CHAPTER THIRTEEN: DECIDING VOTE
Zekk had learned more than he had ever wanted to know about the hidden facility on Borleias. It had been constructed nearly six months ago, and had already gone through hundreds of test subjects. Many of whom were roaming around the facility at that very moment. Besides Lex, they had not managed to capture any force wielders - until now.
From what Zekk had been able to gather from hacking into the base's computer network and his own pieced together hypothesis was that the people running the facility had not put much effort into her recapture, hoping that she would lead more Jedi back there and give them a whole line of force sensitive subjects to use. They had made their attempts seem genuine enough, but had never actually had the intention of capturing her again.
In the little time he had to search through the databanks, not wanting to spend any lengthy amount of time that might draw unwanted attention, he had seen brief sketches of plans outlining a delivery of these genetically enhanced humans to the Yuuzhan Vong. Everything about this facility would be used to aid the Yuuzhan Vong in their war against the galaxy. He should have realized that from the moment Lex had come to Courscant, telling them about humans being implanted with symbiotes.
He could tell as he skirted through the base which soldiers had been implanted and those that were still on the waiting list. Those that had symibotes inside them, seldom showed any emotions and were rarely seen doing anything that was not military duty. He had managed to watch one of the training sessions and it still made him shudder when he thought about it. The New Republic already had enough to deal with without worrying about a group of elite soldiers that could not be brought down by ordinary blaster fire. And if the hosts were force sensitive – Zekk ended that thought right there. He did not want to even think about how that would greatly complicate matters.
He hadn't seen his friends since their capture the day before. He was trying to keep a low profile as he snooped for more information about where they were being held. He was keeping track of the guards watching their cell, making mental notes of the times when there was a shift change and when meals were brought to the prisoners. He needed to be patient. There might not be such a thing as a perfect escape window but he would only get when chance at it, and he did not intend to waste it. His own only concern was that they would think something had happened if he didn't act soon and take matters into their own hands.
He was on his way back from scouting out one of the labs, when an alarm started wailing throughout the complex. The first person he came across, he asked what was going on.
"The prisoners on level four have escaped. But the base has been put under lockdown. It's only a matter of time before their caught,"
Zekk took off at a run, ignoring the soldier that was shouting after him.
He was furious. How could Jaina be so stupid? It would be just like her to tire of sitting around and plot an escape. He was working as fast as he could on getting them out of there and she had to go and mess it all up. Once they found her and the others, the security would be much tighter and no doubt the three Jedi would be separated to prevent a reoccurrence of that happening.
He knew where she would go. It was the only logical choice really. If he reached her in time, maybe he could stop her from getting herself killed – and then he would kill her himself.
"We're out of options. Either we move the settlement - which could take weeks without additional assistance from the New Republic, or we take out these monsters that are terrorizing the village," Baxter was saying to the Jedi who were assembled in what had been converted into a small meeting room. They were all sitting around a large, rectangular-shaped table made of metal.
"You can't just wipe them out," Jacen protested. "It's not their fault what's been done to them,"
"Jacen is right. We would be no better than the Yuuzhan Vong were we to destroy them," Tenal Ka added her opinion.
Anakin sat up straight. "So we just let everyone here die?"
Tenal Ka turned to him. "That is not what we are saying, Anakin. We must simply find an alternative solution,"
"It's not that simple," said Baxter. "My commanding officer has given us orders to find wherever these creatures are hiding and destroy them if we can't come up with a better solution. But he's willing to hold off for twenty-four hours if you can convince him that there's a better way,"
Jacen knew they all had a different opinion on the subject, and there was only one way they could come to a decision, whether they all agreed or not.
"I think the only way we can come to a decision is to take a vote," Jacen said to them. "I vote that we take the twenty four hours. If that turns out to be the winning side, your men don't attack, giving us a chance to come up with a better solution. For Anakin's approach, if his side wins, we attack now,"
Anakin looked at him doubtfully. "You would fight?"
Jacen shrugged. "A fair vote is a fair vote,"
Anakin nodded. "Fine. I say we attack now before any more casualties,"
It was no surprise when Baxter took Anakin's side.
Tenal Ka spoke next. "I usually prefer action to doing nothing, but I do not think it is right we destroy these people until all other options have been looked at,"
Jacen was stunned that she had taken his side, but it didn't really matter. The last person to vote would put Anakin's side with the majority.
"Tahiri, it is your turn," Tenal Ka spoke to her.
She looked from Jacen to Anakin and then straight ahead so she wouldn't have to look at either one of them when she gave them her decision. Why did she have to be the deciding vote? Either way it seemed that one of them would be upset with her when it was over.
"I want these people to be safe as much as the rest of you do," she began. "I know firsthand how dangerous they can be, but I can't kill one race in order to save another. It's not up to us to decide who gets to live and who gets to die,"
Jacen tried and failed to suppress a triumphant grin from showing on his features. It faltered somewhat though, when he looked at his brother.
"I'll tell the general we wait the twenty-four hours," Baxter said, and then got up and left.
Jacen braced himself for his brother's response. It was nothing like he was expecting, however.
"Congratulations, Jace," Anakin said to him, not bothering to hide the resentment in his voice. "You won, just like always,"
He stood up from the table and walked out of the room.
Suddenly, Jacen wished he hadn't looked so smug when the vote went in his favour. He hadn't thought Anakin would take it so personally.
He watched Tahiri push back from the table and pick up her jacket.
"Tahiri, let him go. He'll be back once he's had a chance to cool off,"
She ignored him and went after Anakin anyway.
He had gotten pretty far in that short amount of time that she had to jog to catch up to him.
"Anakin, where are you going?"
"I just need to get some air," he said without turning around.
She stopped chasing him. "You're being selfish, you know that?"
"For what?" He said, coming to halt and facing her. "For thinking you would side with me instead of my brother?"
She blinked, and wondered briefly if her guilt showed in her expression. I might as well wear a sign on my forehead that says I kissed your brother. "Is that what this is about? Because I took Jacen's side?"
"Yes... No," he gave a frustrated sigh. "Look, Tahiri, more innocent people will die if we do what Jacen says, and sit around thinking up alternatives when even he knows there aren't any,"
"People are going to die anyways, Anakin. Innocent people. These 'monsters' as everyone keeps refering to them as, were once human beings, but the Yuuzhan Vong took that humanity away from them. That doesn't give us the right to kill them. I won't be reponsible for the death of thirty odd people when there might have been a way around it. I don't want that on my conscience,"
"And you think I do? I'm just trying to do the right thing. They have to be stopped,"
"So that's your carefully thought out solution: kill them off? Is that what you were planning to do with me?"
Anakin shifted uncomfortably. "You can't ask me that,"
She didn't back down. "I just did,"
"You know I couldn't," he said in a low voice.
"But it's all right to murder these people because you don't know any of them, is that what you're saying?"
"Tahiri - "
He cut himself off. She was right and there was nothing he could say that would make her believe otherwise.
"I need to go for a walk. I'll see you back here later,"
She watched him go, wondering if she had been too harsh with him, but she banished the thought as soon as it entered her mind. Just because she felt guilty about her mishap with Jacen didn't mean she had to agree with Anakin.
"Did you find him?" Jacen asked, when she re-entered the building.
"Yeah, but it didn't do much good," she admitted. "He was - " She shook her head.
"A real jerk?" Jacen supplied.
"No," she said, fighting back a smile despite how angry she still was with Jacen.
"You know once my brother makes up his mind, Hoth will melt before he changes it,"
"I know that," she looked around then, noticing for the first time since coming back that Tenal Ka wasn't there. "Where's Tenal Ka?"
"She went down to the lab to start looking for a way around our current situation. We should probably go down and join her. We don't have a lot of time left,"
"It can't happen again, Jacen," she said suddenly.
He didn't bother pretending that he didn't what she was talking about. "I know that,"
"Do you? Because you're not the one who has to face Anakin and feel guilty about what you did,"
"You're not the only one feels guilty," Jacen informed her. "He's my brother. How do you think it makes me feel to know I betrayed him?"
"Then why did you do it?"
"I don't know. I wasn't thinking. If I had, I wouldn't have done it. I'm sorry. It won't happen again,"
The lack of distance between them was starting to unnerve her, but she found herself unable to move away from him. "It can't happen again," she said, quietly.
"I know," he said, his face moving closer to hers.
Her face was slowly inching closer to his. She felt the briefest sensation when he touched his lips against hers –
The lights in the room went out, engulfing them into darkness. The only light was the bits of sunlight that still shone through the windows.
"What's going on?" Tahiri said, fighting to keep from panic showing up in her voice.
"I don't know," Jacen said, but I have a bad feeling about this, he added silently, walking to the door and opening it. "Power's out all over," he informed her.
"Do they have a lot of power outages around here?"
Jacen was frowning. "Come on, we'll find Baxter and figure out what's going on,"
Jacen spun around to the sound of glass breaking, followed by a long series of screams. The altered humans of Trianaa were climbing in through the window. Tahiri had her lightsaber out, and Jacen had his own out ready to help her fight, when the other window in the room came smashing to the ground, sending some of the shards flying into Jacen's backside.
They were trapped. There would be no way they could make it out into the corridor without fighting their way out. Knowing there was no other way around it, Jacen cut into the first burly looking human that attacked him.