Dear Reader, Sorry! No excuses! I just got busy with projects around the house and in the garden. But I'm back on track now and hope to get back to posting more regularly. Enjoy!
Cheers, CS
Chapter 139 "Search for the Right Things."
"When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"We're coming up on Tralgaria. Dropping out of hyper-space in 3 minutes," Zinger said quietly over his shoulder.
Cody gave a single nod. "Hold off on a ship-wide announcement. Let me tell General Skywalker first." He turned and walked to where the general sat at the rear of the flight deck, still in a meditative posture.
"General Skywalker?" He spoke in a low, cautious voice, mindful that he was likely disrupting a use of the Force.
Anakin opened his eyes and regarded the commander with a carefully controlled expression of neutrality. The truth was, since sensing the spike of terror nearly an hour ago, he'd not been able to re-establish his focus. Cody's interruption had not been a disruption of anything – except Anakin's own self-recriminations over the fact that he was still no closer to discerning where Rex was than when they'd left Challenger.
"I heard," Anakin said, getting to his feet. "I want all scopes manned when we drop out of hyperspace. If anyone is in the area, we'll need to get out of there fast."
"Yes, General."
In fact, there were only two scopes. One between the pilot and co-pilot seats and one at the supplemental navigation station. Echo had already taken his place there almost immediately after his arrival. He had plugged into Endeavor's interface and monitored their progress for the past hour, as well as attempting to pick up any subspace chatter about Separatist Forces around Tralgaria. But he'd come up empty.
Anakin walked to stand between Three-Point and Zinger. "Do you have coordinates input in case we need to make a quick exit?"
"Yes, General," Zinger replied. "Everything's set."
"Tell the others."
Zinger made the announcement.
Two minutes later, Endeavor dropped out of hyperspace.
Not another ship to be seen.
"Activating low profile mode," Echo announced.
"Low profile?" Anakin inquired.
"I've spent the past hour going through all her specifications. She's equipped with a low profile mode, which is a low-end stealth capability. It just makes her image harder to detect. It doesn't make her disappear from sensor or radar tracking," Echo explained. "It's actually a very nice feature for a private vessel. I'm surprised she has it."
Anakin had not forgotten Echo's penchant for being an information glut, and he was happy to see that trait in full swing now. "Good job, Echo," he commended him. "Make sure you take in every piece of information in those databanks."
"Already done, Sir."
"Any tracking buoys?" Cody inquired.
"No, Commander," Echo replied. "There are some orbital satellites, but they don't appear to be detection beacons."
"They're the same things that were in place when we were here for the mission," Three Point replied.
"Let's try to stay away from them all the same," Anakin ordered. "We want to get in undetected."
"We'll do our best, General." Again, from Three Point.
The approach was uncontested.
Three Point set Endeavor down in the same valley that had earlier served as the evacuation point.
"You two stay on board. Be ready to leave if anything threatens this ship," Anakin instructed his pilots. "I don't think we're alone for one second. We made that mistake once. We're not going to make it again. Stay alert. Echo, you stay with them, keep monitoring for any communications, anything to indicate that the enemy is in the area or on the move. Jesse, Top, Sixer, Sempe, Dogma, I want you to stay here and protect Endeavor. We lose this ship, we lose our ride out of here. Cody, you and everyone else, with me."
"And what about me?"
The sound of a woman's voice stunned them all. They turned to see Major Swin standing in the entrance from the corridor.
For a moment, they were all speechless.
It was Anakin who broke the silence. And his tone made his displeasure clear.
"What are you doing here?"
The major was unperturbed. "The same thing as the rest of you, searching for Rex."
"This isn't your mission," Anakin stated bluntly.
"It isn't a mission at all," Donya replied. "I know you all stole this ship and that the command hasn't sanctioned this rescue attempt."
Cody spoke up. "How do you know?"
"I'm an intel officer," came the curt reply, as if the major were insulted by the question. "Gathering information is my specialty. I knew there were a number of people wouldn't just accept Rex's disappearance. I knew where to direct my listening efforts, and it wasn't hard to find out what the plans were." A pause. "And Commander, with all the coordinating you did to ensure Endeavor would be allowed to depart, I'm surprised the entire ship didn't know what you were planning to do. But again, not everyone has the ability to obtain and interpret the intel like I do."
Anakin was not interested in the major's self-perceived valuation of her own abilities. He replied with harsh skepticism. "We all have a vested interest in this. Rex means something to us—"
"He means something to me, as well," Donya interjected.
"You've known him for less than a week," Anakin challenged. He could not help but feel suspicious. Had something gone on between Rex and Major Swin of which he was unaware. Why else would this woman—she could barely know Rex—feel compelled to steal aboard the ship and take part in something that could easily cost her her career and even result in imprisonment.
"A week was all that was necessary," Donya replied. "I made up my mind that it was the right thing to do, and I'm here now, like it or not. You can make use of my skills or you can kick me off here on Tralgaria and continue without me. It's your call, General Skywalker. I'm here to help."
Anakin looked at Cody. No help there. The commander's expression was inscrutable. After a few seconds, Anakin said, "We're not going to kick you off. But you are going to stay here on the ship. And at the first neutral or Republican stop we make, then we're putting you off." He took a step closer and glared into her eyes. "Because, believe it or not, Major, we don't need your expertise."
To everyone's surprise, Major Swin did not back down in the face of this reprimand.
"With all due respect, General Skywalker, you're being short-sighted in not wanting to make use of my abilities—"
"And with all due respect, Major . . . if your presence jeopardizes this mission and puts my captain's life in even more danger, you'll wish you had stayed back on Challenger," Anakin seethed. "And if you doubt me, try questioning my orders one more time: I will leave you here on this planet."
This was not how he'd imagined his death.
He had always envisioned that the end would come during battle, fast, without realization.
Or old age, sleep, ease into it.
Instead, a slow, agonizing torture, a knowing death was coming.
He was powerless to stop it. .
He could only hope now to grow numb. Or for death to take him before the pain drove him mad.
His concealment among the hanging bodies had come to an abrupt, terrifying and painful end. How long ago that seemed; but in truth, he had no idea how much time had passed since he'd come crashing down to the ground among the bones and decomposing flesh.
But he remembered, in horrific detail, what had happened after that.
The burning. The flogging. His limbs, stretched out of their sockets and twisted in such excruciating agony, he had passed out instantly with each iteration. It made the pain in his broken arm feel like a bruise in comparison.
Now, he was lying in a cell with a dirt floor and sweating walls. He did not move. He hadn't the strength. And even if he had been able to move, there was no comfortable position. He bore the marks of the iron and the whip on his front, his back, arms and legs, his face, his scalp. There was not a part of his body that had not been abused. The smell of burnt flesh still lingered in his nostrils. He could almost taste it in his mouth and feel it in his throat.
When would they come get him again? He knew they weren't finished with him. But he had no idea what it was they wanted. They still asked no questions. They seemed entirely disinterested in him as anything other than a subject upon which they could apply their skills.
None of this made any sense. Why would Count Dooku make a point of seeking him out and taking him prisoner but without any apparent interest in the knowledge he possessed. Dooku had said, unmistakably, that he had come in search of Rex. Protecting the rhydonium might have been the purpose of the Separatist Forces on Tralgaria; but the purpose of Count Dooku's presence had been something altogether different. Dooku had known the attack was coming. How? How had he known that information? He'd laid in wait for the right opportunity to snatch Rex away from the surface, so he had known that the 501st was going to be one of tasked units. Once he'd taken his prize, he'd abandoned the battle, abandoned the planet . . .
Rex found his thoughts going around in circles, coming no closer to understanding. And truth be told, the why of his captivity was growing less important. All that mattered was surviving it. The thought of General Skywalker arriving only to find him dead . . .
That was something he could not tolerate.
"Where did you get separated from him? Anakin asked.
"This is where the gunships picked us up. We were in the mouth of that tunnel. When the Separatists brought the ceiling down, Rex ended up on the other side," Pitch replied. As the entered the tunnel, he added, "We won't be able to get through General. The cave-in blocked the way."
"Leave that to me."
They came to the wall of rubble, and there followed a display of power in the Force that none of the clones could have imagined. With what seemed to be only a marginal amount of concentration, General Skywalker cleared enough of collapsed ceiling away to allow the party to climb up and over to the other side.
Kix and Pitch exchanged glances. Neither of them had realized the general had become this powerful. The sense of awe they suddenly felt in his presence was matched only by the pride they felt at having such a Jedi as their commanding officer.
"Let's go," Anakin ordered.
Once they had reached the other side, Double Barrel took over.
"Follow me."
He led them through a tunnel that he himself had never been in.
But the eagle had, and he was showing Double Barrel the way.
After a long jaunt through the darkness, lit only by the troopers' night vision and Anakin's lightsaber, they came to an opening that looked out into the far end of the valley in which they had landed.
DB took a step out into the open. "This is as far as the eagle went. At this point, he came back to me because I was injured."
"I recognize this. I was seeing the same thing you were seeing, DB. The eagle was showing me, as well," Anakin stated. "I understand now. Rex got here as the ships were leaving. He saw them and realized he was too late." His eyes darted quickly over the area. "Fan out. See if you can find any indication of what happened at this point."
As the men began searching, Anakin closed his eyes and drew on the Force. There might be a remnant of past events still lingering. It was not uncommon for someone as strong in the Force as Count Dooku to leave a palpable imprint in the space and time through which he passed. And might there also be some faint hint of Rex's presence—
"General Skywalker!"
Anakin's eyes shot open. It hadn't even been one minute, and already he saw Kix approaching, holding Rex's helmet in his hands
"I found this hidden between the rocks over there," the medic announced. "It's set on record . . . it's still recording."
"Sync your HOPO," Anakin ordered. "Go to the start of the recording."
The rest of the team gathered. They watched the holographic image of their captain firing at an unseen enemy. They heard the unmistakable sound of battle droids' gears and blaster fire. They felt the horror of a Force-induced strangulation, saw the panic in Rex's eyes in the moments before he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
They heard Count Dooku's voice. "Put him in my ship."
Shortly thereafter, the tell-tale whirr of Dooku's late model solar sailer could be heard off camera.
Anakin let the recording run another couple minutes, looking for any other clues: perhaps droids referencing Dooku's destination. But nothing more was forthcoming—only the fading sounds of departing droids.
"Turn it off." Anakin's voice was purposefully flat. He was fighting down the anger, the outrage. This was not the time to give in to emotion. He needed to stay clear-headed, focused on the task at hand.
It was Cody who broke the uneasy silence. "At least we know for sure that it was Dooku who took him."
"Yes, but where?" Kix wondered aloud.
"That's the question," Pitch replied.
Ajax spoke up, sounding a bit tentative but hopeful. "One thing that might help us. You can hear that it's definitely Dooku's solar sailer that's lifting off. The 116-class sloops all have a distinct energy signature once they reach a planet's lower atmosphere prior to breaking free of gravity. There might still be residual inert vaporization. Depending on where the ship entered the lower atmosphere, a sweep could get us a departure trajectory. That doesn't mean he didn't change course once he left the atmosphere, but it would be a starting place."
He noticed everyone staring him with expressions of surprise.
"Can you do that?" Anakin asked, impressed that a simple infantryman seemed to have a wealth of knowledge that the rest of them did not.
"If Endeavor has the right equipment, yes," Ajax replied.
"Let's go find out," Anakin stated.
As they headed back towards the ship, Double Barrel sidled up next to his life-long friend. "When did you become an expert on solar sailers? Or any space craft, for that matter?"
Beneath his helmet, Ajax gave a minute grin. "I've always been interested. It just wasn't part of what we normally do. Kind of like the captain and his fascination with jet packs; we don't use them often, but he made it his business to know everything about them."
DB could not help but silently marvel at Ajax's unassuming nature.
"You know, you come in handy sometimes," he said lightly. "Looks like you have your own secret weapon."
"Yeah . . . hopefully, it won't end up being useless knowledge."
Obi-wan had been dreading this moment. He'd held off on reporting to the Jedi Council for as long as possible; but he could delay no longer. Admiral Yularen had already reported the "absent without leave" status of the clones – and General Skywalker—to the Joint Forces Headquarters. It would only be a matter of time before word reached the Council, if it hadn't already.
Masters Windu and Yoda appeared in holographic image.
"Gentlemen."
"Master Kenobi," Mace acknowledged with a slight nod.
"I'm afraid I have something to report," Obi-wan began with a sigh. "You might have already heard." He drew in a deep breath. "Anakin has gone AWOL with about a dozen soldiers."
"AWOL?" Mace inquired.
"Yes. For at least 32 standard hours." Obi-wan braced for the diatribe on his former apprentice's impetuosity, his un-Jedi-like behavior, his recklessness, his disregard for the conduct of the war effort.
"No, heard that, we have not," Yoda replied.
Obi-wan was not surprised that the military command had chosen not to share this bit of information with the Council. The relations between the uniformed side of the house and the Force-wielding side were comprised mostly of distrust and disdain.
"Did he go to look for his captain?" Mace asked, sounding as if he already knew the answer.
"We can only assume so," Obi-wan answered. "Most of the troops that went with him were 501st, and . . . well, what other reason can they all have for sneaking out of here?"
"A rash decision, this is," Yoda said pensively. "If correct earlier reports are, then in Dooku's possession, the captain is. Strong enough to face Dooku, Skywalker is not."
"He's leaving his unit in jeopardy to go after one man," Mace scowled. "This kind of attachment is what I've long feared in Skywalker."
"Let's not forget that he went out in search of his astromech droid when it went missing," Obi-wan pointed out. "Did any of us really believe he wouldn't go out looking for his first-in-command?"
"If you knew, did you try to stop him?" Mace asked.
Obi-wan was honest. "Probably not as hard as I should have."
"A critical juncture in the war, we are at. A bad time this is for Skywalker to be out of the battle." Yoda never sounded as animated as Master Windu, but there was a certain foreboding sadness in his voice. "Search until he finds his captain, he will."
"And if he doesn't find him?" Obi-wan asked.
Yoda was silent.
Mace spoke instead. "He can't go on looking forever."
Another chilling silence followed, until at last Yoda spoke slowly. "Find him, he will."
Both Mace and Obi-wan were stunned by this pronouncement.
"Are you sure, Master Yoda? Have you seen something?" Obi-wan asked.
"Seen? No. A sensation of incredible power . . . rage, hatred. At something not yet happened," Yoda replied. His holographic gaze pierced Obi-wan's soul. "Not know of the strength of this attachment, did you?"
Obi-wan hesitated. Of course, he'd known of it. He'd even warned Anakin on more than one occasion about the bond that had formed between him and Rex. Yet, he'd also viewed such a relationship as something highly desirable among fighting men. There had been times when he'd envied Anakin's easiness with his first-in-command; for while Obi-wan enjoyed an excellent relationship with Cody, there had always existed a certain line of formality that neither would cross. Anakin and Rex had obliterated that line to the point where their personalities were so intertwined that each seemed an extension of the other.
Attachment at its finest.
And its worst – for a Jedi.
"I noticed there was an attachment, yes," Obi-wan admitted.
"Did you try to discourage it?" Mace asked.
Obi-wan raised an eyebrow. "I warned Anakin against it. But this is Anakin we're talking about. He's going to make up his own mind about things."
"And that is the problem."
Eighteen standard days.
That was a good amount of time.
Fortunately, the Copians, in their lust for all things torturous, had managed not to kill their high value prisoner. But they had driven him to a point of being insensate most of the time, and that invariably weakened the link.
Fools. But of course, the Copians wouldn't know such details. They had no true understanding—or interest in—the Force, other than a general respect for when they had seen it wielded in power.
Darth Sidious was only mildly disappointed at his future apprentice's inability to pinpoint the location of the captain whom he held so dear. But then again, the longer the search dragged on, the deeper the anger festered, the blacker the ash, the darker the soul, until now Sidious could feel Skywalker's anguish fomenting and coalescing clear across the timeless dimensions of space.
Eighteen days of searching and coming up empty.
They'd started off heading in the right direction upon leaving Tralgaria; but the trail had gone cold, and even the cursed eagle could not find the presence of a man with whom it had no intimate connection.
But enough time had passed. And the Dark Lord knew that finding the ravaged living man would be more effective than finding a corpse. Skywalker needed to witness the living body beneath the pain and torture. He needed to feel the heart beating, the skin still warm . . . and see the signs written in blood of what had come before. He needed the proper impetus to spur him to uncontrollable anger.
For Skywalker was still young. Powerful, but inexperienced. He lacked the training and guidance to hone his skills, and one of those skills was the ability to reach out in the Force with certainty and clarity. No, one could not search for the devotion and affection of a friend when the driving force of that friend's existence at the moment was one of agony and terror.
"Don't be afraid to search for the right things, my soon-to-be apprentice. You have to know what you are looking for. For now, you only sense the pain. You must learn to seek it out. And that is something I can teach you."
This was going to earn them all the end of their careers. It would certainly result in imprisonment.
Maybe worse.
Eighteen days. Eighteen days of AWOL. This sort of thing would not be tolerated by leadership.
Then again, Cody had tossed aside any idea of a future with the GAR the moment he'd decided to go in search of Rex. It was not a decision he'd made lightly, and he was admittedly surprised at his actions. Until the moment he'd made up his mind to go, he would never have imagined himself capable of such an act of disobedience. He could never have deemed his friendship with Rex to be of greater importance to him than his loyalty to the Republic and the victory it sought.
But all of that had changed as the realization had dawned on him that there was a very real possibility he might never see Rex again, that Rex had likely been taken prisoner and was still alive out there, expecting, hoping, waiting for rescue. Cody would be damned if he was going to put the lie to his friend's faith. Certain death would have been an easier reality to accept; but Cody could not bear the thought that Rex was still alive and suffering. The commander was finding it difficult to keep images from the ARC E&E prisoner-of-war camp from intruding into his thoughts. How much worse was the real thing?
Eighteen days of AWOL were insignificant compared with even one hour of the horrors Cody was envisioning in his mind's eye.
"Commander?"
Cody looked over his shoulder. He had gone into one of the private quarters and was using the media system to replay the recording from Rex's helmet.
Jesse and Top stood in the doorway.
"What is it?" Cody asked, rising to his feet.
"We wanted to talk to you about Major Swin," Jesse replied.
Cody gave a silent, inward groan. The major was the last person he wanted to talk about. But he acquiesced. "What about her?"
"She questions every decision," Top said, the distaste clear in his voice. "Ajax's calculations got us off on the right foot. We were able to track Dooku to the point at which he jumped to hyperspace, and we were able to make projections on possible destinations based on the star maps in 10-degree segments. We're halfway through those projections—"
Cody interrupted. "I know all that, Captain. Cut to the chase."
"She second-guesses us at every turn," Top grunted. "Whenever we choose a particular set of coordinates and it doesn't pan out, she acts as if she knew it wouldn't be any good. Then she goes on forever about how we should be following her advice—"
"So, put her off the bridge, gentlemen," Cody cut off the diatribe, only slightly perturbed that this was an issue the two men had felt needed to come to his attention. Couldn't they both handle the annoyances of a single uninvited officer?
"She outranks us both," Top replied.
"But, uh . . . you could put her off, Commander," Jesse suggested.
Cody sighed. "I'll go up there now—"
"Uh, not just . . . off the flight deck, Sir," Top said, clearing his throat.
Jesse took up the line of thought. "Off ship."
"Off ship?" The idea actually made Cody smile, and that felt good. "What, shall we just stick her in the airlock, hit the release and . . . problem solved?"
"Tempting as that may be, no, Commander," Jesse replied. "We thought we could put her off at a space port on a friendly planet. There are plenty in this sector."
"I understand your desire," Cody acknowledged. And he did. He understood it very well. Major Swin had not been invited on this mission, and her presence was not welcome. She was not part of the tightknit group of men that formed this search party, and whatever role she might have assumed in Rex's life, none of the others were aware of it. And that led Cody to near certainty that she had no role in his life; only the wish to be a part of it.
Still, putting her off at this point carried its own perils.
"If we put her off onto any of these planets, she could pass information on where we are back to the GAR," he explained. "She knows the search pattern we're using. She could lead them right onto us. I'm afraid we're stuck with her for now."
"The airlock's not sounding like such a bad idea," Top deadpanned.
"But I will go up and get her out of your hair," Cody conceded. He made to move past them into the corridor, but Jesse's words stopped him.
"I don't trust her, Sir."
Cody was not surprised. He shared the same sentiment. "Yeah. Her interest is . . . unusual." A pause. "Did Rex ever—Jesse, did you see that anything was going on between them?"
"No, Sir," Jesse replied. "I think she was interested in him, but I . . . I believe the captain's interest lies elsewhere."
Cody raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Back on Bertegad with Doma Maree."
Cody was only mildly surprised at the accuracy of Jesse's suspicion. "And your reason for believing this?"
"I think all of us who saw them together came to the same conclusion," Jesse replied. "But circumstances being what they were . . . it was an impossible situation. The captain never talked about it, but he's uh . . . " A smile spread over Jesse's face. "He's an open book."
Cody gave a slow, considered nod. "And yet, he thinks he's hiding how he feels from everyone. Some things haven't changed since ARC training." He grew less wistful. "Well, whatever the major is imagining in her own mind, she's bound to be disappointed no matter what happens on this mission. But I'll get her off the flight deck."
They made their way together through the corridor and lounge and up onto the flight deck where Major Swin was leaning over Echo's shoulder, busily going over the habitable planet readouts showing on the scanner. The only other people on deck were Three Point and Zinger.
"Where is General Skywalker?" Cody inquired.
Before any of the clones could open their mouths, Major Swin replied, "He went down below. I think he needed more quiet than was up here."
"I think we could all do with a little less chatter," Three Point said bluntly.
"I agree," Echo chimed in.
Major Swin was undeterred. "I know what you both mean by that, and if me offering my professional analysis of the data is what you consider to be chatter, then I suggest you put your helmets on and activate the mute feature."
Cody steeled his jaw. This wasn't going to be pleasant.
"Why can't I find you, Rex? I'm trying, I'm trying. You know I would never abandon you. Just . . . give me something to grab onto. We're running out of options."
Days had passed and Anakin had felt nothing, sensed nothing of his captain. At this point, he was no longer certain that Rex was still alive, but not once had he considered giving up the search. Yet, each day's new search brought no clues, no findings.
And to add to the growing moroseness of the mission, both his waking and sleeping hours were plagued with images from his past – the suffering and death of his mother, the same images that had come to him in dreams almost three years ago. The same dreams that had led him to her, but too late to save her.
And now, at this moment, try as he might to rid his mind of those images, try as he might to reach out into the vastness of the Force to find Rex, he could not move beyond the constant replay of the agony he'd witnessed, watching his mother die in his arms.
Her pain had led him to her, led him to Tatooine where he'd learned the horrible truth of her abduction by Tuskan Raiders.
And when his mother's life had been extinguished, Anakin had done the same to those who had killed her.
Her pain, three years later, felt as immediate to Anakin as it had back then. The rage that had driven him to annihilate the Sand People was something he had fought hard to relegate to the deepest crevices of his mind. Allowing the horror and turmoil of that moment on Tatooine to reignite the flame could only result in tragedy.
Yet, it was the pain and the fear that had led him to her.
"And it will be the pain and the fear that guide you this time."
It wasn't Anakin's voice resonating through his thoughts. It sounded vaguely familiar but nothing he could pinpoint.
"Feel what he feels. That is all you must do. Do not wait for the sensations to come to you. Seek them out."
"I am searching," Anakin insisted out loud.
"Do not search for the man. Search for the fear. Search for the pain. Search for the sense . . . of desolation. And do not shy away from these alarming emotions. Embrace them. Follow them. They will lead you to him."
Anakin hesitated. A Jedi was counselled and warned incessantly against using the Force in moments of inner anguish and turmoil, for fear of feeding the ravenous maws of the Dark Side. Even though the outer world might be in chaos, a Jedi's interior disposition must always be one of peace and control, in order to prevent the Dark Side from leaching in. Anakin had been taught to seek only what was good in the Force. When the Jedi Younglings had been kidnapped by Cad Bane, the Jedi had used the Force, not to find the wickedness of Bane, but the goodness and innocence of the children.
Anakin had been searching for the goodness and warmth of his friendship with Rex, only to accosted time and again with the intensity of what Rex was suffering, a sensation he had quickly pushed aside each time. But now, he was being presented with the idea of searching out the very thing which he had repeatedly jettisoned.
Given what had happened with the Tuscan Raiders, did he dare trust himself now to actively court such dangerous emotions? He had grown much as Jedi since then. His understanding of the Force had expanded. His self-control was much improved. At least, he liked to think it was.
And this might be the only way to find Rex.
He reached out into the vastness of the universe. Only this time, and with great trepidation, he focused his energy on the negative – the fear, the pain, the ravages.
The speed with which his search was met was staggering. Within seconds, a picture began taking shape behind his closed eyes. A long, sterile room with a raised dais-type platform. Cold, grey panels and consoles dotted with different colored lights. Glass bottles and tubes.
"He's here. He's here! I can feel it." Anakin knew immediately he was seeing Rex's prison, but Rex himself was not part of the image. And while he believed it was the pain and fear that had led him to see this place, he was sense one emotion he had not anticipated – despondency. And this scared Anakin more than anything else.
Had Rex given up hope. It was as if . . . as if only a shell remained, and all that inhabited that shell was the remnant of a once vibrant soul.
Anakin concentrated harder. He could see two figures . . . maybe three. But he could not see their faces clearly enough to make an identification.
And then he heard it.
It was unmistakable.
The muffled grunting.
The sound only a Copian made.
His blood began rushing in his ears, turning everything into white noise.
He withdrew from his focused vantage point, retreating out into the atmosphere, further and further until he could see a planet.
A planet he recognized right away.
The Copian homeworld.
He opened his eyes and drew in a few breaths to regain his equanimity and return to his present time and space. He held up his wrist comm. "Cody?"
"Yes, General?"
"Have Three Point set course for Copia and assemble everyone in the lounge in 10 minutes."
"Copia, Sir? That's not on any of our projected sweeps."
"That's where Rex is."
After a brief silence, Cody acknowledged. "Right away, General."