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| Sweeter Than Heaven or Hell |
Sweeter Than Heaven or Hell
" We'll be home soon." Luke Skywalker said reassuringly and pulled his
eyes away from the console's flashing to let them rest on his sister who sat, looking defeated, in
co-pilot's seat next to him.
Still dressed in a formal, red, gown, she looked radiant despite the dim glow
of the cockpit. Now, as she turned her own dark eyes to meet his, the light reflected off her face
in such a way that it made his heart ache.
It had been a long time since he'd allowed himself to wish she were anything other than his sister; but ,having been confined in such close proximity for the last few days, he found it difficult- almost impossible-to keep those old feelings from flowing back.
" I know,but it's been almost a week since I've seen Han and the babies, and I miss them." She said with a sigh, not really needing to. Luke had been privy to her emotions all alone and, even now, as tired as he was, she could feel the warmth of his thoughts pressing soothingly against her own weary mind. " And what makes it worse." She continued. " Is the fact that this entire trip to Colchii was a complete waste of time to begin with! The Council must have been out of their collective mind to think that the Parthed would ever 'bend so low'" She used the man's own words."'as to deal with those who had destroyed his livelihood."
Nodding in grim agreement, Luke, unable to stop himself, reached over
and scooped up his sisters hand from where it lay idly resing on the ships controls. He gave it a slight
squeeze as he did so.then, adter an only half-hearted attempt to push his indecent thoughts
aside, he smiled weakly at her.
" Now, it didn't go all that bad." He said, distracted as the warmth
of her hand soaked through him.
" Well, if being not so politely asked to leave by the Gran Parthed
himself isn't bad, then I don't know what is!" Leia replied, her earlier anger suddenly restored
as the memory of the hugely smug , and incredibly vile, Aruuss Kininin assaulted her.
" Considering how he feels about the New Republic, we could have been not
allowed to leave at all!" Luke pointed out solemnly. " We were seriously outnumbered, and outmanned,
back there. " He said, at the same time finally mustering up enough willpower to return his feelings
to that neat little box in his mind where he usually kept them. He feared that, if he left them to
longer too long out in the open, Leia might realize their true intentions.
" Back there we were in no real danger." She slumped, exhausted, back
into her seat. " It's out here that we've got to watch ourselves." Her worried eyes shifted from
Luke to the ebony void outside the cockpit window, as if searching for some unknown threat.
" Yeah, I know." Luke squeezed her hand again. " He had something in his head
during dinner; but his mind-block was too effective for me to get anything concrete from him." The
young Jedi stated, feelign the frustration of the moment come back to him.
The Parthed had been unwilling to kill them outright while they were guests in his dark domain, no matter how much he would have thoroughly enjoyed it. The risk of reprisals would have been too great. But Luke had picked up tracings of a plan in his ming that had had the stench of murder about it and, as a result of this, he had plotted a complicated and lengthy route home which had added several extra days onto the already two day long trip.
Suddenly stiffening, Leia bent forward and slammed her free hand down
on the console. She turned to look at her brother, her usuall beautiful face contorted with anger.
" He has a lot of nerve calling that religion of his free!" She yelled.
" They are slaves to his will - nothing more, and he uses them to serve his own evil
purposes only."
Reaching out to brush aside a piece of hair that had fallen unceremoniously
across his sisters face, uke smiled at her anger. He had known that the conversation, eventually, would
turn to this point.. He had seen it in her ees. The anger, the pity, and the embarassment at having
to watch the degradation of a once proud people at the hands of a man so filled with darkness
that he could have been the Emperor himself.
" They are his by their own choice,Leia." He said. " There is nothing
you, or I, can do for them. I felt it in their minds, they are content."
" If I were content with choosing the darkside to live my life by, would you
just say 'leave her alone', to live her life as she chooses?" She asked, her anger heightening.
" No!" He said in absolute, as a shiver ran up his spine." But not for the
sake of saving you from yourself, which is what you want to do for those people, but because
you would, inevitably, bring harm to others. That would be something I couldn't allow." He
said darkly, as the shadow of their father's own evil past settled across his mind.
" And here I thought it was because you'd miss me." Leia said, realizing
that their conversation had taken an uncomfortable turn.
" That too!" Luke smiled at his sister's attempt at humor and squeezed
her hand once again,seeking out the comfort that her touch offered.
Relieved that she'd managed to curb his dismal mood, Leia relaxed; letting
the softness of her seats thick padding wrap around her. With her eyes closed she spoke once again,
her words sounding loud in the quiet that had settled over the cockpit.
' I don't understand the Parthed's anger with the Republic, but what
I really don't understadn is why he would pass up such an immense profit for old grievances."
Her exhaustion was beginning to take over. " Rumors of a link between he and the Emperor were
always a topic of conversation amongst the old Senate.." She yawned, but continued. " At the very
least they were friends; but the man's been dead for over six years now, so what does he have
to gain by keeping up his old loyalties?" She asked, more as a musing rather than truly expecting
an answer.
If she noticed the chilled tremor that her words prompted in her brother's
psyche, Leia said nothing about it. Instead, as the cabin fell silent once more, she allowed her
fatigue to claim her . She drifted off into a much needed, but restless, sleep; leaving Luke to
ponder her final questions in the suddenly cold darkness of the cockpit.
" I don't know either." He whispered softly, after his sister had sunk
into a deep sleep. There had been something else in the Parthed's thoughts; something ominous and
black.It had had an air of familiarity about it, yet it had still remained elusive.
Feeling his own weariness trying to bully it's way into his consciousness,
Luke gave the control panel one, last check then closed his eyes. Marveling, once again, at the warmth
of the soft hand he still held in his.
Drunkenly, and before the final remnants of his awareness slipped away,
a small part of his mind told him that the pleasure he was deriving from her touch was-in some way-wrong.
Having been forced to give up all else where she was concerned, he fought that moralistic part
of himself that was trying to direct him, and refused to release his gentle grip.
"It wastn' proper protocol, My Master." The small, worm-like Dalaa's words bubbled from its thin, lipless mouth as he rolled his two antennae-like eyes in response to his Master's distasteful behavior. He continued his slow slither towards the bulbous mass that was the Grand Parthed.
Cloaked in black, and hugely ball-like, Aruuss Kininin looked like a black hole
amongst the sterile white surroundings he called his home.
With spindly centipedian arms, Josu- a Teean servant, and aide to the Parthed-
placed the large tray of sweets that was his burden on the table in front of his leader,and spun his extended
orbs to look behind him. He hoped that he hadn't left any of his larvae smeared across his Master's floor.
The Parthed was an extremely paranoid man, and lived his life in near sterility; fearing the contamination of disease that even the most miniscule speck of dirt brought. This personality traid, though probably not cumbersome to other races, often made it extremely difficult during Faetro-the Dalaa's nesting season. The Parthed's response to Josu's uncontrolled ejaculation was, at best, torturous.
Noting nothing other than a gleaming white floor behind him, Josu heaved
a visible sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the man who sat like a mountain before him.
Barely resembling the human that he was, one would have been surprised when the
large, stump-like, appendage that reached out from behind his robe turned out to be an arm rather than some
bizarre, alien extremity.
" Mmmmmm..." The Grand Parthed intoned softly as he picked up one of the treats
that lay on the tray. He held it up in front of his face so his small, slit-like eyes could scrutinize it.
Having passed the visual inspection, the Parthed then ran it through the slender grey
device attached to the table in front of him. He popped it into his mouth upon receiving a clear signal
from the analyzer, From under the large folds of skin that hung heavily around his face, what little that
could be seen of his eyes shone with extreme pleasure; his face twisted into some bizarre grimace that was
meant to resemble a smile.
" Yes, Josu, I do have to admit that my behavior wasn't the best." He replied at last around the overflowing wad of goo in his mouth." But I could barely tolerate their vulgar presence to begin with..." He stopped to lick his plump fingers and then continued." So when the coversation turned towards our Baranthium, and what it's acquisition would mean to the Republic. I'm sorry... He said in a tone conveying mock regret. " But I felt it necessary to ask them to leave. Imagine!" He dropped his fist down heavily on the table in front of him, causing it to sway precariously. " The audacity of the Republic's leaders, thinking that I." He pointed a thick, stubby finger at himself." Aruuss Kininin would ever consider supplying them with the material to be used towards the destruction of the man who serve our glorious Empire!" He yelled, his beginning to grow red.
" In their eyes the Empire is dead, My Master; and they are not benefitted with the knowledge that you are." Josu pointed out, are the same time beginning his slow retreat across the room.
The burning of ripened larvae had started it's steady pressure against the inner oss of his glunca and he knew that soon his bodies uncontrollable response to that burning would be explusions. It had happened once before in the Parted's presence, and that had been on time too many for the Daalaa. Had it not been for the fact that Parthed valued both his services and his company, Josu knew that he would not have been allowed to survive. As it was, he had been tortured by methods that were particularly painful to his species. It was the memory of this that now spurred his interest.
True, Josu! They are missing some information." The Parthed agreed as he
popped another of the sweeths into his face and smiled again. " But that matters little. They remind
me of trophids, picking clean the bones of the dead..." Then, cringing at the picture in his mind, he
shook his head. " It's disgusting. Just horrid!"
" It has been years since the Emperor's death." The small Dalaa countered, still
moving towards the door. Although he had no sympathy for the Republic itself, he considered himseld
a creature of fairness and had liked the two humans who had visited, so he argued on their behalf.
He knew already that he would lose, but hoped that an unlikely change in attitude on the Parthed's
behalf would mean a recision of the orders he had had so much difficulty carrying out.
" True again, Josu!" The Parthed stopped his scorfing long enough to stare
hard at his aide/companion. " But they are still scavengers!" He finished, His voice had taken on a
a hardened and deadly edge.
" Yes, Master." Josu relented, knowing that the Parthed would only allow so
much free thought before exercising his suthority and demanding agreement in a rather brutal fashion.
" That's why they must not be allowed to live. " The Parthed looked up from his tray
once more ,and squinted curiously at his attendant, who had almost reached the door.
Josu's grey-pinkish skin had developed into a deeper hue. His long, thinly
wrinkled, sextipodian body had grown incredibly swollen, making him look like an over-stuffed Cadorfian
meat roll.
A scintillating feast immediately formed in the Parthed's head, causing him
to lick his lips in pure delight and sparking off a sudden curiosity about the edibility of his
attendant.
" If I may be excused, my Master?" Josu asked worriedly, as the pressure on his oss
became unbearable. So engrossed was the Dalaa with is own body function that he failed to notice the
hungry way the Parthed was looking at him. .
Snapping out of his delicious daydream in time to hear Josu's last question,
the Parthed made a mental note to investigate the edibility of the Dalaalian race and nodded his
dismissal.
" Is the Taranabis in place?" The Parthed called out a final question before
the Dalaa could finish his retreat.
" Yes,my Master." Josu replied and, with his voice tightening from his growing
pain, he turned only his eyes to address the Parthed. He feared that, if he turned his body now, he
would never make it out in time.
" Dismissed then." The Parthed closed the conversation and dived into his
remaining goodies. His grunts of pleasure being the last thing that Josu heard as the door slid
behind him and the white-hot glow of explosive pain/pleasure ripped through his whole body; shutting
him down to all outside stimulation.
BEEP BEEP. The ship's sensor alarm relayed it's warning loudly, snapping
both Luke and Leia out of their sound sleep and into instant wakefulness.
" We're out of hyperspace!" Leia yelled fearfully, reflexively reached for
the ship's shield controls and pressed them into action.
" I know. " Luke said grimly. " And there's an Interdictor cruiser trying
to lock onto us." He pointed to a large ship that hovered above them and to the left.
.
" Where are we?" Leia asked as their small craft rocked from a torpedo
blast to its port side.
Checking the Nav'puter, Luke did a double-take and then took a closer
look at the planet below them.
It was a massive globe, sporting no discernable plant life, no visible
water bodies; and it glowed yellow, like the two suns that supported it's system.
" Oh no." He muttered.
" What?" Leia asked, her voice fraught with convern as she directed all
the remaining power into the portside shields. " We're losing our shields. Is this a Republic system
or not?"
" It's a place that I don't think either side would want." Luke stated glumly and grabbed
the ships gunnery controls. ' Keep us moving!" He ordered, lining the guns up on the Imperial Interdicto and
sending off a round of tratliation fire." It makes it more difficult for them to set the tractor
beam in place."
" Too late. " His sister cried as the ship shuddered violently and slowed
the rapid descent she'd taken it on towards the planet's surface.
WREOW.WREOW. THe ship's shield monitor screeched loudly, signaling a 97% loss, as another blast rocked the small craft. But this time the shields, unable to withstand the pressure, absorbed only a minimal concussion. The rest impacted on the Pitt shuttle's portside, turning the propulsor fin into a smoking stump and filled the cockpit full of carbonized smoke.
" We have to eject!" Luke yelled, grabbing for the lever that would encapsulate them
and throw them out into space.
" Aren't we too far out in the atmosphere for that?" Leia asked, looking at him
like he was half insane.
" Wh have to, there's NO choice!" He said, pointing to the other ship that was looming
ever closer. " You KNOW they don't want to capture us." Luke stated darkly. " That fire they were sending our way
wasn't meant to disable us." He yanked hard on the lever, setting off a low hum in the cockpit. " It was
heavily charged Ion Torpedoes, and was meant to destroy us."
He reaised his voice to be heard above the cockpit's now incessant hum and took
a final look at his sister's beautiful face as a capsule of metal and heat-reflective glass closed
around her, creating a small,individual life pod.
Quickly, and before the last piece of metal fell into place, Luke jammed the ship's controls to their maximum setting and sent it into a reverse spin that brought it around to face the Interdictor. The tractor beam's insistent pull, combined with the sudden purge of the shuttle's engines, sent the small craft barreling towards the much larger opponent. That provided a distraction for her crew as two small capsules dropped from the Pitt's front end and plummeted toward the planet's surface.
" They've abandoned ship." Corporal First Class,Briin Rrurree pointed to the
flashing specks dropping rapidly off the screen in front of him, then looked to his commanding offier for further
instructions.
" Range?" The tall, meticulously dressed Imperial officer asked; limping forward to
join the young coscript at his station.
" Too far out to be re-sighted, and moving too fast for a line up on our targeting
computer." Rrurree replied and smiled as a third, and larger, speck disappeared off his tracking screen.
The brilliance of the shuttle's explosion was almost blinding from the gunners portal. The
rebel ship had infiltrated the Tarnabis' inner security ring before being accurately targeted and destroyed.
'That's one less concern." The young gunner thought with satisfaction as he removed his
hand from it's deflective position in front of his face and dropped his eyes back to the tracking screen. He was
ready to fire, though he knew the attempt would be fruitless. He found that the two specks had
disappeared, leaving a blank screen in their wake.
" Get me a reading on their final trajectory!" Commander Tacho ordered, at the same
tiem rubbing away the pain that the explosion's light had inflicted on his own naked,green eyes. Then, after
giving the young Corporal a consolation pat for the three day's slop detail his punishment would amount to,
he turned and left the weapons' section to make preparations for a ground search and report to his own commanding
officer,
" Luke!" His sister's fear-filled voice crackled and sputtered loudly over
the life pod's communication system; conveying almost as much pure terror as the thoughts in her head,
" Relax and ease up on the controls." He directed her, at the same time trying to follow
his own impossible advice.
The capsules controls, which were rudimentary at best, had become almost inoperable when
challenged by the extreme turbulence and pressure that the small ship was now encountering.
" It's not working!" Leia's cry clattered noisily around in Luke's head, setting off
a round of fresh panic in him as he lost sight of her pod. He had began spinning wildly in the same
90 degree drop that had caused his sister's earlier outcry,
Wanting desperately to help her, at the same time helpless himself, Luke gave up fighting
the pod's control's in disgust and instructed his sister to do the same.
" Wait until their clear, deep into the atmosphere." He told her, in a voice that
sounded like he was being dragged along some viciously bumpy terrain, Then, as the effect of his ship's
wickedly circular movements began to wreak havoc on his earlier snack of concentrated, he closed his eyes and
reached deeply into himself. Quelling his need to vomit, he accepted the capsule's unnatural movements as his own.
Slowly, and after the intense nausea had eased, he felt able to open his eyes once again; only
to be confronted with one of the strangest sensations he'd ever experienced in his life.
Everything had slowed and, although the capsule's cruelly dizzying spin hadn't lost any
of it's velocity, everything now felt as though it was occurring in slow motion. 'Bizarre', Luke thought as the pod's
rapid rotations became relaxing, almost comforting. Most importantly, it allowed him to look out the window without feeling
the need to heave all he'd digested for the past few days out into the open air of the cockpit.
Spotting Leia, he braced himself for a struggle with the ship's controls as he tried
to line himself up with his sister's capsule in the hopes that they would both land somewhere in the same
hexameter.
Surprisingly, the controls moved easily in his hands as he maneuvered his small craft into
alignment with his sisters. He brushed her mind tentatively, only to be forced back , almost immediately, by
the overwhelming sensation of fear-tangled nausea she thrust at him.
' Ah!" He yelled loudly and shook his head, trying to clear away the queasiness
she'd pushed on him.
After he'd reestablished his strange kind of normalness, he reached out to Leia again.
This time the contact was only one way, and lasted just long enough for him to administer a slight mental
nudge.
" Leia!" He called into his communications device, his voice echoing oddly in his
own head. The ground was coming up rapidly now, so much so that Luke could already make out a sand-encrusted rock
effacement on the inhospitable terrain below. Leia's ship, still tumbling mercilessly out of control, was
heading directly for it.
" You're clear now! Resume control!" He yelled, his stomach beginning to knot.
Somewhere, amidst the roll of thoughts in her mind, Leia could make out the familiar
sound of her brother's voice; but the meaning of his words was muffled and lost in amongst the sickening noice
tumbling about in her head. Momentarily she'd felt the comforting touch of his mind also, but that, too, had been
jumbled and lost.
A wretched and choked 'OH' was all she could manage as, somewhere in the distance,
Luke spoke to her again.
This time, though, despite the fact that his words were still indistinguishable, Leia could
feel the fear and franticness with which he said them,
" Pull up!" He screamed, at the same time reaching into her mind and willing her
to do it.
Already incredibly sick, and not wanting to increase that by taking in the horribly
spinning view outside her window, Leia fought him at first but the strength of his mind was overpowering. So she
opened her eyes and yanked on the controls just in time to skim the top of a jagged range of rust colored
mountains surrounding a small valley and crash into the relative softness of the bleached, white snd behind it.
A soft hiss of relief escaped Luke's lips as he watched Leia's pod
clear the ridge and land, if not gently, at least safely on the other side. She was all right. Shaken up, and
still feeling quite sick, but she was okay, and told him so with a brief flash of mental assurance.
It was for this that Luke was still thanking some local deity when, with an ear-splitting
crash, his own ship hit the top of the same set of cliffs his sister had just avoided and began skidding
uncontrollably across it.
Kicking up a misams of dust and rock, the small pod bounced and somersaulted it's way along the short, flat stretch of plain that made up the ridges' peak and then dropped neatly off the other side into the valley below.
Commander Tacho's holofigure flipped horizonatlly, and immediately
disappeared into a noisy burst of static; causing the smaller of the two beings in the Parthed's
stark chamber to jump with fright.
Josu's normall extended eyeballs reflexively pulled back into his head ,and flattened
to lay flush with his face while the rest of his body began to shake visibly. The Commander's report had been
one of minimal success, and Aruuss Kininin's face throughout it had progressed from it's normal, sallow
whiteness to a color that was positively rubesque. Now, as the Parthed focused his unwanted attention on the
small Dalaa standing beside him, the expression he wore was one of such complete fury that, instinctively, the
terrified creature turned and skittered across the room. He created enough of a distance between each of them that
neither the Parthed, nor the thorny tip of the Fendii staff he held, could reach him.
Of course, realistically speaking, Josu was awre of how completely useless this
gesture was. He knew, perhaps better than anyone, that if his Master truly wanted his punishment, all
he need do was order it and, servile to a fault, the Dalaa would have assented.
With eyes that were coldly cruel, Kininin stared at his aide; the smile of evil
intent displayed on his face foretelling the punishment to follow. He then depresed a rough patch on the base
of the long, smooth weapon he brandished.
A fierce needle beam shot out of the staff's jagged tip and pierced the wall
within a milichac of the trembling Dalaa's head. Horrified, Josu became instantly paralyzed by fear as the
needle-beam held it's place for a few moments, then began tracing an achingly slow path around his body.
His anxiety rising to new and undiscovered levels, the Dalla's uncontrollable
shaking increased, causing him to move into the beam's path at several points on it's journey.The searing
laser point ripped at his sensitive flesh as it cut through it.
Receiving such incredible pleasure from his aide's torture, the Parthed was
reluctant to end it. He was considering making a second pass when the door to his chamber suddenly slid open.
Through it stepped a tall and handsomely distinguished looking man.
With cunning blue eyes, and dark, well-defined features covered by smooth,
unmarred skin, Dreess Thion's youthful good looks gave the impression of a kind and gentle man. This, however,
couldn't have been further from the truth, for Thion's occupation was that of a hired gun. The reason he
suffered no visible battle scars was because he was exceptional at what he did.
Dropping the Fendii staff back into a resting position, Aruuss Kininin motioned for
the man to move further into the room and take a seat in one of the nearby chairs.
Preferring to stand, Drees shook his head and moved off to the right of the door. There
he took up a position, standing back to wall, halfway between the exit and his employer.
" Very well, then." The Parthed said cordially. " I have a small job for you, Dreess."
" How small?" Dreess asked, knowing the man's penchant for understatement.
" A young man and his sister..." He said, bringing his staff back up to firing position.
He trained it on Josu, who'd been trying to make his way ,unnoticed, over to the door. Firing off a short burst,
Kininin smiled as the still shaking creature let out a squeal of pain and raised all six of his arms to
cover the smoking slash mark on the tip of his flat snout. " What I have to say next concerns you." The
Parthed directed his words at the Dalaa.
He then turned his attention back to Dreess, who'd been watching the entire incident
with much amusement.
" They're on Tatooine. And you'll be taking Josu here ,with you."
" I don't take anybody, or anything, with me when I go to work." Dreess stated, the smile
on his face fading. It was replaced by a look of disgust as he eyed the cowering creature from head to toe. " Especially
things that look like that!" He added.
" Well, in this instance you'll have to." The Parthed told him. " Because my friend here, however
unbecoming he may be, possesses a particular talent that you will find quite useful."
" There is no talent that thing could possibly have that I could use!" Dreess
argued,heading toward the door.
" He's Force sensitive." Kininin told him.
" And?" Dreess stopped, waiting for the Parthed to draw a connection.
" And that's especially useful when the two people you're chasing after are Luke Skywalker
and his sister, Leia Organa-Solo!"
" And these names are supposed to strike fear into my heart, and change my mind?" Dreess asked,
turning to glower fiercely at his employer." You know my opinon of the Jedi , and their misguided religion."
' Yes, I do." Kininin said icily. " But at this point, whether you're a believer of the Force
or not matters little to me." He pointed the staff at the man. " What does matter is that they're eliminated, at all
costs. And to do that you will need the assistance of my Dalaa. He knows their senses, and can track them."
" I can do without the assistance, thanks!" Dreess shook his head and started for the door once again.
" But, Mr. Thion, I am the one paying you; so you will do as instructed and take my aide
with you!" The Parthed ordered, bending forward and levelling his gaze at the man. There was a flicker of unspoken
challenge in his eyes that dared the gunman to defy him.
Had the challenge been issues by anyone other than Aruuss Kininin they, in all
likelihood, wouldn't have lived long enough to hear Dreess' verbal reply. But, angry as he was, the gunman was
also acutely aware of how heavily armed the man's quarters were. When he moved forward to reply, the only visible
clue to his state of mind was the savage way in which he thumbed the butt of his blaster.
" Is there anything else?" He asked, smiling thinly.
" Yes, but I'll leave it up to your new partner to fill in the details"
Kininin said, returning a physically warped imitation of Dreess' smile.
The thought occurred to Dreess, as he turned and took the last few steps to the door
and thumbed it's locking mechanism, that the satisfaction he'd derive from killing Kininin might just be
worth any risk to his own life.
In the end he decided that a time would come, eventually, when the odds would be more
favorable. After such a wait, his pleasure would be increased twofold. So, he left the room, bellowing out an
angry " Come on!" as he turned out of sight.
Reluctantly, Josu obeyed; knowing , at the same time, that his own situation
had just worsened considerably.
The young Jedi's ship had landed on the soft sand with little more than a thud,
but it looked as though it had been fed-backwards- through a Bedoan salvage compactor.
Even it this state, it looked good compared to it's former pilot.
Luke Skywalker felt almost certain that there wasn't one part of his body
that wasn't bruised and bleeding. He knew , for a fact, that there wasn't one part that didn't ache.
He'd been thrown clear of the pod when it bounced off a cluster of rocks near the bottom.
Now he lay, flat on his back, his eyes closed protectively against the glare of Tatooine's twin suns. not even
wanting to move. Knowing that, if he didn't he'd probably end up lunch fo some ambitious womp-rat,
he shoved away the pain that assaulted his poor head and-using his right arm, the least painful of the two-
pulled himself into a sitting position.
Opening his eyes, Luke rubbed them furiously and shook his head; attempting to make
the two pods that twisted and danced before him into the one pod that he knew it really was.
Aside from the all-over body ache, which he suspected would be with him for some time
to come, he realized-after a quick inspection- that there was, amazingly, really very little damage
except for his right cheek, It was extremely sore, and beginning to swell. A warm trickle of blood ran from
the large gash on it; tracing a bright, red pathway along the side of his nose, across his two lips, and down
over his chin. Ending there, it dripped randomly down onto his once-formal, no longer white , officers's
uniform.
Grabbing a small wipe from his pants pocket, Luke brought it up to his cheek and held
it there in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Some desert creatures, especially those in the Vastii regions. could
smell fresh blood from several hexameters away. He knew he wasn't up to an encounter with any, not even the smallest
of predators. He persisted in dabbin away the blood until it was dry, despite the salty sting of the sand
which had readily travelled from his cloth into the inviting stickiness of his open wound.
" Ouch!"
The pod, which lay on it's side in a crumpled heap several feet away, was on fire now; a
large, black cloud of smoke curled up from it's tail end and drifted high up into the cloudless blue sky.
" Great!" Luke muttered, Throwing the cloth onto the ground, he hauled himself
up into a standing position. With all the metal-reactive rock in the area, any type of scanning equipment
was rendered useless. Were it not for the unmistakable marker floating overhead, it would probably take the
inevitable search party several hours to locate the small pod. That would give Luke enough time to meet up with
Leia and hopefully put some distance between them and their pursuers before nightfall. Now,
circumstances being what they were, that time had been cut down to nil.
" Just great!" He muttered again, and walked an unsteady course over towards what
was left of his ship.
As he got closer, the intense heat from the fire mixed with the relentless rays of the two suns to create a temperature around the small pod that had almost reached the searing point. The already agonizing pain that throbbed through his entire body made Luke oblivious to it, so he pressed on.
The protective glass that had once been the pod's escape hatch lay a couple of feet away. It had cooled
enough for Luke to be able to pick it up and lay it over the surface of the hot metal that lay between
him and the open hatchway.
With as much speed as his battered body would allow, the young Jedi crawled across the
front of the ship, reached into the cockput, and fumbled under the seat. Somewhere in the back of his mind
that familiar, and distinctive, buzz he usually got before something bad was about to happen , began it's steady nagging.
The warning was readily reinforced when, witha thunderous bang, a mighty blast destroyed what
used ot be his life pod's main drive thruster. It rocked the ship so violently that it tossed both the Jedi
and his prixe high into the air, where they made a graceful arc and then landed with a bone-sp;itting crash
several feet away.
Curled up into a fetal position, and moaning loudly, Luke desperately wanted to ignore the warning signal that still buzzed in his brain and drift off to sleep where he lay. But, his survival instinct was too strong. So, with strength drawn purely from his life-force, he staggered to his feet and ran.
" Set point six, mark three." Commander Tacho ordered, Dropping his macrobinocs
back into their belt placement, he drew a hand across his forehead, wiping away the beads of perspiration that
gathered there.
A dark cloud of smoke filled the midday sky approximately 100 hexameters away; playing
buoy to some type of explosion or fire. It's location was way off his navigation officer's plotted trajectory,
but it was the only notable lead they'd had since setting down.
the incoming scan search of the Vastii Regions had turned up little other than
the local wildlife. Even that had been scarce. So, with no other likely possibilities pointing the way, it seemed
probable that the far off collection of rocky hills was wthe place where Organa-Solo and Skywalker had hit ground.
With any luck, Tacho thought hopefully, they'd already be Raspp food. Then he, and his crew, could leave the planet's
surface and reach open space by nightfall.
" It's probably not your escapees." The short, bald man standing beside Tacho at the skiff's helm pointed out. " More likely it's that thieving band of mercenaries I told you about." Rekn Astin stated, staring at the Imperial Commander with unfriendly, gray eyes.
As anxious as Tacho was to get off the planet's surface, Astin was as equally znxious for him to leave. He didn't enjoy dealing with the military branch of the Empire. Had it not been for the fact that the Parthed, himself, had contacted him, he would have insisted on conducting the search on his own, using his own men. Instead, he now had to sit by and allow Commander Tacho to trample all over his jurisdiction and, most importantly, claim for his own the glory of eradicating the two rebels. Glory that Rekn himself could use to win the Parthed's favor, and perhaps a ticket off the loathsome rock people called Tatooine.
" Then I guess we'll have solved your problem for you." Tacho replied cooly. He grabbed for the nearest handhold as teh skiff banked sharply to the right and headed off towards the blackened patch of sky.
" Naft!" Leia Organa quietly cursed the military authority who'd decided the
detailing of the New Republic survival packs. The midday sun was blazing hotly overhead, and the pack she'd
retrieved from her demolished capsule had opened to reveal what looked like a left-over thermosuit
from their stay on Hoth.
\
Somebody had certinly been sleeping on the job when they ran the usual equipment
checks, she thought, pulling the second of the two over-sized military boots over her other small foot.
Just looking at the suit made her feel hot and, now as she pressed the front closures
together, she felt her body temperature already beginning to rise. The suit itself was standard issue gray,
and had it not been for the thick insu-padding that covered it, was loose enough that it could have been cool As the
situation now stood, it would be great for keeping warm during those cold desert nights; but Leia figured that
by the time the twin suns even began to set, she would already have melted into a puddle.
Grabbing the rest of her kit, she stuffed what was left of her torn, formal gown into
one of the pockets and fastened, first, her lightsaber then her blaster onto her belt.
Well, at least the boots weren't too small, Leia thought as she flung the pack over
her shoulder and started off towards her brother. Running in them, however, was going to be clumsy, she realized
as she quickened her pace in response to a steadily growing ripple in the Force.
She could sense people approaching. Luke, she knew from the light contact she'd
been maintaining with him, was in no condition to even move by himself; let alone find a suitable hiding place.
She broke into a full run, stopping only momentarily to poke her head into what was a small, low-lying crevice
in the cliff's sandy facing.
It might be a good place to hide, Leia thought, moving on quickly. But that depended
on whether or not she could first manage to get Luke up and moving; and then only if they could both fit.
With very little of the outside light penetrating the hole's interior, it had been
totally impossible to determine how far back it ran without her lumistick. That was buried somewhere in the
bottom of her pack. She hadn't wanted to waste the time it would take to get it out.
The people weren't far now, maybe 30 hexameters away. They were approaching from
the other side of the rocky cluster at an increasingly rapid rate.The fact that the were coming in blind would
add an extra five macromins to the approximate ten it would take them to reach the small valley, she figured.
Up ahead, about 20 hexameters away, the cliff's face suddenly stopped. As she drew
closer, Leia realized that it was the entrance to the small vallery she'd passed over.
Luke was there. His presence, which had been growing stronger with each step, made
it feel as though he was right beside her.
Covering the last few minameters, Leia anxiously turned the corner and immediately
tripped over the unmoving body of her brother. He was sprawled, face down, in a wet, sticky patch of sand,
" Luke!" She cried, falling to her knees and trying to shake him into consciousness. When that
didn't work, she reached into one of the outer pockets of her survival pack and pulled out a small
medi-sac.
From inside of it she removed a tiny malleable vial with a spray nozzle
attached to it. Rolling Luke over, she gently cleared away the sad around his nose and inserted the
nozzle's tip. With one, firm squeeze she emptied the bottle's medicinal contents into his head and waited for it
to do it's job. She didn't have to wait long.
The stimulants effect on his nervous system was almost immediate as Luke's eyes
instantly popped open and, in one rapid motion, he rolled onto his side and vomited up whatever was still in
his stomach.
" Oh!" He groaned loudly and flopped back into a prone position.
" Come on, Luke." She said, immediately helping him into a sitting position then up
onto his feet despite his great, moaning protest. Making a quick visual scan of the area, Leia searched in vain
for somewhere to hide.
The valley's sandy escarpment was pretty much the same as the rest she'd passed and was littered
with small crevices that appeared similar to the one she'd seen around the corner. But all these were located much higher up,
and far enough away, that reaching them with her brother in his present condition was impossible.
" We've got to get out of here." She told him, slipping her shoulder under his arm and
directing him back the way she'd come.
There was very little time left now. The people she could sense were little more
than two, maybe three, macromins away. WIth a few of their stray thoughts drifting loosely around in their heads, Leia
was left with little doubt that it was her brother and herself they were searching for.
Luke, despite the fact that he was on his feet and moving, was relying heavily
on her for support. So much so that Leia figured the next time he stumbled, the both of them would go down.
Their advancement was achingly slow, and Leia had begun to reach of her lightsaber
in expectation of an imminent battle when, finally , the reached the small hole.
" We're here!" She told Luke, who promptly responded with a dry heave. His eyes, only
half open, had a far-away look in them; and Leia doubted he'd even heard her.
Moving to the mouth of the crevice, she helped him onto the ground in front of
the three foot high opening and was trying to figure a way of getting her brother inside when Luke's
will finally gave out. He suddely fell backwards, promptly disappearing into the blackness.
Any of Leia's momentary shock was instantly waylaid when the distant whine
of thrusters suddenly broke free of their rocky confines. She dove, head first, into the hole as a huge military
troop carrier burst around the corner.
" Lieutenant Daff..." Tacho's voice trailed off as he comtemplated the scene
before him; at the same time trying to figure out just exactly what his next move should be.
He'd expected to find the two rebels either dead, or at least seriously injured; but their
initial sighting of a badly damaged life capsule had turned up little more than a few flimsy pieces of thinly
woven red material and a half buried, useless communications device. Now, after combing the small valley, his men were
unable to come up with anything other than the apparent; which was a lump of twisted and burnt wreckage and
a smattering of dried blood scattered around the outskirts of the crash site.
" Lieutenant Daff." He repeated. " Drop your crew here, except for Laar and Dinear, and
do a full visual scan of these mountains and teh surrounding flat lands for a..." He stopped, glanced at his
wrist chrono, then continued. " For a two hexameter circumference."
" Understood." The Lieutenant replied in a flat and disinterested tone which conveyed
just how much of a waste of time he thought this assignment really was. And the sad thing was that Tycho found he
couldn't reprimand the man for his attitude, because he, himself, felt the same way.
" They're probably in one of the caves." Astin told him, pointing to the same multi-sixed
and darkened patched that Leia had been looking at only a few macromins earlier.
" I'm well aware of that, Commisere!" Commander Tacho responded, favoring the man with
a glower. The only problem, of course, would be searching them. With his manpower as limited as it was, and the caves
seemingly numerous, a full search would be impossible to complete before darkness fell. If they were all
interconnected, as he suspected they might be, such a search would prove fruitless.
There had to be some type of solution that would both fulfill his mission, and at the same time
spare him the effort and time that an all-out search would entail; he thought, with a deepening frown.
Then, in almost an instant, his frown was gone; replaced by an icy grin.
" Commisere." He said, smiling broadly at the man. " These skiffs?"
" Yes?" Astin asked.
" They are the same ones you use for transporting mining supplies?"
" Yes." He answered, eyeing Tacho curiously.
" Are they loaded now?"
" Yes." He said, mentally checking off those supplies that the commander might
find useful.
" So then I'd be correct in assuming that you would have a high number of explosives
on hand?"
" Explosives?" Astin's mind whirled; his list had included explosives,
and he knew they were definitely on board. " Yes." He replied slowly, the meaning of Tacho's question
suddenly dawning on him. " There should be several boxed of hand-sized thermal detonators on board."
" Good!" Tacho was smiling even more broadly now. " Then I think, Commisered, that
it is my problem, unfortunately not yourse, that will be solved!"
" Shhh." Leia whispered softly into her brother's ear and gently placed
a hand across his mouth to stifle his groaned reply. There was someone moving around outside the mouth
of the cave and, though she couldn't visually identify him, the man moved with the regimented walk of a
soldier.
For a moment, as he moved away from the opening and the light filtered
through it, she caught a flash of brilliance reflected off his shiny white armor. Then he was gone.
The slow sigh of relief she'd begun to utter immediately caught in her throat,
and a fresh round of panic snaked it's way through her as the lone shadow suddenly reappeared and bent
to peer inside.
Reflexively, Leia reached for her blaster with one hand and, at the same time, tightened
her grip on Luke with the other. With the precious little time she'd had, Leia'd conducted only a quick
and blind search of the cave before settling on a position up against the wall most distant from the
opening. It allowed no cover at all, but was advantageous in that, even sitting as she was with Luke's head
cradled in her lap, it allowed her the best defense possible. A clear shot at anyone trying to enter the cave.
Maintaining a tight hold on her blaster, she silently raised it and aimed the
barrel at the head of the unsuspecting trooper; hoping all the while that she wouldn't have to use it.
She had killed many times in self defense; and had hated doing it each time, despite the necessity. But this kind of killing, killing so advantageously when her opponent had no chance at survival, seemed as close to murder as one could get.
Anxiously, she held her breath as the trooper deftly pulled a small lumistick from his accessory belt and pressed the switch to activate it. Leia's heart leapt, her finger tensed against the cold metal of the blaster's trigger. But she didn't fire, and an instant later she was glad that she hadn't, because the flash of illumination she'd been expecting never came.
The troopers psyche conveyed almost as much shock as Leia's did relief. Shock that
was quickly followed by the familiar aura of confusion as the man shook the device and depressed the button
once again, with no result. Growing angry, he looked into the lumination portion then smashed it againt
the cliff's rocky surface, hoping that the sheer force of the blow would knock loose whatever bug
was causing it to malfunction.
Pressing the button one,last time, he let out a loud curse and threw it onto the
ground in disgust.
" It's too hot for this." He muttered and stomped back to the rest of his unit; his
shiny white boots ferociously kicking up delicate plumes of white sand as he quickly moved away.
It was several macromins before the man had moved far enough away that
Leia felt safe enough to lower her blaster onto the ground next to her. Rubbing at the cool perspiration that
dotted her forehead, the Princess reached down and felt through the thick blackness for the two survival
packs and easily located one of them.
There would be a lumistick somewhere inside, if she could find it. With any
luck it would work better than the trooper's had.
" Here you are." She said softly and smiled as the small hand unit's response
to her touch filled their refuge with a dim glow. Running the light's beam along the cavern walls, Leia
was finally able to get her first look at their hiding place.
" Lovely." She muttered sarcastically. It was just lovely. Dark, dank and
smelly. Just the kind of place any Alderaanian Princess would want to be holed up in, she thought, squinting
to get a better look at a darkened patch of wall hiding in amongst the shadows off to her left.
It looked as though it might be another tunnel opening; but from where she sat it
wasn't possible to tell for sure . She'd have to get up and go over to investigate.
Grabbing one of the packs, Leia dropped her eyes to look at Luke as she prepared
to shove it,pillow-like, under his head. She found, to her surprise , that there were two large,blue eyes
staring up at her from his battered and bloody face.
" Luke." She whispered softly, wondering if he was really conscious and coherent or
if he was just semi-there, like he had been earlier. Drawing the light closer, she quickly moved it away
again when he flinched at it's brightness.
" Leia." The words were ground out with a pain filled moan." Where are we?" He
asked, making a weak attempt to sit up and look around.
" We're in a cave." She reassured him, dropping the pack and assisting him to a
sitting position. " In the base of the mountain."
" A cave?" He repeated, looking at her, amazed. " How did we get here?" He asked,
rubbing his face repeatedly, as if performing this action would somehow conjure up the memory.
" That's a long story." She smiled wearily at him. " And it's one that'll have to wait
until later." She cast here eyes towards the opening. " I dont know how safe we are here. Can you move?"
" I think so." He started, mentally counting up all of the areas of his body that hurt
until they became too numerous to remember." But what do you have in mind? " He asked, throwing his
own, uncertain glance at the cave's mouth.
It was about three feet high, and large enough of an opening to easily pass through;
but the problem lay in the fact that it started about four feet above his head. Climbing up to it, Luke
was sure, wasn't one of the thing that he felt able to tackle at the moment.
" Over there." She pointed the lumistick at the shadows. " There seems to be
a tunnel. What do you think?" The Princess asked, placing the light source on the ground beside her, then moving
in behind Luke. " Can you make it?" She slipped her arms underneath his and locked her fingers across
his chest.
Nodding, Luke reached out an unsteady hand pressed it into the wall's cool surface,
then let out a loud gasp of pain as his wobbly legs strained to push him upright.
" Gods!" He groaned, leaning heavily against the wall as thick needles of misery
ricocheted through his body and brought tears to his eyes. His world still spun slowly, making him want to vomit
again; but somewhere in the still-whirling fuzziness of his brain, a nagging sense of danger increased it's
persistent buzz.
" I'm okay." He choked back the clot of bile that rose in his throat and shook
away his sister's helping hands.
' No, you're not!" Leia argued, retrieving her light, and both packs, from the floor with
one hadn while trying to steady her brother with the other. " Why don't you stay here for a macro or two. I'll
go check it out and come back."
" No...We've got to go now." Luke's words came out in great, sobbing gasps; betryaing
his attempts to set aside his pain. " Now." He repeated urgently, his legs beginning to buckle.
Slipping her free arm around his waist, Leia braced herself as her brother
transferred most of his weight to her. Cautiously, the two took a few, fledgling steps together and then stopped.
" What's the matter?" Luke asked, attempting to take another step on his own, which
threw them both off balance.
" You." Leia replied, shifting her body to prevent them both from falling. She could
sense his suffering with each step. " Why don't you rest a little, gather some strength? We'll try again
in a few macros."
" There's no time." He raised a blistered finger and laid it across her mouth. " No
more arguments. " He looked at her, deadly serious, and took another step towards the darkness.
The shadowed area did, indeed, lead to a tunnel, as Leia had suspected.
Te light she held now outlined the defined area where the corner turned. It was only a few footsteps away,
each agonizingly slow, but they would make it. The sense of danger her brother was responding to was,
in all likelihood, the group of Imperials drifting nearby,
" No!" Luke responded to her unspoken thoughts. " It's something else..."
" What then?" Leia looked at him curiously.
Suddenly, Luke looked to the ceiling above him and yelled. " GO!". With a violent
shove he launched his sister into the tunnel as the roof and entrance caved in.
Outside, a broad smile spread across the face of Commander Tacho as the mountains
virtually jumped under the impact of the blast.
" Back to base!' He happily ordered the skiff's pilot, as his tensions eased
and the sweet flavor of success spread across his palate.
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