Author's Note:
Thank you, Falcona SkyWolf.
Okay, here's where things start getting a little more… weird. There's a particular person I've added who is a freak. If you
don't want to wait on who she is you can check my story "I no longer have
a name". (All my stories are meant to be related, though "The Rejected" isn't
yet far enough to be much help and won't be for a long time.)
Chapter Seven
Jedi Master Kyp Durron frowned. The Force had prod him awake… why?He was now strolling into a poor section of the city. Kyp stopped, looking around him. He turned to head back to the Jedi. A female scream stopped him.
He dashed after it, following it to a shoddy apartment. Ignoring the decrepit surroundings, he used the Force to pinpoint where the scream had originated.
The bedroom.
Kyp hesitated, then kicked the sheet door in. "Is there a—"
He stopped, staring, at a very Yuuzhan-Vong scarred young woman.
Who was staring right back at him, hands clasping her sheets up to her neck. Pallid, her dark eyes and long hair looked out of place. Long purple scars went up her arms.
He noted the right 'hand's twitching. "Got a nice pet, there, huh?" he asked, nodding towards the six-appendaged Yuuzhan Vong creature that was her hand. "Where'd you get it?"
"Guess."
The woman's strong voice didn't match her wanness. He fell back a step. "You're… doing well, I trust?"
Her face soured, and she tossed her sheets aside and got up, a loose nightdress billowing about her, hiding her form. She treated his rushing in on her as if it was something to be expected, though thoroughly disliked.
He took a quick breath, seeing her neck. It was one big scar, as if someone with a big enough hand had squeezed the entire thing hard and long enough to cause tissue damage.
But shouldn't she then be dead?
"There's no need for pleasantries, Master Durron. You're here because you heard her scream."
Kyp was missing something and knew it. "…Her?"
"The scream. Forgive me." She stood facing him, her stately bearing making her seem taller than her average height. "You may go, Master Durron."
It was only after he obeyed that he realized she'd known his name, and he didn't know hers.
"Don't you ever sleep?" Lando Calrissian had followed the clanging from a few hangar bays down.
A grimy, disheveled, but thoroughly delighted Dan Stanley peeked out of the Millennium Falcon's top, grinning wildly. "Sleep? You kidding? I haven't had this big of a challenge in decades!"
Considering Stanley had obviously only been alive for two of those, Lando had to chuckle. "How's it coming?"
"Oh, okay, I guess." His face curled up like kids' did when they have to eat something they don't like. "I hate to say it, but the bet could really go either way at the moment."
Lando hid a smile, wondering how long it would be until Stanley gave up. Han was going to be furious at him for letting a stranger tinker with it, but the Solos had already slotted it for the scrap heap, anyway. Let the kid have some fun.
"Speaking of sleep," Stanley said suddenly, shooting Lando a puzzled glance. "What are you doing up?"
"Getting back to my ship after a good night's recreation."
Stanley looked shocked. "Lando Calrissian!" The young man threw a hydrospanner so it just missed him, but it still made Lando jump back. "You're married!"
Surprised, he looked up at his younger friend and saw the too-innocent expression on his face. "Why—" he laughed. "Why you—"
"Didn't bring any drinks for me, did you? –I'm kidding!" Stanley's hand warded off any response to that first statement. He looked agitated. "By the Force I'm kidding!"
"You'd better be kidding!" A young brunette hopped up on the Falcon. "Else guess-who'll have your hide!"
Lando gave the lass a good lookover. He couldn't judge her shape, since her frayed tan tunic and trousers fit her loosely; but she moved rather awkwardly, as if… well, he didn't know what.
Her long dark brown hair was tied back in a lax braid except for a thin side braid, the hair stiff enough that it would probably do no more than flop up and down if she had to do any action. Petite, just shy of being called short, her face had a quality to it that made her seem like anyone's baby sister…
Innocence. Naïveté. Almost downright stupidity.
That was it. She looked daft.
Lando couldn't say what exactly gave him that impression, but he thought it was probably a mixture of everything, voice included.
She edged carefully towards Stanley on the Falcon, apparently aware enough of her own ungainliness to know she'd fall otherwise. So she wasn't a complete idiot.
"I hear you're being considered for Rogue Squadron," she said frankly. Actually, she said everything candidly. She seemed to say everything that came to mind, too. "Who's that guy? Feels like he's fifty-something."
"Lando Calrissian is 'fifty-something'." Stanley's terseness would have given a child the hint, but not this brunette.
"And… Master Luke's younger, but not that much younger, so he's what? Fifty, now? I wonder what he'd do if someone lit a fire to heat this silly building. Does he like fire?"
Lando watched the girl, perplexed. What was she asking Stanley all this for?
Stanley sighed. "No, Yni. I don't think he's a pyromaniac."
"Aw, blatha!" cursed Yni, still sounding absolutely forthright. "Nothing like a nice big fire to calm the nerves."
From down below where Stanley worked, Lando saw his eyes widen momently. "Your nerves, maybe. People tend to find destructive fires harrowing."
What in the galaxy… Yni actually looked surprised at Stanley's statement. "They do? But what about forest fires? Those are good for the soil—drive out all those horrid animals, too!" she added with a scowl and a shiver.
Stanley put down his tool and turned to her, drawing a deep breath. "Yni, you do know most people like ferbils, right?
Yni shuddered. "Oh, don't remind me! A little boy talked me into seeing what was in his hand, once—and that pesky little ferbil tore half my thumb off!" So saying, she held up the wronged thumb—a perfectly sound thumb, for all Lando could see.
"And just the other day I got attacked by one of Talon Karrde's vornskyrs. They took my whole blasted hand off!"
Lando decided to leave Stanley to the girl's chatter, seeing as he tolerated it—
"Hey! Wa—"
He whipped about as he heard a crash and some extremely painful thuds.
"Yni?" Stanley called down from his perch. "You in one piece?"
"Uh, let me see…"
Some choice bewildered expletives entered Lando's mind.
Yni came slowly around to Lando's side of the Falcon, still examining her hands. "Yep—oh, wait." She stopped. "I think I lost a—aw, nevermind. It'll heal."
The brunette tore a strip from her tunic with a quickness that showed where the frayed ends came from. She wrapped it around a finger. Almost immediately the top of it filled with blood.
"What?" Stanley slid down from the Falcon, coming beside her anxiously. "What'd you lose?"
Yni shrugged. "Just a fingernail." She looked at it, frowning as if she was a bit addled. "Hurts like Sith."
"Why don't you go let your Master help it?"
"Good idea." Yni's nose wrinkled up. "I hate doing that, though. She'll ask what I did."
Stanley shrugged. "Tell her you fell. If she doesn't ask off what…" He winked.
She laughed, grinning at him. "And they call you a troublemaker! Lines and stones!"
From the look on Stanley's face, Lando knew he wasn't the only one who missed that one. "Lines and stones?"
"Aw, just a rough translation of a Fallanassi saying. 'Lines guide until stones land.' Talking about how you can plan your life all you want, but you can't control what happens to you."
Yni shook her head, yawning. "Well, good night."
"Good night, Yni."
Lando smiled politely at her as she passed. He looked back at Stanley, who watched Yni until she left.
He then sighed, glancing up at the ship. "Well, I won't be working on that anymore, tonight."
They started strolling out. "Interesting choice for a girlfriend," Lando commented.
"What?" Dan Stanley looked at him, blue eyes wide. "You've got to be kidding me. Girlfriend? Her?" He chuckled.
"Well?" Lando stopped, frowning at Stanley. "What is she, then?"
Stanley froze, face getting the look it always did when there was something that haunted him. After several seconds' struggle, he looked composedly at Lando Calrissian.
"That is none of your business."
Jedi Knight Jaina Solo shot off her bunk, lightsaber buzzing in her hand.
After a moment, she hurriedly flung on her flight suit. Her half-fastened boots clicked against the floor as she hurried… wherever the Force was guiding her.
She eyed her surroundings, still not certain what the forewarned danger was. A stray sniff of ozone caught her attention. She stepped onto the street, looking around.
A flash caught her attention some distance away. The sonic wave reached her some seconds later. Eardrums popping, she ran towards the explosion.
Her eye quickly measured the distance. The Jedi jumped onto a building's roof, taking a quick shortcut.
Part of a lower-end home complex had collapsed in on itself. She jumped into the midst of it, doubting many had survived such a blast. She saw skeletal remains already.
Smoke whirled about her legs. A woman's coughs caught her attention.
"Hello?" Jaina aimed towards the sound.
A young woman, skin a dark honey color, looked up blankly with dark brown eyes, her glistening matching hair gnarled and bloody, her body trapped underneath a fallen wall.
As Jaina knelt beside her, she realized the problem. "You're blind."
"No?" The woman coughed. "Senator Whitesun's here, too."
"She is?" Jaina glanced around, wondering where.
The blind woman nodded. "Over there." She grimaced. "Can you get this off me?"
The Jedi eyed the twisted remains of a metal wall. It wasn't supporting anything, anymore, so… "Sure."
Turning her words into action, the young woman soon managed to roll free of her cage. She rose easily, then paused.
Taking a few experimental steps, the woman then used a side-to-side glide to head in the direction she'd indicated, deftly avoiding obstacles.
Jaina joined her, using her eyes to search for the young Senator.
The blind woman stopped. "I last saw her here."
The Jedi looked at her oddly. " 'Saw'?"
"The explosion blinded me. I've lost my eyesight, before."
As she sought Senator Whitesun, Jaina felt a hard spot growing in her stomach. Lost her eyesight? "How'd that happen?"
"Torture."
The Jedi gave the woman a measuring sidelong glance. "Why?"
An odd quirk came to her lips. "You wouldn't believe me."
"Try me." There! A glint of blonde hair caught Jaina's eye.
"No."
Jaina pulled Senator Whitesun out from the twisted trap of her room, apparently the explosive's target. She knelt by the blonde's side.
Misti hardly looked Human.
Jaina grabbed her comlink off her belt and called for Cilghal.
"She's that bad?"
The Jedi glanced up. She'd forgotten about the blinded woman. "Just be glad you can't see her."
"Hey, doc! What's going on?"
Han Solo'd heard the boom, saw the ensuing flurry of activity. One of the problems with a secure med room was the lack of people to answer your questions. What time was it, anyway?
"Hurry!" the doctor called, ignoring the question. A nurse rolled a gurney into the room.
Han propped himself up to peek at the incoming patient.
He stared, surprised. He'd never seen anyone that disfigured and not on their last leg.
"Master Cilghal!" a voice called. "Master Cilghal!"
"Who is that?" The doctor ignored him.
Jaina stuck her head in. "Has anyone seen Master Cilghal?"
"Nnn…" The figure on the gurney moaned, voice slurred. "Nnt uh Jidai…"
A nurse screamed, dropping in a faint. The doctor scowled puzzledly at the figure's bioreadings. "She shouldn't be responsive!" he muttered perplexedly.
"Senator?" A dark-skinned young woman entered, a good head taller than everyone else. Han noticed she was blind. "Shut up or I'll call Qui-Gon."
The mutilated Senator made a noise between a choke and a gurgle.
The blind woman smiled, patting the Senator's bloody and torn arm. "Good girl."
"Wuff."
She went critical.
Author's Note:
Keep reviewing, please! It tells me you want the next chapter!