))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Lucrehulk Thalmussen, Wild Space System, One Parsec from Bloodstripe Run's Jastawui System
)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Priscilla Mayhew stared out at the expansive galaxy, realizing that even if she spent the rest of her days at the simple task, she could never count all of the stars laid out before her. Even Navicomps had problems tallying all of the visible stars in any given quadrant. For a human, or even a longer-lived Wookiee, to attempt such a task in a single lifetime was unthinkable.
And yet navigating from one fixed system to the next was possible. Humans and alien races back in what was known as the Home Galaxy had been doing it for millennia. Not that they were always successful. Who knew how many untold trillions of spacefarers had perished trying to navigate the vast distances between the stars over the eons. The dangers of space travel were compounded by the variety of phenomenon a starship could run into. Space, or the Void as she had learned to call it from her Wookiee teachers as a youngling, was crammed full of chunks of every material imaginable; from ice to heavy clumps of metal, pieces of derelicts, asteroids, supernovas, comets, planets and planetoids, black holes, seas of radiation and oceans of unnavigable gases, gravity wells, and even space slugs and purrgils. All of them actively working to wreck any spacecraft that happened to cross paths with them.
In the past year they'd almost run into every one of them, minus the purrgils, which Priscilla believed were nothing more than a Wookiee spacer's tale meant to scare their human neighbors. Still, she realized, they had a long way to go before they reached whatever passed for civilization in the Orion Spur, so who knew what they'd run into.
Priscilla nonchalantly blew a bubble from her chewing gum. It was some of the last candy from their supplies. The Thalmussen and her sister, the Kennedy, were running desperately short of rations and, more importantly, hypermatter. From her position at the helm of the great Lucrehulk she could see the engineering section's readings on a nearby monitor. She swallowed her gum hard when she verified that the reading on the hypermatter reserves read a mere three percent. The Thalmussen had two, maybe three, short system jumps left. No way would they jump all the way across yet another Sector while running on hypermatter fumes.
The past year had been brutally long as they fled the Imperial invasion of Kazoook. The survivors of the hybrid Wookiee and Earthling colony had been struck without warning and escaped with everyone who could make it to the ships in time. A mere one hundred and eighty thousand souls had made it aboard two massive ships that had barely been stocked with enough provisions for a few months of exploratory missions. They believed if they could make it back to Earth, if it still existed, they could find help. The thing was, nobody knew the route back.
It wasn't as if they didn't know where the Earth was. Sol was a visible star on the Orion Spur and the Earthling colonists did know where their homeworld was located on the great galactic disc of the Milky Way. It was just the route they had taken aboard their original ship, the Enterprise II, had never been stable or boosted. Because of that, the route had rapidly degraded to the point of non-existence during the years of settlement with the Wookiees of Kazoook. With their original path lost with the sands of time, the refugees aboard the Lucrehulks had to blaze a new path back to Earth.
Captain Vaspar of the Thalmussen, and his counterpart, Chieftain Feyyr of the Kennedy, did not believe in free rides. Priscilla had been heading for the Academy before she left, but on the Thalmussen she had undergone a brisk boot camp, followed by specialized navigation training, landing her a job as a helmsman aboard the Lucrehulk. Because of redundancy issues she was the fifth highest helmsman out of the five helmsmen aboard the Thalmussen.
Helmsman First-class Lachichuk and Helmsman Second-class Orooroo were two of the most territorial Wookiees Priscilla had ever met. If they had their way they'd never let her lay a paw on the Thalmussen's steering controls. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how the carefree Priscilla was feeling on any given day, Captain Vaspar required all of his helmsmen to have equal time at the wheel.
Orooroo kept looking over her shoulder at Priscilla while she and Lachichuk coordinated with the helmsmen over on the Kennedy. The Thalmussen was preparing for yet another jump, perhaps their last, and they were checking and rechecking the jump calculations. With such a diminished reserve of hypermatter the slightest mistake could prove fatal for the small flotilla. The two Wookiees weren't speciests, they allowed the 3rd and 4th class helmsmen access to the helm, and they were both humans. They just didn't like Priscilla very much. It wasn't as if she had done anything to deserve their scorn either. Sure, there was the one time she was allowed to perform a jump following the Kennedy's lead and ended up nearly six million miles from their sister Lucrehulk when they emerged from hyperspace. And sure, maybe that six million miles was a little too close to a K-class star that had recently morphed into a red giant. The Wookiee shields on their ship had handled the extra radiation . . . barely.
"Yo, Ensign Tweedle Dee," Helmsman Third Class Ensign Semmes interrupted Priscilla's train of thought. "You want to recheck the list of Messier objects against the visible landmarks again, or do you prefer just standing there twiddling your thumbs?"
The other helmsmen chuckled at Semmes's jibe. Priscilla scowled at all of them but couldn't do much else to her superiors. In truth Priscilla was bored out her skull with steerage duties, and the other helmsmen knew it. Priscilla looked across the bridge to the astrocartography section, where her lifelong friend Hapsleeca was equally as sick of the humdrum life of the navigational cartography crew aboard the Thalmussen. Hapsleeca saw Priscilla looking her way and pretended to be falling asleep on her feet. Priscilla giggled at her friend's antics, which earned a fishy stare from Lachichuk. Screw him, Priscilla thought to herself. The moment the Thalmussen found safe harbor she was blowing out of bridge duty and striking out with Happy on their own terms. Maybe even find a ship of their own somehow.
Priscilla opened her portable ToughBook laptop and did as Semmes requested. They were working from a list of objects that were known to Earth astronomers the day the Enterprise II left Earth. The Wookiees on Kazoook had only been in the Sagittarius Arm for half a millennia and never spent much time studying the neighboring Orion Spur Arm for large navigational hazards, any one of which could destroy the Thalmussen or the Kennedy. Well, they had survived one hundred and sixty-three micro-jumps to arrive along the Orion Spur and hadn't died so far, she thought. That had to be a sign that something, be it God or the Force, was on their side.
Hyperspace travel was growing rougher and rougher on the two Lucrehulks. With each new jump the two ships required more and more repairs and time to recover. The last jump had taken place two weeks ago and blown life support cooling on the Kennedy, causing internal temperatures to rise by nearly fifty degrees Celsius. On board the Thalmussen, the deflector shields had lost their anti-radiation capabilities. Everyone had to wear rad-detectors everywhere they went and they all lived in fear of errant clouds of radiation drifting through the cosmos for days on end while the shields were overhauled. Priscilla dreaded what would inevitably break down on the next jump.
"Captain on deck!" The Executive Officer, Commander Wrroloch, shouted in Shyriiwook, snapping the bridge crew to attention.
Captain Vaspar, the original commander of the Revenge class corvette Enterprise II and its contingent of colonists. who founded the colony of Oz on Kazoook, strode onto the deck. Priscilla had heard he spent most of the day down in engineering being assured by an army of engineers and damage control parties that they and the Thalmussen were as prepared as they were ever going to be for the next hyperjump. Priscilla assumed Chieftain Feyyr had undergone similar briefings over on the Kennedy. She hoped no one was blowing smoke up the captain's butts, or this would be the last hyperjump any of them ever made.
"As you were." Vaspar told his crew, allowing them to return to their work. "Bring me the latest readouts of our hypermatter reserves." An officer from the engineering section brought him the latest readings, verified by three more independent reports. With so much to lose they weren't leaving anything to chance.
The captain walked over to the helm. Lachichuk saluted for the Steerage Section and his four junior helmsmen. Vaspar, a life-long naval officer and stickler for protocol, returned the honor. "Are we ready for today's hop, sailors?"
"Aye, Captain." Lachichuk responded in Shyrriiwook. After twenty years on Kazoook even the oldest Earth colonists were fluent in the Wookiee tongue. "This last jump will place us dead center in the Orion Spur. Then we start our calculations for one, maybe two jumps rimward towards the Sol System, but Captain . . ."
"Out with it, man." Vaspar eyed the towering, bicolored Wookiee.
"The hypermatter fuel, sir. Even our most optimistic assessments place us nearly four thousand light years short of Earth."
"I'm aware." He turned to the rest of the bridge crew, who were making a point of appearing like they weren't already listening to the conversation. "All hands will seek out a gas giant upon completion of this jump. Hopefully we can refine some gasses for hypermatter substitutes. Failing that, we need to find a planet within a habitable life zone. I know we've found several on our trip so far, but those worlds lacked water or food sources or were hostile environments for us to settle."
Priscilla shuddered, recalling the world they had discovered that was inhabited by giant spiders the Wookiees called Kryknas. She would have preferred the Lucrehulks had burned that place from orbit after they had found it.
Vaspar continued. "If we are forced to find safe haven, we shall send a long distance signal aimed at the Sol System asking for help." There was murmuring amongst the gathered crew. The radios the Lucrehulks were equipped with were based off the same type the Enterprise II brought from Earth twenty years ago. If they ended up marooned on a world four thousand light years from Earth then it would take four thousand years for a message to get there. They might as well begin another colony and carve out their own path in the Galaxy than hope for a distant rescue in the unforeseeable future.
"But, sir." Commander Wrroloch interrupted him. "What about the Empire? They've got the gear to intercept our message and trace it back to us."
"I'm fully aware of the danger the Empire poses. None of us that escaped Kazoook fifteen months ago will ever forget that. We must be prepared to do anything it takes to protect this mission, if and when we face the peril of the Empire."
As if correctly sensing most of the room didn't believe him, that they'd be ready to fight off the Empire alone in their present condition, the Captain changed the subject. "Sound General Quarters. All hands man their stations."
"Sounding GQ, All hands to their stations." The XO echoed. There was a slight scramble as crew found their places. Because of redundancy training, such as Priscilla's, most crew found themselves merely standing behind the primary crewman assigned to each station. The helm would be Lachichuk's domain and Priscilla would only have to step up if four consecutive heart attacks dispatched the helmsmen above her.
Vaspar spotted her standing behind the other helmsmen with nothing to do. Vaspar had been good friends with Priscilla's parents since before they had even joined the Enterprise II mission. The three of them had depended on each other over the years as they established the Oz colony with the assistance of the Kazoookian Wookiees. He had told her a few times in private how he regretted abandoning them back on Kazoook as the Lucrehulks fled. He had assured her that he believed they were still alive back in the Sagittarius Arm. "Pris . . . I mean, Ensign Mayhew. Are you ready for today's jump?"
"Ready as I'll ever be, sir." Priscilla was once again aware that all of the other helmsmen's eyes had fallen on her. How dare she speak freely with the captain, they silently judged.
"We have our course set. Do you know the duration of today's jump?" Vaspar asked her.
"One minute and seventeen seconds, sir." Orooroo snapped the answer out, cutting Priscilla off.
The Captain grimaced as he looked over to Orooroo in disapproval. "Correct, Lieutenant." He reached into his pocket and pulled out an antique pocket watch. He carefully wound it and handed it to Priscilla.
"Sir, I can't."
"It's merely a loan, Ensign. My great-grandfather carried this with him when his battleship shelled Normandy. I would like you to give me a precise timing of the jump." Vaspar showed her where the start and stop timer was on the intricate device.
"Sir, Engineering will be monitoring the jump down to the microsecond and automatically cut the hyperdrive at the predetermined time." Priscilla argued. She had no idea where Normandy was or what it had done to deserve being shelled by Vaspar's ancestor, but she understood that he was singling her out for a specific honor. Across the bridge, Hapsleeca waved a paw at her indicating she should just take the watch and shove it in the other helmsmens' noses.
"I'm aware, Ensign. I would just feel better having someone I trust give me an accurate account of the time." Vaspar explained.
"Aye, aye, sir." Seeing that there was no use to arguing with her superior officer, Priscilla saluted.
Vaspar nodded and then strode to the center of the bridge. "All stations ready?"
"Manned and ready, sir. All systems are a go." The XO confirmed.
Vaspar looked around the bridge. "Helm?"
"We are a go, Captain." Lachichuk replied.
"Ensign?"
Priscilla held up the watch. "Ready, Captain."
"Synchronize with the Kennedy." Vaspar ordered the communication station.
"Chieftain Feyyr is set. Helms are locked together." Commander Wrroloch reported. He pressed a green button on the command station. "Starting countdown. One minute. Captains have abort control."
All stations were set in motion for the hyperjump. Only Vaspar or Feyyr could cancel the jumps now. They now had less than one minute to discover anything that might endanger the flotilla. It had happened on a few jumps in the beginning, but that hadn't had to cancel one in months. Priscilla would later believe it might have been better had they found a reason to abort this one.
As the seconds counted down to zero, Priscilla pushed start on the watch's timer. The two Lucrehulks lurched into hyperspace. The stars turned from pinpoints to streaks of light that raced past the two speeding vessels. Ten seconds in the spiraling galaxy of stars turned to a blue haze and it appeared as if the Thalmussen was ramming itself through a tunnel of blue clouds.
The lights flickered on and off twenty seconds into the jump before finally giving up the ghost and went out completely, pitching the bridge into low-light conditions only illuminated by the hypnotic blue light of hyperspace.
"Hold." Vaspar calmly told the crew as the low level emergency lighting flickered weakly into existence. The main lights going out was not cause enough to abort a jump, especially with the pitiful amount of hypermatter they had left in their reserves. No jump could go to waste.
"Thirty seconds." Priscilla told Vaspar, who nodded to signal that he had heard her. An Engineering officer had been about to announce the same thing, but deferred to Priscilla at the Captain's preference.
"How is the Kennedy?" Vaspar asked.
"Holding steady." Commander Wrroloch assured the Captain. "Sixty kilometers relative off our starboard flank. Course and speed are synched."
"Forty seconds." Priscilla announced. More than halfway through the jump and half a parsec from where they had jumped from.
Vaspar said something in a low voice. Priscilla believed that she was standing so close to the Captain that only her and the XO overheard him whispering to himself while looking at hyperspace roll by, "I'm going to miss it."
Priscilla wondered about that. Weren't they planning two last jumps on fumes to get as close to Earth as possible? And the grand plan, once they found sanctuary, was to get enough hypermatter to make it back and liberate Kazoook from the invasion they had escaped. If that sanctuary was Earth, then fine. And if they had to do it themselves, that was also wizard.
She was watching the second hand tick down to the one minute mark and had just opened her mouth to tell Vaspar, when everyone standing on the bridge was suddenly pitched forward. Technicians sitting at their stations were propelled forward and smashed their heads into the monitors in front of them. Anything not bolted down toppled over as dozens of devices hanging on the walls crashed to the deck.
Out of the forward window, hyperspace rapidly turned from blue clouds. to streaks of star light. before reverting to real space. Priscilla had fallen to her knees and before she realized what had happened Hapsleeca had bounded across the bridge and was helping her return to her feet. A series of pops around the bridge emitted small puffs of smoke as equipment overloaded and blew their circuits.
Priscilla's first fear was that they had struck a previously uncharted asteroid. It was always a constant danger while jumping through unmapped hyperspace that something big would float across their path. Since the day they had fled Kazoook it had been the greatest terror facing every soul aboard the Thalmussen. Were they crippled? Had the hull been breached? Was the ship on the precipice of destruction? Priscilla could feel the crippling grip of panic start to creep into the back of her mind. and by the looks in the eyes of the bridge crew, she wasn't the only one who felt it.
"Unidentified gravity well!" Wrroloch announced. He had fallen next to the long range sensor module and quickly regained his feet. Priscilla breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't sounded the collision alarm. Perhaps there was still some hope that the Thalmussen could continue on.
"Find out where it originated from. And for God's sake someone locate the Kennedy." Vaspar ordered his crew into action. Medics rushed onto the bridge to treat minor injuries incurred in the rapid deceleration from lightspeed.
"She's still off to our starboard." Lachichuk pointed outside. All eyes turned to where the Wookiee helmsman indicated.
"We've got a planet off the port side. Range six million kilometers." The XO reported.
"That's not close enough to rip us out of hyperspace." Vaspar replied. "Bring us about to heading two-seven-zero."
The Lucrehulk started turning slowly. It was obviously suffering from damage incurred in the hyperjump and sudden deceleration. Lachichuk, at the helm, was the first to see the danger. He pointed just as they started coming into view. "Ancestor's ghosts! It was them."
The first Imperial vessel was the familiar dagger shape Priscilla had heard so many stories about as a youngling. Her father had told her how they had rained destruction down on Earth, and the Wookiees on Kazoook had legends of the nightmarish vessels chasing their ancestors away from their homes on Kashyyyk. The first ship was a smaller light cruiser, which was maneuvering to place itself in between the Lucrehulks and another Star Destroyer behind it.
The second vessel was nearly twelve hundred meters long and had four humongous spherical blisters on its upper and lower hull. They gave the ship the appearance of having broken out in mumps, Priscilla thought.
"An interdiction ship. That's how they pulled us out of hyperspace." The XO observed. "But I thought that sort of technology was merely theoretical."
"Well it looks like the Empire figured out how to make it all work." Vaspar said before turning to the Engineering section. "Can we jump out of here with that monster out there?"
"Not a chance, sir. Sublights are down as well. All we've got are our maneuvering thrusters. Gravity is out on decks three through nine. Shields are up but targeting is off line."
"We're through to the Kennedy." The radio section reported. No doubt they had been trying to raise their sister on the Comm-Between-Ship signal. "Shields are down and their hyperdrive nearly imploded. They've got casualties but no fatalities reported. Chieftain Feyyr is charging weapons and turning to come in line with us. He wants to know how you plan on defending the flotilla."
"Tell the Kennedy to stand down." Vaspar replied. "We're in no position to get into a battle with the Empire right now."
His request came too late. The Kennedy had turned to starboard, and with both ship's FOD radars down, had been the first to see the bigger danger laying just beyond the Imperial Interdictor. Feyyr opened fire with one of his assault laser cannons at something just beyond the view of the Thalmussen.
Lachichuk turned the Thalmussen with the projectile as it streaked past their bridge. It raced past the light-cruiser and over the top of the Interdictor. What Priscilla saw next almost turned her blood to ice.
The round from the Kennedy slammed harmlessly into the shields of the largest warship Priscilla had ever laid eyes upon. A hulking, knife-like ship, over seventeen thousand meters long with a cavernous super laser that ran the length of its body, loomed over the Kazoookian flotilla. That weapon, which was starting to glow blue with a crackling energy, was being brought about to aim at the Thalmussen. Two more large Star Destroyers were dwarfed by the super beast while a small armada of lighter vessels protected the leviathan's flanks and rear.
Vaspar practically leaped down into the comm station and grabbed the headset of the technician stationed there. "Kennedy, this is Thalmussen. Stand down. Stand down. We can't repel firepower of that magnitude. Initiate Protocol Omega."
"Copy that, Thalmussen. Someone over here just had an itchy trigger finger. Our shields are out, so we will follow your lead. Commencing Omega on our end. Kennedy Out. "
"Captain, we are being hailed by that flagship." The XO reported.
"Bring it up on the hologram projector." Vaspar indicated the experimental comm gear that had been installed on the Thalmussen and Kennedy during the construction. based on Wookiee designs.
The hologram started out as blue flicks of light that appeared to Priscilla as fireflies. They swirled about until they coalesced into the form of an Imperial officer standing with his arms behind his back. The human officer met the gaze of Captain Vaspar and the two men nodded, forgoing the honor of rendering a salute.
The Imperial officer spoke first. "I am Admiral Gentis of the Ares. Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"I am Captain Vaspar. My ship is the Thalmussen of the Kazoookian Fleet." Vaspar introduced himself.
"An honor, Captain Vaspar. Are those Lucrehulks? I thought they were all scrapped at the conclusion of the Clone Wars." Gentis asked.
"They are, and I have no idea what happened at the end of the Clone Wars. I was on Earth at the time." Vaspar declared. Everyone on the bridge noticed Gentis's eyes go wide in surprise.
"You're a Terran?" Gentis asked.
"I am. I was Captain of a colony ship that escaped Earth a year and a half after you invaded my home world."
"One of the three lost ships?" Gentis gasped. Priscilla knew the legend well, how three colony ships had hyperjumped from Earth, never to see each other or their planet ever again. "Karabast! How did you go from corvettes to Lucrehulks in twenty years?"
"We had help." Vaspar waved over the XO, who stepped into the hologram's viewing circle. Gentis actually took a step back when he recognized what kind of creature stood before him. "Wookiees! But why? How?"
"It's a long story. One for another time." Vaspar told the Imperial Admiral. Priscilla worried that he was giving too much away. "Are we to assume the war continues between Earth and the Empire?"
Gentis gave a sly smile. "I'm afraid that too is a long story. Though the war you fled was ended twenty years ago by the same raid that gave coverage to your escape."
"So they took the Ares?"
"Yes, your commandos did, but as you can see . . ." Gentis spread his arms at his waist, "We took it back."
"And Earth?"
"Is free, the last I heard. But that is also very complicated at the moment."
"Care to explain?"
"Not at the moment. I am here solely to inform you that your two vessels have violated Imperial space. Our escort Interdictor, the Immobile, holds you here, while our sensors indicate that neither of your vessels is capable of offering an effective defense, and your own sensors should indicate that we are jamming any signal you attempt to send outside of this system." Gentis said. The Imperial was brutally honest, as it was obvious that he was speaking the truth.
"Why not just try to destroy us like you did at Kazoook?" Vaspar accused Gentis. There it was, out in the open, Priscilla thought.
Gentis cocked his head in confusion. "I do not even know where that is. As far as I know, Empress Phasma has not dispatched any part of our fleet to attack this Kazoook place."
Vaspar snapped his finger at Commander Wrroloch, who produced another, smaller hand-held projector. The Wookiee activated the device and started the footage recorded from last year as the Thalmussen and Kennedy fled Imperial Star Destroyers over their lost home world. Gentis leaned forward for a closer study of the images. His features turned from curious to hardly concealed rage.
"Captain Vaspar, I assure you those are not Imperial vessels. I have nearly every example of Imperial warship in my small fleet here at Jastawui. Scan them all carefully and see for yourself that none of them match the profiles of the ships that attacked your world."
"We will do so." Vaspar motioned for the bridge crew to follow the Imperial's suggestion.
Now it was Gentis's turn to snap his fingers at someone outside of visual range. A second later the images of several warships, seen at long distance, replaced Gentis's image. The Admiral's voice could still be heard. "These vessels launched a surprise attack on Imperial facilities at Nal Kuat seven days ago. See if they are twins to the ones that assaulted your world."
The XO nodded to the Captain. "Exact matches, sir. Bigger than anything the Imperials have out there except for that large bastard the Admiral's broadcasting from."
"Could it be a ruse?" Vaspar asked. "Some of those ships that attacked them at this Nal Kuat place weren't present at Kazoook."
"They'd have had to come up with those images awfully fast after we showed him the Kazoook footage. I don't think so, sir." Wrroloch replied.
Vaspar turned back to Gentis. "Admiral, I'm afraid you have us at a disadvantage. We will stand down. But as no apparent state of hostilities exist between Kazoook and the Empire, we do not consider ourselves prisoners, nor are we surrendering. We do have need of repairs and are greatly short on food stuffs and would appreciate any assistance you may have to offer, as one sailor to another."
Gentis smiled. "We will send over some engineers and supplies soon. But first, will you be willing to accept a diplomatic mission? I have a representative from Palpatine Prime who can speak on behalf of the Prime Chancellor aboard my ship."
"I'm not aware where Palpatine Prime is." Vaspar admitted.
"Oh, Captain, I'm afraid much has changed in the last twenty years. I look forward to filling you in on much of it. In the meantime, shall we say one hour before we dispatch Senator Saria to your vessel?"
"One hour is fine, Admiral." Vaspar stepped back from the hologram projector. This time the two senior officers did salute one another. "I look forward to meeting you."
"As do I, Captain. The Empire is at your service. May the Force be with you." Gentis signed off from the holographic communication.
"Sir, can we trust them?" The XO asked as soon as Gentis's image had vanished.
"I don't see how we have a choice, Commander. Our rations won't last long enough for us to make repairs, and our vessels are completely immobilized, preventing our escape." Vaspar reasoned.
"But if they get aboard either of our ships they'll have access to the route back to Kazoook."
"That's why we have the Omega Protocol, Commander Wrroloch. Now fetch your bowcaster." Vaspar ordered his XO. Wrroloch walked over to navigation where Hapsleeca handed him an ancient, ornamental bowcaster. Vaspar told the navigation team. "Bring up the star charts from our voyage."
The display of stars and planets filled the bridge in a holographic display. The image covered the trail they had blazed from the Sagittarius to the Orion Arm of the Galaxy. Wrroloch released a catch on the bowcaster that released the tension on its arms. He then bent the arms forward until the weapon resembled a spear rather than a projectile weapon. He placed the bowcaster into a small hole in the center deck of the bridge. The hologram swirled around the XO, moving faster and faster as the data was transferred from the Thalmussen's navicomps into a hidden datamine inside the weapon. The stars started to get sucked into the bowcaster as if it were some sort of black hole. Two final worlds, Kazoook and this new Jastawui, were the final two worlds to disappear into the device.
"Purge the navicomps." Vaspar ordered the navigation team, which sent Hapsleeca and her comrades into a flurry of activity. "Now the route home is only contained in this, and a similar device aboard the Kennedy. Hide it well, Commander Wrroloch."
"Aye, aye, sir." Wrroloch saluted the captain. Slinging the reconstructed bowcaster over his shoulder, he removed his rank insignia from his bandolier and then left the bridge to merge into the regular ship's crew like an ordinary Wookiee.
"All station chiefs will remain at their posts. I want all redundant personnel in the main hangar to greet this Senator they're sending over. If the Empire believes Kazoook is incapable of putting up a fight, we'll show them just how many of us they'll have to go through." Vaspar told the bridge crew. Seconds later a ship-wide announcement called for all crew and security staff to assemble in the main hangar.
Priscilla and Hapsleeca naturally fell in together as they left the bridge. Priscilla complained to her best friend, "Today keeps getting better and better."
Happy laughed.
The ship's officers attempted to organize the crew into something resembling a formation. There hadn't been a lot of cause or room for short order drill during their voyage and most of the green crew hadn't any experience with it. They dressed their lines the best they could, but attempting to place sailors of such vastly different arm length as Wookiees and humans together in the same formation left much to be desired. To add to the shoddy appearance of their formation only a few of the human officers wore the uniform of the Kazoookian Navy. The ship hadn't come stocked with new uniforms for the crew that had enlisted during the trip from Kazoook and the Wookiees wore little more than belts, bandoliers and ornamental animal bone jewelry. They were a motley crew.
The inside of the Thalmussen's oversized hanger was covered with shelters and temporary housing barely large enough to house a family. The shelters were stacked one on top of the other. They filled the hangar and any free space they had expanded into. Priscilla and Happy shared one of the small, boxy shelters and used each other's body heat to stay warm during the night watch. The Lucrehulks hadn't been ready to take on as many refugees as they had, but they made due the best they could. The constant grumbling of Priscilla's stomach testified that their best wouldn't be enough in the long run.
The formation of Kazoookian sailors squeezed in between a pair of Auzitucks. The small gunships had been utilized for recons of worlds during the voyage but had run empty of fuel several months ago. Now they sat here gathering dust. News of the visiting Imperials spread almost faster than lightspeed throughout the ship. As a result several thousand Wookiees and human refugees gathered into a large crowd behind the sailors as the armored doors across the hangar's entrance were opened. There were several gasps as the Imperial fleet came into view.
All eyes were locked on the small ship slowly approaching the Thalmussen's hangar. It was a gray-colored craft with three flight-control wings that stuck out at various angles from the craft. Hapsleeca barked to Priscilla that it was an Imperial shuttle, as she had remembered seeing one carved into a Wookiee Lore-stick that her grandfather had once carried. As the craft approached the energy shield that protected the hangar it folded its two lower wings upwards before coming in for a landing in front of the crew's formation. Priscilla watched in envy of the two black helmeted pilots she could see in the cockpit. To have a ship of her own for her and Hapsleeca to travel the galaxy in was her ultimate dream.
A ramp descended from underneath the hull directly below the cockpit and an airlock opened on the shuttle craft. Everyone in the formation craned their necks to get a better view of the first face-to-face meeting of Kazoook with the Empire. A Wookiee officer standing next to Captain Vaspar yipped, "Attention."
The Thalmussen's crew attempted their best to look professional to the arriving guests. If the Imperials noted the threadbare conditions of their uniforms and empty bellies that growled louder with every passing day, then the proud resolve in their eyes would conceal the hardships they had endured. A woman descended the ramp. She was dressed in rather elegant robes with a tall ornamental blue hat which matched the colors of the rest of her outfit. She wore several gold bracelets that dangled from her arms, but had little else in the way of ornamentation. Priscilla thought she was human until she approached a little closer and saw that smooth scales protected the Imperial's muscular skin. A pair of officers followed behind the Imperial representative at the head of a six man squad of soldiers dressed in gray uniforms with large, black bulbous helmets. The human of the pair wore a black uniform with a menacing flexisteel cuirass and a distinctive combat helmet with blast-proof cheek pieces. He looked at the Wookiees as if they were frogs on a dissection table, which gave Priscilla the shivers. The other man, at least Priscilla assumed he was a male, was of a species Priscilla had never encountered before. While wearing a gray naval uniform he was a hairy alien who appeared to be the result of a dog, a cat, a horse, and a human merging into one creature.
The woman shook Vaspar's hand when he offered it, and when she spoke to the Captain she did so with a voice that carried all the way to the civilian crowd in the back of the hangar. "Greetings, citizens of Kazoook. I am Senator Saria of the Imperial Senate. I am here as a representative of Prime Chancellor Runnerz and her most Serene Highness Empress Phasma Yos, whose territory you have . . . um, found yourself in, today."
She must have been trying to find a polite way of saying trespassed or violated, Priscilla thought. Then Priscilla noticed the way the older humans among the Thalmussen's crew reacted and realized why. Wasn't Empress Phasma the same girl the Enterprise II had fled from over twenty years ago? They had left behind an Earth burned to the ground by Phasma's navy and now they found themselves at her mercy once again.
"I bring ill tidings and I have no desire to hide terrible news from you after what I can only imagine was a long and difficult journey between the spiral arms of the Milky Way. The Earth and the Empire are at war."
There was a general commotion in the ranks as sailors murmured and growled amongst each other. The Wookiees weren't as upset as the Earthling colonists, and none more so than the older humans that usually hung around Vaspar after duty. Priscilla shrugged, as all she and her generation had ever heard was that the Earth and the Empire were at war. This was nothing new.
"This is something new." Senator Saria continued. "We believe the forces that assaulted your homeworld and forced you to flee into the coldness of the Void are the same ones that attacked us seven rotations ago at our drive yards at Nal Kuat. Within hours of that attack the Empire was struck by forces from the Confederacy of Earth Nations on the planet Mars."
"How can we believe you? We still don't know if the ships that bombarded Kazoook are some faction of your fleet and were acting under orders from your Empress." Vaspar demanded from the Imperial politician.
"The Empress has been in close communication with Admiral Gentis and myself ever since you appeared here at Jastawui. She has authorized your crew to have full access to the HoloNews as well as up to date broadcasts from the Confederate News Network as we intercept them." The furry alien answered for the Senator.
"And how do I trust the word of an Imperial. I was on Earth when your navy unleashed its bombs and blasters and murdered two billion of us." Vaspar snapped. Priscilla had never seen him lose his cool before.
"This is Lieutenant Commander Saav'hane," Senator Saria said, "Of Naval Intelligence and the Bothan colony on Jastawui. His people are threatened just as much as you are by an outside force."
"Just who is this outside force? What are you concealing from us?" Vaspar asked.
"We know they are allies of President Harris and the Earth." Saria waved her hand at the Imperial in the black uniform. He stepped forward and activated a small palm-sized hologram projector, upon which several images of Earth ships matching the old Enterprise II could be seen alongside massive Star Destroyers blasting an unknown world. "As the Confederacy launched its attack on Mars a concurrent attack by these outsiders was made on our tibanna factory at Earth 5. What you might know as Jupiter. The next day a joint assault, consisting of a massive Earth fleet and several of these mysterious allies of theirs, invaded our colony at New Ryloth. This past week they have been witnessed aiding the CEN invasions of MotherGarden, Cendret VII, Wugosa, Tynyen, Quarzite II and Ord Vairecant. Wherever the Empire has put up a fight, the Earth's Space Force calls these ships forward to destroy whatever impediment we put in their path. They are driving down the Bloodstripe Run and before too long they will be at the doors of the Imperial Palace on Palpatine Prime. What do you think they will do if they find the Kazoookian fugitives that you claim escaped their clutches in Imperial territory? Things have changed on Earth while you've been gone, Captain. Read their news reports, they do not take kindly to alien races. Do you think they will understand your friendship with the Wookiees?
"They sent us out here. They will understand why we need to come back." Vaspar retorted.
Saria chuckled. "Oh, my poor Captain. Who does President Harris need more, a quarter million refugees on a pair of battered Clone War relics? Or his new allies and their shiny new Star Destroyers, which are currently cutting a swath through the best the Empire has to throw at them? I wonder who will destroy you first, the invaders who struck you at Kazoook out of hand, or the Confederacy's Space Force as a matter of concealing their unholy alliance's dirty deeds."
Vaspar didn't have a reply. He looked as if he was mulling over what the Imperial had just told them. This whole voyage seemed like a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Perhaps Kazoook was cursed, Priscilla wondered.
"However, your ultimate fate may not be as bad as you fear. The Empire is willing to grant all Kazoookian refugees asylum for the duration of hostilities. Moff Farnmir of Nal Kuat has been notified of your arrival and the identity of your crews. He is most excited to offer special camps at Nal Kuat to concentrate your population in exchange for labor in repairing the damage inflicted by our enemies at the drive yards there. We have no Wookiees in the Empire, but they were legendary back in our Home Galaxy for their technological prowess and their abilities in starship repair and maintenance. The Empress has already ruled that Kazoookians shall have special protectorate status in the Empire as allies if they choose to do so. However, any that choose to withhold service, shall be allowed to sit out the conflict as they wish. However, it will be in a state of house arrest as you simply cannot be allowed to continue your journey on to Earth and give aide to our enemies. Those that sit out will be fed and housed. Furthermore, the Empire is commandeering the Thalmussen and the Kennedy for defensive purposes. They cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands and used against us. Any crew that chooses to do so, may continue to serve aboard the ships, but a large prize crew will be transferred over shortly to enact repairs and supply enough hypermatter to get you to Nal Kuat. The Immobile will stay with you and prevent any premature jumps to lightspeed, though our scans indicate you do not have enough fuel to get you much past Rodia II. The Ares and Quill are needed elsewhere so the Battle of Honoghr and the Arquitens will provide a security escort. These terms are nonnegotiable, though the Empire is willing to hear all requests and concerns with your crews, Captain." The Senator looked at the skeletal crew standing behind Vaspar, "Starting with provisions. The Empress and the Prime Chancellor want you to know that the Empire is currently at Kazoook's service.
"I don't know what to say. We seem to be at your mercy, but you also have our thanks. We were at the end of our rope out here." Vaspar admitted. "Will our vessels be returned to us if we provide loyal service to the Empire?"
"Both ships, if they survive, which is not a guarantee, shall be returned, as well as enough hypermatter and supplies for you to return to Kazoook, where it is hoped you will maintain friendly relations with the 2nd Galactic Empire." Saria smiled that warm smirk every politician seemed to have mastered from Kazoook to the Empire.
"I imagine my crew will need time to process the current state of affairs. How long do we have to decide?" Vaspar asked.
"We do not want you to make any decisions in haste and will give you two rotations before you commit to a course of action. We would prefer all of you to come to your own decision but if you prefer to command your crew as a whole to follow your orders we shall respect that as well."
"No, everyone should decide their own fate." Vaspar replied, no doubt he was considering what he was going to do.
"Very well. We encourage you to learn from the HoloNet what has happened in the time since you departed and what is currently occurring all along the Bloodstripe. Who knows, perhaps the Confederacy and their murderous allies will be here in a few days with an offer of their own. In which case, I'll most likely be dead and you'll have to deal with your bloodthirsty President."
"So you say. We shall investigate your claims and give you our answers in two days." Vaspar answered the Imperial Senator. They weren't as harsh of terms as the Empire could have offered. They had every right to seize the Kazoookian ships for violating their territory, or they could have blasted them into atoms with that big ship of theirs. Instead they offered help and safe haven, and hopefully, one day, answers as to what had happened at Kazoook the year before.
The Senator and her entourage boarded the shuttle and departed. Outside the hangar more shuttles awaited full of Imperial engineers and supplies, who started to land as soon as the hangar was clear and Vaspar had dismissed his crew to contemplate their individual futures.
They didn't come for Priscilla in two days. In fact, it took the Imperials four days to speak with her. By that time Priscilla and Hapsleeca had already come to a mutual decision.
Vaspar had been one of the first ones the Imperials interviewed. His skepticism of everything the Empire told them was high, but he gave them a fair listen. In the end though, the Earthling Captain led a small faction of mostly older Earthlings into house arrest. Nearly fifty of them, from both ships, would spend the war sitting it out on the sidelines, preferring not to give aide to an Empire they still viewed as an enemy of their home world from a different war twenty years ago.
Chieftain Feyyr led a much larger party. Wookiees made up nearly ninety-eight percent of the two Lucrehulks' crews and passengers. To them the Empire was an ancient enemy, the boogeyman that had hounded their great grandparents out of the Home Galaxy. They did not fear the Imperials or have the institutional hatred Vaspar's faction held for Phasma's troopers. They weren't interested in sitting idle and considered the ship repairing job offer a wonderful chance to learn new techniques and technologies from the Imperial shipwrights. Plus it was the only way to keep them together as a society and offered a chance to return to Kazoook one day. Only a handful of Kazoookians decided to stay with the Lucrehulks and wear the Imperial uniform. Serving the Empire was one thing, but fighting for them was something else entirely.
So it was four days later that Priscilla and Hapsleeca finally found themselves at the front of a long queue of waiting Kazoookians. A bored looking Imperial Naval trooper, they had yet to lay eyes on one of the legendary Stormtroopers, took Priscilla's name and waved her into a conference room the Empire was using for such purposes aboard the Thalmussen.
When Hapsleeca started to enter alongside with Priscilla, the Naval Trooper started to object. "Hey, you can't both go in there. Didn't they teach you how to wait your turn out in the Sagittarius?"
"Sorry, pal. We come as a matched set." Priscilla told the trooper as she pushed the door open.
Inside the room were two Imperials, the man in the black uniform and armor from the Senator's initial meeting a few days ago. and the hairy alien. Priscilla had since learned that he was what was called a Bothan, and the planet nearby, Jastawui, held a colony of almost a hundred thousand of them. The two officers looked past the new arrivals at the Naval Trooper who had followed the two young Kazoookians into the interview room. The Bothan waved the trooper off, "It's alright, Lance Corporal. We can do two this time."
"Might speed things up a tad." The other Imperial added. The Trooper saluted the officers and left the room, closing the door behind him. Priscilla noticed a protocol droid standing in one corner, available for translating Shyriiwook as the need arose. She dismissed the droid. Priscilla could speak for the both of them.
"You are Ensign Priscilla Mayhew, are you not?" The Bothan asked, reading from a stack of files piled high on the desk in front of him.
"Yes, sir." Priscilla saluted. She wasn't sure about the protocol for dealing with the Imperials, but she decided she was better safe than sorry. Happy growled beside her. "And this is my friend Ensign Hapsleeca."
The Bothan pulled the next file after Priscilla off the pile and glanced at it before handing it over to the other Imperial. "I am Lieutenant Commander Yanol Saav'hane from FleetIntel and this is Major Luthrie from the Imperial Security Bureau. No doubt, you know the reason we are conducting these interviews today?"
"Aye, sir. You're giving us the chance of a lifetime." Priscilla answered, excited at the possibility of finally leaving the stinking Thalmussen.
Luthrie chuckled. "Eager to get back to Kazoook?"
"Maybe someday. Right now Happy and I want to see the Galaxy." Priscilla replied.
"Happy? You sound like best friends indeed. Mates from younglinghood?" Saav'hane asked.
"Exactly. Well, Happy here has ninety years on me, but we're at the same mental level according to our teachers back on Kazoook."
"Some species age faster than others." Luthrie stated the obvious. "It says here that both of you became ensigns shortly after the Thalmussen fled Kazoook. Mayhew, you were assigned to steerage as a Helmsmen 5th-class, and Hapsleeca. you were assigned astrocartography at the same rank as Ensign Mayhew here. Why would a ship need five helmsmen?"
"Beats me, sir. Lachichuk, he's the main helmsman, hardly ever let me touch the controls." Priscilla admitted.
"Ah, yes. Lieutenant Lachichuk has opted to go to Nal Kuat and assist with our repairs there." Saav'hane read from yet another file. "I assume, Ensign Hapsleeca, that you will follow the example of Chieftain Feyyr and do the same."
"Just about every other Wook has chosen that path." Luthrie added.
Happy snorted dismissively and said some foul things about what the other Wookiees could do on that path. Priscilla laughed, which earned a concerned look from both of the Imperials who didn't understand Shyriiwook. The Protocol droid chimed in, "Oh, my."
"We'd like to enlist in the Imperial Navy." Priscilla stated, which sent Major Luthrie coughing. Saav'hane's fur rippled in what Priscilla took as delightful surprise.
The Bothan stood up from his chair and looked back and forth from human to Wookiee several times. "You do know the Empire is at war with your homeworld?"
"Kazoook is my homeworld, sir. I was born on the Enterprise II in deep space before we landed there. I've never set eyes on Earth. From what I've read on the HoloNet and seen on CNN the past few days, it doesn't sound like I've missed much." Priscilla said, recalling the stories she had read about President Harris's iron fisted handling of the totalitarian government there and the Confederacy's views on aliens.
"You haven't" Saav'hane and Luthrie replied at the same time.
Luthrie spoke again. "What are you wanting to get out of this? Besides seeing the galaxy?"
"Happy and I, we're not much of the sitting around on our shebs type. We've been going stir crazy inside this tin can for the past year with everyone living on top of each other. These camps of yours, at Nal Kuat, they seem like more of that. No thanks."
"You might be assigned aboard a crowded Star Destroyer or hauling cargo on a class-four container ship. Not exactly exciting duty." Luthrie said.
"Neither is spot-welding frigates in a ship yard." Priscilla said. "Besides, the Empire rescued us. Like Feyyr is doing, we'd like to pay you back. At least until we get enough credits for a ship of our own."
Saav'hane smiled. "Ah, the real reason. Of course, we will have to vet you with a background check and our own eval. There's actually quite a few on the Kennedy that chose the same path. But I don't foresee any problems. You will be assigned to a boot camp at Nal Kuat and reassigned from there. I assume you'll both want to go to the same posting?"
Priscilla and Happy looked at each other eagerly and grinned. "Yes, sirs. We're the best fighting team out of the Sagittarius. It'd do more harm for the Empire to split us up, as we don't work without the other."
"It's a buyer's market with the war on. I suppose that leaves the final question, and the reason these interviews have lasted as long as they have, since this intel wasn't known at our first meeting with Senator Saria's introduction." Saav'hane changed the topic to another matter. The grave tone in his voice indicated it was a critical one. "What can the both of you tell us about the First Order?"
Priscilla and Hapsleeca looked at each other and shrugged. "The first order to do what?"
Luthrie smirked. "The First Order is the name of the fleet that attacked Nal Kuat two weeks ago and as far as we, Captain Vaspar and Chieftain Feyyr can figure, is the same fleet that attacked Kazoook over a year ago."
"We only learned this recently, from intel from our allies inside New Mandalore." Saav'hane added. "Cost us a pretty credit from what I hear, too."
"Are they part of the Old Empire? We've heard the stories. You guys came here a few decades ago and modified yourselves into the new Empire, right?" Priscilla asked.
"Yes and no. We don't know for sure. The Mandalorians haven't learned much from their source, but they do know this First Order came here through a similar 'big jump' like we did twenty-six years ago. What little information we have obtained is rather confusing. Their source says they jumped forty years after us from the same Home Galaxy, though we've been here less than thirty."
"The Wookiees on Kazoook say they jumped here to the Milky Way five hundred years ago but it was only a few years after the Clone Wars and the rise of your Old Empire." Priscilla recited her history teachers' lessons from her Academy days.
The two Imperials looked at each other in shock. Luthrie started. "None of the other Kazoookians have said anything about this."
Priscilla shrugged. "You probably never asked."
"You suppose there was some sort of time-dilation effect?" Saav'hane asked.
"Something for the eggheads to figure out." Luthrie rubbed his chin in deep thought. "Right now, the Empire is on its knees, losing men left and right while we need to decide what to do with these two. It won't be easy. We're going to throw you into the thick of it and you're not going to have anything but each other to get yourselves through it."
"What do you say, ensigns? Certainty of death. Small chance of success." Saav'hane offered his hand.
Priscilla took it and shook it on her's and Hapleeca's behalves. "What are we waiting for?"
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Up Next: The Heart of Darkness