|
Anni smiled to herself. She hadn’t known Jaina was such a poet. But in return, there were things that Jaina kept secret
from many people; things she didn’t want to speak openly about, afraid it might be on the Holonet the next day.
Anni was already glad Jaina had let her in and revealed to her so much of herself.
“That’s definitely Jaina’s handwriting.”, Han said, still studying the sheet.
Jag glanced at Anni and frowned. “You know what it means, don’t you?”
Anni snapped back into reality.
“Ye-eah.”
“Focus on what you have to do”, Jaina had sometimes said, “Chose and act. Never stand still. Not
this time. Not in this war.
Every second I stand still, someone could die. I won’t let that happen.”
Anni’s expression hardened. “Let’s go.”, she called to the others, turning around and starting to
jog back to the Falcon.
Jag and Han looked at each other puzzled, but followed her instantly.
“Okay, what’s it about?”, Han asked when he sat down on the pilot’s chair. Anni was right next to
him, already running through the start procedure.
“I was right, Jag. They want to bring the Vong priestess to Coruscant. That’s what Jaina meant with “the
place we met last”. She has written the poem for Kyp. Only he or someone very close to her could possibly be able to
understand it. She has just encrypted it.”, Anni explained.
“So, the “danger” is the Vong?”, Jag asked.
“Yes. But I think it’s also Jaina’s personal impression of the Vong, what she was sent to receive. Maybe
the others didn’t want to listen to her or something like that. We’ve got to tell Master Skywalker about it. She
probably doesn’t want any Jedi to meet the Vong.”
“Okay, so what’s this “guardian?”, Han asked suspiciously.
Anni laughed.
“My bet would be that it’s Jaina. The Republic’s intelligence didn’t want to listen to her warning
about the intentions of the Vong, but they want her to play bodyguard for the Vong till she has reached Coruscant.”
The Falcon was lifting from the ground, making her way through the sky fastly.
“But wait! She said she’s the guardian of the wheel of love, not of the danger.”, Jag interjected.
“Every second I stand still, someone could die. I won’t let that happen.”
“Han, do you know the bar “cherry wheel”?”, Anni asked, motioning for Jag to prepare for entering
coordinates into the navi computer.
“Sure. That’s the bar you Rogue’s love so much. But it’s on Bilbringi…”, Han trailed off,
turning around to face Anni for the first time after starting the conversation.
“Bilbringi will probably be their first stop on their way to Coruscant.
Jaina and Kyp have been there once.”, Anni said thoughtfully.
For a moment it seemed she would get lost in her memories again, but then she continued: “I believe Jaina thinks the
priestess is a threat to the people in the Bilbringi system even only through her passing by. Maybe she feels she has to be
the bodyguard of the Vong not only to protect her, but also to protect everyone from her.”
“That makes a scary sense…”, Jag said darkly, looking at nothing in particular.
Anni stared at him until he noticed it and looked at her somewhat irritatedly.
“What?”
“The coordinates.”
Suddenly, Jag erupted into whirling motion, turning away from her as fast as possible and plugging coordinated into the computer.
Anni laughed to herself. She had nevertheless seen him blushing.
* * *
It wasn’t an easy task.
Jaina tried to block out all the pain and despair she felt through the force, while she focused on Elan, Vergere and the others
and spots of danger. But the sheer amount of information she received through the force was almost too much for her to handle.
They had agreed to separate, what meant that Jaina walked alone. She always stayed close to the group containing Showolter,
Elan and Vergere, but she never joined them. In case someone followed them, she didn’t want her or her to know she was
one of them. She hadn’t told Showolter’s group where she was, what prevented glances into her direction in case
the others should get attacked. She would at least be a surprise.
Sometimes she was following the group, sometimes she was walking parallel to them or she was even ahead of them. She just
made sure she never lost the contact to them with the force.
When Showolter entered his cabin with his companions, she continued her way to the neighbor cabin; face hidden behind the
hood of her black robe.
She noticed that one dark looking Human and a Rodian were observing the door to Showolter’s cabin. They might be others
agents, but again, they might not.
Jaina decided that the neighbor cabin was too dangerous. She hurried to the next turbolift and searched for the cabin right
above Showolter’s.
After she had finally found it, she used the force to open the locked door and to close it again behind her.
Then, she went into the fresher and cut a hole into the ground, carefully suppressing every noise with the force. Soundlessly,
she left herself fall through the gap into the refresher below and went to the closed door to the main cabin.
She could hear Showolter talking to two beings. Suddenly, blaster fire erupted and she heard screams.
Cursing, she opened the door and jumped into the middle of the room, whirling her lightsaber and deflecting a shot aimed at
Showolter back to the attacker.
Everything went to fast for her to analyze who was on which side, so she only grabbed Elan and ran with her through the door.
Vergere jumped behind because she didn’t want to leave Elan alone and Showolter followed, constantly firing with his
blaster.
Suddenly, the ship rocked. Shortly after that, the captain announced that the ship had been entered.
Jaina held her lightsaber in front of her dragged Elan along. Two corridors later, they ran into a large group of the peace
brigade.
Aided by the force, Jaina jumped right between them and cut as many blasters off as she could.
“Go!”, she screamed at Showolter, “I’ll join you later again.”
The Major was frozen for a brief second, but then he reacted immediately and pushed Elan and Vergere into a side corridor.
Jaina concentrated fully onto her enemies now. She defeated most of them by deflecting their blaster bolts back at them, but
the other ones she simply cut down.
When she was finally done, Showolter, Elan and Vergere were nowhere in sight.
|
