Obi-wan muffled a yawn with the sleeve of his tunic as he bowed slightly and entered the dimly-lit galley. Groggily making his way to the food dispenser, he was greeted with a warm cup of caff pouring itself from it. Smiling to himself, he mentally noted to thank Aria for quickly learning this small routine he had each morning, although in his mind he could see Qui-Gon's frown at the small amount of sweetener he added. With a grin, he took a quick sip before seating himself down at the table, a data-pad held in his free hand. Before he could start reading the next chapter of the novel he was reading, a quick glance caused his heart to skip a beat and made him jump in surprise.
Talia sat in the darker end of the alcove around the table, her thick black cloak wrapped around her, still as a statue. Her breath could hardly be heard in the quiet galley as she stared into a space beyond the table, the vague shape of her knees drawn up to her chest. Obi-wan slowly placed his cup down on the table, the small noise it made as it contacted with the surface seemed deafening in the small room. She didn't move from her position, just rolled her feline eyes in his direction.
"Good morning."
Obi-wan cleared the sleepiness from his throat before gently smiling at her.
"Morning, how long have you been up?"
"I haven't slept yet."
He could sense her unease, not directed at him, something distant.
"I sense that you're worried about going back to your home planet, may I ask why? Surely you have family, friends there?"
Talia slowly shook her head.
"There's no one there."
He could tell not just by the quiet tone in her voice, but in the far away look in her eyes that she wasn't just talking about the people she knew. He felt a pang of sadness run through him, but he knew it must be incomparable to how she felt. He leaned back against his chair, thoughts of regretting the questions he had asked flashing through his mind as another question escaped his lips.
"How?"
Talia only continued to stare into the space only she could see.
"If I told you now, it would be difficult for you to understand, you need to see it for yourself."
She slowly rose from her seat at the table and made her way towards the door, pausing to softly lay a reassuring hand on his shoulder before she disappeared into the corridor, leaving Obi-wan alone with his thoughts.
Palpatine sat at the control console, his fingers entwined as his elbows rested on the edge of the console. His face remained partially hidden behind his hands as his eyes continuously scanned the hologram of the DNA helix projected over the console. Beside it, rows of DNA data were being compiled and checked by the computer for compatibility, some segments being highlighted as faulty. A frown crossed his brow as the number of faulty segments gradually increased, mostly crowded in a single part of the helix.
Turning the display off as the computer finished its programming, Palpatine activated a comm. line to the main laboratory.
"Send the scientist responsible for segment 12 to me immediately."
He did not have long to wait before the doors opened to allow a nervous, middle-aged man into the darkened room. Sweat beaded on his face as he cautiously walked towards the Emperor. He had crossed halfway through the room when Palpatine brought a hand up towards him, fingers outstretched. The man froze in the centre of the room as an invisible force seized hold of him. The room was quiet enough to hear the doors lock behind him as he began to tremble, sweat running down his horrified face.
"My…my lord, please…."
Palpatine's face relaxed into a figure of complacency as he forced his hand to close slightly. The man's eyes bulged from their sockets in pain as he felt his body being crushed, the muscles in his outstretched arms and legs screaming as they were twisted. He let out a small cry of pain as he felt his fingers of both of his hands being pulled outwards, Palpatine responding with a sneer in his voice.
"Why must your lack of competence continue to irritate me, doctor?"
The man groaned in pain before he could force words from his mouth.
"My lord…the sequence is complex..."
Palpatine's frown returned as he flexed his index finger. The man screamed as his right elbow snapped backwards, the broken limb falling to hang twitching towards the floor.
"Your lack of progress is unacceptable doctor."
Tears began to form in the corner of the man's eyes as he mentally pleaded the Emperor to let him go. Palpatine sneered as he sensed this request through the Force and flexed his middle finger. Another sickening crunch sounded through the room, quickly followed by a scream as his left arm mirrored his right. Palpatine rose from his desk, walking around it and up to the writhing doctor, watching in amusement as he twisted the doctor's organs with the Force. The doctor cried out in agony as some blood escaped from the edge of his mouth, running down his jaw line.
"Please…please my lord…the catalysts…they can't bond the sequence…in that segment."
He screamed as Palpatine grimaced and slowly began to close the remaining fingers of his hand. His legs began to writhe and twist as he screamed.
"That is not what I want to hear doctor, I want results not excuses!"
He let out an agonizing scream as both of his knees snapped simultaneously. Palpatine withdrew the Force from him, dropping him to the floor and causing his broken joints to pop sickeningly. He watched in satisfaction as tears streamed from the doctor's eyes as he groaned in agony. A pair of Royal guards walked from the shadows into the dim light in the centre of the room.
"Have him taken back to the laboratory, as an example to the others."
Trails of energy danced from the Oni's Star as the portal to hyperspace closed behind it. The space surrounding the ship took on a scarlet hue as the Star's cockpit filled with the view of the vast nebula. Anakin looked over his screen curiously before opening a comm. line to the cockpit.
"The Aras nebula? I heard it can't be navigated, few ships ever made it out of the outer corona in one piece."
Talia smirked as she continued guiding the ship towards it.
"There is a tri-solar system inside, however it is surrounded by a very dense asteroid field. Can you start securing everything? This will get a little rough."
Anakin nodded and left the forward control room. Making his way back into the living area, he found Padme already securing the hover-cots to the wall and making sure the babies were safe. After checking over them all, Anakin strapped himself into the seat beside Padme and the babies. In the control room, Obi-wan and Yoda had also strapped themselves into their seats, an extra seat had been added beside Yoda for Mira.
"We're ready Talia,"
Talia let out a small sigh as she adjusted a few controls on her yokes.
"Aria, unlock the Vertia's and bring us into descent mode."
Outside, the edges of the wings split open while each wing split horizontally, each revealing its own bracing arm into the hull. The inner panels slid forwards as a pair of outer panels retracted backwards and angled around towards the rear of the ship. Each wing then began floating slightly, independently from the others as the drive system brought itself to full power. Inside, the lighting dimmed within the cockpit as several holograms displayed a tactical position of the ship around Talia. Similar displays were projected on Obi-wan's and Yoda's screens.
"Yoda, could you and Mira patch the scanning lasers to the radar system and keep watch for me?"
"Same as last time hmmm?"
"Yes, but I do hope we have better luck than we had last time. Coming to think of it, Obi-wan could you keep an eye on the gyro compensator display?"
"Yes I'll watch it, any reason why?"
"It might fall out of sync with the vertia drive, if that happens the wings will lose control over the motivation field and we'll probably hit an asteroid."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"One more thing, if the gauge moves over into the yellow, vent the excess energy through the rear emitters. If you leave it until the gauge goes into the red the vertia's panels will burn out."
"Can't Aria control that for you?"
Talia could sense the worry radiating from Obi-wan and into the Force.
"No, she's busy helping me navigate the asteroid field. Don't worry, with the four of us it will be much easier than last time."
Mira turned her head to look at Yoda, who caught her glance.
"Dare I ask?"
Yoda shook his head before they both turned back to adjusting their controls. Anakin was beginning to worry himself from the waves of unease he felt from his old master, until Yoda opened a comm. line to him.
"Worry not, focused you must be, faith in the Force will shall all require if to cross this path."
Anakin felt slightly ashamed of himself for not realising that, it was one of the basic lessons taught to every padawan.
"Forgive me Master, I shall renew my efforts to remain focused."
Yoda nodded before he turned back to concentrating on the display.
"Entering the outer corona, we are."
The ship began to shake slightly as the hull contacted the waves of fine particles that outlined the nebula. Talia began to adjust her controls to compensate.
"Aria, can you transfer an extra five percent power to the front panels please?"
"Transfer complete."
The vibration that shook the ship reduced to a low buffeting as the field in front of the Star was reinforced. Small discharges of red energy began arcing between the gaps between each of the wing panels as it conducted across the particles of the nebula.
Talia gracefully guided the ship past a growing number of asteroids while keeping her distance from some of the smaller groups. Glancing at her navigational hologram, she confirmed that they were still on course.
After two hours of manoeuvring around groups of asteroids, the fog of the nebula began to thicken as they flew deeper inside. Suddenly, the asteroids seemed to disappear as if they had entered a calm patch in the nebula. Talia remembered this happening on her previous trip as she thumbed the comm. line switch.
"Yoda, Mira, start your scanning lasers. Don't rely on the radar anymore it can't detect some of them."
Four panels retracted on the hull to allow two pairs of small turrets to extend above and below the front bladed sections. They began sweeping the surroundings with red scanning beams, the space between the beams illuminating with an orange tint as the ship cruised through the fog. A pair of beams swept in front of the ship, illuminating a large asteroid. Talia angled her yokes upward slightly, bringing the ship up and around as Mira's eyes widened in surprise at her display
"Two if them coming right at us!"
Talia gritted her teeth as she swung the ship between the two approaching asteroids, leaving them to impact against the one they had just past. Rolling the ship to avoid the scattered debris from the impact, her eyes glanced back and forth as she spotted a dense wall of asteroids in their path. Spying a gap between them, she narrowly evaded colliding with one before it ground against another as she flew between them.
The ship emerged from the wall into a waves of fast moving, smaller rocks which caused her to roll and twist the ship erratically to avoid them. Weaving the ship around one of the slower moving large asteroids, she had to pull away fast when it was torn apart from one of the smaller rocks passing through it.
"I can see something strange up ahead, it's got the mass of one of the asteroids but is reading as metallic."
The object loomed out from the scarlet fog, scanning beams passing over it and illuminating it as they flew past. It was slightly bent as if it were part of a circle, but was at least the size of a republic cruiser. Obi-wan looked on fascinated, the ornate design of its outer hull seemed vaguely recognisable now. The surface of the hull was dented with impacts and the bottom and top were torn apart and the interior exposed.
Talia's voice over the comm. provided an answer.
"Take a good look, it's a part of what happened here millennia ago."
"What is it?"
"A section of one of the accelerator rings, you shall see soon enough."
The fog began to disperse as they flew deeper, revealing three bright stars shining through the red mist before it disappeared completely. As the ship continued to near the system, the radar showed a dark planet with a single moon sitting between all three stars. A thin, solitary ring encircled the planet at an angle to its equator. After passing the moon, the smooth lines and shine of the ring revealed that it was artificially constructed. In the cockpit, Talia smiled sadly.
"Welcome to Draconis everyone."