CHAPTER TWELVE: FAMILY FEUD
"Some bruised ribs…possibly a concussion. I'd say you were pretty lucky to walk away with only these injuries," said the doctor, Trentholm, upon finishing his examination of Tahiri.
Anakin stood nearby, arms folded over his chest, his features showing nothing but concern.
Tahiri had been found by two of the villagers who had happened to be walking by after the attack. They had gone screaming to the nearest New Republic soldier about Tahiri and some slain monster lying beside her.
They had carried her unconscious form back to the small medical clinic, where Anakin and the others had been forced to wait outside while Trentholm had bandaged her up. The doctor had finally let them in when Tahiri regained consciousness about an hour after being brought in.
Tenal Ka, who was standing to the left of Anakin, was frowning. "How could this have happened? It is not even near dark yet,"
"Maybe this one wanted to get head start on the free human buffet we're having here," Tahiri remarked. A sharp pain in her side where her ribs were wrapped caused her to wince.
"That's not funny," Anakin said, frowning as well. "This means that these monsters are getting more aggressive and pretty soon no one will be safe here,"
"What about the thing I killed?"
"They've brought it down to the morgue," Trentholm told her. "No one's had a chance to examine it yet,"
"They don't need to examine it," she said in a small, yet determined voice. "I already know what it is,"
"Ba'kl skul," Tenal Ka confirmed, nodding her head. When everyone except Tahiri gave her a puzzled look, she said to the others, "when I sent the tissue samples we had back to Courscant, I made an extra copy and sent them to Cilghal. I just received word back from her an hour ago. I was going to wait until we were all together before saying anything, but I suppose now is as good a time as any,"
Trentholm took that moment to leave, saying he would be back shortly with the results of Tahiri's head scans. He had wanted to run a few tests to make sure there was no lasting injuries to the brain where she had taken the blow to the head.
"I knew exactly what it was when I got close enough to it," Tahiri said to the others when Trentholm had left. "It was just like those people I saw in the cages on Belkdan. It sounds impossible but I think the one that attacked me was more savage – even more primitive,"
"That explains why we couldn't find anything in the archives," said Jacen.
Tahiri noticed he was avoiding looking at her. Normally it would bother her, but after what had happened she was in no hurry for Jacen to look at her again.
"What were you doing patrolling alone?" Anakin questioned her.
She didn't like his tone. He sounded like he was talking to a child. "I wasn't," she informed him. "Jacen and I were taking a break from searching the databanks,"
Anakin rounded on Jacen. "And you just let her go off alone?"
"Come off it, Anakin," Jacen snapped at him. "It was the middle of the afternoon, how was I supposed to know what was going to happen?"
"It doesn't hurt to be cautious,"
"You mean walking with my lightsaber out in my hand like you, ready to slice anything that moves,"
"It may surprise you, Jace, but there are Jedi out there who are willing to kill if they have to,"
"That's your solution to everything, isn't it? Kill first, ask questions later," Jacen said, stepping dangerous close towards Anakin. "Well, let me tell you something, little brother, the ability to kill doesn't make you a hero,"
Anakin was fuming. "While you were busy sitting on your morals, Tahiri almost was killed,"
The sound of the door opening drew them away from their argument. They were stunned to see Tahiri gripping the door handle and holding open the door.
"Where are you going?" The two brothers asked simultaneously.
"Away from the two of you," she said sharply. "I don't know what's gotten into you two nerfs, but you've been on each other's case since before we left Courscant. So you two can either grow up or get out, because I'm sick of it,"
She didn't look to be kidding either. Her voice was dead serious and her gaze was locked on the two Jedi as if daring them to test her.
They were both still in shock from her outburst, and ended up heeding her request.
Trentholm appeared back in the room then. "Tahiri, you have a visitor,"
Erik Veila entered the room and his face paled upon seeing the cuts and bruises lining the side of Tahiri's face
I'll ask him to leave if you want, Anakin's voice echoed in her head.
As much as she wanted him gone, she answered back, no it's all right.
"I'll be outside if you need me," Anakin said in a low enough voice so only she would hear him.
The others took the hint and filed out of the room behind Anakin, closing the door behind them.
"He's a good guy, that Anakin Solo," her father began.
"I know that," Tahiri said, trying hard not to look at him.
"Tahiri I know you're still angry about what you saw, and I know you probably don't want to see me right now, but I had to come after hearing about the attack on you,"
"As you can see I'm fine, so you can go now. You've fulfilled your fatherly duties," she said, her voice full of bitterness.
"Tahiri, I don't know what I can say to make you understand how sorry I am,"
"There's nothing you can say. You left me and started up another family,"
"Tahiri -"
"I hate you. You're the reason she's dead. If you hadn't been so selfish I would still have a mother, and I'll never forgive you for that,"
She was waiting for him to leave. She didn't want to have to ever look at him again.
Whether it was her own doing or his own free will that finally made him leave, she didn't care. What mattered was that he was out of her life for good, and she could go back to believing her father was dead.
Jaina kept herself focused on the task in front of her. The chance of escape kept her mind from settling into the depressing state it had lapsed into upon feeling Zekk's death.
It had been so sudden. She had felt no pain from him. She had felt nothing except a strong sense of determination from him – and then nothing.
She hadn't spoken much since it had happened. She knew Lex was confused since she had not been very forthcoming with the details, but she seemed to have somewhat of an understanding of what Jaina had experienced. After the first hour, Lex had given up on trying to make conversation, since all she was getting from Jaina were half responses or slight nods of the head.
So Jaina worked on in silence.
Every so often Lex would hover over her shoulder for a bit to check her progress and then go back to her spot on the other side of the room, sitting with her back against the wall. For the most part though, Jaina was alone in her task. Her chrono was broken, so she did not have a sense of how much time had gone by, but knew she had been working on the door controls (or at least what she thought was the door controls) for at least a good hour or more.
Under different circumstances, she might have already found the door mechanism release. At the moment though, she wasn't firing on all thrusters. She felt she wasn't in as much of a hurry to escape as she ought to be. Zekk was gone and they had heard nothing from Ganner since their short communication before she and Lex had been ambushed.
Jaina heard a small clanking sound, and for a split second thought she had finally cracked the door code, until she realized she hadn't done anything. The noise was coming from the outside. Someone was coming in.
Hurriedly, Jaina fumbled to put the panel back into place to cover up her tinkering, before moving back away from the door.
Her eyes had grown accustomed to the semi-darkness state of their cell that Jaina had to shield her eyes from the bright light coming from the outside corridor. Before she could make any attempt at an escape, a body was shoved into the cell and the door was locked shut again.
"Ganner," Jaina breathed, relief washing over her as she helped him to his feet. He looked a real mess.
"What happened?" Lex asked him.
"We must have set off some silent alarm," he began in a shallow voice. "The base was crawling with soldiers the minute after we lost communications with you. They've been interrogating me since my capture,"
"What about Zekk?" Jaina forced herself to ask. She was unable to keep her voice from quivering.
She watched his facial expression carefully, and without Ganner even saying a word, she had her answer. She let go of his arm.
"I'm sorry," he said to her.
"What happened?" She needed to know how he had died.
Ganner was watching her, clearly trying to decide if she could handle it. She must have passed his test because he said, "there were too many of them. Zekk took on a half a dozen at once. He got hit in the shoulder with a blaster, and in that split second when his defenses were weakened he took a shot to the chest at point blank range. He was dead before he hit the ground,"
Is that why she had felt no pain from him, because he had been killed instantly? A part of her was thinking that it didn't make any sense. She still should have felt something – but maybe that was her own wishful thinking. Then why did she want to scream at Ganner, call him a liar – as if that would have made any difference. Zekk was dead and nothing she could say or do would change it.
She noticed then that Lex and Ganner were watching her closely. Were they waiting for her to drop to the ground, sobbing like a baby?
She refused to break down. Grieving would come later, when she was alone and not stuck in some holding cell. So she said the thing Ganner and Lex were least expecting, "I've almost got the wires figured out that open the door. We should be out of here soon,"