Meaning Of Fate

Disclaimer: I still don’t own Jan, Kyle, Dack Ralter or Mara Jade. Will Ralter, Jon Oriley, Tweak and their bordering-on-cliché- commander are my creations, however. I still can’t make money from this. D’oh! And just to clarify the last chapter, Jan comments that Kyle has been demoted from commander to captain. Now, in the US Armed Forces, that would be backwards (captain is actually higher than commander), but a friend assured me that commander was higher than captain in the NR Armed Forces. (Think Luke and Han; Han cleared the way, but Luke actually blew up the Death Star. Luke=commander, Han=captain.) And yes, I did make up the rank of Senior Staff Agent. It’s kind of like a chief petty officer for those of you familiar with the Navy rankings. I hope that clarified some people. If not, it probably confused a bunch of others. J Anyway, enjoy the story.

As she was walking out the door, Jan caught sight of her calendar and saw that it was the two-month anniversary of her wounding, engagement, and eventual death. She had to pause and smile at the mention of her “death.” What killed the smile before it could reach her lips was the fact that Kyle was not with her and the other fact that he thought she was dead. I’m going to have to get a communiqué to him. With a sigh, she tugged her Defiance crew chief cap on and picked up her tool bag. Today she was going to have to find out what was severely denting Lieutenant Ralter’s X-wing. Everyday he came to her with some minuscule complaint: the guns were going to jam, his fuselage sustained some dents that needed to be hammered out, his S-foils felt as though they were coming loose. If he or his ship is half as accident prone as he appears to be, I fear for the future. As she reached the Defiance ship maintenance area, she noted without surprise that Will Ralter’s ship was there. Ralter was a higher rank than she, and he seemed nice enough, but she got an odd feeling from him, as though he was perpetually putting on a show and that something was wrong with him. Maybe it was her, maybe it was him. Jan certainly didn’t know. As she set out in hammering dents out, she felt a soft pressure on her upper back. She moved the hammer down and almost instantaneously dropped it and grabbed her blaster out of her holster. The man who had been resting his hand on her shoulder put them up and grinned stupidly. “Lieutenant Ralter,” Jan said almost icily. “I’ve asked you to please not interrupt me while I’m working…sir.” The blond pilot kept grinning, but put his hands down while Jan holstered her sidearm. “Cool down, Chief. I just wanted to see if I could help. I know my way around a toolbag.” Jan rolled her eyes. I bet. “If you want to help, then you can either stay away from me or just go do maintenance in the cockpit. I want to know what in the name of the galaxy is causing these dents and know how do I stop it.” Ralter smiled innocently, not noticing the barb. “I’ll make sure Tweak does a checkup on it.” Jan looked up at him skeptically.

“‘Tweak?’”

“Oh, you haven’t met my R5 yet? I call him Tweaker, Tweak for short.”

“Charming, Lieutenant, but I’ve got work to do.” Will put his hands up again and backed away. “Okay, okay. Do you want to have dinner sometime?”

“Keep asking, Lieutenant. Tatooine may get snow just yet.” The grin fell from Will Ralter’s face momentarily, but returned just as enthusiastic a moment later. “It could happen, Chief. You just wait! I’ll find a way to dupe you into that lunch with me!” Yeah, I bet you will someday, Ralter. Looking after him, Jan didn’t want to admit it, but she had a grudging respect for Will Ralter growing inside her.

Later that night, Jan stayed up near the newly-hammered ship to find out what was denting it so badly. She had packed her blaster, a hammer, and a snack. The darkened maintenance hangar was almost eerie this late. Finally, around 0115 GST, she heard a grunt and a soft tap, tap, tap. It crescendoed into a bang, bang, bang and finally a loud wham, wham, wham. Jan stood, pulled her blaster out, and hit the lights. “Ow! Turn the lights down!” She stared at what she saw. Will Ralter himself was straddled across the nose of his own fighter, banging on it with a hammer. He gave it a few more feeble taps guiltily and jumped down. “I can explain, Chief.”

“I certainly hope you can, Lieutenant. Otherwise, this will be a very interesting report.”

“You see, I wanted to meet you, but I didn’t know how. Then I saw how good you were as a mechanic and I thought that if I was around you enough then I could think of something intelligent to say.”

“You wanted to meet me?”

“Well, yeah. I guess it was kinda stupid.”

“A little, unless you have a death wish. I could write you up for sabotage and treason.”

“Awh, come one, Chief. I had the best intentions.”

“The road to…”

“I know, I know. D’you want to go to dinner with me?” Jan had to laugh and tell him maybe.

Will Ralter was Corellian and Alderaanian by blood, but had been born on the Imperial prisoner camp of Kalist VI. A few years before him had been his older, more famous brother Dack. He’d always taken to Dack and had made sure that, when in the chain line, had been next to him. Dack’s voice came back to him, unbidden but not unwanted, a seditious whisper. “‘You just wait, Willy. I’ll get free someday and then I’ll come back for you and Mom and Dad. You just wait. Then we can go to the Alliance and blow up all the Imps we want. Then we’ll be heroes, liberators of the oppressed.’” After he found his freedom, Dack also found that he couldn’t go back to Kalist VI, because almost as soon as he joined the Alliance, he died in the defense of Hoth. Will escaped one night, but not before being put through a series of horrifying ordeals. The guards were brutal, the Commandant was always picking Will for the most strenuous labor, the doctors from Coruscant were… “No. I won’t think of that one.” But he did. He shuddered at the memories, the callous doctors and their needles and spore samples and bacterial cultures. Biological warfare. He was the first test subject. Nothing more than a lab specimen.

And the only survivor of their experiments.

His parents and younger brother Jacey had been ones too.

But he was still the lone survivor.

The next day, Jan Ors wiped her hands on the oily rag and surveyed Will’s ship. It really is a nice ship. And I guess he really is a nice guy. He’s gone out of his way to make me feel as comfortable as possible. Even if he was the mystery denter. Maybe I’ll take him up on that offer. Some dinner really sounds good now. She made a note to go to her quarters to shower and change into something other than a greasy pair of coveralls and to at least fix her hair. She stopped and decided to talk with Will first. She keyed in Will’s com frequency. No answer. She waited and did it again. Still no answer. Okay then, I can be blunt too, Lieutenant Ralter. Jan headed to his quarters and knocked on the door. He answered a few minutes later, red-eyed and pale. His eyes upset her. They were normally a bright sapphire but were now solidly bloodshot. She stared at him, concerned. “Did I come at a bad time, Lieutenant?” He put his hand up to his face and attempted to look slightly recovered. “Oh, no. Sorry. Come on in, Chief. What do you need?”

“Oh, I was just wondering if I can still take you up on that offer.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. How about dinner at 1930 GST?” He stared at her curiously.

“What?”

“It’s military time. You know, 7:30 p.m.”

“Oh, sorry. I’m not thinking right today.” Jan smiled at him and looked around, changing the subject. “You have a really nice apartment.”

“Oh, thanks. I try. Most of it is stuff I managed to salvage from raiding parties. I’m pretty good with mechanics, so I build some of it.” He and Jan stood looking at their feet for a moment and then both looked up. Jan was a bright red. “Well, I guess I’d better go.” Her words came out rushed. “Yeah, sure. I’ve got to get cleaned up.” Will’s were equally rushed. Jan was sure that she didn’t turn back to her normal complexion until she reached her own room. As she was getting her shower ready, she noticed something on her finger. Kyle’s ring. Its luster glared at her, reproaching her for even thinking about Will Ralter when she was still engaged to Kyle. “Oh, no…” Suddenly she dropped it as though it was heavy. It rolled on the floor and still glared at her. She picked up her com and automatically attuned to Kyle’s personal frequency. “Kyle, this is Jan. Are you there?”

There was no answer but static.

She sank down and called Will for reasons she didn’t know.

Will had just stepped out and put on his officers suit when he received Jan’s call. It sounded to him like she had been scared out of her wits. “Do you want me to come over there, Chief?”

“Yes. Quickly.”

Kyle found his quarters on the NR held base/planet of Altyr V to be most unaccommodating. They were far away from almost everything, from his post to the mess hall to the training room. Worst of all, during a practice air attack, his picture of Jan had fallen off the wall and had shattered. There was a large crack that ran parallel to Jan’s face. Maybe the fact that the memory of her was hallowed to him was what moved him to put it on his table instead of the wall. His mother and father’s wedding day kept Jan company, along with Jan and he together outside the Crow, and his parents and him on his first birthday. He didn’t have enough credits to buy a fancy hologram projector, so he was going to have to be contented with standard holos. Sighing, he got out of bed and did his stretches and warm-ups. At least it was his day off. He had planned on practicing with his lightsaber, but didn’t have a clue on what to use as a sparring partner. Usually, he had been able to coax Jan into firing a couple of stun shots at him and then deflecting them into the wall. Thanks to him, Jan had acquired nerves of steel. Jan… I’m sorry, dear. But I’m obviously not a Jedi Healer. I thought I put you into a Healing Trance, but I guess it didn’t work. He picked up his lightsaber and began to walk out the door. Or maybe it worked too well…? Kyle looked away. Another thing to blame myself for. Maybe I can get some relief from sparring and then worry about my personal  life. As he entered the training room, he found a sight that surprised him to an extreme.

A beautiful red-headed woman was fighting an assassin droid in the training room.

She was winning.

She had a lightsaber.

She was somehow familiar, like seen-in-a-briefing familiar. Kyle watched her for a moment.

Wow. She’s good. No, wait. She’s not good; she’s excellent.

She pivoted and sliced the droid in half, both sides electronic wiring shorting and sizzling. She shut off her saber and noticed Kyle. “Kyle Katarn?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s me.”

“Good. I came here to train with you. My name’s Mara Jade.”

Will examined the ring. “It’s a nice ring. It’s a wedding band, though.” Jan held her head in her hands. “Yes, I know. That’s what I wanted to tell you. I’m engaged to a Jedi Knight named Kyle Katarn.” Will raised an eyebrow at her. “A Jedi Knight, huh? You certainly have high criteria. What’s a nice girl like you doin’ with a Jedi like him?” Jan looked over at him. “That’s all you can think of?”

“Sorry. I meant that to cheer you up, Chief.”

“Well, it didn’t. And stop calling me ‘Chief.’ It’s Jan.”

“Jan’s a nice name. Is it short for anything?”

“Janali. Jan-ah-lee.”

“That’s pretty. It suits you. My name’s short for ‘Willis.’” Jan commenced holding her head in her hands again. “Fine, fine! But... that ring was given to me by Kyle with the intent to marry me.”

“Did you or he get scared and call it off or something?”

“No! I was shot in battle and I went into a coma and everyone thought I died and that Kyle had killed me so they demoted him and sent him to a base on the edge of Nowhere and then they sent me here….”

“Whoa! Slow down there, Jan. I couldn’t understand you. Okay, so Kyle’s somewhere far away from here and you want to be there but you can’t get transferred. Maybe I can help.”

“How?”

“Good question.”

Two days later, Will stepped into his commander’s officer. “Uh, sir? I have a question for you.”

“Go ahead, Ralter. I’m listening.”

“Well, it’s about that new mechanic we’ve got, Jan Ors.”

“What about her?”

“Her, uh, fiancé was transferred to a base on Altyr V.”

“So?”

“I was wondering if you could transfer her there as well.” The commander sat up and drummed his fingers on his desk. “Ralter, I don’t have time for my XO to be playing matchmaker with a mechanic.”

“Chief mechanic, sir.”

“Fine then. A chief mechanic. What’s wrong with you, Will? Do you have a soft spot for her or what?” 

“Well, she’s been through an awful lot lately in her life. I thought that maybe I could do a favor for her and…”

“Get a life, Ralter. Stop being so blasted idealistic for once.” Will scowled and looked rather piqued. The commander smiled. “That’s better. Get back to work. I want those supply lists by the end of today.”

Jan’s shoulders slumped. “Well, thanks Will. You tried.”

“But I could have done better!”

“It’s not your fault. I’ll…just have to get over it and wait until I can retire from the military.” Will gave her a last glance and headed off. I think I have a crush on her. Why else would I be trying to play set-up for her when I want to set myself up with her? He was brooding on that fact when a friend of his, Jon Oriley, walked past. Jon and Will had been friends for several years, even though Jon was only 19 and Will was 25. “Hiya, Will.”

“Hey, Jon. What’s up?”

“You know that Jedi you had me look up?”

“Not so loud!” Jon made a face but quieted his voice. “Anyway, I found something about him. He’s training another Jedi as a partner, a red-headed woman. People are saying that he kinda likes her or something.” Will’s eyes turned hard and reminded Jon of ice: dangerous, deep, and penetrating. “Thanks, Jon. I owe you one.”

“Hey, don’t mention it. We’re even from that time you vaped the commander for me when he was on my tail in the sim.” Will smiled at Jon and set out toward his quarters, killing the smile as soon as he turned away from his friend. How dare that Jedi? It’s only been two months and he’s replaced Jan like common garbage! If he were here, I’d…well, I probably wouldn’t do that. Jan wouldn’t like it. I am an officer and a gentleman, unlike a certain spoon-bender I won’t name.

A few weeks later, Jan got ready again for dinner with Will. This time however, she planned to keep the date and actually attend and not break down. She had worn Kyle’s ring on her right ring finger ever since the NR’s official newsgroups announced that the famous ex-Emperor’s Hand Mara Jade was training with the almost-equally-famous hero of the Valley of the Jedi Kyle Katarn. Jan noted without emotion that she was not mentioned along with Kyle’s exploits. In an interview, Kyle sounded quite elated about being with Mara Jade and being able to hear what she learned from Luke Skywalker. Fine, Kyle. If you can move on, then so can I.

Halfway across the galaxy, Kyle Katarn looked up at the stars. I miss you Jan. Do you remember me, if you can? Mara came up and studied the stars with him. “It’s quiet out here. I see why it’s your sanctuary. You must really miss her, huh?” Kyle went back inside, not wanting to share his private haven with anyone but his memories of Jan and his father and mother. “Let’s spar a little before my watch. I found a new technique.” Mara raised her eyebrows. “Whatever you say, Kyle. I can still match you.”

At the same time, Will Ralter proposed to a woman he had known for about three months. She accepted.

Finis.