Please excuse the shortness of this chapter but I couldn't resist breaking off here. The next chapter is ready to be betaed.
Thank you Christina B for your consistent feed back.
I love feed back. Hint, hint!
Chapter Five
After Evea brought them out of hyperspace and they continued toward Lidio cautiously. Tona saw Bria's ship apparently dead in space and approached it. Tona checked for life signs and found only a faint sign. Moth said. "Dock with the ship and I will check it out. Yoda, you're with me."
"Hey, I'm the Padawan not Yoda." Nyla mumbled.
"Drunk, you are." Yoda called over his shoulder.
"I'm better now." She insisted.
"Better hurry, we've got company coming." Tona called out after them. "And they don't look friendly. Evea, I'll man the guns, we're going to need them."
Moth opened the docking hatch, then the hatch on Bria's ship. The air inside felt stagnant and thin. They made their way to the cockpit having to climb over debris as they went. Moth found Bria who was apparently dead from the extent of his injuries. "In here." Yoda said sensing someone very faintly. Gen Hillel was alive, barely. Just then a turbo-laser blast hit Bria's ship and it shook and started groaning. Moth lifted Gen cautiously hoisting him over his shoulders then they ran towards the hatch. As Yoda got the hatch closed and undocked, they could hear Bria's ship breaking up, then explode… "That was close." Moth said taking Gen to the guest quarters.
"Nyla, can you help me bandage Gen's wounds?" Moth asked as he eased Gen into a healing trance.
"Yes, I can do that, just not anything Far…Force related." Nyla said almost soberly.
Moth could feel the ship swaying and dodging the turbolaser blast and thought, 'This would be easier to do if it wasn't being done in the middle of a space battle. Where did Yoda go?' He wondered until he heard the second gun firing and heard Tona hollering for him to be careful.
"Learned weapons from Tarbocca, I did. Not shoot self in head." Yoda called back.
"It is not your head I'm worrying about. You shoot the tail of my ship and I'll space you after I skin your green hide and make a seat-cushion out of it and sit on you." Tona warned.
"Why everyone want to space Yoda?" Yoda mumbled to himself between shots. "Yoda not break anything. Everyone accuse. Think Yoda a sprout."
"What are you mumb…bling about?" Nyla stepped out to check on him, just in case Tona tried to carry out his threats.
"Just venting excess anger. Why everyone threaten Yoda? Think Yoda a sprout." Yoda fussed between shots. Finally Evea got the ship out of the star system so she could jump to hyperspace. He turned around to see her response.
"Maybe it has som…mething to do with your height. Everyone asso…ociates it to childhood and inexper…rience. All Padawans have to prove themselves you will even more." Nyla assured him. "Let's go help Master Moth."
Tona checked on damages to the ship then stopped in to check on Gen. "How is he?"
"Not good, we need to get him to a real med facility as soon as possible. I wish we were on my ship instead of yours. I could use some of my equipment." Moth said.
"You may have to do without your ship for good. I don't think they are going to let you pick it up after the welcoming party we just received." Tona warned Moth. "I am going to call the Council and warn them that we failed in our peace talks mission on Lidio. So they can warn everyone else the situation has changed there."
Gen came to for a few minutes and managed to tell them about what happened. How they realized it was a trap and tried to get away, why they were attacked, he didn't know. Their communications were knocked out in the first round so they were not able to call for help. "My Master?" He asked. Moth reassured him Bria had not suffered and then Moth eased him back into the healing trance.
oOo
Masters Lang and Phyfe arrived at Lidio from an unexpected route. They had been sent to check on Bria but arrived after Gen's rescue and the warning from the Council. They discovered that the Vereen traders had been working with arms dealers and sabotaged the talks to keep their profits flowing. They were not able to learn how kidnapping Nyla or the new Force neutralizing drug fit into their scheme. The Council was not happy with a drug aimed at destroying the Jedi abilities. They wanted to check out Nyla themselves and hear first-hand what Yoda knew about the drug. So they ordered Tona to bring them to Coruscant then assist Lang and Phyfe in finding and taking out the pharmaceutical plant that made the drug.
"How did we miss the trap?" Tona asked Moth as they sat discussing the event of the mission as they traveled to Coruscant.
"Apparently the darkside is strong with the traders." Moth said. "I know all war and greed is a part of the darkside but this seems different more sinister some how."
"You are not thinking about the Sith being in this are you?" Tona asked.
"No they were wiped out over a hundred years ago. That could not happen." Moth said almost convincingly.
"You're right what was I thinking." Tona said.
"I know we don't acquire possessions but I just got my ship set up the way I like it and now I'll have to start all over again."
Yoda was sitting back listening to them. 'Another bed to get used to, I will. No more Wookie blanket. At least I have this.' He thought pulling the wood carving of the Wookie family out of his pocket. He walked over to the drawer that was now his bed and sniffed of the blanket. It smelled like the dried flowers Evea keep all over the ship. 'Miss Tarbocca, I do. Arrive at Coruscant have to make another bed.'
oOo
On arriving at Coruscant the Med-Techs met them with the new anti-gravity bed for Gen Hillel. He was taken to the Bacta tanks. Moth had heard of these but this was the first one he had ever seen. He wasn't sure if he could stand to be enclosed in one.
'I hope they have a different outfit for the girls or this could be embarrassing.' Nyla thought as they lowered Gen in.
"Now that Gen has been taken care for, let's see what they did to you." The Head Med-Tech said to Nyla. So you can feel nothing in the Force and are intoxicated." He said snobbishly. "How unfortunate."
"I am sobering up and I am starting to feel the Force to some extent." Nyla protested.
"Your coarse of treatment was?" He said down his nose at her.
"I was force fed water by the gallons and it was washed out the old fashion way." Nyla replied indignantly.
"And whose idea was that for a treatment plan." He demanded.
"Yoda's," She replied.
"Is he a Med-Tech?" He insisted.
"No!" She replied.
"Is he a Healer?" He asked disapprovingly.
"NO!" Nyla said loosing her patience.
"Then why follow his treatment plan?" He said thoroughly indignant.
"There was no one else around to treat me and I was to drunk to care!" She shouted indignantly.
"Apparently, belligerents is a side-effect of the drug." He said writing on the pad.
"Calm down." Moth said coming in on the end of the conversation and realized Nyla was about to whip the Head Med-Tech Force or no Force.
"And where did you learn bed side manner the prison ward?" She asked.
"How did she know that?" He mumbled to himself in surprise.
Over the next few hours Nyla was poked, prodded and thoroughly tested and proclaimed almost recovered. A retest was scheduled for one week later until then they were to remain on Coruscant.
"Can we go for a walk?" Nyla asked. "I have been cooped up on the ship or tied to a table for what seems like forever I just want to stretch my legs."
"All right but only in the temple. I don't want you to over do it." Moth insisted.
"I would love to see the Room of a Thousand Fountain and the Lake Room." Nyla said.
"This way. Yoda, now that you are to be a Padawan, would you like to have a tour of the Temple?" Moth asked his new friend.
"Yes, Enjoy it I would." Yoda said almost bouncing with joy.
As the entered the Lake Room he gasped at the size of it and the clarity of the water. "Fish not as pretty as on my home planet." Yoda said.
"Where would that be?" Moth asked jokingly.
Yoda grinned but said nothing.
'I thought so...' "I think you will like the Arboretum Yoda." Moth said leading him to the next section.
"Like, Yoda loves. Sleep here, am I allowed?" Yoda asked jumping for joy.
At first Moth thought Yoda was joking then he realized he was serious. "No. But, maybe we can arrange for some plants for your room." Moth said watching as Yoda's joy deflated. "You can visit the arboretum anytime you want though."
"Speaking of rooms where is Yoda going to sleep? He may be only two feet tall but he is still a male, I think, so he's not sleeping with me." Nyla insisted.
"A Master has to have his own space to meditate," Moth insisted. "The common living space is large enough for Yoda to have a corner. It won't be long before you go through the trials..." Moth trailed off when he thought about the drug Nyla had been given and that it would delay her progress towards the trials. "We will work something out." He finally concluded.
oOo
On arriving at the apartment Moth showed Yoda a quite corner of the common living space and told him he could use whatever he wanted to, to make it comfortable for himself, little did he know what he was about to unleash. "Nyla, I think you have had enough excitement for one day and I know I'm tired so lets get some rest. Yoda can sleep on the couch tonight and we can set something else up tomorrow."
"Yoda not sleepy, start now, am I allowed?" Yoda asked eagerly.
"Yes, as long as you do it quietly." Moth said yawned and went to his room.
"There are some blankets in here and some root foods in the kitchen, onions, garlic, ginger, carrots, turnips and peanuts, here are some cabbages, berries and nuts." Nyla pointed to different cabinets. "Master Moth always has the cookery restocked when we are coming back, he loves to cook. Personally, I hate it so he makes me do it as a lesson. I'm sure you can find something you like, you are welcome to anything." Nyla said and yawned. "Goodnight." She said and headed to her room.
Quietly, as instructed, Yoda rearranged the common living area to make him a room. He moved the furniture away from his corner, turning a bookcase to produce a wall and then the hunt was on. Yoda found low table to make a platform for his bed in a waiting-room, a cushion from a chair in the visiting dignitaries' lounge that was the right size for a mattress, a small cabinet from the children's classroom and lots of plants and roots from the arboretum's potting-shed.
Moth heard a shriek the next morning and came running out of his room to see Nyla standing, mouth open in shock, looking at the corner of the common living space set aside for Yoda. Semi-enclosed with a bookcase, a cabinets and a mini arboretum sat Yoda in his under garments, gnawing on a root.
oOo
A/N: What do you think, boxers or briefs? Weigh in.