"It's ready go ahead. Bulk Cruiser Syndulla, right?" The voice scratched over the comlink.
“That’s right”
The Odan Urr had enemies enough without having to content with the First Order, so communicating with the Galaxy at large required special arrangements with the Sentinel Network. The scanner flashed and whirred, capturing and monitoring his image for the conversation. He checked his datapad to check he’d got the shipboard time and watch bills right.
The image flickered into life.
“Hyle?”
“Zyra.”
She was still in uniform. They hadn’t spoken since the morning he’d left, and the month since seemed like an eternity. His life had changed completely yet again, in ways he couldn’t have imagined, but this reminded him that this was all his life.
“How?” Well it least it was better than why.
“There are people here who know some people who know some people.”
“So?”
“So we can see each other.”
“We’re doing that now.”
“No, I mean really, see each soon as I can arrange it.”
“Really?” She smiled
“I promise.”
“But the Captain said you weren’t coming back.”
“That’s true, up to a point.”
“So are you still on Kiast?”
“You know where I am?”
“Shuttle logs.”
“How?”
“I’m the Deck Officer now.”
“Congratulations, Commander Tregoyne.”
“The Captain was planning on giving the position to you, then you and Commander Docker went off on one of your excursions, only you didn’t come back. All I got was some religious mumbo jumbo about how you’d found your path.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You said you didn’t know how long you’d be gone. A month and not a word.”
“I’m sorry, I had no idea, I thought I’d be coming back.”
“So what happens to us now?”
“I complete my training, and now I have the means, we keep in touch, see each other again.”
“When? I’ve heard rumours about what’s happening in that part of space, and we’ve got even bigger problems, the First Order is on the move.”
“And something’s happening here, looks like I arrived just when things are starting to get, well, interesting, let’s say.”
“What’s new?” She asked with a wry smile.
Their minds both drifted back to the time they had joined the Syndulla’s crew as pilots. Their first patrol had seen their flight stumble straight into an ambush. Hyle and Zyra were the only two who got out alive. Then he collapsed during the debriefing. First it had been put up to nerves, but their Squadron Commander, who was now First Officer, and had always been a devoted follower of the Church of the Force, believed it to be a vision, and the news of the Jedi Temple Massacre seemed to have reinforced that belief.
Although they’d been assigned to different units, they’d been all but inseparable off duty ever since. Even though she said time and again that he was a fool to listen to this nonsense about destiny and the force, she’s always listened, and always helped. In some ways her support had been more valuable than Yugo Docker’s. Hyle had travelled a lot over the years, and accepted that when things changed, he would probably never see anything or anyone he had come to know ever again. Now, for perhaps for the first time in his life, that truth had become difficult to accept.
Commander Docker said he had to find a purpose, but as far as he was concerned, he had found a purpose serving with Admiral Holdo’s privateers. Sure it was dangerous work, but it was steady work too. Now it seemed that Docker was right, and this purpose didn’t involve the people he’d grown to know, trust, care for, and even love over the past six years.
“Everything and nothing.” He said eventually.
“More Jedi philosophy?”
“No, you said yourself, things are changing, and not for the better and we’ll each have our part to play. The Syndulla might not be my life anymore, I accept that. But we were part of each others’ lives and still can be, it’s not easier now that we’re not living on the same ship, but when was anything ever easy, for either of us.”
“Everything’s changed and nothing has huh?”
“Excactly. Stay safe.”
“You too.”
“You know I can’t promise that.”
“And you know I can’t either.”
“True.”
She reached out to touch his hand. To each other, they were just holographic images, and he could see the outline of her hand superimposed against his own, and the only touch he felt was static. Perhaps for the first time in his life, Hyle Alihandross understood the pain of being truly alone.