New Age: 19

New Age: Stranded

Chapter Nineteen

The Corella had landed in the clearing in front of Salvation’s ship. Avid, Kasumi, the triplets and I were walking down our boarding ramp towards Salvation. He had tan skin, brown eyes, and black, buzz-cutted hair. I finally recognised his armour; it was Mandalorian, like Boba Fett’s. Salvation held a blaster rifle, and had one pistol and a sword (or vibroblade, as Rave had called it) sheathed his belt. Ti’Ku and Clea were kneeling down on either side of him with their hands tied behind their backs. I sensed their fear, and it made me feel pretty bad.

Salvation lifted his wrist to check his imaginary watch. “Oh, good! You made it here just in time! Now, where is Hania Tomahawk?”

Bryda stepped forward. “Here.”

“You're Hania Tomahawk?”

“Yes, I am. Now let go of my friends!”

“I’m no fool, I was given a description of her. Fair skin, dark brown hair, usually wears green robes, stupid. Your appearance does not fit the bill, the opposite, actually. But it seems the stupid part does.”

I stepped marched forward until I was in front of Brya. “I am Hania Tomahawk,” I stated with confidence.

“Really?” Salvation asked.

“Yes I am! And you may-- are thinking But she’s so young! Yes I am! But just because I’m freaking twelve doesn’t mean that I can’t do impressive stuff. My friend here,” I gestured towards Bryda, “was almost killed by a Sith, back before I could even levitate a pebble. But, I ran in anyways, with a lightsaber I didn’t know how to use, and tried to help. Some people I’ve met said that I was being stupid, but others said I was being brave. And if you see bravery as stupidity, ok, that’s your problem. You captured my friends because you wanted to get me... Fine, let them go and don’t hurt them, and I’ll go with you.”

I tried to at least appear confident. But I was terrified. I knew next to nothing about this man. Would he kill me? Would he kill my friends? I didn’t know. But what I did know was that I couldn’t let Ti’Ku and Clea stay captured. The plan was to attack Salvation, and Bryda was going to be a distraction. But I couldn’t go through with it.

“You really are Hania Tomahawk, aren’t you?” Salvation asked.

I nodded. “Yes.”

“You said you’re twelve. Aren’t you too young to be a Padawan?”

“Well, I am a Padawan, so… no?”

“Do your parents know what’s happening?”

“They think I’m on Coruscant, so...”

He looked behind me at the rest of my friends. “And what about the rest of you?” he asked, realizing we were all pretty young.

“Only got our mom,” Ourdir answered.

Avid nodded. “Same,” she stated.

“I was orphaned,” Kasumi added.

Salvation looked down at Ti’Ku and Clea.

“We grew up as slaves on Tatooine,” Ti’Ku answered for herself and Clea way too casually.

Salvation stared at me and furrowed his brows. He looked up behind him at his ship’s cockpit, and I just noticed there was a young girl there, probably my age, sitting in the pilot’s seat. She had a black mask covering her face, and I could faintly see her orange hair. He sighed heavily, then looked back to me.

“Go.”

“What?”

“Leave, now, before I change my mind,” he said, then turned around and headed for his ship’s boarding ramp.

“Why?”

He stopped and turned his head to look at me then said “You’re just a bunch of kids,” then continued to his ship.

“Ok...” I tried to read his mind, but it was too hard at this point without seeing his eyes. “Right, uh, Ti’Ku and Clea, let’s get you un… tied up, shall we?” I activated my lightsaber then walked behind Ti’Ku to cut her handcuffs, and Bryda did the same for Clea, while Salvation’s ship took off through Felucia’s atmosphere. The rest of our friends walked up to us.

“A bounty hunter with a conscience? Strange...” Kasumi said.

“But this is the same guy who killed Zos’kiro!” Ti’ku exclaimed.

Suddenly, a loud, deep roar echoed through the fungi jungle. Birds squaked as they flew away from the source.

“Can we talk later?” Avid asked. “In the ship? On our way back home?”

“Good idea,” Kasumi said.

Led by Avid, we bolted back inside to the cockpit of the Corella.

“Fasten your seat belts, kiddies, or we’ll become rancor lunch!” Tundrr exclaimed as we got seated and Avid started up the ship’s engines.

“Prepare for…” Avid trailed off as the engines and power shut down. “Don’t do this to me,” Avid muttered as she frantically pressed buttons to get the ship running. “UGH!” She slammed her fist on the controls. We heard the rancor again, this time, louder. “We ran out of power,” she stated. “I told you guys this would happen. I told you so.”

“This is hardly the time for ‘I told you so’s, Avid,” Kasumi retorted. I wish Rave were here, she knows so much about rancors… I heard her think.

We heard loud thumps, followed by our ship shaking each time, intensifying with each thump. Thump… Thump... Thump... Thump, thump, THUMP THUMP THUMP. The large plants outside shook violently before a very large rancor entered the clearing.

“That’s a bull rancor,” Kasumi informed. “You can tell by it’s large size, blue grey skin, and horns.”

“Fun facts!” Tundrr exclaimed. “Indirectly brought to you by Rave!”

“My first mission to another planet is going so well...” I sarcastically muttered.

“Everybody! Stay still! It’s sight is based on movement!”

“Tundrr this isn’t Dinosaur Park,” Tundra said. “It can still--”

“It’s JURASSIC Park, thank you very much!”

The bull rancor walked up to our ship. Thump… thump… thump. Then it lowered its head to see inside the cockpit. We all stared at it, wide-eyed and frozen with fear.

“Why hasn’t it picked up the ship yet?” Bryda wondered out loud.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Avid whispered.

“It could be domesticated.”

“A bull rancor? Domesticated?”

“I’ve seen tame rancors before. If I stayed on Felucia, I would have had my own.”

“Just imagine riding that into battle…” Tundrr said. “That would be so COOL!” We immediately shushed him.

The rancor took a couple steps back, and we could see the top of it’s head, where a humanoid, brown-skinned alien with several head tails sat.

“I never thought I’d see a domesticated monster,” Avid commented.

“They’re not monsters,” Bryda retorted. “You wouldn’t think that if they were herbivores.”

The alien jumped off the rancor and landed without injury. Must be a Force-user. She looked up at the rancor, then to the ship. She slowly started to walk towards us, staring at the cockpit. As she came closer, I could tell she was a Nautolan, who wore leggings and a tank top weaved from vines. Bryda gaped at the Nautolan woman.

Tundrr snapped his fingers in front of Bryda’s face repeatedly as he said “Corella to Bryda, Corella to Bryda, do you copy? What’s up?” She’s alive…? I heard Bryda ask herself. She unbuckled her seatbelt then sprinted to the boarding ramp. Avid opened it for her and we ran after Bryda.

“Do you know her?” Ourdir called out.

We followed Bryda until we were only a couple meters away from the Nautolan, and they both stared at each other.

“Is it you? Is it really you..?” Bryda asked, teary eyed. “Mom?”

The woman nodded, and tears started to form in her large, black eyes. Bryda ran up to her mother and hugged her as they started to cry. The rest of us smiled, and Tundrr said “Awww, so cute.” After a long moment, they let go and looked at each other.

“Look at you, Bryda!” her mother exclaimed. “You have grown so much!”

All I could think was Bryda REALLY doesn’t look like her mom…

“And Jusiko? How is she?”

“She’s a Jedi Master now. My Master, actually. She’s a great teacher. And Alfa is on the council.”

Sigi smiled, and I could feel pride radiating off her. “I remember Alfa complaining about the council. Well, it is the New Jedi Order… Must be much different…” She looked behind Bryda. “Who are these people?”

“They’re my friends.” Bryda answered proudly. She turned her head to look at us. “Guys, this is my mom.” I remembered Bryda telling me that her name was Sigi.

Sigi looked at each of us as she said “Let’s see… Avidrosaf’orest, Kasumi Hillche, Ourdir, Tundrr and Tundra Manabu, Tikuan’dromeda, Clea Malt, and Hania Tomahawk.”

“How do you know our names?” Avid demanded.

Sigi did jazz hands and said “The Force!”

I heard Tundrr think I like this lady already!

“Why have you returned?” Sigi asked.

“A bounty hunter captured Clea and Ti’Ku, or, Tikuan’dromeda, killed their Master, and sent us a message. We had three days to get to Felucia, else, he threatened to sell them.”

“What did he want?”

“Hania. We’re not sure why, but we think he was hired by a Sith, Vibeke, who has killed every Jedi she fought, excluding her and one of our other friends, Jakuya.”

“Interesting… I know that name… Yes! Of course! I called it! I sensed the dark side in little Vibeke from the beginning! Did the Council listen? Nooo.” I can imagine if Sigi could have, she would’ve rolled her eyes. “And this Jakuya… Jakuya Mirage?”

“No, Jakuya Manabu.” I sensed a great sadness in Sigi. “Well, I’m pretty sure Mirage was her maiden name. If you’re thinking about a green-skinned Mirialan, that’s probably her.” Sigi smiled, and her sadness was replaced by hope.

“Avidrosaf’orest’s ship? Is something wrong with it?”

“We ran out of fuel. And I’d prefer you don’t call me by my Twi’lek name.” Avid retorted. “Just Avid.” Avid was never was a people person, was she?

“Of course, Just Avid. Are the comms working?”

Avid sighed. “We just arrived to Coruscant after a six day trip, then made a three day trip without refueling. No food, no water, no power. Nothing.”

“You don’t have nothing. You have your friends. And I live in a small Felucian village not far from here, we have food and water. After you refuel your stomachs, I may be able to do something about the power.”

“We can’t just leave my ship.”

“Trust me, nobody wants to come here. This area is labeled as rancor-infested.”

“Rancor-infested?”

“The labellers forgot to mention they are all domesticated.”

“Avid, we can trust her,” Bryda said. “If it helps, she was on the old Jedi Council.” She turned to her mother. “How far is the village?”

“Like I said, not far… if you’re travelling by rancor. Luckily, we have Fluffy.” She gestured towards her bull rancor.

“Let’s go!” Tundrr exclaimed, ran up to Fluffy then jumped up twenty meters onto one of his large tusks stemming from his jaw, then jumped up another ten and sat on Fluffy’s head. I gaped at him, and at the rest of my friends and Sigi as they followed him. Avid hesitated, but she followed last.

“COME ON, HANIA!” Tundrr yelled down at me. “THIS IS AWESOME!”

“I LITERALLY JUST STARTED THIS FORCE THING!” I reminded him.

“No problem!” Sigi yelled, then stretched a hand towards me. I started to slowly ascend, up, up, up. I just had to be afraid of heights, huh? Ok Hania, chill… you’re going to ride a rancor, a fricking rancor. That’s awesome! Don’t worry, you won’t pee yourself, you just went before we got here… I tried thinking calm thoughts, and focused on the colourful fungi around the clearing, until I was on Fluffy’s back, sitting between Avid and Kasumi.

“You ok?” Sigi asked me.

“Yeah.” I nodded, my whole body shaking as I avoided looking down.

"Good." Sigi grabbed Fluffy’s reins then shouted “Fluffy! Yip yip!”