“Ani! Could you help me with these boxes? I think they’re a bit too heavy…”

  “Sure, Mom. Here, let me…” Anakin raised his hand and focused hard and after a few seconds the heavy box on the palate lifted in the air as Anakin used the Force. Mom walked over to him as he focused on keeping the box to trail slightly behind her to drift through the air. She walked past him and he waited until the box passed him before following after her towards the house.

  She held the door open for him and he floated the box inside and slowly lowered it in the kitchen.

  “What are they?” he asked as Mom started moving some of the clutter in the room to make space for unloading whatever was in the big crate that Anakin had just floated inside.

  “Oh, nothing much. Just some things Slarena wanted for that new speeder bike that she’s building.”

  “I can help-” Anakin said before Mom gave him a look.

  “She wants to do it by herself,” she said firmly before lifting the lid and stopping for a moment.

  “Actually, we should just take it to the garage,” Mom said, “I don’t know why I told you to bring it here.”

  “Okay. Stand back, I’ll lift it again.”

  They went into the garage and placed the box down in the corner.

  “Make sure to not stack them,” Mom said, “I don’t want Slarena trying to lift them alone. Bacta isn’t cheap, and we can’t take it for granted. It was hard enough getting them out of the hovercar with the two of us lifting it together. ”

  “I’m sure she knows, mom. But I’ll make sure to not stack them. You could just ask one of the droids for help. They’re strong enough for it.”

  “I’d rather not have them wandering around the house all the time. We can do it ourselves if we’re both around. Alright. Let’s go, there’s another eight crates or so more out there.”

  Anakin followed behind his mom and used the Force to move the boxes inside and line them up against the wall. In the center of the space was a large hump covered in a large tarp. Slarena’s half assembled speeder.

  Built from scratch without anyone but Mom to help her if Slarena was in the right mood.

  Anakin understood, he was a little too good at it. He designed droids for a living after all. But it was a little frustrating standing by when he knew that if he helped her then it could be done in a few days at most.

  But it was her project, so Anakin let Slarena do her own thing.

  “Oh, by the way. When is Slarena coming back from town?” He asked as his mind turned to her.

  “I think she said in two or three hours? She took the hovercar to buy some groceries. She wanted to do some other errands too while she was out. It’s only a fifteen minute’s drive from here. Anything that you might want for dinner tomorrow? I’m sure it’s nowhere as fancy as what you have at your new office, but still…”

  “Your food’s great, mom,” Anakin said, “The food there’s fine, but nothing to brag about. Better than the standard stuff, but definitely not like something that’s home cooked.”

  “Oh, you’re just saying that. Hey, Slarena and I were thinking of closing up the shop for a bit. Maybe go on a family vacation together. It’s been a while since you’ve taken a break from your important job. And the town can survive a bit without us around.”

  Anakin hesitated. He’d been making breakthroughs on the Tactical command droid project recently… But he always had something like that in the works. And it would be nice to take a little break.

  “Ok, Mom. Sounds good. Maybe in two weeks I could get off? Maybe three at the most? Where would you want to go? How long?”

  “Well I’ve heard that there’s a few tropical beach worlds that we could visit. Get to swim a bit in the ocean. Wouldn’t that be great? You know, even Slarena’s never been swimming before. I’ve got a few worlds that I’ve heard of in town that are good for tourists…”

  They started planning as mom pulled out her holopad and started showing Anakin the research on the places that they could go. They sat on the couch together and he leaned his head against her shoulder as they both looked at the screen as Mom flipped through the different ocean worlds and the tourist locations they could go to. Mom leaned her head against him too as they continued talking and Anakin felt the rough and pitted skin from her scarred face rub against his hair. Even after all of this time, she still hadn’t had the doctors fix her appearance back to how it had been. Mom said it gave her ‘character’ now. He’d given up trying to convince her to change it a while ago. She was happy with it, and now it just felt like a part of her that he barely even noticed except for times like now when he was reminded.

  “So, Ani? What do you think? How long can you take off of work?” Mom asked after they’d looked through all the destinations, “Money’s not really a problem, what with your job and Slarena and my general store. But we don’t want to get in the way of your important work for Count Dooku.”

  “No, it’s fine,” Anakin said, “It’s always the same, you know that. I’m sure they won’t mind if I take some time off. The requisitions team kind of hates me because of how many specialty components I’m always requesting for all of the projects that I’m working on. I’m sure that they’ll enjoy me taking a break too.”

  “Hey, your mother is a ‘requisitions’ person too. I’ve got to order all of the products for our store,” Mom said, “It’s not as easy a job as it may look.”

  “Still, they’re always so grumpy about it. Although they have to deal with the finance types, so maybe that’s it actually… What do you think of our new droids?”

  “Er, well. They’re very nice and intimidating Ani,” Mom said and raised her cheek off of the top of his head, “But don’t you think that it’s just a bit… excessive? I mean we already have over thirty of those commando droids roaming around with their bunker under the house that they come out of. The anti-air lasers on the roof, even a personal shield generator just for our property, that's the strongest they have from what you’ve told me… And who knows how many traps and defenses you’ve put on our exterior walls around the edge of our whole property. I didn’t even know they made those big shield generators for places smaller than cities. Don’t you think those seven Droideka are a bit too much on top of all of that? They can’t even help around outside if I ask, all they do is fight.”

  “They’ll be down in the bunker below, we’ll hardly even notice them,” Anakin countered and sat up slightly, “The commando droids are great for detecting intruders and sneaking around, but the Droidekas can get shot over and over and survive in a real fight. They can use their ball form to quickly roll to anywhere they need to quickly and deploy with their personal bubble shield that they can shoot through with their blasters by turning it on and off really quickly. And with the rocket boosters I put on them in their ball form, they can even jump up and over our wall and land on the other side safely and deploy if someone’s attacking outside of the walls. Having them makes all of us much safer. You and Slarena safer.”

  Mom sighed, but then nodded.

  “Ok, Ani. I just don’t want you to obsess over it. We’re all safe now, and under Count Dooku’s protection. We’ve got our business, you’ve got your job with the CIS. Things are good now. And the Republic’s almost completely done away with the Hutts by now, so none of them will bother to come after us either.”

  “I know. I know. I’m not obsessing, just… Making sure. The Droikeka’s will help if someone really does attack us.”

  “I just worry, is all. I want you to try having a good life, away from everything in our past. Be happy. Maybe get a girlfriend too…”

  “Mom! C’mon. I… I’m busy with work! I don’t have time for that…”

  “Mmhm. I’m just teasing, Ani. I know you’re busy. Just think about yourself a bit more. And maybe hide away all the combat droids if you want to take her home.”

  “Oooooh, someone’s projecting,” Slarena’s voice came from the door, “Mommy has a seeeeeccccret, Ani!”

  “Slarena! I already told him about the vacation,” Mom said pointedly as Slarena walked over and plopped down onto the couch on Anakin’s right and casually spread out so both her arms were running along the back of the couch and behind Anakin’s shoulders.

  “Sure, we’ll go with that,” Slarena replied with a knowing smirk and glance at mom, “Sounds like fun, right Ani? We’ll all get to learn how to swim together. Lounge around as the droids serve us drinks. I’m sure there will be some pretty girls there that you could talk to while your mom and I sit around.”

  “Er, Slarena. How was your trip to town?” Anakin asked, blushing a little at Slarena’s teasing despite himself, “You finish your errands?”

  “Yep. Nothing big. I’ve still got to unload the hovercar from the food and other stuff I got. I still think it’s so bizarre how nice people are here. I mean they actually, like, know my name and say hello when I walk by. And don’t threaten to stab me if I bump into one of them accidentally. Bizarre.”

  “Yes, I thought it a bit weird as well,” Mom agreed, “But it is rather comforting too, I think. That people are so friendly to us. To have some friends there.”

  “Yeah. Nice,” Slarena mimicked Mom.

  “So, what did you think of the planets Ani?” Slarena asked, “Anything catch your eye?”

  “Well, there was one…” he said slowly and they started discussing the family vacation as a group.

  — — —

  Things were growing more tense recently in the Outer Rim. The Republic occupation of Hutt space was still ongoing. And even if the Senate had voted to free the slaves there, it had taken a long time for them to do so. Nearly a full year of occupation with only scattered Hutt forces fighting back for a short time before collapsing and faltering.

  For the last six months, the newfound freedom of all of the slaves in Hutt space was causing unrest across the galaxy as the now former slaves on the Hutt worlds either fled as fast as they could elsewhere in the galaxy with nothing but the clothes on their backs or worked to take revenge on their old masters. Wealthy old masters that the Republic did their best to protect much to the freed slaves' anger.

  The Republic seemed to think that the slaves should be grateful to them. After a full year of waiting to free them, and then protecting their old masters and leaving them with nothing but poverty and their lives as soon as their shackles were removed.

  It only made Anakin’s work all that more important. To make sure that the droid armies were ready when the CIS declared itself free from the Republic’s corruption.

  Anakin climbed into his personal ship and flicked a few switches to activate it. He shook his head to brush away his thoughts on galactic politics as he focused on flying the ship. The vessel smoothly lifted into the air on its thrusters and flew up into orbit. The ship traveled quickly to the capital of the planet before descending down back to the Techno-Union headquarters. He landed on his reserved landing pad and stepped outside, having traveled almost halfway across the planet in less than twenty minutes.

  He walked inside the building and waited another few minutes to get through the security before entering his lab. Dooku had put him in charge of the lab when he first arrived. There was an actual operations manager that helped Anakin out, but he decided the directions of their droid projects. After some agreements with the Techno-Union, Dooku and the CIS had created these more public facing labs that Anakin and the others at the old isolated CIS base could work at. He wasn’t exactly sure what the outside world thought that he and the others worked on, but all he knew was that the Techno-Union did plenty work in the background to keep the true nature of their work hidden and create excuses that would make sure that the Republic wouldn’t be suspicious of what they were doing.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  Sadly, all of Anakin’s old friends had been dispersed around the galaxy to labs spread across dozens of Techno-Union branches in the outer rim. But he was able to send them messages occasionally and chat every once in a while, which was nice.

  Anakin walked into the lab proper and after sitting at his desk started looking over the designs that he’d been tinkering with yesterday.

  “Still working on the Tactical Command droid project, Mr. Skywalker?”

  Anakin looked up from the screen to see his assistant and lab coordinator standing there.

  “Yes, just looking it over again, Trask. I feel like I’ve almost fixed the issue with some of the logical loops they are getting stuck in during our tests.”

  “Of course sir,” Trask replied, “It gets better every day. You still want the team working on section four of the brain while you focus on section seven and the larger broader scale logical loops?”

  “Yes, section four has me stumped,” Anakin admitted, “Have the team work away at it while I focus on some other issues that aren’t as frustrating. Anyways, before we get distracted with work I wanted to tell you that I’ll be taking a vacation soon. Three weeks that I’ve approved with management at the end of the month. Is there anything that the team needs that I should help with for when I’m gone?”

  Trask rubbed his chin, surprised at Anakin’s statement.

  “Huh. Guess you deserve a vacation more than anyone. Techno-Union management or the CIS?”

  “Both. But mostly the CIS. That’s who we actually work for,” Anakin reminded him, “Just think about it and talk it over with the team. We still have two weeks until I go, so no rush.”

  “Of course. What about this vacation? Where are you going? Going on a trip?”

  “Yes, we’re thinking of going to…”

  Anakin and Trask chatted about the destination that Anakin and his family had decided on going on.

  “Is your mom’s Twi’lek friend staying to run their store?” Trask said casually, “With you and your mom going on vacation?”

  “She’s coming with us,” Anakin said, a little confused by the statement, “The store’s shutting down while we’re gone.”

  “Oh? She is? But I thought you said it was just your family going… I thought it was only you and your mom?”

  “And Slarena. She’s family,” Anakin said, growing a little annoyed by Trask’s thoughtless words.

  “Really? But isn’t she a Twi’lek? How could she…?”

  “Oh, er. Sorry. Of course,” Trask said, seeming to realize his mistake as Anakin glared at him for a moment before Anakin forced himself to relax.

  “Well, er. I better go tell the team about your upcoming vacation then so we can plan ahead,” Trask said a little awkwardly before beating a hasty retreat away from Anakin’s desk.

  Anakin let out a long breath and sat back in his chair. Trask’s casual speciesism was just how he was raised, the man just honestly didn’t think that humans should mix with other species as anything more than coworkers. Sticking to their own kind, he had said one time. Back when Anakin had confronted him, the first time he said something speciest after they first met.

  It was annoying, but he wasn’t rude or discriminating against the non-humans in their lab from what Anakin had heard, so it wasn’t something worth firing or confronting the man over. Trask did try to be polite and friendly with everyone, even if his speciesism still poked through every once in a while.

  It really was a shame that he was so good at his job besides that one irritating part of him. At least if he was incompetent then Anakin could justify to himself firing him despite the man doing his best to be non-confrontational.

  Anakin turned back to his work, his mood slightly soured by the conversation with Trask. Maybe he actually needed a vacation more than he thought…

  Anakin turned back to the diagram. Maybe at the end of the project he could get one of these droids for the house. They could coordinate the other droids and make sure that they were working at maximum efficiency.

  — — —

  The three of them stood at the edge of the fancy pool warily, staring into the water. Taking the plunge, Anakin slowly stepped forward and took a step inside. After a moment mom and Slarena followed after him until they were standing in the water up to their waists.

  The store near the hotel had a whole selection of all sorts of bathing suits to choose from. Mom was wearing a revealing blue bathing suit that exposed her stomach and stretched like a circular band around her chest and with a triangular bottom piece of cloth at her waist as a separate piece.

  Slarena was wearing a much more conservative green one piece bathing suit that had short sleeves and ran all the way up to her neck and down to legs that ended down at her knees and elbows.

  Anakin was wearing a puffy pair of blue bathing shorts and was shirtless.

  All of them slowly squatted down until they were under the water up to their necks and staring at each other.

  “Ready for your first swimming lesson?” the instructor said where he stood to the side and watched them, “First timers? No need to worry, we have protection systems. No risk of drowning at all at our facilities. Let’s get started. First we’ll start with treading water. It’ll go like this…”

  Over the course of a few hours, the three of them slowly learned to cautiously swim around the pool. All of them almost drowned at least a few times, but a pair of droid arms hovering over the pool reached down and fished them out before it went too far.

  Finally at the end of it, the three of them were swimming on their own in water above their heads. The instructor had left, but they still had more time with the pool all to themselves. After practicing her swimming a bit more, mom started looking nervous and then swam back to the shallow end and stood. Slarena looked tense too, but seeing Anakin still making slow laps she got a stubborn look on her face and kept going.

  Eventually seeing that Slarena was getting tired, Anakin faked exhaustion and went to join his mom to stand in the shallow end. Slarena kept going for another minute or so before finally relenting and coming to join them, huffing and puffing but a slightly proud smile on her face.

  “You’re quite the swimmer, Slarena!” Mom said, “Longer than even Ani!”

  “I know! That was close, Ani. I never thought you’d give up,” Slarena said happily and reached out to ruffle Anakin’s hair while still huffing and puffing as she stood there in the water.

  “Yeah, good job Slarena,” Anakin replied, “That was fun. I want to show you something I read about in the hotel pamphlet. Stay still. Watch closely and open your mouth as wide as it can go.”

  “Okay,” Slarena said and stared at him and opened her mouth as wide as if about to take a big bite out of a sandwich as mom also watched him curiously from the side.

  Anakin waited a second for the suspense to build, before cupping his hands and with all of his strength splashed Slarena right in the face with the pool water. She spluttered and fell back and started coughing and rubbing her eyes as she let out a surprised gasp.

  “Ani!” Mom scolded, “Slarena, are you—”

  “Oh, it’s on kid!” Slarena said and with a swoop of her arm splashed Anakin back.

  Anakin blinked, stumbling himself slightly from the surprise counter attack.

  “What are-”

  “Oh, you’re getting it too!” Slarena said and splashed Mom too, “Just watching your son ambush your best friend like that? You’re guilty too!”

  “Guilty?” Mom said after she recovered from the water in her eyes, “Let’s get her, Ani!”

  They started splashing each other furiously. Alliances were quickly made and broken and by the end of it they were all laughing and having fun and even more exhausted than before.

  “Oof. I’m tired,” Mom said, “Want to get out of the water? The pamphlets said we should dry off on those nearby chairs, right?”

  “It did say that. I think our timeslot ends in a bit,” Slarena said, “This place will be public again soon. Maybe we’ll get to watch other people swim.”

  They climbed out of the pool and sat on the reclined white chairs and started drying off as they relaxed, exhausted from all the exercise and fun they’d just had.

  “I wonder what the ocean will be like,” Slarena mused as they lay there relaxing, “To swim in it. It looks so big from the hotel room. So much water…”

  “Yeah,” Anakin agreed lazily, feeling lethargic as the hot sun beat down on him to contrast with his cold body from the chilled pool, “Amazing.”

  He slowly closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, comfortable as the pleasant warmth washed over him.

  — — —

  “...own a general store now. It’s our first time swimming actually. We were the ones taking lessons before now.”

  “Two beautiful women like you? You must get plenty of customers.”

  Anakin slowly opened his eyes and was slightly disappointed as he no longer felt the head from the sun anymore. He must have gotten sunburned and had his body adapt to the heat while he was asleep. He sat up slightly and squinted as he saw mom and Slarena standing and sitting at a nearby table with a man with a chiseled jaw and gleaming skin as he stood there only in an orange swim shorts with a white floral pattern over them.

  “Oh, you bet!” Slarena said, “Shmi here brings them in for kilometers around.”

  “Oh, stop it Slarena,” Mom said with a giggle, “We do only have one competitor. It’s one or the other in town.”

  “He wakes!” the handsome man said as he noticed Anakin sitting up and looking around to the pool that now had a few people swimming in it or milling around the edge.

  “Anakin,” Mom said, “This is Creo Arscata. He’s staying here at the hotel like us.”

  “Yes, another two weeks for me and then back home again,” Creo said casually, “This is your son, Slarena, Shmi?”

  “My son. Slarena’s just a close friend to me,” Mom said, “Not a gene donor.”

  “Oh. Yes, I didn’t think he looked half-Twi’lek. Huh, I really thought that you two were a couple! You’re so cute with each other!”

  “Nope,” Slarena said, letting the world roll off of her lips, “Shmi has her eyes on someone else. A certain customer seems to only come around when she’s working the counter…”

  Mom looked back at Anakin and blushed as she saw his wide eyed look.

  Creo laughed. “Uh oh! The boy’s in shock! Someone’s said too much.”

  Mom glared at Slarena, “Yes. Someone has.”

  “Uh,” Slarena said and looked put on the spot as she glanced at Anakin, “I kinda thought he already knew? Didn’t they meet a few times…”

  “Shush!” Mom said and glared at Slarena, “No more!”

  “Tell me Slarena!” Anakin demanded as he sat up and walked over to their table and sat down next to Slarena so she was sitting between him and his mom, “Who is it? Should I send one of the droids after him?”

  “No, no. He’s a good one,” Slarena assured him, “Don’t worry, I already made sure that his intentions were pure.”

  Anakin relaxed, “Oh, okay. Thanks.”

  Mom looked furious.

  “You did what?! What did you say to him? When was this? Did he… He really was coming just to see me?”

  “It was right after we opened the shop,” Slarena said, “And didn’t I tell you why he was there? You two, always circling each other all the time and not confessing… Maybe you should just wear that outfit to the shop next time he walks in and see how he reacts.”

  Mom looked down to her revealing bathing suit and then back at Slarena.

  “Do you think that that would work?”

  Slarena put a finger on Mom’s forehead and gently pushed her back.

  “Doh. That’s a bit too strong, girl. He might collapse on the spot if he sees you like this. I was just joking. Just ask him out already.”

  “Well, I don’t know… What if he doesn’t feel the same way?” Shmi said shyly.

  “Hey Creo. How did you meet your wife?” Slarena said as she turned to the man watching the byplay with an amused smile, “Shmi here is a little inexperienced in love if you know what I mean. Anakin here was basically a freak occurrence. My girl needs some advice.”

  Creo laughed, “Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday. There we were at the club, and our eyes met across the dancefloor…”

  He launched into a long winded story about him and his wife as mom relaxed slightly while shooting some nervous glances at Anakin occasionally.

  “Anyway, nice to meet you Creo,” Slarena said eventually, “Hopefully we’ll see you and your family around the hotel. What are your wife and daughter up to now?”

  “Not quite sure myself. Researching restaurants for tonight in our hotel room, last I heard from them. We’ll see where I’ll be ordered to go in the end. See you lovely ladies and Anakin around later.”

  Creo winked at Anakin before standing up and walking off to go back into the attached hotel.

  Slarena glanced at mom and Anakin and cleared her throat, “I am going to go find us some food nearby. I’ll be back in… an hour or two probably. Bye for now.”

  She stood up and walked off briskly as Mom took a deep breath and then chuckled as she saw Slarena leaving.

  “That woman…” she muttered.

  She and Anakin sat there awkwardly for a few seconds, not saying anything.

  “So…. What do you think?” she asked hesitantly.

  “About what?”

  “About, you know. Me seeing people. I wasn’t sure how you’d feel considering you’ve never had a father in your life… I don’t know how I feel about it still.”

  “Oh. As long as it makes you happy then it’s fine. If Slarena says that he’s okay then he’s probably good. And I really will send one of the droids after him if he hurts you.”

  “Thanks, Ani,” she said in relief and gave him a quick side hug, “I worried, even if I knew it’s irrational.”

  “Who is it? The guy?”

  “Riktor. You’ve met him a few times.”

  “Riktor… Riktor. Oh yeah. He helped us with those boxes that one time. I remember him. Are you going to ask him to go out with you when we get back?”

  Mom looked thoughtfully for a moment, “Probably,” she admitted, “Despite how Slarena is, she’s right most of the time. I’ll just have to muster the courage to actually ask him for real.”

  Something tickled at the back of Anakin’s mind and he frowned.

  “Hey Mom. Why did Slarena pick a bathing suit that’s so much more conservative than yours? She always seems so confident, it's out of character for her to be so shy.”

  “Well, that’s… You know how kind she really is beneath that tough exterior. She’s just a bit more sensitive about people looking at her like that. Well without her wanting them to at least. Much more sensitive than most people would be.”

  “She does? But she seemed fine around Creo?” Anakin asked confused, “And other guys too? I’ve seen her flirt with plenty of people before.”

  “It’s not the same. She approached them, not the other way around. And I was here with her when Creo came over and first introduced himself. She’s strong, but that doesn’t mean she still doesn’t have things that she’s sensitive about. It’s up to her if she wants to share her past with us. We’re happy now, I’m happy to help her leave the past behind if that’s what she wants.”

  “Leaving the past behind,” Anakin repeated, “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Right.”

  They moved on to talk about lighter topics after that. Discussing what they wanted to do tomorrow for their vacation. Eventually Slarena returned holding six sticks with some kind of sizzling meat and vegetables skewered on them.

  “Found these,” Slarena said, seeming upbeat, “Eat up, I’ve already sampled one and it was worth the extra walk to find the stand.”

  She handed two sticks with the skewered food to the each of them and promptly sat down and started chewing on her own food, looking satisfied.

  Anakin eyed her for a moment before starting to eat himself. They were happy now, that was what mattered. Not whatever happened in the past.