A/N: I liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive.
Okay, so, it turns out it's been 6 years. That's a long time. But hey! I'm back! I finally somehow, through ADHD, fibromyalgia, stress, a quarantine, depression, etc etc, managed to wrangle the K2 crew back. I'm sure that says something about how fked up they are, but here we are.
I'm pleased to say that I've been working on WHIP again for a little over a year, and have an about 20-chapter gap between the last thing I posted (really thought I got thru Dantooine... weird) and what I've got written and ready to post. One of my goals was to rewrite it, given I've done a *ton* of writing since and the skill gap between what was and what would be added is so large.
So the upside is: yay! I'm posting again!
The downside is: boo! You should probably go back and read the last 22 chapters! Because they've all been rewritten and gotten a nice new shiny coat of spackle on 'em, and a *lot* has been added. Don't worry, this chapter will be waiting when you get back.
As things were added, I'm uploading 2 chapters today. One will catch us up with where the story actually left off; one will be new.
Please enjoy, remember that comments are the joy of my existence, and I'll be figuring out my upload schedule (and whether I post once or twice a week) over the next few weeks. However, you can now expect at least one chapter a week of WhiP until it's over.
I'd put an applause gif here if I could. Now, let's get back into it.
The next morning, they returned to Khoonda and the Hawk without incident. No one said much on the walk, save Atton's continued sullenness and Kreia's usual silence.
About halfway through the walk, Mical caught up to her. "I was hoping to talk with you for a while, if I may."
Next to her, Atton grumbled.
"Of course. I had a few questions for you, in fact."
Mical smiled. "Ask away."
She nodded. "You said you're studying the Jedi, right? Do you know why they've disappeared?"
"I do not."
"Any suspicions?"
He frowned, musing the question over. "A few, but none have demonstratable evidence. There were barely a hundred Jedi left alive after the war. Given circumstances, I suspect the catastrophe on Katarr may hold answers. There is evidence the Jedi abandoned the Temple in the days afterward, and the three that remained were found dead not long after."
"Do you know why?"
"I do not. It is not like the Jedi to sequester themselves so. Perhaps it is the confluence of the bounty, the current dislike and distrust for the Jedi, and their small numbers. I suspect survival of the Order is at its source — and if that is the case, then the circumstances must be dire."
Trista nodded. "Jedi rarely know the minds of non-Jedi. It was the same problem during the Mandalorian Wars."
"That is what I have heard. It is difficult sometimes for the Jedi to see such things, as they are often removed from the difficulties of daily life."
"And too slow to recognize a threat," she mumbled.
"I'm sorry?"
"Never mind." She looked over. "Considering we found you in an abandoned Jedi Enclave, your opinion only seems a little better than most others."
Mical frowned. "My problems with the Jedi are my own, and I would not wish to burden you with them. I can believe in the value of the Jedi Order, while working through my own misgivings."
"Fair enough." They spotted the top of Khoonda in the distance and, almost unconsciously, Trista began walking faster. The sooner they could drop their salvaged goods on the Hawk and be off, the happier she would be.
"Forgive me," Mical continued, as he matched her pace. "There is something I must ask. In my study of Jedi histories and more... contemporary records, there are tales of an exiled Jedi."
"I thought we established that fact."
"Yes, but the records are evasive. I wanted to ask why you left the Order and accepted exile."
"Whether the Revanchists ever left the Jedi is a matter of semantics," Trista said. "But initially, it was to protect innocents on the Outer Rim."
"I see. And because you went to war, they cast you out?"
Trista was quiet for a while. She'd always assumed the Jedi were so incensed at the Revanchists' actions, even after sanctioning them reluctantly, that she was little more than a convenient scapegoat. But after the recording of her trial, she couldn't be sure.
"I thought so, but I recently saw a recording of my trial from ten years ago. Now I'm not sure."
"Is there a record of this trial?"
She nodded. They reached Khoonda's outskirts and turned for the landing pad. "The droid on the ship has it."
"With your permission, I would like to examine it when I get the chance."
"You're welcome to. We won't have time now, but we'll be back by nightfall tonight."
As they entered the Hawk's bay, the ship loomed welcoming before them. Trista opened her ship comm. "T3, we're coming in. Can you drop the ramp for us?"
An affirmative chirp answered. As they waited, Mical asked, "Have you had this ship long?"
Trista narrowed her eyes. Why did everyone seem so interested in the damn ship? "We've only had the Hawk for about a week and a half." He nodded as the ramp lowered, and they headed on board.
"Five minutes," Trista said as they reached the top of the ship. T3 chirped in front of her, and she patted his top. "Drop off our salvage, fill up your survival kits, and we'll be off."
The ramp cleared, leaving only Kreia and Trista at the top.
"I am tired and must rest," Kreia said. "I shall await your return on the ship. Give me the Sith holocron you recovered, and I will ensure it is contained."
"I'll try to avoid picking up more strays," Trista said, handing the holocron over. Without an answer, Kreia drifted toward her claimed dormitory.
In almost five minutes, they had met back up at the bottom of the ramp. T3 closed it behind them.
"We've got about a three-hour walk, less if we hustle. If the kinrath are as bad as they say, expect a fight. We've got two goals — find Vrook and find the crystal chamber at the back."
"What will do once we find Vrook?" Bao-Dur asked. "Do you expect him to join us on the ship, or—"
"Oh, Force, no," Trista said with a nervous laugh. "Oh — stars, frak that. He can go back into hiding for all I care. Oh, yeah, no, he's not setting foot on this ship at all. Over my dead body, in fact. Let's get this over with."
She started out of the landing pad, letting them catch up as the ramp began to close.
"No love lost?" Mical asked as he took up the rear with Bao-Dur.
"The feeling is mutual, I believe."
#
Finally, after two-and-a-half hours of walking, the new entrance to the kinrath's cave system appeared in a distant cliff face. On the way, about halfway there, a bulbous tree poked over the hills beside a thin wisp of smoke, and kinrath bobbed along the higher points of ground they could still see.
Trista sighed and pointed the cave out to the others.
"We'll take a breather once we get there."
As they crested one of the low hills, the source of the smoke became clear. A speeder had crashed into the hill, within the last week or so, still sending up a tendril of smoke. A human male, older, stood nearby, digging through piles of rubble from the crash. Trista glanced at the others — Atton shook his head — and took a few steps toward him.
"Hey there, you all right?"
The man jumped and turned to face him, revealing the Dantooine militia's insignia. "Oh! You shouldn't sneak up on an old fella like that." He looked them over. "You shouldn't be out here, anyway, it's kinrath territory."
"Don't worry, we can handle some kinrath. What are you doing out here? Was this your speeder?"
"Name's Sadhe, and no. That's mine." He pointed to a nearby, intact speeder also bearing the militia's insignia. "We had a crash out here a week or so ago. One of the Western Fringe farmers coming into Khoonda with a load of atmospheric sensors. We found him dead and his swoop banged up. I've come out a couple times to see if that's really what happened."
"Any luck?"
"None so far. Can't find any of the damn sensors either."
"What's the official story?"
"Kinrath. They're dangerous, but if you stay on your swoop, there's no way they can catch you. That's why this doesn't sound right." He sighed heavily. "I've searched this area and can't find anything. So maybe our man just got sloppy. But we really need those atmospheric sensors."
"For what?" Bao-Dur asked. "Dantooine is temperate. There's no need for sensors, except for seasonal data collection."
"Huh?" He squinted at Bao-Dur, then shook his head. "It's just important we get them back. They're expensive pieces of equipment, and we can't afford to replace them."
"Well." Trista looked back at Bao-Dur. "If we see them, we'll return them to you."
"Thanks, I'd appreciate it. There should be three of 'em, and I can offer you a reward of a thousand credits for each, broken or not. I figure it's a long shot you spot them, but, couldn't hurt to ask."
"At that rate, I'd be stupid not to keep an eye out. Stay safe out here."
He nodded. "You too."
Trista started away and, once out of earshot, turned back to Bao-Dur. "How much does an atmospheric sensor run?"
"If you get them from the right company, perhaps five hundred credits. I doubt they are 'just' atmospheric sensors. They are important pieces of equipment on tectonically or environmentally unstable worlds... but Dantooine?"
"Maybe the bombardment threw something in the atmosphere off?"
Bao-Dur shook his head. "Not that I know of. And considering my recent employment, I would have known."
She nodded. "So if we find one, we're cracking it open."
"Definitely."
"Come on."
In about another fifteen minutes, including several kinrath encounters, they made it to the caves and took the promised break, breaking open water and light ration bars. Atton leaned next to her as she put her back to the rock wall, and handed her a package of water.
"Credit for your thoughts?"
She sighed. "The last time I was in these caves, I was with Revan."
Atton frowned. "What did we say about announcing that?"
Trista frowned back. "Everyone here knows I was one of her higher-ups in the Mandalorian Wars, it's not a big secret." She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall. "If you'd known her as I did, Atton — if anyone had. That's what I'm trying to understand. Even if she'd 'fallen,' no matter how far off the rails she'd gone, her devotion to the Republic was so strong that I... I don't understand what happened. And I need to. I need to know I wasn't responsible. And walking around here, where we'd walked when we were kids, it's... it's just a lot."
"Just let it go, Tris. Everything she did was her fault, not yours."
Trista stared at the clouds above before answering. "I may have been able to stop her. I could have done something." She sighed. "Or I'm just used to taking responsibility for my sister's bad choices, I don't know."
Atton, halfway through his water, choked. "Your what?"
She looked over, surprised. "Are you okay?"
Atton straightened up. "I'm fine — your what?"
Trista glanced at the others, now listening rather intently even if they were acting otherwise (in Bao-Dur's case, at least, as he was poking around just inside the cave).
"Stop making a big deal out of it."
"Are you serious, though?"
"Look, I've been trying to disown her for..." Trista counted, "... thirty-three years, so why would I lie about it now?"
"...fair, I guess," Atton said. "But yeah, I'd leave that out of your everyday conversations."
"There's a reason I don't talk about it." She straightened, dusting the back of her robe off. "Everyone ready?"
"Affirmative," Bao-Dur said, stepping back out of the cave. "Found those sensors."
"The ones Saedhe wanted?" Trista joined him. The small hand-sized orbs were balanced precariously in Bao-Dur's, and she took two of them. "Choose a sacrifice?"
"This one will do." Bao-Dur reached into the pouch of tools he kept at his belt and pulled out a spanner, then jammed it into one of the cracks and pried it open. "There. Child's play. Let's see..." He pulled the two pieces apart, and into his hand fell a camera and a small microphone. "Surveillance devices."
"No wonder he wanted these so badly. Hang on to them." Bao-Dur nodded and pocketed them. "Monitoring the mercenaries?"
Bao-Dur nodded. "Seems logical."
"Yeah, I didn't want to say it back there." Atton jerked his thumb toward the speeder crash. "But that wasn't a kinrath crash. Pretty sure that speeder got shot down."
"So their guy, part of the militia, plants these here so they can keep track of the mercs' movements." Trista motioned to the cave. "And as he's leaving, he gets shot down by the mercs. Think they knew about the devices?"
"It is impossible to know," Handmaiden said. "If he was careful enough placing them, then they may have not noticed."
"Such is the hope." Trista handed the other two back to Bao-Dur. "Make sure it's all turned off, and we'll hand them off when we get back out. Good work, Bao-Dur."
"Thank you, General." Bao-Dur cleared his throat as he switched the sensors off. "I mean, Trista."
"Don't, uh, don't mention it." She turned and ducked into the caves, immediately assaulted by the scent of musty dirt, mycelium, and earthy, ozone-y kinrath.
"So," she said, as they crept along in the darkness, "I haven't been here in fifteen or twenty years, and I'm sure the kinrath have opened up several tunnels. But if I remember right, there are a few different ways with offshoots. I don't know where the mercs will be. We'll have to — ah, hell." The light from the entrance was all but gone, save for the glow of Bao-Dur's arm, and she fished for an emergency light. Raising it, she continued. "We'll have to be on our guard. These mercs could be anywhe—"
At the edge of the light in front of them, a green-skinned Twi'lek appeared. Shock spread across his face, and he turned to run.
Atton was faster. Before the Twi'lek had made it half a foot he was on him, slamming him into the cave wall.
"Hey there, buddy," he growled, "how's cave life these days?"
"Atton." Trista pulled his shoulder, and he stepped back, blocking the mercenary's escape. She turned back to the Twi'lek, still pressed against the wall and wheezing. "Hey, we're not going to hurt you. Are you with the mercenaries?"
The Twi'lek glanced at Atton, cleared his throat, and spoke. Her Huttese was rough, but she caught most of it. "I am."
"What's your name?"
"Uh, it's Arnell."
"And the kinrath don't attack you?"
"Well, um, I-I have a trade secret that I'm afraid I can't share."
"Not even with a fellow spelunker?"
"Oh!" Arnell straightened. "Brilliant! It's such a pleasure to meet a fellow 'lunker! Aren't the crystals in these caves fascinating?"
"They are. Have you been to the main chamber? I haven't seen it in years, but it was stunning."
"I have not! The kinrath are thick there, but I've been hoping to get a look. Anyway — the common kinrath have an odor-emitting gland near their rectum that keeps them from attacking one another. If extracted properly, it'll still function. Carrying it allows us all to avoid their notice."
"Could we borrow it?" Atton asked. Trista glared at him. "What? I don't want to get eaten by a ton of bugs."
"No, no, I need it. I don't want to get eaten either!"
"Atton, we're here to clear out the kinrath, not avoid them. We want them to attack us."
"She has a point."
"Shut your mouth, Blondie."
"Atton." He frowned at her, and she turned back to Arnell. "You aren't like most mercenaries."
"Yeah, I don't fit in well. I am an explorer and a scientist. My profession just enables me to travel the galaxy and explore caves on many planets."
"You became a mercenary for the travel benefits?"
He shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea."
"Fair enough. What do you know about this group of mercenaries?"
"They're surly and bad-tempered, but that happens between jobs."
"Did they bring anyone back from the old ruins?"
"Oh, you mean the old Jedi? I figure they're trucking him off to Nar Shaddaa when they get a chance. I hear we have a job to finish up here, but they keep me out of the loop."
"Because you're a scientist?"
"Because I'm given special privileges, because I'm a scientist."
"Right."
"And you said they have something planned?" Handmaiden asked, earning a nod from Arnell. "But you do not know what?"
He shrugged. "Something big, but they won't tell me."
"All right, well." Trista took another step back. "If it's something involving Dantooine, or Khoonda, or the settlers..." She gave him a level glare, a frown toying at the edge of her lips. "I'd opt to not get involved."
"Point taken." He pointed back toward the cave exit. "Mind if I make myself scarce?"
"Where are they keeping the old Jedi?"
He pointed. "Straight ahead, take the left fork, right on your left. Can't miss them."
"Thanks, go for it." Arnell headed for the exit. "Okay. If I remember, the crystals are at the back. If we loop to the right, we should be able to hit it then come back out."
"You're really not worried about Vrook, are you?" Mical asked. Trista shook her head.
"Look. At worst, they've got him tied up. Honestly, he could probably escape if he wanted to. So we can let him sit for a few more minutes, let him think about his life choices, and then we'll get him out." She started deeper into the cave, keeping an eye out for the right branch. "Besides, if we take care of the kinrath first, we won't be fighting them and the mercs at the same time."
#
Trista stuck her head around the cave just enough to see, with Mical echoing the motion right behind her.
"About eight. This can't be the bulk of the force, from what Zherron said. And... yeah, there's Vrook. Looks about as grumpy as usual." The Master was sitting, cross-legged, in a force cage to the right of the cave — looking perfectly at home. "I'm surprised he's not lecturing them. Merc-wise, two Trandoshans, three Rodians, rest human." She ducked back and motioned the others into a huddle.
"The area right here is a perfect ambush spot." She motioned to a slight fork. "I can get their attention and draw them away from Vrook — that should keep them from using him as leverage."
"You have that look," Atton said. "I don't like that look. That's the stupid idea look."
"I do have a stupid idea. You all get around behind the fork and get ready. I'll draw them back."
Atton sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Either way, he jogged after the others with his blasters ready. Trista straightened her robe and waited until he stuck the emergency light around the wall and wiggled it. In position. Good.
Trista drew a deep breath and stepped into the portal to the mercs' cave.
"Halt, settler," one of them said, probably the immediate leader. "This is a restricted area. And how the hell did you get through the kinrath? You should leave, immediately."
Trista glanced at Vrook, his eyes now slit open and glaring as if she were the worst thing to happen this week — on top of being captured by mercenaries. "I didn't realize you lot were breaking into kidnapping."
"This is bounty hunting, settler. That Jedi's worth a lot of money to the right people, and we're collecting. Now be on your way."
"I see," Trista said. "You know what's worth more than one Jedi?" The woman narrowed her eyes, one hand resting on her blaster. "Two of them."
She flicked her wrist, letting the green blade flare in the darkness. The mercs stared, startled for a moment, before the leader barked.
"Set for stun! Take her down!"
Trista blocked the first blast, sending it into the merc that fired it, and sprinted down the cave. As the mercs rounded the corner, she sprinted past her companions and nodded.
"She went that way! Move it!"
As soon as the mercenaries had cleared the fork, Atton rolled out behind them and opened fire, drilling one of the Trandoshans in the back. The Handmaiden appeared in the middle of the group, spinning her staff and flooring at least two. Trista turned back and sliced the barrel off a blaster.
Pinned as they were, the mercenaries didn't stand a chance. Trista deactivated Vrook's lightsaber, staring down for a moment before realizing her hands were shaking.
"Watch that." She tossed the hilt to Mical, who fumblingly caught it, and stepped past the mercenaries to head back for the cave. Inside, she approached the cell holding Vrook.
The Master was on his feet now, arms crossed and face even more disapproving. "Always rushing into action without thinking of the consequences," he chided. Trista rolled her eyes as she deactivated the field.
"It's good to see you too, Master Vrook."
"What? You were expecting thanks?" He harrumphed and shook out his robe, taking his lightsaber from Mical when the man hesitantly offered it. "Khoonda is in danger, and you've ruined our best chance of averting a full-scale conflict."
"I can always put you back."
Vrook humphed again. "Is this a joke to you? Lives are at stake!"
"Lives are always at stake."
It was truly amazing how often he could make that same noise. "Every action has consequences, no matter how insignificant. It was a lesson you should have learned from the Mandalorian Wars, but I see you did not."
"Yeah." Her voice hardened. "I'm sure you relied on the same 'careful timing' as you did then. Now, you want to fill me in?"
Vrook swept past them. "Normally I would berate you for your poor lack of consideration — as I did many times during your training — but this is neither the time nor place. These mercenaries have allied themselves with the Exchange and are planning to attack Khoonda. They have been waiting for the proper moment, and you have given them that. Now that they have lost their captive Jedi they will attack immediately. I will attempt to reach Administrator Adare. Time is of the essence. Either meet me there and rectify the danger you have placed the settlement in, or do not. It is no concern of mine."
He disappeared into the cave. They stood in silence for a moment, before Atton released a low whistle.
"He really does not like you."
"Never did." She sighed. "The mercs won't attack until they know they lost this base. Handmaiden, wait at the entrance, as invisibly as possible, and let us know when they get here. We'll go through their stuff for anything useful."
"Very well." She bowed and disappeared into the darkness.
