CHAPTER 11 – The Crash

The Crescent Dancer made its way back to the Corellian Run hyperspace route, and followed it toward the Core Worlds region. They jumped again at the connector to the Hydian Way and traveled it all the way to the other side of the of the galactic core at Bandomeer. One final jump they arrived at the G'wenee system nearly two weeks later.

The ships speakers carried the Sullustan pilot's voice. "Rise and shine everyone. We're fifteen minutes out of exiting hyperspace."

The crew made their way to their stations, or to the crew lounge. The swirling blue colors coalesced into individual stars as the ship transitioned back into realspace. The orange sun could be seen in the distance, behind the tannish-orange planet of G'wenee.

A warbling alarm sounded in the cockpit. Ayala was sitting one of two rear seats behind the pilot and co-pilot. "What is that alert for?"

Ruusyra answered as she silenced the repeating tone. "It's an emergency broadcast on an open comm channel. Here. I'll put in on the cockpit speaker."

A static filled message came across. "Help. Please… us. Our engines ... severely damaged ... attack. ... systems are failing to respond. Flying on manual ... We are going …. ...make a crash ... Please …. help. …. …. a family with a child ..."

Wazhay pushed a couple of buttons on the navigation console. "We are the closest spacecraft to the damaged shuttle. They will need immediate help. Alter course and follow them Ruu." She tapped a few more keys, attempting to get more information on the damaged ship. "It's an old T1 Class Shuttle, pre-Clone Wars. It is headed away from populated cities, so they're trying to minimize casualties."

Puhl was monitoring the engines in the seat behind Wazhay and commented. "Or they could just be hoping to hide somewhere. How do we know if they actually have a family."

"Why go to all the trouble. My scans show its barely being kept together. It could have had a better chance landing in the city. Even if they wanted to hide. More places to run there."

She turned to the left and peeked back at the human woman and saw that the woman's bright blue eyes seemed glazed over. "Ayala. What's wrong? Your eyes were… unfocused, like you were in a waking dream."

Ayala shook her head causing her red colored hair to swish from side to side. "It's nothing really. This just reminded me of a tragic memory. Sorry." Inwardly, it reminded her of her fellow Jedi. She felt the presence of a person with the Force on that ship. A huge range of feelings had welled up inside of her. Maybe she wasn't alone. She calmed her nerves with steady, meditative breathing.

"Are you going to be okay to go with Trest and render aid once they crash land somewhere? It's a wonder they haven't gone into freefall with the number of systems that are failing."

"Yes, captain. Of course."

"Puhl, you go too. We need you to help with any technical problems getting them out. Standby at the loading ramp until we land. Be sure to take a medpac with you."

"Aye, cap. On our way. Let's go Ayala."

The shuttle bucked and swerved like an enraged Quoryn bull, but the pilot managed to keep it upright as it approached the ground. The repulsor engines kept it from crashing, but a dozen seconds later a shower of sparks and smoke shot out from underneath the bottom and the ship dropped twenty feet, impacted the surface hard and skidded across the uneven terrain. It bounced a couple of times and finally the nose of the craft dug a trench several dozen meters long.

The Crescent Dancer tailed behind the crashing ship, banked slightly right of it and reversed its thrusters in order to land two dozen meters to the side of the shuttle. The three crew members dashed down the ramp and headed toward the smoldering wreckage.

Puhl put the handheld comm to his face and called out, "Wazhay. Check the heat signatures. Make sure nothing is going to explode when we go in."

"We are monitoring it, there are some heat signatures from fires, but nothing close to igniting. We're scanning various flammable liquid reserves and so far, they are okay."

"Comforting," Trest mumbled under his breath.

"Heat signatures from the damage are making it hard to pick-up life signs. Proceed with caution."

They arrived at the side hatch, but it was half buried under the dirt. "We'll have to find another way in. There should be an airlock on top, if it was a standard build. We'll have to try and get access that way."

They climbed up the starboard engine pod, and found the round hatch at the center just behind the cockpit. Puhl found a latch and opened an adjacent panel. He tried to activate the hatch door, but it buzzed and turned red. "It must be locked down, or it could have failed. Not sure which. I'll work on getting it open. It may take a while. See if you can find another way in. Perhaps the damage created a new opening?"

The Jedi nodded and stated, "I have an idea. I'll head over to the cockpit viewport and see if I can check to see if they are alive and possibly communicate with them."

The mercenary watched her go. "I guess I'll look for any damaged areas we can use for access to the ship. I got some dentite in my pack as well."

"Are you mad Trest? We're trying to rescue them and not get them killed."

"Puhl, I know how to set charges without causing extra damage."

"Well, let's call that the backup of the backup plan. Looking for breaches is a solid idea, and less messy."

"And less fun," he muttered as he climbed down off the top of the shuttle.

A few minutes later the top hatch opened to Puhl's surprise. "What the..." He cut off his words as Ayala shimmied back on top of the shuttle craft.

"I was able to gesture to them to open the hatch. It is a Zabrak family that is onboard. They are injured, but alive. The dad has a head wound, and his arm is broken. The young girl and her mother, the pilot, appear to have only some scrapes and bruises. Their crash webbing kept them intact. They are on the way up. Let's get them to the Dancer and then we'll treat their wounds."

The family ascended the ladder and climbed out of the top airlock hatch. Ayala greeted them. "I am called Ayala. But, let's skip the pleasantries for now. This ship is at a dangerous point where one of the volatile liquid reserves could come in contact with arcing electricity and initiate a catastrophic failure."

Puhl gave the Jedi a quizzical look at the scholarly description and translated, "What she's saying is this ship could blow up and we need to get out of danger. So, let's not hang around."

The family nodded and the crew members helped them get down from the shuttle and hastily return to the Crescent Dancer and up the cargo bay ramp. The Twi'lek captain and the Bith met the family onboard. "I have several sleeping rolls for you to rest on while Puhl gives you medical attention. Nis, please grab some chem-wipes for them to clean up the soot from the smoke."

Puhl retrieved a medpac from his pack and produced a small slender cylinder. He headed toward the adult male Zabrak who appeared to be the worst injured. The Zabrak man's left arm was hanging limply at his side. "Here sit down on this sleeping roll, please." The injured horn-headed man obliged.

"This will take away the pain, disinfect and repair the wounds. But it won't heal your broken arm. This will help with that pain as well, but you'll need more medical attention than what I can do to repair that... I mean heal. Sorry, I'm more of a technician than a medic. I can however put you in a medical sling so you don't make it worse."

Wazhay sat down beside the injured man. "First, introductions are in order. I am Wazhay. I heard you met Ayala. She is one of my crew. Puhl, as you heard mentioned is our mechanic and medic, among other technical specialties. Trest is the other human, and the Bith here is Nis. Our pilot is keeping watch on the cockpit, her name is Ruusyra."

The bacta began to hit the Zabrak man's system and his pained expression transformed into one of relief. "Ahhh. Yeah, that helped a lot. I am Pyjay Dilyz. That is my wife, Juseesora, or Jusee is fine. Our daughter is Silei. We thank you for helping. We were worried you are working for the Empire." He glanced around, his visage was a little less sure. "At least I hope you are not."

Ayala raised an eyebrow. "Why would you think that?"

"Because it was the Imperials that drove us from our home."

"Wait, you believe the Empire is chasing you?"

"Well, yes. They were definitely stormtroopers."

Wazhay Asassa pursed her purple lips as she grabbed her hand comm. "Ruu. Take off, right now. Let's get to the nearest spaceport. I'm coming up to help monitor anything deviating outside of standard navigation paths. Ayala find out more about this encounter with the Imps."

Ayala smiled to the family and then faced Pyjay. "It's going to be okay. Do you know why stormtroopers are coming after you? Have you done anything to provoke or criticize the Empire?"

"No. We are not political at all. We just work and try to keep our families fed. I mean we grumble about the high taxes that have happened since the Empire was declared. But, not publicly. We thought it meant safety and security like the Emperor says on the holo-news announcements. So, we have no idea why they want us."

The ship rocked as they hurriedly took off. The Jedi continued, "how did you escape the stormtroopers?"

The Zabrak father let out a pained sigh from the traumatic memory. "We were visiting our neighbors, their kids and mine were friends. We were having dinner, when we heard the sound of heavy boots marching down the hall. The neighbor peered out of the door cam and saw stormtroopers at our home's door down the hall. They kept buzzing the room's comm, but we weren't there. They didn't wait and blasted the door controls and charged inside. The neighbor signaled us to come urgently. "Run!", they demanded and we obliged. There was a commotion from other neighbors due to the blaster fire, so we were able to make it out of the housing complex unseen."

"My uncle had an old shuttle that he let me borrow once in a while. We went to the spaceport long term storage area where we boarded the shuttle and escaped. At least we thought we did. Before we even could find a destination a Lamba class shuttle with two Tie fighters locked on and fired on us, we took significant damage. By the Stars, we were lucky the hyperdrive still functioned. We had no time to even plot a course, we just selected the last programmed destination and the ship jumped here to G'wenee."

The human woman nodded. "That's terrible. I'm sorry about your ship."

The Zabrak man asked hesitantly, "do you think they will find us here?"

Ayala met the eyes of Trest and Puhl and gave a slight shake of her head indicating not to comment. "They would have to make one heck of an effort to find where you went. Perhaps this will blow over and you can hide out. I'll need to talk to my captain, but we might be able to give you transport to another planet. Just in case. Always wise to be careful."

"Thank you. We are in your debt."

The Crescent Dancer jostled as the engines wound down, signaling that they parked. "Pyjay. I'm going to speak with the captain. Why don't you go with Puhl. You and your family can gather your things and meet us in the ship's lounge. It will be more comfortable than the cargo bay."

"You want to what?" The Twi'lek asked in astonishment.

Ayala answered, "why not. There's a lot more to why they are being chased. If the Empire's involved then its way worse than we expected. I've got a bad feeling that this family is in serious danger. If we don't help them, they'll be another tragic casualty in a long line of them. I've heard of this thing before. Children have been taken when they exhibit unusual abilities. I believe this may be the case. They were neutral or even in favor of the Empire, though they were fooled by its propaganda. I can't see this much attention for anything less than that. They don't have any ties to subversives."

"That's quite a stretch, Ayala."

"Is it? They don't scramble tie fighters to chase a family of civilians with a child unless they were dangerous to the Empire or they are needed for some nefarious purpose."

"Assuming that is true. They could be lying about the people chasing them."

"For what reason? You've known me for only a short time, but have you ever seen my instincts to be wrong?"

The captain appraised her again, putting her hands on her hips. "No. I have not. But we have survived by not getting involved in taking sides in any conflict."

"This goes beyond politics. We are talking about innocent lives, Wazhay. A child's life. Besides we are already involved."

"Only tangentially involved as a rescue operation only."

"Do you really believe the Empire will care about that? Do you think they won't charge us as being accomplices? They'll treat anyone remotely involved as dangerous criminals, partially or fully complicit, whether we knew it or not."

"You know what you are asking me to do."

She answered in a solemn voice as her eyes locked with the Twi'lek woman. "Yes. And you know what your conscience is telling you."

The Twi'lek huffed and then sighed. "Frak, Ayala. This could end badly for us. You know that. Worse than being hunted by crime lords."

"Every operation we do could end badly for us. At least it will be for the right reason. You know they will be lucky to survive a week on their own."

"Trest is going to blow a fuse."

The Jedi gave a coy smile. "Well, he's easy to fix. Give him a steak and plenty of ale."

The Zabrak family sat at the main circular table in the lounge, on the padded semi-circular bench seat. Puhl sat with them, as the captain and Ayala arrived. Ayala sat with the family, but Wazhay stood in the middle facing the table. "We are in the middle of an important mission. We will find you a safe place to go and stay out of sight until the Empire is tired of pursuing you. For now, it may take them a while to find where you went based on your testimony. They will be able to narrow it down. Depending on how many jumps you took and your origin.

The dark-orange skinned Zabrak mother tied up her straight honey colored hair in a paoli tail, and responded. "We were living on Garqi. It was programmed for three jumps to G'wenee."

Waz considered that for a few moments. "That's good news, there are several routes that you could have taken. They will have to figure out which one and where you would have landed. Since they targeted you though, they will have your ship's model and will be sending out alerts about the damaged ship in all planets over several parsecs. But even if they find your ship, it will take much longer to figure out our ship rescued them. You will be safe for a few days. We should be done and out of here in a day or two at the most. You can move about the ship, but we have no quarters available for you. The sleeping rolls in the cargo bay is the best we can do for now. One word of warning, though. Do not open either of the forward airlocks. They have lost integrity and we can't afford to fix them. The ship will depressurize if you do. Puhl, you Trest and Nis, please set them up with some blankets, make-shift curtains, and some safety restraints in the unlikely event we run into trouble."

The Jedi noticed the little Zabrak girl staring at the galley. She swiveled her head toward the girl, but also shifted her gaze to the parents. "Are you hungry, or need something to drink. We have a variety of both, though most of the food is dry or insta-cook meals."

The ten-year old Zabrak girl blurted out excitedly, "Yes. Food!" and then caught the eye of her mother and hastily amended in a subdued tone, "Please."

Ayala smiled, and so did the captain. The Twi'lek nodded to the family and left to join Trest, Nis and Puhl as the human woman accompanied the family into the galley section.

It was Puhl that blurted out first, surprisingly. "Alright, Waz. What the haran? We're going to get mixed up with an Imperial squad hunting down fugitives?"

"First. They are a family, not dangerous fugitives. They need our help. We can't stand by and let them get slaughtered. You saw those people. They were just an ordinary family. A scared family. They aren't some militia group or thugs."

"Alright, sure. Technically they 'are' fugitives. But why are we making it 'our' problem?"

"Because we can help. If we walk away and ignore this, we are partially guilty of the harm that will come to them."

The bald tech twisted to the side to gape at Trest. "What's with you, Trest. You gonna back me up on this one?"

The bearded mercenary frowned at the mechanic and shook his head. "No!" He glared at Puhl and his tone turned menacing as he clenched his teeth. "I've gone down this road with Elalora. No way am I sitting by and letting another innocent get taken down while we turn our backs. Our cap'n is right. We can't just ignore these people. They don't stand a chance without help."

The Twi'lek turned to the Bith. "Nis, what do you say?"

"I'm with Trest on this one. I know what is like to lose a loved one. I can sympathize with the family. This is one tragedy I can help prevent. We just have to be smart about it."

"I guess I'm outnumbered on this one. I understand your points. This will likely get us put on the Empire's radar. But I will submit to the majority. Let's hope it's not our death sentence as well."

"My grandfather who lived on our home world of Ryloth told me something that stuck with me since I was a young teenager. I asked him 'why did you fight in the Clone Wars?' He told me 'Wazzy, if you don't stand for anything, you will die with nothing of consequence.'"

Puhl held up his hands in mock surrender, but gave a slight chortle. "OK. I give up, let's go save the day."

The captain and the others worked diligently on setting up the makeshift bedding arrangements. "Nis, take a break. You can you make contact with your informant here. We need to find out if they gained any information on Luence Fratar."

The Bith nodded. "Yeah. I should be able to pick him up on long range comm. Unless he left the planet. Its unencrypted so I'll have to arrange a meeting spot."

Back in the ship's lounge, the Zabrak child was voraciously consuming some insta-bread and a package of salty dried meat snacks. Ayala motioned the parent over to her and spoke in a low tone. "I know why they are hunting you. Specifically, not you two." She peeked back at the young Zabrak. "They are hunting her."

The Zabrak woman, Jusee, let out a gasp, and her eyes bulged. "What do you mean... are... how do you know that?"

The human woman held her hands and motioned downward to keep it down. "Ask yourself this. Has she shown she can do things that seem impossible. Reflexes beyond even the best athletes. Objects get moved without touching them. Reading other's minds, things like that."

Pyjay interrupted in an apprehensive tone. "No. She's normal… She's a regular child."

Jusee put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "We can't hide this. These people are helping us."

The father sounded exasperated, but nodded. "Yes, when she's stressed or wants something badly, she seems to be able to move objects. Her reflexes are uncanny. We thought she was just gifted. We didn't want to admit it, knowing that she might be able to use the Force." He cocked his head and knitted his eyebrows. "How did you know that she could do those things?"

The Jedi struggled with revealing her identity to them. But that wouldn't help their situation and would only put herself and the crew in more danger. "Because, I am familiar with the Empire and I've heard of gifted children in the Force being captured or worse. The amount of effort they put into getting alerts out that quickly to track a ship you didn't even own says that someone is very important or dangerous. That's the only reason, other than they think you are terrorists. Which you clearly do not fit that mold. Simple deductive reasoning."

The Zabrak father nodded somberly.

The woman formerly known as Shasie hated being deceptive, but a lie with good intentions was allowed in the Jedi code. She wondered how many more of them are still alive. She pushed those thoughts aside and focused in the present. "Go ahead and get some food and drinks. I'll join you."

After nearly an hour the crew helping with the sleeping quarters returned to the lounge. Wazhay announced, "Nis was able to setup a meeting with his contact. He wanted to go alone, but he conceded when I asked him if he trusted the man."

The captain waved over the human woman. "Ayala, you and Puhl will pose as a couple at the Gelah cantina as backup support just in case. I want you both to head there an hour early. He requested to meet in two hours. It's a little more of an upscale establishment so you'll need to get a change of clothes and take a taxi over there. See Ayala, I told you buying those nicer clothes might come in handy."

The Jedi made a pouty face, "I still don't like the clothes, but fine. Though I'm not fixing my hair up."

The mechanic started to snicker, "But dearest, you used to like dressing up? Has our passion gone..."

Ayala rolled her eyes at the mechanic. "I still have my stun club nearby, Puhl."

He shook his head and could barely speak his line from laughing, "Ah no, we may need a counselor now. Nothing ever lasts."

The Twi'lek flashed them a semi-stern look. "Alright you two. Enough. Get going or I'll divorce the both of you."

A maroon shaded Zeltron man with a flat nose waved to the Bith from a small round table at the cantina. "Nis. How nice to see you again. How's the hunting going, eh?"

"Well enough Arorke, Thanks. That's why I'm here. I'm hoping you have some intel for me on Luence."

"Ah, keep it down. Don't want people to know what I do, ya know. I have checked on Madame Exarla's Bordello as you asked. I did not find anyone matching his description. I'm sorry. I didn't have enough credits from what you gave me to spy on the place every day. I tried at random days. Alas, my friend. He did not show when I was surveilling."

The Zeltron glanced back over his shoulder at a slender Rybet female with mottled chartreuse-toned glistening skin behind the counter. "I will keep on the look-out for him, no additional charge. I asked the bartender to keep watch also. Her name is Scapara. This is the nearest cantina to the Bordello, so chances are your man will show up. I know this bartender well, so if we up the incentive she'll spend some time being thorough, ya know."

"That is just as well. Tell her I will pay a thousand credits if she can tell me if or when Luence shows up. Assuming the information is good. You know I'm good for the money. I'll need vid verification, though. An extra five hundred if you follow him back to his ship and record it so we can track him."

"Make it an extra thousand and I'll attach a tracker on his ship."

"You've got a deal, Arorke."

Nis left and twenty minutes later, so did Puhl and Ayala.

After coming up empty, the crew and their new passengers headed back into orbit. Wazhay observed her sensor console and honed in on the wreckage in the display. "There are two troop transports at the crash site. Imperial standard vehicles. It appears that they found Pyjay's shuttle. Probably the local garrison was dispatched. They are on the trail. Hopefully we weren't scanned closely by the local space traffic control when we aided them."

Puhl remarked solemnly, "Captain. We've gotta be very careful now the Imps might figure out we were there. That spare transponder we installed will come in handy. Permission to switch it over now."

"Yes, Puhl. You are correct, we should take precautions. You may swap the transponder." The captain ran her fingers around the hyperspace map on the console. "Ruu, set an extra jump. Once we hit the Hydian Way head toward Tarsis, but only jump a quarter of the way. Then we'll plot a course back the other direction on the Hydian deeper into the Outer Rim toward Toola. Just in case they discovered our ship it will lead them in the wrong direction."

The flap jawed Sullustan pilot flicked her finger in a pseudo-salute. "No problem. When we come out of hyperspace at Bandomeer junction, I'll plot a new course including the extra jumps."

"Alright, everyone. Welcome to our ship. The Bastion of Eriadu. Memorize it. It will be our ship's name for a while. Unless we are forced to change it again. Hopefully not, those illegal transponders are expensive. I'll go and give the news to Nis and Trest later."

Puhl heard the name and raised his eyebrows. "Good choice. Eriadu, an Imperial stronghold. Maybe it'll buy us a smidgeon of courtesy if we are inspected."

Wazhay shrugged and sat back in her chair as she surveyed the stars from the cockpit viewport. "Ruu, whenever you're ready. Make the jump."