Star Wars: Return of the Sith

14: Onward and Rimward

By Nanaki

Kuat Drive Yards, Orbital Shipyard #12

"Korgo, can you hear me?" Seco demanded of his communicator. Well, it was actually Negian's communicator, since at some point during the duel, Dirk's lightsaber had apparently gone about halfway through Seco's, which was enough to make it stop working. It was also possible that it had actually been Jerin's lightsaber, but Seco refused to believe that Jerin had come that close to getting him. After several seconds of silence, Seco tried again. "Korgo! Are you there?"

"What?" The Hutt's gravelly voice finally demanded. Other voices could be heard in the background, shouting in Huttese. "I'm a little busy here, Seco."

"With the amount of time we spent fighting Skywalker, you should have been waiting here to pick us up! What's going on?" Seco asked, trying hard not to be insulting.

"Our engines are offline at the moment." Korgo explained, then said something else in his native language. A higher pitched voice could be heard answering in the background.

"You DID bring our ships with you, didn't you?" Seco glared at the communicator, and Negian was worried that he was squeezing it hard enough to break it.

"Of course. Unfortunately, there's no atmosphere in the hangar right now." Korgo sounded distracted as he relayed this information.

"So? Get some pilots in pressure suits and send them over to pick us up!" Seco had the feeling that there was more going on than he was being told.

"I need everyone working to keep the atmosphere from escaping the rest of the ship." Then, Korgo began to sound hesitant. "Also, both of your ships sustained some minor, I stress MINOR, damage when Jerin used sonic charges against us. Nothing to be too concerned about, but I wouldn't want to send them out until we have a chance to repair and test them."

An actual growl escaped from Seco's thoat. "Korgo, you are going to start our ships up right now, then send them to get us no matter what. We can get into pressure suits ourselves if necessary." Seco glanced around the deserted docking bay he and Negian were currently standing in the rear of, seeing at least two alcoves that would probably contain emergency pressure suits. "The Mando's ship is getting away with Tenn, who, you might recall, was the whole reason for this operation in the first place!"

"I'm sorry to report, your ships can't actually be started at the moment." Korgo responded.

"WHAT?" Seco roared. "Both ships contain classified military technology that wasn't easy to steal! If the ceiling on your karking Vic collapsed on them-"

"No! Not at all!" Korgo was quick to reassure him. "It's just that the power generators for several life support systems were damaged, so we had to yank the fuel cells from your-"

"Are you kidding me?" The veins throbbing on Seco's forehead were clearly visible to Negian. "We need to be chasing after Tenn NOW! You get our ships over here right away, and I don't give a kark how many of your grunts asphyxiate in the process!"

Negian snatched the communicator out of Seco's hand. "Hey, don't mind him, Korgo. He's just in a bad mood because Tenn got away from us again."

"Got away from YOU." Seco growled, but Negian ignored him.

"Of course, see to the safety of your crew first. Once you're capable of moving again, you'll find us waiting patiently in bay L-12. See you soon." Negian switched off the communicator.

"Great." Seco turned to look at the door that led back to the rest of the station. "So now we'll probably have to fight Lucia too before we can get out of here."

Negian shook his head. "I don't think so. You can feel Dirk's presence in the Force, can't you?"

"Yeah, but Lucia is still hidden, so what does that matter?" Seco frowned.

"Think about it." Negian smiled. "If we can sense Dirk, that means he either WANTS us to know where he is, which I doubt is the case this time, or he's unconscious. That means Lucia is going to head straight for him, which probably buys us some time."

Seco looked doubtful. "But if he doesn't need immediate medical attention, she'll probably track us down first thing, to get revenge. And don't tell me that she won't do that because she's a Jedi. That queen witch has more of an anger problem than we do."

Negian just shook his head. "If you really think she'd do that, then you don't know as much about women as you think, buddy." Seco looked like he was biting his tongue to keep from retorting. "Why don't you leave the interpretation to the one who's actually HAD a serious girlfriend?"

"And LOST her because you always assumed you knew what was best." Seco snapped.

Negian raised an eyebrow. "Well, I know you're frustrated right now, so I'm gonna let that one go." He let out a sigh through his nose. "But if you ever talk about Tenn that way again, you better be ready to find out which one of us is the TRUE Dark Lord." Negian glared at Seco for a second, before his usual smile returned to his face. "Anyway, until Korgo gets here, I'm gonna have a nap." With that, he sat down on the cold metal floor and stretched out, hands under his head.

Seco regarded his friend warily for several seconds before sitting down against the wall himself. Despite the smile, he knew that Negian hadn't been kidding. Not entirely, anyway, and that did nothing to help his mood.

.

"Dirk, did you have to hide in the most inaccessible place you could find?" Lucia complained aloud. She could feel Dirk very close by now, probably within a few hundred feet, but she couldn't see a clear way to get to him. This area of the station was clearly off limits to everyone but the maintenance people unfortunate enough to have to work here, and it wasn't terribly well lit. However, the occasional scoring from lightsaber blades on the walls, and even the floor, would have told her she was heading the right way even if she couldn't sense Dirk. Unfortunately, the fact that she could sense him was a bad sign. His presence in the Force also seemed to have gotten stronger since she'd first landed on the station, which probably meant that he'd been injured and had gone into a healing trance.

Finally, Lucia came across a heavy metal door that had once been shut by a keypad lock, but which had recently been melted open by a lightsaber. Water was steadily running under the bottom of the door, slowly disappearing through various grates in the floor that water probably wasn't supposed to go into. It looked like the Jedi Order was going to be sending some credits to Kuat Drive Yards to cover repair costs in the not too distant future. Lucia had a hard time shouldering the door open against the sudden onslaught of water struggling to hold it in place, and once she got it open, she frowned as she started sweating almost immediately. It had to be close to one hundred twenty degrees in here, and she guessed that the humidity was somewhere around eight hundred percent. Basically, it was like being close to the equator on Teth.

She did her best to hurry through the ankle deep water in the darkness, finally igniting her blue lightsaber when she got too far away from the weak light spilling in through the door. At last she caught sight of Dirk, who was slumped over a large block of concrete that supported a relatively small two hundred gallon water tank. He didn't move as Lucia held her lightsaber close to get a good look at him, and didn't make a sound as she used the Force to gently lay him down on the floor. Blood was trickling out of both his mouth and nose, having trouble clotting because of the extreme humidity in the room, while there was a huge bruise covering the right side of his face. "Oh Dirk..." She ran her right hand along his jaw, smiling at the familiar feel of the neatly trimmed beard that she kept bugging him to shave off. "How could you let them do this to you?"

Even as she asked the question, Lucia already had a pretty good idea of the answer. There was nothing that indicated Dirk had been so much as grazed by a lightsaber. It was Lucia's guess that Seco and Negian had actually taken advantage of Dirk's overwhelming superiority in lightsaber combat to lull him into a false sense of security, then surprise him in another fashion. Whatever that might have been, exactly, it was clear that his face had met the wall at a high speed. At any rate, Dirk was now deep in a healing trance, though Lucia wasn't sure why. He had his fair share of fractured bones, but nothing seemed damaged to the point that he would have needed to slip into a trance right away. However, Lucia estimated that he'd already been in the trance for close to a half hour. It was possible that there had been some internal bleeding. If that was the case, it would make more sense.

The entire Skywalker/Solo extended family had been very wary of internal bleeding ever since Anakin Solo had died from an amphistaff strike that had punctured his intestines. The general consensus was that he would have been just fine if he had actually been able to enter a healing trance, but since he'd been on a Yuuzhan Vong worldship at the time, as the leader of a strike team that was trying to destroy a new bio-weapon capable of wiping out the Jedi, Anakin had steadfastly refused to enter a trance and endanger the rest of the team. Fortunately for Dirk, a healing trance that would take several days for anyone else would only take a few hours for him, thanks to the incredible healing powers that all descendants of Cade Skywalker seemed to possess. Even so, right now that was several hours more than they could afford.

"I shouldn't have talked you into splitting up." Lucia sighed. Even though it had quickly become clear when they arrived at Kuat that they had two objectives, Dirk had wanted them to stick together, arguing that a sure thing on one of two objectives was better than gambling on both. Lucia, who had done more than a little gambling in her time, had responded that she'd bet everything on the two of them every time, no matter what the odds were. Then Dirk, as he almost always did, agreed to try it her way. Unfortunately, they'd lost the bet this time. Now the Mandalorian had gotten away with Tenn again, even if it was at least partly her choice, and Seco and Negian were still running around free. Reaching out in the Force, Lucia could sense that Seco and Negian were still on the station... but somehow each of them were in four different places. Well, she wasn't about to go chasing after them like this, not with Dirk in need of medical attention. "All right, tough guy..." She stood up, then used the Force to gently lift Dirk into the air, hovering him at about waist height. "Let's get you to a doctor."

.

In the Colonies Region, Close to the Foundry System

As the Sword of Justice continued to barrel through hyperspace at an utterly ridiculous pace, Jerin pored over regional and galactic maps of various scales at his console. Due to the large number of scantily clad young ladies he had on board, combined with the fact that he had accidentally kicked the air conditioning up to full blast during the battle, he had turned the heat way up throughout the ship, and was now regretting it. Jerin had already unbuckled his torso armor and put it away in his room, but he was still sweating a lot more than he would have liked.

They were currently about an hour away from Commenor, and Jerin had already accepted that they would have to stop there for supplies, mainly food and water. He did not have enough food on board to feed thirty nine people, that was for sure. Hell, he barely would have had enough left to feed himself. Also, though the thought made him cringe whenever it entered his head, Jerin knew that he would have to be a jerk of the highest order not to buy SOME clothes for the girls. He had originally planned to get around that necessity by making a mad dash for Coruscant as soon as they left Kuat, but that was no longer an option. Having once been married, Jerin was well aware of how long it took ONE woman to shop for clothes. He could only imagine how long it was going to take thirty six, from three different species no less, to all pick out something they liked. He estimated that they would be on Commenor for at least six hours, which would give Korgo and the Sith plenty of time to catch up, but there was no real way around it. At least that would be enough time to have larger water and sewage tanks installed.

The only way out of it that Jerin could think of was to just dump the girls on Commenor and hightail it out of there. However, they were still way too close to Kuat to do that. Negian would be able to sense that they'd stopped on Commenor, and Korgo would be at the planet before the girls had any time to disperse, not that they likely WOULD disperse in any event. Jerin knew that if he suddenly found himself dumped on a strange world with no money, no prospects for a job, and no proof of having finished school, he would sure as hell stick close to the only people he knew. No, the girls were going to have to stay on board until he found somewhere with the necessary social services to take good care of them, and somewhere that was a decent distance from both Hutt Space and Coruscant on top of that. 'But where is that place?' He wondered as he continued to stare at the galactic map in front of him.

"What are you looking for?" Tenn wondered as she walked back into the cockpit, having just used the fresher in the room across the hallway from Jerin's. She had been surprised to see that most of the eight women crammed into the room were asleep, despite everything that had been going on. But then, they had been woken up in the middle of their night, and they were probably used to not being in control of what happened to them in any event.

"A good place to leave the girls." Jerin responded, not taking his eyes off the map.

Tenn's brow furrowed slightly in confusion. "I would think Corellia would be the clear choice, if you don't want to go to Coruscant. Corellia's actually closer from here anyway, isn't it?"

"It's because Corellia is the clear choice that I'm ruling it out." Jerin explained. "It's also TOO close. Korgo could theoretically get there only a few hours after we do."

"Even if he did, the Corellians aren't exactly the type to just let outsiders do what they want on their worlds. Besides, there's a Jedi Academy on Corellia, so Seco and Negian will want to avoid it if at all possible." Tenn reasoned.

Jerin just shook his head slightly. "Money talks on Corellia, even moreso than on Coruscant, and Korgo has already shown that he's willing to spend a lot to get his hands on the girls. Plus, if I were Seco or Negian, and I wanted something on Corellia, I'd just head to Talus or Tralus and wait for an opportune moment."

"I think you're underestimating the Jedi, but what are you thinking of, in that case?" Tenn wondered.

Jerin gave the map a final once over, before answering. "I'm thinking about Eriadu."

"Eriadu?" Tenn clearly hadn't considered that. "Even in this ship, it'll take the better part of two days to get to Eriadu." She pointed out.

"That's the main reason I want to head there." Jerin nodded. "We need to drop the girls off somewhere where the Justice can be long gone by the time the bad guys get there. That way, Seco and Negian would probably want to skip it entirely to keep chasing you, while Korgo would want to let you go in favor of the more profitable catch." Now Jerin finally looked up from the map. "Also, that somewhere needs to have the necessary social services, combined with competent local law enforcement. Since Eriadu likes to bill itself as 'a Core world in the rim', I think it would do nicely."

Tenn couldn't find a flaw in that reasoning, but there was still something that bothered her. "The thing that gives me pause is, Eriadu was a staunch supporter of both Palpatine and Krayt's empires, and they still have a reputation for human supremacist ideology."

Jerin shrugged. "There still might be the occasional politician who talks that way, but Eriadu is a loooong way from any other human-dominated world. If they were really as intolerant as you seem to think, most of the humans there would have packed up and moved back to the Core long ago." Now, a lopsided grin appeared on his face. "Besides, I've found that if you're going to be a minority, it's better to be a member of a very small minority group than a large one. A large minorty is an unwelcome competitor, a tiny minority is a curiousity."

Tenn let out a soft sigh. "All right. You're in charge, after all. I just hope everything works out all right."

"Well, so do I." Jerin agreed, then stood up. "But, first thing's first. We're going to be landing on Commenor, and I need to talk to everyone about what's going to happen when we do. So, I need everyone to assemble down in the cargo bay."

"Most of them are still asleep." Tenn observed, turning to look down the hallway.

"I know." Jerin nodded and stretched. "That's why I'm going to need your help if we're going to get everyone in the same place before we land."

For some reason, Tenn found the fact that he needed her help surprisingly gratifying, even if it was for something simple. "All right then." She stood up as well.

As they were heading out of the cockpit, the door to Jerin's room whooshed open to reveal Denan. He'd just finished having a sanisteam, and his hair was still wet. "Hey, you too." Jerin stated simply, clapping Denan on the back.

"What's up?" Denan wondered.

"Start waking up the girls and tell them to meet up down in the cargo bay. Before we get to Commenor, we need to go over a few ground rules..."

.

"It's ideas like this that get people killed!" - Faye Valentine, Cowboy Bebop

.

(Nanaki's note: So, here's a lesson on the importance of doing research. I finally got off my lazy butt and looked up the Marauder missile frigate on Wookiepedia, which it turns out is actually called the Marauder-class corvette. Turns out, it's a small capital ship, about 195 meters long, which is about five times bigger than I imagined Jerin's ship being. In addition, a ship that size would definitely have an actual bridge, and not just a cockpit. However, just as I was thinking I might have to do something bizarre, like claiming Jerin misidentified his own ship, (Which would be pretty unlikely for a Mandalorian.) the article gave me an out by listing several continuity errors where the Marauder made a cameo appearance in comics, but was drawn way too small. So, here's my in-universe explanation: Republic Sienar Systems, and later the Corporate Sector Authority, made several different classes of ships with the basic Marauder hull shape, including a starfighter, a light cruiser (Jerin's), and a corvette. And here's my out-of-universe explanation: I'm a lazy bum.)