Spare an Angel (closed)

[Kale]

Being a Jedi didn't feel so different.

When Kale took the GJO up on its offer of three meals a day and a roof that wouldn't leak, he'd had the niggling suspicion he was crawling through a loophole in the system. It wouldn't take long for the higher-ups to see a streeter on the roster, click their tongues, and toss him out on his ear. Then he made his first contact with the Force--but after the initial buzz, he was back to feeling normal. Even after stealing a saber, flirting with the Dark Side, and changing masters, he still felt normal.

Darnedest thing. He still didn't know what "normal" was. He always figured things'd change, and then he'd know who he was, where he was heading. But it didn't seem to work like that. It had been--what? Almost a year since he'd left the streets for the Jedi Temple. And he still spent most of his free time wandering the Twilight Sectors of Coruscant, just like normal.

The galaxy had a frellingawful sense of humor.

Kale drifted through the scraper-shadowed streets, inconspicuous in his collared black robe, muted tunic, and faded blue jeans. His practice saber was safely concealed in his oversized side pocket. The teenaged Padawan was ranging about two miles south of the Temple and about sixty levels down--that was farther than usual, but Pierce had given him the next few days off. His master knew about his Padawan's penchant for solitude, and he was willing to put up with it--so long as Kale didn't rob anybody while he was on leave. Kale tried to hold up that part of the bargain.

It was late in the afternoon--maybe four o'clock. The sun had already dipped below the crowns of the surrounding buildings, throwing the Twilight Sector into early nightfall. The streetlamps, pale and acidic, flickered on one by one. Kale kept walking.

There was noise up ahead. Hard voices, booted footsteps. Some kind of confrontation in progress. That was just the sort of thing Kale ought to avoid--he was a scrawny five four, and his combat training was practically nonexistent. So why wouldn't his feet stop moving?

A narrow alley. There were overflowing dumpsters on either side and a mess of garbage soup pooling on the cobbled street. The stinging streetlights illuminated a clot of seven large figures crowded aggressively around a smaller one. One of the aggressors lurched forward and hurled something against a dumpster--there was a metallic clank and a cry of pain. A human girl, somewhere between fifteen and eighteen years old, with dark skin and dark hair. Kale could see the sweat glistening on her forehead. She was scared out of her wits--it didn't take a mentalist to figure that out.

"We're all neighbors here, lass," said a tall, red-haired and bearded man in a leather coat. "No need for formalities. No need for lies. I'm giving you every chance in the world, but you're running out of chances. This might be your last."

The tall man loomed over the girl--Kale couldn't see her anymore. She said something Kale couldn't make out. Red didn't like what he heard.

"I'd love to beat your pretty face in," he said coldly. "But I can still make a mark where it won't show. Don't think I can't. I can break you in more ways than one. Just try to strike me again. Yes, girl, just try it."

This was it. This was the sort of thing Jedi dealt with, right? That had to be why the nape of Kale's neck was tingling. Maybe that was why he'd come down here in the first place.

Crazy. Normally, Kale would've hurried down another street, run away from problems he couldn't solve. But maybe this wasn't a normal day. Before he knew it, he’d stepped into the alley, and his sneakers sloshed noisily in the vomitous slop on the pavement.

Two of the assailants spun to face him--a Rodian with a light repeater and a hulking skinhead with a sawn-off E-11 blaster rifle. "Clear out, whelp," the skinhead sneered. "Save you some trouble, eh?"

Kale clenched his trembling hands behind his back. "Let her go," he said in a low voice.

Red backed off the girl and glared incredulously at Kale. Signaling a crony to watch the prize, he strode past Baldy and Snout to look the Padawan in the eye--he was a full foot taller if an inch.

"This isn't your business, kid. Walk back out the alley, an’ you can forget me, an’ I can forget you. It's that simple."

SNAP-hissss-vrrrrrrrmmmmrrrmmmmrrrrmmm.

The white glow blanketed the alley as Kale thumbed the power switch on his training saber, and he held the pulsing white blade forward at a defensive angle. The thugs cursed and hobbled back a pace, blinded by the flash. All except for Red.

"Jedi. Should've known." He dug a blaster pistol out of a snap holster and leveled it at Kale--if he weren't already petrified, he was sure he would've flinched. "You had to complicate things."

"No," Kale replied. "It ain't complicated at all. Let her go."

The ringleader switched off the safety and fingered the trigger. "Some Jedi are quick enough to dodge laser bolts, even knock 'em back at the gunman. Some are. I'd lay good odds you ain't one of them. But what's a squeak like you doin’ out here all alone?"

“I used to live in a place like this,” Kale said. “I ran into two-bit thugs like you all the time. I don’t remember them fondly. So I’ve got a bit of a chip on my shoulder against oversized womprats throwin’ their weight around, got it?”

Sounded good. By luck of the bad light, he looked pretty good, too--small, but angry, and with a death-grip on what appeared to be a bona fide plasma blade. Even a novice with a saber should have given a bunch of crooks pause, or so Kale hoped.

The red-haired man tightened his pistol grip. Kale was sure he was going to call his bluff, but then the man lowered his gun and stepped back away from the glowing saber.

"Right. So you want us to let her go? Fine." He grinned like a barracuda. "I've made my point anyway. Come on, boys, let's let her go." The others glanced questioningly at Red, then gradually fanned out, all of them giving Kale and his saber a wide berth.

Red swaggered back toward the girl, who had shrunk bank against the dumpster. "You heard the Jedi, girl. You're free to go. Wonderful thing, bein' rescued, ain't it? What are you waitin' for? Go!"

He reached out and snatched her by the front of her jacket and flung her at Kale. Kale dropped his saber and caught her less than gracefully, and the thugs roared with coarse laughter. The girl stumbled backwards to extricate herself from Kale's clumsy arms, and her dark, brown eyes skated briefly over his in bewilderment before darting back to the gang. Her breathing was short, and she was trembling—more with rage than fear now.

Kale had the presence of mind to grab his saber up out of the muck on the ground. He wiped off the chrome casing and gripped it firmly in his right hand, and he laid his left hand gently on the girl's back. "Come on, let's get out of here," he said. Without a word, she accompanied him back out the alley.

“Give my regards to your family, Rainah,” Red called after them. “Shana says hello.”

The girl started running. Kale glared over his shoulder at the red-haired man, then hastened to keep up.

[Kale]

“Hey, you all right?”

She’d stopped running two streets down, and Kale caught up with her. She turned her tear-darkened eyes away. “Fine,” she rasped unconvincingly.

It wasn’t exactly the grateful reception Kale had hoped for, but he shrugged it off. “You live near here? I could walk you home.”

“It’s another six blocks,” she said.

Kale shrugged. “That ain’t far. Lead the way.”

She pulled her threadbare jacket tighter around her shoulders and started down the sidewalk, wiping the moisture off her cheeks. Kale pocketed his hands and followed. Now that they were under the glare of the streetlamps, he could see her properly. She was younger than he’d thought at first—maybe sixteen—but… oh, wow. Even if she hadn’t been in trouble, she would’ve turned Kale’s head. He found himself falling back another pace for a better view, then tried to cover it by glancing back over his shoulder again. Too late—she’d noticed.

Coughing nervously, Kale stepped up beside her again and said, “So, what’s your name?”

“Rainah,” she said.

“I’m Kale,” he replied. Rainah didn’t respond. Apparently, they’d exhausted that line of conversation.

After a dozen or so paces, Kale tried again. “Those guys been botherin’ you a while?”

“They bother everybody in this neighborhood,” Rainah replied.

“But they wanted something from you,” Kale pressed.

“What’s it to you?” she asked.

Kale’s eyebrows went down defensively. “Just tryin’ to help. You can correct me if I’m wrong, but it sure looked to me like you were in some trouble there.”

“You want me to say thanks, Jedi?” she said. “All right. Thanks. That’s your good deed for the night. You should feel proud.”

Kale stopped in his tracks. “Now, wait a minute. I just risked my neck for you back there. Would you rather I walked the other way?”

Rainah turned and looked him in the eye. “Weren’t you plannin’ to do that anyway?”

Kale blinked, dumbfounded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your job’s finished,” she said. “You save the day and go back home. That’s how it works, ain’t it?”

“Well, you wanted to get away from those guys, didn’t you?” he blustered.

“You think Brannegan and his crew are gonna leave me alone now just ‘cause you swooped in and flashed your laser sword around? If you really used to live in Twilight, you oughta know better than that, buddy.”

Kale bit down on a caustic reply. “Hey, now—that ain’t fair. I said I wanted to help, an’ I still do, if I can. But so far you haven’t given me much to go on.”

Rainah furrowed her brow, took a step back, and looked down at the pavement. “They want me to be a whore,” she said quietly.

Kale winced as he absorbed the verbal impact—sure, that sort of dren happened on the streets, but this was personal. “Rainah…”

“They’ve been after me for months,” she continued. “They sell girls to a ring of brothels in the Southern Underground. They already sold my older sister, Shana. My family gets twenty credits a month for it.”

Kale shook his head. “Look, there’s gotta be somethin’ I can do for you. I’ll talk to my master—go to the police, somethin’.”

“Brannegan is the police,” Rainah said. “He’s captain in this district. All the beat cops are in on the deal.”

Dirty cops—krasst. People on both sides of the law hated them, and for good reason.

“Well… why don’t you get help from another precinct?”

“Who’s gonna believe me?” she asked bitterly. “As far as CPD knows, Brannegan runs a quiet neighborhood. They don’t give a frell how he goes about doin’ it.”

Kale cringed. He should’ve known that. Gucchi had all kinds of favors with the Santiago District police, and nobody on the Coruscant Watch ever looked their way.

“Look,” Rainah said, “I know you’re tryin’ to be a Good Samaritan and all. But this ain’t somethin’ you can fix in a day, even if you are a Jedi. You plan to walk me home from work every night?”

“No,” Kale admitted. “But I’m gonna try to help you, Rainah. There’s gotta be a way.”

Rainah looked back down to the ground. “I really need to get home.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

[Kale]

Six blocks was almost two miles. The thin strips of sky caged between overpasses and skybridges deepened as afternoon turned into evening. Down in Twilight, life went on--the denizens had long grown used to late mornings and early evenings. Workers dispersed from afternoon shifts at the local rubber factory, a pack of kids whizzed by on their airboards, a teenager sat on the curb with a boombox thumping out the latest hit by the Hyperlanes, an old man behind a wicker fence tended a decrepit-looking box garden, a shirts-and-skins game of socker on a dirt lawn.

It was nicer than the neighborhood Kale had called home before joining the Order--there were families here, people just trying to make a life for themselves and their loved ones. But there was suffering, too--slith-users quivering under blankets in the alleys, haunted faces peering from broken windows in the ferracrete tenements, vagrants begging for scraps from their fellow poor. Kale had gotten used to sights like those a long time ago.

They finally came to an old apartment complex surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. Its facade was full of heavy, perpendicular lines--jutting balcony boxes, recessed window frames, faceless concrete walls that sheltered the external stairwells. Every floor repeated like a print pattern, except for the occasional boarded window or clothesline, ten stories up where the architecture was lost in the girders that supported the next street.

Rainah pushed her way past a mangled side-gate, then froze. A black-and-white squad speeder idled in the parking lot, a short distance from the front entrance.

"You want to find another entrance?" Kale asked.

Rainah closed her eyes and swallowed. "N-- no. It's no big deal." Lifting her chin, she strode resolutely down the sidewalk. Kale followed. The cop didn't make any moves as they passed.

There was no lock on the glass door to the main lobby. Once inside, Rainah turned into the corridor to the left and stopped at the seventh door.

"Well, this is home," she said. "Look, sorry I was on your case. For what it's worth, you did save me from gettin' roughed up tonight, so thanks."

"I'm not finished here yet, Rainah," Kale replied. "I told you I wanna help. I'll figure somethin' out."

She shook her head. "You're hopeless, Jedi."

It stung--more than it ought to have. Kale couldn't escape the notion that she was probably right. But then the door rattled and opened from the inside.

"It's Rainah! Rainah's home!"

A jubilant five-year-old boy lunged from the doorway and hugged Rainah around the legs. She laughed, bent down, and scooped the boy up in her arms. "Oooohh, you're gettin' too big for me, Ellis! Come on." Kale smirked good-naturedly--it was the first time he'd seen Rainah smile.

As she toted Ellis in through the door, he climbed up her shoulder and stared back at Kale. "Who're you?"

Rainah faltered for a moment. "Uh--that's Kale. He walked me home."

Ellis grinned at the Padawan, then yelled, "Dad, Rainah brought a boyfriend home!"

"Ellis!" Rainah squealed. She spun back toward Kale, mortified. Kale was still there, his ears red, but stifling a snicker under a strategic cough.

"Rainah, did you or didn't you?" a powerful, middle-aged voice boomed from around the corner.

Rainah set Ellis down and disappeared from Kale's view, but he heard her stammer, "He--he just walked me home, Daddy. That's all."

"Well, tell 'im to come in, girl. I wanna get a look at 'im."

Rainah stepped back to the door and sheepishly motioned Kale inside.

It was a modest first-floor apartment. There was a diminutive anteroom with a doormat and a coat closet, then a hall to the left into a dining room and kitchenette, a small family room curving around to the right, and three more doors that had to be two bedrooms and a bathroom. It was all sparsely furnished--folding chairs around a card table in the dining room, a love seat, a stopped grandfather's clock, and an overstuffed recliner in the family room. Kale found the man who had spoken sitting in the recliner with an afghan spread over his legs. He had used to be quite large, but he'd withered around his sturdy frame. His face was sallow, and his flannel shirt was loose on his shoulders. But his eyes were anything but feeble, and he watched Kale like a bandit hawk.

Kale approached the man tentatively and said, "My name's Kale. I offered to walk Rainah home."

"Laurey Caedmon," the man replied, leaning forward to extend an open hand. Kale accepted the handshake and grimaced at the iron grip. Mr. Caedmon smiled gamely. "You live near here?"

"Temple district, actually," Kale replied. "I was just walkin' by, an'..." He glanced sidelong toward Rainah, unsure how much he should say.

Rainah hesitated, then said, "Brannegan was makin' some trouble."

That drew an sharp oath from Mr. Caedmon. "I oughta tear the hide off that blighted couhoun. Just give me five... five minutes--" He coughed mightily.

"Dad, please, calm down," Rainah said. "Nothin' happened. Kale... well... Kale showed up and Brannegan left."

Mr. Caedmon raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

Kale shrugged. "Well, all I did was--hey!"

Ellis had just lifted the corner of Kale's robe to uncover the pommel of his practice saber. "Woah! He's got a light sword!"

"Ellis, leave 'im be," his father ordered. He looked back up at Kale and smiled in wonder. "Bloody Force! Oh, pardon me. Listen, Kale, if you ain't got anywhere to go right now, why don't you stay for dinner?"

Kale cast another glance at Rainah, who looked as surprised as he was. "Uh, well... I wouldn't want to be any bother--"

"No bother, no bother at all, son," Mr. Caedmon said. "Rainah, you get started on dinner. Ellis, you can get Kale's coat. Make yourself at home."

[Kale]

Rainah quickly busied herself with a skillet of Banthaburger Helper and a salad of store-bought hydroponic greens, and the smell and sound of the sizzling meat reminded Kale how hungry he was. As Ellis set the table, Laurey Caedmon took up a cane from the wall and lifted himself slowly to his feet, then hobbled to his seat at the head of the card table. Ellis hastened to grab another folding chair for Kale--right next to Rainah's spot.

Mr. Caedmon graced the meal--a custom Kale wasn't used to--and they dug in to the modest spread with a will. Rainah had added a considerable helping of red pepper flakes to the conservative spicing from the packaged meat and noodles, and Kale found himself reaching often for his juice, but he enjoyed the meal--more than he'd enjoyed most of his meals as a patron of the Plaza Cueva de Luce.

There was talk--Rainah's day at work, Ellis's day at school. Then the attention turned inevitably to Kale.

"You're a Jedi, aren't you?" Ellis said.

Kale swallowed his mouthful and took a quick swig from his glass. "Yeah, that's right."

"I'm gonna be a Jedi when I grow up!" the boy proclaimed.

"Really?" Kale raised an eyebrow.

"Yup! An' a starfighter pilot, an' a podracer, an' a bounty hunter, an' a nerf herder!"

Kale laughed. "You're gonna be a busy kid."

"He aims high, that's for sure," Mr. Caedmon said. "Sometimes I even get a little work out of 'im when he's not dreamin', or flyin' his starship around the front yard. So how'd you become a Jedi, Kale?"

"I ain't been one that long," Kale replied. "I used to live in the Plaza Cueva de Luce, up in the Santiago District."

"Santiago District?" Mr. Caedmon echoed. "That's gang territory."

"Yeah," Kale nodded. "I was glad to get outa there. See, some Jedi found out I was Force-sensitive and asked me to join. So I did."

"Luck of the draw, huh," Mr. Caedmon mused. He looked wistfully toward his children, and Kale knew what he was thinking--wishing for a ticket that could take them to a better place in the galaxy. Kale had often wished for that sort of break himself. He didn't know why he'd gotten one--what made him any more deserving than this family.

Mr. Caedmon shook his head. "Sorry, that didn't come out right. I was just--" His face screwed up with pain, and he began coughing hard--so hard his eyes started tearing. Kale turned his eyes down to his plate, wincing. He noticed vaguely that he wasn't the only one sharing Mr. Caedmon's pain.

"Sorry..." the man said weakly, and he coughed again. The light in his eyes was dimmer now. "Sorry. In Company Eighteen, we called it the Red Fever. We were on guard at the Republic Embassy on Izor when the Hamassa rebels dusted the barracks with Crimson Forty-two. Killed half the unit, and the rest of us..."

He shook his head. "That's old news," he said, regaining some of his vigor. "Anyway, there's no cure, far as anybody knows. Just a hundred creds a month from the NR for health care, which doesn't cover the pills their quacks are sendin' me. You don't need to hear about my troubles, though."

Kale swallowed nervously. Should he say it or not? Somehow he felt like he was failing as a Jedi if he didn't.

"Jedi are supposed to help people in need, Mr. Caedmon," he said. "I was hopin' I could find a way to help your family."

All eyes turned to the Padawan. "Why us?" Mr. Caedmon asked.

"I... I'm not sure," Kale replied. "I just think I happened by your daughter for a reason. So if there's anything I can do, I--"

The hair on the back of Kale's neck stood up, electrified. In his mind's eyes, he saw the broken window, the scorched wall. And he returned to himself just in time to yell, "Get down!"

They ducked--everyone--as a blaster bolt squealed through the family room window and erupted onto the far wall. Two more bolts followed, spewing molten glass onto the floor and onto the table.

As the haze of ozone cleared, Kale lifted his head and glanced out into the darkness of the parking lot in time to see the tail lights of an unmarked speeder clearing the scene.

[Kale]

"Is everyone all right?" Mr. Caedmon asked. He was the steadiest of the lot of them--Ellis was awfully shaken, but he gave a trembling affirmative. Rainah clenched her fists and nodded, then glanced toward Kale. All of them were glancing toward Kale now. He was the Jedi. Wasn't he supposed to do something?

Steeling himself, the Padawan rose from his seat, clutching his training saber in a white-knuckled grip. "We'd better close the blinds. I'll go check to see if there's anybody else hangin' around out there."

"If there is, they'll be watchin' the doors," Rainah said.

"Yeah, but..." Kale paused in his tracks. "That'd depend on what they were after. Maybe it's just a bunch of drunks in a speeder."

"Could be," Mr. Caedmon said, but the look in his eyes said he didn't think so. "Ellis, be careful now and go close the blinds, and watch the glass on the floor. Rainah, go get a broom and a dustpan, and you can start sweepin' up the glass. Now, Kale..." With the help of his cane, he heaved himself up out of his chair and beckoned Kale closer. "Rainah told you what Brannegan's after?"

Kale drew closer and nodded.

The sick man put a hand on his chest to steady his breathing. "I want you to know, son, I appreciate your wantin' to help. But Brannegan ain't gonna be intimidated out of business, even by a lightsaber."

Kale furrowed his brow. "You think he'd order a shoot-and-run with a Jedi in the house?"

"He might," Mr. Caedmon replied. "Maybe even because you're in the house. Don't count on those robes to protect you, son."

A great weight settled in the pit of Kale's stomach. He'd expected street goons who'd tuck their tails between their legs at the flash of a saber--criminals who were as cowed by the Jedi mystique as he'd been when he was on the streets. He'd been wrong, dead wrong.

"I'll keep my head down," he said. "If they wanted to kill somebody, they woulda fired more than three shots. I'll be right back."

Kale left the Caedmon apartment, took a dozen paces down the corridor, and leaned heavily against the wall, rubbing his throbbing temples. What the frell was he doing? He'd offered to help, but he didn't have the slightest idea how. He'd already played his only hand, and it was a bluff. And Brannegan was calling it.

Collecting himself, the Padawan cautiously ventured into the lobby. He couldn't see anyone in the sickly, yellow light of the parking lot--just a swoop and a landspeeder, both unoccupied. Praying his danger sense wouldn't fail him, he stepped outside, took a deep, calming breath, and stretched out his feelings. The Force yielded no clues. He jumped when a window slid open above him--it was a concerned neighbor asking if everything was okay. Kale gave her a noncommittal positive and turned back into the apartment complex.

Rainah and Ellis had the glass swept up, and Mr. Caedmon was directing them in taping a sheet of cardboard over the ruined pane. "Didn't see anyone hangin' around," Kale reported.

"I figured as much," Mr. Caedmon replied. "Well, no sense in letting a good dinner go to waste."

They finished eating in relative silence. Then Mr. Caedmon sent a reluctant Ellis off to finish his homework, and Rainah got up to clear away the dirty dishes.

"Sit down a minute, Rainah," her father said. "We need to talk."

Rainah's brow furrowed defiantly as she sank back into her seat. "I know what you're gonna say, daddy. Things aren't as bad as they look."

"You told me Brannegan hadn't started pressurin' you again," Mr. Caedmon replied.

"I ain't the only one he stops in the street," Rainah said. "I didn't want you worryin' over nothing."

"I don't call three blaster bolts through my front window 'nothing.'"

"Brannegan didn't say nothin' about hittin' the apartment," Rainah said helplessly. "If he had, I'd have warned you. I don't know what coulda made him that desperate, unless..." She shifted her eyes toward Kale.

The weight in Kale's stomach twisted in a knot. "I never wanted to put your family in danger, Mr. Caedmon," he said.

"I know," said Mr. Caedmon. "This ain't the first time Brannegan's pulled this sort of trick. He did it three years ago when his bosses started leanin' on him. Before Shana..." His breathing hastened. "Frell it, I am not gonna lose another daughter to that--" He coughed. "--that son of a--" The spasms in his lungs shook his entire body, and he curled forward over the table with his arms crossed against his chest.

"Daddy!" Rainah bolted from her chair and set her hands on her father's heaving shoulders. She glanced up at Kale, panicked. "Daddy, breathe. Please, breathe!"

Mr. Caedmon gasped his tortured lungs full of air, coughed it out, then inhaled again. Every breath was a battle. At last he pulled himself upright, red-faced and exhausted.

"I'm sorry," he said, reaching over his shoulder to clutch Rainah's hand. "It's all right, baby, I've had worse. I'm worried about you."

He looked back at Kale. "I don't know what you had in mind, Kale, but if you can help us, we need the help. We'd move, but we can't afford it, now that the Fever's kept me out of a job. And Brannegan wouldn't allow it anyway. I've tried other police departments, and they say they'll look into it, which means they'll skim Brannegan's file and put it back. I'd keep my daughter here, where I can protect her, but we need her job to survive. I don't know what to do."

Kale clenched and unclenched his fists on the table. He didn't know, either.

"CPD needs to bust this creep," he said. "I bet they get a million complaints a day against their cops, but if they get a report from a Jedi, they'd have to pay more attention."

"You'd have to move fast," Rainah said, squeezing her father's hand. "The second he smells an investigation, he'll wipe out all the evidence. He's awful good at that."

Wipe out the evidence. Including the Caedmons, if it came to that. Kale didn't miss the tremble in Rainah's voice. They needed more than an advocate; they needed protection. Kale didn't know if he could pull that many strings, even if he got Pierce involved. And Pierce was already up to his forehead in security matters after the kidnapping of his son, Jax.

"I can't do much just stickin' around here," Kale said, "an' I might attract too much attention, anyway. I think I oughta head up to the Temple and get things movin' there. If Brannegan thinks he scared me off, maybe he'll keep a low profile for a few days--y'know, keep things quiet so I don't come back. I can leave right now. And I think Rainah should call in sick tomorrow."

"I can't afford another day off," Rainah said. "I'll probably lose the job."

"Yeah, well, you could lose a lot more if Brannegan corners you again," Kale replied.

Rainah scowled. "So you want us to hang our lives in the closet while you figure out how to save them. What makes you think the Jedi are gonna listen to us? There's no civil war, no Senator involved. Frell, when have the Jedi ever cared what goes on in the lower levels?"

"Rainah!" Mr Caedmon said sharply.

"She's right," Kale replied glumly. "Look, I can't make any guarantees. I wish I could. But I need to talk to my mas... my superiors... before I make any move against Brannegan. Like I said, I don't wanna put your family in any danger."

Mr. Caedmon nodded slowly. "Right. But I wouldn't be too sure of headin' back to the Temple at this hour. Maybe you oughta spend the night. You can see Rainah safely to work and be on your way in the mornin'."

[Kale]

"Sorry, I, uh... know this is a little awkward."

Rainah glowered at Kale for making the understatement of the month, then grabbed a fresh pillow and bedsheet from the hall closet.

"That's one way of puttin' it," she said icily.

Rainah was definitely hacked for some reason. Kale cautiously followed her back into the family room. "And y'know I'm not tryin' to butt in, or anything, but after I said I'd help, it seemed kinda rude to refuse the offer."

With the bundle of bedclothes under one arm, she opened a bedroom door and stepped inside. "Well, that's my daddy. Once he gets an idea in his head, he don't let it go easily. " She dropped the sheet and pillow on a chair and began stripping the covers from the bed.

Kale held up a hand. "Woah, wait a minute--ain't this your bedroom?" he asked.

"I share it with Ellis," she replied, gesturing to the cot by the wall. "Me and him’ll sleep in the family room."

"Hey, I ain't kickin' you out of your own bed. I can sleep on the couch."

"It'll be drafty in there with the window shot up. Besides, that couch is too short for anyone but Ellis. I got a sleepin' bag; I'll be fine."

"I used to sleep on the street in the Southern Underground. Drafty ain't a problem. I'll just sleep on the floor."

Rainah rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. "Look, my dad has this thing about treatin' guests, okay? If he sees you sleepin' on the floor, he'll have a fit, an’ he’s gonna blame me."

Kale smirked and dropped down onto the cushion. “Maybe I shouldn’t argue; this is the first time a girl’s tried so hard to get me into her bed. Ow!”

Some danger sense—completely missed the incoming backhand across the jaw.

The Padawan jumped to his feet and rubbed his throbbing cheek. “Geez, I was just makin’ a joke!”

Rainah’s eyes flared. “It wasn’t funny.”

Oh, yeah… Kale felt like an idiot. “Rainah, I…” He sighed. “Sorry. That was a really stupid thing to say.”

She didn’t answer. She piled the old bedclothes on the floor and began spreading the new fitted sheet across the mattress. Swallowing, Kale moved in to help tuck the sheet under the corners.

“Kale,” Rainah said quietly. “Do you really think you can take Brannegan down?”

Kale took a deep breath. He couldn’t tell if Rainah was watching him—he couldn’t bring his eyes to meet hers.

“I dunno,” he said. “I was hopin’… I was gonna try to get you an’ your family under Jedi protection.”

His promises were sounding hollower and hollower. He didn’t have a clue how the Jedi would take the situation.

“Well, it’ll have to be fast,” Rainah replied. “Listen, Brannegan’s got somethin’ in motion. I think his bosses are putting a lot of pressure on him. He told me I have until the week is out.”

Kale looked up wide-eyed. “Rainah, why didn’t you tell me that before?”

“I never thought you’d stick around this long.”

“Well, you guys need to get out of here! Listen, I got enough credits on me to get a cab to the Jedi Temple. An’ even if they won’t put you up, I know a few places your family could hole up for a while.”

“Yeah, and what then?” Rainah challenged. “How’s my dad gonna get his medication? How’re we gonna get the welfare checks we need to keep food on the table? Are the Jedi gonna pay for all that, too?”

“We can figure that out when we get there,” Kale insisted. “Those welfare checks ain’t gonna mean a frell if Brannegan gets his way!”

“Well, if somethin’ goes wrong on the way, my dad an’ Ellis are as good as dead anyway!” Rainah shot back. The stormy determination had melted away from her face, and she backpedaled into the wall, slumping there and shivering. “At least… at least Brannegan said he’d send them a bigger cut. Enough to keep Ellis in school.”

Kale’s throat went dry. “Rainah… no, no, you ain’t actually thinkin’ of givin’ in? I thought you wanted to fight this!”

Rainah’s eyes welled up. “But Brannegan ain’t gonna fight just me. Frell it, I was gonna leave my family out of this, and then you come in here makin’ promises about stuff you don’t understand. Now my dad’s polishin’ his blaster for a fight he can’t win, and Brannegan’s jumpier than ever. Tell me, Kale, can you guarantee the Jedi are gonna take Brannegan out and put the clamps on all his cronies in the neighborhood in the next four days without tippin’ him off?”

Kale took a deep breath. All the courage he’d thought he had now deserted him.

“No,” he said. “But—”

“Well, there you are,” Rainah cut him off. “Good night.”

And Kale was left very much alone.