"Her resistance to the recording is considerable. It will be some time before we can extract any information from her." Darth Fred reported to Kate.
Just then, a clarinet officer entered the practice room.
"The final checkout is complete. All systems are operational. What course shall we set?" she asked Kate.
"Perhaps she would respond to an alternative form of persuasion." Kate said thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" Darth Fred asked her.
"I think it's time we demonstrated the full power of this station. Set your course for California High." Kate said to the officer.
"With pleasure."
XXX
"Lock the door, Tim2." A-10 said urgently as the two students ducked into an abandoned classroom. Some of the rooms were occupied but these days Littleton High wasn't very populous.
Tim2 and A-10 had been waiting by the speeder when they spotted some sax troopers. Both had agreed that it would be best to hide so they had hurried back into the building to find a hiding place. The troopers were hot on their heels.
"Check this one." the leader said as the troopers reached the classroom. They tried to open the door but had no luck.
"The door is locked. Move on to the next one."
Once he was certain they had gone, A-10 unlocked the door and stepped out, followed by Tim2.
"I would much rather have gone with Master Chris than stay here with you. I don't know what all this trouble is about, but I'm sure it must be your fault."
Tim2 beeped a smart remark.
"You watch your language!" A-10 reprimanded as the two started back outside.
Chris and Ben met up with them soon after and the foursome made their way to docking bay 94.
When they entered the bay, Chris just stood and stared at the trumpet case that was parked there.
"What a piece of junk!"
"She'll make point five past met speed." Keoni said proudly as he came out of the case. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts. I've made a lot of special modifications myself. But, we're in a little bit of a rush. So if you'll just get on board, we'll get outta here."
Chris and Ben did as he said and boarded the case. Tim2 and A-10 followed behind.
"Hello, sir." A-10 said to Keoni as he boarded.
Keoni was just making a few last minute adjustments when he heard shouting from behind him.
"Stop that case! BLAST 'EM!"
Then several energy beams exploded over his head. Keoni whirled around, trumpet already in hand, and fired a few shots at the advancing group of sax troopers before turning and running back onto the case.
"Bruce! Get us outta here!" he shouted as he raced to the cockpit.
As the case lifted off Keoni reached the cockpit and strapped himself into the pilot's seat. It didn't take long for them to clear the system but the chase was far from over.
"It looks like a Woodwind cruiser. Try and hold them off! Angle the deflector shield while I make the calculations for the jump to met speed." Keoni ordered calmly as the two pursuing alto sax cases began to fire at them.
Just then, Ben and Chris stepped down into the cockpit.
"There's two more coming up. They're gonna try and cut us off." Keoni informed them as he continued to work the controls.
"Well why don't you outrun them? I thought you said this thing was fast!" Chris retorted.
"Watch your mouth kid, or you're gonna find yourself falling home. We'll be safe enough once we make the jump to met speed. Besides, I know a few maneuvers. We'll lose 'em."
Meanwhile the cases continued to fire at them.
"How long before you can make the jump to met speed?" Ben asked.
"It'll take a few minutes to get the beat from the metronome." Keoni answered tersely.
"Are you kidding?! At the rate they're gaining?!!" Chris shouted.
"Travel through metronome space ain't like dustin' crops boy!"
Suddenly a light on the console began to flash madly.
"What's that flashing?" Chris asked, pointing to the light. But Keoni slapped his hand away.
"We're losin' the deflector shield."
Just then a very loud pinging started to sound throughout the case. It started off slow and began to accelerate.
"Strap yourselves in! I'm gonna make the jump to met speed!"
As Ben and Chris went to their seats the pinging kept getting faster and faster until it was just a blur. That was when the Millennium Trumpet blasted off into the darkening sky, leaving the Woodwind cases in the dust.
XXX
"We've entered the California System." a clarinet officer reported to Kate.
Kate nodded her approval. The section leader was waiting in the main practice room, gazing out a window at the high school below.
Just then Darth Fred and two other clarinet officers entered the room, leading Princess Amanda.
"Section Leader Kate. I should have expected to find you holding Fred's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought onboard." Amanda said contemptuously.
"Charming to the last." Kate said, matching her contempt word for word. "You don't know how hard I found it signing the order to terminate your life."
"I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself." Amanda shot back.
"Princess Amanda, before your execution… I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this flute station operational. No school system will dare oppose the Empress now."
"The more you tighten your grip, Kate, the more school systems will slip through your fingers." Amanda informed her.
"Not after we demonstrate the power of this station." Kate countered. "In a way, you have determined the choice of the high school that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Brass storage room, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home high school of California High."
It took a moment for Kate's words to sink in, but they finally got through to Amanda.
"No! California is peaceful. We have no weapons! You can't possibly-"Amanda protested, on the verge of loosing control of herself.
"You would prefer another target?! A military target?! Then name the system!" Kate interrupted her. Then she walked back to Amanda, until she was standing right in front of her.
"I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time. Where is the Brass storage room?"
Amanda looked past Kate to the window. Just below them was California High, her home. She took a deep breath and bowed her head in submission.
"Aurora." Amanda answered softly. "In Aurora."
"There. You see, Lord Fred. She can be reasonable. Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready."
"What?!" Amanda asked furiously.
"Aurora is too remote to make an effective demonstration." Kate explained. "But don't worry. We will deal with your Brass friends soon enough."
"No." Amanda cried out. She tried to reach Kate but Fred held her back.
Meanwhile, in the bowels of the station, the engines began to operate the keys of the Death Flute. A giant machine sucked air from the atmosphere and into the flute. Before long, notes could be heard. The armored instrument was warming up. But, after a few moments, the flute reached the height of its register.
Paying no mind to the pain in her ears, Amanda watched as the flute fired on her high school.
The blasts shot through the night sky at break-neck speed. They struck the school and it exploded in a mountain of fire, killing thousands of innocent people.
XXX
The cries of the innocent did not go unheard, however. Many miles away, aboard the Millennium Trumpet, Jason Kenobi felt their pain through the Drill. He'd been watching Chris practice his skills with the band saber when he felt it. He abruptly sat down and put his head in his hands.
"Are you all right? What's wrong?" Chris asked him.
"I felt a great disturbance in the Drill." Jason answered softly. "As if thousands of feet fell out of step…and were suddenly silenced. I feel something terrible has happened." As he said this, he stared straight ahead, disturbed by what he'd felt. But he suddenly seemed to snap out of his trance. "You'd better get on with your exercises."
Chris went to reactivate the training probe he'd been using. An automated piccolo that fired shots at random. The object of the exercise was for Chris to deflect the blasts with his band saber but he hadn't managed to deflect a single one. He had burns all over his body to show for it.
Just then, Keoni entered the room.
"Well, you can forget your trouble with those Woodwind slugs. I told you I'd outrun them." he said smugly.
No one paid any attention to this.
"Don't everybody thank me at once."
"Remember, a Trombone can feel the Drill flowing through him." Ben instructed Chris, completely ignoring Keoni.
"You mean it controls your actions?" Chris asked while trying to keep his eyes on the piccolo.
"Partially. But it also obeys your commands."
Chris stood, motionless, waiting for the piccolo to attack.
"Stretch out with your feelings." Ben coached.
But this didn't help Chris. The piccolo fired and he failed, yet again, to deflect it.
Keoni laughed as Chris yelped from the sting of the shot.
"Pokey sections and ancient instruments are no match for a good trumpet at your side."
Chris deactivated the band saber and turned to face Keoni.
"You don't believe in the Drill, do you?"
Keoni smirked at this.
"Kid, I've flown from one side of this world to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff. But I've never seen anything to make me believe that there's one all-powerful Drill controlling everything. There's no mystical energy pattern that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense."
"I suggest you try it again, Chris." Ben said, rising from his seat and fetching a shako off of one of the shelves on the wall. "This time, let go of your conscious self and act on instinct." Having said so, he placed the shako on Chris' head and pulled it down so that it covered his eyes.
"But- with the shako so low I can't even see. How am I supposed to fight?"
"Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." Ben explained as he activated the piccolo.
The piccolo came after Chris again but he couldn't see it. So he finally took Ben's advice. He allowed conscious thought to slip away and, gradually, he felt the rhythm begin to beat within him. Almost subconsciously he started to mark time with his feet. Suddenly he felt a surge in the air around him and he returned to reality with a jolt. The piccolo had fired and he had deflected it easily. Almost without even thinking about it. Chris whipped the shako off his head and stared in wonder at the downed piccolo.
"You see. You can do it."
"I call it luck." Keoni interjected.
"In my experience there's no such thing as luck." Ben said.
"Look, good against piccolo remotes is one thing. Good against a living…that's something else." Keoni countered.
Just then a warning bell sounded from the cockpit.
"Looks like we're coming up on California High." Keoni said as he stood and left.
Chris deactivated the band saber and he and Ben followed Keoni.
"You know, I did feel something. I could almost see the piccolo." Chris said, still astonished.
"That's good. You've taken your first step into a larger world." Ben said proudly.
Unfortunately there wasn't time for pride to last. The instant Keoni and Bruchacca brought the case out of met speed it began to rattle and jolt violently. The air outside was filled with dust and smoke.
"We've come out of metronome space into a dust tornado. Some kind of storm. It's not on any of the charts." Keoni said worriedly.
"Do they have dust storms in California?" Chris wondered out loud.
"Our position's correct, except…no California High." Keoni said.
"What do you mean? Where is it?" Chris asked.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, kid. It ain't there. It's been totally blown away."
"What?! How?!"
"Destroyed…by the Empire." Ben answered calmly.
"The entire sax fleet couldn't destroy the whole high school. It'd take a thousand cases with more fire power than I've got."
Suddenly another warning light started flashing on the console.
"There's another ship coming in." Keoni reported.
"Maybe they know what happened." Chris suggested.
"It's a Woodwind fighter." Ben said suddenly.
At these words Keoni immediately fired at the approaching case.
"It followed us!" Chris said as the small piccolo fighter flew past them.
"No. It's a short range fighter." Ben said, disproving Chris' remark.
"There aren't any bases around here. Where did it come from?" Keoni asked, still frustrated.
"A fighter that size couldn't get this far west on its own." Ben said to himself.
"He must have gotten lost. Been part of a convoy or something."
"Well, he ain't gonna be around long enough to tell anybody about us. Bruce, jam its transmissions." Keoni said to his first mate.
"It'd be as well to let it go. It's too far out of range." Ben counseled.
"Not for long!"
"Look at him. He's heading straight for that small cloud." Chris said, pointing out the window.
"I think I can get him before he gets there."
"That's no cloud." Ben said, his vice suddenly laced with fear. "It's a flute station."
"It's too big to be a flute station." Keoni said disbelievingly.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Chris said as the cloud began to take true shape.
"Turn the case around." Ben said calmly.
"Yeah, I think you're right. Full reverse. Bruce, lock in the auxiliary power."
Bruce did as he was told but the case continued to move forward.
"Bruce, lock in the auxiliary power!" Keoni said, getting more nervous by the minute.
Bruce growled loudly in response. Nothing he tried was working.
"Why are we still moving towards it?!" Chris asked frantically.
"There's a tractor beam that's pulling us in!" Keoni shouted back.
"There's gotta be something you can do!"
"There's nothing I can do about it, kid. I'm at full power. I'm gonna have to shut down. But they're not gonna get me without a fight." Keoni said as the case was pulled ever closer to the station.
"You can't win. But there are alternatives to fighting." Ben said gently.