The Solo Quest dropped out of hyperspace into the system that harbored the living world of Zonama Sekot. The planet was orbiting a distant white star that was about 93,000,000 miles away, right in the system's habitable zone. Between Zonama and that star were two other planets - one a barren, gray rock that was too close to the sun to support any life, and the other having an atmosphere too hot to support any primitive life. Further away from Zonama's orbit of the star was a planet half its size that the Quest's sensors said had an atmosphere too thin and low on oxygen to support any life.
Even further away were five gas giants, each with multiple moons that were more or less the size of Zonama itself. Three of them had noticeable asteroid rings orbiting them along with their sizable moons.
In the cockpit of the Quest, Jacen, in the pilot seat, and Nom Anor, in the copilot seat, paid very little mind to the layout of the system as Jacen rocketed the ship toward Zonama itself. When the Quest got into range, it was hailed, and Jacen answered.
"Hello, Jacen Solo." Jacen remembered that the voice on the other end belonged to the planet's Magister, Jabitha Hal. "Sekot recognizes your presence; as well as that of Nom Anor's."
Nom Anor looked at Jacen in perplexity. "The planet can sense me? When I don't have the Force?"
Jacen shrugged. "She was able to identify Harrar without the Force. I think she'd be able to sense and recognize you." The emphasis on that last word was to remind the one-eyed Yuuzhan Vong of his attempted murder of the planet years earlier.
Nom Anor made a wry expression before looking away from the Jedi. Jacen, in turn, redirected his attention to the comm console. "I have come to deliver Nom Anor to Zonama; that is, if Sekot is willing to accept him after what he nearly did."
"Wait a moment," Jabitha said. After said moment passed, she stated, "Sekot is willing to take Nom Anor into the Yuuzhan Vong village of La'okio. Please wait for an unarmed shuttle to ferry him down, and you may go, Jacen."
"So much for seeing Danni Quee, huh?" Nom Anor muttered.
Jacen scowled, but nevertheless sat back and waited with Nom Anor for a Sekotan shuttle to come up and board with the Quest.
Once a green, curved vessel came into view from Zonama, Jacen's eyes narrowed.
"What is it?" Nom Anor asked once he took notice of the Jedi's expression.
"I can't sense a presence aboard," Jacen said, not taking his eyes away from the approaching ship.
"Perhaps it is a Yuuzhan Vong who has not yet gained the Force," Nom Anor suggested. "Switch to your senses with my people, and you may-"
"I just did," Jacen interrupted. "It isn't Yuuzhan Vong, either."
Now Nom Anor looked concerned. "That is interesting. Well, either way, we will find out soon. Do you sense any danger, or have any bad feelings about this?"
Jacen looked at his charge and shook his head. "Surprisingly, no. If there is any dangerous presence, I have the utmost faith in Sekot to let us know. Whoever or whatever this is, I doubt we need to fear it. But it still makes me wonder as to who it is."
"Well, hail the ship if you want to find out," Nom Anor pointed out.
Jacen was about to do just that when he saw that the Sekotan shuttle had just arrived and was now connecting the ships' airlocks to each other.
"Never mind then," Nom Anor said.
The two of them then stood up and headed over to the Quest's airlock. They saw, through the airlock door's viewport, a space-suited figure with a tinted face-shield that obscured the being's features.
Before Jacen could unlock the airlock for the figure, the lock seemed to open by itself, and the door slid open to Jacen and Nom Anor's right. The space-suited being then walked through, turned around, shut the airlock door, and turned back to face the Jedi and Yuuzhan Vong.
The figure then reached both hands for its helmet, undid the sealed latches, and took it off. The being - who turned out to be a light-skinned human female in her early thirties - swung her blonde hair from the position it had from being under the helmet, and Jacen and Nom Anor saw that the female was fairly attractive, with high cheekbones, full lips, a round nose and chin, and green eyes.
Yet, in spite of her beauty, her expression was completely neutral.
"Hello, Jacen," she said.
"Danni!" Jacen exclaimed. "By the Force, it's good to see you again!" He reached out to give her a friendly hug, but when she wouldn't reciprocate, Jacen backed away with a sullen expression and simply shook her hand.
And Nom Anor only gave a brief flicker of a grin before resuming his own neutral expression.
"I can take him from here," Danni said to Jacen, indicating his Yuuzhan Vong charge with a nod. "You can start your preparations to leave now."
"Well, before I do that," Jacen said, "can you tell me how you managed to block off your Force-presence from me?"
"I've been practicing, along with my piloting," Danni answered. "I figured, if I could hide my presence from you, then I was on the right track with my training."
"Training?" Jacen asked. "For what? You made it clear to the Order that you didn't want to be a Jedi."
"No, but I still want to improve my Force-senses," Danni elaborated. "It may help me understand the biology and ecosystem of Zonama."
"So why take up being a pilot?" Jacen asked. "Wouldn't you wanna concentrate solely on understanding how Zonama works with Sekot as its consciousness?"
"Because I doubt that I will spend the rest of my life here, and Sekot and Magister Hal understand that," Danni said. "So I may, one day, branch out to the rest of the galaxy to apply my knowledge to understanding the ecosystems of other worlds."
"Other worlds that you and I both know aren't nearly as interesting as Zonama," Jacen pointed out.
"Perhaps," Danni admitted. "But you never know what you can find out in the galaxy."
"That's true," Jacen agreed.
"Like this one here," Danni said, acknowledging Nom Anor. "I'm surprised you managed to keep this slippery little shavit from Denon to here, Jacen."
Nom Anor made an obscene gesture at Danni that both she and Jacen ignored.
"He's pretty much resigned to his fate, at this point," Jacen explained. "He kinda knows that he can't escape me."
"Indeed," Nom Anor muttered reluctantly.
"Umm... so, Danni, are you sure you don't wanna, after bringing Nom Anor to the village... I don't know, hang out? Catch up, relive old times?" Jacen asked.
"Jacen, there's no way I wanna relive old times," Danni replied stoically. She pointed at Nom Anor. "This bastard's people were what caused those times."
Nom Anor only sneered at her.
"Well, okay, maybe reliving old times is a bad idea," Jacen admitted. "I guess I phrased it badly. But do you still wanna hang out or something?"
"I have my duties back on Zonama," Danni countered. "And so do you with the Jedi, now that you're back from your little sojourn."
"Not really," Jacen said. "I was offered a position on the Council as a Master. I turned it down, so I doubt I'll be looked to as someone that Uncle Luke and the other Masters can rely on to take missions often."
"You were offered a position as Master?" Danni asked in amazement. But then she resumed her stoic, calm demeanor and inquired, "How and why? You were journeying throughout the galaxy to search for yourself and to understand the Force better."
"I'll show you how and why," Jacen said. He then bent down to the deck, placed his palms over it, and then began to secrete sweat from his palms that he used to coalesce into a small, green pot that took less than a minute to make. Both Danni and Nom Anor, in spite of his knowledge that Jacen could do this, watched in amazement as the Jedi then created a large clump of dirt and soil in the pot that took about thirty seconds. Then, after a quarter of a minute, Jacen created a beautiful flower dabbled in red, green, and yellow in all the right places.
He then picked up the pot and offered it to Danni, who took it in her continued stunned amazement.
"Jacen, this... this is incredible!" Danni exclaimed while continuing to gaze at the object in her hands.
But then Jacen's charming, self-congratulatory grin dropped into that of dull weakness. From there, he collapsed to the deck on his back unconscious.
"Jacen!" Danni cried in shock as she dropped the pot. It shattered into pieces on the deck, with dirt and soil spilling everywhere while the flower lay at an odd angle.
"You!" Danni pointed at Nom Anor. "Get into the shuttle and wait for me!"
Nom Anor nodded and headed through the conjoined airlocks without , Danni began hefting Jacen's unconscious form up by herself.
He then headed to the cockpit and was about to seat himself in the copilot seat when he stopped himself. Here he was with access to this ship's controls; and with Danni Quee still carrying Jacen into the ship, he could seal the cockpit off from the rest of the ship and pilot the shuttle away, allowing the two humans to dine in vacuum as he got away! And even with Zonama Sekot in the distance, which could potentially do something to stop him, Nom Anor still felt that this was his best possible chance to get away; after all, even though it foiled his attempts to kill it years ago, the planetary consciousness didn't stop him to begin with. So clearly, it could still be outwitted somehow.
Thus, he reached for the controls, only to be shocked into unconscious, his body dropping to the deck, by one of the living mechanisms that knew what he was trying to do.
.
When Jacen finally woke up, he found himself inside a Sekotan hut - recognized for its organic textures and overall layout - and lying on a soft bed that had contoured specifically for his body's maximum comfort. He was bare naked beneath the sheet that covered his muscular form partway up to his chest. Next to him, a familiar female Chadra-Fan seated on a stool raised to the bed's height was mixing some kind of solute into a glass of water with a metal spoon.
"Hey, Tekli," he said to his friend. His voice was hoarse and weak.
"Don't try to talk now, Jacen," Tekli replied in a professional voice. "You've been out for more than a day. It took us a few hours after your collapse, but through the comm relay on Esfandia, we were able to contact the Jedi Order and let them know of your predicament." She then finished up mixing the solute in the water and handed it to Jacen.
He sat up, took the glass, and drank the disgusting, but rejuvenating, contents in one gulp. When he was done, he coughed a few times from the nasty-tasting solution, but he eventually calmed down and lay back in the bed.
"You can talk now, but you'll still need at least two hours before you can get up and walk around without the possibility of collapsing again," Tekli explained.
"Thanks," Jacen said, his voice now a little stronger. "What happened to me?"
"Danni told me what happened back aboard your ship," Tekli explained. "You collapsed after creating a full-potted plant from your own sweat, which sounds fairly amazing, I'll say. But still, you nearly died of dehydration."
Jacen looked back at the Chadra-Fan in perplexity. "But that can't be," he said, his voice still weak. "I managed to get past that years ago."
"You did?" Tekli asked. "How?"
"By creating chemicals that would balance my homeostasis while creating substances from my own body," Jacen explained.
"Well, apparently," Tekli said, "that wasn't the case here."
"How did this happen?" Jacen asked more to himself than the Chadra-Fan.
"I suppose that's something you'll have to find out for yourself, Jacen," Tekli said.
It was then that there was a knock on the door, and this time, Jacen could sense her presence.
"Come in," Tekli called, having also sensed Danni's presence.
The blonde scientist then opened the door and walked inside. She was dressed in a simple light-green, ankle-length dress held up by the straps on her shoulders. "How's he doing, Tekli?" she asked.
"I'm doing fine, thanks," Jacen answered for himself.
"My work is done here," Tekli said as she stood up from the raised stool she sat on. She then took the empty glass from Jacen's hand and the bottles of water and hydration-enhancing solute from the foldout table next to her. She placed them into the organic satchel on the floor next to her before using the Force to fold the table and her stool so that they also fit into the bag.
"I will take my leave now," the Chadra-Fan continued as she hefted the satchel on her shoulder. "You two probably have some catching up to do, if only just to pass the time for Jacen's healing." She then headed to the door. "Good day to both of you."
"Goodbye, Tekli," Danni said.
"See ya, Tekli," Jacen followed up.
Once the Chadra-Fan was gone, Danni turned back to Jacen and leisurely approached the bed.
"Just so you know," she said, "I managed to take Nom Anor to La'okio after I brought you here for healing."
"Good to know," Jacen said.
"You know, after you collapsed," she said as she finally sat down on the edge of the bed, her lean side facing Jacen, "I told him to wait in the Sekotan shuttle. He tried to pilot it away to freedom, but he was knocked unconscious by the controls when they recognized his intent."
Jacen laughed weakly. "Good ol' Nom Anor," he said sarcastically.
"Yeah," Danni replied with a nod and laugh of her own. "He still hasn't changed after all these years."
"How's he been doing in La'okio so far?" Jacen asked.
"Well, he's only been there for a day, so far," Danni said, "so if there's gonna be any violence by those who were in the upper Yuuzhan Vong castes, I imagine it'll be at the end of today, at the very least."
"And I'll be gone, back to the Jedi," Jacen said.
Danni looked at him in mild confusion. "You said the Jedi might not rely on you."
"Might not," Jacen said. "Uncle Luke and the other Masters may still expect me back after I recover, though. So, in the meantime, what say we catch up, eh?"
Danni shrugged. "Sure, why not."
"I see Tekli's been doing well," Jacen commented. "She helping you understand and study Zonama's biology and ecosystem?"
"When she isn't helping sick Ferroans and Yuuzhan Vong, yeah," Danni answered.
"And what about Tahiri? How's she been doing?"
"Very well, I'd say," Danni said. "She's long past any grief that she's had over Anakin. And she's been helping the Yuuzhan Vong try to get along with each other, with Harrar occasionally helping. It's not easy for most of them, particularly those who were once part of the elite, to live with those of different castes. It really pisses off the likes of the warriors and some of the priests that they have to mingle with those of the former worker castes and those who were once called the Shamed Ones; or the Extolled, as they're now called."
"How much violence is there among the Yuuzhan Vong here?" Jacen asked.
"Not that often," Danni answered. "We only get a murder or so every few months, and a number of violent brawls in even less time. But mainly, they simply tolerate each other, even to this day."
Jacen frowned. "That's sad to hear. I would think acceptance would have been the name of the game in the Yuuzhan Vong by now."
"Magister Jabitha says that it might take another decade or two before the next generation of Yuuzhan Vong finally come to accept each other," Danni said. "Let's hope she's right."
"I think she is," Jacen said. "So how've you been doing when you're not researching Zonama and its biology?"
"What do you mean?" Danni asked.
"What, you mean to tell me that's all you do all day?" Jacen asked. "You don't go out and socialize with anyone? Take a day off or something?"
"I'm not really interested in that, Jacen," Danni said. "Oh, I've had some research assistants that have come and gone, typically a Ferroan or a former Yuuzhan Vong Shaper. But they usually went off to do more interesting fields to them. And then there were my flight instructors, but again, the relationships were always professional. So I never really got to know any of them on a personal level."
"Sounds too bad to me," Jacen said. "And it also kinda sounds like you're not really moving on in your life."
"What are you talking about?" Danni asked. "I told you, I'm not interested in forming any long-lasting friendships, Jacen. And I do intend to one day leave Zonama to further explore the galaxy, as I said."
Jacen slowly sat up from the bed, the cover falling a bit off to reveal more of his built torso, and he gently took Danni's hand that was facing him.
"You don't wanna create anymore friendships after what happened to your colleagues on Belkadan and Helska Four, huh?" Jacen asked.
Danni betrayed nothing in her expression. "I was never really close to any of them, Jacen."
"But you still mourned their deaths," Jacen said. "You cared about them on some level, I know it, Danni. And I know you grieved over Miko Reglia when he died."
"I cried on your shoulder over him," Danni remembered aloud, her gaze staring straight ahead instead of Jacen. "He and I went through some of the worst torture that Prefect Da'Gara and his lackeys could throw at us. We were kindred spirits as that yammosk messed with our minds; the connection we had was one of empathy over the pain that we endured. And when he passed away, it felt like a part of me had also died with him."
Jacen remained silent for a respectful moment before he said, "Is that why you never wanted to get that close to anyone ever again, Danni? So you wouldn't have to feel that kind of pain?"
Danni hesitated in answering as she looked back at Jacen. "Maybe. I don't know, Jacen. All I know is that I never want to feel that kind of pain of feeling the death of someone I care about ever again."
"I completely understand," Jacen said. "And I'm sorry if I sound insensitive about this, but if you can't find anyone that you can truly care about because of the pain you suffered, you're letting that pain win. And by the end of your life, when death ultimately claims you, just as it does to all of us one way or another, you may find yourself with an unfulfilled life; a life with all but missing those who you care about, or those you could have cared about, because you were afraid to let anyone get too close again."
Danni smiled sadly. "Something that you and Jaina managed to overcome, huh?"
"I'd say so," Jacen responded. "But if you don't want to allow anyone else to get close to you ever again, then that's your decision, Danni. I'm just letting you know that you might be missing out."
Danni's green eyes started to form tears. "Is this your way of trying to renew... whatever we had when we were looking for this planet?"
"No," Jacen denied. "This is me telling you that you have the option to pursue what you want, but not at the expense of your own happiness."
Danni's sad smile was now becoming more and more happy. "I missed you, you know."
"I missed you, too," Jacen said with a reciprocating smile.
Danni shuffled closer along the bed, never breaking her gaze from Jacen's eyes. "Why couldn't you stay with me after the war, Jacen? Why couldn't you explore more of yourself and of the Force here? We could have explored more of our... feelings for each other here."
"Because it wasn't for me," Jacen said with a regretful tone. "You had a path you chose, and I had a path I chose. And we had to pursue them for our own sakes, even if it meant that we had to be apart. But if you want, I am willing to make up for lost time." He leaned in toward her, as if to give her a kiss.
But Danni looked away from him. "I can't have that, Jacen. You'll have to leave soon. And I can't... get close to you again if we may never see each other again."
Jacen hesitated before speaking again. "But after I'm gone, do you think you won't regret not making the best of the time we had together?"
Danni looked back at Jacen again. "Since Zonama Sekot left after the war, I've always regretted not making the best of the time that we had."
This time, when Jacen reached in to kiss her, she didn't resist, and so she fell into the embrace.
Soon, she slipped off her dress, undid her bra and underwear, and slipped beneath the sheet to finally make up for lost time with Jacen.
And she managed to use the Force to lock the door of the hut so that no one would interrupt them.