Shatterpoint (звёздные войны)

by Matthew Stover

  ""Answer me!" Mace roared. With a convulsive snarl, he threw his lightsaber on the ground at the Korun's feet. Faster than the eye could follow, his hand flashed out, his thumb hooking the Korun's cheek while his fingers dug in behind the hinge of the man's jaw. He yanked the Korun's face to within a centimeter of his own, and there was open raging madness in his eyes.

  "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" The Korun's mouth worked in speechless shock. Mace howled into his face, "YOU WANT TO DIE? YOU WANT TO DIE RIGHT NOW? MAKE A MOVE! DO IT! DO IT AND DIE!" The astonished Korun could only blink and mumble and try to shake his head. Mace released the man's face with a contemptuous shove that sent the guard stumbling backward.

  Mace opened his empty hand, and his lightsaber flipped up from the ground and smacked into his palm. He tucked it back into the holster inside his vest.

  "Never get in my way." His voice was again icily calm. "Ever." He turned his eye to the pair of akk dogs, who were up and growling like looming thunderheads, spines bristling across their armored shoulders.

  Mace stared at them.

  First one, then the other, lowered its head and flattened those spines. Tails tucked low, the akk dogs backed away.

  Mace looked upslope, where Nick stood gaping in blank wonder. The captives huddled even closer together, none daring to make eye contact. Mace beckoned.

  By the time Nick and the grasser that carried the children arrived, the downed Akk Guard was stirring. But when he opened his eyes to find Mace still standing over him, he decided to stay on the ground.

  "Okay, I admit it," Nick said as they passed by the guards and the dogs. "That was pretty funny. And a little scary: I've never seen you angry before." "You still haven't," Mace said softly. "Remember those rules of the jungle I was talking about? You just saw one in action." "What rule was that?" "When the big dog's walking," said Jedi Master Mace Windu, "little dogs step aside." Icy rain splashed down through the canopy, and thunder rolled like turbojets of gunships passing overhead. Though the day had reached only midafternoon, the storm wrapped the jungle in late-twilight gloom. Mace walked a few paces behind Nick's bedraggled grasser.

  Raindrops tapped his skull, atid a chilly rivulet twisted along his spine. In places where the leaf mold gave way to bare ground, mud sucked at his boots with every step. Sometimes he sank in deeply enough that the mud leaked over his boot tops. Only by drawing strength from the Force could he keep moving.

  He could not imagine what the march must be like for the wounded prisoners.

  Every once in a while, a hunk or two of the hail that the thunder-head above spat down would bounce all the way through the layers of leaf and branch and vine and give someone a knock. By the time they reached ground level, most of these hailstones had melted down to about half the size of Mace's fist: too small to be dangerous, though still large enough to raise stinging welts on his head. The Balawai prisoners gathered ones that fell nearby, sucking on them to melt them in their mouths. With a bit of wiping, these hailstones made the cleanest source of water they were likely to find-they carried only the faintest sulfurous traces of volcanic smoke and gases.

  In the Force, Mace felt the hot fierce sting of an approaching akk dog; a moment later he felt a Force-nudge on his right shoulder blade. He reached up to tug on Nick's ankle. "Keep them going," he said, raising his voice over the hiss of the rain. "I'll be right back." A few steps off their line of march, a man's shadow began to take shape through the rain- blurred gloom. Mace walked toward it, weaving between trees and moving vines aside with a gesture, to find the bruised Akk Guard heading for him carrying one of the Balawai. Behind the guard, the great akk Mace had felt made a gray silhouette.

  "Fell out, this one. Think he's fevered, me." The guard set the Balawai on his feet. It was the wounded man with the missing hand. "Better keep someone with him, you." Mace nodded as he looped the man's good arm over his shoulders. "Thank you. I'll look after him." The Balawai gazed at him without recognition.

  The guard frowned down at them. "Gonna kill you for this, Kar is. Know that, you?" "I appreciate your concern." "No concern. Just tellm. That's all." "Thank you." The guard frowned a moment longer, then gave an elaborate shrug before he turned away and faded once more into the gloom.

  Mace thoughtfully watched him go. The two Akk Guards hadn't been hard to co-opt; while Nick wrangled the Balawai into something resembling marching order, Mace had worked his way back upslope to where one stood watching him, while the one he'd knocked down still sat on the ground massaging his broken nose.

  Mace squatted beside him. "How's your face?" he'd asked gravely.

  The guard's voice was half muffled by his hands. "Why care, you?" "It's no dishonor to lose to a Jedi," Mace had said. "Here, let me see." When the astonished Akk Guard took his hands away from his face, Mace put his hands to either side of the man's nose and popped the bones straight with one brisk twisting squeeze. The sudden sharp pain made the Korun gasp, but it was over so quickly he didn't even have time to yelp.

  After that he could only blink in wonder. "Hey-hey, feels better, that. How'd you-" "Sorry I lost my temper," Mace said, standing to include the other Akk Guard. "But I can't back down from a challenge. You understand." The two Korunnai exchanged a glance, and they both nodded reluctantly, as Mace had known they would: Vaster had trained them like dogs, and like dogs their only answer to the pat on the head that followed the kick was to wag their tails and hope they weren't in trouble anymore. "I think you're both solid," Mace went on. "Strong fighters. That's why I went at you so hard: respect. You're too dangerous for me to play games with." The Korun with the broken nose had said in a tone of generous concession, "Got a stone- sweet head-butt, you." He chuckled, crossing his eyes to look at the bloodied swelling between them. "Best I ever ate." Now the other Akk Guard could not resist chiming in. "And that grab on my face-was a Jedi thing, that? Never seen it before, me. Maybe teach me, you?" Mace had no more time for pleasantries. "Listen: I know taking the prisoners will cause trouble with Kar. And I know you'll be in trouble for letting them go with me. Why don't you stay with us? Bring your dogs. Keep the Balawai in line, and don't let any of them get lost. It's not like Kar won't know where we're going. I told him myself. And if you're along, he won't have any trouble finding us: you can feel each other in pelekotan. Right?" Again they had exchanged glances, and again they had nodded.

  "If Kar wants these prisoners, he can take them from me himself. How can he blame you for losing if he's afraid to step up?" To a dark-soaked Korun, this was undeniable logic.

  "Right," the bruised guard said happily. "Right. Thinks you're a tumblepup in vine cat skin, him? Let him yank your tail. Will find out quick enough, I think." And so Mace Windu had acquired a pair of Korun shepherds for his flock of Balawai.

  Mace had cemented Nick's assistance with a similar technique. As they were about to turn aside from the ULF column, Mace had stood thoughtfully alongside Nick's grasser. "Nick," he'd begun, "I'm going to need an aide." The young Korun had squinted suspiciously down from the saddle. "An aide? What for?" "Like you said when you picked me up in Pelek Baw: I'm not from around here. I need someone who can look after me, give me advice, that kind of thing-" "You want advice? Flush the fraggin' Balawai and shag your Jedi butt back up the column.

  Make some kissy-face with Kar and Depa before they chop you into sausage. Any other advice you want, feel free to ask." "That's what I'm doing." "Huh?" "I need someone who knows his way around out here. Someone I can trust." Nick snorted. "Good fraggin' luck. I wouldn't trust anyone out here-" "I don't," Mace told him. "Except you." "Me?" Nick shook his head. "You really have gone bats. Haven't you heard? I'm the least trustworthy guy in the ULF. I'm the weak coward, right? I'm the useless butter-brain who couldn't even get you out here from Pelek Baw without screwing it up-and now I'm screwing up again by playing along with this whole nikkle-nut Free-the-Ealawai parade-" "You're the only trustworthy man I've met on Haruun Kal," Mace had said solidly. "You're the only man I can trust to do the ri
ght thing." "Hoo-fraggin'-ray. Look where it's gotten me." "It's gotten you," Mace said, "a chance to join the personal staff of a general of the Grand Army of the Republic." "Yeah?" Nick began to look interested. "What's it pay?" "Nothing," Mace admitted, and Nick's face fell, but the Jedi Master went on, "Though when I leave this planet, I'll be taking my staff with me." Nick's eyes recovered a little spark.

  "With a brevet rank of, let's say, major? And once we get to Coruscant, I'll be needing staff instructors to train officers in guerrilla tactics. A few months as an urban- and jungle-warfare consultant affiliated with the Jedi Temple should make you pretty attractive to all those mercenary captains out there. You might even get your own company. Isn't that what you want?

  Or am I confusing you with some other Korun whose fondest dream is to travel the galaxy as a mercenary?" "You bet your sweet-I mean, No, sir. General. Major Rostu at the general's service. Sir.

  Uh-is there any kind of swearing-in, or anything?" "I hadn't really thought about it," Mace admitted. "I've never inducted anyone into the Grand Army of the Republic before." "I feel like I should raise my right hand or something." Mace nodded thoughtfully. "Put your left hand over your heart, raise your right and stand at attention." Nick did so. "This is-uh, y'know, I' feel kind of funny about this-" "It is not to be undertaken lightly. The Force stands witness to such oaths." "Sure enough." Nick swallowed. "Okay, I'm ready." "Do you solemnly swear to serve the Republic in thought, in word, and in deed; to defend its citizens, resist its enemies, and champion its justice with the whole of your heart, your strength, and your mind; to forswear all other allegiances; to obey all lawful orders of your superior officers; to uphold the highest ideals of the Republic, and at all times to conduct yourself to the credit of the Republic as its commissioned officer, by witness of, aid from, and faith in the Force?" Didn't sound bad at all, Mace thought.,' should probably write that down.

  Nick blinked silently. His eyes looked glassy, and he licked his lips.

  Mace leaned toward him. "Say I do, Nick." "I–I guess I do," he said in a tone of wondering discovery, as though he had just learned something astonishing about himself. "I mean: yes. I do." "Come to attention, and salute." Nick had snapped to in very creditable fashion, though he still looked a bit dazed. "Hey- hey, I feel something. In the Force-" His daze was replaced by open astonishment. "It's you." "A soldier at attention does not speak, except to answer direct questions. Is this understood?" "Yes, sir." "What you feel is our new relationship: it has a resonance in the Force not unlike the bond of an akk to its human." "So I'm your dog, now?" "Nick." "Right, right, shut up. I know. Uh-sir." "At ease, Major," Mace had said as he finally returned the young Korun's salute. "Move them out." Now as the departing Akk Guard disappeared into the rain, Mace carried the wounded Balawai back to the group of exhausted prisoners. He couldn't find anyone among them who even looked strong enough to support this man's weight over the jumbled tree roots and through the calf-deep mud, so he just shrugged and joined the march, holding the Balawai's arm around his neck.

  Heads down, shoulders hunched against the icy downpour, they slogged on.

  They broke out of the trees on a small promontory that ended in a sheer cliff. Jungle swarmed its base a hundred meters below. They had been sidestepping down a long switchback, heading for the canyon floor. Half a klick behind, a ribbon of waterfall steamed down a thousand-meter drop; the far canyon wall was a riot of greens and purples and bright shining red that eclipsed half the sky. The thunderstorm swept to their rear as Mace and Nick broke out from the trees, and in the near distance through the canyon's mouth ahead, only a klick away-glowing now with afternoon sun blazing red-slanted from a crystal sky-lay the broad bare-dirt curve of the steamcrawler track.

  Mace and Nick were both on foot. The feverish Balawai was tied into the grasser's saddle.

  "There it is," Nick said. His voice was low and grim. "Pretty, ain't it?" "Yes. Pretty." Mace stepped around the grasser. "Pity we didn't make it." Any Force-sensitive could have felt the menace that lay across their path; to Mace, it felt like an arc of forest fire ripping through the trees. He couldn't feel exactly what was down there, but he knew it was Vaster: whatever forces he had brought after them now sealed the mouth of the canyon.

  Nick nodded. He unslung his rifle, checked the clip, and cocked it. "Just couldn't move fast enough." He glanced back to where the Balawai were now struggling out to the fringe of the undergrowth. He shook his head. "Only needed an hour. That's all. One more hour, we woulda been clear." "What's going on?" The boys' father joined them near the rim of the cliff. "Is that the track?

  Why have we stopped?" The Akk Guard with the bruised face Came out of the trees; the six dogs and the other guard were fanned out behind the prisoners. He nodded toward the thick arc of danger that all but the grassers and the Balawai could feel ahead. "Hard luck, huh? Told you Kar would come, me." "Yes." Mace folded his arms. "It was too much to hope that he might let us go." He turned to the Akk Guard. "You can go to him, if you like." "Maybe will, us." The Korun had recovered some of his former swagger. His chest swelled out, and he looked down at Mace with an air of contempt that might have been convincing, if he hadn't been so careful to keep himself just out of arm's reach. "Not going nowhere, you, huh?" Mace glanced at Nick; Nick shrugged dolefully. Mace said, "It seems not." Knots of exhausted Balawai untied themselves and frayed to pieces to let the departing Akk Guard through. He joined the other, and along with the dogs they faded into the trees beyond the reach of the afternoon sun.

  Nick fingered his rifle. "Think they'll really go down there to Kar?" "Not at all," Mace said crisply. "They'll move up the switchback to cut off our retreat." "Don't much like the sound of that. What's our move?" "You tell me, Major." Nick blinked. "You're kidding." "Not at all. Given our victory conditions-saving as many of these people's lives as possible-what should we do?" "I can't believe you're asking me." "What I'm asking you," Mace said, "is not what we're going to do, but what we should do.

  Let me put it another way: what does Kar think we'll do?" "Well." Nick looked back up the trail, then forward down toward the mouth of the canyon and the steamcrawler track. "We should split up. If we all stay together, we all get caught either by whatever Kar's got below, or the guards and the ULF behind us. If the prisoners scatter, some might slip through while Kar's rounding up the rest." "Exactly." Mace pointed at the boys' father. "You. Get the others out of the trees. I want all of you on this rock. On your knees, with your hands behind your heads." The Balawai gaped. "Are you crazy?" "Y'know," Nick said, sighing, "I ask him that all the time. Somehow I never get a straight answer." Mace folded his arms across his chest. "All those who don't want to do what I say are welcome to take their chances with the jungle and the ULF." The man turned away, shaking his head.

  "What are we gonna do?" Nick asked.

  "Something else." "Y'know, if you hadn't told Kar about going to the steamcrawler track, he wouldn't be down there right now." "Yes: he would have overtaken us in the jungle, and we wouldn't have had a chance." "Wait-wait, I get it-" Understanding dawned on Nick's face.

  Mace nodded. "Back under the trees, the prisoners would have scattered. Some might have escaped as you say. He's expecting us to scatter, just as you did. From his point of view, it's the obvious move: let some die to save the rest. That's why I expected Kar to try this, instead: find a place where he could trap everyone. Because Kar and I have this in common: with these people, it's all or nothing. He wants to give them all to the jungle. I want to send them all home." Muscle bunched along Mace's jaw. "I am not willing to purchase life with death, unless that death is my own." Nick looked impressed. "Kar's not an easy man to lie to. He's so hooked into pelekotan that lying's a tricky business; I once saw him yank out a guy's tongue-" Mace gave him a sidelong look. "Who lied? I told him that he and Depa would be able to find me at the steamcrawler track this afternoon. The lie is in what he assumed I meant, not in what I said." "And you had me lead, because you figured he'd be able t
o guess what route I'd take-and you brought the" Akk Guards along so that he'd be able to track us." Mace nodded.

  "But why?" "To get us all in a place just like this. Here, I'm sure he thinks he has everyone boxed." "And he does." "So he's in no hurry to come and collect us. Now: what's the steamcrawler track good for, in view of our purpose? It's a broad open area, where any passing gunship will spot these people, and it's clear enough to use as a landing zone." "Yeah." "So how much good does it do him to cut us off from an open area-" Mace reached inside his vest and pulled out the lightsabers. He tossed Depa's to Nick, who caught it reflexively. "- when all we need is a little time, and we can make one of our own?" Nick stared down at the lightsaber in his hand. "It could work," he admitted. "And you want me to teach people warfare?" Mace shrugged. "This isn't warfare, it's dejarik." "Yeah, sure. When Kar shows up, you can be the one to clear the board. Go right ahead." He ducked his head gloomily. "He's gonna kill us both, y'know." Mace's lightsaber found his palm, and a meter-long fountain of energy grew from its emitter.

  "That remains to be seen." FROM THE PRIVATE JOURNALS OF MACE WlNDU It took only minutes to clear a landing zone. I had used the Force to pile some of the smaller trees, intending to kindle their damp wood with my blade to make a huge smoking bonfire, but I didn't have to; before we had even cleared the zone, three flights of gunships swarmed overhead. They didn't seem to have much difficulty understanding the situation: twenty-eight kneeling Balawai with fingers laced together behind their necks must have made matters clear enough.