Chapter 5: Rescued

Twi-lek pilot had yet to try and sleep. Her tired eyes scanned the water as she flew as close as she could. She had her high beams on so that she could see into the darkness. Hope was starting to dwindle. 72 hours had passed with no clue as to where the Jedi were. Hera heard the cockpit door open and the sound of Chopper coming in but she didn't look away from her current task. Chopper had brought Hera a cup of caf and tapped her beeping to let her know. The

"Thanks Chop…" Hera had the Ghost on auto so that she could put full focus to scanning the water. She took a small sip. In his own native language, Chopper asked if there was any sign of them yet; the little droid concerned for his organic friends.

"I'm afraid there's no sign of them yet. We still have almost a full rotation to look though. I just know there out there somewhere; the question is…where?" She spoke to Chopper as if he was a regular organic being and not a droid. The droid wasn't fully able to understand emotions but he knew that Hera was tired and hurting.

They were running out of time and credits, and within the next hour, Hera would have to turn in to refuel for the last time. They agreed to look for the full scope of 100 hours, after that, the search would be called off and she would have to give in to the notion that she had lost two of her crew.

It hurt Hera deeply, she didn't want to lose anyone on the ship, especially not in this manner. If it had to happen, she thought it would be a sacrifice to destroy the Empire, not sinking to the bottom of an ocean. She had come to love all of them very much and they, in turn, had become her family.

Crackling came over the radio startling the pilot slightly. Hera immediately assumed that it was damage from the TIE fighter. The radio had been acting up since they had taken a few direct hits. The Ghost had received a lot of damage with the shields down and refueling was the only time Hera would take time to work on it.

"Chopper, I need you to fix the communications please in case Sabine and Zeb find something and need to radio in." Chopper whirled and beeped that he had already done so.

"What? Then why is there static. Maybe it went down again. There's a lot of repairs that need to be done…soon." She said tiredly, staring at the radio. The static hadn't stopped like it normally did and was just a steady stream on, like someone had activated their link but wasn't speaking.

"re…st…in" The pilot's eyes lit up as she heard the transmission. The voice was undeniably Kanan even though she couldn't understand what he was saying through the static.

"Spectre 1? I can hear you but there's too much static. Where are you?" Kanan heard her voice just as broken up, but a connection was a connection. He wanted to leap for joy but refused to disturb the sleeping teen currently in his lap.

He made a few more adjustments to the link in his hand. Ezra and Sabine were the best at hot wiring these things besides Chopper. Unfortunately, Ezra was in no shape to offer any assistance. The battery was going to quickly die so he'd only have one shot at this. One chance to get this right.

"Spectre 1 to Ghost…hear me?" Hera was on the edge of her seat wishing that she could track a communication's link. She almost thought she was hearing things when he didn't respond; After all, she had been awake for almost 4 days straight now.

"I Hear you Spectre 1. I'm so glad you're alive. We've been worried sick. Is Ezra with you? Where is your location?" For the longest time there was nothing but static and Hera became frantic, worried that the battery died or the signal was lost. She made some adjustments to the radio hoping to find his voice again.

"Ezra's…" The static cut in, Hera didn't like Kanan's voice and it caused her to get a small pain in the pit of her stomach. Was Ezra alive? Was he even with Kanan?

"Listen to me Hera," Kanan ignored their code names. He didn't care right now if anyone was listening in; besides, half the Imperial Navy knew their names now.

"the battery is going to die. I need you to follow my directions, I'm going to try and find you and point you in our direction. We have one shot at this and we have to get it right." Hera remained silent waiting for her orders.

Kanan shut his eyes trying to feel out the Ghost they were far, but not too far and if Kanan put Hera on a specific trajectory, he knew she would fly straight. He had felt the Ghost in and out since they had fallen but he had no way of communicating. They had even gotten very close at one point.

"There…found you." His voice was distant because of his level of concentration it was taking to keep a mental eye on the ship and focus on the direction she was facing. He needed her to turn and face them.

"Rotate the nose 92 degrees South West" Kanan felt the ship shift direction as Hera followed. He soon felt it facing in his direction.

"Perfect as usual, Captain. We're 400 klicks straight ahead. On an islet with a beach on the south side and a cliff on the north. There's a TIE patrolling East to West every few hours so be careful." He felt the connection die and sighed. He hoped Hera had heard.

The Jedi looked down at the teenager. He gently stroked his head feeling the heat coming off him.

"She's on her way Ezra. Everything is going to be okay now. Just hang in a little longer."

"Spectre 4, Spectre 5 I found him. Rejoin with the Ghost, sending coordinates now." Hera called over the radio. She was already heading towards the location having it set on her screen. Soon the smaller vessel was docked and the crew was speeding towards their goal.

The team had traveled about 200 klicks when they heard the all too familiar screaming engine above them.

"Not again. I'm getting really tired of these guys. Our shields are still down. Sabine, Aft. Zeb, Turret. Let's take it out before it can call for back up or hit us this time. I don't know if we can take another direct hit and we don't have the fuel to lose it and get to the boys." The two filed out of the cockpit and into position. Hera shut the beams off and flew up into the clouds, starting the hunt, glad that it hadn't seen her.

In no time at all they had found and destroyed it. Hera had a mission and nothing was going to stop her. Soon she had her ship back on course, paying close attention to the fuel that was starting to run dangerously low. They would have just enough to get them back.

Kanan waited a bit before he killed the fire and gathered up everything. He gently stroked Ezra's face again before picking the sleeping teen up making his way to the edge of the wooded area to wait for their pick-up.

The wind had a powerful bite to it and Kanan found himself shivering before he was able to call upon the force to help. He looked down at Ezra.

His student was completely limp and had made no noise at all when he had been moved or when Kanan accidentally bumped his leg up against a tree. The Jedi checked his vitals noting the drop in pulse before he re-positioned himself accidentally causing the youth's head to lull to the side. Kanan had to lean back slightly and gently bump Ezra up a little to get it re-positioned back on his shoulder.

"Just hang on Ezra. Hera's almost here." Just within the last few hours, his padawan's health had declined greatly and it scared him a little.

Hera arrived and landed, opening the main ramp. Kanan was sitting out of sight, holding Ezra close to him. Since the suns had set, the temperature was declining well below freezing. Kanan had stayed in a meditative state to keep from chilling, himself. He stood stiffly and walked towards the ship. Hera ran down and stopped, seeing them, before running over.

"Is he?" She said, scared of the answer. She looked at their youngest, he was very still and very pale.

"No, but he needs antibiotics and medical care." Hera helped get both of them up the ramp to warmth and safety. The ramp shut and they were soon back in the sky heading for the nearest refueling station.