The Way of the Mystics
by Tilt
(continued from Part 9)
On a high jagged crag of black granite a thousand feet above the tumbling surf on a distant world, a lone figure in black stood impassively in the gusting ocean winds, oblivious to the insistent tugging of the cold stiff breeze.
Down below, chunks of ice floated slowly inward toward the shore to roll tumbling onto the wide plains of white sand and frosted foam. Small reptilian predators stalked among the ripples of the incoming tide, searching for luckless fish and seacrawlers, their dull greenish hides pebbled with armor-like scales, rows of needle teeth tearing into their prey with frenzied abandon. The reptiloids were desperate for sustanence. Syharath's winter had fallen hard and early this year in this northern latitude, and the reptiloids were in a race between their hunger and the sluggishness of hibernation.
Darth Maul stood silently atop the crag above the beach, wrapped well against the bitter cold in layers of silk and wool and silver wolf fur. His double lightsaber poked up above his shoulder from a carrying strap across his back. He carried a javelin gun over the other shoulder, the twenty-centimeter long spikes for the weapon held securely in elastic loops on his forearms. The hunt had gone well this day. At his feet lay the carcasses of four rockleapers, large avians that made their nests in these cliffs far from his fortress. He had called for his steward to come retrieve the birds to take home for the night's meals. He'd hunted every day since he'd returned home. The solitary hunts in the wild broken lands of Syharath were the only times he felt at peace with himself.
He watched the reptiloids far below, felt the breeze blowing against his face, the weak glaring sunlight barely keeping up with the chill. This was home, however inhospitable. The thin air even here near the ocean made the cloudless sky above seem an endless expanse of dark blue, a shade of sapphire much deeper than other more clement worlds. The ice and salt from the ocean below and the constant wind had scoured the stone coastline bare save for a few curly purple lichens spreading like fractals on the rocks around him. Thin air, stunted vegetation, bitter cold. Syharath had been written off long ago by the Colony Exploration teams as being uninhabitable by humans. Maul and those who lived in his fortress were the only ones on the planet. He would have it no other way.
Memories stalked him here only when he allowed it.
The Mystic girl. The ghost. Korolis.
The memories of the girl still woke him from sleep nearly every night, the blurred vision and one-sided pain of migraine headaches still flashed through his skull whenever he used his telepathy. He had regained consciousness on Korolis to find himself too weak to move, huddled on the floor of his own ship at the feet of a laughing Darth Tahkra. They had been in the process of wrestling his struggling body down the ramp and into the droid-transport when Ylaren had gotten an urgent message from her pet Rthikin commander on Mensae. Tahkra had dumped him on the rampway of his ship and they had left without another word. It had taken almost an hour before he'd had the strength to crawl up the rampway and key the airlock closed and locked again. He'd somehow made it to the cockpit and managed to take off again, put the ship into hyperspace for home. Some fifteen hours later he'd awakened in his pilot's chair and Syharath floated serenely below his ship. He'd landed on Syharath's tiny asteroid moon to recover more before heading home. He could not afford to show any weakness to those who inhabited his fortress.
If he could, he'd have thrown them all off his planet. But Master Sidious insisted he keep the children, at least, instead of killing them. They may be monsters but the talent for the Force moved in the blood. And children needed keepers.
The inevitable thought in the night when he awoke with the memories loud in his head. *Her* children would never be monsters. Resentment and jealousy and rage. The pain of Syharath's dawn light lancing into his skull, the horrible one-sided headaches that drove all thought from his mind, fueling his rage. Jinn. He must find a way to break their lifebond without killing the girl. There must be a way, someone somewhere must have found a way...
He could see the speeder now approaching, waited a moment to be certain his steward had seen him there and marked the position, then turned and vanished over the side of the cliff, dropping down to the caves below and then picking his way down the cliffs to the beach.
The crystal he'd given her had not been around her neck. Jinn, undoubtedly.
She fought well. She was fast with her saber already. Jinn's teaching, through the boy Kenobi.
She was brave. Willing to risk. She'd tried to jump through his lightsaber blades. And that was all her own.
She hated him. He grinned wolfishly at this thought. Who in this universe *didn't* hate him?
She was his equal, or soon would be. And there were few in this universe he accepted as his equal. And only one he accepted as his better.
With Theri bel Kaitryn at his side, he would be able to kill his Master.
With Theri bel Kaitryn at his side--
He grinned again as he dropped off the wall of the cliff and landed easily on the icy sand of the beach. Twelve hours, easily. She'd very nearly worn him out.
Somehow, somewhere, there must be a way to break the lifebond without killing her.
Somehow.
Theri woke instantly as the warm weight of Kee's body moved away from her in the night. She rolled over and reached for him before she'd even opened her eyes, felt him hesitate, then lean over and kiss her before moving away again. [Go back to sleep, beloved. Please? I hadn't wanted to wake you.]
[I don't want to waste any of what time we have together sleeping,] she Sent back in a sleepy grumble.
She felt his amusement and agreement. [You have a busy day tomorrow. You need your sleep.]
[So do you,] she answered, watching him get dressed in the dark.
[I have to be on the shuttle for the Justice in half an hour,] he Sent. [Feeling you sleeping is restful enough for me.]
Theri snorted at this. [Can't sleep without you.]
[Yes you can.]
She sighed and hauled the blanket up over her head. [Don't *want* to sleep without you.]
Silence for a moment. [I know. Me neither.]
She felt him sit down on the edge of the bed to pull on his boots, kicked the blanket away and scooted over to put her head on his leg, curling up around him.
He held her to him for a moment, his hands in the thick masses of ebony hair, the warm softness of her skin. [I have to go. I have my orders.]
Theri nodded. She uncurled from around him and slid off the bed, returned a moment later to brush his hair out and tie it back for him. Once the clutch-beads were tied she hugged him for a long moment, burying her face in his hair. [Do *not* do anything stupid out there,] she Sent as firmly as she could to him.
She felt him chuckle at this. [Of course not. And you are not to go to Coruscant General without Kylan with you. And remember to call Master Yoda if you get in trouble. He said he'd send Ben to get you if you got in trouble while I'm gone. But don't you get in trouble, young lady.] He squeezed her hands then and kissed her fingers. [Now give me my lightsaber.]
She sighed, reached for the weapon under his pillow, put it in his hand.
He turned to her, gathered her into his arms, kissed her for a long moment. [Try to stay out of Goza's way, too,] he Sent mischievously.
Theri tried to grin at this, but it was a feeble try.
[You are my life,] he Sent. [Now. Let me up.]
She let him go and he got to his feet, pulled his cloak from the hook behind the bedroom door and picked up his pack from where he'd left it ready to go the night before. He looked down at her one last long moment, then turned away and out the door.
The main room of their apartment was dim. R2-D2 waited for him silently beside the comscreen.
A small noise, and Ben appeared at the door of his room. [Master?]
Kee pinned him with a stern look. [Take care of her, Ben. I'm counting on you.]
[Of course!] Ben answered as he came forward toward his Master. He'd been working late on a remote. [You and Master Windu be careful.]
Kee hugged him swiftly. [Just out to Kitaba and Mensae and back. Shouldn't be more than a week at the outside.]
Ben laughed a little. [Yeah, and Master Yoda told us we'd be on Teravin three weeks.]
Kee smiled at this. [Behave, wretch. Remember I won't be here to haul you out of trouble.]
Ben grinned and pushed him toward the door.
"Come on, R2, let's go," Kee said quietly, and the little droid whistled softly and followed him out.
"Here's our stop," Kylan said as the thrumming of deceleration vibrated through the floor of the maglev the next afternoon. He turned to look at Theri beside him and grinned at her slightly, the crystals in his hair chiming softly.
Theri grinned back at him with one raised eyebrow. "Yes, love." [Heh. Who'd have ever thought we'd be playing boyfriend and girlfriend?]
Kylan's grin got wider at this. [Why is it I'm the only one in House Jinn with any fashion sense?]
Theri looked down, trying to hide her laughter, as the maglev slowed and slid into the station beneath Coruscant General Medicenter. [Well I guess I do look a little...]
[Scruffy. Like a kid wearing her big brother's hand-me-downs,] Kylan Sent disapprovingly, laughter in his mindvoice.
Theri gave him a poke in the ribs with her elbow and got to her feet. She was wearing a set of Ben's old forest camo pants and one of her old black tank tops, with Ben's army jacket on top, her black jump boots. And the clothes were a little too big for her. She'd braided her hair back out of her face and looped her green streak around and through the braiding. Kylan looked far more stylish and neat in his black leather and silk outfit. She shoved her hands inside the pockets of the olive drab jacket and slid her right hand around her lightsaber in that pocket, the rubber grip coating warm under her hand. Kylan followed her out of the maglev and into the crowds heading for the giant hospital's entranceway.
[Beloved?]
Theri sighed and Sent a caress to the whisper of Kee's presence. His mindvoice was very very faint, but she could hear and understand him still. When she was talking and laughing and concentrating on something she was able to get around the feeling that a chunk of her body had suddenly been replaced by a bottomless pit. When the Justice had gone into hyperspace Ben had held her tight until the grayness had faded from her vision, then snuggled up with her for the rest of the night. Kee's steady presence had faded but not disappeared. And they could indeed still hear each other. [Are you all right, sweetling?]
[Yes. I'm fine. Are you?]
[Kylan and I are at Coruscant General now,] she Sent. [And yes, we're being careful and I won't go anywhere without him. Save your strength, love.]
She felt his agreement and weariness. They'd soon learned that Sending through their lifebond required much more concentration than simple Sending alone. And Kee had been awake since he'd left her the night before. He was very tired now. His presence faded from her mind as she took Kylan's hand, and she sensed he'd fallen asleep at last.
[Master Kee checking in?] Kylan asked as they found a directional terminal and started looking for the Health Services Directorate office.
Theri nodded.
Coruscant General was the largest hospital on Coruscant and a major teaching and research hospital. In all it employed half a million people and covered something like one hundred fifty square miles. The sick and injured were brought from all over Coruscant, and millions of people came from offworld every year to be treated or patched up. Coruscant General's trauma teams were sent to civil wars and planetary disasters throughout the Republic. These trauma teams were half military rapid-response team, half emergency medical team. Often they dropped on magnetic rapelling lines from hovering starships behind the lines of a civil war or into the worst parts of planetary disasters, stunners drawn and backpacks full of medical instruments and supplies on their backs. The research division of the hospital was constantly searching out cures and treatments for diseases thought to be incurable. The infectious diseases research teams could contain, analyze, and devise a treatment for a plague in a matter of hours once they were in the area of an outbreak. Even the toughest challenge in medical science, repairing a severed spinal cord, could be accomplished in any of several ways, either with cybernetic assistance or by bacta immersion treatment or nerve splicing. The researchers here were not slow to take advantage of any healing technique they found to give consistent positive results, even if it was unconventional. There'd been too many cases over the thousands of years of the healing profession where the cure to some horrible disease had been found in some insignificant plant or seed.
Theri and Kylan wove hand in hand through the shoals of aliens and humanoids to the droid-brained transports that moved along magnetic guide stripes in the floors, found one of the larger ones heading to the Health Services Directorate and managed to squeeze together onto the last two spaces. Kylan slipped his arm around her, leaned against her shoulder for a moment. [Are you scanning?]
Theri quirked a grin at this and sent her mind ranging in a hundred-meter sweep all around them. She winced and hastily clamped her shields back down. Pain, physical and emotional, lanced through her, echoes from the minds of those suffering all around her. [Ouch. That hurts. No more hundred-meter scans. Too many people hurting.]
[That's what I was going to warn you about, silly,] Kylan Sent didactically. [Keep it close-in when you scan here. We'll have to give up some warning time to keep ourselves from taking on everyone else's pain.] His mischievous grin then as he looked down into her eyes. [Teacher mine, this is one of those rare situations where being a level 1 telepath is a distinct disadvantage. I'm glad I'm only a level 3.]
[If Maul was here I'd know it without having to scan,] she Sent, watching as the transport zipped along down the concourse, the hallways opening out on either side leading to the different departments and wards. [He usually can't resist announcing his presence.]
Kylan quirked a grin at this and hugged her a little.
The double doors leading to the Substance Abuse ward were dented from the impact of years of droids and beds hitting the cold-rolled duralanium. The ID strip on the doors was scarred and the paint of the sign next to the door was starting to flake away. The silent, deactivated carcass of a cube-shaped trundler droid sat a few feet from the door against the wall. Theri and Kylan stood before the doors and simultaneously took deep breaths to calm themselves.
[I can all but hear you reciting the Eight Negations,] Kylan Sent jokingly.
Theri grinned at this. [Kee would say he could hear the gears grinding in my head.]
[What's that smell?] Kylan asked, gesturing toward the door.
[I think it's best we don't ask,] she Sent back. [Well, let's go-]
The doors in front of them burst open suddenly, and the two jerked themselves out of the way with Jedi reflexes as a humanoid wall dressed in dark blue surgical scrubs seemed intent on running them over.
"Oh, sorry, didn't know anyone was out here," the wall said, and Theri and Kylan realized it was a nurse. The man was at least two and a half meters tall and very overweight. The great round head sported a crest of black hair that fell in a ponytail down the man's back. But as Theri gulped and looked up at the huge nurse she saw the kindliness in the man's eyes and sensed a truly caring personality overlaid by the weary anguish of spending years watching people dying in his care. "You folks lost? The Neonatal ICU is two corridors over."
"Uhm, no, we're looking for the Drug Abuse treatment ward," Kylan said.
"You've found it then," the nurse said. "Go on in. Nurse on duty now is Jaanini." And he turned and started past them down the corridor with a surprisingly quick step for someone so large.
Kylan and Theri exchanged bemused looks and pushed one of the double doors open into the ward.
It was quiet for the most part. The lights were kept dim as many of those suffering withdrawal became photosensitive. Down at the end of the short corridor was a pool of bright light at the nurses' station and the low hum of a faxprinter. The walls of the hallway had a wooden railing about waist-height and the carpetting looked to be some indeterminate shade of gray. A yellow and white astromech droid was rolling slowly toward them down the hallway, chirping to itself much as R2-D2 would have.
"Hey! Reverb! C'mere! I know you're out there!"
The voice had come from the doorway beside Theri on the left-hand side of the hallway. The droid whistled an acknowledgement and bumped the half-open doorway open and rolled inside.
[Reverb?] Kylan Sent to Theri.
Theri shrugged. [Beats me. Come on, the nurses' station.]
The nurse on duty, the aforementioned Jaanini, was on the comm as they approached and nodded up at them. Theri blinked at her in surprise. Jaanini was a Kaivanin, one of Shosin-ka's people. Tall and willowly like all Kaivanin, Jaanini's coloring tended to yellows and oranges instead of Shosin-ka's purples. She wore a light-green nurse's uniform and strings of citrines and garnets in her yellow-gold and silver hair. Her eyes were leaf-green shot with gold. And it was apparent from her quick movements she was not nearly as calm and centered as Shosin-ka. Theri was reminded of something Shosin had once said of her homeworld, that Kaivanin were either flighty or calm and very rarely were they anywhere in between the two.
Jaanini finally put down the comm and nodded up at Theri and Kylan again. "Sorry about that, what can I do for you?"
Theri took the Psi-Corps chipcard from her pocket and gave it to the nurse. "I'm Theri bel Kaitryn, I'm a freelancer with the Psi-Corps. I've asked to do some counseling work with your patients." As she was speaking, Theri reached out delicately with her mind, implanting a murmuring Sending into the nurse's open mind. The Sending included a twist to make the nurse see the information she was expecting to see on the chipcard reader as she passed the chipcard's magstrip through it: Theriyah bel Kaitryn, native of Thretketh, Psi-Corps, Level 1 Telepath, specialization in Counseling and Social Work. Entwined in that she Sent feelings of trust and tolerance to suppress the Kaivanin nurse's natural suspicion. Theri could feel Kylan gently touching her mind, watching what she was doing.
"Oh, yes, the HSD called us about this," the nurse confirmed as she handed Theri's Psi-Corps ID back to her. "I'm surprised someone of the Psi-Corps would be interested in doing drug treatment work."
"We're not all interrogators and bodyguards," Theri said with a slight smile. "The psi-powers can be used in any number of fields."
Jaanini nodded. "Well, I have the files on all our worst cases as the HSD requested, if you'd like to look at them?"
Theri looked over at Kylan, and he nodded. [I know enough medical terminology to help you figure out at least some of it, love,] he Sent hurriedly.
"This is my partner," Theri explained to the nurse. "Kind of like my trainee. He's going to be helping me, if that's all right?" Again she slipped a subliminal into the nurse's mind, a Sending of trust and acceptance.
"Sure, that's fine." The nurse turned and took a filedisk from an organizer nearby and handed it to Theri. "Go around the corner here, first door on the left is an office, you can use the reader in there."
"Thanks. How many files are on here?" Theri asked as she and Kylan walked around the nurse's station to the connecting corridor.
"Fifteen long-term care, ten short-term," the nurse answered. "We'd like you to start with the long-term, if that's all right."
Theri nodded and Kylan followed her to the office around the corner.
[I think you overdid it on the 'trust me',] Kylan Sent softly as Theri closed the door of the office behind him. [She should never have accepted me as your partner without Psi-Corps IDs for me too.]
Theri took a look around and had to agree with him. [I think you're right, dear. Look. Aren't those drugs in there?]
Kylan looked where she was pointing and blinked in surprise. There were cabinets on the walls above a work surface with vitriglass panels in the doors, and clearly visible inside were labelled vials of liquid drugs and siliplastic bottles in neat rows. [Good gods! I wonder if they're even locked?!]
[Locks wouldn't matter much to someone in the Psi-Corps,] Theri Sent with a shrug. [Best not to try it, though. Might be an alarm.]
They shook themselves and sat down in the worn chairs in front of the desk in the cramped little room, moving stacks of papers and filedisks aside to reach the diskslot for the reader. The viewscreen was mounted on the wall above the desk, the keyboard in a pull-out tray on the underside. Theri swallowed and looked up at her apprentice as the files began to list on the screen in front of them. [Do we know what we're getting into here, love?]
Kylan shrugged a little and smiled faintly. He leaned over and kissed her forehead gently and hugged her with one arm. [You know you can do this already. The only real problem is keeping up the cover story.]
Theri tried to smile, squeezed his hand in hers, and they turned to the screen and started reading files.
Two hours later, Theri sat back with a sigh into the chair and Kylan reached over to rub her neck with one hand comfortingly.
[It's like Korolis,] she Sent to him. [Some of these people probably don't have anything to live for, no careers, no family. But some of them--]
Kylan nodded. [Another moral dilemma. Why should we only help those who have a life? Who's to say if the person who doesn't appear to have anything going for them might not one day turn out to be successful or brilliant?]
Theri closed her eyes and nodded. [Kee would be laughing his head off at me. The harder I try to run from ethics, the faster it catches up to me.]
Kylan chuckled a little at this. [I'll tell him when he gets home. But this is where the real difference between Jedi and Mystic comes in, teacher my love. A Jedi would not be interested in helping these people at all. The greater good for the most people happens when you can stop a war or help a planet recover from an asteroid strike or put Darth Niharn or Izar out of commission for a while. But for a Mystic, it's all in helping people one at a time.]
Theri was suddenly reminded of the web of connections she'd seen when she'd done her questing. [Yeah. Because a war or an asteroid strike is one nexus point where a lot of connections converge, so you take care of that and all the others are released. But even one connection, even one point on the web, affects all the others. Even if it's just in small ways, you never know when that one small difference will tip off a big change.]
Kylan nodded. [Uh-huh. If your old Master hadn't kidnapped you--hell, if your father hadn't pulled him out of the ocean--think of all that wouldn't have happened.]
I'd never have met Kee and Ben, Theri thought bleakly. I'd still be at home, probably running the alga farm for Ama. And maybe Doda wouldn't have gotten sick. And maybe Dalryn would have killed us both by now.
She shook herself out of these negative thoughts and sat up again. [All right, then, love, which one should we start with?]
Kylan sighed. [The old man, I guess. The one in Room 4-A. I can't decide if he'd be harder to work with or easier.]
[The thought patterns have taken years to develop, longer than we've been alive,] Theri Sent absently, flipping the screen to the appropriate file. [Densilir. Retired laser optics designer. Hmm. Probably spent his entire pension on Flame-Out.]
[Wonder what they're doing for him medically?] Kylan Sent. [Flame-Out is amphetamines, isn't it?]
[Yeah. There's a Dreamweaver addict in 1-A.] She flipped to that file. [Devlin Kripalani. From Eltanin originally, emigrated to Coruscant twenty years ago. Says he's a musician.]
[Deke Kripalani is here?] Kylan Sent. [Now who'd have thought he'd end up here?]
[Who is he?] Theri asked curiously.
[The love of my sister Kiri's life,] Kylan Sent with a grin. [Or, he was when we were kids. Oh, gods, back when we were teeners she had her room plastered with pictures of Deke Kripalani. Not my type, but she was crazy for him. Thank the gods I was already with my Master by then and only had to put up with 'Deke this' and 'Deke that' when I met up with my family for holidays.] He shrugged a little. [Wonder what happened to him where he'd end up in drug rehab.]
[Nothing succeeds like excess, probably,] Theri Sent with a snort.
Kylan waggled a finger at her in admonishment. [Now, now. You're being cynical and judgmental.]
Theri Sent her agreement. [Well. There's also a Grau addicted to, get this, sodium chloride. That's plain salt. And an Iskorvan addicted to Echo. Quite a mix, I'd say.]
[Let's go ask about what's being done for the addicts medically,] Kylan Sent. [These files are only history, they don't include current treatments.]
Theri popped the disk out of the reader and they ducked out the office and around the corner to the nurses' station where Jaanini was arranging medicines on a tray to take around to the patients in her care. The Kaivanin nurse smiled at them as they appeared.
Theri smiled a little nervously. "Uhm, I'd like to know what's being done for these folks in terms of the physical addictions? I can work on their brains but it won't help much if they're still physically addicted."
"Everything from vitamin therapy to nanotech," the nurse replied, taking down a large bottle of pills from a cabinet above her head. "Each according to the specific drug or combination of drugs, of course. That's why I'm glad to have you here. There are some drugs where time is the only cure for the withdrawal, but we can always do something to make it easier for them physically. We've had all kinds of psychotherapists up here working with the patients, but for some of them it doesn't seem to help no matter what you do. They walk out of here at the end of the program and right back into the same old patterns. And there's nothing we can do until they end up back here again. If they're lucky enough to end up back here, that is." She measured out a half-dozen tablets from the large bottle into various of the small containers on the tray. "I've been hoping they'd send us a telepath. I've heard you people can work miracles, and we need a few miracles here."
Theri nodded a little. "Should we start today or wait until tomorrow? Or should I talk to the ward supervisor first?"
The nurse turned at this to give her a very direct look. "We don't have a ward supervisor, per se. There's only two of us in charge of this ward, myself and Grimac who has the three to three shift. We have a doctor who comes in twice a week to monitor the patients, but otherwise we're left to our own devices. We're sort of the red-haired stepchild of the Rehabilitation department."
Kylan and Theri traded startled looks at this. "No supervisors?"
Jaanini shrugged a little. "Most of the doctors and therapists consider this a sort of dead-end ward. No one here worth helping."
Theri's anger flared at that. "We'll just see about that," she said with a snap in her voice. "I thought doctors were supposed to help people, not make judgments on whether or not a person was worth helping."
The nurse's small smile was almost conspiratorial. "I'm glad someone else sees it my way, then." She picked up one of the containers on the tray, one filled with a blue liquid. "Here, you can take this to Deke and introduce yourself. He's been here longest. Dreamweaver addict, room 1-A, near the doors."
Theri took the small bottle of liquid from the nurse and started toward the room she'd indicated. She rounded the corner of the nurses' station to see a tall, thin figure in hospital-issue green surgical scrubs in the door of room 1-A.
Deke Kripalani was as tall as Kee, Theri saw immediately. In the dimness of the hallway she could see dark eyes, but couldn't make out the exact color. Long blond hair. A scraggly blond beard and mustache. The face was oval, the chin pointed, the cheekbones high. He didn't look all that old, though if Kylan and his sister Kiri had known his music as teenagers he must be at least Kee's age. The look on the thin face was what gave the impression of weariness and age. The expression was guarded, watchful, closed. Theri sensed a wariness in the mind just underneath the surface openness, which rather bore out the defensiveness that showed in the arms crossed over the chest and the suspicious look in the eyes. He looked past her to Kylan behind her, and the eyes seemed to flicker with cynical amusement. Then he turned silently and went back into his room, and Theri steeled herself.
"May I come in?" she asked as she came to the open doorway.
"Door's open," Kripalani said. The voice was deep and unexpectedly husky. He was standing at a worktable, looking through a pile of filedisks.
Theri carefully put the small bottle of blue liquid on the edge of the worktable. "I'm Theri bel Kaitryn. I've asked to work here in the drug treatment center for a while."
The musician didn't look up at her and didn't speak for a moment. Then, "Grim set this up, didn't he? The bastard. I told him I didn't need a woman, I just need my 'weaver."
" 'Scuse me?" Theri asked blankly.
At this he did turn to look at her. "Grimac. The night-shift nurse. You know, the one who's paying you?"
"HSD is paying me," Theri said. "I'm not a prostitute."
"Friend of his, then, owe him a favor," the musician said gruffly.
Theri shrugged. "I told you I'm not a prostitute."
Kripalani snorted a laugh. "All women are prostitutes in one way or another."
Theri quirked a grin at this. "Then I guess that means all men are buying in one way or another."
[Ouch!] Kylan Sent with a laugh in his mindvoice.
[Doesn't apply to you, dear,] she Sent back in a flash.
[Actually it does,] Kylan Sent back.
[Later, you,] she Sent back warningly. [I'm trying to have a voice conversation here.]
Kripalani chuckled a little. "So what are you charging?"
Theri shrugged with a laugh. "What have you got?"
A real laugh at this. "What's it look like? A few hundred files of rotten music and a ten-year-old synthar." Kripalani picked up the bottle of blue liquid from the table where she'd left it, popped open the cap on it and downed the liquid in one swallow.
Theri looked around the room. There were synthar chording charts on the walls, filedisks all over the worktable around a viewscreen and a reader unit, empty meal containers and drink cans. The gleaming metallic black fifteen-string synthar sat in a small wooden stand on the floor beside the table, a simple leather carrying strap draped around the electronic body of the instrument. A graphicspad was thrown across the rumpled blankets on the bed in the corner. Two small audio speakers were affixed to the metal headboard of the bed with spacer's tape, the leads spliced into a patch cord that ran to the graphicspad.
"Looks to me like you've got a lot," Theri said.
The musician looked at her like she was out of her mind.
Theri looked up at him and grinned a little. "You've got your talent for music, don't you?"
"Spare me all that happy-happy crap," he said as he began fishing out the filedisks from the piles on the worktable. "I've been through it all before, kid. You're some grad student doing your internship here, aren't you? Think you're going to change the world? Spend some of that money your parents are shelling out at Coruscant U and buy a clue. You can't change the world. You're crazy if you think you can even try."
"Ah, I see." Theri said, leaning back against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest. She waited a beat, then, "Mr. Kripalani, I'm a Psi-Corps freelancer. I'm a level 1 telepath. That probably doesn't mean anything to you. Suffice it to say I can make my mindvoice be heard on ships on patrol halfway out on the system ecliptic. I may not be able to change the world as you say. But I'm sure as hell going to try."
Kripalani gave her a hard look at this. "Thought they screened all you headtalkers for megalomania. How'd you get past them?"
"Why do you think someone wanting to help other people is a megalomaniac?" she asked. "Do I look like a megalomaniac? I have it on very good authority I look like a kid wearing her big brother's hand-me-downs."
She heard Kylan choke on his laughter behind her in the hallway.
"You look like a kid who's skipped class and gone out slumming," Kripalani said. "What's the deal, Comp 1 too tough for you?"
Theri chuckled. "What's the deal with you? Life too tough for you? Or did you just get bored?"
Silence then from the musician. His eyes were blue, Theri realized finally. The same sapphire blue as Kee's eyes. He was looking at her intently, guardedly, half-angry, half-amused. "Go on, kid. Take your bodyguard with you. I've got better things to do than argue with some idealistic rich kid with too much time on her hands."
"Oh, yeah, I can see you've got appointments lined up outside the door," Theri said with a grin. She pushed away from the wall as the little yellow and white astromech droid appeared at the doorway, rolling inside with a string of whistles.
"Reverb, here's that disk I want you to take down to Radiology," the musician said, picking up a filedisk and turning to put it into a slot in the little droid's body.
"Reverb?" Theri asked.
Kripalani jerked a thumb back at his synthar. "F3 is the reverb key on my synthar. His name's F3-B1. So I call him Reverb." He gestured at the door. "Go on, now, fella. Down to Radiology."
The little droid beeped brightly, then turned in place and trundled slowly out the door. The musician watched the droid go with a bemused expression on his face, and Theri realized the little droid's antics were the only bright spot in the long days he'd spent here. Probably the droid was the only thing he even halfway cared about, sort of a pet.
"Well, I'll leave you to your busy day then, Mr. Kripalani," she said. "I'm sure I'm only wasting your time." She turned away and walked out the door, rejoining Kylan in the hallway, pulling the door closed behind her. She took his hand and pulled him down to the nurses' station again.
"I see Deke didn't bite your head off," the Kaivanin nurse said with a trill of nervous laughter.
Theri shook her head. "Not at all. And I think I'll start with him tomorrow."
The nurse nodded happily. "If there's anyone on this ward who could make it back into the world, it'd be Deke."
Theri agreed. "We'll be back tomorrow, same time."
"I'll see you then," the nurse answered.
[Come on, love, let's get back to the kids. We've got enough time to get home to the Temple before dinner time.] Theri pulled Kylan by the hand behind her toward the double doors. Just as they reached the double doors they heard the synthar's rippling electronic tones from the room by the doors.
The massive twenty-centimeter thick airlock door swung silently aside and two tall, cloaked figures emerged from the airlock, the aura of deadly quiet around them sending several passersby scuttling away hurriedly.
After a pause, the two turned simultaneously to the left and fell into step together, walking with calm unhurried strides down the center of the corridor. An Ishitib leaning against a nearby bulkhead hissed at them softly as the two passed, fluttered one green-skinned hand in a warding gesture from his homeworld at the two Jedi. The two did not see, or if they did chose not to respond.
Kee and Windu had left the little Jedi scout ship they'd taken from the Justice on one of the station's docking rings, leaving R2-D2 to guard the ship. Umbriel Station was not the sort of place where one left a ship unguarded, even a Jedi ship. There were too many people here looking for easy money or a way out, and a fast little courier ship in perfect working condition would be too tempting a target.
The circled-square logo of the SpaceCorps flashed from a public comscreen as they passed by, then was replaced by scrolling announcements of ship arrivals and departures in several different scripts and languages. The black metal deckplates beneath them thrummed constantly with the subsonic rumbles of idling ships attached to the station at the docking rings. Umbriel had not really been planned the way it turned out. It had started out as a simple traders' waystation, a refuelling and resupplying stop. Then people started staying on the station permanently, settling down and living there. Gradually the residents and frequent visitors began building on to the original construction. Water-hauler and mining ships had brought the huge empty cargo shells that had provided the bubble-domes for what was now the primary business district and the recreational dome. Several old ships had been cannibalized and fuselage components grafted on to the construction. Some of the mining and transport companies that based their crews here contributed fusion plants and other neccessities of life. Umbriel was a world built by committee. No alien race or planetary system would claim it. The station floated in orbit around a star in an uninhabited, lifeless system. The best that could be said about Umbriel was that it was neutral ground.
And to some extent it was dead-end ground. Many people ended up here because they had nowhere else to go and no more money to get there.
And when the Sith needed cannon fodder, Umbriel was just the sort of place they looked.
Kee relaxed into the familiar long-striding rhythm he and Windu had been accustomed to long before either of their apprentices had been born. He grinned slightly in the concealment of his cloak hood. He'd needed this break from routine, as had Windu. He'd not left the Temple since the trip to Thretketh several months ago. He and Ben had spent a great deal of their years together on assignments. The year of relative quiet living at the Temple had become a little wearisome. One could only look at probe droid reports and informant communications for so long before it all started blurring into a maddening jumble. And Windu had been stuck at the Temple far longer than he had. They both needed a field assignment to get back some perspective.
[You're feeling pleased with yourself,] Windu's mindvoice said with some amusement. [Married life getting a bit cramped, old man?]
[We're not married,] Kee Sent back mendaciously. [And no, I'm not feeling cramped.]
[Maybe you should get married,] Windu answered, his Jedi calm unruffled as he strode beside his old friend, though his mindvoice was effervescent with teasing. [Lot of that going around lately.]
[Yes, proud soon-to-be grandad,] Kee Sent back. [Doesn't mean Theri and I have to get married. You know Thretketh don't get married.]
Windu's flash of joy at the reminder of Torin and Serala was all in Sending before Kee felt him clear his mind and focus again on their surroundings. Kee did the same, bringing his mind back to the moment, querying each sense for information, breathing deep to center and calm himself. They had reached their destination.
Simultaneously the two relaxed into the Force and scanned for Sith or anything Dark beyond the old airlock doors. While there was Darkness in plenty they felt no Sith or even those with latent Force-talent.
[Shall I stay outside?] Kee asked Windu as they stood for another moment preparing.
[I'd prefer you with me,] Windu answered. [But you should stay out here to keep watch.]
Kee Sent his acknowledgement and moved to stand at the right-hand side of the airlock doors against the wall that appeared to be constructed of hull plating. He tugged his hood a little further down to shadow his face and wormed his arms inside his cloak sleeves to cross his arms over his chest. [Go on then. Be careful.]
Kee saw the familiar rustle as Windu reached to touch his lightsaber, knew he'd also hit the button to activate the small sensor module in the pouch beside the lightsaber ring, the one that normally held his spare lightsaber crystals. Windu nodded to him once, then hit the door release.
Kee took a moment to scan the small knot of Korgans chattering in a corner nearby, caught some elusive thoughts centering on the handful of triangular coins that one of them handed to another. He couldn't understand their odd rasping and crackling language, but he could sense enough of their thoughts to realize a deal was being made for some sort of gemstone. Shades in the thoughts of the sellers told him the fiery golden stone in the black velvet pouch was stolen property. One of the sellers, the one currently holding the stone, was very nervous with the obvious silent presence of a Jedi a couple dozen yards away. He was concealing a blaster in the loose fall of his brocaded robe.
He touched the Force, drawing in the calm and joyful silence, letting it sharpen his senses. He reached for Theri's faint presence, feeling she was awake now. [Beloved? Sleep well?]
The faint sleepy caress was enough to make him smile briefly before he wiped his face clear again. [Ben says three remotes today,] came the whisper of her mindvoice. [And I'm to practice with Torin.]
[He needs the practice,] Kee replied. [Windu and I need to concentrate for a couple hours, love, so don't reach for me until third bell, all right?]
The annoyance flashed then, and Kee agreed but Sent back a stern warning. He felt her reluctant agreement before her presence faded back into the Force.
[Kee?]
[Here,] Kee Sent to Windu in the room beyond the airlock. [Problems?]
[The tension in the room went up by a factor of ten when I walked in,] Windu Sent. [I keep getting this from all over the room--] And Windu Sent him several images that had flickered through various minds in the tavern beyond the airlock. Shadowy figures, one a N'd'kaala in the full pressure suit and breathing gear of his species, one an indistinct humanoid figure wrapped in black. [I can't tell if that's Tahkra, but I don't expect he'd come here himself looking for pilots.]
[Certainly not,] Kee Sent back in agreement. [Any Corellians?]
[None that I can see,] Windu Sent back tensely. [Couple Graus, but they look about plastered. A Dug in the corner, and he or it doesn't appear drunk at all.]
Kee straightened, feeling something Dark approaching down the corridor. A moment later a large humanoid shape moved into view in the crowd. A shape wrapped in Sith black. Kee tensed and reached for his lightsaber and the Force simultaneously. [Mace! Niharn!]
Windu Sent startement and Kee felt his mind shift into the calmness of combat readiness. Kee very rarely called his oldest friend by his first name, and when he did it commanded instant attention from Windu. [Niharn? He's vanished for several months!]
[He's here now,] Kee Sent as he relaxed into the deceptive casualness of readiness, his lightsaber in hand but not activated. Those in the corridor moved fearfully out of the Sith's way as he walked with unwavering purpose toward the Jedi standing guard at the door of the tavern. The aura of ravening voidness that was Darth Niharn seemed to home in on the Light that was Qui-Gon Jinn with the single-minded absorption of a poisonous spider entangling it's prey.
A dozen steps away, Niharn's red lightsaber flashed into existence as he drew it from inside his cloak, and Kee parried the strike instantly with his own green blade. Niharn was huge, more than eight feet tall, and consequently massed more than Kee did. The sheer strength behind the humming blood-red blade would easily overwhelm Kee if he allowed that strength to bear on him for any length of time. So he would not.
If Niharn had a weakness it was his lack of speed. Kee began attacking with ferocious swiftness, striking and parrying with all the quickness he had gained in his recent practices with Ben's remotes. He circled the Sith Lord, kept him moving and shifting. The corridor had cleared around them instantly. The green blade spun and darted fluidly and Kee felt the drag as his bladepoint sizzled through the muscles of Niharn's leg as he found an opening in the Sith's guard. Niharn grunted a little and the red blade swept around, forcing Kee to jump back before he was sliced in half. He brought up his saber and hooked his blade around Niharn's, trying for a disarm, but the red saber was not wrenched out of the huge hands. In the demands of the fight Kee caught a stray thought from the Sith and cursed aloud in Tusken.
[Windu! Niharn's brought assassins!] he Sent in a hurried burst to his friend.
[I noticed,] Windu Sent, and Kee caught the answering image of the Dug in the corner who didn't seem drunk. And another, of swift flying black spherical shapes diving out of a vent near the ceiling.
[I meant the ones coming down the corridor toward me,] Kee Sent swiftly as Niharn's lightsaber flashed in ruby fire before his eyes and he swept his own glowing emerald blade in a warding arc to counter, aiming a kick at the Sith's midsection. Niharn grunted at the impact and staggered back a few steps. [Think we were set up?]
"Mind-chattering Jedi," Niharn growled, the rumbling voice full of annoyance.
Kee didn't bother to reply to this, just darted in and slashed downward, jumped away as the Sith's blade slashed upward an instant too slow. But the Sith didn't loop his blade up and around as Kee expected but reversed it and swept it downward again. Kee parried but the ruby-colored blade slid along his own and the point of it sliced through his cloak and the linen and silk beneath. Searing lightning-like pain followed the blade's path, and the sharp scent of cauterized flesh. But Kee didn't falter, only relaxed further into the Force, the silent tide dulling the pain even as it began healing the wound. The green blade swept in a circle, hooking Niharn's again, but yet again the Sith didn't lose his grip on his blade. Niharn freed one hand from his blade and a moment later Kee had to duck swiftly to avoid the balled fist that swung like a blacksmith's hammer at his head. The Sith caught his tunic and nearly jerked him off his feet with one hard shake. Kee gritted his teeth and kicked at the Sith as hard as he could, remembering a flickering lithe shape diving around remotes in a saber cube in the precision of Soritsu-ji. His foot connected with Niharn's chest and the giant grunted and threw him one-handed against the wall beside the tavern door. Kee's breath left him in a rush as he was slammed against the wall and he slid down the wall, tumbled to the side-
Just as the flying spherical black assassin droids dived at him simultaneously, stun charges much stronger than any remote's arrowing out to smash him to the floor. Kee fell back into the tangle of his cloak in a boneless collapse, and the blackness claimed him all too quickly.
"So," Ben said with a grin down at Theri as she giggled and tried to wriggle up to bite his neck. "The three remotes today are negotiable."
"Negotiable how?" Theri said, settling her arms around him again, rejoicing in the feeling of silky skin and the rich solid warmth of his body on top of hers. The light of Coruscant Alpha lancing in the wall of windows in her bedroom brought out the reddish glints in Ben's hair. His tailbraid was tickling her neck.
"Oh, you know," he said, pulling the blanket up over their heads, "Negotiable."
Theri's laugh turned to a groan as she caught her breath, and the warm hands caressing her body swiftly chased further thoughts of duty and training away. "While the cat's away the mice will play," she murmured to him, felt his amusement and agreement.
"What's he going to do if we spend half the day in bed?" Ben whispered. "He's lightyears away and busy. Probably won't even notice--"
Theri pulled him down and stopped his words with a kiss and a wriggle that left no doubt in his mind as to what she wanted. Which was fortunately just what he had in mind--
--when Theri stiffened and choked beneath him, and the feel of her mind touching his stumbled and faltered before she clutched him again so hard he felt her fingernails dig into his back.
"Niharn..." she managed in a whisper. "Kee--he's fighting--Niharn--"
Ben rolled off of her, pulled her up beside him as he sat up, held her there as she swayed, her hands clenched in the blanket. The dawn light of Coruscant Alpha streaming in the bedroom made her squeeze her eyes shut. Ben watched her face, biting his lip, and reached tentatively for her mind.
Pain and a confused chaotic jumble of images, but unmistakable was the hulking black-robed form, the blood-red saber blade, the pale blunt-featured white face. Darth Niharn.
Theri convulsed once as her mind grayed out, and fell back out of Ben's hands into the scattered pillows on her bed as her mind shut down just as, lightyears away, Kee was stunned senseless by the assassin droids.
"You have returned," Sidious said, the hologram flickering in a burst of static.
Niharn merely nodded once, the motion barely visible in the enfolding black cloak.
Darth Sidious seemed to hiss for a moment, the sound shifting in odd harmonics in another burst of audio static. "What price for Jinn?"
"Your severed head delivered to me on the next mail ship," Niharn said in a rumble.
Sidious might have allowed a ghost of a grin at this. "You challenge me?"
"Why challenge inferiors?" the giant rumbled quietly. "You would buy Jinn instead of defeating me in combat. You fear me. Therefore I am the stronger."
"We shall see," Sidious replied coldly.
"Come on, we have to go, love," Ben said worriedly, pulling Theri's dark gray overtunic around her as she snuffled and tried to wipe the tears from her face one-handed. He nodded as a little more of the dazed look left her eyes and she responded at last, knotting the silk sash around her tunic and reaching for her vest and then her belt. Ben nodded and turned away for a moment to throw on his own uniform.
Theri dug out their lightsabers from underneath the pillows of the bed, looked at hers for a long moment in her hand, then slid it onto the ring on her belt. Ben took his own from her hand gently, then closed his arms around her in the only comfort he could give, reaching for her mind, feeling the wall of her shields. [Don't close me out,] he whispered into her mind. [I love you. I love you both. Always.]
Theri choked at this and clutched him tight for a moment. "We can't let the panic in," she said in a shaky voice. "Come on!"
Ben nodded. [Let's go, then.] He took her hand and pulled her toward the door of the apartment. [Inda? Are you there?]
[Where else would I be?]
[The Force only knows,] Ben Sent with a quirk of one eyebrow.
[Working on it, boy. Get Theri up to Operations. Master just got the ransom demand.] The spirit's mindvoice turned soft and somber then. [This is not good. Not good at all.]
Torin met them at the door of Operations, his face so bad-news blank that Ben had no doubt that he already knew.
The morning sunlight lancing in the walls of windows nearly blinded them as the doors opened into Operations. The room was alive with hologram displays, screens of data scrolling, the great display of the known galaxy turning slowly like the spiral of the Force. Theri had never actually been here to Operations in person, though she'd seen it very often through Kee's eyes and memories. She followed behind Ben as the watch commander directed them to the tiny conference room to the left of the wall of screens.
Ben put his hand to the lock at the door, and it slid open immediately.
"Sit, you must. News is bad, children."
Theri caught her breath, then reached for the distressed and reeling presence of her lifemate. [Hold on, beloved,] she Sent to him.
Yoda was already sitting in one of the chairs at the table, and Ben hesitated a moment before slowly going to take the chair at Yoda's right, distinctly uncomfortable to be taking his own Master's place at Yoda's side. Yoda reached over to squeeze his hand reassuringly as Theri sat down beside Ben, and Torin threw himself into the chair opposite Ben and ran a hand over his face. Yoda gestured to Ben to key in the holorecording, and the room lights darkened slightly as the line of light began to unfold to the static-blurred image.
"This is your only chance," the black-robed and hooded figure said in a rumbling but measured voice. "Sixty billion Republic credits for the lives of Qui-Gon Jinn and Mace Windu. Transfer the credits to a new, unflagged account based out of LyraTech on Korolis. Bring me confirmation of the transfer in person to Umbriel Station. You have one Standard day." The hulking figure moved stiffly aside from the holocam to reveal two familiar figures huddled unconscious on the deck of a ship or on some sort of metal flooring. Theri swallowed convulsively and closed her eyes, but the image of her lifemate's badly burned left arm and the sear marks where the assassin droids had shot him were all too visible and refused to be banished by simply closing her eyes. She heard the holoprojector buzz quietly as the message ended.
No one spoke for several almost unendurable moments.
"What--what should we do, Master?" Ben said with a quaver in his voice.
Yoda sighed deeply, sat back in his chair, closed his eyes. Then, "What you must, you will do, Obi-Wan. What is best, you will find."
Silence again. Theri opened her eyes. Torin's eyes were distant and cold, focussed inward in thought, and he was tightly shielded.
"Can we get that much money together anyhow in that amount of time?" Ben asked.
Yoda hmphed slightly. "If money will serve the purpose." The old one poked Ben's leg with his walking stick. "What is goal? Money? Or rescue? Greed? Or Qui-Gon and Windu?"
Theri winced, threw herself out of the chair and went to stand before the narrow window, looking out across the bright morning vistas of Coruscant, the thousands of ships floating serenely by, the maglev trains snaking along far below. She closed her eyes again, reached for the Force like a child reaching for the comfort of a mother's arms in the grip of a nightmare.
[I'm here, kiddo. I'll always be with you.] Inda's mindvoice was soft with reassurance, and the feel of his presence steadied her. [The answers are always in your reach. All you have to do is let them present themselves.]
She straightened, the sounds of Torin and Ben and Yoda talking faded behind her as she reached for that endless spinning dance of the Force, let the tide of it sweep her along for a minute, let the calm joyfulness of it clear away the pain and worry. Her concentration focussed on her breathing almost without conscious willing. For every Sith there is a Jedi, she thought. All is the turning balance, the two work in harmony. But I will see beyond--
"I will need the Justice , Master Koon and his squadron, the Carina , Torin and his Dervish, Ben, Kylan, Jagoe, Master Mundi, Master Yensho, and an old eight-seater escape pod," Theri's voice cut across the discussion behind her.
Silence behind her for another long moment. She straightened, whirled to look Master Yoda in the eyes unflinchingly.
Ben blinked in surprise. Accustomed as he was to the way Theri moved in saber practice, he was aware immediately of some undefinable difference, some change in the way she stood or the center of gravity. And the look in her eyes--
Yoda's ears came up and quivered a little as the old one fixed her with a measuring stare.
"Action is the only key to solving the problem, Master," Theri said softly. "Are we getting as bogged down in talk as the Senate? 'Do or do not,' you always say."
Yoda humphed a little at this.
"We do not have much time," Theri continued.
"Impatient, you always were," Yoda said at last. "Go. Do as you have planned. Obi-Wan, do as she commands."
Ben blinked a little at this, looked over at Torin, who was looking at the girl in the light of the window with wary suspicion in his eyes. Had Master Yoda just said "she"? Or was it "he"? Confused, he looked from Theri to Yoda and back until Yoda whapped him on the leg with his walking stick.
"Go, Obi-Wan! Do as Little One commnds! A plan she has!" Yoda said half-angrily. "All will be well!"
Ben and Torin rose simultaneously from their chairs as Theri nodded up at them and preceded them out the door into Operations.
Darth Niharn crossed his arms over his chest, the black eyes watching impassively as the interrogator hovered in close again to the dark-skinned Jedi bound to the chair before him. "The codes, Jedi."
Windu's face was gray, bathed in sweat from the three previous injections of psychoactives the droid had shot into his arm. But the iron-willed control of the Jedi Master was far from broken, and he did not answer as he had not answered for the last five hours. His attention was focussed inward, no distress evident in the handsome dark face, no emotion, only a vast ocean-like calm. The drugs were eating at the surface of his thoughts, but the balanced tide of the Force and his will prevented the spread of the effects any further than the surface of his mind.
Beside him, Kee slumped forward unconscious, his hair hanging down over his face, obscurring the angry welts on his neck where the injections had been given. Kee was allergic to some kinds of drugs and apparently those Niharn had used on him were producing a violent reaction. With the Force flowing through him as it was, Windu was all too aware of Kee's labored breathing, the wheezing, the rattle in every breath. But Kee had not broken either. It would take Niharn far longer than five hours and psychoactive drugs to break two Jedi Masters. Windu suspected Niharn was simply doing this because he was bored. He'd have all the time in the world if the Council didn't meet his demands.
But before Kee had lapsed into unconsciousness, Windu had felt a strange thing in his oldest friend. A change in the feel of Kee's mind, a change in the way Kee was directing the Force as they let it flow between them.
Kee took a deep shuddering breath, tried to straighten up with a weak groan, then slumped back again, and his breathing stopped completely. Windu felt his presence starting to fade, retreating, fleeing--
"Kee!" Windu couldn't stop the hoarse cry that seemed to burst out of him without thought. [Damnit, old man! Don't you dare skip out on me now!]
Niharn moved with surprising speed, scooping a hydroinjector from a nearby table and yanking Kee's head back by the hair to press the injector to his neck. A long moment passed before the Jedi Master again took a shallow breath. Then his breathing stopped again.
Windu swallowed, closed his eyes, and slammed up every mental shield he had, emptying every thought and emotion into that cold pit of the Force, and let the sounds of Niharn trying to pull Kee back from the other side fade behind the steel walls of his soul.
Darth Ylaren's plunging stride bespoke her anger as she swept along in front of Tahkra, the swirl of her black silken robes around the voluptuous form violent with the movements. Her brindled hair swung in time with her steps, pulled back in the myriad of tiny braids woven with crystals and beads. Her face was the perfection of ethereal beauty, an oval face with clear translucent skin, eyes of sunstruck amber. But the expression was cold as ice-rimed stone, the voice trained to command. The black lightsaber strapped in it's sheath on her arm reminded all instantly where her power lay. Tahkra understood that among humans Ylaren was considered beautiful, but he himself well knew the price of that beauty.
The denizens of Umbriel skittered out of the woman's way hurriedly. She did not see them. All that commanded her attention now was the ravening void in the Force that was Darth Niharn. "I should have sliced the body into ribbons," she muttered to the huge Vaikerian behind her. "I should have known a stab through the heart would not be enough."
"Yes. You should have," Tahkra growled in agreement. "Better than any of us."
Ylaren whirled at this and one slim hand flickered out at the Vaikerian Sith, and he slammed into the wall of the corridor as the Force rippled from her like a striking snake. Tahkra gave a rumbling growl at this, pushed himself away from the wall and started off down the corridor after her again.
They came to an old airlock door in the dim corridor, something that had once protected a starship corridor from the possibility of vacuum. Ylaren's hand lifted again and from behind the airlock they heard a faint clanking sound as the duralanium bar used to secure it dropped away.
"Ylaren."
The woman whirled and the corridor was suddenly jagged with shadows as her ruby lightsaber blade flashed into existence and she dived with a scream of rage at the hulking shape in the shadows further down the corridor. A second later Tahkra was beside her, the angry crimson of his blade coming to life in his hand, waiting for Ylaren to draw the giant out further into the corridor. Then he thought better of it and turned back to the door Ylaren had opened, carefully folding his tall form to squeeze through the airlock into the room beyond as the fight behind him raged on.
Humans, the Vaikerian thought, and their lovers' quarrels.
If the situation hadn't been so dire, Ben would have grinned. As it was, he merely gave the spotless Dervish resting in the cradle in the Carina 's drop bay a long approving look. "A newer model, isn't it? Newer than Thumper was, I mean."
Torin looked up at his mech and smiled tightly. "Yeah. The DV-6, Variant C. Comes standard with the arm lasers on the backs of the arms rather than replacing the hands. Thumper was a DV-6A, modified later on to put the lasers on the arms and to attach hands." The mech gleamed in the banks of lights above and around it, metallic dark blue with diagonal gun-metal gray stripes on various panels of the armor, joints and actuators also gray. The mech was rumbling slightly, idling, ready to go.
Theri came up beside them, straightening her dark gray tunic and vest, looked up at the huge metal beast with a nod. "All systems go, Torin?"
Torin gave Ben a glance before replying. "Yeah, we're ready."
Theri nodded again. "Good. Let's get aboard, then."
Ben grimaced at his lover's retreating form as she turned briskly away toward the old escape pod. He didn't miss Kylan's faintly worried look either as his eyes followed his teacher. And Kylan and Torin were the ones taking all this pretty much in stride. Master Mundi and Master Yensho--
--were standing nearby together, giving the girl in gray very long, silent looks, their faces expressionless. Ben groaned inwardly and followed Theri toward the escape pod as Torin turned to the catwalk lift that would take him up to his Dervish's cockpit.
Theri settled in the escape pod's control chair, keyed the pod's radios to the Carina 's bridge. "Toru, how long do we have before reversion to sublight?"
The dropship pilot hesitated a moment, then, "Two minutes. Everyone latched?"
Theri looked back at the others behind her, nodded approvingly as they all were pulling safety webbing around them. "We're latched. Got your distress call ready?"
Toru's slight laugh was answer enough.
"Kenobi?" Jovino's voice said over the radio then. "Good luck."
Ben swallowed. "Thanks, Jo."
Outside the pod's viewport they saw Torin's Dervish straighten slightly and the arms disengaged from the cradle as the mech moved forward. They all felt the pod shaking with every step of the mechanoid, and then the Dervish lifted an arm and a jolt vibrated through the escape pod, startling them.
"All right, the grapple is latched on," Torin's voice said over the radio link then.
The Dervish moved around the pod to stand behind it on the square of flooring outlined in yellow and orange stripes.
"Reversion to sublight--" Toru said, paused, then, "--Now!"
The Jedi within the pod felt the myriad jolts as the hundreds of clamps on the floor of the drop chute began to release, and three seconds later the weightless lurch as the square of floor dropped out from underneath the escape pod and they were floating free, tumbling in space.
"Here we go," Torin said calmly over the radio, and they saw the Dervish's spherical head float up beside them, felt the jolt as the Dervish's hands closed around the pod and the mech's jump jets fired.
Ben groaned beside Theri, closed his eyes, and his hands clutched at the arms of his chair as the pod's viewports filled with the sweeping tumble of stars. Theri grinned slightly and reached over to squeeze his hand. [If I get spacesick--] he began.
[If you get spacesick, we'll keep on with the mission,] Theri Sent back mendaciously. [Kee needs us.]
Ben swallowed and nodded. Master Mundi chuckled softly and reached forward a hand to Ben's shoulder and Theri felt the Force flowing between them. Ben sighed in relief as Mundi's calm control eased the nausea.
"Just got the confirming message from Master Koon," Torin said over the radio link. "They started their attack five minutes ago. Shouldn't be long before Tahkra gets a yell for help and he and Ylaren come flying out of there like bats out of hell."
The mech turned them toward Umbriel Station and Theri nodded. Ben's description was apt. It did look like it was built by a particularly disorganized tribe of Tusken raiders. And with spacer's tape and detonator wire. "How does that thing manage to stay airtight and pressurized?" she asked in an undertone. "Does it even have force-shields to keep the meteors off?"
"Some parts of it, yes," Master Yensho said quietly behind her.
Theri shook her head in faint disbelief as Torin hit his jump jets again and the blue and gray Dervish shot toward the slowly spinning station. A surge of disorientation hit her for a moment as Kee's wavering presence seemed to fade and return for a moment, then fade again. And it kept fading. [Beloved! We're almost there! Hang on!] It felt like the rock of her soul was being worn away by a steady tide, dissolving like sand in the wash of the Force. She fought back the disorientation, centered herself, let the spiral of the Force steady and infuse her with certainty and calm.
[Teacher-love?] Kylan Sent softly to her. [Are you all right?]
Theri's mouth twitched a little at her student's timid tone of mindvoice. [Remember what I taught you.]
[Which one of you?] Kylan replied softly. [Or both?]
Theri glanced over at him sharply as Umbriel's patchwork hull skimmed by below the pod, the Dervish now bringing them in close to the station. [Very perceptive, Hellstorm,] she Sent at last. [You're the only one who's caught on so far.]
Kylan's mouth also twitched in a stillborn smile. [She never calls me simply 'Hellstorm'. You do. And you have twice now since we left the Temple.]
Theri's mouth twitched a little more at this. Then she turned back to the task at hand, taking her lightsaber from her belt. Around her, she felt the others doing the same.
"Everybody remember where we parked," Torin said with a laugh over the radio. Ben snorted a laugh at this, as did Jagoe. Torin had said the same thing on Teravin months ago when he had left Thumper sitting on top of a small building as bait to lure the Phoenixhawk mechanoid into the open so the militia could destroy it.
The Dervish was bringing the escape pod up against the side of Umbriel now, turning the pod around so that the airlock at the rear end of the pod could engage with the airlock he'd found on the station. For a moment all they saw through the pod's viewport was the dark blue armor plating of the Dervish's chest, then it rushed downward and they could see Torin grinning lopsidedly inside the mech's head as he brought the pod up to attach it to the station.
The clanks and hisses as the pod attached to the airlock of the station sounded loud in their ears for a moment, then the feeling of pressure equalizing made their ears pop. Then at an unvoiced signal they all stood up simultaneously, and Master Mundi reached for the airlock control.
[We're coming, beloved,] Theri Sent to her lifemate's fading presence. [We're on our way.] And she faced front again and followed Ben into the corridor, focussed laser-like on the task ahead of her.
The winged-dagger shape of Maul's black ship swept out of hyperspace so close to Umbriel that the extradimensional shockwave shuddered through the ramshackle construction's shaky gravitic stabilization field with a ripple strong enough to almost tear loose one whole section.
He'd never before raced so eagerly to do his Master's bidding as he had when the message came. Jinn! Captured by Niharn along with the intelligence specialist Windu. His orders from his Master were to take both Jinn and Windu, but if he could not manage that to capture only Jinn. Once he had the Jedi Master in his hands--
He skidded his ship around into a rough turn and hissed at the jolting as he slammed the airlock against a docking ring heedless of the damage he might be doing to his ship.
Darth Tahkra's howl of laughter rang through the airlock door back to the two fighting outside in the corridor. The big Vaikerian ducked back out of the airlock and watched Niharn and Ylaren fighting for a moment. "Niharn! You're getting careless! Jinn is dead!"
Torin turned his Dervish away from the escape pod, took hold of the wall of the station carefully and pulled his mech against it, beginning to climb hand over hand in the weightlessness of space along the hull. As he'd been flying here he'd seen the gaping opening of a docking bay further up the vertical axis of the station.
It was much trickier to fly in zero-gee than he'd ever thought. He was reminded of the games his Master used to make him play when he was younger, wearing a gyrolevel on his head while standing on one foot, going up and down stairs. If the tiny globe of mercury inside the gyrolevel moved or rippled, the level would beep and he'd start all over again. He'd learned very quickly to move with such balance and grace that he'd once gone through his entire day of classes with the damned thing behind his ear. Even his Master had been impressed and had made him check the tiny powercel inside it to make sure it was working. He smiled at the memory.
There. The docking bay.
He climbed his Dervish up toward it, cautiously pushing himself off protrusions and hull points, moving slowly so as not to send himself flying off into deep space with a too-strong shove. The Force moved through him and this metal beast of which he felt so much a part. He could almost feel the vacuum-cold hull under the giant four-fingered mechanoid hands. The horrible dread he'd stuffed into that small crowded corner of his mind seemed to ease in the calmness of the Force. That small crowded corner that still remembered the horrors that seemed so natural for the family back home on Ramos, where he woke up in the middle of the night hearing screams that weren't his own.
Why hadn't he asked his Master to let him Read his lightsaber before he'd left? Why hadn't he seen this coming? Why had he let down his guard like this?
He knew why. The moment Seri had put that ring on his hand he'd started believing in forever. But there was no such thing as forever. He thought he'd learned that long ago. But apparently not.
His Dervish's hand felt the edge of the docking bay and the burst of radio static in his headphones told him it was force-shielded. He pushed off gently from the edge, and the mech drifted up slowly to float before the dark opening in the hull easily as big as the Carina 's drop bay door. He lifted one arm of his mech, keyed for the arm-mounted laser to power up. The laser lenses irised open as the arm lifted, and he could see the techs inside the bay in the sudden glare of his mech's headlights as he switched them on. His meaning was plain to be seen.
The techs moved away behind a second force-shield, and a moment later he saw the shield at the entrance to the docking bay flicker with blue sparks and then clear again. He reached out and pulled his mech inside the bay and the force-shield flickered again and reactivated behind him. The Dervish's feet hit the deck beneath with a clang of metal to metal, and he sank the mech down until it knelt on the deck awkwardly, threatening to topple over at any moment, then managed to get it sitting down without too jarring an impact. He eyed his sensor gauges, willing the atmospheric guages up into human-normal range. The techs could very easily just leave him sitting here in vacuum, trapped in the docking bay. But he didn't think so. He grinned, keyed the missile hatches and all four laser lens covers to open in a not-too-subtle suggestion.
A suggestion that wasn't needed, apparently. His mech's headlights illuminated the SpaceCorps logo on the back wall of the docking bay just as the atmospheric guages registered human-normal outside, and he sighed and began shutting the Dervish down.
The group of Jedi crept silently from the short hallway that led to the airlock, Jagoe skittering forward to peer out into the crossing corridor ahead of them, signalling all was clear. This was a portion of the station not often used, an area that had been abandoned due to structural weaknesses. The air was thin, very cold, smelling stale with time. And it was dark, the only light that lancing in the infrequent windows just now turning toward the light of the small star around which Umbriel orbitted.
[Kylan, with me. Ben, go with Mundi. Jagoe, with your Master,] Theri Sent, the calm command in her mindvoice hard to ignore. Kylan winced slightly, and the others looked at her in various shades of disbelief, distrust, and hostility.
[You should tell them,] Kylan pleaded softly. [They don't--they can't feel the change in you as I do.]
[They wouldn't believe me if I told them,] Theri Sent back. [I'll have some explaining to do when I get home, but--]
Kylan felt the twist of her mindvoice, heard the odd undercurrent in her mind, the Sending that was somehow beneath the flow of words. And the others suddenly relaxed, nodded acquiescence, and began to move off two and two, Ben nodding to Theri as he followed Master Mundi down the right-hand side of the corridor.
[An impulsion loop, I presume?] Kylan Sent with a brittle edge to his mindvoice.
Theri nodded. [Neccessary. They must not doubt me and they must obey me.] She gestured down the corridor in front of them, and they started off together at a silent trot.
"Ylaren!" Tahkra thundered to the flickering chimerical shapes inside the whirling sphere of crimson thrown off by the two lightsabers. "The fleet is under attack! We must go!"
[To hell with the fleet!] Ylaren Sent, her mindvoice so scorching it fairly sizzled in the air.
The Vaikerian Sith growled a curse, reached out one long clawed arm and snatched Ylaren away from the fight by the arms. "We have too much invested in our plans to throw it away so you two can play! Come, Ylaren! Now!"
Ylaren let loose a shrill scream and reversed her grip on her lightsaber, stabbed it backwards at the Vaikerian as Niharn moved forward. Ylaren missed. Niharn didn't. The scintillating blood-red blade sank through Ylaren's chest and into Tahkra's chest as well, searing through blood and bone and muscle, transfixing both like bugs on the point of a needle. Tahkra's shrill wailing scream seemed to echo in the cold corridors, bouncing off the walls in odd distortions. Ylaren didn't make a sound, just stiffened in Tahkra's hands and dropped her lightsaber as Niharn grunted with satisfaction and pulled his lightsaber out of their bodies with the help of a foot on Ylaren's chest. Ylaren and Tahkra dropped bonelessly to the deck.
Niharn stepped over the two, pulling his hood back up over his head as he turned back toward the airlock, then stopped, jerked upright again, and his eyes shot a look down the dim passageway. He dipped into a crouch quickly, reached without having to look, and scooped Ylaren's lightsaber from the floor where it had fallen and ripping Tahkra's lightsaber from the ring on the Vaikerian's belt, stuffing both weapons into an inner pocket of his tunic. Then he turned, rose to his feet, and ducked back inside the airlock door--
"Niharn. So Ylaren was careless after all."
The Sith grumbled a mirthless laugh. "Yensho."
The Jedi Master nodded once, activated his blue-green lightsaber, and stood ready in the middle of the room, his mind focussed only on his old nemesis and not the two friends in trouble just behind him. Yensho had fought beside Qui-Gon Jinn and Mace Windu many times. Now, his skill would have to save them both. Beside him, Jagoe relaxed into the Force's embrace and bounced on his feet slightly, his purple lightsaber coming to life in his hand. [Ready, Master?] Jagoe Sent softly.
[As ever, my son,] Yensho replied, his eyes locking with Niharn's dark visage. A split-second later the two separated in a blur of motion, Yensho's silvery-white hair streaming out behind him as Niharn rushed at them. The Master and apprentice closed on the Sith from behind, and the giant was suddenly on the defensive.
[There. Yensho has Niharn distracted,] Mundi Sent to Ben as the two of them crept down a dank, claustrophobic droid tunnel. [He says Mace is in trance and Kee...appears to be dead.]
Ben choked, clutched his free hand to his mouth trying to keep silent. Master Mundi reached over to grip his shoulder tightly.
[I said 'appears' to be dead, youngling. Yensho cannot be certain! He still feels a presence in the body.]
Ben swayed for a moment, squeezed his eyes shut, then reached for the Force and commanded himself to calmness with all the will he possessed. He opened his eyes slowly, nodded to Mundi again, his jaw clenched so hard Mundi could almost hear his teeth grinding. [If we're too late--if my Master is dead--]
[--we will mourn him. Nothing more,] Mundi Sent in agreement and warning.
Their eyes locked in the dimness of the tunnel, and Mundi saw the spark of wild grief and the seeds of fury. [If my Master is dead, there will be two to mourn,] Ben reminded the other. [And I am not willing to let either of them fall to the Sith without taking the price of their lives in pain and blood,] Ben Sent in a growl.
[Then you have much to learn, youngling,] Mundi Sent with a sigh, turning back to face their objective again. [There is more to the Force than hate and revenge.]
[There is more to love than letting go,] Ben Sent back with a snap. [And more to justice than turning away.]
Mundi raised an eyebrow at this, then gestured Ben to follow him again down the accessway.
The sounds of lightsabers clashing, the droning electric hum and the rasp as the energy blades met and shrieked against each other. A moment later the two were flattening against the wall of the accessway, peering through the line of light between the panels of the wall. The lurid glare thrown off by the three darting lightsabers illuminated the three combatants and cast fleeting shadows on the two forms slumped in their bindings against the wall nearby.
[Ben?]
Ben caught his lip in his teeth. Theri's dazzling mindvoice whispered in his mind, and he felt her nearness. The swift image she Sent placed her in the hallway outside the airlock, the glimpses of the crumpled forms of Darth Ylaren and Darth Tahkra. He Sent acknowledgement, looked over at Master Mundi, saw the cybernetic arm come up and latch on to the flimsy panel of the wall--
[NOW!]
Theri's Sending would have addled them all if they weren't already shielded for battle. A bare second later Kylan and Theri were diving through the airlock, yellow-orange and dark blue blades flashing into existence, and Mundi was tearing the wall apart and Ben was leaping through with his own saber flaring blue in his hand.
Yensho and Jagoe greeted their collective appearance by backing away from Niharn, and the Sith suddenly found himself surrounded by six droning, howling saber blades, five deadly calm Jedi and one stonily stoic Mystic.
Torin flickered between the crowds and knots of people on Umbriel's main concourse, lightsaber concealed in his hand inside the loose sleeve of his overtunic, trying to hurry, trying not to wince as his scans of the crowds around him spiked so many violent and uncontrolled emotions into his mind. Praying for the touch of his Master's mind. Praying they weren't all too late. He'd never forgive himself.
[NOW!]
He choked on a gasp as the Sending blazed through his mind like the blast of an ion cannon. Damn but that girl could scorch the paint off the walls! But he knew the direction now, he knew where they were! He fled down a side corridor, slipping past a K'thorian and a Genebian arguing over a game of Chance and Hazard. Down a short spiralling staircase, out an emergency door, down another tiny mildewy-smelling accessway.
The black shape detached itself from the shadows of a connecting passage, silent in the sounds of a laser drill a few doors down. Even before the double lightsaber blazed to life Torin knew it was Darth Maul. The Sith's chilling laugh was acknowledgement enough.
And suddenly Torin knew he'd seen this moment before. Time had turned, time had caught up with him, and the future became the present.
Torin didn't stop, didn't turn aside. If anyone in this galaxy knew about fate and destiny, he did. His mad rush down the corridor became a headlong charge, and even he couldn't tell if the howl he heard came from his lightsaber or himself.
"Beloved," Theri choked out as Ben turned his lightsaber blade down as short as it would go and sliced through the braided steel cables that were cutting into his Master's wrists. They caught Kee as he began to tumble forward, eased the limp form to the deck between them. "Ben, he's not breathing!"
Ben glanced up and around as Kylan and Jagoe joined them, Kylan hurriedly reaching over with his lightsaber to cut Master Windu free. Jagoe straightened Windu up, seeing the blankness of trance in the Jedi Master's unfocussed eyes. Ben detached one hand from around his own Master to put it on Windu's knee. [Master Windu! We need you! You're safe now! It's me, Ben! Wake up! We need you!]
A moment later the dark-skinned Jedi shuddered and took a deep breath, and the eyes blinked and refocussed, and he shook his head groggily, swallowing convulsively. "Ben? What are you--?"
"What happened to Master Kee?" Ben pleaded as Theri took her lifemate's face in her hands, smoothing back the dissheveled hair, wincing at the three angry red welts on his neck.
"Niharn," Windu said thickly, trying to gather his wits as Jagoe and Kylan held him upright.
"Mundi and Yensho have him," Ben said, propping his own Master up against him as Theri began trying find Kee's pulse. "How did this happen? What did Niharn do to Master Kee?"
"Interrogator droid," Windu said. "Psychoactives. Kee's allergies, had a reaction to whatever Niharn shot him up with. Stopped breathing. I could hear him wheezing before--" Windu's eyes fell on his old friend's limp form then. "Ah no, tell me he's not really dead..."
"If he was dead I wouldn't be alive either, Windu," Theri said in a steady voice. She peered at her lifemate's pale face for a moment, smoothing down the short beard with gentle fingers. "Ben, hold him steady."
Ben nodded, clutching his Master to his chest. There was definitely cause for hope. The body was warm, there was some kind of life here, he could feel some kind of presence though not what he usually felt in his Master's mind. [Master, come back! You're safe now! Theri and I are here!]
[He can't hear you yet, Ben] Theri Sent softly. [Give me a minute.]
Ben shot a look at her, his eyes widening. The feel of her Sending--
Theri quirked a grin at him briefly. [Patience, Padawan. All shall be revealed to thee anon.]
Ben swallowed, buried his face against his Master's hair and held on. How many times had his Master teased him for his impatience with that very phrase when he'd been younger? Too many times to count.
Theri scooted a little closer, buried her hands in Kee's hair, closed her eyes, and reached for the Force, relaxing her soul into the slow undying turn of the spiral, letting go of the shell of mingled personalities she'd been maintaining for the last few hours. The form in her hands was a shell as well, a costume of matter and energy. The soul that it housed was one half of a whole. But which half? Theri bel Kaitryn or Qui-Gon Jinn? She dismissed such thoughts impatiently. All was the Force. It was only time and space which demanded the separateness. And suddenly she knew the words, knew the key that would unlock the walls of will-forged steel that held part of that one soul in timeless white silence, waiting patiently--
[Forever together beyond time, beloved.]
For a long, heartbreaking, silent moment nothing stirred. Then the distance between mind and mind began disappearing with a rush of thought and need, and the body in her hands convulsed with shudders as it fought to breath once again, straining in Ben's arms, hands raising weakly in clawing protest. Theri caught the hands, held them, brought them to rest against her face, murmuring comfort into the confused and reeling mind reaching through his touch.
[Don't try to speak, beloved. We're still all mixed up together.]
[Kee?] came the weak mindvoice through the fingers on her face. [That was--damned close--]
[Too close for comfort, beloved,] Theri answered. [We've confused the hell out of everyone, Ben included.]
[No more so--than me--didn't know if this trick would even work---]
Theri grinned against the fingers still wrapped around her face. How very strange, to feel his own fingers like this, to feel Theri's presence in the large callused hands, to be in this younger body, to see the world from a much shorter and smaller perspective. They'd managed this trick before in the depths of passion, but never for such a sustained period of time. It was only because of the new depth of their lifebond that they could do it at all. [Darling my dearest, we need to sort ourselves out. Ben is giving me a very strange look.]
[No, let me stay here. Your body isn't exactly in the best shape, and I can handle the pain. You're needed to get us all out of here--]
[Now now. The longer we do this, the more likely it is we'll not be able to stop,] Theri chided gently. [Besides, it's my turn to deal with my own pain. Now that Niharn is taken care of I need to get back in there to keep myself from passing out. Your trancing isn't needed anymore, beloved. Besides, I can't fight with this damned meter-long blade of yours. Too short for me.]
Her snort of amusement warmed him as they both closed their eyes again, sinking into the Force, and both saw the eternally circling shape of the Tandava fleetingly as they gathered the separate pieces of themselves gently into order and slowly pulled apart. Both felt Inda's worried presence hovering in her mind, could almost see the spirit wringing his hands and pacing in nervousness and worry. [Will you calm down, Inda? This was your idea anyway!]
[I know, I know. Still damned eerie, to feel Theri's mind all mixed up like this. Damn you two are giving me the creeps.]
Another long moment to feel the oneness of their twined souls, the comfort and reality of the lifebond that sustained them, and reality came roaring back around them as they came back to the surface of consciousness, opening their eyes to see themselves once more from their own individual bodies.
Kee tried to smile tremulously, weakly, as Theri held his hands to her face for one more moment. "I love you," was all he could say.
Theri turned to give his fingers a kiss, then gently took his hands from her face. "And I love you. But we need to get you and Windu out of here now."
Ben was looking from one to the other uncomprehendingly, still holding his Master upright. [What did you do? How did you do it?]
[Later, love,] Theri said with a glance over at Jagoe and Kylan who were helping Windu to stand up. "Jagoe, can you handle Master Windu by yourself? Kylan's taller than you and we need him to help with Kee, since I'm much too short."
"You help me with Master Windu, then," Jagoe suggested. A moment later Ben and Kylan were lifting Kee to his feet, and Theri was sliding in under Windu's free arm.
Windu smiled down at her weakly, gave her a hug with the arm around her shoulders. [I don't know how you did it, but thank you. There's too many people who would have holes in their lives if Kee died. I'm one of them.]
[I know, sir.] Theri hugged him a little for a moment, and the little group started lurching toward the airlock together.
[Theri? Call Torin!] Ben Sent suddenly. [He needs to know Windu's all right.]
But Windu's eyes got wide as he heard Ben's Sending, and he was already reaching for his apprentice's mind.
--And let out a string of curses in four languages. [Damnit, can't I leave you alone for two days without you getting into trouble?]
It was incredible. It was terrifying. He'd faced incoming LRMs and particle cannon shots and his Master's cooking, but this fight was the most intensely terrifying thing he'd ever experienced.
The double lightsaber flashed and spun with the speed of laserfire, the feral glowing yellow eyes locked to his were almost hypnotic. Torin's own silver-white blade blocked and parried and slashed without his conscious willing it. He'd long been accustomed to keeping one mental "hand" latched onto the Force when he fought Ben's remotes or deflected blaster bolts or stun charges; he'd been training with his lightsaber for almost ten years. But here and now, in this fight which undoubtedly would mean his life, the strands of time and faith had come to a nexus point beyond which nothing could be the same. Now he had to trust. He had to let go. This is what his Master had always meant. Not just learning when to let go of a situation or a cause or his anger. He was here, he was now, and whatever past and future there might be was irrelevant. There could only be the Force.
The Sith grinned, spun his lightsaber around one handed as the other shot out to point at a recycling bin a few yards away, something jerked up off the pile of stuff inside and flew at Torin. Torin didn't even miss a beat, didn't even look. The silvery-white blade flashed backhanded once, then flipped around again as he lunged forward. The burned-out chipboard Maul had Lifted at him fell in two pieces behind him. The shadows of the corridor shifted as the orange and white blades rasped against each other, Torin pushing forward and slipping sideways as Maul began sweeping the other blade around, trying to bring it up to slice through his shoulder. Torin spun away from the blade, ducked under the droning orange blaze, sliced upwards with his own saber as he spun back to face Maul, felt the drag and smelled charred silk and burned flesh beneath. Maul hissed slightly, flipped backwards, bounced on his toes and flipped forward again back into the fight. The furious series of slashes and stabs the Sith aimed at the young Jedi were just as swiftly countered, the silvery blade was everywhere at once, the steady crackle and hum of their sabers loud in the cold metal of the corridor.
And then, into the whirling ephemeral balance of the Force that thrummed through Torin's being like the idling rumble of his Dervish's engines, the Sending he'd prayed he'd feel.
[Damnit, can't I leave you alone for two days without you getting into trouble?]
Torin laughed aloud, giggling in manic glee. [I could say the same about you!] he Sent back. [Am I gonna have to arrange for that room at the Old Jedi Home now that you're going senile?]
That slight break in concentration was all Maul needed. The orange blades swept around, up, and curled around in a blur of motion and Torin let out a yelp of pain as his saber was wrenched out of his hands and the trailing blade of Maul's saber sliced his arm as it passed. The Force jerked Torin backward before he'd even had time to register what he was doing, and he was running back the way he'd come, pursued by the orange flames that whirled so close to his spine he could feel the rush of air at their passing. He fled around the corner howling madly, past the K'thorian and Genebian still playing Chance and Hazard, past a power droid waddling down the corridor, skidded around into another corridor, Maul right on his heels---
---right into the wall of screaming lightsaber blades and Jedi blocking the corridor as Torin dove into a slide between Ben and Yensho and rolled to a stop at his Master's feet.
"Don't even think it," Theri growled from behind the yellow-orange drone of her lightsaber.
[Can you say, 'oh shit, I think I blew it?'] Inda Sent to Maul with a snort of laughter.
Maul bounced to a stop, hissing softly, his double lightsaber waving slightly as he paced like a caged panther, his eyes wandering over the stony faces of the six Jedi facing him, all of them focussed so intently on him it felt like the touch of search lights. No fear. No anger. No cracks in the armor, no chinks in the stone of their shields. But there She was. Deadly as a scorpion, radiating power and control and balance, her aura sizzling through his senses like plasma fire. He should have known, should have guessed. Jinn had been in trouble, after all. The rush of lust and dread made him grin wolfishly at her, but the star-bright blade never wavered.
[You make me sick,] Theri Sent in a groan just before she reached out with the Force and Maul's lightsaber suddenly sparked and the blades shorted out. Maul growled, flung the dead saber at the group, and launched himself at Theri.
Kylan yelled, his dark blue saber flashed and darted, and the double lightsaber fell in five pieces even as he leapt forward instinctively, reversing his grip on his lightsaber. His blade sank into Maul's stomach with an angry sizzle, twisted, then Kylan was kicking the Sith off his blade to drop bonelessly to the floor. Kylan stood over the Sith, hand clenched on his saber, shaking with reaction, almost hoping the Sith would struggle up so he could slice him again.
[Easy, love, easy. It's all right. He's no threat now,] came the soothing mindvoice, the small hand on his shoulder dropping to take his free hand. Kylan gulped, closed his eyes and clutched Theri's hand fiercely as the others moved to drag Maul up from the floor. Then he turned off his saber, hearing the echo as Theri's saber also powered off, and they were holding each other in a trembling, terrified hug.
"Jedi lightsaber, very good is," the Genebian said, holding up the blue-metal lightsaber to show his friend in the dim half-light. "How much, you think?"
The K'thorian rumbled a contemplative purr, twitched his leathery muzzle, and took the lightsaber from the Genebian's hand. "Huuurrrrr....dunno. Maybe...four hundred kassalis?"
The Genebian tilted his head from side to side in his species' version of a shrug. "Dunno either. Cheap to make. But Jedi, is. Four hundred, you say? Maybe more if we say was Sith lightsaber!"
The K'thorian gave a ruckling sound in disagreement. "Sith lightsabers always red. This one white."
The Genebian gave a rippling sigh at this. "So true, so true."
Then both squeaked in surprise as the Jedi in question appeared at the corner of the hallway beside them silently, leaned against the wall casually with his arms crossed on his chest. "Gentlemen, I believe that belongs to me."
The K'thorian gave a low growl. "Finders keepers."
Torin grinned a little, and suddenly the Chance and Hazard cards on the packing crate between the two aliens rose to hover in the air and began swirling and flowing in a moebius loop over their heads. The coins flew up from the crate next, orbitting each other in dull shining loops. The two aliens watched entranced at the hypnotic patterns the coins and cards were making, barely breathing. Then the display abruptly came to a halt and the cards and coins dropped in a jangling clatter all over the Genebian and K'thorian, and the two shook their heads free of the slight trance they'd been in.
The young Jedi was gone. And so was the blue-metal lightsaber.
"Guess I should have asked for a bigger escape pod," Theri grumbled as the group trooped back to the empty section of Umbriel where they'd left the old escape pod. "Didn't expect we'd have four more along for the return trip than I'd planned."
Kee smiled wanly down at her, hugged her against him a little, his face terribly pale, his steps unsteady. The SpaceCorps medics had been able to give him something for his allergic reaction to the drugs Darth Niharn had used, but the drugs themselves would simply have to burn out of his system. Fortunately Theri's steady presence in his mind helped to keep the hallucinations away.
"We could have just shoved them all out the nearest airlock," Kylan muttered to her, gesturing at the three unconscious Sith and Niharn's impassive visage staring at them from the containment bubble.
[Now now, love,] Theri Sent in a gentle admonishment. [You did well today, but now you can relax. Just think! We've captured four Sith.]
Windu straightened up suddenly, his face brightening. "Our ship! The one Kee and I --"
All of them groaned at that in various states of "why didn't I think of that?" and shook their heads at their own forgetfulness.
"Of course!" Master Mundi said serenely. "One of the small scout ships? Yes, that will do nicely!"
[Can you make it that far, beloved?] Theri Sent, looking up at Kee worriedly.
Kee's shaky smile warmed her. She could sense the odd watery wavering of the drugs Niharn had given him. [So long as you are beside me, darling my dearest, I can go anywhere.]
Theri buried her face against him for a moment as he held her.
Yensho was taking his commlink from his belt now, calling Torin who had parted company with them at the SpaceCorps docking bay where he'd left his Dervish.
A few minutes later they were wrestling the unconscious and wounded Sith into the escape pod and securing Niharn's shackled hands to the pod's bulkhead. The pod was old and the escape engine had long ago been cannibalized for parts so the pod could go nowhere under it's own power. The powercels that ran the heating, lighting, environmental and comm systems could not be accessed from inside the pod so Niharn would not be able to overload them and cause an explosion if he managed to free himself from his restraints. Ben and Jagoe peered at the airlock controls for long moments after they'd locked the Sith into the pod, then finally Ben gave a shrug, turned on his lightsaber, and touched the blue-white blade to the airlock controls, melting them to slag.
They stood at the narrow windows near the airlock, waiting for the Dervish to appear before they released the pod.
"I've never seen this mech of his," Windu said, holding himself up against the window frame. "I know they're pretty big--" Then Windu fell silent as the Dervish began moving into their field of view.
The Dervish drifted slowly down from above, headfirst, the giant four-fingered hands giving the occassional push against Umbriel's side. It was distinctly unnerving to see that four-story tall, massive metal form floating slowly upside down toward them, the gleaming metallic dark blue skin of the beast glittering in the starlight. Light from Umbriel splashed across the armor plating, picking out the silver-gray stripes, and the banks of lights on the Dervish's shoulders arrowed out to illuminate the escape pod as the mechanoid came to a stop in front of it, slowly tumbling around to face the escape pod upright again. The Dervish's hands came up and caught the cable from the magnetic grapple still attached to the pod's hull, and the mech wrapped the cable around it's arm several times as fluidly as the Jedi inside would have wound a string around his hand.
"How can something that big move that easily?" Windu asked in the silence.
Ben grinned, remembering Thumper's first frantic dance in the crumbled streets of Teravin. "When he's got the academy on Teravin going, you should go watch Jovino and the guys playing tag-ball with their mechs. Wait'll you see Jo dancing his Shadowhawk around. It's twenty tons bigger than Torin's Dervish."
Windu shook his head in faint disbelief.
"All right," Torin said over the commlink. "Go ahead and release it, Master Mundi."
Mundi reached to pull the manual release to free the escape pod from the station's airlock, and the pod disengaged with a thump. The Dervish tugged on the grapple line, pulling the pod away from the station.
"Should I tell Toru to meet you at Droma or go straight to Coruscant?" Torin asked as the Dervish began turning in place to face out toward the Carina following Umbriel in orbit.
Mundi, Yensho, Windu and Kee exchanged considering looks. Then Windu gestured at Mundi to give him the commlink. "Torin, you and the Carina go on to Droma. Stick the pod onto an airlock somewhere on the Carina , and lock the airlock from the inside as securely as you can. Ben slagged the pod's airlock controls, but you know Sith. If the Justice isn't at Droma when you get there, stick around until she gets there. We'll follow you in the scout ship."
A pause, then, "Got it, Master." [Will you be all right?] came Torin's worried Sending.
Windu Sent reassurance. [Worry wart. I'll be fine. Go on. The sooner you've got that mech back in the cradle the sooner you can start for home and Seri.]
Torin's amusement flashed then in the worry he projected, but Windu felt him focus again on the task at hand. Outside the windows, they watched the Dervish's jump jets fire as the mech started back to the Carina .
"I'm sorry your mission didn't go as you planned," Theri whispered into Kee's hair as she held him in the comforting darkness, the endless white streamers of the stars in hyperspace just outside the vitriglass port over their heads.
Kee yawned a little, nuzzled his nose a little more firmly into the hollow of her neck and tightened his arms around her. "Not as planned, but I can't argue with the results," he said sleepily. "Four Sith captured...four of six taken out of commission. That's not too bad. An allergy attack and trading bodies with you for a little while isn't too high a price to pay for that..."
Theri smiled a little, settled her arms around him a little more firmly. They were on the Justice in one of the nicer cabins. The outer wall of the room, the one along the line of the hull, was more vitriglass than anything else, wide oval viewports over the bed giving an uninterrupted view of space beyond. A small comscreen near the door showed the ever-changing patterns of a fractal evolving slowly. The huge bed was immensely comfortable, the thick comforters keeping away the chill from the cold vitriglass that seemed to leech the warmth from the room. Of more comfort to both was the simple fact that for the next few hours they had nowhere to go and no one to answer to. The Justice had been delayed at Droma waiting for a courier ship that was late returning on it's patrol due to some unexpected repairs. The little group that had gone to rescue Windu and Kee split up, Ben and Jagoe and Kylan going up to the flagship's bridge, Windu going down to see some old friends, Mundi and Yensho disappearing into a meditation chamber. Theri and Kee had chosen to lock themselves in their cabin and find their own way to pass the time.
Theri ran her hands through Kee's hair gently, letting calmness weave through her fingers into her lover's soul with the movement of her hands. "Do you think any of them will stay safely locked away? Especially Maul?"
She felt Kee shrug a little. "Maul, no. The others, I can't say. I'm hoping we can have them all tucked away nice and safe on some asteroid somewhere before their injuries heal."
"That won't take long, with the Force," Theri said speculatively.
"Unfortunately true," Kee mumbled. "And we don't have your ability to block them away from it."
"Not that you'd use it, even if you had it," Theri added. She rubbed gently at the broad shoulders under her hands, silent, thinking. "What did you think of Kylan today?"
Another small shrug, and soft lips nibbling at her neck, which made her smile. [Instinct. Reflexes. I've never seen him react that way, though. He was never one for the lightsaber, really.] A pause then, and he nuzzled at her ear, then, [He's loved you from the moment he met you, from the moment he realized you were a Mystic. Why should this be a surprise to you? Or bother you?]
[It doesn't bother me,] Theri answered. [Well, maybe it does. Was he protecting me as Theri bel Kaitryn or me as his teacher today? Is he with me from love for me personally or me as his teacher?]
Kee moved off of her, settled beside her, tucking his arms around her. [He wouldn't ever be with you in a romantic or sexual way, dearheart. He's homosexual.]
[Doesn't mean he can't change his mind,] Theri Sent with a shrug of her own. [Maybe he just never found the right woman.]
Kee shook his head slightly. [It doesn't work that way, love. He was homosexual before he was ever brought to the Temple after his Master was killed. Though I suspect that if you were male he would be very much in love with you. I would say, be content with what is there. And don't worry. Kylan knows very well what he wants and who he wants it with.] He grinned a little and tickled her. [Aren't Ben and I enough for you, you nymphomaniac?]
Theri laughed at this. [If you wouldn't hold me down to once a night--]
Kee growled at her playfully, rolled over on top of her again. [Let's break some rules then,] he Sent mischievously, and proceeded to do just that.
"We need to talk."
Theri stopped, as did Kee beside her, barely a dozen paces onto the walkway of the first floor of the Temple. Ben's voice behind them had stopped them cold with the expressionless neutrality of his words. Kee's hand reached for hers, and Theri wove her fingers in his, feeling his apprehension and knowing he felt her own.
"We're heading up to the apartment now, Ben," Kee said as casually as he could. "We can talk there."
"I didn't mean you, Master," Ben said, coming up beside them as Yensho and Jagoe raised a hand in farewell as they moved off toward one of the side hallways heading for their own rooms. Mundi gave Kee a long look then turned away himself down another hallway with a murmured farewell. Torin and Windu looked at each other worriedly but kept walking beside their friends.
[You go on down to the kids, Kyl,] Theri Sent to Kylan narrowly, reaching her free hand to him to squeeze it in farewell. [I'll be down soon as I can.]
Kylan's silent nod was all the acknowledgment they needed as he glanced around at the usual bustle of Jedi and trainees beneath the sunsplitter sculpture, then he slipped down a nearby hallway to make his way down to Inda's hidden room.
"We come as a set, Ben," Theri said in answer to Ben's words. "Can't have one without the other."
"Wrong answer," Ben said coldly. "You answer for yourself, Theri bel Kaitryn. Stop hiding behind your lifebond."
Theri and Kee exchanged looks at this. Then Theri nodded. "All right, then. I assume this isn't something you want to discuss in public. Where to, then?"
"The study room on Level 36," Ben answered. "Now."
Theri blinked at this, then shrugged. "All right. Let's go." She turned, and Kee leaned down to kiss her briefly. She turned and followed Ben toward the lifts.
"What, then?" Theri asked as the door of the small study room slid shut behind Ben. She wrapped her cloak around her and threw herself into one of the chairs in one swirl of movement and Ben grimaced slightly; his Master often did that same move himself. The reminder brought him back to his intentions, and he paced over to the broad window at the other end of the room. Theri swivelled her chair to watch him, propped her feet up on the wide table, waiting.
"What you've done is wrong," Ben said quietly. "There are some things--the order of Master and apprentices, students and teachers--that must be maintained. And you've totally gone against that order. Totally disregarded it. Blown it all to the Core and back." He looked out over the skyline and the cloud-streaked blue sky, taking a deep breath against the anger that he fought to control. "You are still Master Kee's apprentice, no matter if you are his lifemate, no matter if you are Kylan and Tas and Rhyon's teacher. You must still obey your elders, not just announce you have a plan and proceed to order everyone around. And using an impulsion loop on us to make us obey you was against all ethics of the Jedi. You go on and on about choice and the freedom to choose, but when it came time to let others make their own choice you coerced them. That's completely and utterly wrong. And I will call you on it if no one else will."
Theri sat silently, waiting. She sensed there was more he would say, and she was not surprised when he turned back toward her and spoke again.
"Who are you to order us around? You are here only at the consent of the Council, who gave you to me to train in the way of the lightsaber. Yet now it seems even that is something you'll find a way out of, with that oh-so-convenient lifebond giving you the memories and skills of your lifemate. Do you think you can just order the whole world the way you see fit and the hell with everyone else? And to hell with tradition and discipline and procedure? You've managed to skiv your way out of your classes, out of nearly everything that involved any kind of responsibility. Yet the moment Master Kee gets in trouble you're the first one jumping up with a plan and expecting not only Knights but Masters to follow you into battle. Well, I'm not buying it, girl! Who the hell are you to order us around?" Ben's hands were clenched now at his sides, his eyes snapping fire at her in his anger. He came back to face her across the table. "When teaching gets boring are you going to abandon Kylan and Tas and Rhyon? Just like you manage to wriggle out of classes and ethics and everything else that doesn't fit into your idea of fun? And don't give me all that about being the last Mystic. Don't hide behind Master Kee and expect him to fight your battles for you and get you out of stuff you don't want to face."
Theri raised an eyebrow at him silently, her eyes just as cold as his under the barrage of his angry words. "What can I say that you'd listen to?" she asked finally. "You're the one who's perfect after all." The words came slowly, pulled from some dark corner of her mind she never really listened to or acknowledged. The place where all the petty annoyances and overlooked snubs lived, all the little day-to-day angers and jealousies. "You're the one who's too good to be true, the perfect apprentice and now the perfect Jedi Knight. How many times have I heard 'Ben could do six remotes by the time he was twenty-six'? How many times have I heard Ben this and Ben that and Ben the other thing? While the only thing I'm apparently good for is Soritsu-ji. You're the golden child here, not me. And it just about makes me sick, the way everyone fawns all over you like you're some kind of demi-god. Hell, Master Yoda was right, it doesn't take wisdom to swing a lightsaber, just takes a strong arm and quick reflexes. I don't ever see you wrestling with your conscience or questioning yourself or looking anywhere beyond the span of your saber for understanding or meaning. You never wonder what's beyond this so-called reality, you never question anything anyone says to you, you never think for yourself. Hell, Ben, you're a happy little Jedi robot. And since you don't think for yourself or do anything out of the norm you're the one everyone's bug-nuts for. And you just drink it in, let everyone tell you what an incredible person you are. Is your damned ego so big you can't stand it when someone else has the answers and not you?"
"Why do you think your Way is the only way that works?" Ben countered in a flash. Both of them were yelling at each other by now, uncaring of who might overhear. All of this had been cooped up too long and they weren't about to hold it back now.
"Why do you think thousands of years of old outdated Jedi tradition is relevant in this day and age?" Theri shouted back at him. "Are you angry because I used an impulsion loop on all of you? Or angry because you didn't come up with the plan yourself?"
"Why didn't you tell me it was Master Kee in your mind then?" Ben yelled back. "Why am I suddenly being shut out of your and Master Kee's life when I never have been before? Why are you two so secretive about all this?"
"Because you wouldn't understand!" Theri screamed at him. "Just like right now! It's our life, our soul, and no one would have believed us if we told them! Even you! How can you judge us, how can you say you understand, when you have no idea what you're talking about?!"
"I hope you've got some good answers planned for the Council then," Ben raged at her. "Because they're going to be a lot angrier than I am when they hear from Mistress Goza that you've stolen her apprentices and put an impulsion loop in the minds of five Jedi to force their compliance with your wishes on this mission!"
"The ends justified the means!" Theri hissed at him, leaning across the table at him. "We captured four Sith, we saved Kee and Windu!"
" 'We' did?" Ben asked with a snort. "Gee, being generous in your triumph are you?"
"Did I do anything?" Theri asked. "I didn't do any fighting, I didn't fly Torin's mech or stab Maul through the stomach or any of the rest of it. All I did was--"
"--Order everyone else around!" Ben said with a smirk. "And conceal vital information."
They stared at each other across the table's width, green eyes boring into sky-blue, faces flushed with anger, hands clenched, taut with tension.
"Fine then!" Theri hissed finally. "You don't like it, you can go to the Core and roast in the fires for all I care!"
"I'll be glad to, so long as I do it of my own free will!" Ben snarled. He whirled and swept out of the room without looking back.
The silence rang like a bell. Theri stood for a moment, then dropped back into the chair behind her and silent tears began to trickle down her face.
"Apologize to her. Now."
"I'm not going to apologize for being right," Ben growled at his Master from behind his closet door. Kee watched as several uniforms were flung out to land on the bed along with two of Ben's urban camo field combat uniforms. Ben scooped his larger backpack from the floor of the closet and ripped the zipper open with far too much angry energy, making Kee wince at the sound it made. He began folding his uniforms and packing them quickly. He glanced over at his worktable and tools began flying into the toolbox as he Lifted them without even having to watch.
"So you're going to shirk your responsibilities just like you accused Theri of doing?" Kee asked in a neutral voice. He leaned against the doorframe, crossed his arms on his chest, watching his former apprentice.
"I'm not needed here anymore. She hardly needs me to train her anymore now that all she has to do is access your memories," Ben snapped. "I'm going up to Operations and get Master Yoda to give me an assignment."
"He won't give you one."
Ben shrugged. "Then I'll go home to Tatooine for a while, or Teravin, or anywhere I damned well please." The crawler droids in the net above his head hovered gently in the air as he Lifted them, flew into the small enclosure on the top shelf of his bookshelves where their power feeds were. "I'm not your apprentice anymore, I can do what I want."
"Indeed," Kee agreed, expressionless. "But is this what you truly want?"
Ben whirled to face him. "It sure beats sitting around here watching her breaking all the rules and watching you let her get away with it!"
Kee raised an eyebrow at this, the sapphire eyes guarded. "In what way, Padawan?"
"Oh, don't give me that!" Ben snapped sourly, turning away again. He tugged the chair at the worktable over to the bookshelves and jumped up on it, reached back to retrieve his crawler droids, shoving the half-dozen small mechanicals onto his shoulders where they latched on and began crawling down his back, picking their way down his tunic. He unplugged the power feed and brought it out as well, took the small controller for the little droids from his worktable. "Don't draw me out, don't try to get me to talk about it! I'm right and I'm not going to let you talk me out of it! The two of you can do whatever you want, but I want out of it. I have work to do and I'm not getting anything done sitting around the Temple marking time."
Kee watched him for a moment as he deactivated the little droids and began stuffing them inside his folded clothes in his pack for safekeeping. Then he shrugged and turned away, back out into the main room of the apartment, and a moment later Ben heard the door close behind him as he left.
Ben finished packing all too soon, zipped the pack closed, took his cloak from where he'd flung it across the bed, and left for Operations. He was still too angry to look back.
[Feel anything?] Tas asked later that night in a whisper as Theri stood with one hand on her apartment door, extending her mind beyond the door in a scan.
[No. He's gone,] Theri Sent with a sigh of relief. She punched in the keycode and her students followed her into the apartment.
[You think we should be going to the hospital this late?] Kylan Sent as Theri disappeared into her bedroom.
A pause, then, [I can plant the impulsion loops in Kripalani's mind easier when he's asleep.]
[If he sleeps, that is,] Kylan added. [Dreamweaver is a stimulant too, isn't it?]
"Yeah, somewhat," Theri said, switching to voice. A moment later she came back out into the main room where the three were waiting for her, dressed once again in the old camos and tank top, with Ben's old army jacket in her hand. She looked at the faded olive drab jacket and shook her head slightly. "I should ask Kee for some money to get my own civilian clothes, I guess. These are Ben's." She shrugged and began pulling the jacket on, shoved her lightsaber into the pocket.
Rhyon whurfled softly, reached forward to her and picked up a long lock of black hair, freed now from the braids she'd worn wrapped around her head. Theri nodded and patted the furry hand a little. "Yes, I'm wearing it down. It's cold outside tonight."
Kylan regarded her for a long moment narrowly, his arms crossed on his chest, half-sitting on the arm of one of the chairs. Theri looked right back at him for an equally long moment while Tas and Rhyon shifted uncomfortably, feeling the tension in the two.
"What, then?" Theri burst out suddenly. "Is everyone in the whole damned Temple mad at me or is it just all in my head?"
Kylan grimaced, got up from the chair. "I'll meet you down at the maglev, fifteen minutes."
"Fine!" Theri snapped as the door slid shut behind him. She stared at the door for a second, then snatched up a pillow from the chair beside her and flung it angrily at the door with a growled Thretkethan curse. Tas and Rhyon blinked at this as she threw herself into a chair and rubbed her eyes wearily. Then Tas shrugged up at Rhyon and the two went to sit at her feet, leaning against her legs, tentatively Sending comfort and inquiry.
After a moment Theri sighed, reached down to ruffle Rhyon's fur and run a hand through Taslimi's short reddish hair. "None of this is because of you two. Never once because of you. Just that little mission we just got back from. I did some stuff that's coming back to bite me, and bunches of people are wanting to tear strips out of my hide for it." She tugged on Tas' tunic and Rhyon's fur. "Don't sit like that, makes me nervous."
Tas snorted, smiling up at her teacher as Rhyon whuffled a laugh. "Don't sit like what?"
"At my feet like that. Hell, Tas, I'm not that much older than you, you don't have to treat me like some kind of saint."
Tas and Rhyon got to their feet then, each held out a hand to her. "You need to get going so you won't miss the maglev."
Theri sighed gustily, took their hands and let them pull her to her feet. Tas looked at her with a half-smile, then hugged her hard. Rhyon chuffled and threw his long furry arms around them both, letting out a funny contented grumble. Theri laughed at that, feeling their wordless trust and open-hearted faith in her. She kissed Tas' forehead, gave Rhyon's arm a squeeze, and moved away toward the door.
It didn't matter if she felt a thousand years old. She still had work to do.
"To Shaula Prime, he has been sent," Yoda said shortly, hobbling along the narrow pathway of the Temple's arboretum. "To continue with Davion Industries for Teravin. Asked for, young Ghanbari did."
"I see, Master," Kee said, worming his hands inside his cloak sleeves to cross his arms on his chest. He watched his old Master making his way down the path, smiling affectionately down at the frizzle-haired head and huge ears waggling as the old one walked. "Ben was...quite angry. And I can't say I blame him."
A soft "hmph" answered that. "Always anger has been a problem with him. Not so often now as younger, but a problem still."
Kee took a deep breath of the cool, green-scented air and closed his eyes. "It will continue to be so for some time yet," he said in the darkness of the garden. "It may well be his undoing one day."
Yoda shrugged, beginning to pull himself up onto a wooden bench they had come to in the middle of the riot of blooms and vines at the center of the garden. Kee watched his Master arranging himself, seeing the wince of discomfort the old one tried to hide. He knelt in front of his Master. "We're both getting old, Master. There's no help for it."
Yoda chuckled at this, and the small green hand reached out. Kee bent his head and let it settle on his graying hair in blessing. "The will of the Force it is. The way of life. Day comes, day goes. Night does not last, no matter how dark. Only pain is in resisting it." The small clawed hand tweaked his ear and Kee smiled. "Meditate now, Qui-Gon. Many things to reflect upon, you have."
Kee nodded, settled back into meditation posture, wrapping his cloak around him. Just as he straightened to close his eyes and begin his meditation, he saw a familiar blue flicker out of the corner of one eye. Yoda gave a soft "Hmph," and closed his eyes. Kee glanced quickly over at Inda's glowing blue form and the spirit grinned lopsidedly before settling back on his heels in mirror image of Kee's posture and closing his eyes. Kee shrugged, sinking his awareness into his breathing with a sigh of relief.
The little yellow and white astromech droid chirped quietly to itself in a sing-song chorus, little blips of sound amidst the quiet hum of servomotors in the half-dark of the hospital corridor. Theri followed behind him silently down the hall toward the battered double doors of the Drug Abuse Treatment ward, feeling the odd dead spot in the Force behind her. Kylan was practicing his shielding. They'd barely exchanged a dozen words, mind or voice, since leaving the Temple.
Theri felt her jaw pop as she unconsciously ground her teeth together at how Kylan was acting. She could guess now where Ben had learned of the impulsion loop and all the rest of it. And no doubt Kylan had seen fit to inform Mundi, Yensho, Windu and all the rest.
[Master Yoda sent Ben to go start making arrangements with Davion Industries to put a factory on Teravin,] Kee Sent softly. [That'll keep him busy for a few weeks. He'll calm down, dearheart, don't worry.]
[Right now, I don't care if he's flying through a supernova in hyperspace,] Theri grumbled to him.
[But could he be right?] Kee Sent tentatively. [And Kylan as well?]
[Ben's always right,] Theri snapped back to him. [He's perfect, remember?]
She felt Kee's mental shrug at this. [If you think him so, then he is. But even the great Obi-Wan Kenobi has his faults. Like a quick and mercurial temper.] She felt Kee's mischievous grin then. [And you know he can't swim. He's afraid of deep water, in fact.]
Theri sighed. [Whatever, beloved. I really don't want to talk or think about Ben Kenobi at the moment.]
They were coming to the doors now and the droid Reverb rolled right up to them and bumped them open, trundling slowly down the darkened hallway toward the nurses station.
[Kyl?] Theri Sent to the blank spot in her awareness behind her. Kylan faded into view again, his face expressionless, as they came up to the nurses' station.
"Ah! You're back!" Jaanini said as they came into the circle of light around the nurses' station. The Kaivanin nurse's face brightened into a sunny smile despite the lateness of the hour.
"I was called away on business," Theri explained simply. "No rest for the wicked, it seems."
Jaanini grinned at this and trilled a laugh. "I understand. So what brings you here this late?"
"It's easier for me to work on people when they're asleep," Theri explained. "Assuming Deke ever sleeps."
Jaanini shrugged a little at this. "Very little, actually. Dreamweaver is a strange drug. The stimulant effects tend to warp the circadian rhythms to such an extent that long-term addicts can never get a full eight hours even after they're clean." She tilted her head, listening, as the soft tones of the synthar began to drift from the room near the doors. "Well, he's awake."
Theri shrugged. "Think he'd mind a visitor?"
Jaanini nodded toward the little droid who was now trundling toward the door of Kripalani's room. "Just follow F3 there. If Deke's playing, he won't mind visitors."
Theri glanced over at Kylan, who was focussed on some point above her shoulder. When he didn't meet her eyes she shrugged inwardly and followed the little droid.
The faint glow of the viewscreen was the only light in Deke's room save for the small lights on the controls of the synthar. The musician was watching the musical notation scrolling by on the screen, picking out the melody of the song idly, obviously lost in thought.
Theri knocked softly on the door as the droid bumped it open a little further. "Mind if I pencil in an appointment, Mr. Kripalani?"
A snort that might have been laughter. "Do I have a choice?"
Theri half-smiled at that and pulled the other chair from the table, turned it around backwards and sat down, crossing her arms along the back and resting her chin on her arms. "Don't know. Do you?"
The agile fingers shifted on the strings of the synthar, the synthesized ripples of sound flowing one into another. "Do I know if I have a choice? Or do I have a choice?"
"Either," Theri said.
Deke sat back again, looked out the nearby window to the ship traffic racing by above the hospital. After a moment he turned to look at her again. "What are you doing here?"
Theri tilted her head to look at him before she answered. "To be honest, I don't know. At least not in the larger sense of things. For the moment, I'm here to try to help people. Later, who knows?"
"Damned idealistic kid," the musician said cynically.
This time Theri was the one who snorted the laugh. "Not hardly! I'm told I'm a manipulative bitch."
Deke reached to the viewscreen and keyed up another song. "*Are* you a manipulative bitch?"
"Probably," Theri said with a weary sigh.
They were silent again as Deke continued to idly play bits and pieces of melodies and harmonies, setting two of the strings to drone sounds as counterpoint to the tune he played on the remaining strings.
"How does someone like you end up in rehab like this?" Theri asked after a few moments when the synthar seemed to weave the wash of soft sound into braided echoes.
The half-smile disappeared too quickly. "Rehab is the only way I could get a vacation from touring."
Theri chuckled at that a little. "I seriously doubt that."
Kripalani shrugged with one shoulder, his eyes never leaving the strings of the synthar. "Headtalkers get around a lot, don't they? Travel a lot?"
Theri shrugged too. "I suppose. Depends on what we specialize in."
"Did you ever forget what planet you were on? Forget what day it was? Forget what you did the day before or even what you were doing only an hour ago?" The strings jangled a discordant tunelessness for a moment before returning to the rippling low melody.
"I've had a couple times like that," Theri said, remembering the planets she and her old Master had been to between Zharvan and Korolis, the mad rush of worlds they'd spent only a few days on before fleeing again. There had been a time--three or four months, she wasn't entirely certain now--when she hadn't spent more than a week in any one place. She'd been reduced to eating protein kibble and alga because she knew it was safe to eat wherever she went.
Deke seemed to curl around the synthar as he propped his feet up on the table next to the viewscreen. "I've spent...gods, what is it? Almost forty years that way." He took his chording hand from the neck of the synthar and waved it at the walls around him. "This is the closest thing I've had to a stable existence since I left Eltanin."
"Except for the 'Weaver," Theri said after a moment when he didn't continue.
The long blond hair fell forward over his face, and she couldn't see his eyes in the dark of the room. The hands were still on the synthar. Then a grunt of a laugh. "Who needs a vacation when you have hallucinations?"
"Why couldn't you take some time off? Or settle down somewhere?" Theri asked.
Deke flipped a couple switches on the synthar and the melody changed to a delicate bell-like chime above the low drone, the tune sprightly and almost comical. "The first ten years, I didn't want to. The second ten years, I didn't need to. The third ten years, I couldn't afford to. The last eight, I couldn't remember where I'd parked my ship." He stopped the chiming melody and let the droning continue for a few seconds. "And now, I don't even have the ship anymore, so I've got nowhere to go and no way to get there."
[What a character,] Kee Sent with a soft chuckle. [Sort of a twisted version of Master Yoda.]
[Quiet, you,] she Sent back swiftly but with a great deal of amusement, trying not to grin at her lifemate's observation. [I'm trying to be compassionate and caring here, and I don't need certain smart-mouthed Jedi Masters throwing in comments like some sort of mental heckler.]
The Sending he returned was nothing but laughter as he turned his attention elsewhere.
Theri watched the viewscreen scrolling the seemingly endless pages of musical notation which Deke was reading with apparent ease. She knew, vaguely, that the myriad dots and lines represented the notes he played on the synthar, but the sheer number and complexity of the music bewildered her. She realized he wasn't playing all of the music she saw there, only one thread of it. She suspected that if it had been daytime he'd have been playing the full score. "If you had your life back--if you were completely clean, out of the Dreamweaver--what would you do, Deke?"
A startled look then from the musician. "Who says I want out of the 'Weaver?"
"Don't you?" Theri asked.
"Hell no," he answered gruffly. "What have I got to go back to? What have I got left? Nothing." The little droid, Reverb, chirped at this, let out a soft whistle. Kripalani chuckled a little at the droid. "I've done everything there is to do. I've been too many places, seen too many things."
He's tired, Theri realized, picking up the wistful ache of emotional and mental exhaustion that Kripalani must have been living in for years. She reached for the Force, pulled her mind and soul in to drift on the spiralling tide, the joy and peace she took for granted ever since she'd come back from her questing. She'd never realized before how lucky she was to be able to have that peace at the center of her soul. When everyone you knew had that ability you took it for granted. Yet there were so many billions and trillions of people and beings in the galaxy who did not have that ability to touch the Force, did not know that peace and certainty. All they had was their lives and if they were fortunate the means to make those lives something less than drudgery. She'd touched those lives, been part of those myriad existences, when she'd gone into the Force. Some, like Deke, had the means to touch some small part of the Force's manifestation through their art. But even then most did not have such. I have so many more choices than he does, she thought, and yet I've complained before about having my life laid out for me. I've got a future ahead of me of purpose and usefulness, I have a life I love and a life I'm suited for.
And I have the means to give such back to him, she thought then.
That train of thought made her afraid, and she sensed something Dark in those thoughts. If she had this power, if she had these abilities, what right did she have to go into another's mind and muck about with their thoughts and beliefs? Maybe they were happy with their lives just as they were. How could she say that her own views were any better?
She felt Kee listening in to her thoughts, knew he could hear the conflict and uneasiness in her mind. And was waiting to see her response.
[I was planning to do this so the junkies would never know how they'd been helped,] she Sent to Kee. [But now--I don't think so.]
"Deke, I can fix things up in your brain so that you won't be addicted to the Dreamweaver anymore," Theri said, straightening up to look him in the eye steadily. "I can do things to your mind so that you literally can't stand the very thought of Dreamweaver. Nurse Jaanini tells me they can pretty much take care of the physical addiction, but if you still want the Dreamweaver it won't matter what they do to you. I can make it so that you'll be completely clean, no psychological addiction. But I won't do it unless you truly want to be clean." She shrugged slightly. "All I ask is that you think about the possibilities of where you'd go and what you'd do if you were completely clean again." She stood up, put the chair back at the table and moved toward the door. "I'll be back in a couple days, so think about it."
The musician was staring at her blankly, the synthar silent in his hands. "You're serious."
Theri grinned a little. "Completely."
Kripalani shook his head a little in disbelief. "Why are you doing this?"
The grin disappeared. "I don't know, Deke." And she turned and left.
Once again out in the hallway, she saw Kylan leaning against the wall opposite the door of Deke's room, arms crossed on his chest, looking like a piece of night in his black leather and silk outfit with his long black hair free and rippling around him. He looked up at her as she came out, his eyes wistful. Then he pushed himself away from the wall and silently held out his arms. She sighed and walked forward to hug him.
[You're forgiven, teacher mine. You made a mistake and now I think you realize it. So as far as I'm concerned, you're forgiven.]
[Even I make mistakes, love,] she Sent back, and reluctantly pulled away.
From his room, Deke glanced out at the two hugging and smirked.
Part 11
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