The Rebel Faction

Asri felt slightly annoyed at all the cheering: these people thought it was all one big act!? Oh how she wanted to say a few words of choice, but she didn’t want to upset Mortor, whom was just starting to settle down. Plus would it really be right of her to ruin everyone else’s day by saying it was the real thing? Therefore, she just bit her tongue can kept quiet.

“I’ll be fine…” Silonik said to Maskis’ mentioning going to a hospital. “Just need to rest a bit.”

“It’s about lunch time anyway.” Asri said, setting Mortor down. “Some food will likely help you get rid of it.”

“That’s right….” Silonik said sheepishly. “I was so excited about coming here I forgot to eat breakfast.”

Asri chuckled. “Well, that certainly doesn’t help. Let’s get some food into you two and I’ll even swing for desert.”

That lightened their spirits and the group made their way to the food stands. There was a pretty good selection available and it took the pair a bit to figure out what they wanted. After a few minutes wait Asri got Silonik a couple of fried nuna and Mortor a small basket of battered gorg legs. It took a while for them to find a place to sit, but once they did the kids dug in ravenously.

“Maskis could you stay here a moment and make sure these two don’t choke on their food while I hunt down something for myself?” Asri asked. “Well, maybe more then a moment, considering I am limited on what I can eat.”

“Why is that?” Silonik asked, looking up from this food.

“Um…I have a very sensitive stomach. A result of something that….happened in the past.” Asri said quietly, not really wanting to talk about it. “I’ll be back as soon as I can ok?” Before any more comments can be made she stood up and walked off.

It took a while for Asri to find a food stand that looked like may have what she needed. Fortunately for her there wasn’t much of a line at it, which meant that not as many will be around to watch the scene that was sure to start. Predictably, when she placed her order of a raw liver, the attendant looked at her like she was crazy.

“I don’t think I can do that madam.” He said. “We have safety standards to follow.”

“If you’re worried about raw juices getting on the cooked stuff you can hand it to me through the side door.” Asri said, keeping her cool.

“It’s not that…” The attendant insisted. “You could get sick without it being cooked. We can’t risk being held liable.”

“If you want me to sign a weaver form I’ll do so, so give me my damn order already.”

“I…I can’t!”

The two argued for a couple more minutes before the supervisor finally gave in and made the cook just hand her the raw liver. When they dared ask if she wanted a drink Asri grinned and asked if they had blood to pass for that. When their faces turned pale she laughed and said. “Just kidding, this will be all. Thank you.”

She made her way back to their table, pausing by a stand that had stacks of programs in it to take a pamphlet to look over. When she got back to the table she saw the kids were nearly done with their meal and Maskis looked to be in deep thought: he barely had touched his drink.

“You’re drink is getting warm.” She quipped just before taking a bite out of the liver she got. With a free hand she flipped through the pamphlet, noting the different shows they could go to. Many of them didn’t start until after lunch hour and there were a couple that only had a couple shows at night, one of them a dance show that, going by the costumes on the dancers in the picture, looked to be geared more toward adults then children. Looks like something to help take my mind off recent events. She thought. I’ll have to come back after the kids are put to bed to see it. Pity the fireworks aren’t until after their bedtime…I doubt their Masters will want them to stay up past midnight.

"See anything you want to see later?" She asked Maskis, pushing the pamphlet toward him.

Asri raised a brow, but didn’t question his excuse, at least not vocally. If he had encountered a mad Wookiee, everyone in the food court would have heard the wook ranting and raving: those guys are not subtle when they are mad. She thought, wondering what Maskis was trying to cover up for. Likely has to do with Fleet matters. She decided. As a member of the K’Satikur Clan the Fleet knew she was trustworthy, but not even Sha’tor Rissonik and his mate, Naosha, knew everything the Fleet did and why. The pair didn’t see any reason to worry about that, so neither did she: if it was something they felt she needed to know they’ll tell her.

“There’s a dance show I want to see before the fireworks.” She quietly so the kids wouldn’t hear. Asri heard him groan and she chuckled faintly. “You don’t have to come to it if you don’t want to, but I’m going so if you don’t want to tint your manly pride you can find something else to do in the meantime.”

“Lady Asri, can we get desert now?” Silonik piped up.

“Of course hun, what did you two want?”

Both kids answered at the same time, causing Asri to laugh and tell them to repeat what they wanted individually. Once what they wanted was clear she got up and purchased their desert for them and returned to the table. On the way back she could have sworn she saw the telltale sign of a cloak shimmer, but when she looked back it was gone. If they hadn’t already been attacked by a cloaked BH earlier she would have just passed it off as her eyes playing tricks on her, but since they had she was getting worried again. After sitting back at the table and watched the kids dig into their deserts she leaned toward Maskis and whispered.

“Do you know something I don’t?” She said. “I keep seeing cloakers around and I’d rather know if they are friend or foe….”

Those two kids before then…. Asri thought, remembering the two kids that had appeared briefly during the Bounty Hunter fiasco. Wait a minute…that girl knew my name, how? She had been so upset at the time it didn’t dawn on her how odd it was at the time. In truth she hadn’t had that much contact with the Fleet, namely only from helping Lavality defeat those three Bounty Hunters back on Trandosha and now more recently helping to guard her. Did the Fleet even know yet that Ruse had fooled them all? Didn’t appear so and with Lavality taking it upon herself to take a bit of an off planet field trip a lot of things were up in the air both in regards to what was going on with the Fleet and the ones hunting Lavality. Perhaps Lavality taking off like that was for the best after all…

Obviously those two kids don’t even know Lavality isn’t on the planet. She thought. Otherwise they wouldn’t even be here stalking us. Maybe they are hoping we’ll slip up and say something about her whereabouts? That was the most likely option, as if they were to kill her or the two kids they would have made an attempt by now for sure. It still bothered her though that they seem to insist on hanging around them: reeked of intel gathering to her.

On top of that the news that the Prowler Maskis was worried about bothered her as well. If they were supposed to report in, why haven’t they? If they had comms problems wouldn’t they have sent a physical messenger instead? No that risked interception…especially with the cloakers about.

“Maskis.” She said, getting his attention. “If they haven’t called you…why don’t you call them?” She asked. “If they don’t respond, wouldn’t the next step then be to check with the local authorities to see if they heard anything odd going on?”

“I was thinking about dinner time would be a good time to take these two home.” Asri replied.

“We no wanna leave.” Mortor protested.

“Well you can’t stay here forever.” Asri said with a smile. “Your Master’s would like that for one…and two you two are still pretty young to be staying late.”

Mortor looked insulted. “I’m old enough.” He said, puffing out his chest. “I’m over two years old!”

“And I’m three!” Silonik added, though he didn’t puff out his chest.

“Tell you want then.” Asri said with a giggle. “If you two are not exhausted by the time dinner time is over you’ll get to stay up a bit longer.”

It was a challenge and like any Trandoshan the kids relished a challenge and accepted it. With the activities the carnival had however, by the time dinner came around the two kids, despite their efforts, could barely walk and keep their eyes open due to exhaustion. To be fair, Asri let them eat something in hopes to getting their energy back up. That just put the final nail in the coffin as it were, as roughly a half-hour later the pair might as well be sleep walking.

“Well, looks like they lost.” Asri said softly with a mild chuckle as she had Maskis help Silonik get on her back and held Mortor in her arms. “I’ll take these two back to the Academy and meet you at the fireworks show later, ok?”

“Fiirrre worrrrks?” Mortor muttered in her arms. “No fairrrr….I wanna seezzzz…” The next sound that came from Mortor was a snore, telling her he was out for the count. Asri just laughed good naturedly and started making her way to the exit. Once there she informed the attendant she would be returning shortly and he provided her with a return pass so she didn’t have to pay again.

After about an hour she returned, having tucked the two into their beds and gotten a bite to eat herself: she didn’t want to argue with the food staff on the grounds again so she just got her liver from the cafeteria in the Academy. Taking out the pamphlet she turned to the page that had a map of the grounds. Lets see where this show is going to be at….