(Part 3)
For someone who didn't have much experience holding a blaster, Nya almost seemed like a natural with it. Sure, she wasn't holding it properly, but after 10 shots, she had hit the target dead in the middle six times, she came pretty close the other 4 times.
Jak was rubbing his chin. Was this beginners luck? Or was Nya lying?
No. She couldn't be lying. If she was really that good, then she could intentionally miss the shots just as easily as she could make them.
“Never used a blaster before, huh?” Jak said.
Nya blushed. She was trying really hard to hide a smile. “Begginer's luck, maybe?” She said.
“I'm getting the feeling that you're not being completely honest with me.”
“I swear I've never used a blaster of any kind before.”
“Uh-huh.”
Jak walked over to a box and pulled out what looked like a sword. He threw it to Nya.
As Nya examined sword, she noticed that it was made of plastic.
“It's just a practice sword.” Jak said. “If you're good at using melee, I won't have to worry about you cutting me up.”
Jak was now carrying a practice sword as well.
“I'm guessing you've never used a melee weapon either?” Jak said smiling.
“Actually I have.” Nya replied.
Nya went into a defensive stance.
Jak looked at her surprised. So she never used a blaster, but she definitely used a sword...interesting.
Jak went into an attack stance.
He quickly lept forward at her. Swinging his sword agressively at her. Jak thought he could surprise her, but to his own surprise, she was prepared.
He swung his sword with quick precision, but she blocked every strike.
After a while Jak started to sweat, and he began to notice that Nya wasn't attacking at all. She was defending herself, but not once did she swing her sword at him.
Jak stopped his flurry of strikes, and examined Nya's stance. He looked for a weakness in her defense, but there was nothing that stood out.
But after awhile he noticed that her arms were shaking. She must've put so much strength blocking his strikes that her arms started to tire.
Jak swung once as hard as he could, and he knocked the practice sword out of her hands.
Nya fell down to her knees and started panting.
“Okay. I give up.” Nya said.
Jak laughed. “Don't you know any offensive stances?”
Nya shook her head “No. Just defensive.”
Nya got off her knees, and slowly made it to stairs. She sat down at the bottom of the stairwell. Jak took a seat beside her.
“So where did you learn to use a sword.” Jak asked.
“A friend of mine taught me. How about you?
“My dad taught me the basics. I taught myself the rest.”
“I thought clones were just only taught to use blasters?”
“Wait. How did you know my father was clone?”
Nya felt her cheeks warm, realizing that she may have revealed something that she wasn't supposed to know. When she looked at Jak, she thought he would look angry or confused, but instead he was smiling.
“Moz told you, didn't he?”
Nya nodded, realizing that it was more of a statement than an actual question.
“Well it's not like that bit of info is going to hurt us now that he's gone.”
Nya hesistated, but she figured it couldn't hurt to ask.
“Moz told me about your dad. But what about your mom?”
Jak shifted uncomfortably.
“She's alive...”
“Oh. That's good, then.”
“Yeah, it's just...I haven't seen her in a while.”
“On bad terms?”
“No.”
“So why haven't you seen her?”
“It's a bit complicated...I haven't seen her since my dad died, which will have been Four years in two months .”
Nya's jaw dropped slightly. “4 Years!? You've at least called her, right?”
Jak head fell down in shame. “No.”
“Why?”
Jak swallowed hard, and leaned back on the stairs.
“After my father's funeral, I left. Sig stayed with mom, but I left. I couldn't stay in that house, I needed to leave. Everywhere I looked around in that house, all I could think about was my dad. I thought about how he sometimes took us with him even when he had to work. I would think about how he would come home just to read to me and my sister, so we could sleep at night.”
Nya felt water in her eyes. She started to wipe at her eyes, but it wasn't helping at all.
“I left without saying goodbye.” Jak continued. “I didn't say anything to my mom or my sister.”
“You're ashamed” Nya said.
“I was so selfish, I couldn't see that my own mother and sister needed me. I thought they had Moz and eachother and that was enough. But that was the time my mother needed the comfort of her son and I left because it was too much.”
Nya placed a hand on Jak's shoulder. He looked at her, holding back tears of his own.
“If leaving without saying goodbye was selfish, Then don't you think that not going back because of your own shame is even more selfish?”
The words cut through Jak like a knife. What Nya said was true, he didn't want to admit that they were true. But he didn't want to look her in the eye and tell her that she was right.
“Jak!” Sig's voice called from the top of the stairwell?
“Yeah?”
“We got a holocall.”
Jak looked at Nya.
“We should get up there. “
* * *
In the middle of the dining room table, a hologram appeared.
It was tall, slim figured, hooded, but you could see the red-skin behind the cloak.
“Ishnar, is that you?” Jak asked.
The hooded figured dropped his hood revealing an older Twi-Lek who's face bared noticable scars and was heavily tattooed.
“Nice to see you, old friend.” Ishnar said.
“What can we do for you?”
“I'm afraid a situation has arisen, that requires your expertise.”
“What's going on?”
“A week ago, several members of the Rutian clan were shot down while unloading a Smuggler's ship. One member was left alive, and he believes that a member of the Lethan clan is responsible.”
“Wait..”Sig said. “Rutian? Lethan?”
“I'll tell you all about it in a minute.” Jak said. “So what do you need us for?”
“We need to find the shooter.”
“That sounds like something for local authorites.”
“You'd be right. But Ruresh's authorities believe the statement given by the young Rutian man. Whoever killed these men must be brought in.”
“Okay. Let's say that we bring him in. What if this shooter is a Lethan?”
“Then we will offer him up to Ritian.”
“Just like that?”
“The Lethan and Rutian have had a truce in place for centuries, Jak. We're not going to jeapordize that for one Lethan.”
“Fair enough.”
Behind him, Jak could hear Sig clearing her throat.
“But of course, you know that we don't do these type of things for free, not even for friends.” Jak said.
Ishnar laughed. “Only a fool would call a mercanary to do free work.”
“And we both know for a fact that you ain't a fool.”
“6'000 credits. 3'000 to do the job, and 3'000 when it's done.”
Jak turned to Sig, an eyebrow raised. Sig nodded in agreement. Jak turned back to the Hologram.
“That works for us” Jak said.
“Good. I hope to see you when you arrive, Jak.”
The hologram vanished, and Jak again turned to face Sig.
“So explain this Rutian and Lethan thing.” Sig said.
“Rutian is what you would call a Blue-skinned Twi-Lek, and Lethan is what you call the rare Red-Skin Twi-Lek.” Jak stated.
“So what's the deal?” Sig asked.
“The planet of Ruresh is a Twi-lek planet in Sukaar system.”
“Wait a minute.” Nya said. “I thought Ryloth was the Twi-Lek's home world?”
“Most Twi-leks come from Ryloth. But just like we humans don't all stay on one planet, neither do the Twi-leks.”
“Okay.” Nya said nodding.
“Go on.” Sig said, sounding annoyed.
“Anywho...” Jak continued. “For a long time The Rutian clan believed that the Lethan people were mistakes of nature. And the Lethan believed that they were equal to everyone else. Both people fought for years until both leaders decided that it was time for a truce.”
“What about the other Twi-leks? The ones that aren't Lethan or Ritian?”
“They get caught in the middle sometimes. But the main struggle is with the Lethan and the Rutian.”
“So..All Rutian and Lethan have to join their clans?”
“Lethan Twi-leks are the rarest of Skin color, so most who are born with the color join whether they like it or not. After the truce, the leader of the Rutian people declared that from now on only family members can join.”
Sig scoffed. “So there can't be that many of them if it's only within the family.”
“The Rutians strongly encourage mating within their group.” Jak said.
“Wait...What do you mean by 'within their group'?”
“If a Rutian male or female can't find a Rutian of the opposite sex outside the clan. Then they are strongly encouraged to mate with someone of the opposite sex that is within the clan.”
“But that would mean...”
“Yep.”
“Ew...Just ew.”
Moz walked into the kitchen and immidiately looked into the pot where he saw what looked like Green grits?
“What...Is this?” Moz asked.
“I made it.” Nya said.
“Uhm...”
“It's good, Moz. You should try it.” Jak said.
“It was okay.” Sig said sounding unimpressed. The Coffee sucked though.
Nya looked at Sig. She gave her a polite smile.
“I'll go prep the engines.”
Nya walked off to the engine room.
Jak looked at Sig with a disgusted frown.
“Wow. That was real classy, Sig.” Jak said sarcastically.
“I was just being truthful.”
“Would it kill you to be nice to her?”
“Whatever. I'm going to get geared up. “
Sig walked off to her room, and closed the door behind her.
Moz walked over the dining room table and pulled up a chair. He had a bowl of...whatever Nya had made and a cup of coffee in one hand.
“We going somewhere?” Moz asked.
“Yeah. Ruresh, a planet in the Sukaar system.”
“Okay.”
“Hey Moz?”
“Yeah? “
“When is the last time you spoke to ma?”
“Kathy? Yesterday.”
Jak spun around to look at Moz.
“What did she say? Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she said she was doing just fine. She was about to go to the market and pick up some groceries. She told me to tell you that she said 'hi'.
“She...She didn't want to talk me?”
“She probably thought you were busy. Probably what happens when your son hasn't called you in four years.”
Jak closed his eyes, trying to calm himself.
“I'm sorry, Jak. That was out of line.” Moz said.
“It's okay. I deserved that.”
Moz looked down in his bowl, swirling the solid green liquid with his spoon.
“Okay. Seriously? What the hell is this?”