Darker the Night (A Star Wars Rebels AU)

Chapter Twelve

Hera and Caleb climbed out of the ravine and stood at the edge, looking down at the battered escape pod.

"Maybe we should blow it up so they think we're dead," Hera suggested. She hugged herself, trying to give her undoubtedly broken ribs a bit of support.

Caleb heaved the rucksack a little higher onto his shoulder, wincing a bit. "That's a good idea, but how would we blow it up? We don't have any weapons, other than my lightsaber. The escape pod is totally dead, so we can't use it to destroy itself. And we don't have any accelerants."

"It was just an idea," she muttered.

He turned his head towards her and gave her a half-hearted smile. "It was a good idea."

"Do you think they'll come to check? To see if there were any survivors?"

"Maybe," he replied, scanning the sky above them. "But they obviously wanted to keep me from reaching Belkadan, and they've done that. They might just assume we died- or that if we haven't yet, we will soon. "

"Do you know something about this planet that I don't?"

"I think it's a moon." He pointed to the horizon, where she could just make out the faint edge of a distant, larger planet. "I have no idea which moon, though, or which planet. Do you remember what was near the hyperspace junction?"

"The only systems near the junction were Ahakista and Lah'mu, but there are lots of unknown little hunks of rock this far from the Core." She tried to remember the nav maps she'd looked at prior to the trip, but her head hurt too much to focus.

"It's probably one of those unknown little hunks of rock, then."

"With our luck today, it seems likely. We should get going." She was starting to feel cold, and her ribs ached.

The ravine was at the edge of a forest full of tall conifers with black bark and dark blue needles. The terrain was rocky, with very little vegetation aside from the trees- in terms of finding water, the landscape didn't look promising. Caleb lead them into the forest with his lightsaber gripped in one hand. She wished she had a blaster. Despite the fact that blaster training was a requirement for all personnel, the Republic Navy rarely armed regular pilots. It rankled her to be defenseless and in need of protection- even if her protector was a Jedi.

They walked in silence for a while as the forest closed in around them. It had been, to put it mildly, a very long day, and Caleb didn't seem to want to discuss it any more than she did. She walked beneath the fragrant branches, with the dry needles crunching under her boots, trying to ignore the throbbing in her head and right side. She tried to focus instead on the smell of the trees- a pungent, spicy odor, much stronger than the conifers native to Ryloth. It wasn't unpleasant. Her eyes fell again and again on Caleb, taking note of his stride, the unruly hair at the back of his head, and his strong, straight back. The recollection of his bare skin flooded unbidden into her mind- she remembered the way his muscles had tensed at her touch, the curve of his shoulder and his face in profile as he'd turned his head while she dressed his wound. Her cheeks felt suddenly hot, and she pushed those thoughts out of her mind.

Caleb stopped, and she nearly walked into him, pulling herself up short. He raised his hand- a signal for her to keep quiet. Several minutes passed, during which Hera heard nothing. Finally, he dropped his hand and turned to look at her.

"I sensed...something," he said.

"What do you mean, 'something'?"

"Well, if I knew exactly what it was, I would say so."

She tried not to get annoyed with his tone and failed, giving him a withering look that said as much. As they stood there exchanging irritated gazes, darkness abruptly fell, as if a blanket had been thrown over the moon.