CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Tenal
Ka regarded the holoscreen in front of her, hanging on to every last word being
said by the person on the other end of the communication. At the same time struggling to keep any hint
of emotion from showing up in her expression.
"I am sorry, my daughter that there is nothing more your
father or I can do. Ta'a Chume is
invoking the ancient Hapan marriage tradition laws to keep the court on her
side. She is having Jacen moved to a
higher security facility," Teneniel Djo sadly explained to Tenal Ka. "His parents have been contacted and are
enroute to Hapes as we speak. I am
afraid we have no choice but to wait until they get here before we act again."
Tenal Ka nodded solemnly. "I understand, mother. Ambassador Organa Solo is a skilled diplomat. I am certain she will find a way to help her son," she said confidently,
and then ended the transmission.
"My mother may be one of the best diplomats in the
galaxy, but all her years of experience and negotiations aren't going to help
her here. The New Republic has no
jurisdiction in the Hapes Cluster, because Hapes isn't an official member of
it." Jaina said with an exasperated
sigh.
"Then I guess we're on our own," said Zekk.
"Zekk's right," Jaina began, "we can't wait for my mom to
get here because we don't even know if she'll be able to do anything. We have to act now."
There was no argument from anyone in the room. They all knew there would not be a better time
to rescue Jacen. If they waited too
long, he would get moved, and their chances of getting him out would be much
more difficult. It was time to put
their plan into action.
"Well," Anakin chimed in, "what are we waiting for?" He
said, stealing his sister's favourite expression.
It stunk down there. That was the only way for Jaina to describe the wreaking sewer that she
and her friends were currently sloshing around in. If they had breather masks it wouldn't have been too bad, but
they didn't have that luxury. Jaina was
sure Tenal Ka could have swiped some for them, but that would have taken time
and time was something they were almost out of.
"How much farther?" She asked turning to Anakin.
Anakin regarded the miniature computer device in his
hand. "About another 20 meters and we
should reach the sewer grate that'll take us near where Jacen's cell is."
Jaina pulled her com link out from her pocket and spoke
into it.
"Tenal Ka, are you ready?"
"I am, friend Jaina," came the warrior girl's instant
reply.
"Good. Get ready
to act in the next couple of minutes," Jaina told her.
"Understood, Tenal Ka out."
Jaina thumbed off her com link and put it back in her
pocket.
Not long after, the group came upon the tunnel that would
take them up into a designated storage area in the jail.
Using their lightsabers, they were able to cut through
the metal grate blocking their entrance in a matter of seconds. With the aid of her glow rod, Jaina led the
group into the tunnel. The farther they
got, the more she could see the tunnel was becoming a tighter fit. She hoped her brother's calculations were
right and that their current path would stay wide enough for a human being to
pass through.
She felt the path sloping upwards and noticed the smell
of the dingy sewers was getting fainter the farther they moved away from it,
and was thankful for that.
Before long, the tunnel area became so low, that the
group had no choice but to crawl the rest of the way on the smooth concrete
surface.
After endless minutes of crawling in darkness, since it
proved difficult to crawl with a glow rod in your mouth, Jaina could see a
light getting brighter on the path in front of them. The light made her crawl faster, despite the persistent aching
now present in her hands and knees.
Within moments, Jaina and the rest of the rescue party
arrived at the origin of the light.
The tunnel, just as Anakin had calculated, ended at the
entrance to a storage room filled with all kinds of weaponry from blaster
pistols to laser cannons.
Jaina's hand went to her lightsaber to cut the grate off,
but Anakin's voice stopped her.
"Wait," he warned her, "it's probably wired into an alarm
system. Let me do it." He crawled forward, and Jaina did her best
to get out of his way in the cramped are so he could get to work.
Anakin closed his eyes and fell into the force. He reached out with his mind toward the
grate in front of him. With a little
probing on his part, he discovered the tiny sensor alarm that was built into
it. As soon as it was touched it would
send out a silent alarm to the rest of the building, and before long the room
would be swarming with Hapan police.
"Can you deactivate it?" Tahiri's voice came quietly from
behind him.
"I think so," he replied, "I just have to be careful I
don't trip the alarm in the process,"
"Let's hope not, or this is going to be some short
rescue," Zekk murmured.
Anakin ignored him and put everything else in his mind
aside, completely focused on the task at hand. This job would require all of his concentration, there was no room for
mistakes. His brother's freedom
depended on it. He let his eyes fall
shut and mentally pictured pulling apart the wires that would set off the
alarm. When he felt confident that he
would not trip the alarm, he used the force to disconnect the small blue and
red wires connected to the alarm's sensor. There was a quiet snap and the wires were cut. With the alarm no longer a problem, Anakin
mentally pushed the grate off the hole. He jumped down in the open storage area, with the others right behind
him.
"As the Princess of Hapes, I demand you allow me to speak
with the prisoner," said Tenal Ka in her most authoritative voice.
The captain of the Hapan police force gave a sigh, the tenth
one in the last five minutes.
"As I've already explained to you, your highness," he
said as patiently as he could from where he sat behind his desk, "I have my
orders not to allow anyone to see Jacen Solo before the transfer is complete."
Tenal Ka just gave him her iciest glare, as if to say how
dare he refuse to follow her command. But it was all just for show. If
she wanted to she could have pulled a force trick on him and made him take her
to Jacen, but that was not part of the plan. She was supposed to keep him here for as long as possible to give her
friends the time they needed to make their rescue.
"I'm sorry, Princess, but there's nothing I can do," he
said in an unsympathetic tone," now if you don't mind my men and I need to get
on with the transfer," he said rising up out of his seat.
"Who ordered the transfer?" She was desperate now and hoped the captain couldn't tell she was
trying to stall him.
"You're not authorized to know that information," he
responded.
Tenal Ka stared at him blankly. Not authorized? This had
to be her grandmother's doing. This
whole thing had her conspiratory touch all over it.
The captain didn't wait for Tenal Ka to respond. He signaled to the five guards that were
nearby and stepped out from behind the desk.
Tenal Ka followed him and the guards down a long narrow
corridor. She was relieved to notice
they weren't heading in the direction of the cell area, but her relief soon
vanished when she felt the force cease to exist around her.
The police captain opened a nearby storage door and went
inside. He came out a minute later
dragging three nutrient cages out with him. He strapped one to his back and handed the other two to two of the
guards.
Now, trapped inside the ysalmiri's force bubble, Tenal Ka
had no hope of using her force powers to stall the guards any longer. She didn't have any weapons either. She had been forced to give up her
lightsaber to security when she had entered the building. She could only hope she had bought her
friends enough time to free Jacen.
"You too might want to hurry it up," Zekk said
impatiently, from his position near the cell entrance door, "Tenal Ka can't
keep them occupied forever,"
"We're working on it," Jaina told him, as Anakin and her
continued to slowly cut through the force field's control box. It was made of cortosis ore, a rare type of
material that shuts down lightsabers when the blade touches it. It was a long and painstaking process to cut
right through it.
Zekk
and Tahiri were standing in attack positions near the entrance, ready for the
first wave of guards to come through, if they didn't get Jacen out in time.
"Jaina, I want all of you guys to leave right now," came
Jacen's voice from the other side of the force field. Jaina could hear the frustration evident in his voice. He feared for each one of his friend's
safety, knowing it wouldn't be long before the guards tired with Tenal Ka's
attempt at stalling them, and came in here.
"Look, we're not leaving here without you," the tone of
his twin's voice indicated the argument was over. That was why she had not told him about her plan to break him out
of there in the first place because she had known he would be against it.
"I think we're through," Anakin exclaimed.
Their lightsabers continued to chip away until they were
through the last of the cortosis ore. The control box was revealed, and Anakin cut through the lock with his
violet blade. The panel slid open,
revealing hundreds of tiny, intertwined cables. Anakin didn't hesitate for a second. He made a small arch with his blade, and with one swift stroke,
cut through each one of the wires. The
control box began to smoke, and a moment later the force field surrounding
Jacen's cell came down.
Jaina ran to her brother and gave him a fierce hug. She pulled away from him a few seconds
later. "Your stay in these wonderful
accommodations is over. Now, let's
hurry up and get out of here before this place becomes a permanent residence
for all of us.
The words were barely out of her mouth when an alarm
began blaring throughout the entire precinct.
Anakin must've accidentally set off an alarm when he
sliced through the cables, Jaina thought to herself.
"I think we're out of time," said Tahiri looking through
the small glass slit in the door. Zekk
rushed to her side in time to see at least a dozen well armed Hapan guards
heading this way. Each of the guards
had something strapped to their backs. Zekk strained to see what it was and soon recognized the rectangular
shape of nutrient cages. They were
already outnumbered, and with the ysalmiri's rendering their force powers
useless their chances of escaping were gradually getting smaller.
Jaina could just make out the sound of the thundering
footsteps of the guards through the deafening alarm. They needed to get out of there. Now.
"What are we waiting for? Let's get out of here," she yelled, so the others could hear her.
Zekk knew it was already too late for that. The guards were already pounding at the door
trying to get it open. Zekk had used
his lightsaber to melt the lock, but that would only hold them for a short
time. It would only take the guards a minute
or so before they used their blasters to knock the hinges off the door and
charge into the room.
"Take Jacen and get him out of here. I'll cover you," Zekk said to them.
Jaina began to protest.
"I'll be right behind you," he assured her," now get out
of here before they figure out we came in through the sewer.
Beside Zekk, Tahiri switched on her lightsaber. "I'll stay with you,"
Zekk nodded his appreciation while Anakin and Jaina took
off with Jacen down the hall, back towards the tunnel.
It would only be a matter of minutes, if that, before the
guards came barging through the door. Zekk could already hear the door hinges beginning to give way. Zekk ran his hands through his hair,
desperately trying to come up with a plan. They only needed to hold off the Hapan guards long enough to allow
themselves to escape. Then it came to
him, and he felt stupid for not having thought about it sooner.
"Tahiri, help me bring the ceiling down over her,"
The two of them began slicing away at the concrete
ceiling. Dust and debris filled the air
as large chunks of concrete began piling up on one another, but they didn't
stop until the pile was as high as the ceiling had been. When that happened the guards broke through
door and scrambled into the room. The
one that appeared to be in charge began barking orders at his men to clear away
the deliberate cave in of the ceiling.
Tahiri and Zekk stood safely on the other side of the
collapsed rubble, and even though they couldn't hear what was being said on the
side with the guards, they had a feeling they should get out of there before
the guards blasted the rubble away.
Zekk wiped the sweat off his brow. "We've done our job, now let's get the hell
out of here,"
"Right," Tahiri agreed.
The two of them left the disaster area behind them and headed after their friends.