaster or become otherwise uninhabitable.
That, in and of itself, didn't make the mission memorable. What made it memorable was the fact that the planet had been totally devoid of intelligent life or technology. Not only that, but it also, somehow, naturally blocked all signals and transmissions. Anything that was electrical or mechanical all just seemed to stop working when you entered the atmosphere, everywhere on the planet, except a small stripe of land that allowed enough function for a ship to take off and land, but little else. She had described it as a tropical wasteland to the SIS agent who accompanied her on the mission.
It was the only mission she had ever gone on with Theron Shan and he was the only person who had ever heard her say the phrase tropical wasteland. The phrase didn't even make it into any official reports. The mystery message had to be from Theron.
But what did it mean?
As far as Kia knew, Theron was still a traitor to the Alliance and had been off the grid for many weeks. Why was he trying to contact her? And with such a cryptic message? Kia could think of only one thing the message could possibly mean, Theron wanted to see Kia, on Diiranon. Since there was no indication of timeframe, she was assuming he wanted her to set the meet up and send him the information, as if the meeting was her idea. This was the only conclusion she could think of that made any sense, though she had no way of knowing Theron's intentions.
Normally, Kia would have no issues setting up a meeting like this one. She could easily handle herself, considering the nature of the planet. All weapons were worthless on the planet. Even attacks from above were neutralized once hitting the atmosphere. A ship couldn't even scan the surface from space. Even if this were a trap, her adversary would be just as unarmed as Kia, except she still had the Force as a weapon.
Unfortunately, things were far from normal. Kia was in no condition to go on any kind of mission, much less one with this many unknowns. Not to mention, there was no way Jace would go for it and their relationship, though better, was far too fragile to risk keeping something like this a secret from him.
Kia felt a sharp kick from the right side of your stomach. Then another. For some reason, the twin currently on the right side liked to voice his or her opinion when she needed to make a decision, regardless of what kind of decision needed to be made. She hadn't eaten anything sweet for a solid week, since every time she thought about eating something sugary, she'd be kicked until she decided not to eat the food item. It was the oddest thing.
She felt another kick, this time from the left side. They were starting to gang up on her now. She rubbed her stomach soothingly. "It's alright, Loves, I won't ignore the message. I'm not sure what I'll do about it, but I won't ignore it."
The kicking stopped.
Well, her babies were happy now, but she still had to decide what to do and she'd most likely need Jace's help. She could almost guarantee Jace was not going to be happy about any of it.
To Be Continued...