Hello my dear readers. I hope everyone is doing okay. Sorry it took so long to update, but I had to get 'We Love Each Other' done by the one year anniversary of it being posted. I'm still digesting the fact that it is over, but in the mean time, other stories have to be written. I'm still trying to adjust my writing schedule now that my baby is done. We'll see how it goes.

Imperius-Rexford: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. Having Drake & Josh as 'Skynauts' was to give a humorous face to two losers that are caught up in this epic story.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Was there a security leak or just plain dumb luck that they were able to intercept the princess? Good question. They're running an empire that spans half the galaxy, I hope they have plans in the works to keep it intact.

Challenge King: Thank you. I'm still at the stage of the story where I'm fleshing out characters, so I'm glad that she was acceptable so far. I hope this chapter lives up to expectations.

Rating: T Heavy Violence

Chapter 7: Some Escape Plan

Millennium Falcon in Route to Rendezvous Point

In the main hold of the tramp freighter, Sinjin was sitting in the curved half circle cushioned seat and behind the circular holographic game table teaching Shapiro, on the cattycorner side of the table to him, Dejarik. Several holographic creatures, some real on the first mate's side of the galaxy while others were mythical creatures, were standing on a circular checkered board as if they were chess pieces.

Benson was setting in the seat in front of the engineering station for the freighter and causally glanced over the instrumentation, but unfortunately couldn't read any of it as the displays were in Basic. However, that didn't stop him from slipping his miniature tricorder out of his pocket and scanning the station while Shapiro distracted the first mate. Once his scan was complete, he glanced over to his right shoulder to see that Jade was sitting on a spare square cargo container and resting her back against the bulkhead at the end of the hold. She rested her head back and had her eyes close, taking steady breaths.

The starship captain slipped the tricorder back in his pocket then got out of his seat and walked over to his Chief Medical Officer. He pulled another spare container to have a seat across from her. He reached out and softly rested a hand on her left knee and whispered out, "Are you okay?"

She leveled her head off the bulkhead and opened her eyes to meet Benson's concerned brown ones. She took a deep breath and whispered with self-loathing, "I just let a girl not much younger than me die; how do you think I feel?"

The captain frowned as he wasn't sure how to respond to her guilt.

A voice called out from entering the main hold and stopping by the engineering station, "You didn't let her die, I did."

She looked over Benson's right shoulder to see Dusty walking into the hold and wearing a stoic expression. She stood up from her seat, walked around her captain to look him straight in the eyes and spat, "You're damn right you are! I could have saved her!"

The lean young man answered in a calm voice, "You may feel that emotionally, but it's not the truth. She took a blaster bolt from an E-Eleven rifle to the back and unless you could inject her with some bacta or perform any kind of field surgery, she was going to die even if you remained. They would have pushed through those Gorn and captured you if not have outright shot you out of spite."

The blue eyed doctor held her glare on him.

Benson looked over his left shoulder and commented with a shameful voice, "He made a command decision and it was the correct one."

Shapiro and Sinjin were mildly paying attention to the conversation, each not wanting to get involved as Jade scared both the young men.

Jade turned and glower at her brown eyed captain. "Don't you dare take his side!"

The starship captain stood up and faced the blue hair streaked young woman. He continued in a calm voice, "The Gorn would have only held them back for another minute or so, you couldn't have properly treated her and we couldn't have taken her with us, so we had to leave her if we were going to get out alive."

She clenched her jaw tightly, the skin around her jaw becoming even paler while giving him a murderous glare. She hissed out, "And what if it was me lying there?"

His shoulders slumped and answered in a tired voice, "Shapiro would have carried you out while I would have died fighting to buy you time to get away."

Jade's face fell and anger immediately evaporated and replaced with a hollow feeling in her chest. She bowed her head and glanced to the deck plate.

Dusty carefully eyed the passing couple then cleared his throat then commented with a detached voice, "No one is pursuing us, but…"

Benson looked around Jade and politely asked, "What captain?"

The freighter captain looked to Benson and plainly asked, "So what are we jumping into?"

Jade turned to stand next to her captain and asked, "Jumping into?"

"When we jump out of hyperspace, it will be open space, not around some planet, so what are we jumping into?"

Benson shook his head and offhandedly answered, "We're just trying to start over. We were just going to meet up with someone to take us the rest of the way."

The freighter captain took a calming breath and started again, "Okay, let's try this again: What are we jumping into? You're not just some family wanting to start over. You have military training and military grade weapons. Are you spies? Rebels?"

Benson quickly answered without a hint of being dishonesty, since they really weren't spies, "We're not spies. I just used to be in the military. We just wanted to get away from the fighting. We're armed because it's a dangerous place. I got the weapons off the black market."

Dusty glanced between the pair then to Shapiro that had become distracted from his game. He looked back to Benson and stated motioning between the captain and doctor, "The only thing true about your story is your love for one another, that's it."

Benson opened his eyes wide in confusion while Jade gave him a harsh glare.

Dusty gently rested his hand on the back of the grip of his holstered blaster. "I want the truth or I'll drop us out of hyperspace and drop you off on the first inhabitable rock I find."

The more muscular young man calmly answered, "I am telling you the truth. If you're worried about getting paid, the ones we're meeting up with will rightly compensate you."

"I told you: I got you off the planet as debt to her. It's not about that; we just blasted our way out of trouble, I want to know what trouble we're going to be dropping into."

Benson reiterated, "No trouble. We're just meeting with someone that will take us the rest of the way."

Dusty continued to eye the pair for another few moments then asked his first mate, "Sinj, what do you think?"

"Don't you think the number of Imperials they killed is enough to go on a little faith with them? It's not like they would go through all this to nail us. They have too many Rebels and this side of the galaxy to worry about."

He kept his eyes on Benson as he answered, "Could be plants to get into Beck's organization."

"Why? He pays the right people off. They'd lose their kickbacks if he was shutdown."

Dusty frowned at he continued to study the pair until Sinjin made one last point, "Besides, if it's some kind of trap, we can always blast them before we're caught."

Shapiro's eyes shot open and the corners of his lips turned down.

The freighter captain snorted out a breath and closed his eyes with a shake of his head. He turned to walk over and have a seat at the engineering station. He glanced over some of the readouts while Benson cautiously took a few steps the station then idly asked, "You were a good shot back there and held your own against how many troopers? You obviously had some military training."

Sinjin eagerly volunteered, "He was a Star Destroyer commander in the Republic Navy during the Clone Wars."

Dusty turned in his set to look over his right shoulder back at his first and gave him a disapproving expression.

Shapiro quickly asked, "What were the Clone Wars?"

The space cowboy turned back to the engineering station and remained slightly as he was looking at the readouts.

The trio thought he was going to ignore the question, but after a few seconds, Dusty took a deep breath and answered in a regretful tone, "Well since you're going to be living under the Empire, I guess you should know a little bit about it. It was the war to try to stop the Republic from tearing itself, but it was nothing but an elaborate plan by the then chancellor to turn it into the Galactic Empire. He engineered the Separatists to try to break away in the first place and while the rest of the Republic was fighting tooth and nail to remain intact, he was consolidating more and more power under him until the point that we had the Separatists' backs to the wall and that was when he seized power. He ordered the troops to execute a lot of their battlefield commanders after what he said was a botched assassination attempt by the Jedi."

Dusty snorted out a breath, "I wouldn't put it pass those damn Jedi in trying to assassinate him, anyway, he used it as an excuse to turn the Republic into an Empire to maintain security for our civilization. However, now that the Rebels and the remnant Separatists aren't an actually threat to the Empire, he needs an outside threat to hold on to power and justify the continued military buildup and your side of the galaxy provides him the perfect excuse."

He turned in his chair to look at the trio and continued, "It's perfect for him: We finally know what is in the Unknown Regions and it is filled with 'threats' at every turn: Lizards that probably eat other sentients, those Wasp things that do eat people, Romulans that could be behind every corner ready to stab you in the back and want to rule over everyone else because they think they're superior to all other races. Yeah, that plays right into the hands of the Human High Culture in wanting to bring them to heel. You have the barbarian Klingons that do want to conquer the galaxy and brutally enslave all those that oppose them. It's easy for him to whip up the people to conquer this side of the galaxy."

Benson wore an impassive expression, but internally he was nearly ecstatic at the information dump that the freighter captain had just given him. He had an independent source to confirm what intelligence had determined about their enemy and the geo-political situation of the Empire.

Jade quickly spoke up, "What about us humans and centaurans? Why would they invade the Federation?"

Dusty swiveled in his seat and leaned back to look at the Star Fleet captain. He snorted out somewhat dismissively, "Human? That's up for debate if you really are human as we define it, but if you are, you're the backward lost primitives that have been subverted by 'the aliens' and need rescuing and brought back into the fold so you can be properly educated to become productive members of Humanity."

Benson held back a barely constrained glare while he struggled not to hiss out, "A lot of us won't think we need 'rescuing' or 'educated' or hold such… backwards and primitive views on other sentient beings."

"It really doesn't matter what you or your people want. I've been cruising around your space for the last couple of weeks even before the invasion and I've looked at your public records. Coruscant population alone is literally three times as large as your entire Federation. You are vastly outnumbered and outgunned and all your Federation is doing is throwing lives away against an unstoppable force. If your government had any sense, they'd surrender with the best terms as possible. Nevel would just install a few Moffs to supervise your space and make sure you'd pay your taxes to the Empire then leave the humans alone to keep running your little Federation."

Benson quickly defended, "Humans do not 'run' the Federation. We are a multi-species interstellar federation that operates together for our mutual safety and security. We are not the Klingons that have subject races that are second class citizens. We all get a say."

Dusty sadly retorted, "It was the same way for our republic… look what happened to us."

The Star Fleet captain gave him a cold stare while Dusty returned a sorrowful expression.

A soft beep sounded from the engineering station interrupted the staring contest, catching Dusty's attention. He looked over to the readout then stated, "We're about to make the drop out of lightspeed. Let's hope your friends are here, because we're not waiting that long for them to show up."

He turned in his seat and got up to head back to the cockpit with the others quickly filing behind him.

Dusty slid in the left seat while Sinjin took the co-pilot position. Benson took the seat behind the freighter captain as the doctor took a standing position behind Sinjin. The first mate suppressed a smile as Jade casually rested her right forearm on his shoulder while she looked to the swirling tunnel of hyperspace.

The space cowboy pulled a lever in the center of the control panel then the tunnel of hyperspace twisted back around to stretched stars until the star field returned to normal, however the stars were not the only thing in their field of view.

An Imperial destroyer quickly came into view and filled the cockpit window.

Dusty swore, "Oh… Sithspit." He pulled hard on the control yoke and the freighter sharply turned to starboard to veer away.

The rest in the cockpit desperately grabbed on to chairs and each other as the ship's initial compensators were trying to catch up with the sudden change in momentum of the ship. She leveled off and went to full burn, but suddenly the ship slowed and started reverberated through the interior of the vessel as the engines struggled to drive the ship forward.

Benson immediately realized what had happened, but Dusty spoke the obvious, "We're caught in a tractor beam."

Sinjin gripped tightly the grip of his carbine and hissed, "They led us into a trap!" He started to turn in his seat to them, but Jade was faster and lifted her right arm and wrapped her inner forearm around the front of his neck and pulled heard. He immediately started gargling as she pressed against his windpipe.

She spat out, "Don't!"

The blonde curly haired spacer wheezed while trying to bring his weapon around to shoot her before she crushed his trachea, "They're not getting me without a fight."

Benson briefly let the same idea pass his mind, but he had Jade and Shapiro as concerns. If they were about to become POWs then he was about to give them orders that neither would have approved least long obey.

Dusty shouted, "Enough! Sinj, stop!"

The pair stopped struggling under the glare of the freighter captain, but Jade still had her inner forearm around Sinjin's neck. He looked to Benson over his shoulder and demanded, "Truth, now before we're in their hold."

Benson contemplated on whether or not to tell him the truth. The freighter captain could decide to bargain for his freedom by using them as something to trade, but the look he saw in his eyes told him the hatred for the Empire was too great to negotiate with them. "I'm a Star Fleet Captain and we're to meet up with Princess Tori at these coordinates to negotiate an alliance with the Rebels to fight the Empire."

Sinjin shouted, "We hand them over, we can got out of this mess."

Jade pulled a little tighter on his throat with the intent that she would kill him before he could make that happen.

Dusty turned back to the window at the looming star destroyer and thought on those words for the briefest of seconds. He licked his lips then stated with a soft smirk, "You're not going to out fight them Star Fleeter, but there are alternatives to fighting."

ISD Devastator

The tramp freighter was pulled into the secondary hanger then the safety tractors guided the vessel to a landing spot. Three dozen troopers marched in three lines to the vessel then separated to surround the ship.

A group of about six approached the landing ramp hatch while another dozen covered them. One of the troopers placed a small box against the door, chirping and various lights blinking. The next moment the ramp popped open then several troopers pulled it down. As soon as it was down, several troopers dashed inside to secure the vessel.

A few minutes later, the troopers were exiting and speaking with a black uniformed security officer as Admiral Daniels and Lord Vega approached the ship. The security officer turned to the two commanders and stated in a professional manner, "There is no one on board; it has to be a decoy sir. It matches the description of one the ships that blasted its way out of Skoleos—The Wayward Son from its registry."

Daniels blew out an irritated breath as he glanced over the ship. "Get a scanning crew in there to make sure and clear this part of the hanger so they can get clear scans."

"Aye, sir." The security officer motioned his head towards his other uniformed subordinates.

Vega's breathing increased and idly commented, "I feel something… something I haven't felt since—" The armored figure abruptly turned and headed back to the hanger exit.

The Admiral frowned at the display, but didn't comment as he turned and followed Vega. He called over his shoulder, "Report as soon as you've completed all your scans."

After the last Red Skynaut exited the ship from searching the vessel, two panels popped open and slid across the smooth gray deck of the curved corridor.

Shapiro was the first to pop his head out with Sinjin and muttered out, "Thank goodness you had these compartments."

Dusty poked his head out of the second compartment and held up a DC-15S carbine with the same scope as the weapon's direct successor, the E-11 blaster rifle. "They were left over from when Beck owned her, but I'd never thought I'd be smuggling myself." He brought his hands behind him and pushed himself up to have a seat on the deck. He muttered in disgust, "I don't know what we're gonna do now. If I took off, I could never get past the tractor beam."

Benson and Jade poked their heads out of the other side of the compartment and the Star Fleet captain stated the obvious, "Then we got to disable it somehow. Sinjin said you were a commander of a 'Star Destroyer', so do you know where that would be on the ship? "

Dusty let out a loud sigh then answered with a slightly cautious tone, "I was a commander of a Venator, this is an Imperial-class, so the internal arrangement is different, but…" He climbed out on the deck and finished, "…I should be able to find it."

The scanning crew arrived just at the end of the ramp with a large gray crate.

One of the troopers, Josh motioned up the ramp while speaking to one the technicians, "Call if you pick up anything on the scanner."

He motioned his head and started up the ramp with his assistant.

Josh retook his position on one side of the ramp with Drake on the other side.

A few moments later, the pair of troopers heard an odd whining sound coming from inside the ship then the clatter of most likely the crate dropping on the deck.

A voice shouted down, "Hey, could you give us a hand?!"

Josh motioned his head inside for Drake to follow, but the trooper was hesitant in poking his head into anything after what happened earlier in the day. The first trooper started up the ramp with Drake reluctantly following him.

Two more high pitched whining sounds echoed throughout the ship.

The Star Fleet officers and freighter crew peaked their respective heads just enough to look out the cockpit window as they were crouched down in the cockpit. They glanced around to see that the rest of the bay was cleared except for the Rebel ship held in place in open space between the two hanger bays.

Dusty explained, "It's a Corellian corvette. They're used for just about anything, but why would a star destroyer have one in their main hanger?"

Jade pointed out towards it, "There're scorch marks all over the hull. One of theirs in need of repair or… she's been captured… which means…"

Benson blew out a breath, "It means the princess could be on board… and we got to rescue her."

Dusty shook his head and spat out in mild disgust, "I knew you'd say something that crazy." He looked back at the starship commander and continued, "You may have a death wish, but I don't and I'm betting these two don't have one either."

"I don't have a death wish. You're the one that drove a fuel truck into a troop transport."

"That was a calculated risk that paid off with a big enough distraction to allow you to make it to the hanger, but you… the guilt coming off of you in waves says otherwise. I don't know what it is, but I'm not going to go with you to the other side."

Benson asked with a strange mix of curiosity and accusation, "You're a telepath?"

He shook his head. "No… I don't read minds…"

Sinjin spoke up, "He reads auras and souls through the Force."

Dusty looked over his shoulder to his first mate and narrowed his gaze on him to signal his annoyance of making such a statement.

Shapiro curiously asked, "'The Force'?"

"We don't have time for me to explain it." He looked back to Benson and questioned, "You have an idea on how to rescue the princess?"

Benson slightly frowned then glanced over to Jade where an idea suddenly came to mind.

She looked back at him in curiosity.

Hanger Control Station

The flight lieutenant pressed the control stud to his radio and called out, "TK-Four Two One, why aren't you at your post? TK-Four Two One, do you copy?" The black dressed officer walked over to the window to look out at the captured freighter. He saw neither trooper at their guard post, but a moment later one of the Skynauts walked down the ramp. He looked across the bay back to the officer and tapped the side of his helmet at his right ear.

The officer nodded with a wave of his hand. He turned and headed for the exit while informing his two subordinates, "Looks like we've got a bad transmitter. I'll see what I can do."

The door opened just before he reached it to reveal another Skynaut, Jade, Dusty and Sinjin with their weapons raised. The officer reached for his E-11 holstered at his side, but the Skynaut fired first, sending a blue stunner ring at him. The officer dropped while other two were dropped by the other three with their respective stun settings of their blasters and phaser.

The second Skynaut ran up behind them as Sinjin pulled one of the operators away from his station to take the seat. The second trooper tapped the control to close the door then pulled off his helmet to reveal he was Shapiro.

The science officer laughed in mild disbelief, "I can't believe that worked."

Jade snorted out, "It pays to look out a window every now and then."

Dusty walked behind the sandy haired colored engineer and asked, "Okay, where's the tractor beam controls and this princess?"

Sinjin slightly frowned while he focused on the monitor. "Give me a second. It does take a little time to slice into an Imperial computer system." He took a few more seconds then the monitor brought up a zoomed in schematic of the ship. He pointed to the screen and stated, "That's where the tractor beam controls are located." He tapped a few more buttons and the screen changed to another deck. "The princess in one of the brigs as expected."

Benson disconnected one side of his face mask to quickly ask Shapiro, "Can you download a ship schematic into the tricorders?"

"They're radically different systems. I don't know if they're anywhere near compatible. The tricorders are Duotronic based, I have no idea what their systems are based o—"

Jade blew out an impatient breath, "Enough with the technobabble, just try it."

Shapiro muttered under his breath then walked up beside Sinjin. He pulled out his micro-tricorder and tried to access a wireless connection.

As the pair tried to work it out with the tricorder, Benson grabbed a pair of security cuffs sitting on one of the security tables then walked back to Jade. She held out her wrists for him to cuff her, but as he leaned forward and whispered without meeting her eyes, "You don't have to do this."

She answered in a hushed tone, "I'm the only one left Captain. It has to be me."

The use of his rank was a subtle reminder that this was a military matter and had to set aside his personal feelings for her. Rescuing the princess was the priority for the Federation.

He looked up at her and smirked, "I'll make sure you get hazard pay."

She laughed out as Shapiro called out, "I got it to work."

A minute or so later, Benson and Shapiro exited the room with Benson holding Jade by her upper right arm and started on their way to the brig.

Dusty just a few feet from the door and muttered out in mild disgust as he watched the trio go, "This is nuts."

"Yeah, but not too long ago you would have done the same thing. I'm surprised you didn't volunteer to help rescue her."

The scoundrel glanced over his shoulder and answered curtly, "I wouldn't be any use."

"Why?"

"Because I would just shoot her in the face and he needs her alive."

The trio received a few odd looks, but no one had the nerve to stop them as they made their way down the corridor and towards the equivalent of a turbolift. Fortunately the door opened quickly and they stepped inside then waved off someone that wanted to ride the lift with them.

Shapiro muttered as the turbolift started on its way, "This isn't going to work."

Benson took a calming breath and wanted to agree with him since Jade was being used as an excuse to get into the brig. However, duty came first. "We don't have much of a choice. Getting the princess is the only chance it looks like for the Federation."

"What if Dusty is right? If they outnumber and outgun us that much, wouldn't it be pointless?"

Jade snorted out dismissively while looking at the door, "You'd want Cat to be treated as a second class citizen or worst because she's Caitian? The way he makes it sound, they'd make interspecies marriage illegal and you two would never be together."

"I want her to be alive and not throw her life away in a useless gesture of defiance!"

Benson remained silent as they each had valid points. He wouldn't obey any surrender order, but he wouldn't want his crew to follow his example. He wouldn't want any of them to die in useless gestures especially the one fourth-Centauran standing next to him.

Detention Center
ISD Devastator

Benson led the three into the center and immediately stopped at the main control station for the brig. There was one security officer in black standing behind the station with another two nearly identically dressed guards other than their helmets standing on either side of the entrance to a corridor.

The security officer glanced at the lovely young woman then to Benson. "Who is this?"

He tired to answer in a flat, nearly mechanical voice, "Another Rebel we caught hiding on the ship."

"I wasn't informed. I need to check," he answered curtly and motioned with a hand to the black uniformed security guards, presumably to hold her.

Benson pulled Jade down to her knees as he brought up the E-11 and stunned the officer while Shapiro quickly brought his weapon up and fired at the security guard to his left, immediately dropping him. The second guard tried to pull his weapon out of his holster, but Benson and Shapiro already had their respective weapons on him and fired at the same time.

The Star Fleet captain immediately switched the weapon back to the kill setting and started shooting out the cameras while Shapiro ran to the station as it started beeping. Jade pulled the E-11 out of the holster of the security officer and joined the science officer.

After the final camera was destroyed and he pulled off his helmet, the science officer was able to hear what the speaker was saying on the other end: "What happened?!"

Shapiro stuttered for a moment then answered, "We had a ah… slight weapon malfunction, but everyone's okay. We're fine… how are you?" He turned to look at Jade with an awkward expression which the doctor closed her eyes and shook her head.

"We're sending a squad up."

The science officer quickly answered, "No, no, ah… we have a reactor leak, very bad leak. Give us a second to lock it down."

Jade looked at him as if he was crazy for suggesting such a thing as a 'reactor leak'.

"Who is this? What's your operating number?"

Jade brought the blaster up and fired into the panel. She spat out dismissively, "Boring conversation anyway." She turned to look down the corridor as Benson had been looking for the cell the princess was being held since the last camera was shot out and shouted, "Freddie! We're about to have company!"

Benson gritted his teeth behind the face mask while he tried to find the proper cell with a scan of his tricorder trying to find the only woman in the complex. He finally got a hit on the scanner and he stopped in front of the door.

The door slid open and Tori immediately lifted her head to brace it with her right hand as she lay across the cot. The trooper stepped inside and she thought for a moment that she was looking at the trooper that had given her the shot and apologized as he looked to be just as muscular but was slightly shorter.

She gave him a teasing smirk and asked, "Aren't you a little short to be a Skynaut?"

Benson paused for a moment then asked, "Oh? The uniform?" He pulled off the red helmet then met the lovely lady's brown eyes. "I'm Captain Frederick Benson and I'm here to rescue you."

She blinked from seeing how handsome the young man was and recognized the name then the face from the information pack from Star Fleet. She questioned in disbelief, "Captain Benson?"

He put the helmet back on his head, but pulled the face mask off then offered her his hand. "Yes, I'm Captain Frederick Benson of the USS… Tori and I am your Federation contact."

She quickly took his hand and allowed him to pull her to her feet then they were out of the cell.

Shapiro had sealed the door, but they could hear clattering behind it. The pair started walking backwards towards the corridor as a sizzling sound started behind it.

Jade looked down at the blaster rifle and for a moment considered switching it to stun as she had watched Dusty go over the weapon with the captain and Shapiro. She took a deep breath and decided to keep it on kill then raise it up to look through the iron sights. She whispered, "Just fire into the hole after they blast through."

Shapiro nodded then the next moment the door blew open and the first trooper stepped through. He died the next moment when Jade put a red blaster bolt into his chest. The science officer started rapidly firing into the breach, dropping a few more troopers.

The pair started walking backwards a few steps while firing then took their chance to run as they troopers paused from their assault.

One of the first troopers that could enter the cell block shouted, "They've gone down the cell bay! Walk to your left!"

The pair caught up with the captain and princess and Shapiro shouted, "We can't get out that way!"

Tori shouted out in frustration, "It looks like you cut off our only escape route!"

Jade noticed that Tori was holding Benson's left hand and spat out as she took a moment to fire down the corridor at the troopers trying to pour into the end of the detention center, "Maybe you'd like it back in your cell your highness?"

Tori outright glared at the pale young woman, but didn't get to argue as a blaster bolt flew down the corridor between them.

Benson and Tori pressed themselves to one side of the corridor as the other two pressed themselves on the other side. The trio started firing back down the corridor and soon the end was filled with smoke and ozone, but fortunately the Skynauts stood out in their red body armor. As they were trading fire, the captain pulled out his comlink and shouted, "Sinjin, is there anyway out of the detention center! We've been cut off!"

He heard back a static response then shouted, "I didn't copy!"

"I said 'All sections have been alerted to your position'!"

He fired another bolt down the corridor then shouted, "Copy! Now tell us a way out of here!"

There was a pause then a static filled replied, "I can't. It looks like that is the only way out. All that information is restricted on that level."

He one-hand fired the rifle and shouted to his officers, "It doesn't look like there is any other way out!"

Tori complained, "Some escape plan! When you came in here, did you have any plan to get out?"

Jade shouted back recalling something her grandfather told her when she was a child, "We did, but no plan survives contact with the enemy!"

The brunette squinted her eyes as she didn't understand the meaning of the praise, but quickly disregarded as she snatched the blaster rifle from Benson then turned to fire at the grill of an air vent.

Jade shouted, "What are you doing?"

"Someone has to save our skins!"

She started firing down back at the troopers and crossed to the other side of the corridor. She motioned to the blown out grill, "Into the air vent vampire!"

Jade glared at her and bit her tongue from the insult while the princess tossed the weapon back to Benson before jumping into the hole. The doctor shouted to Benson, "Did that stuck up gank just call me a vampire?!"

The captain refused to answer with an embarrassed expression as the micro earpiece universal translator in his ear did translate what she had said into 'vampire' and took the opportunity to shoot down the corridor.

The doctor followed up, "I don't like her!"

Shapiro shouted, "I think she's cute!"

Jade threw a dirty look to the science officer in front of her and returned with a fearful expression.

Benson ordered, "Enough! Get in there!"

Jade gritted her teeth then slid in behind her, followed by Shapiro before Benson fired a few more shots down at the troopers then dove down through the hole.

Dusty crawled the last few feet with his forearms and knees to the webbing of the ventilation vent. Walking down the hallways was insane, so the only choice was the ventilation and maintenance corridors. He looked through it down into one of the auxiliary control stations. He had to hand it to Kuat Drive Yards, they love having backup after backup controls. He only saw two operators manning the controls with their backs to him.

He flicked his right pointer and middle finger towards the control mechanism of the door. The button to control the lock suddenly activated then he brought his hands up to his face with the back of them towards the room then flicked them to his palms towards the room. At that instance, the two operators slammed their hands down onto the surface controls of their respective stations then sprawled out on the floor unconscious.

He quickly pushed open the grating then slid out and rolled onto the floor to break his fall. He glanced over the controls and took a few moments to figure out the specific controls for the tractor beam. There weren't any apparent differences in the controls from the two classes of starships.

Once he found the proper controls, he typed into the station to put the tractor system in a continuous diagnostic loop. The system would read to be operational, but someone would have to take a look to see it wouldn't be operational while stuck in the loop.

He turned back to the two operators and pulled them to the other side of the room from the door to rest against the opposite wall. He brought up his DC-15S, set it to maximum stun and fired into both of them. It would buy them a little time before they figured out what happened.

He jumped back to the opening and replaced the grill before he started his way back to the hanger.

On the other side of the ship, the quartet finished crawling down the maintenance shaft and into a central life-support control hub large enough for them to stand up together. Benson held up his micro-tricorder to get a bearing on exactly where they were on the ship.

Tori quickly asked, "What is that?"

He continued to look at the screen and answered, "It's a scanner with the ship's schematics. We're actually pretty close to the hanger deck and we got to get out of here before they flood the area with some kind of gas." He thumbed over the control of the tricorder and ordered, "Follow me."

She wasn't use to taking orders, but she was in no place to argue with her very handsome rescuer.

The dashed out of the room and down the empty corridor. Benson kept glancing at the tricorder to see if any lifeforms were approaching, but deck for the moment was clear of personnel until they came across an intersection. He motioned for them to head to their left as he dashed to the right.

Jade was about to question the order, but a squad of about eight Skynauts started rounding the right corner. Benson fired and dropped the first trooper and the others immediately turned to head in the opposite direction. He gave chase and shouted over his shoulder, "Just get back to the ship!"

Shapiro was immediately behind him to cover his captain while the two young ladies stopped for a moment at the intersection.

Tori whispered out in an admiring tone as she gave an appreciative look to the captain's retreating form, "He certainly has courage..."

Jade snapped out in mild disgust and admiration, "Yeah, he always has but what good will it do us if he gets himself killed?" The doctor took the princess' hand and started to pull her in the other direction towards the hanger.

Benson screamed enraged as he chased down the troopers until he reached the corner of the corridor. His eyes shot open as the troopers had turned on him with another hundred or so standing in formation. He snapped the trigger and the red bolt fired and struck one of the troopers in the chest. He turned and ran back the other way.

Shapiro was quickly approaching but stopped in his tracks at seeing his captain run back to him.

"Other way! Other way!" Benson shouted as he made a mad dash back up the corridor and wildly firing behind him.

Dusty ran down the corridor, not caring that random crewmembers were jumping out of his way as he dashed towards the firefight he heard echoing down the corridor. He suddenly stopped as he felt a dark presence. He raised his rifle and more cautiously continued down the hallway. He took a wide turn around the corner that lead to the parallel corridor to the hanger entrance.

Vega stood in place and lazily held his lightsaber, the crimson blade drawing naturally drawing one's attention. The armored figure looked to the space cowboy and hissed out through the respirator, "A Jedi?"

Dusty lowered his rifle and pushed it behind him to hang from the strap then pulled off the cylinder attached to his belt and activated the blue beam. He shook his head, "Jedi and Sith… always thinking you're the only two that have it right."

Vega questioned, quite intrigued about the possibility, "Not a Jedi?"

He returned with a smug expression, "Nope."

The armored figured looked as if he was studying the freighter captain even if one could see his face. "No, you're not a Jedi… but I feel your anger, your hatred. They make you strong and you are not burdened with the lies of the Jedi. Embrace those feelings and embrace the Dark Side and you can have a place in the Empire."

Dusty chuckled at the dark lord then dismissively answered, "You Sith live under the same lie as the Jedi did."

"And what is that?"

"That there is a Dark Side. There is no Dark Side, only the choices we make."

Dusty may not have been able to see the cyborg's face, but he could feel the anger and hatred coming off of him in waves. Others would immediately shake in fear from such emotions directed at them, but Dusty cracked a smile. He held up the blue blade and asked, "Are we going to talk or fight?"

Benson and Shapiro were able to double back and ran towards the hanger deck. However, in front of them, double crisscrossing blast doors began to close to cut them off from one of the pursuing troopers shouting, "Close the blast doors! Close the blast doors!"

Fortunately the Star Fleeters were running fast enough and far enough ahead of the troopers to leap through before they closed and leaving the troopers on the other side.

The doctor and the princess stopped at an end of the corridor of the side entrance to the hanger. They could see the Falcon, but several troopers guarding the open exit ramp. Jade pulled out the Imperial comlink and brought it close to her lips. "Sinjin, the princess and I are on the starboard side of the Falcon, but there's about a half a dozen troopers guarding the ramp. Where are you?"

"I'm still in the observation station, but they're about to get through the door."

Her heart froze as she didn't what she could do to help. She wished for a moment that Evan was here instead of her since as a marine, he'd know what to do, "Anyway you can get out? What can I do?"

"I got an idea, but…"

"What?"

"Can you take out some of the Skynauts in the hanger?"

"Yes."

"Thanks."

Jade looked to Tori and quickly asked, "Can you shoot?"

Tori took a moment to see if she heard correctly then answered, "Yes."

The pale doctor shoved the rifle in her hands then pulled out her phaser from her inner jacket holster. She turned her phaser to one-quarter with surprisingly little hesitation then aimed the weapon at the back of one of the troopers while Tori knelt down in front of Jade and targeted another.

Jade whispered into the comlink, "We're ready."

"Fire."

The pale doctor repeated as she squeezed the trigger of her phaser, "Fire."

The phaser beam punched through the back armor of one trooper and he fell forward as the one next to him did the same when the blaster bolt cut through armor and fused skin, muscle and bone into a gory mess.

The other four snapped around to return fire, but two more were shot down before they completed their turn. The other two stood their ground and started firing back, but the ladies were quick covered by the corner and frame around the blast door.

The troopers continued firing as they slowly approached the pair, but were quickly distracted when the window of the observation station exploded followed by Sinjin bringing the barrel of a DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle stored in the room and opening up on them. He cut one almost literally in half while the other tried to use the ship as cover. The move didn't save him as Tori shot him in the back.

Sinjin quickly climbed out of the shattered window and lowered himself as far as he could with the addition of a rifle strap then safely dropped to the floor. He ran to the pair as they ran into the hanger to make it to the ship, just as Benson and Shapiro were reaching the hanger.

The freighter first mate ran up the ramp to start up the ship while Jade immediately turned to her captain. As soon as he was close enough, she pulled him into a hug and whispered, "Don't scare me like that again."

He embarrassingly answered as he patted her back, "Sorry."

The princess looked on wide eyed back and forth between the pair, trying to figure out their relationship with only a few traded words.

The pair pulled a part and Benson quickly asked, "How's the ship?"

"Sinjin's in there checking her out.

The captain looked around and asked, "Where's Dusty?"

Their attention was drawn to an odd clashing sound at the end of the hanger and saw blades clash and flash as Darth Vega backpedaled from the fierce attack from Dusty with precision slashing and thrusting attacks. The Sith Lord apparently was surprised from the aggressive and quick attack from the non-Jedi and was on the complete defensive.

Tori gritted her teeth and raised the blaster rifle and fired at Vega's head. He turned and deflected the bolt away into the deck plate with his saber. He snapped back ready to defend a strike he knew was coming, but didn't. Instead he was lifted off his feet and soared backwards down the end of the hall until he crashed hard against a bulkhead.

Dusty dropped his raised left hand and deactivated this saber. He immediately turned and dashed towards the ship. "Get on the ship!"

The others didn't need to be told twice to run towards the ramp just as the troopers that had been trying to cut into the observation room reached the busted window and started firing on them. Benson held his ground, switched his weapon to full-auto and fired into the window. Two fell backwards with cauterized holes in their chests while the others ducked for cover. Benson took the opportunity to run up the ramp following Dusty.

Dusty smashed the control to raise the ramp after Benson ran up then turned to head for the cockpit. He slid into the left seat as Sinjin finished turning on all the systems and the preflight checks.

The first mate shouted, "Did you get the tracker beam?!"

"Yep, now punch it!"

Sinjin pulled the control stick and pushed the throttle. The ship lifted off the deck and the engine flared. She passed through the forcefield and turned downward to avoid crashing into the blockade runner. He pushed the throttle to full and the freighter zoomed away from the destroyer.

The first mate pointed out, "We're going to come up on their CAP in seconds."

Dusty focused on the panel in front of him while answering, "Dump everything into the shields and plow right through them while I calculate the jump to lightspeed."

"Where are we going?"

He smirked. "The one place they wouldn't expect us to go."

In the main hold, everyone was catching their breaths. The Star Fleet captain looked around and quickly asked, "Is everyone okay? Sound off!"

Shapiro was wheezing a little bit, but was able to get out, "I'm okay, I'm fine."

Benson glanced to Jade resting her behind on the engineering station and the doctor nodded. "I'm fine." However, there was a look in her eyes that told him that she wasn't alright, but he couldn't investigate further. He looked to the princess and asked, "Princess, are you alright?"

She smiled brightly at him and sweetly answered, "I am… thanks to you."

Benson cleared his throat and put on an even expression as the look she was giving him was not lost on him.

Jade narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw tightly trying not to throw up in her mouth from the sheer nausea of the almost teenage flirting to her captain.

Author's Note: I hope the chapter was worth the wait. I'm not sure when the next update will be as I want to get back on finishing some of my other stories and back to my Teddie story 'iGuess We're Roomies'. Thanks for reading.