Annie Bora rushed around her small kitchen area trying to finish fixing her daughter's morning meal before she got out of the refresher. Annie wanted to do this small thing for her daughter since she still seemed moody after that terrible fire the other day on the landing field. Annie had inadvertently made a comment that Ratnena took the wrong way, which caused a small yelling matched that ended with Ratnena and her droid leaving for a few hours.

Annie hadn't meant Ratnena to get so upset and was at a lost as too why she acted as she had. She had only said that those poor souls were probably better off now and they would not be missed. When Ratnena took offence at that simple statement, Annie had tried to explain that they were just useless debris and they would never amount to anything anyways. Ratnena, of course, responded back that many people had thought her in the same way.

Annie was indigent that Ratnena could ever say anything like that about herself, Ratnena was the most beautiful and intelligent person on Kidriff 5, a fact she pointed out and backed it up with a comment that Headmaster Yunder had always said the same thing.

"Good morning dear," her husband said as he walked into the eating nook.

"Good morning," she said with a kiss and a hot cup of caf.

"Thank you," he said with that smile that won her heart all those years ago. "You been busy this morning."

"I just wanted to fix Ratnena something special for her morning meal," she replied bring over his morning meal.

Ratnena and her droid came into the eating nook; Ratnena didn't look very rested to her mother's eyes but figured that it was from the fight last night. Ratnena grabbed a large cup of caf and sat down across from her father.

"What's this," Ratnena asked when Annie set down her plate.

"I made you a special breakfast," Annie said trying to put on her best warm smile.

"Mom," Ratnena said groaning and pushing her plate away, "I haven't eaten meat since I was 10 years old."

"Don't be silly dear, everyone eats meat." Annie said as she sat down next to Ratnena and tried hard to keep her smile on.

"I don't and haven't in 13 years." Ratnena said getting up and going over to the food storage container, "I know you know that since you been complaining about it every time I visited."

"I don't complain, dear," Annie said a bit stung, "I had hoped that you had giving up that little fad by now."

"It is not a fad, mom," Ratnena said sitting back down with several pieces of fruit, "it is a conscious decision not to be a part of animal exploitation. If you seen how the process all that meat, the cruelty that they …"

"That is enough, young lady!" Annie put more snap in her voice then she meant to, "I don't need to hear this speech every time you come home."

"You always hear it but you never listen."

"I don't see how you can serve in the military and still not eat anything that is good for you," Annie said peevishly.

"I do eat healthy, I eat a lot healthier then most people, mom, just because I don't want to participate in needless slaughter of animals to fill my stomach …" Ratnena's little droid beeped and whistled out some comment which caused Ratnena to smirk at it. "I'll be sure to tell her that you said that and not me."

"What did it say," Annie said, she never liked being left out of any conversation.

"He said that our partner eats enough meat for me and the rest of the squad and if I started eating meat I would still not be able to eat any because she would hog it all for herself."

"Oh, so your mystery partner is a girl," Annie said slightly disappointed, she had hoped that Ratnena would have found a nice boy by now, especially since she was around a obvious superior group of people then that gang she used to hang around. "Is she a nice girl?"

"Yea I guess so," Ratnena said chomping on her fruit, "she from Tatooine, she is second in command of my squadron, Little Brother is actually assigned to her but she figured with him around I stay out of trouble …" The little droid made some kind of whistle again and Ratnena just rolled her eyes and smirked. "Hush you or I will rewire you in to a trash compactor."

"Tatooine, isn't that the place that Skywalker is from?" Ratnena's father asked after snatching Ratnena's uneaten portions. He caught her glaring at him and he just shrugged as if to ask why he should let it go to waste. Annie just rolled her eyes wishing he would stop encouraging her daughter's bad habits.

"Same place, she actually knows the Skywalkers and the Solos," Ratnena said as if it was no big deal.

"Really," Annie said in wondering tone, the droid let out a low whistle, which Ratnena turn slightly red after she read what it had said. Annie could care less about the droid's comments, she was busy imaging if this partner had any brothers that Ratnena could meet. "She must come from an important family."

"No, she was a orphan," Ratnena said as she and the droid carried on some silent discussion on her wrist comm. "I'm not really sure how she met them, just while we were on Denon for a few weeks she introduced me to them."

"Does she have any other family, a brother perhaps?"

"No," Ratnena said glaring at Annie, "Sorry to disappoint you but the only family she has is Little Brother. Guess you can't play match maker after all."

"I'm not trying to playing match maker, Ratnena," Annie lied wondering how she always knew what she was thinking, "you haven't really said a whole lot about any of your friends. I just interested in your new life."

"Your mom is right, princess," Annie sent a grateful look at her husband, "you haven't even told us what unit you are in or anything about this partner before now."

"There isn't a lot I can tell you," Ratnena said getting up to refill everyone's cups. "My unit is classified as is everyone in it. It's the same reason I can't tell you how I was promoted, pardoned and even show you any of the medals I received. It's stinks that the first decent thing I do in my life and I can't brag about!"

"Can you tell us anything about her?" Annie asked, perplexed at the notion that her own daughter couldn't trust her with the knowledge of her past. She was Ratnena's mother, and according to all the books and shows, should be her best friend. There shouldn't be any secrets from each other!

"Well, she from Tatooine, she is a captain, she is an ace pilot, she kicks the rest of the squad's butts in just about everything, she couldn't fix something mechanical or electrical if her life depended on it."

"I'm sure you could teach her a thing or two," her father said with a small laugh.

"Not a chance, both Little Brother and I tried, she is hopeless. She once crashed a computer system for three days trying to learn how to slice into it."

"Oh come on, Ratnena I think you are pulling my leg."

"No dad I am serious, she is a great pilot and leader but she once shorted out a sniper rifle and caught it on fire!" Ratnena said with a laugh, clearly more at ease with her father then with Annie.

"Wait a minute," Annie exclaimed suddenly, "I thought you're a pilot?"

"I am," Ratnena said with confusion.

"Why do pilots need sniper rifles?"

"Oh," Ratnena said looking as if she was caught fibbing on her brothers when she was eight. "It is not really sniper training … um … it was for our hand to eye coordination."

"Ratnena," Annie said using her 'I am your mom and you better not be fibbing to me' voice.

"I'm telling you the truth, I am a pilot plus our all around fixer-upper. I do a lot of repair and maintaince work at our base for my squad." That droid spoke up again and Ratnena let out another laugh, "Little Brother said most of our work is cleaning up after her."

"As she been in the military long?" her dad said.

"Less then two years but …"

"Two years? Moreover, she is second in command. How old is she?" Annie exclaimed, horrified that her daughter was passed over by someone with less experience then she had.

"She is nineteen …"

"You were passed over by a child, a orphan!" Annie said with her voice rising.

"I was passed over by a superior pilot, mother!"

"But you surly must be better educated then some dust pilot from a third rate planet …"

"In my squad education doesn't matter except does it help keep everyone alive!"

"Nonsense, where you attend school matter above all …"

"Not in my squad; rank and time served doesn't mean squat to my CO, all he cares about is who can and can't do the job!"

"Who you know means more, and where you been educated … did she get the Skywalkers to use their influences to …"

"No, Mother! Right now, she wouldn't give them the time of day let alone ask them to do that for her! In fact even if she did they wouldn't have …"

"I can't imagine that she had a better education then you did at …"

"She didn't," Ratnena said giving Annie that smile that she hated so much, "In fact, since you asked and you are so worried about it, she never went to formal schooling. She was raised by the Tusken Raiders until she was nine and been playing catch up ever since. Then when she was 14 she was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, it was the Skywalkers and Solos who rescued and helped her recover from that ordeal! She maybe younger then me, she may be the youngest captain in the service, but she has more real life experience then anyone I have served with, except my CO, yet!"

"She was captured by the Vong?"

"Yuuzhan Vong," Ratnena said lowering her voice to talk to her dad, "and yea, she still carries the scars from that ordeal."

"I don't understand Ratnena did you lodge a protest when that child …"

"That child already saved Little Brother and my life twice so far mother as well as many of my squad mates."

"Honey, you can't stand for this kind of treatment. What would Headmaster Yunder say if he knew one of his best and brightest was passed over for command by some worthless …"

"Listen and try to understand," Ratnena slamming her hand down on the table and standing up so suddenly that Annie jerked back in surprise. "I don't give a carbon flush what that … that … I just don't care! For your information, my partner can out fly me, she cares about only one thing and that is getting us all home alive! I would never complain to anyone or let anyone complain about it because she has the best shot at getting us out alive!" Ratnena leaned in to Annie, she wasn't the only one scared for her husband jumped in and tried to hold Ratnena back.

"Ratnena! Calm down!"

"Remember this too," Ratnena said staring Annie down, Annie though she knew her daughter but this was a side of her that she had never seen before, "don't … ever … call … her … worthless … again!" With that Ratnena stormed out of the eating nook with the droid following close on her heals. Annie sat there looking at her husband with a shocked expression on his face that she was sure mirrored the look on hers.

"I'll talk to her honey, when we are at the shop today, don't worry about." Her husband said laying a comforting hand on her shoulder; Annie just nodded wondering what she had said to get that kind of reaction out of her youngest child.


I HAVE REVIEWED THE TARGET'S ACCOUNTS, FILE 000967564 THRU …

"I don't need every account number Little Brother," Ratnena said from her position in the engine interface control substation located in the main engine room. She was preparing to have her father; Little Bother and her installed the two rebuilt motors back in tomorrow. "Did you find what we were looking for?"

AS OF YET, NO. THERE IS AN 89.87634534 CHANCE THAT I SHALL HAVE IT COMPLETED BEFORE OUR PROJECT IN THE MORNING.

"Good," although Ratnena was mostly in the control panel housing, enough of her body was showing Little Brother to do a scan on her. Her vocal scans and her body scans were showing signs of increased stress and fatigue but was still within mission norms. "What about target 56 and 78?"

KIDRIFF 5 SECURITY CONDUCTED A RAID ON TARGET 56 AT 0800 HOURS, LOCAL TIME, AND WAS ABLE TO SEIZE THE KNOWN QUANTITY OF THE SUBSTANCE BLISS, AS OUR INFORMATION HAD REPORTED TO THEM.

"Astro," she was trying to convey cheer in her voice, a human would have heard it that way, however to Little Brother's audio sensors it sound more of a strained cheer, as if she was trying to hid her true feeling by presenting false information to others. Little Brother decided to devote some of his processing power to work on this new development as Ratnena continued to question him. "When are they planning to hit 78?"

THEY ARE CONDUCTING THE RAID AS WE SPEAK; SO FAR, EARLY REPORTS INDICATED THAT OUR INFORMATION WAS AGAIN CORRECT WITHIN ALL NORMAL PARAMETERS.

"Great, they still don't know it was us that sent them those tips, correct?"

CORRECT, I AM STILL UNABLE TO COMPUTE WHY YOU WISH FOR THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES TO DISCOVER WHO IS HELPING THEM AT THIS POINT OF THE INVESTIGATION.

"I don't want the officials to know it was us who did all this for them. If they get involved then it will be weeks and months of trails and hearing. Moreover, they wouldn't exactly like the way we are gathering this intelligences. Working with them would just slow us down and allow the scum who is running all this to pull in his welcome mat and hide out for a few years."

HOW DID YOU MAKE THAT CALCULATION SINCE WE HAVE NOT YET ESTABLISHED THE IDENTITY OF THE PERSON OR PERSONS WHO IS OUR MAIN OBJECTIVE?

"Lets just say I have a good idea who it is, but I want to make sure we can prove it before I drop the torpedo on that scum bag."

Little Brother notice a sharp increase in her body adrenaline as she talked, he was about to ask her about it when he detected a new presence coming up the ramp.

WE HAVE A VISITOR RATNENA.

"Ratnena are you in there?"

"Yea dad, we are back in the engine room," Little Brother saw look on Ratnena's face as she pulled herself out from the machine that he knew was her 'scow' look. "We need to install a security system."

Little Brother rolled over to the computer outlet; he had run her comment through his special program that Artoo Detoo had installed in him that would allow him to detect a rhetorical question. Being around Tahiri and Ratnena meant that he had access that particular more times then he could count. Since he concluded that she was not being serious and her father had arrived, he would continue his research into the Bliss trade. He also decided to keep his research into Ratnena since he has notice a sharp change in her, what fleshes would consider, normal operating mode.

"Can we talk, princess," her father said as he enter the engine room, Little Brother observed that he appeared to be in a state of agitations. Ratnena was walking around the room, highly agitated, and not looking in his direction, instead she was beginning repairs again.

"If it about the replacing the motors in to the engine compartment tomorrow, sure. If it is about anything else, not right now."

"Listen honey …"

"No dad, I am tired of trying to be understanding," Little Brother saw a spike in her heart rate, blood pressure and other tell tail signs of extreme stress. "I got the living quarters here done yesterday, they weren't in bad shape. Little Brother and I will just stay here until we are done here and head back."

"Ratnena, you can't sleep in a hanger."

"Then fine, I check in a motel somewhere."

"Ratnena don't do this, you can stay at your home …"

"I don't have a home dad," again Little Brother notice more increases in her body signs. "I have a room that I visit once every few months."

"It is your home Ratnena, it has always been your home no matter how long or short you sleep in your bed." Ratnena failed to respond to her father, she just grab some more tools and climbed back in to the engine housing. Her father went over to her location so she could hear him. "You know one of the reasons you and your mother fight so much is you two are too much alike."

"HA!"

"It's true you know, you use to say the first thing that popped in to your head without thinking it through, especially if you felt you were wronged by something."

"I do not!" Little Brother categorized that tone as indigent, however her father did not respond but remind silent until she resumed her speech. "Well, I don't much anymore dad."

"Your mother just wants you to be happy …"

"I am happy dad, I am really happy for the first time!" She crawled back out and had a look on her face that Little Brother could not categorized. "I don't care if I am top dog or second banana, I'm happy doing my job."

"Your mother doesn't understand that right now, she will if you sit down and talk to her."

"I tried for the first couple days, that is why I cam here dad, I wanted you guys to see me as I am now. I wanted you guys to know I have changed for the better. But does mom care? What does mom want to know? Why is a kid in charge and I am not! Why am I not married and wasting my life being a homemaker …"

"Being a mother is not a waste of life Ratnena." Her father interrupted sharply if Little Brother was any judge of human vocal tones.

"You know what I mean dad …"

"Of course I do princess, just like I understand what your mother meant this morning, see you two are more alike then you think."

"Maybe," Ratnena said grudging, Little Brother noted that her body stress indicators were dropping rapidly.

"Just think about it princess," her father said while getting up, "I asked a couple other grease monkeys to stop by in the morning to help us load the motors back in."

Little Brother program alerted him to a partial success in the tracking of credits within the vast computer network of Kidriff 5. After her father left, Little Brother informed Ratnena of this development.

"Great, lets get to it."


Gun was enjoying this new assignment; the amount of credits that he had to reroute and make 'disappear' was a true challenge to a slicer of his skill level. Normally working in this accounting firm was boring tremendously until this juicy assignment came his way. It always helps to know the right people he thought smugly. This assignment had almost zero chance of being found, he was way too good to do that or to lose any of the credits. His bosses were way to lowbrow for his taste, they were all muscles and no brains, he was sure that if they became upset at him, they would shoot first then tries to talk to him.

"What the …" Gun stared at his screen as a white ghost like icon floated across his screen. It wasn't one of his programs running and he didn't think any of his buddies were good enough to by pass his latest security programs.

After it floated around for a bit, the ghost stopped in the middle of the screen and a thought bubble popped over it is head say simply …

"Boo? What the …"

Then a timer began a count down as his screen exploded in a frenzy of activity as account screens opened and closed faster then he could see. After a second of indecision, he counterattacks against this up start slicer.

"What is going on with my screen," Gun heard in the background as other workers computers were being assaulted, but he couldn't worry about them right now. He had to save his own skin, literally.

"Thank you for your assistance, all information has been forward to your supervisor and the Kidriff 5 security forces. Thank you, have a nice day." A large yellow smiley face popped in on the screen, the slicer locked him out of his own screen. He wasn't going to stop trying to get in, he kept trying to fix this damage even as the security personal came to take him away.