FEMALE ALPHA

       The market wasn’t as bad as Camiss had expected. Of course, it was still day time, so there was less likely to be anything criminal going on, but so far, Camiss wasn’t as shocked as he thought he would be. Una had them stop at a small stand, which wasn’t quite the restaurant he expected, but since it was owned by a local, it would give him a better perception of the area.

       Una ordered for him, which was good since he had no idea what to expect. It was a meat on a stick, and Una told him chicken. A normal food, but he had never eaten anything on a stick before. “Never on a stick,” he answered before taking a small bite. Surprisingly, it tasted really good. “Huh, this is actually delicious.”

Una snickered, picking pieces of chicken off of her stick before popping them in her mouth. She reached over for her soda in a plastic baggy and drank from the straw. Surely this seemed barbaric to the Jedi knight, who probably only knew the luxuries of the Temple-- but this was Una’s lifestyle. She was a no-frills kind of girl in the first place, and it made adjusting to living in the slums a lot easier. 

       He spoke to her while still looking over the area. “I just feel like I ought to know a little bit more about this planet,” he said. “I’ve been confined to the Temple mostly, and there’s more people than just them that I may need to protect.” He walked over to her.

       He didn’t know what he would see or how much they could look at with the sun setting, but he wanted to see a little bit. “You can just show me whatever you’d like, something is better than nothing.”

She gave him shifty eyes before letting out a snicker, closing her satchel before giving him a shrug. “If you say so,” she said, pulling her jacket off and draping it over her satchel. “But I don’t know if you’d think these people are any worth protecting.”

There truly wasn’t much to this side of Coruscant; from the Jedi Temple, she was sure that he couldn’t even see as far down as the valley of her neighborhood. But it was telling that he never left the Temple’s confines as much. It made a little more sense why he ended up in her corner of the world at the nightclub. 

She led the way uphill towards the Jaeg Market. It was open all day, but the vendors dwindled at night and less produce was available, but more hot food was. On the way to the market, they passed by a number of homeless people lining the sidewalk, starting to build fires in their self-made tents. Una passed them nonchalantly, not acknowledging them, as she’d been desensitized for the past couple of years. 

       Camiss and Una were on the way back from the mission. They were able to successfully get the shipment to the planet with only a minor inconvenience. On the way back, Una was flying and they were heading to her apartment. Camiss had his ship parked there, so he was going to be able to fly home on his own. When they finally landed, Camiss got out and looked around.

       He had been to this part of the planet a few times now, but he hadn’t really looked at what it was like. The other times it was night or he was just picking her up. He never noticed the condition the place was in. This got him thinking. If his job was to protect and keep the peace, he needed to understand as much as he could.

       “Hey, Una,” he started to ask. “Do you mind showing me around your neighborhood?”

Una couldn’t help but feel a surge of confidence after the day’s events. She successfully aided the Jedi on his mission, milked another good chunk of credits from him, and managed not to make a crash landing on Coruscant. When she landed, she made sure not to park too close to her home, not wanting her mom or the twins seeing them together. 

She disembarked his ship behind him, throwing her satchel across her chest. With brows furrowed, she couldn’t help but be confused by his question. “Why?” 

       Camiss scoffed. “I can bullshit just fine,” he said as they entered the hanger. “And we don’t have time to worry about that. We have to take off soon so we can follow the ship as it makes its way here. And as for that blaster, the only one you’ll need is attached to our ship.”

       A guard came up to them not long after they arrived. He told them where the ship would be coming in from, and that they would would be joined by four Rodian ships. That should be plenty to help. After they spoke, Camiss led Una back to their ship so they could take off.

       Camiss sat down in the pilot chair. “All you need to know is that that lever there allows you to control the gun,” Camiss said, pointing it out, “and that that button fires. The screen right in front of you shows you what’s out there. I can help direct you if anything should happen.” Camiss knew Una wasn’t a great shot, but he also knew that they had help. But mostly, he hoped nothing needed to be done.

Once in the ship, Una stood in front of the lever and gripped it, a mischievous grin on her face. “Pewpewpew,” she said, steering the lever in different ways but not actually firing. She looked over at Camiss, expecting him to be amused by her, but of course she was met with his deadpan, serious expression. “Fiiine,” she said, sighing. “Don’t worry. I got this.” 

       Camiss had to quickly stop this. “That won’t be necessary,” he said, stepping forward to grab even more of his attention. “I was sent to inform you this was happening as well as do it. The Council was too busy to do anything, so they sent me since I wasn’t in battle at the moment.”

       The senator stopped moving after hearing him. He looked suspicious, but the fact that he would be getting help for his people meant that he had to allow it. “Very well,” he said. “The shipment will be coming in soon. I have pilots who can take you where you need to go.”

       Camiss nodded, thankful that he didn’t make the call. The guards directed Camiss and Una where to wait while they waited for the pilots. “That was close,” he whispered to her as they walked.

“Yeah,” she agreed in a hushed tone, keeping her arms crossed as they walked. “Next time, I’ll give you a lesson on how to bullshit since you’re not very good at it yet.” 

Once they arrived at the hangar, there were only a few more minutes until the shipment was scheduled to be delivered. Though Una didn’t know what to expect, she had to admit she was a bit nervous. Prior to the run-in with the bounty hunter weeks ago, she’d only ever fought another girl for stealing her makeup. And now, she was potentially going to be at odds with pirates. If only the twins could see her now. 

       They got off the ship and immediately were spoken to by guards. Though Camiss wasn’t ready to talk to guards, he knew how to get this moving along. “I’m from the Jedi Temple, and I wish to speak to your leader,” he said, motioning towards the building. “Or anyone who knows about the situation with the food shipments.”

       After mentioning the food, the guards were quick to lead them into what must’ve been the capital building. It was very tall, with statues of Rodians lining the hallway to the offices. They were lead into the office of a senator, Onaconda Farr.

       “Senator Farr,” Camiss said. “I’m here from the Jedi Temple, with Republic co-pilot Una Tempens. We’re here to help you with the food shipments.”

“The food shipments?” Senator Farr echoed, confused. “The council has not informed me that the Jedi are willing to help. My understanding was that the Jedi are not able to help neutral planets in the war.” 

Una licked her lips, standing beside Camiss as the two conversed. This was all a little too official for her, and she had to admit she was a little bit intimidated by the Senator in front of her. 

       The ship started its descent on its own, but Una was going to have to land it herself. Camiss pointed to a landing pad near what was the capital building. “Right there looks to be fine,” he said, leaning over in case she needed help. “Just slow us down and we should be able to descend nice and gently.”

       Una got them down without damaging the ship, which was all he could ask for. They paused for a moment while Camiss readied to explain what was next. “So, they don’t know I’m coming,” he said. “I’ll introduce us and tell them what we’re going to do, and they will surely accept. I’ll tell them you’re a Republic co-pilot so they trust you more. Just let me do the talking.”

Una was a little bit nervous given the last landing she made, but with the Jedi hovering by her side, she eased onto the landing pad as gracefully as she could. Her maneuvering was still a bit jarring, but better than crashing. She chuckled, impressed at herself. “That wasn’t so bad.” 

She turned off the ship and stood up, pulling her electric blue leather jacket from the seat and throwing it on. Her brows furrowed. “Republic co-pilot, huh?” she shrugged her shoulders. “Works for me.” 

       Camiss could tell that Una didn’t fully trust him or understand, but he didn’t need her to. He just needed her to help. He had hoped, however, that at this point she would trust him, but since he couldn’t fully trust her yet, he had no room to judge.

       “Who said in that situation you’d be flying?” he said, noticing they were almost to the planet. “I’ll be behind the wheel then, you’re just gonna have to aim and shoot. I want to get out of this alive.”

Una scoffed. “Okay, that might be worse than me trying to dodge bullets,” she said, shaking her head. She glanced over to the windshield and saw Rodia, their destination planet, growing larger and larger as they emerged closer. 

       Camiss leaned back, ready to explain. This mission wasn’t supposed to be the most dangerous, but Una, like many others, feared the Jedi because of the way they were being talked about. He knew they weren’t dangerous, but Una wouldn’t.

       “It’s really just a simple mission,” he said, turning to face her. “Pirates have been stealing Rodia’s food shipments, and we are going to make sure that doesn’t happen. If we see any, we try to tell them to stop. I’ll use my position as a Jedi as a way to do that, but if they don’t listen, we’re gonna do what we have to. This ship can handle a lot, and can deal a lot. The only reason I’m not supposed to is because this planet is neutral in the war, which means the Republic doesn’t want to help them.”

She listened, tilting her head back as she processed the information. It was easy for Una to tell whenever someone was lying, but unluckily for her, the Jedi didn’t seem to have a tell. Maybe it was in their training to know how to deceive. But if she wanted to get paid, she knew that she needed to trust-- and if she needed to trust, she’d have to listen to him, even if she was still uncertain about the situation. 

       Camiss tried to remain calm, but struggled as Una kept steering them into the other lane. He knew the risks of doing this, and they were pretty big for such a small thing, but he thought Una would enjoy that. She didn’t exactly live her life by the rules, anyway. He just needed to convince her that what they were doing was right, however he could.

       “You won’t get in any trouble, I can promise that,” Camiss said, clutching the handle near him. “You aren’t a Jedi or a representative of the Republic. Anyone can do this kind of stuff if they wanted to. I just happen to have orders not to, so all of the risk is on me.”

Una saw the way he clutched onto the handle and became hyper-aware of her steering as they zoomed out of Coruscant’s atmosphere and into outer space. Her driving became a little smoother, maybe because there were no other hazards in traffic. She looked around the dashboard for a second before finding a button labeled ‘AUTOPILOT.’ She pressed it, the speeder halting with a sudden jolt, before it rode smoothly again and she could turn in her seat to look at Camiss. 

       “This isn’t Jedi business,” he said, focusing on the flight to make sure nothing went wrong. “They chose to not take part in this. This is an independent mission that I’m running with you. The Jedi may not like that this happens, but I promise that you won’t be the one they get upset with.”

       Camiss had to hope that the Rodians wouldn’t say anything to the Jedi or senate about what they do. He could get in big trouble for going against the council, something he had never done before. But, it was worth the risk to him.

       He looked over at Una as they got ready to leave the planet. “Are you excited to see another planet?”

Una nearly swerved into the other lane of flight traffic when she heard the Jedi had gone rogue for this mission. She glanced at him incredulously. “What?!” she exclaimed, not even bothering to answer his question. “You-- you didn’t tell the other Jedi about this?!” 

She would have turned around and head back home if she knew how to maneuver the speeder that way. Lucky for him, she only knew how to go straight. “I can’t believe you. How am I supposed to believe I won’t get in trouble for this?” she asked. “I better get some hazard pay for this or something. Camiss, I really can’t get arrested.” 

       He was going to let Una fly, but he wasn’t going to let her do ALL of the flying. He was going to let her make the trip to Rodia, but when it came to flying with the transport, he needed to have himself piloting to make sure everything went right.

       He set up the GPS, making it so Una could easily get them to Rodia. “You will fly to Rodia, and I’ll fly when we’re doing the mission. I was thinking then, you could get some practice with your shooting, that is, if there are pirates that we have to take care of.”

She watched as he set up the GPS until the direction popped up on the screen. With a snicker, she responded, “You must be super desperate calling on some stripper to help you do your dirty work.” She quickly glanced at the dashboard, having did a little bit of practice and research since she last flew, on borrowed ships of course. 

       Camiss couldn’t really do this on his own, and he had no one else. His only option now was to pay her, even if that meant “borrowing” some of the Council’s money to do so. He could try and use mind tricks to make her do it, but that was against his morals. Paying her had worked once before, so he was going to have to do it again.

       “I can pay you if you need me too,” he said. “I just need someone to do this with me. No one else will be able to without approval. I can pay you as much as you need, I swear.”

Una raised a brow at him, gauging his honesty, and figuring she should trust him for now. She reached a hand out for him to shake and seal the deal. “Fine,” she agreed, tilting her chin up. “Just know I’ll be charging extra if the situation gets deadly.”