Story Note: I highly recommend re-reading chapter 21 before reading this new chapter... thanks and enjoy... : )
Location: Somewhere in Hyperspace;
Twenty hours into the fifty-one hour trip, Ahsoka was desperately wishing she was back in the Jedi Temple. She had managed to alienate the entire crew aboard the Jedi Corvette within the first 6 hours. First the pilot, Sicko, then the other two, the young Rookie Tare and the mutilated mechanic 4-12. That hadn't gone well, at all. She cursed whoever had put that hydro-spanner in that particular place, but she thanked her lucky stars for the force, because without it, she wouldn't have been able to make it back to the cabin as quickly as she did.
Tare was giving her the cold shoulder, and she hadn't seen the mechanic since.
She had spent the past 14 hours going over the GAR's Standard Operating Procedures on her data pad, followed by two assignments given to her by the Jedi Council. Ahsoka knew that if she was going to be a Commander she needed to know every single detail about it, even all the boring ones.
She was tired, wanted to go to bed, and was pretty sure she knew everything there was to know about keeping a Star Destroyer Comm Officer's work station orderly and efficient, at least if SOP Statute B subsection 480-1 had anything to say about it.
"So..." Ahsoka ventured shyly from the table she was sitting at in the cabin, "I couldn't help but overhear 4-12 and you talking about injured clones being sent away... I haven't seen anything in the manuals regarding a facility to accommodate them?"
Tare looked up from the wall-bench he was sitting on. In his hands was his DC-17 hand blaster, getting the eighteenth cleaning since he'd elected to join the young Jedi in the cabin a few hours before. Neither had talked, until now.
Glancing back down at his blaster, he sighed, before picking up the polishing cloth to start rubbing the barrel, "Not likely to either," he mumbled under his breath.
Ahsoka could sense by his tone and force signature that he wasn't telling the whole truth, but she decided against pursuing it further. She looked at the young clone, once again completely absorbed in his repetitive task.
"You know, I'm pretty sure your blaster is as clean as it can possibly be. Isn't there anything else you could be doing? Perhaps something exciting for a change?"
The trooper once again looked up, before looking back down at his gun, realization dawning at what he'd spent the past couple of hours doing over and over again in the Jedi's companionable presence.
"Oh... yeah, I guess it is," he held the weapon up to his eyes to examine it, it gleamed.
Satisfied he holstered it and smirked at the small Jedi, "Thanks Commander... although I'm afraid there isn't too much to do, at least until we arrive. Sicko's most likely sleepin' behind the wheel, and... 4-12's well, he's..." his voice began trailing off as he looked around awkwardly and blew out an idle whistle, well aware of the Togrutan's eyes baring down on him.
Clearing his throat he continued, "Commander, have you ever played a game of sabacc before?"
Ahsoka gave the trooper a look of interest, "No, but I've watched a few games played between some of the Jedi Masters in the temple, though I've never actually played a game, why?"
Tare smiled, "Wanna learn?" he said with a wicked grin.
Ahsoka glanced back at her data-pad filled with GAR rules and bi-laws. It was a rather easy choice to make.
Getting up and stretching, the Commander walked over to the trooper, "Sure, I'm up for a game or two, just go easy on me okay?"
The Trooper smiled again, his eyes resting momentarily on her scant attire, "follow me Commander, we need to find 4-12. He's probably one of the best sabacc players in the galaxy, besides Sicko, though better not disturb him. I still need to properly introduce you two... if that's alright with you..."
Tare finished with an awkward pause, he couldn't help but think back to when the young Jedi had stumbled in on his and 4-12's discussion. She had looked amazingly embarrassed and scared seeing the clones prosthetics being placed on, so Tare wasn't sure just how keen she was at seeing his scarred brother again.
Ahsoka couldn't help but smile at the young man's unease, but she could understand why, she and 4-12 hadn't exactly started off on the best of footings.
"Don't worry, Tare," Ahsoka put her most re-assuring smile on, even if she wasn't so sure herself, "that sounds like fun… and I'm sorry about earlier with 4-12. I didn't mean to intrude like that... it was just a shock, to see someone who had lost so much... I... I didn't expect that, that's all..."
"It's okay Commander," Tare said quietly, feeling slightly better about the situation, "No need to apologize, I think I can understand."
Ahsoka nodded her head and followed Tare to the lower deck of the ship. She wanted to probe more into the clone's personal story, but she refrained, perhaps over the game of sabacc she could learn more. Either way, she was happy the ice was beginning to thaw onboard the ship.
###
Sicko woke to the sound of an alarm blaring from the navigation console.
"BEEP... BEEP... DANGER, DANGER, FLIGHT HAZARD DETECTED... Uncharted Space Approaching..."
"Fekking Navi-computer..."
Sighing heavily, the pilot flicked a few switches, adjusted his seat, gave the controls a thorough if not annoyed look, before settling back for another nap.
The warning wasn't really a concern, more an indication of what lie ahead. Since they were in Hyperspace, the onboard Navi-computer and the ships starboard sensors would automatically make the necessary course corrections needed to avoid debris in uncharted space.
Closing his eyes again, Sicko tried desperately to get back to the dream he'd been having, one involving an overly enthusiastic Zeltron.
But much to his utter annoyance, he couldn't fall back asleep. Swiveling around in his chair, the clone pilot glanced over at the ships security vid's.
"What the...?"
There was no one to be found. Sicko's eyes came into focus searching for anyone as he looked through the different corridors of the ship.
Gone, impossible, yet gone, all of them.
Sicko quickly did a head count of all those aboard. There was 4-12, Tare, an annoying astromech named D3-25, himself and most importantly, the Commander. Only the astromech was still in its proper place...
After cycling through all the images once more, a sudden realization occurred to the pilot.
There was only one place in the entire ship they all could be, 4-12's living quarters, down on the engineering deck.
Deciding that leaving the ship on auto-pilot was safe, Sicko got up, stretched and left for 4-12's room.
#
Laughing?
That was a first for Sicko as he descended the durasteel staircase to the lower decks. It seemed he was right in assuming everyone was in 4-12's room.
But why?
4-12 disliked company, even brothers, let alone a Jedi.
Easing along the corridor quickly but quietly, Sicko peeked into the room resonating with the sound of laughter and electronic card shuffling.
What he saw amazed him, 4-12, Tare and the Commander were all sitting at a table playing a game of sabacc, but what's more, 4-12 was laughing, the Commander was smiling having a good time and Tare, the usually happy-go-lucky brother, seemed to be somewhat disheartened.
However, one look at the winnings and Tare's dour mood was explained easily. Ahsoka had the majority of the credits, 4-12 had about half that amount, while poor Tare had only one credit chip. It was all Sicko could do to keep from laughing out loud.
"Ha, Ha! Sorry Commander, but I think I win this one..." 4-12 chimed, grinning fully, even with his horrific facial scars.
Ahsoka shook her head, trying to hold back a smile and failing.
"If I remember correctly 4-12, didn't you say if you drew an Idiot's array that you win... automatically?" she smiled innocently.
4-12's smile disappeared immediately as the Togrutan laid down her cards. Tare immediately brightened up, laughing as 4-12's remaining fortune was transferred to the Commander.
"Serves you right, ner vod, at least I'm not the only one with a credit left to my name!"
4-12 glared at his brother before looking back to the Commander, "Commander, I was under the impression that you were... 'new' to the game of Sabacc?"
Ahsoka smiled while stacking her credit chips neatly in rows, "I wasn't completely lying..." she looked down amused, looking like an innocent child, "but I have had some experience playing with my old Mentor back in the temple. The Jedi Code forbids most gambling, but special versions of Sabacc are allowed in the Temple, specifically ones were young Padawan's use the force to try to control the randomizer in the cards."
4-12 pointed a cybernetic finger directly at the Commander, accusingly, "you cheated!"
"I assure you I didn't use the force to win," Ahsoka rolled her eyes sarcastically, "we learned a lot about how the game was played besides using it for Force training."
Unfortunately 4-12 didn't seem too convinced but before he could interject, Sicko stepped in.
"I was wondering where everyone went. I was beginning to think I was piloting an empty ship! Mind if I join in, bet I could win back some of that money for you, 4-12."
"I don't know ner vod, the Commander's got skills. You might end up losing, to a girl, worse still a Jedi. On second thought maybe that's a good idea, you brag way to much as it is," 4-12, realizing he might have offended his Commander, quickly apologized, "Oh, no offense Commander, I didn't mean to ins..."
"None taken, 4-12," Ahsoka jabbed the clone in the side lightly, "I'll beat him for you... Wait, aren't you supposed to be piloting the ship, Sicko?"
The pilot chuckled a little, sitting down at the table with them, "I think she'll be okay on Auto for few minutes Commander, besides, we're still 25 hours away from our destination, there's no rush."
"Twenty-five hours?"
"That's what I said, sir."
"It's okay Sicko, I just didn't realize how long we'd been playing sabacc for... five hours went by fast."
"Well, when you're having fu..." Suddenly before the pilot could finish a loud bang followed by vibrating of the ship interrupted their conversation and erased the cheerful mood that had just moments before permeated the room.
"What was that?"
"I don't know Commander, but whatever it was, it wasn't good. 4-12, check the engines, Tare, go with him. Commander, if you'll come with me back to the cockpit, it's safer there."
With that, Sicko, placing his helmet on, left the room with the Commander in tow.
#
Sicko's mind raced with every possible scenario for the situation at hand. There were unfortunately too many... none were good.
He and the Commander had just made it up the durasteel staircase and were running down the main crew deck corridor. Their footfalls made metallic clang's as they raced forward, the ramp to the cockpit was only past the cabin.
'Feirfek! Can't trust the kriffing computer to do its fekking job!' Sicko thought angrily as alarms began to blare through the ships comms...
"Fek, Commander!" Sicko immediately stopped in the corridor feeling the ship lurch.
Turning swiftly around he caught hold of the running Togrutan and shielded her in his armored arms as the ship suddenly decelerated out of hyperspace causing everything not tied down in the ship to shoot forward towards the front of the vessel, including Sicko and Ahsoka.
Slamming into the wall at a somewhat frightening speed, Sicko let out an 'oomph' before sliding down the wall to the ground, Ahsoka still clutched tightly in his protective arms. He wasn't about to let the Commander get hurt, not on his watch, even if he felt several of his own ribs crack.
"You alright Commander?" Sicko asked looking with concern down at the young Togrutan through his helmet. She looked alright, but he had armor protecting him from the hit, she had nothing but a Jedi robe on, one size to big, which offered no protection at all.
"Yeah Sicko, I'm alright... what... what happened?"
The pilot helped his Commander up, noticing more alarms were going off and the ships lighting had turned red, indicating some sort of emergency.
"I don't know, sir, we need to get to the cockpit, come on."
They both continued on, jumping over anything thrown down when the ship stopped. This time though, Sicko stayed glued defensively to his Commanders side.
As the doors swished open and they entered the cockpit, Sicko was assaulted by an onslaught of alarms, claxons, and annoyingly fast flashing red lights. It reminded him of the dance floor at the clone bar on Corrie... but without the dancing Twi'lek's, or alcohol...
Rushing over to the main display console, it didn't take Sicko long to see what had happened, why it had happened, and what their situation now was. Turning off the various alarms, he then Comm'd 4-12 and Tare, asking for reports on the ships engines and hyperdrive.
Taking his helmet off, he looked to his Commander, who was anxiously awaiting an update, "Sir, I have good news, and I have bad news, which would you prefer to hear first?"
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow, giving Sicko an unsure look, "What's the good news?"
The clone scratched behind his head, "Well, we're still alive... and we only came out of Hyperspace... so everything's still intact."
"And the bad news?" Ahsoka scrunched up her face bracing herself for something she knew she didn't want to hear, she could sense something was definitely wrong.
"Well... see that?" Sicko pointed out the viewport to something Ahsoka hadn't noticed till now; in front of them was a massive nebula, though massive was technically an understatement. She noticed it was filled with stars, millions of the bright glowing balls of plasma clumped around each other, more than she'd ever seen before.
"What is it?" She continued looking at the massive gas cloud, partly in wonder but also in fear.
"That sir is why we left Hyperspace. It's called the Mouse Trap Nebula. According to the ship's computer, it's been pumping out new stars for over three million years. The point is, it's a barrier to direct Hyperspace travel, hence the reason the Navi-computer dropped us out of Hyperspace the moment we got too close. We'll have to manually fly through it. Not that I can't... it's just it'll add a lot more time to our journey."
Ahsoka frowned, but she could sense the pilots unease... there was more to this than he was telling her.
"I thought we were in uncharted space?"
It was an innocent enough question, but it filled Sicko with unease, "We are in uncharted space, but this is a very noticeable object in the galaxy, so it's been named, even if the Republic generally avoids these sectors. Mainly because it's impassable, from what I learned on Kamino, everyone avoids this route."
Ahsoka frowned even more, "Then why did we go this way?"
Sicko shrugged, "We weren't supposed to, I specifically set a course that would avoid this goliath of a Nebula, but something must have gone wrong, because we almost went straight through it. Can't believe I'm going to say this but the Navi-computer saved our shebs."
"I don't like it... how could the course settings be changed?"
The pilot shook his head, "only I can change them Commander, at least while en route, and I assure you I haven't done a thing, besides sleeping... which is probably why I didn't notice the changed headings to begin with... I'm sorry Commander but the settings must have been changed back on Corrie, before we took off."
Ahsoka shook her head, "No need to apologize Sicko, I believe you, besides I can sense you're telling the truth, though we may need to talk later about your sleeping habits..." Sicko dipped his helmet slightly, his body relaxing knowing he wasn't about to get chewed out by his Commander.
Ahsoka thought over the information, including the troubling notion that someone had sabotaged their trip back on Coruscant. Changing tact she asked a question that had bugged her since the start of the conversation, "Why is it called the Mouse Trap Nebula?"
"Heh," Sicko took his helmet off and sat down, putting his hand through his regulation cut hair, "The Mouse Trap Nebula is literally a massive trap. Any ship unlucky enough to travel this way is forced to slow down and go through. If they are fortunate enough to survive the gravitational pull from the numerous stars, they are more than likely to meet pirates."
Ahsoka's eyes widened, "What! You mean we... Get us out of here trooper!"
"Copy that Commander, as soon as I have an engineering report from 4-12 I will plot a new course."
The young Padawan rolled her eyes in impatience, "Hurry it up, I don't like the idea of drifting aimlessly in pirate infested space..."
Sicko nodded and placed his helmet back on, switching to external comms he called in, "4-12, Tare, report."
"Sicko... engines are fine... but the Hyperdrive's been hit by some debris when we stopped. Looks like a hydro-spanner punctured one of the cooling pipes, which then flash froze the heating sink. We've fractured an outer shell."
The pilot rolled his eyes behind his bucket, "Meaning what exactly, 4-12?"
"We're leaking radiation. I've locked down the compartment, but if the levels get to high, we may need to vent the air in the room before I can go in and repair it. For now though, the engines should be fine to go through the nebula, we just won't be going to Hyperspace until I can get it fixed."
Sicko shook his head slightly, his luck, "Alright 4-12, keep an eye on it, wait... hold on..."
A new claxon sounded off accompanied by yet another flashing red light.
"Fek! Commander, we've got company..."
Jumping into the pilot's seat, Sicko started up the engines with renewed urgency, all the while looking at the unknown ship approaching them. Thankfully the engines hummed to life, but only momentarily, before another loud bang was heard, vibrating the ship as a string of curse's escaped the pilot's mouth.
"4-12, what the fek was that! 4-12?"
"Sicko, 4-12's down, we we're just leaving the engine room when you started them up, one of the couplers shattered. 4-12's hit, I'm taking him to the med-droid now."
"I'm alright! Put me the fek down Tare... my leg is fine, it's a fekking prosthetic for Sith's sake!"
Sicko continued watching the vessel approach, proximity alarms sounding, they were going to dock and the engines were down, "4-12, get that engine running, we need to get out of here!"
"Afraid I can't, it'll take at least an hour, maybe two to fix that... must've been something I missed..."
The pilot continued cursing under his breath, looking to his commander he shook his head, "Okay Commander, here's the deal. We're about to get boarded, my guess is they're pirates. We don't have weapons strong enough to destroy let alone dent the incoming ship, and we're dead in the water," suddenly a loud bang and metallic clanking could be heard as the other ship connected to the Jedi Corvette's airlock.
"Tare, 4-12, you don't have time to join us, hunker yourselves down there, grab what weapons you can. The Commander and I will lock ourselves in here, at least we'll have a fighting chance..."
Suddenly, the pilot's Comm went dead, "Commander, they're blocking our comm's."
Ahsoka just looked to the trooper with fear in her eyes, but she knew in her heart, it was her duty to protect these men, and she was going to do just that, no matter the cost.
###
In the cabin, the airlock doors suddenly lit up with sparks as metal cutters worked their way around the durasteel door in a semi-circle. Suddenly, a circular section ringed with molten metal fell forward, hitting the deck of the ship with a loud metal clang.
With smoke wafting upwards, a Weequay Captain stepped cautiously over the cooling metal and looked around the interior of the Jedi ship with narrowed eyes. He half expected a Jedi to jump out from behind somewhere and attack, but no such danger occurred.
"Well boys..." the captain threw his arms out, encompassing the entire smoke-filled cabin, "look what we have here, a Jedi Corvette without the Jedi! Take everything not bolted down to the hull... on second thought... take what's bolted too... then maybe I can afford to pay you..."
Another Weequay cautiously approached his captain... "Sir, what about the crew? Our lifeform detectors indicate at least four living crewmembers are onboard. Two below us and two in the cockpit..."
The Captain smiled, "Fereed, I never knew you could use a scanner! Tell, me, how'd you figure it out?"
The other Weequay looked a bit confused, "I've... been practicing?"
The Captain burst out laughing... "Practicing! Ha! Bring me the crew members alive... who knows what the Republic would offer us for their... safe return?"
"Yes, Hondo... I mean Captain... right away!"
Hondo Ohnaka watched as his crew started scouring the ship... he didn't expect to find anything of particular value, and targeting a Jedi Corvette was a dangerous endeavor but he had a reputation to uphold, no one went through the Mouse Trap Nebula without being boarded, no one, not even the Jedi.
A/N: Well, that's not good... wonder what Ahsoka will do?
Well, it's been... let's see, just over two months since I posted anything... and I feel awful about it... I know bad author bad... but that's what happens when College and life gets in the way... but Spring Break gave me some time to write... so expect another chapter in the next couple of weeks... an update on Tens and the Gang...
A huge thanks to my Beta, who literally saved my shebs on getting this out... many thanks to you...
Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts... positive or negative... and for those of you who gave me clone names or squad ideas, I assure you the characters WILL appear in the story... eventually... so thank you very much!
-Sly