"The Trojan Hearse."

By: Anthony Hummerston.

STARRING

Rojic,   Jimmi,   Karnov,   Niall,   Kory,  
And special guest star:
Joe-90
as the droid.

Joe-90 is standing stock-still in hangar seven. If he had circuits for enjoyment, they would be activated by the calm, the peace and the tranquillity. –As the regular audience knows, it won’t last, however. Sure enough, the sound of voices can be heard. The gang of Madalorians are arguing as they approach the hangar from the Zoom.

“What about the money? I’m taking an awful risk, you know. I must have it secure aboard our ship.”

Something in Joe-90’s programming kicks in. Some deeply buried subroutine is activated. For a millisecond, Credit signs light up in his eyes. Servos turn his head imperceptibly slowly so that he can take in the view of the pirates as they return to their ship. The Mandalorian captain signals to the others. He barks orders through the T-shaped helmet. “Rig the other ships. Take these inhibitors….” He hands out devices. The others take them and start fitting them to the other ships in the hangar. Had he eyebrows, Joe-90 would raise them a fraction. One of the crewmen asks the captain “What about the girls and Headstrong?”

“They’ll be here in a minute. –Or there’ll be trouble.”

“True. -We could just take the money and kill them, captain.”

“Now there’s an idea!”

One of the pirates approaches Rose Wanderer. Joe-90 can detect movement at the hangar doors. Kassha, the Farghul girl, and a man with a cyber-implant across the back of his head come in, carrying a packing crate. Behind them comes a pale and skinny woman with a pony-tail. The crate isn’t so much heavy as unwieldy. “Should’ve got a loading droid for this job…” Kassha snarls at the woman.

“Well we had two, but you insisted on blasting them!”

‘Headstrong’ the cyborg is silent. “What are you looking at?” The Pony-tailed woman snaps at him. There is no response.

Seven kilometres away in another part of the ship entirely, Rojic is getting itchy palms. He breaks out in a sweat, and surreptitiously wipes his brow on Karnov’s robe. They are waiting for Kory and Niall to check the perimeter before regrouping.

“What’s up Rojic?”

“I’ve got a good feeling about something….”

They wait for something terrible to happen. -It doesn’t.

They wait for something not terrible to happen. -It doesn’t either.

In the hangar, Joe-90 is playing it casual. He turns to face Rose Wanderer, and starts to rub at a rusty patch. Before long, it’s polished to a mirror-finish. A paradox crosses his electronic brain.

“Rust is very effective at hiding carbon-scoring….-And carbon-scoring is very effective at hiding rust.” The paradox is stored for later analysis. In the shiny surface in front of him, Joe-90 can see that the Mandalorians are attaching mechanisms to the other ships.

In due time, it’s time to fit Rose Wanderer with such a device, which looks both suspicious, and suspiciously like a disabling device. Joe-90 activates clenched-teeth audio-output mode. He spins around to the approaching pirate. “Can I do anything to help?” He says. The absence of the word ‘Sir’ at the end of the sentence should indicate what is to come, and Joe-90 feels that it adds subtle menace.

The pirate stops and turns back to his superior. “Captain! There’s a guard droid here!” The captain shouts back, “Come and get the restraining bolt gun!”

“Will do sir!” The pirate turns around and starts walking back to his ship. The captain disappears and comes out with a bulky gun. Hearing the word ‘restraining bolt’ sets off another circuit in Joe-90’s system. Slowly he raises Sarah-Jane, and calmly shoots the pirate squarely in the back! The pirate slumps to the floor. Joe-90 shoots him again to make sure. There is a stunned silence. All the loading droids stop what they are doing and wait. Had they breath, they would hold it. Had he lips, Joe-90 would have grinned. Instead, he strides purposefully over to the unconscious pirate. The remaining Mandalorians reach for their guns. Two shots ring out, and soon the polished patch on Rose Wanderer’s hull is back to its original carbon-scored state. Through another volley of shots, Joe-90 picks up the pirate by the scruff of the neck. The shots stop. He strides forward, and dumps the man at the feet of the others. “Anything I can do?” He repeats, even more menacing than before.

“-Just a simple defence droid.” The captain says, though his voice isn’t very convinced. The others look at the crumpled heap of companion on the floor. “Simple, yes. But deadly!” Joe strides away, without a backward glance. Out of audible range, the captain gives his orders.

“No matter. Get the bay ready. We’re stowing the money and getting out of here the moment we hit real-space.”

The pony-tailed woman has had enough of the others slow progress. “We’ll use a loading droid. There’s plenty here.” The other two drop the case, and disappear into the Mandalorian's ship for a moment. “Good idea!”

Joe-90 pounces. A few seconds later, a loading droid trundles over and picks up the crate. Another does the same a few yards away. In a beautifully-executed pas-de-deux, they swap places. They stop their little dance routine just as the pony-tailed woman comes out of the ship. “Okay, get this crate aboard!” the loading droid lights a light to show that it has understood, and starts making its way to the ramp. The other droid starts trundling off to place the crate of money with a pile of similar crates. It catches the woman’s eye. “What are you staring at?” She sneers at it. “Go about your business!” On this cue, the other droids resume their duties. Joe-90 is casually re-polishing the carbon-scored patch, while he directs the droid with the crate of money. It makes a complex route around the hangar, behind several other ships, and ultimately up the ramp of Rose Wanderer. The Pony-tailed woman stops her droid at the bottom of the shuttle’s ramp. “Wait a minute….You’re the wrong droid!”

Seven kilometres away, Rojic is suffering a minor aneurism. Kory nudges Niall. “Niall….”

“What?”

“Rojic’s gone a funny colour.”

“Looks okay to me. Nothing to worry about.”

“Thanks, Jimmi. I know I can rely on you for an accurate diagnosis.”

Niall nudges the unwell Toydarian. “Rojic? Are you okay?”

Rojic manages to pant. “It’s….Like a million tax rebates in your favour…..Suddenly revoked.”

“He’s not making any sense.”

“No change there then!”

Karnov looks closer. “He’s holding his breath.”

“Maybe it’s a throwback from his youth.” Karnov speculates.

They look at the pallid-blue hue of his skin, the long snout, the bulging eyes, and the lop-sided skull. Kory gives her frank opinion. “I think ‘throwback’ is right!”

Joe-90 stops. If he had sensors in his back, it would feel like ice-cold water was being poured down it. Seven kilometres away, Rojic has a funny feeling that he’s on the brink of losing a fortune. For a minute, he genuinely weighs up whether flying toward the money is quicker than using the Zoom on ‘droid’ setting. In the hangar, Joe-90 is casually, but closely examining the ship inhibitors. “I only have to cut one wire…” He thinks to himself. “But the question is, which one…..The brown, the brown the brown or the brown….” His head drops to a lower position. “Curse my new ocular implants! My colour vision is in NTSC!” He corrects himself. “Actually that’s Nern, Trill, Senth, Cresh! –Or as they say in Huttese, “Chayng’oo hue-doo doo you, c’oowaa?”

Karnov and his gang call for a Zoom. One hurtles toward them. They are already wary of squads of droids. They also sense that the enemy has already got an Aurek, Peth, Besh out on them. The Zoom arrives. A slick, six-strong squad of soldier droids approach and arrive as the gang alight. They catch Niall as he steps aboard. He waves his finger, points to the half-full pod and shakes his head. The droids step back. As the pod doors start to close, the droid commander intones, “Good luck!”

“Thank you….” Niall purrs. Not even caring if it is a ‘shibboleth’ trap. The doors snap shut and the pod zooms off. The droids realise that their quarry is escaping, and they start shooting. The pod suffers some major carbon scoring, but no actual appreciable damage, -It just impacts on the surface.

Ten minutes or so later, Karnov is leading his gang toward the hangar. They avoid another squad of battle droids who are also searching. In the hangar itself, things are happening fast. The pony-tailed woman has stopped their loading droid at the bottom of the shuttle ramp. Joe-90 is watching and waiting patiently. The crate with the money has been safely stowed aboard Rose Wanderer. Even so, the woman’s eyes catch his. Her eyes narrow. Joe-90 can’t replicate this, so he stares back. At this point, the captain of the Mandalorians demands an update. The woman ducks back into the shuttle and the loading droid follows. Joe-90 counts down from ten. In his droid brain, the scene plays out something like this.

Ten: Loading droid arrives.

Nine: Loading droid puts crate in hold

Eight: Captain and / or pony-tail woman find pry-bar.

Seven: Captain and pony-tail woman stare at contents of crate.

Six: Captain and pony-tail woman stare at one another.

Five: Captain and pony-tail woman stare at contents of crate once again.

Four: Accusations start.

Three: Blasters are drawn.

Two: Certain words are exchanged, also certain blaster bolts.

One: The remaining pirates start running down the ramp of the shuttle and fan out, searching for one crate among hundreds. Joe-90 redirects extra coolant to an overheating smugness chip.

Six and a half kilometres away from the hangar, and zooming at nearly R17 speed, Niall and Kory are deep in conversation. “We need to rest and recuperate.”

Within a few milliseconds, a single-word message reaches Rojic’s communicator. “Kerching!” Rojic considers ‘accidentally’ leaning on the lever to go much, much faster!

Kory continues, “The hyper-drive backup should buy us a few hours at least.”

Rojic says gravely, “We need to destroy this ship!”

Jimmi points out, “Preferably without us on it. Unfortunately escape is impossible while it is in hyperspace.”

Rojic reiterates. “We need to leave and then destroy this ship!”

Karnov is not so hasty. “Not while it is in hyperspace. With the cargo of hundreds of tons of poisoned ingots, we’ll spread its evil influence to everywhere in the galaxy simultaneously!”

Rojic is dismissive. “Pfft! Hyperspace doesn’t work that way!”

“How then?”

Rojic considers getting Karnov to draw a diagram in Toydarian letters that spells out a very rude word. However, he doesn’t act on the impulse. “It just doesn’t, that’s all.” He says, rather lamely, hardly daring to think about Joe-90’s message.

Niall is downbeat. “Maybe it’s our destiny to die here….”

“Do you mean that before we get there; we die here?” Kory asks.

“Inconvenient, huh?”

Jimmi is thinking. “There must be a way. –We need to get to the engines.”

“They’re behind a ray-shielded barrier, remember? –Someone already saw to it that no one goes in there.”

“Maybe not literally,” Niall starts to say, “But maybe indirectly. But they must be controlled from some sort of bridge.”

Kory steps forward. “I’ll interrogate the computer.” She offers. “As soon as we get back to the ship.”

Karnov says, “I had a nasty turn on a bridge once.” But nobody is listening.

A few minutes more, and they are dodging droid patrols and making their way back to the hangar. Finally, they rendezvous with Joe-90 and Rojic flies at full speed to put his arms around the droid. He whispers in Joe-90’s audio receptor. “You messaged me? –Kerching?”

“Indeed sir.”

“Where is it?”

“Not here sir.” Joe-90 tells him.

“Then where?”

“I cannot telly you that, sir.”

Rojic is incandescent. “WHAT?”

“I’ll tell you inside, sir. The vertical room separators have audio reception devices.” Rojic translates. Had Joe-90 a nose to tap, he would be doing so now. Rojic flaps at full speed up the ramp, “Aha!”

Niall suddenly realises what this could mean. “Wait, Rojic no! -Always thinking with your wallet!”

The Mandalorians come closer. In their search for the money, they have started to tear the ship apart, and are about to start on the loading droids, the fixtures and fittings and anything else in sight. –Our heroes beat a tactical retreat.

Fortunately for the rest of the crew, Rojic can hardly lift the pry-bar, let alone remove the lid of the crate or even move the crate an inch. Niall obliges, and hands a jemmy to Jimmi, and between him and Jimmi, they jimmy the lid of the crate with the jemmy. “One can also call this tool a ‘jimmy’, you know.” Jimmi says.

“It’s confusing enough already!”

“You don’t say!”

“I do say!”

Rojic can hardly contain his excitement. Niall gasps in surprise. “Damn!”

“What?” Rojic flutters over.

“Someone's extracted all the latinum! There's nothing here but worthless gold!” Niall teases.

“Noooooooo!” Rojic wails, clapping his hands to his head. Had he hair, he would be tearing it out by now. A second or two later, he comes to his senses. “Wait a minute!” Niall hands him a slightly crumpled piece of paper. “Actually Rojic, someone substituted proper credits for all this scrap newspaper.”

Rojic looks again. Niall knows, but isn’t letting on. “That’s not newspaper, it’s Banking Clan scrip! –and it’s mine, all mine, my property, my preciousss!”

Niall holds up the thick paper certificate. “Scrip’s of no value in the Republic!” Kory adds. “But at least we’ll have an ample supply of paper for the head!”

Jimmi asks, “Is there a way of converting it to Republic credits?”

“Not legally.”

Jimmi puts on a silky voice. “Then we’ll do it real quiet like….”

Karnov responds. “I’m sorry, Jimmi, but I can’t let you do that.”

They look at one another glumly. Despite its valueless status, Niall can’t quite bring himself to tear it into strips. Rojic slumps onto the lid of the crate, and big tears well up in his eyes. Soon, sobs are racking his little body. Kory suddenly comes to her senses. “I know a way!”

“Is it legal?”

Kory says in a sinister voice, “I will make it legal!”

Rojic brightens up considerably. “Really?”

“Yes!” Kory says, slipping behind Karnov. “A legal way!” She holds up crossed fingers behind Karnov’s back.

Rojic doesn’t give the game away. “Good! That’s settled then!” Karnov has had time to think about the situation. He manages to say, “Actually, technically, it is still stolen money….” Before they all start beating him with thick wads of scrip.

“Of course,” Niall says, “We’ll have to set aside some of it to bribe Mama….”

Kory isn’t so sure. “I’m not so sure…..”

“How so?”

“Well, judging how much Storm Cutter meant to her….”

“What?”

“You’d better start working on stealing another ten boxes!”

Rojic thinks for a moment. “I bet I could steal more boxes. If there are any!”

They cover the money and rest. The subject doesn’t go away however.

“Where are we going to stash it?”

In quick succession, there are a number of suggestions.

“Kory’s cleavage…After all there’s plenty of room!”

“What about the space between Karnov’s ears?”

“In my cabin under the bed.”

“Leave it here with Joe-90 sitting on the crate….With Sarah Jane!”

In the end they place the crate inside a bigger crate, and these two under a bigger crate still. Then they pile up junk and old broken boxes up around it. Despite everyone’s best efforts, one or two of them manage to slip a certificate or three into pockets, jackets and into trousers.

Rojic gives Jimmi a piece of scrap note-paper. “Here’s your share, Jimmi.”

“It’s a fake.” Jimmi is not taken in by the ruse.

“How did you know?”

“Because there’s a Toydarian in the same solar system. When that happens, I know that I’m being conned.”

“Can’t con an honest man.” Niall remarks.

“I bet that Rojic could.” Kory adds, dryly.

“I’ll take that bet!” Karnov says.

“Better stop your friend’s betting or I'll end up owning him, too.” Jimmi tells Kory.

“Pffft! He’s not my friend!” She inserts a mobile terminal into a socket. A few seconds later, there is a flash, a curse and a rather embarrassed Kory. “How was I to know that it was the recharge outlet?” She works at something, shielding whatever it is from the others. Rojic figures it out the quickest. “What’s up, Kory? Has the probe got caught in the socket?”

She shoots him a ‘don’t even go there’ look, and tries again. After a moment, she gasps. “Look at this! They’re shutting the ship down. Shutting them all down! System by system. Weapons, comms, garbage mashers on the detention level….All sorts, all over!”

“Something must be going on…..”

“Maybe they need the extra power.”

“Or are starting something new. Something we don’t know about.”

Kory does some more probing. The others rest, and try not to snigger.

After a short rest, their bodies are rejuvenated, though the force sensitive are still struggling to resist the influence of the dark side. Exposure to the ingots it taking its toll. Karnov is especially sensitive. His mood darkens, and for a while he is obviously fighting the forces of evil that threaten to overtake him. Rojic comes by and makes a derogatory comment. Karnov snaps at him. “Get away from me you putrid stain of rectal juice!” Rojic backs off. He is somewhat scared, but just a tiny bit more respectful. Karnov can see that the dark forces will completely overwhelm him if he doesn’t act quickly. Taking his time, he settles into a comfortable position and enters a light trance. Some time later, he has cleared his mind and sought out the light side of the force once more, banishing the darkness. – Careful observers see several neatly-stacked stones in the background. Niall is suffering from the effects too. It clouds his judgement and tempts him with dark energy. He represses it as best he can, but it is starting to impact on everything he does.

While the others rest, Rojic looks over Joe-90. He pats the droid on the head somewhat condescendingly. “You did good today!”

“Thank you sir.”

“That’s my droid!” Rojic says. If Joe-90 had his ocular implants in at that moment, he would have beamed at Rojic, who continues to babble. “I’ll give you a nice warm oil bath when we get out of this mess, you see if I don’t!”

“I can’t see sir….”

“Oh!” Rojic inserts Joe-90’s other eyes into the head. “There you go….Now, to test your vision, I’ve got a little task for you.”

“Sir?”

“I want you to put these stickers all around the hull at regular intervals, and at head height.” He hands Joe-90 a pile of stickers that he has prepared. “-And Joe….”

“Yes, sir?”

“The sticky side goes on the hull this time!”

Joe-90 looks at the stickers. He tests his lateral neck-motion motors a few times, and makes a ‘tutting’ noise.

A little while later and the crew are packed up and ready to leave for the bridge. Kory says that she has a couple of last-minute things to do, and that she’ll catch them up in a moment. Rojic looks back. “She wouldn’t be stealing all the money would she?”

“Not if she has any sense…..” Karnov says, darkly.

Outside, in the hangar, the Mandalorians are tearing the ship apart, and are even taking out their frustrations on several loading droids too.

“Having trouble with your droid?” Jimmi asks, sweetly.

“No, no trouble. No trouble at all.” One of the pirates replies, through clenched teeth. Joe-90 and the captain glower at one another. Joe-90 calls a pointed goodbye to Kory, and he leads the rest of the crew toward the Zoom station.

They spend some time dodging patrols, but without incident. A little while later they are in the lobby at the bottom of the turbo-lifts.

“Funny how they’re never called ‘turbo- elevators’” Jimmi muses.

The lift arrives, and as they board, they spot several robed figures, and a squad of battle droids across the lobby. “I have a bad….” Rojic starts to say, before feeling a hand clamp around his mouth. Karnov shivers. “Who are those creepy robed figures?”

In a muffled voice, Rojic answers. “I dunno. Jesuits?”

Niall says, “I’m just hoping they’re extra-large Jawas.”

From across the lobby, the droid squad challenges them. Niall waves a hand as the lift doors start to close. A shot rings out, and a bolt of superheated plasma slips through the ever decreasing gap. It ricochets around the lift car, giving everyone a fright, before dissipating. Karnov reaches for both his blaster and lightsabre, but the lift doors close firmly shut, and they start to ascend. Niall puts a hand on Karnov’s arm. “Top tip mate, -never ignite a lightsabre in a crowded lift.”

As the lift rises, they feel the jolt of the hyperdrive kicking in again. “We’re on our way at full-speed to Coruscant once again.” Jimmi says.

“This must be one hell of a lift, then!” Rojic quips, but in the tension of the lift car, it is lost. Rojic tries to lighten the mood. “I wonder if there’ll be a reception committee.”

“If you’re expecting drinks and canapés, then I think you may be disappointed.”

“I expect that there will be just a whole bunch of stupid droids.”

Joe-90 makes a coughing noise.

“No offence….”

“None taken….” Joe-90 says, cocking Sarah Jane in a rather loud and pronounced manner. “None taken at all.”

“No ‘sir?’” Rojic asks.

“No. No ‘sir.’”

[Deleted scene]

Several maintenance droids are busy working on the damaged hyperdrive feed. They throw the final knife switch and the hyperdrive kicks in. They high five. Behind them, a battle droid is caught in a massive plasma arc across two power couplings, and is gently frying. After a few seconds, there is nothing but a fine ash that floats to the ground. As the droids go to leave, one observes, “Must get a cleaning droid in here sometime….”

[End deleted scene]

By the time the lift had made the lofty heights of the conning tower and the bridge level, the hyperdrive has spun down, and they are in real-space once again. Jimmi walks along a gently curved corridor and stares at the wall. The others follow and look out of the window.

Outside is a vista to behold. The star-tunnel comes to an abrupt end. Then, looming large below them is the planet of Coruscant, glittering in the glow of a beautiful sunset. Around the planet is the fabled ‘ring of steel’ Several dozen capital ships, cruisers, destroyers and hundreds of little ships on patrol between them. The planetary defence has increased several times over the past few weeks. “It’s eerily beautiful.” Jimmi says.

“You’re looking at the wall, Jimmi.”

“A Miralukan can imagine can’t they?”

They leave Jimmi to stare a little longer. Across the corridor are double doors to the bridge. There are also two sloping ramps down on either side, which lead to a sub-level. They ready their guns and on a count of three open the doors.

The first thing they see is a familiar –looking Neimoidian. –Roake Khan! –He’s communicating with a hologram of supreme chancellor Palpatine!

“Have you accepted our terms?” Khan asks.

“We have. You surrender your flagship in exchange for full diplomatic status.” The Supreme Chancellor is reassuring, “-You will be beyond reproach.”

“You’ll receive my ship without hostility?”

“If you power down your weapons.”

“We are unarmed. Your fleet can scan for weapons.”

“Then welcome to the Republic! I look forward to meeting you in person, ‘Ambassador’ Khan.”

“Thank you senator… Or should I say ‘supreme chancellor?’ I will deactivate the droids and surrender my men to the senate within the hour. Khan out.”

The hologram fades. Our heroes take cover as enemy agents scramble for position and ready their guns. (PIC OF LAYOUT ON BOARD!)

Jimmi waves the white stick. “I’m your pilot…”

Karnov shoves Jimmi to one side. “I’m Padawan Karnov. In the Name of the Republic, I order you to surrender!” The bridge crew start firing their guns. Niall and Karnov dive for cover. “That went well!”

“Aggressive negotiation!”

“Well the three minutes laughter should buy us some time!”

Rojic flaps for a large duct. A security droid follows him in there. There isn’t much room for two, so helpfully the droid starts clearing a path with its blaster.

Joe-90 holds his ground. Sarah Jane coughs throatily. A Nemoidian guard is blasted and falls dead at his feet. “Our first catch of the day!” Inspired by Joe-90, Karnov hardens his mind to the battle ahead. He plays out various scenarios, counting feet and inches. When he is ready he draws his blaster and flashes a wry smile at Niall.

Rojic blasts the security droid that has followed him, seeing as it is now blocking his exit. In the narrowness of the duct, there is no way he could fail to hit the droid. –He misses!

Analysing the situation, Jimmi yells, “Hang on everyone, this could be a genuine surrender!” Though the hologram doesn’t show up in Jimmi’s mind. The voice of the supreme chancellor is unmistakable. Jimmi stretches out to Roake Khan. It’s the same slimy Neimoidian all right, and by reading Khan’s mind, Jimmi can deduce that it is either a bluff or a surrender of some kind. However, the warning is too late for the others who are in a proper firefight by now.

“Now a warning!” Niall screeches, as he lobs a thermal detonator at the right-hand bridge between the console banks. It lands squarely at the feet of a woman who has drawn a lightsabre. The explosion knocks her to the floor. At the edges of the blast, a Bothan is also blown on his back. Two battle droids are caught in the blast. Their armour is no match for grenades, and they are blown to bits. A console is also flipped across the room in the blast. Roake Khan is also caught, and only just manages to keep his feet, though he is holding tight to a display screen, and hauling himself upright. Another guard shoots at Joe-90, but the shot simply hammers into the wall behind the droid, who doesn’t even flinch. At their feet, on the lower level, battle droids are drawing weapons and Magna guards are springing into action with their electro-staffs at the ready.

Niall’s mind is racing. He’s not convinced either way that the Knight’s move is surrendering. He knows that the enemy are in a strong position. The ingots are affecting anyone that is force-sensitive, even without additional energy supplied. If the Republic attacks Knight’s Move, they might destroy it, and any explosion might set off a chain reaction. With so many Jedi recalled to their headquarters on the planet below, a massive jolt of dark side energy might be catastrophic. He yells at Jimmi, who is also having doubts. “This could be a gigantic Trojan horse!”

“Great. We die in the belly of a horse!”

“It’s an intergalactic hyper-hearse!”

A Munn, dressed as the captain, -indeed he might have been the original captain of Knight’s Move- comes up to the upper level on a power lift. He shoots at Niall, but the shot simply slams into a crate. Karnov redoubles his efforts, and shoots twice at the woman with the lightsabre. Only one shot finds its mark, and this one only does minor damage. In the ducting, Rojic and the droid are slugging it out. A critical observer would conclude that neither wanted to hurt the other, as many wires, fibre optics and pipes feel the full force of their shots. Rojic is working overtime, as he is using one hand to shoot with, and all his other limbs to dislodge plugs and sockets and links and gel-packs. He is hoping that this is an important duct, and not simply the controls for the chicken soup machines. – He’s fairly sure that droids don’t drink chicken soup, though in the middle of a fire-fight, he can’t be certain!

Niall is fighting his own inner demons, as well as attacking more literal foes on the outside. The dark side is tempting him. Something changes his mind though, - It might be the sight of Coruscant and all those innocent people below him on the planet, but he burns with new vigour and shrugs off the evil influence. To prove that he is once again a champion of the light, he snaps off a shot at a Neimoidian guard, killing him, and another shot slams into the Munn captain. The captain isn’t dead, but as he slumps to the floor of the lift and topples over the side, the absence of any safety rails means that as his head hits the floor eight feet below. It finishes him off!

Inspired by Niall’s shot, Jimmi follows suit, blasting another Neimoidian guard off the platform. This one too falls to the level below. Joe-90 raises Sarah-Jane to the lightsabre woman. Sarah-Jane obliges and a blaster bolt fizzes toward her. In an unexpected move, the woman sweeps the lightsabre in front of her, and defects the bolt! It comes screaming back to Joe-90 who looks as though he’s going to get it straight in the chest. In the very last milliseconds, he shifts sideways a fraction, and the blot slams into the ducting where Rojic is hiding. The woman curses something in her own language, and raises her hand. Streams of blue lightning erupt from them, and this time Joe-90 has no defence. Blue streaks run all around his metal body. Several minor circuits burn out, and a thin curls of blue smoke start to rise from his joints. But he’s made of sterner stuff than that, and is undeterred.

On the sub-level, battle droids have got a bead on Jimmi, who is crouching down. They can only see the top of Jimmi’s head over the parapet, but that is enough for a couple of shots. They miss.

Karnov comes to Jimmi’s aid, and blasts them back. One goes down, the other looks at its companion, now a smouldering pile of wreckage. The Magna guard is better armoured and takes its hit like the hardened droid it is. Niall comes up from his cover and shoots the woman. The first hit does minor damage, but the second does double that of the first. She’s a tough one though, and still isn’t neutralised. Joe-90 adds a shot to the tally on the woman, and screams, “Nee too, sleemo beecho!” At her, and adds another blaster bolt to her collection. She rocks back on her feet, finally nearing the end of her reserves.

Jimmi and the battle droids are exchanging shots in a flurry of blaster fire. They may as well exchange harsh language for all the damage it causes! Several bits of wall and ceiling take the full brunt of the attacks, making little carbon-scored pits in a pattern. If one could join the dots, it might make a rude Toydarian word! The security droid is finally getting its ocular implant in, and zaps Rojic. This makes him jump with a bunch of connectors in his hand. Several ships sub-systems subtly, but surely start silently shutting down around him. Whether this is the cause, nobody knows, but Knight’s Move fades gently left before pointing like an arrow at the heart of the planet! A thought crosses Niall’s mind. -Weapons powered down, slip through the ring of steel…Then the ship itself must be the warhead! –The Trojan horse dropped from orbit becomes its own weapon of mass destruction!

NEXT EPISODE: 'Dive! Dive!'

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Footnotes:

   Almost there!