Convergence/Chapter 2

 2 

             The tent slowly filled up as people filed in, their boots squishing into the clay-rich mud that the previous night’s thunderstorm had created. Even by their own lax standards, they seemed a little more bedraggled than usual—their shelters weren’t up to the military’s standards and took more of a pounding from Yanibar’s weather. The large tent that served as their command post had been buttoned up securely, but they’d already learned from hard experience that wasn’t enough. Anything not water-resistant needed to be put away or stored elsewhere. That was also true of anything that wasn’t heat-resistant. Or snow-resistant. Or weather-resistant in general.

 “Listen up, everyone,” the green-skinned Miralan woman at the far end of the tent called, drawing the eyes of a distracted group of archaeologists. “I know last night’s storms won’t have done wonders for our dig sites but we need to get after it.”

             “Probably mud in every cut,” muttered Jorib, a stout Sullustan. “It’ll take hours to get it all brushed out.”

             “Trask, take your team back to Site Cresh. Jorib, your team should pick up on Krill. The spaceport must have some clues in it somewhere.”

             “What about Dorn?”

             The Mirialan shook her head. “I’ve had enough of Dorn for a lifetime. It’s far away and there’s little evidence of what we’re looking for.”

             “Yeah, I won’t miss it either,” Jorib replied. “Just thought I’d ask.”

             “But won’t you miss the sandflies?”

             “Not in the slightest,” the Sullustan answered curtly, gathering his tools and stumping out of the tent.

             The other archaeologists dispersed, leaving the Mirialan alone by a long table piled high with maps and datapads. A shadow fell over the table, revealing at least one person who hadn’t left yet.

             “Caf, Doctor Ostrada?” the other occupant asked.

             “Yes, please,” the archaeologist said, gratefully accepting the steaming metal mug in one hand while rubbing her neck with the other. “Thank you, Jhiranae. And for the last time, it’s Nihyal.”

             The other, a tall Sephi with the characteristic pointed ears and lithe grace of her species, nodded. She brushed a strand of tousled blonde hair behind her ear, and then took a sip from her own mug of caf.

             “I know, you keep saying that. It’s just. . . you went to all that trouble to earn the education. The least I can do is honor the. . .”

             “That’s very kind of you,” Nihyal assured her. “But this. . . this is where the real treasure is found. Out in the field, unearthing lost civilizations and capturing history where it happened. Academia seems so stuffy after you’ve been away from it long enough.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Even with the sandfly bites?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Certainly not my favorite,” Nihyal admitted, pursing her lips as she changed the subject. “So far everything we’ve found looks like what you might find on any hardscrabble settlement beyond the edge of civilization.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae sat down in a fabric-backed folding chair, contemplating the matter.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Yet you’re still certain there’s something else here.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The Mirialan nodded.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “The pieces don’t fit together. Records recovered from that New Republic data vault indicated that this world was off-limits to all military and Jedi vessels. We also know that roughly 300 years ago, an attempt on the New Republic chief of state’s life was thwarted by emissaries from Yanibar.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Wasn’t that Borsk Fey’lya?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “No, Leia Organa Solo was chief of state at the time,” Nihyal corrected. “She was a Jedi herself, as was her brother--,”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Luke Skywalker, as in our employer, the Skywalker Foundation.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “There have been several Jedi with that name, but yes, that’s the one,” Nihyal pointed out.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The word sent a chill down Jhiranae’s spine. The mystical warriors had long fascinated her. Her homeworld of Krant had several Jedi ruins, and the interest had carried itself into her career, though why exactly she couldn’t quite place. That was the reason she had volunteered for a trip to this remote, dusty world. Though the Jedi had been extinct for nearly eighty years—destroyed by the Grasp, it was said—she was curious about any of their history they could learn. Her interest in archaeology had led her to the Skywalker Foundation, an organization founded to collect relics of the Jedi, and then here.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> She slapped at a sandfly buzzing around her long, pointed ear, then sighed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Don’t forget about the record from the Na’al Institute. Apparently someone from Yanibar caused a stir around that time period—some kind of terrorist attack that they also helped clean up. It was kept pretty quiet—we’ve only just learned of it.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “And who could the Jedi have needed help from at the height of their power?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">              “The Jedi weren’t as strong then as they were pre-Empire, but. . . it’s possible that whoever lived here had some kind of ability or strength to aid the Jedi. Possibly even another branch of Jedi,” Jhiranae pointed out.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That’s what our friends at the Skywalker Institute are hoping we’ll discover.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “It’s not just them,” Jhiranae replied. “There’s something else here. I’m sure of it.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “You’ve said that since you first found out about this place,” Nihyal countered. “If this turns out to have been nothing more than an exceptionally-skilled group of detectives who happened to pick the most remote habitable world in the galaxy to live, I’ll never forgive you for all those months spent grubbing in the dirt.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae looked off into the distance, one hand clenching into a fist involuntarily.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “We’ll find it,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Whatever it is.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I hope so,” Nihyal replied pleasantly. “They say the joy’s in the journey, but usually people say that after it’s over.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I should get going,” Jhiranae told her. “I’ll take a team over to Osk. Maybe there’s more under the first two layers of strata. The orbital scans showed some kind of metallic signature.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Good luck,” Nihyal said wearily. “And take care of yourself.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae nodded in acknowledgment, then slipped out from the tent. It was still early in the Yanibar day, but already the sun’s rays suffused the air with warmth. She shaded her eyes with one hand, scanning the horizon. Rocky outcroppings and withered scrub dotted the craggy terrain. Pools of water from last night’s fierce thunderstorm gleamed brightly in the morning sun. The twisted and scarred land seemed peaceful in the morning sun, despite the howling gales and torrential rain of a few hours earlier. Jhiranae had traveled to numerous worlds and seen her share of hills, and while on some worlds the terrain was gently rolling, shaped by the slow, steady course of rivers, here the land was knurled, torn, conflicted. Yanibar was not that young of a world, but apparently the tectonic forces here were significant. It had also meant that whatever settlements they had hoped to find had largely been destroyed ruins, smashed or buried by tons of mud, dirt, and rock. So far, they had unearthed a single settlement, which they’d learned was called Draskar. That had been site Krill, a hive of activity for Nihyal’s team of archaeologists. Otherwise, their findings had been limited to a scattered assortment of farms and seaside fishing ports with nothing spectacular. Sponsors didn’t pay good credits for unearthing failed colonies unless there was something special about them.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             As Jhiranae piled into the waiting speeder with the other three archaeologists on her team, she noted with satisfaction that they were all ready to go, equipment and crates of picks, glowrods, dating kits, preservation jars, and marking beacons piled and strapped onto the rear cargo mats.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “We’re at Osk again?” a pleasant-sounding Elomin voice asked from the back—her cataloging specialist, Kanjai.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “That’s right,” she said.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “How come we always get the farthest assignments from base camp?” asked one of her diggers, Magnus.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae shrugged.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Probably because Dr. Ostrada trusts us to get the job done without supervision.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             That seemed to quiet dissent. Jhiranae slid on a pair of polarized sun shades and hit the speeder’s starter. Its repulsorlifts whined to life with a grumbling roar. She made a mental note to check the shifter coil when they returned for the night. Yanibar’s rough terrain and erratic weather was hard on machinery as well as people.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             They sped away from the base camp without their usual cloud of ochre dust billowing behind the speeder—last night’s rain had temporarily dampened the land. Heading north from their base camp along a swollen river, Jhiranae skirted the eastern side of a formidable mountain range. Site Osk was nearly two hundred kilometers north in what they’d learned was once called the Neekham Valley.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae had been there many times, so she allowed her mind to wander as she drove the familiar track. She contemplated the Jedi—what had they really been like? Some stories painted them as erratic, prone to either great deeds of heroism or the most barbarous atrocities. Others insisted they were the guardians of peace and order. The Sephi were a long-lived people, and Jhiranae was sure the truth was probably somewhere in the middle.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Hey boss, trouble,” called Magnus.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Startled from her reflections, Jhiranae slowed the speeder to a halt perhaps faster than if she’d seen whatever it was. It didn’t take her long to realize the dilemma. A normally small brook intersecting their path had turned into a raging river, overflowing its banks at least twice as much. Last night’s storm had no doubt poured enough rain in the mountains to feed the stream. More concerning, instead of a smooth embankment, there was now a three-meter drop into the gully caused by the sudden erosion.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Think we can clear it?” Kanjai asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Maybe,” Jhiranae said doubtfully. “The repulsors aren’t in the best shape. The current here looks pretty swift. We could probably do it—but I really don’t feel like going into that water. We’ll go around.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Swinging the speeder into a wider loop, they headed downstream, where hopefully the embankment would be gentler, or the water less formidable of an obstacle. The detour cost them the better part of an hour before they found a suitable crossing. By then, everyone in the speeder was hot and frustrated with the delay given that their travel time was going to cost them a sizable portion of the day—and the coolest parts at that. Jhiranae tried to assuage their sour moods by kicking the speeder’s throttle up to recover the time, but there was only so much it could give. The team settled into a moody, brooding silence despite her best attempts to strike up conversation.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Hey,” Plaspek Turro, the team’s Twi’lek geologist, spoke up suddenly after several minutes. “I saw something!” “You mean besides scrub brush, rocks, and puddles?” replied Magnus curtly. “Or was it a particularly interesting streak of basalt.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “You laughed at the basalt too,” Plaspek shot back. “It did look like a Hutt. And no, I didn’t see a rock. Rocks don’t shine like that. Metal does.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Where?” Jhiranae asked, scanning the horizon.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Off to the west about ten degrees.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Thus guided, Jhiranae quickly located the feature Plaspek indicated. She didn’t see anything at first, but then—there it was.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I see it,” she replied, turning the speeder in that direction. “Definitely metal of some kind. Let’s check it out.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Another delay?” Magnus groaned.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Just a small one,” Jhiranae promised. “Unless we find something good. That’d be better than going to Osk anyway.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Ignoring the muttered grumblings, she drove them over to the metal structure. It turned out to be a rusted, bent pole of some kind, surrounded by the peaks of what appeared to be the buried permacrete roofs of buildings.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Probably a damping field pole,” Plaspek pointed out. “Like the other farms.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Which means there’s a settlement here,” Jhiranae pointed out. “We just found ourselves another dig site. I’ll call it in. Magnus and Plaspek, you start scanning the area. Figure out what we’re looking at and how deeply it’s buried under the sediment.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “If that’s the top of the pole, there must be a lot,” Magnus remarked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Looks like there was a mudslide,” the geologist added. “You can see the mud flows in the terrain.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Magnus and Plaspek scanned the area and found a compound roughly thirty by fifty meters, marking it off with string. Jhiranae sent a quick message to Nihyal, who seemed underwhelmed. Jhiranae understood that feeling. They’d scanned dozens of potential sites from orbit. There wasn’t any reason to believe that this one was different from the others they’d already unearthed, but since they were here, Jhiranae directed her team to dig it up—carefully.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> As the sun rose higher into the sky, the team labored steadily. Soon, sweat poured freely off all of them, even the Twi’lek Plaspek, whose people came from a desert world. They drank heavily from one of the two large plastine jugs of water in the back of the speeder—the other was a spare in case they were stranded. Breaking for midday lunch, they ate cold rations to keep their energy up. There was little appealing in the taste. The rations had been chosen for their long storage life rather than culinary interests. Rumor had it they had been rejected by the military for being too inedible.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “Not bad for a quick morning’s work,” Jhiranae observed, scanning the dig site. “Reminds me of Osk.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Magnus and Plaspek had cleared away a meter or two of sediment, revealing the top of a slanted roof, crumbling and broken in on the side where the landslide had struck it. Several dampening field poles and the roofs of other outbuildings were starting to poke through the muddy stone.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “And Aurek, and Besh, and all of the others we’ve found inland,” Kanjai said. “Not that Osk would’ve been any better, but I at least would have had more to do. Why stop here?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae felt a slight tingle in her fingertips.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Just a hunch,” she said. “I’ve felt something unusual about this place since we first laid eyes on that damping field pole.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “If you say so,” Kanjai replied.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Quickly finishing their lunch, they set back to work. Jhiranae and Kanjai used the scanners and identified the remnants of the structure while Magnus and Plaspek took observations on the mudflow and continued the laborious process of shipping away at the hardened sediment. By evening, they had nearly dredged away the majority of the layers from the compound. Magnus’s excavator steadily chipped away at the largest portions. As the work progressed, the team engaged more into their tasks. This was, after all, what they had signed on to do, and exercising their passion was personally satisfying for each of them. Plaspek whistled a tune so infectious that Jhiranae couldn’t help humming along as she worked. As night fell, they collectively agreed to keep working after another quick meal of rations. The weather had been cooperative thus far, and they had powerful tripod-mounted glowlamps in the speeder to help them work. The powerful beams illuminated the dig site, allowing them to keep clearing away the detritus one brush stroke or excavator scoop at a time. As more of the compound was exposed, the archaeologists adopted increasingly precise methods, even using fine picks and brushes to chip away at the rock and mud encrusted on the walls. By now, they had cleared a depression nearly two meters deep across the entirety of the compound area, necessitating the construction of a carefully-dredged ramp to remove the debris.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae was just starting to tire when suddenly a low growl interrupted her brushing sediment from the door of the main building. She whirled, instantly alert. Glancing up at the embankment of the depression they’d dug, she thought she saw motion.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Did you hear that?” she called.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Hear what?” Magnus asked, doubtless deafened by the steady whirring of the excavator he was manning near the perimeter.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I heard a growl.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Is it your stomach?” he asked jocularly.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “No,” she said, a sense of urgency creeping into her voice. “Everyone, bring it in.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Wordlessly, the other three archaeologists joined her.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What spooked you?” Plaspek asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Probably nothing,” Jhiranae replied, but she wasn’t sure. “Does anyone have a blaster?”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “I do,” Magnus offered, retrieving an aged YF-113 pistol from his holster.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “The others are in the speeder,” Plaspek pointed out. “Too heavy to wear them all the time.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “If it’s nothing, why do we need blasters?” Kanjai countered.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             A shadow suddenly crossed one of the glowlamp beams. It was only in the light for a moment, but the motion caught Jhiranae’s eye.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “It’s something,” she said firmly. “We’re being watched. Possibly by a predator.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Are you sure it’s just one?” the geologist asked.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “No.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “What do we do?” “I think we should head for the speeder—together. Carefully.” “Right behind you.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             The archaeologists, gripping shovels, portable glowrods, a vibroblade, and a single blaster, moved towards the ramp, eyes checking their surroundings for trouble. The plain was eerily calm at night, with only a hint of wind whistling through the hills. They reached the ramp and began the ascent, Jhiranae leading.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “So far, so good,” murmured Plaspek. “Almost to the speeder.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             Jhiranae gritted her teeth, gripping her small vibroblade tightly in one hand and glowrod in the other.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">             “Keep moving.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> The group cleared the top of the ramp, and the speeder was only a dozen meters away. Suddenly, Jhiranae spotted movement off to her right. She swung her glowrod over to illuminate it, catching sight of a fierce feline face for just an instant before it sprang in a tawny blur of muscles and teeth.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “Look out!” she shouted, but it was too late.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> The predator sprang onto Plaspek, bowling her and Kanjai over with a savage growl. Jhiranae belatedly realized their mistake as Magnus fumbled with his blaster. They were too close together to help each other effectively. Her heart was pounding louder than a basso drum inside her chest, but, acting on instinct, she sprang forward and slashed at the animal with her vibroblade. It was pathetic really, attacking a beast that size with a 12-centimeter vibroblade, but she left a deep gash on its flank. It rolled off Plaspek and swiped at her. Leaping back, Jhiranae barely avoided the blow, but now the predator was facing her, teeth bared, preparing to pounce. Frozen in terror, she stood helpless before its lunge when the report of a blaster rippled across the plains, impossibly loud. The bright red flash caught the predator on its back and it collapsed lifelessly. Magnus stood tall, weapon held in trembling hands but nevertheless, he had not missed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “Good shot,” Jhiranae said, but there was little time for celebration.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> More growls echoed through the night. The stocky digger blanched.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “There’s more than one,” he exclaimed.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> Jhiranae helped Plaspek and Kanjai up. The Twi’lek came up with a scream, clutching at her shoulder.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “We have to go,” Jhiranae said. “Before they attack.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> A blur of motion caught her eye as another shape hurtled through the night to tackle Magnus. Without thinking, the Sephi leapt forward, brandishing Plaspek’s shovel. She swung it one-handed, clipping the creature on the side of the head. It whirled on her, but she was ready this time, blinding it with her glowrod before kicking it in its snout. The creature snapped at her feet, catching her boot in its powerful jaws before she could retract her leg. Jhiranae screamed as her leg was pulled out from under her, hitting the rocky ground with a thump that drove the wind from her. Lances of pain dug into her foot, but her sturdy boots resisted the animal’s bite for a second. She could feel the crushing pressure and knew it would bite down in a moment. Scrabbling for her glowrod, she slammed it into the beast’s throat, kicking with her other foot. Its grip on her loosened and she crawled backward. Shaking off the impact, the predator prepared to spring at her once more.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> Jhiranae had no illusions about her chances. She was nearly defenseless and the animal in front of her was clearly intent on attack. A sudden peace and awareness of her surroundings filled her. Clarity and vision of all things around her swept through her mind. She could feel each contour and knob of the rocky desert she was lying on; sense the exact timing of the creature’s spring; and then—she noticed the fallen blaster two meters to her left. Rolling desperately, she scooped it up and shot the beast in the mouth right as it leapt at her. The animal howled and landed lifelessly on her legs. Crawling out from underneath it, she hauled Magnus over to the speeder. The digger seemed dazed, possibly concussed from being tackled to the ground. Brandishing the blaster and firing several more times into the air to ward off other predators, Jhiranae limped over to Plaspek and helped her into the speeder, while Kanjai waved off the help and staggered into the vehicle himself. One more cat leapt at Jhiranae just as she unloaded Plaspek into the aft compartment. She rolled to the side and the animal slammed into the speeder, temporarily dazed. Swiftly, she fired a single blast into it, shuddered at the size of its teeth, then ducked into the driver’s seat. Gunning the engine, Jhiranae sped away from the dig site. Despite the blood she could feel trickling from the puncture wounds on her foot, she kept her foot on the accelerator until they were safely away.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “How is everyone?” she asked through gritted teeth, biting back the pain.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “Magnus is woozy,” Kanjai reported from the back. “Some nasty bruises and scrapes on his back. I think he hit his head.”

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> Jhiranae glanced over at Plaspek sitting beside her in the passenger’s seat.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> “I’ve been better,” the Twi’lek reported, clutching at her bloody shoulder and right arm.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent: .5in"> Even in the darkness, Jhiranae could see the dark glistening of blood and lots of it on her shoulder. While Kanjai broke out the first aid kit, Jhiranae kept her foot on the accelerator. Suddenly, she didn’t notice the pain quite as much as she kept them going full speed all the way back to the camp.