Chapter 4: Relief

"What do you mean he left the ship?!"

Captain Zed was not having a good morning.

There was supposed to have been a meeting this morning for the senior staff, and that Darth Vader was supposed to attend. They were supposed to discuss the plans for moving forward here, whether to take the risks involved with utilizing this world's unique resource or to play it safe and leave the Neutral Zone before being discovered. Although Zed figured that Darth Vader agreed with the former option, he knew that several of his officers and most of the crew wanted the latter course of action. This was supposed to be the time to address their concerns, but the man that needed to hear them was not here.

In the control room of the shuttle bay Zed was speaking with the coordinator on duty. The poor sub-lieutenant was shaking in his boots before the captain, though he would gladly face Zed instead of Darth Vader. "He took his personal shuttle to the planet."

"Specifics," Zed demanded.

The sub-lieutenant brought up the landing coordinates on a console, the screen showing a red dot on the planet's large continent. "The shuttle landed in the center of that walled city."

"Why would he go there?" Zed asked.

"He mentioned something about the Force as his guide," the sub-lieutenant answered. He knew the odd look the captain was giving him now. "Yeah, I was thinking that too."

"And you didn't say anything to him?" Zed asked.

"I wouldn't be standing here if I did," the sub-lieutenant answered.

"That is true," Zed said. While it was an honor to have Darth Vader aboard his ship, crew and officer casualties always doubled during such times. It was quite frankly amazing that no one had died yet on this mission. "Let me know when he comes back."

"Understood sir."

Captain Zed looked out the control room window, seeing the entire shuttle bay within the view. There were more shuttles available for use, someing that every command ship could always use a few more. He looked up to see a compliment of Tie Fighters hanging in their racks, ready to be deployed from the upper wall at a moment's notice. Zed didn't expect them to see any use here, but it was always a good feeling to know that the fighter crafts were at his disposal should he need them. There was also plenty of troop transports, but they seemed to just take up space during this mission.

After a few minutes of silent sightseeing Zed was interrupted by a beeping sound, and he pressed a button on a console to silence it. "Bridge: Report."

"There's a transmission for you sir, and its marked high priority."

"Send it down here," Zed ordered. He entered his personal access code to allow the console in the control room to receive the private transmission, and a screen displayed identification from Imperial Supply. "Finally…"

There was no voice communication in this transmission, as there was no need for a response to this message. The quartermaster had acquired a handful of smuggler ships for Zed's request, enough for a first shipment to this planet heading out immediately. There was a list of the ships available and a cargo manifest for each, though Zed skimmed over the lists of supplies they would be bringing. After going through the message he went back up to the list of smuggler ships, pausing at the class of ship the last one was.

"Huh? A YT thirteen hundred freighter?" Zed muttered, fingers stroking his chin. "I've always wanted to see one of those."

The sun was just barely starting to rise over Ba Sing Se, the beginning of yet another busy day for the people that worked to rebuild their city. Only this time there was a crowd growing in front of the palace, but it was held back by several rows of city guards and Dai Li agents. Even from the bottom of the palace steps the crowd could see the alien shuttle parked at the top, as well as the strange soldiers in white armor that stood guard on all sides of it. There was certainly an air of fear around the crowd, barely kept contained by the guards and the Dai Li.

High above the crowd Aang soared past them, using his glider to return to the palace as quick as he could fly. But he didn't head for the parked shuttle, instead deciding to land at the side of the palace and use a hidden door to enter there. Aang then ran through one of the smaller corridors inside the palace, quickly finding his way back to the main hall that went from the front entrance to the throne room. His route exited in the middle of that hall, and from there Aang walked the rest of the way to the throne room.

When he arrived he found Long Feng standing at the head of a table, speaking to someone that Aang had no chance of recognizing. If the entirely black attire and shiny helmet weren't ominous enough, the mechanized breathing certainly was. The stranger turned his head and spotted Aang's entrance, though any reaction in his face was hidden behind the black mask. Whoever this guy was Aang couldn't tell even in the slightest, but he did not like the bad feeling running down his spine. Like him simply being there was off-putting, but Aang simply couldn't tell why.

Long Feng did not seem to notice that last bit, or at least kept it hidden it during this formal introduction. "Ah, Avatar Aang, you have fortunate timing. I would like you to meet our guest, Darth Vader."

"Hello," Aang said, making the customary bow but with entirely faked sincerity. "I take it you are the ambassador from that ship in the sky."

"In a manner of speaking," Darth Vader answered. The way his voice did not match his breathing only disturbed Aang more. He looked at Long Feng, and then back to Aang. "I am told that you serve a similar role on this world that I perform for the Empire, maintaining order amongst the various factions of your people."

"Balance between nations, that's my job," Aang said. He walked up to the right side of the table, putting Long Feng on his right and Darth Vader on his left. "But I'm pretty sure dealing with space people is not part of my job description."

"It is now," Long Feng interjected. "Especially after the last one, we could deal with someone that is up front with his intentions instead of pretending to be our friend."

"And what are those intentions?" Aang asked, glaring at Darth Vader.

"We came here looking for an enemy of our own," Darth Vader explained. "Although he is not here anymore, our visit has procured insightful information. Your ally in this Fire Nation of yours, Zuko was it? He has been most cooperative after an initial misunderstanding."

"There's more you want though?" Aang inquired. "Otherwise why bother coming to Ba Sing Se?"

"Quite insightful," Darth Vader commented. "Your planet is in a unique situation. It is located within the border between two empires, caught in the middle of a Neutral Zone. I envision a secret monitoring outpost hidden beneath this city, disguised by the urban environment and providing an early warning system, for you and for us if the other empire invades."

Aang looked right to Long Feng. "I'm going to have to defer to you on this one."

"Well for obvious reasons I can't verify his claim about where we are," Long Feng said. "But if it is true, it couldn't hurt to have someone looking out for us, if only for his own self-interest."

Aang nodded, and then looked left at Darth Vader. "I suppose there will be conditions if we agree?"

"Only that imperial staff be allowed to work as they see fit," Darth Vader said. "Your world will not be required to join the Empire. Quite to the contrary, that would defeat the purpose of having a secret outpost in the Neutral Zone. Otherwise your world can continue on with its own affairs, as long as the outpost continues to function."

"Sounds reasonable," Aang admitted, and thought it was too good to be true. "But I will need to speak with all of our world leaders first. This is not a decision that I, or him, can make on our own."

"Understandable," Darth Vader said. "When you have reached your decision, I will return."

Aang watched Darth Vader walk out of the throne room, and once he was certain that the visitor was out of earshot Aang faced Long Feng. "Do you believe him?"

"No," Long Feng bluntly answered. "He talks a lot about cooperation and beneficial relationships between us and them, but I don't buy it."

"It did sound too good to be true," Aang added. "And you know that that means."

Long Feng nodded. "That it isn't, no matter how strong that nagging feeling is."

"What nagging feeling?" Aang asked.

"I can't really explain it," Long Feng admitted. He waved a hand in front of him. "He kept doing something like this, and in the back of my mind it seemed like I should trust whatever he said. I ignored it of course, but it was really strange."

"Weird," Aang said. He looked out the doorway, imagining Darth Vader boarding that shuttle right about now. "Maybe it's connected to that creepy vibe I got from him?"

The moment Darth Vader boarded the shuttle the pilot began take off procedures, and the shuttle was in the air by the time Darth Vader got to his seat. It was a quick and uneventful flight back to the Stalker, one Darth Vader spent deep in thought. One he was back aboard he walked to an adjacent section of the Star Destroyer, where the locals brought up from the first contact were being kept. A short walk through a corridor on that level took Darth Vader to his destination, where those locals were under observation.

One of the mess halls in this section of the ship had been hastily converted into a practice area, so as to not warrant suspicion from the locals by moving them to the proper experiment facilities elsewhere in the ship. The locals had been told that they could use this large room for whatever purpose they liked, from ceremonial rituals to sacred prayer and anything else they wished. The darker skinned locals in blue clothes had asked for several barrels of water, while the lone lighter skinned local had not asked for anything in particular.

When Darth Vader arrived he was met with a curious sight. Most of the locals were moving their bodies in fluid-like motions, and water was moving around them in curved lines and circles. Each time the motion of their bodies changed the motion of the water changed with it, and some of the locals were passing water between them without ever getting wet. They seemed to be having a good time doing this, as if they were playing some sort of game with all that moving water. It certainly had everyone's attention, and only a few bothered to look at Darth Vader standing there.

Darth Vader nodded to the locals, and then proceeded to walk to the next room over. In that room there were monitors showing surveillance of the locals, and there were several researchers taking extensive notes of every minute detail on their data pads. Among them was Captain Zed, his eyes practically glued to the monitor that he was looking at. Darth Vader walked over to the captain and stood by him, now watching the same monitor of the locals doing their thing, finding the possibilities quite intriguing.

"Hydrokinetic abilities," Darth Vader said. "That would have been very helpful on Kamino."

"Or any water or snow covered world," Zed added. He glanced at Darth Vader. "Speaking of which, didn't the last intelligent report suggest the rebels are looking for one of those?"

"There are hundreds of them to choose from," Darth Vader said. "Once we find their new base, we can begin sending these hydrokinetic shock troops to kill everyone inside."

"If they agree to fight a war that isn't theirs," Zed noted.

"Some will," Darth Vader said. He made a wave of his hand. "One way or another, we will have them."

Onscreen the locals seemed to have started a friendly fight, hurling water at each other while in turn diverting the water hurled at them. Their graceful motions had the water flowing everywhere, faster and faster as the fight went on. A relatively scrawny individual spun his whole body round and round, and all of the water seemed to be yanked away from all the other locals' control. Hundreds of gallons of water converged around that local, creating a cyclone that lifted him off the floor, and right into the ceiling.

On impact the local's control vanished, the water cyclone collapsing and dropping him to a hard landing on the floor. The others were all laughing at his misfortune, and after rubbing sore spots he started laughing too. "Well that sucked."

Another local crouched by him and offered a hand. "Are you hurt Sangok?"

"Just my pride," Sangok answered, accepting the hand and getting helped up. "I finally get that move right, and I don't have enough room to do it right."

"That's a master level move," another local said. "When did you become good enough to pull it off?"

"Since we got up here," Sangok answered. He shrugged and started ringing water out of his short brown hair. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling better than ever. It's like a full moon is out, all the time."

Some odd looks were exchanged, all of them thinking the same thing. "You're not the only one."

Listening to the conversation, Darth Vader wondered about what the locals had noticed. "If they are more powerful here than at their home, something must be causing it."

"They mentioned a full moon," Zed said. He keyed a few commands into a console, bringing up a map of the local planetary system. "Our orbit puts us between the planet and its satellite, which by the way is rather large for this type of planet. We'll have to investigate further to confirm or deny a connection."

Fire onscreen drew the attention back to the locals, specifically the lone lighter skinned local that went by the name of Qin. He had punched a fireball across the room, which had hit a quickly risen wall of water and was extinguished. "Well my firebending is the same as ever."

"Jealous much?" Sangok asked.

"Not even the slightest," Qin answered. "So what if you have stronger waterbending here? The only water here to use it with is what our gracious hosts provide. If they don't give you any, you might as well not have bending at all."

"While your firebending can be used anywhere," another local pointed out.

"Exactly," Qin said. "I'll still take fire over water any day."

Intrigued by this turn in the conversation, Zed was rubbing his chin. "So they have a rivalry between different abilities. That won't be too difficult to exploit."

"Yes, but not just yet," Darth Vader said. "On the surface I saw those that command the rock, and an enlightening conversation revealed that one particular individual can control the wind. Those require study before we take any action that favors one over another."

"Agreed," Zed said. "We just need to get them aboard for study."

"Or they can be studied in their natural environment," Darth Vader suggested.

"Or both," Zed said.

"Or both," Darth Vader agreed.

"No, I'm not giving this up."

Sokka was holed up in the small apartment he stayed at while in the Fire Nation capital, having the door locked while looking through the small peephole at Zuko in the hallway outside. Apparently the restored prince's deal with the visitors had included handing over the alien items in Sokka's possession, a decision that had been made without his input or consent. Letting people in the Fire Nation study those items was one thing, handing them over to people he knew nothing about was another. And he didn't trust Zuko enough to give in without protest.

While the elastic blue fabric part of the space armor he found had decayed into scraps from washing, the white gloves and boots had survived alongside the white and brown chest armor. So Sokka was wearing his regular blue Water Tribe clothes underneath the chest armor, along with the gloves and boots. He was also carrying the foot and a half wide disk of silver alien metal, which he had attached a strap to and dubbed his space shield. Along with the black sword forged from a meteorite, Sokka thought of the set as his space suit.

Politely knocking on the door, Zuko was trying to be reasonable. "Come on Sokka, I'm sure they will have better success recreating your gear than we did."

"Can't you give them Mai or Ty Lee's gear instead?" Sokka asked.

"They aren't here," Zuko answered. "You are."

"I'm not ready to give them up," Sokka said.

"If you're that worried they'll destroy your toys then come with us," Zuko suggested. "I'm sure they'll understand if you want to see everything they do."

Now that was something he could agree to, so Sokka unlocked and opened the door. "You're sure they would let just anyone on their big spaceship?"

"I actually got a message saying that I could bring as many guests as I liked," Zuko said. "But the shuttle pilot says that he can only carry half a dozen extra passengers at a time."

"Alright, in that case I'm in," Sokka said. He walked into the hallway and closed the door behind him. "When else could I get to see space?"

Zuko nodded and led the way out, with Sokka following him out of the apartment building. Once outside Zuko declined the offer of a palanquin ride, still preferring to walk wherever he wanted to go instead of having others carry him around. It was a rather short walk anyway, only a third of the city had to be crossed to reach the palace courtyard. The shuttle was still parked there with its contingent of soldiers standing guard, keeping the citizens at a safe distance away from the shuttle. Some palace guards were standing watch as well, a few even having a conversation with the soldiers.

When the two arrived the soldiers parted to let them pass, and Zuko approached the pilot standing in front of the shuttle's entry ramp. "He has the last of it."

Sokka held up his space shield and tapped on his space armor, but kept the space sword sheathed and on his hip. "If you guys can figure out how to recreate this stuff, I'd appreciate a brand new set."

The pilot ignored him and kept his attention on Zuko. "If this is your last guest, we can get underway shortly."

"Who else is coming along?" Sokka asked, following the pilot and Zuko up the entry ramp.

There was no need for Zuko to answer, as they were entering the shuttle and could clearly see who was in the passenger section. Sokka was disappointed yet relieved to see that Fire Lord Ozai had not taken Zuko up on his suggestion to see the alien ship for himself, though he understood that the Fire Lord had to tend to his nation first. In any case Sokka felt a little bit safer now, even though he was getting into a space shuttle about to head up into space. Standing apart from all the rest as the lone earthbender here, Toph was sitting in between the last two open seats.

"About time you got back here Sparky," Toph said.

Sokka had trouble suppressing a laugh. "Okay, how did he convince you to go up there? Flying on Appa was always bad enough for you. I imagine going into space will be worse."

"I persuaded her," Zuko said, heading for one of the open seats.

"Really now?"Sokka questioned. "Or did he want your feet to see what el- ow!"

Zuko jabbed Sokka in the ribs with his elbow, stopping him midsentence. "Just sit down so we can leave already."

Once both of them took the last two seats and got strapped in the pilot began takeoff, and the shuttle lifted off the ground and slowly ascended towards the sky. There were small windows available for the passengers to look outside, though the view was blocked until the lower wings folded down into flight position. For all but one of them the view from the rising shuttle was breathtaking, seeing the Earth shrink and fall away before the ground was obscured by the highest clouds. Already they were higher than even a sky bison could fly, and going even higher than that.

"Could someone describe it to me," Toph requested, her hands tightly gripped on her seat's safety harness.

"You know what it's like on Appa," Sokka said. He felt his stomach fall out from under him when the shuttle accelerated skyward. "We're ten times higher and climbing."

"That bad huh?" Toph said. Another burst of acceleration and she suddenly felt the need to vomit, barely keeping it in while holding a hand over her mouth. "Do we have any barf bags?"

From the cockpit someone yelled, "Behind your seat."

"Thank you," Toph said, reaching behind there and finding some small silver bags. "I thought these were some kind of fancy space cushion."

Still looking out the window, Sokka saw the horizon morph into the round curvature of the globe. "Makes you feel really small."

Toph threw up into one of the small bags. "Makes me feel really sick."

Zuko looked away from the window to see how Toph was doing, and he did not like what he was seeing. "You're looking really pale."

She puked again, this time nearly filling the barf bag. "Ugh… I think… this was… a bad… idea…"

Toph's voice trailed off when she passed out, dropping the bag and only remaining in her seat by the grip of her safety harness.

"This isn't good," Zuko said. He turned his head toward the cockpit and raised his voice. "We need to take her back now!"

"Too late to turn around," the pilot said. "We're nearly there."

Sure enough when Zuko looked back out the window the Star Destroyer was in sight, growing bigger by the second as the shuttle got closer to the ship. When Sokka saw it he thought of a mighty dagger hanging in the dark sky of an eternal night, going by the triangular shape floating in the black void of space. They also got to see the large tower sticking up from the rear end of the ship, which Sokka figured that's where he would put the command center on a ship this big. But they were heading for the main part of the ship, where the top appeared to have a line dividing it into two halves.

The Stalker's shuttle bay doors opened and the shuttle gently landed inside, coming to a stop before the passengers realized they had landed. The entry ramp opened to allow the passengers to disembark, and almost everyone inside got up from their seats and walked toward the ramp. Sokka quickly unhooked Toph's safety harness, and with Zuko's help they carried her out of the shuttle. It seemed that the pilot had radioed ahead of their landing, and there was a small group of what appeared to be medics waiting for them.

A rather short mechanical man was among them. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

Elsewhere in this backwater solar system, behind a yellow-orange ringed gas giant, five ships of varying size and shape emerged from a hyperspace jump. Three of them were large freighters that were clearly past their prime, each with patchwork repairs and one that was more patch than ship. The other two were much smaller cargo vessels, and were in better shape despite extensive repairs done over the years. All five had some form of illegal modification installed, as was customary with ships used by smugglers.

One of the two smaller cargo vessels in this convoy was a YT-1300 freighter, known for the rather unconventional design of having the cockpit sticking out from the right side of the ship. It was currently hauling a full cargo hold of carbonite frozen foodstuffs, part of the relief effort to the backwater third planet in this system. Thanks to some last minute markings on the hull and a thoroughly forged ID-signal, the Empire recognized this ship as the Vortando instead of the increasingly well-known Millennium Falcon.

A wookie in the copilot's chair grumbled something.

"You and me both," the captain replied.

If Han Solo had known that listening to one of his smuggler contacts would lead to this, he would have kept his mouth shut around that stuck up princess. Word had gotten around that the Empire wanted smugglers to deliver a shipment into the Neutral Zone, and they were paying quite a premium for the service. So when Han mentioned it to Leia she had wanted to know why the Empire was going through all the trouble, and of course the only smugglers the Rebel Alliance had on call were Han and Chewbacca.

Chewbacca grumbled some more as he steered the Falcon behind a larger freighter, on a course to pass through a larger gas giant's shadow along the way to the third planet.

"So we won't let them see our faces," Han Solo said. He let Chewbacca ask a question. "We'll stow away in the holds, it worked last time."

Some growling followed, and Chewbacca waved an arm towards the entryway.

"Trust me, those two back there won't screw this up," Han reassured, while telling himself to believe it. "We'll take passive scans on the way in, let our face-men play the role for us, take active scans on the way out, and punch it before that Star Destroyer realizes we're not who we say we are."

A short growl this time, and a wave of a furry hand in a dismissive manner.

"And if it all goes wrong we'll punch it early," Han said. "Bad feelings or not, we've already come this far. Besides, if nothing goes wrong, we'll have enough credits to pay our debts threefold."

Right when Chewbacca started saying it in wookie, Han said the same thing in Basic. "Now that Jabba's dead!"