Corellian Pledge-Ch.8- Pt.1

Ch.8: Rogue's Gambit- Pt.-1</b>

Terell glanced at Lana when her fingers stumbled over the next few chords.  He covered her sudden fumble and took up the cue that she missed for the next lyrics.

Lana recovered herself enough to pick up the harmony.  Only the band members knew about the change in singers as Terell finished the song.

The audience applauded and cheered when the band started right into their next tune. Playing up their part Keirdan, Terell, Bailen and Freya continued their performance with their normal flare.  Lana on the other hand did not, she purposely messed up the next cord to gain Terell’s attention.  He glanced at her while in mid verse and was only mildly concerned until she trained a desperate look at him.

He caught the dread in her eyes.  They darted from him to the hovering holographic emitter and back again and he understood her silent cue to leave.  His automatic reaction to this set off a chain of events that threw Stilmon’s tavern into total chaos.  Terell cued the others that they were leaving with a sharp rift on his instrument and a short added third verse to the song they were performing.

With a mere thought, he accessed the Force and then looked at the sphere hovering just in front of the stage and switched on the sequence for it’s hologram.  Under the cover of effects smoke and strobe lighting, provided by the holographic emitter, the five band members slipped off the stage.  No one noticed the switch to the band’s holographic replacements.  Rogue’s Gambit’s own singing voices trailed behind them with a new song as the band headed straight to the hidden room and disappeared behind the false wall.

Lana hurried to pick up her pack and swung it on her back, then turned and scooped up her hooded Guardian on the bed.  Creature squawked unhappily trying to shake off his hood, but Lana did not remove it as she turned to her team.

“Only take what you can carry on your back, leave the rest behind, it’s not important.”

“Not important?”  Freya echoed, surprised at her friend’s fearful command.

Lana met her hard gaze, “You heard me, instruments can be replaced, but you can’t.”

Sensing her fearful emotions, Freya immediately questioned, “Who did you see out there?”   

Terell picked up the empath’s pack and tossed it off to her, while backing up Lana’s command, “You all heard her, we leave in five minutes.”

Freya followed the Masters brothers into the other room to gather what she could.

Keirdan was the first to be ready outside of Lana and Terell.  He turned to his brother with a casual comment.  “Well this should make Stilmon happy at least he gets to keep his ship.”  

“Yeah and Maybs will get off his back,” Bailen agreed.  

He waited until Keirdan left the room and then pulled Freya aside with an urgent warning.  “You let me take point down in the tunnels, okay?”

“We’re not taking the tunnels Bailen,” she told him.  Then with a reassuring kiss she explained, “Our ride is here.”

Bailen breathed a little easier after he heard this.  There was no point in worrying her if they weren’t taking the tunnels.  He placed the small munitions remote he was going to give her back in his pocket.   
                                                      ____________

Luke had felt the call on the Force and knew exactly who had used it, though the why was, as yet, unknown to him.  He applauded along with the tavern patrons when the song ended and a new one started up.  He enjoyed listening to the band on stage, without the slightest clue that what he and everyone else was hearing and seeing now was a very convincing holographic display.  

Elsewhere on the tavern floor, someone else also felt the pull on the Force.  Something inside Gavin snapped awake.  A long dormant command sprang to life in his mind and he jumped up, pulling out a small hidden blaster from his boot.

Quint looked on stunned when his second suddenly appeared to have turned into someone that he didn’t know.  He reacted, trying to pull the weapon away from his man as Gavin pointed at the lead male singing on stage.  Quint pulled Gavin’s aim off Terell, still the once Mandalorian Hunter got off two shots that ricocheted off the back wall.  One of the rebounding blaster fire came back out through the chest of Lana’s hologram and still she sang on.  

Luke straightened instantly, looking around the crowed tavern floor for the real band members when he realized that they weren’t actually on the stage.

Panic had quickly ensued after the first blaster shot.  The tavern patrons screamed and tried to scramble out of Gavin’s way when he gave an enraged cry, tossed Quint aside and reamed on what he thought was Terell.  Shots rang out once again and more terrified screams of panic erupted.  In the confusion Luke was pulled behind the bar by Stilmon.

“Keep your head down son!” he barked.

“That’s a hologram of them on stage,” Luke explained.  

“Resourceful little devils, I didn’t know they had that,” Stilmon admitted, breathing fast.  He smiled impressed and mildly disappointed.  “They could have at least told me about it.”    

“Where are they?”

“Backstage most likely.  They’re a little jumpy, something must have spooked them,” Stilmon guessed.  

“They obviously felt that someone might give them away.”

Stilmon shot an angry look at Luke and gruffly declared, “No one in my place knew who they were outside of me and my wife.”

He peered over the bar’s edge to search for his wife when he heard her scream out his name.

Patrons were running everywhere, some even jumped behind the bar for cover.  Smoke made it difficult to locate anyone outside of who was directly in front of the bar.  The blaster shots had started a fire and sprinklers were spraying water down on the fleeing crowd, causing some to slip and fall.  More screams, people were being trampled in the panic.  

In the blink of an eye this simple pick up had gotten way out of hand.

Luke pulled out his saber as the Constable jumped behind the bar next to him.  Quint backed abruptly away from the Jedi when he ignited his saber and stood.  The sprinklers had ceased their spraying, clearing some of the smoke.  Luke pulled Stilmon back and swung his green blade down in time to deflect an on coming blaster shot.

“Keep your head down!” he warned, then he jumped and landed with a small splash on the other side of the bar, to go deal with the apparent mad man.

“Stilmon, where are you?! ”  Maybs frantically shouted from somewhere amid the chaos.

The tavern owner turned to his silver protocol droid with a sharp command.  “Philks, find Maybs and protect!”

The old droid went stiff while parts of his metal body transformed.  His yellow photoreceptors turned bright red.  One arm retracted and was replaced with a built-in blaster.  The sides of both the droid’s thighs expanded to reveal still more weapons.

“I’m definitely reporting this to the Magistrate, Quint!!”  Stilmon shouted over the noise.  He grabbed a weapon from under the bar and followed after his droid, using him as cover while he looked for his wife.

Luke was fully occupied with Gavin who was now on the stage firing point blank at the holographic Terell.  The officer didn’t seem to notice or care that the man he was shooting at wasn’t real, he just kept firing, with a manic expression ablaze in his eyes.  His shots ricocheted off in every direction hitting some patrons as they tried to flee.  A rebounding shot finally hit the holographic emitter, which ended it’s program as it fell to the tavern floor.  Luke tried to protect as many patrons as he could and then finally reached his hand out towards Gavin and pulled the weapon from the mad man with the Force.
                                                         ________

Freya fell to her knees in the hidden room, after a strong wave of dizziness hit her.  Bailen helped her up with concern but she shrugged off the dizzy spell and went out to join the others while he gathered the rest of his things.
                                                         ________

Gavin spun around glaring at Luke.  He pulled out another weapon and pointed it at the Jedi, who tore that one from his hand as well.  With a growl of frustration he went after Luke with his bare hands shouting a curse.

“Go to hell, you damn Jedi! ”

Luke moved back and easily dodged out of the way of the deranged man.

Gavin picked up a chair to try and hit him with it.  With a swift swing of the lightsaber, the chair was cleaved in two.  Gavin dropped one half and continued after Luke with the other half.  

A single look in his mad eyes told the Jedi that there would be no stopping this man.  Gavin had simply snapped and now Luke was his new target.  He raised his hand and lifted the mad man into the air.  The officer dropped his would be weapon and struggled in vain to free himself.

“Set me down you bastard! ”

Few people, most injured to some degree, were still inside the tavern.  They were the only ones to witness the Jedi’s display of the Force.  Still they weren’t the only ones to know he was there.  Luke’s mystical presences was felt by others with far worse intentions for him than killing him.  His use of the Force set the Emperor’s hand picked Mandelorian Hunters into action.  And woke others, like Gavin, within the city up from their dormant state.
                                                          ________

Solaren abruptly sat up in his ship.  He swiftly pinpointed the location of the spike in the Force on his holographic display of the city and called to his lead men over his comm.

“Keller, Oji, Kaimon, I have a blip on our target.  I need a visual at Taver’s Tavern for conformation.”

“I was just in there not that long ago and I didn’t see anything.”

Solaren glared at the ship’s comm.  “Oji, you idiot, Skywalker must have walked right by you and you missed him.  Wake up boy and use your senses.  This Jedi is strong,”  He took in a deep breath as though sensing the power of Luke’s unique Force signature, “Go back to the tavern.  I’ll meet you there.  Kaimon, there’s a tunnel system under the tavern, you take that way with your men incase our Jedi decides to use it and Keller you and your men take the alleyways.  We’ll meet in the middle and box Skywalker in, Solaren out.”  

The thrill of the hunt was on at last, no more false leads to tempt him and his men.  No more misleading disruptions in the Force to confuse them, no more ransacking unsuspecting hotels, for the wrong prey.  They had not found the rebel’s that the Emperor had said would be here.  Still fortune had smiled down on Solaren and granted him the Jedi’s arrival on Zirus Five at last.
The chase was on.
                                                           ________

“Who are you and who sent you?”  Luke questioned Gavin.

Stilmon was helping his wife up from the floor when she gasped and pointed at Luke.

“He’s a Jedi! </b>” she shouted.

In fresh panic she pulled desperately on her husband’s arm.  “We have to get out of here now, Stilmon!”

Quint finally emerged from behind the bar.  He reacted defensively when he saw his second being held in the air and pulled out his own hidden weapon, pointing it at Luke with a warning.

“Set him down, Owen or we’re going to have a problem.”

The distinct sound of a blaster being cocked behind his ear made Quint freeze.

“I don’t allow weapons in my place Constable,” growled Stilmon darkly.  “You’ve already done enough damage here.  Now drop it and help get the injured outside!”

Feeling responsible for the state of the tavern now, Quint didn’t argue, but did as he was told, while Luke interrogated his man.

Maybs helped the constable move the injured outside and then rushed back in to her husband to urgently try and pull him out.

“We have to leave, Stilmon. Now! ”

“You’ll get nothing from me, Jedi, except a swift death! ”  Gavin snarled fervently.

The tavern owner pointed his blaster at him and ended his life.  

Gavin’s lifeless body fell to the floor as Luke turned to Stilmon in surprise.  “You didn’t have to do that!”

Stilmon gave no explanation as Maybs tugged on his arm.

“You don’t have time, you’ve probably woken them all up with that little display.  I had my suspiscion about Gavin but I wasn’t--  It doesn’t matter anymore-- You have to get them out of here now before they get here.”  He waved Luke to follow him, “This way.”

Philks, still transformed, trailed after his human master, covering their retreat.
                                                       ________

Freya was sent through the trap door first.  She was feeling too distracted by the dizzying illness that had struck her again to ask questions.  Not wanting to let her friends down she tried to ignore the feeling.

“Keirdan, hurry up with that wall!  I don’t want anyone following us!” Lana barked over her shoulder as she disappeared through the trap door next.

“I’m almost done!”

Sparks flew out of the opened control panel on the wall as it was shorted out.  “That’s it, no one’s coming through this way,” Keirdan announced.

“Where is everybody?”  Bailen asked when he came out of the other room.

“No time to explain little bro,” Keirdan jumped up, grabbed his own pack and then ushered Bailen to the trap door and shoved him through it.  “Down you go.”

Bailen descended the ladder rapidly, sliding down instead of climbing, calling for Freya.  He landed on the ground with a desperate, “Where is she?”  

“She can see better than any of us in the dark, so I sent her on ahead,” said Lana, holding on tight to her struggling Guardian.

In the dark no one saw Bailen’s face go pale.  “She wasn’t feeling well,” he said and then took off like a shot into the darkened tunnel, heading as fast as his feet could carry him towards his new lover.   

“Bailen wait for Keirdan!”  Lana’s shout echoed after him.  But it was no use, the darkness had swallowed up the young man.  Creature struggled even harder to get free, to follow after him.  “Knock it off Creach!  I’ll take your hood off once we’re out of these tunnels.”

Keirdan landed next to Terell and then looked round for the missing members.  “Bailen and Freya taking point?”

“Just for now,” said Terell.  He looked skeptically down the darkened tunnel.  “You do remember the way I hope.”

Keirdan confidently took the lead.  “This way.”  

They could hear Bailen’s voice faintly echoing through the dark while he called after Freya.  The urgency in his voice gave the others reason for concern and they picked up their pace to catch up.

Bailen retraced his steps to the first door.  He fumbled through his pocket for the small remote and then breathed easier when he didn’t find Freya.  The explosives he had placed at the base of the door sat exactly as he had set them, at the ready.  Freya must have missed the door.  He hit the remote and stepped back several feet to wait for the safety sequence to complete itself.   

His pounding heart relaxed some as he tried to catch his breath.  Then he saw a petite body emerge from the small opening in the door.  Freya had gone the right way after all and was coming back to make sure that no one got lost.  She slipped through the narrow opening and then turned to open the door all the way for the others.

Bailen’s heart sank into his feet, the safety sequence was not finished.  He reacted instantly, shouting at Freya not to open the door.

She felt his total fear and looked up perplexed as he rushed forward and shoved her away from the door.

The explosion that rocked the tunnel knocked the rest of Rogue’s Gambit off their feet.  It was felt and heard by those above ground.  

A thick cloud of dust and debris rushed through the tunnel.  Terell and Keirdan both reacted at the same time.  They jumped to their feet, kicked open a nearby unassuming door, then grabbed Lana by her pack and threw her through it.  They then dove in after her.  Lana lost Creature when she hit the ground.  She went to get up but Keirdan pushed her back down and protectively covered her body with his own.  

He was struck in the back by the door after it was blown off its hinges by the reverberating shock wave.
                                                        ________

Luke steadied Stilmon when the ground shook as they stood outside the hidden room.  He exchanged a very worried look with the tavern owner, who instantly gave up on trying to open the wall.

The Jedi followed him without question.

“Stilmon, where are you going?!” Maybs demanded.  “You’ve done all you can for those people, now let’s get out of here before the Hunters come.”

Stilmon grabbed his wife and pulled her into another hidden passage that he hadn’t told her or the other’s about.  Luke followed and then stopped when the tavern owner did.  Stilmon pointed at a door while he turned to his wife.  “Maybs, go to the ship and wait there for me.  Philks will protect you.”

Maybs shook her head.  “I’m not leaving you behind.”

“You can’t come with us, now go to the ship.”

“No! ” she protested strongly.  “You don’t understand, they’re coming for them.”  She pointed at Luke, “and him too!”

Comprehension flashed in the old man’s eyes.  Without meaning to, he shook his wife as he guessed, “You told Quint about them.”

“It was Gavin -- after I heard what happened over at the Binary -- We’ve worked so hard for what we’ve got, I didn’t want to risk losing it or you, so I told him.  But I didn’t know he was one of them, I swear.”

“Do you know what you’ve done Maybs?!  How could you be so selfish?!” he shouted angrily,  “I gave my word to Ehker to keep them safe!”

“I was scared,” she sobbed.  “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head, “It’s too late for that now!”

He turned from her in total disappointment, trying to think on how to right his wife’s mistake.

Luke did not get involved, but his shared disappointment showed in his eyes.

Maybs’ sobs increased.  

Stilmon finally made a decision.  “We can’t stay here anymore,”  he said to himself.

He took a small spray out of his pocket, while he turned back to his wife and hit her in the face with a full blast.  He caught her as she succumbed to the knock out gas and then turned to his droid, “Philks -- command override alpha.”

The silver protocol unit snapped to attention and transformed back to his original state.  Stilmon then handed his unconscious wife off to the droid.  “Take her to the Maybel and wait for me there.  If any of the bandmembers of Rogue’s Gambit show up, you let them on board and protect them at all costs.”

“As you wish Master,” the droid said and then carried Maybs out the door.

“This way, Owen,” said Stilmon.  He hit a hidden remote in his pocket that started a countdown in his tavern.  “We only have a few minutes, before the tavern blows.”

With fresh determination he led the way into the neighboring building.

“It’s Luke,” the Jedi corrected.

Stilmon opened a secondary passageway and glanced at him.  “I didn’t think you looked like an Owen.”

Not too long after that, the tavern went up in smoke and fire.  
                                                        ________

Han stopped his pacing in the hanger and listened carefully.  He heard the explosion seconds before he felt the shock wave shake the ground.

Princess Leia met his worried gaze and shook her head, but it was too late.  She had seen it in his eyes, seconds before he pulled out his blaster -- he was going out to help Luke.

“Chewie, be ready!”  Was all he shouted over his shoulder, before he rushed up the stairs to the main boulevard.

The Wookiee barked from the cockpit after him, but it was in vain, Solo didn’t hear his warning.

“Han, wait! ”  Leia went running after him.  “Luke said not to leave the hanger!”

“I don’t care what junior said, we’re not leaving him behind!”  Han exclaimed as she caught up to him.
                                                         ________
  
Terell coughed and lifted his hands off his dust covered head.  He glanced around and saw nothing in the dark.  He reached out for his friends in the darkness and found Creature’s still form.

“Lana?  Keirdan?  Talk to me! ” he called, picking up the animal’s limp body.

“I’m alright,” answered Lana faintly.  “But Keirdan’s been knocked out and I lost Creature.”  

“I’ve got him, I think he’s okay,” Terell told her, though he wasn’t sure.

Lana tried to move Keirdan’s still body off her but couldn’t.  “There’s something heavy on top of us, I-- I can’t move it.”

“Hold tight,” Terell said, setting Creature down.  He pulled his pack off to search blindly through it for a light.  He found one and illuminated the side room they were all in.  Then he hastened to help his friends and pulled the heavy door off the pair.  Lana slipped out from under Keirdan and hugged Terell.

For the most part, she was relatively unharmed by the explosion.  She, like Terell, suffered only a few minor cuts and bruises.

Everyone's ears were ringing though.  Lana went over and scooped Creature up in her arms, unsure if he was alive or dead.  Her brief panic subsided when she realized that he was still breathing.  Her decision to keep him hooded, not only protected his eyes, but also saved his life.

“What happened?” Keirdan groggily asked as he came back around.  His senses were shocked back into sharp focus when he saw the debris on the floor.  He looked at Lana with deep concern, when she kneeled next to him.  “Are you hurt?”

“Just shaken,” she assured him.

Keirdan then jumped up and went back into the tunnel to call out to his brother.  He got no answer and walked forward, then stepped on something made of plastic.  He bent down and picked up the partially melted remains of a remote casing.

Dread filled Keirdan when he recognized his brother’s munitions remote.

He took the light from Terell when he and Lana joined him.  The damage to the tunnel was dimly revealed by the light.  In a flash of recognition everybody knew a horrible truth, Bailen had set up a precautionary munitions and someone set them off.  Keirdan’s blood ran cold.  He tore down the tunnel shouting out his brother’s name.  His panic only increased when he got no answer.

Terell and Lana went running after him, equally scared of the possibility of what they might find at the end.

Their fears were realized when they saw Keirdan fall to his knees crying out in agony.  Terell and Lana rushed up next to him and saw only Bailen’s arm hanging out from under some rocks.  Lana handed Creature off to Terell and immediately started pulling the rocks away from the teenager’s broken body as she begged him to answer her.

Keirdan helped, though he knew it was useless. . . his brother was dead.

Terell laid Creature down next to the wall a short distance away and returned to help his friends.  It took the three of them to lift the final rock from Bailen’s body.  The full reality of his grizzly injury was revealed and took them all off guard.  Lana gasped in horror and covered her mouth as Terell jumped back in surprise.  Keirdan’s mournful cry echoed off the walls.  

The peaceful expression on Bailen’s lifeless face showed that he didn’t suffer.  His death was instant.

Keirdan took his jacket off and covered his brother’s gaping chest injury.  Tears freely spilled out of his eyes as he pulled Bailen out of the tunnel wreckage.  Keirdan closed his brother’s lifeless eyes, kissed his forehead and rocked his body as if he was only sleeping.

“It’s happening, Terell.”  Lana backed into him, her body shaking uncontrollably, as shocked terror gripped her.  “My dream, it’s coming true.  We have to get out of here before he finds us.”

Terell looked around for Freya, calling to her, when he didn’t see her.  He turned to Lana with a sharp question, that jarred her from her shocked state.  “Is she still alive?!”

Lana called out mentally to her friend and got a faint response back.  She pulled away from Terell and he followed her to a spot where she started pulling rocks aside.

“She’s under here Terell, quick!”

The two cleared the debris off their friend and pulled her out from under two huge pieces of tunnel which had miraculously landed over her like a tent, protectively keeping her from serious harm.  Freya was stunned, blood was trickling from her ears.  In the tunnel dimness it went unnoticed.

Terell carried her back to where Keirdan was.  She dazedly glanced around at the ruins and then fell unconscious again.  Lana leaned down next to Keirdan and touched his shoulder.

“We have to leave,” she told him with regrettable urgency.

“I promised Mom I’d bring him home,” he choked back softly.

This tore into Lana’s heart and tightened her throat.  She swallowed her heartache and vowed, “We’ll take him home.”

He nodded and stood with his brother then looked up at the tunnel ceiling when another blast rocked the ground.  Dust rained down on them moments before part of the ceiling started caving in on them.  Keirdan instantly dropped Bailen’s legs down and shoved Lana as hard as he could back towards Terell, who grabbed her arm and pulled her away to the wall.

The Alderaanian leaned against her and Freya.  He covered their heads and waited until the cave-in stopped, before he let Lana go again.

Coughing, they shouted to Keirdan as the dirt settled.

Terell set Freya down, next to Creature and removed his pack to pull out another light.  He and Lana then began clearing rocks and debris away from Keirdan, who had answered their shouts.  As with Freya, a large piece of tunnel had fallen in just such a way to protect Keirdan’s head from injury.

The rest of him, however, wasn’t quite as fortunate.

They found Bailen’s body laying over his brothers as though, even in death, protecting him from harm.

Keirdan smiled faintly at them, then coughed and blood came out of his mouth.  “Looks like I’m not going to make this run after all.”

Neither Lana nor Terell smiled at his dry sense of humor.  He moaned and shook his head when they tried to pull him out.

“My Leg -- it’s stuck.”

Lana turned to Terell, with a desperate, “Can you lift it?”

“I’ll try.”  He stepped back and concentrated on the Force to move the heavy rock.  It shook and then rose only a little.  Lana grabbed Keirdan under his arms and pulled.  He refused to let go of his brother.  Lana pulled and tugged until she got the two brothers clear just in time.  Terell could not hold onto the Force and the heavy rock he raised settled down with a crushing sound.

Winded, Terell staggered up to Keirdan and Lana.

“You okay?” he questioned.

Keirdan thanked him in a ragged breath and then told him, “My body’s broken.”   

Terell understood the finality in his friend’s pained voice and took his offered hand in farewell.

“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” Lana protested.

Keirdan coughed up more blood and reminded her, “We’ve played this game before Lana.  You know better than any of us, that it’s cut your losses and run time.”

There was a split second where she wanted to argue the point, but Lana knew he was right.  It pained her to leave the two brothers, who were like her family, behind.  Still she wiped the blood from Keirdan’s mouth with her jacket sleeve and then kissed him in a strong goodbye.  Next she bent down and kissed Bailen’s forehead, then quickly stood.  Without looking back she fetched Creature and left, a piece of her heart dying as she climbed to the top of the debris.

Keirdan met Terell’s affected gaze.  “She’s the last of her familyline.  Don’t let anything happen to her.  Deliver the codes and take her back to Corellia.  And no matter what anybody says there, you marry her.”

Terell gripped his hand again in a strong hold and fervently promised, “I will.”

“Go,” Keirdan coughed, letting go of his best friend.

Terell went to retrieve Freya.  He hoisted her up, draping her over his shoulder and walked back to Keirdan, setting his backpack at the injured man’s side.  “There’s a weapon inside if you need it.”

Keirdan nodded, handed the light off to him and woefully watched his friends regretfully leave him and his fallen brother behind.  He held Bailen close in the dark and grief ran down his face.  “It’s my turn to follow you little brother,” he whispered into a lifeless ear.  Keirdan winced in pain. He felt the drain on his body and tightened his embrace on Bailen, then kissed his still warm forehead.  “I’ll be with you soon.”
                                                           ________

Lana was scanning, through misty eyes, in every direction on the top of the debris.  “I don’t know which way to go,” she said when Terell joined her.

“Well we can’t go that way, that other blast surely took out our exit,” said Terell.

Lana wiped her tears on her jacket sleeve, then took the light from him and pointed down the service tunnel.  “We go this way then and hope for the best.”  She led the way down the other side of the debris.
                                                         ________

Stilmon accessed the service tunnel from the far end of his neighbor’s abandoned shop.  Luke didn’t bother using the ladder, but chose instead to drop down beside him.  The Jedi reignited his saber for light and once again followed the older man.

They reached the cave-in, ten minutes after Terell and Lana had left.  Luke noticed Keirdan first and rushed to his side to see if he was still alive.  The Corellian’s eyes were closed and his breathing was very shallow.

Keirdan coughed and sluggishly opened his weakened eyelids.  Looking from the Jedi to Stilmon when they tried to remove his arms from his brother, he uttered a strained whisper, “I have to take him home.”

Stilmon checked his neck for a pulse when he drifted away, then sadly shook his head when he didn’t feel one.

“He’s not dead,” Luke said, feeling the soul still inhabiting Keirdan’s body.  “We might be able to help him if we can get him out of here.”

“There’s an access ladder over there,” Stilmon said, pointing down the wall a ways.  He grabbed Terell’s pack and slung it over his shoulder as he went to the ladder and began to climb.

With little concentration on his part, Luke, easily used the Force to levitate the two brother’s up after the tavern owner.

Faint footsteps echoed off the walls and grew louder in the darkness beyond Luke’s lightsaber.  Someone was hurriedly following after the two men.

Fearing the worst Stilmon called down to the Jedi.

“Hurry Luke, there’s not much time.  You have to get out of here!”

Stilmon went through the door in the floor and then turned and pulled Keirdan and Bailen aside.  He poked his head back through the opening and shouted back to Luke, who released his hold on the Force after gently setting the brothers down on the floor above.

“You might as well come out this way too, from the looks of the cave-in, there’s no telling which way the rest of them went.”

Shouts now echoed off the walls.  Whoever was coming was almost on the scene.

Luke extinguished his saber and, sensing a new danger, took a great leap upward.  The converging men just missed him in the shadows.  Some passed by the ladder while others stopped to climb after him.  Still others shot at the Jedi as he disappeared through the door above.

Stilmon shut and locked the trapdoor.  Luke reignited his saber and effectively melted the door seam together in a makeshift weld.

“Out of the way son,” Stilmon called and then the two pulled a heavy shelf over onto its side, covering the small access door.

“That should slow them down,” he sighed clapping Luke on the shoulder with a smile.  “All the same try not to use the Force if you can.”

“Who are those people?”  Luke questioned curiously.

Stilmon bent over Keirdan and explained, “Hunters, they can’t use the Force, but they can feel it--”  He paused while prying Keirdan’s arms back from Bailen.  Keirdan’s jacket fell away from his brother, revealing his fatal injuries.   

“Oh good Lord! ” Stilmon exclaimed when he saw the gaping hole in the boy’s chest.  He replaced the jacket over Bailen’s body at once, then wiped at the sudden tears in his eyes.

“I’m sorry Ehker,” he whispered with a sniff, then he shook his head.  “I can’t leave Keirdan here if there’s a chance for him.”

The Jedi nodded his understanding, when Stilmon turned to him.

“Find them, before the Hunter’s catch up to them. . . And Luke, you be careful.  The Alliance can’t afford to lose someone like you.”

Feeling for the old man, Luke extinguished his saber and assured him, “I’ll find them.”  Then he left the strangely empty building.
                                                          
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