Nexus

Once the Kraken had gone, Rune stood in front of the hangar entrance and breathed the fresh air deep into her lungs. She couldn't really remember a time when she hadn't been breathing in the endlessly purified and recycled air on board a star ship. This air carried scents of grass and rain, there were eddies and breezes caressing her face and ruffling her shorn head. The occasional gust of a cooler wind reminding her that winter had not long gone from this planet and could make a late return if it chose.

By her side, Torri stretched luxuriously, intrigued by the tantalising scents carried on the winds of the first alien planet he had ever stepped claw on. His eyes were half-closed, atuned as they were to seeing in the dark underground of his home city. Even the artificial light on the Vortex had been hard to adjust to, and bright sunshine was impossible to bear. Inez had found him a pair of heavy duty goggles to shield his sensitive eyes and had warned him to stay out of the sun at peak times, even with his fur to protect him she had been worried he would burn.

After the pair had spent a few minutes silently taking in this wonderful new vista, Torri helped Rune to wrap up in some blankets and then dutifully catalogued the items they had been left. He started to set up a little living space for them in the cavernous hangar, all the while yearning to run and explore and hunt and lay claim to this strange new territory. When the set up was completed to his apparent satisfaction he went to find a good place outside in the spring sunshine for Rune to meditate.

By the time this was all done, evening was drawing in and Rune was exhausted just from trying to stay awake and alert and explain to Torri what the various items were for. Torri prepared them a meal from a variety of containers and steeped some tea. Then they sat quietly together for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.

'That was lovely thank you Torri. I'm going to retire for the night now, and you should go explore - just be back for breakfast!'

Torri didn't need to be asked twice, he carried her to her bed of blankets, bowed once as was his custom, and was gone.

Within a couple of days the pair had settled into a steady routine.

Rune would rise at sunrise and breakfast with Torri. Then she would hobble very slowly out of the cave to sit on the rocky outcrop that Torri had found for her near Xinns vegetable patch. Torri would walk patiently by her side, carrying her supplies for the day. She knew he would carry her if she let him, but she was determined to strengthen her muscles so she was less of a burden. The moment she was settled, he would be off, exploring the mountains and plains, revelling in the abundance of plant and small animal life that he had never encountered before. The beauty of it, the sights and smells were all-consuming to a creature that had lived its life beneath the surface of its home planet.

While he roamed far and wide, Rune would sit in the gentle rays of the spring sunshine and once she had recovered from the walk, she would calm her mind, reaching out to feel the force. It was like she could feel the edges of a great ocean with just the tips of her fingers. She knew it was there, but she couldn't quite get a hold of it, it fell constantly through her grip. It was like the force sensed that she might twist it to her own ends and was keeping just out of reach. After a few days of getting no closer she wondered if she was approaching this all wrong. How she longed for her old master, or for Yoda to guide her and advise her. She felt so alone, even with Torri by her side. Like she carried the weight of the Jedi ways on her thin shoulders and it was going to crush her if she couldn't find her way back to the force. And maybe even if she could.

She pondered for many hours, twisting and turning the problem over and over, this way and that in her mind. All she eventually concluded was that she should go back to the exercises she had been taught with the other younglings. How to completely clear her mind until only the force remained, how to feel it flow through her.

That had been an exciting period of her life. The younglings had been taught that many would feel the force flowing most strongly through themselves, and they would likely become great warriors and pilots. Others would feel the force most strongly flowing through others, through words, animals or the natural world around them: they would most likely become healers, archivists and writers, or control beasts or the weather. Not that a Jedi couldn't learn any and all force-skills, but that they would naturally be stronger at some than others. All her classmates had been very keen to find out what their futures held, most hoping to be great warriors of course. She had been just as eager, but it had taken her longer to connect with the force than anyone else in her class. But that had been because she hadn't recognised what she was seeing from the descriptions she had been given. She didn't feel the force like her classmates did, she saw the force whirling all around her and through herself and everyone and everything. As it flowed and ebbed and twisted she saw eddies within the force, convergences of events that drew her in to the visions at their core. Visions of the present at first, then the past, then gradually as she honed her skill, forward into the future, then further ahead and further afield. Each a nexus, a possible vision of the future. She was, her teachers told her, a rarity in modern times. She was a far-seer.

So she sat and went through those old exercises over and over again, she didn't know what else to do….

Six gathered his crew for a war council. 'Ok, so we are heading into Worlport, capital of Ord Mantell. A snake pit if ever there was one. The local newsnet has been reporting on native saboteurs – the FreeOrd group - attacking the heroic Empire for about three weeks now'.

Xinn snorted rudely, echoing the thoughts of everyone present. She looked particularly bad tempered today.

These saboteur groups were usually shut down by the Empire pretty quickly, but any that were wily enough to survive and with the resources to make multiple attacks were worth recruiting to the cause. The cause being an attempt to build a network of cells that could eventually become an organised form of resistance to the Empires iron fist.

Six and his crew were tasked to find the groups before the Imps tracked them down and slaughtered them. Finding such groups was always difficult, they were in hiding after all and if the Empire hadn't been able to find them with all their resources, then they were well hidden. Making first contact was the most dangerous part. Knowing the Empire was out to find you was guaranteed to make any group highly paranoid, and the Meet and Greet team, as Six liked to call Inez and Xinn, had to try not to alarm the so-called saboteurs to the point they ran, or opened fire. The MaG team had a perilously short time to build their trust and recruit them before the Empire found them all. Once contact was established, Six's onboarding team would dive in and give the new cell lots of tried and tested methods to stay out of the Imperial clutches, and train them in guerrilla tactics.

But always in the back of both the fledgling cell and the Shadow Dancer crew was the thought that the whole set up could be an elaborate trap laid by the Empire to capture them. It put everyone's nerves on a hair spring trigger. An easy place for the whole thing to go horribly wrong.

Once the natives had proven themselves, introducing them to their new Contact via link was the final part of the assignment. The Contact would become their main source of missions and information because the Shadow Dancer would leave the planet and make no further contact with the new cell. That was important for the safety of both groups. Contact didn't know exactly where the fledgling cell was, the cell had no idea where Contact or the crew were.

Inez often thought this whole operation seemed to revolve around the left hand not knowing who, what or where the right hand was.

'Inez, you will take Xinn and do the initial recon. The intel from Contact indicates FreeOrd may operate out of the south side of the city – since the imps moved in to the North and East side of the city, any big corp in the South has moved across to come under their protection. So there are plenty of abandoned industrial units filled with squatters in the South. Easy place to hide in. We should be able to avoid the imp installations for the time being.

Kit, you and Star go into town with the ladies and try out Kits new comms tracking programme. It might give us the edge we need to get to them before the imps.

Those of us staying behind will analyse the attacks so far, see if we can work up any insights to help you.

Once you have made first contact we will move into the Southside with you, Star you come back and baby sit the Shadow Dancer with Kehl.'

Kehl let out an audible groan, the inference clear. Why did he have to be the one left behind to miss out on all the fun?

Six ignored him.

'Ok, saddle up guys' announced Inez, 'I want to be on the road as soon as the customs checks are done when we land in….' she checked her chronometer….'5 hours. Pack yourselves an overnight bag, Kit get us a clean data pad each, Xinn, work up the best dives to check out –select one to operate out of and then divide the rest between the two of us.

You both know the drill, first one to get a solid lead gets the fame, glory and the next technicolour sleep suit.' Kit whooped enthusiastically and hurried off with Star to make their preparations. Xinn followed at a more adult-appropriate pace.

Kehl had them docking in a cheap spaceport on the outskirts of the Southside as quickly as he could. The moment the desultory customs check had been completed the four members of the MeetandGreet team were hoisting their packs on their backs and heading out of the shabby space port to get a local shuttle.

Inez hated those planets, Ord Mantell included, where you could look up at the sky and see huge imp destroyers hanging immoveable above you like angular thunder clouds. The oppression was tangible, reminding you that the imps were watching, always watching you…. She resolved to keep her head down and her hood up while she was outdoors atleast.

Like Xinn she was wearing typical spacer gear, a hard wearing jump suit, battered and dusty, or 'authentic' as Inez liked to call it. The kids had adopted more of a 'cool street style', as Kit called it. He was wearing his punk skater kid gear, with his hood up and goggles on. He didn't need to look approachable, in fact he needed to look as anonymous as possible. Star was in her oily engineering gear and a spare pair of Kits goggles. Inez had artfully painted some Twilek tattoos onto her head tails and face, in designs that Kit had said were 'in' right now, so she too looked the part. The ink was semi-permanent so as not to smudge on assignment and Star had been none too thrilled, it would be weeks before this lot washed off. Her mulish expression inadvertently struck just the right note of obstinacy universal to teens everywhere.

Xinn had assigned the Wookies Arms as their base camp bar and then split the list of bars out between herself and Inez. For some reason, Xinn reflected wryly, potential resistance cells could always be found hanging out in seedy bars. Wasn't it about time the imps cottoned on to that little piece of stereotyping?

The group found the bar easily enough as it was on the main street and their shuttle stopped right outside as if it intended to tip is passengers straight through the swing doors and into the maw of the beast.

It was no surprise when most of the passengers did indeed just disembark straight into the bar. Inez disengaged and went to find them a table in the crowded room, it was pointless her trying to get served – the bar tender would never notice her short stature in a crowd. Star meekly followed Inez so Kit took the opportunity to accompany Xinn to the bar.

She seemed a bit more jovial now the mission was under way. Or atleast she wasn't actively scowling. Kit had observed Xinn very closely and could interpret most of her scowls now. If she wasn't scowling then she was verging on content and less likely to bite his head off. He couldn't see what there was to be content about on this scummy planet, but he was mainly glad to see her in a mood that might make her more receptive to him.

'Er Xinn' he began tentatively, and then paused as she bellowed across the three deep crowd at the bar. 'Hey, four Alderaan beers'

Even from across the hubbub the barkeep heard her, gave her a thumbs up and began assembling her order. There were various disgruntled mutterings and glares from the crowd queueing in front of her but Xinn didn't look even remotely apologetic. Kit gazed at her admiringly, and then remembered his question.

'Hey Xinn, do you want to get a drink later?'

'Kit, we gotta lot of ground to cover – this place is choc full of bars, and not much else. We are going to have to work overtime to meet Inez schedule.'

'Oh, yeah, of course' agreed Kit trying to hide the wobble in his voice, and glad for his goggles covering his eyes. She was right of course, it didn't mean she was rejecting him outright…. Yeah Kit, you keep right on deluding yourself. He could have kicked himself. He was so stupid. She was a professional, focused on the task and the safety of the crew. Now she would think even less of him that she already did – if that were even possible.

He helped her carry the drinks back, they had appeared in a miraculously short time. He drank his as fast as he could and told Inez he wanted to crack on. Inez looked slightly startled, she and Xinn had been carefully evaluating the comings and goings in the bar, as they bounced their potential route ideas off each other.

'Ok, well lets rendezvous back here in five hours. Happy hunting.

Kit shot out the door, with Star trailing behind not unhappy to be leaving her mostly untouched beer behind. Inez sighed internally. She hoped Kit wasn't going to be a problem. She knew he was hopelessly in love with Xinn but he didn't usually struggle with focus. They both had critical skills for hunting down the potential cell, and she didn't want to have to choose between them. While she and Xinn worked their way around the dives looking for leads, Kit would move from cyber café to cyber café trying to trace where the terrorists were transmitting from while moving often enough that the imps didn't trace his illegal hacking. Over time Inez and Kit had begun to view this part of the mission as a bit of a competition – whoever tracked the group down first won.

Kit had never managed to win – yet - but he had been getting closer with every mission. Then Xinn had been recruited and over the two missions they had completed together the two streetwise ladies together were proving to be an unbeatable combination. After the last mission Kit had realised he needed someone to help him as well – and there was only one choice. It had to be Star. Star wasn't particularly interested in what he got up to, engineering was her bag, but she was a very fast learner and had a knack for tech.

So Kit had bribed her with the one thing he knew she couldn't resist. He would show her how to upgrade the ship tech to support all the engineering improvements she made on board. She hadn't been able to resist that carrot and it had been a deal that had turned out to be mutually beneficial. Alongside learning to repair the ship, Kit had learnt how to upgrade his kit, so that the hardware could keep up with the software improvements he made. Star had learnt how to improve the software of her beloved Kraken so that it could do justice to all the improvements and upgrades she made. They were both happy.

Well, happy-ish. Star was a solitary creature by nature and she wasn't particularly keen to go out into the city for several days. Still, she understood how important Kits job was at this stage of the mission. His technical wizardry was the thing that could give them the edge in locating any potential cells before the imps did. And besides, what Kit hadn't considered was, that if they beat Inez and Xinn to find the cell, then the whole crew wouldn't be able to resist teasing him and saying he had only won their little competition because of Star.

And she knew that Kit was a kindly enough soul that as well as teaching her his tech secrets, he would look after her in the dirty, smelly, crowded city.

In the nearest cybercafe Kit jacked into the local system easily enough, showing Star how to ease into the imp controlled holonet without setting off any alarms. FreeOrd had been transmitting messages to the imps and to the local media stations, and that would be their mistake. Kit had no doubt the imps would be working this angle just as he was, and they had a head start. But they didn't have him. He soon forgot Xinn as he started to untangle the trail that would lead him back to the FreeOrd group. Before he knew it, his alarm went, two hours gone. He jumped up, reminded Star to clear her browser history permanently, and moved onto the next cybercafe to continue the search. No matter how much progress he made or how close he thought he was, when his alarm went, he went – golden rule no 1 of staying alive. He spent the walk to the next café impressing this fundamental tenet into Star as well.

For their part, Inez and Xinn finished their drinks first, and even shared out Stars – you never wasted perfectly good beer afterall. Once they had managed to make eye contact with a few of the locals, they split up and trailed out to start their own investigations. Xinn had given Inez all the nearest bars as it took her much longer to walk anywhere. The taller woman strode out and headed for the first bar on her list. The Rancors Rest.

By the time the four of them reconvened in the Wookies Arms, they had all made a little progress.

Xinn had found the FreeOrd symbol in graffiti on a wall near one of the bars. She was working her way around the area and tomorrow she would see if she could find more. It was a valid way of checking they were in the right part of the city. Inez had been chatting to locals, complaining about the imps and saying how she wished there was something she could do. No one ever thought Inez might be an imp. She was way way way too small to be a stormtrooper. She had noticed a couple of people take notice of her so she was hopeful that word would get back to the FO group. Of course, it might be going back to the imps, or both – but they were the risks you took. The kids had found definite trails and best of all Kit had managed to set up an alert based on the transmissions they had made in the past. The next time the potential cell transmitted, he would know, even if it was the middle of the night, and he could try and track them back to source.

Inez was heartened, it wasn't every time that they made such immediate progress.

They stayed a rather uncomfortable night in a nearby boarding house with a single room to rent. There was one flea infested double bed, which they could all fit on providing they didn't mind being elbowed in the face at random times. Xinn soon gave up and threw her pack on the floor and used it as a pillow. She didn't seem to find any difficulty sleeping on a cold floor. Kit awoke mortified that he hadn't stayed awake long enough to gallantly offer to sleep on the floor in her place. Though to be fair, he was sure that he wouldn't have been able to sleep a wink - unlike the object of his adoration who seemed to find sleeping on plascrete perfectly comfortable.

The next morning dawned and the four prepared for their first full day of searching. While Inez and Xinn went their separate ways to mooch around and become part of the local scenery, for Kit and Star, it was now a waiting game. They needed the FreeOrds to make a transmission. Twice.

It turned out to be a frustratingly long wait. Three more days before the terrorists made a transmission and all the while Inez and Xinn were making connections and getting closer to their targets. Then in the late evening, just as Kit had settled down to try and sleep, the beep went off on his datapad. He leapt up and grabbed his pad, and within moments he was tracing the signal, Star at his side watching his every move. But they both knew he was already behind in the race with the imps to trace the signal back to source before the group cut the transmission.

So far the terrorists propaganda holovids, illegally channelled through the holonet, had never lasted more than 90 seconds. Kit had managed to work out they were routing their signals off planet so it took longer for the imps to trace it back. But Kit had a plan. This first time they transmitted he would trace the signal in the traditional way, knowing without direct access to the holonet he would be behind the imps anyway. The second transmission was the time he was going to work his magic.

The signal cut-off all too soon, but as Kit had suspected, they had traced it off planet and through hundreds of relays. And he had a good solid trace on it up until the point the transmission cut off.

Excellent, part one of his plan had gone perfectly.

Part two was something else, something he had never tried before. But they needed to wait again, for the next transmission.

It was a further four agonising days before that happened, all the while knowing that Inez and Xinn were making getting closer and closer to making first contact – and so were the imps.

But early on the morning of the fourth day, Kits datapad beeped again. The kids were on it in seconds, desperate to see if Kits new programme would work.

It all hinged around the transmission signal. Providing FreeOrd used the same equipment each time, each transmission would have the same tracer code. When they broadcast, the imps would always start tracing the signal back from the destination because they assumed that each time the signal would travel a different route. But in Kits experience, only groups with lots and lots of money – like imps - could afford to use a random signal router. It was unlikely that this group had loads of money – and so their signal would travel the same route each time. Therefore, the first time Kit tracked their signal, he would be behind the imps and wouldn't get to the source. But the second time he would start the trace from where he lost it, not from the destination and that would put him ahead of the imps, and with a chance of reaching the source before the transmission ended.

Unable to breathe, the pair watched the tracer pick up the signal from its last point and successfully start to track back on screen. They watched breathlessly as it headed back to Ord Mantell, to Worlport, to the Southside, and bingo! To a unit only metres from the Wookies Arms. They didn't even notice the transmission end, they were too busy hugging each other and laughing and cheering. Kit had won the competition at last and Star could finally go back to the ship. Oh, and they had found the FreeOrds….

Back on the Shadow Dancer, Six was equally jubilant to hear from Star that Kit's programme had worked. They had never managed to track a group down in under two weeks before, this was a new and encouraging record for the whole team. Contact would be pleased. Yes, there was still some work to be done for Inez and Xinn to make contact, but after that Six's team would be able to move in and get the group recruited and away from the Imps in no time.

He yelled for Dan and Vail and told them to be ready to move out in three hours. He wanted to be prepped and waiting in Southside the moment that Inez or Xinn confirmed they had made contact and confirmed interest from the FreeOrds. Sometimes that could take several days, but other times it could be a matter of hours.

Star waved them off happily. She was quite happy to leave them to it, she had plenty of maintenance jobs she wanted to get on with. As many of them as possible would be down in the bowels of the engines where Kehls moaning and complaining couldn't reach her.

Rune was still finding it difficult to come to terms with having absolutely nothing to do except relax and soak up some sunshine without pain or hunger or fear.

Torri was off exploring, either around the mountains or more recently he would take the speeder bike and explore the plains. Once he had reassured himself she was ok on her own, he had even struck out for the coast to explore the sea. She knew he was enthralled. In the evenings as they ate together he could talk of nothing but the amazing things he had seen. She wondered if she would feel as entranced about his home planets cave systems if she ever got to visit as he did about this simple, ravaged world.

For her part, she spent her days trying to commune with the force and letting her exhausted, malnourished body heal. To feel the warm sun seep into her bones was the most beautiful feeling she could ever remember. It caressed her skin so gently, and tried to banish the ever present memories of endless cold and hunger and blank, featureless walls.

Each day she would take time to enjoy the view and sunshine and then gradually sink into the Jedi meditation process. But although she cleared her mind, and breathed deeply and relaxed her muscles one at a time, she still could not sink into the Meditation trance. There were times she thought maybe her connection to the force began to strengthen just a little, but that was the best she could say. After several hours of going through her relaxation techniques the force would ebb and flow a little closer until it seemed to rest against her skin like it was waiting for her. But that was the only progress she made. And eventually she had to accept that the force was not going to return to her just because she was relaxed. She didn't think she could get any more relaxed. She was going to have to try something else again.

She spent that evening once wondering what to try next, and if Torri noticed that she was even less communicative than normal, he was too polite to say anything.

Her thoughts ran over and over again the question of if she should try to far-see. She had sworn she would never far-see again, it had caused her so much pain And yet it was the thing she did best, it was a part of her living with the force. Where other Jedi's might excel at fighting, her strength had been an unusual one. Not that that had always been the case, but gradually as the Jedi had started to recognise there was a dark cloud coming, that they could not see through, they had also realised that that the number of strong far-seers born in recent times had dropped to just one – her.

She realised that she had to try. It was the thing she was born to do, so it had to be her best chance of connecting to the Force, maybe her only chance.

The next morning she spoke to Torri before he left her on the rock.

'Torri, will you stay close today?'

'Of course. I have been thinking about looking for caves systems around here, but have been enjoying the surface too much. Are you ok?'

'Yes, I'm fine. I want to try something different today, and I don't know how it will turn out. If you come back though, and you cannot wake me, don't worry. It just means it worked and I have been able to go into a meditation trance.

If I do, I will aim to stay in for only a few hours – they are very healing but while we are alone here I don't think any longer than that is wise. SO if I go beyond the day there is something wrong. There is no one can help me, just carry me inside, keep me warm, and wait for the others to come back ok?

Torri nodded, but he felt worried. He knew nothing about Jedi, but it didn't sound very healing to him. 'Are you sure you need to do this? You look so much better these last few days – you have a little bit of colour, you are growing stronger each day.'

Rune smiled at him 'I do need to do this, I need to know if I am going to be able to connect to the Force again…or not. Its about peace of mind I guess.'

Torri nodded again, as if he understood. But he didn't. He resolved to leave but find a place a little way away to watch her from. Even Rune couldn't see him when he was completely still.

Rune waited for him to leave and then settled herself onto her blanket, her arms loose by her side. She didn't mean to worry him, but she really didn't know what would happen – it felt like a make or break day and she needed to prepare him for the worst-case scenario.

She slowly worked through the techniques to clear her mind and then she was ready. She reached out and touched the edges of the force. She could feel it comforting and warm, lapping at the furthest reaches of her thoughts. She thought back to how it felt to farsee, how natural it felt, to let go of the past and the present and see into the distance, whether across time or space….

And suddenly she fell, it was like she was plummeting into water, but it was a river of the force so strong that she felt for a moment like she couldn't breathe – it filled her eyes and mouth and nose, and then suffused her body with a pulsing, roaring, overwhelming force like it had been held away from her for too long and a tidal wave was crashing over her and she couldn't breathe or see or hear.

And then in a second the vision encompassed her and she let go of all physical sensation as it took over her entire being.

She was falling, tumbling downwards, until she hit reality and the focus of her vision head first – an imp stronghold. It took a few moments to focus and stop the terror overwhelming as she took in the familiar grey, featureless walls. But that was forgotton, as her gaze fell upon Six, gravely injured, captured by storm troopers, beaten and tortured. If she had had any breath to give it would have been ripped from her then. He looked broken and bloody, all hope gone and yet he fought on. He would not give in. He would not give up his secrets. She looked into his soul right then, and saw it burning bright and true. Abruptly, her vision skewed and twisted and morphed into the Kraken burning and the bodies of her crew strewn around the ship in a rictus of death. Her vision jagged around the ship and she made out the body of Inez, and then, Star, blackened from an explosion and covered in strange unearthly symbols on her broken headtails – 'NO!' The shock of it thrust Rune out of the vision then, screaming and screaming, unable to catch a breath, unable to stop shaking and mewling until Torri caught her in his arms.

'Look at me..Look at me, look at ME! He roared, bringing her abruptly to her senses. She was panting for breath, shivering and crying, tripping over words that wouldn't form.

'What happened? What is it? Tell me!'

Rune tried to get herself under control, but the vision of Six bloodied and splayed unnaturally on the floor was what she saw through the tears overwhelming her eyes. She fought to catch a breath. There was only one way to help him, and to help Inez and Star and the rest. She needed to find control, she inhaled, stilling herself through sheer willpower, calming her trembling and regaining a thin, high-pitched version of her voice. 'Get the transmitter, I…I need to speak to the ship'

Torri didn't hang around, he ran back to the cave as fast as he was able. Those minutes would give Rune time to compose herself and then maybe she could say what under the suns was going on.

Rune did her best to compose herself, her breathing was still hard and fast, and she was shaking so much, she had to lay back down to wait for Torri.

He brought the transmitter and patched her hurriedly through to the ship. Kit had set it up to hack into the holonet, so long transmissions were not to be made if you didn't want to risk having your message traced. He had programmed a strict time limit on the datapad.

Rune forced herself to calm down there was no time to waste.

To her relief Star answered the call almost immediately.

'Star, its me'

Star looked at Rune aghast, far from looking relaxed and tanned, she looked white as a sheet and tear-stained.

'What's going on, are you ok? Has something happened'

'Yes, I mean No! But something is going to happen. Six is going to be captured. I had a vision – you need to come and get Torri and I straight away. Who is with you on the ship right now?'

'Oh Rune! I'll come straight away. Its just me and Kehl'

'Wait' Rune cast her mind back to her vision. She remembered seeing Star and Inez dead amongst the wreckage, she couldn't remember if she had seen Kehl or not.;

'Is he there, can he hear this?'

'No, he's gone to get himself some tea from the mess while I take the watch'

'Good, you can't tell him or bring him. You have to get Inez, just you two. OK?

'Well-'

'Just you two Star, promise me'

'Well, ok, I guess I can find a way.'

The datapad beeped warningly, 30 seconds to go

'And come straight here, don't go a long route – we don't have much time'

'Ok, we're coming, don't worry, be ready'

The two girls looked at each other and the transmission cut out.

Rune looked at Torri. 'Let's go pack' he said, stuffing her blankets and pillows into the pack and preparing to carry her back to the hangar.

Stars first instinct was to commlink Inez and tell her to get back here, but she realised that would generate more unanswerable questions from her, and then from Kehl when she kicked him off the ship. She had to be clever about this. The idea hit her almost straight away.

She ran to the head and started making very loud vomiting noises, splashed some water over her face and grabbed a towel to hold over her mouth with one hand while she clutched her stomach with the other.

'Kehl, Kehl' she yelled, trying to sound sick and loud at the same time.

'What in the swamps of Dathomir is going on?'

'I'm sick, really sick – you need to fetch Inez. Take her place and send her back. Quick, its serious.'

Kehl was not a natural born nurse. He hated being around anyone who was sick. And even more pertinently he hated being stuck on the ship while everyone else was out on the mission having fun. (not that he didn't moan like heck when he was out on the mission as well).

He didn't need to be asked twice, he got the specially adjusted speeder bike that Inez could ride, and shot off into the southside of Worlport.

As soon as he was out of sight, Star straightened up, threw the towel to one side and hurried to the cockpit to start warming the ship up ready for take off. This was typically a twenty minute process. She was quietly confident that Inez would be here by the time she was ready to leave.

Sure enough, 19 minutes and 37 seconds later, Inez roared up the ramp, dumped the bike and started running through the ship shouting for Star.

Star closed the ramps and turned to face the little woman.

'What the heck is going on Star? I thought you were sick? Why are the engines on?'

'Sit' said Star quietly, she had had 20 minutes to think how she was going to put this to Inez and she still wasn't sure.

'Rune got in touch. She had a vision…. Six is going to be captured.'

'What? That can't be right? Six?' Inez shuddered with the horror of it. 'But I don't understand. Why do we have to fetch Rune? What is she going to do?'

'Well her force powers must be back, she is the one who can save him' said Star as firmly as she could considering she was making it up now.

'But surely if we just told Six he could avoid the situation, why does she have to come here?'

'We're running out of time. We need to act, she is the only one who can save him. Events must already be in motion'.

Inez held up her hand for Rune to stop talking. What the heck was she supposed to do now? This could be a trap. This sounded exactly like a trap. What if they'd left Rune alone on that planet and she tried to commune with the force and instead was taken over by the dark side?'

Still even if that were true, she struggled to see how summoning just Star and Rune to fetch her was going to help. Did she think she could take over the ship? With Torri by her side, she could have done that any time she liked. Torri could have killed them all in the blink of an eye. It didn't make much sense as a double cross, but neither did it make much sense if it was genuine. What could Rune actually do? She certainly couldn't fight.

There was no logic Inez could apply here. She had to go on gut instinct, or just weigh the odds. What was the worst that could happen? If Six was really about to be captured and they didn't do the one thing that could help him, then she would never forgive herself. If they did fetch Rune and it was a double cross, then atleast the rest of the crew would be alive, even if stranded on Ord Mantell. Contact would be able to come and fetch them.

She made the only decision she could. 'Punch it Star, no time to lose'. Then she prayed it was the right one.

Star leapt into the Captain's chair and manoeuvred her beautiful ship smoothly up into the sky. Inez fired up the astrogation computer. Between them they were perfectly capable of flying the ship, even if they didn't usually do it. Star didn't have the panache of Kehl but they would get there as fast as it was possible to do so, and they would get back equally fast.

Even with their new astrogation computer and a direct route it would be nearly five hours before they reached Homestead. As they climbed into the sky Inez sent a datapacket to Six – she daren't call him. 'Comms problems, had to take them off line – diagnostic estimates 10.5 hours before back on line. She just had to hope that would hold them.

Kit had been out at a cyber cafe checking the imps internal comms lines for any information on the terrorist cell again. So far the imps still didn't seem to have any intel on their location – which was a relief because the ladies had been having unusual difficulty in persuading FreeOrd to join them and form a new cell.

Once his final two hours of the day was up Kit had arranged with Inez and Xinn to meet them at the Wookies Arms for a debrief at 18 hundred hours. He wondered if Six and the boys would meet them there too. Despite leaving the ship early the soldiers were kicking their heels with not much to do. Not that this had bothered them too much, they had been busy tracking imps and plotting their patrol routes through the southside, just to be on the safe side. But their presence made the tiny bedsit very very cramped. Kit sighed, he hadn't had a good nights sleep since Star left and the boys descended on them. With that in mind he had wrapped his search up before his two hours was up and headed out. Maybe if they had a quick drink and got back to the bedsit they could get some sleep before Six and the boys piled in, because they sure did like to drink.

He got to the rendezvous a several minutes early and was puzzled to spot Xinn slipping down a dodgy looking back alley. He was always looking for any excuse to spend a few minutes alone with her, and this seemed like a great opportunity. If he could sneak up on her and make her jump, maybe she would compliment him on his improved stealth skills, or maybe she would see something in him that she could like or….admire or…...

Double Agent

Xinn slipped into a quiet corner of the yard behind the Wookies Arms. She had fifteen minutes before she needed to be at the bar to meet Inez and Kit. She didn't like to do this so close to their base, and she didn't like to rush these things, but she was running out of time.

To her relief she saw her handler already waiting in the shadows, leaning on his speeder bike.

'Shadow. Do you have it?'

Xinn nodded and glanced behind her, she thought she heard a noise, but no one was around. She was getting paranoid. 'They've just agreed to work with us, and I've planted the chip into their comms equipment. Six will send a datapacket to Contact soon so you need to be scanning.'

'Good work Shadow. Maybe the triangulation will work, but if not, now you have planted this, any communications Contact has with the Cell will trace both ways – and we shall have him soon enough'

Xinn nodded impressed at the tech. 'Then I'm no longer needed on the Shadow Dancer crew?'

'For now, you are still needed – stay on board atleast until we have had chance to test the chip is operational. Then we will bring you in.'

'It had better work, I'm not doing that again.'

Her handler shrugged. She would if they told her to.

'I have to go' she muttered, exasperated at her handler's casual belief that she would do exactly as she was told. 'They're expecting me and I don't want to be late.'

The handler nodded and climbed onto his speeder bike. 'Stay alert agent, we're nearly there.' He shot off in the opposite direction and was gone from view in seconds, through the twisty, dirty alleyways.

Xinn took a breath and turned back to the little passageway she had come through.

Kit stepped out in front of her. 'Xinn…who was that?'

His voice hitched and she could see the distress in his eyes. The jig was up, he must have heard atleast enough to know she was a double agent. It was written all over his innocent, hurt, beautiful face. Oh Kit, why did you have to be so naïve? You should have turned and run…

'Why are you asking me Kit? You think I'm gonna confess all and break down in tears?' She was giving herself time. She couldn't believe she was going to have to do this.

'Xinn, you're one of us. Why are you selling us out to the imps? I…I love you'

Xinn flinched. She had known it and she hadn't wanted to know it. 'Kit, this isn't a romantic holovid with a happy ending guaranteed. This is real. The bad guys don't confess all and surrender. They…' it was her turn to falter. 'They do this'

She shot him.