Chapter 3: Painful Flashbacks

The rest of their time on Voss wasn’t too eventful, of course if you didn’t count the fact that the ambassador turned out to be part of a secret organization called the Children of the Emperor. That was quite the blindside as they were walking through the orbital docking station with Gaden-Ko back to Kayora’s ship, the Star of Ryloth. Ambassador Farash and a pair of Sith Acolytes had confronted them, stating that Gaden-Ko would be coming with them to serve the Empire. Naturally, they were no match for Kayora, but before the defeated ambassador was taken away by Voss commandos, she told them some concerning information about the Children of the Emperor, who had been plaguing Kayora’s missions for some time now.

Once aboard the ship, Gaden-Ko was introduced to the rest of the Rift Alliance senators. As pleasantries were being had, Nadia noticed that Kayora had slipped away. Curiosity getting the best of her, Nadia edged toward the door of the conference room before silently stepping out herself. She assumed her master would be in her quarters; the ship wasn’t very big and there weren’t that many areas to be alone. Passing by the bridge, she popped her head around the doorway leading into Kayora’s room, but surprisingly, the room was empty. Furrowing her brow, Nadia thought of where else the Twi’lek may have disappeared off to. She had seemed rather distracted since the last conversation with the ambassador … maybe she was doing some research?

Retracing her steps, Nadia made her way to the central meeting room, which housed the intercom, holocommunication terminal, and dejarik game board, but more importantly, the access to the data archives. Upon entering the room, Nadia spied Kayora sitting on the couch at the far end, datapad in hand. Pausing at the top of the steps, Nadia watched for a moment, since Kayora was yet to notice her presence. Her master’s eyebrows were slightly pinched, a wrinkle in between them, and she had her bottom lip pinched between her teeth. Those violet eyes bounced back and forth, scanning across the glowing screen in front of her. She was a picture of studiousness, yet all Nadia could focus on is that she wished that lip was between her own teeth.

Shaking that thought away, she entered the room, rapping her knuckles lightly on the wall. Kayora looked up, lip falling back to its natural position, and a small smile flickered across her features.

“Nadia, hello. Apologies for leaving so abruptly, I had some nagging questions that I needed to research.” She set the tablet down onto the table and leaned back against the cushion of the couch. “Is everything alright?”

“I feel that I should be asking you that, master,” Nadia replied, taking a seat on the couch as well, but leaving a healthy gap between the two of them. It looked like Kayora was about to make a comment about Nadia’s seating choice, but then closed her mouth and drummed her fingers on the datapad.

“This new information about the Children of the Emperor is causing me some stress,” she finally said, her fingers stilling. “I’m not sure how I am supposed to deal with a threat if nobody can find them until they strike. They are hiding in plain sight, yet completely invisible to us.” Kayora let out a long breath, and her fingers started moving again. “I’m sorry, I’m not being a very good master.”

Placing her hand over Kayora’s, Nadia stilled the drumming fingers. “On the contrary, you’re being an excellent master. You are talking to me, treating me as an equal, and showing me that not even you know everything.”

Kayora let out a small puff of laughter, looking at their hands. “Believe me, I am as far from knowing everything as one could be.”

Before Nadia was able to respond, the chime from the intercom cut through the lapse in conversation. Nadia quickly pulled her hand back, and Kayora stood, sliding the datapad back into its slot on the shelf.

“Not a moment to ourselves, is there?” As Kayora moved to accept the holocall, Nadia realized how much she both longed for and feared a true moment to themselves.

—

The call had been about an Imperial fleet on its way to provide reinforcements to the conflict on the planet Corellia. Not only was this fleet carrying thousands of reinforcements that could turn the tide of the war on Corellia, the flagship was a prototype dreadnought called the Javelin. While the naval militaries of the Rift Alliance had been warned and were now moving to intercept, Kayora had been given the command to board the Javelin and take the ship. They didn’t know exactly what the capabilities of the ship were, but given that it was being sent to the front lines of a closely fought battle, they had to stop it before it got there.

The crew all stood on the bridge as Kayora brought the Star of Ryloth out of hyperspace. Directly in front of them was the Sith fleet, with a smattering of transport ships all headed up by an imposing looking capital ship.

“That must be the Javelin,” said Felix Iresso, a Republic soldier who had joined Kayora after her mission on Hoth. “They sure like making their ships pointy.”

“I’m making our approach. They should be sufficiently distracted by the Rift Alliance vessels,” stated Kayora. As if on cue, the battleships from the Rift Alliance opened fire, sending salvos of turbolaser shots at the Imperial armada. “Once we’re docked, everybody take a couple Voss commandos with you and disembark. Everybody proceed to a different section and lock it down.” Felix and Qyzen, the towering, lizard-like Trandoshan, nodded in understanding and headed toward the airlock. Zenith, the Twi’lek resistance fighter they’d picked up on Balmorra barely tilted his head in acknowledgement as he departed. “Tharan, if any technology is impeding us, I expect you to get us past it.”

“Oh you know I will,” Tharan Cedrax said, a smirk on his face. “Holiday and I can take down anything the Empire is gonna throw at us.” Tharan was a brilliant inventor who also happened to have a fully sentient AI named Holiday, who most often appeared as a transparent pink lady. They were in some sort of relationship? Nadia wasn’t fully up to speed on the details, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be either.

There was a clunk and the ship shuddered as Kayora attached them to the Javelin. She rose from the pilot’s chair and checked that her holocommunicator was on her belt. “Come on Nadia, you’re with me. We’re going to the bridge.”

While she probably should’ve been a little more nervous, Nadia couldn’t help but be inspired by Kayora’s take-charge attitude. “Yes master,” she said, and followed Kayora out of the cockpit.

—

The smell of burnt flesh and melted armor permeated the air as Kayora’s lightsaber cut down one of the guards outside the bridge. Nadia angled her lightsaber to deflect a blaster bolt back at the shooter, then reached out with the Force, crushing the head of a security droid. The droid collapsed onto the floor, a sparking mess sitting atop its neck. The soldier whose bolt Nadia had deflected before fired at her again. Twisting her hands, she deftly positioned her saber in the bolt’s path, sending it back once again. This time, it struck the soldier in the chest, puncturing his armor and dropping him to the ground. Nadia turned to survey the area, seeing Kayora dispatch the last enemy with ease. There had been suspiciously little resistance as they had made their way through the ship, an observation that was confirmed by the others as they checked in. For the Javelin being such an imposing ship, it didn’t make a lot of sense that the Empire would neglect properly defending it. Kayora moved to the door controls and pressed a button, stepping back and bringing her lightsaber to a defensive position as the heavy metal plates retracted into the body of the ship.

All they could hear was the hum of their lightsabers. The bridge appeared to be entirely empty, save for a single bipedal droid that stood at the command deck. Lowering her lightsaber, but keeping her guard up, Kayora cautiously stepped onto the bridge, Nadia close behind her. No traps were triggered, no hidden guards jumped out, nothing at all happened as they made their way to the droid.

Kayora lowered her weapon as they reached the droid. “Where is the captain?”

“Finally, you have arrived! I can now commence with the operation.” The droid seemed jubilant at their presence.

“Operation? What are you talking about? Where is the captain of this vessel?”

“The captain, along with all other high ranking personnel, have been evacuated as per the mission guidelines. Now that you have arrived, I can finally fulfill my duty and activate the explosives.”

Nadia and Kayora exchanged a surprised look. “Did you say explosives?” questioned Nadia.

“Yes, I have planted explosives in key locations on this vessel,” the droid replied. “As we speak, the Imperial fleet should be retreating. Once they have reached a safe distance, I will detonate the explosives, destroying both this ship and any ships in the nearby vicinity.”

“That would cripple the Rift Alliance fleet!” Kayora activated her comm unit. “Everyone, this ship is rigged with bombs. There are enough explosives to wipe out the Rift Alliance fleet, at least any of the ships that are too close. Find these bombs and disarm them.”

“That is a futile effort,” stated the droid. “I have placed the bombs perfectly, and there are far too many for you to disable before the countdown reaches zero.”

Kayora ignored the droid, grabbing Nadia’s arm and pulling her along as she dashed out of the room. “The more bombs we defuse, the smaller the blast radius.” She called up one of the fleet commanders on her communicator as they hurried down the corridor, keeping their eyes peeled for explosives. “Sir, this is Kayora T’ven. The Javelin has been rigged to blow. Get every ship as far away from the Javelin as possible.” As she toggled off the comm unit, they saw a large explosive device tucked away under a control station.

“Let’s get to work.”

—

They had managed to defuse several bombs, and so had all of the other teams, but the droid was right, there were far too many to defuse them all. Kayora had ordered a retreat back to the Star of Ryloth, and they were on their way to the airlock when Nadia suddenly began to feel strange.

Her vision started to blur and all she could think of was being back on the Fortitude, trapped, with helplessness beginning to set in. Stumbling, she barely registered Kayora catching her before she fell. It was happening again. She was trapped on a doomed ship, and there was no way out, no help coming. She was going to die, just like her father had died. The world around her had narrowed into a tight tunnel, and everything was muffled and distant, like she was trapped in a room somewhere just outside of reality. She couldn’t remember whether the Sith from the Fortitude was here or there, but she could see a vision of him clearly, threatening, the planet behind him growing ever larger as the ship hurtled toward destruction. It sounded like someone was calling her name, but she couldn’t place the voice. The world grew darker and quieter, before finally she closed her eyes and waited for the end.

—

Gasping, Nadia’s eyes flew open and she sat up, confused as to where she was and how she got here. The last thing she remembered was being on the Javelin, but then it all went fuzzy, and now … where was she? This wasn’t her room, this bed wasn’t her bed, this was … Kayora’s room? Sound began to bleed back into focus, and she could hear her name being spoken, softly, along with the distinct sensation of someone grasping her hand. Swiveling her head in a way that still felt a little detached, Nadia looked at her hand, and saw another hand overlapping it, light green in skin tone. Finally, her hearing came back and now she knew that it was Kayora saying her name. It was Kayora holding her hand, and it was Kayora’s room she was in. Turning her head again, she found the woman in question, whose face was a mask of worry.

“Nadia, can you hear me? Nadia?”

“Yes, master, yes I can hear you.” Her voice wavered slightly as she answered. “What happened?”

“I believe you had a flashback,” Kayora responded solemnly. “We were just about to leave the Javelin when you stumbled and began muttering about the Fortitude and Arrax. I caught you, but your eyes were unfocused and you were completely unresponsive. I was able to get you back to the ship before you fully passed out, and then I brought you in here, just because it was closer than your room. I’m sorry if it’s not as comfortable because of the unfamiliarity.” Kayora removed her hand from Nadia’s and returned it to her own lap.

Trying to grapple with what had happened to her, Nadia decided to at least get up to speed on what had transpired while she had been out. “Did we save the fleet?”

A small smile flickered at the edge of Kayora’s mouth for the briefest of moments. “We did, yes. Between the fleet retreating and the number of bombs we were able to disarm, none of our ships were in the blast radius when the Javelin blew.” Her mouth turned downward into a frown. “However, Felix had to flee the ship using one of the escape pods. He is currently down on the surface of Corellia, and our next order of business is to save him, as well as attempt to confront the First Son, who has apparently arrived on the planet as well.”

Nadia made to stand up. “Well then let’s go, what are we waiting for?” Her attempt was halted by Kayora holding up her hand.

“Nadia, you need to rest. I will be traveling down to the surface tomorrow, but Qyzen will be accompanying me. I ask that you meditate and reflect on your flashback, and try to come to terms with what has happened in your past.”

At those words, Nadia hung her head in shame. “I’m sorry master, I’ve failed you. Perhaps if I hadn’t been so weak-”

“You have not failed me, Nadia, not in any sense of the word,” Kayora interrupted her. “War leaves us all with trauma, and we all must find our way to heal from that trauma. Everyone deals with it differently, and there is nothing to be ashamed about. Please, take the time that I am away to help yourself heal. Do it for me.” Her voice was firm, but there was a sense of pleading in it as well. Nadia knew her master was wise, and decided to use this as a learning experience. She trusted Kayora, and if Kayora said she hadn’t failed her, then it was true.

“Okay, I will. I promise, Kayora.”