Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts: Chapter Nine

Tahiri is settled into a deep healing trance, her body working overtime trying to knit the wound in her stomach. But that is a secondary concern to the young Jedi; her focus is outwards, scouring the universe searching for her lost apprentice.

A chiming noise drags her from the trance, and she opens her eyes, to see the timer on the navicomp nearing zero. She reaches forward, and grabs a hold of the levers, and as soon as the timer ends, she pushes forward, and watches as the hyperspace tunnel collapses revealing a wide expanse of stars.

The system appears to be dead, an asteroid hanging a few kilometers off the port bow, dark and deserted. She punches a few buttons on the onboard computer, and it reveals that this system used to be home of a mining complex, one located on that asteroid.

Tahiri frowns, wondering why Jacen would have come here after visiting Lorrd.

Then pain from Noelani blossoms in the Force, a ripping agony which causes Tahiri to hunch over in her seat. The pain lessens and her breathing evens out as she slowly reopens her eyes. Straightening in her seat, she realizes that she has arrived at the right place. Yet she still wonders the relationship between Jacen, this asteroid and the Yuuzhan Vong hunting pack.

“I guess I won’t get any answers out here.”

Applying power to the engines, she heads towards the asteroid, slowly circling it, until she comes to a hanger. She sends a universal query, and the hanger doors slowly unroll. Frowning, she edges forward into the darkened hanger.

The doors close behind her, and lights come up, revealing a Uumufalh gunship nestled off to the side.

She lands, and confidently walks down the ramp. As she reaches the bottom pain erupts in her skull again, and she has to grab onto the ramp strut.

Grimacing, she straightens, and continues walking, entering the abandoned mining complex through the hanger door.

Tahiri slowly searches through the building, trying to find her apprentice, the flickers of pain subsiding.

She pushes open yet another door, gaining entrance to yet another room. This time all the lights are off, and an expectation hangs in the Force. Tahiri slowly pulls her saber from her belt, and steps forward, her free hand reaching out, brushing the wall, searching for a lightswitch.

Her fingers touch the controls, and she quickly jabs them. Dim lights flicker on, and Tahiri finds an empty room. Frowning, she continues through the room, and pulls open the other door.

And her danger sense goes off, allowing her to duck as a thud bug comes flying out of the darkness beyond. Tahiri drops to the ground in a tumble, rolling forward, surprised that the cool tile of the complex has given way to the rough hewn stone of a mine.

She pulls her roll up short, quickly lifting herself into a half-crouch, her stomach screaming from the abuse. She shifts herself behind some rocks, hoping they provide some cover.

Her eyes slowly adjust to the dim light, and she pokes her head out from her barely adequate cover, looking for the Yuuzhan Vong who threw the thud bug.

She spies him, standing just on the far side of the still open doorway, his eyes still light-dazzled.

Grinning, Tahiri gestures with the Force, causing a pebble on the far side of him to shift. The warrior’s response is instantaneous, as he spins towards the sound.

Tahiri comes out from behind her cover, and pushes her body to close the distance between them in seconds. She shoves her saber against his chin and activates it. The resulting snap-hiss echoes loudly in the mine and Tahiri curses.

She shuts the blade down, as the warrior crumples in a lifeless heap. She bends down, checking the warrior for domain marks.

A warrior emerges from the darkness, standing straight and tall in his voondum crab armor. Tahiri recognizes him as the one who stabbed her.

“You’re supposed to be dead, Jeedai.”

Tahiri’s lips twitch. “Not the first time for that.”

In one smooth motion, she stands, ignites her saber and darts forward, her blade angled away from her body, as she slashes upwards. Her movements are so fast that she appears as a blur, yet the warrior still is able to catch her saber on his amphistaff.

She sees the sneer on his face.

She smiles.

And then slams the coufee she took from the dead warrior into his throat, giving it a savage twist and then yanking it back out.

In his shock, he drops his amphistaff, and Tahiri swings her saber horizontally, taking off his head entirely.

She drops to her knees, the adrenaline of the fight wearing off, her body making itself known to her again, the embers of pain from her stomach wound once more a full conflagration. She hesitantly touches her stomach, and feels the wetness seeping through the bacta patch.

She hunkers down beside the warrior, digging through his belt pouches, and finally pulls out a pale green rectangular pad several centimeters thick. Pulling her tunic out from under her belt, she pulls off the bloodied bacta patch and tosses it to the side. Then she peels a piece off of the pad, and lays it across her stomach wound, not quite covering it. She retrieves another piece, and lays it on the wound as well.

She closes her eyes and smiles brightly as she can feel the cilia of the animal wriggling into the wound, knitting the skin together.

She drops her shirt and stands, slowly walking further into the mines.

She quickly leaves behind the light from the open doorway, going forward in the inky darkness, that curious echo and expectation still throbbing in the Force. The further into the mines she gets, the stronger the feelings grow.

She notices a lightening in the darkness; a dim, diffuse glow coming from somewhere up ahead. Tahiri slows down, creeping forward.

Tahiri rounds a corner, and pulls up short. There strapped into an Embrace of Pain is Noelani. Her head is bowed, her long blonde hair is streaked with crimson highlights - dried blood - and is hanging down covering her face, pooling on the stone floor.

Tahiri snarls a curse, and ignites her saber, sending it flying into the Embrace’s brain.

The animal twitches, and Noelani’s pain flares for a second, before the tentacles unravels and drop the young girl to the floor.

While Tahiri calls her saber back to her hand she belatedly notices a female Yuuzhan Vong and three other warriors within the chamber. The three males are in a back corner, each eating something from an extended stomach. The female is closer, standing only a few meters away from Noelani.

All of them staring at her.

The female grins, her face stretching maliciously.

With a quick hand gesture to the others, she plucks a slug from her belt, one a little longer and thinner than a fully engorged ngidn, and gives it a squeeze.

To Tahiri’s horror a shaft of crimson plasma ignites from the end of the slug.

Tahiri ignites her saber, and lifts it into a mid guard. She takes a step forward, looking the warrior female up and down, wondering where she came from.

Instinctively, Tahiri reaches for the Force, preparing herself for a saber fight. And as another surprise, she can feel the female warrior.

She pauses in her advance.

“Who are you?”

“I am Ulya Tu. And I will destroy you.”

A half-memory flashes through her mind; Anakin telling her about his vision, his vision of a dark version of herself, given over fully to her Yuuzhan Vong heritage and enslaved to her hate and fear.

A possible future where she had embraced the darkest parts of both her Jedi and her Yuuzhan Vong heritages.

As she watches Ulya, she realizes that this is what she could have become.

She looks over at Noelani, and sees the young blonde stirring.

She grins, and darts forward, lowering her body slightly, attacking.

And then the Force cries out in warning as lightning slams into her. The force of the impact drives her to the ground, crushing her down. Her saber skitters out of her hand, rolling away from her towards a far wall.

She doesn’t even have time to scream.