Star Wars - New Jedi Order - Force Heretic II - Refugee - Book 18

by Sean Williams

  "Your position iz untenable," Saba added. "Denying it will not make it otherwise."

  "I don't want to lose him," Antilles whispered, her expression one of someone caught between two conflicting emotions. "I can't take it anymore. I can't..."

  "Mom. .." The daughter looked frightened.

  "Do not be afraid," Saba said, putting as much compassion as she could into her rough, reptilian voice. "We are not your enemies; we understand your fearz." Wyn looked up at her with wide, staring eyes. "But there iz no easy solution to this war. Turning your back on it won't make it go away. We need long-term solutions; we need

  to work together. Of that, this one iz absolutely certain, Syal Antilles."

  Syal nodded, then, although her uncertainty clearly remained.

  "You're Syal Antilles?" Danni asked, coming closer.

  "Yes," the woman replied. "Why?"

  "Baron Fel just arrived," she said. "But he didn't mention that he was expecting you."

  "He wasn't," she said, confirming Saba's earlier suspicion of Wyn's lie. "We just heard that someone had come from home, and we wanted to see them." Gone was the frightened mother and wife; in her place stood a composed and confident woman beaming a pleasant smile to a stranger who might not have heard every doubt she'd just expressed. "And now that we have seen you, perhaps we should be moving along." Her eyes met Saba's briefly, exchanging all manner of emotionthe most prominent of which was gratitude. "Thank you for your words, Saba. And please accept my apology for mine."

  "There iz no need," Saba said, effecting a slight bow.

  Syal Antilles returned the gesture. "Come along, Wyn."

  "I think I might stay and help them, if that's all right?" The girl directed this to Saba and Danni, both of whom nodded.

  "I don't think that's a good idea, Wyn," her mother said. "They don't need you getting in their way while they're trying to work."

  "No, it's fine," Danni said. "Actually, we could use the help."

  "Are you sure?" Syal asked. There still seemed to be a residue of embarrassment for her earlier outburst.

  But Saba knew that an injection of youthful enthusiasm from Wyn would be just what they needed. "This one iz certain that Wyn would not be a burden."

  Wyn's face immediately lit up. "You won't regret it. I

  know these records better than most peopleincluding Tris!"

  "That I seriously doubt," her mother said.

  Wyn didn't respond; instead she faced Danni and asked "Is it true that one of the Solo twins is here with the Skywalkers?"

  Danni nodded and smiled. "Jacen Solo, yes."

  "And will I get to meet him, too?"

  "I'm sure you will," Danni said.

  "Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Wyn," her mother said. She still seemed hesitant about her daughter staying. "We still have to clear this with your father."

  "He'll be fine with it, Mom," Wyn said, fairly bouncing on her toes. Her enthusiasm suggested that not much in the way of excitement had happened in her life for a long, long time.

  "This one will mind her while you check, if you wish."

  Syal nodded, still with some uncertainty, as Danni led her away.

  "Thank you so much for this!" she exclaimed once her mother and Danni had disappeared down another aisle. "This will be fantastic!"

  "It will also be hard work," Saba cautioned. "And it iz very important work, too."

  "Oh, I understand that," Wyn said, forcing herself to settle down. Then, looking around, she spread her arms as if to encompass the entire library and said "So where did you want to start?"

  Jaina followed as quickly as she could as Salkeli slithered down the pipes and vines to the bottom of the Stack. The entire structure shuddered as it lowered slightly to make their drop to the ground less severe. She looked around to make sure the area was clear. It was. However close the Bakuran guards were, thankfully they hadn't yet breached the ground floor.

  Salkeli waved for her to follow. With the bug tucked deep in one of her jumpsuit pockets and her deactivated lightsaber in hand, she did so. Her feet fell silently among the plant debris and rubble that made the abandoned building look more like ruins in a jungle than an abandoned office block. The Rodian led her out of the atrium space and through a series of short corridors. They entered what had once been a public refresher and, after a brief pause to listen for sounds outside, pushed out the window.

  "After you, this time," Salkeli said. Jaina slipped through the narrow space and into the darkness outside.

  She found herself standing in a long and very narrow alley. She was grateful that there were no guards waiting for them, because there wouldn't have been much room to fight if there had been.

  It was still night by the look of the sky. She hadn't yet adjusted to local time, but she suspected that dawn wasn't far off. If Malinza and the other members of Freedom were going to make a clean getaway, they'd have to do it soon.

  "What sort of distraction does Vyram have in mind, anyway?" she whispered to the Rodian as he emerged from the window beside her.

  "Wait and see," he answered with a wink.

  He hurried up the alley, moving carefully but quickly. Jaina followed, alert to the slightest change in the environment around her. A fitful wind blew from ahead of her, throwing up dust and rustling discarded paper and rubbish. She was acutely aware of the fact that the guards didn't have to be supersleuths to find her. All they had to do was follow the signal from the bug in her pocket. Ideally, what she needed was a feral cratsch or a lost droid to which she could attach the bug, after which she could make her own escape. Until then, though, she would just have to kee p moving and stay attentive.

  Salkeli was within ten meters of the end of the alley when an aircar suddenly swept over them, landing lights and powerful arcs flashing down the narrow gap between the buildings. In a second it was gone. Jaina could hear the whine of its turbines as it circled to come back around and pinpoint them again.

  Through the Force, Jaina sensed the blaster come up from behind her before the woman holding it had even had chance to fire. In one smooth motion she wheeled around in midstep and activated her lightsaber, bringing it up between her and the guard at the distant end of the alley at the exact instant the laser bolt fired. There was a bright flash as the bolt discharged into the wall beside her, spraying chips of stone into the air. More bolts followed, but the smoke in the air spoiled the guard's aim, and Jaina was easily able to back away after Salkeli, providing cover.

  The Rodian hissed for her to hurry. Sensing no one lying in wait for them, she turned and ran full tilt for the exit from the alley. Salkeli had his blaster out, ready to fire at anyone who got in his way. Jaina, on the other hand, wasn't so committed to attacking people who, despite her current situation, were supposed to be her allies.

  Out of the alley, she found herself on a wider, more exposed street. Salkeli was already halfway across it, heading for a smashed window in a building on the far side. Jaina followed without hesitation, deactivating her lightsaber as she went. She dashed across the road and dived headlong through the window just seconds after Salkeli. She rolled as she landed, coming up into a crouch to examine her surroundings. A quick look around told her they were in the remains of an open-plan office, long abandoned, with broken furniture strewn about the floor.

  Salkeli was clambering to his feet just as the guards emerged from the alley across the street.

  "Keep moving!" he urged, dashing from the room with his head low.

  He took her deep into the building, then down into one of its sub-basements. Kicking open a stuck door, he revealed a long tunnel that, judging by its length, stretched to several other buildings along the street. They hurried along it, passing entrances to other basement levels.

  "I trust you have a plan?" Jaina said.

  "More or less," he called back to her. "We'll go back up in a second, to throw them off track. Once we're sure Malinza and the rest are safely away, I'll take any suggestions you have."
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br />   Footfalls came from the corridor behind them. Jaina spun around, igniting her lightsaber and deflecting a handful of blaster bolts that had been aimed at their fleeing backs. Salkeli took the next stairwell on their right; Jaina followed.

  He didn't stop at the ground floor, but instead continued on to the top of the building. When they emerged, the aircar was waiting for them, hovering above the roof like the remotes she'd once trained withonly much larger, and much deadlier. Two guards hung over its sides, blaster rifles pointing down at Salkeli and Jaina. Dodging and deflecting laser bolts, the two of them took cover behind a ventilation shaft. Jaina used the Force to rock the aircar while the Rodian returned fire. That evened the score, but they were still in a no-win situation because they had nowhere to run.

  She was about to point this out when a loud explosion from nearby brought a halt to the firing from the aircar. The attention of the guards in the vehicle suddenly turned to a huge ball of burning gas rising up from a nearby buildingthe same building, Jaina noted, that had contained the Stack. She was so surprised by the turn of events that she barely noticed the arrival of other guards from the stairwell. Thankfully, though, they were also

  attracted to the spectacle, staring in amazement at what was emerging from the newly formed hole where the building's skylight had once been.

  The Stack itselfits ragtag jumble of containers loosely tied together with scaffolding and hidden by vinesrose gracefully into the predawn sky, glinting shards of shattered transparisteel falling like silver rain onto the building below. Propelled by repulsors, the entire structure was as buoyant as a hot-air balloon, and moved in much the same way. As soon as it had cleared the top of the building, it began to drift with the prevailing wind, trailing a spreading cloud of smoke and debris beneath it.

  The aircar sped away to intercept the floating structure, leaving the guards on the rooftop staring at the spectacle.

  "Now's the time for suggestions," he hissed. "Before those guards over there remember what they're here for. Right now they stand between us and our only means of escape."

  "There is one other," Jaina said, staring at the edge of the roof a dozen or so meters away.

  Salkeli laughed, following her gaze. "Don't tell me that Jedi can fly, too?"

  She shook her head and smiled at him. "No, but we can jump. Come on!"

  With that, she bolted for the edge of the rooftop, not stopping to check that the Rodian was following. Then, trusting in her instincts and the Force, she threw herself into the air.

  Instead of landing on another rooftop, however, she found herself plunging into a deep and wide aqueduct half filled with fast-moving water. The current instantly grabbed and held her down. Her limbs flailed as she struggled to orient herself and come up for air. Lungs burning, she finally broke the surface, desperately trying to suck in some oxygen while at the same time coughing

  up some of the water she'd inhaled. Then, from somewhere nearby, above the sound of rushing current, she heard the wheezing laughter of the Rodian.

  "Over here!" he called as the current swept them along into a high-ceilinged tunnel. He was paddling strongly a meter or so away from her.

  She spat out some more water and swam to his side. "I presume the Stack was the distraction you mentioned. It was empty, right?"

  "Right." His voice echoed in the tunnel. "While the guards chasing us split up to check, the others would have slipped out through the basement."

  "But all that equipment," she said. A loss like that for a small group such as Freedom had to hurt. "All that data!"

  "Data and equipment are replaceable; lives are not." An open shaft passed by overhead, briefly affording them some light. It reflected off Salkeli's multifaceted eyes. "Okay, we're there," he said. "Swim for the edge."

  "You actually know where we are?" She was genuinely surprised.

  "A Rodian always has an escape plan," he said, kicking vigorously for the edge of the tunnel. "I thought everyone knew that."

  "But it was my idea to jump!" The Rodian snorted, a nasal bleat that sounded unusually loud in the tunnel. "I had already thought of it; I just wanted to check out your mettle."

  He reached the wall and found purchase on its slimy surface. Jaina wasn't far behind. Her fingers dug into the gaps between bricks where ancient mortar had eroded away. "Up there," Salkeli said. "See?" Jaina looked up and to her right, and saw an open access cover. Descending from it was a rusting metal ladder. She followed Salkeli's lead and began to edge her way toward it. The current was stronger here than it had been

  before, and she had to fight not to be swept away. From farther down the tunnel she could hear a faint rumbling sound, like that of a distant roaring. She guessed that either the tunnel continued to narrow the farther it went, or it ended in an underground waterfall of some kind. Either way, she didn't particularly want to find out.

  "I'll help you up," Salkeli said, coming up beside her when she reached the base of the ladder.

  "That's all right." She nudged him upward with the Force and enjoyed the look of surprise on his greert face. "I have something I have to do first."

  He ascended the ladder while she reached into her pocket and removed the bug, releasing it into the current. She was happy to let the security guards search through the drainage system to find it. Then she lifted herself out of the water, pulling herself up and out into the relatively fresh air.

  The sun was rising over the horizon when she scrambled through the access hatch. Looking around, she could tell they had come out in a completely different section of the city than they'd just been in. The streets were wider, the buildings lower and better maintained. It looked more like a warehousing suburb than the abandoned business complex they'd left behind.

  "We made it," she said, laughing in relief.

  "You ditched the bug?"

  Jaina nodded, already thinking about what to do next.

  "I think you've helped Freedom enough for one day," Salkeli said. "Would you like a lift back into town?"

  "As long as it doesn't involve swimming again."

  He grinned, motioning for her to accompany him to the nearest buildinga low, long container hold. There was a metal roller door securing the premises. Salkeli tapped a code into the lock and it obligingly slid up, revealing a dusty but serviceable two-seater speeder.

  "You're not going to tell me that's yours, are you?" she said.

  The Rodian's multifaceted eyes twinkled. "Would you believe me if I did?"

  "Well, you know what they say," Jaina said lightly. "A Rodian always has an escape plan."

  He smiled at this, gesturing with his long, green fingers for her to climb aboard while he moved around the back to adjust the airfoil. In the second it took for him to do this, her senses told her that something had gone terribly awrysomething she hadn't anticipated. But it was too late. She was climbing into the speeder when a searing pain caught her in the back.

  She turned as she fell, catching a fleeting glimpse of Salkeli as he lowered his blaster.

  "Always," she heard him say as darkness claimed her.

  She ran as fast as she could along the mostly empty corridors, not knowing where she was or where she was going. For all she knewor caredshe might have been running in circles. It didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that she keep running in the hope that it might distract her from the pain in her mind.

  Try as she might, though, she couldn't outrun the memories. Her life seemed to be made up of one long tragedy, from her parents' deaths on Tatooine to her latest breakdown on Bakura. And, of course, Anakin ...

  Remembertogether, you are stronger than the sum of your parts. Master Ikrit's last words to her, communicated via the Force, had helped her accept her feelings for Anakin. But it wasn't about strength; it was about being together. She loved Anakin, and always had. As a child, she had loved him as a friend; then, as they grew older, she had been learning to love him as a woman. But now, because of the Yuuzhan Vong, because of the voxyn and Myrkr, tha
t love would never be realized.

  Her body shook with sobs as she doubled up, clutching her stomach. Anakin's absence was like a yawning gulf in her life, a hole that nothing could fill. The future they should have had together would never happen, and nothing could ever take its place. Not even becoming a full Jedi Knight was any comfort. The Force without him in it was an empty thing.

  It's not supposed to be like this! she wanted to shout at the universe. Change it back! Make it right. Make it better. Make the pain go away!

  She fell to the floor, rolling tightly into a fetal position, desperately wanting to push back the pain. Anakin had sacrificed himself for the greater good, and the thought of that only enhanced the love she felt for him. She wanted to go back and kiss him that last time, instead of holding off as she'd done. She wanted to go back and fight at his side, to help him overcome the Yuuzhan Vong warriors who had ultimately brought him down. She wanted to die with him, because life without him was so incomprehensible.

  Memories. . .

  "You aren't immortal," Corran Horn had told them on an asteroid near Yag'Dhul, "and you aren't invincible."

  "Everybody gets a nasty surprise someday," Anakin had replied. "I'd rather get it standing up than lying down."

  Memories...

  "I've thought about the dark side for most of my life. My mother named me after the man who became Darth Vader. The Emperor touched me through her womb. Every night I had nightmares that ended with me in my grandfather's armor. With all due respect, I think I've probably thought a lot more about the dark side than anyone I know..."

  Memories.. .

  "You wre scarred up and tattooed like Tsavong Lah,"

  Anakin said. "You were Jedi, but dark. I could feel the darkness radiating from you."

  "You don't still think that could happen to me?" she responded, horrified by the vision. "How could I? You saved me from them, stopped me before they finished." His doubt, his fear that she might join the other side and destroy the Jedi, had cut her more deeply than any physical wound she had ever sustained. "Anakin, I'll never join the Yuuzhan Vong Memories. . .