Jedi Bounty

17

The first thing Jacen noticed before they ventured out into the night side of Ryloth was the searing cold. Though the mouth of the cave sheltered them somewhat from the frigid wind, there was no way to avoid it completely. A white cloud of steam formed in front of his face with each breath he released.

The serviceable brown jumpsuit that had kept him barely warm enough while they mined ryll proved a completely ineffective barrier against the deep, gnawing iciness of the eternal winter on Ryloth’s dark side.

He shivered and looked at Tenel Ka. Her lizardhide boots rose to midcalf, but her tough and durable scaled armor covered only a minuscule portion of her upper thigh and left her arms completely bare.

“You must be c-c-cold,” he said.

“This is a fact.” She reached into her belt pouch, pulled out the fingersized flash heater she always carried, and ignited it. Although it was capable of starting a fire—if they’d had anything to burn—the heat it radiated was too small to warm more than the hand that held it.

Jacen wished he had some extra piece of clothing to give her. He toyed briefly with the idea of stripping down and offering Tenel Ka his jumpsuit.

But even in the dim light, one glance at the brave face framed by warrior braids told him that he would risk her wrath even to suggest such an idea.

Chill wind gusted into the cave like knives of ice. Unable to think of any other comfort, Jacen put his arms around Tenel Ka and pulled her closer to him, in hopes of at least sharing some of his body warmth.

“It is also a fact that we cannot stay here,” Tenel Ka said. Though she was careful to keep the flash heater away from his clothing, her arm slid around Jacen’s waist and hugged him tightly. “We must find our way to the temperate zone, over the mountains. I do not believe we have come farther than five or six kilometers from where Lowbacca indicated we should wait for him.”

“You m-mean, go back through the tunnels? We’d get lost.” He shivered convulsively. “It could take us d-days to find our way back, if we ever do….”

“No,” Tenel Ka said. “We would risk being recaptured.” She nodded toward the frigid land scape outside. “No, we must go out there.”

“But you’ll f-freeze,” Jacen objected. His lips begun to feel numb.

“I am already cold,” she said. “We will grow no warmer by staying in this cave. We cannot hope for rescue if we stay here, and we risk being spotted by the Diversity Alliance.”

Jacen’s hands, still on Tenel Ka’s back, were growing stiff and ached with the cold. He flexed his fingers a few times, then buried them behind the unbraided portion of hair that hung down her back. “You’re right,” he said. “I just wish we could make a blanket out of your hair.”

She jerked backward a few centimeters and looked into his eyes. “Jacen, my friend, that is an excellent idea!”

He blinked back at her, not quite sure how what he had said could actually prove useful.

“Please, assist me in unbraiding my hair,” she said.

Reluctantly, Jacen released his hold on her; he had enjoyed the close contact. He shook the stiffness from his fingers and tugged a thong from the end of one of her braids. Still clumsy because of the cold, he combed his shaking fingers through her hair to untangle the braid.

Handing Jacen the flash heater, Tenel Ka used her single hand with considerably less clumsiness.

When they were finished, clouds of thick red-gold hair flowed down Tenel Ka’s arms, shoulders, and back, all the way to her waist.

Tenel Ka looked out through the cave opening, preparing herself for the ordeal they were about to face. Gazing out at the starry sky, she said, “Beautiful. As beautiful as rainbow gems from Gallinore.”

“Yes … beautiful,” Jacen agreed, though he was not looking at the sky.

“We must not delay any longer,” she said, stepping outside without hesitation.

“How will we find our way to the temperate zone?” he asked, following her out. The chill sliced into him like a vibroblade. He hadn’t thought it was possible for him to feel any colder.

But he’d been wrong.

“The day side is that direction,” Tenel Ka said, pointing straight through the mountain toward the other side. “Therefore, the temperature zone must be…” She pointed up toward the mountain peak that rose above them.

Jacen studied the steep, rocky crag. Its peak, silhouetted by a faint light from behind, must have been four kilometers away—straight uphill.

He swallowed, but the freezing wind had stolen all of the moisture from his mouth. Jacen blew on his hands and then folded one underneath each arm to keep them warm. “I can barely move my hands as it is. I’m not going to be able to hang on to rocks. We could probably boost ourselves with the Force, but parts of that slope look too steep to climb, and they’re covered with ice.”

Tenel Ka looked troubled. “No. Even using my fibercord will not help us. Our peril would be great. But we must find—ah … aha!”

Jacen followed her gaze and saw it in the distance: a pass, etched against the sky and mountains in stark relief by a tracing of twilight.

The twilight meant that the area must be close to the moderate zone.

“How far do you make it?” Jacen asked. “Seven kilometers.”

She shook her head. “Eight … perhaps ten. But our path would be more level. We should not need to climb. I believe we can walk it in a few hours.”

Jacen’s cheeks and eyes stung from the biting wind. He nodded. “Sure, no problem. You know, I’ve been saving a special joke for just such an occasion….” And they set off.

Jacen had lost all sensation in his feet by the end of the first half hour. The rocky ground was often covered with ice. They took turns in the lead, holding a lightsaber high to light the way through the darkness so that they could see the best path to walk. To keep their hands warm enough to grip their lightsabers, they shared the flash heater until its charge ran too low to be of any more use.

At times they had to use Tenel Ka’s grappling hook and fibercord to pull themselves over particularly treacherous terrain. Both of them slipped and fell so often that they were badly cut and bruised. After the first hour, Jacen stopped feeling that, as well.

They stayed as close together as possible, blocking the wind for each other from at least one side, and communicated primarily through brief gestures. They kept their mouths closed against the cold and tried not to talk, except when absolutely necessary to decide on a route.

After more than two hours, they stopped where a hillside full of loose rock rose above a slab of sheer, ice-slick stone. They had come a long way already, about two-thirds of the distance, Jacen guessed. But to get to the twilit pass, they would have to cross either loose stones or the slippery rockface.

“We are fortunate,” Tenel Ka said, “that we are so close to the temperate zone. Otherwise, we might have been dead by now.” A handful of rocks came loose from the upper slope and skittered down across the steep slab of icy stone.

Jacen gave a halfhearted attempt at a snort.

“Yeah, we’re lucky, all right.” He hadn’t been able to tell for nearly an hour whether he still had ears or not. He supposed that it was just as well he couldn’t feel them. “Which way?” he asked.

“We could use our lightsabers to cut hand- and footholds into the rock,” Tenel Ka suggested.

Jacen nodded. He looked in the direction of the pass toward which they were heading. “What’s that?” he said. He pointed to some tall, narrow objects now visible in the pass. They looked like the rigid trunks of scrawny metal trees that had only one or two limbs—limbs that moved.

“Power generators,” Tenel Ka said. “The winds are strong in the temperate zone where cold air meets hot. The Twi’leks use wind turbines to run their generators and supply much of their power down in the caves.”

Jacen flicked on his lightsaber. “Well, I’m ready to feel some of that hot air,” he said as a cold wind buffeted them. He swung his lightsaber to notch a few footholds in the icy rock, then stepped forward and swung again.

And so they progressed across the slippery expanse. A powerful gust hit them without warning, knocking them both to their knees on the ice-covered rock. A second gust was followed by a loud clattering noise. Jacen and Tenel Ka looked up in horror as hundreds of small rocks bounced and rolled and ricocheted down the slope toward them.

Jacen switched off his lightsaber. “Look out!” he yelled.

Tenel Ka punched the power stud on her weapon, turning it off. “This way!” she shouted, sitting directly on the ice and throwing her arm around him. Pulling him on top of her, she pushed off down the slope.

Like a living sled they slid quickly downhill on Tenel Ka’s tough lizardhide armor, picking up speed and outdistancing the small avalanche.

Fortunately, the smooth rockface did not add significantly to the bruising they had already sustained. Unfortunately, the slope was long and steep, offering no handholds or footholds on the way down. No way to stop.

They slid. And slid…

Until they finally tumbled, gasping and panting, onto a broad level area near the base of the mountain. Helping each other up, they scrambled to their feet and ran from the tumbling rocks that followed them down.

Within a minute, the tide of rock that had pursued them slowed and stopped.

Panting and shivering, Jacen and Tenel Ka stood for a moment with their arms around each other in the lee of a tall rock. The shelter blocked most of the wind, and—just for a moment—it felt a little less cold.

Jacen was surprised that Tenel Ka did not simply dust herself off and gruffly order him to keep going. Instead, she clung shivering to him for longer than seemed absolutely necessary.

Tenel Ka’s loose hair fell forward to cover Jacen’s shoulders. He welcomed the extra warmth and snuggled into it. He felt as if he could fall asleep under its blankety softness. He was so cold, so sleepy….

He closed his eyes, resting his head on her shoulder. Sleep seemed like a very good idea….

“Jacen, my friend,” Tenel Ka’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“Hmm?” he asked groggily.

“Jacen, my friend. Tell me a joke.” Jacen’s eyes snapped open. Had he really heard correctly? He put his face close to hers so that he could see her eyes in the starlight. How had he ever thought of her eyes as cool gray? he wondered. Had it taken the contrast with true cold for him to be able to see it? It was obvious now that they were warm, so warm….

“Wh-what? What did you say?”

She leaned her forehead against his. “Would you please tell me a joke?”

He smiled, though his lips cracked painfully.

“Umm … what side of a Wampa ice creature has the most fur?”

“I might welcome the company of even a Wampa ice creature at this moment, and invite it to join our group for warmth. I do not know, Jacen, my friend. Tell me—which side of a Wampa ice creature has more fur?”

Odd, Jacen thought. Tenel Ka must have known this joke. He was certain he had told it to her before. But at the moment that seemed very, very unimportant. Jacen smiled again into the soft red-gold cloud of hair that now drifted across his face. He could feel the Force flowing between them, giving them strength … yes, even warming them. “The side with the most fur is the outside,” he said.

Tenel Ka shook ever so slightly, though whether it was from cold or from laughter Jacen couldn’t tell. She pressed her cheek briefly against his, and whispered, “Thank you, Jacen, my friend.”

Then, releasing him, she took one of his hands in hers.

Jacen looked around the rock toward the pass that led to the temperate zone. “We lost ground,” he observed.

“Yes, but only a little. The pass should not be more than an hour’s walk now. Our path appears clearer and easier—with a short climb uphill at the end,” Tenel Ka pointed out. “We can make it, Jacen. We must continue.”

Jacen believed her. He felt a new spring in his step as they left the shelter of the rock. They passed many caves or tunnel entrances—Jacen couldn’t be sure which—but the ground was solid. On the slopes ahead they saw the strange mechanical towers of wind turbines erected by the Twi’leks. The structures appeared ancient, but still functioned. Jacen wondered how often any of the tunnel inhabitants braved the cold temperatures to service the turbine mechanisms.

The wintry air took its toll as they continued.

Jacen’s mind began to go numb. He had entered a trancelike state and had no idea how he kept putting one foot in front of the other. He was in the lead, holding his lightsaber aloft, when Tenel Ka put her hand on his arm and pulled him to a stop.

“What is it?” he asked.

She nodded toward the frozen peaks above them; gaps in the crags showed the line of twilight in the distance. But the air appeared to ripple as if alive. Shimmers of light contorted and danced through the air in an invisible undulation that seemed to make the icy rock surfaces ripple like an ocean.

Suddenly, a jet of steam half a kilometer high spewed upward from the frozen ground where the shimmering waves touched down. It seemed like a whirlwind, a spinning mass of displaced air and wind roaring over the mountains and sweeping toward them.

“Heat storm,” Tenel Ka said tersely. “I have read about them.”

“Heat?” Jacen asked, feeling hopeful.

“Heat storm,” Tenel Ka warned. Her grip tightened on his arm. “Hot winds from the daytime side of the planet. They can travel through the temperate zone to the night side and still retain enough heat to boil alive any creature in their path. We must find shelter.”

The shimmering waves swirled, forming a superheated funnel cloud that began whirling directly toward the side of the mountain. Rocks shattered, ice evaporated, and scalding, shrieking wind plowed through side canyons with a battering ram of displaced temperature.

“The caves!” Jacen yelled, grabbing her hand and turning back toward the last tunnel entrance they had passed, beneath one of the old wind turbines. Together they ran, forgetting caution on the rough ground.

The hot whirlwind climbed the slope toward them, howling like a vengeful spirit.

When he saw the broken entrance a few meters ahead of them, Jacen switched off his lightsaber and concentrated all of his efforts on speed. Not a minute too soon, he and Tenel Ka threw themselves into the narrow mouth of the cave. The furnace-hot blast roared toward them, flash-evaporating ice. Rock cracked and crumbled.

Jacen and Tenel Ka backed up to where the dark cave widened out and pressed themselves against the rough stone wall. Hot wind buffeted the rock outside, melting ice and sending up sizzles of steam, but the narrow-mouthed cave protected them somewhat.

Sinking wearily to the floor, Jacen said, “I didn’t know I had the energy left to run.” The storm grew louder, closer, as if angry that they had escaped.

Beside him, Tenel Ka looked around suspiciously. “Jacen, my friend—we are not alone.”