"What is that?" Anakin asked as he stared out of the viewscreen at a swirling red mist that was growing closer with each passing second.
A loud howl filled the cockpit as the mist enveloped them and then there was silence.
Anakin and Obi-Wan both looked at each other and then at the mist that surrounded them inside and outside the ship.
"Hear me! Anyone!" A voice cried out somewhere in the mist.
Anakin and Obi-Wan looked around for the source of the voice, but didn't find anyone.
"The darkness has grown to powerful. Please, help us!" The voice cried out again and then there was silence.
The mist began to gather tightly around the ship and then it began to sparkle.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Obi-Wan remarked when he was blocked by an invisible barrier when he tried to touch the controls.
Anakin ignored him as he heard the voice repeat itself in his mind. Just as the sparkling around the ship began to accelerate, Anakin spoke. "I guess he took that as a yes."
"What?" Obi-Wan responded in a shocked voice.
Five seconds later the ship, along with its occupants, disappeared from hyperspace.
Anakin woke to alarms screaming out warnings and flashing lights on the console as the ship wildly jerked about in hyperspace. With wide eyes, Anakin looked over the controls and cursed in huttesse. Unbuckling himself, Anakin rose unsteadily onto his feet and then walked a few steps over to Obi-Wan who was beginning to wake up.
Just as Anakin was about to speak, the ship lurched and tumbled as it ungracefully came out of hyperspace.
Obi-Wan, now fully awake gripped the armrests in a death grip until the spinning stopped. Taking a deep breath to calm himself and drawing on the Force to settle his nerves, Obi-Wan looked around from his seat and saw Anakin pick himself off of the floor. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, just a little banged up." Anakin responded as he rubbed his sore shoulder. "I'm going to see if the hyperdrive is reparable."
As Anakin left the cockpit, Obi-Wan unstrapped himself from the crashwebbing and then ran a diagnostic of the ship's systems. By the time the diagnostic was finished, Anakin returned.
"The hyperdrive is scrap," Anakin declared as he plopped down in the pilot's seat. "And so is the engine."
Obi-Wan silently stroked his beard in thought. "The escape pod is still functioning properly, except we're not close enough to make it to a planet." When he didn't get a response from Anakin, Obi-Wan looked over to the side to see that Anakin had entered a meditation trance. Failing to think of an idea that would get them out of this predicament, Obi-Wan soon followed Anakin into meditation.
Mara pulled her ship out early from hyperspace as the Force directed her to. When the ship came out of hyperspace, Mara spotted a drifting ship. Sensing no immediate danger, Mara opened communications with the other ship. "This is the Flame of Jade, do you require assistance?"
The com crackled with static and then a male's voice came through. "Yes we do. We ran into some trouble on Coruscant and our hyperdrive was damaged when we escaped."
Oh great. They stirred up the gundark nest. Mara thought sarcastically to herself. "I'll dock with your ship and then you can come onboard. Where are you headed?"
"Anywhere but here and Coruscant will be nice." Another male voice spoke up.
Mara docked her ship with theirs and unlocked the hatch so that they could board and then left the cockpit to meet them.
The first man to enter her ship was a human in his fifties and he was followed by an astromech unit and then a few minutes later, a younger man came through the hatch. Mara also noticed that they each had a lightsaber on their belt.
"Now who are you and why in the ten Correlian hells were you on Coruscant?" Mara asked, her voice sharp and hard.
"You may not believe us if we told you." The younger man responded, earning a glare from Mara.
"I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi and my companion here is Anakin Skywalker." Obi-Wan answered.
Mara snorted in disbelief. "You're right, I don't believe you." With a flick of her wrist, a lightsaber appeared in Mara's hand and was lit. "Now really, who are you?"
"We already told you." Anakin calmly replied.
Running quickly out of patience, Mara Force pulled their lightsabers from their belts and placed them on her own and Force pulled the bag Anakin held in his hand away from him and placed it behind her. "Kenobi and Skywalker disappeared 18 years ago and the Jedi Council declared that they are dead."
"The Council is…was," Obi-Wan corrected himself, "not all knowing. Just because they said one thing does not necessarily make it true."
"Then I suppose if what you say is true that you both must have a very good reason why it took 18 years to reappear." Mara raised a delicate red eyebrow and then her face became stern. "Walk down the corridor behind you!"
Obi-Wan and Anakin complied and they soon found theirselves in an empty cargo hold.
"This is where you'll stay until I can confirm your identities." Mara told them before closing the door and locking it. As soon as Mara turned around, the ship shuddered as it was hit with blasterfire. Mara ran to the cockpit and saw that two starfighters with familiar Force auras in them were the ones attacking her. "I should have thrown them in the cargo hold first and questioned them later." Mara muttered under her breath as she disengaged her ship from the now empty ship and began making evasive maneuvers.
"Ah, Jade. Nice to see you again." Zanthis spoke as he spun his starfighter around and shot at the Flame of Jade's belly.
Mara flipped and rolled the ship to avoid the blasts and then had to jerk the ship hard to the left when the second starfighter flew right at her. "You'll forgive me if I don't feel the same."
A chuckle came over the comm. system. "You're as fiery as ever Jade." Lixion remarked. "Do you always stay in that ship?"
Mara fired at Lixion's starfighter in response and managed to graze his shields.
"Ouch, that hurt." Lixion replied in a mocking voice and shot a few volleys at Mara's ship.
"Lixion, knock it off." Zanthis' irritated voice came through the speaker. "Jade, we know you have those two Jedi so why don't you just hand them over and we'll let you go."
Mara rolled her eyes and launched a torpedo at the derelict ship. "Nope, sorry but I got them first. I'm sure they'll fetch an excellent price on the black market. If you want them then you'll just have to do what the other slavers do, go to the slave auction."
Lixion flew his starship around the Flame of Jade and fired at her rear. "A pity you're not Force sensitive, you would make a decent Sith."
Pressing her lips in a thin line, Mara reversed the ship's thrusters and the ship jolted backwards and was put into a tight spin.
Zanthis broke away from flying beside Lixion and managed to barely escape the Flame of Jade's sudden reversal.
"Is that the best you can do?" Mara baited. "I'm sure the Emperor will be displeased that two Jedi escaped your grasps just because you both don't want to kill me."
Outraged, Zanthis and Lixion flew their starfighters at the highest speed possible at the front of the ship only to have Mara launch to torpedoes at them and move her ship out of their path.
The torpedoes opened up to reveal an odd kind of net that immediately grasped onto the starfighters and shut down all the systems on the starfighters except for lifesupport.
"See you next time." Mara told them with a small smirk of satisfaction and then pulled the hyperdrive lever to enter hyperspace.