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Life anew	By : Grayscrunchie Category: +S through Z > Star Wars Rebels Views: 10543 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars Rebels or the characters in it. I make no money from my fanfiction stories.

Chapter List
- 1-Life anew
- 1
"Zeb, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Hera called to the big lasat as he tromped past the doorway to the Ghost’s cockpit.
"Right now?" The lasat’s round eyes darted nervously as he tried to juggle an ancient plasma torch and battered box of tools. "I was gonna go up top and do some welding. A couple a’ bolts have worked their way out of the atmosphere sensor brackets and one of the floodlight bezels is cracked."
"You don’t have to worry about it right now. Come in and sit down. And close the door will you?"
Now Zeb was really nervous. He approached the twi’lek pilot, a contrite look on his face.
"Look, putting a sleeping boy’s hand in warm water to see if he’ll piss is a prank all of us guys pull! My cousin did it to me!"
Hera palmed her face and sighed. "No, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about. You owe Ezra for that though. Do his chores. Something."
"Great. I owe him again."
"Garazeb . . ."
"Oh, all right."
"Thank you. Now, what I want to discuss with you is sort of personal. That’s why I had you shut the door. I know sometimes you’re shy when it comes to certain things."
Zeb put down the tools and hunkered in his usual spot. He put his hands on his knees and shifted his eyes to look around the cockpit. He didn’t see Chopper. Kanan and Sabine were somewhere outside, endeavoring to advance Ezra’s jedi education. He was all alone with Hera. His spine tingled from neck to tail stump. Was she coming on to him? The thought was strange and disturbing and yet . . . somewhat arousing. No! That wasn’t right. Hera was like a mother to him. A jade-skinned, lush-lipped, sparkling-eyed mother. Zeb crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back, his thick lower lip curved up into a smug grin.
"Heh, heh, I’m not shy. You can talk to me about anything. ANYTHING."
Hera heard the lascivious inflection in his voice and tried her hardest not to laugh. Oh Zeb, when are you going to grow up?
"Alright. Have you heard of a procedure called artificial insemination? Or in-vitro fertilization for that matter?"
The purple alien frowned. He hadn’t expected the conversation to take such an odd turn.
" Uh, they both sound familiar. Aren’t those ways some people conceive children, and how zoo keepers breed rare animals for their collections?"
"Yes! Zoo keepers often use these methods to preserve rare or critically endangered species. They even keep frozen sperm on hand for use."
"Are we going into the animal breeding business, Hera?"
The twi’lek woman took a deep breath. "No. Let me explain. I received a transmission from a party on a distant moon. The moon is called Yavin Four, one of three satellites orbiting the gas giant Yavin. This party is allied with—"
"Let me guess." Zeb closed his eyes and put two fingers and a thumb to his forehead, the way Kanan did when trying to tap into the force. "Fulcrum. Er, the rebels."
"That they are."
"So they’re the ones breeding animals? I’m lost here."
"No Zeb, They’re breeding lasats."
Zeb jumped up. He stood high on his prehensile toes, a full seven feet. His beard was bristling and a sharp-toothed grimace had replaced his flirtatious grin. "What?! What do you mean breeding them? Of all the—I want to see my people! And I want to talk to the ones responsible for treating them like . . . like animals!"
Hera came out of her seat and approached the furious lasat. She clapped her hands down on his massive arms and squeezed hard. The scent of his anger almost knocked her out. "Calm down, Zeb! Blast it, I should have known you’d take it like this."
" Take it like this? How else should I take it?"
"It’s not the mad scientist scenario you’re imagining. This party the rebels are allied with is a counter-Imperial group called LYFE. Lasan-Yavin refugees Fighting Extinction. It’s a group of your own people, Zeb."
"My people? They’re the ones doing the . . . ?"
"Yes, an entire team of medical experts. They’ve devoted themselves to bringing the lasats back from the brink of death. Besides finding females willing to give birth to cubs, they search for males who can provide them with fresh DNA in order to avoid what is known as a ‘genetic bottleneck’."
Zeb crept back into his seat. "Wot’s that?"
"Mm. Ahsoka explained it better than I can, but the way I understand it, it’s when too many similar genes start entering a population. They make it weak and unable to resist disease. One sickness, a pox for example, could wipe it out. Anyway, I was put in contact with a Doctor Nyree Coya at LYFE. I told her I had a young, healthy male on my crew, and since male lasats are especially rare, she is very interested in meeting you."
"You could have asked me before you talked to a doctor." Zeb looked away. He felt embarrassed and somewhat betrayed.
Hera stared at the purple-striped alien, her mouth a firm line. "I could have, but I thought you would jump at the chance to do the right thing."
"The right thing? You’re asking me to mate with a collection cup!"
" No. I’m asking you to mate with a vacuum-controlled artificial vagina."
"What?" Zeb was horrified. Did she just say vagina? Why were twi’leks so cursed uninhibited when it came to sex?
"That’s what they use to collect the semen."
There she goes again. His face flushed a deeper purple.
"I’d be fathering children I’d never see! Never know. That goes against my principles as an honor guard, Hera."
The twi’lek woman crossed her arms. "Fair enough. I suppose I can understand that. I won’t pester you about it any longer, but . . ."
"But?"
"Could you just, think about it for a night? Really think about it? I’ll contact LYFE first thing in the morning and give them your answer."
"Sure. I’ll think about it." Zeb rose and opened the door to the cockpit. Suddenly nothing in the world sounded more exciting than welding together pieces of the Ghost.
"Oh, Zeb—"
"What?"
"You might want to hide those pornography statics you have laying around your room. If you decide you want to help out with the cause, you shouldn’t masturbate. That’s what the doctor said, anyway."

*****

The crew sat down to a simple dinner in the Ghost’s common room.
"We’re going where for what?" Ezra played with his plate of mashed kulrops and gravy, flecked here and there with bits of dried yellow meat of unidentifiable origin.
"We’re going to Yavin-Four so Zeb can meet up with some of his people and leave them a genetic sample."
"A genetic sample? Like a blood sample? For records or something?"
"Something like that." Hera said, smiling at Kanan who accepted a sliced jogan fruit she offered him.
Zeb pushed his fork back and forth through his own kulrops, making a mess and eating none of them. Sabine watched him work his artistry. A concerned look flashed across her pixie-ish face.
"What’s the matter big guy? Not hungry? I’ve never seen you refuse food. You’re not called the Ghost’s garbage disposal for nothing."
"Not funny."
"It’s true Zeb." Ezra chimed in. "You eat things a starving Loth-wolf wouldn’t. Aren’t you excited to see your people?"
"Of course I am."
"Sure don’t act like it."
The lasat sighed and pushed his plate across the dejarik table. "I’m gonna take a nap. Let me know when we get there, will ya, kid?"
The Ghost came out of light speed over an emerald moon shrouded in a caul of diaphanous mist. Yavin-Four’s enormous mother and two sisters sat in orbit above and below. Hera called her crew into the cockpit.
"There she is."
"Ooh, pretty." Sabine crooned. "Looks like your eyes, Zeb."
" Heh. Not when he first wakes up." Ezra pointed over his shoulder at the woken lasat. His eyes were pinched and bleary. Kanan thumped Zeb on the back.
"Well, let’s not sit up here in orbit and stare. Let’s get our friend down there so he can do his duty for Lasan."
Zeb cringed. "Honestly, Kanan, I’m not in the mood to do my duty."
" Eh. When you get around all those females, your mood will change."
Ezra leaned up against Chopper. "I’ve never seen someone so nervous about a blood sample."
"Wao wao wop wao whuuuuh."
The boy turned to Sabine. "What did he say?"
"I think he said you’re an idiot."
Hera pushed the steering yoke down and the Ghost made a gentle plunge toward the green sphere. She leaned in to check her nav-computer.
" Planetary coordinates set. Let’s see where in this jungle these LYFE people are hiding."
At the back of the cockpit, Zeb gazed out the viewport, his stoic face baleful.
"You’re sure the Empire doesn’t pay this rock any visits?"
Hera turned in her seat. " They haven’t shown much interest. Not in the moons anyway. Too wild and wooly for their taste I suppose. Don’t worry Zeb, your people have themselves well hidden here."
They flew over the tops of tall trees, pointing and shouting when explosions of colorful avian creatures burst out from under the green canopy. Black canyons embraced white-water rivers, and pockets of ferny moors surrendered to the shade of young trees, whose much larger parents loomed tall and oppressive behind them. Jagged mountain ridges jutted high into the air, revealing the occasional smoldering volcano. The Ghost crew continued on until they found themselves flying over what appeared to be the most densely forested part of the moon. Hera frowned down at her computer.
"According to this, the contact site is right down there, by that cliff coming out of the trees."
"Where are you supposed to land?" Kanan asked, incredulous.
Chopper, sitting beside the man’s knee, began to flail his arms and shudder.
"Wopp wopp whuk whaaa naaa!"
Hera laughed. "I know Chop. It’s a doozy. But it beats outmaneuvering TIE’s and asteroids any day." She tapped her chin. "See that clear patch of land down there?"
"The one about the size of the Ghost? Yes we see it." Sabine laughed.
"That’s our spot."
Zeb’s eyes went round. "Easy, Hera. I’m a precious commodity, remember?"
"Yes, Zeb. To no one more than us."
" I bet Kanan and I could land the Ghost on that with the force." Ezra said helpfully.
"Oh crew of little faith." Hera shook her head and her lekku swayed gently from side to side. "Don’t worry. I’ve got this."
While the others held their breaths, Hera lowered her hovering freighter down toward the tops of the trees. She played with the thrusters and edged closer to the surface of the cliff. An alarm in the cockpit’s control panel beeped an obnoxious warning.
"Shoosh." Hera said, switching it off. The ship performed a drunken moth dance in front of the cliff, dipping forward and back and yawing from side to side. Chopper tweedled a warning of his own when a protruding escarpment threatened to take out the ship’s nose turret viewport. Hera engaged the forward thruster, a gentle nudge, and the Ghost drifted a hairbreadth backward toward the tree line. The ship yawed again, then rose up onto her nose—causing her passengers to shout in protest—and once making it past the prominence, leveled out again. With a hydraulic moan the freighter settled down on Yavin-Four’s warm firmament, her bubble-like viewport only two standard feet away from the cliff’s rocky face. Everyone, save Chopper and Zeb, let out exclamations of joy and relief. Hera turned, a triumphant look on her face.
"That was awesome Hera! Sabine came out of her seat and hugged the twi’lek around the neck.
"And now to contact our friends at LYFE."
Zeb snorted. "No offense, but this doesn’t look very much like a medical facility. I think you got some bad intel. We’re deep in the wilderness."
Hera ignored the grumpy lasat. He had been doing nothing but griping and worrying the entire trip. Of course, she could understand his trepidation, to a certain extent. She opened communication, using the safe-channel Ahsoka had given her.
"LYFE medical center staff, this is Hera Syndulla, captain of the Corellian light freighter Ghost. I have delivered the male lasat Doctor Coya requested for service. Do you copy?"
The communicator spat static.
"And here we go . . ." Zeb paced the floor of the ship like an agitated predator. Hera held up her hand to silence him.
"LYFE medical center staff, I repeat, this is Hera Syndulla, captain of the Corellian light freighter Ghost. The doctor is expecting this delivery. I don’t want to disappoint her."
Again nothing. They waited, and waited some more.
Zeb seethed. "I should have known this was nothing but a waste of time. A fella gets used to the idea of seeing his people again after so long and then bam!" he punched the bulkhead. "It explodes in his face like a cube of detonite! KARABAST!"
White noise hissed inside the communicator. Woven within the pops and crackles was what sounded like parts of an alien language.
Kanan motioned to Hera with a wave of his hand. He lowered his voice. "I’ve got an idea. Let Zeb try. In I’lasano."
"I thought lasats spoke basic common?"
"They do, but most of them have retained their mother language."
Zeb’s brows collapsed over his eyes. He looked like a scared child. A massive, seven-foot-tall child. "Wot do you want me to say?"
"Just ask if anyone is home."
Zeb approached the console communicator. "There are three forms of I’lasano. Here’s to hoping I get someone who understands my dialect." He licked his lips.
"Ekdu! Ahchakmo fe nagkk’tewe?"
" . . . . . . . . . Molo pe. Darn amee?"
Sabine and Ezra slapped their palms together in the air. Kanan and Hera smiled. Chopper simply groaned. Another Zeb?
"Ve amee Garazeb Orellios. Crux’a milla n’wev pos Jamuhkkllo. Itos oam cranso yil mopp, purra baklannd Maadliik. Armurr tai fe fechkin Trodd. Outsun’wev."
"Ah, simday, simday. Ke aglua yur po’denz. Ha! Ve amee Jejocgar Sardikez."
"Ah, yil dala. Komva foug aqutankar."
"Darn amee ship posu? Ghosst?"
"Ereh. Ghost. Riuuth."
" . . . Faz’eechkin kara mod ma mod."
Zeb switched off the outgoing communications. He had a smile on his face wider than a nebula. " Hey Hera, he says only an insane person would give their ship such an ominous name."
The twi’lek bit her tongue. "That’s . . . hilarious. Say, I know you’re having a good time and all, but do you think you can get your new friend to show us where the med-center is?"
"Oh, yeah." He turned the two-way back on.
"Cyo fek rhod ?"
"Rrod beso. Tamulk maj pala’zekan . . ."
"He says we’re here."
"That’s impossible." Hera craned her neck and looked up at the craggy cliff.
"Actually, no." Kanan was sitting with his hands in his lap, palms facing up. His eyes moved beneath closed lids. "There are many life forms just below us."
Ezra had been meditating too, and the affirmative nod of his head confirmed that Kanan’s statement was correct.
"He’s right. There’s a lot of activity down there."
Just as he said it, the cliff face began to vibrate. Small bits of black rubble avalanched from above, creating dusty, cone-shaped piles in front of the resting ship. An enormous ingress made of false rock— large enough to admit a small battleship— yawned open with clangorous, grinding-gear squeals.
"Koken."
"He said come in." Zeb told Hera.
She looked at the dark, cavernous maw in the cliff, not-so-distant memories of Fort Anaxes sending shivers up her spine. She flicked on the Ghost’s floodlights, illuminating the front of the cavern’s vast interior, then activated the repulsion system and cruised forward into the dripping bowels of Yavin-Four’s interior. No sooner than they cleared the door, it rumbled to a close, enveloping the freighter in stygian blackness. A leathery-winged something dashed in front of the cockpit viewport and skirled away on one of the floodlight beams.
"This is getting interesting." Sabine said, lowering her hands to caress her twin Westar pistols.
"If by interesting you mean a set-up . . ." Ezra went for his gun-saber.
"Calm down you two." Hera, voice of reason, said over her shoulder.
A lighted pathway blinked into existence in front of the Ghost. At the far end of it, a being approached. The baldheaded, pointy eared being, clad in a long, red coat and matching knee-length pants, limped into view. He was an elder, and clutched a walking stick for balance, but there was something noble about him despite his carriage. Neatly pomaded jaw fringes hung down past his shoulders and the beard on his chin, which was snowy white, was fashioned into an intricate web of braids.
Zeb pressed his big hands against the viewport. "Great Punishers, it really is a lasat!"
"Let’s go meet him." Hera stood, put her hands on the small of her back and cracked the weariness out of it. She extended the Ghost’s ramp and together the crew jogged down it. The interior of the cave smelled like damp rock and fungi and various other organic compounds. Zeb trotted toward the older male and stopped just short of him. He stared down at him with shimmering eyes.
"It’s all right, son of Lasan." The elder spoke in a tenuous, finely accented voice. "I can assure you I’m not a Bluewraith. I just spoke to you a few moments ago. I am Jejocgar Sardikez, administrator of this center."
Zeb took another step and held up his hand. The old male extended his and placed it in the younger’s. They then crossed wrists. Tears of disbelief welled in Zeb’s eyes when he realized he was touching a living, breathing, fellow citizen of his former world.
"I recognize your name now." His deep voice cracked. "You’re the magistrate of Nor-continent!"
A small laugh hitched in Jejocgar’s throat."Was. I no longer associate myself with the title. On the last day of the extermination, when the palace walls were coming down, I pleaded with the guards to let me stay. I told them to give my seat on the escape transport to someone younger, someone with many years yet to live, but they wouldn’t hear of it and shot an entire ship full of old white-beards like myself into space. So here I am, alive." The old male thumped his thin chest. "I felt enormous guilt for surviving, and wanted nothing more than to spend the remainder of my years in comfortable seclusion, dulling my pain with memory suppressing drugs until dementia set in. One day, after attending a clandestine anti-empire rally and washing down some pills with a good amount of Vaschean rye, I had an epiphany. It was time to stop feeling sorry for myself and start helping people. Luckily, while on Lasan I had been clever enough to stash my monies in a string of off-word banks, and since I wanted nothing more than to stick it to the Emperor and his cronies, I donated a great deal of it to the rebel cause."
Jejocgar paused to look at the Ghost’s motley crew.
"They are life savers aren’t they? Your friends?"
Zeb nodded. "Yeah. ‘Specially Kanan. We have a lot in common."
"I have a good friend in Bail Organa. His talks inspired me. I still remember the night I jokingly told Bail I wanted to build a lasat breeding facility. We both laughed a bit, then we just stared at each other, dumbfounded by the realization that it might actually be possible. Ahsoka Tano was the one to suggest this moon." The old male smiled a nearly-toothless smile. He opened his arms. "Welcome to LYFE. Our second chance."
"Our second chance." Zeb echoed Jejocgar’s words.
"I’ve tried everything to make visitors here feel comfortable, but I must warn you, the center comes as quite a shock to a lasat who hasn’t seen his kind since, well, you know."
"Yeah, I know."
The rest of the crew, save Chopper, who opted to power down on the Ghost and take a droid version of a nap, approached Zeb and the administrator. After formal introductions were made the elder lasat looked at Hera and dipped his hoary chin.
"Captain Syndulla, I apologize for the silent treatment. We are very cautious here. Once I heard the voice of a fellow lasat . . ."
"It’s all right, administrator. I can understand your reluctance."
" I appreciate your understanding. Very well then, if you’ll all follow me, I’ll take you down to meet the staff. Oh, by the way, you’ll want to stay within the light strips on the walkway."
"Why’s that?" Sabine walked to the edge of the glowing path and looked out over the dark expanse of the cavern. " You got fyrnocks in here?"
"No, no." He laughed. "Nothing quite that terrifying. Silica bats. The cave floor is slick with their guano. It’s quite slippery, but we only clean it off the walkways. Now, this way please. The lift is only a few more feet."
The team was escorted to a large cargo elevator built into the floor in the middle of a natural alcove. Hera and Sabine’s boot heels clattered on the metal plating. Ezra’s feet made soft scuffing noises and Zeb lumbered aboard with all the quietude of a bantha. Kanan was as silent as only a jedi could be. The administrator flipped a hinged box on the small upright console and jabbed at the worn green button inside. They began to descend. A hexagon of white, artificial light limned the floor’s metallic edges, growing in size and brilliance as the lift sank further into the depths of the cavern. Zeb squinted. His sensitive eyes weren’t used to such an assault. When the lift came to rest—with a protesting squeal, suggesting it needed a good oiling—the team of rebels let out a collective ‘whooah.’
The vast chamber was a neat hive of permacrete and transparasteel offices and nursery wards, thoughtfully decorated and sheltered so that each gestating mother in attendance was given her privacy and a sense of home. FX-7 medical droids stood at the ready, their spindly arms folded up inside their metallic thoraxes. White-and-gray uniformed doctors discussed patient matters with nurses in faded orange scrub-type uniforms and embryologists wearing surgical masks retrieved pipettes of genetic material from steaming cold cryofreeze containers. Custodians bustled about, busy as nectarpedes keeping the center spotless. Everyone in the LYFE center, with the exception of two Humans, a red-eyed blue Chiss and a Togruta, were Lasats.
Zeb swallowed down a strong wave of emotion, and Kanan turned to look at the big alien, feeling his friend’s bittersweet struggle through the force. Meeting the old male back at the Ghost was hard enough, but this, this was enough to trigger a traumatic response.
How can this be? I watched them die. I saw the dead! All around me . . . in every home and in the streets. I saw the twisted shadows of their bodies. Grease stains and ash, blackening the ground. So many dead . . .
He watched as heads turned, saw wide, jewel-toned eyes training on him. He couldn’t breathe.
Kanan took hold of his huge mitt and gave it a squeeze.
No, not dead. So many alive. Feel their hearts beating, Zeb. Listen to the sound of the air rushing in and out of their lungs.
The big lasat closed his eyes and listened, and took a breath of his own. When he opened them, he saw that the med-center employees were still staring, but where before he felt an overwhelming, constricting sense of dread, he now only felt a tinge of embarrassment.
"You ok?" Ezra asked.
" I—I think so."
The old lasat Jejocgar was patient and kind. He had seen this response in a few visitors before, and so gave each of them their own required time to adjust.
"Wow Zeb, look at all the different lasats!" Sabine was excited to say the least. "Shaggy brown ones, cream-colored ones, red-and-tan striped ! Even calicos! I didn’t realize you guys were like humans and twi’leks and came in so many different colors!"
"I can’t believe I forgot to mention it."
Ezra coughed. " I’m surprised, considering all the time you two spend together."
"That’s enough, kids." Hera said in a warning tone. "We don’t want to wear out our welcome."
"Oh, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that." Kanan motioned to Zeb’s bo-rifle and then to the gawking crowd. "It appears we’re in the presence of a celebrity. You get many honor-guards in here, Jejocgar?"
The old male shook his head. "Alas no. Not many. I fear there are very few left."
Zeb saw more female staff now where before he had only seen a few. Nurses jammed into flocks, their large, pointed ears twitching as they cast sideways glances with eyes as wide as saucers. Tails, long and short, whipped excitedly back and forth. A pair of heavily-pregnant patients, their hands wedged into the crooks of their backs, gawked at Zeb from behind a transparasteel window. One made a measure larger than a foot-span in the air with her hands and they both laughed.
"Gahhh, I feel like a piece of meat." Zeb said, becoming more and more aware of his form-fitting combat suit, and the eyes perusing it.
Jejocgar led them across the bay to med-station five and rapped on the inside of a polished wood door decorated with numerous static shots of newborn lasat cubs, some with their umbilical cords still attached. Hera pointed to one cub and gasped. She pressed her hand to her breast, right above her heart.
"Oh, Kanan, look . . . Isn’t he darling?"
"Adorable. Don’t get any funny ideas."
She elbowed him hard in the ribs.
Ezra looked at the little boy with his enormous ears and eyes and tiny snub nose and laughed. "Hey Zeb, this one’s cute, what happened to you?"
"I’ll show you cute, you Loth-rat. I’ll rearrange yer face for ya." Zeb hissed under his breath.
"Dr. Coya?" Jejocgar called. "May I have a moment of your time?"
"I’m afraid that’s something I don’t have right now, administrator." Came a cool feminine reply. "I just delivered a very difficult cub. A right sacrotransverse presentation. Her leg was twisted in the birth canal and I had a demon of a time taking her through abdominal incision. The mother and child are doing well, but I want to input this data on them. You know how I am about my records."
"Yes, doctor. I know very well. I just thought you would like to say hello to Hera Syndulla and her crew.
Sooty-grey ears perked up on the sides of a smooth-furred, striped purple head. "Did Miss Syndulla’s lasat crew member finally capitulate?"
Zeb’s face turned stony. He growled and crossed his arms over his brawny chest. "I thought I was s’posed to do that here, doctor."
She turned in her chair and looked up at him. Her breath caught in her throat. Hera hadn’t mentioned how handsome a specimen he was, but perhaps, being a twi’lek, she hadn’t any idea. He was tall and broad bodied, with leaf-green eyes, symmetrical striping and arms the diameter of tank cannons. His beard and jaw fringes were coming in nicely, his teeth were straight and white and he had an attractive bony poll at the top of his skull. Yes, this new male’s genetic material would be a welcome contribution, providing his tests showed that he was free of disease and congenital defects, that was. Dr. Coya rose from her chair and strode up to him. Zeb cocked his head, studying her every movement, and he could feel the magnetic pull of her eyes on his body. She was athletic and attractive, with golden eyes and a pale lavender coat like his own. Her skull was round instead of peaked, as most female lasats skulls were, and her four-toed feet were small and sensuous. How many months— years—had it been since he had seen a female of his own kind? His slot nostrils flared when he took an intake breath. He tried to catch a trace of her scent without appearing obvious.
"Greetings, son of Lasan." The doctor raised her hand and Zeb’s enormous paw dwarfed it. They crossed wrists, but avoided looking into each other’s eyes."Welcome to LYFE. I assume you’ve been briefed on what goes on here?"
The doctor’s cool, no-nonsense voice snuffed out the spark of desire which had suddenly ignited in Zeb’s loins.
" Er, yeah. Hera gave me the basic rundown. I was a little squeamish at first, but she made me see the bigger picture."
"Good woman."
Hera bowed her head.
Dr. Coya looked down. Her eyes grazed the crotch of Zeb’s combat suit.
"Hmm. This garment you’re wearing, you’ll need to get out of it right away." She pivoted on her gecko-like toe-tips, padded over to a metal wardrobe and brought out a clear, sealed bag filled with crimped beige material. "Go into the fresher and put this on. Your poor gonads are probably screaming for some cool air."
At this, Sabine and Ezra giggled and snickered. The doctor regarded them in the same no-nonsense manner.
"Children," she said it as an insult. "there is nothing funny about heat-damaged spermatozoa. Not in this place anyway."
Kanan tried to keep a straight face as he watched his humiliated friend skulk away to the fresher to change. When Zeb returned, Ezra couldn’t help himself. He slapped his knees and laughed until his sides ached.
"I. . . can’t even. I can’t even look at him! He’s wearing a SKIRT!"
"IT IS NOT A SKIRT!" Zeb roared. "It’s a Lasan short-skiilt! And I look kriffin’ good in it!"
Dr. Coya covered her mouth to hide her smile. He did indeed look good in it.
"If you would be kind enough go into that examination room across the hall and input some data on yourself It would be much appreciated. My nurse Jalisa will be along soon to draw some blood and do a body scan."
Zeb scowled down at Ezra as he passed him by. He snorted like a bull reek, spattering the boy with snotty vapor. Kanan approached the doctor.
"I think you might want to wait a while before you take his blood pressure."
"Duly noted."
"If you’d like, I can show you to your quarters now." Said the administrator to the small group. "You must be tired and hungry after your journey. The jungle provides us a bounty of edible plants and game, and our cooks do a wonderful job preparing it. You’ll particularly like the runyip steak."
"Real food." Sabine put her hand to her forehead and feigned wooziness.
"Someone catch me, I’m gonna pass out!"
Kanan tugged on Hera’s sleeve as they filed out of the doctor’s office. He whispered over her earcone. "When does Zeb have to, you know?"
"Tomorrow morning, before we leave. That’s when he’s the most potent."
"I’m feeling pretty potent myself. You think I can talk the old administrator into giving us a room of our own?"
Hera arched an eyebrow. "I beat you to it."
The next morning, Zeb trudged into the cafeteria and tried to eat his breakfast of rare-cooked runyip flesh, but a group of boys crowding around the table tore his attention away from his delicious meal. They were only about twenty years old, barely out of puberty, but more than able to do their duty for their people. They jostled for attention, each one trying to speak to the big honor-guard before the other. They knew better than to touch Zeb’s bo-rifle. To do so would earn them a firm reprimand. Instead they stared at it—and him—in reverence as they asked him about the Imperial invasion of Lasan. It soon became obvious to Zeb that these youngsters were off-planet at the time, thank whichever deity they might have worshiped. At least they were spared from the horror of seeing a friend or relative melted down, atom by atom by a T-7 Ion disruptor. Zeb rubbed his eyes and yawned. When he had enough of the boys and their incessant chatter, he gave them an ‘off with you’ motion with his hands and finished his meal in peace. After swigging his tepid cup of caf, he tossed his tray on top of the waste receptacle and stood at one of the cafeteria’s big transparasteel windows to watch the early morning hustle and bustle of the medical staff. A familiar face caught his attention. In one of the medical cubbies, wearing a sleeveless white shirt which accentuated her feminine attributes, was Dr. Coya. The nurse Jalisa was there, chatting with the doctor while at the same time poking her arm with a needle-tipped syringe. Zeb frowned.
That’s odd.
It may be odd, he told himself, but it’s none of your concern. It didn’t stop him from feeling concerned, however. He checked the wall-mounted chrono and decided it was time to get back to his room for his collection. Young males were given statics of naked females to achieve climaxes. Older or more influential males were afforded the luxury of teaser females, and Zeb, being an honor-guard, would find one waiting in his room when he entered it. He strode through the med-center and caught the yellow-orange eyes of a cute young custodian with shaggy brown fur, a medium length tail and a spattering of copper freckles spanning her naso-buccal ridge. She had that rough-and tumble look which was common in most hill-folk, and Zeb imagined that she was probably a lot of fun in bed. His mind was elsewhere when he bumped into Dr. Coya.
"Sorry doctor! I didn’t see you!" He put his hand on her shoulder.
The doctor inclined her head and cupped her mouth with her hands. "Must be the clouds up there!"
Zeb laughed. "Yeah, that an’ the oxygen up here is a little thin." He looked at the female lasat’s arm where a small sterile patch had been applied. She covered it with her hand and motioned to a narrow corridor behind the kitchen with a tilt of her head.
"There’s an elevator down there. Would you like to go outside for a bit? "
"Well . . . ah, sure." The big male scratched his jaw. "Actually, all this artificial lighting is making my head hurt."
" Tell me about it. I have to get outside at least once a day or I feel like I’m going to go zozzy."
"I haven’t heard that expression in a long time." Zeb said softly. "You know, as embarrassing as this whole thing is for me, I’m going to find it hard to leave this place."
"I know." Was all she said on the subject. "Say, would you like to go climbing with me?"
"Climbing?"
"Yes. In the trees. Just for an hour or so. It’s great exercise. I’ve got my comlink with me in case one of the females starts to go into labor."
Zeb studied Doctor Coya’s form, from furry head to graceful feet. Matching her sleeveless white shirt was a white skiilt that brushed the middle of her thighs. And what thighs they were! Taut and toned, they merged into calves and hocks as shapely as the ones on the legs of the statues of the great heroines back home. He felt his cock stir within its striped sheath.
Like children cutting school classes they clipped down the corridor and took the elevator to the outside world. A couple of bored sentinels at their post stood tall when the doctor exited into the sunlight with Zeb.
"Come on, I’ll show you a quick way to the top. You’re going to be amazed by the view!" She bounded away, heading toward one particular tree with a deep lightning-strike scar.
It was amazing. All of the doctor’s icy professionalism of the day before had melted away. Amidst the trees and sky and fresh air Nyree Coya was as giddy as an adventurer setting out for the promise of hidden treasure.
Zeb loped after her.
The two lasats took to the trees like a quarren took to water. Their strong legs and grippy hands and toes propelled them upward with ease, and their keen senses helped them to avoid confrontations with troops of woolmander primates, stintarils, and other bothersome, if not interesting creatures. Dr. Coya perched on one outstretched limb and stared at a tree across from her. There was a span of fifteen feet between her and it and Zeb knew from the look on her face what she was about to propose.
"We have to cross here. Are you up to it?"
"Does a bardogg spawn in lava?"
She grinned. Bunching the muscles in her legs, the female lasat made a spectacular leap and landed gracefully on the tree’s trunk. She scrambled upward, giving Zeb the room necessary to come over. He threw himself across the green chasm, slamming into the tree’s trunk. Leaves tumbled down over their heads and frightened avians squawked from above. Hand over hand, foot over foot, they climbed straight up. Zeb couldn’t help but crane his neck to look under Dr. Coya’s skiilt. He was rewarded with tantalizing glimpses of her small purple tail and underwear-clad rear. The stark white material was tucked snugly into her intimate cleft. Surely she must have known that he could see?
As the lasats ascended, the heat of Yavin-Four’s maturing day caused them to break out in a sweat. Their damp lavender hides perfumed the air with the scent of their fresh perspiration, and each alien reacted to the other’s chemical signature, expressing their innermost thoughts and feelings without the use of a single word.
The branches and leaves thinned, and the dark-green environ soon turned a lovely yellow-y-jade punctuated here and there with dapples of saffron sunlight. Dr. Coya looked at the new-minted coins of gold dancing on the surface of Zeb’s face and she laughed. The sound was like sweet music, not at all what one would have thought a cool, no-nonsense physician’s laugh would sound like.
" The canopy’s only a bit further up. Care to accompany me to the top of the world?"
"After you." Zeb gestured with an extended hand. He watched her glide through the leaves as she made her ascent, watched her nimble, padded toes grasp limbs no thicker than her own. He chose a limb with more substance and continued to pull himself upward toward the sky, following Dr. Coya higher and higher until he could feel the intense heat of the sun on the undersides of the brilliant green leaves.
They broke through the canopy.
Zeb’s jaw hung slack at the sight of the vast rainforest’s mist-enshrouded crown. Rays of light pierced the veil in hundreds of places, throwing flocks of colorful birds and aboral mammals into full view. Above, in the blue-glass sky, a ghostly second moon loomed like a giant sentinel. The big lasat found firm footing and settled in to gaze at the beauty around him. Dr. Coya moved over to sit next to him.
"Lovely, isn’t it?"
"It really is. I can’t remember the last time I saw anything like it. Do you climb up here every morning?"
"No, but I make it a point to get into the forest as often as I can. It keeps my mind and body conditioned."
Zeb gave the doctor a furtive glance, one of many today. He couldn’t see her mind, but the aching eagerness he was feeling confirmed that her body was more than well-conditioned. He ground his back teeth, trying to keep himself focused on the beauty of the land.
". . . And the best part is—No Empire." Dr. Coya sat back in a cradle of intertwined leaves and flexed her toes.
"Not yet anyway." Zeb grumbled under his breath.
"Rarely do I see a ship at all, except, well, you know, ones transporting supplies." She looked at Zeb and flashed a bashful smile. "And studs."
He laughed. "Can’t say I’ve ever been called that before. I kinda like it." Suddenly he became serious. He chewed his lower lip and looked away.
"Hey, I was uh, meanin’ to ask you something. You don’t have to answer of course, cause it’s really none of my business but, I saw that nurse givin’ you a shot this morning. You’re not feeling bad are you?"
Dr. Coya flushed a deeper purple and looked away. Her large ears swivelled back on her head. " You saw that did you? No, I’m not sick. Jalisa wasn’t giving me an injection. She was drawing some of my blood. Checking my progesterone levels to determine if I am ovulating."
Zeb scratched his bony dome. "You’ll have to speak common to me doc. I’m not accustomed to medical jargon. I’m an honor-guard, not a scien—
"Seeing if I’m in estrus."
He stared at her, blank-faced.
"In heat." She turned back to look at him, golden eyes wide and pale in the light of the sun. "I wanted her to see how close I am to going into heat."
Zeb was taken aback."Are you . . . you’re taking part in the program too?"
"Yes. After all, I’m a healthy female. I think I should contribute at least one cub to the cause."
"But you’ve got an awful lot to deal with here. A little one will interfere with your work. Make your life more difficult."
Dr. Coya hooked one of Zeb’s fingers. "Remember those females you saw in the med-center? Most of them lost their mates during the assault on Lasan. Others have never even felt the touch of a lover. They are frightened, alone. In a lot of ways their lives will be more difficult than mine, because once they leave here they’ll be re-homed on strange new worlds. Under imperial jurisdiction. We try to pair up females so they can lend comfort to one another and help with the child rearing, but daily life is still going to be quite daunting for them."
Zeb thought about it for a few seconds then gave the doctor’s hand a squeeze. " I can’t believe I was being so gundark-headed about coming here. You’re a special one, doc. I’m glad I got the chance to meet you."
"I’m glad I got to meet you too, Garazeb." She pressed the side of her head against his arm and closed her eyes.
They sat like this for many seconds, listening to the sounds of the jungle. A saw-necked toothduck winged overhead, its chuckling quacks fading as it sped away toward the cliffs. Zeb inhaled Dr. Coya’s sweet scent and felt something hot stab at his belly, as if he had been playing with Kanan’s light saber and accidently ignited it.
" So, I’m curious. What was ah . . .What was the result of your blood test?" Zeb grazed the tip of the doctor’s ear with his bushy chin and she shivered.
" Well, at the time of the test my hormones were at a level where I would be considered very close to being in estrus."
"What about now?" The big male’s voice came as a husky whisper. He knew the answer. A whiff of her perfume in the air told him.
" I am, in all probability."
Zeb shifted his bulk. Suddenly the position he was sitting in wasn’t so comfortable. "I suppose you’ve already got a donor lined up for . . ."
"AI."
"Uh huh."
" Yes, well, a while ago I narrowed my choices down to two donors." Dr. Coya’s small slot nostrils twitched as she sniffed at Zeb’s massive arm, savoring the skunky smell of his desire. "But that doesn’t mean I can’t change my mind."
"Is that right?" Zeb saw her shoulders relax and her eyelids lower. He felt it was safe to proceed. He planted a soft kiss inside her ear.
"How do you feel about breaking protocol? About not-so-artificial insemination?"
She returned his affections, nuzzling his bearded chin and raising up to kiss his mouth. Her velvet tongue dashed between his parted lips, teasing him.
"Oh, normally . . . I discourage it. A sample that could be used for many is wasted on one."
"I’ve got plenty to go around."
"Yes, but assuming you’ve been abstaining, which I hope you have been, you should have a nice dense sperm population, perfect for a collection. Should you discharge it now, you won’t have time to build up more before you leave."
The big male chuckled. "You science-types really know how to talk dirty don’t you?" He thrust a hand under Nyree Coya’s shirt and fondled one of her breasts. She gasped.
"Garazeb, I’m serious! You’re leaving tomorrow before sunrise. In order for a new batch of your sperm to be considered usable it will have to be collected late tomorrow night at the earliest."
"Then I’ll stall the crew. They won’t like it, but if I explain to Hera the reason for my delay, she’ll understand."
Dr. Coya relaxed. "You’re sure?"
"Positive. LYFE will have my genetic material, as you like to call it, in their cryo-preservation chamber tomorrow night. As for now," he pressed his flat nose against hers and breathed into her nostrils. "I’d be honored if you would allow me to father your child."
The lasat female accepted Zeb’s breath and in turn gave him her own. "There’s no greater gift I could ask for." She murmured against his mouth.
Zeb pulled her close. His hands explored her feminine topography, cupping her breasts and thumbing the nipples until they stood erect. The tiny secondary set of nipples beneath her breasts hardened as well, and Zeb paid them equal attention with soft circular strokes.
Dr. Coya enjoyed his touch. Very much so. A warm, sticky flood of excitement seeped out between her lightly-furred thighs.
"We should get below the canopy."
"Why? Don’t you like the sunshine?" Zeb kissed her with zeal, his mouth rough against hers.
"Mmm, yes, but there are observation posts in the cliff wall, and the people manning them can probably see us right now."
Zeb turned. He smiled and waved, then dove beneath the sea of green leaves. Dr. Coya climbed over his shoulder, kicked off, and with all the agility of her kind, bounded over to a sturdy forked branch and draped herself belly down in the gap. She looked at the forest floor many feet below her and opened her thighs. The tropical air rushed between them, cooling her blazing female flesh. She heard the sounds of creaking tree limbs and cracking branches and knew the male lasat was making his approach. Her heart hammered in her breast and she began to pant. For the smallest moment, she was home, not back in her quarters in LYFE’s med-center, but on Lasan, where small, saucer-eyed nocturnal carnivores evolved into some of the galaxy’s finest thinkers, warriors, artists and weapons-makers. And trappers. No one could forget that.
Zeb crouched over her supine form and whispered into her ear.
"You knew what you were doing all along, didn’t you? Inviting me up here."
Nyree Coya raised her head and rubbed her face against the male lasat’s furry jaw fringe. "Garazeb, I wanted you from the moment I first laid eyes on you. So badly it hurt. Hera knew it. Sabine knew it. Even Jejocgar."
Zeb nipped at her throat, using his tongue afterward to lessen the sharpness of his bites.
"Me too. I would have mated you in your office, right on y’r desk had you allowed me." He extended one leg, gripped a tree branch tight with his toes, and unceremoniously pulled her loose skirt up, revealing the striped backs of her thighs. They were lean and toned, which wasn’t surprising, given how much time she spent in the tree tops. The doctor emitted a breathy snarl, one meant to excite her suitor, and raised her rear beneath him. Zeb lifted the front of his pleated Lasan skiilt and produced his throbbing malehood. Not such a funny skirt now, is it Ezra? He thought as he yanked Dr. Coya’s undergarments down, wetting his fingers with her slick nectar. A spontaneous mating would have been near-impossible had he been wearing his combat suit! He saw the glistening slit bisecting her plush lavender pubis, the short fur surrounding it darkened by her love juices, and felt his scrotum tighten around his balls like a vice. Hot pre-cum the consistency of melted gelatin dripped from his cock onto the backs of Dr. Coya’s legs, eliciting a nervous, schoolgirl giggle from her. Zeb wanted to open her wide, plunge his tongue into her sweet offering and devour her, but he knew that his excitement was already too great. To incite himself any further was to invite disaster. Dr. Coya looked back at him, teeth bared and eyes sultry.
"Fill me, son of Lasan. No one can take this moment from us. Not even the Emperor himself."
Zeb wrestled with his eagerness. He pressed himself against the doctor and swiped the fur on the back of her skull with his tongue. She conveyed the state of her mating readiness by emitting a chukking purr, and so he continued, fixing the sharp teeth in his bottom jaw into the hollow area where her spine met her skull. Dr. Coya moaned and shivered, then stiffened when something even larger than she had expected pushed aside the fleshy barriers of her labia and strained the entrance of her feminine vessel. A flash of hormones caused her temperature to rise and her pigment to darken.
"Fill me . . . fill me now." Her voice was a desperate whisper of wind.
Another small flood gushed from her and Zeb wasted no time taking advantage of it. Gripping her waist tight, he thrust his sizable cock deep inside her and was immediately rewarded with an almost painful feeling of pleasure. Nyree Coya cried out, her raw shriek echoing through the jungle from canopy to floor. Zeb withdrew for a few seconds to look at his glistening length. Grunting, he plunged back inside her. He began to mate her, churning his hips at an even pace. The doctor rose up to meet each liquid-smooth drive.
In Zeb’s moments of loneliness—or perhaps pure lustfulness—he often bedded non-lasat females, enjoying their anatomical diversity, but the feeling of Dr. Coya surrounding his male flesh was familiar and sublime. He arched his back upward and began pounding into her, his large, striped testicles rocking beneath him. Nyree keened and raked at the tree with her claws, gouging out long curls of pale brown bark. The mating anchors on the head of Zeb’s cock had extended and were at present driving the doctor wild with their finger-like abilities, but the big male’s savage hammering was proving too rough for her. She would have to slow the handsome beast somehow. Nyree was powerless to move her body, as her lover now had her effectively pinned, but she could control the muscles inside her vessel. Bearing down, she captured the male lasat and held him in a crushing embrace. It was perhaps too early to do such a thing, as she would soon find out.
A low whine escaped Zeb’s throat as he moved, slower now, inside her. The tightness surrounding his rigid flesh evoked memories of his first time, of his aroused virgin partner raking his back with her claws and biting his throat when his deflowering tool first met her purity. He had a sudden, overwhelming desire to overflow the doctor’s hot vault with his sperm, pump and gush until their commingled fluids overflowed and ran from the trees like rainwater. He closed his eyes.
"Kara—I’m gonna . . . I’m gonna come!"
Dr. Coya smiled. Already? Oh, sweet thing. Well, you are still young.
She managed to twist her hips and made the lock, securing her lover’s organ in place inside her. Zeb humped against her then shuddered and gasped, his gasp fledging into a raspy cry as a copious load burst from his seminal duct in a succession of explosive spurts. The doctor pinched her bottom lip with her sharp upper teeth. The heat of him was unbelievable. She could count every jet of semen as it pelted her womb.
Afterward, while they lay together in the same position they had lain in while mating, Zeb struggled to find words. He was still connected to the doctor, and would remain so until the erect wedges of flesh on the top and underside of his malehood had softened. He got a handhold on a branch above Nyree’s head and removed his weight from her body. His ears lowered like the wings of an imperial shuttle.
"Too fast. Son of a— I wanted it to be special for you but I’ve been holding that in for two days, and, well, the way you look and the way you feel . . . I couldn’t wait."
"It’s all right." Dr. Coya flashed a winsome grin. She was being kind, he knew. Though she had enjoyed the mating, and the sensation of him coming inside her, her desire had not been quenched. Her hips were still moving, and her tight canal massaged Zeb’s cock, sending tingly electrical aftershocks through his lower body.
Five minutes passed. The big male had deflated enough that he could pull free of Dr. Coya’s vessel and she moaned when she saw his pale, flaccid length hanging above her, a thin ribbon of cum dangling from its tip like a warm icicle. She flipped herself over and turned around on the branch so that her feet were higher than her head.
"Wotcha doing?" Zeb asked her.
" I’m giving your sperm a better advantage. Now, my handsome companion, let me caress those big yalngor eggs. My, they really are large, aren’t they?"
Zeb grinned. He was proud of his reproductive equipment, and loved it when females gushed over it. He lay alongside her, his head facing her feet, and planted soft kisses on the lavender mound above her fluxing gash. He raised his leg so as to allow the doctor easier access to his balls. She dragged her thumb and fingers lightly over his brindled scrotum and squeezed the base of his sheath, coaxing sweet after-cum from the duct on the tip of his cock. Zeb slipped a large finger between Dr. Coya’s swollen labial folds and pushed it inside her. He slowly began to piston it in and out, mimicking intercourse, then using a finger on his other hand, started rotating it atop her clitoris. The female lasat arched her back and pumped her hips, fucking Zeb’s finger hard. She grabbed his wrist and sprawled her legs, and in an almost frightening display of mating-want, forced his finger into her harder and harder. Zeb was fascinated. He looked at the female lasat’s eyes, the pupils large and dark in their pools of liquid gold. Her face was glowing under a sheen of fresh sweat and her slot-like nostrils dilated with every panting breath. Zeb pushed another finger inside Dr. Coya and she groaned and shuddered with pleasure. He bent his fingers, feeling for the area just above her pubic bone. When he jabbed at the corrugated flesh there with his blunt claws, Dr. Coya yowled up at the canopy like an angry nexxu. In her mating fervor she snatched up two leafy branches and twisted them in her fists, reducing them to splintery pulp. It wasn’t long before her body surrendered itself, like warm mist before the sun, and she felt as though she was sinking deep into the wood and foliage that surrounded her. All the while she stared at the big handsome male, remembering his shaft of pale lavender flesh as it drove in and out of her.
"You’re so beautiful . . . I want you in me again. Please Garazeb, again!"
The pleasure mounted. It crouched in her womb like a beast, and when it struck, it was like a thunderclap, intense, hard and loud.
Afterward, while she lay trembling and panting, Zeb turned around so that he could nuzzle her face. They shared another nose breath, then a round of slick-velvet kisses, and soon enough Zeb found himself potent again. He lay back and Dr. Coya lowered herself onto his shaft. This time their lovemaking was slower, more controlled, and they enjoyed each other until the sun’s light burned orange and mellow atop the crowns of Yavin-Four’s trees.
****
"Blast it, where is he?"
Kanan paced the floor of the recreation room LYFE had provided its employees and guests. It was well after midnight, but none of the Specters could relax enough to sleep. A few workers looked up from their caf mugs and data pads and one grizzled stud with a missing ear turned a face stonier than Zeb’s toward the complaining jedi.
"He’s been gone since yesterday morning."
Hera followed in the wake of the man’s frantic footsteps.
" I know. I’m sure he’s all right."
Kanan stopped abruptly and the twi’lek pilot bumped her nose against his back.
"I know he’s all right. I can sense that no harm has come to him. He’s relaxed and happy and not thinking about us at all! Sometimes I think that big lug is more immature than Ezra!"
"Thanks Kanan!" The boy shouted over his shoulder.
An exacerbated Hera crossed her arms and tapped her booted foot. "My goodness, Kanan, he’s with his people. What do you expect?"
"I expect his people to load us up with an extra day’s worth of supplies, you know, for the day we are missing!"
"Kanan!"
"Mmh. Sorry. It’s not Zeb. Not all him anyway. I’ve been thinking about this place." Kanan lowered his voice to a whisper. "Jejocgar was kind enough to go over evacuation plans with me. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the Empire has firepower enough to raze this entire area from space. Now that I’ve met all these nice people, seen the good they are doing, I feel . . ."
"Responsible for them?"
"In a way, yes."
Hera reached up to hug Kanan’s neck. She whispered into his ear. "You are one jedi. One man. Don’t bring all this onto you. The center is well hidden, and the Empire has no reason to search for it. Many, many lasats are going to be born, go about their lives and die of old age because of this place."
Kanan nodded half-heartedly. Hera’s words did serve to make him feel a little better, but still, a nagging coil of fear had wormed its way into his heart, and fear never served a jedi well. He would have to get back on the ship and meditate on this fear to banish it.
Ezra and Sabine trotted up at that moment. They had just finished their umpteenth game of slam-puck and were quenching their thirst with biodegradable pouches of fruity fizzcarbonate, too sweet even for their teenage human standards. They laughed and punched each other in the arm. Sabine was accusing Ezra of using the force to cheat, an accusation the boy vehemently denied. Hera was about to tell them to keep their voices down when the entire group felt the presence of two familiar lasats. Standing just outside the rec-room was Zeb and Dr. Nyree Coya. Gone was the standoffishness which had plagued both of them on the day they had met. The doctor was leaning against Zeb, her cheek pressed against the yellow material of his combat suit. She stroked his shin armor and knee guards with the pads of her feet and Zeb returned her affections by nuzzling the top of her head. Neither lasat seemed bothered by the glances being given them by their fellow kind.
" Aww. Look at that. Zeb’s in love." Sabine said, genuinely touched by her large friend’s obvious happiness.
Hera crossed her arms and a sweet smile came to her lips. "That’s where he’s been. He and the doctor have made a mating bond."
"Uh oh." Ezra said. "Isn’t Zeb going to be upset if he can’t take his new wife along with us?"
Hera laughed. " She’s not his wife. Lasat marriages, at least in the bigger cities, are mostly political in nature. Lasat mating bonds are different. A male lasat can bond with many females, married or not, and as long as he takes responsibility for all his children, there’s no jealousy or resentment." The twi’lek woman watched Zeb’s interactions with the female, his gentle touch, his longing stare.
" I’ll wager the Ghost that Nyree is carrying Zeb’s cub."
Kanan put his hands on his hips. "We brought him here to make a lot of cubs, not just one."
Sabine took another pull at her fizzcarbonate pack straw, then pointed the silvery packet at the big lasat. "I think that’s why he’s been stalling. After being with her he needed to, uh, reload. He probably just donated his sperm."
Ezra cracked his knuckles. " Hilarious. I can use this as ammunition every time he decides to insult me. What did you say, Zeb? I ate the last of the waffles? I left my towel on the floor? I messed up your already incredibly messy cabin? Wow, you sure sound upset. Maybe you should go polish the old gravy gun. You’re an expert at it."
"You’re one to talk." Sabine laughed. "At least he does his business in the shower. You wake him up every other night with your bunk rattling."
" He told you that? What a pervert! I’m just turning over."
"For five minutes?"
" Wait . . . Zeb does it in our shower? Our only shower?" Kanan’s face turned a sickly gray.
"Specters. PLEASE!" Hera said with a sharp hiss. "He’s on his way over here."
Zeb walked with a light, raptorial gait, as if the ponderousness of war-induced depression had been chased from his spirit—at least for a while. He approached his friends, head bowed and eyes downcast, ready to take a scolding from each of them for his long absence. Hera and Kanan looked at each other. The big lasat cracked one eye open to gauge their anger, Hera’s first.
"I know. I messed up. I was s’pposed to come tell you what I was planning to do, but I couldn’t leave her side."
The twi’lek woman saw a flash of sharp white teeth and she couldn’t help but smile in return.
"How do you feel?" Kanan asked even though he knew.
" Great. Almost like the bad times never happened. But they did, and I won’t let myself forget ‘em. I need t’ go now before I lose my edge. Can’t thrash bucket-heads if I’m feeling all lovey-dovey."
"That’s our Zeb." Sabine reached up and chucked his hairy chin.
The rebels filed out of the recreation room and headed for the cargo lift. A skeleton crew of workers waved goodbye from behind their transparasteel office windows and a new mother walking around with her grumpy cub grabbed the infant’s little paw and wagged it in the group’s direction. Sabine caught hold of Zeb’s arm just as he waved back.
"You know, Chopper is as mad as Void-fire at you. You better watch out for him when we get back to the Ghost."
"I think I can handle that little scrapheap."
"I’m just warning you. Hey," she squeezed his arm, halting him while the rest of the group made haste. "Tomorrow you gotta tell me all about your little adventure."
Zeb looked down at her, his mouth a stern line.
"It’s personal."
Piqued, Sabine furrowed her brow.
" That’s cold, man. You sure wanted to hear about the first blow-job I gave to my classmate in the academy. And the day I lost my— "
"Ohh, yeah, those were nice stories." The lasat’s green eyes gleamed like twin beacons in the night.
"They were, weren’t they?" The Mandalorian girl shot him an expectant look.
Zeb sighed, a throaty rumble. "All right, all right. Just don’t tell Ezra. Some of it is kriffin’ embarrassing."
"Why would I tell anybody? I give you my word, and a Mandalorian’s word is worth its weight in aurodium."
" Thank you."
" No problem. Two pumps, huh?" She snickered.
Zeb got the girl into a head lock and ruffled her hair with one swipe of his giant hand. "More than two, smart-ass. But yes, you get the general idea."
"Well, she is very pretty. At least I think so. She’s a pretty lasat, right?"
"Yes. She is very pretty."
"Hey Sabine!"
It was Ezra. He had just boarded the cargo lift with Hera and Kanan when he turned and shot mischievous daggers at Specters Four and Five.
"Kanan and I were thinking about what you said, and we think Zeb should do fresher duty on the Ghost!"
Zeb’s beady black pupils locked onto the boy. "What are you yapping about over there?"
Sabine winced.
"Tell him to pay particular attention to the shower stall! Sanitize it really good!"
Kanan hid his laughter behind a strategically placed hand.
It only took a few seconds for Zeb to realize what young Ezra Bridger was talking about, and only a few seconds more for him to go from jovial to fuming. Sabine flashed a sheepish grin.
"I was sticking up for you, I swear!" She backed away and watched the muscles in the lasat’s legs bunch as he prepared for a run.
"Osik . . . HERA!" Sabine took off like a flash.
The lift platform became a noisy whirlwind of activity when Zeb bounded onto it and rushed his friends.
The twi’lek pilot pressed her back against the control panel pillar and watched the frenetic antics of her crew members— her dysfunctional family—as they played a rough-and-tumble game of keep-away. Though it may have seemed to the LYFE center employees that they were the most ill-behaved group of rebels they had ever seen, Hera Syndulla couldn’t have been prouder. Away from the shadow of the Emperor’s all-oppressive hand, a hand which had inflicted horrific wounds in every one of them—joy blossomed.
She caught a glimpse of Dr. Coya as the lift began to descend and she nodded at her and smiled. The lasat woman smiled back. She waved with one hand and placed the other over her abdomen, where two mote-like blastocysts drifted about in the tranquil sea of her womb.
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Life anew