Everything was wrong and Rassi was an idiot. Solna knew both those to be factually accurate statements. The second was not particularly revelatory. Rassi was beyond frustrating. Usually though, Rassi was frustrating about little things, like worrying about the opinions of the idiots in the enclave. Or being afraid that she was taking up too much space. Or that a few little slips with the Xah somehow mattered more than her patience, kindness, and beautiful laugh.

As the otherworldly blue of hyperspace whirled past them though, Solna could feel just how out of their depth they were.

First, everyone, or everyone except Rassi, obviously, were all screaming in the Xah, their emotions thundering against Solna’s temples with seventeen different flavors of fear and thirteen varies of anger. 

Nix, who had more-or-less kidnapped Rassi, had gone from a blazing maelstrom of rage when they met, to an almost acceptably serene harbinger of doom when she lured them both away, and was now a jangled mess of conflicting hates and hopes as they all went chasing her wife to someplace that even the droid ship seemed to be afraid of.

And yet Nix was the one accusing Solna of having bent the Xah to put them all here.

“That’s a lie. You’re lying!” It wasn’t Solna’s most eloquent defense but the thought that she would be accused of corrupting the Xah and putting the girl she…her best friend in a situation where they were cut off from the family and flying into mortal peril? Only a lifetime of practice allowed Solna to keep control of the Xah within her.

Well, she had it mostly controlled. Rassi noticed the turmoil in Solna’s Xah. But that was Rassi. Rassi always knew what Solna was thinking.

And in the face of an accusation like that?

Solna stormed off the bridge, too upset to care were she was going, or that there wasn’t all that much ship for her to go to.

On some level she knew she wasn’t alone.

Of course Rassi came with her.

They were always there for each other. It was just how they were.

That Nix and the two ghosts came too was far less welcome.

“I didn’t do this,” Solna whirled around to shout at them. Shouting was fine. The Silent Enclave wasn’t an audibly silent place. They were people. People made noise. Angry people shouted. It was natural. 

“Your senses are so sharp. Better than mine, maybe even better than theirs,” Nix said, gesturing to the two ghosts who were hanging back and so silent in the Xah that Solna could only barely hear them. “Don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid!” Solna said, keeping her voice low and calm. If it sounded like a murderous growl, that was surely someone else’s imagination.

“You’re angry. And afraid. It’s hard to tell you’re feeling them both at once, but they work together.” Nix’s body language and her Xah were equally annoying. They were both too relaxed, and Nix was too focused on what Solna was doing. A moment earlier she’d been a twisted ball of knots over the fate of her wife, and now she was treating Solna like a someone who was important enough to be a distraction from all that.

It had to be a Jedi trick. Solna knew Nix wasn’t trying to influence her through the Xah. She would sense that even if nothing else made sense. To be able to just turn off your emotions though? That had to be some corrupt Jedi practice.

Or it’s just being older and having more perspective, the one named Ravas whispered to her in the Xah.

Are you reading my mind? Solna asked indignantly. She only thought the question. Didn’t disturb the Xah with it. And Ravas answered anyway.

Your thoughts are not particularly quiet ones, Ravas said.

Leave me alone!  The idea of her thoughts being open for everyone to hear was mortifying on a level Solna previously hadn’t suspected existed.

That last thing you need is to be alone, now, trust me on this, Ravas said. I speak from long and disastrous experience on the matter.

You don’t know me. I’m not like you! Solna shouted back. Nix was saying something but Solna head was filled with the ringing of the accusation still.

I’m not, Ravas said, but I have spoken those exact same words, for the exact same reason. And I learned two things from them.

What. Solna didn’t want to listen to Ravas’ voice in her mind but she was even less interested in listening to Nix explain whatever she was explaining, and she desperately didn’t want to look over at Rassi either.

First, that fleeing from our fears does not resolve them, and second, I learned how to do this. Ravas twirled her finger and a blanket fell over Solna’s head.

Not a physical blanket, but a sort of mental shield.

It protected Solna. Shielded her thoughts. She could sense the barrier it created around her, and the isolation is provided. Touching it, she felt the warm security it offered and knew that within it, she would either be safe or would know for certain if someone was trying to read her mind.

Was it a manipulation of the Xah though?

More importantly, did she care?

“No!” she said, aloud, cutting off whatever Nix had been saying and startling everyone. “You can’t tempt me with your Jedi tricks.”

“We, uh, weren’t talking about Jedi tricks though,” Nix said. “I was saying how it didn’t matter why you were here, learning to handle a blaster would give you a tool that you didn’t need the Force to wield.”

“I’m not talking to you,” Solna said. “I’m talking to her.”

“Yes, but now your talking with your words, and not telepathy,” Ravas said.

Solna touched her head and found the security blanket was still there.

“Get it off me, stop doing this to me,” she said, nauseated at the idea that she’d committed so many sins, so quickly.

“I stopped the moment after I showed you how to guard yourself,” Ravas said. “What you  wear now is entirely of your own creation.”

“No. That’s not true, I would never do this,” Solna said, the idiocy of being terrified of being cast out of a group she’d run away from not at all lost on her.

“It’s okay Sol,” Rassi said, taking Solna by the left arm and shoulder. “It’s all okay.”

Which was a comfort, in that it meant Rassi was still with her, and a terror since it meant that Rassi thought Solna was creating the mental shield on her own. 

And had corrupted the Xah to alter their fates.

“Might not be the best time to be giving them blaster training,” Kelda said.

“Perhaps not,” Nix said.

“She does need to accept what she’s capable of though,” Ravas said. “Hiding from the Force isn’t going to lead anywhere happy.”

“Can’t throw an engine into overdrive for too long though,” Nix said, which was both obvious and made no sense in context.

“Rest and food?” Kelda asked.

“I don’t know much about people maintenance beyond that,” Nix said.

“I can stay with her,” Rassi said, helping Solna get up.

When had she sat down? She didn’t remember falling to the floor but apparently she had?

That would explain why Nix had been kneeling down to talk to her.

With the mental blanket in place, Solna felt a degree of equilibrium return, though buried inside it was the dread disgust at the fact that she probably was the one who was manipulating the Xah for the mental shield.

“Of course,” Nix said. “Goldie can you show them to one of the guest rooms.”

“Sure. Want me to keep an eye on them in case they need anything?” the ship asked.

“I think they might like a bit of privacy at the moment,” Nix said. “Show them the wall comm. They can use that if they need anything.”

“Right. Follow me then,” Goldie said and a small repair bot hovered up to about head height and bobbed in an approximation of a nod at Solna and Rassi.

And then Nix just left, with Ravas and Kelda trailing in her wake.

“There’s pretty decent sound baffling in the guest rooms,” Goldie said as she led them to down a corridor or two and around a corner to where the passenger rooms were located. “We’ve docked at some noisy ports, and had some noisy guests. 

The door to one of the rooms hissed open automatically, revealing a space roughly half the size of Solna’s room at home. It could sleep two, but it would be a cozy fit.

“Thanks Goldie, is this the wall comm?” Rassi asked, pointing at a small panel near the door which a variety of blinking lights on it.

“Yep. The call button is the green one on the bottom. Press that and I’ll hear you. The Yellow button above that is the Ship’s Comm button. Press that and everyone aboard will hear you. If you need anything, like food or clothes, just let me know.”

“Clothes?” Solna asked, finding that to be an odd idea somehow.

“I’ve got a few basic fabricator waldos I can whip some up with,” Goldie said. “In case you want to clean up and change into something fresh.”

That sounded both heavenly and impossible. Solna didn’t want to think about the dust and grim she’d been covered by in their escape, but changing into new clothes would make everything that was happening too real.

“That would be great Goldie. We’ll let you know what we’re thinking in a bit,” Rassi said.

The door whooshed shut on its own, and there was quiet at last.

Solna could still hear Nix and the ghosts in the Xah but they were distant and surprisingly quiet compared to the people in the market place she was used to running into who weren’t part of the enclave.

Rassi was her usual calming, relaxing self. Not that Rassi was calm or relaxed, but what she projected into the Xah was the sort of gentle concern for Solna that was more comforting than any mental security blanket ever could be.

“I’m sorry,” Rassi said before Solna could form a thought beyond processing the relief she felt.

“For what? You don’t…” Solna started to say but Rassi hugged her and cut her off.

“I didn’t want to leave without you, but it wasn’t fair,” Rassi said. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into this.”

“But you didn’t?” Solna said. Had Rassi not heard what Nix had accused Solna of?

“Of course I did? Who do you think told Nix that we had to pick you up? This is all my fault.”

Nope.

Solna was not going to let that stand.

“Don’t. None of this is your fault. You…you didn’t deserve how people were treating you, and you don’t deserve this. It’s..this…you didn’t do anything wrong.”

The relief and comfort were still there, but so was a painful need to make Rassi understand, to make her accept that she was as, no, more worthy than the idiots in the enclave who were always tearing her down.

“I wanted this though,” Rassi said, her voice small as though the confession would lead to…would lead to what? 

“You didn’t,” Solna said. “You wanted to be safe. You wanted to be away from a bunch of people who treated you bad because they were garbage. But you didn’t want this,” Solna said, speaking words she knew had to be true.

“But I did,” Rassi said. “I wanted to be on a starship, flying off into the unknown with you. I wanted us to be together when we found a new life, where we…where I found someone to teach me.”

“You want to learn from them?” Solna asked, shocked to the core at the idea. “You want to become a Jedi?”

“No, no!” Rassi said. “I want to learn how not have the Force at all.”