Chapter Seventeen

Glynn was a Jedi? A Jedi! Well, not really a Jedi, but he could've been!

Well, it's probably a good thing he was too weak, seeing as how there aren't any left.

Jedi seemed so...wise and mystical and powerful. At least the way Luke had talked about them. Luke was fascinated by the Jedi for some reason. He used to make up stories when they were little. And then there were the stories the old hermit Kenobi had always told. His were even better than Luke's, because Saera suspected Kenobi's were actually true. But he only came into Anchorhead a couple of times a year, and it had been years since she was young enough to gather around him to listen...

Saera smiled suddenly at the situation she found herself in. She was seeking a guy who was, practically, a Jedi-obsessive, with the help of a once Jedi prospective. Luke was probably going to flip out when he found out. He'd never met a Jedi, after all.

There's a thought. Glynn and Luke in the same room...

Of course, she knew Luke would just say "hi" like a normal person, and why shouldn't he? But Glynn was already showing animosity towards Luke, although she didn't really know why. Unless he really did feel something for her...

He doesn't. Come on. Who are you trying to fool? You are just a little girl from Tatooine to him, who happens to be paying a lot of money for his services. OK, so maybe you're friends. Good friends. But that doesn't mean anything.

"I have this theory...it only happens when I want it for someone enough. When I care about someone enough..."

She was so confused. She didn't know what to make of this. It was...

Arrrrg!

-

He had come to a conclusion: he was completely and entirely, irrevocably in love with Saera.

And there was nothing he could do about it. Oh, he'd tried. He'd tried avoiding her, he'd tried not looking at her, he'd tried thinking of everything but her. But he couldn't. He didn't know why he loved her. It didn't make sense. Sure, she was gorgeous. Sure, she had this...spunk, a stubbornness that drew him in. Sure, she was kind and compassionate and had a cute sense of humor.

Okay. Maybe he could see why he loved her, but right now he wished he didn't. He wished he'd never kissed her, wished she wasn't in the next room, right in his grasp and yet so far away. Because soon, he'd have to give her up.

And then he was glad he'd met her. He didn't know why, but an old Alderaanian saying came to mind. 'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

I have to tell her.

He couldn't bear it is she slipped right through his finger and never knew. He had to tell her. Soon.

-

"Put your hand sin the air," a voice came from behind them. Glynn dropped the bags of cans and lifted his hands, Saera following suit.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, you don't know?" A man dressed in black emerged from the shadows and circled around them until he was in front of them, his blaster trained on Saera the entire time. "This little girly has a bounty on her head. Kinda a big one. I'm gonna collect it. Come here, girly."

"Don't do it. Stay put," he whispered.

"Shut up! Come here, or I'll shoot!"

"No, he won't."

"I told you to shut your mouth!" The bounty hunter pointed the gun over at Glynn and there was a huge blast. Suddenly, Glynn crumpled to the ground next to her and there was a sickening smell of charred flesh.

"Glynn!" She threw herself to the ground and shook him violently, but he wouldn't get up. She turned him on to his back and saw something that made her want to throw up. A huge hole, half a foot across, gushing blood, smoldering, in his chest. She shrank back, screaming and crying hysterically...

Saera woke up writhing in her sheets, tears in her eyes.

-

"Hey, you okay?" Glynn asked Saera. She'd come out of her room very late that day and she hadn't appeared to have done anything but roll out of bed and throw on a robe and slippers. Her eyes were also very red.

"Huh? Oh, hi. I didn't see you there. Yeah, I just had a bad dream."

"OK then." He decided not to press the matter, but instead turned back to his bowl of gruel. "Ugh. I can't believe I didn't grab any on those cans. I don't usually have to live on this stuff for so long; it's terrible."

"Mm." She nodded. Not very talkative today, eh?

Suddenly, some sort of alarm from the cockpit sounded. It was blaring and beeping.

"What's that?"

"I don't know. I'll go check it out." He rose and went into the cockpit, flicking a switch that would start a routine checkup on all systems, but when he saw the nav screen's lights blinking red, he was pretty sure he'd found the problem. In the corner of the screen, there was a timer that was counting down, he guessed, from a time part. 58:46. 58:45.

"What's happened?" Saera had come in the room and was looking over his shoulder, her hand on his back.

"I think our friends programmed if to go off about a time part before our ETA. Nice of them, I suppose."

"Wait, you're saying we're almost there? It's been, what, a week?"

"I guess so. You'd better get dressed."

Oh, right." She pulled her hand away from him like she'd just been burned or something; he supposed suddenly conscious of her attire. "I'll get ready." She dashed off to her room.

This was too soon. He thought they'd have much more time.

And Saera's face had just...brightened up when he'd told her they were only a time part away. A time part from her precious Luke.

He wished he could make her day like that. Well, I saved her life a couple times... But he knew that saving her life wasn't going to make her look so blissful like that.

There's only one way you can ever hope for her to look like that because of you. TELL HER!

He sighed. Easier thought than done.

-

The dress. It seemed like an eternity since she'd found in on Bothawui, purchasing it for the sole purpose of wearing it at this moment.

And somehow, now, she didn't want it on.

Oh, not because it wasn't beautiful. Actually, it fit her even better than before. Maybe she'd lost a couple pounds not eating gruel...

She felt a little overexposed, though. The entire back was out for public display, as well as her arms and quite a bit of chest. People didn't wear clothes like this on Tatooine. They'd get sunburned. And she felt slightly silly. What if Luke thought it was dorky or something? But that wasn't even it, when she thought about it. The problem, Saera realized, was that she didn't want Glynn to see her all dressed up like this, for someone else.

Oh, stop it! He doesn't care! What on earth is wrong with you? Why would he ever care what you wore, anyway?

Unless she wore something for someone else.

Just SHUT UP. He doesn't care. He doesn't care.

She kept repeating this to herself, but even as she did, she grabbed Glynn's long black coat that was still in her room from Parsnil and wrapped it around her body.

-

"Oh, there's my coat. I've been looking for that."

"No you have not," she said, "or you would have come and gotten it."

Saera looked gorgeous, her hair was all swept up with little ringlets, and she'd put something on her eyes to make them really stand out. He had no clue what it was, though, or where she'd gotten it, as he'd never seen her wear much makeup before. She was swearing some sort of red high-heel whose presence he hadn't been aware of, either. The big trench coat was kinda ruining the whole effect, though.

"What've you on underneath that thing?"

"Nothing," she said quickly, like she'd been caught guilty at something.

"Really?" He grinned and cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh, stop it. You know what I mean." She blushed furiously, despite her scolding tone.

"Well then why won't you tell me?"

"Why do you even care? Quit bugging me about it, OK?"

"Fine. But I want my trench coat back."

"What, now?"

"No. But soon."

"Fine." She sat down in a chair on the other side of the rec room/dining room from him, arms and legs crossed. "You can be really difficult sometimes."

"Oh, look who's talking!" He grinned. "But don't worry, I forgive you."

"Hmph."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes. Now! Just tell her now, before you drop out of hyperspace. It'll be so much easier if you get your heart crushed before you have to meet the wonderful Luke. Maybe then she'll understand when you don't wanna say 'hi' to her little boyfriend.

"Saera--"

His wrist chrono started beeping.

GODS DAMN!

"What's that?"

"We've got two minute until we hit regular space. I synced it with the nav 'puter. Better go strap in."

They dropped out of hyperspace, perfectly on time, to see a large, half ocean-half landmass planet. The two large continents were each dotted with islands or varying sizes in the surrounding seas. The terrain seemed to be mostly browning grasslands with a few patches of green near the coastlines and a line of mountains on the western edge of the northern continent. The two continents were fairly near the equator of the mystery planet, but a few archipelagos of islands reached to the freezing waters of the poles. There didn't appear to be much civilization anywhere.

"Do you have any clue where we are?"

"Never seen it before. It doesn't looked to be very developed at all." He glanced down at the screen in front of him. I'm only picking up a couple spots of technology. Must be our Rebels."

There was a crackling noise from the communicator. "--Unidentified vessel, please respond. Repeat, this is Patrol Ship 2-3-1. Unidentified vessel, please respond."

"Patrol Ship 2-3-1, this is the Gaellia, fresh out of Parsnil. I believe you're expecting us."

"Ah, yes, here it is. Set your course to match mine, Gaellia, and I'll take you to someone who can give you authority to land. But may I be the first to welcome you here."

"Thank you, 2-3-1. Matching course."

The patrol ship, what Glynn was pretty sure was a Y-wing, led them around to the other side of the planet where a large side cruiser, obviously the patrol ship's home base, was in orbit.

"Gaellia, this is star cruiser Harau. Prepare to dock on our port side."

Saera and Glynn looked at each other dubiously. "Uh, Harau, we weren't told we would be docking in space..."

"Sorry, Gaellia, orders. We need confirmation of the situation before we can let you go down."

Oh, great, they're gonna talk to Parsnil. They'll find out we lied. Something's gonna go wrong...

"OK." There was nothing else he could do but comply.

As soon as the conversation ended, he told Saera the new plan.

"Look, they're gonna talk to Parsnil, ask them about us. They're gonna find out we lied. We've gotta get down there before they have a chance to figure us out. You've gotta talk Skywalker into convincing them to not bother and just let us down. We have to get you to a comm terminal with a link down there, OK?"

"OK." She seemed to be confused but choosing to trust his judgment of the situation.

Well, that wasn't a long wait, was it?