Jordan's fingers flew over the controls. Vector jets spun the shuttle on
it's axis, granting the ship the few inches it need to skirt the blaring laser
fire barreling in on it from behind.
This is crazy, Jordan cursed to himself. I have NO idea how to fly this
thing beyond basic maneuvers and I'm only GUESSING at those. I'm not a fighter
pilot. Hell I don't even know what half these controls do.
But the other half were easier to comprehende. Thottles, targetting
systems, weapons controls. They were almost like the video game controls back
home.
A tie fighter lapped the small vessel, it's laser fire glancing off the aft
sheilds. The shuttle shook under the energy weapons attack. Jordan brought all
forward batteries to bear on the fighter and let loose.
The TIEfighter exploded in a blossom of fire. Jordan whooped in victory.
But it was a hallow one. A large target appeared on his scanners, closing fast.
An imperial small battle-crusier.
Fear washed over Jordan. He'd die for sure. It was bad enough that he'd
never even been in space but he wasn't even NEARLY familiar with such advanced
technology. How could he hope to comprehende this ships controls.
In frustration he slammed his fists on the controls. Space suddenly began
to telescope infront of him. Within a matter of nanoseconds the shuttle was
gone.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
"CHEWIE? Give me a reading on that plasma intake valve, would ya? I'll
calibrate the engine exhaust."
The wookie growled in compliance. Han hung upsde down, by his legs, with
half his upper body stuck into the Falcon's engine core. Slowly he shut the
iris seperating the mixture tank from the reaction chamber.
The ship shook suddenly and Han dropped his hydro spanner down into the
chamber. Sparks flew into the air.
"CHEWIE!! TURN IT OFF. TURN..IT..OFF!!"
The sparks ceased and Han could hear his wookie companion chuckling. He
swung himself down to the deck and stormed into the control room.
"What the HELL happened?" Han Roared.
Chewie shrugged. The ship suddenly shook again.
Han picked up on it soon enough. "Those were ION blasts. IMPERIAL Ion
blasts."
Running, he jumped into the cockpit. His scanner's lit up. Two ships had
just emerged from Hyperspace. Two IMPERIAL ships."
"Damn it," Han muttered, "Not now. We don't need this."
The Falcon was currently docked to the underside of the New Republic
diplomatic corvette "Democracy". Han put threw a message on the comlink.
"This is General Solo to the Fleet. Two imperial ships have just exited
Hyperspace. Repeat, Two Imperial Ships have just entered fleet proximty."
A familiar voice entered the cockpit.
"Confirmed, Han. This is Wedge. Rogue Squadron is on it."
"Good. I'll notify the rest of the fleet to prepare for a jump to
lightspeed. Solo, Out!"
Han watched as a half dozen X-wings flew past the falcon to intercept the
intruders. The Com-relays among the fleet picked up considerably as orders were
being given to prepare for hyper-speed.
Han watched as Rogue Squadron approached the first ship. The Falcon's
Navi-Comp verified it as an Imperial Ambassadorial Shuttle. The Second ship was
a Light Battle-Cruiser.
That's funny, Han thought to himself, it looked almost like the crusier was
firing on the shuttle.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Wedge Antilles brought his X-wing about. The TIE fighter's launched from
the cruiser seemed to be ignoring him, which was frightening in itself. Out of
the entire galaxy there were only a half dozen people whom ANY imperial would go
out if his way to kill. AND HE was number 6.
Maybe these guys don't realize I'm a such a celebrity, Wedge joked to
himself.
Two tiefighters bore down on the shuttle, singeing it's surface with a
volley of small cannon fire. Why the hell were they attacking they're own ship,
Wedge thought.
The shuttle let loose a volley of it's own but it was VERY badly aimed.
The laser seared through space only to pass through areas which the TIE
fighter's HAD been present seconds ago.
That pilot is TOO slow, Wedge told himself, as if he's not used to high
speed space combat. Even the most low ranking imperial scum could do better.
Then it hit Wedge. The pilot most likely WASN'T an imperial.
He radioed the rest of the Squadron, praying that his hunch was correct.
"This is Rogue Leader to Rogue Squadron. That shuttle is NOT under
Imperial control. Protect that shuttle at all costs. If the Imps want it THAT
badly it must be important to them.. which means it's probably doubly important
for us.
A beam of energy lanced out from the cruiser and gripped the shuttle. A
tractor beam. Rogue's Four and Two passed over the crusier's hull and blew out
the emitter with a skillfully placed volley of torpedos.
The emitter exploded, letting the shuttle loose. The small vessel drifted
away, badly damaged.
But before Wedge could act next, the cruiser's large ion cannon's swivelled
and targetted the small shuttle. There was no way Wedge could stop it.
A lance of blue-green laser fire passed over wedge and struck the cruiser
cannon, blowing it off it's mount. The Crusier swung around to escape but
another lance struck the engines.
The ship blew apart like a small nova.
With a sigh of relief, Wedge opened a com channel.
"Thanks, Han" he said to his unseen acomplice.
The Millenium Falcon pulled alongside the X-wing.
"No problem, Wedge," Han replied, "All in a day's work."
Chuckling, Wedge brought his craft about and circled the battered shuttle.
"Han, Maybe you should dock with that thing and see if the pilot needs
assistance. My readings tell me all life support has failed. He only has about
Seven minutes left of air."
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Six minutes later the Shuttle's airlock slid open. Fresh air swooshed in,
replaceing the smokey stale atmosphere.
Han was the first to enter. His blaster was cocked and ready. Slowly he
made his way around the compartment. It was empty.
Cautiously he entered the cockpit. A prone figure lay sprawled over the
console.
He poked the body one with the barrel of his gun. It didn't move.
Han flipped over the body. The pilot was human. Burn marks ran up the
left half of his exposed body.
He's only a kid, Han told himself.
Chewie came into the cockpit. Han turned to him.
"Chewie. Get this kid over to the Fleet's medical bay. I'll pilot this
bucket of bolts back to the corvette. We'll dump it's core there and see just
what the hell was going on."
Chewie slung the boys body over his shoulder and went back to the falcon.
A minute later the ship shuddered slightly as the Falcon undocked and made it's
way back to the fleet.
Han sat down in the pilot's seat and ran a diagnostic on the systsm.
Everything seemed to be functional enough. As the captured shuttle began it's
way to the fleet, Han brought up the navi-comps coarse-plot, tring to discern
the shuttles point of origin.
The display lit up with the information, though it was badly scrambled.
Han scanned it with interest though. There was a name for the shuttle's planet
of origin, but not much else. Not even a vector plot or course change schedule.
"Earth, eh?" he said to himself, "Never heard of it"
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Leia entered the infirmary. Han and Wedge sat across from each other
beside a bed. They seemed very deep in conversation.
Her eyes fell on the unconscious young man in the bed. He seemed very
young, maybe only a few years older than the twins. TOO young to be an imperial
pilot.
He had long blood-red hair in ratty braids and for the most part his skin
was almost pearl white, except for the redness where the bacta treatments had
been applied to the plasma burns.
Han looked up at his wife and smiled. She came over and hugged him close.
Han gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Worried, eh?" he joked.
She gave him a mock scowl and sat down beside her husband. She glanced
over at the young man.
"How is our guest?" she asked.
"Still unconscious," Wedge replied. "The injurys were bad but he's pretty
much over them now."
"Any Idea who he is or where he's from?" she asked Han.
He shook his head. "From what we gathered from the shuttles cultural
database he's from a planet called Earth."
"I've never heard of it? is it a small human settlement?"
"Uhh, not really. Unless you count Six billion people as a 'small human
settlement'."
Leia's mouth fell open. "That's impossible. You can't miss a spacefaring
people of THAT population."
"That's right," Han confirmed, "According to the shuttle's records, This
planet Earth doesn't support a spacefaring culture. They only developed limited
spaceflight about forty years ago."
"But he's human...."
Wedge cut in. "We know, but apparently his culture doesn't know anything
about other space civilizations. We think Earth might be one of those coloney's
that originally got cut off from the old republic and somehow lost all their
technology."
Leia looked at the man again. "IF they don't have space or superluminal
travel then how the hell did he get ahold of an imperial shuttle and fly it
here?"
Wedge held up a small data tablet. "Apparently, one of the imperial
warlord factions invaded his world three years ago. To this gut's people it was
their 'first contact'. The Ammbassador soothed their suspicions and when these
"Terrans", as they call themslves, were totlly unaware, the Empire took over."
"And where is this 'Urth'" she asked her friend.
Wedge scanned over the tablet. "About eight day's travel, straight, via
hyperspace. No wonder this guy's engines were blown. Ships aren't supposed to
make such long jumps."
Leia stood up and walked alongside the bed. She pressed her hand against
the boy's cheek.
"Rest," she told the sleeper, "When you wake up we'll find a way to help
you."
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Black turned to grey and grey turned to painful white.
Jordan's eyes slowly drew open. The first thing he noticed was that he was
no longer on the shuttle. But if he wasn't there then where the hell was he?
Captured by imperials.
He catapulted up and out of bed. At least that was his plan, but something
stopped him.
A man, probably 45 years of age and sporting flowing yet short dirty brown
hair held his shoulder. Without thinking, Jordan punched him across the Jaw.
The man fell back. Jordan was about to try and escape when a large, hairy
creature grabbed him around the shoulders.
The creature's strength was immense. Jordan struggled helplessly.
A beautiful woman in a blue-white dress rushed over and placed a hand on
Jordan's chest, seemingly tring to calm him.
Confused, Jordan stopped struggling. The woman leaned down beside them man
and helped him out. She checked him over like a wife checking her injured
husband.
She said something soothing to the man. He nodded, rubbing his Jaw.
Jordan noticed his uniform wasn't an imperial one.
Just who the hell WERE these people?
The man spoke into a small device. A second later the doors slid open and
a Gold-Plated robot strutted in.
The Humanoid like machine spoke a few words to the woman. Jordan sure
wished he knew what the hell they were saying.
The robot moved to him next.
"Greeting's," it said in perfect, slightly English accented, well, English,
"I am See-Threepio, Human Cyborg Relations."
This really threw him. Slowly, Jordan began to speak.
"Look. I don't know WHO the hell you people are but I want.. no.. I NEED
some answers right now."
Threepio nodded. He walked over to the man Jordan had punched. The two
spoke for a moment. Then the man took a small device from the robot and placed
it on his lapel.
He walked beside Jordan.
"I am General Han Solo of the New Republic." he said.
Jordan was stunned. FINALLY he could understand these people.
"My name is Jordan" he told Han, "And I still don't know what the hell is
going on here."
The woman, now fitted with a similar device, joined in.
"We rescued you from Imperial Forces," she said, her voice as lovely as her
face, "We're no friends of the empire as well."
"The New Republic? What the hell is that?"
She looked at Jordan Curiously. "We're a commonwealth of over a thousand
species and worlds. Just like your world is now, we too were under the empire's
rule. But we defeated them. Small factions of the empire remain however, as
you have discovered."
Jordan nodded slightly. "I know. They came to us three years ago. They
said they were friends and that they came in peace. But now we're nothing but
slaves. We've tried to fight back but their too powerful. Oh my god.. so many
of us have died."
Jordan was almost on the verge of tears. Chewie let go and Leia hugged
him. Han placed a hand on Jordan's shoulder.
"Don't worry," she soothed him, "We're here to help you."
it's axis, granting the ship the few inches it need to skirt the blaring laser
fire barreling in on it from behind.
This is crazy, Jordan cursed to himself. I have NO idea how to fly this
thing beyond basic maneuvers and I'm only GUESSING at those. I'm not a fighter
pilot. Hell I don't even know what half these controls do.
But the other half were easier to comprehende. Thottles, targetting
systems, weapons controls. They were almost like the video game controls back
home.
A tie fighter lapped the small vessel, it's laser fire glancing off the aft
sheilds. The shuttle shook under the energy weapons attack. Jordan brought all
forward batteries to bear on the fighter and let loose.
The TIEfighter exploded in a blossom of fire. Jordan whooped in victory.
But it was a hallow one. A large target appeared on his scanners, closing fast.
An imperial small battle-crusier.
Fear washed over Jordan. He'd die for sure. It was bad enough that he'd
never even been in space but he wasn't even NEARLY familiar with such advanced
technology. How could he hope to comprehende this ships controls.
In frustration he slammed his fists on the controls. Space suddenly began
to telescope infront of him. Within a matter of nanoseconds the shuttle was
gone.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
"CHEWIE? Give me a reading on that plasma intake valve, would ya? I'll
calibrate the engine exhaust."
The wookie growled in compliance. Han hung upsde down, by his legs, with
half his upper body stuck into the Falcon's engine core. Slowly he shut the
iris seperating the mixture tank from the reaction chamber.
The ship shook suddenly and Han dropped his hydro spanner down into the
chamber. Sparks flew into the air.
"CHEWIE!! TURN IT OFF. TURN..IT..OFF!!"
The sparks ceased and Han could hear his wookie companion chuckling. He
swung himself down to the deck and stormed into the control room.
"What the HELL happened?" Han Roared.
Chewie shrugged. The ship suddenly shook again.
Han picked up on it soon enough. "Those were ION blasts. IMPERIAL Ion
blasts."
Running, he jumped into the cockpit. His scanner's lit up. Two ships had
just emerged from Hyperspace. Two IMPERIAL ships."
"Damn it," Han muttered, "Not now. We don't need this."
The Falcon was currently docked to the underside of the New Republic
diplomatic corvette "Democracy". Han put threw a message on the comlink.
"This is General Solo to the Fleet. Two imperial ships have just exited
Hyperspace. Repeat, Two Imperial Ships have just entered fleet proximty."
A familiar voice entered the cockpit.
"Confirmed, Han. This is Wedge. Rogue Squadron is on it."
"Good. I'll notify the rest of the fleet to prepare for a jump to
lightspeed. Solo, Out!"
Han watched as a half dozen X-wings flew past the falcon to intercept the
intruders. The Com-relays among the fleet picked up considerably as orders were
being given to prepare for hyper-speed.
Han watched as Rogue Squadron approached the first ship. The Falcon's
Navi-Comp verified it as an Imperial Ambassadorial Shuttle. The Second ship was
a Light Battle-Cruiser.
That's funny, Han thought to himself, it looked almost like the crusier was
firing on the shuttle.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Wedge Antilles brought his X-wing about. The TIE fighter's launched from
the cruiser seemed to be ignoring him, which was frightening in itself. Out of
the entire galaxy there were only a half dozen people whom ANY imperial would go
out if his way to kill. AND HE was number 6.
Maybe these guys don't realize I'm a such a celebrity, Wedge joked to
himself.
Two tiefighters bore down on the shuttle, singeing it's surface with a
volley of small cannon fire. Why the hell were they attacking they're own ship,
Wedge thought.
The shuttle let loose a volley of it's own but it was VERY badly aimed.
The laser seared through space only to pass through areas which the TIE
fighter's HAD been present seconds ago.
That pilot is TOO slow, Wedge told himself, as if he's not used to high
speed space combat. Even the most low ranking imperial scum could do better.
Then it hit Wedge. The pilot most likely WASN'T an imperial.
He radioed the rest of the Squadron, praying that his hunch was correct.
"This is Rogue Leader to Rogue Squadron. That shuttle is NOT under
Imperial control. Protect that shuttle at all costs. If the Imps want it THAT
badly it must be important to them.. which means it's probably doubly important
for us.
A beam of energy lanced out from the cruiser and gripped the shuttle. A
tractor beam. Rogue's Four and Two passed over the crusier's hull and blew out
the emitter with a skillfully placed volley of torpedos.
The emitter exploded, letting the shuttle loose. The small vessel drifted
away, badly damaged.
But before Wedge could act next, the cruiser's large ion cannon's swivelled
and targetted the small shuttle. There was no way Wedge could stop it.
A lance of blue-green laser fire passed over wedge and struck the cruiser
cannon, blowing it off it's mount. The Crusier swung around to escape but
another lance struck the engines.
The ship blew apart like a small nova.
With a sigh of relief, Wedge opened a com channel.
"Thanks, Han" he said to his unseen acomplice.
The Millenium Falcon pulled alongside the X-wing.
"No problem, Wedge," Han replied, "All in a day's work."
Chuckling, Wedge brought his craft about and circled the battered shuttle.
"Han, Maybe you should dock with that thing and see if the pilot needs
assistance. My readings tell me all life support has failed. He only has about
Seven minutes left of air."
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Six minutes later the Shuttle's airlock slid open. Fresh air swooshed in,
replaceing the smokey stale atmosphere.
Han was the first to enter. His blaster was cocked and ready. Slowly he
made his way around the compartment. It was empty.
Cautiously he entered the cockpit. A prone figure lay sprawled over the
console.
He poked the body one with the barrel of his gun. It didn't move.
Han flipped over the body. The pilot was human. Burn marks ran up the
left half of his exposed body.
He's only a kid, Han told himself.
Chewie came into the cockpit. Han turned to him.
"Chewie. Get this kid over to the Fleet's medical bay. I'll pilot this
bucket of bolts back to the corvette. We'll dump it's core there and see just
what the hell was going on."
Chewie slung the boys body over his shoulder and went back to the falcon.
A minute later the ship shuddered slightly as the Falcon undocked and made it's
way back to the fleet.
Han sat down in the pilot's seat and ran a diagnostic on the systsm.
Everything seemed to be functional enough. As the captured shuttle began it's
way to the fleet, Han brought up the navi-comps coarse-plot, tring to discern
the shuttles point of origin.
The display lit up with the information, though it was badly scrambled.
Han scanned it with interest though. There was a name for the shuttle's planet
of origin, but not much else. Not even a vector plot or course change schedule.
"Earth, eh?" he said to himself, "Never heard of it"
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Leia entered the infirmary. Han and Wedge sat across from each other
beside a bed. They seemed very deep in conversation.
Her eyes fell on the unconscious young man in the bed. He seemed very
young, maybe only a few years older than the twins. TOO young to be an imperial
pilot.
He had long blood-red hair in ratty braids and for the most part his skin
was almost pearl white, except for the redness where the bacta treatments had
been applied to the plasma burns.
Han looked up at his wife and smiled. She came over and hugged him close.
Han gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Worried, eh?" he joked.
She gave him a mock scowl and sat down beside her husband. She glanced
over at the young man.
"How is our guest?" she asked.
"Still unconscious," Wedge replied. "The injurys were bad but he's pretty
much over them now."
"Any Idea who he is or where he's from?" she asked Han.
He shook his head. "From what we gathered from the shuttles cultural
database he's from a planet called Earth."
"I've never heard of it? is it a small human settlement?"
"Uhh, not really. Unless you count Six billion people as a 'small human
settlement'."
Leia's mouth fell open. "That's impossible. You can't miss a spacefaring
people of THAT population."
"That's right," Han confirmed, "According to the shuttle's records, This
planet Earth doesn't support a spacefaring culture. They only developed limited
spaceflight about forty years ago."
"But he's human...."
Wedge cut in. "We know, but apparently his culture doesn't know anything
about other space civilizations. We think Earth might be one of those coloney's
that originally got cut off from the old republic and somehow lost all their
technology."
Leia looked at the man again. "IF they don't have space or superluminal
travel then how the hell did he get ahold of an imperial shuttle and fly it
here?"
Wedge held up a small data tablet. "Apparently, one of the imperial
warlord factions invaded his world three years ago. To this gut's people it was
their 'first contact'. The Ammbassador soothed their suspicions and when these
"Terrans", as they call themslves, were totlly unaware, the Empire took over."
"And where is this 'Urth'" she asked her friend.
Wedge scanned over the tablet. "About eight day's travel, straight, via
hyperspace. No wonder this guy's engines were blown. Ships aren't supposed to
make such long jumps."
Leia stood up and walked alongside the bed. She pressed her hand against
the boy's cheek.
"Rest," she told the sleeper, "When you wake up we'll find a way to help
you."
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Black turned to grey and grey turned to painful white.
Jordan's eyes slowly drew open. The first thing he noticed was that he was
no longer on the shuttle. But if he wasn't there then where the hell was he?
Captured by imperials.
He catapulted up and out of bed. At least that was his plan, but something
stopped him.
A man, probably 45 years of age and sporting flowing yet short dirty brown
hair held his shoulder. Without thinking, Jordan punched him across the Jaw.
The man fell back. Jordan was about to try and escape when a large, hairy
creature grabbed him around the shoulders.
The creature's strength was immense. Jordan struggled helplessly.
A beautiful woman in a blue-white dress rushed over and placed a hand on
Jordan's chest, seemingly tring to calm him.
Confused, Jordan stopped struggling. The woman leaned down beside them man
and helped him out. She checked him over like a wife checking her injured
husband.
She said something soothing to the man. He nodded, rubbing his Jaw.
Jordan noticed his uniform wasn't an imperial one.
Just who the hell WERE these people?
The man spoke into a small device. A second later the doors slid open and
a Gold-Plated robot strutted in.
The Humanoid like machine spoke a few words to the woman. Jordan sure
wished he knew what the hell they were saying.
The robot moved to him next.
"Greeting's," it said in perfect, slightly English accented, well, English,
"I am See-Threepio, Human Cyborg Relations."
This really threw him. Slowly, Jordan began to speak.
"Look. I don't know WHO the hell you people are but I want.. no.. I NEED
some answers right now."
Threepio nodded. He walked over to the man Jordan had punched. The two
spoke for a moment. Then the man took a small device from the robot and placed
it on his lapel.
He walked beside Jordan.
"I am General Han Solo of the New Republic." he said.
Jordan was stunned. FINALLY he could understand these people.
"My name is Jordan" he told Han, "And I still don't know what the hell is
going on here."
The woman, now fitted with a similar device, joined in.
"We rescued you from Imperial Forces," she said, her voice as lovely as her
face, "We're no friends of the empire as well."
"The New Republic? What the hell is that?"
She looked at Jordan Curiously. "We're a commonwealth of over a thousand
species and worlds. Just like your world is now, we too were under the empire's
rule. But we defeated them. Small factions of the empire remain however, as
you have discovered."
Jordan nodded slightly. "I know. They came to us three years ago. They
said they were friends and that they came in peace. But now we're nothing but
slaves. We've tried to fight back but their too powerful. Oh my god.. so many
of us have died."
Jordan was almost on the verge of tears. Chewie let go and Leia hugged
him. Han placed a hand on Jordan's shoulder.
"Don't worry," she soothed him, "We're here to help you."