Convergence: Rise of the Eternal Empire

Nineteen

Karfeddion

The sprawling gardens, plantations, and cultivated forests that surrounded the House Vandron estate stretched for kilometer after kilometer over the flat landscape. There seemed to be no place for a would-be assassin to run or hide, but that clearly wasn't stopping the person on the speeder bike, because he was charging ahead as fast as he could, dipping his bike low to the ground, winding around trees and dancing over treetops, clearly frantic to escape his pursuers.

Jade counter herself lucky- and the assassin anything but- that Jodram Tainer had been the one to end up behind the controls of their speeder instead of her. They said he was the best air flier in the academy and right now she totally believed it. He was certainly reckless enough to hang on the assassin's every juke and jump and Jade did her best to cling onto Jodram in turn, and every other second she felt like she'd be wrenched away at any moment and sent flying into the nearest manicured garden.

She tried to calm herself, tried to drop into the Force and find some inner stability inside her like her father and masters always said she could, but she'd never been good at that even when she wasn't being tossed around at a hundred kilometers an hour.

The wind whipping past their faces was enough to drown out any sound, even the drone of their speeder-bikes, but she felt Jodram's presence in the Force, familiar for years now. He was telling her, Get ready and You'll have to take him. She picked her head off his back and looked over his shoulder: they were approaching an stretch of open land without any copses or buildings to hide around, which meant Jodram was planning on burning his engines to overload just to get them the extra kick to catch up with their target.

Of course, if said target chose the right moment to juke or junk or pull a U-turn, they'd blow out their engines and maybe get themselves killed for nothing.

Jade knew her father could done something else; maybe grabbed that bike in the Force and willed it to stop or at least not pull another crazy turn on them, but Ben Skywalker and the Warders were halfway across the galaxy attempting the second aunnnal N.A.T.O Gala and even part-time member Allana Solo was back with two old lords and that meant that it was up to two apprentices- not even full-blown Jedi Knights- to get this guy or die trying-

Stop thinking and get ready, Jodram told her.

Getting ready, she sent back, and she felt him shift against her and reach down and pull back the emergency throttle that normally controlled the power shunted to the engines to prevent and overload. Jade slipped one arm away from Jodram's waist and clutched the lightsaber at her belt. She saw him pull the lever, felt him send one last warning, then braced herself just before their speeder bike roared forward.

The bike ahead seemed to fall toward them, fall slowly but fall surely, and just when Jade thought Jodram was going to ram it head-on he twisted the control stick and their bike cut ahead of the target. Jade let go of Jodram and threw herself once again, this time right for the assassin. His head cocked sideways and before he could do a thing, Jade smashed into him shoulder-first. He was bigger than she was but she had surprise and momentum and they both went tumbling one way, their speeder the other.

They fell. She called on the Force, not for inner calm or aerobatic magic but just to arrest their fall and soften the blow. The grassy field beneath them came up fast and wouldn't slow.

They hit it hard, but the assassin took most of the impact. Jade rolled off him into the grass; their legs tangled and she kicked hers free.

She stood up, head spinning. She looked around for anything in the sky, but neither speeder bike was visible. She saw a plume of smoke rise in the distance and reached out in the Force.

I'm okay, Jodram sent, faintly. Did you get him?

Before she could send a response she saw a blaster come out of his hand. Her lightsaber sprung to life and she caught his fumbled shot easily; this was something she had down to instinct. The assassin got off one more blast before she lunged and swiped the barrel of his weapon clean off.

Pointing the tip of her violet lightsaber right at his helmet, she panted, "You're done. Now you'll tell us who you're working for."

The assassin held out both hands, pleading, but didn't speak. Jade called on the Force and wrenched off his helmet, revealing the face of a young human male: pale, flat, bland, forgettable, but the eyes were full of fear.

"I don't know what they tell you about Jedi here but I'm not going to hurt you," she said.

But the assassin wagged his head back and forth. He opened his mouth and creaked, "Get back."

"What?"

"Get back!" he shouted, and Jade heard a whine, and a click.

She pulled on panic and the Force. She tried the throw up a wall of energy in front of her, the kind her master had taught her to use, but it was too late. Fire and thunder ripped from the core of the assassin's armored chest and washed the world away.

Elsewhere. . .

The expose pod lands on the Eternal Swamps of Zakull. When Anastasia and Amras crawled out of the pod, the sensed that most within the New Alliance Transcendence Organization has begun the second N.A.T.O. Gala.

Anastasia: *[Uses the Force telekinetically collect a fraction of water to clean up herself up and dry herself]* Come my love, we shouldn't be late.

Author's Note: Next, the conclusion of Convergence: Rise of the Eternal Empire.