When Keoni Solo finally lowered his case through the clouds, he and his crew got their first glimpse of the gaseous system of Arapahoe. And as they maneuvered through the clouds, they noticed that they were being followed by some type of flying vehicle. Keoni recognized the craft as a twin-pod cloud case but was surprised when the case banked closer to his freighter case. The other craft transmitted a static-obscured message over the Trumpet's radio systems.

"No," Keoni snarled in response. "I don't have a landing permit. I'm tryin' to reach Keith Calrissi-"

Keoni's message was cut off when the other case fired a round of blaster fire into the Trumpet.

"Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute! Let me explain!" Keoni tried to reason with the other case.

"We will not deviate from your present course."

"Rather touchy aren't they," A-10 commented.

"I thought you knew this person," Amanda added, clearly annoyed.

Something suddenly crossed Bruchacca's mind and he barked the question to Keoni. This possibility had also occurred to Keoni but he was fairly certain that it wouldn't be a problem.

"Well that was a long time ago. I'm sure he's forgotten about that."

Amanda had no idea what the two were talking about but it didn't sound like it would end well for them. But just then another message came over the radio.

"Permission granted to land on platform 327."

"Ok, thank you. Don't worry. Everything's gonna be fine," Keoni tried to reassure Amanda. "We go way back, Keith and me."

"Who's worried?" Amanda asked sarcastically.

Just then Arapahoe High came into view through the thick, red clouds. The school itself and all the extensions that had been added to it over the years were elevated miles above the ground by some sort of long, thin pole. Keoni also knew that the settlement was equipped with repulsorlift engines to keep it aloft. Some years after the collapse of the old world orders and the rise of the Band order a new gas element had been discovered in a deep vein beneath Arapahoe. In order to avoid destroying the school and its inhabitants, the settlement was raised up into the air and charged with the task of mining the new gas, which they named tibanna. Even after a thousand years the Arapahoe System was the only place in the world known to hold tibanna gas, valuable because it was the only way to power the case vehicles and it was environment friendly.

Keoni quickly set the Trumpet down on the designated platform and activated the landing gangway. He and his crew disembarked and all of them stared warily at the entrance to the cloud city.

"Oh, no one to meet us," A-10 noted, a bit miffed at the lack of protocol.

"I don't like this," Amanda said, never once taking her eyes off of the sealed door.

"What would you like?" Keoni asked impatiently. "Don't worry. It's gonna be ok. Trust me."

"Well they did let us land," A-10 reasoned.

Suddenly, the door snapped open and a tall, pale man with dark hair strode proudly out, followed by an entourage of officials. Next to him walked a student who wore the dull gray armband of an aide, K-21b.

"You see? My friend."

Keoni took a step towards the group but suddenly turned back for an instant and whispered to Bruchacca, "Keep your eyes open, huh?"

"Hey," Keoni called out to his old friend as he approached Keith. The entourage had stepped back from him at the orders of K-2.

"Why you slimy, double-crossin', no good swindler," Keith snarled angrily. "You got a lot of guts comin' here…after what you pulled."

Keoni attempted to look confused and failed miserably. So he did still remember. This definitely wasn't going to end well.

Keith stepped ominously towards Keoni and threw a punch at him. Keoni had raised his own hands in defense before realizing that Keith was hugging him and the punch had been fake. Keith was laughing out loud at Keoni's truly confused face.

"How you doin', you old pirate! So good to see you! I never thought I'd get to see you again! Where've ya been!"

"Well he seems very friendly," A-10 said excitedly as he followed Bruchacca over to the reunion.

"Yes, very friendly," Amanda said apprehensively, hanging back just slightly. She couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right about this.

"What are you doin' here?" Keith asked, all traces of animosity gone from his voice.

"Ah, repairs. I thought you could help me out," Keoni said casually.

Keith's face immediately grew straight and angry.

"What've you done to my case?"

"Your case?" Keoni asked. "Hey. Remember, you lost her to me fair and square."

Keith just sighed and turned to greet his other guests.

"And how're you doin' Bruchacca? You still hangin' around with this loser?"

Bruchacca gave a friendly growl in response. But Keith's happy-go-lucky attitude changed when he saw Amanda approaching.

"Hello, what have we here?" Keith said to himself as he looked the princess up and down.

"Welcome," Keith said formally, walking over to Amanda. "I'm Keith Calrissian. I'm the administrator of this facility. And who might you be?"

"Amanda," she answered shortly, barely managing to remember her manners.

"Welcome Amanda," he said as he took her hand in his and kissed it.

Amanda didn't care much for his display of propriety. But she was interested in the chagrined look that passed over Keoni's face as he took her hand from him.

"All right, all right. You old smoothie," he said to Keith as he pulled Amanda away.

"Hello sir," A-10 greeted as he came up behind Keith. "I am A-10dr, human-student relations. My facilities are at your service."

But Keith hadn't heard a word of A-10's driveling. He was staring after Amanda with wonder in his eyes and he quickly followed after the two with Bruchacca right behind him.

"Oh, really!" A-10 shouted indignantly as he stumped after the four.

"What's wrong with the Trumpet?"

"Metronome drive. Think you can fix it?" Keoni asked.

"I'll get my people to work on it."

"Good."

"You know, that case saved my life quite a few times. She's the fastest hunk of junk on the planet," Keith said proudly as he led the group into the school.

"So how's the gas mine? Still payin' off for ya?" Keoni asked as Keith led them through the twisting hallways of the ancient building. The structure had been fortified in many places with sheets of metal but for the most parts the original school could still be seen.

"Oh not as well as I'd like," Keith began. "First of all Arapahoe's pretty much an outpost nowadays and not very self-sufficient anymore. And I've had supply problems of every kind. I've had labor difficulties. I-" Keith stopped talking when he noticed that Keoni was laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"You. Listen to you. You sound like a businessman, a responsible leader. Who'd have thought that, huh?"

"You know, seein' you sure brings back a few things," Keith said fondly. He and Keoni briefly stopped in the middle of the hallway and fondly grasped each other's shoulders before continuing the walk.

"Yeah, I'm responsible these days. It's the price you pay for being successful."

Amanda just sighed at this. The two were clearly old friends.

A-10 hadn't been paying much attention to all of this. He had been turning this way and that, taking in all of the sights. And just then, he noticed another protocol student coming out of a door that the others had already passed by.

"Nice to see a familiar face," he said by way of greeting.

The female student said something in French and continued on her way.

"How rude!" A-10 said, shocked at such behavior from a protocol student. But that was soon forgotten when he heard the incessant high notes of a tenor sax coming from the room the other student had just left.

"That sounds like a sax2 unit in there. I wonder if…Hello! Hello!" he called as he walked in.

"Who are you?" a gruff voice asked from somewhere to his right.

A-10 turned to answer and was suddenly struck with fear. Here? No! It couldn't be.

"I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. Please don't- I- please d- NO!"

A-10's pleas were abruptly silenced when sax fire ripped into him. He was knocked to the floor and the blast left his body intact but fried his biomechanical brain. He lay still, charred flesh still burning.

XxX

Chris quickly climbed onto his X-wing case and stowed more supplies in the cockpit. He was already suited up and prepared to leave Heritage. Tim2 was prepping the case for flight while he made a few last minute adjustments. As he climbed down from the case to grab the last crate he saw Keena making his way down from his small brick home up on the field.

"Chris, you must complete the training," Keena pleaded with him.

Chris sighed in exasperation.

"I can't get the vision out of my head. They're my friends. I've gotta help them!" He said impatiently as he lowered himself to the ground.

"You must not go," Keena stated again.

"But Keoni and Amanda will die if I don't!"

"You don't know that," came the echoing voice of a dead spirit as the ghostly form of Jason Kenobi suddenly materialized next to Keena. "Even Keena cannot see their fate."

"But I can help them," Chris argued. "I feel the Drill."

"But you cannot control it," Jason rebuked. "This is a dangerous time for you…when you will be tempted by the dark side of the Drill."

"Yes! Yes! To Jason you listen," Keena exclaimed. "The theatre. The cave. Remember your failure at the theatre?"

"But I've learned so much since then! Master Keena, I promise to return and finish what I've begun. You have my word!" Chris swore as he loaded the last crate into the hold.

"It is you and your abilities the Empress wants. That is why your friends are made to suffer," Jason explained sadly.

"That's why I have to go," Chris said, coming to face his mentors once more.

"Chris, I don't want to lose you to the Empress the way I lost Fred."

"You won't," Chris said with absolute certainty.

"Stopped they must be! On this all depends. Only a fully trained Trombone Knight with the Drill as his ally will conquer Fred and his Empress," Keena tried to reason with his apprentice. "If you end your training now…if you choose the quick and easy path as Fred did…you will become an agent of evil."

"Patience!" Jason urged.

"And sacrifice Keoni and Amanda!" Chris asked angrily.

"If you honor what they fight for…" Keena said, pausing for a long moment. "…yes!"

Great anguish overcame Chris. He wasn't certain that he could reconcile the advice of these two great mentors with his own feelings. His friends were in terrible danger, and of course he must save them. But his teachers thought he was not ready, that he might be too vulnerable to the powerful Fred and his Empress, that he might bring harm to his friends and himself- and possibly be lost forever on the path of evil.

Yet how could he fear these abstract things when Keoni and Amanda were real and were suffering? How could he permit himself to fear possible danger to himself when his friends were presently in real danger of death?

There was no longer any question in his mind as to what he had to do.

"If you choose to face Fred you will do it alone," Jason warned. "I cannot interfere."

"I understand," Chris said calmly.

Keena's face fell at this final pronouncement. Then the fight was lost? The Trombones would finally fail.

"Tim2, fire up the converters," Chris ordered as he climbed back up the case and into the cockpit.

"Chris, Don't give in to hate! That leads to the dark side!" Jason gave his final piece of advice.

"Strong is Fred. Mind what you have learned. Save you it can!" Keena cried out to him, having no doubt that this would be the last time he saw the boy.

"I will," Chris said soberly. "And I'll return. I promise."

Keena bowed his head in abject despair as the case lifted off and blasted away.

"Told you I did. Reckless is he," Keena said sadly. "Now…matters are worse."

"That boy is our last hope," Jason said, his voice heavy with emotion.

"No," Keena whispered as he stared after the speck that was Chris' case rocketing off into the distance. "There is another."

XxX

Bruchacca, who had grown worried about A-10, slipped away from Keoni and the others and began hunting for the missing student. All he had to follow were his keen instincts as he wandered through the unfamiliar white passageways and corridors of Arapahoe.

Following his senses, Bruchacca finally came upon an enormous room in a corridor on the outside of the cloud city. He approached the entrance to the room and heard the clamor of metallic objects clattering together. Along with the clanging, he heard the low grunting of creatures he had never encountered before.

The room he had found was a cloud city junk room- the repository of all the city's broken machines and other discarded junk.

Standing amid the scattered pieces of broken metal and twisted wire were four female-like creatures. Dark hair grew thickly on their heads. The humanoid creatures, called Band Moms in this system, were busy separating the junked pieces of scrap and casting them into a pit of molten metal.

Bruchacca entered the room and saw that one of the Band Moms held a familiar-looking head of blond hair.

The creature was already raising her arms to toss the body into the sizzling pit when Bruchacca roared at her, barking desperately. The Band Mom dropped the body and ran, to cower in terror with her fellows.

Bruchacca grabbed the body and inspected it closely. He hadn't been mistaken. And as he growled angrily at the huddled Band Moms he gathered A-10 in his arms and strode out of the junk room.

XxX

"The case is almost finished," Keoni reported to Amanda as he walked into the quarters that the group had been assigned to. "Two or three more things and we're in great shape."

"The sooner the better," Amanda said in a huff. "Something's wrong here. No one has seen or knows anything about A-10 and he's been gone too long to have gotten lost!"

"Relax," Keoni cajoled the fiery princess. "I'll talk to Keith and see what I can find out."

"I don't trust Keith," Amanda said as Keoni pulled her down on the couch.

"Well I don't trust him either. And he is my friend," Keoni said absently. "Besides, we'll soon be gone."

"Then you're as good as gone aren't you?" Amanda asked, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice.

Keoni stared hesitantly at Amanda, trying to find words for the situation. But just then one of the doors zapped open. Bruchacca lumbered in, carrying a charred and disturbingly familiar body. The remains of A-10. Bruchacca dropped the body on the table. Gesturing toward Keoni, he barked and growled in distress.

"Where?" Keoni asked in shocked.

Bruchacca repeated the message in his guttural mutilated form of English.

"He found him in a junk pile," Keoni reported to Amanda.

"Oh, what a mess. It looks like his brain was fried. Bruce, do you think you can repair him?" Amanda asked.

Bruchacca studied A-10's fried body, then, looking back at the princess, shrugged his shoulders and howled. It looked to him like an impossible job.

"Keith's got people who can fix him," Keoni suggested.

"No thanks."

The door buzzed and slid open again and in walked Keith Calrissian. Smiling cordially, he walked over to the small group.

"I'm sorry. Am I interrupting anything?"

"No, not really," the princess said distantly.

"You look absolutely beautiful," Keith said, ignoring her coldness to him. "You truly belong here with us among the clouds."

"Thanks," she said, smiling icily.

"Would you join me for a little refreshment?"

Keoni had to admit that he was a bit hungry. But for some reason he could not quite name, he felt a wave of suspicion about his friend flood over him. He didn't remember Calrissian being quite so polite, quite so smooth. Perhaps Amanda was correct in her suspicions…

His thoughts were interrupted by Bruchacca's enthusiastic bark at the mention of food. The blond was licking his lips at the prospect of a hearty meal.

"Everyone's invited of course," Keith added as he reached his hand out for Amanda's. But Keoni was there first and made sure that Amanda was beside him.

Keith did not press the matter and instead turned his attention to the student lying on the table.

"Having trouble with your student?" he asked.

"No. No problem. Why?" Keoni asserted, giving his friend a warning look as he led Amanda away.

Keith just shrugged and followed the three out of the room, leaving behind the charred remains of the protocol student.

The group strolled through the long white corridors and Amanda walked between Keoni and Keith. Keoni wasn't at all certain that he liked the prospect of competing with Keith for Amanda's affections, especially under the circumstances. But they were dependant on Keith's good graces now. They had no other choice. And as they walked toward Keith's dining hall, the administrator described the state of the system's government.

"So you see," Keith explained. "We are a free station and do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Empire."

"So you're part of the mining guild then?" Amanda asked.

"No, not actually. Our operation is small enough not to be noticed. Which is advantageous for everybody since our customers are anxious to avoid attracting attention to themselves.

They approached the dining hall with its massive doors and, as they paused in front of them, Bruchacca lifted his head and sniffed the air curiously. He turned and barked urgently at Keoni.

"Not now Bruce," Keoni reproved, turning to Calrissian. "But aren't you afraid the Empire's gonna find out about this little operation and shut you down? Hand it over to someone else?"

"It's always been a danger and it looms like a shadow over everything we've built here," the administrator replied. "But things have developed that'll ensure security. I've just made a deal that will keep the Woodwinds out of here forever.

With that, the mighty doors slid open, and Keoni immediately understood what that "deal" must have involved. At the far end of the huge banquet table stood the pit hunter Chelsea Fett.

Fett stood next to a chair that held the black essence of evil itself-- Darth Fred. Slowly the dark Drum Major rose to his full, menacing height.

"I had no choice. They arrived right before you did," Keith said, sounding mildly apologetic as a swarm of sax troopers poured into the dining hall. "I'm sorry."

"Well I'm sorry too," Keoni snapped. In that instant he cleared his trumpet from its holster, aimed it directly at the figure in black, and began to pump laser bolts Fred's way.

But the man who may have been the fastest draw in the world was nowhere near fast enough to surprise Fred. Before the bolts zipped halfway across the table, the dark Drum Major had lifted a gauntlet-protected hand and effortlessly deflected them so they exploded against the wall in a harmless spray of flying white shards.

Astounded by what he had just seen, Keoni tried firing again. But before he could discharge another laser blast, something, something unseen yet incredibly strong, yanked the weapon from his hand and sent it flying into Fred's grip. The raven figure calmly placed the weapon on the table. Hissing through his obsidian mask, the dark Drum Major addressed his would-be assailant.

"We would be honored if you would join us."

XxX