Chapter 11

Darkness Beyond the Storm

The only sounds echoing throughout the Titan was the argument on the bridge, they had been in there ever since they returned from the meeting. Richard, Kori, and Victor worked with the Ravagers to unload the cargo Garfield promised Helga, they were trying to ignore the yelling through vigorous work.

"This is insane! The Titan is a lumbering behemoth with the piloting capability of Bantha, there is no way we'll survive!" Rachel roared at Garfield who was working away at the console, she paced back and forth behind him, agitation clearly evident in her actions and her tone. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, I'm listening." Garfield muttered as he focused on programming in automatic instructions that would aid him during the next stint of the journey. He had other preparations to complete before they could get underway, but he needed to placate the irate Rachel first. "Do you honestly think I would willingly be at the mercy of the Ravagers' without an escape plan?"

"You mean, you've prepared for this?" Rachel immediately stopped in her tracks, staring at Gideon weirdly. With the technology of the Doom Patrol, and Garfield's crazy piloting skills, there is a slight chance Garfield could pull off this inane plan, but that didn't stop Rachel from questioning his claim. "Have you even done this before?"

"Nope. But, I believe in my ship." Garfield grinned broadly, he got up from his chair and made his way through the ship, Rachel hot on his tail. He reached the engine room and found Victor tinkering with the generator, though he ignored him and carried through to the end of the large metal room that was bathed in darkness and dull red light.

At the back, in between the two connecting points to the thrusters, Garfield removed a hidden wall panel, revealing a series of levers and buttons. He worked through activating the Titan's adaptive hull plating, as well as the buffer system to allow massive amounts of energy to pass through the circuits.

"Umm… the generator isn't overloading. So, why does the Titan need to be able to cope with a high energy output?" Victor asked after peering over Garfield's shoulder, Rachel paced on the open space by the door where Victor had been working on the engine's alignment, her persistent cursing of Garfield's name caused Victor's curiosity to pique.

"Cause this IDIOT wants to take us through the ION STORM!" Rachel roared in fury, glaring at Garfield before returning to her pacing. Victor stood stunned for a moment, then he laughed boisterously before he fell silent as he realised that she was joking. Spinning on his heels, he stared wide eyed at Garfield as he put the final touches into the ships adaptive plating.

"Its not technically as bad as the rumours say, the storm stretches vastly in width, but not in length. Ships have to go around it which is what takes up the most time, and Helga's territory encompasses the entire storm." Garfield shrugged, the storm has always been his alternative route encase of emergencies, but that didn't mean he would willingly use it if he had any other option. "The storm's short, it will take us about a week to pass through it, similar if we had to circumnavigate it… there is only one issue…"

"ONE?!" Rachel rounded on Garfield, daring him to explain how the million other issues with this inane plan somehow weren't relevant.

"Yeah… you and I have to constantly switch out piloting the Titan every four hours… otherwise the ship… explodes…" Garfield sheepishly chuckled and scratched the back of his neck, Rachel's glare hadn't lessened in the slightest and drilled into his head with the force of a lightsaber. Part of him was worried that she might actually use hers on him. "Don't worry, its perfectly fine… Titan's a beast… she'll live… hopefully."

"Are the Ravagers recruiting?" Victor lamented as he wondered if he could get off the Titan before they end up in the ion storm. He didn't doubt the ship could handle a beating, but the storm was a ship killer, anything got into it then they were as good as dead, even with the quirks of the Titan.

"Nope! Helga has to deal with a Republic fleet running through her territory, she's already looking for an excuse to bludgeon someone." Garfield chuckled, Helga wasn't her cheery self when dealing with either side, and its better to be on the opposite side of the galaxy when the Hutt's are involved. "Don't worry, I wouldn't risk the Titan if I didn't think I can handle it. Truthfully, I could do it without Rachel's help, though it makes it so much easier and safer."

"That's reassuring… wait, you've been keeping this as an emergency escape plan, haven't you?" Victor exclaimed, his words drawing Rachel out of her glaring to eye him warily. Garfield nodded as he headed back to the bridge, there are a few secrets on the Titan that not even the Doom Patrol knows about, and this was one of them.

"Yep, kept it for emergencies encase I had to escape in a pinch. Titan's got a static shield array, nodes across the hull acts as lightning rods and redirect the lightning." Garfield shrugged, it was a piece of technology he got in a trade with some outer rim mad scientist that owed him a favour. The nutcase still owes him a favour after he brutalised the Titan, but he did get the static shield array. "Also charges the generator, never had to pay for energy since I got them installed."

"Wow… cool!" Victor immediately pressed his face to the nearest window, hoping to catch sight of the new technology he gets to play with, and hopefully soon.

"That doesn't mitigate the risk! If we get caught in a vortex then we're as good as dead, regardless of the Titan's abilities." Garfield stated off-hand, jumping into his seat and priming the engines for the stint through the storm.

Rachel took the co-pilot seat, observing his actions to ensure she knew what to do when it was her time to take control. She had confidence in her ability to pilot the brute of a ship, though the storm raging outside the ship frightened her. One mistake and its all over.

"This is the starship Titan to Ravager space station, requesting to depart." Garfield contacted the station, his final checks underway as Richard and Kori joined them on the bridge. They had spoken with Victor after finding him glued to the window, they were trying to find a way to convince Garfield not to go through with his inane plan, though by the time they reached the bridge, he was already departing.

"Clearance granted. Little Gar, what are you up to?" Helga's voice omitted from the comms, curious to his actions though his answer came as soon as the Titan was clear of the docking arm. Garfield didn't bother to wait and spun the Titan into a high arching spin before barrelling into the storm, his actions shocked even the Jedi on the Ravager station who was watching along with Helga.

The moment they hit the storm the ship buckled and threated to tear, the force dissipated once he activated the static shield array. Several nodes across the Titan extended out and generated a type of mesh field around the ship, attracting the ion storm while diverting it around the ship. With each strike, the ship juddered and nearly throwed the inhabitants that weren't strapped down.

"You guys better retire to your rooms, this will get bumpy and we're in this for the a while." Garfield called out after finally noticing the others arrival, he was focused on flying the ship away from the vortexes of ion energy as well as the denser pockets of the storm.

The storm's difficulty was its erratic nature, one careless mistake, one slight hesitation, one blink could end the Titan. Garfield's original plan was to down several stimulants and blaze through the storm, it would've increased his overall time travelled as he would need at least two days to recover, but he would still arrive on time. However, with Rachel co-piloting, the recovery time would be reduced to half a day.

Four hours later and Garfield lent back in his chair as Rachel took over the controls, she was slightly nervous taking over after he had barely managed to keep the Titan out of a forming vortex which suddenly appeared in front of them, but she quickly gained her confidence. She had been expecting Garfield to retire to his room, instead he pressed a button on the screen in front of him and leant the chair back.

"Wake me in four hours." Garfield grunted as he tried to relax in the chair, they were designed for safety, to remain solidly in place regardless of what happens to the ship. They had some padding, but not enough to be even remotely comfortable, though this wasn't the first time he had to sleep in this chair.

"You're not serious!" Rachel exclaimed, keeping her eyes on the storm. She knew they would have to switch out every four hours, yet she expected to be able to retire to her room, the peace and quiet beckoning to her after the nerve wreaking session she was about to begin. Garfield chuckled at her words, he knew he had forgotten to tell her something.

"Yep! We can't leave till we reach the other side." Garfield smirked happily, enjoying the scowl that appeared on Rachel's face as she realised what she had just signed up for. "Be prepared to hate this bridge for the next week!"


Tensions were heavily frayed by the time they exited the storm, though not on the bridge. Garfield and Rachel worked out a comfortable work rota and stuck to it religiously, they had a few spats at the beginning but after a near death run in with a triple vortex spontaneously appearing before them, they made a silent agreement to focus on the task at hand.

They were too tired to fight after the second day of piloting the ship, especially when the bridge began to reek as they barely had time to snatch food from storage or nip to the bathroom let alone get a shower. Garfield was used to this after several intense escapes from either the Empire or the Republic, and he was surprised to find that Rachel was used to locking herself away in the library for days on end in a similar style. That said, Rachel demanded the use of his shower the moment they get free of the storm, she didn't care that it was his, she just wished to clean herself the moment she could.

The tension came from the other three inhabitants of the Titan, they had followed Garfield's suggestion and stayed in their rooms, though the constant thunder strikes and rattling of the ship forced them to find something to take their minds off the perpetual death looming outside the window. They struggled with carrying out any tasks as the ship rocked and shook occasionally, distracting them.

Victor tried to continue his work on the fighter, and after having to scrap the same part three times in a row, he snapped and stormed to the Rec Room to find something to eat. There he found Richard, who after finding that among the many systems currently unavailable is any computer terminal other than the ones on the bridge, was sat rereading the same file he had last downloaded onto his data pad.

The two tried not to speak at first until Victor couldn't help himself from ranting about the inability to create the parts needed to fix the fighter due to the ships shaking, this set off Richard and the two argued relentlessly. Kori managed to keep herself busy with tidying anything that came loose after the ship violently shuddered from dodging a large vortex.

After the eighth time she was losing her patience and went to the bridge to confront the pilots on the matter only to find the bridge door locked. Garfield had locked the bridge door and turned off internal comms, preventing anything from disturbing them while they flew through the storm. Kori angrily stormed to the Rec Room to find something entertaining to alleviate her frustrations and got caught up in the argument between Victor and Richard.

When the tortuous week came to an end, the three of them refused to speak to one another, they wouldn't even look at each other after certain hurtful words were spoken. With them silently seething at one another, they barely heard the bridge door open and weak footsteps quickly dashing through another door.

The bridge door opened again and they heard similar weak footsteps walk past the Rec Room to the engine room, minutes later the ship shuddered slightly and rapid flashes of light burst from the windows. The light show was vastly different from the ion storm, especially after they noticed the ship leaving the storm.

Garfield appeared moments later while the lightshow continued, he reeked of unwashed body odour and sweat as he passed them, grabbing two drinks from storage along with two nutrient bars. He was about to disappear when Victor called out to him.

"Yo, what's with the lightshow outside? Are we under attack?" Victor asked confusedly, he understood the principles behind the static shield array, but whatever was happening outside didn't seem to fit with what he knew. Garfield nearly tripped as he remembered he wasn't alone walking to the Rec Room, he looked out the window for a second as his brain was running on autopilot.

"Oh… Titan ran up excess charge from the storm, just venting it before it causes any damage." Garfield shrugged as he continued towards the door, the ship's generator had an ample overcharge buffer that could hold nearly double the electrical charge than the generator itself, but if it exceeds more than half of its capacity then it could cause damage to the ships electrical grid if left over a long period of time. Garfield just decided to deal with it now rather than later. "Shouldn't take more than an hour."

Garfield wandered back to the bridge, setting the items down on the small dividing platform between the two pilot seats. He couldn't bear to sit down any longer in the pilot seat so he lent across it and programmed several commands into the system, they couldn't jump to hyperspace while the ship was purging, though that didn't mean it couldn't keep flying.

He was setting the final command into the system nearly an hour later when the bridge door behind him opened and Rachel walked in wearing one of his green shirts and shorts, Garfield's jaw hit the floor as he tried to finish the final command sequence and missed, activating the ships emergency all stop command. The Titan wrenched violently to a halt and sent everyone flying, those in the Rec Room were slightly decorated by whatever they were eating at the time. Garfield slammed into the back of the pilot chair, a moment later Rachel hit his chest and he sheepishly failed to not look at her.

With a tired and violent glare from Rachel, Garfield quickly reset the ship back on course, coughing slightly as he tried to rid the invasive impious images burning into his mind. He quickly disappeared into his shower and set it as hot as he could, hoping it would scorch them away. Even after an hour of scrubbing he still couldn't get most of them away.

After cleaning himself up and changing into a set of plain black shirt and trousers, he returned to the bridge to find Rachel still there working away in his clothes, the sight causing the images he had tried to rid himself of earlier returning in greater force. Gulping quietly, he focused his attention on the pilot seat in from of him and was about to make his way to it when someone spoke behind him.

"When can we get underway?" Richard spoke demandingly with a scowl permanently etched onto his face, his sudden appearance sent Garfield flying into the air, whipping around before sheepishly jumping into his chair to hide his shame. He had noticed part of Richard's white shirt was covered in some sort of pink slime that had to be one of Kori's latest inventions, she had some obsession with pink that they were quickly coming to find out.

"In twelve hours." Garfield grunted, pretending to busy himself in the pilot control panel than let Richard, or worse, Rachel, see his blush. He wasn't sure why he was feeling this way, he wouldn't lie and admit that he didn't find Rachel attractive, but he never thought he would be blushing like a teenager in school. Though his twentieth birthday was coming up, he still didn't see him as a teenager anymore. "We need to rest and recuperate first before we go anywhere."

"Why can't one of us fly the ship?" Richard demanded, his scowl somehow got worse as he glared at the back of Garfield's chair. He was already in a foul mood and sitting idle was only aggravating him more. He is a man of action, not one to sit by and do nothing.

"Cause this is my ship, and I said so." Garfield growled, he didn't like people making demands of him on his ship. Passing a glare over his shoulder, he dared Richard to try and argue his point. The former Republic Captain looked eager to take Garfield up on his challenge when Rachel intervened.

"Enough! We're only a week out from the deadline and less than that from the rendezvous point. We have time." Rachel glared at both of them, the shower had helped her calm her nerves though she wasn't in the mood to deal with any arguments. "I'm going to sleep."

Rachel stormed passed Richard, glaring at him slightly to emphasis her point. She returned to her room and crawled into her neglected and comfortable sheets, enjoying the feel of them while trying to let her mind settle.

On the list of experiences she had in her life, this had to be among the most nerve wracking, even a year in the Sith academy didn't have as many near death moments she had in the last week alone. She finally managed to drift off to sleep after promising to throw Garfield out the airlock if he ever tries to take the Titan through another storm again.


"We're approaching the rendezvous point." Rachel called over the internal comms, tensions still flared between the three, and they were starting to spill over to the two pilots, drawing them into their feud. The twelve hours on standby had mixed results among the three, Victor was happy that the ship wasn't shaking anymore and dashed off to the hanger bay, Richard violently paced in the Rec Room, and Kori couldn't stand the silence, jumping at even the slightest sound.

Garfield and Richard hardly spoke to each other after the incident on the bridge, even after Garfield got a good night's rest and woke in a better mood then the day before, Richard refused to let the matter slide and purposefully made his intention clear that he didn't like being trapped on the Titan. Though Garfield refused to budge on who he allows access to the system, he did try to apologise for his behaviour, which didn't go well when Richard stormed out of the room.

The matter didn't escalate thanks to Garfield ignoring Richard's outburst and returning to the bridge, Rachel later asked him about this, wondering why he wasn't upset at his attitude when they had done all the hard work. His response baffled her, Garfield didn't care, the moment the mission was over Richard and the other two would be gone and he wouldn't have to deal with them again, so why get upset now when all he had to do was be patient.

His words concerned Rachel, she wasn't sure about being alone on a starship with Garfield. It wasn't that she disliked him or being along with him, he had already shown that he was accommodating and kind, but she had gotten use to the others.

Victor's rants whenever Kori's disasters caused the kitchen to smell weirdly for hours. Richard's silent brooding in the corner as he sips at his drink while reading some document or other. Kori's bright and cheerful mood, her constant smiling and eagerness to help others. Though some of them still haven't accepted her after learning of her true identity, they were working at it, and they even try to talk to her on occasion.

Part of her wondered why she was hesitant to see them go, one of them was a former Jedi Padawan after all, but she kept coming back to the thought of them possibly being her friends. She never had friends growing up in the academy, at least not the kind that wanted to befriend her for her. The few so-called friends she had at the academy only got close to her either because she was Darth Trigon's daughter, or because of her power, beyond that they didn't care about her.

Rachel decided to sit on the matter for the time being as she wasn't sure whether it was because they were the first people who were being nice to her, or if she actually valued them as friends. She was still at odds calling Garfield a friend though, but she was warming to him.

Garfield was warily watching the Empire cruiser in a stationary orbit around a rogue planet, the sight had caused him to worry and focus on preparing the Titan for a fight while Rachel alerted the others to their arrival. They all arrived on the bridge moments later, excited to see some action after the last week of feuding.

"Garfield?" Rachel asked after noticing the weapons charging and the ship slowing long before they were even in range of the cruiser's comms, she hated being left in the dark. After the week through the storm, she believed they might have come to some form of trust.

"I don't like this, there was no mention of a rogue planet in the mission parameters." Garfield muttered as he set all sensors onto wide and searched the planet, he hoped his concern was nothing more than him being an over cautious smuggler with trust issues. "I'm not taking the Titan closer until the sensors come back negative."

"Aren't you being a little paranoid?" Richard countered, he sat in the captain chair behind them leaning back, he was tired of doing nothing in the ship. "I doubt the Empire would lay an ambush for a smuggler."

"You don't know Lex." Garfield grumbled, he didn't need Richard second guessing him. Lex wasn't someone to trust in the slightest, he would organise an ambush to kill a janitor if they stood in his way.

The sensor readings returned negative, though Garfield refused to budge the ship, waiting for the Empire cruiser to see his ship. His actions irritated Richard, though he reframed from say anything. He may disagree with the smuggler, but he was still a Republic Captain and knew how untrustworthy the Empire can be.

They watched as the Empire cruiser left the rogue planet's orbit and slowly approached them, its intimidating size gave them cause for concern as it came to halt in front of them. An icon flashed on pilot control panel, Garfield watched it for a second before sighing and pressed it. The screen before him flashed and revealed a heavily dressed and armoured Sith, his dark red armour and black cape gave him a bloody aura while the featureless black mask hid his facial features, completing the dark scary vibe.

"I am Sith Lord Malchior, are you the courier Lex sent?"


Author's Note: Apologies for the long update time, I got caught up in my other story and focused on it solely.

Hope this chapter wasn't too rushed but there was little I could with the storm other than emphasis the fights between the others, also I have a plan for the next chapter that will involve torturing Raven slightly… (Not spoiling anything)

Comment:

Wolgon999 - Thanks for the comment. I'm glad you are enjoying it and I apologise for taking long to upload, I was heavily focused on my Summoner and Enchantress story. I'll try to keep to regular updates, but at the moment I am currently trying to find a job which may take up a lot of my time.