The Winds Shape

Chapter 20: False Trails

I own not those situations I borrow from Disney Properties, Lucas, Mechalich or Thomas Benjamin DeMayo. This is a dramatization from my mind on a character created from the meld of table gaming and so on. Special thanks to ideas Drew Karpyshyn and Tim Lebbon fermented. Special thanks to Morihei Ushiba who formed Petre with his wisdom. Like any mind construct this is an exercise and my own work building on other ideas from the past.

This is a Zeison Sha story, set in what is known as the Star Wars EU.

Serreno to Commenor

2.8 BBA

"We drive right to the ship but not too close," Adrianna said with steel in her voice, a yanab head wrap on for anonymity while chewing on a piece of gum Jahn had given her between breaths "Park and swiftly embark. When the fracas meant to kill us comes the speeder will be hit and explode while we are inside."

"After the secondary explosions and smoke grenades there pop." Leo also wearing a head scarf chewing on a gum said pointed to the case the assassins brought "We exit in the belly hatch to the service tunnel here."

"Two minutes later with Kua leading us up into my Phoenix Hawk." Jahn added while driving the skiff speeder listening to him chewing the gum he served himself ostensibly "to open ear canals should there be a close explosion."

"My yacht will lift off and make for space content in its fate." Adrianna said with regret.

"Then we meet fate head on." Jahn held up a memory cube "Preprogrammed hyperdrive calculations for a short hop while we make calculations to our next leg. Tis why my "landing here took so many hours in preparation. I needed an out, thus had to craft one."

"Which way?" Karolly asked.

"Pho Ph'eah of course, who would run toward Zygerria to escape gank?" He responded easily.

Jahn caught the Mystral's eye movements between their chews with the drone he had overhead and smiled inside. Come closer, no, CLOSER, look hard, For the closer you are the less you see. Just aim at the target and not see. As he pressed another pheromone pouch to release one that would interact with the gum he gave them and slow their thoughts ever so slightly while the opposite effect would happen to the chosen crew.

They avoided most traffic and patrols using the drones which while less common on Serreno, were still ubiquitous as the nobles of the land sent messages or made purchases using them and shell organizations. Some even used them as Jahn was at this second, simply for recon as they moved.

Jahn opened up a bit wider to the Force, in a way even Alon could detect, indeed the swirl when he released the matrix shield covered the city. Jahn who had been practicing this one place after place including on Denon steeled himself to insulate from the sheer multitude beyond count of "objects" in the Force. His greatest strength was his greatest weakness, a singularity that gave him overwhelming information. In the travels he had made over the recent past always such as now did he test himself before shutting down and leaving swiftly.

His swirl was not unnoticed in the universal Force as a woman sat in meditation inside her Star Destroyer. She ended her meditation abruptly and was about to begin changing course when her master summoned her via holocom.

"Lady Salah, it seems that singularity that was on Denon has moved." Emperor Dooku mentioned directly.

"I felt it too master." She said from her knees head bowed.

"For some reason it is on Serreno."

"I was about to change course to see if we could trap the vergence."

"I was unaware that anything we had on Serreno was worth investigating. My children seem more invested in self gratification than improvement."

"That is my thought as well master."

"Have I given you any orders, to suppress the tension and intrigue my children cause?"

"None my master."

"Then why have you invested capital which could be spent elsewhere?"

"You mean the Mystral lord?"

"Has it reached time for you to challenge me?"

"I still have more to learn master, and when all you have is mine, then I will end you."

Emperor Dooku smiled "That is the way of the Sith my apprentice, so the strong get stronger. Investigate not for an apprentice of your own as of yet. Politically you are weak."

"As you wish."

"Still, see if you can catch this being. It may turn out to be a great asset. One that brings your challenge to my feet judging by the volume."

"By your leave master, it shall be so."

"And remember, if given a choice choose your sister and not your brother. She provides an important distraction for the mob."

"Your will be done my master." And the connection terminated.

Salah felt a thrill not unlike when she killed, but greater. And now my assention begins she hailed the bridge "Captain, plot a best speed course for Serreno." She commanded.

"Yes Ral Gorgon."

In Dooku's Palace, Alon Dooku paced awaiting word of his sister's demise when he felt the surge of Force from an unfettered Jahn.

"Security! Take me to the Port NOW! Adrianna is being kidnapped!" he yelled in panic. The loyal servitors jumped into action.

Jahn reached a point near the tarmac and instead of giving the guards time he merely reached out with his drones smashing the gate hinges so when the speeder sled reached it they just barreled on through.

"We could have…"

"Alerted Alon? Done! Slowed? We are behind our time and rhythm, unless you wish to manage a Star Destroyer?" Jahn shouted as they pelted on. He then activated his com to H8TR to lay down covering fire from the Dooku shuttle. Once down they began executing the plan as Kua Wan continued his barrages covering their entrance before scooting up the boarding ramp of the sleek space yacht.

"Oh my word!" Retched Karolly as she boarded the cadaver filled shuttle with wormy dead bodies of the fallen the day before rotting strapped in plush seats. Dunc heaved puke and even Leo blanched.

"Heat signatures in the correct shapes." Then Jahn pointed to the muts "and life signs strong enough to fool even the Force."

Adrianna smiled at the deviousness then noticed some items on a cadaver, her earrings, Leo's pendant Salah had given him on another as well. She turned in anger but Jahn was waiting and had his finger up in a negative move.

"Force signatures." And he placed his butterfly knives on one corpse. Then he waved them to the emergency hatch and shut down his swirl, confident in its echoes on his vibro blades would remain as the speeder outside exploded once twice and a third time.

"Down the Hatch! Called Kua Wan leading the six into the tunnels.

Alon arrived looking at his crew taking fire from Adrianna's shuttle lifting off as he pointed to his own "We have to intercept! Rally all spacecraft available! Stop that shuttle!" he commanded.

The six fugitives boarded a cramped Phoenix Hawk from the service tunnels and Jahn whipped out the "navigation coordinate" cube to be faced down by the two Mystrals with guns drawn as Kua secured the hatch.

"No offence." Said Karolly as she and Dunc slapped something piercing their necks before their eyes rolled back in their heads slumping to the ground.

"None taken." Jahn replied cheerfully turning to climb into the pilot's seat "Put those two in a single escape pod, we will space them as soon as we leave atmo."

"Do you need help flying? Little Brother?" Adrianna said as she worked.

"Just lay back on the cots and strap in, all is taken care of."

She and Leo lay down next to each other looking into their eyes with the rush of success. Then they glanced at the painting on the bulkhead above them of Jahn, his wife, his kids, his pregnant Asawa Ko, his father, her mother straddling a light to dark transition behind her as she did the same, her brother Alon, sister Ral Gorgon and father the Emperor even further in the darkness as the rapture reached them.

"Aww gank!" they exclaimed.

When they roused themselves out of the rapture they saw Kua Wan sitting on a large chest of her emergency funds she recognized. There was another, larger one near her.

"He told me before he left not to get greedy, but he did take his pay and what he said he invested plus the cost of the ship before he shot out in the second escape pod. There is one left." Kua Wan said. "This ship is headed down the Hydian toward Trielen, then Commenor where you get off Lady Dooku at Folor before Leo flies this to all the way back to Kashyyk to lay low. He said he already explained this and you were meditating on it."

"That son of a bitch! He…"

"He saved us.." Leo said softly. "And took a huge risk."

"Why did he not stay to train with us?" Adrianna protested.

"He is no master he said, fact is he got quite adamant at my use of the word after we avoided the Star Destroyer. He said "there are no masters in the Force, only adepts who realize it or not thus freeing or limiting themselves." He went on with some claptrap about satisfaction as an illusion and peace being the power within. Sounded too sappy but hey, he gave me a choice, awake or asleep, nothing else was changing." Kua Wan said adding "You shoot better awake" he told me."

"What possibly could there be for me on Commenor or Folor?"

"I think that is for you and you alone to find out love." Leo added obviously holding something back.

"Spill it…." Adrianna demanded.

"I think he is right and has guided us to choose how to train and continue." Leo Organa said dreamily "He showed me there is more family out there, and our training and teachers our own to find." He turned to Adrianna "I love you but we both need to change our paths, find and choose. While you have taught me much, the dream he showed me was vast and ended with a simple thought. Choice." He looked at the painting "May I keep it?"

Adrianna thought long and hard upon her life's lessons, masters and mentors to this point before nodding "I will get another copy in time should it be."

Thus ends Act 2 of "the Sha Chronicles: Book 1: Its Immaterial" Post comments if you desire.

Act one gives a picture of Yanab life sans the Twi'Lek settlements and the Fall of Sha Kalan.

Act two fleshes the political structure, doing more staging, fleshing family out more,

Act three is decision time and the calm before the war … ends.

There may be more acts in the first book, after all this is space opera.