Cassie's Tale

- 5 -

It took Hanjin only a few hours to make the arrangements with his friend, while Tenar gave Cassie a few pointers on how to deal with Coruscant and its unique effect on Jedi. After that, they had to rush to get into position in time. Tenar dropped the two of them at a fair-sized business several hundred kilometers from the school, and a quick exchange of credits had them inside, escorted by one of the factory's lower-level employees.

Ignoring the cold and damp was simple enough for Cassie, just a matter of will. The stench was something else entirely. "The transport better be here soon," Cassie muttered to Hanjin as they moved through the factory to the loading docks, "if I didn't have my pride, I'd be puking my guts up right now."

He grinned, "Never thought about where dinner comes from, eh?"

"Never cared to," Cassie replied.

A few moments later, their escort brought them to the last chamber before the loading docks. "These are the ones," he said, pointing at a pair of long, narrow stasis-crates, "last two canisters for the Firrenze Academy. They've been rigged to show active, without being active, and there's a re-breather unit in each." While Hanjin climbed into one immediately, Cassie took a minute to suspiciously examine the outside. When she had heard the exact method Hanjin had in mind, she had almost refused. He had insisted, however, and she had finally agreed when he admitted his friend owned the business. "Come on, come on," the worker hurried her, "the droid-lorry'll be here in a couple minutes, you have to be racked with the rest before then."

"Fine, fine," Cassie muttered, climbing into box and steadfastly ignoring its coffin-like qualities. The worker closed it over her, and she heard the lid huff slightly as it seated and sealed.

The canister was roomy enough, designed to carry large amounts of fresh-processed meat. To her surprise, there wasn't much smell in the chamber, just the flat smell of plastic and canned air. The slight jostling as the canister was lifted on counter-grav and loaded into the droid-truck was barely noticeable.

The trip was interminably long, and Cassie's mind couldn't help portraying all sorts of mishaps and betrayals. She had thought the confines wouldn't bother her, given that she spent most of her life in close quarters, but it wasn't claustrophobia, but loss of control that bothered her. Only the fact that, through the Force, she could keep a sense of what was outside kept her from loosing it.

There were any number of holes in this plan, the most obvious being Hanjin's friend. After that, what if the security scans changed, occurring after unloading instead of on being moved into the academy's freezers? What if the droid malfunctioned? What if the Tenar moved too soon, or too late, or simply turned them in to the Academy?

Finally, the slight jostling and swaying of the canister stopped. There was a slight clank, as it was placed on the ground, and then nothing. For a few minutes, the silence had her fiddling with her lightsaber, debating lighting it up. Then the Force shifted, and she felt someone moving outside the canister, a live person. He paused, a few meters away from her, next to where she could sense Hanjin, and released the Prince. A minute later, the two boys let her out as well.

As the lid swung up, she spun upright, twisting her legs beneath her and heaving it open completely. She decided to ignore the crashing sound as it slammed into something behind her. She stood there for a second, simply breathing and relishing the fact that she was free to move again, then turned to glare at Hanjin. "Not a word, Prince," she muttered.

He shook his head, face level, but she could tell he was amused by her reaction. The Bothan standing behind him merely looked confused. "Didn't say a thing," Hanjin answered, stepping back to give her room to get down.

She jumped down, then gave him a quizzical look, "Here to the Headmaster's office, yes?"

"Yep. How's it look, Maikan?"

The Bothan shook his head. "Good luck, Han. This place is locked down tighter than normal, has been for days. Master Ren started instituting new security measures as soon as he was declared Master at Arms. There are cameras in all the hallways now, not just the public ones, and more guards than normal. He says it's because threats have been made against several of the students. Said someone kidnapped you and tried to ransom you to the school. The only reason I could get you in this way is because I 'traded' with one of the first-forms for inspection of incoming cafeteria deliveries today. Wired a loop into the camera," he pointed at a spot on the wall, and Cassie cursed, mentally, at the small innocuous device, almost indistinguishable from a thermal sensor. "Loop won't hold very long, should be going in a minute or so."

Hanjin clasped his friend's shoulder. "Thanks, man. I owe you big for this."

Maikan grinned, "You already owed me big. Now I want your first-born, cheapskate."

"Yeah, you'll have to fight my father for him."

"Come on," Cassie muttered, moving to the door. "If there are cameras, we're going to have to move faster than I expected. I can't believe there aren't service corridors." That was rehashing the previous night's arguments, but she was nervous, now.

"There aren't any," Hanjin repeated, walking past her nonchalantly. "We're supposed to look after ourselves, here. The only 'servants' are administration staff, here to support the teachers and masters, and make sure we don't poison each other with our cooking. Mostly droids, programmed to ignore anyone not wearing a Staff Aiguillette. The rest make it a point of making our lives more difficult. Part of the whole 'toughening regime' the Headmaster likes to brag about. As to what I'm doing, I'm going to the Headmaster's office, of course."

"Ren'll never let us reach it."

"Of course not," Hanjin agreed, just as he had last night, waving cheerily to the first camera he could see, "he'll send a couple guards to 'escort us to safety', and when I resist, he'll send more. But he'll have a hard time explaining why he's doing that, for one cadet and one intruder."

Cassie moved in front of him, pushing her senses to try and detect anyone and everyone. "You're going to get your fool head shot off, damn it."

"You got me to the Academy, Cassie, you're not officially responsible for me anymore."

She stopped, stiff-arming him to a halt, and stared down the hallway. "Officialdom's never been real high on my list of concerns, kid. There are four men coming down that cross-hall at a run." She shoved him into an embrasure in the wall, "stay there a minute."

He sighed, but stayed where he was. He started to draw his hold-out, until Cassie slapped his hand and glared at him. "I'll handle this. You start shooting your school's guards, they'll hang you out to dry whatever the provocation."

Time for argument ended as four men in Academy uniforms, blaster-pistols drawn, ran around the corner. The following pair stopped there, taking up covering positions, while the lead pair continued on, moving to opposite sides of the hall. One, a braided rope around his shoulder, called out, "You there, girl! Freeze! We are Academy security, you are trespassing on private property. If you resist, we will be forced to fire upon you to ensure our students' safety."

Cassie took a deep breath, closed her eyes momentarily to help her concentration, and reached out to the Force, pulling its energies to her assistance. "Relax, gentlemen," she said softly, pitching her voice to be as non-threatening as possible, "there is no need for violence."

The four blinked at her, the leader especially. "There's... no need for violence," he repeated, still moving closer slowly.

"Stun settings are more than enough intimidate me," she told me gently, and smiled as four thumbs twitched.

"This will all work out fine," Cassie told them, walking closer to them as her hand settled firmly about her lightsaber. It was, as usual, all about timing.

"This will all work out fine," the leader said, "just come with us ma'am, and we'll get this sorted out in..."

Cassie came within a couple of meters, and the one not talking began to reach for the manacles on his belt. She decided that was close enough, and lunged for the would-be restraint-user. Her left hand swept out and up, open palm slapping onto his gun-hand a moment before her fingers slammed closed and twisted. The combined motion of her hand and body shoved his gun towards the ceiling, and him into the wall, locking his arm momentarily. While she allowed her body to handle that through reflex, her attention was focused on her right hand, snapping out and up as fast and precise as she could manage. The blade of her lightsaber kissed the shoulder of the leader's uniform, its green light casting a sickly pallor over his face as it swept by within centimeters, passing through his blaster on the way, leaving a trail of melted plastic and crystal behind.

The two guards shouted from down the hall, but Cassie ignored them. They would hesitate to fire, while she was this close to one of their own, and she took advantage of that hesitation. A kick to the groin disabled the leader, and a twist of her wrist brought his companion back under control. She released him, just long enough to slug him once in the jaw, then grabbed his collar. That left her hand hurting, and his hands free, but stunned him for a moment.

By the time she had the two guards at hand arranged as she wanted, the other two had worked up the courage to open fire. As she had told them, their guns were set for stun, the wide-angle energy pulses filling the hallway. Thanks to the still-standing guard whose collar she held, none of it reached her. The guard grunted as one stun blast hit him, staggering but not going limp, and Cassie smiled to herself.

Moving with someone twice her size, who was trying not to move, was difficult, at best. Under these conditions, she managed with the same expedient she used for pirate prisoners – she picked him up with the Force and floated him down the hall, just in front of her. With that, she charged, trying to reach them before they did something smart, like separate.

Two more bolts lit the hallway as she charged, and this time her shield did go limp. Then she was on the pair, and they hadn't split up. The stunned guard went into one, a ninety-kilo obstacle that was quite effective at tying his compatriot up. Cassie herself went after the other, lunging with her lightsaber at the man's face. He flinched, as the green blade hissed into the plascrete wall behind him, and she grabbed his blaster, again twisting. He had a moment to struggle against her before she disabled him as she had his leader.

She flipped the blaster, grabbed the handle, and verified that it was still on stun. Then she shoved the emitter into the last guard's gut, just as he freed himself from his companion, and fired once. She fire three more blasts, one into the guard she'd taken the gun from, and two more back down the hall at the leader, who was just regaining his feet. Then she pocketed the pistol, shut down her lightsaber, and waved Hanjin forward, cataloguing her surroundings again.

An alarm was going off, and she could vaguely hear and sense a large number of people moving about. None were in sight down any of the four hallways she could see into, so for the moment she ignored them. "Hanjin, which way to the Headmaster's office? Forget the 'back way' crap we worked out last night, just gimme the fastest route possible."

"That way," he said, waving back down the hall they guards had come down. "Turn left at the end, thirty or forty meters to the Academy's main entrance."

"Big difference between those numbers."

"Hey, I don't carry a measuring laser in my pocket between classes, okay? Let's out onto a balcony, first floor above the foyer. Wide stairwell there goes up, ends at the Headmaster's office on the fourth floor."

"New plan," Cassie told him, starting down the hallway at a trot. "We get to the balcony. I take a look around, see where the guards are. If it looks clear, you bolt for the office, I'll draw their fire. Clear?"

"Be better..."

"This isn't a debate club, Hanjin," she muttered. Something ahead was distracting her, something that felt foul in the air, and she had a sinking suspicion what it was. "I'll be fine, you need to get to that office." She skidded to a stop at the corner, and ducked her head around for a quick check, repeating the move to look the other way. The hallway was clear, back into the building, and towards the stairwell, which she could just make out. "It's more like fifty meters, you brat," she muttered.

"Sorry. Like I said..."

"Yeah, yeah. Look, you probably won't be running anywhere, anyway. Something up there is off, and I've got a bad feeling about it. Remember, keep your head down, and if I tell you to, run."

He nodded, "You're the expert. 'Course, now that I'm in, I don't think I can get out again."

She smiled, "No, but you're a trouble-maker, and I bet you're enough of a rabble-rouser to touch off a student revolt, if you have to." She grabbed his arm as he perked up, "Not yet, you idiot. You'll just get them hurt, and I still think I can deal with this. Let's go."

She started down the hall, Hanjin darting across to the far side. "Watch our rear," she told him, "I'll keep an eye to the front."

She could feel a gathering of people ahead, and slowed the closer to the stairwell she got. She dropped into a crouch for the last few meters, and came to a complete stop a meter or so before the frame at the end of the hall. She could hear voices now, indistinct through distance and angle. She could feel most of the people nearby concentrated on the first floor beneath her, and the whine of a blaster charging told her exactly who was waiting. Great, she thought to herself, a shooting gallery. "Stay here," she ordered, then crouched even further, and crept forward. When she was behind the waist-high wall lining the balcony, she slowly and carefully drew the pistol again, lay flat on the ground, and then tossed it over the rail.

Two shots rang out, loud in the stillness, one blasting through the wall uncomfortably close to where she was hiding. The other flashed over it, and she tracked its progress up the open space of the stairwell until it vanished in a coruscating ripple of light at the fourth floor. Interior deflectors, she noted, no way is Hanjin getting to the office alone.

"Come out, pirate. Surrender now, without harming Prince Hanjin, and the Academy will be merciful." The voice was harsh, and she could feel the hatred and vicious pleasure its owner took in demanding her surrender.

Cassie sighed, as she debated. She could do this fast and dirty, but this was Coruscant, not her usual fringe world. She could try to do this quietly, subtly pretend to surrender and try something later, but Ren, who she had no doubt was the source of the sickening twist she could feel in the Force, would gun her down in an instant to get at his target. Finally, she decided that a combination of the two was the best route, and glared at Hanjin. Pulling on the Force, she sent him his orders, Stay behind cover, don't come out. You don't move until I physically come and get you. You can't reach the Headmaster's office, and I can't afford a distraction while I deal with this.

When Hanjin nodded, doubt written clear on his features, she dropped her head to the floor again, and called out, "It is not proper, Master At Arms, to fire on a Jedi without cause. I am escorting Prince Hanjin to this Academy, to deliver him to the Headmaster," if his troops had not heard this version, maybe a little doubt would make them hesitate when the time came. While she talked, she slid along the floor, moving closer to the stairs.

"You're no Jedi, pirate," Ren grated, with suppressed laughter. She was surprised, the sound of his voice was more aggravating than the insult. "You're just an overly ambitious girl with a rare toy. Surrender, now. This will be your last chance."

She sighed, rolled upright and stood, her lightsaber in hand. She lit it as she stood, the comforting green light giving her a small boost of confidence as it appeared between her and her opponents. Looking down, she was actually impressed. There were close to fifty guards gathered in the foyer, arranged in a three-deep arc facing the stairs. Standing behind them, in spotless blue and white, was an utterly normal looking human, plain brown hair cut to a fuzz, rugged face and narrow eyes. It was the eyes that finally convinced her Ren was a darksider – she could feel his anger and hatred directed at her, for disrupting his plans, and she could see those same emotions flare in his eyes as their gazes locked.

"You seem to know a lot about me, Ren," she commented, moving slowly to stand in the center of the stairwell as she gathered the Force to her, focusing it inwards now. "Do you know what my ship is named?"

He had been halfway to ordering her shot down, she could see it in the set of his face, when her question cut him off. Curiosity got the better of him, and he replied, "Something about a dance, wasn't it? I'm sure it will increase the sale value when we auction it off."

She snarled at the thought of someone touching her baby, but only for an instant, converting the grimace to a grin. "She's called the Spiral Dancer," she told him. "Thing is, my Master gave that name to me."

He was still puzzling over that when she leapt. Enhanced by the Force, her leap set her on an arc well clear of the stairs, and she spun as she flew. The guards were fast, recognizing her move as an attack instantly, and they reacted with the speed of highly trained human reflexes, opening fire in a hail of blaster-bolts. But they were still only human, to her preternatural reflexes, enhanced even further by the Force. She had her Master's lightsaber in her left hand, blue compliment to her own blade, before the first trigger was pulled, and her rotation kept both blades whirling about her in a dizzying display that reflected the few blaster-bolts to approach her course.

She hit almost precisely where she had aimed, at the left end of the arc of guards, between the front and middle rows, causing four of the men to lunge backwards as they tried to open the range. They had no chance, for this was Cassie's type of fight, ground or space - up close and personal, her against a horde, and she exploded into the guards like a grenade. She had used this maneuver many times, by now, and the motions were almost automatic. She retained enough control, however, to remember that these were not the pirates she was used to fighting, but guards fulfilling their duty. Her strikes, driven by the Force, directed by her own chaotic view of the universe, hit weapons almost every time, leaving the men behind them as unharmed as possible.

She wasn't perfect. Many of these guards would come away from this fight seriously injured, but none would die, not by her hand.

She tore through the line of guards in a whirl, moving with the dervish speed and unpredictability that had so baffled her master. Uniforms exploded away from her, and she ignored those who passed beyond her reach as dealt with. The guards shifted, those unengaged trying to move away, but she pushed herself harder, driving down the line. None of them could stand against her until she was halfway down, when a pulse of darkness wrenched at her senses, and she rolled away from a flash of white.

She came up in a crouch, her own lightsaber a bar between her and the guards, her master's held straight behind her, both arms at full extension. Ren was standing in front of his troops, a vibro-sword humming in one hand, a smirk on his face. "You're really starting to annoy me," he muttered, raising his sword. "I'll grant, you're good. But you are no where near what I've become."

"Stop right there, Ren!" Cassie didn't look, but Ren, facing the source, did. She didn't recognize the speaker, but Ren's face twisted, and she decided it had to be the Headmaster. "I have been given a most disturbing report, Dilaar Ren, concerning your conduct. I have also been informed, that this young woman was hired to escort Hanjin here, as she claims. She is not a kidnapper, as you claim."

"She is a pirate, Headmaster," Ren answered, just barely managing a respectful tone. "Her accomplices..."

"She has been identified by the boy's father," That almost caused Cassie to look herself, but Ren was still armed, still in position, "and by two members of the Jedi Order. Stand down, Ren, guards. Now! You, Ren, are hereby relieved of your duties, pending investigation by the Academy's Auditors."

The flare of anger was almost painful, this close, as Ren snarled, "You can't do that! I am the Master at Arms of this Academy, by combat! The Guards are mine to command!"

"I am the Headmaster of this Academy, by right of age, experience, skill, and decision of the Board. You work for me, Ren, which means I can relieve you whenever I wish. I cannot remove the title, only the Board can, but I have no doubt they will. Stand down."

Ren looked for a moment as though he would protest further, but finally he spun in place, dropping his sword to his side. The guards relaxed, visibly, and began moving to gather their wounded. Cassie also relaxed, rising from her crouch, shutting off both lightsabers. She heard the whine of the deflector deactivating behind her, and started to turn towards it.

The spike of rage and rush of dark energies caught her by surprise. Turned away, she lunged sideways and tried to spin, but only managed to avoid a direct blow. The pommel of Ren's sword slammed into her cheek, hard enough to send her sprawling, glaze her vision, and cause her to loose her grip on her lightsabers. She felt Ren go by, nothing but darkness and rage, and part of her cringed from him.

Most of her, however, met that rage with purpose. She landed hard, but rolled to her feet again. She was tired, now sore, but the Force was still with her. Ren was barreling up the stairs as she started after him, and part of her mind took note of the two brown-robbed figures, which moved to block him from the Headmaster and King of Feydin. She ignored them, however, and lunged in pursuit. Ren was fast, but so was she. It became a race to see whether his head start would let him outrun Cassie's greater speed.

At least he doesn't have Master Lorus' speed trick either, she thought. Which thought reminded her of another trick, one her master had taught her, though she rarely used it.

Ren reached the first landing, and twisted hard to go after Hanjin. Cassie cut the corner and pushed herself harder with the Force, leaping the rail instead of going for the corner, spinning automatically as she reached out with the Force. She saw Ren, as she spun, turn at the entrance to the hall, vibro-sword flashing around to meet her, and then she found what she was looking for. Light flared over the landing, as both lightsabers landed in her hands and lit moments before Ren's strike, one passing through his vibro-sword, the other through his arm.

Then she crashed into him, physically. Momentum slammed the two of them into the wall, and then to the floor. Ren appeared insensate to pain, twisting to pin her to the floor before slamming his still functional fist into her kidney. The disorientation from the bad landing cost her concentration, and the sudden pain caused her vision to go white again as her back spasmed. Then she heard a blaster shot, and Ren was suddenly dead weight.

Cassie lay there for a moment, catching her breath. Ren shifted, but was unceremoniously dumped. Squatting next to her, pistol dangling negligently from his head, Hanjin gave her a quizzical look. "Does that count as 'physically coming to get me'?"