by Various
“Give me that,” demanded Jyl, striding toward him.
For a moment, Pandoor’s green eyes glinted in the glare of the light blade. Their gazes met through the gloom of the cavern,
Pandoor smiled and deactivated the lightsaber. “Of course, Angel,” he said, with a winning smile, handing the weapon to her.
She took it and released a breath, as Pandoor lifted his other hand, revealing his blaster. “May I keep this?” he asked, with exaggerated courtesy.
“I’m afraid you may need it,” said Jyl. “Let’s proceed, but cautious—”
The thing was on them like a wind with teeth. Its rush thrust Pandoor aside, where he lay, silent and still. Jyl froze, but it turned to her anyway, catching her scent.
Its teeth glinted like a rack of knives in the dim cavern light. The four eyes widened and narrowed in the spade-shaped head as its nostrils quivered. Its long claws were fully extended.
The nexu’s tail twitched from side to side almost lazily as it took its bearings. Then it leaped.
Even aided by the Force, Jyl barely managed to dodge it. The snap-hiss of her lightsaber was nearly lost as the muffled howl of the predator bounced off the cavern’s walls.
She feinted to the right and then went to the left, bringing up her blade. But the creature managed to alter its course, the lightsaber trimming only a centimeter or so from its coat.
The smell of burnt fur wafted through the cavern as Jyl moved warily backward, slowly moving the lightsaber blade back and forth before her.
“Pandoor?” she hissed. “Naj!” But no reply came, and she dared not take her eyes off the nexu, even to explore the warmth slowly threading its way down from the dull ache in tier leg. The nexu had gotten her; she used the Force on the artery nearest her wound to slow the bleeding and anesthetize the pain.
The nexu’s leg muscles bunched as it prepared to spring again, but just before it could leap, a sizzling laser blast from outside Jyl’s field of vision just missed it. The beast turned, as puzzled as it was angry, to Pandoor, who fired his blaster again. ‘Your turn,” he said, stepping forward once.
Jyl reached out with the Force, sweeping her right hand parallel to the cavern floor. The fragments of the stalactite Pandoor shattered lifted and flew at the nexu, as Jyl took two steps forward.
The nexu howled as they continued their tag-team attack, turning its head from one target to the other, baffled by their conduct.
Jyl thought quickly. All she needed to put the nexu away was the good slash with her lightsaber, but to get close enough to strike also put her in danger. And the nexu was probably faster than a Jedi—or at least, faster than she was.
Finally in position, Jyl ignited then extinguished her lightsaber rapidly several times, shouting at the monster as she did so.
The nexu leaped toward the nearest, noisiest target. Jyl sprang forward and rolled in the air, landing under the hurling nexu. She kicked, her feet catching the nexu in its ribs and stomach, sending it further than it had intended to spring; and no longer in control of its direction.
Despite this interference, the nexu rolled to an upright position in midair, landing gracefully on the cavern floor. Its head swiveled from one foe to the other, and then it twitched as a shudder rippled through its supple body. It lowered on its haunches, preparing for another spring—then abruptly turned its head and began to gnaw at itself.
Even in the faint cavern luminescence, Jyl could see the darkness spreading like a shadow over the nexu. A creature of instinct, it knew what perils of Geonosis even it had to avoid, at risk of death, but Jyl’s kick had changed its direction, and it had landed in a place it would never have dared go willingly.
The nexu howled again as the rogas swarmed over it. deserting the chilling blood on the cavern floor for hotter, fresher prey. The nexu threw itself against the cavern walls, rolling on the floor, taking off patches of its own pelt with its claws, trying to expel the multitude of tiny predators that had invaded it.
Across the cavern Pandoor leveled his blaster at the nexu. “No!” whispered Jyl. “Don’t remind him we’re here!”
The nexu remained still for a moment before shooting off through the cavern, deeper into the darkness, its agonized howls finally fading.
“Tag-teaming it like that was a good idea.” said Jyl.
“We make a good team,” said Pandoor. “Are you ail right?”
She looked at her injury. A thin red line snaked its way down her right leg, bordered on either side by the slash in her leggings that curled away from the wound like old parchment.
Jyl examined the wound, which had already stopped bleeding. “Just a scratch,” she said briskly, extinguishing her lightsaber. “Let’s go.”
Pandoor knelt before her and gently placed his index and middle fingers on either side of the wound, slowly tracing its progress down the long curves of her leg. “Hey!” said Jyl, after a few seconds, as she took a step backward.
“No sign of infection,” said Pandoor, with mock solemnity, as he rose.
“Now you’re a doctor?”
“You have to do a little bit of everything in my line of work—rather like yours, I suspect,” he replied, falling in beside her. “We do make a good team, you know, and we’re not even on the same side. Imagine if we were.”
“There’s not enough time to tell you why you’d never make it as a Jedi.”
“I was talking about you joining me. As a smuggler.”
“You’re joking,” she said. “I’m a Jedi, not a thief. Being a Jedi is my life. I’d never be happy in your world.”
“You don’t look so happy being a Jedi. In fact, you don’t look like any Jedi I’ve ever seen. It’s a shame. That angel’s face ought to smile once in awhile.”
“You’re everything I despise,” said Jyl.
“I think I could make you feel differently,” he said, placing a hand on her arm.
Jyl was unconscious of bringing up her lightsaber, of igniting it and swinging the blade so close to Pandoor’s throat he could feel its heat. Her Master would have been proud. “Listen,” she said, through her teeth, “I’m here on a mission. Either help me or fight me, then at least then I’ll know where you stand.”
Pandoor brought his empty hands to shoulder-height then spread them in a show of resignation. “Anything you say. . . Jedi Somtay.”
“Good.” She deactivated her lightsaber, leaving the silence of the catacomb.
They proceeded down the corridor slowly, cocking their heads warily for any warning noise that might precede another threat. They heard nothing, and eventually came to a rough-hewn central chamber off of which five corridors split.
“Whatever we’re after is this way,” said Jyl, consulting a datapad and pointing toward the mouth of the farthest corridor. “And not far, either.”
“After you, Jedi Somtay,” said Pandoor.
“Rogues before angels,” she replied, motioning him forward.
Minutes later they stood before a boulder. “It’s solid, all right, Jedi Somtay,” Pandoor said, after a few seconds of probing and pushing.
“The readings are coming from behind it,” said Jyl. “It’s too heavy for me to move with the Force, but I don’t like the idea of using explosives this far beneath the surface. . .”
“Neither do I, Jedi Somtay,” said Pandoor. He began to poke at the perimeter of the boulder, where it met the cavern wall.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” said Jyl.
“Where’s that legendary Jedi patience, Jedi Somtay?” said Pandoor. “Ah.” This accompanied a crisp click that sounded throughout the cavern.
The boulder glided to one side, revealing a blast of light that hurt their eyes. They both brought up their weapons then, after a few seconds, looked at each other. “Do you sense anything. . . Jedi Somtay?” asked Pandoor.
“Stop that,” she said, edging in front. The boulder revealed a fully equipped lab, obviously geared toward weapons research. Indirect lighting gleamed off rows of
weapons and weapon components, the latter placed near the outer reaches of the lab, the former placed in racks on a central console. To Jyl’s trained eye the design of the facility, proceeding concentrically outward from the central console, unmistakably proclaimed it the product of the Genosians’ ruthless efficiency.
The door slid shut behind them, perhaps on some sort of timer switch.
Jyl advanced slowly, her eyes on the central console. She looked quickly to one side, thinking she had seen a flurry of movement just outside the range of her vision. But there was nothing there. Just my eyes adjusting to the light, she thought. On the central console, beneath a cube of transparisteel, lay a bulky device composed of a handle, complex controls and several buttons about where the thumb of the wielder would fall, which expanded into several narrow tubes.
“Don’t touch it,” said Jyl, receiving an acid look from Pandoor. “It might be wired to an alarm or a security device.”
“An odd kind of weapon,” murmured Pandoor. “Looks rather clumsy, actually. And that central section has insufficient space for blast-generation.”
“I don’t think it’s a blaster.”
“Then what is—” Pandoor’s voice cut off and after a second, Jyl turned.
“What did you—?” She stopped, realizing she was staring down the muzzle of Pandoor’s blaster. It looked larger from this perspective. Before she could take any action, Pandoor pulled the trigger. She felt the hot charge streak by her head then behind her, where she heard an indignant screech.
Whipping around and bringing up her lightsaber, Jyl saw four legs, terminating in large, arced claws, trailing down behind a tall cabinet, followed by a naked tail whose forked end smoldered slightly.
“The nexu!” said Pandoor.
“It can’t be,” said Jyl, activating her lightsaber nonetheless. “That was too small for the one we—look at this.”
Lying behind the consoles were the components of Dr. Frayne’s skeleton, thoroughly gnawed, the shredded remains of her garb littering the floor. Lots of little skittering motions fled as Jyl approached. She was conscious of being watched by several sets of eyes.
Then it dawned on her, from some intuition or the Force. “The nexu—it was a female, and—”
“And what?” demanded Pandoor.
“And a mother.”
From behind the consoles and counters they came, spurred on by the courage of numbers. A litter of ten nexu, a mass of gangly legs and feet, surmounted by chubby bodies, advanced slowly and uncertainly, their curiosity overcoming their fear.
“Oh, no,” whispered Pandoor.
“No sudden moves,” said Jyl. She powered down her lightsaber and advanced slowly toward the nexu in front, crooning to it slowly, softly, reaching out with both her left hand and the Force. “Hey, little one. No one’s going to hurt you. No, no one at—”
An instant later, and she would have lost her hand. As it was, it had a wide gash in it when she yanked it back.
The nexu cub lapped up the blood Jyl left behind with a long, curving tongue, then sprang.
Jyl ignited her lightsaber and swept it all around her in a defensive movement white she got her bearings. Across the lab, Pandoor was firing his blaster ineffectually at streaks of gray that circled all around him.
There was obviously another way into the lab used by the nexu, but it was just as obviously useless to Jyl and Pandoor. They’d have to leave by the way they came—if they left at all.
“One of the nexu got through her lightsaber perimeter. She kicked it back, withdrawing a bleeding foot, the Bantha leather of her boot slashed. The other nexu lapped up the blood as she retreated. They’re developing a taste for me, she thought, with a shudder.
Then, as she saw two of the nexu hissing at each other over the last drop of blood, she had it,
“Naj!” she shouted. “Distract them!”
“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?” he replied. But he began making whooping noises and moving more rapidly, a ploy that seemed to work. The nexu cubs began closing on him.
Jyl narrowed her focus on the Force, concentrating not on all the nexu, but on only one stubborn one that lagged behind, the one with the burnt tail. As it neared her, she lowered her lightsaber, presenting a better target.
“Jyl!” shouted Pandoor. She wasn’t sure if he was watching her, or if he was simply in over his head. It really didn’t matter. The nexu leaped, and Jyl slashed her lightsaber upward, cleaving the cub from throat to crotch. The nexu’s remains plopped in the middle of the lab floor. Jyl stepped back and waited.
One by one, the cubs turned from their uncooperative human prey to the more accommodating meal waiting for them. They were all soon eating their littermate, making contented mewling noises as they did so.
“They were hungry,” said Jyl. “Let’s go.” Pandoor nodded aid made for the door. Jyl followed, on the way out cleaving the transparisteel cube with her lightsaber and retrieving the weapon within. Whatever alarm the case might have been hooked up to couldn’t have been worse than a litter of nexu. She hooked the weapon to her belt—it was surprisingly lightweight, despite its appearance—and made for the exit, glancing back to make sure the nexu were still occupied with their feast. “So what is that thing?” asked Pandoor, as they made their way to the cavern’s mouth. “It’s a sonic weapon,” said Jyl, hefting the device. “We went through all this for another sonic weapon?” “Not just another one,” replied Jyl. “Lightsabers are no defense against a normal sonic blast—until you determine the blaster’s frequency. But I think the circuitry on this one enables it to vary its frequency automatically.”
“It’d be pretty bad if the Geonosians mass-produced those,” said Pandoor, with a low whistle.
Jyl nodded. She felt suddenly weary, and eager to have the mission complete. “I’ll be sure to transmit the Republic courts a copy of my report,” she said. “I can’t help but think that would weigh in your favor.”
I’d appreciate that,” said Pandoor, glumly. He sighed then after a moment, smiled. “But we are a good team, aren’t we, Angel?”
I have to admit, we are,” said Jyl, matching his smile. He stepped closer to her. “And I have to admit, I’ll miss you
You will not” she said. “You must know lots of girls.”
“None like you,” he replied, softly. “You’re different, Jyl.”
“I am not,” she said dubiously. Then she cast a shy glance at Naj. “Am I?”
“You are, too. You’re special.”
She met his gaze, and stopped smiling. He pushed a mass of hair back from her shoulder with one hand and put his other arm around her waist. Leaning in, he kissed her.
His mustache tickled.
Later, Naj stepped back. Jyl opened her eyes, and found Pandoor pointing the sonic weapon directly at her.
“Now you know where I stand, Angel. As you said, lightsabers are no defense against a normal sonic blaster, much less this one. And I have no desire to see how much weight a Jedi’s word will carry at my trial. It’ll be years before they find you here. You know, Dr. Frayne was right, you are too naive to be a Jedi Knight. What a waste.”
Jyl reached out with the Force, but Pandoor’s grip on the weapon could be broken by nothing less than a falling boulder. She reached out, farther.
“I think I’ve got the hang of this thing, Angel,” he said, as the sonic weapon emitted a low hum. He looked up at her, with no trace of a smile. “I hope it doesn’t hurt.”
“I wish I could say the same,” said Jyl, looking past him.
He started to turn, but he was too slow to bring the weapon up.
The mother nexu, driven mad with pain from its rogas infestation, slammed into him, raking open a section of his back as he fell.
Jyl dove, bringing the sonic weapon to her with the Force as the nexu hit the ground a few meters away, already pivoting to attack again. Quickly changing the settings, she hoisted the weapon in both hands and fired.
A low hum permeated
the cavern, then, for a moment, total silence. A kind of concentric blur from the weapon’s muzzle swept through the air, leaving both the nexu and Pandoor unconscious.
Breathing hard, Jyl examined the nexu. The sonic blast had killed the rogas, and the recuperative powers of the nexu were all too familiar to the Jedi. It would return to what remained of its titter when it awoke, a homecoming Jyl didn’t want to be around for.
She grabbed Pandoor’s collar and began dragging him to the cavern entrance, already reconsidering her promise of a good word to the Republic court. But she sighed, and grinned. Whatever else Jedi Knights did, they kept their promises.
“You’re different, Jyl. You’re special,” she said, then she shook her head and laughed. “That line’s older than Master Yoda!”
Before her she could see the mouth of the catacomb, and dawning daylight.
THE LEAGUE OF SPIES
By Aaron Aalston
“I’m here to make your day a lucky one” Joram said.
The head he addressed had sharp, intelligent features surrounded by a neatly trimmed black beard and mustache. The man who owned it had the door to his quarters open only a few centimeters so Joram couldn’t seethe rest of his body.
The man said nothing. He glanced over Joram’s shoulder to the landspeeder lane beyond, a city thoroughfare that was crowded with fast-moving speeders and slower delivery flats.
Joram repeated, “I’m here to make your day. . .”
The door slid fully open, revealing the man to be of Joram’s above-average height. He was as broad in the shoulder as Joram but more muscular. He wore close-fitting black garments that were completely out of style on this color-mad, comfort-conscious world. He seized the collar of Joram’s tunic and yanked.
Joram couldn’t help but lean forward, but caught himself on the doorjamb with one hand. “. . . a lucky one,” he concluded.
“Get in here.”
