Star Wars: Return of the Sith
5: The Race to Kuat
By Nanaki
On the Hydian Way
"So..." Tenn seemed to be searching for a way to restart the conversation. "How long will it take to get there?"
"About eight hours." Jerin answered as he looked at something on his displays.
"That quick?" Her eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"Hey, I told you she was fast." Jerin patted his controls proudly. "About six and a half hours down the Hydian to Fedalle, then another hour and a half down the Kuat Trade Spine and we're there."
"So how did your ship get a name like Sword of Justice?" Tenn wondered.
"Because I'm searching for justice, and this ship is my sword." Jerin answered dryly.
"Care to elaborate on that?" Tenn shot him a skewed glance.
"Care to tell me why the Sith are after you?" Jerin shot back.
"Um... I don't think so." She frowned, and went back to looking out the cockpit window.
"Then I don't think so either." Jerin shrugged.
"So I guess we're not going to pass the time by talking." Tenn surmised.
"Apparently not." Jerin leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head.
"Then do you mind if I get something to eat? We hadn't ordered yet back at the restaurant when you pointed a gun in my face." She explained crankily.
"Help yourself." Jerin shrugged. "The galley's at the end of the main hallway."
"Thanks... I think." Tenn stood up and started heading down the hallway. While the hallway itself was very cramped, the glances she got of the rooms on either side revealed them to be fairly spacious. The last room on the left had clearly been modified to function as a prison cell. Tenn hurried past that, and made straight for the cooling unit when she got to the galley. When she opened it up, she found nothing inside but several varieties of alcoholic beverages, a few bottles of water, and a couple bottles of pre-brewed iced caf. Tenn grabbed one of the bottles of caf, then started to rummage through the storage cupboards in the walls.
Five minutes later, as she poked a fork at a cup full of recently re-hydrated noodles with a scattering of vegetables and some kind of small crustacean, Tenn wondered what exactly to make of Jerin. He seemed pretty rough around the edges, as of yet he hadn't bothered to apologize for trying to take her prisoner and drag her to a Hutt, plus he was clearly a fan of the dark side of the Force on top of that. On the other hand, even if his main motivation was money, once he had made up his mind to protect her, he had fought Negian and Seco with every ounce of strength he had. He had also insisted on getting away from the station as fast as possible, just in case the Sith came after them. Though the thought now occured to Tenn that maybe he really just wanted to get away from the Jedi... But she didn't think so. If he still wanted to stun her and collect the bounty, he'd had ample opportunity already, and that also would have prevented her from eating his food. No, it seemed that he'd really meant it when he said she was his guest.
As Tenn took another bite of her rather bland meal, she noticed a framed holo bolted to the wall. It was an image of Jerin, looking younger than he did now, sitting next to a girl with wavy dark hair. They both had very cocky grins on their faces, and Jerin's black hair in the picture was a good deal longer than it was now. He looked more handsome that way, Tenn thought. Suddenly, Tenn recalled something Jerin had shouted during the battle: "Pure rage is the only reason I'm still alive!!" Also noting that the girl in the picture was definitely nowhere on the ship, Tenn suddenly had a pretty good idea of how Jerin had come to draw on the dark side.
.
Dirk Skywalker briefly glanced at the latest readings on the ship they were pursuing as they flashed across the displays of his Stealth-X. From his position on top of the fighter, R2-D2 let out a derisive sound. "You can say that again, Artoo." Dirk laughed. "At least they didn't steal a fast ship." Now he flipped on his communications systems. "Lucia, have you given any thought to just blasting their engines and taking care of things out in space? We'll be caught up with them in a few minutes."
"Tempting as it is, I don't think so." Lucia answered. "If we do that, the third dark sider will get away with Tenn, and we won't be able to follow. Much as I hate to admit it, we need Negian's unprecedented ability to sense a person's presence in the Force from halfway across the galaxy."
"Well, then we're going to be cooling our heels following their clunker for a while." Dirk observed.
"That's for sure." Lucia agreed. "Want to play twenty questions?"
"Sure." Dirk agreed. "I'll start."
"All right. Are you a person?"
"Yes..." Dirk answered hesitantly.
"Are you alive?"
"No."
"Mon Mothma." Lucia stated with confidence.
"Argh! Every time!" Dirk cursed. "How do you guess after only two questions EVERY time?!"
Lucia shrugged. "What can I say, honey? I just know you that well."
.
Seco blinked awake, and was momentarily disoriented by the swirling colors of hyperspace. Looking at the ship's chrono, he discovered over six hours had passed. That was way too long, considering they were actively engaged in a pursuit mission. Glancing to his right, he was relieved to see Negian sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "Hey, why didn't you wake me up?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes.
"Everything's under control." Negian assured him. "That, and you're a lot less of a load to have around when you're asleep."
"Thanks, buddy." Seco groaned as he stretched his arms. "What's our status?"
"We've got plenty more time to sleep." Negian answered indirectly. "The Mandalorian's ship is more than three times faster than ours."
"MORE than three times faster?" Seco found himself reluctanctly impressed. That meant their enemy's ship was even faster than the Millenium Falcon, the ship by which all others were judged in terms of speed.
"However, I think I can guess their final destination." Negian smiled. "They're now a good deal farther to the galactic east than we are."
"Well, the Hydian does curve out that way." Seco pointed out.
Negian shook his head. "Even farther than that. Based on their speed, they must have jumped onto the Kuat Trade Spine at Fedalle."
Seco nodded. "Well, that does narrow it down a lot. The only world that would be of interest to a Mandalorian on that route is Kuat itself, and it's also the most heavily populated, making it the best hiding place."
"My thoughts exactly." Negian nodded. "But in the meantime, we've still got about eighteen hours until we get there. Go back to sleep."
"In a little bit." Seco arched his back as he stood up. "First, I'm going to see if this tub has any food stocked on board."
"There isn't any. I already checked." Negian reported. "This ship is mainly intended to be used for local patrols, after all."
"Stang!" Seco cursed. "The last thing I had to eat was that terrible sandwich at the snack stand on Coruscant!" He thought for a minute. "How about this: Unless Tenn is in the process of boarding a ship to escape us when we get to Kuat, we go get something to eat first thing. Sound good?"
"Yeah, but stop talking about it or I'm going to get hungry now." Negian warned him. "Crud, too late."
.
As the Sword of Justice reverted to realspace, the blue and green orb of Kuat loomed larged in the viewports, with part of the planet in the shadow cast by its manmade ring. Tenn gasped at the sight.
"Never been to a planet with a ring of orbital shipyards before?" Jerin asked as he stretched and opened his eyes. Tenn just shook her head. "Even these aren't much compared with Mon Calamari, but we give worlds like Fondor and Sluis Van a real run for their money." Now Jerin flicked a switch on his controls. "KDY Control, this is Jerin Danar of the cruiser Sword of Justice, requesting permission to land in shipyard nine, docking bay C-17."
"Danar? Is that really you?" A gravelly voice answered a second later.
"Hey Marus, you old scoundrel!" Jerin laughed. "Haven't drunk yourself to death yet, I see."
"Not for lack of trying." Marus shot back. "But it'll take more than booze to take me down!"
"Like your wife, for example." Jerin suggested.
"And what she threatened to do to me if I didn't cut back." Marus agreed. "Anyway, where've you been? Your father's been trying to get ahold of you for weeks now!"
"Oh yeah, what about?" Jerin wondered.
"He says he's got some new information for you about the Red Star Pirates." Tenn would never forget how fast the smile disappeared from Jerin's face when he heard that.
"Is... Is that right?" Jerin sounded calm, but a fierce scowl had replaced his grin.
"Are you still chasing after them?" Marus demanded.
"I will never stop... until I've killed them all. With my own hands." Jerin growled.
"If you don't knock this off soon, Gadran the Hutt is going to put a huge bounty on your head." Marus warned.
"I'm insulted that he hasn't already." Jerin replied. "So can I land or not?"
"Yeah, you're clear to land." Marus said. "Be sure to drop by for a visit while you're here."
"I'll probably have time." Jerin nodded, the scowl leaving his face. "See you soon." With that, Jerin guided his ship toward the shipyard he had grown up on. He couldn't help but smile a bit at the amazed look on Tenn's face as the shipyard filled up the cockpit window, then kept getting bigger from there. "They're over 3,000 miles across each." He explained. "When you consider all twelve, they're bigger than both Death Stars and Centerpoint Station put together. But... when you consider that they built Executor and Eclipse class Star Destroyers here, they pretty much have to be."
"They still build Star Destroyers here today, don't they?" Tenn finally found her voice.
"Well the Republic calls them 'Star Defenders' now, but yeah, we sure do. There's one now." Jerin pointed almost straight up out of the canopy, and Tenn craned her neck to see an enormous, white, wedge shaped ship that still looked insignificant next to the shipyard around it. She soon lost her view of it as Jerin's ship was completely swallowed up by a spacious docking bay. Jerin set the ship down so gently that Tenn could barely even feel it. "All right, here we are. Even if the Sith somehow guess where we went, they should have a hard time finding us with all the beings that live here."
"Um... About that." Tenn looked a little embarrassed. "I should probably warn you that Negian is renowned for being able to sense specific Force presences at incredible distances."
"So you're saying he can still sense us all the way out here?" Jerin sounded skeptical.
"We could have gone to Terminus, and he'd still be able to sense us." Tenn nodded. "I guess I should have told you before." She clearly expected him to be mad.
Jerin shrugged. "Actually, I'd welcome a rematch."
"After how close you came to dying last time?" Tenn asked in a more scolding tone than she'd planned on.
Jerin flashed a very dangerous smile. "I didn't have my armor on last time. With that, I won't even need my lightsaber."
"If you say so." Tenn didn't sound convinced.
"Anyway, there's no sense hanging around here." Jerin stood up. "I just need to grab a few things, then I'll be ready to go." Jerin headed out of the cockpit and opened the door to his cabin. Tenn couldn't resist peering inside from around the doorframe. She saw Jerin put his hand on top of a yellow Mandalorian helmet with its traditional T-shaped visor. Then he said, "Mhi solus tome. Mhi solus dar'tome." To Tenn's surprise, he then took his hand off the helmet instead of picking it up. Only then did she notice that a blaster bolt had gone through the right side of the visor at some point in the past. As Jerin began to pack some clothes into a duffel bag, Tenn ducked back into the cockpit.
"All right, ready to go?" Jerin called as he closed his cabin door. Tenn stood up from her seat, nodding. As they headed to the boarding ramp, Tenn saw that Jerin's astromech was now waiting by the entrance. "Ship lockdown, Arfive." Jerin told him. "Standard procedure: If anyone but me forces their way in, activate the self-destruct and get yourself out in one of the escape pods." R5 tweetled his acknowledgment.
"Isn't that a little extreme?" Tenn asked as they headed down the ramp.
Jerin shrugged. "It never hurts to be careful."
"No, I suppose not." Tenn nodded, thinking of that yellow helmet with the blaster hole. While she didn't speak a word of Mandalorian, Tenn was pretty sure that Jerin had made some sort of vow to the helmet. Probably the same vow he'd made to the dark haired girl who used to wear it. Somehow, she felt sure that it had nothing to do with the dark side, though she couldn't say where this intuition came from. Maybe it was because of the Force.
Or maybe it was because of the smile that had been on Jerin's face when that girl was still alive.
.
"All things are born into this world, and eventually die. That's the pure and simple truth. Heh."
"Are you saying 'Give up all hope'? That it's pointless to wish for anything?"
"Oh no. I'm not saying that. I'm just summarizing the essential human experience. What people living in this beautiful world can look forward to, no matter how long, or how they wish to live. It's something everyone knows, yet has seemingly forgotten. I will never forget it. I will never be able to forget it. If there is anything of value in living a life such as mine, I would say that would have to be it. Since I first learned that, I've never forgotten it for a moment. Heheheh." - Rau Le Creuset and Gilbert Durandal, Gundam Seed Destiny
.
(Nanaki's note: That eight hour figure regarding how fast Jerin's ship could go from Brentaal to Kuat is just a guess. Not even an educated guess, just a pure guess. I remember once calculating that if the Millenium Falcon stayed on the Hydian Way the whole time, it could cross the entire galaxy in ninety six hours, or four days. However, I no longer have any idea how I arrived at that figure. The speed of Jerin's ship is extrapolated from that figure, but it's not like I accurately measured the portion of the Hydian Way between Brentaal and Fedalle and did some math to arrive at the eight hour figure. Until The Essential Guide To Calculating Hyperspace Jumps is published, I doubt I'll give it any more thought.
On another note, some were probably puzzled by my repeated mentioning of Negian's ability to sense specific Force presences at great distances. After all, don't the main characters do that frequently in the novels? Not as much as you might think. Most of the sensing is much more short range. In the movies, the characters (aside from Yoda, who was also renowned for his sensing abilities) can usually only sense each other when they're within potential visual range. Even Anakin, who's clearly number one in raw power if not skill, doesn't sense Count Dooku on board the Invisible Hand until he's also on board himself. This is usually true in the novels as well. Yes, Leia could sense her children at all times, (Which unfortunately led to the most heartbreaking scene I've read in the entire Star Wars canon.) but I think that's a special bond reserved for parents and children. Mara demonstrated a similar bond with Ben, and Luke and Vader tend to sense each other at greater distances than when Leia sensed Luke at the end of Empire. Outside of immediate family, it seems to be a much rarer occurance. In the movies, only Yoda and the Emperor demonstrated that they had the ability to sense others across light years, and of the characters introduced so far in this story, only Negian has that power.)