STAR WARS: Fugitive

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

"Great!" sighed Twizz, as he stood in the cargo receiving bay on the Harrower-class dreadnaught and looked back grudgingly at the unrep portal. He had just escorted Shyk, and they were standing with a detail of five armored security personnel. Thera would be next through the chute, but Bli Aeocc had just relayed via comlink that Cupera had begun escalating her rants about getting aboard the dreadnaught and setting some Sith lords straight. Bli had asked for help; Twizz hated floating through the weightlessness of the anti-gravity unrep chute. He inhaled slowly thinking how much easier this would be if they had not lost over half of their bounty hunter squad, which he knew would hit him hard as soon as he found time to reflect on it, mostly because of Kym, another day for that...

Twizz looked at Shyk and considered the next step in the process of escorting Thera. Somehow, earlier while they were pulling alongside the dreadnaught, she had removed her own stun cuffs, which did not bother him at all, and neither did leaving her along with Shyk on the ship with the security detail to help sort things out back on Chum'lee's yacht. Besides, they were surrounded by a security detail and the entire ship's company as an extension, so where would they run? And all of this security, at least from his standpoint, was merely for show. With the shortage of team members, he was already suppressing bitterness toward Thera and Kym, but in a little while, I'll be far from here... starting over... again... Bli's not too bad, he'll make it....

"Stay here," he muttered to Shyk and climbed back into the chute. He had brought Shyk across with little incident, which he found odd. He had expected him to resist more, in character with other Neimoidians who stereotypically were very verbal about their own best interest, blaming anyone but themselves for their misfortunes. Not only that, he had his own hunches all along that Shyk was not as ruthless as he ever came across, though he still talked much when making his points. He just did not seem to be saying very much now, which seemed out of place, though probably a smart move. At any rate, he would be able to avoid a direct encounter with Cupera a little bit longer as he brought Thera across to the receiving bay. Cupera would then be next... great....

"I will do it!" said Cupera, sternly with an added edge of the Force to Bli, "Bring them to the chute!"

Bli recognized the influence of the Force touch his mind. His father had taught him to recognize it when he was young, promising that it would be a valuable tool in his dealings with Jedi and Sith. The ones to watch out for are the ones who influence you without your knowing, while the ones you can get will be sloppy, because you will feel the faintest but distinct influence of the Force: the first, you won't know any better, the second, if you don't know any better, then you deserve what you get, he remembered his father saying one day after Bli lost his first blaster to a Sith hopeful, about his same age, that had tricked him into handing it over freely.

Bli's father had always joked about being Force-sensitive, but also defended in the next breath that he was not. Never much evidence of it at least, reflected Bli. In his youth, he would sometimes daydream of using the Force, and a few coincidences now and then empowered the fantasy. But after his father died, he kept this treasure to himself after being ridiculed by many of his peers for thinking that outdoing the mind-influence of a Force user was even possible. Later, the first time he noticed that his father may have been right, he did his best to conceal it, at least until he knew he could do it again. After that, he began utilizing his tool for his profession.

Regardless, Bli had been paying attention out of habit, and Cupera had just tripped up, and he knew just what he wanted to do to offset her. I love you, dad!

"Fine," he replied, "Here, hold this while I go get 'em," he said handing her a thermal detonator while thumbing the activation switch, dropping it into her hands, which she held out before realizing what he had done.