A KNIGHTS TALE
by ardavenport
**** **** Part 4
"I don't like it," Emoh announced. She was the one who was going to have to walk up to the Imperials and if the Stormtroopers didn't shoot her out of hand, turn in her shipmate. "But . . . I don't a better one." Twos blatted its displeasure, but went with them as they left the workroom.
They went back the way they had come, through the long, long corridors, past the hidden doors and then past the place where they had entered. With a hand gesture, Zon revealed the stairway they had descended so they could confirm where they were in the featureless corridor.
Zon spun around three times and pointed in the direction they had already been going and he set a fast pace. Some of his usual cheerfulness returned, but Emoh trotted on with the others with increasing dread. She wanted her comfortable birth back on the Yuritti. It was hardly anything permanent, compared to the unknown she was plunging into, it was practically home.
Not used to this kind of exercise, Zon tried to lean on Twos's dome, but the droid swiveled it, dislodging her attempt.
"Thanks for nothing," she mumbled. The two Guardians, the large one holding his blind friend's hand as they trotted, did not look like they were even breathing hard. And Zon was practically skipping . . . to his death? A man who had nothing to lose? That sounded like something that would make him happy to Emoh. He owned practically nothing, a few tools, spare clothes and grooming implements. He collected no trinkets or mementos from the places they went to, unlike Emoh. Sometime in her distant future, she imagined decorating a planetside cottage with those bits of her life. But even if they escaped, she would have to pick and choose only what she could carry when they left the Yuritti to complete their escape. She would have to completely start over.
Thankfully they did stop a couple of times so Zon could open more doors, concealed in the corridor walls. One was another ladder leading down. Another was an alcove completely filled with a vertical pipe. There was no sound or vibration from it, so it got nothing more than shrugs about what it could be used for before they moved on.
Zon was about to beg for a rest when Zon stopped their group for a third time. There was a stairway leading upward behind this door. They went up.
They found themselves in more featureless stone corridor going in two directions, but Zon quickly found the door leading out. Opening it just a crack, they saw shadowed daylight and a high wall an arm's length away, overgrown with green vines. Zon opened the door just wide enough for Malbus to exit and scout where they were.
"You better lose that robe," Zon told her. Reluctantly, she took out the improvised binders from a hidden pocket and shrugged it off. The stolen orange robe was too big and a trip hazard, but she had been hoping to keep it anyway, just in case she needed to hide again, and it cut out the chill Jedha daylight better than her overalls. But it would look weird for her to be wearing it when she handed Zon over to the Imperials. She was pinning Zon's wrists in front of him when Malbus returned.
"The Imperial depot by the landing docs is two buildings down," he nodded his approval, as if Zon had personally arranged it.
"Hey," Emoh looked up from snapping the second binder in place and activating the field. "Who's going to believe that I caught you? I don't even have a weapon."
Malbus's lip curled in a sneer. His long black hair falling around his face, he reached inside his black robe and brought out a small blaster. After looking Emoh up and down, he correctly estimated her general lack of experience and snicked a control on the side of it.
"Here. Take it. It's safe for you now."
Holding it in her palm, she looked at the small blaster pistol. Why would such a big man, with such big hands carry such a small weapon? Perhaps, since it was so easily concealed, it was a weapon of last resort.
Malbus pointed with his finger. "You point that end at him."
Zon gave her a big, encouraging grin and held up his bound wrists, a faint blue glow around the binders, as if he was posing for a holo. Emoh wanted to tell the condescending Guardian that she was not that ignorant, but there was no point. They had to work together.
"Are you sure you're going to be able to get out of these?" she asked Zon.
Zon grinned back at her. "No problem. That mini-shield on these barely tickles."
Emoh sniffed and looked down at new splotches on the hem of Malbus's robe. Their source became plain when they exited their hiding place. After taking two turns through the space between buildings that was barely wider than Malbus's shoulders, they entered a wider alleyway to confront a huge pile of refuse, spilling out of an overflowing bin. They had to climb over the squishy, smelly mess. Twos whistled its complaints even though the droid could lift itself over the mess on its jets.
The end of the alleyway let out into a throughway of speeders and lifters humming in both directions. The 'walkway' on either side of the street was little more than a ledge, not meant for pedestrians at all. But that did not stop people, walking single file on both sides. The few people they passed, turning their bodies sideways to fit on the ledge without falling into the traffic, hastily looked away when they saw Emoh's blaster, small as it was. People seemed to mind their own business in this town.
The Imperial Depot up ahead was pretty obvious with a gaggle of troopers in front. They alerted when their group approached. With a thrill of terror, Emoh realized that it was her turn to speak.
"You've been looking for this guy. And - - and there's a reward for him. And I want it."
"Yeah, I guess she got me," Zon told the troopers in much too cheerful a voice. Emoh poked him with the deactivated blaster to get him to shut up.
The trooper with the rank shoulder cover looked at his neighbor who just looked back. Another one tilted his helmet at them. The others casually moved to surround their group. Twos whistled its displease.
"Is that him?"
"I don't know. I haven't been on patrol, I just started my shift."
"Where's the holo?
"We gave them all out."
Emoh could not tell which one of them was talking; their armor vocalizers made their voices sound exactly the same to her. Finally one of them went into the outpost to get the officer, a thin, older Humanoid male. The Empire always used Humanoids, the same species as the Emperor, though he was so scarred you would hardly guess it. Supposedly he was maimed by the Jedi during the 'Rebellion' that forced him to reorganize the Republic into an Empire. But Emoh had always heard it called a 'Jedi Purge', not a rebellion.
She handed the spare lightsaber to the officer. "He had this. And I want the reward." He wordlessly sneered back, clearly doubting her, but he jumped back when he touched the activation switch on the device. Fortunately it was not pointing at anyone when the blue-white blade appeared; it vanished as soon as he dropped it. After he got over his panic, he snatched the lightsaber up and ordered his troopers to take them all into custody.
They did not go into the Outpost. They were ushered through a gate and an alley next to it and then into a courtyard behind the Outpost. Emoh recognized the control tower for the landing platforms rising up from behind a back wall. They were very close to the ship.
The officer ran inside the Outpost. Was he going to get the money?
"Ooops," Zon said.
A person in black body armor walked out from the open door. The person had a generally Humanoid body, a little smaller than Zon except for the elongated head, two arms, two legs, round in the torso and black-clad, four-fingered hands like pincers, one of them holding Zon's decoy lightsaber.
"Eeeeeesssh, eee-hashsh-ammm Jeeeh-shai." Emoh only caught every other word, but Zon did not seem to have trouble understanding the newcomer. The voice did sound male, low and hissing and predatory.
"Oh, really, who could see anything in this darkside swill that you and Emperor Sith Lord have made of the Force?"
"Ssshhuu-eesh-yyirri-esh, feh-ha, Jeeeh-shai."
"Oh, here and there," Zon shrugged. "It's a big galaxy. Places to go, things to see."
"Hoosh-ssh-eeesh-aaahamassh? Fesssshs-aah-aam." The armored darksider advanced on them.
"Wouldn't you like to know. But it's nice to know you've been keeping score on all the Jedi you've killed."
"I want the reward."
Zon's foot shot out to the side, hitting Zon's ankle, hard.
The black-armored head tilted. It was slatted armor, the kind that could be withdrawn, baring the face and arms.
"Yeeessh-vvvhess eeeh, Jeeeh-shai" One black arm reached back.
"Ffff-zzzz-ttt! Ssssshhhh-hak!"
Emoh did not even remember jumping back from the sudden, searing heat less than a hand-width from her face. She frantically pushed back and sagged into arms grabbing her from behind and pulling her up.
A bright red beam of light, blocked by Zon's yellow-white lightsaber, emanated from a gray and black device that the armored darksider now held.
The troopers raised their heavy blaster guns but the darksider shouted them down. Some understood the order, lowered their guns and got their companions to back off as well.
"Oh, it's bad enough that one of my own shipmates caught me off-guard and turned me in for a bounty, but, you're not even going to give it to her? Are Jedi sold so cheap now?" They were locked together, blades crossed. The decoy lightsaber lay on the ground where it had fallen.
"Aaaasssh, naaah, naaaash-neeeh-naaah! Naaaah-sssaaah-sass-haaahhh!"
Zon jumped back and swung his lightsaber around. He was always wiry and nimble. In one seedy spaceport he had stopped a thug who tried to rob him. Emoh had not seen it, but her shipmates talked about how fast he was; no one had ever imagined that their jovial Engineer's mate even knew how to fight.
"Oh, I'm really not dead yet."
The darksider whirled to face him. A second red blade slowly extended from the opposite end of the device.
Zon grimaced. "Ooops."
The double red blades whirled into a bright blur.
Zon winced and backed up a pace. "Pretty fancy moves, but I'm still here."
The darksider lunged and Zon ducked under the spinning blade, cutting low with his own. But his opponent jumped high, body and blades, spinning, twisting in mid-air before landing on his feet and lunging at Zon with a forward slab. He deflected the red blade, but just barely, both lightsabers so close to his body that Emoh expected his clothes to start smoking. With the darksider at the deepest part of his lunge, Zon brought his free hand up under the darksider's chin and twisted.
The helmet went flying and the darksider jumped back. Zon was shaking his hand as if he had touched something very unpleasant.
"Ewwww," he scrunched up his face and brought his lightsaber up and started circling. A trooper raised a huge blaster rifle that would have cut Zon's body in half with one bolt and the darksider screamed at the white-armored soldier. The blaster muzzle swiftly went back down again.
"Ugh." Zon wiped his hand on his pantleg. Emoh didn't know the species. Something with gray skin, small wide set eyes, bulging skull and a mass of dripping tentacles hanging down from the bottom of the darksider's face. They were probably sense organs and whatever Zon had pulled must have hurt a lot. He started pacing Zon, Jedi and darksider circling each other.
"Hey," Zon tilted his head, "I know you. . . ."
"Sssseeeeesssh naahhh ffsssaaa!" The tentacles waved forward when the darksider spoke, words fueled by unmistakable anger. Most of them were a translucent yellow-gray, but there were three, together at the front, that were deep red.
"Noooo. That's pretty distinctive." Zon tapped his temple with one finger while keeping his blade pointed toward the darksider. Then he snapped his fingers and pointed. "Master Naah-Chak's padawan!"
"Naaaaahhhh!" the tentacles blew forward in the angry gale of denial that only confirmed Zon's identification.
"So, look at you. All grown up." Zon frowned, his eyes sad. "Sorry to see how you turned out. The Jedi Order really failed you. It would have been better if you'd never been brought to the temple."
"Now, what was your name?" They both continued circling while Zon thought. "Sheesh-sheesh! That was it!"
Another screamed denial and confirmation.
"What? Brother? They give you numbers?" Zon shook his head. "And there is no way that scrawny kid killed Master Naah-Chak before the clones did. Were you captured? Tortured? I don't remember there being much anger in you at all. But now . . . it looks like that's all that's left."
What was left of Padawan Sheesh-sheesh screamed and attacked, red blades whirling. Zon dodged, right-left, up and down, the red plasma beams always missing him. He had always been quick and agile. His yellow blade got one good slash on the darksider's shoulder, but it looked like only the armor was smoking.
Zon slid on the ground, trying to strike from below, but the darksider whirled his blade around. Zon was not hit, but his lightsaber was not so fortunate.
"Ooops," Zon said, frowning at the sparking end of his weapon. The darksider let out a victory scream, standing over Zon. Emoh heard the two Guardians next to her audibly gasp - - -
- - - The fallen decoy lightsaber suddenly slid on the duracrete ground and shot between the darksider's legs. Into Zon's hand.
At first Emoh did not know what she was seeing. The blue-white blade was coming out of the darksider's back. How? It looked like Zon was holding him up.
The darksider's body slowly slid down, rolling to the ground. The blue-white lightsaber blade went out.
An arm seized Emoh from behind and shoved her to the ground. She barely got her hands up in time to protect her face. Behind her, Twos's metalloid body crashed to the ground as the air over them lit up with blaster fire.
When Emoh peeked up, she saw Zon holding the darksider's weapon, a whirling red circle deflecting the bolts from the Stormtroopers' blasters. Ricochets were flying everywhere. The Stormtroopers started dropping, but the ones left standing kept shooting.
Until none of them were standing, the air rank with ozone, burnt plastoid and flesh.
Next to her, Imwe lifted his head, his eyes and face glad. How could he know?
Then his expression shifted again to worry. And dread.
"Hhhhhhh-hhhhh-hhhhh."
**** **** End Part 4