Our memories, well, they can be inviting
But some are altogether mighty frightening
It looks as though you're lettin' go
And if it's real, well, I don't want to know
Don't speak, I know just what you're sayin'
So please stop explainin'
Don't tell me 'cause it hurts
In the wilds of Onderon a few days after the formation of the Empire
The droid chirped and Phee answered it. "Heat signatures? But not where we were told they would be. Count on Gerrera to change the pickup location at the last minute."
Again Mel beeped, this time in a more accusatory tone.
"I know I said I'd never work with him but he said this was important."
Phee couldn't remember if this was the third or fourth incarnation of the bucket of bolts but the housing contained the same old memory circuit so she trusted the assessment. That is until she felt the muzzle of a blaster pressed against her temple without prior warning from her mechanical companion. "You failed to mention that the heat signatures were quite that close."
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the female partisan asked, not easing up on the blaster a single millimeter.
"Your boss asked me to come and pick something up." She answered the second question first with her hands raised in submission. "The name is Phee Genoa, liberator of ancient wonders."
A cackle of laughter filtered through the trees. "Well, I don't know about wonders but she got the ancient part right."
Satisfied at her identity, the partisan lowered the blaster a little and used it to push Phee forward towards the camp. They surely had been informed of her coming, because the first thing she saw were the four 'wonders' she'd been informed she was here to collect and they seemed to be ready to go.
The old woman must have been the one who had spoken. She was smiling as she shepherded two young children, a boy and a girl, and nearby them a Twi'lek woman stood, looking more agitated.
"You must be Mrs. Levi?" Phee extended a hand that was eagerly shaken by the relieved refugee.
"And these are Becca and Ezac."
Phee grinned at them and ruffled the little boy's hair. "Your grandchildren?"
"They are now. I'm all they've got left."
Then Phee turned to meet her other prospective passenger, but the Twi'lek woman was pacing and peering through the dense foliage. "Where is he?"
"Gerrera?" Phee asked. If it was another passenger, she supposed they could make room but she hadn't yet seen the fearless leader.
"No, Saw's not on the planet right now," answered one of the other partisans. "He thought it would be safer for everyone if he wasn't around."
"Safer?"
The little girl, Becca, trembled next to her grandmother. "They sent clones after him."
"But not the regular sort of clones." The boy piped up. "They were all different from each other and they wore black armor with sort of designs painted all over it."
That didn't sound like any clones Phee had ever heard of, but if they worried Gerrera enough for him to make a strategic exit, she figured it was about time for them to do the same.
"He was supposed to be here," the Twi'lek woman moaned. And Becca seemed to agree with her. "We can't leave without saying goodbye."
"They mean the young man who was helping to watch over them," Mrs. Levi explained.
"Another partisan?"
"No, he's a civilian, from Iziz. He went to see his sister."
The Twi'lek stood firm. "I won't leave without him."
Phee understood the sort of attachments that could be formed under fire but still. "I'm kind of on the meter here. I'm sure if he was taking care of you all, he'd be glad to know you'd gotten away safely."
Becca looked up and Mrs. Levi gave her an encouraging nod.
In the end Phee only escorted the old woman and the children onto her ship.
"I forgot my helmet!" Ezac exclaimed just before takeoff.
"We'll get you another one." Phee called back from the cockpit. "But where we're going you're not going to need it."
…
"Phee!"
Becca was the first to notice the newcomer at the salon door and dropped what she was doing to greet her, followed closely by Ezac and one curious twin. The other twin scuttled quickly in the opposite direction and fastidiously pulled herself up to stand by grasping onto her mother's pant leg.
"Well, look who finally decided to grace us with her presence." Genna left off setting Mrs. Levi's hair into curlers and bent to lift Saviin into her reassuring embrace.
Phee also scooped up Kebiin before she could zip out the open door in the momentary excitement. She acknowledged the kids with a grin and marveled at the baby who studied her in return. "Gen, they're growing like weeds!"
"Right on schedule, unlike some people I could mention." Genna turned and placed her handful gently into the grandmotherly lap of her client so that she could go back to her work.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry I've been away so long." Phee allowed the children to pull her further into the room. "I see you all have already met."
"Grandmother comes to get her hair done every other week," Ezac explained, not fully understanding the reason behind female preening.
Becca chimed in, "and we get to play with the babies!"
"Ah, I see." Phee bounced Kebiin on her hip and then set the baby on the floor amongst the toys that had previously occupied her.
"You know Mrs. Levi?" Genna asked. Of course Phee would. Everyone on the island seemed to know the pirate.
"I'm the one who brought them here from Onderon."
The answer so startled the stylist that she dropped a couple of curlers that bounced and rolled across the floor. "From Onderon?"
She had heard the story but hadn't put it together that these were the refugees Phee had transported until this very moment.
"Actually, I just came from there." Phee opened the satchel she had carried in over her shoulder and rummaged in it as she spoke. "I went to get some of the things you had to leave behind when I picked up you and the girls."
That wouldn't have been the pirate's only reason for visiting the planet but Genna would have to ask her about that later and right now she was just as curious as the children to see what sort of treasure Phee would pull out of her bag.
It was a framed holostill that Genna well recognized and so it seemed did Becca, or at least one of the subjects in the image.
"It's Mr. Ret!"
"It is!" Ezac agreed and then he looked from the image up to the stylist and back again. "Is that you, Ms Genna? Your hair's a different color."
"Mm-hm," she hardly trusted her voice to speak with the sudden rush of emotion. "I used to dye it," she managed lamely.
The image was from Genna's graduation and it captured a younger, dark-haired version of herself along with her four brothers while they were all still living.
"Mr. Ret was your brother?" Mrs. Levi inquired. "He spoke of having a sister but I thought he mentioned that she was… disabled in some way."
Genna sniffed and wiped at an odd gathering of moisture in her eyes with her sleeve. "I was in a hoverchair then. I had to have a surgery so I could walk again."
Just then she winced, flexed one foot, and stretched her hamstring before rubbing her lower back.
"You alright?" Phee asked, concerned.
"Just a sciatic nerve thing that comes and goes since I had the twins. Guess I should be glad I can feel anything at all."
Ezac was looking at the pirate's bag of loot once again. "Did you bring anything else? Did you find my helmet?"
That made Genna remember something else and she took the chance to make a quick escape. "Watch the girls for me a second?" she called back over her shoulder as she shot for the stairs up to the apartment.
It was almost too much for her to take in all at once. Mrs. Levi and her grandchildren were the refugees Ret had been so keen to protect in the jungle before he was killed. And not only that but he had been protecting them from the clone force that was sent after Saw Gerrera to wipe out his entire operation. A clone force that included her husband, the father of her children.
Genna well remembered when she had returned to Onderon from Kuat where she had had the surgery to regain feeling and movement in her legs. Ellie had taken her to a prearranged spot in the jungle where she could rendezvous with Tech and the others before they would be parted again for Manda only knew how long. Forever, as it turned out, but she didn't know that then. They decided to make the most of their time together and that had been when they conceived the twins.
For a few solitary moments Genna indulged her tears and then she splashed some water on her face and went to find the thing she'd come to collect.
Omega had found it on the jungle floor that day and they knew it had probably been left behind by someone who had been in Saw's camp. Genna had never imagined that she would meet its original owner but she didn't think that wherever Omega was now she would mind if it were returned.
She descended the stars now holding the small helmet and they all looked up at her return. "Hunter gave me this to look after until they…"
"My helmet!" Ezac ran over and grabbed it out of her hands, hugging it to his chest before cramming it down onto his head.
She knew that she had done the right thing and that Omega would have been pleased at the reaction as well. Phee also gave her a nod and a smile of approval.
…
Later after the styling appointment was finished, and Genna put up the closed sign in the salon window so she could have a break and put the twins down for a nap, Phee joined her for a cup of shig at the apartment's small dining table.
"Not working too hard are you?" Phee asked, noticing the way Genna favored the pain in her leg once again.
"Nah, I like to keep busy."
"Good." Phee set down her cup and folded her hands on the table in a business like manner.
Genna sighed. "Might I guess that this has to do with the real reason you visited Onderon?"
"Dalla is about to pop, and it would almost be funny if she wasn't so scary," Phee replied. "She doesn't plan on taking much in the way of maternity leave, but she needs to have both her cells set up to run while she's gone."
"I'm sure Sloan will have it all in hand." Genna waved off the concern.
"Sloan doesn't do defections."
"And there it is." Genna sipped her tea.
"I thought you were interested in helping people escape the Empire."
"In theory yes, but I have the girls to think about. I can't have them exposed to all that danger." A rather unkind thought popped into Genna's head and she gave it voice before she lost her nerve. "Ask Mollymauk if she'd drag her new baby into this. She who cut off her whole family."
Phee considered for a while, like she wasn't sure if she should say what she did next. "I don't think she did. She has closed-door holo meetings with some man, and the way she talks about him I bet you that he's her father. I told her you were somewhere safe and away from the Empire, and she's been on me about the location ever since. I don't think she wants to know for business purposes."
Genna didn't want to burst Phee's bubble. She had met Dalla's father and knew that the two of them did not get along. If Mollymauk, however, had found someone else who filled that role, maybe as the Mandalorians put it, family is more than blood.
"You think she wants a fallback location for her family?"
Phee shrugged. "Dalla will go down with the ship, but she wouldn't tie an innocent to the mast. You could pick a worse cell to throw in with."
Genna thought of Dalla's blood family who had taken her into their home, the aunt and uncle and brothers and cousins who had been so kind to her. And then she thought about Mrs. Levi and Becca, and Ezac clutching that helmet that he had left behind. And that of course reminded her of Omega and the brothers who were still out searching for her.
"No. I can't. And you can't tell Dalla about this place. She has resources all over the galaxy, but what do Hunter and Wrecker have? You know they'd never forgive either of us if we gave away the location of the one place they can bring Omega home to when they find her. And they will find her!" She finished determinedly.
"You're right." Phee sighed deeply. "I…" she hesitated. "I haven't just been working for Mollymauk all these months."
"You found a lead about Omega?" Genna grasped onto the glimmer of hope.
"In a roundabout way. I was able to pass some information to Hunter about a Pike who was wanted by the Durands who might know something about a secret science base."
Genna had a flicker of a memory of a mission Tech had once told her about, that involved Pikes and Omega being captured and fishing for crates of spice in a bug infested cavern. She didn't know if that had anything to do with this situation but if anyone could follow a trail like that then it was Hunter. "And when they find her they will bring her here. They will bring her home."