Entry 4

Later that day Sacha Swiftbird came to the ship to see me. "Jax?" she called down the corridor.

As I exited my cabin to greet her an inexplicit feeling of bashfulness flooded over me. I know it's an unreasonable response, but I don't want to give Sacha the continued impression that I am interested in a relationship…if that's what actually she believes.

I'm not saying she isn't beautiful. She is an attractive young woman with a petite build and a stunning head of jet-black hair with silver highlights. Her cybernetic eye mimics her organic pale grey eye nicely with the only lingering aftereffect of her accident is a slight scarring around the eyelid. Any man would be proud to have her as a romantic partner…any man who didn't have his heart crushed by the loss of his mate that is.

"I'm here," I called out to her.

She sauntered towards me wearing a form fitting flight suit and a huge smile on her face. "Since you decided to stay on planet, I was told to assign you billets."

I looked at her and then back to my ship's cabin. "I'd thought I would just live on the ship."

She shook her head. "No good. The Rangers are on a strict budget and it costs more to maintain power to the living section of a ship and do 'fresher waste removal than it is to have a person live in the barracks. Besides, you don't want to be stuck using a sonic shower when you can have a long hot shower under running water. Some of the larger rooms even have a bath."

"What about Den and I-Five? Will they room with me?"

She gave a shrug of a shoulder. "The rooms are for single occupants, but I suppose I-Five won't need a bunk…so he can be with you or Den. As long as there are empty rooms he can probably have a place of his own if he wants."

"Have you seen them?"

She pointed in the direction of the mechanic repair shop. "I think they're with our mech-tech Geri. I saw I-Five earlier when he returned my…when he returned some items I lent him. He said he was thinking of some modifications."

I suppressed a smile. Sacha didn't want to tell me she lent I-Five her make-up. "Okay, I think I'll talk to them first to get their opinion on the room arrangements."

She nodded. "Sure. There are a lot of empty rooms in my building. Perhaps it's best that we stick close to each other," she said softly before she gave me what I considered a come-hither smile.

"Why uh…why is that?" I managed to croak out without sounding too much like a nervous prepubescent boy.

Her smile faded and I could see disappointment in her eyes. "I thought our group made a good team—you, me, Den and I-Five." She averted her eyes and I could sense her discomfort. "We flew to Kantaros, a closed system and Imperial stronghold, rescued the Whiplash leader, killed the Inquisitor that's been hunting you down doggedly, faced off with Darth Vader and escaped to tell the tale." She abruptly turned away to hide her distress. "I'm sorry. I didn't consider you wouldn't want to keep me as your pilot and engineer."

The anguish in her voice made me truly realize the cowardliness of my behavior. I was pushing away a good friend and comrade, a person who jeopardized her life to save mine, just because I was afraid of growing close. I was so fearful of experiencing future emotionally pain that I was willing to hurt her instead. I stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "We do make a great team."

She shook her head woefully. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm getting so emotional over nothing."

I took a deep breath and let it out. "Sacha, it's not nothing. Somehow I've given you the impression that I don't want you around and that's not true. I couldn't think of any other person I would want piloting the Laranth more than you. You're an amazing individual."

She snuffled and drew a hand over her face. "Thanks."

My hand remained on her shoulder as I guided her off the ship. "Come on, we can go find Den and I-Five and discuss the room arrangements."

I could feel her spirits lift as we moved down the boarding ramp. I dropped my hand from her shoulder and gave her a furtive glance. "I was impressed with the way you handled the lightsaber. I sense Force potential within you. Would you consider training with me?"

She stopped and turned, looking shocked. "Jedi training?"

I nodded. "If that interests you."

A wide smile crossed across her face. "I would love to."

I smiled. "Good." We began walking again, making our way to the repair building where the Rodian teenager Geri was probably working on some type of modification for I-Five.

She glanced over and gave me a knowing look. "Does this mean I'll have to call you Master?"

There was no mistaking the teasing inflection in her voice. I laughed and shook my head. "I was only a Jedi Knight for a few months before Flame Night. I'm not even close to a Master's skill level. I would prefer you simply addressed me as Jax…your friend."

"Okay Jax," she said, her eyes bright with mischief. "That sounds like fun. I know I'll enjoy being under your tutelage."

This time her voice took on a definite flirtatious undertone. I kept facing forward, but I could feel her eyes watching me, searching for a response to her obviously seductive innuendos. I could feel a blush cross my face, but I remained silent as we walked to the Geri's repair shop.

Once there we found Geri, I-Five and Den in the middle of a very animated and erudite discussion concerning droid sentience programming as compared to disabling a droid's creative dampeners and allowing it to 'evolve' emotionally over the decades. According to I-Five the second option was the only true way to enlightenment. In his opinion, any sentience programing that immediately allowed a droid to become self-aware was still programing…albeit very advanced programing…but still programing.

I really couldn't argue with I-Five's conviction. He was not programed to be self-aware. It developed through the years while living with my father and then later with Den. I also knew my friendship with I-Five was not a product of ingenious programming. He was the real thing and the evidence of a slight Force signature within the droid—something that should be absolutely impossible—was more than enough proof that he was much more than a mere droid.

I didn't want to break up their scholarly debate, so we all agreed to meet later for lunch to discuss where we would live.