The Lady Knight

Chapter 7

Luke rubbed his eyes and leaned into the table trying to make himself interested in the diplomatic problems of the Frakkan System. Studying the fine details of a treaty was usually boring and this one was no different. He glanced at Artoo, perched quietly across the bay, and noticed all the carbon dimming the lights of the droid's database hookup. He thought back over time and realized it had been over a month since he fully serviced his own droid.

Luke rubbed his eyes again and reminded himself of his priorities. First, he had to deal with the treaty, and then he could take care of Artoo. Otherwise, he would procrastinate studying the stuff until they got there. He read on.

His Force senses alerted him before he heard her footsteps approach from the corridor. She already changed into a green jumpsuit and combat boots, but her hair was still in the same blond bun. She carried a large brass object in her hand. Greens and grays discolored the metal and powdery white rocks crusted the fat end.

Luke put down his datapad and watched her eyes dart nervously about the room before she dared to look at him. "Is the Captain in the cockpit, sir?"

He leaned back in the booth and crossed his arms, "Yes, but I wouldn't bother him." After thinking about how that might have sounded, he added a shy explanation. "They don't get many chances to be alone."

She glanced at the corridor to the cockpit, "I see... sir." Kess blew up at her bangs and looked at the crusted piece in her hand.

From across the room, he could tell that she was diverting her eyes to look at anything but him and could feel that she had question lumped in her throat. He tried to take it in stride for he was used to this by now, but a part of him just wanted to just bark it out for everyone to hear, I am a Jedi! Not a monster!

After a minute of silence, he asked flatly, "What's the matter?"

She shrugged, "It's nothing, sir. The hypo-shower doesn't need to be aligned. It needs cleaning. I found flexium deposits all over the filter head," She held up the disgusting object for him to view. "I can clean it off with petunic acid, but I don't know if he has any on board."

Luke smiled tightly. The lump was still in her throat. That was not the question she wanted to ask, but Luke was willing to play along, "Why don't you ask Chewie?"

The Lieutenant smiled shyly at the deck, "The First Officer is asleep, sir. I didn't really want to wake him over the hyposhower."

Luke smiled back. That was wise. He got nervous waking Chewie up even when the Wookiee's life was in danger, and Luke was an old friend. "So take a break," he offered and raised the datapad reluctantly to his sights again.

"Um, yes, sir," she mumbled. She shuffled her boots a bit and looked around the room indecisively.

Luke watched her out of the corner of his eye trying to pretend he was reading the datapad. She glanced back at the filter head with a sigh and set it down. She looked around as if wondering what to do, then those brown eyes landed on Artoo and she cracked a grin. The Lieutenant pursed her lips and whistled a bouncy astromech sentence.

Artoo blinked awake and slowly swiveled his head to her. He whistled back a question.

Her grin grew, "I just thought you were looking a little under the weather."

Artoo whistled another question.

"Yeah, sure," she motioned for him to come over and lowered to her knees, "I've got nothing better to do." Quickly, her eyes went to Luke and her smile faded, "If that's okay with you, Commander."

Luke realized his act of reading had drifted into a curious stare. "If what's okay with me?"

She looked the droid directly in his red/blue optic and smiled. "Cleaning him up. He said he hasn't been serviced in over a month." When her eyes looked easily back at him, and saw him, her smile vanished, "Sir."

Luke could not help his expression. The fearful 'sirs' were becoming humorous, but his humor clouded with confusion. Why hadn't he known she spoke astromech? Surely, he would have noticed before—

Artoo interrupted his train of thought with an annoyed beep.

"Uh, yeah," he finally said, "go ahead." He already knew she worked on Y-wings, and every Y-wing had an astromech droid. It made perfect sense that she would have picked up the language somewhere along the way, but he never heard her whistle it, or listen to it with understanding before. "Where did you learn to speak astromech?"

She pulled a hand tool out of a hidden pocket of her jumpsuit and opened one of Artoo's front doors. "Well, sir, I can't really 'speak' it. The beeps always mess me up." Artoo whistled something derogatory and she gave him back a derogatory "really."

She glanced again at Luke, "Er, I used to work at a droid repair shop in Mos Eisley Spaceport before I joined the Rebellion. It comes in pretty handy working on Y-wings, sir."

His eyebrows lifted into his forehead, but he didn't sense any deceit. She wasn't the kind of woman he would expect to find in Tatooine's worst collection of smugglers. His tone evaded his expression, "How long were you in Mos Eisley?"

"Oh, about twenty years." She shrugged, grinning, "It's a great place to be from."

Luke blinked, "You're from Mos Eisley?"

"Born and raised," she said. "I take it you've spent some time there yourself, Commander? Most people don't even know where that is."

Luke had to verify his mouth was still closed.

Artoo's next series of beeps pulled him out of his dumbfounded stare and the Lieutenant blinked at him in amazement. "You're kidding!" She gasped at the droid and looked at Luke with wide eyes. "You're from Tatooine?"

Perfect, now Artoo is telling her things about me and I can't understand what he's saying.              

"Uh, raised. Not born."

"Really?" She was suddenly giddy about all this. "What part?"

Luke remembered the social status he had to deal with on Tatooine as a moisture farmer's foster son and fought not to sink in his chair. The tables turned on him and she wasn't tacking a 'sir' on the end of every sentence anymore. He swallowed a stale teenager reaction and set his chin, "Just south of Anchorhead."

Kess had to think about that one for a second. "Anchorhead?" Her eyes searched the air to think hard on that one until narrowed brown eyes slid warily back at him, "There's not much out that way."

The Commander nodded in a heartfelt agreement, "There is nothing out that way. My aunt and uncle ran a moisture farm. My whole youth revolved around the winter harvest."

Kess backed slowly away from Artoo and sat on her heels. She hesitated before asking the obvious, "You're a farm boy?"

Luke gritted his teeth to a grin and returned his eyes to his datapad. "I am a farm boy," he verified and whipped an index finger with authority. "Now get back to work on Artoo."

Kess hid her grin the best she could, "Yes, sir." She turned her eyes to the awaiting droid and swallowed the desperate urge to giggle.

Pushing a wisp of stray hair behind her ear, Kess picked up her hand tools one by one and tossed them into her tool bag. Latching the top and picking it up, she noticed the white flexium residue covering the front of her clothes from cleaning that filter head.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered to herself, hoping the flexium would come out in the wash. On her first day on the infamous Falcon, she cleaned out the hypo-shower, repaired a hatch to a storage bin, adjusted the buttons on the keyboard to the main terminal, and calibrated the temperature gauge on the cold box. Kess was feeling more like a husband on vacation than a repair engineer.

She blew up at her bangs and went to the main bay for dinner. Chewbacca came out of the kitchen with two loaded plates and intercepted her stroll across the bay. He grunted as he shoved a plate into her free hand.

"All eating passengers and crew take turns cooking, Lieutenant," Solo said, taking the other plate from the Wookiee and handing it to his wife. "You've got dinner tomorrow."

"Yes, sir." She said and set down her tool bag. The game table was full so she sat on the broken repulsor couch sitting flat on the deck. Kess stretched her legs out in front of her and set her plate on her knees to eat.

"How's that storage hatch coming?" The Captain took another plate from the Wookiee's second trip and dug in.

"The hatch works," she hissed quietly.

"Good. Tomorrow, see what you can do with that repulsor couch," Solo ordered easily.

Kess concentrated to maintain control of her tone. "With all due respect, sir, I have to get to work on that list."

"There's nothing you can do on that list while we're in hyperspace. So relax, okay?"

Kess set down her fork, "Captain Solo, before I can 'do' anything on that list, I need schematics for the systems and put in hours on a Cad program. That I can do in hyperspace."

Solo huffed at his plate, "Look, right now, it's time to eat. We will talk about your precious list in the morning."

"Yes, sir," Kess whispered at her own plate, debating her options in this pickle. Commander Tolgray pressed upon her that her performance would be measured by her success against that repair list. And the only way to be relieved of that responsibility was for Captain Solo himself to provide indisputable back-up directly in the face of the powers-that-be who issued the repair list in the first place.

At this rate, the repair list wasn't going to happen, and Captain Solo's gracious defense to relieve her of having to do that list wasn't going to happen either. Kess began to work up a speech of 'respectful disagreement' with which she could address the Captain over breakfast and point out her conflicting orders to the man.

I'll fix the couch first thing in the morning.                       

Kess blinked, her mouth opened to say it until she noticed it wasn't her conscious mind that was thinking it. She had to think hard to check her opinions on the matter again. Giving so fast wouldn't solve anything. She didn't have a problem fixing the couch, but she had to address the repair list with Captain Solo first—

"What?" Solo asked.

Kess looked up, now wondering if she had said something after all, but Solo was looking at Skywalker, and Skywalker was slyly watching her.

The corners of Skywalker's mouth started to curl upward, "Nothing, Han. Never mind."

Kess watched the Jedi return his eyes to his plate, content with himself, and began eating his dinner again. She watched him warily for a moment, insulted, but unsure why, until his eyes flicked back her way with a smirk.

Kess dropped her fork. "Did you do that?"

He nodded and returned his eyes to his own plate again.

Kess made sure her voice sounded offended, "Why?"

Skywalker didn't seem to care. He glanced at her with pride as he picked up his glass, "To see if you'd fall for it."

Kess swallowed hard on her attitude, but realized that she wasn't quite sure of the outcome, "Did I?"

Humored, Skywalker smiled wide, "No, you didn't."

She couldn't decide if she should feel proud or offended. Her brother never played tricks like that on her, but Nik probably didn't know how. Why would the Commander want her to fix the couch so badly? Was he was just avoiding an argument over dinner?

In a way, Kess did feel proud. Maybe she wasn't unarmed after all and not all of his tricks were going to work on her. Her mind wandered off to memories of that time when she and Nik tried to Jedi Mind Trick dad into giving up the speeder password so they could take a joy ride...

And that night in the casino with friends, a thoughtful flick of her wrist not only rolled a winning pair but also splashed purple liquor on the guy next to her...

And that all those times she tried to move pencils with their mind instead of doing homework...

Kess smirked at herself, shook her head free of it all, and turned her mind back to reality. She ignored the continued treaty discussion and hung out in her bunk to read up on hyperdrive systems.

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Luke got up from the game table and stretched. "I'll research more on those Usak rights. I don't want to form a plan until we understand exactly what they're asking for."      

"You're right," Leia sighed away a yawn. "We'll look at it again in the morning." She started to put away her reference material but slowed when she saw a far away look on his face. "Are you all right?"

Luke blinked from his daze and moved quickly to join her in the clean up. "Yeah. Just tired."

Leia's eyebrow rose, watching him.

When the wave of deviousness alerted his senses, Luke looked up again to find Leia's deliberately innocent eyes. She shrugged off his stare. "What?"

Luke eyed her and grinned. She wouldn't tell him what she was up to even if he held a blaster to her head. Luke let it drop. "Nothing. Good night."

"Good night, Luke." Leia kissed him on the cheek and shuffled out the starboard corridor.

Luke watched her go. She was always trying to take care of him; trying to make him feel less lonely. Most of the time, it worked. Warmed that his sister noticed an emotion out of place (and still warmed that he actually had a sister) he strolled down the dark corridor to his naked bunk and pulled out a short stack of bed linens.

Down the corridor, Kess' bunk light poured into the dark passageway. For a moment, he didn't want to disturb the Lieutenant's late night reading.

But a moment later, he did.

Eyes turned back down the dark hall. His hands tossed the folded sheets onto the naked mattress. Luke stepped toward the other bunk and slowed his feet when the sleeping body came into view. She showered away the grease and dirt from her day's work and changed into a set of exercise clothes. Her hand still held a datapad on her stomach.

Courteously avoiding contact, he slid the datapad from her fingers and set it on the bunk's inside shelf. Fingertips traced the inside metal border until he found the switch, but he paused before switching off the light.

In all that time he watched her, he rarely saw what she looked like. Watching someone through the Force was remarkable because he could only see events from the subject's perspective. Unless she was looking in a mirror and Luke was watching her at that moment, he could not see her face. Kess rarely looked in a mirror outside her morning routine, and Luke respectfully did not invade her private moments, so he caught a glimpse of her face only a handful of times.

Besides, it didn't matter what she looked like.

As he took a moment to take in her features, the sleeping woman looked too innocent and juvenile to have the gumption required of a Jedi. Luke grinned at that thought. From what little he saw in his Force-aided observations, he already knew her better than that.

Juvenile? Absolutely.

But, innocent?

Not hardly.

Luke smirked at her sleeping face and switched off her light. He strolled back to his bunk, making his bed as he put his mind back to business.

With Kesselia's long grown desire to be a Jedi, it would be just plain mean to tease her with the idea until he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was Force-sensitive enough to be trainable. He had a few more ideas how to test that, but remembering her retort from his first try at dinner, he worried about pushing her too far. That which could be misconstrued as Jedi 'pranks' might drive her to the dark side before her training even began.

But he then remembered moments when he saw that little temper of hers. The most she ever got to being truly angry was throwing a tool at a wall or flipping off her boss when the man's back was turned. As Luke changed and rolled into the bed, he considered how he might take advantage of this disagreement between her and Han as a pre-training test on managing anger.

That would require a bit of a façade with her at first, and he considered the morality of a Jedi Master (albeit, briefly and mildly) pretending to be something he wasn't. Luke angled his head against the pillow.

And laughter splashed across his face that he had to fight to keep his own voice down.

Shining bright in the unlit bunk, Luke whispered to no one. "You should be thanking the Force you got me instead of Yoda."

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Luke had already been awake a full hour to work out and take a shower by the time Han and Leia emerged with groggy 'good mornings'. Chewie strolled in from his night watch shortly thereafter following the scent of breakfast. Quiet talk of the plan of the day drifted to the red beaches of the Frakkan System. The family was in the middle of breakfast by the time Han noticed their tagalong was still missing.

Luke detected Han's mood change just the Captain barked at the port corridor. "She must think she's on vacation!"

Luke patted the air at Han, "She fell asleep reading last night. She probably hadn't set an alarm."

Han dropped his fork and began to rise, "That's no reason to let her sleep in."

"She's already awake," Luke could sense Kess' location on the ship without effort. "She just got out of the shower."

Han leaned hard over the table to shout at Luke instead. "Look, kid. It's my repair engineer. Stop defending her."

Luke blinked back. Defending her? He opened his mouth to argue but stopped short when he sensed her hurried approach.

The Lieutenant swiftly zipped up clean coveralls as she rushed into the bay. "I'm sorry, Skipper," she gathered long dry hair in both hands and began a sloppy braid. "I fell asleep reading and forgot to set my alarm."

Luke turned down the glint in his eye to avoid Han's glare.

Han resumed eating and snapped, "Must have been a good book."

"Hyperdrive motivator systems," Kess admitted and turned to the kitchen for her own plate. "I thought I'd get a head start."

Han's voice sliced through the air. "How are hyperdrive motivator specs going to help you fix a couch?"

The Force spiked from two new directions. Luke peeked to see Kess across the bay, her brows knitted and mouth tight, his insult churning inside her Force Print like a volcano about to blow. But Luke's senses drew him to try another guarded peek in the other direction. Leia aimed her brown daggers to the back of Han's head like she was about to reach out and deck him.

That's right, Luke thought, Han promised Leia the Falcon would get its overhaul.               

Kess' voice was controlled, "Captain, you said-"

"I said we'd talk about it!" Han shouted. "I also said you weren't touching any critical systems in hyperspace!"

All Kess' effort went to keeping her mouth shut. She returned her uneaten breakfast to the counter and left it there. "Yes. Sir." She marched fast out of the bay to disappear down the port corridor.

As though that weren't enough of an incident, Leia started in with a sharp tone. "You told me she would be repairing the systems that would risk out ETA!"

Han jumped to a defensive tack, "We can't bring down any critical systems in hyperspace or we won't make it there on time. She's only here in case something goes wrong."

Luke slunk out of his seat and took his empty plate to the kitchen. Chewie quickly followed him, both rushing to remove themselves from Leia's blast radius. But Leia took the opportunity to get up from the table as well.

Halfway across the bay, Leia turned and angled her head at her husband. "And what if we miss the three-hour window? We are walking right into the Empire's back door and the Falcon is in no shape for another firefight." Gesturing madly, Leia turned to return her plate to the kitchen as she vented.

Luke stepped deeper into the galley to get out of Leia's way, but she stopped at the hatch and blocked his path to escape. Chewie hooted a quiet good night and turned to disappear down the starboard corridor, leaving Luke alone with the marital argument.

Han turned sideways on the bench and whined, "We've gotten out of worse situations, honey."

Leia slammed her empty mug on the counter. "BARELY!"

Han closed his mouth and gave her guarded, puppy eyes. Leia glared at him a long, punishing minute before turning to storm out to the cockpit.

After a moment, Luke crept out of the kitchen and grinned at the Captain now scratching his head in perturbed defeat.

Han caught the grin and snapped. "What?"

And Luke couldn't help but laugh lightly about it. Poor Han managed to infuriate both women before breakfast was even over. "You sure have a way with women, don't you?"

Han picked up his plate and grinned cockily at Luke, "Odd words coming from a guy who can't even get a date."

Luke lowered a humble grin and shrugged.