Star Wars: Rebel Rising(26)
The final holo held a message from the Empire. “Inusagi is a planet rich in culture and arts,” Lieutenant Colonel Senjax, official military correspondent for the Imperial Broadcast, said. Unlike the chieftess’s opening speech, the lieutenant colonel’s holo showed him from the chest up, as if he were speaking directly to Jyn. “The Empire is pleased to bring this diverse planet under its wing. Inusagi’s strong alliance with the Empire will prove that new beginnings under our beloved Emperor can lead to prosperity and happiness for all the galaxy’s citizens. We look forward to greeting you at the sakoola blossom festival.”
“Oh, I bet you can’t wait to see us,” Jyn told the flickering image just before she turned off the device.
“Nice work,” Saw said when Jyn finished duplicating the last invitation. “I honestly can’t tell which is the original.”
Jyn beamed at him. It had taken a lot of work to replicate both the outer appearance of the imagecasters and the internal information. Copying the holos over had been simple enough, but duping the scandocs had required much more time and patience. She had spent so much of the past few years developing the physical side of her training that she’d almost forgotten how wonderful it was to focus on something that was entirely a mental activity.
Saw glanced up at Jyn. “You constantly amaze me,” he said. “Not many people could have done this, but I knew you could.”
“I enjoyed figuring it out,” she said, shrugging despite her pride at his words. “It was like solving a puzzle.”
“Must run in your blood,” Saw said.
Jyn’s head whipped up. “No, it doesn’t.” Her eyes flashed. Saw rarely spoke that directly about her father.
Saw nodded—his way of admitting he shouldn’t have reminded Jyn of her past. “Ready to go?” he asked.
Jyn nodded eagerly. She hadn’t been sure she’d be invited to join Saw on the mission. This partisan group led by the Zabrak…Jyn had never worked with them before, although she suspected Saw had, during one of the missions when he’d left her behind.
Saw tossed the imagecasters into a large canvas bag that was already full of something soft, then shrugged the bag onto his shoulder. He led the way to his ship. Maia was already there, smiling at Jyn.
Saw climbed into the pilot’s seat, and they headed off.
“Excited?” Maia asked Jyn. They both swayed as Saw maneuvered the ship through the asteroid belt.
Jyn nodded. “But it’s a bit odd, isn’t it? I don’t even know what you and Saw are doing on Inusagi, other than that you’re meeting others. Why didn’t that woman—”
“Arane,” Maia supplied.
Jyn nodded. “Why didn’t she just hire Saw to do it all? Instead of passing these imagecasters off to strangers, we could have worked as a team.”
Maia nodded darkly. “I don’t think Saw likes it, either,” she said in a low voice. “But the anti-Imperial groups are too spread out. We have to work together when we can. This could be a good thing, a sign of a forthcoming alliance.”
Jyn frowned, remembering what Saw had said about Arane not liking humans. Even though Saw worked with Jari and Xosad and others who weren’t human, the majority of his cadre was. She somehow doubted that Arane wanted anything to do with Saw other than paying him to do whatever dirty work she didn’t want the nonhumans doing.
The ship jumped to hyperspace, and Jyn heard the familiar thump of Saw’s boots on the metal flooring. “This is the way Arane works,” he said, shooting Jyn and Maia a look that told them he’d heard their conversation. “Keeps things secure.”
“But we usually don’t work like this,” Jyn said.
Saw frowned. “Maybe we should.”
“Or maybe,” Maia interrupted, “we should work closer together. Idryssa—”
Saw growled, and Maia clamped her lips shut.
He jerked his head toward the back of the ship. “Go change,” he said, tossing Jyn the large satchel he’d carried aboard.
Jyn opened it to reveal a set of Inusagian robes in petal green, with gold embroidery on the hem that matched the sparkling sakoola blossoms Jyn had seen in the imagecaster’s holo.
“We need to blend in,” Saw said, grimacing.
“It’ll do you good to clean up,” Maia said, pulling out her own bag from the storage unit.
“Go on,” Saw growled.
Jyn headed to a more private corner and stripped her clothes. She thought of the beautiful, young, and obviously na?ve chieftess of Inusagi as she took off her usual pants and shirt and replaced them with the finely embroidered cloth. She carefully tucked her kyber crystal necklace under the robe and smoothed the material over her body. She was usually proud of the way she didn’t look like a girl—she would much rather show off her biceps than her breasts—but that day she relished her curves, winding the cloth tightly around her torso and admiring the way it swished around her legs and hips when she moved. She pulled her hair out of its usual messy bun, arranging it as best she could so it curled down her back. Saw didn’t exactly keep cosmetics around, but Jyn dusted her face with the talc she found in the bag and bit her lips to make them pinker.
“Nice,” Maia said. She wore a similar set of robes, but there was extra padding around her body, making her look fatter than she was. Maia had also stripped the synthskin gloves from her hands. She kept twisting her fingers, as if unused to feeling the world with her actual skin.