Jedi Bounty

16

Lusa waded into the sparkling green pool at the base of the waterfall.

Spreading her arms, she closed her eyes and let the droplets of cool spray caress her face.

There was a strange tingling sensation along the back of her neck. She had always been sensitive to the Force and, though she’d never had much training, she was sure Jaina and Raynar had described this as a sense of impending danger. Raynar, the twins, and Tenel Ka had been gone for nearly six days now. She knew something was wrong … but what could she do about it?

Lusa waded deeper into the pool, and when the frothing water rose above her flanks, she swam straight toward the pounding waterfall. She had promised Raynar that she would try not to worry for at least three days, and she had resisted the urge to wallow in thoughts of the perils her friends might encounter while rescuing Lowie from the cruel Diversity Alliance. Although each day, the tingling at the back of her neck had returned, each day it had faded again.

But today she could not escape the feeling. It seemed closer than ever.

Letting the pure, cool liquid envelop her, Lusa approached the waterfall. She plunged into it, hoping the cascading stream would wash away the feeling of dread. Water rushed over her and thundered in her ears. Cleansing rivulets sluiced down her bare torso as the heavier flow pounded against her back, easing the tense muscles. The serenity of her surroundings calmed her spirit. Her thoughts were far away on Ryloth, though….

With her back still under the waterfall, she turned to get a better view of the beautiful jungle trees along the shore. To her surprise, she discovered she was not alone, as she had thought.

Twenty-five meters away, at the edge of the pond, stood a short New Republic guard she had seen before.

Lusa recognized the Bothan who had accidentally stumbled into the infirmary several days earlier. She wondered if perhaps there was a message in the comm center for her, or if her friends had returned from Ryloth with injuries and the guard had been sent to fetch her.

With a rising sense of alarm, Lusa started to swim for shore. But before she got halfway there, something flew from the hand of the Bothan guard, directly toward her.

A noiseless explosion threw Lusa backward in the water. She tried to flail her arms and found that she could not move them. Furiously, her mind told her four legs to kick—but she could not feel her legs.

The sky above her was veiled by a rippling curtain of reddish brown, and she realized that she had sunk beneath the water. Her hair floated before her eyes. She wanted to cry out, but bubbles gushed from her nose and mouth. If she gasped, water would fill her lungs and drown her. She was paralyzed. Her mind cried out for help, again and again.

The next moment, a strong grip pulled her head high above the water and she drew in grateful lungfuls of fresh air. When the hand in her hair gave a vicious jerk, her eyes flew open to find the Bothan’s face only centimeters from hers. His expression was filled with hatred.

“Oh, no. You won’t die so peacefully,” the guard growled. “A traitor to the Diversity Alliance doesn’t deserve a peaceful death.”

A loud, ominous humming sound sliced past her ear. Lusa rolled her eyes to see that the Bothan held a vibroblade half a meter long in his other hand. She ordered her arms and legs to move, but to no avail.

She couldn’t speak, couldn’t protest, couldn’t cry out.

“No, that would be too easy,” the Bothan said. “It wouldn’t serve Nolaa Tarkona’s purposes. You have to know that you died for betraying her. And you’ll also serve as a lesson to whoever might find your body here!” He slashed the vibroblade through the air in front of her nose, enjoying his position of power.

“We can’t let a good assassination go to waste and look like an accident. No, this must be reported as a murder. Anyone who hears about it will know that a traitor cannot hide from the Diversity Alliance.”

He yanked her head back and touched the tip of the vibroblade to the base of her throat. A few drops of blood welled up where the point pressed into her skin. Lusa tried to shake her head, to strike him with her crystal horns. To her relief, although her arms and legs could not respond, and he still held her fast in his grip, her neck was able to move.

For just a second, a sound distracted the Bothan. The guard’s blade wavered and lifted, and he turned to see what had made the noise.

That was all the chance Lusa needed. Ignoring the pain from her pulled hair, she wrenched her head sideways and down and around. With all the force she could muster, she rammed upward, goring the Bothan’s furry arm. Blood spurted from the wound. The blood ran into her hair and down her face. She struggled to push her sharp horn deeper.

The traitorous guard bellowed with rage. He lifted the vibroblade high above her, his eyes full of wrath, and Lusa was certain he meant to end her life now, as quickly as possible.

Suddenly, the vibroblade flew from the guard’s hand, as if jerked by an invisible rope. Lusa twisted and rammed forward to gore his shoulder this time.

For a moment the Bothan loosed his grasp on her hair. At the same time, the other hand lowered to her throat, but it had dropped the vibroblade.

Jerking her head backward, Lusa managed to evade his grasp, but she still could not move her arms or legs. She felt herself begin to sink in the churning water.

The next moment she was raised high in the water by a firm arm beneath her forelegs. The guard dangled two meters above the water in front of her, thrashing furiously with his arms and legs and yelling something incomprehensible in a Bothan dialect.

When Lusa tried to struggle free of the encircling arm, Master Skywalker said close to her ear, “It’s all right. I have you. You’re with friends now.”

At the same moment, the Bothan flew backward and plopped loudly into the shallow water at the edge of the pond. There, a strange young man with long dark hair and flashing emerald eyes slapped a pair of stun-cuffs onto his wrists.

Lusa stopped struggling. Her mouth fell open in surprise.

The young man raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. “Standard bounty hunter equipment. Just a sample of the many things I’ve learned in my travels.” He pulled the bedraggled Bothan upright with a scowl, then looked back at Lusa and Master Skywalker. “This one won’t be bothering you again. But when we get back to the Jedi academy, I think the three of us ought to have a private talk-about the Diversity Alliance.”

Even using the Force, it took a standard hour for Zekk and Luke to get the injured prisoner and the stunned centaur girl back to the Jedi academy. After they arrived, Luke sent a brief message to his sister Leia about the incident while Zekk dried Lusa off and wrapped her in warm blankets. Master Skywalker entrusted the keeping of the murderous guard to a few New Republic soldiers whom he knew well.

Finally, Zekk, Lusa, and Master Skywalker gathered in Luke’s private chambers around a fragrant bowl of steaming soup and a platter of freshly baked bread from the Jedi academy’s kitchens. When Luke mentioned that Zekk was a bounty hunter, and Lusa a former member of the Diversity Alliance, the two were instantly wary of one another.

“I’m sorry to have to say this,” Zekk said, “but how do we know she’s not still working for the Diversity Alliance?”

“That Bothan was a Diversity Alliance spy, sent to kill me for leaving. Anyway, how do I know you’re not a bounty hunter hired to bring me back to Nolaa Tarkona?” Lusa retorted with considerable heat.

Luke intervened. “I think we need to establish some trust here.” He looked at Zekk. “I first met Lusa when she and Jacen and Jaina were about five years old. The Force has always been strong in her, and she has been honest with me.”

Luke turned to the centaur girl. “And Zekk was once a Jedi Knight. A Dark Jedi, yes—but he came back from the dark side, and the Force is still strong in him. I’ve looked into both of your minds, and I would trust either of you with my life. Or Raynar’s.” Luke again fixed Zekk with his solemn blue gaze. “Or Tenel Ka’s, or Jacen’s—or Jaina’s…”

Zekk felt himself flush at the gentle rebuke.

Shamefaced, Lusa looked at the floor.

“You’re both strong enough in the Force that if you chose to,” Luke continued, “you could sense if the other was lying.”

Zekk flinched at the reminder. He avoided using the Force, because in the past he had found it so easy to drift to the dark side. But what Master Skywalker said was true: Zekk actually could sense that Lusa was an ally, not an enemy.

He had to trust her.

“I … apologize,” Zekk said. “I know how hard it must have been for you to break away from the Diversity Alliance. I was once the enemy, too. At one point, I was prepared to fight and kill even the people who had been my best friends-just because I thought I’d found a place where I belonged, a cause to believe in. I found the Second Imperium. You found the Diversity Alliance.”

“I didn’t realize,” Lusa said. “I am sorry. I thought I was the only one who had experienced such things … but we each have darkness in our past. I offer no excuse for the things I did: I put my trust in the wrong people and tried to ignore my conscience. I was a fool.”

Zekk nodded. “And it’s not easy to start a new life once you’ve been the enemy. I was a fool, too.”

Master Skywalker smiled wryly. “Well, now that we’ve got that settled, we all have information we need to share. First, I’ll explain why Tionne left so quickly today. While I was on Coruscant, Leia got a report that a band of musicians sympathetic to Nolaa Tarkona were using their engagements as a cover to smuggle weapons for the Diversity Alliance. Tionne isn’t entirely human and, because she’s an excellent musician, she volunteered to check out the story. It could be a dangerous assignment, so as an added precaution, I asked her to take the Shadow Chaser and Artoo. That’s all we know so far.”

Zekk spoke next. He stumbled over his words at first, not sure how to explain what he had learned. He told about his initial interest in Bornan Thul as a means to gain fame as a bounty hunter, his assignment to find the scavenger Fonterrat, and what he had learned about Gammalin and the plague. Zekk concluded by describing his encounters with Bornan Thul and his certainty that Raynar’s father must be protected from Nolaa Tarkona at all costs.

“Did you hear anything about this plague while you were working for the Diversity Alliance?” Master Skywalker asked Lusa.

The centaur girl shook her head, tossing her glossy cinnamon mane. “I did know Nolaa Tarkona was always searching for power. She made it clear that she would pay well for powerful weapons—or for information on where she could get them. She was even willing to sacrifice a follower or two if it meant getting the resources she needed. At first I thought her noble. Now I know she was merely ruthless.”

Zekk suppressed a shudder. “I’m pretty sure that Bornan Thul has the key to where Fonterrat found the plague. But I can’t understand why he didn’t just turn over the information to the New Republic.”

“He probably guessed the Diversity Alliance had infiltrated the New Republic,” Lusa said. “The Bothan assassin just proved that to us.”

“Shouldn’t we put everyone on alert, then?” Zekk said. “We can’t trust anybody.”

A worried frown creased Master Skywalker’s forehead. “That’s not as simple as it sounds. It could lead to panic and false accusations. We can’t let faithful members of the New Republic come under suspicion just because they’re nonhumans.”

“That may be exactly what Nolaa Tarkona intends,” Lusa said. “If humans in the New Republic start turning on aliens, she can point to it as proof that humans will betray their own allies. It would be the perfect tool to persuade more aliens to join the Diversity Alliance.”

“That’s why Chief of State Organa Solo and I agreed not to spread the word too widely for now—at least until she’s had a chance to question that Bothan guard,” Master Skywalker said.

“It’s a tricky situation,” Zekk agreed. “It could be just as dangerous to distrust the right person as to trust the wrong one. Maybe Bornan Thul wasn’t wrong to keep his information to himself.”

“Or maybe Raynar’s father believed he could destroy the source of the plague himself without telling anyone,” Lusa said.

“Whatever his reason,” Zekk said, “I came here because I thought Raynar could persuade his father to trust us. Thul is going to need help. I know how to find him now: I have a tracer beacon on his ship. Do you understand why it’s so important for Raynar to come back from wherever he went? I need him with me when I go to find his father.”

Lusa’s eyes filled with tears. “I promised not to tell where they went,” she said, “but they were supposed to have been back days ago. They were all willing to risk their lives because they were afraid for Lowie and his sister.”

Zekk sucked in a sharp breath. Master Skywalker sat up straight.

“Where did they go?”

“Ryloth. To rescue Lowbacca from the Diversity Alliance,” Lusa said in a strangled whisper. “They said they’d be back by now.”

Zekk’s anger at the foolish risk his friends had taken warred with gutwrenching fear. “Then we’ll just have to go rescue them,” he said through clenched teeth. He looked challengingly at Master Skywalker, expecting the Jedi to argue with him.

“I don’t have the Shadow Chaser right now,” Luke said matter-of-factly. “We’ll have to take the Lightning Rod.” He looked at Lusa. “You know Diversity Alliance access codes and the geography on Ryloth. Are you willing to help us?”

Lusa shook away the blankets in which she had been wrapped and stamped a hoof on the stone floor. “Yes. I’ll come with you.”

Zekk started to object, but Lusa flashed him a dangerous look. “Don’t even try to talk me out of coming along. I want to help our friends just as much as you do.” He heard the conviction in her voice, and it suddenly dawned on him that she was no safer on Yavin 4 than she would be in the Lightning Rod.

“We’re all going,” Luke said firmly. “We’ll need all of our skills, and we’ll have to trust each other.”