Imperial times- Jechranis 3

Mara Jade dodged under her speeder, rolling away from the fire-fight in the alley around her. Her contact on this mission had turned rebel sympathizer. He'd sold out her meeting place to a mercenary band that had at least a million reasons to want to fry an imperial agent.

The pale blue alien with horrible fashion taste had even tagged-along to take a few pot-shots of his own. He was stupid enough to try running toward the speeder for a better shot while the mercenaries were still firing.

As his body hit the ground beside the speeder, Mara vaguely realized he was wearing some sort of fur coat dyed to match the blue of his skin.

No follow blue fuzzy or get hurt, the mangled words of Tarik's warning came back to her briefly.

She frowned, then shoved the thought away, there was no way that scaly beast could possibly have known about this. He was just an overgrown lizard, there was no way he could be....

Mara broke off her thoughts as one of the mercenaries rolled a grenade under the speeder.

Time to go, she thought, rolling away and into a low crouch before leaping behind a large garbage receptacle as the grenade exploded. The force of the explosion nearly tipped the trash receptacle over onto her, knocking a shower of rotting debris down on top of her.

She looked down at her sprained ankle critically, hoping she'd be able to walk far enough to get back to her ship.

This mission had been a complete waste of time, all it had gotten her was garbage in her hair and a sprained ankle. It was time to go home and apologize for getting caught in a stupid trap like this.

Hopefully, he wouldn't be too upset.

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(Coruscant)

Tarik woke up from his half-nap behind the imperial throne, sensing someone approaching. He'd run away from their 'training' earlier, though he couldn't leave the palace, he could leave any room any time he felt like. The room was empty, except for the two guards outside the door and the cleaning droid scrubbing impatiently at a dull spot on the floor.

He sniffed cautiously, filtering the scents and flicking his ears toward the door trying to guess who was coming. He flicked his tongue unhappily, curling himself smaller into the shadow of the throne.

The doors opened, and a tall green being with dark hair entered, accompanied by the smaller form of the emperor. Tarik could immediately smell the intense reptilian odor to the green humanoid.

He fought off a snort at the odor, forcing himself to stay quiet. The emperor paused in his listening to the being's talking, staring at the throne for a moment.

"Prince Xizor, I hate to interrupt you, but I believe this conversation would be best continued in my side-chamber," the emperor said. The green alien bowed, waiting for him to lead the way to the side room, looking slightly confused. Tarik flicked his tongue uneasily, was he in trouble for being here?

Don't move, a voice warned him telepathically. He jumped, snorting in surprise. Luckily, they were both too far away to hear him.

Stay put, I will speak to you later, the voice said again.

Tarik growled as the door closed behind them. He still didn't like the idea of the emperor ordering him around like that. Worse than that, he still couldn't get used to the fact that he could do that to his mind. He flexed his claws uneasily, curling back up behind the throne.

I am not your pet, he snapped mentally, wishing he could show the shriveled old man that he could mind-talk too. He settled down in the shadow of the huge throne, curling his tail around himself unhappily.

It had been a little over a month since he'd started their stupid training. They kept trying to make him do stupid things, like track people by scent and various other things he was so far beyond that he thought most of it was just plain idiotic.

He thought it was funny, watching the instructors talking slowly and carefully, trying to make sure he understood what they were saying. They didn't even realize he could read all the signs on the doors easily, and most of the words on their teaching datapads.

He quite honestly thought they were all silly, with silly rules and silly acting like silly people. He'd rather hide in Vader's bathtub than listen to them anymore. It was a waste of his time, and a waste of his abilities.

He sighed, wishing he could just roll them all away like he rolled pebbles in the grass back home. He chirruped sadly, snorting at a dust-fluff that the cleaning droids had missed. The fluff floated away a short distance, settling to the ground a few hand-lengths away. He lowered his snout level to the floor, settling one hand under his chin.

There was no one here, and the dust-fluff was so little.....maybe no one would notice if he.....

He stared at the little dust-fluff, thinking. If he did it, and was caught, they'd kill him. But if he was careful....just the teeniest nudge...

He pivoted his ears suspiciously, peering around the edge of the throne to make sure he was alone.

Just a little nudge, just enough to see if I still can, he thought, settling back down closer to the dust-fluff. He closed his orange eyes, breathing in slowly.

Just a little nudge, he thought opening his eyes and focusing on the fluff. The dust-fluff sat not too far away, wobbling slightly in the faint breeze from the air vents.

Little nudge. The fluff bounced away a little, rolling to a stop.

Little nudge. The fluff rolled sideways, bouncing away toward the edge of the dais. He stopped it, holding it just on the very edge of the steps. The little fluff wavered, precariously teetering in an unnatural position on the edge of the platform.

The cleaning droid rolled along the step below it, sweeping up the dust. It sucked up the little fluff without thinking, taking away the evidence of what he'd been doing.

A little nudge from somewhere else made him pull himself back into the quiet of his mind, hiding his ability. The nudge wasn't the cold, sharp touch that the emperor used, this one was softer, duller, more curious than harsh. Tarik recognized the feeling after a moment.

Vader! he thought, almost happy. They may have tried to kill each other once or twice, but he was glad he was back finally. Maybe he'd help him run away, like he had from the detention center.

Tarik hopped out from behind the throne, ignoring the fact that he'd been told to stay put. He slipped out the secret door easily, following his sense of where Vader was through the maze of narrow passages.

He popped out of a wall panel in Vader's palace office. He chirruped softly, drawing the attention of the figure in black. Tarik regretted his cheerful greeting the moment he'd uttered it. Vader was obviously in no mood to be nice to anyone.

The surge in the negative aura of the room at being interrupted made Tarik back up against the wall uneasily.

"What are you doing here?" Vader demanded, stalking across the floor toward him angrily. Tarik chirruped nervously, ticking to himself.

"Mees, um, mees stuck here now," he stammered, flattening his ears to his head and backing away.

"What?" Vader asked, still angry.

"Mees stuck here, they catched me," he said, holding up his wrist where his tattoo was, which now also bore a metal band with another imperial identification code etched on it. Vader's anger shrank away, he studied Tarik's cowering form with curiosity and disbelief.

"You cannot be a prisoner if you are roaming free," he said. Tarik chirruped, looking back toward the secret door.

"Me no prisoner, mees um, well," he said, then shrugged.

"Mees a pet," he said, then sighed in disgust, "Mees a big scaly pet who too dumb to run away." He snorted angrily, sitting down on the floor and crossing his arms over his chest. Vader looked confused, and still doubtful. Tarik sniffled back a tear.

"Me no a person, me a pet. Never supposed to talk, just be big dumb animal," he said, his voice squeaking a little as he fought off tears. "Me no Tarik, me just thing. him says 'come here, thing,' and me come, no want to or not," he growled, jerking a thumb up toward the throne room.

"Not a creature," he insisted, "Not a pet," he hissed, a tear rolling down his green cheek.

"No can run away," he said softly, "Tried. No can leave, this make me stay," he said, holding up the wrist with the metal id. band again.

"No wanna be a pet, wanna go back home, live like normal persons," he said. "No a normal person, but almost was one," he said. "Not wanna be owned. Mees Tarik, not property," he finished, sniffling and curling his tail up on the floor next to him.

Vader kept silent for a moment, studying him. He turned and walked away quietly, then paused at the doorway between the inner office and outer office.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, then turned and left the room.

----on to Part 4 of Chapter 7---

© 2000 Michelle Petrosky

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