La Fille Qui Pouvait Aimer Sans Cœur

[Eluna Thals]

It was about ten degrees too cool on Cato Nemoidia to warrant the dress she wore. Thin cream-colored fabric from her shoulders to just above the knees, with red rose bloom print accented with green leaves. Better suited on Naboo where she'd bought it, but like a savant youngster freely ignorant of the constraints of fashion, Eluna displayed the sun dress with carefree abandon. The sun was out, and the vista that the bridge city of Zarro afforded was framed beautifully by the titan-sized mesas that supported it's impossible weight. The distance beyond was clear from the usual fog banks, allowing a stunning glimpse of the snow-tipped peaks that faded into a ghost of themselves in the far distance.

With a droid's patience, Eluna waited for the updraft winds at the threshold of the city walkway to dissipate, and cease tossing her red locks every which way. She could tie her now-shoulder-length hair into a ponytail to save the annoyance, but she wanted her hair down. Everything was better that way. So she sat at the small outdoor cafe table, determined to outlast the wind. The Neimoidians and other well-to-dos of the city were behind the glass of the adjacent bistro. Three tables up and down the vista from where she sat remained empty, their parasols wisely drawn in the breezy conditions. Eluna's only company, other than the Twi'lek waiter that hid his annoyance behind an aloof screen, were the three dishes in front of her. A crêpé full of ricaana cheese with fresh meiloorun on top, vanilla gelato with burnt liqueur reduction, and five brightly-arrayed macarons in colors of sunny splendor. One of which was anise - not a flavor she really enjoyed, but she couldn't pass up the shade of roobic-egg blue to go with pastels of yellow, green, and pink in more agreeable flavors.

The cool temperature of the day was at least keeping her gelato from melting, which allowed Eluna time enough for the most tourist of indulgences. She pulled a small holorecorder from her purse and with the intent poise of an artist, snapped multiple holos of each dessert from several angles. The waiter passed by once more, rolled his eyes, and moved on without bothering to ask if the lady required anything further. Satisfied with twenty two still-lifes of dessert, Eluna finally allowed herself to dip her spoon into the chestnut-colored gelato, watching the silken custard hug the spoon's contour even as she artfully rotated it so that the last bit that threatened to become a drip simply crested into an ephemeral loop, a sight that wouldn't last. One more holo clicked, and the spoonful of gelato passed cherry lips. The Machine began it's usual rote analysis of volatile flavor compounds and caloric values, data which was gleefully pushed aside by the Girl who closed her green eyes in bliss as the corners of her mouth turned up at each side of the spoon.

A thought passed in this moment, wholly of the Girl's design. She returned her spoon to the dish, pulling out her holorecorder once again to flick through the latest food pictures she'd taken. The gelato scoop framed by the array of all three desserts on the wrought-iron cafe table. Perfect.

The Girl's smile returned. No. Not perfect at all.

Busy fingers pecked at the touchscreen on the recorder, queuing up the image she'd taken for transmission. The comm frequency was committed to infallible memory. A frequency she'd been waiting to use for weeks but stopped just shy each time. Not this time.

She needed a caption. Nothing as meaningless as Yum would suffice. Something more to the heart of the matter. The Machine was useless here, and even if it did offer something, the Girl knew what she wanted.

Still not as good as your waffles.

SENT, but as the message transmitted, Eluna's green eyes fixed to her fingernails. A chip on the index. Discolored patina where the artifice had given way. A small thing she hadn't even noticed. And something unpleasant at the cuticle, a few shades deeper red than the nail color. Eluna picked at the discoloration, well away from her desserts. The rusty red came away in a few flakes, and the breeze did the rest.

"Would ze Lady care for a news flimsi?"

Eluna looked up at the Twi'lek waiter, who had returned with the peripheral and his ever-present carafe of water. From where he held it, the headline ASSASSIN ON THE LOOSE was clearly visible. A color photograph of her gruesome handiwork. She'd been dreaming again. Seeing violence in afterthought. In the menagrie. From a distance.

Eluna offered a polite smile and a shake of her head. The Twi'lek vanished with the next breeze. Only the next breeze didn't come. A still in the air she'd been waiting for. With the quickness and precision of a droid, the holoprojector was out again. This time, framing her perfectly in the best picture she could manage on the entire planet.

"Wish you were here."

SENT

[Ben Merasska]

"BEN! BEN DON'T YOU DARE!"

Ben shook his head, sighing regretfully and aiming at his erstwhile mechanic and engineer. Shuvin was looking up at him with wide eyes, crouched in a corner and shivering.

"It's too late to apologise," he said, pausing for a moment. "It's too late."

He pulled the trigger.

"AH! BEN! DAMN IT!" Shuvin held out her hand in an attempt to block the spray of water from his soaker gun (NERF OR NOTHING written boldly on the side with a hoverboarding nerf in trainers behind the lettering), but all the movement did was cause the water to splatter everywhere.

"AH HA HA HA HA!" Ben shouted in maniacal laughter, only to notice that the pressure of the water was dying quickly. Both he and Shuvin watched as the water slowly became a trickle and then a dribble. Silence descended for a moment, before Shuvin started giggling. Ben's eyes darted up from the nozzle of the water gun to the Togruta.

"Ah ha ha ha ha?" she asked, standing up and tossing her own empty soaker pistols to the side, still laughing. Ben's mouth curved into a smile and he was soon holding in chuckles also.

"I dunno. Seemed fitting," he said. Shuvin laughed harder, and didn't stop even when Ben tossed her towel into her face.

"We should do this again," Shuvin said.

"Next time I'll make sure they give us extra water we don't have to pay for so we can waste it instead of putting it to good use," Ben answered. Shuvin seemed ready to reply, but the chirping of an alarm broke the moment, and both of them were heading up to the cockpit.

Ben checked the navicomputer, while Shuvin checked the other systems.

"Hey, you have two messages. One from Eluuuuna," Shuvin sang. "She's on Cato Nemoidia; that's not that far out of our way. Oh man that food looks delicious. And she wishes you were there. Ooooooh! She sent selfies!"

"Shuvin," Ben sighed tiredly as he checked the navicomputer for errors for a fourth time.

"The other one is from Palara. She says she needs to see you~" Shuvin hummed and wiggled her hips. "Playa playa!"

Her amusement died down as she continued to read.

"Uh," Shuvin's sudden loss of amusement in her voice caused Ben to turn around. She looked at him with uncharacteristic seriousness. "You should read this."

Ben made his way to the comm panel.

Ben

I need to see you.

I have heard some news about your Uncle that you may not be aware of, and you should be. I do not want to bring up bad memories for you. His death weighs on you still I feel. But I am not asking this lightly.

I may have found another surviving member of your family.

Palara

Ben stared at the message for another moment before shooting off a reply.

Cato Nemoidia. How long?

Fifteen minutes later, a reply:

One day.

[Eluna Thals]

She wondered if he'd video back. Or write back. Maybe just even a picture. Some candid snap of him looking put-upon in the cockpit (and Shuvin photobombing probably). That made her pause, as familiar feelings came back.

I probably won't see him again.

The Girl felt weighed down by the near certainty. It was almost a gravitational constant. I was just a fare, and one that nearly got him killed. Why tempt fate?

And that was knowing that he didn't know.

About her.

The Machine bid her onward. Eluna was half there. She said all the right things. Met all the right people. With processing power limited only in the quantum scale, Eluna lived both realities in superposition. The Agent making important connections on the Imperial-held planet. The Girl and her Machine dragon, her only companion that didn't leave. She lay across the dragon's great belly, spreading terabytes of images on the scaly floor. She picked one up and magnified it. His smile. His eyes. His hands holding hers. The Girl's avatar held her own hands as she looked at the still life. She reached out to touch his hand...

"Oh these are beautiful."

Back to reality. The Girl snapped out of the digital menagerie in time to bring her nose underneath the florist's offering. Brilliant petals and blooms in whites and pastels and vivid hues of indigo and red and impossible yellow. The Machine's gas chromatograph filled the corner of her vision with meaningless data. Chemistry and numbers that couldn't quite explain the je ne sais quoi of a flower.

Eluna thanked the florist and paid for the bouquet. She had just the place for them. The little table on her balcony, big enough for just two people.

She took a picture, just in case he didn't manage to come.

[Shuvin Undhi]

Cato Neimoidia was cold. Shuvin hated cold, and she made sure to tell Ben this repeatedly.

But Ben wasn't focused on her. Instead, he was focused on the communications display, leaning back and staring at it with an almost dead expression. Shuvin didn't like it, and being a woman of action, she decided she'd do something about it.

Thankfully, Cato Neimoidia had a ready made avenue of happiness right there; she just needed Ben to actually take it, and the only way to do that was to force him to do it. Oh, sure, she could play the long game and just facilitate their meetings and see if they fell in love that way, but Shuvin was seventeen years old and didn't have the patience for that. She wanted them in love now.

"Ben, I'm heading out!" she called.

"Don't get pregnant!" he shouted back, causing her to trip on the entrance ramp on her way out. She'd have to think of something to get him back with. That had been a good one. She tightened up her coat, a thick fluffy nerfhide number that she was pretty sure Ben had stolen from a derelict ship's cargo, and pulled out a small flip open holoreceiver she'd saved for months to get. She could even choose different settings, like a hologram, a two dimensional high definition image, or simply a voice communication channel with added voice encryption. It was basically to enable extra-marital affairs, she could tell, but it made it useful for other covert activities as well. Keying in Eluna's frequency, Shuvin held up the receiver and smiled brightly when Eluna's tiny holographic image popped up.

"Hey Eluna!" she said. "Listen, it's cold and I hate cold. But me and Ben have stopped over on Cato Neimoidia to take care of some business, and I have some free time, and well I can't miss the chance to talk to you now that we're here!"

[Eluna Thals]

He came!

The Girl was doing cartwheels, giddy and carefree atop the Machine, who was left to smooth it all over. Act natural, the Girl practically pushed the Machine along as she threw all of the digital images around her synthetic space like the greatest confetti.

Eluna smiled, a warm expression to keep out the cold. By now she'd managed to buy a white pea coat and a burgundy beret to keep up with the weather and the local fashion.

"Hi Shuvin." and then the Girl took the wheel in tandem with the Machine, happy to see the Togruta in better health than when she'd left.

He saw my message, he came because I asked him, he can't stop thinking about me.

Each impulse rebuked by the Machine, and for itemized reasons. Pages of reasons.

I know I can't say it, the Girl rolled her eyes. Shuvin has free time. Ben has...Ben problems. Probably. Hustling fuel and fares. Looking over his shoulder. Blurting out "Nothing!" when someone asks whats up.

You want to go to the patisserie? The Machine reminded her how recently she'd sent a picture of dessert. Dialogue deleted.

"How long are you on planet? We could"

The Machine extrapolated possible outcomes, derived from the data known about Shuvin Undhi and the possible recreational activities on Cato Neimoidia that might elicit an affirmative reaction. Seventeen positive responses to the male physical form. Twelve humorous anecdotes. One act of droid miming.

"go to the Haako Art Museum."

The transition on the outside was seamless. Inside, the Girl made a face. So a bunch of nude paintings? Subtle. The Machine stood by it's statistics without the need for passion. The Girl hastily edited at the end.

"Or get some caf or something. I wanna hear all about where you've been!"

[Ben Merasska]

The comm chirped, and Ben started, his fingers flying to the controls and activating the vidscreen faster than he had ever remembered being able to before.

"Palara," he said. She looked tired.

"Ben," she answered, a small smile on her face. "It 'as been too long."

"What was it you needed to tell me?" he asked, and saw her smile dim.

"Zis is not 'ow we should speak of zese things," the twi'lek answered. "I 'ave some business to take of, but afterwards I will contact you and tell you everyzing I know."

Ben leaned back.

"That is not what I wanted to hear," Ben said. "Where are you?"

"Ben —"

"I'll walk around asking about you if you don't tell me."

She sighed lowly.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"That sounds great!" Shuvin enthused, not quite sure about an art museum, but hey, she could be classy sometimes. "Maybe later I can take you back to the ship so you can say hi to Ben!"

The walk to the art museum was longer than she thought, but she didn't mind one bit; this was a tourist town all right, and the chilly weather meant that she just took a little longer imagining herself taking the clothes off some of the boys she saw than usual.

Eluna was easy to spot, her red hair dancing in the wind. It made Shuvin a bit jealous, but she passed it off quickly.

"Hey, Eluna!" she called. "I've never been to an art museum before! If we can get some caf to warm up and then head in though; I'm not used to these chilly places."

[Eluna Thals]

Core Temperature 97.3 degrees

"Oh Shuvin, you must be freezing."

Eluna offered the Togruta her pea coat as they took a short segue to the rolling cart in front of the museum selling caf. The HRD paid for her friend's drink and her own, pausing to make sure her own caf was well-saturated by numerous sugar sachets.

"What brings you to Cato Neimoidia? Got a big fare on your hands?"

The Machine suggested the question, which the Girl was already planning to ask. The dragon was being helpful today.

How's Ben?
How's Ben?
How's Ben?
How's Ben?
How's Ben?

The Girl pushed with all her eager might, not wanting to wait another second.

"How's Ben?"

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin ginned slyly as Eluna asked the question she'd been obviously wanting to ask since the holocall.

"Well, Ben's here taking care of some family business I guess. I think his Uncle died or something? Maybe he has to take care of the funeral. He seems pretty stressed."

Shuvin stopped talking as they entered the museum. A naked man was standing right in the entrance, with a sign next to him, reading:



Performance Art - Man will stand still for twelve hours


"I like art," Shuvin said, eyeballing the naked golden hued man. "And I guess I'd say that man is... statuesque."

Her eyes drifted lower, and she shook her head.

"Anyway, I'm sure he'd love to talk with you. Hey, how about after this we head over to the ship and say hi?"

She glanced over smugly, keen to see how Eluna would react to the invitation.

[Eluna Thals]

News that Ben had lost a relative caused a momentary aversion of Eluna's eyes.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." she whispered.

The Girl inside imagined Ben at the cusp of rotten news. Where he'd be. How he'd feel. A thought appeared in digispace, a single unguarded image of Ben in a moment of hurt. The Girl's digital avatar stared up at the captured instant with limpid eyes of red-hued light packets.

Core body temperature 98.4... she whispered sadly in digispace, remembering every detail that made him happy and sad.

Flowers. Lillies recommended.

The Machine spoke with utility, breaking hold of her infinite reverie loop, and directing it into useful action. The previous florist had been marked on her positioning grid. Niilka's Bouquets - comm frequency 493.33.399.4

Open communication?

Yes The Girl nodded resolutely. She would take the hurt away.

Placing order. Searching local hangars for Ghtroc-720 freighters. One found.

No name on the card. She wanted to tell him it was her. That she was there. But she couldn't. Not yet.

Eluna blinked. Right in the midst of exposed manhood in what was thankfully a heated museum. The Girl within glowed bright red in blush, with some of the rouge manifesting itself in the HRD's outer appearance. She'd certainly expected marble statues or oil paintings with the classical male form, but a living display...

"This is art?" Eluna balked in an unguarded bit of the Girl's own words. Her cherry lips tilted with her side-eye in skepticism, even as the Machine clinically pulled up artistic examples of precedent that helped to provide justification. Hah! The Machine telling the Girl how to appreciate art? The Girl rolled her eyes through all of the terrabytes of data.

"Why's he...gold?"

Biometric scans on Shuvin registered a buildup in core body temperature, deviation most noteable in Togrutan erogenous zones...

I know I know she likes boys that was the point, but why is he gold???

Insufficient data

Shuvin's data was much more relevant to the Girl's interests, and she discarded her previous spat with the machine to finally peel her eyes away from a golden penis.

"He would?"

Eluna's smile fixed to her face as she took in a big breath, her nose crinkling slightly with delight she didn't hide. The Machine reminded the Girl of Ben's previous bad news, and the smile diminished a little.

"Oh." Worry etched on her face. "It wouldn't be awkward would it? With, you know..."

[Ben Merasska]

"What do you mean it'll be a day or so? Palara, I understand you have some big important job or something, but I gotta make a living here. I can't be parked for too long or I won't have the money stay parked, but I'll also not have enough to keep flying."

Palara's holographic image huffed.

"You are not doeengkh zat badly."

Ben shrugged.

"Maybe not. But the principle of the thing remains or whatever that philosophical guy you quoted last time we talked said. Besides," he paused. "I know this is a kindness you're doing me. But I don't want to weigh on you any more than I have to. Any news about Den is something I can't put aside lightly. I'll take what I can get."

Palara remained silent for a moment, looking at him with that horribly thoughtful, calm look she got sometimes when she wasn't so troubled. Even despite the miniature hologram displayed over the galley table he could clearly tell that was the particular expression she had. She looked back quickly.

"I'll let you go," he said quietly. "I might go insane if I wait too much longer, but I can't force you to do me a kindness and expect more later."

He moved to cut the connection.

"Ben. I promise you, I will tell you as soon as I 'ave finished 'ere."

He smiled.

"Just let me know."

Palara nodded, and her image winked into non-existence. Ben leaned back and sighed deeply, before looking around himself and reaching towards the holoprojector once more.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Oh, I think you'll help take his mind off of it," Shuvin answered brightly. "Come on! If this is any indication of the rest of the museum, I can't wait to check it out."

Just a bit too late to be serendipitous, Shuvin's comm buzzed angrily, and she held it up in front of her as she drank in one final look at the man's naked body.

"Ben!" Shuvin said, "Hold on, I'll bring you up on holo."

Ben's image blinked blue and static riddled above Shuvin's device a moment later.

"Hey, SHuvin. What are you up to?"

"Oh, just catching up with Eluna," Shuvin answered. "Here, say hi!"

She turned to offer Ben a glimpse of the red head.

"Oh. Hi there Eluna. Hope you're doing well."

Ben's holographic image, which was just his head, blinked and smiled genuinely, even if it was also a bit awkward.

[Eluna Thals]

"Ben!"

Eluna's voice was unguarded joy a few decibels higher than museum decorum. It turned heads, but the Girl simply smiled it away as she brushed back a trace of her hair over an ear. She watched the Alderaani flicker in microcosm, realizing a moment later that he'd been superimposed over the artistically-questionable golden phallus behind him!

"Oops!"

A grimace flashed over her features, filled in by a blush as Eluna averted her eyes momentarily. When she returned them back to Ben, she had her moment. Her beautiful, unadulterated moment. Her - smiling at him. Him - smiling at her.

"Hey."

The Machine calculated 4,932 more optimal things to say than hey, but the Girl was somewhere else and beyond.



"Oh. Hi there Eluna. Hope you're doing well."


The Girl watched him fill her world in blue glow, spellbound like a stargazer under the aurora. Forget living sculptures or whatever that was before. This was art. His features flickered and danced through signal fidelity, lines and errant snow giving them an impressionist painter's dream lens. It wasn't a chance expression.

Freeze.

The Girl called up to the Dragon, who held Ben Merasska frozen in the perfect moment of his smile's apogee.

Magnify.

Every minute detail filled the digiscape sky. Light accents became star constellations, shadows were mysterious expanses of ether. The Dragon remained immovable as a mountain behind her, and the Girl stared into the heavens of her desire's creation. A red-hued hand reached out, tracing Ben's constituent pixels one by one. Caught in the moment, and with her only company being the Dragon, the Girl began to sing.

There. On his face. That smile do you see?
Look at it Dragon, that one’s just for me.

The terrabytes at her command opened up Ben's vault, scattering hundreds of past pictures of Ben in stolen observation of that one perfect expression.

His eyes take in the light
And his dimples sit just right

The Girl pulled down handfuls of examples, and every scrap of common data for her Machine Dragon to see. Pupil dilation, facial mapping. If he couldn't feel, he could measure!

Check his temperature you’ll see
Ninety-eight point six three

The Dragon pulled at the common thread binding dozens of captured smiles, to which the Girl crossed her arms and nodded with authority.

The data's mode is quite important
Don’t round don’t and don’t ignore it

Now preaching fully to the Machine, the Girl clasped both digital arms over her heart.

Love’s an exothermic song sung in degree

And spinning, she cast determined eyes back to the Constellation of Ben.

I’ll sing to Ben Merasska watch and see

Snapped back to the real world in a nanosecond, Eluna held fast to that first awkward hey, the surety of her inner voice and desire so lost in translation to him. What should she say? What should she do? She could be anyone for any other person, and she was thrilled and scared at the chance to be herself for him.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Shuvin, it looks like we'll be here for a day or two. Did you manage to list out the parts we need to get?"

"Ben, why is it always work with you?" Shuvin sighed, as she rolled her eyes towards Eluna. "You need to get out and have some fun."

"I'm having plenty of fun right now, Shuvin. Time of my life. Woohoo. Did you?"

"Yeah yeah," Shuvin said absently, her attention taken by the way a semi holographic two dimensional image wavered as if the nude man were really walking. "Check in the parts bay. I think it's by one of the good cubbies."

"Well, I have my night —"

"Oh no you don't have your night planned. Eluna's been through one the scariest things we've ever gone through, and you're going to be there when she and I get back!" Shuvin turned the device to the side and winked at Eluna. "If you're going anywhere, it's to buy drinks and food for the party we're having to celebrate our reunion!"

Ben's holographic image looked bemused.

"So you want me to sit around doing nothing while you stare at pictures of naked men like you do in your cabi—"

"Oh no, gotta go. Bye Ben! See you in a few!" Shuvin shut off the device and grinned at Eluna. "The question is now whether we continue to feast our eyes here or head back to the ship. There's plenty of daylight and I'm sure Ben's going to go do whatever boring stuff he was planning on doing in the first place. The man needs to calm down and live a little."

She shook her head and adjusted a lekku.

"On the way back we can do a little shopping! I saw some of the most gorgeous jackets on the way over here. If it weren't for all the Neimoidians around, I'd love this place!"

She paused and thought for a second.

"I just sounded a little racist there, didn't I?"

[Eluna Thals]

"Huh?"

Eluna flinched, snapping the enraptured smile off her face as she suddenly realized Shuvin was speaking to her. Inside, the Machine stirred, swatting it's tail at the Girl's elaborate obsession, knocking images and data away into a shower of constituent code.

New data received.

Oh! The Girl panicked, bringing up the last few moments of relevant audio from Shuvin.



"Ben, why is it always work with you? You need to get out and have some fun. Yeah yeah, check in the parts bay. I think it's by one of the good cubbies. Oh no you don't have your night planned. Eluna's been through one the scariest things we've ever gone through, and you're going to be there when she and I get back! If you're going anywhere, it's to buy drinks and food for the party we're having to celebrate our reunion! Oh no, gotta go. Bye Ben! See you in a few! The question is now whether we continue to feast our eyes here or head back to the ship. There's plenty of daylight and I'm sure Ben's going to go do whatever boring stuff he was planning on doing in the first place. The man needs to calm down and live a little. On the way back we can do a little shopping! I saw some of the most gorgeous jackets on the way over here. If it weren't for all the Neimoidians around, I'd love this place! I just sounded a little racist there, didn't I?"

"A party?" Eluna's smile was almost a grimace. Equal parts elation and terror. "What should I wear? What does he like? Is my hair okay?"

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin grinned.

"Eluna, honestly, you'd knock his boots off right now. When I said party I mean a little get together, you know? Just us. nothing to get nervous over." Shuvin's grin turned into a sly smile. "You really like Ben, dontcha? Ah, don't try and hide it from me, sister. I'm a hound who can scent the slightest twinge of love!"

[Eluna Thals]

Was she so transparent? This was a disaster! The Girl buried her head in her hands.

I'm an idiot. I can speak Rodian, Trandosha, Cizeri, Binary, and Huttese, but I try and shut up not say what I mean and now I put my foot in my mouth!

The Machine responded with a bwrrt, a sound the Girl knew was consternation in the face of something she said.

Not LITERALLY a foot, I'm just...why am I so bad at this?

Raising her head out of her hands, she looked back at the Dragon with irritation.

We lie to people All The Time, Dragon! Can't you get her off my track? She'll tell that I'm in love with Ben! She'll ruin everything!

But you are in love. The Machine rumbled neutrally. You just said so.

I KNOW, OKAY! The Girl threw her hands up in frustration. But if Ben finds out I am, then it's all over!

Then how does love function as a social construct? The digital krayt dragon tilted it's massive green head askew with curiosity. Is mutual dissemination of intentions and data not required?

Yeah, the Girl admitted tentatively, but it's timing! If I say it now and it's too early and maybe he hasn't figured it out himself, then he might think I'm too fast. He might think I'm weird! Oh God...

The Girl paused, a despairing look on her face.

...I AM weird! I'm a quantum intelligence engram in a really really lifelike computer. And wow, when he figures that part out...

Fully resigned, the Girl fell forward onto the Dragon's belly, burying her head again.

I understand. The Machine rumbled. Preparing categorical denial.

"I don't like Ben." Eluna blinked, shaking her head.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Now she'll think I don't like him at all!

Is this not your intent?

No! The Girl rolled over to face the looming Dragon's head, kicking her legs in frustration. I just...don't make it obvious!

Modifying response.

"But I don't not like him either." Eluna finished replying, doing her best to keep a straight face and avoid eye contact with Shuvin's uncanny sense.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Uh huh," Shuvin answered, her eyes fixed on the well presented backside of a male human leading a woman with brown hair down into another hall. "I get it. Totally."

It was obvious she wasn't listening.

"Anyway, are you good for dropping by the ship and staying for a little bit? Ben's always: 'Don't buy strange magic things from shady people, even if it would go great with the dress you're wearing.' Or, 'You can't go out tonight Shuvin even though we've been flying for weeks, you might die.'"

She laughed a little bit at her horrible Ben impersonation.

"I know he's just trying to keep me safe, but sometimes I can go months without even holding a cute guy's hand, much less get a kiss or even some quick nookie out of the deal."

[Eluna Thals]

Fortunately, Eluna realized that her panicked floundering had largely gone unnoticed by the easily-distracted Togruta. The Girl settled down at that, and listened to Shuvin speak her mind.

"I'd love to spend time with you, absolutely. Cato Neimoidia is gorgeous. Maybe I can even convince Ben to make a night out of things? Go out on the town, relax, see the sights, maybe get a bite to eat."

Eluna paused, considering the pecuniary limitations. Tramp freightering didn't leave one with heavy pockets.

"I'll pay. My treat. Whatever you want to do, really."

Inside, the Girl began to cobble together The Perfect Night, pulling waypoints from Haako City's map for possible future use, preparing a list of restaurants for possible reservations. At the same time, she ran a few fingers through her hair, glancing down at her red locks with a frown.

"You're sure my hair's okay? And what I'm wearing?"

The Machine tried to ward off this dialogue tree as a redundancy, but the Girl needed to make sure.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"You're thinking waaaay too much about this," Shuvin said, laughing a bit while she tried to soothe Eluna's nervousness. "Ben's been around girls who've worn much less, and much more. Honestly, it's not what you're wearing, it's how it's presented, you know?"

Shuvin smiled.

"And you know how to present. Don't worry so much. If you're awkward, you'll make Ben awkward, and no one beats Ben at being awkward."

[Eluna Thals]

"I have a confession to make, Shuvin."

The Girl was in complete control now, and all her nerves were on display as she clutched at her own hands at her middle. No sense in trying to smokescreen Shuvin. The girl already knew. Now she'd have to make the Togruta an ally in her quest...

...or kill her and keep her mouth shut.

That's a joke. No, I don't need a Togruta anatomical overlay, put that away.

"I'm not exactly good at this."

A furtive little smile disappeared as soon as it began, and Eluna averted her eyes.

"The last boy I even...you know. I was younger than you are. I mean, I can fake it and be ooh la la if that's what it takes, but I don't want to be fake, I want to be me, and I don't even know what that means anyway."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Eluna," Shuvin said with barely restrained laughter, "I think Ben's been out of the game longer than both of us. Really, it's him who needs the help. I think you need to just send him a note or something. 'You are invited to a Seduction. Please wear clothing you'd like to be seduced in. And bring candy.' Being yourself means exactly that. It doesn't matter if you know who you are; you are who you are whether you know it or not, so just be the adorable, uncertain, foodie, lady of mystery you are. And if you like Ben..."

Shuvin's smile dimmed a bit.

"Just let him know. It doesn't have to be some star-crossed moment. If I know Ben he'll probably try to drown out his own feelings with work until he can get a handle on them. But don't wait. Because, who knows? It might be the last time you see him. And you wouldn't want him never knowing, right?"

[Eluna Thals]

Well that hit home.

Eluna's mouth parted a bit, showing how even the thought of that possibility wounded her. And Shuvin was right. How close had they gotten to the brink before? Shuvin had nearly died before, but that shot could have easily have been for Ben.

Or for her.

No sense in being arrogant, her job was dangerous, and she put herself in harm's way nearly every day. What if she died before she worked up the courage to tell him?

Or worse, what if she lost his data completely? Lost that way he made her feel, and she'd go the rest of her days with a hole in the middle of her and never even know what she'd had to miss.

0.0422%

The number appeared before the Girl, large as a monolith. She didn't need to ask the Dragon to know what it represented.

That's the odds that all of this is going to work.

The Girl knelt down against those large glowing green digits, leaning against the percentage sign. The odds made her feel even smaller, an insignificant rebellion against empirical evidence.

But still...

In her red glowing hand, the Girl held a spark of blue that wouldn't go away. Those few perfect pixels. Two eyes. A smile. His smile.

"Core body temperature 98.63 degrees."

He felt it too. He had to. The Girl held that perfect moment of frozen time close to her.

She'd made her decision.




"You're right."

Eluna relented to the Togruta girl, and the moment the words were out of her mouth she couldn't contain her smile.

It kept growing, because to hell with the odds.

[Palara Iscandar]

"Ze smugglers crossing ze borders are using Cato Neimoidia as a staging point," Palara said. "You will enforce ze guidelines I have given you, or else I will return and with a new Moff of ze Empress's choosing 'oo will be much more amenable to containing ze situation on Corellia."

The Moff and his aides bristled in injured pride, but the twi'lek Imperial Knight remained unperturbed by their posturing. Perhaps it was the lightsaber hilts on her hips that underscored how dangerous she was; or maybe it was the Imperial Intelligence agents flanking her that impressed upon them that the most feared elements of the Imperial establishment were working together to contain the haemorrhaging of influence and power.

"Understood?"

The Moff frowned and swiped his hand through the air.

"For the moment I will go along with this," he said. "But do not think for a moment that I have no influence with Her Imperial Majesty myself. She will be hearing of this trampling of my authority."

"I am an extension of 'Er Majesty's will," Iscandar replied. "To refuse me is to refuse ze Empress 'erself."

She turned and marched out of the office, followed by the Intelligence agents.

"Knight Iscandar," the highest ranking agent said, out in the foyer. "I don't much like that man. Are you certain we shouldn't...?"

He trailed off, miming a blaster with his hand and putting it up to his temple.

"After I leave, you may do what you like wit' 'im," she said. "Just keep in mind zat anozzer dead Moff will not necessarily be in our best interests."

"Oh yes, of course," the agent responded. "He just... he doesn't seem like someone I want to deal with."

Iscandar let out a long breath through her nostrils and shook her head.

"Well, I believe we have this under control now," the agent said brightly. "Thank you very much for your time, Madame Knight. People like you give me hope for the Empire's future."

Palara simply nodded and walked out of the Moff's palace and into the chill Cato Neimoidian air. Bringing out her comm link, she keyed Ben's frequency into the device and couldn't help but smile at the sound of Ben's breathless voice on the other end.

"Please tell me you're done with your business."

"I am. I must change before I meet you, 'owever."

"You do? Wh- never mind. I'm sure I wouldn't understand. I'm going to get some parts for Alderaan. Let me know when you're on your way and I'll let you know where I am."

"Of course. And Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't be so nervous. I will not bite you."

She laughed as Ben shut down the connection, but her mirth dimmed as she realized she had missed the smuggler, and thought once more about how different her life could have been.

[Ben Merasska]

He threw on a thick sweater and pulled his jacket on over it, ran a hand through his hair, and left the ship.

He returned to get the list of parts they needed.

By the time he found it and was leaving the ship again, his commlink was buzzing.

"Speak quickly," he said dramatically. "For I tire of these games!"

The laugh that echoed tinnily from the link told him that it was Palara.

"Where are you, Ben?"

"I'm just leaving the ship," he said. "Forgot the list when I went out the first time and took forever finding it."

"It was in ze galley, no?"

She hadn't been on the ship in something like months, but could still remember little details like the places he always looked in last.

"Sitting by the hot top," he sighed.

"You probably thought it was ze grocery list again."

"Yeah. That's what happened. Anyway I'm heading down..." he stopped.

"...you don't know where ze parts you are looking for are sold, do you?"

"Nope," he said, looking around. "Today I'm platinum."

"Fortunately for you, I 'ave a passing familiarity with zis area. Describe your surroundings."

"Uh," Ben looked around himself again. "I see the entrance to the commercial starport off in the distance behind me. I'm standing on what looks like duracrete, but it might be just be really well worn stone. The sky is... blue? Bluish? It's foggy. I am looking at a very annoyed Neimoidian. I think he thinks I'm loitering. I am loitering. I'm a loiterer. There's a bunch of storefronts, looks like commercial clothing, a pawn shop, okay, someone else is glaring at me; it's not a pawn shop, it's a high end reseller. Only quality goods bought and sold there I'm sure. There's a... is that a sandwich shop? Huh."

"Ben. I believe I know where you are. Please, stop talking. Go, get yourself a sandwich. I shall be zere shortly."

Ben hadn't quite managed to get his first bite of his sandwich by the time Palara arrived, which was a good thing because she wore a dress. An actual dress. It looked thick enough to keep her warm, but she was wearing a stiff-necked jacket also, and despite the fact she had no skin showing beneath her jawline, there was still something undeniably sensual about the outfit. Maybe it was the cut that managed to make the thick fabric show off the lines of her body. Or maybe it was her.

"I would 'ave zought you'd 'ave finished by now," she said, sitting across from him, a small satisfied smile on her face.

"I had a hard time understanding what I could order. These guys enjoy bug sandwiches." He took a bite and looked at the sandwich. "Hey, these are pretty good."

"I am sure it is," she said with a smile. "Where is Shuvin?"

"She's out somewhere," Ben answered, focusing on his food so he wouldn't be caught staring at the stitching of her jacket that curved around her chest. "We got a call from a fare we had a while back. Shuvin's probably out with her. Or... well, for my peace of mind, let's say Shuvin's out with Eluna."

"And you?" Palara asked, looking at him intently. Ben shrugged a bit self consciously.

"Doing as well as I could be all told."

Palara fixed him with an unimpressed look.

"Maaaaybe I've been laying low for a while. After what happened at Rhen Var—"

Palara's eyes sharpened.

"Per'aps we should talk as we go, Ben," she said. "You 'ave finished with your food, yes?"

Ben nodded and stood, moving to pick up the wrapper and paper squares.

"Let zem take care of zat. For zose prices zat seems fair."

Ben huffed a laugh, but allowed her to take his arm and lead him out of the store. He glanced down at her arm looped through his.

"Like zis, it seems like you are my attendant. A scruffy and rough one, but where we are going zat is not so much of a problem."

They walked down the avenue, and Ben noticed with amusement that he got far fewer looks with Palara at his side than he'd received standing by his lonesome.

[Eluna Thals]

It started with a necklace.

Sinduurian sky pearls, arrayed on the mannequin's neck in the shop front. Each not-quite spherical. Each with the haunting, changeable color of the aurora borealis of it's namesake planet. And at a mere 150 credits, each were most assuredly fake.

But still. Eluna's palm pressed against the glass as passed by the shop, and her fingertips squeaked along it's peerless surface an inch as the reason of her footsteps did battle against the fingerprints of her desire.

The fingers won. Eluna took Shuvin by the hand to keep her from walking past, and they both entered the shop. Five minutes later, she had a strand of fake jewels whose changeable nature in the light could read from blue to green to yellow against her eyes.

"Help me put these on." Eluna asked, realizing as she did so that it was a silly thing to say. She had a savant's capability in matters of combat and tradecraft, and she needed her Togruta friend's help to negotiate a little clasp underneath red hair?

It may have been silly, but Eluna needed Shuvin for her company through the ritual. Someone to tell her she was pretty, even if she wasn't. Or to tell her she was being ridiculous, even if she was...well...being ridiculous. And she was! And that was so much fun, even though she felt like she'd float away on a cold breeze if she stepped outside. Shuvin had told her to be herself, but who was Eluna Thals? Up until now, she'd only been what she'd allowed herself to be...timid and half there. The other as someone else's fiction.

"What do you think?"

Eluna turned from the mirror to face Shuvin, fingers tracing along the stones now visible just below her collar line. She pivoted left and right slightly, trying to accentuate the dreamy way the light changed depending on how they hit the pearls. And then...the little details. The complications. Eluna's smile dropped a little.

"It doesn't match."

Fingers tapped at pearls nervously.

"I need a dress."

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin frowned, one hand going to her chin as she appraised the woman in front of her.

"You do," she said, nodding. "The thing is, the dress needs to be able to match the colors of the pearls in different light. There's pretty much only one color that matches everything."

Shuvin rested one hand on her hip and cocked herself to the side, looking over out the window at the storefronts that beckoned to them, and in one sat a black dress. It seemed too classy in Shuvin's opinion; not enough pizazz or eye grabbing elements, but on Eluna... she smiled.

"It's been too long since I've shopped for something I don't need," the teen said with the seriousness of a male lead confessing his love for the woman at the end of a romantic holo. "And you are perfect for trying on dresses."

She spun smartly, nearly knocking over an attendant walking by, and pointed at the clothing store.

"There are clothes we need to try on! Men to ensnare with our beauty and charm! Mostly our beauty! Come on, Eluna, we're wasting time!"

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna was all smiles as she took Shuvin's hand to cross the street. As they came upon the perfect little black dress, a weird thought crossed the Girl's mind.

Am I being used?

Well, not used in the sense of something dark and ulterior. More like a happy used. Vicarious. Like if Palpatine's Monster had been put together in a lightning-flecked workshop tower in order to execute order 66 on all the boys' hearts.

And Shuvin was a really good Palpatine. The Girl winced. Okay this was a stupid analogy but Shuvin was really good at what she was doing. She not only picked out a dress that wasn't too sheer or too stiff, but she also picked one out that did a bit more than project the basic blank canvas look that a black dress often did. This one had a light fade at the middle, a dusting of almost platinum color before the material went black again.

The most uncanny part of all was that the Togruta had simply gone up to the rack, rifled through three dresses of the same design, and pulled out her exact size without giving it a second glance.

The Machine wasn't impressed. Spatial awareness was something you either had or you didn't, but the Girl knew how rare the gift was when you weren't part computer.

"How'd you know?" The look on Eluna's face evolved from surprise to glee, mouth going from slightly agape to a full pearly-white grin.

She's been planning on doing this for a while.

Which, the Girl had to admit, was a diabolical masterstroke worthy of Palpatine after all.

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin leaned forward, her right eye closed and her fingers forming a box around her left. Her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth and she nodded.

"I have to have some secrets, Eluna. Like what I really want in a man, or how I manage to get my bootylicious leggings on."

She giggled, and turned to a rack of jackets.

"Back before I knew Ben, I... did some work with a Cizerack clothier. I liked her, even if she was hard on me, because she actually taught me what she wanted me to do. She eventually managed to find someone else and I... moved on."

She pulled out a jacket and held it up to the redhead before shaking her head and putting it back on the rack.

"I forgot almost everything else but estimating sizes though. I can find you something, but repair a hem? Sew a button on correctly so it's not all wonky and offset?" she let out a 'pffft'. "Not a chance. Helps me find good clothes in thrift stores when the need comes up."

She grinned.

"Don't look, but one of the stocking boys has his eye on you." She frowned and looked down at herself, ran her hands down her sides, and looked in a mirror, before unsubtly eyeing the other woman's breasts and obviously comparing her own. She smiled wistfully. "Some girls get all the luck."

[Eluna Thals]

Of course she'd seen him too. The Machine never let a casual glance go wasted, and it had already run his face through the usual list of kill targets, persons of interest, and Alliance agents or assets. He thankfully didn't check on any of those lists, and the Machine dismissed him summarily as Civilian - no threat status.

Of course the Girl now had her eye on that data with Shuvin bringing it up, and...he was kinda hot. The Machine accentuated the observation in a misguided attempt at being helpful, focusing on qualitative attributes found by consensus to be physically desirable. It was an A for Effort sort of reach, though measuring intangibles was still a far cry below what it meant to be human. Cute as the guy may be, Eluna knew he wasn't her type.

The Machine queried for additional parameters to refine it's search. The Girl just grinned.

I just know 'em when I see 'em, Dragon.

Still, Shuvin's hungry eyes held on to the boy a half second longer than hers, then drifted onto more covetous matters. Eluna followed the Togruta's eyes, and remembered being that age and wanting to be a little older. She slinked an arm over Shuvin's shoulder, fingers resting tenuously on a lekku.

"Well, you're the one with the well-endowed montrals."

She considered telling Shuvin to buck up and practice her maneater craft, but that would move her invaluable Togruta friend dangerously off-mission. And in the grand scheme of things, bringing an A game to Ben was the primary objective. Besides, she'd seen cuter than that pass by, no sense in playing the shark and biting at anything that passed in front of you.

"I'm gonna try this on." Eluna shook the dress on it's hangar, taking the opportunity to part embrace with a lekku pat.

"Pick something for yourself too. I got a work bonus, it's the least I can do."

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin's eyes sparkled as she turned back to the clothing clerk. Her lips pulled into a wide smile as she looked him over.

"Pick something for myself, hm?"

Without looking, she reached out to the rack on her left and pulled off a backless black dress that was longer and classier than she usually wore; the chest was loose and took 'hinting at the goods' liberally though.

Her smile turned predatory.

"Very nice."

Her expression melted into a thoughtful one.

"Um, excuse me?" she asked, and the clerk turned around. She held up the dress. "Do you think you could give me your thoughts on this? And maybe what would go well with it?"

[Eluna Thals]

It didn't take long for Eluna to change from her current lighter fare and into the dark dress Shuvin had picked out. She shimmied into the outfit, appreciative of where it held her figure and where it allowed her to move. Negotiating her arms through the openings and straightening the dress on her shoulders, Eluna paused to peer through the slatted door on her changing room, unable to see much as she heard Shuvin begin to chat up the help. The red-head grinned.

"Get 'em, tiger." she whispered with a shake of her head.

The last thing to tend to was the zip in the back. Eluna negotiated it halfway up, then paused as her shoulder unnaturally dislocated, allowing her to zip the remainder with ease. She popped her shoulder back into place with a shrug, then pivoted to catch a glimpse of herself in the three-angled mirror. Eluna gave her hips a sharp three shakes, letting the dress catch a little air before setting comfortably.

Everything worked so well. The dress. The necklace...

Eluna canted her head slightly, the smile somewhat diminishing. Wearing her hair down with her last outfit seemed just fine, but in this? She felt unfinished. Her hands gathered her red locks up into a makeshift ponytail, arranging her hair up on her head. It exposed a line down her slender neck to an unimpeded view of her necklace set against the line of her dress.

The smile returned. That was the last piece of the puzzle. Now all she had to do was get her hair done.

[Ben Merasska]

"Am I going to have to start annoying you, or can we start talking about what needs to be talked about?"

Palara sighed and shook her head, but Ben was gratified and relieved to see a smile on her face as she turned to look at him.

"Very well."

"Tell me about Uncle Den."

Palara looked at him intently.

"It seems 'e was some'ow involved with ze Starkiller program. I do not know in what capacity, or for what purpose, only zat 'e was."

Ben let out a long breath.

"The man had connections all over the galaxy," he said finally. "Even before Alderaan was destroyed. Students, colleagues of his I guess, and people who needed to talk to other people talked to him first."

Palara nodded.

"Ben, someone ozzer zan me 'as found zis out as well."

Ben frowned, "Who? And why tell me?"

"Because I am afraid zey are looking for information on ze Starkillers."

Ben blanched, and Palara squeezed his arm.

"I do not zink it is Alliance, nor is it Imperials 'oo are searching for zis information. Both already 'ave ze capability to produce Starkillers so what would be ze point?"

"Can't rule it out though, can you?"

Palara shook her head.

"Not entirely no. But my instincts are telling me zat it would be a waste of time to look through zat route."

"...So. Den had his hand in a Cizerack pie. And he and I got that holodocument." Ben grimaced. "People are starting think I know something about them too."

Palara squeezed his arm again.

"I am afraid zat is ze case. Or it will be soon."

"Great," Ben said sarcastically. "So the Alliance and Empire might end up trying to squeeze me anyway to make sure I don't know anything."

Palara opened her mouth, but Ben shook his head.

"Let me process this for a bit. Besides, I think I see the parts shop."

[Eluna Thals]

Two hours later...

The Machine was pretty frank in stating this was a waste of time and money. Her hair was synthetic organic filament, and she was completely capable of changing it's length and color at will. Paying someone to do the same was inefficient. However, it wouldn't do to make a change like that on the fly around Shuvin. Too many questions.

Eluna had changed back into her previous attire, bagging up her dress and pearls, but not before finding shoes and a purse to match. She'd asked her Togruta partner in crime to go shop solo while she got her hair done. She wanted to show Shuvin the finished product all at once, to see how effective the surprise was.

The besalisk hair stylist didn't make her wait long. Four hands being better than two, Eluna's lengthy red hair was trimmed, shaped, tapered, and at last, coiffed. The stylist turned her around in her seat to face the mirror.

The Girl was happy. No, she was ecstatic.

She paid the stylist, then ducked into the salon's refresher room with her bags in tow. Once inside, she activated her comm.

"Shuvin? I'm ready."

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin whistled, as she walked up to Eluna, her eyes drifting over the redhead with a lascivious lethargy, unwilling to tear her focus from any one aspect of the woman's appearance.

"Daaaaaaaaaaamn," she said. "If I went that way, I'd say screw Ben, I'm screwing you until you need fake hips. Or I need fake hips. Whosever fail first. And then I'd keep on screwing for good measure."

The teen herself wasn't wearing the backless number she'd pulled from the rack, but instead had bowed to the necessity of clothing that wouldn't have her freeze to death just walking to the ship. A pair of boots and dark leggings, a thermal undershirt that was covered by a thick hooded jacket. Chances were that they'd look worn and used (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/45/a4/b4/45a4b4c08a581398a2da40e174500ca0.jpg) sooner than she'd like, but for the moment everything was shiny and new, and she felt like she wouldn't curse every breeze now.

Of course that didn't mean she hadn't gotten her use of the dress; she had a very self satisfied look on her face and everything about her was loose and pleased. She could strike off 'fitting room' from the list of places in which she'd never had sexy times.

"You'll knock Ben dead, Eluna. We might need to restart his heart."

She grinned.

"Ahem, excuse me?"

She turned, her grin turning into a smirk on seeing the clerk again.

"Yes?"

He handed her a bag. "I believe you forgot this in the fitting room. Wouldn't do to forget anything about it."

She took the bag and looked inside, and her smirk turned into a full blown smile, and her face darkened slightly. He grinned and nodded and left, whistling jauntily.

"Well, I'm ready," the teen said, her smile bright and free. "Let's go and meet Ben again, hm?"

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna's eyes widened at how thick Shuvin laid her flattery, a blush forming on her cheeks.

"Shuvin..." she trailed off into an embarassed laugh.

Just as she was about to compliment the Togruta for her own, more practical outfit, the stockboy from before came up to her on a rather familiar basis. It didn't take much at all for the HRD to read between the lines, and the blush intensified. She took hold of Shuvin's arm.

"Shuvin!" she mouthed the Togruta's name silently as she realized how quick and matter-of-fact her friend had pulled off a casual conquest. "Ohmygod!" came equally silently.

[Shuvin Undhi]

Shuvin's pleased smile grew wider if possible.

"Oh whatever, Eluna," the Togruta scoffed. "It's not like we did the deed completely you know. Heavy petting, making out, cunnilingus."

She coughed and muttered the last part while grabbing the woman's arm and pulling her out of the store.

"If you get anywhere with Ben, you'll be getting fu-reek-ay too, you know," the teen pointed out, still flush and glowing.

[Eluna Thals]

The Girl glowed bright red in digispace, catching the Dragon's attention.

Your processes are operating beyond allocated capacity. Should I intervene?

No! The Girl blurted, biting on her lip as she looked down in embarassment. I mean...ahem, no Dragon. I'm fine.

Damn right I'm fine, she thought to herself, and the glowing began all over.

Eluna looked to her post-triumph conspirator, then took another furtive look at herself in the mirror. The Togruta might be faster to the finish line, but with a dose of Shuvin's confidence and a moment of vanity, Eluna began to believe that she might get there eventually.

Smoothing out her dress, and careful not to fuss to much with her hair, Eluna smiled back at Shuvin.

"Okay. Ready or not, I guess!"

[Palara Iscandar]

"...So, you met zis... Cerie, while running from zombie slave children chasing you because some big creepy man with far too many piercings ordered zem to do it?"

Ben nodded. Palara just leaned back at the galley table, Ben sitting beside her on the bench a couple tumblers sitting in front of them with a pitcher of hot tea sitting nearby.

"An entire starport under seige by children?"

"Not just the starport, Palara," Ben replied. "The whole kriffing town."

"Non."

"Yes."

"Ben," Palara burst out into laughter. "'Ow? 'Ow is zis possible? I 'ave not seen most of ze zings you 'ave seen, and I do not live a normal life at all."

Ben looked crushed, but there was a sense of amusement behind the pursed lips.

"Don't ask me, 'cause I ain't got a clue, sister," he answered, his speech finally dropping into that more familiar, casual cadence that held tones of Corellia within his normal Alderaani common-man accent. "Shuvin wasn't laid up for near as long as she was during the assassin droid snafu."

Palara's brows shot up.

"Assassin droid?"

Ben shook his head.

"Whole lot of mess there. Almost started a war bringing an Imperial Star Destroyer into orbit around Naboo."

Palara's jaw went slack. Ben seemed to take great pride in taking her chin and pulling it up to close her mouth.

"Zat was you?!"

Ben nodded.

"Wish I could say it wasn't. But unfortunately. Shuvin's out with Eluna — that's the girl we took on during this job actually, she actually fought the assassin droid while I was keeping Black Sun from vaping us — right now. Really wish we hadn't stopped on Corulag, even if that Lighever kid was kind of all right."

Palara stopped laughing.

"Corulag?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben nodded slowly.

"Yeah, Corulag. Normally don't do jobs that far into the Core, since Customs seems to have progressively longer sticks up their —"

Palara shook her head slowly.

"Sometimes, Ben, I wonder if ze Galaxy actually does 'ave somezing against you."

Ben looked at the red skinned twi'lek warily.

"Keep speaking like that and I'm likely to kick you out, Palara, apologies."

"Ze zings I learned about your Uncle, well 'e lived on Corulag."

Ben frowned.

"Yeah? Huh. How about that."

"I was investigating. And I learned somezing very interesting about 'im. Apparently 'e did not live alone."

"Palara, I don't think I need to know about Uncle Den's romantic life," Ben leaned back.

"Ben, non. It was a child, Ben. 'E was raising a child."

Ben sat up slowly, fixing Palara with an intent look.

"'Er name was Esther. Esther —"

"Hadrana," Ben finished. "Esther Hadrana. What? What? Damn it Den, Esther?"

Palara opened her mouth to speak, but Ben stood quickly and nearly ran to the cockpit.

"Corulag!" he shouted. "She's on Corulag!"

"Ben, non!" Palara called after him, following him up into the cockpit and barely stopping him from warming up the engines. "Ben! Ben!"

She held his wrists firmly, turning him to face her.

"Ben, she was not zere when I went to find 'er. She 'ad been put into an orphanage. And two weeks before I arrived, someone came and took 'er."

Ben's body sagged against the pilot's seat, his hands gripping Palara's tightly.

"What," he asked, his voice heavy and confused. She shook her head.

"I do not know, Ben," she said. "I know some zings, but not much, and all I 'ave are more questions. A bounty 'unter, by ze name of Banzabrand, 'e came and took 'er. Zere was a fight, between Banzabrand and anozzer, or maybe two ozzers. Reports conflict. But 'e left ze planet, and she was with 'im."

Ben's arms circled around her.

"She was alive?" he asked, pulling her in, his voice a curious desperate tone. "Palara, she was alive?"

"Yes."

Ben hugged her tightly and rested his head on her shoulder.

"Thank you," he breathed into her thick dress. "Thank you Palara. Thank you. Thank you."

She was alive.

He had living, breathing family left in the galaxy.

[Eluna Thals]

It was difficult not to quicken her pace at the sight of the Ben's ship - Alderaan. Negotiating heels was something she could do even in a sprint, but Eluna needed patience. She needed delivery without appearing premeditated. Spontaneity! That's it!

Her heart was racing. It was another case of cybernetic mimicry, an organic polymer "heart" pumping a cocktail of glucose, nanodroids, base components, and inert coolant where it was needed. Just like the real thing, it was programmed to follow response to all possible stimuli.

Stimuli like this, Eluna gulped.

Tiptoeing up the gangplank, she cast a glance back at Shuvin. The Togruta hung back a couple of paces. Far enough to give Eluna her spotlight, but close enough to relish in her handiwork. Eluna didn't linger on her co-conspirator. She heard voices up ahead. Ben's voice.

This was happening! Resisting the urge to check her hair and makeup (for the twelfth time), Eluna smoothed her hands down the sides of her dress, took a deep breath, and entered the ship.

The Girl didn't want to analyze each moment in microcosm. She'd have all the time in the world for that later. This...this was something she needed to live in the now. Approaching the cockpit, Ben's voice became more and more distinct.

Everything was perfect.

And then, Eluna arrived at the threshold just in time to see Ben in the embrace of another woman.

[Shuvin Undhi]

It was all going so well.

Eluna looked so happy. Shuvin felt a glow in herself at being a part of the reason for that happiness. The gorgeous redhead nearly ran up the ramp and with a turn, moved to the ladder to the cockpit, and then stopped.

Shuvin frowned. If Eluna got cold feet now of all times, it'd be too easy for her to simply run later on and never face her feelings head on.

As if Eluna had read her mind, the redhead turned, her eyes brimming with emotion and no no no were those tears? What was happening?

Eluna ran off, into the galley, leaving Shuvin standing there blinking in confusion. What?

She stepped forward once, and looked back where Eluna had disappeared. Should she?

Another step. She was at the ladder. She could hear Ben's voice murmuring something, muffled oddly.

She peeked up, and met Palara's eyes. Ben was holding the twi'lek tightly, his face buried into her shoulder, and they were leaning somewhat precariously against the pilot's seat. Palara simply looked at the girl and raised a single finger to her lips.

Shuvin dropped down into the ladderwell again and blinked.



***


Eluna was shaking, her face buried against the galley tabletop, and Shuvin could see two tumblers with a pitcher of still warm tea on it.

She sat down and poured herself some, and drank it like it was liquor.

"Eluna," she said, finally, as if she were in a daze. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I never thought he felt that way about Palara. I mean, she's been around before but he's never flirted with her or anything. They're never really alone, or at least they never go out of their way to be alone ever since I've known them. If I'd thought he felt that way about her, I'd never have —"

She stopped and poured herself more tea.

"It doesn't make sense!" she moaned. "Why now?"

She looked over at Eluna, and her eyes widened. Could it be?

"The only thing that's different is that you're here," the teenager breathed. "That's it. She knew you were here and knew she couldn't wait any more since..."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna didn't want to talk about it.

The Girl just wanted to shut the outside world away, and cry alone. She'd put her heart out on her sleeve against every shred of empirical data from Dragon that told her not to. And Ben had hit her where she was most vulnerable, without a single word.

He broke my heart and didn't even know I had one.

Dragon was quietly archiving Shuvin's words as the Girl wallowed in her misery. The incredulity, the rationalizing.

The variable.

New data is available. The great green Krayt pivoted it's massive glowing head at the Girl. She looked up at her inseparable companion...then seamlessly jumped back into the now.

Eluna sniffed, daubing fingers at the corner of each eye. Her face was still frozen in that distraught moment, but she lowered her hands, looking at the Togruta.

"You think it's that? She's jealous."

Eluna hadn't gotten a good look. Well, she'd gotten images at high resolution, but none of them gave her a clear line of sight at the woman holding Ben. A Twi'lek, that was certain. And if so, then this Palara woman had an additional head start in the exotic category.

You are a Human Replica Droid. If unique origin is a positive attribute, you are unlikely to lose.

Dragon, I know you're trying to help, but I *really* don't want to tell my first major crush in a decade that I'm an assassin droid.

The green eyes over the horizon blinked closed.

Of course. That would be inappropriate.

Eluna took stock of her situation. Her mascara was likely a mess. Any puffiness could be dealt with, but she was seriously on a tetchy deadline now. Ben could be coming down that ladder at any moment. She needed to...she needed to do something.

"What do I do!?" she hunched over the table slightly, whispering intensely.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Honestly? I don't know," Shuvin answered. "If it were me, I'd probably still tell him."

If it were me, we'd probably in bed right now.

The same bed.

Shuvin banished that thought absently. She didn't think she was harboring any intense feelings for the Captain, but the fact remained; if she, Shuvin, had wanted the Captain she wouldn't have waited and gone for it and likely succeeded.

"This happening never occurred to me. But given the way things were when we arrived, I don't think they've gone so far that you can't swoop in and take him."

Shuvin glanced at the older girl and took solace in the fact that at least Eluna wasn't crying.

"It was just a hug, right? From what I saw they didn't look like they'd been necking. All isn't lost, girl," Shuvin said, trying to inject some confidence into the redhead. "I'm not promising you anything, but listen. You can't hang it up yet. You gotta get up! Fight for what you want! I'm not the one to ask if it's love or not, but it might be, and that's all that matters, right? You just want the chance to figure it out! I believe in you!"

Shuvin couldn't really tell, but she'd committed herself to boosting confidence, so unless Eluna told her to go away straight out, she would stick to her blasters and hope everything worked out for the best.

"Let's get you cleaned up, okay? Then all we need to do is get you alone with him. I can distract Palara and give you your chance. What do you say?"

She smiled.

[Eluna Thals]

A change in course battled against inertia. The sudden fight against the sum of every ounce of energy put into steering down the wrong direction. The faster you went in the wrong direction, the harder it was to right the ship.

And Eluna had been in freefall.

Then, the shift.

The Machine simply archived the dialogue, like everything else. But the Girl listened. She heard the words Shuvin said, felt the conviction rally to her own weary and fragile commitment. Eluna's green eyes didn't blink, her attention was rapt on every syllable. And the beautiful thing about inspiration was that it could defy inertia. It could defy gravity.

She smiled. Timid at first, but a deep breath in and out, and Eluna felt baptized.

"I can do this." She nodded once. Twice.

The Girl picked up the pieces of her fragile heart, and mended them together a little stronger.

"I can do this."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Atta girl!" Shuvin grinned, relieved to see the fire of hope back in Eluna's eyes. "Sweep him off his feet! But don't expect too much."

She stood.

"You get yourself cleaned up. I'll get Palara out of the way and you work your magic on Ben," Shuvin crossed her arms and smiled. "This can't possibly fail!"

Well, it could, but Shuvin was pumping Eluna up. The more confident she was, the more loose and natural she'd be, and if it did come crashing down well then Shuvin would deal with it in the same way best girlfriends had comforted their heartbroken pals: with copious amounts of zhellatto and holodramas. Stereotypical? Yes. It didn't mean it didn't work or wasn't a good starting point.

Ben and Palara had disengaged by the time she returned, which Shuvin was thankful for because at least then she wouldn't have to pry them apart. They were murmuring quietly to each other, and Palara held Ben's hands comfortingly, her thumbs gently tracing an arc over his knuckles. She was looking at him with a calm intensity that gave Shuvin pause, before she tapped on the cockpit decking lightly. Palara and Ben glanced up at her.

"Sorry! Sorry," she said, her voice awkwardly conciliatory. She knew she'd interrupted something, had planned on it even, but it still made her feel a bit guilty. "Can I borrow Palara for a bit? I'll give her right back, I promise."

Palara raised a solitary brow at her, and Shuvin grinned disarmingly.

"Go on," Ben said. "I'm not going anywhere."

Palara let go of his hands and Shuvin dropped down to the lower deck, leading Palara back to her bunk, where she twirled to face the older woman quickly enough that Palara backed up a step.

"If you are done deestracteengkh me, per'aps we can talk?"

Shuvin pouted. "I was that easy to read?"

"You 'ave charm, Shuvin," Palara laughed softly, leaning against the wall by her door, "but you are not ze most subtle of people."

"I can too be subtle!" she shot back, sticking out her tongue. She stopped, and thought for a moment, before finally just sighing. "So what was all that?"

"I was wrong," Palara drawled, "you are an epitome of subtlety."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna waited from inside the refresher for the footfalls and conversation to pass her by, signaling that Shuvin had gotten Palara to take the bait. She took one last moment to turn to the mirror. The puffy red eyes were easily dispelled back to perfection, and Eluna quickly corrected the damage to her mascara. A few flicks of fingers through her hair made sure no strand was errant. That gave her 1.29 seconds to really look at herself in the mirror. Within, the Girl took a good, long look.

"Okay."

She clutched her pearls nervously, before willing her hand back down to her side. One point two nine seconds was an eternity to stand on the precipice in digispace. If she wasn't ready by then, she never would be. Why then, did each step she took toward the cockpit feel so heavy? Dragon confirmed that her chassis drive train and energy stores were nominal. There was no reason to believe in any malfunction. Nevertheless, each step required affirmation. It required a moment to reiterate her mission statement. Each step brought up a new fear to be put down by either logic or childish hopefulness.

So lost in the weeds of if-then was Eluna, that she didn't realize she was at the threshold until she could actually see him through the door. Her heart quickened, and she nearly gasped in surprise, managing to stay out of sight and earshot just barely. For a moment, she simply skulked at the doorway. Eluna watched Ben as he sat...looking like a man with nothing to do. He drummed his fingers against his seat. He glanced at a datapad, setting it aside. There was something amazing and beautiful in this one-way moment. It was voyeuristic, but that wasn't the thrill per se. She remembered what it was like to go to the zoo on Kuat. Watching so many animals in their vast transparisteel cages. Watching them do their thing, without a thing to prove or live up to. No tricks, no feats. As natural as it got within reason.

But like all good things, this moment had to come to an end. Eluna needed to break the glass. She needed to say something. Of course, the Machine had it's suggestions - 4,893,300 of them, to be exact. And the Girl had the time to read them all. And while a lot of them were good and even plenty were great, none of them were her, and that was the point of this whole mad experiment. Whatever she was going to say, it had to be born of quantum uncertainty. The synthetic approximation of the je ne sais quoi of human experience.

"I left my toothbrush."

The Girl panicked, and for a moment, Eluna embodied the deer-in-the-headlights look that her digispace self adopted. The look turned at the last moment into merely belladonna eyes with a slight chance of being knocked over by a feather.

"I mean. The last time, I was here."

Eluna leaned against the door frame, finding a little runway with the decidedly sub-optimal approach.

[Ben Merasska]

"Huh?" Ben jumped a bit, turning back to Eluna with quick wide-eyed glance. He took a moment to process her words. "Lost cause then. Most of the damage was in the cargo bay, but there were messes everywhere. Probably got thrown out."

He gave her a wan smile, but even as he spoke he turned around to look out the viewport and his voice became unfocused, threatening a return to his earlier thoughts.

"As long as it's reasonably priced I'll get you a new one to replace it, if you want." He glanced back at her and grinned slightly. "Reasonably priced is relative to my opinion on that matter by the way. You're better off writing the thing off as a loss."

[Eluna Thals]

Come on, that was a clever line! The Girl emoted in digital exasperation. Did he even look at me?

Of course he did. For 3.031 seconds. That should've been long enough for him to notice her dress, her necklace, her hair. One of the blessings of being an android was never having to shave her legs, but Eluna had clearly gone to leg-shaving effort here. No, something was on Ben's mind and it wasn't her. Time to get to work deleting that other thought and installing herself into his processes.

"Deal." she agreed, closing the distance on her heels to stand behind the Captain. Eluna carefully rested a hand on his shoulder as she peered over it, stealing a glance at everything-or-nothing that Ben was looking at. "I don't mind a cheap date."

Okay so subtlety was gone, more or less. But she was here. And dammit, he was going to notice her.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben huffed a laugh again, and stood.

"So what brings you around, Eluna?" he asked, "I mean, other than Shuvin. That girl can be a handful and a half when she gets a notion in her head."

He turned around and stopped when he finally looked the woman over. She'd got herself dolled up.

"Did she drag you over here while you were doing some business?" he asked, looking embarrassed, shaking his head in annoyance. "I don't want to keep you if you need to be going. Gotta be something to get you looking this fancy."

[Eluna Thals]

"She drug me away from holiday. Restaurants, museums, alpine skiing, and hot cocoa."

At least now the light seemed to be on in his eyes, now that he actually looked at her for real. Eluna smiled.

"It's a good distraction. I can only have so much fun by myself."

Of course that explained how she'd come to Cato Neimoidia. How much of Ben's visit was due to his business, and how much was due to Shuvin Undhi, the puppetmaster?

"Did you get my message?"

[Ben Merasska]

"I'm scared of a galaxy where anyone can say they can have too much hot cocoa."

Ben smiled, though the expression was still a bit vacant. Then the rest of her words filtered through his fantasies of cocoa.

"Hm?" He blinked, and smiled uncertainly. "Message?"

[Eluna Thals]

SENT MESSAGE RECEIVED TIMESTAMP 16.31.34

The Girl glared at the message in digispace.

Shuvin! You nosy little...

Wait. So if he didn't read the message, then...

"I thought you came because I sent you a message. You're here on work?"

[Ben Merasska]

"..." Ben didn't answer, his good cheer fading from his face. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "...Something like that, I suppose. Nothin' you need to worry yourself over, though."

He looked over Eluna again. It was a shame, but she didn't need to be tangled up in this mess, or with him. Chances were if everything were to go the way he expected, she'd be entertaining Alliance and/or Imperials with no good intentions for him or her within the next couple of weeks. The less she knew, the better it would be.

"Just some of my luck rearin' it's ugly head," he continued before shaking his head. "No need to worry though, I'll prolly be heading out tomorrow or the day after at the latest, so there won't be a repeat of that whole... incident with Naboo."

[Eluna Thals]

"Ben, you're not some kind of black loth-cat that's come to cross my path."

There was that look on his face again. A hesitation. Inflections of something sad? So similar to the other times she'd caught a glimpse when he thought she wasn't looking.

"You know what I remember about Naboo?"

It's a rhetorical question, Dragon.

The Machine ceased it's attempt to recall the entire recording.

"I remember the waffles." Eluna smiled in recollection, her nose scrunching slightly.

"Maybe you make waffles for all of your fares. But the way I want to think of it, you made them just for me."

[Ben Merasska]

"Do you know what I remember about that trip to Naboo?" Ben almost asked. But he didn't. Waffles weren't something that held up well against the memories associated with that catastrophe.

"Galaxy can be a lonely place," Ben said instead. "Kindness tends to stick out, maybe so's it can be hammered back in, if I have that old saw right."

[Eluna Thals]

"I know what you mean."

The Girl looked down at her digitally-ephemeral feet. She'd confronted that point of view before, and it hurt deeply to hear it come out of Ben's mouth. He'd come to that conclusion without a Machine Dragon reminding him that his collection of happy times was skewed by selection bias, and wasn't a representative sample.

She looked up at him again, finding his handsome eyes with equal shares of kindness and sadness within. The Dragon couldn't quantify that, but she could. She knew the meaning behind those words.

"Sometimes you feel like a piece on the board for someone else to set up and let fall."

And unlike the missing hours and days in Eluna's dreams which harbored secret, classified nightmares, Ben didn't have the luxury of ignorance. She still remembered what it felt like to taste that kind of agency. The darkest days that lay just beyond her recollection, Ben would have endured without mercy. Could she blame him for seeing the universe through a jaundiced lens?

Dragon would lecture her about the statistics and their infallibility, but there was always a margin of error. A variation, plus or minus a few outcomes. It was a cold way to describe it for what it truly was.

"Hope."

The Girl felt comforted in the glow of that margin. She wanted Ben to share in it's warmth.

"If that's true," Eluna took a timid breath, "then maybe kindness is a war of attrition."

She'd kissed him before. On the cheek. A whisper of a thing that was the most earnest way of showing her appreciation. It had taken her a digital eternity to dwell on that moment, but after 0.016 seconds of runtime, Eluna knew she wanted that kiss to be the first of many.

The Girl closed her eyes in digispace, as did Eluna in the real. The only data she needed now was touch.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben thought she'd been gearing herself up to say something, but when the realization hit that she was trying to kiss him, his hands came up to her shoulders and held her there.

"Whoa whoa whoa," he said, keeping a firm grip even when Eluna's features when from soft to a more firm determination and pushed against him. "Mmph! Mmph hmm mmhmm phm!"

He was breathless when she pulled away.

"Now what in the kriffing hells was that? Eluna?" he asked, looking a bit dazed.

[Eluna Thals]

She was GLOWING

All of the procedurally-generated code of her giddy emotion rained in the air like confetti, and the Girl spun on her heels with her hands up to catch it. The metadata of Ben's kiss still hung on her lips, and she could feel the warmth and pressure against her and the passing taste of rations and, and

"Now what in the kriffing hells was that? Eluna?"

Ben looked like he'd been hit by a concussion missile, stammering and shocked. The increase in his body temperature [ADJUSTED READING 98.6 DEGREES STANDARD] definitely didn't escape Eluna's notice, as her outward appearance mirrored the Girl's own inner grin.

"I dunno. I just...I think if you kept talking you'd talk yourself out or I'd talk myself out and I just..."

Eluna paused, the little grin on her face scrunching her nose.

"There was a little pause."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben just looked at Eluna in flabbergasted silence. Honestly, what was it with his life that stuff like this happened?

"Eluna, I'm sorry if I made you think I was... not that you're not pretty, you're plenty pretty! — but..."

He trailed off, frustrated. It wasn't her fault she had horrible taste in men. He sighed, clenching his fists.

"Look at you," he said, gesturing. All of a sudden, he just needed to get out and get some air. It annoyed him that he needed to leave his own ship to get some peace of mind, but he wasn't about to kick Eluna out for being confident and taking a shot for guy who wouldn't do her any good. "I gotta go... do something."

He fled down the access ladder and stomped out of the ship.

[Eluna Thals]

"Ben!"

Eluna caught Ben's hand in her own, the speed and strength of her urgency was carefully governed by the Machine at the last minute, placing each back within human thresholds. Still, he'd get the message.

"I..."

The Girl within spluttered to herself in halting code.

"Really? Really!! Look at you? That's right, look at me! Look at this dress, this necklace! I cut my hair, Ben Merasska!! And that was a good kiss too! A little soft, not too much tongue, not too little tongue...maybe I should have asked Shuvin about...no way, no way!

I cut my hair!!! Come on, look at it!!!"

The butter was beginning to slide dangerously off of Eluna's proverbial waffle, and the little red avatar in digispace began to flicker with static of desperation.

"What does that red-tailed bimbo have that I don't?"

"Twi'lek anatomical morphology is notable for the presence of prehensile..."

"I KNOW WHAT A TWI'LEK IS, Dragon, you're not helping! Ugh, oo la la she as dees outrehhhgeeous accehhhnt. She ees soo bendee! Head-tail-flipping trollop."

"Let's get ice cream!" Eluna's eyes were large green saucers as she nodded slightly to encourage the notoriously slippery spacer.

"That didn't sound manic did it? It sounded manic. Why can't I be cool?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben looked at Eluna, his mouth slightly open. He was visibly lost for words.

Finally though, his tongue forced some from his mouth.

"Eluna..." he started, pausing as he didn't know what to say next. What could he say? "I..."

She continued to look right back at him.

"Okay," he said in defeat. "But let's not make this... whatever you want this to be... more than what it really is, clear? I could use a friend. I don't have a romantic bone in my body."

He laughed awkwardly.

[Eluna Thals]

It was a mathematically non-zero probability. The Girl didn't ask, and the Dragon knew what was good for the system and declined to tell in any case.

But let's not make this... whatever you want this to be... more than what it really is, clear?

And really, that's all she wanted. You be you, and I'll take care of me. Sure, she could have put her digital thumb on the digital scale. She could become anyone. And that non-zero probability could easily become a likely probability if she abandoned authenticity for efficiency. Eluna could be the perfect woman for Ben.

But that wasn't the point of any of it. What's perfect? An output of an extremely well-designed equation? The kind that mitigates margin of error and uncertainty until you don't even realize it's there? Real love wasn't perfect. Even when you thought it was. It was saying the line that didn't sound the best on paper, but for some reason it stuck because it was the best thing you had. It was two people in a galaxy of two billion stars, finding themselves orbiting the same one more than once.

How could Eluna refuse? How could she make this more than it actually was? She was as much of an expert on the here and now of this moment as he was. They were both just along for the ride, and neither of them had a clue when it stopped or where it was going.

And that was beautiful.

Eluna returned from her microsecond of digital introspection, right at that beautiful moment that Ben laughed. She did too, an earnest grin that caused her nose to crinkle and her eyes to slightly squint.

"Ahh...he laughs."

She clasped her hands together, and gave a shrug.

"I could use a friend too. I mean, if we keep bumping into each other like this, it could be the best kind of friendship there is."

[Ben Merasska]

Ben eyed her a bit warily, but nodded anyway.

"Uh... yeah," he said. "The best. Well, lead on then."

He gestured for her start them on their way to ice cream. Ice cream.

One of these days, Merasska, you're gonna hafta get a spine.

[Eluna Thals]

As if she needed telling twice. Eluna's fingers laced neatly between Ben's own, and she pulled him along to exit the cockpit. Climbing down, she passed the galley, spotting Shuvin doing her best to appear as if she were loitering casually and not salaciously eavesdropping. When she was certain that Ben's head was turned away, Eluna flashed the Togruta a face full of elation. Green eyes big as saucers, and a smile full of teeth. Bouncing on her toes might have been too obvious, so she kept her little moment subtle.

His hand was warm. The Girl watched the temperature fluctuation like a hawk, to the third decimal place of a degree. She felt the contours of his skin, her thumb gliding over the knuckle of his. Hands that had done a lot of work, but not overly calloused and craggy. They're good hand-holding hands, the Girl declared to herself, drawing on an encyclopedia of previous examples. Of course it took two to tango, and Ben was kind of just...well, there. So he hadn't exactly reciprocated yet. But Eluna looked back at him with a little smile. She'd get a squeeze soon. Hands like that would be a waste if they didn't.

[Shuvin Undhi]

"So they're gone," Shuvin said, glancing over at Palara. "Sure you won't tell me what's going on here?"

Palara shook her head, sending her head tails to sway gracefully behind her, even as she sipped on the caf Shuvin had made.

"Eet eez Ben's story to tell. Not mine."

Shuvin huffed and frowned. "Fine. Be like that then."

Palara laughed shortly. "I will."

Shuvin lost her frown and looked at the beautiful twi'lek standing by the galley table in her thick, stiff dress and boots and looking classier than Shuvin could ever imagine herself being. She clamped down on her jealousy though.

"You're not worried about Ben and Eluna?"

"Zut," Palara scoffed, waving her hand as if the very thought were a mere fly to be shooed away. "Eluna eez a leetle girl with delusions of romance. Ben eez far more concerned weeth ze news I 'ave given 'im. Even eef I 'adn't shared zis weeth 'im..."

The twi'lek shared a small smile that seemed anything but happy with the Togruta.

"Ben eez not interested in any such zing right now."

Shuvin grimaced, and Palara huffed a sympathetic laugh.

"Well now I feel bad," the Togruta looked up with a mischievous smile. "But not enough to keep me from seeing if Eluna makes any moves! C'mon Palara, let's see if love really is a gentle lie!"

[Palara Iscandar]

Palara barely held in another laugh as the excitable sixteen year old reach out to grab her hand and pull her out of the ship. Honestly, she couldn't remember when she'd laughed so much.

Actually, she could. It had been the last time she was on Alderaan.

Despite the annoyance she felt about this Eluna girl 'falling in love' with Ben, she knew nothing serious would come of it. Well, she was almost certain nothing would come of it, anyway. Ben was like her; and for her there wasn't much left in her for the fanciful pursuit of love.

She let Shuvin pull her out into the chilly air, having barely set down her tin-mug of caf on the galley table before Shuvin pulled her like an eager hound being taken out for a walk. Shuvin absently slapped the control to close the ramp, and off they went, trying to catch up to Ben and Eluna.

"So do you love Ben, Palara?" Shuvin asked innocently.

"Madly," Palara said. Shuvin turned around with wide eyes and her mouth making an 'o', only to pout at the elder woman's wry expression. "Completely. Totally in love weeth Ben."

"Okay, okay," Shuvin grumped. "So you're not. I get it."

"Eet eez not so seemple, but ze short answer is: no, I am not in love weeth Ben."

"How is it not simple? Either you're in love or you're not, right?"

Palara adjusted her lekku to drape over her chest and shoulders for warmth.

"Eez anyzing seemple weeth Ben?" Palara asked, one dark brow raised. Shuvin grinned and raised her hands in surrender.

"There!" Shuvin pointed, and Palara sighed, and pushed the girl's arm down.

"Ze point eez to watch wizzout being seen, no? Zen pointing and shouteeng eez ze wrong zing to do." Shuvin nodded, taking her advice to heart as she tried her best to subtly follow the two along the walkway. Despite the inanity of this endeavour, Palara couldn't find it in herself to knock the girl in front of her down, metaphorically speaking of course. There was something refreshing about such innocence and enthusiasm that she wanted to see it continue, before it inevitably was stripped away by the passage of time and the cruelty of the galaxy.

"Ooh, ice cream! Let's get some too, Palara!"

Yes, there was nothing wrong with enjoying it now, before it disappeared.

[Ben Merasska]

With every moment, Ben could feel the chill running over his spine grow even colder. Eluna's fingers danced over his knuckles, and she squeezed his hand in excitement, but all he could feel was awkward, reserved, and guilty.

Oh, did he feel guilty.

He'd let her know he wasn't looking for anything, but maybe she thought he'd meant something different than 'friend' when he'd said the word. He looked at their joined hands.

She squeezed again.

He didn't have the heart to squeeze back.

"So, uh. Did... did work bring you here?" he asked, lamely.

[Eluna Thals]

"Yes and no?" Eluna affirmed, taking in the sights as they approached a busy ice cream stand. Well, the Neimoidians called it gelaat, but aside from a pinch of a different ingredient here or there, it was all the same bit of fun to her.

"Had an account to close here. Half day's work at best, but you don't just pass up a view like this, so...I stretched it into a weekend. Setting your own hours is the best."

The Girl's inner smile waned. All she could see of her handiwork was a third party perspective. Discreet and tidy violence that she didn't recollect but saw on the news. It was a little easier to lie about it when you didn't really know the truth to begin with. Whatever ambivalence was there, it came and went in a microsecond. On the outside, Eluna pivoted on her feet, giving Ben a suspicious grin.

"Business for you too, huh? It's a big galaxy, Ben Merasska, and we keep turning up in the same locus like a good luck credit."

Before he could protest, Eluna let go of his hand and held a finger up.

"I know, I know. Not a romantic bone in your body. But think of all the space we've covered between us. It's like you're a wayfaring comet, and I'm also a comet. Or at least an ice ball getting pulled along in your tail."

Eluna halted, frowned, and squinted her nose.

"Uuuugh that was terrible!" The Girl flopped on the digital floor in exasperation.

"That sounded like a way better analogy in my head."

Her frown bounded up into a lopsided grin. Somewhere, the Girl was still holding out that he'd take notice of all the effort. Romantic or not, he could at least compliment her for trying. This look was far from the best manslayer act in her repertoire, but it was the best shot Eluna herself had taken.

"Ever had Gelaat?"

A swift subject change, and Eluna jerked her thumb toward the stand, getting back on topic with the reason she'd absconded with him in the first place.

"It's Neimoidian for ice cream. Guess they call it different so they can charge an extra two credits, but I think it's more than rebranding. You'd think it'd be silly to have ice cream up in the mountains but it's rich and delicate and perfect. Like if you were anywhere else it wouldn't be as good."

She quirked a grin, standing closer to him to feel his warmth.

"I'm guessing you're a meiloorun fan?"

[Ben Merasska]

"Uh," Ben grunted. "What? What is meiloorun, and why do you think I'm a fan?"

Almost against his will, he noticed again that Eluna looked really pretty, though he preferred her hair longer. It more than suited her in its current cut, but he remembered Keira had her hair longer back on Yavin, and it was one of the things he'd liked about her appearance. He remembered that Fran kept her hair long though it was almost always tied back. It would sway back and forth while she laughed. He remembered Rafine had her hair short, and how curly it was when she laid back and smiled up at him when she died.

Ben blinked away the images from the back of his eyes, though ghosts remained, thin watery veils that weren't quite enough to form tears.

Eluna smiled and stepped closer, looking joyful that she was spending time with him.

"Never had gelaat, or whatever it's called," he shrugged. "'Sall new to me."

[Palara Iscandar]

Shuvin sighed a happy sigh.

"You are too noticeable," Palara hummed, also watching the lovey-dovey scene unfolding in front of them. "Far too noticeable. You are a 'orrible spy."

Shuvin huffed and crossed her arms.

"So mean!" the teen pouted. Palara covered her mouth and laughed softly; Shuvin pouted even more, smothering a smile of her own.

[Eluna Thals]

"Ben...you've traveled the galaxy, but you haven't gone anywhere."

That was so sad to her. Eluna had to wonder if all the time Ben spent aboard Alderaan was just in the slavish pursuit of going from point A to B. How lonely was that?

"Come on."

She led him to the front of the kiosk, addressing the Neimoidian attendant.

"Chauwa e hsua siind taua shusha mauha."

Her Neimoidian was as fluent as any of her thousands of languages, and probably unnecessary in a tourist trap like this. The gelaat peddlers almost certainly knew basic if they wanted to squeeze the credits from the tourists. The cashier blinked a bit in surprise, nodding along. Eluna paid up, and watched him dip the heavy metal scoop in a thermos of steaming water before he put it to work to scoop three silken pink spheres into two cups. A napkin and a plastic spoon for each, and they had their gelaat.

Eluna passed one of the cups to Ben. As they walked away, she neglected her dessert, eyes on him in expectation of his first bite.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben felt more than a bit awkward under Eluna's intent eyes. In a bid to move things along and do something instead of merely standing there wilting under the sun of her eyes, he took a big spoonful of the confection and shoveled it into his mouth.

His eyes went wide.

"Ah, ih cold, cold!" he gasped with his mouth full. The chill from the gelaat had gone straight to his teeth and up into his brain. He glanced over at Eluna, his mouth still open, and gave her a thumb up. "Ih goo'."

It was good. He still couldn't help a shiver and wince as the chill gave him one last stab into his brain.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna giggled.

"It's ice cream, Ben. That's kind of its selling point. Quick, think warm thoughts!"

Even in the state of a brain freeze-induced hard reset, Ben couldn't help being adorable. Eluna waited for him to come back to the world, savoring her own first bite of dessert.

"Soo, was I right?"

[Ben Merasska]

"It's uh... it's berrylicious!" Ben said, tasting the ice cream more responsibly this time. "It's real good. Thanks. What made you think I was a berry person and not a chocolate or some boring old vanilla?"

[Eluna Thals]

Oh what a question. The Girl could write a book. Ten books! Eluna swirled her gelaat, watching it cleave to the spoon in just the right way before she retrieved a silken shaving.

"It's fleeting. Meiloorun, I mean. Good meilooruns, they're around for a month? Two months? Then they're gone."

She punctuated that thought by disappearing another spoonful of gelaat past her lips.

"You can have chocolate, vanilla, any of that whenever you want. It keeps, whether you're on Arkanis or Zeltros or in deep space somewhere with a stocked pantry. But meilooruns? You have to know where and you have to know when to get them. Miss one, miss the other, and you just miss out."

Eluna took in a deep breath, letting it out at once, watching exhaled steam curl in the frigid air like a dancing cloud.

"That's not you, Cap'n Ben. You don't strike me as the kind of guy who misses. Not the stuff that matters. The places you've been, maybe I've been there, but maybe you've got a meiloorun to show me too. Something you've seen that's there and gone and it's special to you because of that impermanence. Because you miss it when it's gone but it makes it all that much better when it comes back to you."

She wanted to say so much right now and have it all tumble off her tongue and tell Ben everything she was feeling, but Eluna had to hold back. They were at different points of space time right now. Two ships, in sensor range but too distant to dock. So instead, she smiled. She ate meiloorun gelaat, shifting her weight slightly from foot to foot as she did.

[Ben Merasska]

Ben stared at his berry gelaat, contemplating her words. So this berry was special because it was rare? He ate some more. It was good, a natural sort of sweetness with still plenty of processed sugars.

"Oh," he said, his expression clearing. Suddenly, this meiloorun had a bad aftertaste; impermanence was always bitter. Nothing ever came back. Ben schooled his features and focused on the here and now and not the remembrance of brief times of happiness he'd never get to have again. Instead he smiled wryly at Eluna and said:

"I think you're doing more a fair bit more romanticising what I do than what anyone could really expect. When you're flying, most of the time anyway, you gotta keep your eye on the goal. No point in doing it in the first place if some fancy sight makes you crash."

He took another scoop of the berry gelaat.

"I'm not sayin' you're wrong. You're right, I guess. I'm just sayin' I'm not looking at the sights as much 'cause I'm trying to keep my way. A lot more boring, I suppose, yeah."

[Shuvin Undhi]

"Oh, Ben!" Shuvin moaned. "Don't you have any sense of romance!? Of drama?"

Palara stifled soft laughter behind her hand.

[Eluna Thals]

"You're not that blinkered."

Eluna stood her ground, scraping up another spoonful as she looked up at Ben and his obstinate attempt to derail.

"Port-to-port and back once more? Maybe if you're working for Star Tours. Come on, Ben! You've taken the shortcut to save a day before. You've run a detour for a client. You've been places enough to know of all kinds of amazing things in the galaxy. So maybe you don't brake for a meiloorun, maybe that's not your speed."

The red-head paused to cram another spoon of gelaat in her mouth. She gently talked around the mouthful, waiting for it to melt a little.

"What are the three most beautiful things you've seen in space?"

[Ben Merasska]

Ben looked down at the ice cream, remembering a cracked viewport covered in a thin film of snow; of a man bleeding through his blankets and crying out for his wife. He'd never taken a shortcut since that catastrophic experience. He still woke up some mornings freezing cold even under all his blankets.

"Nubian yacht," Ben answered, tasting the gelaat again. "Always wanted to fly a Nubian ship. Not just those shiny ones either. Everything they make is a masterpiece. Not really an answer to your question though, I guess."

Ben thought about it, but his mind didn't really focus on the beauty in space.

"Alderaan, when I first got her. Looked like a home, and you could tell Shuvin loved her to bits."

[Eluna Thals]

Instantly, the Girl fell into a moment frozen in time, her consciousness diverting for a few nanoseconds to inhabit the digital reconstruction of Alderaan, or at least the parts she'd gotten to see or could derive through supposition. It was a funny way to remember, for a Girl who remembered the difference. Perfect clarity here and there. The chipped laminate on the galley table. A stuck bushing on the port forward power coupling that was probably beyond a wrench's salvation. The homey little touches and decorations Shuvin had used to mark the door to her quarters - beyond which the nothingness of finite digital recall stood in a haze. As best as she could recall, Eluna was back. In those moments, free from context and consequence. No errant protocol droids. No mysterious imperials. No assassins stowed in crates. The machine gave her a partially-arranged mattress, but it was up to Eluna to paint the rest. More importantly, she was her worst and only critic.

Eluna took her time. In digispace, she always had plenty of it. She smelled the stale grease in the kitchen, listened to the clatter of her feet on the plates. There wasn't anything here that was beautiful on it's face. It was the context and what it meant to Ben and to Shuvin. It was home. That meant something different to everybody. Confronting their safe space, it was too easy for Eluna to think about her own home. But for her, it wasn't so much a place as a when. But even when wasn't exactly right. Whatever it was, Eluna missed that feeling so much. It was like a hunger pang that had gone on for so long that you forgot the cause of it.

The digital avatar sat alone at the table of the reconstructed freighter. In a blink, she watched Shuvin and Ben appear, playing a loop of activity she must have archived from a few errant moments of observation. She could see by the look on his face that he wasn't kidding.

Less than a blink later, Eluna was back in the now. Ben stood close. The air around them was chilly, save for the warmth of his spoken breath.

"That's one."

A half smile and a conciliatory nod later, "two, if you want to count the Nubian."

[Ben Merasska]

"Okay, let me think." Ben made a face as he tried to remember something he'd actually considered beautiful.

"Well, one time I come out of hyperspace pretty close to Dac. This was before I picked up Alderaan, I was flying a little courier ship. Fastest thing I've ever flown aside from a snub. And I don't know how, but conditions were perfect. I was almost directly between the star and the planet, close enough to make out the little island chains, clear sky, and all that light reflected off the water and into the cockpit, you know what I mean? I look up and it's almost as if there's a hologram of water right above me."

Ben smiled wryly.

"Never seen anything exactly like that again. Though hyperspace comes close sometimes."

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna's eyes closed as he painted the picture with his words. In digispace, she could fake it well enough. There were plenty of satellite images of Dac in full array of it's parent star, and the droid was even reasonably sure which islands he was talking about, but the Girl longed to feel the sight. The opalescent blue of sun-engorged sea. The bluest of the blue, save for the topography drawing the eye.

With her eyes closed, she savored a little smile. And then, her eyes fluttered open. Eluna drew in a breath, exhaling a contented bit of steam.

"What did you feel? When you saw it?"

[Ben Merasska]

"Well, it was..." he stopped and frowned. How was he supposed to describe it? Ben blew a long gust of air out of his nose as he thought it over.

"Pretty, I guess," he shrugged lamely. "After a little bit the brightness started hurting my eyes so I dimmed the canopy."

A mangled shout of frustration was quickly silenced nearby. He frowned and looked around, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Despite the distraction, he noticed that he wasn't making himself out to be very interesting. Maybe if he kept it up, Eluna would see that he wasn't worth the effort and lose interest?

He glanced at her to see if that was happening.

[Eluna Thals]

For a brief moment, Eluna's eyes traced along the path Ben's took. She'd heard a commotion, but it was gone like an autumn snowflake. Then his eyes were back on her, and Eluna's own eyes seemed to pick up the sun on the snow.

"Pretty, huh? Okay, not exactly a warrior poet, but I can plot a course with that."

The android paused to clean her gelaat spoon with a quick pass through her lips.

"Guess you get your kicks some other way, yeah? You a thrill seeker, Ben Merasska?"

[Shuvin Undhi]

"He's being an ass, Palara! 'Dimmed the canopy because it was hurting my eyes'?! COME ON!"

"Shuvin!" Palara had her arms wrapped around the girl, keeping the struggling teen out of sight and from running out into the open and possibly making Ben's awkward outing with Eluna even more awkward. "Ben eez just being 'imself, you know zis! Calm! Calm! Bad Shuvin! Down girl!"

"Rah! It's a travesty against romance!"

[Ben Merasska]

"I suppose I used to be," Ben answered, thoughtfully. "Not really a seeker, I guess. More of a thrill-enjoyer?"

Ben grimaced slightly, but hid the expression in the blink of an eye.

"I used to fly for enjoyment way back when. Feels like ages ago." Ben paused for a moment. "I don't do much for the thrill, Eluna."

He shrugged, and finally gave up.

"I don't like thinking about things overmuch, Eluna. My mind tends to drift, often to bad places, if I sit still and ponder long enough. Pretty things, nice things, fun things... it don't matter too much what it is. Only way to stop it is to keep moving, keep doing. I can't dwell. Do you know what I mean?"

He glanced at her, but couldn't quite get a handle on her expression. Maybe she did understand. Didn't matter if she could or couldn't, though.

"I'm not sayin' you're wrong. Maybe I am a thrill-seeker. Maybe I like watching hyperspace. Maybe there's an actual person in me, somewhere," He gave her a smile, probably the first genuine one of the trip. He didn't know. He wouldn't think about it too much. "I don't know. Point of a long story, that. I don't know."

He finished off his gelaat and crumpled the paper dish, being careful to avoid any leaking bits. He'd come pretty close to admitting something he'd only ever said out loud once before, sitting in a silent X-wing cockpit staring at what remained of his home planet. He crumpled the paper dish some more, bringing himself out of the flash of reverie.

[Palara Iscandar]

Shuvin had stopped struggling, close enough to Palara that she could share in the little Force technique she was using to listen in on the conversation.

Palara herself sighed, feeling Shuvin turn away from the walking pair.

"I zink now we leave zem be," the twi'lek said, gently. "From zis point on I do not expect much romance. Only per'aps friendship."

"You knew about all that, didn't you?" Shuvin asked. "That's why you really weren't worried or thought anything was going to happen. How?"

"Because, Shuveen," Palara turned the younger girl to face her. She smiled at her, a small, sad, genuine affair that she knew almost mirrored Ben's expression in the distance. "'E eez like me."

Shuvin wrapped her arms around the older woman and hugged her tightly. Palara froze for a brief second, but returned the embrace.

"I'm sorry," Shuvin said, her words muffled by Palara's dress where her face was pressed up against her. "Guess I can be a real nosy bint."

"You are a breat' of fresh air, Shuvin," Palara answered. "Let's go."

"Listen, Eluna. I'm bein' a jerk, I know. So, let's just drop all this heavy getting to know each other talk and just go do somethin'. Friends do that, right?"

Palara felt a bit of surprise as she led the teen away.

Maybe Eluna might have a chance after all, she thought. Not right now, of course. Maybe never. But Ben was doing something other than just running away, and that was something the Imperial Knight would never have expected.

[Eluna Thals]

Eluna let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. In its place was a smile - almost relief. There was a memory in there. She was young. Five years old. Her mother said something when she'd been feeling sad. Something about when the force closes a door, it opens another. It was the kind of thing that was painfully cliche right up to the moment where you found small wisdom inside it that you never saw from a bird's eye view. Ben wasn't the kind of guy who became enamored with sentiment. Like he said, he had to keep moving. Maybe a girl-who-was-a-droid should stop replaying old data and do the same. She finished her gelaat, crumpling the carton before eyeing a nearby waste bin. She gave the crumpled bit of trash a measuring toss in the air, caught it, then lobbed it ten meters directly into the basket. Eluna pivoted slowly to her right, finally pausing when she saw something that caught her attention.

She gave another look to her friend, corners of her mouth turning in the sly beginning of a smile.

"Sounds good, Ben."

She took off in a few chopping heel-clicking strides, slowing a moment to glance over her shoulder to see if he was following."

"Now keep moving."

[Ben Merasska]

"Yes ma'am," he said easily, shunting aside any real worries about where Eluna may think things were heading. "What's on the agenda?"

[Eluna Thals]

"Like any good holiday, I'm making this up as I go."

At the fringes of the suspension village, a network of gondolas and ski lifts could be seen running up towards the impressive mountains that anchored the town in place. The wind whipped Eluna's hair around her face, and she shook it free before heading for the ski lift.

"You ever hover-skied before?" Eluna asked as she slowed her pace, gazing up at the glistening alpine monolith miles ahead in the distance.