The door to Ar’lissa quarters flew open awaking her with a start as alarms now blared into the room along with explosions and blaster fire at various distances away, Moria was standing there in her Inquisitor’s outfit, but it was tattered with blaster burn marks covering it and her face shield and visor were partially destroyed. Ar’lissa looked at Moria with a confused and alarmed expression as Moria gestured angrily, but she could also see relief in her expression that was visible from behind the face shield damage. “What are you doing here? We have to go, NOW!”
Mora grabbed Ar’lissa’s rifle and shoved it into Ar’lissa’s left hand before grabbing her right and practically dragged her out and into the wrecked hallway. Her senses were at once assaulted with the smells and sights of death and destruction. Bodies littered the hallway, Stormtrooper, Imperial Navy Troopers, and Resistance forces lay dead where they had fought. However, it didn’t look like they had been fighting each other, it looked like they had been trying to defend each other. Laying in the mix were some sort of humanoids with deep-set eyes, angled brow ridges, tapered skulls, and wide shoulders. Her eyes widened in shock; they were Grysk! Ar’lissa managed to stammer out, “What’s going on?” as she reflexively activated her helmet’s visor and faceplate.
Moria just shook her head, “Now I know that you should have been medevacked with the others. That explosion really rattled your skull. We’re evacuating the base; the Chimaera and the remains of the 7th are holding a delaying action along with the resistance ships for us to get the last of the critical equipment and forces off the base before its completely overrun. I had to fight my way back to find you...You’re welcome by the way.”
Ar’lissa felt like she couldn’t catch her breath, but pure adrenaline was forcing her forward, “Thanks, where’s Iz’aphine and Va’lana?”
“Va’lana and Iz’aphine were on the last medevac to the Chimaera. Iz’aphine will lose a leg, but she’ll live, I don’t know Va’lana’s current status, but thankfully she was stable when they left. If we don’t hurry the last transport will leave without us.”
Ar’lissa tried to make sense of everything happening, but everything was so jumbled. Moria cursed as she clutched her side for a moment and coughed, still partially dragging Ar’lissa long. “I want you to know…I did take your warning about the Grysk seriously, unfortunately no one else but Thrawn believed me. Now look at us, Coruscant burns along with our major shipyards and our fleets are scattered.” She looked at Ar’lissa with an apologetic expression, “Sorry, I know you know all that about Coruscant and the shipyards, but it just still infuriates me how blind everyone was.”
Ar’lissa nodded trying to take it all in, part of her felt like she knew what Moria was telling her already, but it still sounded so new and shocking to her. The next thing she knew Moria was pulling her up the ramp into the battered troop transport as Stormtroopers laid down covering fire from the top edge of the ramp. Ar’lissa shook her head trying to clear the confusion, she had no memory of how they got there. Moria shouted, “We’re on! Go, go, GO!”
The troop transport rocked as it lifted off of the ground nearly knocking them off their feet as the ramp swiftly closed with a bang. The pilot called out, “Grand Inquisitor, we received new orders from Grand Admiral Thrawn. We’re to jump to the rally point instead of docking, too many hostile forces swarming it. He’s ordered a full withdrawal.”
Moria nodded, “Understood, jump as soon as possible.” She started to help Ar’lissa strap in, “I still can’t get use to that title, but when you’re the only known Inquisitor left, you get it by default.”
The shuttle suddenly rocked as it was hit, and smoke started filling the ship as she felt the G forces at once pushing her against the harness with Moria slamming into her as the shuttle started into an uncontrolled dive. “Direct hit to the engines! We’re going down!”
Ar’lissa bolted upright gasping for breath and desperately looking around her surroundings. She was back in her bed on the Wandering Star, a cold sweat dripping down her that she was now all too familiar with. Iz’aphine had rolled over towards her and was watching her with concern. Ar’lissa wiped the sweat away from her brow as Iz’aphine tentatively reached out, gently placing a hand on Ar’lissa’s arm, “You ok?”
Ar’lissa rubbed her tired eyes, “It felt so real…”
Iz’aphine tiredly pulled herself up so she was slightly leaning against Ar’lissa as she gently started rubbing Ar’lissa’s back as Ar’lissa looked over at her with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, I keep waking you with these nightmares and visions. Maybe I should sleep in one of the bunks.”
Iz’aphine tried to sound reassuring in her still sleepy state, “It’s ok...” she then smirked as she continued, “...but if it comes to that we kick Val out of her room and she can sleep in one of the bunks, you are the primary pilot and co-captain after all.”
Ar’lissa gave Iz’aphine a half smile. “She might be a little annoyed with that since she’s seemed to make that room her own.”
Iz’aphine smiled back before her expression returned to concern, “It has been a while since you’ve had one this bad, you want to talk about it?”
Ar’lissa sighed and then nodded before explaining the dream to Iz’aphine. As she finished, she looked down at her hands, “...I’m not even sure what it all means. It makes no sense and doesn’t line up with the future I went to where I helped trap Aaravos.”
Iz’aphine seemed to take it all in for a moment before responding, “I’m definitely no expert on these things, but wouldn’t the very fact that you went to the future and came back change things?”
“I’ve tried to be so careful, and Val seems to be trying to be careful as well....” Ar’lissa winced, “Aaravos. This is all my fault; I should have refused to go in and get that shard out.”
Iz’phine made a face, “If you had they would have probably threatened you with violence and possibly even tried to kill us. They threatened me after I came out from the tunnels accusing me of orchestrating all of it even though they were the ones who convinced me to stay.”
Ar’lissa didn’t look completely convinced, but she saw the love and care in Iz’aphine’s eyes and gave her a genuine smile. “I’m glad you did decide to stay.”
Iz’aphine gently stroked Ar’lissa’s cheek giving her a loving smile, “I am to.”
Ar’lissa took Iz’aphine’s hand and kissed it lightly, “Thanks for listening, I’m just going to sit here for a bit.”
Iz’aphine wasn’t sure what she should do but quickly decided that the best thing she could do was show that she trusted her enough to go back to sleep so she nodded, yawning. “Ok, but if you need to talk more just wake me.”
Ar’lissa nodded back to her and Iz’aphine slowly laid back down into the bed, rolling onto her side, she closed her eyes, but kept her ears open. Ar’lissa watched her for a few moments before she turned to look at the bulkhead wall, her mind starting to race. It didn’t make any sense to her, she could only see out about a day into the future when she actively tried to use her Third Sight and yet these visions, if that’s what they truly were, seemed to be months or even years away, could her time in the World between Worlds have affected her connection to her Third Sight in some way? She started taking slow deep breaths trying to let her spirit and body catch up to her mind as Ray’la and Sar’ai always tell her to do. Her thoughts drifted to her conversations in the cockpit with Ray’la when she wasn’t in her navigator's trance. “Be careful when trying to steer a Force vision, the future is always in motion and emotions can cloud it. You could end up seeing what you want to or fear to see and not truly what may happen. Be mindful of the possible future but not at the expense of the moment.”
Ar’lissa yawned and looked back over at Iz’aphine whispering to herself, “Be mindful of the moment.” She slowly and carefully laid back down, trying balance being closer to Iz’aphine, yet not disturb her. After a few minutes of Ar’lissa concentrating on her breathing she finally drifted back to sleep.
Iz’aphine felt Ar’lissa’s warm breath on the back of her neck fall into a soft pattern indicating she had finally fallen asleep. It had taken a lot of willpower not to smile and snuggle back into Ar’lissa when she was awkwardly trying to get closer to her. She was relieved that Ar’lissa had fallen back asleep instead of going out to the common area like she had been doing. She hoped it was a sign that Ar’lissa was going in the right direction. Iz’aphine let her thoughts drift and in a few moments was herself back to sleep as their ship continued through hyperspace to their next destination.
