The Dark Times

Chapter 10: Recovery

INS Challenger

Sickbay

It had been hours since Aayla began helping her two former comrades, using her own energies to bolster both Ahsoka's and Barris's own energy levels and help them through their physical recovery, but both were to her eyes unbalanced. They had been suffering for a long time and were perilously close to losing themselves to the darkness inside them that had been festering ever since they had been captured and forced into slavery.

For Barris it was a much more dire situation for her. She had known suffering far longer than Ahsoka, ever since she was imprisoned roughly two years ago. Aayla caught a number of brief flashes of her life that flitted across the connection, and she was nearly sickened. No sentient being should have to endure such a horrible fate as had befallen this young woman. Ahsoka was a little luckier, having been able to hide herself for a while, but her luck eventually ran out and she too was now close to giving in to the darkness and surrender herself to her own hate and anguish.

Eventually Aayla had to stop and rest herself. Channelling the Force into someone was taxing for most Jedi, but Aayla was doing it for two. She gently stopped the flow of Force energy and tiredly reclined back into the chair she had appropriated for a short nap.

Suddenly a loud scream sounded from the bed on her left side. Barris had woken up and she was terrified. Her scream was as loud and shrill as a banshee and woke up Ahsoka and interrupted Aayla's catnap. Aayla quickly moved to her side and looked deep into her eyes.

"It's alright Barris, you're safe now," she said soothingly, quickly put her hands on her shoulders and made Barris focus on her, yet she still screamed in terror. Ahsoka launched herself off her bed, nearly tearing out her medical IV, and landed right next to Aayla and pushed her out of Barris's line of sight.

"We're safe Barris, remember? We were brought here for medical attention. No one here is going to hurt you!" said Ahsoka in the strongest voice she could muster, cradling Barris's face in her hands and looked directly into her eyes. Immediately Barris calmed down, though she still shivered in fright.

"The master is gone?" Barris asked.

"If you mean Csalas, he fled from battle yesterday and hasn't been seen since. You are free now, Barris. Csalas is no longer you're master!" said Aayla reassuringly and Barris visibly relaxed, but only slightly. Aayla caught the attention of one of the nurses and seconds later Doctor Magellan himself came walking in.

"I was beginning to worry you wouldn't wake up for a moment there," said the good doctor as he began to check the readout on the electronic chart that hung at the foot of Barris's sickbay bed. "You'll be happy to know that your vitals have stabilized, but there are still small amounts of that chemical cocktail that Csalas gave you in your system. We also took the liberty of removing your collars, wrist and ankle braces, so you don't have to worry about random electric shocks anymore."

Immediately the two former slaves inspected their still healing necks and wrists and saw and felt that their shackles were truly gone, replaced by bacta-wraps. "Thank you doctor for removing our bindings," said Ahsoka gratefully.

"All part of the service. Now, let me take a look at those burns," said the doctor as he slowly approached, but Barris curled up into a tight ball and shrunk away from him with still terrified eyes. "Relax young lady. I'm a doctor, and I'm here to help." She looked to Ahsoka who smiled reassuringly at her and she uncurled from her ball and let the doctor take a closer look at her wounds. He smiled at the progress she showed. "Well young lady, looks like you're healing right on schedule. I give it maybe a couple of weeks before a complete recovery and by that time the chemicals should be completely out of your system. Now Ahsoka, let's take a look at you, get back to your bed please. Nurse, would you check her IV?" he requested as Ahsoka made her way back to her bed with a slightly sheepish look on her face as she became painfully aware of the IV she nearly pulled earlier, which the nurse gently reinserted fully into her vein again.

The doctor proceeded to inspect her own burns and injection sites and hummed with satisfaction. "You too are healing well, even faster than your friend. It always amazes me how you trained Force sensitive's heal so rapidly."

"What can I say, we heal quickly." The doctor smiled at his togruta patient's little quip and focused more on her electronic chart. His brow furrowed slightly.

"Well, according to this your bodies are rapidly breaking down those chemicals, but I suggest you both stay for medical supervision. The two spices that Csalas used have been known to cause severe withdrawal and that could prove to be, at best, most uncomfortable to nearly unbearable, almost certainly lethal." His two patients faces showed their worry, with Ahsoka showing a very distinct dislike, while Barris began shivering in fear. "It should only take a few days for it to subside, and we can treat the withdrawal symptoms, but the two of you will be bedridden for at least a week."

Aayla put her hands on both of their shoulders. "I'll be with you the entire time," she said reassuringly. There was an uncomfortable silence as the two medical professionals took care of the two of them. "Maybe you could tell me what happened to you two since Order 66?" Both Jedi looked very reluctant to talk about what happened to them, but Aayla persisted. "I know that discussing such things are painful, but trust me, you'll feel better if you do."

Both Ahsoka and Barris looked to each other and in silent agreement Ahsoka began talking.

(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))

INS Challenger

Command Bridge, CIC

The CIC was buzzing with activity, and Commander Hess was right in the middle of it. She displayed neither satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the progress of work the crew of the CIC was doing, but her steely gaze still unnerved the people working under her, and she loved that feeling of knowing she was the most feared and respected officer under Commodore Jack Hawks' command, and she only had to answer to him, which gave her a really warm and fuzzy feeling inside her.

She was currently supervising the salvage operations that were currently ongoing. Six former Separatist warships were now effectively in their hands and completely under their control along with their onboard crew of droids which were in the process of being reprogrammed to serve the battle group, their organic captains having either been persuaded to help with the recovery effort or had been killed in the battle.

One Lucrehulk-class droid control ship and one Lucrehulk-class battleship were captured relatively intact thanks to ARC-trooper led boarding parties that captured the ships bridges. Three Recusant-class destroyers were also captured with minimal resistance since their engineering sections had been cleanly cut away from them, and Csalas's flagship had also been captured, though sadly they failed to capture the bastard himself, which nearly broke here iron clad grip upon her self-control.

To her surprise the Commodore came up to the CIC. "Sir, what brings you here, I thought you were taking a break?"

"A two hour catnap in my quarters is more than enough for me. What's the status of the salvage operation?" he asked.

"Well the salvage and repair droids are making good progress on the three Recusant-class destroyers. They've reattached the engineering sections and got main power back online. Latest reports had them at being ready for a hyperspace jump back to Corellia within the hour. However Merchants Terror is almost a complete write-off. Its hyperdrive was destroyed in the battle and the hull is too badly damaged to survive a trip through hyperspace. It's a wonder its hull is still able to maintain air-tight integrity."

The Commodore sighed slightly in resignation. "Too bad, I wanted it for a trophy. Alright, strip it down to its barebones, take anything and everything of value, and tell the salvage teams to keep a weather eye out for the ship's ECM systems. I just finished reading the report from the CIWS tactical officer. The pirates ability to throw up a literal electronic wall for our CIWS targeting systems is a worrying development."

The Commander nodded in agreement. "I'll make sure that they keep a weather eye open," she said as she began addressing the entire CIC. "And if they don't find it I'll use them for training rounds for the ship's mass accelerator cannons!"

Just as Commander Hess said her unofficial order Commander Ganto came to the CIC carrying a pad.

"Ah Rikard, how fares your fair lady?" the Commodore asked him which the older Chief Engineer responded to with a half smile. "Well she weathered the battle pretty well. Portside shield generators were slightly overtaxed and had to switch over to secondary generators, which left us open for a couple of seconds during our brief broadside exchange with the Tempo Diablo and we lost a few good square metres of outer armour plating, but none of it managed to get through to the battle-plating, so no damage there. We lost a couple of secondary guns and three CIWS mounts, all of which can be replaced at our next port of call."

"Well you're in luck Old Man," said Commander Hess teasingly. "It's the end of our six month tour so we'll be heading back to Corellia for our next refit, and remember, six months on, two months off in peace time," she said grinning her very shark-like grin which unnerved everyone in the CIC.

"Commander, why are you grinning like a shark?" the Commodore asked.

"Oh, just thinking what I'm going to do with my share of the prize money," she said gleefully, which also spawned an equally greedy grin on the older chief engineer's face, but a confused look came over the Commodore's face.

"I know we'll probably make a fair amount of credits with the navy selling off the ships we've captured, but it's nothing more than a small bonus for us," said Jack as he quickly did some mental calculations of what the Imperial Navy would probably get for selling the five relatively intact ships they had captured and that the crews that captured them get ten percent of the proceeds to be divided among the crew, with one eighth to himself, the commanding officer of the battle group, two eighths to be divided amongst the senior officers, the rest would be divided up equally amongst the rest of the crew.

"While that would be a nice bonus I take it you haven't seen what's in the cargo holds of those two Lucrehulks?" the Commander asked with an uncharacteristically mischievous voice.

"Aside from more battle droids that might be worth a little if we sell them to the Corporate Sector or just melt them down for their raw materials..." the Commodore hypothesized.

"I went through the ships manifests and found something very interesting, which I just had Commander Ganto confirm, which I assume you're here to do," she said hopefully.

Chief Engineer Ganto sported the same type of grin that Commander Hess sported."Oh we've confirmed it alright, there are literally several hundred tons of valuables aboard those two converted cargo-ships. For instance one of their cargo bays has a huge number of just platinum ingots from floor to ceiling."

Everybody's ears perked up at that statement and everyone was mentally adding credit signs in the three senior officers eyes as they thought about what they were all going to get for all that loot. The ships themselves became the property of the navy, but the contents of the prizes became the property of the crews who captured them to be sold or kept as trophies if they wanted to.

"Well then, looks like we'll all be getting some serious bonuses for this little venture," said Jack, who then had a quick thought. "Make sure the shares for the servicemen who died gets to their families!" That quickly snapped everybody out of their reverie, remembering the price in blood they had just paid.

"How are those slaves one of the marine fire-teams rescued?" Commander Hess asked to divert the thoughts of everyone in the CIC.

"The doc says they'll be in for a rough couple of weeks as they go through withdrawal. The mental scars however are going to take a long time to heal, probably the longest," said Jack as he remembered the two former Jedi in sickbay and a hot fury welled up inside him as he remembered what one of them did to a very close friend of his who had business at the Jedi Temple that fateful day.

"We should be ready to leave in a couple of hours. Follow-up teams of salvagers will probably pick up what we missed and they'll be here within the hour, so no need to needlessly exhaust ourselves," said Commander Hess, before she realized her small slip-up.

"That's right Commander, we shouldn't have to over-exert ourselves for such a simple operation," the Commodore said smiling. "I'll take the conn here, you go to your quarters and rest, you've been up here almost twelve hours straight and you need the break more than I do."

"But sir..." she protested.

"Don't make me make it an order, Commander, or I'll have the doc take you down to sickbay and begin poking you with the biggest set of needles he has."

She paled at the thought of being at the doc's tender mercies for anything less than a serious injury.

"Ok, ok, I'll go to my quarters and rest, you're a very evil man," she said quietly as she walked closely by her Commodore.

Jack could only grin back at her. "Sometimes it's good to be the Commodore! Rikard I suggest you get back to your engine room, I'm sure somebody has fowled something up in your absence," he said pointedly.

"Sir, aren't you going to order me to get some rest?" he asked innocently.

"No, because unlike my lovely xo you're not a workaholic and know how to relax. Besides you love your job."

"Yes sir," said the chief engineer as he stepped off the CIC and into the closest turbolift, while Jack took a pad from the plot table and began reading it as work in the CIC picked up.

(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))

Corellian System

The next day

The space in the Corellian system was as hectic as ever with various ships of all shapes and sizes both civilian and military coming and going at all hours of the day. Just outside the systems inner asteroid field seventeen warships, which included the five captured warships, came out of hyperspace, all damaged to some degree and then headed into the asteroid field where the Hawks Shipyards was safely nestled. From the asteroid field came a squadron of Eta-2 Interceptors which the battle group followed through the safe passage.

The asteroid field contained not only huge rocks and the shipyards, it also had a number of hidden mine fields, mostly disguised as smaller clouds of asteroids or even planted on small asteroids. Most were ion mines armed with proximity fuses, designed to disable vessels from small starfighters to big multi-kilometre long warships, while others were simple plasma mines that shot out directed jets of white hot plasma in the general direction of the ship that had set it off. There were also a number of defence satellites equipped with similar stealth systems as the stealth corvettes Ghost and Shadow and normally took on the appearance of asteroids, armed with heavy plasma cannons, CIWS laser cannons and box launchers for concussion missiles, and had a single shield generator.

This is what the commodore remembered from his latest encrypted communiqué from his father and had filtered the information down the chain of command so everyone knew not to stray from the Interceptors path, otherwise the foolish captain would see his ship destroyed before he or she has a chance to defend themselves. He watched from his command chair as he observed his crew and enjoyed the view of returning home again. Soon enough he saw the Hawks Shipyards fill up the view ports and watched as their guides peeled off, having guided them safely to their final destination.

A number of small tractor beam tugs came out from the Shipyards outer docking slips and guided in the battle group's ships and its latest acquisitions into their own slips, except for the pair of Lucrehulks who are too big for the biggest docking slips. In minutes the ships of the Challenger battle group were safely docked and the slipways closed up around the ships.

"Secure all stations and link up to the slipway, prepare to switchover to external power and begin main reactor shut down procedures," commanded Commander Hess as soon as the slipway closed up and sealed them in. For a second the lights dimmed slightly then came back to full strength as power switched over.

"Primary and secondary reactors are powering down and we are now on external power. Atmosphere is now being pumped into the slipway and worker droids are getting to work," reported one of the dozen bridge technicians.

"A textbook docking and linkup Commander Hess, well done to both you and our skilled helmsmen," said the Commodore encouragingly, but then continued on a more serious note. "Now we need to go and have a little chat with my father and Mister Blissex. I have a couple of bones to pick with them."

Commander Hess was less than enthusiastic. "I don't think you need me for this, why can't the Old Man go with you?"

"He's still making preparations for the refit, I don't want to interrupt him, besides you've already done the preliminary analysis on the enemy ECM and understand the problem better than any of us," said the commodore smiling as he watched her get more uncomfortable. "Besides dad probably misses you," he said as he rose up from his command chair and Commander Hess reluctantly followed him to the turbolift.

"Lieutenant Commander Patrice, I leave the Command Bridge in your hands. Make sure that the yard dogs do their jobs," said Commander Hess just before leaving the bridge with the Commodore.

"Aye sir," he replied with a stiff salute, and as soon as the two senior officers were off the bridge he breathed a little easier, thankful that the ship's resident krayt dragon had left.

In the turbolift Commander Hess silently fumed, which the Commodore couldn't help but notice. "Mirialia I know that you don't like meeting with my father, but I can assure you that while he may have a wandering eye, especially when there is a beautiful woman in the room, his hands never wander unless invited."

"Well he'd better keep his hands to himself, because unlike last time when he only got a slap in the face if he comes even close to fondling my butt again I'll snap the hand that did it off at the wrist," she said in all seriousness, and all Jack could do was sigh in resignation.

"Then I'd better make sure he keeps his hands to himself," said Jack in exasperation. "Just don't overreact if he tries, as a favour to me please, I'd prefer that he remain relatively intact."

"No promises sir," she said, just before the turbolift doors opened.

They both got out of the turbolift and headed towards the airlock. They quickly exited the ship through a transparent docking tube to the shipyard proper and Jack and Mirialia saw with their own eyes some of the damage the Challenger had suffered in the last engagement, quickly noticing a lot of carbon scoring from turbolaser blasts and a few blast craters from missile, torpedo and proton shell strikes. The damage to his beloved ship, his third command, tugged at his heart strings, but knew that after this next refit his ship would be stronger than ever. Mirialia allowed him a moment then pulled on his left arm to remind him that they needed to move on.

On the other end of the docking tube a trio of familiar faces as well as a new face was waiting for them. Two of them were civilians, the other two were military officers.

"Dad, mister Blissex," Jack greeted warmly then stiffened and saluted his superior officer. "Admiral Rod, this is a surprise."

Admiral Rod returned the salute. "I thought I should hear your report in person rather than in a holographic transmission, plus I wanted to introduce a new addition to your battle group. I present to you Captain Willem Bush, commanding officer of the Tector-class battleship INS Retribution."

The Commodore's eyebrows rose up in surprise as the new captain saluted him. "It is an honour to meet you sir, I have been looking forward to serving under your command," he said professionally and Jack took a moment to look over his new captain. He was roughly in his early forties and stood a good couple of inches shorter than him. He had brown eyes that spoke of long experience and a short crop of ginger hair that was in the early stages of receding, had a gaunt face and a vaguely beak-like nose.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Jack as he searched his memory of known ship captains and pulled out a memory from three years before. "Weren't you in command of the Victory-class destroyer RNS Victor at the Third Battle of Fondor in the Clone Wars?"

"That was a long time ago. I have now moved on to a bigger ship," the older captain said neutrally.

"It certainly is bigger than the old Victory-I class," said Hal with a slight chuckle. "And definitely far more powerful. In a one on one engagement I don't know if the Challenger would even be able to engage it successfully without taking crippling damage without support. Especially with the improvements we've made to the Retribution."

"What improvements?" Jack asked, and he could detect a glimmer of a smile form on Captain Bush's lips which then disappeared just as quickly as it came.

"Follow me gentlemen," said Mister Blissex. He led them over to a nearby repulsorlift sled and inputted their destination, while the rest of the group sat down on the sled. Minutes later they arrived at another dry-dock and was then later led to an observation deck with a wide-angle view overlooking the bow of a 1.6 kilometre long dagger shaped battleship. Several zero g construction droids and yard workers were still installing a number of small weapons mounts and conducting final checks on one of the main gun turrets.

"Gentlemen and Lady, I present to you the INS Retribution, the latest addition to the Challenger Battle Group," Hal presented dramatically.

Jack was impressed, but not in awe of the Retribution since while there are few Tector-class battleships far more were under construction along with the Imperial-class, but he quickly noticed a number of differences from a standard Tector. The most obvious was three four barrel heavy turbolaser turrets along the top centreline just ahead of the bridge tower, along with a number of smaller weapons that he didn't remember being a part of the standard design.

"I see you've made a few changes," Jack stated as he took a careful look at other views of the ship that were being displayed on a number of smaller monitors mounted to the ceiling.

"I see you've noticed. We've added a number of weapons systems, including some new point defence systems. An improved version of the CIWS turrets, which you'll be getting in your refit, and a number of new guns and eliminated as many blind spots as we could."

Jack smirked a little at Captain Bush. "If I wasn't so attached to the Challenger I might have made the Retribution my flagship," he said jokingly.

"I'm sorry sir, but you can't have her, besides I don't think you would like a couple of crewmembers that I have onboard," the older captain retorted mildly.

"Maybe we should have this conversation somewhere a little more privately," Admiral Rod suggested.

Once again they travelled by repulsor lift sled, but this time it was into the administrative area of the shipyards. Their destination the same conference room that Hal Hawks and Wallex Blissex had presented the plans for the Challenger's first refit and post-Clone Wars overhaul. They each took a seat around the conference table and Captain Bush explained himself.

"I have a number of ISB officers stationed aboard my ship, and short of spacing them I can't get them off my ship," he explained in that same neutral tone, but his subtle body language revealed the career military officer's frustration. Commodore Hawks and Commander Hess's faces darkened considerably at such bad news. "There are currently two public officers that I know are coordinating a number of moles spread amongst my crew. Most of them I've known from my days in the Clone Wars, but with so many new recruits coming onboard to fill in the gaps it's nearly impossible to know who to trust these days."

"Unfortunately I've got some more bad news for you Commodore," began Admiral Rod apologetically. "ISB is sending agents to act as political officers and advisors to almost every ship in the fleet, which includes all of your big capital ships. I'm afraid they're now going to become a staple of the Imperial Navy."

"Great, which just makes staying off the Emperor's watch list all the more difficult, and make our job that little bit harder. Do we at least know who they are sending?"

The Admiral nodded and brought up a holo-bust of the agent. "His name is Colonel Neraj Riskovat. Former Republic Army intelligence who specialised in aggressive interrogations, most likely involving some kind of torture, and his methods towards the end of the Clone Wars just became worse and worse until he finally crossed the line even most in intelligence would never cross and he got booted out. He was recruited by ISB to conduct aggressive loyalty examinations only months after Order 66 was issued."

Commander Hess's fists tightened slightly in recognition, which Jack quickly recognised as a very strong indication of stress. With only a few brief looks they mutually agreed to talk about this later.

"All in all he's not that bad of an officer. He just enjoys his work, which just so happens to be making people tell him things that you wouldn't even reveal to your own mistress, and when he finds traitors he doesn't just go after the traitor, he goes after the ones closest to the traitor just to twist the knife even deeper," concluded the Admiral.

"Do we know when this white coat is scheduled to arrive?" Hal asked the admiral nervously, he didn't want this character anywhere near himself or his son.

"We have three weeks until he takes his post aboard the Challenger, which I assume is enough time for you to complete the refit?"

"More than enough time to do the repair work and reinstall the turrets that were destroyed in the battle," Mister Blissex answered quickly.

"Well there is a small problem we want you to address," began Commander Hess. "During our last major engagement our CIWS guns almost overheated themselves into uselessness and missed more than sixty percent of their targets, mostly missiles, due to extremely effective electronic countermeasures employed by the pirates."

Blissex had a quick thought about that. "The Separatists encountered almost the same amount of difficulty during the latter stages of the war and were forced to close the distance with Republic warships, that's why the Battle of Coruscant resembled more like a cantina brawl than a space engagement." He had Hal work his console and had him bring up a number of holos of various weapons, the one thing they all had in common was that they were all mass accelerator weaponry.

"One solution they utilized was to use an ancient, but surprisingly effective, principle into action. Flak guns. Explosive shells accelerated at the enemy fighters and missiles and detonated within close proximity of their targets." He nodded to Hal who worked his console again. The holos shown were of two different gun systems and a rotating Challenger. "I'm sure you recognise the standard 6 inch AV-8 mass accelerator cannon, which your ship carries thirty of. They can be armed with various types of shell, including flack, plasma, proton and ion shells. Excellent for long range interception. The other is the Bofors 40 millimetre gun. These fire a fairly cheap and effective 40 by 300 millimetre flak, proton or ion shells at 120 rounds per minute, mounted in quad mounts. These would provide a literal wall of fire and could be one of the most versatile weapon systems we've installed yet on the Challenger and give you a few more options," said Blissex with a slight smile upon his lips.

All at the conference table were intrigued by the possibilities that these guns and their accompanying ammunition could provide.

"These weapons could be a good alternative to ion cannons, which suffer from short range limitations," Commander Hess mused. "The ionic pulses generated this new type of ordinance should be plenty strong enough to render most droid fighters control systems permanently scrambled."

"And the larger rounds of the 6 inch guns might be enough to put most small pirate ships out of action and help knock out the shields of larger vessels," said Jack with a smile. More prize money for me and my crew, he thought cunningly. "I assume that you can get all of this done quickly?"

"It'll be close, but once we're finished with the Retribution we can move the droids and yard workers over to the Challenger and get the work done faster," said Hal as he quickly consulted his computer.

"While I have you all here Commodore I have another mission for you. I'm sure you've heard the rumours of there being Jedi on Naboo?" the admiral asked.

Jack threw a quick glance at Captain Bush and Admiral Rod gave a quick nod in confirmation. The captain could be trusted. "Just the usual rumours and the occasional scuttlebutt, but nothing has come up through the official channels."

"The rumours are true," said a voice in a dark corner of the room. With lightning fast reflexes both Commander Hess, Captain Bush and Commodore Hawks spun in their chairs and raised their DC-17 hand blasters and pointed it at the source of the voice. The source stepped out and a man of average height and build with an equally unassuming face revealed himself to the group, and Admiral Rod chuckled slightly.

"You always knew how to make an entrance Jared," said the admiral to everyone's surprise, but none of the surprised officers lowered their weapons, while Jared merely stood there, as if having people pointing guns at him was normal. "Gentlemen, this is Commander Jared Macintyre, he's going to be your new intelligence officer for the battle group. He'll provide you with all the necessary intelligence for future missions, as well as provide some wet work for you and interdict any moves the ISB may make against you."

"In other words our own spy and assassin all in one," said an intrigued Commodore Hawks.

"A crude, but accurate description of my job. Though for the most part my job will consist of making sure the ISB Colonel doesn't catch wind of our true loyalty, which is not to Emperor Palpatine!" Jared answered with a small non-descript smirk which then melted into an ever present neutral smile. "The young Queen Apailana has been hiding Jedi on her planet. So far Admiral Yularen's faction of Imperial Intelligence have been able to slow the dissemination of the rumours, but it is only a matter of time before the Emperor catches wind of this and sends in Vader and the 501st to deal with her and the Jedi."

"Which brings me to your mission. In a week's time the yearly Festival of Lights will commence on Naboo. Various members of the galaxy's elite has been invited, as well as numerous military officers, including me. I however have too many obligations to the fleet, and since your ship is going to be in dry dock being repaired for the next three weeks I have designated you and companions of your choice as my representatives at the ball." The admiral's nose wrinkled distastefully. "Besides I've always hated such events, especially the compulsory Royal Ball and dance."

"And what exactly is it that you want us to do at the festival?" Commodore Hawks asked.

"I want you to speak to the queen personally and warn her that the Empire is closing in on the Jedi that she has in hiding on her planet. Tell her that if the Emperor finds out that she is harbouring these Jedi the Emperor will end her rule by either military force or assassination. Plus I think this could be a good opportunity for you to have a short vacation," the admiral concluded smiling.

"I assume me and my companion will be travelling by standard long range shuttle?"

"No Commodore Hawks, you will be travelling in style," said the admiral mischievously as he directed his gaze towards Captain Bush.

"A short hop to and from Naboo should provide us an adequate shakedown cruise for the Retribution," said Captain Bush.

"Is there a limit to how many companions I may take with me?" Jack asked.

"No, but I suggest no more than two."

Jack smiled mischievously at his xo. "So Commander, are you willing to join me and Kayla as my official date to this event?"

She narrowed her eyes in response. "You just want to see me and Kayla in dresses together, don't you?" she said mock accusingly.

He merely shrugged. "Can you blame me?"

"I guess I can't, besides this may be the only opportunity for you to see me in a dress," she said coyly.

There was a tense moment. Everybody in the room had heard about the commodore's man-hating xo, and here she was flirting with her commanding officer, and everyone's eyebrows rose up into their scalps.

"How did you housebreak your man hating xo, Jack?" Hal asked whisperingly to his son.

"I didn't!" he answered as Mirialia walked behind Hal.

"And don't forget my promise, mister Hawks," she loudly whispered to Hal, who nearly jumped out of his seat in fright, and everybody relaxed a little, but the admiral had a slightly humoured glint in his eye.

"Very good Commander, Commodore," said the admiral, just as his comlink began beeping, demanding his attention. "Admiral Rod here," he answered as a hologram of his chief aid sprang to life.

"It's Lieutenant Halloran sir, your needed back on the Guardian, your ISB watchdog wants to talk to you, says that he has found a number of persons of interest!"

"Damned white coats, always sticking their noses where they're not wanted," the admiral grumbled as he began to leave the conference room. "Good luck with your mission Jack. Hopefully you'll be able to convince the queen to change this dangerous path she has herself and her people on."

All of the admiral's subordinates rose up from their chairs and saluted him as he began to leave, which he returned and then left.

(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))

Nar Shaddaa

The Bolthole

In the seedy underbelly of a Nar Shaddaa cantina called The Bolthole a blue-skinned Duros with a very distinctive hat enjoyed the local show of twi'lek strip dancers as he waited for his latest contact in the darkest corner of the room with the greatest view of all the exits, all the while absentmindedly chewing on a toothpick. Soon enough a small circular messenger droid came floating over to his table and landed on it. From a holo-emitter embedded on top of it sprang the form of a human.

"Hello Cad Bane, I apologize for not being able to meet you in person, but I have need of your services."

Bane merely sneered at the holo. "And what sort of job does the powerful Arulo Csalas want me to do for him that you could not do yourself?"

"I need you to eliminate a certain Imperial officer," stated Csalas as a holo-image of the target replaced his visage. "His name is Commodore Jack Hawks, he recently caused a serious setback for my fleet of pirates and I need him permanently taken out of the picture."

"I heard of that little mess. He won't be an easy target to get to, he no doubt doesn't leave his command ship all that often and only for a day at a time which is almost impossible to predict," hedged Bane.

"Fortunately I know where he is going to be next week. He is being sent to Naboo to attend the Festival of Lights as his commanding officer's representative. That should provide you with more than enough opportunity to kill him."

"Well now, you have my attention. If I'm going to take this job I'll need an advance on my fee, for various expenses, you understand."

The pirate's face twisted distastefully at the sound of that. "I'll pay you one quarter in advance, the rest I'll pay upon completion of the mission, and let me make this clear, this is not a negotiation!"

"You've got a deal pal, but remember I always collect my due from my employers," said Bane, smirking at the annoyed look upon the former Separatist officer, just before the holo shut down and a data-chip popped out of the droids little head and Bane took it and began to leave the cantina, only to come face to face with Cato Parasitti.

"Remember me?" he asked quietly as the clawdite bounty hunter instantly recognized Bane and went for her side-arm, but Bane was faster as he shot and killed her with a single blast from his custom heavy blaster pistol into her chest, who fell down to the deck smoking from the blaster wound, instantly cauterized.

Absentmindedly he tossed a few local credits at the man at the bar, an amphibian bartender. "Scrape that scum off the floor before it stinks up the place even more than it already is."

The bartender nodded and pocketed the credits as Bane left The Bolthole, while cleaning droids began to dispose of the dead body on the floor.

(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))

Hawks Shipyards

On the way back to the Challenger on the repulsor sled Commander Hess and Commodore Hawks remained silent. The tension between them grew until Jack could no longer take it. He quickly gripped her right upper arm and stepped off the sled only a few dozen metres away from the docking tube and into an observation dome overlooking their ship. He quickly sealed the door and blacked out the observation dome's window so none of the workers working on the Challenger wouldn't see them.

"Alright Commander, what's your history with Colonel Riskovat?" he asked directly, still gripping her by her upper arm. A moment later she overcame her shock of Jack manhandling and roughly shook him off of her. Her eyes tightened and her mouth twisted into an ugly sneer.

"Don't you dare touch me like that again," she quickly spat back at him.

His own eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Now I know that there is definitely more to this than meets the eye, and it's obvious that it affects you, and right now I can see you want to lash out at me, you even want to kill me don't you? But I'm not the real source of your anger am I? I've just given you the excuse to let your anger express itself, and I've seen you take your anger out on just about everyone of the crewmembers, except for the clones and the few female crewmembers aboard ship. Now I need you to tell me what is eating you up inside!"

She quickly calmed down, but the anger was still there, lingering beneath the surface and still plain to see in her eyes. "You're a man, you wouldn't understand what it is like for me as a woman, especially in the beginning in my career, but I'm better now, I've been to some counselling."

"How often?" he asked pointedly.

"Just a couple of one hour long sessions when I had leave. I even have a couple set up in two weeks time, luckily their well after our assignment on Naboo," she sniffed slightly and her eyes watered up slightly, but never let any tears go.

"It's obvious that you need to talk about this more often and with somebody you trust. Hess you've known me for the past three years, I'd like to think that you would consider me a friend, or at least an ally. You know that if you're in pain you can come to me and your friends aboard ship that know you," he said as he lay a comforting hand upon her shoulder. She instantly recoiled from his touch, as though she had been burned.

"Please Mirialia, tell me!" he asked a little more gently as he again reached out to her, both emotionally and physically, and this time she didn't recoil away from him, even allowed herself to relax and allow herself to feel safe for the first time in the company of a male.

"You remember what I told you about Commodore Delmar's attempted rape of me?" she asked, and Jack nodded in reply. "Well he wasn't the first man who tried to force himself upon me. I met Colonel Riskovat just after the Clone Wars began. Back then I was only a recent graduate from the CorSec Academy and pushed into a lieutenant's position on a Republic Frigate. He was a major in Republic Army Intelligence back then and my ship was assigned to transport his team. He was so charming back then, or so I thought, I was so naive back then."

Jack could see the pain come back into her eyes, almost like she was reliving the pain of memory. "The only difference between Riskovat and Delmar is that Riskovat was the one who was successful," she stated, her voice strained with barely contained pain, and still she pressed on, feeling the pain ebb away slightly as she began to feel a little safer. Jack barely managed to contain his horror at what his xo had experienced. "He hurt me so bad. He targeted me, I believe, because he overheard one careless statement I made in the ship's mess, I can't even remember the comment, something that he interoperated as Separatist sympathies, and he started with trying to make me confess as a Separatist sympathiser. Then he began to slap me around, and I fought back. You saw the scratch marks on his neck?"

Jack nodded, remembering the deep gouges in his neck he had assumed he got in some hand to hand combat during the war with a BX-series droid.

"That was my handiwork, but he was so strong he overpowered me. He tore off my uniform, and..." with that she began with small hicks, then degenerated into uncontrollable sobs, and Jack embraced her as she let out her emotions, alone with him, the only man, who was not a clone, who has ever shown her proper respect and not be afraid of her.

"I was lucky though, all things considered. One of his fellow agents caught him before he completed his business and threw him off of me. The real tragedy was that just a few weeks later that same officer that saved me was killed on an intelligence gathering op on Christophsis, most likely on Major Riskovat's orders. Now that he has the power of the Imperial Security Bureau at his back..."

"I'm here now, and I promise you that this monster will never again touch you," Jack swore softly into her ear. They stood there in the observation dome for several long minutes, which felt like hours to the both of them, but for career military officers their duties are never more than a comlink away. Neither are nosy parents who just happen to be on the same space station.

"Jack where are you? I need to talk about the hundreds of tons of loot you just shipped to my shipyards," his father loudly asked over the intercom, breaking the mood.

Very quickly Commander Hess dried her tears and straightened out her uniform and adopted her traditional stern business face. "Another reason why I hate your father," she grumbled under her breath.

"I know you dragged your xo into the observation dome, so I expect you two to clean up after yourselves."

This caused both of them to redden greatly, and Jack quickly activated his comlink. "You had better not be broadcasting this over the entire station, or else?"

The old man merely chortled. "Don't worry my boy, it's all on a private channel. Nobody but you, Mirialia, and everyone in this room with me can hear you."

"Sir, I know he's your father, but can I please maim him, just a little," Commander Hess asked pleadingly.

"Don't tempt me," he responded, knowing that Hal could hear everything they said over his comlink. "I'll meet you up at your office in a few minutes." He then switched off his comlink then took Commander Hess's upper arms in his hands and gave them a short reassuring squeeze. "You feeling better now?"

"Much better, and a lot safer," she said, and then completely out of the blue rushed forward and embraced him. "Thank you for listening and not judging me."

"You're welcome commander, just remember what I said, my door is always open for you." He smiled reassuringly at her then walked out of the observation dome. As she watched him leave she felt a slight ache in her heart, but hope still welled up inside her of their upcoming trip.

I just have to try to share him with Aayla and the Challenger I guess," she shrugged to herself and found that the idea didn't sound so bad.

(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))

INS Challenger

Sickbay

The atmosphere of the sickbay aboard the Challenger was relatively relaxed. No one was rushing around and no one was calling out in pain, and Aayla was basking in the momentary peace while Ahsoka and Barris snoozed more peacefully in their beds than they had earlier, and since she had first seen them she had not left their side except to go to the bathroom and the nurses had graciously brought up her meals from the mess hall.

As she was eating her lunch she immediately sensed a very familiar presence approaching sickbay, and she felt that persons conflicted emotions swirling beneath a heavily controlled emotionless mask. She closed her dark hazel eyes and centred herself while still eating her lunch.

Her new guest came into the sickbay and immediately spotted the closed off section and made a beeline for Aayla and her two fellow Jedi. "Welcome Commander Hess. What brings you to sickbay?" Aayla asked in the most serene and peaceful tone she could muster.

Commander Hess snorted in amusement at her friend. "You always know who is coming without seeing them. How do you do that?"

She merely rose her right eyebrow and opened up her right eye with an amused twinkle in it. "Do you really want me to answer that here?"

"No," she answered shortly. " Kayla I need to talk to you in private."

Aayla for a moment almost forgot her cover name, having spent so much time with her old friends. She nodded and followed Commander Hess out of the sickbay and into a corridor deep within the ship, far away from the damaged sections and away from any of the still active duty stations.

"Kayla I have some good news and some bad news, which do you want to hear," Commander Hess asked, her nervousness broke slightly through her mask.

"The bad news first I believe, that way I have something to look forward to," she answered.

"The Admiral just informed us that the ISB has begun to put their agents aboard naval ships as political officers and advisors aboard every navy capital ship. Ours is scheduled to arrive in three weeks and there's something you should know. His name is Colonel Neraj Riskovat, and his reputation is not a good one. He made a name for himself exposing various officers who he felt were treasonous to both the Republic and the New Order after Order 66, and he is an unrepentant xenophobe, much like Commodore Delmar if you remember?"

Aayla nodded in understanding. "So the fleet is getting some new watchdogs. What's going to happen to Barris and Ahsoka?"

"They are going to be transferred to a medical frigate along with the other slaves, wounded and the dead which will take them to Corellia and then on to the Coronet Medical Academy for further treatment," Commander Hess said reassuringly.

"I suppose this may also be an opportunity for them to possibly find out if any of the Corellian Jedi managed to escape the massacre, once they have healed," said Aayla thoughtfully. "You said you had some good news?"

"I don't know if this is good news or not, but the admiral has asked the Commodore to be his representative to the Festival of Lights on Naboo," said Commander Hess, then became slightly nervous. "And he has chosen the two of us to be his designated guests at the festival."

Both of Aayla's eyebrows rose all the way up her forehead in surprise. "Why both of us? Why not just one of us, or even just me?"

"Most likely to give everyone the impression that he supports the emperor's human centric policies, and give you the opportunity to search for any Jedi that may be in hiding on Naboo," said Mirialia to Aayla's increasing surprise as her eyebrows rose ever higher, if possible. "It could also be because this may be the once in a lifetime opportunity for him to see the two of us in dresses together," she said coyly to Aayla's rapidly increasing embarrassment. "Which reminds me I don't really have anything to wear," said Mirialia with her own slight blush of embarrassment tingeing her cheeks.

"Well then, I'll just have to remedy your situation," said Aayla warmly. "It will be a very pleasant surprise for Jack when he sees us, maybe we can even have a little fun with him," she continued as she slinked her right arm around Mirialia's waist as she smirked and thoroughly enjoyed the shocked and scandalized look upon her human friend's face, who decided to turn the tables on the twi'lek, by running her left hand along the sensitive portions of Aayla's lekku, which made her unconsciously moan in delight.

"Jack's not the only one who appreciates a fine female specimen. Meet me in my quarters in four hours. I'll be off duty at that time and we can discuss what to wear for the commodore's pleasure," Mirialia whispered into her ear seductively and left the flustered twi'lek to go back on duty with a rare smile on her lips.

(((((((((((((((The Dark Times)))))))))))))))

AN:I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and write a review, give me your thoughts please, either on or in the discussion thread on Spacebattles.