Dawn of Forever, Part XIV

In ancient pasts when the world was a thing beyond any possible knowing, save in the realm of superstition, nature became mythic. The ground would rumble and shake and crack, and it was viewed as the wrath of titans. The skies would open, and lightning would strike down trees and houses and men, which could only be caused by a wrathful supernatural force. The crack of thunder was so intense, so penetrating, it could only be the work of something far beyond men. It was only the gods themselves who could cause such impossible things.

But human beings cracked the secrets. They learned how the convection circuits in magma drove the tectonic action that shook the land from time to time. They learned what atmospheric discharges were for, and tamed the lightning and silenced its thunder. They went far beyond, patiently peeling back the layers to see how the universe worked until they understood so well, they now could control them. They had, after the millennia had passed, harnessed the power of the gods. But they were still only human.

B'vun II. Parched and cracked soil from too long a dry season dominates the view. A thundering crash, a cloud of dust, and the gigantic foot of an All-Terrain Heavy Transport is revealed. It lifts, swings, and drops, rumbling the earth with the impact. Up the massive leg to the "head" protruding from the elephantine body of the beast, light launching out from the turrets located on the undersides. It flies across the barren field and strikes an oversized beast, which howls and falls with a tremor of its own.

A Vong soldier and a quick-footed beast quickly wraps a cable around the two front legs to trip it. Sensors in the AT-HT detect the cable; a hatch pops open and an automated turret snaps out, fires off three shots before the severed cable drops, and just as suddenly withdraws. The AT-HT moves on, leaving the Vong to the lighter vehicles while it continues on towards their primary target.

The Vong rider doesn't get far, but it wasn't from vehicle weapons fire. A blur struck him in the side and knocked him right off the creatures back. He grabbed his amphistaf as he pulled himself up, only to discover what was responsible was already hopping back to his. He struck quickly to catch the enemy off balance, but the thunder crashed as the blade of the lightsaber lit and struck. The two grappled for a moment, then the human gave. But he gave too much, and the Vong stumbled forward. As he did the human whirled, sidestepped him, and stuck out the blade, letting the Vong's own momentum drive his neck through it. Anakin Solo shut the blade down for the moment as he scanned the battlefield. He saw the two figures not thirty meters away, lightsaber and amphistafs clashing in what looked to be a stalemate. Arms pumping, fueled by Force energies, he sprinted across the distance and leapt, igniting his blade and swinging as he approached. It skidded harmlessly across the Vong's crab armor, but it was a moment's distraction. The other Jedi swung with all her strength and plunged through the armor and snuffing out the warrior's life. Both shut down their lightsabers and, despite the battle taking place around them, exchanged a moment of quiet. Well, Laudica Reshad's was more of a glare of annoyance than anything else. "I had it," she said sharply.

"We're not keeping score here," Anakin said.

"I've been in fights before," Laudica said defiantly. "I don't need you to lecture me on the subject."

"Good, because there's no time for one," Anakin said. He ran, Laudica close behind, until he found the late Vong's riderless mount. With a leap he dropped onto its back, whirled back and caught her arm, hoisting her onto its back. He reached into its mind and soothed it, then rode it on towards the front line. A group of Vong warriors was charging; Anakin steered towards them. Just before they arrived Laudica leapt, tucking and rolling in the air. The group went down like a game of ten pins, and Anakin trod a few with the beast for good measure. He dropped into the mess, saber swinging as Laudica hopped to her feet and stood back to back with him. They were outnumbered and the Force was almost useless to them, but the Vong were confused and either wary of striking a friendly force or, even worse, not wary and doing so. Blades and amphistafs snapped at one another, but agility and coordination won out over brute force, and the two Jedi soon eliminated their opposition. "See?" Anakin said as he wiped the sweat from his face. "Teamwork."

"Yeah, thanks," Laudica said without a trace of honesty. She turned and winced as she saw a walker foot drop on a wounded and prone Vong mount. It would be little more than a stain under all that weight; they weren't called "heavy transports" for nothing.

Anakin.

Anakin froze in the midst of the battle. Jaina?

Shaote is in trouble, I can't get there.

We're on it. Anakin tapped Laudica on the shoulder and started running, waiting for her to start before he got into a full sprint. They may squabble at times, but Laudica was always into the business at hand. As they ran Anakin could sense the desperation of the apprentices, and quickened the pace to Laudica's limit. The two ran under a pair of walkers, narrowly avoiding the same fate as the fallen mount in their haste. A squad of troopers was exchanging fire with some of the Vong. Anakin diverted slightly so that his shoulder clipped one of them. It weighed more than him, but Anakin had been braced for the collision, so while he stumbled just a moment, the Vong did a pirouette into some of its comrades, sending them sprawled. Anakin recovered and pushed on, then went to his absolute limit as his eyes finally filled him in on the details.

Sakonna was holding off two Vong warriors as best she could, green lightsaber blade catching the amphistafs despite the fury of their blows. But she had to focus solely on defense, which meant that the Vong could keep this up all day. All they needed to do was wait for her to slip up and let a blow through. Given that half her face was covered with green blood, she obviously had already slipped up once. But Anakin had to give her credit; despite the seriousness of her situation, Sakonna was a Vulcan. Even against two merciless killers she was as calm and controlled as if this wasn't even happening, as if she could stop it any time she liked, like some holo-simulation.

The "Vong bowling" strategy, as Laudica jokingly referred to it, had been grown out of an unintended collision during one of their previous engagements, when Jaina hit a rock at full speed and hit a group of enemy warriors. She'd been rather seriously injured in that, but it had gotten Anakin thinking. Now the technique was to use it and then, on impact, use the Force to help absorb the blow like an energy bolt. It still hurt like hell, but it did little injury and was good for tripping up large numbers of Vong at once. It wasn't likely to show up in any future books on Jedi techniques, but with the Vong being resistant to the Force in so many ways, Anakin felt every edge, even a silly one, was worth it. He'd trained the others somewhat in the technique, although at the moment only he and Laudica had a strong enough mastery to try it in a real fight.

Anakin and one of the Vong struck like a pair of billiard balls. At that speed, Anakin was left rolling like a destroyer droid for a dozen meters while the Vong made a few ungraceful flops. Sakonna slipped from defense to offense so quickly it was like a graceful dance performance. The Vong had mistaken her earlier caution for cowardice and tried to intimidate her with furious strikes, but she caught and deflected three before slipping through with a counter-strike to the neck, putting the headless Vong down. Laudica, who had slowed down enough to avoid a crash, arrived just as the Vong was getting back to his feet and dispatching him. It may have seemed callous, almost cruel, to strike down an opponent who couldn't mount a proper defense, but given the fact the Vong were trying the same thing with Shaote meant that there was no time for battlefield etiquette.

Shaote Lu was a mess. He'd taken several blows from amphistafs already, and a slice had penetrated his abdomenal cavity. It hadn't been disemboweling, but Shaote had been forced to hold the wound closed to keep from tearing himself open like an aged flour sack. He'd dropped his lightsaber and was using Force blows to knock Vong backwards as they tried to finish him off, but it wasn't something he could keep up for much longer with the sheer number of adversaries. But he was trying... he wasn't going down without a fight. Anakin couldn't help but be impressed. He'd visited Earth many times, and the locals had always seemed like complacent sheep to him. But then you had humans like Annika and Shaote, who had a tenacity you could sharpen razors with. When Terrans fought, they fought hard and dirty.

Anakin, Laudica, and Sakonna struck quickly, and the Vong seemed genuinely happier to go against a challenge rather than finishing off an annoying and wounded human. And it was not an easy fight. The deflecting armor, the amphistaf that could withstand a lightsaber, and the fact that a Jedi lost their number one advantage against Vong meant that these were never easy fights. But training and hard work had still given the Jedi the edge, and while facing down a Vong wasn't as easy as facing down a Klingon, there was only one way a confrontation like that was going to end.

Shaote protested as Sakonna knelt down and put a hand over his abdominal wound, but it was mostly a token gesture. She had quickly mastered the healing aspect of the Force beyond those of her instructors, and Anakin could feel the warmth radiating off her as she helped the wound heal and the lifeforce remain strong. He and Laudica took up a defensive position, should any more Vong come along, but it didn't seem likely. The Imperial line had moved on and the Vong had fallen back to hold them off. A medic rushed over, ready to tend to Shaote, but Anakin told him to leave him in Sakonna's hands. Confused but used to following odd orders, he tended to the Vulcan's facial wounds instead.

Shaote and Sakonna are safe, Anakin thought.

Good.

They're hurt though.

Then Oria and I will finish the job.

But you said I could have the last one, Anakin thought. The jocular nature of the remark didn't have to be emphasized. Telepathic communication carried more undercurrents than any voice ever could.

Let's hope this is the last one, Jaina thought.

Anakin turned to Laudica. "Jaina's going to take care of this one."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Laudica asked. "Oria's never faced a yammosk before."

"There always has to be a first time," Anakin said.

"And what if... it... happens again," Laudica asked.

"Jaina's faced the yammosk before," Anakin said. "This isn't going to turn out like it did for Alema."

"It's the last one, Anakin," Laudica said. "There's no sense in exposing Oria."

"You know how this works," Anakin said. "You need two people, at least. You send one Jedi in there, when the yammosk can give you its full attention, and it'll turn your mind to slush."

"Then let's go-"

"There's no time," Anakin said. "And we're needed here." Laudica was biting her lip trying to keep her mouth shut. "You want another problem like on Yessik?"

Yessik had been liberated three months ago. That time the structure protecting the yammosk sustained several heavy hits during the fight. Because of the extent of the damage it was decided to use precision bombardment to annihilate the place. Then the clean up began and order started to return to the world, then the place went mad. It turned out that the yammosk, like some antiquated horror story, had escaped into the run off canals beneath the city and was attacking the minds of the locals. Hundreds died and just as many went mad before it was figured out, and Anakin and Laudica had gone down to finish it off. Taar agreed after that that no yammosk was considered dead until they saw the body.

There was a flicker in the Force. It was akin to what happens when a background noise that you didn't even notice was there suddenly vanished. It was the familiar sign of the yammosk expiring, and its influence upon the Vong forces was noticeable. Within minutes the shield generator was bombarded by the Imperials, leaving little left for B'vun II but mopping up and rebuilding. That wouldn't require the Jedi. Anakin pulled out his commlink. "This is Anakin Solo, requesting emergency medical energizing."

"Copy Solo. Stand by for transport."

"I will never get used to this," Laudica said as Anakin slipped the commlink back. "Give me a shuttle any day."

"Gotta move with the times, Laudica," Anakin said, and the foursome vanished.

It was well after midnight, local time, when the door slid open, but Annika's eyes flashed open as if she hadn't even been asleep. Once she'd acclimated herself to the human condition she'd grasped the finer points of sleeping and waking and handled it like a pro. A strong sense of self-preservation didn't hurt. "What do you want?" she asked icily.

Ben Skywalker stepped into the dark room. The door was still open, but it didn't matter. Annika knew he was far too powerful to try to evade or incapacitate. Still, she tensed herself; if this was another torture session, she'd see about giving as good as she got. Instead, he spoke to her, authoritatively, but without contempt or disrespect. "Molly tells me you're an investigator."

Annika may have been adaptive, but even she couldn't change her train of thought that fast at this time of night. "What?"

"She says you used to do investigations for the Federation, and then for the Empire."

"I never worked for the Empire," Annika said sharply. "I helped some friends of mine, that's all."

"But you do have some skills, right?"

Annika scoffed. "You think I'm going to help the captain and her mad plans? I've-"

"I'm not asking you to help her," Ben said. "I'm asking you to help me."

"Oh, you're conspiring against her," Annika said. "And I'll just ignore the blood trail you've left across the galaxy-"

"Listen," Ben said sharply, "you want to remain locked up in here on the Oracle's whim? If you helped me topple her-"

"I've replaced one Sith Lord with another," Annika said.

"If she's gone," Ben said through his teeth, "you can learn how to use her equipment... you can send me back."

"Back? To your own time?"

"To my own universe," Ben said. "She brought me here, I've just been trying to make the most of it. She said she couldn't send me back, but she's said a lot of things that aren't true. I'm betting you could do it. We'd both get what we want."

Annika mulled this over a bit. It explained a lot, actually. She didn't trust Ben an inch, but she didn't want to stay cooped up in this cell either. A diversion would be welcome. "What's your plan?" she asked.

"Just come look at this," Ben said, leading the way out of her cell. He stood a short ways outside and waited for her. "Don't try to run, it will just annoy me."

"I wouldn't want to do that," Annika said without bothering to hide her contempt. Ben grabbed the back of her neck; it was a bionic hand, she could tell. The pressure caused spots to appear in front of her eyes.

"No," he said in a low, dark voice, "you wouldn't." He gave her a shove. "This way."

Ben and Annika wound through the compound and into the Oracle's lab. "You want me to look at the temporal equipment?" Annika asked. "It would take-" But she was cut off as Ben shook his head firmly, then pointed to a stasis chamber, pushed off into the corner of the room as if unimportant. Annika looked back at Ben, then walked over and activated it. The cover hissed open, Annika glanced back at her captor while it did, then looked inside. She gasped. "Did you-"

"The Oracle left hours ago," Ben said stepping over to her side. "We all saw her go... felt her go..." He stared down into the chamber. "So, miss investigator, tell me, what the hell is that?"

Annika's mouth opened and closed a few times as she tried to speak but couldn't. She reached down and touched it... it felt real. "I'll see what I can do," she said, finally tearing her eyes off the still shape of Kathryn Janeway.

Go To Part XV
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