HELP OUR DAUGHTERS THROUGH THIS DAY

When your brother's giving you gray hair, your friend's been captured, and your megalomaniac fiancé has just discovered you're in the same city, then sometimes the only thing to do is grab a friend and pour yourself a drink. -LS

...

Evening at last, and Dalla can finally put the plans she's been stewing over all day into motion.

Thias stopped yelling around midday, and Dalla assumes he's sorted the new supplies out of boredom. She feels bad about locking him in the storeroom, but where Thias is concerned she's at the end of her rope. This just isn't him, and if she didn't know better she'd think someone spiked his food with crazy sauce.

Ahsoka told her Thias was regressing, acting like he was a child again. "It's a defense mechanism," she explained after Thias launched arguments through the storeroom door. "He loved your friend who was killed by the royal agents, and since he can't process his grief in a healthy way he's relying on this to get him through every day."

"She was my best friend, and you didn't have to drag me into the storeroom," Dalla retorted, still steaming over Thias' antics.

"You're in survival mode, Dalla," was Ahsoka's reply. "You can't think about your friend now because you're focusing everything you have on staying away from King Rash."

Snapping at Ahsoka wasn't fair. They're burned out from the fighting and Saw and everything else, Ahsoka along with all of them. That's one of the reasons Dalla chooses tonight to hold up her end of the bargain with Lux.

She finds him in the main room, looking pretty dejected.

"So about my half of the bargain."

"I was just about to call it in," Lux admits. After the debacle a few hours ago he especially needs a break.

"If you leave this base, do I have your word you won't do anything reckless?"

"Ahsoka will be with me. She'd stop me before I could do anything so no, I will not do anything reckless."

Good enough for her. "Ahsoka and I were talking after we locked Thias in the storeroom and she mentioned she liked going out to eat with her master. I just asked her to run an errand and take you with her. I'm sure you can stop at a food stall or a cafe on the way back."

"I think I know the perfect place," Lux grins. "But what's this errand?"

In reply Dalla hands him a folded piece of flimsi. "The contingency."

Lux unfolds it.

"Nice," he says. "I have the perfect colors in mind."

…

When Lux and Ahsoka leave on their errand/date, Dalla heads for the liquor cabinet and tries to process the cards they were dealt a few hours ago.

They were all in the main room, going over the plans for rescuing the king at the execution. The plan was solid and everything was fine until Dono burst through the door. "They have Saw," she blurted. "He's alive, but I saw them take him away!"

Steela sighed; she must have been expecting this. The others buzzed with exclamations of surprise and worry until Lux announced "We have to save him."

"Yeah!"

In that moment, Dalla was very glad Thias was still locked in the storeroom. The others reached for blasters and droid poppers until Steela ordered: "No. We have to save King Dendup. We don't have time or the bodies to do both."

Lux's jaw dropped. "He's your brother."

"It's what Saw would want. What he would expect. And I expect the same from everyone in this room!" Steela ordered.

While the others put their weapons back, cowed by the strength of their leader, Ahsoka spoke up and reminded them to keep to their purpose. After that Steela retreated to her cave, also known as the briefing room, and hasn't come out since.

Dalla grabs a bottle of wine and two flimsi cups from the liquor cabinet and heads for the briefing room. She knocks on the door.

"Who is it?" Steela asks through the door.

"It's Dalla. Can I come in?"

Steela doesn't answer, so Dalla cautiously enters with bottle in hand. Steela's leaning on the holotable, staring at the map.

"Do you need something?" She asks.

"We both do," Dalla raises the bottle. "Today was awful. I think we both have a reason to indulge."

"My brother's in the hands of a psycho. What reason do you have to drink?"

Dalla starts pouring. "I'm engaged to the psycho."

"Touché." Steela reaches out and takes the cup from her. She takes a sip, makes a face, and sets the glass down. "I don't usually drink wine."

"Neither do I. Would have grabbed the rum but I thought it would be best to go with the weaker stuff tonight."

"At least it's alcoholic," Steela says and raises her cup. "To drinking on the holotable?"

Dalla pulls up a chair. "To drinking on the holotable."

Usually, Dalla's no lightweight. Her parents put grog and ale in her sippy cup when they went on voyages; she's no stranger to alcohol. But after the stressful wreck of a day, she and Steela break two major rules of drinking. They drink on an empty stomach, and while they're already exhausted.

The alcohol hits them like a hovertram.

"So Saw takes the signal flare out of his pack," Steela pauses midstory for another sip of wine. "And lights it. Right there in the jungle. Just sets it off!"

Dalla bursts out laughing and almost sprays wine. "And nothing caught on fire?"

"Thank the gods it was the wet season." Steela reaches for the bottle but stops. "How much have we had?"

"I thought you were keeping track." Dalla takes the bottle and checks the level. "Maybe this should be our last glass."

"You mean last flimsi cup," Steela clinks hers against the table. "It's not the fanciest arrangement."

"But it beats drinking alone."

"Yeah. Alone. Dalla, I have to talk to you about that." She pushes the wine aside. "I was going over the plan for tomorrow, and like Lux said, it's risky. I would leave you back here, but we need all the bodies we can get and I don't want to take a chance on Kason being willing to leave with a bunch of strangers."

"It's better odds than breaking into the palace." Both their heads are fuzzy from wine, but they know that. "You're making the right choice."

"I know. But to be safe, I made some contingency plans and one of them involves you." She leans on her elbows to look Dalla in the eye. "If we're at the execution and it doesn't go as planned, you get the hell out of there. We can't afford for Rash to get his fingers in the north, and he can't do that without you. I don't care how you do it, but you drop everything and run. If you go to the old Kira place, Uncle Brem will find you. Tell him what happened and tell him what I'm telling you right now. He'll help; he won't leave someone being forced into marriage or anyone I say is a friend."

"Kason can help with that. Aunt Shara mentioned him a few times, I'm -."

"Kason and Thias won't be there," Steela cuts her off. "When I said drop everything, I meant the boys too. They'll slow you down and we can't afford that."

Steela's words knock the wine from Dalla's head. "I'm not leaving them."

"You'll have to," Steela urges. "Rash won't hurt them if he doesn't have you. He won't risk it, and we can't risk him getting ahold of you. If he has you, he has the northern fleet. The fleet will crush us if we don't have the Beast Riders and then Rash wins. He beats us, he beats you, and he beats Dendup. If it gets bad, you have to leave the boys." She grabs Dalla's hands. "If that happens, if we get caught, I'll take care of them. I swear it. But you have to run."

It kills her to admit it, but Dalla knows she's right. Sanjay Rash wouldn't dare harm her family until he had her, and her father knows it too. But if she marries him then salt gods only know what he'd do to the others, and how far Marlon would go to try and preserve her safety.

"Promise me," Dalla squeezes her hands. "Promise you won't let anyone hurt them, for as long as it takes, even if it takes forever."

"I promise."

She has to understand. Dalla swallows hard. "Steela, if Rash wins and there's no way out, I'm not going to let him take me alive."

There are no steps leading into the sea at the Royal palace, nor are there boats to sail away and give herself back to the salt gods. But she has a knife, and that'll do the job just as well.

She gulps. "If I have to do that -" and sweet salt gods, she doesn't want to - "Please don't let them see."

Steela closes her eyes.

"I won't let them look," she says. "But you have to promise that if something happens to me, you won't let Saw do something stupid. It's only fair."

"I won't. I swear."

"Thank you. Oh, and kick him if you have to."

"Only if you'll kick Thias if you have to."

They pick up their cups and take another sip. The dark subject's still on their minds for sure, and everything happening at the palace hanging over their heads, but right now the wine keeps it distant.

"We really should have kept track of how much we were drinking."

"I don't think we've had too much," Steela says. "We're not falling-down drunk. We're more buzzed than anything. It's wine, not hard liquor."

"Thank gods." Dalla smiles over the rim of her cup. "You know, there's no drinking age for ale or beer or wine in the north but you have to be sixteen to get the hard liquors. When I turned legal, my friend Miranda asked to borrow my ID."

"You didn't do it."

"I did it." Miranda was very, very persuasive.

Steela puts a hand over her mouth. "Did she get caught?"

"In about three seconds flat. The pubkeep, Maris, knew what was up the minute she sat down. She still calls her Dalla sometimes as a joke; she's never going to live that one down." Dalla stops short and remembers she shouldn't be using present tense.

Luckily Steela doesn't notice. "I think that's how Dono got her friend's sister's ID. She said she was going to a bar and kept the card. Speaking of bars, have you seen Lux and Ahsoka? Did they go out?"

"Oh! Aye, they're out running an errand. Probably did some recon on the way or they're dodging patrols or both." And this is why the errand date setup always works.

"Okay. I didn't know what else would be keeping them out so late."

"It was a more difficult errand." Dalla quickly changes the subject before Steela can think of it any more. "Frack. I think I got wine on Dono's scarf."

Steela cracks a smile. "Nice knowing you."

"Make sure there are flowers at my funeral," she jokes and takes another sip of wine.

"You weren't around when she told me my goggles were a crime against eyewear." Steela rolls her eyes. "I need them for riding rupings. I don't care how they look."

"You didn't tell that to Dono, right?"

Steela nods with false gravity. "I thought she was going to take me to a shrink."

The briefing room door opens and Lux and Ahsoka walk in. "Who's going to a shrink?" she asks.

"Steela, if Dono has anything to say about it," Dalla giggles.

Ahsoka and Lux raise their eyebrows.

"Have you two been - nevermind, how much have you had to drink?" Lux demands.

"We're not entirely sure," Steela admits.

Ahsoka walks over to the table and grabs the bottle. "It's been plenty, if you're giggling. I'm cutting you two off."

"Please do." Steela pushes the cups in Ahsoka's direction. "We have to be on our game tomorrow."

Dalla stands. "I'd better go let Thias out of the storeroom."

Steela's eyes go wide. "He's still there? Dalla, do you realize what time it is?"

She definitely didn't. "Yeah, I think I'd better let him out."

"And I'm going to make sure you make it to the storeroom to do that," Lux says and follows her out. Once the door shuts behind them he pulls a package from his pocket. "We found it. Once we let Thias out, are you sober enough to work?"

"Sober enough? Please. Of course I am. Especially when it's something this important."

…

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