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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2938579" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 378: ChoiceHanding the Peace Brigade man, Taril, over to the Araddon’s security detail seemed to earn Marix at least a little more of their trust. Enough that they had stopped asking questions about Loki, which was very comforting. It was becoming more and more difficult to create believable lies that Loki could emulate. If they found out he was alive...well...considering that the Vong used living technology, Marix was fairly sure that no explanation would be good enough.    But the strangest thing was that they didn’t seem to be trying to get her off the ship. Marix had dealt with military ships before. It didn’t matter who they were, Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, even mercenaries or small planetary defense fleets, there seemed to be a universal dislike for civilians aboard their ships. Well, no...maybe she was wrong. The Rebels had always worked fairly well with smugglers, for obvious reasons, and rarely had problems with random ships taking refuge in their hangars for short periods of time.    Yes, the Rebellion had faded into history many years earlier, but if Marix could remember it as clearly as she could...well, maybe some others did, too. Jyren had always talked about old Rebellion veterans still fighting in the New Republic military. Perhaps the commander of the Araddon was one of them...or perhaps she just didn’t register on their scanners as important enough to yell at.    “I know that look,” Jyren’s voice broke her train of thought immediately.    The neutral ‘look’ that Marix’s face apparently held gave way to one of slight confusion, and she glanced to her side at him and raised an eyebrow, “You do?”    Of course, he nodded. Marix didn’t need the link to see that coming, “You’re going to stay when we get to Ithor.”    Marix turned her attention away from him and looked over the small mess they sat in. It was fairly populated, as was to be expected during hyperspace jumps when there was little to do for pilots, but she couldn’t get past the old need to watch everyone around her closely. Maybe it was the fact that the last time she was on a Star Destroyer wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences...with Jen...and the Darkwings...    Shaking the thoughts out of her mind, she decided that Jyren was probably expecting her to respond. But she didn’t need to. The link had already answered his unspoken question...which was why he had spoken the answer to it. Why he didn’t trust the link was beyond her. Over a decade and he still had to speak things out loud that words had problems expressing. Sometimes, she wondered if he did that on purpose, just to make her uncomfortable, or annoyed, or...or...anything.    “Tobias wants to be a Jedi.”    Neither of them had expected those words to come out.    Jyren blinked a few times before turning to look at her directly. And, for a moment at lest, he felt like he was looking at someone else. Even the voice was different. And yes, he knew it was Marix but...but the shorter hair, the softer human features and every other tiny difference just struck him suddenly. So long without seeing her as a human really seemed to have more of an effect than he had ever expected.    Composing himself, Jyren managed a sigh, “Didn’t we talk him out of that years ago?”    Marix shrugged, “Apparently not...” she then turned to face him, matching his blue eyes with her violet and making sure he knew she was serious, “It may be some childish hero worship, but he means it this time.”    “You sound like you’re actually going to let him try,” Jyren couldn’t make his voice sound as shocked as he really was...so he let the link do the rest.    Glad that he was at least willing to use the link somewhat, Marix responded by sending her own feelings through the link. After allowing him to absorb that, she said quietly, “He is...young. But...but he’s old enough to choose his own path.”    Jyren knew why that was so difficult for her to say, “You always said he’d join the Tam’Day’U. I even tried to encourage it...”    “But he doesn’t want that,” Marix’s voice was nearly a whisper.    He didn’t want it.    Want.    That one word said how much they had changed the Alraxian Empire. Tobias was probably the first child in the history of the Alraxian people who should have been taken away as an infant and trained as a killer...but was instead allowed to have a somewhat normal childhood and then choose. Never before had there even been an option. And despite the fact that Marix knew that Tobias wanted to be a Jedi for all the wrong reasons...she couldn’t tell him ‘no’. There was no way she was going to deny him the choice she’d fought to give to all of her people, just because she didn’t agree with him.    And Jyren understood.    But instead of saying anything in response to that, he simply reached over and very carefully put an arm around her. Jyren knew that it would make her uncomfortable...at least, it would when there were so many people around, even if they weren’t paying either of them any attention. And she did tense up noticeably, but before she could say anything or move away, he grinned slightly and said, “You’re going to laugh when you hear what I’ve been ordered to do when we get to Ithor.”    “Oh, really?” Marix’s voice was a bit shaky, but the tension faded slightly and she glanced up to him slightly, “Never once have I laughed when you’ve started a story like that.”    “There’s a first time for everything,” he laughed slightly, “The Jedi are gathering on Ithor. There’s a meeting of sorts being organized the day after we arrive to decide how to defend the planet’s surface. Guess who’s going to be there whether he likes it or not.”    A very tiny hint of a smile snuck its way onto Marix’s face, but she fought back any other outward reaction, “The second Toby finds out...”    Jyren laughed again and shrugged, “I don’t know how he’ll do it, but he’ll find a way to stuff himself in my pack if that’s what it takes to get down to the surface with me.”    Nodding to that, Marix finally stopped fighting back her own grin, “Where is the brat, anyway?”</blockquote>

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