We did typical things for any mission. Our living quarter gear was placed in one transport heading for The Silence while we flew our X-Wings and Strike flew their B-Wings to the Nebulon-B Escort Frigate’s fighter bay. The Strikes landed first, then had their fighters moved further back to where the Assault Transport was being prepped. Even though I was not going to fly my X-Wing on the raid, I was to bring it over in case it or I was needed. JC was kind enough to volunteer to be the emergency pilot for this mission if one person went down before we could fly. I laid a pretty big bomb on them yesterday. Fal, I heard, had spent the three hours I was in my office trying to convince the Admiral, that I was not in any way a threat. I retrieved my gear and stowed it. Like usual, I had the luxury of private quarters on missions when Chief wasn’t on board ship with me. Not that a Neb-B has a lot of space to come with, but not having to share it with anyone was always a treat. Defender Squadron was rarely on The Silence. This was Talon Squadron’s ship. Morale on the ship was low. Most of her crew had been there for nearly two years now, and none had been promoted in that time. The influx of us new pilots was enough to at least have them stop drooping their shoulders while we were on board.
I should probably move to the bridge was my next thought after my gear was stowed. I am technically part of the command staff, so that is where I shall go. I know something is not going to go right. I just need to see what is going on here. The bridge should be five decks up from where I was staying. I moved quickly as I could without seeing rushed to the deck. I met Fal at the tubolift to the bridge.
“Headed to the bridge?” he asked.
“Yeah, I got a bad feeling about this mission. Don’t want to make too much of it, but then again, I don’t want to sit around and do nothing.”
“Well going to the bridge to see us depart on our way to hyperspace isn’t exactly something,” he reminded me. The lift doors hissed open.
“So, why are you going up to the bridge?”
“Some one has to. Admiral Azzameen sees a frigate as beneath him to see off,” he said.
“Sounds like him. I don’t know, I’ve never liked the way he does things,” I said.
“He knows. That’s why you were left to die out there almost. Be grateful that intelligence reports are filed outside the chain of command to General Cracken and Adm. Ackbar,” he told me.
“I am, but how’d you know about the Chief and me?”
“That one was easy. On duty if you two could manage, you would talk to each other and be at ease. Wasn’t hard to pick up on. I didn’t know that it would end up like it did, but I’m glad it did,” he said as the door slid open at the rear of the bridge.
“Maj. Fal Azzameen and Lt. Voren Pbarny of Guardian Wing’s Defender Squadron reporting to The Silence, Captain Farn,” Fal announced to the bridge.
“Welcome aboard,” a short stocky balding man said. “I see Adm. Azzameen sends me his best. Good, I’d hate to see that boy on my bridge.”
“You aren’t the only one,” I whispered.
“What was that?” Capt. Farn asked, closer and in my face.
“I was agreeing with the Captain,” I responded.
“I like you already Lieutenant. See that you don’t change who you are. Come up with me to the command floor. Ever been on anything with such a far forward bridge, gentlemen?” the fat captain asked.
“No, sir I haven’t,” Fal said.
“Once, a Carrack class cruiser before I joined. But Carracks are smaller than Nebulon-B’s, skipper,” I said.
“Well it’s a treat to watch them fly out. Care to give the word Lt. Pbarny?” he offered
“I don’t know if I should. I’m just a fighter jock and lawyer.”
“Well, then you should. My crew do most of the work, you just say to the helm take us out at some fraction of full speed,” he assured me.
“Well, I’ll try to remember that and what they taught me before I came over and what I learned while at Guardian Wing.”
“Very well. Lt. Pbarny has the conn,” the captain announced.
“Thank you, Captain Farn,” I said. “Communications, tell Defender One we are underway. Helm, set speed at one half full. Course heading along the old Correllian Run, distance 4 light-years outside New Republic Territory. Engage,” I said. With that the bridge came to life. “Conn returned to Capt. Farn.”
“Thank you, Lt. Pbarny,” he announced. “Well done. If you ever smarten up, leave Starfighter Command and transfer to the Navy. We need good commanders like you on our ships.”
“I’ll think about it after this one, sir, but I think I will be retiring soon. Law and trading at the moment is becoming very lucrative.”
“So it is. So it is,” the captain said. After clearing the nearby planetary masses, the hyperdrive was engaged. The view port flashed blue then the blue-white swirling lights of the other dimension surrounded us in a psudeo-motion of us lurching forward. Hyperspace on a capital ship doesn’t feel as funny to one’s stomach on a large capital ship as when it does in a starfighter. That was a small comfort I found.
“Capt. Farn,” Fal said, “We’ll be taking our leave of you now to go over our mission briefings and objectives.”
“Very well, gentlemen,” he said. Fal and I turned and headed to the back of bridge.
Negotiating for people who were able to work on Coruscant was difficult enough without attracting attention. Most of them were bottom feeders wanting new prey. Those were automatically dismissed. I told them that there was no way they would work for me. I was interviewing for people who needed a new start now that their life was ended. I was also looking for people that could fill a small niche now, but grow into something more. I found many. Nearly two hundred people fit that description. Most of them would forgo credits for a few months or years provided they had shelter, food, and a place that they could start over. I recruited experienced spacers, star ship mechanics, cargo station workers, police and security officers, and a myriad of people with no discernable skills, but who obliviously would work hard and do something for me sooner or later.
“Are you the man going interviewing for the shipping firm?” a man came in to talk to me.
“Yes, why do you ask?”
“I think I have something of interest to you. My refueling station has some spare engine power converters. Word on the street is that some one not from here is looking for them or something like that. You’re hiring people like mad, some of them who work for me, so you have to be the man. “
“Yes, but that’s not why you’re hear.” The sensation of dread was all over me. This man was hiding something, very dark. Everything he had said was true, but his intentions weren’t legitimate. That much I could tell. “Tell me what you really want?”
“Very well. Some people are getting very angry with you. I am here to get you what you want, and get you off Coruscant,” he told me.
“Fine then. I want the parts I need, or people who can get me those parts,” I told him flatly. Fingering both my holstered blaster, “The people are coming with me because they are living beings. They deserve a good life. They lost that here. Lost that in your war, not mine or theirs anymore. We’re ready to move on, we came here peacefully, and we’ll leave peacefully.”
“Very well. I’ll meet you tomorrow at noon local time with what I can come up with. After that, get your vermin out of here as soon as you get those engines fixed. Next time you come back here, you won’t be so lucky,” he told me as a cold chill came over me.
“Next time, I don’t keep my finger off the trigger of my blaster when I see you. Just you remember that.” Who would want to see me destroyed so badly? I didn’t have a lot of time to think. I turned on my comlink and keyed it to call Trapps. “How are things going up there?”
“The droids memory wipes and reprogramming is done. We’ve got life support, gravity, and water restored. Power to all decks should be up by the end of the week. Those people you’re hiring to help work here are doing a good job,” he told me.
“That’s good. There’s a problem. I need you down here as soon as possible for the next couple of days. Something’s not right here, and I want you and a few people I just hired here to scare some one tomorrow.”
“Have we been discovered by the NRI?”
“I don’t think so. No, otherwise you’d get rounded up while up there. Something just isn’t right here, that’s all. I don’t want to alarm anyone. I’m going to transfer ten thousand credits to your account. Pay for some extra guards tonight at the ship. Don’t tell Chief or Garrik till we figure out what’s going on.”
“You’re the boss. Think it will be ugly as the botched boarding operation?”
“Don’t see how it could be much worse. I just want to be prepared. Call me when you get down here. I’ll talk to you then.” I flipped the comlink off. I rose from my seat in the conference room the hotel was letting me use to conduct my interview. I shouldn’t go outside to look for spotters. I would need to do a sweep of the room though. Also, I was not going to eat at the hotel anymore. I was going to get take out from some place. I headed for the turbolifts. Check out the room and wait for Gabi to come back with Garrik. Then, take him with us back to the Monkey’s Tail, and talk to Trapps. That would work. Now on to sweeping the room before Gabi and Garrik return.
It was an uneventful two hours waiting for them to get back.
“We found a junk dealer who had the control pods from several Medium Transports that crashed on planet. Also, got a lead on two engines for them as well,” Garrik eagerly announced to me as he entered the room.
“That’s great. Some one came to me with an offer on a set of engines and power converters too,” I said trying to conceal my worry. I wondered how long it would take Gabi to pick up on it.
“Word on the streets is that some big time upstart is about to happen. Some one may try to fill the void left by Xizor Transport and the Imperial collapse. That’s good right?” she asked me.
“I didn’t plan on supplying the galaxy. We’re small, only going to be a few ships, buy some more when we can afford them.”
“According to some bureaucrats I heard at lunch, they’re going to pay smugglers for intelligence and to handle shipping,” Garrik blurted.
“That’s the thing with revolutions and wars, yesterdays criminals are tomorrows leaders and business men,” I tried to put in perspective.
“So that makes you what, the middle man of middle men?” Chief sarcasticly asked.
“Ideally, that’s the goal. We act as the intermediate in what we can handle. We don’t try to make ourselves a huge organization. Strive for legitimacy where possible, and then the occasional boarder run when possible.”“So, what we going to do with those new ships?” Garrik asked.
“The Medium transports will answer the call of the New Republic for shipping needs. The Correllian Transports will try and keep the station supplied. Also, they should be looking for cargo containers and defenses we can use. I don’t want to get caught undefended in the middle of the graveyard.”
“Sweetie, that disrespects Alderaan’s memory,” Gabi told me.
“No, it protects it from what happened to it from ever happening again. I will protect the graveyard from now till we leave that place, I promise you that.”
“Ok. So, when do I get to go aboard the station? I want to see what Trapps is doing,” Garrik said.
“Well, he has some business with me tomorrow. Interviewing mechanics mostly. If you find the engines, you can help work on them up there with him,” I told him. “Let’s go pick something up to eat. Trapps should be bringing the Monkey’s Tail down soon. We can tell him all about it.” We started out when Chief looked at me and spoke up.
“Hey, silly, you’re forgetting your data pad,” she told me.
“Oh, yeah. Guess I’ll need it to talk to him won’t I?” I turned around and picked up my datapad. “Well that should do it.” I headed out and set the alarm. “I need to stop at the desk before we leave. I don’t want any messages taken tonight,” I told them.
“Why not?” Chief asked.
“Just don’t want any tonight. It can wait till tomorrow.”
“Alright. What do you think Trapps would like to eat?”
“Wookie food,” Garrik said. “I want to try Rodian.”
“Rodian. Stuff is all goo. I wouldn’t mind some Kuati or Duros tonight,” I said.
“You and your Kuati. What about Correllian?” Chief asked.
“That’s like going out to a gourmet resturaunt and ordering Nerf nuggets,” I chided her in the hallway. We all burst out laughing at that.
We decided on Correllian after all. Just to make fun of Chief and her choice I did order Nerf Nuggets. That made both Gabi and Garrik burst out laughing while ordering. The people working at the restaurant didn’t seem to appreciate our little inside joke. We took a speeder cab to the spaceport. Trapps had set down five minutes before we had gotten there. A Duros, Gotal, two Humans, another Trandoshan and Trapps got off.
“They are going home for the night,” Trapps said.
“I see, we brought you some Correllian food. Chief chose it.”
“Nerf Nuggets again for you?” he snorted.
“How’d you guess? Till these two grow a backbone and expierment a bit, they won’t know what’s out there. “
“How are the repairs coming along?” Garrik asked.
“Let us go sit and eat, and tell our tales of the day,” Trapps said, inviting us to come aboard my ship and eat. I missed The Monkey’s Tail. The ship was my girlfriend if Gabi was my wife. I could hear Squared beeping away at something or other that he disagreed with. I saw that he was plugged into the engineering diagnostic station. I read on the panel display, “Wipe droids memory. Droid has valued it’s own worth too much.” Squared was swearing at the diagnostic computer. He turned and beeped at me.
“Don’t worry, little green buddy. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll even save your memory to some data cards. Just in case anything ever does.” The equivalent of thank you jack ass was whistled at me. Squared then returned his attention to the diagnostic computer.
“Wanted to have him checked out since he was reprogramming so many droids the past few days,” Trapss said, sitting around the galley table. Trapps started with telling of us of all the repairs, how every new worker was appreciated and kept busy. He told us how most of the power conduits just needed to be patched. The piping just need to be reinsulated to keep from freezing since the stations own heat and heat generated by the gravity plates would keep them from freezing in deep space.
Most of the gravity plates had to be taken from the operations level to be used in the living levels and hangar bays. Trapps had only enough gravity plates to restore gravity to being about 75% of normal in the hangar bays, but that would probably do wonders for cargo off loading. He had the ASP droids cleaning heavy debris and moving it into Hangar 3. He then had one of the Protocol droids catalogue the junk with the help of an 8D8 industrial droids identifying everything. Trapps had certain items flagged on the protocol droids inventory every night after reviewing the total list. If anything could be salvaged and re-integrated back into the platform, it was done. He told everyone on how soon he expected repairs completed.
Chief told us on how looking for engine blocks for medium transports or anything similar was going. It was fairly bleak. Power converters, hyperdrive motivators, power conduits for fuel transfer were easier to find than the actual engine manifold. She told us about her lead. A Toydarian and Neomodian run junkyard.
“Great, the old Trade Federation remnants,” Trapps grumbled.
Garrik told us of how big everything on Corruscant was. Things were not just spread out, but vertical. He told us of The Museums of Natural History and Galactic History. He explained how history scholars from Obroa-Skai were here trying to restore the Jedi Wing destroyed by Emperor Palpatine. Garrik got around using the public transit systems on Coruscant. He also toured the Grand Corridor of the Imperial Palace. He apologized for not really looking for what he was supposed to, but then again, he is the Rim World Boy in the Big Core World planet.
I told of my day. How I was seeing at least four people per hour about coming to work. I explained exactly what we were doing. Also, I tried to convince them that credits wouldn’t come right away, but you would have food and a place to stay. I also told them of the lead regarding engines for the Medium Transports. I wasn’t too optimistic with it though.Garrik offered to clean things up, I wanted to talk to Trapps alone.
“I want to check the hull for stresses. Trapps, want to help?” I said.“Yes, now would be a good time for that,” he growled in agreement.
“You want me to help out?” Chief asked.“No, shouldn’t be that bad. Just should be done. We’ve been running the ship hard for a year now. Why don’t you see about getting her some maintenance workers that Mirax would trust,” I said. “We’ll try and do what we can now.” Trapps re-holstered his heavy blaster pistol as he keyed the opening to gantry way. I walked down armed only with my lightsaber that I had stolen off the corpse of one of The Dark Disciples. We walked over to the lift that would boost us up onto the top of the ship.
“This person, he worries you doesn’t he?” Trapps asked while we stepped on to the top of the port side mandible.
“Yeah, he really worries me. It’s like they want us to get these people off planet, but they don’t want us to succeed. “
“Could be a competitor, or a member of the Smuggler’s Guild trying to bring us into line with them,” my reptilian friend suggested.
“Could be, but then they wouldn’t use such a threats. They would sell us out every run they could. No, I have a feeling like this is some one still fighting the war.”
“Well, then we have enemies on two fronts, then,” he reminded me. “Plus, you have enemies on both sides still.”
“I know. That’s why I wanted you to round up so security. I think your presence tomorrow in the room will throw him off.”
“Ah, very sound plan. Humans are often unsettled by species they perceive to be threatening,” Trapps said.
“Also, I want you and Garrik to take the hotel room tonight. My guess is that they know who you are, but they think of you as just muscle. Take two guards with you. The rest will stay here just outside the landing pad.”
“Very well. I will see you tomorrow then?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’ll come get you around nine in the morning. We’ll set up the conference room.”
