Author notes:
More techno-babble with Carth and company *claps hands excitedly.* Carth finally gets some action (no, not that kind)!
Beep beep beep.
Carth blinked, wondering where the hell that noise was coming from. It stopped after a moment, though, so he rolled over and returned to sleep.
Beep beep beep.
The admiral sat up. In the dim light coming from the nebula outside his viewport, he spotted the blinking of his comm console a few meters from his bed.
Nice one Onasi, he thought as he scrambled to his desk. Sleeping through a comms alert like some stupid cadet. He punched the answer button irritably. "Onasi here."
"Sorry to disturb you, Sir. Our probes have located something of interest within the nebula." It was Dorth, Hyteru's second-in-command. The fact that the XO was manning a night shift spoke to the seriousness with which Hyteru was taking this assignment, and Carth appreciated that.
"Acknowledged. Be there in ten." He terminated the call and scrambled to dress and scrub up. He was on the bridge in eight minutes, which was a good ninety seconds ahead of the captain. Dorth was stooped over the planning table with most of the senior staff already assembled. He thought it a bit strange that Gorsen Purchek, a newly minted Lieutenant and sensors expert was there as well. It took Carth a solid minute to recall that he was part of the senior staff, which left him a bit incredulous. The kid was younger than Dustil.
They parted to make room for Carth, who found on the table a display of a vaguely rendered asteroid. He managed to bite down on his questions and wait for Hyteru. When she arrived she nodded frigidly to him.
"Admiral," was all she said.
Things had been chilly between them since the incident with the slaver captain, and she had done her level best to limit their interactions. But she was still running the operation to Carth's satisfaction, so he had decided not to take it personally.
"Three hours ago one of the recon probes pinged a large asteroid," Dorth began. "It's a quarter parsec inside the nebula, which in this soup is more than enough to be completely concealed from the outside. The asteroid caught our attention because of the density measurements. The early readings predicted it to be hollow."
Hyteru and Carth both looked up at the second-in-command. Hollow asteroids were extremely rare and made for perfectly disguised habitats.
"We diverted in a few more probes and have determined that the density isn't as oddly low as initially thought, but further scans have built a better picture." Dorth tapped in a command and the vague asteroid pictured on the table materialized in the air above it as a much more detailed hologram. Gun emplacements, antennae, and a pair of landing bays were clearly visible on the rock's surface.
"Any data on these batteries?" Ospen asked, pointing to the weapon positions ringing the landing bays. They were guarding the only entrance points the asteroid likely possessed, and would have to be neutralized before any boarding operation could begin. The security chief was already thinking the same as him.
"Nothing yet," Dorth replied. "We also don't know about anything below the surface; these are superficial scans only. Anything hotter will let them know we're here. But there is some good news. Lieutenant Pol'tran can explain."
Pol'tran stepped forward and zoomed the holographic display outward to show a quarter lightyear of space surrounding the asteroid station; at one far edge blinked a collection of red triangles representing the location of their task force.
"The probes that have been scanning the nebula are also acting as a signal relay chain to return data to the Dream," the young woman began with confidence. "We've discovered by their signals that the region of the nebula between the station and the near edge is anisotropically scattering, but it's doing so in our favor."
"Meaning we can see them but they can't see us?" Hyteru probed.
"Yes ma'am," Pol'tran confirmed. "But I'm not certain how long these conditions will remain. It could last for days or for hours."
"Damn," Carth muttered. "We lost days already while Harth led us on a while bantha chase."
"Actually, Admiral, the prisoner may have been truthful with his coordinates," Dorth replied. "Lieutenant?" he asked, now looking to the navigation officer.
"The station is drifting," Garvand explained. "The natural stellar winds within the nebula are enough to keep it moving at about a thousand klicks a day. Combined with the reduced sensor range, that makes it hard to find if you don't know the wind patterns."
"The slavers must have had that data," Dorth concluded. "Otherwise they'd have to be visiting almost daily just to keep tabs on the location."
"Or they were given a very specific window of arrival," Ospen said.
"Are we able to make our own drift charts?" Carth asked.
"Lieutenant Purchek and I have been working on that, Sir," Garvand replied with a glance to the junior officer, who looked nervous as hell to be standing in front of an admiral. "Unfortunately the chunks of nebula that we can scan are so small that the data we've gathered is basically useless."
Carth wanted to challenge that statement, to reject the concept that data could be useless. Intel was never completely useless, even when it was false; Saul and then Revan had taught him that. But he was neither a sensor analyst nor a physicist; he was hardly any sort of scientist at all, so he simply accepted the report with a nod.
"Keep at it, Lieutenant," Hyteru ordered. "Now that we've got the station located we can divert more probes to help."
"Aye, ma'am."
"How do you want us to proceed, Admiral?" It was the longest sentence Hyteru had spoken to him in days.
"We're going to neutralize that station and board it." His confident reply smashed ironically upon a wall of silence.
"Do we have authority to do so, Sir?" Hyteru asked after a long pause. The other senior officers appeared equally skeptical, though they were keeping their faces mostly neutral. Except Ospen. He looked positively thrilled at the prospect.
"The station is connected to known slavers," Carth replied firmly. "It's in unclaimed space. Republic law enables us to investigate, with or without the owner's permission." But it was a stretch, and he knew it. The questionable word of one pirate captain was hardly sound legal footing; fortunately, it didn't look as if Hyteru or her command crew were going to push him on it. "Don't worry, we'll give them fair warning before we destroy their weapons," he added with a wolfish grin.
Carth turned to face the sensor whiz. "Lieutenant Purchek, what are our sensor limitations for approaching the station without revealing ourselves?"
Purchek's nervous face contorted in concentration. "The gravity of the asteroid has cleared space for fifty or so kilometers in all directions. Within that bubble, everyone will have full sensor capabilities. Outside it…" He turned to Pol'tran. "What's the reflective index surrounding the station?"
"Oh-five-three out to roughly a million klicks," she replied instantly. "For now."
Purchek tilted his gaze upward for a moment, crunching numbers in his head. "Okay, so they shouldn't be able to detect us outside of a few hundred klicks. But the scattering effect is still strong enough that we won't get a higher resolution scan on the station – or anything past the surface – without being inside the fifty-klick mark. Unless we use a much hotter scan."
"Can't we hide a probe at the fringes of that bubble?" Carth prodded.
"I'm sorry Sir, but the metallic content of the probe would make it very bright under anything but the lightest –" he stopped abruptly and his gaze shot to Pol'tran. Carth could practically see an idea coalescing in the Lieutenants' minds.
"Dilenium gas!" Pol'tran exclaimed quietly. Purchek nodded in fervent agreement.
"Dilenium gas looks like a metal to most forms of scanning, Sir. We've encountered several pockets of it, and there is one adjacent to the station. If we place our probe at the inside edge it will disappear completely against the background."
"What if they run a scan that can tell the difference, Lieutenant?" his captain asked.
"It's highly unlikely, ma'am. It's a very hot scan; everyone in the neighborhood would know they were here."
"It's an empty neighborhood," Dorth commented doubtfully.
"It seems that way," Carth concurred with a pregnant tone. All eyes turned to him. "But somewhere out here there's a single destroyer that effortlessly overpowered one of our frigates and two corvettes."
A gizka's footsteps could have been heard in the silence. Only stares responded to the information Carth had just divulged, but he pressed on with confidence. "Each of you has already proven yourselves invaluable to this mission, which is why I am now sharing this classified intel with you. I want you to know why we're here.
"Several weeks ago three of our ships were pursuing a pirate flotilla a few parsecs from here when they encountered a destroyer-sized vessel. It turned guns on the pirates first, then on our people. There were no survivors." A ripple of inaudible unease ran through the group, visible in tensed shoulders and creased brows. "We have nearly no data on this ship because all this happened in less than thirty seconds.
"Fleet Command has decided we need to ascertain the nature and origin of this vessel. Now I don't know about you, but I don't believe in coincidences. There is nothing in this region of space, yet this is where pirates were fleeing to? This is where we find a well-established base hidden inside an asteroid inside a uniquely impenetrable nebula? This is where we lost seven hundred good men and women to a ship no one has ever seen before?
"I'm not here just to be a pain in your ass," Carth said with a grin, earning a few smiles, "I'm here because this matters." He focused his gaze on Purckek. "Lieutenant, it's an excellent idea. Make it happen. And," he added as an afterthought, "none of what I just said leaves this group, understood?"
"Sir," Purchek acknowledged with a completely unnecessary salute, while the others gave their assent. Hyteru remained conspicuously silent, though she efficiently doled out orders as the group dispersed to implement their new surveillance plan. He wondered what it would take to earn her trust again, or if it was even possible to do so. Maybe she would never see a flag officer as someone that could be trusted, and that bothered him; he had tried so hard not to become one of the stuffy, risk-averse, politically-minded admirals that would show up, micromanage a situation and then leave the consequences, good or bad, to be borne by the grunts.
She continued to reveal no faults in her professionalism, however.
With a single probe now relaying clear scans from its new camouflaged position, Hyteru gathered her XO and security chief to assemble an assault plan. They had only been at it for a short time when she called Carth from his quarters to provide input. He appreciated that she was utilizing all the assets at her disposal, even the ones that she clearly disliked.
Around the planning table again he met the Captain, Dorth, and Ospen. "We'll be able to strike their guns from outside of their sensor range, and the dissipating effect of the nebula won't stop us from overpowering their shields," Dorth reported. The holographic asteroid had bright marks indicating weapon positions. "It's weak ray shielding; I'm guessing they didn't want to take any chances with detection."
"Even inside a nebula like this…" Ospen mused. "Pirates like their guns; I would've guessed that the natural stealth of being in this muck would've made them feel plenty comfortable with amping up their defenses."
Carth nodded. "Instead they doubled down. There's something really valuable in this place."
"Once their guns are disabled, we'll scramble fighters to provide superiority, although our scans haven't revealed any fighter complement so far."
"But it's a big asteroid," Hyteru cautioned. "They could be buried."
"Right," Dorth agreed. "So after we've established superiority, we'll land E29s in this docking bay here." Holographic arrows indicated the approach path for a quartet of assault shuttles.
Carth frowned. "Let's change that vector. Exterior guns are disabled, but they could always cart something into the landing bay and fire it off at anything in line of sight."
"Aye Sir," Dorth responded, promptly making notes in his datapad.
Hyteru said little as the planning continued. Carth had the sense that she recognized this as not her strength and was content to let her battle-hardened senior officers handle it. It wasn't long before they had a plan that Carth approved of, after which he retired to his quarters to catch up on some of his interrupted sleep. He had a few hours before their ships would be in position to execute it, anyway.
He was making a few last-minute notes when his door chimed, and he looked up from his desk; he had been kidding himself to think sleep was possible.
"Come in."
Unsurprisingly, it was Hyteru. "Sir," she saluted, only advancing a few steps into the room as the door hissed shut behind her. "I hope you don't mind, I had guessed you probably weren't really going to sleep."
"Good guess. So?" Carth stared the captain down, not with hostility but with what he hoped was a frank expression that encouraged her to be frank as well. "You have permission to speak freely."
Hyteru's thoughts tumbled out almost immediately. "Why are we scrabbling at a bunch of pirates because there's a miniscule chance they might know about this ship? Sir," she added at the last minute, suddenly realizing she may have crossed a line.
"You have your orders, Captain," Carth stated firmly, though not unkindly. "I've already shared more than the necessary intel with you."
"Sir, we are about to engage in combat," Hyteru countered, her voice rising incrementally as she continued. "Whether you think it's real battle or not, my crew of rookies is scared. We're days away from Republic space, and even further than that from help. Your speech on the bridge may have worked for them, but I've heard that kark before. This mission isn't from Fleet Command, it's from you. I need to know that this has a purpose."
Carth glowered at her, sitting taller in his chair, and the captain had the sense to almost visibly gulp. She had spoken well beyond her rank, and they both knew it. His keen eyes discerned the slightest extra heave in her breathing, betraying her own nerves over what she'd just said. Her fear should have satisfied him, but it didn't, because he wasn't really angry, he realized; this was merely a rote reaction to borderline insubordination.
He sighed and put his datapad down. "What I'm about to share with you is so classified that only a handful of admirals, senators, and the Chancellor know about it. Less than two dozen people in all."
"Sir?" Hyteru asked, now plainly confused, and still waiting for the other boot to drop.
"If any of this leaves this room," Carth clarified, his glare returning, "I will personally throw you in the brig." His gaze dared her to be a fool, to even entertain the notion that he wasn't completely sincere.
Hyteru nodded slowly; Carth perceived her to be slightly taken aback at his sudden sternness. "It will absolutely not leave this room, Sir."
Carth nodded, and leaned back in his chair to meet her gaze more comfortably. "The reason we are out here with over a dozen ships on a wild bantha chase with no apparent end goal is because we lost a frigate and two corvettes to a destroyer-sized ship in under 30 seconds, with no survivors, which you already know. But here's the rest: that ship appears to be organic in nature. And as I was reading the report on the loss of our ships, I received a message that made it clear to me this was very important."
"From who, Sir?"
"The Grandmaster of the Jedi Order."
Carth was positive Hyteru could have spit in astonishment, though she managed to limit her reaction to bulging eyes. "The… Jedi?"
"Still alive and kicking, despite reports to the contrary," he replied with all seriousness. "They're not yet ready to return to the galactic spotlight, for their own safety. They may have more enemies than friends out there. But they've kept in contact with a few of us."
"Who?"
"Myself and other top brass, the Chancellor –"
"I'm sorry, Sir, I meant who is the Grandmaster?" Hyteru clarified.
Carth hesitated to reply; he was so used to keeping this deepest secret of the Republic, to sharing only with those he considered family and those few who outranked him. Something made him willing to trust the Captain, however, and he thought maybe this would bring him closer to having earned her trust.
"Bastila Shan."
Hyteru's face didn't change, but he saw something in her eyes. Wonder? Curiosity? Hero worship? "I had assumed she was dead. Along with all the other Jedi. Dead, or in hiding."
"No, she's doing well. But you're right about the hiding. The entire Jedi Order is in hiding."
"But they contacted you?"
"We actually speak regularly. The Republic has been partnering with the Order to provide supplies and other resources, while they rebuild themselves. But yes, she contacted me to warn me that some members of the Council had received visions of the exact ship that we're chasing."
Hyteru's eyebrow arched in skepticism.
"You know my history, Captain," he rushed to assure her. "I've spent my share of time with Jedi, fighting with some and against others. The Force is nothing to be scoffed at. And I have complete trust in the particular Jedi that received these visions."
"And I suppose I'll have to trust you on that one, Sir. I've never known or worked with any Jedi myself."
"It's a mixed bag," Carth said with a smile. "So are you satisfied that I'm not some battle-deprived old man bent on fulfilling my bloodlust one last time?"
Reluctantly, a wan smile wormed its way onto Hyteru's face. "Yes Sir."
"Good," Carth responded. "Because I have a favor to ask."
She was going to really hate this.
A tremor ran through the E29 assault shuttle, the indication of its sublight engines kicking in after having lain dormant for almost an hour. Carth looked over at Hyteru, who was across the aisle strapped into a crash harness just like his own. It was the compromise they'd struck. He would never, ever learn to appreciate his subordinates' over-concern for his safety. It was something that seemed bred into the military, and now that he was on the receiving end, it drove him crazy. As if he was too old to understand the dangers he put himself in?
Kark, I sound like Jolee.
This arrangement violated too many naval regs to count. He was a flag officer, flying into possible combat. He was the highest-ranking officer in the task force. And the second-highest rank individual was right there with him.
At the least, they should have been on separate shuttles, but Hyteru had shown up late after last-minute preparations with Commander Dorth, and all three of the other shuttles were already at capacity. If they got vaporized on approach, Carth knew he would be remembered for the most ignoble end to any admiral in Republic history.
The small flotilla of assault shuttles emerged suddenly from the densest clump of the nebula, appearing as if through a parting curtain, approaching from a direction that was over ninety degrees opposed to the Dream's current position. Gasses were streaming from the gun emplacements on the asteroid station; long-range turbolaser strikes from the Dream and their other ships had disabled the weapons on all sides. No warning had been given.
A squadron of A-wing fighters formed up on the shuttles, providing escort as they closed in on the floating rock. The target hangar was on the far opposite side; the shuttles reached the asteroid and would have impacted nose first if they hadn't pulled up at the last second, skimming the craggy surface along a carefully chosen route that kept them clear of any guns.
They swooped in quickly on the landing bay, performing a hard ninety-degree roll and turn to face it straight on. An intense salvo of ion blasts from the lead shuttle overloaded the shielding at the entrance, and in seconds all four shuttles were inside and landed. In the time it took Carth to unbuckle his harness, the bay's shields had restored themselves and lost air was being replenished.
The light over the rear exit turned green and a ramp hissed downward with ferocious speed. Four Republic special security troops piled out, followed by another four naval troopers. They signaled an all-clear moments later.
Carth was already halfway down the ramp. He hadn't been waiting for the all-clear, he was just slower than these young soldiers.
Hyteru was right behind him. She hadn't been waiting either.
The other three shuttles were fully disembarked at the same time as their own. The red, gold and grey uniforms spread throughout the hangar, quickly securing each entrance. The only blaster fire came with the targeted destruction of surveillance cameras.
A unit of special security officers placed charges around the door leading to the hangar control booth. Seconds later it was blown inward and a stun grenade tossed inside, but the booth was empty. A pair of technicians rushed in as the soldiers exited; access panels were pulled off and cables were spliced into the undersides of the computers so they could begin hacking the station's security systems.
Carth stood not far from the ramp he had just descended, not out of timidity but because it offered him a view of the entire hangar, with all the shuttles located between himself and the mag shield that kept the vacuum of space at bay. So far, nothing was happening.
"They're probably still trying to make sense of our presence," Hyteru conjectured as she came up beside him.
"The most dangerous reaction is none," Carth muttered quietly, eyes scouring the hangar for some clue as to what would come next.
"I'm sorry, sir?"
Carth's gaze jerked to the Captain; he had barely realized he was speaking aloud.
"The most dangerous reaction is no reaction," he explained. "It gives you the least information. It's something Revan taught me."
Commander Ospen hurried over with a report. Despite his overweight build, he was somehow moving as quickly as any of the soldiers he commanded.
"Sirs, we've compromised their security systems and have located the station's crew. Most of them are gathered in a command area." Ospen pointed to vents near the top of the hangar bay. "They were preparing to gas this landing bay. We've shut the circulation system down."
"No reaction," Hyteru mused.
"The most dangerous kind," Carth confirmed with a grim nod. "Good work, Commander. Gather your squad and let's head to that command section. And everyone wears gas masks."
"Sir." Ospen began barking out orders, assigning a contingent to guard the shuttles and techs, while grabbing another pair of techs to join their party. They left the hangar in a cautious echelon formation, with Carth, Hyteru, and the techs protected near the rear. Every door along the way was manually overridden and jammed in the open position, should they need to make a swift retreat.
Despite constant updates from the hangar bay tech that assured the station's crew was staying well clear, Ospen led his troops in a leapfrog down the corridors, securing every room they passed, every intersection, and even every closet. Carth was impressed, if slightly frustrated at the slow going. Ospen had clearly kept up on his drilling and was as competent as his wartime record had indicated him to be.
Eventually, though, they had reached the extra-wide entrance doors to the command section and took positions outside in total silence. The hum of ventilation systems and the breathing of the nearest person were the only sounds until the hangar bay commed to say that all of the station's crew was clustered inside. Ospen pulled a gas grenade and started to advance, but Carth crawled forward to stop him.
"I don't want to wait for them to come back around," Carth whispered, voice muffled by the gas mask. "Use a concussion grenade; we've hacked their system, we don't need the bridge controls to work."
Ospen nodded and replaced the gas grenade in his pack, withdrawing instead a silvery version of the same canister. Everyone took cover against the walls; Carth allowed himself to be shepherded to the rear, where a trio of soldiers guarded against a flanking approach. Ospen nodded to the squad leader, who lifted a comlink to his mask. "Doors," is all he said.
A few seconds later, the thick durasteel doors started to move. They were barely a half meter open when the silver canister sailed through with precise aim. Shouting could be heard for only a moment before a shockwave of air roared out towards them. It was loud, but it had been far louder for those on the other side.
Ospen signaled and the troops rushed inside, special security first and everyone else bringing up the rear. Carth was right behind the commander, gripping the same blaster he had been devoted to for almost twenty years. Mission had jokingly called it his lightsaber.
The gun landed back in its holster without speaking once. The concussion grenade had been highly effective. Control panels were crumpled and dented; display screens had been shattered; smoke rose from sparking electrical equipment. And scattered around the room were the stunned forms of nearly two dozen males and females of at least six species. They wore no insignia, had no uniforms, but were all dressed in the garb universal to less savory lines of employment – gun belts and knives.
The pirates were relieved of all their weaponry before the first one even started to move. When the Rodian started for his weapon no one reacted; two blasters had been covering him for several minutes already. When he realized his weapon was gone, those big black eyes blinked twice before registering the Republic soldiers. He slowly raised his hands above his head, which was comical given his prone position on the floor.
One by one the pirates were cuffed and then dragged against the wall, unconscious or not. At this point, the Republic personnel felt safe removing their gas masks. Ospen moved down the line, smacking them awake if necessary, asking questions, receiving answers in various degrees of cogency. Eventually, eight of them had identified the Devaronian as the leader, while another two pegged the still comatose human female.
The Devaronian had pointed to the Rodian while muttering in Huttese.
"What's your name?" Ospen demanded. The Devaronian said nothing. The commander shrugged. "That's fine, we can look it up." He commed the hangar bay techs, who had an answer for him almost immediately.
"Khoora, huh?" Ospen stared down at the Devaronian. "Alright, Khoora, why don't you tell us what you do for work all the way out here."
"The profitable kind," he replied in perfect Basic. "Profitable enough to keep my mouth shut."
"Do you know Gandon Harth?"
"Should I?"
Ospen pulled out a datapad to show Khoora a holo of the slaver taken at his capture. "He did stop by here just recently."
"I don't think so. We don't get many visitors."
"How did you think we found you?"
The Devaronian shrugged.
Carth stepped forward and crouched in front of the Devaronian. He pointed to the pattern of red and gold pips on his collar where it emerged from behind the armor vest he wore. "See how there's five pips here? That makes me an admiral. They're black instead of gold, though, so that's how you know I'm just a vice admiral. But that's still rank enough to make all the Republic personnel here forget anything they've seen or done." He tapped the barrel of his blaster against one of pirate's sensitive horns. The man winced painfully. "If you're thinking that we're probably way beyond our jurisdiction out here, you're right. The courts would have a real field day with this whole operation.
"The best way for us to keep this quiet is to do it quickly. I don't want my superiors finding out, and I bet you don't want your customers discovering us here. If you'll work with me we can be out of here in an hour; or we can scour this place core to hull, and after that we'll have to blow it out of existence to cover our tracks." Carth stood again, gazing down blankly at the leader. "Your choice."
Khoora stared him down for a long moment; Carth let him search his eyes, daring him to call a bluff. Eventually he shrugged.
"Fine."
Carth holstered his blaster. "So, what are you doing out here?"
"We're a transfer depot," Khoora said simply. "Stuff gets dropped off by one ship, gets picked up by another. All sealed stuff; we don't see what's in it, we don't care."
"Who makes the deliveries?" Carth prompted.
"Strangers," he replied sardonically. "We don't collect IDs. Anonymity is the whole point of this thing."
"Really? You don't recognize Raff syndicate tattoos when you see them?" Carth pressed.
"Yeah, I guess there've been some Raff here."
"And why in uncharted space, hidden deep in a nebula?"
Khoora scoffed. "Just cuz it ain't in the Republic doesn't mean there's nothing out here."
"You're right," Carth allowed, "except that there really is nothing out here. There aren't any habitable planets in this sector. Only a few would even support terraforming. And that doesn't explain hiding in this nebula. If I had to guess, I'd say this location was picked because of the nebula. It's an extremely rare type, and really good at defeating scans. But you know that."
"Yep. I picked a hell of a spot and set up shop," the Devaronian replied with a swaggering ease.
"I don't believe you," Carth snapped back before turning to Hyteru. "Captain, get more tech crews over here. We're taking this place apart." Hyteru nodded, whipped out her comlink, and began issuing orders back to the Dream. Carth turned a contemptuous glare on Khoora. "I guess this isn't going to work out the way either of us wanted."
"Hang on!" There was real concern in Khoora's voice now. Khoora looked at his crew before continuing. "I found it. I got a chart sent to me, don't know who from. I followed it here. Place was already up and running, and instructions were waiting for me. And credits. A whole lotta credits."
Those of the group who were conscious looked at Khoora suspiciously now. Carth suspected they had been told a different story. He looked to Hyteru, who had only stopped doling out orders after Khoora finished. From his angle Carth could see her comlink wasn't even on; he had to suppress a grin, and instead gave her a nod. She nodded back and issued a belay into the inactive comlink.
"And I suppose you want me to believe that you have no idea who built this place, why it's here, or who is paying you?"
Khoora met his gaze evenly. "Nobody but droids comes out of the ships to load the cargo containers. They leave us a pile of credits before they go. We know the ships are legit because they can find us."
It was a brilliant setup, Carth had to admit. Nature itself was their security system. The delivery ships would need charts to find this place. If there was any weakness in their security, it would be in the transfer of those charts, not in anything taking place on this station.
"And I suppose your computer system doesn't have any information on the builders?"
"Look for yourself. We ain't got much data in there. Just enough to keep the place running."
Carth glanced to Hyteru, who checked a datapad and then nodded.
"Alright. We're going to search your shipments. I don't suppose there's anything you can do to speed this along?"
"I ain't got keys."
"Fine." Carth looked to Hyteru. "Let's go to their dock."
"Aye, Sir. Commander, do a full sweep of the station. Join us when you can." Hyteru pointed to one of the lieutenants from the special security group. "You're with us. Bring your squad."
The lieutenant took point as Hyteru, Carth, a tech, and seven other soldiers wound their way through the asteroid, working downward from the command area to a pair of large hangars that held the cargo. They avoided turbolifts, instead traveling the slower but less easily sabotaged route of ladders between decks.
Now that their safety was not in question, Carth began noticing the excellent condition of the station. If it was even older than five years it had been impeccably maintained. Lighting was bright, corridors were clean, equipment was modern.
"They've kept this place in really good shape," Hyteru muttered, echoing Carth's own thoughts.
"Or it's brand new," he replied. Hyteru shook her head.
"Service records go back over a decade."
"Really? Who's done the servicing?"
"Only the prisoners we're holding upstairs. And no maintenance deliveries – the place has a massive stock of spare parts."
"They thought of everything," Carth mused. The group or organization behind this place was evidently very sophisticated.
"Cargo bay through these doors," the lieutenant announced as they reached the end of the corridor. The squad took crouched positions against the walls just in case, but the doors opened to reveal nothing but a few small fighters parked off to one side and a single, very large shipping container in the middle of the bay. The troops fanned out to clear the corners and adjacent rooms, while Carth and Hyteru approached the cargo. It was entirely ordinary-looking; it had a set of double doors on both ends and looked worn like any shipping container that had seen years of service.
"Ensign, get this open for us," Hyteru said to the tech.
"Yes ma'am." He approached the container cautiously, pulling out a scanner while he did a complete walk around. Apparently satisfied with the results, he returned to the nearest door and pried the cover off the control panel. The lieutenant guided half of his people into position to cover the door while the tech worked. After a minute he nodded to the lieutenant. "Ready."
The lieutenant nodded back. "Ready."
The doors opened very slowly, which Carth found unusual, but not nearly as surprising as all the commotion that could be heard from within a few moments after they started to move. The soldiers turned on their rifle lights to reveal what was inside; one gasped at what he saw. Two others swore loudly. For a moment, everyone was frozen.
Carth was mercilessly thrown back to his memories of Serroco, when he had watched the planet burn under the nuclear barrage of Mandalorian missiles. Zayne Carrick had warned them, and he in turn had warned as many of the Stereb cities as he could. It didn't save all of them, but it saved a lot of them. Most of them.
Yet millions had still died. He had witnessed it from the relative safety of orbit.
After the war, he'd returned to Serroco as part of a Republic relief group. They had kept him busy flying escort for a countless stream of supply shuttles, but he did get to spend a few hours on the ground. The devastation was unfathomable. The Sterebs had retreated underground, but their subsistence was in the soil and the rivers, and those were dead. He had watched the relatively primitive Sterebs attempting to work the hardened, blackened earth, their bodies gaunt with hunger and radiation poisoning. Their world, their livelihood, was now lost to them for generations. It was the most hopeless thing he had ever seen.
Until today.
"Commander Dorth, get me full med teams over here now!" Hyteru was shouting into her comlink as haunting, wretched little bodies stumbled out into the harsh artificial light. "Triangulate my position and send them direct to this landing bay, make sure Commander Lacksley…" Her voice disappeared as Carth's entire world zeroed in on a filthy, starved little boy that reminded him of Dustil at the age they'd been separated.
Would this boy ever see his father again?
The boy tripped over his own feet as he staggered out of the cargo container; Carth was there to catch him. The lieutenant, the tech, every trooper was busy trying to calm and comfort the children. Medkits were broken out. "Sedate the worst ones," Carth called over the din of crying and hollering. He stood with the little boy in his arms, dried blood smearing onto his uniform, and found Hyteru. "Lock this station down," he growled. "We're staying."
Carth found a place to lay the boy, who was in too much shock to cry or make any noise at all. Instead, he simply shook uncontrollably. "It's okay. You're alright. We'll take care of you," he soothed. He ripped off his jacket and tucked the boy's arms tight against bony ribs before wrapping the fabric tightly around him. He grabbed a sedative from the nearest medpac and used it to usher the little boy into what he prayed was restful sleep.
The next ten minutes passed in a blink once Carth had willed himself to leave the boy and help with the other children. Eventually, they were all calmed, or at least stilled, and Hyteru approached Carth.
"Commander Ospen has the control center sequestered; so far there isn't any indication that Khoora's group knew anything about what was inside. But we have a new problem."
The patent concern in her voice was a blade that pierced his mental haze of profound sadness. He blinked it away and gave the captain his full attention.
"Commander Dorth believes there is another ship approaching," she continued. "He's moving the group right now to maximize sensor coverage and reduce odds of detection."
"The med teams?"
"They're prepped but I ordered them to stand by for the moment."
"How long do we have?"
"Commander Dorth will report in as soon as they have some bearing on the contact."
Carth looked around the hangar bay, now littered with the withered forms of a hundred or more children. Ordinarily, they would scramble their shuttles and return to the fleet, but left alone, the best these children could hope for would be their continued imprisonment. And if the incoming bogey was here for a pickup…
A comlink peeped. "Hyteru, go."
"Captain, bogey is confirmed cruiser-class. Armament and complement unknown. They'll be inside the bubble in twelve minutes."
That was plenty of time to clear off the station, but not with the children. Hyteru looked at Carth. He nodded.
"We're staying, Commander. You have the fleet. Avoid detection and gather intel. We'll comm you when –" hissing static bit off the remainder of her words. She glared at the comlink in confusion. "That ship can't be jamming us yet…"
He noticed it first in a subtle flicker of the lights high above, then in a gentle rumble through the deck and into his boots. The sinking feeling in his gut warned of a radical realignment to their situation.
The flickering lights suddenly extinguished.
The troopers each swung a rifle up and flicked on their lights, scanning the hangar. In the darkness, it seemed nearly infinite in size. Some of the children murmured, but none vocalized any obvious fear; how long had they been in that container to be accustomed to a capricious dark?
Carth's right hand hovered over his blaster while his other used a lumi-stick to attempt an appraisal of their new circumstance. Next to him Hyteru had crouched, blaster in a firm grip, and was attempting to raise Ospen. Only electronic hissing responded.
"Get the children back in the container," Carth ordered. "Lock it back up, make it look like it hasn't been touched."
"Sir?" the Lieutenant questioned.
"Now!" Carth barked. He led by example, lifting the boy he had first sedated and carrying him into the container, laying him down as gently as possible. The others followed suit; they administered sedatives to all the rest of the children and in less than ten minutes the crate was sealed again.
Which left two minutes before that unknown cruiser would be close enough to scan the station.
"We should locate Dorth's group, sir," Hyteru suggested.
"I bet Dorth is doing just fine. Khoora's people aren't the cause of this."
"How do you reckon that, sir?"
"There's been no follow-up against us. They need us contained or killed before this ship gets here. It's their customer." At least he assumed as much. He doubted pirates or slavers were making deliveries in anything the size of a cruiser. "We need to find a place to –"
The word hide died on Carth's lips as the crack of a detonation and a half-second of screeching metal filled the cavernous space, reverberating off the walls to create clashing waves of sound. He pivoted to the right where the flash and the sound had originated, and through a dark cloud peered several sets of blue lights.
There was a new flash that his eyes were completely unprepared for, the report of a blaster rifle, and the cry of a woman as the bolt impacted her armor and dropped her to the ground.
Carth's blaster was cycling out return fire before his mind had finished processing their attackers – four-legged battle droids that had torn through the wall.
Blaster fire skittered off the droids' armor as he called for a retreat. They exited the way they had come, two troopers carrying their wounded comrade while everyone else provided cover.
Here was the follow-up. Now they really needed a place to hide.