Legend of the Harp

By Hemaccabe

Episode III: The Crucible

Chapter 16: So Lonely

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

*** Jedi Padawan Fio Brown, Castanea ***

I knew things could not continue this way forever. Each day we got more tired, hungry and weak. Each day they got closer. Inevitably, they would catch us. I needed to do something.

I came up with a plan. It was stupid dangerous. I could hear Master Dodger in my head saying, "That's your plan? Make a better one!"

So, I hesitated. Each day I would consider and each day I would postpone. Then came a day I looked at my companions. I was none too far from my physical edge, but Jedi Knight Chatterjee had been out here alone with almost no food, water and heat for much longer. I wasn't sure she could go another day. Sei, good, uncomplaining Sei, he didn't have the Force to keep him going. I didn't know how he'd made it this far.

I hadn't been able to come up with a better plan, so I called a halt and watched their exhausted bodies collapse to the tree branch. I explained my plan, such as it was, to Jedi Knight Chatterjee and Sei.

"I need you to continue. I will circle around as I can move faster than either of you."

I know that sounds crazy. Obviously, I could move faster than Sei, but Jedi Knight Chatterjee? Yes, she could out sprint me a short way, but she was more tired, hungry and exhausted than Sei and me put together.

"When I get behind them, I'll look for a transmitter. If I can find one, I'll be able to send a distress call and hopefully the Harp will be able to get someone out here to rescue us. Does anyone have a better idea?"

They shook their heads. I was afraid of that. As it was coming up night and they were exhausted, I let them settle down for a bit of sleep. Knowing they would continue in the morning. I started moving immediately as I knew cover of darkness would be my friend.

I let the Force guide me. I took off in a long loop around where I could feel our pursuers to be. Since they were so close behind us, I didn't have to go far.

As I moved along the branches, I found myself suddenly stopping. It seemed like the Force was preventing me from moving forward. I pushed, feeling a bit annoyed. It was cold. I was tired and hungry. The relentless pursuit we were under gave me precious little time to rest as it was. The last thing I wanted was to have to stop and wait. As I waited on a particularly solid branch, covered by leaves and unusually deep shadows, I caught a glimpse of one of our pursuers. It was a female Harch. I had never seen one outside of a textbook. Like many humans, I harbored a deep dread of arachnids. Seeing the large bulbous body of the female Harch made that dread a living reality. Worse was what I could feel from her, an endless malice made up of bottomless greed, completely indifferent to the suffering of others. For a second, it seemed as if she glanced in my direction, but now frozen, her glance passed by.

Clearly, as the Force guided my progress, it had also stopped me just now to help me hide. I felt grateful.

I kept going and found myself behind our pursuers. Bringing up the rear was a six limbed droid with a large backpack-like protuberance of equipment and supplies.

I reached out gently with the Force, found the droid's on/off switch and flipped it to off. The droid stopped moving. I moved up quietly and started searching the cases. I found a small supply of food rations I put in my pack. Then I found the transmitter!

I didn't know how long I had. Any moment, they would notice that their droid had gone missing. I fiddled with the controls and hoped to the Force I would be able to, at least, leave a message. Interstellar communications were never a certain thing. Still I'd worked with many types of transmitters. This wasn't one of them, but the principles were common enough I was able to set for Dandoran.

As soon as I hit send, instead of going to Dandoran, the transmitter jumped to a ship above us in geosynchronous orbit. It was only then that I realized that before me wasn't a long-range transmitter, just a simple repeater to a long-range comm, likely on the ship in orbit.

"Hey, this is Nibbs. Where are you trying to transmit to?" Came through the speaker too loud. At the same moment, the droid below me reactivated.

Every member of my own personal hunting party turned and looked.

In a split second my DK was in my hand and just as the droid was getting ready to hit me, I shot it between it's armor plates right in the main motivator.

I was already springing away as blaster bolts from a half-dozen different sources lanced out into the night and passed through the space I had just been.

I thought I might still get away, but then I felt a bolt hit me in my upper left shoulder. Oh that hurt!

I just let go and felt myself drop.

I fell for a bit over 200 meters when I finally stopped somersaulting in the air and landed on a particularly solid branch.

I could feel my pursuers, particularly the female Harch, dropping to follow.

I took off in another direction. The adrenalin in my system let me ignore everything, the tired, the cold, the hungry. Even the throbbing in my shoulder. Well maybe not my shoulder completely. Not being held up and going slow for Sei or Chatterjee, I moved with all my Force aided speed I could muster.

I could feel my pursuers falling further and further behind.

*** Bounty Hunter Snare, Castanea ***

The pursuit was going well. I had just taken a verbal report from my Canis indicating we were closing. Not that I needed his report, my own well-developed tracking skills told me we were closing on our quarry. In another day, perhaps two at most, we would likely be in visual range of the quarry and then Twitch would fulfill his office.

We were resting for a short time during the darkest part of the night. It wouldn't help to have an accident or injury. I thought I saw something through the corner of one of my eyes. I looked more closely but saw nothing and went back to my other tasks.

However, when I heard Nibbs' voice pop out of the transmitter on the droid's back I knew immediately what had happened.

I know I have picked my team wisely but seeing how they all responded with fire within less than second behind my own shot reminded me of their quality. Still, I didn't have time to gloat over my good judgment. This was infuriating! The quarry was trying to rob my supplies! Obviously, the quarry was also trying to call for help.

I started moving at prey pursuit speed through the trees to get a cleaner shot. However, the quarry was closer to Twitch, who fired, just as the quarry fell. A lesser eye might have thought the quarry fell, having been hit. I could tell she was just falling to escape and began to pursue.

Unfortunately, the quarry managed to end her fall and move off with surprising grace and speed. I couldn't keep up without leaving my team behind. Then I got a call on my comm.

"You'll want to see this." Was Claw's report.

Claw once again was proving his value. While I had leapt off to the chase, he had stopped to take stock of the team and the equipment.

When I came back, I saw why he had called.

The cargo droid was dead.

The droid had been an expensive model, made more expensive by it's unusual, custom configuration for arboreal movement. The droid had been a calculated investment. By hauling gear for the team, it made it possible for the team to move more quickly, be more effective in combat. It still had two payments left! It was dead. Smoke was gushing from its side. For a second, I thought a team member had shot it by mistake. Then I realized, seeing the angle of the shot, that it had been the quarry! My anger, already white hot, became even more intense.

"Can it be repaired?" I asked.

"No. The main motivator unit is shot. It would be simpler and cheaper to buy another droid. We don't have the parts here even if it could be fixed." Replied Claw's always calm voice.

There was nothing for it then. The cargo was divi'ed up between the remaining team members and Nibbs had to come down and collect up the droid's dead carcass and the supplies it was better to do without.

"Report." I announced into the group comm. One by one, they each told their story quickly and efficiently. Essentially, they heard Nibbs over the Comm, turned and saw the intruder. They fired. Until she got to Twitch and I netted the first good news of the evening.

"I definitely hit her. It was a short human female. She was armored, but it hurt her. She's not down, but she is wounded."

*** Jedi Padawan Fio Brown, Castanea ***

I ended up doing a full loop and, as I got back to Sei and Chatterjee, the final wisp of adrenalin was burnt out and I collapsed.

I was only vaguely aware of what happened then.

Sei made sure I was attached safely to a branch, then he pulled off my torso armor. He took my med-kit from my pack and went to work on my back. Between the pain and the exhaustion, I passed out.

When I came back, I found myself wrapped in a blanket. I also smelled food.

Sei came up and offered me my camp bowl. "I found the rations you stole. We've already had our shares, but we saved some for you."

The nearly flavorless ration paste was normally something I turned my nose up at, but right now it smelled heavenly. I took the bowl and started to feed myself. As I did, the biting pain in my shoulder came back.

Sei must have seen me wince.

"I used your med kit as best I could. I don't think the wound on your back is life threatening, if we can get care." He explained.

Obviously Sei was pretty trustworthy. He could have killed us both when I was out. Run off at the very least. I finished the meager bowl of rations. Sei had apparently broken open only a portion large enough for a single human adult and shared it three ways. Smart. No knowing how long we would have to last.

After I finished my tiny meal. I got up, stretched, winced again, then went and got the rifle.

I handed the rifle back to Sei. He could have easily picked it up when I was out. "You might as well have this. Obviously, you're not going to kill us at your first opportunity. Just so you know, if you get tempted, those are some nasty looking bounty hunters back there chasing us. If they catch us, they'll still kill you and make your body disappear, which should be pretty easy in a place like this. If you live, it would cloud their Imperial bounty. The Empire could claim you already caught us and deny some or all of the payment. They know that and now you do too."

Sei nodded with grim resolve. Why did I notice how good his chin looked when he did that? And the cheekbones. Oh, those cheekbones. "No, Focus." I told myself.

Sei and Jedi Knight Chatterjee helped me back into my now damaged top and broken armor. Examining the armor plate, I realized I was lucky that bounty hunter only got a glancing hit at range. Still, if I wasn't wearing Scoeti armor with the Zillo paint I'd probably be dead. That's the second one I owed that beast.

Once my gear was on, which I hoped would help hold the battle dressing in place, I could still feel my shoulder. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the back with a red-hot metal poker.

"We have to move as fast as we can. They're coming to get us fast. I did what I could to slow them down, but we only have a day, two at the most. We have to move faster or we're dead." I explained.

We moved out. We had the rations, but I didn't dare slow down to pick food, and only stopped for water when it was right along our path.

Between the female Harch, the constant pain in my shoulder and the certain knowledge that they would find us, and when they did, kill us, I felt a fear settle into me bone deep. It was a matter of hours before they caught us, and when they did, we were dead. I had no idea what I could do to stop it and if they knew, Sei and Jedi Knight Chatterjee weren't saying.

*** And now a word from our sponsor! ***

Please don't miss that this is the third book in this exciting series. Legend of the Harp Episodes 1 and 2 are also on this site! Episode 4 may be on her way soon!

If you enjoy modern urban fantasy and my writing, you may also enjoy a series of three novels I have written in the Dresden Files universe of Jim Butcher, called Warlock of Omaha, Warlock of Omaha Squared and Warlock of Omaha Cubed!

I have also recently released a Star Trek novel. It's called Star Trek: Lost Destiny. Please consider this an invitation to read it.

This writer, like the story teller in the market of old, now has a hat out hoping for a small gratuity. There is no obligation and I'm grateful you took a moment to read. However, if my writing has found favor in your eyes, please take a moment to go to:

Pay

Pal

.me

/Hemaccabe

and throw in a little something, a dime, a quarter, a dollar, etc.

While I love to write, I do have a spouse and a child and a job and many other claims on my time that don't understand why I would spend so many hours banging on a keyboard. A small tangible return would help smooth the way to allow me to provide many more stories.

Please help. Thank-you.