The Bounty Hunter Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Shiba stretched out her aching muscles. Flik Sivrak was a hard taskmaster when it came to training, even if had proven quite interesting in the end. She had picked up the basics of Teras Kasi quite well, as she did saundo, a series of exercises that controlled breathing while taking the body through a series of poses that tested the body's balance. She had started to do it while partaking in her studies as they had helped boost her concentration, memory and calming her nerves, something that was useful when taking the stressful examinations. It had also given her body flexibility and strength, which was why she had picked Teras Kasi up so quickly. There was no way she could match the wolfman's weight and power, though.

She needed more practice with weapons, however, in particular blaster pistols and rifles, because of the aim.

They were now on their way to Naboo and Flik had told her to get some rest, something that Shiba was glad to do; there was very little chance of getting rest once the mission started and after working as a doctor, she was quite used to snatching time for rest at any opportunity that presented itself to her.

Before she settled down, she took out the holo of her daughter, Jeana and wondered for the thousandth time since leaving her and her brother behind on Corellia in the care of a friend if she had done the right thing. Her son was still only a baby and she missed them both terribly. But then she thought of the reason why she was doing this; Alderaan deserved justice, her husband, her family and her friends deserved it; the patients deprived of the life saving skills of the Alderaanian trained doctors deserved it. While the Empire existed, her children were far from safe.

She put the holo back into her bag, which contained changes of clothes and some medical supplies – she’d decided on packing those since last time she’d been on board the Forgotten Warrior, she’d found next to nothing that could be used to treat wounds and such, and she’d often wondered just how she’d managed to save the wolfman’s life that way. At one point, she’d even thought she’d lost him as his breathing slowed and his heart rate had been almost undetectable.

Shiba lowered herself on to the bunk that served as a bed; it was little more than a metal board with a pillow and a sheet. The events in the cargo bay ran through her mind in a loop, ending with the kiss. Had that been why she had placed that tracer on the Forgotten Warrior and tracked the wolfman? She didn’t think so.

She turned over on to her side in a bid to chase those thoughts from her mind, but they kept chasing each other around. Sometimes, when an operation had gone badly or on the eve of a critical exam or after one, she’d had nights like this, where her thoughts ran amok, refusing to let her wind down so that she could sleep. Eventually, she knew that she would drop off, even if it took along time to do so.

This is silly, she told herself. There’s nothing real there, just my body reacting to certain stimuli – I’m a doctor, you’d think I should know that!

But she wasn’t a doctor anymore, now she was a bounty hunter, albeit one in training.

Oh for heaven’s sake, woman, you don’t think that he’s thinking about you right now! Besides, it was just a stupid kiss. They don’t always mean something.

Of course, if she had seen the wolfman at that moment, she wouldn’t be trying to convince herself to commit to self-denial.

***

While Shiba was getting some rest, Flik Sivrak was sat in the cockpit, remembering...He stared at the holo of his lost mate, Auoura in his claws. After losing her he swore he would never love again, and that vow had led him to his current occupation in life.

"You can't dwell on the past forever, Shirak," the electronic voice of Lobo issued from the speakers.

"I told you not to call me that anymore. I no longer go by that name," Flik said, annoyed. He didn't want to be reminded of that time, of what he once was, what he had abandoned.

The AI ignored him and continued, "She is gone, now and nothing can bring her back but that is no reason to -"

"Ya think? Now I wished I'd wiped your memory when I meant to - "

As if in answer, Lobo projected a holo of the wolfman and the human woman training in what was the Forgotten Warrior's hold.

Flik shock his furry head and a low growl, the Shistavanen equivalent of laughter issued from his throat. "Not likely, Lobo," he replied, knowing what the AI was getting at. "She's human...besides, even if it was a Shistavanen lupa in there, I wouldn't bother."

"If it's because you'd feel guilty - "

"Faithfulness to Auoura is not what's in question, Lobo, though it is a valid reason - it just won't ever happen."

”You seem to get on well,” the AI commented. Flik watched as the hologram showed him standing close behind Shiba, correcting the angle of her arm in that particular posture of Teras Kasi. It brought a memory of that moment back to his mind, he remembered her feminine scent. His mind’s eye then shifted to the kiss she had planted on him in the cargo hold, rousing emotions he had thought long forgotten.

“There had to be something there to begin with,” Lobo’s electronic voice broke into his thoughts. “Otherwise, why would she follow you even after you’d told her to go?”

“She just wants vengeance on the Empire, Lobo, because it took her husband and destroyed her life.”

“See,” Lobo said, a little too brightly, in that tone that really annoyed Flik. “You have something in common already.”

He’d already seen Auoura dead, he silently reminded himself. Even if he did let that barrier come down, there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again.
He put all the abhorrence he could muster into his voice and hoped that would get though to the AI. “Drop it, Lobo. I don’t want to hear anymore on the subject.”

Lobo shut down the 3D hologram. As the image of Shiba disappeared, he almost regretted his stubbornness. To cover up for that, he said, "You make a lousier dating agency than you do a ship's computer, Lobo, and that's something."

After a few moments of quiet contemplation of his dead mate’s image, Flik rouse from the pilot’s seat, gave a loud yawn and stretched, allowing his finger tips to touch the ceiling of the cockpit. He felt the knotted tension in his back muscles ease out. Maybe it had just been too long since the last time he had spent time with a lupa, he decided, and perhaps he should seek one out when this mission was over.

“Lobo, I’m going to my cabin now. Wake me up a couple of hours before we hit Naboo.”

“Will do,” the AI simply replied.

Flik took a last look at Auoura’s holo and considered taking it with him, but he left it where it was and exited the cockpit.

The route to his cabin passed Shiba’s and at the scent of her, he paused outside the door, wondering if he should go in. Though it was tempting and took a lot of his will power, Flik decided against it, and passed her cabin by.

***

"The human is awake," Lobo announced.

"Good, unlock the door to the cabin after fifteen minutes. We'll be coming out of hyperspace in just over thirty. I need to get my gear sorted."

Part of the reason he was leaving the door locked for that length of time was to make her give up on becoming a bounty hunter and leave; Lobo's pronouncement earlier had made him uncomfortable. The last thing he needed was that kind of distraction. He had gotten Auoura killed, and he wasn't about to go through it again anytime soon if he had any say in it. The observations he'd made of human females throughout his whole life was that the worse you treated them, the more likely it was that they would up and leave.

What he didn't figure on was the fact that Shiba was one stubborn girl and that the more he disregarded her, the more determined she became to be a bounty hunter, so flawed was his logic...

He went down to the hold where he stored the weapons. He chose the usual ones he always carried; the wrist rockets, a vibroblade or two, Chenlambec's Ryyk blade, a very boring (in his opinion) run of the mill blaster pistol and a special weapon that he kept locked away.

All the time he was down there, his thoughts were on Shiba, thoughts that he didn't want to have.

He was on his way back to the cockpit when he bumped into a very irate Shiba Black. "So, I bet you thought that was very funny, then," she yelled at him, unmindful of the weapons he had strapped to him.

Flik tried to look at her with an innocent expression, but failing miserably as there was nothing innocent about the thoughts he'd been having about her in the hold. "I don't do funny," he said, calmly.

"Ok, so you did it just to irritate me, then," Shiba snapped.

"Did what?" he asked, trying to sound like he didn't know what she was talking about, but knew perfectly well.

"Locked the door!"

"It's probably Lobo just messing around again. You'd better get your weapons ready and head up to the heavy blaster cannon. We'll be coming out of hyperspace in twelve minutes."

Shiba gave him a mock salute before ducking back into her cabin, making sure that the door stayed open this time to retrieve her weapons. "You'll be needing this," Flik handed her the power pack that was missing from the pistol he had given her earlier.

Shiba glared at him as he continued on his way to the cockpit.

***

"She must like you," Lobo said, on Flik's arrival back in the cockpit.

"More likely that she despises my guts," Flik replied as he sat down in the pilot's chair.

"She wouldn't - "

"Not another word, Lobo," Flik said, as he fastened the crash webbing over his broad chest. "Or I'll disable your voice circuits."

That had the desired effect as Flik turned his attention on to the countdown to reversion into real space.

"On the second we emerge from hyperspace, initiate the cloaking device. I don't want the Imperials to know that we are here," Flik ordered the AI.

Unlike most cloaking devices, the one on the Forgotten Warrior allowed the ship to travel undetected. Most ships with cloaking devices had to stay still, however, to remain undetected, the use of weapons was a no. Flik opened an internal channel to see if Shiba was strapped in the heavy blaster cannon station.

"Are you there, yet?" Flik asked.

"Strapped in and ready to go."

"Just one thing - don't open fire on anything unless I give the order."

Shiba's answer was a rather unlady like snort that said, do I have to take orders from you, now?

Sensing her reluctance, Flik added, "It's important. I'll explain later."

"Is there anything else you've neglected to tell me?"

"Yeah, plenty. All will be revealed in time."

"Why aren't I surprised, Sivrak?"