Project Boussh: Picking Up The Marbles
by Josh Nolan

Vickie slowly roused from the trance at the intermittent knocking at her
door.  "Come in," she called, unhooking herself from the lotus position.

The door opened, revealing one of the Australians juggling a thermos
flask, two plastic cups and a plate of biscuits in one hand, using the
other to work the panel on the door.  Vickie guessed from the young
man's beard that he was Josh.  "Gidday," she said puzzledly, using the
traditional Australian greeting.

Josh winced.  "Please.  Do I go around saying, 'Howdy partners' all the
time?  But g'day."  He shifted the plate into his empty hand and
proffered them with a small flourish.  "I bring biscuits."

Vickie stood and took the biscuits off Josh's hands, and he gestured
with the thermos.  "Mike made this up - I guess he's feeling more
English than usual today."

Vickie placed the biscuits on the small table in the room that passed as
her cell.  She turned to Josh and asked, "What brings you here?"

Josh shrugged, and said, "A few things."  He placed the thermos and cups
on the table, reached into the ridiculously puffy jacket he was wearing
and withdrew two lightsabres.  "These, for a start.  I was hoping you'd
be willing to give me a few pointers."

Vickie glanced down at the two metal cylinders and back up at Josh.
"They let you bring those in to me?"

Josh held out the familiar form of Corran's spare lightsabre to Vickie,
and said, "Well, they have been powered down for sparring.  And let's
face it, if you wanted out of here, you'd have gotten out of here a
while back, lightsabre or no lightsabre.  That's what convinced Wedge,
anyway."

Vickie took the lightsabre off Josh, and smiled at him.  "You know, that
accent's kinda cute.  Say, 'Put another shrimp on the barbie', would
you?"

Josh chuckled.  "Only if you say, 'Yee-haw let's shoot some critters,
y'all'."

Vickie grinned.  "All right then.  And you want to know why I let Brad
go."

Josh looked taken aback for a second, then said, "Yeah.  I guess you
didn't need the Force to figure that one out, eh?"

Vickie smiled ruefully and shook her head.  "Nope.  It's only what
everyone's been coming in here to ask."  She held up her lightsabre.
"Did you want to start?"

Josh nodded, and lifted his own lightsabre.  He activated it, the bright
pink blade hissing into life, falling into a hypnotic hum as it
stabilised.  "Why not?"

Vickie activated Corran's lightsabre, and looked Josh's weapon over.  "I
can't say I think much of the colour," she said, nodding at the blade,
smiling.

"Well, it's not like it was my choice.  I mean, what am I going to do,
repaint it?"

"Where did you get it, anyway?"

"A bunch of Farmboy fanatics decided they wanted to capture themselves a
real live alien.  Only they weren't so concerned about the 'live' bit.
They got a bunch of guns from somewhere and came looking for Ooryl and
me.  Ooryl had spanked a few of them at X-Wing Alliance and I guess they
took it way too personally.  I mean, they were trying to kill us.  So,
we led them out into the desert and... well..."

Vickie caught flashes of chaotic memory from Josh through the Force, and
gasped.  "That couldn't have been easy for you."

"Hell no.  It was the first time anyone had shot at me, trying to kill
me.  And we didn't exactly have the option of stunning them, either.  If
we'd done it in a city, they would have been able to track us down.  If
we'd done it in the desert,  they'd either have kept following us if we
left their cars with them, or died of thirst if we hadn't."

"Couldn't you have shaken them off, or something?"

"We tried that.  They called the police, gave my car's numberplate,
reckoned I'd done... something or other.  So the police pulled us over
and questioned us - that wasn't much fun.  The story they'd been given
fell apart bloody quickly, though, so the police left us alone after
that, but the Farmboy fans..."  Josh shook his head.  "Anyway, to cut a
long story short, Ooryl found this on one of their bodies, and it turned
out it was real.  I have no idea what they were doing with it, but here
it is."

Vickie nodded, and said, "Weird."

"You bet.  Shall we begin?"

Vickie began demonstrating the basic parries.  "It's important not to
let your wrists cross," she said while demonstrating the low left
parry.  "Just try and roll the blade."

Josh nodded, and took up the basic guard position.  "You're
left-handed?" asked Vickie, noting the way the Australian gripped the
lightsabre's hilt.

Josh nodded, and Vickie said, "Fine.  Then mirror me."  She began to
take Josh through the basic motions.  "So, are you another Jedi
wannabe?"

"Nope, just a schlub with a lightsabre.  But I thought I'd try and learn
how to use it in an actual fight without it jumping around so much."  He
repeated the low right parry, rolling the blade as Vickie did.

"How come you had to come and see me to practice?  Didn't Corran want to
do it?"  Vickie began to repeat the sequence of movements, faster this
time

"He's busy with Mike.  Corran's got him practicing on a target drone,
and I wouldn't be of much help there.  Even with my eyes open.  Anyway.
Brad.  What's the deal with him?"  He nailed the lower right parry on
the first try this time, and Vickie began the sequence again, fast
enough so the lightsabres' hum changed pitch as the blades moved and
stopped.

"Patience is the Jedi way, Josh."

"And so is being needlessly obscure, it seems."  Josh said with a small
smile.  Vickie began the sequence again, even faster this time.

"Brad's a confused boy," Vickie said, helping Josh fall into a rhythm
with the motions.  "But his heart's in the right place."

"It's a pity his brain isn't," said Josh, beginning to move fluidly as
the motions became more natural.

"Now, now," chided Vickie.  "Don't let your point of view blind you.
I've seen inside Brad's mind.  His loyalties, when he gives them, are
strong.  He's honourable in his way.  He's willing to risk his life for
his friends.  Close your eyes, feel the rhythm."

"Hmm, not enough bass," Josh mused jokingly as he complied, whipping the
blade cleanly through the air.  "But is that any reason to put the rest
of us at risk?"

Vickie stopped her movement and watched Josh for a moment, feeling the
rhythm of his future movements through the Force.  When she had it, she
lashed out with her lightsabre, striking in the directions each parry
was strongest against.

Josh opened his eyes at the sound of the first clash of blades, the
gleaming beams of energy hissing and spitting as they collided.  He kept
up his rhythm, lightsabre humming, blocking each of Vickie's strikes in
turn, finally blocking her blade only millimetres from his right leg.

Josh stared down at where the blades sat spitting at the contact, and
then looked back up at Vickie.  "That was cool."

"Care to try an actual spar?"

"Sure.  Let's go."

They circled for a few moments in the smallish room, their lightsabres
humming.  "I don't think I am putting us at risk," continued Vickie,
opening herself to the Force.  "I believe Brad would rather die than
harm us."

"That's a whole lot of faith," said Josh, and sprang to the attack with
a salvo of rapid strikes, Vickie parrying each one effortlessly.  "What
if, instead of listening to the Force, you've made a well-meaning
mistake?  The road to Hell, and all that."

"I can't believe that," said Vickie, unnervingly calm as Josh backed
off.  "Believe me, I've meditated on this, and it's only convinced me
further.  I have to believe in the Force, and I have to believe in what
it tells me about him."

"Okay, so deep down he's good," said Josh, snapping his blade out in a
lightning-fast strike that Vickie swatted into the ground.  "But that
doesn't make everything okay, you know."  He brought the blade up in a
ground-to-sky slash, but Vickie batted it out of line with a flick of
her wrist.  Josh twisted the motion into a right-to-left slash which
Vickie blocked firmly on her vertical lightsabre.  "Just because Anakin
Skywalker was redeemed shortly before he died, doesn't mean everything
he did while Darth Vader suddenly became okay."  Josh disengaged,
dropped into a crouch and swiped at Vickie's legs, forcing her to jump
over the blade.  Josh sprang upright again and backed away a step or
two.  "And I've heard him talk about Piggy.  Even if he doesn't mean any
harm to us, he sure as hell wants to do something to Piggy."

"He'll grow out of it," stated Vickie confidently, sidestepping a lunge
from Josh.  "He can't not."  She caught Josh's blade above her head, the
beams of light snarling as they touched.

"I wish I had your assurance," said Josh, and whipped his blade around
towards Vickie's legs.  She interposed her blade at waist height and
Josh's strike skittered off it to the floor.  "But he seems to be an
immature kid who's grumpy that the grownups don't want to play his game
by his rules."  Josh backed off and resumed his guard.  "That's the
reason he's pissed at Piggy, I think."

"But don't you think he's got a right to be mad?" asked Vickie, lowering
her guard slightly.  "It should be what's in his heart that counts, not
his past."

Vickie ducked Josh's head-high horizontal slash.  "But his past is what
shapes his present," said Josh as he recovered from the blow.  "He was
keeping secrets he didn't have to keep.  It's not too much of a stretch
to think of some nasty reasons why."  Josh launched an offensive, but
Vickie spun her blade almost nonchalantly, fending off each blow with a
crash of lightsabres.  "He's done some things that mean he's either
naive, stupid or against us.  Occasionally all three."  Josh fell back
into the guard position.  "Listen, do you want have a cup of tea or
something while we're sparring?  I wouldn't want to think this is too
much of an effort for you, or anything."

Vickie literally felt Josh's sarcasm washing off him.  "I didn't want to
hurt you by hitting back."

Josh smiled.  "Look, I know if I actually get in a lightsabre duel with
a Jedi, I'm toast.  But I want to know what it's like to try and hit
something with a lightsabre that's trying to hit me back."

"You want me to cut loose?" Vickie asked, eyebrows raised.

"Don't throw me around with the Force or anything, but at least try and
hit me."

Vickie shrugged.  "You asked for it."

Vickie's blade lashed out at his right, and Josh barely caught it.
Before he could riposte, Vickie had disengaged and was sweeping at his
right leg.  Josh hopped over the slash, trying to bring his blade down
on Vickie's head, but she swept the powered-down blade up between his
legs and out the top of his head.  Josh let out a noise somewhat akin to
'eurgh', dropped his lightsabre and crumpled to the ground, where he lay
for a while, shuddering occasionally.  "Are you all right?" asked
Vickie, crouching down next to him.

"Uh," groaned Josh.  "Ayuhnuhb.  Innannads.  Owwwwww."

"You did ask for it," said Vickie, laying a hand on Josh's forehead,
wishing she could ease his discomfort through the Force.  "I've been
stung before, but Corran never got me quite that badly."

"Thangyuh," muttered Josh, still writhing.  "Megsmefeelall... tingly."

Vickie helped Josh into a sitting position, and poured out a cup of tea
for him.  He gratefully took the cup, and after a few sips, gasped out,
"I think that's enough for today."

Vickie grinned.  "I guess so.  Are you all right to stand up?"

"I think so," said Josh, and slowly dragged himself to his feet, staying
slightly hunched over.  He retrieved his lightsabre from the ground and
put it back in his jacket.  "I sort of have to take yours away too," he
said apologetically.  Vickie nodded, and handed him the metal cylinder.

"So," Vickie asked with a smile.  "Who do you think has fewer marbles
now - me or Brad?"

Josh shot her a glance.  "You heard about that, eh?  Well, I'd say both
of you've got more than I thought you did before - but you're both still
a bit shy of a full set."  He held up his free hand.  "No offense."

"None taken."  Vickie said with a grin.  "I think it's kind of funny."

"Cool.  But I do have one last thing to say to you.  Somebody said you
compared Brad to Han Solo in front of Wedge.  Nick came up with what I
reckon's a better comparison - Castin Donn.  Think about it."

Vickie nodded.  "Believe me, I will."

"Excellent.  Well, thanks for the lesson, and goodbye."  Josh, still
hunched over, hobbled to the door and knocked on the inside.

"Bye," said Vickie absently, pouring herself a cup of tea.

As the door opened, Vickie heard Nick's voice asking, "So, what do you
reckon?"

As the door shut, Vickie could make out Josh's reply - "I reckon the're
about neck and neck."

Vickie smiled to herself, shook her head, and picked up a biscuit.