SEVEN
Carth finally got his voice back and forced his eyes up from blurry picture of Case. "Where was this picture taken?" he managed in a reasonably even tone.
"In the north," Tepai replied, "near the—"
"So you know this one after all?" Startol interrupted his mate to ask. It was hard to read his expression, but Carth thought he looked more worried than calculating.
Before he could reply, an alarm began to sound in the background. Startol flipped the holoprojector over to a live comm feed and spoke rapidly to the Vintari that appeared in the field. Tepai spoke into her wrist comm and the room was suddenly full of armed guards. Dustil tensed next to him but Carth touched his arm briefly and he settled down. The tension in the room had gotten high enough without them adding to it.
Startol rose from his seat. "Your mates have left the facility without authorization. I am afraid we will have to detain them for further questioning."
"Hang on just a minute," Carth protested. "I'm sure they're just trying to get back to our ship. Why don't you just let us be on our way?"
Startol shook his head. "We will not let your Jedi harm us again." With that, he hefted one of the guard's blaster rifles and led all but two of them out of the office. Tepai remained where she was.
Carth looked sidelong at Dustil, who nodded. They had to get out of here. Carth considered their options, but before he could settle on a strategy, Dustil spoke up. "You want to help us leave," he said quietly to Tepai. He made a familiar gesture with his hand that made Carth's skin crawl.
The Vintari's eyes went glassy. "I want to help you leave," she said dazedly.
Dustil smiled and leaned forward. "Tell the guards to leave the room," he ordered.
Tepai rose and said something to the guards in Vintari. They nodded and left, but not before casting suspicious glances their way. Tepai stood uncertainly in the middle of the room, blinking at Dustil.
"My blasters," Carth whispered to Dustil.
Dustil rose and headed toward the door, gesturing for Carth to follow him. "Take us to our weapons," he said.
Tepai opened a drawer and pulled out two blasters and a lightsaber handle. She held them out in her arms, a frown crossing her features. "I—I don't—I don't know whose—" she said. She looked from Dustil to Carth, fur lightening to a pale gray.
Dustil raised his hands soothingly and took the weapons from her unresisting grip. He handed Carth his blasters and hung his lightsaber from his belt. "That's okay. Don't worry about that. You want to escort us out of here," he said. Carth couldn't feel what he was projecting, of course, but Tepai seemed hardly conscious at all. She nodded slowly and started toward the door. Carth remembered the way Startol talked about the false Jedi making the Vintari help them and shuddered. No one should have this kind of power.
"Come on, Father," Dustil called, breaking his thoughts. Carth hastened to catch up.
"Go under that speeder, child, hurry!" Bastila said to the little Vintari. She swung the girl to the ground and pushed her toward the nose of a speeder parked nearby. Follani stared at her, wide-eyed and unmoving, until a blaster bolt exploded next to them. Bastila shoved the girl under the speeder. "Stay there!" she shouted before turning to the fray.
Pellek was keeping three Vintari back with her single-bladed saber. Four more Vintari carrying blaster rifles were running toward her. Bastila Boosted herself to meet them, yellow blades extended. With two swift moves, she knocked two of the rifles from the attackers' hands. The disarmed aliens backed away slowly, hands on vibroblade hilts that they seemed reluctant to draw.
"Bastila, behind you!" Atton shouted. Bastila swung around too late to completely dodge a blaster bolt from one of the three Pellek had been fighting. It glanced off her shoulder, numbing her right arm to the fingers. Her weapon clattered to the ground, dual blades sputtering out. The Vintari sneered and shouted something taunting.
Anger blossomed in her chest and her vision briefly whited out. Bastila could feel the open conduit of Dark power in the Force, just waiting for her to draw upon it. It would take only a little Lightning to destroy all of these terrified sentients, and they would never challenge her again—
Bastila took a breath and consciously pulled on the Light to throw a flurry of Force Pushes toward their attackers. They flew backward, hit the ground hard, and did not rise. The remaining handful recovered quickly and fired off a volley of blaster shots to her. By now, she had her blade back in her hand and deflected them all away. She sent a blast of Heal into her right arm and got some feeling back.
Pellek came up beside her. "We have to close with them and take away their advantage with the blaster," she said. Bastila felt a tendril of the Force accompany Pellek's words, seeking a connection. Bastila blocked it and glanced sharply at the Exile, but the woman was focused entirely on turning the blaster bolts flying toward them. Bastila knew that Pellek made Force connections easily, without thinking, but she hadn't realized just how easily she did it. If the woman made a connection with everyone she fought beside, it was no wonder that Malachor nearly broke her.
"Come on!" Pellek shouted, interrupting her train of thoughts. Bastila ran after her, extending a shield around the two of them as they closed with the several aliens. Pellek was a choppy fighter, not graceful as Case had been. It was challenging to get into a rhythm with her. Bastila ducked a vibroblade slash and drove her blade into the chest of her attacker. She felt the alien join the Force, and was tempted again to take the power of the release into herself.
She turned resolutely away and faced the last three fighters. Abruptly, the alarm that had been droning in the background stopped. The remaining Vintari looked at each other and then ran back toward the building complex. Bastila glanced at Pellek. "Do you think they will return with reinforcements?" she asked.
Pellek was frowning toward the building. "No, look what they're doing—they're fortifying." And it was true—forcefields were snapping into place around the doors and Bastila could see the shadows of armed Vintari posted at the windows. No one was going to get back in the building uninvited. "Atton," Pellek said to the ghost, "what's happened to the Onasis?"
Atton blinked out for a second and then back in. He pointed toward the far end of the complex, half a kilometer away. "Down there—they're on their way out of the building. I think they might be the reason for the lockdown."
Pellek jogged to the speeder that Follani was still hiding underneath, glancing briefly as passed the five Vintari bodies in the courtyard. Bastila followed more slowly, still catching her breath from the battle. Atton hung back with her. "I had to resist it, too," he said quietly.
Bastila swallowed. How did he know? "I—I'm afraid I don't know what you mean," she lied.
"Yes, you do," he said without looking at her. "The Dark side. It's right there in front of you, and it's so much more powerful than the Light. You could end the fight so much quicker if you used it, just for a second."
She opened her mouth, pious denials ready, but she couldn't get them out this time. "Yes," she whispered. Relief washed over her—she had finally admitted it to someone. Certainly no one at the Jedi Enclave had understood what it was like to be tempted every time she touched the Force. Ever since Malak—
Atton jerked his chin toward the Exile, now picking Follani up and putting her in the back of the speeder. "Pel talks a big talk, but she's as Blue as it gets. I could never have told her what the Force was like for me. It was beautiful—still is, actually—but it used to be scary as hell, too." He grinned. "It's easier now that I'm dead. I just sort of exist in the Light—all of my alignment choices are behind me."
Bastila finally faced him. "So you were able to resist it—even at the end?" She knew from Carth that Atton had been killed by one of the Sith Lords on Malachor.
He smiled, and Bastila could almost feel the joy. "Yeah. I did." He leaned in, eyes warm. "And you can do it, too, Princess. It's not easy, but it's worth it."
"Let's go, you two!" Pellek shouted from the speeder. "Atton, quit hitting on Jedi Shan and let's get out of here before they send out attack droids."
Atton winked at Bastila. "Come on, Pel, look what she's wearing! I'm just trying to stake a claim before Onasi Junior gets his hands on her. He has all the advantages—he's younger than me, his father's a war hero, he's alive."
The two continued to bicker as Bastila got into the back of the speeder with Follani. She hid her smile behind a haughty expression. Atton was no more flirting with her than he was Pellek, but she knew now that he was her friend, and she expected very soon to need all the friends she could get.
Carth, Dustil, and Tepai walked for some time in silence, getting occasional odd looks from passing Vintari, but no one stopped them. The alarm was still going, which Carth hoped meant that Pellek and Bastila hadn't been recaptured. If they could just get out of the building—
"Tepai!" a passing Vintari in some kind of uniform said. It followed with a burst of its own language. Tepai stopped and looked around confusedly, then said something in a slow tone, gesturing listlessly at Dustil. The new alien's brow furrowed and its fur darkened. It spoke sharply back to Tepai.
"Frack," Dustil muttered. He waved his hand toward the newcomer. "You want to be on your way," he intoned.
The alien just looked at him and frowned. It said something to Tepai urgently. Tepai shook her head and blinked several times. A look of slow horror came across her face. She said something in Vintari and then, pointing a shaking finger at Dustil, "You made me do this! You are one of them! I am shamed, I am cartuk!" She yanked up her arm and shouted something into her wrist comm.
"Let's go, Dustil," Carth warned, scanning the hallway for exits.
Dustil waved his hand toward Tepai again. "Leave us," he said. But his mind tricks weren't working anymore. The two aliens stared angrily back at them as a new alarm began to flash.
"Dustil!" Carth snapped.
"Fine," Dustil growled, flinging his hand toward the two aliens. They both froze in a pink Stasis field, faces a study in terror. Dustil ran past Carth. "I can get us out," he said.
Carth ran after his son, blasters ready. Dustil took turns seemingly at random until they found themselves in a long hallway with a door at the end. Before they could get to it, Startol and ten soldiers ran in from a cross passage and blocked their exit. "Stop!" Startol shouted.
"Startol, we don't want to hurt you," Carth began, knowing there was no way he and Dustil could fight all of the soldiers.
"You are just like the others!" Startol shouted. "You are navein, beneath contempt." He gestured and the soldiers behind him fired.
Carth jumped in front of Dustil out of instinct, fully expecting to feel the blaster fire tearing into his chest. Instead, a blue field snapped around him and the blaster bolts bounced harmlessly away. He looked behind in surprise to see Dustil smirking, hand cupped to project a shield.
"Honestly, Father, did you think I'd let them shoot us?" he asked. Dustil walked toward the group of guards, green blade blazing before him. "I'll give you three seconds to get out of our way," he said in a menacing tone.
The guards probably didn't understand him, but there was no mistaking his intent. Five of the guards dropped their rifles and scattered. Dustil threw his palm toward the group. The other five guards flew backward and hit the ground hard before freezing into Stasis. Only Startol stood his ground, or perhaps Dustil had let him remain standing.
"You are navein," the Vintari spat.
Dustil narrowed his eyes in a way that froze Carth's blood. "And you are blind, running from things you don't understand, keeping your children in the dark because you're afraid of their strength. The Sith you defeated must have been weak, because I could kill you before you could blink."
"Dustil, stop this. Let's go," Carth said.
Dustil glanced at him, then back to Startol. "Get out of our way," he whispered, the Persuasion so strong in his voice that Carth felt a little lightheaded himself.
Startol scuttled backward and into the cross passage. Dustil didn't so much as glance at him as he strode past and out the door. Carth looked as he followed and was taken aback by the expression on the Vintari's face. Startol looked like a sentient whose spirit had been broken.
Dustil was waiting for him outside the building. They were on the outskirts of the city. Dustil pointed to a speeder in the distance. "That's Pellek and Bastila," he said. "No one's going to follow us out of the city, not with Startol and his men incapacitated. We're home free." He must have seen something in Carth's face, because he frowned. "What?" he asked. "We got out of there without hurting anyone—I'd say that's better than they deserved."
Carth pictured the fear on Tepai's face and wasn't so sure. "Yeah," he muttered. "Let's get out of here." Dustil opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. Carth jogged past him and toward the approaching speeder.
"Need a ride, Admiral?" Pellek asked with a smile. Bastila was in the back of the speeder. Carth swung in next to the Exile and glanced back toward the city. True to Dustil's prediction, it looked utterly deserted—no one had come outside after them.
"How many Force tricks did it take for you to get the speeder, Pellek?" Carth forced a small smile and tried to get Dustil's behavior out of his head.
The Exile waited for Dustil to get in next to Bastila before taking off at high speed toward the Hawk. "It was the damnedest thing," she said. "We got out of there and alarms started going off, but we'd only fought a few of them when everyone ran away. They've fortified the whole complex. You and Dustil must have done a number on them inside."
"These sentients fear the Force like none I have ever seen," Bastila commented.
"Hey, who is this?" Dustil exclaimed.
Carth twisted around in his seat to see a small Vintari, clearly a child, huddled on the floorboard near Bastila. It was looking up at Dustil fearfully. "Are you going to make me go back there?" it asked him in a small voice.
Carth looked at Pellek in surprise. She shook her head. "We were in some kind of mental institution for Force users. Follani is the one who spoke to me in the city—she's Force Sensitive."
Dustil had a dark expression on his face. "They sent her to a mental institution because she was Sensitive?" he asked. "We can't take her back there."
Pellek rolled her eyes and turned back to her flying. "Sure, Dustil, we'll just take her to the Jedi temple for the Masters to train. Except that there aren't any. While you and Revan were out looking for 'True Sith,' some actual Sith showed up and killed all the Jedi."
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Dustil growled.
Bastila raised her hands. "Stop it, both of you. This is not productive. Follani told us that there is a Force-user settlement in the north." She looked down at the small alien. "Are you sure it truly exists?" she asked. Follani nodded but didn't volunteer further information.
Carth looked at Dustil. "Tepai said Case was in the north." He tried vainly to crush the hope that bubbled up from the thought of her so near.
Bastila leaned forward, an odd look on her face. "Case? Here?"
Dustil was already shaking his head as Pellek stopped the speeder near the Hawk. "She's not here," he said.
"But the holocording—" Carth began.
"I know what it looked like, Father, but I'm telling you that she is not on this moon, at least not anymore." Dustil got out of the speeder and ran a hand through his hair. "I felt her in the Force, before we were captured, and she told me she's on a planet called Espol."
"Espol?" Pellek looked up from the speeder's controls. "It's been a long time, but I'm sure that's where Revan told me she and Malak were headed after the War. Something about an artifact that would help the Jedi. I'd always assumed that they gave up looking for it when they found the Star Forge."
Bastila paced in front of the Hawk, head down in thought. "There is a holocron on Dantooine, one of the few remaining after Malak's attack, that mentions an ancient place of power. Master Vrook found the holocron in a room that had been sealed over until the attack. That is why he asked me to come to Dantooine, to study it. The ancient Jedi scholars who first studied the artifact could not tell whether the place it described was of the Light or Dark, but the holocron is clear that the place is the "source" or "root" of the power." Bastila looked up. "'Espol' means "source" in the Ancient Sith language."
Pellek had her head cocked in a way that meant she was listening to her ghost. She translated for Carth's benefit. "Atton says he heard it mentioned once when he was still with the Sith. It was someplace you didn't want to get sent."
Carth felt very much out of his league. He could just imagine telling Admiral Dodonna that he was flying away from a planet where he had actually seen a recording of Case based on an inconclusive Jedi text and a report from a ghost. He sighed and tried to remind himself that this was just another type of intelligence, no different than a report on enemy troop readiness or domestic stability predictions. And the intel seemed pretty clear as to what they should do next. "All right," he said finally. "Then we're going to Espol."
Dustil nodded in satisfaction, but Pellek frowned. "What about Follani?" she asked. "We can't take her with us."
The little alien was standing close to the speeder, watching their conversation with wide eyes. Carth didn't think she was much older than Caele and Tar back on Citadel Station. He crouched down next to her. "Don't you want to go back to your parents?" he asked her quietly. "I'm sure they're worried about you."
Follani shook her head fiercely. "They're afraid of me, like they were afraid of my sister, but she escaped from the hospital and went to the camp in the north. I want to go there, can't you take me?"
Bastila spoke up. "I will take her. If the Vintari you met are correct and Case was here, I wish to understand why."
"We don't have time for that!" Dustil exclaimed. "We've wasted enough time on this moon as it is."
Bastila looked thoughtful. "I think the Force has guided me here for a reason. You can pick me up on your return to Republic space."
Carth shook his head. "No way. We're not leaving you alone on a planet of people who hate the Force. It's too dangerous."
The Jedi smiled, and Carth was struck by the look in her eyes. She was fifteen years his junior, but she looked like she'd lived a lifetime already. "Admiral, I appreciate your concern, but I am quite capable of taking care of myself. I will not be caught unawares this time." She looked to Dustil. "I'd like to look at your map of the moon—if this camp is large enough, it should appear there." The two of them went up the gangplank into the Hawk, Follani trailing behind.
Carth found himself alone with Pellek. He pulled the engine manifold out of his pack and was glad to find it still undamaged. "I don't suppose your ghost can hold a flashlight while I fix this engine?"
Pellek smiled. "No, his handiness is strictly limited to locating parts and making wisecracks at my expense. But I can hold one for you. The sooner we get off this rock, the better."
"Roger that, sister." Carth headed up the gangplank, relieved to be putting this interruption behind them. He passed Bastila and Dustil bent over the holomap in the main hold. Dustil kept shifting his weight back and forth, rubbing his palms on his pants.
There was something odd about Bastila's sudden interest in that camp, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Equally odd was the increasing agitation in Dustil and the flashes of—anger? fear?—he kept seeing cross his son's face. Maybe it was just Carth's growing unease with Jedi circumspection, but something felt increasingly wrong about this mission.
It was a familiar feeling, that coil of distrust in his gut. He had gotten good at ignoring it, and he did so now, shutting down the engine power and handing Pellek a flashlight before sliding under the engine casing. He told himself he was overreacting, that the only thing that mattered was finding Case as soon as possible. His paranoia was just getting in the way.
But he couldn't help thinking that it was usually right.
Bastila glanced backward from the speeder to see the Ebon Hawk lift smoothly off the ground and streak out of the atmosphere. She waved half-heartedly, even though she knew no one on the ship could see her. The moon seemed suddenly silent.
She turned back to look where she was flying. "Well, Follani, it's just the two of us," she said, trying for a cheerful tone.
The little alien shifted in her seat. "Are we going to the camp now?" she asked, her voice tipping toward a whine.
"Do you truly not know where it is?" Bastila asked for the third time. It hadn't appeared on Dustil's rough map of the surface, which meant it either didn't exist or it was too small for the ship's radar to pick up. The moon was small compared to the gas giant it orbited, but it was far too large for them to search in a speeder.
The camp had to exist. Now that she knew Case had been here, she was even more convinced that the Force had brought her to Vintar for a reason. There were too many coincidences—reaching Citadel Station just as Dustil arrived, Dustil projecting through the Force twice and attracting the Vintari each time, and now Case.
Bastila sent a gentle probe toward Follani, but the child's mind was still too disorganized for her to find anything without hurting her. And it was apparent that she didn't really know anything about this mythical Force-user camp except for rumor. Bastila sighed. She had no choice, then.
A lone figure was waiting for them a couple of kilometers from the town. Bastila slowed the speeder to a stop.
"I thought we were going to the camp!" Follani wailed.
Bastila bent down and placed a hand on each of Follani's shoulders. She stared into the child's wide eyes. "It will be well in the end, Follani, I promise," Bastila whispered. "Please just trust me." She stepped off of the speeder and walked calmly to the waiting Vintari. She inclined her head. "Greetings, Tepai. I told you I would return."
Tepai returned her nod solemnly. Bastila could feel the sentient's fear, colored by a hint of satisfaction. Startol had objected to this arrangement, had told Tepai that Bastila would betray them. The Vintari held up a collar. "You must not resist," she said.
Bastila clenched her eyes and fists as she bent down to allow Tepai to close the collar around her throat. It hummed loudly in her ears and the world became indistinct. The Force was gone.