Tales From the New Republic

by Peter Schweighofer

  and hoisting herself into the hole. What should have been a fall felt like a

  slide through feathers, and she landed lightly and soundless. Convenient

  thing, that Force grip.

  Kyp glanced around quickly, then pushed a pressure plate on the wall. A

  door slid open and they scurried into the dark cabin. "How should we look for

  her?" he asked.

  "Can't you just sense her, or something?" Fen said, as she quickly

  studied the room.

  "No, I've tried. There are a lot of fearful humans on this ship." Kyp

  suddenly moved back to the door. "Some one's coming!" he announced.

  "Really? Well, I've never been afraid to ask for directions."

  Kyp eased the cabin door open as heavy footfalls moved passed. They

  slipped out silently and Fen exulted in the reunion.

  "Hello, Brasli." Fen underscored her cheery greeting by ramming her

  blaster muzzle into the thug's back.

  Brasli stopped abruptly.

  "That's right," Fen cooed. "Put your hands up and away from that nice

  blaster at your side."

  "I figured you'd show up for that Sithin' partner of yours, Nabon,"

  Brasli sneered, slowly turning around to face her.

  "No swearing around Jedi," Fen remonstrated as Kyp relieved Brasli of his

  weapon.

  "Now, are you going to tell me where she is, or is this Jedi going to

  have to go into t mass of pathetic neurons you call a brain and pull it out?"

  When she and Kyp burst into the cabin, with Brasli at the end of a

  blaster muzzle, Ghitsa's exclamation of "Fen!" encompassed relief and a

  question, all in a single word.

  Fen roughly shoved Brasli into a chair. "Sit." To Ghitsa she said, "Got

  anything to tie him up?"

  "What Brasli used on me will work admirably on him," Ghitsa said,

  snapping a length of cord in her hands.

  There was an ugly bruise across Ghitsa's face, but she was mobile. "You

  okay?" Fen blurted as she let go of the mental image of another partner's

  blood staining the floor.

  "Nothing that a week in a spa won't cure." As Ghitsa trussed and gagged

  Brasli, the man's grunts reflected her enthusiasm for the task. Ghitsa let the

  moments beat by, then, as her cunning eyes slid over Kyp, added, "So Fen,

  you've found a real Jedi."

  Reluctant to disclose his secret, Fen was relieved when Kyp stepped

  forward. "I'm Kyp Durron."

  Ghitsa started. "Durron? Jedi Kyp Durron?"

  "Save it for later," Fen broke in. Ghitsa had worked for Hutts; she'd be

  able to handle rescue by a mass murderer.

  "I sealed the door," Kyp offered.

  "Then how will we get out?" Fen countered.

  They all jumped as a new, commanding voice burst into the cabin. "Brasli,

  report!"

  Ghitsa pointed at the comlink affixed to Brasli's collar. "It's Counselor

  Ral. He's running this operation."

  Fen strode to the bound man, tore the gag from his mouth and aimed her

  blaster squarely between his eyes. "You are going to answer your comlink. You

  try being cute and I'll blow you apart."

  Brasli nodded. "What is it, Ral?" His voice was rough but otherwise

  normal.

  "Where are you?"

  "Tell him you're here," Fen mouthed.

  "I'm with Counselor Dogder," Brasli rasped.

  "Good," the other voice barked. "Stay there. We may have been boarded.

  We're searching the ship now."

  The other voice clicked off. As Fen crammed the gag back in Brasli's

  mouth, Ghitsa plucked the comlink from his uniform and affixed it to her own

  collar.

  "Fen," Kyp called.

  "Yeah?"

  He was studying the cabin wall. "This is an exterior bulkhead, right?"

  "There's about a half meter of reinforced hull between you and the big,

  bad galaxy, if that's what you mean. What are you..."

  Fen's words died in her throat and Ghitsa's sharp gasp was abruptly

  drowned out by the low hum of the bright violet blade in Kyp's hand.

  A Jedi Knight and a lightsaber. It was almost holy, harkening back to an

  era long gone in her lifetime. Impossibly it lived again in the cramped cabin

  of a Hutt freighter.

  Kyp laughed. "Now, Fen, don't you start. I'll just cut through and we'll

  be out of here." He pivoted to Ghitsa and offered her the shimmering

  lightsaber. "Unless you would like to do it?"

  "No, wait!" Fen cried as Kyp raised his lightsaber. "If you cut through

  there, it'll set off the hull breach alarms. They'll be on top of us before we

  can get out of here."

  "I could cover you," Kyp asserted.

  "Both of us? For how long?" Fen responded. And with how many dead? she

  added silently for Kyp. When he nodded slightly. Fen knew he understood. "It's

  still a good idea though." She strode over to the cabin's control panel and

  tore off the cover.

  Her partner was already anticipating Fen's plan. "Do you have something

  that can generate a continuous loop?" Ghitsa asked.

  "Yeah. I think we can rig one of the no-shows I brought." Fen reached

  into a pocket at her thigh and pulled out the device. She handed it to Ghitsa.

  "See what you can do with it."

  "What's a no-show?" Kyp asked over her shoulder. He had, Fen noticed,

  shut down the lightsaber.

  "Something else you wouldn't approve of," Fen said lightly.

  "It's a passive field generator," Ghitsa explained. Fen heard a snap as

  the no-show split in Ghitsa's hands. "Wearing one makes you invisible to most

  detection technologies."

  "The cabin's sensors for things like hull integrity all run through this

  circuit," Fen said, working a pair of cutters out of another pocket with one

  hand and pointing to the wiring in the wall. "From here it feeds into the

  ship's computer."

  "So you are going to slice into x and use the no-show to create an

  uninterrupted feed from here to the computer?" Kyp's voice indicated he wasn't

  quite cut out for this sort of skullduggery.

  "More or less," Fen responded, sorting through the multicolored wires in

  the panel. Which one was for hull integrity again? She shrugged the doubt

  away, jammed the cutters between her teeth, and began teasing green wire out

  of the panel. "Ghits," she mumbled through a mouthful of tool, "you got that

  gen rigged yet?"

  "Yes."

  As her partner clamped the generator onto the wire, Fen commented, "I've

  never seen a hairpin used like that before."

  "Don't talk with your mouth full. Fen."

  Fen spit out the cutters and sliced into the circuit. She held a ragged

  breath, but no alarms sounded. "That should keep them off our backs."

  They both pivoted about on hearing the hum as Kyp again ignited his

  lightsaber. He swung the blade over his head and began slicing through half a

  meter of metal like a boot through mud.

  "You know. Fen," Ghitsa commented, staring at the young Jedi now

  deliberately sawing through ship hull. "I don't want to see a lightsaber on

  the black market. Ever."

  Kyp was through in a few edgy minutes and closed down the lightsaber.

  "There's a skin of metal still holding it on. We'll have to push our way out."

  Fen put a shoulder to the makeshift door.

  As Ghitsa he
sitated, Fen chided her, "Come on. Here's a use for those

  shoulder pads."

  "I was just wondering what we do once we break out of the ship?"

  Fen looked at Kyp. He shrugged. "Run?"

  Chuckling, Fen started the count. On her "Three!" the hull plate buckled,

  then clattered to the ground. Fresh air and light streamed in. "Anyone around?

  " she asked Kyp.

  He shook his head. "For now, no. But we don't have much time."

  "One more thing," Ghitsa injected, with a nod toward the wide-eyed

  Brasli, still tied to the chair. "Shouldn't we dispose of him?"

  Fen understood from where that desire for revenge came. Brasli obviously

  worked over her partner pretty hard, judging from the bruises and busted lip.

  Kyp solved the problem by jumping out the door to the ground some two

  meters below. "Come on," he gestured.

  She jumped down and Ghitsa followed. They landed in the shadow of the

  Rook's underbelly, concealed by a landing skid.

  Kyp gestured to the docking bay's entrance on the other side of the

  landing pad. "I think that's the only way out."

  "And it's in the line of their laser cannons," Fen noted, heart sinking.

  Ghitsa pursed her lips. "I bet they've security coded the door, too."

  Kyp pushed the hair out of his face again, a gesture that was part need

  and part unconscious habit. "Fen, if you can take whatever comes out of the

  ship, and Ghitsa, you work the door, I'll handle the rest."

  "Just like that?" Fen challenged.

  The Jedi Knight nodded. "Just stay behind me."

  They had covered half the distance between the ship's bow and the docking

  bay exit. Fen was beginning to think maybe no one would notice when Kyp

  started yelling.

  "Get to the door," he called.

  Behind them, Fen heard the earsplitting whine of laserfire. She

  instinctively ducked and pushed Ghitsa forward to the entrance, but couldn't

  place what the ricochet sound was.

  Fen whirled around and, for a second, reflexes honed by years of dodging

  and answering blasterfire failed her.

  Kyp, the kid of a Jedi, was standing alone in the middle of the docking

  bay. Laserfire poured from the Rook's forward guns. And like some weird

  children's toy, Kyp caught the green killing bolts on his lightsaber and

  tossed them away.

  "Fen!" she heard Ghitsa shout. She spun about. Her partner was under the

  entrance's marginal cover. "It is locked. You'll need to hold them off a few

  minutes."

  A few minutes. It was a lifetime in moments like this. She ran back to

  Kyp. Methodically, even calmly, he deflected each burst of fire. The blasts

  bounced off the lightsaber, ricocheting at crazy angles.

  Out of the corner of her vision, Fen saw movement, flickers at the top of

  the Rook's ramp, inside the ship. From behind Kyp's protective cover she

  crouched down, steadied her blaster on her knee and caught each of the Hutt

  henchmen in a blue wave of stun blasts as they emerged from the ship.

  Her mind had been ticking off the seconds. She knew, rationally, they had

  not been under fire for more than a minute. It seemed an eternity. Ghitsa was

  good at locks, but they were only two people against an entire ship. If Kyp

  started to get tired, or faltered just once...

  The wail of repulsors suddenly filled the docking bay. What the... Fen

  glanced up, wondering why it had gone so dark. A freighter hovered overhead.

  It was obviously piloted by someone who was really angry, and a friend, Fen

  concluded with surprise, as the ship poured cannon fire into the Rook.

  The Rook shuddered, helpless on the ground. Fen stared again at the ship,

  noticing the distinctive bow markings, the equipment standard on no other YT.

  The Star Lady? What was her ship doing here?

  Fen's personal comlink burst to life. "Cap'n, this is Gibb. I figured you

  might need some help." He underscored the point with another deafening volley

  into the grounded ship.

  The roar of the Rook coming to life drowned out Fen's shrieking invective

  at the reckless mechanic. The Rook's repulsors screamed, blowing dust in the

  landing bay. Threatened from above, the ship abandoned her victims on the

  ground and surged up. Fen felt her heart stop as the Rook swerved and narrowly

  missed the hovering Star Lady. Free of the docking bay, the Rook shot into the

  sky.

  "Gibb!" she screeched into the comlink. "You bring my ship back! Don't

  you dare..." But Gibb did dare, darting after the retreating Rook.

  "It's all right Cap'n. She's running now. I've called Nad'Ris Customs.

  They'll intercept."

  Fen yanked a pair of macrobinoculars out of another pocket and glued her

  eyes to the scene.

  "Who's that piloting the Star Lady!" she heard Ghitsa ask.

  "Gibb," came Kyp's weary voice.

  With a supreme effort Fen tore herself away from the vision of the Lady

  chasing the much bigger, and better armed, Ghtroc.

  In a tone full of disbelieving admiration, Ghitsa added, "It really was

  good of you to let Gibb fly the Lady here."

  Fen could only nod weakly. To Kyp, she managed, "You did great."

  Kyp smiled back and pushed sweaty hair off his forehead. "I'm just glad

  we didn't have to kill any of them."

  "Actually..." Ghitsa began.

  Frowning, Fen asked, "What?"

  "Well, they have no way of knowing about that hole Kyp cut in the hull.

  If they get too high up."

  Kyp turned gray. "Gibb!" Fen yelled into the comlink. "Back off! Tell

  Nad'Ris Customs not to chase them. That ship's not spaceworthy. She'll blow if

  she goes much higher."

  Ghitsa looked bewildered. "What's the problem?"

  "Later, Ghits." To Kyp she said, "Can't you do something so they turn

  back?"

  Kyp was looking up, into the space of sky the ships were heading. "Even

  if I could, the Force shouldn't be used that way."

  His piercing sorrow made Fen ache.

  Ghitsa humphed, then undipped the comlink she'd taken from Brash and

  thumbed it on. "I'm warning you though, it won't work."

  "Try!" Fen demanded.

  "Counselor Ral, this is Dogder." She smoothly cut off his sputtering

  rage. "Yes, as you have surmised, I have Brasli's comlink. Now, Ral, I am

  quite serious here. You have a hull breach. You'll never clear the lower

  atmosphere. You have to come back."

  They heard laughter. "He's a gambler," Ghitsa explained. "He thinks I'm

  bluffing."

  "Try again," Fen urged.

  Staring into the sky, Kyp murmured, "Customs still thinks the ship is

  under quarantine. They'll try to stop it."

  Fen brought the macrobinocs back up to her face. She could just make out

  the Rook. Per her orders, Gibb had not pursued. But Fen could see two smaller

  ships moving fast and firing wildly at the retreating Rook.

  "Ral, this is Counselor's oath," Fen heard Ghitsa say. "I swear you have

  a hull breach."

  "Too late," Kyp whispered.

  From the comlink they heard a scream, then a burst of static. Through the

  macrobinocs, Fen saw a flash.

  And the Rookwas gone.

  It was the one place in the galaxy Fen thought she would never go. They

  landed on
a humble pad at the base of an enormous stone structure. A temple.

  Fen guessed, built by some ancient and subjugated race. A rather odd place for

  a Jedi Academy, she thought.

  Through the cockpit viewport they could all see a cluster of very somber,

  brown-clad beings of varying sexes and species. "Welcoming committee?" she

  asked Kyp, forcing a quip.

  Kyp shook his head, shrugging out of his seat restraints. "Something's

  going on."

  Fen slid out other seat, but Ghitsa remained glued to her chair.

  "You're not coming?" Kyp asked her.

  Ghitsa looked away from the grave Jedi outside the ship. "No, Kyp," she

  said slowly. "I don't think so." Confirming that the experience had not

  irrevocably sobered her, she added, "Not even if I could pick up a few

  pointers for next time."

  Kyp's mouth turned up in the beginning of a knowing grin. "Be true to