Star Wars Rebels
Out of the Past
Chapter 2
Now
"What do you know about Master C'Baoth?" Bail Organa said.
"Not much," Kanan admitted.
Kanan and Bail were in the Tantive IV's galley after GH-9 had thrown them out of the medical bay. The medical droid said that Jorus C'Baoth needed a complete physical exam, and that required privacy. They complied, even though C'Baoth seemed even less happy about it then they did.
Bail and Kanan ordered up a couple of nerf fillets with roasted tubers and sat down to talk.
"He would've been frozen almost a decade before I was born, so I obviously never met him," Kanan said. "I do remember that Mace Windu inherited his council seat."
"Hey Sabine!" Ezra's voice echoed across the nearly empty galley.
Sabine had been sitting alone at one of the tables near the entrance, reading a datapad.
Ezra sprinted to her table, his leg obviously completely healed by the bacta bath. He was carrying a large chunk of the chthonian planet's crust with him.
"Here, I got this for you; a diamond bigger than your head," Ezra said, proudly offering it to her.
Sabine stared at the dull grey rock for a few moments in silence.
"You, uh, should probably polish it up a little," Ezra said.
Sabine took it from him. "Um, thanks." She managed a smile.
Bail and Kanan exchanged grins.
"What do you know about him? He seems to have known your father," Kanan said.
"That was a surprise to me. I only know about him because of the time I spent reading the Senate Annals from the last fifty years of the Republic. I've always had a penchant for hopeless causes, and his story fascinated me," Bail said.
"I think everyone on this ship has a penchant for hopeless causes," Kanan said.
Bail responded with a grimace.
"Master C'Baoth was responsible for one of the most extensive canceled projects in the history of the Republic," Bail said. "He was originally going to lead an expedition into the Unknown Regions, and later out of the galaxy and into the dwarf galaxies surrounding it. He was going to explore and map all of it, as well as find Force-sensitive races and create new enclaves of Jedi."
"Why do you smell so sour?" Sabine's voice echoed across the galley.
"Oh, it's the bacta, it takes forever for me to get it out of my hair," Ezra said.
"I've never heard of that project," Kanan said. "The Jedi were involved?"
"Yes. It was called the Outbound Flight Project."
Then
"The Outbound Flight Project has been canceled," Ki-Adi-Mundi said.
"What idiocy is this?" C'Baoth asked. "What was the Senate's reasoning?"
"Aside from the cost involved, the Senate decided any attempt to expand Republic space was distasteful; especially with the Republic unable to provide for the citizens it already has," Yarael Poof said.
"Of expansionism, it smacks," Yaddle said.
"Outbound Flight isn't about colonization; it's about exploration and bringing the light of the Jedi to worlds that have never known it!" C'Baoth said.
"The decision has been made," Eeth Koth said.
Jorus C'Baoth laid back in his chair and scanned the council chamber. Dark clouds darkened the sky over their part of the city. Then he realized something.
"You agree with them," C'Baoth said. It was not a question.
"Laudable, your goal is," Yoda said. "Our own problems we however have which must be resolved first."
The sudden inability of the Jedi to glimpse the future. It had started twenty years ago, and had only gotten worse as more time passed.
"At the risk of praising those who cannot feel the Force, normals are able to conduct their lives without being able to see the future," C'Baoth said. "We should not let this handicap stop us from moving our agenda forward."
No one in the council deigned to reply. The downcast looks on their faces proved to C'Baoth that he was right.
"The Jedi do not have the resources to do this on their own," Plo Koon said.
"This is an election year," Ki-Adi-Mundi said. "I suggest resubmitting your proposal at the beginning of next year. Young eyes may see in it what old eyes could not."
"No, I will not play the game of politics; we are better than that," C'Baoth said. He stood. "I hereby resign from the Jedi Council."
"I think you're over-reacting," Poof said.
"Of the essence, patience is," Yoda said.
"Outbound Flight may have been canceled, but I intend to go forward with the mission. In the past there was a special order of Jedi who patrolled the frontier; who explored the unknown regions of the galaxy and brought the light of our teachings to those who didn't know it," C'Baoth said. "I hereby reestablish the order of Jedi Watchmen, and I will be the first to join it."
"You don't have the authority to do that on your own," Saesee Tiin said.
"As a Jedi Master I am allowed to make my own decisions regarding my fate. I will undertake Outbound Flight's mission on my own. Any of like mind can follow me," C'Baoth said. Not waiting for a response, he strode out of the council chamber.
Now
The GH-9 droid was floating in the reception area of the medical bay when Kanan and Bail returned. Its medical appendages were all folded up or at rest; its eyes burned the eerie blue which had always left Bail ill-at-ease around the droid.
"Before I give you my report, you must agree to keep any information I give you in confidence, and be aware that it is a violation of Alderaan law to use any information in this report to deny the patient housing or employment. By agreeing to hear my assessment you agree to make reasonable accommodations—"
"Confidentiality and disability agreement override," Bail said sternly.
The droid stopped speaking instantly, it vocoder slurred over the last syllable.
"Handy," Kanan said. "Can we borrow one of your technicians? There's a couple of droids I'd like them to work on."
Bail gave him a sly grin. "I'll see what I can do."
"The patient is approximately 70 years old," GH-9 started, without prompting. "He is good health, with a minor form of hibernation sickness, which should pass within the next forty-eight hours."
"Doesn't hibernation sickness usually involve temporary blindness?" Kanan said. Bail thought he heard some longing in the emphasis of "temporary".
"Yes, but I believe that the patient has overcome this due to their unique neurological profile," GH-9 said.
"You mean his Jedi training?" Kanan said.
"No. The patient had minor brain damage; I assumed that this was a result of his time in hibernation, but the patient informed me that it was due to a training accident in his youth. Since he showed no impairment on neurological tests, it is obvious that neuroplasticity has allowed him to overcome any disability caused by this damage. This would also lead to a different neuron route through the brain which connects the optic nerve and brain, which the hibernation sickness was not able to affect."
"Are there any other areas of concern?" Bail said.
"None worth mentioning," the droid said.
"Can we talk with him?" Kanan said.
"I would prefer he rest, but he has been irritable and restless ever since he was released from carbon freeze," the droid said. "So I would have no objections."
Seeing that he was dismissed, the droid floated off.
"He will have to come with us," Kanan said. "At least until he can come to terms with what's changed over the past 40 years."
"I can't imagine him going anywhere without a thorough explanation of the reasoning," Bail said. "He is a Jedi Master after all."
Kanan let out a long sigh. They were running out of time; everyone on the Tantive IV was a member of the Rebellion; but the same couldn't be said about the ships that Bail was brining in to help with the revival of the slaves they had found in the Hutt ship. The Ghost and her crew needed to be long gone by the time they arrived.
"How long do we have left?"
Bail checked the chronometer on his wrist-comm. "The medical frigates are scheduled to get here in 10 hours."
"We have that long to tell him about the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire."
"That should only take like, what, six hours?"
"Closer to seven, I would think."
The four of them met an hour later in one of the Tantive IV's conference rooms. C'Baoth was now clad in one of the repair crew's jumpsuits as his clothes were being tended to in the ship's laundry.
"Who are you?" he bluntly said to Hera as they sat down.
"I am Hera Syndulla, captain of the Ghost, and…" Hera rubbed her chin in contemplation.
"Best to get it all out in the open," Bail said. "Master C'Baoth, in the forty years that you've been asleep, many changes have overtaken the galaxy. I dare say that very little of the galaxy you knew remains."
C'Baoth narrowed his eyes. "What exactly do you mean?"
"Both the Jedi Order and the Republic no longer exist," Kanan said. Bail winced.
"That doesn't entirely surprise me. I suspect the Republic fell apart, a civil war perhaps? I assume the galaxy is split up into fiefdoms and independent worlds, constantly fighting each other," C'Baoth said. "Though, truth be told, I would have expected the Jedi Order to last longer. We did survive the dissolution of the Republic Galactica and the Sith Empire, after all."
"I'm afraid the situation is very much the opposite," Hera said. "The Republic is now an Empire, lead by an Emperor with absolute power."
"The Emperor is a Dark Lord of the Sith," Kanan said. "And he was responsible for the extinction of the Jedi Order."
C'Baoth sat in silence for a long time, making eye-contact with all three of them in turn, as if he was trying to see if they were lying.
"You will tell me what happened," C'Baoth said.
"Well, I suppose it began about five years after you disappeared," Bail said. "With the taxation of trade routes—"
"The Trade Federation invaded Naboo," Kanan said, cutting Bail off. "This lead to Senator Palpatine of Naboo getting the sympathy of the Senate, and he was elected as Supreme Chancellor."
"Well, that was the Senate doing something right for a change. I knew Sheev Palpatine, he was a straight-shooter and very perceptive for a…. senator," C'Baoth said.
"Sheev Palpatine is the Emperor," Hera said.
Again C'Baoth sat in silence. "I am going to accept that as the truth," he said finally. "If only because it doesn't even work as a joke. Continue."
"Count Dooku left the Jedi Order, and from his ancestral seat of power on Serenno he formed an alliance with virtually every conglomerate in the Republic. With those and various local alliances and treaty groups, about 5000 worlds seceded from the Republic," Bail said.
"Palpatine refused to accept their secession and began a war of reunification," Kanan said. "His main forces were an army of clones lead by the Jedi."
"Just a moment, where did he get a clone army from?" C'Baoth said.
"We've never been clear on that. A Jedi Knight by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi found that the clonemasters of Kamino had created a clone army for the Republic. It was apparently ordered by a Jedi by the name of Sifo-Dyas, but the selection of the clone template and the funding for the army came from unknown sources. We have come to believe that Palpatine, or Darth Sidious as he prefers to be called, was responsible," Bail said.
"So the Jedi took command of a clone army that they had never requested, which had mysterious funding? Did they ever bother to question the clonemasters?" C'Baoth said.
"It gets worse, the creation of a Republic army was a hotly-debated issue at the time. Palpatine had tried for a year to get the motion passed. The Senate granted him emergency powers so he could take control of the clone army and use it against the separatists," Bail said.
"And no one in the senate questioned why a clone army, which would have taken a decade to grow, was suddenly at hand?" C'Baoth said.
The three Rebel leaders stared at the table in shame.
"So let me guess how this story ends, the clones won the war, and then reacted to some programming placed in their brains by the clonemasters on Darth Sidious's order, and they killed all of the Jedi, but not before Palpatine claimed that they were traitors," C'Baoth said.
"Almost, but not quite. The Jedi attempted to overthrow Palpatine, but a Jedi by the name of Anakain Skywalker, who was the strongest Jedi of his age, betrayed them and became known as Darth Vader," Kanan said.
"Hmmm, regrettable. How along ago did this happen?" C'Baoth said.
"The end of the Clone Wars was almost twenty years ago," Hera said.
"Hmm, I have to give Sheev credit for keeping it together this long," C'Baoth said. He started at each of them in turn again. "Since there is a Jedi present, I am assuming that you are part of some resistance organization."
"Yes, and that's why we had to tell you this all so quickly," Kanan said. "We need to get out of here before our presence exposes Viceroy Organa's connection with the Rebellion. It isn't safe for you to remain here either; all Jedi are wanted and will be killed on sight."
"I am more than capable of taking care of myself," C'Baoth said.
"Even though it has been 40 years there's still chance that someone might recognize you," Bail said.
"Infiltration is second-nature to Jedi Knights, and I am a Jedi Master of no mean ability. I won't be in any danger," C'Baoth said.
The three rebel leaders exchanged exasperated looks. Suddenly all the pieces clicked into place in Kanan's mind.
"Master, I didn't want to say this before… but the truth is that the Rebellion needs you," Kanan said.
"Yes, Master C'Baoth," Bail said, catching the drift and playing along. "You were a wise Jedi Master who sat on the council for many years; even now stories of your wisdom still circulate. The leadership of this Rebellion needs someone like you."
"I am barely even a Jedi Knight," Kanan said. "I was a Padawan when the war ended and my master was killed. I faced the trials many years later, and haven't had anyone to help me reach mastery. I would also need your help to train my own Padawan."
Now it was C'Baoth's time to look exasperated. "Very well, the future of the Jedi is important to me. And thought I doubt there is much difference between this Empire and the Republic I knew, I will provide my wisdom on how to fight it."
The Ghost glided through the blinding white of hyperspace. Hera was at the controls, while the three Jedi sat in the back and talked. Zeb and Sabine had gotten uncomfortable stares from C'Baoth and had gone back to the cockpit after a few minutes.
"So, what was it like being frozen in carbonite for 40 years?" Ezra asked.
"It's all a muddle, I had no sense of time, place or circumstance," C'Baoth said. "Which is probably for the best. If I had realized where I was, and the situation I was in, I would certainly have gone mad."
C'Baoth turned to face Kanan. "And I must amend my earlier statement, Master Jarrus. Now that I have been able to collect my thoughts, I do remember sensing you in my slumber and reaching out to you."
"That's very impressive considering you weren't conscious," Kanan said. "Of course we Jedi are well-known for our reflexes, even in sleep, thanks to the Force."
Ezra could almost feel an icy chill come off C'Baoth because of that comment. From the look on Kanan's face, he had felt it too. Ezra furrowed his brow; that reaction didn't make any sense.
"Quite," C'Baoth said, and the chill was gone.
"So how did you end up frozen in carbonite on a Hutt slaver ship?" Ezra asked.
"By overreaching, my young friend," C'Baoth said, with a small smile. "As I made my way to the Unknown Regions, I passed through spaceports all along the mid and outer-rim. I booked passage on ships in return for my services. At the edge of Republic space, where Hutt-controlled space began, I came across a truly horrific situation…"
Then
Mayor Ainsley was just sitting down to dinner when Stuart came crashing in.
"Master, I'm sorry, but Master Stuart insisting on seeing you," Salla, the captain of his security force said.
Ainsley's wife gave him an evil look; but he did his best to ignore it.
"Come, let's talk about this in the study," the mayor said, rising from the table.
Leaving his scowling wife behind, the mayor walked Stuart into studied and closed the heavy wooden door behind him.
"Can I pour you a drink?" Ainsley said, as he did for himself.
Stuart wasted no time. "There's a Jedi at the spaceport."
Ainsley's hands shook as he poured from the decanter. He looked up in shock.
"That's impossible, there hasn't been a Jedi on this planet in hundreds of years," Ainsley said. "And even then, not outside of legends."
Their planet, Reliqui, was on the very edge of explored space; it was one of the last planets colonized by the Republic Galactica in their great rimward push two millennia before. They were nominally members of the Republic; they had no seats in the senate, and received no benefits; on the other hand, they didn't have to pay any taxes either.
"One of the freighter captains was talking about it at the cantina. There was some old guy in plain robes who was looking for passage into the Unknown Regions," Stuart said.
Ainsley shook his head and took a sip from the glass. "There are a lot of people who wear robes; that doesn't make them a Jedi."
"That's just it, though, he told the captain that he was a Jedi Master. He said that his skills might be of use in one of their runs, and that's how he'd pay for passage," Stuart said. "He even picked up a 2-tonne crate with his mind to prove it."
Ainsley felt a weird sort of lightness in his chest. It took him a moment to place it; he hadn't felt hope in so long that he didn't recognize it. He quickly squashed it, however.
"The captain probably made the story up. He just wanted to amuse the other patrons, or try to impress people," Ainsley said.
"I was wondering that too, and called him on it, but he gave told me the address of the flophouse where the supposed Jedi was staying," Stuart said, digging a napkin out of the pocket of his jacket.
Ainsley stared at the napkin for several moments, and took several sips of his drink. He then pressed a button on his wrist-com.
"I think I'm going to regret this," Ainsley said. "But I suppose it's worth the risk of looking foolish if it could get us out of this."
The wooden door slid open and Salla walked in.
"Salla, send a couple of your men to this address," He said, handing him the napkin. "There should be a plain-dressed old man there who claims to be a Jedi. Tell him that I want to see him, and bring him along if he agrees," Ainsley said.
Salla nodded. "Of course, sir."
"In the core worlds, have you ever heard of a Hutt by the name of Xeba?" Ainsley said.
"If you've seen one Hutt, you've seen them all," C'Baoth said.
It was scarcely an hour later, and the Jedi Master was sitting in one of the arm-chairs in Ainsley's study. He had declined the offer of a drink, of course.
"Xeba is a slaver. In my grandfather's time he came to our world and threatened to enslave all of us," Ainsley said. His eyes began to burn as he recounted the story. "But he made a deal with my predecessor, apparently since it was bad business to waste a renewable resource. He compared enslaving us all to strip-mining. The deal he made was this: every year he would return here, and in exchange for leaving us alone, we would give over 10 of our people into slavery. Since then over 5000 of our people have ended up as slaves of the Hutts, and we have never see them again."
"I suppose you attempted to get the Republic involved," C'Baoth said.
"Yes, the first day I took office. I discovered that there is an investigation which has been awaiting approval in the court system since the day the agreement was struck," Ainsley said.
"Without money or influence, nothing gets done in either the executive or judicial branches," C'Baoth said.
"Which is why you're our only hope," Ainsley said.
"This planet is quite a distance from Nal Hutta," C'Baoth said. "How did Xeba even know about this place?"
"We're on the official Republic star charts, he must have picked us out," Ainsley said. "Xeba is a coward as well as a thug. Out here he doesn't have to worry about reprisals from the Republic, or competition from other Hutts."
"When is he due?" C'Baoth said.
"Three months from now, at the start of the harvest cycle," Ainsley said. "He chose that date intentionally."
C'Baoth ran his fingers through his beard, seemingly lost in thought. "How do you determine which people are made slaves?"
"We have a lottery of the able-bodied people, between the ages of 18 and 30," Ainsley said.
"I will need accommodations during my stay here," He said, looking around the study. "Something similar to this house will be adequate."
"You mean you'll help us?" Ainsley said, his heart pounding.
"It is the duty of the Jedi to help the common people solve problems they cannot solve themselves," C'Baoth said.
Ainsley felt a chill go through his body. Part of him, which he quickly silenced, wondered if perhaps Xeba was preferable to C'Baoth.
The last few months before a visit from Xeba were always unhappy ones for Ainsley—these were the times when he had to set up the lottery and make arrangements for the slaves' detention once they were chosen out of the populace. He would have expected that C'Baoth's vow to help them would make these months more bearable; however what relief he got from the newfound hope was washed away by frustration with their potential savior.
Since there were no houses similar to the mayor's own, he was forced to give up his house to accommodate C'Baoth. Ainsley didn't think his wife or daughter would ever speak to him again.
C'Baoth made quite a splash on the social scene; eating at the best restaurants, consuming the best wines, wearing the best clothes. No one aside from Ainsley and his staff knew that C'Baoth's was a Jedi, so everyone just assumed that he was some rich eccentric from the Core Worlds who was slumming. Many toadied up to him in hopes of getting passage off Reliqui when he left.
When the day finally came, C'Baoth joined the reception committee that would present the slaves to Xeba at the spaceport. C'Baoth wore neither his plain Jedi robes, or the expensive aristocratic clothes he had spent half of the government's annual budget on; instead he was clad in the jumpsuit of a spaceport worker.
"As far as the hutt is concerned, I am ground crew, and my only purpose there is to provide any assistance with his ship," C'Baoth explained as they rode a speeder towards the spaceport. "I am not part of your staff, and you don't know my name."
"What exactly is the plan?" Salla said.
"What you do not know, you cannot divulge through torture," C'Baoth said.
There was no more conversation for the rest of the ride.
"This is quite the crop you have for me this year," Xeba said in Huttese. "The woman are especially lovely."
Ainsley gritted his teeth, but said nothing.
Xeba's inspection of the ten sacrificial victims complete, he slithered across the landing platform to Ainsley. "I was just thinking, it has been a very long time since my crew has had any rest or recreation. If I stayed here a couple of days, I'm sure it would be a boon for your settlement's business."
Ainsley swallowed, but said nothing. He could only imagine the carnage that would result from such a layover.
Xeba shrugged. "Sadly, we've got an appointment to keep at Ord Pendal. Maybe next year, eh?"
Relief flooded through Ainsley, so the slight smile that crossed his lips was genuine. "Yes, perhaps next year," he said.
"Come on boys, round up the meat."
The group of heavily armed twileks and rodians Xeba had turned their weapons on the newly minted slaves and forced them to march up the ramp into the ship.
"Well, aren't you going to do something?" Ainsley hissed once the hutt was out of sight. He turned around and was stunned to discover that the jumpsuit-clad C'Baoth was no longer behind him.
"When did he leave?" Ainsley said to Salla. Salla was speechless, and simply shook his head in reply.
"Any problems on the surface, sir?" Captain Sapkifoc said.
Xeba finished crawling up the ramp to his command dais before he answered the twillek. "Just a little rudeness, captain. I allow it, though; I broke their spirits completely years ago. Let them have their little moment of rebellion; we both know who's still in charge."
Sapkifoc responded with a a smile that displayed his sharp teeth.
"All speed to Ord Pendal, sir?" Sapkifoc said.
"Feeling a little anxious, Sapkifoc?" Xeba said.
"Well, we are running a little behind, sir," Sapkifoc said.
"Jabba doesn't make my schedule, so we are completely on time," Xeba said.
"Of course, of course sir," Sapkifoc sputtered. "It's just that when we are…. later than Jabba expected us, he tends to take his anger out on our crew."
"Which he compensates us for," Xeba said.
"Yes, but then we have to replace them, and Ord Pendal doesn't exactly have a flight academy," Sapkifoc said. In fact, they didn't even have cities, the people still lived in caves.
Xeba laughed. "All right, captain, I'll stop busting your chops. All speed to Ord Pendal."
Sapkifoc turned to helmsman Veent "You heard him."
"Yes, sir," Veent said, and began to type the planet's coordinates into the navcomp. As he was about to hit the red "Calculate" button he felt his vision blur, and his mind begin to drift. He stared at the quadruple of decimal numbers on the navcomp's display; what was he thinking? Those coordinates were for a point somewhere on the outer rim. Everyone knew that Ord Pendal was just north of the Galactic Core. He cleared the display and typed in the correct coordinates, and hit "Calculate".
He went back to monitoring his displays. He was beginning to think that the navcomp was taking longer than usual when the green light appeared on his console appeared which meant that the route had been planned. He took a cursory glance at the wireframe route as it appeared on the navcomp's display, and keyed the hyperdrive to accept the navcomp's route. He then pulled back on the hyperdrive levers; the entire ship shuddered for a second, and there was a flicker of pseudomotion on the viewport, and then they were in hyperspace.
"Veent! What the hell are you playing at?" Sapkifoc said.
Veent looked up from his console, confused. "Captain?"
Sapkifoc looked at the navcomp's viewscreen in confusion, then rubbed his eyes and took a look again. "I'm sorry, helmsman, it's just for a second that route looked wrong."
The rodian gave Sapkifoc his race's equivalent of a smile. "I've been having that sort of day too, captain."
"Something the matter, captain?" Xeba said.
Sapkifoc stood up and strode over to the command dais. "No, nothing sir, just my eyes playing tricks on me."
Xeba was drifting in and out of sleep when shift-changed occurred. He had extremely comfortable quarters a mere hundred feet away, but he enjoyed sitting on the command dais; it reminded the ship's crew who was in charge.
Freetsaetso, a rodian who had a much more powerful build than Veent, was taking his position at the helmsman station. As he sat down he glanced at the navcomp and grunted. "What the hell?"
"Something wrong, Freetsaetso?" Sapkifoc said.
"Oh, no sir… It's just, when I was looking at the hyperspace route, it seemed wrong at first. My eyes must be playing tricks on me," Freetsaetso said.
Xeba's eyes flew open, and the dozy feeling fled from his mind. There was a saying on Nal Hutta: once was an aberration, twice was a coincidence, and three times was a trend.
He turned to the dead repeater displays on his the command dais and activated the one which duplicated the output of the navcomp. He was not an expert on navigation, but he could tell just by looking at it that something was wrong. A journey between two outer rim worlds should be a more or less straight line; the stars in that part of the galaxy were so far apart that there was usually no need to navigate around gravity wells. Yes, there would be the occasionally curve or two, possibly as much as ten, but the route they were following had thousands of such bends, and they increased in frequency the further along the line they went.
Xeba looked at the coordinates in the detail section at the bottom of the display and his eyes burned; they were a set of coordinates that every traveler knew more or less by the heart, the coordinates of Coruscant; and that was where they were headed.
Xeba flicked a switch and silently invisible defense screens formed around his dais.
"Freetsaetso, take us out of hyperspace," Xeba said.
Freetsaetso's right hand moved towards the set of levers that controlled the hyperdrive. Suddenly his hand fell limply to the console.
"Freetsaetso, I said—" Xeba said, but was interrupted as the air around him shimmered with blue light. He turned to see that Sapkifoc had pulled his blaster and had taken a shot at him. Freetsaetso's chair whirled around and he cracked off a couple of shots at Xeba as well, which were harmlessly absorbed by the force field.
Xeba slammed a button on his control panel. "Anti-mutiny protocol, level 1!" he howled.
Panels slid open on the ceiling and lethal wardroids dropped to the floor. The mutinous crewmembers trained their fire on the new robotic menace, but were quickly taken out of commission with paralyzing rings of blue light.
Xeba crawled over to the security console and check the feeds; fighting was occurring all over the ship. Xeba was flummoxed; the droids were only to open fire if attacked; they were supposed to arrest any crew they found and take them to the brig. What Xeba was seeing was impossible; it was impossible for every single member of his crew to mutiny. The ones who were in it for the money, sure, but not the ones he had coerced. And certainly some among the greedy would realize they would be a greater reward in turning on the mutineers.
However something in the aft cargo-bay caught his attention. One of the wardroids was floating above the ground, its shots going wild as it spun. An old man in a jumpsuit was standing nearby, his hand held aloft. The shots were picking off the other wardroids in the bay.
Xeba had heard old stories of Jedi who fought without lightsabers; more than 100 years ago a Jedi gave up the blade when they achieved the rank of Jedi Master. The few Jedi that Xeba had run into in his 600 years were Knights who still relied on their laserswords. What Xeba saw on the display was eerie and, frankly, frightened him.
Xeba keyed the command to depressurize the cargo bay. There were some crewmembers in there, some of them even worth saving, but he wasn't going to give the Jedi a chance.
The Jedi didn't go down easily. As soon as he realized what had happened, he crushed the sole surviving wardroid into junk with the Force. He stormed over towards the exit into the engineering compartment. Unbelievably the inner airlock started to open; Xeba's mind boggled. The Jedi must have been moving the components of the airlock system with his mind. It was much less impressive than controlling the minds of his entire crew, but it was enough.
What happened next occurred so fast that it took almost a minute for Xeba to figure out what had happened. When he did, he burst out in laughter.
The Jedi had been standing right in front of the airlock as it had opened. Since he was forcing it open, the airlock cycle hadn't taken place. When the door was forced open a hurricane-force wind blew into the cargo bay as the atmosphere flooded in to fill the vacuum; the Jedi was flung across the compartment and slammed into the opposite bulkhead. The rare atmosphere and exertion seemed to have finally taken their toll: he did not get up.
"Wardroids: stun the prisoner is the aft cargo bay and freeze him in carbonite with all due haste!" Xeba said.
No need to take chances.
Now
"Wow!" Ezra said. "I had no idea that a Jedi could be that powerful!"
"Nothing is beyond the ability of a Jedi Master," C'Baoth said.
Kanan thought it wouldn't be a smart idea to mention that, for all his powers, C'Baoth had ended up getting caught.
"How did the ship crash, then?" Kanan said.
"I don't know," C'Baoth said. "I suppose that's a mystery for the ages."
Then
"Bring us out of hyperspace," Xeba said.
"I cannot," the wardroid said. "My programming does not include starship navigation."
Xeba grunted, and crawled back up the ramp to his command dais. He keyed the com for the medical bay. "Send a response team here immediately."
He looked at the route on the navcomp repeater; they wouldn't enter the Core Systems for another five hours. If they disengaged the hyperdrive now, they'd still be in the mid-rim, almost certainly in interstellar space. Technically they'd be in Republic space, but they'd certainly have enough time to revive a skeleton crew and jump back to the outer rim.
The elevator doors to the bridge hissed open, and three GH-3 droids floated out.
"Revive them," Xeba said, motioning to the unconscious crewman. "Give priority to Freetsaetso."
"Yes sir," the three of them replied in chorus. They clustered around the fallen form of Freetsaetso.
Several minutes passed in silence, then one of the medical droids floated over to Xeba.
"Sir, crewman Freetsaetso is dead," the droid said.
"That's impossible! The wardroids used stun beams on them, I saw it myself!" Xeba howled. "Did his heart give out?"
"No sir, he's suffered extensive brain damage," the droid said.
Xeba rubbed his chins; that didn't make any sense. Stun beams didn't work that way. "Check the others."
A few minutes later, the same result came back for everyone on the bridge: extreme brain damage. Xeba realized that it must have been a result of the Jedi's mind control; he had never heard of the Jedi mind trick causing brain damage; but he also had never heard of a Jedi being able to completely take over 233 minds at once.
Xeba quickly, and bloodlessly, accepted the fact that his crew was dead. He could signal one of his family members for help; possibly Jabba, as he had already paid for half of their cargo. But he had to stop the ship's journey into the Core Systems. For that he would need to disable the hyperdrive, but (like all Hutts) he used people, and not droids, for engineers. Which meant that he no longer had any engineers.
"My cargo for an astromech!" Xeba seethed.
He keyed the com for engineering. "Wardroid!"
One of the wardroids standing guard strode over to the viewscreen. "Yes, sir?"
"Disable the hyperdrive," Xeba said.
"Yes, sir," the wardroid said.
Then, to Xeba's horror, the war droid swiveled around and opened fire on the hyperdrive.
Outside the viewport the light wall of hyperspace flickered many times as the hyperdrive screeched to a halt. The ship didn't simply shudder, as it did when returning to realspace, it ground and groaned to a halt.
Xeba looked out the viewport, and was confused to see that there weren't any stars.
He stared at the navigation display and saw that they were less than 100 kilometers above the surface of a massive planet.
"Get us out of here!" Xeba said. Then he realized that there was no one anywhere on the ship that could do anything.
In the last five minutes of his life, Xeba could do nothing but sit on his command dais and watch in terror as the ship plummeted to its inevitable doom.