Chapter 2: Are Still Mistakes
Three and a half weeks had passed since Saede left the outpost. Thus far she’d been chased by some unknown lizard type creature up a tree, cornered in a cave by a Rancor, caught in a huge thunderstorm which wrecked her tent, had her food eaten by scavengers over night, and, the most recent in the series of events, been caught in a flash flood that swept away what little was left of her functional gear.
Saede sat shivering at the base of one of the huge, but slender trees that clustered the landscape. She’d managed to hang onto a hunting knife and the clothes she was wearing. But nothing else. Not even a small lamp to cut through the darkness that seemed to be bearing down on her from all directions as Dathomir’s long night settled in.
Leaning her head back against the smooth trunk, she bit her lower lip, trying to keep from crying. She wrapped her arms around her knees, face tilted up to look through a tiny whole in the canopy, watching as the stars burned into crystal clearness above her head. Liquid night wrapped around her, smelling of decaying leaves and wet air, a hint of something spicy, like cinnamon, wafting from one of the small fungi growing at her feet.
Saede didn’t move as the night continued to pass by, bringing one of Dathomir’s moons into view, the second following closely behind its sister across the sky. An avian creature screamed out a warning somewhere above her head, then fell silent, the sounds of the forest returning to their usual subdued levels. The gravity here was a little less than what she was used to, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. She felt heavy and empty at the same time, encased in stone but hollow. She didn’t know how far she was from the outpost. After all of the traveling in last few weeks in no particular direction, and without any of her gear, she wasn’t even sure that she could find the outpost again even if she could survive the trip.
She fixated on one star in particular. It was a tiny, pale blue pinprick almost completely obscured by the corona of one of the twin moons. For several minutes, or perhaps, several hours, she didn’t know which, she watched the star move across her personal view screen in the tree cover, becoming slightly brighter as it emerged from the liquid halo of the moon. For that time, nothing existed except her and that star. She entertained the notion, just for a little while, that Nico was there, on whatever planet orbited that small blue sun.
Saede put her head down on her knees, tearing her gaze away from the sky. Her throat constricted, making the whisper come out harsh and ragged.
“Where are you Nico? Are you happy wherever it is? Will you ever know what happened to me?” She paused for a moment, blinking back tears. “Will you even care if you know?”
Anger welled up inside of her. Anger towards him, towards herself, anger at the planet and everything horrid thing that lived on it. Looking up again, Saede put her hands down, ready to lever herself up. She wasn’t going to let this planet beat her. She wasn’t going to let it kill her. Or if she was, she was going to go out her way, not crying against a tree waiting for someone who would never come.
But she didn’t make it up. A sharp stinging pain pricked her palm and she yelped, looking down at the ground. Underneath her hand, a small crustacean scurried away under the leaves, apparently no worse the wear for her having leaned on it. She sighed softly, shaking her hand to try to work out the pain. Everything on this planet was out to get her it seemed, she thought ruefully, moving to stand up again.
But her vision rippled slightly, indicating that she should remain sitting just where she was. Saede shook her head, trying to clear it. Her palm started to tingle strangely, and she looked down, bringing her hand closer to her face. In the pale starlight, she squinted at the place she’d been stung. A large angry welt had started to swell up, the skin around the edges of the sting were already starting to turn a strange blue colour, bleeding a sickly brownish green out through veins that she normally wouldn’t have even noticed.
She watched, eyes widening slightly, as the green snaked out, reaching towards her inner arm. About the time the discoloration reached the middle of her forearm, her fingers had started to go numb. For some reason though, she was strangely calm, almost detached from the whole thing. Perhaps it was an effect of the poison, but the numbness spread to far more than her hand. She watched the whole thing dispassionately, as though from a great distance. Turning her hand over, she noted that her fingertips were turning a pale shade of blue, just like the star she had been watching earlier.
Lowering her hand, she leaned her head back against the tree, her vision fading in and out for a moment before coming into painfully high definition clarity, focused again on that star. Saede glanced down at her arm, barely registering that the poison had run up the course of the limb, the tendrils disappearing beneath her sleeve.
Part of her knew that she should be worried. A small voice whispered to her that this was not alright. That this was dangerous and that they had to get out of here. Walk, run, but do something, the voice shouted, fading slowly into the coldness of her limbs.
She kept her head tilted up, watching as the blue star started to fall, coming slowly towards her.
The star rotated slightly, and it became a ship. The Star Stealer landed in the impossibly small space between the trees, the main hatch opening. Nicodemus stood there, that soft, sad smile she’d grown to know over the last months etched onto his face.
Saede couldn’t move, her legs by now had become numb. She remained silent, watching him as he watched her. He raised one hand in a gesture she was intimately familiar with. As though he were holding something in one hand, he fastened the invisible object above his head, giving her his best impression of an innocent smile.
“Bull,” she mumbled softly, startling a small scavenger rodent that had been hovering near her feet.
Nico winked at her, beckoning her onto the ship. His movements became more frenzied, as though some great emergency had come up. She had to go, now, but her legs wouldn’t obey her. If she didn’t follow him now, something awful was going to happen.
Saede struggled to get up, pain shooting though her legs for a moment before she stopped moving. She watched as he looked up at the sky in horror, then rushed back onto the ship, the door closing behind him with a definitive click that echoed through the forest.
He looked out at her from the port window, a sad look on his face.
“Don’t leave me. Please Nico… don’t leave me again...”
The Star Stealer shuddered slightly, lifting off at an impossible angle. Nico continued to watch her through the window, mouthing something that she couldn’t understand. The words came to her then, but they made no sense. The words weren’t in any language she spoke. Saede strained to understand, the words coming slowly to her out of the fog.
“She’d dying, just like I said she would.”
Small white flakes started to fall from the sky, landing in cold jolts all over her, pricking her like small, frozen darts. The snow covered the ground swiftly, and even though the ship was lifting off, it couldn’t avoid the tiny icicles as they dropped from the sky. The ice built up on the windows, obscuring his face from her.
“We can’t just leave her here. I say we take her back with us.”
Yes, Nico… please take me back with you. Don’t leave me here.
The ship shuddered again, listing to one side as it rose through the canopy. She strained, hoping to see one last glimpse of him through one of the windows. But the frost covering the glass was too thick. She could see a vague shadow moving behind the blank chill that covered the whole ship.
Suddenly, the ship thundered to a stop, coming down again, many times faster than it had risen into the sky. She cried out, trying to reach out her hand, as though that would stop the crashing force the vessel was bringing down upon Dathomir. The earth bucked, throwing her from her sitting position to the ground.
“Hold her down!”
Saede watched as the ship broke apart, struggling against a heavy force that was pinning her against the ground.
“I have to get to him! Can’t you see, let me up! Let me go!”
She looked up to see Greenbacca hovering over her, pinning her arms against her sides. His fur was singed, as though he’d rushed through a fire to get to her, the smoky smell still lingering on him. Saede felt a heat rising from the other side of her and turned her head towards the warmth.
The Star Stealer had fallen on its side, blocking the entrance hatch. Black tendrils of smoke snaked up from the ship, deep red flames licking at the cockpit hungrily.
“The fever’s starting. We need to decide now sisters. All in favor of bringing her back with us?”
The frost on the windows started to melt, and she caught another glance of Nico through the window. He was pounding at the glass, a terror rampant on his face. Over and over he hit the window, eventually leaving blood hand prints on the inside.
“I am against it. You know I am.”
She screamed, fighting against Greenbacca with all of her strength. But her limbs were wooden, not obeying her commands. Her throat was raw, her eyes burning as she watched, helpless to make even the slightest move.
“We bring her. One of us would expect the same treatment from a sister.”
She begged, pleading with Greenbacca to let her up, or to go and save Nico himself. But he just growled at her, blue eyes flashing dangerously in the flickering light. When she started to fight again, he slowly reached out one furred paw. It came down heavily on her throat, slowly applying more and more pressure.
“But she isn’t a sister! She isn’t one of us, the code doesn’t apply to her!”
Saede gasped, eyes widening. She couldn’t breath, and Greenbacca just sat there, watching her as he tightened his grip.
“She will be. You’ve watched her. Tell me I am wrong and we can leave her. But I am not wrong. She has even greater potential than you do Koranthis, and I will not leave her here to die. This discussion is ended.”
Everything faded to black, and the last thing she remembered seeing were Greenbacca’s blue eyes, reflecting firelight in the darkness.
Continue on to Chapter 3
Note: ^ is unfinished. Thank you for your patience
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