Links to the interludes leading up to this story:
Tinker
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=36209.msg662998#msg662998Tailor
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=36209.msg664927#msg664927Soldier
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=36209.msg667415#msg667415Spy
http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=36209.msg668371#msg668371Hearts of StoneChapter One: Running...
Peg Shar Spaceport
Halla Sector
Mid-Rim
5 ABY
"Two blocks out..." Alex heard Joanna report on their comm. "Gambler, Blip, get the
Hope fired up..."
"Gambler?" Do'Na'Vann asked, his eyebrows rising. "Blip?"
"Droids. You'll understand once you meet them..." Alex replied. His voice trailed off as movement caught the corner of his eye. He focused on the location, but all he saw was a dark cloak pulling back into shadow. "Did you see that?"
"No..." Do'Na'Vann's voice was also distracted, his eyes semi-opaque as if he were looking beyond the narrow street ... or listening to something intently. "C'mon, we need to move!"
The Mak'Tor Knight grabbed Alex' arm and pulled him forward. Alex sensed a spike of apprehension mixed with fear and intense query from the area of the dark figure but the Mak'Tor's action pulled his attention away from what was behind ... and onto what was ahead.
Its a trap! Another trap!Alex wasn't sure if the thought was his own or part of the sudden warning pulse the Mak'Tor Knight generated. In the end it didn't matter ... but the fact that neither Joanna nor Opal could hear it did. "JOANNA! EYES UP!!!"
Alex had his saber out and ready to ignite as he and Donovan rounded the last corner and plunged head-long into the erupting fire-fight. The air around the
Hope was alive with angry red blaster bolts. Alex absorbed the scene even as he followed Donovan into the fray. Joanna was pinned down behind some crates, firing furiously. The Mak'Tor healers were also crouching behind heavy crates, clustered around their cargo, weapons appearing in their hands as well, adding to the blaster bolts criss-crossing the bay. Jameson and Opal were the only ones out in the open, the Mak'Tor Knight's blade flashing furiously, sending bolts back into their attackers while Opal stood, firing as impacts from solid slugs sparkled across her chest.
"Slug thrower!" Donavan yelled. His saber was already flashing through defensive orbits while he ... sang? Alex felt himself grinning at the odd trait.
To each his own.... He reached out with the force, grasping the weapon and giving it a savage yank. The mercenary yelped as the weapon flew away from him, arcing through the air and landing next to Joanna, who instinctively slung it over her own shoulder. The merc, apparently a second squad from the band that had hit the Mak'Tor clinic, attempted to draw a back-up weapon, his face a rictus of concentration and fury.
Alex drew the force to himself and his saber ignited as he executed a force-enhanced leap to the mercenary's position. His first cut slashed through the rising weapon, destroying it as well as cutting through the man's hand. The mercenary barely had time to feel it, however, as Alex reversed his stroke and took the man's head off. The stroke avoided the prominent shoulder and torso armor, which Alex suspected was more of the cortosis alloy that had hampered them earlier, and his purple blade hummed as he threw himself into a forward somersault. Alex rolled in behind the mercenary firing line, his blade slicing through knees and thighs as he came back to his feet and swept down the position. As quick as he arrived he was gone again, always moving, moving, moving...
Sabers hummed and blaster bolts flew and scattered, slamming into the bay walls and doing damage all around the bay as Alex and the Mak'Tor knights closed with the remaining attackers and cut them to pieces, supported by fire from Opal and Joanna. Then, with a suddenness that was surprising the firing stopped and the remaining attackers disappeared into the warren of passages surrounding the landing bay.
Alex extended his senses, tracking them as they moved away. They weren't going far. "They're headed to a neighboring bay..."
"Probably have a ship of their own." Jamason said, helping the healers with the crystal chest. The anti-grav skid had taken a hit in the fight and the knight was using the force to carry it for them. "We need to go. Now."
"Agreed." Donavan said, turning toward the ship.
Alex gripped his arm as he passed, stopping him. "What have you gotten us into, exactly?"
"I told you. they're here to hijack these crystals..."
Alex shook his head. "I know, but that's two squads of Mando mercs, with droid support and there's more of them. From what I'm sensing they had two other bays covered as well, probably other freighters known to deal with Wilson." Alex pulled the knight in close. "Now ... what is going on?"
The Knight blinked, then sighed. "I'll tell you all of it ... but not now. We don't have time. We have to move. Quickly. The tempo of the song is increasing dangerously."
Alex felt his eyes narrow. "Song? What song?"
"As I said, I'll explain once we're in flight. Now ... are we going to die here or get away?"
Alex sighed and let go of his arm. "Lets go. I'd rather not die today if I can help it." He turned and headed up the ramp, now clear of healers. He could see Gambler in Engineering, plugged into the main console and finishing the power-up cycles. "Blip!"
The R2 unit appeared, tweeting a greeting. Alex knelt down and looked the astromech in the eye. "Yes, I'm glad to see you, too. Listen carefully: I want you plug into the L4 junction in the port cargo bay. Log into the stabilizer control bus junction and SIT ON THEM. If they so much as twitch, you switch over to the secondary runs. Understood?"
Blip tooted agreement and immediately trundled over to the port bus junction in the port cargo bay. Alex patted the droid on the dome before stepping back to the turret control stations aft of the main ramp. He noted the Healers had locked down their crates in the starboard cargo bay and were strapping into their seats in the lounge area under the watchful eyes of the Mak'Tor knights. "Donavan, a moment."
The Knight stepped closer. "Yes?"
Alex pointed at the turret control stations. "Can you and your fellow knight handle the guns? I ... have a feeling we're going to need them."
Donavan smiled and nodded. "No problem. We've both served on Naval ships, we're familiar with the controls and protocols." He looked at the control station, scanning the tell-tales. "Though this configuration is non-standard..." He pointed at the stick. "Trigger is rapid-fire laser cannon, and the thumb button is the turbo-laser?"
Alex nodded. "Yes. You can fire both if you wish, but sustained turbolaser fire will overheat the mount and shut it down in about twenty seconds, so watch your heat scale. The laser, though ... you can blast away with that all you want."
Donavan grinned. "You got it."
Alex nodded and turned away, headed for the cockpit. Opal stepped out of the port bay as he moved forward. "Friend Alex, I secured the recovered Shard interface in the electronics bay. Orders?"
Alex tossed his head aft. "Help Gambler with the start-up and stand by for any damage control we may need to do ... and keep an eye on our friends back there."
Opal looked aft, then back at Alex. "Understood. I will be ... near engineering." Alex smiled and started forward again, only to be stopped by Opal. "Friend Alex ... thank you. For saving my friend."
Alex felt his smile morph to a grin. "Don't thank me yet. We still need to get off this rock!"
Joanna was already in the cockpit at the pilot's station, rapidly running the pre-flight checklist. As Alex approached she pointed toward the communications station. "Clearance! Now!"
"Aye, ma'am." Alex dropped into the communications shack and activated the comm. "Port Control, this is AX-224748 Hope requesting clearance for immediate departure."
"Hope, control. I have no flight plan on file for you. State your destination, passengers and cargo."
"Understood control..." Alex hesitated. Something told him frankly acknowledging his passengers would be dangerous. "We are outbound for Syvris with ... electronic components, repair technicians and security specialists for our client." Alex decided that classifying the healers as "repair technicians" and the knights as "security specialists" wasn't an outright lie.
There was a pause from Central, though Alex could hear the clacking of a keyboard on the open channel. Was the contoller updating their flight plan? Or summoning the authorities? He'd know in moments...
"Hope, control: you are cleared for departure. Take a heading of 188 azimuth 75 for the Aurek beacon. Take outbound lane Aurek-three. Once you pass the belt you are cleared for hyperspace at your discretion. Squawk channel Osk-Cresh-Senth-two-seven-seven. Control, out."
"Control, Hope: Acknowledged!" Alex cut the connection and patched the communications board to the copilot's seat. He sat down in the cockpit and strapped in as Joanna completed the final pre-flight checks.
"Ramp secured ... moorings cleared ... thrusters are armed. Hang on back there, here we go!" Joanna called. With a few deft control movements she lifted the
Hope II straight up, skewed left and aligned with the directed course. A few seconds after lift-off the over-powered freighter was on course and accellerating away from the planet.
"Clearing atmosphere..." Joanna said, her hand pushing the throttles forward. "Coming to full power..."
Alex leaned back, feeling the tension singing through the force. "That was to easy..."
"Three bogies rising behind us!" Jameson called from his gun. "They're well out of range but closing fast. Those have to be fighters..."
Alex pulled up the sensors, focusing on the trio of ships rising from the surface. "I'm not sure what they are, but they look nasty..."
"Kom'rk transports." Opel called from engineering. "They were in use with the Death Watch and several mercenary groups before I went offline. They're fast and capable."
"That would explain how they're overtaking us." Joanna interjected. "We're armed but this is still a freighter. Suggestions?"
"How long before we can jump?" Donavan asked.
Blip responded with a series of hoots and whistles.
"Why so long?!?" Alex fired back.
More beeps and boops, this time from Gambler. "Oh, joy..."
"What did he say?!?!" Joanna asked.
Alex ignored her. "You're sure we can't shave some time off?"
Blip and Gambler responded together, in total agreement for once.
"What was that?" Donavan asked.
"Can anyone translate?" Jamason said, then added "Two minutes to weapons range."
"What about another jump point?"
Boop-beep-bloop-blaaaaap-whisle
"Fine, ok..."
"WHAT DID HE SAY?!?!?!" Joanna, Jameson and Donavan shouted in unison.
"Alright already! The first leg of the jump is long and needs to be precise. We have to hit it at the set vector and within a few thousand clicks of the fixed point, or we'll miss the corridor. There's another possibility, but its just as finicky ... and its across the outer asteroid belt."
Joanna sighed hard. "Well. If we go straight out to Aurek-three we're going to be porg bait..."
"...which leaves only one viable option." Alex finished for her. "Gambler, upload the Besh coordinates and jump calculations to the navicomputer. Blip, stay on that junction! If those controls get sloppy in the field, we're all going to be spare parts!"
Blip and Gambler whistled their affirmative responses while Joanna reefed the freighter over to a new course and Alex shifted to the engineering console, looking for every spare bit of thrust he could find in the engines.
At the gunnery stations Donavan and Jamason shared a look. "Did he sound ... cheerful to you?" Jamason asked.
"Yep. Maker preserve us all." Donavan replied.
But he was smiling...
<<<< >>>>
The trip through the asteroid field proved to be anti-climatic. It was tense at first as Joanna and Alex teamed up to pilot the ship. Alex reached out with the force, probing and occasionally nudging the scattered rocks, helping his wife feel their way through the cluttered field. For their part, the three Kom'rk transports broke off the pursuit, choosing not to take the risk. They split up, two going high and one low, attempting to go around the field. While safer, the longer distance more than negated their speed advantage, and the
Hope II broke out of the field and reached the Besh beacon over ten minutes ahead of their pursuers.
With a flash of blue light and streak of psuedomotion the
Hope II leaped into hyperspace. Her crew and passengers breathing a sigh of relief.
The chase was on ... and they were off and running.