BLINK OF AN EYE, PART I
by Fenn Logan



       Lying on his back on top of the cockpit of the CORT Xunrunner, Fenn Logan lay beneath Joanna Rake's straddling thighs, kissing her intimately. The hot Tattooine sun made their skin warm to the touch. He caressed her back as she continued kissing him like she was enjoying a last meal.
       Joanna raised up momentarily, her long silvery hair cascading down in front of her bare breasts, shadowing her face. She wore the top half of her jumpsuit around her waist, revealing the small tattoo of some gorgeously rendered winged insect just left of her navel. Fenn's hands were on her flared hips, stroking playfully.
       He moved her hair to one side and cradled her face.
       "W-who are you?" he whispered, his slate gray eyes softened by the potent mixture of love and lust that enveloped them both.
       "Sometimes I have to ponder that question myself," she replied with soft laughter. "But I think now, at this point in time, I am a woman who has found what she has been looking for all of her life."
       "Well you have to admit, your current occupation doesn't exactly lend itself to making that easy."
       "I know. That's why when it does happen, I know it."
       "Skewed worldview. But it works."
       "Okay, Mister Imperial officer. Don't go throwing any stones at my glass house." Joanna leaned forward, rubbing Fenn's shoulders. "Anyway, your love for me is rather fierce. Is it because you miss Moira?"
       Fenn was silent momentarily, pondering. He took a deep breath and looked into Joanna's violet eyes. "If you had asked me that as recently as a month ago, I might have said yes. But no. My love for you is fierce because of who I am and who you are. It has nothing to do with Moira or my feelings for her."
       Joanna leaned down, her full lips parting, eyes clouded by her desire for Fenn...
       ...and a short symphony of electronic hoots and whistles blasted through the comlink beside them.
       "Ugh," Joanna said in exasperation. "Her timing couldn't be more perfect. Okay, Cricket, I hear you." She raised up, put her arms back into the sleeves of her jumpsuit and zipped it up.
       Fenn, watching her breasts move as she dressed, thought he'd pass out from intense desire. "You named your R2 unit, 'Cricket'?"
       "It's what my mother used to call me when I was a child. Now come on. As much as jumping your bones is high on my immediate 'To Do' list, you wanted modifications and this guy is... flighty. He's good, did the modifications on Xunrunner, but he hates Imperials with a deep passion and he's only doing it as a favor to me. I helped get his family to safety during a pirate attack. Funny how those little inconveniences seem to pop up with alarming frequency since the fall of the Empire."
       "Oh, Honey, let's not discuss politics now," Fenn said with a smile.
       "Let me put it this way, Sweetie. The marker I called in for this has just become his marker."
       "Joanna, I don't want to--"
       Joanna placed a gentle finger over Fenn's lips. "Shhh. I did it because I love you and because you asked me too. Also, when and if he calls in this marker, guess what warm body I'm going to snatch as back-up."
       Fenn laughed. "Okay. I won't say a word on the matter again."
       "Good. I might get testy if you do."
       Then they both heard it: the howl of engines on a ship larger than a food unit echoing along the canyon walls. Xunrunner was currently parked in a box canyon some miles from the estate of Fenn's former swordsmaster. Joanna had asked him how he felt about that during the Tattooine approach, but he had merely shrugged it off as a useless waste of emotion. His words were: "Kjenneki had always frowned on that, saying 'your enemy doesn't care about how he feels killing you. Neither should you'."
       Fenn's TIE Defender, Iron Maiden sat on it's ventral solar panel skids some meters away, it's oval fuselage decorated with the Hunter Squadron and SSD Avenger Wing 1 logo and an elaborately rendered graphic of an armored woman astride a winged black dragon. The advanced superiority fighter itself was painted in a muted black chrome finish.
       The craft that rounded the last turn leading into the box canyon was a SoroSuub Nella. A roughly flat and oval craft with a tubular cockpit thrust foreward from the main body. The Tattooine sun glinted off a chipped and fading ochre facade. It roared overhead, kicking up clouds of dust and settled on landing skids that extended from the ventral side, locking into place a moment before touchdown.
       Joanna stood, extended her hand to Fenn. He took it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. He paused momentarily to put is black tunic on, then followed Joanna through the dorsal hatch into Xunrunner.
       Inside, Joanna kissed Fenn on the cheek, said, "Let me calm his nerves first before he meets you, okay?"
       Fenn nodded and made his way to the cockpit while Joanna headed down the boarding ramp and outside.
       Three figures stepped off a small lift that lowered from just behind the cockpit. One was a Twi'lek dressed in layers of expensive purple clothing, his almost white skin seemingly translucent it the bright sunlight. The two flanking him were Rodians in non-descript uniforms, aiming blaster rifles at Joanna as she approached them.
       Fenn monitored what was being said via earcoms he and Joanna both wore. Cricket trundled down the ramp after Joanna and came to a stop at the bottom.
       "What's all this?" Joanna demanded indignantly.
       "Insurance," the Twi'lek said in heavily accented basic. His lekku swayed slightly behind him. The Rodians raised their weapons and aimed them at Joanna.
       "I don't seem to remember blasters being pointed at me when I pulled your family off Thezz II," Joanna said in a flat tone.
       "We don't seem to remember you consorting with Imperial scum back then, either."
       "You know something, Del'rek? I risked my neck when I didn't have to! I didn't--"
       "We are aware of this, Joanna Rake. We will honor our agreement. You will owe us."
       The Rodians suddenly shifted their aim from Joanna to somewhere just past her left arm.
       "She didn't have to tell you I was an Imperial," Fenn said, walking up. "Don't you think that earns her some measure of trust."
       "Trust is not the issue with her. Trust is the issue with you. Your kind killed billions. Destroyed entire worlds. For what? Dominion."
       "Del'rek, let's leave politics out of this. I am here on behalf of a friend and he is not here in any Imperial capacity."
       "Were he just Imperial, we might be swayed. But he is known to us. The Ghost Hawk. Invisible until the moment he strikes. He killed for Black Sun. Destroyed for Black Sun. Terrorized for Black Sun. Now he does same for New Empire."
       The silence that ensued from the last echoes of the Twi'lek's accusation stretched for long moments.
       "You are right," Fenn said. "I have done these things for Black Sun. It's done and can't be undone. And perhaps never be atoned for, despite this--" Fenn turned around and raised his tunic high to bare his scarred back. Joanna saw the surprise flare in Del'rek's crimson eyes an instant before neutrality settled over his pale features.
       "What I do for the Empire need not concern you," Fenn said. "I am not with Black Sun. I destroyed the faction I worked for. I am here simply to have some modifications done to my ship. I'm quite certain you are not averse to making a little profit?"
       "I have transmitted the specs to you," Joanna said. "Can you do the job?"
       "We can," Del'rek said. "You will owe us."
       "Okay. I get that."
       "He will owe us."
       "Look. Your deal is with me. He--"
       "Agrees," Fenn interrupted. "You may ask me of one favor. She knows how to get in touch with me, you know how to get in touch with her."
       "Are you sure?" Joanna said, turning to look at Fenn. "It could be anything."
       "I know."
       A gleam sprang to Del'rek's eyes that made Joanna very uncomfortable. "I have your word on this, Imperial?"
       "You have my word."
       "What you have asked can be done. And I have acquired the necessary components. Your starship is ready?"
       Fenn tilted his chin in the direction of Iron Maiden.

* * * *


        "I'm really not comfortable with this deal," Joanna said. She sat in the cockpit with a sour look on her face. "I think he may you use you as a tool to do something horrendous."
       Outside, a crew of aliens of various species swarmed over Iron Maiden. Components and tools lay about on caddies as they worked. It was moving into late afternoon and shadows had already begun to stretch across the jagged landscape. The sounds of power tools and voices were faint and indistinct through the cockpit's transparasteel.
       "People have been using me as a tool since Savannah and I first rose up out of the slums of Nar Shaddaa."
       "And you're comfortable with that?"
       "Not always. Those who used me against my will eventually wound up regretting it. Usually with their lives."
       "Will you keep your word?"
       "In so far as it doesn't compromise me, the people I currently work for, or you." The last he said in a whisper Joanna barely caught.
       She rose from the pilot's seat and sat in Fenn's lap, draping her arms around his neck.
       "Umm," Fenn murmured, kissing her.
       Joanna suddenly jolted and squealed into his mouth, before pulling back with laughter in her eyes.
       Fenn blushed, which got Joanna laughing. "I guess when they leave, we'll just have to do something about this rising situation, won't we?"
       Fenn blushed deeper and surrendered to his own laughter.

* * * *

       Tattooine's suns had dipped below the horizon when Del'rek and his team of engineers finished and packed up. Fenn and Joanna left Xunrunner to greet him as his crew trundled equipment to the Twi'lek's ship. "Done," Del'rek said, passing a small datapad to Fenn. "Go to these coordinates here, Imperial."
       "What's there?" Fenn said.
       "You will see."
       "Del'rek..." Joanna said in a warning tone.
       "Needs to see this he does. Perhaps you as well. Go there. Learn with your own eyes. That is my favor."
       "I will go there with him," Joanna said. "Any betrayal to him is a betrayal to me, and I will not take that kindly."
       The Twi'lek bowed with an obsequious smile baring small needle sharp teeth, then turned to board his ship. Moments later it rose on thrusters and dust, causing Fenn and Joanna to shield their eyes, then vanished into the deep blue of the encroaching night.
       "I don't like this," Joanna murmured.
       "I'm curious," Fenn said.
       "Are you serious!? Oh, I forgot. You're just crazy."
       Fenn cradled Joanna's face and kissed her tenderly. "I love you."
       "Yes you do. Shall we get started? I want to get this over with. Maybe I should call Savannah."
       Fenn smiled. "And I have someone to call who may have a vested interest in whatever's at those coordinates."



________________________________________________

To be continued in the XvT Free Mission: "Blink Of An Eye, Part II"

Click here to download mission

CMDR/CM Fenn Logan/Hunter1-1/Avenger Wing I/SSD Avenger BS/PC/ISMx2/LoC-PSx33/CoB[CAVL]{IWATS-SM/2-XTM-XTT-TM-XVT}T/D "Iron Maiden"
JH Darkfenn (Sith)/Archanis of Taldryan/SC-SoA/WR/(BNB){SA: CORE}