CHAPTER 2

The underground tunnels were a lot straighter than he thought they'd be. He'd seen an underground schematic aboard the Perseverance that Bryne Deegs had conjured up out of some planetary archive in the Selucami database. Bryne was a grey skinned Duros who was good at the data bank slicing and data acquisition, and today, he just might have to be an emergency evac pilot. A long time friend of the Diran family, Bryne had always been faithful back up in a crisis.

Kibol had tried to memorize the tunnel layout, but that was never his strongpoint. He'd just remembered the general shape of the tunneling and was concentrating on Weena's force presence to get him there. Faster, Kib, faster.

Running, he keyed his comlink. "Bry, I just made entry into the underground of the arena. She's here, but things have changed. I'm having to bump the tempo up. Be ready to go in twenty." He whispered.

"I'm ready now if ye want Kibol, sir." His friend responded, "Get that girl and let's get out of here!"

Up on the surface, Weena was aroused by the loud baying of the large creature. Nearly six feet in height, she was tall for a female, but it afforded her the strength and speed she needed to survive this far in the hostile galaxy abroad. Her icy blue eyes widened as she took in her predicament. The reek had spotted her and was aiming his tall dorsal horn at her. He let out a drooling groan and darted full tilt at her to gore her into oblivion. Adrenaline hit her all at once. She stood in a ready stance, legs spread out, knees bent. She held her bound wrists in front of her, still tethered to the pole. The chain was taught, forcing her to stand as if holding a paddle disc racket in front of her. She was at a definite disadvantage but not totally helpless.

As the beast neared her, she turned and took two bounding steps away from the attacker, kicked her outside leg and swung on the chain up and away from the ground. The Reek's left horn dug in the ground where she'd been standing and its momentum slid him across the sandy ground leaving a six meter gouge in the ground. She'd avoided the charge, but her descent was not nearly as graceful as the jump.

She had wrapped twice around the pole and the chain had lost length in the process. She had to extend her leg outward to stop the spinning motion and she landed facing up, barely able to touch the ground with her toes. Her feet skittered frantically for purchase. The manacles scraped into the flesh of her wrists. She had to recover her foothold and get into a position to avoid the next charge.

The reek had just recovered from his miss. He had slid several meters away and was also having trouble finding sure footing on the stadium floor as well. He seemed angrier than before, he growled violently into the air, aimed his horned head at Weena and kicked the ground with his left forelimb. He wouldn't be able to build up much speed, but at this distance he wouldn't miss.

Just as he bowed his head to initiate the death charge, the ground between the two exploded upward creating a large hole. A twirling blue and green double helix of saber energy rose out of the ground. At its center was a shrouded human figure in light colored desert garments, spinning as he emerged from the ground, the core of a tornado of damage to anyone at arm's length. He kicked his legs out to stop his spin and landed in a battle ready stance, straddling the hole he just made. In his right hand a cobalt blue saber held at a forty-five degree angle in front of his face. In his left, an emerald green blade held back handed horizontally covering his back.

Weena crumpled to a seated position leaning against the pole she'd been attached to, her connection to it severed. About an arm's length of chain links now dangled from the manacles. She pushed off the pillar onto her feet. Kibol had popped up just close enough to remove the top third of the reek's snout horn and to simultaneously sever the chain that bound her. He had come. She'd called and he came to get her!

The reek reeled back in a sudden shock of pain, he nerves in his snout screaming out for relief. The animal reared up on its hinds trying to buck off the pain in its head. It ground its pointed chin in the dirt and tried shaking itself free of the unseen source of agony. It couldn't comprehend what had just happened.

Once Kibol was sure the reek was occupied, he stood erect and deactivated the lightsaber in his right hand, clipping it to his belt. He removed the wrapping from his head and pulled his goggles down around his neck. His hair was cut short, low-maintenance style. He had a "dust tan" on his face everywhere his goggles did not touch. His dark brown eyes were intense and genuinely concerned. He held his hand out and she took it. "You okay?"

"I guess I'm fine now." She wore a mix of astonishment and relief. She was perfectly capable of fending for herself, but every now and then, she found herself in a situation so dire, she'd call the one person she could count on.

"What are you doing here, Weena? Why are you in the outer rim being sacrificed to some idol?" His eyes alternated from her left eye to her right. He was reading her face trying to gauge her honesty. He purposefully restrained himself from using the force. He really wanted hear the truth from her. Either that, or he just didn't want to know that she was lying to him again.

"I was just on planet for a few days following up on a job opportunity. I guess these guys just wanted a white haired sacrifice for their Albino Cyclops god. They abducted me last night." She shrunk herself under his right arm and looked up at him hoping to meet his eyes and share a holodrama moment. But he wasn't looking at her, his eyes tracked back and forth behind them.

She followed his gaze. The Skakoan crowd began to protest and waved angry fists in the air. Blue skinned Patronians appeared from the tunnels and marched toward them with shock staffs and threatening body language. A Weequay leaped over a dividing wall and ran at them taking random potshots with a handheld blaster. The bolts passed high and overhead of the pair.

"Aw, man."

Kibol had failed to assess the security of the event. He'd had tunnel vision on Weena's predicament, solved the immediate problem, but now he they were both knee deep in hostile beings. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of energy weapons among the crowd, but the sheer numbers would be a problem. He hadn't planned it, but the perfect distraction was coming his way.