Cara felt her adrenaline rushing as she pushed the rhydonium tank hovercart to the Razor Crest. She had to remain focused. ETA of the Mandalore forces was less than five hours.
The Armorer was gathering supplies, Karga was maintaining defense of the city, and she had to ready the ship. The only thing that Paz could tell her for certain was that they were headed beyond the Outer Rim to the Wild Regions. So she knew she needed fuel.
Din had also just told her that he had a patch job done on Tatooine on his fuel lines after a fire fight. She had to make sure that was handled as well. He had even broken his vow to never let droids touch his ship.
So many of his "rules" were falling away, it was confusing. He was morphing into someone completely different. She wasn't sure what he was going to be. And she wasn't sure how that new man was going to react to — losing Tarre-Haal.
Cara had so many other things to focus on, but she was disconcerted about how no one was talking about the fact that they were about to go and look for a Force-wielder who had trained with the Jedi. The Armorer seemed to feel that Tarre-Haal needed to be reunited with others who had strong connections to the Force. But that would mean that he would be separated from Din.
She had watched their connection grow. She had felt that connection herself. She had seen Din take many hits on this journey, but she was not sure that he would be able to recover from being removed as Tarre-Haal's protector — and father.
She pushed down these thoughts once again and checked the fuel gauge, the fuel levels were holding. She walked around to the other side of the Razor Crest and called up to the droids that were magne-clamped onto the engines and gave them a shout and a thumbs up.
"Go work on the hyperdrive efficiency! And scan for any other external damage, he was told the power lines are leaking! I'm going to work on the spazzing navigation system!"
"How's it going out there?" Din's voice was getting stronger, but he was also getting a bit annoying.
Cara sighed, "Din, kinda busy out here, bud."
He did not take the hint. "I forgot to mention on the checklist, you need to —"
Cara muted her comm, "Uh-huh, got it. Sure."
The Armorer arrived with a hovercart full of supplies, "I can have him sedated if the need arises."
Cara laughed, "I have a feeling sedatives will be necessary for him to sit at Ops while I fly this bucket."
The Armorer replied dryly, "He will realize that he already knows you are more than a match for his piloting skills."
"I can still hear you on both comms," Din's irritated growl came over the Armorer's comm because he was muted on Cara's.
Cara laughed again and unmuted her comm. "Din, this is gonna be a long trip if you can't even let me do my job to prep the ship. We are running out of time."
Din was quiet for a few seconds, "Can I just say one thing — please?"
Cara rolled her eyes, "Go ahead."
"Thank you…really," Din said almost in a whisper, and he paused long enough for Cara to let the words resonate. "—And download updates on the hyperspace lanes and Outer Rim charts."
Cara sniffed back her tears and cleared her throat, "Signing off, NOW." And she shut off her comm.
Karga hurried down the line with both blasters out, "Commander! Commander!"
"Karga!" The Tribe member walked directly up to him. "They are changing their formation! What is the status? Could they have gotten word of the Mandalorian approach?"
Karga shook his head, "No, there's no way they could know! Have you seen Gideon?"
The Tribe commander shook his head, "Not since the first day, sir. The Tribe is inquiring — how are the Armorer, and Din Djarin?"
Karga looked back at the commander and tried to exude calm resolve, "They are alive, and recovering."
The commander leaned closer, "The Tribe is nervous about the Foundling leaving us behind, they fear another of the weapon arriving before the Mandalorian Force."
Karga frowned, "If there is another weapon on that Star Destroyer, the Mandalorian Force will not be able to save us."
The commander nodded, resigned. "The movement we have observed is likely fresh troopers. But as we predicted these troop movements are much less than other similar attacks which seek to overwhelm. The Tribe is on constantly on surveillance, looking to picking off scouts seeking information on the location of Din Djarin and the Foundling."
Karga nodded, "We will only need to conceal them until the Mandalorian Forces arrive. Hold fast, commander."
"Yes, sir!"
Tarre watched from his pram as Din worked on rehabbing his back and shoulders. Days of immobility and lack of nutrition had taken their toll. Din was finally eating better, and for the first time he could really feel his energy returning.
The down side was that his mind was clearer as well and he was driving Cara crazy with all of his thoughts and ideas. So he tried to refocus his attention on physically preparing for an extended period of time in the confines of the Razor Crest on this hunt for a missing ship.
He pushed himself too hard and was once again doubled over on his cot, dripping with sweat and gasping for breath to work through the pain.
Suddenly, he felt a grip on his left elbow and a warmth moved through him, bringing with it a sense of peace and calm that he had not felt for days.
His eyes snapped open and he immediately pulled his arm away from the grip of Tarre-Haal.
"STOP! STOP TARRE!" He shouted causing Tarre to stumble backward onto his cot where he had been standing.
Instead of crying, however, Tarre stood back up and lifted his hand back up to Din, and cried out a sound that could only be interpreted as a demand.
"Tarre — you can't keep doing this!" Din replied with exasperation.
Tarre put down his hand, but then clenched his claws of both hands into fists, and repeated his cry, louder so the sound almost filled the room.
"TARRE — LISTEN TO ME!" Din yelled as he sank down to his knees in front of the cot.
His Foundling's brows were still creased in anger as he stared defiantly at his father figure.
"Please, ad'ika — please — you know how I feel about that," Din reached out and put a hand on the cot near where Tarre was still standing in challenge. "Listen, I'm very grateful for everything you have done to protect me. But, I don't know yet the limit of your power. What happens to me — it doesn't matter. What matters is we get you to someone who can stick with you — for much longer than I can."
Tarre squeaked quietly, expressing his confusion.
"You've already lived longer than me! I know you've seen things that I — can't even imagine. You belong to something much bigger than me. And you'll live an incredible life, for hundreds of years after I'm gone."
Tarre's lip trembled.
"You have to stop saving me — because — someday — you won't be able to," Din's voice broke as he spoke his fears out loud for the first time.
The weight of the loss of his own parents came crashing down on him, the trauma and the aftermath of losing everything he knew broke through the dam in the weakest moment of his life since he was a child.
"I have to prepare you. Because when it happened to me — I wasn't ready. Someday — it may be years, or it could be tomorrow — I won't be here."
Din looked up at the ceiling and tried to stop the tears that kept streaming down his face. And then he felt a tiny hand on his. He looked down and saw Tarre looking at him with his ears completely folded down, and tears rolling down his cheeks.
Buir, you only make me stronger.
Din picked him up and tucked him into his left elbow. "Tarre, when we are parted, I promise — I will be with you. Always."
At the appointed time, the middle of the night sky was suddenly filled with a sight that had not even been seen over Mandalore since before the Imperial Occupation. An enormous Keldabe-Class Battleship filled the sky and immediately opened fire on the Star Destroyer and the Imperial remnant ground forces on Nevarro.
Cara opened the ramp to the Razor Crest hold and called the Armorer on her comm.
"That's our subtle signal!" She yelled.
"Affirmative, on our way," was the calm response from the Armorer.
Cara started the takeoff sequence, and reviewed the entire checklist, when suddenly a troop carrier moved through the encoded city shield — and they only way it could have done that was with the proper clearance.
"Paz," she whispered, and ran out of the cockpit, and jumped down the ladder and out the hold ramp.
Two jet packed warriors lifted out of the descending troop deployer and flew down to meet her. One had the unmistakable height of Paz, the other was large but had entirely different intricately painted markings on his armor, which had to be the visitor from Clan Wren.
Cara smiled as they landed just in front of her. She walked right up to Paz, who removed his helmet and smiled.
"Paz, I can't express how much your arrival means to the warriors who have been fighting for days — and to me," Cara put a hand on his arm.
Paz nodded back with a smile, "And I am indebted to you for life, for watching over my family. Thank you."
Cara nodded and then turned to the second warrior who did not remove his helmet.
"Cara, this is Tristan of Clan Wren, his Clan is also of House Vizsla. He brings our mighty ship, as well as the coordinates that you need for your journey."
Tristan gave her a slight bow. "You were a Rebellion shock trooper? The Daughter of Alderaan?"
Cara nodded, "The former is over. But, I will always be a Daughter of Alderaan."
"I can smell House Vizsla!" Din shouted from the hovercart he and Tarre were riding on, pushed along by the Armorer and Greef Karga.
Paz looked up and forced out a laugh, but his eyes betrayed his feelings about the state of Din's health. He pulled Din off the cart and into an embrace.
Paz then gave the Armorer a slight bow, "It is good to see you restored."
The Armorer nodded, "And you as well."
Then Paz turned to look at Greef Karga, whom he had fought against for Din and Tarre, and then his Tribe had suffered. "It is good you have reclaimed your honor, Karga."
Karga bowed to both men, "Nevarro is forever indebted to Mandalore for their aid. The Tribe will have equal share in the government from this day forward. We must fight together to remove this weapon from the galaxy and safeguard Mandalore."
Din smiled to himself, then turned toward Tristan and put out his arm, "We've never met, Tristan, but your aid on this day can never be repaid."
Tristan took Din's arm and shook it. "And your quest and actions are equally esteemed. I personally thank you, for taking a mission that I have longed to complete for years, but as you can see," pointing up to his ship, "Clan Wren has been otherwise occupied."
Din nodded, "We have little time. What do you know of Sabine's mission?" Din's legs were going to falter, so he moved to sit again on the hovercart. Paz and Tristan exchanged glances.
Din continued, "What has kept her away with this Jedi for so many years?"
Tristan cleared his throat, "She had two Jedi friends who accompanied her and the Dark Saber first to Clan Wren then to Bo-Katan before the Battle of Yavin, when the weapon, The Duchess, was last used against us." Tristan hesitated slightly knowing he was speaking to another survivor of the Duchess' wrath.
"One of her Jedi friends perished during an attack on the TIE Defender factory on Lothal, and the other perished as he destroyed Admiral Thrawn during the liberation of Lothal. But, after the Battle of Endor, Sabine became obsessed with the idea that he was still alive. And the Force wielder fed into these fantasies, saying she had seen visions of Ezra still alive. They left together and Sabine left me only the ship signature."
Tristan opened his hand to Din, revealing a data chip. "This is all the flight data that we have been able to gather. It's strange, almost non-sensical, as if they were wandering, not on a direct navigation course. They moved out into the unknown regions over a year ago."
Din took the drive, then turned and handed it to Cara. He looked back at Tristan, "I cannot speak for your sister, I know how it feels to be driven to a mission you do not fully understand. But I swear I will do everything in my power to relate to her the dire circumstances we are facing. And she will see before her what the Duchess has done."
Tristan stood up straighter, "Trust me, Sabine knows all too well what the Duchess can do. So if she hesitates, please tell her that I personally begged for her to come home."
Paz suddenly saw a signal on his vambrace, and looked up at Din with excitement and tension in his eyes, "Zaral and her team have infiltrated the Star Destroyer computer, it's time for you to go!"
The Armorer quickly moved Din's hovercart up the ramp and into the hold, then followed Cara up into the cockpit. She helped Cara finish her embarking sequence and then Cara stood up again to face the Armorer.
The Armorer reached out and took Cara's forearm in hers, "A true comrade in arms, and a sister, Ret'urcye mhi. I feel certain we will meet again."
Cara gripped her arm back and smiled. "Until our paths cross, sister."
The Armorer rushed back down the ladder and then joined Karga and Tristan who waved from below, "Safe journey!"
Paz, however, had followed Din and Tarre up the ramp and helped Din off the hovercart and steadied him by gripping the ladder after the Armorer passed by. Then Paz picked up Tarre and bumped foreheads with him. Tarre cooed sadly.
"Tarre-Haal, Aliit ori'shya tal'din. Family is more than blood."
Paz handed Tarre over to to Din who held him in his left elbow. Then Paz reached out and took Din's helmet between his hands and rested his forehead against Din's.
"K'oyacyi, Vod," Paz said, Stay alive, brother.
"K'oyacyi," Din repeated, Stay alive.
Paz backed away from Din, his lips moving from a sad smile to a firm resolved frown as he put on his helmet. Then he activated his Rising Phoenix and flew off the ramp as Tristan also jetted back up toward the troop carrier hovering above. Cara closed the hold ramp as she powered up the engines. Paz rose up to Cara's level in the cockpit and saluted her and she saluted back.
Tarre looked back at Din with a small smile before he jumped right up into the command deck, completely skipping the ladder. Din chuckled, but then faced the task of climbing the ladder without help. He took a brief break in the middle but managed it much better than he thought he would. He managed to make it to his seat in the secondary ops position before Cara cleared the atmosphere. Tarre was already in his hoverpram where Cara had set it in his usual seat.
Din sat down and reached over to grip Cara's shoulder before she gunned the engines heading straight for the hyperspace lanes.
"Now or never, boys!" She flipped her local comms, "This is Razor Crest to Nevarro Command and Keldabe Battleship. Stay strong, win the day!"
"Confirmed Razor Crest, we've got you, safe journey," and immediately suppressive fire erupted from the guns on the Battleship and created an opening for Cara to easily rocket for the hyperspace lane.
"Three seconds, boys! Three — two — one!"
Paz and Tristan watched from the troop carrier as the Razor Crest streaked across the sky into hyperspace.
"They are away… thank you," Paz whispered into his comm.
Din seemed even more subdued after they left Nevarro. Cara was familiar with this part of his personality and she let him be. He worked on the ops position for an hour or two at a time analyzing the flight data Tristan had given them. When his legs started aching from sitting for too long, he would go down the ladder to the sleeping bunk that the Armorer had modified for him. The bunk was moved lower for ease of movement in and out of the bunk, and the padding augmented for improved comfort. Cara had also added a second bunk just inside the upper cargo hold and augmented the refresher restoring the walls for privacy. The practical issues that come with having additional crew on such a utilitarian ship had not really occurred to Din in a long time. After Paz had left the ship and refused to fly with him it had seemed unnecessary.
His early data analysis had been so fruitless he did not even bother to tell Cara any of his results. She assumed he was simply needed more time, and continued her heading to the starting point of their flight data which was Lothal. After that, they would have to finish the analysis and decide whether or not to follow the entire flight path to try to understand what the ship was following, or use the most direct hyperspace route all the way to the edge of the unknown regions.
Skirting the outer rim from Nevarro to Lothal was an thirteen day journey with multiple hyperspace jumps requiring accurate navigation and skill. But they developed a comfortable routine trading off monitoring the navigation sensors and entertaining Tarre. Tarre loved to look at the star maps with Din or Cara and would point at locations and squeak asking for planets to be named over and over again.
Din also worked hard on continuing to improve his conditioning as his nutrition improved. Cara developed a workout routine they did together in the upper cargo hold and by the end of the first week he added shadow boxing with Cara. The boxing helped with his frustration at leaving his brother and his people behind to fight. They had only one message from Paz three days after they left Nevarro and it said, Plans recovered.
Nearing the end of the journey to Lothal there was a lot of pent up energy so another boxing session ensued. When Din was finally breathless and exhausted Cara stopped him, but Din was feeling the best he had felt since the Duchess. He reached up and touched gloves with Cara and she smiled.
"Hey, go clean up. I'm going to finish my watch. Let me know when you're done so we can switch. C'mon Tarre."
Din nodded still trying to catch his breath, as she picked up the kid and walked out of the upper cargo hold and straight into the cockpit. Din eased himself down the ladder.
An hour passed and she soon felt fatigue overtaking her. She checked the time, and she realized Din had never let her know he was ready to take over. She quietly descended the ladder and immediately heard snoring. She chuckled and decided to splash some water on her face in the refresher before returning to her post until he woke up so they could properly discuss their schedule. Besides she had really given him a workout, she frowned thinking it may have been too intense for him.
As soon as she had filled the sink with water and tossed just one splash over her face there was suddenly a blood-curdling scream from up on the command deck. It tore through her chest and soul. She burst out of the refresher with water still dripping off her face and jumped up on the ladder just as Din opened the privacy door of the sleep bunk.
"TARRE?" He yelled out, struggling to move as quickly as Cara had.
Cara lept through the cockpit doors and found Tarre writhing around in his pram, and still asleep.
"Tarre! Wake up!" Cara cried.
"BUIR!" The word tore out of his mouth absolutely clearly, just as Din made it breathlessly to the cockpit door. Tarre sat up straight, panting and moaning, and Cara picked him up to comfort him.
Cara stared at Din with her mouth open, "Did he just speak?"
Din nodded, "Yes," and he sat heavily at the ops chair again. "He said, 'Father,' in Mando'a."
"Oh! Okay, he wants you!" Cara said and quickly turned back to hand Tarre over to Din.
"Udesiir… udesiir, ad'ika," Din said quietly putting Tarre over his shoulder and drawing a slow circle on his back with his fingers.
Cara wiped the rest of the water from her face, and watched them, letting the picture of father comforting son to calm her heart rate. Then the hyperspace timer started to beep, notifying them that they were less than ten minutes to their destination.
"Coming up on Lothal," Cara started adjusting switches and watched the countdown. "We should stop for supplies and fuel before we head out to the wild regions."
She eased the Razor Crest out of hyperspace and then maneuvered them to the ship yards of Capital City. Lothal like so many other planets had been literally burned by the Empire, but was having a renaissance after finally being left alone for the people to prosper on their own.
After completing the landing sequence she turned back to Din and Tarre, "You two going to stay here?"
Din looked at Tarre who was still squirming in his arms, and then nodded, "Yeah, there's something wrong with him. I'll stay. We will decide which route to take from here."
Cara nodded, "Okay. I'll shower when I get back then." She got up and headed to grab her bag in the upper cargo hold, and then lowered the side ramp taking a hovercart with her.
Din got up and paced with Tarre in the cockpit.
"Talk to me, ad'ika. What upset you so much?"
Tarre just continued to trill sadly, keeping his eyes closed.
"Okay, then why don't we get to work? Want to help me plot our next hyperspace jump?"
Din switched the display back on and pulled up the flight data. "Look, remember this?" He pointed to the planet at the start of the flight data. "This is Lothal, where we are now."
Tarre peeked open his eyes. Din caught him looking and smiled to himself.
"Should we go to Taragon? Or Malagarr?" He pointed to planets on the star charts.
Tarre looked up at Din with folded ears and shook his head.
"Where to next then?"
Tarre looked at the chart, and then pointed far out into the uncharted wild region.
"There? But there's no planet."
Tarre looked up at Din and then back to the charts and pointed to the same place.
Din zoomed in on the sector Tarre was pointing to, but there was minimal data on that place. It was an empty fifteen hundred parsecs. He looked down at Tarre.
"What do you see there, Tarre?"
Tarre looked up at him and blinked. He reached out with his tiny hand and put it on Din's chest. Then he closed his eyes and searched in Din's mind for the right word to describe what he was seeing…
Space whales — purrgils.
Din stared at Tarre for a few seconds. Then he zoomed back out and looked at the flight pattern of the ship. Then he looked back at Tarre.
"They've been tracking the movement of purrgils. The pattern is — organic — not nonsense. Tarre you are — amazing!"
He gave Tarre a rub on his head and Tarre finally giggled for the first time since his nightmare. Din remembered the nightmare suddenly.
"Tarre how did you know? Were you dreaming about the whales?"
Tarre frowned and shrugged.
Din picked him up off his lap and set him up on the console so he could look at him eye to eye.
"You said your first word. You said, Buir," Din whispered, Tarre looked away from him, "Hey, ad'ika, what were you dreaming about?"
Tarre kept his eyes and ears down and would not look at Din.
"Okay, you don't have to tell me," He picked up Tarre and put him back on his lap, and then whispered, "If you need to — you can tell me any time."
They sat there in silence while Din plotted the exact location where Tarre had pointed to. Din had Tarre point again until they had narrowed down the area to a less than ten parsec cubic area of space.
By the time Cara returned from a very successful shopping trip she was unloading in the lower cargo hold and organizing their food stores when she heard Din coming down from the command deck.
"Cara, let me help," Din walked in with Tarre on his shoulder. "Wow, do we have any credits left?"
Cara laughed, "It doesn't hurt to be prepared, we have no idea where we will end up."
"Actually we know exactly where we are going." Din looked over at Tarre, "Do you want to tell her?"
Tarre flapped his ears.
Cara looked back and forth between them, "Tell me what?"
Din turned back to Cara, "Tarre chose our heading. And he figured out the flight pattern."
Cara's eyes went wide. "What is it? Where are we going?"
"We are going to find the purrgils."
They showed Cara the flight path and Tarre pointed to their goal once again she shrugged and said, "That's only six days away in hyperspace. There isn't a lane or much data but we can make short local jumps and plot as we go. Let's go!"
They started with only the jump to the edge of known space, then they plotted two more jumps with the navigation computer. Din once again wished he had a droid on board for the calculations. He made a mental note that he was going to have to start interviewing candidates at their next stop at a space port.
After two dozen jumps Tarre suddenly was up on the command console and had his face and hands up against the glass.
"Do you see anything kid?"
Din zoomed in on the area of space he was staring at. "I can't see anything yet, move forward on thrusters."
Cara flew by monitoring where Tarre was looking, if he looked straight she flew straight, if he looked up she flew up. Then suddenly Din saw some movement with his telescopic visual display.
"There!" He pointed in the same direction Tarre was looking, so Cara increased thruster speed.
Within minutes they approached the first few whales but before them was a field of thousands upon thousands of whales in every direction.
All three of them were breathless with awe at the beauty of the animals. They flowed through space gently, their long tendril legs rippling behind them. Tarre was silent for almost a half hour as they flew along with the whales, carefully moving between them as they progressed past thousands of the pod.
Then suddenly Tarre became excited and pointed in a specific direction. He jumped up and down and squeaked and cried until they moved up closer to one particular whale with green, purple and pink markings. Cara moved up closer and level to the whale's eye. Then suddenly Tarre put up a hand toward the whale and slowly closed his eyes.
Cara and Din turned to look at each other.
"What is going on?" Cara whispered.
Din shrugged his shoulders, "Looks like we are using the Force to find our way."
But then the proximity alarms started going off and made Cara jump.
"Um, guys, Tarre's new friend is getting a little too up close and personal! She's put a couple tendrils on the hull of the ship!"
Din picked up Tarre, "Tarre you have to tell her to stop!"
Tarre did not respond, his eyes were still closed and his hand was still up.
More tendrils wrapped around the ship and the hull began to groan, then a large tendril covered half of the cockpit.
"Tarre, I hope you know what you're doing kid!" Cara yelled as she cringed with every groan of the hull.
Din found himself holding Tarre even closer as the tendrils all started to pulse and glow, then without a single calculation of a computer, they were in hyperspace.
"What is happening?" Cara lifted her hands off the controls and tried desperately to see around the glowing tendrils.
"Are we using any fuel?" Din was suddenly intrigued.
Cara checked the gauges, "No, apparently we are only using hers!"
Din checked his charts and his jaw dropped open. They were moving faster than he had ever heard of before, they had already crossed almost three thousand parsecs, in just seconds.
And then suddenly, it was over. They were back in normal space, and they were approaching another pod of whales.
Tarre squeaked in Din's arms, and he was smiling. He turned back to the command console and pointed at the new pod they were moving into. His friend loosened her grip but still pulled them along.
Din brought Tarre back to the command console and stood next to Cara as they flew, then suddenly had an idea.
"This is the Razor Crest, to any and all craft in this area. This is the Razor Crest. We are searching for Sabine Wren. If you can hear us please respond."
There was nothing but static.
"This is the Razor Crest, to any and all craft in this area. This is the Razor Crest. We are searching for Sabine Wren. If you can hear us please respond. I bring an urgent message from Mandalore, and your brother, Tristan."
Suddenly the whales parted in front of their guide whale and in visual range was an Old Republic ship.
"Razor Crest, this is Ahsoka Tano, and I am here with Sabine Wren. It seems you have a child of the Force with you."