Quintus sits quietly strapped and buckled in his seat as his father directed him to. His arm, still sore from its dislocation three days earlier, remains in its sling across his chest. All around him, people – strange people – people he's never seen before are also seated within the rectangular main passenger bay of the Journeyman transport ready to escape this nightmare. They are all like he and his father, Quintus reckons: the remnants of families who survived the carnage.
Next to Quintus on his left, a girl twice his age tightly grips the hand of her mother who in turn is holding to her chest a newborn baby. Tears flow from the woman's eyes – tears of happiness or sadness Quintus will never know – as no husband is there to comfort her and her children.
To Quintus' right, an elderly couple sits prayerfully trying to set the example that hope is not yet lost and all will be well. The two occasionally smile to each other with a twinkle in their eyes as they reminisce of the good times.
Directly across from Quintus, he sees a father and a son – much like he and his father Vitus. The boy, roughly the same age as Quintus, sits with his hands folded in front of him and feet dangling over the edge of the seat just like him. The father fidgets with the boy's straps checking and rechecking his son is safely secure.
Above him, the lights of the Journeyman transport illuminate the ship's interior revealing every scuff, scratch, and stain otherwise hidden in the normally dimly lit setting. And below him, the once empty floor is littered with whatever supplies were left over from the other two transports. Medicine, blankets, empty bags, and the leftover scraps of the emergency rations make up the clutter.
Quintus awaits anxiously for whatever is to happen next. A low rumble soon begins to grow from the depths of the ship. The loose panels along the walls, floors, and ceilings clank from the violent vibrations as the engines turn over. A few of the other younglings cry nervously at the sudden end of near silence…but not Quintus. Though young himself, younger than the others, he knows he is expected to be brave because his father is brave…and his mother was braver still.
Quintus has no memory of his mother. His father always talked about her as if she were still around. Perhaps he hoped that she might miraculously come back from the dead. All Quintus knew were the images his father showed him lovingly. Even so, Quintus felt like he knew her. People, including his father, always told him that he looked like his mother. Her black hair, her golden eyes, her olive skin…Quintus was in fact the spitting image of his mother.
Silence returns again as the engines of the Journeyman transport cut off. The quiet is welcome as the fear of Sith detection is still high amongst the survivors. The mother next to Quintus rocks her whimpering baby soothing the child back to sleep. From the doorway on Quintus' right, voices can be heard carrying down the hallways of the ship from the cockpit - his father's voice amongst them.
"Let's hope they noticed…"
Hearing his father's voice brought back a sense of peace to Quintus, calming his anxiety. Another voice, a woman's, answers Vitus' statement.
"By the Force, this plan must work…"
Aelia…that was her name. Her daughter, Aeliana, a pretty young woman with dusty brown hair cared for him while his father was unconscious.
The eerie silence of the passenger bay has everyone tense causing each individual to focus in on the only source of hope on the ship…the Journeyman Protectors.
"It'll work Aelia…It'll work…two minutes was enough…was enough…"
"Look, the cruiser's heading right for our position!" That was a voice familiar to Quintus for it belonged to a man very much like an older brother.
"It's not just the cruiser, Gnaeus." Aelia exclaimed. "Look…the entire fleet!"
The passenger bay gasps in unison. Quintus thought it could get no quieter, but with that one exclamation, the entirety of the ship drops a few decibels lower. For the next few moments, only hushed voices and mumblings can be heard from the cockpit. No one knew what was being planned. No one knew what was to come next.
"…Gnaeus…it's time to send them out." Vitus says, and shortly thereafter, the rumblings return to the passenger bay.
Back in the cockpit, Vitus, Aelia, and Gnaeus watch the small screen of the cockpit's navicomputer as the entirety of the Sith fleet slowly work their way closer to their position. Vitus and Aelia sit at the pilot and copilot positions respectively and Gnaeus sits behind them at the navigator's spot. Upon Vitus' order, Gnaeus had pressed the remote control panel above him igniting the engines of the two other transports.
Vitus' plan was sneaky. Hoping that the cruiser above him was still scanning the surface, Vitus ordered the transport laden with the survivors and the second transport to be fired up for the couple minutes required to allow the cloaking device to kick on. The Sith would hopefully read two ships before Gnaeus shut off the second transport and activated the cloaking device on theirs. Now with the Sith fleet bearing down on them, it was time to send out both the second and third transports to provide the survivors with the chance to escape this hellish nightmare.
"Aelia- open the hangar doors."
A screen comes alive amongst Aelia's controls revealing a camera shot of the hidden hangar entrance hundreds of meters ahead of them in the pitch black. A waterfall parts as the two doors swing up at an angle allowing the water to flow across them. From their dark confines at the heart of the mountain, a beam of light finds its way to shine on the face of the Journeyman transport.
Vitus, for some unknown reason, smiles to himself. "It's daytime."
Regaining himself, he directs his attention to Gnaeus behind him. "Have the second transport shoot across the right flank of the fleet and the other across their left," Vitus says with complete calm. He knows they only have one shot at this. "And Gnaeus…make sure they're flying as fast as they can."
Gnaeus smiles back at his former mentor before returning to his control panel setting the corresponding coordinates for each of the decoy transports. Both ships' engines grow louder, increasing the decibels until the whole of the mountain is filled by their deafening roars. The cockpit shakes violently; Vitus' seat seemingly coming unhinged from the floor. Soon, the first of the two transports jets away through the long tunnel out of the hangar, and is shortly followed by the second. Calm returns to the hangar with only the low rumblings of the lone transport's idling engines. Vitus, Aelia, and Gnaeus all watch as their decoys are sent out to give them their one chance of survival.
"Now we wait."
The three Journeyman Protectors nervously watch the navicomputer projection of the moon. Two green dots zoom across the surface from their position, represented by a yellow triangle, toward a mass of red, located on the opposite hemisphere, gradually working its way toward them. The green dots then split off speeding along either side of the mass.
Gnaeus' mumbles under his breath. "Come on…come on…take the bait." His hopes are realized as the red mass divides in two to pursue the two transports. However, the lone star cruiser remains in orbit right above them. "Vitus, what about that cruiser?"
Vitus had hoped it would chase after their decoys, but it is never that easy. "Just hold on…give it time. The transports haven't left the atmosphere yet." But however long they waited, the lone Sith cruiser would not move. Longer and longer they wait only to watch as one of the green dots disappears from the projection, its twin still in high pursuit by the fleet.
Vitus' eyes dash between the green dot and the lone red dot. His head spins, his body tensing with apprehension. Will that cruiser budge? How much longer will the decoy last? Do they go for it regardless? Or is their window gone? So many questions flood his mind. Every second seems to last a minute, every minute an hour.
"Vitus…" Aelia says, her voice sinking.
"What?" Vitus responds erasing his feverish mental ramblings returning him to the now.
"The last decoy is gone."
His heart drops. He had hoped that the decoys would have lasted longer, but they did their job. Vitus with one more deep breath tells his peers, "Time to go." And with that Vitus increases the power to the engines and the transport lifts off.
"Hey Vitus," Gnaeus says."They're sending a squadron down to investigate our location."
"Well – we were planning on going fast anyway." Vitus then hits the accelerator and their ship shoots through the black tunnel toward the light of the hangar entrance. They reach it in mere seconds, and what greets them on the other side is a sight they would never forget.