Reflections: A Star Wars Fan Fiction Novella

Chapter 6

I kept asking myself how I had gotten this far. It couldn't have been just blind luck, and it definitely wasn't all to be credited to my skill, alone. Fyra was a gift, not just because of the assets she had been assigned by her leaders, but because she was another person, a human, a beautiful human which I could talk to. I wasn't sure how wonderful she would be if she heard the truth though, and the thought of having to take her out made me sick.

I had waited until I was absolutely certain she was sleeping before I lay down myself. While the possibility of hostile lifeforms wasn't nonexistent, it was doubtful that any would be land based, especially after seeing that underwater buffet.

I awoke to a slight breeze. I didn't remember any yesterday. The clouds in the sky had disappeared, leaving behind a clear blue. I could see Jakku in the distance. The other moon likely was invisible now, I forgot to check for it last night. No ships, Imperial or New Republic, were visible above.

I closed my eyes again, then turned my head to my left. Fyra wasn't sleeping there anymore. A horrible thought occurred to me, but once I saw the A-wing it was put to rest. She couldn't abandon me, and even if she could I doubt she would. I was the redeemed bad boy, right? That didn't answer my question, where was she?

I stood up and looked around. Nothing had changed, except there were footprints leading into the water. Her jumpsuit was draped over the wing, as was the rest of her clothes.

Allowing myself to imagine what she looked like at the moment wasn't a good idea. I had to remind myself I was an Imperial, we weren't animals. Still...

I found myself wading into the water again, leaving my boots and gloves behind. When the water reached my knees, I remembered she knew I had a blade. Patting confirmed that it was still where it belonged.

I returned to the location I had identified earlier. It was just as magnificent. The bioluminescence was gone, due to the sun's return, but the reef was alive with life. It was a trench, no, a valley, where coral and biological organisms covered the slopes as if they were wildflowers.

She must not have noticed me, but I certainly saw her as she surfaced. I decided now was not the time to surprise her. I dove to the surface.

"Hey!"

She had just finished refilling her lungs as she rotated to face me. The water barely covered her shoulders as she treaded it.

"It's beautiful!" She sounded thrilled. We drew closer towards each other.

"Why didn't you wait for me?" I knew the answer, but I couldn't resist asking it. The excited look on her face changed to dread as she remembered her attire, or to be more precise, her lack of it. I continued to swim closer to her, until I could reach one of her circling arms.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed, I already saw most of it." The smile returned to her face as she slid her wrist from my fingers and used it to douse me with a splash. She disappeared beneath the surface, and I followed.

Nothing like what you are thinking happened, what do you think I am, a zeltron? We explored the reef, and I impaled a fish or three. We returned to shore, and she retrieved a survival blanket from the pack, which she spread out over the sand.

I decided to remove my suit, finally, and let it dry, I still had shorts underneath.

Together we sat on the blanket, our feet enjoying the warm sand, while the rest of our bodies were safe to avoid its clingy nature. I tried roasting a fish with my blaster, but it ruined most of it. Fyra reminded me that her A-wing had a cutting torch, and that resulted in a much better roasting.

We consumed the fish, each one was radically different from the other, but all turned out to be edible just the same. Except the one I burnt of course, that one, we ended up returning to the sea. We took turns trying each other's, until we had finished them up.

The convertor didn't operate during the night, as it was solar dependent. Of course, we wouldn't have been able to consume the water at night anyway. I convinced Fyra, although she protested the matter relentlessly, to use both her helmet and the survival pack as additional water reserves.

Having completely downed one of the two drinks which we had requisitioned for our brunch, I leaned back and closed my eyes, feeling the sun. I sensed that she followed suit, and did the same beside me.

"Why is there only one sun?"

"I don't know, isn't that a question for an astrophysicist?"

I felt her sit up and turn towards me. Her breathing rate had increased. I was jolted awake by her hands pushing against me.

"You said this was the Tatoo system, I'm not stupid! There's only one sun in the sky, where are we?!" I don't know what hurt more, the look on her face or her pounding.

"Stop it." She immediately shut up and returned to her side of the blanket. She was right, she wasn't stupid. She knew she would never win a match of brute strength.

"I lied, we aren't in the Tatoo system. We are in the Jakku system." Her face was set, and she glanced over towards her holdout blaster. When I noticed she started to move, I withdrew my SE-14r from behind me. Her eyes widened in fright.

"I don't want to hurt you, Fyra." I pointed the blaster at her midriff, setting it to stun, but she didn't notice that. "Listen to what I have to say, really listen, and I promise you, you will understand. I won't touch you."

Her eyes were still staring at the barrel of the weapon I held. She knew what I was capable of. She was probably debating with herself whether or not a bolt to the gut was the worst of the possible things that I could do to her. Of course, I would never commit such a horrific act, but none of that mattered to her. All she saw was the enemy.