PunkAss-Rocker-Chick: Thanks!
The third month
Chapter Ten: Really bad feelings
Coruscant, Jedi-Temple, Infirmary
Cilghal cocked her head slightly and took a closer look at the results of the last examination.
"What's wrong?", her charge, Kam Solusar, asked with just a hint of worry in his voice and tried to sit up.
Cilghal murmured something unintelligible and ordered 2-1B to repeat the test, while Kam finally managed to sit up completely. The Mon Calamarian gestured for him to lie back down. "It's not going to take long, Kam. Please be patient", she scolded the Jedi-Master, who studied her suspiciously.
"I know something's wrong with me, Cilghal", he stated. "I know it's serious. And I know it wasn't there this morning."
The healer sighed. "Yes. That's the reason I've sent the droids to repeat the test", she replied, trying to calm him down, and took the verified results from the medical droid.
"Kam, this may be a very personal question, but I feel I have to ask: You don't have any memories concerning your childhood in the Jedi-Temple of the Old Republic, do you?"
"I don't remember anything", Kam replied without unease.
"But you do remember everything that happened after the Temple was attacked?" When the Jedi did not answer immediately, she specified, "Do you know if you've been exposed to large amounts of radiation, for example in a reactor accident?"
Kam exhaled slowly. "I have small gaps in my memory even after I left the Temple, but no, I don't know if something like that happened. Why do you ask?"
Had Cilghal been human, she would have chewed on her bottom lip before answering. "Your cells show mutations that could have been caused by exposure to radiance in your childhood or early adolescence."
He looked at her with big eyes but regained his control admirably fast. "Why do the symptoms show right now? And what can be done against them?"
"I'm going to have a medicament prepared that will fight the symptoms. The mutation is not really dangerous now that I've found it. To come back to your question… 2-1B has checked everything. You didn't have the mutation before today."
"I don't know much about medicine", Kam murmured, "but this should not be possible, should it?"
"No", Cilghal replied reluctantly. "It shouldn't be. I will inform Master Solo about this."
"About what?"
"Master Solo!"
Jacen stood in the doorway, arms crossed in front of his chest, and glowered at them. "The Council will hold an emergeny meeting in forty minutes", he informed them. "And I would be thankful if you didn't shut down your comlinks all the time", he added in a calm tone since he reminded himself that he spoke with two of his former teachers. "What did you want to tell me, Master Cilghal?"
°°°
Coruscant, Senate
The Jedi-Master's facial expression and appearance were controlled and calm. Even the most experienced politician could not guess his thoughts, not even his eyes betrayed him. But Corran knew that Luke Skywalker barely managed to keep his composure. On the inside, his thoughts raced… controlled anger burnt concerning the arrogant senators, there was worry about the riddles, about an escalation. He seemed to know something, had had a hunch perhaps, but feigned ignorance in front of the senate and calmed the politicians saying that he had assigned Jacen Solo to solve the mystery and that more and more information was being gathered.
In silence the two Jedi-Masters walked down a broad corridor, which led them towards the hangar where their vehicle waited for them. It was late at night, though policitians from all parts of the galaxy still roamed the building, flanked by bodyguards.
/Similar to Luke/ Corran thought with just a bit of cynism. /But if he had his will, he would be here on his own./ He pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders when they entered the dark and draughty hangar. /Why again do I bother? I would be so much easier to just… hu?/
He nearly knocked Luke over when the other suddenly stopped and frowned, cocking his head slightly.
"Corran", he whispered, too softly for anybody but the Corellian to hear, and gestured towards the shuttle. Corran noticed that he cloaked his presence and stepped back into a deep shadow. When he followed him, he also saw the dark shapes of two persons who were just tampering with something at the stern of the shuttle. The younger Jedi cursed silently. He should have been aware of them even before entering the hangar with Luke. Soft noises sounded through the hangar while they were working on the Naboo II – certainly not to make positive modifications. Corran did a short probe and soon was quite sure that these two were no Dark Jedi and not Force-sensitive, either.
/And not even bright enough to assign a guard./
Corran decided that he had seen enough. He seized his comlink, informed the security centre of the senate building and demanded immediate action. Then he managed to get hold of Luke's arm and shoved him back into the corridor they had come from, ignoring his silent protests.
"I'm seeing to another vehicle. We have to go back to the Temple as fast as possible", the Corellian said grimly. Without giving Luke time to answer he added, "Others can take over the interrogation." But he himself practically itched to ask the men a thing or two, to find out who had sent them and what exactly they had been ordered to do.
Two minutes later, they entered a smaller, well lit hangar, where they were being shown to a comfortable glider.
"Thank you, Commander", Corran placated the over-enthusiastic officer, shoved Luke into the general direction of the ramp, ignored the annoyed glare he received and finally entered the vehicle himself. The pilot took off immediately. They left the hangar and entered the route towards the Jedi-Temple.
"I have a bad feeling about this", Luke commented, clearly uncomfortable.
"I would have, too, had I been at the receiving end of the umpteenth attack within such a short period of time", Corran grumbled bluntly.
"That's not what I'm talking about", came a soft answer.
Corran startled slightly and looked at him out of the corner of his eyes. Luke sat still, leaning against the window and looking out onto the lightened city. The tone of his voice had been strange when he had answered, as if he had been somehwere else with his thoughts. The older Jedi had merged in the Force and examined… what? An underlying note of danger. Luke frowned and continued gazing out of the window in concentration.
"We've left the usual route to the Temple", he whispered.
Corran looked puzzled for a second. He followed the others gaze, then looked up to the front, where the outline of the pilot was barely visible behind a darkened pane, and swore. He called upon the Force and tried to get an impression of the man's thoughts, but faltered when he encountered a stable, dark wall in the human's mind. Just as he was about to withdraw he felt Luke attempting the same, felt him patiently and carefully weaving his way through the wall before giving up.
"Somebody's knowing exactly what to do. It nearly seems as if the man's obsessed", he stated. "If I continued, I would do damage to his mind."
"If not, we're going to receive some damage. Most likely of the permanent kind", Corran replied. "I would just manipulate the controls", he added meaningfully.
Luke sighed and reached out towards the steering of the glider but stopped immediately. "Too late", he murmured and gestured to the window. At the very moment the vehicle landed, not exactly gentle, on a far-off platform, only to be surrounded by several Dark Jedi.
"I just don't believe this", Corran hissed, more angered with himself than with the attackers, and took his lightsabre. Luke did not answer but instead touched the push button to open the hatch before he leaned back abruptly to avoid two stun shots.
"Nice reception", he barely heard Corran comment when the other sprinted down the ramp, using the Force to enhance his speed. The Corellian caught several shots with his blade before he got involved in a duel with one of the Dark Jedi. Luke was about to follow him when suddenly the dark spirit left the pilot. The man collapsed at once, deathly pale, and thus prompted the Jedi-Master to stop and put him into a healing trance.
/They're not exactly good fighters, but we're outnumbered and heavily so/ he received a mental message from the younger Master a few minutes later. Corran had just fatally wounded a second Dark Jedi. Luke himself was fighting his fourth adversary; the other three lay on the ground, two of them unconcious, the third one dead.
/I'd be grateful for suggestions/ he sent back. /Somehow I don't think they want to negotiate./
/I admit I'm a bit surprised. Did you know the Dark Jedi were so strong in number?/ the Corellian asked, frustrated, lowered his sabre for a moment and sent his adversary, who was completely surprised by the physical blow into his face, to a far away dreamland.
/I suppose they have drawn together all of their forces to carry this plan through/ Luke answered thoughtfully, seemingly ingoring the chaos surrounding him.
A trace of guilt hit Corran. The words had not sounded accusing, but he nevertheless knew that he should have noticed this attack earlier on. Luke's gentle voice between his temples brought him back to reality, though. The Jedi-Master sent a wave of confidence and an image, a plan to flee.
/We're going to talk about this later, Corran. Concentrate and watch out for the Rodian behind you. On three./
°°°
Coruscant, Jedi-Temple, Council Chambers
The brightly lit Council Chamber was eerily silent.
Some of the Council Members probably would have fidgeted in their armchairs restlessly, had they not been Jedi; no one dared to interrupt the silence for Jacen was, contrary to his usual nature, quite moody and harsh concerning inappropriate disruptions. Today, he counted everything among disruptions that did not help to solve their current problem. Since nobody had a solution, the Masters sat silently in their places apart from Kam Solusar, who had lowered himself onto the chair-back belonging to his wife, Tionne, putting an arm around the distraught woman. Her eyes were reddened and her face even paler than usual; when she had been informed that children who had been placed under her care in the crèche had vanished, she had been devastated.
Ben Skywalker stood a little to the side at a panel and worked through the tasks that Jacen had assigned to him. Mostly paper work, he noticed with carefully controlled resignation. He felt his admiration for his cousin rise when he saw the amount of work Jacen had to handle with strict organisation and a lot of overtime. Another part of his concentration he focused on the talks of the Council Members, or rather their non-talks at the moment.
Two unannounced visitors disrupted the tense atmosphere of the room. Ben noticed them flinching slightly when Jacen, who had come to his feet with a feline movement, looked at them sharply. "Jaina, Jagged, what is the meaning of this?"
Jacen's twin sister regained control immediately and nearly nobody noticed her short hesitation. "Forgive us for interrupting like this, Master Solo, but we think we've found another part of the puzzle. Simé found it, to be more exact, when she went to Master Skywalker's apartment a few minutes ago to fetch some datachips."
Mara looked up. "In our apartment? What did she find?", she asked and mentally went through a list of all things that could be in their living quarters.
Jagged Fel took half a step around his wife and, nodding politely, handed a fist-sized object to Jacen which was wrapped up in cloth. His brother-in-law pulled the soft material off.
"That's Corellian handcraft. It's a firelily", Kyle Katarn said into the stunned silence and stepped up next to Jacen to take a closer look at the carved crystal blossom. "They are not overly precious, although they're rare."
"Just a second", Tionne, the Jedi-Historian, murmured, shaking of her husband's arm and coming to stand next to them. "We probably should ask Corran to be sure, but I'm quite certain that the firelily was a symbol of the Corellian Jedi Order. And that owning such a crystal was a sign of their friendship."
"There's just one minor problem. The Corellian Jedi Order does not exist. – And so did this lily, until recently", Mara added with raised eyebrows.
"But we're certain that this is part of the puzzle, aren't we?", Kyle asked slowly.
Jacen turned, deep in thought, and sat down again. His gaze wandered from the blossom to the empty chair next to him where Master Skywalker normally sat. /I'm so close, Master/ he thought. /I can feel it. Just one more part and I will have solved this puzzle. But where could it be?/
°°°
Coruscant, somewhere very deep down
"I have a really bad feeling about this", Corran murmured long minutes later and tried to get a bearing on his surroundings. "Master, do you know where we are?"
"Apart from the fact that we're somewhere on the lower levels of Coruscant? No. But we're moving away from the Temple", he added after shortly probing the Force, not overly happy about this. Their pursuers did not leave them much of a choice, though. Again he sent out his senses, more insistently this time, and hesitated for the fraction of a second.
"Master?", Corran immediately asked. He threw a gaze back over his shoulder and followed the other Jedi into a dark alley. "Something wrong?"
/Feel for yourself/ came a tense, absent answer.
Corran obeyed, even more worried than before, and it took him only seconds to identify what Luke meant. He felt something akin to a far, far away breeze, only it was a disturbance in the Force, directly in front of them.
/To me, it feels like a winter storm/ Luke muttered worriedly, not slowing his pace.
"Wouldn't it be wiser to…", the Corellian began but stopped when blaster shots hit the narrow walls and sparks rained down on the two Masters.
"I don't think turning around is an option right now", Luke stated and deflected further shots with his shimmering green blade, without turning or taking slower steps. "I don't like it… but I don't sense danger, either."
/Rather the opposite/ he added in a carefully shielded part of his mind and ran on, knowing that his partner would follow him without a second thought, no matter whereto. "We do not have a choice", he said emphatically. "I'd rather take this risk than… face the consequences of them catching us."
Corran pressed his lips together. He knew too well that the Master did not mean possible abduction when talking about consequences, but the means he would have to use to defend himself against the Dark Jedi. The Corellian concentrated on the disturbance, hoping to find out more about it, if it was a presence, a shifting, a memory…
°°°
Coruscant, Jedi-Temple, Council Chambers
The Council Chambers were silent again, because although Jacen had reigned his temper a bit after their latest discovery, he still was exceptionally irritable. Kyle Katarn, the former merchant, had taken the firelily and studied it, mumbling something into his grey beard from time to time, pointedly ignoring Jacen's withering glares. Again, the silence was interrupted. This time Jacen did not jump up but looked genuinely surprised when the hectic bleeping and tooting of a certain astromech sounded from the anteroom. The doors opened and Artoo dashed into the room, crashed into one of the armchairs and trundled to the midst of the chairs before his optic sensor found Jacen. Sounds of every possible and impossible tone pitch filled the room.
"Ben?", Master Solo asked with a mixture of curiousity and resignation.
"Slow down, slow down, little one", his former Padawan calmed the small droid. Frowning heavily, he tried to make sense of the hectic sounds. "You've found a picture?", he asked after a while and received an affirmative tooting. "Among the remains of the Old Jedi's Archive… and what's so important about it? – We have to see for ourselves… then show, Artoo!" Artoo Detoo twittered again and then projected a picture into the middle of the room.
As a whole, the sight was not overly odd. It had been tradition during the days of the Old Republic – as it had been taken up by the New Jedi Order a while ago – to take holopictures of Masters and Padawans to add to the Archives. This particular picture showed a Jedi-Padawan with black hair, dressed in dark grey, who seemed proud and perhaps even a bit defiant. Directly behind him his Master stood, a rather short Jedi in floor-length robes, who looked into the lens with very bright, alarmingly intense eyes.
Jacen swallowed audibly. The last piece of the puzzle found its place. Next to him, Mara gasped, while he already had grabbed his comlink and selected a very well known frequency.
°°°
Coruscant, still somewhere very deep down
Luke shoved the ancient and rusty door in front of him viciously to free the way and felt Corran following him blindly into the absolute darkness behind it, a darkness so deep that the shine of two lightsabres barely pierced it. Even the insistant beeping of his comlink was swallowed.
He gasped for air. The disturbance in the Force hit him with the power of lightning and broke his concentration. He thought he heard Corran yell his name from somehwere far away, before darkness swallowed him.
To be continued...
Chapter Eleven: One of those days again
When you wake up and find yourself face to face with a long deceased, very short and distinctively green Jedi-Master, it is one of those days again…