MYSTIC RHYTHMS

By Fenn Logan

 

"So tell me again why you want me to take you into the middle of a desert on a practically deserted desert planet?"
Fenn Logan chuckled. "Nice play on words."
"Like that, did you," the woman in the pilot's seat of the YT-3000 transport said with a soft laugh.
Fenn sat in the copilot's seat, watching varying shades of yellow and brown scenery flash just below the speeding freighter through the sectioned transparasteel cockpit.
"I mean, you've been sneaking out here on your own for what--close to a year now? Now all of a sudden you need a lift there, with that scary fighter of yours sitting in my cargo hold?"
Fenn shrugged.
"Fenn Logan, you are a cryptic, mysterious, dangerous man."
Fenn frowned briefly. "I don't think I've ever heard it put quite that way."
"Won't your people know you've gone missing?"
"As far as they're concerned, I'm on Dark Brotherhood business. Which, in a way, I am."
"Ah," Joanna Rake said, taking her eyes off the landscape long enough to give Fenn a scrunchy face. "Something else about you that scares the crap out of me."
Fenn got out of his seat to stand behind Joanna's, and draped his arms around it and her shoulders. "You know you have nothing to fear from me," he whispered, and kissed her on the cheek.
"My heart tells me that, but my brain says I should run as far as possible away from you, as fast as I possibly can."
Fenn laughed and caressed Joanna's face softly.
"How can someone as violent as you be so damn tender?" Joanna asked.
Fenn moved from behind the chair to lean against the console to face Joanna. He folded his arms and regarded the elegantly beautiful mercenary. Somehow, during the days she and his sister Savannah were on the Avenger, Joanna had wormed her way past his emotional walls and defenses to touch something deep within him that had been buried with the death of his wife. He'd fought it as hard as he could, claiming he was only using her companionship for recreation and nothing more. But he knew that was not the case. Wasn't the case the moment he'd first laid eyes on her.
Joanna saw the expression on his face and laughed. "Ahhhh. I see. You're in love."
"What on Nar Shaddaa ever gave you that idea?" Fenn blurted, trying to stifle his laughter.
"What would your companions in the Brotherhood think. Or your Imp companions?"
Fenn shrugged. "Why would I even care?" A moment later he laughed. "You are very devious."
Joanna smiled. "So I've been told."
"Okay, so the secret's out."
"What would you say if I told you I felt the same way?"
"Do you?"
"You first," Joanna admonished.
"I'd say it may not be a wise thing for you."
"And why is that?"
"I might have a very short life expectancy."
"Hmm. Let me think. You take a squadron at half strength into a dangerous covert operation, almost get yourself smashed by a rock, but managed to destroy your objective and come out alive. Those scars on your back say you should already be dead. You survive two meat grinding encounters: one chasing a criminal in an asteroid field, the other on the losing side of a bloody battle. Somehow, I don't see a short life expectancy in your future."
Fenn said nothing, merely stared off.
"What are you afraid of?" Joanna whispered.
Fenn took a deep breath and looked at the mercenary. "You."
Joanna raised her brows. "Whoa. Some of that 'Walk in Truth, Breathe Fire philosophy of yours in action." Fenn had to chuckle at that. "So exactly what is it you're afraid of?" Fenn pointed in the direction of the cargo hold and his TIE Defender. "Ahhh. That I may end up like your wife." He nodded. "That may very well be true. But in dispute, I've been living on the edge for a very long time. I know how to handle myself in a firefight and a 'knifefight' as you so quaintly call space combat."
"I know." Fenn shrugged.
Joanna freed a hand from the control yoke and placed it on Fenn's chest, over his heart.
"Whatever the universe holds for either one of us," Joanna said softly, "we cannot deny this between us."
"Yes." Fenn leaned forward and kissed Joanna.
A moment later a rapid beeping erupted, breaking the kiss.
"Proximity alert," Joanna announced. "We're near Beggar's Canyon."
Fenn moved to the co-pilot's seat, said, "Keep going."
"In there," Joanna said, pointing.
"Savannah said you were a hotshot pilot."
"Sometimes Savannah exaggerates."
Fenn chuckled. "Yeah. Right."
"Hang on to your lunch, Sweetie."
Joanna stood the flat, ellipsoid craft on its side and slipped into the opening crevasse that was the entrance to Beggar's Canyon...

 

 

* * * *

 

 
The small farm complex had no business existing here in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, but there it was, looking very much grown from the surrounding rock and sand.
"Looks like someplace a Jedi might hang out at," Joanna remarked as she settled Xunrunner gently on its landing skids. She lowered the landing ramp.
Fenn unbuckled himself and retrieved something long, wrapped in black velvet from behind his seat.
"Shall I come with?"
"No," Fenn said a moment before he kissed Joanna rather deeply.
When they broke, Joanna had a frightened look in her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling that you might not come back alive?"
Fenn smiled cryptically and placed a gentle hand on Joanna's face. "I do love you. I don't know how, but there it is."
Joanna said nothing, but watched him leave the cabin. Moments later he appeared in view outside, striding confidently. Before he came to a stop some distance away from the main structure, he dropped the object he was carrying to the ground beside him and shed his black tunic. He then reached down and unrolled the object, revealing two blades. One was about one and a half meters long, the other shorter, perhaps just under a meter. Fenn picked up a blade in each hand and stood with feet braced apart.
Moments later another figure stripped to the waist as Fenn emerged from the main house. He was much older than Fenn, but you couldn't tell by the liquid grace in which he moved.
The old man and Fenn said a few words then in an instant were on each other, four blades flashing in the hot Tattooine sunslight...

 

 

* * * *

 

 
"Master Kjenneki," Fenn said, bowing deeply at the waist when the old man emerged from his home.
"Do not call me that. I am no Jedi."
"But you should have been."
The old man shrugged. "Or not, given their short lifespans. I am simply a swordsmaster." Fenn nodded. "And soon, either you will be or I was unworthy of the task of instructing you over the long months."
"You still..."
"Yes," Kjenneki said. "It is a great honor that you do me if you are worthy. Do not be ashamed. As I have said, it is my profound wish."
"As you wish," Fenn said. Both men bowed, then leaped back, blades held at the ready.
They regarded one another for a heartbeat, then closed in.
Blades whirled in circles of death, clashing with the sound of steel on steel. Thrust, parry, break. Then again, both men kicking up clouds of dust as they fought.
Fenn blocked a swing with his long blade, spun quickly, the shorter blade flashing in a deadly arc to slice across the old man's back, drawing first blood. But as they moved apart, Fenn noticed he'd been slashed on his left side.
"Have none of my teachings sank in?" Kjenneki taunted. "A child could do better."
Fenn closed in, swinging alternately with long and short blade that the swordsmaster blocked or parried, the scuffling encounter carrying them close to the home.
Fenn spun away with several more gashes, managing to parry the killing blows if not the wounding ones.
But Kjenneki was close to the limits of endurance his aging body could manage. He suddenly put all of his remaining strength into a blazing attack whose shear ferocity drove the Imperial officer back. Fenn suddenly turned, exposing his scarred back to his opponent for a dangerous brief instant. Kjenneki saw it and lunged, but Fenn was running up the wall just fast enough to get nicked by the blade, and vaulted over the swordsmaster's head to land behind him.
Kjenneki tried to spin around, but halfway there, Fenn's blades struck him the death blow. The short blade came up in sharp arc, puncturing just under the old man's ribcage into the heart. Fenn followed with a spin, the longer blade taking the swordsmaster's head off in a fountain of blood that splashed over him.
For a moment, Fenn stared at his handiwork, then sank to his knees in the bloody sand, letting his blades fall to the ground.
Of all the deaths he had dealt out during his life as a mercenary/enforcer and under the beck and call of the Emperor's Hammer and the Dark Brotherhood, this one single death cut straight into his heart.
For long moments, Fenn was very still, tears streaming down his cheeks. No matter that the old man had wished to die in combat, the universe had lost a unique and special soul.
Fenn felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Joanna standing there next to him. She was crying as well.
"I understand," she whispered. She extended her hand, pulling Fenn to his feet.
After a moment, he said, "We must destroy this place. That was his wish too."
"Yes," Joanna said. "We will."
Fenn faced Joanna. "Knowing what I am, what I have done, still--"
"With all of my heart," Joanna interrupted. "I have no idea how we're going to handle the logistics of this, given our disparate careers, but we will..."
"Yes," Fenn said. "We will."

 

 

 
CMDR/CM Fenn Logan/Hunter1-1/Avenger Wing I/SSD Avenger
PC/ISM/LoC-PSx31/CoB[CAVL]{IWATS-SM/2-XTM-XTT-TM}[XvT(Pending)]T/D "Iron Maiden"
JH Darkfenn (Sith)/Archanis of Taldryan/SC-SoA/WR/(BNB){SA: CORE}