Star Wars: Life During Wartime

Trust, Part 2

Thallian studied the image of Akil Acir in his mind. Birdman was a misnomer. Although the Eberechukans soared through the sky, they were still mammalian. Acir had a long gray mane in place of hair. His wings were made of skin rather than feathers. His luminous round eyes seemed designed for nocturnal vision. In his homeworld's light gravity, his bones should be as fragile as twigs.

The flight team bustled around Thallian's shuttle as he stepped out of the Arbiter's elevator into the docking area. A protocol droid stood at the foot of the loading ramp, a black cape draped over one arm. Thallian frowned, annoyed by his own forgetfulness. What sort of impression would the Emperor's envoy have made without his cape? He accepted it and slung it around his shoulders.

The shuttle pilot, Cardin, stepped away from the mechanics and bowed slightly. "We are ready, my Lord."

"Governor Acir is expecting us, I'm sure." Thallian strode into the shuttle. A distraction glimmered at the edge of his consciousness. Scenes of combat flashed beneath his eyelids: flaring lightsabers and waves of blue energy. He cursed his imperfect visions of the future and put them out of mind.

*

The governor did not greet the Imperial party when the shuttle landed. Thallian felt the sting of insult and smiled. So Acir resented the Imperial presence. Perhaps he was a Rebel parasite, as the Emperor suspected. Thallian trusted the birdman to reveal himself. Then Thallian would kill him, like an avenging hawk.

The Imperial base on Eberechuku claimed an entire mountain just outside the capital city of Ebere. Hallways and offices honeycombed the cliff. Thallian stood at the edge of the landing platform to survey the city at his feet.

Acir's gubernatorial mansion filled a mountain to the northeast. It sparkled in the bright saffron sunshine. For a moment Thallian missed the pale blue skies of home. It had been too long since he'd seen them.

Engines shrieked overhead. Thallian looked up, seeking the badly stressed engines, but the sunlight blinded him. The noise swelled to shake the ground beneath Thallian's boots. At his back, the shuttle crew panicked and scrambled off the exposed landing platform, into the dubious safety of the mountain. Thallian had seen enough earthquakes to know what would happen if the ship did crash on the mountain. He did not intend to become buried alive, as Raena had.

His thoughts reached out as though they were a corporeal limb. The ship's outdated weaponry was in sad need of repair. Thallian understood why the Rebels picked this junk heap to suicide. He sought the surging energy of the sublight engine and redirected the power toward the connections to the laser cannons. He hoped the reaction would build quickly. There wasn't much time.

When the suicide ship blew, 100 meters above the landing platform, the concussion and waves of heat slammed into him first. Thallian stood still, holding a margin of safety around himself even as burning shrapnel rained down around him.

"My lord!" the shuttle captain's familiar voice shouted. "Are you all right?"

Thallian nodded. "Did you see the ship?"

"One-man fighter, y‑wing. The sort the Rebels use."

"Exactly. However, off‑world Rebels wouldn't be likely to understand the mathematics of power-landing in low gravity."

The pilot studied Thallian through eyes narrowed nervously. "Why tell me this, my lord?"

Thallian searched his cape for burn holes. "Because, unlike those cattle, you had the intel­ligence to stay aboveground, away from likely cave-­ins. Also, because you had the loyalty to make certain I survived the attack. I should like to make you my personal aide, Cardin."

"I'd be honored, my lord."

"Come with me. We must send our greetings to Governor Acir."

*

Thallian stared at the protocol droid on the viewscreen. "I do not understand," he repeated, his voice clipped. "The Imperial governor is unavailable to meet the personal envoy of the Emperor?"

"Sir," the droid repeated, "the culture of this planet is nocturnal. My master is asleep. He left strict instructions not to be awakened. "

"Perhaps you could give him a message?" Thallian inquired in an iced tone. The droid nodded. "Tell Governor Acir that I await his leisure at the Imperial base. As the message I bear is for Akil Acir alone, I will come at whatever hour his lordship desires."

"I will tell him, sir."

Thallian snapped the connection closed, certain that Acir had been in the receiving room.

Wordlessly, Thallian followed the ensign assigned to lead him to his quarters. He might as well nap now, while he could, so that he would be fresh for a nocturnal meeting.

*

A sickly green glow barely chased the shadows back. Thallian could hardly draw a breath with the cavern's oppressive weight compressing his chest. His shirt clung to his damp skin like a living thing.

"Here to visit me again, my lord?" a crone's harsh voice rasped.

Thallian saw her step from the shadows, cobwebs veiling her hair. Tear tracks streaked the dust on her face. "Raena, why do you bring me here?"

"You come on your own, my lord. Just as you stood outside my tomb. Your desires draw you." She stepped closer, her smile inviting. Her compact, youthful body had been emaciated by her imprisonment. An angry red scar marred her throat where she had tried to end her life with the only tool the Emperor left her.

The green light flickered and Thallian knew her lightsaber's powerpack would not last much longer.

Dropping the weapon at her feet, she fought her way into his arms, clutched him desperately. Into his ear, she murmured, "Free me, my lord. I promise to do whatever you desire. I can tell you how to destroy my father. Let me be by your side when you become Emperor..."

Thallian threw her off.  Horrified to hear his dreams voiced, he shouted, "You're insane! I will never betray my Emperor!"

"You already have," she said, black eyes luminescent in the darkness. "I'll destroy you, Jonan. As they destroyed me."

Her nails clawed his shoulders. He swung blindly at her, made contact, batted her away. He threw the blankets to the floor and called his lightsaber. It came willingly.

Then Thallian realized he stood in the Imperial base on Eberechuku, not in a tomb on the Sith World.  He couldn't hear anything beyond the hammer of his heart.

To be continued...