Star Wars Jedi Knight IV: Sith Empire

Chapter 26: Crash

"Jan is dead; anger is all I have left. Anger and revenge."

―Kyle Katarn

Ben woke up to the sound of heavy irregular static from an incoming comm transmission and a pounding head with incessant pounding ringing that came as an unpleasant reminder from when his head had impacted with the console of the Falcon. The stench of ozone and smoldering circuit boards burned in his nose and eyes as he struggled to gain clarity of what had just happened.

He clutched his pounding head with a wince while recalling the moments just before the crash and regretted following everyone else in their haste and not fastening their crash webbing. His body had been thrown against the central control console in the crash, but it seemed he had it the best of everyone there.

Han had been launched from the pilot's seat and was wedged between the bulkhead and the control yoke. Tenel Ka was halfway under the pilot's seat in a pool of blood that could only be hers, and his father was strewn half under the copilot's seat.

The young Skywalker pulled himself out of the copilot's seat with a grunt of pain, and stood shakily. Of the all the other crash victims, the Queen Mother looked the worst off. Ben got on his knees and dragged her out from underneath Han's chair, leaving a streak of blood on the deck. She was unnervingly pale.

Ben grabbed her wrist and felt for a pulse. Not feeling one, he felt for her jugular underneath her jawbone. Nothing. Tenel Ka was dead.

"Spast," Ben cursed to himself.

A long moan came from Han as he lifted his head off from against the bulkhead to behold the good meter of soil pressed against the transparisteel viewscreen, and a narrow view of a red-orange sky visible above that.

"Someone shut that alarm up," He said, as he smacked the control console with his palm several times and missing the damage control system each time.

It was then Ben actually heard the comm transmission coming in.

"...Admiral Nek Bwua'tu aboard the Admiral Ackbar. To any and all survivors, respond to this transmission and we will send a rescue team to your location. This message will repeat..."

The message continued to repeat itself. Luke crawled out from beneath the copilot's seat, wincing. He was banged up but alive. Gingerly he pulled himself into the copilot's seat and disabled the damage alarm, then reached over to the comm board and keyed in a frequency.

"Falcon to the Admiral Ackbar, this is Luke Skywalker. We've been downed almost a hundred klicks west of the Fountain Palace. Please respond, over."

After a few moments, Bwua'tu responded in his deep growly voice. "Master Skywalker, good to hear your voice. We are sending a shuttle down to your location. Please stand by."

***

Luke didn't think the situation could have gotten any worse. But it had. While Ben and Han were working with some of the crew to use the Ackbar's tractor beams to bring the Falcon aboard, he and Bwua'tu were comparing notes.

"Wait, why would there be an attempt on Dorvan's life?" Luke puzzled, walking down a bright corridor of the flagship with the Alliance admiral.

"Honestly we don't know," Bwua'tu replied. "The public used to be strongly in favor of his administration after Admiral Daala was ousted. Recently however, his approval numbers have been slumping and many people are starting to seem...irrational."

"Irrational?" Luke asked, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach. "Like Jedi psychosis irrational?"

"Perhaps not quite, but close." The Bothan said, the slightest change in his tone revealing concern in the career military man. "People protest raids on secret Sith facilities, and happily vote in people who are either sympathetic to the Sith or are unabashedly and openly Sith. I fear the vacuum the Jedi left on Coruscant is being filled, Master Skywalker."