Last time: An assassin droid attacked Sasha and Oppie, but they blew him up.

Now: Cien struggles with what is going on.

Chapter 17- I'm Supposed to Protect Them

"Come get me if the ship explodes." Kyr said to Scamp as he stepped away from the cockpit. He carried his buy'ce in his hand, swinging it slightly as he walked away.

"Yeah, I'll knock on your door as I run to the escape pod." Scamp called back. Scamp seemed to like hanging out in the cockpit with Tac when everyone else retired for the day. It made sense, the bunk room was taken up by Kelce and Nova being tooth achingly cute, Viran had settled into the meditation room. So it was the only private room aboard, and especially suited for a Clone who probably thought the cockpits chairs were more comfortable to sleep in than the beds.

The Shadow Runner was a fairly large ship, but with this many people aboard it did feel a little crowded. Tac and QT, when they weren't banished to the engineering bay in the back of the ship which Kyr thought of as their arguing room nowadays, were in separate areas. QT was trying to make friends with the fire control computer, or so Tac had described, and Kyr had shrugged, figuring it was probably good for both of them to know the systems. He'd never really figured out if Tac, and now QT for that matter, were actually able to 'talk' to the Shadow or not. His understanding was that it was a non-sentient computer, unlike the droids, so he didn't quite understand what they meant when they talked. But they both referred to the Shadow Runner as though it was a friend, so he figured it was just a droid thing. Sort of like how he had gotten hints here and there that Tac and QT both thought he and Cien were trying to turn themselves into droids, that the armor was them trying to emulate the droids that they looked up to.

His and Cien's room was located in the outrigger that connected to the cockpit tube on the starboard side of the ship. He knocked on the door softly, figuring that Cien was already inside and giving her a little warning that he was coming in before he opened the door. She probably would not forgive him if he accidentally opened the door while she was changing.

After a moment the door opened, usually she would just call back and the companel at the door controls would convey her message. But the door opened to a dimly lit room, most of the lights were off. She was sitting on the edge of their bed in her flight suit, her armored vest on the cabinet on the other side of the small cabin. She had her arms loosely around herself, and she looked so worn out, so tired.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, stepping into the room so the door would close.

"Yeah." She said.

He looked at his wife for a second, quite clearly able to discern she was not. He put his buy'ce absently on the small desk next to the door and walked over and sat on the bed next to her, and put his arm across her shoulder. She leaned into him as she closed her eyes. He rested his head against hers and rubbed her arm absently as they sat together on the edge of the bed.

"Why does this keep happening?" She asked quietly.

"Because you're very huggable." He murmured.

"Kyr." She said softly, but he could hear the slight smile in her voice.

"I don't know." Kyr said, actually answering her question. "After we get Sasha and Op back I think we might need to lay some ground rules for the family, though." He said quietly. "If someone put a bounty on Sasha like this, until we figure out who or why, we need to be a little more careful." He said. He hated the fact that he was almost having to fall back to his mindset from his days during the war. Almost acting as if their family was at war. Which, in a way, they were. They just didn't know who their enemy was.

"I'm scared for Sasha and Op." She admitted, "I miss them." She said softly. "And I feel so terrible for Viran right now." She said with a grimace.

He hugged her a little tighter, and he remembered what little Admiral Sulam had told him about the way she had acted aboard the Defiant when he was missing. "It'll be okay." He said quietly. "We're on our way to rescue them. Kitsu and Illara should be there in a couple of hours."

"I know." She said, "I just feel so powerless."

"It'll be okay." He repeated quietly. "Op and Sasha can handle this. And Viran seems more determined than anything." Kyr said.

"I'm supposed to protect them, though." She said softly.

He held her for a while, a little stunned that she had said that. He didn't know she felt that way about them. He realized he should have, though. Over the last year, but especially since they had married, she had fully taken her role as big sister of the family, especially to Sasha, Viran and Op. He didn't know if it was because she was older than them, or if it was some part of her that still felt like she had to be on constant guard. And now that she had a family, that she had to be on guard to protect them, as well as herself. Or if she felt like it was her responsibility as, probably, the most powerful fighter in the family. It was probably some combination of all of that.

He started rocking her back and forth as she closed her eyes and relaxed into him. "They can protect themselves, cyar'ika." He said, "they were watching out for themselves long before you or I came into their lives. They can hold out for the next day or two until we arrive."

"But they don't have the Force. Or any kind of training." She said quietly. "I tried to check on Sasha again but it was too much." She admitted.

Kyr sat there for a moment, just rocking her back and forth. She was so, so very different from the person he had met almost a decade ago, he couldn't have imagined her admitting that to anyone then. He kissed her on the forehead. "Don't hurt yourself to save them, they wouldn't want that." He said.

She just leaned into him and they sat on the edge of the bed together in the dimly lit room for a long while.

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