Chapter 3

Unusual Circumstances

Anakin dodged another hit from the coral skippers but was unable to evade the incoming fire from the larger ships. Anakin's swearing became more inventive as he steadily began to lose control of his temper.

"Dancing Ewok turds!" He flipped his ship and then let out a missile that exploded on the outside of the enemy cruiser but did little damage. He wished he could say the same for his ship, but the outside of his X-Wing was singed and battered from the constant fire. He couldn't dodge every attack and if they hit his engine, it would all be over. Anakin felt his ship shake again, this time it was more violent and the red lights flashed in his cockpit. Anakin could feel the sweat coming down his face and neck. This was going a lot worse than he had anticipated, and Anakin usually didn't care about the odds.

He switched to his reserves, a small storage of stronger weapons to counterattack with, but these weren't exactly fail-safe. Anakin had to get in position to use the bombs he had. He twirled and wound around the open fire then flew over the enemy cruiser, he only had a few seconds before they caught on. He punched the fire button and dropped two bombs. As he did so his ship shuddered again and his cabin started to smoke. Two more times the ship vibrated and Anakin was starting to feel more than dizzy. Anakin slammed the dashboard with his fist. He hated being uncertain if he'd pull out of a situation without a scratch.

"Uncertainties my butt." Anakin muttered and fired his lasers at a rapid rate as he did a barrel roll around one of the coral skippers. "Eat stardust, Vong scum."

He refused to go down without having taken out one of the Yuuzhan Vong carriers, he knew he had to at least try. Anakin geared up and took another round over the enemy carrier to drop his bombs, just as an enemy coral skipper dropped into his range and fired straight into his ship's nose.

What Tahiri came across was not only disturbing but something she'd only heard about in second hand details.

Two Republic refugee ships were floating in front of her, their hulls completely blasted away and left with their debris floating around next to it. The entire front half of one of the ships was burnt away and she tried not to throw up as she saw the blood splattered on the inside of the second ship. The passengers obviously hadn't been spared. Those that had survived the explosion, were now floating amidst the debris or were in the ship, dead.

Tahiri wasn't sure she wanted to get any closer to the ships for fear of what she might find. But a sudden motion near the ship alerted her force senses. She reached for the weapons' button but stopped as soon as she saw what she'd felt. It was a boy around Tahiri's age who was barely able to hold himself up as he staggered out of the ship's open hull in a space suit splattered with blood. She watched as he collapsed. Tahiri felt around in the force to see if she sensed anything strange but, finding nothing decided to retrieve the survivor.

She moved her ship over to the ship where the boy had collapsed and put her own suit on before climbing out to get him. She put his arm around her shoulder and then climbed back into her ship. After removing his space helmet and putting him in the medical room, she started up the engines again. She knew she had little medical supplies but she couldn't leave him there either. The Yuuzhan Vong would have captured him if they came back, and tortured him with their experiments.

Tahiri stopped herself in mid-thought. It was right, what she had done. Master Skywalker would have done the same thing, or if asked, he would have said to take the boy with her. Because helping anyone who was in need was the job of the Jedi. Of any human being for that matter.

Tahiri started forward. She had to find a place to drop him at medical facility. She sighed, finding Anakin would have to wait. Otherwise this boy would die, from shock or unknown injuries. Or both.

The whole front half of Anakin's ship went up in flames, blasting parts all over the place, and then another blast let flames into the back of his ship. Anakin felt the heat and knew he was running out of options. In this ship, he wasn't likely to survive anyways, he punched open a side compartment and stared for a moment at the button before him. He gripped his controls and flew once again, this time not bothering to dodge getting hit from all sides and headed on a direct course for the enemy cruiser.

Luke watched his old pupil go back down the hallway. There was a chance that even though Luke was sending him, Anakin and Tahiri were already out of reach. Luke hoped that they weren't in any serious trouble, though his senses told him otherwise.

"Hey, Dekim, what're you doing back here?" One of the older students said as the blonde haired man came from Luke's office.

"I'm being sent on a rescue mission. It seems like Luke can't handle his own students." The man laughed, his eyes glowing.

"You don't ever change, Kirk Dekim." Another grumbled good naturedly. Kirk laughed in his friendly way. Despite his initial bad behavior, he was the kind of scallywag other students could easily relate to and get along well with. That was probably why Luke didn't kick him out. In the end, it was Kirk who helped to establish a sense of unity among the Jedi in his class. Right now that was what the Jedi needed most and Luke was more than glad to have his old student back, as long as he remained a strong example of how Jedi should be acting towards one another. In other words, possibly the only reason why Luke thought he was amiable was because Luke's best friend was Han Solo.

"So how long do you think it'll take to find them?" Luke had asked Kirk. Being himself, Kirk joked with his answer.

"About two years, I can't say if it'll take longer. Might want to buy some books to pass the time."

"Kirk." Luke gave him frown, and his voice became serious.

"Okay, okay," He put his hands up in surrender, "Jeez, you people can't take a joke around here. You never did have a good sense of humor, Master Skywalker." He eyed his old teacher who raised an eyebrow.

"Is that right?" He folded his arms into his robe sleeves, "Then I'll have a good joke ready if you come back within the next two weeks, successful."

Kirk nodded, "I'll take you up on that. But, " He held up a finger, "It better be an amazing joke. No knock-knocks, you need something original." He then turned and left. Luke sighed. He would have to call Jacen, no one knew had to tell jokes better in Luke's family than Jacen Solo.

Kirk loaded his belongings into his ship and looked one last time at his old school. It had been ten years since he'd last seen the Academy and the reasons he'd left were as mystifying as anything else in his life. He loved his school, what the Academy had meant, but it had too many memories. Kirk liked keeping to himself more. Staying away and traveling had suited him for a decade and he only planned to change that for this one mission. The world only had room for a few scoundrels and Kirk had decided he wasn't one of them. He boarded his ship without a second glance behind him and was soon making the hyperspace jump.

Tahiri had navigated the closest place to drop off her charge but it still wasn't close enough and she could feel Anakin's presence wasn't anywhere near there, despite how much he had cut himself off, she still knew that much.

Her attention was diverted as she heard a small voice from behind her, "What's going on?"

She looked at the boy behind her as he sat on the edge of the bed, his hand against his head, as though trying to suppress an intense headache. Her sympathy went to him.

"We're going to get you to the closest planet for medical attention." She answered and refocused her attention on steering the ship around the meteors. He leaned against the wall and staggered over to watch what she was doing. Tahiri's defenses went up even though the boy wasn't doing anything except watching the stars fly by like little specks.

Her monitor flashed and she noticed a planet up ahead. She checked the name to be sure it wasn't one of the ones now inhabited by the Yuuzhan Vong. It wasn't but she still felt wary. Even if it was safe from the Yuuzhan Vong that didn't mean that there weren't people there who disliked Jedi and she wasn't even sure how her current companion felt about the situation. Though she imagined that whatever he thought previously was changed by his ship being blown up.

"Are you sure you want to stand up?" She eyed him carefully. She sensed him flinch at her sudden question.

"I'm fine." He answered with a flat voice and took the co-pilot seat next to Tahiri's. She smirked to herself. So much for 'I'm fine.'

For the first time she got a good look at him. He was her age but had a firm set face, he had obviously started growing out of his boyhood early. His gray eyes were serious and cold almost. All his features were sharp and he had dark hair that reminded Tahiri a little of Zekk's, only this boy's hair was softer and less dirty. He certainly didn't seem like the street type, he didn't radiate any kind of tension that Zekk would, he was trusting enough and never once questioned Tahiri's intentions. Which, although she was relieved about, confused her. Maybe he just didn't see the point as he was in no condition to do anything about it in his current state.

"Name?" He said abruptly. That question made Tahiri jump out of her reverie.

"Tahiri." She raised her eyebrow, waiting, "Well? Are you going to give me the courtesy of knowing your name? Or is this one of those strange one way exchanges, I've been through those before-"

"James." He gave her a small frown. "You going to tell me exactly where we're going?"

"Not if you're going to keep giving me the evil eye."

He continued to look sour and didn't bother to respond to her comment. He then focused his attention on the surrounding of the ship. A few minutes passed in silence between them and then Tahiri's sensor beeped. She felt out in the force. They were getting closer, a planet loomed in the front window as they approached. An official hailed her on the intercom.

"State your name and business on Bastion."

"Tahiri Veila and-"

Her voice was cut off but a sudden sear of pain in her left abdomen, she suppressed the pain with the force, and she looked down, there wasn't a mark on there, and now James was eyeing her curiously. "I have a patient who needs immediate medical attention." She finished as another pain made her vision go black for a moment, she steadied herself against the dashboard and felt as though she would lose her lunch.

James first started by saying "That's really obscure place-"

Tahiri glared at him. "It's a logical place for what I'm looking for." It was since Anakin would try to be as far from any safe place surrounded by people he knew. But that also meant he'd be close to Yuuzhan Vong territory.

"Confirmed. You will be met at the docking bay by a medical squad, stand by your ship until given permission to unload."

She felt the sweat dripping down her neck, "Roger…" The officer signed off and James was now looking at Tahiri with a mix of shock and then she felt a burning sensation.

"You're a Jedi." He half stated and half asked. His stunned expression dissipated as his eyes grew colder by the passing minute, his eyes fixated on her lightsaber for the first time.

It took all of Anakin's strength not to scream as the side of his ship was hit by a blast, shattering the metal panels and his ship was sent spiraling a ways from his original target. He suddenly felt a sharp pain his left side and looked down. A sharp edge of a broken panel had buried itself in Anakin's left abdomen. He couldn't move and he already had burns from the flames licking at his cockpit. "Fiver…" He stammered. Anakin didn't even have the strength to give his droid orders. He then turned his head and felt another impact that rattled his ship before he blacked out.

Kirk Dekim leaned back in his chair, he was now wearing his glasses, something he didn't much like doing as it made him look more intellectual than scoundrel like. Instead he favored his goggles, which he had built with the same prescription as his regular glasses. Kirk began to feel out in the force. Luke told him what his nephew and his friend looked like, but Kirk hated to admit that he didn't know how to start searching for either of them. Don't kids stick together anymore? He then chuckled. It wasn't like he didn't know how hypocritical he was sounding at the moment. Kirk hadn't spoken to his Academy friends in a decade. He wondered how his closest friends were doing, if they hadn't been killed by the Vong already.

Maybe it was his fault that he was out in space alone, searching for two kids he knew nothing about except that one was his former teacher's nephew and the other the nephew's friend. That was all he knew. Kirk didn't bother himself with small details. He wished Luke could give him details on what their force presence felt like, but since he had no strong bonds to Luke, transferring such in depth details was impossible. Kirk switched his tracker on, to pick up anyone who might be in space and then absentmindedly watched his radar.

"Why haven't you even come by?" Luke had asked him, in the brief time that they had met a little over a day ago. "I know you haven't been here in a long time, but you still have a place here."

"I'm not interested in being like you, Master Skywalker." He had replied curtly, "It requires me to care about things I really don't."

Luke eyed him but said nothing in response. Even if Luke hadn't believed his student, he didn't say anything or change the way he was feeling in the force. Kirk had then changed the subject to the details of the search and then where Luke thought it was best to begin searching. Luke had promptly told him everything then Kirk tried to get out as soon as possible. Being the center of attention before was something he would have given anything for, but now he would give anything for the world to completely ignore him. With the force, that was impossible.