"Well, at least we finished the first part of our mission." Jorge High commented as he scanned the cantina again looking for a likely companion for the night. This was the first night they had off in three months and by the looks of it the quality of females had not improved much. One of the downfall of a planet that was nothing but one big military base was that really hot women usually don't join the military. And the base was still too new for the normal side business to get a foothold on the planet. So far it was the usual brand of women who were not pretty enough to waste much time on.
"It took us long enough that is for sure, our contact was not happy the last time I talked to them." Hal Starred said draining his glass and signaling the serving droid for a refill. "Our mission wasn't even supposed to identify her just track her."
"Yea well we did our part, we can contact them when we get back and get out of here." He said leaning back in the booth, "I don't want to be around when that Slayer gets here."
"Yea, I agree." Hal said looking at his drink, "they can't pay me enough to be around here when that shows up. But we got the recording from the bugs in the Commander's office so we can prove we done everything we could. We just have to wait for the next contact window to open and then we will get 'washed out'."
"Then it is off to some planet with new names, lots of money and we will be living like kings." He stopped and took another sip from his drink. "Too bad we can't get Ratnena to come along with us."
"Don't be stupid, she is good friends with that freak. Even if we told her the truth she won't believe us, not after the stunt I pulled to flush out that freak. And don't forget what our briefing said about her, she maybe one of the hottest women in the galaxy but she is also a walking time bomb. The only thing that is saving us from her is we didn't push things too hard with her. Tahiri would go out of her way to defend a friend but Ratnena won't."
"Yea but …" he broke off when he saw her walk in. She was about his height, red hair, slim and athletic looking without being too bulky, wearing a red shimmering dress that exposed a good part of her legs and her hair hanging loosely around her bare shoulders. She was turning heads all round the cantina as she shyly walked up to the bar near their booth. "Hello what do we have here?"
"I see and she looks lonely doesn't she." Hal said with a smile on his face.
"We can't have that now can we?" Jorge said watching her look around the room; as if she was not sure she should be in there by herself.
"Well of course not, and as Wraiths we should really go over there and keep her company. I wonder if she has a friend for you?"
"Uh-uh buddy, she is all mine." Jorge said standing up grabbing his drink.
"We'll see old buddy." Hal said with a laugh, picking up his drink and following Jorge over to the bar.
As both men walked over to the goddess, she looked up from her drink and flashed them a bright inviting smile. Hal stood against the bar on her right as he stood on her left.
"Hello miss, you must be new here at Borleias."
"Why yes how did you know?" She said in a soft voice with a slight accent that kind of sound like she was singing her words.
"Well you walked in here disregarding one of the best known regulations here on Borleias." Hal said smoothly. She looked down at her outfit, looking very distressed as if she was somehow causing a scene with the way she was dressed. "A beautiful woman such as your self should never be seen in public alone. That is a crime against humanity for a flower as beautiful as you to be lonely."
"Oh," she said with her bright smile returning and lighting up the room. "I just got here the other day and really haven't had a chance to make any friends. I'm a nurse at the base hospital."
"Ah then my friend here will see a lot of you, he is a horrible pilot," Jorge said taking a whiff of her perfume. "I, on the other hand, am an excellent pilot."
"Oh pilots!" She said in that wonderful accent of hers, drawling out to make it sound like as exotic creature she always wanted but never dare to meet before.
"Actually I am the better of the two, but I let Jorge here think what ever he wants. My name, by the way, is Hal Starred."
"I'm Minnie Heart." She said holding out both hands in a delicate fashion so that each man could take one. She looked at each with a slightly distressed looked, "I hope you gentlemen could help me learn the regulations around here, I would hate to accidentally get in trouble."
"Why of course we would be happy to help you in," Jorge stopped to order another round for all three, "any manner way we can. In fact we would be in violation ourselves if we didn't help you on this lovely night."
"That is true, Minnie, just place your trust in us. You be as safe as if you were in your mother's arms." Hal said with a grin that Jorge recognized for what it was, Minnie however seem to take it at face value.
"Why if I can't trust two dashing and incredible hansom pilots," drawing that word out again and lowering her head but keeping her eyes on them, "who could I trust?"
Hal could not believe how much Minnie could drink, normally he could out drink any woman, or man for that matter, but she kept up drink for drink. That made him want her more not less he liked challenges. By the way Jorge stumbled in to the robot cab, his friend was going to crash soon. Then it would be just him and Minnie.
"Hey droid go to this address," she said leaning up to whisper the address to the purple and white R2 droid behind the controls. When she sat back she leaned across both men, "one of the other nurses told me about a empty VIP house near by, she and her 'friends' sometimes use it instead of going back to the barracks. She gave me the pass code to get in, so we won't have to worry about anyone interrupting our little party." Minnie said with her cute smile and laugh.
All three of them found this to be hilarious, but Jorge sounded like he was near the pass out point. Come to think of it I am almost there myself, Hal thought in drunken haze. Part of his brain wonder if it was only 2300 hours how he got drunk so fast but the rest was just happy he wouldn't have to share at all. Earlier he had suggested that they find a friend for Jorge, but she pouted and said that she couldn't stand the idea of sharing her pilots with anyone. She found them and they were hers. Hal continued to tell the dumb girl lies about his flying skills, about dogfights that he never fought in. Like she would know the difference, he thought as he ran his hand down her back.
When they got to the house they had to help Jorge up to the front door, Hal was going to have a great time reminding Jorge on what a lightweight he was in the morning. It took Minnie three times to punch the right keys, which they all found to be extremely funny. Making exaggerated shushing noises she led them in the house, keeping the lights off. Somehow they made up stairs to the main sleeping quarters without killing themselves. Once there, Jorge fell down on the bed and passed out. Hal fell on the bed laughing at his friend as Minnie stood next to the bed taking off her shoes.
"Ha, he is such a lightweight, he is passed out already!"
"Guess it is just me and you fly guy." She said helping him roll over on his back, he was getting way to comfortable himself but didn't fight her as she leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Relax and trust me, after all if you can't trust me who can you trust."
And as he fell blissfully asleep he felt something cool on his neck, then it was dreamtime for him.
Ratnena staggered back from the bed, ripping off her red wig. She stumbled over to where she left her bag and pulled out a data pad.
"Little Brother, are you in the house?" She said in to the data pad audio pick up.
AFFIRMATIVE, I AM TAKING A SERVICE LIFT UP TO YOUR LOCATION. I HAVE CONVINCED THE HOUSE COMPUTER TO IGNORE OUR PRESENTS FOR NOW.
"Great, hurry up I want to be out of here before that general gets home." She was of course referring to the commanding General of Borleias, who was away with his wife and family on a working vacation on Denon. He was scheduled to return first thing in the morning but she wanted a healthy margin of error. So far most of her plan has work out well except those stupid pills she borrowed, stole was such an ugly word, from supply along with some other helpful bits of gear. The pills were supposed to allow you to break down alcohol in your system so you could drink and yet stay sober. They forgot to tell you if you drank too much they no longer had the same effect. Although she wasn't as drunk as those two space slugs, she was a lot drunker then she should have been. Then again those two poured a lot of alcohol down her and themselves, they won't be waking up soon. Especially after she was done 'fixing' their drinks with a low grade sleeping powder. It was a powder that one could mix in with alcohol and not kills anyone; it had to be mixed in slowly over a period of couple hours. The Wraiths had all kinds of interesting toys, I wonder if this is part of phase II training.
Little Brother rolled in to the room, dragging a bag behind him, and turned his dome to look at the two sleeping men on the bed, he let out some whistles and beeps.
"Yep, they are out cold." She said after reading his question. "Has that cab come up missing yet?"
NEGATIVE, THE BASE COMPUTER BELIEVES IT IS THE HANGER FOR REPAIRS. WE NEED TO HAVE IT BACK WITHIN NEXT THREE HOURS.
"Not a problem, we be done in a hours." She replied grabbing the bag off the floor, mess with my friend will you! "Let's get this over with."
Tahiri was bored out of her mind, Two more days of this and I will go insane, she thought as she sat at the main entrance to the Wraith building on guard duty. She was supposed to answer the comm. if anyone called, no one did, do a hourly round to insure there was no intruders or any thing happing, which there wasn't since everyone was gone from the building, and watch the cams in the hanger. Squeaky and the rest of the droids had shut themselves down for the night except for the MSE-droid who was cleaning the lobby but it was not smart enough to talk to. Shalla was the officer on duty but she went to sleep hours ago, it was after all 330 in the morning, and the rest of the command staff followed the trainees out on leave. She had been able to review some of her Jedi training, read some of her mail that had been backing up from Han and Leia. They both told her they wished her luck in doing whatever she was doing. Leia looked slightly distressed that they couldn't be told what she was doing or where she was. She really wanted to drop them a line letting them know she was ok, but she held off. Reviewing mail was one thing but sending out mail was definitely a no-no.
She also had been practicing some of her Force exercises since there was no one else in the area, letting the Force just wash over her. She noticed, again, that the line between the 'normal' Force and what Jacen called 'Vongsense' was getting blurry. It was getting increasing harder to tell where one stopped and the other began. She could feel the normal planet life on Borleias as well as the left over Yuuzhan Vong life forms that hadn't been removed yet. She often wondered if the Galactic Alliance was setting themselves up for failure in the project to eradicate all Yuuzhan Vong life forms on many of the planets that the Yuuzhan Vong had invaded. Even in this building and the surrounding area she could still feel small plant and animals surviving after the area had been certified 'clean'. She had said something to Jacen, Jaina and Jag that many of these planets would be like her, a combination of the two cultures. From the looks Jag and Jaina gave her told her what they though of the idea, Jacen told her not to worry that the Force will bring everything back in balance.
Han had been more understanding and explained why they had to at least try.
"Many people would believe that the war ended at Coruscant but the leaders know the truth, Tahiri. After the post victory enthusiasm wears off many questions will be raised about their homes. Even if they don't get rid of all the alien life forms they have to at least try, or the people will began to wonder if they really won anything. It could take years for the people to notice that their efforts had failed. Hopefully by then they will have had enough time to get use to it."
"But isn't that just setting them up for a new fall?"
"Sure but this crop of politicians will be long gone before that happens."
Tahiri couldn't help but think the seeds to the next conflict had already been planted with that kind of short-term thinking.
She also spends the time in the Force reviewing why she had reacted to Hal Starred the way she did. Had it been some subtle hint of danger from the Force? Sure she didn't like anyone to touch her head however she usually just jerked away or moved to end the offending touch. She had never attacked anyone before. At first she though it was due to the fact he couldn't take no for answer, but the more she though about it that the more of a secondary problem it became. Yes, she didn't like him in that manner but that still should not have set her off like it did.
In one of the cam screen she saw a shuttle landing in the lighted landing field, she was not surprise and actually happy to see Rat and Little Brother depart from the shuttle. She watched Rat walked across the field towards the main building, she didn't seem to be intoxicated but she did have a huge smile on her face.
"Hey Rat," Tahiri said when she walked through the door, "hey Little Brother, you guys are home early."
GOOD MORNING FLIGHT OFFICER SANDBLASTER.
"Hey kid." Rat said walking around the desk and giving her a hug. "Did you miss us?"
"Of course not, it was nice to be able to do my work without worrying about some prank being pulled one me." Rat turned the hug from behind her into a fake chokehold, laughing Tahiri commented on her perfume.
"Like it?" she said into her ear, "Maybe I give you some if you ever let me teach you how wear makeup."
"Sorry I don't wear make up, but I might try perfume."
"You should it drives the boys crazy!"
"Is that what you been up too last night driving men crazy?"
"Mm you could say that," she said giving her another hug, "but I tell you later. Right now, I need some night-night time."
After she left to go back to their room, Tahiri cocked an eyebrow at Little Brother.
"Do I want to know what happened?"
I AM SCHEDULE TO PERFORM SOME ROUTINE COMPUTER CHECKS ON THE X-WING I WILL BRIEF YOU LATER. Little Brother said spinning around and heading towards the hanger. Tahiri suddenly had the feeling she was not so sure she wanted to know what they had been up too.