Athega Dust
By Buck Tadlock
"That's over twenty deaths this week alone," cried Leia Solo,
"something must be done about it!" Leia and her husband, Han Solo were
watching the daily holovid of the Coruscant News.
"I'll call General Nadine first thing in the morning and see if we can
put someone undercover out on the streets," said Han.
During the past several weeks, an epidemic had broken out on
Coruscant. Many civilians were dying, a new drug was somehow being
spread around on the streets and after a good buzz, the drug had
serious side effects, up to and including death.
Leia had a troubled look on her face, Han knew she was deeply
concerned over what this new drug could do if it were being distributed
throughout the New Republic territories. "Have you heard any reports
from other systems that might be experiencing similar problems?" asked
Leia.
Leia Organa Solo tossed and turned all night, concerned about the
problem that faced them, what was this mysterious drug, where did it
come from, and who is responsible. She knew Han would be good on his
word calling General Nadine, and he would find the right people to
investigate the matter.
"Nadine is going to put some folks from special ops on the case," Han
said, waking his wife up from her troubled sleep.
"What? Oh, good," Leia said as she wiped her eyes clear. "Any idea
of who in particular?"
"Yes, he mentioned that the new guy, the one that was a soldier in the
new Mandalorian army, Bebo Lokk, I believe his name is. Said he has
plenty of experience in undercover work, should be quite capable of
finding out some answers for us," Solo shot out.
Leia's compassion for people, good or bad always held her heart over
thin ice. Even if the people dying were drug users, they did not
deserve what was happening to them, the ones responsible for selling
the drugs needed to be caught and sentenced to a long prison term.
Bebo Lokk, the former warrior for the Mandalore Army, walked into
General Nadine's office. He wore his famous armor, sans the helmet.
The color had been altered for the breakaway clan that inhabited the
planet of Memakk, their color of armor was copper, worn over a black
flightsuit. Bebo was one of only a handful of soldiers that survived a
trap that a leader from his homeworld had sent them into. After taking
several side jobs, he was recruited by Nadine to serve in his special
operatives. Bebo had plenty of experience in undercover work and had
plenty of disguises to keep himself from being caught.
"You rang, sir?" asked Bebo.
"Yes, indeed I did. I...we need you to find out what is going on with
this new drug that seems to be so popular on the streets here on
Coruscant. Many people are dying from apparent over doses, see what
you can dig up. Mrs. Solo will be keeping a close tab on this one, she
seems a bit disturbed by all this." said Nadine.
Bebo shook his head in agreement before he spoke. "I'll get right on
it," he said, spun, and exited the office. Bebo enjoyed doing jobs
like this, getting his orders and being left alone.
Bebo left headquarters in a repossessed air speeder, dressed basically
in rags, the norm for the people that lived in the lowest levels of the
capitol city/planet. He knew that he first had to look in place, act
like one of them, then start to pry for answers, the seed had to be
planted before the fruit would grow.
At the local bar, Bebo sat alone at the bar. Not too obvious he
constantly scanned the room, hours seemed to pass until he finally had
a lead. Bebo noticed that a certain man had been sitting at a booth
since before he arrived, the man had several different visitors come
and go. "This will be worth keeping tabs on," he said under his breath
to himself.
"You gonna drink, or nurse that bottle all night," asked the barkeep.
"Sorry," Beebo replied, as if suddenly awaken from a nap.
The special ops agent decided to follow one of this mans' customers.
As the 'customer' left, neither he nor the man sitting at the booth
noticed that Bebo was up and following him.
"This is on a larger scale than just local," cried Leia. "I believe
we are going to find out that this is spread over several systems. I
checked, and Corellia has had several deaths that were linked to a
mystery drug, as well as Ammuud and Dantooine. Each story had the same
heading, mystery drug. That is why I want our people on it and not the
local law enforcement."
"Wow!" Shouted Nadine, "I had no idea you have done such research on
this."
"This is the force at work with her," Han Solo added. "When she gets
these 'feelings', it usually does mean something."
The three of them looked at one another and nodded in agreement.
"Then I believe I have put the right man on the job," Nadine put in.
"Bebo is thorough, he'll probably find the source..."
"...And start a galactic war!" Han shot back. "I know a little bit
of his history, hot headed and trigger happy."
Leia looked at her husband with a glare that could melt a tauntaun.
"You should not judge a single man based on where he came from, look at
you!" She shot back him.
Just as the three began to discuss the pros and cons of having someone
work for them, that had such a shady past, a light flickered,
indicating an incoming call. General Nadine reached out, hit a button
and a transparent image of Bebo Lokk appeared before them. "Hello
there Mr. Lokk, do you have any news as of yet?" asked Nadine.
Bebo was no longer wearing the rags he had left in, he was now wearing
his black flight suit. "Where are you?" asked Leia Solo.
"I am on my way to the Athega system. You may want to have the locals
steak out the Bar of the Sith down in the southern region, that is a
definite point of contact for your mystery drug users. After my
investigation here I will report back to you, Bebo out."
"Coruscant out," Nadine hit the button again, ending the transmission.
"Trust me, he is definitely the one for this job, especially with all
the contacts he has," Nadine added.
Bebo had tracked were the man sitting in the bar was getting his drugs
from, a short list of suppliers and middle men. The stranger, Sooch
P'zeap, was the distributor on Coruscant, once a week he received a
shipment from the cargo shuttle Yerosha, in the warehouse delivery
area. The shuttle's codes had it as a supply ship that delivered
refined bottled gases from the Athega star system. Sooch had since
'disappeared' after Bebo found no more uses for him.
"Coming out of hyperspace in two minutes," said CD8, Bebo's droid that
always remained on board his ship, Creeping Death.
"And we are exiting five seconds early, aren't we?" asked Bebo.
The plan was to exit hyperspace early so that the crew aboard Yerosha
would not detect another ship in their sector. This move to come from
hyperspace early was a dangerous one indeed, many ships had come to
real space right on top of a local space lane that ended in mass
destruction. The only reason Bebo assumed this to be fairly safe was
that this planet is scarcely populated, not much traffic passed in this
area of the galaxy.
Starlines flickered to individual tiny dots across the viewport of
Creeping Death. Bebo quickly began flipping switches, "are we in
stealth mode yet," he asked.
"Yes," replied his droid, "we have a two minute window."
The starship was a highly modified light freighter, Corellian model.
One modification it had is a cloaking device, along with extremely
dense deflector shields for defense and turbo laser canons on all
sides.
"There, there they are," pointed Bebo, as they watched the shuttle
descend to the surface of the planet. "Make sure to note where the general
area of their landing zone, we need to be as accurate as possible," Bebo said
as he watched the ship go out of sight. The droid activated the cloaking device
while they gave themselves time for the shuttle to reach it's destination and
to assure that no scanners from the surface would flag their presence.
After several moments of waiting and manually noting the coordinates
They decided to enter the atmosphere well out of range of any possible scanners, come
In fast and low to avoid detection.
Mit Nonac walked down the isle of his laboratory, several scientists
dressed in gas masks and many other safety features were hard at work.
Mit, a former mechanic on an industrial moon, realized that people
could get a good buzz off this 'Athega Dust' as the scientist called
it, so he and several of his loyal companions raided the laboratory on
this planet. The lab was weakly guarded, it was used to prepare the
'Athega Dust' for use as an additive in bacta tanks. The lab is
located on the planet Katterin, the fourth planet in the system. No
human colonies existed here and the lab itself is underground, to
protect it and the scientist from the intense rays that the sun
emitted.
A large door in the floor of the planet slid open as the Yerosha
drifted slowly down into the docking bay.
"They're here," said one of the lab workers.
Mit turned to look out of the window into the docking bay. "Good," he
said, "have they transferred the credits to my account yet?"
"Yes sir," said the scientist, "they have deposited the credits in
full."
Mit let his right hand man, Captain Jones, the pilot of the starship
Yerosha, handle all transactions on his own. The Captain would land at
his destination, have a contact meet him there to deliver the goods.
Then the Captain would deposit the credits straight into Mit's account,
less a fifteen percent cut.
"Good to see you Captain Jones," Mit said, exchanging hand shakes with
the Captain.
"Likewise," replied Jones.
The Captain was a no nonsense type of character, a crossbreed of an
unknown species and human. He had all human features, except that his
skin was a bright red color and his ears were somewhat altered.
"We need to get a move on, this stuff is selling like crazy," said
Captain Jones.
The crew of Yerosha hustled about, loading crate after crate of the
drug so many had come to depend on to keep them feeling good. The
'Athega dust' was labeled as a medical additive so that it would pass
inspection. The lab, however, did put out a legal drug that was used
for medical purposes, it was injected into gas cylinders and loaded as
well.
A crew member of Captain Jones entered the main lab were everyone was
gathered, "all loaded sir, shall we prep the ship for liftoff, or are
we staying a while?" he asked.
"Prep the ship, I'll be there shortly," the Captain said to his
crewman.
"Where in the name of the force are they?" asked Bebo as the Creeping
Death skimmed across the radiated floor of the dreadful planet.
"This is the spot our scanner reported them to land at. Shall we
check the mountainous area to the north?" asked the droid.
Bebo looked all around, the mountains in the northern portion of the
area were the only possibility. All other sections were flat with
nothing to see but wastelands. "Yes, let's search the mountains,
that's the only place they could be. Remind me to get this scanner
calibrated when we get home."
"I just don't get it, they couldn't have just disappeared..."
"Look!" interrupted CD8, "It's them."
The two of them glanced at the blip on the screen then simultaneously
looked out the viewport to the south. The ship Yerosha was lifting up
out of the ground, or so it appeared.
"Mark that spot!" shouted Bebo. He wanted to be sure not to lose the
location the ship came from while in pursuit of the ship itself.
A protocol droid stood next to General Nadine and Han Solo. "Athela
dust is an additive used in bacta tanks," Nadine repeated, after
learning the information from the droid. "When we heard from Bebo, the
droid recalled the chemical additive as being lethal if gets into your
bloodstream. The spot Bebo bookmarked is the location of a laboratory
used to refine the raw element into a medical product. We are sending
a fleet out there to see what is going on and how this product is
getting into civilian hands." Leia listened intensely as General
Nadine gave her a briefing on their findings.
A data clerk ran up to the small committee huffing and out of breath.
"Sir, we just received this information, a guy by the name of Mit Nonac
lead an assault on the lab and has been running it for several weeks
now, look at this," he showed Nadine his datapad which consisted of the
deposits to Nonac's account.
"I believe we know who our assailant is now."
"I want him brought before a judge here on Coruscant," cried Leia,
"for the murder of everyone who has died from an overdose of this
drug."
The other members standing around looked at Leia as she became teary
eyed, they could tell this epidemic weighed heavily on her. They got
the sense that there was more to it than what was showing on the
surface.
Han took Leia off to the side, "Baby, what is wrong, what is it that
has you so deeply bothered?"
"Yallie, the kid who died last week."
"Yes," Han said, nodding his head.
"He was a close friend of Jacen," she admitted.
"Our Jacen?" asked Han.
"Yes," Leia sobbed. "I found a pouch that contained a powdered
substance in Jacen's utility belt. He said it wasn't his so we threw
it out," she continued. "What if it were him that died?" Leia began
balling.
"Where is he now?" asked Han.
"Luke took him back to the Academy."
"We are being followed," said Captain Jones. "What is the download
from that ship?"
The co-pilot, Nad Jodan, watched as words scrolled across his screen.
A Corellian made light freighter, no wait a minute, that's Creeping
Death, the two looked at each other.
Not long ago, the two had a run in with Bebo Lokk during the invasion
the Mandalore army did on their homeworld of Ethel.
"He works for the New Republic now, inform Mit that he has been found
out," the Captain ordered.
In the meantime, he banked his ship to make an attack run at Bebo.
"Uh-Oh," Bebo knew that he had been seen.
The droid turned and looked at Bebo, "The cloaking device has timed
out sir."
"Obviously," Bebo said.
The droid, CD8 turned to see what his master was talking about, "I
see."
"Bring up the deflector shields, I'll go out on a limb here and say
that cargo shuttle is armed."
"And Dangerous," added CD8.
Bebo took his ship on a wide roll to the left as brilliant flashes of
green traced after him.
"Head back to the mountains," Bebo ordered his droid.
Bebo brought the weapons on-line. During close range battles, he let
the droid man the weapons. CD8 was a precision shooter. Bebo would
maneuver the ship through the trenches and valleys in the mountain
range.
As the Creeping Death made its' turn back to the north, to head for
the mountains, Yerosha also turned to make another attack run at Bebos'
ship.
Laser bolts flashed across the dessert skies as both ships headed
straight for each other, a game of chicken. Captain Jones pulled back
on his control levers as Bebo dropped his ship, they missed each other
by inches.
"Whoa! That guy's crazy," shouted Bebo.
The droid turned and looked at Bebo, "almost as much so as you!"
Captain Jones turned his ship around again, this time he was not going
to have to go head up with his foe, Bebo was headed for the mountains.
"So he wants to play chase!" The Captain said to himself. A smile
crossing his face, "tell the crew to buckle down!"
Bebo and CD8 swayed back and forth in their seats as the ship dodged
and ducked obstacles that stuck out in the trenches. His persuer, not
able to get a clean shot off, mimicked his every move.
Occasionally letting loose with some shots that were no where near
hitting Bebo's ship, Captain Jones was letting his opponent know that
he was still there.
Rocks scattered across the forward viewport of Creeping Death as shots
from Captain Jones grazed the top of Bebo's ship and smashed into the
side of the valley wall. CD8 returned fire, but with all the movement,
he was unable to get a clean shot as well.
"Oh my!" shouted Bebo. "Look at this!"
CD8 looked up from his terminal, "Ahh!" he shouted and raised his
hands up to protect his face.
Two A-wing starfighters came down on Creeping Death, releasing bolt
after bolt of bone shaking firepower. Bebo took his ship on a climb to
avoid being a sitting target.
"What the..." Bebo couldn't believe it, as he climbed over the
mountains, there were half a dozen other assorted fighters, all in
pursuit of him.
Warning lights began to flicker all over the control panel of the
ship. Creeping Death was taking a beating.
"She can't handle much more of this!" Bebo shouted.
"It's not just the attackers doing the damage," said the droid.
"What do you mean?" asked Bebo.
"The sun's radiation are weakening the shields," CD8 added.
Captain Jones gritted his teeth as he was bearing down on his
opponents ship. "I've got you now."
With the distraction of all the other fighters, Captain Jones was able
to get off a clean shot, "Ha ha."
The cabin of Creeping Death shook violently as the blast from Yerosha
landed dead on.
CD8 began to panic, "we've lost all shields, we are doomed!"
Creeping Death skidded across the flats of the dessert. Power slowly
leaking from the ship, Bebo unable to keep it airborne.
"Here they come!" shouted CD8.
Bebo put the ship on auto glide so he could assist his droid and
return fire at their attackers.
"No!" cried Bebo as his guns went dead. "We've lost all power."
The two could only sit and watch as the group of fighters began to
unleash shots at them. Suddenly, their formation scattered as several
of the fighters blew into glistening chunks of scrap metal.
"What in the world?" asked Bebo.
"Are you all right?" asked a voice over the ships com unit.
"Is that you Wedge?" Bebo inquired.
"Yep, thought you could use a hand."
Wedge Antilles had brought his Rouge Squadron in on Captain Jones. In
a matter of seconds, the x-wing fighters had destroyed all the a-wing
class fighters.
"One more," Wedge said, as he was zeroing in on Captain Jones.
Before Wedge could get his shot off, the cargo shuttle Yerosha erupted
into a ball of fire. The shot had come from the ground. Wedge looked
out the canopy of his fighter to see a soldier wearing the Mandalore
armor standing next to the downed freighter. The soldier had heavy
duty blas tech rifle, mounted on a tripod. Wedge returned the wave
Bebo was giving him.