Chapter 6

Friends

Tahiri sat up in her head, scratching her head. She'd managed to get about two hours of sleep before she heard Kirk's voice calling them to the cockpit. That fact in itself was a miracle considering she expected to get no sleep at all. Way to set the bar low, Tahiri. Can't go wrong if you have no expectations at all except for failure. She pulled her jacket back on and made her way to the cockpit, she kept walking before she realized she'd been trying to walk right through James.

He eyed her, "Looks like you didn't get much sleep."

She yawned, "Great intuition. You might become a Jedi yet." She went around him as he stood there for a moment, as though trying to come up with a retort, and finding none, he followed her into the cockpit. They stood next to Kirk as he briefed them on his findings.

"Based on what Tahiri told us-" He began but not before James interrupted.

"Based on Jedi tricks." James cut in.

Kirk continued as though he had not heard James, "Anakin is here," he pointed to a planet on the map labeled "Bilbringi."

"Great, we found him, let's go." James said flippantly. Kirk gave him a silencing glare.

"Bad news is that it's a Yuuzhan Vong base now. I confirmed it while you two were asleep." He typed a few more times on the keys and came up with a view of the space not far ahead of them. Amounts of debris were scattered all over the place. The battered body of an X-Wing floated by their screen, its hull blasted in numerous places and its glass shattered. "You can guess what did that." He sighed and caught Tahiri's eye. "But we're going in because first of all, Luke would have my head if we didn't and secondly, we've come a long way to get a Jedi out of trouble, so we may as well finish the job."

Tahiri fingered her lightsaber. Kirk noticed and frowned. "But I want you both to understand that we're not fooling around down there. I want you both to listen to my commands because we'll have a better chance of surviving if we're all following some kind of unified plan."

Tahiri felt herself become impatient and then felt a calming hand on her shoulder. Kirk stood next to her. "Don't worry, we'll get him out." He smiled at her.

Jaina Solo was not the type of person to take anything without absolute seriousness. She did everything with in a planned way. She was the opposite of both her brothers, Jacen, who was a fun loving jokester who made light of even the most serious of situations. Her younger brother, Anakin, was reckless and determined. His quiet introverted personality made him immediately set apart from his sister, who was certainly a thinker, but not quiet. Jaina spoke her mind when she wanted to. It was her temper that often caused fights between herself and the people around her. Jaina had found since the beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong war that Anakin had become the person most interested in fixing ships and building things. Jaina still did it on occasion but not as enthusiastically as she used to. She was more interested now in flying ships than fixing them.

Today, however was an exception. Jaina pulled herself out from under the hood of a ship. Her face was now blackened and her coveralls dirty. She grinned.

"I haven't seen that look in a while." a voice said from behind her. Jaina turned, already knowing the voice and of course, the strong personality felt through a strong bond, of her twin brother, Jacen. He stood smirking in a very Solo way. Jacen looked more and more like their father, Han Solo, each day. Jacen was outgoing and a troublemaker. Their choice in types of girls wasn't too off either. Tenel Ka was a warrior and Jaina's mother was a politician. Both used weapons of a different ilk to achieve their goals.

"So, what brought this about?" Jacen asked, coming around to see what his sister was doing.

"I saw the engine needed rewiring so I decided to fix it." She backed away completely to get a better look at her handywork.

"Blowing off steam." He stated, not asking it. Jaina knew it was futile to hide anything from Jacen. He smiled sympathetically at his sister with a shrug. "Look, this Anakin thing has gotten me pretty rattled too."

"Jace, he threw dad against a wall." She gave him an exasperated look. Jacen tended to make serious subjects sound very loose and casual.

"Like I said, I'm rattled." He replied, as if to try to make his sister rethink what she thought was Jacen's view of the subject of their younger brother.

She blew a sigh. Jacen probably wouldn't say how he felt but Jaina already knew. Their bond sometimes left out details, but feelings weren't one of them. Their emotions and feelings about friends, family and anything else were like an open book. It annoyed Jaina because she never had her feelings to herself. That was something you had to get used to if you were a Jedi, but having a twin who was a Jedi was even more impersonal. Though, she mused, it had its advantages.

"Has mom said anything?" Jaina asked.

"No, she said Uncle Luke was going to send someone to find him, but you know-" He waved his hand. She did know. Nothing in the galaxy, at least the one they lived in, ever went exactly according to plan. There were always obstacles and of course, minor adjustments to what the original idea was. Jaina and Jacen, after all their own adventures knew that better than anyone else. They'd fought through a second empire, defeated numerous sith, and thwarted assassins after the life of their best friend, Tenel Ka. This time was different. Because not only had Anakin lost control, but had hurt their father. Right now wasn't a safe time, even more so than usual, to wander around trying to figure the ways of the world because of the Yuuzhan Vong. The creatures known as the Yuuzhan Vong would sooner kill themselves than accept a Jedi as an equal. In all seriousness, Jaina wondered how they managed to be masochists without dying from the mutilations all over their bodies. She hoped they'd off themselves from their own pain so her family could get some rest.

"By the way," Jacen said, suddenly remembering his reason for finding his sister, "Uncle Luke wants us to do a mission for him."

She gave him a knowing look. "Well?"

"What are we waiting for?" He finished. They laughed and Jaina slammed the ship's hood shut before following her twin to the their parents' apartment to talk to their Uncle over the intercom.

When they came in, their friends Zekk and Tenel Ka were already there. Luke's face was on the screen and greeted his niece and nephew as they came in.

"Good, now I can give the full details. As I've already told Zekk and Tenel Ka, we've got some issues with the air space around some of the planets. Many refugee ships have been hit in the last few months and their passengers, you can guess." The group nodded as a collective. The Yuuzhan Vong had made deliveries, even non-military based ones, difficult and nigh impossible, even suicidal if the Yuuzhan Vong had taken over the area space traveled in.

"So, I'd like for you to escort a delivery ship with weapon attachments for the refugee ships to Bespin." He looked down at a piece of paper in front of him. "This is important so the refugees have some way to defend themselves. But I don't want you taking any unnecessary risks either. Just get it delivered and come back here."

Jacen muttered, "It'll never happen exactly like that. Risks and Solo are never separate."

Luke had obviously heard, because Jacen practically shouted the comment, but didn't comment. He continued, "Pack up, the ship leaves tomorrow morning at 7 AM from the docking bay in Coruscant, it shouldn't be hard for you to find, it's a big supply ship. I want everyone to be ready with supplies for travel and their lightsabers before it gets there."

"We will be there, Master Skywalker," Tenel Ka affirmed with a nod.

"We'll take care of it, don't worry." Jacen gave his uncle a wink and felt a jab in the ribs from his sister. Zekk remained silent but nodded.

Jaina took notice of this but said nothing until her uncle had signed off and her brother had walked off with Tenel Ka.

"Zekk? Are you okay?" She caught up and walked in step with him. He turned.

"I'm going to pass on the mission."

"What?" Jaina gave Zekk an incredulous look. "Why would you do that?"

He fixed her with a stare. "We should be fighting the Yuuzhan Vong directly."

"Defending refugees is just as important, Zekk." She gave him a playful punch, "Come on, we've been sitting around doing nothing for months, it'll be good to do something at least."

"It's not enough."

"At least it's not nothing." She frowned and tried to get a read on his thoughts. "What's really bothering you?"

"Nothing." He replied. "I'll see you later." He made his way back down the hallway to his room, leaving Jaina both confused and shut out.

Anakin jumped out of the way to dodge the first attack from one of the soldiers. Another came at him from the rear and he used the force to push the soldier back, but because of its thick armor, it didn't do any damage. Anakin parried another staff attack and then was sent sprawling by another from his blind-spot. The one that had been pushed was now rushing Anakin. Anakin stood still and let him come, turning off his lightsaber, then as soon as the warrior was less than five feet away, Anakin flipped over its head and ignited his blade right through its unprotected back. The warrior let out a strangled croak before falling down. Anakin then finished it with a single blow to its head. He then turned to face the others. Anakin had little time to breath because the other two warriors were coming at him from two different angles.

He then smirked and charged at one of the warriors without stop, before the warrior could slow down, Anakin had grabbed hold of its staff, the warrior tried to jerk it from Anakin's grip but failed to do so because Anakin had pulled it down towards him, making it impossible for the warrior to gain the upper hand. and while holding it in place stabbed the warrior in the chest, sliced its exposed arms then with a hard blow, cut the arm holding the staff off. The warrior staggered backwards then charged Anakin again, swinging its one good arm and scoring a blow to Anakin's own arm. Anakin took the staff and hurled it at the warrior, impaling it on its own weapon. It didn't get up.

Without a pause Anakin turned to face the final warrior. He was sweating perfusely and breathing heavily. Though he noticed the amused look on the face of the higher official. Did expect the warriors to be killed by Anakin in the first place? Anakin had little time to think over the possibilities as the last warrior was upon him, slashing Anakin's leg. Anakin, in his pain let out a yell and used the full extent of the force to shove the warrior over, this time it fell, dropping the staff. Anakin wasted no time waiting and grabbed the staff. The warrior, seemingly unfazed by the loss of its weapon, faced Anakin and then charged again. It swung its "fists" and Anakin parried with the staff and his lightsaber. Anakin struck a few blows to his opponent with the staff before backing away, casting the staff aside. He saw the warrior coming at him again and met the warrior halfway, pushing his legs up into a jump and bringing his lightsaber onto the warrior's head. The warrior shrieked as blood oozed from its split skull. Anakin fell to the ground, his injured leg unable to support him anymore. He watched the warrior as it blindly staggered around and then, seeing Anakin out of its one remaining eye, ran at him. But it didn't get very far as a staff grew out of its abdomen. The warrior dropped, revealing the high official standing behind it, staff gripped in its hands. It fixed Anakin with a stare.

"Now you will fight me, Jeedai."

"I can feel him," Tahiri said to Kirk. She had her eyes shut as she searched for Anakin's presence with her mind. It was there, but it kept fading in and out of reach. She wasn't sure why, and wanted to get to him before something bad happened. "He's on the planet, that much I can tell." She confirmed as she slowly opened her eyes.

"That's all I need to know." Kirk replied. He stood up and went to the closet just outside of the cockpit. He took out three laser-proof vests and tossed them to James and Tahiri. Then he handed James a blaster.

"You can use one, right?" Kirk asked James. James snorted.

"Of course I can." He pushed past Kirk and waited impatiently by the door that would lower to become their unloading ramp. Tahiri took a blaster too. It might help if they needed to shoot before engaging the Yuuzhan Vong. Plus, two weapons was better than one when fighting the Yuuzhan Vong. Kirk gave her an approving nod.

"Good thinking." He picked a blaster up and shoved it into his belt next to his lightsaber. He then guided the ship closer to the planet. For some reason even as the base came into sight through the frontal view-port, no Yuuzhan Vong were in sight. Tahiri watched the grounds, and found she disliked the silence that she felt around the area. Even for the Yuuzhan Vong, who could not be felt in the force, this was too eerily quiet.

James had noticed too because he kept looking through the side windows on the ship and narrowing his eyes to see any activity, and then turned because he saw none. "This is weird." He jabbed his thumb towards the window, "There's nothing out there. Are you sure we're in a Yuuzhan Vong base?"

Kirk's muscles twitched from frustration and uncertainty. "I don't like this." His statement confirmed the general feeling. The quiet continued as Kirk lowered them closer to the ground.

Then it became abundantly clear why there was no one around to give them an unpleasant welcoming party. Kirk's eyes jumped to the cliff nearby the base and saw a semi-circle formed around two figures in the middle. One of them was a tall, highly scarred warrior with more armor and mutilations than the surrounding Yuuzhan Vong and the other was a smaller human. Tahiri didn't take long to recognize her best friend.

"Anakin! He's down there dueling that Yuuzhan Vong." She kept her eyes on the battle which seemed to be teetering back and forth, each contestant scoring an equal number of wounds on each other.

James squinted at the glowing violet colored beam in Anakin's hands. "He has his lightsaber, so why doesn't he just go all out and run away."

Kirk frowned as he watched the ongoing duel, "Maybe he has no way to get off the planet or he hasn't got enough strength. We can't tell how long they've been making him fight for."

Tahiri was over to the door in an instant, "Then we can't waste any time. We've got to get him to make a break for it." She pulled out her lightsaber. James joined her at the door while Kirk worked on getting the ship low enough to the ground.

"Tahiri, do you think you can call out to him through the force?" Kirk asked. "It'd be better that

"I can try." She closed her eyes, hoping that this time Anakin would actually hear her voice through their bond. But lately he had shut himself off for whatever reason he had. She pressed but kept coming up against a blank wall then a storm of emotions that she couldn't make head nor tails of. She sighed and reopened her eyes.

"I can't get through." She bit her lip and felt her mind go blank. What could they do if Anakin couldn't break away? There was a slim chance of them being able to fight that many Yuuzhan Vong and live.

"Try again." Kirk urged. Tahiri was already on it, pushing as hard as she could. Come on. She almost screamed inside her head. If their bond meant anything, it meant that they could feel each other and almost hear each other's exact thoughts any time, if her bond meant anything to Anakin, which she knew it did, why wasn't he answering?

The ship loomed closer to the dueling area, the semi-circle had moved closer to the cliff. Her panic began to rise as she saw Anakin's face for a brief second, his lightsaber raised, the Yuuzhan Vong he'd been fighting was on the ground for a second. She shouted his name in her head. His fierce eyes lost concentration for a second then in an instant the Yuuzhan Vong leader was on his feet and thrust his staff forward. Anakin took a step back, the poisoned tip of the leader's staff dripped blood. Anakin's gaze went wide as they saw the ship for a moment, reflecting in his ice blue eyes before they lost focus. Off balance he then stumbled back over the cliff, leaving the Yuuzhan Vong leader to raise his staff in victory, and the ship hovering in the background to slowly retreat.