So the Batch are bringing Gungi home to Kashyyyk and did I happen to mention that Genna is half Saxon on her mother's side?
Supervision is what I need
Is what I need
Some consistence, tangibility
Some casual light days
Part of the furniture
I want to take you for granted
And see you regular
… So what you giving' up for me?
And what shall I give up for you?
The separations tired, it's been too long
… And to make it real
I need to have you here
I need to have you
… It can't be sincere
Unless you spend time here
I need to see you
I need you
… Come home now!
If you lived here you'd be home now
"Glad to find the two of you together," Dalla said, still grinning. "I was hoping to speak to both of you and now I don't have to go looking."
"Can a guy hope that you're announcing an unexpected vacation?" Sloan snarked.
"No, quite the opposite actually." She shut the office door behind them, cutting off little Lana. "I need you to run over to Krownest and pick up the Arsenal of Ordo."
"The Arsenal of Ordo? What do you want with that?"
"I don't want it. Bo-Katan Kryze is hocking it and I happen to have found a very interested buyer," Dalla explained. "We need to jump on this one before she gets antsy and takes her business somewhere else. I would go myself, but –."
"I get it." Sloan cut her off.
"Excuse me," Genna spoke up. She had seated herself and was drumming on the handle of one of her canes with her fingers. "You said you wanted both of us here but what does any of this have to do with me?" The name Kryze had jumped out at her and Ordo was the name of one of the other old clans but it still didn't explain her sudden inclusion in Mollymauk business.
"You're originally from Mandalore, right? If anyone stops you and asks your business, say you wanted to visit your childhood home." Dalla shrugged. "And you speak Mando'a. Bonus."
She wasn't wrong. Tech had been teaching her the language before they had to darken their communications. Genna sighed. Well, she'd been looking for something to take her mind off her husband. And getting away from Blackhold Isle for a while had its appeal. "I was thinking about starting to look around town for my own place but if you really think I might be useful…"
"Aye, of course. I'll even look for someplace that might be suitable."
"Okay, as long as we're not traveling by sea, I guess I'd be glad to help."
…
"Hey, you alright?" Sloan asked as she plopped down into the copilot's seat beside him.
"Yeah, fine." She might have asked him the same question if she hadn't been the one who was just in the fresher bringing up her breakfast. She hadn't expected the hyperspace travel to affect her this much. "Sure as kriff better than being on the water." She laughed.
He nodded, arms crossed over his chest, and returned to staring out the viewport at the blue streaks of stars and planets rushing by. "When we're done with this pickup, is there anyplace else you'd like to stop while we're out here?" He didn't seem in any great hurry to get back to Onderon while Ellie was still on her own mission.
"Actually I was wondering if you had any recommendations for a good place I could go to get a tattoo?"
Surprised by her words, he sat up a little straighter in his seat. "Aye? You want some ink? Aunt Shara will say I'm a terrible influence on you."
Again Genna laughed but sobered as she explained. "I've been considering it for a while. Tech has sort of a…" she gestured towards her own pectoral region but Sloan just nodded.
"Saw it," he chuckled. "Asked him if you found that sort of thing attractive."
She reached over and slapped him across the gap between their seats. "We had talked about me getting something to match."
It was a relief to be able to discuss her husband openly with a friend who knew the whole story of how she had met clone force ninety-nine.
"Maybe somewhere only Goggles could appreciate it?" Sloan teased.
"Maybe," she sighed and then reached across the space between them again to squeeze his hand. "Hey Ellie's gonna survive this thing with the partisans, too. She's kriffing Sidhe."
Sloan crowed, "No, that's my job."
…
As it turned out her knowledge of the Mandalorian language hadn't been necessary. The entire transaction was conducted in plain Basic. Though Genna had caught a few words passed between the Nite Owl and her comrades.
"You alright? No more space sickness?" Sloan asked when they were back on the ship.
"No, actually." Genna dabbed the side of her mouth with a tissue at the remembered nausea. "I was thinking about that girl on Krownest, the younger one."
"Aye? There was something kinda familiar about her. You look more Mando than her but she sort of looked like one of the paintings back at the museum. Weird huh?"
"It wasn't that. It was something she said in Mando'a to the older one," Genna explained. "She said, 'this will be put to good use.' It's what my mama said when she decided to sell her beskar'gam to give me and my brothers a new start."
"Maybe it's a beskar selling tradition," Sloan shrugged. "You know we're still in the neighborhood and we've got to stop for fuel before we make the jump back to Onderon. What do you say we do a flyover of your old homeplace?"
Genna nodded. "I haven't seen it since I was a little girl."
Home, she thought. 'Yaim' was the word in Mando'a. She wondered if that was the way Tech and his brothers and Omega thought of Kamino. And now it was gone. She'd seen the holo news about the terrible storms, though from what Tech had told her, that wasn't the cause at all. She wished she could ask him about it.
"Have you commed Ellie lately to let her know our status?" If she couldn't speak to her husband at the moment she could at least make sure her friend wouldn't suffer the same radio silence.
Sloan smirked but he answered mock sincerely. "Aye, ma'am. While you were in the fresher heaving up your ration bars, I let her know we got the merchandise."
"It's your flying that's causing it, you know." She rolled her eyes. "I've always had the sea sickness but space never bothered me till I got into this transport with you as the pilot."
"Well don't forget it's the pilot of this transport who's managed to get you to these coordinates." He frowned as he looked out the viewport. "These are the right coordinates, aye?"
Genna studied the terrain below. She didn't really know what she had expected, maybe that it would appear smaller to her grown up eyes. She remembered running through the barq field the day they left and the stalks of grain stood well over her head. But now there was… nothing.
She thought perhaps she could make out the shape of a hill and was that the stream from which Buir dug the irrigation ditches? It was completely dry, just a furrow carved in the ground that ran around the indication of what had been the foundations of the farm house and barn.
"Genna?" Sloan may have said her name more than once.
"Hmm?" She didn't take her gaze away from the scene.
"Would you like me to set down so you can get out and take a look around?"
"No." She forced herself to look at him instead and gave him a sad smile. "There's nothing here for me anymore."
"You know," he said with a nod and a concerted effort to keep the mood light. "We're not that far from Keldabe. We need to fuel up but I'm also told that the oldest cantina in the system is still in operation. I could go for a drink and maybe we could find somebody who could give you that ink you were talking about?"
"Yeah," she decided. "Maybe I can pick up some behot leaves for shig as well. Might settle my stomach for the trip back."
…
"You look like you need one of these," Sloan commented and drained the last of his tihaar when Genna limped into the Oyu'baat.
"I should have gotten that done when I couldn't feel my legs," she complained and lifted her pant leg to show off her new ink, two aurebesh number nines just above her right ankle.
Honestly she was just happy that she had managed the short walk from the tattoo parlor to the bar without the aid of her canes. She was supposed to be practicing.
" Shek'eta-she'cu ?" A voice from behind her almost made her stumble. " Tion partayli ?"
She regained her balance as she turned to face not one but two men who wore full beskar'gam but for the helmets they had removed when they entered the building. Swiftly she translated the words in her head. It was a question obviously and she recognized the root of the word 'to remember'.
" Shek'eta-she'cu ?" She repeated, playing for time and then responded with a smile. " Ner meshgeroya aliik ."
"You played the beautiful game?" The second man scoffed in plain Basic.
" Ner balac shuk'la be shupur ," she explained with an edge to her voice.
" Nar dralshy'a lo vencuyot ."
She scowled. " Ne shab'ru -"
The first one stopped her before she could get any further, " Udesii, ad'ika. Ner vod didn't mean anything by it."
"I'm not a child!" She switched to Basic again since he had.
"And you're not from around here."
"Actually I was born on a farm just a few klicks north of here."
The two men looked at each other.
" Ori'haat !" she insisted.
She felt rather than saw Sloan rise behind her, protectively.
" Tion'ad hukaat'kama ?" The second one nodded towards Sloan.
"Ni hukaatii'ni shebs ti kama!" She scowled again and then sighed. "He's just a friend, a pilot."
" Tion gar gai ?"
"Genet Carid."
"Carid?" The two shared another look. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Parja Saxon Carid?"
Genna had never imagined that she would ever meet anyone who knew her parents. "She was my mother. Why? Did you know her? Do you know what happened to her?"
"Our father was her older brother."
"Uncle Ghez?" She remembered the name and tried to recall the other details. "Then that would make the two of you Gar and…"
"Tiber." The second one who had spoken supplied his own name and gave her a smile that was not at all pleasant.
The one she supposed was Gar was not smiling. "What are you doing here?"
"Just a briikasak ." She was trying to brazen it out but her overtaxed leg muscles decided then was a good time to give out.
Sloan stepped forward quickly so he could wrap an arm around her for support. "It's been a real nice family reunion but, maybe we should just get back to the ship. Unless there was something else you wanted to do before we leave?"
Genna nodded her thanks. "I already got the behot."
"So you're just going to fly back to your vode ? There were more of you weren't there?" Gar asked.
"That's right," Tiber added. "Didn't Auntie Parja have a whole akaata of ad'ike ?"
"I had four ori'vode . They all died in the war." That was technically true although none of them were what the Mandos would call soldiers.
"So you just decided to briikasak right here?" Gar continued the interrogation. "And I suppose that's your ship out in the space dock?"
"That's right…" Sloan began but the Mandalorians ignored him.
Instead Gar narrowed his focus on his cousin. "You see I don't think this was just some sort of joyride. I think like mother, like daughter, you found yourself shupur'yc ," she couldn't deny her injury, " bal solus, bal yaihadla . So you came running home to your aliit to take care of you in your hour of need."
She wasn't familiar with the third word he had called her but she knew she wasn't the second. "I'm not alone! I have friends and I have a home that I will be returning to shortly if you'll kindly allow us to leave."
"We usually search all unfamiliar vessels that wander into our space port."
Sloan's grip on her tightened.
"That won't be necessary." Genna stood up straight and proud with her last bit of strength. "We'll be off your planet within the hour. Come on," she said to Sloan and he helped her to exit the cantina past her cousins.
Gar and Tiber followed them out to the road and watched as Genna leaned heavily on her friend for support as they hurried away.
But Tiber called out one more parting shot at Sloan. "Hey aruetii , don't worry. Gar taldin ni jaonyc; gar sa buir, ori'wadaas'la ."
Genna was shaken when they reached the ship and she exchanged Sloan's support for her own walking canes so that he could start the engines.
"You were great back there," he complemented. "I was sure they were going to keep us there so they could come aboard and find Dalla's prize."
She shrugged still processing the meeting with her estranged family and all they had said. Mostly she just wanted to go to the cabin and crash till the flight was over and they were back in Onderonian space.
"Hey," Sloan asked before she could escape down the corridor, "what was that last thing your cousin said as we were walking away?"
Genna halted for a moment. "Oh, it was an old saying. It means, 'it doesn't matter who your father was, just the father you will be'."
"You don't think he thought that you and I…" he broke off with a laugh as if it was absurd.
When she was settled in the cabin with her feet up and a cup of shig to ward off the space sickness, Genna pulled out her datapad to look up the unfamiliar word Gar had called her in the bar, ' yaihadla .' It meant, pregnant.
She laughed. That was ridiculous. And they had assumed Sloan was the father? Well, wouldn't her Saxon cousins be shocked to find out that Parja's baby girl married a Fett.
Her laughter turned to tears. She wished she could share the joke with Tech but at least they were headed home.
…
"The girl?" Yanna asked in Shyriiwook.
Tech knew that the elder could understand Basic perfectly well but since the others had continued past them into the dwelling he answered her in kind, "She is a clone like us."
It was a courtesy to speak the language but it was also good practice to wrap his own vocal cords around the foreign syllables once again.
Genna had once remarked how much easier it was to learn Mando'a when she had someone to converse with regularly rather than just trying to pick it up from a holo. He wasn't sure about that but it was certainly more enjoyable. He wondered if she had come along any further in her vocabulary since they had last had the opportunity to engage in discussion.
"She is a child like Gungi ," observed the matriarch, bringing him back to the present. " Does she have a home to return to?"
"No, our home on Kamino was destroyed." Even if it hadn't been, hadn't she begged Hunter never to return there?
"Many of our villages have also been destroyed but we still have our tribe. Home need not be at a rooted location."
No, Tech supposed it did not. Their current home was an Omicron-class attack shuttle. However, he could not help but think that their entire 'tribe' was not 'tome' as the Mandalorians phrased it, because of the continued separation from his wife.
He did not want to think of how long it might be until he saw her again. It was a sacrifice he had made to keep her safe.
Other wookie voices interrupted his musings, Yanna's scouts with news that a large convoy was approaching.
"Before they arrive ," Yanna implored Tech, " You should leave."
He was quite certain that Hunter would not agree but he passed on the information dutifully.
And so they would stay to help ensure a safer home for their allies the wookies (and their allies the trees) before continuing on their own path to find home.
