Ultrachrome flashed. Mace could have met him, blade to shields, but instead he slipped aside.
He had no intention of fighting this man. Not here and now. Not anywhere. Not ever.
Vastor was younger, stronger, faster, and immensely more powerful, and he wielded weapons that could not be harmed by the Jedi blade. Mace couldn't win such a battle on his best day, and this day was far from his best: he was exhausted, badly wounded, and heartsick.
But the fact that his lightsaber couldn't hurt those shields didn't make them invulnerable.
As Vastor gathered himself to spring again, Mace reached into the Force. The vibroshield stuck into the wall above Nick's head squealed against the bunker's armor as it came to life and pulled itself free and streaked like a missile toward Vastor's back.
Vastor's incredible reflexes whirled him, and those same reflexes snapped his shields in front of his chest in plenty of time to block- But they didn't actually block anything.
There was a reason why, when Vastor's shields met to make that metallic howl, he always brought them together back-to-back, instead of edge-to-edge.
The flying shield's vibrating edge sheared through both Vastor's shields, through both his wrists, and buried itself in the bone of his chest, stopping less than a centimeter short of his heart.
Vastor blinked astonishment at Mace as though the Jedi Master had betrayed him.
Mace said, "You were warned." Vastor's head shook weakly, suddenly palsied. He dropped to his knees. You've killed me.
He sounded like he couldn't make himself believe it.
"No," Mace said. "That's another of the Jedi rules. Killing you is not the answer for your crimes. You're going back to Coruscant. You're going to stand trial." Vaster swayed. His gaze went blank and blind.
"Kar Vaster," said Mace Windu, "you are under arrest." Vaster pitched forward. Mace caught him and turned him face-up before lowering the unconscious lor pelek to the floor.
Then he pulled himself back to his feet, leaning on the console.
His vision grayed and lost focus; for a moment he wasn't sure where he was. This might have been Palpatine's office. Or the interrogation room at the Ministry of Justice. The Intel station, or the dead room at the Lorshan Pass.
Perhaps even the Jedi Temple. but the Jedi Temple wouldn't ever smell like this.
Would it?
"Master Windu?" He remembered the voice, and it brought him back to the command bunker.
"Is it over?" Geptun called tentatively from the transceiver chamber. He sounded very old, and more than a little lost. "Can I come out now?" Mace looked down at Kar Vastor, and the spreading pool of blood in which he lay. He looked at the scattered corpses of clone troopers and militia techs. He looked at Nick Rostu, crumpled against the wall.
"Master Windu?" Geptun's head appeared slowly over the rim of the hole in the floor. "Did we win?" Mace looked at the sad, shrunken form of Depa Billaba, and thought about his victory conditions.
"I seem to be," Mace Windu said slowly, "the last one standing." It was the only answer he had.
AFTERWORD THE JEDI" S WAR FROM THE PRIVATE JOURNALS OF MACE WlNDU: I still dream of Geonosis.
But my dreams are different, now.
A Republic task force arrived to take possession of Haruun Kal and the Al'har system within forty-eight standard hours of my arrest of Kar Vaster; it seems they had already been dispatched to answer a distress call from the acting commander of the Halieck.
Their landing was unopposed.
The Republic will not occupy Haruun Kal; acting under my authority as General of the Grand Army of the Republic, I redesignated the Korunnal Highland. It is no longer enemy territory, and Haruun Kal is no longer officially a war zone. On my recommendation, the Senate has declared the combat operations on Haruun Kal to be a police action.
Because I have decided to treat the Summertime War as a law enforcement problem.
Which it would have always been, had the financial interests behind the thyssel bark trade not been able to buy off certain Senators and Judicial sector coordinators.
We are in the process of disarming the jungle prospectors and the remaining bands of Korunnai guerrillas. It's going surprisingly well; the jups are terrified of Republic soldiers, and the Korunnai bands are mostly exhausted and sick. As they come to understand that they will not be mistreated, many simply surrender altogether. All charges of atrocities are being investigated. If those responsible can be identified, they will be tried, and they will be punished.
The planetary militia remains, though at greatly reduced strength. The militia regulars will now become what they should always have been.
Keepers of the peace. Not soldiers.
Many of them have volunteered to be inducted into the Republic Army.
Including, unexpectedly, Colonel Geptun.
He has not been charged with any crime. The vast bulk of the atrocities committed against the Korunnai were done by jungle prospectors, not the militia. Even his threat of a massacre at the Lorshan Pass turns out to have been a bluff. He never ordered any such thing; in fact, the militia's written rules of engagement specifically prohibit the targeting of civilians.
Not only have I recommended he be accepted into the Grand Army of the Republic, I have already written out his transfer to Republic Intelligence.
We will need him.
Nick-I should say, Major Rostu-continues to convalesce in a medical center here on Coruscant. I do not know if I can keep my promise of a job teaching unconventional warfare, but I have no doubt we can find something for him. I have submitted a recommendation to the Senate that his brevet rank be confirmed.
And that he be awarded the Medal of Valor for conspicuous gallantry under fire, and actions above and beyond the call of duty.
I have also assigned to Chalk a posthumous commission. Her real name, I have learned only now, was Liane Trevval, and that name will appear in the Senate record. I gave her the commission to render her eligible for the same medal.
I have no other way to express my respect for who she was.
Her great akk, Galthra, has vanished. If an akk's Force-bonded part ner dies, it is customary to put the beast down, for it is not uncommon for akks who have lost their person to go insane, and vicious.
Galthra went into the jungle. I can only hope she stays there.
Pelek Baw will be rebuilt. There is too much money in the thyssel trade for its epicenter to lie in ruins for long. The casualties- Are recorded elsewhere. It is a staggering number.
No one on Haruun Kal will ever forget that night.
Kar Vastor also continues to recover from his wounds. His hands were saved, and he is under detention here in the Jedi Temple, where his power cannot sway his jailers.