Into the Chaos Ch. 11

Into the Chaos -- Author's note.

Welcome to the eleventh chapter of my story 'Into the Chaos'. A Sci-fi story that just happens to take place in the Unknown Regions of the Star Wars universe just after the Great Galactic War, almost 4000 years before the events of the movies.

To those not really into star wars lore, the events in this story happens about 2600 years before Darth Bane instigated the Rule of Two, limiting the Sith to a One Master, One Apprentice system. In other words, there were thousands of Sith in this time period. Some were immensely powerful (Like Darth Malgus), while other were not.

As I said, this is the eleventh chapter and if you haven't read the previous ones, I recommend that you do that first.

Disclaimer: I do not own or hold any rights to any Star Wars licenses, including the star ships used in this story.

Some warnings:

This is an erotic sci-fi adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P. S. The series is self-edited, so any mistakes are mine, though I now have a proofreader, that can catch missing words ect. Thanks to Jessejames932006 for doing that.

P. P. S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 11 -- Back together

Dreadnought Majestic, The Chaos

A Battlecruiser

"Only a commander who understands logistics can push the military machine

"to the limits without risking total breakdown.

From the Holy Book of War

Due to the Star Wanderer 'Walrus' having a Rank 3 hyperdrive, getting back to the Esk-32 system took almost two weeks, as both Lena Agusta and I used the Force to navigate safely through the Chaos, often going around hazards instead of skimming the outer edges of them as we had done on our way to the Grinda system.

All in all, it made for a long and uneventful journey, which was a nice change from the hectic week in the Qek-40 system, and most of the time was spent watching the new people hitting their stride under the watchful eye of their mentor. One of them was First Officer Janik, who seemed to thrive under Iska's gentle mentoring. Slowly, but surely gaining the respect of the crew he was commanding.

The same was the case with Lieutenants Cabur and Mormill. Cabur was just as good a pilot as she claimed to be and had proven to be a good mixture of being easy-going under normal circumstances and competent seriousness under pressure. Mormill was another story, as she was prone to speaking her mind in a way that wasn't against regulation, and from time to time, these outbursts showed a keen tactical mind. She was also insatiable in her search for knowledge and loved debating various battles, so I learned much about the newest Imperial tactics from her, while she learned about general tactics from me.

Unfortunately, Lieutenant Mormill wasn't ready to be a higher-ranking officer just yet, as her leadership abilities simply didn't match her tactical knowledge and ability, but I hoped she would improve with age and training.

Another newcomer to the bridge was a young human scan tech named Anna Bibboris. She had been assigned to work with Tavune, since I had assigned Trine Karnos to be the captain of a BSX- 5 and Tavune could use a helping hand. While he was still a wizard with everything electronic, he could only be in one place at a time, and having someone to mentor would not only give him a helping hand, but hopefully also mature him somewhat, so he would be ready to become an officer in the tech and science department.

The last newcomer on the bridge was Lena Agusta, who was assigned to the astrogation section, where she was studying astrogation under the tutelage of Jandar San, who was quite impressed by the human's ability to grasp the complicated concepts an astrogator had to juggle to do their jobs. Iska and I were still the only ones currently on the ship that knew Agusta could use the force to navigate the stars, but the ability also helped her to better understand astrogation and according to Astrogator San, she would become an exceptional astrogator in some years.

"You're thinking too much." Declared Shakka, as she stopped the massage she had been giving my back. "You're not relaxing as you're supposed to."

I lifted my head from the bed and turned it so I could glance at her. Sitting naked on my legs, she was a gorgeous sight and despite the seriousness of her voice, there was a gleam of amusement in her green eyes.

"How can I relax when one of the most beautiful persons in the galaxy is sitting naked on my lap?"

That made her smile. "Good point, but you weren't thinking about sex, so what was on your always active mind?"

"Lena Agusta." I told her. "Or rather I was wondering why her attitude towards me has changed."

"What do you mean?"

A slight cramp was starting in my neck, so I told her to wait a moment and rotated under her so I was laying on my back with her resting on my thighs. "It's difficult to explain, but I can try. Before the Qek-40 system, she treated me as somewhat of an equal. Yes, I was ranked above her, but not more than she could handle. Now her attitude has changed for some reason, like if she's a new recruit talking with a famous general. Somehow the ranks between us have increased in her mind and I can't really explain it."

That made Shakka laugh, causing her naked tits to jingle pleasantly. "Thalen, you're seriously funny from time to time. I mean, you can think up tactics to defeat a battlegroup while sitting in the back of a shuttle and with nothing more than the head-up display in the helmet, but not this?"

I shrugged lightly. "Yes?"

Still smiling, she caressed my chest. "The moment she became a regular crew member, she had access to at least some of our database, and I know for certain she has seen all episodes of 'Dragon's Quest' that are available so far and the security footage from the hangar." Her soft warm hands wandered down my body as she spoke. "So yes, the ranks between you have increased, because in her eyes you went from being a commodore to being a hero." Her hands reached my limp dick and started to play teasingly with it. "Not only did the fleet under your command save her from certain death, but you personally accepted her into the crew when her own people threatened her, not to mention that you trusted her enough to ask her to use her abilities to find a way out of the Qek-40 system."

I could feel my body responding to her gentle hands and she was no longer playing with a limp dick, but with a hard cock. "Hmm... Shakka, didn't you insist on not having sex tonight?"

She sent me a smile full of lust. "Yes, but that was before I had your body under my hands for half an hour. I mean, when I met you, you had a nice body, but after a year of training..." She shook her head. "You're now officially the sexiest man I've ever seen." She lifted her hips and gently bent my dick, pointing it towards the entrance of her pussy. "And I want you inside me."

With that she slowly sank down, impaling herself on my stiff dick. I would have sworn that it was impossible from the position she had been sitting in, but as her tight wet pussy slid over my dick, clenching it with every move she made, I realised two things: Not only was I wrong about the angle, but she had to have spoken the truth, because she was incredible wet despite the lack of foreplay.

Her eyes were closed and her beautiful face was contorted with pleasure as she kept going down, driving my dick into her extremely wet and unbelievably hot and tight pussy. She kept going until her pert ass was resting on my hips and my dick was all the way inside her.

She opened her eyes to look at me. "And stop worrying about Lena Agusta. It'll pass in a few weeks, when she has become used to the situation." Her pussy clenched around my dick as she leaned forward and slightly lifted herself up again. "And now, I want to ride you until you come. Don't hold back, I want to feel you come inside me."

"Yes, Doctor." I said with a chuckle that turned into a groan as Shakka placed her hands on each side of my head and started to ride me, yelping each time she buried my dick inside her. I shivered as her fantastic ass went up and down, while her breasts swayed gently in front of my eyes.

As always, her clenching pussy felt fantastic around my cock and with a groan, I reached out, so I could slide my hands over her firm breast and felt her erect nipple drag under my palm and fingers.

"So good," she breathed and picked up the pace a little, groaning deeply, as I rolled her nipples between my fingers, causing jolts of pleasure to run through her body. The inner muscles of her pussy rippled around my cock, stimulating every bit of it, making me moan as well.

Her light green eyes rolled back just a little, as she was getting lost in the pleasure as she changed her ride to going back and forth instead of up and down. Her wet pussy clenching the shaft of my cock each time she moved, making the velvet well massage the sensitive head.

Unfortunately, the sensation was too good to last. Instead of trying to slow down the arrival of my own orgasm, I decided to speed up hers, so I moved a hand from her breasts, sliding it across her flat stomach and down to her pussy, placing my fingers on her clitoris. Pressing lightly, but otherwise holding them still, so her own movements would make her clitoris slide over my fingertips.

"Ohhhh!" Shakka moaned and shivered, as the next move with her hips also made her clitoris rub against my fingers. "Un... fair!"

Laughing softly, I shook my head. "I'm ... not holding... back."

She smiled even as she moaned again. "Still... unfair."

I moaned myself as she paused for a moment with the head of my cock caught just inside the opening and gyrated her hips to make the lips and opening caress the head.

My cock twisted all by itself and I could feel the skin on my ball tightening, as my body got ready to unload.

"No." I groaned, rubbing her clitoris and rolling a nipple between my fingers at the same time. "This is unfair."

"FRAK!" Shakka screamed as she exploded in ecstasy, momentary losing control of her body as waves of pleasure ran through her. Her shapely legs gave away and gravity made her hips slam down on me, her pussy convulsing around my cock, her hips bucked against me.

"Coming." I grunted and then moaned as I erupted inside her.

The feeling of my semen hitting her inside, made Shakka come again. Not the same explosion as before, but a long, draw-out burst of pleasure that seemed to go on for a long time, until she collapsed on top of me, breathing heavily. Her pussy still convulsing randomly around my still hard cock.

We lay like that for a while, with me caressing the soft skin of her back as my dick slowly got flaccid.

Shakka raised her head and gave me short kiss. "Thalen, if our sec gets better than this, you're going to kill me." She grinned. "I swear, I'll have a heart attack one of these days."

"If you don't give me one first." I kissed her. "That was incredible."

"Yes," she agreed with a smile and rolled off me to lay by my side. "but to be honest, our sex is always good."

"Good point."

Shakka stretched lazily, making her perky breasts stand up even more, looking extremely sexy, beautiful and sweet, all at the same time.

"Oh.. do you mind if I seduce another woman?" Her voice was calm, casual, as if she were asking for a glass of water. "Not that I think you have, but I thought that it would be polite to ask, since we have never talked about it before."

I thought about it. "That's fine with me, but to be honest, I don't know how I would feel if you asked about a man."

Shakka laughed softly, a low, musical sound. "Not gonna happen. It might sound lame, but ... you're all the man I need."

With a little laugh, I ran a hand over her body, enjoying the feel of her smooth skin. "Hmm... if you think that, why did you say that you would share me?"

She rolled onto her side, propping herself up on one elbow to meet my gaze. "Because I want to keep you." A little smile showed on her face. "Thalen, you have shown several times that you're an incredibly skilled tactician and a natural born leader, but... and this is not a critique... you're also a good-looking and annoyingly sexy young man with a strong sex-drive surrounded by a lot of beautiful women."

She reached out to reciprocate my gentle caresses, sliding her hand over my chest. "If I'd insisted on monogamy, we wouldn't have lasted... not to mention that there's a greater plan here. If you can go to bed with other women, so can I."

That made me laugh. "You devious woman." I fell silent as I thought about what she had said. Not that she was wrong, I just wondered how she had reached that conclusion. "Wait a minute... you couldn't have known that from the start... You have been taking advice from Yaki, haven't you?"

She nodded with a smile. "Yes... though she did threaten me with bodily harm if I didn't treat you right."

I laughed again, making her raise an eyebrow. "You're not surprised?"

"Nope. Yaki and I have been friends and occasional lovers for a very long time, and none of us wants to see the other one get emotionally hurt."

"To the degree where you would throw people through an open airlock?"

I shook my head. "No... but I'm pretty sure Yaki would."

"Thought as much." She muttered. "What would you do to someone who hurt Yaki?"

"That will depend on the circumstances," I told her thoughtfully. "But if they hurt her on purpose, I would place them in an escape pod next time we were in a system with a habitable planet, wish them the best of luck and press the button."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." I said firmly. "I don't want to be in the same fleet as someone who hurt my friends on purpose, so they'll have to go." I shrugged. "Anyway, care to give me a name of the one you would like to seduce, or is it a secret?"

"A secret." She grinned. "You don't need to know everything."

"Fair, I guess."

Leaning in, she started to kiss my chest. "Since you returned to the topic, how would you feel if I wanted this mystery woman to join us from time to time, if Iska or Resa isn't available?"

One of her hands began to wander up my leg, making it hard to focus on the subject.

"If we're to touch each other, I'll need an introduction." I said as a shiver ran through my body. "And by the way, this is either the most honest talk I've ever had with a woman or the strangest one."

She lifted her head to look at me, a smile in her green eyes. "Well, it's information we both need, so we might as well talk about it."

"True," I said and shivered again as her wandering hand reached my balls and caressed them, making my dick grow again.

Shakka went back to kissing, making her way down my stomach until she reached the head of my now stiff dick. Purring in satisfaction, she slowly closed her lips around the head, playing with her tongue at the same time.

With a moan, I leaned back in the bed and enjoyed it for a couple of minutes, before I reached for her. "Enough. I want to fuck you again."

Removing her mouth from my dick. "Oh no! What's a poor girl to do?"

Taking hold of her, I dragged her up to me and then flipped us around so I was on top. "Well, for starters, I suggest that you spread your legs."

With a grin, she did as I suggested and then gasped as my dick found her entrance all by itself. The gasp turned into a soft scream of pleasure as I slammed my dick all the way into her, only stopping when my pelvis hit her clitoris.

"Ohhhh shit!" Shakka cried and threw her legs around me. "Keep doing that!"

I smiled as I leaned in to give her a kiss as I kept slamming my dick into her wet pussy. If there ever was an unnecessary request, that was it.

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As usual everybody was at battle stations when we dropped into the Esk-32 system, but there was no enemy activity in the system, only a distant collection of ships that the computer immediately identified as being the rest of the fleet.

"Looks peaceful," Iska remarked, her eyes fixed on the main display. "Helm, hold position. Comm, get me Captain Zwul."

"Yes, sir," came the crisp reply. Moments later, Captain Zwul's face appeared on the monitor, a faint smile softening his otherwise stern features.

"Welcome back, sirs," he greeted, his voice warm. "Good to see you again. I trust the mission was a success?"

"It was," Iska confirmed, her tone clipped but satisfied. "We've got four thousand freed prisoners aboard the Walrus. I take it everything went smoothly on your end as well?"

"Yes, sir." Zwul said with a slight smile. "We arrived two weeks ago and everybody has been busy ever since, finishing the repairs and checking out the old battlecruiser."

I smiled a little. Before they left, Keller had asked for permission to take a closer look at the old battlecruiser and since I hadn't felt any darkness lurking in the ship, I had agreed to it. So, it wasn't a surprise to me that the engineer had spent the better part of the time here seeking answers to why the battlecruiser had ended up in this remote location.

"I assume I'll get the Chief Engineer's report soon," I said, chuckling. "But it sounds like we'll be ready to move out soon."

Zwul nodded. "A day more or so would be good, but we are ready to depart at a moment's notice, though the Chief Engineer might need a little more time."

"Fair enough," Iska said. "We just paused here to make sure the path was clear before closing in."

"Good call, sir." Zwul replied with a chuckle. "I considered deploying mines but figured there was too much risk of you running into them."

"Thoughtful as always, Captain," Iska laughed. "See you soon."

The screen went dark for only a moment before Tavune's voice broke in. "Chief Engineer Keller on the line."

"Put him through."

The monitor flickered, revealing Keller with the kind of grin that usually meant he'd just solved a mystery.

"Hello, Chief Engineer." I greeted him. "You look happy."

"Welcome back, sirs." Smiled Keller. "And yes, I am happy... mostly because that battlecruiser is no longer unknown. It's a Cal-class battleship named Heaven's Wrath. The design dates back at least six thousand years, though this one was built four thousand three hundred years ago for the Galactic Republic and was in service for more than three thousand years before a serious malfunction in its hyperdrive caused it to end up here."

"Three thousand years in active service?" Iska's eyebrows shot up. "How is that even possible?"

His smile grew even wider. "Oh... Good maintenance, continuous upgrades and, most importantly, because it almost never got used. Despite having turbolasers, the ship's primary function is being a siege- or orbital bombardment weapon. You see this?"

He highlighted a section of the ship that ran all the way on the top side. "That is a mass-driver. The biggest one I've ever seen and it can send a captured asteroid, or any other mass for that matter, towards a target with enough speed to make it a formidable siege-weapon." He highlighted another part of the ship. "The mass-driver is fed asteroids or other large objects by the six tractor beam projectors here."

I leaned in, eyes narrowing. A kinetic weapon like that could flatten anything from ground installations to space stations with terrifying efficiency.

As far as I knew the Galactic Empire rarely used orbital bombardment, which brought up the question of what they had intended to use it for, when the hyperdrive malfunctioned and they ended up here instead. In the end there was only one logical conclusion.

"Was the battlecruiser part of the fleet that travelled to Rataka Prime?" I guessed, causing Keller to grin.

"Good guess, sir. They had planned on looping asteroids at the shipyards there." The grin was replaced with a grimace. "Unfortunately for the crew, Heaven's Wrath was sabotaged, causing the hyperdrive to go haywire and hurling the ship through space until they were kicked back into real-space and with both the primary and secondary hyperdrive useless due to burned out ion excitors and null quantum field generators, which in turn caused the Thorsen field driver to blow up."

"Not good." I commented. The null quantum field generators stabilized the hyperspace corridor of any given ship, the ion exciter was part of the fuel system and the Thorsen field prevented damage to the ship. All in all, three important parts of the hyperdrive. "And since it's here, I guess they didn't bring spare parts."

"They did, but according to the engineer's log, the spares had been sabotaged. To make it worse, the culprit had also sabotaged the life-support system, forcing them to rely on the secondary life support, which had been poisoned with a slow-acting airborne neurotoxin, killing the crew in a few days." He grimaced. "It would have been both easier and more merciful to just blow the reactor, but I guess the saboteur didn't have access to that."

"So, what's the status now?" Asked Iska.

"The ship has been aired out, refuelled and the reactor restarted. Then we repaired the hyperdrive, discarded the entire secondary scrubber and replaced it with a new one. We even searched the entire ship for additional devices just to be on the safe side, which turned out to be a good thing, because there was an additional explosive device on the fuel tanks. It wasn't working anymore, but it could potentially have blown a hole in the tanks if it had gone off by accident. We still have problems with the power lines to the weapons and a few other details, but all in all, the ship is operational."

I raised my eyebrows. I knew that Keller and his people were insanely skilled and at this point had more practice with older ship types than most engineers in the universe, but that sounded almost too good to be true. "You made the ship ready in two weeks?"

Keller's face split in a grin. "I said operational, not battle ready, sir. The weapons, including the mass-driver, are still not working. I have my hopes for the Turbo lasers, lasers and point defence, but there's a chance that the mass-driver will never work again, since there might be spare parts that we simply cannot make out here. Not to mention, that we're trying to repair equipment that is thousands of years old." He paused and then added. "I would like a few days to double-check the systems, but other than that, the ship is safe and hyperspace capable."

Iska chuckled. "Is the ship worth it, if we can't get the mass-driver to work again?"

Keller nodded. "Yes. It's still a powerful battleship and it's not like we don't have the people to crew it."

"What's the crew requirement?" I asked, hoping that Keller had been right the first time we talked about it.

Keller smiled. "Five thousand two hundred, along with two hundred gunners, which is reasonable for a ship of that size." He touched something and the schematics on the screen changed to show four massive hangars. "The first time we encountered the ship, I told you, that it didn't have any hangars. I was wrong. The original version only had some rather primitive drop ships in its hangars, but with the upgrade and the size of the ship, that was seriously upgraded. However, unlike modern hangar doors, these are integrated into the hull and are almost impossible to detect when they're closed."

"Any practical reason for that?"

"Yes." Answered Keller with a nod. "It's a question of structural integrity. With these old construction materials, having doors that are basically large plates of sliding armor, adds to the strength of the ship in a way that newer designs and materials don't need. On the bright side the ship carries twelve squadrons of Aureks, and thirty NR2 Gully Jumpers, which is basically just a large version of the Rendaran-class Assault Shuttle. Unfortunately, like the rest of the ships going into battle at Rakata Prime, there are no bombers on board."

"We'll live." I said calmly. Bombers were better at taking out capital ships than a fighter, but it hadn't been a problem so far, and twelve squadrons were 144 Aureks, which was a nice addition to our forces. "What about spare parts for the fighters?"

"The cargo hold is full of spare parts, ammunition and Tibanna gas." Stated Keller calmly. "They knew they were going into one of the largest space battles of the era and had stocked up accordingly. The ship also has room for four thousand troopers and I guess that they had planned on boarding enemy ships with the assault shuttles, because the quarters were filled." He sighed. "We had a funeral for the dead crew and on-board troopers, and their equipment has been stored away."

"Good idea." I told him. "Do you have the stats for it?"

He blinked in surprise and looked down. "Sorry, sir. I thought I had sent it to you."

The screen next to him switched to a quick overlook of the Cal-class battlecruiser and I skimmed through them. As all warships designed before the invention of shields, it was extremely heavily armoured, having at least four times the amount of armor as Majestic. Unfortunately, that meant that the real strength of the armor was roughly equivalent to that of the Wyvern class, due to the old materials Keller had mentioned.

The shields and weapons were better. At some point during its existence, it had been retrofitted with shields and its weapons replaced, so it now sported fifty-two turbolasers and sixty lasers, though it didn't have any form of missile or torpedo weapons. It was both the hyperspace and real-space speed that surprised me. As a very old design, I had expected it to be horrible slow, but while it was slower than any other warship in the fleet, it was still about as fast as the S-class cruisers in real-space and had a Rank 4 hyperdrive rating like the Tork.

"This can't be the original stats." I said thoughtfully. "It's too fast for that."

"Right you are, sir. As I said earlier, the ship was upgraded during its time of service." He smiled. "According to the service log the engine and weapons were upgraded at the Foerost Shipyards, while the shields were fitted at the Mon Calamari shipyard a few years later... which by the way makes your observation of how the shields reminded you of a Mon Calamari ship on point."

"Why not upgrade everything at the same place?"

"I don't know for sure, but my guess will be war, sir." He answered with a shrug. "Foerost Shipyards was targeted repeatedly during the Mandalorian wars and the date of the shields fits with when the shipyard was under attack."

"That makes sense." Said Iska. "But why didn't they take the Aureks to get away and how are the controls?"

Keller chuckled. "To start with the last one, the controls were upgraded along with the rest, so they're very similar to those on the bridge of the old Hammerheads. In short, if you can operate the instruments on one of the old Hammerheads, you can control this one, and fortunately, we have no shortage of people who can operate a Hammerhead. They're still in widespread use."

"Let me guess," I said slowly. "You already have a crew ready?"

He nodded proudly. "Yes, sir. As soon as you give the word, we can move the crew into the ship... ohh... and the crew are all volunteers. Commander Samko didn't want to just assign people to a ship that old, so instead she asked for volunteers and almost nine thousand signed up. More than enough to bring the ship up to full crew, though the officers department is a bit thin as usual."

"Who's going to command it?" Iska wanted to know.

"One Joseph Strobel." Said Keller with a little smile and at the same time the picture of a human male appeared on the screen. Fairly good looking with light hair and blue eyes, he was clean shaven, making the slight smile on his face clearly visible. "A former Republic Lieutenant Commander, who had managed to get himself demoted before getting caught by the Sith."

I could see Iska's surprise. "How do you manage to get demoted all the way from Lieutenant Commander to non-officer?"

Keller's smile turned into a grin. "Now that's an interesting tale. Apparently, he started out by drinking and seducing a beautiful woman... which admittedly was done while he was on leave. That led to a romantic and intimate situation, that was rudely interrupted by the woman's father, who called his daughter several names Strobel didn't think was appropriate to call such a wonderful woman. So, Strobel proceeded to give the father a lesson in how to behave like a gentleman, delivering several open-handed slaps."

"Where's the catch?" Asked Iska with a chuckle. "That's usually not enough to be demoted that far."

"The father was Admiral Kaelseen of the Republic Navy."

"Oh... not good."

"That's putting it mildly. Admiral Kaelsen did not like the lesson and pulled every string he could to get Strobel demoted and kicked out of the Navy. However, while he did manage to have Strobel court martialled and demoted for 'Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer.', some of the officers on the court martial board did not entirely agree and wanted to give him a second chance." Explained Keller, still looking like he found the story amusing. "So, he wasn't kicked out of the navy and the case was sealed, enabling him to climb the ranks again. However, before that could happen, the admiral had him assigned to a ship going for the front line. A few months later, he was taken prisoner along with the rest of the surviving crew, when they were forced to bail out over Ziost." Keller shrugged. "You can guess the rest."

"Yes, we've heard it before." I said, thinking for a moment. "How did he do in the simulator?"

Demoted Republic and Imperial personnel had proved to be one of the saving graces for our fleet, since it supplied us with trained officers that we badly needed. However, there was a strict screening process, since I didn't want those officers that had been demoted due to incompetence and nobody got a command position without going through the simulators, since that vetted out those who simply weren't good enough.

"He scored just below Captain Jay Barlee, which cleared him for the position."

While that wasn't as good as Iska or Meistrin, it was still a solid score. "Good. I'll have to talk with him later along with the rest of the new officers." I thought for a moment. "It seems like this is a done deal, I'll give you the four days to do a system check, Chief Engineer. In the meantime, we will move the crew and have them settled in. The battleship will escort the Tork and keep it out of danger. Oh, and let's find another name for the ship."

"Thank you, sir."

"One moment." Said Iska. "You never got around to explain why they didn't use the Aureks to get away. With a hyperspace capable fighter, that is what I would have done."

"Oh.. It puzzled us as well... until we got the reactor up and running again. The hangar doors had been sabotaged so they couldn't open without a few days of work, and since they're more or less a wall of moving armor, the crew couldn't shoot their way through them, so they were trapped in there." He grimaced. "The biotoxin killed them before they got that far."

"Fair enough. Thanks for the report."

"You're welcome, sirs." He hesitated for a moment. "A thing more, sir."

"Yes?"

"When we get back to Nodia, we really need to do some maintenance on the engines and hyperdrives. We have pressed them hard during the last months, first to get out of the Nebula, then the race to catch the Lictor and the journey back here. In short, they could use a thorough inspection and maintenance."

I nodded. "Do you have a timeframe for that?"

"With Squid, Kraken and Nautilus in addition to the Tork, it shouldn't take more than a few weeks or so, sir. A little longer if we have to replace something." He looked like a thought struck him and smiled. "On the positive side, with the ships, droids and engineers we have, we're better equipped than the average Imperial repair base, so it shouldn't take too long."

"Good to hear." I thought for a moment. While our ships were indeed rugged and designed for long term operations, the complicated technology still demanded maintenance, so small problems were caught before they became greater problems. That was true for all warships, including Chiss, and the instructors at the Naval Academy had stressed the importance of that repeatedly, even going as far as saying that a fifth of the ships in any fleet should be under maintenance at any time.

Fortunately, the Republic and Imperial ships required less maintenance than that, but it was still an important part of operating a fleet, and while the engineers could and would maintain everything inside the ship while traveling, doing work on the hyperdrive and the outside of the engines required the ships to be stationary.

We really needed a well defended base where we could repair and maintain the ships that needed it, without fear of having one or more of Darth Arkol's fleets leave hyperspace on top of us. That was a wish for later though.

"Since we need to stay almost a week here while you finish testing the Cal-class, I want the rest of the engineers, including those on the various ships in the fleet, to start inspecting the ships, doing maintenance where they can and note the rest for later." I told him. "That should save us some time in Nodia."

"Yes, sir. I'll arrange that."

"Good. We'll talk later."

"Yes, sir."

The screen became black as he signed off and Iska briefly studied the schematics for the old battleship. "Is it me, or is there something odd about that ship? The Cal-class, I mean."

The question made me smile. "Well, it's slow compared to newer ships but the sheer size has a serious intimidation factor and it would be a shame to leave it here, despite me having no idea what to use a mass driver for... If Keller ever got it back in working condition." I looked over at the first officer. "Commander Janik, what're your thoughts on the Cal-class battleship?"

He walked over to us and looked at the screens before saying. "Well, sir, sixty point-defence laser cannons sound impressive, until you realize that it only means twenty-eight on each side with two on the aft and bow, and twenty-eight lasers isn't much to cover three kilometres. The same argument can be used for the turbo lasers."

"It's a long-range sniper with weapons and fighters for self-defence." Commented Iska. "Or a carrier with a siege weapon depending on how it's used."

"My thoughts exactly." I nodded. "That battlecruiser is as much a support ship as the Kraken or the Tork is. We just need to figure out how it can support the rest." I turned towards the tactical section. "Lieutenant Mormill, apparently we might have a mass driver in the near future. See if you can figure out some ways to use that mass driver that doesn't involve throwing asteroids at planetary targets."

That caused her to smile happily. "Yes, sir."

"Sir?" said Resa from her section. "Look at this."

I turned and looked at the schematics of the Cal-class again, as Resa continued.

"The mass-driver has a completely separate reactor with its own fuel supply." About a third of the three-kilometer-long ship lit up in yellow. "So, if the Chief Engineer can't repair the mass driver, we can either remove the weapon and use that power generation for something else, or we could remove the whole thing all together and use the space for something else. Like hangars, production lines, medical sections or hydroponics."

"Good point." I agreed and sent her a smile. "Give me some suggestions about that."

The smile on her face mirrored the one on Lieutenant Mormill. "Yes, sir!"

Turning back to Iska, I gave her a nod. "The path is clear, Captain. Let's join the rest, so the engineers can start."

"Yes, sir." She began to give orders and as I reached my seat, we were already on the way.

As we came nearer I enjoyed the sight of the ships, as they floated in the space around the Cal-class battleship which were clearly visible along with the Tork-class, looking like two giants compared to the smaller ships.

To one side of the giants, the trio of Fafnirs were stationed along with Osprey, while the three wyvern-class cruisers were at the other side. The two BSX-5 battlecruisers had the bottom position along with the four Deltas and over it hovered the four Terminus class destroyers flanked by four Gage-class carriers. As if that wasn't enough, five Drake-class frigates and four Manta-class corvettes were positioned in front of the group and as we came nearer, the scanners showed that we were being discreetly followed by two squadrons of S-13 Super Sting scouts.

I stopped breathing for a moment, as I suddenly realized how big the fleet was becoming. This was no longer a small force out to rescue their lost comrades, but a real freaking battlefleet, even without counting Glorious, Stingray, the three Hammerheads and the seven large freighters that were waiting for us in the Nodia system along with whatever ships the Engineers on Squid and Nautilus had managed to repair while we had raced off to liberate the prisoners.

My eyes glided over the Drakes and Mantas. They might be the smallest ships in the fleet, but they were still bigger than anything I had ever commanded before Majestic and deep within me, I was worried.

A tingling in my limbs alerted me that my body needed oxygen and I forced myself to start breathing again.

It wasn't the tactical or strategic aspect that worried me. Having a natural talent for it that had been honed by years of combat, study and training, I was confident that my ability to conduct battle tactics was at least at the same level as most high-ranking officers... especially combined with the ability to use battle meditation. However, under normal circumstances, tactics and strategy was the least used ability of fleet commanders, with leadership skills and logistics being far more important in the long run.

We had left Alpha Viga with about a hundred people and now, one and a half standard galactic years later, that number had grown to some forty thousand adults and seven thousand children. Granted, most of the adults were former military that knew how a navy worked, but with a few exceptions, only the six thousand that had been with us in the Snare system were at the standards most navies expect of their crews, and most of them were still adjusting from their time as prisoners.

So far morale in the fleet had been excellent, helped by succeeding in getting out of the Snare system, the victories in Nodia and Grinda, and the liberations of thousands of prisoners, but I feared it wouldn't take much to lower that morale to a point where it became a problem. Mostly because good morale took a long time to build and we simply haven't had that time.

Of course, I might be wrong, since I had never dealt with freed prisoners before and to make things even more complicated, most of them had families on board the larger ships and that would affect morale as well. Hopefully for the better, but it could also make people hesitate when they realised that their mistakes could get family members killed.

All in all, I was constantly doing things usually only demanded of officers with vastly more education and experience than me, and my only excuse for staying in command was that there simply was no other person that could take command of the fleet and keep it together until we reached a place where the freed prisoners could live in peace. Not to mention, that the only reason I was able to do that was due to a gifted officers corp.

Elise Samko's ability to place people, Betty Nago's ability to understand them, Resa's skills in designing ships and Keller's skill in repairing and improving them were just as valuable to the fleet as my tactical skills. Added to that was the leadership skills of the individual captains from Iska on the Majestic to Ramzed Hel on the Beluga.

Especially Iska had been a gem. I was completely aware that my style of commanding from time-to-time overstepped Iska's responsibilities as a captain, but she never seemed to mind and when entering a combat situation, we worked extremely well together.

"Sir?" said the subject of my thoughts, interrupting them. "We're in position and the captains are ready for a briefing."

That meant going into the meeting room next to the office and with a nod, I stood from the chair. "Thank you, Captain."

"You're welcome, sir. Do you need me for that meeting? I need to arrange the rearming from the Tork and some maintenance."

"Just do that." I said with a chuckle. "I intend to make the briefing short."

"Thank you, sir."

As I had promised, the briefing of that had happened in the Qek-40 system didn't take long, as there wasn't a whole lot to say and aside from repairing ships, the fleet here hadn't done much either, so instead of spending too much time on it, I cut the meeting short and told them to prepare for the trip back to Nodia. A trip that would take two weeks longer than the trip out here, since we had a lot of freed prisoners that were loaded into ships without an organic carbon scrubber and thus had to go completely around dangerous areas instead of skimming them.

-------------------------------

Aside from maintenance and filling the missile magazines with new ones from the Tork, there wasn't much else to do, as we had to wait for the Cal-Class Battlecruiser to get ready.

Consequently, Iska decided to give the crew some much needed time off and consequently Majestic went to minimal watches for the next cycle, giving everybody not involved in maintenance time to relax.

That included both Iska and I, since Commander Janik was the Officer of the Watch, and while we spent the first half of it doing our own things, we eventually ended up in the wardroom to eat dinner along with Shakka, Iska and many of the other officers.

Something had changed since last time I was here and it took me a moment to realize that someone had made an effort to decorate the room, with pictures on the wall and artifacts on display in the transparisteel cases. The most prominent of them being a large model of Majestic, skilfully mounted against a painted backdrop displaying a solar system. Another case held models of the Dragonclaw and Dragonfangs, while models of the Aurek, S-13 Super Sting and the MK VII Nightsinger were shown in the third case.

"Who made those models?" I asked Betty Nagos and nodded in the direction of the models. "They look fantastic."

With a smile she just discreetly poked her husband Waydar, who was sitting next to her as always, talking with Senior Gunner Karstein.

The dark giant of a man looked at her with a smile, but before he could ask, I repeated the praise of the models.

"Thank you." Smiled Waydar, "Master Engineer Gabosat and I made them some time ago and thought they would look good here." He looked around. "I can't take credit for the rest. That was Resa and Data Tech Eho."

That turned everybody's attention towards the decorations, especially the pictures.

As per tradition, the only portraits were that of the fleet's commander and ship's captain, which of course meant Iska and me, but the rest of the pictures were more interesting, as they showed what I can only describe as 'action scenes.'

A Dragonclaw in combat at Grinda, narrowly missing a shot. Aureks flying in formation by the moon of Nodia prime, guarding the surrendered Imperial starfighters. A squad of marines helping liberated prisoners out of their cells at Qek-40. People relaxing in the Hangar Park at dusk. A Dragonfang setting down in the hangar, a team of engineers or mechanics waiting for it. S-13 Super Sting scouts navigating an asteroid belt.

"They have chosen well." Remarked the Wing Commander, a Zabrak named Drayk Sollan that had joined us after Grinda, replacing Coren Thavik, who had been transferred to the BSX-5 Flit to assist Captain Felcro, Majestics former First Officer.

Unlike most Zabraks I had encountered, Commander Sollan's horns were hard to see, as he had black hair that covered most of them. That and his light brown skin would have made him look human if not for the bright yellow eyes. Being one of the old people Gunnery Sergeant had found for me, he was nearly ninety years old and initially I had expected him to look older, until I looked it up in the database and discovered that Iridonian Zabraks like him had an average lifespan of around two hundred years, making Commander Solan middle-aged at most.

Another amusing thing about him was the reason he had been in a prison camp. When caught and asked by the Imperials about name and rank, he simply took the identity of another Zabrak and claimed to be a Senior Point Defence handler. With the ship being partly destroyed and the database lost, the Imperials had believed him, ending with him being sent off to a prison camp along with the other non-officers. He was also a good Wing Commander and I was happy to have him on board.

"Yes," agreed Iska. "Though Resa has a lot more pictures she wants to show, there simply isn't room for more."

"I'll suggest a rotation to her." Chuckled Betty Nagos. "That way we'll have something new to look at when we're here."

There was a general agreement to that and for the rest of the meal, people debated different sceneries or scenes they would like to see on the walls.

Eventually, people finished the meal and broke up, leaving Iska, Shakka and I in the room, with me enjoying the peace and quiet after the rest had left, while the two Twi'Lek kept eating.

"Hmmm." Said Shakka as she swallowed a spoonful of her icy dessert. "This reminds me... When have you planned to thaw the frozen Jedi... Regon Harbru, I believe his name was."

"I don't know yet." I said as I picked one of the small fruits from a bowl and leaned back in the chair. "I would prefer to do it somewhere away from the fleet, and we don't really have time for that now."

"For security reasons, I guess." Said Iska.

With a nod I explained that once we had thawed the frozen Jedi, there wasn't any going back and I would prefer to have the option of sticking him in an Agency-class shuttle and sending him off to the Republic without him having seen the fleet. Otherwise, there was a real possibility that he would try to persuade us to join the republic or, failing that, try to use the force to make us do so.

Shakka thought for a moment. "As much as I would like to say that a Jedi wouldn't do that, you might be right. Desperate people do desperate things."

"Exactly and as far as I know, the Republic and the Empire are in the middle of a cold war right now, manoeuvring to be in the best possible position once the war turns hot again and I don't want to be caught between them when that happens. We've promised the people here to lead them to a place where they can live in peace, and that is what I intend to do." I shrugged slightly. "So, until we can do it safely, I'm not going to thaw anybody."

"Well, we also still have the mysterious ships we found in the Snare system to worry about." Sighed Iska. "Not to mention those who crewed them."

Biting into the piece of fruit, I silently agreed with her. While I had placed the knowledge about the strange ships and the soldiers in the transport on a back burner, I hadn't forgotten about them. Especially not after Keller had aired the possibility that the ships had an active cloaking device and I had discovered that at least some of their soldiers wielded lightsabers, which drastically increased the possibility of them being force users of some kind. It also reminded me that I needed to look through the stuff Yaki and the Black Dragons had brought back from the shuttle.

I had just finished the thought, when the subject of them came walking into the room, looking around as she said. "Hello sirs."

"Hello, Yaki," I replied, gesturing to an empty seat. "Welcome back."

She nodded and sat down by the table. Due to the sudden appearance of the Imperial battle group in the Qek-40 system, Yaki had spent the entire journey on the Walrus along with most of the Black Dragon and the freed prisoners.

"Thank you, sir."

She gestured to a droid and a moment later, a plate of food was placed in front of her. She thanked the droid, took a bite and then looked at us. "During those weeks in hyperspace, I have discovered how luxurious something as simple as fresh food is. Yes, I know that at least ten percent of the Majestic is used for that, but after weeks on rations, I have to say that it's totally worth it."

I smiled slightly. Not at what Yaki was saying, but at the ease at which she fell into the old rule about no titles while we were having dinner.

"Fresh food does wonders for morale," Iska chuckled. "Even if it's blended with ration stock."

"As long as it tastes like this," Yaki said between bites, "I don't care. This is pure luxury... especially compared to what I have been eating during the last weeks."

"Did it go without problems?" Asked Shakka curiously. "Aside from the lack of fresh food."

Yaki nodded. "Oh yes. The prisoners were happy to have been freed. As usual, many of them wanted to go home to the Republic or settle far from the Empire, depending on where they came from, but as it dawned on them that many of the planets were now under Imperial control, that number dwindled with astonishing speed." She paused to drink from her glass. "XO Betty Nagos has the exact numbers."

"Thank you," I said and took another piece of fruit, waiting patiently while Yaki chewed, closing her eyes in pleasure as she did so. It reminded me so much of the times we had spent together in bed, that I had to focus on the fruit to avoid getting a hard-on.

"But, Thalen, I did find something interesting in the records we copied." Said Yaki when she had swallowed the bite, causing me to look at her. "Yes?"

"Warning, it's a bit disturbing."

I sighed as her words dispelled the memory of us naked in bed. "Do tell."

"The camps are not just prison camps and mining facilities." Yaki sighed. "At least three of them are, or were, also Sith breeding facilities."

"What!" I heard Shakka and Iska say, while I just stared at Yaki, stunned by what I had heard.

Yaki kept talking. "All prisoners got a health check two times a year, but in some camps, the procedure was a little different. While the women had theirs, a selected few were injected with semen from a Sith, which resulted in some of them becoming pregnant. If the child was strong enough to not only survive childbirth, but also the brutal existence in the prison, they were shipped off. I guess that the Force-sensitive ones were trained as Sith and the rest were conscripted, but I don't know for sure."

Nodding slightly, I leaned back in the seat. From what I had learned about the Sith from the Holocron, that was a very Sith way of thinking. "Do you know which camps and where they were located?"

Yaki shook her head. "No and to make things worse, the exact method was left to the chief medical officer and from what I could get from the records, most medical officers just fed the prisoners something that severely limited the fertility in the men, making any pregnancy seem rare but totally natural. Usually, even the camp commander was kept in the dark to avoid politics." She thought for a moment. "According to the log, they started doing this some twenty-five years ago, so this have been going on for quite a while."

Shakka hid her face in her hands, mumbling. "This is going to be a nightmare to sort out."

"No, because we're not going to tell them." Iska said with a sigh. "At least not openly. That would cause so many problems between parents and their children, that I wouldn't even know where to start."

"I agree," I said thoughtfully. "Especially since many children have been adopted into their current family when one or both of their biological parents died. So, there's no way of being certain about any parent. Iska is right, this could easily be a mess."

"I have a question." Said Iska, making me gesture for her to continue.

"What happens if a force-sensitive person isn't trained?"

"I have no idea." I admitted. "That isn't something that happens in the Chiss Ascendency. I'll have to consult the Holocron and I'm not even sure that it has an answer. On the positive side, the chance of giving birth to a force sensitive is extremely small as far as I know. We're talking one in several millions, with strong force-sensitive being even rarer... The last number I heard was lower than one in a billion."

"What if the father is a known force user?" Asked Shakka, removing her hands from her face. "Would that change anything?"

"Again, I have no idea." I looked over at Yaki. "Were they always taken away at four?"

She shrugged slightly. "That was the plan, but there's no way to be sure that it always happened. I know it didn't happen on Nodia, since I asked one of the former prisoners there and Nodia hadn't been visited in years." She frowned. "I also don't know if the same practice was done there."

Thinking it over, I suddenly blinked as I realized something. "Yaki, where did you find this information?"

"Oh, it was hidden in an obscure file about the medical equipment. The only reason that I found it was because I was looking for details about their medical treatment." She tilted her head as she looked at me. "What's on your devious mind?"

"While Darth Arkol clearly knew about the camos, I don't think he knew about this." I slowly. "If he did, he wouldn't try to sell the children as slaves. Especially not when trying to build a powerbase here in the Chaos."

There was silence at the table for a few seconds, then Iska nodded, "you're right and if that is the case, one or more of the higher-ranking Sith are going to be extremely dissatisfied with him for destroying that plan."

"If that person is still alive." Remarked Shakka. "As far as I have heard from the defected people, the seats of the council have a tendency to change as alliances shift."

"There is that." I admitted. "Yaki, any data on when the last pickup occurred?"

She shook her head. "That is not stated in the records... at least not that I could find, but if they used only a few donors, it should be possible to use DNA to find a profile that is repeated in several children."

Leaning back in the seat again, I nodded. We needed to have a strategy for finding those children, starting with those who were born from known couples, and Shakka's suggestion was a good start. "Good idea. We need to find out how widespread this is."

"Yes, sir."

"Then we can take it from there. Oh, and this does not leave this room. There's no reason to create friction between people for something a Sith may or may not have done to innocent people."

They all nodded.

"Good." I stood. "Then I will go consult the Holocron and see if I can find some answers."

------------------------

A couple of hours later, I was sitting on my sofa, drinking a soft drink while thinking about what Trejar Melbate, and thus the Holocron, had been able to tell me.

Not that it was much, but at least I had learned that untrained force-sensitive people could manifest their powers in unpredictable ways that were potentially dangerous for the people around them. They also had a much greater risk of falling to the dark side, since they often lacked the discipline to resist it. On the positive side, those with a lesser connection to the force were often able to live their life quietly even without training.

Unfortunately, there was nothing in the Holocron about the chance of force users getting a force-sensitive child, or how the Jedi, or anybody else for that matter, tested for force-sensitivity.

While that was slightly irritating, I hadn't expected it. I didn't even know how the Chiss Ascendency tested for force-sensitivity and I had gone through it.

It was, however, clear, that if we did have force-sensitive children in the fleet, we needed both a method to detect it and a way to train them, so they didn't fall to the Dark Side.

Unlike finding force-sensitives, I did have at least some knowledge about training. Not only had I been through it myself, but since I had trained with others, I had observed my teacher training those as well. It didn't make me an expert in any sense of the word, but it did mean that I was better than just about everyone else, with the possible exception of the frozen Jedi in storage.

Drinking from the glass, a thought popped into my head. I knew at least one person who had trained from childhood.

"Hello, sir." Greeted Tristana with a smile a little while later, as she answered the call. As always looking good with her silvery-white hair, grey eyes, pale skin and pearly smile.

"What can I do for you today, sir?" Her smile widened a bit. "Training?"

I chuckled. "It wasn't the reason I called, but now that you mention it, that would be nice. Do you have time?"

"Sure. Shall we say in about half an hour?"

"Sounds good." I agreed. "However, while you're preparing, I would like for you to think about how to teach the children in the fleet martial arts. Especially with a focus on self-discipline and control." Seeing the slight widening of her eyes, I added. "I don't mean the Echani style of martial arts... Any style will do."

She nodded thoughtfully. "I guess it needs to be fun for the children."

"Yes." I agreed. "I will make training mandatory but making it fun will help a lot."

"There's a hidden thought behind this." She declared with her usual directness, making me nod and say, "Yes. I can tell you more when we're training."

She nodded, "See you soon, sir."

---------------

As always, Tristana was a challenge to spar with. Incredibly fast, strong and unpredictable, the Echani style was an efficient and deadly combat style, especially combined with lightsabers.

However, it had been almost half a year since we had spared and in that time, I had trained intensively and found new insights during my fight with the three Sith. It had clearly worked, because her swords didn't touch me even once during our sparring.

"I knew that you had become better when I saw the vid of you taking on the Sith." Tristana panted as we took a pause. "But I didn't think your skills had increased this much in such a short period of time."

Bowing slightly, I used a moment to catch my breath as well, before saying. "Thank you. I've been training a lot."

That made her smile. "It shows. Are you still training with Captain Iska and Doctor Shakka?"

"Yes."

"Good." She thought for a moment. "So, what was that about training children self-control?"

There were only the two of us here in the training room, enabling me to speak freely.

"There's a chance that some of the children in the fleet are force-sensitive." I told her. "And teaching them self-control and discipline will prevent them from falling to the dark side... at least I hope so."

Her eyes widened a bit, but then she nodded. "I haven't considered that... but it makes sense." She walked over to the edge of the mat and grabbed her towel, wiping the sweat from her brow. "What're you going to do if you find a force-sensitive? Send him or her off to the Jedi?"

"No, that would mean crossing half the Galaxy." I said with a sigh. "Since we haven't found any yet, I haven't given it much thought."

"The Chiss don't take in anything other than their own kind, do they?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Then you have to train any force-sensitive we find yourself." She said, certainty colouring her voice. "It's that or kill them before they can turn to the dark side."

Harsh as it sounded, Tristana was right. Not because a new Dark Side user could take on all of us, but because there was a chance that other Dark Side users like the Sith could sense their presence and find them... at least according to the Holocron.

That was one of the few pieces of information that I doubted was entirely true. Knowing that the information in the Holocron mirrored the knowledge and opinions of the person who made it, I usually asked it for examples and sources and this was one of the times, where the Holocron hadn't been able to give me any. It didn't make it untrue, but it did make the knowledge questionable.

"Well," I said with a smile. "That certainly limits my options... Unfortunately, the only training I really know about is the one I have been through, and I'm not entirely convinced that it's suitable for humans."

She snorted. "The same can be said about Jedi training. Look at how many that defected to the other side during the Jedi Civil war."

I nodded. As I had told Trejar Melbate in the Holocron, ordinary, good-natured people were in general not suited for warfare and especially in a command role, unless they had been taught how to deal with the burden of command and accepted that their orders would get people killed.

The Jedi during that time hadn't had that education and as a result, many of them had been corrupted by the Dark Side during the Mandalorian wars, something that we could hopefully prevent happening to the children in the fleet.

"However," said Tristana with a smile, "I will accept your task and make a training plan for the children, now that I know more about the background."

"Thank you." I said and bowed slightly. It had been a request and not an order, making Tristana able to reject it if it was against her beliefs. That was actually exactly the reason why I hadn't simply ordered it. The martial arts of the Echani were so ingrained in their culture that it might as well be a religion and I wasn't sure that Tristana was allowed to teach her art to non-Echani. However, since she had accepted it, the children would at least learn some version of martial arts along with a focus on discipline and self-control.

She smiled a brilliant smile. "You're welcome, but I will warn you that I will not be the one to train them. We freed a dozen more of my people at Grinda and I know some of them are martial arts specialists without any ship qualifications. This will give them a job they can handle, without us having to turn them into spacers."

"Good thinking."

Thank you." She placed and walked towards me, hips swaying in the tight training suit. "Enough talk. I can see that you still want me, and the feeling is mutual, so I have to ask if you are in the mood for some sex?"

"I thought you would never ask." I admitted as I dragged her into a kiss.

----------------

Despite Tristana doing her best to blow my mind, I did remember Iska's comment about the mysterious ships from the Snare system, and when I came back to my cabin, I walked over to a closet where I had stashed some of the things Yaki had brought back from the alien shuttle.

There had been a book among the things and when I had quickly looked through it back then, it had seemed like a rulebook for a knightly order, making the book roughly equivalent to our Code of Conduct.

I hadn't had time to study it back then, but now it seemed like it was a good idea, I took the book and walked over to the sofa to study it.

As I had remembered, it was a rulebook for a knightly order under the command of someone just called the High Justice, who in turn took orders from an unnamed Emperor. The entire order was devoted to the Emperor and the knights were duty bound to serve and protect whoever held that title.

I would have expected such a military order to only use the light side of the force, but according to the rules, these knights didn't favour one side over the other and the only illegal action was failing to share knowledge with the other knights within the order.

These knights viewed the Force as a tool or a weapon. Something to be used when needed without thinking too much about it. While it sounded good in theory, it was very hard to do in real life. Mostly because it demanded a calm mind to wield the light side, while the Corruption required the exact opposite, and I had never heard about anybody who had managed to combine the two successfully. Another problem was the Corruption itself.

The ease of slipping into the Corruption, letting emotions power the use of the Force, was both easy and addictive. Easily resulting in power crazy officers, wanting their own way no-matter what.

As far as I could see from the rules, this was prevented by strict discipline and control, along with the devotion to their Emperor. It didn't exactly state what happened by those who fell too far into the Dark Side, but failing the Emperor was punished by death and as far as I could see from the book, embracing either side of The Force completely was viewed as limiting and thus failing the Emperor.

Despite this, if the order of battle was to be believed and if the size of the regiments were roughly the same as those everyone else used, there had to be several thousands of these knights out there, some more powerful than others, but all with the ability to use the Force to some degree.

Leaning back on the sofa, I thought it over. First of all, it told me that such an order was possible and could even be stable. Another thing was that it was a military order and while that carried some disadvantages, it also had the advantage of not judging people based on their ability to use the force like the Jedi and Sith did.

I had heard that Jedi that failed their training were forced into a less than satisfactory job and didn't receive more training in the force, while the weak Sith were simply killed by their rivals. While that might or might not be true, one of the weaknesses of both orders was their focus on the Force. The Jedi Knights were vastly more Jedi than they were Knights and in the Sith Empire, Sith out-ranked any non-Sith, which was a problem for a military organisation where rank should be determined by skill as a military officer and not as a force user.

This organisation seemed different by making the military training the main focus. That way, it didn't matter if some of the trainees didn't learn that much aside from the basics, as long as they were able to do their job within the military. Be it technical, medical, command or otherwise.

It was a smart way to organize force-users if one expected them to go to war.

I snorted at myself, as I realized that it was the exact structure of the Chiss Praetorian Guard. Loyal to the Chiss Ascendency, military trained and with a focus on being good naval officers, instead of knowledge of the Force.

However, as far as I knew there were only a few Chiss Praetorians like me, but the organization described in the book was an army. An army of force users with equipment designed to be used against other force users, accompanied by a fleet of stealth capable battleships, armed with advanced weaponry and lethal battle-droids in sturdy boarding pods.

Such an organization was a nightmare scenario for any military commander, including me, but everything considered, it was more likely that the unknown force would try to take on the Sith and Jedi, than chasing a minor fleet like this one.

While the Dragon Defense Force had indeed grown into a battlefleet, we would still be outnumbered in almost every aspect, be it ships, soldiers, guns, starfighters or force-users.

It also meant that if we happened to meet them, I would do my best to get the fleet away from them as fast as possible. At least if their fleet was out in full force, since both the knowledge I had now and the short encounter we've had with them in the snare system showed that we had little chance against them in a straight battle.

My thoughts returned to the organization and after thinking about it for a while, I blinked a few times as I realised that I was in the process of planning how to make a military force- user tradition.

Chuckling at myself, I wrote my thoughts down to get them out of my head. These thoughts were way too advanced for now. I was just a young Praetorian that circumstances had pressed into leading a fleet, not a wise old Master or Admiral.

That done, I walked over to place the book among the rest of the stuff Yaki had brought back but stopped as I saw the lightsaber pikes. When I had tested my own sabres as well as the pair we had found, it hadn't been the crystal that had taken damage, but the electronics. And electronics could be repaired.

It was an option I hadn't had, since the Chiss made components in my own lightsaber couldn't be replaced by non-Chiss ones, but these weren't made by Chiss and neither were the two lightsabers we had found with the Holocron.

"Majestic, give me Senior Mechanic Waydar."

"Yes, sir." the computer replied and a few minutes later, Waydar showed up on the screen, his uniform smudged with dirt, a rag draped over his shoulder. Most likely from doing maintenance on the Dragonclaw I could see in the background.

"Hello, sir. What can I do for you today?" He said in his deep rumbling voice.

"I have a project for you that might be impossible, but I would like you to try anyway." I said and held up one of the pikes, turning it slowly so he could get a good look. "We found these force weapons in the Snare system and I had honestly forgotten all about them until today. Do you think you can repair the electronics in them?"

Waydar's eyes sharpened with the focused look of a man presented with a challenge. "I won't promise miracles, sir, but I'll give it everything I've got. How many are we talking about?"

"Three lightsaber pikes, one double-bladed lightsaber and two lightfoils."

That made him raise eyebrows. "And you want all of them repaired, sir?"

"Yes," I answered with a nod. "But since the damage was done upon entering the Snare system, they should be alike. Find the fault in one, and it should tell you what you need to know for the rest. If not, we adapt as necessary. Just one condition. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to activate any of them without me being there."

"Understood, sir. I'll run diagnostics on each component, one at a time." He tilted his head a bit, deep in thought. "If need be, which one can I dismantle?"

"One of the lightsaber pikes." I answered without hesitation.

"Yes, sir. Will you send them down here?"

"They'll be with you shortly."

Waydar nodded once, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I'll get right on it. Anything else, sir?"

"Hmm... On second thought we also found some armor. I'll send them to you as well." I sent him a smile. "You might find something I've missed."

He gave a crisp nod, the screen going dark as I terminated the connection. I glanced down at the pike in my hands one last time. Time would tell if Waydar could breathe life back into these weapons, but if he could, Shakka and Iska would have their own weapons instead of using those I had originally made for Tristana.

Packing everything except the book, I had a droid deliver them to Waydar and then walked into the bathroom to take a bath.

----------------------------

I had just left the bath, and had walked into the office still wearing a bathrobe when Resa walked in. "Hello, sir."

"Hey, Resa." I greeted, taking in her facial expression and chuckled. "I recognize that look. You have a thought that usually involves ship designs."

"Not this time, sir, but I do have an idea I wanted to share with you."

"Sit and we'll talk," I said, as I sat down in my favourite chair.

With a smile, Resa sat down and explained her idea.

In short, she wanted to replicate the Combat Droids from the ships we had found in the Snare system, using some of the droids we had gotten from the fleet in Grinda.

"I know that they wouldn't be as good as the originals, but it's worth a try." She finished, leaning back on the sofa in a very human way.

I thought it over for a moment but then shook my head. "The idea is solid, but no."

That made her sit up in surprise. "What? Why not, sir?"

"Those droids, as well as the one you plan to make, have a heuristic processor, giving them the potential to develop intelligent self-awareness." I said calmly. "Now as I understand it, advanced combat droids need a ton of restraining in order to follow commands that generally are against anyone's sense of self-preservation, and regular memory-wipes to prevent them from reaching a state of sentience."

Resa nodded slowly. "I'm not sure where you're going, but you're right so far."

Smiling a little, I continued. "I don't force sentient beings into combat. If I did, I might as well put slave collars or implants on the captured Imperial personnel and send them into combat... which would be what the Sith does as evident in the Alpha Viga system."

She widened her eyes as she understood.

"There's also the problem of weapons." I continued. "With very few exceptions, we do not allow people to wear ranged weapons like blasters or masers when not on duty and most combat droids have these built into their chassis. That means that any sentient combat droid would have to have its weapons disabled when not on duty, which is a bureaucratic nightmare." I sighed. "Resa, I don't want sentient Battle Droids in any way, shape or form. If a sentient droid wants to go into combat with the rest, fine. They'll get the training and programs to do that, just as you have, but I simply refuse to force sentient beings into fighting for us."

Resa leaned back again, her expression now more contemplative than disappointed. "I hadn't thought of it that way," she admitted. "I just saw the efficiency and tactical value. But I suppose I was thinking more like an engineer than a person."

"You're both," I said with a smile. "And that's what makes you valuable. But I want everyone on this crew, organic or synthetic, to want to be here. Want to help. Want to fight. That's how we're different from both the Empire and the Republic."

She nodded, then glanced down at her hands. "Could we still study the construction, though? Maybe use the chassis design or mobility systems for the Combat Droids we already have... I mean those without a heuristic processor and no chance of attaining sentience."

"Sure, not a problem. Give me some options to work with, and if you really want to make something we need, search-and-rescue droids would be first priority. A droid able to go into crippled ships, friendly or not, and get people to safety."

She perked up at that. "That sounds doable. I'll try to design one once I'm done with the Cal-Class Battlecruiser."

"Good." I gave her a nod. "And Resa? Thank you for thinking big. Just... keep thinking ethically too."

"Understood, sir."

She stood, but suddenly stopped, eyes looking me over for a moment before taking two quick steps and sinking to her knees before me.

"I really want you." She smiled and let her hands move up my legs under the bathrobe. "Are you okay with that?"

With my recent encounter with Tristana, it wasn't like I really needed sex, but the feel of her cool hands against my skin and then against my dick made it seem like that encounter was at least a week ago.

"Oh yes." I mumbled, as Resa parted the bathrobe, exposing my swelling cock. Without hesitation, she bent and took it into her warm, wet mouth, moaning in satisfaction as the feeling made my dick grow.

As soon as she felt that it was as stiff as it could become, she let it go down her throat as she swallowed it to the root, before pumping up and down, tongue playing on the underside.

It felt wonderful and I leaned my head back against the chair with a moan. This was going to be a fantastic ending to a very good day.

--------------------------------

The next morning was quite relaxing. Most people were taking some time off, while the engineers and mechanics were doing maintenance on the drives and engines, so after the usual training, I walked down to the Hangar Park to get a cup of chocolate coffee at Raika's Rest, discreetly followed by one of the Black Dragons, also dressed in civilian clothes. There was no real need to bring the Tiger droids along, when I was wearing civilian clothes, since that would make me instantly recognizable.

As expected, there were a lot of people there. Some were just enjoying the scenery, while others walked hand in hand in what looked like romantic walks. Yet others were sitting at one of the many table groups, quietly talking among themselves or laughing, having a good time.

All in all, there was a good feeling in the Hangar Park, and I was enjoying it as I walked towards Raika's Rest but stopped as I discovered something had changed. It used to be a single-story building, but now it reached almost all the way to the top of the hangar, as additional levels had been added in the weeks we had been in hyperspace.

With the engineers we had, assisted by the droids, doing something so simple as adding levels to an internal structure was child's play, but I was still impressed by the speed in which it had been done. It also reminded me that at some point I needed to hear from Keller about how the civil engineers and architects were progressing on the towns I had asked them to plan back in the Snare system.

However, with both maintenance and the Cal-class battlecruiser on his plate, he had to be busy at the moment. More to the point, the project was for once we found a place to settle people down, and not something we needed to have ready right now.

When I walked into Raika's Rest and sat down by the counter, I was immediately greeted by the elderly human woman that ran the place. "Hello, sir. It's been a while, but you look like you could use a cup of coffee."

As usual when I visited, she kept her voice low, taking care that other people couldn't hear my title, allowing me to enjoy a cup as any other crew member. I appreciated her effort of being discreet. Despite the 'Dragon Quest' having been shown thousands of times, the animation was still different enough from how I looked in civilian dress that most non-Chiss couldn't recognize me.

"That would be good, thank you."

Raika nodded with a happy smile and started to make the coffee. "I saw your encounter with the three Sith. Quite impressive."

"Thank you, but at least some of the credit goes to Gaslo... It really did good."

She looked at me in silence for a moment, her steel grey eyes boring into me, before she took the finished coffee and walked to place it in front of me.

"Commander, I've watched that combat a dozen times, and you're every bit as good as the Jedi I served under in the war. As soon as you got over your initial hesitation, that battle was a done deal. Gaslo's action was helpful, but ultimately not needed." A smile crept onto her face. "Give yourself a little more credit, commander. I can't think of many Jedi who went up against three Sith and lived to tell the tale."

I thought it over for a moment. "That might be, but in all fairness, I don't think that the Sith who went with Darth Arkol are their most powerful. The one I met at Alpha Viga certainly didn't think all that much, and while Lord Xhal was an extremely strong duellist, he wasn't that good a tactician."

"True, but it doesn't really matter." Raika said matter-of-factly. "Every single member of the fleet knows that you can beat the Sith both in space and in close combat. Considering that people fear the Sith more than anything else, that is a huge boost in morale." She blinked as if she suddenly remembered something and then asked. "By the way, sir, when does the vid with the Battle of Grinda come?"

"Soon," I promised. "The animation team is working on it now... if nothing else, it'll make the debriefing when we come back to Nodia and Second Squadron easier."

She nodded. Raika had been among those suggesting that such battle vids should be made. Hidden away in the lower levels of the Dreadnought, she couldn't follow the battles as closely as she would like to and she had suggested that vids from the battles were made public.

Initially, I was against it, as it would lead to people second-guessing both my tactics and the pilots executing them, but Captain Iska had backed her up, arguing that it would make the crew appreciate the victories more. Seeing the benefits of that, we made a compromise. After a battle was over, the visuals would be edited and released for viewings, after they had been approved.

As I had told her, it would also enable the people not present at the battle to see what had happened, making the debriefing easier.

"Good." She hesitated for a moment, before saying. "After Nodia we talked about thanking.... And I need to thank you again. My son was among those on the Lictor-class in the Grinda system and if you hadn't come up with a plan for stopping that ship, he would be on the way to a Zygerrian slave auction right now." She smiled. "There're many others that would like to thank you as well."

Not really knowing what to say, I bowed slightly in my seat. "I'm honoured to be able to help, but as I said, I just make the plans. It's the people who execute them that deserve praise."

Raika snorted. "I think you'll find a whole fleet that disagrees with you, sir, but let's leave it at that."

"Let's do that." I agreed and drank some of the chocolate coffee. As usual it tasted heavenly. "So, anything new?"

Being in the café most of the time, Raika heard a lot of what people were talking about and she was one of my sources on how the morale was on the ship and what the current gossip was.

She shrugged lightly. "Not much, sir. People really want to go planet-side, especially the old guard, since it has been a long time in space."

"I know, but I'm afraid that it will have to wait a few weeks." I told her as I drank more of the coffee. "We need to check in on some planets on the way to Debra, so with just a little bit of luck, there should be a chance to get some fresh air."

"That sounds good, sir. How's Captain Karnos doing by the way?"

That made me smile. Despite her protests, I had made Trine Karnos captain of the BSX-5 and as I suspected, she had done a really good job. "She's doing fine. Why do you ask?"

"Just wondering how she was doing without Mister Tavune." She said with one of her grandmotherly smiles. "She had the biggest crush on him."

Wondering how I had missed it, I asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir." Said Raika firmly. "And she's not the only one. According to rumours, several of the female crew have their eyes set on him. In case you haven't noticed, there're two women for every man in this fleet and many of the men are taken, so there's quite the competition for the rest." She chuckled. "With you as the top choice of course, though I think that the women you're already rumoured to have, are going to be hard to beat."

That made me raise my eyebrows. "So which women have the rumours connected me with?"

"Oh, the usual." She answered with a grin. "Doctor Shakka, pilot Satomie, Lena Agusta or any of the unmarried women you work with on a daily basis." The grin widened. "At one point, there were even rumours about you and Captain Meistrin, though they died quietly when she and Captain Zwul found each other."

Chuckling, I shook my head. I would have sworn that nobody knew Meistrin and Zwul had something going on, but apparently, I was wrong.

"And aside from all the romance?"

She drank some more of her coffee. "Not much..." She was about to say something more but went silent as her eyes shifted to someone behind me. Then Lena Agusta sat down on the chair next to me. There was something new about her. Not that she looked much different than usual, with the dark brown hair in a loose bun behind her head, the high cheek bones casting soft shadows on smooth skin. Big brown eyes sparkling in the light from over the counter.

I blinked a few times when I realized she was exceptionally attractive, a fact that I had somehow overlooked until now.

It was the attitude that had changed, I decided after thinking it through. When I had first seen her, she had been submissive and obedient to the men she had been with. That façade had cracked when she had decided to join the Dragon Defence Force, defying Jay Knack and Burt Simon in the process.

Now, there was a quiet confidence about her, a certainty in her own path and abilities that made her seem ... sexy.

"Hey, Raika. Could I have a cup of chocolate, please." She said with a brilliant smile.

"Of course, dear." Raika said and walked over to the coffee machine, as Lena Agusta glanced in my direction.

"Hello there." I greeted her with a smile.

For a moment she looked at me blankly but then widened her eyes. "Sorry, sir. I didn't recognize you out of the uniform."

"That was the point of not wearing it." I said with a chuckle, just as I heard Raika mumble. "There goes that rumour."

Lena raised an eyebrow, as she looked over at Raika. "Excuse me?"

The elderly woman smiled sweetly, as she prepared another cup. "Nothing, dear. The Commander and I were just talking about rumours. It seems like ..." She fell silent and looked at something behind the counter, before she looked up again. "One minute, dear."

Finishing the cup, she carried it over to Lena Agusta. "Come... We need to go to the terrace." She looked at me. "You too, sir."

Looking slightly puzzled, Lena Agusta stood from the chair, grabbed her cup and followed Raika. With a slight shrug to myself, I followed.

As we stepped out of the café, Raika slowed and gently touched Lena Agusta's arm, her voice dropping to a near-whisper.

"There're some former prisoners coming in from the Walrus. Watch. It's my favourite sight in the world."

Just as she finished talking, one of the doors to the hangar opened and a group of people emerged from the walkway, blinking under the soft simulated sunlight, their eyes wide, unsure.

I knew what was coming. The silence, the disbelief, the shattering realization that the green world in front of them was real. But knowing didn't dull the impact. If anything, it made the scene sharper, more poignant. These were people who had not seen a blade of grass or the curve of a leaf in years. Some not since they were newly educated spacehands on a warship.

The former prisoners walked into the park slowly, like ghosts returning to a world they no longer believed existed. A man near the front of the group fell to his knees without a word, fingers trembling as he brushed them through the leaves of a bush. Behind him, a woman reached out and touched a low-hanging vine, her lips moved, forming words I couldn't hear. A name or a prayer, perhaps.

Beside me, Lena gave a sharp sniff, and when I glanced at her, I saw her biting her lower lip, her eyes glistening. She quickly swiped a hand under her nose, composing herself.

One of the crew, standing by the entrance, finally broke the silence with a voice so soft it was almost a whisper.

"Welcome," he said. "Don't worry about the tears... we've all been there."

The simple words of kindness seemed to break the spell. Soon, others were moving more freely, touching bark, smelling flowers, sitting down on the grass as if their legs no longer knew how to hold them upright. Some cried openly. Others smiled in stunned silence.

An older man with a scar that ran from temple to jaw, caught my attention. Mostly because he seemed to have frozen. He didn't kneel. He didn't move. He simply stood there, as though trying to absorb it through sheer presence.

I remembered the first group. How they had moved, how they had wept. I remembered the hush that had fallen over the Hangar Park and now I was watching it again, and it struck me that this wasn't just about the plants, or the trees, or the illusion of a blue sky. This place, this pocket of peace carved into a ship of war, was more than a garden. It was a symbol of their newfound freedom, of hope. It was life blooming in the aftermath of survival.

They hadn't said anything yet, hadn't responded to the gentle greetings from the crew. But in those first moments, surrounded by colours after years of gray, they didn't need to. The crew had seen it before, some had been there themselves, and knew that at this moment, silence was the only proper response.

I glanced sideways at Lena Agusta. Tears had started running, but she didn't wipe her eyes. She just stood there, shoulders straight, breathing deeply while watching the scene.

Rekia stood next to her, not quite crying, but still with tears in her eyes, sending me a smile as she caught me looking at her.

I returned Raika's smile faintly, then turned my attention back to the former prisoners.

The man with the scar finally sank down to the grass, still stiff, almost mechanical. He didn't touch anything yet. He just sat, his hands resting heavily on his knees, staring at the green stretching before him like it was the first and last thing he would ever see.

"Gets me every time," Raika whispered, wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her jacket. "Every single time."

Lena nodded silently. She turned back toward me, her face streaked with tears she didn't bother to hide, and gave a small, fierce smile.

"Thank you," she whispered, and I understood she didn't mean me personally. She meant all of us. The Dragon Defence Force. To those people who had put their life on the line, so that others had a hope of living in freedom, and to those who didn't come out of it alive.

I wanted to say something, but there was simply nothing meaningful I could say, so instead, I gave her a nod, before looking at the park again.

Then I suddenly spotted some familiar faces. Senior Gunner Karstein's three children, Alex, Dalcas and the Pantoran girl whose name escaped me, darted out from behind a stand of trees nearby. Laughing quietly, they played among the flowers and low hedges, careful not to disturb the newcomers. Alex, Karstein's Twi'Lek foster child, looked curiously at the strangers before offering a shy, lopsided smile.

That smile seemed to crack something open. Some of the former prisoners smiled back, hesitant and uncertain, but real. One man even chuckled under his breath, a short, broken sound, but it was laughter all the same.

Smiling to myself, I turned towards Raika and Lena. "Let's go back in. They'll need time to compose themselves and they do not need us as an audience."

They nodded wordlessly and with a last glance at the newcomers, we walked back to the café.

"That," said Agusta when we were sitting at the counter again, "Was both emotional and powerful."

Raika nodded in agreement. "It always is... and Majestic is not unique. Similar scenes take place all over the fleet. At least on the ships with a park."

She was right about that, as after seeing the effect of the Hangar Park on the prisoners from Nodia, it had become the general rule that newly freed people were sent to a ship with a Hangar Park for however long it took for them to recover somewhat from their experiences.

At the present time, only the large ships from the Snare system had a Hangar park, but our civil engineers and agricultural specialists were working on constructing similar parks on the BSX-5s and the Terminus-class destroyers, as well as both the Delta- and Gage-class transports, though the equipment present in the hangars of those ships complicated matters somewhat.

With us staying a week here, thousands of tons of cargo would be moved between ships to give room for the parks, though that was a headache all by itself. With all the things we had looted from the ships in the Grinda system we couldn't bring with us, cargo space was scarce and relocating anything was a puzzle.

Lena Agusta nodded, "Those parks are awesome... though at the start I couldn't fathom why anyone would 'waste' space on a ship in that way." She chuckled. "Then I discovered that all the plants are edible, which made it make a bit more sense. Now, I'm wondering why all ships don't have such a park."

"The parks do take up a lot of room, but those hangars were originally meant for ground-based war machines and as we don't have that many of them, that room was better used for food." I explained as I took my half-finished cup of chocolate coffee. "Now, I think I'll get a mutiny on my hands if they were to be removed. Not that I'm even thinking about that."

"Good," said Rekia and looked at Lena Agusta. "By the way, how did your training go?"

"Oh," Lena Agusta looked surprised over the sudden change of subject, but smiled and nodded. "That was fine. Doctor Shakka and I joined the course it together and we were done some days ago."

I drank from the cup. Even though it was slightly cold, the chocolate coffee tasted good.

As most people Lena Agusta had participated in the basic training for spacehands, as nobody should be on a military spaceship without it, especially in regard to safety. It also served as a reminder that there were no passengers in the Dragon Defence Force.

People were expected to hold a job once they were cleared by the doctors and counsellors, and if they didn't have useful skills, they would be educated.

It was a policy not only accepted but actively approved by the freed prisoners, as it made them feel like they contributed something to their own situation, which was true.

I hadn't expected Shakka to need training, but she had quietly told me that as a doctor and pleasure slave, she didn't get any training in that field, and with the limited amount of medical personnel we had, there hadn't been time to do the training before now.

"Congratulations." I told her.

"Thank you." She said with a smile. "Next is basic marine training."

"Makes sense." I said after thinking it through, making her look at me in surprise. "You think? You're the first person that hasn't asked me why I want to do that."

I shrugged. "You're a woman from a society where women are not allowed to get that sort of training, essentially ensuring they're defenseless. Most people don't like not being able to protect themselves, at least not when surrounded by warriors like you are, so it does make sense that you would like to educate yourself in that field as well." I sent her a smile. "Just remember that armor training is the most important part. You're on a warship and sudden decompression and flying shards kill more spacers than blasters ever will. That is why even the bridge crew is required to wear armor in combat... At least if we know it's coming."

"Oh." She was speechless for a few seconds but then chuckled. "I might need to read up on the regulations while I'm at it."

"No worries." Raika said with a chuckle. "Unless things have seriously changed, the Keeper of the Code will have you study those regulations until you can recite them in your sleep."

I nodded in silent agreement. The Keeper of the Code was the name the people in the fleet had given to the Sergeant responsible for teaching the newcomers the regulations. Officially, the title was Sergeant of the Code and on Majestic, that job was held by Sergeant Erek Dhal, but a new recruit had jokingly referred to him as 'Keeper of the Code' at some point and the name had stuck.

Lena Augusta swallowed something and stood. "I better go read up on the code." She flashed a dazzling smile at us. "Thank you for your time, both of you. It was nice to talk with you and see the liberated people."

"You're welcome." I told her, inclining my head. Raika echoed me and a moment later Lena Agusta walked out of the door.

"Busy woman." Commented Rakia as I turned around towards the counter again. "So eager to learn it all as fast as possible." She sent me that grand-motherly smile. "And she's become a very beautiful woman."

"Yes." I agreed and finished my cup. "Gaining some confidence in herself helped a lot." Placing the empty cup on the counter, I stood. "Thank you for the coffee, Raika, but now I need to go."

"Thank you for visiting, Commander." She said with a smile. "It was a pleasure as always."

"Likewise."

Outside, the liberated prisoners had composed themselves a little and several of them were talking with those members of the crew who had been in the Hangar Park when they arrived.

There were still those who were just lost in the sight and smell of greenery, but others were talking quietly with the crew, smiles starting to show on their faces.

-----------------------------------

Six days later I was getting impatient and called up Chief Engineer Keller to hear how it was going with the testing on the Cal-class.

"That depends on how you look at it, sir." He said with a sigh, making me notice how tired he looked. "We have fixed the power lines, so everything except the mass driver is working." He grimaced. "We'll keep working on it, but don't hold your breath. This hardware is fragile and thousands of years old, and the chance of getting it to work is somewhere between slim and none."

"I feared that," I told him. "But it's still a capable ship, so let's give it some time. We can always remove the whole assembly and use the hull for something else."

"That is true." He thought for a moment. "It would make an awesome carrier."

"It already is." I told him drily. "With 144 Aureks on board, it holds twelve squadrons, and it doesn't have the hangar doors to launch starfighters fast, so placing more fighters on it will be a waste."

"I see your point." He sighed. "I have to confess that I have trouble finding a role for the ship that isn't already filled by other ships."

"Same here, but it's not like we have to make a decision today." I told him with a smile. "Let's take it easy and see what Resa comes up with."

"Yes, sir."

"But aside from the mass driver, is the ship ready for the trip to Nodia?"

Keller nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Then Iet's get out of here."

He grinned and nodded. "Good idea, sir."

---------------------------------------

Returning to Nodia

"True leadership lies in guiding others to success.

In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best,

doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well."

From the Holy Book of War

Because we had thousands of people in ships without organic carbon scrubbers, both Lena Agusta and I used the Force to navigate safely, going around hazards on the way back to Nodia instead of skimming the outer edges of them as we had done on the way out. It did make for a longer journey, but better to arrive late than never.

I also sent the fleet into hyperspace in two stages to maximize safety. The slower ships took off first along with a protective force, but since their hyperspace speed was limited to the Rank 4 hyperdrive of the Tork, it enabled the rest of the fleet to take off later, overtaking the slower ships to arrive earlier. That gave us time to take out enemies or draw them away from the jump point, so they didn't arrive in the middle of an enemy fleet.

Then we repeated that pattern as we took the next jump. It demanded a lot of calculations from the Astrogators, as well as some waiting time on the faster ships, but it was worth it to keep the woundable support ships safe.

However, aside from the tense moments of entering various systems along the way, there wasn't much to do. So, I followed Trejar Melbate's suggestion and spent my limited free time learning about the different forms of lightsaber combat, their strengths and weaknesses.

--------------------

Six weeks later, we arrived in the Epsilon Eta system. It was the last system before Nodia, but more importantly, we had installed a sensor-post here before going to Nodia the first time and I wanted to know if we risked running into one of Darth Arkol's battle groups in Nodia. Besides there wasn't much else to do while we waited for the slower ships to catch up.

"We do have some traffic here." Said Tavune from the comm section. "But not much. An S-class cruiser, two Terminus-class destroyers and four Mantas came through five weeks ago. According to their vectors, they departed towards Nodia and returned a week later, going towards the spinward sector."

As he spoke, the sensor data appeared on the main viewscreen, and I took time to study it, but it really was as sparse as he had said. That they had returned at all had to mean that Meistrin had either stayed successfully hidden or had moved the fleet to the other system allowed by Nodia's other jump point while the enemy fleet was in the system.

"It looks peaceful enough." I determined and looked over at Lena Agusta at the Astrogation station. "Astrogator Agusta, calculate a route to the second jump-point in the Nodia system and send it to the scouts."

"Yes, sir."

It was a testament to her growing skills that the route appeared with a speed that could only mean she had started as soon as we had entered the system. "The route has been sent, sir."

"Thank you." I said, as a Drakes and two Mantas disappeared from the tactical plot as they entered hyperspace, to warn Second Squadron that we were coming through. They were also tasked with delivering a short vid made from the cameras and scanner data, showing what had happened in both the Grinda and Qek-40 systems. It was a rough animation compared to 'Dragon Quest', but it gave a good overview of what had happened, and it would save us a load of questions later.

-----------------

"Finally." I mumbled to myself as we dropped into the outskirts of the Nodia system, arriving beyond the asteroid belts and far away from Nodia Prime, but the only fleet that met us was Second Squadron along with the support ships and the scouting force.

With impeccable timing, the slower ships dropped in just a few minutes later, just as a smiling Meistrin showed up on the view screen. "Welcome back, sir."

"Thank you... and sorry for the delay, but as you probably know by now, we had to take a little detour to rescue some more people." She glanced at something out of sight and chuckled. "I'm glad we were warned of your arrival by the scout force, because otherwise I would have had a heart attack by now. Those ships are big!"

Looking over at my own readout, I chuckled as I saw that both Vallathi and Vanguard had just arrived.

Vanguard was the name the crew had agreed on for the Cal-class Battlecruiser. Giving it a new name felt good, though we haven't gotten around to giving the class a new name. Mostly because it didn't matter as much as it had done with the Fafnirs, since the Cal-class Battlecruiser didn't have any connection to the Empire.

The same couldn't be said about the Tork-class, but since that couldn't really be mistaken for anything else, we had kept the class name as well. It did get a new name, as the crew elected to call it Vellathi. A kind of large space creature from the Outer Rim, that was known for taking good care of its young.

Returning to Meistrin, I nodded. "Yes, it gave me quite a headache in Grinda... especially in the seconds between when the Tork arrived and Tavune got an ID from it due to the Fafnirs."

"I believe that... and that battlecruiser is even bigger."

"Yes, a three-kilometre-long warship does have a certain intimidation value." I chuckled. "Anyway, we pulled the data from the sensor platform in the Epsilon Eta system, and it looked like you've had company as well."

"Yes, sir. It wasn't a problem, but we can talk about that later." She smiled. "According to the request, your meeting with the captains is starting in five minutes."

Checking the time, I discovered that she was right. "Indeed. See you at the meeting."

"Yes, sir." She said and then the screen went black.

Standing from the chair, I stretched. ""Well, we might as well go to the meeting."

Iska nodded and stood as well. "First Officer Janick, you have the bridge."

The former Imperial officer nodded and as we walked out, he sat in the captain's chair as so often before.

Out of habit, I started walking towards the office

Iska coughed. "Wrong way, sir. The engineers and date techs have arranged for the meeting to happen in the pilots briefing room."

For a moment, I just looked at her but then nodded. With the number of ships in the fleet, there wouldn't be room for all the captains in the office.

--------------------

Only Captain Iska, Betty Nagos, Resa and I were there in person, while the rest were present via the fleet's local net, as it was a lot faster and less risky than having all the captains coming to the Majestic.

The reason for the change of location was obvious, as holograms of the captains from the various ships started to appear. All seventy-two of them.

There were the 'old' guards I knew well, like Jay Barlee from the Vulture, Jalmia Tarrick from Banshee, Keller and Fama Sul from the Kraken. But aside from them, there were many people I only had met briefly and a lot that I couldn't remember having seen before.

About two thirds were human, but the rest consisted of a lot of different races. There were Twi'leks of several colours, blue-skinned Pantorans, Mirialans, Zabraks with their horned heads, and several others.

Many of them were new to me, having been given command while First Squadron was hunting the Lictor. Fortunately, every hologram stated the name and ship under it, so I wasn't totally lost. However, it still reminded me that the dinners with the younger or newer officers were becoming more important than ever.

I straightened and let my gaze sweep the assembled captains before speaking.

"Welcome everybody and let me start with a congratulation to the new captains. That you're here means that you have a firm grip of tactics, strategy and leadership, and have the ability to keep a cool head under pressure."

That brought smiles on many of the faces.

"But understand this." I continued with a slight smile to soften the words. "Command is not just about what you already know. It's about how much you are willing to continue learning."

Thinking as I spoke, I clasped my hands behind my back.

"Many of you have earned your position without years of training at a Naval Academy, which speaks volumes about your abilities and natural talent, but you must continue to learn. And one of the most important lessons is that you will> make mistakes. That is inevitable. What matters is how you respond when you do." I paused for a few seconds, letting the words sink in. "Remember, that you're not alone. You are part of a fleet, surrounded by captains and officers who have stood where you stand now, who have faced the same fears and doubts. Use them. Talk to them. Learn from them." Remembering something, I added. "Also remember, that you can always come to me as well. Whether you seek advice, aid, or simply a sounding board for the burdens of command, give me a call. That's what I'm here for."

I let my gaze linger, meeting the eyes of the newest among them, before saying. "Welcome to the Dragon Defence Force, Captains."

"Thank you, sir." Came the scattered reply.

"You're welcome." I looked around. "You're all familiar with our goal. Our aim is to find a place to live in peace, but before we do that, we have a job to do. First we're going to take a small detour to transport the people from Yrla back to their home planet. When that's done we're going to check out several systems in this sector of the galaxy, as our analysis shows that the Empire might have more hidden prison camps. We might not find anything, but there's no real reason not to take a closer look at those planets while we're in the sector anyway. I do not intend to leave prisoners in the hands of Darth Arkol, if we can prevent it, and we know that everyone here knows someone that was taken prisoner or court-martialled along with them, but who was never seen again."

That made the people nod.

"If we find any prisoners, we will liberate them, and even if we don't find any, we will know that we had tried." I paused and looked around. "After that, we're going to the Debra system to liberate more prisoners there. There's a real possibility that it might be the best place to settle down for many of the people here. However, first we have to get there. Once we have done what we came for, we have some options and I would like your input on what to do afterwards, so think about it. For now, keep up the good work. We'll talk again when we're ready to get out of here."

That brought a round of "Yes, sir." and nods from the captains, before they said their goodbyes, leaving me alone with Iska, Resa, Betty Nagos and Meistrin, whom I had asked to stay after the meeting.

"Good speech, sir." Said Captain Meistrin with a glint of dry amusement in her crimson Chiss eyes. "and they needed to hear that. Some of them have been very nervous about meeting you."

That made me raise my eyebrows. "I usually don't eat the officers under me."

She chuckled, a low, knowing sound. "No, but they have seen the Dragon Quest vids. And..." She grinned wider, the edge of mischief clear. "I used Nodia as a case study in the tactical course, with them as the defenders."

I grimaced. "How did that go?"

Meistrin's smile turned downright wicked. "Badly. The tactical computer ran your battle plan and wiped the floor with them every single time. Most couldn't last ten minutes. The only one who did halfway decent was Rikki Nippard, a human male, which elected to shoot at the incoming asteroids. That enabled him to save some of the support ships, and he continued to excel in all scenarios we put him through."

"Very good. Where is he now?"

"At the tactical station of Glorious." Said Meistrin with a slight shrug. "He might be one of the better tacticians, but his command skills are lacking, so I've placed him where I can teach him, while keeping an eye on him.... and it freed up Lieutenant Barro to take the captain's chair on that Terminus-class destroyer we picked up."

"Good choice." I remarked. Lyss Barro was a human female that had been with us since Centurion 21 and was educated as a tactical officer, before she left the local defence force to work on a freighter. She had been the tactical officer on Glorious for a year and was a solid tactician and an even better leader.

"Thank you, sir," Meistrin said, flashing another smile before her expression turned more serious. "There's... another reason the new captains are a little on edge."

"Oh?"

She gave a theatrical sigh. "The Battle Vid from Grinda combined with the security footage from the hangar. You know, the part where you directed half a battle from a shuttle, wiped out the enemy forces with minimal losses to our side, and then killed three Sith in the hangar of Majestic."

I sighed. I hadn't known that the security footage from the hangar had been sent to Second Squadron along with the rest.

Meistrin continued. "For most of the people here, the Sith are either the Big Bad Guys or the immensely powerful beings that control everything in the Empire... and you killed one of them with a gun and then killed two of them with your lightsabers. The very weapon that they wield with such terrible efficiency." She shrugged lightly. "I'm sorry, sir, but I think the days where you can walk around on the ships unrecognized are over."

"Perhaps you're right about that, but I guess I'll find out."

"I guess you will, sir." She chuckled again and leaned back in the seat. "But in all seriousness, it seems like First Squadron has been busy. Although, I think they neglected to mention the total number of prisoners freed in the holovid. What's the final count?"

Betty Nagos, cool and poised as ever, answered without missing a beat.

"Twenty-four thousand adults, five thousand children," she said. A small, almost mischievous smile tugged at her mouth. "We were lucky to have the Star Wanderers. Without them, transporting that many would have been a nightmare." She let that hang for a moment, then added lightly, "And we collected a little more than four hundred defectors along the way."

I resisted the urge to shake my head. As usual the numbers were staggering, but what really drove it home, was that even with nearly thirty thousand people, we were still several thousand people short of being able to give all the ships a full crew.

Granted, that was mostly due to the almost eight thousand marines and ground troopers we had, in addition to a few thousand non-combat personnel, but when I took off from Alpha Viga about two years ago, I would never have dreamed that I couldn't fully crew a fleet with almost thirty thousand crew members.

That many people also went through a lot of food and even with all the rations we had taken along from the Snare system, I was grateful for all the consumables we had looted from the fleets we had met. That would keep the crew well-fed, while they build the hydroponics systems and hangar parks on the 'new' ships. Granted, we still had rations enough for at least several years, but a lot could happen here in the Chaos. Not to mention that we still needed to visit two planets to see if there were more prison camps there, potentially adding even more people to the fleet.

I pulled myself back to the moment just as Meistrin smiled. "I'm so glad, that the fabricators have been steadily making clothes since First Squadron left. That'll help a lot now."

That made me nod. Most of the freed prisoners from Nodia had stayed in the system with Second Squadron and the Auxiliary Squadron. That meant that much of the stuff we had taken from the ships in the Snare system had been here as well, and that included a lot of garments. Both civilian and military style. The civilian clothes and undergarments were a godsend. Clean, functional, and ready to use, but the uniforms was another matter. Insignia and metal accessories were removed and the rest were fed to the garment fabricators, so they could create the clothes that we needed.

"By the way, sir." Said Betty Nagos hesitantly. "Can we redesign the uniforms? The design we have now looks..." She searched for the right words. "... like it was made for a planetary defence force and not a real navy."

That made me laugh. "Well spotted, XO. Those were originally made for a local security force. We found them as part of the pirate loot at Centauri 21."

She blinked in surprise. "So, this is not a Chiss design?"

That made Meistrin laugh, while I shook my head with a chuckle.

"Not at all." I told the XO. "And you're right, we need a real naval uniform, but while you're at it, you might as well design a rank insignia system as well... The one we have was slapped together in a hurry, because we pretended to be a mercenary unit and needed those insignia."

Nagos nodded with a smile. "And I just volunteered for that job, didn't I?"

"Yes but put a group together and try different designs." I suggested. "We can always have the crew vote on which design they would like."

"That is true, sir. I will do that."

"Oh, by the way," said Meistrin. "How many from the Qek-40 system have decided to remain with us?"

"Well, in the beginning, almost half of the former republic citizens wished to return." Answered Betty Nagos, scanning the datapad. "However, as they discovered that most of their home planets had been devastated by the war or are under Imperial control, many of them changed their mind. Now, there's only about three hundred that want to return."

"I'll ask Captain Bubba if we can hire Barracuda to take them home."

Captain Bubba and his crew were free spirited people who didn't feel at home in a fleet, and he had said several times that as soon as there was a possibility, he would like to go back to freighting passengers and goods. A trade that was much safer now that he had been given a Wanderer-class freighter that was equipped with three dual lasers for self-defence.

Captain Meistrin shook her head. "I'm sorry, sir, but I already had that exact conversation with Captain Bubba, and he politely declined. It's simply too dangerous for a single ship to travel this part of the Chaos at the moment and he has asked permission to stay with the fleet for the time being. I accepted."

"That is fair." I said with a nod.

Resa looked up. "Is that why you're not just sending a shuttle with a small escort to Yrla instead of taking the whole fleet?"

"Both yes and no." I answered with a nod to her. "The problem is Darth Arkol's main fleet. We don't know where they're located at the moment and I don't know what Dark Side powers the Sith in that fleet commands, so I prefer not to split up the fleet again. However, instead of entering the Yrla system with the whole fleet, I'll place most of the fleet in the Jenth-32 system, two jumps away from Yrla. According to the maps, Jenth-32 has an uninhabited water planet, and while the fleet fills their water tanks, I'll take a much smaller force and jump first to Kwin-34 system, which is the system before entering Yrla. From there we can send a shuttle with an escort to Yrla to deliver the people without looking like we're trying to take the system."

She gave a satisfied nod. "Thank you, sir."

Captain Meistrin arched an eyebrow. "Sir, if you take anything less than Majestic, I'll object to that plan. A dreadnought has a chance to survive just about everything and it might be needed."

Iska nodded in agreement and the same did Betty Nagos, who added. "Sir, I don't care what the Yrlans think. Everything less than a dreadnought is foolhardy."

Looking at them, I knew that they meant it and silently scrapped my original plan of taking the Duchess to Yrla, unless I sensed danger. However, they did have a point about it being too dangerous, so I nodded. "Majestic it is then."

Turning towards the hologram of Meistrin, I said. "Your turn, Captain. You promised to tell us about the group that visited the system."

Meistrin nodded. "About five weeks ago, an S-class cruiser, two Terminus-class destroyers and four Mantas entered the system." She thought for a moment. "They behaved strangely, I have to say. They stopped at the jump point for a while, but then continued to the planet, launching only a few fighters to scout the inner system. Not a single fighter came close to the asteroid belt out here."

"No scouting the whole system?"

Meistrin shook her head. "No. I mean, from their position, they would be able to see us coming before we could fire a shot at them, but it's still sloppy." She shrugged. "Anyway, they went to Nodia Prime, sent down shuttles and used a few days to get everybody out and then departed again." She grimaced. "Half a day after they left, the reactor in the prison exploded, wiping out whatever remained of the structure and supplies in there."

Betty Nagos chuckled and when we all looked at her, she smiled. "Sorry, sirs. It's just always amusing to hear professional navy officers getting offended by their enemy being sloppy."

That made Meistrin smile. "I know. You shouldn't complain when the enemy is making a mistake... But the Imperial Navy I've heard off is supposed to be better than that, so when situations like this arise, I get suspicious." She looked at me. "I sent out scouts a few days after they had left to see how much was left of the prison and it's a total loss. Nothing remains except for a large hole in the ground."

"Too bad. I would have liked to take a closer look at it, now that we had the time"

"Well, on the bright side, the time here has enabled us to train or retrain some of the people we freed, so we could crew the ships we have repaired." She straightened a little, pride glowing in her crimson eyes. "In short, you can add 14 Manta-class corvettes, a S-class cruiser, a Terminus-class Destroyer and two Gage-class Transports to the fleet."

Iska blinked, genuinely startled. "That was fast."

Meistrin chuckled. "No really. You guys have been away for a long time and most of the prisoners are old hands with more than ten years of experience, so they just needed a short upgrade course, though we as usual are woefully short of trained officers." She paused and then added. "The same applies to the Space Marines. There're a lot of troopers and sergeants, but no lieutenants, except from the few former republic officers that were placed here on Nodia."

A wry smile tugged at her lips. "On the bright side, years of suffering under the same conditions has rubbed off any animosity between former Republic and Imperial personnel. Although," she admitted with a small tilt of her head, "there have been a few... necessary punishments."

"How many is 'a few'?" I asked.

"Well, we started at seven, but after an investigation, three of them were cleared. The remaining four had collaborated with the Imperial garrison and were shuttled to the prison at Nodia before that battlegroup came along." She leaned in slightly. "Some of the prisoners were a little disgruntled about the three that were cleared, but since we have the data from the prison, there wasn't much doubt about it, so I told them that if they had a beef with anyone, they could tell their officers and then we would take care of it."

I gave her an approving nod. "That is a good way to handle it, Captain."

Unfortunately, it also meant that Darth Arkol would know at least some of our strength, as the rescued officers could give him a rough estimate of our fleet as it was when we liberated Nodia. It was also likely that Lord Bawon's battlegroup we had escaped in the Qek-40 system had gone to the Grinda system and picked up the people there, potentially providing Darth Arkol with even more info. Irritating as it was, there was no avoiding it unless we killed the captured Imperials and there was no way I was going to do that.

"Thank you, sir." Smiled Meistrin. "I have to say that it helped a lot that the prisoners are former military people. Our rules are not that different from any other military and thus something they're used to."

There was silence in the room for a moment, but then XO Betty Nagos asked, "Can we go back to the ships?"

Meistrin gave a nod, so Betty asked. "What about the bridge crews?"

"All the captains and most of the officers are people who have been with us in the Snare system. The rest are mostly former freighter personnel that have been on a bridge before and know what they're doing." Meistrin told us, still smiling slightly. "To a certain degree, I could understand Administrator Atare's defection since he just wanted to go home, but as we have talked about, what I didn't want is a group taking a warship and using it for piracy."

"How did the rest take it?" Asked Iska.

"At first they weren't all that happy," Meistrin admitted. "But after they had talked with the old crew that died out. Not only due to the story about Administrator Atare, but also because of the Commodore's reputation."

I felt my eyebrows rise. "Please explain that."

She chuckled. "Oh, it's quite simple, sir. You have a reputation of capturing enemy ships and adding them to the fleet. Those ships need to be staffed, so there's a good chance for promotions."

"That's actually a good point," Iksa said thoughtfully.

"It is." I agreed with a nod. Many of the people who had been with us from the start were now officers, in what was an extremely fast rate of promotions compared to the Imperial or Republic fleets. While that was seen as a good thing, it also meant a lack of experienced officers and many of them had entered our make-shift officer's school while already commanding warships.

Still, with a few exceptions, they had grown with the responsibility and it seemed like they preferred that way of learning. It wasn't unlike what I was used to, as I too had been placed in command of minor warships as part of my education, but this was a lot more focussed and intense.

"Let us continue their education." I finally determined. "They'll need those lessons later... oh... what about the two Super Transports?"

"They're ready as well." Said Meistrin. "I guess that you mean to place the space stations they carry over whatever planet we find for the crew to live on."

"Yes. It's a solid base for starfighters and having it there should scare off at least some of the pirates."

Meistrin nodded. "Did you get some information about Darth Arkol's fleet from the ships or captured crew? "

"Not really." I told her with a slight shake of the head. "Except that Darth Arkol has bought some smaller passenger ships, presumably so he can transport his prisoners off to be sold as slaves without involving the Zygerrians directly. That we destroyed one of his battlegroups and captured both the Tork-class replenishment ship, the first delivery of passenger ships and the Delta-class medical ship, should slow him down somewhat."

"Especially the replenishment ship." Added Iska. "With the amount of proton torpedoes he had ordered, his fleet must be running low. The same goes for those spare parts he cannot produce himself."

"Unless he finds a place that can produce them for him." Said Nagos. "Then he can trade, buy, or simply take what he needs."

I nodded. Even with the bite we had taken out of his forces, Darth Arkol still had an impressive fleet, with six Harrower-class dreadnoughts, thirteen BXS-5 heavy cruisers, five S-Class cruisers, fourteen Terminus-class destroyers, ten Delta-class carriers, nine Gage-class transports and so many smaller craft, that I haven't been able to get an exact number from the freed prisoners or defected officers.

The thought made me realize that what I currently called 'smaller craft' were really frigates and corvettes, like the Drake- and Manta-classes. They might be small for capital warships, but the Drakes were still about the same size as the Phoenix that I had travelled in to Alpha Viga System, and thus vastly more powerful than most other ships out here. As I had told the Yrlans, just three or four of these 'small' ships could dominate the Yrla system, forcing Yrla to surrender.

That put Darth Arkol's other fleets into perspective. Especially those led by a Sith.

According to my information, there were at least four powerful Sith left in the fleet, aside from Darth Arkol. Each with several apprentices in various states of training and power. Aside from Lord Bawon, the commander of the battlegroup we had encountered in the Qek-40 system, there was Lord Vauron, who commanded another of the Battlegroups. The same did Lord Seraphine, a female human Sith lord.

The last of the higher ranking Sith, was Lord Moragth, which was the one that worried me the most. Unlike the others, Lord Moragth didn't command a fleet. Instead, he was responsible for maintaining and building it, and according to the few defected Imperials who had been in contact with him, Lord Moragth was thoughtful, reasonable and didn't mind other people's input. At least until he had made a decision. Then he expected his people to stick to it or suffer the consequences of disobeying a Sith Lord... which usually meant a slow and public death, dealt by the use of the Dark Side.

Lord Moragth had all the makings of the Sith version of a good officer and I hoped that Darth Arkol killed him before Lord Moragth managed to make the fleet better.

There were also at least eight other and less powerful Sith that were spread out over the four less powerful groups of ships that didn't have a Harrower. Of course, considering that the BSX-5 was roughly equivalent to the Wyvern-class, those 'less powerful' groups were still a considerable threat and not one I intended to overlook.

"Do we have an idea about where Darth Arkol could get his ships repaired?" I asked. "The star maps contain almost no information about this part of the Chaos aside from the locations of the planets and even that is sketchy."

"Perhaps in the Otri system." Said Iska and called up a star map. "According to the defected Imperial Officers as well as the logs from the BSX-5, they spent some weeks here in the Otri system." She highlighted a system on the map. "Before going to the Ajax System, where they stayed for a few months. Then they moved to the Quamire system, which Darth Arkol used as a sort of base, since Quamire Prime has both water and edible animals."

The coordinates for the star systems showed up as well and we used a few moments to look at it, giving Resa time to say. "Are the coordinates for the Otri system correct, sir?

"As far as we know, yes. Why do you ask?"

"I don't recognize the name of Otri, but the coordinates are the same as for the planet and system known as Kziiz here in the Chaos." She said slowly, making us all look at her.

The name sounded familiar. "You've mentioned that name before." I thought for a moment. "Wasn't it the system with all the fighter droids?"

Resa nodded. "Yes, that's the system and the Kzii are the best droid and cybernetics manufacturers in this part of the galaxy." She flashed us a smile. "I was made there."

There was silence in the room as we digested the information, but then I asked, "What're their production facilities and can they be conquered?"

"Not easily, sir." Resa said with a little smile. "Their facilities are almost entirely orbital, and they are well protected with shields, turbo lasers, anti-starfighter lasers and thousands of fighter droids." She looked over at me. "The same type of fighter droids we found on Centauri 21 and used to defeat Sharon the Red." She looked thoughtful. "Even if Darth Arkol could take the production intact, it wouldn't be worth it, because the Kzii are a four-armed insectoid race and humanoids can't use their machines. So, unless Darth Arkol can somehow persuade or threaten the Kzii to work for him, it won't matter."

"Any shipyards?"

"No. The Kzii aren't interested in other systems and they don't build ships, or anything else with a hyperdrive for that matter. There's a space station for trade and the occasional repair of smaller ships, but that's all. They do not have the capacity to repair large warships."

I nodded. "We'll have to visit them at some point." Thinking for a moment, I looked at Resa. "Do you know what's in the Ajax system where Darth Arkol used so much time, before moving to the Quamire system?"

"Nothing." Answered the droid. "It has a habitable planet, but it has never been colonized since it's a jungle planet with a lot of dangerous animals and plants, and there're many other and better planets to colonize. Locals use it to get water and meat from time to time, but not often."

"Prison planet." Sighed Betty Nagos.

Captain Meistrin grimaced. "There has to be a limit on how many of those that can exist."

Betty Nagos shook her head, looking sad. "Captain Meistrin, I was ten when the war started some twenty-nine years ago, involving thousands of worlds and trillions of people. If just one percent of the people who have disappeared in that time have been taken prisoners, we're looking at one hundred million people and if just one percent of those have been placed here in the Chaos, that's a million. More than enough to fill a lot of prison camps and with the Treaty of Coruscant, the Empire has no reason to keep all those people unless they do something productive, like working in a mine or producing material that the Empire can use."

"Or as people to be sold into slavery." Added Iska.

Meistrin held up a hand. "You misunderstand me. I meant from a logistical point of view. Having six different prisons in six different systems, is vastly more resource intensive than one large prison. So logistically, there's simply a limit to how many ships and other resources they can allocate to this."

"Oh...," said Betty Nagos. "Sorry."

"Captain Meistrin is right." I said calmly. "And Yaki might have found the reason for that, but that knowledge cannot leave this room."

They nodded and I explained Yaki's findings about some of the camps being breeding grounds for Sith.

"Gross." Mumbled Betty Nagos and then looked at me with wide eyes. "Wait, does that include Nodia?"

I shook my head. "Not as far as we know. It's the rest that's a potential problem."

"Well, that's something, I guess." Sighed Meistrin. "It might even be the reason why they destroyed the camp." She looked over at Resa. "Resa, can you show the planets we think are possible prison camps?"

"Yes, sir." The Droid nodded and three planets were highlighted. "These were the first planets Tavune found during his search for Nodia, which turned out to be Noctis 5. We have Ilex and Pire in the sector here and Xylo over there." Three more planets were highlighted. "After the information from the various captured ships were added, he found these three as well: Ajax, Myrrhial and Nelvath. All of them are habitable by humanoids... at least to some degree."

Betty Nagos thought for a moment. "Sith children aside, do you think those camps have been emptied, sir?"

"Some of them, yes." I said as I thought about it. "But not more than one or two. As Captain Meistrin said, it's a question of logistics and losses. First Darth Arkol needed time to get here and just getting into the Chaos takes time, as the lack of Hyperspace routes simply makes traveling more time consuming. For the same reason, I think he struck a deal with the Zygerrians before he even entered the Chaos. Escorting the two Kiltirins and the Lictor from wherever they met up through the Chaos." I highlighted the Epsilon Eta system. "That alone should make the two Kiltirins and the Lictor we encountered in the Epsilon Eta system some of the first slave-ships the Zygerrians have sent to this region of space. That cost them two Kiltirins and even if the Lictor survived its jump, it would have taken it deeper into the Chaos, which in turn would make its return take much longer."

Captain Meistrin nodded. "Not to mention, that I refuse to believe the ship survived that long a jump without taking damage."

"I agree." I smiled a little. "However, there's no Galactic-wide HoloNet here in the Chaos and none of the defectors knew of someone from Darth Arkol's fleet that has left the Chaos, which is reflected in the logs as well. That leaves only one part of the fleet that could have contacted the Zygerrians and made the arrangement for further pick-up of slaves."

"The returning fleet in Grinda." Said Iska with a nod. "Lord Xhal could have made the arrangements with the Zygerrians while they were waiting for supplies."

Betty Nagos lifted her eyebrows. "That would mean that so far the Zygerrians haven't managed to get a single shipment of slaves out of the Chaos."

"At least not if our information is correct." I said thoughtfully. "Unfortunately, that battlegroup could transport more than fifteen thousand people in the trooper quarters of the Harrower, DBX-5s and the Deltas, so I guess one of the camps out there is now either empty or missing between ten and fifteen thousand people."

"Still." Said Iska with a relieved look on her face. "I had feared that the number was much higher."

"It might be." I admitted. "Until proven otherwise, this is just a theory. We have no way of knowing this for certain until we find the camps or get data from other ships."

Captain Meistrin looked at the star map and then slowly said. "As far as I can see, the smart way is going to Yrla first, then we can check the other planets on the way to Debra, with the exception of Xylo, since that planet requires a serious detour."

"Yes, that is the plan so far... once maintenance is done and the ships are ready."

"Good." She said and glanced at something on the side of the screen. "Do you have anything more right now?"

"Not really. I'll read the reports from you later."

"Excellent," she said with a smile. "In that case, I will go visit another ship. I need a change of scenery."

"Good idea, Captain Meistrin." I said with a chuckle, knowing that the ship she was going to visit was Hawk, since that was captain Zwul's ship. "Have a good time."

"Thank you, sir." Came the reply and the hologram flickered out.

There was silence in the room for a moment, but then Betty Nagos said. "The part about a change of scenery wasn't a bad idea."

"What do you mean?"

The XO sent me a smile. "Go visit another ship, sir. You've been on the Majestic just as long as Meistrin has been on Glorious."

"Good point, but I like it here." I told her with a little smile, not mentioning that unlike Meistrin, I was able to get lots of sex on my own ship. "However, I do have an idea. The freed prisoners haven't had a good time for quite a while. How about a fleet-wide party?"

The Pantoran smiled a little. "Do you have more details about that plan?"

"Yes. We obviously can't hold a party where everybody is attending, but if the major ships take turns to have a party, we should be able to make sure that every ship gets to a party." I explained. "The ships that are not in the 'party rotation' have guard duty."

"Oh!" She chuckled. "So, two cruisers have a party, while the rest have guard duty. Then two other cruisers turn and so on."

"Exactly. The ships with smaller crews or no liberated prisoners on board can join a party on a larger ship."

"That, sir," she said as her smile widened, "is a brilliant plan."

"Thank you." I said with a nod and looked over at Resa. "You two work together on this. I want at least two thirds of the fleet to be at guard at any time and the schedule needs to be in sync with the engineers doing maintenance, so the parties don't ruin their work."

"Yes, sir." Smiled Betty Nagos. "Fortunately, the ships here don't need extra maintenance and half the ships that were with us had their maintenance done in the Esk-32 system, so it's not an impossible task."

"Good. Give me a plan as soon as possible."

Both Resa and Nagos saluted and walked out, already debating how to do it.

Iska nodded until the door had closed behind them and then commanded Majestic to lock it, before giving me a long, soft kiss.

I returned the kiss, enjoying holding her in my arms, but when she finally broke the kiss, I asked. "Not to object, but what was that about?"

She sent me a brilliant smile. "Just for caring about people. It's important to remember we're not just commanders in some endless game. We're here because we believe the people we fight for deserve better."

I looked into her eyes, seeing the fierce loyalty and quiet understanding that had been forged in the challenges we had been through together. "Thank you."

"Any time," she replied, her hand resting on my shoulder for a moment. Then she straightened up, her professional mask settling back into place. "Now, you've got a fleet to run, sir. Majestic, unlock the doors."

"Yes, Captain.

She turned towards me. "Are you coming, sir?"

With a smile, I followed her out.

-----------------------

"I think I found the problem, sir." Said Waydar a couple of hours later as we looked at the lightsabers and lightsabre pikes laying on a worktable. "The Power Field Conductors were so badly damaged that it's a wonder they worked without blowing up."

That made me raise an eyebrow. The Power Field Conductors in a lightsaber regulated and channelled the plasma blade's energy. They worked together with the focusing crystal and the energy cell to ensure the energy remained stable, so Waydar was completely right in his assessment. It really was a wonder they hadn't blown up when I ignited them.

"That is bad." I commented. "Were you able to replace them?"

Waydar nodded with a smile. "In the lightsaber pikes and that double bladed lightsaber, yes." He gestured at the lightfoils. "Those two were impossible to change without moving some other part, so I waited for your opinion about it... But everything is ready, so when you give the word, I can change them in ten minutes."

"Thank you."

Reaching into the Force, I first created a shield around us, before I used telekinesis to lift two of the pikes and ignite them.

There was a hum as they ignited and a meter long blue blade appeared at the end of the pike. I held them there for some minutes, but the blades were stable and longer than I had expected them to be.

Switching them off, I placed them on the table again and took the last two pikes. Those were stable as well, emitting bright blue blades as the others.

"Well, they're working." Said Waydar proudly.

"They're perfect." I told him with a smile. "Very well done!"

"Thank you, sir, but you still haven't tried the double bladed one... that caused me quite a bit of trouble."

"Oh... why is that?" I asked as I switched the lightsaber pikes off again and placed them next to the rest.

He smiled a smile that as usual looked almost impossible white against his black skin. "Because it's actually two lightsabers put together. When you twist the handle while depressing a stud, the handle splits into two separate lightsabers." He nodded approvingly. "It's a very clever design. The two sabre handles even share power when they're locked together, effectively doubling the time they can stay ignited."

Thinking back to when I had tried it, I asked. "So, if the handles are locked together, they can ignite if you insert a new power cell?"

He nodded. "Yes. As long as one of the cells has power, the whole weapon will work."

"You're right." I admitted. "That is good engineering. I didn't even discover it the first time I looked at it."

"Understandable, sir." He said with a light shrug of his shoulders. "It's expertly made and very hard to detect." He thought for a moment. "Which is better by the way? The double-bladed weapon or the lightsaber?"

"Hmm... if the user is of similar skill level, I would say..." I paused for a moment, before saying. "None of them." With a grin, I added. "It's the lightsaber pike."

Waydar blinked in surprise, "Really, sir?"

"Yes, really." I called one of the pikes to my hand, easily catching the one-and-a-half-meter long staff with my hand. "The blade itself is at least one meter long and combined with a solid shaft that gives the wielder the ability to slide it in his or her hands, extending the range to almost two meters, giving them a huge advantage at a distance." I demonstrated it without igniting the weapon. "The weakness is the same as the double-bladed lightsaber, which is that it takes more room to move it, making it slower. If you want a ranking, I will say that the pike here is best, closely followed by the lightsaber and with the double-bladed sabre coming in last."

I twirled the weapon in my hand. "But... and that is a huge but... one of the best lightsaber duellists in history used a double-bladed weapon, so it might have some hidden properties that my limited knowledge of double-bladed lightsabers doesn't take into account."

That made him chuckle. "That is fair, but why aren't most Sith or Jedi using the lightsaber pike then?"

"As I said, it moves slower and thus it's harder to parry blaster bolts with. Not to mention that it's a lot easier to walk around with a lightsaber. You can't really just clip a pike into your belt, and you can do that with the other two." I handed him the pike. "It's not really handy, is it?"

He accepted the pike and considered it for a moment. "No, it's not, sir. Hmmm... But why is the double-bladed worse than the lightsaber?"

I shrugged. "It's basically a staff weapon and as such requires extreme precision and constant two-handed control, limiting flexibility and defensive options. In tight spaces, its size makes it awkward, and its sweeping attacks can be predictable. Unlike the pike, you cannot slide the shaft in your hands, limiting the range." I thought for a moment. "I have no doubt that it can deliver incredibly powerful blows, but to be honest it would prefer two single blades."

"Good thing it can be taken apart then." Chuckled Waydar but then looked thoughtful. "The electronics on the pikes also aren't bigger than in an ordinary lightsaber, so I can take the lightsaber parts off the shafts and fit a better hilt on them."

"That would be very good, but just two of them please... and I still need to check the double-bladed weapon."

Waydar smiled again and gestured towards the table. "Feel free, sir."

The double-bladed weapon worked just as well as the rest, but the blade it emitted was in another shade of blue. A deeper colour that shone less than the bright blue of the other blades.

"That's a different crystal." Determined Waydar as we looked upon it.

"Do you happen to know what the crystal in that sword is?"

He shook his head. "No, sir. I was occupied with the electronics."

"Fair enough." I chuckled, knowing that I would ask the Holocron later, even if it was doubtful that it could give me an answer. "That leaves only the last two."

"Yes, sir." He looked over at me. "How do you want to do it?"

"Take them apart and install the new Power Field Conductors." I told him. "When you're done, I'll assemble it again."

"Yes, sir."

Less than ten minutes later he stepped back from the workbench. "There you go, sir."

"Thank you."

Walking up to the worktable, I looked at the disassembled lightsabers, chose one of them and took a deep breath as I closed my eyes, picturing the procedure of assembling the weapon in my mind. Then I sent out my senses and found the pieces, going by the feel of the Force alone.

The energy modulation circuits were inserted into the handle and connected with the cycling field energizers by the blade energy channel. The crystal energy chamber with both the focussing crystal and the primary crystal in the mount came next along with the energy field regulators and fit just right, with the mount connecting with the power vortex ring. That in turn connected with the new power field conductors and its insulator, after which I inserted the whole thing into the handle, with its switches for power adjustment and activation, and the magnetic stabilizer ring at the 'top' along with the blade emitter shroud.

It felt right to my Force senses, though for some reason the crystal felt... hesitant, almost reluctant, though not hostile.

That made me curious and for a moment, I dived deeper into the force, feeling the current from the crystal. Unlike my own crystals that burned bright and hot, these ones were softer, their flicker of warmth almost like the feel of sunshine on skin, radiating a feeling of calmness into me.

At the same time, I could also feel a slight resistance in the crystal. Subtle at first but steadily growing. It was like an invisible force, gentle yet firm pushing back against being used in a weapon... or at least a weapon belonging to me.

Without opening my eyes, I said. "Waydar, get Doctor Shakka down here now... as in immediately."

I heard him say "Yes, sir.", but concentrated on holding the crystal in place, without trying to do more. Pressing just enough against the force of the crystal to stop the whole assembly from falling apart.

It didn't take long before I heard Shakka's voice say. "What's wrong, sir?"

"Nothing, but I need you to hold your hands over the hilts of these lightsabres. Don't touch them, just ... be there, focusing on feeling the crystal." I told her. "I'm trying to make these lightsabers for you and it needs to sense that."

She gasped in surprise but followed orders and a moment later I could feel her presence in the Force. My suspicion had been right. She really was Force sensitive, which had to be the reason for her learning how to use a lightsaber as fast as she had.

"Do you feel it?"

She was silent for a long time, but just as I was about to give up, I heard a deep breath. "I feel it. Warmth. Protective." She giggled. "It tickles."

Despite the situation, I couldn't help smiling as I said. "Try to imagine the lightsabers being complete, so you can use them. I don't know how to explain it, but you need to become one with the crystals, feel the same deep in..."

That was how far I got, before the crystal stopped resisting me with a suddenness that made the crystal chamber snap into place with a loud 'click'.

"Wow." Shakka said in a surprised voice. "What happened?"

"Take it." I opened my eyes with a smile. "It's yours."

As I had noticed the first time I had seen the lightfoils, the Electrum and dark wood handle was expertly crafted, and Shakka looked at it like it was a precious treasure. She hesitated, her hands hovering above the weapon, as if afraid that touching it might shatter the moment. But I could still feel the warmth of the crystal and it was calm, expectant, as if it had been waiting for her all along.

Slowly, she picked up the hilt, her fingers brushing over the smooth Electrum finish, tracing the intricate inlays with something close to reverence. The moment her fingers wrapped fully around the grip, I felt a shift in the Force, like a breath released, a tension I hadn't even realized I was holding suddenly gone.

Shakka gasped. "This feels fantastic! Much better than the one I usually use." She looked at me, her light green eyes full of wonder. "How is that even possible?"

"The right crystal for a personal lightsaber is the one that matches your personality." I said mildly. "This one wasn't meant for me, but it is meant for you."

Her expression softened, her hands tightening slightly around the hilt as she seemed to draw strength from the quiet pulse of energy within it.

I stepped back, suddenly exhausted. "Take a moment. Let it settle. Then try igniting it."

She nodded, closing her eyes as she centered herself.

I watched in silence, feeling the shift in the room, the subtle warmth that now radiated from her, not just from the crystal. It was as if the weapon had become an extension of her, a reflection of something inside her she hadn't yet fully embraced.

Then, with a soft inhale, she thumbed the activation switch.

A soft hum filled the air, gentle and soothing. The blade itself was a pale, shimmering blue, almost like the surface of a calm sea under moonlight. It pulsed gently, the light not harsh or glaring, but almost warm to the eyes.

Shakka stared at it in awe.

"It's beautiful," she whispered.

"It's yours," I said quietly.

She nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek as she turned the blade off and held the hilt close to her chest.

I turned towards Waydar, only to discover that he was sitting on a chair, looking at Shakka with a slightly opened mouth and an expression of wonder on his face. Then he discovered that I was watching him and quickly got to his feet. "Sorry, sir, but it took quite a while."

"Really?" I glanced at the clock and blinked a few times as I realized that four hours had gone by. "It didn't feel that long." I shrugged. "Anyway, I wanted to ask if Shakka's lightsabre can be used as a training weapon."

"Oh yes." He said with a nod. "All the lightsabers have that ability. Press the activation button three times in rapid succession and it will dial down the power to a training blade." He smiled a bit. "You might want to test it before actually trying it."

"No worries." I said with a chuckle. "I have no wish to lose a limb because I got cocky." I glanced over at Shakka, who was still cradling the lightsaber, looking lost in her own world. "And besides that, I believe that Doctor Shakka needs some time alone with the saber before using it in training."

Looking from me to Shakka and back to me again, he stepped forward and lowered his voice. "Sir, does that mean that the doctor is a Force-user?"

Glancing at Shakka, I hesitated. "Let's say that I think she has the potential to become one, but that she's not quite there yet... and this stays between the two of us. I don't want to put her in danger."

"Yes, sir." He said with a smile. "I guess we'll have to wait with the last lightsaber."

"That will be a good idea." I agreed. "But now I'll have to get the doctor back to her room.. and then I'm late for a meeting with the civil engineers."

"Sorry, sir." He chuckled, not sounding sorry at all.

Shakka was still not completely herself as I guided her towards her own cabin, as usual followed by the two Tiger droids.

"Did you feel the same when you touched your lightsabers for the first time?" She asked in a low voice as we entered the lift.

"Depends on which pair. I didn't feel much on the first pair I had," I told her. "But the ones I made myself feel amazing."

She smiled and gave me a soft kiss. "Thank you, Thalen. This is the third fantastic gift you have given me. First my freedom, then the hospital and now this."

I shook my head, but she silenced me with another kiss. "Shyyy. Don't protest. You might not agree, but that is how I feel."

The lift stopped and she broke the kiss with a smile. "And now you have to go to that meeting you were talking about." She looked down at the lightsaber. "What do I do now?"

"You sit down with it and try to focus on it. Like if you were meditating." I said with a smile. "Just try your best, it's a personal journey, not a competition."

She nodded and walked out. "I'll try that. Thank you."

-----------------------

The engineering workshop on Majestic was big, more like several halls than the single workshop the name suggested, and there were several engineers looking at me in surprise, as I walked through the rooms, going towards the Civil Engineers department with Resa by my side and the two Tiger droids silently following us.

Like most other sections of the ship, there were green plants in lighted transparent casings, lending both light and air to the area, in addition to food stock.

The Civil Engineers were gathered in the meeting room and every one of them saluted as we entered the room.

"Hello, sir." Said Engineer Minlo. "I'm glad you could find the time to see our work."

"Since I asked you to do it, finding the time to see the result was the least I could do." I replied and nodded towards the rest. "Greetings, people."

That we were here at all, was due to a task I had given them all the way back in the Snare system. We knew that we wanted people to settle down at some point, and since one of the likely places was in the Debra system, I had asked Keller to put a team of civil engineers on the job of designing places where people could live.

Considering that they were designing buildings for people who had spent way too long in various prison camps, I had asked the Civil Engineers to make them as appealing as possible, build with local materials and with plenty of green areas and waterways. When that was in place, they should add buildings like theatres, hospitals, schools and everything else needed to build a decent place to live.

Keller had come up with the idea of having the architects design the villages, getting feedback from other architects until they were satisfied. Then the engineers would get the plans to give feedback and when everybody was satisfied, the plans were considered done.

Turning back to Engineer Minlo, I asked. "So, what do you have for me?"

He smiled and nodded to someone.

On top of the meeting table a hologram sprang into being, showing a lush green valley cradled between low hills, dappled with curving waterways and patches of native forest. The hologram rotated slowly, revealing a village layout unlike anything I had expected. Organic, inviting, and harmoniously woven into the landscape.

"Allow me to present the main architect." Said Minlo and looked into the crowd. "Lira, come here."

A tall woman with long black hair and slanted eyes left the crowd and walked closer, bowing light to me. "Commander."

"This is Lira. The main architect behind what we have chosen to call Lira's Reach," Minlo said, pride slipping into his voice. "Our prototype settlement."

I suddenly realized that I had seen her several times before in the training room, usually hitting the weights pretty hard or doing martial arts training.

"All buildings are built with stone composites and timber extracted sustainably from the local growth zones." She explained in a soft voice. "All residences are low-profile, dome-roofed units with green caps. Living roofs seeded with local grass and mosses."

The hologram zoomed in, showing one of the rounded homes nestled near a narrow waterway, a stone footbridge arching gracefully across.

"The houses are passive-energy designs," Lira continued, "insulated naturally, with embedded solar glazing. Every unit placed to make the most of the sunlight. Residents have personal gardens and shared orchards, and the whole village is fed by a branching water system that doubles as both irrigation and natural cooling."

As the hologram panned across the settlement, more structures came into view. A larger round building surrounded by benches sat near the center. "That's the community hall," he said. "Also used for performances, debates, and teaching. Next to it we have the clinic. It's connected to the larger medical center planned for the next tier of the village."

I noticed several paths converging near a circular platform.

"And that," she added, "is the shuttle pad. We've adapted it into a small spaceport made with the same materials and sloped design language as the rest of the village. We've even planted moss along the outer ring to soften the outline from the air."

The hologram zoomed out again to show the full village nestled in its green cradle.

"It's beautiful," I murmured, more to myself than anyone else.

"Thank you." Lira smiled. "We thought they deserved something that didn't remind them of the past. A place to start over."

I nodded slowly. The design was as far away from prison camps and star ships as you could possibly get, which was a choice I could only applaud.

Lira gestured again, and the hologram shifted slightly, highlighting a cluster of interconnected, rounded structures on a gentle rise above the village.

"We've also completed the education hub," she said. "Three primary buildings: one for foundational learning, what you'd call primary and secondary schooling, with another for vocational training, and the third is a community learning center that doubles as a library and forum for adult education."

The buildings were built in the same rounded, green-roofed style, their paths winding like roots into the village core. Small amphitheatres were nestled between them under broad-leafed native trees, clearly designed for outdoor teaching and gatherings.

"Everything is modular," Lira explained. "The learning environments can be opened up or partitioned based on need. We're also installing full network access points so even if power or data connections go down elsewhere, each education node has localized archives and solar backup."

The hologram panned across a shaded courtyard where children were depicted in miniature, playing between sculptures, gardens, and open-air classrooms.

"This is brilliant." Smiled Resa, studying the hologram. "What about transportation?"

With a subtle hand motion from Architect Lira, the hologram expanded again, revealing a delicate network of pathways branching from the village core like veins.

"We've gone with a layered transport model," she explained, zooming in on a wide, stone-paved path bordered by low moss and subtle embedded lights. "Internal movement is fully pedestrian, assisted by soft electric carts for those with limited mobility. The paths themselves are sensor-responsive: they light up at night, guide newcomers, and adapt routing based on flow."

A canal came into view, its water glinting in the hologram's soft light. Small, sleek boats drifted along the waterway between the housing clusters and the market square.

"The waterways serve multiple roles," she said. "Irrigation, cooling, leisure and transport. The boats are solar-powered, designed for slow movement. No noise. No wake. They connect key points in the village and extend all the way to the agricultural outposts to the east."

A secondary map overlay blinked into life, showing subtle arcs leading from the village outward into the valley and beyond.

"For longer-distance travel, we've designed a small fleet of repulsorlift vehicles designed for terrain variance. They're modular too and can be repurposed for cargo, medical evacuation, or personnel transport."

She tapped again, and the shuttle pad reappeared at the village edge, where the curved forms of the buildings gave way to a landing platform half-veiled in greenery.

"The spaceport includes concealed fuel cell charging, a small hangar, and a direct transit link to the education hub and medical dome. If we ever scale this model to other sites, we can establish direct low-orbit shuttling between villages without going through major ports."

Lira stepped back from the projection with a gentle smile.

"Every part of it is meant to feel like a peaceful, secure place. We didn't just want people to arrive. We wanted them to arrive home."

"I think you succeeded." I told her.

"We have succeeded," she said with a little smile and gestured at the rest of the engineers. "I'm just an architect. It's the Engineers who have taken the plans and made the power grid, waste disposal and everything else work. Without them, this..." She gestured at the hologram... "is little more than a pretty picture of a dream. They deserve more praise than me."

With a chuckle, I said, "Chief engineer Keller once told me that it was the designer's job to dream of the impossible, and the engineer's job to make it happen." Looking at the gathered engineers I gave them a nod. "I know he was talking about ship designs, but it still applies to this. Exceptionally good work, people!"

"Thank you, sir." Replied Lira and Minlo, while the rest nodded, pride flickering in their expressions.

"And now for the more practical side of construction." I chuckled. "We need to make this dream become reality, so I want a construction timeline and a material list." Turning towards Resa, I asked. "Could you give me a list of available construction droids the engineers can use."

Resa nodded, the blue LED blinking. "We have eight DN 314 Tunneler droids, seven G4 fabricator droids, two hundred T1 Bulk Loader droids, twenty-two KA-21 Construction droids, and the agricultural droids and agribots from pirates at Centauri 21."

"Thank you." I looked at the engineers again. "Aside from that, you'll have at least twenty Kolereth-class shuttles at your disposal. They might be combat shuttles, but they do have a very useful tractor beam emitter."

Smiles were showing on the engineer as I continued. "Make no mistake. Once we start building, this project will get first priority. Any and all requests you make, that don't lessen the fleet's combat ability, will be granted and we'll use the fabricators on every major ship in the fleet. That included Nautilus. As a fabricator ship, that will speed construction up a lot." I looked at Engineer Minlo. "I trust you have coordinated this with Senior Engineer Tinam on the Nautilus?"

He chuckled. "Yes, sir. He has approved the plans for the residential areas and is working on the production area."

With more than thirty years of building production facilities on remote planets in the Chiss Ascendency, Senior Engineer Krott'inam'rirgo (Tinam) was an expert in constructing factories in remote systems with limited resources.

"Excellent." I smiled. "Well, it seems like you've got everything under control and have come up with a solid plan to build a beautiful place. Thank you all... and now build one."

"Excuse me?" Said Minlo, surprised.

"Build a full-scale model of a typical apartment." I looked at Resa. "Which ship has room for one?"

The blue LED blinked for a moment. "Moappa. The Gage-class commanded by Selvi Morana."

"Thank you." I looked over at Minlo again. "I'm placing you and Architect Lira in charge of making a full-scale model of an apartment on the Moappa. When it's done, I want some people to live in it for a while and then hear what they have to say." I smiled a little. "This is not personal, Engineer Minlo, but in my experience, engineers and architects tend to forget that anything they make for people should be easy to use for those people as well." I gestured at the table. "This looks awesome, I just want to be sure that it's as practical as it is beautiful."

"Yes, sir."

That was the end of the official viewing, but both Resa and I stayed for a while, asking about the village and the different functions, while the engineers responsible for the planning took turns telling us about them.

At least I did.

Resa spent most of the time debating star ship design with Lira and Minlo, who apparently liked designing spacecraft as well as Civil Engineering.

"Those Panathans have some interesting thoughts on ship designs." She told me later, when we were sitting in my cabin.

"How so?" I asked.

"They value aesthetics as much as they praise practicality." Explained Resa. "So, their warships are not only as lethal as any other warship, they're also beautiful. Their weapons are almost always engraved and when they train their bodies, they do so with both strength and beauty in mind."

"Hmm... It's a big galaxy with a lot of beauty standards." I chuckled. "I do not agree with all of them, though after seeing Architect Lira in a training suit and the way she trains, I think the beauty standard for Panathan women is the same as... well... mine."

Resa's LED Blinked a few times and then her beautiful face split in a grin. "She does seem to have very well-shaped buttocks and legs."

That caused me to lift an eyebrow. "Peeking into the security archive again?"

"No need for that." Grinned Resa. "She training's right now... and I have to say that her behind rivals Doctor Shakka's."

"Which by extension means that it also rivals yours." I teased her. Resa's body, along with the DD Hospitality droids, with its generous breasts and narrow waist that flared out to generous hips and long legs, was both an idealized version of a human female and the average way a Twi'Lek was shaped.

Of course, the connection between the idealized human female form and the average Twi'Lek, was one of the things that had caused Twi'Leks to be the most enslaved people in the Galaxy, with the trade in Twi'Lek females as pleasure slaves or dancing girls driving the business. Seen in that light, it was more of a curse than a blessing for the majority of female Twi'lek, but it did look fantastic.

"Oh, thank you." Resa said and stood from the chair to walk over to me. "Since you like it so much, how about we undress and take it to the bedroom? I could really use your hard dick inside me."

For a second I blinked in surprise over her choice of words, as she usually didn't sound that direct, but then I laughed and stood. "Sounds like an excellent idea."

---------------------------------------

Fourth movie night

Dreadnought Majestic, Nodia System

Since we were waiting for maintenance to finish and with all the new officers in the fleet, I had decided to continue my dinners with the officers to get a better feel of them, starting with the support squadron.

For that reason, I had invited Captain Joseph Strobel of the Cal-class Vanguard and Captain Thorin Malvek of the S-Class cruiser Condor and Captain Elise Samko and Engineer Gabosat of the Vellathi, along with Captain Karl Harbo and Senior medical officer Anna Tuvia from the Delta-class Medical ship.

Since the dinners worked best when there were people there who knew how it worked, Iska and Shakka were there as well, along with Lena Augusta, whom Shakka had invited.

All of them looked gorgeous, but there was something extra about Shakka. Ever since she had gotten her lightsaber, there was a calmness about her. She also looked slightly better, though it admittedly was hard to improve on perfection. Her light green eyes were slightly brighter and her red skin, smooth and lustrous in the soft lighting of the room, seemed almost to glow against her uniform.

Captain Strobel arrived first, looking exactly like his picture. Fairly good looking with light hair and blue eyes, he was clean shaven and greeted us with an easy smile. "Hello, sirs, and thanks for the invitation." The smile widened a bit. "It's been a few years since I was invited to anything, so this is a refreshing change."

I smiled at that, but before I had a chance to answer, Resa came walking into the Wardroom. "Sorry to interrupt, sir, but I just received a message from Captain Samko and Engineer Gabosat, who will not be here tonight. The maintenance crew have found damage on one of the Tork's engines and they're working to fix it."

"Understandable." I said with a grimace. As a newcomer to the fleet, the Tork wasn't exactly vital to the fleet, but it was a very good asset to have. "I do hope they can fix it."

"Oh, they can." Stated Resa, "but it might take a few days."

"Very well."

She gave me a short nod and walked away again, going back to her post.

Captain Strobel looked after her as she left. At first, I thought that he was checking out her shapely ass, which would have been understandable, if extremely rude, but then he looked at me. "Sorry, sir, but was that Resa? The ship designer behind the Dragonclaw and the Dragonfang?"

"Yes, that is her."

"Please give my regards to her later, sir." He smiled. "My senior pilot swears that Resa is a genius and that the Dragonclaw is the best fighter he has ever flown." He grimaced. "Actually, it's so good that he swears that as soon as the next batch of capital ship pilots are done with their training, he would prefer to go back to being a fighter pilot."

Iska chuckled. "Yes, many fighter pilots are like that. They prefer their starfighters to any other craft."

"That they do." Answered Strobel and looked towards the door, as two more people walked into the room.

One of them was a grey-haired and dark-skinned human male with a short grey beard, that I knew was Karl Harbo, the captain of the Mercy. A former freighter captain, Captain Harbo was not a military educated captain, but as he captained a hospital ship that wasn't really needed, and he was doing a good job so far.

The woman by his side was a relatively young woman with dark brown hair and a pleasant smile. I smiled back at her. Senior Medic Anna Tuvia had been one of the people we had rescued on Centauri 21 and as such, she had been with us from the start. Like several other medical personnel, she had started out as a medic but had continued her education while we were caught in the Snare system and now, she was one of the best medics we had, second only to Doctor Shakka. More importantly, she was also a brilliant organizer, a talent that had landed her the job as the Chief Medical Officer of the Mercy.

The pair had barely entered the room, before the last guest entered as well. Captain Thorin Malvek was a short human male, with a short beard, a bald head and deep set dark brown eyes that seemed almost black. Like Senior Gunner Karstein, he was a former Imperial Officer, who had bent his orders when those were against his moral conviction and had been demoted, resulting in him being in the prison camp at Nodia. There he had become a leading figure among the prisoners along with Betty Nagos and Arthur Waydar, helping where he could.

"Welcome all." I greeted them with a smile and gestured towards the table. "Have a seat, please. Just be aware, that as soon as we're seated I will invoke an old rule from the Chiss Navy in which there are no titles during dinner."

None looked surprised about that and I guessed that they had been briefed about it.

As soon as we were seated, Iska took over. "We usually use these dinners to get to know each other a little better."

She paused as the droids placed the appetizers in front of everyone at the table.

"So, let's have a good meal in good company." She raised her glass. "Cheers."

As usual, Chef Winstons appetizer was delicious and Shakka sighed. "This is divine."

"It really is." Agreed Josef Strobel and looked at Iska. "Any chance that I can persuade your chef to transfer to Vanguard?"

"I don't know." Answered Iska with a chuckle. "Just be aware that Chef Winston is a force of nature and not just a chef. We're talking about a person that refused to leave her kitchen, despite being asked to do so at gunpoint by a group of marines in full armor... Oh and when she's in her kitchen, the only one she ever calls 'sir' is Thalen."

Strobel laughed at that. "Seriously?"

"Oh, yes." Nodded Iska. "But she's the best Chief Mess Officer I have ever encountered and aside from her quirks, she also acts like an officer and runs her kitchen with the effectiveness of a general, so I'm willing to overlook those little details."

Strobel shook his head in wonder. "I don't know how to say this, but it's strange to be in a Navy that values skills and effectiveness over formalities."

That made me chuckle. "We don't really do that. The formalities are there for a reason: To have any order executed in a timely manner, so as many people survives as possible." I drank from my glass. "However, as Iska said, there are exceptions to that rule and Chef Winston is one of them for two reasons: She have been with us since Centauri 21 and despite her oddities, she follows orders like everyone else." I smiled. "Not to mention, that she really is a gifted officer. I once told her that if she had had any interest in ships, I would have dragged her kicking and screaming onto a bridge and made her an officer."

That made everybody laugh.

"That sounds like one of my wives." Remarked Thorin Malvek with a slight smile on his bearded face. "The part about being a gifted officer but having no interest in ships, I mean." The smile widened. "I pity the fool that tried to drag her anywhere."

"Wives," remarked Lena Agusta, stressing the plural. "I guess that means that you have more than one."

"Yes." He nodded. "I have two. Shaela and Ixari." He paused with a slight smile, "and fourteen children."

Shakka almost spit out her food in pure surprise. "Fourteen?!"

Thorin grinned. "All but two are adopted, but it's still a lively bunch."

"How do you manage that?" Wondered Shakka.

"Well, the kids also know how to do as told... and it's less stressful now that we have some of the droids to help us." Answered Thorin.

Strobel tilted his head. "Do you mind me asking how you ended up with two wives?"

"Oh, that was the easy part." Thorin chuckled. "Mostly because I didn't have much say in it. I liked them both and they liked me, so before I made up my mind, they simply agreed to share me." He shrugged lightly. "That worked out better than I had thought it would, but as they're Thyrsian, that might be a cultural trait."

"That's a possibility." I admitted. Closely related to the Echani, the Thyrsian were as dark as the Echani was light and differed on other areas, as they favoured heavy armor and weapons in contrast to the Echani's light armor and weapons. The Thyrsian was a patriarchal society in contrast to the matriarchal Echani. However, they did share the love of Martial Arts and a lot of other traits. "May I ask what your wives are doing?"

"Ixari is a combat medic and Shaela is a combat engineer." He said, proudness in his voice.

"I think I've met Ixari." Shakka said thoughtfully. "Tall and very dark, but with very light brown eyes that are almost yellow?" She chuckled. "And yes, I know that the first part can be said about the majority of Thyrsions, but I'm betting on the eyes."

"You have met her." Confirmed Thorin with smile. "She was transferring some patients and you helped stabilise one of them." The smile turned into a grin. "You scared the living starlight out of her when you showed up."

"Yes, I know. I can be terrifying." Said Shakka in a deadpan voice but then smiled. "Though I suspect that me looking like Darth Atroxa has more to do with it."

That made both Josef Strobel and Thorin Malvek laugh.

"Yes." Said Thorin. "She did mention that... and that you're an extremely good doctor."

Shakka bowed slightly in her seat. "Thank you. As far as I remember, your wife is very competent as well."

"Well, thank you." Smiled Thorin. "I'll tell her you said that."

I looked over as the door opened again and Resa came back, walking over to Iska to whisper something in her ear that made the Twi'Lek smile. Then Iska nodded at one of the two empty seats. "Have a seat, Resa. I would like you to stay here for this."

"Yes, sir."

When Resa had been seated, a smiling Iska gently tapped her glass with the fork to get everyone's attention.

"I have a little surprise for everyone... including Thalen here." The smile widened a bit. "A few hours ago, the animation team told me that the fourth instalment of Dragon Quest was ready, so to keep an old tradition, I suggest we see it now."

The table buzzed with excitement, a ripple of curiosity and anticipation passing from one person to the next. Resa was smiling brightly, while Karl Harbo and Anna Tuvia exchanged an amused glance, and Lena Agusta clapped her hands together in excitement.

"Let's see how it goes this time," muttered Captain Strobel, a sceptical twist to his mouth, while Thorin Malvek leaned forward with a more calculating look, already focused on the story that was about to unfold.

The opening montage set the tone immediately: a sharp, cinematic recap, dramatic music swelling as scenes of shattered ships, flickering lights, and desperate faces flashed across the screen. The animation was crisp, vivid, almost too real. The battered hulls of our ships looked painfully familiar, set against the backdrop of the blueish pulsar of the Snare System before the title screen showed up, with the name 'Dragon's Quest' and the episode name 'Caught in a Snare' under it.

The movie picked up right where the recap had ended, and the room fell into a captivated hush. The camera lingered on Keller, sweat running down his forehead, his voice tight with exhaustion as he and the other engineers scrambled to fix the failing life support on Last Chance.

Abruptly, the scene cut to me, as I silently watched different ships from the wrecks around us along with their stats on a screen.

Without warning, the scene cut back to Keller again as he tried a new approach along with some of the other engineers. The shift in sound was shocking. Tools banged, engineers cursed and then almost silence as the scene cut back to a quiet, intense close-up, my face half-lit by the glow of the status screens. The reflections of ships in the experimental battlegroup showing in my eyes one by one. The Dragons, the Wyverns, the Deltas, the Epsilon-class repair ship, the Gage-class transporter.

Abruptly, the picture shifted to a sweating Keller making a last effort, before he finally slumped in defeat, his head bowed as he gave up and went to give me the news that almost five hundred people might die.

I could feel the breath catch in the room. Even though we all knew how the story ended, the weight of that moment hit like a punch to the chest.

"Not a fun situation." Remarked Thorin, shaking his head. Then he raised his eyebrows as my on-screen self calmly outlining the plan: repair the Imperial ships, transfer the people, and take as many capital Imperial warships as needed to get us out... Theft or not.

"Damn," Strobel whispered, half to himself, leaning forward as if the decision had just been made right there in front of him.

Then the scene shifted, showing us greeting the newly awakened former prisoners in the two Kiltirin ships, which also introduced Operations Officer, now XO, Betty Nagos, Senior Mechanic Arthur Waydar and Gunnery Sergeant, now Lieutenant, Caskey Titlow to the viewers.

Anna Tuvia winced as the screen showed the transport of injured survivors into the Duchess. "Oh yeah. I remember that. Some of those were in terrible shape."

Shakka nodded, her expression softening. "Yes, but thankfully only a few needed to go into the healing tanks."

Anna Tuvie smiled, a quiet pride in her voice. "And they all made it through alive."

"That is always a blessing." Agreed Shakka.

"Shyy." Chuckled Iska as the scene shifted to my talk with Keller about the ships. "I want to hear this."

People fell silent, as it was revealed that Keller was really a highly educated former Imperial engineer and ship designer... after which I asked him to remove his Engineer insignia from his shoulder.

Several of the people around the table looked surprised but then laughed as I asked to don the Chief Engineer shoulder and breast insignia.

"You're evil, Thalen." Sighed Shakka, though she was grinning. "You almost gave Keller a heart attack."

I shrugged. "Well, at the time, I felt it was a suitable punishment for him lying to me about his background."

"Evil, as I said." Shakka repeated with a laugh, her eyes sparkling. She sipped her drink, green eyes fixed on the screen as the scene shifted to the sparring session between Iska and me. Tristana, Fama Sul, Choe Tran, and others trained in the background

The idyllic scene was broken as the wall screen lit up and Resa told us about the total breakdown of Last Chance's life support, and my decision to have Chariot and Barracuda share air with Last Chance, giving us time to start the reactor on the repair ship. Even Choe Tran's brilliant suggestion about removing the automatic switch between the primary and secondary life support was there, for which I was grateful. Brilliant suggestions deserved to be recognized.

The montage that followed was a whirlwind. Engineers racing to ready the Epsilon-class repair ship, passengers huddled in silent hope, the pressure building with every second. The scene where the air duct finally tore apart just as the last people were transferred made Karl Harbo exhale sharply. "Close call. Was it that tight in real life?"

"Yes." Said Iska, Resa and Shakka in unison, making all of them laugh.

"Sorry." Said Resa with a smile. "But yes, it really was that close. Kraken is a big ship and it takes a few days to fill it with air, so by the time we could start moving people the life support on the other ships had been in the red for longer than most sane people would like."

"Except, I don't remember the air duct breaking." I said with a frown.

"That's because you were asleep after pulling an eighteen-hour shift," Resa replied matter-of-factly, her voice calm as ever. "There wasn't an emergency, so we didn't wake you."

"Ahh," I muttered, earning a few chuckles.

Iska took the opportunity to pause the vid as the droids brought in the next course. Steaming plates of something savoury, the rich aroma filling the air.

"I simply have to ask," said Strobel thoughtfully. "Is this exactly as it happened?"

Iska nodded, looking at him with a small, knowing smile. "If there're any errors in it, I haven't found them yet." She glanced at me. "Have you found any errors, Thalen?"

"None." I thought for a moment, as the droids filed in. "I mean there's certainly some time lapses where they have skipped some of the more mundane parts, or cut down some of the conversation, but the core of it is all exactly as it happened." I looked at Strobel. "May I ask what you thought it was?"

"Oh." He looked faintly embarrassed. "I thought it was, you know... a propaganda piece. Loosely based on reality."

That made me laugh. "No, no. The animation team might be good at dramatizing things, but they stick to the facts."

Iska raised her glass. "Dragon's Quest is for the newcomers. To show them what we've been through, so they understand where we've come from."

"And because the holovids in the library are garbage," Shakka added, her voice light and teasing.

"That too." Admitted Iska. "Imperial Propaganda vids are just not that entertaining."

Strobel leaned back in his chair, shaking his head in amazement. "Well... I'm even more impressed."

"Ohhh, this is just the start." Promised Anna Tuvia. "You'll be more impressed later."

Laughing lightly, Strobel leaned back in his seat. "I'll look forward to that."

The server droid rolled out with a soft hum, whisking away empty plates and leaving behind the lingering scent of the meal. Glasses clinked as people refilled their drinks, the room bathed in the warm glow of the screen.

"Alright, let's see how the next chapter unfolds," Iska said, restarting the vid.

After a montage showing us repairing and cleaning out ships, the scene shifted to the meeting where I had tasked people with making the organic carbon scrubber and decided that everybody needed training if we were to get out of the Snare system alive. We simply weren't enough people for someone being along for the ride.

To my amusement, the animation team had included my stand-off with Administrator Atare, focusing on the part where he protested against my promotion of Resa, since she was a droid.

I was dead certain that the conversation was exactly right, but somehow Atare came off as being more arrogant and obnoxious on screen than he had ever been in real life. Either that or I had been too preoccupied with surviving to notice it at the time.

"He really was an ass." Chuckled Iska when I asked her about it. "That is how I remember him... and he treated Resa like she was furniture."

Shakka, reclining in her seat with a half-smirk, green eyes glinting in the low light, gave a slow nod. "It was in his eyes. If you weren't Chiss, he looked at you like you were dirt."

Across the table, Strobel raised an eyebrow, his expression shifting from amusement to something colder. "Was he an idiot? It's obvious that you were fighting for survival."

I opened my mouth to respond, but the animated me spoke first, voice low, steady, and laced with an edge of ice: "It's a simple choice, Administrator. Either we find someone to educate the people we have, or we will join the graveyard out there. Having them educated is not a polite request, it's an order. If you can't find the people we need, say so now and I'll find someone who can."

"Damn." Malvek muttered, shaking his head with a crooked grin. "I'm glad I wasn't on the receiving end of that one."

Lena Agusta and Shakka nodded, while Iska said. "That's almost too perfect." She glanced at Resa. "Did you feed them the conversation?"

"That would be telling." Said Resa with a neutral expression, but there was the faintest flicker of amusement in the corner of her lips.

"Sometimes," Lena Agusta said, "you have to make sure the idiots understand the stakes." Her gaze flicked briefly to me, warm and sharp all at once, before returning to the screen, where we followed various people during the intense training, visiting the same people several times over.

The military educated people going through a gauntlet of tests. Shakka showing medical procedures. Captain Meistrin's teaching the basis of capital ship operations. Me running simulator tests. Elise Samko's brilliant course for the bridge crews. Senior Gunner Kansen arranging a shooting competition. Commander Yaki and Lieutenant Caskey Titlow training marines in Majestics large training hall. Aspiring cooks learning their craft under the watchful eye of Chef Winston, and pilots doing simulator training directed by Flight Lieutenant Kierian.

The last part also served to lighten the mood, as it showed a youngish looking Maxwell stubbornly claiming that the simulator was cheating, which caused some amusement around the table. At least until it was clear that he was right about it, which turned into a data hunt as Resa and the rest of the techs searched for the error or cheat-code within the simulator program.

That part was interspaced with Chief Engineer Keller and the rest working on repairing the ships and bringing them up to a battle-ready condition.

I also noticed a brilliant detail. Instead of telling us how much time had passed, they showed it in subtle ways. Like Kansen going from being clean shaven to having a short beard and Meistrin's hair going from short to a ponytail.

It was also an effective way to do it, as it really showed the passing of time much more efficiently than a simple date at the bottom of the screen could ever do.

Captain Harbo leaned back in his chair, thoughtful, a crease forming between his brows. "You know... most of the crew don't talk about it much. I guess I'd always assumed you had it easy, having stumbled across a battle group, free for the taking."

Thorin nodded, his expression tightening. "Same here. Watching this now, seeing it laid out... I had no idea how much pressure you all were under. It's different when you see it like this."

Anna Tuvia placed her fork on the plate, the soft clink sharp in the quiet. "During that time, I think I had more people coming in with problems rooted in mental fatigue than I have ever experienced before." She looked over at Shakka. "You had your share as well."

"Oh yes." Sighed Shakka. "But to be honest, having all that work to do was a blessing in disguise. Otherwise, people would have gone mad from sitting around doing nothing while waiting to die."

"Good point." Agreed Lena Agusta. "The uncertainty must have been an enormous mental strain on everybody."

"It was." I answered. "I'm happy that Betty Nagos and many of the others are good at handling people under harsh circumstances. Otherwise, more people would have cracked under the pressure."

"What about you?" Asked Lena Agusta.

"I was too busy." I chuckled. "The problem with running people through tactical scenarios is that they need to be evaluated, which is critical, but boring on screen."

"Ah." Lena smiled. "That makes sense."

On the screen, the animated Resa informed me that the simulators were fixed and running again, which led to our talk about the use of droids. Both in general and as gunners, and my decision to welcome intelligent, self-aware droids into the fleet on equal terms with the rest.

"It's a bold move," said Karl Harbo. "And one that is not going to sit well with everybody." He smiled. "Not that I disagree, though as you talked about, it can be difficult to detect the difference between real intelligence and self-awareness and clever programming."

Stroble swallowed a mouthful and chuckled. "I have a funny story about that."

He paused, but I gestured for him to continue as I chewed my food, while Iska paused the vid and leaned back in the seat to listen, sipping from her glass.

"A little more than a thousand years ago," He continued, his smile widening. "The human colonists on the planet Orax discovered that a local type of crystals was sentient and intelligent. They might not be able to move, but they communicated by electromagnetic pulses. As far as I was told, that caused a giant headache among the Jedi. Mostly because a few of the crystals could use the Force, disproving their belief that only biological people could be truly alive, as they could touch the Force."

That made people around the table laugh.

"So, what did they do about it?" Lena Agusta wanted to know.

"I don't know." Said Strobel with a smile. "Only the Jedi know and they aren't telling... But my point was that form and intelligence isn't connected, so I understand your position, s.. Thalen."

Iska nodded and started the movie again. The animated Resa walked out of the room, the light dimmed and the 'camera' in the screen moved as the animated me turned towards the screens and started running scenarios, bathed in the pale blue glow of data streams and tactical displays.

Ships clashed on the screen. Dots and lines weaving, splitting, reforming. Explosions flared, a silent ballet of light.

The screen flashed: Casualties High. Effectiveness Low.

Animated Thalen paused, his hand resting on the console, a faint tension in his shoulders.

The scene cut to Keller and his people repairing one of the larger ships, then to the bridge crew taking their stations in what looked to be for the first time. Maxwell scoring kills in the simulator. A gun-crew being handed a trophy for excellent shooting.

Then it was back to the animated Thalen, still running simulator battles. Screens filled with data as formations were tried and fighters shifted between squadrons.

"I still wish they hadn't included this." I said with a sigh. "It's boring and repetitive."

"No," said Iska in a voice that brokered no arguments. "It's interesting and a glimpse into what you have been doing."

A long, quiet pause filled the room as the last simulation played out: Overall Effectiveness High (+10%). Casualties Low (-15%)

A quiet whistle from Harbo, supported by Strobel mumbling "Good job."

"Thank you." I chuckled, as the camera zoomed out, cutting to an exterior shot of the Majestic floating in space, lit by the pale blue light from the pulsar.

Then the end-credits appeared on the screen, along with a 'To be continued'.

"Wow." Breathed Lena Agusta. "I thought it was wild when I saw the first two episodes but seeing it here and listening to your talk about how it was, really hit home that this was a real story." She sent a grateful smile to the entire table. "Thank you."

Shakka accepted the thanks with a nod. "You're welcome any time, Lena."

"But you do have a point." Anna said, smiling at Lena Agusta. "It really is different seeing it here... Though for us, I think it's more a cross between going down memory lane and experiencing it for the first time through someone else's eyes."

"Excuse me, but is the movie accessible to the whole fleet now?" Thorin asked.

Iska nodded, "It should be."

He smiled widely. "Good, because I feel like watching it again and due to the wives being on duty, I'm sure they haven't watched it yet, so we can do that tomorrow."

Strobel nodded. "Sounds like a plan. I'm going to find someone to watch it with tomorrow, that's for sure."

"Oh, that reminds me." Said Resa with a smile "Strobel, you, me and Lieutenant Mormill need to talk about the future of your ship at some point.

He raised his eyebrows. "What about it?"

"If the Chief Engineer can't repair the Mass driver, we need something else for the ship to do." She told him. "I do have some ideas, but I think the captain of the ship should have his wishes heard."

"Well, thank you for that." Captain Strobel flashed her a smile. "Until now the Chief Engineer has been running the show, but I'm counting on having a say once he's done."

"Join the club." I said dryly. "I think that's the sentiment of just about every captain in the fleet. The ships usually start out as Keller's toy and when he's satisfied, he'll deliver it to you in perfect condition... or at least as perfect as he can in the time we have."

"Nice to know." Chuckled Strobel. "By the way, is there any chance of being invited back for the next part of Dragon's Quest?"

Iska shook her head. "I won't say no, but it's highly unlikely. The parts drop at random intervals and the chances of being here at the exact evening it drops are low."

"Good point."

"Do as everybody else seems to do." Suggested Shakka. "Arrange a private viewing and make sure you have someone along that has been there personally. That usually makes it a lot more interesting."

The server droids slid back into the room, plates balanced perfectly. The rich, warm, and savoury scent of the next course filling the air.

As they began placing the plates, the conversation shifted, softer now. Stories were shared, quiet jokes exchanged, and a sense of connection settling in.

---------------------------------------

Rearranging the fleet

Dreadnought Majestic, Nodia System

"We do not test formations to find perfection.

"We test them to find the ones that fail least."

CEDF Naval Academy

While having more ships was good, it also complicated matters when it came to combat, and I had to use the simulator in an attempt to find the best composition for the fleet. Running scenario after scenario with different formations, tactics or ship composition each time to see which one was best.

It was slow work, but after a while one thing became glaring obvious: While the ordinary Gage- and Delta-classes were very good against smaller forces, they were only useful in combat against cruisers or dreadnoughts if you were willing to sacrifice them. Especially the Gages, which could take a serious beating without breaking apart, but simply didn't have the firepower to be much of a threat in a direct confrontation against the heavy warships.

Consequently, I pulled the Gage-class out of the battle formations and placed them in the transport squadron, where they could guard the slower transports, but kept the two Gage PAs and the Delta-class carrier in the main formations. The PA's for their anti-starfighter capabilities and the Deltas because they were almost as heavily armed as the Terminus-class destroyers.

Then I ran the scenarios again, resulting in the loss of fewer ships than before. Not by a lot but enough to notice.

"Commodore?!" I suddenly heard Shakka's voice say.

Turning around in the chair, I discovered that both her, Iska and Lena Agusta were standing behind me, dressed for a training session, and it suddenly dawned on me, that I had promised them to meet them at the gym for a training session.

Shakka and Iska because they were my regular training partners and Lena Agusta because she had asked Shakka if she could try it out. Shakka had asked me and I had agreed to it. As a Wegweiser, Lena almost certainly had a connection to the Force and as far as I knew, anyone with a connection to the Force, would do reasonably well with a lightsaber once they learned how to use it.

It was for the same reason that I suspected that Shakka was Force Sensitive as well, since she had become very good with the weapon in a short time.

"Sorry, ladies." I sighed. "Time went faster than I thought it would."

"Oh, it's fine." Chuckled Shakka, brushing it off with a smile. "It's not the first time and it won't be the last."

Iska nodded and smiled. "It's not like we're in a hurry."

Lena Agusta tilted her head at the tactical holodisplay. "This looks familiar. Like something I saw recently."

That made Iska chuckle, "Get used to it, the Commodore does that a lot." She looked over at me, "What're you doing this time, sir?"

"Rearranging the fleet." I said gesturing at the mess of icons and numbers on the screen. "Trying to find the best tactics against Darth Arkol, and by extension everything else we might meet out here."

"Is it working?" She asked, her voice full of curiosity.

"Not really." I sighed. "We have too few Core ships."

Arching her eyebrows, she said, "I don't think I've heard of Core ships before, sir."

"Core ships are the backbone of a fleet." I explained. "The Dreadnoughts and cruisers with the punch to take out enemy capital ships. They're supported by the Screen ships, which are the Terminus-class Destroyers and the Delta-class transports." I smiled a little. "The Empire uses the Gage-class as a Screen ship as well, but that'll get them blown up in any engagement with Core ships."

Iska gave a knowing nod, and Shakka sighed good-humoured. "We'll never get to training. You made him talk about ships." She sat down in a chair. "But please continue. It's a part of the fleet, I know very little about."

Lena Agusta followed suit. "Likewise." Her eyes returned to me. "And the smaller ships?"

"The frigates and corvettes like the Drakes and Mantas are Picket ships. Lightly armed and armoured compared to other capital ships. With excellent sensors, they're also the eyes and ears of the fleet. Their job is to discover the enemy and report back." I told them, as I watched Iska sit down in a chair with her usual elegance. "In fleet engagements, they can attack lightly armed and armored targets, as well as harass damaged enemy units." I hesitated for a moment before adding. "If you're willing to lose some, a group of pickets can take on larger ships and win, but rarely without losses."

Both Shakka and Lena nodded at that.

"So, what's the issue with the Core ships?" Shakka asked.

I gestured at the screen. "As far as we know, Darth Arkol has six Harrowers, thirteen BXS-5 heavy cruisers and five S-Class cruisers, for a total of twenty-four Core ships. We have eleven... fourteen if you count the Hammerheads as Core ships. That's a lot of firepower and it would take a special kind of stupid for them to lose a battle, if we go head-to-head with them."

Shakka grimaced. "That's a huge gap."

"It gets worse," I said. "When it comes to the Screen, the ratio is exactly the same. Their twenty-four against our eleven." Leaning back in the seat, I looked at them. "Our advantage is in starfighters. We have a lot of those and they're better than the Imperial ones. However, to use those demands time to launch them, so in any surprise situation, they will have the upper hand."

Lena looked at me with quiet confidence. "So, what is the solution, sir? I know there is one. If there weren't, you wouldn't be here, running scenarios in the simulator."

"Tactics and fleet composition." Iska answered with a chuckle, before I could say anything. "And no, there isn't a short answer to that, as it will always depend on the circumstances."

I inclined my head in agreement.

"What if we run straight into Darth Arkol's main fleet?" Lena pressed. "All of it, together?"

"Then we get out of there as fast as possible." I said calmly.

Having heard it before, Iska nodded with a smile, while Lena and Shakka looked surprised.

"My job," I continued, "isn't to kill him or destroy his fleet, but to get the people in this fleet to safety. Winning a space battle or killing a Sith matters little if two thirds of the people I'm trying to get to safety are dead."

Iska chuckled. "Yes, you've said it before. I think you called it a victory condition."

Lena Agusta shook her head. "I feel stupid. What do you mean by that?"

"Thalen can explain it better than I can." Iska said, gesturing in my direction, causing Lena to look at me.

"Most people in a fight forget why they're in the fight to start with." I told her. "Or they forget to determine when a fight can be considered to be won... In other words, they forget the victory conditions. For me, I'll consider this a victory, if we can liberate the people on the prison planets and get them to safety. That's the objective for this fleet. I don't really care about Darth Arkol and his fleet, unless they interfere with that objective." I looked at Agusta. "If I can avoid meeting any of Darth Arkol's ships again, I will happily do so."

"What if they keep coming after us?"

"Then the victory condition changes." I told her. "If the defeat of Darth Arkol's fleet is the only way people can live in peace, then the destruction of that fleet or the removal of Darth Arkol becomes the new objective."

"Which," said Iska, "leads us back to what you were doing."

"Yes, it does and there're going to be some changes in the Squadrons." I activated the simulator again. "Take a look at this."

The simulation ran at high speed, flickering through a brutal engagement that ended in disaster. Half the fleet wiped out, before the rest was able to escape.

"This is as the fleet is set up now..." I said grimly. "And I assume you can see why that is less than satisfying."

"Yes, sir." Lena said, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Then look at this."

The next scenario was better, allowing more ships to escape and inflicting a lot more damage on the enemy fleet.

"This is the best so far. Both the Fafniers and the Hammerheads have been moved to First Squadron, while a Wyvern, the Gage PA ships and the BSXs have been moved to Second Squadron... oh... and I have moved the experienced captains like Siman, Larstrin and Crapen from their Drakes to Terminus-class destroyers, while I've moved Georgia Witt from her Gage PA to a Delta-class transport."

Shakka tilted her head. "Doesn't that require the promotion board to be involved?"

"No," inserted Iska. "It's not a promotion, it's a reassignment. And a smart one. We need experienced captains in the Screen."

Lena Agusta looked at the wall display, her brow furrowing. "Excuse me for asking, sir, but won't that weaken the Second Squadron?"

"Only compared to First." I replied. "A Core of a Dreadnought and three Cruisers, supported by seven Screen ships and seven Picket ships, is a good match for any normal battle group."

"And it will enable you to place any new Core ships we manage to take in the Second Squadron where they can get some experience." Stated Agusta with a nod, causing Shakka to look at her in surprise.

Lena Agusta looked at her with a smile. "What? It's not that different from running a household. People need to learn the job they're given, before you put them in charge of anything." She shrugged. "I doubt Chef Winston places her inexperienced chefs in charge of feeding everybody and I know you don't place an inexperienced medic like Frederik Caan in charge of a hospital. People are people and they need to be led, so they can learn to lead themselves."

"You're correct but be careful what you say." Warned Iska with a smile. "If you continue that way, Thalen might just put you in charge of something." She frowned. "That reminds me of something Maxwell asked me the other day."

"Oh. Sounds interesting."

"The starfighter pilots want to know if they can paint their starfighters."

I blinked. "Seriously?"

She smiled a little. "Yes, I know. First I thought it was ridiculous as well, but there's a solid reasoning behind the question."

"With Lieutenant Maxwell, there usually is." I chuckled. "Let us hear it."

"In close fights, the ability to identify a craft as friend or foe in an instant is vital, and by painting our craft in another colour than the Imperial Navy, it will make it easier."

"Let me guess," I laughed. "He'd already tried it out in the simulator?"

Iska nodded. "Yes and according to the simulator, it improved visual identification speed by twenty-five percent."

"Make them come up with several paint schemes that work in the simulator." I told her. "Then we can choose the ones we find best... though I imagine that they want to be able to put their own spin on it."

Iska nodded with a grin. "Rancor teeth on the front, eyes on the sides and so on."

"Hmm... I don't have a problem with that," I said. "Do you?"

Still grinning, she shook her head. "No, as long as it's done within reason, I don't care."

"Good." I thought for a moment. "Make a written statement about where your 'within reason' line goes and let them have it."

"Yes, sir." She paused, stretching slightly. "Can we go train now? I really need the exercise... all that delicious food is starting to show."

"No, it doesn't." Said Shakka lazily. "Your body looks just as delicious as always."

There was a small gasp from a blushing Lena Agusta and a laugh from Iska. "Thank you, doctor, but I still feel like I'm gaining weight."

"According to the medical scanner, you have dropped to twenty-five percent body fat," said Shakka in a cool professional voice. "Which is ideal for a Twi'Lek female, I might add."

Iska looked genuinely surprised. "Really? Then why do I feel heavier?"

"Muscle," Shakka said with a grin. "Same thing that's happening to Thalen... and to me, for that matter."

I looked from one to the other. The tone of the conversation had shifted in the span of a few seconds, going from professional to personal. It was something I knew well from both Iska and Shakka, but I doubted Lena Agusta had noticed, so I held up a hand. "Before anyone says more, let's call this the start of training." I looked at Lena Agusta. "That means no titles or sirs... just like if we were having dinner."

Unlike dinner, it wasn't really a tradition in the Chiss Navy, but I had found it useful when training and it did lessen the formality of it all, which I happened to like.

Lena Agusta nodded, just as Iska said. "Oh? So, what are you at now?"

"Twenty-seven percent." Admitted Shakka, looking slightly embarrassed. "I like cake too much."

That caused me to laugh, "Oh really? I hadn't noticed that."

She snorted. "Well, you weren't complai..." she started but broke off the sentence before finishing it, quickly glancing over at Lena Agusta.

The beautiful brunette was blushing, but she looked speculatively from me to Shakka with a dawning realization, clearly having caught the implication of what Shakka didn't say.

Iska, quick on her feet as ever, stepped in. "And what was Thalen at during his last check-up?"

"Seventeen percent." Said Shakka, easily finding the same cool, professional tone of voice as before. "But you cannot really compare it that way. In most humanoid races, the males have ten percent less body fat than the females."

Iska stretched her arms over her head, letting out a satisfied sigh. "Alright then, now that we've established everyone's relative fat content, can we finally get some training?"

"Yes." I stood. "Let's go to the training area."

Shakka and Iska stood and walked to the lift, but Lena lingered behind the others for a moment, eyes trailing over the strategic readouts of the simulator.

"It's strange," she murmured, "I heard people talking tactics my whole life, but none of it ever felt real until today."

I paused mid-step and looked back at her. "Reality has a way of creeping in through the details. The paint on a starfighter. The reassignment of a captain. The fact that if you get one decision wrong, people die."

She met my gaze evenly. "And if you get it right, people live."

I gave her a nod. "Exactly."

-----------------

Ten minutes later, we were standing in the training room with the three women looking eager to start.

"First I need Iska and Lena to sit down and make yourself comfortable. Shakka, get the box over there." I gestured at the end wall.

For a moment they looked like they were going to protest, but force of habit and discipline kicked in and while Shakka walked over to get the box, the two others sat down.

"Thank you, now close your eyes."

They did that just as Shakka came back with the box.

I opened it and took out two blindfolds, handing one of them to Shakka and signalled for her to follow me. Originally that had been meant for Iska and Shakka, but I guessed they would work for Lena Agusta as well.

"I'm going to blindfold you." I explained as I walked over to stand behind them. "No worries, I just want to test something."

Iska and Lena exchanged a glance, then nodded in unison and while I placed the blindfold on Iska, Shakka placed the other on Lena Agusta, who gave a small, nervous laugh. More to herself than to anyone else.

Walking back to the box, I found two of the lightsabers Waydar had made from the lightsaber pikes, followed by the two halves of the double-bladed lightsaber and walked back to where the women were sitting.

As I returned, Shakka's sharp green eyes caught the gleam of the sabers. Her brows shot up in surprise, but the expression was quickly replaced by a grin.

Silently, I placed one of each lightsabers in front of them before taking a few steps back to sit down on the mat.

"This is where I need your trust." My voice was low, steady, threading through the room. "In front of you are objects infused with the Force. This makes them possible for you to feel them without seeing them. I want you to close your eyes, breathe, and try to feel them. Not with your hands, but with your senses. Just take your time, we're not in a hurry."

When I stopped speaking, the room fell silent except for the quiet hum of the ship.

Both women sat perfectly still, a picture of calm. Shoulders relaxed, hands resting gently on their knees, breaths slowing into steady rhythms.

Still, there was a slight difference between the two. For some reason Lena felt tense, her breath just a little tighter.

Shakka leaned forward, light green eyes narrowing slightly, a glimmer of curiosity dancing in her gaze as she watched.

Closing my eyes as well, I cloaked myself from the Force, so my presence wouldn't disturb them. That done, I sent out my Force senses, feeling the room and everybody in it. Shakka's newfound awareness burning like a candle, while Iska emitted a growing calm. Lena's Wegweiser ability flickered within her, strong but relatively unfocussed for now.

The lightsabers on the floor pulsed faintly with the Force, each with its own echo that shimmered in the currents.

It took a while, but then Iska's presence sharpened and could feel the threads weaving between her and the object, faint but undeniable, as if her senses were reaching out like tendrils, brushing its edges, but then pulled back. Not from fear, but from uncertainty.

Lena's ability still flickered. I felt the ripple as she tried to reach out like a hand stretching through fog, searching for something she knew was there but couldn't target.

"Agusta," I said in a low, calm voice. "I want you to stretch your mind as you do when you're finding your way through the stars. Let the Force guide you with the only difference being that this time, you need to follow the tiny flows closer to you."

"Yes, sir." She answered automatically and took a couple of deep breaths. I felt her presence in the Force relaxing, going to familiar grounds. Then it felt like she drew everything into herself before she slowly, carefully, sent out her senses once more. This time they were focussed as she deliberately examined the feel of the flow around her. There was a ripple of slight surprise when she at last reached the pulsing lightsabers, taking her time to take in their presence in the Force.

I opened my mouth to ask her which one felt the best, but before the words had left my mouth, Lena moved on, her senses moving faster now, more purposeful. Going towards the box containing the two sabers I had made for Tristana to train with.

"There." Agusta said softly, as her senses reached the box. "These have a pleasant feel to them... like they're waiting for me."

"Wait there." I told her and stood. Shakka was watching me, her light green eyes curious and a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. The eyes widened as I took one of the sabers from the box and walked over to Lena, placing it in her hands. "This one?"

"Yes," she said without hesitation.

"Good." I looked over at Shakka. "Remove her blindfold, go to the training mat in the far end and show her the basic move, strikes and parries." I smiled a bit. "And remember to put your lightsabers into training mode. Always test that before using them."

Shakka nodded and moved to remove the blindfold while I walked back to Iska, sitting down in front of her.

"I can sense you're feeling something." I told her, still using a low voice.

Iska inhaled, slow and steady, her shoulders rising with the breath. "I... I don't know. It's not strong, but... something's there. Like... a whisper. Faint, and far away."

"You've done exceptionally well already, but I would like you to extend your senses more. There're two objects there and I would like to know which one you prefer."

With a slight nod, she went back to concentrating and with quiet determination the tendrils of Force between her and the hilts returned.

Time stretched as Iska slowly extended her senses, accompanied by the hum of swinging lightsabers as Shakka and Lena went through the strikes. Shakka's voice drifted over, giving instructions, patient and clear.

Satisfied I returned my senses to Iska, just as she said. "I didn't feel much. Just... a tingle. Like something brushing past, just out of reach." A smile tugged the corners of her mouth. "It's more an impression than a feeling. For what it's worth, my instincts tell me that the object to the right has a better feel than the one to the left."

I smiled faintly, a quiet warmth in my chest. "That's a start. It takes..."

The hum of lightsabers cut into my ears, but the tone was off. Without hesitation I reached out with the Force, grabbed Lena Agusta and yanked her away from Shakka, sending her flying across the mat toward me with a startled yelp.

"Shakka, put your sabre in training mode." I ordered calmly. "Combat mode is not allowed here... as you know."

Shakka's eyes widened in shock, and she immediately deactivated the lightsaber, switching it back to training mode. "Sorry, but I was just showing Lena what it looks like in full power."

"Understandable, but very dangerous. Sooner or later, someone will forget it. I don't want any of you to end up dead or with missing limbs."

"Yes, sir," she muttered.

I bowed slightly to Lena Agusta. "And I'm sorry for pulling you away like that."

She chuckled, a glint of mischief in her eye. "No worries, sir. That was... actually kind of fun."

"I guess, someone will tell me about this later." Said Iska drily.

"Oh, we will." Promised Shakka.

Shaking my head in amusement, I removed the blindfold from Iska. "Please take the lightsaber hilt to your right and let's get this training moving."

She blinked a few times, adjusting her eyes to the light, but then did as I said, stopping only when she realised that it wasn't the lightsabre she usually trained with. "This... isn't the one I usually use."

"Your new and very personal lightsaber." I told her with a smile.

Her eyes widened, as she looked down at it. "Seriously!?"

"Yes." I glanced over at Lena. "The same goes for you. Until the time comes when you can build your own, this will be your personal weapon."

I explained how Waydar had adapted the pikes, how the crystals were pre-attuned to the Force, sparing them the usual complexities of building a lightsaber from scratch. "They won't be as powerful as a true, personal lightsaber," I admitted, "but they'll serve you well for now."

Iska coughed. "But... I'm not a Force user, so how does this work?"

"You are Force-sensitive, which is another way of saying untrained Force-user." I told her, grimacing slightly. "And I apologize for that. The same goes for Shakka."

"I'm confused." Declared Shakka. "How come you think it's your fault?"

"When I made the blades for Captain Tristana, the Force guided me to some yellowish gems, which I later learned were two extremely rare crystals: Topazium and Citrine Crystal. According to the Holocron, Topazium gave a faster blade, while Citrine Crystal added to the impact of any blow dealt by the lightsaber." I told them. "However, with the speed that you, Shakka, learned to use the lightsaber and the way you..." I nodded to Iska... "move to parry, I suspected something else was going on."

They both watched me closely now. Shakka frowning in thought, Iska frozen mid-breath, Lena smiling like she'd just heard the start of a good story.

"So I had another talk with the Holocron," I continued. "And it turns out that both these crystals don't just affect the lightsaber. They have the ability to turn an individual into a Force-sensitive, as long as there's the slightest spark in them."

Iska's mouth dropped open. Shakka looked like she'd been hit with a stun blast, and Lena was practically grinning.

"So... these crystals made us Force-sensitive?" Shakka's voice was quiet, but there was a tremor in it.

"Not exactly," I clarified. "The potential was already there. The crystals just... ignited it. According to the Holocron, the Twi'Lek as a race have a significant connection to the Force, resulting in a greater than average amount of Force sensitives." I grimaced. "Unfortunately, due to the way they are enslaved and used, this Force-sensitivity often leads to the development of Dark Side users, when they seek out revenge for not only themselves, but their entire species." I glanced over at Shakka. "As for example Darth Atroxa."

"Ahh." She smirked. "My famous evil twin."

"Indeed, but she's just one of several Sith Twi'Lek." I replied, my tone a mix of wry amusement and quiet warning. "A fate I'd very much like you both to avoid."

"My mind is blown." Complained Iska. "So, you're saying that I'm Force-sensitive with the potential of becoming a Force-user?"

"Yes."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Why didn't the Holocron warn you about it?"

I sighed again, rubbing the back of my neck. "Well, to make a long argument short, it had the belief that the Force had guided me to those crystals for a reason and didn't want to interfere with whatever fate the Force had determined was the right one for the users of the crystals." I paused, meeting their eyes. "Which means that this is just the start of a long, and at times dangerous, personal journey."

Iska let out a short laugh, shaking her head. "Warning noted. Now... Can we please try these lightsabers?"

"Yes." I chuckled. "First you'll spar with Shakka, so that Lena can watch how you two do it, and then we can go on from there."

"This is going to be good." Smiled Shakka and walked onto the mats again. "Ready, Iska?"

Iska nodded and followed her, while Lena and I stood to the side watching them, as they checked their lightsabers and started to spar. They started slow, feeling out each other's timing, then picked up speed, blades flashing, footwork smooth and fast.

They were better than I'd ever seen them. The new lightsabers seemed to fit them naturally, almost like an extension of their own bodies. Iska's strikes were sharp and quick, like the snap of a whip, while Shakka's defensive work was tight and precise, parries turning into counters, fluid and efficient.

"They're very good." Commented Lena calmly after the two had exchanged a series of strikes. "Not to mention extremely fast." She sent me a smile. "I hope you don't expect me to move that fast."

"The only thing I expect from you is that you do your best." I told her, "Everything else is secondary at most."

We stood in silence for a moment, watching the two well-shaped Twi'Leks move and fight.

"It's kinda strange." Agusta suddenly said. "Not too long ago, different shaped humanoids were only characters in entertainment vids. Now, I'm surrounded by them all the time... but instead of being weird, it feels natural."

I nodded, watching Shakka and Iska circle each other, lightsabers humming through the air. "Yeah. It was the same for me when I started. It becomes just... life."

Lena tilted her head, eyes narrowing slightly. "I've noticed... a lot of mixed-species couples. Or... groups. Like Thorin Malvek and his wives."

That made me laugh. Quiet, but genuine. "Yeah. And I doubt you'll find safer kids than theirs."

Lena's brow furrowed. "How so?"

I kept my eyes on the match as I answered. "Thyrsians are the black version cousins of the Echani... Tristana's people. like the Echani, they train in martial arts from the moment they can walk. Malvek's wives are a combat medic and a combat engineer. Both space marines, both deadly. And Malvek himself... let's just say, he can hold his own. Those kids are in very good hands."

Lena smiled. "Good. Kids should be safe."

"They should," I agreed quietly. Then I gave her a sideways glance, voice firm. "Now, pay attention. Your turn is coming."

"Yes, sir." She grinned and focused, watching the sparring match with a new intensity, ready to learn.

When Iska and Shakka were done sparring, Lena and I joined them, and for the next hour I moved between them, guiding their hands, adjusting stances, and correcting the angle of strikes. The sound of lightsabers filled the room. A rhythmic pulse of humming blades and soft impacts, punctuated by the occasional burst of laughter or groan of effort.

Then I asked them to don the training armor, so we could get to the fun part.

"The fun part?" Lena Agusta asked, raising an eyebrow as she caught her breath. "I thought this was the fun part."

Shakka's grin spread wide, full of anticipation. "Oh no. This is just the warm-up. The fun part is where we team up to try and beat Thalen, while training drones are shooting at him."

Lena blinked, processing that, her expression a mix of disbelief and excitement. "That... sounds insane," she said slowly, then a spark lit in her eyes. "But yeah, I'm in. Let's do this."

Iska chuckled, wiping sweat from her brow. "Just be warned. Combat training in armor is brutal. You'll be dripping sweat in minutes."

Lena grinned, unbothered. "I can live with that. Let's go."

They headed toward the racks where the training armor was waiting, energy buzzing in the air like a storm front about to break.

Ten minutes later we were squaring off in the training room, wearing armor, but no helmets. One last time we double checked that the lightsabers were indeed set to stun.

The rules of the sparring match were deceptively easy. Their mission was to work together to strike me as many times as possible within five minutes, but if I hit them three times, they were out for thirty seconds. After a minute, the training drones in the room would activate and shoot at me at the same time.

The last part was something I had invented as I realised that even when working together, Shakka and Iska weren't a match for me. Not yet anyway, and the droids were no longer able to hit me when I trained against them. So, by combining the two, I had been able to push myself harder.

The light in the training room blinked three times and then we were off.

Five minutes didn't sound like a long time, but in a high paced training combat it felt like an eternity. Especially after the drones activated, as that was yet another thing I had to keep track of, avoid or parry.

Still, I moved with the Force, letting it flow through me as we moved with the rhythm of the clashing lightsabers, feet on the floor and discarding blaster bolts from the drones.

Iska pressed hard, her swings controlled but powerful. She wasn't holding back, and I wouldn't expect her to. Shakka was everywhere at once, a blur of motion, her blade weaving a pattern of light and intent.

Lena lunged, her blade awkwardly angled. I sidestepped, catching her saber with mine in a sharp clash that rattled her arms. She stumbled back, and a drone's shot zipped past her, slamming into my side. My armor absorbed most of it, but it still jolted me with a crackle of energy.

"That's one for you!" I called, flashing a quick grin even as I pivoted and knocked aside Iska's overhead strike, blades hissing as they clashed.

Lena's eyes were wide, half in awe, half in fear. She was breathing hard, her hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, grip too tight on the hilt of the lightsaber.

"Relax and breathe, Lena! Breathe and move!" I called. "The drones are on me, not you. Use that!"

But she hesitated, her body tight with uncertainty. So, I struck her clean across the torso. The training blade hummed as it connected, sending her stumbling back with a yelp, but didn't do much aside from that.

"Out for thirty seconds!" I called, parrying a bolt from the drone as I twisted away from Shakka's next attack.

The drones were unrelenting now, their shots faster, more precise. They zeroed in on me, one after the other. Pulsing streaks of light that forced me to keep moving, keep dodging. I blocked one, deflected another back at the drone, taking it out of action for a while.

Shakka and Iska were pressing hard, working together, testing my defenses, which was already stretched by the need to ward off the blaster shots from the drones.

Being out of the fight, Lena was watching now, really watching. The tension in her shoulders started to ease, her breathing settled. Her eyes tracked the rhythm of the fight, the flow of motion between the drones, the attacks, the counter strikes.

When her thirty seconds were up, she surged forward, a little wild but sharper than before. Her energy blade had more purpose now, and when she struck, it was with intent.

The next part became a blur. Iska and Shakka diving in, drones hammering away at me, Lena trying to find her place. I deflected another stun bolt into her when she hesitated, but this time she didn't fall back. She reset her grip, teeth gritted and kept going.

That was the spark. The moment she started fighting, not just swinging.

"Good," I murmured, even as I blocked another drone's bolt, the hum of the sabers blurring into a single, pulsing rhythm.

Then the lights flickered and there was a loud 'beep', signalling the end of the round.

For a moment, we all stood there, catching our breath, sweat dripping, the smell of ozone and scorched air thick in the room. Blades deactivated with a series of clicks, the energy in the room slowly ebbing.

Shakka flopped down on the mat, grinning widely. "We got you good."

I nodded, still catching my breath. "That you did. Fighting three of you... and drones... is a whole different challenge."

Iska let out a tired laugh, running a hand through her damp hair. "Yeah, well... in two weeks, we'll be lucky to touch you again." She turned to Lena, her tone softer. "You okay?"

Lena, breathing hard and flushed from the fight, managed a shaky smile. "Yeah... but I thought I was in pretty good shape." She paused, took a long breath, and shook her head. "I was wrong."

Shakka burst out laughing, wiping sweat from her brow. "And that," she said with a teasing grin, "is why the captain and I have been losing weight. Well, mostly Iska... she's been outpacing me."

Lena raised her eyebrows, still catching her breath. "Just from this?"

Iska snorted, stretching her arms out with a groan. "No, this is just the start. We go five minutes on, five minutes off. Six rounds total. Then we're done."

Lena's eyes widened in disbelief. "I'm gonna die."

"Better to feel like dying in training than dying for real in combat." I commented. "Which is why we have been sparring three times a week for more than a year."

She shook her head. "Before we started, I didn't understand why we needed the drones. Now I do and I also understand how you won that combat in Grinda. You're just so much better than us."

"Well, I have many years of training behind me." I told her with a shrug. "You'll get better just like Iska and Shakka have."

The lights in the room flickered.

"One minute warning." Sighed Shakka and got to her feet.

"Saber-check time." Chuckled Iska and ignited her lightsaber in training mode.

I did the same and looked over at the two others as they ignited and checked their lightsaber as well. "All right. We're good to go."

The lights flickered once more and the sparring continued.

---------------------------------------

Party time

Various ships, Nodia System

"A commander who schedules only work breeds exhaustion.

A commander who balances duty with festivity breeds loyalty."

From the Holy Book of War

As a general rule, everything regarding a fleet always takes longer than expected and doing maintenance was no exception. On the bright side, it gave me time to run the new captains and their bridge officers through a host of different training scenarios, honing their skills.

As always, training scenarios demanded after-action reports, and I was going through the latest bunch, when the door chimed.

"Come." I said, happy to be disturbed.

The door opened and Betty Nagos came in with a wide smile on her face. "Hello, Commodore."

Leaning back in the chair, I tilted my head as I watched her. "Last time you looked so satisfied, you had found extra work for me." Her smile widened even more, so I continued. "What is it this time?"

"We're done planning the parties you suggested, sir." She paused for a moment. "Majestic, pull up 'Party schedule' on the main monitor, please."

"Yes, sir " The computer answered and a moment later I was watching a neatly organised table, giving the times for the parties on various ships. The I frowned as I noticed that every party started with a little event called 'The Commodore's speech' and due to the way the parties were stacked, it was three speeches each day in four days.

"You want me to make twelve speeches in four days?" I asked in disbelief.

"Sorry, sir." She said and actually looked like she meant it. "If you have another suggestion on how to welcome the new people, I'll happily hear it, because I couldn't find one."

Thinking it over, I realised that she was right. The freed prisoners deserved to be welcomed in person and not just by a vid with a welcoming speech.

Rubbing my face, I sighed. "I might not like it, XO... but you're right."

"Well, it doesn't have to be twelve different speeches, but at least they need to be delivered in person." She shrugged slightly "Resa suggested that you could reuse the one you gave at Centauri 21."

"Not a chance." I said with a snort. "It was in Dragon Quest, remember?"

Betty Nagos blinked in surprise a few times and then sighed. "You're right, sir. Most of them will have heard that speech at least two times now."

I felt my eyebrows rise. "Two times? Is it that popular?"

Betty Nagos laughed. "Most of the old crew have seen it three times. At least. It's not like there's much else to watch, if you don't like Sith propaganda or the few old republic series we salvaged from the ships in the Snare system."

"Like the 'Galaxy' series, Gunnery Master Sergeant Norken apparently likes to watch?"

She laughed and nodded. "Exactly like that. Have you watched them?"

"No, but I found some old documentaries about the Jedi civil war and they were quite interesting." I answered and looked at the schedule again. It started on Glorious, and ended on the Hawk, but aside from that I couldn't see an order in it. "I assume that the seemingly random pattern is due to the engineer's schedule?"

The XO nodded. "Yes. It's the only way it'll work out if we're to do this in a reasonable amount of time... and give you time to hold a speech at every party."

"Very well, XO."

She smiled and nodded goodbye as she walked out again.

Looking at the schedule, I sighed. The parties started in two days, so at the very least, I needed to have an outline of the speech ready.

I chuckled, as I remembered a lesson about addressing the crew in a speech that one of my teachers had given. 'A good speech should have an engaging start and a strong finish, but the most important part is that these two should be as close to each other as possible. Nobody wants a commanding officer who likes to hear himself speak.'

I stood from the desk and walked over to the sofa, carefully not to step on one of the Tiger droids, who were laying on the floor, looking exactly like a relaxed cat. Of course the techs claimed the droid automatically went into 'power saving mode', but to me it looked very similar to the behaviour of the big cats I had seen on vids.

The sofa was as comfortable as always, so I continued my thinking.

No matter what I said, it wouldn't be easy to pack into a relatively short speech. First of all, I needed to welcome them to the fleet. Then I needed to tell them about our purpose. Not that they didn't already know that, but in my experience, hearing those words said by a commanding officer just hit differently.

A quote from the Holy Book of War suddenly popped into my head. "The purpose of all war is peace..

The familiar words made me smile. It was a good theme to build the speech around.

Another quote popped into my head. "No ship is better than her crew; no crew is better than its training."

That was another good one. I glanced at the screen where the schedule was still shown. Three speeches each day in four days was a lot, and with just a few days to prepare, there was no way I could do twelve speeches.

On the other hand, doing one speech twelve times didn't feel right either. I was sure that the speech would be recorded and circulated among the fleet and I didn't want to sound like it was nothing but a performance.

Thinking it over, I decided on four different speeches. One for each day and each one built on a different message.

Day One could be about survival and resilience. Most of our crew had survived the Imperial prison camps, and that took resilience.

Day Two would focus on unity, using the quote "No ship is better than her crew; no crew is better than its training." as the building block.

Day Three had to be about hope. The kind of hope that made people risk their lives for others, fight for the chance at a better future.

And Day Four would be my original idea. "The purpose of all war is peace." I'd talk about the purpose of fighting. Not for conquest or glory, but to give others the freedom the crew had been given, and to find a place to live in peace.

I nodded to myself in satisfaction. That would work.

------------------------

Almost a week later, I was standing discreetly to one side of the scene on Hawk, watching as Captain Zwul gave a little speech, feeling grateful that this was the last of the twelve I had to hold.

Despite that holding speeches was a part of the job as an officer, it wasn't something I liked doing. Mostly because it made me feel like a character in a holovid, and that I was sure that the animation team would use the speech at some point in the Dragon Quest series didn't make it easier.

"Before the party starts, there's someone here who would like to say a few words to you," Captain Zwul announced, gesturing in my direction. "Ladies and gentlemen, crew and passengers. It's my honour to present Commodore Thalen of the Dragon Defence Force."

The crowd clapped, the sound a mix of polite applause, scattered cheers, and the occasional whistle from the back. I took a slow, steadying breath as I walked onto the scene, the weight of thousands of eyes pressing in around me.

Captain Zwul saluted sharply and stepped back. A moment later, I was standing alone in the spotlight, the air humming with anticipation, the low murmur of the assembled crews fading into silence.

I looked out over them. Faces of every species and every background, packed shoulder to shoulder in the hangar, some leaning forward, eager, others standing stiff-backed in uniform. A few whispered to each other, others shifted their weight impatiently. Somewhere in the back, a couple of engineers smirked quietly, while a few of the pilots exchanged mock bets on how long I would talk.

I took it all in, feeling the moment settle. And then I spoke.

"Thank you... And let me start by welcoming all the new members of the crew." I paused, letting my gaze sweep across the sea of faces. "Oh, if my voice sounds a little raw tonight, it's because this is my twelfth speech in four days."

That earned a ripple of laughter from the crowd, knowing grins, nudges, a few raised eyebrows. I let the moment breathe, then added with a faint smile, "And if you're starting to think I enjoy the sound of my own voice, I assure you, that that is not the case."

That drew a louder chuckle and a wave of tension seemed to ease in the room, and I felt the tightness in my chest loosen just a little.

"The only reason why I've made those speeches is because some things deserve to be said. And some people deserve to hear them.

This speech, here, now, is for you. For those of you who were torn from your homes and families. For those who were chained, beaten, and transported like cargo. For those that were unfairly court martialled. For those who thought no one would come to their rescue.

Many of you have endured trials no sentient should ever face. You were treated as less than beings, cast into darkness, with little hope of rescue. And yet... you endured. You survived. You are here. And now, you are free."

I could see the words making an impact on the crowd. The way shoulders straightened, jaws tightened. Some faces hardened with the raw memory of what they'd been through. Others smiled, relieved that it was over.

"You stand now as part of something greater than any single ship, any single flag, any single world. We are not just former Republic or Empire, not just freed prisoners or rescued souls. We are not just Human, Pantoran, Twi'Lek, Mirialan, Zabrak, Chiss, or another of the many races here. We are more than that.

We are Dragons.

We are a testament that even in the coldest depths of space, in the darkest reaches of suffering, hope survives. And when hope is armed with courage, we rise. We fight."

A rumble of agreement moved through the crowd. Quiet nods, murmured affirmations. The weight of the moment was theirs now, not mine alone.

I let the words settle before I continued.

"But we need to remember, that the purpose of all war is peace. We do not fight because we seek glory in battle, nor because we crave conquest or destruction. We fight because there are still those who need to be set free. We fight so that others will never know the pain you have endured. We fight so that one day, we will not need to fight at all."

The room had grown still. Even the restless engineers at the back were watching now, eyes sharp, faces solemn.

"Look at Majestic, Glorious, Beluga, and all the ships of our fleet. They might be instruments of war, but they're also lifeboats for the lost, homes for the broken, weapons turned shields for those who cannot protect themselves. And together, we will make them instruments of peace.

We will carve a path through the chaos and the darkness, not just for ourselves, but for every soul still waiting for rescue. We will fight so that the next child born aboard our ships is born not into fear, but into hope."

I let my gaze travel across the sea of faces--crew, rescued civilians, survivors. A young woman in the front row blinked hard, her hand squeezing the shoulder of the man beside her. A grizzled old gunner in the back folded his arms, head held high. A little boy, barely old enough to understand, clung to his mother's leg, wide-eyed.

"Together, we are the Dragon Defence Force. Together, we carry this mission forward, side by side, until we find a place we can call home."

I paused for just a breath, letting the silence carry the weight of those words. Then I continued, voice soft but sure.

"And now I've talked enough, so let me finish with this... Thank you to each and every one of you, for your service, your courage, and your heart."

The silence hung for a heartbeat, then the crowd erupted. The cheers were raw and real. Applause crashing against the bulkheads, people clapping, whistling, some even stomping their feet. I caught glimpses of faces in the front rows, smiles through tears, a nod from Captain Zwul, the quiet satisfaction of the crew standing tall.

I held up a hand and to my surprise the people fell silent again. Then I raised my voice one last time, a hint of a smile on my lips.

"And now, I want you to enjoy the party. You've earned it. If anyone in this galaxy has ever deserved a moment to breathe, to laugh, to feel alive... it's you."

The cheers rose again, louder this time, as the tension melted into grins, laughter, and the first stirrings of music in the air.

Giving them a slight nod, I walked back to the side, where two of my Black Dragon bodyguards were waiting.

"Back to the shuttle, sir?" Asked Corporal Hadeta.

"Yes," I said with a nod. "But to change clothes. I've made twelve speeches without attending a party. Now I feel like it's my turn to relax a little."

Yaki had been insistent that I needed bodyguards on my tour to the various ships. I had agreed on the condition that I got at least one night off. Something Yaki had reluctantly approved. Mostly because I had reread the rules and there was nowhere stated that I needed bodyguards when on the ships in the fleet, as it was not a combat situation.

"Well, we hoped you had forgotten about that, sir." Said the corporal, amusement evident in her voice, though the helmet made it impossible to read her face. "But that was the deal."

"Oh, by the way." I said as we walked towards the hangar. "Have you had your party?"

"Yes, sir." She answered with a nod. "On the Eagle."

"Good. You deserve it as well." I stated. "It's been a long trip." I thought for a moment, realising that I had rarely heard the opinion of the lower ranking people. "Hmm... Do you ever miss home?"

"From time to time... but that's mostly due to my family, my brother and my parents." She shrugged. "They live on Rentor."

I nodded slowly. "We will get home as well."

There was silence for a moment, but then corporal Hadeta spoke up, voice soft but firm. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

I tilted my head, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "Granted."

"I don't think going home is the best idea... for you."

That made me raise my eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yes, sir. Despite everything you have done to save us, I doubt they will look in favour of you taking the Imperial ships." She shook her head slightly, almost imperceptibly. "We followed orders, but they'll exile you for sure."

Another silence spread as I considered what she had said. Not that I disagreed. Exile was the capital punishment in the Chiss Ascendancy, and there certainly was a possibility that I would get exiled for ordering that we should use the Imperial Battle group, instead of the Republic one.

On the other hand, I was a praetorian and I wasn't sure that the High Command was willing to exile a Force-user... and if they did, they would be sure to pick a planet so remote that it was never visited, limiting the chance that I would ever leave it.

We turned a corner in silence, entering the smaller side hangar where the Shark-class shuttle was waiting.

"Thank you, corporal. I shall bear that in mind. What about the rest of the Chiss in the Black Dragons? Do they miss home?"

She snorted. "Most of them don't, sir. Usually, the ones with partners here, though the few that're strictly heterosexual have a harder time finding partners."

The other Black Dragon laughed softly. "But not too hard a time, sir." When I looked over at her, she continued. "We're not that many Chiss here and many of the Black Dragons have found partners among the squads of troopers that joined us all the way back at Alpha Viga."

I got the impression that she was about to say more, but didn't, so I stopped and gently said. "Say what is on your mind."

She sighed. "It would help if the higher ranking Chiss found a non-Chiss as their official partner, sir. That Commander Yaki found Lieutenant Titlow felt like a permission to do the same for us, and Master Engineer Gacith, did the same for the techs when he found Choe Tran, but so far nothing of the sort has happened for the naval officers. Captain Meistrin has found Captain Zwul, but you, Hez'iman'cemu (Siman) and Wort'lath'hirgee (Tlath)... " The Chiss names rolled over her tongue easily. "... remain without an official non-Chiss partner, and so many of the Chiss naval officers do the same."

The names and faces of the Chiss naval officers flashed through my head and I blinked as I realized she was completely right. None of the Chiss officers had an official partner, that wasn't a Chiss.

"Thank you for bringing that to my attention and thank you for being honest." I said slowly. "I'm not sure what I can do about it, but I'll look into it."

"Many will appreciate that, sir." The corporal said with a quiet laugh as we reached the shuttle and I activated the remote that lowered the ramp. With the lack of pilots we had, I insisted on flying myself. Not only did it make sense, but I also really enjoyed flying the Shark. It was a nice little ship and handled beautifully, exactly as the small luxury shuttle it was supposed to look like.

Corporal Hadeta swept in first, her posture all business again, checking the cabin before waving me aboard with a "All clear, sir."

"Thank you." I said as I walked into the ship.

"You're welcome, sir. Fly safely on the way back."

"I will." I promised. "You'll not be here?"

The corporal shook her head. "No, there's no need to stay here while you party. Our sisters will take over if need be."

I nodded. For as long as I had worked with the Black Dragons, they had called each other sisters, so the corporal was referring to the squad of Black Dragons stationed on the Hawk. "I see. Have a nice night then."

"Likewise, sir." She replied and walked down the ramp again.

I walked into the pilots cabin and found my civilian clothes, but our conversation kept playing in my head, as I changed clothes. The only real candidates for an official partner were Shakka and Iska, as they were the ones I felt a connection with, and of the two, Shakka was the best choice. As a doctor, she wasn't really in the chain of command, and with her obvious skills, nobody would believe that she had gotten the job due to our connection.

Fortunately, it wasn't a decision I had to make now, so I pushed the thought away and walked over to the mirror, looking at my reflection with a resigned sigh. Even in civilian clothes, I still looked too much like Commodore Thalen. My uniform had been replaced by a dark jacket and a simple shirt, but I was still easily recognizable. At least to the Chiss on board.

A thought struck me and using water I ruffled my hair. It helped, but not much.

Taking a few steps back, I studied the new look. With a little luck, I could pass for a shuttle- or fighter pilot, but the eyes were still the same. Calm. Calculating. Used to giving orders and having them followed. That would be the hardest part to hide.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair again, mussing it further. There wasn't much else I could do, so instead of beating myself up for being me, I walked out of the shuttle again, closing the hatch.

----------------

Half an hour later, I was standing by the bar, dressed in civilian clothes and holding a drink in my hand, while listening to the music and watching people having fun.

The hangar had completely transformed for the occasion. Tables were draped with clean cloths, small lights arranged in elegant patterns casting a warm, inviting glow over the space. Someone had taken the time to polish the bulkheads and clear the deck, and now the smell of real food, spices, grilled plants and sweet desserts, mingled with the faint tang of coolant and machinery that no one could ever quite scrub away.

A band was set up on a small, raised platform at the far end of the hangar, dressed in smart black and silver. The lead singer, a Duros woman with a smooth, rich voice, crooned into the mic as her bandmates laid down a steady rhythm behind her, something slow, with a warm pulse that flowed through the room.

People were dancing, some in pairs, others in trios or groups, and all were dressed for the occasion. Turan Daw, the Hawk's first officer, led a group of junior pilots through a slow dance, laughing softly when one of them stumbled over a turn. A pair of engineers swayed nearby, their hands light on each other's shoulders, their faces relaxed in a way that only came when duty and fear were momentarily set aside.

The music shifted, the tempo rising, and the dance floor filled again. There was a ripple of applause as a young Twi'Lek woman stepped into the circle and began to move, her steps fluid, precise, almost a performance. The band picked up the pace, and more joined her, clapping in time, their smiles wide and open.

For a moment, I let myself sink into it as I drank my glass of nectar, enjoying the slight buzz it gave me, going along perfectly with the music, the lights and the way people's faces glowed under the warm tones.

A movement at the corner of my eyes caught my attention for some reason, and I turned my head to look in that direction. Then I smiled. Sergeant Anitama, the marine I had ended up with last time I was at a party at the Hawk. This time she was dressed in a sleek slate-gray gown that hugged her figure, the fabric catching the soft illumination with every graceful movement.

The dress had a subtle slit along the side, just high enough to reveal a glimpse of her legs when she shifted her weight. As I had noticed last time, her legs weren't the lean, delicate limbs of a Twi'Lek dancer, but strong and powerful, shaped by muscle hidden beneath smooth skin.

I felt my eyebrows rise, as I noticed that she had lost some weight. Granted, she still had the same 'Power armor' body type she had last time, with broad shoulders, wide hips and strong legs and arms, but she was undeniably slimmer and more streamlined. Her arms, bare under the simple cap sleeves, were leaner, her wrists slenderer.

Her hair was longer than I remembered, styled in a low twist, a few loose strands framing her strong features. The soft waves softened the determined lines of her jaw, the high curve of her cheekbones. Her makeup was light, natural. Just enough to catch the light and highlight the quiet intelligence in her dark eyes.

Anitama was smiling faintly, watching the dancers swirl across the hangar floor to the pulse of the band. Her glass, held loosely in one hand, caught the golden glow of the lights.

I chuckled at that. One of the things that had drawn me to her last time was her smile, her cheerfulness and her humour, and I could feel the attraction growing as I looked at her.

Still smiling, I turned around to the bar and got a refill, the sweet, spiced aroma swirling up as I lifted it. Then I turned around again, expecting to see Anitama still standing there, but she was gone.

My eyes scanned the crowd, weaving through clusters of people in sharp evening attire, their voices a warm hum beneath the band's slow, rhythmic tune. It didn't take long to spot her. Anitama had drifted onto the dance floor, moving gracefully with a Zabrak male I didn't recognize.

They flowed together in time with the music, her dress shifting with each movement, the subtle strength in her legs unmistakable even from a distance. She still danced like she had done it a thousand times. Controlled, precise, but smooth, with just enough sway in her hips to draw the eye without trying.

"Hmm... Haven't I seen you somewhere before." A female voice said next to me.

Looking over, I discovered a middle-aged woman looking intensely at me. As most of the freed women, she was good-looking, though the time in a camp had made some of that beauty fade.

"That is entirely possible." I chuckled. "Though I don't know where."

"On the Majestic." She said thoughtfully and then brightened. "Yes! You were in the hangar park when our group walked in there for the first time."

Tilting my head, I thought back and nodded. "Oh, yes. I was watching your group along with Raika and Agusta."

"Yes. I met Raika later the same day, when I got some of her divine chocolate coffee but I didn't see the beautiful young woman again." She commented. "Then again, it was an emotional day." She paused, her smile turning a touch wry. "I'm Barbara."

"I'm Al." I said and lifted my glass "Cheers."

"Cheers," she echoed, her voice warm, her gaze lingering as she stepped a little closer. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity, not aggressive but keen. "So, Al... do you always watch from the edges, or are you just waiting for the right moment to join in?"

"Both." I answered with a chuckle. "What about you? Why're you not dancing?"

"Because I prefer to dance with a man and those are taken." She said in a straightforward voice.

"I'm terribly sorry." I suddenly heard Anitama say from behind me. "But so is Al here."

Barbara looked up, seemingly ready to give a sharp reply, but then her eyes widened as she took in Anitama's size and powerful build. "Sorry about that."

Turning my head, I sent Anitama a smile. "Did you have fun dancing?"

"Not really." She said with a chuckle. "Pixun is a wonderful person, but he can't dance and my toes are now hurting from being stepped on too many times." She glanced at Barbara. "By the way, Pixun's not taken and as I said, he's a wonderful person. Do you want me to introduce you?"

Barbara looked pleasantly surprised, as she nodded. "Sure, why not? I'm always up for meeting new people."

Anitama's smile widened, and she gestured over her shoulder. "Come on, I'll introduce you."

Barbara glanced at me, her curiosity still lingering in her eyes, then gave me a playful little wave. "Don't go too far, Al. We might have to finish our conversation later."

"I'll be around," I replied with a wry smile.

As Anitama and Barbara walked off together, I watched them weave through the crowd, the difference in their postures striking. Barbara was poised, confident, moving with a quiet grace despite the years and hardship that had left their marks. Anitama, by contrast, moved with a predator's fluidity, the strength in her body undeniable in every step.

They reached Pixun, who was standing by the edge of the dance floor, his drink in hand and an awkward, sheepish smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. His lanky frame and slightly uneven stance gave him a boyish charm, though he looked about ready to retreat to the shadows at any moment.

Anitama tapped him lightly on the shoulders and though I couldn't hear what they were saying, it didn't take long before the Zabrak took Barbara's hand and let her to the dancefloor.

Anitama watched them for a moment, a satisfied look on her face, before she walked back to me.

"Well, that worked out nicely." She smiled, her voice low.

I glanced over at the dancefloor where Barbara and Pixun were moving together in a hesitant but growing rhythm, and found myself smiling, as I looked at Anitama again. "Looks like you're right... though I didn't know I was taken."

"Tonight, you are." She laughed confidently, teeth white in the dim light, an edge of amusement in her voice. "At least as long as I can save you from the claws of a desperate woman."

"Is it that bad?" I asked, taking a sip of my drink.

"It is." She said firmly and explained that Barbara was a former Holovid star, who had been caught at the start of the war when the liner she had been on had been captured by the Empire. The Sith in charge of the battlegroup thought he could use her for propaganda purposes and had her sent off to a prison camp, but nothing ever happened and she had been at Nodia to the day where she was transported away by the Lictor we had taken in the Grinda system.

"That's sad." I commented when Anitama was done with her tale.

"Yes, but the saddest part is that aside from taking care of children, which she is very good at, she has no useful skills." Anitama said as she watched the pair dance. "She can't even sing."

"Well, if she's a former holovid star she could get in touch with the animation team." I suggested. "She must know something about making holovids."

Anitama laughed again and nodded approvingly. "I'll suggest that to her later... Assuming she survives the night with Pixun."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

The smile on her pretty face grew wider. "She was hunting for a man to be in her bed. Zabraks are blessed with two hearts and can go on for a long time... unfortunately, according to rumours, they are not that well equipped in other areas, which can lead to a long, but ultimately unsatisfying session."

I nearly choked on my drink, coughing as the laugh burst out. "I'm afraid my knowledge about Zabraks doesn't extend to that part of their anatomy."

"Probably for the best." Her tone was dry, but there was a flicker of humour in her eyes

I tilted my head a little. "No offence, but you're leaner than I remember."

She grimaced. "Not by choice though. I caught a blaster bolt in the side during the taking of the Lictor in the Grinda system and spent way too many hours in the tank, healing."

I frowned, the details not lining up. "That's odd. I saw the list of wounded in Grinda and I'm sure you weren't among them."

She hesitated before saying. "Anitama is my middle name. My full name is Gina Anitama Vess, so on any roster I'll be listed as Gina A. Vess... or Gunnery Sergeant Vess."

I whistled softly. "Gunnery Sergeant. That is nice. Let me guess, heavy weapons and boarding specialist?"

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, then she laughed, warm and rich. "Exactly. How did you know?"

"To use your own words, your body is built for power armor and as far as I remember, Gunnery Sergeants are the ones in charge of the heavy weapons... and as far as I'm told, only boarding specialists were part in the action on the Lictor."

"Good thinking." She chuckled.

"Your rank is more impressive than my thinking." I smiled. "But back to your story."

"Not much to tell, really." She signalled the bar droid and got a glass of nectar. "When I got out of the tank, I had lost a ton of weight, so I spent most of the trip trying to rebuild the muscles and get back into shape."

"Well, you succeeded."

She flashed me a smile. "The benefits of growing up on a planet with a higher gravity than normal. Dense bones and stronger muscles make it easier to get back into shape."

"As I said last time," I said with a smile. "There's nothing wrong with your shape. Not then, not now."

Her eyes flickered with a quick, subtle flash of appreciation. Then a loud, clumsy laugh rang out from the dance floor. Turning to watch, I saw Pixun, caught in a spin by Barbara, his face turning bright red. Barbara was laughing too, breathless, her eyes sparkling in the glow of the lights.

Anitama shook her head with a small grin. "Stars help him."

I chuckled. "Let's hope they both survive the night."

Her gaze lingered on mine, steady and warm. Then she raised her glass in a small toast, her voice quiet but firm. "To surviving the night."

"To surviving the night," I echoed, clinking my glass against hers.

We both drank slowly, looking at each other. Long enough for the air between us to shift, just a little.

Anitama set her glass down on the bar, the sound sharp in the quiet moment between us. She let out a low laugh, shaking her head.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered. "You're making me feel like a teenager."

Before I could answer, she reached out and dragged me in for a kiss, sure that I wouldn't protest.

She was right. I didn't.

Her mouth met mine, warm and certain, with the confidence of a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and wasn't about to let it slip away.

Her lips were soft, her breath a faint trace of nectar, and the press of her body was soft, solid and strong, all at the same time.

The noise of the party faded to a low hum as we lost ourselves in the kiss.

Her hand tightened on my shirt, then eased off, a slow, deliberate release, as she stepped back just enough to look at me, her breath low and even, her eyes still locked on mine.

"Well," she said, voice low and rough at the edges. "That wasn't the worst idea I've had today."

"No, it wasn't," I said, a slow smile pulling at my lips. "In fact, it was a brilliant idea."

She chuckled, the sound a low rumble, and reached for her drink again.

"Drink up, Al," she said softly. "I have a feeling we're both going to need it, unless you're not game for a repeat of last time."

"Oh, I'm game." I grinned and drank from the glass.

With a smile, she drank some more but then froze and removed the glass from her lips. "Frak."

"What's wrong?" I inquired.

Anitama sighed. "With all the guests from other ships here, I have a guest sleeping on the foldout bed in my cabin."

I shrugged slightly and took the glass from her hand. "In that case, may I invite you to spend the night at my place?"

"Sorry, but I can't leave the ship." She said unhappily.

Placing the glass on the bar, I took her hand. "Who said you had to leave the ship? Come."

With a surprised laughter, she followed me out of the main hangar, but instead of going to the lift, I turned left and walked towards the smaller side hanger where the Shark was parked.

Anitama followed me, still seemingly finding the whole situation amusing. "You know you're crazy, right?"

"Not really." I laughed. "But your memory might have taken damage from the healing tank."

"What do you mean?"

I stopped just at the entrance to the hangar and gave her a kiss,. As before it was sweet and tender but filled with passion.

"Kissing you is wonderful." She sighed as our lips parted. "But where're we going?"

"Look to your right." I suggested as I activated the remote.

Anitama did look, jaw dropping as she looked at the sleek shape of the Shark, looking every bit the luxury yacht, it was designed to be mistaken for. As she watched the ramp lowered until it hit the deck with a soft bump.

"Are you kidding me?" She asked and looked at me with disbelief on her face.

"No. I did say that I piloted a shuttle." I laughed and gestured at the Shark. "This is the shuttle."

"That is not a shuttle." She declared as we walked to the ramp. "That's a freaking yacht!"

"No, it looks like a yacht, but it's a military shuttle." I grinned. "And for the next twelve hours, we have it all for ourselves."

"Nice." She smiled and stopped to look around as we entered the main salon, with its indirect lightning, that warmed the rich textures of the materials. The centre piece of the lounge was the sofa. Made in a low-slung sectional design, it curved gently to mirror the flow of the room, upholstered in a soft, charcoal-grey fabric with just a hint of metallic thread woven through. The cushions looked just as deep, plush, and supportive, as they were.

The sofa's base had been finished in polished dark wood, matching the flooring, and the armrests were wide enough to set down a drink, a data tablet, or simply rest an arm without feeling crowded. Discrete, built-in cup holders and small holo-control panels had been tucked into the side panels, allowing anyone to adjust lighting, music, or even access ship functions without leaving their seat.

Standing still for a moment, she took it all in and then looked at me. "Is it even legal to be in here? Can't you get in trouble for bringing someone here?"

"No." I said shortly and then chuckled. "I mean not unless we trash the interior and I have other things to do."

Anitama smiled widely and dragged me into another soft, tender, yet passionate kiss.

"With the risk of ruining the mood... can you point me to the bathroom? You didn't give me time to go before you dragged me here."

Laughing softly, I pointed at the right door. "In there."

"Thank you." She said and walked to the appointed door, giving me ample time to enjoy the sight of her well-shaped and muscular ass. Granted it was quite a bit larger than Shakka, Iska or Resa's, but it fit her perfectly and was incredibly sexy.

The door closed behind her and I quickly walked the few steps into the cockpit to tell the computer that as long as we were docked at the Hawk, it should address me as Pilot Al. I also glanced into the bedroom to ensure that everything was as it should be and made sure my Commodore uniform was locked safely into a closet.

All done, I walked back to the lounge, arriving at the same time as Anitama opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom, dressed only in an extremely sexy set of underwear that was clearly crafted to her figure, designed to accentuate every curve rather than hide it.

The bra was a deep, rich shade of grey, with a satin finish that shimmered subtly under the lights. The cups, shaped to lift and support, were edged in delicate black lace that framed the swell of her huge breasts.

Her panties matched the bra, in colour and detail. Grey satin, black lace at the hips, cut high enough to elongate her powerful legs while still leaving just enough to the imagination. The waistband sat snug but not tight, hugging the curve of her hips and accentuating the fullness of her thighs and the subtle dip of her waist.

"Frak," I mumbled as I drank the sight of her. "You're hotter than a sun."

She smiled widely. "Thank you." She did a little twirl. "It's the first set of sexy underwear that I have ever owned."

I walked over to her. "Well, in your defence you've never really needed it to look sexy... but it does make you even more sexy than you already were."

She was silent for a moment, as she looked at me over, and when she spoke, her voice was thick with lust. "Get out of those clothes."

I undressed as fast as I could and stood up straight, my dick hard as I looked at the voluptuous woman in front of me. "Like this?"

Anitama grinned and with a fast move, she picked me up, walked the few steps to the sofa and dropped me on the soft cushions of the sofa.

"No, like that." She laughed and followed me into the sofa, as she sat on me, her clothed pussy on my stiff dick. Leaning down, she whispered. "I need that inside of me as fast as possible. You wouldn't believe how turned on I am."

Lifting her hips, she reached down between to push her panties aside before she grabbed my hard cock and placed it between the lips of her pussy.

She hadn't been lying about how turned on she was, because her pussy was as wet as if we had a long foreplay.

"Don't move," she murmured and pressed down, wriggling her ass as she did so, driving my dick into her tight pussy.

It wasn't even halfway inside her, when she lay down on top of me, huge breasts flattened against my chest as our lips found each other's and our tongues danced.

We kissed for a while, tongues dancing as Anitama continued to wriggle her hips, slowly but surely taking more and more of my dick in her. We both groaned as we kissed. The feel of her pussy going down over my dick was wonderful and doing it like this somehow felt like foreplay and sex at the same time.

When our hips finally met and I was as far inside her as I could in this position, she sighed in satisfaction and stopped moving her hips, seemingly content with just having me inside her, while we kissed.

So was I.

The feeling of her pussy clenching around me as we kissed, triggered an automatic response from my nervous system, flexing my dick inside her, which in turn made her pussy clench and so on.

All in all, it made for a very sensual and arousing experience and I let my hands wander over her body, caressing her skin, grabbing her soft muscular ass, fondling it and making her moan into my mouth, pussy clenching.

Letting her ass go, I moved my hands up her back until I met the bra, where I stopped, realizing that I only had a vague idea about how the civilian version worked and going by feel alone it certainly wasn't the same way as the military ones.

Anitama broke the kiss just long enough to whisper. "Tap twice."

Finding the right place, I tapped twice. Nothing happened, so I did it again, faster this time, and as she had said, it opened without any fuzz.

Her breasts were still mashed against my chest, but at least opening the bra allowed me to caress the sides and with the size of her tits, that was still a lot of breast.

Anitama groaned and her kiss grew in intensity as I fondled the sensitive skin of her breasts, and I was so turned on that I could hear my blood thundering in my ears.

The position was fantastic, but I had reached the point where I wanted to fuck her, to plunge my aching hard cock into her wet pussy until she exploded in pleasure. Last time, she had called the shots and ridden me, just like she was preparing to do now, but I had a feeling that she would enjoy being fucked even more. Just like Yaki, who was so strong that very few men could hold her down and just 'fuck the shit out of her', as she called it.

The problem was that with Yaki, I could use the Force to restrain her, while that wasn't an option with Anitama, as it would instantly reveal my identity.

Anitama must have felt the need for more as well, because she began to move her hips back and forth. Not much. Just enough to make her pussy move a few centimetres up and down my dick, lubricating my shaft each time she moved, muscles clenching around my dick in a warm, slippery grip.

With a moan, she moved her knees further apart, giving me room to spread my legs a little so her ass could go a bit further down and she widened her eyes as my dick bottomed out in her, causing her to squeal and moan at the same time.

Breaking the kiss, she lifted her upper body and began riding me in a slow, controlled way, the walls of her pussy gripping my dick in a pleasant embrace, as she looked down on me with an expression of pure pleasure on her face.

Her huge breasts swayed as she moved and giving in to temptation, I bend my head so I could use my lips and tongue to tease her nipples, even biting them lightly from time to time, while my hands squeezed and caressed them.

Like last time, Anitama loved it, throwing her head back and gradually increasing the gentle back and forth motion of her hips that made my dick slide in and out of her tight pussy.

Her breathing became deeper as each breath was a moan and I could feel a shiver start in her pussy, spreading out to the rest of her body.

The position wasn't the best for taking active part, but I began to thrust upwards each time her hips went down, driving my dick deeper into her.

"FUCK YEAH." She gasped loudly and a moment later she threw her head back and screamed out an orgasm.

Then she sat still on top of me, kissing me as the aftershocks of the orgasm sent shivers through her body, causing her to moan as she moved on my cock.

Now.

Moving my hands to her legs and digging my heels into the sofa, I flipped her shaking body off me and she ended up on her back on the soda, with her legs spread as if I was still between them.

The orgasm was still running through her, causing the huge breasts to jiggle and the muscle of her flat stomach to shiver. My eyes continued their journey down her body reaching her dripping pussy between the thick thighs, looking just as tasty as it had done last time.

I also discovered that her panties were equipped with the same locks as the bra and reaching out, I gave the locks two quick taps, causing them to open and the panties to fall down to the sofa.

Removing the bra from where it had been laying on my chest, I picked them up and placed both of them on the table, before turning towards Anitama again. The orgasm was fading and she was watching me with a smile.

I returned the smile. "Computer, protocol 4b."

"Yes, Pilot Al" The computer answered even as restraints shot out from the sofa, entangled her arms, legs and midriff and then tightened, making her unable to move with her arms and legs spread.

Anitama's eyes widened in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"It's my turn to be in control." I told her with a grin. "And these will make sure that you behave."

"And if I don't want that?"

"Say the word and I'll release you, so you can go back to the party." I told her in a soft, firm voice. "This time I want to fuck you, not to get fucked by you."

She considered that for a moment, but then her face split in a grin. "I guess that is fair."

The muscles in her arms strained as she tested the strength of the restraints. "And a good plan, successfully executed, deserves to be rewarded." She looked around. "Why does a yacht have these? Was the previous owner a pervert?"

"As I said before," I said as I placed myself between her spread legs. "This is a military shuttle and like most shuttles, it can be used to transport prisoners." I placed my hands on her knees and slid them down the inside of her legs, going towards her pussy, noticing that unlike last time, she was completely bare down there. Juices from her recent orgasm leaving the lips to run down that beautiful large ass.

"You shaved." I commented as I reached the lips of her pussy, wetting two fingers in her juices before tracing the inner lips with my fingertips, taking a swirl around her enraged clitoris before going down again.

"Hmmm," she murmured as a shiver ran through her body.

Then she gasped, as my lips and tongue followed my fingers, starting with a long lick from bottom to the top. Reaching the clitoris, I sucked on the little nub of pleasure for a moment, before I put my tongue into action, drawing circles around it.

"Ohhh... yes! So good!" She exclaimed. The restrains held her in place, but she still managed to angle her hips so more pressure was applied.

Ignoring her wishes, I moved down a little, carefully licking all the way around the opening.

"Computer, move the leg restraint to ninety degrees."

"Yes, sir" it replied, moving the restraint so Anitama's legs were closer to her upper body, exposing her ass and pussy, giving me free access to her.

"Hey, I'm not..." Anitama started but her voice trailed off, when I resumed my licking by a few flicks of the tongue on her clitoris followed by a long lick down her pussy until I reached her anus.

Anitama gave a deep sigh as I slowly licked around it, before moving to the sensitive skin between the two holes, taking my time to tease it with small licks.

Working my way upwards again, I stopped at the opening and gave it another workover, twirling my tongue in her pussy, appreciating every fold and drop of juice, feeling her shake and the muscles twitching.

"Fuck!" Anitama groaned as I worked my tongue deeper into her, feeling the walls of her pussy ripple as I licked the inner walls. That was followed by a gasp, as my hand found her ass, fingers teasing her anus as I fondled the buttocks.

My other hand moved to her stomach, caressing it even as the thumb found the clitoris about the same time as my tongue found her G-spot and gave it a few hard licks.

"Shit!" Anitama growled. "This is fantastic!"

I couldn't really comment on that, so instead I drew slow circles around her clitoris with my thumb, while my tongue danced on the G-spot and when I felt like she was ready for it, I gently inserted a finger in her ass.

Anitama stopped breathing for a moment as I fingered her ass, licked her G-spot and applied more pressure to her clitoris.

Her muscles began to spasm around my tongue and finger, her body trembling and shivering.

Taking a chance, I inserted another finger in her ass.

She cried out in a howl of pleasure, her body jerking as she exploded in an orgasm much more powerful than the first. Juices shot out of her pussy, flooding my mouth, nearly making me choke.

Retracting my tongue, I managed to swallow some of the juice while continuing to finger her ass and rubbing her clitoris, making Anitama thrash against the restraints as her body convulsed several times.

Eventually the orgasm faded and I removed my fingers from her.

She was laying still, breathing heavily with a huge smile on her face. Looking at her voluptuous body, I shook my head. I wanted to fuck her in so many ways it was hard to decide where to start. A part of me wanted to saddle her with my cock between her delicious breasts, giving her a titty-fuck like the one she had given me last time. Another part wanted to just stick my dick into her and fuck her into oblivion.

The last part won and a moment later I placed the head of my dick at her entrance, stopping a moment to enjoy the feeling, before I pushed forward, burying my dick in her tight, wet pussy in one long stroke. The angle making my hard dick slide over her G-spot all the way.

Her eyes snapped open. "Fuck!"

"Exactly." I grinned as I started to slam into her with long, hard strokes, almost taking my dick all the way out of her before going back in, the impact of my hips against her making her breasts wobble.

Reaching out, I grabbed them, squeezing and caressing them, as I kept the rhythm, fucking her in exactly the speed I wanted to, making her shiver and moan as her orgasm slowly built. After a few minutes, the shiver turned into a shake, which was echoed by the muscles inside her and the rolling contractions around my dick made me moan in response.

Fortunately, Anitama came long before I was even close, her pussy contracting around my cock hard, squeezing me tightly as the orgasm rolled through her body, making her shout in pleasure. I didn't stop and restrained as she was, Anitama was at my mercy.

Not that she seemed to mind, moaning loudly as the orgasm ran through her, even as I kept fucking her, maintaining a steady pace. The strength of her spasms increased, caressing my dick with every move we made.

It didn't take long before she came again, shrieking so loudly it made my ears ring, bucking her hips weakly against me as the restraints limited her movements. It felt wonderful and I kept my dick buried in her gripping pussy through her orgasm. Using the chance to take a small break and stave off the incoming orgasm.

Anitama was still panting when I resumed thrusting my dick into her again, going just a little slower this time, but even then I felt another orgasm surging up within her. She rolled her head side-to-side, still gasping and quaking with aftershocks. The next orgasm was not long in coming, and I could feel the undulations of her stomach as she went over the edge once more.

I kept up my pace, fucking her through her orgasm and her rising moan of ecstasy turned to a shriek, as her pussy squirted, and I felt the wetness run down my balls.

Mission accompliced, I slowed down a bit, loving the sight of her coming, as well as the feel of her vibrating pussy as my dick slid in and out of her.

It took a while before she came down from her high, but when she did, I pulled out of her and lined up the head of my cock with her anus, gently resting the head against it.

I didn't press forward but waited until she opened her eyes to look at me. Seeing the unspoken question on my face, she nodded, smiling in anticipation as she panted. "Do.. it."

I had just enough presence of mind to drop a hand to her pussy and rubbed her clitoris. The shivers started almost immediately and she was on her way to yet another orgasm, when I thrust forward. With all the juices that had ran down between her cheeks and with the same juices covering my dick, my dick slid into her easily, making her howl in pleasure and pain at the same time.

"Harder," she gasped.

Still running my fingers over her clitoris, I began fucking her ass with the same long and hard strokes I had used on her pussy.

"So fucking good!!" Anitama moaned and I felt her ass grip my cock like a tight velvet glove. It felt wonderful and I could feel my own orgasm approaching just as fast as hers.

Moving the other hand to her breasts, I pinched a hard nipple, before fondling her breasts roughly. Now really my style, but she seemed to like it rough.

She came as I pinched the other nipple as well, grunting hoarsely as juice gushed from her pussy, spraying my stomach, while the grasping pulses of her ass pushed me over the edge.

"Coming!" I grunted as my dick erupted in her tight ass, spraying her inside.

Anitama screamed and came again, her muscular ass clamping down so hard she pushed my dick out of her, making the last few sprays hit her tits and stomach.

"Computer, release restraints." I commanded as I let myself fall next to her on the sofa.

"Yes, sir" the computer replied and the restraints retracted into the sofa, disappearing as if they had never been there.

A few minutes later, Anitama rolled over on her side, her dark hair a tangled halo against the pillow. Her body glowed with warmth and a sheen of satisfaction as she sent me a weak smile. "That was even better than last time."

I nodded in agreement as I returned the smile. "Yes.. though I have to say that it was a bit rougher than what I prefer."

That made her laugh, a soft, musical thing that danced through the quiet room like a spark. "Likewise. But it was worth it." She paused, drawing in a long, deliberate breath. "I've never had so many orgasms in such a short time. I didn't even know it was possible."

"I think it's the surroundings." I chuckled and gestured around at the luxurious interior. "It just adds a certain flair."

"Idiot." She grinned and with a move faster than I thought she would be capable off, she jumped me, ending on top of me, pinning me with her thighs and grinning like a predator.

"Whoa... what's this?" I laughed, trying to sit up.

"You seemed too relaxed," she purred. "And I'm curious about something."

"About wh..."

Her fingers darted to my ribs.

I yelped. A completely involuntary sound burst from my throat as her fingers found a particularly sensitive spot just below my side.

"What are y... Hey! ... Anitama!"

She kept going, her fingers dancing with gleeful precision.

"I didn't know you were ticklish," she said with mock-innocence, clearly delighted. "You act all brooding and controlled but look at this!" She jabbed playfully at another spot.

I squirmed beneath her, laughing in spite of myself, twisting and trying to grab her wrists. "Stop! What is this?! I've never been tickled before!"

That made her pause just long enough to stare at me, amused. "Wait, really?"

"I grew up in a Chiss military academy," I gasped. "There wasn't much time for pillow fights and laughter."

Her grin softened. "Well. That's a tragedy I'm going to personally correct."

"No no ... wait, wait!" I tried to roll away, but she shifted her weight with impressive speed, pinning me again.

"Too late. Now I have intel," she whispered with a wicked smile. "And I'm going to exploit it."

And then she resumed the attack.

What followed was chaos. Gasping laughter. Desperate flailing. A failed attempt to wriggle free that only made things worse. The kind of helpless, unguarded mirth I couldn't remember feeling since I was a child.

By the time she relented, I was breathless, my chest heaving, a grin stretched across my face that I couldn't seem to erase.

"You..." I coughed, eyes watering. "You're evil."

She flopped down beside me with a satisfied sigh. "And you're adorable when you're disarmed."

I turned my head to look at her. There was a new warm, but mischievous light in her eyes. Like she was seeing a version of me she hadn't known existed.

"Was it really your first time?" she asked, quieter now. "Being tickled, I mean?"

I nodded, breath finally returning. "Yeah. I didn't know it could feel like... that. It was terrifying. And kind of amazing."

She smiled gently and reached out, brushing her fingers through my hair. "Then I'm glad I got to be your first."

I shifted closer, resting my forehead against hers. "You're full of surprises."

"Well, as long as they're good surprises," she murmured.

The silence between us turned softer then, heavier--but not unpleasantly so. The kind that carries understanding rather than weight.

And then, as if sensing the shift, she whispered, "I'm not done with you yet."

Before I could answer, she was already kissing me again--slow, deep, and filled with the kind of promise that told me that the evening wasn't over yet.

---------------------

I was tired, but in an extremely good mood when I flew the Shark back to Majestic the next morning.

As I had suspected, the evening hadn't been over. Not by a long shot. Aside from having sex in every room in the Shark, except for the cockpit, we laughed and talked. Not small talk, but real talk.

I told her about my days at the academy, the first time I had piloted a spacecraft all by self and some of my first assignments, while she told me about her childhood, the brother she had lost in the recent war and some of her assignments.

The most surprising part was that she was almost forty. Considering her rank as a Gunnery Sergeant, I knew that she wasn't a fresh-faced twenty-year-old, but I would have thought she was thirty at most.

Anitama had laughed when I said that and explained that people on her planet regularly lived to be more than a hundred years old and nobody was considered adults until they were twenty-five.

At some point, we'd fallen asleep tangled together in a way that made it hard to tell where one body ended and the other began.

We woke up almost in the same position and after a bath, we had slow, sensual morning sex. Not in the shower. That was reserved for teasing foreplay and when we were as turned on as we wanted to be, we took it to the bedroom.

We even had breakfast together, sitting at the table talking while we ate.

There was no awkwardness. Just the soft understanding that both of us needed to go back, and neither of us needed to dress it up as something more.

When she finally stood, brushing crumbs from her bare thigh and stretching in that effortless, feline way of hers, she glanced over her shoulder at me with a faint smirk. "So, what now? You heading off to shuttle a captain from one ship to another?"

I chuckled at that. "We all serve in different ways."

"That we do," she nodded. "Well, try not to die."

"Likewise."

Anitama stepped closer, slid a finger down the front of my chest until it caught on the edge of my collar. "Last night was good. Better than good."

"Yeah," I said, quiet but sincere. "It was."

"But I'm not the type who's looking for forever," she said simply. "Not in this line of work. Not out here in the Chaos."

I met her eyes. "I know. Me neither."

She gave a satisfied little nod, and her finger trailed away.

"We're good?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied, offering my hand. "Friends?"

She ignored the hand and pulled me into a firm hug instead, her cheek brushing mine. "Friends. With very appealing benefits... if and when the opportunity presents itself."

"Sounds like a strategic alliance," I murmured.

She laughed into my shoulder. "Exactly. Mutually satisfying with no paperwork."

We parted without drama, no declarations, no drawn-out goodbyes. Just a look that said we'd be fine, both together and apart.

Now, as the Shark's flight systems hummed around me and the glittering metal hull of Majestic loomed ahead, I didn't feel any tug of sadness. Just the warmth of something good, something honest, shared between two people who genuinely liked each other.

With a little smile, I keyed the comm.

"This is Thalen on final approach. Requesting docking clearance."

"Clearance granted, Commodore," came First Officer Janik's calm voice, professional as ever. "You're expected on the bridge."

Right. Duty awaited, as always.

I guided the Shark smoothly into the side docking bay and shut her down. As the engines powered off, the usual sounds of the hangar greeted me. The echo of boots on durasteel, muffled chatter, the faint clatter of tools in a distant maintenance bay.

But even amid the noise, I couldn't help but smile as I passed the flight deck crew. One of the younger mechanics did a double take as I walked by, slightly stunned at seeing the black Commodore uniform, then quickly saluted. I nodded to her and kept walking, trying not to smirk.

Resa met me at the turbolift with her usual impeccable timing. She glanced at me, really looked, and arched an eyebrow.

"You are fifteen minutes late," she said in a business-like manner, but the corner of her mouth twitched.

"Traffic," I replied, deadpan.

She didn't respond immediately, but as we stepped into the lift, she remarked, "Your mood is unusually elevated. I take it the night was... productive?"

I gave her a sideways glance. "I didn't know droids could sound smug."

"I am learning," she replied smoothly, causing me to chuckle.

We reached the bridge and the lift hissed open.

As usual, Iska was at her station, looking over as the sound of the door reached her.

"Welcome back, sir." She gestured at the screens. "We've just received the 'ready' signal

from the last two ships."

I nodded as I took my place in the Commodore's seat. Twelve hours ago, four different ships had problems. "Who was it?"

"Vallathi and Flit, sir."

Vallathi was the Tork-class and I knew that Captain Samko and Master Engineer Gabosat had worked tirelessly to fix one of the engines, while the ship had assisted in maintaining and repairing the other ships. Flit was Max Felcro's BSX-class cruiser, which had developed a periodical hic-up in the power lines, causing the engineers to frantically search for the cause.

"Good thing they're ready now." I said calmly and called up the star map, studying the route one more time.

As Iska had said, our first stop was Yrla, which meant going to the Jenth-32 where I planned to park most of the fleet so they could fill their water tanks, while I took Majestic and the three hammerheads to Kwin-34, the system before Yrla. From there we could send a few scouts into Yrla, making sure it was secure, before sending a shuttle with an escort to the planet. The route on the star map reflected that and with a satisfied nod, I leaned back in the seat.

"Let's get out of here, Captain."

Iska sent me a smile. "Yes, sir."

As always the slower ships took off first, then the rest of the fleet waited, watching the time tick down. Eventually, it reached zero and a moment later the stars elongated as we entered hyperspace.

------------- To be continued ---------------

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