Chapter 5: Chapter 5
It was a quite straightforward job, and the needed repairs, while numerous, proved to be possible with Six technical know-how. They arrived back to their camp well past noon, having stopped to hunt an animal that Javali said was good enough roasted in a fire with some local herbs.
After eating and resting they got to scavenging the part needed from the wrecked cruiser. While Six and Javali went to the bowels of engineering, Alura went through the quarters that were still halfway intact, including her own and Master Kine's going for some personal items they could use to repair the other ship.
On Kine's quarter's she found her kit of lightsaber maintenance, as well as some clothes that would probably fit better the girl, as her old Master had been way more petite than her, and probably thrown away by the crash, Master Kine's Jedi beacon... that seemed to have received two messages.
Her own beacon had been lost in the Separatist ship, so she took it and opened it. The first message was a general announcement of the end of the war and a recall order to Coruscant of the full Jedi Order, there was something in that message that she didn't like at all, and then the second message...
A blue hologram of Obi Wan Kenobi appeared warning the surviving Jedi off Coruscant, that the Temple wasn't secure and that the Republic had fallen to an Empire.
"At the end, she was right." Alura said to herself, remembering Kine's speculations about the War.
She took over what she had and put it onto a pallet and carried them outside where Six and Javali were putting their own loot.
"What happened? You look like somebody killed your best friend." Javali said.
"I found Master Kine's Jedi Beacon." Alura said
"A Jedi what?" Javali asked.
"A way to send and receive messages encrypted messages by the Jedi Order." Six said, "I assume that there was some message."
"Two, one informing that the War had finished, Grievous and the leaders of the CIS were dead, and there was a general recall of the Jedi Order to the Temple to receive new orders." Alura said, "Very impersonal, very short of details, very much not the style of the Order."
"Very suspicious, and the other." Six said.
"A warning by Obi Wan Kenobi. It seems that Master Kine speculations were right on the money and somehow the Sith were waiting on the wings to take power, and go against the Jedi. The Republic is no more, there is an Empire out there. If we get out from this mudball, being with me won't be exactly safe now."
"When it hasn't been?" Six said with a chuckle, "The difference is that we'll be now permanently behind enemy lines."
"It would be better if we part ways earlier than Jeddha, then. When I left, the Republic was doing something, extracting a lot of khyber crystals from Jhedda, and I doubt that this new Empire would stop whatever this project is." Javali said.
Alura thought it strange, as far as she knew khyber only was used for lightsabers, but that was something better leeft to be discussed later.
"We'll see that later, if we can leave the planet first. Did you find everything you needed?" Alura said, instead.
"Pretty much, but look at the Sun." Javali said,
It was quite late, the shadows pretty long already, and by the time they reached the other ship, it would already be full night, when the worst predators got out to hunt.
"We have a refuge in a nearby set of caves." Alura said, and she gave a bundle of clothes to Javali, "It was from my former Jedi Master, she was roughly your size."
"What happened to her?, Did she die in the crash?" Javali said, as she put them on her rucksack, except for a couple of long socks and boots, that she started to put on.
"No." Alura said, shaking her head, "The separatist ship we were fighting also crashed, and well, they didn't agree to a truce. We are the last survivors."
"This war has been a waste since the first day." Javali commented, while getting used again to walk with boots again.
"Tell me about that." Alura said, starting to push the pallet through the road to the caves, "Despite what some people may have said, the Jedi didn't want this war."
"Nobody in Jeddha bought that." Javali said, pushing her own pallet behind her, "But what you said, makes me wonder why some people seemed to be so interested in pushing that."
"Probably to engineer the fall of the Republic, and the rise of teh Empire. I hope that you don't take this badly, but most Jedi have tended to be mediocre military commanders." Six said, closing the queue with his own pallet.
"No offense taken, Six. We are trained to be keeper of teh peace not soldiers, that some of us proved to have a head for tactics and strategy was a miracle on itself." Alura said. as they started to climb the road to the caves.
It wasn't long before they had managed to get into them, storing the stuff in one of thee, and getting ready to eat before going to sleep.
"How are w going to sleep?"
Six and Alura looked at each other, they hadn't thought how this was going to go now that they were together.
"Javali, you can take my old sleeping place." Six said, "I... ahm... I...."
"What he is trying to say, id that we'll share a bed." Alura said bluntly.
"I thought..." Javali said.
"Yeah, I would probably had to face some kind of punishment from thw Jedi Order, and Six..."
"Court Martial, for fraternizing inside the chain of command. You too, probably, Alura."
"I wouldn't be surprised. But, frankly, I don't care, even if the Republic hadn't fallen I would have faced whatever consequences I would need to face,"
Javali didn't answered, but nodded, and retired herself to the branch of the cave where she was going to rest, while Alura and Six removed their clothes and got ready for sleep. They cuddled together, too tired for anything else, exchanging kisses as their eyes closed and dream took them.