Jaina had memorized the entire layout of the stronghold from the map her Uncle had provided for her, but the secret trap door would not be found on it. He had been sure to tell her about it though, before she had left for Anoth.
When they reached the room that had once served as the Solo children's playroom, Jaina opened the closet door and then walked over to the dresser and opened the third drawer. Immediately after she did those two things, a square on the metal floor slid aside, revealing a dark hole, just large enough for an adult human to squeeze through.
Without hesitation, Jaina dropped down it, followed shortly after by Zekk and Ganner. When they were all in, Jaina pulled the lever on the wall down and the piece of floor slid back to its original spot as if it had never moved, leaving the three Jedi in total darkness.
"How far away from the base does this tunnel lead?" Ganner inquired.
"I'm not sure. Maybe two or three kilometers past the stronghold," Jaina answered.
She heard a lightsaber ignite and saw Zekk had drawn his weapon, bathing the tunnel in a yellowish-orange light.
"Watch where you're swinging that thing," Ganner growled at him.
Zekk purposely brought his blade up close to the other Jedi's face. "Keep your distance and you won't have to worry about any accidents,"
"Don't start you two," Jaina said, sensing another fight about to break out between them. She took out her own saber and led the way through the tunnel.
It turned out that Jaina's calculations were fairly accurate. They had walked for a little over two kilometers when the tunnel sloped upward and then came to an abrupt end. Using her saber as a light source, she found a lever on the side and pulled down on it. Immediately, the tunnel wall opened up into the gloomy, barren surface that was Anoth.
They had no trouble finding the speeder once they had climbed out of the passageway, which closed back into the natural rock formation once Jaina slapped the flat slab of rock beside it.
Zekk looked doubtfully at the vehicle that had endured nearly two decades of fierce weather.
"You don't think it'll work?" Jaina said, interpreting his gaze.
"It's all rusted and corroded on the outside," he said as Jaina climbed inside, "and who knows what shape the engines are in,"
But his doubts were erased when Jaina turned on the speeder and the engines roared to life.
"I think it works,"
"For once, I'm glad to be wrong,"
The three of them had no problem fitting into the landspeeder since it was one of the old family models designed to fit up to five people comfortably. Zekk sat alone in the back seat, while Ganner purposely sat up in the front with Jaina – which did not go unnoticed by Zekk.
The second they were inside, Jaina hit the accelerator and they were off.
"Uh-oh," Jaina said when she checked the instruments in front of her.
Zekk did not like the sound of that. They had only been on the move for ten minutes, what could have possibly gone wrong already?
"I should have checked the fuel tank before we took off," she said, "because we're almost out of fuel,"
To prove her right, the speeder started swaying up and down under her control. Before long, the engine sounded like it was having a hard time keeping them in the air.
"Hold onto something," Jaina told them, knowing what was going to happen.
The speeder dropped like a stone, slamming into the ground. If not for their crash webbing, they would have thrown free of the vehicle.
Climbing out of the useless vehicle, Ganner said, "I guess we're walking the rest of the way,"
Jaina nodded and began walking away from the speeder.
"Hey," Zekk said, catching up to her, "do you even know where we're going?"
"No, I don't," she admitted in a barely audible voice and kept on walking.
From his spot near the doorway to the stronghold, Riley Walker watched the Yuuzhan Vong carrier craft touch down on Anoth's surface. Tactical Advisor Zuh Veqq was the first to disembark from the living shop. Followed closely by his legion of viscous warriors.
Squaring his shoulders, Riley marched over to Veqq. In a few, short strides, he was standing in front of the towering Tactical Advisor who stood more then a foot taller then him.
"Where are they?" Veqq ordered in basic.
Riley was stunned. No congratulations or so much as a pat on the back for a job well done. Although he didn't think he actually wanted a Vong to pat him on the back. "I think they are still inside,"
Veqq's nostrils flared. "You think?"
"They discovered I was working for you and there was a fight, but I managed to escape,"
Crossing his arms over his armored chest, Veqq said, "you mean you ran like the coward you are,"
Riley swallowed. This was not going at all how he had pictured it. "I was outnumbered, so I hid and waited for your arrival. The Jedi did not follow,"
"What about the Tsirran?"
Riley swallowed even harder. "There are no Tsirran on Anoth, Tactical Advisor Veqq,"
A scaly hand lashed out against Riley's nose, breaking it on contact. Riley collapsed to his knees, blood pouring down his face.
"You dare waste my time bringing me to a useless planet with no race's to conquer and then tell me my blood-enemy is not here, I should kill you where you lay, cowering in pain,"
"The Tsirran were not due to arrive until my landing party was finished here," Riley quickly explained. "It could be days yet before they arrive, but I had to get the coordinates to you then, when I was by myself on the ship because I didn't know when another opportunity would arise,"
"Or perhaps you try to deceive me. Perhaps you have rejoined the Jedi cowards and are helping to hide the Tsirran in this abomination," Veqq accused, pointing to the metal stronghold.
"No, that's not true," Riley said, vigorously shaking his head.
"We shall see," Veqq said. He motioned for his troops to enter the stronghold. "My warriors will find out if you speak the truth,"
Veqq's two personal guards hauled Riley to his feet. "When they find out I'm not lying, what about my reward? We had a deal,"
"You will get what you deserve," Zuh Veqq promised him.
With inhumanly fast reflexes, Veqq reached out with his arm and wrapped a single fist around Riley's throat. Riley did not even get the chance to struggle in the hold as Zuh Veqq's grip broke his neck within seconds. The sounds of bones snapping were followed by the lifeless thud of Riley's body hitting the ground.
"I believe you humans have a saying," Veqq began, looking down at Riley's corpse, "it goes 'once a traitor, always a traitor,'"
Stepping over Riley's still form, Zuh Veqq grabbed his amphistaff from one of his guards and marched into the base.
"What are you looking at?"
"Watch where you're going,"
"Stay out of my way,"
"You don't want to mess with me when I'm angry,"
They had been going on like that for hours, and Jaina had been doing her best to ignore it, but she was reaching her limit. There was only so much non-stop bickering she could tolerate. Ganner and Zekk had argued more this trip then she had ever had with her siblings in seventeen years. They fought constantly about anything and everything. It was driving her up the wall. Enough was enough.
"Can the two of you cut it out for five minutes?" She practically screamed at them. "There should be a small stream up ahead, I'm going to check it out. Do you think the two of you can act like a civilized adults while I'm gone?" She walked away from them before they could answer. She needed a break from them – even ten minutes would be better than nothing.
"Nice going, Ganner," Zekk congratulated him.
"Don't blame this on me. This isn't my fault. She hates you, remember?"
"What makes you think she isn't mad at you?"
"Because I'm not the one who walked out on her,"
Zekk had been waiting for Ganner to say something like that. Now he had the excuse he had been looking for to hit him. He reared back his fist and rammed it against Ganner's face.
Ganner was unable to block it in time, but he reacted with a punch of his own. Zekk had anticipated it though, and grabbed his fist in mid air to stop the blow. Not deterred in the slightest, Ganner kicked out with his leg, sweeping Zekk's feet out from under him and knocking him onto his back.
"You think you can just show up whenever you want and she'll take you back," Ganner said, watching Zekk slowly get back to his feet. "She doesn't want you,"
Zekk laughed. "And she wants you?"
Ganner took a running start at him, tackling Zekk to the ground. He got in a couple of quick hooks with his left fist before Zekk managed to throw him off of him. Breathing hard, Zekk jumped to his feet and yanked Ganner to his. He slammed him up against a nearby wall of rock.
Bleeding and bruised, Ganner said, "she was a mess when you left,"
Zekk, who was in no better condition, said, "and I bet you were more then happy to help,"
"Someone had to. And it wasn't going to be you," Ganner brought up his elbow and whacked Zekk in the jaw with it hard, making Zekk slacken his hold. Ganner took the opportunity to break out of it.
They continued to battle, exchanging blows with their fists, until they both felt something powerful tug at their minds, forcing them to stop fighting.
Hands on her hips, Jaina said, "I hope beating each other up has made you feel better because if the Vong have a search party looking for us, I'm sure they'll have no problems finding where we are with all the noise you two have been making.
"You both have been going at it since we left Yavin Four, and I can't take it anymore," she said, completely fed up with them. "So you two can either learn to get along from this point on, or I'll stun you both and when the Vong show up they can deal with you," when neither of them backed down, she added, "And if you think I'm not serious, just try me," to prove her seriousness, she yanked Zekk's blaster out of its holster and called it to her outstretched hand. It took aiming the blaster at them for them to realize the seriousness of her threat and back away from each other.
Satisfied that they were listening to her, at least for the time being, Jaina handed Zekk back his blaster. "Now that that's settled, let's get moving. There's a stream not far from here,"
She turned her back to them and headed for the stream. When Ganner and Zekk started after her, they each made sure they kept a considerable distance from the other.
And for the first time since beginning their trek on Anoth, there was absolute silence.
It was late in the day when they reached the strip of water Jaina had been talking about. Ganner and Zekk were quick to make use of it. They used the reflections the water gave off to help clean themselves off. Jaina planned to wait until they were finished to use it.
Since she had barged in on their brawl, no one had spoken a word. At first, she had been glad to have silence, but she had felt the air getting more tense over the last hour and feared another fight was brewing.
"Still mad at me?" Ganner asked her.
She had felt him approaching long before he had spoke, but could not be bothered to move somewhere else. "What do you think?" She said, glaring up at him.
He sat down on the dried up ground beside her. "I'm not going to apologize for fighting with Zekk. He had it coming,"
"Now, which one of us sounds like a child? I feel like I've been playing referee to you two all day,"
Trying to defend his actions, Ganner said, "He's not the easiest person in the galaxy to get along with,"
"Don't try to blame all this on Zekk. You're as much at fault as he is,"
"Why are you defending him?" Ganner cried in disbelief. "You don't owe him anything,"
"But you do. He saved your life,"
Ganner let out a snort. "And I'm sure he loves having that hang over me head,"
"You are unbelievable," Jaina exclaimed. "Zekk wouldn't save your life just so he could rub it in your face. He's not like that,"
Ganner wanted to say how did she know what he was like anymore, but he kept his mouth shut. He knew what a heated discussion that would start. Then she would go and defend Zekk some more – something he had no desire to listen to.
Tired of fighting, Jaina said, "I wonder where Riley is,"
"Who knows? He must know that the Vong aren't going to keep him around forever. They'll want to take care of him before he decides to switch loyalties again,"
"I can't believe I didn't know he was a traitor,"
"None of us knew. Neither did your Uncle. Otherwise he never would have sent Riley with us. I'm sure the Vong will reward their little henchman for telling them about the Tsirran and then giving them the coordinates to this place. How did he get the coordinates in the first place?"
Jaina looked uncomfortable. "How am I supposed to know that?"
"Maybe when you let him bring the ship out of hyperspace, for instance,"
Jaina's eyes widened. "Are you saying this whole mess is my fault?"
"That's not what I said,"
"But it's what you were thinking,"
"Jaina, if you hadn't let yourself get distracted –"
"I wouldn't have been distracted if you and Zekk knew how to act like Jedi Knights instead of squabbling children. How was I supposed to know what Riley was going to do? You didn't,"
"I'm just saying – "
"No, you're blaming me for allowing the Vong to find Anoth and for us being stranded out here in the middle of nowhere," Jaina rose to her feet. "You can be such a jerk, Ganner, you know that?" she said and then stormed off.
