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Chapter 11
Saradi
Once back at the beach house on Rishi Island, we'd gotten the team back together and discussed what had to be done. Theron was holding on, but every so often he'd have a twinge of pain.
"Are you alright? Should you be in a Bacta tank?" I asked.
"Probably," he admitted. "But there's no time. We've got to get that signal jammer down. It's preventing any communication with the Fleets, and they've got to know what's going on..like, now. I can run the Op, except you'll be in an area where we won't have communications till you get that jammer offline."
I put my hand on his arm. "We'll get it, Theron. Don't worry."
"If anyone can, it's you." he said, softly, putting a hand over mine. I smiled back. Even with bruising and a fat lip, he still was so gorgeous.
"Alright, Vector..you're with me." I said. "The rest of you, help Lana and Theron with this here."
My team nodded.
"He looks like he could use some ice." Dr. Lokin said, pulling out his medkit.
"And a stiff drink," Kaliyo said, helping Dr. Lokin arrange the tools for patching him up.
"Then I leave you in good hands. Mostly. Don't let Dr. Lokin inject any Rakghoul serum though." I said, halfway joking.
"I won't. Wait...what?" Theron said, as we headed out to the landing pad and the shuttle.
===
We ploughed our way through Revanites to get to the signal jammer so we could get a message to the Fleet. Well, Fleets, really. In this case we needed to let both sides know that they had traitorous operatives on board whose intent was to destroy both the Republic and Empire’s ships, and therefore the strength of both of their Navies.
"I can recode these cannons to fire on the Revanites, that ought to help."
"Did you see that?" Vector asked as a Republic Shuttle dropped a very high-tech Walker right in the middle of the area, guarding the Jammer controls.
I cracked my neck. "Yep. Let's go."
It was a big fight, but we finally were able to take the jammer offline. Well-placed plasma grenades always work wonders on the undercarriages of walkers. Theron had been watching and was able to send a message to the fleets the second it was down.
After getting the message through, Vector and I had a minute to breathe, but needed to head back to the safehouse. Theron and Lana had arranged a meeting with Darth Marr, the Imperial representative - a Sith on the Dark Council, and Satele Shan, Grandmaster of the Jedi Order - and as a side note, Theron's mother. Together, in person. This would either be interesting or a complete nightmare.
“Agent, can we have a word with you?” Vector asked, as we were making our way through the wreckage we’d caused in the Revanite camp to our borrowed shuttle.
"Of course. What is it?" I said, heading towards the shuttle.
"Wait,” he said, uncharacteristically. “We need to speak with you now.”
Surprised, I stopped, and looked at him. “Of course. Sure. Let’s sit over there,” I said, indicating a packing crate that was in decent shape and probably wouldn’t collapse from our weight.”
We sat and he turned to me, taking both my hands in his. It surprised me. This meant serious.
“Is everything alright?” I asked him
“Of course. Agent,” he said, then “..Saradi. We love you. “I” love you. You know that?”
“Vector..of course I do. I love you too.” I said. What was wrong?
“Then we need to tell you. You must leave us. We must let you go.”
I felt like a cold chill had wrapped me in shock. “What? Vector? Why?”
Was he tired of all this? Did he want a more peaceful existence? Did he miss the Hive too much? He wasn’t tired of fighting, he was Dawn Herald – that was his job. Was he tired of me? All this went through my brain in the two seconds it took him to reply.
“We don’t know why you don’t see it.” He said. “It’s so incredibly clear to us. Your spirit is pulled to Agent Shan. To Theron.”
“Oh Vector, no. I mean, he’s nice, I like him, but…it’s not like that. He's not you.” I mean, I DID like him – had always liked him, but I was committed and true to Vector. He knew that. Anything else was brief flirt, and not to be taken seriously. I mean, we both did that. Vector was hard to resist, himself. His kindness and interest in everything around him caused any manner of women, men, children, puppies, you name it to be drawn to him. It didn't have any bearing on our relationship - our commitment to each other.
He smiled, “No, he’s not us, that’s true, and we know we hold a special place in your heart – as you do in ours. But this is different. This is something that you must acknowledge, and you must explore it. “
“But…I..” I couldn’t even speak. What he said just felt right. I knew he spoke the truth.
“You know we are right about this,” he said, as though he’d heard my thoughts. “And there is no judgement. Connections such as this one - so strong that we can actually see it - must not be ignored. You can’t think to just allow it to wither – it won’t. It will just be there pulling on you till the end of all time. You must see what’s there, and we must push you toward it if you won’t go yourself.”
“Vector..” I said, still in shock. “I don’t know if I want to, though. Don't leave.”
“We must go,” he said. “It’s time for us to be with the Nest. We have spoken to them of this, and to the Queen, and they agree. If you are for us, then our relationship is inevitable, and you will return. If we are correct about this, and I know we are, then we must do the right thing.”
“I.. but...,” I said. Feeling weak and indecisive - two things I hated. But Vector was determined.
“We would not trade this time with you for anything. And we will always love you. If you have need of us, you need only reach out and we will be there. But you must do this.”
He stood up and held out his hand to help me up. He pulled me close and kissed me gently.
“We do love you.”
Still in shock, we got in the shuttle and went back to the Safehouse in Trader’s Cove. He took his bag from the entryway, leaned in and kissed my cheek. The turned into the alleyway heading for the shuttle that would take him to the space station, and then to an interplanetary flight back to Alderaan and the Nest.