Troubled Thoughts
It had been a week since they had left the Milky Way galaxy, and were soon to be entering the Amrandian one. Captain Amarav lay on her bed in her room, in her spaceship. True to her nature, she was bored. They were heading to Hitena, and she knew that it was a planet ruled by Sean's father. That meant Sean could show up anytime. But they had to risk it. They needed the bostanite. The Amrandians would not suspect that they would dare collect the Hitenan bostanite right from under their noses.
She heard a knock on her door. "Captain!" came a young man's voice.
"Come in," she called. The door slid into the wall. Her room's computer was programmed to respond to 'Come in' with the same function as 'Open' ...to open the door.
She sat up and swung her legs over the side.
"What is it, Trevor?" she sighed.
"Are— are you all right, Amarav?" Trevor stepped inside and walked up to her. "This is going to be a dangerous mission."
"For all of us, Trevor. It's always been that way. As long as Sean's chasing us, chasing ME, there's no telling what will happen."
"Janice says we're almost there," Trevor said, in a graver tone.
"Hitena?" Amarav asked, feeling adventurous yet apprehensive.
"Yes."
"Hm..." she sighed, frowning.
"I hope it won't be too difficult, Amarav, for your sake," Trevor smiled sadly, putting a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "I don't mind battling, since my dad's in charge of the army and I'm not too bad of a weapons engineer, but...I WOULD like a change of political weather." Trevor sighed.
"Me too. Just... peace. For once," Amarav leaned back on a pillow.
Trevor nodded.
Contrary to their wishes, Janice's voice came over the intercom: "WE'VE ARRIVED AT HITENA. AMARAV AND MAIN DECK STAFF PLEASE REPORT TO MAIN DECK."
Trevor looked up and sighed. "So much for peace."
"It's all right." she stood.
Trevor bowed slightly.
"Let's go." the eighteen-year-old Captain of the StarShip 2000 ordered, treading swiftly toward the door.
The cousins soon reached the main deck control room, a bright and roomy place with a large viewscreen showing an animated replica of the Amrandian solar system. The StarShip 2000, being the primary vehicle in the 2000 class of universal traveling, and now also the princesses' main ship for travel, had the classic style with all the function. The ship even had a landing pad for smaller ships to land, dock, take off, and whatnot. The size of the ship did not hinder speed. In fact, it gave extra momentum when at high speeds.
Walking into the room, they saw Janice waving her arm vaguely at the oval shaped table in the middle of the room, where a laminated paper lay covering the entire table. It bore realistic pencil drawings of the orbits of the eighteen planets of Amrandia. The planets were Amrandia, Enstacia, Vav Serenia, Telthurstia, Rakaena, Ovirna, Thadia, Dathella, Ignea, Idurose, Farstel, Wyrdell, Traena, Estavine, Meschae, Kolir, Lelinon, and their obvious destination: Hitena.
"The problem IS," Janice was saying, projecting her voice to carry through the entire room and beyond, even though that wasn't necessary, "how exactly do we approach this? We could send down a search party, or if that's not cautious enough, since we don't know exactly what Amrandian security is like down there, we could send two people, one to call for help if the other is captured. But, then we'd have to face negotiating for their release, and we know all Amrandians are naturally averse to negotiating. They prefer to fight. And that's just what we're trying to avoid. So... I'd want there to be enough party members to put up a fight on the surface so nobody gets captured."
"Why can't I go by myself?" Amarav said, annoyed.
"Because it's too likely that you will be captured." Janice replied. "Now..."
"Captured? I have superpowers! I can't be 'captured'!" she scoffed.
"Amanda, just listen. Please. Okay? I was saying—" she turned to the others.
Amarav rolled her eyes. She hated it when Janice acted like the superior. Suddenly she had a thought, as she watched Blake and the others listening intently to what Janice was saying. She COULD go by herself. She didn't have to tell anyone. No one could stop her then.
"I'm the Captain, aren't I?" she thought a bit pridefully to herself. "I'm the one in control here."
And above all that, she had superpowers. Just go get the bostanite, come back with it, and fly the StarShip 2000 home. Easy as numberry pie.
She was decided. Once everything had settled down in the main deck, she'd slip off to the airlock exit and get away fast. She would return victorious with the precious mineral in hand, or so she thought.
Awhile later, Janice realized she was missing. She had taken her radio communicator, though. That was good.
"I'd better comm her," she thought. Checking their coordinates, she figured that Amarav had probably left while they were in orbit nearest the southern region of the planet. "The crew should know about this."
Calling together the crew for the second time that day, she informed them of the situation.
"Amarav is missing, guys. And that can mean only one thing. She's gone down to the planet's surface to try to find the bostanite herself."
Amarav walked through the thick jungle, wishing she could fly but not wanting to risk missing the bostanite deposits hidden under the surface in certain parts of the planet.
She perused the ground carefully every few feet, and suddenly saw a dull silvery gleam of what she was sure was bostanite. Getting on her hands and knees, she brushed some of the dirt away and tried to pull the bostanite out of the ground with her gloved hands.
While she was distracted, an Amrandian soldier with the Hitenan insignia on his shoulder happened to walk up behind her and started, surprised. Recognizing her as the princess of Farlovelle, he knew this was the one person Prince Sean most wanted captured. Thinking of an upgrade from his current rank, he quietly aimed his freeze gun at her.
"We NEED to send someone to look for her!" Janice said. "I don't want to be anywhere near the Amrandians just as much as you do, but I'm not entirely sure that Amarav is smart enough to keep the locals off her trail!"
"We can't afford to lose anyone else," said the advisor, Blake. "We won't send lone pilots down to that...AMRANDIAN jungle."
"But what will we do? Amarav's down there!" cried Rosalee, Amarav and Janice's younger sister.
"Let's try contacting her again," suggested Sophia.
"But she hasn't responded any of the other times we contacted her," Rosalee snapped. The 8-year-old sighed in frustration and stormed out of the room.
Janice looked over her shoulder, a little worried about Rosie's angry reaction but trying to concentrate on her missing sister.
Renegade Rescue
by Jane Pinegrove
Preface
This is actually my sister's continuation of my WordGirl story Secret Identity: Safe, Or Not. However, it is still a good fanfic by itself, if you have no idea what WordGirl is. (But if you do, and even if you didn't, it would probably be better to read the first one first.)
My sister wrote all of it. But she no longer writes fanfictions.
However, I DID originally invent the StarShip 2000, the evil Prince Underwood, and my own OC, Captain Amarav. She just built off my original ideas by developing Prince Sean's character a little more, and adding several crew members to my StarShip 2000. (and making up this adventure of it! What fun!)
Renegade Rescue
a Star Wars story
Disclaimer: some characters, places, ideas, etc. are copyrighted to Lucasfilm and George Lucas. Captain Amarav, the StarShip 2000 and its crew, Prince Underwood and the whole idea of Amrandia belong to my sister (and me! I helped!). Some other things also may, (including the whole plot of this story!) but those are the main things.
Chapter Index
One: The Mission
Two: On Hitena's Surface
Three: The Amrandian Base
Four: A Heroine's Demise
Five: The Groups Meet Again
Six: Search and... Rescue?
Seven: Threatened by the Truth
Eight: No Objections?
Nine: Hesitations
Ten: And That is That (Wrap Up)
Chapter One: The Mission
"Captain Amarav, come in, Captain Amarav," CoCapJanice spoke into her communicator. This had been an already very frustrating mission for her, and now that her own captain was down on one of the treacherous planets of Amrandia, there was no telling what might happen.
"Captain Amarav, if you please, we've already lost several important pilots on this mission. We do not need to lose our own captain. Please return to the StarShip 2000, Captain," pleaded the CoCaptain's assistant, Andrea.
The captain did not respond.
"Probably just ignoring us..." muttered one of the crew.
"On the contrary, the captain may be in trouble," Sophia interjected. "We should send a search party into the southern region of the planet."
"Not quite yet," returned CoCapJanice. She was the captain's faithful assistant and held the patience of every crew member.
All except one, that is.
Little did the Captain or CoCaptain know, Junior CoCaptain Rosalee left the StarShip 2000 for the planet Hitena.
And what a surprise was in store for her.
Since the reduced threat of the Imperial army and the technical abolishment of the Dark Side, Luke Skywalker and his friends were taking a break on his home planet Tatooine.
It was a slightly warm afternoon there. Han was busy at his ship along with R2 and Chewie. Suddenly Luke appeared.
"Making improvements?"
"Well, yeah. Chewie, could you hand me the screwdriver?"
The Wookiee moaned something and dropped the screwdriver into the hand poking out of a compartment beneath the floorboard.
R2 excitedly beeped. Out of fright or not was not clear.
"What's that?" called the technician.
The droid replied with a longer string of excited-sounding beeps.
"Who?"
"I believe he already said it was an unknown caller, sir," came a third voice.
"Threepio, what ARE you doing up here?" asked Solo sounding half-bored and half-annoyed.
"I was just—"
"He followed me in, Han," Luke added as he pressed a button on the dash to put the call on speakerphone. "Hello?"
"Han Solo?" came a female voice.
"Yeah, who wants to know?" he responded, with a half-raised eyebrow.
"It's Janice."
A moment's pause.
"Janice who?"
"Janice WHO needs your and Luke's help in a dangerous predicament."
"Why us?"
"You're the only help we can think of. Besides, Uncle, we'll need a Jedi." Then, she added, as if an afterthought: "Oh, and a couple of cute droids."
"What did she say?" C-3PO asked R2-D2.
R2 beeped.
"Uncle?"
"Remember me, Janice, your niece?"
Han seemed a bit reluctant to the question at first. But he finally replied with a nonchalant "Yeah."
"Okay then, you should know who you're dealing with. Is Luke there?"
"I'm here."
"I need your guys' help. Capt— Amarav's been kidnapped by locals in allegiance to the Imperial army, and my crew's way too small to take them alone. You see, Amrandians have Imperial defense systems. You and all the other Rebel forces are the only others we can count on."
Momentary silence. Crickets seemed to chirp.
"Send us an army, or you four can come alone."
This comment seemed to upset Chewie.
"Of course you can come too, Chewbacca," consoled C-3PO hastily.
Luke and Han exchanged glances, and R2 beeped quizzically.
"I've been bored these last few days," Luke commented optimistically.
"Sounds fine," Han finally said. "We'll come ASAP."
"Perfect," the CoCaptain finished. "We won't forget this. Good luck."
The call turned to dial tone and Luke pushed a button to end it.
"What about Leia?" wondered Solo. "We can't just leave her here. What if—"
"She doesn't HAVE to go and it probably won't matter even if she does tag along."
"But what if it DOES matter?"
"If you don't mind, sir, the odds that Princess Leia is safer here than on the mission are 618 to 1," C-3PO put in.
"Based on what, huh?" questioned Han.
After not earning a reply, he seemed to think this over for a moment. Then he climbed into the driver's seat. "All right, but you should probably let her know where we're going first."
Luke smiled weakly and exited the ship. Presently, Chewie moaned.
"Don't worry, buddy, you're coming," Han said, turning to the Wookiee.
After a small moment of silence, R2-D2 removed his small metal limb from the connection in the wall and started beeping. Han looked quizzical for a second.
"He says he tracked the call to the planet Hitena, one of the eighteen planets that make up Amrandia," confirmed C-3PO.
Han turned to the control panels and started pressing buttons. "Alright, setting coordinates to the planet Hitena."
Chewie seated himself in the passenger seat and buckled in.
"Sir, shouldn't we wait for Master Luke?" asked a worried 3PO.
Solo looked annoyed.
"That's what I'm doing, so... chill out."
A moment passed where R2 beeped to his pal, 3PO looked a little squeamish, Chewie let out a moan, and Han wouldn't keep his fingers off the controls. Finally, Luke entered.
"Are we ready?" he asked with an adventurous smile.
"You bet," answered the pilot, somewhat reluctantly.
"Oh, Artoo, I don't know about this," said 3PO. The droid only replied with a string of low beeps.
The ship took off with an exceptional start.
"CoCaptain, are you sure we should call them for aid?" one of the crew asked. "I mean, we don't really—"
"No, no no no of course we do. I've been wanting to see them again myself."
A disgruntled, stuffy silence seemed to have been boxed in the room.
"There they are," said Luke, pointing out the window to the StarShip 2000.
"I'll contact them," Han replied, redialing on the control panel.
"Greetings, Uncle," Janice welcomed. "And Luke and Artoo and Threepio. Am I forgetting someone?"
Chewie replied quickly, hovering near the speakerphone.
"Ah, Chewie, my memory's bad. I apologize."
"So, your captain's on Hitena?" inquired Skywalker.
"Yes, the southern side from where we hover."
"All right, we'll be there."
"Thanks a lot." "It's not a big deal."
The call ended shortly.
The first thing Janice said was: "Prepare my capsule."