To Heal Poignancy ■ TECH - The Bad Batch ■

The Attempted Kidnapping of Adla Klenn

"Ugh," Adla threw herself backward in her chair as she groaned loudly. She picked her head up and looked at Crosshair. "Want to play a game?"

"No. Work," Crosshair didn't look up from his seat. He was writing a report of some sort on a datapad.

The young woman groaned again as she threw her head back once more and spun her chair around a few times. A pout rested on her lips as she stared at the ceiling. "Well, I want to play a game," she grumbled to herself. She had been sitting in the stuffy office working all day for the Senate meeting happening the next day. What harm would taking a small break and playing a game do? The sun had set on Coruscant, and the stars were out. Well, what stars were available to see through all of the pollution.

Adla abruptly stopped spinning in the chair as she faced the giant window. Her eyes fluttered around the night sky, searching for the brightest star visible. A small smile graced her lips as she spotted the bright star.

"Found you," she whispered. Her eyes welled with tears and nostalgia, as her smile dimmed a little.

"Hey," a crumpled up piece of paper hit the top of her head. "If you're done for the night, then let's go."

"Did you know that the star there," Adla pointed to the bright star she found, "Although bright, and seems close, is actually 4.6 billion klicks away? I believe it's called Lorca. It's an O star. There are around one hundred million habitable O stars in the galaxy but Lorca is not one of them due to its extreme heat," Adla tilted her head to the side and ran her tongue over her teeth in thought. "At least, it's not right now. As stars grow older, their heat can die down, possibly turning them into M stars."

"Exciting," Crosshair deadpanned.

Adla's eyes glazed over as she began to talk to herself more so than Crosshair. "If Lorca does become habitable one day, I wonder what kind of life would develop or be attracted to it. What would the culture be like? The language?"

Crosshair finally looked up as he heard Adla's tone turn soft and distant. The notes in her voice switched to a haunted tune rather than the cheery excitement she voiced when she explained the stars.

"Maybe it'll simply die and fade away, never being given the chance to grow life at all. I guess all stars die down one day, huh? Stars don't get to choose what happens to them. One day, they're there. The next day, they're gone. Nothing is permanent. Everything ends whether we want it to or not. Perhaps that's why they are so beautiful," tears threatened to cascade down Adla's face.

Crosshair wouldn't ever dare to voice it aloud, but he was confused as well as a little disturbed by the direction Adla's speech turned down. He swiftly stood up and made his way over to the young senator.

"You're not a star," she suddenly swiveled her chair around, which caused Crosshair to freeze. He finally noticed the glazed look in her eyes, the unshed tears. "They can try to make you a star, but you're not. You should have a choice."

"Who are they?" Crosshair asked softly, as if he were trying not to startle an unsuspecting tooka.

Adla's eyebrows furrowed, and her eyes hardened. "The Empire," she hissed disgustedly. Although he wouldn't call it anger, necessarily, it was admittedly the angriest he had ever seen her. For the moment, she forgot where she was and who she was with. "They take you and use you until you have nothing left to offer them. Then they throw you away like some piece of trash. I know about the inhibitor chips. I know that you know about them. Don't you want yours taken out? So you can have a choice of where you want to be or who you want to be with?"

Crosshair's own eyes hardened as he stared at her. Adla didn't look away in the way some others might. "You know about the inhibitor chips?"

"Don't you want to be with your squad?" she paused for a moment. She ignored his question completely. "If they're still out there?"