41:03:31 GrS
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"Taz," Lyra whimpered, strangling in his unyielding grip as he drew back his arm and swung the lightsaber.
You protect Lady Lyra with your weapon, do you not?
The thought hammered in Taz's brain, interrupting his strike. Who had asked him that? It had to be someone important. The lure of the dark Force was so seductive, Agonis's commands so irresistible. Yet...
He raised the blade again and delved deeper into the Force. Even with her life force fading, Lyra glowed in his perception as she always had— fierce and passionate.
You protect Lady Lyra with your weapon, do you not?
The strong sure voice, suffused with the wisdom of decades, burrowed through the veil suffocating his senses.
He wants me to kill the woman I love.
Taz glanced at Agonis, then Lyra, then back to his master. But in that moment something changed, like the quiet calm after a sandstorm.
I have no master. I decide how I'll use my power.
Suddenly Taz turned and leaped, letting Lyra fall as he surged toward the ashen organic automatons attacking the Customs troopers. They fell under his flurry of thrusts and slashes. Three. Four. Five, he counted as the Sith's creations turned toward this new threat, more dangerous by far than the decimated ranks of the boarding party.
He sprung beyond the reach of one's swiping arm, taking it off at the elbow with a sharp turn of his wrist. Taz ducked under the slashing vibro-ax of another. His lightsaber whirled and spun, buzzing as it bisected the metal shaft and the Appendage's head in the same sweeping motion. Six. Seven. A few more stood between him and the Sith. He spared a look at Lyra during a gap in the slaughter. She was lying on the deck, moving slowly, her face clouded with pain, grief, and terror. The sight made him falter.
Insolent WHELP!
Agonis's mental shout exploded in his head so violently that he stumbled to his knees, screaming miserably, hands clawing at his temples in a meager bid to stop the torture. Aurora Ascendant clattered beside him, the searing heat of its thrumming blade flaring mere centimeters away. His limbs felt rooted to the deck plates, so heavy he couldn't move them.
Out of time, thought Taz through the agony, but not out of strength.
He opened himself fully to the flood of invigorating Force energy, letting it soak into his tissues. Taz clenched his jaw, screeching against new pain that was almost beyond enduring. He could feel the Breeze decomposing in his nerves and bloodstream, but it still took every milligram of his will to push back against the Sith's powerful compulsion.
"Get... out... of... my... HEAD!"
Raw power erupted from him, shredding his already ragged clothes. The walls reflected the blinding light and noise. Circuits burst, making the Misery buck like a wounded behemoth. Still on his knees, Taz twisted his hands into ugly claws. He focused all of his rage and hate and hurled them at Agonis.
"I HAVE NO MASTER!"
The Sith lord took a strident step toward his disobedient apprentice. "You'll learn some respect, whelp!" But then he stopped, his red, pupil-less eyes jutting in amazement. His hand clutched reflexively at the unexpected, crushing force encircling his throat. Coughing, he shook his head while his facial tentacles gyrated. He had to gasp to draw breath and his lungs strained to work.
"Interesting," he half-snarled, half-wheezed. This youngling had actually broken his compulsion and penetrated his defense. The scientist in him wondered how, but the superior being in him took action in the next instant. He redirected the energy of commanding a few Appendages to reinforce his shield. Instantly, his breathing improved. "Now suffer for your disobedience!"
Bright blue lightning arced across the hangar from the Sith's stiff fingers. Taz grimaced, but the Force had shown him the danger an instant before. He snatched up his saber. It caught some of the blast, but not enough to keep him from spinning across the deck. The burning was beyond searing, and he uttered a despondent scream even as he got to one knee and interposed his glowing amber blade again.
Through his burned lips and scorched throat he growled, "I won't let you hurt her." He turned the raw Force flooding his body into healing energy as he'd done before. He screamed louder, but it was keeping him alive. Over what felt like an eternity he staggered to his feet and took a ponderous step.
Agonis's surprise turned into a terrifying sneer. "You could have made a worthy apprentice. But your attachments—" he snarled the word— "consign you to ignominy." He lifted his other hand, let go his control of more Appendages, and hurled lightning at the woman Taz had failed to kill.
Lyra threw up her arms in a futile defense. She writhed under the assault, screaming and spasming.
"I am more powerful than you can imagine, whelp! Now watch as I destroy those you love, and despair!" Agonis erupted with terrible icy laughter that rang off the walls until it deafened Taz's ears. Lyra uttered a cry of pure agony.
"You have no hope against my command of the Force!" Agonis taunted.
"Maybe," Taz gasped. Blinded by tears and summoning the last of his strength, he leaped, stumbling in front of Lyra as he intercepted the Sith's raging lightning. The added punishment threatened to overwhelm his flood of healing energy, but what choice did he have?
"I'll die... before I let you hurt her." He wanted it to sound like bold defiance, but he could hardly manage a whisper.
"No, Taz," Lyra uttered. His body contorted and quaked under the torrent of garish lightning. She watched Taz sink to the floor as the two men battled, terrified by the unimaginable power she was witnessing. She could see the strength of the Force Taz was channeling, but somehow she could feel him losing the contest, too. Agonis seemed like some kind of dark god, triumphant and implacable.
She uttered hopeless sobs and started to panic when her eyes fell on a bulky manifold overhead. Lyra recognized it right away; it wasn't that much different from Imperial designs. Agonis stood almost directly beneath it. Moving at all was a torture; Ariel's pain blocker had worn off a while ago and the lightning attack felt like a million angry stingers jabbing her. But Taz was fighting despite his pain. She couldn't let him sacrifice himself without fighting too.
Her body screeched as Lyra raised her pistol toward the ceiling and fired over and over. The manifold burst, spraying pressurized streams of tibanna gas ignited by the energy of her blaster bolts. A furious yellow-white jet of superheated plasma lanced toward the deck with the radiance of a miniature sun.
Lyra threw her arm over her head and squeezed her eyes shut even as she resigned herself to grim fiery death. Roaring sound deafened her and explosions made the hangar convulse, flinging her off the deck before she thudded against the hard steel again.
Lyra opened her eyes. A section of the girders had collapsed in the wrecked bay and there was a giant hole in the thick deck plates. Overstressed support beams sounded ominous complaints and fires burned everywhere despite the extinguisher nozzles spitting jets of choking retardant. Atmospheric pressure dropped precipitously, making her ears pop. When she looked at the hangar's portal, Lyra could see the containment field flickering. Complete failure was probably only seconds away.
We're all going to die here, she thought, feeling cold fear steal beneath her skin. Taz had collapsed a meter away and he wasn't moving. "No, no, no," she moaned. She couldn't lose him too. Not after Uncle Shin. Lyra crawled toward him. He was horribly burned and an overwhelming stench of charred flesh afflicted her, but she could see his chest moving a little. "Oh, Taz," she begged, "don't leave me."
Renosi was on her knee, trading blows with one of the few gray monstrosities that were still standing. Lyra shot at the creature, distracting it long enough for Renosi to jam her blaster under its chin and fire until it fell. The handful of Customs troops were dragging away their fallen fellows as they retreated toward their shuttle. The remaining creatures still fought, but only as mindless beasts, and they began falling to the troopers' rifles. Agonis was nowhere to be seen; Lyra could only hope he'd been immolated in the explosion or buried under the debris. Preferably both.
She cradled Taz and laid his head on her knees, crying over him. Tetris stood next to Ajakeet amid ceiling panels and detritus that had fallen on the courier.
"Tetris! Get Taz into the ship!" she called as loudly as she could, fighting her rising panic and dread. The droid wheeled toward her, dodging around the debris.
"We need to go, Miss Nimor." Naktiya jogged over, one hand stanching the bloody flow from a nasty laceration on her arm.
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Tetris closed his manipulator claw on the scraps of Taz's vest and dragged him away. Lyra gave the ranger a despondent look as the Neablu helped her to her feet. Leaning on each other, they limped back to their ships.
"Rendezvous on the Korvis," shouted Naktiya over the noise of escaping atmosphere and wailing depressurization alarms as she closed her helmet.
Lyra nodded and sniffled, donning her own headgear. She struggled into Ajakeet's pilot seat and sealed the canopy while Tetris pulled Taz into the tiny accessway behind the cockpit. She punched up the repulsors and shot the courier through the faltering containment field, spinning around as first Renosi's V38, then the TIE shuttle emerged.
Her heart dropped into her stomach. She knew the Rayeths were trapped on the doomed vessel, but she couldn't risk the chance that its abomination of a commander might still be alive.
"Forgive me," she cried and mashed the button on her joystick, launching both of her missiles into the bay. A spectacular concussion rocked the big vessel as a cascading explosion rolled through the hangar.
Shaking with fury and anguish she fired her lasers, hammering the Misery's hull, hoping to hit a fuel or coolant line. Swearing through her tears, it was some seconds before she read the translation of Tetris's urgent whistling and finally let go of the trigger.
"I know the storage coils are empty." Her voice barely worked. She glanced over her shoulder and bit back a scream. The burning torture from her ribs assaulted her with newfound fury. Taz's arm twitched, the only sign he still lived. What was left of his clothes smoldered and he was covered in blackened burns and ugly blisters. Overcome with fear, Lyra gasped a hopeless sob and turned for the Korvis, praying that he wouldn't leave her alone.
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Even with the oxymask, breathing was a monumental chore. Taz forced his eyes open millimeter by agonizing millimeter, to nothing but an unfocused haze. His every nerve was on fire, mind whirling with a discordant tempest of memories and fragments of horrid sensations. His vision sharpened over painful minutes, and with it a measure of mental clarity.
I fell to the dark side. He recoiled at the thought of how close he'd come to dying, to destroying everything. To killing Lyra.
The burning grew more torturous with every passing instant. Calm down, Taz. Relax.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me. I am one with the Force. The Force is with me. He repeated the mantra over and over, finally slipping into the stormy, all-encompassing darkness.
Taz gazed inward. Critical electrical wounds and partial-thickness burns covered him. Without the potent regenerative power he'd channeled through the dark Force, he'd have been no more than cinders and ash. He put that grim thought to the side and let the power flow into him, tuning the balance between dark and light until it felt like he'd reached an unsteady equilibrium.
Carefully he let it percolate throughout his body. It felt thick and almost as painful as his wounds, but as it worked deeper into his tissues, the ache and sting of the burns receded. He held himself in the healing trance, feeling as though he was floating in the vastness between galaxies, utterly alone.
Sometime later he opened his eyes again to see the ceiling of an alien room, dimly lit.
Lyra was on her knees beside him, her graceful fingers brushing his forehead. "Taz," she half-sighed, half-sobbed. Her face contorted with an instant of pain, but her cheeks flushed with relief. Sera and Reiko sat on a litter just behind her. Standing athwart a narrow doorway, Tetris chirped.
He sat up and pulled her into a fierce embrace. He had brief memories of agony and sadness, and overwhelming shame. "Lyra!" he exclaimed, his voice brimming with passion. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she shook, barely in control of her emotions. "I was so scared when we got back and you weren't moving. I thought —" Tears welled in her soft eyes. "I thought I'd lost you," she whispered in a trembling voice.
"It's alright, I'm here. I'm so sorry," he soothed. Rei and Sera took in the scene, relieved looks on their faces.
Taz's smile turned to concern as he took in the bandages and sutures. "Sera!"
"Don't worry about me, Doc. I look a lot worse than I am."
"Nonsense, Sera-sha," Reiko objected, tearing up. "You went through hell on that ship!"
Sera patted her hand. "But you saved me, Rei-sha. Both of you."
Taz was about to go to Sera, but when Lyra uttered a painful groan and clutched at her side, he fell instantly into the Force. "Your ribs! Lyra, this should have been treated a long time ago."
"No time for that," she grimaced through the stabbing. "Some pain-in-the-ass medic decided to get himself captured and had to be rescued."
Her try at humor fell short but Taz smiled anyway. "Sit," he insisted, and let his hand hover over her ribcage. He glanced toward Sera. "You're next." Then he turned his attention to Lyra. "Broken ribs, pulmonary contusions, and pneumonia's starting to set into that lung." He gave her a sympathetic look. "You must be in terrible pain."
"It's not too bad," she lied, clasping his hand. He fixed his blue eyes on her and Lyra let slip another sigh.
Taz looked around the small space, some kind of storage compartment to judge by the shelves stuffed with supplies. "Tell me where we are."
"Onboard the Korvis. It's a Customs cruiser. Renosi convinced them to come. They engaged Syke's ship and the one you were on." She finished with a bout of coughing that turned into dolorous grunts.
"The Misery," Taz offered.
"Apt name. There was plenty of misery on that nightmare of a ship. Anyway, the Korvis took some serious damage. Between being rammed and torpedoed, and the casualties among the boarding party, their infirmary is overloaded, so they put us here. Ariel's helping with their injured."
Taz made a solemn nod. It sounded like there was a lot he'd missed, but he could catch up later. "I can heal this but it might hurt a little."
"Alright, I guess?" His uncertain look gave her pause, but she nodded a moment later. He began and she gasped as the healing energy invaded her. It was warm, uncomfortably so, but she worked to keep her breathing steady.
After a few moments Taz blew out a long breath. "There." He lifted her shirt and carefully tore away the splinting foam. The swelling was gone, only a faded patch of brown skin remaining where the unsightly bruises had been. "Better?"
She nodded, looking melancholy.
Taz turned to Sera, taking in her bandaged head and injured hand. Despite her denial, he'd known her long enough to recognize the magnitude of the things she wasn't telling him. Rather than press her though, he gave her a brief grimace while he took off the bacta sleeve and examined her hand. "Pretty sure I can regenerate those for you. Your ear, too."
"Really?" Reiko asked.
"Yep, maybe even the eye. But do you mind if we wait until tomorrow?"
"Sure, Doc. You look like you're dead on your feet."
He spent a couple of minutes in the healing trance anyway, soothing the nerve pain from Sera's worst injuries. When he finished, Lyra pulled him down beside her and gave him a critical once-over. "You look terrible, Officer Oktos. When's the last time you ate anything?"
He shrugged. "Breakfast at the compound, maybe? How long since Sera and I went aboard Agonis's ship?"
"Agonis?"
"The Sith who took me." He gave them all sober looks. "We definitely have a lot of catching up to do." He glanced around. "How's the Chimera?"
"Fine," Lyra muttered. Her head drooped and her shoulders began to shake.
"What's wrong?"
She looked at him with limpid eyes. "Uncle Shin," she started, then wrung her hands, unable to stop the flood of tears and sobs.
Taz held her and looked anxiously at the other two.
Sera's expression was bitter and full of regret. "You weren't the only one they caught, Doc. Lyra and Rei-sha had to rescue me. Mr. Raga came with them but... he was killed." Rei squeezed Sera's hand, on the verge of her own tears.
Lyra sniffed deeply and rubbed her eyes. "He died protecting me."
"I'm so sorry, Lyra."
She nodded, unable to say anything, and they all sat in subdued silence for long minutes. Finally, she sat up straight. "I need to take him to his home. It's in the mountains." She shook her head. "You don't have to come; I know you've all suffered."
"Of course we'll come, Lyra," Reiko said in a quiet, intense voice.
"We'll put him to rest together," Taz seconded immediately.
"That's — Thank you. I'm sure that would make Uncle Shin very happy."
Taz looked at the others. "Let's go back to the Chimera. We're just taking up space they should be using for their own people. If we're going to recuperate, let's do it in a familiar place."
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Shindani Raga's body lay atop a cargo crate in the Chimera's starboard cargo hold. Lyra and Seelam carefully undressed him, folding his clothing into neat bundles. Standing beside Lyra, Eshna took the bundles and set them aside, then held a basin of citrus-scented water. With soft sponges Lyra and Seelam gently bathed Raga's horribly wounded body. Occasionally they exchanged reverent whispers while they worked, but for the most part, they were silent.
Taz, Rei, and Sera stood just outside the circle of light cast by a myriad of candles. Lyra glanced up from her solemn work. They weren't supposed to speak more than necessary, but she knew how curious they'd be. Quietly, she said to them, "Even though Inusagians revere traditions, this practice has fallen out of favor." A brief smile passed her lips. "This is the old way. It's how we prepared our honored dead in the days before funerary services and mortuary droids. It's what Uncle Shin would want."
She lifted his arm while Seelam gingerly scrubbed away the dried blood. "It's the duty of the family to wash the body and prepare it for the pyre." Her eyes glistened in the light. "Aunt Subali isn't here anymore, so it falls to us."
Reiko walked over to stand beside her. She wiped a tear away and sniffed softly. "I didn't know Uncle Shin as well as I wanted to, but he felt like family to me, too. I'd like to help, if that's alright."
Eshna glanced at both of them. At a nod from Lyra, she handed a sponge to Reiko. "Senguru Raga's body must be immaculate before we can send him to join his ancestors, honored guest Hudson."
"I understand." She set to work with Lyra and Seelam.
When they had finished, Lyra took Reiko's hands. "Thank you, Rei."
"I wanted to show him Allegra's Heart." Tears crowded her round face.
Lyra pulled her into a hug. "We believe he can see through the eyes of the loved ones he left behind. So don't worry; he'll be able to see Allegra when we get back to her."
Reiko wiped at her eyes. "Thank you, Lyra-kaashuub." She touched Shin's cheek. "And thank you, Shindani Raga-nagarashasu." She pronounced the most reverent of Filvian honorifics with a deep bow of her head. Then she stepped back and accepted the comfort of Sera's embrace.
Eshna took a bolt of gauzy fabric from the cart. Lyra had bought it to decorate the ship, but it would have a much better use. "Taz, could I ask you to help Seelam with Uncle Shin's body?"
Taz moved to stand at Shin's head. "It's my honor."
Seelam whispered directions and they turned the body carefully while Lyra wrapped him in layers of the textile. Eshna picked up Raga's long jiden-sho sword from the cart and handed it to Lyra. She placed it atop his wrapped form, then the three Inusagians bowed with their arms crossed and intoned a benediction in their native tongue. They rose, touching their foreheads and lips.
Lyra turned to the others. "I'm so grateful to have you here, and I'm sure Uncle Shin is too."
Sera took Raga's tulan-sho from her belt and handed it to Lyra. "This should be with him."
Lyra smiled, teary-eyed, and pressed it fondly to her chest. "Shindani Raga was many things — an engineer, a teacher, and my beloved uncle. But in his heart, he was first and last a warrior." She took Sera's hand and placed the weapon in it. "Uncle Shin would want a warrior to have this."
Sera's sober, intense expression reflected the respect and appreciation that soldiers reserved for fallen brethren. "Then I'll bear it proudly."
"Tomorrow we'll carry him to his home in the mountains and send him to Aunt Subali and his honored forebears. For now, there's the traditional kinoraba meal to prepare." She, Seelam, and Eshna bowed over Shin again, then they left his body among the silent, flickering candles.