A/N: And now, a very interesting chain of events is about to take place. Keep R&Ring!
Ch. 4 Heat
"This is interesting." Ben woke up with a start at the sound of Vix's voice. "What is it?" he asked. "I've been doing some research on our destination, and I noticed that our old buddy on the Advisory Council, Hikta the Great, has some personal friends who own a mining operation on Aphridoc IV." Ben snorted. "More like a smuggling and/or slave trading operation, knowing the kind of company Hikta keeps," he remarked. His female friend grinned at him. "Well, anyway, if we're right about the true nature of this operation, it's probably connected to the amphistaff sighting and the assassination of Senator Fultrex," continued Vix. "Fultrex always was a rather vocal opponent of Hikta in the Senate," remarked Ben, leaning back and stretching his arms. Vix nodded grimly and glanced at an instrument on the control panel. "Sit tight. We'll be coming out of hyperspace in just a minute," she said.
There was a blinding flash of light and they returned to realspace. They tuned their comm to a frequency that was recently found to be used by local smugglers by Vix's father, Kyle Katarn. However, it was now encrypted. The Shadow's decrypter immediately tried to unscramble the information but they still only got static and a few snippets of comm chatter: "Alpha Green…biotech…Boss B…Ssi-ruuk…Council…Leia Organa Solo…" . Ben's eyes widened in surprise at the mention of his late aunt, who had died peacefully in her sleep when Ben was only twelve years old. Why would her name be mentioned on this frequency? And what did the Ssi-ruuk have to do with this? Suddenly, the Shadow beeped a warning that there were incoming fighters. "Looks like we've been noticed!" he yelled. "Should I get in the X-Wing?" asked Vix. "Nah. Sit tight. I'll get them off our tails in just a sec," responded Ben.
After a dogfight that lasted a few minutes, Ben turned on the ship's cloaking device, the most advanced model the Jedi Order had to offer, and slipped into the planet's atmosphere. Aphridoc IV was sparsely populated and generally overshadowed by the major planet in this sector, Bakura, as well as this region's most noted historic site, Endor. It was the perfect planet to go if you wanted to start an operation that you wanted to go unnoticed. Ben noted that the planet was beautiful even from up here. It was colored crimson, orange, and yellow with blue oceans and white clouds. As the Jade Shadow dipped beneath a blanket of clouds, he had to admit that if he and Vix were dating, this would probably be a very romantic vacation spot…
"Snap out of it, Skywalker!" he quickly thought to himself. He had absolutely no idea how that thought had popped into his head. He and Vix were best friends. Despite the fact that she was extremely beautiful and funny, Ben would feel awkward dating someone he'd been friends with for so long. In fact, this was probably the first time Ben had ever thought of Vix as anything other than a friend. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and tried to return his attention to the ship's controls.
***
Vix took in the scene as she walked down the Shadow's boarding ramp with Ben. They'd landed in a clearing at the heart of a tropical rainforest; one of many that covered this world. There was a hot spring in this clearing, as well as a waterfall that fed into a small, meandering stream that flowed away into the underbrush. The air was fresh and clean. She checked the temperature readings on her wrist-comm. She noted that it was going to be a hot, sultry night.
