Private Stranded Lights

[Cale Gunderson]

Cale’s thoughts lingered on Maeve more than they should’ve, wondering what she thought when she saw him. There was no darkness in it, he did not hate these wildmen, anger was not behind the blows, it was something else. He’d been a slave, his own hands rebelling against him, yet now the prowess he’d inherited from that bondage was something he wielded without question. What did that make him? Did it change anything?

Or was it only right that he took what had been forced upon him and turned it to the pursuit of good?

“I feel it too, there must be another dozen in there.” Cale nodded, before looking back from where he stood over the bisected corpse of one of the wildmen to her. “Are you hurt? Or are you ready to finish this?” Concern snuck it’s way back into his voice, though it melded with the hum of their lightsabers.

Cale didn’t know why she was asking, there was no chance the Wildmen had gotten to her, and she didn’t seem injured, but something had compelled him to ask anyway. He wanted to be angry at her, to ignore her there with him so that he could focus inward, but he couldn’t. For whatever reason, Maeve refused to leave his mind.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"I'm okay," Maeve said with a nod. "And I'm ready."

She moved towards the sealed door, not unaware of the hint of concern in Cale's voice. Despite the strain between them, he still cared. He still felt she was worth protecting. But what about Maeve? What had she thought, when he first revealed he'd been a Sith in his past life? She'd wasted no time questioning him.

She felt a bit of shame, but again, ignored it. None of that mattered right now. Only Denth.

She pressed her hands against the door inside the broken ship, then let the Force seep into the metal. After a long, indrawn breath, Maeve released, and suddenly the doors exploded from its frame, flying back inside the corvette. A few of the wildmen inside the corridor were instantly smacked aside by it, while the rest recoiled back in surprise.

All that was left were the others—this last final stretch before they'd reach Denth's chambers.

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

Whatever thoughts he had left as she threw the door back, and they entered into the twisted wreckage of the corvette. Those that hadn’t been crushed by the door were instead siezed by a great telekinetic hand, and promptly slammed against the bulkhead with enough force to knock them unconscious. He’d done near enough butchering for one day, so Cale didn’t rush into another round of it.

Maybe they’d wake up and lumber away, or maybe the blow to their head would hemorrhage and they’d never rise again. It didn’t matter, not in the present moment. Denth, if it was him inside the chamber, did not exude any potent dark side energy. Nothing in the ship did, it was all just lifeless metal and a few still-beating hearts.

Cale moved in, through the bulkheads, down the halls which had been stripped of their paneling and left bare, and to the final waiting door. Someone was behind it, waiting, armed. He blasted it down with a flick of his wrist and went in.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

The blast doors Cale pushed against fell away like it was nothing, revealing a large chamber, or at least, what had used to be the corvette's supply depot. The ceiling was twice her height and the room boasted skinned animal furs and stolen rugs, as well as plentiful bags of rice and krill, clearly taken from the village from past raids and piled up in heaps.

Maeve gripped her lightsaber, ready to tear through Denth and his men.

"Who goes there?" a high-pitched voice called. "Who is that?"

Maeve froze. She squinted, searching for the source of the voice, then blinked in surprise. At the back of the room, sitting on a pile of old cushions and furs, was a little boy in oversized robes, much like the ones from the village. He had short, dark hair, pale skin and freckled cheeks. A human, unlike the tattooed natives of this world.

Before she could say anything, a handful of wildmen—no, wildwomen—emerged from around the piled foodstuffs, carrying makeshift spears and old weapons. The leader of them, a woman with heavy braids, pointed a sword at Maeve and Cale.

"How dare you enter sacred place!" she said in heavily broken Basic. "You stand in presence of holy one! Descended from sky! Born from fallen star! Kneel before Denth the Mighty!"

Maeve blinked again. She looked between the wildwomen, then the little boy seated on the cushioned throne in the room. Suddenly, she remembered what the wildman she'd interrogated had called Denth: small, but fierce.

She frowned. "You must be kidding me."

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

“Yeah sure, where is he?” Cale asked the women bluntly, before Maeve’s remark made the obvious dawn on him. The boy. Denth was the boy. Cale let the saber hum in his hand, but the blade fell to his side, inert and unready. Cale tried to gauge the child’s age, but the best he could guess was that he was under thirteen.

He looked to Maeve, then to the boy, then back again. They couldn’t kill him, he was just confused, or maybe he was a uniquely evil child but even then he was only a boy.

“You’re in a lot of trouble kid.” Cale warned, his voice taking on an authoritative tone once reserved for scolding the boy he caught trying to steal one of his smokes at least twice a week. Aleks had barely been twelve, and the idiot had been trying to do stims. Even that didn’t seem so bad compared to whatever little Denth had gotten himself into.

“Scram. Tend to your dead and your wounded.” He ordered the women gruffly, hoping they’d at least put together the fates of their warriors if the two Jedi had come barging in so loudly.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"Trouble?" the boy said, sounding genuinely confused. "What's that?"

"No!" The wildwoman snapped at Cale. "You wrong! Denth is god! Denth tamed great beast! Denth made things fly!"

Maeve rolled her eyes. It all made sense now. Denth had been little more than a boy, a sole survivor to a crash landing, and drawing the attention of the local wild-men, he'd no doubt earned their reverence, their loyalty. Having never lived outside the mountains, of course they'd assume he was some kind of deity.

She just needed to prove them wrong.

"You mean he did things like this?" Maeve said, and with a flick, she made the sword in the woman's hand dart out of her grip and into Maeve's. She hefted the blade, then for added measure, slashed it in two with her lightsaber. "Denth is no god. He's just a boy. A boy in possession of power you don't understand."

The wildwoman looked at each other hesitantly. Maeve thought that bit of proof would've been enough to persuade the women to discard their belief in Denth and listen, but the leader only stared between her and Cale in confusion.

"Wait, you… you and ugly man are god too?"

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

Cale looked at the child, and felt something more sincere than pity. Lost, alone, elevated to a place beyond his understanding because of gifts he couldn’t comprehend. It was almost enough to make him forget the words of the Wildwoman, but had the native seen the men of her tribe? Cale’s brow furrowed as he shot the woman a glare, before reaching out and tapping the woman on the shoulder with an arm that was not there, and from twenty feet away.

“We aren’t gods, neither is he.” Cale answered with a gruff sigh, rolling his shoulders and approaching Denth, deactivating his lightsaber and sliding it back into place as he squatted down in front of the boy.

“You’ve been here a long time, haven’t you kid?” It was rhetorical, doubtlessly the boy had been here long enough that he didn’t remember a time before.

“This isn’t where you belong, Denth. You-,” Cale thought for a moment, pondering if the boy even understood that what he’d had done to the village people was wrong. Why would he? It wasn’t like anyone would have ever told him. Cale couldn’t throw morality into the face of a boy who didn’t understand it. “You weren’t meant to fall from the stars, and it’s time that you go back to them. We can take you, where we’re from there are hundreds of kids like you, you can learn, grow, and uh…,”

Cale drew his hand back and pulled the lightsaber free, levitating the hilt in the air so that Denth could get a good look, then ignited it with a nudge in the force. The blade sparked back to life, and hummed with power, painting both Cale and Denth in its glow.

“One day, you’ll make your own one of these.” Cale promised softly, a small smile at the corners of his lips as he watched the Denth’s eyes go to the weapon. For a moment, Cale recalled a memory that was not poisoned, he remembered what it had been like to be little boy who’d just seen his first lightsaber. Nothing had meant more in the galaxy to him in that moment besides that he’d one day have one of his own.

With any luck, Denth would be filled with the same desire, and Maeve would dissuade any of the women from trying to stop Denth from following his destiny.

“Wanna see the stars again kid?”

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

The wildwoman whirled at the invisible touch on her shoulder, and the more Cale spoke, the more doubt that showed on her face. Belief was a hard thing to shatter. Even Maeve was suspect to it, but it wasn't impossible. Cale had cleared a path for the wildwomen, and with the nails he'd given her, Maeve would seal and bury the coffin that was Denth's godhood.

"He's right," Maeve said as Cale made for the boy. The wildwomen didn't stop him. "Denth is just a human from another world, a planet much like your own. My friend and I are the same. We crashed here in a ship that could sail the stars, and we're not gods. We're just different."

She lifted her eyes at the women. "You've been wrong to confuse Denth for divine, throwing him stolen gifts and offerings. If you want to make things right, then I would suggest you take what men remain outside and return to your mountains." Her voice dipped an octave. "You can do that, or I can show you what the punishment of a real god will look like."

That seemed enough. The wildwomen scurried away, leaving the makeshift throne room and hurrying outside, leaving just her and Cale and a boy too young and confused to understand what had just happened.

But Denth did understand one thing.

"The stars?" he said, watching Cale and the floating lightsaber with wonder in his eyes. He nodded slowly, and then with newfound eagerness. "I want to go home. I'm tired of this place. They only ever give me rice and krill to eat." He looked between him and Maeve. "Will you be my new mommy and daddy?"

Maeve huffed. Oh, for Ashla's sake...

Cale Gunderson​

​

 

[Cale Gunderson]

“Uhhh,” Cale looked back over his shoulder, calling the saber to his hand and deactivating it as he set his eyes on Maeve. For a heartbeat he thought about playing into it, cracking a wide grin and pretending like nothing happened. It would be easy, not to mention amusing, but Cale didn’t have it in him. Never mind that what might’ve made Maeve fume would’ve also genuinely deceived the young boy.

“No, but that’s not to say we won’t be there too. Your family is about to become a lot bigger than just a mom and a dad. I know that sounds scary, but trust me, there’s nothing better in the whole galaxy.” Cale promised, unsure if the boy even knew what a galaxy was. He hoped he wouldn’t have to explain, force knew it’d take a while.

“Don’t worry about the rice and krill, there’s so many kinds of food out there that you could try something new every day for the rest of your life and still not have tasted it all.” Cale assured the boy, stowing his weapon and offering him an outstretched hand. He supposed it was time they left, Denth in tow. How they’d explain this to the village he had no idea, in fact he was debating just telling Maeve to wander back in and lie to them while he hid out with the boy until rescue arrived.

But that seemed foolish, even for him.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"Something new everyday?" Denth said. "That sounds nice. I like that."

He reached out from his throne and took Cale's hand. He didn't let go, either—not as he was led out from the room, or down the hall of what had probably been his home for years, or outside, with the night still young and the stars still winking between the trees.

Maeve made sure to block his view of the dead, but not much remained. The wildwomen had seen to that, having retreated into their mountain holes. Without a god to follow and unite them, she doubted they'd return to bother the village anymore.

Slowly, she and Cale walked back to the settlement.

As they moved, questions stewed in the back of her mind. Just what would she tell the village elder, in tow with a mysterious child they hadn't had to begin with? Denth was clearly gifted in the Force, and handing him over to the justice of the villagers didn't seem right.

Still, part of her almost wanted to the put the boy at fault.

But that was wrong. The universe was not as black and white as Maeve first thought. Could blame really passed onto Denth, when he wasn't the one who chose to become the crooked god the wildmen had made him out to be?

Could she really blame Cale, when he had been the same? A victim to outside control? Leashed to men who wanted to make him a monster for their own purposes?

Maeve looked at him. She opened her mouth to say something, but Denth cut her off. "Mister," he interrupted. "What happened to your arm? Did someone bite it off?"

Maeve frowned yet again. She was not starting to like this boy at all.

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

While Maeve was growing to dislike the child, Cale was the opposite. He smiled at the question and laughed softly before extending his hand down to the boy who was trying to hide the fact that all the walking was making him tired. Cale hauled the boy up and onto his shoulders, letting him rest while they continued down the forest path.

"No, not exactly. I just got caught in a situation by some bad guys; I gave them a good fight, though." He spoke to Denth more gently than he ever had to Aleks. In fairness, Aleks had been older, and Cale had been substantially more bitter at the time. It came easily though, as if it were more natural to him than violence ever could've been. Turning to Maeve, he flashed an almost nervous smile, remembering her expressed distaste for children.

She might never speak to him again once this ordeal was over, Maeve was a zealot for the lack of a better term. She'd likely never trust him, and might even ask for an inquiry to look into if Cale was truly free. That stung more than he wanted to admit, but even still he found something inside him coaxing him to be cordial at least.

"You want to explain to the villagers, or should I?" He asked, glancing up at the boy on his shoulders.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve watched Cale hoist Denth up onto his shoulders, carrying him through the forest as if they were family. Despite near-death at the hands of a rancor and a dozen fanatical wildmen, he seemed to have grown surprisingly fond of the boy, certainly more than Maeve did.

It was strange to see this side to him. Almost made something in her chest ache.

She smothered the feeling when she caught Cale's eye and his question. Denth was utterly oblivious to their conversation, his head craned to the forest canopy, searching the night sky, counting the stars. Did the villagers deserve an explanation? Perhaps. Denth hadn't been actively involved in the crimes of the wildmen, just... unwittingly complicit.

It was not his fault. Surely, they would understand.

Maeve sighed. "I'll explain it to them. It'll be fine."

As a favor to Cale, she would be the one to tell them. It wasn't like the boy had known what was going on beyond his little refuge, and the villagers were sure to be grateful that she and Cale had at least resolved the problem. What was the worse that could happen?

Several hours later… ​

"Denth is what?" Reina said, eyes bugging from her face. "You mean to tell me that this little bastard—" She waved a hand to where Cale stood with the boy, "—is the reason the wildmen banded together? That he allowed them to raid and attack our settlement for nearly a year?"

Maeve pursed her lips as they stood outside the village elder's house. Perhaps the villagers were not as forgiving as she had first assumed…

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

“They attacked your village because they’re violent, don’t tell me you’re gonna lay that at the feet of a kid who’s biggest crime was surviving.” Cale was quick to put himself between Denth and the villagers, voice firm and unwavering. He wasn’t going to entertain whatever they were thinking.

“A cruiser falls from the stars and you didn’t even go looking for survivors? The place was stripped for parts, that’s for sure.” He was not subtle in his accusations.

“We took care of the Wildmen, and the kid will come with us, where he’ll learn so that no one can exploit his gifts again. Everyone gets what they want, and you don’t stain your soul trying to turn that blaster on a child.” Cale nodded towards Reina’s weapon, before turning his gaze to Maeve for a moment. It was there again, the coldness that had draped itself over him in the woods. If Reina drew, if any of them did, they wouldn’t live to pull the trigger.

“Do you have something that can make contact off-world, or a ship?” He asked the elder.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"What are you trying to suggest, off-worlder?" Reina said, shouldering her old Republic-era rifle, catching onto his accusation. "That this was all our fault?"

Tension weighed heavy on the air. Cale standing before the boy, Reina and a few of her men threatening to approach, Maeve locked between them—a fight was ready to spill over, and she felt helpless to stop what was about to happen. At least, not until the village elder stepped forward, limping on her cane, tattoos swirling.

"Enough, Reina," the elder said. "He is not wrong."

The old woman descended the steps of her porch. "We did come upon that crashed ship, many moons ago. We took parts to build our homes. Found weapons to use to hunt. But we did not realize there was a boy among the wreckage. Had we known, we would have taken him in and raised him as one of our own. I see now that we made a mistake."

She cut a look to Reina. "No harm will come to the boy. The wild-men are scattered and the raids are over. Now is the time to celebrate, not condemn. To rebuild, not regret."

Reina reluctantly bowed her head. "Yes, Mother Elya. I understand."

The village elder, Elya, turned back to Cale and Maeve. "We are in your debt, Jedi. Whatever it is you want, you will have. While we do not have a ship, we did recover other strange devices from the wreckage. Perhaps you could use them to contact your friends off-world."

She gestured them to follow her inside her home. "Come. I will show you."

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

For a moment, Cale's hand hung at his side, his fingers a twitch away from calling his blade to bear, watching as Reina brought the rifle up. She and the two men flanking her were doubtlessly strong and had likely become capable fighters during their defenses against the Wildmen, but they were not Jedi. They had seen Cale and Maeve fight; surely, they knew the gamble they'd make by training the rifles on them would never pay off. Luckily, the Elder intervened before the thought could become action.

"Thank you. Access to such a device would be most kind." Cale nodded before looking back to Maeve with a small smile, far too formal to be real. "We'll get the signal out, and I'll see about getting somewhere else to sleep for me and the kid. We can spend the time until pickup arrives meditating, or whatever."

He was trying to diplomatic, kind even, as though he wasn't expecting the same in return.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

Maeve saw the tightness in Cale's smile. It stung.

Since their conversation in the forest, it was like this gap had opened up between them, a wedge, one she wanted nothing more than to bridge, but she didn't know what to say.

The village elder beat her to it. "Stay elsewhere? Nonsense. If it is my foolish daughter you are unsure of, don't be. Reina will stay in line. But if it bothers you, then you and the boy are more than welcome to stay with me. Room will be made. Just don't expect to take mine."

Elya rose back up the steps into her home. Maeve followed, trailing the old woman through the small room where they'd shared tea no more than a day ago. Elya stopped at a sliding door made of a latticework wooden frame, then pushed it open to reveal a room full of old parts.

"This entire time," Maeve said. "Everything we needed was right here?"

Elya shrugged and offered an innocent smile. "I apologize for deceiving you, but you both smelled monstrous when we first spoke and I didn't know whether I could trust you not to call an army down on us. We are a secluded village and would prefer it remain that way."

The old hag—er, woman—hobbled to what clearly looked like the cruiser's signal beacon, dusted and intact. "I kept these here as a last resort, to learn from and inspect, but it may require a slicer's touch to work again."

Maeve looked at Cale preemptively. "Don't look at me. I wouldn't know how."

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

“Well I’m not a slicer either honey.” Cale shot back, not noticing his slip back into the earlier jokes. The Jedi squatted down in front of the machine and tried to decide if he had even the slightest chance of getting them off world via the busted transponder. Again the lingering thought that staying wouldn’t be so bad struck him, but he struck it down. Denth needed the order and Maeve needed…he didn’t know what Maeve needed.

Letting out a sigh and thumping his fist against the machinery he looked back to Maeve and gave a small shrug. “I might be able to get it going. Can you handle the kid for a few hours?” Cale knew that was asking a lot from her, but he needed to be able to focus on the task at hand.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"I'm sorry. You want me to watch the kid?"

Maeve gaped. She hated children. Never liked them, never wanted them. She doubted she could contain someone like Denth. Already, he was obliviously toying with one of the other parts in the room—a missile shell, no less. Before she could smack his hand away from the old weapon, Elya, surprisingly, interjected.

"I suppose I can watch the boy," the old woman offered. She waved a hand to Denth. "Come, child. Would you like some tea? Perhaps some rice cookies?"

Denth perked up. "You can make cookies from rice?"

"Of course, little one. I can show you how, if you'd like." Shockingly enough, the bitter old woman smiled and took Denth's hand as she led him to the small kitchen in the other room. Maeve left the sliding door open an inch, if only to keep an eye out on the boy. No telling what mischief he could do on his own, even with Elya's supervision.

Still, that just left her and Cale. Alone.

It didn't take long for an awkward silence to settle in. Maeve suddenly wondered if she should've just stomached watching Denth, rather than sit beside Cale as he fumbled with the beacon with his one hand. Neither of them had forgotten about their conversation in the forest, and she hadn't forgotten the anger in his voice. The hurt.

After a long beat, she cleared her throat. "Do… you need any tools?"

Cale Gunderson​

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[Cale Gunderson]

"No that's not what I-," The elder was already gone, deaf to his protests, though he was not entirely sure that wasn't by choice. Cale watched Eyla lead Denth out of the room and let out an exasperated sigh. "Grandma's got a guilty conscious." He grumbled to himself, though loud enough that Maeve wouldn't miss it.

Crouching down he went about popping open the interface panel on the side of the beacon with a swipe of his fingers, and beginning to test what did and didn't still function within the machine. It was a mixed bag, a mess of lights blinked green, yellow, and red to indicate the corresponding system's operational status, though some of them did not light up at all. It was going to be a tough fix, but not an impossible one.

Then she spoke, and he felt his concentration be torn away.

"Huh-, a what?" A tool, idiot. "No, nothing yet. See if they have any circuit fuses." It would be easier not to talk, to pretend like nothing happened, but he never had been smart enough to take the easy way.

"Wait," Cale reached back, grabbing for her wrist gently in the hopes he might stop her from stepping away. Cale looked back up at her with a somber look in his eyes. "Does this change things?" He didn't think he needed to clarify, which was good, as he wasn't sure he had it in him to do so.

Maeve Linahan

 

[Maeve Linahan]

"Circuit fuses?" She pretended like she knew what he was talking about. "Sure."

Before Maeve could step away to scour through the parts in the room, she felt fingers wrap around her wrist. She turned, ready to fight, unable to hide her surprise, and even more so when she saw it was Cale's hand.

She didn't expect his question. Didn't know what to say. The best she could manage was a weak laugh. "What kind of question is that?" she said. "Of course nothing's changed."

Maeve slipped out of his hold and turned away to begin her search. It seemed a decent enough answer, and no reason to continue beyond that. There was nothing more to add.

She began to finger through a box of spare parts, but after a long moment, she sighed. Maeve suddenly turned back to face him, this time with a more serious look on her face. "You know what? No. To be honest, I thought it would change things, and I thought I cared, and I thought that maybe, I couldn't trust you anymore."

"But I was wrong."

She caught a glimpse of Denth and Elya through the crack in the sliding door. The boy was smiling, shoveling down a jar of rice cookies. He seemed so innocent—nothing like she'd assumed for someone who led a company of rabid wildmen—and that was because his role had been forced on him. Denth was just a figurehead, a puppet. Just like Cale had been.

She looked him regretfully now. "Whatever happened before, I don't care. What I care about is that you are still, and will always be, Cale Gunderson. If you say you are, then okay. I trust you. Completely. And nothing is going to change that."

Another sigh. She hated admitting she was wrong. "Are you happy now? Does that answer your stupid question?"

Cale Gunderson​

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