Repair

On his home planet of Meridia there was a fish called simply a screw-fish. As it swam, for some reason known only to the fish itself, it would go through a lazy roll every few meters so that it was like watching a barrel rolling snub fighter. When in danger, the fish would dive very fast, the spin increasing until it looked like a demented construction screw. It would hit the bottom at high speed, and auger into the mud where it would hide until the predator if fled had departed.

Unfortunately that wasn't mud approaching them in their terminal dive. Part of his mind considered that the air car would auger in for about five meters at this speed, until it's tail was buried in the ceramacrete below. Unfortunately again, the car was fifteen meters in length, and the part in front of that tail would be accordioned in to fit in that five meter hole, along with the passengers.

He wasn't sure what was worse. That he couldn't seem to regain control, that they all going to die very rapidly and messily...

Of the fact that the two lunatics in the back seat where whooping and hollering as if this were an amusement park ride.

Then he noticed something moving in front of him. Bastila had leaned as far forward as the restraint belt would allow, and reached for the panel with the red light. She went instead to the green button marked number five, touched it, changing the light to amber, then hit it again which made it go out entirely.

He immediately noticed the craft wasn't rolling that badly anymore. The girl repeated her magic with the red Grav coil two, and that light went out. He now had control again. Then he realized he was looking up at the surface as he pulled the yoke back. They were in a long canyon about three times as wide as the aircar, flying about ten meter over the bottom of it and ahead a solid wall less than two hundred meters away.

"Oh Fierfeck!" He screamed, yanking the yoke back hard. The air car made a little hop, and now he was flying beside the canyon as he began to hit the brakes to slow down. The remaining grav coils flashed from amber to green as he finally slowed to a stop about five meters short of the wall on this level.

If one of them says again, I'm going to kill us all by diving back in. He promised darkly.

"That was fun!" Revan whooped. "I want to-"

"Say it and your bantha poo doo." Kavar snarled. There was a whoop of a siren, and he groaned "Now what?"

Above and behind them there was a spotlight centered on them. He couldn't see what kind of vehicle it was, but he assumed the worst, constabulary, Senate Guard, maybe the military! It slowed beside them, and he suddenly realized it was only a repair tow truck. The driver was only a shadow, but Kavar could see a hand come up with a com link mike. He looked, then clicked the com panel.

"This is Safe-T tow #19. You people need some help?"

"Yes, please." Kavar replied.

"According to local safety regulations we can't have passengers in the vehicles being towed. If you will kindly step out of the vehicle, please?"

"All right." Kavar looked at the others. "Get out." As Marai opened the door, he looked at Bastila. "How did you know that would help?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot. "There are six coils, and if one on either end goes out, it will throw the balance completely off. But if you cut the coil that is directly opposite, like Grav coil five when grav coil two is the one that broke down, you have some control until you shut down coil two."

"That was smart! And you think you're not a Jedi?"

"Not a Jedi." She protested. "I'm Bastila."

Kavar stepped down, closing the door. The tow truck deployed a tractor cable, connecting to the frame, the antigravity field extending down to lift it. As it did the two back doors on the right hand side of the truck cab opened. "If you will get in, I'll take you to the closest repair shop."

"Kavar." Marai said softly. "Did you bring any money?"

"No." Kavar admitted. "But I'll take the flak when the bill comes in." He motioned, and the others went ahead. Kavar paused at the front door when he saw the driver was a Devaronian.

"Hey, most of the things they say about our males is hype." He commented. "It's only a minute or so to the garage. Will you get in, please?"

Kavar climbed in, and the truck lifted, the poor Fantom 17 was being dragged behind it as the truck angled away from the course they had been on.

"It shouldn't take to long to fix a blown grav coil." The driver commented. "May cost a few creds; about fifty. But that is not a lot."

"Thanks for being there. I am Kavar."

"Corlos." The driver returned. There's the-" The com panel lit up.

"Corlos! Braaken Sho Ni Chalas, Vergan!"

The Devaronian looked at the panel hitting the reply button. "Shrangeen ai?"

"Choop cha!"

The driver growled, then wrenched the yoke so that the vehicle swapped ends, and was heading back, not only to where he had picked up the Fantom, but perhaps a kilometer aft of that location.

"What-"

Some Gotervandreg local named Vergan is trying to make time with my daughter!" The Devaronian almost roared.

"What's Gotervandreg mean?" Bastila piped up.

"Later!" Kvar screamed. "Listen, can't you-"

"It's closer to home than the garage!" Corlos replied reasonably. The truck drove, then slammed to a stop. Kavar's eyes widened as the driver popped the glove box, and pulled out a blaster. Then he was down, and headed toward an apartment where someone was standing in front of a door. Kavar gulped as the driver opened fire as if he wasn't running at full speed, and trying to be accurate at the same time which meant he wouldn't hit anything he aimed at. Worse yet, the figure, also a Devaronian male had drawn his own blaster, and was firing back. Kavar flinched as a bolt blew through the driver's door and out of the cab, missing him by millimeters. Another blasted through the windscreen of the car being towed.

"Get out! Move, Move, Move!" The younglings reacted with excellent discipline, diving from the truck to ground as the gun battle continued. There were several flashing lights in the sky now as constabulary units were inbound!

"Kavar!" Marai pointed ahead of the parked truck, at what looked like a Megatech limo. He nodded, then began shoving the others as they followed Marai. The girl opened the rear door, and began shoving the children into the car. Kavar reached it, and both he and Marai dived into the passenger compartment.

They all gasped, and the two eldest breathed a sigh of relief. "We're out of the line of fire, and the constabulary won't think we're part of it." Kavar sighed.

"Kavar, there is a problem."

"What problem?" He asked.

"If only one of us had carried a lightsaber, we wouldn't be hiding right now."

"You know why I said we couldn't-"

"It's a given, but if one of us had, we wouldn't be hiding from Devaronians, Constables or Security-"

"Oh my." Revan said, then wilted as the two older Jedi wannabes glared at her.

"If we had been carrying a light saber, they would have reported-"

"Yeah! But we could have told the constabulary it was Jedi business-"

"Jedi business? With all of us too young to be Knights! What kind of Shlackt are you shoveling?"

"What's shlackt?" Bastila piped up.

The pair turned, and in unison shouted, "Shut Up!"

"Listen, could you keep it down?" A voice asked reasonably. The two oldest Jedi paused, then looked at who was in the limo. Malak, Revan, Marai, Bastila, Kavar... But that had not been any of them. Like characters in a horror movie they turned toward the driver's compartment. There was nothing there, but then a foot rose up. They moved closer, looking over the seat at the man beneath the dashboard. He pulled out, rolled to sit up and his fingers brought the car to life. "Shlackt is animal dung like you get from barve, soft and runny, so they mean what type of dung are you shoveling." The man commented. "Any other... fun words you need explained?"

"Lots!" Bastila replied.

"Then you sit up front. The rest of you, kick back." Then the limo roared into the night sky.