Friends Part 3 - Friends with Benefits
There was no wind…no night…no day
Only grey dirt that stretched endlessly across a geo-thermally warmed ball lit by the bright stars of the deep core, the systems own sun so distant as to be just the brightest in a constellations.
The heat and dry of the dirt sucked the moisture from his hands as he struggled back to his feet…on chipped hands.
He’d lost count of how many times he’d fallen, been knocked back, thrown to the ground…a hundred…a thousand…every time some flaw to be ironed out…some imperfection that needed correcting.
He glanced back up at the looming spectre of his trainer.
“Your left forearm was 12 degrees off and 3 metres per second too slow…get up and try again,”
Try again it was always try again with this frelling bastard.
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He hoped this was worth it…
“gruphh…” he spat out as his stomach was hammered by the training staff
“Try harder…” his instructor demanded
“Easy for you to say…” he replied with a high spin too easily dodged
He dropped low and tried to shoulder him over, but the instructor just lifted and tossed him into the air like a doll.
It was actually quite nice…feeling their air move against his sweaty skin…too bad he knew how it would end
He smacked down into the grey dirt, it sucked the salty perspiration from his skin,
What he wouldn’t do for a drink right now…even water…but that had been the deal he struck…no more booze in excess, for 2000 credits a day, a retraining program and all the tralks he could frell.
“Tell us what you want,” they had asked, he was still hung over at the time
“To frell Nemi Solsar till the stars die,” he had replied, fantasizing about the holo-drama actress rather than listening as the recruiter had been talking
The durasteel hand gripped his throat and pulled him up from his reminisces,
“This is unacceptable…you commit too much energy to imperfect movements…less energy right place,” he chided as he threw him to the ground again.
“Get up and try again…high twist into low charge,”
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He slammed to the ground again, more dirt spraying up into his mouth. On grazed elbows he rose back up only to find his instructor was gone…for now.
The lessons did not end…sometimes the male instructor would vanish, he would just feel safe enough to rest and then he would return…or worse the female one would come after him.
He flopped over to the one land mark on the barren waste, the small collection of large rocks where they had dumped ration packs for him. Taking out one he stripped the wrapper and chewed down as he tried…not to sense anyone’s approach.
That was one of their key philosophies…normally one would reach out with the force to detect someone approaching…keep alert and active…this was deemed inefficient.
‘Let them come to you’ they advised…do not actively sweep, for that exposed you, but learn to pick up the thinnest rustle of movement in the force and material world…take in everything and give nothing away.
Theirs was a minimalist approach…always use the minimum necessary amount of force or energy to achieve your aim. To act once and only once with a minimum of energy was their strategy – a good dejarik player plotted five moves ahead they said, but a truly great one only one move – but it was always the best move executed with absolute perfection.
The first days? Weeks? Were spent learning how to channel the force more efficiently rather than the brutal pull most inquisitors and Jedi used, instead of pushing the force to obey them, he had to learn how to pick up its natural flows and channel them to meet his requirement.
It was more training than he’d ever had with the Inquisition…they relied on brute tactics and pre-existing knowledge…hunters, killers…wait…
He felt thin trails of movement
Waiting patiently for the inevitable…his senses primed…
There was no wind here just still dry air…it should be easy to pick them out…yet it remained impossible…this was as much training for them as it was for him, they practiced sneaking up on him as he practiced trying to detect them.
A shadows flitted across his vision…he quickly tried to determine if it was real, an intentional illusion, or unintentional hallucination. He pivoted around quickly checking his rear…
Nothing…as he turned back his peripheral vision caught something black, spinning back around he flicked out his stun dagger and thrust. His wrist was caught in a durasteel vice as his feet were kicked from under him…his shoulder buckling as he fell held up by the wrist.
“Got you got you got you!!!” came a cheery voice…the happy female one…he didn’t like the happy one….he was getting really sick of this
As his shoulder popped out of join she let him drop then sent a quick burst of red lighting to repair him…he’d coped dozen of broken bones and torn muscles…always repaired by a burst of red lighting…that particular technique they neglected to teach him.
“Better be funnier than last time!” she said seriously
“ehhh… How many storm troopers does it take to change a glow panel?”
“I know that one!!!”
“Ok… What do you call the person who brings a rancor its dinner?”
“What…” she said suspiciously
“The appetizer”
“The what?”
“The appetizer…the…like a small meal before a larger one…” there were some obvious concepts she didn’t seem to understand making most of his jokes completely flounder…
“That’s not funny,” the frown on her face at odds with the normally all too perfect features, there was a perfect symmetry to their faces, as though they were mannequins come to life…it was almost too perfect, the lack of imperfection denied them any visual sense of character or idiosyncrasy – a troubling beauty.
“Is this meant to be teaching me something?” he asked nursing his newly fixed arm that tingled with a strange numbness.
She shrugged indifferently turning to leave, “probably…I don’t know, I’m not your teacher.”
A scowl crossed his face…then what was the point of breaking his frelling arm again! He picked the stun knife back up…with all the annoyance he could muster he threw it at her head.
It struck…It actually struck…
She turned around slowly
Oh…it struck…it actually a struck…goodbye Nemi….
“I hope that felt good…” she said clinically
No point lying now,
“It did…I only wished I could hit your bitch face,” well that was it…Oh Nemi…a signed pict was all I had of you…
“Finally!” she said excitedly
“What?”
“Oh don’t spoil it now!” her face shifted from elated to annoyed in an instant
“Wait no no no…I get it…you wanted me to get angry at you...swear at you…disrespect you…”
She tilted her head forward to prompt him onward
“to…” he was making this up as he went along
“to show I don’t care what you think…and stuff…and not afraid of what would happen if I hit you…” he gulped down
“and stuff…”
“Close en…” he heard the deeper voice behind him and in a moment of reflex turned around fist first to land a heavy force charged punch on his other instructor,
His face…his head didn’t move…the only thing that Nimmin had achieved was injuring his own hand…but he was starting to understand
“Don’t sneak up on me you muscle bound freak!” he threw caution to the sands in lieu of any wind on this barren rock.
“Finally…” she sighed this time,
“Everyone is always afraid of us…defers to us...panders to us…that’s not what real friends do…real friends get angry, they tell each other off…” she stepped over to him and muffed up his hair
“We don’t want a servant, we want a friend who’ll tell us if we’re being stupid…and someone who’s afraid of us can’t do that…we want respect but not trembling…” she sat down on the large rock he’d been using as a bed for the last…actually he didn’t know how long it had been…the male hovering protectively behind her.
“We are very homogenous…everyone thinks the same, it’s why our society is so peaceful…we need frank and fearless outside perspectives,”
“You couldn’t have just told me!” he yelled at her
“Would that truly have worked? If we stood over you in our big bad armour and said ‘Tell us when we’re naughty Cha!’ would you have done it?”
He fell back on his own feelings…she had a point…
“It was still not a good way to go about it…” he replied sourly, “there is tough training then there is outright bullying…I know from the Inquisition”
She stood up suddenly and slapped the man behind her…that…that left a horrible red hand print.
“Idiot! You’ve upset our friend, apologise!” he didn’t quite understand how their society worked, but by the solemn look on the gruff ones face she seemed to admonished him very deeply.
“I recognise my failing and will be sure to correct it…” he said with deep earnestness stepping over to him,
“I’m sorry friend Cha…I was placed in charge of your training and I have offended you” he fumbled around his belt, intermittently looking at the woman over his shoulder as she glared down at him, he pulled out a finely wrought glass dagger
“Please accept this shikkar as token of my repentance,”
“And….” She prodded
“And I’ll find you a nice gift to apologise….”
This was…weird…he tentatively reached out for the dagger, it was cool in the unchanging mild heat of the desert.
“Alright then…I accept…”
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Whilst the training regime thereafter was still brutal…it wasn’t mercilessly so…and it became easier each day…he actually felt stronger and stronger, with the force and physically…
He could move faster lift more…he could even think more clearly…he began to realise they didn’t just heal him after each session where he would break a bone or tear a muscle against them…they were subtly improving on him…not excessively so…but enough to push him well above average.
Out of nowhere one day the gruff one…who seemed far more contrite now asked
“You still want Nemi Solsar,”
He paused in the middle of his push ups
“What?”
“You said you wanted to frell Nemi Solsar till the stars die”
“I was drunk at the time…anything with big breasts and something wet and warm to slip into will do…”
He shrugged, “Whatever you asked for her I found her…at any rate now it’s time for your holiday…”
“Holiday so I get off this rock,”
He kicked up onto his knees
“Alright,” he laughed, “Lets go meet Nemi Solsar,”
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Things were on the up…he had a fortune in credits…a more toned physique, felt ten years younger and now had his own ship…a nifty brand new Imperial Raider II Corvette…his friends might be odd…brutal but they paid out big time.
He cruised into Denon and spent two days trying on outfits at the most fashionable stores of the ecumenopolis, desperately trying to figure out what to wear to impress Nemi…
Ah Nemi…so many sleepless hyper-jumps between chasing Jedi or rogue forece sensitives he’d watched her on the holo-drama The Daring and the Devious…a histo-drama of the Pius Dea Era…in her character of Sefina Dea he had watched her go from an flighty young girl to a determined young woman…of course it was all a fictional character…but still…
He was amazed how literally they had taken his request…and actually slightly worried they might implode Denon’s sun to fulfil the part about frelling her till the stars die.
He paced nervously as he waited in the Nine Star Hotel they had set him up in, constantly checking his chrono for when she would arrive…would he actually do this…could he…
“We give our friends gifts, whatever they like the most” they had said…anything he wanted…and they delivered…yes the training had been painful…but nothing was without a price…and where the Inquisition would dismiss his ideas and brutalize everyone…these people listened, adapted, apologised - they wanted to learn from him as much as teach him…they were actually friendly in their own weird way.
Finally the door buzzed, quickly patting down his dark hair he stepped over as confidently as he could and opened it to…
A portly fifty something blob of a man
“Feeron Gogis, Manager to Miss Solsar, pleased to meet you,” he stuck out a flabby hand, after spending so long with his ageless perfect friends it was quite shocking to see someone so…painfully human…
“Ah…yes…do come in,” behind him there she was…in a divinely simple white dress with a dark orange diagonal stripe from her left shoulder to right hip…black stockings and heels…
“La…La….Laddeee Sompsaar…” he slurred
She just looked at him indifferently, a burly looking Chagrian body guard followed as she trailed her manager to the couch.
Nemi Solsar he was in a room with Nemi Solsar!
“So we were very excited to hear about your proposal Mr. Cha…sounds like a great film…” Gogis waffled as he sat opposite the pair his eyes only for Nemi’s rich brown hair and amazing honey eyes…
“My client is looking to branch into film rather than holo-drama’s…and we think this could be a winner…now we might request some changes…the sex scenes my client isn’t comfortable with,”
Oh she will be he thought shamelessly licking his lips…she was his now…he would never let her go…he could have anything he wanted and anyone who said he couldn’t…he glanced to the corner of the room….could discuss it with his new best friends…
His brother Namman loved power and domination…Nimmin loved women...this one in particular…guess who got what he wanted first brother me smiled viciously,
“We would be looking for a minimum amount of 40 million for a 30 day shoot and…”
“Shut up,” Cha silenced the blob using a technique they had taught him, his mouth kept moving but the words wouldn’t come, Nemi looked slightly amused at first, he could sense she didn’t like her manager…but as she looked into Cha’s eyes she liked him even less,
“What is…Hym…” she glanced to her body guard in the corner…after all no actress who earned 1 million credit an episode would be without one. He stepped over…straight into Cha’s grasp.
Hym hadn’t even seen him move…he lifted the 150kg Chagrian with one arm revelling in his new strength as the chunky blue hands tried to fend him off.
It didn’t take long…minimal effort on the Cartoid artery to put him under while he kept Nemi pinned to the longue telekinetically.
“Get rid of the blob and the meat sack,” he said to the shadow in the corner of the room…an oblivion hand grasped the now frantic Gogis shoulder and lifted him in a single sweep…on a phantoms wings he was whisked out of the room as he dropped the Chagrian to the ground who was just as swiftly removed…Cha didn’t care to where.
“Nemi…oh Nemi…” he turned as he pressed onto her mind…as they had taught him find the precise target and use the minimum amount of energy to achieve your aim…there was her lovers face…his scent, his mannerism…and now…there was his…
“You’re mine now aren’t you…all mine…you’ll do whatever I want you to…again and again….”
“and again and again…” she continued his sentence her eyes slightly glassy as he pushed out the last of cognitive dissonance.
“Anything else?” his guard inquired, it was terribly useful having an all but invisible killing machine as a butler
“Oh no you’ve more than made up for the offence you caused me, leave us,”
He leapt over beside her, perfume rich in his nose as he delved into the side of her neck with his lips…he couldn’t help but laugh...Anything he wanted…
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“I hope you enjoyed your holiday,” She was waiting for him on the ship, how she got there he didn’t bother to ask
“I did indeed,”
“You’re free to do what you like in your private time…” she said with a cautious gaze
“But cover your tracks…we do not want anything you do outside of work spilling over,”
He smiled maliciously, in his hand the latest copy of Entertainment Galactica, the headline “Nemi Solsar leaves long time beau Flin Rabacca for mysterious new lover – all the picts inside!”
“Understood…so what work would you have me do.”
She glided up to him…their movement was hard to track…in one instant she was sitting, the next plucking the magazine from his hand…he realised it was not a trick on their part so much as it was his optic nerves could not process their movements without drawing on the force…whilst they could slow down when they wanted to a ‘human’ level for show they preferred to move at ‘normal’ speed in private.
“Nice choice…” she said noting the image of Solsar on the cover,
“I might go through the whole cast,” he mused, “but you still haven’t answered my question,”
A thin smiled curled at her pristine lips of natural pink.
“What do you know about Yupe Tashu?”
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