Jedi Fugitive (The Bad Batch)

72:

Astera:

It took us less than half an hour to ready the ship, new supplies stored on board by way of a very gracious Shep, who met our flimsy excuses only with understanding. He must have gotten word to Phee though, as she was now approaching the ship while we loaded up the last of the crates. She was holding the hand of a child, one that I could see the closer they got was a certain Nautolan boy.

I stepped down from the stairs with Omega as she caught sight of them, breaking into a run to speak to them. Cleex, likewise, let go of Phee's hand and started to run too, right past Omega and stopping in front of me.

"Cleex, what are you doing here? Where's your mother?"

"I needed to see you." He didn't even bother trying to answer my question, grabbing hold of my wrist in both his small hands and tugging me down so my eyes were level with his. "You have to know something before you leave."

"What's wrong?" I crouched down in front of him, the boy's glassy eyes huge and unblinking. He leaned in close, as though ensuring no one else would be able to hear what he told me.

"Something feels wrong," he frowned at me, his next words sounding far too mature for the child's voice that delivered them. "I- I have a bad feeling, Astera. You shouldn't go. Something bad will happen if you do."

I reached out to ruffle the tendrils on the kid's head affectionately, trying to disguise the involuntary shiver that passed through me at the thought of this mission going wrong. We'd only met once, and the kid still felt obligated to come and warn me about a feeling he had. He would have made an excellent Jedi. "I'm sorry, but this is a mission we can't stay back from. You don't have to worry about me, kid. I'll be extra careful. I promise."

His lips pressed together, the dissatisfaction with my answer clearly showing, but he nodded anyway and glanced over my shoulder as I rose and took his hand to lead him back to Phee. Only she seemed to be quite busy herself.

I arched my eyebrows, seeing both Tech and Phee together at the entrance to the ship, again. They'd been spending a lot of time together since we'd landed on Pabu, which was highly uncharacteristic for Tech. I had no doubt it was Phee always going to him and pushing it, but he seemed to mind it less than he did with anyone else. In fact, I was beginning to think he even liked the attention. Though he clearly didn't know what to do about it - he seemed even more engrossed in his datapad than usual, to the point where it seemed almost forced. As I watched, she insistently pushed it down and spoke to him a little more intensely, though I was too far to make out their words.

As soon as she saw us approaching, Phee chuckled lowly and shook her head, turning away from him with an exasperated look. "See you around, brown eyes."

"I'll look out for him," I couldn't help but grin knowingly at her when she met us a few paces away. "But you don't have to worry about anything. Tech's got eyes for no one."

She just rolled her eyes good-naturedly at me and took Cleex's hand, leading the kid with her back to the stairs. "Come on, kid. Narri's probably wondering where you are right now. Next time you tell her where you're going before you come asking me to take you anywhere, alright?"

Tech watched her go, looking distinctly flustered - I thought I could even see a tinge of red in his face. I shook my head with a laugh - of everyone, Tech was the last person I'd expected this from.

"She's something, huh?" I nudged him teasingly, whose already wide eyes only darted to mine in alarm before he quickly - too quickly - spun on on his heel and marched up the steps of the Marauder, my quiet laughter following him into the ship.

******

"I have identified a suitable location to land outside their sensor range," Tech indicated a little spot on the outskirts of the planet, outlined in red on the navicomputer. I readjusted the pauldron on my shoulder nervously, patting down every section of my armour to ensure it was fixed in place. A small knot had been growing in my chest since we'd left Pabu, and the closer we got, the worse it was getting