The Force Unleashed (27 page)

trust her one millimeter.

At the tree line she stopped and turned. Her tears were gone. Then, with a parting

wink, she was, too.

Bones crunched behind him. He turned and saw a battered and dirty Bail Organa

climbing across the mounds of bones toward him.

"I've seen her kind before," Organa said severely. "A young Jedi who turned to the

dark side, corrupted and evil, murderous ..."

The apprentice held out his hand and steadied the Senator. Years of pain showed in

the man's brown eyes. The words Organa said next surprised him.

"You shouldn't have let her go free."

"You really think she's free?" he asked. She's as free as I am, hi thought. Free to

make mistakes, and hopefully free to learn from them. "She'll carry the memory of

what she's done here forever."

Organa stared at the forest wall a moment longer, then nodded his understanding. Or

that he thought he understood. "Some times memories aren't enough. Sometimes we, the

victims, must be more . . . proactive."

"Exactly." The apprentice took the chance to direct the conversation somewhere far

away from the dark, painful places of Ins own hidden psyche. "That's why I'm here,

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Senator. We desperately need your help. The galaxy needs your help. We have to stop

living in the past and come out fighting for what we believe in."

Bail Organa looked at him with bemusement. "Kota and I hail this argument many

times, before..."

"The time for argument is past. The Emperor has had his way for too long-and we are

the ones who will stop him. Are you with us?"

"Take me to Kota," said the Senator wearily. "It makes more sense to talk about this

face-to-face."

The apprentice was happy for Organa to believe, for the moment, that Kota was

entirely behind this new development.

"All right," he said. "Let's go. The Imperials will be crawling all over this jungle

soon anyway ..."

As he turned away to comm Juno, he caught Organa looking again at the jungle where

Maris Brood had disappeared.

"May the Force be with Us," the Senator muttered. "All of us, one way or another."

DAYS ON FELUCIA, JUNO DECIDED, were the longest in the galaxy. They felt like it,

anyway. The first time she had come here, she had spent the downtime consumed with

worry about Starkiller's planned betrayal of the Emperor. That was still the

plan-but she remained somewhat unsure whether his motives were any nobler than

revenge for his betrayal at the hands of his former Master. The ends justified the

means, she eventually concluded, and if that meant their fates were entangled a

little longer, all the better.

While Kota paced, she monitored Imperial transmissions emanating from the verdant

world. Someone had to keep an eye on the Senator's transport, so she stationed PROXY

outside with his lightsaber and a blaster to keep wildlife-much more determined and

vicious than last time-away from both ships and kept an ear out herself for any sign

that trouble was on its way. If things got sticky, she could fly the Rogue Shadow

and PROXY the transport.

When Starkiller commed to tell her that he'd located and secured Senator Organa, she

felt her stress levels ease.

"Give me the coordinates and I'll pick you up."

He did so, and then added something that made her even more anxious than before.

"Don't be alarmed when you see me. It's only superficial."

"What's only superficial?"

The sound of a rancor roaring came over the comlink. It sounded close. "Hurry, Juno.

Things are getting a little uncomfortable here."

She did as she was told, calling PROXY and telling him that she was taking the ship

on a short hop but would be back soon The droid reassured her affably enough that he

would be fine while she was gone. Then she hollered for Kota to strap himself in.

The general came forward to sit in the copilot's seat even though he couldn't see

through the forward viewport or use the controls. "What's the hurry?" he asked.

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"Our friends need a lift," she said, flicking switches and warming up the repulsors.

"Bail is safe?"

"So I'm informed. Now don't ask me any more questions. This is going to be tricky if

we're to avoid appearing in someone's line of sight."

The Rogue Shadow lifted off the giant mushroom cap but stayed low, just above the

layer of strange vegetation hugging the planet's surface. Jerking the ship from side

to side, she kept it as low as the ray-like predators she'd seen circling prey

through the trees. She cursed every time the undercarriage grazed a bulbous seedpod

or looping branch, concerned more about her flying than about the splashing sounds

such impacts made. Nothing on Felucia could hurt the ship badly-unless she flew into

a mountain or brought it to the attention of the Imperials.

She flew over an eight-meter-high rancor that was running with its head down along a

path identical to hers, pushing trees aside in its haste. It didn't even look up.

Thirty seconds later she passed another. It, too, was following the same heading.

"I think I've worked out what uncomfortable meant," she said. "Hold on, General. I'm

going to shave a few seconds off our arrival time."

Pushing the throttle down harder, she threw caution to the wind, bringing the Rogue

Shadow up in a steadily rising gradient and then flipping it over when they reached

Starkiller's coordinates. She had to concentrate on the maneuver-employing the

repulsors with carefully timed thrusts so that the ship would shed its forward

velocity and come down the right way up, all at the same instant-and as a result

only glimpsed the chaos ensuing on the ground. A war seemed to be breaking out

between a herd of angry rancors and thousands of Felucian scavengers over a single,

giant carcass. The remains were bloody and barely recognizable as a biped of

enormous size, but she had no time to speculate on its nature.

Two men were waving for her attention from the edge of the bloody melee. She

directed the ship's downwash away from them, scattering three rancors that appeared

to have been bothering them in the process. When she opened the belly hatch and

extended the ramp, the sound of Felucia's animal kingdom in open revolt almost

deafened her.

Footsteps ran up the ramp. "Okay," said Starkiller. "We're aboard. Take us away."

She glanced over her shoulder to make sure and froze that way for half a second.

Starkiller was covered from head to foot in a thick layer of blood.

Don't be alarmed, he had said. That was an understatement.

Shutting her open mouth and turning back to the controls, she pulled the Rogue

Shadow away from the carnage below and reentered the safety of the jungle canopy.

* * *

As JUNO FOLLOWED PROXY'S HOMING beacon back to their mushroom landing site, she

watched the reunion between Kota and Bail Organa with half an eye. The old man was

awkward and dismissive of any open affection, but the Senator seemed unfazed.

"My friend, I'd almost given up hope of seeing you again, but I should've known

better. You always were a master of last-minute rescues and sudden reversals."

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"Pah. I had nothing to do with it. And if you hadn't gone oil on this fool's errand

of yours, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Organa's expression turned utterly cheerless. "You should know that Shaak Ti is

dead," he said. "She was murdered b) Vader or one of his assassins."

"Probably the same one who did this to me." Kota indicated his bandaged face with

the flick of one callused finger. "I tried contacting Kazdan Paratus, but he has

fallen silent, too."

"We will fear for him together, Master Kota, until we find out for certain." Organa

nodded and looked down at the floor. "The dark times seem only to grow darker."

"There's one thing to be grateful for," said Kota. "Leia is safe."

The Senator put a hand on Kota's shoulder and gripped tight, He nodded once, as

though finding his voice. "I was afraid to ask. I'm more than grateful; I'm in your

debt forever."

Kota pulled away. "Find me something to drink and I'll call us even." Scowling, he

wandered to the rear of the ship, where Juno heard him clunking around among the

stores.

That left the Senator and Juno alone for the rest of the trip. Starkiller was

cleaning himself up in the crew quarters, having said nothing about the condition he

was in. Juno hadn't pursued the matter, thinking it couldn't be that important if no

one had raised it, but with Organa looking awkward and embarrassed at his friend's

behavior and with nothing but the low-flying hop to distract him, she clutched at

the topic like a life preserver.

"So what happened to you back there?" she asked. "It looked as though every living

thing for a dozen kilometers wanted to make you its lunch."

Organa seemed relieved to break the awkward silence. He fell into the copilot's seat

with a sigh and brushed at the stains on his once-fine shirt. "Not us," he said.

"You must have seen the body of the bull rancor back there. Well, his mates weren't

happy that he'd died, for starters, and that much fresh meat won't sit around for

long in a place like this. It is a hard world," he added, as though thinking of

something someone else had said. "To survive there must take a depth of character

rare these days. We should be forgiving of those who fail."

Juno let him finish that other conversation in his own head, figuring he had a lot

more recent developments to process than she did, but she wasn't ready for the next

conversation he initiated.

"The young man you and Kota are traveling with-what can you tell me about him?"

She glanced at Organa, then back at the jungletop ahead of I hem. "What do you

mean?"

"Well, for starters: who is he? Where does he come from? I've never heard of anyone

as powerful as him running loose in the Empire, and I'm keen to know how he avoided

detection by Darth Vader. Do you know who his Master was and where he or she is

now?"

Organa was staring hopefully at her, no doubt thinking that .mother Jedi-possibly a

friend of his-had survived somewhere, somehow, and that the existence of Starkiller

presaged a new means of evading the deadly threat of the Empire. She didn't know how

to tell him that they'd been lucky so far, and far from innocent. The only reason

Starkiller had avoided Darth Vader's blade for so long was that they had been

allies-and even then, the good fortune hadn't lasted forever.

In the end she did as she had done with Kota: tell the truth, but not the whole

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truth. "Your guess is as good as mine, I'm afraid," she said. "He keeps himself to

himself. This may sound strange to you, but I don't even know his real name."

"That does sound a little unusual, but I've heard of stranger arrangements." He

assayed half a smile, then let it drop. "The feats he accomplished back there showed

outstanding strength. I haven't seen anyone like him since the Clone Wars-and that's

not necessarily a good thing. Such power, unchecked, can be dangerous. The dark side

feeds on a taste for power. It can be deadly for those caught in the way-as a young

learner discovered today, very nearly at the cost of her life."

There, again, a reference to something she knew nothing about. Juno felt irritated

at herself for a faint flicker of jealous) Why did so many of Starkiller's missions

involve young women in peril?

"I think he's trying to do the right thing," she said carefully.

"I should trust him, then, as you obviously do?"

She answered without hesitation, "With my life," then felt that she had perhaps

spoken too quickly or forcefully to be considered objective.

The Senator glanced through the cockpit viewport. "Ah, I never thought a transport

could look so good."

Juno followed his index finger and saw PROXY waving on the edge of the giant

mushroom, next to the Senator's transport. "It's in good condition," she told him,

bringing the Rogue Shadow about to land. "We sprayed it with insecticide so the trip

home won't be too uncomfortable."

"Thank you ... uh." The Senator hesitated in the act of standing.

"Eclipse, Senator. Captain Juno Eclipse."

"Thank you, Juno. If ever you need a change of pace, Alderaan can always use a pilot

with a conscience-particularly a good one like you."

"I'll bear that in mind, sir," she said, feeling color rising to her cheeks. "But I

think my course is clear for the moment." He smiled and went aft.

* * *

THE THREE MEN MET ON the surface of the mushroom while she ensured that the ship was

ready for space. Starkiller looked as clean as he ever had, with no evidence left of

the gore that had befouled him. Feeling left out, she hurried through the checklist

and strolled down the ramp to stretch her legs-and to offer an opinion if required.

"Open rebellion is too dangerous," the Senator was saying. "Kota, I know I owe you

my life, but..."

"You don't owe me anything," the general interrupted gruffly. "I told you on Cloud