Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 2)

Chapter 11: "That's all you are. A kid in a dangerous galaxy."

"When I was at the academy, we were told that the Jedi were terrorists who tried to seize power in the last days of the Clone Wars. I never believed they existed until I saw what Lady Jish could do. But she didn't seem at all cruel. Not like the Jedi were supposed to be."

Ella looked at Hal who sat across the table in the Nova's lounge, as Lance referred to the largest room aboard. The engineering console was silent, and the lights were dim. There was no other sound save a small regular bleep that indicated that the ship's atmosphere was within the desired levels.

Hal eyed her suspiciously.

"Are you a Jedi, Princess Ella?" he asked slowly. "I saw you fighting with the Assayer. Lady Jish said that if you and she had been born in the Republic then you would have become Jedi."

Ella shook her head. She was in no mood for conversation but decided that the best way to shut Hal up would be to answer his questions.

"The Jedi are all dead, Hal," she said. "I am not one of them. Neither was Jish."

"At the academy, it was said that any one who displayed Jedi abilities was to be arrested and then sent to Coruscant, or brought before an Assayer. But you do have those abilities too, don't you?"

She stood up and filled her glass with some fresh water from the distributor. She felt his eyes on her all the time.

"I don't know!" she snapped suddenly. "If I have got any abilities then I don't know how to use them."

"But you–"

"Enough Hal! Please!" she sighed. "Look, no more about the Jedi okay? No more about Jish. It's still too early."

"Fine," he said. "I'm sorry." He glanced over at the engineering display, where galactic standard time and local planetary time were both displayed. "How long do you think they will be? This waiting is making me nervous."

Ella agreed. Lance and Salpantor had gone to meet the rebel leader in the city, whilst Chip and Cor had gone to the dockyards to purchase some supplies for the Nova and to see if they could recruit some help to make any repairs.

Leaving both Hal and Ella alone aboard.

That had been several hours ago, after they had been escorted by an Imperial patrol to a designated landing area all the way from orbit.

But aside from that, the Imperials had left them alone, so far. From the bulletins that came in on standard radio frequencies, it appeared they had other things to worry about.

And very occasionally, two words were mentioned that caught Ella's interest: Pina, the captain of the Reaver.

The fact that they were in the same system as the man who had taken Tayre made Ella restless. She felt she should be doing something for her sister.

She just didn't know what.

Another hour passed, for the most marked by an uneasy silence and nervous tension, before Lance and Salpantor returned. She felt his coolness toward her before the boarding ramp was even half closed.

"Right," he said. "There's no easy way of putting this. We've met with the head of the rebel faction on Syreal. There's a lot going on - the Alliance is sending someone out to tell us what's going on, but they're not coming to Syreal at all. So that's where I'll be going next - to our key stronghold in the sector."

"You?" Ella quizzed.

"Yeah. Me. Sal. Chip and Cor. But not you. They have decided that you are both going off world, to a different sector in fact. Hal will go to a debriefing facility and you, Ella, will go to . . . well, somewhere else, somewhere I don't know. I don't think they really know what to do with you, so you'll probably be kept in some backwater planet whilst the galaxy works itself out–"