The Liberator/Part 16

Day 61 of the Liberation of Milagro

He had been nineteen, twenty at most; his lean muscle couldn't quite distract from the youthfulness of his features. He was among the first Milagroans commissioned to the newly-reconstituted Rogeum Spaceport Authority Police, and his silver badge still gleamed bright on his dark blue uniform jacket, mere centimeters from the charred hole in the center of his chest. His pink lips were soot-stained; in his dying seconds he had wheezed up the smoke filling his lungs.

Raven Kaivalt circled the younger man's body twice, then asked, "His service weapon?"

"Wasn't recovered, sir," an RSAP sergeant reported. "We think they took it."

"Bastards," spat an RSAP officer standing guard.

"Keep it together, Urdo," the sergeant cautioned.

Before Urdo could voice the caustic response Raven sensed forming, Raven asked, "Do we know who's responsible?"

"We have the ID from the ship docked where his body was found, sir," a tech offered. "Probably a fake, but we have a holo of it too."

"There have been some unsavory types hanging around since the Liberation, but we've seen more of them the last week or so," the sergeant added. "Ever since the Republic…"

Left us hanging was the politest end to the sentence Raven could imagine, and the ripples of hostility he sensed around him suggested the RSAP officers would not be that polite. "Those were the unauthorized actions of individuals within the Republic hierarchy. They're already being corrected."

Raven sensed his reassurance falling flat, and across the room Renata tensed. She was bright for her age, but there was simply no getting around the fact that no thirteen-year-old, even a Jedi, could stay attentive through day after day of trials involving thousands of pages of datafiles and scores of witnesses. So Raina had taken pity on her Padawan and reassigned her to Raven for the time being. They were hardly strangers, of course—in the months since Raina had selected Renata as her Padawan, the twins had been together frequently, and Renata was becoming a natural third member of the group—but having responsibility for her was a different animal altogether than merely letting her tag along. Just now Raven wondered how she was taking the situation, but he could hardly ask.

"And that's great, sir, but we've got people who need food and medicine now," the sergeant said.

"And if the Republic can't get it here—and Corellia can't get enough—people will turn to…unsavory types to provide the solution?" Raven asked.

"Yeah."

Another RSAP officer crossed his arms. "Kinda weird, isn't it? The timing.  I mean, we started having shortages what, two weeks ago?  Less?  And these people are already here with the goods people want?  Kinda short turnaround time."

Raven narrowed his eyes. "You think they knew before it happened."

"Black Sun and the Hutts have spies everywhere," the officer shrugged. "Wouldn't put it past 'em."

That was true enough, but, as the man had observed, even the Hutts or Black Sun would have had quite a task of getting supplies together and to Milagro in less than two weeks. That left only the possibility that the underworld had spies in the Republic administration; Raven was glad the officer apparently hadn't gotten there, for he certainly was not going to voice that aloud himself.

Instead, he asked, "Has General Darakhan been informed of this?"

"Our Watch Commander contacted Prime Minister Rufos, sir," the sergeant replied.

His words were courteous, but Raven sensed the undertone. We informed our leader, he thought it said. If you wish to inform your leader, that is your business. Raven had seen enough signs and graffiti bearing the legend F REE M ILAGRO O NLY over the past week to suspect how ill-advised he would be to press the point.

"And the Rogeum Constabulary? Are they leaning on their sources?" he asked.

"Above my paygrade, sir," the sergeant said. "You'd have to ask the Chief."

Raven thought for a moment, but he doubted they would be able to provide any more; they had done what they were trained to do, and higher-level matters would need to be handled at higher levels. Laying a hand on the dead man's forehead, he said, "Miral tamayathi cherru fa sakal shuit'sera."

"What does that mean?" one of the officers asked.

"It's a traditional Tapani blessing," Raven said, offering a smile.

He felt a flicker in the Force and glanced at the sergeant, who was studying him with a strange expression. Before he could go on, the sergeant said, "It's High Galactic. It means may your soul rise to the stars and shine among them."

There was a pause, in which the hard emotions of all the RSAP officers softened in the Force and Raven stared in surprise. "Are you Tapani by birth?"

"No, sir," the sergeant replied, recovering himself and shaking his head. "I used to teach High Galactic at Sentriph Municipal College. The city got hollowed out after the invasion, and I fell in with the Resistance; after the Liberation, I thought I'd be able to give back more here than trying to find another teaching gig."

Raven processed it for a moment—long enough to understand that he had been surprised that a police sergeant should know High Galactic, and feel ashamed of himself. Mustering what dignity he could, he bowed and said, "Whatever can be done to bring justice for this crime will be done. May the Force be with you all."

He led Renata from the room, torn between hoping she had not noticed his arrogance and seeing the teachable moment available if she had. When they were out under the sun again, she asked, "Are we going to talk to the RSAP Chief?"

"No," Raven decided. "They may not answer to Mali, but we do."

Once they were secure in their armored Republic speeder, Raven drew his comlink. "General Darakhan?"

It took a moment for Mali to reply. "What is it, Raven?"

"We're just leaving Rogeum Spaceport. A Rogeum Spaceport Authority Police officer was murdered."

"I heard." Mali's grim voice suggested the news had not had time to settle. "They have any suspects yet?"

"I was hoping the Constabulary might have leads."

"The Constabulary's still struggling to get off the ground," Mali answered. "It's just the cops we could pull together from the Resistance. The first class doesn't graduate the academy for another two weeks, and that's an expedited course.  The Army's helping out, but they're soldiers, not detectives."

"The Spaceport officers thought the Hutts or Black Sun might be behind it," Renata chimed in.

"Hey Renata. I'm sure they're smuggling goods in, especially to some of the outlying cities without spaceports nearby, but I doubt this was one of the galactic cartels directly.  Probably someone running a delivery for them who got cornered and panicked."

"Are there any local havens of iniquity where we might start an investigation?" Raven asked.

He was surprised to hear Mali chuckle and, faintly, repeat 'havens of iniquity'. "Ahh, you make me miss Tirien sometimes. Anyway, Intelligence has been keeping an eye out.  I'll send you what we have."

What they had turned out to be a handful of bars and back alley locations to which the Republic soldiers keeping peace in the capital had been called over the past month. Efficient though it might have been to spread out, Raven hardly though Renata was ready to interrogate the locals on her own, and he had a vivid mental image of what his sister would do to him if he sent her Padawan alone into a den of whores and thieves. So instead he went from one hole in the wall to the next, regretting his decision to wear his Pelagia purple and red more and more; between his noble cut attire and the quiet, doe-eyed thirteen-year-old girl in his shadow, he sensed more than one being thought Raven was approaching to offer a fair price for her.

Several hours later, Raven had run up his credit with the Temple paying bribes; bought more drinks than he himself had consumed in the last year; allowed an unscrupulous Rodian to think they could negotiate a fair price for Renata in exchange for information; and used enough mind tricks that, concentrated on a single being, he could have reprogrammed that being's mind entirely. In the end, weeding out the drunkards, the ill-informed thugs, and those he suspected of being spies, he had pieced together enough scraps of information to see the consistent theme, and informed Mali accordingly.

"Will you pass it along to the Constabulary?" Raven asked.

The comlink was quiet for a long time. "No," Mali finally decided. "I want this handled quickly. I'll send a couple people over."

And so it was that, three hours after dark, Raven Kaivalt and Renata Cul'Caritas stood in one of Rogeum's slums, two blocks down from their target, breathing fetid smells from a sewer that had yet to be repaired, trying to look inconspicuous, and, Raven thought despondently, failing magnificently. He had seized the opportunity to change into more traditional Jedi attire, but Mali had been on Milagro's local HoloNet so often that it seemed little better. Curious eyes kept finding them, and Raven kept waving his hand and using the Force to blunt that curiosity; eventually he delegated the task to Renata so she could practice.

Sensing a shift in the Force, he turned to find Aldayr Nikodon and a Gran Jedi Knight he didn't know approaching, a squad of dark-garbed Republic soldiers in tow. Aldayr gave a chin nod and said, "Hey."

Raven enjoyed a private moment of imagining how Baron Obveluus would react to that; long accustomed to dealing with Jedi outside the Tapani sector himself, he simply nodded back. "Good evening, Aldayr. And I'm sorry, we haven't met yet…"

"See Klees," the Gran said, extending a beefy, powerful hand.

Raven shook, introduced Renata, and said, "We scouted the location. There doesn't appear to be an obvious entrance besides the main one, but I think we'd be ill-advised to take that for granted."

Aldayr looked at the soldiers following him. "Deploy the surveillance droids. And have the backup team stand by to intercept anyone suspicious."

"Yes sir," the NCO in charge of the team replied, relaying the order.

Raven had a moment to admire the way Aldayr seemed at home in command, and the unwavering military bearing in the minds of the soldiers that suggested they accepted his command without objection despite his youth. He was drifting into thoughts of his brief company command during the invasion when Aldayr said, "This team will cover the main entrance. Nobody's getting past them."

"And we'll handle the inside," See Klees finished.

Raven looked them all over and nodded. "Let's go."

Apart from a few speeders, the street was mercifully clear on the way, and the continuing struggle to provide power to all parts of the city gave them cover of darkness. As they turned into the dead-end alley, a vagrant huddled up amidst the trash piled along one wall raised his head and took note of them. Raven sensed more alertness than the man's rude garb suggested, and he saw a glimmer of metal. Aldayr raised his gloved hand in a fist and the vagrant clasped his throat, choking.

"Aldayr," Raven said quietly. "Don't give in to anger."

"I'm not," Aldayr insisted. "I'm not killing him, I'm silencing him."

The next moment See Klees waved one of her large hands and the vagrant slammed into the opposite wall; it was not enough to kill, but he dropped limply to the alley floor in a way that suggested he would not be rising any time soon. As they approached, Aldayr opened his hand, and the flicker of metal flipped through the air into his grip.

"Thought so," he said, showing the others the comlink before he closed his hand. Sparks shot out from both sides of his fist. He dropped the ruined metal, walked up to a metal door studded with inlaid metal circles, and rapped on it with his gloved fist.

One of the metal circles popped out and produced a metal ball, like a droid's eye on a stick. The soldiers pressed themselves against the wall, but the eyeball droid studied the Jedi before focusing on Aldayr. A guttural, digitized voice demanded, "Hi chuba da naga?"

Raven scrambled to translate the Huttese, but Aldayr replied, "Gespa cha na pee Byin-Kajidii Darakhan."

The droid's metal "eyelids" around its optical sensors recoiled to show more of the blinking, analytical lights. After a pause, it said, "Nobata. Mee jewz ku!"

It started to retract, but in a flash Aldayr had it by the eyestalk with his cybernetic hand. Bracing his feet as the droid's eyelids widened further in panic, Aldayr snarled, "Koona t'chuta?"

They struggled for a moment, the droid trying to reach its hiding place, Aldayr squeezing until the metal started to bend in his grip. When a slither of electricity shot up the eyestalk's length, a series of blinks started in one corner of the eyeball and it groaned, "Niuta, be cotma!"

And the door unlocked, popping inside a little. Aldayr released the eyestalk, which fled behind its circular cover at once. Aldayr pushed it open with his cybernetic hand and Raven sensed a spike of danger, but in a seamless movement, Aldayr drew his lightsaber with his hand of flesh and ignited both blades. Spinning them to intimidate before they could shoot and ruin any hope of stealth, he closed on the would-be shooters and decapitated them both before Raven could do more than get his lightsaber hilt in hand.

There was something to be admired there, Raven thought, grisly though it was. He felt Renata blanch in the Force as Aldayr closed down his blades and looked past Raven to the soldiers. "Stun only, sergeant, but nobody leaves."

"Or enters," See Klees thought to add.

"Roger, sir and ma'am. Good luck."

An unlit hall led in. Stepping forward, Raven said, "Follow my lead and remain calm. Everyone here will be suspicious and hostile one way or another; use the Force to really reach the crux of the matter."

He gave Aldayr a look. "And remember, people can't answer questions when they're dead."

Aldayr nodded, but grinned. "Where's a Kiffar when you need one?"

See Klees bleated a chuckle; Renata clearly didn't get the reference, though the trepidation in her eyes suggested clarifying it for her might do more harm than good. As he led the way in, Raven placed a hand on her shoulder, channeling her calming energy. "Feel the Force, Padawan," he whispered. "There is no emotion."

"Yes Mas—" she started on reflex, then blushed. "Sorry. Yes Raven."

He smiled to ease her tension, then turned the corner at the end of the hall and walked down a short flight of stairs into the criminals' lair.

Born to nobility, raised among the elite of the Tapani sector and trained to be one of their Jedi, Raven Kaivalt was no stranger to private clubs and exclusive salons, and so he recognized the hallmarks and surmised at once that this was the underworld equivalent. The bar set into the back wall was durasteel rather than fine hardwood, but it was polished until it gleamed and tended by a droid that would not have been out of place at a Tapani fête. One wall was given over to a projected stage, on which a blue-skinned Twi'lek had curled one of her lekku around a gleaming brass pole as she teased her finger around the clasp holding what might, generously, be called a top; she was ringed by hooting admirers in simple but comfortable chairs while droids and females wearing little more than the dancer brought them alcohol. Two free-standing circular stages had poles of their own, though unoccupied for the moment, putting all attention on the Twi'lek as blue and purple lights gleamed on her beglittered skin.

Tables and chairs spread over the floor, some curtained off for privacy; as he stepped in, Raven saw a Zeltron kneeling between a Human's legs as he leaned back in his chair and smiled. A few beings were playing sabacc, a hefty Boltrunian dealing. Holoscreens on one wall streamed patchy video of sporting events as a cluster of beings crowded around them, calling bets. There was a door in the back of the room, though Raven could not tell whether it provided an escape or just a way for the beings flirting with the patrons to ply their trade. Even beings confined to the visual spectrum could see well enough in the orange lighting, but it lent an air of calm that did not fit the customer base nearly as well as the Bith jizz band in the corner.

Raven completed his sweep of the room in a few seconds, noting a helmeted Mandalorian leaning on one of the room's pillars, a beefy Besalisk at the sabacc table whose mounting frustration leaked into the Force, and a gaunt Near-Human wearing two blasters in cross draw holsters. He glanced at the Twi'lek dancer, imagining his sister's reaction to bringing Renata here. One look confirmed his fears—her eyes were round as Surronian cruisers, though Aldayr wore an appreciative grin.

"Focus, Jedi," he said under his breath. "Spread out and try to get some answers. Renata, go with See Klees."

The last thing he wanted was another offer to buy his sister's Padawan. They spread out through the room; in the guise of surveilling the room again, Raven checked to see if Aldayr was heading off to the Twi'lek dancer. He sought the correct way to admonish another Jedi's Padawan, but it was a wasted exercise; with one last look, Aldayr turned away from the stage and took the sabacc chair a Mordageen was just vacating, sliding in so smoothly that he already had cards in hand by the time the other players realized what was happening.

Darakhan, Raven thought. There was no denying the need for Jedi to flourish in all circumstances, he had to admit; he had difficulty picturing Raina teaching Renata to play sabacc, but perhaps that was Renata's loss. Sidling up to the bar, he tapped his fingers on the metal bartop, and the server droid rolled over.

"What may I prepare for you, gentlebeing?" it asked.

"Do you have savareen brandy?" Raven asked without much hope.

"Unfortunately I do not, though I have a 2105 bottle of Corellian Reserve," the droid offered.

"Sold."

Raven drank his brandy, which was pleasantly smooth even though he could tell within two sips that it was not a 2105. He was studying the room and its occupants, trying to strike a balance between 'knowledgeable about local murders' and 'amenable to conversation' when a Human three seats down slid over. The man smelled of t'bac, sported a three-day old beard, and made a point of studying his glass instead of Raven.

"Didn't expect to see Jedi slumming it down here among the dregs," he mused.

Raven took a sip from his snifter. "The dregs pool at the bottom. The difficulty in entering here suggests you've not yet settled quite that low."

The man smiled. "Charm itself. And that well-bred Core accent…you're the Tapani, Raven Kaivalt."

Raven contained his unpleasant surprise at being known by name. "And you, my well-informed friend?"

"Not so well-informed as others, maybe," the man sighed. "For instance, I know that young man with you is Aldayr Nikodon, but your females…not even a guess. A proper information broker would know you all and taunt you with it."

"We all have our ambitions."

"May we rise to the level of them," the man said, extending his glass. Raven clinked it with his brandy snifter, and they both drank.

"You're here about the Pastor?" the man asked.

Raven took another sip, this time to buy himself a few seconds as his mind raced. The Pastor could only mean Jeh-Kro, but what did this man know? Why did he believe the Pastor would be of interest to the Jedi?

"I wouldn't be averse to learning a little more, if you're of a mind to share," Raven replied. "Though I'm also interested in matters closer to home."

"Mmm…" the information broker hummed. "FMO matters, perhaps? Or smuggling matters?"

A disturbance in the Force distracted Raven, and he looked in time to see Renata speaking to a seated male Twi'lek, who had turned from the dancer to her. The Bith band drowned out the conversation, though Renata's wide-eyed expression spoke volumes. The Twi'lek stroked her thigh with his sharp-nailed index finger; Renata lurched back, looking greatly offended, but See Klees prevented her from doing anything rash. Seizing Renata's wrist and trapping it in place as the girl reached for her lightsaber, See Klees bent to speak to the Twi'lek, and even at this distance Raven could recognize a threat. See Klees was not much taller than Renata but considerably broader, and she carried herself in a manner that would dissuade any but the most foolhardy from trying her. After a moment's reflection, the Twi'lek seemed to agree, for he raised both hands with palms out, bowed his head, and returned his gaze to the writhing woman on the stage.

Raven struggled to recover the thread of his own conversation. "My business? Ah…let's say spaceport matters."

The other man nodded. "Bad business, that. Unprofessional." He took a gulp of whatever he was drinking and smacked his lips. "Ahhh. Well, I might be able to point you in the right direction there."

The Force tugged at Raven again, and this time it was urgent. He saw a Human seated at one of the tables speaking into his comlink, then holding it to his ear. Raven sensed a flash of alarm before the man searched the bar, his head pointing in the direction of the sabacc tables, then circling around to find See Klees and Renata.

Turning back to the informant before he could be made, trying not to tip his hand by sounding rushed, he asked, "And how much would that point cost?"

"Oh, I don't know…" the man stalled. "Let's see…

Across the bar, the man with the comlink leaned over to speak to his companions, and Raven sensed tension spreading from mind to mind. One of them pointed to another table. Trying not to feel impatient, to act with speed only because it was demanded by circumstances, Raven waved a hand and commanded, "You want to name a fair price."

"I want to name a fair price," the informant agreed. He blinked and looked at Raven, but saw Raven's hand opening his credit belt and seemed to forget his momentary concern. "Let's say…five hundred credits."

Even under Force compulsion it was a bargain stacked against Raven, but he sensed he would soon be out of time. Drawing out a five-hundred-credit chip, he held it out between two fingers and said, "Point."

The man took it, examined it, downed the rest of his drink, and said, "Those two. They'll be able to tell you everything you want to know."

Following the pointed finger, Raven had a few seconds to sort through the knot of beings in that general direction and identify two dark-haired Human women. No one seemed to have tipped them off directly, but they had clearly noticed the unrest spreading through the warmly-lit room; they sat side-by-side on one side of a table opposite a heavyset Human man, and the one with shiny, collar-length leaned over to her companion and whispered urgently. Beings were starting to notice those rising from their seats.

The informant noticed too, and his bushy eyebrows rose before he looked at Raven. "Seems like maybe you'd better get on it."

Before Raven could reply, a new spike of panic hit the Force, a man shot to his feet, and he bellowed, "It's a raid! Run for it!"

Half the room rose at once, reaching for weapons and scooping up drugs and credit chips. The Bith band screeched to a halt mid-note, and the Twi'lek dancer scrambled to pick up the credits her fans had thrown her, though she no longer had any clothing into which she could stuff it. Aldayr got out of his chair too, turning toward the ruckus exploding in the center of the room, but one of his sabacc partners sucker punched him in the face and Aldayr went down in a heap. Around the stage, a stampede separated See Kless and Renata. A blaster shot rang through the room, and opened the floodgates for the dozen that followed.

Raven threw himself off his barstool, reaching for his lightsaber, but before he could draw it he had to duck a barstool swung at his head; his neighbor opposite the informant had nearly crushed his skull. Straightening before the Near-Human could recover, Raven threw him into a wall with a Force push. A handful of those who had been charging his way stopped in their tracks as they reassessed their plans, but several of the others reached for blasters.

A snap-hiss froze everyone nearby and, as if they had practiced, they all looked in unison. The Twi'lek who had molested Renata had somehow gotten her lightsaber away from her; he swung and she dropped under the slash, but the blow took out an unsuspecting Human and cut a Rodian's throat. Renata scrambled backwards on her bottom, raising a hand to stop the Twi'lek as he pursued her. He lurched under the Force blow, wound up for a downward slash, overcompensated for the weightless blade, and half-amputated one of his own lekku. He shrieked in agony, and did not stop as See Klees finally forced her way through the press with her own lightsaber, cut off the hand holding Renata's lightsaber, caught it as it fell, and threw it back to Renata.

Some of those closest recovered and opened fire, but Raven at last drew his own blade and deflected the shots. Under fire from multiple angles, he twisted his curved lightsaber hilt one-handed with furious speed, but he could focus on nothing but the shooters just as he needed to be aware of other things. "See Klees!"

The Gran came through the crowd and killed two shooters with one swing. Renata was at her side, her face supercharged by a manic look, and she impaled another shooter from behind so hard she sank her lightsaber down to the hilt. Her eyes tightened and her face twisted, but she pulled her blade free and defended herself against another shooter.

Blaster and stun fire was still criss-crossing the room, and scores of beings were running pell-mell, ducked down to avoid the shots, or otherwise taking fire behind pillars or overturned tables to shoot back. Raven leapt onto the bar and dropped to one knee, his eyes searching through the haze of brilliant light, until he spotted the two women the informant had singled out, back to back by the overturned band instruments and firing stun shots into the crowd. A man charged them, but the woman with the ponytail seized an ommni box and swung it; it connected with her attacker's arm, and as he staggered, the other woman switched to blaster and shot him in the stomach.

Aldayr had rolled onto his back; the man who had punched him had fled, but the Boltrunian picked up the entire sabacc table and slammed its edge down toward him. Aldayr caught it with his replacement arm; his elbow buckled and he had to brace it with his real hand too, but after a few seconds of struggle he slowly started to force it back. Then he flung it over his head and sat up; momentum carried the Boltrunian forward and off balance, and as the table slammed down, Aldayr punched him in the groin. He had the mercy to do it with his real hand, but the Boltrunian still quivered.

Aldayr stood, thrusting out his hand; the Boltrunian flew backwards, slammed into the wall, and rose a meter off the floor, clutching his throat.

"Aldayr!" Raven called, but the Force screamed to him in warning, demanding he be entirely present in this moment. He focused himself and the stun bolt took him without effect; he turned and struck off the bartender droid's head before it could fire the concealed weapon in its mixing hand again. Near Raven's feet, Renata deflected two blaster shots, but a stun ring caught her from the side and she collapsed. "ALDAYR!"

He looked across the chaos until he found Raven; he was still asphyxiating the Boltrunian with the Force while physically strangling a ghost-white woman with his gloved hand. Pointing at the two women and hurling a mental image of them through the Force, Raven jumped down from the bar in time to stop a man trying to stomp Renata's face; Raven's green blade sheared off the man's leg at the same moment See Klees's blue one chopped off his head.

Blasterfire poured into and out of the staircase down to the club; Raven surmised the criminals had engaged the Republic soldiers Aldayr had left on guard. By now energy blasts provided most of the room's illumination; many of the overhead lights had shattered to powder or exploded into electrified ruins of metal. Half a dozen corpses littered the floor before See Klees, victims of her lightsaber or their own reflected shots. More of the shooters nearest recognized the futility of that assault, but turned their shots on Raven instead, and he had to dodge as much as he deflected.

Eventually See Klees came to his aid, and when he dragged a Force Wave in an arc and leveled a dozen beings, Raven snatched a second to check Aldayr's progress. He had stopped strangling people and was beating his way through the crowd; one punch with his cybernetic hand was enough to put people down, and he used Force pushes when he needed to, but he was taking a few punches himself, and two men seized him bodily. He thrust one up into the ceiling with the Force and grappled the other, but a glance showed Raven a number of beings fleeing into the back, curtained area of the bar. Worse, they had opened a hatch behind the band's stage too, and Raven could see his targets shooting their way there.

You come from a great and honorable legacy, Raven's father had once told him and Raina when they were small.

Because we're Pelagia? Raven had asked.

''Yes, and that very heritage obliges us to lead our people as best we can. But I was discussing our family's legacy'', his father had corrected. ''You are the descendants of Donarius Kaivalt, the greatest and most powerful Jedi Master of his age, a hero of the Force. You are heirs to his name and his power both, and we must use that power responsibly, to protect our fellow beings and serve the Force.''

He had heard it since he was a boy; perhaps there was some truth in it. He thought, Great-grandfather, please help me.

Raven hurled himself into the crowd, focused on the stage and the crowd both, immersing himself in the Force and letting it carry him where he needed to go however it needed to. His blade flashed without his conscious mind knowing why; by the time severed gun barrels or hands fell away he was far past. He vaulted overturned tables, slid under one still standing and sprang back to his feet without breaking momentum, leapt and caught a dead chandelier with one hand. Swinging through the air, tucking his legs over fire from astonished shooters below, he let the Force carry him past the apogee of the chandelier's swing, soaring to land on the trap door and slam it closed beneath his boots.

Raven raised his green blade and all the beings rushing the trap door froze, some in the back colliding with others in the front. Several meters away, Aldayr bellowed aloud, thrust those nearby back with the Force, and activated both blades of his lightsaber; he spun them in a whirl and three people nearby dropped their weapons without even trying him. See Klees clapped one hand onto the other one holding her lightsaber, and four beings slammed together. A blaze of light shone down the main stairs along with a BANG that was staggering even across the room, and three beings toppled down the stairs, unconscious.

"ENOUGH!" Raven bellowed, amplifying his voice with the Force; the front row that had been rushing to the trap door all winced. "Stand down, all of you! And you two are coming with me!"

He pointed at the two women. The shorter-haired woman gritted her teeth and her hands tensed on her pistols. The taller woman, who was clearly her sister, looked at the beings around her, then said, "All right, take it easy! We'll come quietly, just let these people go."

Raven and the older sister narrowed their eyes at once, and Raven said, "Every being in this room was involved in the attempted murder of Jedi."

The younger woman rolled her eyes, looked left and right, then gave Raven a pointed look. He glanced to the sides as well and sensed the crowd was torn between surrender and continued resistance. Aldayr was forcing his way through the crowd at lightsaber-point, and See Klees was reviving Renata, but Raven said, "As a courtesy—"

"I demand to speak to General Darakhan!" the older woman declared suddenly, holstering her guns.

"I'm sure you do," Raven said dryly.

The younger one's eyes widened, and she advanced; Raven angled his blade, and the woman showed her empty palms. He sensed no threat, so he let her close enough to whisper, "There's a fog over Celadon City."

Raven stared. "What?"

"There's a fog over Celadon City!" she hissed.

"And what in blazes is that supposed to mean?"

Aldayr deactivated his blades; he was wearing a strange expression. "It means we're taking them to see General Darakhan."

Raven wondered if the young Jedi had sustained a concussion from the punch, but the two women turned to him and the younger one grinned. "Hey Aldayr. You look good."

Aldayr snorted, pointed his lightsaber hilt without looking at a Weequay sneaking up behind him, and said, "Yeah, long time no see. Let's go."