June 12.
Early morning at Capitol City. The spaceport was bustling with activity, especially since the new Mass Relay had been completed three days before by the Guardians, seeing that the wormhole was becoming unstable again and there was a risk that the two galaxies would be severed again. Now, though, they were indissolubly linked.
Yet, among the immense traffic of goods, people and ships coming from the Milky Way or bound for it, Jaral was waiting for a ship from Andromeda.
"You sure your 'volunteers' aren't having second thoughts?" she asked to Nimbus, who was accompanying her together with Ahsoka and the Specters. "They were supposed to be here days ago."
"Don't worry. They said they had some trouble navigating out of the Unknown Regions, but their beacon is not lying." the Mirialan reassured, lighting up her omni-tool and showing the star charts of the sector. A beeping light was clearly approaching Lothal.
"Well, about time." Zeb groaned as he sat on one of the benches in the lobby. "I'm tired of just shooting at the holograms of the bucket-heads."
"Right, while we wait, Nimbus..." Jaral said cautiously. "Are you sure you want to come with us on Korriban? I mean, you struggled so much to abandon the Dark Side..."
"You're so cute, worrying about me, but don't worry. I feel like I need to do this. If anything, to finally say goodbye to my old self once and for all."
Jaral accepted those words and didn't press the matter. They waited around twenty minutes before Nimbus spotted a ship coming toward the spaceport and said. "There they are."
The group turned around and they saw what was actually a luxury yacht model, S-161 "Stinger" XL. A very elegant design indeed, but Jaral wondered who what kind of people owning such a ship would spend ten years at the edges of civilized space (at least, that was what Nimbus told her). Nevertheless, the ship's wings rotated from vertical to horizontal position, the lower one then transferred on the starboard side and the bigger one returned upward, allowing the Stinger to touch down on the landing platform that had been reserved for them.
Nimbus started walking toward the board side of the ship, where a ramp quickly lowered, and the group followed.
When the passengers started to come out, the first one turned out to be a human with light skin, green eyes and red hair, the face kept rigorously shaved despite he looked more or less twelve years older than Jaral. But what caught the eyes of the Knight immediately was the lightsaber pending from the man's belt. The mere sight of it made Jaral stop in her tracks, unable to believe it, but she still snapped out in time to notice the rest of the group.
In order there were a fairly old woman with dark skin with a gray outfit, a grouch-looking Latero with a red jacket and who seemed the pilot of the ship. Finally a female zabrak with a pale white skin and a very elaborate red robe. She also noticed a BD unit hanging on the shoulder of the Jedi.
Jaral waited a few meters away with the rest of the group while Nimbus stepped in front of the newcomers and particularly the man with a lightsaber.
"Times sure change, I guess." the redhead said in a lighthearted tone.
The mirialan chuckled. "Ten years can do wonders, Kestis. But I'm grateful that you trusted me enough to come here."
"It wasn't difficult to find proofs of your honesty." the man quipped before the two shook hands. "I'm glad to see you managed to escape the grasp of the Sith."
"I had quite some help." Nimbus said with a smirk before turning toward the woman who had effectively saved her from the darkness.
"Jaral Bridger, meet Cal Kestis, Jedi Knight."
YOU ARE READING
Saga of the Bridgers-Year 5
FanficThe Death Star has been destroyed. While the Coalition celebrates, Ezra and Jaral return to Lothal, to spend some time with their family and introduce Luke to the ways of the Jedi. But the Empire is far from broken, as Grand Admiral Tanis and his fl...
