I Want to be Your Knight: Chapter 16

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While Seha packed for the three of us, Jysella and I arranged things to torture Kyp.

Our first goal was to mount his furniture on his ceiling.

Then we gimmicked the climate controls to switch from hot to cold all day. At random times. To random temperatures.

Finally, we added a chemical to the supply of sweets and fruits that he kept in the food preserver. I hoped it would give him the same skin tone as that Bothan that Jys and I had fought. Or maybe a nice Republic Blue. Imperial Red would work just as well.

We stepped out of the kitchen area, to find Seha standing in the middle of the living room, three bags sitting at her feet, nervously watching the chrono on the wall. I glanced that way, and saw that we only had 40 minutes to make it over to the spaceport.

I reached down and grabbed my bag, and walked towards the door, casting a grin towards Seha. "Thanks, Seha."

She blushed and picked up her own bag, falling into step behind me.

We arrived at the dock, and stepped up to the human checking tickets. I handed mine over, and he slid the edge through his scanner. The device pinged, and as they scanned the terminal, his eyes opened wider. He glanced up at me, and then looked over at Seha and Jys. His eyes blinked twice, and he looked back down at the display.

A few seconds later, he passed the ticket back over to me, his Force presence flickered with a touch of awe, one definitely out of proportion with my cover identity.

"Have a good trip, Mr. Withersen," The porter then held his hand out towards Jysella, and actually stuttered slightly. "T-t-ticket, please."

I frowned and went the rest of the way through customs, waiting on that side of the gangplank for Jysella and Seha. Finally, they emerged, and we began the process of boarding the ship.

All too soon, we were on the Twilight Princess. A star liner that had probably been state of the art during the Stark Hyperspace War.

And I was quite serious about that "all too soon" bit. I had serious reservations about the flight-worthiness of this starship. It was old. It made odd noises, even while sitting in dock. While walking through the halls, there would be gaps in the grav plating, which meant that if you stepped down wrong, you would slip and fall from shifts in gravity. Which I discovered much to Jys' amusement.

Frankly, if I had went outside and inspected the exterior hull, I wouldn't have been surprised to find rust.

Then of course, there was the carbon scoring on the interior hallways. It had been painted over, and unless you knew what it was, you probably couldn't tell. Unfortunately, for my piece of mind, I had seen enough painted over blaster marks on walls of starships to know exactly what it was. I had to wonder if the Twilight Princess had been used during one of the numerous wars and border conflicts which occurred during her long career. Or if she had had problems with pirates. Multiple times. And lost every time.

In the end, I shelved those concerns, deciding I'd rather not think that negatively. After all, our trip should have been safe enough; we were firmly within Alliance territory.

We wandered through the massive starship, following a string of color-coded lights on the floor, walls and ceilings. A blue and red pattern of dots, dashes and slightly longer dashes. In theory this would guide us back to our cabin from any location on the ship; all we had to do was find a wall terminal and enter in our pattern. But as we walked past the third non-working wall terminal, it was just another thing I had reservations on working.

Finally, we stood outside the cabin we had been assigned. It was on the seventh deck, well away from the hulls, ensuring we would not be provided a view of space. Truthfully, by that point I would have been surprised, not to mention incredibly happy, if the room had clean linens.

I entered the code we had been given on the small keypad by the door, and the lock disengaged. The door popped open slightly, and I sighed as I realized they didn't have fully automatic doors. My hand touched the door, and the Force niggled at the back of my mind. Pushing the door open, I dove through, my saber snapping to my hand.

I paused a half meter into the room, and looked around, confusion painting my face. I knew I had felt the Force pulling at me, yet I could not see anything wrong with the room.

It looked much like the room I had in the Temple. The accouterments were nice, but simple, merely consisting of a private refresher, two wardrobes, a simple writing desk with a holonet connection, a couch and a large bed.

Seha stepped into the room, a frown flickering on her face. "What's wrong, Ben," she asked tossing her bag onto the bed.

I shook my head, that annoying tingle still sitting there at the nape of my neck. There was something I was missing, but I had yet to figure it out. "I... I'm not certain. When I was opening the door, I felt a twinge in the Force. Still do, in fact."

I turned and watched Jysella as she walked into the room. She tossed her bag onto the bed beside Seha's.

The door closed behind her, and she looked around, one eyebrow arching, annoyance flaring on her face. "Uhm... why is there only one bed?"

Realization thundered through me and I barked a laugh. "I bet Kyp knew we'd gimmick his room when he made these reservations."

She scowled. "I'm going to eviscerate him when we get back."

I laughed, and sat down on the couch. "Don't worry. You two can share the bed, I'll sleep here on the couch."

She looked down at me. "Well, you sure the kriff aren't going to sleep in the same bed as I am, Skywalker."

Seha though, took a more diplomatic approach. "Are you sure, Ben? I..." Then she stopped speaking, looking away into the corner, a blush on her face.

I watched her a moment, and then stretched out on the couch, my feet hanging off the end. "Ah, as comfortable as anything I ever felt before."

Jys reached down and grabbed up my bag, tossing it onto my stomach. Smiling at my discomfort, she dropped onto the bed, and then sighed deeply. "So... what are we supposed to do for the next three days?"

Seha curled up around herself, arms wrapped tightly about her legs. She seemed to stare off into space, not really watching anything. "Our orders say that we can't reveal we're Jedi. I wonder why?"

I shook my head. "Everything they're doing to us on this trip is all designed to make us work together. We're supposed to be a team, remember?" I stopped, horror flooding me. I was scared of something Kyp could have done, but I justified to myself that he wouldn't. Still, I decided it couldn't hurt to check. "Hey, can someone pull up how our reservations were made?"

Seha frowned at me, and then walked over to the terminal, punching a number of commands on the screen. Finally, her hand shot to her mouth. She looked first at me, then at Jys, and finally back at the monitor. She simply said, "Oh."

"Well?" Jys asked, a frown on her face.

Seha simply shook her head, not answering.

"Oh, for Force's sake," Jysella growled, as she jumped off the bed and walked over to the monitor. She stared at the screen for a moment. The longer she looked at the screen, the more her body tensed. Anger and annoyance radiated off of her in the Force. I knew then that my fears were justified. That Kyp had done this to me. Well, to us.

Jysella slowly turned towards me. "You knew didn't you? That's why you had us look."

I lifted my head slightly, and let it drop back onto the arm of the couch. It had a synth-wood panel on the top, and hurt like anything. "No. I didn't know. I just had this nightmarish thought that he had done something to us. How exactly are they made?"

I didn't really want to know. I wanted to believe that Kyp wouldn't have done that. I just couldn't. I had done enough things on blind faith.

She stared at me, anger smoldering in her eyes. "Apparently, we're all married."

I blinked. I knew Kyp had done something. Yet, this wasn't quite what I was expecting.

"T-to who?" I stammered out. Dreading the answer even as I asked the question. Even as deep down, I knew what she would end up saying.

Through clenched teeth, she replied, "To each other."

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