Bright Future
A Star Wars/Robotech fanfic
By ManxoChu
Disclaimer: Star Wars and its characters are property of Lucasfilms. Robotech and its characters are property of Harmony Gold. Idea for this fic is strictly owned by ManxoChu.
-=2=-
I'm alive. Guess I'm still lucky. Jack felt his senses slowly coming back to life. His touch told him he was in a warm bed with hospital-grade linens. His sense of smell disliked the scent of disinfectant in the air. His tastebuds only told him that he was in dire need of some water, or at least a cold beer. His hearing gave him the feeling he wasn't on the base, but his memory also served to remind him that. As he looked around, the sight was one he couldn't believe. What the hell is going on? He thought he should let the person at the door know his thought.
"Hey, officer, where the hell am I?" The question was almost a raspy whisper, thanks to his parched throat. Still, it was enough for the person to turn around, with a bewildered expression on his face… and a laser pistol in his hand. Jack was shocked for all of two seconds before acting. Gotta use the confusion to my advantage. He feigned a stomach ache, doubling over to the ground. C'mon… C'mon… Get close, you idiot. The guard lowered the pistol and came over to help the pilot up. Sucker. Jack sprang from the curled position to deliver an uppercut to the guard's face. Fist connected to jaw, sending the guard to the floor. In a swift motion Jack grabbed the pistol and turned for the doorway, but not swift enough for the guard grabbed his ankle.
"Dammit, I have no time for this!" Jack took aim and fired at the guard's left shoulder. He cried out in pain and let go in order to hold his shoulder. "Sorry, pal, but I have a plane to catch." Jack gave a quick salute before bolting out of the door. The run for freedom was brief, for his direction was blocked by a man, a woman-a very pretty one in fact-, and a… What the hell is that? Hmph, whatever, gotta find my ship. He quickly aimed for center-mass at the man. "Where the hell am I?! Where's my ship?!"
The man Jack was aiming at didn't give a reply. Well, he did, but Jack certainly didn't understand it. Great… I'm on a foreign-speaking ship. This'll be fun. "Ummm… se habla Espanol?" More gibberish from the trio. "Dammit… uh… Parlez-vous francais?" More headshaking and gibberish were their reply. "Crap!! Uhhh… Sprachen Sie Deutsch?" Once again, gibberish was their reply. His anger was reaching the scale of Mt St Helens'. "Oh c'mon here!! Do any of you speak a damn word of English!? Do ya?!" At that point, the robot, at least that was Jack's guess, came in front of the man he was aiming at.
The bot pointed to himself. "I… FE-3PO. We… are… friends. You?" Then the bot pointed at Jack.
Okay, this is progress. Okay, Archer, make the next few words really count. "I'm Commander Jack Archer, RDF pilot and Leader of Wolf Squadron. Take me to my ship." The robot paused for a while. Uh oh… that pause ain't good.
"Ah, I see. What an interesting language you have, Commander. I am FE-3PO, human cyborg relations. This is General Wedge Antilles and Lieutenant Jaina Solo." Effee pointed towards the lovely young lady when he mentioned the third name. "We mean you no harm, and we understand the confusion, but please put down the blaster pistol."
Jack couldn't the resist the snort that came out. "Confusion? You're the one I've met so far that can speak English. And for your information, I'm not putting down the gun til you take me to my ship. Got it?" The bot turned towards the other two and started speaking gibberish again. "Oh, and don't think about prepping an ambush, cuz the moment I see it, I'll shoot the old man here." Effee nodded then spoke with the other two again. To speed things up, Jack fired a shot at the floor near Effee's feet. All three jumped slightly. "Now we'll have enough of that. Effee-Threepio, I want you three to lead me to wherever my ship is, and in silence. I won't have any of you conspiring against me. You can translate that to them, but after that it's silence til I'm outta here, okay? By the way, is your full name really 'Effee-Threepio, Human Cyborg Relations'?"
During the trip to the hangar, Jack was shocked and amazed at all he saw. Various aliens, some of which he was certain were figments of his imagination. He wasn't on the SDF-1 when he executed her Space Fold to Pluto (they were only intending to fold to the moon), so this was his first real time to travel within a space vessel. There were a couple of men and women he saw that had tails growing right out of their heads. And no Zentraedi… well, at least no full-size Zentraedi. I wonder if anyone of these guys ever even heard about the Zentraedi at all. No surprise they don't know about Earth and the RDF. We've only gone as far as Pluto… but that was by accident. Hey, Effee-Threepio, how long til the hangar?"
"Just past this door, Commander. I'm afraid that your ship is in more or less the same shape as it was when we fou-oh dear." Effee saw his memories flash before his optic sensors. Jack ran around the group to see what made Effee say that. Color immediately drained from his face and almost lost his ability to stand. Before him, his VF-1S with the F.A.S.T. packs (or Super Armor in laymen's terms) was in a partial state of disassembly. The port wing, or what was left of it, was completely removed. The ship was on her landing gear, but it only served to show the gunpod was removed, as was the Super Armor, nose cone, and canopy. All repair hatches were open, with wires and parts hanging out of them. One of those hatches had a small robot with a domed head near it, with the little guy attaching various wires. Jack turned around and leveled the pistol at Effee.
"What have you done to my ship?!?!" In Jack's anger, he never heard the snap-hiss sound, nor did he see the speed of the attack. Before he could even pull the trigger, half of the pistol loped off, leaving him with merely the trigger, grip, and thankfully his whole hand.
Jaina landed behind him. She had no choice when this Cmdr Jack Archer aimed the blaster pistol at Effee. Sure, Effee could be repaired, but around here even droid life is precious. In what truly only took less than a second, she had ignited her lightsaber, jumped in a graceful arc over Effee, turned and sliced the blaster perfectly in mid-jump, and landed with no trouble, having the end result of her facing Jack's back. Jack had turned to see what happened. For a moment, he was changing glances between Effee, her, and her lightsaber. Unfortunately the color that had left his face previously was quickly returning to his cheeks, and in tenfold.
"…Xen tat oei te kxuk? …Uhwx!! Xen tat oei te kxuk?!" Jaina deactivated her lightsaber while waiting for Effee's translation.
"Tell him that anger will not help him and that we only want to help."
Jack listened to Effee's translation then walked past Jaina and over to his ship. I finally get you, Wolf One, and look what's happened to you, girl. I'm so sorry. He placed his hand on the RDF logo then patted the same location. I hope these guys can fix you. We're all we have now. He gave the craft a quick kiss before turning back to his former hostages. "I'm sorry. She's all I have now. Flying and fighting while flying is my life. Please don't destroy the Wolf One."
It didn't take much of Effee's translation to understand Cmdr Archer. She felt his pain and sorrow. She felt the connection to flying and his machine. She fully understood how much that war machine meant to him. An idea struck her, and she acted on it. "Come with me, Effee." With that, she grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him over to her X-Wing. She saw the awe and curiosity in Jack's eyes. She saw him touch it softly as if the hull were made of the finest Corellian silk. She handed a hydrospanner over to Jack. "Go ahead, hit it." Upon Effee's translation, Jack shook his head almost violently. "Really, Jack, hit it. It's to show we're sorry. We should have waited until you were awake and could ask for you permission." Jack gripped the hydrospanner tightly for a moment, a very long moment. She could feel his comtemplating the situation. Sure, had she been in Jack's shoe, she'd of done it. No one would get away with taking apart her X-Wing without her permission. She'd been so deep in her thoughts that it took Effee shaking her to snap her back to reality. "Say again, Effee?"
"Cmdr Archer was asking why do you fight. Should we tell him? And he's also asking if there's anyway for him to get home."
I don't know if I can answer that, Jack Archer. If we can't get you home, we want you to join us. We need every pilot-every warrior-in this crisis. "Tell him that we'll do what we can for both him and his ship. I'm sure he'll want to talk to Wedge. Actually, I think Wedge wants to talk to him about joining us."
"Very well, I'll help in any way I can. I see about giving you and the General datapads concerning his language."
"Te oei xulo udo veet? A'm xidwho." Jack clutched his growling stomach. Jaina giggled and motioned for Jack to follow her, because she didn't need Effee's help to translate what he asked.