Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 08_ Diversity Alliance - Kevin J. Anderson [36]
After a few minutes he prompted Raaba to continue her story where she had left off.
The feigned death had been a liberating experience for Raaba.
Once she had decided that her family would be better off thinking her dead than a failure, a giddy feeling had come 'over her. If she was truly
"dead," she had nothing left to lose. She could start over, become a new person.
She had pressed her supply pack against her stomach to stanch the flow of blood from the injuries the katarn had inflicted.
Then, knowing she would travel more easily without it, she left her pack behind as a decoy, in hopes that the bloodstained pack would draw away some of the voracious predators already on her trail. She concentrated only on climbing, climbing, increasing the distance between herself and danger. At the same time, she distanced herself mentally from her home, her friends, everything she had known.
Now, as they climbed the open framework of the rickety tower, Raaba looked over to check the graft bandage covering Lowie's injury from the combat arachnids.
Perhaps, Lowie thought, it reminded her of the wound that--as far as her loved ones knew--had cost her her life....
Finally, during that long nighttime ordeal, weak from loss of blood, Raaba had made her way to the hangar platforms on the outskirts of the Wookiee tree city and stowed away on a Talz freighter.
The Talz first mate who found her, tended her wounds, and listened to her story, told Raaba that he knew of someone who could help her in her plight. He had been as good as his word.
The furry white pilot and first mate had taken her directly to Nolaa Tarkona and invited her to join their burgeoning new political movement, the Diversity Alliance.
Lowie absorbed the name of Nolaa Tarkona with great interest. It seemed that the charismatic leaders name came up in conversation more and more frequently, yet he knew little about the Twi'lek woman.
The two Wookiees finally reached the - top of the tower and perched themselves comfortably on the creaking metal latticework, letting their feet dangle. Lowie relaxed into the sense of peace and safety he always felt when he was up high, as high as the tops of the wroshyr trees on Kashyyyk.
His ribs still stung, but he ignored the pain.
Raaba touched Lowie's arm and pointed to a feathered. avian that swooped and dove around the tower, snatching irides cent flying insects from the air. Then she continued with her story.
The compassionate, visionary Twi'lek woman, Nolaa Tarkona, had frightened Raaba at first. Her lone twitching head-tail and stern features intimidated the young Wookiee. But Nolaa had asked nothing of her and had seen to it that Raaba had the best of medical attention.
When Raaba was fully recovered, the Twi'lek had offered her a place to stay, a ship of her own, intensive pilot training, and a job flying for the Diversity Alliance and helping to spread the word about the idealistic new movement. The opportunity was everything Raaba had hoped for, and she gratefully accepted. She came to admire Nolaa Tarkona, to identify with her fiery enthusiasm, her single-minded pursuit of her goals.
Day by day Raaba learned more about the atrocities that humans, whether in service to an empire or a republic, inflicted on the alien species of the galaxy all alien species. As Lowie listened uneasily, Raaba described many examples of the torture or enslavement of aliens by humans. She explained how Nolaa Tarkona believed that by banding together, the nonhuman races could put a stop to such practices and protect themselves.
In their unity, in their diversity, lay their strength against the oppressors.
Nodding his shaggy head, Lowie agreed that it did sound like a worthy cause, to help the many downtrodden species recover from the damage inflicted by the prejudiced. and evil Emperor. He and his friends, Jacen, Jaina, and Tenel Ka had often