Star Wars_ Legacy of the Force 04_ Exile - Aaron Allston [98]
WHY ARE YOU LEAVING THE GIRL BEHIND?
That caused Ben’s stomach to knot up again. “Because if she’s with us, we’ll go through our resources faster, like our food. And we might not get to where we need to go. Our mission is more important than her life.”
IS THE MISSION MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR LIFE, TOO?
Ben thought about it for fifty meters of travel. “Yes.”
THEN TELL ME YOUR MISSION SO THAT IF YOU FALTER I CAN ABANDON YOU AND COMPLETE IT.
Ben turned and round-kicked the astromech in its dome. Shaker squawked and fell over. But the bindings Ben had used to lash the big backpack in place did not loosen. “Shut up, you, you walking hot plate. If you didn’t have a few useful systems to go along with that malfunctioning droid brain of yours, I’d leave you, too.”
Shaker didn’t offer a response. It didn’t try to right itself.
Ben forced himself to calm down. He’d wait until he was sure he didn’t need the astromech anymore, then he’d crush it in a vise or throw it out an upper-story viewport.
No, that made no sense. It was valuable property. He could sell it for passage to another planet, if he could find someone willing to take him.
With a sigh, he righted the astromech, then continued walking.
An hour later, as they crossed a lightly forested ridgeline, Ben’s datapad beeped. But Shaker hadn’t made any noise indicating he was trying to communicate. Ben stopped and opened his datapad.
Images of his parents swam into focus on its diminutive screen. They were both smiling.
“Ben,” Mara said. “In case you hadn’t noticed—you’re fourteen!”
“Congratulations on another birthday,” Luke said. “So whatever torture your teachers, including me, had in store for you today—forget it. Report to me for some birthday credits, and the rest of the day is yours to enjoy.”
Their images faded to blackness.
Shaker came up behind Ben and waited with a droid’s patience.
Oddly, Ben felt as though there were nothing inside him, as if he had suddenly become a Ben-shaped balloon filled with gas. Gas could not think, and neither could he, for a long moment.
They had to have recorded this shortly before he started this mission.
“Hi, Mom,” he said. “Hi, Dad. For my fourteenth birthday, I killed a little girl.”
He sat down, his lower back resting against the astromech. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his knees.
And he began to cry.
Kiara stabbed at the ground with the knife. It was an eating utensil, not a vibroblade, and when it hit the ground, it made a ringing noise. Sometimes it scraped away a little of the ice-hard soil. Sometimes it didn’t. After more than an hour of digging, punctuated by fits of sobbing, she had dug a hole a little larger than her hand.
But she’d keep digging. Her father was dead, and she had to put him in the ground so the animals wouldn’t come and eat him.
Through the snowfall, she could see that there were booted feet in front of her. She looked up into the face of Ben Skywalker. The waddling astromech was entering the clearing from the far edge.
Ben didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then he took a look around. “I think,” he said, “we need to wrap him in one of the blankets, then pile rocks on top of him. That will keep the animals away.”
“They won’t eat him?”
“They won’t eat him. I’ll wrap him up and find the rocks. You put the other blanket around you and go sit with Shaker.”
Kiara did as she was told. Her tears didn’t stop flowing, but now she knew her father would be safe under the rocks.
chapter sixteen
CORUSCANT
The weeks after the military disaster at Corellia did not argue for a quick resolution to the conflict.