Chapter 4: Knol Ven'nari
Sluis Van
The Jedi Master sat in the refresher ears perked up as she listened intently to the trio's conversation. Knol was under the impression she had prepared these Judicials enough to overcome the danger she had sensed. Her other assumption was that, as trained Republic law enforcement personnel, they would at least have enough sense to see the danger coming when it came. They would discuss it amongst themselves, giving Knol extra warning.
Something was wrong though. Vaguely, Knol sensed another danger. One she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Standing at the door, she scowled at Rio Durant's prejudice and unprofessional gossiping. That Lir Sey'les does sound like she made some very questionable decisions, but it certainly isn't her fault she was brought up with the warped morals of the Bothan Way, Knol thought to herself.
Then she sensed six reptilian creatures enter the tapcafé. Not Sluissi, Knol thought. Different. Reaching out more intensely, she could sense they were bipedal and snouted. Okay Rio Durant, Demi Meratos, Ujorhen Sochu, Judicials of the Republic. Let's see what you are made of. Nets… Stop the nets. You can handle this. You have blasters.
To her increasing consternation, Rio continued whispering in a hushed voice about Lir Sey'les, completely ignoring the Trandoshans.
Sensing the reptilians were now just centimetres away from the trio, raising their arms high to attack, Knol ignited her bright green lightsaber blade. With a feral snarl, she knocked open the refresher door, sprinting down the hall.
At that point however, she felt something else. An explosive danger… An explosion. Shtak! All she could see was a green Sluissi hand holding the remote for a detonator, somewhere in the distance.
Ignoring the screams of pain from the dining room, Knol held her wrist comm to her snout, frantically dialing the Signal's Intelligence division. "Put a subspace jamming field on the Frosty Tapcafé now! Authorisation code 561 delta."
"What?!" a human voice asked incredulously. "What is your Judicial operating number?"
Shtak. I forgot my— "WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" the Bothan yelped. "THIS IS MASTER KNOL VEN'NARI! PUT AN JAMMING FIELD OVER THE FROST—"
Her comm died. Phew, she thought. With a jamming field, it was impossible for any wireless signals to transmit in or out of the tapcafé. A bomb could not be remote detonated, but neither could she call for backup.
Hearing pained wails from the dining room, her fur bristled as she sprinted into the dining room.
By the time she got there, all three Judicials were on their knees. Rio was screaming like a dying Ardennian, yelling in pain as electric currents ran through his face. The air smelled like a mixture of burning fur, burning hair, burning cloth, and ozone. The helmet covers atop all three Judicials' heads were smoking on verge of catching fire.
Three of the Trandoshans were driving electrified nets onto them, while the other three held blaster pistols. One of them shrieked, cawing like a bird as he pointed in the Bothan's direction.
Reaching out to the Force, Knol pulled the nets from the Judicials, sending them in the reverse direction, backwards onto the Trandoshans. "GET DOWN!" she yelped. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"
Three of the Trandoshans now hissed and cawed in agony as their own electrified nets fell onto their heads.
Heeding Knol's warning, the three Judicials collapsed to the ground groaning and sobbing.
The blaster-wielding Trandoshans did the opposite, firing indiscriminately in Knol's direction. The Bothan assumed a Soresu stance, deliberately standing in the way of the blasterfire to block it.
One of the Trandoshans aimed low, attempting to shoot her legs as she waved her lightsaber, deflecting the shots that were aimed at her upper body.
Knol crouched, swinging her lightsaber up. The blast connected with the tip of her blade, sailing back into one of the Trandoshans caught in his own electrified net. The Trandoshan fell back and Knol could sense the life drain from him.
I can't let this drag on, the Bothan thought, a her double-sight telling her that in a few seconds, her deflected blaster shots will begin striking the Judicials.
Shifting her stance, Knol began dodging the blaster shots instead of deflecting them. With a leap to the right, she placed her left foot in the corner between the wall and the floor and her right foot solidly on the wall. The Bothan sprinted as fast as she could on the side of the wall, lightsaber extended as she charged.
The Trandoshans slowly corrected their aim, blasting closer and closer to the Jedi, but it was too late.
Driving her green blade intentionally through lethal parts of their body, Knol decapitated the nearest Trandoshan, then eviscerated the next through his torso.
The final standing Trandoshan, a yellow-scaled one, dropped his blaster and began hissing in alarm. "I SSSURRENDER!"
With ruthless kicks, she knocked the two Trandoshans squirming in electrified nets to the permacrete floor, then pulled the nets from their heads.
"DURANT! MERATOS! SOCHU! GET THE HELL UP!" Knol snarled, sensing none of the Judicials were gravely injured.
"Holy hell," Rio croaked, sitting up to his knees. He began patting down his body with all four arms, as if checking for injuries.
"You're all fine," Knol growled consolingly, then returned to her impatient snarl. "Get your kriffing binders out from your utility belts and help me!"
The tapcafé was now conspicuously empty, besides Knol herself, the Judicials, and the Trandoshans. That Sluissi female her name is Nandib, the Bothan recalled, had vanished, as had all the Sluissi patrons. It was her hand on the detonator. She tried to blow everyone up, why?
Meratos moved towards the Trandoshan who had been killed by deflected blaster fire and grabbed his scaley arm.
"He's dead," Knol grunted, "bind those three."
"Yes ma'am," Meratos croaked, stepping over to one of the kneeling Trandoshans. Sochu and Rio stepped behind the other two, slipping them into restraints.
Unsure of what Knol wanted, Rio began pulling one of the Trandoshans up to standing position by the elbow.
"Nope," Knol grunted, keeping her lightsaber ignited. "Leave them on their knees."
With some hesitation the Bothan could sense, the Ardennian relented, leaving the Trandoshan on his knees.
"All right, back away," Knol ordered to the three Judicials. When they walked backwards, remaining behind the Trandoshans, she snarled impatiently, pointing to the wall. "STAND UP AGAINST THE WALL!"
The Judicials obeyed, scampering out from behind the kneeling Trandoshans, lining up along the wall. Worse than useless, the Bothan thought bitterly to herself. Well, now at least everyone is where I want them.
"Ma'am," Rio croaked nervously, "I think I need to see a medic."
"You will, in a moment," Knol said calmly, recentering herself. "Now," she growled turning to the Trandoshans, "what—"
"—My name is Hossskar!" the green one hissed in a panic.
"And I am Ssskoth!" cawed the yellow one. "And this is Shkora," he hissed, pointing to the brown one who had yet to identify himself.
"I don't care," Knol grunted, pointing her green blade at the table. "You can tell that to the Judicial interrogators. What I want to know is why you attacked these agents of the Republic. Why did you attack them?"
"It was a prank!" the yellow one, Ssskoth, hissed in a terrified whimper. "We were just—What are you doing?"
Whistling to herself innocently, Knol held her lightsaber out with one hand, sticking the blade into the wooden table. It promptly melted through the wax coating, igniting the wood. Her fur danced with excitement at the flames.
Don't get too excited, she cautioned herself. Don't lose control.
Reaching out to the flames with the force, she moved her free hand, moving her fingers in a beckoning motion. A fiery twister streamed off her blade, forming a ball of pure fire in front her snout. An orange glow illuminated the interior of the room, overpowering the artificial lighting.
The Trandoshans began screaming in terror, yelling incomprehensibly. One of them cawed something about being paid.
"WHY DID YOU ATTACK THEM?" Knol snarled, voice echoing off the walls. "WHO PAID YOU?"
When the Trandoshans continued their terrified incomprehensible wailing, Knol moved her fingers into a five shape, holding out all five fingers. The fireball expanded like an inflating balloon, eventually growing large enough to encompass all three Trandoshans.
Reaching out to the fire with the force, Knol could feel an angry pain running through her body. A pain which, on more than a few occasions, the Bothan had allowed to consume her—Scarring her furred snout and forehead with accidental burns. Some scars were so severe that she now had numerous bald patches in her fur, including one prominent one between her eyes. This time though, she was in control.
With the flames nearly lapping their bodies, Rio, Meratos, and Sochu screamed in terror, pasting themselves tightly against the wall.
Hurling the fireball at the Trandoshans with a snarl, Knol repeated her question. "WHY DID YOU ATTACK THEM?"
Right as the fireball was about to consume the Trandoshans, Knol balled her fist, collapsing the fireball. A wave of smoke and hot air poofed on the screaming reptilians.
"WE WERE PAID!" Ssskoth shrieked.
Shkora whimpered and wheezed, coughing profusely. "There's *COUGH* a five thousand Ssseparatist-credit bounty on *COUGH* Judicials! A one million credit bounty on Jedi!"
"Five thousand credit bounty? Huh," the Bothan said calmly, pondering their claim as she turned off her lightsaber.
"Yesss!" Ssskoth wailed in agreement. "Please! Don't hurt us!"
"Get them up," Knol grunted to the equally terrified Judicials. "We're going to the field hospital. We'll need to tell the Sluissi. We need an explosive defusal team here ASAP."
Breathing heavily, the three Judicials stepped from the wall, running behind the Trandoshans.
"Explosive… What did you do?" Rio croaked to Knol as he forced Ssskoth to his feet.
"I taught you all a lesson," Knol growled wryly, stepping towards the café door. Although, I expected you to do much better.
The Judicials led the Trandoshans through the smoky tapcafé, through the doorway into the blazing jungle sunshine.
Knol took a panty breath of humid air, refreshing in comparison to the charred interior she had left behind. "Now," she sighed, speaking to the Judicials. "What is one thing we learned?"
"We're never leaving the base again," Sochu whimpered, his orange face now covered in soot.
"No," Knol growled cautiously. "Meratos? Your turn!"
"I—What?" Meratos croaked, trembling with nervousness as she led Shkora over the cracked permacrete.
"Your turn to have a go at answering my question," Knol smiled, fur and red mane blowing calmly in the hot jungly breeze.
"I—Master Jedi, I just don't know," Meratos stammered.
Seriously? Knol scowled to herself. And they think I am dumb. "The lesson you agents all need to learn is that, on this world, any local you meet may try to kill you. They may try to kill you at any time, any place, even in a place that serves frosty treats. Aside from me and your Judicial colleagues, trust no one. Be prepared to kill anyone you meet."
Meratos and Sochu gasped in shock and alarm.
"Trust no one," Rio repeated to himself in a whisper. Knol could sense he was coming to some realisation. "NANDIB!" he gasped, "the tapcafé owner… She… She betrayed us?"
"Yeppers," the Bothan yipped excitedly. Good. Not so useless. Perhaps I would be a good Master for a Padawan after all, she thought to herself, fur dancing with pride at having taught the Ardennian something.
Just wait till I tell Coruscant about this.
Suddenly, Knol's wrist comm buzzed. Without thinking of what that implied, she answered it. Her fur fell flat as her danger sense flared up.
"Master Jedi!" screamed the livid voice of Ilko Deminar from her comm in his Coruscanti accent. A Senate Bureau of Intelligence stationmaster, Major Deminar was not officially present on Sluis Van. While running a top-secret signals operation in the centre of Cresh Base, he and all of the SBI personal had disguised themselves as Judicial peacekeepers. "You may have blown our entire operation! The Techno Union can detect radio signal jamming!"
The Bothan ignored him. Instead, of responding to his screams, Knol extended both of her hands, using force push to knock Rio, Meratos, Sochu, and the three Trandoshan prisoners down onto the cracked permacrete street. They cried out, screaming in angry protest.
Knol then spun to face the tapcafé.
For a second, it seemed that all would be fine. A moment later, it exploded, in one of the loudest sounds the Bothan had ever heard, sending a wave of fire and debris into the street.
Time for Knol slowed down. With two hands, she reached out to the flames and flying bits of debris, holding them back with all of her might. Smoke slowly engulfed her as the explosion inched ever closer. Blast, I am too weak, she thought, falling over onto her buttocks. Smoke whooshed over her as a brick flew past her head. In the darkness, she felt some pressure on the front of her durasteel chest-plate.
Huh, I am alive, she thought with fascination, looking through the smoke. Behind her, the bound Trandoshan prisoners wriggled on the ground, very much alive. The three Judicials slowly stood up, brushing the dust and soot from their uniforms in the smoke.
Looking to the left, at the end of the street, she saw a distinctly female Sluissi figure slither up to the edge of a swoop bike. The Sluissi wriggled up the side with her body, then plopped down behind another Sluissi who was driving.
Nandib, Knol thought with certainty. She blew up the restaurant, for some reason, and is going to get away. Standing up with determination, the Bothan took a step towards the speeder, determined to apprehend both beings.
Rio Durant stood in her way. Eyes wide, his mouth moved silently.
I am deaf, Knol realised, again with very out of character calm. So that's why everything's been so quiet. The explosion was so loud I am—
—The Ardennian reached for her breasts.
Knol moved her snout into a snarl, flashing her teeth. A few minutes ago, she had been acutely aware of the Ardennian feeling some sexual attraction to her while she was eating ice cream. She had then heard him gossiping about another Bothan and now, in her dazed state, assumed the worst.
Fur standing on end in anger, Knol kicked Rio in the balls, sending him falling onto the permacrete, wincing in agony. Kriff this asshole. I need to stop Nandib from escaping! She took another step forward but someone else grabbed her, this time by the shoulder.
It was one of the Judicial medics, a female human named Shalla Waust.
The Bothan snarled furiously at her. What the kriff is going on with everyone? Why is everyone just touching me without asking?
Waust pointed down at Knol's chest.
Looking down at her chest, Knol gasped silently. The handle of a piece of silverware was poking out of her armour. A spoon, a knife, perhaps a fork, had flown through the explosion at supersonic speeds, subsequently penetrating her chest-plate. Blood was running down, dripping onto the dirty permacrete.
Rio wasn't… Shtak, the Bothan thought. She faced the Ardennian and growled "I'm sorry," but could not hear her own voice. Well, looks like I am not making any arrests today.
Dozens of Judicials were quickly rushing from the base onto the street. The tapcafé was in an inferno. Knol felt a pinch in her arm as Waust injected her with nyex.