New Age: 17

New Age: Stranded

Chapter Seventeen

            As soon as I saw the Temple, I was so overwhelmed I forgot to to tell Rave about the strange feeling I had. Shortly after first seeing it, we had landed the Corella inside a hangar bay, and my friends started showing me around. They were so happy to be back, because this place had so much meaning to them. It was where Bryda met Luke Skywalker, and Jusiko was reunited with her uncle, and introduced him to Bryda. Rave’s mother had brought her here when she was four after hearing about Luke’s New Jedi Order, though she had yet to tell me what happened to her. The same story applied to Avid, her sister and her mother. But before Avid could continue with her story, we reached the library, and I just stopped in my tracks, dropped my jaw, and stared at it, dumbfounded.

            Tundrr poked my face and said “Uh-oh, our Hania broke.” I snapped out of it, and Avid said “Well, here’s the library.”

            I followed them inside, and saw wide bookshelves on either side that stretched up to the ceiling, which was a couple stories tall, over half full of books with varying shades of glowing, blue books. The second story had railing, and I saw a Jedi leaning their back against it, reading a book. Down the centre were three desks, one in the middle, and one on either end of the library, with a holo computer and a chair on either side. At the very back was a large, circular vault door. And down the middle, in front of each bookshelf, was a bust of a humanoid figure. Or, what was left of one, on most. Probably from Order Sixty-six, I noted. Each of them were different, and varied in species.

            “So, what do you think?” Bryda asked me.

            “I think I have a headache…” I replied. “Probably because all of this is overwhelming.”

            But saying that didn’t feel right for some reason...

            “There’s more than the books, actually.” Tundra explained. “If we go on one of the holo computers-- Are you sure you’re ok?”

            I was holding my forehead in my hand. “Yeah, just, all of the sudden I have a bad headache.” I answered. I hesitated to continue. “And... I got a feeling that something bad is gonna happen.”

            “A disturbance.” Kai said. “I sense it now, too.”

            “What could it…” Suddenly, my knees grew weak, and my eyelids were heavy, and I blacked out.

--

            I saw Ti-Ku and Clea’s Master, a green Twi’lek named Zos’kiro.

The edges of my vision blurred into darkness, but it was clear towards the middle.

Zos’kiro was inside her ship, sitting in the pilot’s seat. Clea was next to her in the co-pilot seat, and Ti-Ku sat behind them in a third. They exited hyperspace, and Coruscant was now in the viewscreen. Soon after, the ship shook.

            Zos’kiro told her Padawans “Must be something with the engine, I’ll check it out.” She stood up, then left the cockpit.

            My sight faded to black as I saw her leave, but it quickly reappeared. The cockpit was replaced by an image in a different room in the ship. Zos’kiro was deflecting blaster bolts with her lightsaber from a tall man, who was shooting with a blaster pistol. The man wore black armour I didn’t recognise and a long, dark brown trench coat. He fired rapidly, but not too much for the Jedi Master he faced to slowly move forward.

            The man reached for a second blaster from his belt. No… that wasn’t it.

Zos’kiro was close enough to swing her lightsaber at the man’s face, but he blocked the hit with a vibroblade he had in sheathed on his belt. I sensed Zos’kiro’s surprise as her plasma blade stroke the metal one, and it wasn’t damaged. Then the man raised his blaster again and shot her stomach.

“I’m your salvation.” the man said, wearing a cruel smirk.

            Then everything became black again.

--

            When I awoke, I was sitting in a chair at one of the desks in the library, and my friends stood around me with expressions of concern. Kai was kneeling in front of me.

            He asked me “Are you ok?”

            I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I rubbed my eyes. “I… I don’t know what happened... I saw Ti-Ku, and Clea, and Zos’Kiro.”

            I continued to explain what I saw, and after I finished, Kai nodded.

            “You had a vision. And it was a pretty clear one, too.”

            “Does this always happen to Jedi?”

            “One so clear? No. Passing out? Only inexperienced ones.”

            “We don’t have much time.” Kasumi said.

            Rave added “Especially if we want to find out who this man is. Hania, stay here with Kasumi, Kai and I will go--”

            “No.” I interrupted. I felt bad, because I never usually interrupt people, but I continued. “I… I have a weird feeling, that I need to go too.”

            Kai stood. “Rave and I will go find Luke. The rest of you, try to find Zos’kiro’s ship.

--

            Kasumi,  Bryda, Avid, the Manabu Padawans and I raced back to the Corella and took off. Though my headache ceased, I still felt a disturbance. And I had yet to get used to telling myself it`s not nothing telling me things… it`s the Force.

            And it’s not like I could tell people that it was, before I knew I was sensitive to it. They’d shrug and say it was a coincidence. Ha. Haha.

    As we flew through the atmosphere, and drew closer to Zos’kiro’s ship floating in space, the disturbance grew stronger. Avid stopped the ship under Zos’kiro’s. Our ship jolted as a tube extended sideways then attached to the ship. We followed Avid through the cockpit, and to the left was a door that I previously thought was a second escape pod.

    Avid opened the door, and there was a tube a few feet long.

    She explained “This leads to Zos’kiro’s ship.”

    Then Kasumi gave us instructions. “Hania and Bryda, you two wait here, we’ll come back to get you once we know the ship is clear. Manabu Padwans, stay here and guard the ship.”

    With that, they walked through the doorway, and it sealed behind them. Then the opening, then closing, of the next set of doors followed, and we stood there quietly. Even Tundrr was quiet, for once. Probably because this wasn’t an episode of CSI: Miami. They were looking around the abandoned ship that belonged to our friends. And if there was no sign of them on there… we’d likely never see them again. Until that quiet moment, I never thought about it much.

    “So…” I started, wanting to break the awkward silence, and to keep my mind distracted. “Have you guys ever... done any crime scene investigation before?”

    “A few times.” Bryda answered. “I solve murders pretty quickly.”

    “How do you do that?”

    “As long as the memory area of the brain is intact, I can look through a dead person’s memories. If they saw the killer, I can identify them.”

    “Wow…”

    “I can’t do this with living people yet, though…”

    “That would be handy for interrogations, eh?”

    Bryda nodded.

    Suddenly, we heard both doors, on either end of the tube, open almost simultaneously.

    “Tundrr, are you up to your shenanigans again?” Ourdir asked.

    “What? No…”

    We all looked at Tundrr.

    “I swear, this time, it wasn’t me. It was probably Kasumi.”

    Bryda nodded. I doubted it, but I followed her through the tube, and the doors shut behind us.

            Inside was nearly pitch black. Bryda activated one of her lightsabers for light, and I did the same.

            “The doors couldn’t have opened by themselves, right?” I asked Bryda.

            She slowly nodded. “But who? Kasumi and Avid weren’t standing by.”

            I shrugged, and followed Bryda to the common room.

            “Maybe Zos’kiro?”

            “How?”

            “I don’t know… the Force?”

            “If your vision was true... she’s dead.” Bryda said solemnly. “I don’t know how a dead person could activate a button.”

            “How do you make open it, anyways?”

            “You press a button...”

            “What about with the Force?”

            “You could.”

            “See? I told you, the Force.”

            When we got to the common room, which was smaller than the one in the Corella, we saw Kasumi and Avid.

            “Any sign of them?” Bryda asked.

            Kasumi was kneeling, examining something on the floor, and Avid held her lightsaber for light. They looked up at us.

            “What are you two doing here already?” Kasumi asked.

            “Well, the Force willed it, or something.” I said. “The doors opened on their own.”

            “It shouldn’t be able to do that.” She looked down, then back up at us, and stood “We haven’t found any signs of Ti’Ku or Clea… But we found what’s left of Zos’Kiro.” Kasumi looked down again, and Bryda and I approached her.

            “Her dirty laundry?” I asked.

            Avid corrected “No, she faded away into the Force.” This clearly annoyed her. “And her lightsaber is still here. This is all the evidence we’ve found. The… man, from your vision, must have came in the same way we did. There are no marks from cutting a hole with, let’s say, a lightsaber. And this guy has the skill to kill a Jedi Master.”

            I stared down at Zos’kiro’s robes and lightsaber on the floor, where I saw her die in my vision. She didn’t seem very skilled in my vision, but ok...

            “Something’s not right…” I said.

            “Yeah...” Bryda started, and I sensed her sadness. “And we have no clue who this guy is, or where he took Ti’ku or Clea.”

            “No, I, well, that’s not right, I guess. But, there’s something… I don’t know, calling out to me somewhere.”

            “You should follow it.” Kasumi suggested.

            “Alright then…” I looked around, and started heading in the direction I sensed the pulling come from. But first, I tripped over Zos’kiro’s boots, then Avid glared at me.

“The only thing I’ve found with this is a Yoda action figure, and it may have just been luck, so I dunno about this…” I accidentally said out loud. I sensed doubt coming from the Padawans following me, and noted to really think before I speak. And watch where I’m going.

            We ended up in the empty cockpit, and the other Padawans moved their lightsabers around to try to look for something.

            “No, no, wait. Turn them off, they won’t help. I’ll accidentally maim myself.”

            They did as I said. The cockpit was now very dimly lit, the only lighting being from the headlights of the Corella. I closed my eyes and breathed slowly, then started to move my right hand around, searching for the source of the pulling.

            “We’ve searched this room a thousand times.” Avid said.

            I bumped my head on the pilot’s seat and fell back. I sensed serious doubt coming from Avid, but I continued searching. I reached under the seat, and grabbed something!

            “Aha!” I exclaimed. Actually, two things, and they were circular. They weren’t big, either. I picked them up in one hand and stood.

            “What’s that?” Avid asked. She was surprised I actually found something.

            I examined the small objects in my hands. “A holocomm and a credit coin.” I answered.

            Avid sighed. “We still don’t have any clues as to where Ti’Ku and Clea are… let alone who this man is.”

            Without needing to be asked, Kasumi activated her lightsaber for me for light.

            “Thanks,” I said.

            “You’re welcome.” she answered with a smile. “Also, he must be a bounty hunter, or an assassin.”

    Avid sighed. “Unfortunately, there must be hundreds of thousands out in the galaxy…”

    “Something’s written on the coin.” I added. “It’s aurebesh. It says…” I read off what was written slowly. “You… lose.” I flipped over the coin to try to find something on the other side. “You lose.” I repeated. “Lose what?”

            “May I see that?” Kasumi asked. I nodded and I gave her the coin, then examined the holocomm.

            “It’s for a thousand credits!” she exclaimed. “And it’s an Imperial credit coin, too… This has to have some sort of meaning… No use in looking for fingerprints, either.”

            “It’s probably just a joke.” Avid said.

            “Why would a bounty hunter just leave a thousand credits behind?”

            While Avid and Kasumi examined the highest valued coin I had ever seen, I pressed a random button on the communicator. Suddenly a small hologram appeared and I slightly jumped. Kasumi and Avid looked up from the coin. There was a man, and two figures covered by cloths about the height of his waist.

            He was the man from my vision!

            He had a very short buzzcut, I hadn’t noticed this before. And the top of one of the shorter figures had two points, like a young Togruta’s montrals. As soon I noticed that I instantly thought of Clea.

            “Hello there, Jedi.” said the man. “I would be surprised if a Jedi would even find this message. DO you know how many of these unfound recordings I’ve created?” He laughed. I glared at him. “Oh, didn’t your Master tell you it’s rude to glare, young Padawan? Surprised this actually isn’t a recording?”

    Ok… what?

    “Where are my manners? I am The Salvation.” he gestured to himself. “Who are you girls?”

    “You don’t need to know that.” Avid said firmly.

    “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were these girls’ friends.” He pulled off the sheets and they flew out of sight, revealing Ti’Ku and Clea, kneeling down in front of Salvation, facing us, with their arms tied behind their backs and their mouths gagged. I gasped. “May I ask again, who are you girls?” He tilted his head and smirked. “I’ll know if you’re lying.”

    I didn’t know what to do. It’s not like Canadian pre-teens come across hostage situations on a weekly basis.

    “My name is Kasumi, the Twi’Lek is Avid, the young one with white hair is Bryda, and the other is Hannah.”

            “Bryda, eh? That name sounds familiar. I swear, it’s on the tip of my tongue.”

    “Get to the point, Salvation.”

    “Ah yes, of course. This is what, or, shall I say, who I want... Hania Tomahawk.”

    I froze and my eyes widened.

    Ok WHAT?

    “We’re on Felucia. And… if you don’t want to bring me Tomahawk…” He went down on one knee and looked to Ti’Ku, Clea, then back at us. “Well, I’m sure I know at least a few men on Tatooine who are looking for some new slaves.”

    My eyes widened even further.

    “Where are you?” Kasumi demanded.

    “Like I already said. Felucia... You have three days…”

    Then the transmission stopped.

    “I swear I didn’t press any buttons.” I said quickly.

    Kasumi shook her head. “He cut the transmission.”

    I stared at the holocomm in my hand.

    “What… does he want with me?”

    “The Empire must know you were aboard when the Death Star exploded.” Bryda explained. “A lot of people say you’re the one responsible for the whole thing.”

    I faced Bryda. “But I came up with a plan that you guys would’ve come up with without me. I didn’t even do anything to deserve anything!”

    “You gave us hope that we could save our friends.”

    “And nobody would’ve without me?”

    Avid, Kasumi and Bryda exchanged glances.

    I was honestly surprised they had no hope that they could save their friends.

    “All I did was tag along and almost get killed!”

    “You discovered who was Joey’s Master.” Avid corrected. “And you did motivate us. But I don’t know why only your name spread.”

    “You are the first Earthling to join the Jedi Order, Hania.” Kasumi said. “Nobody outside of the Jedi Order or the high ranks of the Republic knew about Earth. You’re the first name from this planet to be known to the public. A least, outside of the Earth system.”

    “What would the Empire want with me?” I asked. “They’re behind this, right?

    “Of course. But your midichlorian count has not been released to the public. Maybe it’s because you overpowered Sutton, and could not be defeated by Vibeke.”

    Avid added “Maybe she has a thing against Jedi she can’t kill. So she might go after Jakuya, too. But I don’t know if she saw her, or knows her. But Vibeke must believe you’re powerful, and by the looks of it, you’re on the top of her hit list.”

    I glared at Avid, and I muttered “Not helping…”

    Bryda joined in. “You’re getting off topic, guys.”

    “Right, we need to decide what we’ll do with Hania.”

    “Hania will decide.”

    I turned my back on them and stared out into outer space, holding the holocomm tightly in my hands, and sighed. I felt them look at me, and we stood for a minute in silence.

    “What do you want to do, Hania?” Kasumi asked quietly.

    “Well… I wanna save Ti’Ku and Clea… but… I don’t wanna get captured.”

    “What do you think we should do?”

    “I don’t know! I’m frickin’ twelve!” I yelled then spun around to face them. “I only started training a few months ago!  And… and I’m twelve!”

    Avid interrupted “You’re almost thirteen.”

    “Yeah, ALMOST! So? The biggest decision I’ve made is ‘Hani, do you want rice or macaroni and cheese for dinner?’ Now I have to decide what to do in… in… a hostage situation! Or something! I don’t know!”

    They looked down, and I started tearing up. All but Kasumi.

    Kasumi put a hand on my shoulder, and told me “I’m sorry, Hania. But we need to come up with a plan fast. Felucia is almost three days away. And we don’t know how long it will take, us to find them.”