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Chapter 1, Part 1
5 months later, set during the beginning of Star by Star while on Eclipse.
Tahiri Veila and all three of the Solo children sat down together for evening meal at a large table located in the center of the mess hall on the Eclipse military base where a few other friends of theirs were currently sitting. It was the end of a long day filled with much pain and many hardships. They had recently learned of the death of their friend Lusa, another young jedi who had been viciously killed by the dreaded voxyn. She marked the fifth jedi to be attacked and killed by the creatures in the last month.
"We have to do something about these attacks. I think Cilghal was on to something when she mentioned that the voxyn might all be clones of each other," spoke Jaina Solo from her place in between her brother Jacen and good friend Zeek.
"Yeah, I think we should talk to uncle Luke about this soon and figure something out. He might be able to come up with something we can do to help all of the jedi still out there rather than having us all stationed here where the most good we do is help keep watch over the base," replied Jacen.
Anakin looked up from his plate of mildly appetizing food, "I've been trying to think of some things we could do to stop the voxyn all together. I have an idea that-"
"Hi Anakin."
Both Tahiri and Anakin looked up at the same time to see who had just interrupted his plans of how to get rid of the voxyn. Standing behind Anakin was a group of three female jedi, led by the Twi'lek dancer girl Alema Rar. When she realized that it was Alema who had just spoken and now stood with her hand draped around Anakin's neck, Tahiri turned her head away and scowled.
"Oh, hey Tahiri, how are you doing?" inquired Alema a little too sweetly as she slid into the chair on the opposite side of Anakin. "I didn't notice you there."
"I bet you didn't," Tahiri growled back under her breath.
Alema turned back to Anakin as the other two girls, Eryl Besa and Ulaha Kore, slid into seats at the table. "Now what were you saying Anakin?"
Oblivious to the death looks going on between the two girls over his head, Anakin continued, "Oh, I was just telling Jacen and the others that I think we need to find a way of infiltrating wherever the Yuuzhan Vong are keeping the voxyn and destroy the source."
"I think that is a wounderful idea," answered Alema as she once again brought her hand to rest on Anakin's shoulder. "You know, if you ever need any help with anything, I'm here. Even if you just want to, you know, talk, feel free to stop by my room any time, day or night."
"Thanks Alema, I appreciate all of the support," he said with a smile. "We all know I'm not getting enough of it from other places," he added with a quick glare towards Jacen.
"Yeah Alema, we really appreciate everything, but right now we really need to be going," Tahiri mockingly spoke as she grabbed Anakin's arm and yanked him out of his seat.
"Hey, I wasn't finished yet," Anakin complained loudly as he was being drug out of the mess hall by his collar.
"Oh, he's finished all right," laughed Jaina with a shake of her head.
Three days later a small group of the young jedi were assembled together as a strike team and were preparing to leave the next mourning to put their plan to destroy the voxyn queen into action. After their all day long planning session, the group dispersed to go finish getting ready for the trip.
Nighttime eventually fell upon Eclipse. After spending a few hours tossing and turning in bed, Jaina finally decided to get up and walk around, hoping that would ease her insomnia.
She found herself walking towards the recreational room and soon realized that she was not alone. She felt the familiar presence of her good friend Zeek and was happy to have someone else to accompany her during her midnight wanderings.
"Hey you," she whispered as she stood in the doorway of the small room.
"Hey yourself," he replied with a grin. "Come sit down over here."
Jaina wandered over to the small couch on which her friend was perched. "Can't sleep?" she inquired.
"Nah, you?"
"Not a minute. I guess my nerves are just getting to me. I reached out to Jacen a little while ago and realized he was sleeping like a baby. Fair, huh?"
"Yeah, I think this upcoming mission has started to get to everyone. People just show it in different ways."
"It's at least getting to everyone except Anakin. I haven't seen the slightest sign of his wavering confidence in this mission."
"That's what is going to make your little brother such a great leader. He knows how to handle pressure without cracking a sweat. That will come in handy."
"I don't know why, but I have a really bad feeling about this mission," Jaina sighed, "maybe I'm just being paranoid."
Zeek scooted a little closer to her. "I don't think you're being paranoid. I think you're being human. We're all taking a great risk by going on this mission and we are all a little worried. But everything will be ok. We'll destroy the voxyn queen, beat the Vong, save the galaxy for the trillionth time, and we'll all be named masters of the universe and have servants bowing down at our feet and feeding us little grapes. Won't that be fun?"
"You're insane."
"But I made you smile."
"Yeah, you've always been good at that," Jaina answered as she glanced down with a small smile on her face. When she looked back up, she saw that something in his eyes had changed. Before she could say or do anything, Zeek leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips and then lingered for a second or two.
Pulling away quickly, Jaina looked down at her lap. Not knowing what to say or how to say it without hurting her friend's feelings, Jaina simply stood and quickly rattled off, "I should go to bed." She then turned and went straight back to her room without looking back.
Zeek was left with a look of shock on his face. He didn't know what kind of reaction he had expected from the kiss, but that certainly wasn't it. He tried to push away his feelings of hurt and rose to leave. Zeek knew that he would later have to confront Jaina about her quick departure from the recreation room and get to the bottom of their feelings for each other.