Morning.
My Room I learned long ago that mornings can indeed be good.
Especially when you wake up in the company of a pleasant girl worth walking through fire for.
And Hadiya was among those for whom I’d even plunge into the abyss.
And now, that sweet face was lying on my chest, looking into my eyes happily—no, triumphantly.
That must be how a general looks upon victory in the most important war of his life.
“Well, satisfied?” Blink.
“Good girl, you’ll be my slave now.” Blink-blink.
“Now I’ll corrupt you and Ves and throw orgies.” Blink.
“Seriously, aren’t you going to at least pretend to be outraged?!” “Nope.” “I somehow thought so.
One charges straight ahead, the other talked her into it.
No, that’s it, we’re not expanding the servant staff anymore.” “I’m all for it, but I’m curious—why?” “Because I still value my nerves!” “Is that some kind of hi-hi-int?” she frowned playfully.
“That’s not a hint, it’s a statement of fact.
And the fact that you’ll be forced to share me is also a fact.” “Ah… Uh-huh.” “Speaking of which, Hadiya.” “M?” “Tell me, how did it happen that I didn’t see your true feelings until the very end?
Before that, you were swimming in the pool with spark, with enthusiasm, but… without… other emotions.” “It was hard.
Very hard.
I know you sense emotions, so I came up with a plan where I had to deceive myself.
Or rather, not deceive, but convince.
I kind of… detached myself, focused on the goal, made myself believe in the current situation so much that I actually felt exactly what you saw.
And only when the trap snapped shut did I allow myself to relax.” “And I didn’t even sense the trick…” “There was no trick.
No deception either.
You had nothing to do with it; I did it all myself.” “No, Hadi.
If you think about it, that could be used to deceive me too.
If a person believes their own lie enough.
I hadn’t thought about that before…” “Hm… Well, now you know you’re not all-knowing either,” she sat up higher.
“But not everyone is capable of that.
And if you had used the Force on me, I wouldn’t have held out, and everything would have fallen apart, so that’s also something.” “Mmm…” “Shade, are you angry?” “At what?!” “Well, that I did all this.
You didn’t want to.” “I wasn’t against it, especially after all your wiggling, hints, and actions—I was very much not against it!” “Ah…” “I was worried about something else, Hadi.
I was primarily worried about your possessive nature!
And the problems that could come from it.” “And secondly?” “And secondly—I don’t want to hurt you.
In any way.
And there was a conflict of interest.
You wouldn’t stop, but you’d pull the blanket over yourself.
So a refusal was needed.
And you wouldn’t tolerate a refusal—especially one like that.
And even if you did, there wouldn’t be much pleasant about it.
I tried to explain the background to you, and… Mmm… Mmm?” I was silenced boldly but beautifully—with a kiss.
“Shade, calm down.
I know all this perfectly well.
After all, I thought the situation through from all sides, including how to eliminate a rival.
But the conclusion was the same.
Either leave you alone or try to make peace.
After listening to myself and realizing I couldn’t leave you, I chose the second path.
Yes, I’m jealous.
Very jealous.
Because you’re mine.
Mine!
And then there are all these Cathar.
But… I’ll have to.
Besides, I can’t go against you.” “?” “The moment you flared up, you just dominated.
My entire core, tested over years, wavered and simply crumbled.
You probably don’t remember, but I’ve seen you like that before.
When you were angry.
It’s thrilling.
And attractive.
So I’ll make peace.
For you.
That’s my word.
Period.” “Ah… Hadiya.” “Heh…” she suddenly cheered up.
“Hadiya?” “Oh, nothing.
Just suddenly thought about how disappointed everyone will be when they find out their train has left and the only seats are taken.
And how I’ll grind their faces into the dirt, mmm…” “What a little vixen you are, after all,” I shook my head reproachfully.
“Maybe.
For others.” She pecked me and got up to start getting ready.
With gr-r-reat reluctance, you didn’t even need to see the emotions to tell.
“What’s wrong?” “I need to check on my idiots, check the mail, and just see how things are.
It’s so hard holding this much power in my little hands,” she pressed her palms to her chest and rolled her eyes.
“It’s so heavy.” “‘Tell that to Palps,'” I added to myself, snorting into my fist.
“‘What was it?
‘Absolute pow-er-ah,’ right?
Damn, my memory’s failing me, I’m starting to forget so much… well, whatever, after all, where am I and where is the Clone Wars?'” “But what can you do?
I have to,” Hadiya brought me back from my thoughts.
“And why is that?” I couldn’t help asking.
“What do you mean?
I made a mark on myself long ago that I’d become the Queen of Shikaakwa.
First, to finally bring order there.
I’m so sick of this filth; I want to make a decent world.” “So what’s the problem?
Fly to any other planet; it’ll be better and calmer anywhere compared to Shikaakwa.
Even in the colonies.” “Yes, but… It’s easy to say ‘not my problem.’ Easy to just leave.
But try to stay and fix it.
You made me understand that yourself; you told me: ‘not everything has rotted yet.’ I don’t want to rot like the rest and close my eyes to what reigns in my home.
At least for the sake of those who, like you, believe in something better.” “Me?
Believe in something better?” I grinned jokingly.
“Yes, Shade.
You and something better.
Don’t forget.
You didn’t walk past me.
And since you had the strength to change my life, the life of a whole clan, then I have the strength to change Shikaakwa.” “Mmm…” “And secondly,” she continued, “I told you right away, back then, that you would marry a Queen!” She proudly lifted her nose, planted her foot right on the bed next to me, clearly hinting that I should stroke it.
“Yep, and how do such gigantic complexes fit inside someone so tiny?” “Somehow,” the girl shrugged and went back to her clothes.
Sighing and glancing at the time, I rolled my eyes in suffering.
I needed to get ready, but since I was late anyway, there was no point in rushing.
Getting up and following Hadiya’s example, I couldn’t deny myself the pleasure of slapping her firm bottom, with the full awareness that this was now also mine, and damn it!
Hadiya herself just got more excited from that, and before leaving, she grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, pulled me down, kissed me, and then pushed me back, walking to the door from the hip.
Yeah, what a devil.
I sure found what I was looking for… Turning the thought of this light-blue Twi’lek over in my mind for a bit, I switched to our conversation yesterday about friends.
After all, Hadiya was right: if you’re going, you go as a group.
And if I was leaning towards going, I needed to warn our people in advance and ask their opinion.
So, with thoughts of the future expedition, I made it to the hall where classes were being held.
Apologizing for being late, I joined my friends, who were learning to treat and stitch wounds on a dummy.
Sharif himself didn’t react to my lateness at all—so I was late, so what; after all, it was us who needed to learn, not him who needed to teach us.
Finally, some reasonable teachers!
“How’s it going?” I asked Vessira as she was numbing a wound.
“Great.
You missed the lecture on treating wounds caused by shrapnel damage to tissues,” she glanced sideways, and I saw a piece of metal sticking out of the dummy’s leg wound.
“So I’ll see it all on the practice dummy now.” “Uh-huh.
Where were you, anyway?” “Talking with Hadiya.” “M?” Ves glanced at me briefly without stopping her work.
“Hm… And why do I have a feeling of déjà vu, like I’ve seen something like this before?
Exactly!
You only ever show up late in two cases,” she gave me a sly look.
“Heh.” “You know, Shade, you could have hidden your emotions, because now I feel like I want some too, you know?” her look turned reproachful.
“Forgot we’re connected?” “I confess, I’m guilty.
I’ll fix everything!” “You’d better fix that omission, or next time I’ll come myself and…” “Break it up?” “Join in.” “Hm… Good idea!
But I’m afraid someone won’t appreciate it.
At least not right now.” “Exactly.
And who was the initiator?” “What do you think?” “Did she actually take my advice?” Ves feigned surprise.
“She calculated, planned, and yes, charged straight ahead.
Ves, weren’t you the one pushing her in the first few days?” “I was,” the Cathar nodded, filling an ampoule with solution.
“But after getting to know her better, I decided: first, she’s an excellent ally; second, you clearly care about her; and third, despite all her quirks, she truly loves you.
And with a partner like her, I can rest easy,” she winked at me.
“I’m going crazy in this world,” I shook my head.
“Shade, come on.
It’s perfectly normal, I already told you.
And I even bugged you about what problems could arise if a partner doesn’t get satisfaction, including health-wise.” “I wonder what Mom will say,” I said thoughtfully, looking up at the ceiling.
“She’ll pat you on the shoulder, wipe away a happy feminine tear, and bless you with the words ‘well done, my son.'” “Pfft.
Knowing her, I think that’s exactly what would happen.” “But seriously, what’s bothering you?” Ves straightened up, stopping her flirting.
“I can feel the weight on your soul.” “It’s not a weight, more like a mild anxiety.
There’s some news, both bad and good, that we should discuss, just between us,” I nodded toward the guys.
“It concerns everyone.
But it can wait.
For now, please explain what you’re doing and why.” “Easy.
Look, I started with…” So, returning to the lesson, they showed and briefly explained the material I’d missed, then let me practice on several dummies with different types of shrapnel wounds and different penetration zones.
At one point, though, the Master decided to test us and slipped in a dummy with a gunshot wound to the chest.
I was the test subject, and I messed up immediately.
I started working using the already-practiced method, but he stopped me and explained that this required a different approach.
Essentially, we’d already reached our current level, and this was now unnecessary material for us.
So Master Sharif explained that if someone is hit in the torso and a shrapnel piece or bullet remains inside, you need to drag the wounded to a professional with equipment.
If not, you’d have to use the Force anyway, because in field conditions, you physically can’t perform that operation.
At most—painkiller, an instant blood-clotting agent, and a medical stapler so they don’t die from blood loss.
From that point, working with instruments ended and work with Force Healing began.
What can I say?
It’s brutal.
Ramira was already sitting at a godlike rank with us, and now she’d added a couple more points.
Apparently, there are several stages of the technique, each with sub-stages.
For Force Healing, it’s not enough just to channel energy and say, ‘He-e-e-eal.’ No.
For starters, for normal Force Healing, you need a clear understanding of the condition of the object in front of you.
That’s why a medic connects to the patient’s aura, directly reading its state.
If it’s your own aura, it’s many times easier—you already know where and what hurts; you just need to determine what exactly is wrong.
A wound, inflammation, tumor, or something else.
And to determine that, you need to read the precise indicators from yourself.
Then, with an idea of the damage in your head, you can start.
But!
You need to understand how the regeneration process works.
It’s not strictly necessary; the Force can guide intuition in the right direction, but understanding makes it faster and more effective.
And when you control the entire healing process from start to finish, you can heal fractures in minutes, but that’s a level that’s—wow.
For now, we could only patch ourselves up, and even that was mediocre.
Mediocre compared to Ramira, anyway.
The necessary ‘minimum’ had been drilled into everyone back in Qigong Kesh.
In general, the ‘Force Healing’ technique had many pitfalls, one of which was concentration.
Without it, you can’t use the technique, and concentration is very easily broken by, say, a simple electric shock.
That’s how Sharif taught us.
We’d make a small cut on our own hand and then try to heal it with the Force.
The complication was the spontaneous small discharges the Master would hit us with.
To his surprise, we managed it much better than some other students.
We just shrugged.
Were we supposed to tell him that our whole group was so damn crazy that we’d once passed through a powerful Force source while constantly shocking ourselves just to clear our heads?
While we were learning the ‘simple’ stuff, I glanced at what Ramira was up to by peeking into her notebook.
I wish I hadn’t.
Even the drawings were incomprehensible, let alone the text.
But studies are studies.
As I told Ves, we needed to confer.
So, having chosen a time in advance, our friendly company—which Hadiya had quietly joined—gathered in my room.
“So, Shade, what happened that you’re not even trying to joke?” Zeng snorted.
“Graer?” “No, Gris, it’s not problems.
Rather, I want to consult with you,” I sat backwards on a chair, tapping my fingers thoughtfully on the backrest.
“But I’ll start from afar.
It so happens that my father has a not-very-good reputation; moreover, he’s formally considered exiled from the Order.” “Ah…” Ramira began, but I stopped her with a raised hand.
“Wait, Rami.
The situation is very strange and convoluted.
And I’d like to figure it out.
In short, my father is somehow connected with the ‘Stargazers’ sect.
They’re quite something—fanatics—maybe someone’s heard of them.
They found something here on Tython that made them redirect all their resources.
The information is accurate,” I nodded at Hadiya, who was sitting on the table swinging her legs.
She nodded in agreement.
“They’re preparing a major operation.
To understand what’s going on, we need to beat them to it and be the first to reach the location.
Luckily, we still have enough time.” “What’s the location?” Feng asked pragmatically, already catching on.
“The Old City.” “That’s bad.
There’s both a light Force pressure and monsters there,” Zeng frowned.
“Been there?” “Passed by.
Had to check on a group of researchers during practice with a personal teacher.” “And?” “They got eaten,” he spread his hands.
“Mmm…” “Arg rie-r rare?” “No, they didn’t have the Force.
Just a group of researchers who had no business being there.” “I think I have an idea what they were doing there,” Hadiya chimed in thoughtfully.
“Was it, by any chance, members of the ‘NauchTechIndustrial’ research center?” “The very same.” “The company belongs to the Stargazers.” “How do you know so much?” Ramira raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“Shade once asked me to find out more about them.
Did I mention that already, or are you getting senile?” “No, we remembered.” “In short, the situation is this,” I brought the guys’ attention back.
“There’s something very valuable and unknown.
It’s in the Old City.
We have the coordinates.
We need to go check it out.
We need to go as a united group.
Hadiya will provide her people for support, plus equipment.
I’ll involve my mother as the most experienced Je’daii.” “And you think she’ll agree to this plan?” Ves tilted her head.
“I think so.
If we don’t call her, she’ll be offended.
But this way, she might participate just to cover us.” “Mmm…” “Areur rag-r-r-ri a-r-r-re?” “Yes, Gris, there are more weighty arguments in favor of this venture.” “Rae?” “For example, the Stargazers are a sect scattered throughout our system with enough influence to steal an entire Sleeping Ship.
And twenty years ago, they did exactly that.
And now they’ve directed all their forces towards preparing for a single operation.
I emphasize—thorough preparation that’s been going on for two years now.” “By the way, Shade.” “Yeah?” I turned to Hadiya.
“They postponed the operation by several takedas.
I don’t know why, but the lead comes from their science department.
Something happened, but… no details.” “That plays into our hands,” I nodded.
“Anyway, I’ve laid out my idea for you.” “And the plan?” “The plan… When we finish here, we fly to Anil Kesh, where we’ll prepare for the sortie.
I’ll conduct a series of studies, but those are personal matters.
Then the Old City.
We’ll discuss the actual action plan with my mother; she has much more experience than all of us combined.” “Logical,” Feng nodded.
“Well, what do you think?” “We’re in for whatever trouble,” Zeng grinned, and his brother nodded.
“A-a-r-r-re,” Gris agreed.
“Where you go, I go,” Vess responded.
Her gaze fell on Ramira.
“What?
Why are you all looking at me like that?
Of course I’m participating too.
Someone has to patch you up.” “Thanks.” “No problem, brother,” Zeng saluted me.
“Just say you’re going, and we’d tag along anyway,” Feng nodded.
“Well… Your opinion isn’t just empty talk to me,” I grinned.
“Gr-e ur-r-e ar?” “Details?
Yeah, there are.
What exactly?” We sat discussing the Stargazers, my father, and this whole situation almost until dawn.
People threw out theories, Hadiya added facts, everything was analyzed.
It got particularly heated when we got to speculating about what might be in the Old City.
The options ranged from the most reasonable to the frankly delusional, but since we didn’t know the truth, anything was possible.
When we finally realized it was too late to sleep, we had to resort to a Force technique where an hour of meditation replaces eight hours of sleep.
You can’t abuse such a thing often; you might spring a leak in your head, but in a combat situation, that’s the last thing on your mind.
And so passed another takeda.
The twins, as usual, stuck their noses into every corner and made new acquaintances fairly quickly.
Vessira also found someone to chat with.
Ramira and I had no time for that; the latter was causing a stir in the library, while I spent hours meditating, comprehending the Force within myself and strengthening my body.
Gris stood out.
Every free moment, he’d pull out his communicator and sit on it, texting his acquaintances.
If there was internet here, he’d probably never put it down.
But everything passes, and our time in Mahara Kesh passed too.
In the last few days before departure, we allowed ourselves to step away from all business and just swim in the pool.
Hadiya and Ves were talking more and more often, but even so, I couldn’t bring myself to call them friends.
The former constantly turned up her nose; the latter constantly brought the former back down to earth.
One thing was reassuring: their rivalry for my attention had turned from a battle into something like a game, where the main goal wasn’t to bring down a competitor but to surpass her—something I was shamelessly taking advantage of.
It’s so pleasant when you have girls who love you sitting on either side.
And if one is purring and the other is nuzzling, demanding attention, mmm… I feel like I’m in heaven.
I suddenly caught myself thinking that I’d become an addict without noticing.
The emotions the girls radiated… That care, warmth, and pure happiness—they were intoxicating.
Yes, Hadiya sometimes liked to yell.
And poke with a knife.
And curse if it really hit the fan.
But that just brought a condescending smile to my face.
She always was, is, and will be that way.
But no matter how much she hysterics, her emotions gave her away completely.
Vessira was no better.
If Hadiya could still be embarrassed, this one was impervious.
She simply didn’t care about others or her own reputation—my mother’s influence on me was clearly visible.
I’m not even going to mention the times when she loses her mind; there’s no shame, no conscience, no fear.
Here, by the way, I found a trait they both shared but that also set them apart.
While Hadiya would order her ‘slave’ to get to work and direct the process—say, interrogating someone—Vessira would personally handle the interrogation herself.
These are the kinds of slightly crazy girls I ended up with.
Although… Am I the one to talk about craziness?
Exactly, not me.
So I’m satisfied, happy, and generally ‘chilling.’ So we left Mahara Kesh fresh, a little rested, and some of us, including me, happy.
But the happiness didn’t last long—exactly until we arrived at Anil Kesh, the Temple of Science.
“Hi, Mom,” I forced a smile, waving under the reproachful and dissatisfied gaze of one particular Togruta.
“Shade…” “I think he’s about to be killed,” Zeng whispered behind me.
“And where exactly were you planning to go, ‘little ones’?” She raised an eyebrow and swept her trademark gaze over our entire company, including Hadiya.
And, interestingly, Hadiya was the only one who remained standing proud and unyielding, though everything inside her had dropped.
“And us along with him,” Feng added despondently.
But then Mom noticed the ‘tattoo’ on my left arm.
“Weeeeell.” “Ma, wait, I’ll explain everything!
So, we somehow ended up in a Force Storm…” I looked at my mother.
“I mean, at first nothing foreshadowed it, then things started spinning, and lightning struck me, but I survived, and everything’s fine—Ramira very promptly gave me first aid,” I pointed at the Dandelion hiding behind Zeng.
“So everything’s fine; the mark just remained as a souvenir.” She stared at me for a moment, then exhaled.
“Fine.
I’m glad you’re all okay,” a barely perceptible smile appeared on her lips.
“Come on, tell me what happened to you, and also—where this interest in the Old City comes from.”
It all helps promote the story.