THEY ARE PRIMITIVES - Part 2
by ardavenport
Orliss looked at the image. It would have been better if they had sent some creatures, some intelligent beasts so that people would really grasp that they reaching beyond their own small world, beyond the Ithnun. People knew the tales, but that wasn't nearly as effective as meeting them in the flesh. The trade negotiators had been extraordinary. Two males, one with blue, the other with orange skin, no hair and amazing fleshy tails that hung down from the backs of their heads. One had his tails decorated with tattoos. He put his hand over an inner pocket of his coat where he kept the jeweled emblem that they had removed from one of them. They'd sent it's image to the Ithnun to prove that they had captured them.
Now these two invaders tore through all their defenses with unnatural skill and technology. Orliss walked toward the screen and stared at the weapon. The Dwen glared at him.
"Do you know what they are?" she demanded.
"I've never seen anything like them."
"That's not what I asked." She walked toward him; her low voice carried her authority of the Dwen-ship well. "You're the one with the far world education." Traskyuler reminded. "Have you heard of soldiers like these?"
"I was trained for a half-cycle for the service to the Ithnun Lords." He turned away from the image, the expression on his aging and handsome face angry. "They only let me know what they wanted me to know."
"What are they?" Traskyuler demanded.
Dani ran his hand through his graying blond hair. "I don't know," he affirmed. "But...they could be Jedi. They would have to have come from the Republic itself." He turned away from the screens and went back to the control table. He touched a couple of buttons and colored lights flashed; power hummed through the tilted metal surface under his hand. But the coms were dead, except for the hardwired ones that only went outside to the corridor and to the City Defender's command. Hopefully Folot and Abimado could fix things when they arrived. He stood at one of the three stations around the table, but the seats for the technicians were empty and the sensors, the droid controls, the power monitors were dead. He turned back to the Dwen.
Traskyuler stared at him, her back straight. "We should go, help with the search." She stepped away from the wall displays towards the door and gestured for him to follow. Leader Orliss looked shocked.
"We can't do anything out there," Dani complained, staying where he was. "It we could, you would have joined the fight already. Lieutenant Folot will be here in a minute. And I am not completely useless. I do know something about which buttons to push." Technicians did most of the work, but he had participated in all the drills.
"You look ridiculous standing there, Dani. We're under siege by two," she held up two accusing fingers, "exactly two people who are cutting us down to the land. They're destroying everything you've done. Now bring whatever you might know about these Jedi and come with me to fight them." She gestured impatiently toward the door again. He planted his feet and stubbornly stayed, his handsome, lined face determined.
"We can't beat them with weapons. But if we can find them, just talk to them...the Jedi, they're supposed to be honorable. It's possible..." he entreated his fellow leader; an idea began to form in his mind. "But I don't know what they'll do if they find out that the negotiators are already dead."
The Dwen glared at him. Puzzled, Traskyuler opened his mouth to ask what she though she could do running blindly about in the corridors looking for –
A sudden flash and powerful hum cut the air around him. A line of green flashed overhead, blue-white immediately to his right.
Leader Dani Orliss cringed forward, his hand breaking the covering and pressing down on the one control button that he really did know something about.
The door to the auxiliary command room slammed down with terrifying speed and a booming alarm sounded. Heavy machinery started up outside. Orliss froze, the palm of his hand scratched on the broken plastic plate. An eerie blue glow hovered immediately to his right, but his eyes stayed fixed to his left. The being whose image he had just been looking at spun and crouched. One of the Dwen's knives whirled crazily in the air away from him, hitting a wall and clattering to the ground.
Tras missed?
The light sword swung about, catching other knives. They sizzled, hissed and fell away like insects caught by a static charge. The image on the screen had hardly conveyed the deadly, electric hum of that weapon, rising and falling in volume as it moved toward the Dwen, along with the speed and terrifying precision of it's owner. One swipe toward her ankles threw her off balance and she went down. She immediately rolled, a new, curved throwing knife in her hand.
The blue glow, now behind him, moved.
"No!!" Orliss threw himself out, away from the controls. His body turned and he threw his arm out to catch the swing coming down on Tras. He caught a glimpse of a shocked expression on a young face. In that fraction of a second he thought of what a stupid move he'd just made. Not only would that light sword cut his arm off, it would continue on to slice his body in half and still behead Tras.
But the blow never fell. The blue light whipped upward, only grazing his upper arm. But 'only' a graze was searing pain coupled with the smell of ozone and burnt cloth and flesh. He screamed. And fell onto the Dwen.
Obi-Wan Kenobi looked down at his near miss, the tip of his lightsaber pointing right at the terrified man's face. His Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, held the end of his lightsaber even closer to the woman's eyes. She was fast, an experienced warrior. But hand weapons were even slower than blaster bolts and childishly easy to anticipate and deflect. She did not flinch under Qui-Gon cool gaze.
The man moaned, sliding to the floor and the woman broke her eye contact to catch him. Both Jedi pulled their weapons away, but they did not move back.
A large booming echoed and the alarm outside became muffled. Something heavy had lowered into place. Qui-Gon whirled and went to the door. He plunged his lightsaber into the metal and with both hands on the hilt, he started to carve out a large, glowing circle in the now sizzling metal. The two people on the floor watched, stunned.
When Qui-Gon had nearly completed his circle of melted metal he stepped back. Palm out, he Force pushed the circle and it clanged to the ground outside. He peered into the hole. Obi-Wan could see a wall of stone beyond it.
Obi-Wan sensed the motion before seeing it and the end of his lightsaber came down on the muzzle of the blaster that the woman had just drawn. She looked at the remaining end of the blaster in her hand with disgust.
"Useless," she said, scowling at it before tossing it aside.
Qui-Gon saw the aborted attack and came back from the door. He looked down at the two that they were now imprisoned with. He did not know who they were, but he presumed that they were of some rank. The woman wore a pale yellow version of the same outfit that many of the fighters that they'd encountered wore. The man's green and dark orange embroidered velvet suit reminded him of the sort of costume that senators on Coruscant preferred.
The woman helped the man to slide away from them on the floor so that he could sit with his back to the wall. He wasn't badly hurt, but lightsaber burns were painful. He watched her ease the man's outer jacket off and he gritted his teeth and helped, clearly determined not to cry out again. She glanced at Qui-Gon with her own look of challenge in her eye.
Qui-Gon inclined his head to his apprentice and Obi-Wan stepped back toward him.
"We may be delayed. And we do not wish to be observed." He pointed up at a ring of cameras above the center control bay of the room. "I will look for another exit, but be mindful of those two, Obi-Wan. The woman is clearly dangerous, but the man may have abilities as well." Obi-Wan nodded and Qui-Gon began to search along the along the walls.
Obi-Wan looked at the cameras and gathered the Force to him. He activated his lightsaber and leaped in the air. Sparks flew, electronics squealed as he hit the first one. He landed lightly and turning to his next target he sprang up again. The cameras were spaced far enough apart so he had to leapt to get each one while still being careful not to hit the yellow and white lights next to them.
The two Humans by the wall stared at him with undisguised astonishment, though the woman's expression had a more calculating look to it. She would attack again if she thought she could succeed. Obi-Wan carefully did not look directly at them, but he noticed. The room they were in seemed to be some kind of reinforced command post with it's own power supply. The floor and ceiling were solid, the walls formed from solid blocks, probably as thick as they were wide.
Obi-Wan went to his Master who was inspecting the perimeter. The room was roughly circular, with a central information bay in the middle and various equipment storage and data stations along the walls. A large map of the whole fortress dominated one wall. They couldn't read much of the displayed text, but it seemed related to some languages they knew and the diagrams were easy enough to interpret.
Qui-Gon went to the map. He experimentally touched a lighted control under the map, then another. The map and the screens blinked and suddenly all the text became a readable form of Basic.
"Ah." Qui-Gon sounded satisfied with his discovery of the translation option. All the technology on this world was standard and smuggled from other parts of the galaxy. But it only confirmed what they already knew; there was only one exit to the room they were trapped in, the door that was now blocked.
End Part 2