CHAPTER THREE:  OUT OF THE FRYING PAN, INTO THE OPEN FLAME

          The Lightning Rod was closer then Anakin's ship, so they quickly scrambled aboard her.  The landing ramp was not even halfway closed when Zekk blasted out of the docking bay and shot up towards space.

          They could already see dozens of ships similar to their own, streaking across the sky destined for space as well.  Some were flying too fast, and others not navigating carefully at all, resulting in three or four collusions and explosions of debris that the Lightning Rod flew by.

          "Come on, come on," Zekk muttered, trying to coax more speed out of his battered old ship.

          The Rod was not the fastest ship around, but it managed to find enough velocity that they were able to break through Tatooine's atmosphere in under two minutes.

          When they reached space, the two Jedi gasped when they saw the unmistakable alien craft, which happened to be a lot closer to their position then they had expected.

          Two massive Yuuzhan Vong warships were streaking towards Tatooine at such a rapid pace that those that had been hasty in plotting a course off planet were being caught in the living ship's dovin basals.  Anakin spotted one of the warships attempting to cut off their escape path.

          "You better get us outta here real fast, Zekk,"

          "I'm doing the best I can," Zekk told him.  He maneuvered them away from Tatooine and into open space, but it would not be open space for much longer.  The second Vong cruiser had almost blocked their path, and the path many other ships were heading for.

          They were not sending any coralskippers out, so this had to be just a quick run through the Outer Rim Territories to pick up some more slaves – and Zekk had no desire to become that.

          There was no way in Hapes the nav computer would have a programmed jump ready before they got caught in the gravity well of the enormous cruiser, and by then it would be too late.  They only had one choice.

          "Punch a set of random coordinates into the nav computer.  We're jumping out of here now," Zekk said in a grim voice, continuing to do his best to avoid the warship.

          Anakin stared at him.  "You mean jump blind?"

          "Yes, otherwise we'll never get of here except as slaves,"

          Anakin steadied his hand over the nav computer.  If he guessed right, they would be safely away from the Vong, but if his coordinates were just off by the smallest fraction – then it would not really matter because they would be dead anyways.

          The cruiser was beginning to fill the view screen in front of them.  Their escape window was slowly disappearing.

          "Anakin, do it now!"

          Closing his eyes, he punched in the first set of numbers he saw in his head.  Then he pulled down on the throttle in front of him.

          Instead of the Yuuzhan Vong warship filling the forward view screen, the star lines of space stretched around them and they entered the safe confinements of hyperspace.

          Zekk heaved a sigh of relief.  "That's two slaves the Vong won't be getting,"

          "Let's just hope my coordinates aren't off," Anakin reminded him, "or our whole escape will have been for nothing,"

          "How long until we come out?"

          Anakin checked the timer.  "About ten minutes.  I just programmed a short jump,"

          He only wanted to make sure they got far off from the Yuuzhan Vong, nothing more.  The longer they stayed in the blind jump, the greater the chance was they would run through an asteroid or even a black hole.  Then their escape would be over real fast.

          "Well, wherever we come out," Zekk said, trying to sound unconcerned, "it's got to be more friendly then the warm reception we just got,"

          "You know, since we've got some time to kill," Anakin began, turning to face him, "why don't you tell me why you left my sister and the academy,"

          "It's complicated," Zekk said, growing serious.  "Besides, you wouldn't understand,"

          "Try me,"

          He took a deep breath and let it out.  "To make a long story short, I felt like I was falling to the dark side again when we were on Dundas.  I used my hate and anger to save Jaina from Karsay, and then I killed him with those same feelings," he explained.  "I told Jaina I needed to leave and try to fix what I was becoming all over again before it got any worse.  She wanted to help me, but this was something that I had to do on my own.  She couldn't understand that.  We got into an fight, and then I left,"

          "And you didn't think I would understand that?  I use to dream every night when I was kid that I would turn into my grandfather, Darth Vader,"

          "So, you understand why I had to go?"

          "Sort of," Anakin said with a shrug, "but that doesn't mean you had to cut Jaina and everyone else out of your life,"

          "I did what I had to do.  Think about it this way," Zekk said to him, "if there was one person in your life you really cared about…that you loved, but all you ever did was hurt them, then isn't the right thing to do, if you really do love them, is to let them go?  Let them move on with their life because their better off without you?"

          Anakin had never thought about that before, but judging by the way he spoke, Zekk had spent a great deal of time thinking about it.  It did make a certain amount of sense.  If you kept hurting someone, you cut that person out of your life.  It would hurt them for a while, but eventually, they would get over it and move on.  It sounded easy enough, but Anakin knew it would be anything but easy to do.

          Zekk noticed the way Anakin was letting what he had said sink in.  "Now, do you understand?"

          "Yeah," Anakin replied, just as the light on the nav computer started flashing, "I think I do,"

          Zekk pulled down on the lever in front of him.  "Now we'll see how good those coordinates of yours are,"  

          The instant the Rod was back in normal space, the sensors started screaming at them.

          "Now what?"  Zekk moaned.  He did not even need to read the sensors to figure out what was going on.  The giant, living ship in front of them was all the explanation he needed.  "Out of an ion storm, and into a supernova," he muttered to himself, and put the ship in full reverse – but the engines did not respond.  His fingers raced over the controls, trying anything to break them free, but nothing worked.  He could not believe what was happening.  How could they have jumped from one Yuuzhan Vong ambush right into another?

          The strange thing was, the ship holding onto them looked different from all the other Yuuzhan Vong ships he had encountered.  This one was nearly half the size of a Yuuzhan Vong warship, and the yorrik coral on its hull looked different somehow.  Zekk figured it had to be one of the newer models, which meant it was probably even more deadly.

"The engines aren't responding," he informed Anakin, "the sensors say it's some kind of tractor beam holding us,"

          "A gravity well?"

          "No," Zekk said, looking down at the readings in front of him.  "It's different.  They're not pulling us towards them.  They're pulling us towards that," Zekk pointed to the green and brown maze of a world that was coming into view.

          "I bet it's crawling with Vong down there," Anakin said.  "I think we need to take our chances out here, and try and shoot our way out of this tractor beam."  He flicked the switch that would turn on the Lightning Rod's laser canon, but nothing happened.  He tried again, with the same result.  "Weapons are offline,"

          The lights in the cockpit flickered once, and then died.  "So is everything else," Zekk said, checking the instruments in front of him.  "We've got about ten minutes of air left.  Enough to last us 'til we reach that planet they're taking us to, if they don't decide take any detours along the way,"

          Anakin reached into the inside pocket of his vest and removed a shiny, metallic cylinder from it.  "They're in for a big surprise if they think they're going to get two Jedi without a fight,"

          The living ship continued pulling them closer to the unknown planet.

          The strange craft cut the tractor beam and dropped the Lightning Rod onto the ground with a bone-shaking jolt.  They tried the engines one last time, but the Vong cruiser must have placed some kind of a lock on the ship's systems.  The cruiser that had dragged them there was now taking off for space again.

          With no power anywhere in the ship, Anakin and Zekk made their way to the boarding ramp.  It would have to be opened manually, but once they got out, they could find cover somewhere or fight the Vong out in the open, instead of being sitting ducks in the powerless ship.

          While Zekk checked the power packs on both his blasters, Anakin said, "don't you have your lightsaber?"

          "I left it at the academy," he explained.

          Anakin frowned.  Blasters had never done any real damage to the Vong before.  Now, not only would they be outnumbered but they would also be outgunned at the same time.  Anakin was going to have to do his best to protect both himself and Zekk with what they had.

          They had barely made it to the main area of the ship where the boarding ramp was, when they heard the sound of metal plating being chewed through.  Some kind of creature was chewing its way through the landing ramp, in an effort to gain entrance to the ship.

          "They sure didn't waste any time calling their friends and letting them know we're here," Zekk noted.

          Anakin ignited his violet saber and Zekk aimed both his blasters at the section of his ship that was quickly being sawed through.  They could see the dozens of black, jagged edges making their way through the hull plating.  The only way they could tell a living creature was doing it, was by the little puddles of saliva that would fall from the sharp teeth and land on the deck plates.

          Waiting anxiously, the two of them stood a half-meter away from it, hoping to take out the careless Yuuzhan Vong who would be standing outside the door, ready to fight, the minute the ramp was no more.

          It took the Vong only moments to slice through the hull as if it were nothing more than sullustan jam.  A thundering CLUNK rumbled throughout the ship as the access hatch dropped uselessly to the deck plates.

          As they had hoped, Yuuzhan Vong crowded around the open space, looking for their new captives.

          Zekk did not hesitate to shoot once there was no longer anything separating them from the bloodthirsty aliens outside.  He fired shot after shot at the warriors.  A few times he got lucky, and his blaster fire actually did some damage.  That was only because these Vong warriors did not seem to be as heavily covered in armor as most of them usually were.  He managed to make most of them at least stagger backwards, and some even dropped to the ground unconscious, but there seemed to be an endless supply of warriors.  They just kept on coming.  Soon, there were too many Vong for Zekk to hit them all.  It did not take them long to make their way into the ship, and that's when Anakin sprung into action.

          The first time the warriors got a look at Anakin's saber, they did the Yuuzhan Vong equivalent of a gasp.  They paused in their attack and their eyes widened in just the smallest fraction.     Anakin did not waste time wondering why.  He simply went into attack mode: slicing through limbs, burning holes through vital organs, and jumping out of the way when a type of amphistaff he had never seen before was thrusted at him.

          Before long, the aliens were filling the ship, making it hard for Anakin to move around.  It almost caused him to accidentally cut Zekk in half when one of the warriors threw Zekk into him.  They crashed hard to the deck plates, and before they could spring to their feet again, they found a strange-looking amphistaff being aimed at each of their faces.

          Anakin thought about bringing his lightsaber up to cut through the staff, but nixed the idea when he realized he probably would not be able to do it before the second amphistaff sliced through Zekk.

          "You will come with us," the one with its weapon aimed at Anakin ordered in basic.

          And for the first time, Anakin got a good look at them.  They had similar type of muscular build and green, scaly skin like all the other Vong he had encountered, but they were missing the tattoos and disfiguring scars that would cover their faces.  Not one of them had any missing appendages or living attachments to indicate limbs lost in the glory of battle.  He had seen low rank Vong before but these aliens had not fought like them.  Their movements had been too strong and precise.  And their amphistaffs were unlike any type he had seen before.  Was this some type of elite force of warriors?

That was the only conclusion he could come up with that made sense, as he and Zekk were hauled to their feet.  This was some sort of elite warrior caste of Yuuzhan Vong that he had not encountered before.  But if they were such warriors, why had they not mutilated themselves like all the others had?  That was the only factor that did not add up.

A gooey, jelly substance was slapped onto their wrists, making it impossible to move them.  When he tried to move his hands it did not constrict tighter, but continued holding his bounded wrists together, showing no signs of weakening.  Anakin remembered Jacen telling him about a similar substance that had been placed on his and Tenal Ka's wrists when they had been captured on Rygelia.  He had no intention of letting these monsters do any experiments on him like they had tried to do with Tenal Ka.  He would die fighting before he let himself become their test subject.

Their captors led them through a swampy area, constantly scanning their surroundings, as if expecting someone to be following them.  Paranoid Vong was something Anakin had never seen before and did not understand.  There was no reason for them to be concerned.  If there was anyone out there, they would be more then a match for them.

"Have any ideas?" Zekk whispered as they marched along.

"I'm working on it," he whispered back.

"Silence!"  Boomed the voice of the Yuuzhan Vong walking in front of them.

They decided their best bet was to remain quiet.  They could come up with a plan when they were alone.

After five miles of walking through desolate, swampy lands, their surroundings cleared into what appeared to be a village setting.

Anakin and Zekk could not help but stare at what they were seeing.  An actual Yuuzhan Vong community on a planet was a sight that no one had ever seen before.  No one had even guessed such a thing existed.  The Vong would conquer planets, but they would never live on them.  They would be used to create their coralskippers, weapons and villips, but either then captured slaves and a certain of number of warriors, the rest would remain on the world ships.

Anakin did not even know what planet they were on, but he did know that the Vong were not using it as a ship growing facility or a slave colony.  They were living there.

The buildings were of a strange design, and they could only guess as to what material had been used to build them.  They didn't look to made of living material, but they couldn't be sure.  Who knew what Yuuzhan Vong used to make houses?  They were all different sizes, and not one looked to be the same as the next.  Each had its own original design to it, as if a different builder had constructed each home.

The strangest part of it all was the Vong they passed as they were led through the village.  Most were not even carrying weapons – none that Anakin could detect that is.  They were just walking around, going about their business.  Then there were the children.  He had only encountered warriors before, so it was hard for him to imagine them as once having been innocent children.  But here they were, playing and whispering amongst themselves as the newcomers passed them.

From what Anakin could tell, it looked like they were being guided to the largest building in the center of the village.  This one was completely different from all the others.  It was taller then all the other structures and appeared to be made out of some kind of moss.  Like all the other buildings, it had no door.  Instead, there was a rubbery substance covering the opening, which the lead warrior peeled aside and the two Jedi were shoved into it.

Inside, there had to have been over a hundred adult Yuuzhan Vong waiting for them, who looked just the same as the ones that had brought them there.  They parted to the sides as Zekk and Anakin were being led towards an elderly looking Vong in the center of them room.  Patches of long, graying hair stuck out in tufst from his head, and in the middle of his sloping forehead was an incredible looking tattoo, but once again there was no grotesque scaring.

The warriors behind them poked Zekk and Anakin none-too-gently in the back to make them get down on their knees in front of the elder Vong.

There was some commotion coming from the assembled warriors behind the elder Vong.  Anakin tried to see what it was, but he did not have the greatest vantage point from his spot on the ground.  The only thing he could tell was someone was trying to make their way to the front of the gathered warriors.  They parted to the side to let her through.

Anakin's eyes went wide.  He could not believe what he was seeing.  She wasn't really there.  He had to be hallucinating.  That was the only explanation.  He closed his eyes briefly, but when he opened them she was still there.

"Tahiri!" He cried and jumped to his feet.  The Vong whacked him hard on his shoulder with its amphistaff, and he sank back down to his knees.  But he was too distracted by the person in front of him who looked like his best friend to feel any real pain.

The look-alike Tahiri made her way to the elder Vong.  "These are my friends," she said to him.  "They can be trusted.  They're Jedi,"

Tahiri's words were enough to convince him to signal the other Vong to release the binders on Zekk and Anakin's wrists.  They had barely been ripped off, when Tahiri ran to Anakin and threw her arms around him.  Still in shock, he was barely able to bring up his arms and hug her back.  He didn't know how this could be happening, but he didn't care.  She was alive.  That was all that mattered.

More chapters soon to come!!