Grim Tidings/Part 5

"Stand by to cut in sublights," Tirien commanded.

"Ready," Narasi agreed.

Tirien drew back the hyperdrive lever and the cascading blur shrank to a thousand distant stars. Gizmo, perched on Narasi's shoulder, gave a croak, sprang to the floor, and hopped off down the corridor toward the hold.

"Gizmo!" Narasi called. Tirien had an order to focus on the tip of his tongue when, without looking, Narasi flipped the sublights on. He contented himself with a grumble as he banked toward Carosi IV below.

"Hello, travelers," came over the comm. "Please identify."

"Well, that was friendly," Narasi observed. Keying the transmitter, she said, "Freighter Second Chance, requesting permission to land in Life Point."

"Of course. We're sending your navigational information now."

"Trusting, aren't they?" Slejux observed from his usual spot behind Tirien's seat.

Narasi frowned. "Remember when that wasn't a bad thing?"

"That's before my time," Tirien replied. "I remember hearing about it…"

Life Point was a well-ordered city of clean buildings between clean streets; even from a kilometer up Tirien could see and sense the calm below. Under other circumstances he would have enjoyed a long stay to meditate; he suspected Carosi IV's atmosphere could be as rejuvenating to the mind and the soul as to the body. But the trip from the Crescentia had taken two days—days Narasi had spent dutifully securing every access panel and loose grate in the ship—and it was already evening in Life Point, the light of the star Carosi dwindling pink at the horizon. The Festival of Stars began the day after tomorrow.

As he settled the Second Chance down into a docking bay, he said, "Let Slejux and me lead here."

He sensed more than he saw Narasi's twitch. "You think they might react badly to a Zygerrian?"

"It's more for our benefit than yours," Slejux said before Tirien could reply. "We'd like just a moment of the awe and respect that comes with being Jedi Knights before they are entirely and forever diverted upon seeing the living legend in our midst, and we are relegated to being Narasi Rican's companions…"

Tirien held up a hand, though he appreciated Slejux's efforts; Narasi snickered once in spite of herself. "In this region of space, yes; we have no way of knowing if or how often the Zygerrians have visited before. And since we're coming to warn them about a slave raid, they might…"

"Get mixed signals?" Narasi suggested.

"Exactly."

"Got it." She sighed, but said, "I'll get Gizmo's nest situated and open up some rations for him."

"Glad we've all got our priorities straight," Tirien muttered as she disappeared back into the hold and he and Slejux stepped down the ramp.

The Carosite who met them did not ask their purpose, only inquiring how long they planned to stay; Tirien could truthfully reply "a week at most". He sensed Slejux stretching out with the Force as Tirien handed over their BoSS datapad; the Melitto Knight's danger sense was as finely-honed as any, and Tirien trusted him to detect any ill intent or traps that lay in wait. By the time Slejux made a show of ambling past the Carosite before shaking his head, though, Tirien had come to the same conclusion. If Carosi IV was a trap, no one in the vicinity was in on it.

"Where might we find the Premier's office?" Tirien asked.

The Carosite dock attendant gave him the address and basic directions, then said, "You'll likely find it closed at this hour, though; every being needs rest to remain in good health."

"Perhaps tomorrow, then," Tirien offered along with a bow. When the Carosite ambled away, Tirien tapped the comlink on his wrist, and after a moment Narasi came down the ramp, her hood up to shadow her face and conceal her features.

"I left Gizmo enough food for a couple days, and some extra wires," she said.

"My relief is palpable."

"You don't think it'll be more than that, do you?"

"Unlikely, but possible."

"Hmm. What if he gets hungry?"

"The Carosites here seem trustworthy; leave the ramp down."

"But what if he runs away?!"

"What a loss that would be…"

Narasi growled and Slejux laughed as they set out on foot through Life Point. The city was as pleasant at ground level as it had appeared from on high, and though they encountered few non-Carosites, those beings who did spare them a second glance only felt of well-intentioned curiosity and solicitousness in the Force. One or two advised Tirien that his disturbing complexion might be due to a lack of oxygen or a genetic deficiency causing methemoglobinemia, but their inability to see Narasi clearly and Slejux's raw alien-ness saved them from unsolicited advice. Narasi shivered at first, and Tirien realized other beings might find Carosi IV's atmosphere chilly; after a moment, though, he sensed her using Tapas to keep herself warm and gave her an encouraging nod.

The sun had set by the time they reached the Premier's office; a bronzium plaque mounted beside the gate proclaimed G OVERNMENT IS NO MORE THAN ENSURING SOCIETY'S HEALTH. A Carosite stood before the gate, but Tirien could not quite bring himself to think of the being as a guard; she bore no weapons, and while she kept her eyes on the trio while she bowed to them, her mind felt more of curiosity than wariness.

"Good evening, gentlebeings," she said. "I'm sorry to tell you the Premier's office is closed for the evening. Perhaps you'd like to return in the morning?  Rest can do wonders for the body."

"Is there any way we could see the Premier tonight?" Tirien asked. "It's urgent."

"Unfortunately, the burden of governance can be quite taxing to health; excessive work can be detrimental to physical and mental wellbeing," the sentry replied.

Tirien reached for the Force and started to raise his hand. Narasi stepped up behind him, kicked the back of his heel, and muttered. "No mind tricks."

Thoughts are inviolate, he remembered. He measured the Carosite for a moment, then decided to drop the pretense of tourism and drew his robe back from his left hip, exposing his curved lightsaber hilt. "My name is Tirien Kal-Di. I'm a Jedi Knight; this is my fellow Jedi Slejux Nissatak, and my Padawan apprentice Narasi Rican.  We believe Life Point may be in imminent danger, and we've been sent here to protect you.  We need to speak to the Premier at once."

He watched the Carosite's small, beady eyes take in his lightsaber and study Slejux and Narasi in turn. The nostrils at the end of her snout flared, but she bowed. "Carosi IV knows of the reputation of the Jedi Order for healing. I welcome you, Master Jedi.  Please, come with me."

She tapped a keycard to a panel attached to the gate, and it swung open to admit them. The three Jedi followed in silence as their Carosite escort led them into the compound, past the entrance to the office complex, and toward a smaller building to one side. The unarmed sentries there admitted them after a conversation in Carosite so short Tirien thought of it as a chat, and they proceeded into a hallway painted in soft colors and decorated with artwork Tirien thought designed to inspire tranquility.

"Please wait here," the sentry asked them before disappearing through a door.

"Well, that was easy," Narasi whispered.

"Getting here is one thing," Tirien countered. "Motivating them to form a defense is another."

"I sense no duplicity in them, though," Slejux commented.

Narasi nodded. "Me either. If it's a trap, it's news to them."

Tirien could not dispute that point; he felt nowhere the tension and anticipation that presaged an ambush. He took the opportunity for altus sopor, recentering himself in the Force before the doors opened again.

When they did he was ready for the Carosite sentry's reply. "Please come in."

They followed her into a waiting room where another Carosite waited. This one was dressed in robes with fine embroidery but made of durable, functional fabric; gray fur glittered amidst the broader swaths of brown, but she rose and bowed for them with no little grace. "Welcome, Masters Jedi. I am Kodo Fad, Premier of Carosi IV.  I'm given to understand you've come on urgent business."

"We have, Your Excellency," Tirien said, and he recited the message that had brought the three of them across the galaxy to the Carosites' aid. Kodo Fad looked at the message on Tirien's beacon transceiver when he offered it to her, but said nothing until they were done.

"This is difficult news to hear," she admitted. "No less because, if this danger is real, it would not be new. We have some small skill in the arts of healing, but treating the diseases of sentients seems to do no more than encouraging slavers like superbugs to prey upon our people."

"Then this has happened before?" Slejux asked.

"It wounds me to say that it has, and if such treatment exists as can cure that wound, I do not know it," Fad lamented. "The Zygerrians in particular seem inclined to prey upon our people, though that may be due to no more than their proximity."

"Speaking of which, Premier, in the interest of transparency…" Tirien said, and nodded to Narasi. He sensed her steeling herself, but she lowered her hood.

Kodo Fad studied Narasi a moment, then looked back at Tirien. "Yes?"

Tirien blinked. "I thought it best you knew up front that my Padawan is a Zygerrian, but I assure you, she's as loyal a Jedi as either of us."

Fad nodded. "I had no doubt. That a body is wracked by disease does not mean every organ must be infected."

Unsure how to respond to that, Tirien said nothing, but Narasi smiled. "If we can protect your people, Premier, we're going to."

"Thank you."

"Do you have an army?"

Fad shook her head. "Carosi IV has little in the way of defense. We have a few small arms to protect our patients, but nothing capable of repulsing slavers.  When the Zygerrians have raided us in the past, they haven't troubled our hospitals, and so many of my people are slow to bear arms against them."

"What kind of force have they come in?" Tirien asked.

"When they've come, we've seen a few dozen slavers," Fad replied. "All armed, however, and with no hesitation to harm innocents."

"How many ships?" Narasi asked.

"A single ship for gathering captives, but fighters fly overhead until the raid is finished."

Tirien considered it. Kodo Fad showed no more duplicity than her guards had, and so Tirien opted to treat the mysterious beacon message as genuine for the moment. Even so, three Jedi against dozens of slavers made for bad odds with civilians in the mix; he assumed he and Slejux were worth a dozen Zygerrians apiece, and Narasi could be powerful when roused, but the need to assure no innocents were harmed could limit their ability to fight back. They could probably engineer an ambush, but if the Zygerrians had fighter cover, that might do no more than instigate a bombing campaign, to say nothing of whatever reserve forces the Zygerrians might leave in orbit.

"How can we help best, Premier?" Slejux asked.

"We can not ask you to endanger yourselves on our behalf," Fad said.

"We insist," Narasi answered, and there was an undercurrent of intensity that prevented even the Carosite from objecting.

"Then I must leave your assistance to your discretion," the Premier said. "I am a leader, but not a warrior, and I know nothing of how best to bear arms against others. I ask only that you prioritize preserving life over taking it."

"Of course," Slejux said, and the three Jedi bowed.

The Jedi declined an offer of a room in the Premier's residence, preferring to get the lay of Life Point, but the Premier gave them a notice instructing the city to render them such assistance as they required. The Carosites' capital was a city of low buildings, apart from a few that rose to a dozen stories or so. As they set off across town, Narasi asked, "So it's just the three of us?"

"I'm afraid so," Slejux agreed. "If we didn't have you with us, Tirien and I might be in trouble. As it is, we'll have to show some discretion so we merely rout the slavers without massacring them."

Narasi snorted once, but Tirien didn't smile. "We don't know enough about their tactics. If it's anything like Vjun, they'll have a cruiser in orbit to support the drop ship.  Narasi, do you know anything we don't?"

Her lips pulled back from her fangs; Tirien thought it might have been a reflex. "I got taken for the Order when I was six, Master, I never went on a slave raid!"

He stopped, looking at her without emotion until she mastered herself and stopped glowering. "And you've done no researches into them since then?"

She met his eyes, but after a moment some resistance in hers buckled, and she sighed. "Nothing that helps here. I know how the slaving process works—capture, auction, direct sales—and how the High King governs Zygerria, but I don't know anything about specific tactics."

"All right." They walked on, but Slejux caught Tirien's subtle gesture and dropped back. Waiting until he was a courteous distance away, Tirien said, "Make sure you have a handle on your emotions, Narasi."

Her sigh was half a hiss. "I just…I hate being associated with them."

"I understand that, and why, but I'm not trying to associate you with them; I'm trying to gather the information we need to keep innocent, pacifistic people from being harmed."

"I know."

She stared at the ground as they walked on; after a few meters Tirien touched her shoulder. "A Jedi who happens to be a Zygerrian—"

"—not a Zygerrian who happens to be a Jedi," she finished, and she managed a smile. "Thanks, Master."

He nodded and drew his hand back. "Since you do happen to be a Zygerrian, if the slavers are Zygerrians too, can you think of anything that will help?"

She shook her head. "I've been wracking my brains on it the whole way here. It sounds like kinda bad odds.  I mean, they're not stupid, but they're not cowards, either.  They'll fight if they have a chance, and they work with the Sith so much that they have to know Jedi aren't invincible.  Dozens of slavers against three Jedi?  With concentrated fire…"

She trailed off with a grim expression, and Tirien nodded. "Maybe Slejux could hold against that for a while, but neither of us can counter that kind of onslaught."

"Well, just focus really hard, Master, maybe you can use the Force for the ones your blade misses."

Tirien appreciated her ability to smirk, even if there was an edge to it, but he just grunted. "We'd do better to split them up and pick them off."

"Unless they figure it out and start killing people to retaliate," Narasi noted.

Tirien sighed and said nothing more, thinking as they walked through the quiet streets. The droid at Life Point's tallest building yielded to the Premier's note of permission, and the three Jedi took the turbolift to the roof. Narasi snugged her robe around her body and Tirien's blew around his legs in the breeze as they stood at a guardrail and surveilled the city below.

"At least the spaceport is off to one side," Narasi observed, pointing. "They can't spread out every which way."

"Unless they land in one of those parks," Tirien countered. "You could get a decent cargo hauler down in some of them."

"I'll have to take your word for it," Slejux noted; his faceless head was pointed at the stars as if contemplating the mysteries of the universe.

Tirien sighed as Narasi chuckled. "We both know you can use Force Sight, Slejux."

"Certainly I can," he agreed, "but the visual spectrum is of greater use here, and I defer to your greater expertise with it."

Tirien rolled his eyes. "Anyway, we can't trust them to land at the spaceport. There are just too many avenues for us to counter them all."

"Well then, Master," Narasi said, and this time her grin looked likely to stick, "I'd say we'll have to use my favorite strategy!"

"I'm afraid to even ask."

She gave him a lofty look. "I'll have you know this strategy is endorsed by no less a Jedi Knight than Kenza Rowkwani, thank you very much."

Tirien groaned, but Slejux walked into the trap instead. "And what wisdom does the conqueror of General Seldec have to offer, Padawan?"

"Wing it!"