CHAPTER 4

"Another!" Tazuna called, raising his emptied cup and waving it to get the attention of their waiter-droid. The droid, a silver plated dome of a thing with a large tray welded to it's front chassis, rolled over, gripped the cup in it's tiny claws, and turned back to the bar across the room.
"Coming right up sir!."
Sakura watched as Tazuna leant back in his seat and let out a small burp. "Do you think we should stop him, Master?" she whispered to Kakashi, whose attention was solely focused on his datapad. "He's had six drinks already, and we've only been in hyperspace for an hour."
Kakashi took a quick look over the top of his datapad at Tazuna. The man was well past fifty, with a coarse grey beard and hair that receded at the temples. A pair of thin spectacles, which made his black eyes look much larger than they actually were, sat on a bulbous nose reddened with burst veins.

"It's not our place to command him, Sakura." her Master said, turning focus back to his reading. "Our duty is to protect him, nothing more. If he likes to drink, let him drink."
"What if it's poisoned?" the girl asked, curious.
Kakashi sighed. "Mister Tazuna?"
"Yup?" the cartographer said gruffly, looking out of the view port that their booth sat next to. "My apprentice is afraid that one of your drinks may be laced with something. If you begin to choke, would you mind telling us?" Tazuna looked from Kakashi to Sakura, a queer look on his face.
"Alright. Just as long as you save me." The droid returned with the old man's drink, and he took it and swallowed the contents in seconds. "One more," he placed the cup on the droid's tray and watched it speed off.
"There we go!," Kakashi gave Sakura one of his carefree smiles. "If Tazuna dies, we'll be the first to know." Sakura shook her head, a little annoyed at her master's lack of care.

A sudden clang drew their attention as Naruto and Sasuke returned from the buffet queue. Both carried a silver tray in each hand, piled with various meats and vegetables and sweets that the frigate's hospitality crew had prepared. Sasuke guided a fifth tray through the air with the use of the Force. They passed them around and Sakura licked her lips at the sight. "Hungry Sakura?" Naruto laughed, noticing. The boy sat down next to Tazuna, and immediately began gorging himself on his meal. Sasuke took a seat next to Sakura, and she saw that his tray was much smaller than everyone elses.
"Aren't you hungry?" she asked.
Sasuke shook his head. "I don't eat much."
"You don't even want dessert?" she said, making note of the fact that his plate consisted of nothing but savoury foods.
He shook his head again. "I hate sweet things." He took up a red slice of something and popped it into his mouth, chewing very slowly. Sakura didn't pressure him to talk. In the few weeks she'd known him, she'd found that Sasuke didn't do much of anything. In fact, the only thing she ever really saw him doing was training. It was weird.

"Do you have to eat like that?" Tazuna said, disgust in his face at the sight of the massacre Naruto was making of his food. "I would have thought that a Jedi would possess a better table manner than that." Naruto, a loose noodle hanging from his mouth, looked up at the old man.
"Who are you to talk?" he said, sucking the noodle into his mouth with an audible 'slurp'. "You drink that stupid sake stuff like it's blue milk."
"Naruto," Kakashi said from behind his datapad. "Respect your elders...and eat properly. You're a Jedi. You're representing the order when you do that, remember?" Naruto opened his mouth to make a retort, but a single glance from Kakashi made him shut it again.
"Yes Master." Tazuna smirked. Naruto noticed and stuck his tongue out. The old man clenched his teeth in annoyance.

"Why did I get stuck with a bunch of children anyway?" Tazuna asked Kakashi as the serving droid returned. He took the drink and waved the droid away. "You'd think that the council would offer a little more protection than three younglings fresh out of the academy." Sakura took that to heart. She would have thought that the man would be a little more appreciative to have the Jedi council behind him at all.
"You also have me,"Kakashi said. "Is a Jedi Jonin not enough for you?"
Tazuna thought it over. "I guess," he said finally, draining his cup once more. "But still, four Jedi masters is better than one Jedi master and three children." Kakashi deactivated his datapad and lay it on the table, finally starting his meal.

"I can assure you, Tazuna, these three are far more qualified than you'd expect. Sasuke here was the second highest overall student in his grade. He's a finer swordsman than I was at his age, and I was Chunin long before then," He looked as Sasuke and smiled. The boy just nodded. "Naruto was praised by his teachers as one of the most dedicated younglings in academy history. And in Sakura's files, if I remember correctly, she was marked as the finest Force user of her class." Sakura couldn't believe that. Kakashi had to have made it up.
"So?," Tazuna said. "They're still only children."
"Children can surprise you...you just have to let-."

A muffled bang cut him off.

"What was that?" Naruto asked through a mouthful of bread. Kakashi stood up and gripped his saber hilt.
"Explosion...get Tazuna to our quarters, I'll go check it-"

The groan of engines stalling came from beneath them, and the frigate jerked to a stop. Next thing she knew, Sakura found herself on the floor next to their table, slumped on top of Sasuke. She got up, head spinning, and saw Naruto in a heap a few meters away. "Are you okay?"she asked. Sasuke sat up, nursing his shoulder. He nodded. "Naruto?" she said a little louder. Naruto forced himself to his knees and smiled.
"Fine," he called. "Just dizzy."
She helped Sasuke to his feet, then turned to find her master laying beneath the table. "Master Kakashi!" she cried, falling down at his side. She rolled him over and checked him out. A gash had split open his forehead, leaking blood down his face and bandanna and onto the floor, but he was awake. "Damnit," he muttered.
"Are you okay?" he sat up awkwardly and touched his cut. "Yes. I think. Are you alright?" she nodded. "Good. Where's Tazuna?"
"Here," Sasuke said. The old man was crouching behind the booth seats. He'd thrown up.

"Are you alright, Mister Tazuna?" Kakashi asked as Sakura helped her master stand. Tazuna looked as if he'd seen a spirit. Kakashi took him under one arm, and Sasuke took the other,
lifiting the old man to his feet. "I think Tazuna should get to our quarters." he eyed Sakura. "See that he makes it there safely."
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"Hyperdrive engines don't just explode...Someone was behind it. I'm going to check it out," he turned away from them and headed towards the turbo-lifts. "I'll meet you back at the quarters. Move quickly and don't let anyone in until I am there." he stepped into the turbolift and disappeared behind the sliding door.

Sakura took Tazuna by the arm. "Come on," she said. "We shouldn't waste time." She began dragging Tazuna towards the lifts, Naruto and Sasuke falling in behind. As they walked across the cafeteria floor, distraught passengers took notice of them and began begging for aid.
"What do we do?" a woman grabbed Naruto by the arm and dug her fingers into his skin. Naruto clearly had no idea what to say, so Sasuke stepped in.
"Take your loved ones back to your quarters. Send for a medic droid and they'll get to you as soon as they can." He said. The woman reluctantly let go of Naruto, and went back to her husband, babbling to herself.
"We should help them," Sakura said. "There's no time. Tazuna comes first." Sasuke opened the turbolift and pushed Sakura and Tazuna in before he and Naruto followed.

Sakura pushed the button for their level. Tazuna was still startled, but ultimately he seemed healthy. The lift went up twelve levels, then conked out. The lights in the lift tube went dim. "What's wrong now?" Tazuna whined, his voice shaking. "Do you think this is because of me?"
"Not unless there's someone else on the ship with a mob bounty on their head." Sasuke said sternly. Naruto reached beneath his brown cloak, retrieved a little oval shaped comm device and spoke into the receiver.
"Master Kakashi?...We're stuck in an elevator. Is there anything you can do?" There was static for a few moments, then the calm voice of their master came through.
"I'd heading towards the bridge. If there's anything I can do from there, I will."

Sakura exhaled. All of a sudden, she was very nervous. She couldn't tell why; maybe it was aftershock from the breakdown, maybe she was just scared, but it made her grip her lightsaber tightly beneath her cloak. For some reason, that helped.

A few minutes passed. Tazuna prayed constantly under his breath. Sakura looked from Naruto, who kept pressing the lift buttons in hope they'd work, to Sasuke, who kept his eyes on the lift door and his hand on his saber. A thump from above made them all look up at the ceiling. "What the hell?" Naruto shouted. Another, much softer thump, and a queer beeping noise began.

"DOWN!" Sakura cried as an explosion tore a massive hole in the turbolift's roof. The four of them were showered with sparks and metal shards. Tazuna cried out as smoke began to waft down from the wrecked steel and into the lift-tube. Sakura's ears rang. She called on the Force to guide her through her disorientation and threw herself on Tazuna. Unfortunately, Tazuna wasn't there, and she hit the steel floor with a thump.

A scream came from above, and Sakura looked up to see the cartographer fly through the hole in the turbo-lift's roof, a shining Durasteel chain wrapped around his waist. "Look!" she cried to her squad-mates. Sasuke, who unlike herself and Naruto, was still standing, pulled his saber from his belt and switched it on. The sapphire blue blade stood out against the smoke filled tube, and disappeared into the hole above them as Sasuke leapt through it into the shaft outside.

Naruto took her arm. "Come on!," he urged her to her feet. He whipped out his yellow saber and leapt through the hole after Sasuke. Within seconds, Sakura was after him.

The shaft only ascended a few dozen of the seventy or so floors of the frigate, but even then, Tazuna and his kidnappers were more than a hundred yards above her. Sasuke had called on the Force to defy gravity and run up the inner walls of the shaft. Sakura recognised the technique immediately. She'd learnt it during a Force control exercise a few years ago, but had never used it afterwards. Focusing as best she could, she drew all her energy to her feet and leapt as high as she could. As if she were magnetic, she was pulled straight towards the wall, and instantly the wall was her floor.

"Come on Naruto!," she laughed when the blonde apprentice gasped at the sight of her. She took a step, then another, and then a few more. Within moments, she was confident enough to start running up the shaft after her team mate and their quarry.

Sasuke was still a good deal ahead of her, and Tazuna ahead of him, but she gained on them quickly. "There's two of them," Sasuke said as shecaught up, "Jetpacks and modified vibro-whips," he slipped around an energy belt sticking out from the shaft wall, "When we reach them, cut the chain and carry Tazuna back down...I'll take care of the bounty hunters."
"By yourself? . . . Sasuke, this isn't the time to be so confident in yourself."
"I'm not going to fight them," he snapped. He speed up, sprinting ahead of her as the two bounty hunters above them began to slow. Sakura wanted to what his plan was, but with Tazuna's life at stake, she thought it best to see the old man safe.

Naruto caught up with her only twenty or so yards from the bounty hunters. The two spread out as Sasuke closed the distance between them and the bounty hunters. "Cut the chains and get Tazuna away from them." She told her team mate.

Sasuke came equal to the bounty hunters and leapt away from the wall. The blue of his lightsaber flashed and sparks flew as he slashed through the energy cell on the first bounty hunter's jetpack. The bounty hunter cried as his pack died and he began to descend, gripping at the shaft walls for a loose wire or ledge. Anything to stop his fall. The second bounty hunter slipped a blaster from his belt and let off a shot at Sasuke, who swiped it away.

Tazuna, who looked as if he was about to throw up again, caught sight of Sakura. "Help me!" he shouted.

Sakura leapt for Tazuna, bringing her blade around in a wide arc, severing the loose chain that held him. Naruto pulled it towards him with the Force and wrapped it around his arm. The second Bounty hunter was pre-ocupied with Sasuke, who leapt from wall to wall like he was a dancer performing in the capitol. Sakura took her chance and severed the second chain, taking it herself and, along with Naruto, began guiding the all-too-pleased Tazuna back down, towards the wrecked turbo-lift.

A wail came from above. The bounty hunter Sasuke had disabled had lost his grip on a loose durasteel panel and begun to fall. "Help!," he cried. Sakura didn't think twice, "Can you hold Tazuna?" Naruto and braced himself. She released her grip on the chain and sprang up the shaft once again. The bounty hunter's descent was slowed as he crashed against the shaft walls. He reached Sakura much earlier than she expected, and she barely had enough time to brace her body against his weight.

He fell right through her, pulling her from the wall and dragging her down with him. She heard Naruto scream out, and she cried too, as they sailed down the shaft.

For a moment, she thought that she was going to die. She rolled over in the air and saw the jagged metal plates of the turbo-lift's ruined roof, sticking up like rocks at the bottom of ravine, ready to tear her body to shreds. Her body had suddenly tensed up and she couldn't even focus enough to call on the Force. 'This is it . . .' she thought.

But then she stopped.

An invisible rope had tethered itself around her waist, halting her fall onto the turbo-lift by mere meters. She looked to her left, the bounty hunter she'd tried to save was lying a few feet away also hanging in mid-air. He was absolutely terrified. 'What happened?' a small chuckle came from above her, and she turned to see her master, Kakashi, standing in a turbo-lift doorway two floors above her. "Master Kakashi!," she cried, happier than she'd ever been.

"I told you I'd see what I could do."