"He didn't leave a number or anything?"
I shook my head. "No."
Across from me, Soonta was sitting in the near-empty mess hall, picking at a plate of fruits, though neither of us were particularly hungry.
"So, what're you going to do?" he asked after a moment of silence.
I shrugged. "I don't know. Probably stay on board until they need me for a mission."
"You're not going after him?"
"I tried convincing him, but he's more stubborn than I am. If he wants to come back, he will." I sighed. "Anyway, I have no idea where he'd be. It really was stupid of him to do that, you know? We're wanted on virtually every planet in the galaxy. Where could he go?"
Soonta popped a berry in his mouth. "It's a big galaxy," he said.
"Yeah." I stared at the table. "This isn't the life I hoped for, when I came to train as a Jedi."
"Nor I," agreed Soonta. "But this is the life we chose."
I laughed ruefully. "I used to think about how my life would be different, if I hadn't gone with Master Altis that morning."
"And? Where would it have left you?"
I shrugged. "I'd probably be married, three kids, stifling myself under my uncle's business. Never leaving the planet. Never experiencing the galaxy as I have." I looked at Soonta. "What about you?"
Soonta sighed. "I would have given up long ago. It may be a hard life, but it's the life I'm meant to live. "Both of us." He looked deep into my eyes. "You will do great things, Callista, that much I'm sure of. All you have to do is hang in there. It will come to you." He smiled. "Destiny's funny that way."
For a few weeks I believed I could fool myself into believing that Geith was just out on a mission, or in the next room. If I poked my head into the bedroom, he'd be there, dozing, with a bookplate rising and falling on his chest. But every time I did, the sheets were only as rumpled as I had left them. After a week or so, I started sleeping in the chair or on the floor, leaving the bed straightened, some kind of trap.
As a method of distraction, or perhaps not at all, I accepted the Council's assignment to catalog all the names of the deceased Jedi as they came in. The archives filled and Geith's name never appeared.
And then he did, two weeks later, in Master Altis' office.
"Djinn," I said (as we became fellow Jedi, I was no longer required to call him 'Master,' or so he said.) "I've got another transmission ready for the archives. Do you mind if I-" and then I noticed Geith's large form filling the chair opposite his desk. He didn't turn around, but his head dipped considerably, when I spoke. At the moment I wanted nothing more than to kiss him and then kick his head right off his shoulders for leaving in the first place.
Instead, I backed up a step and turned on my heel. "I didn't know you had company. I'll come back later."
"Just a moment, Callista," Djinn said, invoking his tone that allowed no argument. "You should be here."
Cursing under my breath, I turned and sat down beside Geith, but I refused to look at him, even after I felt his eyes burning into my cheek.
"Geith has information that I think you should hear," Djinn said. "Apparently, Palpatine isn't finished with Belsavis. He knows there are still Jedi there, and he wants to be rid of them."
"So we evacuate them," I suggested.
Geith shook his head. "He'll just find us again. We need to take them out before he takes us out."
Finally, I glared at him. "Perhaps you've forgotten that we do not take the offensive."
He shrugged. "They did attack us first."
I sighed and shook my head.
"He does have a point, Callista," Djinn said. "Palpatine has a large battleship built in the Moonflower Nebula. He calls it the Eye of Palpatine."
"Creative," I deadpanned.
"I'm not sure how much longer we've got before it kicks into gear," Geith said. "Whoever you get to run this mission, we should leave soon."
Djinn folded his hands. "I was under the impression that you were finished with the Jedi, Geith."
Geith shrugged. "I'm not doing this for the Jedi. I'm doing this for my daughter they killed." He looked at me. "And for they life they took from me."
My cheeks burned, and I stared down at my hands.
Djinn looked at the two of us. "Why don't you two go and discuss this? I do suggest you hurry, however. We are on a timetable."
I nodded, and stood abruptly. Geith followed me out of Djinn's office. I was burning with furious embarrassment. I felt ridiculous facing him again.
"Callie! Callie, wait-"
Geith caught up to me and grabbed my arm, tightly, so I couldn't wrench away. "Will you just listen to me for a minute?" He turned me around to face him. "Let me explain."
"What's to explain?" I said. "You gave me a choice, I made it, you left. It seems pretty straightforward to me." I tried to keep walking.
"No, wait-" He pilled me into a side hall, so narrow our bodies were pressed together. "I was confused, Callie. I was scared. You can't say you weren't too. I'm sorry I left. I meant to call, but-"
"-but what?" I snampped. "Geith, I didn't know where you were-" I paused to swallow my tears."
"I'm sorry, baby, he said, taking me by surprise when he wrapped his arms around me. What surprised me even more was that I hugged him back, burying my face in his shoulder.
"I will never leave you again," he said. "I promise."
Coming to my senses, I pushed him away. "How am I supposed to believe you now? How am I supposed to trust you?"
Geith ran his finger through his hair desperately. "Callie, I've never given you a reason not to trust me before-"
"Evin," I corrected.
"Well, okay, but we sorted that out! You now I had nothing to do with any of it. My point is," he continued, putting his hands on my shoulders. "You've always been able to trust me. If you believe that's true, then you can trust me now."
Well, he had me there.
I sighed. "Hold still," I said, raising my hands to either side of his head and reaching through the Force. I hated it, using the Force to read his mind, but it was a foolproof method.
I rose on tiptoe and kissed him, pressing closer in one meager space.
"What is that?"
"One of the newer Incom designs." Geith stroked the hull like it was a pet. "It's called a Y-wing."
I regarded the battered Y-wing incredulously. "Newer?" I repeated.
"It's been loved."
I smiled and tossed our supplies into the cargo hold. "That's all of it," I said, standing up and wiping my hands on my pants. "Let's go."
"Just a minute."
Geith and I turned around to see Djinn and Soonta coming towards us.
"You're leaving, then?" Djinn asked
I nodded. "We didn't expect a good-bye party."
Soonta shrugged. "It was supposed to be a surprise."
I smiled and hugged him. "We'll see you later. We'll be back before the month's out.
Soonta squeezed me once before releasing me. "I'll miss you," he said, and turned to Geith.
Djinn smiled warmly and we bowed, formally. "Thank you for everything, Master," I said, reaching out to hug him.
"I'm very proud of you, Callista. You've done well." He patted my shoulder. "It is an honor to have been your Master."
I smiled and looked over my shoulder. "It's time for us to leave."
Djinn nodded. "May the Force be with you both, then."
I nodded, and bounded to the ship. I climbed up the ladder and before closing the hatch, I waved once more to Soonta and Djinn. Then Geith lifted off , and we slowly crawled into space. I sat in the gunner's chair of the Y-wing, watching the Chu'unthor grow smaller and smaller. I remembered coming here, five years ago, watching as we came in.
How much had changed.
"Callie?" Geith said over his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"Whatever happens, baby, I swear I won't leave you. Okay? I promise. And I still want to marry you, if we live through this."
I smiled and squeezed his hand between the chairs. "We'll live through it," I said. "I love you."
"I love you too."
As I sank back into my trance, I left my hand intertwined with Geith's.
"Callie, wake up."
Geith squeezed my fingers to bring me back to consciousness. I blinked and sat up, trying vainly to stretch in our meager space.
"Are we there yet?" I said.
"This is where the coordinates said they'd be, but all there is here is a bunch of asteroids."
I craned my neck to look out Geith's viewport. All around u, I saw thousands of asteroids. Pink and oranges gassed settled like a gateway around them and through them.
"This is the Moonflower Nebula?" I asked.
"The very same."
"How do we know what to look for?"
"I would say, look for something big," he replied.
I reached over his shoulder and flicked on his scanner. "Wow. There really is not much of anything out-"
The blast of a turbolaser came out of nowhere, knocking our Y-wing off course.
"What the hell!" Geith cursed and tried to grad us back on course. I, thrown back in my seat, scanned the asteroids for our assailants.
Nothing.
Another shot.
"Where are they coming from?" I cried, augmenting the shields. Geith hauled the ship around and headed for the source of the attack.
"That has to be it!" Geith shouted, keeping our bucking ship under weak control. "Hold on!"
I scanned the field for the next laser blast, and finally my eyes rested on an asteroid, larger than the others around it. Lasers erupted from it, faster and faster.
"There!" I said, pointing above us. "It's one of the asteroids!"
"What?"
"It's disguised! Pull up!"
Geith wheeled the ship up ninety degrees and headed straight toward the asteroid, firing the turbolasers.
"We need to land!" I said. "Can you get close enough?"
"Gimme a minute," Geith replied, making adjustments to the control panel and accelerated closer to the asteroid. We bucked and dodged lasers and asteroids; Geith even spun the limited Y-wing to keep us from being reduced to atoms. Still we were hit more than once, the super-concentrated energy blackening the hull and sending sheets of flaming metal in all directions.
"Geith!" I cried as our stabilizer gave out, sending us into a perpetual spin.
"I know!" he yelled over the blaring alarms. "Hang on! I can get us down."
Steering against the lack of our stabilizer, Geith pulled us out of the spin. By then we were close enough to see the docking bays built into the craters of the asteroid. Somehow Geith managed to direct us to one, setting us down none too gently. He quickly powered down the ship to keep it from overheating.
"Are you all right?" Geith asked.
I unstrapped my crash webbing and pushed on the cockpit cover to lift it. "I'm fine. You?"
"Ready to get out of this tank," he replied.
He slung himself over the side and landed lightly on the deck. I followed him letting him catch me and set me down. I looked around. The docking bay was virtually empty, devoid of any life, apart from Geith and I.
"Where is everyone?" Geith wondered aloud.
I reached out, probing the entire ship for life. Then, in disbelief, I shook my head. "That's impossible," I muttered, reaching out farther and getting the same results.
"What?"
"There's no one else on this ship," I said. "It's completely empty."
"So, if there's no one here, mission accomplished, right? Or at least a false alarm."
I shook my head, casting a sodium bean ahead of us in the deserted corridor. "These are droids. Haven't you seen them? Nothing special, but they're running this ship, I think."
Geith shuddered. "This place gives me the creeps," he said. "It feels like a tomb."
We kept walking, our footsteps echoing in the cavernous hall. "If we could find a terminal," I said, but didn't finish the sentence. An MSE skittered across the hall in front of us.
"A cleaning droid," I marveled. "To clean up after whom?"
Geith shook his head. "Maybe they're expecting company."
"Maybe," I said.
The MSE whirred to a stop in front of one of the doors lining the halls. The door slid open and the tiny droid disappeared inside.
"Catch the door before it closes!" I said, running for the door and reaching for it, mentally catching it and holding it open.
The interior was furnished like an office, with a desk, holopad, and a console.
"Score," Geith said, slipping into the desk chair. As he typed furiously, I stuck my head out into the hall. No guards, as I knew there wouldn't be. There was a plaque beside the door I hadn't noticed during my flight. It read, in basic, COMMANDER'S QUARTERS.
"Did you see this?" I asked.
"What, the plaque? Yeah," he replied, not looking up from his typing.
"That means there has been-or will be-people on board."
"Aw, come on!" Geith said. I looked back to see him smack the console screen with the heel of his hand.
"What?" I asked, coming around to read the screen:
ALL SYSTEMS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WILL. NO FURTHER INFORMATION IS NECESSARY.
"The Will," he repeated. "What is that?"
Geith shrugged. He typed in MISSION STATEMENT
PURPOSE OF THIS INFORMATION
TIMETABLE STATUS
TIME OF HYPERSPACE DEPLOYMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH PARAMETERS OF THE WILL. MISSION ON SCHEDULE.
"What the hell..." I muttered. "Hyperspace jump?"
"To pick up troops, maybe?" Geith suggested.
"Of course. To keep the mission, completely secret until..." I bit my lip. "We can't let this thing go into hyperspace."
Geith nodded. "How long do you think we have?"
Before I could answer, I heard a mechanical whirring in the hallway. "Shhh," I said, creeping to the door and peeking outside. The whirring grew louder and louder until at last two large droids turned down the hallway.
"Sithspawn," I whispered, and ducked back into the office. "Get your blaster ready," I said. "We might have to fight."
Geith sat up. "What?"
"Shhhh!" I said again, and mouthed, "droids." I ducked back into the office and closed the door, leaving it open only a sliver to see through. Geith came closer to the door, blaster drawn. He peered over my shoulder, breathing heavily.
"We can't let them corner us in here," he said.
"So what do you suggest, run? They'll gun us down the minute we get into the hall."
"We can risk it. Come on!"
He burst into the hall, and fired on the droids.
"Geith, wait!" I yelled. I ran after him to cover him so we could escape. "Run!" I shouted, lifting my blade to deflect another bolt. "I'll catch up!"
Geith took several back pedaling steps, but didn't go far. I summoned the Force and sent a huge shove of power at the patrol droids. They fell back like saplings in the wind. We ran down the hallway, searching for cover. Before long, however, more patrol droids were tailing us, firing all around us. Pain shot through my side, a gnawing ache that made me double over. Geith pulled me along, keeping me up. "There!" I shouted. "That maintenance door!"
Geith took aim and blew a hole in the door. We leapt through the hole into darkness and heat. We took over beneath the metal gangplank and laid still. When the patrol droids didn't follow, we sat up and breathed relief.
"Well, that was fun," Geith said.
After I'd caught my breath, I took in our surroundings. It was hot and humid. We were sitting on a catwalk, above a huge, steaming vat. "What is it?" I breathed, holding my hand to my nose to block the sour smell.
Geith sniffed. "Enzyme tank."
Then the droids pushed through the hole in the wall, trying to follow us, but their bulk was too large. The nearest one swung its arm blindly, firing madly in all directions. I raised my lightsaber to hack of the arm, but before I could, the droid have one final heave and broke through the hole.
Geith and I backed up rapidly. Suddenly, there was no ground beneath my feet. I screamed and fell down towards the enzyme tank. As I fell, I knocked my forehead against the sharp edge. The room spun in all directions, even worse than before. Stars floated around my head.
"No!" Geith grabbed my arm, stopping my fall. With his other hand, he emptied his blaster into the patrol doing. They collapsed, smoking and sparking, one by one over my head and splashing into the tank below.
Gasping, Geith looked down at me, dangling below him. "You all right?"
I nodded. "Pull me up!"
He did, and helped me brush off. "Oh, your head..." he breathed, wiping blood from my forehead. "Come on, let's get our stuff. We need to find a new place to hole up."
Very carefully, we crept back into the hall and cautiously made our way back.
"How can we pull this off?" Geith muttered, checking a cross hall before continuing.
"We need to find a weak spot," I said. "Some vulnerable point that we can get through. But this will is going to make that difficult."
"Watch out!" Geith and I ducked through the nearest door as two patrol droids came into the hall. I sealed the door behind us, and looked around.
"What is this?"
I joined Geith in the center of the room and looked up. The roof went up at least ten, maybe fifteen meters, a high shaft wire with circuits and blinking lights. "Computer core," I replied. The same idea came to both of us at the same time.
"This is it," Geith said, and I nodded.
"The weak spot," I added, but then I frowned. "They can't possibly just leave this so open," I muttered. Looking around, I picked up a spanner resting benignly on the floor, and hurled it up into the shaft. Nothing happened for a few moments, but then the shaft erupted in automatic blaster fire. The spanner dropped back to the floor, a smoking semi-solid piece of metal. "An enclision grid."
"Right," Geith said decisively. "Looks like we'll need to find another way." He started back for the door.
"No," I said, holding up my hand. "This is it."
"Callie, imagine what that grid will do to us!" Geith argued. "We'd be cooked. I'm not going up there, and I'm sure as hell not letting you go!"
I sighed. "What else can we do, Geith?" I asked, staring at him, and he shrugged.
"I say we go for help," he said.
"We can't!" I protested. "We have no idea when this thing's gonna take off!"
"We can't take it on ourselves!"
"Just give me time," I pleaded. "I can figure it out."
Geith sighed. "We may not have time!" he said.
"Then why are we sitting her arguing?" I asked, then walked over to him. "Geith, these people killed our daughter," I said, putting a hand on his chest. "I'm not going to just run away. I am going to see this through." I looked up into his eyes. They were pained at Kara's memory.
"Please?" I asked.
He nodded. "Okay," he said. "Okay."
Holding my hand against my bleeding forehead, we cautiously made our way to our quartermaster's office.
"Let's get something for that," Geith said. "I have a-" his voice trailed off, and he looked at me with confusion.
"What is it?" I asked, just as confused as he looked. I looked into the office and gasped.
All our supplies were gone.
"It's the Will," I said. It's working against us."
Geith nodded. "It's hunting us."
I shook my head. "No."
Across from me, Soonta was sitting in the near-empty mess hall, picking at a plate of fruits, though neither of us were particularly hungry.
"So, what're you going to do?" he asked after a moment of silence.
I shrugged. "I don't know. Probably stay on board until they need me for a mission."
"You're not going after him?"
"I tried convincing him, but he's more stubborn than I am. If he wants to come back, he will." I sighed. "Anyway, I have no idea where he'd be. It really was stupid of him to do that, you know? We're wanted on virtually every planet in the galaxy. Where could he go?"
Soonta popped a berry in his mouth. "It's a big galaxy," he said.
"Yeah." I stared at the table. "This isn't the life I hoped for, when I came to train as a Jedi."
"Nor I," agreed Soonta. "But this is the life we chose."
I laughed ruefully. "I used to think about how my life would be different, if I hadn't gone with Master Altis that morning."
"And? Where would it have left you?"
I shrugged. "I'd probably be married, three kids, stifling myself under my uncle's business. Never leaving the planet. Never experiencing the galaxy as I have." I looked at Soonta. "What about you?"
Soonta sighed. "I would have given up long ago. It may be a hard life, but it's the life I'm meant to live. "Both of us." He looked deep into my eyes. "You will do great things, Callista, that much I'm sure of. All you have to do is hang in there. It will come to you." He smiled. "Destiny's funny that way."
For a few weeks I believed I could fool myself into believing that Geith was just out on a mission, or in the next room. If I poked my head into the bedroom, he'd be there, dozing, with a bookplate rising and falling on his chest. But every time I did, the sheets were only as rumpled as I had left them. After a week or so, I started sleeping in the chair or on the floor, leaving the bed straightened, some kind of trap.
As a method of distraction, or perhaps not at all, I accepted the Council's assignment to catalog all the names of the deceased Jedi as they came in. The archives filled and Geith's name never appeared.
And then he did, two weeks later, in Master Altis' office.
"Djinn," I said (as we became fellow Jedi, I was no longer required to call him 'Master,' or so he said.) "I've got another transmission ready for the archives. Do you mind if I-" and then I noticed Geith's large form filling the chair opposite his desk. He didn't turn around, but his head dipped considerably, when I spoke. At the moment I wanted nothing more than to kiss him and then kick his head right off his shoulders for leaving in the first place.
Instead, I backed up a step and turned on my heel. "I didn't know you had company. I'll come back later."
"Just a moment, Callista," Djinn said, invoking his tone that allowed no argument. "You should be here."
Cursing under my breath, I turned and sat down beside Geith, but I refused to look at him, even after I felt his eyes burning into my cheek.
"Geith has information that I think you should hear," Djinn said. "Apparently, Palpatine isn't finished with Belsavis. He knows there are still Jedi there, and he wants to be rid of them."
"So we evacuate them," I suggested.
Geith shook his head. "He'll just find us again. We need to take them out before he takes us out."
Finally, I glared at him. "Perhaps you've forgotten that we do not take the offensive."
He shrugged. "They did attack us first."
I sighed and shook my head.
"He does have a point, Callista," Djinn said. "Palpatine has a large battleship built in the Moonflower Nebula. He calls it the Eye of Palpatine."
"Creative," I deadpanned.
"I'm not sure how much longer we've got before it kicks into gear," Geith said. "Whoever you get to run this mission, we should leave soon."
Djinn folded his hands. "I was under the impression that you were finished with the Jedi, Geith."
Geith shrugged. "I'm not doing this for the Jedi. I'm doing this for my daughter they killed." He looked at me. "And for they life they took from me."
My cheeks burned, and I stared down at my hands.
Djinn looked at the two of us. "Why don't you two go and discuss this? I do suggest you hurry, however. We are on a timetable."
I nodded, and stood abruptly. Geith followed me out of Djinn's office. I was burning with furious embarrassment. I felt ridiculous facing him again.
"Callie! Callie, wait-"
Geith caught up to me and grabbed my arm, tightly, so I couldn't wrench away. "Will you just listen to me for a minute?" He turned me around to face him. "Let me explain."
"What's to explain?" I said. "You gave me a choice, I made it, you left. It seems pretty straightforward to me." I tried to keep walking.
"No, wait-" He pilled me into a side hall, so narrow our bodies were pressed together. "I was confused, Callie. I was scared. You can't say you weren't too. I'm sorry I left. I meant to call, but-"
"-but what?" I snampped. "Geith, I didn't know where you were-" I paused to swallow my tears."
"I'm sorry, baby, he said, taking me by surprise when he wrapped his arms around me. What surprised me even more was that I hugged him back, burying my face in his shoulder.
"I will never leave you again," he said. "I promise."
Coming to my senses, I pushed him away. "How am I supposed to believe you now? How am I supposed to trust you?"
Geith ran his finger through his hair desperately. "Callie, I've never given you a reason not to trust me before-"
"Evin," I corrected.
"Well, okay, but we sorted that out! You now I had nothing to do with any of it. My point is," he continued, putting his hands on my shoulders. "You've always been able to trust me. If you believe that's true, then you can trust me now."
Well, he had me there.
I sighed. "Hold still," I said, raising my hands to either side of his head and reaching through the Force. I hated it, using the Force to read his mind, but it was a foolproof method.
I rose on tiptoe and kissed him, pressing closer in one meager space.
"What is that?"
"One of the newer Incom designs." Geith stroked the hull like it was a pet. "It's called a Y-wing."
I regarded the battered Y-wing incredulously. "Newer?" I repeated.
"It's been loved."
I smiled and tossed our supplies into the cargo hold. "That's all of it," I said, standing up and wiping my hands on my pants. "Let's go."
"Just a minute."
Geith and I turned around to see Djinn and Soonta coming towards us.
"You're leaving, then?" Djinn asked
I nodded. "We didn't expect a good-bye party."
Soonta shrugged. "It was supposed to be a surprise."
I smiled and hugged him. "We'll see you later. We'll be back before the month's out.
Soonta squeezed me once before releasing me. "I'll miss you," he said, and turned to Geith.
Djinn smiled warmly and we bowed, formally. "Thank you for everything, Master," I said, reaching out to hug him.
"I'm very proud of you, Callista. You've done well." He patted my shoulder. "It is an honor to have been your Master."
I smiled and looked over my shoulder. "It's time for us to leave."
Djinn nodded. "May the Force be with you both, then."
I nodded, and bounded to the ship. I climbed up the ladder and before closing the hatch, I waved once more to Soonta and Djinn. Then Geith lifted off , and we slowly crawled into space. I sat in the gunner's chair of the Y-wing, watching the Chu'unthor grow smaller and smaller. I remembered coming here, five years ago, watching as we came in.
How much had changed.
"Callie?" Geith said over his shoulder.
"Yeah?"
"Whatever happens, baby, I swear I won't leave you. Okay? I promise. And I still want to marry you, if we live through this."
I smiled and squeezed his hand between the chairs. "We'll live through it," I said. "I love you."
"I love you too."
As I sank back into my trance, I left my hand intertwined with Geith's.
"Callie, wake up."
Geith squeezed my fingers to bring me back to consciousness. I blinked and sat up, trying vainly to stretch in our meager space.
"Are we there yet?" I said.
"This is where the coordinates said they'd be, but all there is here is a bunch of asteroids."
I craned my neck to look out Geith's viewport. All around u, I saw thousands of asteroids. Pink and oranges gassed settled like a gateway around them and through them.
"This is the Moonflower Nebula?" I asked.
"The very same."
"How do we know what to look for?"
"I would say, look for something big," he replied.
I reached over his shoulder and flicked on his scanner. "Wow. There really is not much of anything out-"
The blast of a turbolaser came out of nowhere, knocking our Y-wing off course.
"What the hell!" Geith cursed and tried to grad us back on course. I, thrown back in my seat, scanned the asteroids for our assailants.
Nothing.
Another shot.
"Where are they coming from?" I cried, augmenting the shields. Geith hauled the ship around and headed for the source of the attack.
"That has to be it!" Geith shouted, keeping our bucking ship under weak control. "Hold on!"
I scanned the field for the next laser blast, and finally my eyes rested on an asteroid, larger than the others around it. Lasers erupted from it, faster and faster.
"There!" I said, pointing above us. "It's one of the asteroids!"
"What?"
"It's disguised! Pull up!"
Geith wheeled the ship up ninety degrees and headed straight toward the asteroid, firing the turbolasers.
"We need to land!" I said. "Can you get close enough?"
"Gimme a minute," Geith replied, making adjustments to the control panel and accelerated closer to the asteroid. We bucked and dodged lasers and asteroids; Geith even spun the limited Y-wing to keep us from being reduced to atoms. Still we were hit more than once, the super-concentrated energy blackening the hull and sending sheets of flaming metal in all directions.
"Geith!" I cried as our stabilizer gave out, sending us into a perpetual spin.
"I know!" he yelled over the blaring alarms. "Hang on! I can get us down."
Steering against the lack of our stabilizer, Geith pulled us out of the spin. By then we were close enough to see the docking bays built into the craters of the asteroid. Somehow Geith managed to direct us to one, setting us down none too gently. He quickly powered down the ship to keep it from overheating.
"Are you all right?" Geith asked.
I unstrapped my crash webbing and pushed on the cockpit cover to lift it. "I'm fine. You?"
"Ready to get out of this tank," he replied.
He slung himself over the side and landed lightly on the deck. I followed him letting him catch me and set me down. I looked around. The docking bay was virtually empty, devoid of any life, apart from Geith and I.
"Where is everyone?" Geith wondered aloud.
I reached out, probing the entire ship for life. Then, in disbelief, I shook my head. "That's impossible," I muttered, reaching out farther and getting the same results.
"What?"
"There's no one else on this ship," I said. "It's completely empty."
"So, if there's no one here, mission accomplished, right? Or at least a false alarm."
I shook my head, casting a sodium bean ahead of us in the deserted corridor. "These are droids. Haven't you seen them? Nothing special, but they're running this ship, I think."
Geith shuddered. "This place gives me the creeps," he said. "It feels like a tomb."
We kept walking, our footsteps echoing in the cavernous hall. "If we could find a terminal," I said, but didn't finish the sentence. An MSE skittered across the hall in front of us.
"A cleaning droid," I marveled. "To clean up after whom?"
Geith shook his head. "Maybe they're expecting company."
"Maybe," I said.
The MSE whirred to a stop in front of one of the doors lining the halls. The door slid open and the tiny droid disappeared inside.
"Catch the door before it closes!" I said, running for the door and reaching for it, mentally catching it and holding it open.
The interior was furnished like an office, with a desk, holopad, and a console.
"Score," Geith said, slipping into the desk chair. As he typed furiously, I stuck my head out into the hall. No guards, as I knew there wouldn't be. There was a plaque beside the door I hadn't noticed during my flight. It read, in basic, COMMANDER'S QUARTERS.
"Did you see this?" I asked.
"What, the plaque? Yeah," he replied, not looking up from his typing.
"That means there has been-or will be-people on board."
"Aw, come on!" Geith said. I looked back to see him smack the console screen with the heel of his hand.
"What?" I asked, coming around to read the screen:
ALL SYSTEMS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WILL. NO FURTHER INFORMATION IS NECESSARY.
"The Will," he repeated. "What is that?"
Geith shrugged. He typed in MISSION STATEMENT
PURPOSE OF THIS INFORMATION
TIMETABLE STATUS
TIME OF HYPERSPACE DEPLOYMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH PARAMETERS OF THE WILL. MISSION ON SCHEDULE.
"What the hell..." I muttered. "Hyperspace jump?"
"To pick up troops, maybe?" Geith suggested.
"Of course. To keep the mission, completely secret until..." I bit my lip. "We can't let this thing go into hyperspace."
Geith nodded. "How long do you think we have?"
Before I could answer, I heard a mechanical whirring in the hallway. "Shhh," I said, creeping to the door and peeking outside. The whirring grew louder and louder until at last two large droids turned down the hallway.
"Sithspawn," I whispered, and ducked back into the office. "Get your blaster ready," I said. "We might have to fight."
Geith sat up. "What?"
"Shhhh!" I said again, and mouthed, "droids." I ducked back into the office and closed the door, leaving it open only a sliver to see through. Geith came closer to the door, blaster drawn. He peered over my shoulder, breathing heavily.
"We can't let them corner us in here," he said.
"So what do you suggest, run? They'll gun us down the minute we get into the hall."
"We can risk it. Come on!"
He burst into the hall, and fired on the droids.
"Geith, wait!" I yelled. I ran after him to cover him so we could escape. "Run!" I shouted, lifting my blade to deflect another bolt. "I'll catch up!"
Geith took several back pedaling steps, but didn't go far. I summoned the Force and sent a huge shove of power at the patrol droids. They fell back like saplings in the wind. We ran down the hallway, searching for cover. Before long, however, more patrol droids were tailing us, firing all around us. Pain shot through my side, a gnawing ache that made me double over. Geith pulled me along, keeping me up. "There!" I shouted. "That maintenance door!"
Geith took aim and blew a hole in the door. We leapt through the hole into darkness and heat. We took over beneath the metal gangplank and laid still. When the patrol droids didn't follow, we sat up and breathed relief.
"Well, that was fun," Geith said.
After I'd caught my breath, I took in our surroundings. It was hot and humid. We were sitting on a catwalk, above a huge, steaming vat. "What is it?" I breathed, holding my hand to my nose to block the sour smell.
Geith sniffed. "Enzyme tank."
Then the droids pushed through the hole in the wall, trying to follow us, but their bulk was too large. The nearest one swung its arm blindly, firing madly in all directions. I raised my lightsaber to hack of the arm, but before I could, the droid have one final heave and broke through the hole.
Geith and I backed up rapidly. Suddenly, there was no ground beneath my feet. I screamed and fell down towards the enzyme tank. As I fell, I knocked my forehead against the sharp edge. The room spun in all directions, even worse than before. Stars floated around my head.
"No!" Geith grabbed my arm, stopping my fall. With his other hand, he emptied his blaster into the patrol doing. They collapsed, smoking and sparking, one by one over my head and splashing into the tank below.
Gasping, Geith looked down at me, dangling below him. "You all right?"
I nodded. "Pull me up!"
He did, and helped me brush off. "Oh, your head..." he breathed, wiping blood from my forehead. "Come on, let's get our stuff. We need to find a new place to hole up."
Very carefully, we crept back into the hall and cautiously made our way back.
"How can we pull this off?" Geith muttered, checking a cross hall before continuing.
"We need to find a weak spot," I said. "Some vulnerable point that we can get through. But this will is going to make that difficult."
"Watch out!" Geith and I ducked through the nearest door as two patrol droids came into the hall. I sealed the door behind us, and looked around.
"What is this?"
I joined Geith in the center of the room and looked up. The roof went up at least ten, maybe fifteen meters, a high shaft wire with circuits and blinking lights. "Computer core," I replied. The same idea came to both of us at the same time.
"This is it," Geith said, and I nodded.
"The weak spot," I added, but then I frowned. "They can't possibly just leave this so open," I muttered. Looking around, I picked up a spanner resting benignly on the floor, and hurled it up into the shaft. Nothing happened for a few moments, but then the shaft erupted in automatic blaster fire. The spanner dropped back to the floor, a smoking semi-solid piece of metal. "An enclision grid."
"Right," Geith said decisively. "Looks like we'll need to find another way." He started back for the door.
"No," I said, holding up my hand. "This is it."
"Callie, imagine what that grid will do to us!" Geith argued. "We'd be cooked. I'm not going up there, and I'm sure as hell not letting you go!"
I sighed. "What else can we do, Geith?" I asked, staring at him, and he shrugged.
"I say we go for help," he said.
"We can't!" I protested. "We have no idea when this thing's gonna take off!"
"We can't take it on ourselves!"
"Just give me time," I pleaded. "I can figure it out."
Geith sighed. "We may not have time!" he said.
"Then why are we sitting her arguing?" I asked, then walked over to him. "Geith, these people killed our daughter," I said, putting a hand on his chest. "I'm not going to just run away. I am going to see this through." I looked up into his eyes. They were pained at Kara's memory.
"Please?" I asked.
He nodded. "Okay," he said. "Okay."
Holding my hand against my bleeding forehead, we cautiously made our way to our quartermaster's office.
"Let's get something for that," Geith said. "I have a-" his voice trailed off, and he looked at me with confusion.
"What is it?" I asked, just as confused as he looked. I looked into the office and gasped.
All our supplies were gone.
"It's the Will," I said. It's working against us."
Geith nodded. "It's hunting us."