The Lady Knight

Chapter 4

Kess blew up at her bangs and ignored morning muster. Her mind was just about to drift off to something more interesting, like the floor tiles, when Commander Tolgray's voice sounded out her name. "Lt. Shneya will be going on a repair-in-air for several months."

"I am?" Her own surprised voice broke the silence of Gold Group's eighty-crew audience. Her head jerked like a squirrel alerted to food.

The Commander continued, "LtJG Korbosi will be taking her place as Floor Supervisor during her absence."

"She will?" Kess piped playfully and looked at Kayla Korbosi beside her.

"I am?" Kayla echoed with the same mocking humor.

Commander Tolgray's eyes narrowed on the pair in the back row of the 'class'. "I am confident Lt. Shneya will be able to properly instruct LtJG Korbosi so that the transfer will move smoothly."

"Yes, sir!" Kayla and Kess echoed in unison and gave matching wimpy salutes.

Immediately after muster, Pad 9's repair crew shuffled combat boots across the concrete floor to various broken, gutted and piecemealed Y-wings. Clanking tools echoed against walls until the stone ceiling grumbled aside to let the sound out and the wet heat in. LtJG Kayla Korbosi sauntered across the floor like she was in a party dress instead of a jumpsuit and dropped a datapad on the Kess's desk to punctuate her arrival. "So what's the story on this repair-in-air?"

Kess sighed and shook her head. This side trip was starting to sound really weird. Victims of a temporary transfer usually knew about it before Command announced it at morning muster. And temporary transfers usually didn't happen to Floor Supervisors. This morning, Kess was slapped with a sudden departure and a whole new list of things to do. She was responsible for three Y-wings and six repair engineers. She was already undermanned by one (two if you count that i***t, Geoff) and now she was going to lose Kayla off the floor to fill her spot for an undetermined amount of time. This wasn't going to be easy, and Kess hated having to dump her workload onto her best friend.

Kess rubbed her eyes and met Kayla's patient gaze. "What are you working on right now?"

"Gold Six, hyperdrive alignment." Kayla tucked a magenta thread of hair into the fluffy yellow-blond bob behind her ear and glanced over her shoulder at a pilot strutting by. She smiled sweetly at him and elbowed Kess.

Kess elbowed back and looked, instead, to Gold Six. The the parked Y-wing in the distant corner of the pie-shaped landing hangar. Having her desk out along the wall where the ships were parked made it easier to see what was going on without having to stand up and leave an office. "Okay, you are going to have to drop that until we can find someone to pass it to. You need to follow me around for the next week to catch up on what's going on."

Kayla pointed out, "Captain Shelby won't like waiting for his hyperdrive."

"Captain Shelby won't die without a hyperdrive; he's only doing local watches anyway." She pulled up a stray chair to the side of the desk and patted its fraying seat cover. "I'll tell you what's going on with each issue as we run into it. Grab your datapad. We'll start with the inbox."

Kayla propped her chin on her palm and she watched Kess type into her messages. "What's the temp job all about?"

Kess typed away as she answered, "I report in two days, but they won't tell me to who, and I will be gone between one and four months, but they won't tell me to where."

"I'll bet they don't even know yet," Kayla grunted.

Kess's mail listings appeared on the screen. Fifty-eight messages in the inbox were oddly few, but the inbox was full of over a hundred tasks and complaints with status: unanswered. Trying to decide which b***h to deal with first, Kess heard Kayla's arm drop to the desktop with a thud.

She found Kayla's eyes fixed to the screen and her mouth agape. Kess's eyes followed her friend's arm to the screen until the fingertip rested on a name in the FROM list.

Commander Skywalker

Kess's eyes bulged. She keyed to the entry.

TO:       Lieutenant Shneya 239940-LEND@GLDGRP.MIL

FR:       Commander Skywalker 144767-SKYW@ROGGRP.MIL

RE:       Response to Request

EC:       1 OrCad scat

Lt.

The schematic is enclosed. Please be careful with it.

I would like to see the results.

Skywalker

Kess's mouth fell so far open she could dock a whole X-wing in it.

Kayla whispered wildly. "I cannot believe he actually gave it to you!"

Kess's grin widened as she reread it. "I can't believe he wrote me back!" She keyed to store the schematic and the letter on a datacard.

"You're going to save the letter too?"

Kess's cheeks went pink with giddiness as the file dumped onto a card. "This is worth putting in a scrapbook." She pulled out the precious datacard and slid into the shin pocket of her coveralls.

Kayla snickered, "You know, I think all that snot about your grandfather is a bunch of bantha fodder. You gotta thang, girly girl."

"What I have is a schematic." Kess tucked the datacard away, giddy. "Now I just need an OdCAD program so I can see it too."

Kess spent the next few days racing to prepare her personal affairs for her absence. Not knowing to whom she would be reporting to didn't bother her; she'd find that out when she got there. It was not knowing when she would return that was the pain. But with her roommates' assistance on messages and bills, and Kayla's diligent supervising skills waiting for the chance to blossom, Kess was able to get the 'to do list' down to a dismissive length by the time she arrived at Lokey's class the next week. It felt like she had been running non-stop since the day she found out about the trip. One of the things she hadn't found time for, however, was getting an OdCAD program on which to view the lightsaber schematic.

But at least she had it.

The buzz sounded in her ears before her nerve endings registered the dull blade against her abdomen. That was three, but Kess had gotten the first two. She stepped back, saluted her faceless opponent with the wimpy, metal stick, and stepped off the mat.

Lokey's voice stopped her. "Kess, you're not done yet."

She stopped and looked. The small crowd of classmates gathered near the bench and wall. A man dressed in the same gray fencing outfit as everyone else, including the faceless helmet, stood next to Lokey. The new guy.

Unamused, Kess stepped back onto the mat. She didn't understand Lokey's methods when he paired up students, but he was the instructor. With the mat to themselves, Kess saluted Lot and waited for his return. The figure fumbled to return the salute before he went en guarde.

Kess followed his lead and the duel began. Slowly at first, the man's offensive jabbed in but increased in speed. He had a precision to his aim that gave him the first point in a matter of seconds. Kess stepped back and huffed. When she fought Lot last week, he didn't have such precise aim.

She raised her guard and the man came at her again. He attacked from the left and every swing came with more strength than the previous. Kess defended, block after block, barely stopping the swishing blade at each strike. She raised her guard in time to find it block another swing she didn't realize was coming.

Kess blinked.

His attacks began to come faster. The tactics seemed pre-calculated and soon Kess found herself smoothly defending each swing with confidence. With her pride now returning, she calculated an attack of her own, but for the one instant she dropped her guard to lunge, his sword sunk into her arm, and the buzz echoed through the room.

He stepped back and adjusted his shoulders.

Kess stepped back and furrowed her brow. That's it. I've had it with you!

Kess lunged at him as soon as he was prepared for it, sending him into a wavering back step to defend himself. Kess wouldn't let him take the initiative again. She swung her sword with clean fervor, over and over, repeating the lunges and swings to keep him defensive until he made a mistake.

He kept backing up and Kess found her angle. This guy wasn't thinking about the boundaries of the mat. She made a bet on that and lunged in hard at his chest, hoping he would back up the ten remaining centimetres out of bounds.

Instead, the man jumped. He flipped like a gymnastics pro over her head and landed behind her. By the time it took Kess to gasp, blink, and turn around, a dull sword tip buzzed at her back.

The man squared his shoulders, saluted, and lowered his little sword.

Kess stared. She practiced gymnastics at the gym once a week, and she was pretty good at it, but she had never seen anyone flip that high from a standstill. The reflective helmet safely hid her gaping insult while the man pulled off his. It was Commander Skywalker.

He combed his fingers through his darkening blond hair and gave Kess a friendly smile before turning to the rushing instructor.

Kess pulled off her helmet and tightened her teeth with offense. The unfairness blurted out of her mouth before checking for permission with her brain. "How dare you use the Force on an unarmed person!"

An eyebrow arched back in her direction. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too." He handed Lokey the helmet and sword then turned to her. "And you are . . . ?"

Kess slammed her mouth shut. The first time she saw him in person and she insulted him. She stepped off the mat so others could take their places. She fretted about how she was going to get out of trouble. The default method was, of course, just follow orders. She answered, stiff and humble, "Lieutenant Shneya, sir."

He crossed his arms at his chest and faced her. "Shneya," he echoed as if rolling the name through human memory circuits. "Did you get the schematic?"

Kess cleared her dry throat, "Yes, sir."

He paused for a second, looking at her expectantly. "And?"

Kess felt the burning pricks of nervousness in her feet and hands. She could barely hear the man's voice over the loud thumping in her heart. His blue eyes stared down at her and she was frozen in them. "Well, sir, I haven't b-been able to find an OrCad program to read it on yet . . . sir."

A twinkle of humor began to shine in eyes. "You didn't specify which Cad program you had."

"I d-didn't want to bother you with the details, sir." She found her posture was at attention and tried to relax her shoulders to keep from looking terrified. Always say 'sir', always say 'sir'.

The Commander dropped his arms to his sides and smiled white teeth. He looked at Lokey, patiently waiting for his attention, and quickly back at Kess, "If you were unarmed," he said with a friendly grin, "you wouldn't have lasted that long." He looked at her only a moment longer and turned his shoulders, and his attention, to Lokey.

Kess inhaled at the heat of embarrassment rushing to her face. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh, relieved that the Commander was now involved in a conversation with anyone else.

His voice echoed in her head. Her short-term memory was stuck on blue eyes. She tried a sneaky back step to remove herself from the intense meeting. If she tried further conversation, she would just embarrass herself even more.

Kess snuck a few steps away and forced her hands to relax. She noticed the class members shuffling about to change and go. Kess tucked her helmet under her arm and carried her sword into the locker room.

Before she walked out the door, Kess looked back to catch one last glimpse of him.

Commander Skywalker was standing easy and listening to Lokey with complete interest. He did have blue eyes. It was always hard to tell on the vid, and his hair seemed lighter in person. He smiled quietly at something Lokey said. Kess’s memory took a snapshot of the living legend.

Before it got the better of her, Kess rushed through the door to the lockerroom. Sighing hard, she admitted to herself she would probably never get to see Luke Skywalker in person again.

And she was right. By the time she changed and returned, the training room was empty except for Lokey and Rett.

"Hey, Lokey?" She approached with her bag swung over her shoulder. "I'm not going to be coming back for a while. I've got a temp job topside."

Lokey nodded with a shrug. "You want me to hold your spot?"

Kess shook her head, "No, I don't have a clue when I'm going to be back so I'll just reregister when the time comes, okay?" She paused. "What's with the visit from Jedi Skywalker?"

Rett grinned a little, his rich accent almost unintelligible. "He gave Lokey the twenty questions about the lightsaber schematic."

Kess c****d her head, "But he already gave it to me."

Lokey nodded, "I know, I guess he's just checking up on my intentions. He's got a lot of reasons to be nervous about the thing falling into the wrong hands."

"Yeah, like an entire Empire full of reasons."

Rett grumbled, "It's not like the schematic of a third Death Star. The guy's got to lighten up." After a sigh, he jerked his chin at Kess. "So where are you going?"

Kess shrugged, even if she did know, she had an entire Empire full of reasons why she wouldn't tell anyone. "I guess they'll tell me when I get there." She changed the subject. "I will get the right program and modify that thing for you. I've got your mail address so I'll be in touch."

Lokey responded easily, "Have fun on your trip."

Beside him, Rett smiled at her warmly, "You better come back. I wouldn't want you to leave me paired up with the new guy."

She grinned at Rett, "You'll live."

"Take care."

"See you around." She combed back the kinked hair off her shoulder and turn to the door. "Good night."

The chilly night air felt good on her skin. The street glowed blue-white in spots from the street lamps. The crickets sang a pleasant tune to distract the casual listener away from the deep bass hum of power flowing into the pad complexes. Kess got to the sidewalk and began her stroll back to barracks.

She saw, and spoke with, Luke Skywalker tonight, the only Jedi Knight in existence.

She remembered his eyes and smile, his voice, his words . . . her words . . .

Fumbling like that when you meet a good-looking guy? Her eyes dropped closed and mentally kicked her own butt. This is why you’re still single.