Author: JediSenshi (ICQ# 29448449) email:
minap@zwallet.com
Distribution: Anywhere, just keep my name with
it...
Disclaimers: The Star Wars Galaxy and characters (Not
to mention the concept of Jedi Knights...)belong to George Lucas and LucasFilm,
Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and Julia, Gayle and Leanne belong to
themselves.
Author's Notes: Hey,
they aren't here often, so read 'em! This is part of a planned trilogy spanning
over several months. Basically, we figured trilogies were a part of the Star
Wars galaxy, so we should have one as well. For those of you who aren't familiar
with Callista, we try to explain, but to know the situation to its full extent,
it would be best to read Children of the Jedi by Barbra Hambly.
MatchMakers
Trilogy
A Message Sent
A few weeks after the incidend during
the training hike, the odd virus that drained the trainees of their energy
dissappeared. Julia let Gayle, now also known as Sailor Moon, in on the origin
of the virus, and of course, Gayle had guessed as much.
Julia, having just received the shipment of sorely needed
furniture, was folding and putting away her clothes when Gayle came into her
room through the crawlspace in the floor they'd made where the gash had
been.
"So much for the pile-on-the-floor system huh?" Gayle
grinned. Julia just stuck her tongue out at her friend.
"Anyway, I heard there's a nest of pittens over at Blueleaf
Cluster Temple," Gayle announced as she stood and brushed off her knees.
"Pittens?" Julia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Cats, but in wacky colours," Gayle gave the quick
explanation. At this, Artemis opened one of his eyes and looked over at Julia
from where he'd been lazing on her bed.
"You're not thinking of getting another cat, are you?" he
asked, worried.
"You can never have too many cats," Gayle and Julia said in
unison.
Julia smiled and went over to scritch Artemis behind the
ears, "Don't be paranoid Artemis," she assured him, "besides, I couldn't afford
another cat, if it eats half as much as you do."
Gayle and Julia giggled, then left to see the pittens.
During the walk, the two friends pondered the mysteries of the universe. In
other words, they gossiped, mainly about guys.
"So what's your prediction for Zekk and Jaina?" Julia asked,
ducking under a branch.
"Ugh, that creep?" Gayle made a face of disgust, "she can do
MUCH better."
"Oh, come on," Julia rolled her eyes, "he's really nice to
her! Besides, she's totally gone on him!"
"Poor thing."
"Alright then," Julia shifted subjects, "how about you and
Jacen? How's that going?"
"Not to quickly," Gayle sighed regretfully, "I mean, face
it, he's in a whole other Force league than we are! We never get to spend time
together. Not to mention his whole thing for Tenel Ka."
"Right, okay, so there's a bust," Julia sighed, "No worries,
plenty of other fish in the sea."
"I haven't seen you doing any `fishing` since Tom
dissappeared," Gayle retorted.
"That's different," Julia said quietly. The two were quiet
for a moment, Gayle not knowing what to say, and Julia not saying
anything.
"Have you noticed Master Skywalker lately?" Gayle asked
eventually, "He seems almost depressed."
"Yeah," Julia replied, her voice back to normal, "He
really-"
"Needs a girlfriend?" Gayle finished.
"Well, I was thinking more along the lines of needs a
vacation and another hole in the head, but yeah, a girlfriend would do," Julia
replied, half sarcastic, "This is where someone brings up Callista
right?"
~**~**~**~**~
Callista walked down the street shoulders slumped. If she
didn't find a job soon, she would run out of credits. That wasn't the only thing
to worry about. She missed Luke terribly, and she still had no idea how to get
her Jedi powers back. She had been away from Luke for so long. It had been,
what, at least ten years since she'd... they'd spoken. It seems almost hopeless.
Well one more world, she would try one more world and then she'd give up, then
she'd know she could never see Luke again. She looked down at the ground, at her
feet. Her shoes were horribly tattered and worn. Before she left the planet, she
would defiantly need a job.
~**~**~**~**~
When Julia and Gayle arrived at the Blueleaf Cluster Temple,
they immeadiately knew something was very wrong. There were around a dozen Jedi
Trainees passed out on the ground, holding onto little, adorable, energy
draining pittens. Gayle and Julia did the first thing they could thing of as
Jedi-to be and Sailor Warriors.
They ran.
"Okay, what do we do?" Julia asked, slightly
panicked.
"Hey, you've been doing this longer than I have," Gayle
reminded her, "We really have only one option here."
"Right, Venus power transform!"
"Moon prism power transform!"
Inside the temple, one of the pittens stood and slowly
morphed into a humanoid cat. "Meow, Master Jadite, I've drained several of the
humans, it's so easy to trap them!" she reported. A man with short blonde hair
and blue eyes materialized in front of her. He was wearing boots, and navy pants
and jacket that buttoned up at his shoulder with a red strip on them.
"Good work Mew, keep it up," he told her.
"Hold it, right there!" Mew and Jadite turned at the sound
of Sailor Moon's voice, and Jadite dissapeared in a flash of
crystals.
"Take care of them," his bodyless voice
instructed.
"Codename: Sailor V! I am the ally of lonely, weak cats! For
love and beauty I am the sailor suited beautiful girl soldier Sailor
Venus!"
"Lonely, weak cats?!" Moon asked, "These are pittens! Where
are you getting this stuff!?"
"Meh," Venus shrugged.
"Meow!" Mew growled, "Ally of weak cats!? I won't be
persuaded by the calling voices of cats! There's no way you can beat me, Mew,
princess of the cat world! Kill her, my servants!"
"Hey, wait! I haven't done my intro yet!" Sailor Moon
exclaimed as the pittens started their attack.
"Crescent beam!" Venus shot her beam right in front of all
the pittens so they were forced back. "Sailor V kick!" she kicked Mew in the
chest and sent her flying.
"Quit hogging all the action!" Moon yelled ather partner as
Mew slammed into a wall.
"Then be quicker!" Venus replied, "You gotta stay ahead in
this game!"
"For peace and justice I am the sailor suited beautiful girl
soldier Sailor Moon!" she said, not to be deprived of her soliliquy, "For the
final move! Moon tiara stardust!" the tiara floated over Mew and the pittens.
They all dissapeared.
"Let's go, it's almost suppertime!" Moon said. Venus nodded
and the two of them dashed out of the temple and transformed back into their
alter-egos.
"Did you catch a glimps of that guy with Mew?" Julia asked
Gayle as they made their way back to the Great Temple.
Gayle grimaced, "Yeah, Jadeite," she replied.
"So, at least we're into familiar territory here," Julia
tried to look on the bright side of having more enemies to fight so soon after
they'd defeated the last. The two girls were silent the rest of the way to the
dinning hall of the Great Temple, save when they met up with their friends,
Jaina, Jacen and Leanne.
"Hey, where have you guys been?" Leanne asked.
"Yeah, would never have figured Julia to be this late for a
meal," Jaina added. Julia just stuck her tongue out at Jaina. The group was
engaged in a friendly conversation about how edible the food would be today,
when they ran into Zekk, well Gayle was the one who actually ran into
him.
"Hey Tinsel Teeth, how can you train to become a Jedi when
you can't even watche where you're going?" he asked after he saw who had run
into him.
"Never call me Tinsel Teeth again, street rat!" Gayle said
sternly. Zekk stepped in line beside Jaina and Jacen.
"Sure thing, Tinsel Teeth," he ignored Gayle, struggling to
maintain her calm and put his arm around Jaina. Jaina almost melted, and Gayle
almost gagged.
"Come on Gayle, he is kinda cute, and you know better than
Jaina herself that she has a crush on him," Julia whispered to her
friend.
"Yeah, but does she have to hang all over him like that,
uhg," Gayle replied, quoting the Sailor Moon cartoon.
After supper, Luke Skywalker gathered Julia, Gayle, Zekk and
a few other trainees in his office. "I gathered you here today to give you the
next major step in becoming a Jedi," Luke told them. Gayle and Julia exchanged
knowing glances, "I have decided that you are now read to start training with
lightsabers. If you prove yourself able to handle them, then you will be
building ones of your own. A lightsaber is an important part of a Jedi, not only
is it a way to identify him, but it acts as an extension of their being," Luke
went on about lightsabers for a while, then told the trainees to report to the
lightsaber training ground first thing tomorrow afternoon.
After he had dismissed the trainees, Julia hung back and
waited for the room to clear, "Master Skywalker?" she asked.
"Yes?"
"Well, I was wondering, it will be kinda hard to get
crystals around here, I mean, the only one Tenel Ka found was faulty and it took
her a while, but Jaina and Jacen and Lowie got to go to Gem Diver station, and
they were able to find themselves corusca gems," Julia took the round about
approach to her request, "So I was wondering-"
"I see your poing, and I'll see what I can do," Luke smiled
in a way that made Julia sure he was having trouble not laughing at
her.
"Thank-you Master Skywalker," Julia thanked him, then left
to join Gayle, who was waiting outside the door with Leanne.
"He's a Jedi Master, I don't think that sucking up will help
you much," Gayle told her friend, shaking her head.
"It's automatic, remember? Bettina and I used to make a
living of it," Julia replied with a shrug.
"So what'd ya ask?" Gayle inquired.
"I asked if we could take a trip to Gem Diver Station,"
Julia answered.
"Is Lando still running that?" Leanne asked. The books made
it abundantly clear that Lando never ended up doing something for more than a
few years until he found his next scheme.
"Meh," Julia and Gayle shrugged, "We'll find out soon
enough, won't we?"
~**~**~**~**~
Callista looked around at the shops in line, searching the
windows for a "Help Wanted" sign. She walked slowly making sure she drank in all
the details. "What am I looking for?" She whispered to herself under her breath.
Callista walked down street after street well past dark. Finally she found a
place she could work. A waitress didn't get paid much, but it was a start. She
sat down outside the store and waited for morning to come so the store would
open and she could reestablish her finances. After a few minutes of waiting, she
fell asleep.
~**~**~**~**~
"Help me! Please, help!" both Gayle and Julia heard the cry,
and they were both outside at the entrance to the Great Temple in as little time
possible.
"You heard it too?" Gayle asked her friend.
"Yeah, apparently we're the only ones," Julia
replied.
"Help, Sailor Warriors! Help meeeeehhh!" the voice came
again, in a more urgent tone.
"Well that explains it," Julia shrugged, "I think it was
coming from over there," she pointed. Gayle and Julia set off in that
direction.
"Did the ending of that last me sound anything like a
whinney to you?" Gayle asked as they jogged.
"Yeah," Julia agreed, then she chuckled, "well, so much for
that streak peace and quite we had. It lasted what, a week?" Gayle rolled her
eyes as the two friends followed the voice until they found the origin of the
sound.
Tangled in some vines hanging from a tree was a unicorn. She
would have been an awe inspiring, beautiful sight had it not been for the hungry
piranha beetles swarming to eat her. The unicorn vainly kicked and pulled at the
vines, trying to ger free and fight the beetles all at once.
"Oh my God," Gayle exclaimed breathlessly.
"No time for that now," Julia told her, picking up a large
branch from the ground, "We have a unicorn to save," with that, she began
batting the piranah beetles away from the unicorn. Gayle, realizing it was time
for action, climbed up the tree and began cutting away at the vines holding the
unicorn's horn with her swiss army knife.
Soon enough, the unicorn was able to pull her horn away. In
a brilliant flash of white light, her wounds were healed, and the piranah
beetles were pushed back. As the unicorn skewered one with her horn, the rest
decided the prey was no longer worth it, and flew off.
"Thank-you, Sailor Warriors," the unicorn said in a voice
that rebervrated in Julia and Gayle's heads, skipping their ears.
"It was our pleasure," Julia bowed slightly, "Gayle would
thank you as well, but she's afraid of heights and is working up the courage to
climb down."
fter a bit of coaxing, Gayle made it shakily to the ground,
and the attention focused on the supposedly mythological creature once more,
"So, uh, I guess you know we're Sailor Warriors, I'm Venus, but in this form, my
name is Julia," Julia introduced herself.
"I'm Sailor Moon," Gayle said, "and my real name is
Gayle."
"I know your Warrior forms," Whinney told them, "I knew you
a long, long time ago, and recognize you know, despite the changes. Then, you
called me Whinney, as you should now."
"Someone's coming," Julia announced. She had her eyes
closed, and her brows slightly furrowed indicating concentration on the Force.
Gayle took a minute to check for herself, and nodded in agreement.
"I'll go see who it is," she announced. Gayle slunk off
through the brush, to see Skywalker sitting on a rock with his back to
her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, without turing around.
Gayle stepped out of the bushes.
"Just helping a friend," she replied, "and you?" Gayle
furrowed her brow as she caught a wiff of his emotions through the Force,
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he answered quickly. Then he sighed, "I just had
a dream that reminded me of someone," he admitted, "someone I met a while ago.
We were close."
"Callista?" Gayle asked. Skywalker sighed. "Don't worry, you
two will get back together," Gayle told him, "You were hotter than Serena and
Darien, and nothing can stop love."
"How will be able to be together?" he asked disparingly, "We
can't until she can touch the Force again."
Gayle rolled her eyes, "Is that all that's stopping you?"
she sighed, "listen, you two were meant to be together. Trust me."
When Gayle got back to Julia and Whinney, she explained what
was the matter with Master Skywalker, "And why can this, Callista, not touch the
Force?" Whinney asked.
"Well, when trying to stop a ship from blowing up a planet,
Callista's body died, but her soul remained in the computers of the ship," Gayle
explained to the slightly confused unicorn, "then Luke Skywalker and Cray and a
few droids were brought onto the ship. Due to the fact that her love had died,
Cray no longer wanted to live, and so when the rest of them were escaping the
ship, Cray let Callista take over her body."
Whinney looked contemplative, "It must be the fact that, to
the Force, she is dead, or at least supposed to be," Julia voulenteered, "That's
my theory, anyway."
Whinney shook her head and snorted a little, "No, it's
because the soul and body aren't properly joined."
Gayle and Julia exchanged an excited glance, "So you can fix
it?" they asked.
Whinney nodded, "but we need to contact her first. Put your
hands on my horn, I'll need your energy for this as well." Julia and Gayle did
as told, very cautiously; it seemed a large breech of ettiquet, even with
permission.
"Woah, talk about a power rush," Julia muttered as her hand
contacted witht he silver spiral. She fought her first instinct, to pull the
power into herself, and instead did the opposite, and channeld her own energy
into the horn as Gayle did the same.
"It's not enough," Whinney strained to talk. Gayle took out
her transformation locket, and Julia took out her transformation
wand.
"Venus Power!" she yelled, the rush of power drawn from her
original planet was quickly pulled into the horn.
"Moon Power!" Gayle yelled, and her power was also drawn
into the horn by the pressing need for more energy. The combined energy of the
two Sailor Warriorsr was all that Whinney needed and a silver tinged blue ball
of energy formed at the tip of her horn. A moment later, it shot skyward making
enough noise to alert a deaf person on the other side of the galaxy. Then, Gayle
and Julia blacked out.
~**~**~**~**~
When Gayle came too, she was lying on her bed in her room at
The Jedi Academy. Leanne, Julia and Luke were in her room as well. The second
they noticed she was awake, they all crowded around her bed.
"Welcome to the land of the living, sleepy head," Leanne
said with a smiled.
Julia snorted, "What took you?"
"Well I'm sorry," Gayle replied hautily, "but I'm not used
to dealing with energy like you are!"
"Oh, don't let her fool you," Luke chuckled, "she was worse
off then you were to start with. She just happened to start draining energy from
anyone who touched her. It took three tries to get her onto the
gurney."
Julia stuck her tongue out at his back, "Anyway, now that
sleeping beauty here is awake, we can go to the Gem Diver Station."
"Hold on a minute," Skywalker said.
"Yeah, I need to take a shower and get dressed and
everything!" Gayle finished for him. By Luke's face, that was obviously not what
he was going to say, "I'm alright, don't worry," Gayle assured.
"Alright, I'll start preping the Shadow Chaser," he
told her, and left as did Leanne. Julia, however, hung back a bit to update
Gayle on the whole endeavour that had brought about this situation in the first
place.
"So what did we say?" Gayle asked.
"Callista, if you would like to be reunited with the Force
and Luke Skywalker, come to Yavin 4 in secret, and contact Julia and Gayle,"
Julia recited.
"All that energy just for that?!" Gayle demanded,
incredulous. Julia sighed.
"Yeah, now hurry up," she told Gayle, heading for the door,
"I wanna go to Gem Diver."
~**~**~**~**~
"Eleven, Eleven make a wish," Gayle, well Gayle's droid
replacement, chirped into the phone. She closed her eyes for a second and made a
wish. When she opened them, the real Gayle's bratty little, sister Robin was in
front of her.
"Get off the phone Gayle, I have an IRC date," Robin
demanded. Gayle held up her index finger to indicate her sister to wait a
minute.
"I gotta go Jule, Robin has to get on IRC," Then Gayle said
good-bye and hung up the phone. Robin blinked a couple of times in
surprise.
"Uh, Gayle, are you okay? You've been acting strange all
summer, it's like you're not you. You're too, too, nice," Robin practically
choked on the word.
"I just grew up and matured Robin, one day you might even
achieve that as well," Gayle replied in a holier-than-thou voice.
"Then how come you hardly ever make any facial expressions?"
Robin countered. Gayle pulled her head back a bit and furrowed her
brow.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Nice try, who are you, I mean really," Robin asked
suspiciously.
"Don't you have a IRC date waiting?" Gayle asked. Robin
squinted maliciously at her supposed sister.
"This conversation isn't over Gayle," Robin spat viciously.
Then as she left she turned and added, "If that is your real name."
~**~**~**~**~
"You'd leave us here?!" Leanne exclaimed, throwing her arms
up into the air, "I can't believe you!"
"Oh come on," Gayle rolled her eyes, "We've made plenty of
other friends. I miss home-"
"That secluded, polluted, little hunk of space debris!?"
Julia asked.
"-and I want an education," Gayle finished.
"You've wanted this your whole life, and now you want to go
home?" Leanne verified.
"Talk about flippant," Julia sighed, "Look, we know you
won't go Dark Side without the training or anything, but really, I mean come
on!"
"Well, really you two aren't the ones I'm going to have to
convince are you?" Gayle raised an eyebrow. Julia sighed and Leanne nodded. They
both understood Gayle's homesickness, to a certain degree, and they both
understood Luke's paranoia about his students.
"-please Master Skywalker? I can take a comm and Julia can
send me all your lectures, and I could practice everything on my own," Gayle
told him. She had a second motive for wanting to go home. It was true she was
incredibly homesick, but the news they had caught from Earth brought wind of
trouble brewing, in form of monsters from the Negamoon. Sailor Moon had a duty
to be there.
"You know the dangers of skipping out on your Jedi
training," Luke started.
"But she won't be skipping out, she just gave you a solution
to that," Julia cut in, a frown on her face, "Let's face it, this is GAYLE! She
spent a month sucking up to Brakiss and STILL didn't go Dark Side, you expect
her to turn just because she spends a little time back home?"
"I have always been a pacifist," Gayle told him, "And you
know I've already studied the Force enough to be able to avoid going Dark
Side."
"Hell, there's more chance of ME going Dark Side," Julia
added, "and I'll be here year round."
Luke sighed, "When do you need to go back?"
"Soon," Gayle told him, "School starts at the beginning of
September, and August is wrapping up quickly."
"We can leave the day after tomorrow."
~**~**~**~**~
"You'll get used to it my ass," Julia rolled out of bed and
hit the floor with a thud as she attempted to get up at the crack of dawn. She'd
been doing this every day for two months, and it still wasn't any easier. After
dressing, there came the telltale beep of someone outside her door.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake!" she shouted at whoever it was, "I'm
coming! Go away!"
"My my," Jacen said when Julia joined him, Jaina, Gayle, and
Leanne in the hallway, "the difference ten mintues makes to someone's
personality."
"Yeah well, I haven't had my caffein yet," Julia muttered
grumpily. In truth she didn't usually have any caffeinated beverages in the
morning to wake herself up, it really was those extra ten mintues between waking
up and stepping out of her room, but she was in no mood to let Jacen think he
was right.
The day before, Luke Skywalker had announced to the entire
academy that he was declaring a small holiday. For about a month, since it would
take him two week sto get to Earth and back. Tionne was staying with the
students who wished to remain, since they'd never found Streen.
Gayle, Julia, Leanne, Jacen and Jaina walked to the docking
bay and filed into the Shadow Chaser. Luke was already there prepping
the ship, and making sure their baggage was properly stored.
"I can't wait to see Earth," Jacen announced as they
strapped in, "It sounds peaceful."
"Ha!" Julia laughed.
"You know," Gayle started, "It is your home planet, you
might want to be a little bit more supportive."
"Oh," Julia corrected her friend, "the planet's alright, I
have nothing against it. It's just the inhabitants I have a problem
with."
Four days into the trip home, Julia was bored stiff. She'd
finished the book she was reading, and had no blank paper to draw, she didn't
even have a deck of cards to play solitair, or sabbacc for that matter, "Gayle
I'm bored!" she whined for the millionth time that afternoon.
"I told you, go bug Jacen," Gayle replied. Julia turned to
Jacen.
"Jacen I'm-" Julia's bordum was instantly relieved as the
Shadow Chaser was violently pulled out of hyperspace. Luke and Jaina
ran to the cockpit to see what had gone wrong. Once they looked out the view
screen they immeadiately saw the problem, an Imperial Intradictory Cruiser was
sitting there along with a Star Destroyer or two.
Jaina let out a stream of curses to show up her father as
she and her Uncle started evasive maneuvers. Unfortunately, they were a bit to
late, and the ship shook harshly yet again as a tractor beam caught
it.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jacen
muttered.
"Too bad this ship doesn't have removable deck plates,"
Jaina sighed. Julia all of a sudden grinned.
"Now I'm scared," Jacen grimaced.
"Jaina, you'rea genius!" Julia exclaimed, ignoring Jacen.
She grabbed Jaina's lightsaber and started to search out a place she could hide
in, along with Gayle, who caught on to the idea. Leanne busied herself with
searching for normal hiding spots.
"Here we go!" Gayle pointed to the thick walls between the
doors that separated the cockpit from the main area.
"It will take some repairing, but it will probably be worth
it," Julia said as she inspected them.
"You aren't suggesting hiding in those things!?" Jaina
exclaimed, "Those walls are thick for a reason! There's a ton and a half of
wireing in there! If you try cutting them open, you'll electrocute
yourself!"
"We'll see about that!" Julia snorted. She ignighted Jaina's
lightsaber, but it was pulled from her grasp by the Force. She rolled her eyes,
"Well I don't see anyone ELSE giving any bright ideas!"
"How about we just let ourselves be caught?" Luke suggested,
"They're obviously not expecting us, or we would have been tractored
immeadiately. Chances are, they're not going to have any ysalamiri. Plus,
stormtroopers don't check boots."
"Huh?" Leanne asked for clarification.
"Well, Julia and Gayle are wearing pretty high boots, so is
Jaina," Luke pointed out, "they're perfect to hide lightsabers in."
"Do you know how uncomfortable that would be?!" Julia
demanded. Luke gave her a look, and she stopped arguing. There was the clunk of
metal on metal, and the shaking of the ship as it was docked on the inside of
what was probably one of the Star Destroyers.
"The Force be with us," Jacen muttered.
"It's always with us," Julia said knowingly, "it's whether
it will do any good that's the question."
"Just let me handle this, and remember our cargohold is full
of spare parts," Luke said as the ramp lowered. Stormtroopers rushed on with
their blasters raised.
Before they got a chance to say anything, Luke started up
his sharade, "What in Space is going on here?! We be deliverin' our cargo an'
you guys pulls us straight outta hyperspace!"
The stormtroopers exchanged glances, "We have on record that
this ship was stolen from the Empire by one Luke Skywalker, the Jedi
Knight."
"I don' know 'bout no Jedi, I bought this ship fair 'n
square!" Luke insisted, maintaining his act, "me an' my crew here use it to make
shipments."
"I told ya' the price was too good!" Jaina joined
in.
"I couldn't pass on a deal like that!" Luke
insisted.
"Enough," the head stormtrooper announced, "you're all going
to the brig. If this is simply a routine cargo, a quick interrogation will
clarify it. Now move."
Reluctant and nervous prisoners were escorted to the brig by
about ten stormtroopers. The Imperials were obviously not taking any chances.
The six of them were thrown unceremoniously into different cells and told to
wait until the interrogator was freed up.
"Oh great, not only are we in cells, but we're alone," Julia
rolled her eyes as she muttered to herself, "Oh well, at least we know that they
don't have many prisoners... or at least a problem with overcrowded prisons,"
Julia then shuddered at what that might mean.
"Hey!" she heard Jaina exclaim, "there's a hole here! We can
talk to each other."
Julia followed the sound of Jaina's voice to the hole in
between cells, "Okay, if I can create a distraction, you'll be able to break out
of there, right?" she asked once she'd found the hole.
"Yeah,"Jaina replied, "Make it a good distration, I'll get
out quietly and start freeing the others."
"Okay, wait about twenty seconds, then go," she told Jaina.
Then, shutting her eyes, well aware of the ticking clock, Julia calmed herself
down, and opened herself up to the Force.
Luke had just retrieved his lightsaber from his boot when he
heard shouts coming from the stormtroopers and guards watching the cell block,
"FIRE! FIRE!" he heard one scream.
"Quick! Put it out!"
"Use an extinguisher!" As the extinguisher sprayed, Luke
ignighted his lightsaber and jammed it into the wall around where the locking
mechanism was. He moved it around until there was a hiss, and his doors swooshed
open.
"Great! Look at this, the instruments are fried!"
"What the hell happened? How could a fire just break out
like that?"
"Geeze, except for the extinguishing fluids, it doesn't look
like there was a fire at all."
"We all saw it!"
"No, you saw an illusion," Luke's eyes went wide as he heard
Julia's voice. He stepped out of his cell, lighsaber ready, and saw Julia,
unarmed, facing a group of imperial guards. Jaina was helping everyone else out
of their cells.
"She'll be killed," Luke whispered.
"Uncle Luke, you trained her, you should know what she's
capable of!" Jaina assured him, "she needs to try out her Jedi powers sometimes.
The fact that she can't levitate things really limits her chances to actually
show herself as a Jedi."
Luke was starting to catch on now, "she can levitate things,
but only when she's got extra energy..." Luke trailed off and headed for Julia.
He'd missed what the guards had been saying, but they obviously weren't happy,
because one of them shot Julia right in the chest.
Julia stood there and took the bolt. He felt a ripple in the
Force, and Julia pulled the blasters from the stormtroopers hands and pushed
them back at the same time using the energy she'd absorbed from the blaster
bolt. The guards who didn't go unconcious from hitting their heads when Julia
pushed them back were soon stunned by their own hovering blasters.
With the immeadiate danger subdued, Julia sat down in the
middle of the cell bay, "Ouch that stung!" she said, rubbing her chest, "and he
put a hole in one of my favourite shirts!"
"You're crazy!" Luke told her, "You could have been
killed!"
"Master Skywalker," Julia started in a lecturing tone that
sounded vaguely familiar, "you've been training me for two months, and you know
well that I can absorb energy easily. Large amounts, if I'm prepared for it. You
don't think I'd do something like that if I wasn't sure I could handle it now do
you?"
"That was incredibly dangerous," Luke continued his lecture,
"you may have learned a lot about the Force in the last two months, but without
control it means nothing. You could have lost control of all that energy and
seriously injured yourself or one of us!"
"But I didn't, did I?" Julia smirked.
"Alright, those Imps won't stay fooled for long," Jaina
announced, "the cameras are fried but I bet you any money that they're on their
way up here. Let's get moving."
Everyone piled into the elevator, and Luke took over,"
Alright, you five get to the Shadow Chaser, I'll take care of the
tractor beam and meet you there.
"Right," Gayle nodded, "just no pulling an Obi-Wan Kenobi on
us."
"No chance," Skywalker assured his students, "just make it
to the ship in once piece, or Leia will have my head," the doors to the elevator
opened, and the group all stepped out, Luke headed off in one direction while
Jacen, Jaina, Leanne, Julia and Gayle headed in the other, "May the Force be
with you!" Luke called over his shoulded.
Gayle waved, "you too!"
As the group of five arrived at a fork in the road, they all
stopped to try and figure out the best way to go, "Well, why don't we split up
and go both ways?" Julia suggested. Suddenly the lights dimmed and red emergency
lights flashed once, then everything went back to normal.
"Something tells me they know we're here," Leanne
muttered.
"If we split up, we'll be harder to catch," Jaina said,
"Come on Julia, Leanne, you two are with me. Jacen, you and Gayle go that
way."
"See you at the Shadow Chaser," Julia called to
Gayle as they split up.
Gayle grinned, "not if I see you first!"
Luke Skywalker roamed through the halls of the Star
Destroyer. He was absolutely sure that his trainees could take care of
themselves, after all, they had gotten out of their cells no problem. And yet,
some part in Luke was worrying overtime.
Perhaps it was because his niece and nephew were in that
group, and if they got so much as a scratch, Leia would kill him.
"Jacen behind you!" Gayle warned as
she fired a blast at the stormtrooper in front of her. Jacen turned around and
took care of the problem. "I hope Julia, Leanne and your sister are okay," she
added as they broke into a run.
"They must be fine! All the stormtroopers in this place are
coming after us!"
"Hey," Gayle asked as she came to a halt at a broken pipe
dripping an odd coloured liquid. She poked the liquid with the barrel of her
blaster.
"What is it?" Jacen asked.
Gayle smiled and thought of Julia for an instant, then
quoted X-Files, "I dunno, but if this is monkey pee, you're on your
own."
"Monkey?" Jacen inquired. Gayle shook her head and
stood.
"It's probably just coolant," she replied, pointing at the
broken pipe. A blaster fired at that instant, and Gayle and Jacen tore through
an open doorway, then came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a bridge that seemed
to be missing. As a stormtrooper fired, Jacen hit the door close button. He then
punched another button, and nothing happened.
"What is it?"
"Well, you remember that coolant leak back there?" he asked.
Gayle looked at him, still confused, "they don't work."
"They're coming through, and there's no lock," Jacen pulled
Gayle to his left side, and ignighted his lightsaber straight through the
conrols, "That should work."
"Here, hold this," Jacen gave Gayle his blaster and started
pulling some chording out of his utility belt.
Gayle, a blaster in each hand, started firing at the
opposite end of the bridge, where some stormtroopers had appeared, giving Jacen
the time he needed to get a suitable amout of fibrecord out of his utility belt.
Jacen threw the fibercord up around an air vent hanging from the ceiling and put
his arm around Gayle.
"Hang on," he told her. Gayle grinned at the familiarity of
the situation, shrugged to herself and then kissed Jacen on the
cheek.
"For luck," she explained. Jacen looked at her a bit
confused, then swung across the bridge.
Luke was still busy slinking down
the halls, imagining the horrid things that Leia would do to him when he heard
two stormtroopers coming. He was in the middle of a bridge and wouldn't be able
to reach the end before they would see him, so Luke quickly ducked around a
round console attached to the bridge. Out of sheer luck, this was one of the
tractor beam control pannels.
As the stormtroopers talked cars, Luke cut off the power to
the tractor beam then distracted them with the Force and slipped by. His danger
sense tingled, and Luke ignighted his lightsaber. He pressed himself up against
the wall and waited. A whole platoon of stormtroopers then rounded the
corner.
They opened fire almost immeadiately, and it took some fancy
saber work to get himself enough room to maneuver. Luke, with his back to the
wall, was now surrounded by firing stormtroopers. He took a deep breath and let
the Force guide his lightsaber. Hopefully he could keep this up until their
blasters ran out of power or something...
Suddenly, three stormtroopers fell to the floor. In their
places stood Jaina, Leanne and Julia. The stormtroopers were torn between
targets for a second, and that was all Luke needed. He locked on his lightsaber,
then threw it in a Force guided arch that whirled through where every
stormtrooper was standing. It was incredibly messy, but in this case
necessary.
"Ew," Leanne said flatly, looking at the carnage.
"Are you okay Uncle Luke?" Jaina asked her uncle.
"I'm fine, where are Jacen and Gayle?" he asked, all the
horrid images of Leia mangling and maiming him that he'd pictured earlier
springing to his mind.
"We split up," Gayle told him, "they're fine." Luke breathed
a sigh of relief.
"Did you get the tractor beam down?" Jaina asked. Luke
nodded. The group headed towards the docking bay.
Jacen and Gayle arrived at the
docking bay a few seconds before Julia, Jaina, Leanne and Skywalker did. They
all peered out at the Shadow Chaser and the stormtroopers surrounding
it from behind some barrels. "Do you think they did anything to it?" Gayle
asked.
"Looks fine," Jaina reported, "we just can't get over
there."
"Anyone else see an opportunity in that barrel percariously
perched above that large thing of equipment?" Julia pointed over to the right of
their ship. There was indeed a goup of barrels on a platform above ground level,
one half falling alread, directly above a case of rather sensitive looking
equipment. The group looked at her, then looked at the barrel, then they all
looked at Luke Skywalker.
"Get ready to run, on three," he told them. The trainees got
into a better starting position for their dash to the ship and Luke shut his
eyes to concentrate. "One, two, three!"
The barrel came toppling down onto all the equipment with a
very loud crash. The stromtroopers guarding the ship immeadiately ran over to
the equipment and to the platform to check for intruders while the techies
wailed and moaned and tried to get the barrel off the thousands of credits worth
of equipment.
Jaina and Luke headed straight for the cockpit and
immeadiately started to takeoff, blasting at the docking bay shield controls as
they left. The Shadow Chaser broke away from the Star Destroyer and
into space. "Time for more manoevering," Luke told Jaina.
"At least that blasted Intradictory Cruiser has it's grav.
field turned off," she replied as she spun the ship into some barrel
rolls.
"Alright, coordinates locked in, let's get outta here!" Luke
told her. Jaina pulled back on the hyperspace lever, the stars zoomed by and
they were safe.
In the main cabin, Julia turned to Gayle, "thank god for
safety harnesses," she muttered. Gayle gave her a look.
"And you wonder why I want to go home."
"Constantly."
To be continued...
