Chapter 9
"Almost all the data had been wiped from the memory banks, but we were able to pick up something. May not be anything…"
"Well, what did you find?" Adriaan asked impatiently. Shadow Squad and the Varactyl Clan had assembled on the bridge of the Republic's Hope. Luckily, the CIS hadn't moved fast enough to launch a second attack on the group, so they had left Separatist Space and arrived safely back aboard the Republic frigate.
"A fragment of a message sent from a Bebullab starfighter orbiting around Hypori," Darc reported. He withdrew a small datachip from his pocket and plugged it into the main computer. A holofile of a small, shadowy planet popped up, along with a datafile written in Aurebesh. The bluish title of the file flickered as the General scanned the report.
"Umbria," Adriaan read.
"That's not what I WICKEDLY read," Aedan contradicted. "It clearly says, 'Bow down to the WICKED King' not 'Umbria'"
"Where is the system?" Kan asked.
"There are no identified systems bearing that name, sir," Shakir reported after a quick search in the navi computer's databanks.
"It must be a code name for the location of a secret Separatist base," Adriaan guessed.
"But check this out." Kay grabbed a laserpointer and circled four words right underneath Umbria.
"Cloak of the Sith." Adriaan glanced sidelong at Kay Lee, who was grinning triumphantly. "Why are you smiling? I see no cause for joy. Traveling through a nebula is potentially dangerous…for an amateur pilot like you, that is."
"I told you not to eliminate the Cloak of the Sith as a possibility," Kay crowed.
"Yes, you did, and I apologize for not having listened to you earlier. But a true Jedi doesn't need to rub it in when she's right."
"Come on, I've got to have some fun for being right where you went wrong."
Adriaan decided it would probably be best to simply change the subject. "I guess I have to thank Darc for picking up that info. It will be a disagreeable task, but it must be done. So thanks, Chun-be. But you'd better be as productive when I need you next time."
"There's going to be a next time? I had no idea you held me in such high esteem that you would hire me a second time," Darc remarked.
"The question is, how are we going to find it once we get inside the nebula?" Adriaan continued. "On top of the danger of space shears, we could easily lose direction because it's hard to see anything once you're actually inside. There's so much turbulence that it throws off all the sensors."
"We'll find a way, sir," Wolf said confidently. "With you leading us, I know we will."
* * * * *
In the end, they decided it would be safer to take one cruiser ––– a Pelta-class frigate, with it's GAR licensing removed ––– into the storm, while the rest of the fleet surrounded the nebula. The plan was for the Jedi to find Grievous, flush him out, and force him to leave the Cloak of the Sith. Once out of the nebula, the droid General would fall straight into the trap set by LightningStrike. It was a pretty good strategy, provided that Grievous was on Umbria and would follow according to plan.
Adriaan gripped the pilot controls tighter, not daring to wipe her sweaty hands on her tunic and so betray her nervousness to her Padawans, who were counting on her to remain calm so that their own fears would be soothed. She had always known it would be hard being a Master of fifteen Apprentices, but she had never realized just how hard and self-sacrificing it could be sometimes. Some nights she never got to sleep ––– let alone meditate ––– because she was always interrupted by Padawans making late-night visits to ask her questions…questions that included interpretations of visions, combat forms, battle strategies, how could they be more like her by never getting tired or scared. That last question always made Adriaan smile, because they just had no idea how tired or scared she was sometimes.
Most of the questions were on the verge of absurdity. Some went beyond the limit, especially in the case of the Wicked Club, Jordin, and sometimes Klamin. A typical reason why Adriaan would be aroused in the middle of the night was when a Padawan needed her help in making the Wicked Club behave. One night had been exceptionally bad; Aedan had booby-trapped all the other Apprentices' beds, and they had barged into her quarters screaming bloody murder and scratching at the itchy welts that were on their arms and legs. It appeared that Aedan had switched the mattress stuffing with Foil'aa leaves, which, when touched, caused skin to break out in an itchy rash. It had taken seven hours to get them all relatively calm, and it had taken two days for any of the victims to tolerate looking at a Wicked Club member without planning to strangle him.
"How can Master ell Talaan be so calm?" Jordin's bright voice prattled. "Doesn't she know that the chances of successfully navigating an asteroid field are one thousand, two hundred and fifty-seven to one? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that she has no idea that she's only flying us to our doom –––"
"Who's hungry?" Adriaan asked loudly, trying to lighten the tension. No one besides the Wicked Club answered with a yes. So much for trying to set a good example for the Padawans. Despite the fact that she was doing her best to maintain an aura of calm, they were all beginning to freak out.
"Guys, a nebula really isn't all that bad," she said, trying to reassure them. "Once we get inside it, it's actually quite pretty."
"If a nebula isn't 'all that bad' why did you assume that Grievous is too cowardly to hide in one?" Kay asked.
"Because Grievous doesn't have an awesome person like me to do the piloting," Adriaan answered. "Relax, Kay, I have everything under control…"
At that moment, the cruiser entered the cloud. Once inside, it looked like a brightly lit tunnel of stars with a dark, empty center just screaming with energy. This energy began to rock the craft, causing it to spin out of control.
Klamin had stupidly decided not to buckle in, so the sudden turbulence sent him flying into Adriaan, knocking the controls from her grip. As she hastily tried to recover the joystick that maneuvered the craft, her forehead slammed against the console, just barely missing the button that initiated the jump to hyperspace. She was flung back against her seat, something wet and sticky dripping down into her eyes. It ran into her mouth, leaving behind a taste of blood.
"Under control, huh?" Kay Lee asked, her remark forced out in a grunt as Klamin was knocked into her. "Get off me, you great lump of petrified monkey-lizard –––"
In answer, Klamin shapeshifted into a monkey-lizard and grinned maliciously at her. Kay shrieked and threw the creature into an empty seat, where he morphed back into his Shi'Odo form and hastily strapped on his safety belt.
Adriaan by now had gotten the ship slightly under control. The energy waves whipped past them, sending the craft into an erratical spin. Keeping her gaze on the navigation screen, she began to rap out orders to her copilot.
"Andora, boost the stabilizers!"
"Stabilizers boosted, Master."
Adriaan rolled her eyes, half-annoyed and half-impressed with the young Padawan's composure. "Adjust lateral controls and access the navi computer to acquire the coordinates Darc gave us."
Andora patiently did what was asked of her and repeated the coordinates to Adriaan, who plugged them into the navi computer as she rode on a wave of energy ripping through the nebula.
"All systems are holding up pretty well," Adriaan commented. "Good thing you tweaked them before we took off, Nano."
"Just doing my job, sir," Nano said, smiling through clenched teeth.
"Master, we are approaching the terminus," Andora called out.
"I don't see it," Adriaan muttered, glancing suspiciously at the former Padawan. "That information better be correct."
"It is," Darc said in that infuriatingly overconfident voice that always got on her nerves. He shouldn't be so cocky, especially with her.
"I'll think twice about killing you if you're right," Adriaan said finally, easing the ship into an upright position.
"Are we WICKEDLY there yet?" Aedan asked, looking bored as he fiddled with his restrainer.
"Does it look like it?" Adriaan asked shortly, going into a steep dive that all but plastered their heads to the ceiling.
"Yes." His busy fingers were working to get the safety belt loose.
"Aedan, please stop messing with your safety harness," Adriaan said, keeping her eyes on the screen. Umbria should have appeared by now. It was all the fault of that stupid son of a bantha, Chun-be –––
"Why not?" Aedan asked.
Now the rest of the boys were copying their king, chanting, "Are we WICKEDLY there yet? Are we WICKEDLY there yet? Are we WICKEDLY there yet?"
"Boys, please stop," Adriaan said, letting a warning note wander into her voice.
"Why are you being so polite to them?" Marya asked irritably. "They're not going to listen if you say, 'please' –––"
"Idiots! Sit down now!" Kay Lee shouted, turning around to glare at the Apprentices.
"Says who?" Nic asked defiantly.
"Who does it look like says who?"
"What gives you the WICKED authority to command WICKEDS?" Heatrian asked.
Kay Lee simply stared at them menacingly.
Sadly, menacing looks never intimidated a Wicked Club member.
"GOOD!" they screamed, sticking their tongues out at her.
"Master, we have pulled ahead of the denominated coordinates," Andora said, undisturbed as an atmospheric shift sent them into a roll. Adriaan relaxed and let the ship go with the flow.
"It's not here," she said, looking at Darc.
The disbelief on his face was genuine. "But it's got to be here!" he said. "Stop grinning at me like that, Ree! You've got to believe me!"
"I believe my eyes more than I believe you," Adriaan said coldly. "And my eyes don't see anything."
"But what does your heart tell you?"
"Excuse me?"
"The Force, you idiot! I've been out of Jedi training for three years now, but even I remember the important lesson of trusting your feelings."
"My feelings spring from anger." The words were ripped out of her mouth before she had time to weigh the consequences of saying such a drastic thing. Realizing that she had perhaps revealed too much, she hastily went on. "However, I do sense something else…"
"Love?" Darc asked stupidly.
The Wicked Club screeched and covered their ears. "Ew! Love GOOD!"
Their Master had tuned out all background noise, concentrating on the darkness that covered the vidscreen. Something was displaced here, something that didn't belong…
A sudden atmospheric wave sent the craft flying forward into the blackness. Adriaan had to fight to keep control of the ship.
Just then the blackness was killed by a burst of light that was so bright that it took several moments for their eyes to adjust to the glare and see what they had run into.
Adriaan blinked, sensing the confusion of the others around her. The blackness of space shot with pinpoints of stars had disappeared, replaced by a bleak, shadowy landscape with deeps chasms and grey slopes. Was it simply an illusion, a vision conjured up by the dark side?
They didn't have time to wonder what had happened. The sensors started to blink alarmingly, announcing that they had just entered the inner atmosphere of the planet. "The planet"? So Umbria existed, after all.
"You all owe me big time for finding this place!" Darc yelled as the ship plunged toward the surface.
"I'll owe you even more if you keep your big trap shut!" Adriaan roared back, fighting to keep the tiny craft level to the surface of the planet. "Andora, start the landing cycle!"
After several fruitless moment, Andora looked up from the console. "I'm contrite that it is not feasible to initiate the landing cycle, Master. You see, that concluding vibration collided with us broadside, debilitating all the controls."
"You're joking."
"In my WICKED experience, Andora never WICKEDLY jokes," Aedan said.
Klamin leaned forward to examine the controls. "She's right; the hydraulics system is completely fried. So are the lateral controls and the stabilizers…pretty much everything, in fact."
Adriaan bit her lip to resist the temptation of screaming. "Is there any way you can at least get the hydraulics back on? I just need a little power to land –––"
Klamin was already shaking his head. "Nope. No way. Not in this situation; I'd need to wait until the system cooled down before I could get to work on it. And by that time, the ship could have crashed three times over. Sorry."
"I'll just have to do this without landing gear, then," Adriaan said, her fingers moving quickly. "Andora, does this ship have drag fins?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Extend all drag fins."
The ship jerked, then slowed its suicidal descent to the planet. But the surface was still looming up fast.
Adriaan eased the craft so that it was at a parallel angle to the ground, then cut the power. They needed to come in as cooled off as possible.
The controls smoked. Flames shot out from the sides of the ship, staining everything a reddish color. General ell Talaan hung on, refusing to give in to fear. They would make it. They had to.
"We're not going to make it," Marya predicted gloomily.
"Don't be so pessimistic," Jordin said, her face nonetheless pale as she nervously giggled.
"WICKED King, will we still be WICKED if this ship crashes and we croak with it?" Andre asked.
"GOODLY No," Minir said.
Aedan glared at the comedian. "WICKEDLY yes."
"No," Sai'wer said.
"WICKEDLY yes!" Nic insisted.
"GOODLY no," Heatrian said.
"WICKEDLY yes!" Kien shouted.
"GOODLY no!" Terry yelled louder.
"WICKEDLY yes!" Andre screamed.
They all looked at Jahn Pal, who had fallen asleep despite the peril of the situation.
"Sai'wer, go to sleep!" Sai'wer said, nudging his cousin awake.
"Muh…uh," Jahn Pal looked around, confused. "Spink leaves! Bantha fodder! I want it! Yes!"
"Yes!" Aedan, Nic, Kien and Andre shrieked triumphantly. "WICKED!"
Adriaan bit her lip till the blood flowed. "Andi, help me keep the ship level," she said to Andora over the noise of the Wicked Club. Aedan's twin immediately complied in her usual burst of efficiency.
"What should the rest of us do?" Kay Lee asked, her hands gripping the armrests tightly.
Adriaan's eyes watered as the surface zoomed toward them. Close-up, the harsh, bleak landscape looked hard and unappealing. It was definitely not the location she would choose to stage a crash-land.
"Just hang on!" she screamed as the ship tilted downward. The controls were now so slippery with sweat it was as if they had been heavily slicked with a coat of oil and soap. It was unbearably hot to touch, too; she could feel it burning into her flesh, even through the thick combat gloves she wore. She hoped that afterwards her hands wouldn't be so impaired that she wouldn't be able to hold a lightsaber.
"Master, we're coming in too hot. Slow down." Andora said tranquilly, not at all perturbed at their present situation.
"I can't!" Adriaan said, far from being as calm as her Padawan. Her muscles tightened in anticipation of the landing.
The restraint snapped as soon as the ship came in contact with the ground. Adriaan's body left her seat and flew up into the air, dangling in space like a lifeless doll. If she hadn't kept her hold on the controls, she would have surely broken her neck on the ceiling. The second jolt sent her slamming into the floor, knocking the breath from her body. Pain shot through every particle in her being. She felt as though she were being torn apart. As the craft skidded and screeched across the ground, the controls were ripped out of the socket, and she was sent flying to the farthest end of the cockpit. She whacked her head against a clone trooper helmet, and grimly wondered if the clone inside it was still alive. She had never felt so helpless.
The ship bumped again, and this time she accessed the Force to keep herself floating between the ceiling and the floor of the cockpit. She looked around, but the craft was being jarred too much for her to see anything clearly. Something flew by her head and hit the ceiling, and she winced at the noise that it made. When the object flopped back down to the floor again, she reached out blindly and Force-pulled it toward her.
It was a body. Still warm. At first her heart caught in her throat when she touched it. Was the person dead? She almost didn't dare to check for a pulse, but she felt that she had to. Relief washed over her when she felt the flutter of a heartbeat against Kan's neck. He was probably more than a little dazed by that hit on the ceiling, but he would be okay. Holding his limp body securely underneath her left arm, she began to make her way around the cabin, Force-pulling the other thirty-five bodies toward her. She counted them off in her head: Kan, Kay, Klamin, Jordin, Marya, Andora, Aedan, Andre, Nic, Terry, Heatrian, Kien, Minir, Jahn Pal and Sai'wer, Wolf, Ember, Skipp, Rez, Shakir, Ammo, Tau, Delta, Nano, Fyre, Drag, Brannd, Cor, Storm, Onor, Jys, Vyto, Vikk, Lance, and Darc. She had them all. Most of them were just unconscious, she hoped. It didn't matter. She could sort the dead from the living later. Now was the time to get out.
Except there was one problem. She couldn't find the button that let down the ramp. She couldn't even figure out where the exit was. She had become disoriented. And the ship was falling apart into little tiny flaming bits. If they didn't get out soon, they were all going to end up roasting like bantha kabobs.
So Adriaan decided to get out the easy way. By cutting her way through the vidscreen.
It was tough extricating her lightsaber from her utility belt, especially with both arms occupied with keeping her companions from smashing into the floor or the ceiling, but she managed it in the end. Using the Force, she directed the blade and soon cut a large hole in the canopy. One by one, she pushed her friends out of the cockpit, then launched herself through the hole and into empty space. She hung in the air for a moment, feeling the Force gather around her. She felt the Padawans who were still conscious join her in a feeble effort to access the Force. With their help, all thirty-six of the group were able to keep hanging in midair.
She felt the heat of the exploding ship hit the small of her back, propelling her forward on a wave of magma-hot energy that set her tunic and hair aflame. She did not feel any panic; she calmly soared on the air till she and the others were a safe distance away from the inferno. Then they lightly landed on the hard earth; tired, disheveled, and dirty, but alive.
Adriaan rested for a few moments, stretched out flat on the rocks, her face pressed into the ground. Then she sat up and stretched out her limbs. She wiped a hand across her sweaty forehead and ran her fingers once through her hair. Her hand came back streaked with ash. The taste of smoke and blood was on her lips, her robes were burning, her hands were red and throbbing painfully from burns, and her hair was singed and stuck out in all directions as a fierce wind picked up, carrying the smell of flaming metal into her nostrils.
These were moments she lived for.
Kay Lee sat up dizzily, brushing her red-blond hair away from her face. "What happened?" she asked, her gaze wandering toward the heap of rubble that had once been their ship. She closed her eyes. "Oh, never mind…I honestly don't want to know."
Adriaan rose quickly to her feet. "Are you all right?"
When the assistant trainer nodded, she turned away and began to look to the needs of the others. Most of the clones had been protected by their armor and were now sitting up, looking at their surroundings with some confusion. Kan, Marya, Heatrian, Nic, Andre and Aedan were also awake and quite active.
Adriaan fumbled in the survival pack she had managed to sling onto her back before the crash and took out an emergency medical kit. She handed another kit to Kay Lee and Vyto and began to administer to the ones who were hurt or unconscious. Luckily, no one had died. Yet.
"What I don't understand is how we didn't see this place until we were plunging through the inner atmosphere," Darc said a few hours later. He was sitting, his back supported against a rock, watching as Kay started a small campfire. The group had moved away from the inferno and had set up a small base in a ditch about a kilometer south from where the remains of the ship rested. They couldn't move much farther; they were too exhausted. Vyto and Vikk were administering to the various sprains, cuts and bruises of the Padawans and clone troopers. Luckily, there were no broken bones or organ damage, otherwise the mission would have been compromised. Adriaan had said they had been incredibly lucky to make it out of the burning cruiser at all. Kay still couldn't believe how her Master had managed to get them all out. Yet here they all were.
Kay felt a little guilty that her only regret was that the crash hadn't killed a few of them ––– people such as Aedan, Andre, Nic, Klamin or Darc. Especially Darc. His constant flirting with her and Adriaan was seriously grating on her nerves. She honestly could not understand how Adriaan ––– whom some of the Padawans liked to refer to as "General-this-is-serious-so-no-nonsense" ––– could have possibly been Darc's old-time friend, unless she had been an entirely different person as a child. If that were the case, Adriaan must have undergone a complete metamorphosis.
"…It was like we dove straight through a black curtain, or a holographic scrim, or a giant cloak or something…"
"Maybe it was a giant planetary cloaking device," Kay Lee said suddenly, flinching as a shower of sparks flew up into her face when she threw another piece of wood onto the fire.
"Hey, I think you've got something there. Man, you're a smart little kid –––"
"I'm seventeen," Kay Lee said automatically. "And I outrank you."
"All too true, baby," Darc said smoothly, crossing his legs and stretching luxuriously. "So, where do you come from? Oh wait…I forgot that you're a Jedi student. You guys don't care about homeworlds, or family, or even starting a family, do you?"
"You would know. You were once a Padawan."
"The problem is, I've forgotten all the Jedi teachings over the last couple of years. I've been working out, but my Force skills have fallen completely out of practice. When I first quit, I accessed the Force from time to time, just to keep my skills sharp, but then I figured: what's the point?"
"You shouldn't have done it in the first place. You shouldn't use the Force once you've left the Order. Without the Jedi Masters to guide you, the dark side can easily corrupt you and dominate your destiny."
"Yeah, anyway, besides the moral reasons, I didn't see a point to it, since I wasn't going back, and since I wasn't thinking of making a career as a bounty hunter. But lately I've been thinking…"
"You think? That is a startling revelation." Adriaan and Wolf suddenly rounded the corner, carrying Shakir between them. Adriaan's gaze roved over Kay and Darc keenly. "What's this about the Jedi dropout using his noodle, Kay?"
"Ree, you know I was no dropout –––" Darc began.
"How should I know? I was in critical condition in a medical center when you quit. How do I know that that life-changing decision wasn't of your own free will? You were so gifted, and you loved training at the Jedi Temple. Perhaps the Council forced you to leave."
"Something is seriously wrong with you. You were never this cold as an Apprentice. What did they do to you?"
"Cold? I just saved your sorry life, and that is the word you use to describe me? Cold?! Let's just say I made a more…profitable decision than you did."
"Oh, so now on top of being called a dropout, I'm being classified as a fool and an imbecile! Well, if you want to get into another big blowout like last time, then bring it on –––"
"Last time? What did you guys argue about last time?" Klamin asked, joining the group.
"That doesn't matter," Adriaan said briskly…almost too briskly, Kay thought. "I think it is time we had another group huddle. Go call the others."
Five minutes later, thirty-six people had assembled around the tiny campfire. Everyone took a seat in the circle and looked at the General, waiting for her to begin.
Adriaan cleared her throat and looked at each of them in turn. "I admit, this was not supposed to happen," she said. "The original plan was to find Umbria and land on it in one piece. We succeeded, partially. I did not expect that nebula to be quite so, um…aggressive. I misjudged my own abilities as a pilot, and I would like to start out by apologizing to you all for my incompetence."
"Ah, it's not your fault, Commander," Wolf said.
"Don't blame yourself, it was the ship that failed," Comet added.
"Yeah, and while we were letting ourselves get battered into jam, you kept your head and figured out a way to get us all out of the ship alive," Klamin said. "You're hero in my book."
"It's all your GOOD fault," Aedan said bluntly.
"The galaxy was just fine until you showed up and ruined the WICKEDNESS," Andre said.
"A Hutt could have WICKEDLY navigated through that GOOD old nebula better than you," Nic said.
"You stink!" the Wicked Club yelled.
"As we were saying," Kay Lee said, with an angry glance at the obnoxious boys, "at least the worst is over."
"That was the easy part," Adriaan said abruptly.
The Padawans' expectant faces turned grim at this unfortunate news. A few of them looked confused.
"Easy? You call navigating through a fierce nebula easy? We almost died!" Jordin exclaimed.
"No we didn't; we were safe the whole time. Need I remind you that I am the one leading this mission?" Adriaan said. "Do you doubt my competence as your Master and General?"
"I meant no disrespect, Master, but you've got to be realistic. But then, you are never very realistic I mean seriously you like the smell of exhaust from an overheated plunk droid and you like sweat and filth and that is not realistic, so I can't really blame you for saying such a thing. Safe in a nebula, my foot!"
"All right, so we were crossing the line between life and death for a few minutes out there. But so what? No place is truly safe. The point is that even though we could have died, we didn't."
"So you admit that what we just did wasn't easy?" Marya asked.
"Yes, I admit it. But if things weren't challenging in life, we would be bored all the time, right?"
"So if that was hard, and it was the easy part, and if the easy part nearly pulverized us, and if the hard part is harder than the easy part, and if the easy part wasn't really easy, but close to suicide, does that mean the hard part isn't really the hard part, but the impossibly diabolical part which will cause our untimely demises?" Jahn Pal asked.
It took everyone a while to digest that statement.
"Boohoo! We're all going to die!" Sai'wer screamed as soon as he understood what his cousin had said.
"No, we won't," Adriaan said reassuringly. "That's where me and Darc come in."
"How's that?" Kay asked.
"Where do we WICKEDLY come in?" Aedan demanded.
"And what does food come in?" Jahn Pal wondered.
"Bowls!" Sai'wer answered.
"I think it is time that I told you all something about my childhood," Adriaan said, sitting down cross-legged and staring into the fire. "Something that concerns the matter at hand."
All the Padawans immediately looked interested. Like Kan, they had all wondered what their Master had been like as an Apprentice. She had always disappointed them by keeping her mouth closed about the matter. Was this finally the time when she would trust them with the secret of her past?
Adriaan leaned forward. "What we just did, no ordinary star pilot would have the guts or skill to attempt," she began. "To travel through a nebula, you must be one or all of several things: extremely brave, extremely desperate, really insane, overconfident, or just plain stupid. To successfully navigate through a nebula, it helps to have a ship that won't fail. Few people own a craft with such capability, and people who do own such a ship are rich, and have no need to test it in such a danger zone. That narrows the possibility of pilots who would venture into a nebula; and we must ask ourselves this question: is Grievous one of them?"
"Are you inferring that he's not here at all? Swell," Kay muttered. "Next time, tell me when you're not certain about the enemy's location."
"It was you that first thought of this place as a suitable location," Adriaan reminded her.
"Yeah, but I didn't know the particulars of this mission, or the target. Everything I've heard about General Grievous has been mere rumors on the HoloNet –––"
"What I am about to tell you is no rumor filtered through an Intergalactic broadcast," Adriaan interrupted. She stared into the fire for a moment in silence.
"I knew Grievous when I was a kid," she said suddenly.
