Short Fiction: A Jedi's Justice

STAR WARS: A JEDI'S JUSTICE

Bhen Kenobi stared at the remains of bodies. The old man heard a rumour that the freed slaves who had carved a thousand doors into the walls of the canyon were no longer trading with the Sand People of the Western Badlands. They were dead. It's strange that he had not sensed it. Thousands of lives taken unnoticed. Most had been ignited by a high energy weapon that had excited every atom in their bodies and caused nuclear decay until they were little more than carbon scoring. Bhen looked back along the narrow Canyon. A single pilot fighter could fit the gap. Whoever had committed this atrocity had flown the length of the canyon over and over, killing every living thing that moved. The sheltering homes carved from rock by the hands of free people were scared with carbon. The very air had burned, ignited by the energy. Imperial forces would have deployed stormtroopers to mop up and yet there was no sign that this had occurred. All the killing had been done from a small, one-man fighter. Bhen continued down the length of the canyon until he reached the opening to the Badlands. A few of the victims had made it to the edge of the Badlands. Bhen Kenobi reached out with his senses. The life was faint. A rock overhang and beneath it a single survivor.
"It's all right. Here...water." Magh Rghn stared at the old man in dust brown robes and smiled against the pain in a last sign of gratitude.
"Who did this?" Magh Rghn felt pain just thinking the shape of the fighter: Bhen listened as Rhodium described the shape of the craft. Triangular. Three wings. A T-16. They didn't come with weapons. A modified T-16. There were a half dozen of them out at Toshi Power Station. Magh Rghn died. The lightsaber activated. Bhen Kenobi held it firmly as it's blade forced slowly into the stone of the canyon wall and then along cutting a groove in the rock some two metres in length. Again the lightsaber cut into the rock fifty centimetres above the previous cut. And now, the lightsaber cut grooves downward  to link one cut to the other. Bhen Kenobi used the force to crack the rock from its place. There was now a shelf. The old man placed the body of Magh Rghn on the shelf and moved the stone back into place sealing the beggar's Tomb. The lightsaber cut away the overhanging block creating a smooth surface. The old man could do nothing for this last survivor other than bring the justice of the jedi to the perpetrators.

Toshi Power Station was little more that a salvaged reactor from a republic star destroyer. Bhen Kenobi looked at the cluster of T-16s, some under repair. A group of younglings were working on converting old speeders into speeder bikes, now sitting on their sides and a rider's saddle straddled the top. Their ingenuity and craftsmanship was refreshing. It was something Bhen Kenobi hadn't seen in a long time. The upper gantry of the old reactor was occupied by a group of young adults watching the kids. The T-16s were more their speed. Which one had unleashed this slaughter? The sensation of despair came from everyone on the gantry. Bhen looked at the T-16s. They were all dusty. Their wings folded vertical in landing. There. A wipe of his hand confirmed it. Oxidation produced by a gas leak from a faulty surge connector. An imperial weapon to be sure, but this one was recently removed.
"Don't go messing with my T-16 old man." The guilty party had arrived.
"Like to cut down the Rhodians out at beggar's canyon do you?" Bhen Kenobi ignited his lightsaber.
"What do you care about a nest of womp rats?" Qen Darklighter fumbled his blaster just missing the old man as the lightsaber took off Qen's arm at the armpit. Qen collapsed on the ground.
"Who else?" Bhen pressed the advantage.
"We all do it." Bhen turned to confront Qen's friends as they closed firing their blasters.
They all did it. Bhen Kenobi deflected the blasts back at the murderous vermin now looking for a fight while younglings scattered on their makeshift speeder bikes. Bhen Kenobi cut the murderers down before returning his attention to the one armed man struggling to crawl for the cockpit hatch of his T-16.
"Did I say you could leave?" Qen Darklighter sat up against the hatch and again found a lightsaber in his face.
"Now, where is the weapon." Qen surrendered to a certain realisation.
"Biggs. Biggs took it." Bhen looked skyward, a familiar feeling drawing his attention. The tiny silver grey shape of a star destroyer firing on a small transport vessel. Imperials. Bhen returned his attention to the felon at his feet.
"Where can I find Biggs?" The one armed man at his feet was dead. Bhen deactivated his lightsaber and walked into the dune sea.