Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ or Star Wars or anything else I stole from other people.
In the darkness a hooded figure pushed open a huge, armored door that led into an even bigger, better armored and fantastically ornate throne room.
"Master," The figure spoke as it bowed to another hooded form that watched out through a thick window. "I bring news."
"No, you don't." Responded the other. "I already know what it is you have to say. You have come to tell me of a disturbance in the Force. But you do not yet know where it comes from like I do."
The man seemed to shift and flow rather than turn as he faced the other, still bowing, man.
"It is a young girl. She and her family have traveled from the future through a means I do not yet understand to find out about a Jedi Master that they found buried here some thousand years hence. I know of no such burial, so it must have not happened yet. But this could bode well for us if we act quickly."
"But Master." The man on the floor spoke and cowered lower. "Won't they leave very soon if this is the case?"
"Yes, but they do not yet realize. I want you to send someone to bring me the girl. The parents are of no consequence, they have power but they would never join our cause. Tell whoever you send to kill them both if he is able."
"Of course, I will send the finest assassin I can find tonight."
The figure at the window turned back and spoke one final time. "Tell him to be wary of the girl's father, I sense his lifeforce, and there is something wrong with it."
"Wrong?"
"Yes, I am not sure what, but something is very strange about him, and I don't like it…"
*********
Cryos pushed open the door to Tran's workshop and found that it wasn't so much a workshop and an indoor junk heap.
Bits and pieces of machines were scattered everywhere and boxes of discarded electronics were stacked five high across the wall.
Near the center of the room was a pile of twisted metal, most of which seemed to have been stolen from a landfill.
"I'd have cleaned up if I knew anyone was coming." Tran apologized as he tried without any success at all to make the place presentable. "Most of this is from the booster rocket I was working on. I was trying to up its output power so that we could get off-planet with just the one rocket. Everyone else had given up, so they let me work on it and, well, you saw what happened back in town."
"Does that sort of thing happen a lot?" Kentra asked him.
"Occasionally things blow up or crash on me, but not usually like that."
"Sounds like another inventor we know…" Cryos muttered.
"So where are you guys from?" Tran asked. "The only aliens we've met so far are the ones that abducted us from Earth and the things living on this planet. And none of them were very friendly."
"Believe it or not, we're from the future. A thousand years from now the New Republic will be the government of the galaxy and will show peace and equality for all."
"Even Humans?" Tran asked.
"Why not humans? Why shouldn't the most plentiful sentient species in the galaxy have a say in what happens?" Kentra asked him.
"Because we're slaves." Tran told her. "The Kranthans took us all from Earth and destroyed the planet, then they shipped us out to be used for slave labor. Our ship rebelled and crashed here."
"I've heard of the Kranthans." Kentra said. "They were slavers in the early days of the Old Republic. They were wiped out by the fleet when they exported so many slaves that later rebelled. I never knew that Humans were among them though."
"Well, it doesn't matter now, we're here about the Jedi." Cryos said.
"Jedi?" Asked Tran. "We heard something about them back on the ship when the Kranthans had us. They were screaming something about Jedi after them. That was the distraction we needed to fight back."
"But there are no Jedi here?" Cryos asked.
"We don't even know what they are."
"Well that's not good. Kentra, what do-" He started to ask her what was wrong, because she was sitting perfectly still with her eyes shut, like she was listening to something. But she shushed him.
"Someone's outside," She said. "poking around. He's trying to be sneaky, like a scout or something."
"Draco." Cryos spoke and Draco was instantly at his side. "This is very important and serious. I need you to go outside and see what's going on. No fooling around and don't let him see you."
"Right! I'm on the job!" Draco was being strangely serious, at least he was until he shouted out "YEEEEEEE-HAAAAWWW!" and flew into a wall before he got out the window.
Cryos sighed. "Pahrac, could you watch him and make sure he doesn't do anything."
"Of course." Pahrac said in his still slightly creepy double voice and slithered out the door without a sound.
"So what's a Jedi anyway?" Tran asked. "Some kind of military thing?"
"Sort of, they're more like a religious thing. A small percentage of people of every race are born with a gift." Cryos told him. "They can use the Force. It's like a cosmic power or something. Jedi use their powers for good, and they fight for the rights and happiness of people everywhere."
"So are you a Jedi?" Tran asked.
"No," Cryos said, "What we do is just energy manipulation. Anyone can do it, but if you have enough power you can do it on a grand scale you look like a superhero to the rest of the world."
"So you could teach me to fly?"
Cryos smiled and started to answer but was interrupted by Pahrac coming back in. He was dragging a huge block of ice with Draco sitting proudly atop it. Inside the ice, the shape of a man was just barely visible.
"Draco, I told you to spy on him, not catch him!" Cryos yelled.
"No, you said to not let him see me, and he didn't. I froze him first."
Cryos sighed. "The one time you listen to what I say it's to look for a loophole… Well, let him out, we need to ask him what he was doing here."
"Let him out!? But he's a spy-sickle! It's funny!"
"Draco…" Cryos said in a clear warning voice.
"Oh fine…" The little lizard muttered and spat a fireball at the man. The ice hissed and started to run and within a few seconds, they had a shivering spy on the floor.
"What are you doing here?" Cryos asked him.
"It d-doesn't m-m-matter anym-m-more." He shivered. "I f-f-failed. You mig-g-ght as well k-k-kill me, o-o-or e-else they w-w-will."
"No one's killing anyone." Cryos said. "Just tell me what's going on."
But the man turned his head and bit the collar of his shirt. A moment later he rolled back, dead.
Tran screamed and Kentra covered Yamna's eyes. But Pahrac looked closely and sniffed at the man's shirt collar. "Poison." He muttered to Cryos. "He had a capsule of it on his collar and when he bit it he broke the capsule and swallowed it. He really did not intend to be captured."
"What do we do?" Cryos asked.
"I shall bury the man. I suggest that we keep out wits about us tonight. This man was only the scout, the rest are waiting and will strike sooner rather than later.
**********
Kentra sat in the darkness watching the door with sleepless eyes. Cryos lay next to her and Yamna was lying close to him. The girl did sleep at night, despite the fact that her mother didn't, but even pure-blooded Ba'Ranian children had to sleep occasionally, so she might still grow out of it.
Kentra listened and watched out into the night. Pahrac was lurking around somewhere as well, but he was very good at moving without a sound, and she had no idea where he was.
It was sometime in the hours just before dawn when she finally heard something. At first she thought it might be Pahrac, but then she heard it again. It sounded like footsteps and there was no way Pahrac was making sounds like that with his snake-like tail.
She rolled away from her husband and daughter and moved over towards the door without making a sound. But then the silence was split by an ear-shattering bang as the door exploded inward, blasting Kentra back against the far wall and bringing down an avalanche of junk on top of her.
She blasted the garbage off just in time to see Cryos leap to his feet and a whole group of masked men come running in through the door. Cryos punched the first one and sent him crashing into several of his fellows, but more kept coming. Kentra tried to climb to her feet, but couldn't seem to do it. The blast must be affecting her balance.
There was another explosion above them, as well as from the wall directly behind her. Cryos was forced to stop fighting for a moment and catch a huge piece of the ceiling that was about to crash down on Yamna and Tran. They had crawled into a corner to try and escape the fighting.
But even as Cryos lifted the ceiling back up, one of the masked men dove in and grabbed Yamna!
Cryos tossed the ceiling and went after him, but the man snapped a strange collar around the little girl's neck and held up a box with a button on it.
"Just give me a reason to use this alien!" He said. "This will blow her pretty little head clean off her shoulders! Lord Shintrit would be angry, but he won't get too mad if we brought him all your lifeless bodies instead!"
Pahrac appeared at that moment at the door. He roared and blood ran down his chin. He had obviously been fighting these men outside. The mutant Kelbrid started after the man with Yanma, but Cryos shouted. "NO! Don't touch him!"
Pahrac growled but coiled back into a more defensive position.
"What do you want?" Cryos asked.
"All we know is the master said to get the girl, and to kill her family if they stood in our way. But I'm in a generous mood right now. We'll let you live."
The man backed out into a waiting transport vehicle. "I trust you not to follow, but just in case," He nodded to one of his men and without warning, the nearby town exploded in flames. "That should keep you busy for awhile…" He laughed as he drove off with his men and Yamna.
Leaving Cryos with rage burning in his heart as brightly as the town down the road.
