Chapter 6
Life’s funny sometimes. One day you’re an ex-imperial experiment, honor less wookie. Then the next day your still an honor less wookie who was once an imperial experiment that has made you faster and stronger than any wookie has a right to be, of course every know and then you black out and don’t know why. But you got your ship beneath you and your brother besides, searching the stars for your best friend who doesn’t want to be found, now this is a hunt. After leaving Kashyyyk Borro and I headed to Corellia. I had to pick up a few things I left in soft deposit and of course my ship, The Quillarant. I remember the day Nicodemus and Saede surprised me with a ship of my own, that was early on when they thought they could get rid of me. I had only been on it once; on that day I sealed it up and left docked thinking I would never see it again. Saede and Nico didn’t know that I wasn’t a very good pilot, but I told them how pleased I was to get a ship of my very own. The Quillarant is a Sorosoub 3000 luxury yacht; it had only one light cannon on the front, minimal shielding, and decent engines. She wasn’t much but she was mine, so Borro and I loaded her up with supplies and set out for what would be a great hunt, Borro flew of course because he was a much better pilot than I.
According to the information gathered by the program sliced into Nico’s ship he left Dantooine and made stops neat Ord Mandell and Nar Shadda. Tatooine was the last place he had sent a communiqué from, so we headed out to Tatooine. From Corellia to Tatooine was a short trip so Borro and I settled in for an uneventful ride; however it seemed we were the only ones planning for an uneventful ride. “Brother why are exiting hyperspace, we are no where near Tatooine.”
“I’m not sure Green there seems to be a gravitational anomaly on scope. There also appears to be four ships on scope. Two are small probably single man fighters the other two are medium size according to Sensor signatures they are Corellain Corvette class ships.”
“Attention unidentified ship this is the Imperious, power down your systems and prepare to be boarded.”
“What do we do Borro?”
“There is nothing we can do Green, those two TIEs are within weapons range they could destroy us without a thought. We had better do what they say and hope that we are not who they are looking for.”
“We knew you would be crossing through hyperspace at this exact place and time. We have been following you ever since you returned to Corellia. We caught wind that you were on Corellia a few months ago, but by the time we got there you had dropped out of sight for a week or two. Then we you came back for your ship, which was registered under your name-not very smart if you ask me-we had you. We just used our tractor beams to drag a stray asteroid into your hyperspace path and waited, you shouldn’t of logged your flight plan with the Coronet Starport. It was too easy following you, and now we have you back.” The haughty voice of the man was grating enough but the fact that he was right burned even more. “Do you think the empire would allow such a promising specimen like you get away? Not only are you the only survivor of Dr. Gast’s first experiments but you are also strong in the Force.” This wasn’t the first time he had mentioned the Force to me, I had heard some stories as a cub about Jedi, warriors who used magic called the Force to slay their enemies. From the corner of my eye I could see Borro curled up in the corner, after the initial beating they had left him alone.
“Brother can you hear me….Agh!”
“I thought I told you to be quiet next time I’ll kick you in your throat so you’ll never speak again.” His kick has knocked the wind out of me, I’m not sure if I could talk now if I wanted to. “When he gets here he’ll take care of you. He is our leader not our master, but the one our master has set over us. He’ll choke the life out of you with a thought. So you better mind you manners around him.” For four days we have tied up and help captive in a dingy apartment in Coronet. I heard them talking earlier and they said it was dangerous to move us till he got here, I still didn’t know who he was. But after four days I could fell the rage growing within, I could get my hands on him. There were four of them but they didn’t give their names, their leader stank of ambition and the rest smelled like death. Not actual death, but the smell of something that is already dead but is still walking for some reason, and hasn’t realized it was dead. If I could only get Borro’s attention I’m sure we could find away to break out of here. “You’ll see you animal; you’ll treat us with more respect someday.” I hated being called an animal, Chid used to call me an animal and it pissed me off. I could feel the hate boiling within me; once again I imagined how I would throttle the life out of him. All of the sudden I saw him reach for his throat as if invisible hands had closed around it. It looked like he was choking. That’s it I thought just keep squeezing till his windpipe is crushed, with a crunch I heard his windpipe give way. He looked at me with a look of fear in his eyes like he knew that I had wished this on him as he was dying the door to the room buckled and exploded inward. In all the smoke all I could see was a shaft of blue light circling the room. I could hear people dying but I wasn’t sure who it was.
“Borro, wake up, we have to get out of here.” I stood up and made my way over to Borro. Something seemed wrong with him as I rolled him over he felt limp. Where his chest should have been there was a smoldering crater of charred flesh. They must have shot him when I was blacked out and kept his body around to make me think he was still alive. White hot rage exploded through my body, I flexed with all my might and snapped the straps holding my arms. “Where are you, where are the cowards that shot my brothers, I will rip your throats out.” In the smoke I could hardly see anything, but I laid a hand on a human and I picked him up and slammed him into the floor.
“Easy fellow were here to help! Calm down all the ‘bad guys’ are dead!” I didn’t want to believe him all I wanted to do was feed the rage within me. “If you don’t calm down we are going to have to stun you. That will not be a pleasant experience for you and we have to get out of here quick, I can’t drag you out of here you have to walk.” The meaning of his words finally sank in, I could feel my body begin to tremble as I came down off of the adrenaline high. I walked over to Borro’s body and sank to my knees. Deep sobs began to rock my body, my brother is dead, I’m a failure, I failed to protect my brother and I lost my honor. There was no more reason to live. “Come on big fellow we have to move and fast. I’m sorry about you friend but we have to leave him here. There’s no way we can carry him out of here.”
“I will carry him, you lead.”
“Okay, by the way my name’s Dieago. We got a ship near here once we get to it we’re home free, so follow me.” The next half hour was a blur as I carried my dead brother through dark allies, following a person I didn’t know going to a place I didn’t know. Finally we reached his ship. I carried Borro into his ship and laid him on bunk and covered his body with a sheet. Then I lay down next to him and cried myself to sleep.
* * * *
Two weeks later I stood atop a mountain on the planet of Ithor. The Ithorians wouldn’t allow anyone to step foot onto Mother Jungle but they did allow special occasions. I had built the bier for Borro and had lit it myself. There were only three people at Borro’s funeral, Dieago a Jedi Knight, Kith Verloren a Jedi Master I had just met and his brother. “May you find peace in the eternal hunt my brother”
Four weeks after Borro’s death I was on my way to meet my new master. I learned from Kith that I had been identified by the Jedi Council as a potential candidate for Jedi training. They had been following me waiting for an opportunity to approach me when I had been captured. So they seized the chance and rescued me, with hope that I would be grateful enough to accept their offer of training. I had no choice the Council had picked up my ship and brought it to Ithor but I couldn’t pilot it myself and I owed it to Borro to get strong enough to prevent this from ever happening again. So Kith told me she had the perfect master to send me to. His name was Aren; he was a human and had been a master for thirty years. He was an accomplished lightsaber duelist who was known for his strange techniques and his unorthodox training methods. So after gathering my few meager possessions and one stuffed bantha and I boarded a shuttle bound for a planet I didn’t know. As I barded the shuttle I heard Dieago tell Kith, “I’m not sure who did it but right before I walked in the room someone used the force to kill one of the Jedi, it was the darkside.”
Continue on to Chapter 7
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