CHAPTER SEVEN: ROAD TRIP!
SAW
"Oz is what?" Hutch asks.
"He's dead, and his entire room was sacked." Tandin says.
"Let me guess: his phone is gone." I guess.
"Correct."
Thank Force we made a copy of that video.
"But how did they find him? The only way we found out was by doing a cognitive interview on Hero." Steela butts in.
"He has eyes everywhere. Maybe someone overheard at the apartment. Maybe Oz got careless."
"We have to do something." I blurt out. "If he's killing Oz, his next target would likely be Hero."
"Or the Lazaruses themselves." Sierra says. "I don't know about you, but I think the one who's in the most danger is probably Agnes Syndulla."
True enough. Agnes is seventeen years old, and still in the Big Kahuna's custody. If he wants to off her, he can do it at a moment's notice. He could probably do the same thing with Queen Psycho, but I don't care about her.
We leave the adults to talk, and retreat back to Sierra' bedroom with the project wall. The second the door closes…
"We have to save Ahsoka. She's on trial for her life."
Three guesses as to who said that.
"We have to help Agnes. She'll be killed if we don't and she probably has more information about the Project than I do." Steela argues.
Hero jumps in. "Both of these have a common denominator. We need to leave."
"I don't know if you haven't noticed, but there's no way in heck that my parents are letting me leave this house" Lux scoffs.
Hero rolls her eyes. "I'm not saying that we ask them. I say we sneak out."
There's silence.
"So basically, you want us to bend over and kiss our butts good-bye?" Sierra asks.
"Anyway, how are we going to get me on a transport?" Steela asks. "It would be like standing on top of a skyscraper waving a flag and screaming 'Here I am, Big Kahuna!' And there's no way I'm just going to stay here and explain to Mount St. Mina why all of you yahoos are gone."
"We don't have to worry about that. Tandin has a ship." I remember. "It's parked in a public docking bay in town."
Lux smiles. "All right. Everyone, let's get packed!"
…
Hutch and Hero are already packed to leave, so we send them to the store for their own mission. Hutch is in charge of food and consumables, Hero for Steela's clothes.
Steela scribbles her sizes down on a piece of paper for Hero's reference, as well as what kinds of food each of us like. On another sheet of paper, she's writing a "Sorry for stealing your ship but it's for a good cause" note to Tandin, and another to John and Mina.
Dear John and Mina,
Please don't kill us.
Sincerely, everybody in the house under the age of 25.
Meanwhile Lux, Sierra and I are trying to pack as covertly as possible.
"Mom's going to kill me," Sierra frets as she packs her backpack. "I've never actually done anything bad before."
"Get used to it." Lux mumbles. "Do you have any idea what's going to happen to me? This is round two in the last week!"
Steela wheels herself back into the room. "Hey Lux, can I borrow one of your books? It's boring in space."
Lux nods, and tries to shove his toothbrush into his already-overflowing bag. Steela and I start taking down the documents for the project and putting them in a file folder.
On tiptoeing feet, Hutch and Hero enter laden down with shopping bags.
He hands the receipt to me and I almost faint when I see the grand total.
"This much for some snacks and clothes?" I squeak.
Steela raises an eyebrow. "Women's clothing isn't cheap, brother. Especially some of the items Hero had to get for me."
"Like what? You just wear tank tops and pants most of the time."
Steela takes some of the clothing items out of the bag to check them out. "I also needed shoes, a bra, and something presentable to people of authority. Those can get a bit expensive."
"Also, they don't make clothes for tall women." Hero complains.
"Which is very irritating." Steela mumbles, putting the last article of clothing; a dark pink sweater, back in the bag. "Thanks for getting these for me."
Hutch jerks his head toward the door. "I already put the snacks in my car. All we need is what's in this room."
"Distract everybody." I whisper.
I dump my bag and the folder on Steela's lap, grab her wheelchair handles, and quietly roll my sister down the hallway.
"Hey, Mina? Are you expecting the mailman?" Hero asks.
Hutch points to the back door, and I take off like a bullet with Steela. When we get to Hutch's parked car, I scoop her up o and settle her in one of the seats before folding up her wheelchair and putting it in the back, careful not to crush the bags of snacks.
"I don't see a mailman." John calls out.
"Oops. My bad," Hero covers as Lux, Hutch, and Sierra come flying out of the house with their bags.
"If you drive straight out of here, the alley will spit you out on a main street." Lux says breathlessly, climbing into the back with Sierra.
"Good to know," Hutch says, just as Hero sneaks out the back door and gets in the car.
"GO! GO! GO!" Lux and I yell as Hutch throws the car into drive and floors it.
JOHN
There's a horrible squealing of tires that brings me running to the back door.
"Oh, kriffing kriff."
Hutch's car makes a haphazard turn onto the main road at the end of the alley, and then it's gone.
"Lux? Sierra?" I yell.
No answer.
My worst fears are confirmed.
From somewhere else in the house, Mina mutters something she probably wanted to say to her customers at Galactic Burger and Tandin goes "Oh, not again."
I take out my phone, and dial Anakin Skywalker.
"John, I'm busy."
"I know you are, but you've got to help me out. The kids left the house and they're probably on their way over to you. If you find them, please give me a call. I have a feeling none of them are going to be answering their phones.
"Probably a valid concern. Who's all in the car?"
"That would be Lux, my daughter Sierra, Saw and Steela Gerrera, Hero Calvert, and Hutch."
"That's pretty much a carload of disaster."
"I know. That's why I'm asking you to tell me if you see them. All my resources will be devoted on keeping Mina calm and making sure Tandin's still on board with the plan."
"I've got a lead on Ahsoka's case and I'm getting pretty close to finding it."
"Best of luck, General Skywalker. I think we'll both be needing it."
LUX
Tandin's ship isn't large by any stretch of the imagination. It has a comfortably-sized cabin for three or four people, but six is a different story.
While I sit myself at the controls, Sierra manages a weak "Yay, road trip!" in a pathetic attempt to cheer us up. Saw puts Steela in a seat and stows her wheelchair for takeoff, while Hutch rips open a bag of particularly aromatic cheese curls.
"Hutch, those have to last us the whole trip." I complain.
"Get them away from me. Get them away from me," Steela groans, stumbling toward the refresher.
Thank Force we had the foresight to bring some of that nutrition drink, I think as Hero slinks off to go check on her.
Before Hutch shoves a fistful of cheese curls into his mouth, he explains his logic. "I paid for these, I get to eat them as much as I want. And I'm hungry." He says, and then the cabin is filled with crunching sounds. He's about to go for round two when Saw reaches into the bag. Hutch pulls it away.
"Get outta my cheese curls, Gerrera! It was bad enough you were sticking your feet in my face."
"These are supposed to be for all of us." Saw argues, grabbing a fistful of cheesy snacks.
Hero and Steela exit the refresher, Hero looking pretty grossed-out. After Steela gets back to her seat, she gives a look to Hutch and Saw.
"Are you two fighting over those disgusting oily snacks?
"They're not disgusting, they're delicious." Saw argues. Steela sighs.
"Just typical. Typical of all of you to be eating cheesy stuff. I can't eat any of this!"
"Yeah you can," I say. "We brought some plain crackers, peanuts, and your energy drink thing."
Steela roots around in the bag and pulls out the plain crackers. "Thank Force. Sierra, do you want anything?"
No response from Sierra. She's screwed her earbuds in and is blasting music to drown out everyone else.
….
Nobody ever tells you how boring hyperspace is. There's nothing to see. You can only get a marginal connection to the HoloNet. You get sick of reading books. We've run out of conversation topics, and the only thing left to do is fight with Hutch over a bag of chips that I don't even like.
"Let go of the chips!" Hutch yells in the middle of our tug-of-war.
"I'm starving and you've already stuffed your face!" I yell.
Saw and Hero are trying to pick up anything good on the radio. All we're getting is a bunch of cantina music.
"Think we can catch the University of Onderon game?" Sierra whispers.
"Hutch will go bananas because they're in the losing bracket." Saw whispers back.
"You know, I think we'll all feel better after a rendition of the University of Onderon fight song." I suggest, hoping to loosen Hutch's death grip on the chips.
So we sing it. And sing it. We get through the first line of "On Onderon there is a team," about three times before Hutch starts to shout-sing it while yanking on the chip bag.
The happy friendship moment is gone. The war zone is back.
After a while, Steela yells for us to shut up, takes Saw's phone, and dials.
The phone rings, and then someone says "You've reached the Iziz Garden Hotel, a good night's sleep guaranteed. This is Natalie speaking. How may I help you."
"Hello, this is Agent Leibowitz from the Royal Milita," Steela says in a deep voice. "We're going to need you to send over the guest list for the night Oswald Ruby died."
"It looks like we already gave it to you while you were at the crime scene."
"I understand, but one of our interns spilled caf on it." Steela replies after thinking frantically.
The hotel desk person sighs. "I'll send it over if you give me the comm number."
Steela rattles off a comm number- my comm number- and the hotel person sends the list over. It pops up on my phone and I bring it up.
"Okay," Saw says. "Check the people who're only staying for one night."
I narrow the list down to overnight patrons, and sigh.
"There's still so many of them. And we don't have any other factors to narrow this guy down."
Sierra leans in. "Actually, yeah we do. Isn't Ed Rooney a fictional character?"
I look up. She's right. Ed Rooney is the villain in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, one of my favorite movies.
Saw grabs my phone. "He paid cash. There's no way to track it."
I shake my head. "No. But two can play at the Ferris Bueller game."
"What do you mean?"
I pull some envelopes out of the glove compartment.
"Someone I know makes very good fake IDs." Still Guy made them for me. He's basically Torrent Company's jack-of-all-illegal-trades.
Saw's eyes bug out. "Cameron Fry? You named me Cameron Fry?" he yells.
"Jeannie Bueller?" Sierra squawks. "I'm not that bad of a little sister!"
Steela doesn't even look at her ID. "Lux, t if this says 'Sloane Peterson' I'm telling Ahsoka."
"Don't worry, that's what Ahsoka's fake says."
Steela's happy until she reads her fake name.
"Tesla Coil?"
And that's when I decide that now is a very good time to barricade myself in the refresher
(Author's Note for anybody who hasn't seen "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".
Ferris is the protagonist of the movie. He's popular, clever, and cool. Cameron Fry is Ferris' clinically depressed best friend. Sloane Peterson is Ferris' girlfriend, and Jeannie Bueller is his jealous, scheming younger sister.
So now all of the rebels have run off from John and Mina's house. What will happen to them? Or more accurately: how dead are they when Mina gets ahold of them?
Thank you starwarshobbitfics, StarwarsRulz, and Kasai1214 for your reviews! And everyone reading today, please drop a review on your way out, they are much appreciated. Until next time!)
