BEYOND THE RIM

BOOK 1

CHAPTER 2: HYPER-RAPTURE

Through the kaleidoscope of lights and patterns, the Ghost was nothing in the void on its way to an unknown destination. Inside the two Jedi took the opportunity of newly acquired free time to spar in the Ghost's cargo hold, while Sabine and Hera watched from the platform above, while Zeb and Chopper were tinkering on the speeder bikes the crew had in the middle of the chaos. Ezra was able to parry every swing Kanan threw at him, Kanan lunged forward with a swing, Ezra raised his saber to block, the two blades collided, and flashes of light emanated from the contact point. Ezra turned his head to see Hera and Sabine watching, he gave a wide smile, he then turned back towards his master and pushed forward, breaking the lock.

Kanan stood back and wiped the sweat from his brow, "Your skills are improving, Ezra. Just keep focused."

Ezra just smiled and blocked another swing of Kanan's Lightsaber. "Without the Empire on our tail, I can say the focus part is a piece of cake."

The two lunged at each other and locked their sabers together, Ezra quickly duck down and swept Kanan leg with his foot, knocking Kanan to the ground, before Kanan could get up, Ezra pointed his Lightsaber at his master's face.

Kanan just smiled as Ezra deactivated his lightsaber and reached out his hand. "Alright Ezra, you win this round."

Ezra ran his hand through his hair with a cheerful expression on his face.

Hera clapped her hands, catching everyone's attention, "Alright, I'm going to start on supper, we'll eat in thirty minutes, make sure you guys wash up. And please, don't waste all the hot water."

She made her way to the ladder and climbed up to the upper levels, Zeb grabbed the nearest rag he could find and wiped the oil off his hands, while Kanan made his way towards the ladder, but Ezra noticed Sabine, looking out the forward turret window of the Ghost, just staring into Hyperspace. "Hey Sabine?"

Sabine quaked at the sound of Ezra's voice, and turned around with a pale look on her face, as if she had seen a ghost. "Oh Ezra, it's just you."

Ezra clearly saw Sabine's uneasiness and asked. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything is okay, no need to worry kid." She folded her arms, looked down and walked away from the window, nudging Ezra on the way.

Ezra looked out the window Sabine was staring out of, his eyes were focused on the spinning patterns, he felt as though he was falling into a trance, but before he felt it fill his eyes, he felt something pull him back into reality, he turned his head away from the window and never looked back, he somehow lost most of his breath, and was sweating again, he was almost tempted to look out the window, but overcame it and made his way towards the ladder.

The crew had gathered in the galley, Ezra was the last one to enter, he saw the others sitting at the table, laughing. His eyes turned towards Hera, he was surprised to see her wearing a colorful apron, loading multiple plates with foodstuff.

Since they decided they would be far away from the nearest Stormtrooper, they could actually have real food rather than relying on space waffles and ration bars.

Hera carried the 5 plates to the table, putting them before each member.

Kanan saw Ezra standing in the doorway. "Ezra, come on, you don't want to have this go cold."

Ezra sat at the table, next to Zeb, it was a tight fit, but they made it work, Hera pulled up a spare chair and sat at the table, Ezra took a spoonful of the foodstuff and put it into his mouth, he felt like his taste buds just snuck into one of Lothal's best restaurants.

Kanan also finished his first bite and had the same reaction, Hera smile at their reactions and looked at her plate to find a juicy portion of Nerf steak.

Chopper began to beep, as if he had opinions on Hera's cooking as well, Kanan then turned to Chopper with doubt on his face, "Wait, you can't eat food, how can you know the taste?"

Everyone started laughing, even Chopper. Everyone, accept Sabine, who hadn't even touched her food. Hera took noticed and turned towards Sabine. "Sabine?"

Sabine looked around, she saw everyone looking at her, she took deep breaths, her eyes turned towards the food in front of her, she started to make her way off the bench, "Thanks... but I'm not hungry. I think I need to go lie down."

Everyone watched as she began to walk out of the galley, shaking with each step, when she left the room and the door closed, everyone was silent for a moment. Kanan was the first to break the silence. "Is she alright?"

Hera tried to recall the past few days and found her reply. "I haven't noticed any symptoms since our trip began, but maybe…"

Ezra remembered at the beginning of the trip, Kanan mentioned something about Hyper-rapture, he then interrupted Hera with his discovery. "I saw Sabine staring out the window after my training, maybe she caught Hyper-rapture."

Ezra saw the expression of Hera and Kanan's face, it looked like they had seen death face to face, the two stepped away from the table, and dashed towards Sabine's room. Ezra turned to Zeb, who only shrugged and the two also stood up and made their way to Sabine's room.

When they arrived, they were stopped by Kanan and Hera, blocking the doorway, also looking inside her room. They saw Sabine curled on the floor; her eyes were wide open, expressionless.

Hera was the first one to step into the room, approaching slowly, without saying a word, she slowly reached out her hand and attempted to tap Sabine on the shoulder, when her hand made contact, Sabine let out a bloodcurdling scream, making everyone jump back.

Hera regained her footing and continued walking towards Sabine, whispering. "It's alright, your safe here, everything is going to be okay."

Sabine breathed heavily, Hera helped her off the floor and carried her to her bunk, she then tucked her in, Sabine turned her gaze towards Hera, Sabine's breath returned to a normal rate a few moments later, she then closed her eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

Hera turned towards the others, "Find out all the ways to treat hyper-rapture, we are going to be in hyperspace for several days, and we can't afford it getting worse, I'll stay here and keep an eye on her."

Kanan simply nodded and motioned for the others to follow him.

"Hyper-Rapture." Kanan read his typing aloud as he entered the word into the Holo-net search engine, soon the screen was overrun with a thousand results; History of Hyper-Rapture, Hyper-Rapture the opera, Hyper-Rapture, ten things you didn't know. Kanan began to scroll through the results, and eventually found a page published by a medical site.

"Here we are." He exclaimed.

He started to skim through the article, near the bottom he stopped and read the section aloud "The best way to treat hyper-rapture is to stop your ships travel in hyperspace and travel at sub light till the symptoms pass. If you do not stop, the madness will get worse, and may cause permanent damage to physical and mental state."

Ezra saw the solution simple; "Alright, so we just stop the ship for a while and wait till she gets better."

Kanan turned and looked at Ezra, Ezra could tell there was already a problem, "I wish that it can be that easy, if we drop in and out of hyperspace, we'll only end up losing more fuel, and won't have any to make it back."

Zeb look towards the main consoles fuel gage and pointed at it "Are you sure we'll even have enough for a return trip?"

The others looked at the gage as it was already at the halfway mark.

Kanan stood up from the terminal and said to the others "We'll have to tell Hera."

Kanan and Zeb left the room, but before Ezra left the room with them, he turned towards the cockpit window, staring out at hyperspace again, he felt as though there was something out there, stalking them, before he felt like he was falling into another trance, he looked away and exited the room.

Hera looked at Sabine resting, and turned towards the others, "We have less than fifty percent of fuel left in our tank, if we stop and switch to sub light, we will still be able to reach the planet, but..."

She looked down at her feet, trying to muster the rest of her sentence, she looked at the others, waiting for her to finish, she finally was able to finish the sentence. "We won't have enough fuel for a return trip."

Zeb slammed his fist into a nearby table. "Karabast! We're going to be stranded out there are we!?"

Hera turned towards Sabine, making sure she was not awakened by Zeb, she saw Sabine was still sleeping. She turned back to Zeb. "Don't worry, I think I have a plan for that. We can send a message to Fulcrum; she and Commander Sato will have ships with enough fuel to be able to reach us and take us back."

Ezra remembered meeting the mysterious Fulcrum weeks ago, the former Jedi known as Ahsoka Tano who rescued them from Mustafar. He then added to Hera's argument; "So, we'll stay in hyperspace, contact Ahsoka, and just carry on."

Hera nodded her head. "I'll go make contact with Phoenix Squadron." Hera began to make her way to the cockpit.

Chopper joined her and opened a communication channel on the ghost's main terminal in the cockpit, Ahsoka came in on the other end, she began to speak.

"This is Fulcrum, what's wrong?"

Hera looked at the Torgruta and began to state their problem. "We're taking an extra-long operation to a planet at these coordinates, we won't have enough fuel to return back to Lothal or the habited areas of the outer regions of the galaxy, we'll send a distress call out once we've completed our mission."

Ahsoka looked at Hera with confusion. "What is so vital at these coordinates to take such a risk?"

Hera answered. "We received a distress call from a lost Jedi Master named Jon Khan, do you know him?"

Ahsoka was surprised, her arms uncrossed and feel to her sides as she pondered on her former Jedi years. "I remember Master Khan, he was a bit of or renegade, he never really had a firm belief in the Jedi way of conduct, much like my master, but he was effective general during the clone wars, when the news reached us of his disappearance, we mourned him as if he was dead."

Hera looked Ahsoka in the eyes and gave her a cheerful smile. "I bet he'll like to see a familiar face once he gets back."

Ahsoka returned the smile to Hera, "May the force be with you."

The hologram disappeared back into its projector. Before Hera could leave the room, she looked at the Ghost's cockpit window, she saw the lights swirling and bending, she did not move or make any sounds, she just stood there and stared.

The others were waiting near Sabines bed, looking at the resting Mandalorian, when they heard distressful beeps from Chopper, Ezra and Kanan dashed towards the Ghost's cockpit and saw Hera pulling at Chopper violently, ripping off lose panels bare handed.

"Hera!" Kanan shouted, Hera looked at the two Jedi and Hissed, without warning she leaped on Kanan, knocking him to the ground, she pounced on top of him and tried to scratch at him, although she was wearing gloves, causing little harm to Kanan.

Suddenly a zap of electricity shocked Hera out of her trance, she fell down on top of Kanan, he looked at Hera, she was stunned by chopper's electro-shock prod, Kanan got back on his feet, and threw Hera's arm around his shoulder.

"What happened! She was like a crazed Loth-Cat!" Ezra exclaimed.

Kanan grunted, "I don't know, if she doesn't tear my face off when she wakes up, we can ask her."

Moments passed, they watched over Hera, her eyes were shut, and she was not moving, Zeb tried to put his hand on her forehead, only waking up Hera who reacted by punching him in the face as she gasped for air, frantically she asked; "What... What happened?"

Zeb tried to relocate his nostrils and tried to speak "We we're hoping you would answer that for us."

She looked at her fist that just undercut Zeb's nose and thought for a moment.

"I… Can't recall, the last thing I remember was staring out the window…"

Ezra approached Hera and held her hand. "You almost ripped Chopper and Kanan apart, like a Loth cat."

Kanan joined in with his conclusion. "It's Hyper-Rapture. Hera, this has affected Sabine, and its affected you, we have to drop out of hyperspace, or we could risk both of you losing your minds, or risk all of us from catching it too."

Hera thought to herself, weighing the options and their consequences, she looked down in doubt, but Kanan reached out for her hand, and looked her in the eyes.

She looked at the other members of her crew, knowing the challenges they faced and will face, and how they've always found a way to overcome the obstacles.

She closed her eyes and smiled. "Kanan, if you trust us all, drop the Ghost out of hyperspace, we'll travel at a drifting speed."

Kanan kissed Hera's hand. "As you wish my lady."

Kanan walked to the Ghost's cockpit, and put his hand on the lever that controlled the hyperdrive, he suddenly lacked the courage to pull the lever, knowing they may not last in the unknown, but he soon felt Ezra's and Zeb's hands join the lever, then Hera's and shockingly, Sabine's, they looked at the Mandalorian, still covered in a blanket, she smiled at the older Jedi, he returned the smile, he then looked forward, and in unison, they pulled the lever, the ghost dropped out of hyperspace, in a space between stars.

They looked straight ahead, in front of the window, seeing a small cluster of stars, nebulas, and color. Ezra looked at the display of the starts in front of them. "So, it's true, it is another galaxy."

Sabine looked at all the color and turned to the others. "If this is really uncharted space, how about we give this galaxy a name? How does, The Specter Galaxy sound to you guys?"

The others chuckled for the moment.

Hera ran her hand though Sabine's hair. "That actually sounds good. The Specter Galaxy." They continue to view the new galaxy though the front cockpit, as the Ghost slowly drifted towards its destination.