DISCLAIMER: Star Wars and all publicly recognisable characters, names and references, etc are the sole property of George Lucas, Lucasfilm Ltd, Lucasarts Inc and 20th Century Fox. This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it. Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.
It hurt to the very soul. Terror left a metallic taste in her mouth; fear left ice in her heart, but regardless, Larina kept moving. She stumbled along with the other women, next to a tearful Uglara. Occasionally, the other woman would stretch out to stop Larina from falling. The young healer would swing her head around and gaze blankly back at the woman, not quite finding the strength to thank her.
Larina tried to keep herself alert as they passed the electronics area. She could see a panel with several latches to her far right in the darkest reaches of the cavern. One humanoid sat near to the panel clad in a uniform. She slowed to glance over the controls….a small collection of switches, a couple of buttons…she was pushed roughly from behind before she could ascertain the placement of the switches. With a small sigh, she kept moving.
As the others slowed and then stopped, Larina found that the cloudiness of her thoughts due to the emotion increased. The terror was growing, almost as a plant that had extended taproots. The healer tried to ground herself, to center herself, but struggled with it. Without the Force to help push the alien emotions away and with her soul balanced precariously between her and Qui-Gon some distance away, the balance was unable to be reached. She existed as a boat on the sea during a storm- tossed back and forth with no anchor. The pain of the stretched bond, she knew, was still present, but still buried under the terror. Larina groaned quietly as another wave of the cold emotion washed her interior organs with pain.
Uglara grasped Larina’s arm tightly and stared at her. “Larina?”
Larina nodded, and kept her eyes turned to the ground. She knew that her pain and anguish would be reflected in her eyes. She did smile, though, as she felt the woman’s concern and wanted to alleviate it. With difficulty, she squeezed Uglara’s arm back. “I’ll survive,” She whispered.
The Jedi looked around carefully, surveying the situation of the gathered women. The tears and moans were loud to the ears, but the pain and fear beneath them was even louder to the empath’s heart. Her eye witnessed the arrival of several more Yartidans and she grimaced. The larger group of women was being moved to smaller holding areas. Once removed from the area, there would be little chance to make a move.
“We must make a diversion,” Larina hissed, as her hands wrapped around her middle in an effort to support. “I saw the door mechanism….”
“What good would that do?” Uglara hissed back, her face awash in anger and fear. “Our men are unable to fight, and you are unable to even stand.”
Larina gazed at the younger woman with a smile. She could see the anger etched well in the face of the woman, so much that it almost washed out the fear that the woman was feeling. As a Jedi, Larina was trained to keep the anger low in herself, but she long ago had realized that anger could be a powerful emotion to act upon and with in those not Force sensitive. She planned on acting with this woman in her anger and not in her helplessness. “I can stand, I assure you, Uglara, and the men that I travel with are able to fight.”
Uglara almost glared at Larina. Her tear tracks were drying on her face, and the scowl was pronounced. “What can three men do, Larina? It would be suicide.”
“The question is not what three men can do, but rather, what three Jedi can do.” Larina grimaced as another wave of pain swept over her. Some of the women were being pulled into a smaller cavern and the fright was thick in the air.
“You are Jedi?” Uglara asked in disbelief. “But our planet….”
“Drains the Force, but does not drain our minds, our sabers, nor our training,” Larina stated, sounding more confident then she felt. A Jedi’s strength flows from the Force, she thought, and they were trained since the cradle to channel it. The sword moves would still be there, but the channeling would not. She just had to hope that the Masters would retain enough skills to fight their way out.
“But three men cannot kill this whole army,” Uglara stated, her hands sweeping wide in a shrug.
“Jedi do not kill just to kill, Uglara. They will get us out of here and get us to safety, but it will be done with the least amount of bloodshed.” Larina doubled over slowly, her voice catching on the last syllables.
Uglara’s face momentarily relaxed in concern. The Jedi’s pale pallor and tight voice were worrying her. “You are in deep pain.”
Larina nodded to the side with her head once. She sighed and turned her eyes to the other women. “I need a diversion, Uglara. If I can get to the panel over there, I can trip the door.”
Uglara frowned and seemed on the point of asking more questions, when Larina reached inside her shift and withdrew the hilt of a lightsaber. It was Obi-Wan’s weapon. The woman’s eyes widened and she raised her endless eyes to Larina’s. The firm set about the mouth of the Jedi and the determination in the eyes decided for her. “Well…” Uglara sighed, “I suppose I would rather get hurt or killed trying to get out of here, instead of letting them take my genes and dying slowly of desperation.”
Larina nodded in agreement and watched as Uglara turned slowly and found some of her friends in the group. Uglara moved to the other women with measured paces, almost as if she were taking a leisurely stroll. The healer watched as the other woman talked lowly with the other women. She could see outright fear and denial on several faces, but grim determination on others. Larina would have suggested a plan for this if she had had the strength, but was now happy to allow Uglara to orchestrate the plan. The woman was intelligent and determined and Larina needed to conserve strength and concentrate on her part.
She lowered her head and gazed through the curtain of her flame hair at the electronics panel. It was twenty - maybe thirty - meters away. Larina knew that she would have to move very quickly and pray that the men were ready in the cave. Surely they would know that she was gone and guess at the plan. She hoped. It would be dire for her and the women that would help her if they were caught before the men arrived. She fingered the hilt of Obi-Wan’s saber with a slight smile. She knew about circuitry, she knew how to wire various vehicles and information terminals. She knew how to fix just about any computer or navicomputer that existed thanks to her childhood lessons at the Temple. But, she also knew that with one sweep of the lightsaber, the panel would be a mass of wires and ozone. A Padawan she might not be any longer, but she still retained the knowledge of how to use the weapon somewhat proficiently.
Uglara crept back slowly, a small smile on her face. She shook her head at the vision that the young Jedi made – Larina’s frame shaking in pain and her eyes glassy. As she rested next to Larina she spoke. “ We will create the diversion that you need, Larina. We will fight.”
Larina nodded and smiled slightly.
Eventually, nearby, a group of women began to argue loudly. Uglara moved over to them, a glint in her eye. The hope that the woman felt bled through to Larina’s consciousness and strengthened her a little. Larina spared a glance at the women fighting. Clothes were being torn, and blood was being drawn from scratches and pulled hair. Guards began to run to break up the fight, including the man sitting by the panel. As that man passed her, Larina leapt to her feet and launched herself ahead.
The pain was excruciating. Fire shot down her legs, and tingles emanated out from her feet. She stumbled but still maintained a forward momentum. Her eyes did not waver from the console. As she approached, she ignited the lightsaber that felt alien in her hand after so many years. Its blue beam flickered in the cave, igniting the slick walls.
Larina pressed forward as she heard running feet and shouts behind her. With little aim, and as much force as she could muster, she swung the lightsaber and watched as the circuitry exploded in a cloud of ozone and flames. It was the sparks of the electronic fire that she saw as the running feet were upon her. She crumpled to the ground both from the mental anguish and the shot from a well-aimed blaster. The pain in her leg washed out all else as she slipped into a pain-induced coma.