"I didn't say that it was a bad name," Tahiri said giving the droid a pained look. "I just said that 'R2-L616' was not really a name but just a identification number. A name should be unique to the bear of that name, something that makes people remember that individual. When people see you I want them to say 'Hey there goes" … well there goes whatever name we come up with not "Hey there goes some droid'."
BUT R2-D2 IS JUST AN IDENTIFICATION NUMBER AS IS C-3PO? The droid said from his position outside the 'escape pod'.
Tahiri was in the communication and decryption pod, running training programs on slicing, while they were on their way to the 5th system in as many days. The first four courses that the droid had projected as possible locations for the Widowmaker had all turned out to be wrong. They traveled just far enough along each course till they passed the larges body or system that was big enough to pull the Widowmaker from hyperspace. Tahiri was thinking that the Imperial ship must have damaged its hyper drive during the jump caused by Zonama Sekot since they hadn't yet returned to Imperial or GA Space on their own. If she was right then they would be near by, so it made sense to travel only so far along a course since they wouldn't be able to reenter hyperspace on their own.
Unless they fixed their hyper drive long enough to get back into hyperspace and then loss it again. She had thought, gloomily to herself, when they first started this search. But it made sense to start this way and it felt right. If this course also proved to be a dead end, her and the droid would start back at the beginning and do a system-by-system check in a circler pattern, a search pattern that could take many years to complete.
"Well true but Artoo kind of rolls off the tongue and sounds like a name anyways. 3PO is strange enough that you would remember him no matter what people call him. I want to pick a name that not only sets you apart from all other R2 units but also lets people know what kind of droid you are. Names can describe and inform as well as identify. Understand?"
NO.
"Ok, lets try it this way then," Tahiri said releasing a sigh. "This ship's name is Double Trouble, I chose that name because it tells the universe something about the ship. She looks like an ordinary freighter, to the eye and to ships scanners, but she is also a very advance intelligence gathering ship, with enough firepower and shielding to ward off any attack. But in a way it also tells the galaxy a bit about me. I'm a double, I have Human and Yuuzhan Vong heritage, and if pushed I can be trouble for anyone who wishes to harm me." She looked away from him and back at the screen, her training exercise was not going well.
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND BUT YOU ARE MY MISTRESS AND I WILL FOLLOW ANY ORDER YOU GIVE ME.
She threw him a frown, both because of what he said and because she just failed her training exercise, again.
"Please don't refer to me as your 'mistress', I don't like thinking of you as something I own. I think of you as someone who is my partner, I hope that one day you will also think of me in the same way." She then turned back to her work. "And hopefully I get a hang off slicing some day too."
TAHIRI, I AM PROGRAMMED TO BE ABLE TO COMPLETE ANY SLICING OR CODE BREAKING THAT YOU REQUIRE. WHY DO YOU FEEL THE NEED TO ATTEMPT TO LEARN THE NECESSARY SKILLS TO COMPLETE THE SAME TASK?
"Never hurts to be prepared, you know. There may be times when I have to attempt to do this while you are doing an even more important task or be in area that would not allow droids in. You just never know, that is also why I am having you teach me how to repair the engines. The more I can assist you the better off we are."
HOW ARE YOU DOING ON THE SLICING TRAINING PROGRAM?
"About as well as I did on the repair simulation yesterday." She answered grimly. "I never had been very technology suave, even before the 'old Tahiri Veila' and 'Riina Kwaad' joined. At the Academy I had to play catch up with all the other trainees, I learned just enough to work things not how to fix them. Not like my friend Anakin." She felt a sad smile form on her face as she remembered the most special person she has ever known. "When we were little it was spooky how well he could work machines. He could just tell, by using the Force, exactly what was wrong and he knew how to fix it. It didn't matter what 'it' was or how badly damaged it was he could fix it."
WILL WE EVER WORK WITH ANAKIN? HE WOULD BE AN ASSET TO OUR TEAM IN FUTURE.
"No, no he won't be joining us, he died about 3 years ago." Tahiri said feeling a stab of pain; the pain of what had been lost. "So our team is just you and I, my purple friend. That is why I am glad you are here and willing to help me learn the skills needed." Her training program beeped at her; once again she failed the test.
DID YOU COMPLETE THE TASK CORRECTLY?
"No," she huffed out, "I wouldn't feel so bad if this wasn't the easiest problem in the package. How long before we drop out of hyperspace?"
10 STANDARD MINUTES.
"Ok, we better head up to the bridge," Tahiri said as she locked down the computer access. "We'll go in the same way as before, hang around the outer system and scan before we head in."
AFFIRMATIVE TAHIRI. He beeped as she closed the hatch. Thanks to the worm she was able to understand him as well as if he spoke Basic. As they headed to bridge, she ran her hand along the top of his dome.
"You know I may not have Anakin to help me out anymore but I believe you will more then make up for the technical aspects that I lack."
I AM GLAD, I'M WILL MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO ASSIST YOU IN ANY TASK THAT YOU HAVE.
Tahiri sat down and swung her chair around to face out the view port, she left the worm in her ear for now. She liked being able to understand him without the need of another computer translating for her. As long as she remember to take it out once a day or else it would burn itself out.
"I hope this time we find some kind of clue to where the Widowmaker is, I hate the idea of having to search each and every system in this area of the galaxy." Tahiri said as she put on her piloting gloves.
AFFIRMATIVE I CALCULATE IT WOULD TAKE 24.876 YEARS TO COMPLETE SUCH A SEARCH.
"And we don't have that much food, water or air on board to look for that long. Nor do we have enough fuel."
YES AND RETURNING BACK TO GALACTIC FEDERATION OF FREE ALLIANCES OR IMPERIAL SPACE FOR FUEL AND SUPPLIES WOULD ADD MANY YEARS TO THE SEARCH.
"Yea, then it wouldn't be a search and rescue mission, just a search mission." She finished strapping in and sat back to wait for the timer to run down zero. "Of course many all ready think that this is already just a search mission. The Imperials can't afford to take any ships out of the line to look for their missing frigate. Judging by the latest updates the GA can't spear any extra ships to help out either. Things are getting messy over there."
WHAT ABOUT THE CHISS GOVERNMENT?
"They are the wild chip alright, they sent a official message through Col. Jag Fel stating that they will keep a eye out for it. If the Widowmaker shows up in their space they will let the Imperials and us know about it. Other then that they wish for us to respect their boarder." She looked over at the droid, who was watching her with his large cam. "In other words they will help as long as they don't have to do anything."
THE SHORT HISTORY WITH THE CHISS GOVERNMENT SUGGESTS THAT THEY ARE ISOLATIONIST. EVEN THE IMPERIALS, WHO HAVE A LONGER HISTORY WITH THE CHISS, HAVE STATED THAT THE CHISS GOVERNMENT TO BE DIFFICULT AND SECRETIVE TO EVEN WHAT THEY WOULD CONSIDER EXTREME.
"I supposed that you could see them in that light, personally I think they just don't understand us very well yet. For the past 50 years we have undergone massive changes and social upheavals, the Chiss believe that all that change is a clear sign that we are indiscipline and doomed to self-destruct. That is why they played such a small role in the Yuuzhan Vong war they didn't want to get dragged down with us." Tahiri gave the droid a smile. "Once we show them that what they perceive as a weakness is really our strengths they might start opening up more." Tahiri swung back to face the control panel, the droid was quietly chirping to itself. Hopefully it was thinking about what she had said and not thinking that she was crazy. Tahiri was sure that one day in the future the Chiss government will learn to trust and understand the GA and, like the Imperials, reach out and at least open the door enough to work together. It was a big galaxy out there more then enough for all to share.
ONE MINUTE TO REVERSION.
"Very well, stand by to drop out of hyperspace." Tahiri watched the counter drop to zero and pushed the hyper drive controls forward. Tahiri saw that once again the droid had planned the course perfectly, they were at the outside boundary of the star system. She could see a slightly brighter star shinning in the forward view port. "Good work once again. Ok start scanning for any signs of the Widowmaker and any other signs of civilization. I will do the electro magnetic scans while you handle the communication scan."
Within minutes Tahiri found signs of what may have been a hyperspace equipped vehicle traveling through this system within the past few months. It showed that the ship entered the system from roughly the same course that Tahiri and the droid had followed and there was no evidence that any other ships had been through the system. The droid also reported nothing on the communication scan to suggest that there was any civilized world in system.
"Do me a favor please. Check out these abnormal electro-magnetic signals coming from the third planet. I try to raise the Widowmaker on the hyperspace comm."
YES TAHIRI.
"Widowmaker, Widowmaker This is the GA freighter Double Trouble, are you receiving my signal?" She watched the screen for any indication of the Imperials transmitting a return single. She thought she picked up a very weak signal from the general location but it so weak that it could be anything really. "This is the Galactic Alliance freighter Double Trouble calling the Imperial ship Widowmaker do you receive this transmission?"
TAHIRI, THOSE STRANGE ELECTRO-MAGNETIC SIGNALS THAT YOU FOUND ARE NOT NATURAL; THEY ARE AN EXTREMELY PRIMITIVE FORM OF COMMUNICATION.
"What?"
THE CREATURES THAT INHABIT THE THIRD PLANET ARE USING ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENERGY TO TRANSMIT VOICE AND VIDEO OVER SHORT PLANETARY DISTANCES. THE HISTORICAL REFERENCES CALL SUCH ENERGY WAVES AS "RADIO WAVES".
"Radio? I never heard of that!"
CORRECT, IT IS A HIGHLY INEFFICIENT FORM OF COMMUNICATIONS. THE RADIO WAVES CAN BE EASILY DISTURBED BY SOLAR ACTIVITY, THEY ARE SLOW TRAVELING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT, CAN BE NON-DIRECTIONAL, EASILY INTERCEPTED. FOR SUCH SHORT DISTANCES SUCH AS PLANETARY USE IT IS MOST EFFECTIVE BUT ONCE SPACE TRAVEL IS COMMENCED RADIO IS TOO SLOW TO BE USED. THIS IS THE SECOND RECORDED USE OF 'RADIO' SINCE BEFORE THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLIC.
Tahiri read the specifications of the 'Radio' technology that the droid had recovered from the archives. She shook her head in amazement that any one would ever use it. Even on a planetary scale it seemed to have more problems then it was worth. She saw a reference to the fact that the people of Adumar had also used such primitive technology until brought in the New Republic by General Antilles shortly after she was born.
"I wonder if this is another so-called lost colony like Adumar?" She asked out loud. "Can you bring up a signal for me to listen too?"
CERTAINLY TAHIRI, CHANNEL 00-34.
Tahiri listen to the signal and was unable to understand what it was saying. Whatever language they used down there it was not any form of Basic she was familiar with nor any languages that the ship's computer was familiar with either.
TAHIRI I FOUND THE WIDOWMAKER!
"What? Where!"
COMMUNICATION CHANNEL 00-267, THEY HAVE BOTH AUDIO AND VIDEO ON THAT CHANNEL.
Tahiri switched to that channel and saw what she has been looking for. In the center of smoking ruins of a city on a good size island was the wreckage of the Imperial Frigate Widowmaker. The picture suggested that it was taken from some kind of craft high above the island. The Widowmaker was severely damaged, that must have been caused by the crash landing, and the city it was sitting in was all but destroyed. The picture swung out over the ocean and Tahiri could see about a hundred strange ships floating on the surface of the ocean. Several of the strange looking crafts had puffs of smoke coming from pipes on the top of the ships, but they also had smaller puffs coming from pipes on the side of ship. The cam that was recording all this suddenly swung back to the island. Tahiri saw the shields of the Widowmaker shimmer and spark as if something struck it. Something fell short of the shield and Tahiri could see huge explosion and smoke come from the object. Other objects also began striking the shields and landing near by. The cam view switch to one near to the ground, she could see what appeared to be a human male with a funny bowl shaped head gear and something that reminded her of her flight vest around his chest area. He was sitting down behind a ruined wall taking excitedly to the cam. She had no idea what he was saying but he seemed to be happy about something. The cam turned away from the man and focused on other men who were dressed similarly to the first, each was carrying a backpack and some kind of weapon in their hands as they moved from cover to cover. Tahiri's brain finally kicked in and she figured out what they were doing. These were soldiers and they were planning to attack the Widowmaker. After 5 months someone had found the lost ship and she knew she didn't have enough firepower to make any difference in a battle.
"Fas!"
"This is the Galactic Alliance freighter Double Trouble to Imperial Frigate Widowmaker, do you copy?"
For the past five days Tahiri and the droid had slowly approached the third planet, gathering intelligence on the humanoids that inhabit the planet. It was much more difficult then she first imagined. They were so primitive that she had to think out of the box to get the information she needed.
There were plenty of 'radio' transmissions, with audio and video and both military and commercial signals, but without a solid translation of the languages it was hard to understand. The droid has found about 5 primary languages with about 8 minor ones. He has been working night and day trying to get an accurate translation but as he reminded her, he was not a protocol droid. So even though they had hours and hours of recordings they could only understand a small fraction of the signals.
The droid also found that there was nothing like the holo-net found on this planet. Only about 4 of the 35 separate nations had any computer technology. Civilian computer use was almost non-existent and the government use was slow and complicated. Instead of using satellites and data streams, like the kind she grew up with, they had each computer running lines directly to a central computer which in turn had lines running to other central computer cores. The data lines were also the same as the lines military, government and civilians use to communicate with one another. These data lines didn't allow for much data to flow and it actually kept the rate of transfer to a small amount. The droid said it was hard for him to slow down his work to the speed of these computers; it was written in a simple binary code, navigation was a nightmare as was trying to find a point to access them in the first place. He had found a satellite that he can used to download into the main computer core for the most technical proficient state.
Tahiri used her time to get a handle on their war technology. She found that they had no real space capacity, with only a limited number of satellites in a low orbit. It seems that only two of the 4 major powers had the capability to launch the huge chemical rockets that they use. The satellites seemed to be pointed towards the planet so there was no real danger of them being used against her. Their primitive scanners, or 'radar' as they called it, had a limited range and power. Her ships shields and anti-detection devices should make the Double Trouble all but invisible except to visual scanners Although she could get as close as to 563 kilometers to the surface without worrying about detection from the natives of this world, to be on the safe side she stayed in the shadow of the single moon. Their aircraft was as different as different could be. Some had rotating airfoils at the nose of the flying crafts or spaced out on the wings. Others had very primitive engines under the wings or at the rear of the crafts. The rotating airfoils seem to be more numerous then the 'jet' crafts, so they must have just discovered how to make them. Both were slower then any Howlrunner she has seen. In fact some speeders were faster then most of these crafts were and more maneuverable. Some were small and most likely fighter craft while others, judging by some of the pictures she saw, looked to be bombers. At least that seems to be the role they were playing, also they were not very accurate. In the video of the attack on Widowmaker she could see the explosion 'walk' towards the great ship but more often then not miss the ship and hit their own men on the ground. The flying craft had few missiles, at least that she could see, but seem to have a large supply of slugs such as the kind that the Sand People used.
The crafts out on the ocean were another interesting surprise. They had crafts big enough to carry 3 squadrons of those strange airships all the y way down to small, quick, and very maneuverable crafts that held about 5 men. There were also ships with 12 huge slug guns, 3 slug throwers in each turret, which seems to be used mostly to bomb the Widowmaker. At least they were more accurate then the bombers, she thought wearily. They also had transport ships unloading troops and supplies.
The troops themselves had a wide range of slug throwers. From individual rifles similar to the kind that her tribe carried, to larger slug thrower that required two men to operate and had a high rate of fire if the videos they have shown about them was any indication. They also had ground vehicles that carried about five men that were on some kind of treads, like the Sand crawlers the Jawas used, that carried a small slug thrower and one large pipe version such as on some of the sea craft carried. They were not that fast but they had no trouble getting around the ruins of the city. They had wheeled vehicles to get troops and supplies over land but not up to actual combat area.
Over all she hadn't seen anything that could damage the Double Trouble or even the Widowmaker even in its ruined shape. Now is not the time to get sloppy. She reminded herself several times, just because you didn't see something that can harm you, that doesn't mean they don't have it.
The fact that the information that the droid could retrieve from the computer network was all written data and no video and the fact they couldn't understand everything they were getting from the radio waves made her nervous about missing some critical piece of the puzzle that could come back and hunt her down later. So with the droid back in the pod doing his thing she was on the bridge trying to contact the Widowmaker. Since the shields were still active and the fact that the people of this planet were united in the attempt to capture her gave Tahiri hope that someone was still alive down there. She started out near the moon that orbits around the planet and gradually drifts further and further lower in to the atmosphere. She was now at the lowest limit that she wanted to be and still no clear signal was returned. She hoped it was because the antenna had been damaged.
"Widowmaker, this is the Galactic Alliance freighter Double Trouble are you receiving my signal?"
Then she heard what she has been searching for and by the tone of the answer they too had found their sign of hope.
"Are you really there?" Some one said in Imperial accented Basic. The power of the transmission was low and the quality was poor but she heard them.
"Affirmative Widowmaker, your signal is weak can you boost your power?"
"I don't believe it … I don't. Hey Lt! Get the Captain we have been found! Yes, yes I talking to her now! Who did you say you were again?" The voice was coming back sounding as excited as she felt.
"This is Galactic Alliance freighter Double Trouble and I am Jedi Knight Tahiri."
"She says she a Jedi Knight! Yea, yea she is still there … Jedi the Captain is on the way please stand by." In the background she could make out what sounded like cheering and yelling, the man who she was talking to sound like he was close to tears. "Please don't go anywhere … we been found."