The Lady Knight

Chapter 2

Lieutenant Kess K. Shneya sat on the cold, cement floor hunched over a gutted ion cannon from a BTL-A4, otherwise known as a Y-wing, or at this point, a 'piece of junk'. She huffed helpless at the datapad in her hand and blew up at her bangs. After reviewing the array of dismembered pieces on the floor, she cleared her head and decided to start from scratch.

Kess dropped her datapad to the floor and faced the tall vessel, resolving not to lose the battle against this stubborn piece of equipment. She hopped up the ladder and climbed atop the shoulders of Gold Group's Problem Child. Huffing up at her bangs one more time, she straddled the wide canopy, and bent her body into the guts of the cannon's empty housing.

"Why are you still here?" Shorkey's voice crooned from the ground.

Kess looked up from the gaping hole and peered at her boss.

Shorkey's old eyes shined as his tone melted to deceit. "Are you available for a repair-in-air?"

Kess shrugged at him and pushed a wisp of hair behind her ear. "First question, why wouldn't I be here?" She rose beside the canopy, standing on the Y-wing's neck. "Second question, I'll take any vacation away from Mosquito Post as long as you don't send me back to Hoth. Toss up the pliers."

Shorkey picked up the tool from the floor and stepped to the craft to hand them up. "How are you with Corellians?"

"Depends. Are you talking about the ships? Or the people?" Kess sat down, let her feet hang off the side of the Y-wing neck, and gave him a real answer. "Depends on what's wrong with it."

Shorkey stepped back, dropping his eyes to the floor. "Everything."

"You're not much on details, are you, LT?" She met his eyes and found them smiling back. She faked a groan. "What kind of project are you sending me on?"

He c****d his head and changed the subject. "Why aren't you at your class this afternoon?"

Kess's eyes went wide. "It's Centaxday?"

"And it's about 16:22."

"Blast!" She hopped down the ladder and threw the pliers to the floor. "See you tomorrow!" Kess raced full speed out to the pad core.

Ten pads surrounded the core. The landing complex was a large hexagon filled with diners and service shops. Encircling it was a massive travel way where personnel on foot could travel from one pie-shaped pad to the next. The travel way was crowded so soon after knock-off. Kess darted through the milling bodies to make it out of the pad complex as fast as she could. She spotted a runner and raced to catch up with it. She was panting for breath when she jumped on the vehicle to ride it out to the street.

Thank the Force class wasn't far from work. This wasn't the first time she was late, so she had the rush routine worked out already. The street between the pad complexes was packed with speeders and pedestrians so she ran to the side of the looming stone building and moved between it and its exact replica next door. Now, with only an empty alley between her and the next block, Kess bolted passed the complex, running as hard as her untrained lungs would let her. She liked to imagine herself as a superhero racing to the scene to save the day, but Kess slowed to a jog and was gasping for air by the time she reached the next block.

So much for being a superhero.

She crossed the street while glancing for traffic. She was still gulping down air when she walked off the base. Being late all the time was giving her more exercise than she liked, but then, good old Lokey probably thought the extra exercise was worth her being late.

She could hear his voice warbling through the thin wall as she pushed open the back door. In seconds, she shed the army green jumpsuit and the gray, fencing sensor suit was in its place. Carrying her helmet in one hand and the snubbed, useless sword in the other, she shyly poked through the door that led into fencing class.

A pair was already on the mats and dueling. Kess slunk over to the bench and sat down next to another silver-clad student. Lokey spotted her but didn't reprimand her tardiness. Lokey rarely got on her case for being late, but she was paying him for the class to begin with.

As she watched the duel, she noticed something out of place. There was one more silver-suited swordsman than usual. Lokey must have registered an additional student, which meant the seventh sword fighter, whoever it was, was going to have to sit it out when Lokey paired them up for an exercise. Trying to determine which body was the new guy, (a hard task when they were all dressed the same from head covering helmet to boot covering sheath) the buzzer rang out.

One of the swordsmen stepped back and caught his balance. He saluted the winner and stepped off the mat. Lokey clapped his hands and called out to the class, "Okay, pair up! Lot, you pair up with Rett."

Rett was Kess's partner.

"Nice of you to join us, Shneya." Lokey's tone dipped with scolding. "Come here."

Kess pulled off her helmet and strolled off the mat to her teacher. The fencers paired up and moved to the mats in a small herd. Three duels began. Kess waited and watched.

"So Kess," Lokey finally said, turning to her. "Remember the other day? We were talking about bringing in a two-handed sword division?"

"Sure."

"I was thinking that we could make them lightsabers." Lokey c****d a brow at her.

A smile splashed across her face. "You gonna buy a medical droid to sew everyone's arms back on too?"

Lokey's ancient eyes smiled. "I was hoping we could design a lightsaber that didn't slice off arms, but I don't know anything about fine electronics and, since you're the only engineer in class . . . " He eyed her with a pleading glint.

Kess considered this.

"I'll pay you for it," he added quickly. "I want a blade that stings but doesn't cut through mass. Can you do that?"

Kess tried to think of what circuitry created the blade realized how little she knew about them. "I have no idea. I don't know anything about lightsabers, Lokey." She shook her head. "And designing a lightsaber from scratch would be just as difficult as getting a real one to configure."

Lokey shuffled his feet and angled his head at her the other way. "Doesn't Jedi Skywalker still command Rogue Group?"

Kess grinned like the civilian had lost his mind. "Heh. Need to Know."

He choked on that, "He's on the news channels on a weekly basis, so I know he's around here somewhere. He should have a military message box, right?"

As her smile grew to envelop the total insanity of his idea. Kess's head rolled around in a circle until she was shaking her head again. "No way in a black hole, Lokey!"

"Why not?"

Kess acted out her phony request to an imaginary figure. "Excuse me, Commander, may I borrow your lightsaber for a couple of days? I want to make more of them." When she stopped, she looked back at him and laughed. "There is no way he's gonna give it to me!" She laughed louder, "I probably won't even be able to get the request up through his entourage of assistants for him to get the chance to say 'no'!"

"You don't need to borrow the thing, just get a copy of the schematic from him."

Kess rolled her eyes again and huffed out at the classroom.

"Look," Lokey gestured a shrug. "The worst he can do is say 'no'. I'll give you a month of class for free even if you can't make it work. I'll pay you if you can."

Kess's smile faded. She sighed again, looked at the floor, and flicked her eyes back up at Lokey.

"Just try, will you? You're active duty and you've got Jedi history. You'd have a better chance of getting the schematic from him than I would."

Kess turned her feet to leave, "I'll think about it."