“REAL bacon, indeed.” He handed her food and drink, laughing at her profession of love before responding:
“I needed to do this sooner, then, eh?” Yerbol didn’t mention very much to his partner about his interaction with his apprentice, instead choosing to have a nice, happy, normal breakfast with his wife. In a way, their meal reminded him of their honeymoon, which was the last block of time where they had spent time together without the needs of the galaxy weighing on them. It made the Champion long for a time when they could make this their everyday course of living rather than what they currently had to deal with. Maybe after this(how many times had they said that phrase), they could go on a sabbatical. Maybe set down roots somewhere nice where the hounds could gallop without restraint and they could just…exist. Maybe get a dog…a real dog. One that didn’t inspire fear in the hearts of those who saw it. That would be nice. 

His serene portrait of where they could be had to be stowed away after breakfast unfortunately, seeing as Vano had transmitted coordinates back to the Commodore for them to examine. Before they left their room, however, Yerbol stopped Aria from leaving, placing a hand on her shoulder as he told her quietly:
“When we get through this, I promise you that we’re going to do more…normal things. You deserve a life free from dangerous missions into the unknown and replete with bacon.” He drew her closer, placing his arms around her waist.
“One last kiss before go back out there? The apprentices don’t need to know that we express physical affection for each other.”  

A smirk. 

_______

“You’re sure about this?” Kira ruffled her auburn-colored locks that were now beginning to grow past her shoulders. 
“Yeah. I can’t…” Her lips pursed, eyes cast towards the untouched mug of tea. 
“I can’t just sit here, Neta. I won’t.” Neta leaned forward, taking one of her hands and squeezing it reassuringly. 
“Glad to know you’re taking a better route than I did after Vivi passed. Mercenary work pays well, but makes you an ‘enemy of the peace’.” Kira snorted a laugh, hand withdrawing to wipe away the brief shimmer of tears that had formed in her eyes before resuming eye contact with the former spec ops officer. 
“I did my time as…well, something like that. Didn’t get paid like you did, though.”
“It’s not all that cracked up to be.”
“Says the girl with five different luxury homes and kids in private school on Alderaan.” 
“Hey, hey, those were Alliance funds, honey.” A shared laugh as Kira stood up, right hand briefly running over an ornately carved lightsaber hilt.
“Don’t want to keep them waiting, right?” 
“Ah, don’t worry. Vano sent us all a message last night saying that the coordinates were in. I’ve got a course already plotted, but I want the kids to figure it out, too. Critical thinking and all that.” 
“How long should we wait?”
“Until I’m done with my coffee.” 

________

“It’s not like Malachor, kids.” Neta appeared in the doorway of the CIC, a wide smile on her face.
“Atmospheric conditions from what we can pull from the records we got are favorable for a smooth landing. To think that we’ll actually be able to break into an atmosphere that won’t try to kill us.” Yerbol jutted his chin out, asking with mock indignation:
“You know where we’re going already, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
“And you ran all the scans probably last night?”
“Uh huh.” She plopped into a nearby chair.
“And you didn’t tell us?”
“Hey, you guys made it sound like you didn’t want to be disturbed. Vano sent us all messages and…well, I’ll assume that all of you were busy?” Yerbol tried desperately to suppress a flush of pink that rose to his cheeks, but he knew it was too late, so he spoke quickly to extract more information about their destination:
“So what do you know?”
“Well…” She leaned forward, interacting with a few command prompts on the projector, which spawned several columns of data that hovered over the planet. Ethan quickly started to spurt out information as he processed it:
“Atmospheric particles at point two zero, climate patterns read steady, gravity w-“
“I got this, Ethan, but thank you for the intro.” He smiled sheepishly, silencing himself before Neta continued:
“All of the numbers you see there were left on the astrogation charts. Revan left us just enough to work with.”
“Which is?”
“Sets of coordinates that we’ll need to use to jump to that part of the universe.” 
“What?”
“This planet, Odessen as he called it, isn’t accessible as a direct jump from known space. You see that long number there? With all the decimals? That’s how far the planet is from Lehon in lightyears.” Yerbol stopped trying to read the number after the sixth decimal point.
“BUT, there are coordinates here…” She motioned to the left hand column which had four sets of numbers neatly stacked on top of one another. 
“That we can jump to without running out of fuel.”
“So if we jump to these coordinates, we eventually end up at Odessen?”
“Right. Problem is…I don’t know where the coordinates will have us ending up. Even with me and Vano working on it together early this morning, we still couldn’t find a known path. Essentially, we’re jumping VERY deep into unknown space, way past Zinuthra and Quensu.” Yerbol swallowed hard. 
“Do we have estimates on how long it’ll take for us to get to Odessen, then?” She nodded.
“Six months.”  
“What?”
“Six months in hyperspace, BUT remember, we’ve got slipspace generators that can cut our travel time down and that doesn’t account for each segment of the journey.”  
“Can the Commodore last that long?”
“Should. The ship was designed for long-haul recon and battle assignments, so we should be fine with what we have now. If not…we’ll figure something out. Besides, we’ve got an extra hand onboard.” Kira entered the CIC, a half-smile creasing her features.
“Thought I could join you guys for the ride. Sounds fun.” Yerbol couldn’t help but smile broadly at seeing Kira look like her old self again, telling her:
“It’s so good to see you again.” The smile decreased in scope as he asked:
“Wait, the Council…did they send you?”
“Kinda. I volunteered myself for this assignment and they put their stamp on it. They can tell you more when we set out.” Yerbol wanted to ask for more detail, but instead nodded.
“Well, we could use the help, especially from someone who helped take down the Emperor.” 
“Exactly why she’s here.” Neta chimed in as she rose.
“I’ll get us up into orbit and then you guys can have your meeting with the Council.”
“Before diving into the unknown.” Ethan muttered, the apprentice vacillating between utter excitement and crippling anxiety.