Chapter 14: The Call
It had been barely four days since the Ghost crew was back from their unscheduled trip into Wild Space, yet there was an emergency arising in the fleet: they were running out of fuel, all the ships. Even the Ghost.
Given the situation, Jaral went on a mission, leading Rex and three operatives with the goal of infiltrating an imperial communication center and find intel about imperial fuel shipments in the sector.
Ezra and the rest of the squad were on the Ghost and the boy was sparring hand-to-hand with Sabine in the cargo bay. To make things fair, he wasn't wearing his armor or nano-suit, since at this point they were evenly strong and she wouldn't have a chance against him with the suit on. That said, Sabine was a Mandalorian at heart, so she refused to wear her plates as well because she felt like it would be an uneven fight.
At one point, Sabine tried to make a sweep with her left leg, to make him fall, but Ezra anticipated her and graciously made a cartwheel backward, without even using his hands as a support on the ground.
"You're getting good at this." she complimented, still swaying around with her guard up.
"Thought I should work on my extension a bit." he replied with a smirk. "I can show you later if you want." he teased her.
"Now you're playing dirty…" she replied with a mischievous smile.
Especially in the recent weeks, since they got their cabin all for themselves, sparring had usually been a nice build-up to a successive round of passion in the cabin. The contact, the adrenaline rush and seeing each other in their respective skinny gym attires were a good incentive. Ezra was wearing a black tank top that showed his toned arms and skinned pants that did the same with his legs. Sabine was still wearing her undersuit, which, without the plates over it, was revealing her curves completely.
It was a test of strength as much as it was a battle of wills. The two lovers were pretty much trying to confuse each other with deliberate temptations. Initially, Sabine always won that part, messing with Ezra's hormones like it was an art that she had already mastered, but recently the boy has been working on his self-control while improving his charm, so it was becoming difficult for her.
Ezra surged forward and raised a fist that was about to land on her from her left. Sabine prepared herself, but realized too late that it was a feint and Ezra used the impetus to clutch her waist with his right arm, put a leg behind hers and then rotating on himself to make her fall.
Sabine grunted when she hit the floor.
Ezra immediately parried her desperate counterattack and bore down an elbow to her face, stopping right before he hit her.
"I win." he whispered triumphantly.
Sabine chuckled, though she was a bit irritated at her loss. "Yeah. I fell for that like a child." she admitted.
She tried to raise, only to notice that Ezra was keeping his position and pushing her gently back to the floor. She smirked and complied.
"Well, then. What reward should I claim this time?" he said quietly while getting his face near her.
"Choose wisely, Bridger. Because next time I'll get you back...with interests."
"I think I'll take that risk."
Then he dived his lips into hers.
The two teens exchanged a few passionate kisses before Ezra was overwhelmed by a sense of urgency and sorrow that was coming through his bond.
He pulled his head back and looked around in confusion before pointing in a specific direction.
Sabine sat up and put a hand on his chest with a worried gaze.
"Hey, what's wrong?" she asked.
Ezra sighed. "I don't know. It's coming through the bond, I...I think…"
Sabine understood immediately. She traced her hand to his shoulder, used it as support to raise up and then drew him to raise as well.
"Let's go see her." she proclaimed with a smile.
The teens quickly put their clothes back on, jogged toward the airlock and entered the Liberator. As it turned out, the shuttle bringing Jaral's team back was about to dock at the opposite side of the ship, but the teens noticed that there were three of the nurses with a stretcher ready.
For a moment, Ezra was seriously concerned that it might have been for Jaral, but his fear was immediately dispersed as the hatch opened and an armored Jaral was the first to step into the ship, clearly in perfect shape. However she immediately turned around and helped Rex dragging out a wounded man, who had a horrible blaster burn on his right hip. The two loaded the man, who left a scream of pain escape him, on the stretcher.
"Stay strong, Kollins," Jaral encouraged the men. "they'll fix you up, ok?"
Kollins took a breather and answered. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you."
The nurses brought him away. Jaral turned to face Rex and the only soldier left. Ezra quickly realized what happened.
"Rex, Bremen, you guys did great. I need to ask you to…" he hesitated for a second. "to go and clean Dann's spot. I'll go deliver the data."
The two soldiers made a salute that stressed just how much they actually respected her and the girl did her best to reciprocate, even though Ezra could feel that she was screaming inside.
When the two soldiers went away, Jaral felt a tug in her bond and looked on her left side, spotting Ezra and Sabine. She took out her helmet and put it under her right arm.
"Hi guys." she tried to muster a smile, which couldn't hide her sad tone.
"Sis, what happened?" Ezra asked without mincing words, walking in front of her.
"Not now, let's go to the command bridge" she simply answered.
The small group headed toward the bridge, where the other officers, including Hera, were waiting. Darvos walked up to her and gently grabbed her hand. Jaral nodded with a half-smile, trying to signal that she was fine, then slipped out of the grab and went to the holotable.
"Gentlemen." she said. "The mission was a success. We acquired the data we needed and Jinx has already decrypted them." she half-raised her bent arm in front of her chest, letting Jinx connect to the table and show up the diagrams.
"According to Imperial transmissions and timetables, there's a shipment of clouzon-36 that the Empire has bought from the Mining Guild on a nearby asteroid field."
"Wow," Sabine gawked. "a cargo of that would supply our fleet for an entire cycle."
"Do we have the coordinate of this refinery?" Sato asked.
"Unfortunately there was no time to acquire the exact location of the refinery." Jinx replied.
"Why not?" Hera asked.
"We were being shot at." was the AI response.
"The Empire reacted to our raid faster than expected. We had to withdraw before they overran us but...we still lost Private Winslow Dann." Jaral declared with a stern face.
"At least his sacrifice was not in vain…" Sato said with a mournful tone, trying to lift her spirits.
"Yes, Commander." the girl simply responded. Then she returned to the diagram. "It seems like the Empire is supposed to pick up the fuel in around 20 hours. Hera, if we leave immediately we should have plenty of time to look for the refinery."
"I see that, but event the Ghost is running out of fuel."
"We'll find a way through. We always do." Jaral tried to encourage her. "I'll call Dad anyway, we're gonna need every Legionnaire for this." she quipped.
And so the Ghost found itself wandering inside an asteroid field, with the fuel level so low that they had to save energy even for the heating systems. However, while the crew was freezing, the three Bridgers' armors had integrated environmental systems that made them immune to the cold. Though they were keeping their helmets off more for solidarity than practicality.
Ezra was keeping an eye on the visual scanners on the nose turret when he heard Hera talking.
"Sabine, fuel status." she said fighting back the cold that had weakened them for hours by now.
".05." Sabine answered grimly. "We're almost down to fumes."
"Sorry, guys." Hera said in the intercom. "Have to divert more power from thermal subsystems. Reducing heat to two percent."
In the dorsal turret, Kanan was sipping a cup of caf which was now almost reduced to iced tea.
"Jaral, I seriously hope that the intel on this refinery is solid. I'm losing feeling in my fingers."
Jaral was looking at the long-range scanners, trying to find any trace about the refinery.
"I lost a man for that info, Kanan." she replied coldly. "I know they're solid."
"I...sorry." Kanan said dejectedly.
Jaral realized that what she said and that Sabine, Hera and Jordan were looking sympathetically at her.
"No, Kanan...*sigh*...I'm sorry I talked like that, I wasn't accusing you…"
"Hey." Jordan called her, raising from the passenger seat. Then he gently pushed her in a corner of the cockpit.
Hera and Sabine turned back in front to give them a little bit of privacy.
"Jari. Seriously: how do you feel?" he whispered.
The girls sighed. "I'm fine, Dad…" she insisted, but the older man looked straight in her eyes with the seriousness that only a concerned parent could do and eventually, her defenses broke down.
"Ok, I'm not fine!" she hissed. "I was tasked with the lives of five people and I let one of them die. How am I supposed to feel?!" she brought a hand on her face, covering her eyes in shame and frustration.
Jordan grabbed her shoulders firmly.
"Daughter, look at me." when the girl complied, the man kept going. "I know it's difficult. Trust me, I really do. But this is the reality of command. You have to accept the fact that, sometimes, sacrifices will be made. If you want to honor the memory of your subordinate, then the only thing you can do is to make sure that his sacrifice was not in vain, by completing this mission." he calmly lectured her. "And to do that, you have to keep your emotions in check. The time of mourning will come, but now you have to stay focused."
Jaral closed her eyes, meditating on those words and trying to reach a balance in itself. Ezra closed his own as well and started sending calming thoughts to her.
Finally, Jaral exhaled a deeply focused breath and opened her eyes again. "I understand, Father." then she smiled radiantly at him. "Thank you."
Jordan was just happy that his daughter was back to give him that beautiful smile and he made an affectionate expression. "Any time, Starlight." he said, rubbing her cheek with a thumb.
Ezra was smiling as well in the nose gun, until something weird gained his attention. A faint wail.
"Does anyone hear that noise?" he asked to everybody.
Zeb groaned in the intercom. "The only thing I hear is my brain freezing."
"There. The noise. I hear it again. It's getting louder." Ezra exclaimed.
Everybody looked outside the nearest viewport.
"I don't see anything out here." Kanan commented. "What's that sound like, Ezra?"
Ezra mumbled for a second. "Dad, remember when you made us hear the calls of animals from Earth when we were children?"
"I'm surprised you still remember them, but yes." Jordan replied.
"What was the name of that…? Mammalian, lives in the oceans?" he snapped his fingers two or three times, trying intensely to remember.
"Dolphins?" Jordan suggested.
"No."
"Seals?"
"No."
"Whales?"
Ezra snapped louder. "There! It seems like the call of a whale…here it is again."
In the cockpit, the four residents took another look outside, but then they simply shrugged to each other.
"We don't hear anything, Ez…" she was interrupted by something she saw in the distance. "Wait…look straight ahead." she put on her helmet and activated the binocular, Ezra and Jordan did the same.
They quickly saw a swarm of massive gray creatures that, Jordan noticed, indeed resembled whales, except that their tail was replaced with a set of four tentacles.
Soon, the creatures were spotted by the rest of the crew as well, and they gasped as they saw that they were coming right at them.
"Whoa…" Ezra was amazed.
"Brace yourselves." Hera suddenly exclaimed.
A few seconds later, the massive creatures banged against the ship, shaking it multiple times.
Jordan and Jaral quickly sat down into the passenger seats.
"What the bloody blazes are those?" Zeb grunted.
"Purrgils." Hera said gnashing her teeth. "They'll rip the hull apart. Prepare to fire, we gotta drive them back."
"No!" Kanan intervened. "Don't shoot. They'll pass. Just let them do what they do."
"What they do is destroy starships like ours."
"We can't waste power fighting these things." Kanan retorted.
"I doubt we would make much damage, anyway." Jaral commented.
"Well, then what do you guys suggest?" Hera asked.
"We could get out of their way…" was Sabine's first idea.
"We either run into them or the asteroids. Take your pick." the Twi'lek replied sarcastically.
Chopper ran into the cockpit grumbling.
"Try to fly with them instead of against them." Ezra said firmly.
"That's...actually not a half-bad idea." Sabine conceded.
"Fine...I can't believe I'm doing this."
"It's not the strangest thing we've ever done." Kanan tried to lighten the mood.
"Yeah, that doesn't make me feel better." Hera replied.
Then she gave a bit more power to the engines and turned the ship around. Just like that, the Purrgils didn't hit the ship anymore, instead they let it fly with them like it was one of them.
"I think they're calming down." Ezra said. "I'm not hearing them."
The purrgils kept graciously flying in the void of space. Ezra was becoming fascinated by them even more by the minute.
"That was a good instinct, Ezra." Kanan complimented. "How did you know?"
"It just seemed like the right thing to do." Ezra said satisfied.
Hera took another look at the panel. "Ok, we're low on fuel, surrounded by asteroids and caught in a swarm of purrgil. How has the situation improved exactly?"
There was no answer as other purrgils joined the journey.
"Hello?" Zeb called for attention. "Are we shooting them or not? 'Cause here comes a really big one."
And indeed the biggest one of the swarm caught up with the head of the Ghost, putting his head near the nose turret's viewport with the clear intent of looking at Ezra with its big, lateral eye.
Ezra wowed another time in amazement. "These creatures are amazing." he said. "Who would want to shoot them?"
"Hera, if you give her the chance." Kanan teased.
"Kanan, you don't know what you're talking about. I do." Hera replied offended.
"Well, since I'm so uneducated, why don't you explain your problem?"
Ezra rolled his eyes and instead focused on the eye of the purrgil. He extended his right hand to establish a connection with the animal. And quickly felt a disturbance.
"Uhm, something is upsetting it." Ezra exclaimed.
"Maybe it's Hera." Zeb joked.
"I don't think so." the voice of Jinx broke out. "I detect two TIE fighters incoming, angle 1.1."
That sentence put everyone back on guard.
It was Kanan who spotted them first.
"I see them. I need a better angle."
The fighters opened fire, hitting the shields of the Ghost with a burst.
"Hang on." Hera urged him as she gave a bit more power to the engines.
"Jinx, scramble their systems." Jaral ordered from the cockpit.
When the TIEs approached, Hera tilted the ship toward starboard side and Kanan managed to destroy the first one.
The second one managed to get past them and Sabine noticed that they had a yellow coat and they lacked one of the panels composing the wings.
"Those TIEs have been modified. They're not Imperials." she said.
"Well, they're acting like it." Jordan commented.
The remaining TIE made a turnabout and came back for another attack run.
"I've got him…" Ezra mumbled, but when he pushed the triggers, the cannons didn't work and an alarm started blaring.
"Hera, I lost my cannons!" he said urgently.
"Rerouting auxiliary power from the Phantom." Jinx announced.
The TIE fired a few shots.
"Anytime, Jinx." Ezra quipped.
A second later, the AI finished the rerouting and Ezra could fire a shot that vaporized the fighter.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh, see?" Kanan laughed. "If we shot at the purrgil, we wouldn't have had…"
Hera silenced the comm.
"I confirm that those TIEs belonged to the Mining Guild." Jinx said. "With your authorization, I can trace their route backward and we might find the refinery."
"Do it, then." Jaral authorized.
Ezra went back to look at the purrgils, who were coming back to surround the Ghost.
"Something's happening…" he mumbled, before seeing that the creatures were turning right, into another route between the asteroids.
"I think we should follow them." Ezra said as his instinct suggested.
"Following them is the last thing we should do." Hera said with decision.
"Actually, Ezra is right." Jinx said, surprising everybody. "I traced the fighters' route, and it seems to coincide with the one the purrgils are taking."
Everyone looked at Hera, who grimaced. "Ok, I guess for now we follow the purrgil."
Ezra climbed up the ladder into the cockpit. "Hey. For what it's worth, I've got a good feeling about this.
At that moment, Kanan stepped into the cabin.
"All right, guys." Hera resigned herself. "Jinx, please verify that every non-essential system is turned off, even in the cabins."
"Scanning."
Silence fell in the cockpit as everyone watched intently at the Purrgils and when Zeb also entered the room, Ezra was going forward and talked.
"I didn't imagine there were creature capable of flying in deep space."
"When I was a kid," Hera narrated, "I was told incredible stories about creatures capable of flying in hyperspace. Some say that it was the Purrgil that inspired us to fly through the stars...but I don't believe it. The Purrgils are dangerous. They wander through the hyperspace lanes, destroying vessels. I've lost more than a friend that way."
A meager mood fell.
"Well," Ezra said. "maybe it's like Kanan said," he made a quick gesture toward his Master. "maybe they just do what they do. They don't realize they are putting people in dangers."
"As long as they don't get between us and the mission, I don't really care what they do." Hera concluded.
"Fair enough." Ezra chuckled.
Then Jinx's terminal beeped. Jaral went to check what it was about and made a triumphant smirk.
"Ladies and Gentlemen...we found it." she said. "the scanners are reading energy peaks on this planetoid." she sent the coordinates to the pilot post, though the crater quickly entered their field of view with its cloud of green gas.
"Seems like the Purrgils are heading that way as well." Jordan commented.
"Works in our favor." Hera said. "between them and all these asteroids, the Mining Guild will never see us coming."
"So what's the plan?" Kanan asked.
"I want to get to a secure position before we plan the attack." Hera said, then she turned to look at the machines. "Jinx, Chopper, ready a short, controlled burst from the engines."
"Affirmative." Jinx answered, while Chopper warbled some positive sounds and went to the socket on the board side of the cockpit.
"Three...Two...One...Now!"
The machines perfectly synchronized the action and the Ghost landed on a small asteroid hovering over the gas cloud and a few hundred meters from the catwalk of the refinery.
Hera turned off the engines after they touched down.
"So how do we pull this off with our limited resources?" Zeb asked.
"Give us a minute and I'll tell you." Jaral said confidently as she stepped forward and used her binocular to look down at the structure.
"So...two TIEs...anti-ship cannons...ah-ha! There is the fuel!" she spotted it on the small square on the left side outside the refinery, which was mostly underground.
"Hera, do we have the fuel for a scoop-job?"
"Negative. We need to land."
The girl turned and slowly walked in the middle of the room, letting Ezra take her place.
"Copy that. Then me, Ezra and Dad can glide on the catwalk, take out the first cannon and secure the landing zone."
"We're gonna need a diversion." Jordan pondered.
"You can throw a couple of detonators in the gas cloud at will give you one hell of a distraction." Sabine suggested.
"I like it. Besides, it might also destroy the refinery itself."
"And that will prevent the Empire from getting other fuel as well." Hera supported.
"Good." Jaral finished. "What do you think, Ezra?" she asked candidly, but the boy didn't answer.
When everybody looked at him, Ezra was staring downward intensely. Jaral could feel his curiosity boiling through their bond.
"Ezra?" she asked, knocking gently on his helmet and her brother snapped out.
"Ah...sorry." he mumbled.
"What's going on?" Jaral asked.
"Look there." he pointed a finger and Jaral reactivated the binocular.
She noticed that the cannon on the catwalk was shooting at two purrgils. While one was hit and he retreated in pain, the second suddenly dived into the gas cloud, passing under the catwalk and reemerging with its skin now purple and shining azure eyes.
"What in the…" Jaral was both confused and mesmerized.
"I...I think the purrgils feed on the gas." Ezra suggested.
Jaral now hesitated a bit. "Then we can't make it blow up."
"You wanted to blow it up?!" the boy jumped.
"You know, you should really pay more attention." Sabine said with a chuckle.
"So maybe we take that cannon and we use it against them." Jordan suggested.
"Right now, it seems like our best chance." Jaral mumbled.
"Worst comes to shove, we just wing it." Ezra said confidently.
His sister and father chuckled at that, while the Specters simply shook their heads. After all, two Bridgers had managed to pulverize the defenses of structures way more defended than that refinery and garrisoned by highly-trained stormtroopers. Three of them most likely could tear that place apart and steal the fuel without getting a scratch.
"Very well, then. Let's do this." Jaral concluded.
The Bridgers went into the cargo bay and put their helmets on.
"You know we only tried this maneuver once, right? Ezra suddenly remembered and talked to his sister. Jordan was between them.
"That's why we're taking dad with us. To use him as a guinea pig." Jaral replied wittily.
"I thought you were bringing me because you missed your daddy." Jordan quipped.
Jaral chuckled. "There's that too."
The cargo bay's ramp opened.
"Ok, so I go first and use the Force to help myself, then I get ready to slow you guys down, one by one." Ezra explained.
"We'll also need to act fast if we want to take out that cannon before it turns against us." Jaral added.
"Ok. All set?" Ezra asked.
"So it seems. After you." Jordan showed the way to the exit.
Ezra took a moment to focus then ran-up out of the ship.
With a 10 second-interval, first Jordan then Jaral dropped themselves down, following the same trajectory as the younger of the family.
During the fall, a purrgil even came to glide beside Ezra, who once again was amazed when he looked into the big eye of the creature, which was undoubtedly looking at him, as if trying to communicate with him. Ezra extended an arm as if he wanted to use the Force to connect, but a warning from Jinx remembered him that he was at 200 meters from the ground, therefore he had to be ready.
Like he had practiced different times with Kanan, when he was only 10 meters from hitting the catwalk, Ezra used a massive Force push to almost stop himself in midair, so that he could land softly and safely. Then he turned around and he saw his father dropping toward him.
When Jordan was close enough, Ezra grabbed him with the Force and made him land slowly, the same thing he did with Jaral a few seconds later. The gunner at the end of the gangplank didn't notice anything, not even when Jordan used the small vibro-blade in his left gauntlet to stab the spotter in the neck while Jaral snapped that of the gunner.
They quickly decided that Ezra would use the cannon to provide cover fire while Jaral and Jordan headed toward the entrance of the refinery, trying to stay hidden as long as possible. The older Legionnaire reconfigured his weapon to sniper mode and hit a guard who was standing on a high gangplank and could spot them. Since the atmosphere was very rarefied, the noise of the shot propagated only for a couple of meters away from Jordan, thus helping them keeping secrecy.
Father and daughter hid behind a container that was at the beginning of the catwalk and Jaral peeked out while cloaked.
Right above the landing platform with the fuel, she spotted another anti-ship cannon while barrels on the platform itself were guarded by two armed rodians.
Jordan didn't have a clean line of fire to hit the gunner above, so it seemed like it was time to get serious.
"Specter-7, aim at the cannon over there."
No answer.
Jaral poked into their bond and felt that Ezra was very much distracted by something.
"Sis, I think I figured out the purrgils, you're not gonna believe it." Ezra said enthusiastically.
"I believe that you should focus on your task!" she hissed.
"Oh, yeah, sorry...you were saying?"
Jaral sighed in annoyance. "On my mark, fire on that cannon. Keep it distracted while we take the landing platform."
"Copy that."
Jordan took position at the corner of the container, ready to fire on the guard around the fuel with his sniper rifle. Once he thought that they were in an ideal position to be shot at, Jordan simply whispered "Ready"
Jaral waited a moment… "Go!"
Jordan took a headshot on the first guard, then the second one, clearing the landing pad. Ezra started firing at the other cannon. Who answered in kind.
The cannons were very imprecise at long range, and for Ezra even Jinx's targeting software could improve the situation barely.
"Specter-6 to Ghost, if you want to land, now is our only chance." Jaral announced in the comlink.
"Then it's a good thing we're already here." Hera quipped.
The Bridgers looked beside them and they noticed that the Ghost was getting near the refinery already, but the near-absence of sound didn't let them notice it.
Just as it didn't make them notice that Ezra wasn't shooting anymore until the cannon started firing on the Ghost.
"Ezra, what are you?" Jaral said in the comlink, but when she turned around to take a look at the post of her brother, she noticed in horror that neither the cannon nor Ezra were still there.
She quickly checked their bond and realized that, wherever Ezra was, he was still alive, so for now she would keep fighting.
The refinery had more guards than the Specters anticipated, but still they were terrible shooters. Zeb stole a barrel and started to refuel the Ghost, which Hera used to finally destroy the second AS gun that was pestering them. This allowed Kanan to jump on the roof and use his lightsaber to deflect incoming bolts.
Kanan was wearing a stormtrooper helmet which had been painted by Sabine with a stylized representation of Loth-cat, while Zeb was wearing a breathing mas that covered his mouth and nose. Sabine simply wore her helmet, which had a little reserve of oxygen.
While the Ghost was being automatically filled, Zeb and Chopper were going back and forth to load all the other 15 barrels in the cargo bay. At least the guards were trying their best not to shoot at the refined fuel, as their boss, a hairy Moyn, ordered them not to make it explode if they didn't want to suffer the consequences.
Things got nasty when the two TIEs on the other side of the refinery took off and took position over the crater, aiming their cannons at the Ghost when it was still grounded.
"Surrender, thieves." the boss intimated from the balcony on top of the refinery, where the control room was. "You are at my mercy."
Kanan groaned. "I can't believe we're going to lose to this guy."
"Guys, don't be afraid we're coming." Ezra's voice came from the comlink.
"We?" Kanan asked in confusion.
A few seconds later, a small band of Purrgils was emerging from the gas cloud. The first two were too far, but then a third ran over one of the TIEs, blowing it up and forcing the other to move away in order to avoid the rest of them.
Then the biggest Purrgil came out, its skin not only purple but its face had a big yellow mark. Probably a symbol of aging that came with the specimen being the leader of the pack. And it also had a wild Ezra on it.
"I can't believe it." Hera mumbled with wide eyes.
"Blast them!" the Moyn ordered and his guards luckily looked the other way.
"Now is our chance!" Jordan exhorted as he helped pushing the last barrels inside the cargo bay.
Jaral had the time to notice her brother slicing off a TIE fighter's wing with his lightsaber when the impatient pilot stupidly tried to hit him with the vehicle itself. A proud smirk formed on her face covered by her helmet. Then she ran into the ramp and went to close it.
As the Ghost lifted from the ground, Hera shot both with the cannons and the proton torpedoes to the building, which in the end blew up in a giant fireball, putting it out of commission indefinitely.
Flying together with the Purrgils, the Ghost got near the alpha, which allowed Ezra to jump down on the freighter's rooftop and wave goodbye to the giant space-whales.
As the boy and Kanan stepped back into the ship, they found Jaral and Jordan waiting for them. The girl in particular had her hands on her hips and was scowling at the boy.
"All right, explain what happened. You scared the shit out of me." that last sentence implied that she was pissed.
"Sorry, the other gunner apparently knew how to use that gun because it hit mine and the explosion sent me down the crater." Ezra said with a conciliatory smile.
As he kept explaining, they started to walk toward the cockpit.
"I don't know how it would have gone, were it not for the Purrgil."
"It saved you?" Jordan asked with a bit of surprise.
"It did. And...I also had the chance to communicate." Ezra said with dreamy eyes.
The door to the cockpit opened.
"It was like nothing I've ever experienced. I could see their thoughts."
"You must have established a deep connection." Kanan commented with admiration.
"I guess so. Anyway, they needed the gas to breathe and to fly. The crater wasn't their home...just a stop on a long journey."
"I've to admit," Hera confessed. "that without the help of the Purrgil, we would've never took off from the terrain, again."
Sabine, sitting in the co-pilot's seat, gawked. "Look." she said, pointing enthusiastically at the purrgils in front of the viewport.
Their tentacles were now sparkling with blue lights and a strange, loud humming came from them.
"Is that…" Hera was in awe.
A few seconds later, the crew watched the five creatures shooting right into hyperspace one by one.
"It's true." Ezra exclaimed. "They can actually fly into hyperspace."
Jaral chuckled. "So it seems. All right, people, let's get back to the fleet. They're still waiting for the fuel we got."
"Yes, ma'am." Hera said with a smile as she plotted the course out of the asteroid belt.
Ezra went to the kitchen. Now that all the systems received energy, he really needed something hot to drink. He was quickly reached by Sabine, who apparently had the same thought. The two smiled at each other, and Ezra started to prepare her a cup of caf without her needing to ask.
"Hey, I got worried too when you disappeared." she said as she stopped right beside him and looked him in the eye. Her expression was worried. "When will you stop playing dead?" she tried to lift the tone.
Ezra chuckled. "Hey, that wasn't my fault. If my weapon could simply shoot straight…"
"Right…" Sabine said with a knowing smirk. "Maybe I should give you a private lesson about using a turret."
"I'm in. Though I don't know if I'll be able to focus on the lesson." he said giving her a wink. Sabine just shook her head before Ezra kept going. "Speaking of which…"
He suddenly grabbed her waist with an arm and pulled her close, catching her a little by surprise.
"I still have to claim my reward from this morning. Don't you think I forgot it, my goddess." he said with a smile.
"A pity. I hoped I could challenge you again before you remembered." she chuckled.
"Well, you said you want to give me back with interests, but if I don't give you anything first…" and he pushed his lips against hers, not disdaining a little bit of tongue.
"When we get back, I ask you all for myself." he demanded politely.
"I think you earned the right to ask that." she concluded.
Then they were distracted by a strong smell. Ezra had forgot to turn off the machine and it was spilling caf everywhere.