Episode Six

Counting Blessings pt. 1

Each imagined route of leadership Vrina had just meditated upon immediately dissipated like sugar in hot water.

The Twi'lek's lekku, simplistic in their dressings of two identically inscribed bronzium end-caps, bounced back as she drew a shallow inhale through her nostrils. "What—what's that smell?" Her blaster dropped a half-inch, but the Mikkian could not will himself to wrestle it from her.

"Erm, well," he blinked twice and tensed his shoulders. "We were hit a few times and the smoke flooded the—"

"Yeah, I don't care. Who does this ship belong to? You?"

Vrina's eyes reduced to slits. "Are you, like, robbing us?" He watched as the woman took a step back to further extend her arm. The comedian was too exhausted to react and it appeared that she took special offense to his lack of worry. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that you didn't get those stims by any legal means…"

"That shouldn't even concern you. So, if you're not the captain and the droid is already on their way, then this ship is mine for the taking." She took a moment to examine him. Her gaze was intrusive, with too much time spent on his waistline and legs. "Unless you're hiding a weapon somewhere I can't see?"

With tight nostrils, Vrina shook his head. He watched as her eyes hurriedly assessed the interior of the ship. She noted a few blemishes on her breath. "Nothing I can't work with," the Twi'lek said. Her attention returned to the confused Mikkian. "Alright. Be good and sit tight or, y'know, pew pew."

The loosely held blaster swung with little respect as she made her way to the pilot's den. He batted his eyelashes thrice and finally relaxed his shoulders. He wondered if he had fallen asleep during his meditation and the kind face of Kazuda would greet him when he inevitably woke up.

As the seconds ticked away and the rustling of the Twi'lek became evermore concerning, Vrina Hon leaned up from his seat and surreptitiously snuck to the elevator that led to the cargo hold. Before he could even place a foot inside, a heavy discharge shook the shuttle off-kilter. He felt his muscles tense and pulled away to meet with the woman.

"You're—" he tripped against the wall when the Twi'lek forced a hard turn. "The bay door! What are you doing?" The cargo ramp had not been reeled back inside and drug along the pavement to create shallow crevasses before The Rokkna finally managed to point its nose upward.

The woman was cackling. "So, what, you're a better pilot?"

"I-I don't know. Probably not, but—"

"Then sit down and enjoy the ride." She appeared to fall into a groove as she navigated the console with swift precision. The shuttle stabilized and all turbulence disappeared once the Twi'lek leaned onto the steering mechanism.

Confused and riddled with anxiety, Vrina plopped into the co-pilot's seat with his mouth agape. "Where…"

"Sh-sh-sh," she hushed him. "Worrying about fine details doesn't sync with enjoying the ride, going wherever the will of the galaxy leads."

"Do you really believe in that stuff?"? He asked while watching striations of grey, polluted clouds whip over the shuttle. The Rokkna barely avoided colliding with shadows of passing vehicles.

The Twi'lek shrugged while carelessly weaving through the air traffic. "Looks like we have an incoming hail. Care to answer it?" Vrina swallowed hard and rolled his eyes before reaching to the console.

A flickering hologram of Tam's bust appeared below the center of the viewfinder. "Uh, what the hell is going on?" He scratched through the tendrils hidden by his head wrap and stammered.

"Aw, leave him alone," the blue-skinned Twi'lek tossed a shrug. "Not his fault this happened."

Tam's face took up the entirety of the hologram. "Wait—Vrina, who is she?!" She was pushed out of the way by the familiar Dug.

"Once again, you ruin everything," the alien spat. Both Vrina and the Twi'lek could hear the anxious chirp of Are-Nine, who had managed to establish telemetry with The Rokkna before flying out of sight. "We make allies, we make an innocent trade, and you overextend!"

"The Mudhorn was never ambitious enough of a crew for me—if, y'know, we're being transparent." Her attention was pulled to another blinking light. "Oops, got an incoming transmission. Talk to you later, Lotir."

The Dug bared his gnarled, flattened and crooked teeth. "Kessie!" With a quick swipe, the hologram was replaced with another.

A young man with a chiseled jaw and a luscious mustache that waterfalled over his lips raised his chin to address the two. "This is Lieutenant Hoy Seti of the Coruscant Security Force."

Kessie reached over to push Vrina's arm. She rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. The man on the other side of the hologram appeared to notice this. "Yes, well," he continued with a lowered brow. "I am requesting that you ground your vehicle immediately due to an outstanding arrest warrant associated with its signature."

This sobered the Twi'lek. "Really?" She exhaled a deep sigh and straightened the ship. "You're criminals, too?"

"I mean, no, but, I guess in the moment—"

The Lieutenant continued. "We have dispatched an exospheric blockade to intercept your current position. You may surrender to my men and allow them to escort you to my office for questioning."

With a smug tilt of the head, the Twi'lek asked, "And what happens if we say no?" Vrina winced, his neck tense as he spoke through his clenched teeth.

"We? Don't rope me into this!" He batted his eyelashes and turned to the hologram. "I don't even know her!"

Lieutenant Hoy blinked. He continued, audibly exasperated. "Be that as it may, the ship's crew—whoever that turns out to be—is wanted for questioning in regards to a handful of destroyed property and the death of one of my captains."

"Death?" The Mikkian exhaled and drooped into his seat. He remembered when Tam had claimed there had only been one death. Vrina shook his head, believing that the CSF exclusively employed droids for lower-level security measures.

During their escape from Gil's Gab, Kazuda had managed to snipe a sky skiff from their trail and the second was shredded by the miasma of fake credits. With a contemplative wince, Vrina wondered which of the two survived.

His attention drifted back to Kessie, his lucidity slowly returning to him. "What are you doing?" Adrenaline flooded his body and he leaned forward to swipe her hands away from the console. She hissed at him.

"Hope you don't have anywhere to be," the Twi'lek said with a half-cocked brow. Her pointer finger struck two buttons before wrapping her hand around the hyperdrive lever. Vrina launched himself to wrestle the woman out of the pilot's chair. She pushed his face away and straightened her posture.

"You need to stop this," he shouted and clenched his fists. The Mikkian stood beside her, his eyes hard. "We don't even have a droid! You're going to end up killing us!"

"Wow! Excuse you, but I'm quite capable as a pilot. What, you don't believe me? Well, tell me: have we died yet?"

Lieutenant Hoy cleared his throat. "Should I assume that you're, erm, fleeing?" Both Vrina and Kessie shouted completely different answers. The Human's brow creased. "Right. Well, then, I'm going to have to deploy my sky hoppers. If at any point their attack overwhelms you enough that you change your mind, please contact me on this channel before your ship is obliterated."

The transmission ended and the two stared at each other. After an exchange of empty blinks, Vrina spoke up. "I have a-a-a tooka I need to feed. I—" he shook his head and fell back into his seat. "She won't even know what happened to me. I'm going to die and she's going to starve."

Kessie expressed a quiet exhale through her nostrils. "No, she's not." A quick pull of the steering mechanism and the rerouting of a few sources of power. She tapped on the console and hailed the Lieutenant just as the visage of four sky hoppers broke through the fog.

The man did not seem surprised to see her. Simply, and with a firm nod, he said, "I'll let them know. Sit tight and wait for my men to escort—"

She cut the transmission and slumped in her seat following a hefty sigh. For the first time since meeting her, she had nothing to say. Vrina used the back of his hand to wipe dew from his eyes. "Uh," he smacked his lips. "Thanks."

"Lotir is actually, literally going to kill me." Kessie ran her tongue over her perfect set of teeth. The sky hoppers slowly passed by them and activated a magnetic tow to drag their shuttle alongside them.

"How can he kill you if you're inside of a jail cell?"

"I'm not exactly planning on going to jail," she spat. Her tone insisted that he was the one to blame for this extreme inconvenience, but he chose not to engage. Instead, he listened. "Even if I have to fight my way out of here when we land. Damn! I should have ejected you when I had the chance."

Vrina was not sure if he sensed humor in her tone but decided to play off of the possibility. "Heh, sorry. So, um, I have two questions for you." The Twi'lek passively waved her hand while shaking her head, her lekku bouncing with the motion. "Why did you keep me?"

"Easy answer. You seem pathetic and defenseless. I thought—" She rolled her eyes. "I thought it'd be funny to have a witness."

"Witness? Okay, sure. Question two—"

Kessie raised her eyebrows. "Can't wait."

"Right," he frowned. "Where were you trying to go?"

The woman paused and mentally searched for the answer with very little success. After a minute that seemed to drag for eternity, she cleared her throat. "I'd hate to say anywhere else, but… Anywhere else."

The Mikkian nodded and relaxed in his seat. "Not a fan of Coruscant?" He stared out of the viewfinder and watched as the top floors of the planet's signature skyscrapers came into view once again. The Rokkna periodically returned to civilization. Even the ambient soundscape of the city managed to bleed through.

"I must look like a fragging lunatic. Giving your friend bacta and immediately stealing your ship."

"Trying to plug in random coordinates for a lightspeed jump without having a droid on standby…" Vrina felt comfortable chuckling when Kessie did. "You really don't give two bantha ticks about anything, huh?"

There was a brief moment of consideration before she stretched both arms and rolled her shoulders. "Nah. Not anymore." Her eyes moved to a blinking light on the console and the two simultaneously rolled their eyes. "That Hoy guy is probably going to tell us to get ready to dock. They'll need to disengage their capture protocol and—"

Her finger struck the button and the two fell quiet. A shadow-laden image of Commander Isten appeared before their eyes. She looked to the Twi'lek, frowned, and passed her glance to Vrina. "Ah," she grinned. "There you are."

The Mikkian could not manage to find any words that accurately expressed his pure displeasure. This did not matter to the Human woman who continued without pause. "We kept our eyes on Coruscant, rightfully so, in an educated guess that your crew would rally here. Though, I'm not positive as to who your tail-head friend is."

Kessie sneered and leaned forward. "I'm the Twi'lek who is going to beat the snark out of you. Try to say that to me in person, powder-face."

"Mm. You should relax. In fact, you both should relax. I have managed an incredible favor. When you land, you will not be cuffed and dragged to a cold cell. Instead, you shall meet with me and we will act as old friends."

Vrina acknowledged the shift in Kessie's aura with a wave of his hand. This drew her attention to him instead of the hologram. They held eye contact for a moment before he nodded.

She sucked on her teeth. "You're really friends with someone like this?" The way she examined him was infiltrating on a number of deeply personal levels. He did not know whether to agree or deny. Instead, he just spoke.

"This is Commander Isten. She's—she's trying to help us, and I think we should listen."

"I knew I liked you"—the pale woman paused for effect—"Vrina Hon."

He winced upon hearing his name. It felt as though two icepicks were driven into either temple.

Kessie was without a plan. She could engage the hyperdrive and escape from the magnetic lock with risk of destroying the shuttle's hull, but, even if it was a successful ploy, this act would inevitably result in stranding her in the middle of Wild Space with someone who would end up resenting her.

Sensing she had made enough of an impact, Isten disconnected from the hologram and left the two to stew in tension. The Twi'lek clenched her teeth. "'Tail-head'."

"Look," Vrina spun the chair to face her the best he could. She did not want to return the gesture. "This person, Commander Isten—she's powerful. She's scary."

Casually, "I am not afraid of her."

"You haven't met who serves her. You haven't seen what she can do. I'll say this: I've only met her once and I'm ready to never step foot around her ever again." She mulled over his statement and he forced a swallow. "We're in a tight situation, Kessie. I don't want to be arrested." He thought of his tooka cat and how she would wait at the door for her owner who would never come.

"And I do?" She scoffed and leaned back with crossed arms. The magnetic lock was disengaged with a hard suction. Her eyes widened and she felt her muscles tense with the impulse to once again flee from the wretched capitol planet. It would be a difficult trek, to avoid the air traffic and navigate between the towering skyscrapers that tore clouds in twain.

Kessie could feel Vrina staring at her and she eased herself into navigating the ship to land next to the quaint Coruscant Security sky hoppers. The idea of trusting him, let alone a strange woman who held such a taut air of ambiguity, tied her stomach into an aching knot.

The Mikkian stopped her from getting up after her successful landing. Already half-way out of the seat, her brow creased. He asked, "Is there a reason you, um, did all of this?" Vrina gestured to the stolen ship and she rolled her eyes.

"I'm positive anybody else in Lotir's crew would do the same thing. He doesn't exactly create a nurturing environment." Kessie placed a finger on his lips as they broke open to ask yet another question. "That's all I'm going to say about that. Come on," she pulled away and gestured to him. "We have a tiny, scary lady to meet."

He fluttered his eyes and nodded once in agreement.

The two traveled to the cramped elevator that led one floor down to the cargo bay. Kessie winced just before the two entered. "Blast. I didn't drop the ramp." She twisted to make her way back to the pilot's den but was caught by the Mikkian.

"Yeah, no—I'll do that."

"You know how?"

Vrina clicked his tongue and tossed a glance down the short hallway. "I'll figure it out."

"Ah," she crossed her arms and leaned against the elevator threshold. "You don't trust me. No, no," Kessie said. "I get it. Alright, go ahead. I'll wait for you."

Without another word, he offered a flimsy salute and traipsed back to the cockpit. He heard the hiss of the elevator door shutting and the subsequent hum of the lowering pod. Before him was a glimmering console constructed of patchwork panels, levers, and touch screens.

He scratched his upper lip and leaned forward as if a new vantage point would help him discern as to which series of buttons would drop the ramp. While staring at one particularly appealing key, a flickering blue light appeared on the center of the dashboard. Vrina recognized this as an indicator of an incoming transmission; he had paid enough attention to understand how to activate the hologram.

His finger hovered over the button and felt a strong urge not to answer. In his mind's eye, he saw the image of Polle. Behind him, Tam would be waiting—both of them disappointed that he waylaid their mission by allowing The Rokkna to be stolen from under them.

Vrina pulled away and let the call go unanswered. Without thinking, the next two buttons he pressed appeared to have lowered the ramp as an invisible extension of the shuttle stiffly hit the ground.

By the time he boarded the elevator to meet with Kessie, she had already stepped off to meet with two Coruscant guards, three Federation officers, and the familiar—yet unwelcome—face of Commander Isten.

Her eyes lit up when she saw Vrina take his place next to the Twi'lek. She assessed the two for a long moment before speaking. "The galaxy is quite small," the woman started with a wistful blemish to her tone. "Bringing the two of you together. Bringing the two of you to me."

Kessie lifted her chin by half of an inch. "Who are you?"

"Soror Jenn Isten." The woman bowed but kept eye contact. "The figurehead, if you'd like, of the Federation of All Systems."

"You're the leader of some political party?" The Twi'lek acquiesced the woman's demeanor and equipment: a plastiplate and gundark leather brigandine with a matching pauldron that draped her right shoulder, a hulking belt that shook when she walked. Her skin was more pale in person, but her lips and cheeks held a rosy hue.

Isten gently blinked. "It would be a shame to diminish our grandiose effort in such a way. The implication of two or more competing parties carries with it the potential of escalation, and we have never once desired to utilize violence to achieve our very reasonable goal of unification."

Kessie shook her head and glanced at Vrina. "Does she always talk this much?" He cocked his shoulder. A curious grin broke onto the Commander's face. "Listen, I appreciate… Whatever this is. Saving our hides, whatever, but why?"

"I am speaking to the Mikkian only at this moment, but feel free to listen." The sallow woman batted her eyelashes and flared her nostrils. "Why is it that Xiono has plucked you from the comfort of your home, your career, and dragged you with him? In what ways does he attribute you as a beneficial addition to his crew? Spare me the excuse that the Republic is always in need of new bright-eyed and bushy-tailed members. Tell me the truth—and trust me, I'll know if you're withholding anything."

Vrina was reminded of the similar conversation he held with Polle. He was already suspicious of the bartender, and the synchronicity did not help to ease his nerves.

The Mikkian chewed on his bottom lip and searched the ground for answers. Cold, damp asphalt led from the landing zone and to a long stretch of buildings. Even with five stories, they were the smallest to speak of for quite some distance. The city had always intimidated him, and no matter how many years he spent navigating the intricate grid, he knew he could take a wrong turn and become lost for hours.

He drew a calming breath into his core. "Kaz—erm, Captain Xiono thinks I'm a Jedi." Vrina did not want to look at Isten in her eyes; he could already feel a mocking gaze set upon him.

"No," she shook her head. "He does not think you are a Jedi. He hardly knows what the word means." The Commander ignored Kessie's probing glare and sized up Vrina with a sigh. "He may believe that you are sensitive to the Force or have abilities that could be useful for the Republic, but you are no Jedi and we can thank the Creator that this is so."

The Twi'lek rubbed her eyes with either palm. Under her breath, "Why did I have to steal this ship?" Isten raised her chin and placed both hands behind her back.

"It appears to me that you are not having fun, my young tail-head."

Kessie slung her eyes to the woman and bared her teeth. "Don't call me that. What gives you the right—"

"Just a test, is all. I see many instances of triggers embedded in your mind. I could pull a few more out, but I'm afraid that you would then attack me."

She clenched her fists and squared her shoulders. "Would that be so bad?"

Vrina's voice broke the tension; it was soft, contemplative. "Why is it good that I'm not a Jedi?"

Isten's focus did not budge from the wily Twi'lek. She answered, though it was deliberately slow. "Ever since there has been Jedi, there has been discourse. Ever since there has been Sith, there has been dissonance. This logic applies to political parties, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, all aspects both masculine and feminine." She raised her hand and two of her officers hiked their weapons against their chest, ready to switch to the offensive if given another signal.

The Commander turned to Vrina and approached him with a curious eye. A long moment of examination passed. "You should not aspire to follow a path that claims to be more correct than another."

Immediately, "Then, what path should I follow?"

The pale woman quickly raised, then closed her fist. Her officers eased and Kessie exhaled. She was prepared to sprint back up the ramp and seize control of the ship once again to make yet another grand escape. As the conversation between the two dragged on, a part of her wished that she had done so regardless.

Vrina's eyes followed where Isten roamed. She rolled the tip of her tongue inside of her mouth, stretching her cheeks before finally popping her lips. "You should follow the path of Bendu." With a dainty spin on her heels, Soror Jenn Isten smiled at the two with a genuine gleam that rolled off of her unusually lucid eyes.