AKwxlady Obi Wans Daughter Part three Chapter one

“Miss Ki’tia? Capt’n say’s they won’t let us land. Him wants you ta come to the bridge an’ talk with ‘um.” It was Chin. One of Captain Talon Karrde’s men. The only other person he had trusted with the location of the planet where they were trying to land for her, Munin.

“Okay, Chin,” Ki’tia replied. “Thank you.” The Force was telling her talk was not going to help. The residents of Munin were not going to allow Karrde’s ship the Wild Karrde to land, regardless of what she said. She heard Chin’s boots retreating down the passageway, he was returning to the bridge. Ki’tia’s sanctuary was on that planet, she had to get down there. She had to find the man named Kal Skirata. That was the name given to her by the Wookiee Chief Kerrithrarr, when he sent her here from Kashyyyk.

Ki’tia felt with the Force outside her door, there was no one in the passage way. She put on the boots and tunic given to her by Chin when he and Karrde rescued her from Ord Mantell spaceport, where she had been hiding from Imperial troops and Grand Admiral Thrawn, whose baby she now carried. So much had happened since she left Master Yoda on Dagobah, and she had dealt with it all by herself, but now she had to get to this Kal Skirata. She had another life to care for and she needed help. Kerrithrarr would not have sent her here if he did not trust the people on Munin to take her in and help her.

Chin had shown Ki’tia where the emergency escape pods for the Wild Karrde were located. She went to them now. Ki’tia was not used to technology. There was little where she lived on Kashyyyk, and none on Dagobah. She managed to open the hatch for one of the escape pods and entered. Lights and alarms started sounding. She wouldn’t have much time before someone noticed her there and stopped her exit from the ship. Fortunately, next to the hatch was a large red button with the words “Release Pod” in basic and several other languages. Ki’tia hit the button and the pod lurched away from the Wild Karrde and toward the planet Munin. Someday she would owe Talon Karrde a favor, she hoped it would not require too much to repay.

The escape pod fell toward Munin at an alarming speed. When it entered the planetary atmosphere the pod began to rock and bounce wildly, and Ki’tia could find no controls. She hadn’t thought to strap herself in while in space, and as she now tried to attach the straps, she was bouncing around the inside of the pod so much she couldn’t get a hold on a set a straps to secure herself to. Ki’tia could see the planet surface coming up quickly, she had to brace for impact.

“The escape pod has entered our atmosphere,” Mereel Skirata reported. “Do you want to track it or just blow it out of the sky?” He turned to his brother who looked nearly identical to him, a little difference in the pattern of lines on their faces and graying of their dark hair, but their body size and shape were the same, as were their strong dark eyes.

“Track it for now,” Ordo Skirata answered. “Let’s get the bio readings from the pod. If there is just one human female in there we’ll continue to track it. Anything else and you can destroy it.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mereel said. “Bio readings coming up.” He entered commands to the controls in front of him. “Yup, just one human female.” He continued to monitor the readings coming in. “Woo! Hoo! Lookie here.” He pointed at the datascreen.

Ordo was frowning, “What is it?” He looked over his brother’s shoulder.

“One plus human female. She’s pregnant!” Mereel smiled and wiggled his eyebrows. “Maybe someone’s sending us another clone baby. I wonder which one of the boys has been naughty this time?”

“It may be a moot point,” Ordo said pointing at the screen. “She’s out of control and landing hard. Get the speeder and contact Mij. It looks like he is going to have a patient, if she’s lucky.”

“She’s coming down in the mountains behind Kal’buir’s place,” Mereel noted. “It’ll take Mij awhile to get up here. I’ll have him meet us at the yaim, we’ll get her and bring her back here. He can move her to the medcenter later if she’s alive.”

The yaim was the Skirata clan home in the language of Mandalorians, and was situated along the shore of a mountain lake on Munin. It was the second Skirata yaim, and it was a secret. Aruetyc, outsiders, were never to be informed about the planet Munin. Ordo was worried. Even if this woman was pregnant with a clone’s baby, she should have been directed to Kyrimorut on Mandalore. Munin was their place of ba’slan shev’la, strategic disappearance. They had started coming here 18 years ago when things got too dangerous on Mandalore. Now, they maintained both clan outposts, but Munin was a clone world, where the clones that survived the Jedi war, what they called the Clone Wars, could live and grow old in peace. A human female should not have been able to find them.

Ordo was checking the charge on his Verpine shatter gun when Mereel climbed into the speeder. “Got her crash coordinates,” he smiled. “You going to shoot first and ask who’s it is later?” He nodded at the Verpine.

“Just fly,” Ordo commanded. He was not in a laughing mood.

The escape pod had landed in a snowbank, still it sustained significant damage. The hatch was open when Mereel and Ordo approached. “Looks like the hatch sprung open on impact,” Mereel observed. “There’s snow inside the pod.” He knelt at the opening and reached into the pod, pulling out some of the snow. After a couple scoops of snow he felt the woman. “I’ve got her.” Mereel carefully brushed the snow away from her. “She isn’t strapped in. There may be broken bones. Hand me the medscanner.” Ordo stepped over to the pod with the medscanner. He had the Verpine targeted on the woman. “Come on, Ordo,” Mereel said, exasperated. “She’s beat up, unconscious, and pregnant. I don’t think you need the Verp.” Ordo holstered the weapon and leaned over to look at the medscanner. “Well, no broken bones, lucky,” Mereel showed the readout to Ordo. “She’s tiny. I’ll get her out and we can wrap her in the blankets from the speeder.”

Ordo laid a blanket on the snow and Mereel placed the woman on top of it. He covered her with the blanket, then added another one for warmth, she was only wearing a tunic and lightweight boots. Mereel picked her up in his arms to carry her to the speeder. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Kal Skirata,” she said, looking at Mereel. He just stared at her, his eyes wide. “I need to find Kal Skirata.” The woman lost consciousness. The two men looked at each other, both identical faces surprised and grim.

Kal Skirata looked down at the woman on the medcenter bed. She was fair skinned, milky blond hair, about 1.5 meters tall and Mereel said her eyes were blue. She didn’t remind him of anyone he could remember, but then he was 86 years old, he’d forgotten a lot of people in his day.

“Do you know her, Kal’buir?” Ordo asked. He was standing next to his adopted father.

“No idea,” Kal replied. “That was all she said?” Ordo just shook his head in the affirmative. “How is she Mij?” Kal asked the doctor.

“I’ve got bad news and bad news,” Mij Gilamar replied. He was a tough man, in his seventies. Part doctor and part Mandalorian warrior.

“I scanned her doc,” Mereel said, confused. “She had lots of contusions and some head trauma, but no breaks. She can’t be dying?”

“Oh, she’s not dying,” Mij rubbed his chin. “In fact, I’d say she’s healing herself, somehow.” He looked at the other men in the room and raised his eyebrows. “And, quite rapidly, according to the scanner.”

Ordo drew his Verpine and pointed it at her. “She’s a Jedi,” he said. Kal put his hand on the weapon.

“Now, son, we don’t know that for sure,” Kal said, pointing the weapon toward the floor. “What’s the rest of the bad news, Mij?”

“That baby’s not from a clone father,” Mij pointed with his chin at the woman. “In fact, the second half of the DNA isn’t even human, although I’ve never seen anything like it. Oh, it’s close, but it’s not human.” Ordo raised the Verpine once more. No one stopped him.

Kal Skirata rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Gather the rest of the Null brothers and find Bard’ika,” Kal ordered. Mareel pulled out his comlink and started talking quietly into it. “Can you bring her around?” Kal asked the doctor.

“Not without possibly harming the baby,” Mij answered. “It is still a baby, Kal.”

“Bard’ika and Jaing will be here in about two hours,” Mereel reported. “The rest of the brothers are on the way.”

“Thanks, son,” Kal said. Ordo remained standing with the Verpine pointed at the woman.

A few minutes later the door opened. Three men walked in, all exactly the same in build, with slightly differently haircuts and one wearing a beard. “Hi Buir,” Kom’rk said, he had a neatly trimmed beard. “What’s up?” The other two men, Prudii and A’den went over and hugged their father.

“This woman dropped in on us today,” Mereel spoke up. “She popped out of a freighter flying hacked transponder codes, knew the name of our planet and our location, and when we got to her escape pod the only thing she said was that she needed to find Kal Skirata. Oh, and she’s pregnant with an alien baby, oh, and she may be a Jedi. Did I miss anything?” Three blasters cleared their holsters and pointed at the still unconscious woman.

“I say it’s time we wake her,” Ordo said as he holstered his Verpine and started walking toward the bed.

“I wouldn’t recommend using drugs on a pregnant woman,” Mij warned.

“I’m not planning to use medication to wake her up,” Ordo growled. He grabbed the woman by the shoulders and started shaking her. “Wake up, Jetii.” he spat. “Wake up!”

“Ord’ika, you’ll hurt her,” Kal warned.

“Then she can heal herself,” Ordo answered. He shook the woman harder and yelled. “Wake up, woman!” He drew his hand back to slap her across the face when her eyes opened.

“No, please!” Ki’tia cried and turned her head away from the slap heading toward her face. Another man stopped the arm just before it made contact with her head.

“Ordo, ner vod, wait,” Mereel caught his brother’s arm just before he struck the terrified woman. Mereel pulled Ordo away from the bed.

“There must be some mistake,” Ki’tia said looking around the room. “I’m looking for Kal Skirata? Do you know him, or know where I can find him? I was told he would give me sanctuary.”

Kal stepped up beside the bed. “I’m Kal Skirata. Who are you child, how did find us and who do you need sanctuary from?” Kal looked like a nice old man, but the big men behind him didn’t look nice at all. They looked ready to kill her, and they felt that way in the Force.

“My name is Ki’tia,” she began, “and since Vader and the Emperor are dead, I think I’m just wanted by the Imperial Navy and Grand Admiral Thrawn, it’s his child I’m carrying.” She put her hand over her stomach and looked down demurely.

“But, you’re a Jedi,” Ordo accused pulling his Verpine again.

“I am not a Jedi!” Ki’tia exclaimed. “I am an A’nir, a healer.”

“You are a Force user!” Ordo placed the muzzle of his Verpine against her temple. Ki’tia’s eyes widened. She was clearly terrified.

“Udesiir Ordo, relax son,” Kal said to Ordo, gently pulling the hand with the Verpine away from the woman’s head.

“I don’t understand,” Ki’tia said looking at Kal. “Kerrithrarr said I would be safe with you. I’ve been trying to get here for months. I’ve been through so much to get here and now you want to kill me.” She was trying very hard not to cry. She looked around at all the men in the room, then she returned her gaze to Kal. “May I use the ‘fresher?”

“Yes, of course,” Kal answered. “Out the door, third door on the right.”

Ki’tia ran as soon as the door to the room with the men closed. She headed out the front door and noticed a collection of speeders. She tried the first one, but the starter button did nothing. She tried the second speeder and the engine ignited when she pushed the button. She had never flown a speeder, but she had seen them operated. She pulled back on the yoke control and the speeder shot up and forward. She was moving away from the house and over the lake. Now all she had to do was find the spaceport for this planet and find a ship to hide on to get away in. She directed the speeder away from the mountains.

After the woman left the room, Kal thought about her answer. “Do you think she meant Kerrithrarr of the Wookiees?” he asked. Then they all heard the sound of a speeder starting. Six men rushed out of the house in time to see a speeder fly beyond the far side of the lake.

“Well, she took the fastest one, mine,” said Mereel.

“That’s because you’re the only di’kutla here not to lock the starter,” Prudii replied.

“Hey,” Mereel responded, “I was carrying the woman into the house when we got here.”

“Enough,” Kal interrupted. “We need to get after her.”

The men jumped into three speeders and opened comm channels between them. “Where do you think she’ll go?” Mij asked, riding with Prudii.

“Likely to the spaceport,” Ordo answered. He was flying with Kal as a passenger.

“Do we have any ships departing anytime soon?” A’den asked.

“No,” Ordo replied. “We’ll catch her.”

“What did she call herself, an A’nir?” A’den asked. “Does anybody know what that is?”

“Just another name for Jedi,” Ordo growled. “They’re all the same.”

“I don’t know, son.” Kal said. “Why would Kerrithrarr of the Wookiees send a Jedi to us? I think we need to hear her story.” Papa Kal’s word was final, but first they had to find her.

It took Ki’tia a few minutes to understand the speeder controls. She learned direction and speed, and pushed the speed control to the maximum. The acceleration pushed her back into the seat. After about an hour she realized she was seeing an ocean on the horizon, she turned the speeder to follow the coastline, thinking that would be the natural place for a spaceport. It was getting dark and there was a concentration of lights along the coast a few kilometers ahead. She slowed the speeder and landed on the beach, a little distance from the lights. As she was walking along the beach she saw a starship fly overhead and appear to land. That must be the spaceport! Now she just had to find a ship and hide in it until they departed this planet.

“She’s landed my speeder on the beach about a kilometer from the spaceport,” Mereel reported to the group.

“Ordo, it’s Jaing, we’ve just landed at the main terminal,” Jaing’s comlink was connected to all the speeders. “Where do you want us to RV?”

“Stay there Jaing,” Ordo replied. “The woman got away from us. She took Mereel’s speeder and ditched it on the beech about a kilometer from you. She is likely making her way toward the port now, looking for a ship to stowaway in. Keep an eye out for her.”

“Will do,” Jaing answered. “What’s your ETA?”

“About twelve minutes,” Ordo answered. “We’re in three speeders.”

The tree speeders landed near Jaing’s cruiser at the spaceport. The brothers greeted each other with the typical Mando’a hand to arm clasp. Kal hugged Jaing and Jusik. Bardan Jusik was a former Jedi Knight who renounced the Jedi’s before Order 66. He had been adopted by Kal Skirata and now followed the Mando’a ways.

“We haven’t seen anything,” Jusik said, “and I don’t sense a Jedi.”

“She didn’t call herself a Jedi,” Mereel said. “She said she was an A’nir.” He shrugged.

“Well, I should be able to detect a Force user no matter what she is calling herself,” Jusik replied. He closed his eyes and allowed his senses to stretch out to the Force.

Ki’tia was hiding in the upper supports of the terminal hangar. She could see the men from the house below her, and two more had joined them. She could sense something. One of the new men was a Force user. He was a Jedi! Ki’tia quickly shut off her Force sense, but she was afraid he had touched her mind.

“She’s above us,” Jusik whispered to his brothers. “In the hangar supports, near the roof apex.”

“How the fierfek did she get up there!” A’den exclaimed.

“How are we going to get her down?” Prudii asked. “If we stun her, she’ll fall and die.” Ordo made a huffing noise.

“There’s no way we could get to her from the outside without her hearing us and moving away,” Jaing reasoned.

Kal stepped away from the group to stand directly under the young woman. “Ki’tia,” he raised his voice so she could hear him. “Ki’tia, it is Kal Skirata. Child, we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot here. Please come down and let’s talk. We won’t hurt you. Kerrithrarr is a friend to us. He rescued one of our brothers, Sev, who was wounded on Kashyyyk. I’d like to hear how you know Kerrithrarr and why he sent you to us.” Kal paused for a moment. They could see the light color of her tunic and hair against the darker color of the roof fabric. Kal turned to Jusik. “Bard’ika what do you sense from her?”

“She’s shut off her Force senses or blocking me,” Jusik replied. “She’s better at that than any Force user I’ve ever come across. Interesting defensive trick. I can sense she is terrified, not of the height she’s at, she’s terrified of us wanting to kill her, and there is something more that I don’t understand.” He continued to probe at her mind.

“Alright, boys,” Kal started, “everybody out of the hanger, except Bard’ika and me.” There was a choirs of ‘no’s’ from the Nulls, but Mij ushered them out of the hanger. Once they were gone, Kal call up to Ki’tia again. “Ki’tia,” he said with a raised voice so she could hear at that distance. “It’s just you, me and Bard’ika. Why don’t you come down, before you fall and hurt that baby?”

“No,” came her answer from above. “Not with the Jedi there.”

Kal and Jusik exchanged confused looks. Jusik shrugged his shoulders. Ordo walked back into the hanger and tapped Jusik on the back. Jusik understood the signal and left the hangar. “Ok, Ki’tia,” Kal called to her. “It’s just you and me, and Ordo. Will you come down now?” There was no answer, but they watched as Ki’tia started moving across the supports for the hanger roof. She swung from one support to another, causing Kal to suck in a quick breath and fear for her safety more than a few times. Ki’tia never missed a hand or foot hold as she spanned the roof, then jumped lightly to some crates and made her way to the floor. She walked over to where Kal and Ordo were standing, staring at her in disbelief. “Where did you learn to do that?” Kal asked.

“Kashyyyk,” she answered. “I lived with the Wookiees for part of my childhood.”

Kal removed his bantha hide jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Let’s go home,” he said, “and you can tell us all about it.”

Chapter 2, Obi-Wan’s Daughter main page