Chapter XVI – Soldier: City Of Fire
We landed the blockade runner on the first inhabited world we could find in order to replenish our supplies, then resumed our journey. I had no idea what lay in store for us at our next destination, though I suspected it could not be pleasant. Even if we had not been on this strange quest, we still traveled during dangerous times. The galaxy was in turmoil, the Empire in disarray, the Rebellion reeling under the sudden responsibility of constructing a new government, warlords and despots grabbing what they could from the ruins… and innocents finding themselves caught in the crossfire.
But for now, we knew a time of relative peace. The days blurred together, and for all I knew the journey could have been a day or a decade, or any length of time in between. After the chaos that we had faced on Mandalore, it was good to have a respite.
Not that nothing changed on that journey. On the contrary, we were all changing, altering subtly, almost imperceptibly. For some, the transformation was visible immediately – Fett was slowly growing stronger and no longer grunted with pain at every movement; Ash no longer neglected her appearance, and her plumage, though still a nondescript muddy color, became glossy and straight and dust-free; Nightwind added centimeters to his height daily, his muscles developed, and he shed his deciduous teeth at such a rate that I found myself stepping on at least one every day.
But for all of us, there was a greater change – our bonds. Before we had thought of ourselves as merely traveling companions; now, we acted and thought as a cohesive whole. If one of us was in pain, we all sensed it. If one of us felt depressed or upset, everyone felt it and did something about it. Whereas before all we could think about was completing the quests and dividing to seek our destinies, now the thought of our fellowship parting ways was unthinkable. Whether it was the journey and quests that were binding us or the power of the ring, who could say?
The journey gave us time for discussion, reflection, and contemplation… and in my case, time to complete the record I had begun at the Shadow's.
"It's just mind-boggling," Luke was saying as I shut the journal after another writing session. "I can't imagine what it would be like to live forever. I mean, I've never looked much farther than a year or two from now. I can't even fathom a thousand years from now, or a million…"
"Or two million, or ten," Ash replied, looking up from grooming her breast feathers. "No, the mortal mind is not designed to fully encompass the concept of infinity. Oh, scientists throw the word around with merry abandon, sure, but do they really know what they are describing? Only an immortal, one with at least a chance of eternal life, can fully appreciate the concept… and know what price is to be paid for immortality."
"Watching all you know and love pass on," murmured Tuck from where he sat with his back against a crate, staring into space with an oddly contemplative look. "Watching the world you know crumble and flake away, to be replaced with something just as ephemeral, just as fragile… loving and losing…" He seemed to come back to himself and turned to address Ash directly. "Do immortals love? And does love truly last forever?"
Ash rippled her wings in a shrug. "To answer the last question, it depends on your definition of love. Infatuation, lust, sexual attraction – no, they do not. Desires of the flesh only last as long as the flesh itself, and sometimes not even that long. Eyes dim, hair grays and thins, skin wrinkles, slim and graceful bodies do not remain so. But true love, love borne of deepest friendship and ultimate sacrifice, love that transcends outward appearances and reaches the heart… no, it never dies. But that knowledge does not dull the loss when a loved one passes on, or when one side of the partnership decides to terminate that love. And perhaps worse is when immortal loves mortal…" Here her amber eyes darkened, as if she knew this from experience.
"Let's change the subject," Jessa suggested gently.
"You know," Nightwind said, folding his forelegs and resting his chin on them, "we never heard what exactly it is Vader seeks on this quest. Have you figured it out yet?"
I hesitated, then decided there could be no harm in telling. "The Shadow informed me that my father lives. I hope to seek him out… and learn how my mother died. According to the Shadow, only he knows."
Fett cocked his head at a puzzled angle. "Wouldn't the Shadow know?"
"She states that there are two possible fates Talitha could have met," I replied. "Death at the hands of the Dragon Council, or a natural death. But she does not know which…"
"She told us from the start that one of her only strong powers was Scrying," Fett interrupted. "And that she could scry the past as well as the present. You'd think she would have scryed the answer at some point."
I opened my mouth to retort, only to find my mind wiped blank with surprise. I had not even stopped to consider that! Yet the Shadow could look into the past; we had all watched her do it at the table that first day. Then how could she claim that there was no way to find out my mother's fate, aside from consulting my father?
Did the Shadow know what had happened to Summer-Talitha? Had she concealed it from me for some reason? Or had she never found out, thinking that detail unimportant? Then again, she had concealed the fact that her father had been responsible for the Dragon Council turning on my own parents…
"Dude, if you think any harder, steam'll shoot out of your helmet," Jessa suggested. "Chill a little. All you have to do is talk to the Shadow again after this is all over."
"If only all our desires could be fulfilled that easily," Tuck murmured.
I gave a mental sigh and let the matter go. Once this journey had come to an end, I intended to have a long discussion with the Shadow. Until then…
"What about you, Jessa?" I asked, deciding to shift the spotlight to someone else. "You desire a body. How do you think that can be accomplished?"
"People donate their bodies for organ donation and scientific study, don't they?" she asked. "They do on my planet. If someone donates their entire body to science… it won't be my old body, but hey, maybe I'll get lucky and get a supermodel's body."
"Maybe you'll get really lucky and get a choice," Luke suggested.
"Or maybe you'll get unlucky and get a Gamorrean's body," Fett smirked. "It'll be an improvement over your droid body."
"Hey!" Jessa retorted while the rest of us burst into laughter.
"Fett, was that a JOKE from you?" I snickered.
Jessa rolled her eyes. "Believe me, I could tell Boba Fett jokes, but none of them are clean…"
"Spare us," Fett groaned.
At that moment an alarm chimed in the cockpit. We were approaching our destination. I stood and retreated to the pilot's seat to land the ship.
"Where are we now?" asked Nightwind.
"Wayland," I replied. "Moderately populated, mostly mountain and swamp terrain. Agricultural planet, major exports are food, organic fuel, and textiles. Imperial planet but no stationed starfleets. One military base, in the capitol."
"Any scary animals?" Nightwind asked with a shudder.
"I sense no power of any sort," Ash assured him. "You will not be attacked by a griffon or kraken or any other beast of magic."
"What's a kraken?" asked Luke, then thought better of the question. "Wait, never mind. I don't want to know."
"Believe me, you don't," Jessa agreed.
I selected a small town some five hundred kilometers from the capitol as our destination. We landed on the outskirts of a settlement roughly twice the size of Mos Espa, surrounded by marshy fields of aquatic edible plants. Luke, Fett, and Tuck changed into clothing that would not make them stand out, I restored the illusion that kept my own identity concealed, and we ventured outside. Nightwind followed close behind, drawing plenty of stares but thankfully not causing a panic… not yet, at least.
"What now?" asked Tuck. "The ring giving you any ideas?"
I concentrated. The ring pulsed gently, not giving an alert of any kind yet, but listening, absorbing the surroundings in an effort to find our next quest.
"Not yet," I replied. "It will notify us when we come across our next quest, however."
Most of the houses in this town were modest but well-kept – freshly painted, carefully maintained, with tiny yards or box gardens providing color… and clean, very clean. Vehicles of every variety, from antiquated bantha-drawn wheeled carts to heavy-duty landspeeders, carried loads of harvested goods, waste earth, and other raw materials through the streets. Just ahead, scaffolding had been set up around a three-story tenement in order to make repairs to the building façade. Somewhere I could hear the clang and buzz of machinery, a sign of some kind of construction project underway. And towering over the town like some great sentinel was a great slate-blue mountain, its snow-crusted peak crowned with a gun turret of some kind – definitely newly installed, for it hadn't been here on my last visit a year ago.
The unrest that engulfed the rest of the galaxy seemed to have touched even this small farming community – whispered rumors, nervous expressions, reluctance to part with credits, increased skittishness as stormtroopers marched past, intent on some unseen goal. Our arrival seemed to only increase the tension, and suspicious looks followed us wherever we went. Everything I saw and sensed indicated that, whatever the situation here, it would reach critical mass very soon.
"Wonder what's the problem?" muttered Luke.
"I wish I knew," I replied. "This is not a vital system to the Empire."
"News flash," Jessa ordered. "The Empire's falling apart. EVERY Imperial system's a vital system now."
She had a valid point. The Empire had been grasping before, but now, with systems defecting to the Rebellion every day, it would cling valiantly to every remaining system with a death grip.
"What kind of plant is that?" asked Nightwind, lowering his head to sniff at a stalk that had fallen off the back of a speeder. Woody stem, tough tapered leaves veined with blue, a fist-sized fruit with a hard green skin…
Jessa bent down and retrieved it. "Looks like a cornstalk. But what's this weird fruit?"
"It's a seed pod," Fett replied. "That's an elio plant. Harvest the plant before the seed pod has fully ripened, crush both the stalk and the pod, press out the oil, refine it, and you have an organic fuel ten times as powerful as anything the Empire uses."
"Whoa," Luke breathed. "Then why isn't it used more often?"
"Costs too much," was Fett's answer. "Elio only grows on moist, cold worlds like Wayland, and it's expensive to process."
"And only specially designed engines can burn it as fuel," I added. "The Empire would have to completely redesign its war machines to use elio fuel. At the moment, only a few luxury vehicles use it."
"I notice that it keeps Wayland's people in the money," Tuck noted. "Besides, can't you modify an engine to accept elio fuel?"
"Again, it is expensive, but it can be done," I replied.
"Maybe that's another reason why the Empire doesn't want to lose Wayland," Tuck mused. "They need a ready source of fuel for their ships and walkers…"
"When you've finished with the conspiracy theories, Tuck, we can secure lodgings for the night," Ash said a little testily. "The nights on Wayland get very cold."
"Very well," sighed Tuck resignedly. "There's an inexpensive hotel three streets off the main road, if you must know…"
He was right, as usual, and after some haggling we acquired a room at a reasonable rate and some space in the underground parking garage for Nightwind. Though the manager was wary of our presence, his wife – who could easily make three of her husband but had features that indicated she had been quite the catch in her youth – seemed cheered by our presence.
"Don't often get much business around harvest season," she told me. "And the Imperials nosing around have been scaring off customers as well. They're restless, I tell you, don't ask me why."
"You haven't heard the news?" asked Tuck.
"Course I have, the Emperor's dead! Don't tell me the man didn't have the sense to name an heir!"
"He did not," I replied. "The Empire is in chaos. The Rebellion is seeking to form a new government, but the Empire is proving to be an obstinate pest to exterminate."
She snorted. "Tell the Rebellion we've got some bugs here for them to spray, mates. Searching rooms here for no blooming reason, confiscating harvests, arresting people for making a scene… pathetic, really. Don't they have better things to do than harassing us folk just trying to make a living?"
"The Empire may have been cruel," Tuck said, choosing his words carefully. "But not all Imperials are bad. Some honestly believe they're working for a good cause. And some just follow orders."
"Hmph! Don't they think about their orders 'fore they go terrorizing people? You boys are welcome to join us for supper," she invited, changing the subject on us. "My oldest girl, she makes a great grazer-meat gumbo… takes three days to make, but you ain't lived 'til you tasted it…"
And she turned her back on Tuck – which was for the best, since his expression would have been a definite tip-off that her careless words had struck a nerve.
Break…
To this day I am still not sure which awakened me – the explosions that rent the night, or the stab of the ring.
"We're under attack!" came a scream as the hotel manager pounded on the door. "Get out now! Troopers are raiding the building!"
"Whazzat?" grumbled Luke, rolling out of bed. "What's going on?"
Another blast, and as if in answer the entire building shuddered ominously.
"Halt!" Stormtroopers just outside the door! "Step away from the door, sir!"
"Go to hell!" the manager spat, and a solid clang echoed through the hall as he struck one of the soldiers with something heavy. Then a horrible series of sizzling cracks as the rest of the troops opened fire on him.
"Out the window!" Luke shouted.
It was fortunate that our room was on the ground floor of the building. By the time the stormtroopers had unlocked our door and charged inside, the last of us had vacated the chamber.
"What the frickin'…" Jessa gasped.
The town was in flames. What buildings were not blazing madly were smoking ominously, the foliage outside the once-beautiful homes wilting under the heat. Panicked citizens and beasts of burden filled the streets, some fleeing on foot, others lurching away in vehicles, either their own or stolen. Some brave souls were exchanging fire with the Imperial troops, but they were so severely outnumbered that the action was proving suicidal. Even as we watched, stunned, the hotel we had just vacated was set afire, flames billowing from a second-story window.
"The manager's wife!" Tuck realized. "She and her family are still in there!"
"And so's Nightwind!" Jessa shrieked.
"Tuck, you have to find that woman and her children," Luke ordered. "Jessa and I'll go with you. Father, Fett, Ash, you go get Nightwind. Hurry!"
Incredibly, the anarchy that had gripped the town had not even disturbed the acklay, and it took a desperate kick to the ribs to urge him awake.
"What was that for?" he demanded groggily.
"We have to get out!" I told him. "The building's on fire!"
"Safe down here," he countered. "Flames won't reach us…"
"If the flames don't get you, stormtroopers will!" Fett snapped.
That decided it. Nightwind's previous experience with stormtroopers had resulted in the death of one of his siblings. He scrambled to his feet and followed us out.
Outside, the others appeared to have made it out safely, accompanied by the manager's wife, her sobbing teenage daughter, and three small girls who had no idea what was going on but were hysterical simply because their older sister was. Everyone was covered with soot and ash but fine. At Jessa's feet lay the manager's body, no doubt retrieved upon his wife's request.
"I knew this would happen someday," the woman said gravely, seeming surprisingly calm for one who had just lost her husband and business in one night. "It wasn't a question of if, but when."
"When what?" Tuck asked, stunned. "How could you know this would happen?"
"Think about it, bonehead," snarled Fett. "The Empire needs energy to power their ships and walkers. And if they have exclusive access to a powerful energy source, they can very well stand a fighting chance against the Alliance. And if they control the elio fields directly instead of having to deal with farmers and merchants…"
"But why would the Empire attack its own citizens…" Tuck seemed still very much in denial that his own brothers, that the organization he had supported for so long, could do such a thing.
"Look around you!" Ash ordered. "The Empire has – and IS – destroying its own people! Will we all just stand around and discuss the particulars while innocent people die?"
Another explosion shook the earth. The ring burned painfully, and I felt my gaze drawn toward the mountain's crest. The cannon… it was launching, not energy emissions, but missiles of some kind… flame-carpet missiles, devastating weapons that spread fiery death…
I shuddered, and not from the cold of the night.
The tenement building behind me collapsed. The ring stabbed again.
"People are trapped in there," I told the others. "We have to help them out!"
No one questioned Nightwind's presence now – rather, they welcomed the acklay's muscle as he shouldered aside steel beams and ferrocrete slabs to get at the injured. The rest of us directed his movements to keep him from further harming those trapped in the rubble, retrieved the injured and dead, and tended to wounds. I was grateful for the ring's presence, though I was careful to use it only on the worst injuries, and only when no one was watching.
"AT-ST walker on its way down the street!" reported Jessa.
"Is that everyone?" asked a Twi'lek gentleman, lowering a body to the street.
A quick count proved that one was still missing – a young boy, only five. His mother began screaming in terror, clawing at the ruins, calling for others to help her. My heart ached for her, but we had no more time to search for the child. I gripped her arm and tried to pull her from the wreckage…
"Find him!" she pleaded. "Please find my boy! He's all I have since his father died…"
Tuck stood suddenly, an odd expression on his face. He turned and ran down the street, climbing into an abandoned speeder. I wondered if he had decided to desert our party and rejoin the Empire, gift or no gift…
"Found him!"
The woman nearly collapsed with relieved sobs as Tuck pulled a small boy from the speeder's back seat. The child appeared scared but uninjured, and I guessed that he had retreated at the first sign of trouble and hidden himself in the vehicle.
"Let's run!" Jessa shouted. "They're gonna shoot us or fry us if we don't get out of town!"
"No," Tuck said firmly, handing the boy back to his mother. "It won't help anything. If we're to stop this madness, we have to fight back."
"With what?" demanded the Twi'lek. "We can't fight the Empire! They have us outgunned…"
Tuck stared up at the mountain, watching the great silhouette of the cannon launch another glowing projectile. "Then we get rid of their advantage. We eliminate the gun."
I just stared at him, amazed at this sudden change.
"Back to the ship," he ordered. "We need to get to the top of the mountain. And fast."
