Chapter 3
Lothal, Jhothal Outpost
They'd travelled until the tank in Erisi's speeder was nearly dry. Nowhere seemed safe, whether it was safe in reality or not didn't seem to matter at all. They were all just too scared, and cold hard facts had forced them to stop here. It was as small and out of the way as any place they had found. There was really no market here aside from a few farmers living nearby selling to the few residents of the little handful of buildings. They'd never heard of it, aside from Erisi.
"You sure we'll be okay here?" Trochime asked as he got out of the speeder once they'd parked behind the space port building in a back alley.
"I've only been here twice," Erisi shrugged, "Never seen any Imperials around here."
"We should be okay right now," Titus said calmly, walking out to the alley exit, "Besides, the Imperials aren't all that active at night."
"I hope you're right," Trochime replied as he walked next to him and then looked back at Callenia.
She was helping Gizem and Segar out of the back of the speeder. The two of them had been dead quiet since they'd seen their mother taken from them. They knew she wasn't dead, and that made it easier for them to handle. But losing her was a tough thing for children so young to take. They'd silently held one another crying themselves to sleep and had slept peacefully for the past four hours.
Neither of them was particularly feeling up to resisting or whining. So they followed Callenia out of the speeder and walked over to the alley exit where Titus, Trochime, and Erisi were standing and waiting, deciding what to do.
"You two okay?" Titus asked, kneeling down in front of them.
Segar and Gizem just nodded glumly, still shaken up by what had happened to their lives. But at least they weren't crying any more.
"I heard that there's a bar owner here that we might be able to get some help from," Erisi now stated, "He's an Ithorian, name's Old Jho."
"Shouldn't be hard to find," Trochime said calmly, "There's only one bar in town."
"If you can call it a town," Callenia smirked.
"There's go then, we can ask him if we can covertly deliver a message to our families."
"Unless the Empire's gotten to them first," Trochime indignantly growled.
"You, Erisi, and my family probably not. But Callenia," Titus carefully said, "I think you need to be prepared for the possibility that they've been arrested."
"My pop's an old doomsday prepper, he'll suspect something before the Empire ever gets near him," the young redhead said confidently, but the hint of fear and uncertainty was evident in her voice and on her face.
Titus and Erisi shared a look, they both felt the same thing as the other, but neither really wanted to say it.
"Lead the way Erisi," Titus motioned his girlfriend, allowing her to lead them to this bar owner who they suspected might have been capable of helping them.
"It should be right around the corner here," she said, quickly marching around the wall with the group right behind her.
After going around the corner they came upon a rather memorable entrance to the bar. It had an old LAAT nose and cockpit mounted above the door. The stencil on the front was obviously old, and done in poor taste in the eyes of the two girls and was a strange sight for the two Twi'lek children hovering at Callenia's sides expectantly. They walked in to a quiet and subdued atmosphere. Several patrons were sitting at tables, talking with each other or just sitting alone with a cup in hand. The bar owner was in fact an Ithorian, and he saw them walk in.
"What can I do for you young ones? I don't have many children's drinks here but I have some."
"We were actually here to…" Erisi trailed off careful not to speak too loudly, "See if you could help us. Are you Jho?"
"I…" the Ithorian responded, twisting the knob on his translator's volume control, "I might be. What sort of trouble?"
"It's of the Imperial variety," Titus said carefully, "We need to contact our families, let them know we're okay."
"I'll…see what I can do," Old Jho replied, carefully sliding a datapad across the bar to Titus, "But I recommend caution young ones. The Imperials have begun cracking down. The…Jedi among the Rebels has been captured."
"What?!" Erisi asked.
"You're kidding."
"I'm afraid not. The Rebels stormed an Imperial communications tower last night and hijacked its signal. That's what we heard this morning."
"Did they get any of the others?" Erisi asked, well aware that were more Rebels than just the lone Jedi.
"No, I don't think so. The Imperials would have said so, but signal has been tough to come by since they destroyed the tower and brought the entire network down."
"The network's down?" Titus asked.
"The Holonet, communications, data, everything."
"Would that include the Imperial network?" Erisi asked.
"Yeah, of course, it was their tower they blew up."
"Titus I've got an idea!" Erisi said rapidly, "But we need to hurry."
"What sort of idea?"
"The, 'we can save our families' sort of idea."
As the two of them consulted with Old Jho at the bar Trochime and Callenia had taken Segar and Gizem off to a corner table and had sat down. A droid had brought them a pair of juice drinks for the two children, who absent-mindedly began taking small sips from the straws.
"You okay?" Trochime asked Callenia, seeing that she was looking very tired and a bit cold.
"I'm okay," she replied, rubbing her arm as she looked down at the table.
"Thinking about your family?"
"Yeah. I'm worried, even if my dad knows something's wrong he still has to take care of my mom and sister. I just don't know if they'll be able to get away. Even then where would they go?"
"You have extended family right?" Trochime asked.
"Of course, I was born on Onderon. My folks left the planet after I was born because it wasn't safe any more."
"They can go back there. It's got a lot of people, they wouldn't be found all that easily."
"I guess," Callenia shrugged, "But they wouldn't leave without me. Which is why I'm so worried."
"Well, at least I've only got my older brothers," Trochime responded with a chuckle, "I'm not at all worried. We only came out here to help a family friend. All they have to do is grab a shuttle and they're on their way home."
"I'd always pitied you for that, I guess now I'm jealous," Callenia laughed quietly.
At that moment an energetic Erisi and Titus slid into the booth. They both seemed far different than they had been earlier. Now they seemed happy, almost giddy.
"We've got good news," Erisi stated quickly, "The Imperial Data Network is down."
"Good," Trochime responded, "What does that mean exactly?"
"The Imperials are having to do everything manually. They have no way of tracking us down via the Lothal databases. We can walk right through the city and they'd never even know it's us!" Titus said excitedly.
"We can go home?" Callenia asked, relief flooding her tone.
But then they noticed something. Segar and Gizem seemed even more depressed than ever. Hearing them talking about going home had reminded them that they didn't have a home any more. They didn't have their mother waiting anxiously at front door. They were alone.
"It's okay you two," Erisi said calmly, placing a hand on Gizem's, "We'll take care of you."
"What about mommy?" Gizem asked.
"Will you get her back?" Segar added.
"Yeah," Titus responded, "We'll get your mom back."
"We promise."
As they talked the Ithorian cantina owner walked over to them and was surprisingly joined by a pair of human men. At first they were shocked and afraid that he may have been an Imperial informant. But Jho must've sensed this, because before Trochime and Titus could yank out their stolen E-11 Blaster Rifles he held out his hands.
"It's okay, they're my friends. They can help you get your families off of the planet."
"Wh-what? Why are you helping us?" Erisi asked.
"It's what we do," the man said calmly, "We fight to help those who can't help themselves. We heard about what you'd done."
"What we did?" Titus asked.
"Yes," the other man replied, "Your little rescue right in the middle of the city got a lot of attention from the highest levels of our organization. Someone has decided that you might have potential."
"Here's the deal," the first one said, "We'll get your families somewhere safe. In return, join the Rebellion, fight for more than yourselves. Fight for something greater, just as some have already done."
"The Rebels who attacked the tower…" Titus grumbled.
"You're with them?"
"They're with us, but they don't know it yet."
"And why tell us?" Trochime asked, "These other guys are so great why are they outside the loop?"
"Security protocols have changed. The Rebellion is going in a new direction. You, and your friends will be one of the new teams to help us move in this direction. What do you say?"
"You promise that our families will be safe?" Titus asked.
"Of course."
The four young individuals had herd this and were incredibly excited about the possibility of this new adventure. The one great fear they all shared was that their families would be in danger was now gone, and here they were, ripe with the possibility of doing something they'd wanted to, but were afraid to do. That was going to end, they were still afraid, but they were ready to face that fear.
"We're in."
It's a short one, but the next chapter is going to be a much longer one and I'll have a new direction for the story to go. Hopefully it's one you all like, because I've really got my mind set on this.
Next Chapter Preview: Joining the Rebellion.