30
Jacen tried to calm himself inside the cockpit of the TIE Advanced as he watched the spinning asteroid field in front of him. They had been on Lando's latest crazy moneymaking scheme, a space station appropriately named Belt-Runner I located on the edge of Dubrillion's asteroid belt, for almost a week now. Of course, that part hadn't surprised Jacen since asteroid mining was a fairly common industry in the galaxy.
What had surprised him was that Lando had plotted a course along a certain area of the mostly stable asteroid belt, named it "Lando's Folly," and gone about selling the chance to fly through it in a TIE fighter to anyone willing-and insane enough-to pay.
Naturally Lando insisted it was perfectly safe, explaining that the TIE fighters were protected by brand-new repulsorlift shields projected from Belt-Runner I. Jacen, however, had his misgivings despite the so-far perfect track record that Lando said the course had.
Jaina had been the first to jump at the chance, and had been trying to convince Lowie, Tenel Ka and himself for the whole week they'd been there to try their hands at beating the lowest time, which ironically enough had been set by Kyp Durron himself before the Dozen-and-Two had been utterly trashed at Helska.
Finally Jacen had agreed, at which point Lando put them through a roughly hour-long training that had included the fighter controls, a simulation of a crash into an asteroid (which felt to Jacen as if he was inside one of the largest pool balls ever) and how all the craft had a limited on-board hyperdrive set to take them back to a recovery area outside the belt.
Not that it made him feel any more confident.
Jaina of course had wanted to take the course first, despite her only having a single good eye, and right now she had just passed the first marker. Over the comm, he heard her whoop as he assumed she narrowly avoided some asteroids. Several seconds later, it was his turn to launch.
He gritted his teeth, and the TIE fighter shot out of the launch catapult in Belt-Runner I's hangar with a howl that reverberated through the whole craft as the engines kicked in. Jacen hung on to the controls, keeping the TIE within the envelope displayed on its simplified targeting displays.
The numbers on the screen counted down to zero, and it was time to go in. He punched the throttle, rolling the fighter in between a couple of large asteroids that were only gently spinning. The craft shook a little as it was pummeled with smaller fragments, but none actually hit the ship thanks to the repulsor fields.
Keeping his attention only partially focused on the course map shown on the targeting computer, Jacen let himself slip into the Force as he continued to twist and jink among the asteroids. Dimly, he could feel Jaina doing the same as she neared the end of the course.
A particularly large and jagged asteroid loomed ahead of him, and he reached out to get a feel for what surrounded it. Quickly, he brought the TIE almost straight in at the asteroid, diving into a large, shallow canyon on its surface a moment later. As he did so, several other asteroids spun through the place he had been just a moment before.
With a triumphant shout, he pulled the TIE hard out of the canyon and back onto the course, weaving his way through a series of smaller rocks.
He suddenly hit the reverse thrusters as he saw the corridor he'd been planning on taking close suddenly. Thinking quickly, Jacen spun the TIE hard on its axis and punched upwards, finding another corridor-
Then a rock, strangely fast-moving compared to the rest of them, slammed into the repulsor shields, sending him careening off course. He focused, firmly grabbing at the stick and trying to keep firing the thrusters to get back on track, but the impact had been too hard for him to correct immediately. He saw the next one coming, and tried to spin the TIE around to point its powerful engines at the rock before he hit. This time he managed to minimize the effect of the impact, although when he hit, it effectively canceled out the sideways momentum he'd built up and he simply hung, momentarily stunned and drifting, as the asteroids drifted past him.
Jacen? Jaina's thoughts hit him suddenly. Are you all right?
Yes, he responded after several seconds, trying to re-compose himself. I think I've blown any chance I had at the record though.
He felt her wanting to laugh but not wanting to break her concentration. Meanwhile, he re-oriented his TIE, taking care to not slip backwards in the belt (which would immediately disqualify him), punching the throttle and again accelerating against the orbit of the belt.
This time, he was much more cautious, having already blown his chance at beating Kyp's record. As he passed the first marker, he felt Tenel Ka's apprehension behind him as it was now her turn to navigate the belt. Thankfully for her, the TIEs had a single control stick, which she could easily use with her hand.
He emerged untouched another twenty minutes later, letting out a relieved sigh now that it was over as the TIE's autopilot kicked in, taking him back to the station.
As the station's tractor beams snagged him and began to draw the fighter in, he could already feel Jaina's excitement, which unfortunately he didn't share. Exhausted and slightly dizzy from the trip, he climbed out of the TIE's cockpit up the extended ladder, where Jaina was waiting for him.
"Gimme five!" she shouted, obviously happy. "You should have seen it, I even managed to beat Kyp's record!"
He gave her the lopsided smile he'd inherited from his father. "Great work, sis," he said as he turned to find a monitor.
"Hey, you didn't do half bad yourself, except for that spill you took past the first marker," she replied. "At least you're in the top 10."
Finally he gave up. "Where are the monitors? I want to see how Tenel Ka and Lowie are doing."
"Oh," Jaina exclaimed. "Come with me, they're in the waiting area with Lando."
As they reached the waiting area, he could see multiple screens tracking a large number of pilots, with names below each screen. After scanning the wall for several seconds, he finally saw Tenel Ka's fighter as it rounded the last marker.
While he was watching, Lando walked up to him and clapped him on the back. "That was a pretty good recovery you did there," he said. "I'm sure Han would be proud."
"I still got hit," Jacen replied half-heartedly. "Any other place and I'd be dead."
Lando nodded. "True, but you still made it. Hey, did you see the maneuver your sister pulled toward the end? They're still talking about it in the control room."
"No," Jacen admitted. "What did she do?"
Lando tapped some buttons on his wristcomm, and one of the blank screens came up with a recording of Jaina's run. He could see her in the distance, shooting through the field. Almost like what had happened to him, Jaina's corridor closed up unexpectedly, and he saw the lettering on the bottom of the screen boldly stating that the computers did not see a way out. He saw Jaina hesitate for the briefest of moments before heading straight for the near-wall of asteroids. The recording illustrated the invisible repulsor fields as she punched them, causing the fighter to ricochet through an impossibly small gap between two of the asteroids. At the end of the run between those asteroids, one of the TIE's wings just barely missed a protrusion, and suddenly it went out of control into another asteroid. Just as Jacen would have thought that she'd leave the belt, disqualifying her, the timer stopped and declared that she had reached the end of the course. The fighter bounced off that last asteroid and she was clear, tumbling into space.
"You sure can fly," Jacen remarked to his sister, impressed.
As they were waiting for Tenel Ka and Lowie to finish their runs, suddenly the alarms in the room went off and Lando frowned as he held his ear, listening to the commlink bud.
"There's about fifty ships that just appeared off Destrillion," he finally said. "The Falcon's in the lead. I don't know what happened but it sure looks bad, they're hailing on all the distress channels."
Jaina and Jacen immediately were focused on what Lando was saying as he hit his wristcomm. "Guide the Falcon in for a landing here, see if the Dubrillion government can escort the rest of them to the surface for triage."
"What's happening?" Jacen asked.
"Your mother's flying the Falcon, she says that Sernpidal was attacked and those ships are all that's left."
"What about Dad and Chewie?" Jaina immediately asked. Just the fact that Mom was flying the Falcon in her condition...
"She wouldn't say, only that they had wounded on board."
The twins exchanged a worried glance. "Which hangar are they coming in to?"
Lando pointed to the exit. "Come with me, I'll show you where it is."
Together they rushed through the station's corridors, taking several turbolifts until they were at the correct docking bay. They walked out just in time to find the Falcon settling down into one of the berths.
"Mom?" both Jaina and Jacen said in unison as the Falcon's ramp lowered and Leia walked down. "What happened?" Jacen asked as they rushed up to meet her.
Leia just grabbed both and hugged them in response. "Go see your father, maybe you can help him. He hasn't spoken since Sernpidal."
They turned, walking up the ramp as the passengers started to come down. Once inside, they started walking around, trying to find him.
"Dad?" Jaina asked as they rounded the corner, seeing him kneeling in front of the medical berth. Chewie was just lying on the berth, and it wasn't until they approached closer that they could see he wasn't moving, blood having pooled around him.
"Go away," Han snapped.
Taken aback, they stopped in their tracks for a moment. "Dad?" Jaina asked again. "What happened? You can always tell us..."
"It's not that," he said, quietly this time. "They attacked us and he did what he always did, he went to defend us. I saw him take down almost a dozen of them before their leader went after him." Han's voice rose to a crescendo. "He fought so hard-and I couldn't do ANYTHING to help him! Not until it was too late!"
"Dad," Jacen said after a moment had passed, "I'm sure you did everything you could..."
"It wasn't enough!" Han shouted, almost in tears. "I would have gladly traded places with him... What am I supposed to tell Mallatobuck... and Lumpy... and Lowbacca? That he died pointlessly, fighting against a faceless enemy?"
"Tell them," Jacen suggested, his voice cracking from the emotions, "that Chewie died valiantly, a true Wookiee warrior, defending you for the life debt he had freely offered to you." Chewie had been a fixture of their household ever since he could remember, always protecting them when they were children, always there to fix things when they broke them...
Now he would never be there again.
The thought struck Jacen suddenly at the same time as it did Jaina. Tears began to flow freely down his face although he fought to retain his composure, and if he had looked over at Jaina he would have seen her reacting the same way.
"Dad," he said, fighting to get the words out, "there's more where they came from, right? We need to start evacuating other planets, otherwise millions could die right now."
Han let out a long sigh and tried to lift himself to his feet, but the hours he'd spent on his knees in front of Chewie hadn't helped his aging joints. "A little help here?"
Jaina and Jacen both grabbed his arms, helping him to his feet. As they walked out and down the ramp, Han spotted Lando and his face formed into a scowl.
"You," Han said accusingly, marching right up into Lando's face. "You told us Sernpidal would be a good spot to settle down, so far out of the way that nobody would care."
"Han," Lando protested before getting cut off again.
"What cut did you get from that deal, huh, 'old buddy'? Did you get any satisfaction out of knowing that Chewie died because of your arrangements?"
Lando put his hands up. "Whoa, hold it right there. Chewie's dead?"
"Yes," Han's voice had dropped in tone to something barely above a growl. "He was cut down by the invaders, I couldn't do anything to stop them. I had to watch as he died right in front of me!"
"Dad," Jaina said, putting her hand on his arm as she fought back tears. "I'm sure Lando didn't know a thing about it. He told you about Sernpidal long before any of us knew about this invasion."
"That doesn't mean I have to talk to him," Han said sullenly.
"No," Jacen jumped in, "but if we want to help all the other people out there, since the Republic's not doing anything, we need to work together."
Han twisted himself free. "Then find somebody else to help. I've done enough to save the galaxy."
The twins watched Han storm off before turning to Lando. "I don't know how long it'll take him to get over losing Chewie," Jacen finally said. "I've never seen him this mad before."
Lando was silent for several moments before responding. "Well, you're right, we need to act fast to save these people. Dubrillion can take at least several million refugees, I'll have to go talk to the government about it but I'm sure they'll help. As far as defenses go, I've pulled some strings and there are some warships on their way in, in addition to the Dubrillion defense forces. We've also got more laser cannons here than people to operate them."
"How are we going to get the word out?" Jacen asked. "The Rock Dragon is only one ship..."
"You can use my ship too," Lando said, pointing to the Lady Luck where it sat adjacent to the Falcon. "I'll try to talk Han into helping as well, but knowing him it might take a while before he's willing to talk to me again."
"What about the refugees?" Jaina asked.
"We have a couple dozen heavy transports that I'll send with you," Lando replied. "They should be able to take at least several tens of thousands each, maybe more if you pack them in. Won't be pretty but it'll help."
The following day, Jacen groggily stared at the controls in the Rock Dragon's cockpit. He now knew that it took close to eighteen hours to jump to Dantooine, load the transports, jump back, and unload. The only issue was that the actual time in hyperspace was the least amount of time spent during the entire trip, only about two hours each way. And of that, he had only managed to get a grand total of two hours of sleep.
He just hoped that his sister was faring better. So far Jaina and Lowbacca hadn't made it back yet from Jorrkona, where they had taken the bulk of the transports since it was a larger, more populous planet, but it made sense – it took a long time to even take one load from Dantooine, most of the time spent convincing the local authorities (such as they were) that there really was a genuine threat to the planet. Of course, once Tenel Ka had explained the pattern of attacks, and the fact that so far the invaders had apparently been avoiding the most populated and well-defended worlds, they had quickly agreed to the plan.
Jacen still wondered about his sister's reasoning that Dubrillion, which was further Rimward than Dantooine, would make a safer location for refugees, although he had to agree that its superior defenses and close proximity to the Imperial remnants made a certain amount of sense.
He watched, lost in thought, as Tenel Ka expertly pulled the ship out of hyperspace and began the descent into the atmosphere. There was something about the way she moved that had always struck him, although it had taken him a while to figure it out. Neither was that the only thing he'd noticed. Whenever she turned her head, the golden reddish braids that she usually wore flipped back and forth almost as if they were alive. Then there was the skin-tight lizard hide suit that she almost always wore...
"Jacen?" she asked, causing him to involuntarily jump. "Is everything all right?"
"Uh, yeah," he replied with a sheepish smile as he turned back to the instruments. He hadn't realized that he had been staring at her for that long.
Minutes later, they touched down on a grassy field that was somewhat flattened from their last landing, and Jacen unbuckled himself and jumped up.
"Threepio?" he asked as he found the passenger compartment empty. He continued down through the ship, opening up different compartments until finally he was aft in one of the mechanical compartments. C-3PO was standing against a wall, apparently hooked up. "Threepio? he repeated. "What are you doing?"
"I decided to hook myself up to the ship's computer since there was no-one to talk to," Threepio replied. "Master Jacen, did you know that this ship speaks an Imperial language? The Hapans must have recovered the computer from one of their battles with the Empire."
Jaina might have found that interesting, but Jacen certainly didn't. "No, I didn't," he replied. "Look, Threepio, I need you to go to the cockpit and keep an eye on the ship. Look for anything odd on the sensors and warn us immediately."
"Certainly, Master Jacen," Threepio replied. "I would be more than obliged to. Would you also like me to scan for communications?"
"Go ahead," Jacen sighed. "Just remember to warn us if anything happens."
"Of course." C-3PO disconnected himself and shuffled off to the cockpit. Jacen, meanwhile, returned to the landing ramp where he found Tenel Ka waiting for him.
"So what's the plan this time?" he asked.
"The transports will land in the same two locations as the last time. We should split up again and supervise loading."
As they walked down the ramp and through the now mostly deserted city, Jacen again couldn't help but watch the way she moved as she walked. Actually, he corrected himself, she flowed more than walked. Then, finally, they reached the middle of the city and split off on the different roads that led to the two landing sites.
When he approached the gigantic transports, he could see this time that the authorities had lined up the locals this time for faster loading, rather than the mob that had attempted to board the first time. It was a pretty interesting mix of humans and Dantari, the lanky figures and simple handcrafted clothing of the latter making them easily distinguishable. Of course, other aliens were mixed in here and there, he noted as he spotted a Rodian sticking out like a sore thumb with its green skin.
"How many do we have this time?" he asked the local leader, a human who he'd already forgotten the name of.
"We collected most of the Dantari from the nearby villages, but many of them didn't understand the concept of invasion and refused to leave. There are probably still thousands more scattered across the planet."
"If we have room," Jacen asked, thinking, "we should probably fly around and pick as many up as we can."
"I doubt many will even want to come," the leader replied. "The ones here, near the city, have learned Basic through trading with us although they're pretty limited in vocabulary. The ones further out speak a number of different dialects and tend to be very wary of strangers. Even worse, due to what Admiral Daala did a few years ago, they view the Imperials as gods. Some of 'em even paint stormtrooper armor on their chests!"
"Well... we have to try," Jacen insisted, somewhat surprised. "We'll bring our protocol droid along to translate."
A shout made Jacen turn around, and he saw a short, stocky man gesturing wildly at a Dantari that had apparently cut in front of him. Jacen quickly turned and jogged over to the line.
"What's going on?" he asked, looking down at him.
The man gave a frustrated shrug. "This stupid brute doesn't even know what a line is!"
Jacen turned around to face the tall Dantari. "Can you understand me?" he asked.
The Dantari grunted, and the short man harrumphed. "Could have told you that doesn't work. Can you just make him move or something?"
Jacen thought for a moment, then decided that perhaps the best tactic was the same one that he'd used during his years at the Praxeum on Yavin IV. He projected his thoughts into the Dantari's head, showing him images of the death and destruction the invaders had caused, and their scarred, grim visage. Then he thought of the blowing grasses of Dubrillion's plains, of the clear skies and open oceans, and showed the Dantari walking through the plains.
The Dantari grunted, turned, and walked away.
"What did I do wrong?" Jacen asked aloud, knowing that even he couldn't answer the question much less anyone else present.
"I dunno, you didn't say anything and he left," he replied. "Thanks."
As Jacen stood watch, the line of thousands continued to move past. He watched as people of all different ages walked past him. They ranged from women carrying their young infants to old men and women who could barely walk. He shook his head at the gall of the invaders. It wasn't as if the galaxy had had enough turmoil due to the Empire's atrocities, no, there just had to be some other species hell-bent on undoing everything that they'd worked so hard to rebuild just to gain control of a galaxy. He didn't even know what they wanted with the galaxy besides territory...
He wasn't sure what was more unsettling, the fact that the galaxy was being invaded or the fact that nobody knew anything about them. The only thing he did know was that as a Jedi, the responsibility that came with the power he had meant that he, and all the other Jedi in the galaxy, had to do everything they could to protect those living in it.
Several hours later, as the line was finally beginning to taper off, Jacen's commlink beeped and he heard Threepio's tinny voice from the position in his pocket.
"-inbound" was all he heard as he pulled the commlink out.
"Threepio, I didn't hear you," Jacen said.
"Master Jacen, the ship's computer tells me that it has detected a number of small ships inbound for the city."
Jacen frowned. "What do they look like?"
"They are almost the same as the ones that attacked us at Sernpidal."
Kriff, Jacen thought. "Is there anything in orbit?"
There was a pause as Threepio consulted the computer. "Only one of the moons."
"They must be on the far side of the planet," Jacen finally said. "Maybe that will give us a bit more time." He turned and shouted toward one of the local authorities. "You have to get everyone on quickly, there are hostiles inbound and there isn't much time!"
The man's face went ashen as he realized what Jacen was saying. He quickly turned and ran down the line, shouting at those in line to leave their belongings and get on.
In the meantime, Jacen switched the channel on his commlink. "Tenel Ka?"
"Yes, Jacen?"
"Did you hear Threepio?"
"Yes. I have visual on one of their craft. They appear to be landing troops. I've just signaled the pilot to take off. What is your situation?"
Jacen looked up and around, but couldn't see anything. Then again, he was standing in front of the transport. He stepped around one of the massive landing legs and suddenly wished he hadn't.
"They've landed here too," he said as he spotted a mass of figures approaching in the distance, along with... "Is that a snail?" he finished aloud.
The creature he'd just named recoiled, spitting a brightly glowing glob of something directly toward him and the ship. "INCOMING!" he shouted, dashing back toward the boarding ramp. A moment later there was a sound like a thunderclap, the world shook, and the grasses of the prairie were rushing toward his face.
"Ugh," he tried to say as he picked himself up out of the field, only to find that the words seemed to be echoing in his head. Come to think of it, where was that ringing coming from? And why had everything gotten so quiet all of a sudden? Blaster bolts, he swore internally, I've lost my hearing.
As his head poked above the grasses, he realized that the fields surrounding the transport were now on fire. Perfect. Where were the refugees? He tried to stand up but stopped after feeling like the world was lurching rather drunkenly under him. Which was decidedly strange because he was pretty sure he hadn't been drinking. Couldn't drink on most planets yet, for that matter. Concussion? He tried to focus on a Jedi meditation exercise, but the throbbing in his head was making that an extremely difficult task.
He took a deep breath. One. Two. Let it out. Again. Was that movement? He closed his eyes, couldn't fight very well if he was staggering around. Spots he hadn't even noticed began swirling around in reddish darkness of his eyelids. Breathe. One. Two. Let it out. Repeat.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed between the initial impact and when he re-opened his eyes from the brief trance, but the world was no longer spinning, which was a huge plus, and ... crap. The transport was gone, rapidly receding into the sky above him. He hoped the impact of whatever that was hadn't breached the hull plating. The fields were still burning, and approaching him rather quickly as the dry grasses combusted. Then, behind the wave of flames, was an approaching army.
Kriff.
Jacen turned around and ran as fast as he'd ever run before, and didn't stop until he was back into the city. Allowing himself a glance back after he'd ducked behind a wall, he could see the army still slowly approaching in the distance; at least he'd put quite a bit of space between them in his frantic dash. He waited there for a few more moments, trying to get his breath back under control, before snatching the commlink back off his belt. "Tenel Ka, what's your status?"
Only static greeted him. He clicked the button again. "Tenel Ka, do you read me?" Again, static. He slumped his head against the wall in frustration. I'm such an idiot. His connection to her through the Force was nowhere near as strong as the link he'd shared with his twin sister since birth, but it wasn't like he needed to know what she was thinking at the moment to tell if she was OK. The impression of a sharp stab of pain he felt a moment later told him that the answer was an emphatic no.
Loudly cursing the Sith and all they'd spawned, he tore across the city at a full sprint a moment later. Buildings and startled residents who still hadn't evacuated went by in a blur. He passed the Rock Dragon a moment later, turning his head as he went by but not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Just after he vaulted over a low wall on the other side of the city, he saw her retreating toward him, apparently locked in a saber duel with two grotesque parodies of the humanoid form, covered in bony spikes and protrusions. In each of their hands was one of the living staffs that he'd seen Yomin Carr using, and they were pressing their advantage against Tenel Ka despite the skillful fight she was giving. But the worst part about them was, like Carr, that they appeared to be blank spots in the Force, as if they were antithetical to life itself.
He forced himself to focus and move again. As he approached, one of the combatants struck out with his suddenly snake-like staff at the side of her missing arm. "Tenel Ka!" he shouted in an attempt to warn her, and she spun around in surprise. Except, it seemed, that he'd startled her too much, as the creature slipped around her attempt at a block and sank its fangs into her right forearm.
"You!" The emotions surged up, overwhelming his ability to form coherent words. Crouching mid-step, he leaped, arcing high through the air as if shot from a cannon. The invaders were still focused on Tenel Ka's stumbling form a moment later when he landed on top of one, knocking him to the ground with a satisfying crunch. He glanced down and noted that the ugly bastard's neck was bent at a decidedly unnatural angle, and stepped off. A quick stroke of his humming lightsaber severed the head of the snake thing that was still attached to Tenel Ka's arm before he brought it up to face the second warrior. "You're going to wish you hadn't done that," he said in a barely controlled voice.
Both combatants stepped back and circled, staff and lightsaber raised in defensive positions, as they studied each other. It was extremely unsettling for Jacen to watch the alien's posture without any of the usual emotional clues or premonitions he typically relied on. He would have described it as fighting blindfolded, but normally that wasn't as much of a handicap for a Jedi as it was for a non-Force sensitive.
"You are too late, Jeedai!" the alien taunted him in passable Basic, his voice coming out in hissing tones. "The might of the Praetorite Vong will not be stopped by soft, weak children!"
Jacen continued circling, letting a smirk cross his face. "Then it must really be insulting to lose to someone so soft and weak!"
The alien feinted before swinging at Jacen, and he overextended slightly in his hurry to block the staff, sending his lightsaber tumbling out of his hand and into the grass. Capitalizing on the opening, the alien swung back toward his torso, forcing Jacen to dive back frantically as he called the blade back to himself. It reignited with a snap-hiss a moment later, just in time to catch another strike that might have split him in two.
Pushing the staff back and getting some distance in between, he resumed studying the alien's posture. He knew from the fight with Yomin Carr that the alien's armor had weak spots in the armpits, although his killing the first of these two warriors was more a stroke of blind luck than anything else. Yet the way it held its arms, they were relatively tight to its body so striking there would be very hard.
"Your false bravado reeks of desperation!" There was a strange noise, which Jacen realized after a moment's confusion was probably laughter. "The one-armed warrior offered more of a fight than you, but even she lies dying before our might!"
"Oh yeah? Where's your partner?" Jacen made a show of looking around, never taking his eyes off the alien's weapon. "Oh, right, on the ground with a broken neck. You're welcome, by the way."
The warrior snarled and lunged, and Jacen saw what he hoped was an opening. He deactivated his lightsaber, diving hard to the ground, the staff passing dangerously close to his head, and kicked out at the warrior's knees. There was a loud crunch that sounded like a kneecap breaking, and suddenly off balance, the warrior moved his arms out to keep from falling. That was when Jacen stabbed upwards and ignited his lightsaber, driving it straight through a joint in the armor.
The warrior grinned and laughed, a reaction that Jacen hadn't exactly been expecting, as he staggered backwards. He awkwardly regained his footing, shifting weight to compensate for the injured leg, and moved the staff to his good hand. Jacen, meanwhile, jumped to his feet and held his lightsaber at the ready.
"So the scouts spoke the truth about the strength of you jeedai. Such a pity there are so few of you to fight us, or this might actually be challenging!"
Jacen noting with a sinking feeling that the rest of the army behind the warrior were getting closer far too rapidly.
As the warrior limped closer, Jacen reached out and about thirty kilos of dirt and rocks went flying at him, temporarily blinding him in a cloud of dust. Extinguishing his lightsaber, he ran to Tenel Ka's side, quickly checked her over, and then crouched down and pulled her over his shoulder in a rescue carry before turning and jogging back toward the ship. The additional weight sent a spike of pain through the ankle he'd injured on Belkadan with every step, but he gritted his teeth and pressed forward.
As he was almost to the ship's ramp, his leg muscles began to cramp and spasm. He almost dropped her but several of the refugees waiting inside the ship rushed down the ramp to help. Finally they set her down in the Rock Dragon's medical berth, and Jacen finally had another chance to look at her arm. The severed staff's head was still clamped on, and her entire lower arm was now red and swollen.
He knelt close to her. "Tenel Ka? Can you hear me?"
She nodding slightly and gave a weak cough. "Hurts."
"I'm going to take off the head now," he said, opening one of the drawers and pulling out two pairs of forceps. Then he used them to grab both halves of the snake-head's jaws before prying it off her arm. Frowning at the thing, he dropped it into one of the small stasis compartments under the berth, then turned his attention back to her arm, which was marked with a set of jagged punctures surrounded by vivid purple splotches.
If only Cilghal was here, he thought to himself. But he was not a healer like her, and while he knew how to use some purification techniques on himself he'd never tried using them on anyone else before. "Damn it," he cursed under his breath. He didn't remember his ankle looking this bad back on Belkadan, but that had just been a slash from the hardened end of the staff rather than a bite.
He placed a hand on her shoulder, gently probing to see how far the swelling went, and she gasped slightly. "Sorry!" he reflexively said. "I'm trying to see how bad this is."
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and tried to focus on her injuries. Her heartbeat was mostly steady, but not completely regular, and as his attention went back to her arm, his eyes snapped back open. The damage was even more extensive than it looked on the outside – the fangs had delivered the venom deep into the muscles, which were already starting to break down and liquefy in the immediate area of the bite. Some of the toxins were already spreading through her bloodstream, which was why her heart wasn't completely steady, and he knew that it couldn't be allowed to spread any further.
"No, there's got to be another way," he said to himself. He still felt responsible for the loss of her left arm several years back, when they had been sparring and her lightsaber failed in the middle of the duel. If he'd been paying more attention, instead of trying to win the duel, he could have stopped his blade in time...
Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the young woman in front of him. It was rare seeing Tenel Ka so weak like this, and again he felt like it was his fault. If he'd been paying more attention back at the transport, if he'd been faster getting back to her, if he hadn't distracted her in the middle of the fight...
"Focus!" he told himself. Had to stop the toxin from spreading any more. A tourniquet would work, but with as bad as the damage was, they'd just have to amputate the arm as soon as he got her to a proper medical facility. He knew how far along the damage was, maybe he could prevent it from getting worse if he... used...
He grabbed a length of rubber cord out of one of the bins, put it under her arm, and quickly tied it off. She took a sharp breath in response, which at least told him that she was still conscious.
"Tenel Ka, I don't want to scare you, but the snakebite is really bad. I just tied it off, but I'm pretty sure any doctor we see is going to want to amputate since it's going to be hours at least before we see one." He looked at her face, her eyes half-open, and they slowly turned to him. "Or I could do it right here."
Her eyes closed for a moment before she opened them and nodded. "If you think it best, then do it. I trust you."
"Hang on." He rummaged through the bins before pulling out a syringe of anesthetic, wiped down her upper arm, and injected it. "OK, now I'm going to have to shift you so I can make a clean cut." Carefully, he slid his arms underneath her before sliding her closer to the edge, and then took her hand and extended her arm sideways. "I'm really sorry for this."
"Do it," she replied.
He pulled the saber off his belt, ignited it, and made a quick and precise stroke down on her forearm, just before the elbow. "Ah!" she exclaimed before crunching her eyes shut and grimacing.
Jacen shut the lightsaber off and examined the arm he was left holding. The ends were cauterized, and he opened up the stasis bin he'd placed the snakehead into and dropped the arm next to it before closing and activating it. Next, he rummaged through the other bins for some bandages, pulling out a sealed roll and unwrapping it. Wrapping the stump of her arm was the work of barely a minute, and then he removed the tourniquet.
"How do you feel?"
"Unh," she grunted. "Like a rancor's dinner."
He heard the whirring servos of C-3PO approaching before the droid's ever-worried exclamation. "Master Jacen! We're doomed!"
The ship shook and he heard some panicked screaming coming from the passengers. "Stay here and meditate. I'll get us out of here." Then he turned back to Threepio. "How bad is it?"
"We're surrounded! I closed the ramp but there appears to be an army outside! I don't want to be disassembled!"
"Relax, Goldenrod," he said as he squeezed around the shiny droid to dash toward the cockpit. "I'm sure it's nothing we can't..."
He trailed off, blinking, as he looked out of the cockpit viewports. Like Threepio had said, there was what appeared to be an entire army outside, not of the warriors he and Tenel Ka had fought, but slightly shorter and thinner troops brandishing similar weapons and apparently... chanting? Their ranks parted and he saw the warrior he fought earlier limp through before pointing his staff weapon at the ship and opening his mouth.
A hail of projectiles rose from the ranks, crashing into the ship's hull and exploding. A couple left scorch marks on the viewports, and Jacen quickly threw himself ito the pilot's seat and finished the final checks of the startup sequence that Threepio had helpfully begun several minutes earlier. As soon as the repulsors were ready, he lifted the ship off the ground, spinning it around even as he angled it up and slammed the engines to full throttle. Hopefully the shockwave from the engines' exhaust would ruin their day and perhaps let some of the city's remaining residents get away.
As the Rock Dragon shot up through the atmosphere, Jacen spotted several of the coral-like fighters changing their course to meet him.
I knew this was too good to be true, he thought to himself as he grabbed the ship's comm. "If anyone aboard knows how to use a turret, we're going to have to blast our way out of here. The turrets are in the middle of the ship."
After almost a minute had passed, Jacen felt the thumping of the turrets opening fire. Most of the shots missed completely or were sucked up and vanished, but a few got through. As the fighters closed in, he started evasive maneuvers, twisting, rolling and jinking the ship to try and avoid being hit. For all his maneuvering, however, the simple fact remained that the Rock Dragon was only a transport, and that fact was pounded in as the whole ship shook from multiple hits.
As the sky turned black and the Rock Dragon crossed into space, Jacen frantically started looking for any sign of warships, like the ones that had prevented his parents and the rest of the Sernpidal refugees from going to hyperspace. That was about the last thing he needed right now, what with the fighters hot on his tail.
After he had confirmed that there were no warships waiting in ambush, Jacen quickly double-checked the coordinates in the navicomp to make sure they were set for Dubrillion. His eyes remained focused on the jump countdown as he kept flying evasive, and the second the alarm sounded he pulled back on the controls, launching the Rock Dragon forward into hyperspace and leaving its pursuers in the dust, so to speak.
Dazed, Jacen stood up and stretched his arms before turning around to go and check on Tenel Ka. When he reached the berth, he gently placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned in to look at her face. Her skin felt somewhat cold, and she was nearly panting. "Tenel Ka?"
Her head bobbed slightly toward him, the eyes still wide and unblinking. "Poison," she muttered. "Stop the poison."
He nearly choked. I thought the worst was gone! "C'mon, stay with me. You're gonna be OK."
She began shaking her head uncontrollably. "No."
"You're safe!" he exclaimed. "Lando's got doctors who can fix you up. We'll be there before you know it."
"No," she continued repeating several more times before her eyes suddenly fixed on his. "They're going to kill me."
He shook his head. "They're not going to kill you," he replied. "You're safe here in the Rock Dragon. I'm watching you."
"They're going to kill me," she repeated.
"No they're not," Jacen replied. "They can't hurt you now."
Her eyes seemed to widen further and she raised her head. "They're going to kill me," she proclaimed even louder, and her voice seemed to have a degree of certainty to it.
"The hell they are," Jacen replied. He placed his hand across her forehead and tried to push her head back down on the pillow, but she resisted. Her forehead was slick with sweat, so he grabbed a towel and wiped it off.
Her lips moved several times but no words came out. Finally, her voice seemed to return. "I'm dying," she declared.
"No you're not!" he nearly shouted before catching himself. "You're just in shock. I promise I'll make sure you get better." He rummaged through the drawers before pulling out an oxygen mask, which he connected to the berth and then slipped over her face. The monitor leads followed, and soon the equipment was adjusting the oxygen flow to steady her breathing out. She mumbled softly several times before slipping into unconsciousness. "Blaster bolts," he muttered. Not knowing what else he could do to stabilize her, he continued to sit next to her and tried to meditate, watching her chest rise and fall slowly as she breathed. His eyes began to water when he looked at the two arm stumps, remembering the pain that she had felt both times. Nor did it make matters any better that he had been responsible, both times.
This is all my fault.
He frowned as the thought crossed his mind. Yes, if he'd been paying more attention he might have been able to stop in time, but it wasn't like anyone could have anticipated that the tiny flaws in the focusing crystal would have caused such a catastrophic failure.
I still did this to her. She wouldn't have been in either situation except for me.
Jacen paused at the unbidden thought. If it had not been for her loss of an arm, she might have been able to fend off the two Vong warriors.
He closed his eyes, his brain struggling with his rampant thoughts, and tried to focus himself. But every time he did so, his mind kept drifting back to the battlefield only minutes - or was it hours? - ago, and the internal bleeding and swelling around the snake-staff bite, and her delirious rambling just a moment ago.
Still my fault, the thought continued.
No! he protested.
I wasn't there for her, and I distracted her at the wrong time!
But I stopped them! he argued with himself.
After the damage had been done.
There was nothing I could have done!
Wrong.
Jacen's eyes snapped back open, and he looked down at Tenel Ka's slumbering form. She appeared peaceful, despite her scars and missing arms.
Look at her, the thoughts implored. Is this good?
It was necessary, Jacen concluded.
Was it? the thought taunted. What if it could have been avoided?
Jacen grabbed his head and shook it in mute rage and frustration.
It doesn't matter if it could have been avoided. What was done was done, for better or for worse.
The reversion alarm suddenly sounded, snapping Jacen out of his thoughts, and making him suddenly aware of the fact that hours had passed while his mind had struggled with the reality of the situation. He tried to jump to his feet, numb joints sending a burst of pain in the process. After stretching, he dashed forward to the cockpit, strapped in, and started watching the chronometer count down.
When there were just a few seconds left, there was a sudden jolt and the sky of hyperspace exploded into a dizzying swirl of lights. The inertial dampers prevented him from feeling the worst of it, but just looking out the viewport made him feel sick.
There was, of course, only one explanation, he realized as he tried to bring the wildly spinning ship under control. The Vong had arrived, and they wanted to prevent anyone from escaping.
Jacen frantically considered his options. He didn't have any other routes calculated in the navicomp yet, unless he wanted to jump back to Dantooine. There was a war fleet surrounding Dubrillion, and if his displays were reading correctly, the planet's shield was active which meant he could not get through unless they opened it for him
The decision was quickly made for him as a swarm of the rocky fighters appeared from behind. He punched the throttle, diving straight through a heated exchange of fire between Belt-Runner I and a Vong warship and prayed they wouldn't take any hits as he grabbed the comm. "This is the Hapan transport Rock Dragon to anyone on Dubrillion. We have wounded on board and are under heavy fire. Need a shield entry vector ASAP."
Seeing an opening ahead, Jacen rolled and flew around Belt-Runner I, only to come out on the other side facing another group of Vong ships. "Sithspit," he cursed as he frantically looked for an exit. They were so spread out that there really weren't any angles they hadn't covered, leaving him with not much else he could do except head straight for them. Hopefully for him, that would present them with the smallest target and give them very little time to lock on. So far the poor Hapan transport had managed to survive the beating that the fighters had been giving it, but Jacen had no doubts that whatever it was the capital ships packed could surely overwhelm it.
As he rocketed towards the Vong ships, a fusillade of orange glowing orbs emerged from the launchers. Luckily, they weren't aimed for him, and instead went sailing past to the station. Sporadic turbolaser fire came in return but Jacen noticed that it seemed to be weakening.
"Jacen?" He couldn't have been more relieved to hear Lando's voice. "This is Lando. I'm working with Dubrillion control right now, they're swamped down here. Look, kid, just give us a few minutes to get the shield ready to open and we can let you in. I'll send you coordinates as soon as we're ready."
Not daring to take his eyes off the battle, Jacen silently thanked Lando. Soon enough, he was in the middle of the Vong formation, again trying his best to dodge plasma orbs-but this time ones that could easily obliterate the ship.
After several harrowing moments, he was clear of the warships and punched the throttle for Dubrillion. Several more fighters detached themselves from the capital ships and started chasing him, at which he rolled his eyes. Don't they ever give up?
In between maneuvers, he reached up and switched the displays to show the range to Dubrillion. The planet was still only a glowing dot in the distance, and moments later the computer confirmed it was about a half million klicks out.
"Hurry up, Lando," he whispered as he dumped every spare erg into the ship's engines, pushing them well past their recommended limits. He was immediately pushed further back into the seat, and he quickly adjusted the inertial compensator so the passengers wouldn't get too sick.
After several minutes he saw that the fighters were starting to gain on him once again. Dubrillion was now distinguishable as a blue-green orb although still horribly far off.
"Jacen," Lando's voice finally came through again, "we have a vector and timing for you. Let me know when you have it."
Jacen glanced down and saw the information displaying on one of the transport's screens. "Copy, Lando, I have it. It'll take me at least a few more minutes to reach the shield and I have fighters hot on my tail, request escort if possible."
"Negative on the escort," Lando replied. "We're short on fighters now, lost a lot before we got the shield up. We're going to time the shield opening very close so hopefully we can get your tails to smash into it, any that do make it through we should be able to handle."
Just don't time it too close, Jacen thought although he knew Lando was usually very good at keeping his word.
When they finally got close to the shield, Jacen simply corrected his course without touching the throttle, making sure that they were hurtling in as fast as possible. Lando had barely given him a second to get through, he needed to make sure he had plenty of time to clear.
"Lando, I'm on approach," he said as he hit the comm. "I hope you're ready down there or this is going to look really bad."
"Believe me, we're ready," Lando said. "Standby for opening."
He mentally counted down the seconds, trying to reach out with the Force and feel the shield surrounding the planet... and in comparison the tiny pinprick of an opening that they were creating. They were approaching it at a sickening speed, some fraction of the speed of light that Jacen didn't even want to think about...
Then the hole opened, the Rock Dragon slipped through, and almost as quickly as it had opened it was once again gone. He could feel the explosions in the rapidly increasing distance as most of the fighters collided, but apparently one had been lucky enough to make it through.
Well, not for long, Jacen thought. In one swift move, he killed power to the engines, which stopped him from accelerating any more but kept him moving at the same suicidal velocity toward the atmosphere that was now almost on top of him. Then he dumped the now suddenly freed power directly into the repulsors and inertial compensators. The Rock Dragon suddenly rebounded off the planet's mass and came to what might as well have been a full halt compared to the pursuing fighter, which went by so fast that Jacen's eyes didn't even register it. Moments later, he saw the fireball as the speeding fighter hit the atmosphere. He only hoped that the fighter wasn't designed for ballistic re-entry as he started a slow descent toward Dubrillion's main city.
Sirens were wailing through the city as he touched down, although the only people to greet him were paramedics.
"How many wounded?" the lead tech asked him.
"Just one, and you'll need a stretcher, she's unconscious and suffering from toxic shock. Might want to check the rest of the passengers for motion sickness though."
He followed them back up the ramp and showed them to the medical berth. The lead tech frowned when he saw her. "What happened to her arms?"
Jacen had to admit he'd been expecting that one. "The left one was a training accident years ago." He opened up the stasis unit and handed the bin inside to the tech. "This snake-thing here bit her right forearm, and it must have had some sort of fast-acting cytotoxic venom. I amputated to keep it from spreading."
The tech lifted her arm and began unwrapping the bandages to examine the cut. "Did you administer an antidote?"
Jacen gave the tech a confused look. "Have you ever seen one of those things before? This is only the second or third one I've seen, and I'm pretty sure they're not from around here. I doubt an antidote even exists yet."
"Hmm. We'll have to take some samples from the head and see if we can synthesize one then." The tech frowned as he saw the cut. "What did you use? This is an incredibly clean and well-cauterized cut."
"Just a lightsaber," Jacen replied.
The tech blinked. "Huh. Never saw one used before. Guess there's a first time for everything." While he was talking, another tech approached with a floating stretcher, and Jacen helped the two of them transfer her from the berth. The other passengers, still obviously dizzy, lined up behind them as Jacen followed the paramedics down.
"What's your relation to her?" the tech asked as they loaded her up.
Jacen was a little dumbfounded by the question. "Uh..." He paused for a few seconds. "We're Jedi, we were working together to evacuate Dantooine."
"Guess you're the lucky ones then," the tech replied. "The other transports ran straight into these invaders as they were arriving. Only one made it through. One hell of a mess on board that ship, too."
Jacen's stomach sank at the news. All that time he and Tenel Ka had spent trying to protect them... The universe just wasn't fair sometimes.
The ride to the hospital was downright quiet. Only the beeping of the life support equipment disturbed the silence, until Jacen finally couldn't stand it any more. It was just maddening, he wanted to be able to hold her hand at least but he couldn't even do that, thanks to his own actions! He leaned forward and put his head in his hands, then just let the tears flow.