Disclaimer: With few exceptions, all characters were created by George Lucas and several of the many authors of have expanded on the universe Lucas introduced us to in the movie Star Wars: A New Hope. I do not claim any rights to these characters, nor do I accept any payment for this story. This story is purely done for my enjoyment and for the enjoyment of those who read it.

Feel free to use any new characters or ideas I introduce in this story. I do ask that you contact me so I can help you with details of these characters or ideas. However, you are not obligated to do so.

Special Thanks: I'd like to thank George Lucas for creating the Star Wars universe and all the authors, artists, game programmers and all the other folks who have expanded on it and made it an enjoyable distraction from the events of the real world.

Author's note: I originally posted this story on , which also saw the posting of my stories The Trial of Darth Vader, Secrets, and War, under the pen name of Boo. It had been my wish to continue posting my Star Wars fan fiction there, but with the apparent fall of the site, I've been forced to find new ways to get my fan fiction back up.

Knight in Shining Armor

Chapter 1

"Jace, could you toss me the hydospanner?" Krysta Walka yelled from the maintenance hatch.

Jace Douw grabbed the tool and tip toed over to where the mechanic's hand was groping about in the area she expected it to land. He then proceeded to drop the empty power pack from his blaster onto the deck plate. Kyrsta's hand grabbed the power pack and disappeared. A second later the it came flying out at Jace, causing him to laugh.

"Very funny, nerf brain," Kyrsta scowled as her head popped out of the hatch.

"I thought so," Jace smirked. "Anyway, you're always telling me what precision tools hydrospanners are. Doesn't strike me as something a person just tosses around."

"Yeah, yeah. I know what I say. Don't try to use my own words against me. Got it?"

Jace threw up his hands in self defense. "Yes ma'am. Just don't hit me."

Krysta rolled her eyes as she returned to repairing the Wind Star's hyperdrive. "You going to the cantina tonight Jace?"

"Yeah, figured I would. Dash said he'd meet me there."

"Rendar," Krysta snorted as she heaved herself out of the maintenance hatch. "He's gonna charge you an arm and a leg for the projectiles you know."

"Would you rather I ask some Imp munitions officer for 'em?" Jace asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew Krysta was disdainful of Dash Rendar. But he also knew how she felt about the Empire. "Dash may charge an arm and a leg for his services, but he does come through. And it's better than being sent to Kessel."

"Which will happen if they ever catch us with those TX-55s," Krysta said. "Windy, check the hyperdrive please?"

"Not right now, sugar, I've got a headache," Windy responded.

"Told you she was getting too feminine," Jace said, watching Krysta tremble in anger at being called sugar.

"That will teach me to turn a freighter into a droid with the personality of your last girlfriend."

"Yeah," Jace agreed, ignoring the part about Windy being like his last girlfriend. "Windy baby, be a sweetheart and run the diagnostics like Krysta asked for."

"Anything for you Jace."

Krysta glared at the ship's bulkhead for the way Windy had treated her. Fact was that Windy always treated her like that. It was almost as if the ship saw her as a rival for Jace's affections. She decided that's what really infuriated her about the ship. That and the fact that Jace was so often having to ask Windy to do something she herself had just asked for.

"Any word from Mon Mothma or any other Alliance leader?" Jace asked, trying to break the menacing glare Krysta was using on the Wind Star.

"No, not yet. Windy's promised to relay the message to me when it comes in though."

"Something's up, let me tell you. I don't yet know what, but I know it's something."

"Hyperdrive checks out," Windy finally said.

"Thank you, Windy baby," Jace replied.

"Took you long enough," Krysta grumbled.

"Oh, I was done a minute after I began. It was what I watched on my telescopic visual sensors that kept me from answering."

Right away both Jace and Krysta were suddenly all business as they hurried to the ship's lounge. The mere mention of something Windy found on her sensors was always enough to arouse their attention. But it was more than just wanting to see what the droid ship found interesting. It was a basic survival instinct.

"Put it on the holo, Windy," Jace ordered as they entered the lounge. He knew as well as Krysta did that Windy always recorded anything of importance, even if one or both of them were there to observe what she recorded.

The holo came to life with a display of the Tatooine system. It soon settled on the image of a Coreillian Corvette with the markings of a diplomatic ship from Alderaan. Jace noted the fact that the corvette was heading toward the planet.

The peaceful image of the corvette was suddenly shattered by the arrival of a massive, wedge-shaped war ship. Almost immediately the little corvette began accelerating away from the Star Destroyer. The bigger ship's gunners opened fire on the smaller ship, which returned fire. Finally, the Star Destroyer over took the corvette, pulling it into docking position. After a few more minutes, escape pods began to be launched, only to be destroyed by the Star Destroyer's gunners. That is, all except one were destroyed. The image faded away as the holo shut down.

"Whoever that was on the corvette must have been in a lot of trouble," Krysta said as the holo finished.

"More than we may know right now. Notice the fact that the Imps made sure to destroy the escape pods?"

"Yes. Why?"

"The Imps are covering something up. They captured the ship, but they don't want anyone to know they did."

"Yet they let one of the pods go."

"No one onboard that pod. Probably a malfunction with it's launch system."

"Head's up big boy," Windy said. "You too, Krysta. I just identified the corvette as the Tantive IV. She's a diplomatic ship out of Alderaan, and often works for the Alliance on top secret missions. My most recent records from Alliance High Command shows that a certain Alderaanian princess was using it as her personal diplomatic ship."

"Princess Leia," Krysta said, suddenly worried.

"The princess being captured could be a serious problem for the Alliance. Course, if word were to get out that she'd been captured, the uproar it would cause would be so massive hundreds of systems would flock to the banner of the Alliance. No wonder that Star Destroyer's captain doesn't want anyone to know what happened here today."

"That is, of course, if she were still on board the ship," Krysta reminded him. " It could have dropped her off for some diplomatic assignment and then gone off to perform whatever mission it had to for the Alliance."

"True, though I doubt the Star Destroyer's captain would have been so interested in hiding the fact that they'd captured the ship. Instead of destroying the escape pods, they'd have been more likely to send a contingent of stormtroopers down to capture the people aboard those pods. No, my guess is the princess was on Tantive IV. And they destroyed those escape pods to be certain word of what happened doesn't get out."

"Well, you're the Alliance operative more so than I am."

"Rogue operatives," Jace reminded her. "That's what we are."

"How about this then, you're the Alliance's rogue field operative and I'm your tech support."

Jace chuckled. "I'll give you that one."

"Still, if the princess was on Tantive IV, that means she was probably on a mission for the Alliance. Maybe she put whatever her mission was in that one escape pod so as not to be caught with it."

"Makes sense," Jace agreed, scratching his chin in thought. "Unfortunately, I can't afford to take the time to go and find out. I do have that meeting with Dash to make. Nor can the Wind Star go there. The Imps see a freighter getting interested in what happened and they'll be all over use like a Jawa on a lost droid."

"I'll be too busy with my latest design to go and check it out. Guess we'll never know. Unless we go out and check that escape pod tomorrow."

"Jawas will probably have taken it," Jace told her. Seeing Krysta start to pout made him loose his resolve. "All right, we can check. But if it's not there, we forget about it."

"Deal," Krysta said, smiling from ear to ear at her success.

Jace then noticed the date on the holo. "Forget even going out there Krysta. This holo was recorded yesterday."

"What?" Krysta asked. She looked at the holo's date. Indeed, it had been recorded the day before. Moving over to a nearby computer, Krysta checked out the diagnostic's on Windy. "Remember a few days ago when I said that velker attack on Bespin didn't harm us?"

"Yes."

"Well, I was wrong. Windy's got a clitch. Something I did while working on the hyperdrive caused her to view the holo and think she was seeing something actually happening."

"Whatever it was, you can be sure that escape pod is gone by now."

"Yeah."

"All right, see if you can fix the glitch. I've gotta go get ready to meet up with Dash. And that means getting credits."

"Right."