I Want to be Your Knight - Ch. 20

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I sat on the edge of the roof across from the conference center, a cheap pair of macro-binoculars in hand which I would occasionally lift up to watch the people streaming in and out of the center. They were all workers or delegates setting up their booths or performing other, arcane last minute work on the center in preparation for the opening ceremonies in the morning.

I sighed, wondering once again how we were going to manage to get in there and protect the conference.

I also wondered just who it was we were protecting it from.

I hoped that Jysella would learn about any type of terrorist threats directed towards the conference while she was getting us new identities from Aunt Iella. Yet more and more, I had the uneasy feeling that there just wasn't any threats.

I had to think that this was Kyp torturing us in the name of training.

Shrugging my shoulders, I lifted my macro-binoculars to my eyes again, once more scanning the workers, and paused as I flickered across a pair of Bothans. You don't often see Bothans these days, not after the fiasco which Jacen put them through, and then there is the fact that they're still angry at the Jedi for hiding the Yuuzhan Vong from them. Yet here were two of them, in all their fur-covered glory.

For some reason, I kept my focus on those two, just the fact that they were something I wasn't expecting meaning that they had attracted my attention. After a while of standing there talking to one another, they entered into the building. Growing bored, I once more took up to scanning the crowd as a whole.

Before long, the Bothans were forgotten and a chirp in my ear drew my attention away from the crow. I activated my comlink, and sub-vocalized into the receiver strapped to my neck, "Skywalker here."

"Ben, I've got us identities for the conference plus a current threat assessment listing from CorSec."

Smiling, happy at the first thing to really go our way on this mission, I replied, "Good. I'll meet you and Seha back at the room around dinner time then. I want to continue watching this stuff for a bit."

"Anything interesting?"

"No," I responded. "And I think that's what bugging me the most."

Her giggle was a light and welcome sound. "Okay, see you later then."

"Hey wait! Have you heard from Seha?"

"Yes. She's been watching the far side and hasn't seen anything of interest. Unlike you, she's bored by it, and is meeting me at the room."

"Thanks, Jys."

The ear piece chirped again, signifying that Jys had shut off the connection. Smiling, the memory of her giggle still ringing in my head, I lifted the macro-binoculars and once more started watching the delegates.

An hour passed without any activity, and I was just about to give up and return to the room when I felt a niggle in the back of my mind. Frowning, I quickly scanned the grounds again, wondering just what had activated my danger sense.

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I slowly lowered the glasses and stood up. That niggle flared into a full blown inferno in my mind, and I spun around just as the a metal pole shot forward.

It smacked me in the arm and flung me backwards, where I slammed into the ledge of the roof.

Groaning, I sat up again to see a X9 combat droid stepping forward, its optics glowing a dangerous burgundy color. In each of its four arms was a different melee weapon: two vibrosword, a staff and a stun baton. All of which began to crackle with blue, coruscating energy.

My saber sprang to my hand, and it activated as I jumped forward. The blade's momentum was halted by one of the droid's vibroswords, and I had just enough time to mutter a curse as the stun baton slashed upwards to connect with my chin.

Electrical energy sizzled my nerves as I flew backwards. I latched onto the Force, trying to calm my twitching body even as I attempted to soften my landing.

Neither worked.

I slammed against the ledge again, this time crumbling some of the ferrocrete that it was made from. Shaking my head, I sat up, trying to get the ringing to disappear from my right ear. The Force screamed in warning, and I flung myself to the left just as the staff crashed against the wall I had been leaning up against.

Rolling, I got to my feet, and stumbled away from the droid; stretching out my hand to call my saber back to me.

With my other hand, I reached up and tugged on my ear, still trying to stop the ringing. A rattle on the ground, coupled with the sudden disappearance of both the ringing and the pressure on my ear stopped me. I turned and saw the comlink ear piece that had fallen to the ground. Shaking my head, I looked down at it, and started to bend over to retrieve it when the Force warned me once again of trouble.

I jumped to the right but ended up jumping into the direction of the stun baton's attack.

Cursing my luck, I was doubled over the stun baton which sent another jolt of energy through my frayed body, even as the force of the impact knocked the wind from me.

Rolling off the baton, I dropped to the rooftop. Groaning, I clutched at my stomach and fought to breath and not throw up at the same time.

Cold metallic fingers slid into the collar of my tunic, and yanked me up by it. The droid held me up in front of its face, and I wondered for a moment, why I wasn't dead yet.

A light flashed out, flickering over my iris to check my identity. It appeared and disappeared so fast, I failed to use the Force in time to sabotage the reading. After the light disappeared, the droid spoke for the first time, "Jedi Knight Ben Skywalker, by order of the Galactic Alliance Guard, I am placing you under arrest for Treason and Desertion."

My mind whirled. The Guard had been disbanded after Jacen's somewhat successful coup had been stopped by Dad. As far as I knew, there was not any Guard units activated anywhere in the galaxy. Most had been folded back into the defense forces, while others, like myself, were pushed out to schools to finish our education or went to prison for crimes against civilization.

Also, I knew for a fact that I had received a pardon for those treason and desertion charges.

I shook my head, and tried to say, "You've got the wrong guy."

What came out was somewhat less intelligible, either way, the droid ignored me, and merely pulled out a pair of stun cuffs.

Dropping me to the ground, it rolled me over and quickly put my wrists into the cuffs. I looked up, about to make another smart comment, when the stun baton connected with startlingly solidity to my temple.

And I was once more unconscious.

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