Private Don't Dream It's Over

[Ishani Dinn]

“I haven’t been in contact with anyone from Chaldea ever since I left,” she replied. “So no news of his death. The last time I saw Arlo… we fought. He tried to convince me to stay.” Pursing her lips, her brow furrowed. “Arc, I don’t tell you this lightly, but there’s a chance I doomed a whole lot of people by resigning as Senator. The Head of the Mystics had a vision of the future where she saw my father bring ruin to Chaldea if he became Senator. That was the whole reason they put me in that position. Not because I was a good politician, but just to keep him from coming into power.”

She hated admitting her involvement in these kinds of backroom schemes. Even as a Sith, she had never envisioned herself as a political manipulator. “When Arlo came to try and stop me, I told him I didn’t believe in the vision. I said if they really cared about the good of Chaldea and were that concerned about what my dad might do, they should’ve tried to work with him, not make an enemy out of him. Doesn’t change the fact that I was their pawn for two years, buying into all of it…”

She sighed.

“So how did Arlo die? And how did you hear about it?”

The thought actually crossed her mind, perhaps due to the look on Arcturus’ face, that it had been a suicide. With the impending doom of his homeworld and all that he held dear, had Arlo decided to end it all rather than face the future?

In other words, had she driven him to it?

By the time he had responded and offered to let her lay her head down, she was shaking a bit. Ishani crawled into his lap, her hair spilling out over his legs.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Now it was Ishani's turn to explain all that had happened to her since their departure, and he frowned slightly upon hearing it. Forced into a position she did not care for, coaxed into playing a role, a puppet... He could feel his blood beginning to boil again. "Feth them" he said all at once, brows knitting together, "It's not your problem to fix, Rhi, they just used you for their own needs. If they want it fixed they should take charge themselves, not rely on someone who didn't even want it in the first place."

He sighed, knowing that it probably wasn't what she was even intending for him to take from it. "I'm glad you walked away. If one man alone can bring down an entire government then there was frankly little you could have done anyway except buy them a little bit more time. Can't be all that stable otherwise."

Truth be told, mostly Arcturus was dreading the actual discussion they needed to have. But she asked, she wanted to know, and as much as it broke his heart he knew it would be cruel of him to deny her closure.

"He was partaking in a foolish game" he whispered, unable to meet her gaze, "Rattataki Roulette... You can make good money doing that sort of thing, I don't think... I doubt he actually wanted to be the one it landed on..." One slug, just one active slug, and Arlo had been on the receiving end of it. "I'm sorry, Rhi. Really I am." How did he hear about it? "I was there. Sort of. For a moment, at least... Before Kal found me and dragged me away from it. I didn't participate" he added that last bit hastily, "But I saw a few of them try. I didn't actually see Arlo enter but I heard about it after."

Arcturus did not divulge information about the skull.

Instead he lightly caressed her cheek when she lay down in his lap, and pulled the blanket up and over her. Heavy words all around... "Rest, love... You're safe," he whispered. Arc was still sat up, though he'd have the space to lie down should fatigue take him too, all without disturbing her. His hand shifted, and moved to flow through her hair.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Feth them,” she echoed, her tone bitter. But she pursed her lips. “It’s worse than you think. Chaldea is right on the border of Maw space—uh, do you know about the Brotherhood of the Maw? They’re a bunch of marauders and cultists from the Unknown Regions who want to destroy the galaxy to trigger some kind of cosmic rebirth. They destroy every planet they can get their hands on, commit genocides, that sort of thing.”

In other words, if they ever reached Chaldea, there would be no more Chaldea. “Fear of the Maw has been driving everything on my homeworld. We joined the Galactic Alliance in hopes that they could protect us. The Mystics rigged an election to make sure the wrong person didn’t wind up our representative in the Senate. They picked me because our laws prohibit close relatives from running for the same office, and because... well, they knew I had something to prove. We’ve considered ourselves staunch pacifists for decades, and yet we’re training volunteers, collecting starships, stockpiling weapons…”

In the midst of all this, she had abandoned them. Her children and herself in exchange for an entire world. Listening to Arcturus explain Arlo’s death, she felt a sinking feeling in her gut—and she more than doubted her choices. “That doesn’t sound like something he would do,” she murmured, guilt obvious in her tone. “But then, what the hell do I know—how much money was on the line? Enough to buy another warship for the cause? A battalion of mercenaries? A new planetary shield?”

"Rest, love... You're safe."

His fingers running through her hair, Ishani lay with her eyes still open. She felt numb. It was the same sort of shameful feeling she'd had after Arc left her aboard the Vixen—like she had done something wicked and deserved to be punished for it. Yet no one came to exercise justice, or even to exact revenge. No one cared. Only she did, and that made it all the worse, because she couldn't outrun the torture she inflicted on herself.

"Please don't..." Leave me, she started to say, but stopped herself. "Don't just drop me and the kids off when we get to Tribunal Station. Will you stay a little while? Just long enough for us to get settled? Or at least, until my ship comes in?"

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Maybe it was selfish of him, but Arcturus found himself truly uncaring of the fate of her homeworld. He should have cared, should have minded, wanted them to thrive if only because it was part of his children's heritage, but if the choice was that or having Ishani more or less enslaved to their cause?

Yeah, no. Feth them.

He didn't say much in response to her words, just gently soothing her with his light touches. His eyes were fixed upon the jellyfish, hardening slightly. "Is there something you want to do for them?" he finally inquired, knowing that he had no real stake in it. She did, though, it was her homeworld. "Something I can maybe help with?"

Arlo's death was understandably proving hard for her to process, and he knew she'd need time with it. He wouldn't be leaving her alone, not tonight. Probably not even when they reached Leviathan, even if it meant he'd be camping on the floor in his own bedroom while she took the bed.

Her quiet little request had his eyes falling from tank to girl, and he took in her features for a moment. Afraid, pained, nervous about the response he might give. "Of course," he breathed instead, "I'll even make use of some tricks Arthos taught me, so that I don't jeopardize your chances of remaining there if you want to. Dampen my presence, so they don't see me as some threat. Just an... Ordinary guy, yeah?"

Arcturus cupped her cheek gently, flexing his thumb across the surface of it, and then glanced back up at the tank. No doubt Tamiko would enjoy exploring a space station, too, he doubted she'd balk at the idea. Maybe she could trade off more of her creations there, or search for new scrap parts.

"Why don't you rest, love? We'll reach Leviathan in another couple of hours and then we can really get the kids settled in for the journey alright?"

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“I don’t know what I could do at this point,” she said. “Besides fight against the Maw, I suppose. But I can’t go to war, not while the children are dependent on me.” She sighed. “If I had money, I guess I could throw it at them. Fund the war, finance their defenses. I did like being a supreme businesswoman, but I don’t think selling perfumes will ever get me rich enough to buy a fleet big enough to defend a planet.” She looked up at him. “Train me to do more, make more… or find me a new homeworld.”

She couldn’t quite hide her sigh of relief when he said he would stay. After a few moments pause, she spoke again, more of a tired mumbling. "I shouldn't be pleading for more time with you, I know. But I can't help it. I sleep better with you around, even if we aren't sharing a bed. Like last night..."

He didn’t even need to tell her to rest. She was out like a light, lulled to sleep by the gentle, repetitive strokes of his fingers through her hair.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

"Yeah" he said, all at once, "You're not going to war with the Maw, love. Soon enough you'll be on the other side of the Galaxy from them, and you and the kids will be safe. Promise me, Rhi... Insofar as you're able, don't get tangled up in all of that. Your life matters more to me than the rest of it. Let me do the fighting for us."

Having already promised to train her, he decided against revoicing such and instead just focused on letting her rest. "You're not pleading," he said, shifting her in his lap enough that she could turn and rest comfortably. Tucked her in with the blanket, nice and snug. "Don't worry about all of that."

She was asleep soon after, and Arcturus merely sat there and switched his attention between watching her rest and watching the jellyfish bob about in their tank.

As promised, just a few hours later had them coming up on Leviathan and at this point Eloise had already arisen. She pattered through the spherecraft and, upon discovering the pair of them sat there under the blanket, she plopped herself down on the other side of him. He raised the blanket and let her snuggle up with them for the last stretch of their journey.

"Rhi," he whispered, gently trying to rouse her from her sleepy state, "You can go back to sleep, but I need to move love..." Arcturus proceeded to ease himself out from under her, tucking a pillow beneath her head if she remained sleepy, and then kissed Eloise atop the head. "Keep her company while I bring us in?" he asked the girl, tousling her hair, and then he made his way toward the cockpit, preparing the locking mechanism which would attach Beholder to Leviathan and allow them to travel in tandem through hyperspace.

Ishani Dinn