Just a quick note. This story is actually from the perspective of Shirlee Faughn, a minor Legends character. She is not available as a character choice on and the admins have never gotten back to me about adding her. So while Mara Jade is in this story she's not the focus.
Full Summery:
There are regions of space that all long-haul spacers know to avoid. Places where the stars are few and far between. Of a place of complete blackness. Blacker then deepest ocean or darkest cave. It should be an easy place to navigate with few large gravity wells and virtually no nebula to plot around. But they are spoken of in hushed tones and whispers during the long jumps with only the blue-white whirl of hyperspace for comfort. No one knows for sure why they are to be avoided. The old timers tell tales of ships entering and never coming back out. Gobbled up by The Void.
The Starry Ice and her crew stumble into one of these voids in space responding to a distress call. But who will rescue them?
The Starry Ice exited hyperspace into… nothing. No stars, no nebula, just nothing. It was the eeriest place Captain Shirlee Faughn had ever been.
"Is that distress call any clearer," she called to Corvus at communications.
"No Captain," he said. "I'm not even picking it up anymore."
"These are the correct coordinates?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am," Elkin confirmed human his face frowning in confusion. "According to what we could piece together from the distress call, they should be right here."
"Then where is the Lonely Star?" Asori Holgor, her new first mate, asked.
"Get every sensor we have running, I want to know if there is anything larger than a micrometeor out there," Shirlee told everyone. Because even if Lonely Star had somehow been destroyed there should be debris to confirm it. But with no sun, planets, or background stars, looking out the viewport was like looking at a blank monitor. As if something had switched off the galaxy.
Shirlee had heard of regions of space like this. Gillespee had told his crew about flying through one of these voids and said to avoid them at all costs. When she had asked why he simply said, 'Ships disappear in The Void.'
"Run the call back again," Shirlee ordered trying not to let the old superstitions get to her.
Static filled the bridge.
"Corvus?"
"Trying Captain, it's… just not there," the rodent-like features of his Chandra-Fan face wrinkling in his version of a frown.
"What do you mean, 'not there'? You made a recording, right?" It was standard operating procedure to record distress calls throughout the galaxy and especially in Talon Karrde's Organization.
"Of course, but it's like it's been overwritten with static. Not deleted, just… not there."
If this was any other crew for any other organization, Shirlee might think that he had made a mistake in the recording or just failed to make it and lied about it. But this ship belonged to The Organization. And Karrde didn't hire incompetent people.
"Check again for the signal on all available frequencies. I want to double check and make sure no one needs help before we head back."
While her crew carried out their duties, Shirlee couldn't help but squint out the viewport. It was nearly impossible to spot anything without sensors even in normal space. But in the absence of anything else to see a damaged ship with running lights should show up easily. Unless there was nothing left to see.
"There is… something out there," and Shirlee couldn't help the jolt that went through her at the vague and distant sound of Mara Jade's voice right behind her. She hadn't even heard her walk up behind the captain's chair much less enter the bridge. Jade had a habit of doing that. Appearing silently and without warning. Shirlee was mostly convinced the other woman did it unconsciously. But from the few rumors she had heard about Jade, it left some doubt in her mind.
Technically Jade shouldn't even be on the Starry Ice. She was no doubt needed doing something else more critical than filling in as temporary ships mechanic till Shirlee could find a new chief engineer. But once Jade had heard they were without and headed to the far reaches of galaxy she'd insisted on coming along.
Shirlee hadn't been with Talon Karrde's Organization long. Just long enough to hear some interesting things about their leader's second-in-command. Like she was as deadly as a Xorvian Viper and as friendly as one. That she just knew things and was more right then naught. That the lightsaber that hung from her belt at all times was from a Jedi she'd killed, though Shirlee scoffed at that one. The only Jedi she knew of was Luke Skywalker and he was doing just fine. But the other things, like insisting on coming along what was essentially a shakedown for the Ice's crew and her new Captain. That suggested to Shirlee that she was being observed for Karrde, which was not his style. His reputation was one of trust and loyalty. If he felt you were capable then he left you alone to do your job. Which left another more disturbing possibility. That Jade had known that something would happen and felt she needed to be aboard when it did.
And now a distress call in one of the galaxy's voids, a region of space where the stars were so far apart little to no light got through and the Starry Ice was the only ship capable of investigating it. Shirlee just didn't believe in coincidences.
"Shavit Jade! A little warning would be nice," Shirlee said clutching her chest.
"It's calling," said Jade wistfully.
"What's calling?" She had never heard Jade use that tone before. The woman was as warm as durasteel.
"I don't know," Jade said absently. "I just feel it."
"Alright," Shirlee's creep factor rising. "Someone better give me a straight god damn answer or we're leaving."
"I don't know what Jade is talking about Captain," Torve said. "Sensors show nothing larger than space dust."
"There's nothing on comms either," Corvus added. "No background static, Holonet transmissions, or subspace frequencies. It's a dead zone."
The bridge was silent for a long stretch.
Until a burst of static had everyone jumping in their seats. Everyone but Jade, Shirlee absently noted. She was standing still as a support beam staring out into the blackness as if she actually saw something out there.
"Pl…se… th…coming…..ease," a desperate voiced said barely discernable through the static.
Jumping from her seat to the comms station Shirlee said urgently into the mic, "This is Captain Faughn of the Starry Ice. We read you. I repeat, this is the Starry Ice, we read you. Tell us where you are, copy?"
Static resumed from the open connection. She grabbed the headset intending to repeat her message when a faint sound could be heard through the static.
"…help…...it's …ing," the voice said through the static, no louder than a whisper. She doubted she would even have heard it had she not had her ear right next to the speaker.
"Captain?" Holgor asked. "What?"
"All I could make out was 'help'" she looked at Corvus for confirmation. He nodded, his hearing better than humans. "And…,"
"It's coming," Jade finished, her voice now monotone and flat though there was no way she could have heard from her position behind the captain's chair.
"I don't like this," Torve said hunching in his seat. "I still don't read anything but particulate out there."
Shirlee moved to stand before Jade, "If you know something Jade, you better share it or we're gone." But it was as if the other woman was looking right through her, at something that only she could see.
Her engineer/supervisor said nothing.
"All right, that's it. We're out of here," Shirlee ordered just at the whole ship lurched to port with a shriek of metal and sirens blaring from every station.
"Report," she shouted over the cacophony of sound.
"Hull breach on deck 3… Emergency bulkheads holding…"
"Hyperdrive is offline…"
"Sublight engines at 50%…."
"Main power is fluctuating…"
"Tell me something useful," she shouted over everyone. The only sound was the warning sirens and alarms.
"It's hungry…," Jade said from behind her and Shirlee turned to face her. What she saw sent a chill down Shirlee's spine. Mara Jade's usually bright green where nearly black, the pupils dilated to maximum. Her voice was deep and huskier than usual and contained a cadence that was not her norm.
"Jade?" Shirlee tentatively asked.
Another shriek of metal sent everyone sprawling to the deck as the internal compensators failed along with main power.
"Holgor, get us out of here!" Shirlee shouted, trying to be heard as more alarms went off and red emergency lights came on, strobing a steady on/off rhythm as the backup power generator came on.
"Can't! Engines are offline," the Togruta at the helm shouted back.
"Divert all power to the shields!"
"Diverting...…shields holding at 45%."
As the words left her mouth the ship leached to port for the third time, but instead of more metal bending and warping, the ship just spun with the force of the impact.
Shirlee asked hesitantly, her stomach threatening to heave without the compensators, "Shields?"
"Holding. Still at 45%," Holgor confirmed.
Getting to her feet, Shirlee looked out the viewport trying to find the source of the impacts. It still showed nothing but caliginous space.
"Wha…., what happened?" a confused voice said from behind her. Looking over she saw Jade sprawled on the deck, hand to her head, glancing around confused.
"You tell us," Holgor growled as her hands frantically wove over her control board trying to get main power back online.
Jade shook her head before slowly getting to her feet. "Something was… calling to me. In my mind."
"In your mind?" Elkin said frowning skeptically at her.
"Through the Force," she clarified.
"You're a Jedi?" Torve asked.
"No," Jade shook her head again as if that would clear her confusion as she got back on her feet. "Just Force sensitive."
"As fascinating as this all is unless it can get us out of here save it for later," barked Holgor. Shirlee agreed with her first officer, whatever happened to Jade would have to wait.
"Jade, are you alright to see what's happening in engineering?" Shirlee inquired eyeing the shorter woman's somewhat dazed condition.
Jade straightened and the uncertainty left her eyes, "I think so, yes."
"Good, get down there and see if you can get main power and the hyperdrive back online," she told her looking back out at the emptiness. "I don't want to be stuck here any longer then we have too."
The red strobing emergency lights were giving Shirlee a headache. The reports coming in from the crew an hour later were not helping to alleviate it. The hull breach on deck 3 had resulted in the death of Ziac Arka a male Arconan deckhand who had been on deck 3 when the hull breached. He had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shirlee had probably spoken with him a handful of times and other than having a warped sense of humor he'd seemed alright.
"Main power will be back in an hour but the sublight engines are gone," Jade reported braking Shirlee away from her melancholy thoughts.
"How badly damaged?" Shirlee asked with a had over her eyes trying to block out the constant strobing and giving her time to collect herself over Arka's death.
"Not damaged, gone," Raffine Morlev, one of the engineers, corrected. Her bright blue hair in contrast to the black grease on her forehead. "As in so badly damaged they'll need to be completely replaced."
"How is that possible!" Torve exclaimed.
"Whatever took them out doesn't show up on sensors," Holgor groused.
Shirlee rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "And the hyperdrive?"
When no one answered she dropped her hands to the table with a slap. "Jade? Morlev?"
"I think it would be better to try and get the backup hyperdrive operational before tackling the main one," Morlev ventured when Jade didn't respond.
"You can't be serious," Holgor said. "It would take us a year to reach the nearest habitual system that could affect hyperdrive repairs."
"Without the navi-computer, I can't be sure but, more like 3 years," Elkin said quietly to the table.
"Kriff that," Shirlee spat trying to ignore the way the red lights cast everyone in a blood red hue before leaving them in complete darkness for a heartbeat. "Our food stores will last us 6 months. I want the main hyperdrive back online as soon as possible. Cannibalize the backup if you have too but get it working and get us the Hell out of here. Dismissed." As the other started to get up to get back to work Shirlee noted that Jade didn't budge.
When everyone had left the common room that was serving as a temporary meeting room, Shirlee asked, "Alright Jade, tell me straight. Is this some kind of test of Karrde's? Cause if it is he can take this job and shove it somewhere darker than a black hole."
"It's not a test," Jade assured her. "Karrde doesn't work that way and neither do I. But there is something out there that doesn't want us to leave."
"Can you tell me what happened on the bridge?"
"I…can't," then seeing the disbelief on the Captains face she amended. "It's not that I don't want to. It's that I can't really remember what happened. One minute I'm in engineering and the next I'm on the floor of the bridge with a splitting headache."
"If you feel like you can't keep it together then let me know now."
"I'm fine," she said tartly.
Looking at Jade's set jaw and piercing green eyes, the upturned angle of her chin and the ramrod straight spine, Shirlee took her word.
"Let me know what you need to get the hyperdrive working."
"Just time."
"I don't think we have a lot of that to spare."
"Then I'd better get back to work." She left and Shirlee was left with only the red emergency lights, like the pulse of the ship, to reassure her.
Main power was still not back when the tapping started. At first, Shirlee thought it was something to do with those crewmembers working on the engines but when she stopped to listen the sound was not coming from the lower decks but the hull.
Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Longer pause. Tap.
In a seemingly random pattern and from more than one place echoing through the ship. As far as she knew the shields were still up and nothing should be impacting the outer hull like that.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Silence for a 10 count. Tap.
"Elkin, Jubhi, you hear that?" She asked the only other crew on the bridge.
The female Wookie rumbled and Elkin said, "Right, I thought it was coming from below decks too."
"No listen…," and they were silent but no more tapping sounded.
Jubhi started to growl when it resumed. Louder than before.
TAP. Pause. TAP. TAP. Silence for a 5 count. TAP.
"That's from the hull!" Elkin exclaimed. "But the shields are still up. Not even a meteoroid field could get through."
"And nothing on sensors," Shirlee asked already knowing the answer as Jubhi rumbled affirmative.
They listened as the taping continued. Shirlee's trepidation mounting with each pulse of the emergency lights.
Until it just stopped. She counted out a full 3 minutes of silence, straining her hearing with no further sounds.
Not willing to jinx it, Shirlee was about to return to her datapad when a blinding white light pierced through her eyes so accustomed to the darkness. Blinding her as she heard Jubhi's enraged roar and Elkin cry out in surprise.
"Main power is back online, Captain," Jaleer Irris, one of the deck hands, said through the ship's intercom. She had been assisting with repairs. "Jade says she'll get back to you…,"
Before she could finish the ship careened wildly as it was struck on aft starboard side sending it spinning tail over nose while rolling along its horizontal axis. So violently that even the newly restored internal compensators where having a hard time keeping up.
Shirlee had been sitting at the helm and fired the port thrusters trying to control the axial spin, then the bow thrusters to stop the lateral spin. The gyrations were just coming under control when the ship stopped dead.
"What did you do?" Elkin asked, a tremor in his voice.
Shirlee shook her head, "I was just firing the thrusters to get us under control."
Jubhi had been clinging to the comm's console and if a Wookie could look ill she did. Her tan and russet fur was disheveled and Shirlee could see the white all the way around her irises. And though she was not an expert in understanding Shyriiwook, Jubhi growl and barks sounded unsteady.
"Trust me, I wish I could take credit for stopping us but it wasn't me."
Another growl.
"I wish I knew."
"What the hell is going on up there?!" Holgor's voice sounded from the comm.
A series of grunts, growls, and rumbles told Shirlee Jubhi was trying to explain what happened while she checked her board for damage.
"Elkin, I don't suppose you know where we are?" she said scanning the emptiness for any point of reference.
He looked over frowning, checked his board, opened his mouth about to speak, before closing it and sucking in a quick breath through his nose. Turning, he was about to speak but Shirlee cut him off.
"Don't bother saying anything. You don't know."
Nodding mutely, he turned back to his controls, staring at them as if they had betrayed him.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It was back.
Standing she yelled to no one in particular, "What the HELL is going on!"
"CAPTAIN!" Irris screamed from the comm and Jubhi roared.
But Shirlee was already running for the back of the bridge.
She made it to the engine compartment 4 decks down in record time, Jubhi not far behind and Elkin puffing a few beats later. The emergency bulkhead was down and she could see through the porthole in the door a large hole in the side of the ship. She didn't see any of her crew in the compartment.
"Holgor! Jade! Anyone!" She shouted desperately into the intercom next to the door while Jubhi roared her own frustrations. "Please RESPOND!"
But she couldn't hear if there was a response while the enraged Wookie roared and pounded on the bulkhead.
"Jubhi!" She shouted at the Wookie who did not stop. "Jubhi!" she tried again and moved to stand between the Wookie and the bulkhead. A dangerous position if Jubhi was rage-crazed. "Jubhivewarl!"
Perhaps it was the use of her full name or her Captain standing in front of her but she stopped her roaring and gave a mournful growl.
"Listen," Shirlee told her. "They may have gotten out. There's another door on the opposite side. But I can't contact them over your howls. 'kay?"
The fur over Jubhi's brows slid over her eyes and she nodded her understanding and compliance. Shirlee gave her arm a quick squeeze before turning back to the intercom. Elkin was already there, speaking rapidly.
"Can you make your way up to deck 4?" he said and was answered by Jade's voice.
"Looks clear. We'll meet you there. Jade out."
"The others?" Shirlee asked.
Elkin shook his head. "Jade says everyone but Drayen made it out," Elkin said and Jubhi let out a low whine. "Holgor banged up her montrals but is otherwise okay and everyone else is fine."
Shirlee closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She would mourn Senna Drayen later. For now, she had the rest of her crew to think about. "Let's go."
Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.
The tapping had not let up since the last crash and it was getting on Shirlee's nerves. Probably more so then the strobing lights that filled some corridors and not others. But the tapping could be heard throughout the ship, no matter what deck or how far toward the center she was.
It was making Jubhi edgy. Her fur raised at the back of her neck and her nose scrunched and fangs slightly bared. Elkin kept glancing around after every pause, as he could see what was causing it through the walls.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap. Silence for a 20 count. Tap.
Jubhi roared.
"I know its annoying," Shirlee said. "But there is nothing we can do about it. Let's just meet up with the rest of the crew."
The young Wookie, well by Wookie standards as they believed that anyone under their first century was young, crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. But Shirlee could see her eye's darting around and her fangs were still bared. At least she was quiet.
Her group was waiting at the exit point for Jade and the rest of the crew. Except Drayen. Shirlee was only a few months into her Captaincy for Karrde and she had already lost 2 crew. It wasn't the first time someone had died under her command. And it wouldn't be the last. But each and every one hurt just like the first.
Not wanting to dwell on Ziac Arka or Senna Dayen's death, Shirlee was about to comm the others to check their progress when the hatch to below desks opened. Out first was Mara Jade who reached back to give Asori Holgor help through only to be rebuffed by the other woman. Shirlee frowned at that but pushed it aside as Jaleer Irris, Fynn Torve and Corvus who had been trying to boost sensor output, and last Rafine Morlev stepped through the hatch.
Everyone but Holgor looked shaken but fine. Holgor's olive green skin looked darker and her white markings were striped here and there with blood from a multitude of cuts. Her cream and white montrals had smudges here and there. Shirlee wasn't sure how the hollow horns on the togruta's head handled damage or her hanging lekku but she looked like she was giving herself space from the other so as not to bump them. Or it could just be the hostile looks she was shooting Jade that made her stand apart from the others.
Deciding to talk to Holgor in private Shirlee asked Jade, "What happened down there?"
Jade started to shake her head but Holgor decided to speak up, "I'll tell you what happened. She," and she struck her finger at Jade. "Got Senna killed. That's what happened."
"No she didn't!" Morlev spoke up, glaring at Holgor. "Senna was standing by the hull trying to find out where the tapping was coming from when something penetrated the hull sucking Senna out instantly. Jade was with you and me working on the hyperdrive."
The togruta winced as Morlev's loud voice echoed through the ship's hall and through Holgor's sanative montrals.
"Jade wasn't with us," Holgor corrected hotly. "She had left to get the proper sized pilex driver we needed when the breach happened."
"I don't see how that is Jade's fault," Shirlee interjected.
"Because she'd been going all funny again. Kept looking at the hull with a glazed expression as if she knew what was out there."
Shirlee just starred at her first mate waiting for more proof. Holgor starred back before saying, "Jaleer, tell the captain what you told me."
Irris looked from Holgor to Shirlee and back, suddenly in the spotlight and not liking it one bit. Her dark eyes looking anywhere but at her captain or first officer. A few strands of her black hair falling in her face as she finally settled on looking at the deck plating.
"It's ok," Shirlee assured the reclusive girl in a comforting voice. If she was a day past 18 Shirlee would be surprised. "I just need to know what happened in engineering."
"Well, Captain, I don't…," Irris stammered before Holgor cut her off.
"Go on Jaleer! Tell her!" Holgor barked.
Irris hunched her shoulders and shut her mouth, closing up at Holgor's harsh and the whole crew staring at her. Jade included as if she herself didn't know what had happened.
"Jubhi! Take Holgor somewhere and get her checked out," Shirlee ordered.
"Captain," Holgor started to say but finally shut up at a withering look from her captain and allowed Jubhi to help her. As they moved down the corridor Shirlee told the remainder of the crew, "As for the rest of you, Irris stay here, Jade get that hyperdrive working, and the rest go find something useful to do that will get us out of here."
Everyone but Irris shuffled past to other parts of the ship. Jade paused a moment looking at the young deckhand as if trying to read her soul before walking back through the hatch and back to the lower decks. All the while the tapping continued.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Tap.
Grinding her teeth at the sounds Shirlee tried to push it aside as she relaxed her face to calm the introverted girl.
Normally deck hands were brash, confident, and/or assertive enough to handle being on a ship for long stretches with no one else but the other members of the crew for entertainment. Shy and apprehensive people usually couldn't take the restrictive, close-quarters environment of space. According to Jaleer Irris' personnel file, she was an above-average slicer and so was kept around for her computer skills and not her introverted personality.
Speaking in a soft voice to Irris, trying to draw her out of her shell Shirlee said, " 'kay Jaleer. No one here but you and me. You're not in trouble, but I really need to know what happened before the hull breach. Think you can tell me?"
"I…, I don't know what I what I saw Captain," the girl said to the floor.
"Just try and tell me what you can as best as you can remember it."
She nodded and more hair escaped her hair tie and covered her face.
"I was using the diagnostics console to tell the others if their repairs were working or not. Asori said she needed a different driver and Jade got up to get one."
"Where was Senna?" Shirlee asked gently.
"She was by the hull working on the alluvial dampeners and speculating on what was causing the tapping we were all hearing. She had the toolbox near her so Jade went over in that direction. I don't know what happened next. I was looking at the diagnostics screen but I hear Senna say 'Jade, what are you doing?' I look up and Jade had her hand on the hull wall. The tapping seemed to be getting louder from that spot."
There was a long pause and Shirlee prompted soothingly, "And then what happened?"
"I, I…, I don't really know? Okay? It all happened so fast!" she wailed.
"I know Jaleer, I know. But try 'kay? Try and remember."
The girl took a deep breath and nodded. "There was a loud noise," she began. "Like screaming but from no voice I've ever heard, then the air is rushing out of the engine room. I see Jade but not Senna before Rafine grabs me and pulls me towards the emergency door. I think I might have blacked out because next thing I know Asori is lying next to me with Rafine standing over her. Jade has her back to us and is ignoring all the questions Rafine is asking her. It's not until Asori tells us that Jade was unresponsive in the engine room and she tried to get Jade out but hit her head. Somehow they made it out together."
"So why does this make Holgor think Jade was involved in Senna's death?"
"Because, b-b-because," Jaleer stammered before taking another deep breath. "Because, as Jade passed me on her way to get the right driver I thought I heard her muttering. 'I know you're hungry. I know. I know. So hungry.' I thought, at the time, she was talking about herself.
"Look, Captain," Irris said imploringly. "Jade's been real nice to me ever since she came on board. Not at all stand-offish like some of the others say she is. I don't think she had anything to do with Senna getting sucked out into space. It, it was an accident…Wasn't it?" The note of uncertainty in her voice made Shirlee want to comfort her and tell her of course it was an accident. But she stuck with the truth as much as she could.
"I won't lie. Something is going on since we exited hyperspace. But did Jade kill Senna Drayen? I don't think so. There is no motive."
"What about what Asori said? That Jade went all funny on the bridge right before we lost power."
"I don't know what that was but we have enough to worry about instead of jumping at boton flies. Now go find Corvus. See if the two of you can boost our normal transmission and find us a way to contact someone. Got it?" Shirlee said as she patted Irris on the shoulder.
"Okay," the girl agreed and headed for the lift.
"Good girl."
Tap. Tap. Tap.