Note: Thanks for the reviews Ganki (Note for you in next paragraph.), Jen (welcome to the party Jen, hope you stick around!), Wipeout ( *starts singing the Wipeout song....stops.* Oh, right I can't scare my Reviewers away either. *winks at Ganki* I'm sorry I just love your name! You'll get sick of hearing that after a while I'm sure. heh) , and shen panda (glad you like it so much so far!!!)!!!! So glad to see you guys are still interested in my fics! THANK YOU! *Wonders where KenobisGirl is at...was depending on her too.*
Well OF COURSE Ganki! Didn't you see the sign on Jesi's back when I first started this series??? *Turns Jesi around to see a sign reading, "Give me Trouble....It'll make for a good fic." * See. :) Nah, I think Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon rubbed off on her but she's had it pretty rough through her life....I don't think that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon could out do her in the trouble category. You? ;)
Oh, btw, to everyone I'm thinking of doing a number of short fics in these time frames between the longer ones. What do you think? Or should I just stick to the longer ones then once I'm done with the series go and add them in...or of course, don't add them at all. A little help in that situation would be useful! I beg of you for comments.
This is a REALLY long chapter. Probably the longest I've written yet. Have fun! Lol.
Look fors:
/ blah blah blah / Are personal thoughts.Ch. 2 Hunted
"Who got on the shuttle?"
Transport Director Sau demanded as she entered the busy lounge. The group around her startled and froze. Becoming impatient the blue, pointed eared native snapped,
"Who got on the damn flight?!"
"Ah-" A man started going through the files.
"A Jesiana Stafferi signed on as well as an Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"Stations?"
"The woman's an IGPG officer, a captain. The male is a.." The woman replying paused.
"A what?" Sau ordered.
"A Jedi Ambassador Ma'am." Sau groaned smacking the table near her.
"Damnit! How'd this happen?!" No one replied really, just stared at her.
"Brank, get in touch with IGPG officals. I'll contact the Jedi Temple myself, seeing no one else can do their jobs around here." She eyed the guards as she turned out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"And just what do you prepose we do about the Jedi? He wasn't apart of the deal." Warden hissed as he exaimed his blaster.
"We'll just have to take care of him.You heard what he said, any problems will be generously taken into account." Vius, a 6 foot tall humanoid replied fingering the triggar.
"He's a Jedi--not even you'll be able to take him easily."
Vius grinned.
"He's a sleeping Jedi right now, so let's get this over with.We'll both go into his quarters and say night-night then we'll deal with the other one." He paused and glanced at the computer board.
"How long do we have?"
"About 15 minutes until it starts shutting down, we should have them both in the sack by then."
"We better." Vius said.
"Come on.Let's go see what we can do with our little Jedi." Vius grinned again as though he were drunk.
Warden hardly grinned back. He'd heard stories about Jedi. About how they could control your mind and move faster than light, but he followed his partner out of the cockpit and down the corridor towards the guest chambers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What do I call them?" Sau asked.
"Excuse me?" The assitant image asked.
"What do I call the person or persons I talk to. I've never been near a Jedi all my life." She explained.
"Oh!"
The assistant exclaimed.
"Just refer to them as Master so and so, or just Master Jedi Ma'am." Sau nodded.
"Is this matter of importance?"
"Yes, it concerns the safety of one of your own."
"Oh, I see." She replied.
"I'll put you right through to Master Windu."
"Thank you." Sau said curtly.
"Have a good day ma'am." The small image faded and within a few moments another appeared.
A dark skinned man with a authorital stance, Sau already didn't like him.
"Greetings Jedi Master, I am La'shia Sau with Oismin Transport Facility. I'm sure you are aware that an Obi-Wan Kenobi came through here earlier."
"I was informed of it, yes." Windu replied.
"And you're aware he boarded flight with a Jesiana Stafferi."
"Yes Ms.Sau." He said seeming to want to the conversation to pick up.
"Well,...there was a glitch in our security."
She paused waiting for him to say something and he didn't. Giving a small shrug she continued.
"We found the two pilots that were supposed to be navigating that shuttle striped of their uniforms and,...um..they were dead Jedi Master."
Windu didn't say anything for a moment and she nearly already lost her patience.
"And the shuttle? How long has it been since it's left planet?"
"Over an hour and a half MasterJedi." She replied.
"We've been tracking it but the only way we'd be able to contact the shuttle is through cockpit transmissions, we will not be able to contact the passengers."
"What can you do about this?"
Sau shrugged slightly again.
"There's not much we can do...our only choice, without alarming who ever is on that shuttle instead of the normal pilots is to keep them on track."
"I will inform the rest of the council here and we'll see what we can do."
"Oh, you don't need to pass anything through me. The passengers are no longer my problem...and I should have you know that we can only track business flights for their time in our system, and they won't stay there much longer."
Windu's eyes narrowed. Sau had a feeling perhaps she shouldn't of put it as 'not her problem.' Yeah, real smart.
"Very well. Thank you for contacting us."
"You're welcome Jedi Master.IGPG will or has been contacted as well."
He nodded."Good day Jedi Master, and good luck with your missing persons."
"Thank you Ms.Sau." The transmission ended.
"Ass." She muttered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mace Windu rubbed his eyes. Of all people, Kenobi. That boy seemed to get himself into more trouble than a dozen Jedi combined. Nevertheless Mace stood and quickly exited the single chambers.
Moving at such a pace he nearly toppled over Master Yoda just outside the door.Swarving to avoid him he ran into Qui-Gon.Both tall Jedi were knocked to the ground.
"Hmmmm....Be more aware of those shorter than you Master Mace, you should."
Mace shook his head trying to see single again.
"Excuse me Master, I'm sorry."
"Sorry to me you should not..." Yoda poked Qui-Gon in the side now that he was within reach.
"Master, please, you're not helping matters by poking me with that forsaken gimmer stick." Qui-Gon said as pleasantly as he could as he sat up glaring at Mace.
"Why, exactly, were you in such a hurry?"
"It's Obi-Wan."
"With Jesi, Obi-Wan is."
"Yes, but they both could be in a lot of trouble."
"What do you mean?" Qui-Gon asked somewhat alarmed but keeping it in check as best he could.Mace stood and offered Qui-Gon a hand.
"I'll explain." He said turning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesi was just starting to nod off. Sleep was becoming more and more persistent and her eyes were beginning give up any fight.
She jumped at the sudden buzz in the other room, toppling papers off her lap.Cursing herself she leaned down to pick them up. The buzzing was constant and finally she gave up on the papers for now and stood moving towards the communications room.
Frowning at the title of the sender she shrugged it off and figured it was someone for Obi-Wan because it was the Temple. Tapping the answer button she was met by nearly half the Council and Qui-Gon.
"Masters, shall I get Obi-Wan?" She asked rather surprised.
"Where is he?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Ah..he's..He's sleeping Qui-Gon." She couldn't help but notice the relief that flooded over everyone's face.
"Is something wrong?"
"In danger you both are." Yoda said.
"We were just contacted by the port you left a few hours ago and they informed us your pilots were found. Stripped of their uniforms and shot."
Jesi frowned.
"What? No, my pilots are here, now."
"They're imposters, have you ever seen your pilots before?" Adi said.
"Wh-..No, no, we have different pilots ever time. I figured they were new." Jesi said confused.
"Jesi, you're not safe and neither is Obi-Wan.Wake him up and bring him here. Hurry." Mace said.
"Alright." Jesi replied still confused.
She stood and moved towards the guest quarters.Slipping into his quarters she didn't turn on the light and moved to his bedside.
"Obi-Wan, kid, wake up." He moaned and rolled over.
"Obi-Wan." She whispered a little louder.
"Come on, now's not the time to ignore me."
"What Jes?" He murmured.
"Get up, we're in a bit of trouble."
"Huh?" He questioned still not opening his eyes.
"Get up! Our pilots aren't who we think they are, their imposters and they want something." She hissed
.Obi-Wan was awake in an instant.
"How do you know?" He asked rolling over to look at her.
"Half the Council is waiting for us to get back to the Communications room I-" She stopped listening.Footsteps.
"Sith." She whispered."They're coming."
"Hide." Obi-Wan ordered. Jesi moved to the shadows to the far left of the door and Obi-Wan pulled the covers up and turned towards the wall as though he were sleeping.
The door was spread open rather than using the keypad, and the large humanoid entered quietly.Jesi measured her breathing carefully as she watched. The male glanced around unaware that Obi-Wan had his eyes open looking at the wall.
"Hurry up." The smaller human male hissed.
The humanoid glared at him telling him to be silent.
Jesi held her breath as he pulled out a blaster, with a very high tech silencer on it.
"Say good night Jedi." He whispered so softly both Jesi and Obi-Wan barely heard it.
Obi-Wan had been gathering the Force within his muscles all the time and as soon as it whisered to him he moved so quickly that the male had pulled the triggar that hit nothing but empty mattress. Before he could react the youthful Jedi hit a spot on his neck sending him into blackness.
"Good night." He muttered.
The human had realized what was going on and turned aiming his blaster. Calling his saber Obi-Wan blocked the first two shots and before the third was fired Jesi made use of the pen she still had in her hand. Being it was a fine point and the man so focused on Obi-Wan she quickly jammed it just above his collar bone. That way she could decide whether to let him live or die.The man dropped and Jesi looked at Obi-Wan.
"Damn, we work well together." She said so lightly Obi-wan thought he caught a glimpse of who she once was.
"Don't we always?" He replied.
The shuttle suddenly shook rather violently.
"But I don't think we're done yet." He muttered moving out of the quarters towards the cockpit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This was taking entirely too long. Something was wrong Qui-Gon was sure of it. It had bothered him for the past week and a half that Obi-Wan was too far away to make the bond worth anything, and now it was the cherry on the sundae because if they did have it he might at least have a clue as to what was going on. He noticed how the others in the room started to fidget becoming anxious as well.
/Come on Jes, hurry up./
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The door's jammed!" Obi-Wan yelled back towards Jesi who was moving the two imposters inside the guest quarters so she could lock the door.
"What?" She asked pausing her task.
"The cockpit door, it's jammed.They locked it from the inside!" He called back.
Jesi nearly kicked the body near her.
"Any bright ideas?" She yelled.
"Yeah, one." He answered.
She heard the familiar snap-hiss of a light saber and smiled slightly to herself.
"Not as smart as you think.." She muttered to the unconscious body she was moving.
She glanced at the human and frowned. Perhaps her aim wasn't as good as it once was because if it was he wouldn't be dead....and he was dead. The larger humanoid groaned and she turned her attention to him. She could fix that. Using the butt of the blaster in her hand she slugged the side of his head...he didn't groan anymore.
"That's from me love." She muttered grabbing his blaster and searching him and the human over quickly.
Finding two more blasters and 3 virbo blades she took them and went out of the quarters, jamming the door as she left.
~~~~~~~~
The hole in the door was finally large enough for Obi-Wan to get into the cockpit. Slipping inside all around him were flashing lights, beeps, warning computer voices, and a few sparks now and then.
"Jesi!" He yelled moving to the computer board. Flipping down the protection panel he was met by sparks. Shielding his eyes he looked away. The cockpit turned red with the warning light.
Turning back to the exposed panel he nearly groaned aloud. Red wires met blue wire, yellow to red, red to white, and white into blue. It was a mess.
"Jes!" He yelled louder as the shuttle shook again and the computer stated,
"Warning craft engines shutting down, warning decent expected..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jesi was fiddling with the blasters she'd found. When she had put them down she noticed that the two largest ones were different. Looking closer she saw the triggar for stun blot; not uncommon. But looking closer she saw electro volt, restraining harpoon, acent harpoon, blinding acid. One even had a net as a choice. These weren't regular criminals- they were bounty hunters.
They went after Obi-Wan first, did that mean they had to get rid of him or capture him? Jedi were a shinny cedit on the slave market if you ever get them there. And she knew that Obi-Wan and his Master weren't amoung favorites if you were to walk into a Offworld facility, they may be hired by them.
But if not, who had she pissed off lately? Lt.Colonel Raider wasn't all that pleased when they'd left but it wasn't directed specifically towards her....then there was always Colings' followers that had lasted through the entire war..She shuddered. No, they wouldn't know her to this extent if they had lived.
"Jes!" She nearly dropped the blaster at Obi-Wan's yell.
Putting it with the others she hurried to the cockpit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mace had had enough of this.
"Is it that hard to wake the boy up?"
Qui-Gon looked at him grimly.
"Sometimes, but not under the circumstances."
"Do you think something happened?" Adi asked.
"It shouldn't be taking this long just to get back infront of the transmission." Qui-Gon replied.
"Hmm, think something went wrong, I do." Yoda said in a tired voice.
"Ki-Adi-Mundi, could you see to it that this transmission is tranced?" Mace asked.
"Certainly." Ki-Adi-Mundi stood exiting quickly to fetch an aide at the computer desk.
"He better hurry." Adi said quietly.
The others looked at her. She nodded towards the transmission.
"The transmission is breaking up."
Qui-Gon looked at it...so it was.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What do you have?" Jesi asked hurrying into the cockpit and kneeling down next to him.
Obi-Wan paused what he was doing.
"They rewired the entire system. The wrong commands are being sent to the wrong place and it's going to over heat the whole system."
A sudden spark shower exploded from the top computer panel.
"Sith." Jesi hissed as a small flame danced up and began to spread.
"Where's the extinguisher?" She demanded after already looking for it. Obi-Wan stopped what he was doing again. He saw where it should of been, it just wasn't there.
"They must have taken it." He stated frustrated.
"There's one in the communications room. Run down there, I'll see what I can do with this." She said already moving to his place.
Obi-Wan obeyed and rushed towards the back.
Skidding to a stop at the entrance of the room he looked around quickly. He did a double take of the transmission reciever itself. Seeing it was a few members of the council and his own master he moved the chair infront of it and dropped downto one knee.
"Obi-Wan! What's going on?" Qui-Gon asked immediatly.
"I-I don't know. Our pilots tried to kill me but they're attempt was just an attempt, Jes woke me up in time. I must of been to tired to sense their dark intentions." Obi-Wan replied knowing normally he'd get a lecture about his last sentence.
"Where's Jesi?" Adi asked.
"The Pilots, they rewired all the systems and our engines will be shutting down if we don't get it redone. Right now she's trying to rewire it...I'm sorry Masters but I can't talk, I need to get the fire extinguisher." Obi-Wan said regretfully as he was about to stand.
"Wait!" Mace ordered.
"What are your coordinates?"
Obi-Wan thought quickly.
"I don't know."
"Go see."
"Master, I may not have time."
"Go Obi-Wan!" Qui-Gon demanded.
Obi-Wan stood quickly moving to the extinguisher.Snatching it he rushed out of the room towards the cockpit again.
/Why do I have two lose wires?/ Jesi held the yellow wire and the white wire in her hands examing them carefully.They shouldn't be together so where is their second halves?
"Obi-Wan!" She yelled.
It was hotter than anything in there.The fire was spread but so far it wasn't close enough to her that she had to abandon her task.
"I'm here." Obi-Wan ran in quickly spreading the white foam over the now rather large fire.
"Help me out here." She said when he had finished. He dropped down next to her.
"What? No second ends?" He asked calmly though the fact bothered him.
"Not that I can find." She replied.
"Let me do this, you get our location and go back to the communications room and inform the council." Jesi's eyes widened.
"They're still online?" She asked.
"Yeah. Hurry, we may not last long."
Jesi stood up looking through the top panel...the fire had burnt most of the location numbers off! Jesi ran her eyes over the four first numbers. 2984...that could help them out-hopefully. Glancing at Obi-Wan she hurried out of the cockpit going to the back.
Practically sliding infront of the transmission she spit out.
"Long story but I only got 4 of the numbers: 2984."
"Jes, are you going to be able to regain the shuttle?" Qui-Gon asked hopeful.
"I highly doubt it." She replied.
"It's taking too long and we don't have time."
"What about escape pod-?" A small bit of Mace's words were cracked out by the shaky transmission.
"I checked, both have been jammed."
"Wha-"
"They're jammed." Jesi repeated.
"Jes, yo- bre-ing -p." Suddenly, Jesi heard a clamber and a small shout.
"I'm sorry, I have to go. There's nothing you can do right now." She said quickly.
"Stafferi out." She stood, not turning off the transmission and ran back up to the cockpit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"-'m sor- ....t-...go.....nothi-..ou...right..ow.Staffe..."
The sentence never finished because Jesi's transmission went out.
"There could be a hundred systems with the beginning of 2984." Mace said.
"Still run it, we will."
"Of course, but how long will it take to find the one they're in? We don't even know if they'll crash on a planet or.." Adi paused glancing at Qui-Gon then back to Yoda.
"Or something else happens."
"Know we will, if that something else happens." Yoda said also looking at Qui-Gon.
"Master, we're wasting time sitting here bickering over this."
"Have an idea, do you?"
"I'm not sure Master, but the code needs to be scanned through before anything."
Yoda paused a moment.
"Scan you will, come back when finished you shall." Qui-Gon was already standing at the first words.
"Yes my Master." He said quickly bowing and exiting the chambers. Mace did nothing for a moment then excused himself and followed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"How we- Obi-Wan what happened?!" Jesi interrupted her own words with another.Obi-Wan was examining a very burnt, very bloody hand.
"Yellow and white don't mix." He muttered through clenched teeth.
"Warning engines shutting down in 38 seconds." The computer said in a drowned voice from the fire. Though Jesi was worried about Obi-Wan's hand she looked out the cockpit window.
"There! Look a planet." She announced.
"It's not too far..I could manage the flight system before it shuts down." Obi-Wan told her moving towads the controls.
"Even if we don't make it we should be able to get in the gravitation pull." He added.
Jesi would normally object but she knew full well that Obi-wan was a far better pilot than she, even one handed. She knelt down beside the chair as he struggled with the controls.
"Tell me what to do and I'll do it." She said as he was forced to use his painfully burnt hand.
"Get strapped in." He muttered.
Hesitating she stood moving to the chair beside him.The fire stayed mostly to the top panels, which she was very greatful for.
"Engines shutting down in 10...9...8."
"Hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride." Obi-Wan told her as he was able to loosen up on the controls and let gravity takes it's place.
"..5..4..3..2..1..Engine shut down."
The craft shuddered a little then the sirens quit and there was no more humming.Instead there was the high pitch squeaking sound of hot air pressure on the glass. Quickly the jerking and julting came into play and both passengers, no matter their combined experiance flight...even crashes as this, gripped the arms of their seats.Suddenly the squeaking stopped and one last jult with a loud smacking or slapping sound.
Tbc....
Note: As always REVIEW!*Will give everyone Cherries!* Not sure how much I like how this is going but I need to get to a particular point so be patient with me. Please!
Next chapter will be up as soon as possible....or course you all can help big time on that. *grins.*
Til later,
Elli