The Lady Knight

Chapter 3

"Hey girly," Yana chirped as Kess came into the barracks room. "We need your market list." She shoved a datapad into Kess's hand and her brown ponytail bounced in the air behind her as she moved. "And you've got a message on the comm."

Kess strolled in and unzipped her dirty coveralls. She greeted both roommates apathetically and focused on the list.

Joanne's black eyes didn't pull away from the NewsNet report on the vid. She greeted Kess merely by toasting a chip in the air and talked through her munching. "Check it out, Kess. Your man is on the news again."

Kess looked over Joanne's head to the vid, zeroing in on the black-uniformed figure with a lightsaber on his belt. The report was about a successful treaty bringing yet another system peacefully into the fold of the Alliance.

"My 'man'? I've never even met the man." Kess bopped Joanne on the top of the head with the datapad and tossed it on the couch beside her friend.

Joanne crooned her neck to look upside down at Kess. "And whose fault is that?"

Kess gave her a look like she was crazy and pulled the coveralls from her shoulders to shed it entirely. "When did I ever get a chance to meet Skywalker?"

"He's all over the rotting base. I just walked by him in the Council Building yesterday," Joanne squeaked. "It's not like you can't wander into the complex next door and conveniently eat lunch at the caf outside Rogue Group."

"And then what?" Kess laughed, swiveling around on the comm desk chair. "Ask him for his autograph?"

Joanne crunched on more snacks. "I'm sure Kayla's got ideas for a good pick up line."

Yana muttered a wiser suggestion. "Or you could just ask him about this last treaty."

Kess grumbled as she turned to the comm and checked her message. "I've got my eye other things besides the man's politics."

Joanne dropped her head on the back of the couch. "D'you hear that, Yana? She admits it!"

Yana glanced over from her work with a sparkle in her eye. "I heard it," she assured maturely.

The message was from Nik wanting her to comm no matter how late it was. Kess hadn't spoken to her brother in months but that wasn't unusual. The request for her to comm back in what was likely the middle of the night for him gave Kess reason to worry.

Kess only half-glanced back at her roommates. It was a good thing Kayla wasn't over tonight or the Jedi battering would continue for hours. Kess shrugged it off and typed in her brother's comm number.

The screen flickered as Nik's sleepy eyes and brown hair came clear enough to bring a smile to her face. "Heya, Nikolai. What's up?"

"Hey, sis." He rubbed his palm over his face to wake himself and spoke softly as to not wake up the baby. "Dad sold the homestead."

Kess nodded, hiding a twinge of disappointment. The family home carried many happy ancient memories, but more bad recent ones. Dad was forced into retirement shortly after she left home and had been looking to downsize for some time now. "We knew that was coming."

Nik rummaged around his comm desk on the other side of the screen. "We moved all the stuff out last weekend." He found a data chip and reached to the side of the screen to plug it in. "You probably don't remember, but Auntie Kaylie used to give us photocaps to play with when we were really little. I found one of your chips."

"I remember." Kess smiled softly at the vague memories and wondered if she should tell Nik about Lokey's request to redesign a lightsaber. She realized she didn't have to ask her brother for his opinion. She already knew what his response would be: 'Do it! Do it! Do it!'

She also knew what her dad's response would be.

She rattled her head at this. "You wanted me to wake you up so you could show me pictures of blurry noses and the walls of the house?"

Nik grinned as he punched at controls on the side of the screen. "No, actually, you got a snapshot of something a little more interesting." He started thumbing through the photos, which showed up in a window insert in the corner of her barrack's comm screen. Blurry faces, white washed walls, a half of mom's mouth in a smile . . .

Kess scratched her earlobe and waited for the punch line. "You really gotta get off that rock if this is the kind of thing that keeps you up at night."

Nik's mouth curled to a half-grin as he focused on his own little corner to see the slide show. "Have you met Skywalker yet?"

"Not you too," Kess groaned.

Nik grinned devilishly, "You are on the same system as the guy."

"You guys act like he's a damn sports star or something," Kess complained.

Joanne called from the couch. "Yeah, but you're the only one of us that's a fan."

"Ah. Here it is." Nik stopped the slide show at a specific picture.

The snapshot was taken at a steep angle downward. White washed walls and the foot of an arched alcove were in the background. There was enough of the neatly swept concrete floor to show the black-painted design spreading from the courtyard to the living room. Kess remembered balancing the white zigzag like it was a tightrope and jumping on the big orange dots to play hopscotch.

The foreground was, of course, her own pudgy baby leg, naked and baked golden brown by the desert sun. A little shiny black shoe with little ruffled white socks dangled freely against the hip of the man that was holding her. The man's body wore an ivory tunic, brown cloak, and leather belt.

"Sweet sandy!" She burst to smile. "Is that Grandpa?"

Nik nodded deep. "Now I've got your attention." He thumbed to the next snapshot and waited, watching her reaction through the comm.

The next shot was a moment only a split second after the first, more of the body and less of the house. Her baby-fat knee had shifted and the black shoe was now a blur of action, but the left half of the Grandpa's torso was more in view. A utility belt striped across the waist of his pale tunic. His big hand was moving a silver cylindrical weapon to latch home onto his left hip.

It was hard to make out in the blurry shot, but if she didn't know any better . . .

Her head angled. Her eyes narrowed. Her voice squeaked. "Is that what I think it is?"

Nik smiled, his voice dipping deep and playful. "Told you he was a Jedi."

At this, Yana wandered over to look over Kess's shoulder at the photo. Joanne spun around and stood on her knees on the couch to get a peek.

"th— eh— I don't remember ever seeing him with a lightsaber!"

"I told you dad was lying all along."

"But—

"Look at the photo, Kess!"

"Do you ever remember seeing it?"

"No, but," Nik poked his face towards the camera so much that the screen only showed his nose and mouth speaking extra loud and extra slow, "look at the photo."

Yana covered her smiling mouth with her palm and muttered obscenities of shock.

Kess put both palms on her braided head. "That's Grandpa. I recognize the tunic."

Nik settled back in his chair, nodded deeply, his brow arched over his eye. "Yeeaahh."

With a bewildered huff, she dropped her hands to the desk, narrowing her eyes on the shot. "That's a kriffing lightsaber!"

"Yeeaahh."

Now she was interested. "Were there any other shots of it? Or him?"

"No," he deflated. "This is all you got. And I only managed it because Dad didn't know I found it. He wiped out everything else about Grandpa a long time ago."

Kess sobered. She stared at the lightsaber hilt in the snapshot. "I should mention," she started to grin. "I'm taking this fencing class out in town and my teacher wants to start a two-handed sword class, so he wants me to design a lightsaber that doesn't cut arms off."

"Design one from scratch?"

Kess's eyes flicked an 'i***t' look to her brother's image.

His brown eyes lit up like twin suns. He smiled big as he started to cackle but then his adult voice came out in a deep, deadpan, big-brother order. "I want an autograph."

Kess laughed.

"I gotta go to bed," Nik said in a quieter voice, glancing over his shoulder.

Kess waved him off with both hands. "Tell Gina 'hi' and give my nephew a kiss."

Nik nodded and clicked off.

Kess angled her head and sighed deep.

Yana poked her mouth next to Kess's ear to mutter suggestively. "All military personnel have a message comm address in the base directory."

Kess's mouth twisted to the side. She knew that.

Yana sauntered away.

"The worst he could do is say 'no'," Joanne mumbled through a mouthful and switched off the vid.

She knew that too.

In a few minutes, her roommates were gone and Kess finally closed the photo of her grandfather's lightsaber. For a long time, Kess stared at the blank screen.

If I were him, I'd say 'no'.

She wondered what he could see beyond his human sight or what he could feel beyond his human instincts. On what dimension could he detect approaching enemies, or approaching friends? She had dozens of questions about the Force and no one to ask.

At least, that's the way it used to be.

For years, Kess and Nik were told over and over that the Jedi Knights were long gone, killed by Darth Vader because they were too powerful in the Force to live normal lives and too dangerous to the Empire to be allowed to live at all. Dad's opinion on the matter probably would have been different if her mother had not died at the hands of Darth Vader, if her grandmother had not died shortly thereafter, and her grandfather had not abandoned them all amidst the entire familial disaster.

Kess and Nik wrote it off as a loss in the end. There were too many questions and no one to ask. All possibilities were gone before they were born, so there was no use fretting over what they could have been. Nik turned his attentions to chemical processing, Kess turned hers to aeronautic engineering, and their lives went on.

Then Kess watched the NewsNet report on the Battle of Yavin when the tiny rebellion finally kicked the Empire back with a force and blew the Death Star to bits. The report introduced her to a face, a name, and reminded her of a title that no one had spoken in present tense for as long as Kess could remember.

Commander Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight.

Kess paid close attention to the man's accomplishments from day one. She fought off the numerous questions and burning curiosity every time she saw the Jedi on the vid. She wondered if she would ever be able to learn the ways of the Force, wondered if she was Force-sensitive to begin with, and wondered if Luke Skywalker would even care.

Now that a single Jedi Knight had emerged from the galaxy soup and saved the Alliance more than once, Kess found herself asking the same old questions and fretting over the possibilities of what she could have been. She wanted to ask so badly—

Images of an ugly response from her father flashed through her mind.

Her mouth twisted to the side.

That was then. This is now. She wasn't asking for an apprenticeship, nor was she asking any one of her dozens of stupid Force questions. Maybe she would get an autograph attached to his poignant decline.

TO:       Commander Skywalker 144767-SKYW@ROGGRP.MIL

FR:       Lieutenant Shneya 239940-LEND@GLDREP.MIL

RE:       Request of Assistance

Commander,

I am a repair engineer for the Alliance and a student at Lokey's Ground Combat / Fencing, a privately owned and operated group of classes. In the interest of expanding his curriculum, the school's administrator has asked me to design a harmless version of a lightsaber for training.

I write to ask if you would you kindly share a copy of the schematic upon which to base the design. The document will be kept in strict confidentiality. We would appreciate any insight you may give us on this matter.

Thank you for your time.

Lt. Shneya

The light of the comm screen glowed blue on Luke's tired eyes as he scanned his mail. His brow furrowed.

Leaning curiously onto his palm, he read again.

The corners of his mouth began to curl upward at the irony. He hit the key, read the letter, and brows lifted into his forehead.

Amazement splashed an incredulous twinkle in his eye.

Leaning back, he tapped his thumbs on the desktop and he chewed the inside of his cheek with thought. He read the letter a second time and the twinkle turned into a grin.

Luke leaned forward, paused to suppress a full smile, and typed a response.