Part 21: Jacen and Ben
Jacen watched from a ship's viewport as Coruscant zoomed into view. His thoroughly soaked and thick beard dripped sweat as he endured the ship's malfunctioning heating system. For some inexplicable reason, the room temperature of the particular ship that he was on had a history rising by seven or eight degrees for every hour endured in hyperspace. The Jedi Master could easily dispel the energy around him, but there was another, more important function for his powerful abilities in the Force.
The now heavily bearded Jedi Master followed the steps that worked their way into Jedi routines and began to establish a meld with every Jedi in the system. Information rolled to him at near lightspeed, but after more than a decade of practice, the Jedi Master was able to keep up, and sometimes ahead, of the meld. He extended the meld in hopes of finding his former apprentice, but the one Jedi whom he had been specifically reaching for was the only one not in the meld.
Space distorted slightly as several worldships dropped out of hyperspace and into the capital system. The Jedi in the system sensed the dovin basals' attempts to distort the gravity around the Alliance ships and used their collective powers to keep the crews from banging into ceilings and walls. Lately, the shapers had been growing new dovin basals from an unknown location and the warriors used the extras to fling crews, especially gunners, about their ships.
"Shields are down fifty percent!" Someone shouted.
"Drop all shields, turn on the jammers, and let these Jedi work their magic!" Ordered the captain of the ship.
The officers complied, leaving the ship's maneuvers as its sole defenses. Jacen sighed. When the Jedi were not being accused of things that they were not guilty of, they were worshiped like gods. Sometimes, it seemed, not even teaching fanatics would reduce fanaticism.
As more Jedi dropped out of hyperspace and joined the meld, Jacen's powers increased. When he started performing these battle melds, he sometimes could not achieve the powers to maintain them and knew that there was a higher level. Many years and layers of Ossuan knowledge later, his melding had improved and became impossible to collapse, yet he still felt a ghost of a higher level. There was still at least one undiscovered way to improve.
Jacen's mind stretched farther and felt a group of pilots flying 'behind' Coruscant. From them, he could feel traces of something familiar but he could pinpoint nothing from the distance and through the meld. There were ripples in the Force as several pilots met their ends.
"Fire on that worldship!" Ordered the captain. The ship was being pulled toward the worldship Glorious Grave, which belonged to Domain Tsun.
"Just a minute." One of the subordinates replied. A wild increase in speed followed his words. As the Alliance ship came within centimeters of ramming the tentacled worldship, a hundred or so turbolasers fired. The dovin basals, unable to defend with such close proximity, had absorbed only half of the fire with their singularities.
Flashes of red and yellow dominated the sensors as firepower met the oxygen in the worldship and exploded. The Alliance ship shook and people piled onto walls and consoles as the dovin basals died and released all grips that they might have had.
One officer had a stole a glance at the sensors and horror crept over his face as the information registered in his brain. He shouted in his mid-rim accented Basic. "Mutant carrion eaters! We're losing atmosphere! Hull breach in sectors…" Before he could read the locations, he crashed face-down into a wall.
The officer's news reached Jacen simultaneously as the lash from the meld. He had felt shock, pain, fear, and then silence from some of the people on the ship and instantly knew that some were sucked into space to pay for the destruction of a worldship. He wondered if the fight was worth the losses. The meld wavered for a moment as Jacen found himself atop someone's monitor equipment.
A dismembered arm of the Glorious Grave accelerated toward the Alliance ship and threatened to finish it off, but most of the officers were back at their stations in time and the ship narrowly averted a collision.
-scene change-
Ben contemplated his options as he examined the endless landscape beneath his eyes. He had climbed to the top of the tallest building he could find and his crimson, uncut hair waved gracefully in the howling winds. Normally, his hair was spiked, but he had not seen a refresher in days. From what he could piece together with his eyes and Force-sight, he that he was at least a hundred stories above the people he wanted to free.
By the time Ben had climbed onto the roof from by a combination of turbolift ropes and vines, the sky was completely dark save the 'bridge' and a few explosions that told of a battle in the system. The Jedi was beyond tired from the walking and climbing, but he could not allow himself to sleep when he knew that wild, Vong-shaped creatures roamed the planet. Ben's attention went from his twin sabers to every possible source of flammable material within a ten-meter radius.
Just as fingers wrapped around the hilt of one of the sabers, Ben decided against making a fire. Flames would dispel most carnivorous attackers, but they would only draw attention from any Yuuzhan Vong scouts that might be patrolling the area. The heat would be ideal to cook on, but Ben knew almost nothing about preparing any food that was not raw.
The Jedi sat down on the wet, moss-covered floor and removed some indigenous plant matter that weighed around a kilogram collectively. He muttered. "I hope this is edible."
Within twenty standard minutes, the pile before Ben was reduced to seeds and peels. Not wanting to draw insects and wanting entertainment, Ben hurled the red peels as far as they would travel. After a few minutes, boredom and exhaustion crept into the Jedi's mind and sleep enveloped him.
-scene change-
C'ev Lah was the proud and fierce head of the scouts of his sector of Domain Lah's territory. At least, he was the head of the night scouts. He trotted down his route carelessly, for so far, in the night, the jungle was quiet and there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Mphm." The warrior soon lost his balance found himself flat on the dirt and duracrete floor. He rose to his knees and glanced at his feet. Just beneath his left foot was a red ikyr/b peel. The scout growled. How dared some impudent Shamed One steal fruit from the Supreme Overlord and then trip him with its peel! Before C'ev Lah could push himself up, the other scouts, unaware of the new obstacle on their route, piled on top of their leader.
"What in the name of the gods is going on?" Demanded the one at the top of the pile. The leader dragged himself from the pile of bodies and explained his view of the story. When C'ev Lah had finished, his scouted were in an uproar.
"I'll track down this nameless one and his colony!" One man shouted. Others joined him and it was soon decided that hunting down the one who threw the peel was better than marching along their uneventful patrol.
"The scent leads that way!" A short, burly man sniffed and pointed.
-scene change-
Ben Skywalker awoke to the thundering sound of footsteps. He wanted to go back to sleep, since it was merely dawn, but gut instinct told him to rise and run. Blue-gray eyes glanced around randomly and spotted gray figures approaching. As they came closer, Ben recognized the people as a crazed group of Yuuzhan Vong warriors.
"You offend us and you offend the gods. Die, vile Jeedai!" The apparent leader of the group shouted in Basic and brandished one of the peels that Ben discarded.
Oh, by the Force! What's the probability of that? Uncle Han was right, this family's not as lucky as I first thought. Sil, you really owe me now. Ben almost complained as he scrambled to his feet and fled down one of the branches that connected his building to another one like a catwalk. Several thud bugs scored hits on the various organisms in Ben's surroundings, but none found their true target, the moving Jedi.
Sweat rolled down Ben's face as he landed clumsily on an old Coruscanti street. He spun around for a moment and saw that the pursuers were gaining on him. With Force-enhanced speed, the Skywalker child fled down the only path beneath his feet.
"Curse it!" Ben panted as he stole a glance behind him. Somehow, despite his speed, those crazed men were still decreasing the difference in distance. He complained before forcing more speed into his strained legs. "Why did I ever think I could outrun these beasts?"
No wait, I never did think I could outrun them. Ben realized almost a running down streets and jumping between buildings for a kilometer. The Jedi stopped abruptly at the sight before his eyes. He had two ways to continue, a vine that he could swing and a path to his left. He chose the latter and began to return to his top speed. However, before his foot hit the moss-covered floor for a third time, he caught sight of his best hope for survival. His rapidly pounding heart felt as if it was about to burst. Perhaps Ben did not have to outrun those creeps.
After checking quickly to ascertain that no Yuuzhan Vong could see him, Ben lifted the lid of a giant trash cart that had somehow managed to remain intact after all the years and hopped in. As soon as every part of Ben was in the hiding place, the Jedi carefully replaced the covering. The boy's breathing was heavy, and his lungs threatened to both explode and implode simultaneously. He was extremely unfortunate to have offended a group of warriors with a fruit peel, yet he had managed to run for about a kilometer without taking a single hit from the numerous thud bugs that were trained on him.
"Emperor's black bones!" Ben swore when he caught a glimmer of an item amidst the pile of trash. He stared in disbelief at his find. Somehow, someone's intact firebow and pyro-ammo were in the same pile of junk as he. Fire-shooting was a popular sport on Coruscant at one time, and even after the popularity faded, there always had been a core group of pyro-archers. Ben sighed and then grinned, "Well, I hope this thing works. If it does, this will be the third impossible thing that's happened to me today."
As Ben listened for the footsteps of his pursuers, he tested the firebow's abilities to stretch to fit the wielder. When the bow extended to fit Ben's left wrist and hand, the boy's grin widened. Perhaps he should have agreed to allow one friend to accompany him, for the firebow could provide as much protection as Ben's weapons. The Jedi carefully shrank and switched off both the bow and the arrows and then stuffed them between his flight suit and his undergarments.
A few seconds after Ben heard the shuffling of Yuuzhan Vong feet, he lifted the lid and flipped himself out of the trash can. He was already out of breath and could not bear to breathe any more of the choking fumes of discarded material.
Ben heard a distant grunt and turned to see a Yuuzhan Vong pointing at him. Suddenly, an entire crowd of warriors appeared and restarted the chase. He glanced at the path to his right, hoping that it was still clear, but his hopes were dashed when he saw that somehow, there remained a few enemies on the original route. Ben had climbed out of his hiding place five minutes too soon.
The Jedi flicked his wrist and pulled a firebow from one of his sleeves. He did not know the weapon well, but if impossible things continued to happen to Ben, at least one Yuuzhan Vong would be going down. Ben carefully loaded the bow, drew the laser string, and fired. Fire lit up at the sides of the arrow as it passed by the bow.
"Curse you, infidel! This is the first order of abomination! Fire, of all things!" One Yuuzhan Vong scout screamed as he took the shot and every creature on his body went up in flames.
Ben would have laughed had he not been forced to evade barrages of blaze bugs. Sweat poured down his already slimy face and all that Ben could manage through his labored panting was a weak grin. The arrows were good weapons, but Ben decided that they might meet other uses later. I'll probably need them when I sneak into that prison and get Sil, Jysella, and Crest out. Ben thought as he returned the bow and ammo to his sleeve.
The warriors, angered by the ignition of the inanimate arrows, doubled their attack on Ben, forcing him to draw out both of his half-sabers. Ben was surprised that he managed to deflect almost half of the blaze bugs after a year's lack of practice. One of the missed bugs forced the Jedi to sidestep and gave him a good view of the vine that could be his escape. All hopes were dashed when one bug severed the vine and hit the plant that produced it, sending leaves everywhere.
"You're a Jeedai like Anakin Solo. If you are as honorable as he, you will stop running from battle." One burly member of the Yuuzhan Vong group stepped up spoke to Ben in heavily accented Basic.
"I'm not running from my battle; I'm running toward my real fight." Before Ben could think, the words just rolled out of his mouth. Wow. I never knew the Force could hear things through my ears and then make me say things I'd never think of. Ben thought in astonishment. Well, that leaves me one thing to do. The Jedi glanced over his shoulder at the path he had not recognized before. Ben's voice was barely a whisper. "There's a reason I'm Skywalker."
The red-haired Jedi closed his eyes, reached as far as he could into the Force, and leaned back before somersaulting twice his height and literally falling back. The two half-length, blue blades crossed in midair before they were reduced to mere studs. The two sabers then settled at Ben's hips, one on each side.