Thanks for all your support and replies! "So that's how you met Rex Makee," Magenta said. "I heard he's got quite the large family now. But what ever happened to this Naru Tarkin?" "He jumped off at the first planet we got to and went right to the nearest navy base," Mulk said. "I guess he was going to turn us in. Unfortunately for him they recognized him and shot him on sight. Fell off the walkway he was on. And we were several hundred meters above ground level. So it's safe to say he's dead." Kinna turned to Joshua. "Now it's your turn boy! What's your big regret?" Joshua grinned. "Regrets?" Kirk asked with a laugh. "I live on board a fast ship. I've been from one end of this Republic to another. I serve with four, sometimes five." Joshua nodded to Magenta. "Very lovely and very lusty ladies." Pointing to Melee, Ano, and Baby, he went on. "I've also got three incredible girls that are like sisters to me. Then you add in the Arners, Zell, and Papa Kerrish and it's like one big happy family. What would I regret? Everyone stared at Joshua in his chair cuddling with Seesha. As one they started throwing their replicated popcorn at him. They all went back to talking to each other. It was Magenta who saw the sad look on Kirk's face. "Ah, look," She said to the others. "He does have something he regrets." "Yeah," Joshua said sadly. "I regret that my lack of judgement might have caused a war between the Federation and our ally, the Klingon Empire. I regret that I've trapped more than fourteen hundred good people seventy four million light years from home, and that I caused the deaths of more than three thousand Klingons. Some of whom I knew very well. Yeah, I do have regrets." "They tell me I'm a lot like my great grandfather, James T," He told them. "To me, life's been one adventure after another. Nothing bad had ever happened to me. That I can remember anyway. But these things do catch up with you. Just like it caught up to James T. And it cost him his oldest, and dearest friend. Only he was able to bring his friend back. I'll never be able to undo the damage I've done." "Well then I have good news for you," Mulk said. "I was talking to Merrik this morning, before I jumped out of the Bacta tank at the hospital, before all the crazy things happened. He said that they have opened the wormhole enough to open communications with your Federation. There is no war. Your people apologized, these Klingons accepted." Joshua Kirk sat up at the news. "And what's more, they say they'll be able to have it open wide enough to allow ships to go through in a month. You'll be able to go home." Joshua sat in silence for a few minutes. Only the sound of Melee crying brought him around. Leaning out of his chair, he looked the girl in the eye. "You don't think you're getting rid of me that easy do you?" He asked. "I'm not going anywhere." "But don't you want to go home?" Melee asked tearfully. "I am home," Kirk stated flatly. "Yes, I'd like to go back and visit. I do have family there. I'd love to take you ladies shopping in New York, London, and Tokyo. Let you see what it's like shopping without needing battledroids." "Where's the fun in that?" Asked with a grin. Baby and Ano, who'd been sitting in silence on the floor next to Melee just looked around the room. "And I thought we were screwed up, Ano," Baby said. Jumping up she leapt for the door. "I'm going to bed. I've got to get together with #1 in the morning and finish calibrating that backup hyper drive." "Oh, more good news!" Lele said. "Our clan Matriarch said that our youngest has earned the right to take a name, and to marry if he wants. That bit of heroics him and Joshua got into this afternoon showed he is a man." Peenk smiled at that bit of news, as did everyone else. "Joshua, Melee, yo bed. You two have to get up early. You have to fly back down to the surface in the Stinger and pick up Her Majesty." Everyone rolled their eyes. Kirk glanced over at Melee. "I'll explain in the morning," she said. "Some of us had a tiring day." Dayvid Morss was kneeling on the floor stroking his wife's thigh, while she stroked his face. "I'm so glad you started shaving again Dayvid," Melenie purred. "You know I hate the feel of that stubble." "Now Melenie!" He said with a chuckle. "I know for a fact that the sensory inputs in the hands on your mech arms are not that sensitive. How could my not shaving bother you." "You know damn well that I'm talking about my sensitive thighs!" She said huskily. She then gave a quick jerk as Dayvid's gentle fingers hit a ticklish spot. They were leaning toward each other, their eyes closed, when the office door opened and Officer Potoh Grun limped through. Melenie turned to him and began to swear at him for not knocking first. "Can it Boss!" He said. "Kirk's back!" "What?" They both shouted. They were up and quickly out the door behind Grun. Standing at the squadroom's entrance was Joshua Kirk, a purple droid with him. "I come in peace!" Kirk said as he held up his hands. "What do you want, Kirk?" She asked, keeping her distance. "I'm looking for the Wookiee. I brought my droid here to fix his arm." "The docs already fixed his arm," She said as she stood behind Dayvid. "It'll be out of the bacta cast in about a week." "My MU-SO here can fix it in ten minutes," The young man told Kinsie. "The boy Zell had several broken bones yesterday and one of my droids fixed him up in about half an hour." "Are you kidding me?" she sputtered. "No. So if your big furry friend is here we can take care of him. Half an hour later, Dobba was flexing his arm in wonder. "That is amazing Human," he said. "But not as amazing as you being able to speak Shriiwook. I've never seen a non-Wookiee who could do it." "Learning it was easy," Joshua told him in the same tongue. "Speaking it is a bit painful though. But it does surprise people." "I imagine it does," The Wookiee said laughing. "It surprised me! My wife wants to meet you. She had a good chuckle at the holo of us wrestling around here." "Well, I've got to go," Joshua told everyone. "I've got to fly some woman named Saleena up to the Runner." "Have you pissed Peenk off?" Melenie asked with a laugh. "What do you mean?" Joshua asked as he gave the woman a puzzled look. "You've never heard of Saleena?" She asked in disbelief. "She was Peenk's only real rival when she was still modelling. Arrogant like you wouldn't believe! When Peenk left the business, Saleena started hiring her to fly her places so she could rub her success in Peenk's face. Peenk finds it funny. You see, Saleena thinks that the Runner is all the woman's got. She doesn't know that she's as good a business woman as her mother Magenta. She has businesses all around the galaxy. Peenk and her sister Emerald are Mama Montal's only kids who don't work for her." "No," Dayvid said, interrupting his wife. "Don't forget Ivory." Kirk raised his right eyebrow. "I've never heard her mention any daughters named Emerald or Ivory." "That's because she had a falling out with Emerald when she took one of Magenta's best friends to Ryloth to stand trial for war crimes commited back during the Clone War. You see, she's a bounty hunter. And Magenta didn't like what she did. She liked it even less when she found out the Twi'Leks executed him for his war crimes." "What did he do?" "Just look up Yanas Rikart on line," Kinsie shook her head. "You'll hate the man as much as we did. He truly deserved to die." "And what about this Ivory?" "Oh she's married to the Empire's ambassador to the Republic," Morss said. "No Dayvid," Melenie cut in with a grin. "He's not the Ambassador. He's the man sent to negotiate the Alliance's surrender to the Empire." "Talk about being delusional!" Joshua stood dumbfounded for a second before shaking his head. "Well, I've got to go," Looking at Dobba, he continued. "I'm looking forward to those drinks and meeting your wife," He then left, followed by MU-SO 1. "The boy's not that bad when he's not tearing the place apart." Melenie said as she turned to her husband. "Yeah. But that's some spooky stuff seeing a Human speak Shriiwook," Jerking his head to her office door he whispered in her ear. "You want to get back to what we were doing before we were interrupted?" "And we'll lock the door this time." Saleena entered the docking bay with her head of security, Max Uriss. The Mazuran's eyes had quickly scanned the enclosure when they'd entered. He saw the tell tale signs of the battle his contact in port security had told him about. But the Long Distance Runner was not there. In it's place sat a red and silver Stinger. A look of disgust crossed Saleena's beautiful face. "I hate flying in that thing. The seats feel like stone." Melee Orinie stepped from behind the Stinger in her sailor suit, a smile on her face. Saleena grinned. She really liked Melee. The girl made even the most mundane things seem like fun. And she was a great slicer too. She'd been the one who'd found out that her former head of security was embezzling money from her. "Oh, don't worry about the seats," She told the woman. "They've been reupholstered in genuine Wampa leather." "So Peenk broke down and did something about them finally?" Melee shook her head. "No, the new guy did it on his own." "There's a new man working on the Runner?" She asked. "Has Mama found out about him yet?" "Yes, she found out about me," Max spun around. Standing before him was a Human male in his mid teens. He'd not heard the human walk up behind them. With him was a droid unlike any he'd ever seen, and he hadn't heard it either. With a slight bow, he introduced himself. "I am Joshua Kirk. Peenk asked me to fly you up to the Runner. She wanted to leave last night before there was anymore trouble." "Yes," Max said. "I heard about what happened here. That port security caught the Vrick gang outside your docking bay." "Who was lying to you?" Melee said, coming back around the stern. "Those clowns only show up after business has been taken care of. Then they shoot you with stunners!" "We'll talk to Dobba about it when we see him," Joshua stepped up and put a hand on her shoulder. "And Mu-So was able to fix his arm. He's one happy Wookiee." "What happened to his arm?" Max asked. "Joshua broke it when they were fighting yesterday," Melee said. Max and Saleena stood in amazed silence at what the girl had said. Joshua stopped and turned to the girl. "Melee, get in the ship, please." Melee rolled her eyes and ran up the steps, followed by Saleena, Max, MU-SO, and last of all, Kirk. Melee was already in her seat, starting the engines. Joshua saw to it their guests were in their seats before he sat in the pilots seat. He was reaching for the controls when the pain hit him. Pain so severe that he couldn't focus his eyes. "Melee?" "Yeah, Joshua?" "Fly us back to the ship." She spun around to face him. "Are you ok, Josh?" "The pain centers of my brain are coming back on line automatically," He mumbled as he shook his head, his hands shaking. "I left them off too long. Yesterday has caught up with me," he said before he passed out. An angry Peenk Montal stepped through the medbay doors. Saleena, Max and the entire crew of the Runner stood outside waiting for word of Joshua's condition. Standing in the doorway she pointed at him as he lay on his stomach while the medical droids worked on him, his back nothing but one large bruise. "Look at that idiot!" Peenk fumed. "He's lucky to be alive. Mu-So 1 says he has eight broken ribs and a cracked skull." Joshua turned his head to them. "Bah! Tis but a scratch!" "Scratch?" Peenk shouted back over her shoulder. "I've had worse!" Melee, Baby, and Ano peered past Peenk and giggled. "Hey Josh!" Melee shouted. "Yeah?" "Where'd you get that scar on your back side?" Peenk turned to find that the droids had him fully disrobed now. "Alright you three," She growled spinning back around. "Go on! To the bridge." They ran up the passage laughing about seeing Joshua's backside, quickly followed by Zell. "So it's true then?" Max asked Peenk. "He fought a Wookiee?" "And look at him now, what a moron!" With that she stormed up the passage. Joshua, still lying on the bed waved his right arm around and sang. "I think she likes me." Mulk laughed. "I want some of what they gave him." "He's definitely feeling no pain, Buir," He said, using the Mandalorian word for parent. Joshua then started singing a song called Rose Of Cimarron. Everyone in the passage stopped talking while he sang, repulsed by his voice. "I guess we just found something he can't do." Magenta said as she shook her head. "Yeah," Kinna said. "Staying out of trouble is another." "And staying out of all your beds," Lele said, laughing as she herded her family to the stern to get the ship ready for the first leg of their trip, before entering her medbay. Not anymore," Seesha said as she did the same for the others. Only she took them to the bridge. When they got there, Baby was dancing to Joshua's singing as it came over the intercom, while Zell watched. After a while the singing ended. but still Baby danced and Zell watched. Soon Joshua danced up the passage, boots in one hand, his leather shirt in the other. Stopping at Peenk's cabin, he opened the door. Peenk could be heard uttering obscenities at Joshua, a boot narrowly missing his head. The man only laughed, and continued on his way to the Rat's Nest. When he got there he chuckled and turned to everyone on the bridge. "I saw her butt!" He then dropped through the hatch. They all laughed except Mulk who grimaced as he heard Joshua hit the deck on the other side. Kinna and Metla looked at each other briefly. They knew that what they saw was just an act, that he was in fact, heart broken. "I think I'll go check on the boy," Mulk said softly. Mulk found Joshua in his lounger, softly singing the song again. But this time his voice was flawless. "You ok now?" "Sure," He said as he looked up. "I'll hurt for a couple days though. I just wish I could use pain medication like the rest of you people." "I thought you were on some already?" "Nope! Pain does funny things to my head. And unfortunately, stunners seem to cause me a lot of pain." "Wait! Do you think it might do the same to Melee?" "Melee!" Joshua jerked his head up. "She got hit multiple times yesterday, didn't she?" Mulk told Joshua what happened while he was still unconscious the night before. "I wish I could help," Joshua said "But they did not give these girls the ability to block pain." "Oh," Mulk whispered. "It breaks my heart to see that poor girl hurt this badly."