Igniting the Stars/Part 5

"Take two ships down?" Grayv suggested.

"Agreed," said Lishedra with a nod. "If anything happens to one, it leaves the other to face Vandak."

Grayv nodded and smiled, but muttered through his smile to Krajjey, "I actually just meant it'd be more comfortable, but I'm not averse to a little grim now and then…"

"Good," Cienis said coolly, walking past him. "Then you're all set for Vandak."

Grayv rolled his eyes behind the other Human's back, but Krajjey just grunted. Master Kirthi and Lishedra paired up, taking their Padawans with them, and so Grayv and Krajjey would up with Cienis Favand, the sullen Sentinel of the Circarpous sector, and Grayv's old Clan mate.

Grayv nudged Lukkad as they set off. "Feeling ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Lukkad replied.

Grayv grinned. "Well then, old friend, let's hope today's the day you're Lucky."

Lukkad snuffled through his nose and didn't reply, but he tagged along into the shuttle Grayv and Krajjey had requisitioned from the Navy before their mad flight from Mimban to make it to Gyndine in time. Gyndine Shipyards Control gave them a perfunctory query before sending them on their way downside.

"The Council didn't warn them Vandak was coming?" Krajjey asked.

Grayv could sense his Padawan's disapproval, but before he could speak to it, Cienis said, "No, they didn't. The people below have no idea what's about to happen to them—assuming it isn't already happening."

Grayv thought he probably could've gotten a good sense of the man's feelings on the subject even without the Force. "You disapprove?"

"You don't? They're innocent people."

"If they'd been tipped off, Vandak might've gotten a sense of it," Grayv volunteered over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on his flying. "Could've spooked him."

"Yes, because as we all know, one of Darth Vandak's defining qualities is that he's easily startled."

Krajjey growled, and Grayv raised a hand off the control yoke in a placating gesture—his Padawan was a good student and a brave man, but as well as he accepted the discipline and leadership inherent in both the Jedi Order and the war effort, he was correspondingly intolerant of cynics and Negative Narflaarbs. To move the conversation along, he asked, "You know anything about this place where we're supposed to find him?"

"It's a major interchange—the perfect target if he's trying to make a statement." Guiding the shuttle through the atmosphere, Grayv didn't look back to check the expression that went with Cienis's pause, but his tone didn't make it much of a mystery. "There's a main thoroughfare running through, with a bunch of open-air shops criss-crossed by skyways. He could come at us from any direction, in all three dimensions."

"But then can't we come at him from multiple directions at once?" Krajjey asked.

"In theory. Personally, I think we'd have better luck trying to bait him into a trap—a bomb, or a containment net, or something."

"Vandak's supposed to be quite powerful, even aside from the lightsaber mastery," Lukkad piped up. "Would a containment net even hold him?"

"And a bomb risks harming civilians," Grayv pointed out.

He sensed Cienis's spike of frustration. "If we'd even had a whole day to plan, we could have done so much more, even if no other Jedi showed up. What's the Council playing at?"

"Maybe they didn't get the intel any sooner," Lukkad suggested.

"Then if any of us survive this, we need to have a word with Republic Intelligence."

Krajjey gripped the arms of his acceleration chair so hard Grayv thought he might tear them off. Grayv, too, was beginning to find the Jedi Sentinel wearing, but he opted to defuse the situation; a confrontation now might sow chaos among their ranks when they very much needed harmony. "We're through the cloud cover. Where do you advise we touch down?"

Cienis gave him directions to a spaceport only a few minutes' walk from the site where, according to the Jedi Council, they could end Darth Vandak's reign of terror for good and all. Grayv lowered the shuttle into the first available dock; Lishedra did a loop of the spaceport before settling into one a few bays away. As they filed out, Grayv wondered whether a mind trick might be justified to get past customs—he had no need to save a handful of credits, but time really might be a factor. To his surprise, however, the docking agent shook Cienis's hand with both of his, and from ten meters away Grayv could sense the man's profound gratitude and respect.

"What was that about?" he asked as they left the bay without paying a credit or signing a form.

"Expansion Region thing," Cienis said without looking at Grayv or stopping. "People out here have this funny habit of caring when Jedi treat them like people instead of just tactical possessions. Who'd've thought?"

Grayv was glad of the chance to pick up his pace when he spotted Lishedra. "See anything from up there?"

"Enough lifeform readings that we need to make sure this doesn't go sideways," the Chagrian replied. "Thoughts on our approach?"

"Oh, I'll be handing you off to the local expert for that one."

Grayv gestured, and after a moment of staring toward the spaceport entrance with narrowed eyes, Cienis turned and reiterated his description of the Yractos Commercial Commons, though Lishedra asked more probing questions than Grayv had, and Cienis rewarded her with far lengthier descriptions and even his own strategic insights. Trying not to be miffed, Grayv noticed Master Kirthi saying a few words to her Padawan, the Drall Elmir, before taking a seat right there on the spaceport floor and dropping into a moment of meditation. The two tiny Padawan friends, Elmir and the Chadra-Fan Bekli, went a small distance off, embracing before conferring in tones too soft to hear. Grayv admired their close friendship, though it made him think he ought to give Lukkad some encouragement. His old Clan mate was clearly working for some meditation too, but with much less success than Master Kirthi.

But this might be the last chance Grayv had to talk to Krajjey before the battle erupted—perhaps the last ever—and after the Force, a master owed his first allegiance to his Padawan. He waved Krajjey over, then reached up to take the ZeHethbra by the elbows, the highest point he could comfortably reach. "You ready?"

This close, Krajjey almost had to look straight down to meet his master's eyes. "I am, Master."

"I know you think Consulars are all standoffish hand-wavers when it comes to battle," Grayv said with a grin, and Krajjey bared his sharp teeth in a smile of his own at the old joke, "but I like to think I haven't disappointed you too badly as a lightsaber instructor, and I imagine Master Kirthi's no slouch either, so where we go's going to depend on a lot of things—that's all on Lishedra. But you're a front lines kind of guy, Krajjey; you're going to be right in the thick of this."

"I understand, Master."

"Don't get angry, and remember to fight smarter, not harder." It was blunt, but Grayv didn't know how much time he had; at any moment Lishedra might order them to move out. Grayv pointed up at his Padawan's muzzle. "Now more than ever it's important to control the teeth baring, the growling and spitting, and such; not a thing you do is going to intimidate this man, so don't waste a second or a drop of energy trying."

Krajjey stroked the whiskers on one side of his muzzle. "What about my spray?"

Grayv frowned as he thought about the ZeHethbra projectile chemical funk, then shook his head. "Might or might not work on Vandak; Anzati are different biologically than any other Humanoids, and Vandak's powerful. But it probably will distract the others; might even hurt those two little Padawans.  Use that only if Vandak kills all the rest of us and you're left against him alone."

Krajjey growled and laid one hand on Grayv's shoulder; the hand swallowed his body halfway up his neck. "You won't die this day, Master, and neither will I."

"As the Force wills it, my friend," Grayv replied with a smile. Then he grew serious again to add, "Remember, patience. Form V is about strength and offense, but that doesn't mean—"

"—aggression," Krajjey completed. "A Jedi must apply every form of combat and every use of the Force with compassion, even if compassion for the many demands we take the life of the one."

Grayv grinned. "Repeating myself in my old age, eh? All right, all right, you're ready."

"Perhaps even for the Trials, Master?"

Grayv rolled his eyes. "Now who's repeating himself? We come through this alive, we'll talk about the Trials."

"None of us are likely to face a greater trial than what awaits us here," Master Kirthi said.

Grayv turned away from his Padawan to find the other six Jedi clustering together again. He led Krajjey back over, and Lishedra nodded. "All right, a lot's going to depend on where Vandak is, but here's the core plan: Master Kirthi, Krajjey, and I will be the first line of direct attack. Grayv, Cienis, and Bekli, stay close enough to reinforce us if we need it.  Lukkad and Elmir, support us from a distance with the Force—hit him with debris, unbalance the ground under him, whatever you can do."

"We're of one mind on something else," Cienis added. "It might offend the High Council's sensibilities to spell it out, but I don't think anybody here seriously thinks we're going to 'apprehend' Darth Vandak, so don't try. The second any of us has an opening, we kill him."

He looked at Master Kirthi as if expecting she might argue, but after a moment she shook her furry head. "Darth Vandak will never be taken alive. Do not harm innocent people, but if killing Vandak requires that one or two—or all—of us die, so be it, as long as we bring him down too."

"Try to keep at him three-on-one," Grayv advised. "The Nine-Oh-Five said he's a Jar'Kai master, and he was able to take on Kal-Di and Darakhan at the same time. Maybe adding one more blade to the mix will be what makes the difference."

He wondered belatedly whether reminding the group that Vandak had single-handedly pushed two of the Order's greatest swordsmen to the brink of defeat had been the best approach for morale, but Lishedra nodded. "Come at him from multiple directions—it keeps us out of each other's way, and it prevents him from keeping all the threats in front of him at the same time."

"And do not be afraid," Master Kirthi said. "Vandak will frighten you if he can, and fear is poison to the light. Remember that you are Jedi, and let the Force flow through you."

She extended her clawed hands. "Let us meditate."

"Time is short, Master," Lishedra said.

"It is," the Selonian agreed, "but there is no victory without the Force, and we serve no one by rushing to failure."

They formed a circle of clasped hands, even Cienis, letting the Force flow amongst them all. Grayv could feel himself supercharged by their combined energy, the nerves and confidence and faith and love and determination and courage all merging into a single, focused will. All that they did here, they did to preserve life, to defend the innocent against the dark. Although Grayv opened his mouth, he thought another voice spoke through him as he said, "There is no emotion, there is peace."

"There is no ignorance, there is knowledge," said Lukkad, his voice firm and authoritative.

Some of the lines around Cienis's eyes softened as he said, "There is no passion, there is serenity."

"There is no chaos, there is harmony," the two small Padawans, Bekli and Elmir, said in unison.

And as one, the eight Jedi declared, "There is no death, there is the Force."

A moment passed in silence, and then, one-by-one, they broke their grips and stepped back from the circle. Nodding crisply, Cienis said, "Now let's go make Vandak one with it."