Now this is the life, Mooka thought to herself as she looked around the pool deck, sipping a fruit juice cocktail.
She relaxed on the sun lounger under the artificial sunlight. The pool deck was enclosed to look like an exclusive seaside resort. There was a hologram surrounding the pool giving the impression of a beach and sea stretching off into the horizon. There were very rich and very fat beings milling around the pool, quietly chatting and laughing with each other. A couple of people had talked to her but, as Jade had advised; she maintained a healthy distance from everyone.
Both she and Jade had been on the Galaxy Star for almost two weeks. During that time, it hadn't taken her long to acclimatise to the luxury of her surroundings. It was as if fate was apologising to her for putting her on the streets in the first place. All she had to do was ask for things and she got them, new clothes, any drink or food she wanted.
The best thing was that she could look like a girl. One of the female crewmembers had shown her a lot of pretty dresses when she'd asked about new clothes. She'd even been allowed to try a couple on. She could almost hear her mother telling her she looked like her little princess. She'd handed the dresses back while holding back the tears. On the streets, she'd tried her best to look like a boy because bad things happened to girls.
She'd even been allowed, with Jade, to meet the Captain on the bridge. He'd been an old, stocky man in a crisp uniform of blue jacket and white trousers. He'd explained to her, in very simple terms, how they made a jump in hyperspace. Then the ship jumped. She saw the swirling blue tunnel of hyperspace and had to fight the feeling of fear that they were falling into a swirling whirlpool of light. Jade gently laid his hand on her shoulder to steady her as the ship continued on.
It was funny, she thought to herself, whenever I've got scared or confused he's always been there to explain things or take the heat out of a situation. I have no idea who he is. I've even got no idea where he is at the moment.
She put her drink down, wrapped herself in a towel and set off to their stateroom.
Jade was sat in the ship's library when she found him. He was sat at a data terminal, scanning through data entries as fast he could. He had short spiky blond hair was receding from the front. He looked better; the dark circles round his blue eyes had gone. The worry lines, she had noticed in the first few days, had begun to go. The stubble had gone. He'd picked up a long beige overcoat from the ship's store and had begun to look respectable.
"I wondered where you got to," she said. "There are plenty of ways to have fun on this ship and you're studying?"
He carried on looking at the data terminal for a few minutes before turning to his smaller companion.
"Research," he explained.
"How long are we going to be on this ship?"
"Getting bored?"
"If this is boredom then I'll be happy to be this bored for the rest of my life."
"We'll get off at Dantooine," he said. "There I'll find you somewhere to stay, hopefully a school and then you'll be able to take it from there."
"I'll be able to take it from there?" she was a little stunned. "Is that it? We split up?"
"Yes," he confirmed. He looked around checking to see if anybody was there.
"But I don't want to go to school," She cried. "Have I done anything wrong?"
"No."
They never got to finish the argument. The floor shifted, throwing both Jade and Mooka to the floor. Suddenly, lights went dark. One of the other people in the library screamed as the floor shifted again..
Emergency lights came on, bathing the room in a dim red.
"This is the Captain. Will all passengers report to their Cabins! This is not a drill."
Mooka looked at Jade. He had that far away look on his face as if his mind was somewhere else.
"Are we going back to the cabin?" she asked.
There was a slight smile on his face.
"No chance." he smiled. He got up to leave but Mooka stayed on the floor.
She stood up. She couldn't work Jade out. One minute he was all doom and gloom, the next he was manically happy. Frantically, she ran after him. She found him at one of the data terminals round the corner. He had some kind of pocket computer linked into it.
"Oh, this is not good." he said as Mooka caught up.
"What?"
"It's a Hostage situation."
"Eh?"
"There's about ten of them, armed and making a run for the bridge."
"What do they want?"
"No Clue."
"We demand the immediate resignation of the Emperor and the restoration of the Republic." blared out of the speaker.
"There's your clue," said Mooka wryly.
"Talk about aiming high," observed Jade. "But all that will do is make this ship a big target and we don't want to be on a target that big."
He disconnected the computer and started to walk off leaving Mooka standing there looking perplexed.
"So what's the plan?" she asked running up behind him. "You going to go in there sabre slashing?"
"No."
"We're going to negotiate?"
"No!" Jade was beginning to sound exasperated.
"Then what?"
They turned another corner and arrived at the escape pods.
"No!" breathed Mooka, "You wouldn't!"
"Why not?"
"I thought you saved people."
"Not anymore."
"But you're a Jedi."
"Whatever gave you that idea?"
Mooka grimaced and fixed him with a hard stare.
"It's no use looking at me like that we're going."
Mooka sat down on the floor.
"I'm not."
"We don't have time for this."
"I'll get into the escape pod once everyone's safe."
"It will attract attention you don't want Mooka. Trust me on that."
Mooka just continued to stare at him. There was a hesitation, a moment where she thought that Jade would get in the escape pod and run, but all he did was sigh and pull out his sabre.
"OK, I'll resolve this," he said "But as soon as it's sorted, we have to take our chances in an escape pod. We can't be found."
"Why?"
"Well, they'd probably just shoot you and I'd get carted off as a prize somewhere."
"Who'd do that?"
"The Imperials."
"Seriously?"
The look on Jade's face was enough for Mooka to realise that he was serious. The cold grip of fear grabbed her as she realised what traveling with Jade could cost her, but the after a moment of thought that she'd been more scared on the streets back home. She could handle this.
"It can't be any worse than what's back home." She said half shrugging.
Jade just looked at her, quizzically and then nodded.
"Here, catch." He threw her a data crystal, "try and find out how to read that."
"Once I'm done here, we're gone." and with that he walked passed her and out of sight.
"Great, Emotional blackmail from two sources." He thought to himself.
He'd felt the subtle suggestion of the force urging him to do something about the hostages, he could have ignored it if it wasn't for Mooka. The problem was how to resolve this crisis without drawing attention to him. Especially when he agreed with the hostage takers demands.
"Hard Decisions taken they must," he recalled Yoda saying, "Sometimes a wrong decision is better than no decision."
He grimaced, repressing any memory of one of his old teachers. He tried to remember how his other masters would have resolved the situation. Mace would have gone in hard and fast. Yoda would have found a weak link in the attacker's demands and argue them to death. Obiwan? He paused for a moment. What would have happened to Obiwan in the last two years? They'd both been apprentices together, getting each other into trouble with their masters. They'd even stayed in touch while they were Padawans. Until Jade left, he'd wanted to talk to him before he did, but Quigon Jin had just died and Jade had enough trouble without getting Obiwan involved.
He'd heard rumours that Obiwan was alive and in hiding, or he was dead in some remote world somewhere. There were still some powerful Masters out there but doing their best to remain hidden. He knew Yoda had tried to stop the Emperor and failed, so what chance would anybody else have. And what of Obiwan's old apprentice, where was he? Wasn't he supposed to be the Chosen One who was supposed to stop all this from happening?
There had been so many Jedi deaths since then that he couldn't know what happened but he'd felt every one of them. It made him feel breathless with terror every time it happened. Then it occurred to him, breathless. He allowed a cunning smile to slowly form on his face. He made some quick calculations in his head and then ran off towards the bridge.
He felt the presence of the two guards before he saw them; they were round the corner probably outside the entrance to the bridge. They were nervous, excited but more importantly very alert. The 'old mind trick' wouldn't work here. He'd have to do this the old fashioned way. Using the force to enhance his speed, he speed round the corner and barrelled into him. Two quick force enhanced punches to the neck of each and the two young men collapsed unconscious.
He picked up the bodies and dragged them out of sight and quickly locked the door from the outside ceiling all eight terrorists, or freedom fighters, in the bridge with the crew. He smiled and started to search for the maintenance hatches. He was thankful for his training. First rule in a new environment, find out as much as you can as quickly as you can. The first thing he looked up on this ship was its layout and blueprints and according to his research, the environmental controls for the bridge would be about here.
With grim satisfaction, he pulled the hatch open and looked at the controls. The idea here was to be subtle. He altered the Oxygen / Carbon Dioxide mix and allowed a small amount of carbon monoxide into the mix. Thankfully, these intruders were all human, so it wouldn't take too long but he had to time it right.
With the gas being completely undetectable without some kind of monitor, he let his awareness stretch into the next room. He could feel everyone on the bridge getting groggy, the real trick was to time it right that everybody lost consciousness but the gas didn't do any damage. He dulled their senses a little just to help things along. There were a couple of tense moments but he felt them go quickly one after another.
He quickly reset the atmospherics, unlocked the main door and ran it. He quickly saw that the hostage takers were armed with out of date basters and very shoddy armour, if there was any armour at all. He brought the Captain round and bound their assailants with cuffs from the security locker. It was then the captain noticed the ship had an incoming call.
"This is the Galaxy Star, Captain Brooks Commanding." He answered
"This is Captain Elis of the Star Destroyer Daring. We've had reports that you've had an incident and we're moving to intercept."
"Yes, we had an attempt to seize control, but it's been contained." The captain replied. "We can take it from here."
"Unfortunately, standing policy is that we have to investigate. We'll be alongside in half an hour and we'll take these terrorists off your hands."
The signal terminated.
The captain looked at Jade with resignation and then sighed.
"I bet they're goanna try for a shakedown." He said, "Ever since the war ended, I swear I can't tell the difference between the navy and pirates."
The options were already running though Jade's head. Not many of them good. The older captain looked at him sympathetically.
"It's been a while since I've seen one of you." He said.
"I dunno what you mean." Jade tried but he knew that the older man could not be fooled.
"Yeah, I'm sure you don't." Brook replied, "And I'm quite sure that you don't want the white helmets here. Take the captain's yacht, and these idiots." He said pointing to the gang of hostage takers. "I'll make sure the Navy think they got away, in escape pods."
"Captain…" Jade started.
"How many time the Jedi saved my ship I can't count." Brook explained, "Now Go!"
With that, Jade ran back to the library and picked up Mooka. She knew by the look on his face that the holiday was over. She quickly gathered her belongings and followed Jade to the small spacecraft at the back of the ship. There they found the hostage takers, bound and gagged in the back. Ignoring them, he quickly powered the ship and they flew away, just as the Star Destroyer came alongside.
Mooka looked over at Jade with fear as she saw the massive warship. Jade just looked at her, smiled and then as usual all the doubt disappeared. The ship shuddered as its tiny hyperspace engine kicked in, throwing it towards Dantooine.