Chapter 2

Obi-wan sat in what was apparently the ship's galley, stirring his tea as he pondered on all that had happened, his thoughts always dwindling back to their new colleague. He had far too many questions for her, but he felt that she would answer him when she thought that she should.

His mind drifted to thoughts of this ship as his eyes glanced around the room. When they had first lifted off from Coruscant and he had been learning the controls on his console, the ship had spoken to him, asking if he required some assistance before changing the language for him. After travelling on countless starships during his life, he had come across few ships with a computer that spoke in Basic, let alone one as sophisticated as this one seemed to be.

Across the table from him, Yoda was sat cross-legged in a Jedi trance on top of the seat. A part of him hoped that the wisened old master could form a plan of action that would save the Jedi order, but he already knew what the first events would involve.

He was broken from his spiralling thoughts of Anakin's betrayal by the sound of Talia's boots in the corridor leading into the galley. She walked over to the food dispenser before returning to sit next to Obi-wan, a plate of meat and vegetables and a cup in front of her. A cup of what, he dared not wish to think about.

Talia had been noting Obi-wan's nearly constant stares every time she was around him and it was beginning to irritate her. With a mental sigh, she chose to eat her meal while Obi-wan managed to gather the courage to stop glancing at her and talk to her instead. A part of her wondered why she had this affect on him. Possibly my clothes, she concluded.

With her meal and their drinks finished, Talia took them back to the food dispenser for recycling. Deciding to take the initiative, she attempted to strike up a conversation with the Jedi master.

"Care for another?"

Shaken from his thoughts, Obi-wan answered on reflex.

"Oh yes, please."

Returning with another two cups and offering him one, Talia sat directly across from him, next to and below a meditating Yoda. Seeing him glance up at the old master, she smiled slightly.

"I have seen him meditate for days like that, it is his way of working out a solution to large problems."

Smiling and leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed, Obi-wan felt more at ease with her since he was having difficulty starting a conversation with her.

"Yes I have too, might I ask you a few questions?"

Sipping from her cup, Talia slowly nodded in agreement.

"Firstly, I have never seen or heard of any species like yourself."

"I am a Draconian, it is not uncommon for people to have heard of us now, what they do hear of us is only in old legends and fairy tales."

Obi-wan cocked an eyebrow slightly.

"An ancient race then? I can't recall ever seeing anything in the archives of you."

"That is due to us almost being considered a secret race long before the Jedi of today was founded, I doubt that there are no more than a handful of people left in the galaxy that truly knew of us."

"And of you? I have never heard of the rank of guardian before."

"Only a small number of us have any sense of the Force, fewer still become Jedi. My people thought it best for me to help you, therefore I became a guardian."

"Master Yoda referred you as an old friend, something tells me that you are older than you seem."

Talia slowly sipped from her cup, debating if she should tell him, when a familiar ripple through the Force signalled the answer being provided for her.

"Three thousand years by our scale, she is"

Obi-wan's eyes widened for a moment, as Talia smiled, the tips of her fangs showing. His astonishment could be heard in his voice.

"But you still look young? How can that be?"

His answer would not come, as a small alarm rang out in the room.

"Milady, we have several fighter craft approaching and attempting to contact us"

With that, the three Jedi ran through the corridors towards the forward areas, Obi-wan and Yoda resuming their positions at their consoles as Talia entered the cockpit and swung herself into the control yokes.

Talia had left the ship orbiting one of Coruscant's moons while they awaited contact from Senator Organa, however they had been discovered.

"Open the channel please Aria."

"…I repeat, attention unidentified craft, this area is under the Imperial Starfleet control, identify yourself, power down your shields and submit yourself for escort. All orbiting craft are to be boarded and searched for renegade Jedi…"

Hmm, their scanners must think that the motivation field is a defensive shield, I need more information on them…

"Obi-wan?"

"Clone Arc gunships, heavily armed, they are out of communication range to the base on Coruscant"

"Detect no other patrols, I can."

Talia considered her options for a moment, before flicking the respond button on her controls.

"This is the Draconian cruiser Oni's Star, we will not submit ourselves for escort nor boarding. Any attack on this ship will be responded."

"Understood, Oni's Star"

The three Arc-170 fighters turned away in formation from the ship to gain some distance between them.

"Aria, combat-mode please"

The displays being projected onto the cockpit bubble changed around her as the lights around her dimmed to a red hue, being replaced with targeting brackets on each of the fighters. In front of her, hatches on the front wings retracted to allow a cannon above and below each wing to deploy. At the very front of each wing, the forward blade sections split in half horizontally, revealing a large cannon nestled between. Behind her on the main hull, a pair of turrets swung out into position, the firing arcs of each being illuminated on her display. The dull base drone of the engine system grew slightly louder as the drive matrix brought itself to full power.

"Obi-wan, Yoda, take control of the turrets and ready yourselves please."

"Advise caution, I do."

Nodding in agreement, Talia quickly throttled the ship up and nose-dived towards the moon, the fighters racing after her. As she neared the moon's surface, targeting brackets lit up around many small asteroids, apparently a mining operation on the surface was in operation.

This will do nicely.

Weaving the ship around the asteroids gracefully, an alarm sounded as a fighter achieved a missile-lock and fired. Talia pulled her right leg yoke up, together with swinging her left arm yoke over her right, twisting the ship tightly on its axis and behind a passing asteroid, the missile narrowly impacting on it.

With a quick twist of the yokes, the ship span around on its axis to race back towards the surface, leaving the fighter pilots baffled but still in pursuit. They carefully kept their distance as they trained their blaster cannons on the ship while weaving through the asteroids.

Blaster fire filled the space around the ship as they ducked and rolled around the outer gantries of the mining station. Obi-wan and Yoda both returned fire, their turrets beams lancing out towards the pursuing fighters while Talia erratically manoeuvred the ship through the outer support structures. Spying an entrance inside on her display, Talia flipped the ship over to free-fall down and into the station itself. The walls of the cavernous metal corridor were lit up as blaster fire streaked past them.

These 'clones' seem to be quite skilled, we need to end this soon.

A small smile crept across her face as her wireframe display showed a large junction point ahead, with a pair of tunnels branching off near the top. Talia pushed on her leg yokes, accelerating the ship as she weaved through several supports across the corridor.

Obi-wan glanced at his radar / environment display, his eyes widened as he realised they were travelling impossibly fast to make the junction. An explosion sounded as Yoda managed to neatly clip a wing off the trailing fighter, causing it to spin into the wall of the corridor, flames erupting after the other fighters as the fuel tanks exploded.

As they burst out into the corridor, Talia pulled her body into a foetal position while pulling a small lever on each of her arm yokes. The ship flipped and threw the rear hull upward into the junction. Talia pulled her triggers and six beams lanced out from her forward cannons and into the opening of the corridor, catching the leading fighter and tearing it apart.

The remaining fighter pulled tightly up as Talia rolled and flipped the ship, the underneath facing the top of the junction and the forward wings aiming towards one of the upper corridors. Obi-wan found his turret aiming towards the fighter as it scrambled to slow down and opened fire, removing most of its starboard wing. Talia pushed hard on her leg yokes and threw the ship into the tight corridor as what remained of the fighter ploughed into the roof of the junction a split second behind them. Flames erupted around them, engulfing a worker droid carrying a large rock as the ship darted around it.

Talia slowed to spin the ship on its axis and strafe sideways through the corridor as it changed shape. After a moment, the corridor opened into a cavernous area. On her display, Talia selected a corridor that lead them outside and neatly guided the ship through it and out into space once again.

Obi-wan visibly relaxed from his controls, thankful that he was allowed a respite from the near-death experiences in the station. He glanced over to Yoda, who to his surprise looked reasonably relaxed.

Yoda caught his friend's glance and chuckled at his paled face.

"First time in a Draconian ship for you, it is."

Obi-wan could only slowly nod, as his mind came to comprehend the unbelievable manoeuvres the ship had easily performed. He struggled to believe that a ship this size could have manoeuvrability not only out-classing anything he had seen before, but also seemed to defy the laws of physics as he knew them. He now had more questions for Talia once they were out of harm's way. With a quick check of his display, no more fighters could be seen up to the apparent range of the scanners, which was considerable.

Yoda shifted his display to access the star charts as Talia opened a comm.

"Where to now old friend?"

"To Mustafar you must go, feel Skywalker's presence there I have. To the Senate, go, I must. The meeting over now, it is."

Talia guided the ship back towards Coruscant and soon they were flying through the towering cityscape towards the immense Senate building. She slowed the ship as they approached the landing area, lowering the ramp as Yoda leaped from it and onto the hanger floor. He quickly dispatched a few clonetroopers with his lightsaber as Obi-wan opened fire on the remaining with the lower turret. A clone gunship had managed to take off and began turning its missile tubes towards them, until Obi-wan cut it in half with his turret's beams. Once no more threats appeared, Yoda quickly saluted Talia in the cockpit with his lightsaber. Nodding towards him, she pulled the ship away from the hanger and flew upwards away from the city.

A few fighters had taken off from the other side of the Senate building and gave chase after the Star, only to be cut down by Obi-wan's turrets as they streaked out of the atmosphere and into space. After darting around a cruiser that was trying its best to shoot them out of the sky, Talia plotted the co-ordinates for Mustafar into the jump drive and with a blast of energy, the ship leaped into a portal in space and disappeared.