Alien Crossfire Chapter 15

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Jaina's X-Wing flashed out of hyperspace, shedding speed as she droped in towards Hapes, the jewel of the Consortium's 63 inhabited planets, home of one of Jaina's oldest and dearest friends, Tenel Ka. And by all reports the location where her parents had fled to after the fall of Coruscant.

She stretched out with the Force, and found the flares of life which are her mother and Tenel Ka and gently brushed each of them, receiving an embrace in return. She turned on the com.

"Hapan Control, this is New Republic X-Wing NRX-111045 requesting clearance to land."

She received the clearance, and banked her X-Wing towards the planet, kissing the atmosphere with a brief flare of incandescence. She twisted the flight yoke, dropping altitude as she headed towards the palace. She looked out the transparent canopy watching as the trees flashed past, the landscape occasionally punctuated by a river or a small clearing.

A few klicks shy of the palace, she flashed over a large clearing. Frowning slightly, she slowed down and banked around circling the clearing, noticing the large city of tents that had been set up.

Refugees. That's a lot of folks. Yanking her thoughts away from those fortunate enough to escape Coruscant, she once more turned her fighter towards the palace. As she neared it, she switched over the sublight engines to her repulsers, slowing down considerably.

The door opened and she noticed a group of people coming towards her. A flash of light attracted her attention and she saw one of the ground crew, directing her towards a landing spot with a light cone. She settled the ship into the space indicated, and quickly performed her post flight check.

Then she cracked the seal to the canopy, pushing it up and out, yanking off her helmet and tossing it back onto her flight couch. She climbed out onto the nose of the craft and ran down it, jumping to the ground when she reached the end. Standing before her was Tenel Ka – dressed in her usual rancor hide armor tunic, but wearing a skirt as opposed to her usual armor shorts. Then Jaina noticed something even more amazing, Tenel Ka has two arms.

She took a step forward, raising her arms and the red-headed girl embraced her. The two laughed, happy to see one another. Jaina pulled away, keeping her arms on her shoulders; she allowed her eyes to drop to the arm and then the skirt. "You've changed some I see."

Tenel Ka gave a small smile. "That is a fact."

They dropped their arms, and Tenel Ka turned to head into the palace, and Jaina stepped into line beside her.

"So, I thought you didn't want an arm."

The Dathomiri girl chuckled. "I just realized it was foolish of me to not have an arm as we fight a war."

They walked in silence through the halls, until they came to the quarters which were Tenel Ka's. She stepped into the opulent rooms, Jaina right behind her. The guards that had followed them from the hangar took up positions beside the door.

Tenel Ka dropped onto a duvet, gesturing for Jaina to join her.

"So friend Jaina, what brings you to Hapes?"

"My Uncle asked me to get my parents."

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Anakin twisted the diamond left and right, allowing the light to catch its surface and refract back towards him – a rainbow of glittering colors. He watched the stone, a solemn reminder of a great evil he had done.

He stood up and crossed over to the door, pocketing the gemstone. He pressed the door release, stepping out into the brightly lit hallway, glancing down at the various doors which lined the crew quarters given to the Jedi.

He slowly walked down the hall, and boarded a lift to go up one level. Officer's quarters. Where those passengers that Booster deemed important enough had quarters. Uncle Luke and the Solusars both had their quarters on this level.

And Mirax Horn as well.

He slowly walked down the hallway, finally coming to her quarters. He pressed the annunciator, and waited, grief slamming into him once more for what he had done.

For the life he took away, with barely a second thought.

The door opened, and Mirax stood there, dressed in a pair of navy slacks and a white shirt. A feminine version of the clothes that Anakin's father wears. Her hip is cocked slightly, and four year old Jysella was settled there, clinging to her mother.

Mirax's blue eyes seemed to bore into him.

"What can I do for you Anakin?"

Anakin swallowed, suddenly unsure if this was a wise idea, then he realized that it was too late to back out now. "I…I need to talk to you."

Mirax nodded her head, and stepped back into her quarters. She set Jysella on the ground, and told her to go to her room and play.

For a moment, Anakin wondered if that was because Mirax did not want any witnesses. She sat down on the couch, and gestured for Anakin to do the same.

Instead he shook his head, and pulled out the diamond, holding it out towards her.

"I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't… I never…" He sighed and then said, "This was easier back in my cabin. This… this is, was Corran."

He noticed the bright tears that had appeared in her eyes as she reverentially took the diamond from him. She seemed to look at it for hours, and finally a tear escaped from her eyes, and Anakin watched it as it made a path down her face, rolling down her jaw line to hang on her chin for a moment before falling.

He could feel a slight burn to his own eyes, and scrubbed them, not wanting to give into his own tears.

Finally she looked back up at him. "Thank you for bringing me this Anakin."

Startled, Anakin rocked back on his heels. "You know that it was me right? That I did it? Don't you hate me?"

She sadly nodded her head. "Yes, I know." She then gave him a wistful smile. "But you're forgetting that I was married to a Jedi, and am raising two of them. I understand a lot about the things that drive you. While I might not be able to forgive you… I don't think I quite hate you."

Anakin bowed his head, hiding the tears which were now running down his face.

"Go on, get out of here."

He turned to leave, casting a look at her over his shoulder. "Thank you."

She merely nodded, and he left, returning to his quarters, and crawling into bed.

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Jacen stuck his hand into the small pouch he had fashioned into his skinrobe. He felt the clip beetles he kept in there, snapping onto his hand, and impassively looked at the Bothan sitting in front of him. A large, weeping gash stretched from shoulder to waist on the right side of the Bothan's chest. A present from venturing to close to the amphistaff grove.

He squeezed the wound tight with the hand which had the clip beetles attached, and with his free hand, tickled the release nerve of the first beetle, causing it to release its grip from his hand. He pressed it against the wound, causing it to snap close around the gash, holding the wound closed. With a quick twist, he snapped the body away from the head, ensuring it would stay there for the week needed for the wound to seal. Working quietly, he worked down the wound, using twelve of the beetles on the Bothan.

Finished, he looked at him and says, "You'll be fine in a week. Until then stay away from the amphistaff grove. I'm pretty sure that they can smell blood."

Anger flashed in the Bothan's eyes. "That's easy for you to say. They don't force you to do things."

Jacen barked a short laugh. "They don't force you either."

"But the pain. If I don't do what they want, the pain…"

Jacen shook his head. "It's just pain. It won't kill you, the amphistaffs will."

In a huff, the Bothan got up and left, not bothering to thank Jacen. Not many of them ever did. He sighed, and leaned back against the hummock, closing his eyes, hoping to be able to rest for a few moments before the Shapers cycled up the glowpoint.

He heard the shuffle of small stones and the crunch of a foot against a twig, and opened his eyes, expecting to find Taryn standing over him. Instead, he was greeted by someone else. He held up a hand, putting it solidly between himself and Vergere.

"That's close enough."

Her head tilted to the side, feather crest rising and shifting to the blue of amusement. "Now, now Jacen. Is that how you treat all of your friends?"

"I have no friends. You made sure of that, remember."

Her feather crest twisted and flattened. "Show me your wound."

"It's fine."

"You silly youngling. Am I blind? Can I not see the fever in your eyes? Can I not smell the infection? Have I lost the Force that I cannot feel how brightly you burn in it? No! Now, show me your wound, before I go get a warrior and have him hold you down."

Jacen looked at her defiantly for a moment, watching the black pools of her eyes. Finally he sighed, and pulled open the skinrobe to reveal the enflamed pucker of his scar from when she implanted his slave seed. His nostrils twitched as the smell - that of a sickened wound - reached his nose.

As he passively watched her, she reached one of her long feather-fingers to her eye, allowing it to collect one of her tears. She twisted her arm out, allowing the tear to run from her finger and splash against Jacen's wound. Ice seemed to settle across the infected sore, and his eyes popped open.

"What was that?"

Vergere smiled mysteriously. "It was a tear."

"But I…I can feel it healing me. Killing the infection. If you can do that, you could help so many others."

She slowly nodded her head, her eyes once more taking on that faraway darkness. "Yes, I could."

"I...I have to ask."

"Go ahead. Make your request."

"There's a Ryn over there…he's got an infection from the spark bees. And I had to amputate an Aqualish's leg at the knee earlier – I think he's going to die. You…You could save so many people."

She watched him, and Jacen wondered if she had heard her request. He shifted slightly, pulling the skinrobe back up over his shoulders. Finally she spoke. "You have yet to make a request of me, young Solo."

"Oh…I mean....will you help them?"

Her beak broke into a smile. "No."

Jacen rocked back where he was sitting. "But…why?"

Vergere settled down beside him. And for what seemed a lifetime just stared at him.
Then she asked a question. "Do you know the difference between a weed and a flower?"

Jacen frowned. "No….but what's the point?"

"Oh, I have one. Worry not on that score. What is the difference between a weed and a flower?"

"I guess…well…a weed would be ugly and a flower pretty."

Vergere cawed with laughter. "One might think so, but that is wrong. I have seen some truly hideous flowers, while other, much more beautiful, plants are doomed to being considered common weeds. No, the difference between a weed and a flower is this, and only this - the decision of the gardener. The gardener, and the gardener alone, decides which plant is weed and which is flower. Which gets to live and which gets to be uprooted and die. Which has worth and which is worthless. That is the responsibility of the gardener."

"I don't…"

"No? You are a gardener, Jacen Solo. You get to decide which are weeds and which are flowers. You get to make that decision. As do I. I have made my decision. I know which I count as weeds and which of the creatures in this room that I count as a flower."

Jacen stood up, an angry scowl coming to his face. "I don't believe that."

"Believe or not. It is the way that it is."

"If that's so, then there are no weeds. Every life in here is worth something."

Vergere gave a half-shrug, as if his announcement had no bearing on anything she had said. "If that is what you wish to believe."

Then before he could answer she was up and bounding away towards the wall. Jacen frowned as he watched her hop away, then the glowpoint brightened, signifying that day was dawning once again.

Grumbling about the mysterious alien, Jacen turned away and went to sit beside Taryn, waiting for the young girl to awaken. His gaze traveled across all the creatures and beings that he could see around him. There are no weeds.

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