Working Class Hero

Star Wars: The Bergeron Chronicles, Part 1

A fanfic by Sisiutil

Chapter 4

Axel Bergeron walked into the Nomad's passenger lounge several hours later to find Kilu Branon already there, sitting placidly upon the curved bench behind the room's round table. As he continued to blink sleep out of his eyes and tuck his white shirt into his khaki pants, he noted with some annoyance that the young Jedi looked remarkably well-rested, especially in comparison to him. And, of course, beautiful as well. None of which improved his mood.

"Caf?" he growled at her as he shuffled over to the counter that comprised the ship's kitchen.

"No thank you," she said politely. "Jedi avoid artificial stimulants."

"I meant did you make any," Axel grumbled, "but I guess you kind of answered that question."

The freighter pilot took a packet of the ground, roasted beans used to make the hot beverage out of a cabinet. He tore the packet open and inhaled the rich, warm aroma of the caf grounds and sighed in anticipation of his first cup of the mild stimulant.

"I... owe you an apology," Kilu said from behind him.

"Oh?" Axel replied without turning around.

"I said some ill-considered things to you yesterday," she said. "I'm sorry. I was upset."

Axel turned around to face her, his arms crossed over his chest. Of course she had to butter him up if she was going to convince him to fly her on this cockamamie mission into Imperial space. He tried to tell himself that he was wise to her. Then he looked in her eyes, those expressive brown eyes of hers that couldn't lie about her feelings like the rest of her could, and he saw that her apology was genuine. Or maybe he just wanted to believe it was. Always give a customer the benefit of the doubt, his dad used to say,especially if they pay in advance.

"Yeah, well, getting shot at always puts me in a bad mood too, so I guess you're excused," he said, leaving the caf brewing as he walked away from the counter and sat down at the table. "Not that I've ever had the pleasure of that experience before yesterday..."

"Thank you," Kilu said.

She then favored him with a brief smile that revealed a dimple in her left cheek and made his stomach flutter, and not because he hadn't had breakfast yet. Damn, Axel thought, regretting not for the first time that his troublesome passenger was so attractive. He kept silently wishing that she wasn't, but in his heart he knew the wish was insincere. He forced himself to look away from her, as if that could diminish the effect she had on him.

"Have you thought any further about living up to our deal?" she prompted him.

Axel stole a glance at her. Yet again he noticed how her face and body language betrayed nothing, save for those dark brown eyes of hers. In them, he could plainly see her very earnest hope, as well as the fear she worked so hard to suppress. Fear, after all, was an enemy of every Jedi. Fear was a negative emotion that led to the dark side of the Force. Or so Axel understood from what he'd read. It was strange to think of something like the Force, a mysterious invisible form of energy--or whatever it was--that flowed between all animate and inanimate matter. Or something like that. It was supposedly around all the time, yet Axel could not and would not ever know it was there. But Jedi could sense it and use it, and that was what set them apart from all other beings in the universe.

"What's it like?" he asked her.

She blinked at the strange question that seemingly came out of nowhere. "What is what like?" she responded in a mildly puzzled tone.

"The Force. Being in touch with it. Frankly, if it wasn't for you Jedi, I'd never believe it even exists."

"Oh, it exists," she told him, a slight smile appearing on her lips as she nodded once. She took a deep breath. "It's... amazing. It's like... seeing an additional layer of light around everything..." She raised one hand. "And you can... touch that layer of light, with your mind, and work with it, coax it..." She closed her eyes. "...you persuade it to work with you, to cooperate with you..."

Axel frowned as he heard a noise coming from behind him, from the kitchen counter. He turned and gasped softly when he saw the caf pot floating, tilting as if of its own accord as it poured some of its dark brown steaming contents into a ceramic mug. The mug then began to float across the room, towards the table.

"Oh, I nearly forgot," Kilu said without opening her eyes, and the mug halted in mid-air. "Milk? Sweetener?"

"Neither," Axel responded quietly, "I take it black." The mug continued its journey towards the table, then gently lowered to the tabletop in front of him. "Impressive," he said.

Kilu opened her eyes and shrugged. "That's nothing. A parlor trick. Though it does take more concentration than knocking over a few crates in an alley."

Axel noticed the slight strain in her voice, as well as the few beads of perspiration that had appeared on her forehead. Despite her dismissive words, that display of mastery over the Force took more of a toll on her than she wanted to admit. It reminded him that she was still just a learner, what the Jedi used to call a padawan in the old days. Nevertheless, it stuck him as tactless to call attention to it.

"Yeah, well, if this Jedi thing doesn't work out for you, I know a few spaceport diners where you could get some work," he told her as he raised the mug to his lips.

He was rewarded by her laughter, a brief, light, burbling sound, like a brook gushing in summer. He felt yet another by-now familiar stab in his gut and tried to remind himself of all his father's advice and warnings regarding his weakness for the fairer sex. Then, like a temperate planet's sun disappearing behind a cloud, her smile and laughter faded, and her face took on the serious, emotionless cast that was more familiar to him, if not more preferred.

"You haven't answered my question," she prompted him.

Axel sighed and set his mug down on the table. "I can get us through the Imperial border patrols. It's just a matter of complicating our path through hyperspace--avoid the obvious routes where they might block our path and make us drop into realspace," he said, but then his tone grew more dubious, one hand rising and spreading in exasperation. "But when I drop to sub-light, it'll be another story. The Imperials are even more paranoid these days than they used to be, and that's saying something. I can't evade all their patrol ships, and it's easier if I just let the first one we encounter board me and have done with it. But with you on board..."

Her expression visibly brightened. Evidently, if he was asking about practical considerations and tactics, she thought, he was considering going through with their deal after all.

"My Master and I worked out a cover story," she told him. "There are several people with relatives still living on the other side of the border. I'll just be another one of them, heading there for a visit. I even have forged identity papers," she said, patting a pocket in her tan-colored tunic.

"Okay," Axel responded, his tone still dubious. "But I think they'll get suspicious when they spot that light saber."

"We can hide it on the ship," she told him. "Put it in beside one of the power couplings. It won't show up except on the most exacting scans, and even then it'll just look like some sort of power tool."

Axel took another sip of caf and cast another searching, narrow-lidded glance at her. "Who's the other passenger we'll be picking up?" he asked.

Kilu inhaled, hesitating for a moment. She pressed her lips together briefly. Axel was coming to realize that she did that whenever she was about to make an important decision. Rather than answer him, however, it was her turn to respond with a question that seemingly didn't follow from the conversation preceding it.

"Do you know why I chose you rather than one of the other pilots?" she asked him.

"No, why?"

"I reached out with the Force to each of you," she told him. "You were the only one in whom I sensed no deception."

"Well, thanks," he said earnestly.

"It's not a compliment, it's a fact," she told him flatly. "I'm just saying that for most people, trust has to be earned over time. But for Jedi... it can be instantaneous."

Axel pondered that. "Are you telling me that you trust me?"

"Yes," she admitted. "Which is why I'm willing to tell you everything. But I'm still a Jedi in training... so I hope you're not going to prove me wrong about you."

Did she know, he wondered, what effect she had when she gazed at him with that earnest, pleading look in those big brown eyes of hers? Probably. As far as he knew, she was well aware of her effect on him and was milking in for all it was worth. Maybe she was even pulling one of those Jedi mind tricks on him. Perhaps she was, in reality, utterly hideous, her beauty just a Force illusion to win him over. Maybe she was really a Hutt. He tried to imagine her in a grossly fat, slug-like body with no legs, but couldn't manage it. He looked over at her and saw a mix of beauty, hope, and determination in her face. If it was a Jedi mind trick, it was a damned good one. Way beyond what a mere Jedi apprentice should be capable of. No, she was exactly what she appeared to be: one and two-thirds meters of idealism and female beauty, and that just made things worse.

He let out a long sigh. "That hyperlane goes two ways, sweetheart. If I'm going to haul some Jedi into Imperial space on some secret mission, then I want to know everything. Starting now."

She nodded. "All right. Do you know what cortosis is?" she asked him.

Axel frowned as he searched his mind. "Some sort of... rare metal, isn't it?"

"Extremely rare," she said, "and thankfully so. It's one of the very few substances in the galaxy that is resistant to light sabers." She paused as she let that bit of information sink in to Axel's mind, watching him sit up a little straighter to indicate that he understood the implications. "Even worse, it will temporarily cause a light saber to short circuit." Kilu took a deep breath as the implications of her words began to affect her, as well. "Recently, some of our agents within the Empire reported that a source of cortosis has been discovered on B'Tel Four. With the Jedi rising again, the Empire is quite anxious to mine the cortosis and use it against us. The government of B'Tel Four sees this as an opportunity to seek better terms with the Imperial government. They've been threatening to secede to the New Republic."

Axel considered everything she'd said. "That just sounds like a bargaining position," the space-faring businessman remarked.

"That's what the politicos on Courscant thought too, but the Halassians--that's what the inhabitants of B'Tel Four call themselves--have been sending surreptitious feelers out to the New Republic government. That's where I come in, and where I'm now going to choose to trust you," she said, and locked her eyes upon his with an extremely intense look.

Though he wasn't Force-sensitive, Axel sensed that she was once again reaching out with the Force to probe him. It was something about the sudden intensity of her stare, and the way her slender brows furrowed, that gave him that impression. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Er... can Jedi use the Force to, uh... read minds?" he asked her. "I've never been clear on that."

"Only extremely advanced Jedi masters," she confessed, the intense expression on her face relaxing. "But early in our training, even a mere apprentice such as myself learns how to sense emotions... and intentions," she told him.

Oh great, Axel thought, well aware that he possessed a few emotions and intentions regarding his attractive Jedi passenger that he'd rather she didn't sense. He thought he saw one corner of her mouth twitch upwards, and he suddenly felt his throat constrict. He raised his mug to his lips and drank some more caf as nonchalantly as he could manage.

"Dare I ask what you can sense in me?" he said, managing a casual tone of which he was quietly proud.

"Enough to still make me think I can trust you," she told him, with that knowing smile still on her face. "In some regards. So I will. The Halassians have indicated that they want to meet with representatives of the New Republic on Coruscant. My Master and I had been tasked with traveling to B'Tel Four to escort their Foreign Minister back to the capital for a series of meetings--possibly leading to the B'Tel system joining the Republic."

"Sounds simple enough," Axel said.

"It was supposed to be," Kilu said with a sigh. "It seemed that way before the ambush..."

"I'm kind of surprised the Empire doesn't just strong-arm the Halassians," Axel said.

"I'm sure they'd like to," Kilu agreed. "Years ago, Leia Organa Solo told them that the more the Empire tightened its grip, the more systems would slip through their fingers. Lately, they're finding that's true. More and more systems are declaring their independence, or joining the Republic. The Empire doesn't have enough resources anymore to force them all to stay in line. So they have to tread more delicately than they used to."

Axel stood up from his seat and began pacing across the passenger lounge. "With the B'Tel government, maybe," he pointed out. "With you and me, it would be another matter entirely. Sounds to me like your cover, no, your whole mission was blown. Those thugs that were chasing us have probably identified you, me, and this ship and sent all that information back to the Empire. They'll be expecting us!"

"It's a possibility," Kilu said. Then she noticed Axel's raised brows and hard stare, and sighed. "Okay, more than that, it's a likelihood," she admitted softly, and lowered her gaze to the tabletop. "I was hoping... maybe you'd be able to find a way around that?" she said, raising her head to look at him, gazing at him with those pleading brown eyes again...

Axel gave his head a shake to clear it and turned away from her, trying to limit the effect she had on him. "Yeah," he told her, "that's easy. I'll turn this crate around, and you can go back to your Jedi teammates and tell them the mission's a wash."

"I can't do that," she told him in a calm tone that belied the determination beneath it. "This is too important to the Jedi, to the Republic, to... to the memory of my Master..." She paused for a moment to regain control over her emotions. "Please. There must be a way."

And once again, her eyes were upon him. They were locked on him like a tractor beam, drawing him in, and he knew he lacked the strength to pull away. "I just know I'm going to regret this..." he said, and returned to the table.

He tapped a power button on the table edge, and a holographic display matrix slowly came into focus on the flat surface. A set of controls appeared on the tabletop in front of Alex, and he used them to bring up a star chart of the galaxy. He then made the display zoom in towards the region that represented the border territory of the remnant of the Galactic Empire, then closer still to the region around the border system of B'Tel. He studied the three-dimensional display closely with the eyes of an experienced pilot. He then adjusted the display so it more closely focused on the B'Tel system.

"Hm," he said after a couple of minutes' study of the chart.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"A comet," he said, indicating a particular feature that started flashing when he pointed to it. He then looked at Kilu and smiled, but she only stared blankly at him, then shook her head. "Don't they teach you Jedi anything besides how to levitate stuff and hypnotize people? Hiding in a comet's ion tail is a classic stealth maneuver; you're pretty much invisible to long-range sensors. Of course, you're effectively blind while you're there yourself, and it can drain the deflectors if you're not careful, but it's our best chance. This one is passing right through the B'Tel system, starting in a couple of days. We jump out of hyperspace right next to it, follow it to its closest pass of B'Tel Four, and slip in before anyone knows we're there."

She smiled, prompting yet another deliciously painful twist in his gut, and as if that wasn't bad enough, she reached out and placed one hand upon his, an action that set his heart racing.

"Thank you," she said, gratitude and relief mixing in her voice. "I knew I was right about you."

Axel shook his head, doing his best to ignore her compliment and her gratitude. "There are still a lot of holes in that plan," he muttered. "They could be waiting for us in orbit, or on the surface. They might have gotten to this foreign minister you're supposed to meet..."

"Just get me planet-side," she told him. "The Force and I will take care of the rest."

Axel stared at her dubiously. She might have faith in her mysterious religion, but he didn't share it. To him, it felt like they were flying straight into a well-laid trap. But now when he looked at her face, he could see genuine appreciation there, and he knew it was hopeless for him to resist that. He was no hero, he knew, but he realized he'd probably fly straight into the heart of a supernova if she asked him to. He silently said an apology to the spirit of his father; it wasn't the first time he'd done that on this trip, and he knew it wasn't going to be the last.