Dark Forces_ Jedi Knight Part 8

That's when the next set of tremors. .h.i.t. Large chunks of rock fell, a helmet shattered, and a trooper fell. He was dead before he hit the ground. Jaru moaned and continued to kick his legs.

"Grab his ankles," Yun ordered, "and get ready to pull."

If Imperial troops had been taught to understand anything, it was blind obedience. The officer gave a quick series of orders, and men leaped to obey and took Jaru by the ankles.

Once the stormtroopers were in position, Yun closed his eyes, called upon the Force, and "saw" the slab rise into the air. It was a truly desperate measure, since he had never moved anything even a quarter of that size during his apprenticeship or in the years since.

But he couldn't leave Jaru lying there, couldn't leave him to die, couldn't... Beads of perspiration dotted the Jedi's forehead, fingernails bit into the palms of his hands, and his lips formed a grimace. Light flared beyond his eyelids, energy crackled, and something moved. The stormtroopers cheered. Yun opened his eyes, caught a glimpse of the slab floating a meter off the ground, and suddenly lost his concentration.

The rock hit the floor with an enormous thump, cracked down the center, and split into pieces. Yun, certain that Jaru had been killed, felt a horrible sense of despair. That's when the officer slapped him on the back, Jaru materialized between a couple of troopers, and the whole thing was over. They loaded Jaru onto a makeshift stretcher and carried him toward the surface.

The rest of the work party followed. The tremors were gore, now, and it was then, while he followed the officer up some well-worn steps, that Yun realized what he'd done.

"Yes," Rahn confirmed. "When the chips were down, you forgot about the dark side - yet the power you needed was there. Think about it."

Yun did think about it. Long into the night. There were dreams, but none focused on death, and a smile found his lips.

The administrative deck was only a few levels above the surface. That made it easier for the ground troops to come and go. The office was rather Spartan and likely to remain that way. Unpacked boxes were stacked against an unfinished wall, an unfinished cable run dangled through an access panel, and the air smelled of sealer. Sariss regarded Yun across the top of her somewhat cluttered desk. He looked the same but felt different, although the nature of the change escaped her. She had heard about the rock-raising incident, everyone had, and read the officer's report. Even Yun admitted that the whole thing had been an anomaly, a near miracle that he wouldn't be able to replicate. The episode still pointed to an extremely strong talent, however, one that might prove superior to her own one day, a possibility that had never crossed her mind before.

Perhaps that was it - perhaps Yun had gained additional confidence and was starting to show it. A not-altogether-pleasant possibility within a highly compet.i.tive meritocracy. Sariss summoned a smile and forced it onto her lips.

"You've done well... even Jerec agrees."

Yun looked pleased.

"Thank you."

Sariss chuckled.

"Better wait till you hear what I'm about to say - you could change your mind."

Yun raised an eyebrow.

"A new a.s.signment? Something worse than herding screamers around? It hardly seems possible."

"Oh, but it is," Sariss a.s.sured him cheerfully. "It seems that a patrol," she glanced at her data pad, "Zulu, Able, Mary 341 to be exact, is forty-two hours overdue."

"Comm contact?"

"None."

"Aerial search?"

"Four aircraft, low alt.i.tude, standard pattern. No luck."

"Probe droids?"

"Dispatched... but nothing so far."

Yun was silent for a moment.

"Why me?"

Sariss shrugged.

"Why not? The sun will do you good. Besides, this requires some brains. An entire patrol disappeared without a trace. Why? Jerec wants to know."

"What about the screamers?"

"I'll put Boc on it."

Yun smiled.

"Count me in."

Sariss grinned.

"I thought you'd like that."

Yun could have requested a skimmer, crawler, or even an a.s.sault shuttle but had opted for an AT-ST and an AT-AT instead. Partly because the machines made excellent platforms from which to observe the surrounding countryside, partly because they had enough firepower to level anything he was likely to encounter, and partly because he liked the lumbering machines. Not just the way they looked, like slab-sided monsters, but the sense of power they conveyed. He rode in the two-man, seven-meter-tall Scout - while the larger and more heavily loaded machine brought up the rear.

The AT-ST's pilot was a second lieutenant by the name of Momo. He preferred "Mad Dog Momo" but had been unable to plant the nickname among the troops. Perhaps because of his choirboy face, a rather engaging grin, and the fact that he had never fired a shot in anger.

Momo brought the walker up out of the ravine and onto the hard-packed plain. He looked at the control panel and over to the Jedi.

"This is it, sir - the eastern boundary of their patrol area."

Yun nodded.

"Take a break, lieutenant. I'm going up top."

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

A servo whined, the top hatch folded open, and Yun climbed the bulkhead-mounted rungs.

It was hot outside, especially after the air-conditioned interior, and he squinted into the light. The Jedi emerged just in time to see the AT-AT lurch to a stop and pause a respectful distance away. The monster's head swiveled as its pilot used the chin-mounted sensors to probe the surrounding rocks. Yun removed the electrobinoculars from the pouch on his belt, turned his back to the transport, and looked toward the north. He didn't see any tracks, nor was he likely to, since the patrol had been mounted on a skimmer plus two speeder bikes.

He lowered his gla.s.ses. So what to do? The authorized patrol area had been searched from the air - and now on the ground. If the vehicles - or the remains of the vehicles - were visible, someone would have seen them by now. So what about the areas outside of Lieutenant Aagon's authorized patrol area? Where would they have gone, and why?

Yun had a theory about that - a theory based on his tour of the missing men's quarters.

Every single one of Aagon's troopers had trophies hanging over their bunks. Sphere-shaped organisms with large, light-gathering eyes and delicate-looking tentacles. No one seemed to know where the trophies came from or how the stormtroopers happened to acquire them, but Yun could guess. It was boring out on patrol, and Aagon, a resourceful type by all accounts, had discovered a way to liven things up. In doing so, he had routinely left the area he was a.s.signed to patrol and gone where?

South into the badlands? West toward the tower and his superior officers? East toward the saw-toothed mountain range? No, none seemed very likely, not given the nice smooth hardpan that stretched to the north and natives who were rumored to roam it.

His decision made, Yun returned the electrobinoculars to their pouch, descended the ladder, and issued a new set of orders. The walkers turned toward the north, increased their rate of speed, and continued the hunt.

Kyle marveled at how pretty Jan was. Her eyes were closed, so that the long, dark lashes came close to touching her cheeks, one of which was smudged with dirt. One hand rested on her blaster, the other lay palm up, seemingly defenseless. He knew better, of course - and was careful not to touch her.

"Hey, Jan - time to wake up."

"Wha?" Jan opened her eyes, blinked, and rubbed them with her fists. She looked at her wrist chrono. "What's the deal? I thought we agreed to sleep in for a change?"

"A nice thought," Kyle agreed, "except that Fido spotted an Imperial patrol. An AT-ST and an AT-AT - both headed north."

Jan rolled out from under the covers, grabbed her pants, and pulled them on. Kyle grinned, and she stuck out her tongue.

"Lecher."

"Only for you... "

"Good," Jan said, buckling the blaster rig around her waist, "because I'd sure hate to fill out a whole bunch of reports explaining your untimely death. "

Kyle tried to look terrified and followed her out of the one-time armory and into the main part of the temple.

Grif Grawley was waiting.

"The skimmer's ready... let's go."

Kyle nodded.

"You think they're headed here? That we'll have to lead them away?"

Grif shrugged.

"Hard to say. I hope not... but better that than to have them find both the temple and the Crow."

"How 'bout Floater? Should we bring him along?"

The colonist shook his head.

"Naw, the daylight is too hard on him. Besides, Floater ain't built for this kinda thing."

The agents agreed, followed the colonist to the recently liberated skimmer, and took off.

It was afternoon, so the occasional b.u.t.te cast long, dark shadows toward the east. Grawley made use of them whenever he could, darting from one to the next, doing everything he could to maintain a low profile. Finally, after fifteen minutes or so, the colonist dropped the skimmer into a dry riverbed and followed it toward a dramatic-looking mesa.

"There's a good hiding place near the base," he explained, "and a trail to the top. We'll have a good view from there and, a.s.suming they stay on the same course, plenty of time to react, if necessary."

Jan was tempted to ask what options they'd have if Imperials didn't maintain their present course but managed to hold her tongue. True to his word, Grif guided the landspeeder into a semicircle of rocks, shut down the engines, and grabbed his pack. The agents did likewise.

None of them planned to stay - but it paid to be careful.

Much of the trail was natural, following as it did an ancient fault line where the forces of sun, wind, and rain had carved the softer material away to reveal the underlying sedimentary rock. Still, there was no escaping the fact that intelligent, tool-using beings had improved on what nature started by cutting ledges into otherwise sheer cliffs, demolishing dangerousoverhangs, and creating turnouts when the path grew narrow. Who were these mysterious engineers? Likeso much about Ruusan, there was no way to know. It took the better part of a half hour to reach the top - and Kyle was out of breath. Grif, by contrast, seemed entirely unaffected - a fact the younger man found annoying.

"Come on," the colonist urged, "let's head for the east side. We oughta be able to see them by now. I sent Fido home, so he won't be spotted."

The surface of the mesa was flat and littered with loose rock and a few hardy plants. The remains of broken-down walls marked the outline of an ancient fortress. One of these ran fairly close to the edge, and Grif motioned for the agents to take cover behind it. They obeyed, produced their electrobinoculars, and peered toward the east. The sun was just about to set, but Kyle had no difficulty recognizing the boulder and the smaller rocks that attended it. This was the place where the battle had been fought and the dead lay buried.

"Look!" Jan said, pointing to the southeast. Kyle turned, saw something blur through the viewfinder, and brought the device back. There was no mistaking the walkers or their destination. Kyle lowered his gla.s.ses. What had attracted them to this particular location? Chance? Or something more? Whatever it was, he didn't like it. What if the Imperials found something? Security was tight as it was - additional precautions could make an already difficult mission nearly impossible. He met Jan's gaze, knew what she was thinking, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Time will tell, Jan... time will tell."

The walkers came to a halt just south of the rock pile. The AT-ST stood guard while the ma.s.sive AT-AT knelt to disgorge a pair of crawlers and a company of stormtroopers. Corporal Niko Smith cleared the ramp, sprinted for some cover, and fell on his belly. His sergeant, a grizzled veteran named Zonka, glanced over his shoulder, saw who it was, and nodded.

"Gee, Sarge, it seems like we've scrambled over every boulder, rock, and pebble between here and the tower. What's the deal?"

"About a hundred credits a week and the Empire's heartfelt grat.i.tude," Zonka replied. "Now get your b.u.t.t in gear."

Smith grinned, waved his fire team forward, and scrambled over the rocks. Yun opened the top hatch and watched while the troops fanned out, advanced by squad, and entered the jumble of stone. It was just another pile of rock to them - a ch.o.r.e to be dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible. Not to him, though. No, this place was different somehow. A battle had been fought here... and people had died.

But when? A week ago? A thousand years? There was no way to be sure.

The sun dropped below the mesa off to his left. It looked blacker than black against a backdrop of gloriously pink light. And there was something else, too, a nearly undetectable fluctuation in the Force, the kind that signaled one or more intelligent minds. Not too surprising, since some of the colonists had survived the attack on Fort Nowhere, except that Yun knew at least one of the minds, or thought he did. The man in question was an Imperial renegade, the son of the very Rebel leader who had discovered the Valley of the Jedi and subsequently been executed.

He was a Jedi who had been considerably weaker then, but still strong enough to fight Yun to a standstill and then spare his life. An act which the Dark Jedi had found puzzling - and initially interpreted as a sign of weakness. The discovery sent thoughts whirling through Yun's mind. A Rebel Jedi, here on Ruusan - why? To stop Jerec, of course, to free the imprisoned spirits, to counter all that Yun had dedicated himself to.

It was an amazing discovery, and the Jedi had just started to think about it when Lieutenant Momo tugged on his pant leg. Yun descended into the c.o.c.kpit.

"Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you, sir, but the ground pounders found something."

"What?"

"A helmet, sir, with RW957 written on the inside."

Yun checked his datapad. Trooper RW957 had been a member of the missing patrol all right - which seemed to confirm his thesis: The patrol crossed out of its a.s.signed area, ran into some opposition, and lost the subsequent fight. That, combined with the fact that the Rebels had one or more agents on the ground, led to an obvious conclusion. A conclusion that Yun decided to keep to himself.

"It's getting dark. Pull back the troops, establish a defensive perimeter, and hold for morning. We'll complete the search then."

Momo nodded.

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

Yun climbed up through the hatch and stared out toward the mesa. The other mind was there, all right - still watching, still waiting. Yun considered his options and was surprised to discover that he had some.

The obvious course was to report everything he knew, attempt to capture the Rebels, and acquire more status. More status, more respect, and more opportunities to kill people. And what of the screamers? The whole process of thinking about them as personalities, of empathizing with their plight, had changed the way he felt about them. Jerec planned to keep them in confinement - to use their power for his own dark ends.

And what about the uncounted billions upon whom his heavy hand would fall? Yun knew that he lacked the courage to champion their cause directly - but what if there was another way? What if all he had to do was ignore something that might or might not be true? Besides, a debt was involved, and debts must be paid. The Jedi made his decision as darkness cloaked the land. He formed the thought, not for the other man, but for himself.

"You spared my life... and I'm sparing yours. Use the gift wisely."

Kyle lowered his electrobinoculars and put them away.

"So?" Jan inquired. "What do you think?"

The other agent shrugged.