Chapter Six: Search and... Rescue?
Amarav headed straight back to where they'd been shot at. No sign of the missing pilot gave a clue. She circled the surrounding area multiple times, but still no signal of his whereabouts.
Then she paused to think. What was the most logical place he would be?
"Sean's lair, of course," Amarav thought, holding up a finger. She zoomed to the location.
Janice was lying flat on the floor, a blue lightsaber held to her neck.
"Alright, you win," she admitted in defeat.
"For the fifth time now," he boasted in victory. He stepped back and flipped his lightsaber into the air. "You're not a bad opponent yourself."
Janice picked herself up and smiled at the Jedi. "Thanks."
CoCapJanice went back to her usual duties and checked on the ship. Then she trod to her room in the Starship 2000.
She pressed the palm of her hand against the scanner on the wall. It shone blue, then blinked twice, signaling a beep that triggered her door's opening. It slid open into the left wall, then slid shut as soon as she was fully inside.
Amarav burst a hole through the door of the Amrandian base, currently serving as a lair for her worst enemy. It was dark now, and no one was to be seen. She let down her fists and floated cautiously toward the secret entrance, now repaired and shut off. But as soon as she looked at that wall, she was suddenly trapped within a forcefield. Then the secret entrance disappeared, as if a hologram, to reveal her greatest fear.
And he was holding Han's radio communicator.
After finishing his duel with the CoCaptain, Luke had retreated to overseeing the Jr. CoCaptain at the control center. Rosie was staring intently at something below them.
"What's that?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. I think it may be an enemy ship," she replied with a ring of certainty.
"How can you NOT be sure? Where's the radar?"
"I don't know. The object is shown to be 'unknown' on the ship's radar. That means we've never encountered it and the ship hasn't a clue what it is."
"It's big," stated Luke.
"It wouldn't show up on our radar if it didn't have a certain magnitude," Rosie replied.
Luke looked serious. He quickly pulled a writing instrument and a paper from his back pocket and scribbled a note. It gave a satisfying crinkle as he held it out to the droid hovering over his shoulder.
C-3PO looked at it briefly. "What? Take this to CoCaptain Janice?"
R2 beside him beeped. He glanced back at the note.
"Here, you take it then," said 3PO, shoving it at R2-D2.
R2 beeped slowly and shook his head.
Janice heard a slow tap. tap. tap. She glanced up from what she was writing and looked curiously at the door.
"Come... in?"
The door slid open and R2 was holding up a piece of paper with a mechanical arm.
"Oh." Janice got up and stepped over to him. He held up the note as far as he could when Janice hesitated to grab it.
"Alright, alright, don't hurt yourself," she muttered, and snatched the note. She unfolded it and glanced at it. Looking up quickly, she saw the droid roll slowly away, beeping gruffly. Then she rushed toward the door. "Wait!"
The door shut right in front of her face.
"Open!" she said loudly and rather impatiently.
The door slid back open and she rushed out.
"It's getting closer," said Luke as he watched the radar.
"I see," replied Rosalee. It was the thing to say at the moment. "We should alert the CoCaptain."
She raised her hand to press a button, but Luke stopped her.
"No need for that; I have it covered," he said. Rosie was a little surprised when her sister came darting from the hallway only seconds later.
"What's up? Did I miss something?"
They all jerked when a loud "pshew" sounded and a red laser blast filled the main screen. Alerts and buttons were flashing warning colors of red and yellow.
"We've been hit!" Rosalee called.
"They're targeting us again!" shouted Trevor.
"CoCaptain, shall I give the order?" asked a crew member of higher status.
"Yes, Blake! Return fire!"
All weapons engineers quickly did so. The opposing ship took a hit, but it still continued to fire. They could see it clearly now: it looked a lot like a giant robot, twice the size of the Starship 2000, but its arms were folded in. It had a silvery black texture.
They were close now. Sophia reported major damage to lower shields, but no penetration, no casualties. They were lucky.
"Rosalee, shut off the power to the second and third floors and put the extra shields on the front," ordered her only present superior.
"But Janice—"
"I said do it!"
The ship rocked again. All the lights shut off momentarily. Then a few emergency lights switched on.
"That plan's out," said Luke with boredom. Janice glared. Trevor and the other weapons engineers continued to fire.
R2 started beeping suddenly, and C-3PO was about to translate when Rosie perked up.
"Janice, we have the bostanite!"
"What? How?" Janice looked confused.
"Show her, Artoo!" Rosie hollered over the beeping.
R2 held up the container. He beeped a little more when Janice snatched it. Then she shoved it back toward him. "Artoo, melt this and dump it into the shield fluid over on the third floor," she instructed. "You'll need this." And she handed him a small chip the size of a postage stamp. He rolled off toward the elevator, his partner trailing close behind.
"Sometimes I just can't take all this excitement," said 3PO. Both of them looked a little eerie in the dim light.
R2 chirped back as the elevator door shut.
"Don't you think you oughtta keep an eye on those two?" Sophia questioned Janice.
She shook her head. "I trust them. Artoo's the brightest droid I know, and Threepio..."
Janice halted her speech and seemed quite pensive, as if wondering how to describe him. Sophia had a quizzical expression.
"He's pretty smart too, I guess."
Trevor halted his fire. "CoCaptain, our short-range missiles are forty-one percent depleted. Shall we continue to fire?"
Janice turned to him and nodded. "Yes, but once the missiles are half gone, start using the lasers."
Trevor was about to reply, but Blake stepped in between them. "CoCaptain, the use of the lasers would severely deplete our power. We should use the bombs instead."
Janice blinked. "Save the jay bombs. Use the target bombs."
"Yes, CoCaptain," saluted Blake. He often advised the young Captain and CoCaptain, if you haven't read the other adventures of the Starship 2000 and the origin of it. (Not that I've published them, or even finished them yet, of course. :) )
The two droids arrived at the third floor, strolling to the end of a hallway and turning to a door labeled "SHIELDS AND WEAPONRY. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY."
R2 slid the chip easily into the scanner and picked it out as the door opened. The room was lit dimly now that the power had gone out, and it had a suspicious glow. R2 wheeled toward the center of the room, following the faint blue glow to a tall, transparent tube, capped with a metal disc. It looked like it had been thrown and stuck into the floor, because it was tilted quite a bit. R2 pulled another mechanical arm from himself. Instead of having fingers, this one was hollow and was shaped more like a screwdriver at its tip.
"What is— THAAAT!" C-3PO jumped back as fire shot from the hole at the tip. Nearly simultaneously, the ship shook, harder than it had before, and tilted sharply, flinging C-3PO into the wall and sending the smaller robot hurtling after him. They collided with a painful sounding crash of steel arms and legs and dented metal. 3PO groaned.
R2-D2 picked himself up and rolled with extra force against the incline. Opening the canister, he stuck the fire-breathing arm into it and flared it up. The metal gave a dangerous sounding sizzle as it melted into itself, almost instantly. By then he had reached the tube, and he poured the small amount into it, dropping the lid shut. The blue light turned green and reflected off the droid a little more eerily.
Janice saw a green light flash on the control panel and she leaned to look at it.
"The bostanite has been safely placed into the shield fluid," she stated. Rosie smiled.
"Artoo's such a great droid, isn't he?"
Janice smiled back. Another blast rocked the ship.
"Minor damage to shields," reported Sophia. "One percent down from 33 for the frontal shields."
There were whoopings and whistles and cheers all around.
"Way to go, Artoo!" Rosie cheered.
"Maybe we'll actually outlast this thing," remarked the CoCaptain.
"We've got thirty-two more hits if it keeps dropping at that rate," smirked Luke, who had been sitting back silently watching the screen for some time.
Janice looked bored again.
"Why don't you go... mmm... play with your lightsaber? Somewhere else?"
Luke stood up and put his hand on his hilt. "Why are you annoyed with me so suddenly?"
Rosie looked from one to the other. "Oh dear..."
Sean Underwood stood the deck of his ship.
"They actually think they can beat me?"
He laughed an evil, low bellow and he paced by Amarav, still stuck in a forcefield.
Amarav sighed and glared heroically at the floor.
"Even if they did beat me, (which they won't, of course)," he jeered, "they'd take their own Captain down! Ha! The irony!"
He let out another set of evil laughter, not noticing the small tug at the corner of Amarav's lips.
But Han Solo was nowhere to be seen.