Chapter 6
Drake groaned slightly as the scorching sunlight was bearing down on him as he caught what little breath he had left, wiping the sweat from his brow. Being in the Dune seas at noon of a Tatooine day was no-one's idea of a good time. He saw Bastila and Juhani in similar states. In some ways he envied HK as the droid seemed impervious to the heat.
The desert hadn't been a smooth ride for them to say it mildly First they had to save some washed up hunter from an intricate and, to its credit, ingenious death trap set by his own wife. Drake had less sympathy for the man then he let on, since the man had been sleeping with another woman behind his wife's back.
Maybe I should've left him like Bastila said Bastila had been rather reluctant to aid the fellow. Than again he had tried his luck at smooth talking her, something Drake had taken great exception to, for reason he couldn't fathom.
The sand crawler had been worse. About half a minute after he'd started conversing with the miners sheltering there, the sand people launched an attack. Having little choice Drake and his party defended them from the attack. However Drake had emerged with a deep gash along his right arm, taking away part of the sleeve to his jacket. Drake had healed the wound and got some pay back by destroying the Sand person's gaffi staff.
Bastila looked over at Drake, judging his condition. She found herself gazing at him a little longer than she intended. Drake's powerful, athletic build fascinated her to say the least. He was not overly or massively muscular; he was long, lean and slender with no massive bulk to his frame. His hands, while not too large were slightly bigger than her own, and she knew how deadly they could be. Every movement Drake performed carried an air of confidence, cunning and precision, contradicting his status as a Jedi Guardian, who were meant to prefer the more straightforward approach. Drake would exhaust every other option before making an attack. When he did kill, it was out of necessity when he was threatened or in self-defence.
Drake noticed her staring and met her gaze with a twinkle in his eyes.
"See something you like?" Bastila blushed and looked away.
"I was just making sure you were alright" Bastila replied.
"Sure princess…" Bastila looked at him in annoyance.
"Why do you have to be so...so…"
"Male? Handsome?" Drake asked playfully.
"Male I think is the right word…" Bastila replied.
"Its in my nature…Just relax will ya?" Drake chuckled slightly as he procured some Tusken robes from one of the dead bodies. As he did so, Bastila noticed the tear in his sleeve. Beneath it lay a think black line, pigment if she wasn't mistaken. Bastila approached and tried to take a look. Drake saw her movement and covered the tear with his hand.
"What is that Drake?" Bastila inquired genuinely curious, Juhani had also seen it and also had an interested look in her eyes.
"It's nothing…" Drake replied quickly, he wasn't ready to say, not yet, not now.
"It has to be something if you react like this, come on you can tell us…" Juhani said softly.
Drake's cyan coloured eyes met hers, and both she and Bastila saw a fierce inner pain in his gaze.
"Not now…please?" his voice was almost pleading, Bastila could tell something was amiss but also realised whatever it was, she'd have to wait for him to come and tell her.
"Ok…I'm sorry" Drake smiled gratefully as he handed her a set of sand people robes. She took them with a frown
"Disguise…" she made an "ah" movement with her mouth. "Just slip them over the top of your clothes for now…I know it'll be hot but I'd prefer to be hot to stripping down in the middle of the desert: force knows what that'll attract…" Bastila laughed at his comment, as did Juhani. After a few moments all three had covered up any trace of their basic clothing. After helping each other the masks, they set off for the Tusken enclave.
After they reached the newer part of the rather unchanging and unappealing desert, they saw the large, monolith like structure that had to be the tribes home.
"Remember subtlety " he looked pointedly at Hk-47 as he said this, " don't get too close, but don't get too far away either, once we get inside we find the chieftain and negotiate with him…" Bastila and Juhani nodded. Following Drake's lead the four towards the enclave. He carefully measured the distance between him and the sand people guarding the outskirts as he walked very calmly towards the entrance. As he reached it he sighed in relief and then made his way inside.
Seeing a lone Tusken in front him, Drake made a point to walk around him. Unknown to him the Tusken had seen through his disguise and slowly pulled out a blaster rifle. As he walked through the right corridor, a blaster bolt whizzed passed him, missing by an inch. Before Drake could turn, a second more powerful shot could be heard and the Tusken crumpled as HK lowered his rifle. Drake ripped off his mask and glared at the Droid.
"HK! What part of "don't shoot unless I say so" didn't you understand?" Drake glared at the droid as he tore off the robes, leaving him in the clothes he'd been wearing underneath, as Bastila and Juhani did the same.
"Indignant Statement: Master! The meatbag was a threat to you! I was simply facilitating negotiations and terminating hostilities" Drake turned to see a large number of Sand people approaching all howling in their language angrily as they readied they staffs.
"We could still negotiate with them…" Bastila said hopefully readying her sabrestaff but not igniting it.
"Sand people are know for two things Bas…" Drake replied "one: only giving trespassers one chance to leave, two: killing any trespassers who don't leave…" A sand person took a swing at him. Drake ducked the attack and quickly activated his saber and cleaved the unfortunate soul through the kidney's killing him instantly.
"Well we've stirred up a Mynocks nest here…we don't have a choice…we have to fight…" Bastila nodded grimly as Juhani powered up her blue sabre. HK sent a blaster bolt right into a second Tusken as Bastila and Juhani defended themselves and Drake quickly began making his way to the Chieftains lair.
In short the battle there wasn't pretty. HK's actions at the gate had alerted the entire camp to their presence and they were forced to battle their way through the entire tribe, releasing a small group of Jawa's along the way. Drake's heart was heavy and grew heavier with each Tusken that fell either by his hand, or by one of the others, yet at the same time he grew angrier and angrier with them and the Tusken ways. Why did it come to this?
Felling one of the guards that stood guarding the final door, Drake opened the gate and almost immediately the chieftain attacked him. He easily avoided the attacks, as Bastila, Juhani and HK engaged the guards. Drake dodged a blow at his head but received a knee in the face for his efforts. Almost immediately the chiefs Gaffi staff thundered into his side, shattering one of his ribs. Drake flew to the ground with a yell.
Something inside him snapped, some animalistic rage engulfed him for a second, as the question of why hadn't the Tuskens allowed them a chance to explain screamed in his mind. Drake roared with rage and suddenly a bolt of bright blue Force lightning engulfed the chieftain who howled in agony as Bastila and Juhani turned to see the sight. The Tusken chief fell smouldering to the sand as Drake stood his chest heaving with his left hand outstretched.
Drake's eyes widened in shock, at the realisation of what just happened. He slowly brought his trembling hand back to his eyes and stared at it for a long moment. In one small movement, he had used the Dark Side to kill a living, breathing being, and not only that he'd just slaughtered an entire way of life, an entire race of people in self-defence.
Drake looked up to see Bastila looking at him. She had an expression of sympathy and fear mixed on her beautiful features as she glanced between him and the smoking corpse that had been the chieftain. Drake swallowed uncomfortably as he surveyed the body, taking the map of the Eastern Dunes from charred remains. No longer caring about Czerka's problems with the Tuskens and still very much in loathing of what he'd just done, Drake turned and slowly left the enclave followed by Bastila, Juhani and HK.
The journey back to the Hawk was a silent one. Drake silently brooding while Bastila watched him. She wasn't disappointed, more shocked and terrified at what had happened. Drake was the kindest and most humble man she'd ever had the pleasure of meeting, though their relationship at first was rocky at best. To see him do something so destruction was incredible and unthinkable at the same time. She sensed his inner turmoil and realised he was as terrified as she was.
On the Hawk, Drake secluded himself from the crew. Not wanting to trouble the others with his predicament at the moment, he meditated in the crew quarters. Bastila tried twice to see him but gave up when he didn't answer. Much later he exited the quarters and lowered the ramp so he could get some air.
It was night now, the moon and stars shining in the sky. Drake leant on the side of the ramp gazing up at the stars seeing the occasional shooting star zip across the dark carpet above him. It was noticeably cooler than it had been during the day, and Drake felt himself shiver slightly as the cool night breeze caressed his frame.
"Drake…" Drake jumped slightly and looked to his left to see Bastila approach him. She was wearing a nightgown, her Jedi robes over the top to keeping her warm. One thing he did notice was the fact her dark brunette hair was no longer up but was flowing freely across her shoulders. She looked indescribably beautiful and Drake found himself gazing at her.
"See something you like?" he looked up surprised at her playful tone and that she'd even let herself saying something so…well flirtatious. She had a sheepishly smile over her face as she approached.
"I'm afraid of what would happen if I said yes…" Drake replied just as playfully. Bastila actually gave slight giggle at this as she came and stood next to him. "Can't sleep?"
"No… neither can you obviously…" Bastila replied softly as she too looked up at the stars.
"Too much on my mind…" Drake uttered grimly
"The sand people?" she already knew the answer.
"Yeah…I don't even know what happened, one second I'm calm, the next I'm frying him with force lightning…how I don't know?" Drake sighed "Heh some Jedi I turned out to be…"
"Don't say that…" Bastila replied "you're a terrific Jedi, its only happened once…"
"But what if it happens again… and what if I do something more terrible next time…" Drake sighed again
"Drake…" Bastila said softly "I don't think there will be a next time…you have a tendency to learn from your mistakes so you'll learn from this one…" Bastila chose her words carefully "Drake when I first met you, I thought you were a joker, you seemed to never take anything seriously, but now after everything up to this point, I see you do take things seriously, sometimes too seriously like now…and I respect and admire you for that…" Drake looked at her almost in surprise.
"Really…I think I misjudged you too…" Bastila frowned slightly "I first you were well…stuck up to put it bluntly…" Bastila looked down somewhat embarrassed
"Well I am a little I suppose…"
"No just very determined and courageous…it sort of comes of as being stuck up, but I know now you're not…" Bastila blushed slightly.
"Well I was always told how excellent I was by my instructors…and I was sick of it…I was never any good at keeping my emotions in check…" she chuckled dryly "and here I lecture you about staying in control I need the lecture myself."
"Its only human…that's all we are…human" Drake reassured her, she smiled softly.
"Drake I just want you to know…I'm here for you as a friend."
"Just a friend?" Drake slapped himself mentally after he said this as Bastila looked down painfully.
"You know we can't…we're Jedi its not our way…even if we wanted to…we can't feel that way…" Bastila replied with hesitation, the truth was she was very intrigued if not attracted to Drake and she felt herself cringe inside as she spoke "if this is going to…
"No its alright…I'd like that as friends…" Drake replied with a smile. She returned it. "We should turn in…we've got a big day tomorrow…" she nodded, and before she realised it slipped her hand into his for a second giving it an affectionate squeeze, much to both of their surprise.
"Good night…" she whispered
"Sweet dreams…" Bastila realised his hand and left for the women's quarters as Drake turned and made his way to the male crew area. When he reached it and lay in his bunk, he tried to settle down to sleep.
While he did fall asleep, it was fitful and restless filled with pain and nightmares.
I know I skipped a few Bastila conversations, but I can't remember all of them, so I skipped them. Anyway you thoughts on this chapter please...