Survivor: A Star Wars Story

Chapter XXII

Reina Tautaski

They were exposed.  

Now out of the tunnels, they had no choice but to approach Hannak on barren terrain, detailed only by the odd boulder, jutting up like waves caught mid-swell in time.  Reina exhaled, watching the air pale and curl from her mouth in the air as the desert night drew in, topaz rays dying on the sun's last breath.  

Hop dragged his wounded leg with him, doing his best to keep up but she could feel his pain.  It resonated powerfully, even with her mental shields up.  She would have marvelled at the fact he wasn't complaining, but worry overrode the awe.  He couldn't keep this up forever.  Additionally, she'd been carrying him for hours and her shoulders weren't letting her forget that fact.  She might have been in the best shape she'd ever been in, but the weight of a clone wasn't a light load either.  

The only light at the end of the tunnel was Cody and Falcon's status.  The battalion had found another way out safely, though it had taken them a significantly way out from Reina and Hop's route.  They'd been able to get a patchy transmission through and were now cautiously approaching Hannak from the back; planning to try and find a way in covertly.  How?  Reina wasn't sure.  But she had faith Cody would keep the men safe.  They were a long way out from them now, and it would take twice as long to go around the city to them as it would to try and meet them in the middle.  

Hop groaned miserably.

Their only problem was finding a way into the city.  And then finding a doctor.  Then convincing a doctor to help them.  And hiding the fact they were Republic; the list went on.

One problem at a time, she half-reminded, half-scolded herself, shoving the later problems to the back of her mind.  It was moments like this where she really wished Kenobi was there to give advice.

And so they trudged along, each footfall feeling like a thousand.  Somewhere along the trek, her mind disobediently began wandering.  Maybe it was the long, hot day taking its toll and the mental exhaustion of the last dozen or so hours, but her mind drifted from thought to thought with no particular aim.  The scarlet streaked sky glowed like embers against the black maw of night, it drawing in and slowly swallowing the sky - the scene dragging her mind back for no apparent reason to that last night on Zygerria, the last night she'd had before the slave auction... and her last night with Thea.  Perhaps it was the preceding conversation concerning the Twi'lek that caused her to linger on her mind, but a familiar regret gnawed at her hungrily.  Was it fair that she was walking here free, when the one who'd saved her so many times never got to taste it?  

She should have realised then that it was dangerous for her mind to dwell on these things.  It insisted though, Reina sinking back into her memories.  Too late, she felt that same tingle that she'd felt in the storm, before the cooling earth came rushing up to meet her.

*

Pat, pat, pat.

Bare, cut feet stumbled against the stone floor of the throne room, the child's form staggering under the weight of the massive vase.  It overbalanced the child, who desperately tried to remain upright, her stained white tunic pinching uncomfortably.  It was ragged at the skirt hem, strips of material dancing around her feet precariously.

The grandiose throne room was alive, crawling with men, women and children.  Upon an initial glance, little seemed out of the ordinary, until one noticed the guards watching over the lines of worker ants shuffling along sluggishly.  Despite the epic array of species gathered in the one room, they bore the same expressions, the same faces - skin sallow against the cruel sunlight beating through the stained glass of the high walls, the cold iridescent light imprinting colour into their otherwise glazed, sunken eyes.  They would carry things too beautiful and juxtaposed with their shrivelled appearances, their living skeletons clinging to bouquets of vivid flowers as if they had chosen them to be laid to rest with, dressed in the ghoulish remains of their shrouds.