"A New Adversary."

By: Anthony Hummerston.

STARRING

'Mama',   Rojic,   Jimmi,   Karnov,   Niall,   Kory,  
And introducing:
Joe-90  and Hen3ry
as the droids.

AND
Storm Cutter
their ship.

“Fire!”

Mama presses the button. A crimson streak of light projects from beneath the cockpit of Storm Cutter and streaks like an arrow toward the shuttle they are pursuing. The shuttle starts to bank left; meanwhile, Mama pulls Storm Cutter into a tight turn, gives it a second or two on full thrust and flips the ship on its axis. Still retreating from the shuttle, and the missile fired and running, it is only a matter of time….

The two specks, one white, like a distant star, and one red, merge and became one. On board the shuttle the professor is leaning on the controls, trying to bring his craft about, but hampered by his tremendous forward thrust, and the intense gravity of the star he has chosen to skim. His hand rests on the control lever to release his sinister payload. The silent missile seeks out the radio signature of the shuttle, and rams home –right into the engine bay. -Milliseconds later, it detonates.

For the briefest moment in time, the entire cockpit of Storm Cutter is lit up by the explosion. A dense cloud can be seen for a second before diminishing. The Professor’s shuttle vaporises, and is no more. Debris fans out in all directions interfering with the star's magnetic field and streaking with bursts of radiation and energy like an intense lightning storm. Then it is gone.

ROLL CREDITS:

Dark forces are at work, cutting the Jedi off from one another.

A small band of misfits are in pursuit.

Hoping to stop the spread of the contamination,

they are in a deadly race against time

to eliminate the threat before

this new evil

plunges the galaxy into darkness.

Jimmi stands for a minute, with a heavy heart and face bathed in the light of the sun. Part of the force that had ebbed and flowed through him has been diminished. This world is full of shadows, even to his eyeless face. He turns away. At his shoulder, Karnov looks impassive. It’s difficult to tell the emotions of a Quarren. Even Rojic stops talking to himself for a moment.

The cockpit is silent. Then as the darkness returns Mama asks simply: “Where now people?”

Mama

“Well, the professor is dead, but the threat remains.” Karnov says, matter-of-factly. “I think we’d better call this one in to the Jedi representative on the nearest system. – Where is the nearest system again?” He turns to Mama, the owner and captain of Storm Cutter.

“Well, we’re at Yag’Dhul – a barren little world, which has no love for the republic. The Givin are its main inhabitants, and they can be a little strange at times- The only saving grace is that they produce some fearsome starships.”

“Define fearsome.”

“We’ll they’re fast, sleek and deadly -for crew as well as their enemies.”

“How so?”

“Well, they sacrifice everything for speed and firepower – even life support by all accounts.”

“Sounds like Storm Cutter on a good day!”

Mama interrupts “Hey! Standing right here!”

She whistles for Hen3ry, who by degrees, comes trundling up to the cockpit. By then, they’ve decided to bypass Yag’Dhul and head for Bestine.

Karnov agrees. “-And let’s keep our eyes peeled for frigates.”

“Frigates?”

“I mean ‘shuttles.’ -I always get those two confused.”

Jimmi agrees. “I do too; they all look the same to me!”

Hen3ry.

By the time they reach Bestine, three hours have slipped by, and they’re rested. All except Rojic, who has been secretly experimenting on some of the remaining crystals – Much to the dismay of the rest of the crew. They even consider turning up the temperature, or the AG ^{[ 1 ]}  in his cabin – Or both. His incessant chatter to himself prompts them to shut and seal the door to the engineering bay.

Mama reflects. “One of my children couldn’t stop talking you know.”

“What did you do?”

“Sewed up his mouth with Cathar gut.”

“And then what?”

“Well, he didn’t complain. -But you should’ve heard that Cathar yowl!”

The fuel gauge is starting to veer toward empty – they’re going to need more before long. Rojic’s tweak to the hyperdrive has knocked several minutes off their journey time- Enough for him to explain -yet again- how clever he was.

Niall has remained quiet for the journey. The tremors in the force back at Yag’Dhul have troubled him. He stirs, and makes ready for landing.

The other members of the crew stir too. Kory is eager to step back on terra firma – and we already did that joke to death. She wants to fill the hold, haggle over the price and make some money. She starts going over the listed commodities prices, and calculating margins in her head. Before long they are berthed in the orbital trade station around Bestine IV.

Kory heads off immediately. She finds a droid trader on the docking apron, but dismisses it out of hand. “I can’t haggle with a droid.” She says to herself. Further out, there are alien traders. She looks around carefully, before finding a respectable looking man who is willing to barter a price. He’s offering manufactured goods and exotic foodstuffs – “Depending on which way along the trade route you’re going of course…”

Kory thinks about this. The news they have is probably destined for the ears of the Jedi council on Coruscant – “To the core -the very core!” She says in a friendly way.

“In less than four days?” The man asks.

“Well, we came in a beaten up old freighter- but yes, assuming no mishaps, mis-jumps and that Mama remembers how to fly the thing- And our technician doesn’t blow us up in the process…. Yes!”

“Do I have a deal for you?” The man says. “-And seeing as you’re welcome here any time, I’ll give you a good price!”

They start to barter. They start to haggle. They start to negotiate. Kory gets rather excited. Finally she drives a really good price from the man. –And arranges for him to deliver the goods to the Storm Cutter the moment they’re ready to leave. –Phew!

Kory does the deal, shakes his hand, and turns to leave. The man’s assistant looks at him. “I could have gotten a better price.” He says.

“Oh, how is that then my friend?”

“By not being so distracted.”

“-I was not distracted!”

Kory turns the corner out of earshot. – Stopping only to zip up the front of her flight suit to a more respectable height.

Back at Storm Cutter, Rojic is looking over the hull. He’s not the only one. Several technicians of varying races are refuelling, and generally helping with the mundane running of a busy working ship. There is however, a young man watching all the proceedings with interest. He’s not working- far from it in fact, but keeping a close watch nonetheless. Rojic asks the ground crew who he is, but doesn’t get a firm answer- “Just a guy that’s interested in ships – Nothing more….”

Jimmi isn’t straying too far – A chandler’s store is nearby, and Jimmi purchases some extra medkits. Something in the fortunes of the ship means that they’re going to need them in the future. Nothing ever seems to run Smooth around Storm Cutter –Almost like it’s the eye of the storm in fact. On Mama’s instructions, Jimmi adds another forty-eight pack of toilet rolls too.

Niall and Karnov try to find any Jedi presence. After a few disappointments, they start to ask around. The general situation is that there are no Jedi resident on the station. – Occasionally one passes by, or makes a scheduled stopover while on patrol. – But as luck would have it – Or maybe it’s the Force at work. ^{[ 2 ]} A Jedi Mistress is on the station at this very moment. She is in meditation at the Shrine of Contemplation. -A place of rest and tranquillity on this otherwise busy trade centre.

Karnov and Niall make their way there. Jedi Mistress Tisha Luce will be some time. From time to time, a protocol droid offers them refreshments while they wait.

When the Mistress has finished her meditation, the protocol droid approaches her. She is a Cerean. She is tall, thin, and quite young looking – for a Cerean.

Tisha Luce

Karnov and Niall fill her in on the details. They say that dark forces are at work, mining and refining crystals, that when subjected to energy, start attenuating the Force in a large area around them. They also think that these crystals might be being spread around solar systems in the galaxy to reduce the power of the Jedi by blocking force-based communications. Tisha is concerned. “So you think that agents of the dark side might be trying to develop some kind of super-weapon?”

“Possibly, but more likely they are attempting to reduce the powers of the Jedi by disrupting the force. We seen to have stopped the source, but a little too late I fear.”

Tisha considers this. “This is of grave concern. I will meditate on this further. All I can think of at the moment is that there is an element called Sisorium that is mined out on the mid-rim. It was reputed to have Force enhancing properties, but that is only a legend, I’m afraid.”

She thinks for a while. “Though I’m very busy right now, I could do some research. Where is your ship, and where are you headed?”

“We were thinking of following the trade route to Coruscant, and then to the Jedi Temple itself.”

“That would be the wisest. –Apologies for I have pressing matters to attend to. Good luck and may the Force be with you.”

“-And you too.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

That concludes their business, and they return to Storm Cutter. The others have returned, and they indicate that it is time to head off. Kory alerts the trader, and within a few minutes, droid lifters are seen crossing the docking platform, loaded with cargo canisters.

Refrigerated container.

They are about to depart. Rojic is checking over the outside hull of the ship, when a courier droid approaches the ship. Rojic looks down.

“What have we here? A droid?”

“Bleep bleep, whistle bleeeep!”

“For me? It isn’t my birthday again is it?”

“Bloop!”

“Aha!”

Mama appears at the top of the cargo ramp. “All aboard!”

She presses the close button - Fast close. The ramp starts to ascend rapidly.

Rojic flutters down, as the little droid pops a compartment. Inside is a data crystal.

“Er…. Thanks. -I think!”

He looks back, sees the ramps closing, and pulls a 3-G turn and rapid ascent, and just manages to get inside Storm Cutter’s hold as the ramp slams shut. – Had he been wearing a hat, he would only have had a few milliseconds to grab it from the other side.

“That was a close one!” Rojic says to Mama.

“Damn!” she says under her breath.

She smiles sweetly at Rojic. “There’s not much room in the hold now, so it’ll be a bit if a squeeze….”

“Not a problem.” He tells her, floating up, and buzzing over the containers. “Maybe you should slim down a little!” He calls back over his shoulder.

“All bought, and paid for. -With good living and profitable trading!” Mama yells back, but Rojic is long gone. She looks down at her ample frame. “Maybe I maxed out my credit a few times….”

Being prepped for flight, they ping the control tower, and are cleared for launch. Storm Cutter lifts off gracefully and heads out into space once more, leaving only a ring of rusty flakes, a bad smell and a few puddles to show where it once stood.

“Coruscant is going to be around thirty-five hours.” Mama informs the rest of the crew, as Hen3ry processes the astrogation data. She punches in the hyperdrive and the cockpit view fills with stars which streak into long lines. “Damn!” she swears again.

“What?” The others are all holding on to something solid – a scarce commodity on board this ship.

“I forgot to dump the garbage….”

“Oh no, not again!”

The others wander back to their duties or to rest. Before long there are little tinkering noises as Rojic fiddles with things in the workshop, and tapping noises as Kory looks at star ship records, correlating the data from the Crystal that Tisha sent them.

After a few minutes, she looks up.

“Here’s interesting…. A Kappa class shuttle has been foreshadowing us for the last week or two. Wherever we go, it’s a jump or two ahead.”

“That’s not so unusual, there must be a million craft flying the galaxy all at the same time.”

“Yes, but Qun, Ryloth, Druckenwell, Kalarba, then it turns along the mid-rim edge, past Bothan and Hutt space. I wonder….?”

Niall comes over- “Where do they mine that stuff? – The one that Tisha mentioned?”

“Sisorium? Let me look…..”

A few seconds later she reads from the display.

“On Bimmisari. –Or to be more accurate, a planetoid in the system. It’s a trading hub outside Hutt space. The Bimm are hard working, industrious, and have a reputation as traders. They have quite an influence in the senate too.”

“So…” Niall thinks aloud. “If the agents of the dark side get there first, they could add Bimmisari to their list of ‘closed’ systems, and influence the senate.”

“It’s only one vote, -but an important one. As traders, they’d be ripe for the Trade federation to offer them terms to secede.

“-And if the federation are behind the crystals, they would have unlimited access to the space around the planet. Seeding it with crystals, and using it as a jump off point for some important places in the Galaxy.”

“Such as?”

Niall pulls up a star chart. “Kessel. Spice mining. –Still very profitable. That’s one thing the Jedi have never managed to stamp out.”

Kory looks at the star chart. “Chalacta?”

Jimmi interrupts. “It’s a spiritual home for millions. Pilgrimages and such. Also on the edge of Hutt space and the Hutts have no real love for the Republic, I can tell you.”

“Then I reckon that’s where we may be headed next.”

“We’ll see what the Jedi temple has to say, but I guess so, yes.”

Kory goes back to the console.

“One last thing…” Niall asks.

“What’s that?”

“What was the name of that shuttle?”

“Rose Wanderer.”

“Thanks.”

After thirty four hours and eighteen minutes, the beeper sounds for the transition back to realspace. Rojic is pleased with himself. “Two percent saving! Am I good or what?”

He looks around. There is no-one but Hen3ry in the cockpit.

“Bleep. Whistle. Buzz.”

“No point being early if no-one’s here to fly the ship on the other side. I don’t know why I bother sometimes.” Rojic tells the little droid.

Mama comes up to the cockpit. “No point at all. It’ll take an hour or three to get through all the customs checks, and registrations and all that.”

Niall steps up. “We can wave our Jedi badges, and get a priority channel. -They’ll wave us through.”

Karnov reminds Niall that he’s only a lowly courier, and neither of them are full Jedi.

Mama beams at them both. “Your overconfidence is your weakness.”

“Your faith in your friends is yours!” They counter.

“They’re not my ‘friends.’ They’re paying passengers. -Some of which are rather in arrears. –And soon to be gracing the airlock – on the wrong side….If payment is delayed much longer….”

Rojic is frightened. “What if I don’t survive? I’m worth a lot to you.”

Mama tells him. “I’m sure the Republic will compensate me if you died. There may even be a reward!” She turns to Karnov and Niall. “Okay, put him in!”

The other two do nothing. Rojic realises he’s been had. He buzzes off to do some more tinkering. Though it sounds a little more determined this time.

“What’s he doing down there anyway?”

“Fixing Hen3ry.”

“But Hen3ry is here at the astrogation terminal.”

“Then he’s building a super-weapon of his own! We must stop him!”

They pass through the planet’s formalities quite quickly. Kory relays that there are Jedi aboard, and that they are on official and important business, and they also have a perishable cargo, and Storm Cutter is waved through along the silver channel.

They put the ship down near the Jedi temple. It rises high into the sky above them. Kory has already lined up a buyer for her foodstuffs.

“Did you say cheap?” Jimmi asks.

“Cheap, to buy, yes….”

“Only I thought I heard bleating, are you sure we’re not shipping sheep?”

“Oh, ha, ha, ha. -Very funny!”

“But I swear I heard bleating.”

“That’d be Rojic having to use a pair of scissors instead of a hydro-spanner.”

“I thought that tightening screws was what scissors were for!”

Jimmi turns to her. “Anyway, I detect certain lightness in your voice. Why are you so pleased?”

Karnov whispers. Jimmi can’t help saying. “The Force is strong in this one!”

Rojic interrupts. “Some cookie-Wookie religion. –And before you start, -I don’t believe in it!”

“I don’t need to prove it to you, Rojic. The Force is in all living things.”

“Then show me evidence! Make me fly or something!”

“No point Rojic. You already have wings.”

“Okay, point taken.”

Jimmi tells him. “Besides if I showed you, there’d be no point in faith. Proof denies faith remember?”

Rojic is not interested. “Oh yes. Blah, blah, blah. Hookie religion, Blah, blah, blah. Can’t prove it, nah, nah, nah….Not listening…!”

Unsure whether Jimmi can see her or not, Kory winks at him.

She says casually “I got twice the price on the food. Less the taxes, that makes a tidy four thousand or so….”

There is a second’s pause as this figure goes around the brain of the Toydarian. ^{[ 3 ]}

“Okay, sign me up! I’m a convert! I’ve seen the light, I’ve seen the profit in believing. See? I’ll prove it to you. Now show me the money! All that lovely money!”

Jimmi says. “Now that you’ve proved, it, I cannot believe in it. Or you!”

“Talking of which…” Mama joins them. “There’s the little matter of transit fees, and sundries, consumables, fuel….. -This ship doesn’t fly itself you know.”

“Actually sometimes I wonder if we might fare better if it did!”

Mama feigns defeat. “Okay. Just saying…. Is all. –Only, when we’re stranded with an empty tank and run out of paper in the head, again, I’ll be countin’ all that nothin’ that you’ve been paying me all along…..”

“What’s your point exactly?”

“You remember what this ship runs on?”

“Hyperspace fuel, witty banter, and maybe a big elastic band?”

“No. ‘Reciprocity.’ – You do a good turn for Mama, she does a good turn for you.”

“Or else….?”

“Or else I dump you out of the airlock!”

“No big deal, we’re in the hangar.”

Mama thinks on this. “It’s still a ten-foot drop though!”

“Okay. You convinced me. Here’s your fee.”

A few credits.

Rojic grins at her. “Pfft! Ten feet! No problem at all for my wings…..”

“I’ll put you out when we hit space. A buoyancy bladder and wings, they’re not so good in hard vacuum!”

“I repaired Hen3ry!”

“Okay. Payment deferred. Now we’ve matched the pressure, you can all get off. Oh, and Rojic. You’ll need your furs. It’s several degrees below out there.” Rojic obliges and buzzes off. Mama punches the ramp open button, and the warm sunshine of a Coruscant afternoon hits them like a blast furnace.

Karnov is off first. “I need to moisturise. -Or preferably find a nice slimy wet planet.”

Kory arranges for the cargo to be unloaded. The others all walk along the boulevard to the Jedi temple. Mama waves from the ship. A comms beeper goes off behind her, and she ducks back inside to take the transmission.

Once inside the Jedi temple, the others are asked to wait in the foyer. They send a message that they need an audience with someone higher in the organisation. Presently a middle aged man comes to meet them. He introduces himself as Master Annix. He takes them up several levels and into an office with panoramic views over the planet-wide city of Coruscant.

Karnov and Niall fill him in on the details, and what they suspect. Annix is interested in the crystals. Rojic gives him a sample of the raw crystal and a sample of the refined crystal.

“This has lots of carbon scoring on it, mister Toydarian….”

“I tried heating it in the flame. -Then I hammered it.”

“That was rather foolish….”

“Yeah, but it kept Jimmi, Karnov and Niall awake all night!”

“I’m not here for jokes, Mister Toydarian.”

Master Annix

“Okay Sorry. Anyway the interesting thing is that when you heat it the crystal subdivides in a lattice fashion not unlike that of an item in a matrix I’d call that an entry or an element The example has entries one, nine, twenty-six, alpha, bismati, star cluster, oaty-fruity bars…. -And oooh! That’s a nice view out there! Anyway, as I was saying…. Entries are often denoted by a variable with two subscripts as shown on the right; thus for example vector a-twenty-one equals twenty, so that matrices of the same size, which can be added and subtracted entry-wise and matrices of compatible sizes can be multiplied so these operations have many of the properties of ordinary arithmetic except that matrix multiplication is not commutative, that is AB and BA are not equal in general so some matrices consist of only one column or row defining the components of vectors while higher-dimensional for example three-dimensional arrays of numbers can define the components of a generalization of a vector called a tensor matrix with entries in other fields or rings, which I also studied, though in the pure crystal form this can be seen that……”

Midway through this ramble, Jimmi puts up a hand. ^{[ 4 ]}

The others put their hands to their blasters or weapons. Rojic carries on regardless….

“Besides the ordinary matrix attenuation I just described, there exist other less-frequently used operations on crystals that can be considered forms of multiplication, such as the Hadamard product and the Kronecker product. They arise in solving crystalline matrix equations such as the Sylvester equation…..Which….

Jimmi indicates the door. Above the horrible droning squared of Rojic and Rojic’s explanation, he’s sensed that the noises outside the room have ceased. When everyone is ready, they gather at the door. Rojic turns around to see what the fuss is about…. Jimmi indicates that Rojic needs to continue his monologue.

“So, as I was saying….” Rojic continues. The others can’t tell the difference between his mumbo jumbo acting or a genuine explanation.

Jimmi pushes the door control and the others leap out, narrowly avoiding a Bothan lying on the floor. A deactivated droid is there also, and a Rodian, who was crouched at the seal of the door. The Rodian leaps back and takes to his heels in an instant, sprinting along the corridor.

“There’s one! Set for stun!”

They blast away at the fleeing Rodian. He falls to the floor and writhes about. Niall stuns him again to make sure he’s fully out cold, and not about to do anything stupid – like trip off a bomb, or swallow a suicide pill.

They drag the Rodian into the office. They tend to the Bothan too, who appears to have been stunned and clunked on the head – though they cannot determine in which order. Jimmi administers a medical stimulant, and a three-foot band aid. Slowly the Bothan comes around.

On hearing Rojic still spouting on, he asks to be put under again.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Karnov asks him.

“Tent….ugh!”

“Ten? Tent?”

“Ten…. Tenatacles!”

“He’s okay. Now, what happened?”

“I spotted a Rodian squatting by the door.” Several eyebrows shoot up. “Eavesdropping!”

“Oh, I see. -And you confronted him?

“Yes. Then I don’t remember much more, -before waking up here.”

They revive the Rodian. He’s bolshy and uncooperative, and only talks in Rodese. Kory threatens him in Huttese, and he soon loosens up a bit. However, information is not very forthcoming, though he does admit to listening at the door, and assaulting the Bothan. They try to find out who he is working for, and with Rojic stroking his blaster out of the eye-line of the Jedi, the Rodian admits that some Nemoidians put him up to the job. He was to report back this evening at a transit station a couple of stops down the line.

“Give us a name, and we’re done with you.”

“Okay. A Nemoidian. -And his name is Roake Khan.”

“There. See, that didn’t hurt did it?. -Security!”

Our heroes call security, and they help the Bothan and the Rodian out of Annix’s office. The guards take the lift to the infirmary with the Bothan. As for the Rodian, they take him for interrogation. These guards are not Jedi, so they take the long way around: Up seventeen levels and down another fifty three, then up the last thirty six levels.

One guard turns to the other. “You know sergeant, we should’ve got the lift.”

“No point. The interrogation suite was on the same level all along. – Besides stair climbing is good for you. – Though not while being dragged by the feet eh, Rodian?”

“You mean the interrogation chamber was on the same level all along?” The poor Rodian asks.

“We can go to the one next door if you’d like….”

“No, it’s okay. My head couldn’t stand the walk. I’ll tell you everything!”

Rojic goes to the droid. “And what happened here then?” He fiddles around for a moment. The droid is completely powered down.

“Someone pushed the emergency run down unit.” He tells the others. “It shorts the power coupling, feeding it back through the supply modulator. It’ll need a full recharge and reboot. The memory grid’s been wiped too. – Old fringer trick. Kills ‘em dead.” Rojic pats the droid’s head.

“Poor little thing.” He says, almost looking sad.

The others make plans for intercepting the Nemoidians. They scout out the rendezvous, and cover the entrances and exits. The transit station is busy, and it’ll be difficult to spot individuals. Kory and Rojic manage to wheedle their way into a control station, and keep watching the vid feeds. Niall positions himself ready for anything; Kory helps Jimmi with a plan. With a disguise kit, Jimmi pulls on a rubberised Rodian mask. They spray it a sickly colour of green, and blend it into the skin at the neck. They polish the eyes up, and add tufts of hair. Kory steps back to admire their handiwork.

“There. Even your own mother won’t recognise you.”

“Yes she would, we Miralukans don’t ‘see’ with our eyes as such, remember.”

“Surely that’s a good thing. Tell me some other good things about…your mother…”

“Let me tell you about my mother!”

Jimmi whips the blaster pistol right up to Kory’s face. Kory knows it’s not loaded.

Jimmi practices his Rodese. It’s not too good. However, the Rodian-accented basic is very realistic.

“What about the hands –spray then green too?” Kory asks.

“Nah, I’ll wear gloves!”

In the Rodian disguise, Jimmi feels a little strange. The fake Rodian paces up and down a bit, trying to get into character.

Kory coaches, “Now, you’re a Rodian, you feel the world owes you a living. You’re angry and aggressive. You know: ‘Let me tell you about my mother’ aggressive!”

Jimmi tries again. Still no luck. “Sorry, not really getting the aggression.”

Kory says “How about I get Rojic to explain about the crystals all over again?”

Jimmi hefts the Rodian’s blaster “Okay, now I get it! Let me at him! I could pull the wings of a Toydarian!”

Kory smiles. “My work is done here!”

At the allotted place at the allotted hour, a transit coach pulls up. Among the passengers alighting are four Nemoidians. They look around and head for a shop selling food and info tablets. Jimmi, in the disguise, follows them.

“I’m here for my money Mister Khan.” Jimmi tells them.

They look at him blankly.

“Proceed at once to the drop point?”

The Nemoidians tell Jimmi in no uncertain terms what they think.

“Get away from me you horrible little Rodian!”

“But….”

“Go away. Horrible! Horrible! Ugly smelly creatures! Ugh!”

Jimmi follows them into the shop. They buy some food and a news-tablet. On seeing the Rodian again they shoo it away.

They head out along the concourse, and into an underpass. From here they wait for an autobus to take them downtown. Jimmi tries again. “Please, I need my money!”

“For the last time, get away from me. Filthy Rodian scum!”

Jimmi decides not to try their luck any further. Concluding that these aren’t the Nemoidians they were looking for or something has gone wrong with the meeting. Jimmi slips back to the others.

They consult Master Annix, and conclude that they should try to follow the trail of the crystals form another angle. They decide to head out to Bimmisaari and get a lead on the Rose Wanderer.

They bid their farewells, and leave the matter to Master Annix. They walk back in the sunshine.

“Wait a minute. Is that a mirage?” Rojic asks, buzzing higher to look down the avenue. “I swear I see two Storm Cutters!”

Sure enough, another YT2400 light freighter has touched down next to their ship. As they get nearer, they can see that it has been heavily modified, and that Mama is talking to someone. Closer still and they see that the someone is a young woman, probably in her third decade, and that she looks not dissimilar to Mama about thirty years ago. The resemblance is uncanny.

“I see you’re back.” Mama turns around. “I’d like to introduce my daughter, Disa. Disa, these are my friends. Oh, and this is Rojic.”

The young lady smiles at them. Mama continues. “Disa has got word on the whereabouts of her father, my husband. As soon as I’m prepped for flight, I’m leaving.”

“What about us?”

“What about our mission? What about Storm Cutter, what about all the spare parts she needs….?”

“We’ll always have parts. We didn’t have…. We…er…We lost bits until you came to Coruscant. We’ll get them back another night….”

Jimmi asks “So the ship’s ours?”

“No. Still very much mine. But on loan. That’s a LOAN mind you. No hawking, selling, scrapping, or getting it scratched. You hear me?”

They all nod.

“Okay, so be off with you, you scoundrels….”

“But we’re lovable scoundrels….” Kory counters.

“Yeah, my kind of scum. Now off with you. Oh and one more thing…..”

Rojic interrupts. “Bagsy I get the captains cab….”

Mama interrupts right back. “No one goes in my cabin, or plays with my dinosaurs. –And keep the head stocked with paper. Are we quite clear?”

They nod again.

“Okay. Now shoo!”

They climb aboard to wait for their next cargo to arrive. The sister ship, Storm Echo pulls away, and climbs into the sunset. There are tears in more than one eye at Mama’s departure.

A little while longer and they are heading off into space too. They set course for Bimmisari. After some time resting and reflecting, they cut in the sublight engines and look at the vista before them. The planet of Bimmisari gleams green in the distance, but around it are several ships in close orbit.

The Holo-comm comes to life, and a message is relayed form Annix.

“The Bimmisari home world is being blockaded by the Trade federation. Proceed with caution. The Bimmisari are holding out over a vote in the senate. If the blockade is not resolved in five days, we stand to lose another world to the trade federation. As Jedi on the ground, we authorise Karnov, and Nail to act as arbiters. Good luck. And may the force be with you!”

NEXT EPISODE: A little lump of Bimmisaari rock.

Bimmisaari

TO BE CONTINUED......

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Footnotes. (Click numbers to return to the story.)

[ 1 ]   Artificial Gravity
[ 2 ]   Even GMs roll natural 20s sometimes!
[ 3 ]   Insert mental noise of roulette wheel here: Whirrrrrr..rrrrr.rrrrr.Plink....Plink...Plink.Plink.Plinky.Plink.Plink.....Oops! A big fat zero. -You lose!
[ 4 ]   “Please sir, can I be excused....?”