"Tear this Ship Apart!"

By: Anthony Hummerston.

STARRING

Rojic,   Jimmi,   Karnov,   Niall,   Kory,  
And introducing:
Joe-90
as the droid.

Karnov and Niall look at one another.

“Are you feeling what I’m feeling?”

“I feel terrible!”

“-And they didn’t even ask us any questions!”

Jimmi interrupts. “The question is, how are we going to get out of this?”

They look about. All around them, the room has erupted into little fights, which are rapidly escalating into bigger fights.

The Munn have taken exception to the Jawas rifling through their stuff, and have drawn hold-out blasters. The Farghul girl, whose name is Kassha, is still scything through Gamorreans and Trandoshans, like a lightsabre butter-knife through butter.

“We’re gonna have to call on the force to get us through this.” Karnov says.

“What are you going to do, force-jump over to the door?” Niall asks.

“No, nothing so provocative. That’ll draw the fire of everyone in the room.” He edges closer, beckoning to Jimmi. We’re going to have to share our life forces.”

Niall understands. Jimmi is a little more sceptical. “What goes on campaign…..Stays on campaign?”

“Sure, whatever. Now, just put your hands on one another…..”

Calling on the force, the three of them manage to rebalance their vitality somewhat. – Though eagle-eyed observers might see that Karnov simply drew upon his own inner strength. Jimmi and Niall share a moment. It’s all very touching….But without that kind of touching! Well anyway, they recover slightly and hopefully enough for the next few minutes.

Niall gasps to Karnov. “I never thought I’d say this, but a spell in the Bacta tank back on Storm Cutter never was more appealing.

“You know that Rojic probably had it refilled with Swarfega?”

“So instead of a tank of green jelly filled with bits of dead skin and scab, it’s a tank of green jelly filled with detergent?”

“At least you’ll come out degreased, and a lot cleaner.”

Jimmi says, “I’d prefer a tank of lime jelly. –That has a soothing and restorative effect on me.”

“How would you know what flavour it was?” Niall asks.

“I can smell, can’t I?”

“Then smell us a way out of here. I fear that if I cough too loudly, I might keel over!”

Karnov says, “It’s a shame we aren’t next to the chute for the garbage.”

“We’re in mortal danger and you want to go for a swim?”

Kory quotes. “I’ve been swimming in raw sewage…..And I love it!”

She shakes her head. “I looked at the deck plan. There isn’t a great demand for garbage chutes on droid-crewed vessels.”

Jimmi pauses for a second. “Where are we?”

“Well, if there's a bright centre to the universe, you're on the ship that’s a million light years from it.” Kory quips.

“Actually, we’re not far from my homeworld.” Jimmi reminds her.

Kory sums up quickly. “Like I said, bright…..Centre….Really far away from…..No time to discuss at a committee…..Right now, in a room full of murderous pirates….Between us and the door. Don’t want to end up as pet food in orbit around a dog’s ass of a world like Alpheridies!”

Jimmi grins. It looks rather sinister in the Neimoidian disguise. “Got it!”

Back at Rose Wanderer, Rojic is lying back and thinking of money. Beneath him, loading droids are filling the ship with all sorts of interesting and valuable stuff. He starts to think that he might start a second front, and load another ship. Credit signs flash in his eyes.

Joe-90 is standing impassively. His voice is a little strange.

“How ood?”

“Ood? Do you mean odd?” Rojic asks.

“Ood, sir?”

“Odd!” Rojic says, slapping Joe-90 on the back of the head.

“Ood, sir. Very ood behaviour.”

Rojic makes an adjustment. “Say ‘odometer’….”

Joe-90 tries. “Oodometer.”

“Say oddball.”

“Oodball”

“Say….Um….Odds and sods.”

Joe-90 tries.“Oods and s.s.s…..soods.”

Rojic frowns. “That’s not good.”

Joe-90 stammers. Ittttt…..ssssss.s.s.s…..ggg..ee.ttt.t.t.t.t…t…i…ng worsss…ssss.sssss.sssssir!”

Rojic tries something else. He powers down Joe-90 and then re-boots. After a minute, Joe-90 comes back online. “Grrp! Prr! Rup! Gup! Rupgup! Goo..R! ……Money!”

Rojic closes his eyes for a second. “Ahh… Toydarian. The mother tongue. I’m almost back there….The smell of the swamp, the gurgle of hot mud…. The midges tickling your wings as you fly….Dodging Hutts with their sporting blasters…..Hey wait a minute!” He turns a dial in the back of Joe-90’s head. Joe-90’s eyes flicker and he says just one word. “Sir?”

“That’s better! Can’t have the others learning my language. They must remain blissfully ignorant when I insult them in my mother tongue.”

“Indeed sir. Had I ears, I’d cut them off rather than listen to your mother spouting that filth!”

“Let me tell you about my mother…..Oh, never mind. You won’t hear swearing from me. -Quite the opposite! The others are gone…. Saving the galaxy and hopefully getting themselves really killed in the process…..-And I’m all alone with my loyal servant; an empty ship, and obedient droids loading it with loot! I might even have a fat death-stick to celebrate!”

Artist's impression of Rojic, a loading droid,
and an un-named onlooker.

Joe-90 points up. “Sprinkler system sir.”

“I’ll have a go at disabling it. Then I’ll have a death-stick, relax and let the money come to me…. This is the life! –And no interfering, busy-body Jedi getting in the way of a fat profit!” Had he not been flying, Rojic would have jumped for joy!

Jimmi is starting to lead the group out of the melee. This is rather hampered by Niall being injured and the combatants doing a merry dance of death all around. Kory hisses at Jimmi. “We need a distraction! -Something to draw their fire!”

Karnov offers some advice. “Maybe you should start singing, Jimmi!”

Jimmi warbles the first few bars of a song. “I shot the sheriff….But I didn’t shoot the deputy…”

Karnov shoots a glance at the Chiss that he had a run-in with earlier. He too starts a song. “A Chiss on the hand is quite continental….But diamonds are a girl’s best friend…..!”

Niall growls at him, “Keep that up, and I’ll shoot you myself!”

“Oh yeah? You and who’s grand army of the Republic?”

Kory nudges Niall. “We need a distraction. Something to clear the way.”

“The Farghul girl is doing that already!”

Karnov warns them. “-And she’s getting uncomfortably close. Do something!”

Jimmi makes an offer. “I could throw my voice.”

“I think they might end up throwing you!

Jimmi takes up the challenge and the white cane. “Blind Neimoidian coming through! Please make way for a poor, blind, helpless Neimoidian!”

Niall helps steer Jimmi through a gap that has opened up. Kory and Karnov bring up the rear. The ‘green gang’ are running out of Gamorreans to throw into the Farghul mincer, and are starting to pin their hopes on a Gungan and a Verpine technician.

In the fire fight, the score is as follows: Niall’s team, two, -a Weequay gang leader and one of his minions. Kassha has downed two Gamorreans, felled the Gungan with a single shot to the head, and badly injured a Trandoshan. The Weequay have lost another gang member to the Verpine technician. This leaves Kassha as the last of her gang. On the other side of the room, the Munn have lost one of their number, but have shot and injured two Jawas. The Jawa’s team has brought up reinforcements in the form of a very nasty Dug. The Dug has seen to a Kel-Dor thug and a human mercenary already, without drawing breath.

My name's not Dug!

Our heroes shuffle to the door.

A mean-looking Bothan blocks their way. “Leaving so soon?”

Smoothly, Kory counters in the Bothan’s own language. “With this breaking out? Are you surprised?”

The Bothan is rather flattered that such a pretty girl knows his tongue. While Kory explains, Karnov and the others snigger at the innuendo.

“We need to bluff our way around….” Jimmi whispers.

“I don’t bluff.” Niall states for the record. “Though that’s precisely what I’d say if I did!”

Kory asks innocently what is happening. The Bothan replies. “Someone called someone else ‘pig-face.’ That doesn’t go down well with our Gamorrean friends.”

Kory plays the innocent. “Oh!”

The Bothan warms to her. “It’s okay. I’ve got your back.” He steps forward to fend off the Verpine, who is hissing like an angry cockroach. Kory and the others sidle up to the doors, which spring open in milliseconds. Kory calls. “Good on you bro’….” They step out. The door takes several hits as they leave.

Outside the door, someone touches off an awful alliteration grenade. A slick, six-strong squad of slightly stupid but brave battle droids are hastily hustling along the cavernous corridor. They surely shudder to a hasty halt beside, but outside the damaged door.

Kory explains the situation. “They're madmen! They're heading for the prison level. If you hurry, you might catch them!”

“Eh?”

“In there!” Kory points to the door.

The droid commander presses the button for the door. It turns up its vocabulator volume and over the noise of pirate crews killing one another, demands, “Okay. Everyone break it up!”

There is a pause. The doors start to close. Then there are several dozen shots. As the doors get to within a foot of one another, a droid’s head spins out, still fizzing from a heavy blaster bolt. Several other droid arms and legs follow in rapid succession.

The mission has been successful…. If not a little expensive! The pirates have stopped killing one another and started on the droids. Kory and Karnov lead the others at a brisk trot back to the Zoom station.

A few minutes later and they alight. “I’m so glad we remembered to change the setting from ‘droid’ back to ‘organic.’” Jimmi says. “I don’t fancy starting that whole ‘healing’ process again!”

Kory looks around her gang of invalids. “We’re never going to strike a blow for the Republic like this. We need medical aid -and we need it fast.”

“What do you suggest?”

“I suggest that we get off this ship!”

Niall puts a hand on her arm. “Dear Kory. I’m afraid to say that we can’t do that. We’re in hyperspace already.”

“Why can’t we power up Rose Wanderer and leave?”

“Because dear girl, the hangar is in realspace but Knight’s Move is in hyperspace. As we leave there would be a whole time-shear and space-shear thing, trying to tear the ship apart.”

Jimmi jokes, “If you had a sheep on board, you could shear it too.”

Kory ignores Jimmi. “So….?”

“You ever heard of spaghettification?” Niall continues.

“Um….”

Jimmi says, “Trust me; you want to hear of it, but not experience it. -The forces would tear Rose Wanderer into molecules of almost infinite length!”

“So we’re here for the ride?”

“Yup.”

Kory thinks. After a minute she asks, “What about adjusting the trajectory? With a tweak or two, we could have Knight’s Move spin off to the edges of the galaxy.”

Niall reminds her of an old spacer saying. “Faster than light? No left or right!”

Kory thinks again. “What about if we nobble the hyperdrive, make it think there’s a gravity well, and so pitch it back into real space?”

“Might be a solution. We’d need Rojic though.”

“Rojic? Why Rojic?”

“Because he’s the only one with hyperdrive experience.”

“Just when I was starting to hope that we’d never see him again!” Karnov says, rather unkindly.

Kory looks around. “That settles it then!”

At station seven, they proceed through the hangar doors and quietly approach Rojic, who is fluttering with his back toward them. Rojic croons to himself. “I’m hoping that I'll never see them again!” Karnov and the gang manage to give him an almighty shock.

“Er, Rojic…..?”

“Eeeek!” Rojic jumps into the air, and flaps around like an embarrassed hornet. All the while, he tries not to look at anything in particular, lest the others follow his gaze, and see something incriminating. Rojic flaps rapidly, while he goes redder and redder.

“Its okay, Rojic, we know what you’re up to.” Niall says. Rojic goes a purple colour in his awkwardness. Niall continues, “We know that you’ve been misbehaving….Or should I say ‘liberating?’”

Jimmi adds, “Every time our back is turned….Or even right under our noses.”

Rojic finds his voice. “Stealing is such an emotive word….”

“-And quite an accurate one too, judging by all this stuff.”

“But….” Rojic starts to protest, but then changes tack. “Er….I didn’t think you’d be back so soon!”

“Well that’s obvious, isn’t it?”

“That’s a rhetorical question isn’t it?”

“I don’t know. Is it?”

Karnov stops the banter. “Anyway, that aside, we’ve got a little job for you.”

Rojic shakes his head. “As soon as we drop from hyperspace, I’m piloting this little haul out of the way, and starting my retirement.”

Karnov asks, “What about all this plundered loot?”

Kory says, “Well, that’s the real owner’s problem. I won’t stand in the way of a little space justice. I’m sure Rojic would rather help us than be left here to explain just what is going on to them. After all, tinkering with the hyperdrive must be preferable to being gaffa-taped to the loot when the pirates return.”

Niall jokes. “See, even gaffa tape has a moral light side and a dark side, as well as a literal light and dark side. –And a sense of humour too!”

“But my pension!” Rojic blurts out.

Karnov is rather scathing. “Oh Rojic, always thinking with your wallet.”

“Always thinking of himself!”

Rojic responds as only he can. “Narcissistic….Me?”

Jimmi is amused. “Touché!”

Niall says, “You know, I sometimes get the feeling that there is a little devil on my shoulder, whispering all sort of unsavoury things into my ear.”

“What’s on the other shoulder?”

“On the other one is Rojic, suggesting the same, but even worse!”

Rojic can’t wriggle out of this one. He reluctantly agrees. He and Kory go over the computer schematics of the ship – such as they are. Jimmi takes off the disguise. “Nothing but trouble anyway.” Karnov starts pacing up and down, practising a message to send to the Jedi council. He’s written the basics of his plea for help on the side of Rose Wanderer’s hull. Very carefully, on a data pad he copies it down:

Help! Karnov (me)
It’s me Karnov, help help!

Kory looks over his shoulder. “Great Karnov, that should do it.” She takes the data pad and looks at it. “-And this took exactly how long to write?”

Karnov seems pleased with himself. “All I need is a bottle to put it in, and cast it into the sea!”

Kory takes the data pad, and erases everything. She scribbles a few lines on the pad, and tells Karnov to speak them clearly to her while she records it on a data cylinder. Finally, after several aborted attempts, they get Joe-90 to imitate Karnov, and record the following.

“This is Padawan Karnov of the Jedi order. We are on board Knight’s Move, about…. Swordfish…. to power-dive into the sun of the Coruscant system. We are bearing a cargo of dark force-crystals. You have samples. You must delay the ship. Esk. Trill. Aurek. -Minimum three hours. Keep up to date on progress. Look out for Knight’s Move!”

Kory snaps off the recording cylinder before Jimmi can add, “Lots of love and kisses, Karnov!”

“It’ll do, I suppose!”

“But what if they do a voice analysis and realise it’s not me?”

“We’ll add some wow and flutter and tape hiss. The distortion will disguise the recording without affecting the message.”

“Great!”

Niall asks, “Did you include the emergency Jedi codeword?”

“Yes.”

“What was it?”

“I can’t tell you that. If I did I’d have to kill you.”

Niall reviews the message. He reviews it again. “Okay, you got me, it could be anything.”

Rojic claps his hand to his head. “If I had a ‘sword,’ I’d go and chop up a ‘fish!’”

“That’s nice, Rojic. Now, the hyperdrive?”

“I’m on it!”

Rojic stops the long queue of loading droids that are still doing their ‘sorcerer’s apprentice’ routine, and attempting to load hundreds of tons of ingots into Rose Wanderer and one of the other ships.

“I think there may be more cargo than there is room on board the flotilla.”

“I think you’re right. After all, Knight’s Move might have stopped several times before we met up with it.”

“Shame. There’s masses of this stuff!”

Jimmi, Niall and Karnov are starting to suffer the effects of close proximity to the ingots. Each has a pounding headache, and the temptation to stray from the light side of the force. Karnov starts thinking thoughts about several Toydarians roasting slowly on a spit. Niall is thinking of showing the Jedi council the error of their ways with aggressive negotiation. Jimmi decides to fight the dark side with the light. So long as Jimmi can concentrate on not succumbing to evil, there may still be a chance.

Half jokingly, Niall says, “That’s it! I’m off to join the separatists!”

“I don’t know if they’d want you. A failed Jedi.” Karnov says, rather unkindly.

Niall retorts. “I know the secret Jedi codeword.”

“No you don’t.”

“Okay. You’re right. I don’t. I’ll never be a Jedi! I’ll kill them all! The men the women, the children. They’re animals!”

Kory puts a hand on his arm. “Calm down dear!” She makes a ‘Vev’ sign with her fingers and points to her eyes and his. “Focus….” Niall calms down a bit.

“Seductive the dark side, isn’t it?” She whispers to Rojic as he passes.

“Yes….-And profitable too!”

Jimmi counts on fingers. “Okay, so we have a plan. Niall and Kory, find somewhere you can uplink this message to the comms relays. Broadcast this on all channels, all frequencies….You know the sort of thing…. And get Joe-90 to encode everything we know about Knight’s Move and add it as an attachment data stream at the end.”

Rojic is waiting for the inevitable. “What about us?”

“Even if we dive into the sun, we’ll always have Paris.”

“No I mean what are we going to do?”

“We are going to find a way to cripple the hyperdrive. –Even if it’s only for a few hours.”

Rojic beams. “I think I have an idea. I’ll need a look at the ship’s schematics again, and find a way of getting to the focussing chamber. If we can cripple several of the power conduits all at once, it might burn out one of the others. That should take a few hours to re-route the power, dropping us from main hyperdrive to the backup.”

“It sounds like you’ve put some thought into this Rojic.”

“Not really, I was inspired by some of the places I’ve been since I met you.”

“Not really understanding, but go for it…..But how will you get there?”

“Well, I’d like to think I have Kory’s bluffing skills, but hiding in a crate transported by a loading droid is more my style.”

Karnov is shocked. It sounds perfectly potty. “Sounds perfectly reasonable.”

Rojic thinks to himself. “I might even be able to do it by remote. –Programme a droid or two to cut the power, while I sit pretty here, lining my pockets a little more.”

The loading droids have stopped. There is no more room on Rose Wanderer to cram in any more crates of ingots. The crew disperse the loading droids, lest the big queue direct to the ship tips off the enemy. Joe-90 is left in charge of the ship. The others tool up and prepare to leave.

“Good luck….And may the force be with you.”

“Pffft!” Karnov says, then realises how much the dark side can cloud one’s thinking. “And you too.” He adds, rather lamely. “I’m just wondering what this cargo exploded in the Coruscant system could do.”

“With many hundreds of Jedi in the same solar system, it might fry their brains.”

“I don’t suppose we’re in danger.”

“Speak for yourself. I prefer my brains in my head, not leaking out of my ears!” Niall responds. “Now get going, we haven’t got all day…..Talking of which, time check?”

Kory consults her watch. “Three hours, and a few minutes.”

Niall is pleased to give the next order. “Synchronise watches!”

He looks around. No-one is moving a muscle.

“No synchronisation.…No watches!”

“Damn!”

Niall and Kory head off to the Zoom. Rojic is busying himself for his part of the mission, by hovering under Rose wanderer and having a fat death-stick. Karnov and Jimmi wait patiently. (In the rain from the sprinklers.)

Eventually, after about twenty minutes, curiosity gets the better of them. “Are we actually going or what?”

“Nope. We’re staying put. The droids should be at the focussing chamber any minute…..” A droid signals that it is in place. “Now!”

They wait a little longer…..And a tiny bit longer……

“What’s happened to those stupid droids?” Karnov wants to know.

“I dunno,” Rojic sighs heavily, “Give a droid a Toydarian’s job!”

Karnov says brightly. “Maybe we should pick up our visual scanning.”

“Eh?”

“Go and take a look. -There’s probably one of those magnetic strips that droids cannot go beyond, or a door they can’t open or something.”

Jimmi says, “A line in the sand they dare not cross.”

“Talking of cross!” Rojic grumbles. He mutters something in his own tongue that makes Joe-90 cover his audio input receptors.

They climb into an empty crate. They programme the loading droid to go to station two. Pausing only to reset the Zoom to ‘squishy’ they arrive within moments. The droid trudges off to the focussing chamber, and as our two heroes and Rojic peer from some handy ventilation holes in the box, they can see the problem, and another problem.

One of the problems is the platform at station one, which is the engine rooms. “They’re ray-shielded.” Rojic whispers to Karnov.

“Damn! I blame you Rojic. Hand me my lightsabre!” He corrects himself. “I’ll take it out on the enemy –but only if they deserve it.”

Kory and Niall alight from their Zoom. A squad of battle droids are waiting at the platform. They accost our duo. “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

Quick as a flash, Kory smiles sweetly, and holds up the data cylinder. “Maintenance crew. We’ve got a bathroom door that won’t close. We’re trying to lock it down….”

The droid commander looks quizzical. “Er….Okay!”

Kory and Niall proceed. Niall is starting to realise something. “You know, Kory, bluffing battle droids is even easier than shooting them.”

“Correct. I’ve known that for quite a while, only it isn’t as much fun!”

Niall thinks for a minute as they walk. “You know, we could start a game where we tell battle droids the most outrageous lies, and see if we can get away with it. –We can always shoot them if it doesn’t work.”

Kory asks, “Does telling lies to droids make me a bad person?”

“You already are a bad person! -Besides, a lie told to the enemy can only help the side of the Republic.”

Kory grins. “Okay. Game on!”

They skirt around a command post, fearing that it might be occupied. Then they slip quietly into a turbo lift. Kory checks her schematic. She indicates up. Niall presses the switch and the lift starts to rise. They breathe a sigh of relief. “So far so good.”

About three-quarters into the journey Niall gasps, and holds his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve felt a presence….”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Let’s get this message transmitted, and hope that the others are doing their part. I need some rest.”

The turbo lift slows, and stops. The doors open. Outside is a dimly lit console room, with a few view ports and emergency lighting only. They make their way cautiously to a bank of controls. Kory gets to work, tracing the feeds to the comms array. Niall keeps watch. After some minutes, Kory announces that she’s found what she was looking for. As she does so, the lift doors close and the turbo lift descends.

Meanwhile, Karnov’s team have spied some battle droids and a few crew. They wait patiently for the crewmembers to leave. Once out of the box, they can assess the situation in the focussing chamber.

Rojic: "Karnov, don't get your tongue caught in the beam....!"
Bzzzt!
Karnov: "My thenthacles have gone numb and thith ith all your fault-th!"

Several large power conduits run across the room. They are around thirty feet in diameter, and there are eight of them. They converge in a central plate, which takes up most of the most of the back wall of the vast chamber. Rojic’s eyes are staring.

Karnov clears his throat. “Ahem!”

Rojic looks back at him. “What?”

“Can you do it?”

“Well, it’s simple enough in concept…..”

“But?”

“But not in practice. I reckon that knocking out maybe five of the power feeds, might over-load one or more of the others…..If one could do it in the space of a few seconds that is. Otherwise the safety interlocks will cut in, and de-distribute power through the remaining conduits.”

Kranov boggles at him. Rojic clarifies. “In captain dummy talk, we cut the power. It blows a big fuse. Wow! Kabamm! Kablooey!”

They look up. The lowest power feed is a hundred feet above their heads. It’s a simple climb of a ladder, or magnetic track for a maintenance droid, but not for loading droids. “We’re gonna have to do it the hard way!”

Jimmi wants to know what the hard way is.

“We climb to the platforms, we push a few buttons, and then we haul on the lever beside the buttons.”

Jimmi adds, “In five places simultaneously.”

Karnov blurts out. “But that’s impossible!”

Jimmi says some soothing Jedi master-type words of sage advice. They all come out in a bit of a rush. “Only in your mind….You must learn what you already haven’t learned, you mustn’t judge me by my looks…This crude matter….Only then will you fail…” Jimmi looks at the others who have puzzled expressions on their faces. “I’m talking bollocks aren’t I?”

The others nod sagely.

“Yeah, but I had you going for a while didn’t I?”

Rojic says, “We could press the levers on one platform, and shoot the others with a stun shot. That should throw them on the adjacent platforms.”

Karnov wonders whether pushing buttons and moving levers would be more difficult than plunging a lightsabre into the switch array.

“More difficult, but necessary. Strong in the force you might be, but you’ve only got the one lightsabre, and five stations to knock out in rapid succession.”

“So pressing buttons it is then.”

They climb up to one of the gantries. Rojic goes through the sequence of buttons to press on the panel, and shows them how the lever works. He shows this last bit to Karnov a second time.

“No. I get the lever depressing bit; I just can’t remember the sequence of button presses.” Rojic shows him again.

“Got it!”

“Sure?”

“Er…..No.”

“We’ll do a dummy run….” Rojic tells the others.

Jimmi mutters, “‘Dummy’ is the right word for it!”

In the dummy run, they act out their sequence. Press buttons, haul on lever, and shoot the lever at the next station.

“Simple!”

“Only one slight problem….” Rojic says, rather embarrassed.”

“What’s that?”

“I haven’t the strength to pull the lever at my station.” Try as he might, he hasn’t the might. Karnov unhitches his lightsabre. Rojic is scared. “I will redouble my efforts!”

“Stop being so stupid! I’m lending you this….-And if it doesn’t come back in one piece, you’ll be in more than one piece. Got it?”

“Yup. Got it!”

“Good! Now, let’s get to work!”

They assume their positions. Karnov is secretly hoping that Rojic is going to look down the end of the lightsabre and accidentally turn it on….No such luck though.

Jimmi counts down. “Five….Four…Three…Fingers tap out the codes….Two…. Fingers tighten on triggers….One….Eyes squint into the middle distance…..Go!”

Jimmi and Karnov slam down their levers, and level their blasters. Rojic ignites the lightsabre. With it held at arm’s length, he slashes at the panel. The beam of the weapon slices effortlessly through metal, glass and electronics. Sparks rain down. Rojic almost sweeps his head off on the backswing, having miscaulculted the resistance, or lack of it!

Karnov and Jimmi fire….Jimmi’s lever depresses completely, but Karnov hasn’t hit his target quite true enough. Rojic screams at him. “Shoot again! –Stupid! We’ve got a second….” Karnov snatches off a shot, and as the blaster bolt slams home, the conduits flicker. Rojic calls over. “Time to leave!” The other two scramble down their gantry ladders as the chamber becomes brighter. One of the remaining conduits is glowing a brilliant cherry red, then pink then white. Great gobs of molten metals start to descend to the floor. Karnov guides Rojic and Jimmi to the packing case they came in. Rojic barks an order to the droid, and it starts to trundle away. They hear the sound of running feet, as a squad of battle droids and technicians arrive at the scene. The loading droid is seen making a clear path through the onlookers. The ship shudders for a second and the note of the hyperdrive changes subtly. Rojic beams at the others, too excited and scared to speak. In the darkness of the crate, he fancies that Karnov’s eyes are beaming back at him and that Jimmi is excited in another less-visual way!

Kory has patched in the message, and is starting to hide away the evidence of her tampering. Niall is watching the lights on the lift. Expecting the worst, he motions to Kory to hide, and does so himself. The doors swish open, the familiar shape of a battle droid is silhouetted by the light.

Niall has one hand on his blaster, another on his lightsabre. The droid steps forward, and picks up its visual scanning.

In its monotone, it states, “Nothing to report sir….Patrolling….” The droid starts trundling around the console room. Kory and Niall are in reasonable cover, but hold their breaths anyway. The droid almost steps on Niall’s hand, but passes on by. Then as it turns to go, it suddenly says, “Wait a minute!” This is Niall’s cue to shoot. A single shot blasts the droid into pieces. Kory is on the scene in an instant and starts clearing away the debris. They hide the transmitter, and make for the turbo-lift. They get to the bottom without further incident, only to spy several enemy crewmen walking by. They lie low until the danger is passed. One of the enemy is concerned that there might be Republic agents aboard. He is told to tear the ship apart to find them. Niall holds Kory back. Before long, he spots Karnov and the others. As they are waving to them, two battle droids appear. Our heroes draw their blasters.

The effects of the ingots are starting to take their toll on Niall and Karnov. This is their first skirmish where one of the droids has the initiative. “Hey! What’s going on here?” It shouts, shooting at Rojic, and missing. Jimmi fires back, and makes short work of the droid. Rojic yells “Next!” and swoops at the other droid from behind. With the lightsabre ignited, he slices a big chunk off the droid. Karnov’s shot sails past the missing piece; the droid looks straight at him and raises its gun. Karnov fires again, and the force of the shot blasts the remains of the droid into the air. Kory and Niall come running over as the sounds of warning alarms wail in their ears.

“I think they know we’re here!”

“Then we’d better find somewhere to hide.”

“But where though?”

“This ship is six miles long.” Karnov points out.

“Ten kilometres.” Rojic corrects him.

“Okay, ten kilometres. There are, at most, fifty crew and several squads of battle droids.”

“Your point being?”

“When I get lost, I stay lost!”

Rojic beams. “I like this plan!”

Niall asks whether the hyperdrive has been sabotaged.

“When I bugger up a hyperdrive, it stays buggered up!”

Niall sums up. “We hide. We lick our wounds….”

Several eyebrows are raised at this last comment.

“Not literally! –We heal up as best we can then we hit ‘em where it hurts. We tear the ship apart if we have to!”

Jimmi asks, “Do you have a plan then?”

“No.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Something that a Jedi master showed me once….”

There are more smirks and maybe even a titter or two.

“I’m going to think.” Niall says, stopping their mirth.

“Oh. Is that it?”

Jimmi whispers something about being so humped. Niall smiles, “Actually, I think I have a cunning plan!”

Quoting Mama, Rojic has the final word. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re about to tell me something that I don’t want to hear…?”

Coruscant. -And the last sunset?

NEXT EPISODE: 'Fun in the Sun?'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Footnotes:

   Almost there!