Hopping over a railing and turning a corner was all it took to get to the door to the boarding ramp where the other two were waiting. The ramp was already lowered, sending the pressurized air inside the ship whipping out.
...
The Jedi Knight and Sith Apprentice stood to either side of the ramp, making for an amusing contrast. The Jedi in her green robes, the Sith in her armored red jumpsuit. Cold blue eyes and burning yellow eyes, both pairs directed at me.
A few seconds later, the ship came to a halt a decent height above a stone square. Personally, that felt like the exact wrong place to land on, but my allies clearly disagreed. Natia leapt first, while the Little Jedi simply released her handhold and allowed herself to be swept out.
Refusing to let myself be outdone, I jumped after her. Now granted, I was not entirely certain how I was going to slow down enough to land without turning my legs and internal organs into mush, but that was a problem for thirty-seconds-in-the-future Nestor.
And that future was approaching closely.
As we neared the ground enough for me to be able to tell apart the individual stones that made up the village square, I felt something pull on me. Not gravity, that was something I could have done without. No, this was in an entirely different direction. Towards… towards the Little Jedi. Something was pulling me towards her. She was pulling me towards her.
Instead of falling straight down towards the ground, I began to fall upwards as the Little Jedi pulled me into her orbit.
Naturally, I reached out with the Force and pulled on her in turn.
Thus, the two of us did not plummet straight to the ground to our deaths. Instead, we orbited each other, bleeding speed with every go around. Truth be told, it was a bit disorienting, but I did not mind it. I knew I would land safely, after all.
Eventually, after what I knew had only been seconds but had felt like minutes, the Little Jedi and I landed safely. Natia had, naturally, already beaten us to the ground. She hadn't had to waste her time with some fancy falling, after all.
By then, the walls of flame had begun encroaching on the village. Beyond the ring of houses, the distinctive orange and yellow glow of a blazing wildfire was giving the otherwise plain grey houses a constantly flickering coat of paint. All around me, the horde of Twi'lek villagers were running about in a wild panic.
That nobody had visible reacted to a pair of strangers dropping in from the sky was all the evidence I needed that panic had well and truly taken hold of these people.
"So what's this Plan E?" Natia asked, casting a glance around the village. The glow from the wildfire was present on the sides of each and every building. Even if the trees immediately surrounding the village had not yet caught fire, the whole village was still surrounded.
"For now, it's a backup plan," I answered, drawing on the Force as much as I could in preparation for what I was about to do. "Instead, I'm going to keep the fire where it is. And make it way hotter."
In accordance with my will, the wall of flame jumped higher into the air. Where once the flames had merely peeked out from between the trees, they now rose above the peaks of the trees. Smothering the flames would have taken a lot of energy, would have taken too long, and would have been liable to reigniting with a strong breeze over the coals. But a controlled burn? Letting it consumer all the potential fuel at a faster rate than usual?
That was a lot easier.
In theory.
In practice?
The fires were still closing in. The fires were getting closer. I could see individual trees close to the village catch flame, leaves first. All around me, I could sense the panic of the villagers getting more intense as everything appeared to be getting a whole lot worse before it was getting any better.
"Nestor?" Natia asked. "I'm not too attached to these people, but I think now would be a great time for this Plan E of yours. Before you make things even worse somehow."
"Not enough," I grunted, trying to draw more on the Force with what I had at my disposal. Something inside was being stretched to the breaking point, like a fishing line seconds before snapping. The persistent ache in my limbs from exhaustion, the searing pain of the bugs lodged in my shoulder and chest, they both merged with the tearing that was spreading throughout my body as I tried desperately to stop this fire where it was.
There was a way out, though. A shortcut to more power. But I did not need it, not yet, not truly. I could feel the fire slow down. But was it enough? Or would the fire reach the village before it could exhaust its fuel?
As if on cue, a wave of fresh strength flowed into me. Like a rip current, it felt calm and serene but carried a terrifying amount of strength. The aches began to fade to a more tolerable level of tension everywhere except from my throat, and for the first time I noticed that the ground was a lot closer than it had been when I started. Images streamed into my mind, of a familiar face with a ruined back, of that same man with a satisfied look on his face at the control of a freighter, of a cluster of bugs on a shoulder.
Memories of me, from someone else's perspective.
Another more violent stream of power joined the first a few seconds later. More like a firehose than a rip current, this one was magnitudes weaker and magnitudes more violent. No images accompanied this one, but the surge in strength was appreciated.
The fire did not encroach further. The fire burned bright, tongue of flame reaching toward the sky, and the villagers were still in a panic, but they were not in any immediate danger. Even if they did not know it, they were going to be fine. All I had to do was hold. All I had to do was maintain this level of control.
Naturally, that was when Murphy decided I had taunted him too much.
One of the trees at the edge of the village, weakened by the fire that had consumed so much of it, collapsed. Not towards the rest of the burning forest. No, that would have been too easy. Instead, the towering tree of flame toppled the exact wrong way: towards the village not away from it. Craning my neck, I could see it was even worse than that: it was falling not just towards the village, but towards one of the houses at the edge of the village.
Reaching out with the Force, I tried to stop it, felt the my body start tearing apart as I tried to do too many things at once. Not even a heartbeat later, the tree froze in the air before rocketing into the forest. The work of one of my allies, no doubt.
Good thing I had them at my side.
Now, why was the ground shaking? And what were those flashes of light? A thunderstorm, perhaps? No, not possible. The skies had been clear except for smoke when I had landed at the village. For a storm to have formed or moved in so quickly was not possible.
Then what could it…
A wall of pure force slammed into me before I could complete the thought, sending me tumbling across the square. Right, there were warships in orbit engaged in a merry bit of naval warfare. Had Angral decided to spare a few precious seconds of turbolaser bombardment just to spite me? Had it been a missed shot from a friendly? A crashing fighter?
I had no idea.
All I could do was fight my way back to my feet and get back…
There were souls missing. Some of the lights that had filled the village in the Force had been extinguished. I didn't know how many. I didn't know who they had been. All I knew was that something was missing.
And now there was a crater where there had once been a home.
And the flames were encroaching again.
And the people were screaming.
The flow of strength from my allies resumed, then, and I resumed my efforts. The flames' progress was halted even as they burned brighter. The tearing in deep inside my being returned, and now there was a new source of fire.
Except I could not feed this one to make it exhaust itself faster.
It was far too close to the rest of the village to be allowed to grow much hotter. Dried wood took flame far easier than living wood. This had to be contained above all else. It was another expenditure of energy. It was another increase in the tearing deep within me. Even with the strength flowing into me from Natia and the Little Jedi, I was starting to find a hard limit to what I could do.
At least with my current level of strength.
But even acknowledging that much caused a lapse in my concentration. Not much, but enough for a few embers to drift from the crater to an adjoining house. Enough for those sparks to set its roof smoldering. Enough for a few small tongues of flame to spring to life and lick along the house.
I tried reaching out with the Force again to smother the flames before they could spread…
And couldn't.
My lungs burned. My muscles screamed at me to stop. It felt like I had a dozen fishing hooks lodged in my guts, each pulling a different way, and my body was refusing to allow me to add a thirteenth.
This was it, then.
My limit. Discovered at the cost of innocent lives. Yay me.
Maybe I don't want you to die.
The Little Jedi's words rang clear in my head, accompanied by the image of me slumped in my seat, looking far worse for wear than I had anticipated. Even with the mask, it was clear that something had been wrong with me. What little skin was exposed was pale and clammy with sweat. My posture was a far cry from my usual upright and imperious poise. No wonder she had been so concerned about me.
Suddenly, with lives in the balance, it became quite clear what I had to do. I could try to push myself just a little bit further and find out what happened to those who drew on the Force too much.
Or I could quit waffling, accept the out that I had been given, and save lives. All at the low, low cost of my precious principles.
Well, we all had to make sacrifices. Only fair that I do my part.
...
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