Chapter 26

Location: Hyperspace

System: None

Date: 4 ABY, Month 10, Day 19

...

"Ah, Generals Bridger and Wren! I was just about to call you! I'm assuming you want to know if we have that ship you've ordered?"

"We do, indeed," Sabine answers before I could.

"Lucky for you, we have a few of them fresh out of the assembly line. They're just finishing their final examinations and are about to be put up on the market."

The guy we're talking to is a Terran engineer. His name is Shay Mirada. He's the guy that owns one of the many stations and buildings for Quasi Hydra Manufacturers. His station builds the civilian ships for the public and armed warships for planetary security forces.

"Good. How soon will they be ready?" I ask.

"They are docking with my station as we speak," Mirada tells me.

"Good. You should expect a CR90 arriving in an hour," I say.

"Shouldn't I be expecting your star destroyer?"

"No. Bringing the Resolute to you will bring up suspicion. It would attract too much attention and I don't mean the good kind," I explain.

"Right... but wouldn't your corvette also bring up suspicion?" he asks.

"Not this one. We've already had it docked and stripped of anything affiliating it with the Rebellion. The crew has already been briefed on a cover story, which is mostly true on its own," Sabine says.

"Copy that. One brand new freighter for civilian use, correct?"

"That's right. One hour," I confirm.

"We'll have it ready for your inspection by the time you arrive," Shay says. "See you then."

The transmission ends and I turn to Sabine.

"You have the bridge. I'm going to speak with the freighter captain," I tell her.

She nods at me and I leave the bridge.

"Captain," I say when I find the freighter captain.

"General Bridger. How can I be of service?"

"I'm just letting you know that we'll be at our destination within the hour. Once we get there you and your crew will be able to inspect the new ship and get acquainted it. You can take as much time as you need to inspect it," I tell him.

The captain smiles, "Great! I'll let my crew know. You said within the hour?"

"That's right. Be ready to go. My crew and I might have to leave before you do since I'm easily recognizable by the Empire."

"That won't be a problem."

One hour went by a lot faster than I thought possible. I guess I got so lost staring at the swirling blue and white tunnel walls of hyperspace that time flew by.

"General Bridger, you're needed in the ventral hangar bay. The corvette Democracy is docked and awaiting your arrival. The civilians are already there."

I press a button on the comm panel on the wall. "Understood. I'm on my way there."

I make my way down multiple hallways until I find the tubolifts. I take it down to the ventral hangar and find the entire freighter crew waiting for me along with the CR90.

"We ready to go?" I ask them.

"Yes sir, ready and waiting," the freighter captain replies.

"Then let's get going. We're already a little close for comfort so we should make this quick," I say as I walk through the airlock into the corvette.

I get to the bridge of the corvette where I was greeted by the commanding officer of the ship.

"General! We're all ready for your order to depart," the captain says.

"Good. Lose the uniforms. We can't have anything link us to the rebellion in case the Empire shows up."

"Understood, sir."

As soon as we were back in hyperspace, the whole crew started changing into civilian clothes, the last of them finishing right before arriving at the station. We docked with the station and met with Shay.

"Gene-... er, I mean welcome to Quasi Hydra Manufacturer's Gamma Station!" Shay greets us. "Please, take your time to look around. All our ships are fresh off the production line, or no older than a few days."

"We've placed an order for a new freighter. Is it ready?" I asked.

"Ah, yes. You contacted me just earlier about that freighter. I have it just over there in it's docking port. If you will follow me."

He leads us over to the freighter we ordered and the airlock doors open when Shay presses a button on his wrist.

"Feel free to look around and get acquainted with your new ship," Shay says, holding a hand up to the open airlock of the freighter.

"Captain, after you," I say to the civilian captain. He smiles as he leads his crew into the shiny new freighter.

"Advanced shields, hull and armor, and defenses that will deter most attacks from raiders and pirates. Add that to its impressive speed and you're all set," Shay explains.

The captain tours the ship and soon reappears at the airlock. "I like it. Not cramped and there's plenty of space in the cargo hold for everything and still move."

I look at Shay, who seems happy to hear what the captain had to say.

"So would you like the ship?" Shay asks him.

"I would. How soon can we get going?" the captain asks.

"As soon as the payment is complete," Shay replies, looking to me.

"I have authorization from command. The credits are ready," I say.

Shay pulls out a datapad and I complete the transaction, letting the civilian captain sign ownership of the vessel.

Shay then starts whispering to me. "For the security of the cause, the transaction will be documented under civilian orders. The Empire checks completed and pending orders all the time here."

I nod. "Understood. Captain, you know where we are. You can pick up your cargo as soon as you're ready."

I board my ship and order the helmsman to undock before looking out the viewscreen and seeing the new freighter undock from the station and align to the proper hyperspace lane. We jump out first and I soon find myself face to face with the Resolute once again.

"I will never get used to seeing that..." one bridge officer says.

"Yeah. Even though that's our ship I still find it intimidating," another replies in agreement.

I smile softly as we maneuver into docking position with the Resolute on its port side. As soon as we dock, I head up to the bridge.

"General on deck!" Sabine shouts and the entire bridge crew stand at attention.

I sigh, lightly annoyed. "At ease."

Everyone shuffles around, getting back to work.

"Status report, Sabine?" I ask her.

She holds a hand over her shoulder as the XO walks by and he smoothly hands one to her without slowing down. She looks at the pad and begins reading.

"We've detected several Imperial ships coming and going to and around the station while you were there. Three Star Destroyers, four command cruisers, over a dozen transports, and one shuttle. Comms are quite, no alerts or distress beacons. We are running silent right now but that will change as soon as we get moving again," she reports.

"Running silent...? I didn't think our ship had stealth..."

"We don't," she says. "But we've shut down non-essential systems and brought others to lower power to avoid detection."

"Right... well, power everything up. We've got a freighter coming to pick up their cargo," I say.

"Aye aye, sir," Sabine teases, pressing the pad to my chest and walks away.

There's no way I can forget that look in her eyes, the tone of her voice, and that smirk she gave me as she did that. It was almost as if she was attempting seduction.

Blood rushed to my face as I thought about it, but I shook my head, blocking out those thoughts for the moment.

Easy Ezra. Don't get any ideas. We can't focus on that stuff right now...

...

It wasn't long until that freighter arrived and started unloading their cargo from our hold. I held my breath until they finally jumped to hyperspace since it was only a matter of time before the Empire detected our ship being so close to populated systems. Sabine ordered the fleet to jump to wild space for the time being until we figured out where we were needed.

I went to the rear section of the bridge where the holo table is and I started poking around the live feed in the holonet, looking for any information of pirate attacks or reports of rebel activity in other sectors.

I sense somebody walking up and standing next to me. I don't even need to concentrate to sense her presence anymore. She's all too familiar to me. And too important to lose.

"Finding anything interesting?" She asks me.

"Nothing so far. And we have to maintain comm silence until we're further towards the outer rim..." I reply.

"Well I think we should go back to base for repairs... We took a beating during the battle with the Conglomeration."

"Yeah... You're definitely right. Who knows how long our hyperdrive will stay active with the patch work we did," I say.

"Want me to set a course?" Sabine asks me.

"Yeah. Once we're far enough from Imperial ears send a transmission to Hera, too. Let her know what's up."

Sabine nods. I glance at her and catch her staring at me. She quickly looks towards the holonet and pretends to search through it.

I smile softly and stand up straight after leaning over the console for a little too long.

"Alright, I'm heading to my quarters. Comm me if you need me, I need to get some rest," I tell her.

"Will do. I might stop by and visit later, too, if that's okay," she replies.

"If you'd like, feel free to."

I head to the turbolift and take it to the crew deck. When I finally get to my room, I pull off my shirt and stretch a bit before taking a quick shower. After my shower I get dressed in more comfortable clothes and sit on my bed, reading all sorts of fleet reports from various ships in my fleet. I start feeling a bit tired so I lie on my back and keep reading reports, though before I realize it, my vision goes dark.

I sense somebody next to me and I wake up, not even wondering who it is, but why she's here. I open my eyes to see Sabine sleeping next to me, her hand on my chest and her head on my shoulder. I feel blood rushing to my face again as I notice she's wearing her skin tight body suit from her Mandalorian armor. I've noticed she's been wearing it a little less now which concerns me, but as much as I try to think about her armor, I quickly get distracted at what she has on now.

"Sabine...?" I whisper to her, trying to wake her carefully.

She groans sleepily. "No... I'm happy here..."

"But... what are you doing on me?" I ask her quietly.

"What do you think? I'm sleeping... or trying to anyway..."

She curls an arm around me and pulls herself closer. I can feel her chest pressed up against my side as she settles down again, sighing with a sleepy satisfaction.

"You're very comfortable... for a Jedi," she teases. She looks into my eyes, her own filled with longing.

"What are you thinking about, Bean?" I ask her softly.

"I don't know... I just feel like something bad is going to happen..." she replies.

"Like what...?"

"I don't know... but whatever it is, it feels close... I don't want to lose another chance," she says.

"Another chance?"

She shuffles until her legs are on both sides of me. My face burns a little as she takes my hands and places them on her hips.

"Sabine..."

"Just relax, Ez..." she coos. She starts moving her hips forward and back, slowly. "You asked me what I was thinking... I'll tell you."

She leans forward until I feel her breath on my ear, hot and steady.

"I love you, Ezra. We've talked about this before but I'm saying it now."

My face burns a little hotter. "Sabine... I don't know... I mean, this..."

She frowns at me.

"Don't get me wrong, I... I kind of like this... but you know how I feel about you..." I explain.

"I know you love me back," she says.

I pause a moment, trying to collect my thoughts.

"I do, Sabine. I really do. But something as intimate as this, I don't know if I..."

"You really do... what?" she asks me, her tone sounding a bit more hopeful.

"Sabine..."

"I want to hear it."

She pushes her hips forward again and my eyes close a little. "I love you..."

I can't tell you how bright her smile got after that. She wasn't forcing me to say it, no, she wouldn't force me to do anything unless what I was doing was hurting her or the people she cares about. She was just encouraging me, letting me know it's okay.

She cuddles up to me again and kisses my cheek softly. "On our own time... understand?"

I nod. "Of course."

"I'll get a repair crew ready for your arrival. While the repairs are underway I want you two to report to the command center for debriefing," Hera tells us through the holotable.

We had just entered intergalactic space and on our final jump to Epsilon so we have a couple hours to spare before we arrive. Our damage crews keep updating our report logs and the condition of the hyperdrive keeps getting worse and worse. How much damage we took to the hyperdrive is unknown, but we should be able to find out once we get to Epsilon station and get everything shut down for the repairs.

"Yes, ma'am," Sabine and I reply at the same time.

The transmission ends and I look at Sabine.

"How long do you think the repairs will take?" I ask her.

"I don't know... we can't see the full extent of the damage, but I feel like it'll take some time. Not much longer than usual, at least," she replies.

"Yeah, but our usual tends to involve the entire ship. This is the hyperdrive on it's own."

"True... What I want to know, is what hit us so hard to knock out our hyperdrive so easily. Our shields were up, weren't they?" she asks.

"I thought they were... I'm sure they were. Nothing energy-based could do that..."

"Are you saying it was some sort of projectile? Like a slug round?" the XO asks.

"I'm just assuming it could be anything," I said.

"Well you're right about one thing..." Sabine begins. "Nothing energy based could shake us like it did. It had to have been a projectile."

"There's only one way to know for sure. We just need to keep the ship intact long enough to find out," I say.

"Do you want me in engineering to help?" Sabine asks me then.

"No... I need you here on the bridge. Keep the fleet on alert. If our hyperdrive fails would we be able to bring the backup online?"

"I'm not sure. The backup doesn't seem to have been damaged anywhere near as much as our main, but who knows what could happen. Even that was knocked out for a moment during that battle," Sabine replies.

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that," the XO says.

"General, we're approaching the Epsilon system, but the damage to the hyperdrive is going to make our arrival very rough," the XO reports to me, just two hours after our previous conversation.

I nod and signal for a ship-wide transmission. The comm officer nods to me and I begin talking.

"All hands, brace for hyperspace exit. I repeat, all hands brace."

The bridge crew secures themselves to their seats and brace. Anybody who's standing holds onto something on the walls such as handholds or consoles. Sabine braces herself against the wall and I brace against the holo table. Moments later, the ship begins to shake, but only slightly. At first I thought we overestimated the roughness of our arrival, but that thought was quickly shattered as we exited hyperspace. The entire ship seemed to creak and shake, many people on the bridge even falling over consoles. I kept myself steady at the holotable until the ship finally stopped moving. Normally, it would be a smooth transition from hyperspace into normal space. However, because the hyperdrive was heavily damaged, when the ship finished its exit and stopped, I was thrown over the holotable, bashing my face into it as I flipped over it. It felt like an eternity, but only a moment had passed and everybody was up and about again. I was pulled to my feet by Sabine and she looked at my face, which felt like it was on fire.

"Yup... nose broken," she says.

"I would imagine it is since I face planted into the holotable," I growl.

That was a bad idea. Talking made my face explode with pain.

"Don't talk," Sabine orders. "Somebody get me a medkit!"

An officer runs up and hands her one and she starts working on my nose. First, she applies a bacta spray which soothes the pain immensely. Then she puts her fingers on the bridge of my nose and I hear a really loud crack. The pain was back in an instant.

"OW!"

"Oh stop whining, you big baby," Sabine teases as she applies a bacta strip over my nose. The pain dies down as it's slowly replaced by a cold, tingling sensation.

"You know broken bones aren't any fun," I mutter. I grab a cloth and wipe up some of the blood flowing from my nose, which Sabine didn't even bother to clean up for me while fixing my nose.

She smirks at me before Hera appears at the holotable.

"Ezra, Sabine, is everyone okay?"

"We're fine, Hera," Sabine replies. "Ezra has a broken nose after getting tossed over the table."

"Laugh all you want, it's easy for you since you had the wall," I mutter.

"And you took the table. That was on you," she states.

"Alright you two, enough arguing," Hera says. "I'm sending some tug ships over to help you dock. I want a damage report asap."

"Understood," I say as the transmission cuts out.

I look out towards the front of the ship and see four tug ships flying towards us.

"I want fighters to begin their standard patrols," I call out. "Port and starboard hangar bays only. Let's not use up any more power on the ventral doors."

Sabine looks at the XO and nods at him. He nods back and starts calling out the order to the flight control officers. Sabine grabs my arm and drags me into the turbolift.

"Now what are you doing?" I ask her, still holding my nose.

"I'm taking you to medical to get your nose looked at," she replies.

She starts digging into a small pouch on her belt and pulls out a container of bacta spray. She sprays a little on my nose, which started tingling immediately. It didn't take long for the cool liquid to dull the pain but I knew I'll need a little more than that to fix my nose.