Chapter Eighty Nine

"It's purple," Harry said blankly, staring at the monitor that was showing an image of the planet their ship was orbiting. "Our first inhabited planet in over a year of travel and it's purple. Gah."

"What's wrong with the color purple?" Aayla asked, confused

"It's girly," Harry and Alecto said as one before they laughed.

"Ah, I would dare you to say that to Master Windu's face, boys. It would be a lesson in humility that would no doubt serve you both good in the long run," Master Giiett said.

The youngsters all looked at him in confusion, but it was Quinlan who supplied the answer. "As you know, Master Windu is one of the finest duelists in the Order. What you obviously do not know is that his lightsaber blade is purple."

"…Forget I said anything," Harry replied, remembering what he had heard about the creator of Vaapad. Alecto nodded just as seriously, while Aayla laughed at the sudden reversal.

It had been a year since they had begun their journey into the unknown regions around Ruusan, and this was indeed the first planet they'd come upon that had any inhabitants, their cities visible from orbit as scattered lights below them. The atmosphere was purple, a light, almost violet color. Something in the air colored it like such, but according to their ship's scanners it was still breathable. There were a few trace elements that would not be good for an offworlder to get too much of, but they should be fine given their Jedi powers

"They don't seem to have any kind of space-based industry. I wonder why," Lily said. She was currently peering over Aayla's shoulders at present, while the Twi'lek was using their space-based scanners to make certain there wasn't anything threatening out there.

"Why would they?" Fay replied with a sigh, coming out of her meditation. "This planet is the only other astral body in the system outside their star itself. And if they have any understanding of hyperspace they know it would be practically impossible for them to jump anywhere else. I imagine they retreated somewhat technologically after being abandoned by the Republic, but I hope not to the point where we will be obligated to help them recover technologies. That could take years, after all."

"Master Fay, do you sense anything specific down there that we should know about?" Master Giiett asked.

"Nothing important. However, I think that we need to leave Alecto and Aayla behind." Fay replied.

"May I ask why, master Fay?" Alecto asked, cocking his head thoughtfully to one side.

"I have not found the minds of any sentients down there but those of humans."

Harry nodded. "If they have retreated into a pre-space mentality, then humans might be the only species on the planet. If they're all human, most of us will fit in, of course, but…"

Alecto nodded glumly. "I'd have to use Force Cloak all the time, then, to hide my presence, and there should be one of us left behind anyway, right?"

"Exactly. And it would have to be you or Aayla, I think," Master Fay said with a smile.

"And I am both better at Cloak and can change my appearance, my skin color, and even my overall species if I try hard enough," Aayla said, nodding. She could do that if she had to, though it was intensely painful. Lekku were not just for show: they were connected to Aayla's brain, containing within them the portion of a Twi'lek's mind devoted to memory.

"No, I think you can get by with just a skin color change, tying your lekku down behind your neck and an appropriate wig," Harry said with a smile. "I'll even help with the wig."

"You just want to see what I'd look like if I was human," Aayla teased, only to fight back a blushing moan as Harry replied via their mental connection.

The image was of the two of them lying in bed as Harry nipped and played with her lekku, his fingers playing with her nipples. And it wasn't an image, but a memory of the first time they had played around with one another sans their shirts a few months ago. The emotions and feelings came from the memory, making Harry's comment of, "I love you just as you are, Aayla Secura; never forget that," rather redundant.

Realizing what had just happened, Fay smiled, but stood up resolutely. "Come, let us prepare for this as best we can. Then we can finally get some fresh fruit." The ship had a lot of supplies, but the fresh food they'd had with them had not lasted the whole year. And the Jedi had been slow to realize this and shift their energies from other projects to creating a hydroponics section of the ship. So while, thanks to Harry's transfiguration skills, they were still eating well, the actual vitamins and protein they need to fulfill their dietary needs needed to be refilled.

It had been nearly a year as they passed through the void between systems. The stars, gases, and astral bodies in this sector of space were so chaotic that they simply could not jump more than a few hundred parsecs at a time. The one time they had miscalculated, taking the next jump too quickly, it was like the ship had run into a wall in hyperspace, coming out so abruptly it had overcome the ship's internal gravity. The ship had survived, thanks to its immense durability, but the hyperspace engines had nearly blown, only stopped from doing so because of their own size and durable nature. The six of them had to make a hundreds of tiny repairs throughout the ship and in the engine room, which had taken them several weeks of hard work, but when they were done, all of them came away with more respect for the Neimodians engineering. "Now if only their moral fiber matched it," Micah had said at the time, causing laughs all around.

The Jedi loaded up Fay's old ship with small tradable items they had taken from Serenno. These ranged from local spices they picked up back then, all the way up to portable heaters and other more technologically advanced items. Using barter, if possible, would be much easier than trying to use Republic currency, given that the Jedi had known they would be running into planets which would be almost completely cut off from one another.

Soon the ship was loaded, and the Jedi all piled in, leaving Alecto behind to head back to the bridge.

The ship came down through the atmosphere near one of the planet's poles, well away from any habitation, remaining unseen until they were near the planet's surface. Luckily, the locals had numerous shuttles moving around across the planet, so they were able to blend in somewhat better than Master Fay had anticipated. Despite that, they took no chances, landing the ship far away from the city that they had targeted for their trade mission.

With Fay leading the way and Harry and Micah leading the repulsor trays containing their trade goods, the group moved through, first the forest, then the fields around the city. The city was an open one as far as any of them could tell, with no sign of walls of other defenses. Dozens, even hundreds of small, thin roads led into it from every direction, with dozens of large, very thin buildings dotting it, built closer and closer together as they moved towards the center. The colors the locals preferred seemed to be brown, green ,and a color that looked almost like tree bark but not quite. Exceptions seemed to be pink streamers from a few of the larger buildings.

The people, as Harry and the others had expected thanks to Master Fay, were humans. They wore traditional spacer clothing for the most part, though with far less variety, and seemed to favor long hair, men and women. They also had tattoos which looked much like what Master Quinlan wore, even the children they could see. And there were thousands of them, many thousands, moving around the city. The entire city seemed to be a bazaar. Almost everywhere they looked something was being sold, with no organization they could see.

However, the Jedi could also sense that outsiders were not welcome. Quinlan, the best of them at infiltration, immediately noticed that there were seven types of tattoos. The one which resembled the yellow Kiffar tattoo across his nose were the second most numerous. The others were dark purple bars around the neck and eyes, which seemed to denote children, women, and the owners of the stalls. Three others, green, red, and blue, were not nearly as represented. The people wearing those tattoos also wore their hair differently, and their skin color was just slightly different enough to be noticeable.

None of the colors of the locals matched that of the Jedi. Realizing this, the group of Jedi pulled back to the outskirts while Aayla and Quinlan moved around the other three and used the Force to alter their appearance to include tattoos which matched Quinlan's. "On you it looks good, Master Fay," he quipped, looking somewhat sheepish at marring the ancient Jedi's face.

"Thank you," Fay replied absentmindedly, looking up as Lily returned from scouting around for them. "Did you notice anything?"

"There's some small-sale pushing and shoving among the groups, but I don't have your Jedi skill with languages. I'd say they are acting more like rival gangs than competing nationalities, but that could just be an impression. The purples are the most numerous and seem to be kept inviolate, or at least none of them were involved in the shoving matches."

Now that they looked more like the locals, the Jedi dropped their Force Cloaks and moved forward, with Micah taking the lead to find them a place to set up shop. Despite their new cosmetic changes, however, they still drew stares, though not because they didn't seem to fit.

Instead, it was Aayla and Fay who drew attention. Despite their disguises, both women were still gorgeous, neither having even considered changing their appearance to a great extent. Fay looked like a woman of indeterminate age, but her angular face, unmarked by blemish, her long hair, a blonde-brown that was rare among the locals, and a body that, despite being clad in Jedi robes, was very attractive, stood out regardless. Only her lips, thin and no-nonsense, kept away the admirers.

Aayla drew even more attention. She was younger, of what the locals obviously thought prime marriageable age, and her face was just as beautiful as Fay's. Her hair, a wig she had conjured up, was dark brown, covering her lekku and the top of her head, combining with a skin color and tattoo to match the locals. She wore her normal tight fitting shirt and leggings, her Jedi robe more a cloak on her shoulders. In other words, she was enough to turn the heads of any man near her own age and did as they moved through the city.

And while Fay could keep off the admirers with an expression, Aayla eventually had to resort to the Force, making herself slowly disappear from their attention. Harry laughed at her through their mental link occasionally, but there was some rueful sympathy there too, which made her feel better. The fact he also allowed her to handle it entirely on her own made her feel a lot better about herself.

On the other hand, Quinlan fit in so well it was as if he was moving around the city under Force Cloak, except he could interact with the locals. Between them, Quinlan and Micah had a good idea of the local worth of their goods within half an hour, as well as what they wanted to buy in turn.

Quinlan and Harry started to scour the city for what they needed in terms of tech the locals could provide, which was precious little. After the fourth local store they came to which didn't have anything they needed, Harry shook his head. "We won't find any droid parts or anything mechanical here, I don't think. We might need to start thinking about ways of making our own."

"Your transfiguration skills?" Quinlan asked, not arguing the point. He'd been on far more mission to worlds like this one than Harry and knew if they couldn't find even a few of the computer or droid parts they wanted in an entire city like this one, they weren't liable to find them anywhere on the planet.

"No. I can create metals and things, but actual computer parts or robot units? No. Maybe if I had the disparate minerals on hand, but even then it would be hit or miss. Quality control would be a big issue," Harry said dryly. "Although…" Harry frowned in thought. "I could put droid bits and pieces together into a working format, at least, and do the same with other things via the Reparo technique. But I'd need a starting point."

The two men moved on in silence until Harry stopped, staring at a shop that was well away from the others. This might be because of the smell of the store's goods: fertilizer, a lot of it. "If we can't fulfill one of our needs here, we have to at least fill one of the others. Master Fay might not have Master Ti's way with plants, but between us all we might be able to come up with a very nice hydroponics section rather quickly with the right starting point."

Quinlan nodded slowly. "That's a start, at least. Not where I wanted us to start, but needs must."

The trip to the planet was largely uneventful, thankfully. A good start to their larger mission, everyone agreed afterward. While Micah sold their own goods, Aayla and Harry used the local currency this gave them to buy out all the fertilizer in the city one store after another, with Quinlan using the Force to muddy the sellers' memories just enough so that they couldn't realize two people had done so. After each store they had to transport it back to Fay's ship in packed containers, and then onto the Tyrant's Bane. There Alecto and a few of the repaired droids took them, letting the two lovers return to the surface for their next batch. It wasn't interesting work, but it was necessary if they wanted to be self-sufficient going forward.

Their second day, while Fay and Lily started to buy seeds of all sorts, Harry had the idea of also gathering water, buying several large water containers, each the size of which could sustain a village. While he could create water, the technique was more pulling the water out of the air. If there was no moisture in the air, like in space, then the technique failed. "And this way we can even have enough to have maybe half real showers occasionally," he had said, which sold all the others on the idea.

At the same time, Quinlan scoured the city for mechanical wiring, power cells, lights, anything and everything that could be turned to their purposes that wouldn't force him to cannibalize from the thirty or so droid fighters they still had aboard, none of which were actually in one piece any longer. The Jedi had already used all the supplies of such they had in the Force-enlarged cargo holds while connecting the Hypercom Array which Master Dooku had claimed from the slaver base where Aayla had met with the two Dark Sisters. They had the space available now for the hydroponics garden, but building it and, above all, lighting it would be tough. After a few hours he began to branch out to other cities, using one of the starfighters to move around the planet, leaving Fay's ship to Harry and Aayla.

It took several days, but eventually the Jedi were satisfied that they had gathered as much as they could from the planet. Any more, Quinlan warned, and they would impact the local economy negatively, something none of them wanted even if the material he had scrounged up would be barely be enough to light and power the hold designated for the farms.

Soon after the last trip down to the planet, Micah called the Jedi together on the bridge once more. As the others entered he smiled faintly, looking at the expressions on their faces, which were much more relieved than they had been the last time he'd seen them a few minutes ago. "I take it your attempts to use the Force to deaden the smell of the fertilizer worked?"

"That and some cleaning techniques on Master Fay's ships and the containers, plus some actual floral sprays, Master Giiett," Harry replied happily. He and Aayla, of course, had deadened their noses during the time they had been transporting the fertilizer, but doing so all the time would have been tedious at best.

"Harry did really well there, actually. The cargo hold where we've stored everything still smells, but we even banished the smell from the route we took and from our clothing," Alecto added, before he shook his head ruefully. "But while this is most un-Jedi of me, I am not looking forward to working on the actual hydroponics.

"That's odd. I would have thought you'd be rather good with plants," Lily said, looking down at Alecto from where she hovered over the captain's chair, where Master Fay had sat when they entered the room. For this jump it would be Giiett who sat at the navigation station, while the others formed an oval between them. They had learned that, for some reason, this physical formation helped the mental gestalt retain cohesion during their attempts to discover their route going forward.

"I'm sorry, but why would you think that?" Alecto asked, his face showing confusion.

"Well, you have a green thumb, don't you?" Lily asked innocently, then laughed as Harry, Micah, and Quinlan all groaned. The other three just looked blank, and Lily sighed. "I suppose that should teach me to use phrases like that. Anyway, are we going to be jumping out right away?"

"No," Fay and Micah said as one, causing the others laugh. But it was Fay who continued after a moment. "Micah and I have analyzed the distances involved, and after this system we will move out of range of our Hypercom network. I think we should all take the day to contact anyone within the greater Republic that we wish to now. We have no idea how long this will take, but we can make an estimate, and we might be gone for five years or more."

"My, that is a most un-Jedi like concept," Lily teased, using the same phrase that Alecto had used before.

"Perhaps, but this will also allow us to touch base one last time with the High Council," Micah supplied. "I want to give them a report about what we've been running into and get an update about a mission I left undone when I came on this mission. And if whoever is out there is listening in, having each of you make calls would help muddy the issue, so long as we don't give any details."

Fay, of course, knew what Micah was talking about, as did Harry and Aayla. Furthermore, there was little reason to keep it a secret, given their long term mission at present. Yet speaking obliquely about the issue had become second nature to Micah and Tholme both.

After that the Jedi took turns in the communication room, set apart from the bridge for this purpose. Redoing the wiring to connect the ship's internal communications to the Hypercom Array hadn't been all that difficult, though like all such tasks it had been time consuming.

Micah went first, contacting not the High Council, but the planet Cimaroon, a planet in the Mid Rim settled during one of the colonization eras. The reason for this became apparent when, after he spoke to the operator on the other end for a few moments, the face of Master Tholme came up. "Master Tholme. Myself and the mission I am leading are about to step into the unknown. We will be out of communication for quite a while, and I wanted to check in with you, my friend. How goes plumbing that particular current we spoke of the last time we talked?"

Tholme quirked his lips wryly, but replied in like kind. "It goes poorly. The current comes from many different tributaries, and we have to find the one true stream to find the source of the river. As yet, none of my travels have yielded that information. Instead, each time we come upon more tributaries. Some of them are dead ends. Others end in waterfalls or merge into other streams. A series of streams in particular led out into the desert, but alas, that stream was closed down with finality some time back. I understand that a certain sadly deceased compatriot of ours had something to do with that."

"I see. That's disappointing. And what about clearing up the air?" Micah asked, referencing the ongoing task to root out spies or corruption in the Hypercom Relay System.

"No luck there either. Our air purifiers have yet to come online. The Order is balking at the expense, though that could be because of outside pressure."

"So, no change since the last time we spoke?" Giiett said, while beside him and out of the pickup range Alecto frowned as he tried to translate what the two were talking about.

"Not on this issue, no. In broader news, Master Ranicisis has called off the campaign against the Black Sun remnants. We are not certain we have found them all, of course: given the size of the Republic, that would be impossible. But we have found thousands of bases and more corrupt officials. We have also made a point of putting behind bars as many of the criminal thugs as possible. I understand it's becoming increasingly difficult on many planets for the local criminals to find thugs for their daily operations. The Chancellor's attempt to revamp the judicial code of the Republic and the Senate in particular has yielded some results, but not nearly as much as he had hoped. And corruption and simple vote selling are still major issues within the Senate. I am afraid that, at least, will be a long term operation, and one we Jedi are becoming increasingly poor aid in."

"Why is that?" Giiett asked, honestly puzzled.

"The Order is now being seen as busybodies and outsiders sticking their noses in. 'If it works, why are you trying to fix it?' is a phrase I have heard far too often of late," Tholme replied. "But for more information on that you would need to get in touch with Master Gallia."

"I am afraid that is not going to happen. Still, I hope that you have better luck going forward on both those projects while I am out of communication."

"Yes, your humanitarian mission. I could wish that Master Fay had thought of some other way to use that giant ship of hers, but then again, if she had, she would not be Master Fay. Good luck bringing the good word to the barbarians out there," Tholme said, his tone as ironic as his words, but with his face serious.

"We can only go as the Force wills us," Micah said serenely. "And to my knowledge, no one ever said being a Jedi would be easy, nor that the course the Force sets us safe."

"Indeed. Now, may I speak with my former apprentice? I understand he was assigned to aid you?"

"Yes, he is here." With that Micah and Quinlan changed seats. The discussion between the Shadow Jedi and the Shadow-in-training, however, relied entirely on old missions to impart meaning, causing Alecto and Micah to both lose the ability to follow the conversation. Waiting for their turn from nearby, Aayla was able to translate for Harry somewhat, but even she quickly lost the flow of the conversation.

Their conversation went into detail on the campaign against organized crime which had started after their mission to find and rescue the Nabooans from the slavers, but also spoke about the ongoing mission to find out more about Hego Damask and the Sith that Master Windu had killed on Naboo. But in the end, the discussion ended the same way, with no real clues about their origins having been found yet. Eventually the two wound down and turned to more personal matters, which ended with Tholme wishing for the Force to be with them all.

Then it was Master Fay's turn, who wished to speak to Master Yoda before they were too far away. But whereas Tholme and Quinlan had spoken at length, the two ancient Jedi were mostly silent. The feel of the Force in the little communication chamber seemed to thrum, and all the other Jedi waiting outside for their turn realized that the two of them were somehow communing via the Force despite the monstrous distance between them.

Such skill, to be able to speak over that great a distance with the Force. No wonder Master Fay was a legend among the Order even before she met young Harry, Micah mused.

Eventually the silent tableau was broken by Master Fay smiling a serene smile at the other Jedi Master. "Be well and trust in the Light side of the Force, Master Yoda. It has not forsaken us, whatever the Veil might attempt to fool us into thinking."

"Hrhrhrm. See you again in person, I will not," Yoda said, sighing faintly, his image in the pickup dipping slightly. "Sadness at that do I feel. But your course, that which the Force wills. May it be with you and all those with you."

"And with you, Grand Master," Fay said, still smiling as she cut the connection and exiting the room. She smiled as she felt the concern of Harry and the others, making no mention of what had passed between her and Yoda. "Next?"

Alecto took the next opportunity, though he could not actually contact who he wanted to: the other member of the former Clan Saa. Such would have smacked far too much of his having formed attachments to them beyond that of friends, which in turn would not have been looked on favorably by the Order.

The same was true of Quinlan. Indeed, if the Order had learned he had formed an attachment, especially given how close he and the individual in question had walked to the Dark at one point, it was entirely possible that the Order would have ordered them to cease any interaction. However, given that the individual he wanted to talk to was on Serenno and had to explain her actions to no one at present, they got away with it. My padawan would tease me something fierce for this if she ever found out, but it is worth it, he thought as the image of Komari Vosa appeared on the pickup.

Their discussion was brief but meaningful, and then finally it was Harry and Aayla's turn. Like Alecto, the two of them could really not contact most of the individuals they wanted to: their friends among the Order. However, they did have some friends outside the Order they could more easily contact. One of which they had been in contact with every month or so since they had set out on this mission.

Moments after connecting to Naboo, Aayla and Harry smiled into the pickup at Padmé. "Hello, you two. How goes your trip into the hinterlands?" Padmé had not been told where Harry and the others were going or why. All she knew was that they were well and heck out there and moving further away from even the Hypercom network, which was one of the things which made the Republic actually work at all. That was worrying enough without any more details.

"Well enough so far. But this might be the last time we're going to be able to link up to the Hypercom," Harry said, taking the lead in the conversation at a mental nudge from Aayla. "So we wanted to check in with you one last time and ask how everything on Naboo is going. A slice of normality before we head into the abnormal, as it were."

"Heh. Your concern is duly noted and reciprocated, my friends. On the home front, repairs have nearly finished in my capital. The repurposing of the Lucrehulk ship we were rewarded as a system defense ship is done and its shields brought back online. We are still debating what to add to it in terms of offense, but that's a debate that I will cheerfully leave to the House of Commons and my military advisers. The Wookies and I have finalized our trade agreements. I have also begun to work with the sector senator who replaced Chancellor Palpatine. He isn't Nabooan, but I think we can work with him," Padmé said, holding up a hand and ticking off points on her fingers.

Then she let her hand fall out of the pickup and leaned forward. "Oh, and Eirtae says she is going to throttle you the next time she sees you, Aayla. Why you gave Chewie the idea that my Wookie guards should train my maids up to their standards in both combat and engineering is beyond me, but they are enthusiastic, if nothing else."

Aayla giggled, which sent Padmé into chuckles as well, while Harry rolled his eyes. "Tell that giant throw rug not to be so hard on them, would you? I'd prefer you to have friends close by rather than let their enthusiasm for that kind of thing drive them away."

"Bah!" Padmé replied, waving her hand airily. "It's good for them. Besides, I like the exercise. These days I can actually get away every weekend for a few hours training. Otherwise the most workout I would get would be to carry my clown suit around, and I blame you for that name for my formal robes sticking in my head Harry. Going up and down stairs is particularly irritating."

"You're the queen, Padmé. I'm sure if you put your foot down enough with sufficient force that you could get them to change your formal robes to something more…good looking? Mobile? Less of a farce?" Ayala said, slowing as she tried to come up with a single word that correctly described the truly bizarre clothing the queen of Naboo had to wear when acting in a formal setting.

"Now, now, dear, I think it's more important that Padmé saves her tantrums for more important things," Harry cut in mockingly.

"Tantrums?" Padmé drew herself up, pasting a look of cool hauteur on her face. "I will have you know, Harry Potter, that I am a queen. Queens do not have to resort to tantrums to get things done; we simply command, and our peons obey."

She held that pose for a moment before she broke down, laughing with her two friends. Friends who had become as dear to her as Sabé and the others, for all that they had not met in more than a year in person. The memory of their time on Kashyyyk was one of her most treasured memories, even if she was still wondering why the two of them had been so welcoming.

The three of them talked for around twenty minutes, simply exchanging stories, funny moments, and other things since they had last spoken. Eventually however it became time for them to sign off, as evinced by Lily poking her head through the wall and informing the two lovers of this. The three fell silent, then Padmé sighed. "How long do you think you'll be out of contact?"

"We have no idea, really. Three years to five is our best guess," Aayla said, wincing. That would be a long time to be out of contact with everyone, let alone their friends such as the rest of Clan Saa and Padmé.

"Ah." Padmé too winced. "I am very sorry to hear that. These conversations have been both a balm and an aid to me at times. Your good humor and your good sense have helped me equally. Even some of the homilies you shared with me. What was that one, 'a leader's first job is to see the world as it is, not as she wishes it to be?'"

"Yes, that was it, though I think I said, 'as he wished it to be'," Harry said dryly.

"That's sexist," Aayla said, pushing her lover's shoulder. Then they both fell silent, smiling into the pickup once more. "May the Light of the Force be with you, Padmé Amidala. Stay safe, and stay well," Aayla said, with Harry nodding agreement beside her.

Though she was confused by the odd wording, Padmé understood what it meant and nodded. "And the same to you, my friends. Come back to m… Come back to us as soon as you can." With that the trio cut the connection. After a few moments alone, the two padawans sighed and, holding hands, left the room, heading to the bridge.

The two of them joined the others, and, working together once more, they found the next jump forward through the nebulae. They jumped twice more that day rather than take breaks for training. This would allow the two Masters to have the evening to meditate on their overall journey.

Alecto and Quinlan spent their evening playing a game of regicide, followed by Quinlan teaching the Duros teen how to subtly use the Force to influence games of chance. It was an underhanded use, of course, but it was surprising how often you needed such techniques when undercover. Lily joined them, offering some suggestions at purely physical means of cheating. She had apparently been something of a card shark in her youth.

To no one's surprise, Aayla and Harry did not join the other groups. They walked around the ship, sharing ideas of what they wanted to see inside the ship in the future, or ideas on how to improve it in various small ways. None of their conversation happened in the physical world: often because they were too busy kissing one another, and other times because they just didn't see the point. Eventually, however, they wound up back at their cabin.

Inside they spent some more time just kissing, basking in their connection. Then Aayla sat back, a spike of uncertainty, anticipation, and curiosity going through her. Harry wondered what his lover was planning, but had no time to ask before she had moved away, twisting them so that Harry sat on the edge of the bed with Aayla moving down to sit on the cabin's deck between his legs, her head resting on his inner thigh, her hands on his waist. "Harry, you know that, um, that thing you did with your mouth the last time you gave me a massage? I want to try the same to you."

Harry blushed hotly, remembering what Aayla was talking about vividly. She'd had a bad fall during a training session that had involved Master Quinlan and several dozen of the training balls, injuring her hip bone and bruising her rear. Harry had soothed her bones with a massage, then, feeling greatly daring, had offered to kiss the pain away. Aayla had agreed, and eventually that had ended up with Harry going down on her. It had been touch and go as Aayla instructed him more with her emotions via their link than by words, and a slow thing too, since she had been so exhausted, but it had been immensely rewarding also. She had been far too exhausted afterward to reciprocate, and they'd been pushed hard in exercises since.

Slowly Harry nodded, a desire to feel Aayla's mouth on him in such an intimate manner welling up within him followed by a desire to do the same to Aayla. He could all too clearly remember the tangy, almost tart taste of her juices on his lips and was eager to see if she was just as tasty a second time around.

Warning: Limey scene incoming:

Her body shuddering at the imagery in Harry's head, Aayla shifted her hands to the top of his pants. With Harry helping, she eventually pulled down his pants to pull them around his ankles, then off along with his underwear. Tossing them behind her, Aayla turned her attention to the meat of the matter.

Given the fact they'd been kissing and caressing one another for so long, it should have come as no surprise that Harry was already erect. Yet the sight of his member so close caused Aayla a bit of a shock. She twitched backwards, staring at it intently.

Harry was about the size of three fingers around, she judged, fitting in her hand snugly, like a slightly thinner lightsaber hilt, while in length she estimated he was a few inches longer than those dry, horrible illustrations the Order used to describe male anatomy said was the norm. His member was also veiny, pulsing as Aayla raised a finger to gently rub along the underside of it. From the small opening on top of the slightly larger, bulbous head, the liquid Aayla knew was pre-cum had already begun to drip.

Moving her thump up, she caressed the tip, letting the liquid pool on the end of her thumb as the penis twitched and arced further upward, becoming slightly harder, if that was possible. Wow.

"Oh my God, is that how I looked when I was going down on you? This is intense, Aayla!" Harry sent, moaning aloud as Aayla tightened her grip on his shaft. "Go slow, love."

"Mmmmm…" Aayla returned, before licking at her thumb. That sight caused another shiver to travel down Harry's spine, heightened by Aayla suddenly smiling up at him.

"It tastes good. I didn't expect that. Then again, that shouldn't surprise me. This is all so new to us," Aayla murmured aloud, bringing her other hand over from where it had been laying on Harry's knee up his thigh to join the other that was working his member.

"True. Master Fay and my mom never went into detail on the kinds of things a couple get up to, and I doubt the Temple's instructions on anatomy ever covered sex at all. Unless they tried to do it in a 'scare them away' manner… Aayla? What's wrong?"

Harry's question was caused by a spike of unease and even disgust coming through their link. She had just run her hand from his knee to his balls. In so doing Aayla had discovered that the hair around Harry's member was not nearly as nice to the touch as the hair on top of his head. It was rather stringy, harder to the touch, and not very nice, despite Harry having had a sonic shower earlier that day.

"Are all human males this hairy, Harry?" Aayla sent, then both of them laughed at the pun.

Despite that moment of levity, Harry still felt his lover's unease and replied quickly. "I think so. I mean, yeah, I think so. Human women are too. If, if it bothers you, we can stop."

Shuddering once, Aayla swiftly shook her head, moving forward so that she was actually breathing on the head of Harry's member, which twitched in response. "I think it likes me… No, Harry. It, it's not that big a deal; I just wasn't expecting it to be so different. Just tell me if I'm doing anything wrong, like I did with you, okay?"

Getting a positive response to that, Aayla began to move both her hands up and down his shaft. Despite her words, Aayla couldn't quite ignore the feel of the hairs against her hand, so she forwent any attempt to play with Harry's balls. She pumped his shaft several times, receiving nothing but nonverbal encouragement from their link while Harry moaned aloud, unable to think coherently for a moment. The pleasure was also hitting her in a somewhat low key manner through their link, the feedback loop the two of them had felt before in action here.

After a few more strokes, Aayla hesitantly leaned forward, her tongue flickering out to lick the head of the shaft, her lekku twitching in response as the pleasure Harry felt at that hit her. She giggled then and began to lick at the head and the shaft in earnest. It was like some kind of ice cream or meat stick, the texture something that she had never felt before, though she supposed her lekku came close in a way.

More pre-cum began to drip from the tiny slit, which Aayla licked up eagerly. This went on for a while, then Aayla felt ready to move on. Harry's opinion at this point was obvious from the emotions pouring down to her from their link. So after a moment's hesitation, Aayla opened her mouth and took the head of Harry's shaft into her mouth, sucking hard.

Harry hips bucked up off the bed, accidentally sending several more inches into Aayla's mouth. Her eyes widened, but she went with it, taking more than half his shaft into her mouth, licking and slurping as the pleasure once more arced into her via their link, her nipples hardening and her lekku slowly twitching. With so much of his shaft in her mouth, this left her hands to pump the rest of his shaft and once more forced her hands to come into contact with the hair around his genitalia.

She twitched at that, but Aayla was so far gone in giving pleasure and receiving a shadow of it in return to care. Instead, she was trying womanfully to force more of his shaft down her throat, actually enjoying the sensation for some reason on top of the pleasure coming to her from Harry.

It couldn't last. Jedi endurance training was never intended to carry over to carnal acts, despite Shmi's joke when they had met her on Tatooine years ago. Aayla was able to force about two-thirds of Harry's shaft into her throat, reveling in the sensation in a way she had never anticipated, when Harry pushed through the pleasure fugue of his mind to shout aloud, "Aayla, I'm going to finish soon!"

Pulling back, Aayla instinctively pumped Harry's shaft extra hard as she captured the head of Harry's dick in her mouth, feeling it pulse and spurt in her hands before a gooey, hot liquid filled her mouth to bursting. Much of it ran down her throat, but soon she had to pull back entirely, letting Harry's dick out of her mouth with a pop as she struggled to swallow.

With Harry looking down at her in something approaching euphoric shock, Aayla for some reason she could not define opened her mouth, showing Harry the cum pooling in his mouth. Then, still locking eyes with him, she swallowed, licking her lips clean.

"You taste good, Harry," she moaned, then found herself lifted up off the ground via a Force Grab and tossed onto the bed, where she bounced once more as Harry pounced on her, banishing her leggings and panties away before diving in to return the favor.

End Limey content

Despite the amount of pleasure the two of them gave one another that night, however, the next morning wasn't nearly so pleasant. Harry woke up to Aayla moving around on the bed next to him, accompanied by a feeling of her wanting to keep her intentions hidden from him. This was practically impossible given the depth of their mental bond, and he cracked an eye open to see her kneeling beside his waist, a small device of some kind in her hand, which she was moving towards his crotch.

Yelping, Harry rolled away and off the bed, glaring at Aayla. "What the heck, Aayla!?"

"Oh don't be a baby Harry, it's just a depilatory device. I really did not like your hairs down there. Heck, I got a few of them stuck in my mouth, for goodness sake!" Aayla said aloud, reaching out to grab his arm. "Now hold still. This won't hurt a bit!"

"You must be joking! Those things hurt like nobody's business without cream. Haven't you ever seen Quinlan shaving before? Besides, did it ever occur to you that I might not want to be shaved down there? That sounds really uncomfortable," Harry rejoined.

"You don't have to deal with it like I do if we're going to continue doing what we did last night to one another! Come on, Harry, isn't it nice to use your mouth on me like that without fear of getting hair in your mouth?" Aayla wheedled via their link.

Seeing Harry hesitate, she decided to push the issue, moving forward to wrap one arm around Harry's waist to keep him still. But once more her purpose came through their link, and he stepped back sharply. Then, as Aayla leaped for him, he raced toward the door to their bathroom. "Get back here, Harry!" she cried, moving after him.