(Star Wars) Laika & Arlaud Book 1 - Lady Sahshin's Sepulchre
Copyright© 2026 by Clee Hill
Chapter 6
Damn, Laika sighed. Somehow Arlaud had slipped out of bed without waking her ... or did she use her rengan abilities to hide from her? She needed to ask. For now she sat up a little, glanced up at the clock, and saw it was almost 6am. More than that, and possibly what woke her, were the smells of meat and porridge which were drifting from the mess where Arlaud must be, cooking for them. For her? Some combination of both.
After a quick visit to the head and swiftly dressing in just black trousers, black silk blouse which she left only partially open in the newer warmth of the ship, and a pair of black ballet slippers, she headed around the corridor to the mess, the door whooshing open as she stepped inside.
“Good morning, gilus,” she smiled, not at all surprised that Arlaud had either heard her come in, or knew she was coming anyway, though regardless of that she had caught her in mid-step as the porridge cooked and she was dancing to some soft music coming from the ceiling speakers.
“Oh! Hey! I was just...” she said, smiling and shrugging. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Do I mind a cute young blonde, the same blonde who kissed me very nicely last night, coming into the kitchen, preparing breakfast, and as she does so she is dancing for herself? No, Arlaud, I don’t mind at all. In fact, I would love to see you dance more, to music of your choosing and with the steps you want.”
“Really?”
Laika nodded, Arlaud momentarily glancing away to check the porridge, giving it a quick little stir.
“Have you ever been to one of the shows like I used to be in?”
“I have...” Laika said, very cautiously, not wanting to disappoint the younger woman, not sure why that mattered so much to her.
“It’s okay,” Arlaud whispered. “They’re not all slave shows, and I’m guessing they didn’t tell you if they were.”
“I wouldn’t have gone.”
“I know,” Arlaud smiled, Laika how relieved her simple smile made her feel. “So that kinds have you seen?”
“I’m not sure I know their names.”
“Nudes?” Arlaud grinned, eyebrows wiggling.
“No. I tend to visit restaurants with a dance stage where you can enjoy trying the meals of another culture, and either watch their traditional dances or listen to their music or both. The last one I saw was from a small region of a planet called Mullac, and their dances were very intricate. They danced in pairs, a male and a female, but the male was ‘handed’ from one female to another, some of the dances taking quite a long time before they all came back again to their original partners. Their coordination was very impressive.”
Arlaud shrugged. “I know a few formal steps, but where I was it was more about, hah, tantalising. Come closer to the customers, but away before than could touch. Show as much as you can, but never quite everything, except for the late-night shows, haha, when you showed everything.”
“And the steps you were dancing just?”
Arlaud shook her head. “Just listening to the music and reacting. This music is quite earthy, or that’s how it sounds to me when they have woodwind instruments the closest, so I was moving ... unthoughtfully. I don’t know the word, I wasn’t planning the moves, just letting it flow.”
“Like using the rengan to slip out of bed in the morning?” Laika asked, her eyebrow cocked.
“Who told you?” she whispered, looking left and right. “Which one was it? S1? S2? I bet it was S2 too, all mad at me for making her work all night,” she said, clearly not believing a word.
“Educated guess.”
“Ooh. So that’s what people go to school for,” she said, turning again, stirring again, tasting, and nodding as she reached for two bowls and began to ladle out their breakfasts.
“You didn’t get the chance I imagine? School, I meant, not that it matters, really,” Laika asked, curious to know how much she knew but without risking upsetting her if she was not happy about it.
“Oh. Some,” she said, continuing ladling. “We know how to read Basic in case we ever need to, and we know enough to be able to run a small dance troupe, if needed.”
“Really? I know you said something about it but what ways do you mean?”
“Basic maths, enough to be able to calculate percentages and profits, enough Basic to be able to get the gist of a contract, and maybe a little bit of how to deal with black markets, if you need to,” she grinned. “Oh, and health, not just for ourselves, but in case we are ever asked to check a slave, see if they are fit or not, you know, before an owner buys them.”
Laika shook her head. “That sounds like quite a lot.”
Arlaud shrugged. “They told us, some slave dancers can get to become ‘quite useful’, haha. I don’t think they wanted us to think we could ever be like, you know, a dance manager, but maybe their assistant. Don’t really know how far that went because, haha, I ‘went’ further,” she grinned, serving Laika her bowl before sitting down opposite to her with her own.
“This smells amazing.”
“Thanks. I was trying some of the new herbs. I had to keep adding lots to balance them all out,” she said as they eat took their first carefully blown spoonful. “Mm. Not bad. Needed more boar meat I think...”
“It tastes fine to me,” Laika said, the porridge quite thick, slightly yellow in colour, with plenty of chopped vegetables and some preserved meat to it, the whole being quite gamey already, she thought.
“Wait till next time,” Arlaud grinned. “I’m ... I’m not in trouble am I, for sneaking out?”
For a moment Laika was about to make a joke of how she wasn’t, but as she thought about it, she realised something else, something more important than a quick and easy tease. “Arlaud? You are not in trouble, and unless you were to try and break something deliberately ... You do understand that you can do things and not get in trouble for it. You don’t need permission for everything ... except that’s new for you, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” Arlaud nodded. “That whole, you know, lifetime of watching what you say and do, even who you look at and how? Going to take some unlearning.”
“Well ten, take that time, but don’t force it either.”
Arlaud put her spoon down a moment. “Thank you. I’ll try, I just might get it wrong a time or two. I’ve only been a free person for three days you know,” she grinned, picking up her spoon and getting on with her congee again.
“So is your meditation chamber ready?” Laika asked, trying not to sound as curious as she was, deliberately having refrained from asking S1 or S2 in case they accidentally revealed anything that Arlaud had wanted to show her herself.
“Yeah. S2 got it done in the middle of the night, and she promises it’s all dry now. She even moved my... Oh. She moved my cushion in there, ready,” Arlaud said, smiling at the realisation she could be given things, freely and without price. “You going to ‘sit’ on your throne today?”
“I think so, but before we do, I want to try something with you.”
“Me? What?” Arlaud asked, half panicking but the other half was a giggle.
“What I levitated yesterday, have ever done anything like that?”
“No. I didn’t know anyone could, other than magic shows and they’re always hidden rods and wires.”
“How do you think I did it?”
Arlaud shrugged. “Magic,” she smirked.
“Using the Force, hiding in the rengan, it’s all magic really, to anyone who doesn’t know. When you use the rengan to hide ... No, when you use it to see a predator, what do you do?”
“Look for where it’s different. Everything has a ... feel to it. We learn early on what predators ‘feel’ like, so we can tell if one is around, and when we’re older ... when they get older, how to hunt them.”
Laika nodded. “So you can tell things apart?”
“Yes...”
“Which is the first stage. Congratulations, you’ve already completed Part One of your training.”
“Cool. Do I get a prize?”
Laika laughed. “Sure. What would you like?”
“More kisses. Tonight?”
“Oh I think you were always getting those, and so was I.”
Arlaud looked thoughtful for a moment. “I, I liked it. Kissing you.”
“Would you like to kiss me now?” Laika asked, making her question sound casual even though the answer was obvious even to her droids.
“We’ve got time? I thought we had to exercise and meditate and—”
“—And there is always time to kiss cute young blondes.”
“There is?”
“There is.”
“I, I don’t have to ask, do I? It’s part of being free, too, isn’t it?”
Laika smiled. “Where would you like to me?”
“On your throne!” Arlaud laughed.
“Okay.”
“I was joking!” she panicked.
“Okay. What about here?” Laika said, easing her chair back a little.
“You mean on your lap?”
“I do. If you want. I’ll use the Force to make sure you don’t fall off.”
“And then you can teach me how to not fall off for myself after?”
“We’ll see. There are a couple of smaller steps first.”
“Oh. Okay. So, er, now?”
Laika smiled, smiling even more as she watched her young friend, dressed in only her scarf tied around her waist as some kind of not very complete skirt, come around the table, take her hand, and carefully climb up sideways onto Laika’s lap.
“Feeling safe?”
Arlaud nodded, smiling as she felt Laika slightly tighten the arm she had around her waist. “Thank you,” she said, turning to face Laika fully, her right hand to Laika’s left cheek as they kissed, tender and gentle and unhurried.
Laika sighed. “You can come kiss me anytime you want to, understand? You don’t need for me to ask or suggest.”
Arlaud nodded. “I’ll ... get used to it,” she said, grinning as she clearly made the determination for herself.
“Okay, so while you are here and relaxed—” Laika began, pausing as Arlaud glanced down to her chest. “—Mostly relaxed then, close your eyes a moment ... do whatever it is you need to do so you can concentrate of the rengan and how everything feels as it surrounds you ... now ... can you concentrate on the table ... good ... now, do you feel your spoon? Here, let me turn you a little ... there, so, do you feel it, feel how it feels different to the table...?”
It took a couple of moments, but Arlaud’s grin told her before she said, “Yes!”
Laika smiled, wondering if she knew she was whispering, as if she could frighten ‘it’ away. “Good. Now, without reaching out with your hand, simply imagine what it would look like if you were to lift your hand up with the spoon in it, how the spoon would gently lift into the air...”
Laika watched.
For a moment, nothing happened, nothing moved, but a moment later she had to work hard to hide her elation, not wanting to distract Arlaud as the spoon, wobbled, skittered a little, rattled, but as it settled, exactly as if someone were holding it, she watched the spoon lift soundlessly into the air. That was quick!
“Arlaud?” Laika whispered. “Very slowly, still concentrating, open your eyes...”
“I—”
“—Shh. Just open your eyes,” Laika said, watching, feeling deeply proud as Arlaud did as she said, saw her spoon, stationary in mid air.
“I did that?!” she asked—
—As the spoon came clattering back down onto the table.
“Oh. But I did that?” Arlaud asked, eyes wide in awe she might have, watching the spoon come to a halt.
“Yes you did,” Laika said, not even consciously forming the thought as she softly kissed the young woman’s cheek, Arlaud snuggling back into her embrace.
“But it fell.”
“It did, but with practice it won’t, and with more practice you will be able to lift bigger things. Like me. And bigger.”
“Bigger!? How big?”
Laika smiled. “It takes time and practice—”
“—So it’s a muscle? No? So like a muscle? No!? What then?” Arlaud asked, as if shaking off how she was trying to think of it, shaking off her preconceptions.
“Belief. Practice can make you more confident that you can do things, but when you learn to simply believe you can, then you will.”
“So if I believe I can float, I will?”
“You have to believe it in here,” Laika said, carefully laying her left hand over Arlaud’s chest. “Not your head, your heart.”
“And for that I need a naughty throne,” she grinned.
Laika laughed. “They really do help, at least they help some of us, and I think it might help you, too.”
“How do you know?”
“The way you move, there is a sensuousness to it that, an understanding of the rhythms of the universe. When you are ready, with practice, and yes, perhaps with the assistance of a ‘throne’ of your own, you will be able to access other ways to help you grow more powerful, more capable of reaching into the rengan, ‘borrowing’ it, and using it to do almost anything you can imagine.”
“Sooo I guess that means we’d better get down to the cargo bay, exercise, and meditate?”
“Ready to jump down then?”
“One more kiss?”
“One more kiss,” Laika agreed, Arlaud still smiling as their lips found on another’s, Laika desperately steeling herself not to move her hand from Arlaud’s heart and caress her—
“—Not yet,” Arlaud whispered, Laika hiding her surprise as she realised they were still kissing and Arlaud was speaking in her mind. Without being taught. Or trying. Somehow Laika had heard her interior monologue. Uncertain whether Arlaud realised what had just happened, instead of indulging her desire, Laika carefully patted Arlaud over her heart, the younger woman’s tensions melting away as they kissed some more.
“Like this,” Arlaud said, demonstrating how to gently discover the limits of your flexibility, both of them having changed into exercise gear, hers being a suspicious match for Laika’s, both wearing exercise bras and shorts, white, with a ribbing to the material, and with the edges decorated with bright yellow embroidered thread. They had done some basic exercises, callisthenics and yogic poses to develop and maintain their respective muscle tone. After that, Arlaud had suggested some of her exercises, and Laika was very clear who was the teacher here and she was not it.
“This is as far as I can go,” Laika said. They were sitting on the floor, legs straight out and together in front of them, Arlaud nonchalantly leaning forward with her palms around the soles of her feet. Laika had watched her, but was unable to do more than hold her shins, and even that, she knew, was starting to stress her.
“That’s okay. Different dancers all do differently. I’ve been doing it all my life, so, you know,” she said, sitting up and shrugging. “Some people get better, but if your body just isn’t built to do that, you won’t. Can be how your muscles have developed, how your ligaments have developed, even how your bones and joints have developed. I’m lucky, but that doesn’t mean anything for anyone else, just me.”
“I feel like I can do more, just not today,” Laika said, wondering who she was telling that to, Arlaud or herself.
“So your exercises? Are there any like these or is it just, haha, swordy-swordy?”
“Mostly ‘swordy’,” Laika admitted, smiling.
“There you are. Your body never learned how to do this kind of thing because you had it doing other things instead, things I guess it’s your turn to teach me?”
“Just like that? You can switch instantly?”
“Yep. Some shows, you might be switching different styles of dances, and some of the really fun dances switch things in the same dance.”
“Those are the fun ones?”
Arlaud nodded. “Usually they have a story, maiden running from man, man capturing maiden, man and maiden pretending they don’t want to do the other kind of dancing, haha. Some dances are for the spectacle, some tell a story ... and sometimes it’s just to give the other dancers a break before they have to dance something hard.”
“More things I had never thought of.”
“Like I never thought about getting thwacked by a foamy stick,” Arlaud beamed as she scampered over to where they were standing, ready, waiting, coming back and handing one to Laika as she got up. “So what’s the drill for today?”
“To begin with, the same as always. The idea is to always begin with stances, from there to blocks and counters, and finally to attacking moves.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to learn attacks first? You know, catch them napping?” she smiled.
“No. Most of a fight is about defending while you look for an opening.”
“What do you mean?”
“Okay, I’ll show you, but after that back to the drills. So, stand with you sword in front of you, about forty-five degree angle ... and hold it while I do the same ... Now, can you feel me pressing against your blade?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. So if I press harder, you need to push back to stop me. Do that ... okay. Now we’re ‘locked’ but we’re not frozen. If I push like this ... you respond ... and now I can deflect your blade away and strike,” she said, pushing Arlaud’s blade almost fully to the side, only to abruptly cut back in the direction she had been pushing against. “And you can do that in lots of different way, ‘locking up’, testing their defences, even making ‘fake’ moves, feints, and when they respond to your feint, you can make your real move instead. If they are good enough, you can end up ‘locking’ again, or you disengage. If not...”
“Like savage me and my guts falling out,” Arlaud giggled.
“No,” Laika said sternly, Arlaud sobering. “If they are using a lightsabre too, you can lose and arm or a leg or they could cut you in half.”
“Really?” Arlaud asked, her expression one of shock and horror.
“Really. A lightsabre is strong enough to cut through the hull of this ship as if it was paper.”
“Maybe I should have a blaster instead?”
Laika chuckled. “We can look at that when we get back, but if the person with the lightsabre is well enough trained, they can block your laser blast, even send it back at you.”
“So I end up shooting myself?”
Laika nodded. “And unless you have some very good armour...”
“Wow. New plan. Can I stay on the Sanbrozza instead?” Arlaud asked, not entirely joking.
Laika smiled. “Don’t worry, gilus, I have no plans taking you anywhere dangerous.”
“So I’m learning this ... just because it’s a new way to exercise?”
“Partly, but partly so that, if you need to, then you can.”
“Like my pilot lessons?”
“Like your pilot lessons.”
“Okay. So teach me all the stances and blocks,” she said, smiling but, Laika could tell, also utterly serious now she had a reason better than ‘because’.
Laika smiled. “Don’t worry, there are plenty to learn once you decide on your style.”
“There are styles? Isn’t ‘this’ all the same?”
“There are similarities, but there are differences. Some styles see you always looking to attack first, some to defend until your opponent is tired out, and it can even differ depending on the weapon and which hand you hold it in.”
“Which do you use?”
Laika winked as she effortlessly tossed her drill sword from her right to her left.
“Oh...” Arlaud said as they got back to work, Laika showing her some more stances and drills and beginning to vary it with some new counters as well, Arlaud picking them all up at the first time of asking.
Just more dance moves, Laika realised.
“Let me go in and check?” Arlaud asked. They had done their morning’s exercises and drills, washed, changed, and were standing outside the room that had been given over as Arlaud’s meditation chamber.
“You haven’t been in?” Laika asked, surprised if that were true.
“Not since S2 brought my cushion up, so I need to, you know...”
“Housekeep?”
“Be right back. Er, close your eyes and no Forecy peeky,” she smirked, waiting for Laika to close her eyes and put both hands over them, Laika hearing the door cycle once, and a few seconds later it cycled again as Arlaud came back out. “All done. Ready?”
“Lead me in, eyes still closed?”
“Oh, you want the whole experience,” Arlaud said, Laika closing her eyes again, Arlaud taking her right hand and carefully leading them through into the room and a few steps inside, too. “Okay. Ta-da,” she said, Laika opening her eyes and seeing how Arlaud was standing a little awkwardly, looking for all the world like a child seeking a parent’s approval.
Approval she instantly had.
The transformation of what had been an empty and probably dusty room was incredible. In their place, only with paints, was what your mind was tricked into thinking was a vast open vista, the ground low, the horizon low, hills in the distance only unfocused shapes, and above a sky of rich blue, cloudless, though, Laika realised, very carefully shaded to be brighter around the door and reducing in brightness, slightly, as she turned toward the back wall. The floor of the room had been painted to look like short cut or cropped grass, with a brown path from the door, to the meditation cushion in the middle of the room, and the continuing on behind, merging into the paint on the rear wall as if disappearing into the distance.
“You like it?” Arlaud asked, clearly proud of what she had designed and what S1 and S2 had done.
“This is incredible,” Laika said, Arlaud instantly beaming at her response. “You explained all of this to S1?”
“Kind of. I said I wanted it to feel like you were outside in some wide open place, and she suggested I could use this way of painting the room, she said it was designed to trick the eye so that, when you sit in the middle, you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, haha.”
“And this is your home world?”
Arlaud shook her head. “Nope. That’s more mountainy, and, you know...”
“You don’t want to be reminded?”
Another shake of her head. “So she showed me some ideas, we changed things, and this. No idea where it is or even if it’s a real place or not. I might ask her about colouring the sky a bit more, but I really like it already.”
“So do I,” Laika said, holding her arms out and cuddling the younger woman. “Maybe I should get some of the other rooms painted.”
“What’s in them?”
“Most of them, nothing. What do you think, a nice wooden texture for the cargo bay where we do our exercises?”
“And painted mats on the floor?”
“Yes, we can have painted mats on the floor,” Laika chuckled, noting how, again, the ship was becoming ‘ours’ and they were a ‘we’. “Although I might get some curious looks from anyone bringing stores abroad.”
“From droids?” Arlaud asked, puzzled they might be.
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