Chapter Five

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"I hate this planet. How many sinkholes can there be?" Rurik carped, squinting into the bright sunlight. "Can't this thing go any faster?" That earned him the point of Thelea's elbow to his rib cage. "Ow!"

"Not everyone can afford the latest model speeder, Rurik," she hissed, then went back to looking over the rear spoiler.

"What's gotten into you? You weren't in this foul a mood when we left." She didn't reply and he tugged at her sleeve. "Thelea?"

"Something's not right." The nervous feeling was the same as she got before a particularly nasty firefight-a sense of impending doom that she usually wrote off to battle jitters or a pilot's adrenaline from flying. Out here she didn't have that excuse.

"You sense it, don't you." It was not a question. Aleishia had the hood of her robes pulled low over her face, but Thelea could just see the faint smile.

"Sense what?"

"The danger." Aleishia turned to face her, the hood throwing her face into deep shadow. "The sense of something coming. You know it's out there."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Her eyes wandered back to the empty plains and the city, now in the distance.

"Yes, you do." Suddenly she turned as well. "Someone's behind us. Several people."

"Seln, stop for a moment. I want to listen."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Aleishia demanded, but Thelea was already jumping to the ground and straining to hear.

"Thelea, come on. Commander...." Rurik leaned out of the speeder. "We're wasting time."

"Sh!" A raised hand silenced them. "That sounds like repulsor drives."

Rurik listened. There was, in fact, a faint buzzing that sounded like engines of some kind, but they seemed far off, echoes from the city. "They don't sound too close."

"Thelea, get back in the speeder." Aleishia's voice was flat.

"I think they're closer-"

Aleishia switched from Basic to the Chiss language. "Mith'ele'arana! Now!"

The tone left no room for argument and Thelea found herself obeying automatically, her fullname not even registering with her. She was turning and jumping for the speeder when the three swoops came roaring out of a sinkhole.

They were following the terrain, keeping low, relying on the terrain to hide them from our scanners, Aleishia realized, and she cursed herself for not noticing sooner. "Thelea, watch out!" The girl was already pulling out her blaster, and Caelin was firing too, but the weapons were not going to do much against the faster, better-armed vehicles. "Seln, go!" The little speeder would not outrun the swoops, but at least they'd be a moving target. A blast from the lead swoop's cannon shook the speeder. Thelea fired off a shot that glanced off the armor plating, barely scratching it. They were badly outgunned and outclassed. Aleishia ducked as one of the raiders passed overhead. She was unarmed and useless-best to keep out of the way.

Never unarmed. Never alone. Mihall's voice was as clear as if he were there and speaking the words now. I will always be with you. . . .

Master Yoda's voice, too, played back yet again. Use for knowledge and defense, you must, never attack. This was certainly defense.

One of the swoops, a sleek, venomous-looking craft, raced ahead and turned back for a strafing run. A bolt of energy found its mark, shattering the cockpit glass and much of the engine cover, showering them with razor-sharp plasteel shards. Rurik ducked, but not in time to avoid getting cut in the face. Thelea, in spite of herself, shrieked and Aleishia heard her old friend again, *Master! Protect her! You promised!*

She had a weapon. She simply had to use it.

If this brings Vader, or worse, down on my head, at least I know I was keeping a vow. Remember that, Council, if you are still judging me. . . .Drawing in a long, slow, breath, she cleared her mind of all the blocks and distractions she had worked so hard to create. Finding the same little thread of light that had warned her of the impending attack she seized upon it and, fighting against all instincts that had protected her for decades, she opened her mind.

The rush of sensations was like being plunged into the midst of a marketplace, full of sights and sounds and smells and brilliant, vibrant colors. Her eyes teared at the sensations, all thought forgotten and now here again, blinding and beautiful and terrible. Rurik and Thelea and Seln and even their attackers were suddenly more than simple beings, they were foci of the energy that fluxed and flowed between all beings and she could see that now, sense it. She felt as though she had been starving and was suddenly presented with more nourishment than she could ever need or want.

After more than twenty years, the Force was fully with her again.

"Thelea, stay down. I'm going to try something." Her voice sounded different, even in her own ears. Reaching under her robe, she found the handle of the blade without thinking, the instinct still there. Now, if only the reflexes are, she thought dryly, rising carefully and bracing herself on the side of the craft. Thelea's fear would not have registered with anyone else, but she could feel it now, hidden but there, and the girl was feeding off of it, using it to fuel anger and through the anger, her determination to survive. More powerful than I thought. . . .

The swoop leader was turning back towards them and she waited, counting. Caelin fired off a few shots and she snapped, "Wait!" The swoop was almost on them-

Thelea heard a sound that was familiar, a snap-hiss that she knew from her own hidden weapon. Risking a glance up she saw a blur of silver motion. "By the first families. . . ." she breathed, without noticing she spoke in her own language. "A Jedi."

Aleishia brought the silver blade down in a sweeping arc as the swoop raced past. He saw her and tried to evade at the last minute, but the point of her saber bit into the aft repulsor drive, sending the vehicle careening away into the hillside. One down, two to go.

Rurik was angling for a better shot. The two remaining swoops had pulled back a little at the loss of their leader, but now they were regrouping. His blaster wasn't really strong enough to take out one of the vehicles, but a lucky shot might hit the pilot. Thelea was ducking lower on the floor of the speeder. She had a holdout blaster, he remembered, and as such had only five shots. He shifted a bit so he was between her and the oncoming swoops. She glared, but he didn't move.

Aleishia steadied herself and watched the two attackers. She no longer had the advantage of surprise, so it was time to think of something else. The two opened fire and she blocked the bolts, surprised at how the skill had not abandoned her completely. They fired again and she angled the deflection back onto them. The pilot of the swoop tried to evade only succeeded in taking the bolt to the chest, knocking him clear.

"Look out!" Rurik lunged for the controls as Seln tried to evade the out-of-control swoop. He succeeded, partially. The speeder dodged and the swoop struck the airfoil, denting it. They were thrown sideways as the entire ship spun violently left.

Aleishia staggered and fell sideways, almost over the side. Thelea lunged from her position on the floor and grabbed the older woman by the arm. "Hang on!" Aleishia's grip was surprisingly tight, and yet it didn't seem to require much effort for Thelea to pull her back in. "Are you all right?"

"Fine, fine." Aleishia sounded oddly distracted for someone who'd almost fallen out of an airspeeder. "The last one seems to have given up." The remaining swoop was racing away from them, back in the direction of the town.

"That, or gone back for reinforcements," Thelea said ominously. "We'd better get to the fighters. With two Interceptors we should be able to keep them at bay." Her impenetrable red gaze shifted to Aleishia. "And in the meantime, you have a great deal of explaining to do."

Aleishia nodded slowly, turning the handle of her lightsaber over in her hands. "Yes," she said softly, "I suppose I do."

Giriad ducked under the wing strut when he heard the repulsors in the distance, fumbling for his blaster. Then he heard a voice on his comlink: "Giriad, we're back. We have a way out of here."

Giriad had never thought he'd be so relieved to hear Rurik Caelin's voice. "Just where in blazes have you been?" he demanded. "I was starting to think you weren't coming back."

"Don't be paranoid," Thelea cut in. "Can you imagine the paperwork if we came back without you?"

"Rurik, am I hearing things, or did the Commander just make a joke?"

He heard Rurik laughing, and Thelea said, "Who says I was joking?" Rurik glared, but a smile slipped through. "You two-see about getting your fighters flight-ready. Rurik, if you could check mine, too? I need to talk with our friend." They were jumping out of the airspeeder, and Giriad ran to join them.

"Sure, they just amended my job description to include servant." She glared, and he raised his hands in surrender.

Thelea turned to look for Aleishia. The Jedi was standing beside the airspeeder, looking at the TIEs sitting on the ground. In the bright daylight her features seemed worn and lined, and the white strands in her dark hair stood out in stark relief. The lightsaber was hanging from her belt conspicuously now, and her shoulders seemed straighter.

Thelea approached her from behind, but the other woman spoke first. "I suppose you're wondering who I really am."

"Actually, I was considering whether or not I should report you. You are aware that having a lightsaber is against the law. Using it is even more so."

Aleishia smiled. "As I've pointed out, we're well at the edge of the Imperial jurisdiction here. Unless, of course, you plan on arresting me yourself. Do you?"

Thelea sighed. "No. Not after all the help you've given us."

"That's good. They might question where yours came from."

Thelea bit down on her anger. "How did you know about that? Did you go through our things while we were asleep, Jedi?"

Aleishia spun around, much faster than a woman her age should have been able to move. "Mith'ele'arana," she snapped, "don't you know who you are?"

She was shaking with fear, but she knew not to cry. She knew that the male in the room was her friend, he meant her no harm, but behind his cool sense she felt the bitter hostility radiating towards the woman behind her. The brown woman with the funny blank skin, the woman with the strange eyes, the one who has held her and cared for her and comforted her through this feeling of incomprehensible loss. There is grief, too, old from her and fresh and bitter from him, but that is buried.

He looks above her head-not hard, she is a child, so small. "You know it has to be done."

"Without her mother, she isn't safe here."

"No."

"It's the only way-"

"Perhaps on your world, human."

The woman sighs. "You aren't going to be much help to her, either."

"I know that." He makes a sharp gesture and she steps towards him. He tilts her chin up. "So like her mother." There is pain bordering on agony in his voice.

"In every way." Firm, uncompromising. "She won't forget. You can hope, you can have them lie to her, but she is her mother's daughter, and someday she will remember!"

"You." Thelea stared at the face, suddenly knowing where she had seen it before. "You were on homeworld. You took care of me. You, and. . . ." The face was formless-she'd been a child, she couldn't recall the details of the male's, or the woman she knew to be her mother. "When my mother. . .you came, and you told me I had to be brave. Then you argued with someone, and they took me away."

Aleishia nodded. "When your mother. . .when she died, I begged them to let me take you as my apprentice. Your father refused. I suppose, after his own fashion, he was doing what he thought was best."

"My father? My mother?" Thelea stared. "You know them?"

"I did know them. You mother, as you know, is dead." Aleishia sighed and closed her eyes. The pain never seemed to lessen, she thought bitterly, not even after the decades. "I came to your world having lost my husband, my only child--your mother was the only one to speak for me. I think it was because she sensed in me the power she had within herself. I don't know if any other of your people have ever had the gift she did. No other I met radiated in the Force quite as she did. I told her I could train her, and I did--she could have been a very great Jedi, had I only the Council's blessing."

"The Council?" Thelea found herself drawn into the story, in spite of herself.

"Of course, you've never heard of the Jedi Council. There was a time when I would have had nothing but scorn for them. That was before the dark times, the purges--the Emperor."

"The Emperor brought order to the Galaxy," Thelea said automatically. "He wished only to overthrow the old, corrupt, ways."

Aleishia smiled thinly. "I would be the first to agree, the Jedi Order needed restructuring. Perhaps if they had, all this. . .never mind. Your mother. . .she was a member of the Council of Families when I knew her, and she was brilliant. Her marriage, too, was a match well-made, though surprising, I think." Thelea started to open her mouth. "Before you ask--your father still lives, and I must abide by my promise to him not to tell you his identity. I don't agree, but I gave him my word and I'll honor it. At any rate, they were well-matched, better than most marriages on your world, I believe. And you--quite the surprise." She laughed. "Your mother was almost annoyed, I think, at the inconvenience of pregnancy. But when you were named, she said she saw a vision of your future, and though she would never tell me exactly what she saw, she said it was only appropriate that I was there, for our destinies were entertwined."

Thelea sat down on the side of the speeder. Her knees didn't seem to want to hold her anymore. Her mind, also, seemed none too steady. "What was my mother's name?"

Aleishia smiled. "So like the Chiss, to think of such things last. Her fullname was Reli'set'harana. She was called Lisetha."

"Lisetha." She tried the name in her mouth. "How did she die?"

Aleishia frowned. "That story really should be told by your father. Before he. . .left, we discussed what you should be said should this conversation ever occur, and that is one thing he made me promise he should tell you. I suppose he simply wants to put his own spin on the story."

Thelea knew she wanted to ask questions, but strangely, none seemed to come to her. It was strange, really-having the all the answers here, and not being able to think of a single question. "Why didn't my father take me with him? Or did he make you promise not to say that, too?"

"Where he was going was no place for a little child," Aleishia said. "Besides, it was your mother's family's duty to care for you." And mine. Forgive me, Lisetha, for delaying so long. "As I said, I would have taken you as my apprentice, but your father forbade it. Perhaps he knew, somehow, what was coming. He always had a gift for foresight."

"Your apprentice?"

Aleishia laughed at Thelea's puzzled expression. "Why do you think your mother left that lightsaber for you? You have the same powers she did, or I should say, the same capabilities."

"Me, a Jedi? Don't be ridiculous." Thelea snorted. "Besides, the Jedi are extinct. Well, except for you, maybe."

"You would be right, almost." Did any of you escape? Has Skywalker's son truly risen to avenge us? Am I really the last? "Except that, by our laws, I was no longer truly a Jedi. I haven't been for a very long time."

"You can stop being a Jedi?"

She laughed. "Not entirely, but I was no longer officially a member of the Jedi Order. And I've found my ways to " She closed her eyes a moment. "That's as may be. Are you ready to begin your training?"

Thelea stared at her for a long moment, silent. Then, she did something which Chiss did not do very often, and a well-raised one wouldn't have done at all. She laughed out loud. "Me, a Jedi? Now I know you're mad."

Aleishia opened her eyes, and the disgustingly smug look had not faded in the least. "Perhaps you think you're not ready?"

"It's not a question of ready. I'm not Jedi material. I do not care whether my mother was or not, I'm an Imperial officer." She looked over her shoulder to where Giriad was bringing his fighter on-line, and Rurik was climbing down from her Interceptor and starting for his own. "I have responsibilities."

"You have responsibilities to your mother, too. Not to mention to yourself." Aleishia sounded disturbingly fixed on the idea. "You carry a lightsaber, but do you know how to use it? You use the Force every time you fly, but can you control it?" She closed her eyes. "You're hovering close to the Dark Side, but you're not deep into it yet. There's still time."

Thelea gritted her teeth. "Look, it's not that I don't appreciate your help. If you want, we can take you as far as Telamara. I'm sure you could find transport there to your home, wherever that is, or back to the Unknown Regions, for all I care. But I am not going to throw away everything I've worked for my entire life on some insane crusade for a dead religion I don't even believe in."

Aleishia listed patiently. "You sound far more like your father than your mother." She remembered having the opposite argument with Lisetha, so powerful and eager to learn, but far to old to safely undergo Jedi training, at least, too old by the Council's reckoning. Mihall would have turned her down flat, and even now she could see her husband shaking his head at the daughter...much too old to begin training. "Very well, then. I'll go with you as far as Telamara. It's been quite some time since I've visited another world. And of course, if you change your mind along the way-"

"I won't."

She smiled. "You're a very great deal like him, Mith'ele'arana."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" During the battle, it hadn't registered. But this was at least the third time.

"You answered to it once. You've only forgotten."

Thelea shook her head. "That isn't possible. If that were true, then my father's family would be. . . ." And then she paused. "No."

Aleishia shrugged, and then looked at the position of the sun. "We'd best hurry. See to your wing, Commander." She turned and went back to the airspeeder.

Thelea walked slowly over to her fighter. Rurik pulled himself up out of his own cockpit and balanced on the hatch. "Thelea, yours is fit to fly, if you want to. You'll need all the power for the engines, but it should get off the ground."

She nodded, tracing her finger along the solar panel, noting the charred patches where it had burned on entry. "All right. You two can fly cover for the speeder and me."

Rurik dropped to the ground beside her. "Thelea, what's the mater?"

She looked at him a moment, and despite her unusual eyes he could tell she wasn't really seeing him. "Nothing."

"If something's wrong, maybe you ought to tell me."

"Nothing's wrong." She braced herself on the wing strut and climbed up into the fighter. "Get to your fighter. We need to get moving in case those idiots come back."

Rurik watched her vanish into the cockpit, not even bothering to get back into her flight suit. Not that it would matter-her fighter wouldn't survive an attempt at space anyway. "All right." He glanced over at the speeder, when their benefactor, the Jedi, was watching them both with a faint, bemused smile. "But we've got a seven-hour jump to Telamara, and you can't hide from me in that Infiltrator." He went back to his own ship and got ready to fly.