Purge (Star Wars)

Diverging Paths

The next day, Ilyana wakes with a start and knows exactly what they need to do. She dresses quickly and heads up to the common area. The others are preparing for the day when she hurries into the room.

"Greez, set a course for Tholoth," she says, interrupting what he was chattering about while preparing the morning meal.

"What?" Greez asks.

"Now!" She barks and he gives her an insulted look at the affront of being given an order on his ship and by her of all people.

"Cal," she says, turning away from the Greez who is making it all too clear from his stance that he is refusing to comply and addresses Cal with equal intensity, "We need to move now or you'll lose the last lead as well."

"Wait," Cal says, raising his hands to slow her down, "Tell me what's going on?"

"I'm a fool!" she rebukes herself, "In the past, when a Seeker is lost, their leads are put back into the queue to be assigned later. I'm so used to it that it didn't occur to me that it would be different this time, but I wasn't lost. I didn't die. The leads left with me. They must have reassigned them immediately. We have to get there now."

"That Jedi had been dead for a while," Cal says disheartedly, trying not to think about the days they had stayed on Savareen waiting for the boy to return "We may already be too late."

"And they're obviously using those leads to hunt you down, Ilyana," Cere adds. "They were waiting for you on Lah'mu. This could be another trap."

Ilyana turns away out of frustration but knows Cere is right. This is a trap. If they go, it will put the whole crew at risk. She's already lost two Jedi on her watch; she can't bear losing another.

"You're right, Cere. It's not worth it." Ilyana concedes with a sigh.

"What is the next lead?" asks Merrin who had been watching quietly from a seat in the corner.

Ilyana turns to her, "A Tholoth girl, maybe five or six, suspected of being force sensitive."

"A kid?" Cal asks quietly, running his hand through his hair. He knows all too well how frightening it is to be a kid running from the Empire and doesn't want to think of the things the Inquisitors would do to her. He steps toward the holotable and leans on the edge, looking at the blue display in the center as if weighing a heavy decision.

For the first time since coming into the room, Ilyana realizes there is a planet being displayed on the holomap. Cal, Cere and Merrin must have been discussing it when she had come in but she had been so caught up in the urgency of her own thoughts she had not noticed it.

"What's going on?" she asks, looking between the three of them. Cal stands up straight again and looks at Cere.

"I heard from one of my contacts," says Cere, "A city on Abednedo is under siege by the Empire. There has been an increase in uprisings on the planet and the Empire intends to destroy the city to send a message."

"Why is it under siege?" Ilyana asks, "They can easily destroy it from space?"

"That's comforting," Greez throws at her from the galley, yet another reminder that he still sees her as an Imperial.

"While cities on Abednedo are built on the surface today, the ancient cities are underground and easily accessible to the people on the surface," Cere explains. "The people can hide there till an orbital bombardment is over. The city on the surface would be destroyed but the people would survive."

"And the Empire wants to destroy the people," Ilyana says, finishing the thought.

"Yeah," Cal confirms with a nod. "They've been under siege for a full rotation and have managed to evacuate many of the people, but they need help holding the Empire at bay till they can get the last of them out."