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The faint rumble was one Alee sensed rather than heard or felt. Despair welled up, stronger than the pain. They destroyed the entrance. A tear slid down her nose and dripped to the floor. The Force help me to accept my fate with Jedi calm. I will not give in to fear.
Alee had not felt Qui-Gon's touch for some time. Anticipating his next one had kept her focused and as close to alert as she could be. Now her energy was seeping out of every pour. The rattle in her chest grew louder. She spit out a mix of blood and saliva.
Maybe it won't hurt. Mostly numb now. Shock, I suppose. Alee licked a copper-tasting bubble off her lips with her swollen tongue. The void nibbled at her resolve. Can't give in yet.
Alee walked her fingers along the ground to her pack. She felt around inside and pulled her arm back, a wand clutched in her fingers. She aimed the tip at her face and switched on the recording rod.
She wheezed air into her lungs and winced. "I didn't want to ... have to do this, Qui-Gon. I ... I always thought you'd get here. That you'd save me. That's okay." She took another pain-filled breath. "Thank you for trying." A pause. "The holopad ... has a copy of a contract. Ask Sothar. Should see justice done." She winced a weak smile. "You know me, Qui-Gon. Always focused on justice." A longer pause. "No, not always. I ... you ... showed me the path to love. I know you didn't mean to. Now ... we won't get to ... walk on it. Wouldn't have anyway, I guess." Alee coughed. Bloody saliva spewed forth. "Hope you don't mind if I pretend ... for a little while ... that you did ... want to. I ... I never minded that you're a great Master ... would have loved you deeply ... anyway. Now ..." Alee coughed up more blood. Darker, richer tasting. "...the depths have swallowed me. It's cold. Deep space cold. You know how ... I hate ... deep space." Alee's wheezing filled the silence. "Be glad when ... light comes. I'll ... wait for you there, Qui-Gon."
Alee switched off the rod and held it tightly. The Force shimmered around her, and the pain became unimportant. Her essence was drawn to the luminous power. She wanted to let go - let go of the pain, let go of life. But, the desire to live was strong, tethering her to her body. She tried to draw the Force into herself, but it slipped through her grasp. No more try. No more do.
Something brushed her fingers. It scuttled onto her cheek and stopped, its eight legs making tiny depressions she sensed rather than felt. It loosed a droplet of the Force into her being and scurried away. Thank you.
A coughing fit racked her body. Blood pooled in her mouth and dribbled out the corner.
The void pushed at her defenses and she retreated behind Force-strengthened barriers in her mind. It attacked the barriers and she felt them crumbling, bit by bit. Out of reinforcements. Won't give ... without a fight. If only I had ... my lightsaber.
Qui-Gon ran headlong down the tunnel. His lightsaber flashed back and forth in front of him, lighting the way. He could barely sense Alee's lifeforce. She wasn't responding. He silently chanted - don't give up, don't give up - in time to his footfalls.
The ceiling dipped and Qui-Gon slowed his pace to a crouching jog. "Master, wait." echoed behind him. Can't wait. The ceiling rose and he took off running again. He broke into a small cavern and wove around stalagmites. Then he was in the tunnel again. Running . Getting closer. But her lifeforce was flickering. Closer. But it was fading. Running.
Another cavern ahead. Water. Qui-Gon launched himself as his toe splashed down. He somersaulted over the water, landing on dry ground. And stopped. He looked down at a very wet, very dead man, whose neck and face had been torn apart. He glanced over his shoulder at the pond glimmering green where his lightsaber cast its glow. Vile creatures, indeed. He mentally warned Obi-Wan and turned to go.
The tunnel swallowed Qui-Gon as he pushed on. Run. Jog and duck. Run. A vertical drop. He stepped off the edge and landed softly on the ground below.
The air was different. Moving. Dusty. Dust in a cave? Qui-Gon dashed down the tunnel. A minute later he stood at the foot of a pile of rubble. He could sense Alee on the other side, barely. She wasn't responding, even being this close.
Qui-Gon probed the rock pile with his eyes and the Force. The tunnel was over two meters high here. The rubble ... wasn't piled that high. He clipped his lightsaber to his belt and clambered over the rocks. As he'd sensed, a wormhole. Tight, but he could make it. He had to make it.
The Jedi Master squeezed his tall frame through the narrow opening. A few minutes of wiggling and the hole enlarged. He crept as fast as he could. The hole shrank and grew and twisted and turned. He scrambled out of the wormhole and down the other side, into a blackness so complete it felt like ... death.
Qui-Gon hopped to the tunnel floor, almost on top of Alee. He dropped to his knees and pulled a glowrod out of his tunic, lighting it with a snap. The palpable darkness gave way to welcome light.
Qui-Gon looked down at Alee and his throat clenched. She was covered in a film of grey dust that accentuated her pallor. Outlining her white silhouette was a pool of blood and pink froth. Her shallow breathing was laced with an ominous rattle. The left side of her body was buried, with small rocks covering her left arm and both legs, and a boulder pressing her midsection into the ground. Her right hand was tightly wrapped around a recording rod. He pried it loose and slipped it inside his tunic.
All the while he called her through the Force. Nothing. He probbed gently. No resistance. He took a deep breath and slipped into her mind. Alee was there, hidden in a far corner, behind a broken Force barrier, clinging to life by the finest of threads. He cycled the Force through her mind, giving her his strength, urging her to take it, use it.
Alee. Grab hold. Alee. Come back. AleeAleeAlee. Pain echoed back at him - hideous, mind-numbing pain. He welcomed it and felt it rush through him and dissolve into the Force. Alee. Reach out. AleeAlee. More pain. But hidden in the midst of the wave of agony - a whisper. His name, so faint it was barely perceptible. He withdrew from her mind, still pumping the Force into her being and enfolding her with his presence.
Long moments passed. Alee's lungs drew a little more air. Her heart beat a little faster. Qui-Gon sensed her groping towards the surface of her mind, drawn by the Force, drawn by ... him. He closed his eyes. Thank the Force.
Obi-Wan was just emerging from the wormhole when Alee's eyes opened a slit, then halfway. Qui-Gon bent low and rested his hand on her cheek. His long hair draped down and the ends curled into her blood on the floor. Alee opened her eyes all the way and looked into his with an unfocused glassy stare. She wheezed air into her lungs; the sound filled the cave.
His Padawan took rocks off Alee with his hands and with the Force, while Qui-Gon kept Alee's gaze pinned with his own and willed her to live, willed her to focus. Slowly, the glaze peeled away and recognition seeped into her hazel eyes.
Alee blinked. Her voice cracked. "You came."
"The Force itself couldn't keep me away," Qui-Gon whispered.
"Master," Obi-Wan's voice intruded.
Qui-Gon looked up. When did Sothar and Falk get here?
"We be clearing rock on the other side." Falk's eyes flitted from Alee to the cave-in and back. A frown creased his forehead. "Now we need to be moving that big rock and be getting A'Lee to help. She be in a bad way, Jedi."
The Jedi Master scowled at the Agrarian. No need to state the obvious. Qui-Gon narrowed his eyes. "How long have you been here?"
Sothar set down the pack he was carrying and replied, "We've been hauling rocks for an hour, and watching you for ten minutes. Obi-Wan said there was nothing we could do for Alee until you had, ah, reached her. But if you have her stabilized, I have a medkit in the rescue pack. We can do some basic first aid. At least enough to get her out of here."
"She has to be moved, Master. I will lift the boulder," Obi-Wan said. "You pull her out."
Qui-Gon nodded. He bent over again and looked into Alee's eyes. "Are you with me, Alee?"
"With you," she echoed quietly.
"We have to lift the rock that has you pinned."
"Hurts."
Qui-Gon pressed his forehead gently against her cheek and sent waves of the Force rolling through her mind. He brushed his lips on her brow and nodded at Obi-Wan.
The Force swirled around the cave, thickening and intensifying, as Obi-Wan focused his energy on the boulder. It shifted a centimeter, then floated up by microns. Alee gurgled deep in her throat and a trickle of bloody saliva leaked from her mouth. The second Qui-Gon sensed the rock was clear he dragged Alee out from underneath and lay her on her back. The boulder settled back down, shifting the pile and sending a flurry of fist-sized rocks tumbling down, covering the spot where Alee had lain.
Alee arched her back as spasms, centering in her hip, gripped her body. Sothar knelt down and touched the hip, prodding gently, causing Alee to roll her eyes into her head and scream.
"The hip's been crushed. Rock must've acted like a touniquet. The bleeding is starting up again." Sothar pointed at the medkit he'd already opened. "Falk, hand me those bacta strips and the medblade."
Alee sucked air in audible gasps. She clutched Qui-Gon's cloak and fought to focus on him. "No ... no." She clenched her teeth as her body convulsed. "Al ... allergic ... bacta."
Qui-Gon stared at her for a second, dumbfounded. "Allergic? To bacta?"
"Falk," clipped Sothar, "we need bandages. Have to stop the bleeding."
Convulsions ripped through Alee. Her eyes widened and she reached a shaking hand up to touch Qui-Gon's hair. Between gasps, she whispered, "Love ... hair. Don't ever ... cut." Spasms arched her body again. When they passed, she rested her fingers along his jaw. "Eyes ... drown in ... so blue ... " Her gaze grew distant and milky.
Qui-Gon's chest heaved, as he sensed her slipping again. Have to do something. Can't let her die. Not now. He gripped her face in his hands. "Look in my eyes, Alee." His voice rose. "Look in my eyes. Stay with me."
Alee's gaze cleared slightly and she stared at him, wheezing weakly.
"That's good," Qui-Gon whispered. "Keep looking. Good."
Qui-Gon sensed Sothar working on Alee's hip and Obi-Wan soothing it with the Force. He heard Falk's hiss as the mass of pulpy bone and blood and tissue was exposed. Alee's eyes glassed over and drifted away. Qui-Gon tightened his grip on her face and yelled, "Alee! Stay focused. Right here. My eyes. Right here."
"Light," she gasped, staring over Qui-Gon's shoulder.
"No!" The cry tore from Qui-Gon's throat. "My eyes, Alee! Look at my eyes! Stay with me!"
He sensed Alee struggling, her eyes floated sluggishly back to Qui-Gon, then drifted in and out of focus. She sighed, "Want to stay."
Remembrance slammed into him and, eyes locked on Alee's face, Qui-Gon snapped at Sothar, "Get her belt off. She has some herbal meds from Keedad. Paste. Extract." Something about the extract ... paralyzes, that's it. Blocks the Force. She can't touch the Force now, anyway.
The three men worked feverishly while Qui-Gon fought to keep Alee awake and centered on him. Obi-Wan dripped the ruba extract down Alee's throat, stroking her throat to get her to swallow, then gave her some more. Sothar and Falk packed her hip with otaro paste, kuba leaves and regular bandages.
"I think the bleeding is stopped," Sothar said, sitting back on his heels.
Falk stood up, wiping bloody hands on an extra bandage, then picked up the hologram pad. "Be this what she almost be dying for? I hope it be worth the price. What be ya thinking, Jedi, that ya would be giving yar lives for strangers?"
"It's just who we are, Falk," Qui-Gon answered quietly. "We are Jedi. It's what we do."
Qui-Gon sensed Alee fading into unconsciousness, but it was different this time, as the Force used the medicines to infuse her wounds and begin healing. He wiped a pink bubble from her lips and examined her through the Force, chronicling her injuries to Obi-Wan and Sothar so they could bind her ribs and her elbow. The hip ... the hip needed medical droid attention, but at least they could get her to one, now. Qui-Gon slumped in relief.
Obi-Wan moved behind him and laid a comforting hand on his
shoulder. "We did it, Master."
Softly, he added, "You did it. You aren't going to
lose her."
Qui-Gon covered his Padawan's hand with his own and sent him a silent message.
I couldn't bear to lose either of you, Obi-Wan. Thank you.
