Eclipse, Monday Night Fandom Time
No one had made any formal distinctions, but there were effectively three separate groups of Jedi assembled in the crater room on Eclipse Station: Uncle Luke and Aunt Mara with Han, Lando, and the older Jedi, a faction of younger Jedi that included Jacen and Jaina along with several of their friends, and Anakin's group. Tahiri was there, of course, along with the rest of the young Jedi who tended to go along with his plans more readily. Alema Rar was one of them, and she kept making it her business to stick as close to Anakin as possible.
He found this uncomfortable. Tahiri, on the other hand, saw it as an outright affront and stuck even closer to him as a result. Anakin didn't mind that, though; just before the meeting they'd gotten word that another friend of his and Tahiri's from their Academy days had fallen victim to a voxyn attack, and that the last anyone had heard of Corran Horn, he and his wife Mirax had been trying to escape a pack of the creatures.
Cilghal looked exhausted as she spoke up, apologizing for taking so long to come to any useful conclusions. It would have been tempting for Anakin to blame her, to say that if she'd worked faster they wouldn't be mourning one more friend today, but he wasn't going to do that to her for anything.
"My friends, I discovered something very interesting in that last voxyn retrieved by Ulaha and Eryl," Cilghal said, and glanced toward where they stood among Anakin's group. "In its stomach was a full-grown ysalamiri, and in the ysalamiri's stomach were several olbio leaves."
"So these things eat ysalamiri? Is that what you're telling us?" asked Raynar, looking dubious. Anakin didn't blame him for his skepticism, if he thought this was the extent of the news she had for them; with their ability to create Force-negating "bubbles" around themselves, ysalamiri were not well-loved by the Jedi.
"No. Cilghal's telling us where to find the queen." That was Jacen. "You ran a metals study on the leaves?"
"A perfect match," Cilghal confirmed. "The leaves came from Myrkr."
Myrkr, a planet with a high metal content that wreaked havoc on long-distance sensor readings, and the world where one could find both the ysalamiri and the predatory vornskrs whose ability to sense the Force had been incorporated into the hybrid voxyn. It wasn't possible to walk into a bigger Jedi trap, especially as far behind enemy lines as the planet lay. Lando's whistle and Han's muttered curses echoed the collective wince that came from the Jedi in the room.
All of the evidence Cilghal laid out for them was conclusive: if they wanted to find the voxyn queen, they were definitely going to go to Myrkr to do it. It wasn't exactly good news.
Clearly, a large-scale attack was out of the question.
"We sneak a small strike team in the back way," Zekk suggested. Anakin would have volunteered to lead it right that second if his father hadn't interrupted.
"Not unless you're better at it than Wraith Squadron. They've been trying to penetrate the frontier between Corellia and Vortex for six months. The Yuuzhan Vong have dovin basal interdictors everywhere; the Wraiths were pulled out of every hyperspace lane they tried. And the stretch between the Perlemian Trade Route and the Hydian Way was especially bad; they were jumped this side of the frontier."
"Now we know why," Luke added. "The Yuuzhan Vong suspect we will discover this secret, and they're prepared for us to take action."
It was Tahiri who spoke up next. "I think they're counting on it," she said, surprisingly confident despite being the youngest person in the room, but after her captivity at their hands she was starting to develop a reputation as a bit of an expert on the Yuuzhan Vong. "They have a saying: 'Let the enemy fight.' I don't think they're trying to be fair."
"You are very right, Tahiri," cut in Alema, who only got another glare from Tahiri for it. "On New Plympto, the Yuuzhan Vong always tried to anticipate our response and build a trap around it. You can be sure they're looking for us now."
"Then we have to fool them." The idea in Anakin's head was still forming as he spoke. "The Yuuzhan Vong want us to surrender, right? So we do - and let them ferry us across the frontier."
"Go on," Luke encouraged. "We're listening."
"It'll buy time for Talfaglio, too," added Anakin, who still got the sense that his group was just being humored as the resident bunch of kids.
"That would be a plus," Luke answered. "How do we do this?"
"You don't. We do," Anakin replied. He noticed his father starting to move toward him, only to be held back by Lando, and went on in a hurry. "We'll have a traitor turn us over to the Yuuzhan Vong on the pretext of buying time for the Talfaglion hostages. We'll set up a transfer for somewhere near Obroa-skai, let them cross the frontier, then take over the ship and fly to Myrkr. Jaina? I know Wedge, um, General Antilles, has let you fly a couple of captured Yuuzhan Vong vessels. Can you teach Zekk?"
"Why would I need to?" demanded Jaina, eyeing him suspiciously. "You're not doing something that crazy without me."
"But you're only on temporary leave," Anakin protested. "The Rogues could call you back anytime."
"Sure they could." Jaina had a look on her face that Anakin knew all too well, and it meant he had no chance of talking her down. "If you go, I go."
There wasn't even a nanosecond's pause for Anakin to reply before Tahiri spoke up. "Me too."
"You?" Anakin knew this was beyond risky, and the last thing he wanted was to drag her into it. "You're too -'"
"If you say young, I'll kick you where you really don't want to be kicked," Tahiri warned him, looking about as stubborn as Jaina. "Nobody here knows the Yuuzhan Vong from the inside like I do. Can anyone else, except you, maybe, be sure they'd know a shaper laboratory? Can anyone else understand the language?"
"Good point. We'll need her help to run the ship."
So Jaina was backing Tahiri on this? Anakin scowled at her and demanded, "Can you fly a Yuuzhan Vong ship or not? If Wedge just had you put on the cognition hood or something --"
"I've flown, and so has Tahiri, unless you've forgotten." No, he hadn't, but he still wasn't sure what Jaina was getting at. "Most of the piloting stuff is symbolic, but who knows about the rest? There's more to this than flying."
"And what happens when they start hailing us? You'll need to know what they're saying -- and how to answer." Tahiri looked at Anakin as if to say I know you don't have a comeback for that one, then turned a questioning look on the rest of the room.
No one said a word for five incredibly long seconds.
When that interminable silence was broken, it was broken by Han. "What are you waiting for, Luke? Tell him why this isn't going to work!"
"Why don't you tell me, Dad?" snapped Anakin, who'd about had it with being opposed on things -- first Jaina back in Fandom insisting he didn't have to be here, then the one here and Tahiri a few minutes ago, and now this.
"All right, I will. It won't work because . . ." His father trailed off, half incoherent and just as angry. "Because you can't be certain you'll escape."
'It'll be fine, we'll figure it out' isn't a great philosophy when you're at war, Anakin, the older Jaina had said, and he knew he hadn't shaken that reputation yet, so he willed himself to remain as calm as possible before he responded. "Actually, I think I can -- at least reasonably certain. I went behind Yuuzhan Vong lines to rescue Tahiri, and I have this." He tapped the hilt of the lightsaber hanging from his belt; the lambent crystal inside gave him a certain fuzzy sense of the Yuuzhan Vong, which was more than any other Jedi could manage with the Force. "But most of all, I know how they think."
Tahiri really had no intention of letting him do this alone. "We know how they think."
"You know how they think?" repeated an incredulous Han. "They aren't going to be thinking thud bugs at you! And I'll give you another reason. You can't do it because it's crazy." Leia tried to pull him back, and he shook her off. "Because you're not going, that's why."
It went on like this for a while, everyone arguing about why he shouldn't go, as if it shouldn't ultimately be his decision whether to risk his life or not, until finally Luke spoke. "It feels right, Anakin, but I'll lead the strike team. You stay here."
Was everyone conspiring to keep him out of the fight? Anakin's throat was tight with the sense of betrayal and if he'd been just a few months younger, he might have turned and stormed out of the room right then. He couldn't, though; if he did, an entire faction of Jedi would follow his lead again, and they couldn't afford to be more fractured.
"Master Skywalker," interjected Tenel Ka, stepping forward, "forgive me for speaking so candidly, but have you lost your mind?"
A ripple of awkward laughter passed through the room, and Luke asked, "I don't think so, why?"
"Because you must know that Anakin's plan would never work for you. It depends on the Yuuzhan Vong taking us for granted, and that would never happen with any Jedi Master. Even if they did not kill you on the spot, they would take every precaution to render you helpless."
Ganner Rhysode volunteered, but no one seemed willing to join him, and finally Jacen ventured, "Maybe none of us should be going."
Anakin glowered at him. "Jacen, this is no time to stand around debating good and evil," he argued, noting that Jaina hadn't liked that suggestion any more than he had. "Either we kill those things, or those things kill the Jedi."
"And if we destroy the queen, the Yuuzhan Vong will retaliate against New Republic citizens even more severely. Do we want that on our heads?"
That set everyone off again into a chaotic frenzy of shouting that upset Ben so much he wouldn't stop crying, and kept going until Luke actually projected the Force equivalent of Shut the kriff up into everyone's heads.
"It comes down to a simple question," he said in the embarrassed, awkward silence that followed. "How do we fight a brutal, evil enemy without growing brutal and evil ourselves? I wish I had the answer, but the Force has refused to guide me in this -- as it has all of you, I think." No one argued with that; in fact, several people nodded. "What has grown clear to me is that the time has come for us to choose one path. I assume there is no one among us who believes we should actually surrender to the Yuuzhan Vong?"
Again, no one argued.
"As I thought," Luke went on. "So, do we destroy the voxyn and risk more retaliation? Or do we accept our losses in the hope that doing so will save the New Republic many more lives than it costs us?"
It wasn't a vote, but everyone did get a chance to voice an opinion on their course of action; it was very evenly split, with possibly a very tiny edge going to those in favor of hunting down the voxyn queen, and Anakin dared to hope Luke's decision would go in his favor. Then --
"Han?"
Anakin's gut turned to ice. As vehemently as his father had opposed his suggestion from the start, he wasn't going to change his mind now.
"Okay, give me a minute," Han said, and closed his eyes with a visible attempt to calm himself.
"Dad, just do what you think is right," Anakin heard himself say, and it hit him that as much as Chewbacca's death had driven them apart, his father -- like the other Jaina -- wouldn't be arguing this passionately against him going if he didn't care. He moved across the circle and stopped within an arm's length.
"I didn't need to hear that," Han told him, opening his eyes. He twitched his hands upward as if he'd been about to put them on Anakin's shoulders, then thought better of it and put one hand on his arm instead. "I really didn't. You don't have to do this, you know."
"I know," replied Anakin, who'd heard the exact same thing from Jaina before leaving Fandom; he looked past his father to see his mother staring in uncharacteristic surprise. "But I'm going to."
"Kids." Han turned and gave Leia a grin that matched Anakin's. "What can you do?"
"We'll do what we can to protect the innocent," Luke decided; Han's support must have swayed him. "But we will be sending a strike team to Myrkr."
Anakin felt like he could've yelled in relief, but that feeling was short-lived when Jacen stepped forward and looked at him. "Then let me be the first to volunteer."
"You?" repeated Anakin in disbelief. Jacen might as well have hit him in the face with a chair for all he'd expected this. "But you're against it!"
"That doesn't matter. Nobody is as good with animals as I am. If you have to track down the queen or something, you're going to need me," Jacen argued.
When Jaina spoke up, conversely, it was utterly unsurprising. "When he's right, he's right, Little Brother. And I believe we've already agreed that I'm coming."
"Like I had a choice?" Anakin asked with a shaky laugh, trying very hard not to notice how stricken both his parents looked. "Anyone who wants to volunteer, see me later."
He thought of the older Jaina, took a breath, and added, ". . . after we've put together some kind of plan."
There, see? he thought. I'm not rushing in completely unprepared. I listened to you for once, okay?
[OOC: NFB/NFI/OOC-okay oh god here we go. D: Adapted from apsodiufa;lskjfa;s Star by Star by Troy "All The Pain" Denning, TBC. DAMN YOU, DENNING.]
He found this uncomfortable. Tahiri, on the other hand, saw it as an outright affront and stuck even closer to him as a result. Anakin didn't mind that, though; just before the meeting they'd gotten word that another friend of his and Tahiri's from their Academy days had fallen victim to a voxyn attack, and that the last anyone had heard of Corran Horn, he and his wife Mirax had been trying to escape a pack of the creatures.
Cilghal looked exhausted as she spoke up, apologizing for taking so long to come to any useful conclusions. It would have been tempting for Anakin to blame her, to say that if she'd worked faster they wouldn't be mourning one more friend today, but he wasn't going to do that to her for anything.
"My friends, I discovered something very interesting in that last voxyn retrieved by Ulaha and Eryl," Cilghal said, and glanced toward where they stood among Anakin's group. "In its stomach was a full-grown ysalamiri, and in the ysalamiri's stomach were several olbio leaves."
"So these things eat ysalamiri? Is that what you're telling us?" asked Raynar, looking dubious. Anakin didn't blame him for his skepticism, if he thought this was the extent of the news she had for them; with their ability to create Force-negating "bubbles" around themselves, ysalamiri were not well-loved by the Jedi.
"No. Cilghal's telling us where to find the queen." That was Jacen. "You ran a metals study on the leaves?"
"A perfect match," Cilghal confirmed. "The leaves came from Myrkr."
Myrkr, a planet with a high metal content that wreaked havoc on long-distance sensor readings, and the world where one could find both the ysalamiri and the predatory vornskrs whose ability to sense the Force had been incorporated into the hybrid voxyn. It wasn't possible to walk into a bigger Jedi trap, especially as far behind enemy lines as the planet lay. Lando's whistle and Han's muttered curses echoed the collective wince that came from the Jedi in the room.
All of the evidence Cilghal laid out for them was conclusive: if they wanted to find the voxyn queen, they were definitely going to go to Myrkr to do it. It wasn't exactly good news.
Clearly, a large-scale attack was out of the question.
"We sneak a small strike team in the back way," Zekk suggested. Anakin would have volunteered to lead it right that second if his father hadn't interrupted.
"Not unless you're better at it than Wraith Squadron. They've been trying to penetrate the frontier between Corellia and Vortex for six months. The Yuuzhan Vong have dovin basal interdictors everywhere; the Wraiths were pulled out of every hyperspace lane they tried. And the stretch between the Perlemian Trade Route and the Hydian Way was especially bad; they were jumped this side of the frontier."
"Now we know why," Luke added. "The Yuuzhan Vong suspect we will discover this secret, and they're prepared for us to take action."
It was Tahiri who spoke up next. "I think they're counting on it," she said, surprisingly confident despite being the youngest person in the room, but after her captivity at their hands she was starting to develop a reputation as a bit of an expert on the Yuuzhan Vong. "They have a saying: 'Let the enemy fight.' I don't think they're trying to be fair."
"You are very right, Tahiri," cut in Alema, who only got another glare from Tahiri for it. "On New Plympto, the Yuuzhan Vong always tried to anticipate our response and build a trap around it. You can be sure they're looking for us now."
"Then we have to fool them." The idea in Anakin's head was still forming as he spoke. "The Yuuzhan Vong want us to surrender, right? So we do - and let them ferry us across the frontier."
"Go on," Luke encouraged. "We're listening."
"It'll buy time for Talfaglio, too," added Anakin, who still got the sense that his group was just being humored as the resident bunch of kids.
"That would be a plus," Luke answered. "How do we do this?"
"You don't. We do," Anakin replied. He noticed his father starting to move toward him, only to be held back by Lando, and went on in a hurry. "We'll have a traitor turn us over to the Yuuzhan Vong on the pretext of buying time for the Talfaglion hostages. We'll set up a transfer for somewhere near Obroa-skai, let them cross the frontier, then take over the ship and fly to Myrkr. Jaina? I know Wedge, um, General Antilles, has let you fly a couple of captured Yuuzhan Vong vessels. Can you teach Zekk?"
"Why would I need to?" demanded Jaina, eyeing him suspiciously. "You're not doing something that crazy without me."
"But you're only on temporary leave," Anakin protested. "The Rogues could call you back anytime."
"Sure they could." Jaina had a look on her face that Anakin knew all too well, and it meant he had no chance of talking her down. "If you go, I go."
There wasn't even a nanosecond's pause for Anakin to reply before Tahiri spoke up. "Me too."
"You?" Anakin knew this was beyond risky, and the last thing he wanted was to drag her into it. "You're too -'"
"If you say young, I'll kick you where you really don't want to be kicked," Tahiri warned him, looking about as stubborn as Jaina. "Nobody here knows the Yuuzhan Vong from the inside like I do. Can anyone else, except you, maybe, be sure they'd know a shaper laboratory? Can anyone else understand the language?"
"Good point. We'll need her help to run the ship."
So Jaina was backing Tahiri on this? Anakin scowled at her and demanded, "Can you fly a Yuuzhan Vong ship or not? If Wedge just had you put on the cognition hood or something --"
"I've flown, and so has Tahiri, unless you've forgotten." No, he hadn't, but he still wasn't sure what Jaina was getting at. "Most of the piloting stuff is symbolic, but who knows about the rest? There's more to this than flying."
"And what happens when they start hailing us? You'll need to know what they're saying -- and how to answer." Tahiri looked at Anakin as if to say I know you don't have a comeback for that one, then turned a questioning look on the rest of the room.
No one said a word for five incredibly long seconds.
When that interminable silence was broken, it was broken by Han. "What are you waiting for, Luke? Tell him why this isn't going to work!"
"Why don't you tell me, Dad?" snapped Anakin, who'd about had it with being opposed on things -- first Jaina back in Fandom insisting he didn't have to be here, then the one here and Tahiri a few minutes ago, and now this.
"All right, I will. It won't work because . . ." His father trailed off, half incoherent and just as angry. "Because you can't be certain you'll escape."
'It'll be fine, we'll figure it out' isn't a great philosophy when you're at war, Anakin, the older Jaina had said, and he knew he hadn't shaken that reputation yet, so he willed himself to remain as calm as possible before he responded. "Actually, I think I can -- at least reasonably certain. I went behind Yuuzhan Vong lines to rescue Tahiri, and I have this." He tapped the hilt of the lightsaber hanging from his belt; the lambent crystal inside gave him a certain fuzzy sense of the Yuuzhan Vong, which was more than any other Jedi could manage with the Force. "But most of all, I know how they think."
Tahiri really had no intention of letting him do this alone. "We know how they think."
"You know how they think?" repeated an incredulous Han. "They aren't going to be thinking thud bugs at you! And I'll give you another reason. You can't do it because it's crazy." Leia tried to pull him back, and he shook her off. "Because you're not going, that's why."
It went on like this for a while, everyone arguing about why he shouldn't go, as if it shouldn't ultimately be his decision whether to risk his life or not, until finally Luke spoke. "It feels right, Anakin, but I'll lead the strike team. You stay here."
Was everyone conspiring to keep him out of the fight? Anakin's throat was tight with the sense of betrayal and if he'd been just a few months younger, he might have turned and stormed out of the room right then. He couldn't, though; if he did, an entire faction of Jedi would follow his lead again, and they couldn't afford to be more fractured.
"Master Skywalker," interjected Tenel Ka, stepping forward, "forgive me for speaking so candidly, but have you lost your mind?"
A ripple of awkward laughter passed through the room, and Luke asked, "I don't think so, why?"
"Because you must know that Anakin's plan would never work for you. It depends on the Yuuzhan Vong taking us for granted, and that would never happen with any Jedi Master. Even if they did not kill you on the spot, they would take every precaution to render you helpless."
Ganner Rhysode volunteered, but no one seemed willing to join him, and finally Jacen ventured, "Maybe none of us should be going."
Anakin glowered at him. "Jacen, this is no time to stand around debating good and evil," he argued, noting that Jaina hadn't liked that suggestion any more than he had. "Either we kill those things, or those things kill the Jedi."
"And if we destroy the queen, the Yuuzhan Vong will retaliate against New Republic citizens even more severely. Do we want that on our heads?"
That set everyone off again into a chaotic frenzy of shouting that upset Ben so much he wouldn't stop crying, and kept going until Luke actually projected the Force equivalent of Shut the kriff up into everyone's heads.
"It comes down to a simple question," he said in the embarrassed, awkward silence that followed. "How do we fight a brutal, evil enemy without growing brutal and evil ourselves? I wish I had the answer, but the Force has refused to guide me in this -- as it has all of you, I think." No one argued with that; in fact, several people nodded. "What has grown clear to me is that the time has come for us to choose one path. I assume there is no one among us who believes we should actually surrender to the Yuuzhan Vong?"
Again, no one argued.
"As I thought," Luke went on. "So, do we destroy the voxyn and risk more retaliation? Or do we accept our losses in the hope that doing so will save the New Republic many more lives than it costs us?"
It wasn't a vote, but everyone did get a chance to voice an opinion on their course of action; it was very evenly split, with possibly a very tiny edge going to those in favor of hunting down the voxyn queen, and Anakin dared to hope Luke's decision would go in his favor. Then --
"Han?"
Anakin's gut turned to ice. As vehemently as his father had opposed his suggestion from the start, he wasn't going to change his mind now.
"Okay, give me a minute," Han said, and closed his eyes with a visible attempt to calm himself.
"Dad, just do what you think is right," Anakin heard himself say, and it hit him that as much as Chewbacca's death had driven them apart, his father -- like the other Jaina -- wouldn't be arguing this passionately against him going if he didn't care. He moved across the circle and stopped within an arm's length.
"I didn't need to hear that," Han told him, opening his eyes. He twitched his hands upward as if he'd been about to put them on Anakin's shoulders, then thought better of it and put one hand on his arm instead. "I really didn't. You don't have to do this, you know."
"I know," replied Anakin, who'd heard the exact same thing from Jaina before leaving Fandom; he looked past his father to see his mother staring in uncharacteristic surprise. "But I'm going to."
"Kids." Han turned and gave Leia a grin that matched Anakin's. "What can you do?"
"We'll do what we can to protect the innocent," Luke decided; Han's support must have swayed him. "But we will be sending a strike team to Myrkr."
Anakin felt like he could've yelled in relief, but that feeling was short-lived when Jacen stepped forward and looked at him. "Then let me be the first to volunteer."
"You?" repeated Anakin in disbelief. Jacen might as well have hit him in the face with a chair for all he'd expected this. "But you're against it!"
"That doesn't matter. Nobody is as good with animals as I am. If you have to track down the queen or something, you're going to need me," Jacen argued.
When Jaina spoke up, conversely, it was utterly unsurprising. "When he's right, he's right, Little Brother. And I believe we've already agreed that I'm coming."
"Like I had a choice?" Anakin asked with a shaky laugh, trying very hard not to notice how stricken both his parents looked. "Anyone who wants to volunteer, see me later."
He thought of the older Jaina, took a breath, and added, ". . . after we've put together some kind of plan."
There, see? he thought. I'm not rushing in completely unprepared. I listened to you for once, okay?
[OOC: NFB/NFI/OOC-okay oh god here we go. D: Adapted from apsodiufa;lskjfa;s Star by Star by Troy "All The Pain" Denning, TBC. DAMN YOU, DENNING.]