Luineraugwen: I just finished reading 'The Cestus Deception' which was written by Steven Barnes. The writing in Italics will be what Steven Barnes wrote just so you have an understanding about what's going on because I don't know whose read this book and who hasn't. Confusing isn't it?
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or the outtake from Steven Barnes "The Cestus Deception".
After the first few days, the stream or newbies had slowed to a trickle. Therefore, Nate was surprised to see a group of lean, dirty men and women approach. They arrived in a motley variety of batter hovercarts dusty enough to suggest they had hauled for more than passengers. Their apparent leader was a tall old red-bearded human male who looked wide across the shoulders and loose in the gut, well weathered and deeply tired.
"We want parley with your leader," he said.
Sirty looked him up and down. "And who makes this request?"
"Name's Thak Val Zsing," the newcomer said.
"You're looking for me" Nate said, stepping forward.
Thak Val Zsing looked from Sirty to Nate, and a humorless grin split his face. His teeth were broad, cracked, and brownish.
"Recruits, sir?" Sirty asked.
Val Zsing's expression soured. "Didn't say that."
"Well then-?"
"We're the Desert Wind, and if we like what we see, we're here to fight."
So. These were the anarchists who had been so brutally crushed by Cestian forces just months ago. If they were even a quarter of their former strength, he was a Jawa. And they were ready to fight again? Brave if not smart. "Even Coruscant has heard of your courage."
Thak Val Zsing nodded, satisfied by that answer. "You know who we are. We're not so sure about you yet." The men and women behind him nodded. Nate scanned their clothing and armaments. Old. Badly patched. Their skin was ragged from fatigue and malnutrition. It looked as if their weapons were in better shape than they were. Still, tired and half broken they may have been, but these were people holding a serious grudge.
"Every one of us is prepared to die to overthrow this decadent system."
Ah, then. They had every reason to blame the government for their problems, but he couldn't use Desert Wind in its present form: they were too brittle and angry. This was a delicate situation, and he had to play it carefully. "Maybe you've misunderstood our intentions," he said. "We're not here to overthrow the legal government. We are here to ensure that that government obeys the Republic's rules and regulations. As citizens of the Republic, you have full right to redress of grievances."
Thak Val Zsing pulled at his crimson beard with his fingers and spat into the dust. "The Families couldn't care less about our rules. You talk pretty, and offer us nothing."
That was a perfectly accurate answer, and Nate felt a bit flustered.
The Jedi suddenly appeared behind him. "I offer the opportunity to serve your Republic," General Fisto said. Nate had been so fixed on the members of Desert Wind that he hadn't heard a sound.
The vast dark pools of the Nautolan's eyes captivated the anarchists. Thak Val Zsing was the first to break out of the trance; the others followed swiftly and began to grumble. "Serve how?"
"Come," the general said urgently. "Fight with us."
"In other words, take your orders."
"Be our comrades."
The sincerity of his words was mesmerizing, his Nautolan charisma doubly effective on this desert world. Most of Desert Wind's ragged members seemed to feel it like a blow to the chest.
Most, but not all. Thak Val Zsing shook his head. "Nope. Don't like this. We've heard enough promises, and taken enough orders. We'll win our own freedom."
"If you act on your own, you become common criminals," Fisto said. "With us, you are patriots." Hard words, but these folk were at the end of their resources. They had nothing to lose.
The ragged members of Desert Wind looked from Thak Val Zsing to Kit Fisto and back again. One devil they knew, one they didn't. Like most creatures, they went with what they knew. They would continue to harry the government, and they would be eventually caught, or jailed, or killed.
And that was the end of it, with nothing to anyone could really do to stop it.
General Fisto extended his hand to Thak Val Zsing. "Wait," he said.
"What?" Val Zsing was tried, but also proud.
"I could offer your people clemency if they work with is. When our job is complete your crimes will be expunged, and you'll return to your mines and farms and shops. I would not have you throw your lives away."
Nate knew Val Zsing had to be warring with himself. This was a good man, but too weary to have much optimism left in him; he had been told too many lies to believe a Jedi, or a Jedi's clone soldiers. He could her the old man's thoughts as clearly as if he spoke them aloud.
"What do the others say?" General Fisto asked.
"They say they trust me," Thak Val Zsing said, puffing his chest out. "And I don't trust you. I only came here because they asked me to. But now that I've seen ya..."
The general gazed across the faces of Desert Wind, then turned back to Thak Val Zsing. "These are your people. How did you win their hearts?"
"By blood," he said. Nate could see it in Thak Val Zsing's eyes. Despite his bravado the man wanted to believe, but couldn't.
"I see," the Nautolan replied.
"There might be another way," Thak Val Zsing said slowly. The battered warriors straightened and stared at him.
They looked at each other as if the confrontation was about to turn into something physically unpleasant, and then Thak Val Zsing's shoulders slumped.
Once, perhaps the old man had been a great fighter, but those days were long past. Still, the members of his group looked up to him, and respected him as they would a father. Doubtless he'd shepherded them though more than one tight squeeze.
How could the dynamic be altered? What resolution could there be?
More than anyone else, Thak Val Zsing seemed to understand the stakes. One last action. One last judgement. It might mean destruction or salvation for his ragtag band. But what to do?
"Thirty years ago I took command of this group," Val Zsing said, his eyes locked with the general's . "You could guide them, if you were willing to pass the same test."
"Test?"
He nodded. "Brother Fate?" he said quietly.
A gray-tufted old X'Ting male in brown robes walked over. He was accompanied by a somewhat bulkier X'Ting female, also in brown robes. They carried a woven reed basket suspended between them.
The basket was large enough to hold a human infant, and that was what Nate initially supposed it held. He had heard of extremist groups who worshipped some child or infant, supposing it the avatar of a god, or the reincarnation of some sacred soul.
But a moment later he realised he'd made an error. Whatever lay in that basket was nothing human. It weighed more than a human infant as well: perhaps ten kilos. And it hissed. The basket wobbled slightly, and from their efforts to keep it balanced, he knew that there was something moving in there, something serpentine.
"Will you trust us as you ask us to trust you?" the old X'Ting female said.
"What would you have me do?"
"Place your hand inside," she said.
"And?"
"And then we will see."
General Fisto looked at her, and then at Thak Val Zsing.
Nate held his breath. This was a test of both courage and intuition. Trust and common sense. What was in the basket? The woven sand-reed container was large enough to hold any of a thousand venomous creatures. And if it bit the general, what then? Was Kit Fisto supposed to magically transform the poison within his body? To charm the beast so that it would not bite? Or was this entire thing some kind of an elaborate assassination plan? Whatever it was, he could not repress a hint of apprehension. What would the Jedi do?
General Fisto's expression didn't change, but he nodded his head. "Yes."
The old X'Ting couple laid the basket down. The cover still obscured whatever was inside. The general rolled up the sleeve of his robe and extended his hand into the container. Nate noticed that the pace of entrance was neither slow nor fast, but continued at a single unvaried medium rate.
General Fisto's eyes never left the old woman's. His arm had disappeared up to the elbow, and the witnesses watched carefully.
And yet...what was he missing? There was something happening here that defied definition.
Finally one of the old females nodded, and the general, using the same slow, steady pace, withdrew his arm from the basket. It's underside glistened with something wet. He rolled his sleeve down without wiping the wetness away. The Nautolan's face was impassive.
The two brown-robed X'Ting retreated to a neutral position and sat cross-legged, primary and secondary arms folded in a prayer position, foreheads leaning against each other. The others formed a wall between the clones and General Fisto and the basket. They were hunched over and seemed to be studying something.
Then they returned. "He tells the truth," the woman said. And the other nodded.
Thak Val Zsing exhaled mightily. Nate could tell that he was relieved, but his pride wouldn't let him speak it.
"Very well, then," Thak Val Zsing said. "The Guides...have never been wrong before. All right. I yield the leadership of Desert Wind." He paused. "And I hope I'm not making the biggest mistake of my life."
Now for my part
After his interesting conversation with Val Zsing after dinner, Kit was left alone with his thoughts about the day. He was glad to have more people to add to his forces, although he hoped he didn't have to use them. Other than that, he was struggling to uncover the identity of the thing he'd touched in the reed container. He'd felt it presence before, it was right on the tip of his mind but the more he thought about it, the further it retreated. IN the end Kit gave up, accepting the fact that he would remember it sooner or later.
The Jedi Master walked along the perimeter of the cave entrance, watching different things that caught his eye. The members of Desert Wind mixed in with the other recruits who'd joined them. It was then that Kit noticed one of the members of the Desert Wind was missing. They'd been at the back of the group the whole time they'd been here, except for when they ate their meal. The person sat close to Thak Val Zsing but said nothing the whole time. The Jedi wasn't even sure whether they were male or female because of the ankle length black robe they wore. The hood was always covering their face and this made Kit uncomfortable. They could easily be a spy but he sensed no evil in them and besides, Val Zsing trusted him/her . . . whatever they were.
Kit noticed another person out enjoying the fresh air. It was the A-98 ARC trooper Nate. The clone trooper was watching something off in the distance.
"What seems of have caught your attention, Nate?" Kit asked approaching him.
"The hooded figure from the Desert Wind storm, sir, they just wandered off. This is a dangerous area, especially after dark, and I'm only keeping an eye on them" the clone trooper said saluting.
"There is no need to watch Lorana. She is my daughter and she won't sabotage the cause. Lorana was the one pushing me to come here most. She probably just needs some time alone. Much has happened in the last few weeks, at least to her anyway" Thak Val Zsing said coming up behind them.
"She's your daughter! Do you think it's safe to let her go out on her own?" Nate asked.
"She's proved herself a capable fighter many times over. Lorana used to be a security guard at Cestus Cybernetics. That was until they fired and replaced her with those terrible JK-Thirteen droids" Val Zsing said proudly but Kit could hear the sadness in his voice. "She hates those infernal machines and she personally knows how lethal they can be."
"Hate is a strong word" Kit said quietly.
"Yes, we're all aware of that Master Jedi but that is what she feels for them" Lorana's father replied somberly.
"Has Lorana seen a JK-Thirteen demonstration?" Nate asked.
"She was the demonstration. Since Lorana was the best security officer at Cestus Cybernetics, she was chosen to fight against the droid. Needless to say, she lost and they fired her. I think she lost more than her job that day." Val Zsing sighed wearily, bid them goodnight and retreated back into the cave so he could sleep. Kit and Nate remained where they stood, both looking at the cloaked figure walking away from them.
"General Fisto, do you think that we should question Lorana. Perhaps she had noticed a flaw we could exploit?" the clone asked.
"Perhaps but she might be able to help us in other ways as well" the Jedi replied.
As they continued to watch, the figure stopped. Lorana turned her shoulders slightly so she could see them. It was as though she had known they had been talking about her. She looked at them for a few seconds longer before resuming her walk. Something about that simple action had surprised them.
It wasn't because she seemed to know they were there.
It was because her eyes shone like some nocturnal creature when the moonlight fell on them.
Eerie emerald pupils like that of a snake.
The two men shared a quick glance before silently agreeing on an unvoiced opinion.
Thak Val Zsing daughter, Lorana, wasn't what she seemed.
Luineraugwen: I hope you liked the first chapter. It's taken me forever to finish writing this. In know that there was a lot more italics than there was by actually writing but next chapter there will be no more italics or parts of Steven Barnes novel. R and R.