Tatooine:
Mission
I thought I'd have trouble sleeping, but I was out the instant my head hit the pillow.
The next morning we went over to the Czerka offices. The protocol officer wasn't there, but a Rodian was busy at the supply kiosk.
"Greeta Holda my name. I run supply section. If you have business with protocol officer-"
"No, it is actually you I came to see." Danika said. "I need some moisture vaporators."
"That not something I usually sell to spacers. You no look like farmers. What you do with them?"
Danika looked around. "I have convinced the Truuata to move, but they need water. The vaporators can supply that, yes?"
"Ah. Appeasement. Company not like that." He hit some keys. "Me, I think it great. We only have one model, the 400 series. Working in pairs they distill 30 liters an hour. Will do?"
"Yes. A pair of them."
Greeta nodded, hitting a button. "Will be delivered here. What else you need?"
"Is there a Bantha for rent?"
"Yes. But not here. Go to main gate, talk with Drooti the Aqualish. He rent."
"Thank you." She handed over her card and paid for them
Riding a Bantha is like riding a very slow speeder. They barely get up to 20 kilometers an hour but they can walk all day at that pace. The village was twenty kilometers away, but it took us five hours to get there thanks to weaving back and forth to avoid the more dangerous terrain. The Sand People stopped us before we got there. Man, those guys were good at hiding. One minute we're going along with nothing in sight, the next there were thirty of them. HK chilled them out, and they escorted us to the village.
Danika unloaded the vaporators, which were small enough that four of them could carry it slung between them. They were a bitch to set up, but once that was done, all you needed to do was start them up, and walk away. With HK translating, she was able to explain it. Each came with a large 500 liter tank, both of which could be slung on either side of one of their banthas, and by running it from when they camped until they were ready to move, they could begin each day with more than 400 liters. While forty liters an hour in that weather is just enough to take care of only six average people, to the Sand People it must have been a mobile oasis. Danika also showed them what buttons to push to reduce the thing to scrap.
Me? I think they'd just find some place far from humans and set up with them still running; after all the power packs were good for over a standard year. I also saw a market for stealing more if they spoke to the Jawas. After all, they'd decided that weapons were usable, even if they were abominations. Why not a free source of water they didn't have to fight for?
She then patiently explained how a minefield was laid, and more importantly, how it was swept. HK had downloaded a lot of data on the mines we had collected, and between him and Canderous, had all of that data set for different terrains and conditions. This was downloaded to the droids the Sand people did keep. Again she showed him how to disarm them permanently.
Again I thought, no fracking way. The droids could either lay a field in a couple of hours or sweep a it by first signaling to deactivate and merely picking them up in minutes, and thanks to Danika having HK download the languages the local natives used, even a kid could tell them, as long as he knew the right phrases.
I could see a brisk market in mines being 'collected' from minefields laid by the locals. Or just watching some gang of corporate thugs set them up at a camp, and use their own frequency to disable a minefield before attacking them.
You ask me, she just made it a lot hotter for the Corporation here. The chief was so happy he gave his Gaffi stick to her.
They didn't want to deal with slaves on the trek, so when Danika asked, they gave the lot to us. Thirty odd Jawas, three humans.
And Griff.
I was still burning about the Chief's comment. When HK asked about the servants, they had enumerated them. When they got to Griff, they said he was worthless for work, and he only lived because he amused the females and children. After all, every village needed an idiot. The chief wanted him out of there quick.
Griff tried to lie the instant he saw us. "You there, I am an official of Czerka Corporation, and they will pay well for my release!"
Before Danika could speak, I stepped around her. "Griff?"
"Who are-" He stopped, and his eyes were hooded. Then he was smiling like he'd only seen me yesterday. "Mission! You got off Taris! Good for you!"
"No thanks to you." I snapped. "You left me there!"
"Hey, Lena said-"
"Can it! I talked to Lena."
"Oh, you did. Well what did you expect her to say? After all it was thanks to her that I was broke when I got here!"
"Sure. Your skifter went out in the middle of a game again?"
"She was ruining my luck! Besides, you were grown up and taking care of yourself-"
"You pile of moldy Bantha droppings! I was twelve!"
"Well that's all water out of a vaporator. Once we get back to town, I have this plan! All I need is a stake-"
"After dumping me two years ago, stealing my share of that last job, running off with Lena, getting yourself captured by Sand People, you want me to stake you?"
"Hey, Mission, what is family for?"
"Well I have a family, Griff, and you aren't part of it! This woman is my family now, and Big Z is my family, my crew is my family. You're just something that happens to share my genes!" I turned away. "Leave before we decide to leave you here!"
"But Mission!" He whined. "I owe the Exchange big time! They'll kill me!'
I turned back toward him. I didn't even know I had drawn my gun until I felt Danika's hand pushing it back down. "He's not worth it, Mission."
I stared at him. My brother, the only flesh and blood I had in the Galaxy. I didn't care if the Exchange killed him. If anyone killed him. Hell the way I felt right then I would have killed him. "Goodbye Griff."
"I'll be at the corporate offices!"
"So what." I whispered as he scampered away.
We got outside, but our Bantha was missing. " HK, where's the Bantha?" Danika asked.
"Specification: The Twi-lek we rescued is on it." HK reported. Sure enough, the thing was moving at a good clip with Griff slapping it trying to get more speed.
Danika sighed. "HK, how fast can you run?"
"Amused reply: Fast enough to chase down a Bantha, Master."
"Then bring it back. If Griff tries to stop you, ignore him unless you are in danger. If you are, disable him, but do not kill him."
"Sadness: You are ruining all my fun, Master." HK replied.
We looked at the people we had rescued. The humans were emaciated and dehydrated. We weren't going to walk these people even the four kilometers or more that we needed to use the ship.
Twenty minutes later, HK strode back in, leading the bantha. He reported that one shot past Griff's head was all he needed to change Griff's mind, and my brother was running as fast as he could toward town. Danika and I struggled to hoist the humans onto the animal. The Jawas were in better shape, but they don't move so fast. With HK there to translate, I had the rest of the day and night to talk with them.
The fund of knowledge they had about desert survival was amazing. I mentioned to them that maybe they should get hold of some of those wrecked sand crawlers and live in them. They had been sort of half-heartedly repairing them enough to run, and selling them back to the Corporation up to then, and the idea of living in them surprised and delighted them. I only hoped they wouldn't start, you know, boosting them.
I think I might have made it harder for the Corp too; I told them about the mines, and how to use droids to collect them, and how vaporators worked...
We stopped at the front gate, and spoke again with Iziz. He was happy about his people, and gave Danika a map for the location of the star map thingy. Then we stopped at the Czerka office where I pointedly ignored Griff as Danika dropped the gaffi stick on the desk. The attacks had fallen off, and the woman was happy as she dialed the creds into our account. Me I just wanted to get back to the ship, take a shower, and wish I had never had a brother.
Tatooine:
Danika
When we got back aboard, I went to the berthing area. Bastila was crouched there, trying to meditate. I knew she was only trying because I couldn't feel the flow of peace I usually did when she was meditating.
"Yes." She almost snarled at me.
"We have the location of the star map. It is in a cave with a Krayt Dragon."
"Then we should leave immediately."
"No, we'll wait until tomorrow."
"Why?" She glared at me.
"Your emotions are pouring over me like a cold shower. Even if you can't meditate, I have to before we go out there and chance being killed." I sighed. "Bastila, maybe we should break this bond before it gets worse."
"But what if the bond is the only thing holding you from falling to the dark side?"
I knelt, and brushed a stray hair off her face. "Bastila, I can feel your pain so deeply it's my pain. I would help but you won't let me. Don't you understand how frustrating that can be? If you were Kalendra, I would have taken you into the tub and massaged all that pain away. But you're not." I stood, walking away. Sasha came running up, hugging me, and I returned it gladly. The girl had become the focus of my off time.
We went together into the cargo hold, and I began to spar with her in hand to hand combat. She was fast, wiry, and willing to hurt her opponent if she had to. All good in martial arts. Then I watched her as she practiced with her training lightsaber against a remote. She had the wiry strength of someone that had a hard life even at her young age. I felt refreshed when we were done. If you have a problem, try concentrating on someone else's problems for a couple of hours. It works wonders. I took a shower with Sasha then meditated, and went to bed.
I found myself in the jungles of home. For once I felt myself alone, and it worried me. Then I heard crying.
I found Bastila standing over a corpse. She was wailing like a child that was inconsolable, then kneeling beside him trying to straighten his limbs, talking to him as if that would make him arise from the dead. "Come on father, it's morning and there is so much we should be doing! There is treasure to find, money to earn..." She touched his face. "Please, if you love me you'll get up!" I watched in horror. The so prim and proper Bastila falling apart before my eyes. She saw, me, and gave a smile that was what you would expect from a week old corpse. "Father, we have a guest! You have to get up!' She started shaking the body repeating 'get up' over and over.
"Bastila, come with me." She ignored me. I touched her and she screamed wordlessly, attacking me with her nails like a Jollo cat.
I finally caught her from behind, holding her against me. She fought, screaming and clawing to return to the body, but I wouldn't let her go. "Bastila, it won't work!" I begged. She finally stopped fighting, merely standing there as I held her. "We will get through this together. All you have to do is trust me."
She started laughing hysterically, trying to push away again.
We ignored each other the next morning.
I decided to take Carth with us. He piloted the land speeder with the same panache he had shown flying the Ebon Hawk.
"Bastila, did you ever consider joining the Jedi when Revan went?" He shouted.
"That was over five years ago, Carth. I was still an apprentice then, and my ability with Battle meditation had not yet come to light. Yet even then I had the wisdom to stay instead of fighting."
"Fair enough. But maybe if the Council had backed them, Revan and Malak might not have fallen to the dark side."
"Don't blame everything on the Council! It was your Senate that saw only the threat of the Mandalorians. The Council's wisdom saw beyond that."
"What did they see?" I asked.
"Something was lurking out there in the depths of the force. Something dark and hungry waiting for us to get close enough for it to touch. Something that devoured Revan and Malak along with almost all of those Jedi that had gone with them. If the Council had thrown their weight behind that stupid war how many more might have fallen before we knew what we faced?"
"So the Council decided that we should have done nothing? Just let the Mandalorians roll right over us?"
"The Republic has survived worse, Carth."
"Sure. If they didn't mind becoming workers under Mandalorians who weren't even worthy of the name. Their kids learning Mandalorian instead-"
"If Revan and Malak had not gone, the order would be at full strength rather than the tattered remnants that remain!"
I was starting to wish I had come by myself.
We dropped over the hill, and I saw a speeder already there. A Twi-lek was standing there, looking into the cave.
It could have doubled as a hanger for the Ebon Hawk from the opening. We stopped beside his speeder, and he waved toward us.
Komad Fortuna." He introduced himself. "I don't know if you have heard of me-"
"I have." I said. You made three trips to my home world of Deralia." I said.
"Yes. Here I hunt game worthy of the name once again." He waved toward the entrance. "Not only a Krayt Dragon, but one twice the size of the one my grandfather killed here a century ago!" He handed me his electro binoculars. I couldn't see anything, and I said so. "Ah, believe me. Such a beast comes only once in a lifetime!"
He went to his vehicle, and began setting up, of all things, a Mandalorian design crew operated heavy blaster almost twice the size of the one Canderous carried. It was an anti-vehicle weapon; or carried by a snub fighter. And here he was, blithely setting it up to use as a hunting rifle! Komad switched on the small gravity generator, and moved it around. "My only worry is that this toy of mine will only irritate it unless I can get a shot at it's underbelly. The scales of the average Krayt Dragon are thick enough to turn a regular blaster rifle. But I have a plan. For it to work, however, I have decided I need help."
"Our help?"
"Oh, no. I had just come up here today to lay out my plan. I am planning on digging a covered firing pit down there. The chosen prey of the Dragon is Bantha and the occasional stupid hunter. As you can see, I didn't bring either with me." He waved toward a distant herd. "However if we could entice them over here; and if the pit were dug of course, I could take him today."
It might just work; they used a similar method back home for some of the larger animals, and a gun just as big.
"But why kill it?" Bastila asked. Komad gave her a surprised look.
"Ah, a conservationist like that Dayso Cooh back in the town. Well I have the same answer for you that I had for him. The reason so many of the animals here are huge is because their life cycles are so long. A Bantha lives to over two standard centuries, and this beast by my estimates has been alive almost a thousand years. Think of something that has grown to the size of a ship, that eats perhaps five tons in a meal now. When it was much smaller a Bantha colt would have been enough.
"But a full grown Bantha is barely large enough even for a single meal now. Krayt Dragons do not die, you see. They merely grow larger until they can no longer eat enough to survive. Soon it will grow large enough that it cannot eat enough Bantha to stay alive. Then it will have to find food, and Anchorhead is what, forty kilometers away? It can out run a Bantha and if it comes to Anchorhead, will devastate the population. When that happens, no one will be alive to complain that I should have killed it."
That made sense. "I understand."
"Danika!" I spun, and Carth was pointing toward the horizon beyond which lay Anchorhead. Three speeders were escorting a shuttle, and a pair of swoop bikes paced them.
"Hunters?" I asked.
Fortuna shook his head. "If they were, they wouldn't have brought that shuttle. The sound stampedes banthas, and makes the dragon angry."
I swept the vehicles, and hissed. "Carth, the second speeder." He took the electro binoculars. He froze, then lowered them slowly. "Calo Nord."
"Who?" Bastila asked.
"Supposedly the best bounty hunter in the Galaxy." Carth said. "I don't think it is chance that he's coming here. The Sith must have hired him."
We had better hide." I looked around. "Komad, how close can we get to the cavern without disturbing the beast?"
"It is resting during the hot part of the day." He waved toward the blistering suns. "For a few more hours, we could hide right in the mouth of it."
"Let's go." I motioned.
"We could..." Komad motioned toward his 'hunting rifle'.
"No time. Follow us."
Without any further discussion we all sprinted toward the cave. There was a pair of berms made by the beast hollowing out the inside by shoving the soil out with it's paws, with a flattened area between them. They were high enough that we could kneel and fire at the approaching vehicles. That is if anyone had a long-gun. However they were narrow, so I ended up hiding behind one with Komad, Bastila and Carth behind the other.
The shuttle landed behind our land speeders, and the speeders with it settled down beside it. The swoops kept a circling pattern to watch for attempts by our party to break out into the desert. After a few minutes there were about thirty of them, armed with rifles. They looked at the gun, but ignored it beyond that.
Nord climbed out of the speeder, and took a microphone. His voice blasted. "We know you're there, Bastila. Your friends are bought and paid for, but you're worth more alive. Me, I don't care either way. But if you want to live, I would suggest you stand up and come here."
"Well, it's nice to know we're not important." I said loud enough for Carth to hear.
"I never was that valuable before." Carth replied. "What's the plan?"
I looked at the hundred or so meters between us as the mercenaries formed into a line. I might be able to run that distance, deflecting blaster bolts all the way; Bastila might. But both Komad and Carth were going to die if we tried that. I could see at least four sniper rifles. They could kill us from where they stood, and we could do nothing to strike back. I looked back. "Komad, what would happen if we ran in there?" I asked, motioning toward the cave.
"You are mad!" He said. Then realized that he had almost shouted, and looked at the cave in alarm. He lowered his voice. "If we go in there, we are a meal that has been delivered, nothing more."
"I want you to consider our options." I jerked my head toward Calo's men. "They will definitely kill us. But the beast only might; correct?"
He looked at the men, then at the cave, then gulped. "Yes there is that. Ready?"
"Are you ready, Carth?"
"We're all going to die!" Then he grinned manically. "After you!"
I laughed, leaping to my feet, facing Nord's men. I deflected a bolt, then another as the snipers took us under fire. Bastila had stood as I did, and while I covered Komad, she covered Carth in that mad scramble.
"All right, have it your way!" Nord's voice bellowed. "Bikes, educate them!"
The bikes swooped down, and just as I reached the entrance, they fired. I deflected their fire madly, and grinned as one of the bolts hit one of the distant land speeders and caused it to explode. Then we were out of sight. Carth and Bastila scrambled up the slope on their side, and Komad was doing the same on ours, so I shut down my lightsaber. I ducked, diving to the side as one of the swoops dropped low enough to fire right into the cave. I heard bolts hitting, sand screeching as it crystallized into glass, stone shattering. And among them a drumfire of hits that sounded, meaty.
I lay on the sand floor, and right before me was a rough curved wall. Then an eye a meter across opened in that wall. I froze, my eyes tracking down to the left, where only part of that huge body was visible. Unable to stop myself, my eyes followed the other way, down a head and snout large enough to park one of those land speeders on. The vertical pupil widened, and I knew it saw me for the first time. Then it lifted that massive head as it still looked at me, the neck a column large enough to support a roof on.
Calo Nord saved us that day. One of the bikes made another firing run, and I saw bolts smack into the beast's nose like pebbles hitting a ship. It flinched, then turned its attention on the opening. Behind us, Nord and his men had charged, firing manically at the cave. They were almost to the berm when the beast started forward.
I rolled up into a ball, and pure chance kept it from stepping on me as it charged. I stood to witness the most one-sided battle I have ever seen.
The mercenaries had charged expecting to find only four people. Instead they suddenly faced over one hundred tons of angry and hungry dragon. They were brave; I'll give them that. They began firing in a pattern that would have badly damaged the Ebon Hawk. Against the dragon it was rain falling on a roof. This wasn't some frail creation of man. It was alive, a thousand years old, and mad as hell.
The dragon snapped up one man, pinning another as it ripped off his arm and head, smashing another with his tail, then it was through them, and only Calo Nord stood between it and the desert. One of the swoops dropped down firing, and the dragon smashed it to the ground with his forepaw, the explosion scything through the men on the ground. It turned and ran toward Calo Nord. He srpinted back, trying to turn the gun Komad had left, but without the generator active, it was too heavy for a man to move. He turned back, death approaching, and I saw him reach for a grenade. he activated it as the tongue wrapped around him. The head came back, the jaws closed on him, then it swallowed.
The beast turned to come back, and an instant later the thermal detonator went off. The huge neck bulged, then exploded outward. The blast swept us off our feet. When I staggered back up, the only thing I heard was the wailing of a badly wounded man. Carth came up beside me, and we walked out into the hell ground. I didn't know how many had survived, though all of the vehicles were gone. We could see the lone swoop and the shuttle passing over the distant dunes, and nothing but shredded people.
We looked at each other in amazement. Behind us Komad Fortuna came out, looking at the carnage. Then he flicked on his wrist com. He spoke, then came up beside us, looking at the dead dragon.
"A pity." He said.
"Yes, it was a beautiful beast."
"No not that." He looked at me askance. "The story I could have told at the Hunter's club! Instead?" He took a heroic stance, waving toward an invisible audience. "There I was, facing a dragon twice the size of any that had ever been seen. I wasn't sure my Heavy blaster rifle would kill it!. But before I could fire, three dozen mercenaries led by the bounty hunter Calo Nord trapped us against the beast's lair!"
I felt an almost irresistible urge to giggle, turning away, but he continued.
"There we were, trapped between the gaping jaws of hell and irate men, and our only hope was to run in, beard the beast in it's den, or die at the hands of our attackers. We fled into the cave, and the men, not knowing what thehy faced, charged after us!"
I held my sides, trying to keep from laughing.
"Then the beast ignoring us, entered the fray. Imagine it! Men firing weapons with no more affect than snowballs as I dived for cover!"
"Please, stop." I said in a strangled whisper.
"Then Calo Nord was eaten and a thermal detonator he had activated gave it a case of terminal indigestion!" He sighed. "Leaving us to pick up the pieces of that noble creature!"
I fell to my knees, and roared with laughter. I was alive, Calo was dead, and the relief was so great I couldn't hold it in. Fortuna looked at me quizzically, which caused me to laugh even harder.
Finally the laughter died. I stood, looking around.
Inside the cave, Bastila was kneeling by a huddled form of partially digested bone and flesh, and my good humor vanished. I walked in, standing over her. She held a holocron, and she rocked back and forth, silent tears streaming down her face. No matter what your intellect, or nature, people always lie to themselves about death. They act as if the other person has merely moved to another place. Eventually you knew you wolud turn a corner and there they are.
This is the moment when you realize someone is finally dead. The body before you, the first shovel of dirt hitting the coffin, the flames embracing the corpse. The person you hoped might stand up again is gone forever, and all that remains is the grief. I knelt, and wordlessly enfolded her in my arms from behind. She sobbed, and I could hear stumbling words in it.
"I wouldn't even speak to him the last time I saw him. I was hurt that he would send me away, and he tried to make me understand. But I wouldn't listen. When the Jedi came for me I turned my back on him, and boarded the ship angry and hurt, and I never knew if he waved to me, or even wanted to say goodbye." She held up the Holocron, and I saw the scene she had described as her father had seen it. A small girl with pigtails walking stiff-backed away from him. He was waving, shouting, trying to get her to turn, to wave, anything. His shoulders slumping as the ship lifted, Helena holding him as he cried.
"Maybe she'll forgive us later." Helena said. Whether Bastila realized it or not, Helena did not appear overjoyed by her departure.
She spun in my arms, and clung to me desperately. I merely held her, lending her my strength as she cried.
"Danika is this the Star Map?" Carth asked. I glared at him until he left us alone. All I could feel was Bastila's misery.
Tatooine
Bastila
The last of the sand settled over my father's grave. Danika smoothed it out, then took a small trinket from his pack and imbedded it into the soil. She used her lightsaber with precision, melting the sand around and over the grave into a solid piece of glass with only that trinket, a picture of me on his shoulders, both grinning, as a marker. She had moved his remains from the cave, and he now lay on the sandstone bluff overlooking the lair. I felt he would have loved the view.
She held out her hand, and I took it, holding desperately.
The Twi-lek hunter came over, holding two large balls in his hand. "To the victor's go the spoils." He said. He took Danika's free hand, and set the Krayt Pearl in it. The largest Krayt pearl ever on display was as big around as an egg you might have for breakfast. These were easily four times that size. "I have a another speeder coming. If you wish I can give you a lift back to Anchorhead."
"That would be appreciated." Danika said. She led me by the hand back into the cave. Carth was standing by the pintel, keeping clear. Danika released my hand, and walked over to it. At her approach, the arms dropped then the ball of material leaped into the air to reveal the star map. She downloaded it, then returned to my side.
We walked back out into the sun, and both looked up at where father rested at last. "Are you feeling better?" She asked gently.
I looked at the grave, then at her. "Yes. A great weight has lifted. Thank you."
She looked toward Carth. He looked like a puppy expecting to be kicked. She hugged me, then took my hand again and walked toward Carth.
"What is on your mind, Carth?"
"I haven't been much help have I?" He asked softly.
Danika let me go, then walked over to stand in front of him, arms crossed. "If I were still a sergeant, I would have bounced you out of my squad so fast, you wouldn't have needed jets. With an efficiency report that would have had you assigned as a cook's helper."
His shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve any of the crap I've given you. I just..." He shrugged. "Maybe I'm just too pig headed to change."
"You're changing right now."
"That's because instead of helping you, I've made you carry the entire mission on your back. When you've been pushing forward, I've been opinionated, arrogant, irritating-"
"Let's not forget mistrustful, paranoid, and a general pain in the ass."
"You're right." He grinned. "Can I start over?" He snapped to attention. "Carth Onasi reporting for duty, Ma'am!"
I smiled as Danika returned the salute. "Very good, Mister Onasi."
The speeder arrived, and our trip back to Anchorhead was quiet, but more comfortable.
We walked to the Cantina. Part of me wanted to run, but Danika kept moving forward. There was nothing for it. Either I would have to face mother this one last time, or Danika would never let me hear the end of it.
It looked like she hadn't even left. The glass in front of her was half full, and she drained it as we approached.
"Back already? Have you even bothered to look for your father's body yet?"
I felt myself stiffening. I wanted to be just a normal woman without the responsibilities being a Jedi imposed. I wanted to rip her hair out, slash her face with my nails. Make her feel the pain I suffered. "We have retrieved the holocron, and buried my father." I replied levelly. "I'm just not sure I want to give it to you."
She stiffened, looking at the glass the waitress had brought. "So you would deny me even that? The last chance to see his face?"
"I never denied you anything, Mother." I snapped. "You may think that the veil of time hides all, but I remember very well what it was like before I went to the Order. You were the one pushing father into treasure hunt after treasure hunt. You loved living with the wealth he had gained, but I remember the fights!
"You were the one that pushed him into sending me away, and now all I have to remember him by is the memories of a five-year-old, and this holocron!"
She glared at me. "Foolish girl Your memory isn't very sharp after all! That isn't-"
"Enough mother! I don't wish to fight with you any longer, and now that Father is dead, there is nothing more we share. It is time we parted ways for the very last time. For our own good this ends today."
"Bastila-" Danika began.
"What do you know of her?" I rasped, turning on her. "She always wheedled what she wanted out of father and it finally killed him!"
Danika took the glass from Helena, and held it out. "Smell it."
"What?"
She shoved it in my face. "Use those keen Jedi senses, and tell me what this is made of!"
I took it angrily. The smell was reminiscent of... I looked at my mother. Kolto laced wine? "Kolto? Are you sick, mother?"
"I am not sick." Helena looked at the glass. "I'm dying." She took the glass from my hand, and sipped. " Istumadic Syndrome."
I felt as if I had been punched in the gut yet again. Then my anger resurged. "I find it difficult to believe anything you say, mother."
"It seems to me you've already made up your mind." Danika said softly.
I sighed. "You're right. I cannot claim to be a Jedi if I am unable to even listen to my mother!" I bowed my head. "I am sorry, mother."
She looked away, then back at me, tears in her eyes. "I was always hard on you. I wasn't very good as a mother, I know. Now... I wish I could take back every harsh word.
"Your father loved you so much, Bastila. He saw you becoming more like him every day, and wanted to take you on his hunts, but I wouldn't let him. They were too dangerous, and he would have died inside if you had been hurt. I accepted your anger at me because you thought I was coming between you."
"Treasure hunting can be dangerous." Danika murmured.
"I tried to keep him from the more dangerous ones, but he enjoyed the thrill too much. It was a reckless life we led, and I wanted something better for you."
"So that is why you gave me to the order?"
"When the Jedi met you, witnessed your skills, I knew it was the best for you. What do I have to show for twenty odd years of running after those rainbows?" She waved at the bar. "I only have this refuge because the barkeep was an old friend your father saved before you were born! I won't even be able to pay to be buried! We spent every credit as soon as it came in, and always went looking for more.
"If I hadn't gotten sick, maybe we would have had something to show for it. When I was diagnosed three years ago, we tried to contact you, but never got an answer. Treatment is hideously expensive, and could only slow it, and your father became desperate. He wanted to hold onto something, even if he couldn't be with you. So he went on more and more dangerous hunts, until we came here. He didn't listen to me, ignored the dread I felt. Then... He didn't come back. I had begged him for these last years to just let me go, but he was always stubborn, just like you."
"I never received your message, mother." I said softly. I took out the holocron, setting it on the table. She looked at it, then slid it back to me.
"You keep it, Bastila. You didn't had the years with him that I did. This talk, being with you was what I really needed."
"I'm glad we talked mother."
"Well." Helena scrubbed the tears from her face. "You said you had important business, and you were never one to mince words. Just, be careful please." She looked at Danika. "You there, take care of my daughter, will you? She's all I have left in the world."
"We will watch over each other." Danika replied.
"That is what she always needed. Someone close to her that cares about her."
"Where will you go, mother?"
"It doesn't matter, dear. Don't worry about me when there is a galaxy to save!"
I dug in my pouch, and I handed her a pile of coins. "I don't have much. The order frowns on it. But this is enough to get to Coruscant. Go there, find a doctor." She looked at the coins, then set the Krayt Pearl atop them.
"I told you what I have. There is no cure. All a doctor can do is keep me alive for a time."
"I understand that. But you and I have a lot of catching up to do. I refuse to let this chance for a true reconciliation to pass. Once my mission is completed, I will come and see you. So please, take the money. Sell the pearl, or keep it as a memento of father's last hunt."
She looked at the coins, at the pearl. "All right. I will do as you say. Now go do what you have to do my daughter. Make us proud."
I found myself hugging her, and we were both crying.
Danika
As we walked back toward the ship, I watched her. I could feel the pain easing, as if pus was draining from an infected wound.
"Feeling better?"
"Yes. She smiled sadly. "That brought me more peace than I had anticipated. Thank you for urging me to meet with her this time. With all my training I would have thought that facing this would be easier. I still have much to learn." She walked silently, then suddenly spoke again. "I have been trying to find a way to say this for some time now, but I suppose I should just come right out with it.
"I have grown to depend on you more and more. Not just because of the mission, but for my own well being. I am glad you're with us."
"A compliment, from you?" I joked.
She looked at me askance. "Yes. Is that so surprising?"
"Well, yes, actually."
She shook her head. "Why must you make this so difficult for me? Can't you accept a simple compliment?"
"Sure, fine, thanks for your vote of confidence."
"I know my manner is taciturn. I know you are probably getting bored with my lectures on the danger of the dark side and everything else. I spent all my years of training with masters constantly hounding me to do better, to excel. I heard so often about how gifted I was how important I was that I grew sick of it. I used to vow to myself that when I became a Jedi, I would never become so stodgy and self-absorbed that I resembled those masters." She smiled. "It's funny really. The first time I have a Jedi I am training, I become just like them."
"You're not stodgy and self-absorbed."
She smiled. "It's kind of you to say so, but I know what and who I am. By controlling my emotions, by assuring that nothing got past my shell, I was safe from harm. By keeping people at arms length I could never be hurt. Even those I am supposed to train and watch over, like you. When you needed my support, I find that you are my crutch instead.
"But I see it is time I changed. You don't need lectures, and you deserve to know how much I respect your abilities, and admire you. I just thought you deserved to be told by me."
"Thanks."
Bastila shook herself. "Well, that wasn't so hard, was it? Thanks to you, I feel so much better."
We reached the ship, and I hugged the little missile named Sasha. Carth and Bastila assumed their stations, and we set course for Kashyyyk.
Juhani was sitting in the mess hall drinking what I recognized as meat tea. "How are you holding up, Juhani?"
"Better." She pushed the mug about. "I was thinking of the Jedi I saw back home. All those years ago." She shook her head. "They were all so, invigorating."
"Invigorating?"
"So alive and full of their zeal and purpose. They were shining knights." She smiled. "In retrospect I think it is kind of tragic."
"Tragic?"
"They were only on my world to use it as a jumping off point to attack the Mandalorians at Onderon. Many of the Jedi I had seen and admired then were slaughtered in the coming years. But to us, they were invincible.
"They spoke so highly of Revan, as if her very presence would make everything work. They swept inequities away, forcing the ruling classes to make concession. They were gods that came from the skies, to make everything better."
"The Jedi are not gods."
"I know that. I was merely using poetic license! But those Jedi made more changes in the months they were there than a century had. They were enthralling. People wanted to merely touch them, as if that contact would rub some of their honor and magic off on the one who succeeded. But the peace they had brought did not last long."
"What happened?"
"They left. The ruling classes wanted things to return to normal, and people who finally knew there was a better life refused to bow down. There was another civil war, and the winners ignored all of what they had learned from the Jedi. They became the new rulers, and were just as oppressive as those they replaced. We non-humans bore the brunt of their anger in both administrations."
"All races have intolerance, Juhani."
"Yes. But Humans are the only race that has spread in such numbers. That makes their racial bigotry seem more pervasive. They at least are consistent in their hatreds. They took it out on us because the ones they hated were either not there or long dead. But those on the bottom, they had to bear this anger. They are never among those the Republic Senate hears!" She hissed, and looked away. "I am sorry, I have given into my anger again."
"Fight it, Juhani. Don't let it control you."
"The very reason it bothers me is that I feel it still! It has influence, and will lead me to the dark side again if I am not careful." She looked at me, then down. "I thank you for your support. I lash out at you, yet you do not strike back at me. I am humbled by your control."
"I am here if you need me, Juhani."
"I thank you." She took her cup, returning to the medical compartment she had made her own.
I sipped, closing my eyes. "You wanted to ask something?" I looked over at Bastila where she stood, witnessing the little chat.
"Am I always so transparent?" She asked. Then she shrugged. "I shouldn't be surprised as strong as this bond is. May I ask you a question?"
"Do I have a choice?"
She waved, exasperated. "I wasn't even going to mention it, but you did ask. Now that you have brought it up, I think I shouldn't have waited this long. In our time together, I have seen you blossom into a true servant of the light. You seem to have ingested the Jedi code and ideals with you're mother's milk. You hold to the ideals with almost no training at all.
"I see you supporting Juhani, Mission, Carth, even me as if that was your lot in life. Yet you do this so easily. For me taking a role such as yours has always been wearing. My own emotions interfere too much. Don't you find it difficult at times? Or is it just a facade for those that see you?"
"When I was a soldier, I discovered that giving vent to your emotions kills more often that not." I said. "It is a struggle, but one I am used to."
"That is good to hear. I have always found the Jedi path of detachment is a hard road to walk. It is nice to know that I am not alone in that. I have always been too quick to anger, too quick to take sides even when I don't fully understand them. My instructors constantly berated me when I was younger.
"Since this new war started, I always pictured facing Revan and since she is no more Malak in a final battle to end it all. I could use all this anger I feel to destroy him and end the suffering and destruction. Even though I know that I would end just as bad as they if I did so."
"It seems we both have our own demons to face."
"Do we?" She looked at me oddly. "Part of me tells me that it would be a small price to pay for peace to vent my baser emotions, even if they had to kill me afterward." She shook her head, eyes haunted. "I picture myself acting as Malak has, and find the very idea frightening. That I could fall to evil such as his, to destroy only because it is all I have left. I can't fathom it. It is impossible! But..." She looked away. "I shouldn't even be asking you this. To suggest to you that the Jedi teachings might be wrong."
"Bastila-"
"No. They are the foolish thoughts of a vain mind. Forget I said anything." She passed me almost at a run.