BEYOND THE RIM

BOOK 1

CHAPTER 3: SUB-LIGHT TERROR

As the Ghost drifted harmlessly through the Specter Galaxy, the crew members were in their own bunks, resting, when an alarm blared. The crew woke up, and ran down to the cargo bay, still in their pajamas, Ezra wore a matching light blue shirt and pants pajamas , Zeb just wore his jumpsuit without all the armor pieces, a blindfold, and a nightcap, Sabine was wearing what looked to be an old imperial academy gym uniform shirt with a few paint stains and bloomer shorts, Hera wore a floral nightgown and Kanan wore a long green robe the others kept calling a dress.

When they reached the Cargo bay, they stood in line, Chopper was already in the cargo bay, waiting next to the control panel when he saw the 5 rebels had lined up, he stopped the alarm, he then told the crew the results. "Thirty seconds, a new record." Hera boasted looking at the half-awake crew.

Zeb released a monster yawn, "What's the point of all these drills, we're in the middle of blasted nowhere. There's not a single Bucket head for millions of parsecs!"

Hera rolled her eyes at Zeb. "This is day fourteen we've been drifting towards the coordinates, we could expect anything, if we get too comfortable this whole trip, who knows what damage it can do to our awareness and strength. Think Fast!"

Before anyone could react, Hera threw a red ball towards Zeb, who reacted too slowly, and got a face full of the sphere. The other crew members we're now wide awake as they saw Hera and Chopper reach into a box procuring more of the red balls, and began to toss them towards the others, In the wake of the first volley from the Twi'lek and her droid, Sabine and Ezra gathered the balls began throw them back, Laughter began to fill the room, as the group dogged each other's throws, Chopper threw a ball that hit Kanan right in the stomach, as he went down to the ground. Sabine flanked Hera and Chopper managing to hit the droid, but not before Hera caught the ball in midair and tossed it back at Sabine putting her out of the game. Hera then turned towards Ezra, the two began to stare at each other waiting for the next move, Ezra threw the ball at Hera, she simply moved her head. "Ezra, you know that won't…" before she finished her sentence, she felt a hit on the back of her head, causing her to fall forward, she saw what the boy had done, he used the force to pull the ball back to him, and her head was right in its path. She saw the ball return to the hands of the young Jedi.

Ezra began to chuckle and started spinning the ball on his finger. "Looks like I win."

Hera smiled, and pushed herself back on her feet. "Alright everyone, looks like Ezra wins today. So, winner, what's going to be for breakfast?"

Ezra started flipping the flat cakes in a skillet and when he saw the golden brown crust, he flipped them onto a nearby plate, and drizzled some purple syrup onto the top and let it run down to the sides of the stacks of flat cakes, he then balanced all 5 plates onto his arms and brought them to the table to his hungry friends. The other crew members looked at the spectacle he had just put before them. "Dig in everyone."

Ezra watched as the crew took their first bites, he swore he saw their eyes begin to sparkle. Sabine turned to Ezra first, still with a mouth full of flat cakes "Ezwa, diz iz amazing!"

Kanan made sure to swallow his food first before he commented. "Ezra, where did you learn to cook like this."

Ezra sat down and twirled his knife into position to cut into his portion. "There was this outdoor kitchen in Lothal, I watched the master cooks make them up close, then it was all about acquiring the ingredients and practice. This is my eighth-time making them."

Zeb took one of the flat cakes and ate it in one great bite, once he swallowed the cake he turned towards Ezra. "You should make these more often, kid."

Ezra smiled as he watched the others continue to eat their breakfast. In the cockpit, something phased through the walls, floating in the air, it looked around where it was, and sensed a presence it had not felt in a long time, force sensitives.

Kanan washed his face in the ghost's refresher room, he checked his face in the mirror, he saw some of the hairs on his face began to grow to a noticeable length, he turned his head and began to search for his Vibro Razor, once he found it, he looked back at the mirror, he looked at the reflection and saw a ghastly skeleton figure right behind him, he turned instantly only to find himself alone. Suddenly a loud bang slammed on the door, scaring Kanan and almost sweeping him off his feet, he pointed the razor at the door and turned on its electrical function on, but rather than hearing one kind of monster, he heard another kind. "Hurry up in there! I've been waiting for fifteen minutes!" Zeb roared.

Kanan let out a sigh or relief, and began to shave, "Sorry Zeb, I'm almost done."

Hera and Chopper were in the cargo bay, fixing one of the terminals. "I never imagined having this much free time. When we return to face the empire, the Ghost may have some extra tricks to amaze them."

Chopper chirruped his opinion, Hera just started laughing, "No Chopper, I don't think we're going to give the Phantom a flamethrower."

They continued to work, when all of a sudden, a large box fell over behind them, creating a large crash noise once It hit the ground. Chopper began to squeal, Hera did not seem to mind it, she simply turned around to see if one of her crew members did it. "Sabine, Ezra? Was that you?"

The pilot heard no response from the two kids, and decided to go look herself, she simply walked over towards the box, but bliss turned into fear, as she saw a skeleton hand phase from the Ghost's wall into the vacuum of space, Hera let out a gasp of fear, and almost fell back in terror, but the boxes behind her caught her fall. She rubbed her eyes to see if she was dreaming, she stared at the wall for a moment, and saw nothing. She then felt a sudden pinch, but she recognized who's hard that was.

"Chopper? You saw that too, right?

Chopper let out a series of bleeps in disagreement, Hera wiped the sweat off her brow. "Maybe we've been working for too long, let's get something to drink."

Sabine and Ezra decided to paint one of the walls in the main galley, to look like Lothal. Ezra was glad to be involved in this little project, he never had the chance to help Sabine paint and impressionistic pieces before. Sabine stopped spraying one of the walls and stood back to get a full view, she took a moment to admire her interpretation of the rock formations, then turned to Ezra for his opinion. "Well, how does it look?"

Ezra looked at the vibrant color, despite the low lighting in the ghost, the bright colors Sabine used really compensated for it.

"It looks just like home." Ezra smiled, Sabine really began to notice this was the longest time Ezra has been off world, she began to ponder what will help remind him of home, "You know that old com's tower you lived in?"

Ezra turned to Sabine and smiled, "Like the back of my hand."

Sabine smiled and handed him her airbrush, Ezra took the Mandalorian's tool, and began painting the wall, when the fumes clear, they did not see just a tower, but the decaying face of a skull, before they could react or question what they were looking at, it gave a loud screech. Sabine and Ezra leaped from the floor, covering their ears, and screamed. The screech from the creature was so sharp, everyone in the Ghost heard it, and rushed towards the galley.

Hera and Zeb arrived with Weapons drawn, while Kanan attempted to keep his towel on. They saw the two kids staring at the wall, and saw for only a second, the face withdrawing into the wall. Zeb's eyes widen, "What the Frell Was That!"

Hera turned towards Zeb, "I think I saw it in the cargo hold, I'm not sure what it was…"

She turned her head towards Kanan mid-sentence, and just paused, Kanan saw Hera blush, and realized he was wearing just a towel. Kanan gave Hera a glare to remind her of the urgency of the situation, she slowly turned her head towards Sabine and Ezra. "But… But I think it was something spacers and cargo pilots talked about. They called them Starweirds."

Sabine looked puzzled, she studied all about the history of the galaxy, but never heard of a Starweird. Zeb Clutched his bo-rifle close to him, obviously frightened. "Is…Is it going to eat us!"

Hera tried to calm Zeb down "I've never heard of them eating people, but they are still dangerous."

Zeb's eyes widen; "That thing can phase through walls and scream so loud that the whole galaxy can hear it!"

The walls suddenly creaked, the crew began to look around to see if the Starweird would phase through. Ezra was the first to break the silence; "We need to stick together, if we are separated it will pick us off one by one."

Kanan started thinking. "Well, what are we going to do about me?"

Everyone was reminded of Kanan's lack of apparel. Hera blushed again. "You… You will need to be quick about it. The rest of us will be outside your cabin just in case it phases though the wall."

Kanan began thinking of the worst possible outcome. "But what if…"

Hera blushed even harder. "Yell if you got clothes on, scream if you don't."

Kanan awkwardly nodded and ran towards his quarters and closed the door, the others waited outside with their weapons drawn. Ezra noticed Zeb was shaking. "Don't tell me you're afraid of some space ghost."

Zeb clutched his bo-rifle again. "You were the one squealing like a child!"

Sabine hit Zeb's shoulder, Zeb let out a great scream. When Zeb finished, they heard the screeching, the crew covered their ears, despite their efforts, it was too much to ignore, then they heard Kanan yell. "Guys, It's in here!"

The Crew stormed into Kanan's cabin, and they saw him face-to-face with the Starweird. Without a moment to think, the rebels began to fire all their blasters, the Starwird phased through the all blaster shots, and raised its arm, before the crew could figure out what it was doing, then they felt the ground under them left the bottoms of their feet, and a sudden push them towards the wall behind them. The Starweird then passed through the wall, back into the void.

"Woah!" Sabine exclaimed, "It can use the force!"

Everyone looked to Kanan if he knew about the Starweirds ability in the force, but Kanan had no words to explain what they had just witnessed. "All I can say is that it was after me, it tried to kill me."

Hera began to weigh some options. "The spacers said they lost them by going into hyperspace, but we don't have enough fuel to maintain even a short jump."

Zeb heard the metal siding of the ghost creek. "I don't think we'll be able to fight them either!" he exclaimed.

Ezra was thinking of ideas of his own, when he felt an ice-cold hand grasp his ankle, he looked down to see the hand of a starweird, followed by its deformed face phase though the floor. Without hesitation, Ezra turned on his lightsaber in an attempt to free his leg, he hit the starwirds hand, the starweird let out a bloodcurdling screech as it hand fell, flinching on the cabin floor. The crew was frightened to see the hand still moving, they drew their blaster and fire every bolt they could shoot till it stopped moving. When the smoke cleared, they could barely make out the motionless hand amidst all the carbon scoring. Ezra took deep breaths as he stared at his glowing lightsaber blade. "They aren't immune to lightsabers."

Kanan realized it was the only way they were going to defend themselves and grabbed his lightsaber off the table. "This could work, is it possible we can gain distance from them?"

Hera thought carefully. "We may not have enough fuel to make a hyperspace jump, but if we route all power to the engines, we could be able to outrun them."

Zeb peaked out of Kanan's cabin, only to see four starwierds occupying the main hallway. "Gah! I see four of them between us."

Kanan walked towards the door and in front of Zeb, "Don't worry, Ezra and I can take care of them, just keep close and watch our backs."

The two Jedi drew their lightsabers while the others prepared to run. They ran out of Kanan's cabin, The starweirds screamed and started to hover towards them, Kanan and Ezra began to swing their lightsabers, cutting the starweirds Infront of them to pieces, The starweirds began to point their arms at the jedi, Kanan felt a cold chill running down his spine and he stopped. "Ezra, deflect!"

Ezra was confused, he turned to look at the starweirds, and in a flash, lightning started to come out of their hands, Ezra was just able to raise his lightsaber to block the lightning. The starweirds kept shooting lightning as both Ezra and Kanan began to move forward towards them, being so close, that the starweirds began to fry themselves with their own lighting, till they fell to a chard crisp on the floor. Before any further action could be taken, the crew turned towards Zeb as he began coughing. "Aw! They smell terrible!"

Sabine chuckled. "That's what I thought when I moved in with you."

Zeb's face with blank, before he could find something to fire back with, the others ran past him into the cockpit. He looked at chopper who only gave him a droid equivalent to a shrug, and went for the cockpit. When Zeb and Chopper caught up to the others, he noticed a blank stare on their face. "Hey guys, is everything alright?"

They others, almost machine-like, turned around and said in unison, "We will kill the Lasat and the droid."

Zeb looked out the cockpit, and saw an entire army's worth of starweirds, reaching their hands out, and it looked as though their mouths were moving.

Chopper knew this was not going to end well for both of them, and quickly rolled back behind the door and into a corner, hopping the others did not see him.

Before he could grasp the situation, Kanan swung his lightsaber at Zeb, he was able to dodge the Jedi's lightsaber and grabbed his arm, He began to pull Kanan towards him and punched him in the face, he then leapt towards the controls and began to press any button he could reach, he felt the other grab his leg and attempted to pull him away from the controls, as he felt his grip slipping, he saw the lever for the hyperdrive, with all his effort, he reached out and grabbed the lever as the other pulled him back, taking the lever with him. The hyperdrive revved up, and the ghost jolted into hyperspace, knocking Zeb onto the others behind him and under his back.

Zeb caught his breath as he heard the others groan underneath him, he first heard Hera's voice, less conformed, but angrier, and totally squished. "Garazeb Orrelios! Get off of us!"

With the full effort and the help of the other two specters under his body, they managed to push him off of them. Zeb got to his feet first and looked for the right words before Hera thought of a punishment. "Those things, they put you in some sort of mind trance!"

Hera looked with confusion and she tried to remember, but before she could reach a conclusion Ezra spoke. "I think Zeb was right, I can't recall anything after we got into the cockpit, All I felt was cold."

Sabine also began to bring her own theories to the discussion. "Impossible, Kanan said that mind tricks only work on the weak minded."

Zeb chuckled, "Maybe that's why I was not brainwashed."

He began to regret those words as he saw the frustration in the eyes of the three rebels In front of him, before they could think of creative ways of revenge, they heard Kanan groan

"Ack, I think something broke my nose. Does it look broken?"

Chopper rolled back into the cockpit, he waved his manipulators around and began to play a hologram of all that had happened, the others were shocked to see they were put under a force mind trick to kill their friend.

Kanan sighed "Those creatures were much stronger in the force then we realized, thankfully, we had someone stronger to stop them."

Kanan put his hand on Zeb's shoulder. Hera then stepped forward. "Zeb we're sorry, even though it was not acting as ourselves, but also for the things we said."

The others smiled, but suddenly the Ghost began to shake violently, Hera rushed towards her chair and dropped the ghost out of hyperspace, her attention was drawn to the fuel meter. "Bad news, we're almost out of fuel, I don't think we can drift and keep all the systems running for long we have to start ration…"

Hera paused, she noticed the others we're staring out the window, she turned to se a massive blue, green, tan, and white planet In Front of them, she took a moment to stare at it, before looking at the Navi-computer, she then turned again to the others,

"We're here. I think we might have enough fuel to reach the surface."

The crew stood together again, staring at the planet Kanan looked to where the computer was aiming for them to go. "Alright specters, prep for an op."

The Ghosts engines rang alive and began to take the crew towards the surface, into a new adventure.