"The EMPIRE ruled over a million stars;
The COMMONWEALTH ruled
over a million stars as well.
It is right there that the similarities end.
Rain-Drops-Keep-Falling
What Lies Beyond
CY 11987
Chapter Thirteen
"Captian Meduk," Dylan said cordially as he approached the cell door, "Welcome back aboard the Andromeda Ascendant."
"Your hospitality is somewhat lacking this time Captian Hunt," Meduk replied in a measured tone betraying no hint of her emotions. She stood near the back of the cell, her tunic unbuttoned revealing a simple undershirt beneath. She was flustered, that much was obvious, but there was something else in her stance, something that Dylan couldn't quite put his finger on.
"One must understand that circumstances are different now," Dylan responded.
"What have you done with my crew?" she asked simply.
"Your senior staff is being held aboard the Andromeda for now," he told her, "The rest of your crew is being held in a temporary facility on the planet surface."
"I demand you release them into Imperial custody immediately," Meduk said.
"I can't do that," Dylan informed her, "however, should the Empire move in on this system they will be here waiting."
"How many," she asked.
"9473," Dylan said quietly.
"From twenty thousand," she breathed, "Captian, I'd like to consult with my officers, if I may."
"Of course, but not right now. First I'm going to bring you down to medical for a full exam. You can try to stop me but the guards are well trained, you wouldn't accomplish much."
_____________________
Vader was growing impatient.
It had been nearly four weeks since he had received a report from the foolish Lord Krell and his expeditionary force. It had been three weeks since Vader had cut all supplies and reinforcements from this side of the universe. The Dark Lord of the Sith would not support a traitor.
It that time Vader himself had sent several messages to his subordinate demanding information on his status and any data on the rebel pilot who slipped to the other side. He received only silence in response.
Spy ships were sent to investigate the other side of the conduit and discovered that the Imperial fleet still survived on the other side. Again Vader demanded a report, and again silence.
By the Emperor's order Krell had one more week to report in, failing that Vader was authorized to take command of the fleets on both sides of the Conduit and destroy Lord Krell.
____________________
Another Imperial warship met a bitter end as Cuatemoc's fleet continued to blast away at their mighty task force. The Drago-Kazov outnumbered the Imperials three to one in this battle but the impressive quality of the Imperial ships made them difficult to destroy.
Fortunately, Cuatemoc had discovered the Empire's fatal flaw and planned to exploit it. No two ships in Cuatemoc's fleet were any closer to each other then one light minute. In this way he was able to establish a killing field in which the Imperial's shorter ranged weapons would have little effect.
Despite the problems of time lag for commands he wanted to give, Cuatemoc's fleet was slowly destroying the enemy.
"Sir," the communications officer reported, "We've lost contact with the "Purity." I believe she was destroyed."
"Confirmed Sir," the sensor station added, "The Purity is no more."
"We've done enough damage here today," Cuatemoc began, "Order all ships to the rendezvous point."
"Yes, sir."
Sitting behind the large desk in personal Ready Room, Cuatemoc was viewing the tactical data that Captian Hunt had sent him. The strength of the Imperial warships was staggering, with weapons that were more powerful than entire Dragon warships. They were however not as invulnerable as the data made them seem.
The Leviathan Roused type Nietzschean cruiser, was not as powerful as the mighty Commonwealth's old Glorious Heritage-Class Heavy Cruisers, such as the Andromeda. They did however pack quite a punch as the Empire discovered today losing five of their warships out of a ten ship fleet.
His battle plan worked, and now he was about to do something that he never thought he would never have felt obligated to do.
"Prepare a slip courier," he ordered into the comm. as he transferred his tactical data to data chit, "Send to the Andromeda Ascendant, top priority, top secret, for Dylan Hunts eyes only."
____________________
"Are you sure your up to this Beka," Dylan asked, "This would be a tough mission for anyone."
"I'm ready Dylan," she responded emphatically, "Besides, has the Maru ever gone on a suicide mission and not come back."
"What about me," Harper called out, "I'm not ready. In fact I'm nowhere near ready. I have no desire to put myself any were near "Mister Tall, Dark, and Deadly again."
"Don't worry Harper," Beka reassured, "Its just a quick hop in, get some data and back out again."
"That is what I'm worried about," Harper moaned.
A few hours later Beka, Harper, Trance and Luke with Artoo Detoo, boarded the Maru and left for Kafreion.
"I don't think she likes me," Luke told Harper as they sat back in the engine room.
"Beka? Don't worry about her she doesn't like anyone for the first couple of days," Harper told him.
"Not Beka, Trance," Luke corrected, "Ever since we first met at the debriefing, she avoided me at every turn. I've tried to speak with her three times since we've been underway, each time she gives me the cold shoulder."
"That's not like Trance," Harper mused, "She's usually very friendly to everyone, so long as they aren't trying to kill her."
"Well, I haven't made any attempts yet," Luke told him.
"Maybe you will," Harper suggested, "Trance is kind of spooky. She can see the future sometimes. In fact she is from the future."
"What," Luke exclaimed.
"Never mind," Harper told him, "its a long story..."
"Harper, Luke, get up here," Beka ordered.
Both men rushed to the cockpit taking their stations without any questions.
"Imperial patrol," Trance filled them in, "They're nearly on top of us."
"I count five Imperial TIE fighters," Luke told them, "They're short range fighters, they'd never of gotten out here on their own. There is probably a control ship somewhere nearby."
"How long until slipstream," Harper asked.
"I need two minutes," Beka told them.
The Maru lurched as Beka threw full power to the engines in an attempt to steam roll past the TIE fighters without a fight. But the whoever was commanding those fighters saw what she was trying to do and did his best to prevent it.
"They're firing," Trance yelled.
The Maru began to roll as she evaded the oncoming green bolts of death. Harper, who was controlling the tactical systems, let two missiles fly and they struck the lead Imperial fighter blasting through that craft and nicking another fighter behind.
"Beka," Luke called out, "I've got the control ship on the screen now. It's a Carrak-Class cruiser and its trying to block the slipstream point."
"Will just have to get their first," Beka told him as she poured still more power into the engines.
The cruiser now began to open fire as the Maru approached, but she was moving to quickly and erratically now for anything but a luck shoot to get through.
"Prepare for slipstream," Beka called.
The Maru passed only meters in front of the Imperial ship as Beka activated the slipstream drive. Space unfolded before both ships, swallowing up the Maru, but the Carrak turned away from the slipstream portal taking damage as the tendrils of energy tried to pull the larger ship in as well.
"We're safe," Trance reported.
"For now," Harper reminded her.
"Welcome to Kafreion," Beka announced, "What do we do now?"
"The Imperial Picket line won't be guarding the entire planet," Luke told her, "If you set the ship down just of to the edge of the detection net, they probably won't know you were there."
"If you try to set down to far away, Imperial Intelligence will immediately know that we are here and we won't get ten steps before we're caught."
"The edge of the net it is then," Beka said as she turned back to flying her ship.
It was a matter of only a few minutes for Beka to set the ship down. They were sixty kilometres from the capital city on the edge of a dense forest far from prying eyes.
"We'll need a transport," Luke said
"There was a village about a mile south of here," Trance said helpfully, "We could probably find one there."
"Then we've got some walking to do," Beka announced, "Trance, Luke, stay with the ship. Harper, your with me."
"If we're not back in six hours, come looking for us. Otherwise stay here."
Trance did not look particularly pleased with this arrangement but she kept her mouth shut and starred intently at her monitor.
"All right Harper, let's go."
Left alone aboard the Maru, Luke and Trance found it relatively easy to avoid each other in the confined space available. Luke worked to familiarize himself with the piloting controls while Trance maintained a constant watch on the sensor screens. In was four hours before they spoke to each other.
"You don't like me for some reason," Luke said, "Why?"
"I know what you are," Trance told him.
Luke tried to get some feeling from her in the Force but he was unable to, either his powers were not developed enough or she was somehow blocking him.
"What am I," he asked with real curiosity.
"You are a son of the Abyss, a servant of evil. You train yourself to control the energy of the universe for your own dark purposes. I see you Skywalker, commanding armies of Darkness. Though you do not realize it now, you have a dark path ahead of you."
"It's not like that," Luke stammered, "The Force isn't about control, that's the Dark Side. I don't want any part of that."
"Maybe so," Trance said starring deeply into his eyes, "But it may well be your destiny."
About an hour latter Beka and Harper returned with a rickety looking anti-grave sled. They said they had bought it of an old Kaf couple for twice its value.
"It will get us to the Capital," Beka told them, "If I can ever get used to these Kaf style controls."
The controls she referred to were two simple knobs for directional control and a squeeze handle for acceleration. These were perfect for the hundreds of fibre like "arms" and the tentacles of the Kaf people but awkward for humans and most other species.
"And then into a heavily guarded Imperial Intelligence base using only our own wits and this little astromech droid," Harper sounded somewhat discouraged.
"We better get going," Trance told them, "We kind of stand out from the locals out here."
"The city won't be so bad," Beka replied, "But we can't take too many chances. Where going to need to disguise ourselves."
"I have an idea," Luke said as they left the Maru. He explained it to them on the way.