Jennet
He's done it, was my first thought when we broke free of Bastila's mind. Then I felt his utter stillness, and wanted to go insane.
"Canderous!" I shrieked, and threw myself on his body. "Dammit, no, no, no! Get back here, fight it, damn you!"
I saw Jarxel approaching, and barked at him. "Cover Bastila, damn it!" I was wild with terror, but couldn't allow Bastila one inch of slack; somewhere, my mind was split, and part of it was still functioning, assessing the greater need.
But I was going to kill her slow myself if Canderous was gone.
"Help me!" I screamed, and suddenly, Ladria and Stefan were there, clasping hands with me, focusing on the still form of my Mate. I ruthlessly grabbed every bit of energy I could muster from all three of us, and dove without hesitation into Canderous' mind.
Stefan gave me power. Ladria gave me focus. I used them to battle into the darkness that had taken my Canderous. I felt as if I were swimming through the blood of the Hutt I had killed; rank and thick. Somewhere ahead, there was a spark I recognized, and I reached for it.
I'm sorry, Wildcat, I heard, and I wanted to cry. Get out of here; I can't do that twice. Better you live than me.
The hell with that, I said, and grabbed him with everything I was.
In the midst of the madness, I felt my friends gather, and throw me a shining cord of light. I grabbed at it, hauling the spark that was my world, my life, the other part of my soul after me. And awareness hit me again.
He was breathing, and suddenly gasped and sat up with a jerk. I went limp with relief.
"I'm sorry," I sobbed, throwing my arms around him. "I shouldn't have risked you like that. My fault, I'm so sorry. But you did it, you're safe, we're safe, oh shit I almost killed you, don't do that…"
The slap he dealt me rocked my head back and I shut up, stunned, clasping a hand to my cheek in reflex, but my hysteria was abruptly gone.
"I'm okay, Wildcat," Canderous growled, and I started to cry.
"My fault," I wailed.
"No," he said firmly, gathering me close and holding me still. "My choice. You think I would have let you do that alone?"
"I don't even know what I did," I said miserably. "Or if it worked."
"It did," Visas spoke with conviction. "Imperfectly, but I think I got enough to at least give us a start where Revan is. Nothing else of use, at the moment," she added softly. "But given time, we might be able to make some sense of things."
"Let's focus here, people," Jolee barked. "Sith warship, remember? Canderous, can you move?"
He nodded, and stood up. I was clinging like a barnacle to him. He let me hold him for another moment, then set me on my feet.
"Cyar'ika, I'm fine," he rumbled. "You didn't even feel your healing go off, did you? Whatever happened, I'm okay now. We have more important things to worry about."
I stood straighter, ashamed at my lack of control. I'd never lost it before in a crisis; I sure as hell didn't want to start now. Wryly, I admitted it was too late; I'd broken my streak when I thought I'd killed Canderous. But I was okay now.
"Right," I said, taking a deep breath and looking around the circle of our friends. "What do we do with Bastila? Is she alive?" I asked as an afterthought.
"Yes," Disciple reported. "But comatose. I wouldn't trust that, though."
"Any chance we can get anything more out of her?" Carth asked quietly.
"Slim to none," Ladria said with certainty. "I'm not even sure what we did get."
"There's no time to sort it out now," Canderous pointed out. "We need to get to that warship."
"We can't take her with us, and we can't trust either the stasis unit or that her bonds will hold," I said softly. "And we know she can't be turned back; if Revan couldn't, there's not a chance in hell we'll manage."
Before anyone could stop me, I snagged the lightsaber Bastila had held to my throat off the table. Five steps and one quick slash, and Bastila was gone.
"I've killed for mercy before," I said calmly, looking around at my suddenly silent and shocked friends. "I hope she finds peace."
"That," said Stefan in a deadly voice, "was murder."
"No," said Canderous, equally deadly, "It was necessary. You felt what she was. I'm only sorry that I didn't do it."
I could have spared you that, Canderous said softly in my mind. You should have let me.
No, I answered. I couldn't.
"If anyone has any problem with my solution, go ahead and kill me now," I said, looking each of the Jedi in the eye. "I won't stop you. There's a Sith ship on its way; make up your minds."
"They'll have to kill me first," Canderous snapped, stepping in front of me.
No one spoke for a long moment, but Canderous, Carth, Atton, Mira and Jolee all stared back at me calmly. Finally, one by one, everyone else looked up and nodded.
"Jedi don't execute their captives," Ladria said quietly. "And until now, I thought that was wise. I can't say I totally agree with you, but it's done, and we have a mission."
"I'm not a Jedi," I said, equally quietly.
"There's where you're wrong," Stefan said unexpectedly. "You always have been. The Order doesn't really decide that, you know; they just find and train Jedi. The first time I held you as a baby, I knew what you were. And I'm sorry."
"For what?" I asked, mystified.
"Killing Bastila wasn't murder," he said, his blue eyes steadily holding mine. "I shouldn't have said that. It was mercy. That has always been your strength. It was her only release from the torment she had brought on herself. Given time, we might have healed her. But time is something that's never in as much supply as we need. It always runs out."
I nodded. "Yes," I said simply. There was a world of meaning there that I didn't have time to deal with.
Jolee broke in, impatient. "We gonna debate ethics, or are we gonna kick some Sith ass?"
"I vote kicking ass," Mira said brightly.
"Okay" Canderous said, touching my arm. "We have way too many chiefs here, so I'm going to make this simple. You Jedi can sort out your own chain of command as we fly. Jennet and I will take as many of our men as we can fit onto this ship and head to the warship. You all take the Ebon Hawk and meet us there, with as many soldiers as you can pack in. Carth, I know you'll want in on this fight, but I need you down here to lead the rest of the troops if we fail."
"Fuck that," he snapped. "Captain Bard is more than capable. I'm going with the Jedi."
"Fine," Canderous said coolly. "Arrange it. Visas, how far out are the Sith?"
"As far as I can tell, two hours from orbit," she said.
"All right. We leave in twenty minutes. Jarxel, coordinate with Captain Bard on the evacuation of the non combatants. We can't fit all the Mandalorians on board; I need you to lead the rest if the Sith get through. Send the best we've got to me. Have a detail come by to collect Bastila's remains of there's time."
"Aye, Mandalore," Jarxel saluted, and strode off, the Elders in his wake.
"Zuka, Kex, take the body out of here. All of you," he indicated the honor guard, "Grab your gear and be back in ten minutes. We'll suit up on the way. Anyone have any thoughts on how to blow that fucking Sith ship out of the sky?"
"What about proton bombs?" I asked, thinking of the Ravager.
"We don't have the materials, and can't count that we'll find any on board," Canderous said flatly.
"I could probably overload their engines," Bao Dur said thoughtfully. "The infiltrating program might give me the codes. Even without that, I should be able to manage it."
"I could help," Mission said. "I can crack any computer in the galaxy, and engineering is my specialty."
"Could you do it on your own?" Canderous asked.
"Sure," she said positively. "Engines are engines anywhere, and computers talk to me."
"Good," Canderous said in his command voice. "You fly with us, then. We get on board, meet up in the engine room, and whoever gets there first starts the overload with the rest of us covering. I need both of you to explain to everyone what needs to be done so that if something happens to you, we can execute the plan. Any questions?"
No one had any.
The Mandoa warriors arrived, lugging their gear, Jarxel at their head.
"I told you I needed you here," Canderous growled.
"You told me to send the best," Jarxel said. "I left Kumas in charge, and in all likelihood the fight won't get to Dxun."
"One of these days you might actually follow an order," Canderous said, resigned, and pointed him on board.
Dustil was with them, flatly refusing to leave Mission, and both Jolee and Stefan insisted that a couple of Jedi in our party might be useful. Canderous didn't bother to argue, and soon we were in the air, speeding toward the Sith ship. I didn't have time to be nervous. I slipped into our cabin where I quickly strapped on my armor and weapons, Canderous doing the same. We barely spoke. The Phoenix and the Ebon Hawk were both much faster than a warship; we estimated intercepting it within a half hour. We made our way to the cockpit, motioning Mission to come along. Dustil followed, with Stefan and Jolee right behind.
"Sith vessel ahead, Mandalore," Dax reported as we came in. "The jamming is working beautifully."
"We getting any data?" Canderous asked.
Mission was already at the computer, scanning the screen and tapping away. "Got it!" she crowed. "Docking codes transmitting."
We waited a tense minute, and them Mission said, "I'm getting landing transmissions. Transferring them to navigation now. Oh…" she trailed off, a broad smile on her face. "This is sweet," she said smugly. She dug a datapad out of her pocket and plugged it in to the computer interface.
"What?" Canderous asked impatiently.
"They use an automatic preflight system to fire up all transports and fighters on board," she said gleefully. "It's tied to the main computer system so all a pilot has to do is jump in and fly."
"So…." Canderous said, a light in his eye. "You can overload that?"
"Give the man a cigar," Mission quipped. "I can make every ship in this place dead in the water."
"From here?" I asked.
"Unfortunately, no," Mission said. "And I'm needed in the engine room anyway. But get me to any computer that's tied to the mainframe and it's done."
"What about escape pods?" Canderous demanded.
"They're on a secondary system, but that will be easy," Mission promised.
"Good girl," he said approvingly. "Do it as soon as you can. Is there a manual override?"
"Of course, they're not complete idiots," Mission said dismissively. "But I got that covered. I can fry the circuit that controls it too. Enough time, I can make it go boom when they try to switch over." She had been busily loading more datapads as they talked, and tossed one to each of us. "I downloaded the ship schematics," she said, grinning. "So we don't get lost."
We landed, Dax powered down, and everyone crowded to the garage, the men spilling into the halls. Canderous, Mission, Dustil, Jolee, Jarxel and Stefan and I were at the door, the honor guard right behind us. Canderous turned toward the mass of warriors.
"Men, protect the Twi'lik woman at all costs," he barked, raising his hand over Mission. "She's instrumental in keeping us from being pursued, and killing every fucking Sith on this ship. But don't worry; there will be plenty to go around."
"Aye, Mandalore!" roared the crowd.
"Let's do this," he snarled, and gave the order to open the hatch.