Chapter 26

Pantora – Gonzalis crash site

Caloc raised his arms slowly, trying to focus his unusually chaotic thoughts. His breath was even and clear and his mind was sharp and focussed. He curled his fingers in the air, using the Force to lift a sheet of metal from the twisted shreds that were the remains of the Gonzaliz's hull. It was still smoking from the fires that had engulfed it during landing. Carefully, he manoeuvred the debris over the rest of the wreckage, watching carefully for any survivors crouched below it. He and Stass had returned from the Resurrection, and travelled via shuttle to the crash sites to help find survivors. There had been limited success while they were gone. Bodies had been found, but those found dead outweighed those found living.

It was rather all rather… disconcerting.

Each dead soldier was placed in one of the rows just outside the crash zone, and covered in a white sheet. Artificial ferrocrete barriers were placed around the site to block the civilian's view. There was nothing that could stop Caloc eyeing off the distraught surviving soldiers and pale doctors mourning their colleagues as each were found. There would be a lot of very sombre funerals upon their return to Coruscant, when the bodies could be placed on a large enough ship to transport them.

"Nice of you to join us.", Barris nudged his shoulder as she materialised beside him. She forced a smile across her face. She had been here for a few hours now, had felt the airborne anguish for just as long. Caloc didn't know Barris well, as she was a year below him in training, and had come from the Lylek clan. But he knew enough. She was an expert healer, like her Master, and was able to sense strong emotions easily. Being in an area surrounded by so much grief was already draining her. She reached out, and he felt her sink into the Force, lifting a large piece of the hull with burnt Aurebesh on it. The start of the ships name. All that was left was 'Gonza', which felt surprisingly and mutedly humorous.

"Sorry. I was busy.", Caloc grunted as he lifted the metal, "I needed to talk to someone offworld, so I went with Kit and Stass back to the Ressurection. She had to meet with the official diplomats in the command tent or something like that."

"Then why are you back here?", the Mirialan asked him, her nose crinkling with her curiosity. The small inkish squares across her nose crinkled in too, "Surely you would learn more next your Master."

"Perhaps.", he shrugged, "But I feel better when I'm doing something. This is where I should be, not stuck in a tiny room with no one and nothing to do."

"As I recall, you were visited regularly during your isolation, and you had your… pet with you.", she sounded either displeased or unsure of the term he referred for Budiku. He didn't have a preference, and so didn't bother to correct her, "How are you feeling after your isolation period? I admit that I was curious to hear about your injuries on Devaron."

He turned a baleful eye on her, eyeing her pale green face carefully.

She squirmed under his gaze, but eventually, his insistent stare got to her. "Fine! I was hoping to get a look at your arm too. It is so interesting! The medical applications would be staggering!"

Honestly, Barris and Caloc were not as close as she was with the other padawans. In the huge Coruscanti Jedi Temple, it was rare for anyone to really see anyone outside of the people they worked with. But she respected him. He had been one of the few padawans in the Temple who she could respect without him doing anything to earn it. There was just something… different about the way he held himself, the way he did things. She had first seen the boy lying on a stretcher in the medbay after his first surgery, when a huge metal plate had been inserted into his shoulder to isolate it from the rest of his body. He had been hooked up to so many machines it almost seemed like they were a part of him. She and Luminara were studying the final injection sequences needed to install the bio-fluid Klipton into his system.

She couldn't imagine the pain he had to be feeling almost constantly. The series of receptors that connected his thoughts to the metallic contraption fitted through his forearm made it possible for him to still move the limb, but that meant that he could also constantly feel whatever the arm felt. She imagined it was like a thousand tiny needles constantly performing acupuncture, sort of numbing, but still able to feel.

But even now, after suffering more than she could imagine, he was helping as much as anyone, pulling both his own weight and then some. He was just now moving a pile of rubble from the nearby docking ring that would have been heavier that one of the loadlifters she had needed to carry earlier.

"I'm fine.", he answered as he placed the debris nearby, "No different from how I was before, despite having a few new tricks, nicks and scars."

Barris rolled her eyes. She may respect Caloc for being who he was, but that didn't make him easy to get along with. She shook her head, before sobering slightly, "As much as I like the scar on your face, I hear that one didn't happen on Menach. How are you really, Caloc?"

Caloc closed his eyes, his finger's tracing the long scar that marred his left cheek. It still stung sometimes, but it was a link back to his family, to his culture. He shook that thoughts from his head and focussed on one of the razor sharp turbine fans, lifting it from the rubble, "I'm confused, Barris. I look around us at this carnage and I wonder who could even think to do this. There has to be more than simple destruction and chaos to this mess. Stass has told me that she senses something bigger. Something… colder. Does that make sense?"

"Honestly? No.", Anakin joined them, nodding to one of the frigate's engines lying nearby. "And who cares if there is. We are Jedi. We can handle anything."

Both Barris and Caloc gave the older boy a look. It was the Mirialan who asked, "Anything?"

Anakin looked around for something to prove his point, and his eyes landed on the rear of the wreckage. He nodded towards it, "How about we give that one a try."

"Bit big isn't it?", Barris asked.

"You don't want to push yourself, Barris?", Anakin asked. He was the oldest padawan amongst them, having been training for about ten years under the Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the more popular Jedi in the Order. Many padawan's would have liked to be in Anakin's shoes. However, he was reckless, brash, and unlike Kenobi in so many ways that one might have called them polar opposites on multiple occasions. Caloc thought they were more like two sides of the same credit disk.

Barris was staring at the engine Anakin had gestured to, "Pushing yourself is one thing, Anakin, but that is something else entirely."

Caloc's eyes had a dangerous glint in them. "Which is exactly why we can do it."

He emphasised the 'we' to get his point across, and sure enough, the three padawan's stretched out their hands, palms forward. As one, they curled their fingers, mentally picturing the humongous piece of debris in their hand. The sound of metal on metal filled the air as the engine slowly rose from the wreckage until it was clear of the crash site. Caloc grunted, "I think Anakin and I can hold it. Barris, you go and check for survivors."

Carefully, the Mirialan shifted the engine's weight from her hands to theirs, and hurried forwards, leaping the debris with a grace only one who trained for hours each day could. She peered into the new hole in the wreckage, before she turned back and shook her head. Anakin nodded, and pointed silently over near the front of the ship, where the debris was being collected before it could be taken back to Coruscant for evaluation. Growling with exertion, he and Caloc gently pushed the metal through air and carefully set the engine down, careful not to hit any of the people nearby. A series of crime scene analysis droids were scattered around the pile, slowly picking through it as they recorded everything their scanners could see. Caloc peered over the debris, then pointed at the tent in the far corner, "I need a drink, want to come with?"

"Sure.", Barris answered, "Anakin?"

The older padawan shook his head, "You go ahead, kids. I'll see if I can find anyone new in this mess. Hurry back."

He disappeared over the rise. Barris turned to Caloc and gestured after the nineteen year old apprentice. "Did he just call us kids?"

"Seems weird to think he is only a few years older than us, right?", Caloc grinned back.

They made their way down the slope, talking quietly. It was only when they got close to the debris field that Caloc stopped and turned to one of the CSI droids. "Danni! That you?"

The droid, a Crime Scene analysis unit by the looks of it, turned, and Barris noted the green streak of paint on his right servo motor and visor.

"Young Tiac.", the droid nodded in response, his right limb flailing about to emphasise the words. "Finally, a mess that ain't entirely your fault."

"It's good to see you too.", the padawan grinned at the droid, an old acquaintance from the Jedi Temple, "Do you know Barris Offee?"

"Indeed I do, but not personal like.", the droid extended a hand, an interesting gesture from a programmed droid, "By rep only. She is a far better padawan than you are, buddy."

"Nice to meet you.", Barris took the droid's hand, "What are you doing here, Danni?"

Danni-NY54 turned around, flipping down his visor as he got back to his work, "Well, y'see, here I was minded my own business, when suddenly I hear that you Jedi and your team has made a mess of this here job. I've had a rough night, being loaded into a shuttle and shipped across the galaxy to try and save your sorry butts and rep on this moon. So, I'm not exactly the happiest droid in the manufacturing line. Now here's the deal: you tell me everything what you know, and I'll let you continue with your work. That work for you? Your other friends and associates are bein' less than chatty."

Caloc rolled his eyes, pulling a data-rod from his belt "I knew that whoever was in charge here would want my statement, so here, I put it on this. Be careful with that; it's the only copy. If you want, my starfighter is in the hanger of Admiral Yularen's cruiser. You have my permission to check on that, too. I used it during the attack."

"Well, we'll see how things go here for now, but thanks, Tiac. You may be one of the good ones yet.", the droid flipped his visor back down before grabbing the data-rod, "Hey, Baez-DS54! I need you to take a squad to the Neutron crash site. I need hard evidence that that residue came from an explosive, so try 'n' find me another sample there, why don't ya?"

One of the other lanky crime scene droids, visor painted pure black, looked up and nodded at the superior droid, "Sure thing, Danni. I'll take C-squad and get it done."

"Yeah, you do that.", Danni nodded, before turning back to the smaller data droids around him, "Are you cross-wired, Jamie-NY29? Sometimes I find it hard to believe we were built on the same assembly line!"

Barris raised an eyebrow as they turned away, watching the droid walked over to his subordinate helper. "Why did these droids come from Coruscant? And why from the Jedi Temple?"

"The Pantorans want us to fix our 'mess'", Caloc answered as he grabbed a cup of water from the tent. He put finger quotes around the word 'mess', "They wanted us to help their people and they feel that we didn't."

"Seems fair.", One of the other Jedi nearby answered. Caloc didn't know their name, but he was a tall man, with a cloth wrap around his head. He kind of looked like a Tatooine Tusken raider, which was impossible. Tuskens never left Tatooine. The man was still speaking, Caloc realised, and tried to listen closer, "We did bring these three huge frigates that dropped in this city. The people have a reason to be mad at us."

"But we only came because the Pantorans allowed it.", Anakin joined them now, seeming to have given up on finding any new survivors. "I watched the Senate argue about it for weeks."

Barris let out an undignified snort that would have mortified her Master, covering her hand with her mouth to hide the obvious grin, "You really do watch the Senatorial channel? I'm almost embarrassed for you!"

Caloc looked over at the man again, "I'm sorry, but I don't really know your name."

"A'sharad.", the man extended his hand, "I've spent the last nine years on Tatooine, deepening my knowledge of the Force with one of the local shaman there. I am ashamed to say that I picked up a few habits.", he gestured to the head-wrapping, "I am not surprised that you have not heard of me. I have not met you before."

Anakin turned away from the Tusken-looking man. He looked uncomfortable with the mention of Tatooine, so Caloc changed the subject. "Why are you here, Master A'sharad? Did the Council ask for you specifically?"

"Indeed they did.", the man nodded, "I escorted the security droids here. I was about to head back to base camp, but I was told to come and find both Padawan Tiac and Padawan Skywalker. Can I assume that you are they?"

Anakin and Caloc nodded at him. Caloc hesitated and looked over at Barris. That would leave her alone again, he realised. She was the only padawan there, and had been to some time. He turned to A'sharad. "If we are going somewhere, then I want Barris to come too. She needs a break from all this."

A'sharad nodded as though he had been expecting the question, "Very well, Padawan Tiac. Now let us go. The command tent is waiting."