Star Wars - Gathering Shadows - The Origin of the Black Curs - Unpublished (7 page)

“Cut your losses, son,” Harkness told him. “Do what the nice lady says.”

The lieutenant looked at the floor.

Then he turned around and signaled the troops. “Initiate evacuation procedure. Come on, do it now! Let’s go!”

Nobody seemed to object. Some of the grunts closer to the turbolifts had already put their blasters away when Jai had said “air strike.” Within seconds the troops had begun to disperse, some of them swearing, most of them trying to shove through the crowd.

“What about the major?” the lieutenant asked Jai.

“I think she’ll be coming back to my base with me. I also think she’ll be loaning us her shuttle to get out of the valley. You don’t object, do you, Lieutenant? Unless you’d like to come along?”

“It doesn’t appear as though your troops would be interested in stopping us,” Tru’eb said.

The boy licked his lips and mumbled something about Docking Bay One, and clearance; then he turned and walked away.

Harkness untangled himself from Tru’eb’s shoulder, leaned against the wall, and took a few excruciating steps toward Jai, who was visibly struggling to keep her adrenaline going in order to hang on to the major. Aside from Jai’s injuries, nothing about her appearance surprised Harkness at all. She matched her voice exactly. And she did look like her sister, a taller, blonde version, with the same ice-blue eyes. The only difference was what seemed to be behind the eyes; Morgan’s were clear and knowledgeable, a window to the brilliance beyond the absentmindedness. Jai’s were bright and painful and hard to look into. Across her left cheek was a long, pink scar, testimony to a wound that had never seen a bacta tank; but in a strange way, it didn’t seem ugly or out of place.

Something inside of him felt oddly settled, seeing her for real.

And in those troubled eyes, he saw a glint of recognition as she finally took a second to focus on his face.

“Harkness.”

“Sarge.”

“You’re… just as I pictured you.”

“You mean happy and handsome?”

“Here, I’ll take Major Psycho,” Platt said. “You guys lean on Tru’eb. Just concentrate on staying conscious until we get inside the shuttle.”

Jai seemed to noticed Platt and Tru’eb for the first time. “Who are you people?”

“Your ticket off the planet,” Platt said, taking Jai’s hand and shaking it.

At first, Harkness had resisted the idea of being injected with a heavy sedative. He needed to remind himself that he was on board Platt’s ship, the
Last Chance
, already light years away from the garrison; and that the major was imprisoned in the hold. At least that was what Platt had told him. He didn’t remember anything beyond hobbling into the major’s
Lambda
-class shuttle and sinking down into a shiny black passenger seat.

Beyond the concept of taking the sedative, however, he just didn’t want to sleep. In his experience, sleeping drugs tended to pull you down into heavy fever dreams you had a hard time waking up from. And he knew what kind of dreams he was going to have.

“Sorry I don’t have a bacta tank on board,” Platt said, rummaging through the cabinet next to Harkness’ medical bunk. “But it’s only a couple days to Wroona from here. Jai, I’ve got a couple of Rebel friends out there. They can help you contact your base.”

“Thanks,” Jai said. She was lying in the bunk across the room, on her stomach.

Tru’eb came in. “No medpacs in the forward berthing compartment,” he said.

“You’re kidding, I thought we just stocked up on… oh, here we go.” Platt tossed one to Tru’eb.

“I don’t want to sleep,” Jai said.

“This really isn’t a strong mixture,” Tru’eb told her, sitting on the edge of her bunk. “It’s actually designed to kill the pain while improving the quality of your sleep. That way your injuries don’t interfere with your normal sleep pattern. Which means you are less likely to have vivid dreams.”

“Oh. Okay.””

“And listen,” Platt said, “it’s not a big ship. If you need anything at all, press the green button on the side of the bed. Yeah, that one.

“Okay, Tru’eb and I are going to get a little shut-eye—is there anything else you two need?”

“Leave the lights on,” Jai said.

After Tru’eb and Platt had gone, Harkness said. “What will you do when you get back?”

“Are you kidding? I just inducted an entire planet into the New Republic. I’ve got lots of desk-work to do.”

“Eh. Bag it. Make somebody else fill out the forms.”

“Yeah.” Jai was quiet for a moment; then her voice seemed to slur together. “Maybe when I get back I’ll tell General Madine what he can do with this Intel assignment.”

“Maybe you should.”

“Maybe.”

Harkness felt the sedative seep into his limbs, warm and heavy. The room seemed to mist over, in the same blue-gray fog as the one that hung oyer the Valley of Umbra.

“Sarge?”

“Yeah?”

“You ever think about becoming a mercenary?”

“Sometimes,” she said. Then her voice seemed to gather a little strength. “Yeah, I think that would be pretty nice.”

“You said you don’t care much about fighting for the New Republic.”

“Why? You proposing something?”

“Maybe.”

She seemed to drift off after that. Harkness felt the silence tugging at him, but it seemed to be easing him into a warm darkness, not a bottomless well.

Then the humming noise came back.

Harkness started; he felt a surge of dismay. But then he settled back and closed his eyes. It hadn’t been a song, or anything to do with Chessa. The humming was the sound of the engines on Platt’s ship.

Master Sergeant Jai Raventhorn

Type:
Ex-SpecForce Operative

DEXTERITY 4D

Blaster 7D+2, brawling parry 5D, dodge 6D, grenade 5D+2, melee combat 5D+1, thrown weapons 4D+2

KNOWLEDGE 3D

Intimidation 5D, streetwise 4D, survival 4D+1, willpower 6D

MECHANICAL 2D+2

Repulsorlift operation 5D, space transports 4D+2, starship gunnery 3D+1

PERCEPTION 2D

Con 5D, hide 4D, sneak 5D

STRENGTH 3D+1

Brawling 6D, lifting 4D+1, stamina 6D+1

TECHNICAL 3D

Demolitions 6D+2, repulsorlift repair 4D, security 6D+1

Force Points:
1

Character Points:
11

Move:
10

Equipment:
Blast vest (+1D physical, +1 energy), comlink, 3 fragmentation grenades (5D), 2 heavy blaster pistols (5D), hold-out blaster (3D), vibroknife (STR+1D)

Capsule:
Jai grew up scouting and clearing planets, the eldest child of a scout service commander. Her mother died on a backwater planet giving birth to Jai’s sister, Morgan.

Eight-year-old Jai was devastated, but automatically appointed herself protector to her little sister.

As the girls grew up. it became obvious that they couldn’t possibly be more different. Morgan was clumsy and absentminded but brilliant, a child prodigy who wanted to do nothing more than fix ships and clear planets when she grew up.

Jai, on the other hand, hated the constant upheaval; she was rambunctious and sarcastic, a crack shot with a blaster by the age of nine, and constantly at odds with their father. But the two sisters remained close, even after Jai left home following an argument with her father. She went to Rodaj and became a miner, desperate for a quiet, sedentary life.

She got what she wanted, at least for a few years. Eventually the Empire began to exploit Rodaj for its natural resources: some of the Imperial soldiers made a point to harass the local miners, and in one such altercation, Jai’s fiancé was gunned down for no apparent reason. In short order Jai realized that she would never have the kind of life she wanted, blew up an Imperial munitions depot, asked a friend to watch over Morgan, and went into hiding.

Several months later Jai made contact with a Rebel spook. She joined the Alliance and later won a place in SpecForces deadliest branch—the Infiltrators. There she gained the respect other peers, maintaining the lowest casualty rate per mission in that division’s history. All this meant nothing, however, when her sister, Morgan, was killed at the Battle of Endor.

Jai now finds herself adrift. With the Emperor gone, Jai doesn’t remember her purpose in the Rebellion, if she ever had one: with Morgan gone. Jai believes herself a failure. To clear her mind of the overwhelming grief, guilt, and all the what-ifs, she has almost completely shut off her emotions.

Jai Raventhorn is very tall, with long, blonde hair and troubled, ice-blue eyes. Across the left side of her face is an eight centimeter-long vibroknife scar, which she sometimes fingers when she’s nervous or preoccupied.

Dirk Harkness

Type:
Outlaw

DEXTERITY 4D

Blaster 7D, brawling parry 5D, dodge 5D+2, grenade 4D+2, melee combat 5D, pick pocket 4D+2, running 4D+2

KNOWLEDGE 3D

Alien species 4D, bureaucracy 4D+1, intimidation 4D+2, planetary systems 4D+1, streetwise 4D+2, survival 5D, willpower 6D

MECHANICAL 2D+2

Communications 3D, repulsorlift operation 5D, sensors 5D, space transports 4D, starfighter piloting 4D, starship gunnery 5D, starship shields 3D+2

PERCEPTION 2D

Command 4D, hide 4D, search 3D, sneak 5D

STRENGTH 3D+1

Brawling 6D, climbing/jumping 4D+2, lifting 4D+1

TECHNICAL 3D

Capital starship repair 6D, capital starship weapon repair 5D+1, demolitions 4D, first aid 4D+2, repulsorlift repair 4D, security 5D, space transport repair 6D, starfighter repair 5D+2, starship weapon repair 4D+2

Force Points:
4

Dark Side Points:
2

Character Points:
12

Move:
10

Equipment:
Datapad, heavy blaster pistol (5D), knife (STR+1D)

Capsule:
As chief engineer of
Colders Watch
, a bulk freighter for a large shipping magnate, Harkness tried to steer clear of the Empire as best he could. All he really wanted was to meet a nice girl and settle down with her on some peaceful planet—as far away as possible from other people. Harkness could be friendly and easygoing, but he was also quiet and introspective, and preferred to keep to himself most of the time.

A quick learner and brilliant technician, Harkness believed that he could accomplish anything. But the one thing he couldn’t do was save Chessa Dohenny—the woman he loved and a Rebel sympathizer—from the wrath of the Empire. He watched in horror as she was gunned down before his eyes; then he retaliated by killing several of her murderers. Fortunately, he quickly met up with Chessa’s Rebel contacts and joined the Alliance.

In essence, he went straight from the scene of her death to the military. He threw himself blindly into training, and dreamed endlessly of making the whole Empire bleed for what it had done to Chessa. His single-minded desire for revenge made his fellow soldiers nervous: his superior officers feared that he might not be a team player. But in a strange way, he was. Harkness wasn’t very sociable, but he was always listening to everything everybody said, and learning from it. He was an extremely perceptive judge of character, and despite his loner attitude, he was actually very good at handling people. Somehow he could always tell what they needed to know, or what they wanted to hear, or what their ulterior motives were. It made him a born leader, whether or not he wanted to be. And to many, it made him even scarier.