Something roused Mystic, grabbing the blaster she always kept close, she came up face to face with the smiling man. "You know one of these days...." she started.

"Your going to blow my head off, I know" he finished. Mystic eyed him critically for a minute, Ethan was his name, he had been the only one to stay on at the villa she had rented, she hadnt wanted anyone there, but the owners were adamant that at least one of their hired hands remained, mistrust she supposed, she was a pirate after all.

In the last six weeks she had made the decision to buy the little piece of heaven she had found utterly by accident really. She had landed on this backwater planet looking for a private spot to rejuvenate and had found out about this small island with only the single villa occupying it. Convincing the owners to rent it to her hadnt been hard at all, not with the credits she had offered. Convincing them to sell had been even easier, amazing really that as soon as she finalized the transfer she would actually own something tangible that wasnt in the stars.

Sighing as she sat up she looked across the expanse of water, as clear and sparkling as she had ever seen, it really was tranquil here.

"So your impending headlessness aside, have you made a decision on the offer I made?" She stretched as she awaited his reply.

"Actually I have decided to accept " Ethan answered simply.

"No worries about being called a pirate or henchman or any such?" Mystic smiled.

"They are already referring to me as your hireling back on the mainland, its not a big deal, money is money to me"

"Well I hope you continue to feel that way, we arent very popular with the law-abiding types, and most of the non-abiding types dont care for us either, but we are a good bunch."

"Not to mention, " she continued "most of them will kill for the slightest offense to someone they call friend"

"Thats a nice bonus I think" He countered, "Now if your fully awake from your cat nap, lunch is ready, and I have that list of potential house workers you asked for."

"You go ahead, I will be along in a few minutes." She turned her attention back to the ocean as he headed back up the trail. It really was a beautiful place, she couldnt wait to tell CLM about it. Most would probably laugh about her falling in love with a piece of land sitting in the middle of of the water on a remote planet. Mystic didnt care, it had been what she needed at the time. Six weeks of doing nothing but relaxing had done wonders for her, mentally and physically.

She had taken off a little suddenly, not long after the events with Borby. But when the doc had told her that she was overstressed she hadnt argued, she knew she had kept up a rigorous pace for the last few months. So she had set out on a journey to find the perfect spot to relax for a few days, at the time she didnt realize it would stretch into weeks. Oh she had kept in touch with CLM of course, her council had known why she was away, and could always reach her. She was starting to get restless however, it was time to get back.

As she made her way back to the small villa she admired the place she had had the good fortune to stumble upon. Located on a small planet in Bractus known only as Bractus IX, she hadnt even known it was populated until she had heard some miners talking about it. From the way they had talked, she thought it would be a perfect place for some quiet time. She had hoped to find a place where she wasnt known , but quickly realized that hope was futile. However, being so recognized had worked in her favor.

Once back at her room she admired her newly acquired tan as she changed from her swimsuit. The darker tone of her skin seemed to make her auburn hair glow brighter and her green eyes even greener. Looking again at the tattoo she had gotten what seemed like ages ago she thought that even that looked better with the tan. Laughing at her silly thoughts she sat down at her desk, giving Pagan the opening to jump in her lap. "Ok girl lets see whats going on back in the real world hmm?" She said as she opened up her com to check for any messages and to glance over the news.

Seemed there were a couple new groups that had shown up since she had been on her sabbatical, one was some pirate group and the other appeared to be a merc operation. Making a mental note to check out both, she checked her messages. Nothing from Borby yet, if that boy didnt contact her soon she was going to have to hurt him. Yoda was another that hadnt made contact in a while, tho Mystic knew he had his own reasons for being elusive.

Some would think having both the commander and first lieutenant out of touch would be a problem, but she had complete faith in her council and her other LT. Things were going very smoothly with CLM, no worries there. As a matter of fact a quick check on the guild finances showed a continued increase of funds, so they werent suffering in anyway. She would make a few calls later, but for now, lunch and that list Ethan had waiting.

Ten minutes later, Mystic was enjoying her lunch and the view when her comm chirped on her private channel. "Bout damn time you got in touch with me" she said as she opened the channel. "We need to talk a bit..." Mystic trailed off as yoda spoke,

"I had some things to take care of but Im back now, where the hell are you?" his tone sounded more worried than angry.

"I will tell you, but at this moment I want no one else to know, until after we talk k?" She gave him the coordinates and sat back sipping her drink while she waited for him to make the trip from Latos.

Mystic didn't need to ask when she heard the ruckus, yoda had arrived.

"Don't worry about who the hell I am, just worry about telling Mystic I'm here before I put a hole in ye!"

"Its ok Ethan, believe it or not he is no danger...to me at least" Mystic chuckled as she surveyed the scene she had walked in on;
Ethan blocking yoda's way and yoda trying very hard not to blow this guy that dared question him to smithereens.

"Nice to see you haven't changed in your time away...." She let the unasked question hang in the air as she turned a genuine smile to her friend.

"Don't be giving me no grief about being away, you have been missing yourself, hiding out on this backwater planet."

"First of all, I'm not hiding and CLM has been able to reach me via comm the entire time, second, this particular portion of this backwater planet as you call it is mine as soon as the documents are finalized."

"Your turning into a farmer?"

It was all she could do not to hit him, she chose to laugh instead, "Does this look like a damn farm to you? Its just a place to recover and rejuvenate, and believe me I needed it when I found it."

Yoda lost all humor from his voice, "You alright? I know it was rough for a while, but your ok?"

"Don't go burying me yet, I'm fine now, I just needed to get away for a while, burnout of a sort I guess, which is the main reason I wanted to talk to you."

"I was wanting to talk to you as well as soon as I got back"

"I want you to take CLM back over...."
"I want to take over CLM again......"

Both spoke at the same time, then both laughed.

"Well seems like there wont be any long discussion forthcoming, at least about what we each thought" Mystic was relieved, she never wanted yoda to think she didn't care about CLM. "So what made you decide you wanted the reins back?"

"I have some ideas I would like to implement, would be easier with me at the helm. I still want you by my side of course, You have done a wonderful job, don't ever think I don't know that. But what made you want to step down? Something happen I need to know about? " Yoda queried.

"Nothing you don't know about, I had pushed too hard and my body let me know it, that coupled with the stress of the war over Latos...So while I have been here I decided that CLM needs the CO at the top of their game and right now I'm just not."

"Do not think for a minute that I wont still be involved as much as possible and your not getting my office either," She continued..."We will have to find someone to clean yours up...if there is a person in the universe that brave."

Yoda snorted, "My office is just fine thank you, besides you need to keep yours, too neat and it smells like your perfume, chocolate and coffee."

As they talked Pagan had joined them and was sniffing around yoda, trying to decide whether he was going to be friendly or not, decided it didn't matter jumped up beside him on the chair, looking him right in the eyes.

Mystic laughed, "Seems she wants to be sure your real too"

"Why you insist on keeping these things around is beyond me, first one sends me home in an escape pod and now this one looks like she wants to do the same."

Mystic laughed out loud at the memory, her first ride along mate, Outlaw had inadvertently hit the firing button on her console one day, while she and yoda had been practicing some maneuvers and reduced the startled pilot's ship to rubble, the whole time he was fuming she couldn't stop laughing...to this day yoda insisted it was intentional.

"So how about a tour of my new haven while we discuss details?" Mystic asked

"Lead on, but leave that blasted feline here, along with your newly acquired bodyguard that's lurking about"

Mystic laughed again as she headed out the door with her favorite wingman at her side.

A Sat-Alert chimed on his board. A regular occurrence to be sure, but this particular satellite had been monitoring a not often traveled space, looking after a specific traveler.

Interesting...

He keyed his board, activating systems on the satellite no one in human space should have knowledge of, much less access to... The stealth satellite deployed a web of nano-bots as the ship flew toward the planet. The bots latched on to the ship undetected, accompanying it to the ground.

The bots mobilized the moment the ship made ground, riding air currents and their own miniscule propulsion systems to embed their detectors throughout the area. He waited...

And he listened...

New Development... Not entirely unexpected I suppose...

Cagy that one, always got on fine though...

Damn cats...

He watched as they wandered the grounds, listened to their idle chatter.

I should let them in. I should...

He considered it for only moments. He'd committed completely now, everything had been set in motion, but his agents weren't ready, preparations still needed to be made.

He typed a few more commands into his board ordering the bots to redeploy. Some to track the ship, a secondary net prepared to latch on to any other traffic that might wander through the sector, a couple spared to look into the bodyguard, just in case. Then he sat back in his chair and wondered for the thousandth time whether or not he was doing the right thing.

Not yet. It's not time, they're not ready.

None of them are.