Chapter Text
“Barsen’thor, we’re being hailed by a droid with a priority message. It says it has Alpha Level clearance,” the fact that it was Zenith’s voice on the other end of the speaker and not Felix’s was enough to confirm the call’s authenticity. After the incident with senator Grell Zennith had taken a personal interest in monitoring comm frequencies.
It was a task that Tal’shanri sensed reminded him of his time in the Balmorran resistance. Even running a political campaign hadn’t had the nearly mesmeric quality on the twi’leck as scanning every message for threats did; his total focus shifted the way the force flowed around him — it was never quite in totally harmony. Yet,the task seemed to draw him closer to the light side, and that made the occasional inconvenience worth it. “It’s broadcasting decryption protocol on a sub frequency, do you—“
“I can confirm the clearance codes,” Felix interjected a second later. “Applying decryption and patching it through to your quarters now.” Both men disconnected the same instant, leaving the line open for the droid. Things had gotten better between them lately, with Felix begrudgingly accepting that Zenith was outside the chain of command and Zenith agreeing to at least make at attempt to follow Republic protocol.
After a brief moment the familiar chirps of an astromech came on. “Tal’shanri: report to commander Darock on the Republic Fleet for Priority Alpha Mission. Location attached.”
The droid disconnected with out waiting for an answer. Odd behavior for an astromech. An unease settled over her as she contemplated what extremely limited information they had received. Standing from where she’d been meditating in her quarters she headed to the nav console upstairs. “Holiday, we’re meeting somebody on the fleet. Change course.”
It was probably against regulations to let a sentient AI run the ship, but the practical advantages had proven huge so far. A second later the ship jumped to hyperspace, and although the improvements Theran had made over the years made the change all but unnoticeable, Tal’shanri braced against the imaginary impact.
The only other one who seemed to be able to tell the difference between sub-light travel and traveling through hyperspace with out looking at a window was Hallow Voice. He stalked towards the front of the ship silently. While to most people he had the bad habit of appearing places with an unnerving stealth like ability, Tal’shanri could always feel his presence in the force and turned to greet him.
He simply brushed past her and stared out the front window with out speaking. The two stood in companionable silence until with little more than a whisper the ship had jumped back into normal space, their request for docking codes processed faster than even the best droids could have managed.
“Sky Hunter,” he seemed momentarily unsure of how to communicate what he was trying to say, and placed a clawed hand on her shoulder. “Many voices shout. One whispers. You heed the whisperer against the roaring of wisdom. The whisperer becomes the ocean and you drown in a sea of gold. You are reborn as Bright Storm.”
“The Seer saw this and failed to speak so I must.” That much at least was clear, Gaden-Ko had requested to return to Voss on extremely short notice, troubled, he said by a vision of great suffering that needed the wisdom of three interpreters.
Hallow Voice let go of her shoulder and turned to go, “The Whisperer knows who you are Sky Hunter. Even now.”
Hallow Voice’s predictions were if anything more retrospectively accurate then Gaden-Ko’s visions. The problem was figuring out what they meant beforehand. Turning the name over it her mind Tal’shanri resolved to meditate on the matter when she next had time.
“Holiday, tell the crew they have three hours shore leave on the fleet. Actually, wait, tell Theran he has two and a half so he gets back on time.”
“Maybe I’ll just keep him here on the ship all to myself instead.” Holiday flickered to life for a brief moment, with one of her giggles that made otherwise threatening statements seem harmless. “Do I have to tell him we’ve landed master Jedi?”
“No. You and he can—“ Holiday vanished again, not even waiting for Tal’shanri to finish the statement. It was disconcerting to talk to the AI sometimes, not being able to sense any emotions at all from her; it was hard to judge for sure just what her intentions actually were.
Thankfully they had never seemed to include any desire to steal the ship.
“Nadia, stay with Felix.” She could feel Felix groan internally at the thought of having to keep watch over Nadia; who although she almost always meant well had the habit of asking too many questions to the wrong people. Felix didn’t outwardly complain and instead put a hand protectively on Nadia’s shoulder.
Nadia wasn’t exactly a child any more, but an unsupervised Padawan of any age made quite the target. She could have asked Qyzen to chaperone, but the Trandosian was just as likely as Nadia to cause some sort of incident. Hopefully everybody could manage to stay out of trouble for three hours...
“Zenith, no smuggling!” His attempt to leave with out being seen foiled he made a non-committal sound in reply before he headed off somewhere with Qyzen close on his heels. It was pointless to try and list off for Zenith all the things he wasn’t allowed to do on shore leave, and Tal’shanri suppressed the urge to roll her eyes in frustration.
Retiring to Tython to join the Jedi Council in a life of meditation and debate sounded better every day. Maybe after this one last mission she’d broach the subject with Satele. But first, Commander Darock.