Part Four:
Jumping Ship
Sebastian sat in a dark bar on Carida. He'd arrived several days prior in a task force of three. Halph Banitt and Niik Woslit were experienced smugglers and had been ordered to tag along. The people they were to make contact with were in the Imperial Academy so the whole contact was up to him. Two old guys hanging out with a group of promenent Imperials was bound to draw suspicion.
He didn't know who he was meeting with. They had a spoken code that would identify the defectors but so far no Academy uniforms had shown.
"Nothing yet," Niik asked as he slid onto the stool beside Sebastian.
The boy shook his head. He took a sip of his drink. Not alcoholic, his parents would kill him if they caught him drinking. Not that it mattered. Sebastian was sure now after all the time he'd been there that there was no way back.
Niik got his own drink. "Don't worry, kid," he said. "They don't show we can always come back tomorrow night."
Sebastian laughed. "I don't know how many more of these blasted hot chocolates I can take," he grumbled to Niik's amusement. He clapped the boy on the back and hopped off the stool.
"Don't look now, but your friends might have arrived," he said and walked over to join Halph at their table in the corner.
The Imperial Academy students walked over to the bar and placed their orders. One of the older students, a human boy, sat down beside Sebastian.
"Nice night," the boy said casualty.
"You saw the stars?" Sebastian said automatically.
"You can see Naboo from here they say," the boy responded.
Sebastian reached out his hand. "Cor Wynt."
"Nojo Eimok," the boy said and shook Cor's hand. The bartender handed him his drink. "Ain't you a little young to be a rebel?"
Sebastian's response was a shrug. "Obviously not," he answered.
Nojo grunted. "They send a kid to do a man's job. Figures."
"You don't want to defect just go in peace," Sebastian growled. He did *not* like this guy.
"Hang on, hang on. I'm not saying that." Nojo sighed. "I've got a group. There are four of us looking to defect. These times are the only times we have that we can get out of here. We've got two more nights before we ship out," Nojo told him. "And... I think someone is on to us."
Sebastian nodded. "What nights?"
"Tomorrow and next Atunda," Nojo said.
"We don't have much choice do we?" Sebastian asked. "Next Atunda isn't an option. We need to get back to the base."
"Then tomorrow it is."
"I guess so.
***
"Slag it, Cor!" Halph shouted and tossed his blaster onto the small bed in the cramped cabin. "How could you think we would be able to pull it off tomorrow?"
Sebastian sighed. "Come on, Halph. We can't stay another week," he defended himself. "And what if they early transport some of them? What then?"
Halph sighed and kept pacing. "Sith!" he shouted. "Fine. You're right. We'll get them out... Sith!"
Suddenly, Sebastian's head seemed to split. He reached out and used the bunk to steady himself.
"Sith is right," Niik as ran in. He turned on a view screen.
What looked like an asteroid field covered the entire screen. "What the-" Halph began but didn't complete. The scene of destruction loomed before Sebastian.
"Alderaan," he whispered.
Niik and Halph both looked at him.
"It was the Empire," Sebastian said quietly. "They... they blew up Alderaan." And I felt it, he thought. I felt all those people die...
"The Empire couldn't do that," Halph said in disbelief. "They don't have enough fire power in the entire fleet to destroy a planet."
Sebastian glared at him. "It *was*, okay? They blew up Alderaan with their Death Star because Princess Leia wouldn't cooperate."
Niik looked at him skeptically. "And how would *you* know?"
"I just do," he countered and walked out of the cabin. Sebastian was sick. He should have remembered that Alderaan would be destroyed. Maybe he could have stopped it. He mentally kicked himself. He knew everything that would happen. But these were real people fighting for an honest-to-God cause. Yet, Sebastian could change their history and save lives. The question was, should he?
***
The next night, Sebastian, Niik and Halph walked into the bar at ten minute intervals. Niik and Halph went first and claimed their table in the corner. Sebastian walked in after them, still feeling sick about what had happened the day before.
Sebastian took his seat at the bar.
"What'll it be, kid?" the bar tender asked.
"Caf," Sebastian answered. "Make it a double."
The bar tender gave him a sympathetic look. "Know someone on Alderaan, did you?"
Sebastian looked up at him. "Yeah," he lied. Not like it would hurt. He'd just felt a million people die. Sebastian just doubted that this guy'd understand.
"Want me to slip in some Corellian whiskey? On the house," the bar tender said.
Instead of turning the liqour away, Sebastian accepted. He watched as the bar tender poured the whiskey into the caf and didn't even flinch when he took a sip. The taste was oblivious to him. And it really didn't help him. It just made him even more guilty. Here he was disobeying his parents and the laws of his country. Sebastian sighed and kept drinking. Nothing he could do about that.
"Alderaan, eh?" Nojo asked him as he slid on to the stool beside Sebastian. "Little Zall over there too."
Sebastian turned to see a kid not much older than him in an Imperial Academy uniform who was sitting an a table with three others, crying..
"His whole family," Nojo told Sebastian. "He is a full blooded Alderaanian. Mom, Dad, three little sistes... all gone." He looked down at the bar as if embarrased. "I know it is going to be hard to get me and the other three out but... think you can get him out of here?"
"Yeah, probably," Sebastian answered. It wasn't a complicated proceedure. They were just going to sneak out through the back one by one. Sebastian watched as Halph got up and walked out the back. "Look, you walk out the back of here. One of my partners will be back there. He'll take you to the ship. You and me will bring up the rear. Got it?"
Nojo nodded and walked back over to the table. One of the two females then stood up and walked through the back exit. Soon after a boy walked out. Then Niik got up and walked out. Then walked out another male. Then the next girl and the crying boy. With a nod from Sebastian, Nojo stood up and walked out. Before following him, Sebastian did a quick scan of the room. There, by the front entrance, was a man in an Imperial Uniform looking straight at him, speaking into a commlink.
"Crap," Sebastian cursed and jetted out the back.
Nojo looked at him puzzled. "RUN!" Sebastian shouted. He and Nojo took off down the alley.
"Freeze!" the Imperial shouted and fired his blaster at them.
The two of them kept running towards the nearby docking bay. "Hurry up!" Sebastian shouted at Nojo who was lagging behind. "He already called us in."
The docking bay came into view and they rushed in. "Let's go you two!" Niik yelled from the ship. "Move it, Move It, MOVE IT!"
Blaster bolts surrounded Nojo and Sebastian and thanks to some unknown force, none of them hit their marks. The boys jumped onto the ramp and crawled into the ship as it took flight.
Niik and one of the girls from the Academy helped them off the floor. "That was a close one," Nojo commented.
Sebastian rolled his eyes.
***
"I'm Zall Ventao," the boy who'd been crying said to Sebastian.
"Cor Wynt," Sebastian said. "From Corellia." Then he added, "Nojo told me about your family... I'm sorry. I've lost my family, too."
"On Alderaan?" Zall asked.
Sebastian shook his head. "No. I was seperated and I don't think I'll ever see them again," he told Zall. He remembered his family: Mom, Dad, Sarah, Virgil. He knew deep down he'd never see them again. Months before, that wouldn't have bothered Sebastian at all... or so he figured. But sitting here in a distant galaxy and knowing that no matter what, he'd never see his parents or brother or sister again really made him wish he could.
"We were a peaceful planet you know?" Zall said to Sebastian. The other boy's voice snapped him back into reality. "No military. Just a small police force. Not much more. But I wanted action..." He began to tear up again. "I wanted adventure. And what do I do? I join the people who would later kill my entire family."
"You're with us now," Sebastian said to him. "Your a Rebel now. You get to show those Imperial slim buckets what happens when the mess with the Rebel Alliance."
Zall smiled. "I'm going to be a pilot," he said. "I'm going to kill as many of those buggers as I can."
There was twootling and whistling coming from behind them. "That's my astro droid," Sebastian told the boy beside him. "His name is Credit. Won him at a game of sabaac back on Corellia."
Credit whistled.
Sebastian glared at the droid. "He says I won on dumb luck," he translated for Zall. Sebastian shook his fist. "I'll show you dumb luck..."
"You... understand him?" Zall asked in amazement.
Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, of course."
"That's wizard!"
The other boy just shrugged.
Dirk walked in and began fiddling with some cable sticking out a panel by the rec room door. "Don't touch anything, Dirk," Sebastian called out to the pitt droid. "You'll likely make this tub blow up. Force only knows what's keeping this thing together."
"Is that a... pitt droid?" Zall asked.
Sebastian nodded. "Yeah," he responded. "I built him to help me out when I was working ground crew. Came out a lot better than I first expected. 'Course he did have to hop on one leg one time... you know how hard it is to find spare droid parts on a rebel base? They're wiring all kinds of parts into ships just to keep some of them moving. Supplies are hard to come by."
Dirk continued to chitter and mess with the wires where there was suddenly a small explosion and the droid skidded across the floor. He got up and shook his domed head and wobbled around a bit. Credit wheeled over and put on the small electrical fire.
Sebastian glared at the droid but he just shrugged. The boy sighed. Zall looked shocked. "Oh," Sebastian said. "That was nothing. You shoulda seen the time miswired this X-Wing hyperdrive... that was messy."
A/N: Wow. I updated. Perhaps I'll make it a habit. Hehe. Anyways, make sure you REVIEW.
Sebastian sat in a dark bar on Carida. He'd arrived several days prior in a task force of three. Halph Banitt and Niik Woslit were experienced smugglers and had been ordered to tag along. The people they were to make contact with were in the Imperial Academy so the whole contact was up to him. Two old guys hanging out with a group of promenent Imperials was bound to draw suspicion.
He didn't know who he was meeting with. They had a spoken code that would identify the defectors but so far no Academy uniforms had shown.
"Nothing yet," Niik asked as he slid onto the stool beside Sebastian.
The boy shook his head. He took a sip of his drink. Not alcoholic, his parents would kill him if they caught him drinking. Not that it mattered. Sebastian was sure now after all the time he'd been there that there was no way back.
Niik got his own drink. "Don't worry, kid," he said. "They don't show we can always come back tomorrow night."
Sebastian laughed. "I don't know how many more of these blasted hot chocolates I can take," he grumbled to Niik's amusement. He clapped the boy on the back and hopped off the stool.
"Don't look now, but your friends might have arrived," he said and walked over to join Halph at their table in the corner.
The Imperial Academy students walked over to the bar and placed their orders. One of the older students, a human boy, sat down beside Sebastian.
"Nice night," the boy said casualty.
"You saw the stars?" Sebastian said automatically.
"You can see Naboo from here they say," the boy responded.
Sebastian reached out his hand. "Cor Wynt."
"Nojo Eimok," the boy said and shook Cor's hand. The bartender handed him his drink. "Ain't you a little young to be a rebel?"
Sebastian's response was a shrug. "Obviously not," he answered.
Nojo grunted. "They send a kid to do a man's job. Figures."
"You don't want to defect just go in peace," Sebastian growled. He did *not* like this guy.
"Hang on, hang on. I'm not saying that." Nojo sighed. "I've got a group. There are four of us looking to defect. These times are the only times we have that we can get out of here. We've got two more nights before we ship out," Nojo told him. "And... I think someone is on to us."
Sebastian nodded. "What nights?"
"Tomorrow and next Atunda," Nojo said.
"We don't have much choice do we?" Sebastian asked. "Next Atunda isn't an option. We need to get back to the base."
"Then tomorrow it is."
"I guess so.
***
"Slag it, Cor!" Halph shouted and tossed his blaster onto the small bed in the cramped cabin. "How could you think we would be able to pull it off tomorrow?"
Sebastian sighed. "Come on, Halph. We can't stay another week," he defended himself. "And what if they early transport some of them? What then?"
Halph sighed and kept pacing. "Sith!" he shouted. "Fine. You're right. We'll get them out... Sith!"
Suddenly, Sebastian's head seemed to split. He reached out and used the bunk to steady himself.
"Sith is right," Niik as ran in. He turned on a view screen.
What looked like an asteroid field covered the entire screen. "What the-" Halph began but didn't complete. The scene of destruction loomed before Sebastian.
"Alderaan," he whispered.
Niik and Halph both looked at him.
"It was the Empire," Sebastian said quietly. "They... they blew up Alderaan." And I felt it, he thought. I felt all those people die...
"The Empire couldn't do that," Halph said in disbelief. "They don't have enough fire power in the entire fleet to destroy a planet."
Sebastian glared at him. "It *was*, okay? They blew up Alderaan with their Death Star because Princess Leia wouldn't cooperate."
Niik looked at him skeptically. "And how would *you* know?"
"I just do," he countered and walked out of the cabin. Sebastian was sick. He should have remembered that Alderaan would be destroyed. Maybe he could have stopped it. He mentally kicked himself. He knew everything that would happen. But these were real people fighting for an honest-to-God cause. Yet, Sebastian could change their history and save lives. The question was, should he?
***
The next night, Sebastian, Niik and Halph walked into the bar at ten minute intervals. Niik and Halph went first and claimed their table in the corner. Sebastian walked in after them, still feeling sick about what had happened the day before.
Sebastian took his seat at the bar.
"What'll it be, kid?" the bar tender asked.
"Caf," Sebastian answered. "Make it a double."
The bar tender gave him a sympathetic look. "Know someone on Alderaan, did you?"
Sebastian looked up at him. "Yeah," he lied. Not like it would hurt. He'd just felt a million people die. Sebastian just doubted that this guy'd understand.
"Want me to slip in some Corellian whiskey? On the house," the bar tender said.
Instead of turning the liqour away, Sebastian accepted. He watched as the bar tender poured the whiskey into the caf and didn't even flinch when he took a sip. The taste was oblivious to him. And it really didn't help him. It just made him even more guilty. Here he was disobeying his parents and the laws of his country. Sebastian sighed and kept drinking. Nothing he could do about that.
"Alderaan, eh?" Nojo asked him as he slid on to the stool beside Sebastian. "Little Zall over there too."
Sebastian turned to see a kid not much older than him in an Imperial Academy uniform who was sitting an a table with three others, crying..
"His whole family," Nojo told Sebastian. "He is a full blooded Alderaanian. Mom, Dad, three little sistes... all gone." He looked down at the bar as if embarrased. "I know it is going to be hard to get me and the other three out but... think you can get him out of here?"
"Yeah, probably," Sebastian answered. It wasn't a complicated proceedure. They were just going to sneak out through the back one by one. Sebastian watched as Halph got up and walked out the back. "Look, you walk out the back of here. One of my partners will be back there. He'll take you to the ship. You and me will bring up the rear. Got it?"
Nojo nodded and walked back over to the table. One of the two females then stood up and walked through the back exit. Soon after a boy walked out. Then Niik got up and walked out. Then walked out another male. Then the next girl and the crying boy. With a nod from Sebastian, Nojo stood up and walked out. Before following him, Sebastian did a quick scan of the room. There, by the front entrance, was a man in an Imperial Uniform looking straight at him, speaking into a commlink.
"Crap," Sebastian cursed and jetted out the back.
Nojo looked at him puzzled. "RUN!" Sebastian shouted. He and Nojo took off down the alley.
"Freeze!" the Imperial shouted and fired his blaster at them.
The two of them kept running towards the nearby docking bay. "Hurry up!" Sebastian shouted at Nojo who was lagging behind. "He already called us in."
The docking bay came into view and they rushed in. "Let's go you two!" Niik yelled from the ship. "Move it, Move It, MOVE IT!"
Blaster bolts surrounded Nojo and Sebastian and thanks to some unknown force, none of them hit their marks. The boys jumped onto the ramp and crawled into the ship as it took flight.
Niik and one of the girls from the Academy helped them off the floor. "That was a close one," Nojo commented.
Sebastian rolled his eyes.
***
"I'm Zall Ventao," the boy who'd been crying said to Sebastian.
"Cor Wynt," Sebastian said. "From Corellia." Then he added, "Nojo told me about your family... I'm sorry. I've lost my family, too."
"On Alderaan?" Zall asked.
Sebastian shook his head. "No. I was seperated and I don't think I'll ever see them again," he told Zall. He remembered his family: Mom, Dad, Sarah, Virgil. He knew deep down he'd never see them again. Months before, that wouldn't have bothered Sebastian at all... or so he figured. But sitting here in a distant galaxy and knowing that no matter what, he'd never see his parents or brother or sister again really made him wish he could.
"We were a peaceful planet you know?" Zall said to Sebastian. The other boy's voice snapped him back into reality. "No military. Just a small police force. Not much more. But I wanted action..." He began to tear up again. "I wanted adventure. And what do I do? I join the people who would later kill my entire family."
"You're with us now," Sebastian said to him. "Your a Rebel now. You get to show those Imperial slim buckets what happens when the mess with the Rebel Alliance."
Zall smiled. "I'm going to be a pilot," he said. "I'm going to kill as many of those buggers as I can."
There was twootling and whistling coming from behind them. "That's my astro droid," Sebastian told the boy beside him. "His name is Credit. Won him at a game of sabaac back on Corellia."
Credit whistled.
Sebastian glared at the droid. "He says I won on dumb luck," he translated for Zall. Sebastian shook his fist. "I'll show you dumb luck..."
"You... understand him?" Zall asked in amazement.
Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, of course."
"That's wizard!"
The other boy just shrugged.
Dirk walked in and began fiddling with some cable sticking out a panel by the rec room door. "Don't touch anything, Dirk," Sebastian called out to the pitt droid. "You'll likely make this tub blow up. Force only knows what's keeping this thing together."
"Is that a... pitt droid?" Zall asked.
Sebastian nodded. "Yeah," he responded. "I built him to help me out when I was working ground crew. Came out a lot better than I first expected. 'Course he did have to hop on one leg one time... you know how hard it is to find spare droid parts on a rebel base? They're wiring all kinds of parts into ships just to keep some of them moving. Supplies are hard to come by."
Dirk continued to chitter and mess with the wires where there was suddenly a small explosion and the droid skidded across the floor. He got up and shook his domed head and wobbled around a bit. Credit wheeled over and put on the small electrical fire.
Sebastian glared at the droid but he just shrugged. The boy sighed. Zall looked shocked. "Oh," Sebastian said. "That was nothing. You shoulda seen the time miswired this X-Wing hyperdrive... that was messy."
A/N: Wow. I updated. Perhaps I'll make it a habit. Hehe. Anyways, make sure you REVIEW.