Weapon of the Empire. (Tarik's Tale)
Chapter Six, part six.
Imperial times- Yavin 4
Mina Ryan, the rebel girl Tarik had fallen in love with a year before, now ran from console to console, trying to find out her assignment. The unexpected appearance of some freelance smuggler�s ship, carrying the missing princess from Alderaan and the much-needed plans for the empire�s new super-weapon had put the base in a frenzy.
Of course, those plans would be null if the report of the super-weapon itself approaching were true. She stopped an officer she knew, finally finding out that she was supposed to be down in the hangar.
A blue-eyed kid only a few years younger than herself nearly ran into her near the prep room.
"Watch it," she said, ducking past the wide-eyed newcomer.
"Sorry, um, i�m supposed to be getting a flight suit," he stammered, slightly embarrased. "I�m a pilot," he said, half-grinning with enthusiasm.
She smiled, "Over there," she said, pointing toward another rebel officer, "He�ll get you a suit and get you a fighter designation." He nodded, hopping off toward the officer.
Mina shook her head, another head-in-the-clouds rookie fresh off the moisture farm who thought he was going to save the galaxy.
Well, maybe they�d get lucky and he would actually do it. The fates knew they could use a hero right now, even an awestruck green pilot from who-knows-where who was more likely to get blasted in his first five minutes up.
"Hey Chance," she said, snagging one of the pilots she knew.
"Yeah?" he said, stopping.
"Who�s the runt with the blue eyes and the desert tan?" she asked, nodding toward where he�d faded in with the other pilots by now.
"The new kid? he came in with the princess. Name�s Luke something, I didn�t catch his name too well," Chance said, shrugging. "He�s supposed to be good, but that�s compared to the usual Womp-rat blasting farm-boys from the rim. Ask the other sand rat if he knows him, Biggs Darklighter, he�s over in red group I think, with Wedge."
Mina nodded, "Thanks," she said as Chance walked off toward the green group fighters.
A warning klaxon sounded through the hangar, Mina didn�t have time to find any of the red group pilots as the order to battlestations was called.
She caught a glimpse of a roguish pilot loading up to high-tail it out of the base before the Empire got here. She shrugged, hurrying off to her own station as the pilots climbed into their fighters for the battle. Time to see if her luck held. Would they win the day, or would they all end up as molten debris like Alderaan?
She shuddered, at least Tarik was safe on Dantooine, the empire would never look there for anything. She started to miss the scaly green creature, then snapped away from her reverie as another warning sounded.
No time to worry now, Tarik�s man in black and his army were on their way, flying in a battle-station the size of a small moon. She almost wished he'd killed Vader during their encounter in the detention center.
Poor Tarik was probably someplace happy in the woods, not realizing what was happening to the rest of the galaxy. She shoved the last of her musings away as the X-wing fighters began lifting off and moving toward the jungle outside. If they survived, she�d be the first one running for the transports.
The wierd buzzing in her ears returned as she leaned her head against the cool stone wall. She should never volunteered for survey duty her first week here. Something about the temple she�d found just wasn�t...... right.
Something felt odd in a lot of the pyramids and temples, but that one was worse
somehow. She shook it off, focusing on unpacking charge cells for blasters, just in case they survived
long enough for a ground battle. She idly wondered if Tarik was doing all right wherever he was, and
what he was doing.
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(Coruscant)
Tarik growled uncertainly, still unhappy being in a cage, but no longer as despondent as before. The hovering platform he�d been loaded onto floated along the nearly empty corridor under the control of only two stormtroopers. Dr. Nick followed close behind, obviously unsettled and a little frightened of where they were going.
The hallways were more opulent than anything Tarik had ever seen, but he didn�t care at the moment. The only thing that he cared about was the fact he was still in a cage, a little box of metal and wire that kept him locked up.
The very symbol of his life of torment before his escape from the lab had now once again become his prision. He paced anxiously, unable to stand up in the cage, and unwilling to sit down.
They finally arrived at a huge set of double doors, leading into the antechamber of the throne room.
"Wait here, The emperor is busy," the troopers said, both leaving the room after settling the floating sled to a stop. Tarik whined, all his life he�d lived in the shadows of the buildings here, but he�d never seen this one.
Days had passed since their arrival, with quarrantine oficers and inspectors and scientists of all sorts poking at Tarik to make sure he wasn�t infected with anything lethal or contagious. He almost wished he had been carrying some virulent illness that would decimate the stormtrooper population.
Nick patted the mesh on the side of his cage, trying to reassure him. Tarik snorted at him, knowing Nick was more frightened than he was. He could feel something strange inside the big room beyond. It was like a big gray blob on the edge of his perceptions.
He didn�t dare try to feel futher than that though, something warned him that doing that kind of thing was dangerous here. After a year on his own, he�d learned something about himself and about his unusual abilities. The biggest thing he�d done so far was just the big jumping, and the unsettling quickness that frightened the natives when he used it near them.
Tarik growled softly to himself again, pacing his cage. He still refused to speak to them, but he�d stopped living in a stupor finally. Seeing his past replayed in his mind while he�d been near-catatonic had woken him up to the fact that he could never be what he�d been trying to be.
He wasn�t human, and he wasn�t a freak, he was something these people had made as a weapon, to kill someone. Like the metal planet he�d seen in his dream, he thought, orange eyes surveying the room nervously.
Their metal planet had been blown into tiny bits a few days ago by the rebels, just like Tarik and Noryyce had seen. The boy from his dreams had done it, and Mina had been there, just like he�d seen.
That confirmation had been what Tarik really needed to break himself out of his self-piteous shocked stupor, reawakening himself to what was happening. Nick seemed to barely notice Tarik had changed, not realizing how deep the change had been.
Tarik watched the strange men in the red armor at the end of the room next to the doors with cautious curiosity. They looked and acted like statues, but Tarik could smell that they were unsure of what to do about Tarik.
He raked his claws along the metal mesh of the cage expreimentally. He smiled inwardly at the uneasy shifting in the one on the left�s stance. The metallic screech coupled with the rumors floating around about Tarik were enough to unnerve even the best-trained soldier.
Tarik 'stretched' a little, feeling the guard immediately tighten up motionless again at the mental brush. He sat down in the cage, snorting and flicking his tongue. So, they could feel him too. That might be useful, though he couldn�t do too much with that fact now.
The other guard shifted strangely, as if someone had spoken to him. He looked at the other, then nodded. They moved to open the double doors, opening them both inward toward the darkened room beyond.
A short, human form stood revealed as the doors opened, cloaked in black and walking
with the assistance of a cane. The guards looked surprised as he entered the room, not expecting him to
be this close to the doors. Nick shifted uneasily, swallowing hard as the figure in black entered the
room.
-----------End Chapter 6--------
© 2000 Michelle Petrosky