Igniting the Stars/Part 3

A tortuous climb up a semi-sheer rock face didn't strike Narasi Rican as the most efficient means of infiltration, but there was something to be said for a lack of sudden movements. Handholds were few, and more than once she put the Force behind a kick off from a toehold to the next pimple of rock on the cliff's face. Her arms and legs ached and burned, but she was a Jedi, and a Jedi was more than mere flesh and bone; the Force could not silence her body's protests, but it could quiet them enough for her to go on. Halfway up she lost her grip with one hand, but the Force anchored the fingers of her other like they were part of the rock, and a heartbeat later she caught herself and started the climb once more.

At last she reached up a hand and clutched earth instead of stone. Admittedly, the first time she tugged too hard and sent a handful of dirt flying down the way she had come, she dared not think how far. On the second try, however, she boosted herself with her toes, dug her claws into the soil until they stuck, and hauled herself up.

She took a moment to refresh her muscles, half-meditating to speed up the process as she surveilled the area. Her true target was still far above in the building that towered over her, its lights shining like warm orange fires, even the smooth metal surfaces glinting faintly as they reflected the stars and the waning moon. Narasi crouched low to the ground, looking for dark spots and trying to feel a way through security in the Force. One of her hands rested on the hilt of her lightsaber, but she had it only for some truly inconceivable emergency; on this mission, it was critical to infiltrate and exfiltrate without leaving bodies behind.

A cool breeze soothed her exertion-heated skin and tickled the back of her neck with her Padawan braid. Narasi took a deep breath, then rose into a Forceful leap up to the next outcropping of grass. Two more leaps brought her to ground level, and she let herself continue her drop from a landing, into a crouch, and down to her belly. Low-crawling along the trimmed grass and stretching out with the Force, she could feel the sentries on patrol—not hostile or even wary, but alert. Repulsor traffic in these predawn hours was consistent but slow, and it was easy to pause or accelerate around landing lights and reach a maintenance outbuilding.

A Jedi leap got her hands to the roof's edge, and her native Zygerrian strength was more than enough to pull her nose up over that edge so she could spy on the area beyond. The roof had an access hatch but no shed for a door, and consequently no camera. Hoisting herself up, Narasi rolled over to the opposite side and peeked into the grounds of her target building. Now she could see the guard teams patrolling in twos, as well as security droids hovering here and there; the former were a show of force, but the latter kept to the shadows, and only their faint red lights and the gleam of their photoreceptors gave them away to Narasi's Force-enhanced vision. She admired their subtlety, inconvenient as it was for her personally.

Waiting until a guard patrol was well past her and the nearest security droid was facing the other way, Narasi backed up, stood, got a running start, and let the Force carry her sailing over the boundary wall and into the grounds. She kept herself in the Force as she touched down into a run, and she crossed the wide lawn in seconds, though she pulled herself up short and only jogged into the shadows; she was getting better at turning Force speed on, but not quite so much at turning it off, and she thought it wouldn't be too stealthy to run at supersentient speed into the side of a building. Kneeling in the shadows, stretching out her senses to ensure she hadn't been seen, Narasi gave it a second, then crept along the wall.

Following the guard patrol, she reached a gate with sentries; the patrol stopped to chat, giving Narasi time to plan her approach. By the time the patrol moved on, Narasi had snuck into the shadows of the gatehouse. Reaching out with the Force, she focused not on the sentries, but on the patrol, breathing a sense of urgency toward them, an image of a humanoid shape in the flowered bushes some fool had planted at the base of the boundary wall, a threat half-hidden and waiting for its chance…

"You see something there, Raygar?" one of the patrolling guards asked.

"Where?"

"Over there. I thought I saw something…or someone…"

"Well, let's check it out."

It was not quite the intensity Narasi had hoped for, but the gate sentries advanced onto the walking path, hands on the stun batons hooked to their belts. She gave them a prod with the Force, sharper and more urgent, and they strayed just far enough after their comrades, who were kicking the bushes, that Narasi could slip into the building behind them. The Force lent her enough speed and silence that she made it to an interior corridor and turned the corner before the sentries turned back.

She had all but memorized the interior layout, and now she moved with purpose. Locked doors barred her path and more than once she almost lightsabered one open, but reminded herself of the need for stealth over speed at the last second and poked, prodded, and twisted the locks' mechanisms with the Force until each door slid open. There were guards inside as well, but these Narasi tried to dodge rather than bewitch; her mind was starting to feel tired, and she wanted to save her Force powers for when she really needed them.

Passing through the luxurious gardens would have shaved minutes off her time, but it would also have exposed her to view from anyone who happened to glance out a window, and Tirien had taught her better than that, so she took the long way around. A patrol took her by surprise but, by a coincidence she thought was nothing short of a miracle, both guardsmen were staring out into the gardens; in the second it took for them to look back the way they were going, Narasi leapt straight up, wedging her hands and feet against opposite sides of the wall and supporting herself there until the guards passed. Dropping back to the ground, limbs throbbing with exhaustion, she slipped on into the most secure wing of the building.

She avoided guards on the stairwells and made the target floor, but as she peeked her head around the corner she noticed a security camera facing her way. She could crush it with the Force, but she was sure someone in a control center somewhere would notice when the feed died. It was a globe-shaped camera, so there was no hope of hiding in a blind spot while it oscillated. Could she run fast enough with Force speed to outpace it? The windows were closed; even if she could open one, hang on the ledge, and shimmy past the camera's field of view—and her biceps and shoulders ached at the very thought—she would have to Force open a window farther along, and she wasn't sure they were supposed to open. Lightsabering a window was even worse than lightsabering a door; at least doors didn't shatter at three-digit decibel levels.

There was nothing for it. Narasi took a few deep breaths, got herself into a sprinter's ready stance, then barreled down the corridor, wind roaring in her ears as the Force accelerated her to nothing more than a blur in sentient eyes. She dared not pull up short of the camera, with the result that she careened past it and was forced to run up a wall and backflip off it to bleed off excess speed. Landing in a crouch, she saw the door she wanted dead ahead; pausing only to check for guards, she jogged up, waved a hand to open the lock, and stepped inside.

It was dark in the library, and Narasi closed the door behind her, trying to fill in her surroundings with the Force. She crept past the stacks of datafiles until she found the one for which she was searching, but as she entered it, she felt sudden tension in the Force. Had she left some clue? Best not to delay to find out, she thought. Combing quickly through the catalogue, she found the file she needed, pocketed it, and scampered to the door.

She stepped out into the hall and found herself facing four guards, all of them aiming stun pistols at her as a security droid raced down the hallway to support them, its lights on and defensive systems engaged. The guards' eyes widened as they saw her, but Narasi sighed in resignation, raising her hands.

"Not a bad attempt," Tirien called, stepping around a corner and into view. "On the whole, you did well."

"Stand down," added Chief Draulet, who had evidently come up with Tirien. "Just a test."

The guards lowered their stun pistols slowly, exchanging glances, and Narasi could sense their surprise giving way to understanding. Tirien moved through them as Narasi lowered her hands too. "Where'd I get caught? The camera?"

"And the motion sensor in the library." Narasi cursed in Huttese, and Tirien raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure I didn't teach you that…"

One of the guards laughed, but Narasi felt the heat in her cheeks and said sheepishly, "Sorry, Master. I just didn't see it at all."

"Well, that's kind of the point," Chief Draulet put in. "I'm glad to know it works."

"Right…but the camera," Narasi said, eager to get back on point. "I guess I wasn't fast enough, but what should I have done?"

"Disabled it," Tirien said. "It's a droid system, it's capable of processing much faster than a sentient brain. You might be nothing but a blur to a sentient, but the droid brain can slow the blur down, go back and play it again, and pick it apart frame-by-frame until it has an image of you.  And that's exactly what it did."

"Disable it how? I figured I shouldn't just smash it…"

"No, that wouldn't really comport with the 'stealth' part of 'stealth infiltration'," Tirien agreed. He gestured to the security droid as he looked at Chief Draulet. "May I? There will be no permanent damage."

Draulet nodded, and some of his guards looked interested. "Go ahead."

Tirien waited until Narasi had come to his side, then pointed two fingers at the droid. It quivered for a second before its lights went out and it fell like a stone; Tirien caught it with the Force before it hit the ground.

"I could've disabled it in part and left the repulsors going, but that requires more focus. Just be aware of it if you try to disable something that's moving under its own power."

"Won't it kill the live feed, though, sir?" one of the guards asked before Narasi could.

Tirien shook his head. "Only if we're careless. It's…I suppose it's the equivalent of stunning a living being.  On a camera, if done right, it will freeze the camera's last image and we can pass through unnoticed."

"That's…not altogether reassuring," Chief Draulet said with a frown.

"It's a good thing we're the good guys," Narasi said, but he didn't return her smile.

"It doesn't help if the Sith come calling."

"And that's why we're here," Tirien said.

Draulet nodded, thinking it over, then waved in dismissal to his men. "Go on, back to patrol. Padawan Rican, I'd like to assess security vulnerabilities with you in the morning, if you're free."

"Sure," Narasi said, and Draulet bowed from the neck before following his men. When he was gone, she looked at Tirien. "He's not happy, is he?"

"He has a lot on his mind," Tirien said, crossing his arms as he looked the way Draulet had gone. "Not only does he have to protect the Organas now that we know people are trying to kidnap or kill them, but his predecessor is facing trial for treason—he feels the responsibility to show Alderaan the Royal Guard can still be trusted. The Organas would have been taken if we hadn't been here, and it's crushing him."

Narasi had sensed it since the failed kidnapping—where the royal guards had once been devoted but laid back, they were now hyper-vigilant and constantly near their charges. When Narasi had met King Rosulus Organa, he had been alone in the palace gardens; since they had foiled the mercenaries, she had never seen the king or any other member of the House of Organa with fewer than four guards. It was only sensible, she thought—she pitied the kidnapper who came to the palace while Tirien Kal-Di was visiting, but even Tirien couldn't be on duty at all times—but now and then she had sensed a sort of melancholy in the air. Alderaan, she thought, had lost something of itself with the change.

"You've had your workout for the day, I think," Tirien allowed. "Come on, we can meditate until breakfast."

The smooth, sloping walls of the palace, so like a rocket pointed toward the stars, did not offer much in the way of a roof, but Tirien selected a balcony facing the sunrise, and he dropped into a light trance. Narasi did her best to imitate him, though she continued to stew over the failures in her infiltration mission and wondered when she might be able to practice disabling droids. Tirien prodded her with his mind once in a while and she worked to refocus. The morning air was soothing when she gave it a chance to be, and she finally felt herself tugged into the current of the Force as the sun crested the Triplehorn Mountains.

Tirien nudged her arm to bring her back to the moment when the sun had passed the horizon. "Get a shower, then meet me for breakfast."

She was still staying in the guest wing—Chief Draulet had briefly considered moving them to the royal residence wing during their stay, but ultimately concluded it would teach the royal guard to be overly complacent, relying on the presence of Jedi who would sooner or later depart—and her room had started to feel familiar, even more than the dormitory assigned to her in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She discarded her dark infiltration outfit, showered, and dressed in her lighter Jedi colors, but when she clipped her equipment belt back on she realized her beacon transceiver was buzzing. Her heartbeat kicked up faster than it had been at any point in the climb, and she bared her fangs at nothing as she plugged the transceiver into her datapad.


 * H EY, I DIDN'T SAY I WASN'T INTERESTED. I F WE DID WANT TO BE TOGETHER, WE MIGHT HAVE TO KEEP IT QUIET; I DON'T KNOW HOW M ALI WOULD TAKE IT, SINCE WE'RE P ADAWANS.  W HAT DO YOU THINK T IRIEN WOULD SAY? 


 * I TOLD M ALI ABOUT YOUR VISIONS. H E DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF THEM EITHER, BUT HE SAID IF T IRIEN'S TAKING THEM SERIOUSLY, WE SHOULD TOO.  G UESS I 'LL KEEP MY EYES OPEN FOR SKELETONS AND SNAKES! 


 * Y EAH, IT'S ROUGH UP HERE, BUT AT LEAST WE'RE DOING SOMETHING. S ORRY YOU'RE STUCK ON A LDERAAN. I T'S A NICE PLACE FOR A VACATION, BUT I KNOW THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR—PEOPLE LIKE US AREN'T MEANT FOR GUARD DUTY.  A NY PROGRESS WITH THE PRINCESS? 


 * M ISS YOU. 


 * –A LDAYR 

Narasi read through the whole message, pinballing from one emotion to the next with each sentence. I didn't say I wasn't interested—did that mean he was interested, or that he wasn't sure? But if they wanted to be together—meaning they might not? And how would Tirien and Mali take it? The two Knights were close friends themselves, but Narasi remembered all too well Tirien's feelings about getting too "attached" to his own flesh-and-blood family. She squirmed at the idea of keeping something from him, although, in the scheme of things, that would hardly be new for her…

Tirien had said at the time that marriage wasn't a good thing for Jedi, just low on the list of priorities…but dating wasn't marriage…maybe that made it lower still? Low enough to not really be a problem? Then again, Jedi who got married were probably Knights, not Padawans. And if marriage wasn't a realistic consideration—at least a conceivable possibility, if way, way in the future—what was the point of dating?

For one second she thought Narasi Nikodon had a nice, alliterative ring to it. Then she blushed even though she was alone and growled aloud at herself.

She was relieved that Mali and Aldayr were on watch, but frustrated, too; did Mali have any thoughts on what her visions meant? Surely Aldayr would have included them if he had. Or what if Aldayr just didn't want Narasi to worry? Or Mali didn't want Aldayr to worry? Well, the flippancy of the last line didn't make it sound like Aldayr was losing too much sleep over it. Narasi growled at him this time, then read on.

People like us. Well, that was true, she could admit; at their core, they were both warriors, whether or not, as Tirien had mused, that was what Jedi were really for. She respected and even admired her master's skill as a diplomat, but she was of the opinion that you could get further with a kind word and a lightsaber than with just a kind word. She and Aldayr were in sync with that, she was sure.

Her throat tightened as she took in the line about Elyria, and she hurried on to the last line.

He missed her…was that all he meant there? Was it just friendly? Affectionate? More? Did he sometimes daydream about her being there beside him in the fight against Aresh, as she did when she could study no more and found herself sinking into the comfortable reading chair in the palace library? Or was she reading a thousand words of meaning into a throwaway two-word parting line? Tirien had ruined her for trying to take anything at face value; it was like traveling the galaxy with a literature professor.

Thinking of Tirien made Narasi remember breakfast, and she tucked the transceiver back into her belt; she would need to work on her reply for a couple days, both to make sure she didn't say something she hadn't thought out all the way and so she didn't appear so eager as to be clingy. She wished she could ask for advice, but she could well imagine Tirien's reaction, and she had a hunch Princess Vamiri would tell Tirien. Every time a new message came in from Aldayr, Narasi had to fight the temptation to send a message to Kenza Rowkwani; she had some faith her Miraluka friend wouldn't sell her out to Tirien, but she was fighting Aresh too, and she could picture Kenza giving Aldayr knowing grins and pinching her fingers in front of one eye to simulate a wink with almost startling clarity.

Breakfast, Narasi told herself. Never scheme about a covert relationship with a fellow Padawan on an empty stomach.

The first few days of their extended stay, Princess Vamiri had continued to make them breakfast herself in gratitude for her family's lives, but as soon as it was not ungracious to do so, Tirien had put his foot down and insisted on no further special treatment for the Jedi. They dined with the Organas on occasion, though usually only for supper or a working lunch with the king, who had embraced Tirien as an informal member of his committee of advisors. Most of the time, however, the Jedi fended for themselves.

Tirien had waited for her in the cafeteria, and they went up to the serving station together. The castle droids prepared them a nutritious breakfast spread, and the two Jedi sat opposite one another at a table by themselves. The palace staff had shown immense gratitude when word had spread of the foiled kidnapping, but after an initial cascade of thanks they had seemed to find the Jedi too intimidating to approach, and though he did nothing to ward them off and was courteous when they did approach him, neither did Tirien seek them out. Narasi had made a few friends among the staff, but when she ate with her master she dutifully followed his lead.

"Gotten anything else from Master Fane?" she asked as she cracked an egg the size of her hand.

"So much. There's a lifetime of wisdom in that holocron."

Narasi smiled to herself at his wistful tone; between the holocron and the palace library, if there hadn't been a war on she wasn't sure she could ever have persuaded Tirien to leave. He had allowed her to sit in on some of his sessions with the holocron as well, though he would not allow her to use it without him. It irked her somewhat—perhaps Master Fane could have taught her to disable droids before tonight, if she had told him of the planned exercise—but when she had pushed the issue, he had insisted that he would equip her with the skills she needed when she was ready.

At least he was teaching her to resist being stunned, although she had more practice than she had bargained for; once she had resisted more than she had succumbed in a controlled setting, Tirien had given the royal guards leave to stun her at random during daylight hours, with the result that Narasi spent part of every day with wobbly legs and slurred speech from a stun she had only half-repulsed and was becoming hypervigilant to the point of paranoia.

"Are you going to Princess Elyria's lessons today?"

Gentle though his tone was, Tirien's question wrenched Narasi out of her musings. She prodded pieces of a fruit cocktail around her plate, but as much as the cliff climb had exhausted her, she suddenly found she had no appetite. "I don't think so."

"Princess Vamiri thought she might be ready to see you again in a setting where she feels safe."

"Master, she flinches every time I make a sudden movement when we eat together, and that's with her mom and dad, and Beady, and half a dozen royal guards—I don't think she can get safer than that. It's not getting better." Narasi heard her own sadness.

Tirien looked thoughtful, but he let it go. "Tell me something new you've learned about Alderaan's history."

Narasi told him about the development of moss painting, but she was interrupted halfway into the early modern period by a buzz on her belt. She wondered whether she should play it cool so Tirien didn't wonder about the increased communication between his Padawan and Aldayr, but she saw him reach for his own beacon transceiver, and they met one another's eyes. They rose in wordless agreement, deposited the remains of their breakfasts with the kitchen droids, and left the cafeteria.

Narasi followed him into the palace offices. He stepped into the first empty room they came upon, closed the door behind her, and drew his transceiver, plugging it into his datapad. Narasi read over his shoulder as the text appeared, but she had just enough time to read the lead line and process that the rest was encrypted before she started and stared at her master. She had actually felt Tirien's surprise and concern; even for her, catching such a strong emotion from him was a rarity. "What's wrong?"

"It's nine-series," he replied. "All nine-series codes are for emergencies. And Nine-Oh-Five…it's been ages since I memorized them.  I've never had to use one, and I've never even seen this one used…"

"Wait, the beacon codes!" Narasi said. "We had to memorize them as Initiates. Let me think…Nine-Oh-Five…Nine-Oh-Five…that's a message to all Jedi, everywhere, to respond to a threat."

Narasi's eyes widened until the air stung them, and Tirien's narrowed to complement her. She watched anxiously as Tirien took out his code cylinder and decoded the message. When it vibrated, she looked over his shoulder again and read:


 * CODE 905.


 * D ARTH V ANDAK WILL BE ON G YNDINE AT THE FOLLOWING DATE, TIME, AND LOCATION . A NY J EDI ABLE TO RESPOND ARE ORDERED TO DO SO—APPREHEND OR TERMINATE HIM ON SIGHT.


 * WARNING: D ARTH V ANDAK IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND IS KNOWN TO HAVE MASTERED MULTIPLE FORMS OF LIGHTSABER COMBAT, INCLUDING D JEM S O AND J AR' K AI . H E IS AN A NZAT, CAPABLE OF ENDURING CONSIDERABLE PAIN AND HEALING QUICKLY FROM INJURY, AND IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS OF MULTIPLE J EDI .  P ROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION .  M AY THE F ORCE BE WITH YOU .

A location Narasi didn't know followed, along with a date and time on Coruscant's clock and, at the bottom, the twelve-pointed rosette of the High Council.

Narasi looked at her master in time to see him mouth Vandak. She pulled up the chronometer on her wrist comm, quickly switching back to Temple Time; she had switched to Aldera Time when they arrived at Alderaan, but never changed the base off Coruscant. "23:00 or thereabouts…Master, we only have six hours!"

Tirien was still staring at the datapad, but Narasi's voice roused him from whatever he was contemplating. "Six hours?"

She pointed to the date and time line. "To get to Gyndine!"

Tirien narrowed his eyes. "Narasi, do you even know where Gyndine is?"

"I…no, but—"

"Neither do I. Let's start there."

She dug out her datapad, calling up a galactic map and feeding in the name. "Gyndine…here! In the Circarpous sector of the Ex—"

"Expansion Region?" Tirien completed. "Circarpous sector as in Circarpous IV? Narasi, that's half a day away, easily."

She stared at him. She couldn't understand the look in his eyes, or why he didn't seem more urgent. This was what Jedi were for, the High Council itself had even said so. "But…it's Darth Vandak."

"Yes, Narasi, I read the message too…"

"We should do something!"

Tirien opened his mouth, closed it again, then took a breath, closing his eyes for a moment. Narasi stared, wondering why he was wasting time even as her stomach clenched at the idea of fighting Vandak. She had never dueled him—had never even seen him in person—but she had seen Tirien and Mali after they had survived the Anzat by the skin of their teeth. She had never believed a single Sith Lord could pose such a challenge to her master and Mali Darakhan together until she had seen the evidence of it with her own eyes, and the idea of fighting him was…was…

Frightening. Narasi could admit it, at least inside—she was afraid. But she thought that was a good step; she had been taught since she was a little girl that no Jedi could banish an emotion without first putting a name to it. Admittedly, fear of gruesome and painful death proved somewhat resistant to banishment, but she had a half-day flight to Gyndine to work on it.

Tirien opened his eyes, showing a calm Narasi was still working toward, and said, "We aren't going to Gyndine."

"What? Master, the High Council—"

"—called on all Jedi able to respond," Tirien finished. "Even if we were sitting in the Second Chance ' s cockpit right this second, we'd still miss this time frame twice over. We can not get there in time."

"And what about Vandak?"

To her utter astonishment, Tirien's lips hinted at a smile. "Narasi, we often get missions alone, so you may not have gathered this over the years, but there are other Jedi in the galaxy besides the two of us, Mali, and Aldayr."

Narasi glowered at him. "Jedi as good as you? Or Mali?"

"And you?"

"I'm…scrappy!"

He actually laughed. "Yes, Jedi as good as us. Narasi, this isn't a quest, it's a war.  Two Jedi are not going to bring down the entire Sith Empire alone just with force of will, a handful of holocron skills, and scrappiness."

His calm was making her more frustrated by the moment, and she paced away, growling in the back of her throat. She did not shame herself by kicking any furniture, but she did put her hands on a desk to lean her weight down, torn inside. People like us aren't meant for guard duty. Aldayr had been right; as peaceful as Alderaan was—and as pleasant a change as it made to walk amongst civilians who didn't tense as she approached, whisper as she passed, and spit on the ground when she was gone—she didn't belong here. Not really. There was work to be done elsewhere, and it was on the battle lines and in the wild places of the galaxy, where the innocent would only be protected by those willing to face mortal danger on their behalf, that Jedi truly belonged.

"You're still conflicted," Tirien observed.

"I just…I feel like we should be doing something. If not Vandak, then…something."

"That's because you have a hero's heart."

Deeply touched, Narasi stood and gave her master a smile, but she noticed his own had faded. "Thank you."

"It wasn't entirely a compliment." He frowned. "You want to help people—you want to be the shield between the innocent and the thousand evils that will prey upon them given the slightest chance. And that's noble, Narasi; it's the fundamental spirit of a Jedi Knight.  But pushed too far it becomes dangerous, to you and to others.  Being a Jedi isn't about being a hero; heroes are made by praise, and accolades, and parades in their honor for all the wonderful things they've done.  That isn't the Jedi way.  Being a Jedi is about service—without any thought of reward, without any thought that the people you serve will ever even know your name or what you've done.  A thousand years from now, when this war is nothing but information in a data book, it's possible that nobody in the galaxy, even Jedi, will know my name, and that's all right with me.  Make sure it's all right with you."

Narasi had never thought about it quite that way, and she pondered it in silence. Tirien gave her a moment to think, then spoke again.

"The Council wants us here—we still can't be sure the Organas are safe, especially since the Sith failed on their first try. We'll remain here until we're ordered otherwise."

"And hope Darth Vandak doesn't get away?" Narasi asked glumly.

"And trust in the Force," Tirien corrected, "and place our faith in our fellow Jedi."