"Tava." Kayylla swore in her native language as she dropped a small crate on her foot. "Why did I shot that droid on Sluis Van?" She questioned while she turned the crate upright. Scanning the crate with a trained eye she checked for breakage. Picking it up once more Kayylla placed it on top of the other crates aboard the repulsor sled. She could have had the Imperials do this work but that would mean they would see her ship, and that would give away her scam. They would know her small ship would not be able to hold all of these crates. That would lead them to opening the crates and discovering most of them were empty bottle and other junk instead of the labeled articles from Alderaan. And that would not be good.
Looking over the crates one last item Kayylla caught a glimpse of movement off to her right. Slipping her blaster from her left hip holster she crept noiselessly to one of the dark corners in the bay. Searching in and around the abandoned crates she was surprised to find nothing there. To be safe she checked the remaining corners. In the end they all ended up the same as the first. Holstering her blaster she set about maneuvering the sled to the entrance way. Waiting for the prearranged time. Kayylla paid close attention to the darkened corners. The time was close enough, doing one last once over of the bay Kayylla opened the entrance and guided the sled thru.
He waited a few moments after the strange female alien left the docking bay before the Deveronian removed the cover plate to the ventilation shaft, where he hastily hid himself. Placing the cover plate back in place he set about the work he came to do. Setting his pack down by the closest landing gear, he proceeded to unpack his explosives.
Working quickly the Deveronian had placed his explosives in critical areas on her space craft. Stepping back to admire his handy work the Deveronian set the timers then crawled back threw the ventilation shaft to a safe distance away.
After proceeding through a network ventilation's ducts, the Deveronian crawled out only to face a blaster in his face. "You've been a busy boy, haven't you?", growled the weapon's holder, a ruggedly handsome pilot who still wore his battered flight helmet and dirty orange flight suit. "Now, how about you let me know what the disarming code is for the explosives, and I let you go without extra body openings? Sound fair?" Five minutes later, the last charge had been removed from the ship, the pilot admiring the handiwork of the Deveronian. "Sequencer charges rigged to blow from a modified thermal detonator timer. Cobbled together, but clever. A shame I didn't live up to my end of the bargain about letting him
go......oh, well." He sat the defused explosives down near the entry ramp of the 'Minimizer', along with a quickly scratched note, "Found some slaymo planting these on your ship, took the liberty of removing them and teaching him not to do it again. Courtesy of the occupant of Docking Bay 1037, Captain Davro Stfal." With that done, Davro crawled back to Bay 1037 via the vent system and went back to checking his own vessel, the not-quite-so-stock freighter, the 'Stormrider'
"KC! Where you at, KC?", Davro called out when he reached his freighter. A squat little astromech droid rolled out from behind the starboard landing strut, chirping it's greetings to it's master. "Make sure those lateral thrusters are ready, then come help me with replacing that bad alluvial damper. With a brief whistle, R2KC rolled off to it's work. Davro examined a greenish patch of corrosion on the hull, rubbed at it with his sleeve, then boarded and went back to change his clothes. He emerged wearing a set of stained coveralls and protective goggles, his sandy hair obscuring the goggles' strap. Going quickly to his work, he lowered a new alluvial damper down from his cargo hold on a replusor pad and moved it below the service hatch. He stepped onto the pad and raised it to the gaping service entry.
Within an hour, the old damper lay on the hangar floor waiting for pickup by a junk dealer. Davro went to the cockpit and fired up the engines, then checked the diagnostic screens for damper problems.
"Growls like a Wookie...", he said approvingly. "Here's hoping my new gun modifications fight like one, too."
Leaning against the doors of the docking bay 1038, Kayylla waited for the Imperials to come. She checked her chrono every few moments. Finally she had had enough of this waiting, grabbing the controls to the repulsor sled Kayylla started turning the sled around when she heard the familiar echoing clip of Stormtroopers. Letting out a sigh of relief Kayylla cut power to the sled and waited for the troops to round the corner. Her let hand never left its place at her side, you could never be too careful when dealing with the Empire.
The echoes of the footsteps were getting louder, Kayylla could see many shadows scurrying or darting out of the way of the on coming troops. Twelve troopers came around the corner of a dilapidated building off to her right. Kayylla was amazed at the number of troops the Imperial had brought with him. Behind the troopers was a troop transport, hovering on repulsors a few meters above the durocrete floor. 'That is probably the transport they will be using to haul the cargo away with.' Kayylla thought to herself as she came around to the front of the repulsor sled. There she waited for the Imperial to approach her.
He took four long strides to reach her, clasping his hands at the small of his back, he puffed out his chest and said. " I can see you have brought the merchandise."
"Yes, I have. Have you brought the payment?" Kayylla asked him as she reached into her hooded vest pocket and retrieved her data pad.
"Of course, is your data pad capable of down loading a payment/" The Imperial asked her as he brought out his own data pad.
"Of course it is capable to down load, what data pad is not capable of that?" She as she set her jaw at his insult to her and her equipment. Flipping open her data pad she punched in her access codes to her account. he got the holo with that, punching in his own access codes. He showed her the amount in the account and then proceeded to transmit the amount into her account. The data pads beeped with the completion of the transfer. Once the transfer was complete Kayylla punched in a new set of access codes that sent the newly deposited amount to another account only accessible by her.
Kayylla handed over the controls to the repulsor sled after she placed her data pad back into her pocket. The Imperial nodded to two stormtroopers who stepped forward and guided the sled to the transport. It didn't take the dozen stormtroopers long to unload the sled, once the unloading was finished the same two troopers guided the sled back to Kayylla's side.
"The transport is ready when you are sire." the closer of the two stormtroopers said.
"That will be all then." The Imperial said. With that the troopers turned and marched off towards the transport. Turning back to her the Major spoke, " I wish you well on your future trades."
Kayylla thought she detected a slight smile on the Imperials face. But before she could be sure a high pitch whine cut into her thoughts. Snapping her head up towards the sky Kayylla's eyes widened in shock. There coming down on them was a Chariot Assault Vehicle. It's veiwports open with stormtroopers and there weapons aimed at the small group.
Kayylla glanced over towards the Imperial, his eyes were now wide with shock as well.
Davro had just shut down the engines and stepped outside the hatch of the 'Stormrider' when he saw the Imperials move past the access doors to bay 1037. "Something is up, they don't go in groups that big for just patrols, and they didn't come after me.....better check it out. KC, restart the engines and keep 'em warm, we may need to get out of here fast. Be ready to angle the deflectors shields if I come running back here,", he said. "Oh, and charge up the gun batteries.", he added. Davro threw on his helmet and an ablative vest, holstered his blaster pistol, and grabbed a blaster rifle from the weapons locker. Now armed, he headed back out of the ship, out the main access doors, and followed the Imperials' last direction. He caught sight of them as the stormtroopers were finishing the loading of numerous crates and boxes, and the officer in charge was completing a transaction with a remarkably beautiful alien smuggler. He quickly noticed which bay they had stopped at.
"I am so glad I kept HER from being blown up....", he muttered, his mouth unconsciously hanging slightly open. The sound of the diving Chariot Attack Vehicles snapped him out of his trance. The crimson arc of blaster-fire began to pelt the ground among the troopers and vehicles, pinning the men down and keeping them away from the heavy guns on the transport. Davro slung his rifle on his back and sprinted to the transport, diving into an open hatch, and working his way to the gun cradle. He quickly sighted and fired on a passing Chariot, deftly placing several rounds into it's engines and forcing it to break off it's attack. Davro climbed back down to the driver's seat, fired-up the engine and began moving the transport to block the access doors to Bay 1038. Kayylla, seeing the transport lurch into motion and turn to the doors, quickly hurried back into the docking bay just as the transport smashed diagonally into the doorway, effectively sealing it off.
"What kind of idiot pulls a move like that?!", she asked herself.
As if in answer, the hatch over the driver's seat opened and Davro's helmeted head popped out.
"I think that'll keep them out for a little while. Did you get my note?"
"Who are you and what are you talking about?", she confusedly asked.
Davro pointed at the charges sitting next to the 'Minimizer's hatch, and scanned the skies for the return of the Chariots. "Removed those from your ship, you better get moving. They'll be coming back soon...". As if on queue, the blaster fire resumed, though not as accurate. Several shots went wide and blasted the ventilation entry to rubble, blocking any future journeys. "Uh-oh, there goes my escape route. Look, I don't suppose you could give me a lift to a safe spot I know about? I could replenish the fuel you use getting there, offer you a few hot meals, and a place to hide out?", he said hopefully. "Otherwise, I'm stuck here..."
"I'm sure that I'll live to regret this, but, come on....", she muttered.
"Great!", Davro exclaimed as he took his commlink from his belt. "KC, take-off and use escape course #7, I've got a ride and I'll see you there. Shall we go before more Chariots show up?"
Major Jace Fenel came to his senses once the troopers in the assault vehicles started firing on them. He didn't have time to question why the stormtroopers were firing on him and his troops, and waiting around for answers was not an option. He glanced at his own troopers and saw they had already filed into the transport and were taking off, without him.
Jace turned back to the unusual alien and saw she was boarding the ship in the docking bay behind them. She wasn't alone though, a new comer had joined her. Probably the owner of the craft that blocked the bay. He couldn't tell what race the being was, they were wearing a flight helmet that hide their features and gender.
He looked around for the a quick exit when he noticed movement off towards the docking bay. It was the unusual alien, she was waving to him.
"Are you coming or are you going to stand there and wait for more troops to come?" she yelled across the way.
Not wanting to pass up a free ride to freedom he ran towards her craft.
She met him at the ramp, green eyes bright with excitement. "Glad you decided to join us, now strap in. Sorry about the limited space." She said as she strapped herself in, with that she headed for the traffic lanes above.
Davro hurriedly strapped himself into the navigator's chair, fished a data chip out of his belt pouch, and plugged it into the nav-computer.
"Okay, I'm loading the course for the jump into hyperspace into your ship. It'll take a couple minutes.", he said, glancing at the Imperial Major sitting in the copilots seat. "You sure you want him along? He didn't seem too popular back there, but I guess any enemy of the Empire is a friend to me. Watch out, I've got a pair of TIE's bearing at point-oh-five! I hope this thing is fast....", he trailed off.
"Let's hope the engines don't cut out on us." Kay spoke threw gritted teeth as she banked her craft to port. "Hey Imp, can you shoot?" She asked to Major when she came out of her turn.
"Yes, of course I can." Jace said looking at the controls trying to decide which buttons fired what.
"Hold on, I'd better fire, you can fly. Take the controls. Be careful though she can turn on a cred coin." Kay said as she flicked switches to rearrange the controls.
Manning the guns from the pilot chair and with the piloting skills of the Imp Kayylla was able to disable or destroy most of the pursuing TIE's. Reaching the outer edge of Coruscant space wasn't as bad as getting into space. With the navcourse punched in they hit lightspeed once the 'Minimizer' was far enough out from Coruscants gravity well.
"Alright Mr. Navigator, where exactly is my ship headed?" Kayylla asked after swiveling her chair to face Davro.
Davro smiled broadly as he settled back into his seat. "We are currently headed for the Tarneb system. Binary star, one gas giant, two small planets close to the binary, and an enormous asteroid field at the fringe of the system."
Kayylla and Jace simply stared at him, then almost in unison replied, "But there is nothing there!".
Stifling a laugh, Davro continued. "I knew you'd say that. It appears that I know something you don't. Major, what do you know from your Imperial days about Tarneb? Let me go ahead and tell you; Tarneb is an assembly point for Imperial fleet vessels that were assigned to special task forces, then deployed from there. The Rebels knew that, too. That's why the Empire changed the staging area to another system. What the Empire didn't know was how the Rebellion got the information about operations staged from there."
Davro paused, stretching leisurely before finishing. "In the asteroid field, there are a series of camouflaged observation satellites. These weren't enough to snoop for info, but they all sent data back to a small Rebel supply depot and listening post, situated in one of the larger asteroids. The depot then sorted the info and relayed it to the nearest Rebel ship or base for further use. When the Empire stopped using this system, the Rebels left too, leaving behind the outpost in case they needed it again. That's when I found it, it's fuel storage nearly full, cargo bays full of foodstuffs and life-support supplies, medical gear, a few astromech droids for maintenance and repairs, and a hangar big enough for a small compliment of starfighters, or a couple light freighters. There are docking claws concealed in other areas for large capitol ships to dock and resupply. The most interesting feature was in another asteroid nearby; a small dry-dock of Rebel design, with an old Republic courier corvette in the midst of being rebuilt.". He paused again to let this sink in. "I've been calling that place home for years now, selling and trading items from there to acquire the parts I need to have to finish the corvette. When it's done, I don't what I'll do; become a pirate, a mercenary, join the Rebels, or just retire quietly? Anyway, you'll be able to refuel and rest there for a while, my way of saying 'Thanks for the ride'."
"I should be the one thanking you." Kayylla said. "If you hadn't come along, my ship would probably be in pieces by now. I can simply say thank you." she finished giving Davro a smile that reached her into her eyes.
"Now," Kayylla said turning to the Imp. "Who are you? And why were stormtroopers firing on us?"
"Well," The Imp said clearing his throat. " I ah, don't know why or who sent them. I can answer your first question though. I am, or was Major Jace Fenel, assistant aid to General Evir Derricote. I too thank you for saving my life back there as well." He said giving Kayylla a smile of sincerity. "I can not tell you how many times I have thought of ways to defect from the Empire. We stopped agreeing on many points of view some time ago." Jace said leaning back in the co-pilots chair and running his fingers threw his dark brown hair.
"Well, I'm glad to have the both of you aboard. It gets very lonely traveling by yourself. I am sorry about the lack of space in here but I have been the only occupant for some time. If we are in for a long ride I do have extra blankets. There's room to camp out in the lounge, the refresher is small but it does it's part. Now Davro, how long will it take to reach your home?" Kayylla asked letting her auburn hair fall over her shoulders and frame her delicate face.
Davro pulled off his helmet, and tucked his rifle into a niche in the corner, then turned to face the others. "We've got about two days of hyperspace travel, since we started from Coruscant. When we come out of hyperspace, we'll have another twelve hours of cautious sublight speed to reach 'The Rock', as I call it. We should be arriving there just after the "Stormrider" arrives in system drops out of hyperspace. We should dock our ships, then I can take mine and lead you in."
Davro caught himself starting to stare at Kayylla's lustrous eyes, then snapped out it and blushed slightly. "So, uh, do you mind if I have a look around the ship? Piloting is my first love, but engineering is my second. Promise I won't take anything...."
The next two days passed quickly, no mishaps with the engines forced them out of hyperspace. Davro voiced his approval with Kayylla's maintenance of the ship's drives on more than one occasion, and only suggested that she upgrade her guns anytime soon. Jace kept to himself, still puzzling over how the Empire might have found out he had considered deserting and moving on.
On the second day, Davro checked their progress. "We're almost there, Kayylla. Standby to cut in the sublight engines.....in 3, 2, 1, sublight now."
The "Minimizer" dropped out of hyperspace and initiated a scan, immediately picking up the "Stormrider" on it's scopes. Davro hailed his ship on the communit, "KC, stop the ship and prepare for docking, I'm coming aboard." The little droid's excited chirps resounded through the cockpit.
In response, the sensor-image of the "Stormrider" slowed and stopped, holding it's position. Kayylla deftly moved the "Minimizer" over Davro's ship and docked with his dorsal hatch. After scurrying through the pressure hatches to his own ship, Davro set course to the asteroids nearby, with the "Minimizer" close behind. They wove between rock ranging from the size of a fist, to lumps larger than several freighters combined. At last, they reached an enormous asteroid, like a fragment of some moon that had exploded long ago.
Davro flew under this planetoid, then up into a large cave who's opening was shielded from view. There, deep under the surface, a hangar forcefield was setup to hold atmosphere in, the landing areas clearly visible by Davro's landing lights.
He set the "Stormrider" down at the very rear of the hangar, leaving plenty of room for Kayylla to land near a refueling port. He lowered the ramp, trotted across to the lighting controls, and brightened the bay. In one of the alcoves off the main hangar bay, the form of an old Naboo N-1 starfighter could be seen, resting in a support cradle with most of it's body plates lying on the deck beneath it. There was large blast door labeled "Ordinance" in red at the back of the hangar, and small blast door marked "Ops" to the right. Davro's droid, KC, came rolling out and opened the door to Ops, then waited for his master. "KC, get the crew out and have them check the other freighter out. Refuel it completely, check for any damage, use whatever you need out of stores. The two onboard are our guests, let everyone know."
Once Davro had boarded his own ship Jace seemed to relax a bit. Kayylla could not understand why he did not feel comfortable around him. They both seemed nice and were willing to help her when she needed it, and from what she could tell they both had something's incommon with each other. It seemed flying was their passion and they are probably around the same standard age, but what did she know about humans and their male gender. Even though she had been reborn countless times she still had to relearn about different species and how they act and react with each other.
Coming up to the opening Kayylla was amazed at what lay in the hanger. There in a corner sat a ship she thought she would never see in her lifetimes again. An old Naboo Starfighter.
"What in the Empire is that?" Jace asked interrupting her amazement.
"That, is a Naboo N-1 Starfighter." Kayylla answered in amazement. "That type of craft has not been seen for years. I wonder how he was able to get a hold of one."
"What's so special about it? There are more modern crafts out there that probably offer more then that small ship." Jace said a little disgusted. 'Why would anyone want a craft like that?' he asked himself, not daring to voice it for fear of offending Kayylla and her strange interest in the craft.
"The Naboo starfighter was the fastest ship of its time, or at least the histories say. It was, I believe, the first small craft to use an astro droid. I could be mistaken I only skimmed the information on the craft. Maybe Davro could tell us more about it." Kayylla said after landing her ship and cutting the power.
"Oh, let's ask Davro. He'll know everything about it." Jace said in a heavy sarcastic voice.
"What's with you two? Give him a chance you may get to like him." Kayylla said smiling at him.
With that smile there was nothing else he could do but give into her.
"You're right. We'd better not keep him waiting." Jace said turning to leave the cockpit.
"Oh, you may want to leave your rank insignia here. You are not an Imperial officer anymore. Thank you for trying." Kayylla said standing on her toes and giving him a peck on the cheek.
Jace waited for her to leave and head down the ramp before he let himself blush deep crimson.
Days earlier a lone Imperial stormtrooper commander stepped into General Derricots office.
"Well commander, report what happened. Is that alien dead yet?" Derricote asked as if he knew the answer.
"I am sorry to say she got away." The stormtrooper said not backing down from the stare he was getting from Derricote.
"What? How? I sent your men there to stop the transaction and to kill that alien. How could you fail?" Derricote questioned the man.
"She had back up sir. We did not expect her to have a partner. He disabled one of our assault vehicles which caused Major Fenels troops to flee with the cargo. We were able to catch up with them and confiscated the goods." The commander said staying tight and rigid.
"And where is Major Fenel? What did he have to say about this?" The General asked smugly.
"We were unable to question Fenel sir. He was taken aboard the aliens ship, we believe against his own will." The commander responded, this time taking a step away from the General.
"How could Fenel be taken?" Derricot asked letting surprise register on his face. " I want that ship and her crew and anyone else involved with this incident captured and brought to me. Now what of the goods? They had better be worth the price we had to pay." Derricote said calming down some.
"I am sorry to disappoint you again sir but upon opening the crates we found more then half the crates were filled with trash. The rest were filled with seeds and other plants from Alderaan." The Commander said bracing himself for the explosion of the Generals anger.
"Only half? Oh this alien will pay for this mistake. I still want them found and brought to me alive. I also want the goods loaded to my shuttle, I have work to do on Black Moon. In the meantime I want troops looking for these criminals. When they are found, bring them to Black Moon. They will rue the day they messed with me." With that the Stormtrooper saluted and left leaving Derricote alone in his office.
Looking over the crates one last item Kayylla caught a glimpse of movement off to her right. Slipping her blaster from her left hip holster she crept noiselessly to one of the dark corners in the bay. Searching in and around the abandoned crates she was surprised to find nothing there. To be safe she checked the remaining corners. In the end they all ended up the same as the first. Holstering her blaster she set about maneuvering the sled to the entrance way. Waiting for the prearranged time. Kayylla paid close attention to the darkened corners. The time was close enough, doing one last once over of the bay Kayylla opened the entrance and guided the sled thru.
He waited a few moments after the strange female alien left the docking bay before the Deveronian removed the cover plate to the ventilation shaft, where he hastily hid himself. Placing the cover plate back in place he set about the work he came to do. Setting his pack down by the closest landing gear, he proceeded to unpack his explosives.
Working quickly the Deveronian had placed his explosives in critical areas on her space craft. Stepping back to admire his handy work the Deveronian set the timers then crawled back threw the ventilation shaft to a safe distance away.
After proceeding through a network ventilation's ducts, the Deveronian crawled out only to face a blaster in his face. "You've been a busy boy, haven't you?", growled the weapon's holder, a ruggedly handsome pilot who still wore his battered flight helmet and dirty orange flight suit. "Now, how about you let me know what the disarming code is for the explosives, and I let you go without extra body openings? Sound fair?" Five minutes later, the last charge had been removed from the ship, the pilot admiring the handiwork of the Deveronian. "Sequencer charges rigged to blow from a modified thermal detonator timer. Cobbled together, but clever. A shame I didn't live up to my end of the bargain about letting him
go......oh, well." He sat the defused explosives down near the entry ramp of the 'Minimizer', along with a quickly scratched note, "Found some slaymo planting these on your ship, took the liberty of removing them and teaching him not to do it again. Courtesy of the occupant of Docking Bay 1037, Captain Davro Stfal." With that done, Davro crawled back to Bay 1037 via the vent system and went back to checking his own vessel, the not-quite-so-stock freighter, the 'Stormrider'
"KC! Where you at, KC?", Davro called out when he reached his freighter. A squat little astromech droid rolled out from behind the starboard landing strut, chirping it's greetings to it's master. "Make sure those lateral thrusters are ready, then come help me with replacing that bad alluvial damper. With a brief whistle, R2KC rolled off to it's work. Davro examined a greenish patch of corrosion on the hull, rubbed at it with his sleeve, then boarded and went back to change his clothes. He emerged wearing a set of stained coveralls and protective goggles, his sandy hair obscuring the goggles' strap. Going quickly to his work, he lowered a new alluvial damper down from his cargo hold on a replusor pad and moved it below the service hatch. He stepped onto the pad and raised it to the gaping service entry.
Within an hour, the old damper lay on the hangar floor waiting for pickup by a junk dealer. Davro went to the cockpit and fired up the engines, then checked the diagnostic screens for damper problems.
"Growls like a Wookie...", he said approvingly. "Here's hoping my new gun modifications fight like one, too."
Leaning against the doors of the docking bay 1038, Kayylla waited for the Imperials to come. She checked her chrono every few moments. Finally she had had enough of this waiting, grabbing the controls to the repulsor sled Kayylla started turning the sled around when she heard the familiar echoing clip of Stormtroopers. Letting out a sigh of relief Kayylla cut power to the sled and waited for the troops to round the corner. Her let hand never left its place at her side, you could never be too careful when dealing with the Empire.
The echoes of the footsteps were getting louder, Kayylla could see many shadows scurrying or darting out of the way of the on coming troops. Twelve troopers came around the corner of a dilapidated building off to her right. Kayylla was amazed at the number of troops the Imperial had brought with him. Behind the troopers was a troop transport, hovering on repulsors a few meters above the durocrete floor. 'That is probably the transport they will be using to haul the cargo away with.' Kayylla thought to herself as she came around to the front of the repulsor sled. There she waited for the Imperial to approach her.
He took four long strides to reach her, clasping his hands at the small of his back, he puffed out his chest and said. " I can see you have brought the merchandise."
"Yes, I have. Have you brought the payment?" Kayylla asked him as she reached into her hooded vest pocket and retrieved her data pad.
"Of course, is your data pad capable of down loading a payment/" The Imperial asked her as he brought out his own data pad.
"Of course it is capable to down load, what data pad is not capable of that?" She as she set her jaw at his insult to her and her equipment. Flipping open her data pad she punched in her access codes to her account. he got the holo with that, punching in his own access codes. He showed her the amount in the account and then proceeded to transmit the amount into her account. The data pads beeped with the completion of the transfer. Once the transfer was complete Kayylla punched in a new set of access codes that sent the newly deposited amount to another account only accessible by her.
Kayylla handed over the controls to the repulsor sled after she placed her data pad back into her pocket. The Imperial nodded to two stormtroopers who stepped forward and guided the sled to the transport. It didn't take the dozen stormtroopers long to unload the sled, once the unloading was finished the same two troopers guided the sled back to Kayylla's side.
"The transport is ready when you are sire." the closer of the two stormtroopers said.
"That will be all then." The Imperial said. With that the troopers turned and marched off towards the transport. Turning back to her the Major spoke, " I wish you well on your future trades."
Kayylla thought she detected a slight smile on the Imperials face. But before she could be sure a high pitch whine cut into her thoughts. Snapping her head up towards the sky Kayylla's eyes widened in shock. There coming down on them was a Chariot Assault Vehicle. It's veiwports open with stormtroopers and there weapons aimed at the small group.
Kayylla glanced over towards the Imperial, his eyes were now wide with shock as well.
Davro had just shut down the engines and stepped outside the hatch of the 'Stormrider' when he saw the Imperials move past the access doors to bay 1037. "Something is up, they don't go in groups that big for just patrols, and they didn't come after me.....better check it out. KC, restart the engines and keep 'em warm, we may need to get out of here fast. Be ready to angle the deflectors shields if I come running back here,", he said. "Oh, and charge up the gun batteries.", he added. Davro threw on his helmet and an ablative vest, holstered his blaster pistol, and grabbed a blaster rifle from the weapons locker. Now armed, he headed back out of the ship, out the main access doors, and followed the Imperials' last direction. He caught sight of them as the stormtroopers were finishing the loading of numerous crates and boxes, and the officer in charge was completing a transaction with a remarkably beautiful alien smuggler. He quickly noticed which bay they had stopped at.
"I am so glad I kept HER from being blown up....", he muttered, his mouth unconsciously hanging slightly open. The sound of the diving Chariot Attack Vehicles snapped him out of his trance. The crimson arc of blaster-fire began to pelt the ground among the troopers and vehicles, pinning the men down and keeping them away from the heavy guns on the transport. Davro slung his rifle on his back and sprinted to the transport, diving into an open hatch, and working his way to the gun cradle. He quickly sighted and fired on a passing Chariot, deftly placing several rounds into it's engines and forcing it to break off it's attack. Davro climbed back down to the driver's seat, fired-up the engine and began moving the transport to block the access doors to Bay 1038. Kayylla, seeing the transport lurch into motion and turn to the doors, quickly hurried back into the docking bay just as the transport smashed diagonally into the doorway, effectively sealing it off.
"What kind of idiot pulls a move like that?!", she asked herself.
As if in answer, the hatch over the driver's seat opened and Davro's helmeted head popped out.
"I think that'll keep them out for a little while. Did you get my note?"
"Who are you and what are you talking about?", she confusedly asked.
Davro pointed at the charges sitting next to the 'Minimizer's hatch, and scanned the skies for the return of the Chariots. "Removed those from your ship, you better get moving. They'll be coming back soon...". As if on queue, the blaster fire resumed, though not as accurate. Several shots went wide and blasted the ventilation entry to rubble, blocking any future journeys. "Uh-oh, there goes my escape route. Look, I don't suppose you could give me a lift to a safe spot I know about? I could replenish the fuel you use getting there, offer you a few hot meals, and a place to hide out?", he said hopefully. "Otherwise, I'm stuck here..."
"I'm sure that I'll live to regret this, but, come on....", she muttered.
"Great!", Davro exclaimed as he took his commlink from his belt. "KC, take-off and use escape course #7, I've got a ride and I'll see you there. Shall we go before more Chariots show up?"
Major Jace Fenel came to his senses once the troopers in the assault vehicles started firing on them. He didn't have time to question why the stormtroopers were firing on him and his troops, and waiting around for answers was not an option. He glanced at his own troopers and saw they had already filed into the transport and were taking off, without him.
Jace turned back to the unusual alien and saw she was boarding the ship in the docking bay behind them. She wasn't alone though, a new comer had joined her. Probably the owner of the craft that blocked the bay. He couldn't tell what race the being was, they were wearing a flight helmet that hide their features and gender.
He looked around for the a quick exit when he noticed movement off towards the docking bay. It was the unusual alien, she was waving to him.
"Are you coming or are you going to stand there and wait for more troops to come?" she yelled across the way.
Not wanting to pass up a free ride to freedom he ran towards her craft.
She met him at the ramp, green eyes bright with excitement. "Glad you decided to join us, now strap in. Sorry about the limited space." She said as she strapped herself in, with that she headed for the traffic lanes above.
Davro hurriedly strapped himself into the navigator's chair, fished a data chip out of his belt pouch, and plugged it into the nav-computer.
"Okay, I'm loading the course for the jump into hyperspace into your ship. It'll take a couple minutes.", he said, glancing at the Imperial Major sitting in the copilots seat. "You sure you want him along? He didn't seem too popular back there, but I guess any enemy of the Empire is a friend to me. Watch out, I've got a pair of TIE's bearing at point-oh-five! I hope this thing is fast....", he trailed off.
"Let's hope the engines don't cut out on us." Kay spoke threw gritted teeth as she banked her craft to port. "Hey Imp, can you shoot?" She asked to Major when she came out of her turn.
"Yes, of course I can." Jace said looking at the controls trying to decide which buttons fired what.
"Hold on, I'd better fire, you can fly. Take the controls. Be careful though she can turn on a cred coin." Kay said as she flicked switches to rearrange the controls.
Manning the guns from the pilot chair and with the piloting skills of the Imp Kayylla was able to disable or destroy most of the pursuing TIE's. Reaching the outer edge of Coruscant space wasn't as bad as getting into space. With the navcourse punched in they hit lightspeed once the 'Minimizer' was far enough out from Coruscants gravity well.
"Alright Mr. Navigator, where exactly is my ship headed?" Kayylla asked after swiveling her chair to face Davro.
Davro smiled broadly as he settled back into his seat. "We are currently headed for the Tarneb system. Binary star, one gas giant, two small planets close to the binary, and an enormous asteroid field at the fringe of the system."
Kayylla and Jace simply stared at him, then almost in unison replied, "But there is nothing there!".
Stifling a laugh, Davro continued. "I knew you'd say that. It appears that I know something you don't. Major, what do you know from your Imperial days about Tarneb? Let me go ahead and tell you; Tarneb is an assembly point for Imperial fleet vessels that were assigned to special task forces, then deployed from there. The Rebels knew that, too. That's why the Empire changed the staging area to another system. What the Empire didn't know was how the Rebellion got the information about operations staged from there."
Davro paused, stretching leisurely before finishing. "In the asteroid field, there are a series of camouflaged observation satellites. These weren't enough to snoop for info, but they all sent data back to a small Rebel supply depot and listening post, situated in one of the larger asteroids. The depot then sorted the info and relayed it to the nearest Rebel ship or base for further use. When the Empire stopped using this system, the Rebels left too, leaving behind the outpost in case they needed it again. That's when I found it, it's fuel storage nearly full, cargo bays full of foodstuffs and life-support supplies, medical gear, a few astromech droids for maintenance and repairs, and a hangar big enough for a small compliment of starfighters, or a couple light freighters. There are docking claws concealed in other areas for large capitol ships to dock and resupply. The most interesting feature was in another asteroid nearby; a small dry-dock of Rebel design, with an old Republic courier corvette in the midst of being rebuilt.". He paused again to let this sink in. "I've been calling that place home for years now, selling and trading items from there to acquire the parts I need to have to finish the corvette. When it's done, I don't what I'll do; become a pirate, a mercenary, join the Rebels, or just retire quietly? Anyway, you'll be able to refuel and rest there for a while, my way of saying 'Thanks for the ride'."
"I should be the one thanking you." Kayylla said. "If you hadn't come along, my ship would probably be in pieces by now. I can simply say thank you." she finished giving Davro a smile that reached her into her eyes.
"Now," Kayylla said turning to the Imp. "Who are you? And why were stormtroopers firing on us?"
"Well," The Imp said clearing his throat. " I ah, don't know why or who sent them. I can answer your first question though. I am, or was Major Jace Fenel, assistant aid to General Evir Derricote. I too thank you for saving my life back there as well." He said giving Kayylla a smile of sincerity. "I can not tell you how many times I have thought of ways to defect from the Empire. We stopped agreeing on many points of view some time ago." Jace said leaning back in the co-pilots chair and running his fingers threw his dark brown hair.
"Well, I'm glad to have the both of you aboard. It gets very lonely traveling by yourself. I am sorry about the lack of space in here but I have been the only occupant for some time. If we are in for a long ride I do have extra blankets. There's room to camp out in the lounge, the refresher is small but it does it's part. Now Davro, how long will it take to reach your home?" Kayylla asked letting her auburn hair fall over her shoulders and frame her delicate face.
Davro pulled off his helmet, and tucked his rifle into a niche in the corner, then turned to face the others. "We've got about two days of hyperspace travel, since we started from Coruscant. When we come out of hyperspace, we'll have another twelve hours of cautious sublight speed to reach 'The Rock', as I call it. We should be arriving there just after the "Stormrider" arrives in system drops out of hyperspace. We should dock our ships, then I can take mine and lead you in."
Davro caught himself starting to stare at Kayylla's lustrous eyes, then snapped out it and blushed slightly. "So, uh, do you mind if I have a look around the ship? Piloting is my first love, but engineering is my second. Promise I won't take anything...."
The next two days passed quickly, no mishaps with the engines forced them out of hyperspace. Davro voiced his approval with Kayylla's maintenance of the ship's drives on more than one occasion, and only suggested that she upgrade her guns anytime soon. Jace kept to himself, still puzzling over how the Empire might have found out he had considered deserting and moving on.
On the second day, Davro checked their progress. "We're almost there, Kayylla. Standby to cut in the sublight engines.....in 3, 2, 1, sublight now."
The "Minimizer" dropped out of hyperspace and initiated a scan, immediately picking up the "Stormrider" on it's scopes. Davro hailed his ship on the communit, "KC, stop the ship and prepare for docking, I'm coming aboard." The little droid's excited chirps resounded through the cockpit.
In response, the sensor-image of the "Stormrider" slowed and stopped, holding it's position. Kayylla deftly moved the "Minimizer" over Davro's ship and docked with his dorsal hatch. After scurrying through the pressure hatches to his own ship, Davro set course to the asteroids nearby, with the "Minimizer" close behind. They wove between rock ranging from the size of a fist, to lumps larger than several freighters combined. At last, they reached an enormous asteroid, like a fragment of some moon that had exploded long ago.
Davro flew under this planetoid, then up into a large cave who's opening was shielded from view. There, deep under the surface, a hangar forcefield was setup to hold atmosphere in, the landing areas clearly visible by Davro's landing lights.
He set the "Stormrider" down at the very rear of the hangar, leaving plenty of room for Kayylla to land near a refueling port. He lowered the ramp, trotted across to the lighting controls, and brightened the bay. In one of the alcoves off the main hangar bay, the form of an old Naboo N-1 starfighter could be seen, resting in a support cradle with most of it's body plates lying on the deck beneath it. There was large blast door labeled "Ordinance" in red at the back of the hangar, and small blast door marked "Ops" to the right. Davro's droid, KC, came rolling out and opened the door to Ops, then waited for his master. "KC, get the crew out and have them check the other freighter out. Refuel it completely, check for any damage, use whatever you need out of stores. The two onboard are our guests, let everyone know."
Once Davro had boarded his own ship Jace seemed to relax a bit. Kayylla could not understand why he did not feel comfortable around him. They both seemed nice and were willing to help her when she needed it, and from what she could tell they both had something's incommon with each other. It seemed flying was their passion and they are probably around the same standard age, but what did she know about humans and their male gender. Even though she had been reborn countless times she still had to relearn about different species and how they act and react with each other.
Coming up to the opening Kayylla was amazed at what lay in the hanger. There in a corner sat a ship she thought she would never see in her lifetimes again. An old Naboo Starfighter.
"What in the Empire is that?" Jace asked interrupting her amazement.
"That, is a Naboo N-1 Starfighter." Kayylla answered in amazement. "That type of craft has not been seen for years. I wonder how he was able to get a hold of one."
"What's so special about it? There are more modern crafts out there that probably offer more then that small ship." Jace said a little disgusted. 'Why would anyone want a craft like that?' he asked himself, not daring to voice it for fear of offending Kayylla and her strange interest in the craft.
"The Naboo starfighter was the fastest ship of its time, or at least the histories say. It was, I believe, the first small craft to use an astro droid. I could be mistaken I only skimmed the information on the craft. Maybe Davro could tell us more about it." Kayylla said after landing her ship and cutting the power.
"Oh, let's ask Davro. He'll know everything about it." Jace said in a heavy sarcastic voice.
"What's with you two? Give him a chance you may get to like him." Kayylla said smiling at him.
With that smile there was nothing else he could do but give into her.
"You're right. We'd better not keep him waiting." Jace said turning to leave the cockpit.
"Oh, you may want to leave your rank insignia here. You are not an Imperial officer anymore. Thank you for trying." Kayylla said standing on her toes and giving him a peck on the cheek.
Jace waited for her to leave and head down the ramp before he let himself blush deep crimson.
Days earlier a lone Imperial stormtrooper commander stepped into General Derricots office.
"Well commander, report what happened. Is that alien dead yet?" Derricote asked as if he knew the answer.
"I am sorry to say she got away." The stormtrooper said not backing down from the stare he was getting from Derricote.
"What? How? I sent your men there to stop the transaction and to kill that alien. How could you fail?" Derricote questioned the man.
"She had back up sir. We did not expect her to have a partner. He disabled one of our assault vehicles which caused Major Fenels troops to flee with the cargo. We were able to catch up with them and confiscated the goods." The commander said staying tight and rigid.
"And where is Major Fenel? What did he have to say about this?" The General asked smugly.
"We were unable to question Fenel sir. He was taken aboard the aliens ship, we believe against his own will." The commander responded, this time taking a step away from the General.
"How could Fenel be taken?" Derricot asked letting surprise register on his face. " I want that ship and her crew and anyone else involved with this incident captured and brought to me. Now what of the goods? They had better be worth the price we had to pay." Derricote said calming down some.
"I am sorry to disappoint you again sir but upon opening the crates we found more then half the crates were filled with trash. The rest were filled with seeds and other plants from Alderaan." The Commander said bracing himself for the explosion of the Generals anger.
"Only half? Oh this alien will pay for this mistake. I still want them found and brought to me alive. I also want the goods loaded to my shuttle, I have work to do on Black Moon. In the meantime I want troops looking for these criminals. When they are found, bring them to Black Moon. They will rue the day they messed with me." With that the Stormtrooper saluted and left leaving Derricote alone in his office.