LordDarthYoda - Yeah there's a different tone to this one, but things will start getting serious - but they'll be serious in a way that doesn't cause our characters to be in mortal danger for twenty chapters in a row. As for the braids...I assume that they are allowed to not wear them, especially in situations where it would obviously identify them as young Jedi, but there's nothing in canon to suggest that they do. For the purposes of the book, you can assume that they aren't wearing their braids.

Speechbubbleme - Story time, my date at prom (and first girlfriend) told me offhandedly one day that she'd be wearing a blue dress. I kind of smiled and nodded. It was only later that I was made aware that I was supposed to by a corsage that matched (thanks, mom.). I always feel like books ignore what characters are wearing, so I thought it was fun to explore a chapter where clothing is the main topic. And also explore the Sascha/Nara friendship further of course.

Bodare2- I think I described The Emerald Dream once in book one. Here's the description I found "The ship looked like a Spire Falcon waiting to swoop in and grab its prey, it was a predator and near the top of the food chain at that."

A/N - So I read the new Thrawn novel (and loved it!). The funny thing that I notice was that I kind of write a lot like Timothy Zahn (he's a thousand times better than me but our styles are fairly similar). I always loved Zahn's books, so I guess it's no surprise that I picked up some of his writing tricks as well.

This is the last of the 'really lighthearted' chapters, and we'll be on to the mission in the next one.

As always, Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 6: Public Transit

Nara Nalto gently bobbed her head along with the sound of music. She and Sascha had already boarded the passenger liner that would take them from Calvais Station to Estimar. Nara didn't know the ship's name, and frankly, judging by the ship itself, it was not a name worth knowing. While she had known in her head that these passenger liners were not top of the line starships, actually experiencing being in a ship that looked like and smelled like it should be in a museum was a…different experience. Maybe they should have paid for first class accommodations...

Bulbous and ungainly looking, the passenger liner's only goal was to fit as many people into it as possible and get them to their destination with as minimal creature comforts as possible. Nara was very happy that Estimar was the first stop on this voyage because after an hour and a half of being delayed at the dock, she was starting to lose her mind.

Of course Sascha hadn't seemed to have minded. He was sitting in the seat next to her (fortunately there were only two seats of the three occupied in their row). Sascha had, after buckling himself into his crashwebbing, closed his eyes and started to meditate. And that was what he'd been doing for the past three hours. It had left her without a companion to talk to. All she could do to entertain herself was use the terrible entertainment unit that was attached to her seat. All the shows that were available to watch were either old or boring. She had tried to watch a documentary on Estimar and its history but she had found it so tedious and mind-numbing that she had to turn it off, lest she fall asleep.

The one saving grace was that the entertainment unit did have a nice selection of music to listen to. While Togruta did not have external ears, with them actually having internal ears that were protected (and part of) their lekku, it meant that she had to connect tiny resistors to her lekku so that she could listen to music privately.

But after hours of listening to music (and daydreaming about boys), she was getting restless. She toyed with the idea of 'accidentally' elbowing Sascha and rousing him from his meditation, but decided that was too mean spirited. She did enjoy tweaking Sascha (mostly because it was so easy) but she didn't want to abuse her privilege, especially as they'd be sharing an apartment together until they ended this mission, which could go on for several weeks. She didn't want to co-habitate with an annoyed Sascha Whitestar, so annoying him was not an option. Unfortunately.

That meant she had to entertain herself. Nara grabbed the entertainment unit and set it in her lap, rifling through the options that she had already seen before. Maybe there was something that she had skipped over that could entertain her for a few hours…

And then she saw it. A little logo for paid Holonet access. She had browsed right past it the first time, because she had free, unlimited Holonet access on her datapad, like all Jedi (because it was rather important that Jedi have access to the biggest repository of civilian information in the galaxy). But if she paid for Holonet access on this entertainment…she could avoid her searches being flagged. Which meant she could look at the Jedipedia…

Since the day she had gotten her datapad as a youngling, it had always been made clear to her that her actions when using the datapad could be and were tracked. It usually was not a big deal. Outside of some curated knowledge regarding the Sith and the dark side, the datapads had allowed full access to the Holonet and the Jedi archives, and she hadn't heard of anyone being reprimanded for searching for anything, or even for going to some…questionably 'adult' sites. It used to be a prank one played at the Temple, temporarily taking someone's datapad without them knowing and entering an embarrassing search into the Holonet. She even remembered when it had happened to her. Someone (to this day she was not sure whom) had taken her datapad out of her pocket and quickly entered a Holonet search for 'Attractive Togruta Males.' She had been furious, and she had expected a senior Jedi to come and have a little chat about her search habits. But that conversation never happened. The worst part was that even though she saw the pictures of these skimpily dressed male Togruta, she hadn't been even remotely interested in them (this would of course have been different years later).

What Nara had learned about that episode was that the Jedi were open with their knowledge and though they wanted their younger members to know that and to be able to look up anything they wanted.

Except for the Jedipedia.

The Jedipedia was a civilian run database that was almost certainly the biggest depot of information related to the Jedi Order in the entire galaxy. The site, as supported by millions of contributors from thousands of worlds, kept an up-to-date roster of each Jedi in the entire Order. Each Jedi had a 'page' where there was a brief list of their accomplishments, times when they had been spotted in public, and known associates. It also had a section for 'fans' where people could upload fanart of their favourite Jedi and discuss with other fans why they liked that particular Jedi.

When Nara was about eleven, and was still an Initiate, she had discovered the Jedipedia by running a search of her own name (which was an amazingly self centered thing to do, she'd realize later). She had been astonished to find that there had been all this information about her on this page. Her date of birth, height, physical description, even a couple of pictures of her out in public (usually taken from events where young Initiates were paraded around) had all been a part of her page. There had even been information about her parents, though she had closed her eyes and avoided that section. At that point, that wound had been too raw, and would be so for many more years.

But the part that she had loved about her page was there had been these fantastic artist renderings of her. And they drew her not just at her current age, but how they thought that she might look in five or ten years. She had badly wanted to find these people who had taken time out of their day to do something for her and say that she appreciated what they had done. But then without warning her datapad had shut down and nothing she could do could resurrect it. So she had brought it to the tech desk in the Jedi Temple, assuming that its battery had just died or something similar. Instead she had ended up having a one-on-one chat with Shaak Ti.

The tall, solemn Togruta Jedi Master explained to Nara that the Jedipedia was not a place for young Jedi, or any Jedi to visit. Nara had been both embarrassed and annoyed, and demanded that Shaak Ti tell her why. Shaak Ti had told her that while the Jedi condoned the public making a resource that cataloged all Jedi, because the Jedi Order served the public and thus should be accepting of some degree of oversight, it would be dangerous to see all this fame and adulation.

She had kind of understood what Master Shaak Ti had meant, and asked for a further explanation. Shaak Ti had told her, that if you started to care about what people were saying about you on the Holonet then it would always be a distraction in your life. Which was a fair enough point, really.

Still, the Jedipedia remained as a sort of 'forbidden fruit,' and she was sort of interested in what her page on the Jedipedia looked like. She wasn't vain enough to make a habit out of going back to the site. But she did want to see it once.

Nara quickly paid for some time on the Holonet and made her way to the Jedipedia. Into the search, she entered her name and almost immediately her page popped up. The home page displayed her basic information, her height (accurate), her weight (she was NOT that heavy), and a physical description, along with a picture of her face. The picture was a good one, showing her with a wry smile on her face, though the picture itself was about two years old.

She scrolled down through the page. There was a biographical section that she quickly scrolled through without looking. She had lived her life, she didn't need to read a biographical summary of her life. She moved on to the multimedia section. In that there were some holos of her on various missions, ranging from her being photographed at official diplomatic events, to random pictures of her walking down the street.

Next in the multimedia section were videos. Again the videos generally happened to be from times when she knew that she was being recorded. Some were from Ubrora, where she had tacitly understood that she was being watched. And yet others, she had trouble placing. It was odd. Someone thought enough of her to actually get out recording equipment, record her (usually doing something mundane) and then upload it to the Holonet. Bizarre.

A bit put off, Nara scrolled down to the section she'd wanted to see since the beginning – works of art submitted by her 'fans.' The top result was a beautiful, hand drawn painting of her with her lightsaber lit and positioned across her body, a subtle smile on her face. The artist's name was unknown, but Nara would have really loved to have sent the artist a quick note on how she appreciated his or her art. But that did not appear to be an option, unfortunately.

She scrolled through more of the art. Some was good, some…well, some artists drew her like she was a caricature of herself. Nara was pretty happy with the way she looked, she was slender and although not amazingly attractive, still cute enough to get the attention of many males. Sure she would have loved to have been a stunningly attractive girl, one that would turn heads when she passed by, but she just simply wasn't. But the way she was drawn sometimes, with an outrageously, un-Togruta like curvaceous figure almost blew her mind.

"You know if you keep scrolling down, the pictures get more risqué," said Sascha.

Nara froze. Then she felt embarrassment rush through her entire body, he face and lekku warming up in what was probably record time. "Sascha! I uh, thought…"

"That I was peacefully meditating?"

"Um, yeah."

Nara finally managed to find the courage to look over at Sascha. She had expected that his face would be lit up in amusement at catching her looking up her own Jedipedia page, but while he was obviously somewhat amused, his expression was mostly serious. She quickly returned her attention to her datapad, "Let's just forget this ever happened."

"We could do that. Or I could show you something. You'll like it."

Nara's hand paused above the little keypad. Why was Sascha talking like he knew the ins and outs of the Jedipedia? That was impossible. Sascha was the Jedi who always seemed to have a perfect moral compass, there was no way he'd ever used it.

"Trust me. You'll want to see it."

Nara hesitated, then handed Sascha the datapad. Sascha pressed a few buttons and then handed it back, "The audio is still set up for your little resistor things, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then hit play."

Nara hesitated again, not sure if this was some sort of elaborate joke that Sascha was pulling. But that wouldn't be his style. So she hit play. The datapad turned into projector mode. And projected an image of her, dressed in her usual Jedi robes. It wasn't a perfect likeness, but it was very close to it. Obviously someone had created this, rather than it being taken from some video. The virtual Nara did some quick form IV inspired movements and a loud, impressive voice boomed, "Nara Nalto, Huntress of Shili." The virtual Nara then paused with her lightsaber held forward, balancing on one leg, a small smile on her face. Then her datapad turned off projection mode and the virtual Nara disappeared.

Nara found that she was smiling. "Huntress of Shili?"

"The person that makes those gives every Jedi a nickname. Mine is 'Saint of Sluis Van.'"

"My nickname is better."

Sascha chuckled, "I'm pretty partial to mine, actually. But come on, shut it off, you aren't supposed to be visiting the Jedipedia."

Nara nodded in acceptance, "Okay." She signed out of the Jedipedia and ended her Holonet session. She turned back to face Sascha, "I didn't know that you ended your meditation."

"You kind of snapped me out of it," he admitted.

"What?"

"Well, I'm pretty sensitive to your emotions, given our relative closeness, both emotionally and well, actually being physically next to you. In my meditation I could feel how tense and nervous you were, so I figured it was a good time to end my meditation and see why you were feeling that way."

"Ah. And then you saw me sorting through the Jedipedia…"

"And I understood," Sascha said kindly. "It's like the forbidden fruit of the Jedi Order."

"But how did you know about the virtual video thing?"

"Ah. Yes." Sascha's cheeks showed some colour, "I was undercover on an assignment guarding a young woman a few months ago. And she swore that I looked exactly like Sascha Whitestar, Jedi Padawan, which of course I do…"

"So she blew your cover?"

He smiled slightly, "She should have, but I was able to convince her, despite her having actual physical evidence in front of her, that I was not actually Sascha Whitestar."

"So you mind tricked her."

Sascha winced, "No. She was a nice young woman, but not the most…observant."

"And did this young woman try to kiss you?" Nara asked teasingly. "That tends to happen often, I've observed."

Sascha smirked, "No, she was just super in to her studies and research. Everything outside the scientific world bored her, I think."

"Hmm. Well thanks for showing me that. But now I think its your turn to stay awake while I meditate."

Sascha usually would have made some sort of glib comment about her hating to meditate which had been true a few years ago, but he chose not to. "I also heard you listening to 'Jedi Boy'"

Nara blinked, that had been one of the songs she had listened to. The song itself was popular amongst many Inner Rim and Mid Rim planets, telling the story of a girl with an unrequited crush on a titular 'Jedi Boy.' Nara thought it was a nice, catchy song. And because she'd had crushes on many Jedi boys over the years, she related to it – though probably not quite in the way that the songwriter had intended.

"How did you know I listened to that song?" she asked.

"You were humming the melody when I ended my meditation," Sascha said with a smirk.

"And how do you know the melody to Jedi Boy?"

Her friend grinned mischievously, "I am the inspiration for the song. I also helped write it."

"Uh huh, and I'm the Queen of Shili."

Sascha's grin widened, "Do you want me to prove it?"

She crossed her arms across her chest, "I'd love to see you try."

"I accept your challenge. Do you know who wrote and sings 'Jedi Boy?'"

"Ezah Reisel. She's a Twi'lek." And very pretty thought Nara. Nara was jealous of very few females over just their looks, but the natural, effortless beauty of people like Ezah Reisel and, to a lesser extent, Aalya Secura had always struck her as unfair. But Nara had learned that life had no obligation to treat you fairly.

"We saw her perform once. Don't you remember?"

Nara felt her face settle into a frown, she could remember attending very few concerts in her life and absolutely none of them she would consider to be a popular music concert. Then things started clicking together in her mind, "She was the Twi'lek in that Jedi musical we watched!?"

Sascha's grin widened, "She was."

Nara shook her head in confusion, "Okay, I don't get it. How do you go from watching her perform to actually meeting her and co-writing a song." She was pretty sure that Sascha was just pulling her leg. This story was just too outlandish. Especially the part about Sascha being the 'Jedi boy' that was the object of desire. Sascha was nice, but not exactly a boy worthy of swooning over.

"Well, its kind of a long story, but I was kind of a brat and my Master 'punished' me by making me guard the cast of the musical as they went to a night club."

"She punished you by making you hang out with famous musicians?"

Sascha laughed softly, "Well, it wasn't so much a punishment as it was teaching me a lesson. I only saw it as a punishment. But I met with Ezah during that night and we became friends."

Nara thought it through. It sounded outlandish but could have been true. She was also failing to detect any sense of dishonesty from Sascha, who was, generally speaking, a terrible liar. "So what happened next? I assume she fell in love with her 'Jedi Boy'" she said sarcastically.

Her friend's cheeks reddened, "That's closer to the truth than you'd think. I turned her down of course."

"You WHAT! Sascha I don't know if you are partially blind, but Ezah Reisel is beautiful."

"I'm aware."

Nara shook her head in disbelief. "I suppose the song makes sense now. She wrote it about you."

"With my help," said Sascha. "She wanted some feedback on the lyrics so I helped out."

"Did you at least get writing credit? Some percentage of the royalties? Are you holding out on telling me that you have a secret fortune, Sascha Whitestar? Can we please spend it on this mission?"

Sascha shot her an arch look, "Ezah did offer me some percentage of the profits. I suggested that she send them to somewhere that the credits would be put to good use. I suggested the Rebuilding Ubrora Fund. So every time someone plays that song, they rebuild Ubrora just a little bit more. She also made a personal donation to the Fund. She's a good person, Ezah. We stay in touch."

"It sounds like she still has a crush on you, Sascha. Writing songs about you. Donating money to causes you support." She shook her head, "Only you could get a beautiful girl to fall for you without trying. You should really try to pass on your talent to others."

Sascha guffawed, "Ezah isn't really interested in me. She flirts with me because she knows that I can't and won't act on it. I'm probably the only male her age that isn't interested in being with her because of her looks. And yet, because she can't have me…"

"That only makes you more desirable," she finished. "Boy, Sascha, you have perfected the ultimate 'hard-to-get' gambit. Kudos for that. It is truly impressive."

"You're mocking me."

"Wow, you catch on fast, Sascha."

Sascha shot her a wounded look, "Come on, Nara. Ezah doesn't actually want to be with me. I'm the only male she'll ever be able to flirt with without fear of me, you know, acting on it. And I'm not interested in her."

"You're not interested in her," Nara repeated in disbelief. "Did your kiss with Tyra break you Sascha or what?" That comment stung Sascha, and he physically recoiled from her. Instantly she regretted her word choice, "I didn't mean to say…"

"You did, Nara," Sascha said, the slight echo of hurt still in his voice.

"I didn't mean it in that way. I'm sorry, Sascha."

Sascha slumped in his seat, "Whatever, Nara."

Nara suppressed a sigh, she had just been trying to tease Sascha, but he was sensitive about Tyra and his feelings towards her still. And to be fair, she had said something amazingly stupid. He'd forgive her, she knew, but it was clear that this conversation was over. "Your big mouth strikes again, stupid Togruta," she muttered to herself.

She nudged Sascha lightly, "I'm going to meditate, okay?"

"Sure." Another curt response.

Nara shook her head and brought up her datapad. She was fond of meditating while listening to music, so she cued up some meditation music on her datapad. Then a thought struck her and she added 'Jedi Boy' to the top of her playlist. She settled into a comfortable position and heard the song start up.

Looked just like any other,

A boy dressed like a simple trader

Told me that he was a Jedi

And he was here to protect me

Laughed him off, didn't believe him

Who could believe this little human

Was a warrior without equal

And he was here to protect me

Was there for me when I needed him,

My Knight, my protector

Wiped the tears from my eyes

How funny, I wasn't supposed to cry

Comforted me, consoled me,

Was a shoulder to cry on

But he taught me to be strong,

Taught me how face the dark inside me

I made a move, tried to woo him

But he wouldn't break his code for me

Still made me feel like I was wanted,

Even though, he left me alone

I probably won't ever see him again

Dressed in gray with his weapon

But I knew from the day I met him

I knew he would always be my Jedi Boy