Saga Crossings (A Laboratory Response, O/Cs, Completed)

The posting of this story is in response to a challenge posted by Jane Jinn at ?The Laboratory? in the Writer?s Resource Forum.

Well, if nobody else will step forward, I'll put out my idea for a writing challenge. Have your favourite character get caught in a time warp and end up travelling through time. The scene must extend to the point where the character sees or hears something that makes him or her realize what's happened. You could have your character discover a time machine, or simply step into the GFFA's equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle, or run across an anomaly in the Force, or however you want to do it.

I couldn?t resist.

The era-placing is kind of tricksy this time. Since my main character of Tsilas Patmose comes from the Clone Wars, I placed it in The Saga forum. If a mod thinks this troublesome, I?ll lock this thread and repost it in the forum of her choosing.
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There are legends in the galaxy that defy explanation, there are legends that defy recorded information, and there are legends that defy all logic and reason. From the stories of soulless men who feast on blood and the demon-women who can turn a man to stone to the eyewitness accounts of extragalactic invaders who mysteriously abduct people from the Outer Rim. Stories of anomalies in the Force outnumbered the factual anomalies documented by the Jedi Archives hundredfold, and tales of such extraordinary things were even rumored to permeate history, and the legend of the Sith Wars had been completely distorted in fiction, overactive imaginations, and half-truths spread by conspiracy theorists who were paranoid, delusional, or both.

The legends defied all reason.

But they did not defy belief.

Even among otherwise rational people, all the monstrous creatures who could never be dredged from the sewers of Coruscant found someone willing to accept that they could be real. Some things that were documented seemed at first to defy explanation, but, with study, the Fire Rings of Fornax were found to make perfect natural sense. The extragalactic stories made little sense, if any at all, but the people who admitted the possibility that the extragalactic creatures could exist seemed at times to outnumber the people who still thought their own known universe was all there really could be.

And there are more legends, those that defy not only reason but belief also, the ones that anyone with half a mind shrugs off, for it is simply too unbelievable. There are legends that leave no witnesses to their doings, legends that would have to have a rational explanation, though none of the conceivable ways the explanation made sense quite fit the described phenomenon.

And yet those legends remain, propagating through the generations. They live on, for truth, sometimes, is stranger than fiction.

As for Tsilas Patmose, he was ready to believe anything the galaxy had to throw his way.

It had been six years since he had gone into hiding on the planet Kecyrk. After taking the pseudonym ?Tsion Sint-Rostovwan,? he had fled Coruscant on a refugee ship, during the climax of the Clone Wars, bound for a Mid-Rim transport hub.

Something the people had come to call the Purges had swept through the Jedi Temple as Tsilas and his training clan were returning through the Gardens. He had escaped ? the only survivor of Gundark clan ? and found refuge with the being Hailin Anglotov, a Kameer, the same species as his first Master in the Jedi Order.

It was now known that the Sith, the Dark Warriors who had battled the Jedi so long ago, had returned after a millennium, and one of them had been Senator Dace Palpatine of the Naboo, and that the Purges of the Jedi had been accomplished only as means of eradicating an antiquated order, that their resurrected nemesis was the only means of stopping the Clone Wars, and the death of the Jedi Order had meant the end of the archaic belief in the Force.

Tsilas, however, still clung to the teachings of the Jedi; he remembered the terror of feeling the Dark Side the

 

The Kecyrk system occupied a space in the sector designated by the Republic, and, subsequently, the Imperial, systems simply as Sector 449011328. A less formal name had grown among the locals, from the name given to the great star near the center of the sector?s defined range. They called it the Baldura Sector, though the Baldura system itself was uninhabited.

Only three planets, each barren, lifeless, and without satellites, made up the Baldura system, so close to each other that the orbited the sun at nearly the same pace, and their alignment in respect to each other was constant. In fact, the triangle formed by connecting the cores of the three planets with imaginary lines had changed dimensions by less than one-twentieth of a degree since the phenomenon?s discovery nearly three thousand years previously.

The Baldura Triangle was legendary.

Among many people, it had been said that ships that flew through the Baldura Triangle disappeared, never to be seen again. There were a few accounts of ships that had, in earnest, disappeared, but there were accounts of that in nearly every sector. Ships malfunction; it is a fact of life. Hundreds of other ships had visited Baldura on their way to greater vacation spots for the novelty of visiting the legend, and many had flown straight through the triangle just for the sake of trying.

And it was above that Triangle that Tsilas sat, in his idling ship.

The starship was the first he had ever owned; he had only recently become old enough, by Coruscant standards, to pilot a personal transport. The two-seated green ship, little more than a speeder, idled above the three planets.

Tsilas had heard the legends ? that the planets guarded a rift in the fabric of space, or that energy distorted by the gravity of the triangle had formed some natural sort of hyperspace wormhole ? and, he had to admit, he was curious.

But as he idled, he saw nothing special about the planets.

They were just big hunks of rock.

Yet, as he sat there, staring at the vacant space, he admitted to himself that he was too curious for his own good, and he pushed the engine forward.

Nosing downward, the small transport advanced closer to the three, leveling out to where the three planets seemed to occupy the same plane.

Nothing lay ahead of him, just barren rock on either side and empty space in between. He could see starlight beyond the empty space. Gently, he edged the ship forward.

And, as if jumping from a singularity, like seeing a craft exit hyperspace, a transport vessel appeared in the empty space.

 

Tsilas? small transport had fit easily into the larger ship, one obviously of Kameer origin, though he could not place the model. It looked rather like an old toy ship Hailin had, though it obviously was very real. The cockpit of his ship slid open, and he climbed out into the empty hangar.

The ship seemed deserted.

As he began walking through the walkways of the ship, he began to realize how right he had been in calling it ?empty.? One hallway after another proved to be deserted. There were not even any droids occupying the passages.

Tsilas poked his head around the corner of the wall, only to see another empty passage. It was getting to be truly monotonous. He sighed, and slumped onward, looking for someone.

Click.

Behind him, he heard something clicking. Unless he was mistaken, it was the sound of someone raising a weapon.

In an instant, he could see in his mind?s eye the black-robed minions of whoever had eradicated the Jedi as they had come running toward the transport after him, weapons raised. He sucked in his breath as he heard a voice behind him. ?Who are you? Turn around!?

Tsilas did as he was told. He turned to face whoever was behind him, swearing under his breath at himself for not looking closely enough. He saw a man of about thirty years old, dressed in a starched uniform.

?Force, you?re only a kid,? the man said, lowering his weapon.

Tsilas scanned the uniform. ?You?re not Imperial.?

?Of course I?m not,? the man replied.

?You?re not Republic either.?

?I?m Galactic Defense Force.? The man leaned against the wall.

?I?ve never heard of it.?

?Never heard of it? You missed the war with the Kelpalians??

?Who are the??

?You really did miss it?? He looked straight at Tsilas. ?You mean I was right??

?Right? About what??

The man almost laughed. ?About the Baldura Triangle! You obviously came from a time before I did??

?Whoa, whoa,? Tsilas said, raising his hands in protest. ?This is real? If it was this easy, you?d think more people would have experienced??

?No, no, I think I can explain it??

?It counteracts everything I know about the Force.?

?What, you?re a Jedi or something??

Tsilas stopped talking, abruptly.

?Let?s start over,? the man said, offering his hand. ?My name is Colonel Dasman Koltarrie.?

?My name?s Tsion--? something stopped him. He decided instead to use his real name. ?Tsilas Patmose.?

 

Tsilas watched as the video monitors displayed the news clips downloaded to the ship?s memory from Dasman?s own vehicle, which had, he had said, crashed on the surface of Baldura II.

?This is amazing,? Tsilas said. ?But I can?t believe the Force would let me be able to know all of this.?

?Why not?? Dasman said. ?Maybe the Force willed you to see something in here.?

Tsilas shrugged. ?That could be. But allowing me to see everything that happened??

?Can you make sense of all of it??

Tsilas had to admit, Dasman had a point. ?But how can this be possible at all? People have flown through the triangle before??

?Through the edge??

Tsilas stopped staring at the screens. ?What??

?People keep forgetting that it?s a two-dimensional shape in three-dimensional space. What if there?s some magnetic field things in the alignment of the three planet cores, and you have to go through the edge of the triangle to get caught in? whatever the smeck it is. You said yourself that you leveled out to see all the planets on one plane before you saw this ship.?

?And what would happen to a ship that just happens to fly through the edge on the wrong plane??

?I don?t have any idea,? Dasman said, shaking his head. ?The life on it could disappear, or it could blow up, who knows??

?And you think that the Force has brought us both here? Why??

?I haven?t figured it out yet.?

?Well, that?s helpful,? Tsilas said, leaning back in his chair. ?Ai, dyerri sponsee.?

?What was that??

?Sorry. Kind of reflexive. That was an old Kameer phrase.?

?Wait, you speak Kameer??

?Yeah, I?ve been on their world for a while.?

?Yeah, I guess it?s got to come in handy one time or another. My Huttese is a little rusty, myself.? Dasman started looking around, then said, ?Could you excuse me??

?Where are you going??

?I?m just going to go look at something I found a while ago.?

Tsilas spun back around, and he watched as a news anchor commented on a photo of a large explosion over a planet identified as Endor.

?See? The Empire can be defeated,? said another voice from behind him.

 

Tsilas jumped, then turned in his chair to see a figure standing there, wreathed in blue, nearly transparent. When he recognized his former master, he jumped again. ?Holy Cheeses, Master Rostov!? He forced himself to breath. ?You have no idea how unnerving that is!?

The ethereal figure laughed. ?You don?t seem surprised to see someone who became one with the Force.?

?You did help me escape Coruscant, Master Rostov, and you died in the Battle of Geonosis.?

?Ah, do you know how long it?s been since the battle of Geonosis??

?Years, Master Rostov.?

?Decades, Padawan Patmose. It?s been thirty-three years, and there?s hope for the Rebellion.?

?The Rebellion? Master, you know what?s going on??

?Right now, my young padawan, I can tell you that Darth Vader is invading a world called Hoth, looking for his son. I can tell you that an old acquaintance of mine, Obi-wan Kenobi, has become one with the Force, just as I have. And I can tell you that what Dasman thought about the Baldura Triangle is exactly correct.?

?So I jumped forward in time? From the make of the ship, I?d have guessed I went backward.?

?And Dasman came even farther back? These things come from different eras, Tsilas Rostovwan. The ship is older; it came from farther back than you. But that has no bearing on the present time.?

?And you?re here??

?When times cross, Tsilas, only the Force works it out.?

?So it was the will of the Force??

?You know I can?t tell you the will of the Force in every occasion. But, yes, there is a reason you?re here.?

?And that reason is???

?Tsilas, I may exist in the Force now, but I?m not omniscient. I can show you, though, one reason you came when you did.?

?What??

The spectral Master?s clawed finger pointed to one of the monitors. ?Validation, my young padawan.?

Tsilas got up out of his chair, staring into the monitor. Before him were news pictures that he had seen before, though the dates were advanced far beyond what he knew, even beyond where they should be if Rostov?s date was right. It was a clip from Dasman?s databanks, showing a column of flame burning straight down through a planet?s atmosphere, just like he knew it would look. It showed figures rushing each other, looking like stone carvings. He saw clips of people vanishing for no reason.

And it was all just like he had seen in his dream.

?So these aren?t dreams? I knew it? Jedi don?t have nightmares. I was?? he turned, only to find Rostov gone.

?Who are you talking to?? he heard Dasman?s voice.

?No one?? Tsilas said. ?Myself, I guess.?

?Can you come take a look at something??

 

?What is it?? Tsilas asked, looking at a thing that had to be a transport in a hangar on the other side of the ship.

?This is a war craft. During the Vhinech Wars, a private company on Naboo asked a shipyard on Kecyrk to design a craft that could infiltrate any line of defense.?

The ship was slim, a long, flat nose like Tsilas had seen only in sketches of a vehicle used by the thing called Darth Maul, who was now being celebrated as a martyr. Dasman would have said it was long like an X-Wing but flat like a Y-wing.

There was a dome cockpit like the old Naboo fighters used to have, with small fins on either side. Dasman would have equated them with the A-wing?s fins; Tsilas didn?t notice them. His attention was held by the side barrel engines with long tail spines. The entire thing was painted black, with turrets for proton torpedoes and hatches for deploying what he assumed were seismic charges. A concussion missile launcher even graced the sides of the cockpit.

?It?s called The Assassin?s Sabre. The Kameer only released the details of it later. When the Republic heard that the Naboo were building anti-Vhinech craft, they stepped in to stop the production, since the non-militant Vhinech were moved into protection on Sanctuary. However, when they got to Naboo to intercept the prototype, they waited for days. Neither the Sabre nor the craft transporting it ever arrived.?

?And we just happened to find it??

?Apparently, as they headed for Naboo, they were forced to come out of hyperspace by a ghosting ? when an unexpected object obstructs a hyperspace wormhole. A minor meteor shower, apparently, but as they pulled back into realspace, the ship?s log claims that they seemed to experience another jump. When they tried to pull away from the moons, their engines failed.?

?So, what? If we can fix the engines, we can get out of this time warp??

?No, that can?t happen.? Dasman paused. ?There?s going to be a thing called ?The Battle of Tatooine,? and there?s a fleet that?s going to be completely obliterated. While they recoup, they?re going to conduct a search for any ships that they might have left behind. While they?re at it, they?re going to send troops to the Baldura Sector to look for the Sabre. As long as they don?t find it, the Kameer will be able to overthrow them. But if they do??

?But the Force would never allow an existing event to be changed.?

?I know. I think that?s why we?re here.?

?Okay,? Tsilas said, ?Now you?ve lost me.?

?I mentioned I spoke Huttese? That?s how I can read the ship?s log. Apparently, all the systems have been going haywire. That?s why no one?s detected either of us. The pilots on this thing are Twi?leks. You haven?t seen them because they?ve been close to the machinery since it stopped working.?

?And??

?And they?ve almost got it working again. And if they can line the ship up to the way they entered the triangle, then they could escape into Force-only-knows-which time frame.?

?I guess it could be their own,? Tsilas said. ?Or it could be during the battle of Hoth, or Yavin, or whatever it was. Why do you think the Force wanted me??

?You can speak Kameer. That means you can read the engine parts.?

?You want me to sabotage the ship??

?Just the engines. Then we high-tail it out of here and hope we get something close our own time frame.?

Tsilas sighed. ?Okay. I?m in.?

 

The green transport blasted out of the hull, setting off alarms in the newly working cockpit of the Kameer vessel.

?You?re sure that thing isn?t going anywhere?? Dasman asked.

Tsilas shook his head as he gunned the accelerator, holding up the Kameer ship?s primary motivator. ?You?re sure that this will at least get us out of the triangle??

?We can hope,? Dasman said, ?but if we?re hoping to go back at least to separate times, we?re going to need to separate from each other. Can this thing jettison the passengers??

Tsilas smiled, and a piece of transparisteel suddenly slid between them, dividing the cockpit. ?I guess we?re going to see what happens when a vessel leaves the plane at the edge.?

?Well, Tsilas, may the Force grant you the grace to get back to your own time.?

Tsilas smiled. ?You sound like a Jedi.?

?Just tilt the ship down and prepare to jettison!?

?Thank you, by the way, for the Huttese dictionary.?

?You?ll be learning it in no time. Heck, you?ll probably be trilingual by the time I?m born.?

?That?s just a weird thing to say,? Tsilas laughed.

?Maybe I?ll see you someday??

?Stranger things have happened,? the younger boy reminded, and jammed the controls down.

As two of the three moons loomed ahead, Tsilas? craft nosed downward and began a slow spin. As it started to buck forward, two pods jettisoned from the top.

Tsilas looked out toward the left, seeing Dasman?s pod, and, as the ship began slipping downward, it began ripping apart. A flaming gash appeared in its side, and pieces of hull began flying in all directions. A blinding flash emanated from the wreckage, and suddenly ?

It was all gone.

The pod slowed as Tsilas looked around, seeing only empty space and the barren moons. A couple of small thrusters stopped the pod in space, and Tsilas picked up his commlink.

The date display showed the year he expected. ?Hailin??

?Tschilash!? came the voice on the other end. ?Our shcanners show your ship dischappearing, and an escape pod appearing half a clik away! What happened??

?I?m not exactly sure, Hailin. Are you nearby? Can you come pick me up??

?Yeah, I?ll be right there,? Anglotov responded. ?A wreck with your firscht transport? your insurance is going to shkyrocket??

*****

Dasman Koltarrie rocketed away from the wreckage of a speeder that had been floating in space for at least forty years.

The pod was immediately caught in a tractor beam.

As the escape pod soared through space, it dropped into the hull of a GDF cruiser, one of the ships making up the search party that had been looking for him since his ship had crashed.

As he stepped out, he was greeted by his younger brother. ?Where the smeck have you been, Dasman? And where did that pod come from??

Dasman rubbed his eyes. ?You don?t want to know. How long have I been gone??

?Seven months. The search party?s been here a month. We just found the wreckage of your ship, and we were ready to give up on you.?

?Seven months? No, it couldn?t have been longer than three days.?

?It was seven months, Dasman. What, did you time-warp or something??

Dasman didn?t answer. ?Would it be okay if I laid down??

?Hold on,? his brother stopped him. ?You missed your birthday.? He handed Dasman a datapad.

As Dasman turned it on, he saw a title page from an old novel.

?You do still like the old novels, right??

?It?s perfect, Aeneas. Thank you.?

?You?re welcome. Go lay down now.? He patted his brother on the back.

As Dasman walked off, he looked at the painting that would have served as the cover of the old-style bound books. ?Watching Ana Gilenya, by Hailin Anglotov.? He accessed the next page, and read, ?To Tsion Sint-Rostovwan.?

As he walked into his quarters, he looked at the dedication again. ?Why does that name sound familiar??

He shrugged it off, turned off the datapad, and lay down. ?Force, it feels like I?ve been up for the last fifty years.?

He yawned. ?Tsion Sint-Rostovwan? that?s going to bug me now.?

?Stranger things have happened??

 

No one wants to read this? *sigh*

Not my BEST work, I'll admit, but it was a laboratory challenge...

 

Still no takers?

Wow, this must really suck.

 

I only just found it, Ty-Gon (I don't come to the Saga board that often). It's a bit confusing, figuring who is when in time and when they jumped from, but I thought it was good. The explanations of the Baldura Triangle ( Great name!) seemed reasonable, and the opening, with the discussion of legends, was great. I loved the language.

I have to pity you if you tackle this idea & characters for a full length fic, though -- there's enough here for several series' worth!

The Lab Partners are proud!

 

Wow... high praise, and from one of our own lovely moderators! Thanks, Renata.

Oh, and Tsilas, Rostov, and Anglotov are already part of a larger series... I could provide you with some links if you'd like. Dasman makes some obscure references to fics by other authors here on the boards, as well, and, judging by the name, must be related to a character in my ancient Queen-of-Naboo fic The Cost of Honor.

Yup. Several series is about right.

 

The Cost of Honor - Dasman's ancestor, Genya Koltarrie, is featured here.
Hallucinations - Master Rostov's Debut
That the Rain Would Raineth Every Day - Rostov's Appearance in the Fanfic Writer's Silent Challenge
The Calling - Rostov appears, along with debuts of Tsilas, the Prophet Who Survives, and of Hailin Anglotov
States of Mind - Hailin Anglotov makes an appearance, and mentions his Watching Ana Gilenya
The Shadows of Conflict - Part Two: The Past Rediscovered - A Beyond the Saga fic, featuring Tsilas, all grown up, as a Jedi master who has to train an Imperial pilot as a Jedi -- climaxing RIGHT NOW in "The Battle of Tatooine."

 

I only just found this, but boy was it worth it I love the opening, with its description of the legends and the way they were viewed.

Personally I found it a little confusing, but I suspect you intended that, and it does help you to understand how the people who actually go through the warp are feeling. And I think you did a very good job of the way the characters from different times interact.

Nem

 

JediNemesis -- "boy, was it worth it." Woohoo! Thanks so much!