Through a character's eyes
by Lost Loves
Lost Loves
Three loves held and three loves lost. Two on Tatooine, one on Naboo. Tatooine, a planet she sometimes wishes she could forget. After fleeing there from Ryloth so many years ago, Reksha thought she found love everlasting in her human friend Romi. Romi was intelligent, funny, fit and wealthy. He made her smile in ways she had not done since being a little twi'lek on Ryloth. He helped her escape the bounty hunters trying to find her, and soothed the hurts of being sold into slavery by the Secura family. Those days were filled with training and healing, while the nights were taken over by passion. Reksha smiled at the memories of those warm embraces that filled the short Tatooine nights. The extermination of the squill population was a community service project that Romi had undertaken; to make the planet safer for all that resided there. This was achieved by hired hunters, and was almost complete on the day Romi died.
Reksha sighed, wiped a tear from her eye, and snuggled Jackers closer. Romi was gone in just an instant. Not even a chance to say good-bye, which in the end may have been for best. The day had dawned clear, with no wind. Not that there was ever rain at their home near Mos Eisley, but at least there did not appear to be a sandstorm brewing. Today was the day that Romi was going to show Reksha the fabled Krayt Dragons. Finally, Reksha was ready to try her pistol skills on a creature worthy to be called a legend. Hopefully there would be no need for the stim packs and life support units that were being packed, but it was better to be safe than not have them against such a foe. Outside, with survival gear and supplies on sleds, the group of hired rangers stood ready, impatiently looking at the horizon, wanting to be on their way. Once the final supplies were strapped down, the group made their way to the Mos Eisley shuttle port. The short trip to Mos Entha, far north on the other side of the planet, was spent preparing weapons, armor, and with Reksha applying medical enhancements to each party member. While the enhancements would not make them invulnerable, they would help keep the members alive if their armor should break, at least until the krayt could be distracted. Upon arrival in Mos Entha, the group split. With one group, including Reksha, heading out to set up a base camp, the other, lead by Romi, scouted the region to find a nest of krayt dragons. It took most of the morning to set up camp. They planned to stay here many days and bring home a couple of krayt skulls. Just as lunch was being prepared, a distress signal came over the radio. Krayts had been found! Two nests, within 100 meters of each other. The krayts were attacking the party members, and back-up was sorely needed. Reksha and her men rushed to the location, and found utter destruction. All of the equipment was gone, and the party was dead. There was nothing to save, except themselves as the krayts came rushing at them from their nests. The group quickly sped away.
On that fateful day Reksha became a widow, and her livelihood was taken from her. Upon the news of Romi's death, the Imperial Inquisition descended and claimed all possessions and titles of the Tai'fal family. They declared that Reksha had neither claim, nor any ownership since she was a non-human. Reksha fled deep into the desert with the little supplies she could gather, and found the Rebellion.
Jackers reached up and licked Reksha's face, bringing her out of the painful memory. He nuzzled her hand, clearing wanting the ear scratching to continue. Reksha looked down at him, and smiled regretfully while she started scratching again. The Rebellion is where she had found Jackers, and Desri.
Reksha was found by the Rebellion wandering in the desert, exhausted and dehydrated. The Rebel medic was able to put together only part of her story from her incoherent ramblings, that she hated the Empire. Three years after being found, Reksha became an officer in the Rebellion. Her hatred for the Empire led her to destroy and sabotage numerous Imperial bases and disrupt supply lines all across Tatooine. Through this time of healing and utter rage, a young man named Desri became her constant companion. Desri and the other Rebels encouraged Reksha to take her love for science and healing to a new level. Reksha became a full-fledged doctor, specializing in bio-engineering. Jackers came into being in an underground lab near Anchorhead. When Reksha held the small kitten in her arms for the first time, she knew this was one animal that would not be sold off planet to fund the Rebellion.
Desri became a constant companion, and they eventually married in a small ceremony near Mos Eisley. The first few months were bliss, but then Desri started to change. He became possessive and had to know where Reksha was every moment of the day. She could not speak to other males without him flying into a jealous rage. In her fifth month of marriage, Reksha finally fled from Tatooine and hid in the large city of Coronet, Corellia. Here she gained a divorce and became active in the underground suicide squads of the Rebellion. Nightly raids on Imperial bases and other buildings forced Reksha to hone her skills in the field of combat medicine. Crafting some of the most deadly poisons in the galaxy, she eventually alienated the other Rebels with her fanaticism and became an outcast within this group of outcasts. One evening, in Black Sun City, Naboo, the Rebels were overrun by storm troopers while trying to disrupt communications from a satellite relay. Reksha was poisoned by her own "medicines" and left for dead by the fleeing Rebels.
The field was littered with broken bodies and rubble from the fractured walls. The Rebels had succeeded in temporarily disrupting communications. The Imperials were combing the fields dispatching those too wounded to be saved, and taking hostage those that might be able to provide some information through interrogation. Warrant Officer I Asthma walked along the corpses and noticed a small, red, delicate hand moving feebly from underneath the body of a storm trooper. There were rumors of a red female twi'lek trained as a combat medic among the high ranking Rebel officers, who had persistently evaded capture by the Empire. Asthma shoved the corpse aside and revealed Reksha, near death. From the pack at her side, it was obvious this was the rumored twi'lek. Asthma quickly called over the nearest medic, and ordered him to save her, believing she would be valuable.
Reksha awoke in a small cell with a dreadful headache. Her mouth was dry, and she was weaker then a kitten. Next to her was a medical probe droid, who was monitoring her vital signs. The barred door told Reksha that she was in the hands of her enemy. Or was she? Why had the Empire saved her? She did not have long to wait, for within a few minutes of waking completely, a sergeant was at the door to escort her to see Captain Milan.
Captain Milan was seated behind a large desk, surrounded by his officers. Asthma was standing behind his right shoulder, in a position of obvious trust. The interrogation continued for most of the day and into the evening. Reksha was taken to a small well- appointed cell, where dinner was laid for two. Waiting for her was Warrant Officer I Asthma. He arose from his seat when she entered and bid her good evening. Reksha was puzzled by this treatment; it was a meeting as if between equals, not bitter enemies. Asthma assured her that all would be well. After an evening of leisure and wonderful conversation, Reksha was left to her own devises, within the confines of her cell. Over the course of the next month this is how her days were spent. Interviews during the day and delightful companionship for the evenings.
One evening, as she entered her cell for dinner, she was confronted with a most welcome sight. Jackers was lounging on her bed! Asthma explained that the cat had been very persistent in trying to enter the complex. Since she was known to have a gurreck companion, it was thought he belonged to her. From that night forward, Reksha taken to a lavish suite of rooms, and the slow process of her turn to the Empire began. The Rebels had never shown her this kind of trust. They had never treated her like an equal. From the holodiscs, it was now apparent to her that the Rebels had been the one to poison her, not the Imperials. The Imperials also provided documentation that what happened to her on Tatooine was the work of the Rebellion, not the Empire. After a year, Reksha was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Imperial Army.
Asthma became her constant companion and lover. He filled the empty space all the others had left in the past. At sunset, on Dathomir's Lesser Misty Falls Peak, he proposed marriage and they were married immediately. The love was doomed though, for the needs of the Empire came first; they needed Reksha in one place and Asthma in another. Eventually Asthma found another love. They divorced and remained friends.
But love will never be again. Reksha brought Jackers close. "Go home now boy, find a Lady, and start a family" Reksha said quietly to him. "Do not follow me." Reksha got up slowly, gave him one final pat, and walked down the side of the mountain toward the rancor nest....
