CHAPTER TEN: SAYING THANK-YOU
"Jaina?"
No response.
"Jaina, can you hear me?"
Slowly, Jaina managed to open her eyes, and found Lusa staring down at her, a concerned expression on her face. She tried to get up but her crash webbing held her in place.
"I must have blacked out," Jaina said as she unbuckled her crash restraints. It was a good thing she had worn them or else she would haven been thrown through the glass view port.
"You hit your head," Lusa informed Jaina, indicating to the swelling purple and bluish bruise on the side of her forehead.
Jaina touched it gingerly and winced. "How long was I out?" The inside of her mouth tasted like blood. She must have bit down on her tongue when she hit her head.
"I don't know," Lusa said, shrugging her bare shoulders, "I just came to myself, but I don't think it was for too long."
"We better find Ganner and see what shape he's in," Jaina said to her. She got to her feet – her legs a bit wobbly at first – and then left the cockpit with Lusa right behind her.
The rest of the shuttle was relatively dark, not even the auxiliary lights had turned on. The deck plates creaked beneath Jaina's booted feet and Lusa's hoofed feet, as they cautiously made their way to the engine room. The deathly silence made Jaina uneasy.
"Ganner?" She called out.
A tall, shadowed figure, stumbled into their line of sight. "Not one of your best landings, Solo," commented Ganner.
"At least we landed in one piece," said Jaina, "more or less,"
The light from the cockpit managed to penetrate its way through even all the way back here, and when Ganner took a step closer to them, Jaina did a quick intake of air. The entire right side of his face was covered in dry blood.
Lusa hurried to his side, unconsciously carrying out her duty as the medical expert of the bunch. "What happened?"
"I bumped my head on something when we crashed," he explained, as Lusa examined the wound.
"We better get that cleaned up," she told him, "but I don't think it's too serious. You might get a headache, which could be the result of a concussion. But I can't tell for sure if you have one just by looking at you,"
Ganner held out his arm. "Lead the way,"
He followed Lusa as she led him back to the lounge area where the medical supplies were kept.
"Ganner, how bad is the damage back there?" Jaina called after him.
"Once Lusa fixes me up, I'll show you," he said, then added, "and you're not going to like it any more then I did,"
The sound of heavy breathing near his ear woke Anakin from his sleep. It was the first night in days he had slept through without any nightmares. Not that he had gotten much sleep. He and Tahiri had lost track of the time, so it wasn't until the early hours of the morning before they had finally drifted off to sleep on the floor, leaning against the bed.
His left shoulder had lost all feeling in it. Tahiri had fallen asleep on it, her chin digging slightly into it. He unconsciously brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen into her face. She looked so peaceful sleeping soundly and – Anakin could not help but notice – beautiful.
He did not know what he would have done last night if she had not been there. He had felt guilty for spilling his entire guts to her like that, but she had assured him there was nowhere else she would have rather been then right there, helping her best friend.
He needed badly to stretch his legs and get some air that didn't reek of unpleasant odors, but he did not want to wake Tahiri. Ever so carefully, he moved her head off his numb shoulder. He considered placing her on the bed, but decided the floor looked more comfortable. Using the force, he gently laid her sleeping form on the floor, stuffing his rolled up jacket under her head. Then as quietly as he could, he slipped out the door.
It wasn't until late in the morning when he returned. Tahiri was up by then and was anxiously pacing back and forth when he walked in.
Frowning at him, she said, "where have you been? I was worried you had taken off on me again."
"Sorry," he apologized, "but don't worry, I learned my lesson the first time, See," he pointed to a black duffle bag by the bed, "my stuff's still here,"
"Well, wherever you were, I hope you brought back food because I'm starving," she complained.
He had been so preoccupied he had not even thought about it. "Actually, I have something better then food,"
She raised her eyebrows at him. "What have you been up to all morning?"
"Come with me and I'll show you,"
Where are we going?" Since when did Anakin act all secretive?
He grinned at her. "I think you'll figure it out on the way,"
"On the way to where?" She said, trying to fix her bed head hair into something half decent.
"Just trust me, you'll like it. Because where we're going you won't need your boots,"
She gave him a strange look but obediently followed him out the door of the motel room.
"But can we first get something to eat before you take me to wherever it is we're going?"
Jaina felt like dropping to her knees in despair when she saw the state the tiny engine room was in. The smell of burnt machinery tainted the air. Black scorch marks were visible everywhere in the room. Sparks still flew out from the drive that housed the starboard engine and other areas were so blackened Jaina was not even sure what they had once been – but that was not the worst part. The hyperdrive was no more. In its place was a smoking, charred mass of conduits.
Jaina realized then that was what the attacking coralskippers had intended all along. They had been carefully aiming at the Mate's engines and hyperdrive in hopes of disabling them so they could not escape.
"They wanted to capture us alive," Jaina said with a shutter.
Ganner nodded his head in agreement, understanding what she was referring to. "That would explain why they didn't just blast us into space dust,"
"There's rumours going around that the Yuuzhan Vong want Jedi captives so they can do experiments on us and find the source of our powers," said Lusa.
"But how would they have known we were Jedi?"
"Come on, Solo," said Ganner, "you don't think the Vong haven't infiltrated New Republic intelligence or have spies working for them that would be more then happy to let them know, three Jedi Knights were heading for the Dezzlec system? I don't think the Vong would pass on something like that since they seem to hate us so much."
"I think the New Republic is in an even bigger mess than it realizes," Lusa commented.
"No bigger a miss then we're in right now," Jaina said. "The hyperdrive is beyond repair even if we had the right parts – which we don't. Without hyperdrive, it could take us months to reach the nearest inhabitable system."
Ganner crossed his arms over his broad chest. Lusa had cleaned the blood off his face and he now wore a bacta patch above his right eye. "What about the rest of the ship? Could we make this thing fly again?"
Jaina bit her lower lip. "Well," she began, assessing the damage, "I should be able to fix the navigational controls, life support, communications, and some of the other systems we'll need to get out of here. I could probably salvage the remaining engines, and if we all work together we could make the shuttle space worthy again in less than a week. I think the only option open to us," she continued, "is once we're out in space we send a distress signal on all channels, and hope someone hears it."
"That could attract the wrong kind of attention," Ganner said, frowning.
"It's the only chance we've got,"
Jaina too, was worried about the Yuuzhan Vong monitoring their communications but it did not look like they had much of a choice.
"Jaina's right," Lusa said, agreeing with her friend. "We have to take the risk,"
"I don't like it, but I guess it's the only chance we've got," Ganner conceded.
"Good. Now that that's settled, let's get started on some of these repairs,"
Lusa had already demonstrated why Luke had chosen her for this mission, and now it was Jaina's turn to put her mechanical skills to work and prove why her Uncle had been correct in selecting her for this assignment.
"Tell me again how you acquired this thing?" Tahiri shouted to Anakin so he could hear her over the sound of the wind speeding past them in the landspeeder.
"I told you," Anakin said, as he piloted them out of Mos Eisley, "the guy who lent it to me gave me a good deal on it. I told him I would fix it up for him free of charge when we take it back,"
"It sounds like it's on its last legs,"
"Don't worry, it'll get us to where we're going,"
Once they were out of Mos Eisley, the settlements they passed became fewer and fewer, until there was nothing but golden sand reaching as far as the eye could see.
"You still haven't told me where we're going," right now it looked like they were going nowhere.
"I'd rather just show you,"
"What's with the whole mysterious Jedi act?" She asked him.
"I told you to trust me. I promise you won't be disappointed."
She decided against asking him anything else because he would just keep giving her those annoying vague answers.
They rode on in silence, and after an hour or so, the scenery – if you could call it that – started looking familiar to her. People would call her crazy because they would say everything in the Tatooine desert looked the same. But Tahiri noticed the subtle rise in the rocky cliffs of the canyon they were passing through, the way the air was drier out here, and how heat from the sun felt hotter. She suddenly felt like such a fool for not realizing all along where Anakin had been taking her. He looked over at her and grinned, knowing she had finally figured it out.
The Jundland Wastes had been her home years ago when the Sand People had taken her in after her parents' deaths. As a frightened, orphaned child, she had wandered into the desert and ended up in the Jundland Wastes, where a krayt dragon had found her. She had started screaming, and that had agitated the ferocious lizard even more. Out running it was impossible for a scared, four-year-old girl, but all the commotion had attracted a herd of Tusken Raiders who were lurking nearby. They had wounded the krayt dragon with their gaderffii sticks, and the beast, seeing it was outnumbered, had slinked away.
She had heard stories of how aggressive and dangerous the Sand People were, and their scaring off the huge predatory lizard, had proved it even more. She had feared they had just scared off the krayt dragon so she they could finish her off as their own. She had wanted to run away, but they had surrounded her. They had shouted at her in their strange native language and then walked away. Not wanting to be left alone, Tahiri had followed them. They had ignored her at first, but grudgingly had accepted her presence and she became one of their nomadic tribe; wearing their heavy robes, breath masks and eye goggles, and learning bits and pieces of their language. It took her awhile but she gradually accepted them as her family. It stayed like that for five years, until the Jedi Master, Tionne, had come to Tatooine on a mission and discovered her. Tionne had brought her back to the Jedi Academy when she had discovered Tahiri was force sensitive. Not long after coming to Yavin Four, Tionne and Kam Solusor had decided to adopt her.
Tahiri had never learned why the Tusken Raiders had saved her life and raised her like one of their own, and she suspected she never would.
Anakin brought the landspeeder in close to the canyon wall and shut it down. "Is this a good spot? We could go further if you want,"
"No," she said, giving him a warm smile, "this is perfect,"
The first thing she did when they stopped – before she even stepped out of the speeder – was take off her socks and boots. Then she planted her feet in the warm sand for the first time in years. She relished the feel of the sand slipping between her toes, and it served to remind her once again why she hated wearing shoes in the first place. Here, her feet were open and free without the confinement of shoes boxing them in.
Tahiri's first steps in it were tentative, just getting use to the feel again. But before long she was running through it, kicking it up in the air with each step she took. So many memories of her days with the Sand People when they had walked through these very parts came flooding back to her. Had she really been that homesick?
She had forgotten Anakin was there she had been so wrapped up in being back home. She saw how hard he was struggling to keep the amused smirk off his face. She knew what a sight she must have been, laughing and running barefoot through the sand.
"I never realized how much I missed this place," she said, walking back over to him.
"Neither did I. You just talked about non-stop when we were younger," he teased.
She remembered having told him about her adventures with the Sand People and what it was like to grow up with them. He – along with everyone else – had never really been able to understand her attachment to them. The majority of beings saw the Sand People as hostile and extremely territorial creatures. But Anakin must have understood her enough to realize how much she missed Tatooine's harsh deserts if he had brought her all the way out here.
"I can't believe you brought me here," she said, still in shock.
"It was the least I could do, after everything you've done for me,"
"Thank you," she said softly," you have no idea how much this means to me,"
She leaned in close to his face and gently kissed his cheek. Before she knew what was happening, she was moving her lips towards his mouth, and lightly brushed them against his own lips.
They both pulled back at the same instant. Tahiri's stunned look at what she had just done mirrored his own.
Without thinking, he said, "what did you do that for?" The second the words were out of his mouth he regretted saying them.
Tahiri turned away from him. "I was just thanking you," she said quickly, trying to cover up her embarrassment at his reaction.
"Um," he stammered, "you're welcome," had she really just kissed him?
By now, Tahiri's face had turned as red as a Mon Calamari. How could she have done that? And to make matters worse he wanted to know why she had done it. She felt so stupid, and here she was stuck out in the middle of a desert with nobody else but him.
Anakin could feel her embarrassment – or maybe it was his own. He could tell she had been deeply hurt by his reaction. He hadn't meant to react that way but she had surprised him, and herself as well it appeared. Had she really just kissed him to thank him, or was it something more? She had never thanked him like that before.
Tahiri moved away from him without a word. She went back to shuffling through the sand, though with considerably less enthusiasm now. He watched as she put a considerable amount of distance between them.
Just
when he thought all his problems were fixed, a new one had landed right in his
lap. One that he had no idea how he was
going solve, but knew he was once again going to need her help to do it.
Keep Reviewing!!!
I'll have chapter 11 posted soon.
