Star Wars
The Chronicles of Horn
Chapter 5
Corran and Whistler took just under an hour to finish repairing th X-wing. After nearly being devoured by a drexyl, Corran wanted this moon far behind him. He still had to give thought to the Onderonian fleet that had caused his detour to Dxun. Corran activated his long range sensors and oriented them towards space. The Onderonian patrol is still out there, but if I blast out of here as fast as I can, they probably won't be able to call for support before I jump. As an extra precaution, Corran had Whistler store 5 random hyperspace jumps to uninhabited systems in his memory. There was one for each possible exit vector from Dxun. If the Onderon space force managed to call in support and Corran couldn't program a suitable location fast enough, a simple order toWhistler would send them off to the system whose vector they were on.
Corran went through his initial systems check and activated the X-wing's newly repaired repulsorlifts. He goosed the throttle forward and lifted the starfighter towards space. It only took about one minute before Whistler warbled a warning that the ship had been spotted by an Onderonian cruiser's sensors.
"That's our cue," Corran said grimly. "Don't forget about our plan"
Whistler blatted out a retort that droids never forget. Just then, several starfighters appeared from behind the enemy cruiser.
"Sithspawn!" Corran swore, "That cruiser must have hangar bays. Whistler, activate contingency plan gamma."
Whistler tootled an affirmative and the fighter streaked forward into hyperspace. Having escaped danger yet again, Corran sat back to collect his thoughts. After a few moments of quiet contemplation, Corran remembered the situation he was in.
"Whistler, what system did we end up jumping towards," Corran asked. "We won't last much longer without fuel and supplies. Also, we should probably have a real mechanic take a look at the ship. The last thing we need is our quick-fix giving out on us." Whistler had a few choice comments to this remark. "No, I don't have any doubts or reservations about your ability to repair the X-wing: Corran said consolingly. "But even you must admit that those were hardly ideal circumstances, and I tend to get a bit nervous about using parts that are more than a millenium old."
The droid agreed to this and followed up by displaying the coordinates of the system that they were heading to: M-175490-J The system doesn't even have a name, Corran thought. It's just an Old Republic reference number. These numbers were given to systems that were scouted and plotted, but deemed unsuitable for colonization. After pulling up a map of the systems surrounding M-175490-J, Corran felt his stomach sink. Five systems were in range, considering the X-wing's low fuel supplies. Two of these were desolate like M-175490-J. One was just a star with no satelites, either natural or artificial. One was the system of Eriadu, which was stronly allied with the Empire. The final system was Dessou. It had a "colony" on its fourth planet. This settlement was well known as a smugglers' den.
Corran was left with three choices, all distasteful. He could try to jump to a more distant system and almost certainly perish when his fighter ran out of fuel and dropped him into the void. The second option was to jump to Eriadu. He knew that Kirtan Loor, the Imperial liason from his old job at CorSec would have certainly trumped up some charges against him by now. Corran would have been shocked if Loor hadn't managed to get him a deathmark yet. If he went to Eriadu, he would be executed if he was caught. The final option was to go to Dessou. Corran, as a CorSec officer, albeit a former CorSec officer, was gifted and cursed with a deep and strong distrust for anybody who broke the law for a living. The fact that his father and grandfather had both been CorSec officers as well made the distrust almost genetic. The unfortunate fact was that Dessou was his best chance of not dying, although the possibilty was not removed. Corran was sure that there were several people on Dessou who had done a stint at the prison world of Kessel thanks to him or his family. Most of them would likely love a chance to blast him into atoms.
"Well I guess we have no choice Whistler. Even though there is bound to be something resmbling security on Dessou, they won't be inclined to run a full scan and background check like the fanatics on Eriadu." Corran sighed and punched in the coordinates. "Activate one of our alternate transponders, it would probably be a good idea not to scream my name out as soon as I go in range of their sensors."
His new transponder identified him as an information broker by the name of Varn Dillem. A false file attached showed that he worked primarily out of the Correlian sector, which explained the CorSec colors of his ship. Many smugglers tried to make their ships look like local military from their system. Though computer transponders would make simple visual disguises obsolete, the few seconds that could be gained by it were precious. Corran did a thorough scan of his falsified identity, making sure that he could fit into his character effectively.
At that moment, they dropped out of hyperspace in M-175490-J, and after a quick course adjustment, accelerated back to faster than light travel.