Last time: Viran learned that something strange was happening with Sasha while in her coma.

Now: Oppie and Kait return to the 19th.

Chapter 5-Catching Up

"I think Anna would like her little brother taking the Daredevil as a hand me down." Kyr noted to Viran, subdued as they watched the sleek if practical little ship enter the Defiant's hangar. "She traded up to the 'blade but she always had a soft spot for the 'devil."

"I'm sure she would be happy for Oppie," Viran said, watching the ship. "And which one was the blade?" He asked, drawing a blank on which ship Kyr was referring to.

"It, uh…" Kyr paused, not knowing how to answer. "They took it that day, and it went with them." Kyr said evasively.

"Oh." Viran frowned as he looked at Kyr. "I'm sorry for bringing it up."

Kyr shook his head. "Nah, I brought it up." He cleared his throat. "The Daredevil was her first ship though, got it for her eighteenth birthday. She never let me fly it." Kyr said with a slight grin.

"Well maybe Op will let you," Viran said as he gestured towards the ship in question as the ramp lowered.

"Hmm…" Kyr thought for a moment. "I don't know, Op, would you?" He asked as he saw Op coming down the ramp behind Kait.

"What?" Oppie asked, looking up at his brother at the unexpected question.

"Would you let me fly your ship?" Kyr asked.

"Is something wrong with the Shadow?" Oppie asked, confused.

"No, just curious if you'd let me fly the Daredevil." Kyr said, gesturing at the vessel in question.

"I…" Oppie started, absolutely confused by the unexpected conversation. "I guess so." He said. "Under the most dire of circumstances." He added.

"He lets me fly it." Kait said, "I got to bring it in just now." She said proudly.

"Nicely done," Viran complimented as he looked over at her parking job.

"Anna would love that." Kyr commented under his breath so only Viran could hear as Op and Kait crossed over to them, still.

Viran smirked at that.

"Ori'jate vod'ika." Kyr said in compliment to Kait as they walked up.

Kait paused for a moment. "Thank… you?" She said.

"He said you did very good." Oppie replied. He hid a frown when he noticed Cien's lightsaber on Kyr's belt.

"Ah." Kait said, looking away a little bashfully from Kyr and Viran's compliments.

"Anyway, thanks for coming back so quickly. Was Lana okay when you guys left?" Viran asked, looking between Op and Kait.

"Yeah, she was fine. Reya and Zeran came and got her and she was half asleep after we'd spent a while playing with her." He didn't add that she had been fussy and worried about her parents a little, which was why they had distracted her with a little play time.

"That's good to hear," Viran said, relieved. "Well, thanks again for hurrying back so fast. It means a lot."

"Yeah." Oppie said as they started walking through the ships corridors. "You told us a little bit about what happened," he said, speaking to Viran. "But what exactly did you guys find?"

"We found the Taipan and managed to get aboard without much difficulty," Viran told them. "Then as we made our way through the ship myself, Nova, and Dravis discovered that someone tampered with their hyperdrive before we showed up, which explained why they hadn't moved. While we did that, Kyr, Sasha, Wynnie and Kelce went to go look for Cien."

"We started for the brig, like we planned," Kyr began, a little haltingly. "But Sasha sensed her presence more up near the command decks, near the VIP suites. So we went up there instead." He swallowed. "Sasha was having trouble on the way there, she seemed to be having a vision or something, but we got up to officers quarters and she faltered. Kelce stayed with her and I pushed ahead because she had said Cien was just up ahead. We…" Kyr started, trying to get past the block he had trying to talk about it. "We found another gallery, and she… Selina was there. Sasha came in and tried to interrogate her with the mindspace, but she just collapsed. That's when the rest of the team got in there, and Sasha was rushed back to the Defiant."

"I was with her all night, but she hasn't woken up and she's not reacting to my presence in the Force. It's actually freaking Kelce out as he doesn't know what to do for her," Viran added, dejectedly. "But he has her set up with an IV and they are keeping an eye on her. But whatever is going on, she is stuck within the mindspace."

"Has anything like that happened before?" Kait asked.

"Yeah." Oppie said with a troubled tone.

"It was years ago when it last happened. When Cien and Sasha met for the first time," Viran said, carefully. "But this time is different. Last time, she woke up shortly after collapsing. This time…" He trailed off for a moment. "This time she hasn't responded to anything." He said worriedly.

Kyr glanced between Op and Viran but didn't say anything as they stepped into the lift.

"I'd like to go see Sasha, maybe you and I can reach her together?" Oppie suggested to Viran.

"I was actually going to ask you about that and suggest the same thing," Viran said with the smallest of smirks before it quickly faded. "But yes, we can go do that here in a bit. We actually were going to go check in with Dravis. He says he found something we should see. We thought you guys should be there too."

"Is it about Cien?" Oppie asked as they left the lift.

"Yeah." Kyr said. "Maybe. He said he had some footage of someone escaping from the ship, but he had to clean it up. He just finished processing it so it would actually be useful."

"I hope it is her escaping. That means she is out there somewhere safe," Viran said gently, but also hopeful.

"If it's someone escaping I can't imagine who else it would be." Kait agreed.

"I could imagine any number of… her 'employees' escaping if they had a chance." Kyr said wryly as they walked down the corridor.

"Well whoever it is, I'm curious if they are the same person who took down the hyperdrive," Viran said curiously. "Or are two completely different instances."

"Maybe we'll find out." Oppie said hopefully as Kyr hit the call button on the door to Dravis' lab.

"Maybe." Kyr said while the door slid open. Dravis' usually messy lab was just as messy as usual. Scamp and Dravis were both peering at a display, and Tac and QT were there as well as a little blue droid with a cone shaped head and a singular wheel for a body that was rolling around the console.

Scamp turned to them when the door opened and gave a small wave. "Hey guys, glad you could make it. Op, Marshall Messan, it's good to see you guys made it back safe," he greeted them.

"Hi Scamp." Oppie said, stepping into the room.

"Commander." Kait said with a nod.

"What have you got?" Kyr asked Dravis, who was still over the console.

"A complete mess." Dravis replied after a second, still looking at the display as he continued his work. "There was an escape pod that was missing from that Star Destroyer, and that got me curious to look up the security footage for who used it. The log was badly corrupted, but we were able to scrape the bits and bytes together into… something." He explained.

Tac whistled at him sharply, and QT rotated to look at him with a somewhat surprised expression, if that was possible. The little droid nodded eagerly.

"Well, yeah you guys helped." Dravis said, rolling his eyes.

QT whistled with some annoyance.

"Yeah but it was just a standard bayesian algorithm to reduce the noise, you guys could do that in your sleep. You did literally do it in your sleep." Dravis bit back.

"Anyway, show them what you found out," Scamp said, redirecting back to the conversation.

"Yeah, sure." Dravis said as he transferred the file up to the large display screen he had on the wall.

The file was a badly distorted video of the corridor aboard the Taipan. To those familiar, it showed an alcove that had several escape pod hatches, and those even more familiar might have noticed they were the nicer ones that were near the officers quarters. The scene started mid-action, as someone, it was hard to make out any details, was covering a hover stretcher that was plodding along towards the alcove. There were stun bursts shooting down the corridor past the stretcher, and the person covering was firing back with full powered shots down the corridor. As they got to the alcove the person glanced behind them. If the image quality had been any better they might have gotten a split second to see their face, but as it was it was simply a mess of noise. They pressed a button on their gauntlet, and there was a wash of color that ran across the screen, and then nothing. The video started looping again.

"That's all we've got so far." Dravis said.

"That's Cien!" Kyr said, looking at the person in the stretcher. The telltale baby bump was evident, and her hair was light enough color to differentiate it in the image. "But she's in a stretcher." He said, fear edging into his voice.

"Yeah, and someone was getting her out of there." Oppie said, hopefully. "You don't rescue someone unless they are in a state to be rescued. This is good news, Kyr." He stated.

"Yeah." Kyr said, watching the video loop again and the glimpse he had of his wife.

"But who is that other person trying to rescue her?" Viran asked, watching the loop.

"No idea." Kyr said, looking at the display still.

"We were working to enhance frame seven-three-six." Dravis said, pulling it up and a still. The image was heavily processed and was only slightly more legible compared to the video feed. "But it's going to take a little time to continue trying to work on that."

"In the meantime, do we have logs for when and where that escape pod was launched?" Kait asked.

Dravis shook his head. "No, the video feeds were scrambled, everything was scrambled. The Taipan was operating on a skeleton crew, and whoever did this launched a program that was like a cheap knock off of HAVOK. It scrambled the ship and sent it jumping off on some unknown vector. Their comms were dead, and the explosive charge knocked out their hyperdrive. That was why they were just floating out there all alone."

"Okay, are we able to tell which escape pod they used?" Viran asked, looking at Dravis.

"Yeah." Dravis said, scrolling up through his notes. "J-238."

"Can we use that fleet computer we got to backtrack the Taipan's course?" Kait asked. "That might narrow it down to a set of systems we could search, at least."

"No, that would be impossible, we would need to…" Dravis thought for a moment. "Oh, yeah no it should be pretty easy." He said with a nod.

"That's not a bad idea," Viran agreed. "We can at least start searching there using the time table of when Cien would have possibly arrived and then once we have a clear indicator of when the escape pod was launched we can narrow down our search range. Dravis, would you like some help going through the fleet computer or the Taipan's systems? I may not be as good as you, but I know my way around a computer terminal."

"Yeah, sure. Be nice to have someone to talk to other than these three." He said gesturing at Tac, QT and the wheeled droid with his thumb.

"Rovr," the little droid barked at him.

Viran smirked at the little droid.

"Alright, get to work then and once you find anything report it," Scamp said. "I'll go inform Admiral Sulam what we have discovered so far." He said as he started for the door.

"Viran, you want to see if we can reach out to Sasha?" Oppie asked.

"Yeah, I might join you guys. Maybe if we start one of our dinner time 'versus' conversations it might make her wake up just to tell us to quit it." Kyr suggested, his spirits noticeably brighter now that he had some hope that his wife had been rescued in some fashion.

Viran laughed at that. "If that works, I'll buy you a drink," he said, then looked back at Dravis. "I'll come back soon and help you go through the systems. Oppie and I need to try and reach Sasha first. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, sure, sure." Dravis said, waving him off as he was already stepping back to his terminal.

Viran nodded and looked to the others. "Let's go check on Sasha," he said as he made his way to the door, leading them to the medbay.

"Thanks Dravis." Kyr said as he started to follow the others.

"For what?" Dravis asked, looking up at him.

"For, uh…" Kyr started. Dravis was odd. "For getting that cleaned up so quickly."

"Oh, yeah no prob." He said, turning back to his terminal.

Kyr smirked and went out the door.

"Has Sasha been responsive at all when you've tried to reach out to her with the Force?" Oppie asked Viran as they walked along.

"No," Viran answered, his gaze lowering to the floor as he walked. "In the past, I can normally feel some type of reaction or response that shows she recognizes it's me or vice versa. But this time, it feels like I'm yelling at her through sound proof one-way glass. Like a wall is blocking me out." He described it as best he could.

"Is this how it was when you guys went to Polis Massa?" Oppie asked.

"No. Back then when I sensed her slipping away, I managed to reach out to her and I got a response," Viran said, glancing at Oppie. "She then came too not long after and even thanked me for reaching out to her through the Force. It had helped her. Now she's just… in too deep to even hear me over whatever is happening in her head." He said, solemnly.

Oppie nodded with a sigh. "You know it's that she's trapped?" He asked. "I know for us we always tend towards an explanation stemming from the Force. But she's not just in a coma or something, is she?" He asked.

Viran hesitated on that. "I don't think so. Kelce showed me her brain scans of what is happening now and what happened after Myrkr. Her brain is functioning as if she is wide awake according to Kelce. If she was in a coma, she would have more relaxed brain wave patterns." He paused for a moment, thinking. "But the thought has crossed my mind that it is possible that this could be some sort of coma-like state, but inflicted by the Force. I'm just not sure." He said, uncertain as they reached the lifts.

"Hmph." Oppie said, thinking. "One of these days it might be interesting to get a brain scan done of Sasha or Cien while they're in the mindspace so we can get a baseline for something like this." He observed.

"I agree," Viran nodded as the lift opened and climbed aboard. "That would be useful to have in case something like this happens again."

"This happened after she tried to interrogate Selina?" Kait asked after a moment.

"Yeah, that doesn't make sense to me," Viran said, glancing to her. "Selina isn't a Force sensitive and yet she came out of it just fine. I also sensed something coming from her and when we tried to interrogate her, she was acting as if someone was making her say 'I'll only speak to the Mandaloran' and not answer our questions. It was the strangest thing to witness."

"I guess I might see if I can talk to her while I'm here." Kait said. Oppie glanced at her but didn't say anything.

"Good luck," Viran said as the lift opened up and he stepped off. "She was being incredibly stubborn."

"I can be too." Kait replied simply.

Oppie smirked but said nothing. Kait glanced at him out of the corner of her eye before shooting him a slight glare.

"I'll be damned if I talk to her." Kyr growled behind them.

Viran looked at Kyr and nodded. "I understand. You don't have to talk to her. We can handle Selina. You focus on finding Cien," he said, understanding.

"Agreed." Oppie said, looking back at his brother as they reached the medbay.

The medbay doors opened. Kelce was walking towards his office when they entered.

"Oh hey. It's good to see you guys again," Kelce said to Oppie and Kait, looking between all of them. "How are you feeling, Oppie?"

"Hi Kelce." Oppie said, "better, still some pins and needles but it's going away just like you said."

"That's great to hear," Kelce said, smiling softly. "I assume you're all here to see Sasha." He looked over to the nearest recovery room. "She's in there. Go ahead on in."

"Thanks," Viran said with a nod as he headed for the door.

The door slid open and Viran led them all over to the curtained off bed in the room. He pulled back the curtains to reveal what was on the other side. Just like the last time he was here, she was lying on her back with her hair across the pillow looking to be in a deep, in an almost death-like sleep.

Oppie blanched seeing her laying there like that.

Viran looked at Oppie and nodded slowly before looking back to Sasha. "Yeah… she's been like this since Kelce let visitors see her. It's… unsettling to see her so peaceful." He admitted as he sat down in the chair beside the bed.

"It is." Oppie replied quietly.

"What the hell did… she do to her?" Kyr asked. This was his first chance to come to the recovery ward and see his little sister.

"I wish I knew," Viran said as he grabbed his wife's hand. "I wish I had been there to help her. But then I might be trapped there too."

"Well, let's see if we can break her out of it." Oppie said, stepping forward. "I admit I don't quite know how, though." He said, glancing up at Viran.

"Me neither, but I have been thinking of what we can try," Viran said, looking at Oppie. "I think if we can meditate together and concentrate on her presence then we can try and call out to her through our bonds. And hopefully, she'll respond back or we will have more answers as to what's happening to her. It's better than nothing."

"Yeah, okay." Oppie said. He glanced up at Kait and Kyr. "This might be a little boring for you guys if you want to go do something else?" He suggested.

"This isn't going to be like the mindspace. This will actually take a while," Viran said, adding on. "I agree with Op, it's going to be boring."

Kyr glanced at Kait. "Want to go get a drink or go to the shooting range then?" He suggested.

"Uh, shooting range sounds fun." Kait said with a shrug, which made Kyr smirk. "You don't need us here to make sure you're not disturbed?" She said, turning to Viran and Op.

"We can just close off the curtain. That's usually a good indicator," Viran said, gesturing to the curtain. "But I think we will be okay. Unless you want to stay and keep watch?"

"It'll mostly just be us sitting here for a long time trying to concentrate." Oppie said. "Not a lot to see."

Kait hesitated for a second, curious to see more Force powers but if they needed to concentrate she didn't want to be a distraction. "Okay, we'll be off shooting things, then." She said, glancing at Kyr.

"Good luck guys." Kyr said as he started heading towards the exit with Kait following him after one last look back at them.

"Thanks," Viran said with a nod. "Shall we?" He asked Oppie.

"Yes." Oppie said, rolling a stool over to sit next to Viran and settling down into a comfortable position.

Viran took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he closed his eyes and tightened the grip on Sasha's hand. He centered himself into the Force, taking deep even breaths as he focused. "Think about Sasha. Find her presence. Focus. Just like you've taught us," he said calmly.

Oppie just nodded slightly as he settled himself in the Force, feeling Virans presence next to him, and Sasha's muted presence laying in the bed before them.

Viran noticed both of their presences next to him as he settled further into the Force, but his focus was solely on Sasha. He could sense more clearly now the conflict she was feeling. He could sense the heartache and pain she was feeling, but towards what he wasn't sure. Then he felt it. There was a building darkness in and around Sasha's heart. He felt his own thud at that.

"Do you sense that?" He asked Oppie.

"Yeah." Oppie said, worry in his voice. "I see what you mean." He said after a moment. "It's like she's behind a pane of glass and we can't reach out to her."

"Well, we are both here now. Let's see if she can hear us," Viran said, trying to sound hopeful.

Sasha, Viran called out through the Force. Sasha, it's me and Oppie. Please answer. Please give us a sign that you are okay. They waited a moment, but nothing happened. Sasha didn't respond or react to his call out. He concentrated harder. Sasha, hun, please say something.

Again, nothing happened.

Sasha, Oppie tried, we're here, try to find us. Try to come to us.

She didn't answer them.

Sasha, your family is here. We are here. Come back to us, Viran tried again feeling his brow crease with worry.

Nothing.

"Op…" Viran started, not sure what to say.

Sasha! Oppie tried calling out louder. "I'm not sure what else to do." He said quietly.

Viran felt his heart pang painfully against his chest as he felt tears rising. "Me neither…" He said dejectedly. "We need to keep trying."

"Yes." Oppie said, taking a deep breath and falling deeper into his meditative state.

Viran did the same as he focused himself deeper. They concentrated on Sasha's signature in the Force as they slowly sunk further and further into it. After a few moments, Viran noticed a strange presence almost blocking their way. It was steeped in the dark side and it almost seemed… familiar. However, every time they tried to pass it to try and get closer to Sasha's light, the further they felt like they were being pushed back. But the closer they did get, Viran was able to sense the anger, the anguish, and the pain coming from Sasha's heart as she seemed to swirl in the middle of a dark cloud in the Force.

"Op, are you sensing all of this?" Viran asked as a pit formed in his stomach.

"The…" Oppie started to ask, but he knew what Viran was referring to. "Yeah, I can." He said, worried.

"Something is pulling her deeper into... whatever this is and it's dragging her from the light," Viran said, worriedly. "We need to pull her back."

"I'm not sure how, are you sensing any openings?" He asked Viran.

Viran concentrated for a moment. "I think so, Wait, yes. Right there," he said, sounding hopeful. "The light, it seems to shine through that cloud every few seconds. If we can catch on to it, metaphorically speaking, then I think we can reach her."

Oppie concentrated, trying to sense what Viran was talking about. "I'm not… I'm not picking up on that." He said.

"Then just follow my lead," Viran said.

He focused on the light, waiting for it to come back through the cloud. The second it did, he reached out through the Force to grab a hold of it. He felt like he had some grasp of it and once he did, he called out to her again.

Sasha, it's me and Oppie. We are here for you. Please answer. Please come back to us, Viran cried out into the Force hoping this would work.

Sasha! We're here, follow our voices! Oppie yelled alongside Viran.

Sas- Viran called out again, but just as he did, he was cut off by something suddenly blocking their path. "No, no, no," Viran groaned as he tried to get the connection back, but this presence only seemed to push them both back. And as it did that, the light started to slowly dim until it was practically invisible in the cloud of darkness. NO! SASHA! COME BACK! He screamed out into the Force.

"Viran." Oppie said next to him quietly.

Viran felt himself shaking as he came out of his meditation. "I don't know what happened. We had her. She was literally within our reach. Damn it," he groaned as he let go of Sasha's hand and dropped his head into his hands, shaking with frustration.

Oppie glanced up at the chrono on his wrist and wasn't surprised how long they had been there in such a deep meditative state. "We've been at this for two hours." He said quietly, "we can try again. You saw that crack of light there, we can keep working at it to bring her back. And if we find Cien she can help." He suggested.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay." Viran nodded, sounding exhausted. "Let's try it again," he said as he dropped his hands.

Oppie swallowed, feeling a little exhausted but nodded, just as determined as Viran. "Okay."

Viran closed his eyes and entered back into the Force, trying to reach Sasha once again.

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