Chapter Five – Five Days
Jori Daragon hissed angrily as she readjusted the new limb once again, not happy at all about having to deal with a mechanical add-on. While it hindered her none in changing form, the human form would always be an agitated form at best, thanks to that kriffing Loran brat. Damn pregnant women. Another swing, another thrust; her lightsaber finally came swiveling down, all the while a motion blur, to cut the practice droid straight down the middle.
Before she could offer snide remark to the dead thing, a thought crossed her. Damn pregnant women, eh? Well, she had obviously been one once, horror of horrors. But that didn't mean anything; she wasn't talking about herself, now was she? No, she was talking about pretty boy Loran's wife, the infamous computer hacker of the New Republic. One of the Wraith's own, to be specific. Unwittingly, a smile began to seep across her face.
Abruptly, the blood red lightsaber ends were closed down. The hilt of the weapon returned to its spot on her utility belt even as she walked towards the door. Five days until they reached Cloud City. And it was going to be an interesting five days, especially for Adra Loran.
* * * * *
The lounge was hardly lit, even this early in the evening. Face was off with Inyri and Ciny, Bror and Cloud were watching her own children and, yes, here she, Nicola, was in the lounge, staring at the flimsi in front of her. The flimsi that held various notes that nobody wanted on a datacard merely because it might get lost.
Or look suspicious. Or other. Besides, flimsi could be hidden easily.
But that wasn't quite the point anyway. Nicola lowered her pen to the flimsi once more, adding something to it from the lower level map of Cloud City. A second later, her pen fell from her grip, Nicola's eyes staring blankly ahead. The Force had opened up again, in some pocket of an in-between hyperspace jump.
She reached out with the Force, grasping around the darkness to locate the source of the opening. There was a pocket of no-Force space moving away from the reborn sector of Force attachment. As suddenly as if she'd been hit in the face by an oncoming Star Destroyer, Nicola felt a burst of pure agony melt through the link that she'd unconsciously established with her friend.
As abruptly as she'd made the connection, she suddenly was severed. As she returned to her body's place in the universe, Nicola felt her chest rising and falling in a far more rapid pace, as though she'd just run a complete circumnavigation of Coruscant. Her palms were both flat down on the table in front of her, her gaze still blankly ahead. She reached out with the Force again, able to see everything in the Force, including the swerved outline of a presence that could only be Jori Daragon.
However, when she tried to reach out to find out what was going on in completion, she found herself blocked. It was only then she realized that Gaeriel's hand was on her shoulder.
Nicola looked up quickly, giving the politician a dark look. Gaeriel just shook her head. "You can't do that, Nicola. We need you to be able to coordinate this mission. If you go off trying to connect with Adra you'll get the same issue beating she's getting."
Though she knew the other Jedi was talking truth, Nicola merely glared down at the page in front of her. Before she knew what she was doing, Nicola was suddenly on her face, the flimsi she'd been working on crumpling between her hands as she rolled it into a ball. She angrily tossed it to the table before looking at Gaeriel, wishing for something far more satisfying to crumple up.
"Yeah, well, that's nice. When it's your best friend, you can tell me that. Otherwise, forget it."
That much being said, Nicola stormed out of the lounge, still very clearly under Gaeriel's Force block. Why? Why would Gaeriel care if she tried to help her friend? Other than that Gaeriel studied with Mace Windu and would probably be the one to have a level head- Quickly Nicola stopped herself from thinking that way; she didn't care.
Finally breaking past the other Jedi's hold, she reached out for Adra's Force presence again, latching onto it. There was no 'thanks', no reply of any kind, none at all other than pain. Gritting her teeth against it, Nicola kept walking, albeit slowly, towards the door that she knew would open into her and Bror's quarters.
As soon as the door opened, she saw Bror and Cloud trying to keep her own children and Ciny from watching Inyri. The older Loran child was wrapped in her father's hug, her face in a pillow, obviously screaming into it. Nicola only knew she was screaming because of the scream coming through the Force. There was no sound emitting from the pillow, due to the fact that Inyri seemed to have lost her voice.
Still attached to Adra on some sense, Nicola looked up at Face's expression to see him looking at her with pleading eyes, obviously unsure as to how to do anything to his Force-pained daughter. As quickly as she could, Nicola extricated her hold daughter from her father's arms, holding her tightly in a hug.
Somewhat guiltily, she performed the same deed Gaeriel had just carried out on her, severing Inyri's presence from her mother's. Even if Adra tried not to allow Inyri a hold, she was sure that the girl was powerful enough in the Force to go against that wish if she wanted to. If it had been Nicola, she probably would have to.
At long last, Inyri stifled her Force-made noise, her face silently buried in Nicola's shoulders. Gradually, Nicola felt wet cloth begin to collect on her shoulder, no doubt moistened by Inyri's tears. Her arms clutches around Nicola's neck, as one of her own children might do. She smiled sadly, once again wishing the undercover operation hadn't gone through.
Nicola sat down on the couch across from Face, rubbing a hand up and down Inyri's back. She looked up to see her best friend's husband looking at his oldest, and most similar child. Silently she nodded her head to Inyri's form, causing Face to stand up silently. Inyri changed arms once more, though didn't appear to have any problem with the transition. She merely buried her face in her father's jacket, ignoring everything else.
As she stood up again, Nicola could hear Face whispering words to his daughter, but she didn't try to hear them. Instead, Nicola walked over to where Lis and Meli were sitting, separated from the other three. The two of them had their gazes fixed intently on their not-quite triplet. Nicola got the strange impression that, just as she had been sharing in Adra's pain, her oldest children were trying to make their friend feel better. She had to wonder if they'd felt what Inyri had, but didn't ask.
Instead, Nicola just hugged both of them, picking each up and settling one on either hip. Bror was holding Ciny as she shifted, obviously trying to sleep, but no doubt getting something unintentionally from her sister. Koyi and Tynian didn't look anything more than confused, young as they were.
Finally, Bror looked over at Nicola. What the kriff are they doing to her? Nicola just shook her head, unable to answer that. And in truth? She didn't want to know.
