On the Wings of Valkyrie

Chapter LXXXI

"Miss Rose, the transaction is ready to be complete," Maneeli Tuun, the Kallidahin Luna had been working with said. He was one of the few "speakers" of his people, though she would have been willing to communicate telepathically with any one of them. That said, it did allow for better discretion, though she knew that was not required. Kallidahins could keep a secret.

"Excellent," she responded, drawing the newly made credit card from a pocket and giving up a rather hefty amount of credits with a single swipe. The large depletion from the account may draw some attention from Imperials on the planet she'd dropped Yoda off on, but they wouldn't be able to find anything on Janice Rowling. Vader might notice the withdrawal as well, but it wouldn't lead him anywhere, just let him know she had decided to withdraw a massive amount of credits from one of her many alternate accounts, all of which had remained untouched since she'd left him as an extra precautionary measure.

"Thank you for this opportunity to study your specimen," Tuun said in his soft voice. Kallidahins were incredibly interested in learning about all species, so the fact she had brought one they had never seen before had interested them greatly and given her some discounts when it came to the procedure simply because of how much they wanted to learn more about it.

Luna only gave a small smile at the words as she ran a comforting hand over her new companion's rather large head that was practically even with her own in the chair she was seated in, sending it waves of comfort. Cerberus, as the ex-Shadow had christened the one-eyed Tuk'ata after more or less recovering from part of the Moraband ordel, was not at ease in this new environment, not that she could blame him. There were more people here than he'd likely ever seen before.

In truth, this visit was multiple things. Yoda had given her information on how the Jedi trained the hounds while he'd been aboard her ship which had led to the girl to attempt to partly "purify" Cerberus from the darkside as well as start some true training. The purifying hadn't been enough to change his eye color, but the glowing red was growing on her and the hound now knew a few commands in Basic. This was the first time he had been permitted off the Illusion since their short stops on Vodran and Dagobah. It was time to see how well behaved he could be.

"At ease, my pet. They are going to help you," she told the hound in Sith. Cerberus remained tense, though he only swatted his tail slightly. "You are going to go to sleep, and when you wake, you will have regained what the pack took from you."

Technically, they didn't necessarily need to sedate the hound to attack a prosthetic leg or eye, but Luna wasn't about to test Cerberus's tolerance to such things. Regardless, by the end of the procedure, the Tuk'ata would be able to walk normally and have a better range of vision. And perhaps, once he was better trained, Luna could instal something that would help him bypass locked doors so they could forgo a droid.

Kaytee would want to kill her.

Well, it's a thought for the future, Luna reminded herself.

"Let me take you to the operating room. I assume you will remain with the patent?" Tuun asked.

"That would be better," she agreed, moving to stand. Cerberus immediately followed suit, staying by her side as Tuun led them down the halls until they reached one of the rooms where medical scanners and such were already set up.

"Up onto the table, Cerberus," Luna told the tuk'ata. The hound did as asked, bounding up onto the table, though she had to help balance him with the Force so he didn't fall back down. "Lay down and rest. I'm right here."

~*~

"Okay, we're here," Padmé said as the Nabooian ship emerged from lightspeed, heading towards the asteroid field of Polis Massa.