Come Together

Iesha knelt at the door of the lift. She kept her eyes closed although she knew that at any moment the doors would pop open and she would be met with a wall of blaster fire. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind, but it kept going back to the ascending lift. She exhaled slowly, "Remember what Master Granger has taught you." She had almost completed her last deep breath, when the door sprung open. Focusing more on keeping her eyes shut than the movement of her body, the hilt of her lightsaber jumped into her hand as the doors parted. The green blade shot into the air to meet the oncoming assault of red lines. By only concentrating on her breathing, she did not even crack her eyelids as she effortlessly swung her blade with a precision that only hours of practice and meditation could bring.

She only felt herself breath as the saber deflected the laser blasts back at their respective origins. One after another of Zulon's henchmen fell at her feet, but the blasts never seemed to stop, finally she felt the entire room shake. Everyone, but she, was sent to the floor and still the blasts hit her blade. She felt another tremor along with the commanding shout, "Enough!" Her eyes popped open for the first time in the battle to meet her master's. Granger was standing at the other end of the room, with both arms extended, surrounded by fallen thugs. "Which one of you is Darklon?" Granger barely whispered, but his voice boomed like thunder in the minds of everyone in the room. The few conscious thugs remained quiet. One, barely awake in the corner slowly raised his blaster from beneath the corpse of a fallen comrade. Before he could get it to eye level, he felt the blaster get snatched from his hand and watched it as it flew across the room into the hands of the Jedi Master.

With the corner thug staring into the barrel of his own weapon, Granger asked again, "Do tell me which is Darklon."

The thug slowly pointed to the middle of the room, where a wounded body was crawling towards an air vent. Granger extended his empty hand towards the would-be fugitive. The body flipped over and floated slightly off the ground. "You are Darklon?"

"Go to hell, Jedi," the wounded man spat. He then felt his throat tighten. He floated high off the ground and closer to the Jedi.

When he reached eye-level, Granger asked again, "Are you Darklon?"

"Yes," he managed. "

Darklon's body dropped to the floor at the feet of the Jedi. "Then in the name of the Jedi Council of the Galactic Republic, you are under arrest."

...

Stuffings dropped his report on the Prime Minister's desk. "Another shipment was stolen last night."

Prime Minister Delfo rubbed her temples and sank a little lower in her seat. "Yes, I'm very aware of that. The Magistrate is supposed to be handling these incidents, now."

Stuffings twisted his mouth to hold back the string of obscenities forming in his mind. "The Magistrate is probably lining his pocket with the payoff as we speak. You have to do something!"

"What?" Delfo demanded. "I reached out to the Republic. Sending the Magistrate was their idea of a solution."

"Because the Magistrate has family connections in the underworld and since he has been here they have worked to bring their rivals in for a piece of the profit, the Magistrate reports peace and prosperity on the once lawless world of Syllian and they think all is well."

"At least the violence has died down since he has been here," the Prime Minister retorted.

"Because only the Magistrate's enemies die now, but normal citizens can't do business. Good people are on the verge of poverty… You must reach out again."

"And make myself the enemy of the Magistrate? I'm sure my assassination would get the Republic's attention….."

"The Planetary Council is going to push for a vote of no confidence if you don't take action soon."

Delfo sighed. "No, they won't. Our beloved Magistrate controls enough of them. Something like that would also signal that he doesn't quite have the grip that he claims and attract attention."

Stuffings stared blankly at the woman that he had been appointed to advise, "Something must be done and done soon." With that thought he left the Prime Minister's office.

Delfo sat in silence for nearly an hour. It hurt her to even think. There was one hope left. It was a card that she hoped she would never have to play, but it was her only hope. Few of her friends knew her family secret. When she was 8, her infant brother was taken from their family. Although she did not understand at the time, her parents assured her that it was an honor. The Jedi had detected the Force living within their young son. As was their custom, they took the child with the family's blessing to live and train at the Jedi Temple. Delfo barely had any contact with Tarayzin as an adult, but Tarayzin had promised that if the Prime Minister ever needed anything, that he would be there. Delfo sighed. She was not even sure the Jedi believed in doing personal favors. She touched the intercom button. "Get me someone at the Jedi Council."

...

"Wake up, sleepy head," Kar'tina's sweet voice pulled Hannibal from his slumber.

He rubbed his face, "How long was I out?"

"Only a couple of hours. I was hoping you were ready to go another round…"

Hannibal grinned, "Gotta do what I gotta do…."

Suddenly, there was a disturbance in the Force and in the living room. "Kary!" The deep and obviously angry voice boomed from behind the door along with whatever furniture was in its way. "Where is he, Kary? I know you are both here!"

"Poodoo! It's…."

"Slindo? About time," Hannibal hopped out of bed and fumbled through his bag by the nightstand.

"How did you know that?" Kar'tina demanded. "Wait, you knew I was married?"

Hannibal rolled his eyes as he gripped his lightsaber. He turned to face the door as Kar'tina let out a squeal. "What are you? A Jedi or something?"

Hannibal rolled his eyes again as he raised his arm and extended the blade just in time for the door to slide open. Slindo nearly stuck his nose into the tip of the blue beam. "Mr. Slindo," Hannibal's voice boomed with authority. "Nice to see you again. You are under arrest."

...

Argile grinned with pride as his guards escorted the prisoner to the bridge. At a nearby console, a chief leaned into a crewman. "Oh, the captain will have fun with her. He has a thing for Nautolans."

"Ewwww," the crewman respond and went back to his diagnostics.

Argile approached his prey nearly bursting with joy. He reached out, grabbing her chin and raised her head to look into her eyes, "I've never had a Jedi before. We are going to have such fun."

The Captain's twisted delight was interrupted by the chief, "Sir, our engines have shut down."

"So fix them," Argile shot back, his eyes never moving from his prisoner.

Numa lowered her head as the pirate slid his hand down her neck to her chest. She closed her eyes and the entire ship shot into light speed. The crew sprawled to the floor, but she remained standing. The chief screamed, "Sir, the hyperdrive just activated."

"I see that, you idiot!" Argile yelled, rising to his feet. "What are you doing? Shut it down!"

"I can't!" the pilot yelled.

Argile pulled his blaster and spun to face his prisoner. "You're doing this aren't you?" Before he could squeeze the trigger, the crew was jolted to the floor again.

As they struggled to regain their bearings, a droid's voice boomed over the loudspeaker. "This is Republic Airspace Control. Identify yourself."

"Where the hell are we," Argile barked at the pilot.

The chief leaned over the pilot's shoulder and turned pale. "Coruscant," he could barely whisper.

"Get us out of here!" Argile screamed.

"The engines will not come online, sir," the chief began to choke up.

The droid's voice boomed again, "You have ten seconds to identify yourself or you will be fired upon."

"Raise the shields!" Argile barked in vain.

"We can't," the chief turned even whiter.

Argile faced his prisoner again. "Numa raised her eyes to meet his, "If I were you captain, I would surrender."

...

Finly struggled his way through the ventilation shaft. "Coulda sworn the specs said these things were wider…" He was so frustrated that he was not sure if he was thinking or mumbling by that point, but he realized that he was making quite the racket and that every thug in the building would know he was coming if he did not hold it down.

Just as he decided to keep quiet, he heard a low voice coming out of the vent ahead of him, "When do we get to get rid of these three?"

"When the boss gives the word," Finly eased himself up to peek out of the vent. He saw the two guards standing in front of the captive princesses who were seated on the floor.

One of the guards sniffed at the oldest of the princesses, "Can't we have a little fun until he gets her?"

"Not until the boss gives the word…."

Finly dropped through the vent. The green blade of his lightsaber flashed to life almost as soon as his feet hit the floor. He slashed off the hand (and blaster) of the first guard and buried his saber deep within the chest of the other. The dying guard stared blankly into the eyes of the grinning Jedi. The first clutched his wrist and whispered in horror, "You idiot." Finly closed his blade, but before he could respond, the impaled guard's left arm dropped limply to his side. Out of his hand rolled a pressure release thermal detonator.

Finly barely had time to whisper, "Poodoo…." Thrusting his arms forward, he used a Force push to send the detonator, the two guards and the ensuing blast into the back wall. Finly opened his eyes to realize that he and the princesses were safe.

"That was impressive, Master Jedi," one of the princesses stared blankly at the spot where the wall used to be.

Somewhat amazed himself, Finly offered, "No problem you highness. All in a day's….." The loud creak interrupted his attempt at humility. Finly quickly remembered the specs of the building and realized that the central support was behind the wall that he just sent the explosion through. "Poodoo…."

The flustered knight spun on his heels. He grabbed the youngest princess. Throwing her on his back, he grabbed the other two with each arm and ran for the giant window opposite the wall.

Realizing where they were headed, the princess under his right arm screamed, "Where the hell are you….."

The shattering glass answered and cut off her question. All four screamed as they flew across a busy expressway. Flying vehicles veered off, some into each other as they dodged the descending escapees. Fortunately, the building across the expressway was much shorter. As the roof rushed up to meet them, Finly pushed the ladies away from him and attempted to slow their descent with the Force. It did not work nearly as well as he hoped and they all hit the roof much harder than any of them would have liked.

When they finished rolling across the roof and gathered their senses. One of the princess looked back across the expressway at the collapsing building. "That was some rescue," she offered rubbing her head and bottom without really soothing either.

Finly gulped nervously, "We need to get moving. This was supposed to be a stealth mission." As they began to run, Finly began to imagine what the Council would have to say about this.

...

Ka'Lay sipped his drink. "If that Jedi doesn't show up soon, I'm going to be the one looking for him," he thought. No sooner had the thought passed, that Hector came confidently strolling up to the corner table.

"Ka'Lay, allow me to introduce myself, I'm…."

"Hector, Jedi Knight, I know," Ka'Lay read the Jedi's confusion. "You've been after my partner and me for a month. I know everything about you. You are only standing in front of me now because I let you finally find me."

Hector rolled his eyes, "That's what they all say." He waved his hand in front of the mercenary, "You are tired of running. You will surrender to me now."

"Yeah….. I don't think so….."

"Well, let me rephrase that," Hector's lightsaber flew from his belt to his hand. The blue blade flashed and nearly nicked Ka'Lay's chin. "You will surrender to me now."

"I don't think so Jedi," Hector felt the barrel of a blaster in the base of his skull. Balousk growled, "We have no quarrel with you Jedi. Now drop that saber and leave with your life."

Hector closed the blade and paused after putting in on his belt. "Yeah….. I think I'll hold on to it."

"Pretty cocky for a Jedi," Balousk sniffed. "I'm sure you know as much about us as we know about you. You know we have a dozen or so Jedi under our belts….."

"And you are both wanted men, but I'm not here about that. I only want information."

"We're not in the information business," Balousk retorted hostilely.

"But I hear you are the guys to ask about Hay'leen."

Balousk's eyes met Ka'Lay's, who noticeably gulped. "Aren't you a little too old to be chasing bedtime stories?"

"So your position is that he isn't real?"

"That's what I hear," Balousk sneered obviously growing impatient.

"And I would have agreed with you until I ran into him."

Ka'Lay broke through his obvious nervousness, "You had a run-in with Hay'leen and are still alive?" The two mercenaries locked eyes again and burst into laughter.

Balousk finally lowered the blaster, "I like you Jedi."

Hector reached into his robes and pulled out a small, slightly scratched token. He held it up to the light where the others could see it.

Both men broke their laughter. Ka'Lay gulped again and with only a slight shakiness in his voice offered, "That's Hay'leen's mark alright. How did you get it?"

"And still live," Balousk completed his partner's thought.

"I acquired it from one of his victims," Hector replied darkly. "Now I can offer you immunity for any help you can offer….."

Hector's negotiating was broken off by the beeping of his comlink. "Jedi Hector, the Council demands you to report to Coruscant immediately."

"Duty calls gentleman. Think about it and I will get back to you."

...

"Get in front of the boss!" someone screamed. "There must be a whole squad out there."

The ten guards formed a wall around their boss with blasters drawn. "Shoot whoever comes through that door.

The fighting outside sounded as though it died down. Just as one of the guards was about to suggest that one of them go look, the reinforced steel door began to creak. It buckled as though being pushed in from the outside. It finally gave way and slammed into the wall of guards taking out the six on the left. The remaining guards blindly blasted into the smoke that came billowing into the room. After nearly a minute they paused to assess the situation. A dark silhouette holding a blue blade stepped just to the edge of the smoke. The remaining guards unleashed another volley of blasts. The blue blade effortlessly deflected each one back into the remaining guards. A woman's hand extended from the smoke and a Force push sent the boss slamming into the back wall, his blaster tumbling a few feet from him.

When the boss collected his senses, he had a blue blade at his neck. "I know, I know, I'm under arrest."

"So says the Republic, but I haven't decided yet," the soft yet firm voice clarified the boss's predicament.

He looked into the eyes of his assailant, "You are a feisty one, huh? And pretty as you can be…."

"Back talk me again and I will only be leaving with your head," the Jedi reiterated.

"Too bad they want me alive, huh?" the boss and the Jedi's eyes both glanced at the blaster, just out of his reach.

"I'll tell them you resisted," she glanced at the blaster again. "Go for it….. Please."

Ten minutes later Myriam was back in her shuttle plotting a course for Coruscant. A voice came over the intercom, "Come in Myriam. How did it go?"

"Outstanding," Myriam replied as the ship made the jump to hyperspace.

"Great, then you have Tyrian in your custody?"

Myriam glanced at the sack in the co-pilot's chair. "Well, part of him."

The voice let out a sigh, "Your assignment was to bring him in alive."

"He resisted," was all that Myriam offered.

"That's been happening to a lot of your targets lately. Anyway, the Council wants to see you. I think you have a new assignment already."

...

"Essentially, this is a collection of our trouble makers," Master Oo'looku shook his head as he stared at the images flashing on the table. "Except for Numa maybe…."

"I actually think she is a little too by-the-book for this assignment," another member of the committee chimed in.

Master Tarayzin sighed, "Good she can keep the others grounded. Now who should we get to lead this motley crew?"

The Jedi Masters scratched their collective heads in silence for quite some time before Oldofo, the eldest member present spoke up, "Master Tarayzin, you brought this matter to our attention. I have a feeling you already had someone in mind."

Tarayzin grinned, "There seems like only one real choice to me, Master Granger."

"Granger! As many times as he's crossed the Council! I can't support that decision," Oo'looku spoke up.

"He is unorthodox, but he is successful. And has trained many a successful padawan. He is the perfect leader for this sort of mission and to pull together such an odd assortment of characters," Tarayzin defended his selection.

"'Odd assortment' is putting it lightly. Finly just barely escaped being removed from the Order four days ago. The reason Master Yoda isn't in this discussion right now is because he had to go clean up that mess…."

"Master Finly did save the members of the royal family…." Another committee member offered.

"Which is why he was only censured and not removed from his duties," Oo'looku continued. "I just can't get behind this."

"Noted." Tarayzin spoke up. "Does anyone else have an objection?"

The Jedi Masters looked around at each other, but no one offered further debate. "Then my dear brothers, we shall assemble this task force and entrust them to the Prime Minister of Syllian as soon as possible. Master Oo'looku, you will be charged with the supervision and evaluating Master Granger and his team," Oldofo affirmed.

What?!" Oo'looku and Tarayzin were caught off guard.

"Master Tarayzin," Oldofo reassured both the masters, "you are too close to this matter. And Master Oo'looku, I feel your objections will keep the team and its leader in check should they stray too far from the norm."

"Then it is settled!" one of the other masters announced with enthusiasm. "Let us contact Master Granger immediately.

...

Granger and Iesha had finally wrapped up there affairs and were on a ship back to Coruscant. They had not exactly debriefed, but Iesha knew it was coming. She decided to get them started. "So Master, as assignments go, that wasn't so bad, huh?"

With his eyes still closed, Granger breathed in slowly, "Tell me young padawan, in the last battle with Darklon, and the henchmen why was you first option to pull your lightsaber?"

Iesha was put a little off balance by the question, "Well, it is a Jedi's weapon…."

"Very true, but is your confidence in the Force on in that green beam of light?"

"Isn't it the Force that enables me to do so well with that 'green beam of light' as you put it?"

"Yes," Granger conceded, "but what I want you to realize is that your 'weapons' are as vast as the Force itself. We actually limit what we can do, when we channel it all through our lightsaber."

Iesha was taken aback, "I never really saw it that way."

She leaned back in her seat and almost dozed off when a message came through the communicator, "Master Granger."

"Master Oldofo," Granger responded, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"As soon as you get back Coruscant, you and your padawan should report to the Council. We have a new and interesting assignment for you."

The End

Next: A New Sheriff in Town