Star Wars - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Covalent Bonds ❯ Chapter 45

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

"We've had the whiskerino contest. We've had the how-many-food-pellets-are-there-in-this-jar contest. What's next, Anakin?" Along with her fellow Corellian Legislative Youth Program teammates, Rall Omski had cabin fever from being cooped up all day in the protecting Ishkik caverns on Cularin. Anakin couldn't blame her for letting her spirits fly in the free nighttime air. He felt the same way. It was his ill luck that today contained so many exasperations. It was four months after the ceramic storm had whirled him into the Voidfire Nebula whose roiling flares hid the planet Cularin, a planet as strong in the Force as any he had ever Felt. He had hunkered down to wait until the flares' predictable interference would allow both his and the Legislative Youth Program's jury-rigged spacecraft to depart this beautiful, Separatist-invaded world. It had taken all his patience and then some to patch up their transport as well as his own fighter. If it had been four months for him, it had been ten months of waiting for them, fifteen teen Corellians in survival mode. Anakin had had to take charge.

Anakin recalibrated his hydrospanner and scratched his tawny beard. "Don't know what's next, Rall," he muttered, hoping that she would get the hint and stop pestering him. When he had appointed her in their first week together the Morale Officer of the group, over a half-year of enforced intimacy among the stranded cadre of census-takers had already worn the group's camaraderie down to a nubbin. Cliques had formed, always a bad sign. The data gatherers had looked askance at the communications officers and the two groups ganged up on the maintenance crew. Things were getting ugly. Their snap-up survival tents huddled in three groups inside the lip of the caverns' opening and to keep the peace Anakin spread his downtime among the groups equally. He had never appreciated being a Jedi more than he had these past four months.

And then came the whole kilassin disaster three days before Anakin's arrival. Life on this southern continent of Cularin with its mountainous rainforests was difficult enough without those sneak reptilian attacks, the beasts' ripping claws resulting in the deaths of five of their number, including the remaining adult team member. Morale dipped into the negative numbers with that incident and only rose when Anakin arrived with his ability to Sense that the creatures had migrated with the autumnal equinox to the innermost reaches of the system of tunnels. Still, Rall persevered in her task as she had done every day. "Anakin, can I help you do something?" she asked, taking a different tack to gain his attention. She leaned provocatively against the makeshift trestle supporting the detached comm board.

"Now what could you do?" sneered Lanzo, his voice cracking on the pronoun. The other interns handed him the scattered tools and he replaced the hydrospanners into their slots, their size designations aligned precisely, the hexagonal points all in a row. Obi-Wan would have been nodding in approval, Anakin thought.

"She can do a lot, Lanzo Mulduun. She tries hard." Oops, wrong thing to say. Will I ever understand teen girls? He'd better learn how before Sabra aged into that category, or his own daughter. Or his daughters. His mind gibbered. "Please, Rall, no more whiskerino contests, all right?" Anakin had won hands down, his golden brown scruff turning respectably full after one month as per the rules. Of course, he was one of only three males in the lost group. This had been their first assignment and all of them were frustrated at their perceived failure. Anakin had given up trying to persuade them that it was not their fault at being hijacked by the Separatists.

Rall's pout turned into a sweet smile. "No, the competition wasn't much, was it."

"Not fair!" Lanzo slammed the toolbox closed with a bang. "I'm only fifteen!" He glared at Rall, who glared back.

"Came in third, after someone who is bald, Lanzo. Says a lot right there."

"That's not where you grow whiskers, stupid!"

"I'm not stupid, you're the one who's forgotten the time! I'll bet Anakin and Obi-Wan and Saesee give you what-for!" Rall flourished her wrist chrono ostentatiously. It was nearly time for Saesee's weekly comm. Her wrist was thinner than last week, Anakin noticed. His own presence had added to their hardship, though he tried to control his eating to save their resources. The almond-kwevvu crisp munchies had lasted him one full week. He hadn't thought of himself as needing to lose weight in a long time now. His musings about it on Gelgelar seemed years ago.

To stop the sniping, Anakin fought for the right words, wishing that he had Tru's loquacity. "Rall and Lanzo, do me a favor, please, and pair these relays. Today could be the day we leave beautiful Cularin for even more beautiful Coruscant." Not looking forward to returning home with my tail between my legs. And Obi-Wan is keeping something from me. "Skywalker here," he said before the comlink could chime. He was feeling the Force under the cloudy nebula painting the black sky with white milk and he needed to use the Force, needed to remind himself that he was sensitive to it and in a moment he could commune with his fellow Jedi. He closed his eyes, reveling in the intensity.

"Anakin. Fribulate the jamming frequencies with the sporkulator and tell me what happens." Saesee kept formalities to a minimum, given that the power on Anakin's end could go at any moment. It made for holographic sentences.

"Got it." Anakin tuned his sporkulator and got busy. "The lines are parallel."

"Not good. Up the frequency." Anakin's arm interface tingled when he cranked the dial to the right. My arm needs a tuneup. "They're at a diagonal."

"Up from the bottom left to the top right corner?"

"Yes." From the comm board came a grunt like a snorting reek. Anakin had learned that this was Saesee's sign of satisfaction.

"Excellent. Keep it up day by day. By next week, the frequencies should be such that you and the younglings can escape." There was a crackle and a hum, notice that their connection was fading. Static grew and clung to their words like the gripvine in the Shrine of Kooroo.

"Fine by me. Eluding the Seppers hasn't been easy." And trying to stay safe with this crew of idealists has been an eyeopener. In a flash of self-knowledge, Anakin knew that he would fight for these young ones, die for them, and worse, kill for them. It was most sobering. I suppose these will be my feelings when I see my own at last. Will my younglings be this simplistic? Anakin thought of Obi-Wan's genes. Never.

"Continue what you're doing. Things will work out, Anakin."

"Thanks, Saesee." A clonk and more hissing. Heavy Iktotchi footsteps retreating into the distance, lighter ones advancing. A voice that echoed in his heart.

"Anakin."

"Obi-Wan." The static was less today than last week, an indication of the nebula's cycling down its interference, surely? Anakin turned aside from the Group members clustering around him. Lanzo seemed to know what was going on and put his colleagues to work fixing their meager evening meal over the smokeless cooking unit just outside the caverns' entrance. Rall dallied around Anakin until Lanzo pulled her away.

At the sound of Anakin's voice, Obi-Wan felt affection bubble up inside him and it needed an outlet; he had faced and conquered such things in the past few months that Anakin would never know in his life. "Darling!"

Anakin curled his hand around his comlink, turning away from Rall and Lanzo's busywork. "Sweetheart," he whispered. "It won't be long now."

"I heard."

Anakin cast about for any enemy presence before he continued. There had been a few fly-overs from STAPs, though not usually at night. "Obi-Wan, I haven't mentioned this to the younglings, but could it be that their ship was merely a test for Dooku's Dark Side Warp weapon? They didn't arrive in orbit as I did. They crash-landed and Alset said that before their pilot died, she mentioned 'crazy tarine teacups.' That is as good a description of the Serenno flyers as any."

"We may never know if Dooku disappears into the galaxy. The intel from Serenno has naturally been filtered by his loyal staff." A test of a powerful Dark Side-powered weapon. As good an explanation as the Analysis Room can come up with. And the Program ship crashed, while you did not. I'll release my relief over that into the Force later.

"How goes the war?" That I am not a part of. Stang.

"The crystal droids have taken the place of nearly all deployed metal droids, B-1's, of course, but also the super battle droids. Each encounter with them has been a learning curve. Grievous' MagnaGuards block our sonic weapons with their counter-sonics, the crysties can reform so fast it makes the clones' helmets swim. Some success with the water crushers." Mud, it holds them in place, but how can we use water crushers on places like Drongar? The kriffing crysties. Obi-Wan began the litany of events that Anakin had asked for each week after the harrowing first month of noncommunication. That torture for them both had ended only when Anakin cobbled together a working long distance comm board from the Legislative Youth Program's ship's carcass and his own Delta-7's ruptured diodes. Another month passed before the jumbled coordinates that Anakin fed to Obi-Wan and Saesee could be decoded; the planet could have been anywhere. But they knew their location now. They were waiting on the waxing and waning of the Nebula. Navigating out of it would be a complete vorp. "No more headaches. Bant helped me with them, she is improved. She says - ahem - that my condition is making her feel better. Plo is flying in the field again, his last engagement was over Drongar. Modded my speeder bike again. Adi is packing. Siri is spending more and more time with the clones. I think that she will be fine with staying with the breakaway group for the first month while they acclimate on Dantooine. Master Porrie passed into the Force right after we talked last week. Saesee says that he will stay in-Temple as long as it takes to get you and the younglings home. Tholme spent one full day in retreat with T'ra's box-cell. Master Yoda is concerned about him. I am working every day in the Analysis Rooms on the crystal sample that Siri recovered." One more thing. "I weigh ninety-nine kilos."

"Never."

"Yes."

"I can't imagine how that must feel. I thought carrying a twenty-two kilo backpack of thermite explosives was heavy on the outside. You're working too hard, Obi-Wan." I know you. You won't stop until something bad happens.

"I know how to ask for help, Anakin. This issue is too serious for pride to stand in the way."

Lecture Number Seven Thousand And Fourteen in a continuing series, Master. "Now you listen to my lecture, Obi-Wan. You were right when you said that I needed someone other than you. I need you first, but I also need to see my younglings arrive safely. Can you do that for me?" Say 'for me,' sound as if I'll simply die if you don't do what I want, how's that for listening to your Diplomatic Pedantry lessons?

Brat. "Lecture heard, noted and branded on my soul. But you spoke of bombs and younglings are comparable, if you consider what they've done to us."

Huh? "We'll be fine."

"Our partnership --- "

"Don't resent them, Obi-Wan. They didn't ask to be born." What is going on there?

Out with it, he only has this window for a little while. "Anakin --- "

A whiz and a thumping sound of feet approaching. "Yes, Saesee, what is it?"

"Give me the comlink! Anakin, forget what I said about fribulating! Get your group together and leave! There's a window through the interference in one hour, for one hour! You're good to go with the repairs you've made so far and you could be here in two days!"

Anakin heard what might have been a jig coming from his comlink. He had to be sure, very sure about this. He wanted to see home again badly, but not at the risk of everyone's lives. And not at the risk of never meeting my younglings. I could wait another week if necessary. "Are you certain, Saesee? What's happened?"

"A solar flare. I've been coordinating the Cularin Prime sunspots with the Voidfire Nebula's radiation via your link with us. The Analysis Room has picked up a building solar flare, don't make me waste time explaining it all because it, it --- "

"One hour, darling! I'm looking at the data right now! There's going to be a flare in one hour for eleven minutes and it will saturate your instruments! You don't have any more parts to fix them! It will be months before any extraction can make it to you all!"

I'm using the crystal from my lightsaber to jury-rig the Corellian transport's ignition. Crystal. Not ion-based. Good difference, it seems, but still --- "Saturate? That doesn't sound like a good thing, Masters."

"It's a disaster." Saesee's voice returned to its usual bass. "Skywalker, when the transport uses your crystal to ignite the engines, keep on using the crystal to power out of the atmosphere as fast as you can. Then switch the crystal out when you're in orbit into the hyperdrive. If you keep on using the crystal, the ionization in the nebula won't affect your engines and once you get past the Nebula, you can reinsert the crystal in your lightsaber and go back to using the ion engines. It won't matter anymore. Leave your Aethersprite behind and just go."

My Aethersprite. I've modded it just so. The Seppers will get it, all those personalized circuits and scanners, and, and everything. Inhale, Anakin. "Copy, Masters. The CIS forces haven't found us yet, and the sixteen of us can haul my fighter under the lip of the caverns." Comlink in hand, he Force-leaped into the cockpit one last time and retrieved his Padawan braid. I'm certain that the enemy won't have this data. They'll be forced to stay here until at least next month. Dooku, you are in for a surprise. He reached under the cowling and brutally ripped out wires and connections. I can do this again. I can make a better instrument array. Rall and Aslet and Lanzo and the rest gathered around the Delta-7. Anakin regarded them silently. I must do this. All of you can't fit into the fighter. "It's time to go. Just like in the drill. Everyone into the transport, Rall, you and Lanzo double-check and do the pre-flight." He held up his clenched mechno-fist. "No questions. Trust me." Everyone scrambled for the transport, shrieking or in silence as their personalities dictated.

"Anakin, I know this hurts and I'm sorry." Obi-Wan's voice was almost inaudible in the growing static. "Look for the aurorfrzzzzzzlppp."

Two days later ...

"You're puffing."

"You would be, too. They're squeezing my lungs."

"I guess sparring is out for a while."

"Yes, also lying on my back."

"On our sides was nice and relaxed this morning."

"Give me a hand. The last steps are the worst." Up and up they had gone to visit Master Porrie, the landing in each set of stairs a welcome respite to the climb that tradition said had to be made on foot. Obi-Wan lay a hand on Anakin's shoulder as the two Jedi rounded the final turn to her resting place in the wall of the Tower of Remembrance's stone staircase. Built upon generations of Jedi, each plaque inscribed with names and Knighting dates but no dates to indicate passing into the Force, Obi-Wan pointed out Master Porrie's spot. "She was clear to the last. She exclaimed, 'What a beautiful transom,' and passed, Bant said."

Anakin pinched the bridge of his nose. "She would have liked to have seen the aurora, then."

"Beautiful, wasn't it. You were in it, like I was on Olanet."

"Explosions of color in the stratosphere, charged particles that would have killed our instruments if we had been using ion drive, oh, it was beautiful, all right."

"And you did the jumps yourself without instruments after getting free of Cularin's gravity well. I'm proud of you."

"Maybe you can, too, Obi-Wan, now that your midichlorians have --- "

"I don't think so, Anakin. We're not completely alike. I'm hoping that you shave soon, for instance."

"I like it. It makes me distinguished, older, just like you."

I'll do it when he's sleeping. "As you wish." Obi-Wan leaned against the stones gratefully. "So, you've had fifteen Padawans at once. No other Jedi can say that."

"That's one reason I feel older. The quarrels, the fits, the dirty looks, I tell you, Obi-Wan, it was horrendous."

"They were not Jedi, Anakin."

"True. Makes a difference." Anakin touched Porrie's plaque. "Master Porrie, rest well. With six Padawans under your belt, you deserve it."

After they had clasped hands in a brief meditation and departed, the eternal flame in the wall sconce flickered as if laughing.

TBC