spiraling emotions and the waves of nausea splashing over her. Falling to her
knees, Fen emptied her stomach into the soft, tilled field.
The universe had just stopped spinning when she heard him come up behind
her. Fen struggled to her feet.
"So, you're Sithin" Durron?" she demanded. "Kyp Durron?"
"Yes."
"You lied to me." Fen straightened up and shoved her hands into her
pockets, staring down at her feet. She needed new boots, she noted, then
mentally kicked herself for allowing such a thought now.
"Yes," Kyp responded after a long pause.
"They have a word for what you did. It's called genocide."
"I know," Kyp replied, his voice breaking slightly.
Fen spun around, blind wrath overcoming selfpreservation. She poked her
index finger in the center of his chest. "Then tell me, Jedi," she choked on
the word. "How come you're allowed to roam the galaxy recruiting others,
recruiting my partner, to follow in your footsteps?"
Kyp remained silent, shoulders hunched, staring at the ground.
"Why aren't you in jail?" she demanded. Giving him another, much harder
shove, she shrieked, "Why weren't you executed?"
He fell to the ground in an unresisting heap. "I don't know," Kyp said,
his voice ragged. "I should be. I should be dead."
Fen went for the reassurance of her blaster, bitterly cold to the touch.
She raised it, taking aim at the filth before her. She had killed better than
this before and for less than crimes against the galaxy.
He finally looked up at her, and she could see tears glistening on his
face. "No one would ever blame you, Fen, for killing the murderer of billions
ofsentients."
Fen felt an itching in her fingers. He wants me to kill him, she abruptly
realized.
Please, Fen, came the wail in her mind. He outstretched his hands to her.
Fen was moved, but not to pity. "You're a real black hearted coward,
Jedi," she snarled, thrusting the blaster back in her holster. "Trying to get
me to do something you don't have the courage to do yourself."
She hauled him to his feet. "Listen, you Sith Lord." She forced as much
venom into the invective as she could and had the pleasure of seeing him wince
at an epithet that was no longer amusing. Fen vowed she would never use the
curse again. "I don't give ten credits whether you live or die. I'd gladly cut
you down and rid the universe of your miserable existence." She roughly
grabbed him by the elbow, propelling him to the speeder. "But not until after
we get my partner out. Got it?"
"And I'm telling you again," Ghitsa responded patiently. "I've never
heard of this before."
Culan Brash's blow knocked her out of the chair. Bound at the hands and
ankles, Ghitsa managed to twist her body so only muscle met the unyielding
ship deck.
"That's not what we hear. Counselor," Brasli sneered. Ghitsa had been
beaten many times before. It was an occupational hazard working for the Hutts.
On a scale of one to ten. Brash's efforts were about an eight, maximizing pain
while minimizing long-term damage. A true artisan. She curled up into a ball,
making a smaller target for the inevitable kick. Brasli really put his weight
into x as his heavy foot slammed into her, again and again....
Dawn was less than an hour away. Fen followed the speeder's map through
Nad'Ris to the spaceport and an alley that ran along the back of the port. She
maneuvered the speeder down the narrow passage, weaving back and forth between
the trash and broken, pitted pavement.
They hadn't exchanged two sentences since Kyp's revelations on the
darkened roadway. She eased the speeder into a sheltered alcove and shut it
down. When he still didn't say anything. Fen asked, "You coming?"
Kyp hopped out of the speeder but remained mute.
The back port wall loomed above them, slimy, dirty and a full five meters
high. Scanning up and down the alley, Fen found the hoped-for service
entrance. "I'm going to cry getting it open," she indicated with a nod. "You
stand watch, okay?"
Fen pulled a palm-sized device from a pocket and set it over the door's
security lock.
"Is that what I think it is?" Kyp asked.
Fen cocked an eyebrow at his disapproving voice. "If you think it's an
Opirus Model FD Sixty-Two security descrambler, then it's exactly what you
think it is."
"Aren't those illegal?"
"So's murder," Fen scoffed.
It was several moments before Kyp asked quietly, "Did you murder everyone
you thought was responsible for Jett's death?"
Fen almost dropped the descrambler. She could tell where this was going;
being on the moral high ground was a rarity she wasn't anxious to give up.
"Did you?" Kyp repeated.
"Yes," she finally said, as slowly as the descrambler was working.
"If more people had been responsible, would you have retaliated against
them, too?"
"You killed billions!" Fen burst out. She glanced nervously around, but
the alley remained deserted.
"I know," Kyp moaned. "I relive it every day. But given the power and
means, wouldn't you have done the same to avenge Jett?"
The answer wasn't nearly as simple as it should have been.
The sound of a slick-as-grease human voice woke her. "Brasli, please seat
the Counselor."
Ghitsa craned her neck but got only lancing agony for the trouble. Brasli
roughly yanked her up from the deck and shoved her into a chair.
Across a table from her sat a young, well-dressed man. "I apologize for
Brasli's enthusiasm." He waved his hand, fingering a datacard between his
fingers. Ghitsa noticed a datapad on the table that hadn't been there before.
"Untie her, Brasli."
Ghitsa gasped as he loosened the bonds, feeling blood rush to her feet
and hands. Although he commanded even Brasli's obedience, the man who gave the
unquestioned order was too young and unpolished to have occupied the position
very long. His suit indicated more wealth than taste.
"Do your Desilijic Clan masters know your Coruscantan accent is faked?"
Ghitsa asked through a split and bleeding lip.
He flushed. "No one mentioned the Desilijics, or indeed the Hutts, at
all."
"Brasli and I have met before. And I've been aboard the Rook several
times." Ghitsa felt a warm trickle and impatiently wiped the blood from her
chin. "Admittedly the circumstances were different."
"No doubt during the time your Hutt clan methodically stripped my own."
With his appropriately calm, detached response,
Ghitsa conceded that the Desilijics had not sent someone completely green
for this assignment. She needed more information if she was going to talk her
way out of this one. "Counselor, I do not know your name."
He continued flipping the datacard in his fingers as if it were a sabacc
card. A sabacc card, Ghitsa mused. He started as a gambler.
"I am Counselor Ral," he said decisively, sliding the card into the pad
on the table. "And now. Counselor Dogder, we will discuss Durga the Hutt's
investment in the Orko Consortium."
"I wouldn't have done it," Fen said
. She modulated the descrambler again,
but it was one year too old and the door was one year too new.
"I know," Kyp replied from where he stood watch. "But you did think about
it?"
"Yes." She truly had. In her grief and despair over Jett's murder, Fen
acted more violently than at any other time in her life. But still, she
wouldn't have gone as far as her Jedi lookout.
"I hate what I did. There are days when I think the guilt will drive me
mad," Kyp said, his voice wavering. "It would be easier if I were locked up
somewhere."
"Or dead," Fen offered helpfully.
"As you said, that's the coward's way out."
Fen pocketed the descrambler and brushed her hands off on the front of
her flight suit. "This isn't going to work. We have to find another way in."
Kyp slumped against the wall, hanging his head miserably. His bangs again
fell over his eyes. "They didn't lock me away, and I'm not dead." He choked on
a dry sob. "What am I supposed to do. Fen?"
"How should I know?" Fen retorted, angry that she actually felt sorry for
him. Fen Nabon as judge, moralist, and confessor? If it weren't so comical it
would be grotesque. Other priorities were more pressing than a murderer's
atonement.
She cleared her throat roughly. "I guess you just make sure it never
happens again."
Kyp drew his arms protectively around himself. "What if that's not
enough?"
"You do what the rest of us do." She lifted his chin with her forefinger,
forcing him to look at her. "The best you can."
"But if I fail..." he trailed off.
"I'll hunt you down and kill you myself." Their eyes met, and then Fen
tore away from his grateful stare. "Come on. Time for Plan B."
"Your sources err," Ghitsa said, with a patience she didn't feel. "I
haven't worked for Durga's clan for over three years."
The blast of a voice over a comm at the cabin door startled all of them.
"Counselor?" the disembodied and deferential speaker asked.
"I told you not to interrupt us," Ral snapped. Striding to the comm, he
adjusted the controls so Ghitsa could not overhear the apparent orders and
counterorders.
"I'll be right up," Ral said curtly. He awarded her a dark glare. "It
seems that Nad'Ris Customs refuses to lift the quarantine placed on our ship
for suspected biological contagions."
"Indeed?" Ghitsa queried blandly, heart leaping. Slicing into the Nad'Ris
records to embargo the ship would be classic Fen.
"It is remarkable since the Rook declared no cargo," Ral mused. He nodded
to Brasli. "Clean her up. Customs will be inspecting the ship. Then lock the
good Counselor in here, so she may refresh her recollections undisturbed." She
remained impassive under his thoughtful stare, but Ral was as shrewd. "And
Brasli, alert your team. We must be ready for any uninvited guests."
"We should be within a bay or two of where the Book's docked," Fen
commented. They hid behind a trash heap in the alley. The port's back wall
towered above them.
"We're going to have to hurry," Kyp said, turning toward her. His serious
countenance suddenly changed, a smirk appearing where solemnity had been. His
eyes flickered up to her face.
"What is it?" Fen growled, brushing a loose strand of hair away with her
elbow.
"There's something you should know."
"What now?"
"There's a big smudge of dirt on your forehead."
Fen felt her face redden and warm. She wiped her forehead with her glove
and saw a large smear of black grease. Groaning, she remembered working on the
Lady's drive a lifetime ago. "It's been on there since you met me at the ship,
right?"
The smirk was now a full-blown grin. "Uh-huh."
"You could have said something," she accused, still wiping.
"I just did." Kyp raised his hand, touching her temple, "You missed a
spot."
Oddly, Fen didn't shudder at his touch. "Is it gone?" she asked, rubbing
her face again.
He nodded and turned back to study the wall. "We could climb it."
Fen reached a quick decision. "Kyp, there's something I should tell you."
He glanced at her quizzically. "Do I have food stuck in my teeth?"
"It's about Ghitsa."
"I know already, Fen," Kyp interrupted.
Rage swept through her again. "You were reading my mind!" she accused.
Kyp rolled his eyes. "I didn't need to. I've been searching through the
Force since I landed. I would have sensed someone with Ghitsa's reputed skills
pretty quickly, especially once she was kidnapped."
"You've known all along?" she stammered. "And you were still gonna help
me spring a cheap con who finally got what she had coming to her?"
"I know you don't like to hear it, but the Force guided me here." He took
a deep breath. "I think I'm beginning to see why."
Fen digested that fact and finally felt an easier truce settle between
them. She scrambled to her feet. "Why don't you try using the Force to throw
the rope and grappling hook over the wall?"
Kyp nodded and rose with the rope they brought from the speeder. He swung
the hook up in a smooth arc. They heard a gentle clatter. Kyp tested his
weight on the line, then clambered up the wall as easily as an insect.
Fen's ascent was not nearly as graceful. She was grunting with the effort
when something suddenly scooped her up and deposited her on the top of the
wall.
"Easy," Kyp muttered, lending a steadying hand as Fen teetered on the
narrow ledge.
To her annoyance, he seemed perfectly balanced five meters above the
ground. Fen glared at him, but Kyp was neither intimidated, nor apologetic. He
only shrugged. "Force grip."
"Oh. Thanks," Fen managed. She quickly scanned the port. "There." She
pointed at a hulking Ghtroc freighter two docking bays over.
They ran lightly across the top of the wall, a race against the coming
dawn and prying eyes. From the wall Kyp leaped to a rung on the ship's hull
and climbed up to the Rook's top hatch. Fen was right behind him.
Kyp gave the hatch lever a strong pull. It didn't move. "It's locked!"
"Of course it is." Fen withdrew another device from her pockets of
tricks.
"Let me guess," Kyp asked. "An illegal shipjacking kit?"
She set the decoder over the hatch lock, and it began rapidly scrolling
through security combinations, one digit at a time. "I bet you keep all your
ships unlocked on Yavin Four, don't you?" Fen swallowed the remainder when she
saw his stricken expression and remembered why he might be sensitive to ship
thieving. "Forget it. Sorry."
Fen heard the gentle whirring of gears, then a soft snap. "Are we clear
down there?" she demanded, returning the device to her pocket.
Kyp nodded. With her left hand on the hatch. Fen drew her blaster with
her right.
"Wait," Kyp ordered.
Now she was really angry. "What?"
"Your blaster," Kyp said, very earnestly.
"If you think I'm going in there without my blaster..."
Kyp shook his head vigorously. "No, of course you should. But, Fen,
you've got to put it on a
stun setting."
"Don't go getting all Jedi on me."
"Fen, killing them won't bring Jett back."
He said it so gently she had to fight through a bantha sized lump in her
throat to respond. "And not killing them won't bring your brother back."
Kyp looked at the lightsaber clutched in his hand. "I know. And I'll help
you, Fen, regardless. But don't make me go down there knowing that more might
die when I could have done something to prevent it."
He had found her vulnerability and twisted it for all it was worth. "Stun
may not stop what they throw at us," she warned.
"I know," Kyp said. "But it's the right thing to do."
"No good being right if you're dead," Fen retorted. They'd wasted enough
time, she told herself, as she thumbed her blaster to a stun setting. She
popped the hatch open; warm, yellow light poured out.
Kyp dropped down. Fen was less adroit, grabbing the sides of the hatch
Tales From the New Republic Page 45
