CHAPTER NINE: ONE MORE SURPRISE

After the latest attack, the New Republic soldiers stationed on Trianaa, were more paranoid and anxious then when the Jedi had first arrived on the planet two days earlier. They seemed convinced, along with the new settlers that the attacks were becoming more frequent and closer to the settlement.

Tahiri didn't know what more they could do to ease the fears of the villagers. She and the others went out patrolling every night, but since the first night when she and Jacen had been out and found that victim, they had not seen any signs of the creatures. Where she was taking that as a good sign, the residents of Trianaa were not. They seemed to be even more on edge. Some were insisting that the Jedi go out into the forests and find them. Tahiri was glad to see she was not the only one amongst her friends who was against that idea. Even Anakin, who hated sitting around waiting for something to happen, felt it would be unwise to engage the creatures until they learned more about them.

Tenal Ka had sent salvia samples that had been found on the latest victim, back to Courscant, but it might be days before they had the results. In the meantime, all they could do was continue with their nightly patrols and keep going through the databanks to see if they had missed anything.

That's exactly what Tahiri had been doing, and after sitting in front of a computer for hours on end, she felt like she needed a walk to clear her head. And it was from more then just endless hours of research.

At midday, the settlement was full of people going about their daily business, trying to accomplish any and all tasks before nightfall, now that Captain Baxter had imposed a curfew of sundown on the settlers. He was trying to avoid any unnecessary risks.

She had been unable to think of much else since seeing Erik Veila in the flesh that day on his doorstep. Why had she gone to the trouble of tracking him down if she couldn't tell him who she really was? She kept replaying in her mind what Jacen had said about owing it to herself to give him a chance. It had taken hours of contemplation for her to finally convince herself that Jacen was right. She deserved to know who her father was. She deserved to know why he had abandoned her.

Though she had only been to the residence of Erik Veila once, she had the directions to get there memorized. It seemed to take her twice as long as before to reach it, and the knot forming in her stomach grew larger with every step she took. The only difference this time was there was no hesitation before she reached up and knocked on the door. She knew what she came there to do and there would be no stopping her this time – not even the nauseous feeling in her stomach.

The home's owner was prompt in answering his door, and when he saw Tahiri standing there, he gave a brief smile. "Hello again," he greeted her. "I hope your here to give me some good news about what's behind those attacks,"

I do have news, but I don't know whether you're going to think it's good, Tahiri thought silently. "I'm not here about the attacks," she said slowly, and before she could lose her nerve altogether, she blurted out, "I'm Tahiri… I'm your daughter,"

When she had pictured in her mind what his reaction would be, it would initially be shock. But that look would quickly transform into a huge grin and he would pull her into a hug, insisting that he had been looking for her for years and had almost given up all hope of ever finding her. It was funny how the mind could play tricks on you like that. Really, what were the chances of that happening? Smiling looked to be the farthest thing on his mind as he stared at her wide-eyed in disbelief. His shock slammed into her like a slab of duracrete.

When he finally found his voice, he choked out a strangled, "Tahiri,"

She couldn't even bring herself to nod her head. She simply stood there, watching his reaction. If there had been any doubt in her mind before that this man couldn't be her father, it was erased when she saw the way he was looking at her as if she were some sort of ghost. The tears welling up in his eyes mirrored her own.

She was powerless to resist as he reached out to her and pulled her into hug. She didn't know how to respond, so just stood there, letting her father hug her. It was a long while before either of them spoke, but when Erik finally found the strength to pull away from her, it took him several extra moments before he finally managed to speak.

"Tahiri," he said again, saying her name as if were a new word he had just discovered. "Your - your all grown up,"

"I'm nearly sixteen,"

She was surprised at how steady her voice was when she spoke.

"I can't believe it," he said, running a hand over his jaw in amazement. "It really is you. Will you come inside?"

She couldn't remember saying yes, or giving any sort of response, but she was dimly aware of her legs following him inside. She was grateful when he offered her a seat on an old- looking sofa, because she was not sure how much longer her legs would be able to support her weight.

"You look so much like your mother, I don't know why I didn't catch it the first time you came by,"

"It would have made things a lot easier on me if you had,"

"You have her sense of humour as well,"

There was nothing more Tahiri wanted to do than hear him talk about her mother, a figure she knew so very little about. Nothing except wanting to know how he had escaped death all those years ago.

"I spent my whole life thinking you were dead," she said suddenly. "I - I saw my father die,"

"You saw a man die, but he wasn't your father. He was your stepfather,"

She was grateful that she was sitting when he told her this. "I don't understand,"

"When you were almost two," Erik said, coming over to sit beside her, yet leaving a comfortable distance between them, "your mother and I divorced. It was my fault. Before I had met her I had dealings with the Hutts. I wasn't exactly a smuggler but I did their dirty work for them. I didn't tell your mother I was involved with them until we got engaged,"

"My mother," Tahiri interrupted, "what was her name?"

"Tara," Erik smiled reminiscently before he remembered what he was trying to tell Tahiri. "Your mother," he continued, clearing his throat, "said she was going to call off the wedding if I didn't break it off with the Hutts. I tried. I really did, but back then it wasn't an easy thing to break a contract with the Hutts. So I lied to your mother, telling her I broke it off and we got married. She was a Jedi, so I always thought she knew I was lying but was too in love with me to confront me on it. I should have known it would be hard to keep her from finding out – and she did, right after you were born. She was so angry with me and when she found out everything I had done, she was left with no choice but to leave me. She let me see you whenever I wanted but she moved on and a couple of years later married a nice guy named, Cris.

"I finally decided that I was going end things for real with the Hutts. I made them so angry when I finally broke away from them that they came after my family. Your mother and Cris were killed and I thought you had been too until I went back there and didn't find your body,"

"How come you didn't come back for me?" She found herself holding her breath while she waited for his answer.

"I did, but by the time I got there you were gone. I thought I had lost you too. I didn't know whether they had killed or kidnapped you. I spent four years trying to find you,"

Her heart leapt at hearing he had tried to find her. Anakin was wrong. He had looked for her.

"The reason you found nothing is because I was living with a tribe of Sand People for that time,"

He looked horrified. "Those merciless creatures had kept you all that time?"

"No, it wasn't like that. They protected me and I became a part of their tribe. Don't ask me how that happened. I still don't understand it,"

Erik Veila shook his head. Of all the places he thought his daughter had ended up, it had most certainly not been with a tribe of Tusken Raiders.

"I left Tatooine eventually," he went on, "wanting to find some other world where I could forget about what I had done. I still haven't forgiven myself for all the pain and death I've caused," he said in a hoarse voice. He cleared his throat before continuing. "I lived on Bilbringii until the Yuuzhan took it over and then I was sent here to make a new home from scratch. But I don't want to talk about me anymore, I want to know about you. You're a Jedi, just like you mother,"

She wanted to burst out and tell him everything, but forced herself to be patient. The easiest way would be to start from the beginning. "When I was nine, this Jedi, Tionne, found me on Tatooine and when she realized I had force potential brought me back to be trained at the Jedi Academy on Yavin Four. She and Kam, another Jedi, adopted me shortly after. I'm not a Jedi Knight yet," she added somewhat bitterly, "but I will be soon,"

Erik was smiling. "You know, I kept a lot of her things, even after all these years," he said to Tahiri. "Wait here for a moment,"

He left the room and returned a few minutes later.

"I know she would want you to have this," he said, holding out his hand and handing her a long, metallic cylinder shaped object.

Tahiri felt her fingers close around the cold metal. Her mother's lightsaber.

She wanted to ask what kind of a Jedi she had been, had she been a guardian of the Old Republic, but the sound of a door opening caused her to stop. She found her thumb hovering above the power switch on her mother's weapon until she deemed through the force that the intruder had no hostile intentions.

"Erik, are you here?"

A second later, a women in her late thirties stepped into the room, holding the hands of two boys, the oldest of the two looking about ten or eleven. The second one looked to be a couple of years younger.

It took Tahiri's mind about half a second to process what she was seeing. The woman was his wife and the two boys had to be his kids. His kids that he had been with since the day of their birth.

"Tahiri, this is Jayne. That's Ryan - "

That's as far as he got. Tahiri's grip on her mother's saber slackened completely, and it fell to the ground. She bolted from the room before anyone could stop her. She could hear her father's voice and as footsteps as he tried to catch her, but Tahiri put on a burst of Jedi speed the second she was out of the house. She was out of sight by the time the man named Erik Veila was out in his front yard.

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