[Legacy Of The Force] - 02(114)

Turn the hand wheel.

Ben held his lightsaber in his right hand and slowly wound the wheel with his left. The door hissed as a seal broke and a mist of chilled air tumbled out into the warm kitchen. Shevu held up two fingers, then one, and jerked his fist down.

Two, one-go.

Ben wrenched the door open and Shevu aimed inside. It was pitch black and the blaster’s targeting spotlight punched into the darkness of a cold store, highlighting mist. Ben fumbled for the lights. Frost-rimed boxes lined shelves; unidentifiable joints of meat hung from hooks. Nobody was hiding in there.

Ben covered Shevu as he rummaged around in the cold store. The captain emerged with a long metal cylinder in one hand. His helmet was already iced over.

“Know what this is?” he asked.

Ben stared at the object. It was a tube. “Grenade launcher?”

“Close. Shoulder launcher, for small missiles. Part of one, anyway. There’s about a dozen in there.”

“That shouldn’t be on the menu.”

“Kriffing right it shouldn’t be.”

“Okay, let’s go up one floor,” Ben said.

“That’s your Force-sense talking, is it?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, works for me.”

The turbolift was tiny and they huddled inside. Ben hated lifts. It was the moment when the doors opened that was worst: his Force-sense would tell him if there was a welcoming committee outside, but he still had a sick feeling in his stomach as the doors parted and he saw into the lobby beyond for the first time. This time he was sure there were people around. He pointed to the left. Shevu darted down the passage and trained his blaster on the first door, gesturing Ben to stand to one side as he blew the lock panel. Then Ben sent a surge of energy ahead of him in a shock wave to flatten anyone inside.

Like a stun grenade, it provided a few precious seconds to overpower an enemy, but it didn’t leave them temporarily deaf and blinded. The two men inside-and Ben had spotted them only when he was well inside the room-scrambled up from the floor and he lunged forward with his lightsaber. His reflexes took over. A blaster bolt shot past him. He thought it was from Shevu’s weapon and as he saw one of the men raise his arm he brought the saber down in an arc. It felt like the skirmish was taking forever, but he knew somehow that it was seconds. Another bolt of white light flared and he deflected it without thinking. Then there was silence.

The air in the room smelled of burned fabric and rasped at his throat. He could feel his pulse pounding in his temples.

“Well, they’re about as dead as you can get …” Shevu still held his blaster on the two men as he stared down at them. “Why’d you block my shot like that?”

“Did I?”

“You did.”

“But you shot one.”

“No, one of them fired at me.”

Ben looked at his hands as if they weren’t his. He was holding the lightsaber two-handed as usual and his grip was shaking. He’d killed both of the men. They both looked about Jacen’s age and he didn’t like what he saw.

“You okay?”

“Were they both armed?”

“Bit late to worry about that.” Shevu squatted down, laid his blaster beside him, and began searching the bodies. Ben heard pounding boots, and two GAG troops entered behind them. “Well, one definitely was. Can’t find a weapon on the other.”

Force forgive me. I killed them. I killed a man who wasn’t armed. I didn’t even think.

Ben leaned against the wall and slid down it a little, bracing his legs. Around him, more GAG troops were running down passages, checking rooms. He heard cupboards being wrenched apart and shouts of, “In here! Clear!”

His head sank into his hands. He wanted to look, but he couldn’t. Someone took his arm.

“Ben, get up.” It was Jacen.

“I’m sorry-“

“Ben, get a grip. You’ve got work to do.” Jacen pulled him upright gently but firmly. “Go on. Look. You should have searched the bodies instead of leaving it to Shevu.”

“He wasn’t armed.”

“Stop it. His buddy was, and the place is stuffed with rocket launchers and hardware.”

Jacen steered Ben toward the two men on the floor and held him by both shoulders from behind to make him face them. Ben switched off. He felt a numbness spread through his mind and all he saw was shapes. He didn’t see people. He knew he would later, but right now something had cut in to cushion him from what he was seeing.

“You made the call, Ben.” Jacen’s voice was low. From the corner of his eye, Ben could see Shevu watching, or at least he was facing in their direction, head turned as if he was focused on them. “Mostly we get it right, but sometimes we don’t. You got most of it right today. Maybe you got all of it right, but it might take us days to find out if that man was a threat or not. Either way-you can’t afford to let it get to you.”