(Section I)
Mai-yen moaned in pain as she started to come to. She felt like a thermal-detonator had just gone off right next to her head. What happened? Her ears rang, her head spun and she felt like she was going to vomit her guts out.
What in the galaxy happened to me? She thought to herself as she tried to put the pieces together. All she could remember was that she had been exercising in her gym and had started up one of the H2H droid to do a little hand to hand combat, but after that everything was a blur.
Slowly opening her eyelids, she was struck with a piercing light. The light made the already splitting headache into excruciating migraine. Where was she, on a star? Closing her eyes, she put her hands over her face. She tried to block out the intense light that dared to blind her. She wanted tell that son of a bantha - that had the audacity to turn on such a bright light- to turn it off before she pulled out his throat with her teeth. But all that came out was an unintelligible, “Uugh”.
A man’s laugh boomed next to her ear. “I would probably say the same thing if I had been a punching bag for a H2H droid just seven hours ago.” Came the gruff man’s voice that- from what Mai-yen could hear- seemed to be leaning over her.
Anger boiled up inside her as the man chuckled again. Was he laughing at her, was he that stupid? How dare he think that her pain was funny? She didn’t know who this man was. But if he kept laughing, he wasn’t going to live long enough for her to care.
Then she recognized the voice that was foolishly laughing at her, the anger faded into embarrassment and irritation. “Parack, you slimy Hutt… I should rip out your heart right now for laughing at me.” She shrieked.
Parack laughed even harder at that statement. “You’re welcome to try, little Yen.”
She opened her eyes for the second time. The light didn’t hurt her eyes as much as it did the first time, but the room she was in still seemed too bright. “Wait… So how long have I been out?” She said, still trying to get her head to stop spinning and her stomach from lurching.
“A little more than seven hours ago, we jumped into hyperspace soon after….”
“Seven hours?! I was not out for seven hours. That’s just not possible.”
Her eyesight was still really blurry. She could only see Parack’s outline and blurry blotches of – what she could only assume to be- the furniture in the room. She tried to focus and sharpen her vision, but to no avail. Maybe she was worse off than she thought.
“You hit the ground pretty hard little Yen, hard enough to put a small gash in the back of the head.” Parack said. “BeeTee and I had a heck of a time trying to stop the bleeding. If you ask me, I’d say you are extremely lucky to be alive, let alone being conscious in only seven hours.”
With a loud huff Mai-yen didn’t say anything to that.
“Don’t you huff at me, Mai-yen, you know that I’m right.”
She did of course, but she would rather play chicken with a Star Destroyer than admit that Parack was right. So she decided to change the subject.
“Why can’t I see clearly?” She watched as his blurry mass came closer. He lifted her chin gently so he could see her eyes better. He then shone a small but an unbelievably bright light in to her eyes.
“Ow! What the heck is that for?” She said, closing her eyes tight.
“Mmmhm, just as I thought. You have a concussion; mild one but a concussion none the less. We will be making a visit to the healers when we reach Coruscant.” He said, handing her a large glass of liquid. “Here drink this.”
Taking a sip of the liquid, she gagged at the bitter taste that suddenly had filled her mouth. “What is this stuff?”
“Water with…”
“I’ve never tasted water like this.”
“If you would let me finish you would have found out that it was water with some headache pills crushed up in it. It’ll help with the dizziness. Drink it, all of it.” He ordered in a voice that left no room for argument.
Grudgingly, Mai-yen drank the all that was in the glass.
After an hour of her in bed the medicine began to take effect. Finally! The dizziness and the pain were becoming tolerable. She blinked several more times to get the rest of the blurriness out of her eyes. And after an hour of just seeing burry shapes, she was finally able to focus on the muscular, dark-skinned man that was hovering over her body.
Being half droid, most of Parack’s skin was replaced with metal. It started at the right side of his face and right eye, to his right shoulder and arm, most of his torso and both of his legs.
His newest attachment was this rare matter that was called vorlum; that when mixed correctly with metal made it almost indestructible. Mai-yen had insisted for him to have the procedure done after she had accidently cut off his right forearm while sparing. She didn’t get any argument from him.
With all of that and his tall muscular build, made Parack one very intimidating being. But none of those qualities kept Mai-yen from insulting and threatening the big man. Though Parack looked as if he could merely flick her in the head and she would out for hours, he knew better than to underestimate her. He had the scars to remind him.
Mai-yen was one tough seventeen year old.
“So what exactly happened out there?” Parack asked as he tried to help Mai-yen sit up on her sleep mat. She pushed him away with force that- even after knowing her for four years- still surprised him. “I don’t need your help Par. I have all my limbs, I can get up myself.” She said testily, but when he let go of her shoulder she couldn’t hold herself up and fell back down on the mattress.
Parack observed as Mai-yen tried to let herself up without any success. She never lets anyone help her no matter how much she could use it, he thought to himself. He couldn’t recall, in the years he has known her, did she once ask for a hand. One time he remembered she had been attacked by several thugs, and when he had saved her from them, she almost killed him for interfering. Mai-yen was definitely what you would call an independent soul. But he knew as well as anyone that that was the only way to survive in this galaxy.
“Mai-yen dear, what are you doing trying to get out of bed?” A metallic voice sang. It was coming from A-23 as the droid rolled through the door on its one wheel, carrying a tray of food in two of its four human like arms.
When Mai-yen first bought A-23, it had been a TDL nanny droid. But Mai-yen had reprogrammed it to become more of a cook and cleaner. It was constantly bustling around their ship- the Shadowed Hand- cleaning and cooking for Parack and Mai-yen. Parack noticed that it had never lost its motherly touch. And no matter how much Mai-yen said she hated it, Parack knew that A-23 was the closest thing she had to a mother right now… For all he knew it was the closest thing to a mother she ever had.
Parack knew next to nothing about Mai-yen’s past. Other than that she was born with Force abilities that were astounding to him and a curse- how she to put it- for her. The discussion of her past had never been touched.
He wondered if she knew how much he thought about what her life was like before they met that fateful day.
That day they were forced to share a cramped cell in the belly of a pirate ship, both destined for a life of slavery. She had been only thirteen years old then; though at that time he thought she looked more like ten. He remembered the look on her face, one of shock, confusion, and most of all anger. She never spoke to him during that time they had shared in the cell; he couldn’t even recall if she had looked at him. She just stared at nothing, until it happened. It was like a switch had tripped in the girl’s head. One moment she was just staring at a corner in the wall, and the next she’d escaped their cage and was taking on the whole ship’s crew. It had been quite a battle, he had tried to help her but in the process had lost most of the right side of his body, including his right lung, most of his liver and a piece of his heart.
She saved his life with old droid parts and pieces of the broken down ship; something that still took him aback when he thought about it. He couldn’t remember much of those first weeks she cared for him. He couldn’t remember anything but the pain. But that’s not what he thought about the most. What he thought about the most was how a thirteen year old girl could know how to do complicated surgery like that? Not only did she accomplish something that only a handful of skilled professionals in the whole galaxy can do, but she also did it with spare parts. The girl’s abilities amazed him …No they dumb-founded him.
As soon as she had finished fixing him up and he came out of his delusional state, he vowed that he would be her servant and protector for as long as he until she gave up and said he could stay with her on one accord; that they never spoke of what happened that day of the battle, to each other or anyone else. He had obviously agreed and helped her pilot the ship to the closest planet. Once there, he helped her sell the ship and buy a much smaller one, which is now the Shadowed Hand.
Now three and a half year later Mai-yen has become more like a daughter to him; loving her as much as he would love his own flesh and blood. If someone was to tell him five years ago that he would ever feel this way about a person, he would’ve laughed and gone back to his drink; thinking that the person had lost their mind. He never thought that he would worry about someone’s wellbeing at all, let alone this much.
Through meeting Mai-yen he had lost most of his body, but also through meeting her he had found something inside him he never knew was there, a soul. And for that he would always be in debt to her.
“Mistress, you must take better care of yourself” A-23 said, rolling to Mai-yen’s bedside and unintentionally pushing Parack back. “What would I do if anything happened to you? The robot said sounding more like a worried mother than an actually droid.
“Here take these, Mistress,” A-23 said giving Mai-yen two small bright blue tablets that had been on the tray that it brought in. “It’ll help the pain and nausea that you are most likely feeling.”
“Most likely?” Parack huffed. “If you just had your head between a fist of a droid and a hard floor you wouldn’t be ‘most likely’ in pain and nauseous, you would definitely be.”
“Well, actually Parack that is not true. For I am a droid and Mistress Mai-yen here…”
“Oh forget I said anything.”
“Again, something that I am unable to do unless someone erased my memory-banks. And I figure that would be rather complicated for a mere sentence that had been uttered.”
“Just drop it!”
“As you wish Master Parack,” It said with its normal cheery voice. Then without another seconds pause A-23 dropped the tray that it had been holding.
The crash echoed throughout the small room. For a moment nothing was said as Mai-yen and Parack exchange looks between each other. After the moment passed Mai-yen made a loud frustrated groan, threw her hands in the air and fell back into the bed.
“Great, now I have to reprogram A-23’s blasted information-receiver again. This is the third time this month.” Mai-yen wined, moving her arms dramatically as she spoke. “She is still taking things too literal, I don’t get it. It’s like A-23 is actually being sarcastic.” Covering her eyes with her left arm, she sighed in defeat. “I just don’t get it.”
The whole scene looked like a fit of a frustrated teenager. Parack couldn’t help but smile at the seventeen year old. “Well she is a nanny droid.”
“And what does being a nanny droid, have to do with anything?” Mai-yen asked, not even looking at him.
“Well, TDL nanny droids are programmed to be like a mother…”
“Yeah… and?”
“And, have you ever known a mother that is not sarcastic?”
“I don’t know, Parack. Have you?”
She looked at him with a glare that sent chills down his spine. The edge in her voice was apparent, though she barely brought her voice above a whisper. He had hit a nerve and he was sorry he had, but he wasn’t going to coddle her and let her wallow in her own self-pity. Instead he just walked up to her, smiled a smile that said “I know” and patted her on the knee.
“I’m sure you’ll figure out how to fix A-23. You always have been able to accomplish the impossible.” With that they both laughed looking at A-23 as it started to clean up the mess it had made.
Mai-yen then rose up and sat at the edge of the bed; letting her short, muscular legs dangle over the side. Her legs swung slightly, kicking the bed-frame and making a light drumming sound.
She wasn’t looking at Parack or A-23 now, but at something on her utility-belt which hung over the edge of a chair where her blood and sweat drenched workout clothes were. She actually was looking at two particular things. She always kept them close, but refrained from touching them if at all possible. They were the only thing that she had left of her past life. They were her mother’s.
Having lived on the same ship with Mai-yen for some time now, he knew when it was time to leave her alone with her thoughts. And that time was now. He ruffled her hair a bit and kissed her on the forehead.
He then looked her over to see if there were any injuries that he had missed. She had a small cut just under her black-white hairline. There was quite a large bruise that was forming on the left side of her very round face. Her lip was split and swollen a bit. The wound on the back of her head –from where it had hit the hard metal floor- had finally stopped blooding.
“Get washed up, little Yen.” He said softly. “Put on the Daro disguise and then come help me in the cockpit; we’re almost to Coruscant.” With that he walked out of the room to go to prepare to come out of hyperspace.
Parack was ready to have a break. And as soon as they deliver their cargo to the infamous crime lord Marluc, that’s exactly what he is going to have.
Marluc Gingtii was a slimy Hutt that was known sometimes for hiring bounty hunters for a mission and then paying them half of what was promised. And if there was any complaining he would have them killed on the spot. Of course none of this could be proven, for the bounty hunters would just disappear and never be seen again.
Parack had tried to warn Mai-yen about this when they had been offered the job. She had told him to not worry and that lord Marluc wouldn’t dare to do something like that to the Silent Ghost.
“Marluc maybe a Hutt, but even he has heard of us and what we’re capable of.” She had said. “And he would have to be a complete idiot to test and see if the rumors are true or not.” With that she had given him that smirk that said she was going to do this whether he approved or not.
“Do we really need the money that bad?” He had asked knowing very that they had enough money to live quite well for many years.
“Par, it’s never been about the money. This mission will be our biggest challenge yet.”
“Challenge? Why are you always looking for a bigger challenge?” He had yelled, hoping that she would actually tell him that time. But of course she didn’t. She most likely never would tell him. So he did what he always would do when she closed herself off.
“Fine Little Yen. We will take this job, but I tell you, I have a bad feeling about this.”
She had smiled at that, “Don’t worry Par, everything is going to be just fine.” Then giving him a kiss on the cheek she walked out to tell Marluc’s men that they would accept the job. But he hadn’t been and still wasn’t sure that things would be “fine”.
So they took the mission despite his protest. Mai-yen had been right about it being their biggest challenge yet. It had taken them almost six months to find the guy. And then another two to get close enough to him to nab him. Now they were almost to Coruscant and about to see how right Mai-yen was about Marluc.
“I do hope you’re right, Mai-yen,” He said, then under his breath he added. “For Marluc’s sake.”
~To be continued~
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