CHAPTER EIGHT: PURSUIT
Sliding around the corner, Carth barely managed to strap on his blaster holster and throw on his jacket before skidding down the loading ramp of the Ebon Hawk. Landing with a loud thump he took off at a sprint, barreling through the blast doors of the docking bay and out into the Telosian streets. Digging his heels into the dusty earth he accelerated until he was running full force. He darted through the early morning shadows, chasing a dark silhouette in the distance.
"Revan!" he hollered after her, but then thought better of it. The Telosian people hadn't been quick to forgive the former dark lord for the destruction of their planet."Alora!" he called instead.
Revan had been looking through the ship for Canderous one moment and barreling out the Hawk the next, mumbling something about a disturbance. Carth dodged through a small crowd lined up by the medical facility, losing complete sight of Revan.
Dammit.
Sweat began to trickle down his face as he continued to sprint, attempting to regain some of the lost ground. It was almost useless. Revan was quick, but he was certain she was hastening her speed through the force. Carth came to an abrupt halt, looking wildly around him. The path in front of him split into an intersection, offering him three separate directions of travel.
"Alora!" he screamed uselessly.
Listening intently for footsteps, echoes, anything to give him a clue, he bent over slightly, attempting to catch his breath while he decided which direction to go.
He looked to his left, staring down a dim alleyway. Something in his gut told him to take this street, but he knew it would bring him around the main streets instead of directly through them, and he was somehow almost certain that Revan had headed straight, directly through the main streets toward the old military base.
He glanced to his left, then back to the center street.
Carth didn't have to think twice. Ignoring his instincts he lengthened his strides, dashing down the main streets and into the Market District. Large crowds were already forming in the square and as the day wore on they would only get thicker. The District had been swift to rebuild and was just about the only place to get supplies on Telos. Without missing a beat, Carth dodged through the people, swiveling between two children who soon began chasing after him.
"Mister!" the oldest one called.
Carth acted as if he didn't notice, hoping that without encouragement they would get bored with the pursuit. He pushed himself harder, now trying to outrun them. Perceiving it as a game the children sped up, laughing as the younger one pulled ahead.
"It is Commander Onasi!" he could hear the smaller one yell, "I told you so!"
Finally, Carth made it out of the Market District and into a lesser-developed area of the city. Unlike the District, the silence here was so overwhelming it seemed as if this section of the city was still fast asleep. The only sounds came from three pairs of feet clamoring through the street and the echoes made as the noise resonated from building to building.
Suddenly, Carth's young competitors came to an abrupt halt, stirring up dust as they slid to a stop. Glimpsing at them, he saw expressions of absolute terror on their faces. Placing his right hand over his blaster, he moved in front of them and stood protectively. On the other side of the village square stood six dark Jedi, each with a lightsaber dangling at their side. Assessing the situation Carth realized his first and foremost concern would be to get these children out of here alive.
Once again falling in line with the children, Carth stepped back, never taking his eyes off the Sith. He sunk to one knee directly between them, gently pulling them closer so that they could hear him.
"When I tell you, I want you to run back the way we came as fast as you can, okay?"
The children nodded in compliance.
"And no matter what, don't turn back. Just keep running, okay?
"Okay," the oldest one whispered and grabbed the hand of the younger, who was still nodding.
Carth looked reassuringly at them, "Okay. Not until I say."
He rose, lifting himself back to both feet. Focus. Taking in a deep breath, he grabbed his blasters, stepping forward away from the children. Aiming, he fired several shots as a bolt of sheer electricity struck him. Searing pain coursed throughout his body and Carth fell to his knees, writhing.
Within moments the torture ended. Shaking his head to clear his hazy vision, Carth slowly regained his balance and rose, standing shakily. He recovered his senses, aiming his blaster once again. One of the Sith lay on the ground unmoving as the other five quickly advanced toward him. One down. He fired hastily, but each bolt bounced off of their lightsabers and flew in random directions throughout the square. He could never survive a close range attack against them with just two blasters. He wished now more than ever for a vibroblade. Or a Jedi or two, he thought wryly.
Uselessly, he rapidly fired once again. The Sith seemed to mock him.. They easily deflected his aggressive attempts, the distance between them ever minimizing. Carth backed away slowly, still shooting repeatedly. He took two steps, three, then stepping back once more his foot stumbled and he fell, crashing to the ground. The Sith swiftly made use of his misfortune and completely surrounded him. Jumping back to his feet, Carth glanced down to see what he had stumbled over, a look of sheer horror falling across his face. He wasn't the only one that had been struck by Force lightning. Carth had never told the children to run.
The Sith advanced toward him, but the dark Jedi didn't strike. They circled him, toying with their prey.
"Alive," the leader reiterated to the others.
"I would rather kill him," another Sith said, inching toward Carth, twirling his ignited saber from hand to hand.
Carth's mind reeled. There were worse situations he'd been caught in, but not by much. He had been trained to fight unequal battles, but he had gotten so use to having two or three Jedi fighting at his side that he couldn't remember the last time he'd been thrown these kinds of odds. Tiring of the argument, the Sith directly in front of him reared his lightsaber back and Carth winced, waiting for the impending blow. As he heard the lightsaber whirring towards him a thousand fleeting images rushed through his mind—thoughts of Revan, Dustil, and Morgana.
But the blow never came. Carth heard something fall to the ground with a grunt and opened his eyes just in time to see Dustil swing his lightsaber down, striking the second of the Dark Jedi. He looked on, amazed at the style in which he fought. It was definitely not that of the Jedi. Instead of fluid, guided motions Dustil seemed to lash out. His motions were tense and full of hostility. He was using his anger and aggression to feed his strength and ability. Carth winced as he caught site of his lightsaber. Deep crimson, just like the rest of the Sith.
The fight moved away from Carth and toward the edge of the street where Dustil had the last of the Sith cornered. With them distracted, Carth made his way back toward the children, checking for any signs of life. He stooped over the eldest boy and dropped to his knees, sighing as the boy inhaled a ragged breath and sat up.
"Are you okay?" Carth asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.
The boy nodded slightly, bringing his hand to his face in an attempt to wipe away some of the dirt from his eyes.
"Okay, I'm going to go check the little one. Is he your brother?"
"Yes," the boy replied, making an attempt to stand.
Carth pushed him back down, lightly. "You just stay here for a moment, alright?"
A knot once again formed in the pit of Carth's stomach as he eyed the younger boy. He hadn't moved. As he bent over him checking for a pulse, he could see several burn marks on the surface of his skin. The boy needed medical attention.
Damn Sith.
All three of them had many burns, but somehow the boy had received far more extensive damages than Carth or his brother had. Just as Carth scooped the boy into his arms, he felt the cold barrel of a blaster jab into the back of his head.
"Let him go," came the feminine voice from behind.
Carth eased the child back down onto the ground, glancing across the Telosian street as he did so. The fight was over and Dustil had disappeared.
"Now step away, hands up."
Raising his hands up, palms forward, he slowly sidestepped the child and pivoted around to find himself facing a woman. He looked from her, to the boy, then back to the woman. The resemblance was obvious. Blaster still pointed toward him, she bent down toward the child, checking his pulse.
"Pip? Can you hear me?" She ran a hand lightly across the boy's head. Some of his hair had been singed away along with some of the skin on his face. She cradled his body with one arm, bringing her face to rest on his. "Oh, Pip."
Carth instinctively ran his hand down his side, reaching toward his blaster just for ease of mind, but it wasn't there. He must have dropped it during the fall.
"I said keep your hands up!" she ordered, waving the blaster in front of her. That's my blaster. "I can help him," Carth offered. "I have a ship a-and medical supplies. You won't have to wait in line at the Dis-"
She jerked her head toward him. Tears were now streaking down her face, leaving trails as they rinsed grime from her cheeks. "You. This is because of you. You did this."
Carth stared at her in shock, "N-no. I-I didn't. No. It was the…look." He pointed to where the fight had been mere moments ago, but now the streets were empty except for the corpses of six Sith. "There were dark Jedi, the-"
"No," she said through gritted teeth. She rose, facing Carth at point blank range. "It was you. They followed you here and you let them." The woman was crying freely now. "You've killed my boy."
Carth's heart wrenched. His eyes darted back to the oldest boy, who had finally stood up, but now seemed to be frozen in place with fear.
" Please. Listen to me. He's not dead. You're wasting time argu-"
"Why else would the Sith be here if they weren't after you." The woman was now weeping with wracking sobs as Carth tried to ease toward her. "You killed him."
If I can just get a chance to disarm her…
"Stay back," She sobered up suddenly, jabbing the blaster toward him.
Carth took a step back, his hands still hanging in mid-air. He stared into the woman's eyes, seeing how parallel they had been to his own five years ago. She wasn't merely stricken with grief, she was mad with it, as he had been when he thought Dustil had been killed in the Sith bombardment.
With tears still streaming down her face, the woman aimed the blaster pointblank at Carth's heart. "Some hero you are."
"Tadek, you can't just take a month long furlough," Liss stated, his mouth gaping, as he and Cain followed Kasara to his quarters. Tadek ignored him as the door to his room nearly closed on Liss. "You just can't. Talk about General Ryth. You think the simulation was bad, wait until he finds out your going AWOL. You'll be court-martialed."
"But he's not going to go AWOL," Cain said somewhat skeptically, staring at Kasara. "He's going to come with us to the mess hall for dinner, and then he's going to begin dissecting the Onasi-Dyok simulation file."
Tadek ignored both the men, continuing to load random items into his bag. Clothes, datapad, refresher stuff, what else...
"Look," Cain began. " We're not letting you leave this room until you have changed your mind. This Twi'lek girl may really be something, Tadek, but she's not worth you getting a dishonorable discharge."
Turning around to look at the two of them, Tadek began to laugh. " That's why you think I'm leaving? For a girl? Do you two nerf-herders really think I would go AWOL? Especially after all the work we've done on the mission training and on the sim?" he returned to packing his bag. "I cleared it with Ryth an hour ago."
"Oh." Liss looked at Cain, who stared back at him. "Good," Liss continued, "because we know you'd never go AWOL or anything."
Tadek only nodded, chuckling lightly under his breath as he sealed his bag and slung it across his shoulder. "I'll be gone for a week at least. Alderaan is more than a few parsecs from here, so I'll start dissected the simulation file. If I get the chance, I may see if I can question Commander Onasi about it. If you guys could dissect our simulation run from yesterday, we can compare them when I make it back."
"Yes sir," they both agreed.
"Great. See you guys in a few days, and I'm not kidding. That file better be done," Tadek turned on his heel and strolled out the door toward the Hangar Bay.
"Hey Kasara! My great-grandpa really was a nerf-herder you know. I resent that remark!" Cain yelled down the hall as Tadek fell out of sight.
Liss stared at him, rolling his eyes.
"What?" he replied, shrugging. "He was."
" Well that explains a lot," Liss teased, groaning as Cain playfully landed a punch in his stomach.
As Tadek powered up his ship, ran the required preflight checks, and entered coordinates into the navicomputer for the hyperspace route, he began to let his mind wander. Mission and her friends could be digging themselves into a deeper hole than they realized, but he could only assume three Jedi would know how to handle themselves. Well, maybe it is best not to make assumptions about Jedi, he thought. I've made them before and I was wrong.
The long pinkish scar ran from the edge of his shoulder to the middle of his wrist,and still stung from time to time. Even now it tingled as Tadek remembered the man that had given it to him, as well as the singeing feel of the lightsaber burning its way down his arm. Though it had been over a year since the accident, he could still catch a vague whiff of burnt flesh, as if the white-hot icy pain had been sent blazing down his arm just yesterday.
Shaking away the memory, Tadek let go of all his thoughts. Though he hadn't voluntarily touched the Force in years, he still used the old Jedi calming techniques to clear his mind. As he once again opened his eyes, he began to perform a few more last minute checks of the Intrepid before setting a course straight for Alderaan.