Legend of the Harp
By Hemaccabe
Episode III: The Crucible
Chapter 13: I Drove All Night
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
*** Jedi Padawan Fio Brown, Castanea ***
I put up my hands while I stood up slowly and turned around. There was an Imperial trooper wearing scout armor. He had lost his helmet, but he was holding his E-11 rifle very steady. Pointed at me.
It was really the easiest thing. I reached out and realized he was alone. Then I picked him up with the Force, turning him slightly to the left so the panic shot he fired went off into the distance, then swung him bodily to the right into a tree, hard.
That took the fight right out of him.
I walked up to his still disoriented person and took the rifle. It was good to have a rifle again. Not as nice as my tricked-out B-300, but better than nothing. As the trooper came back to himself, I worked the action, made sure it was charged ready to fire.
"Hey!" He said.
"I suppose you're my prisoner now." I said.
"How'd you do that?" The trooper asked in an outraged voice.
He was kind of cute when he was angry.
"Magic," I replied and then continued, "on your feet, we have a long way to go."
I put his own binders on his wrists, pocketing the keys. Then took his extra power packs for the rifle and put them on my own belt.
"Let's move." I said, and we began to move further into the forest.
I trusted the Force and I found places to climb and places to walk. We began to move over the bark, mossy undergrowth and vines that defined this environment. Slowly, we made our way through the three-dimensional maze that was this world's surface. We would go for several hours. Then stop, rest and eat. I would eat my rations sparingly and drink from my canteen. I trusted the Force and it always showed me where to put a foot down for good traction, where there would be a crack that would twist my ankle, which vine would hold my weight. The Force also always told me when my Imperial captive was getting ready to try something. Just before he would make his move, I'd give him a kick, or a smack with the rifle butt or pull his feet out from under him with the Force.
I could feel what was in his head. I could feel the anger. I could feel his sense of honor which obligated him to the Empire. But there something else growing in there, it was strange, and I had no idea what it was.
After several periods of movement, as we stopped to rest and eat rations, he spoke.
"So, you're a rebel?" He asked, with a tone that sounded like rebel was worse than the lowest slime rat.
"I'm Harp Militia." I replied.
"What's that?" He asked.
"Rebels I suppose. We don't much care for the Empire. We're still loyal to the Republic and hope for her return." I replied.
"The Empire will rule forever!" He said quoting Imperial propaganda with more determination than he felt.
"I guess one of us in trouble then." I replied letting our relative positions argue my point and felt the uncertainty inside him grow.
After a moment, I asked, "What's your name?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"I suppose I could just keep calling you 'loser,' but I thought a name would be better." I replied.
"I'll tell you mine when you tell me yours!" He said, more as a challenge than a question.
"Fine, my name is Fio." I replied nonchalantly.
That took him back. He was expecting me to hide my name, as if I was ashamed of being a rebel, fearful.
After a moment in which he seemed surprised and taken aback he replied, "Umm, I suppose my name is Sei Gal."
That was the first time I really looked at him. He was tall, almost two meters. He had broad shoulders. He was human, but his skin had an olive cast. His hair was black as night. Still he had amazing blue eyes.
I shook myself away from looking at him. He was a prisoner. That's all. Still, considering I was using the Force, which among other things added strength to my limbs and felt like a constant wind at my back, he was keeping up. With his wrists bound.
I had moved his wrists to the front from the back. I knew I wouldn't have much trouble keeping him in line and he needed to eat. It also helped him hang on and climb as necessary.
I looked at his gear.
"That scout armor is powered isn't it, gives you extra strength?" I asked.
"Yes." He replied after thinking.
"Do you have a long range comm link?"
"No," and I knew he was telling the truth.
"Where's the power cell?"
"On my back."
I spun him around and saw that this armor did have a more pronounced power pack on his back than a standard trooper's.
"Great. It will help you keep up."
That explained the little mechanical wheezes I'd been hearing from the suit.
After my chronometer told me we had been going 24 hours, I stopped when we found a relatively large flat spot.
I manually turned off his armor, then rebound his hands behind his back, attaching him to a stout branch. I put a bag over his head and bound his ankles together with a simple tie.
"Try to get some sleep." I told him as I bound him up. He was out within seconds.
I got some sleep too and was up before him. I undid his bindings in reverse order. We ate and were underway again.
We were gaining substantial altitude. The previous day, while crossing several klicks of horizontal distance, I would guess we'd gained about 300 meters of altitude.
Today's hike was even more steep. Sei kept the pace. My cold tired muscles kept pushing like they had taught us in Survival School.
At the end of the second 24-hour period of hiking, the power supply on Sei's suit gave out. We had no way to charge it.
We put as much of Sei's gear, particularly rations, into his pack. The armor, which was now dead weight, we stripped off and dumped, except for his boots.
That left Sei in his black skin tights. I noticed the armor had hidden that he was extremely well put together. Including a substantial endowment.
I pulled my head away again and got him settled for the night. Once again, he was out within seconds.
Sei couldn't maintain the same pace the next day. I expected that. I was also going through my canteen capsules quickly and had little in the way of other rations. I drank a hot purple an'nav. Not so pleasant, but I needed the carbs and the heat.
After the fifth day, both of us had no solid rations. As we came up off the planet's floor, the air was getting dryer. And colder. My canteen had to work harder to fill. I split the water the canteen evenly with Sei, but he was bigger and needed more. We were both cold, wet and thirsty.
To make time pass we talked. Sei told me of the canyons of Akiva, his homeworld.
"The water is so pure and sweet. My family had a small farmstead in the wilderness. Some agriculture, some hunting and gathering. We'd learned where to look for what the forest would give. Then we'd keep what we needed and sell the rest in the market."
I told him about picnics with my Mom. Collecting flowers for decorations and sachets of scent. In a world dominated by the smell of oaf bird rendering, good scents were much desired.
"So why did you join the Empire?" I finally asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
It took Sei a while, but he finally answered. "When I was small child, the Separatists occupied Akiva. They made things … bad. The Republic came and drove the Separatist army out. We were being kept as hostages and the Separatists had already given the order for all of us to be killed. A Jedi came and rescued us. I remembered the army of the Republic, in their proud white armor.
"When I grew up, we had a good life, but I wanted to see some of the galaxy. My parents made a few Credits, but it would never be enough to send me into space. My grades would never be good enough to take me away on scholarship."
My heart moved as a pang of sympathy, created by shared experience, went through me.
"Then came the chance to join the Imperial Army. It seemed like a chance to pay back the debt of my childhood. To wear the proud white armor. Maybe go help other people in trouble like we had been. The chance to get off world and see a bit of the galaxy was interesting too. There was also the possibility of scholarships. The bonus for completion of service might have helped me set up my own place."
I realized he was telling me the truth, but I still couldn't help myself from blurting out, "But the Empire killed the Republic. They murdered all the Jedi. The Harp Militia is fighting to bring the Republic back. Your mission here was to hunt down and murder one of the last remaining Jedi."
Sei's face dropped. I realized I had ruined the moment of openness we had found with my sudden criticism.
I also realized that while I wore a camouflage poncho on my upper body over my armor, as he followed me all day, Sei had an excellent view of my, only covered by skin tight thermals, thighs and rear end. I also noticed that other strange feeling in his head was still growing.
I wondered when or if someone would notice I had gone missing.
I would start to try various local plants and mosses. Some felt wrong and I left them, some felt okay, so I added them to my canteen. I also looked for bugs the same way. On day six I caught a small slimy crawling thing I was disappointed to find was okay, so I sliced it up and stewed it in my canteen. It tasted as bad as it had looked, but it didn't poison us. I still had some capsules left, but I was trying to husband my resources.
On day nine we actually caught sight of Jedi Knight Chatterjee. Unfortunately, she also caught sight of us and, before I had chance to utter a single word, her furred hide was gone. She moved fast in this environment.
I realized I would need to have another conversation with Sei. I removed his binders.
"So far no one has come looking for you and no one has come looking for me. Let's make a deal. If your people come looking, if you want, I'll let you go back to them. Just don't betray us. If my people come first, you're welcome to come, but no one will force you. If you want to stay here, stay. I'll even see if I can get them to leave you with some rations and survival gear. In exchange, I ask for a truce. Until that happens, we work together to survive. What do you say?"
It made sense. Sei had long run out of rations. He was surviving on what I scrounged up and my canteen water. Sei, apparently rational, nodded.
It took us another day to get close to her. A long, frustrating, extra day.
"Can I trust you to help?" I asked Sei.
He gave me a funny look. Then, with that funny feeling swirling behind his eyes, he said, "Yes."
"I want you to wait for 20 minutes. Then walk down that limb."
"Okay."
I used the time I left him behind to circle around as quietly as I could.
Then Sei came up that branch, on what was now the far side of Jedi Knight Chatterjee, who broke and came straight at me.
I grabbed Jedi Knight Chatterjee with the Force and lifted her into the air. She screamed as her limbs thrashed the air trying to find purchase. I kept focused.
After a few moments, Jedi Knight Chatterjee went limp. I could tell she was ready to listen.
"Jedi Knight Chatterjee, I am Padawan Fio. I've been sent here to rescue you."
Jedi Knight Chatterjee's voice cracked as she asked, "Truly?"
"Yes Mistress." I answered, remembering the protocol Master Kazan had been drilling into me. I'd thought the protocol pointless, why did just the three of us need it? Now I knew.
"I am so thirsty." Jedi Knight Chatterjee said.
I gave her my canteen. She sipped up it's contents.
"When can we leave?" Jedi Knight Chatterjee asked.
"I'm afraid I must report that my vessel has been rendered inoperable. I'm hoping that a rescue mission should be coming shortly." I explained.
"Oh." Jedi Knight Chatterjee replied. Clearly disappointed.
"I've already been gone for over 11 standard days. I can't imagine it will take much longer."
Oh, how wrong I would be.
I continued to scrounge. In the drier air of the higher level we perched at, the canteen's condenser had to work long and hard to fill. Without my constant movement to recharge it, it could not maintain the pace. Luckily, I found some places where one could get water, but it was never enough.
"We could descend below the mist line." I suggested to Jedi Knight Chatterjee.
"If we do, the moisture will soak my fur and your thermal suits. Then we will freeze to death." She replied.
She tried to help me with scrounging, Sei did too. They didn't find as much as me, but she was a Jedi and, as he learned what to look for, Sei's childhood clearly came back. We got a little hungrier and thirstier every day, but we were doing everything we could to stretch it out.
One day blurred into the next. Each night we slept, exhausted by the combination of effort and hunger. I now dreamed of catching another slimy tree bug thing.
One evening, after everyone else was asleep, I tried to catch 40 winks too, but I kept feeling uneasy. Sei was out like a light. What was the problem? Was there some native predator? I reached out with my feelings.
I didn't have to reach far. There was something made of hate, anger and an endless unfillable hole of greed and it was hunting for us. Worse, it was getting closer. Fast.
I got the other two up, "We need to move, stay quiet."
"Is the Empire here?" Sei whispered, demanding.
"That's not the Empire, it's something much worse. If they catch us, I'm sure you'll be just as dead." I replied.
With that, we all began to move.
As we moved, we still scrounged, but having to move away from pursuit meant we could scrounge that much less. So, we got hungrier faster. Also, I could feel that they were slowly, but steadily, closing the distance. Where in the bleeding nebula was Dodger!
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