Ratnena watched the stars snap back into what is normally seen in real space and not the spinning vortex found in hyperspace. She saw that Little Brother had plotted a perfect course as usual, not that she would tell him, and he has a big enough ego already. He brought them out of hyperspace behind the largest planet as close as they could without crashing into the planet.
PERFECT COURSE AGAIN IF I DO SAY SO MY SELF, scrolled across the data screen as she begun shutting down certain systems and lights.
"You have an ego bigger then a S.S.D. you know that," she said with a laugh, "if you can still move around with your head swollen like that how about initializing protocol U-009."
NO APPRECIATION OF MY SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE; PROTOCOL U-009 INITIATED, RUNNING LIGHTS OFF, ENGINE THRUST AT 0.00, COURSE SET AT RANDOM TUMBLE.
"Right," Ratnena saw the stars start to spin, the whole idea is to make the X-wing tumble to look like a natural body so they wouldn't stand out in a scan. If a scan computer saw, an object flying in a straight course it would alert the operator and do a metal and energy scans. However, flying in a random tumbling course would buy them extra time to do their own scans before they got close enough to trip any early warning scans. At least that is the theory but since this was an unknown contact, they weren't 100% sure if that it would work. However, the odds were still in their favor since the one corresponding factor in both GA and Yuuzhan Vong sensors was the fact that they were both programmed to look for things that were out of the ordinary. "I calculate that we have one hour 23 minutes and 56 seconds before we get around this planet to be able to scan the intersystem."
AFFIRMATIVE, THE ENGINES SHOULD BE 'COOL' ENOUGH NOT TO SHOW UP ON AN INFERRED SCAN.
"Don't let them slip too far, if we have to get out of here in a hurry I don't want to wait for engines to warm up."
AFFIRMATIVE, LASER AND SHIELDS ARE AT STAND BY POWER.
"Preliminary communication scans started," Ratnena said as tied the communication systems into the extra computer storage pod that was slung underneath the X-wing in place of the spare fuel tank. Along with extra storage, there were also specialized scanner and cams that either Little Brother or she could access, in case they spotted something of interested. Although the system was design to work independently of any human interaction, Ratnena though the computer brain in charge was too small and slow to be as effective as she needed it to be. Little Brother, by the way he too was manipulating the settings on some of the scans, must feel the same way. "Nothing detected so far."
I DETECT NO RECENT HYPER-DRIVE ACTIVITIES IN THIS AREA OF THE SYSTEM, she watched as he flips through scans at an inhuman rate, NO INDICATION OF ION TRAILS EITHER.
"Would you recognize Yuuzhan Vong drive signatures if you saw them?"
YUUZHAN VONG DRIVE SIGNATURES ARE MORE IN GRAVITY IN NATURE SO THE EFFECT ARE HARDER TO MEASURE AS THE PASSAGE OF TIME BECOMES GREATER.
"And this close to the planet makes it harder to use the gravity scanner," Ratnena said pulling a sweet stick out of her flight suit pocket.
CORRECT, Little Brother said bring up the spec for the gravity scanner.
"So we can't use it until we get that far from this planet," Ratnena said absently and then brought up a new scanner. "Check around for any asteroids around here, passive only. I going to do a life form scan, the planet is non-live right?"
CORRECT BUT A PASSIVE LIFE FORM SCAN WOULD NOT PIN POINT THE LOCATION OF THE LIFE.
"Don't want to know where it is just if it is there," Ratnena said concentrating on the scanning.
For the next hour and fifteen minutes they both tried every type of scan they could think of to give them a extra edge but their efforts were hampered by the need to remain in passive mode and the planet that was blocking their view of the inter system. Ratnena wasn't to worry since she figured if there were anything down there it would take whatever it was a while to get to her, long enough for her to jump back into hyperspace. They haven't seen a single electron let alone any hostile forces. If anything, the lack of active was making her more nervous then too much activity.
WE ARE ABOUT TO CROSS OVER TO THE LIGHT SIDE.
"Right," Ratnena answered sitting up, readjusted her straps, and wrapped up her sweet stick. "Make sure you have a course ready, first sign of trouble and we go."
AFFIRMATIVE.
As the X-wing cross the terminator from dark to light side, she as was temporally blinded by the strong sunlight. As she waited for the shielding to adjust, she could hear Little Brother already assimilating as much information as he could. The results he found were, to say the least, a surprise.
"What do you mean there is nothing significant to report?" Ratnena said staring at the data screen.
THERE IS A SINGLE SPACE STATION IN ORBIT AROUND THE THIRD PLANET BUT I DO NOT DETECT ANY OTHER VESSELS IN THE SYSTEM.
"What is the power output of the station?"
THE POWER CURVE SUGGESTS THAT THERE IS A CREW OF HUNDRED, FULL SHIELDS BUT NO OFFENSIVE OR DEFENSIVE SCANS IN PROGRESS.
"How big is the station?"
IT IS APPROXIMATELY THE SIZE OF A Golan II Defense Platform.
"So what was worrying the Yuuzhan Vong so much about one little station?" Ratnena mused as she looked at the information that Little Brother collected from the passive scans. "I wonder how close we can get before they spot us."
UNKNOWN, Little Brother answered after a long time and he sounded a little hesitant.
"If we took this route," she traced out a route on the map of the system that would take them to the other side of the system, "and stay as close to the asteroid field until this point we could come in from under the scanners."
HAVE YOU BLOWN A FUSE IN YOUR CENTRAL PROCESSOR UNIT; WE CANNOT GO TO THAT STATION! Little Brother finally said after a two-minute pause.
"I am serious we can do this; look at sub-light speed .076 we could be there and out in a couple hours and they might not even notice us."
WE ARE UNDER ORDERS TO OBSERVE WHATEVER ACTIVITIES THAT ARE PRESENT IN THIS SYSTEM. WE ARE NOT TO REVEAL OUR PRESENTS IN THIS SYSTEM.
"We won't be … much really, besides are we learning anything way out here."
WE HAVE FOUND AN UNIDENTIFIED AND UNKNOWN SPACE STATION IN AN UNINHABITABLE SYSTEM I BELIEVE THAT IS SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION THAT COMMANDER LORAN NEEDS TO KNOW.
"But why is it here that is the question we need to answer," she said twisting around to look at Little Brother, "and why is it not on any charts? It must be military and …"
ON THE OTHER HAND, IT COULD BE A SMUGGLER OUTPOST OR PIRATE OUTPOST WE DON'T KNOW FOR SURE WHO THIS STATION BELONGS TOO.
"See that could be important to know don't you agree?"
YOU CANNOT TWIST THE PROCESS OF LOGIC TO CONVINCE ME TO VIOLATE OUR ORDERS. WE ARE OBTAINING EXCELLENT INFORMATION ON THE STATION FROM OUR PRESENT LOCATION.
"Do we know who they are or why they are there? No, of course not and …" Ratnena was cut off as one of the scanner started beeping.
INCOMING SHIPS AT 124.78.890+ AT 1000 METERS TO PORT.
"Kill the tumble and plot a course out of here, I'm taking engines off stand-by."
Ratnena watched as three Frigate size ships in a diamond formation dropped out of hyperspace and headed down to the space station, she watched the scanner as they recorded the information but already saw something was not right. Life support for the two rear ships were only at 10% of normal power levels and except for the running lights on the hull the ships was dark.
RATNENA, I AM RECORDING DROID LEVEL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE THREE SHIPS I SUSPECT SLAVE CIRCUITS ARE CONTROLLING THEM.
"I read only one life form and it is located on the bridge of the forward ship," Ratnena said as she watched more information scroll across the screen. "There seems to be a few more gun ports."
I HAVE COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE SHIP TO THE SPACE STATION.
"Let's hear it."
"… Calling space station AR-002, do you read me down there? Come on guys look alive."
"Space Station AR-002 to Frigate 1004-KY; we read you. Is that you Jog?"
"Yep it is I, the great droid escort," the one called Jog said with a snort of amusement, "fresh from the grand mission from exciting heart of the corporate sector to here."
"We all have to make sacrifices," the controllers voice on the station said sounding amused with the ranting of Jog. "We need to park those three in sector 89; we will light up the others so you don't bump into anything. A shuttle will meet you there to give you a lift here. How long will you be here anyways?"
"I don't know, my orders said another ship will be by to take me to Kuat in a couple days so I can start all over again. What a glorious role I play in this war, oh the stories I be able to tell my children one day." He made his voice high pitch as if a child's voice would sound like, "daddy what did you do during the war?" "Why son I had an important job of ferrying great empty droid control ships back and forth the galaxy."
"Could be worst you know you could be stuck out here all the time. At least you get to see something other then hundreds of silent ships." Ratnena watched in fascination as a sector near the station suddenly lit up as a hundred ships running lights suddenly turned on. "The porch light is on, we will see you soon."
"You getting all this Little Brother," Ratnena asked.
YES.
Now what do we do, Ratnena asked herself as she watch the three ships heading to the edge of the shipyard.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Three minutes to we drop out of hyperspace," Runt said from the navigation station. Kell nodded absently as he drummed the top of the control panel as he watched the timer run down. His station was the helm control, so if there was any emergency action needed when they dropped out of hyperspace he could just do it instead of waiting for someone else to follow his orders. Runt as been a welcome addition to the team, even after 7 years that he has been out of the Wraiths, he hasn't lost his edge yet. He had spent the war on his home planet assisting them in driving back any probes by the Peace Brigade or Yuuzhan Vong. In fact, those actions and his already brilliant reputation with the Wraiths had made him a living legend among his people and the most sought after bachelor there. Tyria had joked that he wanted to come along with her so he could get some rest from all the families hounding him to marry their daughters. Kell was not sorry to see him around; he was a bit strange and hard to get use to but absolutely one of the best to have in a firefight. "Two minutes."
"Let's hope they forgot to leave any lights on," Piggy said from fire control.
"Oh come on, sir, it has been weeks since we have been shot at. I am starting to get bored," Sparks at communication, said watching the main screen.
"Don't worry we have a Jedi with us, two in fact, and it is known that Jedi attract trouble like dung attract flies. One minute," Runt said with a grin.
"Watch it Runt or I make you walk home," Tyria said from the station where she and Doran were operating the scanners.
"Or worst, she help marry you off," Elassar said from Environmental control.
"Dropping from Hyperspace … now!" Kell pulled back on the hyperspace controls, dropping them out behind the eighth and largest gas planet in the system. Immediately the different stations started reporting in.
"We are at 135 kilometers away from 8th planet dark side."
"Scan report nothing nearby,"
"Communications are clear, no stray signals detected."
"Life scans report negative for immediate area."
"Wraith 4 and 6 report standing by," Piggy said. Hall and Deloni were in the hanger with the droids Eyeball and Crank. They had volunteer for what could be the worst duty on the mission. If needed, they would launch to engage with the enemy and clear a lane for the rest of them to escape if they were discovered.
"Flush and the other droids report all green in Engineering," Elassar reported.
"Who left Flush in charge back there?" Kell asked. Flush was a blue and silver R2 unit that had an odd quark to him. They called him Flush for two reasons; one was fascination with the refresher. One day he was working on the Sweet Sunrise and came close to using the entire water supply on the ship so he could watch the vortex of water. The second little quark was the fact he was the 'Tahiri' of the droid world, so far he has shorted himself out twice and flushed his own memory. What he had done to one of the X-wings last month made Kell wonder if he was one of the recycle droids that Ratnena had rigged to self-destruct a year ago. The other droids, Ratnena and he had tried to fix the glitch but every time they think they solved the problem, it would just pop back up.
"The other felt it would be better if he just supervised instead of doing an actual work, something about them wanting to survive," Elassar said flashing a smile. "Don't worry; I made sure there were plenty of charms to insure good luck."
"We were wondering what would happened if Tahiri and Flush were dropped off on a Peace Brigade strong hold and let them loss in their computer system." Runt asked as he showed Kell the course he plotted out to bring the corvette around the planet with minimal exposure.
"They would crash their systems with in five minutes …" Tyria said watching her screens but with a smile on her face.
"… and destroy the base with 8." Kell finished in a round of laughter as he laid in the course. "We will be around the planet in 16 minutes, Tyria and Doran I want you to look for skips then the larger ships first, then any normal ships, and then any planets or stations that they could be using."
"Right, Explosion Boy," Tyria answered easily knowing what was expected of her.
"Yes sir," Doran answered but sounding tense, no doubt worried about screwing up in front of his parents after being giving such responsibilities.
"Did I ever tell you about your father being the first person in the squadron being awarded the Kalidor Crescent?" Tyria asked, as Doran started squirming at his station, never taking her eyes off the screen.
"Really," the boy's eyes growing huge as he head swiveled between his mother and Kell. Kell just gave him a shrug wondering where Tyria was going with this story. "But that is like one of the biggest metals they give out!"
"Given out to pilots who show extreme bravery and excellent flying skills. We were attacking a pirate's nest in an uninhabited system," Piggy said watching half dozen screens at once. "One of our own was damaged severely, Jasmin Ackbar was her name."
"Her X-wing was damaged beyond her R-2 unit to repair, inertia compensator was destroyed, and she couldn't reach her stick or ejection switch." Runt said picking up the story while continuing to plot course corrections. "Your father basically performed a series of mid-air collisions to straighten out her ship, if for no other reason to buy her some time and to steer her away from the moon that she was heading to but it wasn't enough."
"Wedge Antilles was so impressed with his flying and his persistence in trying to do something, any thing, which would save Jasmin's live that he put your father in for the metal. And to impress Wedge, the greatest fighter pilot that ever lived, well that had to be some flying." Elassar said with awe in his voice, "I wasn't there yet but they told me about it several times."
"Now keeping your eyes on your screens, can you guess what he did after all that great flying?" Doran, eye wide, shaking his head, obviously not knowing the answer. "He threw up."
"What?"
"I got sick because I thought I had failed Jasmin and the squadron," Kell said with a sigh, still not seeing where his wife was going with this story. He saw the new course to the fifth planet that Runt sent him and laid it in. "You see, Doran, for a long time before that I though a hero was someone who never felt fear and always saved everyone in the end. I guess I watched too many Face holo-dramas when I was younger or something. I was always afraid, afraid I would lose control and run away or let down my friends and when Jasmin died I thought it was my fault for not being a good enough hero to save her. It took me a long time …"
"And quite a few bruises from me," Tyria said with a smirk.
"And that too, to realize that a hero is just someone who does nothing more then his job, he has fear but moves beyond his fear to get the job done."
"What lesson can we learn from this story, my apprentice?"
"Not to be a servant to my fear, to understand my fears and learn from them and move beyond my fear."
"Yes," Tyria said giving him a full sun bright smile, "a little fear is a good thing but letting it control you is not so good. I can tell that you are worried that you will fail us on this mission but don't worry we know you will do your best and if you should stumble and fall then know this; you have the best back ups in the universe. So, do your job and relax; you already are a hero now it is time to do your job."
"Thanks mom and dad," Doran said relaxing a lot more.
"At least we know who still is the brains of the family," Runt said laughing. Kell gave him a look of pain while his beautiful wife threw a wink at him.
"Anything on your scanners Jedi Boy?" Kell said with a wink to Tyria.
"Don't jinx us Explosion boy," Elassar said looking over at him.
"Nothing out of the ordinary sir."
"Well good," Kell said relaxing a bit, "I guess for once we will have an easy mission." As soon as he said the word 'mission', a large freighter popped out of hyperspace near the fourth planet on this side of the system. "Report!"
"You jinxed us," Elassar said.
"They are heading to the fourth planet, Explosion Boy."
"They aren't communication on any standard comm channels."
"Mass life form readings although," Elassar said looking over at Tyria way, "Jedi Girl?"
"No indication that they saw us dad but …" his son's voice trailed off and he stared at the view port.
"Agreed Kell that cargo ship is full of humans." Tyria voice full of pain.
Kell felt his eyes narrow and he ground out two words, "oh … really."