Dorn: A Star Wars Story

7. Hunter

Horran had his gun on Novaran, and before long so did the rest of my squad. "Stand down, Chiss," Horran snarled as the squad moved to form up around me.

"Answer the question, Major," Novaran's aim never wavered as he watched me.

"Sith? Do I look Force sensitive to you?" I asked him as I shook my head. "I can barely grab my cup of caf in the morning with my hand! Ever seen me use the karking Force?"

Novaran kept his eyes on me before they drifted to the pendant in my hand and he shook his head, "You're telling the truth, but so is whatever is attached to that thing." He lowered his blaster and Horran looked to me for a cue that I couldn't give him. "It calls you a disciple, a supplicant, and neither you nor I have any idea why, it seems."

"Yeah, no kidding!" I finally gestured for Horran and Shen squadron to lower their blasters and I shoved the pendant back into the box and picked it up. Either way, Venn had wanted this and now he couldn't have it. That was good enough for me. "What was that all about?"

"If you had been like me, it could have possessed you, and that was something I could not allow to happen, given the power this object clearly has," Novaran gestured at the strewn about droids. "Why Venn sought this object concerns me."

"Is it safe?"

"So long as it is kept in your care, it seems... oddly content." That seemed to trouble Novaran somewhat.

The static of our comms made us all jump as Farthen's voice finally broke through, "Uh, Vengeant? You might want to high-tail it out of their ASAP. We have X-Wings inbound and Robin found a reading from that listening post saying that it's rigged to blow!"

"Of course it is..." I heard Rook sigh behind me as we all began to reverse our way out of that post as quickly as possible.

By the time our boots hit the deck, we were gone and the X-Wing seemed to have jumped out of space right when we jumped into it. A success, all in all, but as I sat there holding that box in my office, I couldn't help but wonder exactly what was so important about something as small and innocuous as a pendant. Whatever it was had that Rebel terrified, however. If the state of the droids we had found was any indication, then whatever was in that thing could do a lot of pretty hefty damage.

I opened the box and held the small pendant in my hand. It looked like a small capsule incasing something, but what, I didn't know and didn't quite want to guess. The more I looked at it, the more those itching whispers spoke to the back of my mind, almost like it was trying to see how much I could hear it. It spoke in a language I couldn't understand when a word or two did slip through, and it wasn't until someone cleared their throat that I finally snapped out of whatever strange trance I was in and found myself looking up to see Nyra standing there in my doorway.

"You alright, Major?"

""Yeah. Sorry, Captain. How long were you...?"

"Long enough," she walked in and sat down across from me, her eyes going warily to our prize before she shook her head. "I don't like this, Major. Sith stuff is bad news."

"No kidding," I put the pendant back in the box and closed the lid, and as I did, the whispers ceased. "Need something, Captain?"

"Just checking up on you. We've all been a bit twitchy with the box and everything," she sat back and watched me as I slid the box into the lockbox beneath my desk. "What are we telling the Director?"

"Whatever he wants to hear."

"Major! Get out here!" I heard Robin shout from the comm room and Nyra and I bolted out to find what warranted such a ruckus.