SIXTEEN
A/N 5/10/07: Terribly sorry about the long delay, folks. Rest assured that I haven't given up! When last we left this story, Carth and Gellan were preparing to defend an attack on the camp, Case and Bastila were heading toward town to rescue the Force Sensitive prisoners there, and Dustil and Pellek were leaving for Telos to confront the new Sith they think may be waiting for them. We pick up where we left off—
Pellek kept her eyes on the viewscreen and fired off another volley of turret fire. Two heavy fighters were tailing them as Dustil tried to get the Hawk far enough away from the system to jump to hyperspace. He wasn't as gifted a pilot as his father, but the Hawk was built for speed, and they were gaining on the fighters.
The ship rocked hard to the right and Pellek was thrown up against the wall of the narrow turret. She cursed and spun the turret, looking for the target. She let off a quick round just ahead of the fighter, and it ran into the fire before it could correct its course. It angled away, fuel vapor crystallizing into snow on its wings. Her radar blipped and she spun backward, cursing again as she saw three light fighters in formation racing toward them.
She smacked the internal comm. "Get us the frack out of here, Onasi! Those fighters will be on us in ten seconds!"
"Shut up and shoot!" Dustil shouted back at her. "Eight seconds to hyperspace clearance!"
Another burst of fire clipped their rear wing, and Pellek fired madly against the mounting numbers. One light fighter went up in a brief fireball, but the others barreled down on them. Pellek held her breath, knowing she couldn't hit them in time—
Hyperspace lines filled her viewscreen and she let out a sigh of relief. They were clear. "Good job, kid," she said through the comm.
Dustil snorted. "I've been run out of better systems than that one. Computer says we have three days in hyperspace before we reach Telos. I have some nav cleanup to do up here before I put it on autopilot, so I'll take first watch."
That suited Pellek just fine. She slid down the ladder and made her way to the galley, where she liberated one of her bottles of Corellian whiskey and a glass. She poured a stiff measure and raised an imaginary toast. "To dead friends," she said. She drained the glass and poured another.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, General?" she heard softly beside her.
Pellek didn't even look in Bao-Dur's direction. "I'm toasting dead friends, Bao, not undead ones. Go back to your corner of the Force and leave me be." She felt him blink away, but not before feeling the worry that he projected to her.
Two glasses and an hour later, Dustil entered the galley from the front of the ship. She peered at him over her glass. "I thought you were cleaning up in the cockpit," she said.
Dustil took a seat at the table. He raised the bottle inquiringly and she waved a hand in acquiescence. He poured a small glass and sipped. "I was, but then one of your ghosts found me and said I needed to talk to you before you drank yourself into a coma."
She laughed, finding that funnier than it really was. "Bao-Dur is a chronic worrier and a teetotaler to boot. It takes more than a few glasses of booze to put me under the table."
"It was Atton," Dustil said flatly.
That was even funnier. "Atton! Hell, he flew the Hawk with a hangover half the time. He knows how much I can drink. Don't worry, a little Force Heal and I'll be able to take my watch with no problem."
Dustil raised his eyebrows. "I don't think it was the booze he was worried about, Pellek. He said you've shut him out completely since we landed on Vintar."
"So?" she replied, taking another swig. "Just because I have ghosts trailing me around doesn't mean I have to talk to them all the time. Maybe I'd like a little time by myself," she said, glaring at him.
Dustil couldn't take a hint. "I won't pretend we're friends, Pellek, but I've felt your Force aura, and there's something strange about it, something that's connected to these ghosts of yours and this new breed of Sith, and the reason we're going to Telos." She reached for the bottle but he snatched it away from her. His voice was hard. "I don't have any intention of getting killed on Telos because you've got some kind of emotional hangup about the Mandalorian War, all right? So you'd better tell me what the hell's going on here or I'm leaving you on this boat while I deal with the Sith myself."
Pellek could feel Atton's presence hovering behind Dustil but he didn't appear. Pellek blew out her breath. "Fine. But give me the damn bottle first." She held her hand out expectantly until Dustil handed it over. She poured another glass and tossed back half of it before setting it down. "I should have known Revan would fill you in on my escapades in the Mandalorian War. So you know that I destroyed Malachor, and I killed all of my soldiers on the ground, plus half the Mandalorian fleet."
"You were connected to your men, through those Force connections of yours," Dustil said quietly. He raised a hand defensively to her unspoken question. "Don't ask—it's a long story. But I know about Malachor, I know exactly how you felt. I'm actually surprised you aren't dead."
She laughed at that. "I thought I was, but no such luck. Turns out the only reason I didn't die down there is because I cut myself off from the Force. That's not something you can just do, you know. You can't get it back."
Dustil looked like he might argue with her about that, but he simply said, "You did get it back, though."
There was that ghostly laughter from Kreia again. "Nope, turns out I didn't. See, I take it from the people around me, like a parasite. I don't actually touch the Force at all. I'm just like that Sith we ran into on Espol, and we're apparently dangerous as hell. One of my traveling companions had big plans for me, was going to use me to destroy the Force entirely. A lot people died trying to stop her, people I loved, people who wouldn't have been following me if I hadn't made those—connections—with them. And now we find that I'm not the only one of these—these abominations. There's other ones out there, and maybe they're further gone than me, or maybe they were Sith to begin with. But other than orientation, there's no difference between us. I have to stop them, us, all of this before it tears up the Force beyond repair."
Dustil considered her words for several long moments as he slowly drank his whiskey. Finally he asked, "Did you tell Case about this?"
Pellek rolled her eyes. "Why, so she could help me? She's helped me enough, thanks. I don't need a Sith Lord to fix my mistakes."
If she had hoped to get a rise out of Dustil, she was disappointed. "Then what are you going to do?" he asked quietly.
"I'm going to help you destroy those holocrons on Telos. They're all connected, you see. If we destroy one, we'll break the cycle. The rest of them must be destroyed, too, but destroying one should be enough to disrupt the Sith for a while."
"Is that all you're going to do?" Dustil asked.
No. "Yes," Pellek said. "That's all." She picked up her glass. "Now get out of here and let me finish my drink in peace."
Dustil looked at her closely and she could feel him poking around at her with the Force. She blocked him out easily. With a final glance, he got up and went back to the cockpit. "I'll tell you when it's your watch," he said.
"You got it, kid." Pellek raised her glass in salute and settled back in her chair. She closed her eyes and thought about Mira.
"Are you out of your damn mind?" Carth shouted into his comm. Looking back up, he waved along the last of the evacuees toward the hill shelters. The fleeing Vintari were frightened but followed the evacuation procedure without panic. "Let's go, people!" he called.
"The prison should be largely unguarded if Startol is busy attacking you," replied Case's tinny voice back over his comm. "This may be our only chance to get the prisoners out of there—if Tepai and Startol's plan to destroy the Resistance fails, they may decide to kill the prisoners rather than risk the Republic finding out about them."
"You don't know the camp is unguarded," he responded, eyes now on the shadow of the approaching attack force, still several klicks away. "Just you and Bastila against how many armed forces? That's not a plan—that's a suicide mission!"
Case's transmission was fading rapidly as her speeder went out of range. "Frack, Carth, if we don't get those people out of prison and get them to help us, everyone in the Resistance camp will be killed. We don't have a choice."
Carth could think of several responses pointing out Case's questionable logic, but he knew none of them would result in her returning to the camp. He clenched his jaw hard and then simply said, "Be careful. We'll be waiting for you when you come back." Don't leave me again, beautiful.
He could almost hear her smile. "Force be with you, love," she said. "I'll see you soon."
"Admiral!" Limae called and Carth forced his attention back to the battle at hand. He jogged over to where she was standing with Tykhol, Gellan, and several armed Vintari. She reported in Vintari and then again in Basic for his benefit, "Royei and children go with Hala and three defenders toward last camp. We are ready."
Carth nodded, glancing again toward the horizon and the approaching force. Their plans to make a dual attack on the city were broken now, preempted by Startol's attack on them. All they could do at this point was keep as many fighters alive as possible and hope that Case would be successful in the city. It would not be an easy task. "All right, here's what we have. Those airships are just for support—they'll use the ships' heat sensors to find us under the tree canopy, but they won't risk killing all of us by using any of the ships' heavy weaponry—they want the Force users for their prison. Tykhol, you go with your squadron and make sure that the fires we set keep burning—we have to mask our heat signatures as much as possible."
Tykhol touched his forehead quickly to Limae's and then peeled away with a handful of Vintari. Carth saw Limae's headfur turn briefly gray, then back to its normal color. Carth continued, "Remember, sonic weapons first to disrupt their Force shields, then Force attacks. Use your weapons only as a last resort before falling back. We have three defensible positions to fall back to before we hit the last camp."
Limae glared at the troops. "No Force Heal," she barked. "Force for offense only. No surrender."
Carth saluted them. They knew failure would result in death or a prison sentence. "We have to win this one. Good hunting."
They broke into three groups of five and positioned themselves in the trees beyond the camp. From where he crouched, blaster ready, Carth could see Limae's group and the group of her second. Gellan kneeled beside him, eyes on the clearing through the trees. Carth noted with some concern the absence of fear in the young man's eyes. Fear kept soldiers alive.
Startol entered the camp with thirty other soldiers, glancing at the burning buildings suspiciously. Carth could hear the airships hovering above the high trees but as he expected, no attack came from above. The soldiers' speeders would be parked beyond the far clearing where the undergrowth became too thick for them to pass without a scout.
"Only thirty?" Gellan whispered beside him. "I thought we expected twice that many."
Carth nodded uneasily. There had been too many speeders for just thirty soldiers. "Some of them stayed behind or went around another direction," he whispered back. He spoke into his wrist comm, "Limae, take a couple of your team around to our flanks and make sure we're not being boxed in. I don't like the way these numbers look."
When he looked back up, Startol and his men were in position. Carth held a hand in the air and counted down on his fingers. When he made a fist, grenades flew from all directions to land amongst the attackers with loud pops. Shields shimmered orange and went down. "Now!" Carth shouted.
Chaos erupted as the soldiers fired in all directions to find the source of the ambush. The Resistance fighters threw shields of their own, along with the boulders and tree limbs they had stacked for ready Force projectile use. Startol's soldiers started to panic, especially when their fellow fighters were flipped off their feet or frozen into place.
Carth concentrated on ducking the blaster bolts that came his way and firing the occasional shot to keep the city soldiers off balance. He had never fought with so many Force users before, and it was pretty exhilarating. At this rate, the battle would be theirs before they even fell back to their first rear position. His soldier instincts whispered to him that this was too easy.
The soldiers stopped their fire, looking expectantly back to Startol. "Something's wrong," Gellan said beside him just as Carth's whispered instincts began shouting.
Through his binocs, Carth could see two Vintari coming out of the far clearing, backed by another twenty or thirty soldiers. The sun glinted down on the lead Vintari and Carth caught the flash of something metal around their necks. He realized a second later what was about to happen. "Fall back!" he shouted. "Fall ba—"
The air seemed to jerk around him and tighten into a wall that held all of his muscles frozen. He couldn't move, could barely breathe, and his words died in his throat. Stasis, he knew. Of all the damnable Force powers, nothing made him feel more helpless than a damn Stasis field. Around him, Carth saw Resistance fighters frozen as they turned to flee. Gellan was trapped in a Stasis field beside him, hand still out to throw another Force attack.
His headfur nearly black, Startol stepped into the center of the clearing. "Find them," he ordered his soldiers. "Put collars on them all and bring them back to the city."
Damn, damn, damn, Carth cursed mentally and tried to jerk himself free, knowing it was useless. Even Bastila and Case had a hard time getting out of Stasis fields—these half-trained Force Adepts didn't have a chance. They were trapped.
Bastila was flat on her belly in the tall grass, watching the city walls through the binocs. There appeared to be four sentries on duty, one on either side of the wide gate and two who circled the perimeter every fifteen minutes or so.
"Well?" Case asked impatiently. "Can we get in or not?"
Bastila relayed the sentry situation, ignoring Case's brusqueness. She knew it was hard for the woman to rely on others for basic things like holding and adjusting the binocs. "We should be able to enter the city without much trouble," she said. "But we must do it without alerting them inside."
Case grinned, clenching and unclenching her fists. "That should be no problem for a couple of old hands like us, right?"
Case Boosted them toward the city, keeping them moving too fast for the gate guards to see. Before the guards even had time to shout, Case wrapped them in Stasis fields and Bastila finished them with her blade. Bastila took a brief moment to mourn their deaths—they could not afford to leave them alive to be found, but the guards no doubt had families and friends who would never see them again.
By unspoken agreement, Bastila went left around the building while Case went right. She kept close to the wall and lightened her step with the Force, feeling ahead for the sentry. She kept bouncing against his Force shield and so she nearly ran into him as she turned the corner. He got a quick shot off that she barely had time to block before she impaled him with her blade. Bastila followed the wall around to find Case standing over the other guard. The Vintari was obviously dead.
"How did you do it without your blade?" Bastila asked, almost dreading the answer. Light side powers were largely defensive, and to attack, Case would have had to use a Dark power.
Case raised an eyebrow. "With a rock," she said dryly, levitating one nearby to demonstrate.
Bastila flushed and continued past Case toward the gate. Even after all this time, she questioned Case's motives. Perhaps she should spend more of that time examining herself instead of suspecting her colleague. They arrived at the gate and Bastila looked up at it thoughtfully, trying to determine the best way to get in. She had thought she could jump it with the Force, but looking at it towering above her, she wasn't sure she could.
Case walked around her to the center of the gate. "You know, they say that Revan used to be able to walk through walls," she said, looking closely at the latch.
"That is ridiculous," Bastila scoffed. "The Force isn't magic."
A spark leapt from Case's hand and the lock clicked open. "Well, it takes a lot of energy, anyway," she said. She winked at Bastila and pushed open the gate. "After you."
Bastila slid around Case and entered the courtyard. It was a short walk to the compound. She was gratified to see half of the speeders that had been there before gone. It meant at least some of the guards were no longer here. "Remember that they can detect use of the Force," she whispered to Case. She extended her Force senses very tightly around her and reached just into the other side of the compound. Finding no one inside, she palmed open the door and walked into the cool hallway.
The feeling of oppression from tens of collars came at her from all sides, and Bastila had to force herself to keep walking. I am not a prisoner here, she repeated to herself. They passed the collection rooms and made their way to the end of the hall where the first of the holding areas was located. They passed only one Vintari along the way, easily dispatched.
Bastila glanced in the window and saw no guards in the room where she had been a prisoner only two weeks before. She sliced the lock with her blade and entered the room with Case close on her heels. There were eight sentients in the common area and Bastila sensed two more down the hall in the living quarters.
"Ready?" Case whispered behind her. Bastila nodded. Case stepped forward. "Okay, listen up, people," she said loudly. The sentients glanced up at her. "We're here to rescue you, but we need your help to get out of here. When we get your collars off, you can either come with us and help us rescue the rest of the prisoners here, or you can run for the door in the east end and try to make it on your own. You're much less likely to die if you keep with us. Everyone got it?" Case concentrated, and Bastila could feel her drawing the Force to her, then releasing it in a strong burst. With a pop, all the sentients' collars came open.
Smiles and looks of wonder crossed the sentients' faces as the Force came back to them. Bastila stretched her Force senses and felt the beginning of alarm somewhere in the compound. "We must leave," she announced to the room.
"Okay, let's go, everyone." Case started toward the door, then stopped when she realized no one was following her. She shot Bastila a puzzled look and turned back to the room. She repeated her explanation in Twi'leki, Huttese, and Vintari, but no one moved. "This is a problem," she muttered to Bastila.
Bastila looked around the room and saw the apathy and resignation on the sentients' faces. She bit her lip, realizing what was wrong with their plan—they had thought that the prisoners would welcome the chance to escape, but Bastila had forgotten—how had she forgotten?—the utter hopelessness and dejection that the constant taking of the Force created. These sentients barely had the will to live, much less escape. Hadn't she been in this very place days before? Hadn't she been ready to give up herself?
She spotted Sabanyl across the room, the Twi'lek who had won her rations in pazzak three days running. "Sabanyl," she called, "you have not given up, I know. Remember when I left, after they took Gellan? Remember that we did not come back? We escaped, Sabanyl, and you can escape, too. But only if you come quickly. We cannot stay much longer."
The Twi'lek blinked, as though coming awake, and recognition crossed her face. "I—I don't know, human. They'll kill us if we leave."
Case looked out in the hallway, then back inside. "Bastila, we have to move. If these sentients won't come with us, we have to try another room."
Bastila knew they had to leave, could feel the fear rising along the back of her neck. She could not let them capture her again. But she couldn't just abandon these prisoners. "Sabanyl, please," she said. "You'll die if you stay, you know that. You're safer with us." No Persuasion, no Force, just the determination in her voice.
The moment dragged on forever, and then, "Yes. I will come with you." The Twi'lek yanked the collar off and let it drop to the ground.
Bastila smiled. "Come quickly," she urged, following Case out of the room, Sabanyl and two other prisoners behind her.
They had more success in the other rooms, finding more recent and less resigned prisoners. Their group grew from four to ten to fifteen, including two young padawans the Order had classified as deceased. The crowd trailed Bastila and Case down the long hallway toward the exit.
They had almost reached the exit when Case jerked to a halt and threw up her arms, projecting a shield around the entire group. A second later, a storm of lightning flew at them, seemingly from nowhere. Bastila startled as the energy crashed into Case's shield with a deafening pop. The shield held and Bastila could feel stray hairs stand up on her head as the energy crackled harmlessly around them.
The Force sensitives muttered amongst themselves. Bastila frowned and stretched her Force senses forward to find the source of the attack. It was close and coming closer, but it was far more powerful than she had expected. She glanced at Case, who was warily lowering the Force shield. "That was more than Tepai could do," Bastila said.
Case nodded, eyes still on the hallway before them. The exit was only fifty meters away, but Bastila knew the prisoners would be vulnerable outside in the courtyard if Tepai had soldiers waiting for them. "That was a master-level attack, and Tepai isn't sufficiently trained for that. Something odd is going on here," Case said. She raised her voice. "Okay, people, here's what we're going to do. There are speeders outside the door in the courtyard--on my mark, run for the door, and don't look back. We'll be right behind you. Now go!"
The prisoners made for the door ahead with Case and Bastila following more slowly behind. Bastila could feel Tepai getting closer and she held her breath as one prisoner after another slipped through the doorway. Just three more. . .two. . .one. . .
"Look out!" the last prisoner shouted, skidding to a halt just outside of the building. Over his shoulder, Bastila could see Vintari soldiers gathering in the courtyard, surrounding the prisoners. Bastila ignited her lightsaber, but the door slammed shut before she reached it. She tugged it futilely, knowing it was sealed with the Force.
She was trapped again. Terror gripped Bastila's throat as she turned to face the hallway. Case stood next to her, hands glowing with the Force and projecting improbable calm. "We've gotten out of worse, Bas," she said. The woman glanced at her and grinned, but Bastila could feel the desperation under the bravado, the worry for the prisoners outside. Case feared this place, too.
Tepai emerged from around the corner, accompanied by two Vintari in collars. Case threw a strong Force Push that knocked the collared Vintari over, but it slid around Tepai. The Vintari smiled minutely. "Greetings, Bastila Shan, Case Lanatal. I did not expect to see either of you so soon."
Bastila saw the Force collection cube in Tepai's hands. The two Vintari prisoners got to their feet and stood protectively in front of her. "She's taking the Force from those two Vintari and using it herself," she said quietly to Case.
"Indeed," Tepai responded. "These two volunteered their power in defense of our people, like the ones who went with Startol to your camp."
Bastila jerked in a breath and heard Case do the same. The camp wasn't prepared for Force attacks, the adepts weren't powerful enough. . .
Tepai seemed to know what she was thinking. "I'm sure they have all been captured by now. Startol will kill the ones who resist. I hope you live long enough, Bastila Shan, to see me kill Gellan Mar."
Another blast of lightning came toward them, and Bastila hastily raised her hands to create a shield. Her shield was late, and the lightning found its way through to scorch her side. She hissed, but the pain seemed to clear some of the panic from her brain. Bastila realized in that moment that she would not be a prisoner again. She would die first. The knowledge gave her strength, and she felt a grin to match Case's spread across her lips.
"Ready for this?" Case asked.
"Absolutely," Bastila replied.