The
Legend of Zelda: Galactic
Crusade
By
Episode
I: New Allies, New Threats
DISCLAIMER: We do not own ‘The Legend of Zelda’, Star Wars, or any of the characters, names, places, and things associated with them. Zelda, and all references (i.e. characters, names, etc.) pertaining to Zelda, are owned by Nintendo Corp. and associates. Star Wars, and all references (i.e. characters, names, etc.) pertaining to Star Wars are owned by Lucasarts Entertainment Company, and Lucasfilm Entertainment.
Hello everyone, I’m ‘The Pilot’, and you all know my esteemed co-Author ‘Arxane’, who has one of the most popular Zelda OOT stories here on FF.net. This is my first fanfiction story, and also the first co-Authored story that Arxane and I both have written. Before we start the show, I would like to thank a couple of people, if I may. First, Thanks to Arxane, for taking the time to co-Author this with me. Second, I would like to thank Roser Portella Florit, and HoundofDeath, my beta readers, who made significant contributions to this story as well as taking the time to read and comment on it. Third, I would like to thank The Balrog of Altena for taking some of her time to be the official artist of this story. Yes folks, this story will have pictures of the characters available, for your reading and viewing pleasure! Unfortunately though, we can’t include the pictures with the story chapters at this time. If you would like to see the character pictures though, please e-mail me at the_pilot33@hotmail.com, or mention that you would like to see the pics in your review, and leave your e-mail address with your review. I’ll try to send the pictures to anyone who wants to see them as soon as possible after I receive your request. If anyone would like to see more of The Balrog of Altena’s art, it is posted on http://www.Kasuto.net. Oh, one final note: We split the story paragraphs into pieces for easier reading, so people won’t lose their place. Well that’s enough from me. On with the Show!
Several millenniums ago, at the height
of the war between the Jedi Knights and the Sith Lords, a reconnaissance
mission to the Outer Rim was launched by a small group of space explorers
associated with the Old Republic. Their
goal was to seek out and return with new allies to aid the Republic forces in
turning the tide against the Sith. Unfortunately,
despite the strict security surrounding the mission, spies in the Republic
hierarchy exposed the mission’s existence to the enemy.
Taking no chances, the Sith deployed a fleet of its battleships to
forever remove the possible threat the explorers set out to find.
Relentlessly hunted by the enemy fleet,
the explorers reluctantly abandoned their original plans to search for allies
in the Outer Rim territories and chose to flee into the vast reaches of space.
Endless days of continuous pursuit and skirmishes followed, but
eventually the explorers’ ship, an Old Republic cruiser that had seen its
fair share of the cosmos, finally arrived at the edge of the Outer Rim
Territories. The edge of the
Outer Rim was located right next to the Unknown Regions, the portion of the
galaxy that remained unexplored. Believing
that they had lost their pursuers and were safe for the moment, the ship’s
crew with the assistance of the explorer team, made an attempt to repair their
cruiser with what little equipment they had left.
It didn’t take them long to learn just how fragile their safety was…
“Battle alert! Battle alert!” bellowed the captain’s voice from the ship’s speaker overhead. “All hands, man your stations! Sensors have located another Sith patrol!”
“Aw shavit!” muttered Tania Antilla with a snarl on her lips as she attached the end of another cable. “This would have to happen now, of all times!”
Tania didn’t fit profile of someone who could solder control-cable connections on a hyper drive motivator; had the sirens not been wailing everywhere and the mood not been heaving with a sense of urgency, almost any casual passerby would’ve concluded she was actually making the problem worse. Her delicate, slender figure rivaled the most sought-after Republican princess, something Tania saw more as a curse than a blessing; her long, silky hair, long enough to reach her waist and shaded the color of a passionate ruby gemstone, didn’t help ease the stereotypes associated with her appearance.
But times like this eliminated such stereotypes, as Tania was proving this very moment. Still, as she fastened another cable to the motivator, she realized she couldn’t do this task alone.
“Bria! Naria!” she hollered to her two younger sisters. “Hurry up with that console! I need some help here with the hyper drive system!”
“We’ll be there in a second, Tania!” responded Bria Antilla, the youngest of the three sisters. Her reply to Tania’s request distracted her long enough for the burnt wires she was replacing in the rear of the repulsorlift control console to shock her fingers, but after being shocked several times already Bria hardly cared. Instead she ignored the electric sting and used a jerk of the neck to throw back her lengthy, soothing emerald-colored hair, now dangling like a sloppy, straw-like cobweb after being saturated with her own sweat, before getting back to work.
In the meantime, twenty-two year old Naria Antilla, the middle sibling separated by her sisters by one year both ways, worked on the console’s front panel, replacing the damaged microchips. Naria possessed almost exactly what her older and younger sisters owned – an elegant physique, gorgeous facial features, and flowing hair trailing down to her hips to name a few – but she stood out in that her hair bragged a deep sapphire hue, which made her identifiable while standing next to her sisters. Naria also didn’t sweat as much as Bria, but it was enough to bond her skin to her gray-colored uniform.
The three sisters had originally been hired as technicians for the group of explorers, so they knew pretty much everything they needed to know about hyper drive motivators, repulsorlift controls, and the like. Still, they had never imagined they would actually be working to repair the damaged components, a job meant for the far more experienced technicians of the ship’s crew. But thanks to a stray laser blast from a Sith battleship only two days before that left almost all of the crew’s technicians injured, the responsibility of repairing the damaged ship was now in the possession of three young women who looked more like housewives than handymen.
“Whew, finally finished!” gasped Naria, wiping a few strands of limp hair from her eyes moments before closing the front panel on the console. But even though she could’ve used a break, she knew there was no time to rest. “I’m coming, Tania, hold on!” she added before turning around and dashing over to her elder sister, her blue hair billowing behind her like a wind ironically in search of breath.
Tania turned around the exact moment her sister skidded to a stop on the deck plating with a grinding rasp. “Okay, the motivator connections are done, now for the hyper drive coils,” Tania asserted, giving Naria no time to catch her breath. “I need you to hold each coil in place while I bolt it down on top.”
Naria could already feel fatigue creeping through her muscles, but she dared not complain; she just kept her exhaustion to herself as she moved to help Tania hoist the first coil into place above the hyper drive motivator. Everything went fine for her until Tania had to let go and allow the full weight of the coil to fall on Naria’s shoulders.
“This thing is heavy!” the middle sister groaned loudly. “Bria, hurry up! I need your help with this!”
“Almost finished!” Bria called back.
Tania, not knowing if Bria really was almost finished, quickened her pace as she climbed up to the service crawlway at the top of the room and then shuffled her way along the crawlway until she was near the top of the hyper drive coil that Naria was holding up. From there, she proceeded to fasten the coil in place using a crude yet functioning bolt gun, although the awkward location of the bolt holes made the task harder than it should’ve been.
“I sure hope the bridge is doing better than we are,” mumbled Tania under her breath as the bolt gun made a deafening clap to drive in the first bolt and partially secure the hyper drive coil…
As it turned out, the bridge didn’t fare that much better. Every available sensor screen displayed the approaching Sith patrol ships, noticeably equipped with enough firepower to take out a small Republic battleship fleet, let alone a solitary cruiser that posed a possible threat to the Sith Lords. For the captain, the feeling wasn’t exactly pleasant; just watching these metallic beasts approach his ship made his wiry moustache twitch restlessly. But because he was a dignified man with a stern upbringing, he refused to show any other sign of fear to the only other man present in the bridge, the propulsion officer seated at the bridge’s helm behind him.
“How much longer until the Hyper drive is repaired?” he asked as calmly as he could, turning his head to face the young officer.
“Hopefully another five minutes,” the officer replied. “The Antilla sisters should be able to fix the thing by then, if not sooner.”
The captain flashed the propulsion officer a grin. “Five minutes is more than enough. Remind me to thank Mr. Rigel for letting his techs help us, when we survive this.”
The
captain made sure to emphasize the word “when” so as not to give the
atmosphere any more hopelessness than it already had. But as he turned his
attention back to the sensor screens, he started to doubt his own words and
wondered if five minutes really was enough. The patrol had already reduced the
distance between themselves and the cruiser by half, and no matter how fast
the cruiser moved the Sith ships would undoubtedly catch up in less than a
minute.
“So
five minutes won’t be enough,” the captain thought. “Then
I’ll have to make it enough!”
“Maximum shields!” he ordered into the microphone connected to the ship’s communication system. “All guns fire at will! Fire at will!”
By now, Bria had finished her work with the wiring of the repulsorlift control console and was helping her sister Naria with the unbearable weight of the hyper drive coils. Both younger sisters were maintaining the last coil in position while Tania was bolting it in place when the captain gave his order to attack.
“Oh, no…listen!” Bria uttered as sounds of turbolaser-fire reached the siblings’ ears, followed by a series of thumps against the hull a moment later. “It sounds like the Sith are starting another attack. Tania, how are you coming along with those bolts? This thing is killing my back…”
“There! That’s the last one,” Tania sighed as the bolt gun shoved the final bolt into place. “Now we just have to connect the coils to the motivator, reconnect the buffer heat sinks to the coils, and we’re done.”
Deciding not to waste time shuffling her way back down the crawlway to the ladder, Tania twisted her body around and made a quick leap to the floor, landing with the grace of a professional dancer. With her feet back on the ground, she quickly turned her attention to the final set of cables that needed to be attached.
“Naria, signal the bridge that the hyper drive is almost online,” Tania ordered as she threw the bolt gun away like it were nothing more than a rusted toy and made a charge at the motivator cables that needed to be connected. “Bria, give me a hand with these things. Come on, girls, we’re nearly finished. Let’s get moving and finish this.”
Both Tania’s sisters acknowledged their tasks with a brief nod. Bria dashed over to the motivator and grabbed a few scattered cables while Naria turned and started toward the comm. post, her hand already reaching for the switch that linked the communicator to the bridge.
However, before she could even finish taking a step forward a huge explosion roared throughout the ship, followed closely by a violent tremor that knocked the three sisters to the floor. Luckily, the vibration didn’t last long, so the sisters’ tumble didn’t either.
“What the heck was that?” Naria screamed softly as the sisters scrambled back to their feet.
The explosion has somehow caused the room to fill with a dark, vapor-like smoke, so the sisters couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces let alone what was going on. So all they could do now was wave their hands around and hope they could find something to hold onto until the smoke cleared. Bria, however, was the only one lucky enough to fall near the edge of the room, so she was the only one who managed to find something for support.
The haze cleared up surprisingly quickly, which could’ve been a good sign, but no sooner did the smoke fade than a soft yet noticeable fizzling sound was heard. Bria instinctively looked down at what she was using as a crutch and quickly observed out what was happening.
“The control panels are shorting out!” she declared frantically, drawing the attention of her sisters. “They’re going to explode any minute! We have to find some cover and quickly!”
All three sisters immediately looked around for a place to take cover, but the room had no kind of storage units and the exit was too far away...suddenly, Tania spotted just the thing. An enormous piece of the deck plating had been knocked loose – by the earlier explosion, no doubt – and was jammed deeply into the hull, propped in such a way to form a crude yet suitable shelter.
“Girls, get behind that plate!” Tania yelled in her sisters’ ears as she motioned through the cloud of dying smoke at the plate.
Tania’s sisters didn’t waste any time debating the idea; they simply joined their older sister in a mad dash for the plating and within a matter of seconds all three were bunched together behind it. And just in time, too, for moments later several miniature blasts of light discharged in every direction, followed closely by muted yet imposing eruptions of sound. The girls watched terrified as the explosions were followed closely by sparks and flaming debris flying from several of the panels, creating a virtual rainbow of flame and light in the engine spaces, trapping the sisters in their makeshift shelter.
“Hull breach in area five!” screamed the voice of one of the damage control officers over the comm. link. “There’s a fire in the engine bays, captain! And we’ve lost connection to all emergency systems!”
“I’m one step ahead of you!” the captain affirmed over the communicator before turning to the propulsion officer. “Activate fire suppression systems and seal all adjoining compartments around the hull breach! And once you’ve done that give me a status report on the engine systems and hyper drive!”
The officer was obviously growing more and more anxious with every passing moment, but he managed to keep his cool so he could activate the emergency systems in the areas that needed them. He then placed his hand over his mouth and awaited for status of the areas the captain had asked for, his wide eyes glued to the screen before him. Outside, the incessant blasts from the Sith battleships pummeled the old cruiser with frightening consistency, but the captain knew his ship was capable of sustaining a little more battering. He just silently prayed all was not already lost…
“Status report!” the propulsion officer abruptly cried. “Sir, two main sub light engines have been shut down due to loss of control!” The captain was just about ready to fall apart when the officer added in a relieved tone, “Hyperdrive status shows…complete readiness, captain!”
That was all that the captain needed to hear. “Excellent! That means we still have a chance!” The captain, now growing more excited than nervous, switched the comm. link to intraship frequencies and bellowed in his calmest and proudest voice, “Attention all hands! This is the captain speaking. Everyone stop whatever you are doing and prepare for uncalculated hyperspace jump! I repeat, strap yourselves in and prepare for an uncalculated hyperspace jump!”
Thankfully, the control panels didn’t give a repeat performance of their spectacular yet deadly detonations, mainly thanks to the fire suppression systems that sprayed loads of white foam chemicals all over the room. It didn’t take long for most of the flames to be snuffed out, but it did take a few minutes after the last jet of foam had been sprayed for the three girls to leave their niche of safety. More dumbfounded than petrified, the Antilla sisters slowly scrambled out of their provisional shelter with frozen faces and short breath, but they were more than glad that that was all they had been given.
After what they had just been through, it was easy for them to think they had weathered the worst of the Sith attack. But that was before they heard the captain’s order to prepare for the hyperspace jump.
“Has he lost his mind?” Bria cried when the announcement reached her ears. “The hyper drive system controls have been almost completely destroyed! How can he even think about performing a hyperspace jump when…?”
“Oh no! The engine systems panel!” Naria cried, pointing at the mentioned console with a look of horror on her face. Tania and Bria turned to see what Naria was talking about, and they too gaped in terror when they laid eyes on the panel.
The sisters were experienced enough to know that all the trouble had started with the Communications Array; the comm. link wiring had been burnt to a complete crisp, indicating the CA had been the first to explode, most likely due to an enemy shot short circuiting it. And when something like a Communications Array explodes, there’s always some kind of massive power surge through all circuits connected to it.
And that’s exactly what had happened; the power surge had fried most of the comm. circuits and control panels, causing them to explode in turn. The engine panel was no exception; it was half destroyed with sparks and small flames flailing about like a nest of angry wasps. But that wasn’t what had caused the three girls to grow pale with horror.
The panel’s only surviving readout was showing the hyperdrive as fully operational!
Tania was the first to speak. “Just great! He thinks the hyperdrive is alive and kicking when it’s just rolled over and died! Come on, we gotta get out of here and warn the captain before he engages the drive!”
Tania’s sisters decided not to add anything to Tania’s statement and thus waste time; instead the three siblings ran for the door that led out of the engine bays, avoiding the foam-now-turned-liquid chemical puddles sprayed by the fire suppression systems only moments before.
As the girls raced through the extensive corridors of the ship, they were forced to contend with every conceivable object in their path. Debris, injured and assisting crewmembers, and droids all somehow managed to get in their way, delaying their urgent message by a few more crucial seconds. During their mad dash, Bria once suggested to try one of the comm. panels, but the idea was immediately rejected by her older sisters; with the Communications Array out of commission, there was no way to tell if the regular comm. link was also disabled unless they stopped to check, and if they ended up being wrong then more precious time would be wasted. All they could do was pray they would reach the bridge in time to prevent the hyperdrive from being engaged.
Alas, their fear was being realized when all at once a deep-pitched rumble sounded off and vibrated through the deck. “We’re not gonna make it to the bridge!” Naria gasped as the sisters turned down another access way and entered a dimly lit room. “The drive’s already powered enough to send vibrations through the ship’s deck!” “Don’t say that!” Tania hissed back. “I know we can make it!”
Unfortunately, not even Tania’s optimism could change the direction of the current situation. The girls were only halfway through the room when the familiar voice of the captain addressed the crew once again over the comm. link. “Attention everyone! This is your last chance to strap yourselves down! We are initiating hyperjump countdown…now!”
—Hyperdrive systems will engage in twenty seconds and counting—
The sisters had heard the mechanical voice of the ship’s computer announce that phrase many times before, but never before had they wished they hadn’t heard it.
“What are we going to do?” Naria wailed almost childishly. “We’re nowhere near a strap down station and we haven’t much time! If we don’t do something fast, we’re going to die!”
“Hang on a sec!” Tania suddenly interjected loudly. “Where are we?”
The eldest sister answered her own question by looking around as rapidly as humanly possible. It didn’t her long to realize she and her sisters had somehow found themselves in the escape pods room. An idea immediately flashed in her mind.
“Quickly! Get into that escape pod!” she ordered as she pointed frantically at the nearest pod, “It should be secure enough to protect us from hyperspace entry. Hurry!”
—Hyperdrive systems will engage in ten seconds and counting—
The Antilla sisters did their best to ignore the ominous voice of the computer as they darted to the nearest escape pod and forced open the pod’s hatch. The three siblings then climbed into the pod one by one with Bria leading the pack, followed by Naria and finally Tania.
“Everyone get into a restraint and hold on!” Tania instructed. “Naria, close the hatch! Bria, prepare the pod for space flight, in case something goes terribly wrong.”
“On it!” both sisters replied all at once before moving to carry out their specified tasks. It took less than a second for Naria to seal the pod’s hatch with a gentle hiss and Bria to set the pod’s release mechanisms on standby mode. And not a second too soon…
—Hyperdrive systems will engage in five…four…three…two…one…hyperdrive systems have been engaged—
“Hold on, girls!” Naria squealed as she shut her eyes. “Here we go…!”
The first sign that things were amiss occurred the exact moment the ship made the jump to hyperspace. While hyperjumps had to be made with a ship’s crew strapped down, the actual jumps never felt violent and uncomfortable. Not so with this particular jump, during which the ship made an enormous, extremely uncharacteristic lurch, crashing into hyperspace almost as if it had slammed into a titanium wall at full speed.
The reason for this was that the safeties and computer overrides for the hyperdrive had all been destroyed from the Communications Array explosion and power surge. As a result, the drive engaged at full power, putting an intense strain on the small part of the buffer heat sink system that the sisters had connected before the explosion. But since the girls hadn’t had time to examine the damaged consoles that closely, they could only guess what was going on as the cruiser shuddered violently, almost to the point where it felt like the ship might fall apart.
The men on the bridge, however, knew almost exactly what was going on.
“Captain!” the propulsion officer screamed. “My readouts are showing core temperatures for the buffer heat sink system are at critical levels…and they’re still rising! The sinks will give out any second!”
“Disengage the hyperdrive now!” bellowed the captain, who was now in an uncharacteristic panic. “Do it! Quickly!”
But it was already too late.
KA-BOOM!!!!
Had anyone within the cruiser somehow been outside to watch, they would’ve witnessed the buffer heat sinks detonate with a spectacular explosion, the force of the blast incinerating part of the rear of the ship into countless fragments and vapor trails. The blast’s momentum also sent the ship spiraling out of control, treating the cruiser’s crewmembers to the horrific experience of feeling like hapless debris in a planet-sized hurricane. And without the heat sinks to provide cooling, the hyperdrive coils melted down within a fraction of a second, destroying the hyperdrive motivator in addition to dumping the ship back into real space like an unwanted guest. The exit from hyperspace also created another yet noticeably milder lurch and somehow slowed the ship’s frantic spinning to an endurable level.
The entire event had occurred within less than half a minute, but the damage had been done. What had once been the hope for the Republic was now a hollow shell of its former self, floating aimlessly in the uncharted area of the cosmos without purpose or reason…
“Well, I guess that qualifies as something going terribly wrong.” Bria said wryly.
Her sisters decided not to comment and instead began checking themselves for any possible injuries. Thankfully, other than a few bumps on the head and pounding hearts, they had managed to survive the experience intact. But what about everyone else outside the pod? Had they…?
“Hang on a sec, I’ll activate the video link to the pod-room cameras,” Naria uttered before reaching for a nearby control panel and punching a few keys below a small, dark-colored monitor. “Let’s see, I just need to link to the ship’s communication frequency and…there, got it!”
The screen instantly hissed to life and showed static for a few seconds before finally settling on a clear picture. Naria glanced at the monitor first…and immediately turned pale.
“Tania…Bria…look…!” she cried hoarsely, as if her voice were somehow dying and begging for some kind of support. The other two sisters swiveled their heads to see what Naria was talking about, and when they did they also felt the blood drain from their faces.
The pod’s monitor displayed only one picture of the inside of the escape pod room, but that one picture was enough; if it had to be described, it resembled a scenario where Jedi Knights and Sith Lords had staged a free-for-all war. And with the gravity mechanisms obviously destroyed by the accident, the Antilla sisters witnessed the circumstances in all of its sickening glory. Floating dead bodies were just the beginning of the stomach-churning scene; various torn off limbs, bubbles of bright red blood, shreds of deadly-looking debris, and pieces of equipment remains all floated around the chamber as well. What the girls saw was enough to invade their nightmares for many years to come and then some.
But the sisters did notice one thing that made them very thankful. The monitor revealed a huge metal plate peppered with razor-edged hunks of metal, wedged in front of the door to their escape pod bay. The girls realized that if that plate hadn’t fallen in front of the pod bay door, the metal fragments would have undoubtedly sliced the door and the pod to ribbons.
“I…I don’t know what to say,” Bria admitted.
“Is…is there anything else we can see?” Tania asked hesitantly.
“Let’s see,” Naria replied as she toggled the controls to pan the lens. “Maybe if we move the camera in this direction…wait a minute, what’s this?”
A little panning of the camera to the left revealed that several gaping, jagged breaches in the hull, no doubt caused by debris during the cruiser’s frenetic tumbling. But it wasn’t the breaches that Naria had noticed; it was what had been impaled upon one of the serrated teeth of the farthest breach. To get a better view, Naria zoomed the camera in closer…and immediately wished she hadn’t.
When the sisters could make out the skewered object clearly enough, each sister gave her own unique reaction. Tania blanched further than she already was, Bria turned almost as green as her hair, and Naria fainted dead away. Mr. Rigel, the handsome and optimistic leader of the expedition, dangled on one of the breach’s razor-like barbs; his head was missing, both his legs and an arm had been severed, and his body was decorated all over with shrapnel. The only reason the girls recognized the mauled corpse as Mr. Rigel was due to the shredded uniform with several marks of ranking.
Even cool-headed Tania couldn’t stand looking at the mutilated body for long. “Ugh,” she muttered shakily as she placed one hand over her mouth. “Bria, try to revive Naria while I launch the escape pod.”
Bria stared at Tania with wide eyes. “Launch the escape pod?”
“After what we’ve seen, I doubt anyone in this ship other than ourselves has survived. And I don’t want to be around if what’s left of this ship decides to give a grand finale, either, especially with us inside.”
Bria could hardly argue with her elder sister’s logic, so she set about rousing her unconscious sibling while Tania entered the necessary commands to jettison the escape pod from the ship.
A few seconds later, the pod launched, beginning its slow spiral away from the cruiser that now resembled a ghost ship more than an expedition vessel. Luckily, the escape pod had its own gravity mechanism so the Antilla sisters could walk about the cramped cabin freely. Bria was still trying to get Naria to wake up while Tania decided to scan the surrounding cosmos for any planet that might offer them refuge.
Alas, for the first few moments the scanners made absolutely no sound.
“I was afraid of this,” Tania mumbled to herself. “I was hoping we were somewhere near the Outer Rim Territories, but it looks like we’re completely lost in the Unknown Regions…”
BEEP…
Tania felt her heart leap when she saw that tiny yet undeniable blip. She quickly typed in commands to zero in on the blip’s source…and she was amazed to find that the revealed planet was right in front of them, directly in the path trajectory of the sisters’ escape pod! Calculated arrival time: three minutes!
“Well, I’ll be,” Tania muttered before scratching her head. “Of all the things that could happen, I never thought this…hey, where is this planet?”
Tania quickly typed a few keys to bring the planet up on the main monitor. After a second of static, the screen exhibited the mystery planet for the Antilla sister…as well as it could, anyway. The planet was shaded a very dark brownish-black, nearly matching the inky blackness of surrounding space. It would’ve easily been missed by the naked eye, but thankfully the scanners had picked it up.
Not that Tania really cared right now, but the planet’s color somewhat puzzled her. Why did the planet have a dark hue? Zooming the scanners in closer so that she could see the actual planet, she could also vaguely make out clouds, suggesting the planet had an atmosphere. She had never seen or heard of a planet with both an atmosphere and such a gloomy color. It was as if the planet didn’t want to be found…
But that was obviously ridiculous, and completely beside the point. She had located a more than suitable planet for them to land, and all she had to do was calculate a landing course…
“Ooooh,” moaned the familiar voice of Naria. Tania turned around and saw her younger sister slowly start to sit up, one of her hands clutching her head.
“Did I really see Mr. Rigel’s body all mangled, or was I dreaming?”
“No, it was real, I’m afraid,” Bria uttered with a look of sorrow on her face, before glancing around the cabin of the pod.
Naria groaned again before taking a couple of deep breaths. “That…that was perhaps the most gruesome sight that I…”
“Hey! What the…?” Bria abruptly interrupted, her gaze affixed on one of the escape pod’s viewports. Tania and Naria turned their attention to the same viewport, which they discovered was facing the cruiser they had moments ago abandoned. As they watched, part of the ship seemed to glow for a few seconds before, without warning, erupting into a blinding flash as the shattered remnants of the ship exploded noiselessly in the empty void of space.
The sisters didn’t need to be told what was going to happen next.
“Hang on, girls! This is going to be a rough ride!” Tania barked before grabbing the nearest support rail. Her sisters mimicked her moments before they felt the shockwave of the blast start to rock the escape pod. The small ship buffeted back and forth only slightly at first, but soon the shuddering grew to uncontrollable levels. The shockwave also had the unfortunate consequence of carrying the pod directly towards the dark planet, sending it careening toward the outer atmosphere like a laser blast at unheard of speeds.
“Tania!” Naria suddenly cried as she tried to maintain her balance. “We’re heading straight for that planet up ahead!”
“No joke!” Tania dryly screamed back.
It didn’t take long for the planet’s gravity to take hold of the escape pod, pulling the ship closer and accelerating it to even faster velocities. The shockwave had by now subsided, but already the scraping of the pod’s hull against the atmosphere agitated the ship and its small crew with painful vibrations. Within a matter of moments the dark atmospheric clouds Tania had noticed earlier surrounded the ship like a flock of mocking witnesses, doing nothing other than watch the ship’s plunge to oblivion.
By the time the nose of the pod started glowing white-hot due to the air friction caused by close to Mach-15 speeds, Bria had grown completely hysterical with fear. “We’re all going to die!” she screamed frantically as she waved her arms about. “We’re all going to burn to a crisp!”
“No we’re not!” Tania screeched as calmly as she could, although it was difficult even for her to stay relaxed. “We’re getting out of this! Naria, help me engage the repulsorlifts! Hurry, we haven’t much time before the burn-entry alloys on the hull give out!”
Naria was almost as panic-stricken as her younger sister, but she managed to keep her cool and staggered her way the pod’s main console, where she proceeded to help Tania activate the repulsorlifts. For what seemed like an eternity, both sisters punched the keys as furiously and as quickly as they could, but no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t trigger the needed apparatus. The constant vibrations had probably upset the pod’s complex wiring, meaning no amount of button mashing would work. Still, that didn’t mean the sisters would give up without trying.
But after what felt like an eternity even Tania was starting to lose her patience with the pod’s controls; Naria, however, was the first one to say something in response to the console’s stubbornness.
“Come on, come on, you worthless piece of junk! Engage!” Naria growled under her breath as she punched the keys harder in hopes it would have some effect…
“Hey, I have an idea! Let me try something!” The positive tone in Bria’s voice was unexpected, seeing that just moments ago she was howling hysterically. Tania turned her head around to look at the youngest Antilla sister in astonishment.
“You still with us?” Tania asked.
“You bet I am! Look!” Bria announced before holding up her right hand high in the air. Clenched between her fingers was a hydro-spanner; Tania had no idea where Bria had found it, but she guessed the wrench-like tool had fallen out of its case during the shockwave. But that really wasn’t important right now.
“And…what am I looking at?” Tania asked almost reluctantly, as if she didn’t want to know the answer.
“Our way out of this mess, that’s what!” Bria declared proudly.
The youngest sister then rapidly stormed towards the main console and rudely pushed Naria, who was still punching the keys feverishly, out of her way. Bria then raised the hydro-spanner as high as she could before bringing it down as hard as she could on the console’s front panel. Tania and Naria gaped in astonishment and shock as Bria repeated the act several more times, each blow harder than the last.
“What are you doing, you idiot?” Tania hollered. “We’re supposed to get the controls to work, not hack them to pieces!”
Naria was about to join Tania in shrieking at her sister as well when, to the two elder sisters’ amazement, a loud hum pulsated throughout the walls of the pod, followed closely by the unmistakable whine of thruster engines, which quickly built up to a roar. Unable to trust their ears, Tania and Naria turned their attention to the main viewport monitors. As hard as it was to believe, their suspicions were true.
The repulsorlifts had been activated; the escape pod was slowing down in its descent.
Tania and Naria could only gape in amazement as they turned their attention back to Bria, who had a smug look on her face and the hydro-spanner nested in both of her hands.
“Bria…what did you just do?” Tania managed to ask.
“A little something I call ‘percussive maintenance,’ ” Bria smirked before raising her left hand and blowing on her fingernail tips.
Tania maintained her expression of amazement for a little longer before she finally cracked a smile and remarked, “You are something else, you know that.”
Meanwhile, Naria developed a scowl on her face and muttered softly to herself, “Showoff!”
Despite the neck braking speeds the pod had achieved during its earlier frightening plummet, it still took a few more minutes before the ship finally broke through the planet’s low clouds. Thanks to Bria’s quick thinking, the pod had managed to slow down to Mach 2, making the scenery a little easier to notice and, if the girls had time, admire.
The moment the Antilla sisters could see more than just murky haze, they quickly gazed at the main viewport, searching for any signs of civilization. To their dismay, there were only lofty, jagged mountains as far as they could see. Clouds were the only things that soared above the peaks; there were no birds to be found anywhere. And none of the haze looked like it belonged to any campfires, meaning there was little if no chance someone was living nearby.
But the sisters didn’t lose hope, because after all, who would want to show that they lived in a place like this?
“Hey, look down there!” Naria suddenly cried, pointing to the very left of her viewport.
The other two girls crowded around Naria’s monitor, trying to catch a glimpse of what she was seeing. Tania and Bria saw it immediately; it was a structure of some kind, but it was no ordinary structure. It was huge, almost big enough to match some mansions of certain Republic diplomats. Its building material was also interesting; the construction appeared to be made directly out of the earth. And what’s more the rear portion of the building was set inside the mountain, as if it were hinting that it hid a lot more than its façade dared to show.
“Looks like we’re in luck,” Naria commented with a sigh. “We’ve found some signs of civilization. Now all we’ve got to do is land near there. Think we can do that?”
Tania examined the area surrounding the building briefly before answering, “The ledge around it looks strong enough to hold a Battle cruiser. I’m sure we can land there if we’re careful enough.”
Without another word, Tania typed in commands to alter the pod’s course. Her sisters simply watched the monitor, their eyes growing wider as the viewport zoomed in further and further towards the mysterious structure.
It didn’t take too long before the ship was hovering over the indicated ledge, safely away from the edge and only a stone’s throw away from the earthen building. Feeling confident of her abilities, Tania started punching the keys required to land…and without warning several bright sparks flew from the console, giving off a loud sizzle and a few intense flashes of light. Moments later, the sounds of the repulsorlifts died away, as well as their affects on the pod.
With no time and reflexes to do anything in time, the Antilla sisters could only watch and scream as the pod made a freefall towards the ground and ended with an unceremonious landing on the sandy ledge with a loud crash, throwing sand in all directions.
Thankfully, the ledge must’ve had 10 feet of sand on it, and the pod hadn’t been hovering too far off the ground, so the crash landing hadn’t been life threatening. Still, as Tania attempted to stand up from being forcefully dumped to the floor, she couldn’t help but glare in her sister Bria’s direction and snort, “Some percussive maintenance.”
“I didn’t say how long it would last,” Bria admitted sheepishly, although there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone.
As Tania helped Naria up, Bria added, “So, now that we’re here, what are we going to do?”
“Well, we’re not doing anything here,” Tania muttered, “so we might as well check out that building. Hopefully there’s someone living there…or at least nearby. Bria, get the deep space survival suits out from that compartment over there. Naria, ready the-”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Naria suddenly declared as she regained her balance from Tania’s grasp. “How about analyzing the air first to see if it’s breathable?”
Tania shifted her glare to Naria. “Excuse me? You really think the air outside is breathable?”
“Hey, I never said it was,” Naria interjected, her tone sounding irritated. “I just want you to check, that’s all. Where there’s civilization advanced enough to build structures like that, there’s the possibility the air’s breathable. So just analyze the air; it won’t take that long.”
Tania wanted to argue with her sister’s logic, but deciding not to waste the previous oxygen the escape pod had left, she instead grumbled under her breath before heading to the main console. Thankfully, the circuits that had knocked out the repulsorlift systems hadn’t affected any of the other ship’s functions, so all Tania had to do was type a few keys and wait for the air analyzer to do its job.
The job seemed to take longer than the girls were used to, but finally a side monitor displayed the results of testing the air around the ship. Tania decided to read the test results out loud so Naria could hear the words that ruined her logic. But Tania was instead the one surprised by the test results:
“Atmospheric pressure: satisfactory. Atmospheric status: breathable with negligible dust and smoke contamination. Climate conditions: moderate moisture quantities and low-level winds. Radiation levels: nonexistent. Presence of potentially harmful microbes: nonexistent…”
“I don’t think you need to say anymore,” Naria uttered in such a way that Tania could tell she was smirking. “Unless, of course, you want to finish reading the report.”
Tania tried her best not to respond to Naria’s sarcasm. Instead she turned to the youngest Antilla sister and mumbled crabbily, “Bria, get the hatch open.”
A few minutes later, all three sisters were standing outside the escape pod before the ancient-looking structure. It had been a while since they had felt the gentle yet stimulating touch of a cool, firm breeze that didn’t originate from an air conditioning unit, and simply experiencing the refreshing air currents surge across their sweat-soaked skin and through their billowing hair made them realize how much they loved it. The air did indeed taste a little polluted, but after breathing canned air for so long they hardly cared.
And yet despite all this, the real draw for the Antilla sisters being outside was the building they were admiring.
“Wow, this place is amazing!” Bria commented, eyes sweeping up and down the front of the structure.
Tania and Naria couldn’t help but agree with their younger sister, although they didn’t add anything to Bria’s remark. The building looked old; that was the first thing they really noticed about it. The structure wasn’t necessarily rundown and dilapidated, but the architecture suggested it had been build hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. Earlier the girls had noticed the building was big, but up close they saw just how enormous it was. Forget diplomat mansions; the structure could rival some Republic sovereigns’ primary homes! Seeming to reach as high as the surrounding mountains’ highest peak, the building possessed a rectangular shape and had all kinds of decorative additions to its façade. Windows, balconies, ledges, and pillars were all in attendance, each one having the antique-style architecture the girls had first noticed.
Looking closely, the sisters noticed something they hadn’t noticed before. The building was actually covered in a thin layer of fine dust, a layer that could be disregarded if someone actually tried. Stepping closer, the girls brushed away some of the dust on one of the building walls, discovering that underneath that dust, the girls saw the structure wasn’t made out of earth but of smooth, black stone, the kind of material someone would use only to build part of a building, not the entire thing! There was no immediately obvious significance as to why the entire building was made out of this dark material, but for now the girls decided to put the question aside.
Sadly, the girls noticed one other thing about the structure: it obviously hadn’t been visited for ages, meaning no one lived inside. Still, who was to say there wasn’t something inside the enormous structure that could help them…?
“I wonder if there’s anything else underneath all of this dust?” Naria muttered loudly to her sisters. She was still close enough to the building to touch it, and would’ve brushed away more of the dust layer if Tania hadn’t spoken then.
“Naria, maybe it would be a good idea if we retrieved the survival gear from the pod. Why don’t you go get the gear while Bria and I start looking for a way inside this place?”
Although Naria was just as eager to explore the new structure as her sisters, she didn’t argue with Tania but instead gave a nod of acknowledgement and headed back to the escape pod. As she ran, her sapphire hair seemed to flutter in every conceivable direction, probably due to the erratic winds of the mountains.
Tania watched her younger sister leave for a few moments before she turned her attention to the youngest sister. “Well, Bria, let’s start finding a way inside this thing. Let’s check the center of the frontage first.”
“Why there first?” inquired the youngest Antilla sister.
Tania made a face. “Because that’s where the door would most likely be. Come to think of it, if I ever built a place like this, that’s where I’d put the door.”
The air inside the ship tasted stale and musty compared to the refreshing air outside, but Naria put up with it as she searched for the survival gear that was standard issue on all escape pods. She first checked the pod’s storage lockers, and to her relief she had gotten lucky on her first try. The first locker held backpacks and glow rods, the second had a durable supply of ration bars, and the third contained several survival tents.
Thankful that there were enough resources to sustain her and her sisters for quite some time, Naria opened the last locker not expecting anything special…and found quite a few unexpected prizes.
“Whoa! These should come in handy!” Naria cried in amazement as she eyed her new treasures: a demolition pack, a portable matter analyzer, and a few single-hand blaster guns.
Unable to contain her excitement, Naria reached for the blaster weapons first, pulling them hurriedly off the shelf and onto her belt. She was so eager to get them out of the locker that when she pulled the last blaster pistol out, the barrel banged firmly against the lip of the locker with a loud, vibrating clang. Her eagerness, however, didn’t mask her surprise when, without warning, the back panel of the locker shook for several seconds before separating from the rest of the locker and falling back with a clank, revealing a hidden compartment.
“Hmmm, I never knew these lockers had secret compartments,” Naria remarked curiously. “I wonder if there’s anything inside?”
Without another word, Naria reached inside the dark niche with her free hand and immediately felt the presence of something hard and cold inside. Intrigued, she slipped the final blaster onto her belt and used both hands to grab the mystery object and pull it into the light. It was a thick yet narrow box about the length of her arm and encased in a hard yet flexible metal. Growing more and more curious, Naria examined the outer metallic shell of the box for any clue as to what it was or what it contained. She found just such a thing on the box’s underside: a tiny yet noticeable nameplate marked with the indentation of a familiar name.
“A. Rigel?” Naria read out loud as she stroked the indented letters with her fingertips. “Alatus Rigel! Mr. Rigel! So this is his, is it? That’s strange I wonder why he put it in there? An escape pod isn’t exactly the best place to put something valuable. But it must be important, or else he wouldn’t have placed it in a hidden compartment. I wonder what’s inside this thing?” Naria hesitated for a moment before looking up to the ceiling. “Mr. Rigel, forgive me, sir, but I’m just too curious. I hope you don’t mind, sir.”
Confident that Mr. Rigel’s spirit had forgiven her, Naria turned her attention back to the box and started looking for the opening mechanism. But a quick scan of the container revealed no visible device to unlock it. In fact, the only noticeable blemish on the box’s otherwise smooth surface was the nameplate with Mr. Rigel’s name…
On a hunch, Naria turned the box around until the nameplate was facing upward. She then took her thumb and gently yet firmly compressed the plate down. Just as she suspected, the nameplate sank into the box, and when it had completely submerged there was a loud click on the other side of the container. Naria turned the box over and saw that a small crack had appeared along the box’s length. Thrilled with her ingenuity, Naria gripped the box on opposite sides of the crack and pulled her hands apart.
The resulting snap from the pressure given by her hands was startling enough to cause the Antilla sister to nearly drop the box, but she managed to hold onto it securely. Breathing a sigh of relief, Naria excitedly stared into the container to see what exactly Mr. Rigel had been hiding.
When she saw what was inside the box, her face turned pasty and her breath abruptly stopped breathing. All of a sudden, her strength dropped to levels where she could no longer hold the box in her hands, and her now-weak fingers released the container. The crash the box made on the cold, metal floor paled in comparison to the crash that had affected Naria’s heart…
“Tania, over here! I think I found a door!” Bria’s voice carried across the mountainous terrain like a siren, reaching Tania’s ears in record time. The sisters’ search for a door at the front of the building had proved to be fruitless, so Bria had offered to search the side of the structure. Tania had given Bria leave to do so while she stayed to figure out exactly why there was no entrance at the building’s front. Her curiosity had led her to find several strange markings etched into the black stone, almost hidden by the thin layer of dust.
A quick wiping of the dust had exposed the carvings more clearly in the faint sunlight, but even then Tania couldn’t make heads or tails of them. She wanted to study them further, but Bria’s cry of finding a possible entrance pushed that task into the area of less important things to do. Still, she couldn’t resist giving the markings one final glance before screaming back to her sister.
“Great! I’ll be right there!”
After her final brief glimpse, Tania turned and raced as fast as she could in the general direction of Bria’s voice. As she rounded the corner of the cubic building, Tania almost tripped over her younger sister, who was starting to get off of her knees. Luckily, the sisters managed to avoid each other easily enough, and when they regained their stability Bria pointed at what she had called Tania to see.
What Tania saw most certainly looked like something resembling a door. On the darkly coated wall were two slight square-shaped indentations, equally sized, and set directly next to each other. The crack that separated the two indentations was paper-thin, rising from the sand at the sisters’ feet, running up the wall in a perfect line to a point within arm’s length above their heads. But despite the appearance of a doubled-door, there was nothing else indicating it was a portal of any kind; there were no door handles, hinges, or anything else a door usually featured.
Still, it was the best lead the sisters had.
“Well, now that we have something that looks like a door,” Tania started as she scratched her head in confusion, “how do we open it? There doesn’t seem to be any way to open it from this side.” “I don’t know,” Bria admitted. “But hey, maybe Naria found some tools we can use to get it open.” “Yeah, maybe she has,” agreed Tania before adding, “Come to think of it, where is she? I thought she’d be back by now.” “Hmmm, I guess so. Why don’t we go see what’s keeping her?”
As the oldest and youngest Antilla sisters approached the escape pod, they called out to Naria in hopes they didn’t have to trek all the way there. When their sibling didn’t reply, they called out again for her to come out. A second answer of silence prompted a third calling; again, there was no response. By the third time, Tania was getting pretty worried. “I wonder why she’s not responding? I hope she’s all right.” Bria turned to her older sister with a start. “You hope she’s…oh, why did you have to say that?” Tania eyed Bria with a puzzled look. “What do you mean by that?” “Because now I’m worried!”
With those words, Bria suddenly took off, running frantically to the escape pod’s open hatch. Tania, at first too surprised to react, tried to make up for her slow response by attempting to catch up to her younger sister. She managed to reach her the moment Bria stepped through the ship door, calling out frantically for the middle Antilla sibling.
“Naria! Naria! Where are you? Are you all right? Naria…oh, there you are. What are you doing on the floor like that?”
Tania pushed herself past Bria so she could see exactly what was going on, and what she saw made her both nervous and confused all at once. Naria was sitting on her knees with her back slouched in a dangerous angle and her face colored a deathly white. For some reason, she didn’t look up to greet her sisters; instead she stared in the direction of the floor, in the direction of strange metallic box that had its contents partially spilt out.
“Naria, what are you doing?” Tania demanded, placing her hands on her hips. “Why didn’t you answer us just now? Is something wrong with you?” Despite the firmness in Tania’s voice, Naria didn’t speak or even move. “Naria!” Tania screeched, now getting frustrated. “What’s going on? Say something!”
Finally, Naria responded. Her face still frozen in shock, she shakily raised her pale right hand and curled it into a pointing pose, aimed directly at the dropped box. Her lips then tried to say something, but all they could do was mouth the word.
“Excuse me?” Tania asked impatiently. “I couldn’t understand that. What did you just say?” “Naria, are you all right?” Bria inquired as she knelt down beside her petrified sister. “It looks like you’ve seen a ghost, or a…”
“Picture…”
Both Bria and Tania jerked their heads back in surprise when Naria managed to mutter the word she had been trying to say. “Picture?” Bria continued. “You saw a picture? But what’s so important about a picture? How can a picture…?”
“Just look, why don’t you!”
The tone and intensity in Naria’s voice was so unexpected that both Tania and Bria took several steps back in pure fright, their mouths gaping with surprise that their once-motionless sister now had enough energy to give a Sith a run for its money. But the biggest surprise came when Naria, obviously fed up with her sisters’ lack of common sense, angrily reached for a something in the dropped metallic box and pulled out a small object that could only be the picture she had mentioned just moments ago. The middle sister then stood up, walked up to her two siblings, and gave them turns in having the picture shoved directly into their faces.
“Look, you idiots!” Naria ordered heatedly. “Look at what’s in this picture! It’s our fearless leader, and you’ll never guess what he’s been up to! You want to guess, that’s fine, but I’d rather you just look!”
Naria alternated the picture between her sisters a couple more times before she finally shoved it into Tania’s hands. Tania, unable to find anything to counter Naria’s irritation, lifted the picture so she could see it more clearly than Naria dared to show it. When Tania saw what the picture contained, she nearly turned as pale as Naria had done earlier. Bria, curious to get in on the secret, peeked over Tania’s shoulder to have a look, and she gaped in absolute disbelief.
As Naria had cited, the picture did contain Mr. Rigel, the fearless leader of the now defunct expedition. But it contained something else that neither Tania nor Bria expected: Mr. Rigel was wearing the uniform of the Sith, and directly in front of him were three other Sith, obviously conversing with him. The picture also had a small red box with tiny lettering in the upper left corner that read, Proof of Contact, which indicated why the picture had been taken.
But
the picture now had another purpose: revealing to the Antilla sisters the
reason they were nearly killed today!
“Sithspit!” Tania cursed as she got over her brief fit of shock. “So that’s how they found out about our mission. Our leader was selling us out the whole time!”
Tania held the picture in her tensed up fingers for a moment longer before she finally screeched in anger, tore the picture into tiny shreds and dropped them onto the deck, the heel of her shoe then taking the liberty of dancing upon the shreds with all its might.
Tania got in such a fit over trampling the picture shreds that Bria tried to calm her down. “Tania, control yourself. You’re getting upset over nothing…”
“Nothing? Nothing?! Nothing?!!!” Tania gave her younger sibling a glare that could’ve burned a hole through durasteel. “You think this is nothing? We’ve just been betrayed by one of our closest friends, came unbelievably close to dying today on more than one occasion, are now stranded on an uncharted planet in the middle of the Unknown Regions, and you call it nothing?!!”
“Tania…” Bria uttered, still trying to soothe her sister as best she could, but Tania refused to allow Bria the opportunity.
The oldest Antilla sister maintained aiming her glower at Bria for another minute, before she redirected her attention to the metallic box, where several more items belonging to Alatus Rigel had spilled onto the floor. Tania, unable to control herself, raised her foot and gave the box a swift kick, sending the container flying through the air and landing a short distance away with a loud crash.
Now it was Naria’s turn to get upset. “Tania, calm down! That stuff could be important! We might be able to use it as evidence should we ever get back to the Republic.”
“Oh, yes, that’s a good idea!” Tania interjected quite rudely. “Using evidence against a man who’s already dead! Sometimes you really amaze me, dear sister.”
“No need to get snippy with me!” Naria demanded. “I’m just saying this stuff can be used to show the Republic that there are spies in their ranks and that precautions need to be taken…”
“Hey, what’s this thing?”
Tania and Naria turned their attention in the direction of Bria’s voice and were just in time to see their younger sister bend down and pick up something that had fallen from the booted container. They didn’t need to squint to see the object was tiny mechanism of some kind, composed of a small black box attached to a power cell with a rolled up antenna jutting from one side and emitting a soft yet audible hum. Bria obviously didn’t know what it was and neither did Tania.
But Naria sure as hell did!
“Holy shavit!” she cried in horror. “Bria! Throw that thing outside! Now!”
Bria jerked her head up to meet her sister’s gaze. “Throw it outside? But…why…?”
“Just do it!” Naria demanded before she grabbed one of the blasters on her belt and pointed it at her younger sibling. “Do it before I decide to shoot it while it’s in your hand!”
Quickly realizing that her sister wasn’t joking, Bria frantically rushed to the pod’s door and threw the tiny mechanism as hard as she could into the air. But she didn’t have time to watch it fly when Naria abruptly shoved her way past Bria to get outside. Once she found a spot to stand, she raised the blaster in her hand to meet the thrown device’s trajectory, took a moment’s pause to aim, and then fired, releasing a small yet deadly hissing beam of energy.
Naria had always been a crack shot, and today was no exception. The beam found its target with dead on accuracy, vaporizing the tiny device in an instant and leaving no remnants other than a soft popping sound that died instantly in the wind.
“Naria!” Tania, who had gotten over her anger fit, cried loudly as she rushed out of the pod with Bria not far behind. “What was that all about? What in the world did you just destroy?”
“Nothing,” Naria answered calmly as she lowered the pistol. “Just a homing beacon.”
“A homing beacon?” Bria repeated.
“And a very crude, but highly effective one at that,” Naria continued as she turned to face her sisters. “We always wondered how the Sith were able to track us so easily, and now we know. With such a simple homing beacon, its simple frequency tracking signal went undetected by our sophisticated detection frequencies.”
Naria suddenly clenched her free fist in gentle rage. “That kriffing scum…he made fools of us all…he’s just lucky the Sith had the pleasure of killing him, else I’d show him what it feels like to be betrayed…kriffing scum…”
“Now’s not the time to worry about that,” Tania suddenly interrupted, sounding serious and concerned. “Do you think the Sith could’ve detected we’re on this planet?”
That question made Naria, as well as Bria, just as concerned as Tania. “I…I’m not sure. They might’ve stopped listening for the tracking signal once they destroyed our ship, but then again…they were probably going to use the tracking signal to find Mr. Rigel if he managed to escape the ship, which might explain why we found that thing in the escape pod. Either way…I really don’t know.”
“Well,” Bria added in timidly, “I’m thinking that if they were still looking for the signal, they would’ve come for us by now, don’t you think?”
“That’s possible,” Tania agreed, “but on the other hand we really don’t know if the Sith were planning on letting Mr. Rigel live or not, once they found him anyway. For all we know, they might be doing something right now before they begin looking for him.”
“What are you saying?” Bria asked, her voice sounding edgy.
“I’m not saying anything,” Tania answered, “except that we have no idea if we’re going to be left alone on this desolate planet or if a ship full of Sith Lords will appear any minute with enough firepower to vaporize these mountains.”
“So what should we do?” Bria inquired anxiously. “Should we prepare the pod for launch?”
“Not enough time,” Naria interrupted. “It takes several hours to refuel an escape pod with the stocked emergency fuel stores, and several more hours to reconfigure such a small vehicle for deep space travel. And once we got back into space we couldn’t travel more than a day or two before running out of fuel and becoming stranded in space permanently. By then, I’m sure the Sith will be well on their way looking for us…if they indeed are, that is. No, we can’t take the risk of being sitting ducks for the Sith to pick and choose at their leisure like that.”
Naria’s face tightened and her voice, not to mention her resolve, sounded firmer than ever. “I say we do as much as we can to hide ourselves and make them think the escape pod crashed, or something like that. That homing beacon wasn’t a very sophisticated one, so it couldn’t have possibly had exact-positioning capabilities. That should buy us some time to hide the fact that we’re here.”
The middle Antilla sister then turned to Bria. “There should be enough fuel left in the pod to move it to a more concealed location, like maybe underneath one of that building’s balconies; I’ll leave that up to you, Bria. Use that ‘percussive maintenance’ of yours if you have to.” Naria’s gaze then shifted to Tania. “As for you, why don’t you help me organize everything we need to enter and explore that building? We’ll need everything we can get our hands on, maybe including something in that box you kicked. But if you don’t want to do that, you can go back to the building and see if you can’t find a door.”
“We already found a door,” Tania cut in rather sharply. “And by the way, what’s gotten into you? I’ve never seen you so…so…resolved like this.”
“Well, dear sister,” Naria uttered dryly, “having Sith warriors breathing down your neck like this can do a lot of things to you. Now, unless you’d like to go find a way to open that door you so nicely stated you found, how about helping me pick up the stuff littered all over that floor?”
Tania felt like hitting something, but merely grinded her teeth and mumbled that she acknowledged Naria’s idea…
Actually, in the end, it was Tania who moved the escape pod and Bria who helped Naria ready everything for the exploration of the building. Bria didn’t know how to pilot the pod as well as her two sisters, so she ended up switching jobs with Tania, who seemed able enough to pilot any vehicle with her eyes closed. Luckily, no percussive maintenance was needed this time around; a few simple rewiring jobs were all the ship needed to get moving again.
Tania chose to fly the pod to a spot she had seen earlier when she and Bria had found the door to the enormous structure: a place located underneath a large jut of rock in the side of the mountain, a ledge actually big enough to hide almost the entire group of escape pods from the sisters’ expedition ship. The delicate maneuvering proved to be quite tricky, but Tania, always up to the challenge, managed to ease the pod underneath the ledge without so much as a scratch on the ship’s hull. The gravel-like ground did create a shaky landing, but after their first landing no one complained.
During the flight from open air to hideaway, Bria and Naria prepared for the exploration of the structure, packing all necessities including blaster guns, explosives, food supplies, torches, and other such things. As they did this task, Bria found the time to ask Naria a question.
“Hey, Naria. Why are we still exploring that building if right now we’re trying to hide from the Sith? Couldn’t we just refuel the pod while we hide?”
“No can do,” Naria replied. “Refueling requires certain computer operations to be functional, and such functions may give off signals that could be noticed by powerful detection systems. If the Sith could follow the signal from that crude tracking beacon then we have no reason to push our luck. And since we can’t refuel, I don’t feel like sitting on my backside all day and doing nothing. Besides, that building might hold something we can use. I hope that answers your question.”
It did. Bria sighed and muttered, “You know, sometimes I wish I had taken the courses you guys took back at the academy before we went on this stupid mission. I feel so left out at times.”
Naria hesitated in her task for a moment and thought about Bria’s statement. It took her a moment to think up a reply. “I guess so. But hey, we’d be dead by now if it weren’t for your quick thinking and your percussive maintenance. It won’t win any awards at the academy, but what’s an award compared to saving our lives? Does that make you feel a bit better?”
“A bit,” Bria agreed. “But still, I just wish I could just a little more help to you guys.”
Naria sighed. “Well, I’m sure once this is over, you’ll be catching up to us in no time at the academy. Who knows, your day in the sun just might come once we get inside that building.”
Bria didn’t respond to that possibility; instead she resumed assorting all necessary items for the upcoming exploration.
“Well, are we all ready?” Naria’s question made a slight echo within the escape pod’s interior, but neither Tania nor Bria noticed. “Yes, I’m ready,” replied Tania, shifting her backpack on her back to make her point. “Me, too,” answered Bria. “Good,” Naria uttered as she made a quick glance to her own backpack and then back again to her sisters. “Then let’s go. I’d prefer not getting caught out in the open should the Sith arrive a little earlier than anticipated. Tania, why don’t you lead the way, since you know where the door is?” “My pleasure,” Tania declared, although the tone of her voice indicated a hint of weariness as well. “Come on, let’s go.”
With Tania leading the way, the Antilla sisters made their way out of the escape pod in a single file, their packs rocking side to side softly with each stride they made. Bria was the last one to exit the ship behind Naria, and as she planted her feet on the rocky soil beneath her she suddenly stopped. Naria and Tania noticed her sudden halt and stopped as well.
“What’s wrong?” Tania asked.
“Nothing,” Bria replied, “except I’m just feeling a little hungry.”
“Oh, is that all?” Naria sighed. “Well, then just take a ration bar out of your pack and………”
“Actually, there should be some extra ration bars left in the ship,” Tania interjected. “That’ll be a little quicker than taking off your pack to look for one.”
Before Naria could say anything in return, Bria spoke up. “Okay, then…I’ll just head back inside and get one of those bars. You guys go on ahead of me. I’ll catch up.”
Without another word, Bria disappeared back into the ship, leaving the two elder sisters outside.
“Do you think we should get something to eat as well?” Naria asked Tania.
“I’m not that hungry right now,” Tania answered, “so I don’t really need to eat anything. How about you?”
“After what I saw before the cruiser blew apart, it’ll take me a while before I can actually stomach anything again.”
“Then we don’t need to dawdle any further. Come on, let’s get going. Bria will catch up in due time.”
It took Bria a minute to find the extra stash of ration bars, but when she found them she didn’t waste any time gloating over locating them. She simply grabbed one of them, ripped the wrapper off aggressively, and chewed the contained food product inside as hard as she could. Ration bars weren’t exactly the tastiest food in the universe, but they were enough to sustain someone stranded on an isolated planet. They provided essential nutrients and minerals, as well as a small dose of water within the chewy husk.
Still, it wouldn’t have hurt if the things actually tasted good, but Bria was so hungry that she didn’t stop with one bar. She devoured three more bars before her stomach finally signaled it was all right to stop.
“Well, that was…fine, I guess,” she commented to herself as she hiccupped the last bite down her throat. “I guess I’d better catch up to…hey, what’s that?”
Bria bent down on her knees and crawled her way across the floor so she could examine the object she had just spotted. It was a black object sitting against a dark panel in the escape pod’s wall, probably the reason she and Naria had missed it during their preparations. When she reached the object, Bria reached and picked it up in her hand to get a better look. It was a cylinder of some kind, roughly fifteen inches in length with a diameter that gave the thing a comfortable grip. Both ends were open, although not to each other, and on both ends of the object were two sliding switches.
At first Bria didn’t know what to make of the object, but a sudden burst of realization made her recognize what she was holding.
“Holy shavit! This is…this is…could this be Mr. Rigel’s? I should show Tania and…no, wait. I don’t need to do that now, not when we have other things to do. I’ll just keep it safe until then. Let’s see, where can I…? Ah, there’s a good spot.”
As she stood up, Bria placed the object in one of her pack’s free side pockets, making sure not to zip it closed so she could remember it later. Smiling and feeling confident that she had found something possibly useful, she took a deep breath before heading back out the ship to meet her sisters…
“Well, this certainly looks like a door,” Naria commented as she examined the outlines in the dusty wall that charted the double door in the wall of the mysterious building. “Did you find any possible way to open it?”
Tania shook her head at Naria’s question. “Bria and I found nothing. We were hoping you might have found some way to open it, so I guess that’s the first question I’m going to ask you. Did you find anything in that pod that might help us?”
Naria thought for a moment before replying, “I guess explosives might do the trick, although that would definitely draw attention to ourselves should a Sith ship be patrolling nearby. I’d like to take a look at this myself before we try anything drastic. Do you mind?”
Tania gestured towards the door with her hands. “Not at all. Be my guest.”
Accepting Tania’s invitation, Naria walked up to the double doors and stopped within arm’s length of the wall. She scanned the surface of the wall for any possible clues as to how the door could be opened, but unfortunately the layer of dust covered up anything potentially helpful. Wondering if any clue might be found underneath that layer of dust, Naria reached out to wipe the dust away…
“Hey, guys!”
Naria and Tania turned around and were just in time to see Bria hobbling her way towards them, her face flushed from running with her heavy pack on her back. The youngest Antilla sister stopped just shy of running into Tania and leaned over, panting heavily and trying to breathe as fast as she could.
“Where have you been?” Tania asked. “Were you so hungry that you ate all of the rations bars left in that ship?”
“Sorry,” Bria apologized. “I…I did have more than one of those bars, but I didn’t think you guys would get this far ahead of me.”
“Well,” Naria mused as she used her outstretched hand to lean against the building’s wall, “maybe next time you shouldn’t dawdle and…”
Naria’s words were suddenly cut short by a loud and deep rumbling, followed by a burst of brilliant, blinding light, radiating from a widening opening where only moments ago the double doors had been …
Well, that’s the end of Prologue 1. Keep in mind that we’re logically merging the worlds of Zelda OOT and Star Wars together in this story. Currently, we have three pictures available for this chapter, for your enjoyment: One of Bria Antilla, one of Naria Antilla, and one of Tania Antilla. We hope you will enjoy them, and that they will help you all to visualize the story action, while you are reading. There will be more pictures drawn in the future, so please check the author’s note occasionally. We will be announcing further picture availability there.
Now, here’s a little teaser for prologue 2: In the next chapter, we’ll see one of the main characters, and one of the secondary characters introduced. One is everyone’s favorite Galactic hero; the other plays a big role in events to come. Anyhow, questions, comments, ideas, recommendations are all welcome, but please, no flames. This is my first fanfiction story, so please be nice. Also, please R+R; the number of reviews will determine how far the story goes.
On
a final note, please be patient. Due to the size of the chapters, our
schedules in real life, and the planned length of the story, it will be some
time before the next chapter is posted. After all, one cannot crank out a
multi-volume novel in only a year. If you would like to be on an update list
for the story, please leave your e-mail address with your review. Until next
time, see you all!