Author Notes: This story continues The Phantom Menace a few months after its ending. I haven't finished that story, due to my disappointment with the ending I wrote. The last missing chapters of it are not anyhow crucial concerning this story. The Gate is shut down, the Galaxy saved, and Team Lightyear with its company returns to their normal lives. I'll finish it some day, when I figure out a better ending for it. Yet, I was told to post this story, so I did put it up. The characters are possibly out-of-character (especially Buzz), so apologies for that. I have written this story slowly since late July, so similarities to anything are unintentional. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command © Disney/Pixar. SW elements © Lucasfilm. There's even more stuff that doesn't belong to me either.
Episode VI
Pride and Humiliation
"Uhh…"
"Ouch… oh, my aching back…"
Moans. Silent moans were heard here and there.
"B-Buzz Lighty-y-year mission log…" another weary breath began, "Stardate four-zero-seven-two… Star Cruiser 42 has run off course en route t-to sector four…"
"B-Buzz? Is that y-you…?" a feminine whine asked, "A-are you all right?"
The man's deeper tone went on, "I-I've crash-landed on a strange planet… T-terrain seems a bit u-unstable…"
"Bu-buzz? Sit down, you're still staggering…"
"No readout yet if the air is breathable… ouch!" The speaker found himself on his stomach on the ground. His aching legs had given in to try teetering, and had collapsed.
Mira shook white dust away from her space suit, and pushed a large, heavy piece of scrap metal from over her stomach. Grazes and crumbs smiled at her, while she peeked through her visor. A reedy hole, the size of a woman's palm, had appeared in it.
"Buzz… the air is breathable…" she noted jadedly.
Some meters away from her, another dunghill stirred. A woman dug herself out. She stayed sitting on the heap, leering bemused around. Taking her bubble helmet down, she took a good inhale of the fresh, windy air.
"Drat…"
"You're OK, Zarah…?" the Tangean lend her a hand.
"Umh… I guess so…"
"Booster? Where's Booster?" suddenly was cried out. Only three persons were present, visible. But the preliminary panic was soothed, as garbage stack undulated, and the Jo-Adian's dizzy head popped up. "Ohh, how beautiful all the sweet, tweeting chaffinches are…" he deliriously swayed from right to left, unearthing himself gradually from the mess mountain. However, this was the squad at hand. How much XR was hollered and wept after, he did not even caw.
Fifteen minutes passed. Buzz had won his vertigo, and started raking through the litter mounds. Mira and Zarah both helped Munchapper to sit in the grass, away from the smolders and reek. Gradually the earth found its position in his eyes, not any more acting like a sway. The birds flew away, and the chirruping shifted to the wail of wind. And Buzz, turning upside down a white, metallic hull piece, came up with a saddening view. The lost robot ranger was lying under it in tens of pieces. Whole his middle body was crooked, his head at least in seven separate parts cluttering at the bottom of his broken visor. The power was off, a comatose scene was he. Lightyear sighed deep, buried his head in his palms and sat at the graveyard of Forty-two. All was lost, was it?
Still a few hours ago, everything had been cheering with the sparkle of the solar systems. Zarah Darkmatter had stepped out of a conference hall on the teeming planet of Winduu. A scientific summit meeting was behind. Almost three weeks of negotiating, listening to lectures and debates, keeping speeches and sharing knowledge would lastly end. She would be free to run in to her Master's enfold, free to give a warm hug to her daughter. The several weeks in isolation from her family had felt like an Ice Age of sentiments. Warp, due to his work, had not been able to share the time with his Lady, and analogously for her the work trip to this summit had been more than obligatory. There would have been finally settled the fortune of landanah, in the hands of thousands of skilful experts.
Team Lightyear's patrolling route had swept past the constellation where Winduu bathed in gravitation. Just a small swerve it had been for 42 to land there, and pick up Choi. She was traveling to Capital Planet, and so were the space rangers. A lift was arranged. Warp was contacted, and he would be on his way to Star Command, to receive his wife when the star cruiser would glide smoothly to the launch bay. So it had been planned… and everything had seemed to go with a swing. But who could augur the rumbling skies, the uncanny odds… Something had gone wrong; forty-two had erred on its route, deciding to guide its passengers to an almost fatal odyssey.
----
A quick health study among the survivors was made. No one had luckily worse injuries, if bruises were not calculated. The space suits had protected the creatures well in the accident. But as the costumes were checked out, they definitely had armfuls of defections.
"Let's see… what works?" Buzz sighed, banging helplessly his wrist communicator. It did not give a chirp back, when he tried the comlink frequencies.
"My laser works!" Booster announced solemnly.
"Let's see… compass, thermometer, calculator, Babelfish translator, a holo-reader… those are ok." Nova examined her wrist talker.
"The com channels or radio frequencies won't work there either?" Buzz asked.
"Nope, unfortunately."
Everything else was then ready for landfill. The space uniforms were seemingly intact, but the jetpacks, most of the lasers, and other necessities were out of function. Booster eyed sadly at XR, who had no life or sense in his defunct circuits. The Captain had gathered his parts up, and brought him also in the grass.
"By the way… any idea where we are?"
Buzz scanned his brains, and the travel's course. The depart from Winduu had been tranquil, and after the Tuskenz System, the jump gate to hyperspace had been activated. But then something peculiar had occurred. In a cross of twelve wormholes, something must have had gone to woods. 42 had abruptly gained immeasurably speed, its structures not sustaining that kind of traveling. The star cruiser had begun to shatter, crackle in its joints… and at the last moment, Buzz had reversed the jump gate, appearing straight to the cloudy atmosphere of some planet. And then, black. The last mementos concerned him lying on trash. "I think… we were accidentally caught in excess-space. The place, where travel goes faster than the lightspeed. It's a really, really small odd that wormholes can blend to such a superchannel, but it might explain what happened to us. But where on Pluto could we be now…?" he rolled around in the lawn. Distant forests surrounded the open place from every side. The view to every single direction was like on Tellus, or Morph, or…
"Planet Yrmh? Could this be Yrmh?" Booster suggested.
Zarah shook her head. "No, look at the sky. There's six moons showing themselves. Yrmh's a moonless fellow."
Buzz count the distances arduously. "We left Alpha Quadrant's sector nine. And I'm positive we did arrive to Gamma Quadrant. But this is not Morph. Morph has two moons. Corellia? It's near Capital Planet, and has plentiful of forests, and eleven medium-sized satellites. Hmm… some of them could be in their dark phases. But… if this is Corellia, about which I'm definitely sure now, the towns are not more than one day's walk distance from each other."
"Hmm…" Mira was somewhat skeptical. "Hopingly. If we are on Gamma Quadrant."
The crash-landers stood up. "So, shouldn't we be leaving? I can't see houses here. We possibly need to walk some time so that we can get help. Everyone ready for a saunter?"
"Uh…" Booster scrambled up, stretching his aching limbs. "Ranger Munchapper reporting for duty, Sir!"
Everything that could be saved from the ruins, were taken with. Some half-burned food, drink rations, and other miscellaneous objects were found. Booster set XR's parts in his backpack. Thus the depart began. From the dry meadow, where the remains of Star Cruiser forty-two still smoldered, Team Lightyear and Zarah chagrin in their hearts began hiking towards the edge of the woods that loomed in the horizon. The air was brisk, and occasionally a petty cold breeze titillated the cheeks of the roamers. It seemed to be a late autumn here, as the heathland had here and there dyed maroon. The forest further there glowed as colorfully, with golden, red, and brown tints crowning the hardwood. Here and there were green spots, and under the travelers heavy feet were trampled the last flowers of the passing year. Sweetish fragrance of some unknown plants hovered to everyone's nostrils.
"Brings a lot of memories in my mind…" Zarah clothed her thoughts into words. "I remember years ago… I wandered a bit like this with Warp…"
"On that Yrmh?"
"Yep…" Her pale face turned gloomy, as she had thought finally to sleep this night in his arms, after the long trip. Three long weeks the little woman had missed her daughter, and her mate's gentle warmth. Now it suddenly felt like a distant dream, as she traipsed here in the falling night. In the unknown.
Silence. Silence reigned for a long while.
"Do you guys think we can soon find someone to help us?" Booster uttered almost after half an hour of complete stillness. While that, the grassland had turned bushier, and little tree-stumps specked it here and there.
"I wish I'd know. Anyone can spot a house somewhere? A phone-call to Star Command might come in handy."
"Nope. Just forest." Nova glanced around.
"In that case… we may need to stay the night in the open air." Lightyear primed his lips.
"But where? We have no tents or blankets, just…"
"We don't necessarily need those", Choi began dryly like some expert. She knew it too well, what it was like to sleep out in the frost night without a proper shelter. "Space suits keep the warmth, fire is easy to make. Only we need to ration the food and water."
"You'd become a good survival course trainer", Buzz gave a guffaw. "Well, space rangers are used to that. All kinds of situations may happen on the patrols. More concerned I'm about the possible wildlife there may be in the forest. Since we don't know if we have landed in backwoods or just in rural outskirts."
"Well, not too long we can stay out of the range of civilization. We got food for about two days and drink even less", Nova began sternly.
"Nah… very unlikely that we'd have to stay here later than possibly for tomorrow noon. There has to be some colonization near."
But G'Deneb and the Princess did not agree with this in their minds. There could be a week of divagating ahead. And even, as this whole planet shone with its unknown site, the odds became bleak.
The last orange rays of the sun had vanished beyond the treetops as the team entered the thicker copse. The darkness grew deeper already in the brush. A couple of faint stars were lit on the purple sky. The feeble wind soughed amid the yellow and red leaves, putting a few of them fall down. The intact grass was already stippled by them. Apprehension had somewhat grown, as the voyage went on. No beaten ways were found in the freely sprouting vegetation, no man-made ditches, nothing.
-----
Warp Darkmatter took a walk to and fro on the flight deck of Star Command Headquarters. Jumpy he glanced at his timer every other second, growling to himself, "Two hours late! Babe was supposed to be here quasary two hours ago! Lightspeed is invented, where the heck does that junk ship grovel? In a swamp?" Under his arm he was carrying a tot, who fretfully tried to meddle his space suit's wing releasing button all the time.
"No, no, no. Keep yar itchy fingers away from that, or daddy's gonna crash trough the ceiling. Why dontcha play with this hairy pal I bought ya?"
He sat down to bounce a blue-haired bear-looking plushie in front of the tittering girl. "Sully comes and Sully goes, 'Groaar' he says and goes to dinner with Zurg."
"Give me!" she ripped the plaything from his hand, and at next tried to pull its head off.
"Alright, do what ya want with it, but don't finger poppa's buttons. Heh, ya're just like my babe, already interested in all kinds of tech widgets."
But his nervousness grew. The third hour had expired, and Star Command's night shift brought other rangers to wander along the corridors. "That's it. I'm waiting no more. They said they're gonna be late, but this is too much. I'm callin' there an' earfullin' that Lighthead. I want my babe here and now. Her Master needs her. And needs her a lot. And the kiddie needs too." Dialing Buzz' wristcom code, he prepared to a vid-session.
Waiting, waiting, waiting. The link gave only cosmic noise. "What the dratted raisin…?" he banged the buttons. Nothing. Next try, Zarah's wrist communicator. And the result was the same, only the crackle of a broken connection rattled not so merrily to him.
Abruptly Warp's face faded, and his hackles rose lightly up. There was some problem now, this was fairly abnormal. Quickly he picked his daughter up, and breezed towards Commander Nebula's office.
"Let's see, if that grizzled ol' walrus is still in its cave… he's got a lot to explain where that Lightbulb-team is."
Zeb's experienced mien was drawn to a stern frown, as he discovered the same results. Nothing was heard from Team Lightyear, whatever he tried. Even XR's internal com channel stood quiet like an old rubber boot.
"Now would someone tell me what's the problem?" Darkmatter sulked alone in the Commander's office corner. Ay'noh teemed along the floor, playing football with the toy's currently loose head.
"Craters, I don't know!" Zeb crumpled. "This is not normal. They never shut the comlinks. Blast, the only reason I could pick up is, that they're in an ion storm area, or something. Or some signal distorts the frequencies."
"Hardy-har. The slime worms from the Gate are gone. They're not distorting anything." Warp frowned.
"Well… not necessarily talking about them. Hmh… What if you go home, ex-ranger, and I'll keep the vidphone on in case I hear something. I'm sure they'll be here soon." The Commander clapped his hands together, shrugging towards the door.
"Quasars. 'Soon' is too long!" the alien grated his teeth, and left the office. Home… it did not feel like a home without her.
The shadows descended. The meadows were far behind, and the tired strays had sat down at the roots of an old tree, something that looked like a giant, ancient oak. A little bit of water, some protein-carbohydrate cookies and a bite of chocolate… that was the sparse supper. Several miles were left behind, and in places the terrain had been everything but foot-healing. And as the light grew scanty, no more distances could be cut.
"Doesn't seem quite much of a suburb", someone mentioned through the munching.
"Hmm… seems that we are forced to walk some time before we may find habitat. Blast, and I was hoping to enjoy a hot shower at home on Capital Planet!" Buzz drew his hood aside, probing his somewhat greasy hair.
Zarah's smile faded. The mention about home was bitter to hear. Melancholically she noted that some kind of sleeping post should be found. Mira suggested climbing up to the tree, and that made everyone turn their skeptical gazes towards Booster.
But, sometimes when impossible seems too impossible, it is not impossible any more. The branches were firm as steel, and it did not cause trouble for the big Jo-Adian to find a snug fork a bit lower in the tree. Buzz and the rest were accommodated somewhat higher, and they tied themselves so that they would not fall down. But the ancient branches were wide like sidewalks, had all kinds of safe, canyon-like crotches. Coils, spirals, all kinds of tunnels they formed, growing hanging moss to make the beds softer.