Part 2 (1/2)

Yaqeel turned her eyes back to the stranger, noting the well-manicured hands that accepted a portable cup. Now that she looked again, he seemed familiar to her somehow. Not the scent, she'd have remembered that, but his looks. Was he a holovid star? She watched the occasional one that Valin and Jysella had recommended to her and found them pa.s.sably entertaining, but she couldn't identify him. The stranger paid and walked out. He strode off briskly, and a droid that had been patiently waiting outside suddenly lifted and floated after him.

A Hologlide J57 cam droid.

And Yaqeel realized where she knew the stranger from. Her eyes narrowed and she growled softly, her fur rippling in displeasure.

”A journalist,” she spat, infusing the single word with the same disgust and loathing with which she would have said A Sith.

Barv grunted, but he allowed that journalists, despite Yaqeel's personal opinion, were beings, too, and they should be allowed to buy a cup of caf if they felt so inclined.

A pedestrian hurtled through the tapcaf's window right about then, transparisteel folding about him as he hit a table, and the conversation was dropped.

Both Jedi Knights leapt to their feet, weapons in hand but not activated, and raced outside as the customers inside screamed and ducked. A soft, pudgy Ortolan, screaming and flailing his blue arms and legs, ears flapping wildly, hurtled toward Barv. Still calm, he lifted a ma.s.sive hand and Force-caught the Ortolan, lowering him gently to the ground. Yaqeel's lightsaber snap-hissed to life and she extended her senses, reaching past the chaos and fear to identify the source of the disturbance.

It took less than a second, and her eyes lit upon the miscreant at the same instance the Force directed Yaqeel's attention toward her. Her feline jaw gaped for a precious second.

”Jysella?”

She was there, just outside the Jedi Temple, her lightsaber lit and clutched in one hand while her other was extended, clearing a path through the crowd and battering back any would-be attackers. Jysella's eyes were huge, and even at this distance her friends could see the combination of terror and determination in them.

”Stang,” muttered Yaqeel. Barv was right beside her, and moving as one, the two raced toward their friend and fellow Jedi. Barv rapidly began to outpace the Bothan, moving much more swiftly than most would expect of the large Ramoan. Neither he nor Yaqeel knew who was attacking Jysella, but it didn't matter. She was Sella, a member of the Unit, and- Time seemed to slow. In that stretched-out moment, Yaqeel watched as Jysella tensed. The human Jedi could not possibly have seen Barv running to her side, and somehow Yaqeel didn't think Jysella sensed him in the Force. Jysella didn't seem to react so much as she simply leapt and sprang. Barv was suddenly and unexpectedly jostled by a fleeing crowd member-that was something he needed to work on, Yaqeel thought disconnectedly, he tended to hyperfocus in moments of crisis-and ended up several steps to the right of where he had been running.

And yet Jysella was there.

The lightsaber descended so fast that Barv barely was able to block it with his own in time. Yaqeel stared, stunned into inaction for a moment. Why was Jysella- ”It's not you!” Jysella was screaming as she pressed the attack. She seemed to know exactly when Barv would duck, would parry, would push forward, would execute a Force leap. It would have been astonis.h.i.+ng to watch, almost balletic, if it weren't for the horror that Jysella Horn was fighting another Jedi, and not just any Jedi, but one who was among her best friends in the galaxy.

Fortunately for Barv, Jysella's uncanny and hitherto unguessed-at ability to predict where he would be at any given moment seemed mitigated by her panic. She was sloppy, shaking, and Barv, who never seemed to get rattled by anything, managed to defend himself-until Jysella screamed out, ”Give me my friend back!” and her glowing weapon sliced across Barv's midsection.

Yaqeel cried out as Barv staggered back. Fortunately Jysella's weapon had barely grazed him. It was a smoking wound, but not deep, and could be treated. Yaqeel's eyes met Barv's. She realized now what had happened. Even as pity and sympathy for Jysella washed through her, the Bothan knew that she had to be stopped Preferably by fellow Jedi.

Even more preferably, by Yaqeel.

Crying incoherently, her mouth made ugly by a snarl, Jysella bore down on the Ramoan. Yaqeel's hand shot out, grasped air, and pulled. Barv's huge green body was suddenly invisibly yanked out of the path of Jysella's slicing lightsaber. The weapon made a buzzing sound as it sliced empty air where a fraction of an instant earlier Barv had stood. Had Yaqeel not intervened, the Ramoan would have been sliced in two.

Jysella whirled, her gaze impaling Yaqeel. Then her eyes widened in horror and grief.

”Oh, no ... not Yaqeel, too!” she cried brokenly, almost whimpering, and if it were not for the fact that the human girl had just almost killed Barv that sound would have cracked Yaqeel's heart. Instead she wrapped it in durasteel and hardened herself to what had to be done.

She glanced around frantically in the instant before Jysella sprang. There was nothing she-ah, the cam droid. There it was, hovering about the now panicking crowd, faithfully recording the incident. And over there, that journalist speaking into something in his hand. It would be all over the newsvids tonight-might already be-actual footage of a Jedi going nuts and attacking civilians and fellow members of her own Order. The GA would have a field day with that.

Yaqeel reached out again with the Force, snagged the cam, and alternately pulled the droid in Jysella's direction and pushed the charging Jedi backward.

Except again, somehow Jysella knew it was going to happen. She turned with more than enough time to methodically slice the cam droid into three chunks, which she then directed back at Yaqeel. The Bothan Jedi was dimly aware of the reporter yelling, ”Hey! What are you doing? That's valuable property!”

His irritation gave Yaqeel a tiny spark of pleasure. The pleasure quickly vanished when she realized that Jysella was running at her-but then the human Jedi vaulted over Yaqeel's head at dizzying speed. Yaqeel whirled, set to pursue. Jysella had covered a great deal of distance already; clearly, she was more interested in escaping than in fighting.

But it didn't look like she was going to. Even as Yaqeel followed, several GA vehicles pulled up. Their doors slid open and disgorged several men and women clad in the blue uniforms and helmets of Galactic Alliance Security. They immediately started firing on Jysella.

She leapt, ducked, and moved her lightsaber in a blue blur, batting the stun blasts back at those who were firing on her. For a wild second Yaqeel thought Jysella was going to make good her escape. But there came a blast that was either simply one too many for her to handle or else one she had failed with her preternatural senses to antic.i.p.ate. In midleap, Jysella Horn was struck by a bolt and rendered unconscious. And because she loved her friend, and because she knew that something dreadful had happened to Jysella to make her act this way, Yaqeel reached out with the Force, caught her, and lowered her gently to the pavement.

The GA converged on Jysella like a swarm of insects. Yaqeel glanced back at Barv and was relieved to see that he was on his feet, although he was clearly in pain. He nodded to her and she nodded back, turning toward the guards who had cl.u.s.tered around Jysella.

It would have made for an odd picture, had one not known that Jysella was a Jedi Knight: seven heavily armed officers cl.u.s.tered around one slight human female, their blasters still pointed at her as one of their own quickly bent over the limp form, retrieved her lightsaber, and began to pat her down for any other weapons. One of them snapped restraining devices on her slender wrists.

This was bad. The GA had already gotten their hands on one Jedi who appeared to have gone berserk. They sure didn't need another to encase in carbonite and hang on a wall like some sick trophy or credential. If only Yaqeel and Barv had been able to bring her in.

A thought struck Yaqeel, and she smiled a little to herself. Deactivating her lightsaber and returning it to her belt, she strode briskly up to the nearest GA officer.

”Good work,” she said. She extended her thoughts, brushed those of the Quarren male who was speaking into a small handheld device. ”A smooth capture. I'm sure your superiors will agree that the Jedi belongs in the Temple. I'll take charge of the prisoner from here.”

The Quarren's tentacles twitched in irritation, and even before he spoke Yaqeel knew she'd picked the wrong target. ”Not likely, Jedi. Take your mind tricks elsewhere and step back before I have you arrested for interfering with the prisoner's arrest. She was taken down by the GA and will go to them for evaluation.”

”You're going to just stick her in carbonite!” Yaqeel burst out, her fur rippling in anger. ”She's a Jedi, and the Temple's right here!”

The tentacles twitched, this time obviously in amus.e.m.e.nt. ”Too bad you didn't bring her down a few meters from here then, isn't it? This is not your jurisdiction, Jedi.”

He almost spat the word. Yaqeel seethed, but the Quarren was right. Legally, the GA had authorization here. The fight with Jysella had taken only a couple of minutes, although it had felt like an eternity, and now she watched as several Jedi, lightsabers glowing, poured from the Temple only to halt in their tracks, as helpless as she. She turned away from the sight of their shocked expressions to watch, impotent and furious and heartsick, as one of her best friends was trussed up and bustled quickly into a vehicle.

The door slammed shut.

Stang.

Accepting, if not liking, the fact that she could do nothing for Jysella now, Yaqeel turned and trotted back to Barv. Some of the other Jedi had already reached him, and Cilghal herself had put a flippered hand on the Ramoan's shoulder and was gently guiding him back to the Temple. No one was going to stop this particular Jedi from receiving Jedi medical aid.

Barv allowed that he had certainly felt better, but had complete confidence in Cilghal's abilities to heal him-and, eventually, to heal Valin and Jysella.

Cilghal caught Yaqeel's attention and sighed. ”I saw it happen, right before my eyes,” she said quietly. ”We'll be debriefing both you and Bazel here. Come back with me to the Temple. We'll take care of Bazel, and then we will talk.”

Yaqeel nodded miserably. Her ears twitched at a sound and she turned to see a multipa.s.senger speeder, distinctively marked with the seal of the Galactic Alliance, pull up right beside the cl.u.s.ter of officials.

”Just when I thought it couldn't get worse,” she growled.

TEMPLE DISTRICT, CORUSCANT.

THE SPEEDER DOOR SLID OPEN, AND AN ATTRACTIVE OLDER HUMAN female stepped out. Her crisp white admiral's uniform molded to a figure that was still fit and toned. Green eyes took in the situation at once, keen as lasers in a face framed by copper-colored hair only beginning to gray, and as Admiral Natasi Daala, Galactic Alliance Chief of State, moved a.s.suredly forward, Yaqeel's heart sank.

A 3PO protocol droid followed her and addressed the crowd that was beginning to quiet down now at the presence of GA Security. All were curious as to what their Chief of State had to say about this event. Yaqeel glanced over the crowd and frowned as she saw the reporter holding a small cam and speaking intently into it, then directing it toward Daala. She had hoped that the coverage of the event would have stopped with the destruction of the cam droid, but apparently the journalist had a backup.

”Your attention please, good citizens,” said the protocol droid in its pleasant, crisp voice. ”Chief of State Daala has a few words to address to you.”

The crowd murmured expectantly, then fell silent. The Jedi supporting Barv stayed where they were.

”This should be good,” Yaqeel muttered sarcastically. Cilghal silenced her with a pointed glare from a single eye.

Daala waited until her staff had set up a makes.h.i.+ft podium, complete with a microphone, then stepped forward. She did not speak immediately, only regarded the crowd intently.

”A short while ago, Valin Horn, Jedi Knight, appeared to go insane,” Daala said without preamble. Her voice was slightly husky, but pleasant to the ear. Still, Yaqeel winced at the choice of words. Daala obviously was not going to pull any punches.