As always, thank you for all your support. This was one of my favorite renders. Joshua was doing his morning excersize routine when he saw the light flash to let him know he was recieving a call. Decellerating, he activated his comlink. "Kirk here." "Stefan here, Mr Ambassador. I'm calling to let you know that you have a visitor on her way in. Her name is Tel'Mar, and she's a Twi'lek. She's one of the Vice President's personal assistants," Magenta's head of security hesitated for a moment. "Sir, have you been doing any research on the Jedi and Sith?" "Yes, why?" "Miss Erlin Tel'Mar is covered in Sith tattoos. It was done to her by her former owners. You see she was once the slave of a pair of Sith cultists, and they had her tattooed. They also had her eye color permanently changed to amber." Kirk swore vehemently under his breath. "Yes sir, that's how I feel about it. But she's risen above that now. I just called to give you a heads up. That way you'll know what to expect. You can also turn the air up. We don't want you being attacked by her. Force knows you're weak when it comes to women," Stefan said with a laugh. "That's behind me now. I'll have you know, Peenk has cut me off from all other women." "Will you be able to handle having just one woman?" "One!" Kirk said with a laugh. "You're forgetting, our lovely Cerinian Jedi has staked a claim to me as well! I think Peenk is going to have a hard time telling her it's hands off." "I think I have nothing further to say on this subject," Stefan said with a low laugh. "I'll just leave you in the company of the lovely Tel'Mar." "Is there such a thing as an ugly Twi'lek woman?" Kirk asked. "Not that I've ever seen, sir," Stefan replied before ending his call. Joshua turned the air conditioning to maximum and resumed his exersize. A few minutes later, a droid let the woman into the gym. Joshua saw that, indeed, she was covered in Sith tattoos. Tel'mar entered the gymnaseum when the protocol droid opened the door. The only person in the large room was Joshua Kirk, the man she came to see. She stared in stunned silence as the man did a series of martial arts maneuvers. But he did them while accellerated. She'd seen holos of some of the girls from the Imperial program while under accelleration. But it was much different seeing it in person. After a few seconds he stopped and waved her over. "You must be Tel'Mar," He said with a smile. "I'm Joshua Kirk. I would shake your hand, but I'm not wearing gloves." "Yes, one of your Federation doctors told us about your pheromones. You should bottle that stuff up and sell it," The woman said grinning. "You could make a fortune." "Well, some people have been known to do something similar," Kirk began, an expression of mild distaste on his youthful face. "They sell used protective suits. Most of us look down on this practice. Especially since it's not legal. But let's get to the reason for your visit." "Of course. The Princess wants you to know that she'll meet you at the Cerodo Navy base for a diplomatic inspection. That's where Master Skywalker sometimes parks his X-Wing when he's on Coruscant." "Ah, we'd best be careful then. I have a habit of stealing those things you know. But why did you come by? It couldn't be to tell me this. You could have just called." "Why do you think I'm here?" She asked, smiling. "You're here to meet our lovely Lethan, Baby." "Why do you say that?" "Because you scarlet hued beauties are very rare. It's not often you get to meet another. And besides, the Force tells me this." "Very good," Tel'Mar said with a smile. "But you left out another very important reason." "And what would that be?" He asked, suddenly very curious. "She's my sister." "Baby has a sister?" "She has two sisters and a brother," Tel'Mar told Joshua. "She's never told you that?" "Baby has never told anyone about her life before she was taken by the Empire," Joshua told the Twi'lek. "In fact, the only thing we know about her came from one of the false pirates that took her and the girl she was with. The trooper said that when they shot the girl's parents in front of the two of them, that they laughed." "They laughed?" She asked in shock. "Yes. So you can imagine what their lives were like." "How do you know this?" "Because I have the complete logs of Dr Gath Pok. Fifty years of his life. As well as all of his research." Tel'Mar's eyes widened. "I hope it's in a secure place, Mr Ambassador." "Right here," He said tapping the side of his head. "Where only I have access to it." "Why are you keeping it? If it was up to me, I'd destroy it all!" The tattooed woman said boldly. "No!" Kirk shot back. "Pok and Matthews made too many design improvements. Some of the things they did will fundamentally change my people." "You sound like you're talking about droids," The Twi'lek sounded repulsed. "That's how we've always talked about ourselves. We were designed after all. And we're born preprogrammed, just like droids," Joshua smiled at the tall beauty. "But that's not getting you to your sister." "No, it's not," She smiled. "Is she here?" "She'll be found with Ano and Zell Orinie at the 2nd Naval Hospital, in the special section. Just tell one of the doctors I said to let you in," Before Joshua could tell her more, Stefan called in again. "Sir, I have a caller asking for any of the Orinies. Said she's their sister, Xin." "I thought you people had a secure comm system?" Kirk joked with the Montal Corporation's security chief. Tel'Mar waved to the Human and left for the exit. "Yes sir, very secure. But if this is one of the Orinie kids, then nothing is secure from her." "Too true. Put her through then," Kirk chirped. "Hello, Joshua Kirk here. How may I help you?" "Hello?" A confused sounding voice said. "I'm Xin Orinie, and I'm looking for my family. I saw some of them on the holonet on the bridge of Peenk Montal's ship. Do you know where I can find them?" "Yes. In fact I was getting ready to go see them." "Can I come with you?" She blurted out. "Yeah, sure. Where are you?" Kirk asked. "I'm at the med clinic of the spaceport in north CoCo District," Joshua brought up the maps of Coruscant. "I can be there in about ten minutes." "Aaaah, you might want to bring friends," The voice said nervously. "I kinda have some people after me." "What kind of people?" Kirk demanded. "They're good people, but very dangerous. So you might want to bring some friends." "Understood. I'll see you in about half an hour, then." Sergeant Qindur Shoru watched the door of the clinic where the deserter Xin Orinie hid. They'd detected her attempts to call the compound that housed the Montal family and were able to follow the signal back here. And so for the last two hours he'd lain under a maintenance platform, waiting for her to leave so they could snatch her up and take her back to base. Most people would have chafed at the boredom, but Shoru was a Republic Marine, and that meant that he was ready to wait till the end of the universe to accomplish his mission. The young man felt something touching his right ear and swatted at it. But he froze when his fingers hit something hard. Slowly turning his head, he found himself staring into the brown eyes of an unidentified human male teen, wearing black armor. Holding a blaster to his head, he smiled. "Hi. How ya doin'?" He asked. "You sir, are very stealthy," The Marine said in admiration of the teen's ability to crawl along the ground in his armor and not be heard by his enhanced senses. He then smiled back at him. "But let's see how fast you are," Shoru then accellerated to combat speed. But to his surprise, the kid was even faster. Not just faster, but much stronger. He quickly found himself disarmed, and on his back, the blaster still pointed at his head. "Come with me," He said in a jovial manner. "I'm going to lock you up with your three buds. Then I'm going to escort Xin Orinie to the Embassy of the United Federation of Planets. There, she will be placed under our protection." Xin Orinie smiled as she saw Joshua enter the spaceport clinic. He was the boy she'd seen on the holonet wrestling a Wookiee on Doroub, and later slaughtering a small army of slavers and mercenaries. He was much cuter in person. "You're shorter than I expected," She said. The man spun around and walked for the door. "Just come with me!" He growled testily. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you angry," She said as she ran after him. "It's just I figured a guy who can fight a Wookiee would be taller," She smiled at him. "But if it's any consolation, I think you're a real hottie." "Listen!" The man said, stopping to stare at her. "I've had thirty years to get used to the fact that I'm short. The reason I'm pissed off is that you are a deserter! And I had to humiliate four of your fellow Marines who were outside waiting for you." "They're here?" Xin asked as she glanced about the cargo floor. "Yes! And you are also going to tell me about this super soldier program you're part of," Kirk said, still staring at her. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not part of any program," Xin said. The man took a step in her direction. "One of those men attempted to attack me while under accelleration. And I can smell your pheromones! Now tell me about this program." "OK, I'll tell you," Xin said nervously. "A group of officers in the military and intelligence are getting money from some senators. The short term goal of the project was to create commandos. Then, eventually, most of the military will be made of people like us. It was started about two years ago. Just after the escape of the Empire's super assassins. They aquired the knowledge of how to do this from one of the scientists involved in the Imperial program." "Now please," The bald girl pleaded. "Take me to my family. I saw you on the holonet with Zell and one of my sisters. Take me to them." "Sure, let's go," Joshua's face softened as he continued to talk. "But you should know, both your sisters were there as Baby danced for your brother," He glanced at Xin. "Ano and Baby were both a part of the Empire's super soldier program. And Melee was one of the assassins. But don't call her one. I'll take you to get something to wear. Then I'll take you to the 2nd Naval Hospital. Ano and Zell are supposed to be there visiting Melee." "I have a duffle bag with my gear in a locker nearby." "Well then, let's get your gear, Xin Orinie," The girl led the way till they found the locker and she pulled out a dufflebag and dropped it on the floor with a loud metalic clunk. Hefting it over her shoulder, they left for the speeders that Kirk had borrowed. "Why is my sister in the hospital?" Xin asked before biting her lip nervously. "Don't worry," Kirk reassured her. "She'll be fine. Now tell me why you deserted." "Because I joined the program to become a commando, not a mother." "They were going to breed you?" Kirk asked quickly as he spun about.