Halfway to Martyrdom
Chapter Eighteen
Ezra had never been very good at planning ahead. When he lived on the street, his only plan had been to survive another day. When he first joined the Ghost crew, his plans changed to completing the day's mission. The longest term operation Ezra had ever committed to was the liberation of Lothal. An operation Ezra had assumed he would die in.
Lothal was liberated. By some miracle of the Force, Ezra was alive. Alive and free from Thrawn for the first time in weeks. Ezra was free to search the Unknown Regions for his own way home.
One problem. Apparently, no one in the Unknown Regions spoke Basic.
…Wait, two problems. No one in the Unknown Regions spoke Basic, and there seemed to be some kind of war raging on the planet of Rapacc. Grateful as Ezra was to the rebels who had invaded the military base for getting him away from Thrawn, he wished he knew what they were fighting for. Was there another oppressive government acting out of the Unknown Regions? Had Thrawn lied about this planet not being in contact with the Empire? Ezra would love to ask someone, but that would require him to find a civilian settlement first.
Ezra ran through the forest the rebels had used for cover on their approach towards the base. He figured if he retraced their steps far enough, he would find a hideout or a campsite. Once he was there, he could figure out where their supplies were coming from. That would either connect him to an offworld supplier he could hitch a ride with or a civilian city where he could find his own transport.
He wondered if he would have to navigate through the Force again. It was incredible that Ezra had been able to guide the Chimaera out of the asteroid field, but the power was still a mystery to him. Ezra hadn't liked how far his consciousness needed to stretch out of his body to achieve the trip. He couldn't imagine searching across systems for his destination.
Now in the heart of the forest, Ezra stopped running for a bit to catch his breath. He took in the lush vegetation surrounding him with a child's sense of curiosity. Back on planets like Lothal or Atollon, most of the plants Ezra saw had been green or yellow. Out here, the dominant plant colors were red and purple. Some were nearly blue in color. He thought the planet might be experiencing an autumn season at first, but when he touched a leaf, it wasn't dying. Not yet.
Ezra glanced up at the systems' two stars. Even in the middle of the woods, light beamed down onto the top of Ezra's head with relentless fervor. Pinpricks of sweat dripped out of his hair and onto the ferns below.
The day was sunny and warm. No clouds as far as the eye could see. Not the ideal weather for a surprise attack. Ezra wondered why the Paccosh rebels had chosen today to strike.
A twig snapped behind him. Ezra whirled around, hand flying towards his lightsaber. He waited for the source of the noise to reveal itself.
Were the rebels retreating? Had the soldiers from the base driven them back?
No, it was an animal. A beast of the likes Ezra had never seen before. The animal walked on all fours, its height reaching Ezra's thighs. Its paws had four massive claws digging into the ground, Lothcat-like ears pulled back for stealth. The beast had the forward facing orange eyes of a predator, with sharp teeth to match.
Ezra's first instinct had been to freeze. His second instinct, the one that wanted him to make it out of the forest alive, reached out a hand through the Force. He sought a connection with the animal's mind.
In it, Ezra expected to find hunger. The beast had been stalking him, so it must be on the hunt. What he found instead surprised him.
First of all, the beast wasn't an it, but a she. She was a mother. Earlier that day, some of the Paccosh rebels had wandered too close to her den. When she chased them away, the Paccosh had brayed in fear. "Conho! Conho!" Ezra assumed this was the name of the animal's species.
Now, the conho wanted to chase Ezra away. Her den was in the next clearing, and she had given birth to three beautiful pups just a few weeks ago. She shifted her weight onto her hind legs and gave Ezra her most intimidating growl.
"No! I don't want your pups." Ezra raised both hands in surrender. He did his best to convey a string of sentiments through the mental link. He was still a pup himself. He was trying to return to his pack, but they were far away. Their scent was faint, and the trail thin. He mentally begged the conho not to maul him. He had a pack to return to.
At first, the conho turned her head to the side. The universal sign of confusion. Yet as Ezra continued his silent pleading, her angular features softened. She moved weight back onto her front legs, then trotted up to Ezra. The conho nudged Ezra's hand with her snout and exhaled softly.
She understood. This was her attempt to comfort the strange pup screaming in her mind.
Ezra breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Mrs. Conho." He petted her on the head in gratitude.
Convinced Ezra wasn't after her pups, the conho turned to depart the clearing. Before she did, Ezra asked her one more question. Which way towards the bird aliens? He showed her a mental image of the Paccosh he'd seen earlier that day accompanied by a need to find them.
The conho snorted, then stretched her hind legs out behind her. Her mind turned towards her evening runs through the forest. If she ran in the direction of the setting suns long enough, she would encounter a place where many packs of tall birds lived as one. The place was loud, confusing, and unsuitable for hunting. The conho was more concerned with keeping her young out of the place than she was with searching it for food.
Ezra rushed to interpret the series of images and emotions the conho showed him. So the Paccosh village was off to the west. He smiled, letting his happiness seep through their mental link. "Thanks again. Love on your pups for me, okay?"
The conho swished her tail, a sign she was growing impatient. Without further ado, Ezra severed the mental link. Mrs. Conho took off in the direction of her pups, and Ezra walked towards the Paccosh's village.
The exchange with the conho gave Ezra an idea. He may not be able to speak the Paccosh's language, but through the Force, Ezra could have conversations with anyone. All he had to do was connect to the mind of the right alien and ask what he wanted to know. There was no truer or purer form of communication than a mental link. No one could lie or misunderstand information through the Force, after all.
Ezra looked again at the sky. It was difficult to tell which way the suns were moving in the early afternoon. Ezra wanted to confirm he was walking in the correct direction before continuing in earnest.
Thinking about what he'd done to bring the Chimaera to Rapacc, Ezra searched for a secluded spot to sit down and meditate. Once he had one, he plopped down on a large, flat rock. Ezra extended his hand and reached out with the Force in the direction he thought was west.
Now that he was on a planet's surface, Ezra could feel the living Force flow through millions of beings, mostly plants and animals. The animals he found were driven more by instinct than thought. Ezra wanted to use language to distinguish Paccosh life from wildlife. He didn't have as much distance to cover as before, but the search area was far denser than it had been on a warship dead in space.
A few clicks ahead, Ezra felt his probe brush up against complex thought. First he found some farmers scattered in nearby fields. A bit further in was a male on the outskirts of buildings. He was engaged in conversation with a long range comm device. The language of his thoughts didn't sound like the language Thrawn had used to speak to the Paccosh earlier, but that hardly mattered. The presence of long range communications alone was a promising sign.
Right as Ezra thought that, his connection to the alien male shifted. The man's conversation went silent, a hint of fear taking over his body.
No, not fear. Paranoia. Had the alien sensed Ezra somehow?
Ezra brushed past the one alien, trying to shake off the experience. He didn't know the alien had sensed him. Maybe he'd just happened to be observing the very second the alien's comm conversation went sour.
Sure enough, there were far more aliens in the area just beyond Mr. Paranoid. They also employed complex language in their thoughts, letting emotions and instincts ride on the undercurrents. Their thinking language also didn't match Thrawn's or the paranoid guy's. How many languages were spoken on this planet?
Now that he was sure of his path, Ezra pulled the probe back towards himself. Given the straightness of the path and the closeness of the distance, Ezra had a far easier time than before. He opened his eyes and took a deep breath.
Jumping off the rock he'd perched on, Ezra made the trek towards Paccosh civilization with confidence. The journey was slow going, but at least the path was flat land. No obstacles beyond the occasional root or low hanging branch. He spotted a few more animals in the distance, but no more predators on the hunt. Ezra had the best hour of his life in months just wandering through the unfamiliar forest.
The closer he got to the city, the more signs there were of sentient life in the area. The gaps between trees grew wider. Branches growing at Ezra's height or lower became scarce. Popular footpaths marking the trail were clear.
Cutest of all, Ezra spotted a treehouse with a rope ladder in one tree. It warmed his heart to see a universal sign of children at play. The treehouse was proof that there was more connecting the species of the galaxy than dividing them.
Finally, Ezra left the forest behind him entirely. Rows of trees gave way to crops as he approached a small cluster of farmsteads. In the distance, Ezra could see the road that would take him into the city proper. But before he entered…
Ezra looked at the crops growing above his head, temptation flickering in the corners of his eyes. The fruit spouting from the tops of their stalks beckoned to him. Ezra's last meal had been ration bars supplied on the Chimaera. As had the meal before that. And that.
By the time Ezra had reached the fields, he had been walking a long time. The rush of adrenaline he had gotten from the base invasion was long gone. Ezra wasn't exhausted yet, but he could use the energy boost of a quick snack. And there were so many fruits growing in this field. The farmer wouldn't miss a couple, would he?
Glancing around for signs of trouble, Ezra reached up through the Force. He disconnected three plump, red fruits from their stalk. He rubbed the smooth surface of each one, seeking any sign of rot or disease. Seeing none, Ezra took the leap of faith that Paccosh food wasn't poisonous to humans. He bit into the first and largest fruit.
And immediately keeled over from the taste. "Agh!"
That fruit was the sourest thing Ezra had ever felt enter his mouth. And he'd once entered a sour candy eating contest with Zeb! Every corner of his tongue felt like it was dissolving in acid. The insides of his cheeks burned. He couldn't bring himself to swallow that bite of sour hell.
Ezra spat the fruit out onto the stalk he'd picked it from. He left the other two fruits sitting on the ground. No way was he trying to eat any more of that.
He wiped his still-burning tongue off with a gloved hand. What Ezra would do for a sip of fresh water right now.
Ezra knew better than to search the buildings for a water source. If Thrawn's account was true, Ezra was a strange alien no Paccosh had ever seen before. He'd just tried to steal this farmer's fruit. If he got caught poking around a farmer's private property, he doubted they would hesitate to pull the trigger. Back on Lothal, farmers on the edge of civilization were notorious for shooting any creature that wandered onto their land. Ezra would take his chances on the more-likely-to-be-public road.
Once he reached the road, Ezra spotted the tops of tall buildings in the distance. Sure enough, the suns of Rapacc were sinking towards them. Ezra walked along the side of the road. He stayed about a meter away from where speeders would have driven on Lothal. There may not be any traffic yet, but that was bound to change as he drew closer to a population center.
Ezra's first encounter with a Paccosh speeder came about a half hour into his walk towards the city. The speeder was long and bulky, like a bus. Feathered heads popped out the window to gawk at Ezra, but the vehicle didn't stop for him. It zoomed by too fast for anyone to get a good look at the strange creature known as a human.
Without any cover, the suns' heat seemed even more relentless now. Beads of sweat trickled down the scratches on Ezra's face. He removed his orange jacket, tying the sleeves around his waist. Water would have been really nice to have right about now.
With nothing else to distract his mind, Ezra let himself wonder how Thrawn and his crew were doing. Had they joined the base in fighting off the rebels? Had they worked out a deal to exterminate the insurrection in exchange for Chimaera parts? Ezra could see Thrawn brokering a deal like that.
The Chimaera could make it back to the Empire well before Ezra reunited with the Rebel Alliance. If they did, they would have all the Empire's resources to take him hostage and make him pay. Thrawn's deal said nothing about what would happen on their next encounter. Maybe he would give his crew the brutal death they'd wished for.
Ezra had to get back to the Rebellion first. It was his best shot at safety.
As he was ruminating, Ezra felt the strangest prickle in the back of his head. Instinct told him it wasn't the heat. He swatted the back of his head for a bug, but found nothing.
The sensation wasn't going away either. Worse, he had the weirdest feeling that he'd felt it before. But the last time he'd felt such a thing, it wasn't a prickle.
It was a mental invasion, mounted by a Sith Lord himself. Now it was Ezra's turn to feel paranoid.
He whipped around, searching for a sign of anyone else in the area. Ezra didn't spot anyone, but that didn't mean much. Not when he had started his own probe deep in the forest.
By now, the other Force sensitive must have realized Ezra was onto him. Unlike Ezra, the knowledge didn't motivate them to retreat. If anything, the prickle was growing stronger. Closer.
Ezra thought about running. Racing into the city and trying to throw his pursuer off by the sheer volume of living beings to search through. Inquisitors probably didn't work this far outside the Empire's borders, but danger was a galaxy wide phenomenon for Jedi.
Yet on the other hand… what if his pursuer wasn't evil? Ezra had been surrounded by Imperials for weeks. His only experience with other people's thoughts had been theirs. Hateful, paranoid people whose circumstances gave them license to be terrified.
When closed minded people saw everyone as their enemy, that's often what they became. In order to leave Rapacc in one piece, Ezra needed to make local friends. He needed to face his pursuer and figure out what was going on here. If push came to shove, Ezra was still willing to fight. He had a lightsaber for a reason.
So Ezra waited. He sat down on the side of the road and cleared his mind of thought. If the pursuer was trying to read Ezra's mind, he wasn't going to give anything useful away.
He waited by the side of the road as the prickle grew into a full strength headache. Drops of sweat turned to streams under the solar spotlights. Just when Ezra worried he couldn't bear it anymore, a speeder from the city turned the corner towards him. This one was smaller. It had only a driver in the front and a passenger in the back. Like a taxi.
Ezra sensed immediately that the passenger was his pursuer. The speeder swerved off the paved road and parked next to Ezra. When the passenger exited the vehicle, Ezra did his best to suppress a gasp.
By now, Ezra knew what a Paccosh looked like. This man wasn't one. He had no feathers anywhere on his head. His cheeks had flapping winglets resembling gills, reminding Ezra of a Mythrol. Yet the eyes were too large to be a Mythrol. Ezra was pretty sure this was a species he'd never seen before.
The stranger kept one arm extended, his mental probe zeroing in on Ezra. Ezra winced from the force of the assault, then stood. He stood eye to eye with the man and extended a hand of his own.
Calling upon the Force himself, Ezra reached across the mental connection. If this person wasn't going to stop searching his head, the exchange could at least run both ways. The more this person learned about Ezra, the more Ezra would learn about him.
Ezra recognized his mental intruder immediately. Mr. Paranoid! He'd hung up the comm and was looking for the presence that probed his mind. He wanted to know who had intruded on his private conversation. His emotions showed no malice, only concern.
In lighter circumstances, Ezra would have jumped for joy. It wasn't every day he met another Force Sensitive, let alone one who wasn't aligned with the Empire. What if it was a long-exiled Jedi out here? Someone who could guide Ezra through the Unknown Regions and offer new resources to the Rebellion.
Without using language, Ezra did the best he could to convey feelings of remorse to Mr. Paranoid. He hadn't been trying to eavesdrop on the man's comm. He had only been searching for the city. For directions off-world. Did Mr. Paranoid know how Ezra could leave the planet?
He did. Ezra sensed it right away. The first memory to pop into Mr. Paranoid's mind when Ezra expressed the desire to leave Rapacc was a recent trip in from offworld.
That made sense. Mr. Paranoid clearly wasn't Paccosh. If Mr. Paranoid was also a visitor to Rapacc, he must not speak their language either.
There was more. Mr. Paranoid hadn't been a mere passenger on this trip. He had sat in a chair with blindfolds and earphones that fit poorly over his winged cheeks. He had waited for calm meditation to overtake him before slipping into the folds of the Great Presence. Or rather, the Force. The man was a professional navigator.
This time, Ezra really did jump for joy. He let his excitement travel across the mental link as well, to the stranger's surprise.
When the celebration was over, Ezra made a plea. Both in words and in mind. "I need your help, Mr. Navigator. I never meant to come to Rapacc. I need to get back to the Outer Rim. Can you take me?"
There was confusion about what Ezra meant by "Outer Rim." Ezra did his best to visualize a map of the galaxy. The dark tangled web of the Unknown Regions was where Ezra and the stranger were now. Ezra wanted to return to the navigable part of the galaxy. The large ring of systems furthest away from the galaxy's core.
In response, the stranger imagined a map of his own. Instead of a dark tangled web, Mr. Navigator recalled a detailed, ever changing network of paths connecting systems and civilizations to one another. It was clear the man had been navigating for some time by the way he knew the name of each system, each people. The whole area of his navigation services had one name in Mr. Navigator's mind. The name of a beautiful untamed beast that all could love and fear.
The Chaos.
"Yes! I want to leave the Chaos. I don't belong here. Please, it's urgent. If you can't help me, can you at least take me to someone who can?"
Mr. Navigator considered the request. In his mind, Ezra saw a list of names and destinations. By context, he guessed it was either a contact list of navigators or a waiting list for this man's services. The man also seemed harried. Busy.
Yet competing with the emotions of duty and obligation, Ezra sensed a curiosity in Mr. Navigator's mind. He'd never met someone from outside the Chaos, let alone one that could touch the Great Presence. He wanted to know more about Ezra.
"I'll tell you just about anything you want to know if you help me get where I need to go. Please?" Ezra reached a hand back and put his palms together. The (hopefully) galaxy-wide symbol of begging.
Mr. Navigator's thoughts were murky as he took in the sight. Alien words flew by too quickly for Ezra to decipher the images and emotions attached.
After a moment, Mr. Navigator turned back towards the speeder that had brought him there. He beckoned for Ezra to follow him in. Acceptance.
Ezra joined him in the back of the vehicle without hesitation. They mutually severed the mental link for the time being.
The Paccosh driver brayed loudly at the strange creature entering his vehicle. Mr. Navigator soothed the driver in the same language. He grabbed a flask out of a bag on the floorboard and handed it to Ezra. Ezra unscrewed the lid of the flask and sniffed the liquid inside. Water.
He took an experimental sip. The water had no strange taste or textures, meaning it was clean. Once Ezra knew that, he chugged the rest of the flask in one fell swoop.
When he was done, he handed the flask back to Mr. Navigator with a smile. "Thanks."
Mr. Navigator put the empty flask away and nodded. For conversations as simple as this, they didn't need the Force to overcome a language barrier.
Ezra waited until they were almost in the city to speak again. "What's your name? I'm…" no point in lying to someone who can initiate a Force link, was there? "Ezra. Ezra Bridger."
Mr. Navigator stared at Ezra for a moment. Ezra worried he hadn't understood at first. But then Mr. Navigator flicked his cheek winglets and replied with two words.
"Qilori. Uandualon."
A/N's: And so Ezra makes some Unknown Regions friends of his own. Makes sense he would seek out another Force Sensitive, doesn't it? Maybe Qilori and Ezra can shit talk Thrawn together. You know, for bonding purposes.
I don't have a lot of notes this time. Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and is practicing good cybesecurity. Leave your thoughts below, and I hope to bring you an update soon!