CHAPTER SEVEN: NOT QUITE HUMAN
Night had fallen on Trianaa. As Baxter had promised, he had a group of soldiers ready to go out on patrol with the Jedi. They had split into pairs and Jacen was beginning to wonder if it was such a good idea that he had agreed to be partnered with Tahiri. He was trying to concentrate on picking up anything unusual, but it was getting to be next to impossible with the cascade of emotions being broadcast by her.
"Sorry," she apologized, picking up on it. She took a deep breath. "Better?"
"A little. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really, no,"
"Is it Anakin?"
"No,"
Her tone suggested otherwise but he made no comment. Instead he asked, "is it your father? Sorry, I overheard you and Anakin on the ship,"
He could feel her growing irritation beside him. "I told you I didn't want to talk about it,"
"As long as your distracted state of mind doesn't get us killed, that's fine,"
They continued on in silence for some time, until Tahiri finally spoke, nearly making Jacen jump. "I went to see him today,"
"How did it go?"
Her shoulders sagged. "I couldn't do it. As far as he knows, I'm just one of the Jedi here to take care of the refugees." She looked up at him. "What do you think I should have done?"
"Tahiri, it's not my place to tell you what you should or shouldn't do,"
"Well, I'm asking you to tell me what you would do in my place,"
Jacen ran a hand through his unruly hair, trying to figure out a response without sounding like he was trying to tell her what to do. "I think you should tell him who you are," he said at last. "You have a right to know why he's kept away from you all these years. And you owe it to yourself to find out if you want him in your life or not,"
She said nothing and kept walking.
"But that's just my opinion," he added afterwards.
"I know and that's just what I asked for," she said with a smile. "I'm just afraid that when I go to him it's going to change everything,"
"Nothing has to change if you don't want it to. Remember, it's up to you to decide whether or not you want him in your life,"
She shrugged. "I s'ppose,"
"Do you want to tell me how we ended up partnered together?" He asked, changing the subject. "Not that I mind, I just assumed you would want to be with Anakin,"
"Tenal Ka and I decided it would be better this way. And putting you and Anakin together probably isn't the greatest idea either,"
"You don't think we would get along?"
"I know you wouldn't get along. You would say something stupid or Anakin would – "
An ear-piercing scream stopped Tahiri in mid-sentence. A half second later, lighstabers ignited, she and Jacen were racing towards the source of the noise.
In the outskirts of the settlement, they found a man's body sprawled out on the ground; crimson fluid was oozing out from the numerous wounds he had sustained. There was so much blood, they could barely make out the features on his face.
Jacen frantically searched around for any signs of the attacker, but saw nothing except a rippling of leaves that lead into the forest.
Tahiri crouched down beside the badly mauled body and felt around for a pulse. "He's still alive. Barely,"
"Get help," Jacen told her and took off for the forest, ignoring Tahiri's protests for him not to go after the creature alone. He plunged headlong into the woods. This might be the only chance they got to capture one of the creatures alive.
It couldn't have gone that far. He was sure of that.
He ran hard through the bushes, careful to keep his lightsaber out in front of him in case of an attack. Realizing his mistake of plunging noisily into a dark, unfamiliar setting, he slowed down his pace to a light job. The deeper he moved into the woods, the more cautious his movements became.
Maybe it had not been such a smart idea to go after it alone. He had no idea how far he had traveled from the settlement. He had lost all sense of direction. He could have been traveling in circles for all he knew. He stopped his pursuit of the creature momentarily, reaching out with his senses, hoping to find it close by.
It turned out to be a lot closer than he expected.
High above him in the trees, a dark blur came shooting straight at him, pinning him to the ground. White fangs hissed at him. With his free hand, he shoved the creature off of him. He was anticipating on a few free seconds to grab his lightsaber, but the creature rammed him almost instantly, dropping him to his knees. It must have been surprised that Jacen dropped that quickly because it stopped, giving Jacen the opportunity to get out of the way of its attack and lunge for his lightsaber. He swung the deadly blade in a wide arc, knowing it would slice the creature in half – but he hit nothing but thin air.
"What the – "
He was alone. The creature was gone.
The only thing that could be heard then were the sounds of booted feet running towards him.
"You could have been killed. You should not have gone after it alone," Tenal Ka reprimanded him, as the settlement's doctor, Dave Trentholm, checked him over for injuries.
Anakin was silent beside her. He wasn't commenting on the foolish risk his brother had taken, because Jacen was sure he would have done the same thing.
"What did it look like?" Anakin asked.
He winced as Trentholm touched a particular sore rib. "Human, but altered somehow," he answered.
Tenal Ka frowned. "What do you mean?"
"It looked human, except for the fact that it was a dirty, wild mess and no human should have the strength it had. When I reached out to it with the force I didn't get any clear thoughts, just raw emotion. It nearly made me pass out," Jacen explained to them.
"Their running the blood sample we found in the lab right now. We're almost positive it belongs to your attacker. It might take a day or more for the results. Our equipment here isn't too great," Baxter said, walking into the room.
"In the meantime, I think we should continue checking the planet's databanks," Tenal Ka suggested.
Anakin nodded in agreement. "Tenal Ka's right. Maybe we'll find an occurrence of a plague or some natural disaster that caused the deformities,"
"Maybe it's not so natural," Tahiri said darkly.
Anakin caught her meaning. "The Vong?"
She shrugged. "If the boot fits…"
"We'll know more when we get the test results. But the idea of Vong interference doesn't seem too far fetched to me," said Jacen.
Shortly after, they split up for their respective sleeping quarters. For Tahiri, though, sleep was the farthest thing on her mind. But it had little to do with her father this time, and everything to do with the creature Jacen had encountered that night. She had a feeling she already knew what those test results would show when they came back.