Golden Eyes

Chapter 6 - Duck and Co.

After they had eaten breakfast and cleaned up, Ben announced, "Right, let's go." He grabbed his jacket off the hook next to the back door as he called, "Jaspor, I'm taking Tess to the techo."

"Alright." Came the reply. "Just don't go blowing up anymore speeders."

"Very funny." Ben shot back, opening the door and ushering Tess out to the speeder.

The techo turned out to be a big room filled with computers and guys.

"Hey guys. What's up?" Ben said as he strolled in. There were calls of "Hey Ben!" "What's up dude?" "Long time no see." and one in the corner said "Look fellas, our Ben's go himself a girlfriend."

Tess turned to the speaker and gave him the same sarcastically sweet smile she'd given Ben in the elevator.

"For the record, love, I'm not anyone's girlfriend. And I suggest that if you'd like to get one, you keep your mouth shut."

There were claps and shouts of laughter to that. Tess just rolled her eyes and turned back to Ben who was scratching his neck awkwardly.

"Yeah that's Greenie." He said under his breath to her. She looked over her shoulder to look at Greenie again.

"He doesn't look like much, does he?" She said.

"Ben! Over here!" A voice called from the other end of the room.

"Hi Grey." Ben greeted him. "Tess, this is Greyanovan."

Grey pulled a face at his full name. "Please, just Grey. I'm pretty sure my parents were drunk when they named me."

"They just love your eyes." Ben said. Grey's eyes were a stunning shade of grey. "Anyway, Grey, this is Tess. She's staying with Jaspor and me for a bit."

"You're a Padawan or training Jedi then I presume?" Grey asked.

"Uh..." She looked at Ben, who didn't seem to be able to answer either. "I think so. Possibly." She answered finally. Grey raised an eyebrow.

"You think so? I don't think you pay much attention to your surroundings."

"She's only just been tested." Ben said as he fiddled with items on Grey's desk.

"Hey! Leave that alone will ya? Jeez." Grey snatched a statue from Ben's hands. "And what do you mean 'she's only just been tested.'"

"Exactly that. Now I brought Tess here so she could meet the troop." He looked around. "Where are the others?"

"Oh the rest of them had the morning off. It was just Greenie and myself, with troop 3. The others will be along soon enough." Grey lounged back in his chair. "Awfully nice of Jaspor to get you off techo duty for the holidays. You get to stay home and relax while we slave away here."

Ben poked him. "You know jolly well that I have to do patrol with Jaspor. You just sit here and drink coffee all day."

"What DO you do here anyway?" Tess asked, looking around at all the computers.

"We watch the surveillance cameras for the city and provide tech support for mission runners."

"What? The entire city?" Tess asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. It's not as bad as it seems. We don't even have to watch them really. The computers start beeping as soon as something suspicious appears."

They heard the door open and two girls and a guy came in.

Grey called, "Hey guys! Ben's back!"

They came over to say hi and one of the girls jumped on Ben.