Decisions Part 1 Is this a love story?

by Jules Cesar

At the time of the old Republic. During Sith Occupation in the Cold War. A couple, being different species, was forced to marry by the Sith. He thought she was too red, but was interesting. She thought he was too blue, and hated him. How they overcame their differences, and outwitted the Sith, for a life together. (Mature after chapter 7)

10. Chapter 9

©2015

If Andriel had not been holding both of Chitrah's hands. The shock of hearing that Andriel is pregnant, would have knocked him of his chair.

"Is it because you wore the dress?"

"No. I'm pretty sure I was pregnant before I wore the pregnancy dress."

"When? How? Never mind I'm sure I know how."

Andriel just smiled. She knew Chitrah was just trying to process what he was told. She needed him thinking clearly. This Sith coming into their home and asking very personal questions, changes everything.

Chitrah gently shook his hands so that she would let go of them. He got up and started pacing, then he stopped and walked over to her chair and knelt down beside her, he put his arms around her, and gave her a very passionate kiss. She was hungry for this right now, and put her arms around him. After they kissed, she put her head on his shoulder and started to cry. He hugged her to himself and asked her what was wrong. She told him that she was afraid of the Sith, she was afraid of what they can do to them. He rubbed her back and told her that they would figure out how to deal with the Sith. When she calmed down he got up and sat down in a chair he moved next to her. He took her hand and asked her why she did not tell him before. She told him that she wanted to, but the time did not seem right. Now she was glad that she had not told him.

That caught Chitrah of guard, he asked her why she felt that way. She told him that if he had known she was pregnant, he would not have been able to stand up to the Sith the way he did. He just bought them another year's worth of time, before they come back, and check on them again, unless they discover that she is pregnant. Chitrah realised that this was true, and was glad she had not told him earlier. He asked her, if anyone else knows? She told him that he was the only she has told, but she would not be surprised if Shaak suspects. She is sensitive to the flow of life, and there is new life inside of her, that has altered the flow. Chitrah suggested that they both go and talk to Shaak and her companions, at the dress shop. They should tell them the whole story of their marriage. This way they could help her carry the burden of this pregnancy, and they will need their help to keep it hidden.

Andriel knew he would understand, and would give direction, for what they need to do next. She asked him, if he should be going to work now? He told her that the Ministry would know that a Sith had visited them this morning. "If they ask, I will tell them that you were upset and I had to keep you company, until you calmed down."

After Andriel dressed, they both went to the dress shop together. They locked the storefront door after they entered, and Andriel placed the notice that they are closed. She than called out and asked if it was safe for Chitrah to walk through the workshop.

Shaak and her companions knew instinctively that something was wrong. They stopped what they were doing, and told Andriel that it was safe for Chitrah. They all went into the back room, and the companions made sure there was enough chairs for everyone. They had just finished brewing a pot of tea, since they had anticipated Andriel arriving around this time, so everyone had a fresh cup of tea. Andriel noticed that Chitrah had activated his computer and checked something, then shut it down. She assumed that if it would have been important to them, he would have said something. She started telling them their story about how they were forced by the Sith to marry. Shaak and her companions had remembered some of what she said, from that night at the restaurant, but did not say anything, because they figured that it was important or Andriel would not have repeated it. As Andriel continued Shaak started to understand that Andriel was starting to share their whole story. Something must have happened, because Chitrah was here as well. As Andriel shared their story she noticed that Shaak and her companions were all holding hands, and their head-tails were touching. She could sense that they felt what she had felt, and they needed each other's strength just like she had needed Chitrah's. The only one who drank their tea during the sharing was Chitrah.

She finished by telling about the Sith visiting them that morning, then her telling Chitrah that she was pregnant.

They all sat in silence for a few minutes, the look of shock, very evident on the Togruta faces. They then got up as one and came up to Andriel, she had stood up, because she sensed what they wanted to do. They hugged her then they broke off and turned to Chitrah. He stood up as well, following Andriel's lead, and they hugged him. Then they went back to Andriel and hugged her again. Then Shaak asked how she and Shaas, and Bandaa, could serve them.

Chitrah was the one to speak, letting Andriel sit and rest. He said that they knew that knowledge of the pregnancy should be shared, but sharing it could hurt them. That is why it was shared with Shaak and Shaas, and Bandaa, but not with anyone else. The Sith cannot find out that Andriel is pregnant, but Andriel needs someone else besides him that she can talk to. Chitrah admitted that he did not yet know what they need to do, but they would think of something. Shaak suggested that they move into the Togruta enclave with them. She was sure she could persuade her father and the other elders to take them in. Chitrah told her, that that would put the Togruta under too much risk. If the Sith found out that the Togruta were giving them sanctuary, the Sith could use that as an excuse to enslave them all. That sobered Shaak and her companions up. They did not consider that the Sith would want to enslave them, as they had so many others. Chitrah told them not to be discouraged. They had all faced predators in their lives before, they are smart, they will figure out how to beat this one. Shaak was impressed that Chitrah chose to speak to them in a way that is easy for a Togruta to understand. He gave them hope, which is what they needed right now. Shaak promised him that they would do whatever was asked of them. Chitrah asked if they could feed him because he had missed his lunch, and it was starting to get late for dinner. They laughed, joking that it was typical of a man to think of food at a time like this. Andriel laughed with everyone one else, but now that Chitrah had mentioned food, she was starting to feel hungry herself. She got up to make some more tea. Shaak and her companions got up to go get them some dinner. When they unlocked the front door they found a couple of ladies standing there asking when they would reopen. They had taken time off work to come to the dress shop, and they really wanted to talk with someone before they went home. Shaak sent her two companions to get their dinner without her, while she proceeded back into the shop, to ask Andriel if it was alright for them to reopen, since there were a couple of ladies waiting for them. Andriel gave her permission to reopen, despite it being so late. The ladies asked Shaak if they really had a dress that helps ladies to get pregnant. Shaak showed them the dress hanging in the window display that was nicknamed the pregnancy dress. The ladies asked if it really worked? Shaak told them that there was no-way that she could prove that it works, than she thought of Andriel, but every lady that she knows, who has worn it has become pregnant. That was enough reassurance for the ladies, they both wanted to be measured for a dress. When Shaak's companions returned, they found Shaak in the workshop helping the ladies all by herself. They found Andriel and Chitrah in the back room sitting together, talking. He had one arm around her, as she leaned into him, and with the other hand he was holding one of hers. It was hard to believe that she had hated him. They both got up when the companions entered. Chitrah helped the companions set the table while Andriel went into the workshop, to see if Shaak needed any help. They were not going to start eating without her. Shaak introduced Andriel as the designer of the dress. The ladies mentioned how they liked all the dress designs they saw on the site, but when a friend of theirs mentioned that one of the designs was called the pregnancy dress, they had to check it out. Andriel told them that Shaak also had a hand in the design of many of the dresses on their site. The ladies said how special they felt, that two designers were looking after them. In a short time Chitrah heard the front door open and close, than Andriel and Shaak entered the back room. While they ate dinner Andriel mentioned how she would like to get a weaver's loom, to complete the dress shop, and so that she could weave her own cloth to make the baby's clothes.

It was quite late by the time they finished dinner. Since there was no-one in the workshop, they all left through the front door.

On the shuttle trip home, Chitrah asked Andriel if she could take him to meet the Nautolans. She asked him why? He told her that the Togruta do not wear shoes, so they would not be able to introduce him to a good cobbler. On the other hand the Nautolans do, so they might be able to. She asked him when he would like to go? He told her that he should spend the next couple of days, doing his Ministry work, than he would like to go after that. Andriel said she would mention it to Shaak, some of the Togruta might want to go as well. Chitrah was open to sharing his experience.

On the day they went, they found a Togruta family waiting for them, when they exited off the shuttle near the Nautolan enclave. These Togruta had never been out of their enclave as a family, when Shaak told them that Andriel would be visiting the Nautolans, they thought this would be a good time to go. The Nautolans welcomed them warmly, they gave them all a tour of their enclave. Andriel approached one of the elders and told him why Chitrah had come. The elder told Andriel that there was a cobbler's shop near their enclave, where one of their young men has been accepted as an apprentice. He could take them right away to meet the cobbler. On the walk over, they were told that the cobbler is a widow, who had no children of his own, but wanted to pass his trade onto someone else, which is why he accepted a Nautolan as an apprentice. When they entered the shop, the cobbler himself came out of his workshop to see who had entered. The Elder introduced Andriel and Chitrah as friends of the Nautolans, and mentioned that Chitrah had some experience as a cobbler. The cobbler invited them to come back into his workshop. He sent the apprentice to go make tea for everyone. Andriel was surprised to find an oversized sewing machine in the workshop. She asked Chitrah what it was for? He told her that it was used for stitching pieces of leather together, it could also be used for stitching leather and cloth together.

"Does that mean you know how to sew?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it was important, stitching leather is not the same as sewing fabric."

The cobbler asked Chitrah how much experience he has working with leather. Chitrah told him that he is a descendent from a long line of cobblers. His father was considered one of the best on Deysum III, and his father considered his work to be comparable. The cobbler asked him why he was not still doing it? Chitrah told him that he had been recruited by the Ministry as a computer technician. The cobbler said he understood, and asked how he could be of service. Chitrah told him that this work was still in his blood, and he would like to get back into it if only part-time. The cobbler decided to test Chitrah. He showed Chitrah his stock of different leathers, and asked him to make a pair of slippers for his wife. Andriel was delighted with the idea, she could use a nice pair of slippers. So Chitrah took Andriel back out to the storefront to measure both her feet. The elder and the cobbler followed them to watch. The apprentice had put the tea down on his workbench, and looked through the doorway since he did not know if he was allowed to watch as well. Once Chitrah had all the measurements. He asked which workbench he could use, and which set of hand tools? The cobbler showed him a spare workbench that he could use, and told him that he could borrow the tools from off his own bench. Chitrah went and selected the different pieces of leather he wanted to use. The sole would be taking the most wear so it had to be harder, but still have some flexibility. The top needed to be soft and comfortable. Chitrah selected a piece that was soft and had a nice dark brown colour that would look good with her red fur. He asked her if she preferred the heel to be open or enclosed. Andriel had to think about that for a while, then decided on having the heel open. After Chitrah cut out the two pieces to use for the soles, he glued some pieces of gel cushioning on top then applied a piece of the soft leather on top and stitched it into place. This was a new experience for Andriel watching her husband use a sewing machine. He then asked Andriel, if she wanted an open or closed toe? She decided to have it closed. After Chitrah cut the pieces of leather for the top, he took a couple of jigs off the cobbler's bench and adjusted them so that they were the dimensions of Andriel's feet. With the jigs on each bottom piece he stretched and tacked the top piece of leather on each slipper where he wanted it, then took them to the sewing machine to stitch each piece in place. He removed the jigs and trimmed off the excess leather, and handed them to Andriel to try on. Andriel slipped them on and walked around the workshop. She could not believe how comfortable they were. They fit her feet perfectly. When the cobbler asked her how they felt, Andriel did not answer him, instead she went up to Chitrah and put her arms around his neck and kissed him, than she thanked him for the comfortable slippers. The cobbler knew he had watched a master at work. Now he wanted to talk with this young man, to see how they could benefit one another. He invited Chitrah into the back room so that they could talk, and they each took a cup of tea off the apprentice's workbench. The apprentice was left to keep the other guests entertained. He offered each of them a cup of tea. Andriel wanted to take a closer look at the sewing machine. Everything was half again larger then on her machine, without the computer assit. She was impressed with how easily the needle pierced the leather. She expected that all of hers' would brake if she tried to do that. The elder and the apprentice talked while she examined the sewing machine. After a while Chitrah and the cobbler came back into the workshop. They were both smiling, which is a good sign. The cobbler told everyone that they had come to an agreement, and was looking forward to working with Chitrah in seven days.

The elder invited the cobbler to come to their enclave for dinner, they had other guests, and was sure that there would be lots of different dishes for him to choose from. The cobbler agreed, he thought it was time to meet his apprentice's extended family. They would come by after they closed the shop. On the way back to the enclave Chitrah thanked the elder for introducing him to the cobbler. The elder told them he had an ulterior motive. He has often invited the man to come to the enclave for dinner, but has always turned the elder down. He was hoping that Chitrah might make enough of an impression on him that he would feel comfortable in coming. He in fact had used Chitrah to achieve his own ends.

The parents of the apprentice were excited to hear that the cobbler was coming. Their son often spoke of how he is a good man, and treated him like a son. The mother wanted to make sure there were special treats for him to enjoy. The Nautolans proved to be great hosts. They brought little samples of dishes for all their guests to try. From the samples that the guest indicted they liked, they prepared a custom meal for that guest. After the main meal, while sweet treats were being served, different groups of Nautolans would get up and show off their dance skills. The apprentice was able to convince a group of his male friends to perform a traditional dance for his master, with him being front and center. The cobbler appreciated that he was not the only guest, he would have been embarrassed if they had only fussed over him. This way he also had an opportunity to talk with Andriel and Chitrah in a festive atmosphere.

After it was all over, as he was leaving, the cobbler reminded the apprentice not to be late the following morning. The apprentice was so happy, from the way he reminded him not to be late. He knew that the cobbler enjoyed himself.

On the shuttle ride home, Andriel asked Chitrah what they had agreed to. Chitrah told Andriel that all the secretaries and junior officials at the Ministry take one day in seven off from work. All Ministry staff are allowed to, but many of the more senior officials do not, because they are afraid that if they do, they might find someone else has taken their desk when they go back. So he was going to start taking one day in seven, and go work with the cobbler. The cobbler will arrange for him to have his own set of hand tools and will deduct the cost from his wages, just like he will deduct the cost of the slippers. Andriel realised that she was still wearing them, and asked Chitrah where her shoes were? He handed her a bag with her shoes in it.

That evening, when they were back in their own apartment Chitrah admitted that part of the reason he was doing this, was because he wanted to make sure he had more than one skill to offer people, in case they had to make a run for it, to keep the Sith from taking their baby. It might be too easy for the Sith to find them, if he only relied on his computer skills. Andriel liked his line of reasoning, but wondered why he waited until they were home before telling her. Chitrah told her that the Imperials have spy equipment everywhere. When you are in a public place, or a place they control, you have to suspect that they are listening to you. Andriel asked if that was why he used his computer at the dress shop. He told her it was, he can detect their equipment. She asked if there was anything in the dress shop. He said he did not detect anything, but that does not mean they would not try to place something in the future. There are a few women from the Ministry who come to the dress shop. It would be very easy for the Imperials to persuade a couple of them to leave something behind, even if they did not want to. Andriel asked him if he has ever detected their equipment. Chitrah told her that every hotel room they are first assigned to, when they come to a new planet, has listening devices built into the hotel room. Because they have never taken the recommended room, when they upgrade to something more comfortable, they have avoided their prepared rooms, and been in safe rooms. Andriel thought back to their first room on Yitabo. Chitrah told her it was bugged, but the one they moved to was not. What about Chalacta? It was bugged. "So they heard the pillow fight?" Chitrah told her they had. Now Andriel was glad Chitrah had not had sex with her that night. She would not want the perverts listening to her and Chitrah when they made love, it was like they could take something beautiful, and make something ugly out of it. She asked him why he was telling her this now when he didn't before. He told her that until now, her innocence had protected them both. Now she has information that they did not want the Imperials to hear, so she needs to be careful. Now she knew that Chitrah had been watching out for her even when she did not know. He has always been her Champion, and he always will be. They had a pleasurable time before they both fell asleep.

The Ministry was not happy that Chitrah's production rate had decreased slightly since the Sith's visit. Their experience is that whenever the Sith interfere in the Interior Ministry's affairs, productivity drops. They were able to determine that he adopted the work schedule of the secretaries and junior officials. How do they get him to work like he did before? Some officials suggested sending him to other planets, he tended to work better on those assignments. The problem with that, was the down time while he was traveling, when combined with the higher output, is less than his current level of production. Sending him to another planet is only productive if they are critical assignments. The senior official of the department let the other officials know, that the Moff would look favourably on any one who could come up with a solution.

The next time Chitrah was at the Ministry, one of the secretaries who had modeled for his wife, asked to speak to him on her next break.

When picking up the list of his next assignments, one of the officials (the one who came to his apartment when he was sick) asked if he could talk with him in private. Chitrah told him it was fine, and they went into an unused meeting room.

"Officially I am asking you why your productivity has dropped since the Sith's visit."

Chitrah waited.

"Unofficially I was hoping you could give me some advice for my marriage. I saw how your wife lovingly looked after you when you were sick. I'm assuming that you must have your way with women to get someone like her to fall in love with you."

"Surely you've read me file and know the circumstances of our marriage union."

"Unfortunately that part of your personnel file is sealed. We suspected that you may have picked her up at a Cantina or some dance club, on one of the planets you have had assignments."

Chitrah told him the real story behind his marriage. What helped him a lot was finding out from her mother some of the little things that keep her happy. Since he had already decided in his heart to love her no matter what, getting to know her and finding the little things that make her happy has helped her to fall in love with him.

"Officially, the reason I have slowed down, was because I was starting to feel burnt out. I decided to take one day in a cycle to focus my mind on something else, so that when I am doing the Ministry's work, I can keep my mind focused on what I am doing."

The official thanked Chitrah for the advice, and went back to his desk to write up an official report. The senior official was pleased with his official's ingenuity in talking directly to Chitrah, and passed the report along. He also gave him leave to take a day off, letting him know his desk would still be his. The official was so excited he started calling his old school buddies to see if he could hook up with any of them. Then he started thinking about Chitrah's advice, and knew how he should spend his day.

Chitrah met the secretary, and she told him that there were rumours going around the office that he might be sent on another assignment to help out another Moff. She did not hear anything more concrete than that. Chitrah told her that the Sith were watching him and Andriel, so it might not be good practise to communicate directly with him anymore. He will still greet her when he comes in, because everyone in the office expects it, but if she needs to contact him, she can pass a message to him, through the photographer, or through the dress shop. They will get it to him.

She knew about the Sith visiting their apartment. She also had the photographer calling her from time to time, inviting her to model for him in other shoots. She had told him that it would not be the same without Shaak Chi and her companions to liven things up. He agreed with her, but kept calling, it was his way of keeping in touch. Chitrah thanked her for the information before they parted company.

Chitrah told Andriel about the rumour, so that she would be ready on short notice to leave. She told him that she hoped they were heading back to Eriadu, it would be good for the baby, but she did not explain.

She did give him a piece of the adept cloth she received on Chalacta, and asked if he could sew her a pair of work gloves, the adept's cloth on the back, leather on the palm side. He took a quick outline of each hand, then he measured the diameter of each finger where it joined the palm, and the length of each finger.

Andriel had been talking to Shaak how it was important to the emotional stability of a Devaronian baby, if it senses the mother as being part of a clan while it is still in the womb. Shaak had heard that this was the way of many species that were made up of clans. She said that she could convince the elders to adopt her and Chitrah as being honorary members of their clan. They are both well respected, and did not see it as a problem. Andriel thanked her, and told her that they may have to go that route, if she could not get to Eriadu.

Because of Shaak's puzzled look, she explained why Eriadu was the best choice, and what she would need to do to prepare.

One day while Queen Anthila was working in her office in Santhe Corporation, the Head of Security knocked on her open office door to interrupt her.

"Excuse me Madame Santhe, there is a lady in the outer office inquiring if we sold surplus thermal blankets."

"Why are you bothering me with this? You know we do not sell to civilians. Send her away!"

We were going to, until she came up on our data base of being a person of royal interest. It was a good thing she did not use her Ministry ID, or the outer office would be in lockdown."

Queen Anthila's curiosity was sufficiently peaked. So she asked that her image be displayed. Andriel's 3D image appeared before her. She could tell that she was patiently waiting for a response to her inquiry. Queen Anthila thought, "Smart girl not to use your Ministry ID, what are you up to?" She asked her Head of Security if they did have surplus stock of thermal blankets. He told her they did not, and what they did have, the Imperials did not know about. She asked if any of the stock they did have was used in manoeuvres recently. He told her that a unit had recently returned from night manoeuvres were their blankets would have been used. "Get one of the used blankets from the troops and replace it with a new one. Take the used blanket and remove all markings from it, so that it could not be traced back to Santhe Corporation, and sell it to her."

"What price should we ask for it, since they have not been priced to sell on the open market?"

"Look up what a regular blanket of the same size would sell new, and charge her that price, that is what she will be expecting to pay."

The Head of Security did as he was told, first he told the receptionist, to inform the lady that they are currently looking through their stock, if she could be a little more patient. The receptionist was surprised to receive that message, he was expecting armed security to escort her off the premises. When the Head of Security came out with the blanket this woman asked for. The receptionist wondered who she might be, to get this type of attention. The Head of Security sold the blanket to Andriel, and apologized that he could not give her a formal receipt, because they could not afford to have the sale traced back to them. Andriel touched the blanket and knew right away that this was not an ordinary blanket. She liked that the outer material was a light kaki brown, the colour of sun baked dirt. She paid the credits she was asked for and placed the blanket in her hand bag and left.

The Head of Security used his voice link, making sure he was visible to all the cameras, to ask Madam Santhe, what should he do with the credits? She told him to send someone to go buy sweet treats for the office, they all deserved it.

A number of days later Chitrah was called to the Ministry. They told him that he was being sent back to Eriadu for what looked like a two month assignment. There was a freighter leaving in two days that they were booked on. It will be a longer trip than normal, since the freighter needed to make a number of stops on the way.

When Chitrah left the Ministry, he did not bother going home. Instead he made a bee line for the shuttle terminal to take him to the dress shop, so that he could tell Andriel in person. Then he would head to the shoe store near the Nautolan Enclave, to try and finish all the work on his bench, and to let the cobbler know he would not be back for close to three months. When Chitrah tried to access the itinerary of the freighter they were booked on, the only information he found was that it was heading to Randon. Randon was only one system away from Deysum on the Trax Tube. After confirming that they had two cabins booked, he knew that he needed to talk to Andriel about the idea that popped into his head.

That night he told Andriel that he wanted to ask the freighter captain if he could stop off at Deysum III, since they would only be one system away. Andriel told him to go on, because he obviously had a plan. Chitrah told her that this would probably be the last opportunity they would have to communicate to their families that they were all right. She asked him how they were to do that, since they were no longer part of their clans, and if they did try to run away from the Sith, they would first confront their parents. Chitrah told her that they sell shoes for pregnant women going on trips. They were supposed to be very comfortable, and they are called travel shoes. If he went to his father and bought a pair for her, and paid the initial asking price, his father would know right away that she was pregnant, which means that we have a good relationship. This also gives him the opportunity for him to complain to whoever will listen, that no attempt was made to bargain. It would be his way that he could tell his good friends in the clan about them, without violating any of the clan laws.

Andriel became excited when Chitrah explained it. They also made what was called a travel dress, for the same purpose. For pregnant women to be comfortable when they travel. If she paid full price for that dress, than her mother would know that she was pregnant, and would be able to complain to the different ladies in the clan. She wanted to do this.

Chitrah warned that this would probably tear them apart emotionally, since they could not hug or kiss any of their family members, and it would be a forever goodbye. Andriel thought that the good outweighed the bad. This way they got to say goodbye with good news.

Andriel mentioned to him that he would be by himself for most of their time on Eriadu. He asked her why? She told him it was better that he did not know, but it was for the good of the baby. Chitrah knew that she would tell him everything after the fact. So he kissed her and told her that he trusted her.

The freighter they boarded was another Barlow Medium Freighter, built by Corellian Engineering Corporation. Their captain was a male Devaronian, which surprised Chitrah and Andriel, their first officer was a female Iktotchi.

The Iktotchi are a humanoid species from the planet Iktotchon, in the Expansion Region. They average about 1.8 meters in height. They are hairless with rough, tanned, skin to protect them from the fierce winds of their home planet. They have horns that protrude downward from the top of their skulls, just past their chins, with the horns of the male being larger than the female. The most interesting thing about them, is their ability to see glimpses of the future, in visions and dreams. Something that most Iktotchi try to hide from other humanoid species because of prejudice.

The captain informed them that the first officer had passed on their request to stop off at Deysum III for personal reasons, and he did not see that as being a problem. Andriel and Chitrah looked at each other, neither one had actually made the request. When they looked at the first officer, she just smiled.

Both Andriel and Chitrah felt safe with this crew, and left their luggage in their cabins before heading to the common room to secure themselves. The captain asked Chitrah if he still liked to repair cards and boards, as they had a note about him from their company. Chitrah told him that he could also run diagnostics on all the electronic equipment on the bridge. The captain invited him to the bridge after they were clear of the station, and his lovely wife could come as well. Andriel blushed at the compliment, the captain was considered very handsome for a Devaronian male.

After the all clear was given, Andriel and Chitrah went forward to the bridge, arriving at the same time as the first officer. The captain asked Chitrah what he needed to run diagnostics on the equipment. Chitrah told him that it was best to run static diagnostics first, before running dynamic diagnostics. They should place everything in their neutral position, it was okay for the ships momentum to carry them while they ran the first set of diagnostics. The first officer let Chitrah have her seat, while she followed Andriel off the bridge, since Andriel had motioned for her to follow. When they were far enough from the bridge, Andriel stopped and asked the first officer how she knew that they wanted to stop at Deysum III, neither she nor Chitrah had contacted the ship, they wanted to talk to the captain in person. The first officer told her that she had a dream the other night, where she saw her and Chitrah talking about wanting to stop at Deysum III, you both knew it would be very painful for both of you, but the message that needed to be delivered, was more important than the pain. Whenever she has dreams like that, they are always true. Andriel asked her, if she is a seer? The first officer told her that she did not have the self-discipline to attempt to become a seer. She prefers just to accept them as they come. Andriel thanked her for her frankness, and was interested in hearing about anymore visions or dreams she might have about them, and yes, they were grateful that she was able to get permission on their behalf. The first officer was happy that they were not upset with her, she had gotten into trouble a few times, from people who accused her of interfering with their lives. As they walked back to the bridge they felt the ship's power output increase. Chitrah must have finished the static tests.

That evening Andriel told Chitrah about what the first officer shared with her. Chitrah commented that it was a good thing they were only talking when the first officer had her dream. Andriel asked him, why he would say that? Chitrah reminded her that they were in bed, when they had that conversation, would she have had that dream if they were doing something else.

Andriel asked, "Like what?"

Chitrah responded, "Like this" and proceeded to tickle her.

It was an uneventful trip to Randon. Andriel and Chitrah had enough room in the storage bay to work out. They only negative thing about the trip, was finding out that the captain was from Devaron. After the Treaty of Corusant, the captain has been only able to meet up with his wife once a year, when they go into Mandelorian controlled space. They asked him what he would do if war broke out again. He said that he would have to resign his commission, and try to find his way back to Devaron. They knew that he was proud of being one of only a handful of Devaronian males that has ever achieved the rank of captain.

Both Andriel and Chitrah were nervous when they docked at the Deysum III space station. The captain told them that he could only give them a half day at the most. They had decided to go by themselves to their parents' homes. Then they would meet up at the shuttle terminal, and return together.

Chitrah did not go straight to his parents' home, he decided to replace the items he had destroyed on his wedding night first, since it was on the way. When he entered the storefront, he waited patiently to see who would come out of the workshop to serve him. It was his father. The look of surprise was very evident on his face, but he was able to keep his self-control.

"Yes, how may I help you?" In a louder than normal voice, Chitrah spoke up, "I would like to buy some shoes."

As soon as Chitrah's brother heard his voice he recognised it, and got up right away and went to the kitchen, signalling his mother to come into the workshop. Unfortunately his wife was cleaning upstairs, and he did not think he had enough time to call her.

Chitrah's father in an equally loud voice asked, "Are these shoes for you or someone else?"

"I would like to buy a pair of shoes for my wife."

As soon as Chitrah's mother heard his voice, she tried rushing into the storefront, but her son grabbed her and hugged her close to himself.

"What type of shoes would you like for your wife?"

Chitrah reached into the display window and picked up the pair of traveling shoes on display. "These traveling shoes are what we are looking for."

Chitrah's father quoted him a price, and was surprised to see Chitrah pay what he asked for. He wrapped up the shoes and handed the bundle to Chitrah. Chitrah made sure he touched his father's hand and looked into his eyes. They both had tears in their eyes. Then they both heard Chitrah's mother starting to cry softly, because she wanted to see her son.

Chitrah had to run out of the store before he broke down. When he reached the end of the block he fell to his knees and started sobbing. The people walking by looked at him, and gave him a wide berth. No-one stopped to ask him what was wrong. Back at the shop, when Chitrah's mother heard the door open she called out, "My Son", and was able to break out of her son's grasp, only to run straight into her husband's arms.

He held her tightly to himself, so she would not run out onto the street after Chitrah. He started crying with his wife in his arms. She called out one more time, "My son" before crying in her husband's chest. Achram came out of the workshop and hugged both his parents, and cried with them. His wife heard the commotion and came downstairs to find them in the storefront, in a group hug, crying. She asked Achram what was wrong. He told her that Chitrah was just there, and he bought a pair of traveling shoes for his wife. When her father-in-law saw her puzzled expression, he told her that they are going to be grandparents again. She heard her mother-in-law softly say "my son" one more time and she could not hold herself back. Brunewa loved him, thought he was the best brother-in-law a woman could have, and she missed him.

After they all stopped crying, Papa locked the front door and shut off the lights to the storefront, they did not want to deal with anymore customers that day.

When Chitrah recovered enough, he got up and went to the shuttle terminal to wait for Andriel, fortunately he did not have to wait very long.

When Andriel entered her mother's storefront, she locked the front door so that no-one could enter after her. When her mother came out of her workshop, she ran straight for Andriel, when she saw who it was. Andriel shut off the lights in the storefront so that no-one could see inside, or her mother could forfeit her position as head of the clan. She hugged Andriel, and kissed her all over her face, then she rubbed cheeks with her, which caused them both to cry. After Andriel's mother could regain her composure, and wiped the tears from her eyes, she turned the lights back on. She asked Andriel, how she could help her? Andriel told her that she was there to buy a dress. She walked over to the window display and took the travel dress off the mannequin. "I want to buy this one."

Dreamara's eyes became as large as saucers, and she asked her if she was sure she wanted to buy that one. Andriel just nodded yes. Her mother quoted her a price, and was surprised that she paid the initial price. She wrapped the dress into a nice bundle and handed it to Andriel, touching her hands. Andriel looked into her mother's eyes, and could not take it anymore. She quickly unlocked the front door and bolted out of the store. She ran partway down the street before she could not see where she was going, because of the tears in her eyes. She leaned up against a building and started crying.

Dreamara had started crying as soon as Andriel bolted out of the door. She locked the front door and turned off the lights to the storefront. She went to the communicator and called her eldest daughter. She asked if she could come over right away and bring her children. It was evident to her that her mother was crying. She asked her, what was wrong? Her mother did not answer, instead she said, "I'm going to be a grandmother again." To say that this statement did not shock Lindream would be an understatement. She terminated the call with her mother, closed up her shop, rounded up her children, and headed to grandmother's house as fast as she could drag them. When she got there she was told about Andriel's visit, and what she bought and how much she paid. She hugged her mother and cried because she missed her kid sister.

Her children were used to seeing grandmother cry from time to time, but this was the first time they saw them crying together, they hugged them and asked them to stop crying, which earned them all wet kisses all over their faces. Mother gave her oldest daughter credits to go buy sweet treats for everyone. This was also a first, it had always been grandmother who gave her credits for treats. She hurried off, before mother could change her mind, and call her back.

When Andriel saw Chitrah waiting, she ran to him. When he saw her running, he ran to her. They both hugged and cried for a bit. When they sat in the shuttle, they both held hands. This was the first time Andriel did not look out the window, her heart hurt so much. On the spaceport they went straight to their freighter, and into Andriel's cabin, and sat on her bunk, hugging one another. The first officer told the captain that both passengers are aboard ship, and they were ready to depart. The captain told the ship's computer to record the passengers as being secure. The computer told the captain that it had no visual confirmation that the passengers are secure, since they were both in the female passenger's cabin. The captain told the computer that both passengers are experienced travelers, who knew that they needed to be secure when departing a spaceport. Since the computer had no visual confirmation that the passengers were not secure, it was safe to assume they are. The computer could not find fault with the captain's logic, and recorded the passengers as being secure, so that the ship could depart the spaceport. The captain tried being as gentle as possible in his manoeuvres. When Chitrah sensed the ship was getting ready to depart he suggested that they sit on the floor, so that they would not have a long way to fall if something went wrong. Chitrah sat on the floor, but Andriel sat in his lap, as they held each other, drawing strength from each other. After the captain gave the all clear, they both got up, and lay next to each other on Andriel's bunk. They each shared how the meeting with their parents went. Then cried some more. They did not talk the rest of the evening, they just lay there in each other's arms, drawing comfort from one another.

Eventually they both fell asleep like that. When they awoke in the morning, they were both a little stiff, since they had not moved all night. Chitrah got up and went to his own cabin to shower and change. Andriel got up to shower and change when Chitrah left. After sharing breakfast, they decided to tell the captain and his first mate, why they wanted to stop at Deysum III. They went to the bridge and told them how they are both from Deysum III, and had been forced by the Sith to marry each other. They had been forced out of their families and their clans because of their marriage. Their families also knew that Andriel had hated Chitrah at the beginning of their marriage. Since their marriage is now what it should be, and this would probably be the last opportunity they would have to let their parents know that their marriage was as it should be. They went to their parents' homes to let them know they are alright, and to say their final goodbyes on a good note. It tore them apart that they could not interact with their families as they would have liked because of the clan rules. They decided not to tell the captain about Andriel being pregnant. The captain thanked them for telling him. He knew that many families were affected by the stupid war, and the false peace. To know that they are trying to make something good out of something bad, was encouraging to him in his situation. After they left the bridge, the first officer followed them. When they arrived in the common room, she told them she had a vision of their baby, if they want she could tell them what sex it will be. They both decided they did not want to know the sex of their baby. They did want to hear about the vision, but after lunch, they still wanted to spend the morning together in Andriel's cabin. The first officer told them she understood, and would try not to give away the sex of their baby, when she shared her vision.

When they went to Andriel's cabin, they both asked each other if they had told the first officer that Andriel was pregnant. It became apparent that neither one had mentioned it to her. They weren't sure how to take it that this woman knew more about them, than they did themselves.

They both felt that they needed to do one more thing before they could have complete healing, and closure, as far as their families are concerned. They both wanted to express their love to their families, but because their families where not there their mate would stand in place of their families. This way they could express their love and someone would be able to receive it and return it. They decided that Chitrah would go first, with Andriel representing each member of his family. They both closed their eyes, while Chitrah pictured each family members in his mind. Chitrah did not tell Andriel who he pictured, she would just react to his love. First he pictured his father because he was the one who came out of workshop to interact with him. He hugged his father with a big hug, and was surprised to feel his father hug him back. He kissed his father on his cheek and hugged him some more. He felt his father hold the back of his head in his hand and kiss him on his cheek, and hug him. Then he let go of his father, because his mother came into the room, they hugged quickly, then they held each other's heads, looking into each other's eyes. Andriel started crying because she could feel the love his mother has for him, and did what she thought his mother would do, and kissed him all over his face. She knew that this is what she wanted to do when she called out to him. Then they touched foreheads together, until Chitrah sensed his brother come into the room, and he greeted him the way he did his father. This time his brother did not hold his head as his father, but he ruffled his hair, because Chitrah was his kid brother, then he kissed him on his cheek and returned his love. Then he imagined his sister-in-law coming in the room, and hugged her and cried on her shoulder, she returned his hug and kissed him repeatedly on his cheek as she cried. When they stopped crying he let go and opened his eyes. Andriel opened her eyes and saw the look of amazement on his face. Her eyes were still watery, since she felt the depth of his love for his family. Chitrah cupped her head in his hands and told her, that it was like he was there in the storefront, able to share his love with each of them.

Andriel told him that he felt his love for them, but she also felt their love for him, it was an amazing experience.

This time it was Andriel's turn. They both closed their eyes again. This time when Andriel entered the store she did not stand around and wait for her mother to come out, she walked into the workshop and hugged her mother who would have just gotten up from the sewing machine to see who came in, they both cried and kissed each other all over the other's face. Then she felt her mother rubbing cheeks with her, she knew in the back of her mind that this was Chitrah stimulating her cheek, but because he was representing her mother, it did not feel erotic, she felt the heat in her cheek not go to her secret place, but to her heart, then it enveloped her being, and she just hugged her, then her sister was their coming out of the kitchen. She repeated with her sister, what she had done with her mother. It had been a long time since they rubbed cheeks together, and felt the same sensation, with the heat around the heart, then going through the body.

After hugging for a while, she let go and opened her eyes. When Chitrah opened his eyes she gave him a big kiss on his lips. When they stopped kissing, she thanked him for letting her experience what she did. Chitrah told her that he was afraid to stimulate her cheek, but did it, because she said it was not an erotic feeling when she did it with her mother, and was surprised with the amount of heat energy coming off her body shortly afterwards.

When they went to the common room for lunch, they found the captain and first officer already there.

After lunch the captain said he was going to take a nap, and left the first officer in charge. They walked her back to the bridge. After she was settled in her chair, she started to share what she saw and felt with her vision.

Their first born child would be a healer. The child would have the best traits of both of them. The child would be a healer in many senses, including the righting of wrongs. Then she saw them with many children, she knew that most of them were not theirs, but they loved them all like they were their own. She could not tell which were their children, since none of them looked like the first born.

This vision excited Andriel, she was talking about them having more than one child, and their firstborn would be a Righter of Wrongs. Definitely not a Sith. Andriel asked her if she understood her right, that the first born would not end up being a Sith, and that they would have more than one child. The first officer confirmed that what she said was true. Andriel bent over and gave the first officer a hug, and kissed her on the cheek, and thanked her for sharing her vision with them.

The first officer beamed at this reaction, she was used to getting unfavourable responses when she shared something. As they were about to leave she did caution them, that just because she had a vision, it does not mean that things will happen that way. There are things that can happen that will alter the way the future unfolds.

Andriel grabbed Chitrah's hand and dragged him back to her cabin. In the cabin, Andriel suggested that the first officer may have inadvertently revealed the sex of their child. There are only female healers among the Devaronians. Chitrah told her that most of the healers amongst the Chagrian were male. Andriel pouted because she thought she had figured it out. Chitrah laughed when he saw her pout, "I thought that you did not want to know the sex of the baby."

"I do, but I don't, if that makes any sense?"

Chitrah kissed her and told her it makes perfect sense. Then he suggested they change and go work out.

The captain entered the bridge and asked the first officer, "What's happening on our favorite channel?"

"Andriel and Chitrah did not notice that they drifted closer to the edge of the cargo bay. He really tossed her hard. She twisted her body to hit the floor safely, but instead she slammed into the bulkhead. She's probably winded, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was sore for the next few days."

Chitrah did not like the way Andriel hit the bulkhead. He ran over to her to make sure she was alright. She looked dazed, and took a couple of gulps of air. He asked her, if she wanted him to help her out of her practise suit? She told him she just needed a minute to catch her breath. When she indicated that she was ready, he pulled her up to her feet. She told him that from now on, no more jarring throws, and no blows to the abdomen.

Chitrah complained that she was taking all the fun out, of his workout. "It's not fair that you get to wail on me all you want, and I have to take it easy on you."

Andriel was a little upset because of her bad landing, and she had been feeling sick the past few mornings. "Well it's not fair that I have to carry the baby, and you don't."

Chitrah just smiled, than told her that he was wondering when she would bring the baby up. Andriel was still feeling short tempered and asked him to explain himself. He told her that she had been pushing herself harder than normal the last few days, but he did not want to say anything, because she knew her body better than he did. Andriel admitted that she had been feeling sick the last few mornings and was hoping that a good workout in the afternoon might help. It hasn't, so now she has to look forward to being sick and sore for the next few mornings. Chitrah suggested that they finish their workout, and he would give her a good massage after he helps her out of her suit. She still needed to practise some of her throws. Andriel felt good throwing Chitrah around.

Back at her cabin, she waited for Chitrah to get out of his practise suit, before coming to her cabin to help her out of hers. She could feel her body stiffen up where she had hit the bulkhead. Chitrah knocked on her door before coming in. Andriel noticed that he had something in one hand. He helped her out of her suit, noticing how she favoured her one side. He helped her right out of all her clothes then asked her to lay face down on her bunk, but with her head where her feet normally were.

Chitrah built a nest around Andriel's face so that she was still able to breath, but her head would not move around. He covered her body with a few towels, then Andriel smelt this nice fragrance fill the room. Chitrah had poured a light aromatic oil into his hands, and it was the heat in his hands that caused the oil to release the fragrance. He started massaging her feet and worked his way up her body. He would add more oil to his hands when he felt he needed it, and was always moving the towels so that it was only the area of her body that he was working on, that was exposed. Everything else was covered up. As he worked his way closer to where she was injured, he asked her to let him know if he was hurting her. She asked him, where he learnt to massage like this? He told her that his father had taught him. He believed that every husband should be able to give his wife a good massage. This was part of his preparation for getting married. She asked, him who he practised on? He told her that he practised on his father and his brother. His father told him that if he could give a good message to them, giving a massage to the woman he married would be easy. The hard thing was that his mother and sister-in-law would watch. They expected their husbands to give them a massage after he was finished with them.

Andriel smiled at the picture she saw in her head of their family.

Chitrah was able to gently massage where Andriel was injured. There was only slight swelling from bruising, and he was able to stimulate blood flow to the area which should speed healing. After he had finished massaging her head, he spread a blanket over her to help keep her body warm. He had the ship's computer play some soothing sounds in her cabin, like the rustling of leaves in the wind and the sound of different birds singing. He dimmed the lights in her cabin to 25%, and left her alone.

Before he had opened her cabin door to leave, she was already sound asleep. He let her sleep for about one hour, before he woke her up and offered her a fresh cup of tea, and suggested that she get dressed for dinner. When she entered the common room, everyone could smell the fragrant oil on her body, and commented on how nice it smelt. She told Chitrah that she was not as sore as she was after practise, and she had more movement in her limbs on the damaged side of her body. Chitrah told her that he would give her another massage tomorrow.

The next day while trying to dress for their daily practise session, Andriel found that the injured side of her body had stiffened up too much to put on her practise suit. She had the ships computer tell Chitrah that she could not get her suit on, in case he finished dressing and was going to the cargo bay to wait for her. Chitrah told the computer to tell her to just dress in comfortable clothes, and they would just do the modified exercises.

On the bridge the captain and first officer were surprised to see both Andriel and Chitrah enter the cargo bay without their practise suits on. After watching for a while, they mentioned that they thought they could do what Andriel and Chitrah were doing. Occasionally Chitrah would have to hold Andriel so that she could stretch out some muscle groups without further injuring them. They went through the modified exercises twice, to give them an equivalent of a good workout. Andriel found the second time through to be much easier, with her muscles loosening up. Chitrah gave her another massage, and let her nap before waking her for dinner. When they arrived in the common room for dinner. The captain and first officer questioned them about the routine they practised that day. They told them that a courier pilot had taught them the routine as a way to stay in shape since there was no room on the ship to do any conventional form of exercise. With both the captain and first officer expressing a desire to learn the routine, Andriel and Chitrah agreed to teach them the exercises, since it appeared that Andriel would not be able to train for a couple of days. The next day before going to the cargo bay, Andriel and Chitrah stopped by the bridge, to get the captain to join them. After going through it once, the captain told the computer to let the first officer know he was on his way back to the bridge. This way the first officer could start heading to the cargo bay. Andriel and Chitrah would do little jumps, body twists, and stretches, to help keep their bodies warm until the first officer arrived, and then they could repeat the session. Andriel found that with her daily massages, her body was healing quite rapidly. She was afraid to tell Chitrah when she felt completely healed, and was too embarrassed not to tell him. She broke down and told him the next day, while he was giving her a massage. He told her that he had thought that was the case, when he could massage the damaged side of her body, as hard as he could her healthy side. Just for that she owed him a complete body massage. Andriel protested that she did not know how to give a massage. Chitrah said he would start training her after dinner, because he really wanted someone to give him a full body massage. She agreed, feeling it was a reasonable request, and because she did owe him a massage.

By the time they got back to their regular practice routine, the captain and first officer felt that they had learnt the modified exercises well enough that they could do them on their own. They both developed the habit of doing their daily exercises when they went off duty. Chitrah started teaching Andriel how to massage, starting with the feet, and doing a different body part each night. This way Andriel's hands could strengthen, and not cramp, which would have happened if they tried to do too much at once. They found that if they could both sit on Andriel's bunk in such a way that their backs were both resting on the bulkheads for support, they could massage each other's feet at the same time.

The freighter finally made it through the Trax Tube to Daalang spaceport. They had some freight to unload, and they had an official pouch for the Ministry. Chitrah volunteered to deliver the pouch, because he wanted to visit the Ministry, in case he was ever assigned there. He also wanted to see if he could find some fragrant oil for massaging, since his supply was almost used up, and they were getting to the more interesting body parts. The crew were happy to let him do it, since this was one part of their job that they did not like. Andriel wanted to go with him, but the crew convinced her not to. Since security was tighter here, than on any planet they had been on, including Eriadu. She was free to explore the spaceport, they would page her when it was time to return to the ship. She would have preferred going to the planet with Chitrah, but gave in to them, since she believed that they wanted to do what was best for her. They also advised Chitrah not to wear his Ministry ID if he was not coming straight back to the ship, or he could become a target for attack by some disgruntled citizens.

Andriel walked him to the security checkpoint for boarding the shuttle to the surface. She was surprised that he was checked just as thoroughly as everyone else despite his Ministry Security ID. They only difference was that they did not confiscate anything that triggered an alarm, like his electronics equipment. Now she knew why they had warned her against going with him. If security was this bad up here, it must be worse on the planet.

On the planet there were numerous checkpoints to pass through. Once inside a droid taxi, they could easily check his itinerary with the droid, and pass him through the checkpoints without searching him each time. The hardest checkpoint to pass through was at the Ministry itself. Where they made him demonstrate his computer and all the equipment associated with his work. He suspected that part of it was to show he did not have any fake equipment which could be a potential bomb, part of it was because they had never seen any equipment like his before, and they were curious about how it all worked.

Once inside the Ministry there were no more checkpoints, but there were security forces on regular foot patrol. He dropped of the official pouch where he was directed, and told the official that the ship was traveling on to Eriadu. If they had anything to send, he would come by later to pick it up. The Ministry's layout was similar to what he encountered on most planets. He assumed that it was intentional, so new transfers could start work right away, and not have to waste time with orientation. Chitrah went to the office that looks after computer field work, and went right past the outer office to the inner office, as if he was reporting for work. The official in the inner office was able to extract his work history off of his Ministry Security ID, and was impressed that he had received accolades from two different Moffs. Chitrah told him that he was passing through on temporary reassignment to Eriadu, and decided to drop in, in case he was ever assigned to Daalang. The official was happy to chat with him. It was a nice distraction from his regular work, and it would not look bad on his file that he had entertained someone of Chitrah's caliber. He showed Chitrah their entire database on computer work assignments, not just on Daalang, but in the entire sector. Chitrah downloaded the information into his computer, just like he did at every new office he worked in. What surprised him, was that the officials never seemed to notice he did this while talking with them. He never asked if he was allowed to have this information, because they would probably say no. The official did not think their Moff would ever arrange for Chitrah to come to Daalang. Even though they had no contractors of Chitrah's calibre. They were good enough to plod through any work assignments given to them. Chitrah thanked him for his time, and shook his hand before going to the outer office.

In the outer office Chitrah stopped at the desk of one of the secretaries, she was well aware that he had just come out of the inner office, so must be someone of relative importance. He told her that he had two questions to ask her. He had been giving his wife some massages and was running low on the fragrant oil he was using, and was hoping she could tell him where he might be able to purchase some? She turned red, but suggested a few different places, where he might have success in finding some. She even brought up a map on her screen, to show him where they were. Chitrah's next question, was if it was alright for him to leave his case of electronic equipment with her, while he goes shopping? It gets an awful lot of attention whenever he goes through a checkpoint. She promised to look after it, and told Chitrah that she must be quite the lucky lady, for him to go to all this trouble for her. Chitrah smiled and told her, he was the lucky one.

The secretary could not help but fall in love with Chitrah, wondering where she could find a man like him. She sighed as he walked away, at least she will have some juicy gossip to share with the other secretaries. She even had his electronics case with her. She was not going to let it out of her sight, she would take it with her whenever she had to leave the desk. She did not care that it looked heavy.

Before leaving the Ministry, Chitrah put away the Ministry Security ID, and took out the regular ID, that was made for him on Yitabo. The big reason Chitrah left the electronics case with the secretary, is because it might be confiscated at a checkpoint, since his Ministry ID was not being displayed.

Chitrah was able to buy some fragrant oil at the second place the secretary had suggested. He purchased a much larger supply than he had originally. He found that because of Andriel's fur, he was using larger amounts then on someone with regular skin, like his father. Just before the Ministry checkpoint, he put away his regular ID, and got out his Ministry Security ID. It turned out that the same security personnel were still manning the checkpoint. They asked him, where his electronic equipment is? He told them that he left it in the Ministry, under the personal care of a secretary. He did not think that they would still be there, and did not want to go through the whole demonstration again. They smiled at him and let him through. He informed the secretary that the second location she suggested had what he was looking for. She told him that she would have to remember that in case a handsome man came by wanting to give her a massage. Chitrah told her that he hoped it happened soon, because it can be a very stimulating experience. She turned redder than she did before, and handed Chitrah his case. He thanked her for looking after it. She told him that it was her pleasure. As he was leaving she took out some papers and started fanning herself, it had suddenly gotten hot in here. The secretaries near her desk were also fanning themselves, they had overheard their conversation. They all laughed when they saw what the others were doing.

Andriel was having fun exploring the spaceport. Thanks to Chitrah's information when they explored the spaceport at Deysum III, she was familiar with what she encountered. Her main focus was to see if she could find anything to help her mission on Eriadu. She was not disappointed when she did not find anything. She only hoped it meant that she was well prepared for what was ahead. When she heard the page for her to return to the ship, she had to go to an information kiosk to find out where she was, and to get the directions for returning to the ship. Chitrah had already returned, and handed over the official pouch of documents for the Ministry on Eriadu. After departing, Chitrah ordered his dinner in the common room. Andriel asked him to order her's as well, she suddenly realised that she did not have anything to eat since breakfast, and she was starving. While they ate Chitrah told her all about his trip to the planet, and the hassle he had going through all the checkpoints.

He had found out at the Ministry the reason for all the security. During the Great Sith War a group similar to the Sith but even more zealous, called the Krath, had invaded and conquered the planet, and butchered everyone who had opposed them. The people remembered, so when they suddenly found their planet under Sith control again, because of the treaty of Corusant, they showed their displeasure by killing the first group of people the Imperials sent to take control of the planet. The Imperials came back in force and killed all the heads of the planetary security force, for not preventing the slaughter. They disbanded the local planetary security force and set up their own. No-one who works for any Imperial office on Daalang is a local. They are afraid of the potential risk of a terrorist attack. There are known guerrilla cells, in the badlands surrounding the city, and every once in a while something in the city's infrastructure gets blown up. There is usually enough warning that they are able to evacuate all civilians before any explosions.

Andriel was glad the crew convinced her not to go to the surface. With her red features she would have been easy to spot as not being a local. In the wrong part of the city it could have gotten her killed.

Later that evening Chitrah continued training Andriel in giving a massage. Because they could only be partially dressed, because of the body parts they were working on, partially dressed, became totally undressed, and they were no longer thinking about massages. The next morning over breakfast Andriel told Chitrah how much she was enjoying his instructions on massage. Chitrah turned purple, but did not say anything. When he looked up at Andriel she had the look of sweet innocence on her face. He saw the first officer having trouble eating, it looked like she was having trouble, not to break out laughing. It was a good thing the captain was on the bridge.

Chitrah was able to get a complete full body massage before they reached Eriadu. Andriel let him sleep right where he lay on her bunk. She could have gone to his cabin to sleep, but preferred to stay in her cabin and lay down beside him, making sure he stayed warm. She reaped her rewards in the morning.

On Eriadu, Chitrah was invited to speak with the Moff, as he had before. The Moff told him that he had heard about his success in training the computer technicians on Chalacta. Since they did not have enough work to hire a contractor as skilled as himself, the Moff would like him to train four of the Ministry's electronics maintenance staff to cover any jobs that might come up. Chitrah had already introduced them to doing field work, and he did mention the last time he was on Eriadu how competent they all were. Chitrah told him their competence was not an issue, having the right equipment for the job was paramount. The Moff told him that they had received four standard kits, issued to computer field technicians upon completion of their introductory course. Chitrah told him that the kits were fine if they were working on the main computers that are in the industrial complexes and could bring back questionable cards and boards to the lab for analysis, but in most situations, a computer technician finds himself, they do not have that luxury. He told the Moff that the biggest problem the technicians had on Chalacta, was not understanding the computer systems, but not knowing what equipment they needed to take with them, and how to use it properly. The Moff asked him why he could not train them on his equipment. Chitrah told him that his equipment is custom made, when he goes, his equipment goes with him, and the technicians would still be in the situation they are now. The Moff asked him what additional equipment they would need. Chitrah had to think back to what the technicians had shown him they had on Chalacta. He started naming the components they did not have but would need. When he finished the Moff asked him if that was the complete list. Chitrah told him it was not, it was a list of the minimum amount of extra components they would need, his own kit would be the complete list. The Moff was impressed with Chitrah's forthrightness, he had an assistant call the head of the electronics lab, and had the assistant repeat the list of additional equipment they would need for each of the four units, and asked his opinion. The head of the lab told him that Chitrah had demonstrated his competence the last time he was on Eriadu, if he believes that the additional equipment is the minimum they required, than he believed that it is true. He did not know that everyone in the Moff's office, and Chitrah and all the high officials with Chitrah could also hear him. He suggested to the Moff that Chitrah and the selected technicians go to Seswenna. He had heard that there is an electronics shop that had opened on that planet that should have most, if not all the equipment on the list. The Moff felt that sending all four technicians with Chitrah to Seswenna would leave them too short staffed on Eriadu. He would only authorise two of them to go with Chitrah, to go purchase all the equipment they needed, then they would come back, and Chitrah would help them become familiar with their equipment. Then one would accompany Chitrah for half a month to the assigned sites for training, and they would repeat it until all four were trained.

Chitrah asked the Moff's pardon for interrupting him. The head of the electronics lab was startled to hear Chitrah's voice. Chitrah continued. He thought it would be better if each technician was with him for a whole month, it would be okay if he trained two of them at once. The more computers they were exposed to, the better trained they would be.

The Moff was also surprised by Chitrah's interruption. He considered what Chitrah had said. All the high officials were nervous because Chitrah had dared to interrupt the Moff, and because the Moff had become silent. After thinking about it for a minute, the Moff realised that he had already indicated that having two technicians accompany Chitrah would not overburden their electronics lab, and Chitrah already had experience training field computer technicians on Chalacta who were supposed to have already been trained. Here Chitrah would be covering their basic field training. At the same time giving them hands on experience. The Moff agreed to Chitrah's suggestion. It would also minimise travel time in that Chitrah would not need to come back to Eriadu when switching between technicians.

When they finished with one planet they could go directly to the next.

The high officials were relieved that the Moff did not scold Chitrah, if he had, they would have had to find some way to punish him.

It was a nice reunion when Chitrah came down to the electronics repair lab. The head of the lab told Chitrah which of his guys had been volunteered to be trained by him. Chitrah asked them, who would be leaving with him in the morning? They still had not decided. The head of the lab asked Chitrah, who else was listening to his conversation with the Moff?

"Everyone who thinks they are someone in the Ministry."

The head of the lab told Chitrah that he leads a charmed life. If the Moff had been upset with his interruption, there was no telling what type of punishment they would have tried to administer. Chitrah told him that he felt it was his place to speak up, after all he was the specialist they brought here to administer the training. If the Moff had not been prepared to hear him out, then he should not have brought him here. "That's why we love you here. To you, the work is more important than the politics."

Andriel went down to the quartermaster's store. She bought some cold rations as emergency supplies for her mission, and hoped she did not have to use them. She went back to their apartment in the married residents' quarters, and started packing everything she would be taking with her. On Lianna she and Shaak had made three outfits for her, from the adept's cloth she was given on Chalacta. The adept's cloth was the closest material to looking like the rags the street gangs wore. From far away she would look like one of them, and would be hard to spot, when she was walking in the rubble. She packed two of them in the bag she had made from what was left of the adept's cloth, she had packed away all the tea she brought with her, except for one package that she left out for Chitrah. She hoped it would be enough for him for the next couple of months. She also packed away all the undergarments she had purchased from their dress shop, specifically for this mission. She had also purchased a supply of feminine hygiene products from the supply they carry at their shop, for this mission. If she is not able to secure a steady supply of food, and starts losing weight, her body could miscarry the baby, as a survival reaction. Then she would have to worry about bleeding. If that happens, then she failed. She would have failed their baby, that she was willing to do this for. She would have failed her husband who is trusting her to do what is best for their baby. She did not know if she would be able to come back to him, if she failed. It would be better for him to think she was dead.

Andriel scolded herself for thinking like this. The first officer saw their baby, and even knew what sex it would be, and even talked about them having more children. She had to believe in herself the way others do. The real reason for the feminine hygiene products, was in case of a severe bleeding injury. They were one of the best things to use as a bandage. She also packed away some wire to use for snares. She had also brought some non-fragrant soap. After more than 4 years in isolation, it is unlikely that the Devaronian community has any.

Andriel had everything packed and ready. The only thing left to do was to change into what she would be wearing when she left. But she wasn't ready to leave yet. She wanted to spend the evening with Chitrah. She was just thinking about him, and here he is coming through the door. She met him at the door and gave him a big kiss. Chitrah was not surprised by this, because that was what he wanted to do. They stood in their embrace for a good minute with the door to their apartment open, they did not care if anyone walking by saw them.

After they broke apart Chitrah suggested that he go get them some dinner, and meet up on the patio, hopefully it was still being used. Andriel liked that idea and went straight away to find them a place to sit, since it was getting pretty packed the last time they were on Eriadu. When she opened the door to the patio, she found that there were not too many couples on the patio. Apparently the novelty of the place has worn off. She found the table she wanted, and sat down waiting for Chitrah. She suddenly had an idea and turned to the closest couple and asked if the building computer could be contacted from the patio. They did not know, and they never heard of anyone trying. So Andriel thought she would try.

"Building computer can you hear me?"

"Yes!"

"Can you play music on the patio?"

"Yes!"

"Could you play samples of music considered romantic?"

The computer started playing small excerpts of music. Andriel wondered, what species considered them romantic? When she heard a sample that sounded promising she asked the computer to make note of it. When she thought she had an interesting selection, she asked the computer to play samples from the same album. She was able to find three albums that she liked. She asked the computer to play them consecutively, and to label the selection Patio 1. The other couples made note of what she called it, so that they could call it up next time they were on the patio. With nice music playing in the background, Chitrah commented on how romantic it felt when he brought their dinner. Andriel mentioned that it sounded like a nice collection of music. That's how Chitrah knew that she was responsible for the music.

Over dinner Chitrah told Andriel about meeting the Moff again, and about the reason they had brought him here, and about the trip they would be taking to Seswenna in the morning, to purchase some equipment for the technicians. For Andriel the timing was perfect, but she did not mention it to Chitrah, until they were back in their apartment. When they approached the door to the patio, the building computer asked, if it should keep playing the music? The couples that came after them indicated that they wanted it, so Andriel asked the computer to keep playing it until there was no-one left on the patio. They all thanked Andriel as she left the patio. Chitrah took her hand and told her that that was thoughtful of her. Back at the apartment Andriel asked Chitrah if he could play the music she asked him to download from their apartment computer on Lianna. Chitrah did one better he downloaded it from his computer to the apartment computer where they were staying, because he believed it would have better sound quality.

They both knew this would be the last evening they would have together for a number of months. They were both hungry for their partner's body. They did not make wild sex, they wanted their partner to feel the love that they had for them. So that it would sustain them for the time they would be apart. It was while resting between their bouts of lovemaking that Andriel told Chitrah, that the timing for him leaving in the morning was perfect. With her not being in Eriadu City, they will assume that she had gone to Seswenna with Chitrah. It will be a long time before they determine she is missing, and try to find her. As the time approached for Andriel's departure, she asked Chitrah if she could give him a full body massage.

Chitrah complained that he would rather give her one. Andriel told him not to be silly, if he gave her a massage she would fall asleep and miss her chance to leave undetected. Chitrah reluctantly agreed. Because the lights were dimmed in their bedroom, Andriel did not notice that he had tears in his eyes when he placed his face in the nest she made for his head. He knew that there were two reasons she wanted to give him a massage. The first one was she wanted him asleep for when she left the apartment. That way he could truthfully admit that he did not know when she left. The second reason was that this would be his last memory of her, if something happened and she could not make it back to him. He knew that he should not think like that. He did absolutely trust her, and knew she was very capable. But if the Devaronians suspected that she had some connection with the Imperials, they would probably kill her.

After she finished Chitrah's massage, Andriel took a shower to wash the smell of sex off her body, and to get as much of the smell of the massage oil off her hands. She dressed in the last outfit that she made from the Adept cloth. This one was hooded so she covered her head. She put on her nerf vest that she made on Yitabo, since there was a chill in the air. She took a frozen ball out of the cooler. She and Shaak had made up a ball that was untreated reek skin on the outside, since it was hairless. Inside were scrap pieces of meat, bone and gristle. It was cryogenically frozen on Lianna, by Shaak's father in the butcher shop where he worked. It was stored with the frozen foods on the freighter with the crews' knowledge. Andriel smuggled it down to Eriadu in her luggage, wrapped in the thermal blanket she purchased from Santhe Corporation, and stored it in the apartment's cooler for the day, and it was still frozen. She slung her bag over one shoulder, and covered herself with the thermal blanket. She tried to keep the frozen ball from touching her nerf vest, since the nerf wool would absorb the condensation on it, and swell. She was sure that if she encountered anyone in the building they would be scared out of their wits, because of the strange shape she was presenting. When the building computer detected her in the hallway, through its thermal scanners, it believed that a small rodent had made its way into the building undetected, and sent a maintenance droid to investigate. Andriel was able to make it out of the building, before the maintenance droid intercepted her, so the incident remained buried in its memory, along with other similar encounters. Andriel made her way to the truck depot, trying hard not to be spotted on any visual security cameras. At the edge of the depot Andriel looked carefully at each truck, trying to spot the designation which would indicate which one Orlo drove. After spotting the truck, she studied the cameras to see if she could make it to the truck undetected. Most of the visual cameras swept the depot at regular intervals. If she timed it right she would be able to get all the way to Orlo's truck without being seen. The thermal blanket should reduce her thermal signature to that of a small creature, and the frozen ball should keep any excess heat energy from escaping over the course of the evening, so no-one would suspect that a human had entered the truck. She made it, and placed the frozen ball on the truck's floor mat. With the thermal blanket over her and the frozen ball under her, Andriel spent a cramped night. She was able to adjust how warm or cold she was by how close her body was to the frozen ball. On the infrared scanners it just looked like the small creature was moving around.

In the morning Orlo was warned by a mechanic/technician that a small creature was in his truck. They did not want to try and get it out while in the depot, because there were a lot of things a frightened creature might knock over, and make a mess. It would be better if he could chase it out of the truck once they left the edge of the city. The convoy leader has already been warned that he would need to slow down at the edge of the city. Someone handed him some vegetables to toss to the creature when he entered the truck so that it would not try to attack him. From the size of the infrared signature they believed it was a large Chinchawwa, but they were not sure, since they could not get a sharp image. They believed the truck's cabin was somehow interfering with their ability to focus the image.

The Chinchawwa was a hairless rodent. An herbivore that preferred eating rotting vegetation. It has an unusually long neck for a rodent, which enables it to look around objects while keeping its body hidden. It has clawed feet in the front which it uses to dig out a den. It has cloven feet in the back to help it climb over difficult terrain. It stands about 20-30cm from claw to shoulder. Between 50 to 75cm in length from nose to tail. It was the favorite prey of the Ratporcus. The early settlers found the meat to be acceptable, but stopped trying to catch them when they secured a steady meat supply. The Ratporcus was a fine haired omnivore mammal. Prized by early settlers to Eriadu for both its succulent meat and its pelt. It had clawed feet in the front to dig the Chinchawwa out of its den, and cloven feet at its rear to help it chase its prey over difficult terrain. Its head looked Similar to the Eriadu's rat, with a small fang jutting down from its upper jaw. It had a plump body and a small curly tail. It stands about 1-1.2 meters at the shoulder, and 1.2-1.5 meters in length.

Orlo hoped it was a chichawwa, and not a small ratporcus. The ratporcus can be quite nasty when cornered. He carefully opened the driver's door, and heard a voice coming from the blanket over the floor mat on the passenger's side. "Orlo is that you." He recognised Andriel's voice. He threw the vegetables in his hand onto the passenger's seat in case someone was watching, and quickly climbed up into the cab of the truck.

He told Andriel that it was him, and to stay where she was for now. After they left the depot he told her she could move but had to stay below the windows, or she would be spotted. She told him that was all right, she just needed to stretch. She was starting to cramp up real bad. He asked her what in the world she was up to. She told him she could not tell him in case they figured out that she had caught a ride with him. She did tell him that the last time she was on Eriadu, she was followed every time she left Eriadu City. She believed the person that followed her was instructed to do so by the Ministry, and probably rode in one of the military vehicles. Her husband had told her that every time she left Eriadu City, she was risking the lives of those who followed her, as well as her own. She did not want it on her conscience that she had caused someone else to be injured or killed because they were supposed to follow her. Orlo believed her. He got to know her on her last visit, and believed that she was the type of person that preferred to help others not hurt them. He asked her if she had something that she could be thrown out the truck when they reached the edge of the city. She told him about her ball of raw reek hide stuffed with discarded pieces of meat, bone and gristle. It was still frozen when she climbed into the truck, but was now thawed and a bit mushy. Orlo laughed, Andriel had really thought this through. He told her that she could have the pieces of vegetables he had thrown on the passenger's seat, she was about to decline, but thought better of it, she had room in her bag, and she might want it later to snack on. She had already eaten one of her cold ration packets for breakfast. She asked Orlo if there was very much change on Eriadu, since the last time she had been here. He told her that the only change he noticed, was in the behaviour of the personnel in the Ministry. They were easier to talk to, not so quick to get upset. There were even rumours that young couples were sneaking down to the archives to watch old vids together. They say it's the new form of dating. Andriel wanted to laugh when she heard that.

"At least they are staying out of trouble."

"You got that right."

While Andriel was on her way to Old Town Factoryville, Chitrah had met up with the two technicians that were traveling with him to Seswenna. When they boarded the freighter, they found out that there were only two cabins booked for them, a noble family from Eriadu had booked the other two. It was the same freighter that had brought Andriel and Chitrah to Eriadu. The captain was about to ask Chitrah where Andriel was, but the first officer kicked him. Fortunately Chitrah was the only one to see it. The captain did tell Chitrah that there is a problem. They did not have enough chairs in the common room for all the passengers. He could let Chitrah sit in the first officer's chair on the bridge, while they manoeuvred away from the spaceport, as she would be elsewhere, making sure they were properly detached. But he was not sure what they would do when it was time to jump to hyperspace. Chitrah deposited his equipment inside one of their assigned cabins, and told the technicians that the captain had invited him to the bridge. They can take their seats in the common room.

The technicians were in awe of Chitrah, that the captain had invited him to the bridge. As he passed through the common room, Chitrah saw the nobleman and his wife sitting in their seats in the common room, fortunately for Chitrah they paid no attention to him, thinking he was part of the crew. Chitrah recognised them from the night he and Andriel had gone to the theatre in Eriadu City. It would not be good if he or his wife recognised Chitrah.

When the captain came to the bridge, Chitrah asked the captain if the seats in the gun turrets were designed for the jump to hyperspace. The captains face lit up, of course they were, why didn't he think of that? Chitrah told him that he did not mind sitting in a turret when they jumped to hyperspace, since the first officer was required to be on the bridge. He expected that the view would be quite spectacular.

Andriel had thrown out her pet ball, when Orlo had instructed her to. After they were back up to speed and caught up with the convoy, he felt that it would be safe for her to get up. He didn't believe anyone would be looking at his truck any more. He told her that when they get inside Old Town Factoryville, there was a place where some ruined buildings are pretty close to the road. He is going to fake a vehicle breakdown. All the convoy ahead of him will keep going. Everyone behind him will stop because they can't get around. He will get out of his truck cursing his bad luck, causing everyone to have their eyes on him. That would be the perfect time for her to get out of the truck and sneak into the ruins out of sight. It is important for her keep low, so that no-one will see her even if they notice her door open. He will eventually find the problem, blaming it on the rodent for loosening some wires in the cab. She needs to keep out of sight until the last vehicle passes, it will probably be the three legged Imperial walker. As soon as it passes she should get up out of her hiding place and start running behind the convoy. The walkers usually ignore single scavengers running behind the convoy. They are used to scavengers running behind the convoy until they reached a safe haven. It is only if a group comes out, that they will start shooting. Like if a street gang spots you and tries to chase you. Andriel was very appreciative of all Orlo's advice. She started rehearsing in her mind what was going to happen, and wondering when it would be safe to leave the main road, and start looking for a patrol to follow into the city. She absentmindedly started chewing on a piece of vegetable she found on the seat, that she did not pickup from before. Orlo had been watching her out of the corner of his eye. He really wanted to know what she was up to. Who did she want to help so bad, that she was willing to risk her life for them? He knew about her husband, the blue guy. He had heard as many good things about him as he had about her. Maybe someday he will get to meet him. He must be one special guy, to believe in his wife enough, to let her do this. Most guys would want to keep their wives chained to the stove in the kitchen.

Chitrah did not go all the way back to the common room after manoeuvres were completed. He kept to the shadows, trying to see what the nobles were doing. He actually did not need to worry about the nobles. They would not have recognised his face if he had been standing in front of them. The only thing about him they would have recognised, was the Denebrillan Star Silk shirt. The day after the theatre, they would have been hard pressed to remember the skin colour of the gentleman wearing the shirt. They had both fantasised about the outfits the couple wore. A few days later, if you had asked them to describe the couple wearing the outfits with the Denebrillan Star Silk shirt and blouse, they would have described themselves.

The technicians spotted him because they were looking for him. They wanted to know if they should be doing anything. Chitrah told them that what he usually does is talk to the captain, and ask if he has any cards or boards that he as a technician can look at. It gives him something to do with his time, and it puts him in the good books with the crew. He had already repaired all their cards and boards. Since this was the ship, and crew, that had brought him to Eriadu.

Now the technicians understood why the captain is so friendly with Chitrah, inviting him to the bridge. Chitrah told the technicians about the possible problem they may have. The nobles were both at the theatre when he and Andriel were there. If they recognise him, than they will know they were duped by the Ministry, which could really harm relationships with the Ministry. Both technicians promised that they would do whatever he asked them to do. Chitrah told them that the nobles appear to have retired to their cabins, so it was time he gave them a tour of the ship. Chitrah thought to himself that Andriel would do a better job at showing the ship then he would. He wondered if she was all right.

Andriel's heart was just pumping away. She had just made it to the broken down buildings and found a little nook that she could squeeze into and hide. She did not hear any shouting, just Orlo cursing his bad luck. In less than a minute, Orlo seemed to have found his problem and got the truck up and running. She did not know what he was doing, because it sounded really ruff to her. She bet he was having fun playing with his controls to cause this affect. When the last vehicle passed, she came out of her hiding place. She did not have to run hard to keep up with the convoy, since Orlo was preventing the convoy from reaching its cruising speed. The Imperial three legged walker had two pilots, one facing forward, the other facing rearward. Either pilot could control the walker, or the armament. For some reason she waved at the pilot of the three legged walker that was watching her, and the startled pilot waved back. They were pretty close to the truck compound in Old Town Factoryville, when Andriel finally got off the main road, and started making her way through the rubble to where she believed she could find a patrol to follow. She had already packed away the thermal blanket, and her nerf wool vest while in the truck, since it looked like it was going to be a hot day. She kept the hood up since it shaded her head. She found a place where she could watch and wait. She had a sip out of her canteen and rested, while waiting for the right patrol. When she felt rested she spotted a patrol that looked like they were heading in the direction of the building she had used to spot the Devaronians. She followed at what she believed was a safe distance, and was not able to spot anyone following her as she had before.

After the tour, Chitrah felt they should make their way back to the common room for lunch. He himself bypassed the common room asking one of the technicians to bring him his lunch on the bridge. When he reached the bridge he asked the captain if it was okay if he ate his lunch on the bridge. The captain said it was okay with him. But both he and the first officer wanted to know why? Chitrah told them about the evening at the theatre he and Andriel had been coerced into going, and how they were introduced to the nobles. The nobles that are here on this ship were there, and he was afraid to be recognised. The first officer had to laugh, she never met a couple before that had so many interesting stories. She bet Chitrah that without his outfit on they would not recognise him. They are so caught up in their own little world, that they probably could not tell the difference between him and one of the other technicians. Chitrah thought about it for a while. When he thought about how high the nobles esteemed themselves, and how low they esteemed everyone else, including their fellow humans, he believed she may be right. He felt much better, but thought it was wise not to take a chance.

The patrol looked like they were going to take a different route than what Andriel wanted to take, when they reached her building. So she ducked inside the building and found a place where she could watch the road for another patrol, and that she could watch if anyone approached her building. She broke out another cold ration kit to have for lunch while she waited. She told herself that she could not have any more kits that day. She would have to save them for when they were really needed. It wasn't long after she had finished her lunch that she spotted a patrol that looked like they were heading where she wanted to go.

After lunch Chitrah told the technicians to wear some loose but comfortable clothing. He had told the captain and first officer that he would be taking the technicians into one of the cargo bays to teach them the exercises. The captain told him to help themselves all their bays were empty. The first officer decided to tag along with Chitrah, she needed to exercise as well. The technicians were surprised to find the first officer with Chitrah. Chitrah explained what he wanted to teach them, and that both he and the first officer would be demonstrating the moves. The technicians realised that to Chitrah, the freighter crew were just part of his family, just like on Eriadu all the electronic technicians felt that they were part of his family. He was a man with a big heart. It wasn't long before they got the hang of what Chitrah and the first officer were doing. It felt good to stretch their bodies out. The married technician wanted to teach this to his wife, they had both complained that they needed something more physical in their life. The single technician wanted to teach this to his fiancée, he felt it could strengthen their relationship if they worked out together. Chitrah warned them that they might feel a little sore the following day. The solution to their soreness would be to do the exercises again a couple of times.

The patrol did not go all the way, to where Andriel had seen the Devaronians. The road from the military base to ¾'s of the way to the Devaronian community had at one time been a major thoroughfare with three lanes of traffic going in each direction. The thoroughfare ended in a traffic circle were the road looped around back on itself. The thoroughfare was impassable to vehicular traffic because of the number of large buildings that had collapsed across it. There were five other roads that came off the traffic circle. They were all small two lane traffic types, and the patrol chose the road next to the one Andriel wanted. She felt that the patrol was still close enough that she did not expect to be bothered by street gangs as she continued down the road she wanted. Andriel did not know that with her hood up, and her gloves on, she could not be distinguished as being Devaronian. From the way she had designed her outfit, it would take a careful observer to determine that she was female.

As she approached the buildings were she had spotted the Devaronians. But before she reached the square where the road ended, she saw one old Devaronian lady sitting in the entrance to what had once been a storefront. The Devaronians seemed to occupy two sides of the square, with a road coming off of each corner. The side of the square facing the center of the city was blasted rubble with no building standing, which was why she had been able to spot them in the first place. The old lady had spotted her and was watching her. Andriel believed her to be too old to be afraid of strangers. When Andriel entered the square, she was finally able to make out part of the sign over the storefront. It had been a dress shop. Andriel's heart really started pounding.

Andriel approached until she was less than two meters from the old Devaronian lady. The old lady had already guessed that Andriel was female. When Andriel took her hood off, she thought she saw a momentary spark in the old lady's eyes. She told the old lady that she had been raised from a child to be a seamstress, and she was hoping that the good mother would receive her as family (good mother, was a sign of respect, when addressing an elderly Devaronian lady, that you did not know).

"We don't have enough food to feed ourselves. What hope would we have of feeding you as well?"

"Hope has fed millions!"

Right at this moment a young teenage girl came to the door.

"Grandmother, who is this lady?" Grandmother looked at her granddaughter. She loved her so much, but could not give her what she needed. Right now she needed a good mother figure, even if it was for a short time.

"This is your aunt …er"

"Andriel"

"Right, this is your aunt, Andriel, she will be staying with us for a time."

"Andriel, this is my dear granddaughter Uleanna! She is my life. I am Dreamara!"

Dreamara noticed right away that Andriel was troubled and asked her what was wrong. Andriel told her that Dreamara is her mother's name.

"You can call me grandmother, just like everyone else."

"Uleanna, that's a beautiful name, it mean's flower. I bet you were named by your father."

"Why do you say that?"

"Most Devaronian fathers believe their little girls are flowers."

Uleanna looked at her grandmother, she had hope in her heart, something she had never felt since the invasion. "Grandmother, did papa name me?"

Grandmother stroked her head and said "Yes!"

Uleanna had always wanted something from her father, and now she had it, her name, and this lady had given it to her as a present.

"Uleanna why don't you show Aunt Andriel to your room, she will be sleeping with you."

Andriel asked if they have any hot water, she would like to make some tea. Grandmother was so excited that Andriel had brought some tea leaves with her. She told Andriel that they would have some hot water ready by the time she came back down. As Andriel walked through the storefront, she was bothered by how dirty it was. This family had lost hope. In the workshop she found everything covered with dust. It looked like it was all good quality equipment that had not been touched since the invasion. The kitchen was very clean, this room was important to them. The stove was just like the one in her mother's home on Deysum III. It could burn anything as a fuel source, her mother had gas piped to hers. Upstairs she found the living room and dining room covered in dust, obviously they were not used. Uleanna's room was the same size as hers had been on Deysum III, and so was the bed, it was nice and clean, which spoke well of Uleanna. It would not be too bad, with the two of them sleeping there. She was used to more room with the bed she shared with Chitrah. Uleanna showed her where she could hang up some clothes. The closet was pretty bare, she also showed her which drawer in the dresser she could use, if she wanted to put anything away. Andriel told her that the only thing she wanted right now was some tea, and pulled a packet of tea out of her bag. Uleanna could not remember what tea tasted like, but she knew that grandmother was really keen to have some, so they both rushed down stairs.

After dinner, all three technicians were found playing Hutt Wars on their computers. Chitrah had downloaded a copy of his onto theirs. The captain suggested that they all try to get some rest, since they would be jumping to hyperspace in what would be the middle of the night.

Chitrah thought he would wear his practise outfit, and try to use it as a mattress, and sleep in the cargo bay. Since they only had two cabins assigned to them. It was a big mistake. The suits were designed to absorb contact energy by quickly deflating at the point of contact, then re-inflating after the contact pressure was removed, that meant that it had a built in threshold level that would cause it to deflate when it was reached. When Chitrah lay down on the cargo bay floor, the pressure in his butt region and shoulder blades, were over the threshold limit causing the suit to deflate in those areas. Since the downward pressure was not that much over the threshold value, when compared to a blow, the suit deflated slowly. But in about 10 to 15 minutes, his butt and back would be resting on the floor. His head would have been forced forward, with his chin resting on his chest, since the threshold level in the suit around his neck and head was not reached until his back was resting on the floor. His arms and lower part of his legs never reached the threshold level, which placed his body in awkward positions to try and sleep. Chitrah found that he always needed to roll around if he wanted to keep padding between himself and the floor. He found his body really starting to crave sleep. So he stopped moving around and let things settle where they may. Just as he was starting to drift off to sleep, the captain came by and woke him up telling him that they had 15 maybe 20 minutes before they jumped to hyperspace. He helped Chitrah out of his practise suit, and led him to one of the gun turrets, making sure he was properly strapped in before leaving for the bridge.

Grandmother made her tea lighter than Andriel normally would. She told Andriel that it was so long since she had tea that she did not want to make her first cup too strong, and ruin it. Andriel made her cup and the cup for Uleanna just as strong as Grandmother's. After taking a moment to enjoy the first few sips. Grandmother proceeded to give Andriel a grand tour of their kitchen. Andriel picked up a medium sized bowl and handed it to Uleanna. She asked that the next time she had a bowel movement that she do it in the bowl. Uleanna started complaining, why did she have to do it, why couldn't grandmother or Andriel do it? Andriel crossed her arms, and had a mischievous smile on her face. She told Uleanna that since both she and grandmother are adults, they were so full of crap, that if they tried to use that bowl it would overflow, and they would have quite the mess on their hands. Grandmother almost sprayed everyone with tea, as she was taking a sip while Andriel was giving her nonsense explanation. She could not help but breakdown and laugh. Andriel and Uleanna laughed with her. This was the first time Uleanna had heard grandmother laugh since before she lost her parents. She decided right there and then, that she would do anything this good lady asked of her. Grandmother asked if there was anything else that she wanted them to do. Andriel told them she wanted them to start collecting their urine, whenever they went pee, and place it in the large waterproof urn they had in the kitchen. They might need to alter the lid to the urn if it wasn't able to keep the smell from seeping into the kitchen. Both grandmother and Uleanna, realised that Andriel had a plan for living with them. For the first time in more than four years they started to have hope for tomorrow, and they both placed their faith in Andriel. Andriel made them all a second cup of tea, and when she handed it to them she told them that it was to help them all pee better, which caused them all to laugh again.

Some of grandmother's neighbours had seen her invite this stranger into her home, and had snuck around to the back kitchen door to try and hear what they said. They could not make out what they said, but twice now they heard laughter coming from the kitchen, and detect a comforting smell, but it was not strong enough for them to know what it was. They had tears in their eyes because they longed to be in there with them. Could they dare hope that this stranger would bring change to their lives, in a good way? Uleanna's best friend Matrucy asked her mother if she could go knock on their front doorway, she did not believe that Uleanna would turn her away. Her mother told her that she believed as her daughter, but it was best for tonight that they be left alone, as a family. Tomorrow is a new day, it might be the start of a new future.

After the jump to hyperspace, the captain went back to check on Chitrah. He found him asleep in the gunner's seat. He unbuckled his harness and woke him up. He led the sleepy Chitrah to his on cabin and let him lay on top of his own bunk, and covered him with a blanket. Chitrah thanked Andriel for looking after him, and went to sleep. That comment brought a smile to the captain's face. He was sure to tell the first officer when he relieved her for the night.

When they sat down at the kitchen table to enjoy their second cup of tea. Grandmother decided to tell Andriel about what happened here, when the Sith Empire invaded.

"They were huddled in the workshop when Uleanna's mother remembered that she needed to get something. Uleanna's father was with them since he was on leave. They heard her mother scream, and her father ran outside to help her, I and Uleanna followed. An Imperial Trooper had grabbed Uleanna's mother and has dragging her to a hollow in the ground made by an artillery shell, he was intent on raping her. Uleanna's father attacked the trooper with his bare hands because he wanted to help his wife. She had managed to get his blaster pistol free, and shot him repeatedly until she was sure that he was dead."

"The Imperials started shooting at them, because now they were resistance fighters. Uleanna's father picked up the dead trooper's blaster rifle and started shooting back. He did a good job for someone who had never touched a blaster rifle before. He scored a couple of hits on exposed troopers, and his wife was right beside him blasting away with the pistol. Finally a couple of troopers had worked their way close enough to them, that they were able to lob a couple of grenades at them. We heard two quick explosions and then they were dead. I had to pin Uleanna to the ground with my own body to keep her from running to her parents."

"After the explosions, and the troopers were sure they were dead, they rushed the square. One of the troopers grabbed me intending to rape me, and Uleanna who had been crying, started to scream. A couple of his own troopers shamed him, asking why he grabbed an old lady when there were so many beautiful young ladies around for the taking. He let me go and I was able to hold Uleanna and comfort her and shield her with my body, while all around us we heard the crying and the sobbing of women being raped, and their children screaming. Every single Devaronian male who was home on leave was killed, trying to protect the women in his family, whether it was wife, or mother, sister, or daughter. I was the only Devaronian woman who was not raped that night, and the only elder of all the clans that survived the night."'

"If I did not have Uleanna to look after, I would have attacked the Troopers with my bare hands until they were forced to kill me. Some of the rapist after raping a mother would slaughter the whole family to silence any witnesses. We felt as if the Imperials had taken all the inmates of an insane institution, covered them with armour, placed a blaster rifle in their hands, and unleashed them on us."

Andriel had put her cup of tea on the table and went up to grandmother, hugging her with tears in her eyes. She then motioned Uleanna to come to her, who ran into her arms crying. Andriel could not imagine the suffering that her people had gone through, but grandmother's description was enough to break her heart. After they cried themselves out, grandmother continued her story.

"Next day the survivors from all the clans came to me for comfort and help. I had remembered that there was a bitter wild plant, that if you drink the extract it could induce a miscarriage. So I described the plant to the women and they went out looking for it. I boiled up a large pot of bitter tea, enough for everyone, including the young girls, because some of them had been violated. Everyone drank the tea except for one young mother, who refused. She claimed that she was pregnant before the invasion, and was not about to give up the last present her dead husband gave her, who died trying to protect her honour. It was rumoured that she had been raped multiple times by a number of Troopers while they held her baby daughter hostage, after killing her husband."

"We told her that it was not our way to force her, but it was a dangerous way to bring a Devaronian child into the world, when there was no family, our clan, to nurture the child while it was still in the womb. She said that a mother's love should be enough for any child, and left us. I organised the women into making a large funeral pyre to burn all the bodies of our dead. I asked them to remember as many as they could, so that when the time came we could pay homage to them. Any dead Imperial troopers that were found were dragged out to the wasteland, that area where you saw all the bombed out buildings as you approached the square. We left them for the Eriadu rats to feast on. Since we knew that the Imperials hated the rats, especially since they found them feasting on their wounded, and not just their dead. The hardest part was trying to convince the women not to hate the Imperials, because it would cause more harm to themselves, and their families. I told them that the men who raped them would not remember them, so why should they hurt themselves by holding on to the bad memories. They had to move on and live."

"I wasn't strong enough to keep everyone together. As food became scares, and no help came, the community fractured. Everyone looked out only for themselves. I think the Imperials hoped we would all die, so that the shame of what they did would be covered. Andriel I was too weak, I could not keep my people together."

Grandmother started crying again, both Andriel and Uleanna comforted her. Andriel told her that it takes more than one person to hold a community together. The community has to want it, knowing that it is in their best interest. Grandmother started stroking Andriel's face with her hand.

"Maybe because you are here, they might want to unite again and stand as one."

Andriel said she hoped so, and grandmother rubbed cheeks with her. When Uleanna saw grandmother rub cheeks with Andriel, she wanted to as well, before her parents died she had seen adults do it, and wanted to try it herself. Andriel asked grandmother if it was okay for them to do it. Uleanna did not know why Andriel had asked grandmother, but was happy she agreed. The experience was so amazing that she wanted to do it again. Andriel would not do it and gave her the same lecture her mother had given her. She told her to trust her grandmother's judgment on this. "She only let us, because now we are family." Now Uleanna understood why Andriel had first asked grandmother.

The technicians had woken up before Chitrah did, and went looking for him. They found his practise suit in the cargo bay, but no Chitrah. They took Chitrah's suit to the cabin that held all his other belongings, but before they could search further, they were instructed to return to their chairs to prepare for dropping out of hyperspace. After dropping out of hyperspace, they found Chitrah on the bridge eating breakfast. They asked him if he was alright. He told them that he was fine, he was even visited by an angel last night. The captain and first officer started laughing. That was the first time that anyone had called the captain an angel. With his red looking skin and two devilish looking horns, he was often called a demon.

Even Andriel remembered to deposit her urine in the designated urn. She had brought only one night shirt with her. The night shirt that Uleanna wore looked like she outgrew it a few years back. Andriel made a mental note that she would have to sew her a new one, in fact most of Uleanna's clothes looked too small for her. Andriel had a lot of work ahead of her. Uleanna was very excited that they would be sleeping together. Andriel had to remind her that they needed to sleep and not stay up all night talking. After all, a lot of what they would talk about was important to grandmother too. Uleanna agreed, and fell asleep with one hand touching Andriel's shoulder, almost like she needed reassurance that Andriel was real. When Andriel knew Uleanna was asleep she kissed her on her forehead which brought a smile to Uleanna's face, and dropped asleep shortly afterwards.

In the morning, sunlight was the alarm clock. Uleanna told Andriel that every morning, the water gets turned on for a couple of hours. They can shower then, but they only have cold water. Grandmother usually fills enough pots in the kitchen so that they have enough water for the day. They both undressed and waited in the bathroom for the water to come on. While they were waiting, Andriel showed Uleanna the bar of soap she had brought. Uleanna wanted to smell it, Andriel let her, but told her that she brought some without perfume. Perfumed soap can give you away, if you are trying to hide from someone. Uleanna understood the wisdom of that, for when she is out hunting for food, and anything that will burn in their stove. It was funny that when the water started moving through the pipes, both ladies felt the need for a bowel movement. Uleanna remembered to use the bowl Andriel had handed to her. She asked Andriel what to do with it. Andriel told her to leave it where it is, they will use it once they were dressed. Uleanna only turned the shower open to a trickle, she said she did this because she hoped the heat that was still in the house would warm it up a little bit. They both wet themselves under the trickle than took turns lathering their bodies with the soap. They both found that if they kept close to one another they could use each other's body heat to keep warm. They lathered each other's backs to make sure they were completely lathered. They stood under the shower head just out of the reach of the stream of water. Uleanna asked Andriel if she was ready, when she heard that she was, Uleanna opened the faucet all the way. They both screamed when their bodies were shocked by the sudden flow of cold water. Than they laughed because the other person screamed. They both took as little time as possible to rinse themselves off, and grabbed towels to dry their shivering bodies. The last person under the showerhead was responsible for shutting the water off. Grandmother heard the screams from upstairs, followed by the laughter, it warmed her heart to have happy family in the house. She checked to make sure they still had some embers burning in the stove. She added more fuel, and blew it into a fire, and placed a pot on the stove to boil water. They will both want a cup of hot tea when they dressed and came down. They were both grateful for the cup of hot tea. Grandmother apologised that Andriel's tea was all she could offer them for breakfast. Andriel told her it was all right. She expected that this would be the last time any of them had tea for breakfast. Grandmother was puzzled, if they weren't going to have tea, than what would they have? Andriel told grandmother that Uleanna told her that she prefers baths. Did she draw enough water to have a bath tonight? Grandmother said she did not want one. Andriel brought out a brand new bar of soap, "Even if you have this?"

Since the tub was in the kitchen, grandmother quickly organised a fire brigade to get water to the tub before the water stopped flowing. They were able to get more than enough water for grandmother to have a bath tonight. She put the bar of soap where it could be easily reached from the tub. She asked Andriel what other interesting things, did she bring with her? Andriel smiled and said she will see.

Andriel went through the odds and ends drawer, she knew that every Devaronian has one, and pulled out items that might be useful. She checked what tools they had, and picked out what she could use to cut wire. She handed Uleanna a large spoon, and asked her to retrieve her bowl from the bathroom upstairs. Uleanna was confused, "you're not going to eat it?"

Which made Andriel laugh. "I may do crazy things, but nothing that crazy."

Andriel followed Uleanna upstairs and went into their bedroom. She emptied the contents of the bag on the bed, putting the spool of wire back in the bag. She went back down stairs and placed all the other items she picked out in the bag. Uleanna was waiting for her with the stinky bowl in one hand and the spoon in the other. They all followed Andriel outside. Uleanna's best friend Matrucy was also waiting, but kept herself hid, she wanted to see what they were up to. Andriel slowly walked out, away from the building, it was obvious that she was looking for something, but nobody knew what. Suddenly she saw what she was looking for and quickly walked toward it. She found what looked like a hollow amongst the rubble, and a number of small trails leading to it. She asked Uleanna to place a scoop of poop, in the place she indicated. It would be in the shade all day, so it will not dry out quickly. Andriel had her gloves on and proceeded to make a snare out of the wire and anchored it next to a trail. She then went and placed snares at every trail leading down to the hollow. She then explained to grandmother and Uleanna what she had done. She told them she was hoping to snare a chinchawwa or two. She told them how chinchawwa's liked to eat rotten vegetables. The poop had a close enough smell that the chinchawwas would be attracted to it to investigate. If they could catch any part of their body in the snare, then they could kill it and make a meal of it. Both grandmother and Uleanna had seen lots of chinchawwas about. They were too fast to catch and no-one had thought of snaring one, until now. When they came across a clump of sweetweed Andriel asked Uleanna to pick some leaves, but not by the roots, and not all of it, so the plant can grow back. Uleanna did and handed the leaves to Andriel. Andriel put one in her mouth, and handed one to each of them to try. Uleanna hesitated, she told Andriel that she heard that sweetweed was poisonous. Andriel told her that she was correct, it could kill a Twi'lek, but she wasn't a Twi'lek, but a Devaronian, and Devaronians can eat things that others find poisonous. Uleanna tried it and was surprised that it actually tasted sweet. She told Andriel that there were hundreds of these plants all over the place and no-one touches them. Andriel told her that the other Devaronians will, once they find out. So they have to stay smart, and make sure that they always have some to harvest. The sweetweed was full of vitamins and important nutrients important to the health of growing children and pregnant women. Uleanna asked Andriel, how the other Devaronians would find out about the sweetweed? Andriel replied, by telling her that they would tell them. It would be wrong to keep that information to themselves. Grandmother agreed with Andriel. Uleanna didn't argue she just knew that it would be harder to find, once word got out. Andriel found another place to set up some snares, and showed Uleanna the best place to place the poop. Uleanna found some more sweetweed and picked it like Andriel told her to. Andriel found a third place for snares, and after she had it set it up to her liking, she told Uleanna that it was now her responsibility to check the snares every morning and every evening, and to bring water or urine to make sure their bait stays moist and stinky. If it dries out or disappears in was her responsibility to make sure it gets replaced. She handed Uleanna her bag and asked if she could pick some sweetweed for their lunch. She kept a handful to share with grandmother as they walked home.

Andriel put away everything she had left on the bed. She hung up her two outfits, and placed everything else in the drawer Uleanna said she could use. When she was finished, she went downstairs to the storefront and started cleaning it up. She found an old potbellied stove in the corner which would be perfect to sit around, to talk and share tea. As she was cleaning it up, she found a bin containing coal, she was sure grandmother had forgotten about it. She called grandmother to come to the storefront, as grandmother started to do so, an excited Uleanna stuck her head in the back door and yelled, "We caught one! Aunt Andriel we caught a chinchawwa!"

Both Andriel and grandmother rushed out the back door, only Andriel stopped in the kitchen to grab a sharp knife, and the first clean bowl she could get her hands on. They followed Uleanna to where they had snared their first chinchawwa. The creature was not happy that it was caught, and did not know what to make of these creatures approaching it. They did not smell like a ratporcus, so it did not know if it should be afraid of them. As Andriel approached the chinchawwa she handed the bowl to Uleanna, who understood she should follow Andriel.

Andriel held her left hand high in the air, as if she had something in it. The curious chinchawwa stretched its neck to try to get a look at what Andriel might have in her hand. Suddenly Andriel's right hand flashed out with the knife in hand, and she was successfully able to cut off the chinchawwa's head. Andriel told Uleanna to quickly put the bowl under the severed neck to try and catch as much of the chinchawwa's blood as possible. Uleanna had been as mesmerized by Andriel's left hand as the chinchawwa, and had only seen what Andriel did with her right hand out of the corner of her eye. She jumped into action when Andriel called her name. She asked Andriel why they were collecting the creature's blood. Andriel told her there were a number of reasons. First they want to minimise the smell of blood where they are trying to snare chinchawwa. If the smell of blood is too strong, it will scare away the chinchawwa, but attract Eriadu rats. The Eriadu rats were like rats anywhere else in the galaxy, except they had six legs. Second, the blood of the chinchawwa will help with a project she needs to work on. Some species like to drink the blood of the creatures they kill. Andriel thought about Shaak and the Togruta, but they are not one of them.

Matrucy, who had witnessed everything, and had picked some sweetweed for herself, and tasted it when she saw the others eating it. She ran home and told her mother that the stranger had been eating sweetweed all morning and has just caught and killed a chinchawwa. The daughter handed her mother some sweetweed for her to try, at first she hesitated, but when she saw her daughter was eating it she gave it a try. Then the two of them ran up the stairs to the roof of their home and went over to the side Matrucy indicated, and carefully looked over the side of the building trying not to be seen. Sure enough the stranger was kneeling over something, and doing something, with grandmother and Uleanna kneeling down, watching what she was doing. Andriel had moved the carcass once no more blood came out of the neck. She had reset the snare and told Uleanna that they should come back with some urine to wash the blood away. Urine is a smell equally as strong as blood, but the chinchawwa are not bothered by it. Next Andriel proceeded to gut the creature. After removing the intestines she took them over to one side and started emptying their contents into the bowl with blood. After she finished that, she separated the internal organs into what had good nutritional value for them and what they should use, to try and bate a ratporcus. She placed the stomach with the intestines and spleen and pancreas, along with the head she retrieved, and kept the kidneys, liver and heart with the carcass. Andriel then started constructing a trap for the ratporcus, using a piece of rubble that would be large enough to crush the skull of the ratporcus if it triggered the trap. Andriel had Uleanna help her, and warned her that they had to be careful because the piece of rubble was heavy enough to crush their foot if they accidently triggered it. Uleanna could tell that Andriel was really straining to get the trap set up, and did everything Andriel told her to do, as carefully, and as quickly as possible. When Andriel thought it was ready she told Uleanna to back away quickly. Then Andriel gradually let go, ready to move an extremity, quickly, if she had to. When she had let go completely she backed slowly away, in case she made any sort of ground vibration that would trigger the trap.

While Andriel rested from all that strenuous exertion, she told Uleanna to only mist the items on the trigger with water when she does her daily rounds, and not to touch the trigger. If she sees any children, she is to tell them to stay away, or the mean lady in the house will come out and beat them. Uleanna laughed at that, but knew it would be more effective than telling them it could hurt them, because they would want to try and figure it out. Andriel picked up what was left of their bounty and they all went inside. Andriel found a very large pot and half filled it with water. She asked grandmother if she still had any spice or seasonings that could add flavour to a meat stock. Grandmother had not used them in such a long time that she did not know if she had any left. She was actually quite surprised that she still had a decent stock of spices and seasonings. Andriel told her that she was throwing the liver, kidney, and heart, into the pot, and she should add whatever seemed appropriate. The only thing that grandmother did not have, but would have liked to add it to the pot was salt. Andriel told them that they needed to bring the pot to a boil, then maintain it at a simmer night and day or it would spoil. The liquid they would drink from the pot will be their breakfast, and would give them energy and nourishment to help them start each day. Now grandmother understood why Andriel did not think they would be drinking tea for breakfast anymore. Grandmother asked Andriel if she should add anything to the meat. Andriel thought that because it was their first one, and they did not know how it would taste, they should try it plain. Then they would have an idea what to add to improve its flavour. They placed the body of the creature on a tray and placed it in the oven to cook, and grandmother added more fuel to the fire. Andriel had already told them that they were not throwing out any part of the creature, whatever they did not eat with their sweetweed salad would be tossed into the pot, bones and all. At this time they heard a knocking at the storefront doorway. Matrucy and her mother were standing there. Grandmother invited them in and introduced Aunt Andriel to them. They would have liked to invite them to lunch, but did not think they had enough to go around. If they were patient she would get some water boiling and offer them some tea. They both eagerly wanted to have a cup of tea. The mother noticed that someone had been cleaning in the storefront. They were ushered through the workshop, into the kitchen, where grandmother put another pot on the stove, to boil some water. The mother asked about the sweetweed her daughter had seen them eat. She had always thought it was poisonous. Uleanna told her that it was poisonous to Twi'leks, but not Devaronians, in fact it has many vitamins and nutrients that are important to growing children and pregnant women. Uleanna's friend was impressed that she knew so much. Grandmother and Andriel just smiled.

Uleanna continued by telling them that they need to be careful when picking the leaves. They should not pull up any roots and should leave enough of the leaves that the plant could continue to grow. Uleanna's friend became embarrassed because she had plucked all the leaves off of the plant she had shared with her mother. Her mother found it hard to believe that they had a food source growing under their noses that they did not know about until this Auntie came along and told them.

"My daughter told me that you caught and killed a chinchawwa. Is that true, and how did you do it?"

Grandmother and Andriel looked at Uleanna. She was beaming knowing they had given her the opportunity to explain. She told them that they are cooking it in the oven. Mother got up and asked grandmother if it was alright to take a quick look. Grandmother gave her permission. When she opened the door to the oven they could all smell that meat was cooking, and more than one stomach started to growl.

Mother asked them again, how they caught it? Uleanna told her that they put out bait, whose smell would attract them, and Aunt Andriel had set up snares so that no matter which way the Chinchawwa approached the bait it would get caught in one of the snares. Mother asked what they used for bait. Uleanna giggled and said poop. Uleanna's friend looked at her with wide eyes and mouthed the word poop. When Uleanna nodded yes, she also giggled. Mother was astonished, how could poop attract them. Uleanna told her that Chinchawwa like to eat rotting vegetation, and rotting vegetation smells like poop. Both girls were now giggling together. Mother smiled to see her daughter enjoying herself with her friend. She hoped that they would have many more opportunities to share happy times.

Mother asked Aunt Andriel if she would set up snares for them. Andriel told her no. Everyone in the room looked at Andriel, this was not the answer they expected. Andriel told her that she has too many things to do. She can show her how to make a snare and how to anchor it. But if she wanted to set up snares she would have to do it herself, and she would have to negotiate the cost of the wire with grandmother. She was sure grandmother would include the fee for having Uleanna select the spot where they should set up the snares.

Andriel asked Uleanna if there was any bait left. Uleanna giggled, and said that she thought there was enough for one more site, after that they would have to supply their own bait, which made her friend giggle. Grandmother had to hand it to Andriel. She just let everyone know that she wasn't here for charity. She would only help people who would help themselves, and there was a fee for her services. This was the Devaronian way. What a smart young lady her adopted daughter is.

Both technicians wanted Chitrah to go over the exercises with them after breakfast. They were both feeling stiff and wanted to work the stiffness out.

Because no-one had any credits to exchange, the financial agreement worked out, came in the form of an IOU. Amongst Devaronians this was just as good as credits, and could be exchanged between individuals, they just needed to inform the author of the IOU, who was holding it, so that they knew who to pay when they finally had credits on hand, or maybe they had something they could exchange with the new holder to get their IOU back. They did not extend this courtesy to other species, since no other species had a similar understanding of business, and the burden of debt. After they had their lunch Uleanna would go over to their house, and help them find a place, to place the bait and set up snares. She would then come and get Andriel who would take the wire they purchased and use part of it to set up and anchor the first snare. She would stick around while they made up their first snare and anchored it, just to make sure they understood her instructions. It would be up to Uleanna, whether she would hang around with them to scout out new locations to bait and snare. Only they would have to supply the bait and set up the snares.

They found the meat to be a little bland. Which was a good thing. This gave them many more options for adding spice and seasonings. It wasn't the best meal they ever eat, but they all felt full. For grandmother and Uleanna, this was the first time in more than four years that they felt this way. Andriel went back to cleaning the storefront. Then she remembered to tell grandmother about the coal. Grandmother took the coal and hid it away for an emergency. After Andriel finished with the storefront, she started cleaning out the workshop. It sure would have been nice to have a household droid with a vacuum attachment.

Chitrah and his fellow technicians spent the rest of the day playing Hutt Wars. They would be docking with the spaceport over Seswenna at about 2 in the morning by their internal clock. They did not want to lay down for a nap, in case they would have become too groggy when they docked. They felt they would have a chance to rest once they reached the surface. After docking they took the shuttle down to Seswenna City. It was around 10 in the morning local time. Their bodies were about 7.5 hours behind local time, and they were starting to feel it.

When they showed up at the Ministry, there was some confusion as to what they were doing there. The office had some jobs for them to get started on right away, and there was no mention of accommodations. Chitrah had to explain that they did not have the right equipment to start working, and the Moff gave them permission to come to Seswenna to buy the additional equipment they needed.

They wouldn't listen to him. So he told them he was going into an empty meeting room to rest until they contacted Eriadu to straighten out this mess. The Ministry Officials bristled at the thought of contacting Eriadu. Seswenna was the capitol planet of the sector, so the Eriadu office was inferior to them. Chitrah told them that they should contact the Moff's office directly, if they were not going to contact the Ministry offices on Eriadu. They told him that they could not contact the Moff's office about such a little thing, they would appear incompetent. Chitrah told them that if they did not call the Moff's office, he would, because he had permission (he was bluffing). The bluff worked, they agreed to contact the Moff's office. So Chitrah and the two technicians picked up their gear and walked out of the inner office.

In the outer office they asked a secretary to find out which meeting rooms nearby were not in use. The meeting room around the corner was not being used. He told her to designate it as being in use, he would be having a meeting there with his fellow technicians. He then asked her when she would be taking her lunch break, she shyly asked him why? He told her that their internal time is out of sync with local time, and they might forget to break for lunch. She told them she would be taking her lunch break in two hours. Chitrah asked her if she could contact their meeting room a few minutes before going for lunch, the three of them would love to escort her. She turned a little red, but told them she could not turn down such a nice offer.

When they got to the meeting room, they turned out the lights and locked the door and stretched out on the soft carpet.

One of the technicians asked Chitrah if Andriel knew he was such a smooth talker. Chitrah's reply was, "how do you think I won her heart." They all fell asleep right away, and were awaken by the computer, saying that a secretary was trying to reach them. Chitrah asked that she be put through, the secretary told them that she was ready to go for lunch, and why did they not respond the first few times the computer tried contacting them? Chitrah asked, how long had the computer been trying to contact them? She told them at least ten minutes, she was about to get security to check on them. Chitrah apologised, saying that they were so caught up in what they were doing, that they did not notice the computer until now. She told them they owed her lunch since she is late taking her break. Chitrah agreed, and told her they will be right out. The technicians liked the way he covered their not getting back in touch with her right away.

Chitrah reminded them that all the conversations through the system are monitored, so you don't want to admit you are sleeping on the job. They had a good laugh, while they went to find the nice secretary. They left their equipment with a secretary who had just come back from his lunch break. The secretary they escorted was somewhat disappointed when she found out that two of them were married and the other one was engaged. Chitrah made mental note of that fact, because he did not know. The last time he was on Eriadu this gentleman was complaining that there were no opportunities to take a young lady for a date. She did introduce them to her friends. They all started to ask Chitrah questions, when they found out he is on loan from a different sector. Chitrah apologised to them that he could not answer a lot of their questions because they were enquiring in an area where his wife had the expertise. So they started asking him questions about his wife. The married technician with him, decided he would try to answer these questions, since Chitrah had not had much opportunity to eat. He started by describing her personality. How she was a friendly, outgoing, lady, who radiated positive energy, able to find opportunities others had overlooked. She was a beautiful, bright, lady, who was not out of place associating with the cream of society. Yet would not look down on any hard working individual. She was very approachable, by just about anyone, and she is Devaronian. They jaws on all the secretaries dropped when he told them she was Devaronian. They had all pictured a young lady as blue as Chitrah. One of the secretaries accused the technician of making it all up. There was no such lady as she described. The technician assured them it was all true. The other technician also backed him up. They told them that their Moff had asked Chitrah and his wife to take his place at a theatrical engagement with the nobles of Eriadu. Now the nobles of Eriadu are the biggest snobs in the galaxy. All the top officials were having fits about how this event would go over. They expected it to be one major disaster. They should not have worried, the Moff's chauffeur, who was a friend of theirs told them that by the end of the evening she had them all eating out of the palm of her hand. We did not believe it at first, since she had always been nice to us technicians. But the rumours going around the Ministry afterwards backed up everything the chauffer told us.

The single technician told the secretaries that he had complained to Chitrah's wife the last time they came to Eriadu, that there was no places to take a young lady on a date, except to the brothels. All the secretaries turned up their noses at that idea. She had suggested that they go to the Ministry Archives. There is hardly anyone there, so they did not have to worry about privacy. They have hundreds of thousands of vids on almost any topic they can think of, the staff is very helpful in helping them find a selection if they have never been there before. "I took her advice, and now I am engaged to be married, because of her. The archives are now the place you want to take a person to, on a date." The secretaries were all enthralled by this lady they never met, and wanted to ask more questions, until one of them reminded them that they all had to get back to work. The technicians escorted their secretary friend back to the office and went to collect their equipment. The secretary they had left it with, told them that the officials from the inner office were looking for them, and they were not happy, apparently the person in the Moff's office really chewed them out for ignoring the communiqué coming from the Eriadu office. They are supposed to follow the directions of the one called Chitrah, because he knows what he is doing.

They thanked him and went into the inner office. It was nice to see there was no more chest beating, going on. They told Chitrah they had located the electronic store he had been told about, and asked him when he would like to go? He said right away. He also asked them, when they would be leaving to go back to Eriadu? They told him they were working on it, and would let him know. He told them that they would not need to spend much time on Eriadu, to get the technicians familiar with all the equipment they would be purchasing, so they should expect them to be back shortly, to complete all the work they had arranged for them. One of the officials accompanied them to the electronics store, since he had all the credits they would need for purchasing the equipment.

After Uleanna helped her friend and her mother pick a couple more sites for snares and bait, she came back home and helped Andriel carry rolls of fabric up to the roof, so that they could get the dust off them. Andriel showed her what she did with the blood and feces mixture she made from the chinchawwa they killed that morning. She had spread in on a thin tray so that it will dry. Later she will mix it with dirt to try and make a soil that they can grow sweetweed in, and any other edible plants Uleanna finds, so that Uleanna can spend less time looking for food and more time working in the workshop, because Andriel thinks they will soon be busy.

Uleanna was excited about being able to work in the workshop. As a child she loved watching her mother put together outfits for other people, and she had even started teaching Uleanna before she was killed. She had hoped that she could have made her mother proud of her, as she was proud of her mother. With Aunt Andriel's help she might be able to do it. After they had moved all the fabric, Andriel sent her back out to pick some more sweetweed for their dinner, and to check the bait and snares on her way back. She reminded her to take water to make sure the baits stays moist.

On Uleanna's way back, she found another Chinchawwa in one of their snares and ran home to get Aunt Andriel. This time when they gutted the chinchawwa, they did not use the intestines and internal organs to make another trap. Andriel found that trap making drained a lot of energy out of her, and she did not want a lot of traps around where people could be hurt. Instead the internal organs went into the pot. The intestines were cut into 1.5 meter lengths, and were washed inside and out and left to dry on the roof. Andriel believed they might find a use for them and did not want to discard them.

At the electronics shop, they were able to find most of the items on Chitrah's list. But there were a couple of key items missing. The owner of the shop suggested that they try a local market, where merchants sell whatever they can salvage from buildings that were destroyed during the invasion, and were being removed for future construction. He told the official where to find the market, since he was the only one familiar with the city. Chitrah noticed the other shops nearby. A lot of them carried items they could not get on Eriadu.

Chitrah suggested that the technicians check out the shops. They might find some nice items for their ladies. If they do buy anything, remember to buy some for the other guys in the lab, for their ladies. If they look after their brothers, their brothers will look after them, when they get the chance. They understood what Chitrah was saying, and agreed with him. They knew they would have no problem being paid back the credits they would fork out, and it would help maintain the atmosphere of the lab, where they look out for one another. Chitrah went with the official to check out the market. While the two technicians stayed behind to check out the shops. The official did not know about the market before today, but saw some interesting things that caught his eye. He would have to come back on his own time to check them out. After questioning a couple of the vendors, Chitrah was able to find all the items they were still looking for. He had to buy one extra item, because it was of poor quality, and Chitrah felt he could salvage enough components from the two poor items to make one good one.

Chitrah also found something that would interest Andriel. A damaged weaver's loom. He was sure Andriel could make it work again. He asked the vendor, what was it? The vendor did not know. Chitrah told him that it looked damaged, and asked him what he was asking for it. The vendor stated a price, and Chitrah shook his head and walked away. He would have to bring Andriel here to have a look at it. He was sure it would be sitting in the market for a few more months gathering dust. He was also sure Andriel could get it for at least half the price the vendor had just quoted. He hoped she was okay, and not in over her head with whatever she was doing. After going back to pick up the technicians, the official took them back to the Ministry. The officials at the Ministry asked them if they were able to purchase everything they came to Seswenna for? Chitrah told them they had. The officials told them that that was good, because they just have enough time to get to the shuttle terminal, to catch a flight to the spaceport. They are booked on a freighter heading back to Eriadu, in less than 1 hour.

The seasoning and spices grandmother used when cooking this second chinchawwa, made a big difference in the way it tasted. Andriel could imagine it being served in a high end dinner, the way the flavours came out, and told grandmother. Uleanna agreed with Andriel. They could tell grandmother enjoyed the compliments. During their dinner Andriel asked grandmother if it was okay if she covered up the windows in the storefront with fabric, she did not think it was good for the wind to be able to blow dust and dirt into the house. When she finds some oil or fat, she will coat the fabric so that more light would shine through it. She would like to hang strips of weighted fabric over the entrance to the storefront to keep critters and large insects out. Grandmother liked the idea and gave her permission. After dinner Andriel went back to cleaning in the workshop. Uleanna helped grandmother heat some water for her bath.

The freighter they were booked on was the newest model Chitrah had encountered. It was a Wayfarer Medium Transport, manufactured by Kuat Systems Engineering. It was originally designed for a crew of eight, two being dedicated gunners, but most transport companies found that a crew of three was sufficient. It was rated for 6 passengers but had seating for 14, with no passenger cabins. It was originally designed for inner system commerce, with the occasional quick hop through hyperspace to a neighbouring system. It had the bridge at the front, with a crew lounge right behind it, there was a spiral staircase down to the crew's washroom and the lower crew cabins, usually occupied by the captain and first officer. In back of the crew lounge, where two more cabins for the crew, only one of which was occupied by the gunner/maintenance technician/ freight hauler. There was a long series of cargo lockers behind the cabins, they were called lockers because they were too small to be considered bays. At the end of the length of cargo lockers the ship expanded out like a cross wing but chunkier for the passenger seating area. On each end of the wing was a laser cannon, that could be controlled from each of the gunner's positions on the bridge using a VTS (Virtual Targeting System). Behind the passenger seating area was the power plants for the lasers, behind that was the food area and washrooms for the passengers. Behind that section were the escape pods. The captain and first officer were Human, the third crew member was Devaronian. Even though they were all very tired, Chitrah asked the captain if he could run static and dynamic maintenance programs on their bridge electronics, just so that he can show the other technicians how it is done. He had one of the technicians bring his electronic equipment to the bridge, along with all the additional equipment they picked up on Seswenna. Chitrah then connected the equipment so the technicians understood how it was done. They also understood why Chitrah had not have them do it on the out bound flight, since they did not have all the equipment they needed. Chitrah thought it would be a quick exercise, since the equipment was all new, it should not have had a chance to drift out of tolerance. All the bridge equipment passed with flying colours, except one navigational component. It was way out of whack. This was not what anyone expected, and Chitrah was able to adjust it to the specifications in the captain's manual.

What had bothered the crew about that piece of equipment, was their VTS was interlinked with it. The way it was before, they would not have been able to hit anything they thought they were aiming at. They were happy that Chitrah had tested it. Now they had a very good chance of running off pirate attacks. The captain was sure to let head office know. Who knows how many other ships have the same problems. The technicians were not keen on trying to get to sleep on the passenger seats, until the crew showed them how they could be made to lay flat as a bed. The problem was they were thinner than a bed, so if they were the type of person who moved around a lot while they slept, it would be very easy for them to end up on the floor. That's why they had to be partially strapped in while sleeping. The captain dimmed the lights right down to the passenger area, and had the computer play some quiet music while the technicians slept.

Grandmother enjoyed her bath with real soap. Uleanna was happy to hear her humming while she was in the bath. With their bellies full, and everyone feeling nice and clean, they all slept like babies. The next morning they tried the meat broth, that Andriel had prepared, it was better than tea, and they did feel they had more energy, but they all wished they had something more solid. Uleanna had just stepped out the back door to check their snares, when everyone heard a loud scream. Then they heard Matrucy, yelling as she came running to their house, "Auntie, auntie, come quickly, we caught one. We caught one." If all the Devaronians living in the area had not heard the scream, they most certainly heard the yelling. Andriel and grandmother came outside, and so did every Devaronian in hearing distance. Uleanna had never seen her friend Matrucy so excited. Andriel instructed Matrucy's mother to fetch a sharp knife and a bowel out of her kitchen, she was sure she knew why Matrucy was so excited. Matrucy grabbed her hand and started dragging her to where they had set up snares the day before. She told how she had come outside to place some bait at the places they had set snares, but did not have bait, then she came back to check the place where they did have bait, and she saw a chinchawwa in one of the snares. Andriel waited until Matrucy's mother came out with the knife and the bowl. She handed the bowl to Matrucy, and told everyone to watch both her hands. Two neighbours showed up, to see what the shouting was all about, and to see what this new lady was going to do. Andriel approached the chinchawwa with her left hand raised like she had something in it. Matrucy followed close behind. When Andriel was close enough, with the chinchawwa trying to see what was in her left hand. Andriel flashed her right hand with the knife, and was able to successfully decapitate the chinchawwa. Matrucy put the bowl down when Andriel called her name. Like Uleanna had done the day before, she was looking at Andriel's left hand, and did not see her right hand move. So she did not see Andriel cut the head off. It was only Uleanna and grandmother that saw how Andriel had actually cut the head off. Everyone else had been staring at her left hand. Matrucy was so excited she had to go pee real bad, but did not want to miss anything, so she hopped from foot to foot. After Andriel had moved the chinchawwa to gut it. She told everyone that the blood on the ground should be washed with water or urine, urine being preferable. That was all the invitation that Matrucy needed. She squatted down where the blood was and let it rip. She had the blood washed away in no time. Uleanna could not believe how bold her friend was, when she looked around to see how the ladies would react to Matrucy, she saw that none of them had been looking, they were all watching Aunt Andriel. Matrucy smiled at her when she stood up. They had both gone to the bathroom in front of each other many times as they grew up, so to them it wasn't a big deal. Uleanna smiled back and went to check their snares, she already knew what Aunt Andriel was doing. She found they had snared a chinchawwa at each of their bait sites, she hurried back to let Aunt Andriel and grandmother know. Grandmother went back to the house to get some bowls. Andriel had asked Matrucy's mother if she could use her knife on her own chinchawwas. She readily agreed, because she wanted to see everything Andriel was doing, so that she could do it herself. The two neighbours were mesmerized by what they were seeing. While they all walked to the next location, Matrucy started telling them about being able to eat sweetweed, Uleanna backed her up, telling them how they had baked chinchawwa with sweetweed salad for both lunch and dinner yesterday, and how grandmother had come up with a real nice recipe for baked chinchawwa. Matrucy's mother decided to ask grandmother for the recipe since she was now the expert on baking chinchawwas.

After Andriel had harvested all the chinchawwas, the neighbours asked her if they were going to eat all of them. Andriel told them that right now they only needed one, she had not yet decided what they were going to do with the other two. They each asked her if they could have one. Andriel told them they would have to negotiate that with grandmother. Andriel asked Matrucy, if she had any bait left? Matrucy giggled but said she thought there was enough for two snare sites. Andriel told the neighbours that after they talked with grandmother, they should talk with Matrucy's mother to help them each get a snare site operational. Matrucy was proud that Auntie was handing off some of the responsibility on her and her mother.

The freighter captain knew the technicians were exhausted, since they slept all the way to where they would be jumping to hyperspace. He sent the crew to wake them up and position their chairs for the jump. After the jump they were awake enough that they did not want to go back to sleep. They were all sore and hungry. Chitrah suggested they do some exercises before eating, because it will be harder to work the soreness out, the longer they put it off. Since Chitrah was the experienced traveller, they followed his lead. While they had breakfast, the two technicians showed Chitrah the bounty of items, they had purchased on Seswenna. They had perfumed soap, the women are going to love them. They won't have to buy the strong chemical smelling soap from the quartermaster's store. They found other odds and ends, and knickknacks, that hadn't been seen on Eriadu since before the war. The technician who was engaged, had found a fancy music box with a dancing female Twi'lek on top. It had a memory capacity of close to five hundred songs, and the little dancer moves in sync with the base line of the songs, so it actually looks like she is dancing to the songs. He was planning on giving it to his wife to be, on their wedding day. Chitrah asked him when he was planning on getting married. He said the Ministry would not let them marry until there was an opening for them in married residents. His fiancée told him that there was a rumour that they might get the unit that the visitors are now in. Chitrah knew he was talking about the apartment assigned to him and Andriel. He wished him a happy and prosperous marriage. After breakfast they started checking all the stuff Chitrah bought at the market, they wanted to make sure that everything was working at its best when they arrived back at Eriadu. Because there were no tables in the passenger section, they sat and worked on the floor. Each technician checked out each piece of equipment, and it wasn't a pass, until all three approved it. As they were packing everything away the captain informed them that they need to get ready for the jump back to normal space.

Word was spreading that the new lady had some good ideas that seemed to work, and that grandmother had tea. The other Devaronian woman started to come by the dress shop after dinner, to have tea with grandmother, and to hear about new ideas. Andriel had the workshop all cleaned up and all the equipment was in top working order. So while the visitors were having tea with grandmother in the cozy storefront by the potbellied stove. They would here the mechanical sewing machine whirring away while Andriel sewed new outfits for Uleanna and her best friend Matrucy. They were always together when they were outside. Andriel did not think it would be fair to Matrucy if only Uleanna had a new outfit, and Uleanna could become to self-conscience. The hard part was getting the outfit right. They were both basically skin and bones, but Andriel was starting to notice Uleanna was starting to put some flesh on her bones. The outfits would have to be baggy right now, so that they would have the room to let their bodies fill out. She also knew that both girls were at the age where their bodies would be changing. The outfits would have to be easy to adjust once their bodies started changing.

Grandmother had talked to Matrucy's mother abought Andriel wanting to sew an outfit for her daughter, at the same time as she was sewing one for Uleanna. Her mother almost started crying when she thought about how this stranger was willing to look after her daughter while helping Uleanna. She did not hesitate to initial another IOU, for the amount grandmother asked for. She was surprised that grandmother had included all the alterations for the next six months, because she could see that Matrucy was starting to get some flesh on her bones.

Now that all the house was in working order Andriel started making a large planter on the roof to grow plants in. She was making in out of long pieces of rubble. It would be 1.5 meters wide, by 3 meters long, and 35 cm high, she was using wet dirt as mortar, since the dirt had a lot of clay, and could get quite hard when sun baked. Andriel asked grandmother if she had any suggestions for making it waterproof. Grandmother remembered that her son-in-law had made something quite a while ago that required waterproofing, he had purchased a large container, that sprayed a white foam that stuck to whatever it was sprayed at, but would dry clear, forming a waterproof barrier. She started hunting through her storage closet to see if it was still in there. She found what she was looking for, and called Andriel over to pick it up, because it was too heavy for her. It was quite heavy even for Andriel, who somehow managed to get it out of the closet. The good news was that it was quite full. The hard part would be to see if it still worked. Andriel read on the instructions that they needed to shake it up before using. She wasn't strong enough to do that. She ended up draping fabric on the stairs from the second floor to the mainfloor. Then with Uleanna's help they carried it up to the second floor and rolled it down the stairs. They were rewarded in that when they rocked the container they could feel that some of the content had moved, where Andriel could not feel that when she took it out of the closet. So they kept repeating it until Andriel believed that they could not do anymore. Uleanna helped her carry it all the way up to the roof. Andriel retrieved the hose and nozzle out of the storage closet and started to spray what she had made. Matrucy's mother had watched Andriel build the planter, from her roof top, and decided it was time to come over and ask what she was up to. Andriel was happy to describe the layout of her planter. She would put a layer of small pieces of rubble down as the bottom layer. The rubble would be no larger in diameter than the width of her thumb, but would prefer pieces around the width of her finger. This layer would be around 10 cm thick. Next she would top it with around 10 cm of dirt. The top 10 cm layer would be dirt mixed with the dried blood feces mixture they make whenever they kill a chinchawwa. When she has a large enough section, she was going to go out with Uleanna, beyond where Uleanna was allowed to go by herself, and dig up any plant that they found that would be edible, and transplant them in the planter, eventually they would have enough plants that Uleanna would not have to go out that often, and she could spend more time at home, training to be a seamstress. Matrucy's mother liked the idea and said she would start building her own planter. She asked Andriel what the purpose of the foam was that she just sprayed on. Andriel said it was supposed to form a waterproof barrier. So when they watered the plants the water would not seep out onto the roof, or work its way through the roof and start dripping in the bedrooms. She asked Andriel if there was enough foam in the container for her to use on her planter. Andriel shook the container, it was still quite full. Andriel told her that there was lots, they could spray her planter, and still have enough to do a dozen more. The mother said she better go talk to grandmother to make sure she was on the top of the list. Andriel was starting to like her neighbour, she would have made a very good friend.

Chitrah and the two technicians decided to get some rest before they docked with the Eriadu spaceport. They did not want the same thing to happen when they reached Eriadu as happened on Seswenna. After dropping out of hyperspace, they had eaten, they had exercised, they had even played on their computers, but when the captain said they would be docking in eight hours, they knew it was time to rest. It helped that the captain had patched music into the passenger section. It was a good thing they rested. When they landed in the Eriadu City shuttle terminal, it was morning. They went straight to the Ministry and introduced all the technicians to all the equipment. By lunch time everyone was comfortable with their equipment, and Chitrah told them they have to think about how they want to pack it up, that makes the most sense to them. It is now their personal equipment, they are responsible for its care and maintenance. They should only let someone else use it when they are there with it. Just before they decided to break for lunch, the two technicians shared with their mates the items they had purchased for them to give to the ladies in their lives, and told them what the price tag was. Everyone promised they would pay them back that afternoon, and rushed off to show the ladies in their lives what they were able to get for them. The morale in the electronics lab was very high that day.

The ladies were overjoyed that the guys who went off planet, were willing to share with the ones who could not. This made them all feel special. After lunch Chitrah went to the office that was responsible for him. He walked past the outer office workers, past the officials in the inner office, right to the most senior official in the department. He knocked on the door and asked if he could speak to him. The official was surprised to see Chitrah at his door, considering that no official was escorting him. He could see them behind him, wondering what was going on. The official invited him in because he too was curious about what Chitrah wanted to talk to him about. Chitrah closed the door and told the official the potential disaster that almost happened on his trip to Seswenna. He knew the official who booked the flight was not at fault, because he would not have known about the situation. The official recognised the near disaster, being privy to the information on how Andriel and Chitrah were introduced to Eriadu nobility. He asked Chitrah, what he thinks they should do, in the future? Chitrah suggested that the official doing the booking needs to find out if there are other passengers on the flight, if there are, than final approval needs to come through his office. That way the official does not need to be told the situation, and his office would be aware of any potential problems. Chitrah did not tell him that everyone in the electronics lab knew about the problem. The official told him he liked his solution, and would see that it is implemented. As Chitrah was getting up to leave he told the official that they were ready to leave on the next flight back to Seswenna, all the technicians are comfortable working with their new equipment. The official was surprised, he knew they had just arrived back that morning. Chitrah explained that they were already familiar with the equipment but in a much larger format, from what they have in their lab. He just needed to show them that certain combinations of their equipment would produce the same results as their much larger cousins. Once they were comfortable with that, he knew they were ready. The official assured him they would arrange the next booking as soon as possible. This made his office look more efficient.

After Chitrah left, the senior official called the official in charge of booking flights to come to his office. The senior official told him about the small changes in procedure when booking flights for Chitrah, and that they were ready for the next flight he could book for them to Seswenna. After he was dismissed the other officials came around to ask him if he was in trouble with the boss. He assured them he wasn't and he needed to find out when the next flight to Seswenna was, so he could book it for the technicians. The other officials were surprised, normally when the boss calls you into his office by yourself, you were in big trouble. This contractor talks to the boss, and the boss is nice to the next guy he talks to. They would be scratching their heads for a long time over that.

Chitrah spent the rest of the afternoon in the electronics lab playing Hutt Wars. He had let everyone know that if they had any questions, they should not hesitate to ask him. The head of the lab encouraged the two technicians that were not going with Chitrah back to Seswenna, to take their equipment with them to see how much equipment diagnostics they could do in the offices, without having to bring anything back to the lab. He could see this as making their work more efficient, and if he can prove it, he could arrange for everyone in the lab to have the same rigs.

More women started coming to the dress shop to get new outfits, or old outfits in their closets altered. They were not looking for fancy clothes. The outfits they had been wearing since the invasion, were thread bare and starting to fall apart on them. Andriel was using the most utilitarian of the fabrics she had available to her. She would get the ladies to come in after lunch because that was when she had Uleanna available to help her. That was when she had the best opportunities to teach Uleanna. She always told the ladies that the new outfits would be just as loose on them as their current outfits, that way as their diet improved, and they started to get a little flesh on their bones they would not feel constricted by their new outfit. When they did come back, they would adjust it. Uleanna was always surprised to compare their current measurements to the garment they were wearing when they came in. Andriel had to explain that the outfits they were wearing was their natural size before the war. Uleanna asked her if that was why she looked bigger than all the other women. Andriel told her that she is correct, she has never been on a starvation diet. She is in very good shape for a woman her age. Here her arms were more than twice the diameter that the average woman had, and her thigh muscles were probably three times as big as the average woman here. Uleanna asked if that was why the outfits she made for her and Matrucy were so baggy. Andriel smiled and told her that she is a good student, it is important for a seamstress to be observant.

Uleanna smiled at the compliment. She was also surprised that Andriel considered her a student, she was just curious about everything, and Andriel had changed the way the whole world looked to her. She was hoping her mother would have been proud of her. Normally after spending all afternoon in the workshop together, Andriel would try to get out with Uleanna to go to new territory. That way she could harvest new plants and Uleanna would look for stuff they could burn in their stove.

This evening there were new clients who had come in. All of a sudden an Imperial patrol enters the storefront and the patrol leader steps into the workshop uninvited. The women in the workshop scream, Andriel yells at the Trooper to get out and starts throwing things at his face to keep him from seeing anything. When she gets close enough she starts banging on his helmet with her bare fists and keeps yelling at him to get out. He backs up through the curtain because that was the only avenue open to him. The other toppers have their blaster rifles pointed at Andriel as she comes through the curtain bashing on their patrol leader's helmet. When she is through the curtain she stops bashing his helmet and turns to make sure the curtain is closed behind her. When she turns back, they all see that she is one angry lady.

"Didn't your mother teach you any manners? This is a dress shop! The room behind me is our workshop! It is a sanctuary for women. It is a place where women need to feel safe to undress without men looking at them! We are not here for your personal amusement! Men are not allowed in, unless the senior seamstress in the room, which today is me, gives them permission! And I did not give you permission! So how dare you barge in like that! What do you have to saw for yourself?"

The patrol leader sheepishly told her that it was reported to them that women were gathering here.

"Of course they are going to gather here! This is a dress shop! Women go to a dress shop. There is a group of women sitting right here sipping tea. There are other women in the workshop waiting for me to work on their outfits, which I cannot do while they are wearing them. So what are we doing wrong?"

The patrol leader sheepishly told her that they were doing nothing wrong. They just need to investigate every report of suspicious behaviour.

"Next time you enter this dress shop you make sure you have my permission, before you enter my workshop. They only way a Trooper can enter my workshop without my permission, is if they are female! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Ma'am, sorry Ma'am!"

The patrol quickly leaves the dress shop. Outside they could hear one Trooper banging on another troopers helmet, at the same time in a high pitched voice saying "out, out, out!" Than the patrol breaks into laughter, all to embarrass their patrol leader. The patrol leader is furious that their informant had intended him to go into a situation, where everyone is humiliated. Now he was going to hunt for this informant and teach him a lesson.

Andriel was shaking after the patrol left. All the women in the shop were patting her on the back and congratulating her for restoring some measure of dignity to them. Andriel replied that she had just done the most foolish thing ever, in her life. They laughed when grandmother handed a cup of tea to her and she almost spilt half of it on the floor. Grandmother had to take it from her and hold it to her lips so that she could take a sip. They all wanted to touch her, none of them would have had the courage to stand up to the Imperials the way she did.

When Andriel calmed down, grandmother looked into her eyes, and asked if it was time? Andriel nodded her head yes. Grandmother looked at all the other women in the dress shop. She quietly told them, that as the last surviving elder of the three old clans, she orders that every Devaronian female be present for a meeting at the dress shop tomorrow evening. It is time they talked about the future. All the ladies were excited about this turn of events. They were sure that when word spread how Andriel had faced down an Imperial patrol, and grandmother's order, that they will all come for a meeting. They were sure that everyone would want to be there.

The head of the electronics lab was informed that Chitrah and the two technicians who would be accompanying him were booked to depart for Seswenna at five in the morning. Since they were expected to be gone for the month, he let them leave so that they could be ready. Chitrah was already ready, so he just hung around the lab until dinner time. After all, he had no-one to go home to. In another part of the Ministry, some officials held a secret meeting. They were trying to determine the whereabouts of the contractor Chitrah's wife. They had no confirmation of where she was since the first day of their arrival. She seemed healthy enough then, so there was no logical explanation of her staying in their apartment. The cafeteria staff said they had not seen the red lady since the last time they were here. The one who had followed her last time, had even gone to Old Town Factoryville, to see if she returned to her lookout perch. Except for the main floor, the dust has not been disturbed in the rest of the building. They decided that they would question the contractor first thing in the morning, and retired to their residences for the evening.

The Imperial patrol found their informant, he is Nosaurian. They found him on the high ground, watching the Devaronian community.

Nosaurians are originally from New Plympto in the Core Worlds. They are a humanoid reptilian species with four-fingered hands and three-toed bird like feet. They stand about 1.35 meters, and their heads are crowned with a row of six horns. The male's horns are larger toward the top of their heads, the females horns just barely show. The main feature of their face is their reptilian beak. They have amazing reflexes, which makes them excellent pilots of small crafts, and podracers. They are colour-blind, but the most unusual ability they have is that they can make the inside linings of their mouth phosphoresce at will, allowing them to communicate without noise in low light environments.

Before the war the Nosaurians had little to no contact with the communities around them. During the invasion they actually followed the battles, like humans watch sporting events. They thought the Imperial Troopers were better disciplined fighters, then the Republic's soldiers. The only time their discipline would break down was when they would capture a section of the city, and hunt for any females they could find in that section. They actually admired the Imperial's fighting skills. After the Imperials captured the section of the city where the Devaronian community was, one of the elders of the Nosaurian clan, approached an Imperial Trooper that had caught a female Devaronian, and thrown her to the ground. He had put his blaster rifle and helmet down, so the elder felt it was safe to approach. That the man was trying to copulate with the woman, did not bother the elder one bit. Copulating is part of life. That he was treating her roughly, also did not bother him, his second wife seems to have more pleasure when he treats her rough when they copulate.

The elder offered the trooper one of his wives for him to join with. The Trooper did not know that the Nosaurian elder was offering a type of alliance, were their clan would serve the Imperial Troopers. He just saw this short alien as interfering in his pleasure. So he spit in the face of the alien and told him to get lost.

This was the worst insult he could give the elder. So the elder took his blaster rifle and shot him in the head. It was only when she threw the body off of her, and thanked him, that the elder realised that she was not a willing participant. To cover his mistake he told her he did not do it for her, and called her a shrukka (prostitute, in Nosaurian). She had figured he just insulted her, but shrugged it off, since it was nowhere near as bad as what the Trooper was doing to her.

As she was trying to cover herself up with her torn clothes, she told the elder to smash the blaster rifle against the rocks, so the Troopers do not see him carrying it, or they will believe him to be a resistance fighter, and kill him.

He knew she gave him good advice, and did what she suggested, and thanked her. She told him he was welcome, and called him a Drakkoo. Which he believed meant that he had a face that resembled a creature low in the food chain. He liked this Devaronian female, he could do business dealings with her.

They both quickly went their own way, since it was not healthy to linger around a dead Trooper. The elder told the rest of the clan about his encounter. He did not come out and tell them that he killed the Trooper. An actual confession could get him in trouble. But he had been insulted, and others found the dead Trooper where he said it would be. They were surprised that the Devaronian female was not a willing participant in copulating with the Trooper. They thought it was a ceremony of submission to a superior warrior amongst the human and near human species, when the Troopers hunted out the females. Now they looked at it in a different light, especially considering how the Trooper had insulted the elder.

The Nosaurian informant did not have the same understanding as the elder. First he was a chauvinist, he thought that all Devaronian females were evil, because they used their males, then threw them out of their houses. He believed the Devaronian females had lured the Troopers to their dens of iniquity. The screams, the crying, the cries of anguish, were all really the cries of pleasure the Devaronian females were having in the hands of the Imperial Troopers. His wives were upset with him, because food was getting harder and harder to find. Instead of hunting the chinchawwas, he was starting to spend more and more time watching the Devaronians. He was sure they were up to no good. So when the patrol found him, he thought they had come back to thank him, for telling them about the Devaronian females starting to meet at the end house. He was surprised when two of them came up on either side of him, then they suddenly grabbed a horn on his head and pinned his arms behind his back.

His basic was not very good, "Red females, Bad! Many red females together, very Bad!" The patrol leader was very upset that he had been put in an embarrassing situation.

"Red ladies not bad." Hard smash to the gut with his fully armoured glove.

"The house is a dress shop." Another smash to the gut.

"They drink tea." Another smash.

"And they gossip." Another smash.

"They do nothing wrong." Another couple of smashes.

The patrol leader worked him over hard, to get rid of the frustration he felt.

Normally a Nosaurian male would have hardly felt anything, because of the natural armour of his scales, and the layer of fat that was under the scales. But this Nosaurian was malnourished and did not have a layer of fat under his scales to absorb the hits. So he felt pain, and knew there would be bruising.

He was not upset with the troopers, he believed that they were seduced by that new Devaronian female. She had enough flesh on her bones that she would be appealing to them.

After the patrol leader had worked out his frustrations, he let the rest of the patrol do what they wanted with him. They used him as a punching bag. When they tired of that they threw him to the ground and started kicking him. Not only did he end up with bruises over most of his body, he also had a few cracked ribs. When they left him, it was painful for him to breath.

When he finally made it home. His wives asked him, what happened? He told them that the new female Devaronian had tricked the patrol into believing she is running a dress shop, then she seduced them so that they beat him up for her.

The news about the dress shop had their attention. They are wearing rags, and wanted new clothes.

Their husband's obsession with the Devaronians, has now but them in a difficult situation. They could not stay home and look after their husband, when they had to go out and find enough food for their family. The men are supposed to be the hunters, but they will starve if they don't go out and try.

Chitrah met the other technicians at the shuttle terminal. They found out that they were the only passengers flying up to the spaceport. The Ministry had convinced them to start an hour earlier than they usually do so the freighter at the spaceport would not have to wait too long for them. On the way up to the spaceport the married technician showed them all the requests for items from their fellow technicians and their wives, for items on Seswenna. These notes were slipped under the door to his apartment, while he was sleeping. Some of them even had credit notes attached. The single technician only had one sheet of requests from the other single technician that he found slipped under his door. Chitrah told him to mark the lists that they had already paid, and how much they paid. They can look at all the requests while they are on their way to Seswenna, and see whether they are reasonable or outrageous. At the spaceport they found the same Wayfarer Medium Transport that had brought them back from Seswenna. The captain told them, that they can be put up in the passenger section, or they could have the spare crew cabin with a double bunk, and Chitrah could bunk with their Devaronian crewman. They all agreed that they would rather have the cabins. The only thing was that they would still need to use the seats in the passenger section, when they were manoeuvring, or jumping to or from hyperspace. They would have to get their meals from the passengers' food dispenser, and they would have to use the washrooms in the passenger's section. The technicians had no problem with the rules, but wondered why they were being given this privilege. The captain told them, he could do it because they were his only passengers, and the second reason, they would show them when they had put some distance between them and the spaceport.

After manoeuvring, the technicians all wanted to take a nap, since they had gotten up way too soon. The captain told them he would wake them for a demonstration. The captain let them sleep for a couple of hours before waking them, and asking them to come to the bridge. The captain told them that the first officer had programmed a target drone, to simulate a pirate starfighter trying to attach the ship. The Devaronian crewman would operate one of the VTS stations, and try to blow it up. If he cannot blow it up it will return to the ship to be picked up. The first officer released the drone. After it had gone a preprogramed distance from the freighter it turned back as if to attack the ship. The first officer told the gunner he had permission to try and destroy the drone. The gunner started chasing the drone with laser fire. In very short order he was able to place a couple of direct shots, and the drone exploded. The captain told them, that up until they had done their testing of their bridge equipment electronics, they had never been able to hit a target drone. Now their gunner and first officer have no trouble hitting a target drone, and they have them to thank. The technicians felt really good about being able to help the crew. Now they understood the importance of Chitrah teaching them how to run the tests.

Back on Eriadu the Ministry officials trying to find the whereabouts of Chitrah's wife, contacted the officials in charge of Chitrah, and asked them to send him to their one office right away. The officials told them they could not do that, since Chitrah was on a freighter bound for Seswenna that had departed their spaceport at five that morning. He would not be back on Eriadu for at least another month. They asked them, if Chitrah's wife departed with them? The officials did not know, since Chitrah will usually make accommodations with the freighters, for his wife, when she accompanies him. The officials asked them who they could contact to see if Chitrah had made those accommodations. They gave them the local rep's number for the transport company that owns the freighter Chitrah is traveling on.

When they contacted the rep, he informed them that only three passengers were booked for the flight. No additional arrangements had been made. The officials were very frustrated. It would be another month before they could talk to Chitrah, and if they started questioning the technicians in the electronics lab, word was bound to get out that they did not know where Chitrah's wife is. Do they inform the Moff that they don't know where the contractor's wife is, and launch a full investigation. Knowing that they would be reprimanded for their incompetence. Or do they continue covertly investigating, hoping that word does not reach the ears of the Moff.

That morning while they were sipping on their meat broth breakfast, Andriel mentioned what she would like them to do with any chinchawwas they capture that morning. She was hoping that after they bake the chinchawwas they could cut them up into little strips. They could take the meat strips and wrap them around a few leaves of sweetweed, and serve them to the ladies who will come to the meeting that evening. As they are hosting the meeting they need to serve something, besides tea. They do not need to worry about starving themselves. She was prepared to share the last of her emergency food rations with them.

It would mean that Uleanna would have to spend most of the morning, and the first part of the afternoon gathering sweetweed. Andriel would go out and inspect the snares and bait. Both Andriel and Uleanna looked at grandmother to see what she thought of the idea.

After thinking about it, grandmother spoke. "It would be a good thing to give everyone something to eat. For many of them, this will be the first good food they have eaten in a long time. It would give Andriel an opportunity to share with everyone the bait and snare technique for catching chinchawwas, and a chance to show-off the planter on the roof. The women will have no problem constraining themselves from taking more than one, but the same cannot be said for the children. We will need to feed them. If they know there is food available inside, they will interrupt the meeting to get at the food, and we might not be able to accomplish anything."

Andriel had to think about that for a moment, grandmother is right. The women cannot be expected to leave their children to attend the meeting.

"What if we gave each child a cooked chinchawwa rib with a little meat on it, just before the meeting starts? Uleanna and Matrucy can then take the children out gathering sweetweed, letting them eat as much as they can gather, and promise them another rib if they behave themselves when they return. They only problem is that Uleanna and Matrucy would have to take them were no-one else is harvesting sweetweed because they will probably devastate all the plants they come across, despite Uleanna and Matrucy showing them the proper way to pick sweetweed."

Grandmother thought that this would be a good solution, and asked Uleanna if she was willing to help. Uleanna said that she would have rather stayed to help out with the meeting, but if it was better for her to be with the children, then she would do it. Andriel wanted her to talk about it with Matrucy, since she would also be needed. They should let them know where they would be planning on taking the children. That morning Andriel found four chinchawwas in their snares. The one furthest from the house, had two of them. When she killed the first one of the two, the second one tried to hide from her, and started squealing for help. It recognised her as a predator, and could not be tricked into looking at her left hand, like she could with the others. She had to put her gloves on and grab it. She was able to grab its head when it turned its head to try and bite her. She then stretched the neck, and cut its head off. Because there wasn't enough urine in the urn, she had to use a urine-water mixture to wash off all the blood near the snares.

When Uleanna came back for lunch with the first batch of sweetweed she had picked. Andriel handed her and grandmother the last of her cold ration packs, and some hot tea. Grandmother asked her, where she got them? Andriel told her that she bought them at the only place you could buy anything on Eriadu, the quartermaster's store in Eriadu City.

Grandmother was not happy to hear, that if they were ever going to buy supplies, it would have to be from the Imperials. Uleanna told them that she had talked with Matrucy, and they both thought the best place to take the children to pick sweetweed was the wasteland. It was an area outside of what most considered Devaronian territory, so they would not be destroying any plants that anyone would normally be harvesting, and they would be visible from the house. Since their house was the last one on the square, right next to the wasteland. The danger was that they had a greater chance of running into scavengers there, then in the areas they normally frequent. Andriel told her that if she could keep the children fairly close together, if a scavenger appears, the children can all start picking up stones, and start throwing them at them. They probably would not be bothered by one or two children throwing stones, but with all the children throwing stones, they would look to go elsewhere. Grandmother agreed with Andriel, besides with that many children together, their angry mothers will not be far away, so, she does not see there being any chance of a confrontation. Grandmother and Andriel started preparing the chinchawwa-sweetweed appetisers, they found they had to use sewing thread to keep the rolls together when they first made them, but after they sat for a while the thread could be cut off. When Uleanna came back with the second batch of sweetweed, Andriel asked her if she could start cutting up the ribs for the children. It wasn't long before women started arriving. Grandmother greeted them and offered them some tea. Many had come with their own cups, when they heard that tea would be available. They wanted to meet grandmother's daughter, who had forced the Troopers out of the workshop. Grandmother had to go get Andriel, leaving Uleanna to finish making the appetisers all by herself. Grandmother introduced the new hero to the women, while they were listening to some of the ladies who were there, describe what they saw. She appeared more human, when they were told that she could not hold a cup of tea afterwards, because her hands were shaking so bad. Grandmother had to hold it for her, as if she was a child, just so she could sip it. Andriel was a bit embarrassed by that description, but did not say anything because it was pretty accurate. They also wanted to know about her other ideas. They had heard that she was able to catch chinchawwas, and had told others it was okay to eat sweetweed. Andriel ended up taking them up to the roof in groups, to see the planter she had started there. She had been able to transplant an area of 1.5 meters by just over half a meter of sweetweed. She picked some leaves so that the ladies could taste it for themselves. Because the planter was still a work in progress, it was easy for everyone to see the three layers to it. From the vantage point of the roof, Andriel was able to point out where different snare and bait setups were located. Everyone had trouble believing what they were using for bait. Many of them wanted to go down and look at the setup. Andriel had to persuade them not to, because they could scare away any chinchawwas that were nearby. When it looked like everyone had arrived, grandmother told Uleanna it was time for her and Matrucy to take charge of the children. Uleanna grabbed enough ribs for all the children, as well as one for herself and for Matrucy. She also grabbed what was left of the sweetweed she had collected, so the children could have a little taste before going to pick it.

The children swarmed around her and Matrucy when they realised they had food in their hands. It was hard to make sure that they all received only one. After they cleaned all the meat off the rib, they kept chewing on the bone hoping to get some more nourishment out of it. They did not want to try eating the sweetweed, because they had been told it was poisonous. Uleanna and Matrucy poked fun at them, because they thought they were Devaronian, not Twi'lek. Most of the children did not know what a Twi'lek was, but they all knew they were Devaronian. When they saw Uleanna and Matrucy eating the leaves, they all decided to try it. When they realised that it did taste sweet, they asked them for more. Uleanna and Matrucy, told them that if they wanted more they would have to pick it themselves. So they followed the two girls as they led them to the wasteland, and showed them some plants growing there. After half a dozen plants were devoured, the children started recognizing the plants for themselves and started spreading out, looking for more plants. It was hard work, keeping the children close to one another, and still keeping an eye open for danger, but Uleanna and Matrucy, managed to do it. Back at the house, grandmother asked if there were any more ladies that wanted to see the planter on the roof before the meeting started.

After the last group had finished their tour, grandmother and Andriel handed out trays, asking the ladies to take an appetiser, and pass it along. The ladies were surprised that they were given food, when it was so hard to come by. This was proof that Andriel's ideas are actually working. For many of them this was the first time they tasted chinchawwa meat. The baked meat with the sweetweed was a very nice combination.

Grandmother spoke to the group, "I am the last surviving elder of the three clans. For the last four and a half years, the three clan system has not worked for us. The system has fractured, my people have been divided."

The ladies standing near grandmother saw she had tears in her eyes. "I did what I could for you, but it was not enough. I was depressed, I stopped thinking about tomorrow, as every one of you did. All I thought about was if Uleanna would be able to find enough food to share with me. Then I saw this stranger approaching, I knew she was a female, but from the way she was dressed, it was obvious she was trying to hide it. She stopped a few paces away from me and removed her hood, my heart almost stopped, it was like I was looking in the face of my daughter Grinta, back from the dead. She asked me if I would accept her into my family, as she is a seamstress trained from her youth. My granddaughter asked me, who this woman was? For her sake I knew I had to receive her into my family. She gave back something I did not know I had lost. Hope! Because of her I started thinking about tomorrow again. I have since found out that she is not just a seamstress. Since she has been here I have never gone to bed hungry, and Uleanna has been smiling every day. Now I want to give back to you, what she gave back to me. Hope! It was time we started thinking about the future again. For ourselves, for our children, and for our community. I propose that we put aside our three clans, and unite as one clan. We are one people, we must all be in agreement, if we are to do this. It is now up to you, do we embrace hope and tomorrow, or do we go back to thinking only of today."

Grandmother was about to step down when one of the ladies called out and asked if she would lead them?

Grandmother replied, "I had my chance to lead you, and I failed. I represent the old clans. A new clan requires new leaders. I will remain only as councillor, as such I recommend that you choose six from among you as your new elders. I also recommend that my daughter Andriel, not be selected. She has not gone through what you have. Yes, she has good ideas, and would be an excellent councillor, but I would say that she be disqualified as an elder."

This caused quite a stirring in the crowd. Everyone expected Grandmother to recommend Andriel as the new clan leader. Grandmother was happy to see that everyone was talking with their neighbour. Not one lady left herself out of the conversation. Grandmother let them talk for as long as they wanted. She was sensitive to the ebb and flow of the conversations around her. Andriel walked up to her and put her arm around her shoulders, but neither woman spoke. When grandmother sensed the conversations starting to slacken off, she stepped back onto the platform they used for taking measurements on clients, and addressed the ladies.

"How have you decided, are we one clan or not."

Most ladies stated that they want to be one clan.

So grandmother addressed the crowd again, "Are there any among you, that for whatever reason, are opposed to us uniting as one clan? I would now like to hear from you, no one should be left out of this decision." (Silence) "Then I declare that we are all one new clan!"

Andriel felt a warmth in her abdomen, it was like the baby was responding to being a member of a new clan. She instinctively put her hand over the warmth she felt. Most of the ladies that saw her did not think anything of it, but a few of them would talk to grandmother about it at a later time. One of the ladies asked what they should call their new clan. There was no shortage of suggestions.

Finally grandmother had to quite everyone down, "We were three clans, and now we are one, so if anyone asks us which clan we are from, we should tell them we are from "The One" clan of Eriadu."

The ladies seemed to like the suggestion, it did not belittle their past, and spoke of their unity in facing the future. Grandmother asked if they had thought about who should lead the new clan. Every time a name was put forward, grandmother asked if they were willing to help lead the new clan. If they agreed, grandmother would invite them up to stand on the platform with her. When they had six people who agreed, grandmother stopped asking for names. All the ladies standing with her are all capable leaders, and there was a balance in that there were two from each of the old clans. She asked the crowd, if they would accept these six ladies as elders of the new clan? The ladies said they did, so grandmother turned the meeting over to them. As soon as Uleanna saw the sun was starting to go down, she rounded up her charges and started heading back to the dress shop. She knew that they were pretty much all full, since they had stopped grabbing every leaf of sweetweed they came across, and started picking them the way Uleanna and Matrucy had been trying to show them all evening.

Since the sidewalk in front of the dress shop was clean, (Andriel had cleaned away the rubble and swept it when she cleaned the storefront of the dress shop) most children just sat down on the sidewalk to wait for the adults to finish what they were doing. They arrived back in time to hear that they were all part of one clan. It wasn't long before the children went from sitting, to laying down and sleeping because their little tummies were very full.

Uleanna and Matrucy, sat on the front step leading into the storefront, so that they could keep an eye on the children, and maybe hear what was going on inside. The ladies near the front door knew they were there since they had both stuck their head through the doorway to listen in from time to time. So one of the ladies stuck her head out through the doorway to tell Matrucy that her mother had just been accepted as an elder of the new clan. Uleanna asked her about grandmother and Aunt Andriel. The lady told them that grandmother said they could not be elders, but would be councillors. Uleanna puzzled over that information. She would have to ask Grandmother about it. The gist of the rest of the meeting was that they had to build into the future by building on the past. The new clan would assume ownership of all empty lots and buildings in their neighbourhood. The elders would go around to talk to everyone about who used to own the properties, and the names of all the people they remembered who died in the invasion. They also wanted to know how everyone saw themselves helping in rebuilding their community. Their priority was to re-establish the general store as a place to purchase items, not just food, and to re-open the cleaning store, so that everyone would have a place to clean their clothes and gossip. The last part was added by a lady in the crowd, and unanimously accepted as a priority. After the elders were agreed upon, all the ladies with baited snares, took advantage of the last bit of sunlight to check their snares. Andriel found two chinchawwas, and so did Matrucy's mother. The other ladies returned to the meeting with either one or two depending on how many of their sites were baited. One lady that had baited all her sites just that morning came back with three. The meeting had to be postponed for a short time when the ladies found out, there were chinchawwas that could be purchased. Grandmother applied spice and seasoning to all the chinchawwas with all the ladies watching her closely, so that they could try to copy her recipe. They fit as many as they could in the dress shop's oven, and Matrucy's mother fitting as many as they could into her oven, the rest were cooked in the ovens of the cleaner's and general store's ovens. Grandmother found out how many ladies wanted to purchase a chinchawwa, and how many were for sale. She ended up arranging for each lady to buy a half, and convinced the ladies that had caught them to only keep a half for themselves, since it was getting late and they did not want to eat too much before going to sleep, or they might get fat. All the ladies laughed at Grandmother's negotiating. They were all skin and bones, they wanted to get fat, but they also did not want to appear greedy, as most of them are now elders of their new clan. It was time to walk the walk, so they all gave into Grandmother's negotiations. All the ladies who did not yet have bait and snares, wanted them. So Grandmother accepted more IOUs for wire, and for Uleanna and Matrucy to go out the next day, to show them the best locations to place the bait and set snares. If they did not have bait ready, the girls would skip them and go to the next family who was ready. All the elders who had bait and snares agreed to show at least two other women how to make one snare and make sure it was anchored properly. With all the negotiations out of the way, everyone was ready to go back to their meeting.

The meeting could have ended at this point. But everyone was waiting for the chinchawwas to finish cooking, and be cut up so that everyone could go home. What was interesting, was that with the extended meeting, women started talking about what they were afraid of, and how the clan could help.

To help alleviate some of the fears, Andriel told the women, that a number of months back someone had been able to observe that there was still a Devaronian community, but could not make any contact because of the prevalence of street gangs between the military barracks and the Devaronian community. This information was passed along and made its way to the transport companies. The husbands who were waiting to hear any news about their families, were very encouraged by this information, and are waiting to hear from the community.

This is why it is so important that the transport companies know in detail about who lived and who died, so that they can pass the information on to their employees. They want the employees with loved ones still alive, to be reunited with their loved ones. They want the employees who have lost their families to mourn and move on.

Andriel also asked the women who know they lost their spouse, "Is there someone out there that you know who has lost their family, but you are willing to accept them as your mate? Think about it. With this new hope, there is also opportunities for new beginnings." This got everyone talking. A lot of the women, when they lost their husband, they thought they had lost everything. They never thought they could have this type of hope.

A lady with tears in her eyes, kidded with Andriel, "You're only saying that because you want to sell more dresses."

"I have to look out for my family's future as well."

After talking with the head of the electronics lab about when he last remembered seeing Chitrah's wife, the officials decided that they needed to report to the Moff. If they tried investigating deeper, the Moff was bound to find out, and they would be in even worse trouble. So one of them wrote up a report, and hand delivered it to the Moff's personal secretary. When the Moff read the report, he was not as concerned about Andriel's whereabouts as the officials' were. He reread the reports on what Andriel did the last time she was on Eriadu. He had the feeling that Andriel knew what she was up to. She probably knew she was being followed, he also knew something the officials did not. They knew about her meeting with one of the representatives of a transport company, but they did not know what the meeting was about. He did. He called his secretary and arranged for a new aerial surveillance flight over Old Town Factoryville, and asked for copies of all surveillance flights over Old Town Factoryville, over the past year.

When Chitrah landed in Seswenna he went with the technicians to the Ministry, he asked to see a copy of the schedule they had prepared for them, then he asked to see the list of all the pending jobs for Seswenna. He asked them what type of transportation arrangements they had made for them. They explained that since they would be staying in the singles dorm they would be taken to their current job site in the morning, then picked up in the evening, if they needed to go to a new job site, they would need to call in, and a vehicle would be dispatched.

Chitrah told them that would be fine for the first few days, but after that he will need a vehicle assigned to him. He also marked on the pending job list the jobs that they would be doing, and the order they would be doing them in. He had only indicated half of the original jobs they had assigned them, but overall he had marked off twice as many jobs. They asked him, what was he up to? He told them that he was brought here to train technicians. That is his only concern, the jobs they had wanted them to do are fine for their initial training, but not challenging enough for their training to continue. When he was satisfied with their quality of work, he would split them up, so that they would each be working separately at their own job site, and he would need to travel between them to properly supervise them.

One of the officials was indignant at Chitrah telling them what he was going to do. They represented the Ministry not this contractor, they are supposed to tell him what they wanted him to do.

As he was about to tell Chitrah off, a more senior official, cut him off, and asked Chitrah if there was anything else they could do for him. Chitrah asked if their personal luggage could be taken to their accommodations, that way they were ready to go to the first job site. Chitrah had already scanned the list into his computer so he left the marked list with the officials. The official told Chitrah that by the time they reached the information droid at the front entrance, he would be informed about which vehicle would be taking them to their jobsite. They were still in the outer office when the more senior official tore into the more junior official for trying to berate Chitrah.

"If you read your memos you would have remembered that the Moff said he is in charge. If you berate him, you berate the Moff. Wouldn't the Moff love to hear about that?"

The more junior official just wanted to find a rock to crawl under, after being told off in front of the whole office. He thought he would earn brownie points by telling Chitrah off. Instead he was a pariah.

The technicians just could not believe what just happened, Chitrah leads a very charmed life, on top of that, the secretary that helped them the last time they were there, had just slipped Chitrah a note on the way out. Chitrah let them see it before they reached the information droid. "Welcome back, do you have any more interesting stories to share? I'm in 12D if you want to reach me."

They asked Chitrah if he was going to contact her. He said he would, then he reminded them that they were the story tellers last time, he believed the note was for all of them.

After talking with the elders, Andriel agreed to design and sew suits for three of them. From a distance they did not want their sex to be distinguishable, yet when they encountered people they wanted to look like businessmen. They were going to try and make their way to Eriadu City to buy supplies from the quartermaster's store. Andriel told them that leaving should not be that hard, it was getting back that would be treacherous. The three volunteers were standing naked in the workshop. When they took off their outer garments, they had nothing underneath, none of their underwear had survived since the invasion and they were very self-conscience of that fact.

Andriel told them that she would also need to sew them some undergarments, because the material that the suits would be made from would be too coarse for their skin. There was also the problem that now that they were eating better, their bodies would start to fill out more. If she designed suits for how their bodies are right now, she would always have to refit the suits, and it is very difficult to add material later, yet have it still look nice. If she designed their suits for the size their outfits suggested. The suits would not look right. It would be like taking a nice suit, and using a broomstick as a mannequin. They asked her what she could do to help if they wanted suits they could grow into, like the outfits she had made for Uleanna and Matrucy. She told them that she could put some extra padding in the shoulders, and remove some as they filled out, but it would still not look quite right at first. They agreed to that option, and hoped that it would turn out. They were glad that Andriel was frank with them, and did not look down on them. They believed that she would do her best to help them. They also liked that Uleanna was looking prettier every time they saw her. She is gaining weight but in a healthy way. Grandmother suggested that Andriel do a more business orientation on the outfit she wore. Then she walked over to the different roles of material. She pulled out one roll a short distance, and suggested the suits be made from that. It was a coarse brown natural wool, that would look good as a business suit, then she tugged on another roll, that would be nice for making the undergarments. Andriel called Uleanna over, she had been sitting there patiently the whole time, taking it all in. She asked her what she thought of grandmother's selections. Uleanna felt the material for the suits, she could feel the coarseness of it. "You said the suit would be made from a coarse material, and this is definitely coarse. You told me before that this material wears well, and in the hands of a skilled cleaner, like our elder, it will always look good." Both Andriel and grandmother smiled, they were pleased with how well Uleanna was learning her materials. Uleanna next walked over and felt the material grandmother suggested for the undergarments. It was nice and soft to the touch. "This material is nice and soft to the touch which is what you want in an undergarment, or lining, but it is not very flexible. If you make them to fit them now they will be too small in a couple of weeks. You cannot make them bigger, so in short time they would be useless. On the other hand, if you make them for the size that you anticipate them to fill out to, the panties will not stay on and the top would be uncomfortable."

"Are you saying grandmother made a bad choice?"

"No. I just think that there has to be more to the design than just this material. Something that has give, and will stretch. That can be added to when needed."

Grandmother was beaming at her granddaughter, "What if we add this at certain places in the garment."

Uleanna tried it, it wasn't as soft as the other material, but would be comfortable enough to wear against the body. More important, is its ability to stretch in any direction.

"If this was sewn into the seams, it would stretch as their body changes. Allowing the garment to be worn over a considerably longer period of time."

Grandmother gave her a hug, telling here how proud she is of her, and if her mother was here, she would be proud of her too. This was something that was very important to Uleanna, she felt a warmth in her heart. When she looked at Andriel, Andriel smiled and said she was proud of her too. Uleanna beamed and hugged grandmother back. She realised they had just tested her, and she more than just passed. She felt proud of herself too.

When the suits and undergarments where finished. Grandmother let the elders know. They decided to leave the next day. They came over that evening because Andriel would not let them put on the suits and underwear until they were properly bathed. They found grandmother's tub in the kitchen at a very comfortable water temperature, and more water being heated on the stove. They played a game to see who would be the first to take a bath. They did not know why they had to bathe here, they all have tubs at their own homes. When the first one was chosen, the other two sat down and had tea. When the first elder settled herself in the tub, she felt that she had nudged something in the water. She noticed that as she felt for the object the water became slightly creamier. When she finally grabbed it, she knew what it was and shrieked, "They have soap!"

She held it up for the other two elders to see for themselves.

"No wonder they wanted us to bathe here."

She smelt it, and was a little disappointed, but not surprised. If they had perfumed soap, everyone would have smelt it on them and been very jealous. She decided that she was going to take her time and enjoy herself. Andriel and Uleanna were waiting on her, and Grandmother was keeping the other two ladies company. If she wanted the water warmed up she just had to ask. If they felt the tub was getting too full they would take some out. It was the other elders complaining that she was taking too long that finally convinced her to get out. They had a nice warm thick towel ready for her. She felt pampered. She sat at the table wrapped in the towel, sipping her tea, waiting for her friends to finish their bathing experience. It was a long but enjoyable evening for the three ladies. It had been too long since they felt pampered. When they were all ready, they all went into the workshop. Their undergarments and suits were folded up on the platform waiting for them. They were informed that Uleanna had a hand in the design of their undergarments, which made her blush. Their top was like a sleeveless shirt which fit them comfortably. Uleanna pointed out the material in the seam under their arms on either side that would expand as they filled out, maintaining a comfortable fit. They were impressed. The panties also fit comfortably, and had the same material in the same seam as their shirts. When they tried the suits on they could feel that they were too big, but when they saw themselves in the mirror, they looked way better than they had imagined. They had placed their trust in the right person, and let her know.

They thanked all of them from the bottom of their heart, because they knew it was a full family effort. The family had brought down every spare blanket they had in the house. They made a type of mattress for them from the thicker ones, and pillow and coverings from the rest. The ladies took their suits off before crawling into the blankets to sleep. They found it all very comfortable. Andriel had given grandmother her thermal blanket for the evening, since most of the blankets had come off her bed. She warned her not to be surprised if she felt she was too hot, grandmother found it hard to believe that such a small thin blanket could be that warm.

Before she fell asleep she found she had to loosen the blanket, to allow some cool night air near her body, because she was cooking. Eventually she figured out how much to loosen it, to let it be so that she could sleep comfortably. Andriel and Uleanna only had one blanket between them. They found that if their backs were touching, they would be warm enough to sleep comfortably. Everyone was well rested when the sun woke them the next morning. The guests were still sleeping when the girls came down to the kitchen after their cold shower. There was no window in the workshop, so they had to waken their guests. They shared their breakfast with their guest, who felt the energy boost. Andriel went over again how to get to the truck compound, and how much they could expect to pay for a ride to Eriadu City. Then she asked them if they had enough credits for everything they planned on purchasing. There were not that many credits to be had. Most of the credits anyone had was used to buy food rations from the troopers. Andriel disappeared into Uleanna's bedroom upstairs. When she came back down to the kitchen she handed the elders a bundle of credits. She told them that it was all she had in her emergency stash.

Uleanna wondered where Andriel had hidden it. Because she knew every square cm of her bedroom, and nothing ever looked out of place. The elders each counted the credits Andriel had just handed to them, so that they would be able to reimburse her, if their accounts still worked at the shuttle terminal. They went outside and waited. When a patrol came down a road to the square and turned to take the road to the circle, Andriel told the elders to follow them, they were heading back to their barracks.

When Chitrah arrived at his assigned apartment, the first thing he did was contact the secretary at 12D, he arranged with her to meet in the cafeteria with some of her friends. Before terminating the call he asked if there where monitors in the cafeteria that could display 3D colour images. She told him that there is a computer and colour monitor that they can use to scan the local net, as well as giving some access to the holonet. This cheered Chitrah up, he told her that he wanted to try accessing something, that they might find interesting, after dinner. He then contacted both technicians at once. He told them to hurry up and shower, because there are beautiful women waiting for them in the cafeteria.

The food was about what you would expect from a Ministry cafeteria, it wasn't bad, and it wasn't great. Fortunately the company was great. Most of the ladies they had already met, the last time they were on Seswenna. Some of the ladies had brought their boyfriends. The young men were actually interested in meeting the man who in one meeting had impressed their girlfriends so much. At first appearance they were not overly impressed, but as they talked while eating their dinner, they sensed he really cared about everyone he talked to, he wasn't just putting on a show, nor was he trying to steal their women from them. After dinner the secretary showed Chitrah the computer system he could use. He connected his computer to the Ministry's computer, and with a few keystrokes it became a slave to his. He told them it may take a half hour or more for him to get where he wants to go, if they wanted to go do something else he could call them when he is connected. Most of them stayed, because they were watching a master at work. First he gained unhindered access to the holonet. Something none of them had been able to do. Then he skipped across the galaxy to a planet he was interested in. The planet must be far away because it took longer and longer for him to get a response to his commands. They were impressed with his patience. Finally he reached the site he was interested in, it is for a dress shop. He told them he was in, if they wanted to call their friends. He set the site to auto play, and sat back waiting for a response, when everyone was there he told them that his wife had opened a dress shop with a friend, and this is their site, it was the best way he could think of to introduce them to his wife. The first image was of Shaak in the summer dress. He told them that this is his wife's friend, and she was wearing a dress his wife had designed while on Chalacta. He told them that the lady had brought two friends who were singing and dancing with her off camera. The next image is of Andriel in the pregnancy dress. He told them that this is his wife. They asked him, what was she doing? He laughed and told them she is trying to dance, the only thing that he knew of, that she was not good at. As they cycled through each image, he would let them know who designed the dress, and what he knew about it. He was careful not to mention Lianna. It was obvious to everyone that he was very proud of his wife. When the secretaries appeared he told them that they are secretaries from the local Ministry office. They teased him and asked him if that was his game, to seduce innocent secretaries. Chitrah laughed at that. He told them that he usually talks to the secretaries, because they weren't full of themselves like a lot of officials are.

They all laughed because they remembered the official that was chastised in the office that morning. After the site had run its course, Chitrah disconnected from the holonet and called up a file saved on his computer, everyone there thought it was from the dress shop site. The technicians got excited and started pointing, "Those are the outfits they wore to that theatre event we told you about." Everyone was amazed by how regal they looked. It was hard to believe that this gentleman on the computer is the same person who is dancing with his wife in the gorgeous outfits. When it was finished Chitrah played it again. The secretary noticed he had tears in his eyes.

"You really love her!"

Chitrah did not turn his head away from the image of him and his wife. "Very much!"

She sensed that she was somewhere that he could not get to. She touched him on his shoulder, "I hope I can find a man who will love me as much as you love your wife."

He touched her hand with his, "I hope that too."

The other ladies swooned because they knew he meant it. The boyfriends that were present realised that he was the measuring stick that their girlfriends were going to measure them by. Before today they would have thought it an impossible standard. Now they knew it is real, and attainable.

When the three elders arrived in Eriadu City, they were told that they would have to spend the night outside the security perimeter, since they were not employed by the Ministry or the Military, and everything is closed. They huddled in the first building they came to outside the security gate. They took turns watching as the others slept. Fortunately they were close enough to the gate that the scavengers thought it too risky to go after them. The next morning when they were allowed through the gate they went straight to the quartermaster's store, and bought all the supplies they thought they needed and three military duffel bags to carry it all in. When they tried to lift the bags they found they were too weak. For some reason the person serving them thought of Andriel and how nice she was to everyone there. He told them that he could send a porter droid that would carry all their bags for them, they just have to promise they would keep the droid safe. They promised that they would get it safely back to the truck compound in Old Town Factoryville. But they could not guarantee its safety after that. The clerk felt that that was good enough, and told them that the droid and their supplies would be waiting for them at the truck depot, first thing in the morning.

The ladies than went to the shuttle terminal to check their banking accounts. They were all surprised by how large their accounts had grown. They each withdrew enough to pay Andriel back, to have some working capital for their stores, and some credits to buy more supplies, whether they came back, or someone else did. They then went to find a representative from one of the transportation companies. They told the person that they are from the Devaronian community in Old Town Factoryville, and were there to update them on the status of their community. The rep called his secretary and asked her to book the main boardroom for the day. To arrange for tea, snacks, lunch, and dinner for six people. The cost would be shared between the three transport companies. He then proceeded to contact his counterparts in the other companies and told them that he had three Devaronian women in his office who are ready to update them on the status of the Devaronian community. They asked him if he was sure they are the real deal, he looked at how skinny they are, and told them that they were for real. Then told them that they were on their way to the boardroom.

Andriel and Uleanna had gone into the wastelands. When Uleanna was there with the children, she noticed a bunch of plants growing together, she wanted to show Andriel, in case they were another type of edible plant. When Andriel spotted the plants, she became excited she took out her digging spoon and dug one plant up. She showed Uleanna that this plant has a root system, that large nodules will grow on. These nodules were full of starch and were edible when cooked until they became soft. The only thing they had to watch out for were the nodules that were exposed to sunlight and had turned green. Those nodules are poisonous, and she did not know if Devaronians could eat them. Uleanna asked her if she knew what this plant is called. Andriel believed it was called "potato".

Andriel and Uleanna had let down their guard. They did not know that they had been spotted by scavengers. Three males who wanted to take advantage of them.