A Left Turn at Albuquerque
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement – sadly all Robotech and Star Wars characters remain the property of Harmony Gold, Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd respectively – I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, please keep the legal attack dogs – also known as lawyers – firmly muzzled and on a leash as I have no money to give to anybody.
Author Note: This is actually the second version of this chapter that is hopefully much better than the original that its replacing in the story continuity though I am leaving the original up for now as I can always take it down another time. I felt like I needed to do this due to some of the feedback I received originally and from an in depth reread that left me most unhappy with the original especially from the bits where the Tanganyika comes into play.
Chapter Nine
Independent Freighter Twilight Monsoon
Sometime Later
Jordmar Edmodarn hummed softly as he brought his beloved ship out of hyperspace for a short cruise between hyperspace lanes as to carry their cargo of medical supplies and industrial mining equipment from Naboo to Sullest required a hyperspace lane change. It would take a few hours to make the journey across the system at sublight to the point where they'd be able to return to hyperspace and complete what promised to be a relatively lucrative voyage. He also did not anticipate any problems acquiring a new cargo after they unloaded their current cargo.
"You sound happy," a warm female voice said from behind him. Jordmar looked over his shoulder to see that his co-pilot/business partner/sometimes lover Wevv Malzin had come into the cockpit of their heavily modified Ghtroc 720 light freighter, a somewhat cheeky grin on her yellowish green Miralian features.
"Should I not be," he asked with the characteristic roguish grin of a Corellian. "We're only one jump away from Sullest and payday. Then it's just a matter of finding a new cargo."
"True though can we please go somewhere nicer than Sullest on our next job," Wevv asked as she slid into the co-pilots seat.
"Hmm I'll see what I can do about that. Where do you fancy Alderaan? Empress Tata?" He didn't say anything about returning to his homeworld as the Imperial nationalisation of the shipyards – that for millennia had been his people's pride and joy – and their support industries had really done a number on the planets environment. The last time he'd been there he'd been hard pressed not to whip out a blaster and shoot some stormtroopers in retribution for what the Empire was doing to his homeworld.
"Alderaan sounds nice it's been a couple of years since we last went there."
"Okay Alderaan it is," Jordmar agreed a moment before a proximity alert went off on his console. Before he could turn to see what, the problem was, a flicker of pseudo motion outside the viewport caught his attention and he looked over to see a dreadnought-class heavy cruiser with Black Sun markings had just dropped out of hyperspace and it was practically right on top of them. "Oh kriff."
"You can say that again," Wevv replied. "What in the Forces name is a Black Sun dreadnought doing here? And how the hell do they even have one?"
Jordmar shrugged his shoulders as he had absolutely no answers. The Empire was usually quite thorough in ensuring no private organisation or enterprise had access to any warships above frigate classification. A cruiser-class vessel – even one as ancient but still extremely potent as the dreadnought-class heavy cruisers – being in the hands of an organisation like Black Sun was thus a very strict no-no. After all the last thing the Imperials wanted was for any private organisation to have the means of giving the slowly growing rebellion anymore heavy warships than they already had. Maybe there is truth to the rumours going through some of the cantina's that Xizor has entered into a business relationship with the Emperor it would certainly explain how and why they have cruiser class vessels, he thought.
At that moment a dull thud followed by a soft shudder ran through the deck. Jordmar didn't even have to look to know that the dreadnought had just locked onto them with a tractor beam. "I don't know as nothing in our cargo warrants them doing this to us, especially with a dreadnought," he replied.
"No, it doesn't. Do you think they're after the other thing?"
"Possibly, especially if the rumours are true and the Dark Prince is sucking up to the Emperor," he agreed exchanging a worried but determined look with Wevv. The item in question was a crate that had been entrusted to their care at the end of the Clone Wars by Milo Thrain – a Jedi Sentinel who'd worked with them all through the Clone Wars using the Twilight Monsoon as his transport rather than requisitioning a warship – when the man had been dying after being shot by the three Clone Troopers who'd also been part of the crew during the war except at the end when Palpatine issued Order 66. As they both recalled Milo hadn't gone down easily – as unlike most Jedi he had preferred body armour to itchy robes – and taken out two of the clones before the last one managed to get him. Though the clone's triumph hadn't lasted long before a bolt from Jordmar's heavy pistol ended the turncoat trooper's life.
They'd never opened the crate in question but had kept it securely locked away as the mortally wounded Milo had asked before his life expired.
"We can't let them take it," Wevv commented. "Milo died to protect whatever is in that crate there's no way I'm letting some trumped up Falleen gangster who maybe or maybe not be in bed with our 'beloved Emperor' get his slimy hands on it."
"Agreed," Jordmar replied with a nod as he started tapping various controls powering up the Twilight Monsoon's weapons systems and beginning to power up the shield generator – being a military model, albeit a clone wars model it would take several seconds to build up enough power running as it was off an upgraded civilian power plant – though he wouldn't be able to raise the shields while the dreadnought had them in its tractor beam.
"Okay weapons and shields are powering up," he said. "Go back and get R4 out of his recharge slot would you then man the turret."
"On it," Wevv replied as she stood up and raced out of the cockpit to first get there astromech out of his charging station and then climb up into the dorsal turret that housed the dual heavy blaster cannons that were their main – but not only as thanks to a combination of Milo and Jordmar's weariness of Imperials – but not only armament.
As she left the cockpit the radio crackled to life. "Freighter Twilight Monsoon this is Vigo Melan of the Black Sun dreadnought Valiant Watcher. Power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded and you will not be harmed," a Falleen voice said over the radio.
Yeah like I'd believe one of you reptilian bastards, Jordmar thought as he kept his eyes focused on the viewport and the dreadnought that was growing bigger and bigger outside. In seconds the dreadnought would be in position to latch onto their dorsal docking port than a score of Black Sun mercenaries – who were well known for their brutality – would pour into the ship. He knew well that they wouldn't hesitate to kill him where he sat and take Wevv – who was quite attractive even by human standards – as a new slave either for the pleasure of their dreadnought's commander, Xizor himself or worse sell her into the galactic slave circuit – which had ballooned in size since the Empire took over.
"Not if I can help it," he muttered to himself as he flicked a control causing two small hatches – one on either side of the cockpit – to open and a target grid to appear on one of his screens. Along with an infographic that showed clearly that their battery of twelve concussion missiles were armed. Moving the crosshairs on the target grid he locked onto the dreadnought. "Eat this," he muttered as he thumbed the trigger causing a shiver of recoil to run through the ship as two concussion missiles were sent flying into space.
Instantly the missiles, before they could even start their own engines, sped towards the dreadnought as they instantly became caught in her tractor beam. The Valiant Watcher's crew had no chance to react as the two missiles ion engines engaged further boosting their speed as they slammed into the ship at virtually point-blank range. Both missiles impacting the aft engineering section of the dreadnought whose shields – set as they were to the default ray shield configuration to better repel turbolaser and other energy weapons fire – offered no resistance as the two missiles – their speed increased to beyond their normal level by the dual actions of their engines and the tractor beams pull – punched deep into the armour band before detonating.
The effect was dramatic.
A visible shockwave rippled along the underside of the dreadnought, titanium-durasteel armour rippling like water with some plates snapping off and spinning into space. The force of the blasts was channelled by the armour into/then through the pressure hull and severing a primary power conduit. The result of which sent arcs and sheets of raw, white-hot electricity from its hypermatter reactors through the aft lower decks flash frying engineers alive and causing droids to explode as the rampaging electrons subjected them to massive overloads. Secondary explosions erupted, spreading the sudden mayhem inside the Valiant Watcher even further, as damaged systems and conduits overloaded and blew out.
The Twilight Monsoon shivered slightly as the tractor beam tethering them to the dreadnought released as the emitters and beam generator lost power. Jordmar immediately turned on the shields and gunned the sublight engines to full power and banked away from the dreadnought, heading for the safety of open space like a spooked mynock. He was after all well aware that while his missiles had inflicted serious damage to the Valiant Watcher she would only be helpless for a short time. Soon her damage control crews would shut down the ruptured conduit, extinguish the electrical fires that had no doubt started before rerouting power and then the dreadnought would be after them turbolasers blazing. There only hope really was to outrun her as for all their strength dreadnought-class heavy cruisers were not exactly the fastest of capital ships. In fact, they were well known to be quite slow and cumbersome.
He just hoped that the Valiant Watcher wasn't one of the ex-Imperial models of the dreadnought-class. A few moments later that hope was dashed as the sensors warned of multiple small contacts leaving the dreadnought. One of the biggest changes that the Empire had made to the old design, during the relatively short time they'd used it before phasing it out in favour of there newer Vindicator-class heavy cruisers, which allowed the cruiser to carry a squadron or two of starfighters. His scanners immediately identified the six fighters as V-Wing fighters a design which had entered service with the Republic in the last few months of the Clone Wars and which had served the Empire for the first few years of its existence before the TIE line was developed.
"Oh, kriffing hell," he muttered knowing that despite being small the V-Wing was quite a potent little starfighter. "Wevv."
"I see them," Wevv called back even as she rotated the turret to face the incoming fighters and pressed the trigger sending coruscating red bolts of superheated ionized tibana gas flying into space towards the approaching fighters. The lead fighter had obviously not been expecting to be attacked immediately by the freighter – or for his prey to have such heavy energy weapons – as it ran straight into her shots. The heavy bolts immediately punching through its shields to turn the fighter and its pilot into a plume of vaporised metal and torn fragments no bigger than a playing card.
"Nice shot," Jordmar called up to his co-pilot as he began taking evasive action even as the V-Wing formation broke up as the pilots attempted to sort themselves out into a new attack pattern following the sudden death of their leader. The sound of their astromech R4-D7 entering the cockpit caught his attention. "R4 interface with the navi-computer and start calculating an emergency hyperspace jump."
R4 warbled an affirmative and rolled over to one of the terminals and plugged himself in. It was at that moment that the fighters – apparently having sorted themselves out – blew in their light laser cannons raking the Twilight Monsoon making her shields flash with static as they absorbed and dissipated the energy of the plasma bolts. A soft shiver ran through the deck but other than that they were unharmed.
Jordmar allowed himself a slight smile at that as from the way the V-Wings wobbled slightly their pilots were surprised by the resilience of the Twilight Monsoon's shields, obviously having expected them to standard civilian grade shields which would have sustained serious damage under that barrage. Not took it and shrugged it off. There hesitation cost them as Wevv took advantage of it to turn another fighter into a cloud of debris.
Shaking off their shock the Black Sun's mercenary pilots attacked again. Raking the Twilight Monsoon again and again. Wevv fired back, though most of her shots missed though she did score a glancing hit on one fighter making its shields flare with electrostatic strain and making the craft momentarily stagger in space with the transmitted kinetic force. It was all the time she needed to tag the fighter with a full-on hit sending it to its doom.
Obviously angry and frightened now – as this particular prey was showing itself to have a tough hide and very sharp teeth and claws with which to protect itself – the mercenary pilots attacked again this time focusing all their fire on the freighter's aft deflector shield. Immediately warnings began to flash on Jordmar's screens warning that the aft shield was starting to corrode, and he instantly banked to try and shake off the fighters. Only for the damned things to use their superior agility to stick like glue to his rear end.
"Wevv," Jordmar called back as the ship shook fiercely under the heavy laser assault.
"I'm trying Jord," Wevv yelled back as she endeavoured to shoot the fighters down, but they were staying mostly out of her arc having figured out that getting into her range was certain death for them. "But they're staying out of my arc."
"Stand by," Jordmar replied before abruptly killing the engines and firing his reverse thrusters at full power causing the V-Wings to shoot past them, the move catching them completely off guard. Almost immediately the pilots scrambled to get out of the firing arc of the dorsal turret again, most made it though Wevv was still able to nail two of them sending the pilots into the eternal embrace of the Force. "Nice one."
"Thanks, but I don't think they're going to fall for that again," Wevv replied as Jordmar reengaged the main engines and attempted to pull away from the momentarily disorganized fighters.
"Probably not," Jordmar agreed. "R4 how's that hyperspace course coming?"
The droid warbled back that he had one calculated. It was only a short jump, but it would get them to the hyperspace lane, from there it would be a simple matter to escape before the dreadnought and its fighters could catch up with them.
"Great work R4," Jordmar praised as he stabilized the ship for the jump to hyperspace.
Unfortunately, at that moment their luck ran out as the fighters, smarting from their losses and detecting that the Twilight Monsoon's hyperdrive was powering up for a jump, attacked once again. As before they focused their firepower on the engines and broke through the weakened aft shields to land blasts on the engines. Alarms went off in the cockpit as Jordmar was almost thrown out of his chair as the starboard ion engine violently flamed out from the damage causing his beloved ship to begin corkscrewing out of control from the sudden uneven thrust.
Grunting he fought with the controls and after a few seconds of effort managed to get Twilight Monsoon back under control.
"How bad is it," Wevv called from the turret.
"Starboard engines out. Oh, kriff and we've lost the hyperdrive as well," Jordmar replied a profound sense of defeat falling on him like a smothering blanket. The Black Sun had them now.
"You know what we need to do," Wevv said. "We cannot let Xizor get his hands-on Milo's crate, especially as he's certain to give it to the Emperor."
Jordmar sighed. "I know," he said knowing the only way to keep the crate from eventually falling into the hands of the Emperor and to save himself and Wevv from a fate worse than death – as Xizor was sure to make them pay dearly for giving the forces he sent against them so much trouble – and that was to go out on their own terms. And besides if Milo had been right then when they died they'd see him again in the infinite realms of the Force. "R4 on my command prepare to overload the fuel cells."
The astromech warbled sadly but prepared to do as his master – who had widely boasted to other astromech's to be the best master a droid could ever ask for – asked. However, before he could begin the process of removing all the safeties on the main power cores fuel cells a new event occurred as the radio came to life.
"Attention unknown cruiser," a male human voice, speaking with an accent unlike anything Jordmar had ever heard before, said. "This is the United Earth Ship Tanganyika, you are engaged in potentially piratical activities. Identify and explain yourself immediately or we will be forced to engage you."
"Who the hell is that," Wevv asked having heard the communication.
"I have no idea but looks like the Black Sun are going after them," Jordmar replied as he saw the surviving V-Wings break off from there perimeter and advance towards where – according to scanners – a warship of unknown configuration was located. "Whoever they are they might have bought us the time we need. R4 hold on blowing the fuel cells a moment, instead try and get the hyperdrive back online."
R4 immediately warbled an extremely pleased affirmative and started a diagnostic on the hyperdrive. After all he would need to know exactly what was wrong with the drive if he was to stand any chance of successfully repairing it.
UES Tanganyika
A Few Minutes Earlier
Sitting in the quiet confines of his ready room Captain Kaidan Halsey resisted, just, the impulse to sigh as he worked his way through the incessant amounts of paperwork – or rather its modern electronic descendant – that came with commanding a starship. Thankfully the load on him was relatively light today, the fact that they were in another galaxy who knew how many billions of light years from their own meant that most of the more bureaucratic make-work paperwork could be quietly shelved for later leaving only the more important bits for him to deal with.
Which was still quite a considerable amount.
He was just starting to read through a report on the state of the ship's missile stores – both for their single squadron of Alpha fighters and the Tanganyika's own missile and torpedo batteries – when the desk comm unit signalled for his attention. Instantly relieved to have something other than paperwork to do he reached forward and touched a button on the terminal. "Yes?" he asked.
"Sorry to disturb you sir but we're coming up on our first defold point," his XO Lieutenant Commander Veronica Mars reported from the bridge. This soon, Kaidan thought before blinking as his eyes fell upon the wall chronometer which showed he'd actually been doing his paperwork for the better part of an hour. More than enough time for the Tanganyika – equipped as she was with the latest generation of the hyperspace fold system – to cross the thirty-two thousand, two hundred and sixty light years that was the farthest distance a ship could safely go in a single fold. It was about two thirds of the way to the planet they'd been tasked with surveying as a possible new home for their people, should it be determined that it was impossible for them to get back home.
Something that he knew was very likely to be the case since analysis of star charts had shown that this galaxy – which according to the star charts recovered from the Kimbala was called Corusca – definitely was not part of their local group of galaxies. The science divisions were still in the process of trying to figure out exactly where they were in relation to the Milky Way, only then would they be able to determine if it was possible to travel across the great vast darkness of intergalactic space in any reasonable space of time. Like anyone with any experience in astronavigation he didn't think they would be able to find a way home, though of course they still had to at the very least try.
"I'll be right their commander," he replied into the comm unit as he stood up. After taking a moment to retrieve his uniform jacket from the back of the chair and putting it on he left his ready room and made the short walk onto the bridge of his beloved ship. And not for the first time noting how different it was to on some of the older ships he'd served on over the years being white panelled, surprisingly spacious for a warship as small as a Garfish and far higher tech with holographic projector fields having long since replaced the dials and TFT screens of the older ships.
"Status," he asked as he made his way to the command chair and sat down. Which never ceased to make him feel somewhat like a king as the command chair on the bridge of modern Terran warships was not only at the back of the bridge but on a slightly elevated platform over everyone else, allowing a ships master or mistress to have clear lines of sight to both the holographic HUD's floating in their projector fields but the bridge windows as well. Though the latter was purely a side effect as in battle, despite what pre-Robotech science fiction had liked to show, a ship's crew rarely actually saw the enemy capital ships that they were firing at as anything more than distant points of light. Which was fully understandable when you considered that at three hundred thousand kilometres even the biggest ship would be all but invisible against the darkness of even interplanetary space. A discovery during the First Robotech War that had done in the old romantic notions of space combat – at least between capital warships.
"Sir we've reached our defold point," the helmswoman reported, "commencing hyperspace defold manoeuvre in three… two… one."
Kaidan nodded and leaned back in the command chair as around him the crew began the process of navigating the ship through its return to normal space. A shiver and a thrum of incalculable power ran through the entire ship, seeming to make the very air itself vibrate, a microsecond before a shimmering wall seemingly appeared outside the ship as the fold bubble and the ship within it burst back into normal space from a hyperspatial wormhole. A flash of bluish energy – that everyone would always compare to a gyroscope in appearance – appeared as the fold sphere dissipated and the Tanganyika and everyone aboard her fully integrated back into normal space-time. He couldn't help but smile at how smooth the transition with the newest model fold engine was in comparison to their older drives. With the first- and second-generation space fold drives the transition to and from hyperspace could be… well… somewhat bumpy to put it mildly.
The sudden wailing of a proximity alert instantly drew him out of those thoughts. "What is it," he demanded.
"Sir sensors are picking up a number of contacts on a bearing of zero, zero, one mark zero, one, two distance two hundred thousand kilometres," sensors reported. No wonder they triggered the proximity alert, Kaidan thought as two hundred thousand kilometres was well within their weapons range. Thus, any unknown vessel would be immediately tagged by the sensors as a potential threat.
"What do you make of them," he asked hoping against hope that the ships were not Imperial. They'd already had more than enough encounters with them since coming to this galaxy and while he didn't fear any known Imperial warship – all their encounters so far had shown they had little to fear from them having both superior armour and weapons to the Imperials – it would be extremely inconvenient to say the least. Especially as they would certainly be forced into an engagement as it took several minutes for even the most modern hyperspace fold drives to complete a cool down and repower cycle after propelling the ship so far.
"Scans confirm they're not Imperial or at least not any Imperial design we've seen before," sensors reported. "It looks like one small vessel that appears to be a freighter of some type. The others are one vessel around heavy cruiser size and a dozen fighters of unknown design. The fighters appear to be attacking the freighter, the cruiser is hanging back it appears to have been damaged."
"Look's like we might have stumbled on either a pirate raid or a police action of some kind," Kaidan mused aloud.
"Sir the freighter's engines have been hit. They're losing speed," sensors reported. "The fighter's have broken off their attack and are now forming a perimeter around the freighter."
"Should we intervene sir," Veronica asked.
"And do what possibly get interfere in what could potentially be a perfectly legitimate police action against smugglers," Kaidan questioned. "Still we need to find out either way. Sparks send a challenge and identification request."
"Aye sir," his communications officer replied pressing both the command to open a broad-spectrum transmission, so the other two vessels would have no choice but to hear them and the command to tie in the translation matrix that had been developed just before that Imperial fleet attacked them. As their challenge/identification request wouldn't get them anywhere if the unknowns couldn't understand a word that they were saying. A moment later his console screens indicated that the transmission was open. "Attention unknown cruiser, this is the United Earth Ship Tanganyika. You are engaged in potential piratical activities. Identify and explain yourself immediately or we will be forced to engage you."
The response from the unknowns was immediate.
"Captain the unknown fighters are breaking off and advancing towards us," sensors reported. "They're approaching on an attack vector."
Kaidan sighed. "Probably pirates then," he said as he could think of no other reason for the fighters to immediately come at them on an attack course, well unless they really were Imperials. In either case his duty was clear as they were clearly threatening his ship and crew, or trying to anyway as so far, the weapons they'd encountered in this galaxy had been too weak to do more than cosmetic damage to their ships armour. "Sparks send a message to those fighters, tell them to break off immediately or be destroyed. Weapons stand by interceptor missiles. If those fighters don't break off their aggressive approach blast them out of the sky."
"Aye sir," came the response from both officers.
"Attention incoming fighters," Sparks said. "You are approaching us on a hostile vector. If you do not break off immediately you will be fired upon and destroyed. You have thirty seconds to comply."
Kaidan kept his eyes on the tactical holoscreens which showed the fighters getting closer and closer. He honestly wasn't surprised that they weren't backing off in spite of their warnings of what would happen if they did not. So far in this galaxy nobody seemed willing to back off against their superior force. And it's not like those fighters can't scan us and see they're overmatched as our shadow device is currently switched off, he thought. Inevitably the thirty seconds Sparks had given the fighters to break off their aggressive approach passed, and they were still coming.
Immediately a faint shiver or recoil ran through the deck as one of their pop-up defensive missile launchers fired sending ten Mark-III Foxfire interceptor missiles towards the half dozen incoming fighters. The hostile fighters instantly detected the missiles homing in on them even as the seeker heads of the missiles locked onto them and accelerated the weapons to terminal attack speed. Instantly the fighters began firing in an attempt to knock down the incoming missiles. An interceptor died, the victim of a plasma bolt, but the rest slammed into the fighters and detonated immolating them in a furious barrage of plasma detonations. The poor fools, Kaidan thought as the fighters had stood no chance against their defensive missiles.
"We're being hailed by the cruiser," Sparks added.
Maybe were finally getting somewhere, Kaidan thought though he did doubt it. He was now soundly convinced that whoever these jokers were they weren't any form of legitimate law enforcement organisation but were almost certainly pirates. And in his experience the greed of piracy and the common sense not to approach and attempt confrontation with a fully armed and operational robotech warship did not go hand in hand.
"Alright put it through," he said.
Instantly a projector field activated and a holographic screen pixeled into existence bringing in an image of the alien bridge. It was very plane looking with a mixture of different races manning consoles along the walls of the room, though a handful were freestanding. There appeared to be a faint haze in the air of the cruisers bridge, almost like smoke and he wondered if it was from the damage the cruiser had already sustained. Though what immediately grabbed his attention was the green-skinned reptilian looking humanoid in what was clearly the command chair. The alien spoke immediately.
"This is Vigo Melan of the Black Sun commanding the dreadnought Valiant Watcher. Your presence here is unwanted. Leave now or I will destroy you," the alien said with the arrogant confidence of someone who was used to being obeyed.
"Sir the cruiser is turning and advancing towards us," sensors reported. "We're picking up targeting scanners." They have got to be kidding. We just swatted their fighters like annoying insects and they still think they can threaten us, Kaidan thought as he glanced at another screen. Which now showed scan data of the alien cruiser, it really was nothing remarkable and weapons wise was pretty weak in comparison to their own.
"I think not," Kaidan replied looking back into the video pickup. "You and your ship are engaged in pirate activities Vigo Melan. Not to mention your fighters just attempted to attack me. In both instances I am well within my rights to destroy you."
"You dare to threaten the Black Sun. Destroy me and we will hunt you to the ends of the galaxy."
"Big words I've heard them before from a thousand different pirates and would-be warlords it's never frightened me before and it doesn't now," Kaidan replied and indeed he had as not all the Zentraedi or Tirolian Triumvirate Clones who'd served the Robotech Masters had allied with them after the First and Second Robotech Wars. Some had turned to piracy and others had attempted to carve little fiefdoms for themselves out of the ashes of the Robotech Masters empire. They were invariably hostile to the REF and the Sentinel's Alliance, though were frequently more of an irritating pest than a serious threat. Though that didn't stop them talking big and usually getting themselves killed whenever they pushed their luck too far and Admiral Hunter or the Council lost their patience with them.
From what he'd seen so far from this joker Black Sun would be no different. It certainly wouldn't be something that they hadn't dealt with many times before.
"You will have no idea what you are dealing with," Melan threatened. Kaidan folded his arms over his chest and didn't even bother to answer verbally just put an expression of complete unconcern on his face. His somewhat apathetic response to the threat made the aliens skin flush a warm reddish-orange in fury. "Then you die a fool."
With that the alien broke the communications link between them.
"What an idiot does he really think he's a threat to us," Veronica said.
"Probably criminals like him always think that they are more powerful than they are," Kaidan replied. "Status of the Valiant Watcher?"
"Still closing sir. From what we know of this galaxies weapons technology they will not be able to fire upon us till they're within a hundred thousand kilometres."
"Are we going to let them shoot at us sir," Veronica asked him,
"No, I'm not. It is time that Vigo Melan learns what happens when you play with fire. Prepare the synchro cannon – fire when ready."
"Aye sir."
An outside observer would have immediately seen the profile of the Tanganyika change as along a horizontal line the front third of the ship split apart, the two half's moving up and down in a manner reminiscent of a Zentraedi monitor. In less than a second the two halves locked in their new positions and the barrel of one of the most powerful weapons in the REF's entire arsenal slid forward into firing position.
Instantly glimmering subatomic began to gather and collect in the projector matrix at the front of the cannon. In microseconds the initial handful of particles turned into a torrent as the synchrotronic particle accelerators – from which the weapon took its name – accelerated two separate streams of subatomic particles to near light speed and slammed them together in the collector/projector matrix forming into a brilliant white bubble of destructive energy. Which instantly transformed into a brilliant bluish-white lance of energy that shot towards the Valiant Watcher at near light speed.
Faster than anyone could possibly react the coruscating lance of pure destruction slammed into the dreadnought-class heavy cruiser, taking her straight on the bow and punching right through cutting right through the entire ship with an ease that was as contemptuous as it was terrifying. The dreadnoughts shield and legendary tough armour and structure offering absolutely no resistance to the immensely powerful beam that microseconds after hitting the bow exploded out of the back of the engine block. The beam vanished and for a moment out of time the gutted hulk of the dreadnought held together before the entire ship disintegrated into a plume of superheated plasma and dust.
"Target destroyed sir."
"So, I see," Kaidan replied as the brilliant death flash of the Valiant Watcher faded from the bridge windows. The whirring of powerful motors echoed through the hull as the ship resumed her normal configuration. "What's the status of the freighter?"
"They're still their sir no change in attitude," sensors answered.
"Sparks contact them offer them our assistance."
"Aye sir."
Twilight Monsoon
Silence reigned in the cockpit as Jordmar stared in complete shock and disbelief at the rapidly spreading plasma cloud that mere seconds earlier had been a dreadnought-class heavy cruiser. Besides him Wevv, who'd come down from the turret, was just as shocked. The power that they had just seen displayed was way beyond anything that they had ever thought possible and they'd seen some very nasty weapons during the Clone Wars.
"By the Force," Wevv breathed breaking the shocked silence. "How can that be possible? Who the hell are these people not even the Imperials can destroy a dreadnought-class cruiser so easily."
"No idea," Jordmar replied more than a little intimidated by that weapon which, if he was right about it, could rip apart any known warship in the galaxy with the same terrifying ease with which it had utterly annihilated the Black Sun ship. He just hoped that, whatever it was, the Imperials a) never found out about it and b) never got their grubby little hands on it.
A trill came from the console shocking both of them. Wevv quickly checked to see what it was they were being alerted to now. "We're being hailed by the Tanganyika," she said with some surprise.
"Let's hear what they have to say," Jordmar answered knowing that they didn't really have a choice, especially as R4 was still assessing the extent of the damage that they'd sustained and what – if anything – there loyal astromech could do to repair it.
"On speakers," Wevv answered with a nod as she keyed the comm panel. Immediately the picked up the channel from the alien warship in time to hear the same male human voice that they'd heard on the initial communication from the alien vessel. The human was speaking in very oddly accented Basic almost as if he was speaking through a translator of some type, though without the mechanical overtones that would indicate a protocol droid. The whole channel also had a very audible background humming sound to it, indicative of the sheer amount of power that had to be behind it.
"Attention unknown freighter this is the UES Tanganyika. Our sensors indicate that your ship is badly damaged do you require assistance? Please, respond. Repeat. Unknown freighter this is the UES Tanganyika, our sensors indicate you ship is badly damaged, do you require assistance? Please, respond."
"Should we reply," Wevv asked a moment before R4 warbled that he had completed his assessment of the damage to the ship. "How bad is it R4?"
R4 warbled back that it was pretty bad. Their starboard ion engine was to all intents and purposes destroyed cutting their acceleration by half. Though the worst damage was to the primary hyperdrive motivator, like the starboard ion engine it was basically destroyed as were the power transfer lines to their backup hyperdrive system. They were to all intents and purposes stuck.
"Guess we don't have a choice do we," Wevv commented.
"Doesn't look like it," Jordmar agreed before using his own console to open a channel to the alien vessel that had saved both their lives. "UES Tanganyika my name is Jordmar Edmodarn, captain of the freighter Twilight Monsoon. I thank you for getting rid of those Black Sun bastards and gratefully accept your offer of assistance."
"Captain Edmodarn this is Captain Halsey," a new voice answered over the communications link. "You are most welcome. What is the status of your ship and crew, do you have any injuries?"
"We have no casualties, the Black Sun was careful to only target our engines," Jordmar replied. "We do still have some sublight capacity, but it is limited and our hyperdrive is offline as a result we are kind of stuck here. You wouldn't happen to have a spare hyperspace motivator, would you?"
"No, I'm afraid that I don't our FTL technology works very differently to yours," Captain Halsey answered before pausing as if he was thinking about something. "However, if you can provide us with the specifications for a hyperspace motivator my people could assemble one for you and ship it here."
"My astromech can provide you with the specifications but we cannot stay here for very long," Jordan pointed out, "the Black Sun will soon miss their ship and send more to find it. We only have a couple of hours at the most before another ship arrives."
"I see. Fortunately, there is a solution you said you still have some sublight capabilities?"
"Yes, our port ion engine is still functional," Jordmar answered.
"Excellent I need you to approach my ship, get within twenty kilometres of us before coming to a dead halt."
"I can do that but why that specific distance?"
"Because you will then be well within range of my ships fold sphere," Halsey answered, "allowing us to space fold with you to another nearby location and wait there while the replacement parts are fabricated for you. Do you know any locations say within a hundred or so light years that don't get any traffic?"
Jordmar exchanged a puzzled look with Wevv. Both having the exact same question on there minds. Just what was a space fold? It was obviously some form of FTL travel but what exactly was it and would it be dangerous for their already battered ship? As for a hiding place the most obvious one was the Calanda Expanse a vast interstellar nursery two hundred light years from here and far off any of the more active hyperspace lanes. The only risk of going there would be potentially bumping into a pod of Purgil drawn to feed off the gasses in the vast nebula complex or birth a calf near the radiant heat of a young sun, which would be infinitely preferable to another encounter with the Black Sun.
"There is a place we can go it's called the Calanda Expanse and it's a vast nebula complex two hundred light years rim ward from here," he answered at last before entering the command into the computer to transmit the coordinates of the Calanda Expanse to the Tanganyika. "I'm sending you the coordinates for the outermost edge of the expanse we should be safe there as it's a long way from any active hyperspace lane. But captain what is a space fold? Is it dangerous."
"Coordinates received, and no space folding is not dangerous its just our method of faster than light space travel it has been used for centuries without any major incidents," Halsey answered. "Based on the coordinates you just sent us it will only take five minutes to reach the Calanda Expanse."
Two hundred light years in just five minutes that's fast, Jordmar thought, even with the best hyperdrive crossing that distance so fast outside of one of the major hyperspace lanes wasn't possible. A few dozen light years yes but not a few hundred. Plus, he got the feeling that this space folding was unaffected by anomalies and conditions in normal space that would have forced him to take a very roundabout route to the Calanda Expanse if he'd ever had cause to take the Twilight Monsoon there.
"I understand. I will head for your ship now," Jordmar said at last.
"Excellent once we reach the Expanse I invite you to dock with us. I believe we will have a great deal to talk about."
"I look forward to it," Jordmar replied. "Captain Edmodarn out."
With that he closed the channel and carefully brought there one remaining engine to life. With a few precise bursts from the RCS thrusters he brought his battered and battle-scarred ship around and began heading towards the Tanganyika moving at a virtual crawl compared to how his ship could normally move. He couldn't help but feel an ache in his heart for the damage she'd sustained.
"Are you sure this is a good idea," Wevv asked softly getting an agreeing warble from R4. "After all we really don't know anything about these people."
"No, I'm not and your right we don't," Jordmar admitted. "But we don't have a choice do we as its either go with them or stay here and wait for more Black Sun to show up."
"True," Wevv agreed reluctantly. "We do not have a choice."
Jordmar just nodded and focused on his driving. With the damage to the engines it was taking practically all his concentration to keep the Twilight Monsoon on an even keel. Slowly over the next few minutes they drew closer and closer to the alien vessel that had saved them from the Black Sun and in the process swatted a heavy cruiser like it was an annoying insect. Finally, though he brought them to a halt within twenty kilometres of the alien vessel so that it completely dominated space ahead of them. Then with a few RCS bursts brought them sideways on.
"So now what?" Wevv asked as he released the controls and leaned back with a sigh.
"I guess we wait," Jordmar answered.
They didn't have to wait very long. Seemingly within a few seconds of them coming to a stop next to her the energy readings coming off the Tanganyika spiked higher than anything he'd ever seen in his life before. Which considering the life he'd led – especially when working with Milo during the Clone Wars – was saying quite a bit. Through the view port he and Wevv watched as a strange whirl of bluish energy – the looked like an antique gyroscope of all things – flashed a few kilometres away before transforming into what appeared to be sphere of frosted glass that completely surrounded both ships and the still deployed fighters. After a second or so the sphere flashed and rippled with rainbow colours before transforming into a tunnel of rapidly moving points of light.
Jordmar exchanged a look with Wevv again. This method of faster than light travel definitely wasn't hyperspace as there was none of the shimmering blue-walled tunnel effect of a hyperspace corridor. Instead it was almost like they were still in normal space, almost aside from a slight shimmering distortion – like rippling water – that broke up the starlight in some way. They were clearly travelling down some kind of conduit or corridor, but it wasn't hyperspace – or at least not in the way that they understood it.
"Caff," Wevv asked breaking the moment knowing that they could both do with a drink after what they just went through. While they would have both liked some alcohol Jordmar never allowed it on the ship not when they were in space anyway, planet side was a different story. Thus, caff would have to do.
"Yes please."
"I'll go make some then."
Wevv stood up and left the cockpit leaving Jordmar alone with R4. Jordmar for his part leaned back in his pilot's chair and just watched the odd display outside the cockpit. He had no idea what Captain Halsey wanted to talk to him and Wevv about once they reached the Calanda Expanse but after a moment he decided that did not matter. The man had saved them from the cruel clutches of Xizor's henchmen and in the process earned from him something that was very rare to come by in the galaxy these days…
…trust.