Woo Hoo! A new chapter. Enjoy.

Zanthia's POV

Five years later…

I sat in our quarters on Hoth, watching as Saganu paced back and forth in front of me, deep in thought. The fine worry lines between his eyes had deepened over the last few years and were standing out particularly well, at the moment. I knew he hated my plan, but being the constant professional in all things work related, he was giving it the consideration he knew it deserved.

"I don't like it." He said, finally stilling his movements.

I sighed. "I know you don't, but it's the best plan we have to get our people back. You know it and I know it."

He began pacing again.

A month ago, a group of Ascendency scientists and a handful of soldiers had been captured by the Republic. They had been on Taris, studying the Rakghouls when they were captured. Reports said the entire group, twenty people, had been taken alive with very few injuries and they were currently sitting in a holding facility on one of the Republic's biggest space stations, awaiting transport to a more permanent facility.

As a rule, I didn't get involved with the Republic. For over five years I had managed to escape doing anything against my former allies, but this situation was different. Our people were doing nothing against the Republic at the time of their capture. They weren't even working for the Empire at the time. They had been captured nowhere near any Republic base or encampment. I hated to say it, but my old friends had crossed a line.

I stood, putting myself in my mate's way. "I know the space station they're being held on. I know its defenses and its capabilities. I can lead a small group in and get our people out without anyone getting hurt. Hell, the Republic won't even know we're there until it's too late to stop us. I can do this."

Saganu held both my shoulders and looked me square in the eyes. "What if something goes wrong? Thrane needs his mother."

A smile crossed my face. I couldn't help it. I always smiled at the mention of our son, Thrane. He had just celebrated his second birthday and was by far the greatest accomplishment of my life. Saganu and I had talked about having children, but Thrane had been an accident. A happy, wonderful, accident.

"I know he needs his mother. This isn't a suicide mission. I'm still a Jedi, remember. Let me do this, before our people are shipped off to a prison on Coruscant, or some equally protected world, and we never get them back. The Republic stepped over a line this time, taking a peaceful science team in neutral territory."

Saganu chuckled this time, pulling me into a hug. "You're still the red flame I fell in love with."

I couldn't help but smile, though he couldn't see it. "And I always will be. Which is the reason you're gonna let me do this."

"You'll take Murrn and his commando team. You'll get in and out as fast as you can and if there are any problems, you're to scrape the mission. Understand?"

At this moment, Saganu wasn't my mate. He was the commanding officer of this base and I was one of the people under his command. I honestly loved seeing him like this, in complete control, but I successfully suppressed the smile fighting to cross my face.

I nodded. "Understood. I'll have the Commander assemble his team and we'll leave as soon as they're ready." I stood up on my toes and gave Saganu a kiss. "And don't worry, I'll be fine."

With one last kiss, I left Saganu in our quarters, heading towards the medical bay, where Dr. Yonca was babysitting Thrane. I pulled out my holo while I walked, dialing Murrn.

"What's the word?" He asked when his image appeared. Murrn was no longer than man who was so jittery he shot me in the back on our first meeting. He was strong, confident and made one hell of a good commander of one of our elite special ops teams. He was also a good friend.

"We're good to go. Saganu just gave us his blessing. Have you and your men gone over the details of the station?"

"Yes, sir. We have the entire plan committed to memory. We'll be gone before they even know we were there." Murrn confirmed.

"Excellent. Give me a hour, then we'll depart."

"Got it, Zan. We'll meet you at my ship in one hour."

The holo went dead just as I walked into the med bay.

"Momma!" Screamed a small, but powerful, voice. Thrane leap up from the miniature table he was sitting at and flew into my arms.

At two years old, he was already walking and talking well. I had known that Chiss grew faster than most species, but it wasn't until I had Thrane that I got to witness it for myself. Not to mention he had already started to exhibit a sensitivity to the Force. It was still weak and unfocused, but I could sense it. I worried about how I was going to address his Force powers, but figured I would have at least another year, possibly two, before I had to cross that bridge.

"Aunt Yonca was letting me make snowballs!" He exclaimed proudly, dragging me over to the table where about seven small balls of snow lay.

I smiled. "And what, exactly, was Auntie Yonca going to let you do with those snowballs?' I asked, looking up at my friend.

"Throw them at Daddy." Thrane replied without pause.

I laughed, crossing my arms over my chest. "Really?"

Yonca waved her hand at me dismissively. "You know he'll love it. Saganu would let this kid get away with murder."

"True." I relied, then gave Yanca a serious look.

"Hey, kiddo, why don't you go over and make more snowballs. You want to have lots of ammunition, don't you?' Yonca said.

Thrane nodded and began working on more snowballs.

"He gave you the green light, didn't he?" She asked me quietly, as we wandered over to the far end of the med bay, away from Thrane.

"Yeah, we leave in an hour."

Yonca sighed, looked over at Thrane, then back at me. She gave me a look somewhere between sadness and anger. She hadn't liked my idea anymore than Saganu.

"There's no way I can talk you out of this, is there?" She asked.

"We owe it to our people to at least try to free them. Don't you want to get Galien back?" I asked. Yonca's mate, Galien, had been one of the scientists captured.

"That's not fair, Zanthia. You know I do. But you don't have to go on this mission personally. Murrn is more than capable of handling it with the intel you provided. There's no reason you need to go."

"What if things have changed. It's been years since I was on the station. I can troubleshoot the system. Murrn and his commandos can't." I placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. This plan will work. I just need you to help take care of Thrane while I'm gone. With any luck, I'll be back with Galien in a few days."

"Don't worry about that. You just worry about getting back safely." She replied. She pulled me into a hug and accepted it. Truth be told, I was slightly worried about the plan, too, but knew it was the only way to get our people back. I hated to leave Thrane and Saganu behind, but I needed to take the risk.

To Be Continued...