Star Wars Jedi: The Haunting

Chapter 14

Cal was snapped out of his thoughts by Greez shouting his name.

"Yes, Greez?" he asked.

"We're about to land, Cal. I suggest you come and strap in."

Cal realized right then that he had been so lost in his thoughts that he had forgotten that they were moving planets. He walked into the cockpit of the Mantis, took a seat, and strapped himself in. As he sat there, he could sense the tornado of emotions raging inside of Merrin's head by him simply being nearby. Cal winced inwardly.

Greez gently descended into the planet's atmosphere and Cal thought he would take a moment to take in the sights of their new home. As he looked out of the window, he saw it was dark. It must be night-time right now on this planet. He couldn't really see anything properly. But at least it wasn't Tanalorr.

"Ah, it's dark," said Greez, sounding irritated. Of course he would be annoyed, Cal thought. It made his job harder. You couldn't land so well in the dark.

Greez turned up the headlight brightness and suddenly their surroundings became a lot clearer. They were flying over a large, flat plain of land.

"I suppose here is as good a spot as any to land," Greez said, and he landed the Mantis on the flat plain.

"It's dark here," Kata said, slowly.

"Indeed it is. I think it's night right now. But it was early morning when we left Tanalorr, so I'm not that tired."

Greez continued talking, but Cal never caught any of it, for he began to get lost in his thoughts once more.

"Cal?" asked Greez, startling him. "We've landed. You can unbuckle yourself now."

Cal undid his seatbelt and quickly got up. He walked into the backrooms of the Mantis.

"Cal, what are you doing?" Greez asked.

Without responding, Cal picked up the Tanalorr compass with the Force and crushed it into smithereens. After that, he scrolled through the audio files until he found Santari Khri's message. Without hesitation, he permanently deleted the message.

Just then, Greez arrived and saw the compass in smithereens on the floor.

"What did you do, Cal?" he asked.

"What I had to do," Cal replied. "I will not have that godforsaken planet in my consciousness any longer. It's been haunting me for years. I needed to destroy every trace of it. And now that I have done so, I have saved others from being haunted by the planet."

Merrin was shaking her head slowly while Greez just looked stunned.

"Well, do you feel better now, Cal?" Greez asked, whilst Merrin simply recoiled upon seeing the state of the compass on the floor.

"I feel better now," Cal said. But did he? Although he had never liked Tanalorr to begin with, he was far from healed. But he couldn't have Greez knowing that.

"He lies," Merrin interjected.

"What?" Greez asked.

"I can sense it. He has lied about a lot of things. I could sense his thoughts when you were landing the ship."

"Merrin, stop. You don't know what you're talking about. I didn't lie," Cal said.

"Cal, please, be quiet," Greez interjected. "I want to hear what Merrin has to say."

Merrin continued. "I sensed a lot of guilt in his head about things he had done to us."

"What? What did he do?" Greez asked.