The White Twi'lek/Chapter 14

When Jali came to, he was on a narrow hard bed with a splitting headache worthy of several Mad Mrelfs. He opened his eyes and tried to see where he was, but all he could make out through the mist that blurred his vision were a pair of violet-coloured eyes, hovering slightly above him. Jali screwed up his face and then opened his eyes again; the purple eyes did belong to a face, the face of a female Zeltron who was bending over him with an expression of concern.

“You’ve been here a few hours,” she said in a soft, floaty voice that seemed to echo through his hazy mind. She leaned closer to him, giving him a view he would rather not have had. “Do you hurt anywhere?” she asked, moving her hand lightly across his forehead.

Jali could still feel his thoughts whir incoherently inside his mind—a direct result of the stun blast—so he could hardly trust himself to string two words together, let along give an answer she could understand. So he just lay there, staring straight ahead of him and wishing like hell there was somewhere else for him to look.

She just smiled at him, her hand travelling down Jali’s shoulder and resting underneath his shirt. His immediate reaction was to recoil from her touch, but not only did Jali find that he couldn’t move, for some strange reason he did not want to move, not just yet anyway.

“So you decided not to push me away?” the Zeltron asked. “I heard that’s what you do when any woman approaches you.”

This was true, as a matter of form Jali preferred to do the pursuing himself. However, at this moment, it seemed better just not to do anything. Just lie there, let her talk, let her do what she wanted to do and let himself enjoy it.

“What’s your name?” he asked, it was the first thing he had said to her and he was surprised at how even his voice was, compared to what he was feeling that is.

“Kura,” she answered, her other hand doing some exploring of its own, “and I already know your name, Jali.” She smiled, and drew herself closer to him.

Her lips were centimetres apart from his when he had a moment of clarity, his mind stopped spinning and he looked directly into her eyes. She was a Zeltron, how could he have forgotten? How could he have let her get to him?

With a cry of surprise from Kura, Jali rolled off the bed and onto the floor; Kura skittered a little further away from him staring up at Jali in shock. Jali was still rather groggy when he got to his fleet, yet his thoughts were completely his own.

Kura made a movement towards him but Jali was faster than her, grabbing one of her arms and twisting it painfully behind her back.

“Hey, let me go!” she squealed. “If I don’t get you to talk, we’ll both be in for it.”

“Save it for someone who cares,” Jali said unfeelingly, “I guess it was Nuada who put you in here? Or was it someone bigger than him, like Aurek?”

Kura laughed, despite the position she was in. “Aurek’s only noticed you recently, Jali,” she told him, “but if you want to know about Aurek, I can’t tell you anything.”

“Why not?” Jali asked, still holding firm to her wrist. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind?”

She laughed again. “Nobody knows anything about Aurek other than the name,” she explained, “but it’s Nuada who wants you, one way or another.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?” Jali demanded.

“I think you get the idea,” she replied, struggling again. “You know, you’re hurting me,” she added in a softer voice.

“Don’t think you can try your vapour trick again,” he said harshly. “So, what did they want from me that you had to get? I thought that Xhen Rinner was pretty much getting them up to speed on everything.”

“Not everything,” said Kura, “he didn’t know what you and that Jedi had planned.”

Jali laughed. “That’s all?” He shook his head. “He could have just asked her, or Vantel even. I hardly know her at all.”

“You know more than we do,” countered Kura.

“Yeah,” Jali agreed, “and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”

Jali had no idea where Antiene was, or what she had planned. The only thing that was definite was that she knew where he was, but until she showed up he would have to manage things himself. And that started with subduing the girl.

With his free hand and using his foot as an anchor, Jali managed to tear his jacket into strips then tie Kura to the bed with the improvised ropes. He stuffed a few scraps in her mouth so she couldn’t cry out then turned his attention towards the door.

The door had a small panel in the top that could be opened from the outside and it was locked securely. But the door wasn't very solid; Jali pressed his ear against it and held his breath. For a moment, he couldn’t hear anything, but soon enough he could just hear the sound of footsteps.

There was only one person, so it couldn’t be Nuada as he would no doubt have several toughs with him. And it was probably not a guard either, as he could tell from what he heard that whoever was coming was relatively light in build.

Jali pressed himself against the wall next to the door; the footsteps grew louder then stopped. There was a small electronic beep and the door started to slide open. A foot appeared in the doorway but that was all Jali needed, he whirled around, grabbed the shoulders of the person in the doorway and pulled them inside. But it took a few seconds for Jali to realise that it was Xhen Rinner.

In his astonishment, Jali almost let him go. “What the mradhe muck are you doing here, Xhen?” Hadn’t Nuada told him to get lost? Or had he been sent here? What Xhen actually said was the last thing he expected at all.

“I’m here to get you out of here,” he said.

Jali didn’t think he was lying, but he that didn’t mean he trusted him. “Why should I believe you? Besides,” he added, “I got my own backup.”

“I forgot,” said Xhen dryly, “your Jedi friend. But don’t you think it’s going to look a bit strange if we’re seen standing here near the open door?”

He did have a point. “Fine,” Jali agreed reluctantly, “you get me out of here, then we’ll talk.”



There didn’t seem to be that many people in the building, which gave Jali the impression that it wasn't the weapons factory that Antiene had been looking for. There were guards, which Jali and Xhen managed to dodge quite easily as they made their way through the building.

“What is this place?” he asked Xhen after a while.

“It’s a Silver Ring safehouse,” Xhen explained, “there’s several on Coruscant, and I asked Trevali and she told me you were here.”

“How would she know?” Jali asked.

“How would she not know?” Xhen countered. “She’s been my go-between all along, as well as someone else’s.”

“Like W’kar Fenn?” Jali suggested.

Xhen raised his eyebrows in amazement. “Drok it, Jali, you really do know more than what’s good for you.”

“Then why are you here saving my sorry hide?” Jali demanded.

Xhen hesitated for a moment. “I don’t know,” he admitted, “probably the same reason why you didn’t turn me in when you found out about me.”

It figures, Jali said to himself, and just a few hours ago, he was about to kill himself. Jali asked himself why continued to trust Xhen, but in this case he didn’t exactly have a choice. Except, maybe to tie Xhen up and put him in the cell with Kura, but that could raise even more questions. And Jali wasn't sure if he wanted Xhen left to the mercy of whoever found him there, it gave him a bad feeling.

They continued down the corridor, sticking to the shadows, going as quickly and quietly as they could. Sooner or later, someone was going to find Kura tied up in the cell, and Jali didn’t want to be around when that happened.

After making a few detours to avoid more guards, they went down a set of stairs and into a corridor that finished with a dead end.

“And this is how I got in,” he said, pointing to the service droid lift.

Jali stared at it for a moment, vaguely remembering Antiene talking about taking the droid’s entrance to buildings.



He looked at Xhen. While Xhen had helped him, he still didn’t completely trust him. “You go first,” Jali insisted, bending down to lift open the panel. He then stood in front of the open door and looked at Xhen expectantly.

But the tail end of the conversation that drifted towards them made Jali change his mind.

“…don’t know how he managed to stop her, but we’ll find him…”

They started to walk towards where Jali and Xhen were, and by the sound of them there were a lot of them.

Xhen removed a blaster from his pocket, he glanced at Jali. He looked rather pale. For a moment, Jali considered taking the blaster off him.

Xhen changed that. “Go!” he whispered urgently.

And he had to admit, Xhen had a point. After all, Xhen could quickly cook up some story to explain to whoever was coming why he was there. Jali couldn’t.

It was a decision he would ultimately come to regret.

Quickly, Jali ducked into the droid lift, it was cramped but would fit as long as he hugged his knees. Jali slid the panel shut just as they entered the room.

“Where is he?” someone asked Xhen. “We know you helped him, we know you let him go.”

“He’s gone,” Xhen lied, “left the building, but I didn’t go with him.”

Jali hoped to hell that they believed him, as he had always known Xhen to be a very bad liar, especially under pressure.

“Cut the phobium!” another shouted. “Where is he?”

What am I doing here? Jali asked himself suddenly, chances are, they all have their backs to me. He tried to open the door, but there was something blocking it on the other side. Then the lift started to descend, carrying him away from what sounded light the sounds of the fight. There were more shouts, then the definite sound of shots being fired and finally a long silence that was only broken by a vaguely familiar voice, “…well, that takes care of him.”

The lift stopped and Jali slid the panel open, coming out to a storage area. When he discovered that he couldn’t get the lift working without a droid, he slowly walked to the far wall of the building, opened the door and went outside—to where the exterior of the building was completely surrounded by Security Force and Judicial personnel. Several bright lights were instantly trained on him, Jali squinted with the intensity, his breath coming out in clouds as he tried to hide his eyes.

“Freeze!” called a magnified voice. “Place your hands above your head!”

Jali readily compiled, and he stood there for a few minutes, not doing anything, not even thinking anything.

Did Xhen have to die for what he did? After all, he had killed three people including a completely innocent woman. He was weak, had basically crumbled after Vertey’s accidental death and Nuada had willingly exploited that weakness and from then on had reacted like a scuttlerat trying to get it’s way out of a trap.

Was it Nuada Vekstar who had killed him up there? Somehow, Jali preferred to think it was even though he hadn’t heard the Miralukan’s voice. Though Nuada was responsible, as he and Antiene had said in Blackbirds just yesterday, Vekstar used people that were expendable.

“You can put your hands down now,” Antiene said calmly, waving to the people behind her. Jali turned to look at her, how long had she been standing there? She smiled at him, her fair hair moving about her face in the night air.

“Who’s in there?” she asked him, drawing him slowly away from the building and towards the perimeter they had set up.

There were people moving into the building now, Jali could see the lights on some of the rifles flashing as they went in.

“A few people,” he told Antiene, watching the people moving rather than her, it was easier than looking the Jedi in the eye. “Guards, a Zeltron woman, I didn’t see much of them.”

“What about important people?” she asked. “Nuada, Aurek?”

“I don’t know anything about Aurek,” he replied in a low voice, “but Nuada was there, don’t know if he is now, though.”

“If he’s there, we’ll find him,” Antiene promised.

“Somehow I don’t think you will,” said Jali in a flat voice.

There was a pause. “That was a really good idea you had,” she said, “but stupid. If you hadn’t had me…”

“I would have done something else,” Jali finished for her, still in the same flat, lifeless voice. “But it wasn’t that good, Xhen’s dead.”

Antiene stared at him in surprise. “What? What happened in there? Tell me!”

Jali told her, though not everything, leaving out most of the part about him and Kura. When he finished, Antiene was thoughtful.

“He was a killer, but…” She shook her head.

Jali nodded. “Just the way I feel,” he said, “it’s that ‘but’ that I just can’t get past.” He added for good measure, “I should have done something.”

“There was nothing you could have done,” she reminded him.

“Except what?” Jali demanded, looking at her at last. “Pushed open the door maybe? Took some of those thugs from behind, perhaps? Or maybe even find a droid ride the lift back up and finish them off?” Jali screwed up his face in frustration. “I think the worst thing about this is, the fact that I didn’t do something. He was trying to do the right thing, and me,” Jali shook his head, “I’m the one who fragged up.”

“Don’t worry,” Antiene reassured as the first of the prisoners were coming back under escort, Nuada wasn’t among them and nor would he be. She took his hand in hers. “We’ll get him,” she promised, “we’ll find who did it.”