Chapter 6

Dantooine.

In a secret base somewhere on the planet's face, Luke Skywalker sat in concentration. He opened his eyes suddenly. Luke knew Ben and the others were in trouble. He could sense their surprise and disbelief. Something had gone wrong. He had known they were coming. He had felt them land. He could feel them coming toward him, coming closer. That was before they stopped abruptly. He considered that it might be for a break or meal, but no such thing was supposed to happen. Jake's orders were to bring them directly here. Then he could feel it. As cold as a winter's wind, Luke felt a mind that had stopped blocking his probe. That mind was Jake's, and it was soiled with betrayal. Luke knew there was nothing he could do. It would take an hour to get to their position. And he knew by then it would be too late. All he could do was hope they survived whatever it was that they were up against.

From what Kyp could see in the incredibly dim light, he made a guess at what they were up against. "I'd say about fifty Vong, not to mention our friend Jake over there," Kyp jerked a thumb in the Jedi traitor's direction.

The three of them were outside of the speeder now, and fully aware that they were completely surrounded by the Vong. In the sparse light provided by the speeder's glowpanels, all the three Jedi could make out was most likely just the first line of Vong waiting to attack.

Ben's voice was hard with determination, "Let me take Jake. He's keeping me from seeing my father."

Jaina and Kyp nodded; they understood.

"Jake," Ben called, "I challenge you to a duel. Just you and me."

"Do you take me for a fool?" Jake chuckled. "I am quite skilled in the use of a lightsaber, but you and I both know that I could never be a match for you, young Skywalker."

"Then why don't you have some of your Vong buddies help you to even out the odds," Ben challenged.

Jake considered this for a moment, and then motioned to one of the Vong. He must have relayed the challenge to him and chosen that warrior as his partner. "Very well," Jake said to Ben. "Gokong Lah and I will accept your challenge."

"Only one Vong? Do you really think so little of my skills?" Ben mocked the traitorous Jedi.

Jake scowled at the younger Jedi, "Just remember, you brought this on yourself." He motioned to another Vong who came to stand on the other side of Jake. "This is Gokong's brother, Veeka Lah. He will also be aiding me in your destruction."

"Tell them that this shall be an honorable duel, and that no one is to intervene—."

"Why don't you tell them yourself," Jake interrupted as he tossed him as small white object.

Ben knew what this was. It was a tizowyrm, the Yuuzhan Vong translation device. It was a tiny wormlike creature that you inserted into your ear so you could understand the Yuuzhan Vong language, both when you hear it and speak it. After Ben had inserted the creature in his left ear, he relayed his request for an honorable duel to the masses of Vong. They agreed to his terms. No one would interfere with his personal bout. Also, until his duel was over, his friends would not be attacked either.

"They accept," Jake prompted. "Now let us begin."

Ben removed the tizowyrm from his ear and handed it to Jaina. "We might need this later," was all he said.

Jaina nodded and said quietly, "May the Force be with you."

Ben gave her a reassuring smile and turned back to face Jake and his two companions who already had their amphistaffs in the ready position. Jake smiled cruelly at Ben as he unclipped his lightsaber from behind his back, and ignited the golden-bronze blade.

Ben also unclipped his own lightsaber. This was the first lightsaber he had ever constructed. It had served him well for eight years now, and he put his faith in it once again as he switched on the light blue saber, the same color as his eyes. The eyes he had inherited from his father, Luke Skywalker. These eyes burned with determination. This determination would will Ben to survive this obstacle and see his father and mother again.

Denz and Jyo stepped out of the turbolift and into the forward viewing area. This part of the ship was already packed with other Young Jedi, each trying to get a good position in front of a viewport for when the ship reentered realspace. Denz spotted Zeek's head near the front and waved. Zeek saw him and motioned them toward him. He had saved them each a spot. Denz and Jyo wiggled their way through a couple of other students and could see Zeek completely, and standing next to him, looking out the viewport, was a taller boy with white-blond hair.

"It's Cordell," Denz said to Jyo without turning his head. "Don't forget…"

"Right. Not a word."

"Hey, guys!" Zeek smiled.

"Hi, Zeek," Jyo replied. He jerked a thumb at Cordell, who was now turned to face them, "I see you found Cordell."

"Actually, he found me. I got here pretty quick after we saw him in the training room, but he walked in only a couple minutes after me."

"Cool gadget, Denz," Cordell said as he held up his wrist to display the combomb wrapped around it.

"Yeah," Zeek added, "because you had given me the extra one to hold on to, I was able to give it to Cordell when he caught up with me."

"Zeek already explained how it works and everything."

"No gratitude, though. He won't even tell me what his password is."

Cordell chuckled. He seems so much more relaxed now, Denz thought.

"Oh, here ya go Denz," Cordell said interrupting his thoughts as he handed him a small bag. "Your practice orb needs a tune-up."

"Gee, thanks," Denz replied dryly.

The four stood in silence for several minutes, staring out at the white of hyperspace. Cordell broke the silence, "I forgot to ask. What did you guys do after I left?"

"Oh, nothing much, you know. Wandering the ship, being bored out of our minds," Denz said quickly.

Zeek was about to ask his brother why he said that, but a look from Jyo told him to drop it.

Cordell turned back to the viewport. "Why don't you want me telling him about our conversation?" Zeek whispered to Jyo.

Jyo responded equally quietly, "Cordell might get upset if he knew we were talking about him behind his back like that."

Zeek nodded in understanding.

Jyo sighed. What he told Zeek was a half-truth. For one thing, he knew Cordell wouldn't like it if he heard that they were talking about his personal problems. Also, Cordell would want details as to what exactly they said about him. And because Cordell was a Jedi, he would be able to detect a lie.

The four resumed staring out the viewport, each thinking their own thoughts. Zeek was wondering why Jyo and Denz were being so secretive. Cordell was curious as to what kind of food there would be at their new home. Jyo still worried about Cordell. And Denz (although still concerned about Cordell) pondered a way to make his practice orb even better.

Cordell could feel it. Something had happened to his parents. Whether that something was something to be worried about, he did not know. Oh well, he thought, Jyo's Force perception is better than mine, so if anything were wrong he would have said so. Cordell shrugged to himself, and tried to think about something else.

Jyo, however, had been too worried about his brother to notice that there was something wrong with his parents, light years away, in an underground cavern, beneath a mountain, on Dantooine.

As Ben prepared for battle, he reached out to Kyp and Jaina, and suggested a Force Meld. In a Force Meld, several Jedi join their minds so that they are all aware of what each is seeing, thinking, or feeling. In this instance, because Ben couldn't sense the Vong warriors, he connected with his two friends so they could each act as an extra set of eyes for him. Wherever they saw the Vong, Ben would know where that was, and thus, it would seem as though he could sense their every movement.

Except for the humming of the two blades, it was deathly quiet. Then, it began. The two Vong rushed at the same time. Gokong tried to take Ben's feet off, while Veeka swung his amphistaff at Ben's neck.

Expecting this two-pronged attack, the agile young Skywalker leaped over Gokong's staff turning in midair to a horizontal position, and both blocking Veeka's headshot and landing a kick to Gokong's head as he rushed by. Through the Force Meld, he saw Gokong stumble before turning about to attack again. The vondum crab shell he wore as helmet and body armor kept it from doing worse. Veeka had also flashed passed after his attack had been unexpectedly blocked. Ben, sensing where Jake was, twisted his body once more before landing to face the cowardly Jedi and brought his blade down to meet Jake's. The two weapons sparked as they connected. Ben took a quick step back, breaking the connection, only to follow up with several fast jabs that Jake blocked. He felt Jaina warning him that the two Vong brothers were positioning themselves for another attack. Ben decided that he had better attend to them first, so he lunged at Jake again from the left only to have his attack blocked. However, Ben used the momentum from the block to bring his lightsaber around in an uppercut swipe, which Jake barely had enough time to bring his blade around to parry, but in deflecting the blow left his midsection open to a kick from Ben. Jake was sent reeling, clutching his stomach.

Veeka was now on his left, while his brother was on his right. Jake was struggling to get up and catch his breath. The two Vong closed the distance between themselves and Ben. This made it harder for Ben to see them both at the same time. Suddenly, he felt Kyp warn him that Gokong's amphistaff was about to spray its acid-like venom at Ben. Ben's move was simple. He took half a step backward just as the amphistaff released its venom, grabbed the poison with the Force, and pushed it along its original vector, right into the face of Veeka Lah.

You didn't have to see it. You could hear it. The hiss and sizzle of the venom on the Vong's face not protected by the vondum crab helmet was loud and distinctive. Not to mention the muffled screams of pain from Veeka Lah as he clutched his face. He started to swing his amphistaff wildly. Ben dodged one swipe after another, when he felt Jaina's warning. Gokong had pulled out a thud bug (another Yuuzhan Vong weapon that acted as a organic hand-grenade) and was about to hurl it at Ben's back. Ben turned quickly to deflect the thud bug with his lightsaber, but in doing this he took his attention off of Veeka's wild swings. One of which connected; scoring a long slash across Ben's back. He turned swiftly, and with a hard downward slash, knocked the amphistaff from Veeka's one hand. Ben then followed with an upward swing through the shoulder gap in the armor, severing his left arm. Ben finished it by bringing his blade around in a horizontal slash that took Veeka's legs off at the knees. Veeka fell to the ground, still clutching his face as his slowly died.

Gokong Lah did not look happy, and Jake was just recovering from his first bout with Ben. Okay, one down, two to go.