Return to Ord Mantell

15

The Falcon swept overhead, strafing the oncoming monsters. Jaina and Anja fought behind the others, attacking more of the knaars. The air was filled with the snarls of the predators, the sizzling buzz of the lightsabers, and the despairing cries of the staggering villagers.

Then, to Jacen’s surprise, the migratory knaars faltered in their advance, honking at each other uneasily. Many in the pack were covered with blood from their victims, both human and reptilian. But they all paused in their tracks as if unwilling to come any closer to the forest.

Jacen, sensing the monsters’ hesitation, desperately tried to use his Jedi senses in another way. The knaars were at the edge of their territorial range. Jacen could feel that they had never come this far before, that the forests ahead were a great unknown, and that the predators had little desire to keep following. He sent out his thoughts, giving the knaars a vague feeling that they had come far enough, that they should turn and go home.

They smelled the blood in the air, dimly understood that a great many of their number had already died on this trek.

The knaars honked at each other in a rudimentary form of communication.

With sagging shoulders and trembling knees, the villagers turned to watch in shock as the predators ground to a halt, snapping sharp teeth into the air as if they had reached some invisible boundary.

Lowie gestured with his big hairy arms to keep the people moving toward the forest during this unexpected respite. “Dear me! How very odd! I do hope the knaars don’t change their minds and attack again,” Em Teedee said.

The Falcon circled back and blasted one motionless knaar who stood in the lead. The other reptiles howled and snapped their jaws in defiance of the disk-shaped ship that cruised overhead. Then they turned about, moving much slower now, and began their trek back through the minefield. The stragglers stopped to snort among the scraps of meat that remained on the carcasses they’d left behind during their chase after the fleeing villagers.

Jacen stood at the edge of the forest, surveying the tall dark trees and the shadows beyond. Farther in the distance, beyond the forest, steep mountains with winding switchback roads led up to the open tunnels and cliffside stone villages of the miners.

The Falcon came to the edge of the forest and hovered low. Jacen and Lowie reached out with their Jedi senses, found an area clear of the burrowing detonators, and gestured for Han to land. With a hiss not unlike that of the monstrous knaars, the ship settled down on the uneven terrain. The boarding ramp extended, and Han and Zekk bounded out.

“You kids okay?” Han said, breathless.

“We are, Dad,” Jacen said. His sister, looking exhausted, came up next to him.

“We lost quite a few of the villagers,” Jaina said, “but there was nothing more we could do. We tried our best.”

Zekk turned his emerald-green gaze on her. “Without you, they would all have been slaughtered. I just wish I’d had my own lightsaber so I could have fought at your side.”

Jaina touched his arm. “You’ll have one soon, Zekk—and you’ll earn it the right way.”

“You helped us out just fine in the Falcon,” Anakin said.

Jaina smiled. “You weren’t so bad yourself—for a little brother, or course.” Anja joined them now, sweating, flushed, but seething with energy.

To Jacen it almost seemed as if she wanted the knaars to attack again, just so she could enjoy the fight.

His droid foot clanging on the boarding ramp, Ynos stepped to the opening of the ship and gazed back across the fields to where an explosion boomed in the distance. One of the retreating knaars had stepped on another burrowing detonator.

“That’s one way to clear a minefield,” Jacen said. Anja chuckled, but Jacen didn’t feel like making any more attempts at humor.

“Now we have nothing.” Ynos shook his shaggy head, and his broad shoulders appeared to carry more weight than even his once-great muscles could bear. “We’ve abandoned our village, and the only way to get back is to cross the land-mine field again. Even then, the knaars have destroyed many of our homes, and will be waiting for us if we return to the village now. We’ve survived this night, but now what do we do?”

Anja stood, flushed, her lightsaber still in hand. Though the other young Jedi Knights had switched theirs off, she kept hers powered on and throbbing. Its garish yellow light threw stark shadows on her face as she pointed it up at the mountains just visible above the trees.

“You can go there. That’s where I used to live, my village in the mountains.”

The farmers cried out in anger, and Ynos glowered at her. “What, and become slaves to the miners?”

Han Solo, perhaps still hoping to make peace between himself and Anja, came forward. “I can take some of you up to that village in the Falcon. We’ll talk to their leader. I need to hear both sides of the story anyway. This could be the best way to get your groups talking.”

“Hey, what are the rest of us supposed to do?” Jacen said. “Should we just wait here and make camp?”

“We could walk through the forest,” one of the villagers said.

Lowie growled, and Em Teedee translated. “Master Lowbacca recalls hearing about other traps and detonators throughout the forest.”

Jaina nodded. “Right. But it could be just as dangerous to sit out here in the open—especially if those knaars decide to come back.”

“I know a safe way through,” one young villager said. “I’ve been into this forest many times. We just have to be careful.”

Han stood close to Anja, who pointedly took a step from him. “We can take Ynos and the weaker farmers and fly up to the mountains. The rest of you follow us through the forest. It’s safer than any of the alternatives.” Tenel Ka looked sternly at the villagers, who, though exhausted, seemed fearful of going to the mountains. “If this war is to end, many things must change. You must face your fears and be responsible for yourselves.”

“I still wish we had weapons… since we’re going into the household of our enemies,” one of the villagers said.

“Then you’d miss the point entirely,” Jaina said, still shaky and exhausted from her battle; she was growing frustrated with the villagers’ stonewalling. It could well be, she mused, that the reason the civil war had dragged on for so long, and with so many innocent casualties, was that no one on either side was ready to face the challenge of making peace.

“Look,” Han said, “I’m going up there even if none of you comes with me. But this is your war, not mine. You should be involved in this.”

“We will go,” Ynos said. “But I don’t expect anything to come of it.”

As Anja boarded the Falcon, Zekk turned back to Jaina. “I’ll go with the ship,” he said, and then looked at the villagers. “You have to have faith that there are options open to you. Trust in your own abilities, and in each other, and in the Force.” The villagers just mumbled. Han hugged each of his children. He looked squarely at Jacen and Jaina. “You kids are awfully brave,” he said. “But it may take a while before I learn to stop thinking of you as children.”

A few moments later the Falcon lifted off above the trees. Jacen and Jaina waved farewell, and the flattened ship’s white sublight engines lit as the craft roared off across the forest toward the mountains.

Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie looked at the refugees around them.

“We’re a pretty ragtag group,” Jaina said.

Em Teedee drifted back down to be reattached to the Wookiee’s belt.

“Indeed, yes,” the little droid commented.

“These people are our responsibility,” Tenel Ka said. Lowie grunted his agreement and patted Jaina’s back with a furry hand.

Jaina sighed. “Right. What are we waiting for?” She looked into the thick forest and gave her brother a nudge.

Jacen turned toward a young woman and two young men who claimed to know the way to the mountain village. “Let’s go,” he said, lifting his lightsaber like a green torch to light the way through the murk of the trees. “We’ve got a long march ahead of us before we get to shelter.”

As the ominous animal sounds grew louder, the young Jedi Knights plunged into the thick wilderness, knowing that this forest held as many deadly pitfalls and booby traps as the minefield had.

By the time the Falcon flew low over the knotted mass of the forest, dawn announced its arrival with a splash of color behind the mountain crags. As the sun rose, light spilled down the rugged stone cliff faces.

Zekk could make out the thin white slash of a road winding its way up the steep mountainside. Scattered black holes marked entrances to mining tunnels and the city within the rocks.

Anja came forward from the passenger compartment and eagerly drank in the sight of the rough stone wall through the windowports.

“It’s been many years since I came back here,” she said. “I’ve made my life offworld on Ord Mantell, doing whatever I could to survive.”

Zekk looked at her. “Sounds familiar,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of the same things you have.”

She glared at him. “No one’s been through what I have.”

“Don’t be so quick to judge,” he replied. His voice was hard, but it held no anger. “My parents were both killed on Ennth. When I was still young I fled offworld, and lived on the streets of Coruscant, deep in the underlevels where no one goes—at least no one who wants to stay alive. I survived for years as a scavenger, until I was kidnapped by the Shadow Academy. They trained me as a Dark Jedi to fight for the Second Imperium.”

Anja shrugged one shoulder. “Our mountain villages took the side of the Empire a long time ago. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Maybe. But now I’ve learned and grown and adapted instead of wallowing in bitterness about my past. Sure, things went wrong with my life, but I think I’ve finally learned how to make something better.”

“Or you’ve finally convinced yourself to let the people who hurt you get away without punishment.”

The darkhaired young man could tell that Han was listening to this exchange with great interest. Zekk gave a wry smile. “If punishing other people is the most important thing in your life, then perhaps you need to look for another hobby.”

Anja turned away. “Other things are important to me.” Somewhat subdued, she moved to the back of the cockpit.

Ynos staggered forward and looked at the approaching mountain city. “No one from our village has gone openly into that place since the beginning of the war.”

“I’d say it’s about time for a change, then,” Han said. He arrowed toward the widest opening in the cliffside, where lights and a landing pad were visible. Zekk guessed these must be facilities for smuggler ships, supply runners, and weapons merchants like Lilmit, who came to take advantage of the desperate plight of the people of Anobis.

Han turned to Anja. “Do we need to contact them or request permission to land?”

She shook her head. “The only ships that come in are unauthorized smugglers.” She raised an eyebrow. “You know the type, Solo.”

Han and Zekk landed the Falcon in the middle of a broad rocky floor.

Tunnels riddled the walls between buildings built from blasted-stone blocks mortared together, chips of rock cemented into multiunit structures. People came from the buildings and tunnels to study the ship suspiciously.

Anja recognized the man in front, who had a black beard, thick eyebrows, and hair with a long streak of gray down the left side.

“He’s the one to talk to,” she said. “His name is Elis.”

The miners held stonecutting implements, pickaxes, vibrohammers, and other excavating devices. To Zekk the tools looked like potential deadly weapons.

Han extended the boarding ramp. “Let me go first. Anja, you can come with me if you like.”

She looked over at him, gave a curt nod. “As long as you don’t make it seem as if we’re allies.”

Zekk looked at the young woman, wondering what he could do to reach her and whether he could somehow dislodge the large chip on her shoulder.

Anja Gallandro could have been strikingly beautiful if she hadn’t had such a sour demeanor.

“Just give him a chance, Anja,” Zekk said. “Nobody planned that knaar stampede, but for now we’re all in this together.” She shot him a resentful glare.

Han, Anja, and Zekk emerged from the ship together as the miners pressed forward. Darkhaired Elis took the lead, scrutinizing them curiously. He recognized Anja. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you,” he said. “And who is this you’ve brought with you? Another trader?”

“Han Solo,” she said. “And aboard this ship are Ynos and many survivors from a knaar attack on the farming village below.”

At this, Ynos hobbled forward on his droid leg. Though broad and burly, he still held the boarding ramp piston for support. The miners set up a gruff cheer.

Elis smiled, showing his teeth from within the dark nest of his beard. “Excellent work, Anja. With such important hostages, we can end this war once and for all.”

“Now wait a minute!” Han cried.

Elis gestured and the miners rushed toward the Falcon, their stonecutting implements raised like weapons.

If it hadn’t been for the minefield and the ferocious knaars behind them, the dense dark forest would not have been an acceptable option at all.