ALLIANCES Pt 3 by Shayne
The view beyond the ship's front windows was one of total inactivity. Nothing moved in the grey silence, in the airless void not even the stars twinkled. It was still. Lifeless. Empty.
Inside the Solar Song, the air was rapidly fouling up. With the life-supports off, no fresh air was being circulated and even without movement Luke knew it would last only a little while longer. Soon, they would have to turn the power back on.
Merril returned from his check of the hull and dropped down into the pilot's seat, his face covered in a fine coating of perspiration.
"Everything looks secure."
"Any sign of company?" Luke asked as he sat in the co-pilot's chair with his jacket open for relief in the stifling air.
"No. Not since the last fly-by. Looks like they've given up."
Luke nodded, wiping his sleeve across his damp face. "Probably."
Merril's eyebrows arched slightly. "Can't you be certain?"
"I'm not omnipotent," Luke answered, as he watched the empty starscape through the front windows. "I don't sense any ships near, but they could be over the horizon, or high up and sitting still. Your instruments say there's nothing there. I have to base my judgements on them, as do you."
"That being so, I suggest we try for Agaroo now, while we still can." Merril leant forward and began flicking the systems back on. When all readings were clear, he powered up the engines and set the ship for take-off.
Even Luke, who wasn't as familiar with the ship as Merril, could tell something was wrong. The ship shuddered as it began to lift, there was a grinding groan of over-stressed metal and the ship began to tilt even further. Alarmed, Merril cut the engines and the ship settled back down.
"I was afraid of that." Merril sat back, scowling at the innocent banks of instruments.
"What?"
"One or more of the landing legs has been pinned somehow when we landed. That's why we're at this angle. If I try to exert any pressure, try to pull the ship out of whatever is holding it, I could tear the bottom out. A quick if messy way to end the trip."
As Merril considered the problem for a time in silence, Luke saw his dilemma. If Merril called for help, it would come -and it would be Imperial. If he didn't and tried to take off, death was a very good possibility,or severe damage to the ship, further increasing the chances of disaster once they were in space.
"Let's go outside and have a look," Luke suggested. "Maybe we can get it loose somehow."
"I suppose." Merril sighed and jumped to his feet. "Anything is better than sitting here and dying by degrees."
Dressed in lightweight vacuum suits, the two men left the ship through the airlock and clambered through the rock-strewn surface towards the unnaturally lowered front section of the ship. Once there, the cause of their problem was obvious.
The Solar Song had landed in the bottom of a large crater. One side was tipped up slightly against the rim of the crater, the lower level of the freighter resting on the crater rim. One leg was clear and visible, the other had sunk beneath the surface. Merril crossed the rough surface carefully and looked down at the leg. It was apparently undamaged, but obviously securely wedged beneath a broad shelf of rock.
"The surface of the crater must have had a week spot over a hole or cave," he said, as he prodded the crumbling soil with his boot. "When the Song touched the thin crust, it gave way and the Solly's own mass pushed the strut under. When I tried to lift off I wedged the foot of the landing leg even tighter, dug it further up into the stone. That would seems to be that," he finished, sounding frustrated through the small speaker in Luke's helmet. "That rock's too big to break up, and even if I try I'd probably take the leg with it. Any suggestions?"
Luke didn't answer. He was looking at the Solar Song, trying to judge its weight. If the ship could be moved slightly sideways, the landing pad would be clear of the rock slab - but that kind of delicate movement was beyond even Highstar's skills. Even a slight error would snap the leg right off.
As Merril started to wonder at the silence, he saw an impossible movement out of the corner of his eye. Swinging around, he saw his ship move -- saw it edge sideways with feather-like delicacy, then rise so very slowly out of the confining hole. His mind battled for reason, but he could think of nothing, could only observe in stunned open-mouthed amazement as the Song came back to rest with all of its pads securely planted on the flat solid crater bottom.
He turned, groping for words, then instinctively grabbed Luke as he collapsed.
"Never moved anything . . .that big before. . ." His voice faded as he passed out.
* * * *
. . .I seem to be spending an awful lot of this trip unconscious. . . Luke thought blearily as he swam back up to awareness. His head throbbed all over in resonating choruses composed of discordant thumps, and his stomach was rolling around like a ship in a storm. When everything had more or less calmed down, he opened his eyes and focused on Highstar's concerned face.
The worried expression was pulled back and hidden immediately.
"Never knew this Force stuff made a person sick," he said, picking the damp cloth off Luke's forehead.
"It doesn't usually. Ooh..." He held his head and closed his eyes again as the world spun around. A grip on his upper arm held him steady and when everything had stopped spinning he opened his eyes again and smiled. "Thanks. I think I overdid it a little. Kind of like trying to lift a heavy object using your back instead of your arms. System shock I suppose. I still have so much to learn. It's going away now, I'll be fine.
"Glad to hear it, you had me worried . . ." Highstar's mouth snapped shut and Luke grinned.
"Thanks, nice to see you were concerned."
"Don't give it a thought." Merril snapped as he dumped the damp cloth onto a bedside table and left the room.
When he started getting attached to people, it was time to move on. If only the kid wouldn't be so damned obliging! Merril stomped back to the flight deck, irritated by what was obviously a dangerous lack of survival-oriented sanity. Slumping into the pilot seat, he tried to organise his thinking into productive areas. That was the important thing, right? Right!
But his mind kept wandering back to the young Jedi in his cabin...
Friendship hurts. Remember that. Enemies can wound the body, give pain, kill. Only friends can hurt the soul. Let yourself care and you give someone an invitation to hurt you. How many times does it take before you learn that, idiot!
"Solly, let's have the sensors back on line." The voice-activated central computer switched on the required systems and Merril quickly scanned the above about and around. He picked up ships far out but none heading in his direction. It looked like they were in the clear. Looked like . . .
. . .and this kid looks at my ship and lifts it up like it was a toy and all he has to show for it is a bit of a headache. . .!
"Readout on systems status, Solly." The readings for each system ran across the screen, all green, with a borderline on one particular landing leg. The hydraulics would need servicing.
He sensed, more than heard, Luke enter the area and stand behind him. Drawing on his own great will, Merril continued to read the report on ship status till it began going into the food storage areas, at which point he switched the computer off. He sat back, fingers linked together, a small frown puckering his eyes. After a moment, Luke moved to sit in the co-pilot chair.
"We can't go to Agaroo, that's for sure, much too much activity in orbit there." Highstar called up some long-distance sensor readings, lips pursed in thought. "It's clear at the edge of the system, but Solly is riding real close to dry on the fuel. Looks like I'll have to try for the Rock."
"Which rock ?"
"THE Rock. You can read all about it in the Library Comp. I'll set in the co-ordinates and lift us out of here. Be ready to take the turret if we're spotted."
The Rock.
Some eighty standard years before a scout named Berrell had found a small system during his wanderings in search of habitable worlds. He'd indicated in his report that the small weak red sun was about as good as his left eye. Since Berrell didn't have a left eye, having lost it in a fight some years before, no-one had given much thought to the system for years. Named Berrell's Eye after its discoverer, the little red sun and its system went unregarded until a mining group discovered that the larger asteroid belt circling between two gas giants was rich in a number or ores. They'd hollowed out one of the largest, making use of the big rock's honeycombed interior and setting up business there. When the useful deposits were exhausted they'd moved out - and the present residents had moved in.
The Rock was twenty five kilometres in diameter with .9 standard grav rotational spin and a registered population of five hundred. The library listed it as a private corporation.
Luke looked up from his reading to watch Highstar guide the Solar Song into a slow climb. The screens remained clear and they jumped away from the moon and into hyperspace.
Some hours later, with the last of their fuel reserve almost gone, they came out of jump at the edge of the Berrell's Eye asteroid field, aligned neatly with a large blip that identified itself, through the computer sensors, as The Rock.
* * * *
Han slid onto one of the well-worn cabin loungers and tried to tell himself that worrying wouldn't do any good. Chewbacca, who'd been siting there for quite some time doing just that, greeted him with a short growl.
"Yeah, exactly. Got any suggestions."
Chewie shrugged. /Human thought patterns, they are difficult to follow. Cannot see him going to Agaroo, too dangerous. For us too./
"I figured that. Where else would he go then?"
Chewie didn't know and they both sat staring at the wall trying to reason out the mind of an enemy. They had left the Agaroo system in a big hurry and there was no telling when it would be safe to return. They had to assume Highstar had gotten away and Leia seemed to feel that Luke was still alive, but where were they?
"I have to try and think like Highstar. . ."
/No great mental leap, brother./
"Thanks, appreciate it. Where would he go, probably short of fuel, in a rush, looking for somewhere not too concerned with checking his credentials." Han stared as his co-pilot, eyes unfocused as he mentally scanned the possibilities. The thought popped into his head and his eyes went wide. "Would he go there? Would even he be that desperate?"
/Where?/
"The Rock."
Chewbacca stiffened and snorted. His opinion needed no translation.
"Yeah, right. But it's close, and he's bound to know about it. And he's likely in no mind to be choosy. Well - can you think of anywhere else?"
Chewie thought for a few moments, then shook his head with a negative whuff.
"Fine. We have to start looking somewhere. Let's go check it out."
"Check out what?" Leia asked as she entered the main cabin.
"I'll tell you on the way." He stood, then looked back to Chewbacca. "Oh, break out the blasters
and check the charges. We are definitely going to need them."
End this part.
The view beyond the ship's front windows was one of total inactivity. Nothing moved in the grey silence, in the airless void not even the stars twinkled. It was still. Lifeless. Empty.
Inside the Solar Song, the air was rapidly fouling up. With the life-supports off, no fresh air was being circulated and even without movement Luke knew it would last only a little while longer. Soon, they would have to turn the power back on.
Merril returned from his check of the hull and dropped down into the pilot's seat, his face covered in a fine coating of perspiration.
"Everything looks secure."
"Any sign of company?" Luke asked as he sat in the co-pilot's chair with his jacket open for relief in the stifling air.
"No. Not since the last fly-by. Looks like they've given up."
Luke nodded, wiping his sleeve across his damp face. "Probably."
Merril's eyebrows arched slightly. "Can't you be certain?"
"I'm not omnipotent," Luke answered, as he watched the empty starscape through the front windows. "I don't sense any ships near, but they could be over the horizon, or high up and sitting still. Your instruments say there's nothing there. I have to base my judgements on them, as do you."
"That being so, I suggest we try for Agaroo now, while we still can." Merril leant forward and began flicking the systems back on. When all readings were clear, he powered up the engines and set the ship for take-off.
Even Luke, who wasn't as familiar with the ship as Merril, could tell something was wrong. The ship shuddered as it began to lift, there was a grinding groan of over-stressed metal and the ship began to tilt even further. Alarmed, Merril cut the engines and the ship settled back down.
"I was afraid of that." Merril sat back, scowling at the innocent banks of instruments.
"What?"
"One or more of the landing legs has been pinned somehow when we landed. That's why we're at this angle. If I try to exert any pressure, try to pull the ship out of whatever is holding it, I could tear the bottom out. A quick if messy way to end the trip."
As Merril considered the problem for a time in silence, Luke saw his dilemma. If Merril called for help, it would come -and it would be Imperial. If he didn't and tried to take off, death was a very good possibility,or severe damage to the ship, further increasing the chances of disaster once they were in space.
"Let's go outside and have a look," Luke suggested. "Maybe we can get it loose somehow."
"I suppose." Merril sighed and jumped to his feet. "Anything is better than sitting here and dying by degrees."
Dressed in lightweight vacuum suits, the two men left the ship through the airlock and clambered through the rock-strewn surface towards the unnaturally lowered front section of the ship. Once there, the cause of their problem was obvious.
The Solar Song had landed in the bottom of a large crater. One side was tipped up slightly against the rim of the crater, the lower level of the freighter resting on the crater rim. One leg was clear and visible, the other had sunk beneath the surface. Merril crossed the rough surface carefully and looked down at the leg. It was apparently undamaged, but obviously securely wedged beneath a broad shelf of rock.
"The surface of the crater must have had a week spot over a hole or cave," he said, as he prodded the crumbling soil with his boot. "When the Song touched the thin crust, it gave way and the Solly's own mass pushed the strut under. When I tried to lift off I wedged the foot of the landing leg even tighter, dug it further up into the stone. That would seems to be that," he finished, sounding frustrated through the small speaker in Luke's helmet. "That rock's too big to break up, and even if I try I'd probably take the leg with it. Any suggestions?"
Luke didn't answer. He was looking at the Solar Song, trying to judge its weight. If the ship could be moved slightly sideways, the landing pad would be clear of the rock slab - but that kind of delicate movement was beyond even Highstar's skills. Even a slight error would snap the leg right off.
As Merril started to wonder at the silence, he saw an impossible movement out of the corner of his eye. Swinging around, he saw his ship move -- saw it edge sideways with feather-like delicacy, then rise so very slowly out of the confining hole. His mind battled for reason, but he could think of nothing, could only observe in stunned open-mouthed amazement as the Song came back to rest with all of its pads securely planted on the flat solid crater bottom.
He turned, groping for words, then instinctively grabbed Luke as he collapsed.
"Never moved anything . . .that big before. . ." His voice faded as he passed out.
* * * *
. . .I seem to be spending an awful lot of this trip unconscious. . . Luke thought blearily as he swam back up to awareness. His head throbbed all over in resonating choruses composed of discordant thumps, and his stomach was rolling around like a ship in a storm. When everything had more or less calmed down, he opened his eyes and focused on Highstar's concerned face.
The worried expression was pulled back and hidden immediately.
"Never knew this Force stuff made a person sick," he said, picking the damp cloth off Luke's forehead.
"It doesn't usually. Ooh..." He held his head and closed his eyes again as the world spun around. A grip on his upper arm held him steady and when everything had stopped spinning he opened his eyes again and smiled. "Thanks. I think I overdid it a little. Kind of like trying to lift a heavy object using your back instead of your arms. System shock I suppose. I still have so much to learn. It's going away now, I'll be fine.
"Glad to hear it, you had me worried . . ." Highstar's mouth snapped shut and Luke grinned.
"Thanks, nice to see you were concerned."
"Don't give it a thought." Merril snapped as he dumped the damp cloth onto a bedside table and left the room.
When he started getting attached to people, it was time to move on. If only the kid wouldn't be so damned obliging! Merril stomped back to the flight deck, irritated by what was obviously a dangerous lack of survival-oriented sanity. Slumping into the pilot seat, he tried to organise his thinking into productive areas. That was the important thing, right? Right!
But his mind kept wandering back to the young Jedi in his cabin...
Friendship hurts. Remember that. Enemies can wound the body, give pain, kill. Only friends can hurt the soul. Let yourself care and you give someone an invitation to hurt you. How many times does it take before you learn that, idiot!
"Solly, let's have the sensors back on line." The voice-activated central computer switched on the required systems and Merril quickly scanned the above about and around. He picked up ships far out but none heading in his direction. It looked like they were in the clear. Looked like . . .
. . .and this kid looks at my ship and lifts it up like it was a toy and all he has to show for it is a bit of a headache. . .!
"Readout on systems status, Solly." The readings for each system ran across the screen, all green, with a borderline on one particular landing leg. The hydraulics would need servicing.
He sensed, more than heard, Luke enter the area and stand behind him. Drawing on his own great will, Merril continued to read the report on ship status till it began going into the food storage areas, at which point he switched the computer off. He sat back, fingers linked together, a small frown puckering his eyes. After a moment, Luke moved to sit in the co-pilot chair.
"We can't go to Agaroo, that's for sure, much too much activity in orbit there." Highstar called up some long-distance sensor readings, lips pursed in thought. "It's clear at the edge of the system, but Solly is riding real close to dry on the fuel. Looks like I'll have to try for the Rock."
"Which rock ?"
"THE Rock. You can read all about it in the Library Comp. I'll set in the co-ordinates and lift us out of here. Be ready to take the turret if we're spotted."
The Rock.
Some eighty standard years before a scout named Berrell had found a small system during his wanderings in search of habitable worlds. He'd indicated in his report that the small weak red sun was about as good as his left eye. Since Berrell didn't have a left eye, having lost it in a fight some years before, no-one had given much thought to the system for years. Named Berrell's Eye after its discoverer, the little red sun and its system went unregarded until a mining group discovered that the larger asteroid belt circling between two gas giants was rich in a number or ores. They'd hollowed out one of the largest, making use of the big rock's honeycombed interior and setting up business there. When the useful deposits were exhausted they'd moved out - and the present residents had moved in.
The Rock was twenty five kilometres in diameter with .9 standard grav rotational spin and a registered population of five hundred. The library listed it as a private corporation.
Luke looked up from his reading to watch Highstar guide the Solar Song into a slow climb. The screens remained clear and they jumped away from the moon and into hyperspace.
Some hours later, with the last of their fuel reserve almost gone, they came out of jump at the edge of the Berrell's Eye asteroid field, aligned neatly with a large blip that identified itself, through the computer sensors, as The Rock.
* * * *
Han slid onto one of the well-worn cabin loungers and tried to tell himself that worrying wouldn't do any good. Chewbacca, who'd been siting there for quite some time doing just that, greeted him with a short growl.
"Yeah, exactly. Got any suggestions."
Chewie shrugged. /Human thought patterns, they are difficult to follow. Cannot see him going to Agaroo, too dangerous. For us too./
"I figured that. Where else would he go then?"
Chewie didn't know and they both sat staring at the wall trying to reason out the mind of an enemy. They had left the Agaroo system in a big hurry and there was no telling when it would be safe to return. They had to assume Highstar had gotten away and Leia seemed to feel that Luke was still alive, but where were they?
"I have to try and think like Highstar. . ."
/No great mental leap, brother./
"Thanks, appreciate it. Where would he go, probably short of fuel, in a rush, looking for somewhere not too concerned with checking his credentials." Han stared as his co-pilot, eyes unfocused as he mentally scanned the possibilities. The thought popped into his head and his eyes went wide. "Would he go there? Would even he be that desperate?"
/Where?/
"The Rock."
Chewbacca stiffened and snorted. His opinion needed no translation.
"Yeah, right. But it's close, and he's bound to know about it. And he's likely in no mind to be choosy. Well - can you think of anywhere else?"
Chewie thought for a few moments, then shook his head with a negative whuff.
"Fine. We have to start looking somewhere. Let's go check it out."
"Check out what?" Leia asked as she entered the main cabin.
"I'll tell you on the way." He stood, then looked back to Chewbacca. "Oh, break out the blasters
and check the charges. We are definitely going to need them."
End this part.