*****Author's Note

Hello friends,

I must again apologize for the long delay in this chapter. I returned to my full time job which caused my health to take another sharp nosedive. For quite a while it took everything I had to work most of a shift and left absolutely nothing left for home. The doctors, my co-workers and my wife were quite concerned by my inability to cope with it. We have since found out that I am one of the unlucky 2% of people who have serious complications resulting from my surgery.

The chief of these complications is that my Phrenic nerve (the one that controls the right lung) was damaged in the procedure. This has partially paralyzed the right side of my diaphragm and caused a very unconfortable lump between the bottom of my ribs to form. I'm guessing it is the transition point from the working to disable portions right there. With that, I'm only reliably using one lung right now, and naturally it is the smaller of the two. This equates out to 50-60% lung capacity loss. I'm often unable to catch my breath and my remaining lung has to go into overdrive. This saps a lot of energy all by itself due to low oxygen levels and having to gasp for air.

The good news is that my strength is coming back, though I'm impatient for this recovery and keep screwing myself over. My job is graciously working to accommodate my condition. My years of good service and hard work are paying off. They know me well enough by now to realize that I'm not trying to get out of working my duties. They have scooped me up when I passed out from overwork and are trying to get me to slow down which isn't in my nature.

As my strength returns I'm able to finally return to writing and finishing out the Tales of Talo'Ra. I'm working on a website to post some blogs and share news of how things are going along with the various stories I am working on. I would love any feedback you have to give for this and other things I'm planning for the future.

Cheers

Chris / CJWrites

******

Talo’Ra sat quietly in her chair, looking out the window of the shuttle heading to Thyferra post Gamma One Four. Her first mission three weeks ago went surprisingly smoothly despite a slight complication. She’d had to spend nearly a week working undercover and enduring every creature there hitting on her. Those pursuing her made her covert job almost impossible.

 

She solved the problem by cloaking herself in the Force, sneaking behind two of them as they were talking, and shoving them off a high walkway. She was disappointed to learn that the more annoying of the two had survived the fall. Oh well, she couldn’t have everything she supposed.

 

The second mission she was wearing a better disguise. Her rather exotic look was toned down with skin dye and makeup to dampen sharp cheekbones and lovely features. Her hair was under a wig of an unflattering frazzled look. She adopted a slight limp, hunched her shoulders down and wore dark contact lenses. The effect was startling with knowledge of her normal look. Conversely, the second and third missions were accomplished in less than forty eight hours each.

 

She felt naked without her lightsaber. However, the risk of it being seen and therefore her being discovered as an imposter, was far too high. These orbital platforms were small enough that keeping a secret was next to impossible. The less there was to give away the game, the better. She had to make do with a small knife and a dozen hairpins aside from her formidable hand to hand skills. Use of the Force evened the playing field when she was outweighed and outmuscled by a much larger being.

 

The shuttle docked with the station via an airlock tube as the main pad was already occupied by two ships. Supply and waste ships were frequent visitors at the stations. Normally waste is jettisoned from larger ships just before the jump to lightspeed. Planetary orbit tended to get crowded with debris if stations held this practice.

 

Disembarking the shuttle was more onerous due to the airlock tube access. The passengers all had to climb a ladder in low gravity and use handrails to pull themselves along through the tube. The crowd chattered and grumbled in equal measure while performing this task. The artificial gravity set in again once on the station proper. It was an annoyance, but one Talo’Ra had anticipated after the first mission.

 

A line was formed by the newly on boarded to be directed to their quarters and given their unique pass codes. They were informed their first work shift wouldn’t be until the next day. This allowed them some time to get familiar with the station if they were new to the orbital platforms. It was the same procedure at each one she had been to, and she was glad. It let her do some skulking around to probe the defenses on this station.

 

All of the previous stations had different security standards based on the whim of the commanding officer. She had yet to figure out if it was based on the faction controlling the station, or purely driven by the one in charge. A question to be answered as her overall mission progressed. This particular station was under the control of the third of the three factions, the Noonan Cartel. The first two were under the Hand of Thyferra and the third station was under the Blue Shens.

 

She wondered how long it would take to find the pattern she sought. She probably wouldn’t be able to make that assessment until she’d been to at least three of each station type. If she could find that pattern then the next dozen or so missions after would be faster. The apprentice was having her lessons in patience tested by the prospect. The rewards would be incalculable if she maintained her calm.

 

She made her way through the station slowly since the limp adopted in her disguise slowed her. She hated it. However, the trade off of walking speed to shortening the mission time was worth it. She went straight to her cramped quarters, and hoped she did not have a roommate this time. They were an inconvenience.

 

Luck seemed to be in her favor when she entered the room. It appeared to be empty, and she hoped it stayed that way. She hadn’t worked out the method of surveillance as yet. There were visible camera clusters at strategic locations. Were there hidden cameras? Sensor clusters? Tracking devices in the datapads everyone was required to carry? The answer was most likely all of the above.

 

With this in mind she stayed in her room for a while to give the illusion of settling in for the long haul. Talo’Ra laid in the passably comfortable bed for awhile just to rest her bones. It had been a dull day with the check in, transport and transfer processes. After roughly an hour of rest she sat up and crossed her legs in tailor fashion.

 

She closed her eyes and began meditating. Being in disguise she wasn’t able to perform her normal routine of floating several objects around her. Even the blind would be able to spot that as a dead giveaway. Instead she concentrated on clearing her mind for the task at hand. An alarm from the datapad signaled it was time for evening chow.

 

Her stomach told her it was high time to put something in it. The lackluster nature of the food made her very unenthusiastic about it. Field rations were definitely worse. The young apprentice had eaten more than her fair share of them while on missions with the Legions. They had top notch fighting and medical equipment, but food never seemed to improve.

 

Field rations seemed far more preferable at the moment. This was a funny notion as no one in her experience had said that. Ever. Her stomach again informed her that she had neglected it for too long. The apprentice got up and went to the sink with a washcloth. She spent a few moments scrubbing the dust off of her face and neck. The water was cool and invigorating. Another moment was spent checking that she hadn’t washed off her disguise.

 

Satisfied, the young woman went through her mental checklist of items she had on her. The knife was a bit long to be utilitarian, but not an unheard of length. It was razor sharp and in easy access. The hairpins were specially sharpened and held her wig in place. The items in her bag were nondescript and utterly disposable if she needed to make a hasty exit.

 

Getting into character, she hunched her shoulders down and remembered to limp as she exited her room. The light in the hallways was brighter than in her room, but wasn’t overbearing. The walls were painted a solid, if boring, steel gray. The only color relief was from the yellow stripe signifying the living quarters.

 

Her travel time was frustratingly increased due to the limp, but she was semi-used to it by now. It forced her to remember that impatience was one of her greatest downfalls. Slow and steady is what was required at the moment. The colored line on the walls changed from yellow to green, indicating the common areas.

 

When she reached the back of the line for the dining hall she settled in to wait like everyone else. Barely a minute had passed by when she heard raised voices coming from the doorway in front of her. She couldn’t make out what was being said though. If it was a fight of some kind they might shut the hall down. It could take hours for them to sort through all the video and witness statements.

 

She knew she should have heeded the premonition and eaten the field ration. The Force had been trying to tell her to save some time. Deciding it might provide some entertainment, she used the Force to enhance her hearing. She could listen to the fight at least. She smirked as she heard a table or chair breaking, perhaps over the back of some being.

 

Volleyed blaster fire deafened her enhanced ears. Mass panic, screaming and people shoving past covered her suddenly clapping hands to ears. If she hadn’t been pushed aside by panicked workers suddenly running, she would have fallen anyways. Her world seemed to flip upside down as the noise assaulted her inner ear and disrupted her equilibrium.

 

The stampede of frightened workers came flooding out of chow hall. Dazed, Talo’Ra was almost trampled underfoot. Fortunately for her, a Twi’lek in the lead of the pack saw her and stopped to help. He had green skin with intricate black lines tracing around his Lekku. A jagged scar ran the length of his strong jaw. She couldn’t decide if the scar hurt or enhanced his looks. Idly she decided that it gave him a tough, rugged, alpha male esthetic. A confused afterthought flashed through her mind that she could have healed it with little to no scarring if she’d been around at the time. However, seeing the result, would she want to?

 

He dragged her down a side hall and leaned her up against the wall between some rolling food carts. He quickly checked to see that she was in one piece before he turned around looking back the way they had come. He ducked back down beside her and cursed under his breath. Her momentary confusion was passing and was able to focus once again.

 

The Twi’lek glanced at her again and noticed she was looking at him. He raised a single finger to his lips and a determined look in his eyes. He pulled one of the carts closer to them with a squeak and froze with a pained look on his face. He glanced down the hallway again, locked the wheels in place on both carts and stood up to grab a tray.

 

Bemusedly she watched him work on their hideaway. He laid the tray over the top of the gap and then swung the side door of a cart open to block them from view. He had grabbed a small, serrated steak knife with a blunt tip during this process and was holding it at the ready. She smirked briefly at the improvised weapon when he looked back at her.

 

He whispered “Are you ok now?” She nodded and he continued, “I’m gonna try and get us out of here, but we have to be careful.” Her eyebrows raised slightly and he said, “I know it’s scary, but you need to follow my instructions if we’re going to survive. Do you understand?” At her nod he turned his head to look through the narrow openings around them.

 

At first, she thought he was just trying to be macho. She studied him more intently, and found that he wasn’t putting on a front. He wasn’t wild eyed, panicking or even breathing heavy. There was a slight sheen of sweat on his brow, but it was warm in their enclosed space. He was remarkably calm and collected for having just been shot at in the cantine.

 

A line of invaders went running past their position with blaster rifles in hand. None of them even noticed the odd positioning of the carts as they ran by. Talo’Ra watched the Twi’lek while this happened. His face went blank as his body tensed like a coiled spring. She could feel the deadly intent in him and was fascinated. When the last of them turned the corner he relaxed some and the blank expression left his face.

 

She made a decision then. She reached behind her back and pulled her own blade free. She reversed the grip and extended her hand out to him, hilt first. Surprised, he looked back and forth between her and the weapon she offered him. He asked, “Where did you get that from?” She simply smirked at him and gestured with it. “Fine, we don’t have time for mysteries.” He tested the edges of the blade with his thumb and nodded at the quality.

 

“Who are these people?” She said in a whisper.

 

He had turned back to watch what he could see of the hallway again. He whispered back, “They said they were the Hand of Thyferra faction. This is some sort of pay back for tampering with their computers.”

 

Her eyebrows drew down, “Their computers? What happened to their computers?”

 

“I don’t know. They yelled something about how the Blue Shens were also tampered with but not the Noonans. I guess the process of elimination means we have to die or something. Whatever the case, we have to get out of here.”

 

Talo’Ra was surprised that their computers had picked up the intrusive software she had installed on their systems. She was doubly surprised that now she was in a trap of her own making. If she hadn’t needed to be quiet just then she would have laughed uproariously at the situation. It takes real talent to screw yourself over this thoroughly, and she seemed to have a gift for doing this to herself.

 

Two pairs of boots sounded down the hallway at a slower pace. A patrol already? Did the invaders already have complete control of the station this quickly? Interesting development. As they drew nearer, their footsteps slowed. Talo’Ra watched the Twi’lek as he unlocked the wheels on the cart closest to them. She thought Now will be the test of his mettle. He sprang up, pushing the cart and tray at them. The cart knocked both of the intruders against the far wall while the tray missed them entirely.

 

The Twi’lek was on them in an instant. He stabbed the closest one in the throat and ripped the blade free with a spray of blood. A Bith clutched at his ruined throat while sinking to the floor. The Twi’lek lunged forward with his open hand and grabbed at the chest armor of the second invader. Yanking towards him, the Twi’lek drove a knee into the invader's groin. The intruder doubled over the offending knee. The Twi’lek dropped the knife and latched onto the helmet, twisting sharply, breaking his neck.

 

He spun around in a crouch, scooping up the knife and looking around for more threats. When none were forthcoming he turned his attention to the bodies, grabbing weapons, supplies and anything else useful. He made two piles of items with quick glances up and down the hall. He took the equipment harness off the non-bloody corpse and slung it around his own shoulders.

 

Talo’Ra would have clapped for the entertainment if they weren’t in such dire straits. Instead she watched his movements. They were sharp and precise in the way that only extensive training produces. He was certainly capable and deadly. Muscle played under his shirt as he was searching the bodies. Was he a merc? Perhaps she wasn’t the only one here undercover.

 

He quickly strapped equipment to the harness in the way he preferred. He wiped the blood off of Talo'ra's blade on one of the dead, and handed it back to her. "Do you know how to use one of these?" and he handed her one of the blaster rifles.

 

She sheathed the knife behind her back and looked at the weapon he held out. It was a standard TC-480 with a specialized compensator and fore grip to help with rise. A scope was slightly offset from center to allow for a helmet. It had a modified power pack for expanded ammunition capacity.

 

She took it from his hands and turned it over to inspect it. He started to say "If you…" She turned it on the side, popped out the power pack, checked the level, put it back in and hit the charge button. His expression went through several iterations of confusion and curiosity by turns.

 

He shook his head sharply to clear it and said, "Okay, what's your name?"

 

She considered her answer and decided on the truth. "Talo'ra. You?"

 

"Qet'al. Are you good to go? We need to get out of here." She got to her feet and nodded. He held his blaster rifle up in front of him with the butt stock welded to his shoulder and stalked away. He led her back down the hallway to the intersection where he had found her. He stopped at the corner and peaked around it to see if it was clear. It was and they proceeded down the hall.

 

The next intersection was a different story. He posted up at, and peaked around the corner. There he saw a slow patrol looking into every nook and cranny. He supposed they were doing a room by room search to root out any survivors. They didn’t seem interested in taking prisoners earlier.

 

He waved the apprentice forward, pointed to his eyes and then around the corner. He held up five fingers, closed his fist and reopened his hand to show four fingers. He started looking around for another way, and didn’t see one right away. He was searching his memory of the station layout and came to the conclusion that there was no other route around this section.

 

He resigned himself to his fate and drew Talo’Ra back down the hallway. He leaned in to whisper in her ear. “There is no other way past them and they aren’t moving fast enough. I don’t know if anyone else is coming behind us, so we have to move now. You hide in this room while I draw them away. When we are past you need to make a break for the hangars and try to get away. I’ll try to find you once I’ve lost them.”

 

She looked back at him like he was crazy. He pressed her to agree, and so she did. He didn’t flinch at the notion, and crept back down the hallway. She followed him back to the corner. He was just peeking around the corner when she pulled a grenade off of his vest and activated it. He was shocked as she let it countdown three of the five seconds of the timer before whipping it down the hallway. It exploded exactly in the midst of the group with a crunch one wouldn’t expect from an explosion.

 

When they looked down the hall, everyone was down in a bloody heap on top of the other bodies that had already been there. If there was life in the heap, it wouldn’t be there for long. Talo’Ra glanced at her companion briefly and smirked. He said, “What was with that little stunt?”

 

She blinked at the question before simply saying, “It worked didn’t it?” She headed down the hallway, rifle at the ready. He followed along with a mystified look on his face, but still alert to his surroundings. She was first to the pile of corpses and was sorting through one of them for more grenades.

 

One of the patrol stirred behind her. Qet’al drilled two shots right into the head of whatever the being used to be. Talo’Ra didn’t even flinch at the sound of impact behind her. His eyes narrowed in more confusion over her actions, or lack thereof in this case. She was turning into quite the mystery, one that he was determined to figure out.

 

As fascinating as she was, he was frustrated with her actions as well. He said, “Look, unless you have a lot more training than it appears, you can’t just make rash decisions like that. It could get us both killed. I’m just trying to get us out of here alive if that’s alright with you.”

 

She was tall for a Human female and he had her by at least three inches. Twi’lek’s standing over six feet tall were not unheard of, but they certainly weren’t the norm. His broad frame would have added a certain amount of menace to his words had she been afraid of him in the least. It wasn’t that she was sure that he wouldn’t be a major threat to her. It was the fact that she could sense he was actually trying to save her.

 

Finally she nodded and said “Alright, lead on.” He searched her dark eyes for indications of her intent. Her neutral expression was unreadable and he finally gave up on it. He bent down to the bodies and fished out more grenades and a pair of blaster power packs while she did the same. He watched her from the corner of his eye as she worked.

 

He noted her quick and sure movements while keeping an eye on their surroundings. She seemed nothing more than a frumpy and frazzled Human woman at first sight. But her actions belied her appearance. It was clear that she wasn’t what she wanted people to see. How far did the deception go and for what purpose, he wondered. For now it didn’t matter, later was a different story.

 

They exchanged a look before heading down the formerly blocked hallway. The next intersection found them in a similar predicament. This time, however, there was a different pathway and he chose it. They came across a ladder to a lower level that he had never explored in these stations. They consulted and decided it was probably to a service area, most likely an isolated dead end. The apprentice neglected to mention that the Force told her it was a bad idea to go down there.

 

They moved on towards a three way intersection and walked right into another patrol coming the other way around a corner. Qet’al and Talo’Ra didn’t hesitate to open fire into the middle of the group. The leader and first two behind her went down in a hail of blaster fire. The next six members scattered as far as they could in the confines of narrow hallways and started shooting back.

 

The pair retreated back down the hallway to a doorway that provided a tiny bit of shelter. Qet’al lobbed a grenade this time and blew a chunk out of the wall it landed by. The explosion again sounded like a crunch as the walls were peppered with shrapnel. The closest three were eviscerated by this and the concussive force dazed the remaining two.

 

Talo’Ra and Qet’al rushed down the hallway to take advantage of the lull. She reached the corner first and fired two shots into the head of each remaining patrol member. Right on her heels, Qet’al glanced down the other hallway and saw another patrol enroute. He lurched toward Talo’Ra’s position and opened fire down the hall. He shoulder checked her out of the way of incoming fire.

 

He felt the burning numbness spreading in his side as he started to slump down the wall he’d run into. He kept firing in the direction of the other patrol despite his injury. A small part of his brain knew the wound had been cauterized by the heat of the bolt itself. It also knew that enormous internal damage had been done by it. All of this was screened by the blinding pain that followed the numbness.