Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to Lucasfilm Ltd. No money is being
made off this work. Thanks much.
Star Wars: Shattered Dreams
Chapter Five: Bad Feelings
by Dave Ziegler
As the creature leapt at her Jaina Solo came to a realization.
She had become too reliant upon her lightsaber in dangerous situations.
Her hand had fallen almost instinctively to her hip in preparation
to draw the blade. Jaina had become lax. She was a Jedi knight though,
and it was high time for her to break this habit and put to use
the power she possessed.
Jaina waved her hand and propelled the creature from its path,
letting it land a good distance to her side. Rolling quickly to her
feet, she turned to face the animal. 'Please,' she projected, 'I don't
mean you any harm. I pose you no danger. Go back and be with the
others, I will not disturb you.'
The Jumper broke its way free of the thick grass and crawled
warily into the clearing. Its eyes remained fixed upon Jaina, perhaps
reevaluating the difficulty of obtaining this meal. Tail lashing
sporadically, it began to move in a tight circle around the clearing,
forcing Jaina to do the same or risk being mauled from behind.
'Please,' Jaina thought emphatically, 'leave me be. There is
plenty of food in the plains,' she lied quickly. Truth be told, Jaina
had seen no other signs of animal life, aside from her new friend, among
the plains as she and Lowie had traveled through them. An unfortunate
set of circumstances for the both of them.
Jaina eyed the jumper warily. There was no indication that any
of her projections were getting through to the creature, for it continued
to pace its circular route. She didn't want to injure the animal.
From what she could sense, it was only trying to provide it and its herd
with another meal. It only valued its continued survival. Then again,
Jaina had no desire to be the meal helped it so.
Perhaps if it could be distracted in some fashion she might be able
to make a run for it, thereby avoiding injury to both parties. It could
work. Jaina just needed the right sort of distraction. Jaina grinned.
Food. The jumper was hungry after all. It just needed to be convinced
that something else was coming into the clearing. Give the creature a
choice between pursuing her, and taking something that would be eminently
easier to catch.
"Well," she whispered, "here goes nothing." Reaching out with the
Force Jaina took hold of a tangle of the thick grass and began to snap
the stalks in succession. At first, the jumper seemed not to notice, or
at least was ignoring it, but as the sound became louder and seemed
closer it risked a glance in that direction.
Jaina ran.
The jumper launched itself after its prey. The massive leap
landed the creature astride Jaina as she began to push her way into the
grass, and it lashed out with its forearm, striking her across the face.
Jaina's head snapped back, twisting her body round and causing her to hit
the ground uncontrolled. A searing pain began to incessantly flash
throughout her jaw.
Jaina forced her vision to clear, and staggered to her feet. The
creature attacked again though, this time landing two quick blows upon
her hip. A loud crack echoed in her ears, and this time Jaina did not
get back up.
* * *
Lowie hunched down in the grass and examined the blood stained
ground where the swoop pilots had landed. Both bikes seemed relatively
undamaged, unlike the speeder he and Jaina had been in. The creatures
who had attacked them had managed to damage the repulsorlifts with their
shear mass. Following the pools of red, Lowie finally came upon a
consistent trail of blood that stretched off into the grass. He found
it reasonable to assume that the swoop jockeys had been pulled down much
the same as himself, but that they didn't survive the experience. Of
course there were no bodies either to prove or discount his theory.
"Oh dear, oh dear," Em Teedee wailed. "This is most distressing.
We really must find Mistress Jaina as quickly as possible." Lowie
growled in agreement. Three of the jumpers had attacked him when they
first crashed. Even being possessed of the size and strength of a
wookie and the skills of a Jedi he had had difficulty defeating them.
Humans were comparatively smaller and weaker, and despite his healthy
respect for Jaina's abilities, Lowie was deeply concerned for his friend.
Taking no chances, Lowie held his lightsaber at the ready and
proceeded deeper into the grass.
* * *
Anakin's fighter hung in space just outside the Dasney orbital
defense perimeter, engulfed in a procession of starships. Cruisers,
liners, freighters; they each slowly pulled away and made for the
blue-green planet as docking permission was officially received and
recognized. The process was agonizingly slow.
Anakin had already turned control of the X-wing over to Artoo.
There really was no point in him maintaining manual operations for the
simple process of standing motionless. Still, keeping control of
the fighter might have proved a useful distraction, blocking out
unwanted thoughts. But as he had left himself taskless, Anakin found
himself dozing, allowing those thoughts to begin their assault.
He thought of Yavin. The intense jungle heat a tangible force
of oppression for all there. He thought of his life there. He thought
of his student. Anakin wondered why he hadn't said anything before he
left. She had. Elle had tried to say good-bye and he had simply walked
away. Silent. Oppressed. Unreachable.
Why though? Was he afraid? That could be terribly dangerous for
him, he realized. He quickly pushed the thought aside though. Anakin
had little difficulty expressing himself in their professional
relationship. He was Elle's mentor and guide in the ways of the Jedi.
Then why couldn't he make an overture to her? Why was this frustrating
him so?
Anakin paused. He understood perfectly well why he was like this.
'A Jedi must have the deepest commitment. The most serious mind.
This one a long time have I watched. All his life as he looked away to
the future. To the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. What he
was doing.' His uncle Luke had incorporated the lecture Master Yoda had
given to him into those he knew related to his own pupils.
Anakin had first heard it at a young age. At a time when people
would raise their eyebrows at his parents and wonder why in the name of
all that is good would they name such a force sensitive child after a
butcher of thousands. It was a tempt to fate.
Even at such an age Anakin felt the eyes on him. The pressure of
past injustice and misfortune. He swore he wouldn't give in. He would
fight it, keep the darkness at bay and prove to them all that he could
be a great Jedi. One for the force of light. So upon hearing that
lecture, learning the mindset of the true Jedi knight, Anakin had
forced himself into that mold.
Now he was who he was. A boy with the responsibilities of a man.
A social wayward who kept others at a distance through practiced
stoicism and aloofness. The only person to ever drag him out had been
Taihiri. She had gone now to Tatooine to help the researchers there to
better understand the sandpeople. It was a roving position which had
never allowed much time for visiting.
And so Anakin felt alone.
Wading in that pit of despair, he began to discover other things
about himself. Uncomfortable, disturbing things. A raging jealousy
toward his brother and sister, one that he forced down deeper whenever
it dared to rise, came at the forefront. Anakin did not covet their
Force abilities, for quite frankly he knew his to be greater than
theirs, but he envied them their demeanors.
Jacen and Jaina Solo, at the young age of 20, were eminently
respected and recognized Jedi Knights throughout the New Republic. They
had played integral parts in the defeat of the Second Imperium, the
Diversity Alliance, and the collapse of the new Black Sun. Such praise
and power and still in the throes of youth. Anakin was positive of the
burdensome pressure it must create, yet they always acted as if nothing
was different for them.
Jacen especially. Always telling jokes, laughing, trying to
infect the others. His mind was anything but serious. Yet he was still
a great Jedi.
Then there were the four of them. Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and
Lowie. Always together. So close to one another. None of them could
ever feel alone. They could never know what he does.
* * *
Lowbacca felt very alone. It had not been too long ago that he
had discovered Jaina's lightsaber amongst the grass. And there was
still no sign of his friend. The further he progressed the more
difficult it became to block out the voice inside his head screaming out
'She's dead! She's dead! There is nothing you can do! She's dead!'
Lowie wouldn't give in to the notion though. He would keep going until
he either found Jaina, or died with her.
The single bright point in the entire ordeal had been the
disappearance of the jumpers. He had encountered only two more of the
creatures since his departure from the swoop bikes, and they had run off
suddenly. There had been none since. It had been a gracious gift,
allowing Lowie to expedite his search and, in his mind,
significantly improve Jaina's chances of survival.
Lowie swung his lightsaber in a long lazy arc, severing a
particularly dense patch of grass. Much to his relief the stalks looked
as if they began to thin out a few meters ahead. Lengths of the severed
grass were tangled throughout his fur, irritating him as he moved. It
would be immensely satisfying to escape them.
Lowie finally pushed his way through to the clearing, and let out
an immense bellow of surprise and anguish. Lying prone in the grass was
Jaina. Her eyes were half open, but glazed over. A long gash across
her forehead welled blood, and the right side of her jaw was a
continuous mass of swollen purple flesh.
Stowing his lightsaber, Lowie made his way quickly over to her and
began a cursory examination. He could feel several broken bones, mostly
around her hip. The laceration in her forehead wasn't actually that
deep, and her jaw: that was just a mess. None of the injuries seemed
life threatening, but Jaina definitely needed time in a bacta tank to
repair the damage and recover.
Lowie gently grasped his friend and lifted her up. Jaina quietly
groaned, eliciting a concerned glance from the wookie. He needed to get
her back to the swoopbikes and to a medical facility. Lowie only hoped
that Em Teedee had followed his instructions and stayed with the swoops,
because without them it would be at least a day's walk back to the
resort. By that time, Lowie was sure none of Jaina's injuries would
heal correctly, bacta or not.
* * *
The X-wing angled down through the mass of rolling white clouds,
diving deeper and awaiting the point at which it would break free into
an expanse of clear sky. The ship bucked suddenly, under assault from
a rough path of air, causing Artoo to scream a reminder at his distant
pilot.
Alerted by Artoo's emphatic and high-pitched squeal, Anakin awoke,
seized the control yoke and forced the starfighter into a steep drop
that dipped it beneath the pocket of turbulence. Anakin exhaled
sharply. He should have been able to sidestep that patch of air without
any conscious thought. It wasn't as if he was not a skilled or
competent pilot. Anakin had, after all, been taken out on training
maneuvers with Rogue squadron on quite a few occasions. Colonel Horn
was courting him in the hopes that he would one day choose to put his
skills to use for the Republic military.
At the moment though, Anakin was distracted. The intense focus
with which he normally pursued any of his duties was shattered. He just
couldn't help but dwell on what had sprung unbidden into his mind
earlier. It was like being hunted. No matter how much Anakin tried to
escape they would always come galloping back, ready to surround and
overwhelm him.
He needed to get out of the cockpit and breathe some fresh air.
The atmosphere inside was rank with his perspiration and discomfort.
The increasingly small, box-like compartment was beginning to feel like
a cage. Everything he harbored, every resentment, passion, and
frustration was jeering at him from outside the bars.
Anakin tried to breathe deeply, tried to relax. He was just about
there, and then the mission would begin. Then he could concentrate
purely on what was at hand and nothing else. He could be free for a
time.
The X-wing finally broke free of the clouds and leveled off. The
young Jedi gazed at what lay beneath him, momentarily stunned. A great
blue-green ocean stretched past the horizon, and where the bright
sunlight broke through the clouds it bounced off the waves creating
sudden flashes of rainbow colored light. Dotted across the ocean's
surface were a series of immense floating cities, connected by nothing
but the water they shared. Farther off, on the outskirts, a small
cluster of farming platforms played host to speeders and transports all
buzzing about between them and the cities.
Anakin pulled his X-wing into a gentle glide and began heading for
one of the smaller cities. Landing in such an out of the way area would
hopefully allow him and Artoo to go relatively unnoticed. With the help
of his contact, who was awaiting his arrival at the east docking port of
city-sector twenty, Anakin would be in and out of city-sector one, and
Dasney for that matter, with the information he desired before the local
officials even realized that the ship they had granted landing
permission to was not the property of one Grant Deblin, one time Cor Sec
officer now turned bounty hunter, and that the documents in their
possessions were forgeries. He would be but a ghost to both the
government and whomever it was that had destroyed the files on
Coruscant.
That was the plan anyway. But as the fighter continued its
descent Anakin began to feel something. He could sense no glaring
danger, but there was still a whiff of its presence about. It was
lurking, waiting for him. He squeezed the yoke and held the ship to
its flight path. He had a mission to complete. For his mother... and
for Jacen and Jaina.
To be continued...
made off this work. Thanks much.
Star Wars: Shattered Dreams
Chapter Five: Bad Feelings
by Dave Ziegler
As the creature leapt at her Jaina Solo came to a realization.
She had become too reliant upon her lightsaber in dangerous situations.
Her hand had fallen almost instinctively to her hip in preparation
to draw the blade. Jaina had become lax. She was a Jedi knight though,
and it was high time for her to break this habit and put to use
the power she possessed.
Jaina waved her hand and propelled the creature from its path,
letting it land a good distance to her side. Rolling quickly to her
feet, she turned to face the animal. 'Please,' she projected, 'I don't
mean you any harm. I pose you no danger. Go back and be with the
others, I will not disturb you.'
The Jumper broke its way free of the thick grass and crawled
warily into the clearing. Its eyes remained fixed upon Jaina, perhaps
reevaluating the difficulty of obtaining this meal. Tail lashing
sporadically, it began to move in a tight circle around the clearing,
forcing Jaina to do the same or risk being mauled from behind.
'Please,' Jaina thought emphatically, 'leave me be. There is
plenty of food in the plains,' she lied quickly. Truth be told, Jaina
had seen no other signs of animal life, aside from her new friend, among
the plains as she and Lowie had traveled through them. An unfortunate
set of circumstances for the both of them.
Jaina eyed the jumper warily. There was no indication that any
of her projections were getting through to the creature, for it continued
to pace its circular route. She didn't want to injure the animal.
From what she could sense, it was only trying to provide it and its herd
with another meal. It only valued its continued survival. Then again,
Jaina had no desire to be the meal helped it so.
Perhaps if it could be distracted in some fashion she might be able
to make a run for it, thereby avoiding injury to both parties. It could
work. Jaina just needed the right sort of distraction. Jaina grinned.
Food. The jumper was hungry after all. It just needed to be convinced
that something else was coming into the clearing. Give the creature a
choice between pursuing her, and taking something that would be eminently
easier to catch.
"Well," she whispered, "here goes nothing." Reaching out with the
Force Jaina took hold of a tangle of the thick grass and began to snap
the stalks in succession. At first, the jumper seemed not to notice, or
at least was ignoring it, but as the sound became louder and seemed
closer it risked a glance in that direction.
Jaina ran.
The jumper launched itself after its prey. The massive leap
landed the creature astride Jaina as she began to push her way into the
grass, and it lashed out with its forearm, striking her across the face.
Jaina's head snapped back, twisting her body round and causing her to hit
the ground uncontrolled. A searing pain began to incessantly flash
throughout her jaw.
Jaina forced her vision to clear, and staggered to her feet. The
creature attacked again though, this time landing two quick blows upon
her hip. A loud crack echoed in her ears, and this time Jaina did not
get back up.
* * *
Lowie hunched down in the grass and examined the blood stained
ground where the swoop pilots had landed. Both bikes seemed relatively
undamaged, unlike the speeder he and Jaina had been in. The creatures
who had attacked them had managed to damage the repulsorlifts with their
shear mass. Following the pools of red, Lowie finally came upon a
consistent trail of blood that stretched off into the grass. He found
it reasonable to assume that the swoop jockeys had been pulled down much
the same as himself, but that they didn't survive the experience. Of
course there were no bodies either to prove or discount his theory.
"Oh dear, oh dear," Em Teedee wailed. "This is most distressing.
We really must find Mistress Jaina as quickly as possible." Lowie
growled in agreement. Three of the jumpers had attacked him when they
first crashed. Even being possessed of the size and strength of a
wookie and the skills of a Jedi he had had difficulty defeating them.
Humans were comparatively smaller and weaker, and despite his healthy
respect for Jaina's abilities, Lowie was deeply concerned for his friend.
Taking no chances, Lowie held his lightsaber at the ready and
proceeded deeper into the grass.
* * *
Anakin's fighter hung in space just outside the Dasney orbital
defense perimeter, engulfed in a procession of starships. Cruisers,
liners, freighters; they each slowly pulled away and made for the
blue-green planet as docking permission was officially received and
recognized. The process was agonizingly slow.
Anakin had already turned control of the X-wing over to Artoo.
There really was no point in him maintaining manual operations for the
simple process of standing motionless. Still, keeping control of
the fighter might have proved a useful distraction, blocking out
unwanted thoughts. But as he had left himself taskless, Anakin found
himself dozing, allowing those thoughts to begin their assault.
He thought of Yavin. The intense jungle heat a tangible force
of oppression for all there. He thought of his life there. He thought
of his student. Anakin wondered why he hadn't said anything before he
left. She had. Elle had tried to say good-bye and he had simply walked
away. Silent. Oppressed. Unreachable.
Why though? Was he afraid? That could be terribly dangerous for
him, he realized. He quickly pushed the thought aside though. Anakin
had little difficulty expressing himself in their professional
relationship. He was Elle's mentor and guide in the ways of the Jedi.
Then why couldn't he make an overture to her? Why was this frustrating
him so?
Anakin paused. He understood perfectly well why he was like this.
'A Jedi must have the deepest commitment. The most serious mind.
This one a long time have I watched. All his life as he looked away to
the future. To the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. What he
was doing.' His uncle Luke had incorporated the lecture Master Yoda had
given to him into those he knew related to his own pupils.
Anakin had first heard it at a young age. At a time when people
would raise their eyebrows at his parents and wonder why in the name of
all that is good would they name such a force sensitive child after a
butcher of thousands. It was a tempt to fate.
Even at such an age Anakin felt the eyes on him. The pressure of
past injustice and misfortune. He swore he wouldn't give in. He would
fight it, keep the darkness at bay and prove to them all that he could
be a great Jedi. One for the force of light. So upon hearing that
lecture, learning the mindset of the true Jedi knight, Anakin had
forced himself into that mold.
Now he was who he was. A boy with the responsibilities of a man.
A social wayward who kept others at a distance through practiced
stoicism and aloofness. The only person to ever drag him out had been
Taihiri. She had gone now to Tatooine to help the researchers there to
better understand the sandpeople. It was a roving position which had
never allowed much time for visiting.
And so Anakin felt alone.
Wading in that pit of despair, he began to discover other things
about himself. Uncomfortable, disturbing things. A raging jealousy
toward his brother and sister, one that he forced down deeper whenever
it dared to rise, came at the forefront. Anakin did not covet their
Force abilities, for quite frankly he knew his to be greater than
theirs, but he envied them their demeanors.
Jacen and Jaina Solo, at the young age of 20, were eminently
respected and recognized Jedi Knights throughout the New Republic. They
had played integral parts in the defeat of the Second Imperium, the
Diversity Alliance, and the collapse of the new Black Sun. Such praise
and power and still in the throes of youth. Anakin was positive of the
burdensome pressure it must create, yet they always acted as if nothing
was different for them.
Jacen especially. Always telling jokes, laughing, trying to
infect the others. His mind was anything but serious. Yet he was still
a great Jedi.
Then there were the four of them. Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and
Lowie. Always together. So close to one another. None of them could
ever feel alone. They could never know what he does.
* * *
Lowbacca felt very alone. It had not been too long ago that he
had discovered Jaina's lightsaber amongst the grass. And there was
still no sign of his friend. The further he progressed the more
difficult it became to block out the voice inside his head screaming out
'She's dead! She's dead! There is nothing you can do! She's dead!'
Lowie wouldn't give in to the notion though. He would keep going until
he either found Jaina, or died with her.
The single bright point in the entire ordeal had been the
disappearance of the jumpers. He had encountered only two more of the
creatures since his departure from the swoop bikes, and they had run off
suddenly. There had been none since. It had been a gracious gift,
allowing Lowie to expedite his search and, in his mind,
significantly improve Jaina's chances of survival.
Lowie swung his lightsaber in a long lazy arc, severing a
particularly dense patch of grass. Much to his relief the stalks looked
as if they began to thin out a few meters ahead. Lengths of the severed
grass were tangled throughout his fur, irritating him as he moved. It
would be immensely satisfying to escape them.
Lowie finally pushed his way through to the clearing, and let out
an immense bellow of surprise and anguish. Lying prone in the grass was
Jaina. Her eyes were half open, but glazed over. A long gash across
her forehead welled blood, and the right side of her jaw was a
continuous mass of swollen purple flesh.
Stowing his lightsaber, Lowie made his way quickly over to her and
began a cursory examination. He could feel several broken bones, mostly
around her hip. The laceration in her forehead wasn't actually that
deep, and her jaw: that was just a mess. None of the injuries seemed
life threatening, but Jaina definitely needed time in a bacta tank to
repair the damage and recover.
Lowie gently grasped his friend and lifted her up. Jaina quietly
groaned, eliciting a concerned glance from the wookie. He needed to get
her back to the swoopbikes and to a medical facility. Lowie only hoped
that Em Teedee had followed his instructions and stayed with the swoops,
because without them it would be at least a day's walk back to the
resort. By that time, Lowie was sure none of Jaina's injuries would
heal correctly, bacta or not.
* * *
The X-wing angled down through the mass of rolling white clouds,
diving deeper and awaiting the point at which it would break free into
an expanse of clear sky. The ship bucked suddenly, under assault from
a rough path of air, causing Artoo to scream a reminder at his distant
pilot.
Alerted by Artoo's emphatic and high-pitched squeal, Anakin awoke,
seized the control yoke and forced the starfighter into a steep drop
that dipped it beneath the pocket of turbulence. Anakin exhaled
sharply. He should have been able to sidestep that patch of air without
any conscious thought. It wasn't as if he was not a skilled or
competent pilot. Anakin had, after all, been taken out on training
maneuvers with Rogue squadron on quite a few occasions. Colonel Horn
was courting him in the hopes that he would one day choose to put his
skills to use for the Republic military.
At the moment though, Anakin was distracted. The intense focus
with which he normally pursued any of his duties was shattered. He just
couldn't help but dwell on what had sprung unbidden into his mind
earlier. It was like being hunted. No matter how much Anakin tried to
escape they would always come galloping back, ready to surround and
overwhelm him.
He needed to get out of the cockpit and breathe some fresh air.
The atmosphere inside was rank with his perspiration and discomfort.
The increasingly small, box-like compartment was beginning to feel like
a cage. Everything he harbored, every resentment, passion, and
frustration was jeering at him from outside the bars.
Anakin tried to breathe deeply, tried to relax. He was just about
there, and then the mission would begin. Then he could concentrate
purely on what was at hand and nothing else. He could be free for a
time.
The X-wing finally broke free of the clouds and leveled off. The
young Jedi gazed at what lay beneath him, momentarily stunned. A great
blue-green ocean stretched past the horizon, and where the bright
sunlight broke through the clouds it bounced off the waves creating
sudden flashes of rainbow colored light. Dotted across the ocean's
surface were a series of immense floating cities, connected by nothing
but the water they shared. Farther off, on the outskirts, a small
cluster of farming platforms played host to speeders and transports all
buzzing about between them and the cities.
Anakin pulled his X-wing into a gentle glide and began heading for
one of the smaller cities. Landing in such an out of the way area would
hopefully allow him and Artoo to go relatively unnoticed. With the help
of his contact, who was awaiting his arrival at the east docking port of
city-sector twenty, Anakin would be in and out of city-sector one, and
Dasney for that matter, with the information he desired before the local
officials even realized that the ship they had granted landing
permission to was not the property of one Grant Deblin, one time Cor Sec
officer now turned bounty hunter, and that the documents in their
possessions were forgeries. He would be but a ghost to both the
government and whomever it was that had destroyed the files on
Coruscant.
That was the plan anyway. But as the fighter continued its
descent Anakin began to feel something. He could sense no glaring
danger, but there was still a whiff of its presence about. It was
lurking, waiting for him. He squeezed the yoke and held the ship to
its flight path. He had a mission to complete. For his mother... and
for Jacen and Jaina.
To be continued...
