The Exchange
Marai
As we headed for module 44, Kreia was a sullen weight behind me. I turned to face her. "Kreia?"
"I do not like this alliance you have formed. The Ithorians and especially Chodo Habat have their own agenda. An agenda that has us as mere employees to fulfill his dreams."
"Can it not be said we have our own agenda as well?"
"If keeping you alive and finding a way to have you trained to your potential is an agenda, then yes we do." She growled.
"But I sensed no duplicity in him. He means us no harm."
"This from a woman that until last week felt nothing of the Force. Set aside your feelings. We do not need extra entanglements at this moment. You are too important to the fate of the galaxy to tie yourself to one sad little planet."
"You might be right, Kreia. But unless we intend to steal a ship, we are stuck here. Unlike Czerka, he is not asking us to stand aside and let the crime be committed."
"True." She admitted, though I could tell she wanted to disagree. "Perhaps he can discover what has happened to the ship. Or can help us get off this station."
The Cantina on Module 044 was a more upscale establishment than the ones on Module 081. The music was soft and light. The lighting just dim enough to give privacy. There were privacy booths, but they were not for Twi-lek women to give furtive lap dances, rather for quiet conversation. Of course that didn't mean you could not enjoy that very service. Just that no one would chuckle behind their hand at it.
"Which one do you think this Luxa is in?" Atton asked.
I chuckled. "Tell me Atton, who else would have Gamorreans watching over them?" I nodded toward a booth at the far end. Three Gamorreans stood there.
We walked over to them, waving away the attempt by a waiter to seat us. I stopped facing the largest. It is always easy to figure out who is in charge among the Gamorreans. If there is a female, it is her. If they are all male as in this case, then it is the largest one. "What you want?" He grunted.
"I am here to see Luxa."
His eyes flicked to the curtain. "She is... indisposed. If you will wait at a table-"
"No." I stood there, crossing my arms. "I will wait right here."
He shrugged. We refused drinks. I wasn't going to touch anything that didn't come out of a tap or I didn't cook for myself until we were well shut of this place.
About twenty minutes later, a young woman stepped out, straightening her clothes. She saw us, blushed furiously and hurried away. The leader of the bodyguards stuck his head in then leaned back out. "She will see you. But only you."
I nodded, stepping between them, and went through the curtain. Luxa was almost 30 centimeters taller than I was, and her body was shaped like someone had taken an hourglass and put an hour and thirty minutes worth of sand in it. She was lush with heavy breasts, and a sated expression.
"Oh I wish he had told me you were so...tasty." She purred. "I would have skipped my lunch date."
"I am here to see about speaking with Loppak Slusk."
"Oh I have no doubt." She purred. "Please, sit." She motioned toward the space beside her. I slid into the booth, and her arm draped around my neck. "And why would you in your cute little Jedi robes wish to speak with Slusk?"
"The Exchange seems to think I am still a Jedi, and I am sick unto death with having to deal with your men. I wish to see if there is a way I can be left in peace."
"Nothing would be easier." She said, her hand playing idly with my hair. "When we have one of the...unfortunates people think are Jedi captured, we do a Midichlorian count, and if they do not have a high enough one, we merely send them on their way."
I wondered how they would do that. Midichlorians are symbiotic microbes that feed on the Force. The average human say has a count of between 50 and 2000. The higher the count, the greater the possibility that the person can direct the Force. The average Jedi in comparison has between four and eleven thousand.
But what would happen if my blood were tested? I am sure I would be at the same level as before, around 6500. The fact that I was unable to use all of the capability that implied would be hard to explain.
"May I speak frankly?"
"Please do." Her hand caught at my bun. "May I?" I nodded, and she began releasing my hair.
"I was a Jedi long ago. But I was banished from the order. They removed my ability to use the Force. I would have a high Midichlorian count, but it would be worthless if they are after a real Jedi."
She had released the hair, which now fell in a sheet of reddish yellow to my waist. She caught handfuls of it, pulling them to her face, and breathed in. "So sweet." She whispered. "I understand what you must be facing then. Our client would be upset because they did not get what they wanted, and you would be inconvenienced." She reached out, touching my chin, and turning me to face her. She kissed me delicately on the lips.
"I cannot have such a lovely morsel inconvenienced. Especially when I might wish to sip on these lips again, now can I?"
She leaned away from me, picking up a pad. She punched in some information then caught the data chip, holding it out to me. "Module 721, the Bumani warehouse. Just hand this to the secretary and she will direct you."
"Thank you."
She caught my arm. "Is that the way you thank someone for saving your life?" She pulled me into her arms, and kissed me for real.
I had never felt this before, or at least never with a woman. Unlike a man, the kiss was not harsh or forceful. Oh it was forceful and I still blush at the thought of it. But a woman can be demanding in such things, and it is so much...softer than a man if you understand what I mean.
She pulled back, and both of us were breathing heavily. "Afterward perhaps we can spend some quality time together?"
"If my time permits." I answered. She nodded, smiling a sweet smile, and let me go.
"Are you all right?" Atton asked. I nodded. "What did she do in there?" I signaled for silence. We left the cantina, catching the shuttle pod to module 721. "Well?"
"I would rather not talk about it, Atton."
"Did she..." He was trying to think of a polite way to say it.
"If you are asking did she seduce our friend, the answer is, she tried." Kreia snapped bluntly. "But what concern of your is it?"
We passed the rest of the trip in uncomfortable silence.
Confrontation
Atton
I had never been so embarrassed or... conflicted in my life. She was almost ten years older than me, and had Jedi powers that scared me witless. But she was also a vulnerable attractive woman, and I wanted to shove everyone aside and hold her when she was in pain. I had seen that girl that had left the booth when we arrived. She had the same look you would have expected if she had been raped or at least forced.
I had immediately pegged this Luxa as a woman that didn't have a use for men except as muscle to protect her. When Marai came out her hair down, a look like a trapped animal in her eyes I wanted to push through those guards and beat the woman bloody!
But I couldn't. Unless you're willing to kill them Gamorreans are hard to just push aside. And I'm willing to bet the number 2 of the Exchange here wouldn't just let me hit her.
I kept watching her as the shuttle pod flew along. Her hair was still down, and I suddenly pictured it spread across a pillow, her face thoughtful as she looked up at me. I banished the picture blushing. Dammit!
Module 721 was a warehouse complex. One of them was marked as Bumani as she had told us and we went to the door.
There was an office beyond it, and a young woman sat there behind the desk. The bar on the desk read Vula Trask. She was on the com with someone, and waved at us to wait. When she was done, she turned, giving us a 300 watt professional smile. "May I help you?"
Marai passed over a data chip. Vula inserted it in the desk slot, looking at the screen. I saw the change in her eyes. Furtive, nervous. Of course it didn't show in her voice. She started to reach for a stud, and Marai trapped the hand against the desk with crushing force.
"I think we had best talk about what that chip said."
"Please, don't kill me." Vula whispered. "I'm only doing my job."
"The excuse 'I was only obeying orders' bears no weight on the scales of justice. Now tell me, what will happen when you push that stud?"
"The guards in the next room will stun you." She whispered. "After that, I don't know."
"More rather you don't want to know." I snapped. I could see from her haunted look that she might not know for sure, but she had a good idea.
"If you leave, I will not kill you. Come back in a few hours. When it is safe." Marai suggested.
Vula stood and fled. Marai took out a concussion grenade, setting the fuse idly.
"What do you want to do?"
She smiled, tapping the stud. "Why open the door of course." As it slid open she threw the grenade at the floor about a meter inside the next room, ducking.
The flash bang went off on impact, and she was through the door among a group of Gamorrean guards. Her sword spun like an old fashioned propeller and before I had even drawn my weapon, she was surrounded by the dead. She charged across to the opposite door, and we followed.
It opened, and there were half a dozen more. A Quarren was standing beside another door farther in, and he shook his head. "Never send Gamorreans to do a man's job. He turned to the man in armor beside him. "Benok, I prefer them alive, but if they are dead, I will not complain too much." He stepped through the door at his back, which closed.
"This can go easy or hard, woman. Take your choice."
Marai smiled then leaped forward, diving under the arms of a Rodian. She kicked Benok in the chest, and he went down, blood spraying from his nostrils. I took out a couple with my blaster, turning to help, but the others were already dead.
Marai went to the door, tried the keypad then closed her eyes. "Atton, find an ion grenade among these idiots." She ordered. I searched the bodies. Benok had a real nice blaster, and I slid it into my jacket. I started to toss the grenade to her, but she shook her head. She was still facing the door, eyes still closed. Then she stepped back. "Impact fuse it. Two meters in." she told me.
Before I could ask what she meant, she reached out, and the doors peeled back like foil. I saw the droids and threw. It landed more like two and a half meters in, but the electromagnetic pulse fried the droids. Marai waved, and they flew across the room and fell in a heap.
Loppack stood behind his desk. "You handled yourself pretty good. We can use such people."
"I am not here to be used, Slusk." She snarled. "I came to ask you to leave me alone, and you set your pack of hounds on me."
"What do you want? Money? I can give you more than you can spend in your lifetime."
"Money means nothing to me. In a perfect world I would kick your rancid flesh from the station forever. Spare me!" She waved a hand. "I am sure you will promise me anything and would give me nothing once my blade is not at your throat."
I heard something, and turned staring. Luxa and her entourage was standing there, looking at the carnage we had made. I could see a look of satisfaction on her face. "You know, woman, if Slusk were dead, I would be in charge. I can promise-"
"What?" Kreia asked softly. "We can read your black heart. You will promise her freedom, and once you have slaked your lusts she would be shipped to Nar Shaddaa."
Luxa sighed, shaking her head with a smile. "Goto would be happy to give me anything in return for her. I am sure he could find a woman with hair like that for me to use as I see fit.
"A pity you refuse to leave her the illusion of freedom."
I turned away from Slusk, and my weapon blew the first Gamorrean apart. The second went down as Kreia leaped past Marai into the room with Slusk. I heard a high-pitched scream as Marai slapped the 'Negotiator' from Luxa's hand. The woman screamed 'Wait!" But Marai's backstroke buried the blade in her chest.
Kreia was standing over the desk, wiping her own blade off. Marai walked in, looking at the room, at Slusk's legs. "What now?" Kreia asked.
Marai looked at the desk. "Atton, slice into his system."
"Are you mad?" I asked.
"I am sure the TSF would love to have all the information we can get. It's not like the Exchange is going to kiss and make up after this."
"There is that." I shoved the body aside. I began key in. "On second thought, Maybe Nar Shaddaa isn't a good idea."
"You're just catching on?" Marai asked.
"Hey if this Goto wants you as bad as these guys thought, I don't think it would be wise to try to hide in his own backyard. The Exchange has been having troubles lately, but that has just made them more mean."
"Troubles?"
"Yeah. Some guy stole a lot of cash from them when he decided to leave a few years ago. Something Kang I think his name was. A lot of bosses were angry, crossed the wrong lines, went to the wrong planets, and about one or two thousand dead later, they finally stopped accusing each other of stealing it." I paused. "Retina locked." I picked up Slusk's head, held it in front of the scanner, and dropped it again. "All right we're in." I looked at it. Everything the Exchange had been doing in two-dozen systems. Places, dates times, money transferred. Just a tenth of this would make Grenn's career.
It took two pads to download all of Slusk's files. Marai suggested I access Luxa's, going back out of the room. Hers were not only retina encoded, but pore and DNA as well. Marai dragged in the body, and I used the cooling flesh to get what she wanted. There couldn't be enough to make it worth it...
I took it back. Luxa had handled the transfer of money and other enticements to a dozen different political figures not only on the statio but also in the planetary and Republic Senates. Grenn was looking at being the high muckety muck in the TSF when this hit his hot little hands. In fact I could see a lot of promotions in the Republic Judiciary when they were done.
We left the mess for someone else to clean up. Of course all we had done was decapitate them here. Someone else would step in, probably before the end of the shift, and they'd be back in business like nothing happened. The files we now had would do a lot more damage than a dozen bodies ever would.
We caught a shuttle pod to another section, had a meal at a kiosk we chose at random, and then caught another to module 082. Marai was flipping one of the data pads in her hand absently.
"What are you thinking?" I asked her.
"Have you thought of what might be in the Czerka Corporation's files that might be just as interesting?"
Delivery and Retrieval
Marai
Before going back to the apartment, we stopped at the Ithorian compound. The idea of raiding Czerka's sealed files had been considered, but the system was closed. It wasn't linked to anything outside their office. To slice it someone would have to go into the offices, past their security, and take them directly off the mainframe.
There was an employee of Czerka that might help, according to Chodo. Corrun Falt had been the man in charge when Czerka had first come to the station, but had been replaced almost immediately by Jana Lorso. He had been working on controlling everything but the reclamation project, which would have been more than enough for most corporations. But Lorso had pushed for more and more. If you've seen the Czerka Corporation ads you'd think they were all sweet innocent people that went out of their way to help people. Falt seemed to believe it, or wanted it to be true, at least.
We were able to contact him, and he told us that only two people had access, Lorso herself and B4D4, her administrative assistant droid. But due to the push to control more and more of the surface of Telos, there was a way past this. They had hired an outside contractor, a Duros named Opo Chano to do their maintenance on B4. He gave us his address and an introduction.
Chano was glad to help if he could. But he owed a lot of money to the Exchange. Credits passed hands, and an hour later he walked into the Czerka main offices, and came out with the droid. We took it to the Ithorian compound where their techs would reprogram it while we slept.
The next morning we had breakfast, picked up what we needed from the Ithorians, and made our way to Module 126. We had to move not only openly but also forcefully because we wanted Czerka to be watching us when the droid walked in to get the data.
I met the TSF escort at the module 081 annex. There was only one man.
We rode across toward module 126. He was young, terrified, and happy to have us with him.
When we got out, I let him lead. After all, this was his party. A pair of Czerka men stood in our way.
"So you decided to accept their offer instead of ours." He said coldly directly to me. I looked at him. "Do you really think a group of tree hugging freaks can do a better job that we can?"
I stepped around the TSF trooper. "When someone worries more about the bottom line than the job, I always know they will fail." I told him. "Now get out of our way."
He smirked. "Oh I don't think so." He held up a paper. "This is a court order issued by Judge Rombold of the Superior court ordering that the droid you are coming to collect be placed in storage until proof has been offered that it is not being used in a known smuggling operation."
"Funny." I took the paper and handed him one of my own. "This is a court order by Judge Santi of the Telosian Supreme Court ordering that this-" I waved at his shot- "be held in abeyance until such time as something beyond mere accusation can prove your contention."
He glared at me. There was no such proof and he knew it. If we had filed after they had taken the droid, it would have been impossible to get it back. Czerka would now have to supply all of their proofs to the Supreme Court before any action could be taken. While the superior court had a backlog of several months, the Supreme Court had one of almost a decade. He bowed acknowledging that we had beaten him at this point and stalked away.
The droid was standing with an Ithorian beside the Corellian Courier. I had started across the deck toward them when something I sensed caused me to act. I ducked, reached out with the Force and slammed the Ithorian and the droid on their back as a blaster burst ripped through the space they had been occupying. I spun pointing toward a man on the catwalk above. "Atton!"
He drew, aimed, and shot the man before he got ten paces. I motioned, and he climbed up the catwalk as I went to help the droid back to his feet. The Ithorian was standing again, stunned.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes." He finally said. "I am just... stunned by the violence. Such is not normal in our society."
"I would say welcome to the real world, but I don't think you would appreciate it."
He gave me a hurt look. "Can we complete this business? I wish to be among my own kind again."
Atton climbed down, and wordlessly handed me the weapon. It was a Czerka model 9, their cheap end hand weapon. But it had been modified with a bell chamber, electromagnetic signature nullifier, and IR modulation. The bell chamber would make it completely silent. The electromagnetic nullifier meant you could carry it through a weapons detector and it read as a lump of metal. The modulation meant that the plasma bolt would be tuned to the infrared spectrum, so it would not be detectable to the human eye. You could walk through a crowded room set it a centimeter from someone's back, fire, and be out before the man had even fallen over. It was an assassin's weapon. Grenn would love this.
We delivered the droid without incident.
Czerka
Marai
We had hit a gold mine in the Czerka office. I know it's only used for some jewelry and circuitry now, but it used to be valuable.
Czerka, like every corporation, kept voluminous records. Every centi-cred had to be accounted for so the accountants were happy. That meant that everything they had spent buying politicians, judges, bureaucrats and police was there in glaring relief. Unfortunately, the ten main people had not committed a lot of crimes under Telosian law. It isn't a crime to donate to a politician. But the politicians had violated the law by taking so much to stay bought.
A number of the lower and middle echelon Czerka people had however. They had run their own little schemes, and as long as the corporate headquarters had a black bottom line, they didn't care. Weapons had been shipped in labeled as machine parts, reworked until they were more efficient albeit illegal, and sold through outlets from here to Nar Shaddaa. They had tried several times to get reclamation areas below that had Bachani plants turned over to them, and after a moment I had thought I knew why.
Bachani grows on a planet called Sanhedra. It thrives in what a human would call a toxic waste dump. The planet had heavy metals in the air soil and water, and would have killed an unprotected man in hours. But life that should have died flourished if within a few meters of these plants.
Somehow, the bachani plant took in that toxic waste, and produced clean oxygen; something like ten to fifteen times what was normal for plants on other worlds. By cycling the water of Telos through the bachani they had cleaned the ocean of normal contaminants within the first three years. Planting them in the catch basins for the rivers had kept the oceans clean. With a free hand and a few thousand bachani they could clean the planet in a decade.
Atton was the one that disabused me. Bachani has another use, if you're willing to take the risk. By soaking the leaves in a chemical bath, you released the alkaloids from the inner plant fibers. This was dangerous, and killed about fifty to a hundred people a year when they didn't take care. The slurry when fractioned off made a spice nicknamed Star-rider. It was a hallucinogenic, and highly addictive. The waste from the process was so toxic not even Bachani could clean it up. Worse was that it could be administered without anyone knowing, being odorless and colorless. Someone had taken over the government of Wallmeri with it about a century ago. Most places had a death sentence on its possession, sale or manufacture. Those that didn't had prison sentences measured in decades. The planet had been cordoned off, and only the Ithorians had the clout to get past that blockade.
I went myself to deliver all of the data we had gathered. Lt Grenn snarled when I came in, but he read the files slowly, first the Exchange records, then Czerkas.
"Let me get this straight." He finally said, glaring at me. "You've treated this station as your own hunting preserve and killed by my estimate twenty people. If that wasn't enough you have broken into not one but two secure data bases, and stolen files from them." He spun around, and his voice was a roar. "Have you anything to say?"
I shook my head.
"Did you know that under Telosian law that all of this is admissible in court if my men were not the ones that stole it?" He laughed, the first real emotion I had seen on that face. "Well done. I don't know or care if you're a Jedi, but you did work worthy of one of them. Now get out of here. You just dumped a decade of work on my desk, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it."
I felt almost buoyant as I walked back toward the shuttle module. Chodo would find a way to get us down to Telos, or I'd know the reason why.
I stopped at a kiosk that sold clothes, buying another set of clothing. I took off my Jedi robes, and instead donned Matukai robes. If I ever earned the right, I would wear them again.
An information kiosk nearby flashed at me, and I looked at it curiously. I knew the com system could track someone down, but it had been a long time since I was worth even speaking to. I keyed in the com. The Ithorians? I tapped the accept key.
"Marai Devos! Help!" It was Moza, and he used their herd cry for danger, which rattled the clearsteel of the tunnel. I tapped the shut off then hit the one for our room.
"We out of here?" Atton asked.
"Ithorian compound, bring everything!" I shouted. Then I keyed off, and was running.
Ithorians
Atton
I knew she was supposed to be a soldier, knew she had experience, but I had not been on the receiving end of such an order in a long time. It wasn't will you, or do this. It was do it right the flaming hell now! I had grabbed my gun, shouted for Kreia, and was double timing down the module walk before I even considered what had happened.
The emergency pressure doors to the Ithorian compound had been sealed, and I was about to try to slice the lock when Marai came running from the other end, Matukai robes flying. She waved me away, set her feet, reached out with both hands, then jerked them as if she were pulling something. My jaw dropped as the door bowed outward, then at the second convulsive jerk ripped away, slamming into the wall behind her. People screamed and dived for cover including me.
Not Marai. She had her ritual brand out, and leaped through the door in a smooth curve, nothing but the shriek of her battle cry remained outside with us.
I found my feet, and was less than a second behind Kreia. There had been four mercenaries in the next room. They were armored, armed with both swords and guns, and for all the good it had done them, might as well have been naked. Marai had gone through them like a food processor, and hadn't even slowed down.
I ran past the table where the doorman had sat. He lay dead. The next room was a mixed bag of dead. Two dozen Ithorians had been shot down as they had tried to flee. There had been maybe seven men in here with five or six droids. I arrived as Marai caught the last droid with the Force, and picked it up, squeezing. It rained down in parts.
She cut to the left, opposite of the way we had gone before. There was a door marked with Ithorian runic scrip that said vivarium. A mercenary turned, and I recognized him from the Cantina. He didn't even have time to speak before he went down cut almost in half. Beyond him was the larger man. He flung down his blaster, screaming 'Please!" But Marai punched him the same way she had done it before, but this time I saw his back explode outward.
As he sagged, Marai glared at him. "I don't give a man his life a second time." She snarled. For someone who had only found the Force again when we had met, she was learning fast!
Moza was in a corner, and I don't know what shocked him more, the enemy that had invaded his home, or the monster he called ally.
"Where is Chodo." She snapped. He pointed with a quivering hand, and Marai was past me like a heat seeking missile. I backpedaled, changed direction, and followed.
We headed for Chodo's office. Three Mercenaries were outside the door, and one of them was attaching a charge to it. Marai was among them like a bomb. I shot the one she had flung aside, and drew down on the other but he hit the wall as if he'd been fired from a cannon.
She had the last held a foot off the ground. "You have five seconds to tell me who sent you."
He sneered, and she slammed him into the wall. She pulled the sticky pad on the charge off the door, and laid it on the chest of the mercenary, pulling the detonator from his hand. She flipped a switch, the anti-tamper device, so that only a professional could remove it. Then she snapped her leg down, breaking both knees.
She held the detonator where he could see it. "Five."
"I can't!" He screamed.
"Four."
"Damn it, my career would be over!"
"Three."
"They'll kill me!"
"I will blow you to hell in two seconds."
He stared at her.
"One."
Her thumb started to move.
"Czerka! Lorso said it wouldn't matter if the Ithorian priest was dead! If we killed him it would take months for another to be chosen!"
She stared at the blubbering man. "Atton. Call Lt Grenn. I think we have our proof. Oh, this doesn't have a lock out, so tell him to bring the bomb squad."
The TSF security men came to take the man away after they had removed his armor rather than disarming the bomb.
Once that was done, we keyed the door for access.
Chodo answered it, and I was struck by the preternatural calm of the being. If we had arrived seconds later he would be dead. That did not seem to have bothered him.
Marai told him what had happened, and his head bowed.
"I wish we had been able to reach out in peace to them instead."
"Some people don't give you that choice." Marai replied softly. "There are those that must make everything a confrontation and battle."
"Yes. I do not know how to repay you, Marai Devos."
"We need transport to Telos."
He looked at her, than at us. "You do know that it is illegal for anyone not directly connected with the reclamation efforts to go to the planet's surface? Artifacts from the devastated areas are very valuable to the more ghoulish collectors."
"My ship is there. I must have it or be trapped here on the sufferance of others."
"I understand. Our own shuttle is at your disposal." He looked at Kreia and I. But before you go, I would like a word with you in private."
Marai nodded sharply, and pushed us out.
Marai
I closed the door, and faced him calmly.
"Years ago I walked upon the horribly damaged surface of Telos for the first time. It was not a pleasant walk. I felt the agony of an entire planet ripped apart by war. When I spoke to you before, I mentioned your pain. That you bear pain greater than any I had ever felt in a single being, in anything except for the planet below us. If I had time, I could work upon you as we must with a planet such as the one below, but we do not have that time."
"I understand. If it is too much, I will merely go."
"It is not too much, merely that what I can do may not be enough. I may injure you so that you lose what little measure of the Force you can feel now. Would you risk it all for that?"
I sighed, closing my eyes. For the first time in years, I felt alive again. I had a purpose, perhaps a destiny again. Did I really want to return to a half existence? "Do what you can. I accept the consequences."
He motioned, and laid his hand on my stomach just over the solar plexus. "This will be painful. But if I am to do this, I must do it quickly."
Painful was an understatement. I felt as if he'd rammed his hand through my body, grabbed my spine and was trying to rip it from my back. I bit back a scream, my hands dropping to his, but instead of pulling it away, I kept him from removing it.
Then suddenly the pain just vanished. I had not noticed in all those years what I had been feeling. It was like waking up one morning and discovering that you had been carrying a ton of weight on your shoulders that wasn't there any more.
He helped me back to my feet. "Perhaps I have done enough. Only time will tell."
I walked out. We made our way to the landing bay, and climbed into the shuttle.
"Ithorian design. I may have a few problems with this." Atton said. But his fingers flashed along the console like a concert violinist. We lifted smoothly, dropping through one of the gaps between modules. Kreia sat against the wall, sulking. She seemed to feel that only she could teach me anything about the Force. Maybe she might even be right. But to have someone tell you over and over that you were too weak to walk your own path either ruins your self-esteem, or ticks you off, and she was beginning to seriously endanger my calm.
Right before we hit atmosphere I felt it. Chodo had spoken of pain, but only someone in tune with the Force could feel this, and none that could would wish to. It was having your entire family die. Not in one screaming lump, but over a period of days as you watch. I could feel the pain of the things that still lived there, the pain of the planet's own Force and felt it swirling, trying to find an outlet for that pain. No wonder the Ithorians tried to stay away except when they absolutely had to touch the surface.
Atton pointed. Czerka base ahead. I'll find-" He jerked the controls, and I slammed into the bulkhead. "Hold on!"
Something slammed into the side of the ship, and air screamed in. I could see the carbon scoring, watched ground and sky change places in a bewildering pattern, then I saw the ground coming up and we hit.
Interlude
"What do you mean she's not on the station Grenn roared.
The Security officer on the other end of the com line wilted. "We went to her rooms as instructed, but Marai Devos was not there. Their equipment was gone, so I believed they might have tried to gain passage out of the system. But except for a few shuttles from Czerka and the Ithorians, nothing has left the station."
"Well find her!" Grenn looked at his monitor, the blinking light of a call on hold. He tapped it, and the Republic naval technician on the other end looked up. "Admiral Onasi wants to speak with you."
"Sure." Grenn said sadly. Why not?
Onasi was young for his rank- barely forty eight, but unlike Saul Karath, the Senate and the fighting admirals of the fleet had gone to bat for him. Hero of the Mandalorian wars, hero of the Jedi Civil war, the man that had led the assault that had smashed the Star Forge for all time, no bench-warming sycophant was going to relegate him to a desk job.
"Good to see some things don't change on Telos, Dol." The words were welcoming, but both felt the sadness in them. Grenn had lived less than a kilometer from Onasi's old home. He had been a sergeant then, watched the bravest man he knew bawl like a baby as he held his dead wife. He had changed then, gotten colder, more willing to risk himself in ending the Jedi Civil war. During that attack on the Star Forge, he had changed, becoming more as he had been before. He smiled more readily, and was more willing to listen to reason.
"Good to see you again Carth."
"Sojourn will be there in…"He looked off screen. "Fifteen minutes."
"I have some bad news for you, sir. The ship you were so interested in is gone. The woman that was aboard it is not the one you thought she was. It was Marai Devos. My records say she was a Jedi, but except for reference a decade or more old, I have nothing about her."
"Not to worry, Grenn. I came personally to tell her that the Republic has adopted a hands off approach to her exile."
"Exile?" Grenn stared at him in shock. "That little slip of a woman is the 'Exile'?"
"None other. And I would suggest you not consider her a little slip of a girl either. She has five medals of commendation from the Mandalorian war, including the Republic Cross for Malachor V." His finger brushed his own awards.
"Then you won't be surprised what she did here." Grenn sat down leaning back. He was going to enjoy this.
Telos
Marai
I swam back to consciousness. Someone was holding my body up, dabbing my face with a rag. I opened my eyes. It couldn't be. "Bao-Dur?"
He ducked his head shyly. "Best take it easy for a few ticks, General. You've had a busy morning."
"It can't be."
"Why not?" He asked. The last time I remembered seeing him was before Malachor V. I had threatened to gut a doctor that wanted to amputate his arm less than a year earlier. The Zabrak refuse such surgery unless the limbs stay in their possession for proper burial, and the doctor didn't understand that taking the arm without asking his permission would have driven him into a depression he would have died in.
They had not saved the arm, but I had been there when he consigned the limb to a sun's corona, and knew that he accepted the loss as something that had happened. I had never heard him raise his voice in the two and a half years I had known him back then. A survivor of the devastation of Iridorn, veteran of Dxun and much more, he had given himself into Republic service. He was the best mechanic I had ever seen, and worth his weight in light saber crystals.
I tried to stand, and he caught me before I could hit the ground. I had bruises where I didn't even know I had places.
"Easy there, General. You've already survived one major crash today. Let's not go for two." He looked behind me, and I turned my head carefully. The shuttle sat smoking, flame licking from the opened hatch. I tried to push him away, but he turned me until I saw Kreia and Atton. Atton was holding his head as if he was afraid it would fall off. "Besides I owe you one, General."
"General." I replied. I wasn't tracking that well yet.
"Some damage, maybe some memory loss. It's normal for head injuries." He said. "Pity you're not a droid. One quick adjustment, and all the memories are right there again."
He looked at the sky, and I felt a crushing weight of loneliness. Zabrak are social people. To be here alone must have been finely strained agony. "But droids have it better. All you need to do is hit a button and every memory that might be a harm to them is just gone and can't be brought back."
"No." I shook my head and wonder of wonders it didn't hit the ground. "I just haven't been called General in a very long time."
"I try not to remember the war myself." He agreed. I was able to walk, and he guided me to the others. "Lucky for you guys I was out on some personal business. I saw you come down, and thought maybe you just needed some repairs. But that shuttle is fried and diced. Not much even for salvage."
Atton shook his head then looked around. "Just like the last time I was on Telos."
"You make a habit of crashing?" Bao-Dur asked.
"No. I was playing Pazaak and someone decided that I had cheated."
"Did you?"
Atton didn't answer.
"Perhaps the next time we can find a competent pilot." Kreia said.
"You're welcome. And for your information little miss 'I am so much better than anyone' If I hadn't been a good pilot we would have hit the shield wall at the base, or one of these cliffs. We could be doing our bug on the windshield impression instead."
"Yes." Kreia replied dryly. "Trapped on a toxic planet without transport and a hostile enemy force over the hill. Our situation is so much more pleasant."
"Could you two keep it down to a dull roar?" I snapped peevishly. "What the hell hit us?"
"I saw the field as we were coming in. I could have sworn I saw an AD tower there, but it wasn't until they started shooting that I was sure."
I was finally thinking clearly. "Why would a research and reclamation station need an Air Defense tower?"
"They wouldn't. But the layout was familiar. I've seen pirate bases with the same layout."
"Then we will have to ask them. Then find our ship."
"You mean that wasn't your ship?" Bao-Dur gestured toward the smoking wreckage.
"We borrowed it. Someone flew our ship down here a few days ago and the highly efficient TSF not only lost it, but couldn't find it on the planet." Atton snapped.
"Not surprising. Rad levels are still high in a lot of places. Every little station has it's own shields running on broadcast solar power from Citadel Station. Can't pick up a ship with all of that energy above them.
"But if we can sneak into the station, I can probably use their computer to access the Citadel Station main frame. I know a few things about shield harmonics."
"Sneak in?"
He looked at me. "Czerka doesn't have a lot of ecologists on the payroll. I'm an independent contractor. When some guy name Rebowis ordered a bunch of people down here to tramp around looking for salvage, a lot of those contractors left. Me? I contacted the Ithorians, and reapplied as a mechanic. I have been giving them information for the last year and a half about what Czerka has been doing."
"What have they been doing?" Atton asked.
"Salvage. A lot of cities were bombed into slag, but some were hit with high speed neutron warheads. Everything is still standing, but nothing alive. When the base was placed originally, they didn't have the broadcast system up. But it sits right over a major Telosian military base. The people that manned it were dead, but the power system warmed up like a dream. They have shipped about fifty to a hundred tons of high class Telosian designed weapons and equipment every day."
I nodded. The Telosians had been on the rim, and didn't want to pay what a Core side weapons manufacturer wanted. So they had developed their own. The Telosians had edged the major weapons dealers out in three sectors by selling equipment that was efficient, simple to operate, and above all, cheaper. They had been a legitimate target for a reason back when the Jedi Civil War began. Smashing Telos' industry had opened five sectors to invasion.
Bao-Dur turned, and his head cocked. "We had best get moving." I stood carefully, and ducked as I saw a sensor droid float past. "Don't worry. I took care of that." He tapped a pack of equipment that had been gerrymandered into a device. "The droids go by body heat and movement. When I'm on one of my little excursions, I use this. They think we are a small family pack of Cannocks."
"Cannock?" Atton looked stunned. "I only thought they lived on Dxun!"
"They are native yes." Bao-Dur replied. "But they are also resistant to radiation, breed slowly, and feed on carrion." He looked away. "There is still a lot of that."
"How did they get here so fast?" I asked.
"They didn't. These guys aren't after you. They're after me."
I looked at him. "They found out what you've been doing." He nodded.
"Then we had best figure a quiet way into the base."
It was a nightmare walk for me. I had visited Telos back before my Master and I had gone to Manda'lor. Stood in a forest of the native spicewood just smelling the aroma, and wondering if it tasted as good. Gone to the bustling cities, seen the brilliant blues and green of the ocean.
Now it was a wasteland. The grove of spicewood we passed through now were burned from blast damage, bare branches with bark hanging down ,like rotted flesh, reaching to the sky like a leper pleading for aid. By all the Gods of all the races, how could Karath and Malak been willing to destroy this?
Oh I know those historians of the Mando'a wars had claimed they were even more vicious, but it isn't true. Once you held the orbitals, you called upon the government to surrender. That was the common usage under the Rules of War, and the Mando'a honored them far more often that the Republic did. If they didn't only then did you visit such carnage on defenseless citizens. They did practice something we came to call a Scorch, but that was only used where either the civilian population was small, or when they had all the assets they needed to operate what mines and farms there were.
When they scorched a planet, they usually warned the populace to give them a chance to flee the settlements to avoid being killed. Ships departing with civilians were allowed to leave unharmed. Since their own people would be coming down, they rarely caused this much damage, only enough to throw the ecological balance off for maybe three to five years. They also used weapons with the smallest radiological damage. After all, if they held the planet, soon it would support life again, even if it was now Mando'a.
Of the almost twenty planets devastated like this, half of them had been by the Mando'a in the first year. Three of them had been cause for courts martial where they tried their own officers for doing so. Cathar comes to mind. The rest had been the Republic taking them back. There had never been a trial in the Republic of those who ordered it. After all, the Republic was honorable and just, right?
We skirted the sensor envelope of the guards operating those bollixed drones, and moved down toward the shoreline. I paused, feeling the breeze on my face. It felt...
"Do you feel it?" Kreia asked me softly.
"Yes. Like a different breeze, blowing on my skin."
"It is the Force you feel. The lives of millions of microbes in the oceans."
"But it feels so...faint."
"That is because what ever has been done for you by the Ithorian priest has not fully settled. To me it is the roar of a crowd."
We passed down the shoreline, and into the valley near it where the Czerka base was. We bypassed minefields, circled around battle droids on patrol, and finally reached the valley. The settlement below us was a cluster of temporary buildings on poured ceramacrete. Guards paced between the buildings.
"I don't see a quiet way in." Atton said after a moment.
"Then you should watch and learn." I said.
The guards came around the building, and stopped. Bao-Dur was lying on the ground, crawling slowly toward the buildings. "Help me." He whispered.
"Ah, the little spy found out the big bad world is dangerous." The captain sneered. He walked over, grabbing Bao-Dur up.
The Zabrak snapped his head forward, breaking the man's nose. As he shouted, the other two started forward. That was when I dropped between them. I struck left and right, and they folded up like a house of cards.
"I see why you said watch." Atton said, coming out to tie one of them up. "I couldn't have done that."
"How many more?" I asked Bao-Dur.
"Three roving patrols, then we just need to take out the guards stationed at the AD tower and the pad."
We took out the rest of the patrols just as easily, then simply walked up to the landing pad with Kreia and I in the lead with our hands up to the stationed guards. I reset the AD tower to standby, and Bao-Dur inserted a feedback loop that meant the system would immediately do a diagnostic if it was ordered to fire. We reached the pad, and he sliced into the system.
"We have a shuttle inbound right now. Just a few more... Got it. Someone has set up a small shield generator on the north polar cliffs. Nothing there but an old seismic monitoring station and a water reclamation facility."
He signaled us to hide, and Atton, dressed in a mercenary's armor took his position. The shuttle landed, and we convinced the crew to get off. We left them sitting in their underwear.
