STAR WARS
EXILE'S SON
Disclaimer: Clearly I do not own Star Wars, and obviously I am not George Lucas, although based on the novels this is not canon.
Chapter 1
Xander Parck stopped dead in his tracks, the slidway continued on its path. Up above him he had seen the bulletin on one of the many scrolling vid screens around the area. Anger welled deep within his stomach, anger and fear. It had started a while ago. The speaking out in Palpatine's court, going against the Emperors word. Xander had seen it coming; he had hoped he could have completed his term at the Academy before something happened. Admiral Thrawn and Captain Voss Parck were being sent on a mapping expedition in the Unknown Regions, a virtual form of exile, and no doubt the judgment would be handed down to Xander as well.
To go back to for his afternoon classes at the Academy would just cause problems, they would probably have Stormtroopers waiting for him. Quickly Xan jumped over to the slidway going the opposite direction, back towards his dorm. He had to clear out, and clear out fast. The Imperial cadet began to move faster towards his dorm, pushing aside slower moving traffic, especially the native Caridans. They expected the cadets to be pushy; the Empire looked down on alien species and made no excuses for it.
The planets heavier than standard gravity was having a little affect on Xander, after all the physical training for starship technicians weren't quiet as rigorous as what the Stormtroopers had to. His endurance wasn't the same but he could lift just as much. If he were lucky the other cadets assigned to his dorm would already be back at the shop class. That would be good; he could get a pack together, and grab some essentials before the others would be out of the shop. From there, he didn't know what he would do.
Just as he'd thought the dorm room was empty. Xander sealed the door and pealed off his tech jumpsuit, and stuffed it into a pack. In his closest he pulled out his clean gray dress uniform and put that on. Fastening the belt with the pair of holstered blasters gave him a sense of added security. They had been a gift from his father upon being accepted into the Imperial Academy. Although there'd been no doubt that he would get accepted, his father was a Star Destroyer Captain after all. They had been custom built, and were more lethal than even BlasTech DL-44s.
Xander cleaned out anything from his locker that might do the Empire any good in finding him. He also grabbed all the spare blaster packs that he could find in the room, surely his roommates would understand. Their wasn't much in the room in terms of survival gear, and their was very little food, just a couple of ready meals. Xander packed the food on top and headed from the dorm. He passed by a few officers and other cadets, although none of them knew him.
He made it all the way to the hangar bay where his Corellian YT-2000 freighter was waiting, and that was the first place he ran into trouble. Xander spotted them a long ways off, a pair Storm troopers, clad in shinning white plaststeel armor, blaster carbines held across their chests. Quiet a few thoughts crossed his mind, no doubt he could kill them, but getting past the TIEs and sentry ships wouldn't happen, at least not in the middle of the day. There was an other approach, and it was the one he was going to try.
He pulled the bill of his cap down a little further, and began to walk over to the entrance to the bay with his head down. Neither of the troopers said anything. Xander punched in the code that he had been assigned for the bay; it didn't work, so he punched the keys again. A buzzer sounded telling him that it wasn't a valid code.
"What's going on here?" Xander mumbled, to neither of the guards inparticular, as he punched the keys again.
"The ship in this bay has been impounded." One of the troopers said, in the slightly mechanical voice of a person speaking through the helmets comm.
Xander tilted his head up too look at the docking bay number, it was a bluff, but the troopers could be fooled. "Stang, wrong bay." He said and headed off in the other direction.
This was bad. If he didn't get off Carida soon the troops would be after him and he'd be on his way to the Unknown Regions with his father. And that was the furthest thing from what he wanted. He dropped into one of the nearby tapcafes and sat down at the bar, pack at his feet. There was nothing to do at the moment, except sit and think about how he was going to get back to Katal.
"What about my son?"
"He will be with us soon enough. I've had his ship impounded, and as soon as he shows up to class his instructor will send him the administration, and they'll ship him here."
"How long before we're supposed to leave, sir."
"Your son will be with us before we set out for the Unknown Regions. I've eliminated entire cultures, and defeated countless armies. One young cadet should be no problem."
"Yes, sir."
"We leave in four days to answer your question."
"Thank you, sir."
Haara walked into the tapcafe not completely sure why she had chosen that one, not even sure why she had decided to go for a drink except for a whim that had hit her while studying. The door automatically closed behind her. The tapcafe was dimly lit, music playing through speakers scattered around the dinning room and the bar played music that Haara liked, except she liked any music that involved a Kloo horn, since she did play one. The clientel wasn't to varied, for the most part spacers and Imperial Cadets, and officers. Most of them rabalrouseing and having a good time. Nice and loud, they all looked like they were having fun, all accept one. Sitting at the bar was a young cadet, about her own age, looking rather good in his dress uniform and hat.
For no reason other than that quozie voice at the back of her mind telling her to, she went over to him and sat down. Up close he was just as handsome, except for a few minor things. He had dark hair, sort of long for an Imperial cadet, with thick side burns that turned a deep auburn red near the bottom, she didn't like the side burns. The tightness in the uniform showed that he was obviously in good shape, strong looking.
His face though, troubled, despair, she could see it in those nice blue eyes that sparkled. But those hands, dirty, greasy hands. That would have to change. She could see dirt or something under the nails on the hand clutching a glass of some alcoholic beverage.
"Hello." She said taking up the stool next to him. "Could I buy you a drink?"
"Already got one." He said darkly, and took an other sip.
"In that case would you like to buy me?" She said coyly.
"Why not?" He flagged the bartender and signaled for an other drink. The bartender complied and placed a full glass down in front of Haara. It was clear goldish in color but smelt like rubbing alcohol.
"What is this?" She asked making a face. A face that she knew usually made men laugh, but not him. What's bothering him, she thought.
"Wookie rum." The cadet said matter of factely. It was funny watching her sip the liqueur; she almost spat it out, and made a face even worse than when she'd smelt it.
"So what's your name?" She asked. She had to know who he was before she could help him.
"Xan." Was all he said, and he took and other drink.
"Xan what?"
"Just Xan."
"Alright, so where are you off to?" Haara asked.
"Home, eventually."
"Not much of a talker are you, Xan? Where's home?"
"Sorry. You should try talking to anybody else in this place. Guaranteed they'd be more fun than I will." Xan said.
"So why won't you be fun. I'm sure you can think of something we can enjoy."
"Not if you value your neck." Xan finally turned to the women asking him all these questions. She was about his age, a little younger, shorter too. She looked up at him with big blue eyes underneath shining brown hair, and above a cutely freckled face. She had blonde highlights on either side of her face. She smiled at him, finally getting a smile from Xan in return.
"So where are you going?" She asked again.
"Hold on, what's your name?" Xan asked. Good, she was making headway. Now about those sideburns.
"Haara Bluestar." She answered. "So where are you from?"
"Katal, in the Corbata system."
"Where?"
"Don't worry, there's no reason you should know about it." Xan answered.
"So why do you have your pack in here? Shouldn't it be on your ship, or are you waiting for a transport?"
"Ha. My ships been impounded." Xan laughed sardonically.
"Why?"
"Huh," he laughed again, "that's what happens when your father causes trouble for the Empire."
"What did he do?"
"It doesn't matter, I just have to get off this planet. I have to get home." Xan took a long swig and nearly drained what was left of his rum.
"I could take you." Haara offered.
"No you can't." Xan said with a little force behind his voice.
"Why not, I have a ship."
"That's not the problem. If they figure out that you helped me leave Carida you'll be in just as much trouble as I will. I can't let you do that, especially since I hardly know you."
"You could get to know me on the way to Katal." She said, with a smile.
"Thanks, but I'd better get going. I stay to long and they've got me, and I don't want you caught in the crossfire when I shoot my way past a squad of Stormtroopers." Normally Xan wouldn't have said anything like that to a person he'd just met, especially since he couldn't tell weather she was an Imperial agent or not. But he trusted her, for some mysterious reason Xan trusted her.
"I'd like to see you again." She said as he retreated from the bar.
"No you don't. I'm not even sure I want to see me again."
"I'll find Katal, and then I'll find you." She warned him jokingly
"Stranger things have happened." He said, thinking about what his father and Thrawn had done, gone against the Emperor himself, not to mention the fact that his father had decided to align himself with a non-human. Given the Empires views on non-humans it was amazing that one had gotten so high in rank in the Imperial Navy. Xander didn't necessarily agree with these ideas. Being a Star Destroyer Captains son he had privy to all the technical readouts, and had decided at a young age that he would live longer if he went along with the prejudice. And those who openly opposed the Empire had a tendency to disappear, or be exiled.
Xander had been in the tapcafe longer than he'd thought, outside it had already gone dark. This would help hide him from the casual observer, but the Stormies had vision enhancers built into their helmets, and if they had holos of him, they'd be able to identify him. For the most part he walked with his head down, trying to keep an eye out for patrols. He was watching the duracrete glide past under foot when he accidentally bumped into someone. He looked up quickly, and found he was face to face with an other Imperial cadet, Xan didn't recognize him, but that was no guarantee that the other didn't recognize Xan.
"Sorry." Xan offered quickly. "I'm just in a bit of a hurry to get off this planet."
"Why is that?" The other cadet asked.
"My mother is very sick, and I have to get home to take care of her." Xander thought it was an alright excuse, he wasn't expecting the reply that came.
"Where are you going? The main docking bays are back there." The other cadet pointed out.
"My ship is undergoing some repairs, and I have to get a transport. The problem is that there aren't any transports going to Corellia for an other couple of days."
"I can take you to the Etti system, they'll probably have a transport to Corellia before you could get one from here."
"Alright, if you don't mind me tagging along."
"No I could use a copilot for a while. What's your name?"
"Xander Hodgins." Xan said for the lack of a better alias.
"Dim-Ilek-Vors. Friends call me Dim, or Vors. Come on, my ships over here."
Xan followed him. He didn't like the idea of getting off Carida with an other Imperial cadet, but at the moment he didn't have much of a choice. He had enough credits to hire a ship, but they were required to list destination, and anything going to the Corbata system would be flagged immediately.
The ship was a freighter of a make and design that Xander hadn't run across. But his time at the academy had been spent working on TIE fighters, Skipray Blastboats, Lambda shuttles and other Imperial hardware, so for the past half a standard year he'd seen nothing more exotic than a SoroSuub XP-38A landspeeder that belonged to an officer.
"Those are nice blasters you got there." Jefay complimented.
"Yeah. My father bought them for me when I got accepted to the academy." Xan answered as they sat down in the cockpit. "Why are you leaving?"
"Not doing very good. I figured that I could take some time and go home for a while. Oh, and I've been doing some extracurricular activities that the Academy might not like if I get caught."
While they had something in common, and that was good, if Dim wasn't to keen on the idea of the Academy finding out something about him then in most cases he wasn't going to tell them about Xan.
Xan tried to get Dim to let him in the extracurricular activities, but Jefay was in no mood to tell an other cadet that he'd just met about them. The trip to the Etti system wasn't to long as trips went. Dim, or Vors as Xan had taken to calling him had brought the ship down on Etti IV. On the way to the spaceport Dim pointed out some of the local sights, the Free-Flight Dance Dome, the Saline Sea and the Capitol building. The local Etti engineering combined arches and spires, slender buildings and all of them looked very expensive.
The spaceport itself was more of the same. Vors and Xan exchanged handshakes and good wishes before Xan went off to find a public refresher station. Xan tore the Imperial patches from his jumpsuit, and then put that on. One of the first things Xan had noticed was that the local humans were mostly tall and skinny, looking for all the world like a combination of five or six force pikes. There had been a time when Xan had looked like that, but the heavier than standard gravity on Carida, and the instructors forcing the cadets to lift all but the heaviest of loads by hand, had combined to make Xan a very muscular young man. He would stick out like a sore thumb.
Xan had picked up a fake beard and colored droptacs to hopefully conceal his identity. A couple of tugs on the beard to adjust it and Xan headed back out into the spaceport. The avenues were lined with shops and boutiques of almost every kind. He passed a few pet shops that stocked some very vicious looking animals, but the opulence of the society told Xan that almost anything would be out of his price range. Eventually he did find a booth and bought a ticket on the next transport to Katal. Being in the Corporate Sector Xan knew that he was relatively safe from the Empire.
