"Hey, let's stay a little longer and help these people with the harvest," Lok said brightly to Eeth. It was the second morning after they had arrived here, they were just having breakfast, and after that, they were supposed to take the baby girl who was currently sitting on her father's lap, and leave.
"No," said Eeth flatly. "We have duties to attend to, and Knight Satii is waiting for us."
Lok suppressed a sigh at his master's lack of humour. Suddenly, he acutely missed Jerad. Jerad would have laughed and fantasised about how they could become colonists and live off the land, Lok would have joined in the fantasy, and both of them would have been entirely aware that this was merely a joke. He suspected that Eeth knew perfectly well that he had not been serious, too, but was not taking any chances.
"Master, it was a joke," he said in a tone of exaggerated patience. "You know what a joke is, right?"
"I do," Eeth replied, his face and tone of voice deadpan.
Lok rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure you've looked the word up in a dictionary," he said which had Bart snort with suppressed laughter. Surprisingly, Eeth's eyes crinkled slightly as well.
"Well, have you?" Lok probed cheekily.
"Yes," said Eeth, still in that deadpan tone of voice. "When I was about eight. I wanted to know what the others thought was so special about them."
Lok glanced at Bart who was staring at Eeth with an incredulous look on his face, mouth half agape.
"Yeah," he said with a sigh. "He's always like that." But if he was quite honest with himself, there was something rather comforting in that fact.
After breakfast, Lok said goodbye to Bart while Eeth took over the baby from Marla and her family. He hadn't known Bart for long, but he already felt like a friend. When he hugged him, Lok was hit by the painful realisation that he was probably not going to see him again; and moreover, that this was going to be a frequent occurrence in his life as a Jedi. Suddenly, the philosophy of non-attachment gained new meaning. He had no time to ponder this, though, since Eeth was now coming for him, carrying the baby in his arm.
"Can I drive us back?" asked Lok. Eeth hesitated for a moment. "Yes," he said then. "But since I'll have to give my attention to the baby, drive more slowly than you did on the way here. I may not always be able to coach you and watch out for you."
Lok snorted. "As if any obstacle would ever escape your attention," he said. When he saw the expression on Eeth's face, he raised his hands in defeat. "Alright, keep your hair on," he said. "I'll drive more slowly. Your wish is my command."
"It should be," said Eeth. He climbed onto the passenger seat and took the baby on his lap. Lok threw their bags onto the back seat and took the wheel. They waved a last goodbye to their hosts and took off. The second that Lok accelerated, the baby started crying. Lok was tempted to cover his ears, but he needed to keep his hands on the wheel.
"Can't you shut her up?" he yelled at Eeth, swerving a little as he did so.
"How do you propose I do that?" Eeth yelled back, rocking the baby.
"Sleep compulsion?" Lok suggested.
"Sleep compulsions are not recommended for children below the age of four!" Eeth bellowed. "Drive more slowly. She is not used to the speed."
Lok did not believe for a moment that speed was the issue here, but he still obeyed and slowed down, scowling a little as he did so. The baby's cries died down to a whimper. The scowl on Lok's face deepened.
"At least this way we get to see something of the countryside," said Eeth serenely, handing the baby a wooden something that she apparently liked to chew upon.
"Yeah, and it's going to take us six hours to reach the ship this way unless we die of boredom before we do," Lok grumbled.
"Three hours," Eeth corrected him, raising his eyebrows. "We can always switch roles if driving at this speed is beneath you."
"Thanks, I'll pass," Lok said quickly.
"You," said Eeth pointedly, "will take over your fair share of creche duty once we are aboard the ship. For now, you will kindly refrain from hitting the tree in front of us."
"Wha–" yelped Lok and swerved wildly. He sensed Eeth drawing on the Force to stabilise the speeder.
"Focus," said Eeth sharply. Lok felt badly tempted to swear.
Three nerve-wracking hours later, they arrived at the ship. Satii was waiting for them in front of the ramp.
"There you are," she said. "I'd been starting to wonder."
"The baby started crying when I drove too fast," Lok said wearily, getting out of the speeder and stretching. "When I drove slowly, she cried half the time, too." He could feel another headache coming.
"Doesn't she have a name?" asked Satii, taking the now sleeping child off Eeth so he could get out as well.
"As a matter of fact, she does not," Eeth replied. "Local custom. They only name their children on their first birthday."
"Alright, but she won't be a local any longer once we leave here," Satii pointed out. "The creche masters will need a name. Anything else wouldn't be practical."
"Her parents are aware of that," Eeth said somewhat stiffly. "They… asked me to name her, in fact." That information was news to Lok.
"Oh?" Satii asked. "What will you name her, then?"
"I will not name her anything before we have returned the speeder to the rental service and brought the ship into hyperspace," Eeth said firmly.
Satii grinned and saluted. "Alright. I'll return the speeder. You bring your stuff aboard and prepare for take-off."
She returned the baby to Eeth and held out her hand to Lok who handed her the ignition control. Then he picked up their bags and followed his master into the ship. To his surprise, Eeth asked him: "Do you want to take a piloting lesson?"
"Do I want to take a piloting lesson?" Lok repeated incredulously. "Is this some kind of trick question or what?"
"I thought you might," Eeth replied, unfazed. "Alright. Drop our bags in our cabin and come to the cockpit. I will coach you through the preparations. When Satii is back, you can act as her co-pilot."
A couple of hours later, they were on the way. Thanks to Satii's and Lok's efforts, the stars were turning into the familiar stripes while the baby was sleeping in Eeth's arms. Miraculously, Eeth had managed to find just the thing to make Lok feel better about this day. "Thank you, master," he said, turning around in the co-pilot's seat and smiling at the man.
"You are welcome," Eeth replied, returning the smile.
"You're not getting out of naming the baby, though," Satii decreed. "You told us you'd name her now."
"Technically, I did no such thing," replied Eeth, raising his eyebrows.
Lok rolled his eyes. "You never allow me to get away with technicalities," he said. "Why should you?"
Eeth gazed down at the baby silently for a long moment. "I… I am no good at this," he finally admitted. "If you leave it up to me, I will probably end up calling her Marla after her mother."
"Well, there could be worse names," Lok said, shrugging. "It might even be nice for her to learn that she's been named after her mother, when she's older. It'll give her a connection to her home world and birth family."
So Marla it was. Lok thought that Eeth looked as if he wanted to say something else, but he did not, and Lok decided not to ask. There was little time for it, anyway, since little Marla chose that moment to wake up and cry. Eeth firmly and decisively handed her to Lok and ordered him to the galley where he showed him how to prepare a bottle of milk and feed it to her.
"Okay, this was not as hard as I thought it would be," Lok said. At this moment, Marla spit the bottle out and pushed it away.
"Hey!" said Lok, holding the bottle to her mouth. She pushed it away again.
"Leave her be," said Eeth. "She is probably full. The bottle is nearly empty anyway."
"I'll tell that to you when you next tell me to finish my plate," said Lok. Eeth was very particular about that. Eeth just snorted. Then he showed Lok how to burp Marla. And then little Marla decided to soil her diaper.
"Urgh," said Lok, grimacing, and held her out to Eeth.
"I think," said Eeth, unmoved, "that it is high time for you to learn how to change a diaper."
"No, it's not," said Lok, giving Eeth an imploring look. "I'll never have children anyway."
"Neither will I," Eeth pointed out. "I still know how to do it because there are occasions on which we need to do such things. Such as right now."
"Master, pleeeeaase," Lok said, still holding Marla out, but feeling his arms get quite heavy from the effort. He tried to turn puppy-dog eyes on his master. The attempt was, of course, totally wasted on the man.
Eeth rose. "Consider this a learning opportunity," he said. "And be glad if no worse things come your way in the course of your duties than having to change a soiled diaper. Come."
And that was that. Lok knew that arguing any further would be pushing the point, and Eeth never reacted well to that.
It turned out to be not quite as bad as he had feared. Little Marla seemed to enjoy being cleaned up and Lok ended up playing with her, pulling her up into a sitting position and lowering her back onto the mat, which she seemed to find funny. At least that was what Lok deduced from her chuckles.
"Were you going to call her anything else than Marla?" Lok asked Eeth. "You looked as if you were, anyway."
Eeth frowned.
"Where did you get that idea from?" he asked severely.
"I'm right, am I not?" asked Lok shrewdly. "No need to give me that glare. I didn't do anything wrong."
"No, you did not," Eeth said after a pause. "But I am under no obligation to inform you of my every silly idea."
"Since when do you, of all people, have silly ideas?" Lok inquired, honestly surprised.
"I assume I have no less silly ideas than most other people," Eeth said stiffly. "I merely abstain from shouting them to the rest of the world."
"True," said Lok. "But if you told me quietly, I'm sure it wouldn't count." The edges of his mouth twitched slightly, ruining his effort to keep a straight face.
Eeth sighed, and that, in and of itself, was a rare occurrence. "I see I will have to tell you or you will never stop pestering me," he said in resignation. "I was briefly thinking of naming her after my master, Fenya. For some reason, though, that was only my second thought. The first name that came to my head was my mother's. Ranna. I decided against both ideas because this child has no connection to me and my life. So what business do I have imposing it on her?"
"Always so selfless," said Lok. It had been meant as a half-joke but as he said it, he realised it was true. Eeth didn't consider himself important. His duties, yes; he took them more than seriously. But himself, as a person? No.
"Maybe she does have a connection to you, though," Lok proposed. "Her people asked you to name her for a reason, didn't they? You always seem to think that people aren't interested in you and will be glad to see your back, but that's simply not true."
Eeth raised his eyebrows, but did not reply. Once more, Lok had managed to render him speechless. He was spared the effort of having to come up with a response, anyway, since suddenly the ship shuddered and red lights were flaring. Eeth made his way to the cockpit so fast he practically left a vapour trail. Lok picked up Marla and stood, nearly losing his balance because something seemed to be wrong with artificial gravity.
"What happened?" he asked, stumbling up to the cramped cockpit where Eeth had taken the pilot's seat. Satii was nowhere to be seen but Eeth was talking to her on the comm.
"Not now," Eeth said curtly, then resumed talking to Satii. "Any damage to our thrusters?"
"None that I can find," came Satii's voice through the comm. "But… this is weird. Our main engine's force readings are fluctuating like I've never seen before."
"Not a good idea to go back to light speed, then," Eeth said grimly. "This area is infested with pirates. Maybe this is their way of bringing ships out of hyperspace so they can attack them."
Satii came down the corridor, pushing past Lok and dropping into the co-pilot's seat.
"I'd wager they're sitting somewhere in that asteroid belt," he said, pointing at the three-dimensional map Eeth had called up.
"Yes, and that is exactly where we are going," Eeth said decisively. He was already bringing the ship around and heading right into the asteroid belt.
"What?" asked Satii, flabbergasted. "Why?"
"Because," said Eeth, "as long as we cannot go back to light speed, making our way through empty space exposes us. We are poorly armed and shielded and will be easy prey. In the asteroid belt, though, they will have a hard time pursuing us. And my navigation skills are easily better than those of the average pirate."
He was already swerving to avoid the first batch of asteroids. Lok dropped onto the seat behind Satii's, clutching Marla against his chest.
"But if the pirates–" he started.
"Quiet," said Eeth sharply, diving into a narrow gap between two great pieces of rock. "We have no time for small talk. Satii, check our scanners for signs of ships. Lok, find out what's beyond this asteroid belt. We will need to land somewhere and get the ship repaired. Or send a message to the Temple asking for a replacement ship."
"Alright," Lok said shakily. He folded out a terminal and called up a map. Eeth seemed to be busy, so Lok decided not to bother him with thoughts and preliminary findings. It was hard enough to concentrate as it was, with Marla trying to worm herself out of his arm. Meanwhile, Satii had apparently identified a pursuer and was giving Eeth their position in clipped tones while Eeth was delivering a precision-navigation performance the likes of which Lok had never seen. He did not allow himself to be distracted by any of it, though. Eeth was relying on him to help, and help he would!
"Chakrest," he finally said, waiting for a moment in which Eeth seemed to be able to listen to him. "Everywhere else is either hostile to the Republic, uninhabitable or too far away from the asteroid belt. I figured that if we have to make our way across lots of empty space below light speed, we'll be an easy target. Besides, Chakrest is bordering on the section of the belt that's hardest to navigate, so I thought they might not consider us capable of making it through there."
"Nice to hear you trust in your master's navigating abilities," Satii remarked drily.
"Well, I do!" Lok said hotly.
"So do I," said Satii peacefully, calling up a map of the sector in question in front of Eeth. Eeth threw a look at it and nodded.
"I'll manage," he said. "Chakrest isn't a member of the Republic, is it?"
"No, they're neutral," said Lok, browsing the information in the data base. "Mostly inhabited by a self-sufficient aquatic species. There's one continent, or rather, a mass of islands which has attracted humanoid settlers – humans, Zabrak and so on, the usual mix. They trade fish and valuable ores. There's a spaceport on an orbital satellite which they built for trading purposes. It has grown into a small city. They… lemme see…" Lok shifted an increasingly whiny Marla to his other arm and leaned forward in order to facilitate reading. "Oh, yes. They trade with the Republic as well as pirates and other factions. They're also well-armed so everyone else pretty much leaves them alone."
"Send the coordinates to Satii," Eeth said curtly, taking the ship narrowly past a hurtling chunk of rock. "And then put Marla to sleep."
"What, now?" Lok asked in consternation.
"Yes, now," Eeth snapped.
A frown on his face, Lok rose to obey. As he made to leave the cockpit, Eeth said unexpectedly, and in a much softer tone of voice: "Lok?"
"Yes?" Lok asked sullenly, stopping for a moment.
"Well done," Eeth said, his eyes never leaving the controls.
Lok could not help but smile.