Chapter Five
Airell glared around at the unfamiliar planets. This place might be part of Wild Space, but in all honesty it looked like the place all their trash had ended up. Keeping these thoughts to herself, however, the Jedi followed Red Squadron, passing what looked like a meteor in space. Pod whistled and twitted absently as he began mapping out this unknown region of the universe. The large circles on her nav computer had their names on them in less than a minute. Apparently, she had to laugh, the meteor-look-alike was a planet: Pluto. Before she had a chance to get a closer look at the rest of the galaxy, they made one last jump into hyperspace.
* * * * *
Far too many light years later, the squadrons came down to real space once again. They were still in the unknown galaxy, but they were much, much closer to it's sun. And then the light shifted as they rounded the side of another planet. White swirling masses flowed over it's surface, guarding the blue and green structure.
"Looks like we've found Earth," Gavin's voice came over the comm., sounding a bit more than pleased. "Alright. Airell, care to find your padawan?"
Before she could reply though, General Bel Iblis spoke up, "Either find her really fast, or prepare to engage the Imperials."
Two and a half dozen curses filled the comm. at that. But the Jedi knew what she had to do. Looking over towards Gavin's X-Wing, she had Pod send a private message to his comm. "I'm going down there. You need to keep the rest of the squads up here. One X-Wing may be spotted easily enough for these guys, not to mention twenty-five. For the little we know about this planet, one thing we've failed to acquire information on is how advanced their technology is."
Gavin's disagreeing reply was cut off from her ears as she powered towards the planet. Opening herself to the Force, she let it guide her to someplace where she wouldn't be seen landing an X-Wing. She'd almost begun to put her X-Wing down when a horrible realization struck her. She wasn't alone in this place. As the Jedi jumped from her X-Wing to the leaf-covered ground, her suspicions were confirmed.
A red lightsaber activated in the dense forest, followed by another red beam coming out of what appeared to be the same lightsaber. Airell had to blink a few times to get what she was seeing, but the sounds of lightsabers clashing verified what she was seeing. Only now there was four lightsaber beams. The red belonged quite obviously to the Sith. The purple lightsaber beam belonged to Thracia, that she knew, but who did the green belong to?
Before Airell could figure it out, a figure came running out of the trees, a closed-down lightsaber in her hand. And the green was missing from the fight. Thracia's lightsaber rained attacks down on the Sith and, in her own mind, Airell was amazed. It had been over a decade since Thracia had used a lightsaber in combat. The sound of dying electronics broke the air, and one of the red beams went out. Quite abruptly, Airell knew who that Sith was. And she knew who the girl now standing in front of her was.
Adra Amidala? Her spoke cautiously through the Force, not sure if the girl would get a shock from it or not.
Yes.
The reply was quick and short, but not lacking at all in the Force. The Temple hadn't been lying when they said she was strong. She was like another Anakin Skywalker. Of course, that didn't exactly surprise her. Jori Daragon was by no means unintelligent. She could do a great many things and usually did them very well. Unfortunately, one of those things was cloning to a higher midichlorian level. Adra Amidala was an obvious output from Jori's unfortunate brilliance.
Quickly Airell looked over at where the lightsabers had been blazing moments before. The purple now had the red in a lock, its tip near the black figure's neck. Moments later Thracia was running towards her adopted- well, that was the best word for her- daughter and Airell. The former quickly gave the Jedi Master hug, and then stepped back. Airell looked over at the Jedi Master herself, quickly sizing up the situation.
Do you still have the X-Wing you came in?
Yes. And I have Dival's crashed on as well. Bother Jedi winced slightly at the mention of the pilot and his crashed craft. It had been a stupid thing, really, to send him as some sort of escort with Thracia. But, in all honestly, it had to be done.
Airell quickly forced her emotions away and replied. –Alright. I'm hoping that maybe flying naturally is another talent that sithing Jori character put into Adra; we're all going to need to fly out of here.-
The absurdity of the situation was the only thing forcing Airell to agree with Thracia unquestioningly, even if she might've done so without more than a few complaints at other times. It was just one of those situations where someone could easily find out- and in the worst place- that their S-foils weren't exactly 'up to par'. The fact that they needed to get Adra Amidala off Earth as fast as they could and that Thracia couldn't be stranded on the foreign planet was enough to drive belief into everyone that the X-Wings weren't broken down beyond being able to transport two Jedi to one of the Corellian Corvettes. While Airell doubted Thracia would let her X-Wing fall into bad care, she didn't know what the other Jedi could've done if the craft had been damaged in it's plummet and eventual meeting with the planet's crust.
All of this flashed through Airell's head in a matter of seconds. Within minutes Thracia had a beckon call activated from an unknown source and two X-Wings, one obviously slave rigged- which Airell thought was slightly funny but not over the top in this situation, were making their way towards the three grouped by Airell's X-Wing. Thracia inspected her dirt-covered, yet functional X-Wing and then looked at the droid as it seemed to wake up and deliver a seemingly prepared speech of indignation. The other X-Wing's droid merely whistled every few seconds. Airell's padawan- it was odd to think that, even if it was true- walked over to the second X-Wing, brushing dirt off the sides as she went. Then she pulled herself up into the cockpit, turning her small and agile frame around to look at the droid.
"Is she functional then?" Adra's voice carried around the clearing. The droid's exuberant replies quickly followed, confirming Airell's hopes that all the systems would be fine on the second craft. A smile began to visibly show on Adra's face and then the girl swung herself around to inspect the no-doubt dust-covered controls.
* * * * *
This is definitely not something you get to do everyday, Adra thought as she, Thracia and Master Airell worked their way towards the Corellian Corvettes. The group was flying loosely, though hovering around enough to make sure they were easily accessible to any of the others on the pretence that their crafts were faulty. Nobody really should've worried about those sort of things. It was more like the tractor beams on the Victory-class Star Destroyer that had just come out of hyperspace that they needed to worry over. A memory jammed itself forward to all but smack Adra across the face as she realized and remembered what the force of those tractor beams could haul. The fact that they were near enough to latch onto anyone in her group put a cold sweat daring to drip down her spine.
Breaking the formation, Adra's X-Wing, whom she had dubbed 'Clone', swerved up and all but flipped around so that she was suspended upside-down while managing her torpedo locks on the wedge of TIEs that were still closely bunched as they exited the Star Destroyer's hanger bay. Her finger pulsed the release once, sending the duo torpedoes on their death mission. Then she found herself almost unconsciously righting her X-Wing and then sending it off on its port S-foils between Thracia's and Airell's X-Wings. With a burst of speed, she broke from the ranks of the other crafts and made her way towards the New Republic Corellian Corvette and a hanger bay that would provide her a place for her to gather her thoughts and comprehend what she'd done entirely by flying by the 'seat of her pants', as the authors of the Star Wars novels had previously phrased it.
A voice crackled over the comm. she hadn't even realized was open linked. Startled, but not willing to make any hint of it to the person on the other end, she listened to the voice coming through.
"Jedi three, this is New Republic General, Garm Bel Iblis aboard the Peregrine. Identify before docking."
Somehow, she knew what to answer with. And it sure as sith wasn't sarcasm. "General Bel Iblis, this Adra Amidala. The only thing I know is that I'm flying with Masters Thracia Cho Leem and Airell Cece."
How she knew the other Jedi's name was a mystery to her, but she was open to not sounding like an idiot. The next sounds over the frequency shocked her. While in the movies, the New Republic generals had always seemed to be made of iron and never were set into a state of surprise. Either that wasn't the case with this general, or she'd provided some very shocking information to him in the two lines she'd given, neither of which holding plans for the next Death Star. No, it was just her name and who she was flying with. Adra had to assume that it was the latter of the two reasons that caused General bel Iblis to gasp, however quiet it might've been. After a minute, however, the General seemed to regain his calm and he replied.
"Dock your craft then, Amidala. I'll be most interested in meeting you when you get onboard. There will be someone at the hanger to meet you after you've docked. Peregrine out."
Well, thought Adra, that was certainly another thing you never did every day. Like getting a general who, by Earth abo legend, never thought twice about the possibility of being surprised to actually stumble in his speech. She wasn't sure if she should be congratulating herself or turning the X-Wing around while she still could. One look behind her into the midst of the skirmish quickly cancelled out the second option. Guess there's nothing left to do but go through with meeting this general, she half-consciously concluded. In al truth, she'd know all along that shoe wouldn't very well be able to either refuse an order from a New Republic general- even if it was rather indirect- or to get herself out of the situation. The only way she could perform the latter task would be through requesting assistance from the Imperials...and Imperials meant Sith. Sith meant Jori Daragon. A shudder rippled unconsciously down her spine as her thoughts managed to drift into the horrible realm marked with flashing warning signs in her mind.
Without thinking, she maneuvered her craft into the docking bay, easily landing it. If she had been less preoccupied she would've found herself immensely pleased with her accomplishment, especially since she'd never actually flown an X-Wing. Or hadn't to her knowledge at least. After she'd climbed out of the cockpit, she took off the helmet that had been present in the cockpit when they'd 'retrieved' the ship from it's hidey-hole on Earth. The part that made her laugh was that she had openly voiced her thoughts of Thracia's insanity at having her go out in what was apparently a flight suit. She didn't mind it; it was actually comfortable. No, what had got her was the fact that it was bright orange. However, she should've known. To her chagrin, she had foolishly fallen back on Earth humans' perception of George Lucas's movies: it would be amazing if they were real, but it could never be. Well, if it could never be, she laughed at the thought, then why am I standing here, on a hanger bay floor, looking out into the galaxy from a space shuttle known all-too-well in the New Jedi Order books that's captain is General Garm Bel Iblis.
There was no answer from her Earth-human conscience; this alone prompted a change in Adra. If there was no logical reasoning that the Earth-trained conscience could come up with, then what use was it to her? None, as far as she knew. Her thoughts were cut off as Airell and Thracia's X-Wings came smoothly into the docking bay, landing just off hers. The droid up snuggly behind the cockpit whistled, his notes beginning high then scaling down to a mid-ranged pitched. A grin passed Adra's face. People who'd never had any contact with droids would call them feelingless, emotionless, programmed mechanics. Anyone who spent more than ten minutes with one knew that it was quite the opposite. If Adra had ever doubted that, her doubts were washed away as the droid clearly indicated to her that he was glad to finally be getting out of doing nothing.
As she compared the new turn her life had taken to what it was before she'd figured it out, she could easily compare what the droid had relayed to herself. It wasn't that hard to do. As she thought the silence out of her head, she checked over the X-Wing, might as well be considered her X-Wing, to make sure nothing had been hit without her noticing. It appeared that everything was in proper working order and nothing was damaged. A smile of satisfaction crossed her face and she strode over to 'report in' to the Jedi Masters. Another figure was approaching the orange-flightsuit-clad Masters even as she did. Standing a few meters off, she stood calmly, prepared to let this other figure give his words first.
However, things didn't go quite like that. Both Master Thracia and Master Airell saluted the figure, to which he returned an equally crisp salute. Adra wasn't sure exactly who this character was, but by the reactions of the Jedi Masters, she had to assume that he was some sort of New Republic figure who was 'up there' on the military hierarchy totem pole. A moment later she realized just who this was. How, she couldn't even begin to fathom, but she knew who that was. Quickly, a smile spread across her face and she approached Masters Airell and Thracia. Giving General Bel Iblis a crisp salute, she waited until he had returned a salute and a look of recognition had dawned on his face. As the ebbs of remembrance came fully through on the General's face, her own broke into a wide grin.
"Adra?" He questioned, and then opened his mouth to continue, as if to answer his own question. He didn't get that far, however, because in the next second Adra was hugging him tightly. Despite the fact that she was being entirely informal to a commanding officer who'd not voiced to them to be so, he didn't seem to care because he was hugging her right back. Beneath all the General-rank insignia, there was the pilot she'd know from ages past; from before she'd been taken out of the working galaxy.
Unconsciously Adra registered that the Jedi Masters had both slunk off to review their X-Wings or other. After a moment, Adra drew back, a bit embarrassed for having broken the military way of things. Silently, her conscience scolded her, telling her that she should remember good manners next time. The little voice when rambling on and on, but at last it shut up. General Bel Iblis put a hand on her head, ruffling her hair around so much that it began to pull her hair out of its pony tail. Quickly Adra ducked out of his grip, retying her hair as she went.
"So I see you finally made it back to space then," the general said as he led the way over to where the other two Jedi were.
Adra nodded quickly then opted to voice an extension on the answer. "Yes, I have. I can't say I was enjoying Earth," she grinned up at him, then continued, "Actually, I didn't remember anything about everything out here until yesterday…"
The New Republic general chuckled, obviously amused by her admittance of ignorance. And, she had no doubt, that that came from the previous 'rescue mission' he had led.