Chapter 28 - War on Worms
Author's Note: In which Ahsoka and Alema fend off mind-controlling worms...
~ Amina Gila
Ahsoka Tano
The three of us bolt down the hall, weaving our way through the endless turns, before finally coming to a stop once we approach the room we need to get through next. There are clones in there. I can sense and hear them. We stop at the doorway, carefully remaining concealed while watching.
The clones are surrounding one of them – who is the only one not infected from the looks of it – and one of them approaches him holding a worm.
"We have to help him!" I hiss as he tries to break free from their grip. The worm crawls from the hand of one of them and into the other's nose. He starts struggling even harder to break free from them, but it's no use.
"It's too late," Barriss replies. He lets out a final groan before finally going still.
Suddenly, one of the clones runs down the hall from behind us, shooting at us. We pull out our lightsabers and deflect the bolts, backing into the large room. I slam shut the door to prevent him from getting through, but now we have a much bigger problem on our hands. We've just alerted all the clones to our presence, and we're trapped inside.
One of them stalks towards us, holding two greenish-yellow spherical objects in their hands. Just, great. Now they're going to try to infect us. I don't know if they can work on Jedi, but it's not something I want to try and find out. Alema and I react instantly, ripping them from his hands and slicing them in half.
With a growl, the clone in the front open fires on us. Thankfully, we already had our lightsabers ignited this time. The others immediately follow suit.
The doors behind us open and I spin around to defend Barriss and Alema as they try to keep up with the other clones. Barriss yanks down two of the many crates, as we fight our way towards them. I deflect one of the bolts just right, taking down the one attacking us from behind. I really don't want to kill anyone, but there's nothing else we can do right now. It's either them or us.
Alema runs over to the crate, ducking back against it. Barriss and I join her, remaining on high alert. I look around the room, trying to think of a way to get out of here. There's too many, and we'll never be able to fight our way out. I can only think of one thing, and in fact, it sounds perfect.
"Alema! Barriss! Let's go for the vent," I hiss. Alema nods sharply. I take off forwards, leaping up onto a high pile of crates, then jumping up onto a beam much higher above. The other two land right behind me as the clones start shooting at us again. All of the blaster shots miss, blowing holes in the walls. We dash down the beam, stopping as Alema rips off the covering on the vent and jumps through, with Barriss and me right behind. We start crawling forwards through the darkness as the vent cover slams to the ground with a huge crash behind us.
We pause at a place we can see down below. Clones are running past down there. I think everyone on the ship is infected by now except for the three of us. "I'll go to the reactor room and disable the thrusters," Barriss suggests. "Both of you can head for the aft comm center and send a warning to Master Fisto. We have to stop the ship from reaching the medical station."
"I don't know Barriss," I object as we start crawling forwards again, "I think we should stay together."
"I agree," Alema replies forcefully, "The clones are everywhere here, and the last thing we need is one of us infected." Agreed. That would not be a good situation.
"Unfortunately, that's not a luxury we have right now," Barriss replies. I wouldn't call it a luxury, but anyway. "One of us must succeed. If you need to, you'll do what must be done. I know it." Yes, I will. But I don't like the implications of her words.
"Yes, of course. Then we'll see you soon," I reply reluctantly, and we split off there. Alema and I head towards the comm room while Barriss goes the opposite direction.
"I don't know why, but I have a very bad feeling about this," Alema murmurs as we go.
"She is right," I point out. As much as I hate to admit it.
After a few minutes of hurriedly crawling, we manage to find a clear area and jump out. We arrive at the room with surprisingly little difficulty and make the call.
"The Geonosian worms infected the clones on the ship," Alema informs Fisto.
"As long as these things are on board," I continue the report, "We dare not dock with the medical station."
"You must bring that ship in. The only way we can stop these parasites is to analyze them," the Jedi Master argues.
"You don't understand how terrible these things are," I protest, "What if they get loose?"
"We could get everyone there infected," Alema warns, "I don't know if Jedi are even resistant to it!"
"We will take precautions," Fisto insists.
I let out a sigh. "I have a bad feeling about this, Master Fisto, but I will follow your instructions."
Just then another call comes in. "Cargo ship TB-73, this is Clone Captain Rex. Please respond." Thank the Force. That's the call I was really hoping would come in.
I immediately answer it. "Rex, this is Ahsoka. Boy, am I glad to hear your voice!"
"Likewise, sir," Rex responds, "I've got someone here who wants to speak with you."
Rex steps to the side and a very worried looking Anakin and Aniya appear on the screen.
"What's going on, are you both okay?" demands Anakin with concern. Aniya's expression is equally worried.
"Well, not exactly," I reply.
"To the best of our knowledge, the entire ship has been infected with the mind control worms," Alema explains.
Anakin and Aniya exchange glances, as if communicating silently. They do that a lot – communicate with looks. "Make sure you both have a wrist comm," Anakin instructs after a pause.
"We do," Alema confirms.
"And keep it on," Aniya adds.
"We're going to interrogate Poggle. He might have some answers. Find Barriss and wait for my signal," Anakin finishes. The screen goes black, and I turn around to see Barriss standing in the doorway, still behind the glass.
"Barriss, you're back!" I exclaim, "Were you successful?" She stares at me not responding... just like...
"Oh no," breaths Alema, fear flickering in her eyes.
"Barriss? What's wrong?" I ask, though I'm certain I already know. She raises a hand in response.
"Barriss, no!" we yell in unison, but she ignores us, shattering the glass with the Force and throwing the millions of fragments at us. I throw my hands up to shield myself, as does Alema. We both leap out of the way to avoid injury, barely managing to escape unscathed.
"We're your friends, Barriss!" I cry.
"Snap out of it!" yelps Alema. Barriss gives us a dark smile, lightsaber hissing to life in her hand. Alema and I immediately activate our own as she attacks. We manage to push her back several steps before the three blades swing up, meeting in a saberlock.
"Barriss, it's not you, it's the creatures! Fight them!" I urge. She shoves hard against my lightsaber sending me stumbling back. Alema jerks back and slashes at her again, meeting her next blow.
We need to get out of here and find somewhere to hide until our masters contact us again. I kick Barriss back, throwing her to the floor. I don't waste a moment before sprinting out the door and down the hall. Alema runs after, slamming a hand on the button to close the door. We dash down the empty halls, rounding the corner as the door reopens and Barriss stalks out. Great. It's literally the two of us against everyone on the ship now.
A Force-shove throws me down the hall, into the wall. I slide down onto the floor, raising my head as Barriss slashes her lightsaber towards me. Alema blocks it, having sidestepped the Force-shove. Lucky for her.
I scramble back to my feet, parrying the Mirialan's next strike before Alema and I hastily begin backing down the hallway away from her. She pursues us, swinging wildly, her movements only half-resembling her normal fighting style. This is not working. We need to run, which we can't do with her pursuing us. I kick her legs out from under her, and we bolt down the hall, hastily rounding the corner. This had been the same place we came out of to get to the control center. The grate is still off.
I jump up, Alema joining me half a second later. "Let's put it back in place," she hisses, snatching up the grate and settling it back over the hole. I nod, moving forwards. It would throw Barriss off our track if she doesn't know that we came back up into the shafts. It's a trick we've learned from our masters. The ventilation shafts are always the safest place. I still think there's some story behind that they never talk about, but I won't bug. It seemed pretty dark.
Now, we're going to have to wait until they call us. And hope that no one else finds us in the meantime.
**w**
Anakin Skywalker
Aniya and I head for the detention level in a grim silence. We should never have given this mission to our padawans. We should have checked more closely to make sure everything was all right. And now they're there on their own facing down the entire ship. I'm certain Poggle knows how to get rid of the worms, though. The Geonosians should know how to kill their own creatures, and I will make him talk by whatever means necessary. I'm not going to let my sisters die. I won't.
The clones guarding his ray shielded cell stand at attention as we approach. "Leave us," I order. The moment the clones leave, we step inside the cell to confront Poggle. A protocol droid stands next to him.
"You will answer my questions," I growl, throwing a strong Force suggestion into my words.
Poggle makes a sound in his language, which sounds very much like the bug he is. "Your feeble Jedi mind tricks do not work on Geonosians. The other Jedi already learned this," the droid translates. If we can't mind trick him, then... we're going to have to do this differently. I don't want to, but... my anger is rising by the moment. I will do whatever needs to be done to save Ahsoka and Alema, even if it's beyond what Jedi would normally do.
"Mind tricks?" Aniya scoffs, "We don't need mind tricks to get you to talk." She throws him across the room into the wall with a wave of her hand, blue eyes burning with the same fury I've only seen in her once. Back that night on Tatooine. But I'm upset enough to not even care.
Poggle makes a sound again, and the droid interprets it to, "I will never talk, Jedi."
I stalk forwards, shoving the droid aside. "We'll see about that, Poggle," I growl. I raise a hand, wrapping the Force around his throat as I lift him off the ground. Aniya watches the struggling figure, her eyes cold and burning with anger. I finally release him, and he falls to the floor, gasping for air.
"And unless you're hoping for a repeat of that," Aniya growls menacingly, "I suggest you answer our questions."
"How do you destroy the worms?" I demand.
"Extremely low temperatures will kill them," the droid translates Poggle's response.
"And how would they have gotten there in the first place?" I press.
"After you destroyed the Queen's temple where they were staying before, they needed a new host."
Several minutes and questions later, we exit the cell. We have the information we need for now. There's no time to spend any more time talking to him. We need to contact our padawans as soon as possible
"I made contact with Ahsoka and Alema," I inform as we hurry back onto the central area where Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Luminara are gathered.
"What's their status?" Obi-Wan asks.
"The Geonosian parasites have infected the crew," Aniya answers tensely.
"How did they get on board the ship?"
"Poggle said the parasites needed a new host after we raided the Queen's temple," I answer flatly.
"You interrogated Poggle?" Luminara queries, sounding surprised. I really don't have time to deal with her – or any of this – right now. We just need to contact our padawans.
"I did," I answer curtly, "There wasn't time to get the rest of you." Or we'd still be down there, pointlessly trying to get him to answer us.
Qui-Gon eyes us for a moment. "How did you get him to talk?" Something in his tone implies he has suspicions, and he wants us to verify them. I can't. We're supposed to be Jedi. I know what we did was wrong, even if it was the only way to save our padawans. I don't want to let him down.
"Does it really matter?" Aniya counters.
"Look, all that matters is that he told me how to stop the worms," I agree.
"And we need to contact them before it's too late," Aniya asserts, turning to the communicator.
**w**
Ahsoka Tano
"This is Ahsoka, come in," I call in a whisper through my comm when it starts beeping. We don't have much longer. The clones are walking around in rows below us, and if one of them spots us, we're pretty much done for.
"Ahsoka, listen to me," Anakin's voice comes through instantly, "The worms are affected by the cold."
"Cold?" I echo, "That's how we stop them?"
"That's nice, but the ship is anything but cold," points out Alema. She falls silent instantly, and I jerk backwards as a clone stops, hearing the conversation, looking up towards us.
"Rupture the coolant system," Aniya orders.
"Do you hear us?" Anakin asks, a sense of urgency slipping into his tone when we don't respond immediately, thanks to the clones right below us. "Rupture the coolant system." I wait until they're out of sight to respond in a low voice.
"The coolant system. Got it," I murmur, disconnecting the call. Footsteps echo down below and soon the clones move out of sight. Alema carefully pokes her head down there, looking up and down the hall to see if we've missed anything.
"Come on," she hisses finally, dropping to the ground with a thud that feels altogether too loud. I jump to the floor next to her. We both spring down the hall, hoping against hope that we'll be able to get to the temperature area without another huge battle.
It doesn't take us long to reach the control room, but I can hear the clones pursuing us. Just as we make it around the last corner, a group of clones emerges from the other side of the hall. I barely manage to activate my lightsaber in time as they instantly open fire on us.
"This... isn't working," Alema says as she frantically spins her lightsaber in an attempt to keep up with the shots. "Go in there and do it. I'll hold them off."
"I can't abandon you!" I cry, gaping at her in horror. "We can barely hold them off as it is!"
"Then hurry about it. We can't wait," Alema calls back. I glance back at her, knowing that however much I hate to do it, it's what I have to do. I push open the door and dart inside, closing it behind me.
I dart in between controls to the center of the room where the control is. Where is what I need? And why did the sounds of blaster shots just die off? I don't like this. What's going on out there? I can sense a surge of panic through my bond with Alema. Is she all right?
Finally, my eyes fall in the controls I need, and I quickly push a few buttons, then yank the lever down. The temperature seems to plunge almost instantly, and icy vapor starts pouring out of the walls, clouding the room.
Good. It's working.
Throwing a final glance over my shoulder, I bolt for the exit, forcing myself to keep moving even though I'm already freezing. And it's only going to get worse. The door slides open in front of me, where even more icy vapor is pouring in from the vents, clouding the hall. I don't have time to make it any farther out into the hall before the Force screams a warning. I jump sideways as Barriss lands right where I was standing, ignited lightsaber in hand.
"There you are," she hisses, "You can't hide from me."
I dodge out of the way, into the freezing clouds jumping into the vent to avoid her. There's no way I can fight anyone properly right now. I wait until I hear footsteps receding before pushing the vent up and peering around the hallway. There's no one insight.
Where is Alema? What happened to her? Shoving the grate aside, I scramble out of my hiding spot and sprint down the hallway of the ship. I need to find her, but I have no idea how to go about doing that. The temperature is rapidly plunging, and wherever Alema is, she's probably also turning into an icicle. I no longer find her nickname amusing. I'm shivering so much, even moving a grate is almost impossible.
I can still faintly feel her in the Force – though I can't really focus on it since I'm way too cold – so at least I know she's still alive. The clones didn't manage to kill her. Maybe she's hiding somewhere. She probably is. Now I need to get to the bridge and contact Fisto before someone else sees me.
"The bridge. At last," I mutter as I stumble down the hall and through the doorway, hastily taking the seat.
My hands are shaking so much I barely manage to send the signal through, but I start talking the moment I do. "We're coming in awfully fast," I mumble, poking some more buttons. "This is Ahsoka Tano, can you hear me? I'm shutting down the engines. I'll try to reverse the –" I don't get any farther before a blue lightsaber slams down onto the control panel.
I look up, eyes widening in horror when I see Alema standing over me, the same numb expression Barriss had on earlier. She swings her lightsaber towards me again, and I jump out of the chair. The Mirialan darts into the room behind her. Spinning around, I grab ahold of the pipe, shoving it in Alema's face. It's the only way.
She staggers back, lightsaber slipping from her grasp as she falls to the floor, holding her head with a cry. Barriss lunges forwards only to meet the same fate. The pipe slips from my grasp and I stumble to the floor, shivering uncontrollably. Ice is beginning to form over everything in the room.
"Kill me. Please," Barriss requests suddenly, pushing herself slightly up off the floor. The formerly possessed look in her eyes isn't there at the moment. What?! No way. We may not have known each other for long, but the thought of her being dead... because of me...
"I can't," I protest, staggering back to my feet and sliding into the chair at the control panel. Everything is all iced over now, and I'm starting to go numb. I can see the ship rapidly approaching the base. We're almost saved. Except that I don't know if the worms are dead yet.
Barriss is suddenly on her feet again, slamming me backwards into the control panel. A long green worm begins crawling out of her mouth, trying to get onto me. I shove her to the side before kicking her back into the wall, activating my lightsaber again.
Alema rolls over, seeming on the verge of standing up, but she doesn't. She must be fighting it. Given we've known each other far longer, she's having an easier time trying to resist it. Or maybe she's fighting harder, I don't know.
I swing my lightsaber down, cutting Barriss' worm in half before collapsing next to them. I scoot over to Alema, pulling her against me for warmth before darkness overwhelms me.
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