October Novel Prep Challenge

As I was about to create an item for my background story, I realized that I didn't have enough room with my free account. I'm not sure where to put the story now, so I guess I'll post it here....

Duchess Leaping Lemurs


Isabella and Jeshi

Isabella flew home as fast as she legally could; nearly bursting with the news she carried. Starting tomorrow, she would be Security Guard Second-Level Isabella Frohman-Prolex. Jeshi would be so proud of her. At least, she hoped he would. She’d wanted to be in Security since her teen years. He hadn’t been exactly encouraging, but he hadn’t told her not to pursue it either. Maybe they could head down to Kim Joni’s Cantina and celebrate. She’d tried to contact him as she left Security, but had only been able to leave a message on his communicator that she had exciting news.

Approaching the edge of the inner city, Isabella passed four Security vehicles in front of a three-level stone building, drivers sitting ready in their seats. She briefly considered stopping to offer assistance, wondering at the same time who they were arresting, but she was off-duty and hoping to celebrate her success. Then she recognized the vehicle secured by two Guards and immediately pulled over in shock. She’d recognize the golden brown coating of her husband’s new speeder anywhere. One of the green-clad Guards approached as she pulled up and climbed out. It was Sasha V’Tani, one of the Senior Guardsmen in the district, and an old family friend.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “That’s my husband’s speeder.”

“Someone called in a hostage situation,” Sasha replied. “Whoever is the one holding the hostages is also wanted for embezzling credits. If your husband is up there, Izzy, we don’t know which position he’s in.”

“Sir, you’d better see this.”

Sasha turned back toward the speeder, Isabella following. The trunk of the speeder was half-full of pistols, one missing from its case, and a container of tubes full of blue liquid.

“Then this can’t be his speeder,” Isabella remarked. “Unless it was stolen.”

“Hard to say until we get an ID of the people up in that building,” Sasha replied.

“No video or audio yet?”

“We’ve got both,” replied another guard. “We’re searching for matches in the system now.”

Isabella leaned over to study the screen in his hand. Recognizing the faces, she leaned closer. “What’s Jeshi doing with a gun? He’s not the one holding the hostages, is he?”

“As far as we’ve been able to determine, yes he is.”

“That can’t be right,” Isabelle insisted. “Jeshi’s not one who hold hostages.”

“But he’s one who has weapons and drugs in his speeder,” Sasha noted.

“Then they were placed there!”

“We’ll find out the truth once we get them all out,” Sasha promised. “You just head home and wait. We’ve got things covered here.”

Go home and wait? Not likely. And Sasha could see it in her face. He opened his mouth, probably to argue, but changed his mind and turned back to the team. “Are the droids ready with the stunners?”

“In position.”

“Proceed.”

Isabella waited as several things happened at once. The droids fired stunners. Jeshi started to turn to investigate the sound. One of the two male hostages charged Jeshi. In the noise and confusion of the next few minutes, Guards charged in and led Jeshi out, bound, to the waiting vehicle. When Jeshi appeared and saw Isabella, he stumbled in surprise.

“Prove me innocent, Izzy,” he said. “You’ll find out the truth.”

I will, she promised as the Guards put Jeshi in the vehicle.

~~

Isabella entered the Security office the next day, determined to prove her husband innocent. Her partner Nic Racer and their boss, Rand Soemari, looked up as she approached Nic’s desk.

“Frohman, you’re early today.”

“Because I plan to prove my husband innocent,” she said firmly to her boss’s note of the obvious.

Nic tilted his head as he looked at her, a small smile on his face at her resolve. “How do you plan on doing that, rookie?”

“Have you done a background check on him?”

“We’re waiting for the results now,” Rand replied.

“Well, I don’t think you’ll find anything,” she said confidently. “I looked up Jeshi in the database when he and I first started dating and he had one of the cleanest records I’ve ever seen.”

“Well it never hurts to be certain.”

And Isabella was certain. Certain her husband had been framed, certain he was innocent, certain he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Doni approached the trio, a data pad in his hand.

“What do we have on Prolex?” Rand asked.

“Nothing,” Doni replied.

Isabella smiled and glanced at her boss and partner.

“At least, not as Jeshi Prolex.”

Isabella turned back to him, frowning. “What?”

“We ran a DNA scan,” Doni explained. “Jeshi Prolex is the only name he goes by that has a clean record.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Jeshi Prolex is only one of many aliases this man has held throughout his life.”

Isabella shook her head. “That can’t be right.”

Doni looked at the data pad. “Abran Schuyler, age 13, speeder theft. Age 14, robbery. Alma Mikros, age 17, assault.”

Isabella felt sick as Doni continued the list. – Lennan Hoge, age 20, speeder and arms theft. Jax Argo, claimed to be age 32, was actually 25, illegal possession and dealing of Narco Red. – She shook her head, weakly sinking onto Nic’s desk. DNA tests in Security had been proven to be nearly 100% accurate. If this list was true, then her husband had lied to her from the moment they’d met in the Training Center, including his age. All of Isabella’s prepared arguments crumbled as another name and felony made the list grow.