Beyond - Legends Stranded (re-post / edited) - Jag, Kyp, Jacen, and Zekk crash on Tenupe - update 25. August

Tags: @Durroness, @Falcon

Let me know if you want to be tagged!

* * *​

"Looks like those ships are guarding your hill," Tahiri panted as she stood beside Jacen, lightsaber at the ready. "Any more smart ideas?"

"Keep going," Jacen replied, determined not to let her goad him. "We'll worry about them when we get there."

"Right." She deflected another blaster bolt back into the jungle. Their attackers still lagged behind, weighed down by their armour and lack of Force-enhanced sprints, but there were a lot of them, and the occasional bolt was starting to find its way.

"She's coming up," Jaina's voice came from the comlink clipped to Jacen's headband. "Running preflights now."

"Copy," Jacen called back. "Sooner the better."

"I know, I know," she said testily. "Where's Jag?"

"Can't talk," Jag's voice came, clipped and tense, barely audible over the screeching of blaster cannons. Jacen hoped they were his.

"Come on," he said, grabbing Tahiri's arm. "Keep going."

* * *​

"Stabiliser's not right," Anakin said, frowning at the display.

"I know," Jaina snapped, yet again. "Can't help it now. Get back there and see what you can do with it."

"Gotcha."

Lowie dropped into the co-pilot's seat after Anakin had left it, growling something.

"Looks like it," Jaina agreed. "Thank the Force we only had one leak."

"And it was small," Zekk commented from behind them. "You want me on the guns?"

She nodded once. "Go."

The engine was slow to initialise, or maybe it only felt that way because she was constantly waiting to hear from the others. Jacen had left the channel open, but it was filled mostly with grunts, low-voiced commands and questions, and rustling foliage, accentuated by the occasional blaster shot.

Jag's channel was silent.

The ship was shuddering to life beneath her, and finally, the last light turned green and the sound settled into its familiar soothing pitch.

"Everyone hang on," Jaina called towards the intercom as she engaged the repulsors. "This is gonna get rough!"

* * *​

The hill that Jacen had been leading the others up had a clearing at the top, much like the place where they'd had their camp only a few hours earlier. The difference was that their attackers seemed to have figured out his plan, because the ships were waiting there, circling around the hill and surrounding area, ready to strafe or land at a word.

Jacen had drawn Kyp and Tahiri into a Force meld, and together they were doing their best to hide from their attackers' sensors. It seemed to be working, but Jacen knew that as soon as they emerged into the open ahead, no amount of Force skill would hide them.

But they couldn't wait much longer, either. The troops behind them were advancing, and the two scouts were still out there, too.

At least, Jacen thought so. He didn't have the time to spare for checking, and Jag hadn't reported back. He was okay, though. Report or no report, Jaina would know if something happened to him. And what Jaina knew, Jacen knew.

"On our way," Jaina called over the com. "Hang on!"

And just then, Jacen saw the first attacker face to face.

He barely had time to notice the man's camo gear and plasteel helmet before the Force sang out and he followed it, bringing his lightsaber up to block the man's shots. All but one flew back towards the fellow, burning into his chest.

He fell, but three of his comrades moved forward, followed by more behind.

"Go." Jacen pushed Tahiri behind him. "Go!"

They ran up the hill, Tahiri in front and Kyp bringing up the rear. The troops followed, slowed a little by the occasional man falling in their ranks, killed by his own blaster shot.

A little, but not nearly enough.

"They're Plav's men," Jacen managed, his voice jerking as he ran on. "No markings, but they're wearing the same armour, and I'd bet that we'll find his name on the ship records, too."

"That's the pirate captain, right?" Tahiri asked.

"Yeah, they’re the reason for this whole trade dispute, and I’ll bet you my lightsaber that someone hired them to—"

"Later, kids," Kyp cut in. "Save your breath."

Jacen bowed to that wisdom, and kept running.

When they reached the eaves of the jungle, Jacen glanced up, and saw one of the ships circling around. They were fighters, slightly larger than X-Wings and rounder, with a sturdy build and two stubby wings on either side.

This particular one was headed towards the clearing, and Jacen knew what was going to happen as soon as he and the others left cover.

But there was nothing for it, not with the troops advancing behind them.

He paused for an instant and poured his intent into the meld, until he was sure that the other two knew what he wanted.

Then he ran.

They made it two meters before the ship opened fire.

There was no hope of deflecting laser bolts this strong with a lightsaber, but the same technique still applied to an extent. The Force enabled him to see where the next bolt would hit, and it also enabled him to reach out to the pilot.

He could feel Kyp doing the same, although it was always hard to tell, in a meld. He—or maybe Kyp—touched the pilot's mind, not forcing, only distracting, taking away some of that deadly intent.

The bolts came more slowly.

Jacen danced through them and jumped, hitting the other side of the clearing in a roll.

Behind them, the clearing was awash with laser fire as the other two ships circled around and began strafing runs of their own. Laser fire rained down onto the jungle, too, splitting two trees nearby before the fighter pulled back up.

Another swooped down, spitting laser fire—

—and from the forest to Jacen's left, Jag Fel's speeder bike shot into the clearing.

It was juking so badly that Jacen's initial thought was that Jag had been hit, but before he could react, the bike turned on its side, almost at a right angle to the ground, and veered out of the ship's line of fire.

And Jacen saw, belatedly, that Jag hadn't come out of the jungle alone. Another bike was following him.

But unlike Jag, it wasn't concentrating on evasion, its pilot focused on his prey.

Jag's bike shot past the fighter, almost close enough to scrape the hull. His pursuer, already closer to the ship at that point, reacted an instant too late.

Jacen watched, incredulous, as the speeder bike rammed into the fighter's underbelly and exploded. The fighter jerked towards the sky once, smoke billowing from somewhere. Then something else exploded and it went down, ploughing into the ground in a cloud of smoke and fire.

Jag, meanwhile, had reached the other end of the clearing and disappeared back into the trees.

"Scouts are down," his voice came a second later. It was no longer calm, but a lot calmer than it had any right to be, given what had just happened. "I'm going to try to draw more pursuit. Jaina?"

* * *​

"Almost there!" Jaina called, wishing that her ship's speed was dependent on willpower. That explosion hadn't sounded good. "Zekk, get on those fighters!"

"Can't see them!" Zekk's frustration rang clearly in his voice. "Sensors aren't showing 'em and I don't have visual!"

"You will in a minute," Jaina promised, easing the ship up a little higher to give her a better view. She was closing in on Jacen, she could tell. His sense was blurred, like it always was in a Force meld, as if some of his presence distilled into the others.

Jaina tightened her grip on the controls. The Trickster was still limping slightly, needing constant compensation for the erratic stabiliser, but Jaina knew her ship. She'd hold together.

Lowie barked an alert just as Jaina saw them herself—two fighters, one of them circling, the other lining up for a strafing run.

"Two of 'em, dead ahead," she called towards the intercom, not that Zekk was likely to have missed them. Lowie growled a comment, and she nodded. "Looks like old SoroSuub Patriots. Jacen? Where's the third one?"

"Down," Jacen reported. "Jag got it."

"Jag—" Jaina didn't bother finishing that sentence.

Zekk did, voicing more or less exactly what she was thinking. "How in hell did he pull that off?"

"Later," Jaina cut in.

As if in answer, the top turret opened fire.

The hill was straight in front of her now, and she could see flashes of blaster fire lighting up the trees. The burning hulk of a ruined fighter lay in the middle of the clearing. Behind it, she caught a brief slash of purple.

Kyp.

The fighters had noticed them now. One of them broke off its strafing run, turning straight towards the Trickster, while the other was circling back to join the fight. Laser fire flashed towards them, scattered and harmless.

"Zekk!" Jaina shouted. "I want shooting, not a laser show!"

"Damn targeting's glitchy!" Zekk yelled back over the din of the turbolasers.

Jaina already knew that, of course. The targeting sensors were probably just as confused as her topographical ones, which currently put her at about a klick above a smooth surface like water. She ignored them.

Lowie growled a remark, and Jaina nodded tersely. Their attackers were probably counting on the fact that their sensors weren't working.

Jaina threw the ship to port, swerving out of the attackers' path. Anakin's sense flared with a warning, and she cut power to the stabilisers before the broken one could topple the ship sideways.

"Cutting the controls," Anakin announced. "I'll fire 'em from down here."

"Right." Jaina reached out to her little brother, joining her senses with his as completely as possible without diverting her attention from her flying. They'd done it before, of course, but never like this. As the link strengthened, Anakin became simply another part of her ship.

"I've engaged the eastern flank," Jag's voice broke through the noise of battle. "Drawing fire. Jacen?"

"Pinned down," Jacen's voice came back. "Jaina's drawn off the fighters, but the troops are closing in."

Jaina pressed her lips together. She was leading the fighters away from the others, but she needed to get back there. She couldn't win this one in the air, not with a half-repaired ship that was bulky compared to its pursuers. In space, she would have flown circles around them, but atmospheric flying was different.

She needed to land and get the others out. But with those two fighters still in the air...

"Comm chatter indicates impending reinforcements," Jag reported. She could hear blaster fire in the background, along with the hum of speeder bike engines. "Suggest we hurry."

"Jaina?" Zekk called, urgency colouring his voice. "We need a plan here. It'll take time to pound 'em, Patriots were made to take a beating!"

"I know, I know!" She grimaced. SoroSuub Patriots had never been common fighters, and the line had been discontinued, but they were dependable. Their manual power controls were complex, but allowed for maximum protection and speed if configure the right way.

She frowned. They had separate power lines for the engines, thrusters, and repulsors, and as far as she could remember, all of those could be configured manually...

It hit her abruptly. She sent a thought at Anakin, felt the ship wobble as he cut power to the stabilisers. She eased the ship into a straight course, pretending to run. Something rumbled through the ship from aft, and her sense of Anakin told her that the ship would be trailing smoke now.

"They're gaining," Zekk called tersely. "Picking up speed."

Jaina smiled.

"Heads-up," she called towards the intercom. "Smuggler's reverse in three, two..."

Zekk caught on immediately. As Jaina killed the engines and fired the portside thrusters, he swivelled his gun turret around against the direction of the Trickster’s 180-degree turn.

The Patriots shot past, and Zekk caught one of them with half a salvo, throwing the fighter off-course. Jaina grinned and gunned the engines for all they were worth, heading back towards the others.

She couldn't tell what the fighters did behind her, but it didn't matter. They could either try to loop, or copy her manoeuvre. Looping would be made slow by gravity, and it would take them a moment to reroute power to the thrusters, making their turn sluggish.

Lowbacca crowed in triumph as Zekk's voice came over the comm. "Got him! Right in the middle of his loop—"

"Where the hell are you guys?" Jacen broke in. "Jaina?"

"Coming," Jaina called. "Hang on!"

* * *​

The clearing was a whirl of lasers, fire, and an unnatural wind which pounded the attacking troops, knocking them off their feet over and over. Stirred by the wind, the wrecked fighter was a blazing inferno, charring the ground around it and thickening the air with smoke.

Kyp Durron stood in the centre of it all like something out of a legend, bare-chested and furious, dark hair whipping around his face. His lightsaber flashed, but he hardly needed it; Jacen stood next to him, his own weapon a blur of green as he deflected the blaster bolts coming their way.

Tahiri crouched behind the wrecked fighter, lightsaber in her left hand and blaster in her right. Most of her concentration was on drawing down fresh air to breathe, both for her and for the two men, since the black smoke still churning from the wreckage couldn't possibly be healthy. With the remainder of her focus, she added her efforts to Kyp's, and tried to lay down something resembling cover fire.

"Reinforcements inbound!" Jacen yelled.

Tahiri opened her mouth to ask where the hell Jaina was, decided that it didn't matter, and snapped off another shot instead. Across the clearing, one of the troopers fell back, injured.

But the others kept coming.

A low thrum blended into her consciousness from behind, growing steadily louder over the blasterfire and whirling air. Her first thought was that the fighters had come back, but then she recognised it and smiled tightly. Finally.

"Jag!" Jacen was yelling into the comlink. "Get back here for extraction!"

Tahiri didn't hear the reply, but relief began edging cautiously into her consciousness. Just a few more minutes. A few minutes, and they'd be safely away—

Pain exploded in her right shoulder, throwing off her aim for a moment as she gasped. She reached out automatically to probe the wound, but then Kyp bit out a curse and she realised that she hadn't been hit at all. It was his pain that had hit her through the Force meld.

The wind that had kept the attackers back faltered, and Tahiri could feel the meld slipping away as she and Jacen both lost concentration. She shoved her blaster under the strap of her top, and leaped over to join the other two, igniting her lightsaber along the way.

Kyp was still on his feet. His face was grey and his posture slumped, but his hand still gripped his lightsaber. Blood ran freely down his bare chest, soaking into the waistband of his shorts.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Get behind the fighter," Jacen cut in before Kyp could answer. "Move, we'll cover you."

Kyp took the two steps at a run, but Tahiri saw his almost-stumble on the second step, and he dropped to the ground with less than half his usual grace. She grimaced and followed, in step with Jacen. They took up position on either side of Kyp, lightsabers ready for the onslaught that was bound to come around the fighter wreck any second now.

And then, a new wind whipped across the clearing and branches cracked as the Divine Trickster settled onto the ground less than five meters away.

"Go!" Jacen held out a hand to haul Kyp to his feet. "Tahiri!"

"Got it." She stayed with Kyp, half-supporting him, lightsaber raised against the blaster bolts that were starting to angle towards them as they left cover.

Anakin shot past her, his blade flashing as he caught two of the bolts before they got to her. He kept moving, and she lost sight of him, concentrating on getting to the boarding ramp. Somewhere, a Wookiee roar told her that Lowbacca had joined the fight, too.

When they made it up to the ramp, Kyp dropped to the deck and waved her off. "Go, go. I'm fine."

"Kyp!" Jaina yelled from the cockpit. "Kyp! You okay?"

"I'm fine!" Kyp repeated, a little louder this time.

Jaina's next words were drowned out by the whine of turbolasers above them as Zekk opened fire on the attackers. They must've made it around the wreckage. Tahiri turned back towards the ramp.

"—the hell is Jag?" Jaina yelled, whether at the com or Kyp or the world in general, Tahiri couldn't tell.

When she ducked back down the ramp, it was to find the clearing bright with laserfire. The Solo brothers stood shoulder to shoulder to ribs with Lowbacca, lightsabers weaving a multicoloured pattern in the air around them. There was no sign of Jag.

She couldn't hear anyone now, but someone must've given an order; she could feel the subtle shift in attitude from the others. In unison, the three Jedi in front of her began jogging backwards, and Tahiri snatched her blaster back from her top. There was no time to aim, but not much need, either; the randomness of the bolts made the troopers hesitate, and that was enough.

They'd almost made it to the ramp when Jag finally appeared. The speeder bike shot out from the trees, its cannon spitting laserfire at anyone in its path. It pitched to the left, and Tahiri did a double take as she re-checked that it was really Jag flying the thing, but then she saw the smoke and realised that it was a miracle that anyone was still flying it at all.

Jacen stepped back from the other two as Jag drew nearer. Jag did something to the controls and turned back towards the attackers even as Jacen got him in a Force grip and lifted him off the bike. The bike immediately began to wobble violently, but continued more or less on course, away from the Trickster.

Tahiri didn't watch to see where it ended up. Jag and Jacen ran past her seconds later, followed by Anakin and Lowbacca, and she snapped off a final two shots before retreating back up the ramp. Anakin was already raising it by the time she got to the top.

"Go!" he called towards the intercom.

Jag was half-leaning over, hands braced on his thighs, breathing hard. "Kyp all right?"

"He will be." Jacen was crouched down beside Kyp, already opening the medpac. "Tahiri, I could use a hand here. Lowie, Anakin, she'll want you—"

"Engine room, got it." Anakin nodded and set off down the corridor.

"Right," Jacen said. "Jag—"

"Jag!" Jaina yelled into the intercom. "Get up here!"

"—cockpit," Jacen finished with a brief smile. He caught Tahiri's eye and nodded, pushing back to his feet and extending a hand down to Kyp. "Come on, let's get you settled before this crate starts shaking."

"Reinforcements?" Tahiri asked as she grabbed the medpac.

"Just arrived," Jacen confirmed. "We're not home free yet."

 

Excellent edge-of-seat & continuous heart-stopping action Wonderful teamwork too

 

Excellent! Tag me, please!

 

"Reinforcements?" Tahiri asked as she grabbed the medpac.

"Just arrived," Jacen confirmed. "We're not home free yet."

Yeah, to reinforcements.

Yeah, to getting tagged! (Please?!?)

 

Hmmmm....I'm assuming that the reinforcements aren't a good thing...where's the Hapan Navy when you need it?

Yay, Kyp got shot...er...I mean.....Bummer, Kyp got shot. ***ducks thrown shoe*** I mean, if the bad guys had to shoot someone, better if be Kyp than someone I actually like. I've said it before, I just don't get all of the Kyp hype... I see that some of the Solo recklessness has rubbed off on Jag; hope that some of the famed 'Solo Luck' has, too!

 

Very exciting updates!

More, please!

 

oh wow so yeah remember when I reposted this and was all like "I'm totally gonna finish it this time guys"?

I AM SO SORRY

I got totally sidetracked by life and Tumblr and Once Upon A Time. But I will update very very soon, I promise. Thanks for all the lovely comments!

 

Okay so here's an update at (long, long) last! I don't know if anyone's still reading, but if you are, thank you!

Tags: Durroness, Falcon, Darkwriter, AzureAngel2

* * *​

The ship bucked and swerved violently as Jag made his way to the cockpit. He all but fell into the copilot's chair and glanced over at Jaina. Her face was set in taut determination, but her hand on the control yoke was almost relaxed.

"Tactics," she said before he could ask what she needed from him. "You navigate. Tell me where to go. I'm just flying."

"Copy." Jag glanced at the displays. According to Lowie, the computers were still glitchy, and the tac display didn't seem to be much use; it showed blips, but without colour coding or distances, and they occasionally winked off or changed position. No use relying on that.

Jag reached over and keyed another display to show him the sensor data. Usually, he ignored that, because usually, he had computers to compile that data, but right now, the computers just added an extra layer of confusion. He focused on the data display, and tried to form an image of his surroundings in his mind, a mental tac display.

One of the Patriots had survived the first fight, but it had new friends: two bigger ships with heavier guns, and three more fighters, all of them in pursuit of the Trickster.

The Trickster was running for space, but at this rate, the shields wouldn't even hold until they broke atmosphere, never mind jump to lightspeed—assuming the hyperdrive worked. Jag pursed his lips. Their pursuers weren't doing any fancy flying, just following, trusting their superior numbers and targeting systems to win the day. So far, it was working.

"Shields are failing," Jaina pressed out. "Have to do something."

Jag took another second to watch the sensor display. The bigger ships were arrayed behind the fighters, not quite in range yet. He couldn't tell what make they were, but it almost didn't matter.

He flicked on the intercom. “I need someone in the back to jettison concussion missiles and whatever spare parts we have.”

There was an answering roar from Lowbacca, and a moment later, Jacen’s voice. “We’re on it. Give us a minute.”

“Hurry. Jaina, get ready to drop and turn.”

“We exploding?”

“Right. I figure we can dip down beneath them and then make a run for it.”

“Got it.”

It was an old trick; fire the top thrusters to drop the ship down a few meters, opening up a line of fire to the second wave of ships, and shoot past before they could respond Normally, he would never have suggested such a maneuver in atmosphere, certainly not in a modified freighter.

But Jaina was at the controls.

“Missiles armed and ready,” Jacen called.

“On my mark,” Jag said, focusing on the sensor display. “Zekk, get ready to shoot. One, two—jettison.”

He felt the ship vibrate as the back airlock opened. “Dip as soon as they detonate,” he said, knowing that Jaina would feel that before he saw it on the display.

The ship dropped suddenly as Jaina fired the thrusters, and from the corner of his eye, Jag saw the world spinning outside. He did his best to ignore it and focus on the sensors, but without a computer to interpret the data, it was difficult to keep track of everything that was going on.

“Fire,” he said, and the top guns blared to life. Zekk only got off a few salvoes as Jaina gunned the engines and the Trickster hurtled past the ships now in front of them.

Jaina cursed as she barely avoided ramming one, skimming past it so closely that the ship rocked from the turbulence.

“Sorry,” Jag said, wincing. They’d cut that one a little close.

“Now what?”

“We try to outrun them.”

“No problem.”

The ship bucked and shuddered as it clawed for altitude. Jag tried to ignore that, along with the instinct to slow down and land for repairs. He was flying with Jedi. The rules were different. Whatever Anakin was doing with the engines, it seemed to be working.

But it was getting darker outside. They were leaving the atmosphere, and with it hopefully the planet’s interference, behind.

New data scrolled down the sensor display, and it was Jag’s turn to curse. “Looks like an assault boat, moving to intercept.”

“Stang!” Jaina’s hands danced over the controls. “How’s the navicomputer?”

“I don’t trust it. We’ll do a manual back the way you came,” Jag said. “Turn to port.”

Jaina altered their course, veering away from the assault boat. She still wasn’t really looking where she was going, trusting Jag to be her eyes, her attention focused on keeping the ship running.

“Okay, good,” he said. Outside, stars were winking into existence, set into the deepening blue of the sky around them. Laser bolts flashed by occasionally, but their pursuers were too far away now to do any damage. With any luck, they would stay that way.

“Assault boat’s keeping its distance,” he said after another glance at the sensors. The tac display still wasn’t making a lot of sense, but individual parts of it seemed to be steadying. “We’re doing good. Just a few more minutes.”

The engine status readout blinked on, followed shortly afterwards by the power gauge for the laser cannons.

“Getting there,” Jaina said, her voice strained. “Engines are holding, but we should jump.”

He turned to the computer and began a manual jump calculation. He hated doing those, especially in badly-charted areas like this one, but right now he figured the margin for human error was less than for the computer. Another thought occurred to him, and he pulled up the flight log and keyed for the last jump. If they went back the way Jaina had come, the risk would be lessened again.

“Jag?”

He took a moment to double-check his calculations before keying the co-ordinates over to the navicomputer. “Got it. Let’s go.”

Jaina pulled the lever, and the stars turned into streaks and then the swirling blue of hyperspace.

With a sound that was half-sigh and half-groan, Jaina leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

Jag knew how she felt. His own heart was still pounding in his ears. But they weren’t entirely out of the woods yet.

“The jump should take about two minutes,” he said. “Lowbacca should probably use that time to check the navicomputer.”

Jaina nodded and keyed the intercom. “Lowie? Get up here. And someone tell me what’s going on with Kyp.”

It was Jacen who replied. “He’ll be fine. Just a simple burn. We home free?”

“Not quite,” Jaina said. She glanced at Jag. “But we’re avoiding Tenupe from now on.”

Jag ran a tired hand over his face. “Deal.” He vacated his seat as Lowbacca strode into the cockpit, happy to let the Wookiee take over the responsibility of dealing with the computer.

They came out of hyperspace less than a minute later. For once, things actually went more smoothly than Jag dared to hope; away from Tenupe’s interference, Lowie managed to get the computers and scopes back in working order within moments, and recalculated their route to Dravess.

And finally, just for a few minutes, Jag could relax.

* * *​

​

The blessed quiet, so welcome after their hectic escape, didn’t last long. Jaina was ready to spit laser bolts at whomever had shot at her ship, Kyp was even more annoyed at whomever had shot at him, and while Jag was quieter, Jacen got the feeling that he wasn’t best pleased with whomever had caused him to crash a ship, either.

And now that he had some time to think, the picture was beginning to make sense to Jacen.

“The increase in piracy along the Rago Run was the whole reason for this trade dispute,” he told the others when they had gathered in the lounge to discuss their next move. “It’s affecting everyone and of course they’re all blaming each other. They’ve even got Hapes involved by now.”

“I heard that Tenel Ka was on her way,” Jaina said. “Didn’t know it was that bad.”

He felt the grin spread over his face before he could stop it. “Well, technically, it’s not. Someone may have let slip that Zekk and I were part of the Jedi mediation team, and, well, hey. Sometimes the Queen Mother likes to show a personal interest in these kinds of things. Image, you know?”

“Ah,” Jaina said, her voice knowing now. “Aha.”

“Yeah.” Jacen cleared his throat. “Anyway, the guys who attacked us are the same ones. Led by a guy named Plav. And I’d bet anything that it’s not random. Someone’s involved here, someone fairly high up. They knew we were coming, and they knew who we were.”

Jag was nodding. “And they probably figured that Jedi would expose them, hence the attack.”

“Yeah.” Jacen smiled. “And they were right. Our involvement here was supposed to be a surprise. The woman who called Master Skywalker, a lady called Trevell, said as much. Except then, on the way here,” he glanced at Zekk, “do you remember? That guy, Franick? He called us to ask about some minor obstacle, I can’t even remember... except now I’m thinking, that’s not why he seemed so worried.”

“You think he was nervous because he knew we were coming,” Zekk said.

“He’s the minister for trade,” Jacen said. “He’s in the perfect position to take advantage of piracy, and get access to classified information. And I did have a bad feeling about him.” At the time, he’d put that down to the upcoming talks and possible opposition from Franick. Now, it made a different kind of sense.

“Yeah,” Zekk said, slowly. “But we have no proof.”

Jaina scoffed. “Give me five minutes with him and you’ll have all the proof you need, a full confession, and more apologies than you’ll know what to do with.”

“Jaina...”

“They shot at my ship, Zekk,” she said. “And they shot you down. Don’t tell me you don’t want to know the truth.”

Zekk sighed. “We’re supposed to mediate here, not intimidate people.”

“How about,” Jacen said before Jaina could retort, “we just show up as planned, see who looks surprised, and report the whole thing to the authorities? This is a major diplomatic incident, and we’re the injured party. Let’s not give anyone the chance to turn it into another Jedi-slander campaign. Especially not with Jag involved.”

Jaina already knew that, of course. Maybe not in every detail he’d just listed, but in principle. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, only grumbling a little for show. “I’m just saying, it’d be more efficient.”

The proximity alert sounded, and Jaina and Jag got to their feet.

“Let’s just focus on getting there first,” Jacen said, nodding at them. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m really looking forward to a proper shower and a change of clothes.”

“And a decent med centre,” Kyp said from where he lay in the medical bunk, tucked away in a corner of the lounge.

“And proper air conditioning,” Zekk added. “It’s still hot as a geyser in here.”

“That’ll take a while to change,” Anakin said.

Lowie growled something to the effect that air had been the priority, its condition secondary. Zekk conceded that with a shrug.

“Even so,” Tahiri said. “I’m with Jacen. It was fun at first, but I can’t wait to get back to civilisation.”

 

Love it! Love the dynamic between everyone. It has the feel of some of my favorite star wars stories. Jaina naturally taking a lead, but not steam rolling others, she lets others support her in the way they can best. Everyone using their strengths. Everyone seems well in character.

MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hmmm....doing a manual jump? Gutsy move, Jag. The way he and Jaina coordinated everything was pretty cool.

"....Sometimes the Queen Mother likes to show a personal interest in these kinds of things. Image, you know?"---- "Ah. Aha." Very well played.

Love the way Jacen comes up with a way to save face for the team without resorting to what Jaina had in mind....although her methods DO sound rather promising!

Thanks for this!

 

Are you gonna update this or is it done or what? Even if you don't I must say its a pretty good fanfic! Love the Jaina-Jacen and Jag-Jacen interactions!

 

Come baaaaack!!! This is easily in my top 10 favs. The banter amongst everyone and the natural flow of the j/j relationship is perfection.